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diff --git a/old/14674.txt b/old/14674.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a801100 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14674.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20824 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ten Great Religions, by James Freeman Clarke + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ten Great Religions + An Essay in Comparative Theology + +Author: James Freeman Clarke + +Release Date: January 12, 2005 [EBook #14674] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN GREAT RELIGIONS *** + + + + +Produced by PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +Ten Great Religions + +An Essay in Comparative Theology + +by + +James Freeman Clarke + + + Prophets who have been since the world began.--Luke i. 70. + + Gentiles ... who show the work (or influence) of the (that) law which + is written in their hearts.--Romans ii. 15. + + God ... hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all + the face of the earth ... that they should seek the Lord, if haply they + may feel after him and find him.--Acts, xviii. 24-27. + + + + +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by James Freeman +Clarke, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + +Copyright, 1899, +By Eliot C. Clarke. + + + + +To +William Heney Channing, +My Friend and Fellow-Student +During Many Years, +This Work +Is Affectionately Inscribed. + + + + +Preface. + + + +The first six chapters of the present volume are composed from six +articles prepared for the Atlantic Monthly, and published in that magazine +in 1868. They attracted quite as much attention as the writer anticipated, +and this has induced him to enlarge them, and add other chapters. His aim +is to enable the reader to become acquainted with the doctrines and +customs of the principal religions of the world, without having to consult +numerous volumes. He has not come to the task without some preparation, +for it is more than twenty-five years since he first made of this study a +speciality. In this volume it is attempted to give the latest results of +modern investigations, so far as any definite and trustworthy facts have +been attained. But the writer is well aware of the difficulty of being +always accurate in a task which involves such interminable study and such +an amount of details. He can only say, in the words of a Hebrew writer: +"If I have done well, and as is fitting the story, it is that which I +desired; but if slenderly and meanly, it is that which I could attain +unto." + + + + +Contents. + + +Chapter I. + +Introduction.--Ethnic and Catholic Religions. + + Sec. 1. Object of the present Work + Sec. 2. Comparative Theology; its Nature, Value, and present Position + Sec. 3. Ethnic Religions. Injustice often done to them by Christian + Apologists + Sec. 4. How Ethnic Religions were regarded by Christ and his Apostles + Sec. 5. Comparative Theology will furnish a new Class of Evidences in + Support of Christianity + Sec. 6. It will show that, while most of the Religions of the World are + Ethnic, or the Religions of Races, Christianity is Catholic, or + adapted to become the Religion of all Races + Sec. 7. It will show that Ethnic Religions are partial, Christianity + universal + Sec. 8. It will show that Ethnic Religions are arrested, but that + Christianity is steadily progressive + + +Chapter II. + +Confucius and the Chinese, or the Prose of Asia. + + Sec. 1. Peculiarities of Chinese Civilization + Sec. 2. Chinese Government based on Education. Civil-Service Examinations + Sec. 3. Life and Character of Confucius + Sec. 4. Philosophy and subsequent Development of Confucianism + Sec. 5. Lao-tse and Tao-ism + Sec. 6. Religious Character of the "Kings." + Sec. 7. Confucius and Christianity. Character of the Chinese + Sec. 8. The Tae-ping Insurrection + Note. The Nestorian Inscription in China + + +Chapter III. + +Brahmanism. + + Sec. 1. Our Knowledge of Brahmanism. Sir William Jones + Sec. 2. Difficulty of this Study. The Complexity of the System. The + Hindoos have no History. Their Ultra-Spiritualism + Sec. 3. Helps from Comparative Philology. The Aryans in Central Asia + Sec. 4. The Aryans in India. The Native Races. The Vedic Age. Theology + of the Vedas + Sec. 5. Second Period. Laws of Manu. The Brahmanic Age + Sec. 6. The Three Hindoo Systems of Philosophy,--The Sankhya, Vedanta, + and Nyasa + Sec. 7. Origin of the Hindoo Triad + Sec. 8. The Epics, the Puranas, and Modern Hindoo Worship + Sec. 9. Relation of Brahmanism to Christianity + + +Chapter IV. + +Buddhism, or the Protestantism of the East. + + Sec. 1. Buddhism, in its Forms, resembles Romanism; in its Spirit, + Protestantism + Sec. 2. Extent of Buddhism. Its Scriptures + Sec. 3. Sakya-muni, the Founder of Buddhism + Sec. 4. Leading Doctrines of Buddhism + Sec. 5. The Spirit of Buddhism Rational and Humane + Sec. 6. Buddhism as a Religion + Sec. 7. Karma and Nirvana + Sec. 8. Good and Evil of Buddhism + Sec. 9. Relation of Buddhism to Christianity + + +Chapter V. + +Zoroaster and the Zend Avesta. + + Sec. 1. Ruins of the Palace of Xerxes at Persepolis + Sec. 2. Greek Accounts of Zoroaster. Plutarch's Description of his Religion + Sec. 3. Anquetil du Perron and his Discovery of the Zend Avesta + Sec. 4. Epoch of Zoroaster. What do we know of him? + Sec. 5. Spirit of Zoroaster and of his Religion + Sec. 6. Character of the Zend Avesta + Sec. 7. Later Development of the System in the Bundehesch + Sec. 8. Relation of the Religion of the Zend Avesta to that of the Vedas + Sec. 9. Is Monotheism or pure Dualism the Doctrine of the Zend Avesta + Sec. 10. Relation of this System to Christianity. The Kingdom of Heaven + + +Chapter VI. + +The Gods of Egypt. + + Sec. 1. Antiquity and Extent of Egyptian Civilization + Sec. 2. Religious Character of the Egyptians. Their Ritual + Sec. 3. Theology of Egypt. Sources of our Knowledge concerning it + Sec. 4. Central Idea of Egyptian Theology and Religion. Animal Worship + Sec. 5. Sources of Egyptian Theology. Age of the Empire and Affinities of + the Race + Sec. 6. The Three Orders of Gods + Sec. 7. Influence upon Judaism and Christianity + + +Chapter VII. + +The Gods Of Greece. + + Sec. 1. The Land and the Race + Sec. 2. Idea and general Character of Greek Religion + Sec. 3. The Gods of Greece before Homer + Sec. 4. The Gods of the Poets + Sec. 5. The Gods of the Artists + Sec. 6. The Gods of the Philosophers + Sec. 7. Worship of Greece + Sec. 8. The Mysteries. Orphism + Sec. 9. Relation of Greek Religion to Christianity + + +Chapter VIII. + +The Religion of Rome. + + Sec. 1. Origin and essential Character of the Religion of Rome + Sec. 2. The Gods of Rome + Sec. 3. Worship and Ritual + Sec. 4. The Decay of the Roman Religion + Sec. 5. Relation of the Roman Religion to Christianity + + +Chapter IX. + +The Teutonic and Scandinavian Religion. + + Sec. 1. The Land and the Race + Sec. 2. Idea of the Scandinavian Religion + Sec. 3. The Eddas and their Contents + Sec. 4. The Gods of Scandinavia + Sec. 5. Resemblance of the Scandinavian Mythology to that of Zoroaster + Sec. 6. Scandinavian Worship + Sec. 7. Social Character, Maritime Discoveries, and Political Institutions + of the Scandinavians + Sec. 8. Relation of this System to Christianity + + +Chapter X. + +The Jewish Religion. + + Sec. 1. Palestine, and the Semitic Races + Sec. 2. Abraham; or, Judaism as the Family Worship of a Supreme Being + Sec. 3. Moses; or, Judaism as the national Worship of a just and holy King + Sec. 4. David; or, Judaism as the personal Worship of a Father and Friend + Sec. 5. Solomon; or, the Religious Relapse + Sec. 6. The Prophets; or, Judaism as a Hope of a spiritual and universal + Kingdom of God + Sec. 7. Judaism as a Preparation for Christianity + + +Chapter XI. + +Mohammed and Islam. + + Sec. 1. Recent Works on the Life of Mohammed + Sec. 2. The Arabs and Arabia + Sec. 3. Early Life of Mohammed, to the Hegira + Sec. 4. Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira + Sec. 5. Religious Doctrines and Practices among the Mohammedans + Sec. 6. The Criticism of Mr. Palgrave on Mohammedan Theology + Sec. 7. Mohammedanism a Relapse; the worst Form of Monotheism, and a + retarding Element in Civilization + Note + + +Chapter XII. + +The Ten Religions and Christianity. + + Sec. 1. General Results of this Survey + Sec. 2. Christianity a Pleroma, or Fulness of Life + Sec. 3. Christianity, as a Pleroma, compared with Brahmanism, + Confucianism, and Buddhism + Sec. 4. Christianity compared with the Avesta and the Eddas. The Duad in + all Religions + Sec. 5. Christianity and the Religions of Egypt, Greece, and Rome + Sec. 6. Christianity in Relation to Judaism and Mohammedanism. The + Monad in all Religions + Sec. 7. The Fulness of Christianity is derived from the Life of Jesus + Sec. 8. Christianity as a Religion of Progress and of universal Unity + + + + +Ten Great Religions. + + + + +Chapter I. + +Introduction.--Ethnic and Catholic Religions. + + + Sec. 1. Object of the present Work. + Sec. 2. Comparative Theology; its Nature, Value, and present Position. + Sec. 3. Ethnic Religions. Injustice often done to them by Christian + Apologists. + Sec. 4. How Ethnic Religions were regarded by Christ and his Apostles. + Sec. 5. Comparative Theology will furnish a new Class of Evidences in + Support of Christianity. + Sec. 6. It will show that, while most of the Religions of the World are + Ethnic, or the Religions of Races, Christianity is Catholic, or + adapted to become the Religion of all Races. + Sec. 7. It will show that Ethnic Religions are Partial, Christianity + Universal. + Sec. 8. It will show that Ethnic Religions are arrested, but that + Christianity is steadily progressive. + + + +Sec. 1. Object of the present Work. + + +The present work is what the Germans call a _Versuch_, and the English an +Essay, or attempt. It is an attempt to compare the great religions of the +world with each other. When completed, this comparison ought to show what +each is, what it contains, wherein it resembles the others, wherein it +differs from the others; its origin and development, its place in +universal history; its positive and negative qualities, its truths and +errors, and its influence, past, present, or future, on the welfare of +mankind. For everything becomes more clear by comparison We can never +understand the nature of a phenomenon when we contemplate it by itself, as +well as when we look at it in its relations to other phenomena of the same +kind. The qualities of each become more clear in contrast with those of +the others. By comparing together, therefore, the religions of mankind, +to see wherein they agree and wherein they differ, we are able to perceive +with greater accuracy what each is. The first problem in Comparative +Theology is therefore analytical, being to distinguish each religion from +the rest. We compare them to see wherein they agree and wherein they +differ. But the next problem in Comparative Theology is synthetical, and +considers the adaptation of each system to every other, to determine its +place, use, and value, in reference to universal or absolute religion. It +must, therefore, examine the different religions to find wherein each is +complete or defective, true or false; how each may supply the defects of +the other or prepare the way for a better; how each religion acts on the +race which receives it, is adapted to that race, and to the region of the +earth which it inhabits. In this department, therefore, it connects itself +with Comparative Geography, with universal history, and with ethics. +Finally, this department of Comparative Theology shows the relation of +each partial religion to human civilization, and observes how each +religion of the world is a step in the progress of humanity. It shows that +both the positive and negative side of a religion make it a preparation +for a higher religion, and that the universal religion must root itself in +the decaying soil of partial religions. And in this sense Comparative +Theology becomes the science of missions. + +Such a work as this is evidently too great for a single mind. Many +students must co-operate, and that through many years, before it can be +completed. This volume is intended as a contribution toward that end. It +will contain an account of each of the principal religions, and its +development. It will be, therefore, devoted to the natural history of +ethnic and catholic religions, and its method will be that of analysis. +The second part, which may be published hereafter, will compare these +different systems to show what each teaches concerning the great subjects +of religious thought,--God, Duty, and Immortality. Finally, it will +compare them with Christianity, and will inquire whether or not that is +capable of becoming the religion of the human race. + + + +Sec. 2. Comparative Theology; its Nature, Value, and present Position. + + +The work of Comparative Theology is to do equal justice to all the +religious tendencies of mankind. Its position is that of a judge, not that +of an advocate. Assuming, with the Apostle Paul, that each religion has +come providentially, as a method by which different races "should seek the +Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him," it attempts to +show how each may be a step in the religious progress of the races, and "a +schoolmaster to bring men to Christ." It is bound, however, to abstain +from such inferences until it has accurately ascertained all the facts. +Its first problem is to learn what each system contains; it may then go +on, and endeavor to generalize from its facts. + +Comparative Theology is, therefore, as yet in its infancy. The same +tendency in this century, which has produced the sciences of Comparative +Anatomy, Comparative Geography, and Comparative Philology, is now creating +this new science of Comparative Theology.[1] It will be to any special +theology as Comparative Anatomy is to any special anatomy, Comparative +Geography to any special geography, or Comparative Philology to the study +of any particular language. It may be called a science, since it consists +in the study of the facts of human history, and their relation to each +other. It does not dogmatize: it observes. It deals only with +phenomena,--single phenomena, or facts; grouped phenomena, or laws. + +Several valuable works, bearing more or less directly on Comparative +Theology, have recently appeared in Germany, France, and England. Among +these may be mentioned those of Max Mueller, Bunsen, Burnouf, Doellinger, +Hardwicke, St. Hilaire, Duencker, F. C. Baur, Renan, Creuzer, Maurice, G. +W. Cox, and others. + +In America, except Mr. Alger's admirable monograph on the "Doctrine of the +Future Life," we have scarcely anything worthy of notice. Mrs. Lydia Maria +Child's work on the "Progress of Religious Ideas" deserves the greatest +credit, when we consider the time when it was written and the few sources +of information then accessible.[2] Twenty-five years ago it was hardly +possible to procure any adequate information concerning Brahmanism, +Buddhism, or the religions of Confucius, Zoroaster, and Mohammed. Hardly +any part of the Vedas had been translated into a European language. The +works of Anquetil du Perron and Kleuker were still the highest authority +upon the Zendavesta. About the Buddhists scarcely anything was known. But +now, though many important _lacunae_ remain to be filled, we have ample +means of ascertaining the essential facts concerning most of these +movements of the human soul. The time seems to have come to accomplish +something which may have a lasting value. + + + +Sec. 3. Ethnic Religions. Injustice often done to them by Christian +Apologists. + + +Comparative Theology, pursuing its impartial course as a positive science, +will avoid the error into which most of the Christian apologists of the +last century fell, in speaking of ethnic or heathen religions. In order to +show the need of Christianity, they thought it necessary to disparage all +other religions. Accordingly they have insisted that, while the Jewish and +Christian religions were revealed, all other religions were invented; +that, while these were from God, those were the work of man; that, while +in the true religions there was nothing false, in the false religions +there was nothing true. If any trace of truth was to be found in +Polytheism, it was so mixed with error as to be practically only evil. As +the doctrines of heathen religions were corrupt, so their worship was only +a debasing superstition. Their influence was to make men worse, not +better; their tendency was to produce sensuality, cruelty, and universal +degradation. They did not proceed, in any sense, from God; they were not +even the work of good men, but rather of deliberate imposition and +priestcraft. A supernatural religion had become necessary in order to +counteract the fatal consequences of these debased and debasing +superstitions. This is the view of the great natural religions of the +world which was taken by such writers as Leland, Whitby, and Warburton in +the last century. Even liberal thinkers, like James Foster[3] and John +Locke,[4] declare that, at the coming of Christ, mankind had fallen into +utter darkness, and that vice and superstition filled the world. Infidel +no less than Christian writers took the same disparaging view of natural +religions. They considered them, in their source, the work of fraud; in +their essence, corrupt superstitions; in their doctrines, wholly false; in +their moral tendency, absolutely injurious; and in their result, +degenerating more and more into greater evil. + +A few writers, like Cudworth and the Platonists, endeavored to put in a +good word for the Greek philosophers, but the religions of the world were +abandoned to unmitigated reprobation. The account which so candid a writer +as Mosheim gives of them is worth noticing, on account of its sweeping +character. "All the nations of the world," he says, "except the Jews, were +plunged in the grossest superstition. Some nations, indeed, went beyond +others in impiety and absurdity, but all stood charged with irrationality +and gross stupidity in matters of religion." "The greater part of the gods +of all nations were ancient heroes, famous for their achievements and +their worthy deeds, such as kings, generals, and founders of cities." "To +these some added the more splendid and useful objects in the natural +world, as the sun, moon, and stars; and some were not ashamed to pay +divine honors to mountains, rivers, trees, etc." "The worship of these +deities consisted in ceremonies, sacrifices, and prayers. The ceremonies +were, for the most part, absurd and ridiculous, and throughout debasing, +obscene, and cruel. The prayers were truly insipid and void of piety, both +in their form and matter." "The priests who presided over this worship +basely abused their authority to impose on the people." "The whole pagan +system had not the least efficacy to produce and cherish virtuous emotions +in the soul; because the gods and goddesses were patterns of vice, the +priests bad men, and the doctrines false."[5] + +This view of heathen religions is probably much exaggerated. They must +contain more truth than error, and must have been, on the whole, useful to +mankind. We do not believe that they originated in human fraud, that their +essence is superstition, that there is more falsehood than truth in their +doctrines, that their moral tendency is mainly injurious, or that they +continually degenerate into greater evil. No doubt it may be justly +predicated of all these systems that they contain much which is false and +injurious to human virtue. But the following considerations may tend to +show that all the religions of the earth are providential, and that all +tend to benefit mankind. + +To ascribe the vast phenomena of religion, in their variety and +complexity, to man as their author, and to suppose the whole a mere work +of human fraud, is not a satisfactory solution of the facts before us. +That priests, working on human ignorance or fear, should be able to build +up such a great mass of belief, sentiment, and action, is like the Hindoo +cosmogony, which supposes the globe to rest on an elephant, the elephant +on a turtle, and the turtle on nothing at all. + +If the people were so ignorant, how happened the priests to be so wise? If +the people were so credulous, why were not the priests credulous too? +"Like people, like priests," is a proverb approved by experience. Among +so many nations and through so many centuries, why has not some one priest +betrayed the secret of the famous imposition? Apply a similar theory to +any other human institution, and how patent is its absurdity! Let a +republican contend that all other forms of government--the patriarchal +system, government by castes, the feudal system, absolute and limited +monarchies, oligarchies, and aristocracies--are wholly useless and evil, +and were the result of statecraft alone, with no root in human nature or +the needs of man. Let one maintain that every system of _law_ (except our +own) was an invention of lawyers for private ends. Let one argue in the +same way about medicine, and say that this is a pure system of quackery, +devised by physicians, in order to get a support out of the people for +doing nothing. We should at once reply that, though error and ignorance +may play a part in all these institutions, they cannot be based on error +and ignorance only. Nothing which has not in it some elements of use can +hold its position in the world during so long a time and over so wide a +range. It is only reasonable to say the same of heathen or ethnic +religions. They contain, no doubt, error and evil. No doubt priestcraft +has been carried very far in them, though not further perhaps than it has +sometimes been carried in Christianity. But unless they contained more of +good than evil, they could not have kept their place. They partially +satisfied a great hunger of the human heart. They exercised some restraint +on human wilfulness and passion. They have directed, however imperfectly, +the human conscience toward the right. To assume that they are wholly evil +is disrespectful to human nature. It supposes man to be the easy and +universal dupe of fraud. But these religions do not rest on such a sandy +foundation, but on the feeling of dependence, the sense of accountability, +the recognition of spiritual realities very near to this world of matter, +and the need of looking up and worshipping some unseen power higher and +better than ourselves. A decent respect for the opinions of mankind +forbids us to ascribe pagan religions to priestcraft as their chief +source. + +And a reverence for Divine Providence brings us to the same conclusion. +Can it be that God has left himself without a witness in the world, except +among the Hebrews in ancient times and the Christians in modern times? +This narrow creed excludes God from any communion with the great majority +of human beings. The Father of the human race is represented as selecting +a few of his children to keep near himself, and as leaving all the rest to +perish in their ignorance and error. And this is not because they are +prodigal children who have gone astray into a far country of their own +accord; for they are just where they were placed by their Creator. HE "has +determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." +HE has caused some to be born in India, where they can only hear of him +through Brahmanism; and some in China, where they can know him only +through Buddha and Confucius. The doctrine which we are opposing is; that, +being put there by God, they are born into hopeless error, and are then +punished for their error by everlasting destruction. The doctrine for +which we contend is that of the Apostle Paul, that God has "determined +beforehand the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek the Lord, +IF HAPLY THEY MAY FEEL AFTER HIM AND FIND HIM." Paul teaches that "all +nations dwelling on all the face of the earth" may not only seek and feel +after God, but also FIND him. But as all living in heathen lands are +heathen, if they find God at all, they must find him through heathenism. +The pagan religions are the effort of man to feel after God. Otherwise we +must conclude that the Being without whom not a sparrow falls to the +ground, the Being who never puts an insect into the air or a polyp into +the water without providing it with some appropriate food, so that it may +live and grow, has left the vast majority of his human children, made with +religious appetences of conscience, reverence, hope, without a +corresponding nutriment of truth. This view tends to atheism; for if the +presence of adaptation everywhere is the legitimate proof of creative +design, the absence of adaptation in so important a sphere tends, so far, +to set aside that proof. + +The view which we are opposing contradicts that law of progress which +alone gives meaning and unity to history. Instead of progress, it teaches +degeneracy and failure. But elsewhere we see progress, not recession. +Geology shows us higher forms of life succeeding to the lower. Botany +exhibits the lichens and mosses preparing a soil for more complex forms of +vegetation. Civil history shows the savage state giving way to the +semi-civilized, and that to the civilized. If heathen religions are a +step, a preparation for Christianity, then this law of degrees appears +also in religion; then we see an order in the progress of the human +soul,--"first the blade, then the ear, afterward the full corn in the +ear." Then we can understand why Christ's coming was delayed till the +fulness of the time had come. But otherwise all, in this most important +sphere of human life, is in disorder, without unity, progress, meaning, or +providence. + +These views, we trust, will be amply confirmed when we come to examine +each great religion separately and carefully. We shall find them always +feeling after God, often finding him. We shall see that in their origin +they are not the work of priestcraft, but of human nature; in their +essence not superstitions, but religions; in their doctrines true more +frequently than false; in their moral tendency good rather than evil. And +instead of degenerating toward something worse, they come to prepare the +way for something better. + + + +Sec. 4. How Ethnic Religions were regarded by Christ and his Apostles. + + +According to Christ and the Apostles, Christianity was to grow out of +Judaism, and be developed into a universal religion. Accordingly, the +method of Jesus was to go first to the Jews; and when he left the limits +of Palestine on a single occasion, he declared himself as only going into +Phoenicia to seek after the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But he +stated that he had other sheep, not of this fold, whom he must bring, +recognizing that there were, among the heathen, good and honest hearts +prepared for Christianity, and already belonging to him; sheep who knew +his voice and were ready to follow him. He also declared that the Roman +centurion and the Phoenician woman already possessed great faith, the +centurion more than he had yet found in Israel. But the most striking +declaration of Jesus, and one singularly overlooked, concerning the +character of the heathen, is to be found in his description of the day of +judgment, in Matthew (chap. XXV.). It is very curious that men should +speculate as to the fate of the heathen, when Jesus has here distinctly +taught that all good men among them are his sheep, though they never heard +of him. The account begins, "Before him shall be gathered all the +Gentiles" (or heathen). It is not a description of the judgment of the +Christian world, but of the heathen world. The word here used ([Greek: ta +ethnae]) occurs about one hundred and sixty-four times in the New +Testament. It is translated "gentiles" oftener than by any other word, +that is, about ninety-three times; by "heathen" four or five times; and in +the remaining passages it is mostly translated "nations." That it means +the Gentiles or heathen here appears from the fact that they are +represented as ignorant of Christ, and are judged, not by the standard of +Christian faith, but by their humanity and charity toward those in +suffering. Jesus recognizes, therefore, among these ethnic or heathen +people, some as belonging to himself,--the "other sheep," not of the +Jewish fold. + +The Apostle Paul, who was especially commissioned to the Gentiles, must be +considered as the best authority upon this question. Did he regard their +religions as wholly false? On the contrary, he tells the Athenians that +they are already worshipping the true God, though ignorantly. "Whom ye +ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." When he said this he was +standing face to face with all that was most imposing in the religion of +Greece. He saw the city filled with idols, majestic forms, the perfection +of artistic grace and beauty. Was his spirit then moved _only_ with +indignation against this worship, and had he no sympathy with the +spiritual needs which it expressed? It does not seem so. He recognized +piety in their souls. "I see that ye are, in all ways, exceedingly +pious." He recognized their worship as passing beyond the idols, to the +true God. He did not profess that he came to revolutionize their religion, +but to reform it. He does not proceed like the backwoodsman, who fells the +forest and takes out the stumps in order to plant a wholly different crop; +but like the nurseryman, who grafts a native stock with a better fruit. +They were already ignorantly worshipping the true God. What the apostle +proposed to do was to enlighten that ignorance by showing them who that +true God was, and what was his character. In his subsequent remarks, +therefore, he does not teach them that there is one Supreme Being, but he +_assumes_ it, as something already believed. He assumes him to be the +creator of all things; to be _omnipotent_,--"the Lord of heaven and +earth"; _spiritual_,--"dwelleth not in temples made with hands"; +_absolute_,--"not needing anything," but the source of all things. He says +this, as not expecting any opposition or contradiction; he reserves his +criticisms on their idolatry for the end of his discourse. He then states, +quite clearly, that the different nations of the world have a common +origin, belong to one family, and have been providentially placed in space +and time, that each might seek the Lord in its own way. He recognized in +them a power of seeking and finding God, the God close at hand, and in +whom we live; and he quotes one of their own poets, accepting his +statement of God's fatherly character. Now, it is quite common for those +who deny that there is any truth in heathenism, to admire this speech of +Paul as a masterpiece of ingenuity and eloquence. But he would hardly have +made it, unless he thought it to be true. Those who praise his eloquence +at the expense of his veracity pay him a poor compliment. Did Paul tell +the Athenians that they were worshipping the true God _when they were +not_, and that for the sake of rhetorical effect? If we believe this +concerning him, and yet admire him, let us cease henceforth to find fault +with the Jesuits. + +No! Paul believed what he said, that the Athenians were worshipping the +true God, though ignorantly. The sentiment of reverence, of worship, was +lifting them to its true object. All they needed was to have their +understanding enlightened. Truth he placed in the heart rather than the +understanding, but he also connected Christianity with Polytheism where +the two religions touched, that is, on their pantheistic side. While +placing God _above_ the world as its ruler, "seeing he is Lord of heaven +and earth," he placed him _in_ the world as an immanent presence,--"in him +we live, and move, and have our being." And afterward, in writing to the +Romans, he takes the same ground. He teaches that the Gentiles had a +knowledge of the eternal attributes of God (Rom. i. 19) and saw him in his +works (v. 20), and that they also had in their nature a law of duty, +enabling them to do the things contained in the law. This he calls "the +law written in the heart" (Rom. ii. 14,15). He blames them, not for +ignorance, but for disobedience. The Apostle Paul, therefore, agrees with +us in finding in heathen religions essential truth in connection with +their errors. + +The early Christian apologists often took the same view. Thus Clement of +Alexandria believed that God had one great plan for educating the world, +of which Christianity was the final step. He refused to consider the +Jewish religion as the only divine preparation for Christianity, but +regarded the Greek philosophy as also a preparation for Christ. Neander +gives his views at length, and says that Clement was the founder of the +true view of history.[6] Tertullian declared the soul to be naturally +Christian. The Sibylline books were quoted as good prophetic works along +with the Jewish prophets. Socrates was called by the Fathers a Christian +before Christ. + +Within the last few years the extravagant condemnation of the heathen +religions has produced a reaction in their favor. It has been felt to be +disparaging to human nature to suppose that almost the whole human race +should consent to be fed on error. Such a belief has been seen to be a +denial of God's providence, as regards nine tenths of mankind. Accordingly +it has become more usual of late to rehabilitate heathenism, and to place +it on the same level with Christianity, if not above it. The _Vedas_ are +talked about as though they were somewhat superior to the Old Testament, +and Confucius is quoted as an authority quite equal to Paul or John. An +ignorant admiration of the sacred books of the Buddhists and Brahmins has +succeeded to the former ignorant and sweeping condemnation of them. What +is now needed is a fair and candid examination and comparison of these +systems from reliable sources. + + + +Sec. 5. Comparative Theology will furnish a new Class of Evidences in Support +of Christianity. + + +Such an examination, doing full justice to all other religions, +acknowledging their partial truth and use, will not depreciate, but exalt +the value of Christianity. It will furnish a new kind of evidence in its +favor. But the usual form of argument may perhaps be changed. + +Is Christianity a supernatural or a natural religion? Is it a religion +attested to be from God by miracles? This has been the great question in +evidences for the last century. The truth and divine origin of +Christianity have been made to depend on its supernatural character, and +to stand or fall with a certain view of miracles. And then, in order to +maintain the reality of miracles, it became necessary to prove the +infallibility of the record; and so we were taught that, to believe in +Jesus Christ, we must first believe in the genuineness and authenticity of +the whole New Testament. "All the theology of England," says Mr. +Pattison,[7] "was devoted to proving the Christian religion credible, in +this manner." "The apostles," said Dr. Johnson, "were being tried one a +week for the capital crime of forgery." This was the work of the school of +Lardner, Paley, and Whately. + +But the real question between Christians and unbelievers in Christianity +is, not whether our religion is or is not supernatural; not whether +Christ's miracles were or not violations of law; nor whether the New +Testament, as it stands, is the work of inspired men. The main question, +back of all these, is different, and not dependent on the views we may +happen to take of the universality of law. It is this: Is Christianity, as +taught by Jesus, intended by God to be the religion of the human race? Is +it only one among natural religions? is it to be superseded in its turn by +others, or is it the one religion which is to unite all mankind? "Art thou +he that should come, or look we for another?" This is the question which +we ask of Jesus of Nazareth, and the answer to which makes the real +problem of apologetic theology. + +Now the defenders of Christianity have been so occupied with their special +disputes about miracles, about naturalism and supernaturalism, and about +the inspiration and infallibility of the apostles, that they have left +uncultivated the wide field of inquiry belonging to Comparative Theology. +But it belongs to this science to establish the truth of Christianity by +showing that it possesses all the aptitudes which fit it to be the +religion of the human race. + +This method of establishing Christianity differs from the traditional +argument in this: that, while the last undertakes to _prove_ Christianity +to be true, this _shows_ it to be true. For if we can make it appear, by a +fair survey of the principal religions of the world, that, while they are +ethnic or local, Christianity is catholic or universal; that, while they +are defective, possessing some truths and wanting others, Christianity +possesses all; and that, while they are stationary, Christianity is +progressive; it will not then be necessary to discuss in what sense it is +a supernatural religion. Such a survey will show that it is adapted to the +nature of man. When we see adaptation we naturally infer design. If +Christianity appears, after a full comparison with other religions, to be +the one and only religion which is perfectly adapted to man, it will be +impossible to doubt that it was designed by God to be the religion of our +race; that it is the providential religion sent by God to man, its truth +God's truth its way the way to God and to heaven. + + + +Sec. 6. It will show that, while most of the Religions of the World are +Ethnic, or the Religions of Races, Christianity is Catholic, or adapted to +become the Religion of all Races. + + +By ethnic religions we mean those religions, each of which has always been +confined within the boundaries of a particular race or family of mankind, +and has never made proselytes or converts, except accidentally, outside of +it. By catholic religions we mean those which have shown the desire and +power of passing over these limits, and becoming the religion of a +considerable number of persons belonging to different races. + +Now we are met at once with the striking and obvious fact, that most of +the religions of the world are evidently religions limited in some way to +particular races or nations. They are, as we have said, _ethnic_. We use +this Greek word rather than its Latin equivalent, _gentile_, because +_gentile_, though meaning literally "of, or belonging to, a race," has +acquired a special sense from its New Testament use as meaning all who are +not Jews. The word "ethnic" remains pure from any such secondary or +acquired meaning, and signifies simply _that which belongs to a race_. + +The science of ethnology is a modern one, and is still in the process of +formation. Some of its conclusions, however, may be considered as +established. It has forever set aside Blumenbach's old classification of +mankind into the Caucasian and four other varieties, and has given us, +instead, a division of the largest part of mankind into Indo-European, +Semitic, and Turanian families, leaving a considerable penumbra outside as +yet unclassified. + +That mankind is so divided into races of men it would seem hardly possible +to deny. It is proved by physiology, by psychology, by glossology, and by +civil history. Physiology shows us anatomical differences between races. +There are as marked and real differences between the skull of a Hindoo and +that of a Chinaman as between the skulls of an Englishman and a negro. +There is not as great a difference, perhaps, but it is as real and as +constant. Then the characters of races remain distinct, the same traits +reappearing after many centuries exactly as at first. We find the same +difference of character between the Jews and Arabs, who are merely +different families of the same Semitic race, as existed between their +ancestors, Jacob and Esau, as described in the Book of Genesis. Jacob and +the Jews are prudent, loving trade, money-making, tenacious of their +ideas, living in cities; Esau and the Arabs, careless, wild, hating +cities, loving the desert. + +A similar example of the maintaining of a moral type is found in the +characteristic differences between the German and Kelts, two families of +the same Indo-European race. Take an Irishman and a German, working side +by side on the Mississippi, and they present the same characteristic +differences as the Germans and Kelts described by Tacitus and Caesar. The +German loves liberty, the Kelt equality; the one hates the tyrant, the +other the aristocrat; the one is a serious thinker, the other a quick and +vivid thinker; the one is a Protestant in religion, the other a Catholic. +Ammianus Marcellinus, living in Gaul in the fourth century, describes the +Kelts thus (see whether it does not apply to the race now). + +"The Gauls," says he, "are mostly tall of stature,[8] fair and red-haired, +and horrible from the fierceness of their eyes, fond of strife, and +haughtily insolent. A whole band of strangers would not endure one of +them, aided in his brawl by his powerful and blue-eyed wife, especially +when with swollen neck and gnashing teeth, poising her huge white arms, +she begins, joining kicks to blows, to put forth her fists like stones +from a catapult. Most of their voices are terrific and threatening, as +well when they are quiet as when they are angry. All ages are thought fit +for war. They are a nation very fond of wine, and invent many drinks +resembling it, and some of the poorer sort wander about with their senses +quite blunted by continual intoxication." + +Now we find that each race, beside its special moral qualities, seems also +to have special religious qualities, which cause it to tend toward some +one kind of religion more than to another kind. These religions are the +flower of the race; they come forth from it as its best aroma. Thus we see +that Brahmanism is confined to that section or race of the great Aryan +family which has occupied India for more than thirty centuries. It belongs +to the Hindoos, to the people taking its name from the Indus, by the +tributaries of which stream it entered India from the northwest. It has +never attempted to extend itself beyond that particular variety of +mankind. Perhaps one hundred and fifty millions of men accept it as their +faith. It has been held by this race as their religion during a period +immense in the history of mankind. Its sacred books are certainly more +than three thousand years old. But during all this time it has never +communicated itself to any race of men outside of the peninsula of India. +It is thus seen to be a strictly ethnic religion, showing neither the +tendency nor the desire to become the religion of mankind. + +The same thing may be said of the religion of Confucius. It belongs to +China and the Chinese. It suits their taste and genius. They have had it +as their state religion for some twenty-three hundred years, and it rules +the opinions of the rulers of opinion among three hundred millions of men. +But out of China Confucius is only a name. + +So, too, of the system of Zoroaster. It was for a long period the religion +of an Aryan tribe who became the ruling people among mankind. The Persians +extended themselves through Western Asia, and conquered many nations, but +they never communicated their religion. It was strictly a national or +ethnic religion, belonging only to the Iranians and their descendants, the +Parsees. + +In like manner it may be said that the religion of Egypt, of Greece, of +Scandinavia, of the Jews, of Islam, and of Buddhism are ethnic religions. +Those of Egypt and Scandinavia are strictly so. It is said, to be sure, +that the Greeks borrowed the names of their gods from Egypt, but the gods +themselves were entirely different ones. It is also true that some of the +gods of the Romans were borrowed from the Greeks, but their life was left +behind. They merely repeated by rote the Greek mythology, having no power +to invent one for themselves. But the Greek religion they never received. +For instead of its fair humanities, the Roman gods were only servants of +the state,--a higher kind of consuls, tribunes, and lictors. The real +Olympus of Rome was the Senate Chamber on the Capitoline Hill. Judaism +also was in reality an ethnic religion, though it aimed at catholicity and +expected it, and made proselytes. But it could not tolerate unessentials, +and so failed of becoming catholic. The Jewish religion, until it had +Christianity to help it, was never able to do more than make proselytes +here and there. Christianity, while preaching the doctrines of Jesus and +the New Testament, has been able to carry also the weight of the Old +Testament, and to give a certain catholicity to Judaism. The religion of +Mohammed has been catholic, in that it has become the religion of very +different races,--the Arabs, Turks, and Persians, belonging to the three +great varieties of the human family. But then Mohammedanism has never +sought to make _converts_, but only _subjects;_ it has not asked for +belief, but merely for submission. Consequently Mr. Palgrave, Mr. Lane, +and Mr. Vambery tell us, that, in Arabia, Egypt, and Turkistan, there are +multitudes who are outwardly Mohammedan, but who in their private belief +reject Mohammed, and are really Pagans. But, no doubt, there is a catholic +tendency both in Judaism and Mohammedanism; and this comes from the great +doctrine which they hold in common with Christianity,--the _unity of God_. +Faith in that is the basis of all expectation of a universal religion, and +the wish and the power to convert others come from that doctrine of the +Divine unity. + + * * * * * + +But Christianity teaches the unity of God not merely as a supremacy of +power and will, but as a supremacy of love and wisdom; it teaches God as +Father, and not merely as King; so it seeks not merely to make proselytes +and subjects, but to make converts. Hence Christianity, beginning as a +Semitic religion, among the Jews, went across the Greek Archipelago and +converted the Hellenic and the Latin races; afterward the Goths, +Lombards, Franks, Vandals; later still, the Saxons, Danes, and Normans. +Meantime, its Nestorian missionaries, pushing east, made converts in +Armenia, Persia, India, and China. In later days it has converted negroes, +Indians, and the people of the Pacific Islands. Something, indeed, stopped +its progress after its first triumphant successes during seven or eight +centuries. At the tenth century it reached its term. Modern missions, +whether those of Jesuits or Protestants, have not converted whole nations +and races, but only individuals here and there. The reason of this check, +probably, is, that Christians have repeated the mistakes of the Jews and +Mohammedans. They have sought to make proselytes to an outward system of +worship and ritual, or to make subjects to a _dogma_; but not to make +converts to an idea and a life. When the Christian missionaries shall go +and say to the Hindoos or the Buddhists: "You are already on your way +toward God,--your religion came from him, and was inspired by his Spirit; +now he sends you something more and higher by his Son, who does not come +to destroy but to fulfil, not to take away any good thing you have, but to +add to it something better," then we shall see the process of conversion, +checked in the ninth and tenth, centuries, reinaugurated. + +Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, all teaching the strict unity of God, +have all aimed at becoming universal. Judaism failed because it sought +proselytes instead of making converts. Islam, the religion of Mohammed (in +reality a Judaizing Christian sect) failed because it sought to make +subjects rather than converts. Its conquests over a variety of races were +extensive, but not deep. To-day it holds in its embrace at least four very +distinct races,--the Arabs, a Semitic race, the Persians, an Indo-European +race, the Negroes, and the Turks or Turanians. But, correctly viewed, +Islam is only a heretical Christian sect, and so all this must be credited +to the interest of Christianity. Islam is a John the Baptist crying in the +wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord"; Mohammed is a schoolmaster to +bring men to Christ. It does for the nations just what Judaism did, that +is, it teaches the Divine unity. Esau has taken the place of Jacob in the +economy of Providence. When the Jews rejected Christ they ceased from +their providential work, and their cousins, the Arabs, took their place. +The conquests of Islam, therefore, ought to be regarded as the preliminary +conquests of Christianity. + +There is still another system which has shown some tendencies toward +catholicity. This is Buddhism, which has extended itself over the whole of +the eastern half of Asia. But though it includes a variety of +nationalities, it is doubtful if it includes any variety of races. All the +Buddhists appear to belong to the great Mongol family. And although this +system originated among the Aryan race in India, it has let go its hold of +that family and transferred itself wholly to the Mongols. + +But Christianity, from the first, showed itself capable of taking +possession of the convictions of the most different races of mankind. Now, +as on the day of Pentecost, many races hear the apostles speak in their +own tongues, in which they were born,--Parthians, Medes, Elamites, +dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judaea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia +and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, strangers of +Rome, Cretes and Arabians. The miracle of tongues was a type of the effect +of the truth in penetrating the mind and heart of different nationalities. +The Jewish Christians, indeed, tried to repeat in Christianity their old +mistake which had prevented Judaism from becoming universal. They wished +to insist that no one should become a Christian unless he became a Jew at +the same time. If they had succeeded in this, they would have effectually +kept the Gospel of Christ from becoming a catholic religion. But the +Apostle Paul was raised up for the emergency, and he prevented this +suicidal course. Consequently Christianity passed at once into Europe, and +became the religion of Greeks and Romans as well as Jews. Paul struck off +from it its Jewish shell, told them that as Christians they had nothing to +do with the Jewish law, or with Jewish Passovers, Sabbaths, or ceremonies. +As Christians they were only to know Christ, and they were not to know +him according to the flesh, that is, not as a Jew. So Christianity became +at once a catholic religion, consisting in the diffusion of great truths +and a divine life. It overflowed the nationalities of Greece and Rome, of +North Africa, of Persia and Western Asia, at the very beginning. It +conquered the Gothic and German conquerors of the Roman Empire. Under +Arian missionaries, it converted Goths, Vandals, Lombards. Under Nestorian +missionaries, it penetrated as far east as China, and made converts there. +In like manner the Gospel spread over the whole of North Africa, whence it +was afterwards expelled by the power of Islam. It has shown itself, +therefore, capable of adapting itself to every variety of the human race. + + + +Sec. 7. Comparative Theology will probably show that the Ethnic Religions are +one-sided, each containing a Truth of its own, but being defective, +wanting some corresponding Truth. Christianity, or the Catholic Religion, +is complete on every Side. + + +Brahmanism, for example, is complete on the side of spirit, defective on +the side of matter; full as regards the infinite, empty of the finite; +recognizing eternity but not time, God but not nature. It is a vast system +of spiritual pantheism, in which there is no reality but God, all else +being Maya, or illusion. The Hindoo mind is singularly pious, but also +singularly immoral. It has no history, for history belongs to time. No one +knows when its sacred books were written, when its civilization began, +what caused its progress, what its decline. Gentle, devout, abstract, it +is capable at once of the loftiest thoughts and the basest actions. It +combines the most ascetic self-denials and abstraction from life with the +most voluptuous self-indulgence. The key to the whole system of Hindoo +thought and life is in this original tendency to see God, not man; +eternity, not time; the infinite, not the finite. + +Buddhism, which was a revolt from Brahmanism, has exactly the opposite +truths and the opposite defects. Where Brahmanism is strong, it is weak; +where Brahmanism is weak, it is strong. It recognizes man, not God; the +soul, not the all; the finite, not the infinite; morality, not piety. Its +only God, Buddha, is a man who has passed on through innumerable +transmigrations, till, by means of exemplary virtues, he has reached the +lordship of the universe. Its heaven, Nirvana, is indeed the world of +infinite bliss; but, incapable of cognizing the infinite, it calls it +nothing. Heaven, being the inconceivable infinite, is equivalent to pure +negation. Nature, to the Buddhist, instead of being the delusive shadow of +God, as the Brahman views it, is envisaged as a nexus of laws, which +reward and punish impartially both obedience and disobedience. + +The system of Confucius has many merits, especially in its influence on +society. The most conservative of all systems, and also the most prosaic, +its essential virtue is reverence for all that is. It is not perplexed by +any fear or hope of change; the thing which has been is that which shall +be; and the very idea of progress is eliminated from the thought of China. +Safety, repose, peace, these are its blessings. Probably merely physical +comfort, earthly _bien-etre_, was never carried further than in the +Celestial Empire. That virtue so much exploded in Western civilization, of +respect for parents, remains in full force in China. The emperor is +honored as the father of his people; ancestors are worshipped in every +family; and the best reward offered for a good action is a patent of +nobility, which does not reach forward to one's children, but backward to +one's parents. This is the bright side of Chinese life; the dark side is +the fearful ennui, the moral death, which falls on a people among whom +there are no such things as hope, expectation, or the sense of progress. +Hence the habit of suicide among this people, indicating their small hold +on life. In every Chinese drama there are two or three suicides. A soldier +will commit suicide rather than go into battle. If you displease a +Chinaman, he will resent the offence by killing himself on your doorstep, +hoping thus to give you some inconvenience. Such are the merits and such +the defects of the system of Confucius. + +The doctrine of Zoroaster and of the Zend Avesta is far nobler. Its +central thought is that each man is a soldier, bound to battle for good +against evil. The world, at the present time, is the scene of a great +warfare between the hosts of light and those of darkness. Every man who +thinks purely, speaks purely, and acts purely is a servant of Ormazd, the +king of light, and thereby helps on his cause. The result of this doctrine +was that wonderful Persian empire, which astonished the world for +centuries by its brilliant successes; and the virtue and intelligence of +the Parsees of the present time, the only representatives in the world of +that venerable religion. The one thing lacking to the system is unity. It +lives in perpetual conflict. Its virtues are all the virtues of a soldier. +Its defects and merits are, both, the polar opposites of those of China. +If the everlasting peace of China tends to moral stagnation and death, the +perpetual struggle and conflict of Persia tends to exhaustion. The Persian +empire rushed through a short career of flame to its tomb; the Chinese +empire vegetates, unchanged, through a myriad of years. + + * * * * * + +If Brahmanism and Buddhism occupy the opposite poles of the same axis of +thought,--if the system of Confucius stands opposed, on another axis, to +that of Zoroaster,--we find a third development of like polar antagonisms +in the systems of ancient Egypt and Greece. Egypt stands for Nature; +Greece for Man. Inscrutable as is the mystery of that Sphinx of the Nile, +the old religion of Egypt, we can yet trace some phases of its secret. Its +reverence for organization appears in the practice of embalming. The +bodies of men and of animals seemed to it to be divine. Even vegetable +organization had something sacred in it: "O holy nation," said the Roman +satirist, "whose gods grow in gardens!" That plastic force of nature which +appears in organic life and growth made up, in various forms, as we shall +see in the proper place, the Egyptian Pantheon. The life-force of nature +became divided into the three groups of gods, the highest of which +represented its largest generalizations. Kneph, Neith, Sevech, Pascht, are +symbols, according to Lepsius, of the World-Spirit, the World-Matter, +Space and Time. Each circle of the gods shows us some working of the +mysterious powers of nature, and of its occult laws. But when we come to +Greece, these personified laws turn into men. Everything in the Greek +Pantheon is human. All human tendencies appear transfigured into glowing +forms of light on Mount Olympus. The gods of Egypt are powers and laws; +those of Greece are persons. + +The opposite tendencies of these antagonist forms of piety appear in the +development of Egyptian and Hellenic life. The gods of Egypt were +mysteries too far removed from the popular apprehension to be objects of +worship; and so religion in Egypt became priestcraft. In Greece, on the +other hand, the gods were too familiar, too near to the people, to be +worshipped with any real reverence. Partaking in all human faults and +vices, it must sooner or later come to pass that familiarity would breed +contempt. And as the religion of Egypt perished from being kept away from +the people, as an esoteric system in the hands of priests, that of Greece, +in which there was no priesthood as an order, came to an end because the +gods ceased to be objects of respect at all. + + * * * * * + +We see, from these examples, how each of the great ethnic religions tends +to a disproportionate and excessive, because one-sided, statement of some +divine truth or law. The question then emerges at this point: "Is +Christianity also one-sided, or does it contain in itself _all_ these +truths?" Is it _teres atque rotundus_, so as to be able to meet every +natural religion with a kindred truth, and thus to supply the defects of +each from its own fulness? If it can be shown to possess this amplitude, +it at once is placed by itself in an order of its own. It is not to be +classified with the other religions, since it does not share their one +family fault. In every other instance we can touch with our finger the +weak place, the empty side. Is there any such weak side in Christianity? +It is the office of Comparative Theology to answer. + +The positive side of Brahmanism we saw to be its sense of spiritual +realities. That is also fully present in Christianity. Not merely does +this appear in such New Testament texts as these: "God is spirit," "The +letter killeth, the spirit giveth life": not only does the New Testament +just graze and escape Pantheism in such passages as "From whom, and +through whom, and to whom are all things," "Who is above all, and through +all, and in us all," "In him we live and move and have our being," but the +whole history of Christianity is the record of a spiritualism almost too +excessive. It has appeared in the worship of the Church, the hymns of the +Church, the tendencies to asceticism, the depreciation of earth and man. +Christianity, therefore, fully meets Brahmanism on its positive side, +while it fulfils its negations, as we shall see hereafter, by adding as +full a recognition of man and nature. + +The positive side of Buddhism is its cognition of the human soul and the +natural laws of the universe. Now, if we look into the New Testament and +into the history of the Church, we find this element also fully expressed. +It appears in all the parables and teachings of Jesus, in which man is +represented as a responsible agent, rewarded or punished according to the +exact measure of his works; receiving the government of ten or five cities +according to his stewardship. And when we look into the practical working +of Christianity we find almost an exaggerated stress laid on the duty of +saving one's soul. This excessive estimate is chiefly seen in the monastic +system of the Roman Church, and in the Calvinistic sects of Protestantism. +It also comes to light again, curiously enough, in such books as Combe's +"Constitution of Man," the theory of which is exactly the same as that of +the Buddhists; namely, that the aim of life is a prudential virtue, +consisting in wise obedience to the natural laws of the universe. Both +systems substitute prudence for Providence as the arbiter of human +destiny. But, apart from these special tendencies in Christianity, it +cannot be doubted that all Christian experience recognizes the positive +truth of Buddhism in regarding the human soul as a substantial, finite, +but progressive monad, not to be absorbed, as in Brahmanism, in the abyss +of absolute being. + +The positive side of the system of Confucius is the organization of the +state on the basis of the family. The government of the emperor is +paternal government, the obedience of the subject is filial obedience. +Now, though Jesus did not for the first time call God "the Father," he +first brought men into a truly filial relation to God. The Roman Church is +organized on the family idea. The word "Pope" means the "Father"; he is +the father of the whole Church. Every bishop and every priest is also the +father of a smaller family, and all those born into the Church are its +children, as all born into a family are born sons and daughters of the +family. In Protestantism, also, society is composed of families as the +body is made up of cells. Only in China, and in Christendom, is family +life thus sacred and worshipful. In some patriarchal systems, polygamy +annuls the wife and the mother; in others the father is a despot, and the +children slaves; in other systems, the crushing authority of the state +destroys the independence of the household. Christianity alone accepts +with China the religion of family life with all its conservative elements, +while it fulfils it with the larger hope of the kingdom of heaven and +brotherhood of mankind. + +This idea of the kingdom of heaven, so central in Christianity, is also +the essential motive in the religion of Zoroaster. As, in the Zend Avesta, +every man is a soldier, fighting for light or for darkness, and neutrality +is impossible; so, in the Gospel, light and good stand opposed to darkness +and evil as perpetual foes. A certain current of dualism runs through the +Christian Scriptures and the teaching of the Church. God and Satan, heaven +and hell, are the only alternatives. Every one must choose between them. +In the current theology, this dualism has been so emphasized as even to +exceed that of the Zend Avesta. The doctrine of everlasting punishment and +an everlasting hell has always been the orthodox doctrine in Christianity, +while the Zend Avesta probably, and the religion in its subsequent +development certainly, teaches universal restoration, and the ultimate +triumph of good over evil. Nevertheless, practically, in consequence of +the greater richness and fulness of Christianity, this tendency to dualism +has been neutralized by its monotheism, and evil kept subordinate; while, +in the Zend religion, the evil principle assumed such proportions as to +make it the formidable rival of good in the mind of the worshipper. Here, +as before, we may say that Christianity is able to do justice to all the +truth involved in the doctrine of evil, avoiding any superficial optimism, +and recognizing the fact that all true life must partake of the nature of +a battle. + +The positive side of Egyptian religion we saw to be a recognition of the +divine element in nature, of that plastic, mysterious life which embodies +itself in all organisms. Of this view we find little stated explicitly in +the New Testament. But that the principles of Christianity contain it, +implicitly, in an undeveloped form, appears, (1.) Because Christian +monotheism differs from Jewish and Mohammedan monotheism, in recognizing +God "_in all things_" as well as God "_above all things_." (2.) Because +Christian art and literature differ from classic art and literature in the +_romantic_ element, which is exactly the sense of this mysterious life in +nature. The classic artist is a [Greek: poietes], a maker; the romantic +artist is a troubadour, a finder. The one does his work in giving form to +a dead material; the other, by seeking for its hidden life. (3.) Because +modern science is _invention_, i.e. finding. It recognizes mysteries in +nature which are to be searched into, and this search becomes a serious +religious interest with all truly scientific men. It appears to such men a +profanity to doubt or question the revelations of nature, and they believe +in its infallible inspiration quite as much as the dogmatist believes in +the infallible inspiration of Scripture, or the churchman in the +infallible inspiration of the Church. We may, therefore, say, that the +essential truth in the Egyptian system has been taken up into our modern +Christian life. + +And how is it, lastly, with that opposite pole of religious thought which +blossomed out in "the fair humanities of old religion" in the wonderful +Hellenic mind? The gods of Greece were men. They were not abstract ideas, +concealing natural powers and laws. They were open as sunshine, bright as +noon, a fair company of men and women idealized and gracious, just a +little way off, a little way up. It was humanity projected upon the skies, +divine creatures of more than mortal beauty, but thrilling with human life +and human sympathies. Has Christianity anything to offer in the place of +this charming system of human gods and goddesses? + +We answer that the fundamental doctrine of Christianity is the +incarnation, the word made flesh. It is God revealed in man. Under some +doctrinal type this has always been believed. The common Trinitarian +doctrine states it in a somewhat crude and illogical form. Yet somehow the +man Christ Jesus has always been seen to be the best revelation of God. +But unless there were some human element in the Deity, he could not reveal +himself so in a human life. The doctrine of the incarnation, therefore, +repeats the Mosaic statement that "man was made in the image of God." +Jewish and Mohammedan monotheism separate God entirely from the world. +Philosophic monotheism, in our day, separates God from man, by teaching +that there is nothing in common between the two by which God can be +mediated, and so makes him wholly incomprehensible. Christianity gives us +Emmanuel, God with us, equally removed from the stern despotic omnipotence +of the Semitic monotheism and the finite and imperfect humanities of +Olympus. We see God in Christ, as full of sympathy with man, God "in us +all"; and yet we see him in nature, providence, history, as "above all" +and "through all." The Roman Catholic Church has, perhaps, humanized +religion too far. For every god and goddess of Greece she has given us, on +some immortal canvas, an archangel or a saint to be adored and loved. +Instead of Apollo and the Python we have Guido's St. Michael and the +Dragon; in place of the light, airy Mercury she provides a St. Sebastian; +instead of the "untouched" Diana, some heavenly Agnes or Cecilia. The +Catholic heaven is peopled, all the way up, with beautiful human forms; +and on the upper throne we have holiness and tenderness incarnate in the +queen of heaven and her divine Son. All the Greek humanities are thus +fulfilled in the ample faith of Christendom. + +By such a critical survey as we have thus sketched in mere outline it will +be seen that each of the great ethnic religions is full on one side, but +empty on the other, while Christianity is full all round. Christianity is +adapted to take their place, not because they are false, but because they +are true as far as they go. They "know in part and prophesy in part; but +when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be +done away." + + + +Sec. 8. Comparative Theology will probably show that Ethnic Religions are +arrested, or degenerate, and will come to an End, while the Catholic +Religion is capable of a progressive Development. + + +The religions of Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, have come to an end; having +shared the fate of the national civilization of which each was a part. The +religions of China, Islam, Buddha, and Judaea have all been arrested, and +remain unchanged and seemingly unchangeable. Like great vessels anchored +in a stream, the current of time flows past them, and each year they are +further behind the spirit of the age, and less in harmony with its +demands. Christianity alone, of all human religions, seems to possess the +power of keeping abreast with the advancing civilization of the world. As +the child's soul grows with his body, so that when he becomes a man it is +a man's soul and not a child's, so the Gospel of Jesus continues the soul +of all human culture. It continually drops its old forms and takes new +ones. It passed out of its Jewish body under the guidance of Paul. In a +speculative age it unfolded into creeds and systems. In a worshipping age +it developed ceremonies and a ritual. When the fall of Rome left Europe +without unity or centre, it gave it an organization and order through the +Papacy. When the Papacy became a tyranny, and the Renaissance called for +free thought, it suddenly put forth Protestantism, as the tree by the +water-side sends forth its shoots in due season. Protestantism, free as +air, opens out into the various sects, each taking hold of some human +need; Lutheranism, Calvinism, Methodism, Swedenborgianism, or Rationalism. +Christianity blossoms out into modern science, literature, art,--children +who indeed often forget their mother, and are ignorant of their source, +but which are still fed from her breasts and partake of her life. +Christianity, the spirit of faith, hope, and love, is the deep fountain of +modern civilization. Its inventions are for the many, not for the few. Its +science is not hoarded, but diffused. It elevates the masses, who +everywhere else have been trampled down. The friend of the people, it +tends to free schools, a free press, a free government, the abolition of +slavery, war, vice, and the melioration of society. We cannot, indeed, +here _prove_ that Christianity is the cause of these features peculiar to +modern life; but we find it everywhere associated with them, and so we can +say that it only, of all the religions of mankind, has been capable of +accompanying man in his progress from evil to good, from good to better. + +We have merely suggested some of the results to which the study of +Comparative Theology may lead us. They will appear more fully as we +proceed in our examination of the religions, and subsequently in their +comparison. This introductory chapter has been designed as a sketch of the +course which the work will take. When we have completed our survey, the +results to which we hope to arrive will be these, if we succeed in what we +have undertaken:-- + +1. All the great religions of the world, except Christianity and +Mohammedanism, are ethnic religions, or religions limited to a single +nation or race. Christianity alone (including Mohammedanism and Judaism, +which are its temporary and local forms) is the religion of all races. + +2. Every ethnic religion has its positive and negative side. Its positive +side is that which holds some vital truth; its negative side is the +absence of some other essential truth. Every such religion is true and +providential, but each limited and imperfect. + +3. Christianity alone is a [Greek: plaeroma], or a fulness of +truth, not coming to destroy but to fulfil the previous religions; but +being capable of replacing them by teaching all the truth they have +taught, and supplying that which they have omitted. + +4. Christianity, being not a system but a life, not a creed or a form, but +a spirit, is able to meet all the changing wants of an advancing +civilization by new developments and adaptations, constantly feeding the +life of man at its roots by fresh supplies of faith in God and faith in +man. + + + + +Chapter II. + +Confucius and the Chinese, or the Prose of Asia. + + + Sec. 1. Peculiarities of Chinese Civilization. + Sec. 2. Chinese Government based on Education. Civil-Service Examinations. + Sec. 3. Life and Character of Confucius. + Sec. 4. Philosophy and subsequent Development of Confucianism. + Sec. 5. Lao-tse and Tao-ism. + Sec. 6. Religious Character of the "Kings." + Sec. 7. Confucius and Christianity. Character of the Chinese. + Sec. 8. The Tae-ping Insurrection. NOTE. The Nestorian Inscription in China + of the Eighth Century. + + + +Sec. 1. Peculiarities of Chinese Civilization. + + +In qualifying the Chinese mind as prosaic, and in calling the writings of +Confucius and his successors _prose_, we intend no disrespect to either. +Prose is as good as poetry. But we mean to indicate the point of view from +which the study of the Chinese teachers should be approached. Accustomed +to regard the East as the land of imagination; reading in our childhood +the wild romances of Arabia; passing, in the poetry of Persia, into an +atmosphere of tender and entrancing song; then, as we go farther East into +India, encountering the vast epics of the Maha-Bharata and the +Ramayana;--we might naturally expect to find in far Cathay a still wilder +flight of the Asiatic Muse. Not at all. We drop at once from unbridled +romance into the most colorless prose. Another race comes to us, which +seems to have no affinity with Asia, as we have been accustomed to think +of Asia. No more aspiration, no flights of fancy, but the worship of +order, decency, propriety, and peaceful commonplaces. As the people, so +the priests. The works of Confucius and his commentators are as level as +the valley of their great river, the Yang-tse-kiang, which the tide +ascends for four hundred miles. All in these writings is calm, serious, +and moral They assume that all men desire to be made better, and will +take the trouble to find out how they can be made so. It is not thought +necessary to entice them into goodness by the attractions of eloquence, +the charm of imagery, or the fascinations of a brilliant wit. These +philosophers have a Quaker style, a dress of plain drab, used only for +clothing the thought, not at all for its ornament. + +And surely we ought not to ask for any other attraction than the subject +itself, in order to find interest in China and its teachers. The Chinese +Empire, which contains more than five millions of square miles, or twice +the area of the United States, has a population of five hundred millions, +or half the number of the human beings inhabiting the globe. China proper, +inhabited by the Chinese, is half as large as Europe, and contains about +three hundred and sixty millions of inhabitants. There are eighteen +provinces in China, many of which contain, singly, more inhabitants than +some of the great states of Europe. But on many other accounts this nation +is deeply interesting. + +China is the type of permanence in the world. To say that it is older than +any other _existing_ nation is saying very little. Herodotus, who has been +called the Father of History, travelled in Egypt about 450 B.C. He studied +its monuments, bearing the names of kings who were as distant from his +time as he is from ours,--monuments which even then belonged to a gray +antiquity. But the kings who erected those monuments were possibly +posterior to the founders of the Chinese Empire. Porcelain vessels, with +Chinese mottoes on them, have been found in those ancient tombs, in shape, +material, and appearance precisely like those which are made in China +to-day; and Rosellini believes them to have been imported from China by +kings contemporary with Moses, or before him. This nation and its +institutions have outlasted everything. The ancient Bactrian and Assyrian +kingdoms, the Persian monarchy, Greece and Rome, have all risen, +flourished, and fallen,--and China continues still the same. The dynasty +has been occasionally changed; but the laws, customs, institutions, all +that makes national life, have continued. The authentic history of China +commences some two thousand years before Christ, and a thousand years in +this history is like a century in that of any other people. The oral +language of China has continued the same that it is now for thirty +centuries. The great wall bounding the empire on the north, which is +twelve hundred and forty miles long and twenty feet high, with towers +every few hundred yards,--which crosses mountain ridges, descends into +valleys, and is carried over rivers on arches,--was built two hundred +years before Christ, probably to repel those fierce tribes who, after +ineffectual attempts to conquer China, travelled westward till they +appeared on the borders of Europe five hundred years later, and, under the +name of Huns, assisted in the downfall of the Roman Empire. All China was +intersected with canals at a period when none existed in Europe. The great +canal, like the great wall, is unrivalled by any similar existing work. It +is twice the length of the Erie Canal, is from two hundred to a thousand +feet wide, and has enormous banks built of solid granite along a great +part of its course. One of the important mechanical inventions of modern +Europe is the Artesian well. That sunk at Grenelle, in France, was long +supposed to be the deepest in the world, going down eighteen hundred feet. +One at St. Louis, in the United States, has since been drilled to a depth, +as has recently been stated, of about four thousand.[9] But in China these +wells are found by tens of thousands, sunk at very remote periods to +obtain salt water. The method used by the Chinese from immemorial time has +recently been adopted instead of our own as being the most simple and +economical. The Chinese have been long acquainted with the circulation of +the blood; they inoculated for the small-pox in the ninth century; and +about the same time they invented printing. Their bronze money was made as +early as 1100 B.C., and its form has not been changed since the beginning +of the Christian era. The mariner's compass, gunpowder, and the art of +printing were made known to Europe through stories told by missionaries +returning from Asia. These missionaries, coasting the shores of the +Celestial Empire in Chinese junks, saw a little box containing a +magnetized needle, called Ting-nan-Tchen, or "needle which points to the +south." They also noticed terrible machines used by the armies in China +called Ho-pao or fire-guns, into which was put an inflammable powder, +which produced a noise like thunder and projected stones and pieces of +iron with irresistible force. + +Father Hue, in his "Christianity in China," says that "the Europeans who +penetrated into China were no less struck with the libraries of the +Chinese than with their artillery. They were astonished at the sight of +the elegant books printed rapidly upon a pliant, silky paper by means of +wooden blocks. The first edition of the classical works printed in China +appeared in 958, five hundred years before the invention of Gutenberg. The +missionaries had, doubtless, often been busied in their convents with the +laborious work of copying manuscript books, and the simple Chinese method +of printing must have particularly attracted their attention. Many other +marvellous productions were noticed, such as silk, porcelain, +playing-cards, spectacles, and other products of art and industry unknown +in Europe. They brought back these new ideas to Europe; 'and from that +time,' says Abel Remusat, 'the West began to hold in due esteem the most +beautiful, the most populous, and the most anciently civilized of all the +four quarters of the world. The arts, the religious faith, and the +languages of its people were studied, and it was even proposed to +establish a professorship for the Tartar language in the University of +Paris. The world seemed to open towards the East; geography made immense +strides, and ardor for discovery opened a new vent for the adventurous +spirit of the Europeans. As our own hemisphere became better known, the +idea of another ceased to appear a wholly improbable paradox; and in +seeking the Zipangon of Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus discovered the +New World.'" + +The first aspect of China produces that impression on the mind which we +call the grotesque. This is merely because the customs of this singular +nation are so opposite to our own. They seem morally, no less than +physically, our antipodes. Their habits are as opposite to ours as the +direction of their bodies. We stand feet to feet in everything. In boxing +the compass they say "westnorth" instead of northwest, "eastsouth" instead +of southeast, and their compass-needle points south instead of north. +Their soldiers wear quilted petticoats, satin boots, and bead necklaces, +carry umbrellas and fans, and go to a night attack with lanterns in their +hands, being more afraid of the dark than of exposing themselves to the +enemy. The people are very fond of fireworks, but prefer to have them in +the daytime. Ladies' ride in wheelbarrows, and cows are driven in +carriages. While in Europe the feet are put in the stocks, in China the +stocks are hung round the neck. In China the family name comes first, and +the personal name afterward. Instead of saying Benjamin Franklin or Walter +Scott they would say Franklin Benjamin, Scott Walter. Thus the Chinese +name of Confucius, Kung-fu-tsee, means the Holy Master Kung;--Kung is the +family name. In the recent wars with the English the mandarins or soldiers +would sometimes run away, and then commit suicide to avoid punishment. In +getting on a horse, the Chinese mount on the right side. Their old men fly +kites, while the little boys look on. The left hand is the seat of honor, +and to keep on your hat is a sign of respect. Visiting cards are painted +red, and are four feet long. In the opinion of the Chinese, the seat of +the understanding is the stomach. They have villages which contain a +million of inhabitants. Their boats are drawn by men, but their carriages +are moved by sails. A married woman while young and pretty is a slave, but +when she becomes old and withered is the most powerful, respected, and +beloved person in the family. The emperor is regarded with the most +profound reverence, but the empress mother is a greater person than he. +When a man furnishes his house, instead of laying stress, as we do, on +rosewood pianos and carved mahogany, his first ambition is for a handsome +camphor-wood coffin, which he keeps in the best place in his room. The +interest of money is thirty-six per cent, which, to be sure, we also give +in hard times to stave off a stoppage, while with them it is the legal +rate. We once heard a bad dinner described thus: "The meat was cold, the +wine was hot, and everything was sour but the vinegar." This would not so +much displease the Chinese, who carefully warm their wine, while we ice +ours. They understand good living, however, very well, are great epicures, +and somewhat gourmands, for, after dining on thirty dishes, they will +sometimes eat a duck by way of a finish. They toss their meat into their +mouths to a tune, every man keeping time with his chop-sticks, while we, +on the contrary, make anything but harmony with the clatter of our knives +and forks. A Chinaman will not drink a drop of milk, but he will devour +birds'-nests, snails, and the fins of sharks with a great relish. Our +mourning color is black and theirs is white; they mourn for their parents +three years, we a much shorter time. The principal room in their houses is +called "the hall of ancestors," the pictures or tablets of whom, set up +against the wall, are worshipped by them; we, on the other hand, are only +too apt to send our grandfather's portrait to the garret.[10] + + + +Sec. 2. Chinese Government based on Education. Civil-Service Examinations. + + +Such are a few of the external differences between the Chinese customs and +ours. But the most essential peculiarity of this nation is the high value +which they attribute to knowledge, and the distinctions and rewards which +they bestow on scholarship. All the civil offices in the Empire are given +as rewards of literary merit. The government, indeed, is called a complete +despotism, and the emperor is said to have absolute authority. He is not +bound by any written constitution, indeed; but the public opinion of the +land holds him, nevertheless, to a strict responsibility. He, no less than +his people, is bound by a law higher than that of any private will,--the +authority of custom. For, in China, more than anywhere else, "what is gray +with age becomes religion." The authority of the emperor is simply +authority to govern according to the ancient usages of the country, and +whenever these are persistently violated, a revolution takes place and the +dynasty is changed. But a revolution in China changes nothing but the +person of the monarch; the unwritten constitution of old usages remains in +full force. "A principle as old as the monarchy," says Du Halde, "is this, +that the state is a large family, and the emperor is in the place of both +father and mother. He must govern his people with affection and goodness; +he must attend to the smallest matters which concern their happiness. When +he is not supposed to have this sentiment, he soon loses his hold on the +reverence of the people, and his throne becomes insecure." The emperor, +therefore, is always studying how to preserve this reputation. When a +province is afflicted by famine, inundation, or any other calamity, he +shuts himself in his palace, fasts, and publishes decrees to relieve it of +taxes and afford it aid. + +The true power of the government is in the literary class. The government, +though nominally a monarchy, is really an aristocracy. But it is not an +aristocracy of birth, like that of England, for the humblest man's son can +obtain a place in it; neither is it an aristocracy of wealth, like ours +in the United States, nor a military aristocracy, like that of Russia, nor +an aristocracy of priests, like that of ancient Egypt, and of some modern +countries,--as, for instance, that of Paraguay under the Jesuits, or that +of the Sandwich Islands under the Protestant missionaries; but it is a +literary aristocracy. + +The civil officers in China are called mandarins. They are chosen from the +three degrees of learned men, who may be called the bachelors, +licentiates, and doctors. All persons may be candidates for the first +degree, except three excluded classes,--boatmen, barbers, and actors. The +candidates are examined by the governors of their own towns. Of those +approved, a few are selected after another examination. These again are +examined by an officer who makes a circuit once in three years for that +purpose. They are placed alone in little rooms or closets, with pencils, +ink, and paper, and a subject is given them to write upon. Out of some +four hundred candidates fifteen may be selected, who receive the lowest +degree. There is another triennial examination for the second degree, at +which a small number of the bachelors are promoted. The examination for +the highest degree, that of doctor, is held at Pekin only, when some three +hundred are taken out of five thousand. These are capable of receiving the +highest offices. Whenever a vacancy occurs, one of those who have received +a degree is taken by lot from the few senior names. But a few years since, +there were five thousand of the highest rank, and twenty-seven thousand of +the second rank, who had not received employment. + +The subjects upon which the candidates are examined, and the methods of +these examinations, are thus described in the Shanghae Almanac (1852).[11] + +The examinations for the degree of Keujin (or licentiate) takes place at +the principal city of each province once in three years. The average +number of bachelors in the large province of Keang-Nan (which contains +seventy millions of inhabitants) is twenty thousand, out of whom only +about two hundred succeed. Sixty-five mandarins are deputed for this +examination, besides subordinate officials. The two chief examiners are +sent from Pekin. When the candidates enter the examination hall they are +searched for books or manuscripts, which might assist them in writing +their essays. This precaution is not superfluous, for many plans have been +invented to enable mediocre people to pass. Sometimes a thin book, printed +on very small type from copperplates, is slipped into a hole in the sole +of the shoe. But persons detected in such practices are ruined for life. +In a list of one hundred and forty-four successful candidates, in 1851, +thirteen were over forty years of age, and one under fourteen years; seven +were under twenty; and all, to succeed, must have known by heart the whole +of the Sacred Books, besides being well read in history. + +Three sets of themes are given, each occupying two days and a night, and +until that time is expired no one is allowed to leave his apartment, which +is scarcely large enough to sleep in. The essays must not contain more +than seven hundred characters, and no erasure or correction is allowed. On +the first days the themes are taken from the Four Books; on the next, from +the older classics; on the last, miscellaneous questions are given. The +themes are such as these: "Choo-tsze, in commenting on the Shoo-King, made +use of four authors, who sometimes say too much, at other times too +little; sometimes their explanations are forced, at other times too +ornamental. What have you to observe on them?" "Chinshow had great +abilities for historic writing. In his Three Kingdoms he has depreciated +Choo-ko-leang, and made very light of E and E, two other celebrated +characters. What is it that he says of them?" + +These public-service examinations are conducted with the greatest +impartiality. They were established about a thousand years ago, and have +been gradually improved during the intervening time. They form the basis +of the whole system of Chinese government. They make a good education +universally desirable, as the poorest man may see his son thus advanced to +the highest position. All of the hundreds of thousands who prepare to +compete are obliged to know the whole system of Confucius, to commit to +memory all his moral doctrines, and to become familiar with all the +traditional wisdom of the land. Thus a public opinion in favor of existing +institutions and the fundamental ideas of Chinese government is +continually created anew. + +What an immense advantage it would be to our own country if we should +adopt this institution of China! Instead of making offices the prize of +impudence, political management, and party services, let them be competed +for by all who consider themselves qualified. Let all offices now given by +appointment be hereafter bestowed on those who show themselves best +qualified to perform the duties. Each class of offices would of course +require a different kind of examination. For some, physical culture as +well as mental might be required. Persons who wished diplomatic situations +should be prepared in a knowledge of foreign languages as well as of +international law. All should be examined on the Constitution and history +of the United States. Candidates for the Post-Office Department should be +good copyists, quick at arithmetic, and acquainted with book-keeping. It +is true that we cannot by an examination obtain a certain knowledge of +moral qualities; but industry, accuracy, fidelity in work would certainly +show themselves. A change from the present corrupt and corrupting system +of appointments to that of competitive examinations would do more just now +for our country than any other measure of reconstruction which can be +proposed. The permanence of Chinese institutions is believed, by those who +know best, to result from the influence of the literary class. Literature +is naturally conservative; the tone of the literature studied is eminently +conservative; and the most intelligent men in the empire are personally +interested in the continuance of the institutions under which they hope to +attain position and fortune. + +The highest civil offices are seats at the great tribunals or boards, and +the positions of viceroys, or governors, of the eighteen provinces. + +The boards are:-- + + Ly Pou, Board of Appointment of Mandarins. + Hou Pou, Board of Finance. + Lee Pou, Board of Ceremonies. + Ping Pou, Board of War. + Hing Pou, Board of Criminal Justice. + Kong Pou, Board of Works,--canals, bridges, &c. + +The members of these boards, with their councillors and subordinates, +amount to twelve hundred officers. Then there is the Board of Doctors of +the Han Lin College, who have charge of the archives, history of the +empire, &c.; and the Board of Censors, who are the highest mandarins, and +have a peculiar office. Their duty is to stand between the people and the +mandarins, and between the people and the emperor, and even rebuke the +latter if they find him doing wrong. This is rather a perilous duty, but +it is often faithfully performed. A censor, who went to tell the emperor +of some faults, took his coffin with him, and left it at the door of the +palace. Two censors remonstrated with a late emperor on the expenses of +his palace, specifying the sums uselessly lavished for perfumes and +flowers for his concubines, and stating that a million of taels of silver +might be saved for the poor by reducing these expenses. Sung, the +commissioner who attended Lord Macartney, remonstrated with the Emperor +Kiaking on his attachment to play-actors and strong drink, which degraded +him in the eyes of the people. The emperor, highly irritated, asked him +what punishment he deserved for his insolence. "Quartering," said Sung. +"Choose another," said the emperor. "Let me be beheaded." "Choose again," +said the emperor; and Sung asked to be strangled. The next day the emperor +appointed him governor of a distant province,--afraid to punish him for +the faithful discharge of his duty, but glad to have him at a distance. +Many such anecdotes are related, showing that there is some moral courage +in China. + +The governor of a province, or viceroy, has great power. He also is chosen +from among the mandarins in the way described. The only limitations of his +power are these: he is bound to make a full report every three years of +the affairs of the province, _and give in it an account of his own +faults,_ and if he omits any, and they are discovered in other ways, he is +punished by degradation, bambooing, or death. It is the right of any +subject, however humble, to complain to the emperor himself against any +officer, however high; and for this purpose a large drum is placed at one +of the palace gates. Whoever strikes it has his case examined under the +emperor's eye, and if he has been wronged, his wrongs are redressed, but +if he has complained unnecessarily, he is severely punished. Imperial +visitors, sent by the Board of Censors, may suddenly arrive at any time to +examine the concerns of a province; and a governor or other public officer +who is caught tripping is immediately reported and punished. + +Thus the political institutions of China are built on literature. +Knowledge is the road to power and wealth. All the talent and knowledge of +the nation are interested in the support of institutions which give to +them either power or the hope of it. And these institutions work well. The +machinery is simple, but it produces a vast amount of happiness and +domestic virtue. While in most parts of Asia the people are oppressed by +petty tyrants, and ground down by taxes,--while they have no motive to +improve their condition, since every advance will only expose them to +greater extortion,--the people of China are industrious and happy. In no +part of the world has agriculture been carried to such perfection. Every +piece of ground in the cultivated parts of the empire, except those +portions devoted to ancestral monuments, is made to yield two or three +crops annually, by the careful tillage bestowed on it. The ceremony of +opening the soil at the beginning of the year, at which the emperor +officiates, originated two thousand years ago. Farms are small,--of one or +two acres,--and each family raises on its farm all that it consumes. Silk +and cotton are cultivated and manufactured in families, each man spinning, +weaving, and dyeing his own web. In the manufacture of porcelain, on the +contrary, the division of labor is carried very far. The best is made at +the village of Kiangsee, which contains a million of inhabitants. Seventy +hands are sometimes employed on a single cup. The Chinese are very +skilful in working horn and ivory. Large lanterns are made of horn, +transparent and without a flaw. At Birmingham men have tried with machines +to cut ivory in the same manner as the Chinese, and have failed. + + + +Sec. 3. Life and Character of Confucius. + + +Of this nation the great teacher for twenty-three centuries has been +Confucius. He was born 551 B.C., and was contemporary with the Tarquins, +Pythagoras, and Cyrus. About his time occurred the return of the Jews from +Babylon and the invasion of Greece by Xerxes. His descendants have always +enjoyed high privileges, and there are now some forty thousand of them in +China, seventy generations and more removed from their great ancestor. His +is the oldest family in the world, unless we consider the Jews as a single +family descended from Abraham. His influence, through his writings, on the +minds of so many millions of human beings is greater than that of any man +who ever lived, excepting the writers of the Bible; and in saying this we +do not forget the names of Mohammed, Aristotle, St. Augustine, and Luther. +So far as we can see, it is the influence of Confucius which has +maintained, though probably not originated, in China, that profound +reverence for parents, that strong family affection, that love of order, +that regard for knowledge and deference for literary men, which are +fundamental principles underlying all the Chinese institutions. His minute +and practical system of morals, studied as it is by all the learned, and +constituting the sum of knowledge and the principle of government in +China, has exerted and exerts an influence on that innumerable people +which it is impossible to estimate, but which makes us admire the power +which can emanate from a single soul. + +To exert such an influence requires greatness. If the tree is to be known +by its fruits, Confucius must have been one of the master minds of our +race. The supposition that a man of low morals or small intellect, an +impostor or an enthusiast, could influence the world, is a theory which +is an insult to human nature. The time for such theories has happily gone +by. We now know that nothing can come of nothing,--that a fire of straw +may make a bright blaze, but must necessarily soon go out. A light which +illuminates centuries must be more than an ignis fatuus. Accordingly we +should approach Confucius with respect, and expect to find something good +and wise in his writings. It is only a loving spirit which will enable us +to penetrate the difficulties which surround the study, and to apprehend +something of the true genius of the man and his teachings. As there is no +immediate danger of becoming his followers, we can see no objections to +such a course, which also appears to be a species of mental hospitality, +eminently in accordance with the spirit of our own Master. + +Confucius belongs to that small company of select ones whose lives have +been devoted to the moral elevation of their fellow-men. Among them he +stands high, for he sought to implant the purest principles of religion +and morals in the character of the whole people, and succeeded in doing +it. To show that this was his purpose it will be necessary to give a brief +sketch of his life. + +His ancestors were eminent statesmen and soldiers in the small country of +Loo, then an independent kingdom, now a Chinese province. The year of his +birth was that in which Cyrus became king of Persia. His father, one of +the highest officers of the kingdom, and a brave soldier, died when +Confucius was three years old. He was a studious boy, and when fifteen +years old had studied the five sacred books called Kings. He was married +at the age of nineteen, and had only one son by his only wife. This son +died before Confucius, leaving as his posterity a single grandchild, from +whom the great multitudes of his descendants now in China were derived. +This grandson was second only to Confucius in wisdom, and was the teacher +of the illustrious Mencius. + +The first part of the life of Confucius was spent in attempting to reform +the abuses of society by means of the official stations which he held, by +his influence with princes, and by travelling and intercourse with men. +The second period was that in which he was recalled from his travels to +become a minister in his native country, the kingdom of Loo. Here he +applied his theories of government, and tested their practicability. He +was then fifty years old. His success was soon apparent in the growing +prosperity of the whole people. Instead of the tyranny which before +prevailed, they were now ruled according to his idea of good +government,--that of the father of a family. Confidence was restored to +the public mind, and all good influences followed. But the tree was not +yet deeply enough rooted to resist accidents, and all his wise +arrangements were suddenly overthrown by the caprice of the monarch, who, +tired of the austere virtue of Confucius, suddenly plunged into a career +of dissipation. Confucius resigned his office, and again became a +wanderer, but now with a new motive. He had before travelled to learn, now +he travelled to teach. He collected disciples around him, and, no longer +seeking to gain the ear of princes, he diffused his ideas among the common +people by means of his disciples, whom he sent out everywhere to +communicate his doctrines. So, amid many vicissitudes of outward fortune, +he lived till he was seventy-three years old. In the last years of his +life he occupied himself in publishing his works, and in editing the +Sacred Books. His disciples had become very numerous, historians +estimating them at three thousand, of whom five hundred had attained to +official station, seventy-two had penetrated deeply into his system, and +ten, of the highest class of mind and character, were continually near his +person. Of these Hwuy was especially valued by him, as having early +attained superior virtue. He frequently referred to him in his +conversations. "I saw him continually advance," said he, "but I never saw +him stop in the path of knowledge." Again he says: "The wisest of my +disciples, having one idea, understands two. Hwuy, having one understands +ten." One of the select ten disciples, Tszee-loo, was rash and impetuous +like the Apostle Peter. Another, Tszee-Kung, was loving and tender like +the Apostle John; he built a house near the grave of Confucius, wherein to +mourn for him after his death. + +The last years of the life of Confucius were devoted to editing the +Sacred Books, or Kings. As we now have them they come from him. Authentic +records of Chinese history extend back to 2357 B.C., while the Chinese +philosophy originated with Fuh-he, who lived about 3327 B.C. He it was who +substituted writing for the knotted strings which before formed the only +means of record. He was also the author of the Eight Diagrams,--each +consisting of three lines, half of which are whole and half broken in +two,--which by their various combinations are supposed to represent the +active and passive principles of the universe in all their essential +forms. Confucius edited the Yih-King, the Shoo-King, the She-King, and the +Le-Ke, which constitute the whole of the ancient literature of China which +has come down to posterity.[1] The Four Books, which contain the doctrines +of Confucius, and of his school, were not written by himself, but composed +by others after his death. + +One of these is called the "Immutable Mean," and its object is to show +that virtue consists in avoiding extremes. Another--the Lun-Yu, or +Analects--contains the conversation or table-talk of Confucius, and +somewhat resembles the Memorabilia of Xenophon and Boswell's Life of +Johnson.[12] + +The life of Confucius was thus devoted to communicating to the Chinese +nation a few great moral and religious principles, which he believed would +insure the happiness of the people. His devotion to this aim appears in +his writings. Thus he says:-- + +"At fifteen years I longed for wisdom. At thirty my mind was fixed in the +pursuit of it. At forty I saw clearly certain principles. At fifty I +understood the rule given by heaven. At sixty everything I heard I easily +understood. At seventy the desires of my heart no longer transgressed the +law." + +"If in the morning I hear about the right way, and in the evening I die, I +can be happy." + +He says of himself: "He is a man who through his earnestness in seeking +knowledge forgets his food, and in his joy for having found it loses all +sense of his toil, and thus occupied is unconscious that he has almost +reached old age." + +Again: "Coarse rice for food, water to drink, the bended arm for a +pillow,--happiness may be enjoyed even with these; but without virtue both +riches and honor seem to me like the passing cloud." + +"Grieve not that men know not you; grieve that you know not men." + +"To rule with equity is like the North Star, which is fixed, and all the +rest go round it." + +"The essence of knowledge is, having it, to apply it; not having it, to +confess your ignorance." + +"Worship as though the Deity were present." + +"If my mind is not engaged in my worship, it is as though I worshipped +not." + +"Formerly, in hearing men, I heard their words, and gave them credit for +their conduct; now I hear their words, and observe their conduct." + +"A man's life depends on virtue; if a bad man lives, it is only by good +fortune." + +"Some proceed blindly to action, without knowledge; I hear much, and +select the best course." + +He was once found fault with, when in office, for not opposing the +marriage of a ruler with a distant relation, which was an offence against +Chinese propriety. He said: "I am a happy man; if I have a fault, men +observe it." + +Confucius was humble. He said: "I cannot bear to hear myself called equal +to the sages and the good. All that can be said of me is, that I study +with delight the conduct of the sages, and instruct men without weariness +therein." + +"The good man is serene," said he, "the bad always in fear." + +"A good man regards the ROOT; he fixes the root, and all else flows out of +it. The root is filial piety; the fruit brotherly love." + +"There may be fair words and an humble countenance when there is little +real virtue." + +"I daily examine myself in a threefold manner: in my transactions with +men, if I am upright; in my intercourse with friends, if I am faithful; +and whether I illustrate the teachings of my master in my conduct." + +"Faithfulness and sincerity are the highest things." + +"When you transgress, do not fear to return." + +"Learn the past and you will know the future." + +The great principles which he taught were chiefly based on family +affection and duty. He taught kings that they were to treat their +subjects as children, subjects to respect the kings as parents; and these +ideas so penetrated the national mind, that emperors are obliged to seem +to govern thus, even if they do not desire it. Confucius was a teacher of +reverence,--reverence for God, respect for parents, respect and reverence +for the past and its legacies, for the great men and great ideas of former +times. He taught men also to regard each other as brethren, and even the +golden rule, in its negative if not its positive form, is to be found in +his writings. + +Curiously enough, this teacher of reverence was distinguished by a +remarkable lump on the top of his head, where the phrenologists have +placed the organ of veneration.[13] Rooted in his organization, and +strengthened by all his convictions, this element of adoration seemed to +him the crown of the whole moral nature of man. But, while full of +veneration, he seems to have been deficient in the sense of spiritual +things. A personal God was unknown to him; so that his worship was +directed, not to God, but to antiquity, to ancestors, to propriety and +usage, to the state as father and mother of its subjects, to the ruler as +in the place of authority. Perfectly sincere, deeply and absolutely +assured of all that he knew, he said nothing he did not believe. His power +came not only from the depth and clearness of his convictions, but from +the absolute honesty of his soul. + +Lao-tse, for twenty-eight years his contemporary, founder of one of the +three existing religions of China,--Tao-ism,--was a man of perhaps equal +intelligence. But he was chiefly a thinker; he made no attempt to elevate +the people; his purpose was to repress the passions, and to preserve the +soul in a perfect equanimity. He was the Zeno of the East, founder of a +Chinese stoicism. With him virtue is sure of its reward; everything is +arranged by a fixed law. His disciples afterwards added to his system a +thaumaturgic element and an invocation of departed spirits, so that now it +resembles our modern Spiritism; but the original doctrine of Lao-tse was +rationalism in philosophy and stoicism in morals. Confucius is said, in a +Chinese work, to have visited him, and to have frankly confessed his +inability to understand him. "I know how birds fly, how fishes swim, how +animals run. The bird may be shot, the fish hooked, and the beast snared. +But there is the dragon. I cannot tell how he mounts in the air, and soars +to heaven. To-day I have seen the dragon." + +But the modest man, who lived for others, has far surpassed in his +influence this dragon of intelligence. It certainly increases our hope for +man, when we see how these qualities of perfect honesty, good sense, +generous devotion to the public good, and fidelity to the last in +adherence to his work, have made Confucius during twenty-three centuries +the daily teacher and guide of a third of the human race. + +Confucius was eminently distinguished by energy and persistency. He did +not stop working till he died. His life was of one piece, beautiful, +noble. "The general of a large army," said he, "may be defeated, but you +cannot defeat the determined mind of a peasant." He acted conformably to +this thought, and to another of his sayings. "If I am building a mountain, +and stop before the last basketful of earth is placed on the summit, I +have failed of my work. But if I have placed but one basketful on the +plain, and go on, I am really building a mountain." + +Many beautiful and noble things are related concerning the character of +Confucius,--of his courage in the midst of danger, of his humility in the +highest position of honor. His writings and life have given the law to +Chinese thought. He is the patron saint of that great empire. His doctrine +is the state religion of the nation, sustained by the whole power of the +emperor and the literary body. His books are published every year by +societies formed for that purpose, who distribute them gratuitously. His +descendants enjoy the highest consideration. The number of temples erected +to his memory is sixteen hundred and sixty. One of them occupies ten acres +of land. On the two festivals in the year sacred to his memory there are +sacrificed some seventy thousand animals of different kinds, and +twenty-seven thousand pieces of silk are burned on his altars. Yet his is +a religion without priests, liturgy, or public worship, except on these +two occasions. + + + +Sec. 4. Philosophy and subsequent Development of Confucianism. + + +According to Mr. Meadows, the philosophy of China, in its origin and +present aspect, may be thus briefly described.[14] Setting aside the +Buddhist system and that of Tao-ism, which supply to the Chinese the +element of religious worship and the doctrine of a supernatural world, +wanting in the system of Confucius, we find the latter as the established +religion of the state, merely tolerating the others as suited to persons +of weak minds. The Confucian system, constantly taught by the competitive +examinations, rules the thought of China. Its first development was from +the birth of Confucius to the death of Mencias (or from 551 B.C. to 313 +B.C.). Its second period was from the time of Chow-tsze (A.D. 1034) to +that of Choo-tsze (A.D. 1200). The last of these is the real fashioner of +Chinese philosophy, and one of the truly great men of the human race. His +works are chiefly Commentaries on the Kings and the Four Books. They are +committed to memory by millions of Chinese who aspire to pass the +public-service examinations. The Chinese philosophy, thus established by +Choo-tsze, is as follows.[15] + +There is one highest, ultimate principle of all existence,--the Tae-keih, +or Grand Extreme. This is absolutely immaterial, and the basis of the +order of the universe. From this ultimate principle, operating from all +eternity, come all animate and inanimate nature. It operates in a twofold +way, by expansion and contraction, or by ceaseless active and passive +pulsations. The active expansive pulsation is called Yang, the passive +intensive pulsation is Yin, and the two may be called the Positive and +Negative Essences of all things. When the active expansive phase of the +process has reached its extreme limit, the operation becomes passive and +intensive; and from these vibrations originate all material and mortal +existences. Creation is therefore a perpetual process,--matter and spirit +are opposite results of the same force. The one tends to variety, the +other to unity; and variety in unity is a permanent and universal law of +being. Man results from the utmost development of this pulsatory action +and passion; and man's nature, as the highest result, is perfectly good, +consisting of five elements, namely, charity, righteousness, propriety, +wisdom, and sincerity. These constitute the inmost, essential nature of +man; but as man comes in contact with the outward world evil arises by the +conflict. When man follows the dictates of his nature his actions are +good, and harmony results. When he is unduly influenced by the outward +world his actions are evil, and discord intervenes. The holy man is one +who has an instinctive, inward sight of the ultimate principle in its +twofold operation (or what we should call the sight of God, the beatific +vision), and who therefore spontaneously and easily obeys his nature. +Hence all his thoughts are perfectly wise, his actions perfectly good, and +his words perfectly true. Confucius was the last of these holy men. The +infallible authority of the Sacred Books results from the fact that their +writers, being holy men, had an instinctive perception of the working of +the ultimate principle. + +All Confucian philosophy is pervaded by these principles: first, that +example is omnipotent; secondly, that to secure the safety of the empire, +you must secure the happiness of the people; thirdly, that by solitary +persistent thought one may penetrate at last to a knowledge of the essence +of things; fourthly, that the object of all government is to make the +people virtuous and contented. + + + +Sec. 5. Lao-tse and Tao-ism. + + +One of the three religious systems of China is that of the Tao, the other +two being that of Confucius, and that of Buddhism in its Chinese form. The +difficulty in understanding Tao-ism comes from its appearing under three +entirely distinct forms: (1) as a philosophy of the absolute or +unconditioned, in the great work of the Tse-Lao, or old teacher;[16] (2) +as a system of morality of the utilitarian school,[17] which resolves duty +into prudence; and (3) as a system of magic, connected with the belief in +spirits. In the Tao-te-king we have the ideas of Lao himself, which we +will endeavor to state; premising that they are considered very obscure +and difficult even by the Chinese commentators. + +The TAO (Sec. 1) is the unnamable, and is the origin of heaven and earth. As +that which can be named, it is the mother of all things. These two are +essentially one. Being and not-being are born from each other (Sec. 2). The +Tao is empty but inexhaustible (Sec. 4), is pure, is profound, and was before +the Gods. It is invisible, not the object of perception, it returns into +not-being (Sec.Sec. 14, 40). It is vague, confused, and obscure (Sec. 25, 21). It +is little and strong, universally present, and all beings return into it +(Sec. 32). It is without desires, great (Sec. 34). All things are born of being, +being is born of not-being (Sec. 40). + +From these and similar statements it would appear that the philosophy of +the Tao-te-king is that of absolute being, or the identity of being and +not-being. In this point it anticipated Hegel by twenty-three +centuries.[18] It teaches that the absolute is the source of being and of +not-being. Being is essence, not-being is existence. The first is the +noumenal, the last the phenomenal.' + +As being is the source of not-being (Sec. 40), by identifying one's self with +being one attains to all that is not-being, i.e. to all that exists. +Instead, therefore, of aiming at acquiring knowledge, the wise man avoids +it: instead of acting, he refuses to act. He "feeds his mind with a wise +passiveness." (Sec. 16.) "_Not to act_ is the source of all power," is a +thesis continually present to the mind of Lao (Sec.Sec. 3, 23, 38,43,48, 63). +The wise man is like water (Sec.Sec. 8, 78), which seems weak and is strong; +which yields, seeks the lowest place, which seems the softest thing and +breaks the hardest thing. To be wise one must renounce wisdom, to be good +one must renounce justice and humanity, to be learned one must renounce +knowledge (Sec.Sec. 19, 20, 45), and must have no desires (Sec.Sec. 8, 22), must +detach one's self from all things (Sec. 20) and be like a new-born babe. From +everything proceeds its opposite, the easy from the difficult, the +difficult from the easy, the long from the short, the high from the low, +ignorance from knowledge, knowledge from ignorance, the first from the +last, the last from the first. These antagonisms are mutually related by +the hidden principle of the Tao (Sec.Sec. 2, 27). Nothing is independent or +capable of existing save through its opposite. The good man and bad man +are equally necessary to each other (Sec. 27). To desire aright is not to +desire (Sec. 64). The saint can do great things because he does not attempt +to do them (Sec. 63). The unwarlike man conquers.[19] He who submits to +others controls them. By this negation of all things we come into +possession of all things (Sec. 68). _Not to act_ is, therefore, the secret of +all power (Sec.Sec. 3, 23, 38, 43, 48, 63). + +We find here the same doctrine of opposites which appears in the Phaedo, +and which has come up again and again in philosophy. We shall find +something like it in the Sankhya-karika of the Hindoos. The Duad, with the +Monad brooding behind it, is the fundamental principle of the Avesta. + +The result, thus far, is to an active passivity. Lao teaches that not to +act involves the highest energy of being, and leads to the greatest +results. By not acting one identifies himself with the Tao, and receives +all its power. And here we cannot doubt that the Chinese philosopher was +pursuing the same course with Sakya-Muni. The Tao of the one is the +Nirvana of the other. The different motive in each mind constitutes the +difference of their career. Sakya-Muni sought Nirvana, or the absolute, +the pure knowledge, in order to escape from evil and to conquer it. Lao +sought it, as his book shows, to attain power. At this point the two +systems diverge. Buddhism is generous, benevolent, humane; it seeks to +help others. Tao-ism seeks its own. Hence the selfish morality which +pervades the Book of Rewards and Punishments. Every good action has its +reward attached to it. Hence also the degradation of the system into pure +magic and spiritism. Buddhism, though its course runs so nearly parallel, +always retains in its scheme of merits a touch of generosity. + +We find thus, in the Tao-te-king, the element afterwards expanded into the +system of utilitarian and eudaemonic ethics in the Book of Rewards and +Punishments. We also can trace in it the source of the magical tendency in +Tao-ism. The principle, that by putting one's self into an entirely +passive condition one can enter into communion with the unnamed Tao, and +so acquire power over nature, naturally tends to magic. Precisely the same +course of thought led to similar results in the case of Neo-Platonism. The +ecstatic union with the divine element in all nature, which Plotinus +attained four times in his life, resulted from an immediate sight of God. +In this sight is all truth given to the soul. The unity, says Plotinus, +which produces all things, is an essence behind both substance and form. +Through this essential being all souls commune and interact, and magic is +this interaction of soul upon soul through the soul of souls, with which +one becomes identified in the ecstatic union. A man therefore can act on +demons and control spirits by theurgic rites. Julian, that ardent +Neo-Platonician, was surrounded by diviners, hierophants, and +aruspices.[20] + +In the Tao-te-king (Sec.Sec. 50, 55, 56, etc.) it is said that he who knows the +Tao need not fear the bite of serpents nor the jaws of wild beasts, nor +the claws of birds of prey. He is inaccessible to good and to evil. He +need fear neither rhinoceros nor tiger. In battle he needs neither cuirass +nor sword. The tiger cannot tear him, the soldier cannot wound him. He is +invulnerable and safe from death.[21] + +If Neo-Platonism had not had for its antagonist the vital force of +Christianity, it might have established itself as a permanent form of +religion in the Roman Empire, as Tao-ism has in China. I have tried to +show how the later form of this Chinese system has come naturally from its +principles, and how a philosophy of the absolute may have degenerated into +a system of necromancy. + + + +Sec. 6. Religious Character of the "Kings." + + +We have seen that, in the philosophy of the Confucians, the ultimate +principle is not necessarily identical with a living, intelligent, and +personal God. Nor did Confucius, when he speaks of Teen, or Heaven, +express any faith in such a being. He neither asserted nor denied a +Supreme God. His worship and prayer did not necessarily imply such a +faith. It was the prayer of reverence addressed to some sacred, +mysterious, unknown power, above and behind all visible things. What that +power was, he, with his supreme candor, did not venture to intimate. But +in the She-King a personal God is addressed. The oldest books recognize a +Divine person. They teach that there is one Supreme Being, who is +omnipresent, who sees all things, and has an intelligence which nothing +can escape,--that he wishes men to live together in peace and brotherhood. +He commands not only right actions, but pure desires and thoughts, that we +should watch all our behavior, and maintain a grave and majestic demeanor, +"which is like a palace in which virtue resides"; but especially that we +should guard the tongue. "For a blemish may be taken out of a diamond by +carefully polishing it; but, if your words have the least blemish, there +is no way to efface that." "Humility is the solid foundation of all the +virtues." "To acknowledge one's incapacity is the way to be soon prepared +to teach others; for from the moment that a man is no longer full of +himself, nor puffed up with empty pride, whatever good he learns in the +morning he practices before night." "Heaven penetrates to the bottom of +our hearts, like light into a dark chamber. We must conform ourselves to +it, till we are like two instruments of music tamed to the same pitch. We +must join ourselves with it, like two tablets which appear but one. We +must receive its gifts the very moment its hand is open to bestow. Our +irregular passions shut up the door of our souls against God." + +Such are the teachings of these Kings, which are unquestionably among the +oldest existing productions of the human mind. In the days of Confucius +they seem to have been nearly forgotten, and their precepts wholly +neglected. Confucius revised them, added his own explanations and +comments, and, as one of the last acts of his life, called his disciples +around him and made a solemn dedication of these books to Heaven. He +erected an altar on which he placed them, adored God, and returned thanks +upon his knees in a humble manner for having had life and health granted +him to finish this undertaking. + + + +Sec. 7. Confucius and Christianity. Character of the Chinese. + + +It were easy to find defects in the doctrine of Confucius. It has little +to teach of God or immortality. But if the law of Moses, which taught +nothing of a future life, was a preparation for Christianity; if, as the +early Christian Fathers asserted, Greek philosophy was also schoolmaster +to bring men to Christ; who can doubt that the truth and purity in the +teachings of Confucius were providentially intended to lead this great +nation in the right direction? Confucius is a Star in the East, to lead +his people to Christ. One of the most authentic of his sayings is this, +that "in the West the true Saint must be looked for and found." He has a +perception, such as truly great men have often had, of some one higher +than himself, who was to come after him. We cannot doubt, therefore, that +God, who forgets none of his children, has given this teacher to the +swarming millions of China to lead them on till they are ready for a +higher light. And certainly the temporal prosperity and external virtues +of this nation, and their long-continued stability amid the universal +changes of the world, are owing in no small decree to the lessons of +reverence for the past, of respect for knowledge, of peace and order, and +especially of filial piety, which he inculcated. In their case, if in no +other, has been fulfilled the promise of the divine commandment, "Honor +thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the +Lord thy God giveth thee." + +In comparing the system of Confucius with Christianity, it appears at once +that Christianity differs from this system, as from most others, in its +greater completeness. Jesus says to the Chinese philosopher, as he said to +the Jewish law, "I have not come to destroy, but to fulfil." He fulfils +the Confucian reverence for the past by adding hope for the future; he +fulfils its stability by progress, its faith in man with faith in God, its +interest in this world with the expectation of another, its sense of time +with that of eternity. Confucius aims at peace, order, outward prosperity, +virtue, and good morals. All this belongs also to Christianity, but +Christianity adds a moral enthusiasm, a faith in the spiritual world, a +hope of immortal life, a sense of the Fatherly presence of God. So that +here, as before, we find that Christianity does not exclude other +religions, but includes them, and is distinguished by being deeper, +higher, broader, and more far-reaching than they. + +A people with such institutions and such a social life as we have +described cannot be despised, and to call them uncivilized is as absurd in +us as it is in them to call Europeans barbarians. They are a good, +intelligent, and happy people. Lieutenant Forbes, who spent five years in +China,--from 1842 to 1847,--says: "I found myself in the midst of as +amiable, kind, and hospitable a population as any on the face of the +earth, as far ahead of us in some things as behind us in others." As to +the charge of dishonesty brought against them by those who judge the whole +nation by the degraded population of the suburbs of Canton, Forbes says, +"My own property suffered more in landing in England and passing the +British frontier than in my whole sojourn in China." + +"There is no nation," says the Jesuit Du Halde, "more laborious and +temperate than this. They are inured to hardships from their infancy, +which greatly contributes to preserve the innocence of their manners.... +They are of a mild, tractable, and humane disposition." He thinks them +exceedingly modest, and regards the love of gain as their chief vice. +"Interest," says he, "is the spring of all their actions; for, when the +least profit offers, they despise all difficulties and undertake the most +painful journeys to procure it" This may be true; but if a Chinese +traveller in America should give the same account of us, would it not be +quite as true? One of the latest writers--the author of "The Middle +Kingdom"--accuses the Chinese of gross sensuality, mendacity, and +dishonesty. No doubt these are besetting sins with them, as with all +nations who are educated under a system which makes submission to +authority the chief virtue. But then this writer lived only at Canton and +Macao, and saw personally only the refuse of the people. He admits that +"they have attained, by the observance of peace and good order, to a high +security of life and property; that the various classes are linked +together in a remarkably homogeneous manner by the diffusion of education; +and that property and industry receive their just reward of food, raiment, +and shelter." He also reminds us that the religion of China differs from +all Pagan religions in this, that it encourages neither cruelty nor +sensuality. No human victims have ever been offered on its altars, and +those licentious rites which have appeared in so many religions have never +disgraced its pure worship. + +The Chinese citizen enjoys a degree of order, peace, and comfort unknown +elsewhere in Asia. "He can hold and sell landed property with a facility, +certainty, and security which is absolute perfection compared with the +nature of English dealings of the same kind."[22] He can traverse the +country for two thousand miles unquestioned by any official. He can +follow what occupation he pleases. He can quit his country and re-enter it +without a passport. The law of primogeniture does not exist. The emperor +appoints his heir, but a younger son quite as often as an elder one. The +principle that no man is entitled by birth to rule over them is better +known to the three hundred and sixty millions of China than to the +twenty-seven millions of Great Britain that they have a right to a trial +by their peers.[23] The principle of Chinese government is to persuade +rather than to compel, to use moral means rather than physical. This rests +on the fundamental belief in human goodness. For, as Mr. Meadows justly +observes: "The theory that man's nature is radically vicious is the true +psychical basis of despotic or physical-force government; while the theory +that man's nature is radically good is the basis of free or moral-force +government." The Chinese government endeavors to be paternal. It has +refused to lay a tax on opium, because that would countenance the sale of +it, though it might derive a large income from such a tax. The sacred +literature of the Chinese is perfectly free from everything impure or +offensive. There is not a line but might be read aloud in any family +circle in England. All immoral ceremonies in idol worship are forbidden. +M. Hue says that the birth of a daughter is counted a disaster in China; +but well-informed travellers tell us that fathers go about with little +daughters on their arms, as proud and pleased as a European father could +be. Slavery and concubinage exist in China, and the husband has absolute +power over his wife, even of life and death. These customs tend to +demoralize the Chinese, and are a source of great evil. Woman is the slave +of man. The exception to this is in the case of a mother. She is absolute +in her household, and mothers, in China, command universal reverence. If +an officer asks leave of absence to visit his mother it must be granted +him. A mother may order an official to take her son to prison, and she +must be obeyed. As a wife without children woman is a slave, but as a +mother with grownup sons she is a monarch. + + + +Sec. 8. The Tae-ping Insurrection. + + +Two extraordinary events have occurred in our day in China, the results of +which may be of the utmost importance to the nation and to mankind. The +one is the Tae-ping insurrection, the other the diplomatic mission of Mr. +Burlingame to the Western world. Whatever may be the immediate issue of +the great insurrection of our day against the Tartar dynasty, it will +remain a phenomenon of the utmost significance. There is no doubt, +notwithstanding the general opinion to the contrary, that it has been a +religious movement, proceeding from a single mind deeply moved by the +reading of the Bible. The hostility of the Chinese to the present Mantchoo +Tartar monarchs no doubt aided it; but there has been in it an element of +power from the beginning, derived, like that of the Puritans, from its +religious enthusiasm. Its leader, the Heavenly Prince, Hung-sew-tseuen, +son of a poor peasant living thirty miles northeast of Canton, received a +tract, containing extracts from the Chinese Bible of Dr. Morison, from a +Chinese tract distributor in the streets of Canton. This was in 1833, when +he was about twenty years of age. He took the book home, looked over it +carelessly, and threw it aside. Disappointed of his degree at two +competitive examinations, he fell sick, and saw a vision of an old man, +saying: "I am the Creator of all things. Go and do my work." After this +vision six years passed by, when the English war broke out, and the +English fleet took the Chinese forts in the river of Canton. Such a great +national calamity indicated, according to Chinese ideas, something rotten +in the government; and such success on the part of the English showed +that, in some way, they were fulfilling the will of Heaven. This led +Hung-sew-tseuen to peruse again his Christian books; and alone, with no +guide, he became a sincere believer in Christ, after a fashion of his own. +God was the Creator of all things, and the Supreme Father. Jesus was the +Elder Brother and heavenly Teacher of mankind. Idolatry was to be +overthrown, virtue to be practised. Hung-sew-tseuen believed that the +Bible confirmed his former visions. He accepted his mission and began to +make converts All his converts renounced idolatry, and gave up the worship +of Confucius. They travelled to and fro teaching, and formed a society of +"God-worshippers." The first convert, Fung-yun-san, became its most ardent +missionary and its disinterested preacher. Hung-sew-tseuen returned home, +went to Canton, and there met Mr. Roberts, an American missionary, who was +induced by false charges to refuse him Christian baptism. But he, without +being offended with Mr. Roberts, went home and taught his converts how to +baptize themselves. The society of "God-worshippers" increased in number. +Some of them were arrested for destroying idols, and among them +Fung-yun-san, who, however, on his way to prison, converted the policemen +by his side. These new converts set him at liberty and went away with him +as his disciples. Various striking phenomena occurred in this society. Men +fell into a state of ecstasy and delivered exhortations. Sick persons were +cured by the power of prayer. The teachings of these ecstatics were tested +by Scripture; if found to agree therewith, they were accepted; if not, +rejected. + +It was in October, 1850, that this religious movement assumed a political +form. A large body of persons, in a state of chronic rebellion against the +Chinese authorities, had fled into the district, and joined the +"God-worshippers." Pursued by the imperial soldiers, they were protected +against them. Hence war began. The leaders of the religious movement found +themselves compelled to choose between submission and resistance. They +resisted, and the great insurrection began. But in China an insurrection +against the dynasty is in the natural order of things. Indeed, it may be +said to be a part of the constitution. By the Sacred Books, taught in all +the schools and made a part of the examination papers, it is the duty of +the people to overthrow any bad government. The Chinese have no power to +legislate, do not tax themselves, and the government is a pure autocracy. +But it is not a despotism; for old usages make a constitution, which the +government must respect or be overthrown. "The right to rebel," says Mr. +Meadows, "is in China a chief element of national stability." The +Tae-ping (or Universal-Peace) Insurrection has shown its religious +character throughout. It has not been cruel, except in retaliation. At the +taking of Nan-king orders were given to put all the women together and +protect them, and any one doing them an injury was punished with death. +Before the attack on Nan-king a large body of the insurgents knelt down +and prayed, and then rose and fought, like the soldiers of Cromwell. The +aid of a large body of rebels was refused, because they did not renounce +idolatry, and continued to allow the use of opium. Hymns of praise to the +Heavenly Father and Elder Brother were chanted in the camp. And the head +of the insurrection distinctly announced that, in case it succeeded, the +Bible would be substituted in all public examinations for office in the +place of Confucius. This would cause the Bible to be at once studied by +all candidates for office among three hundred and sixty millions of +people. It would constitute the greatest event in the history of +Christianity since the days of Constantino, or at least since the +conversion of the Teutonic races. The rebellion has probably failed; but +great results must follow this immense interest in Christianity in the +heart of China,--an interest awakened by no Christian mission, whether +Catholic or Protestant, but coming down into this great nation like the +rain from heaven. + +In the "History of the Ti-Ping Revolution" (published in London in 1866), +written by an Englishman who held a command among the Ti-Piugs, there is +given a full, interesting, and apparently candid account of the religious +and moral character of this great movement, from which I take the +following particulars:-- + +"I have probably," says this writer,[24] "had a much greater experience +of the Ti-Ping religious practices than any other European, and as a +Protestant Christian I have never yet found occasion to condemn their form +of worship. The most important part of their faith is the Holy Bible,--Old +and New Testaments, entire. These have been printed and circulated +gratuitously by the government through the whole population of the Ti-Ping +jurisdiction." Abstracts of the Bible, put into verse, were circulated and +committed to memory. Their form of worship was assimilated to +Protestantism. The Sabbath was kept religiously on the seventh day. Three +cups of tea were put on the altar on that day as an offering to the +Trinity. They celebrated the communion once a month by partaking of a cup +of grape wine. Every one admitted to their fellowship was baptized, after +an examination and confession of sins. The following was the form +prescribed in the "Book of Religious Precepts of the Ti-Ping +Dynasty":--[25] + +_Forms to be observed when Men wish to forsake their Sins_--"They must +kneel down in God's presence, and ask him to forgive their sins. They may +then take either a basin of water and wash themselves, or go to the river +and bathe themselves; after which they must continue daily to supplicate +Divine favor, and the Holy Spirit's assistance to renew their hearts, +saying grace at every meal, keeping holy the Sabbath day, and obeying all +God's commandments, especially avoiding idolatry. They may then be +accounted the children of God, and their souls will go to Heaven when they +die." + +The prayer offered by the recipient of Baptism was as follows:-- + +"I (A. B.), kneeling down with a true heart, repent of my sins, and pray +the Heavenly Father, the great God, of his abundant mercy, to forgive my +former sins of ignorance in repeatedly breaking the Divine commands, +earnestly beseeching him also to grant me repentance and newness of life, +that my soul may go to Heaven, while I henceforth truly forsake my former +ways, abandoning idolatry and all corrupt practices, in obedience to +God's commands. I also pray that God would give me his Holy Spirit to +change my wicked heart, deliver me from all temptation, and grant me his +favor and protection, bestowing on me food and raiment, and exemption from +calamity, peace in this world and glory in the next, through the mercies +of our Saviour and Elder Brother, Jesus, who redeemed us from sin." + +In every household throughout the Ti-Ping territory the following +translation of the Lord's Prayer was hung up for the use of the children, +printed in large black characters on a white board:-- + +"Supreme Lord, our Heavenly Father, forgive all our sins that we have +committed in ignorance, rebelling against thee. Bless us, brethren and +sisters, thy little children. Give us our daily food and raiment; keep +from us all calamities and afflictions; that in this world we may have +peace and finally ascend to heaven to enjoy everlasting happiness. We pray +thee to bless our brethren and sisters of all nations. We ask these things +for the redeeming merits of our Lord and Saviour, our heavenly brother, +Jesus. We also pray, Heavenly Father, that thy will may be done on earth +as in heaven: for thine are all the kingdoms, glory, and power. Amen." + +The writer says he has frequently watched the Ti-Ping women teaching the +children this prayer; "and often, on entering a house, the children ran up +to me, and pulling me toward the board, began to read the prayer." + +The seventh day was kept very strictly. As soon as midnight sounded on +Friday, all the people throughout; Ti-Pingdom were summoned to worship. +Two other services were held during the day. Each opened with a doxology +to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Then was sung this hymn:-- + + "The true doctrine is different from the doctrine of this world; + It saves men's souls and gives eternal bliss. + The wise receive it instantly with joy; + The foolish, wakened by it, find the way to Heaven. + Our Heavenly Father, of his great mercy, + Did not spare his own Son, but sent him down + To give his life to redeem sinners. + When men know this, and repent, they may go to Heaven." + +The rest of the services consisted in a chapter of the Bible read by the +minister; a creed, repeated by the congregation standing; a prayer, read +by the minister and repeated by the whole congregation kneeling. Then the +prayer was burned, the minister read a sermon, an anthem was chanted to +the long life of the king; then followed the Ten Commandments, music, and +the burning of incense and fire-crackers. No business was allowed on the +Sabbath, and the shops were closed. There was a clergy, chosen by +competitive examination, subject to the approval of the Tien-Wong, or +supreme religious head of the movement. There was a minister placed over +every twenty-five families, and a church, or Heavenly Hall, assigned to +him in some public building. Over every twenty, five parishes there was a +superior, who visited them in turn every Sabbath. Once every month the +whole people were addressed by the chief Wong. + +The writer of this work describes his attendance on morning prayers at +Nan-king, in the Heavenly Hall of the Chung-Wang's household. This took +place at sunrise every morning, the men and women sitting on opposite +sides of the hall. "Oftentimes," says he, "while kneeling in the midst of +an apparently devout congregation, and gazing on the upturned countenances +lightened by the early morning sun, have I wondered why no British +missionary occupied my place, and why Europeans generally preferred +slaughtering the Ti-Pings to accepting them as brothers in Christ. When I +look back," he adds, "on the unchangeable and universal kindness I always +met with among the Ti-Pings, even when their dearest relatives were being +slaughtered by my countrymen, or delivered over to the Manchoos to be +tortured to death, their magnanimous forbearance seems like a dream. Their +kind and friendly feelings were often annoying. To those who have +experienced the ordinary dislike of foreigners by the Chinese, the +surprising friendliness of the Ti-Pings was most remarkable." They +welcomed Europeans as "brethren from across the sea," and claimed them as +fellow-worshippers of "Yesu." + +Though the Ti-Pings did not at once lay aside all heathen customs, and +could not be expected to do so, they took some remarkable steps in the +right direction. Their women were in a much higher position than among the +other Chinese; they abolished the custom of cramping their feet; a married +woman had rights, and could not be divorced at will, or sold, as under the +Manchoos. Large institutions were established for unmarried women. Slavery +was totally abolished, and to sell a human being was made a capital +offence. They utterly prohibited the use of opium; and this was probably +their chief offence in the eyes of the English. Prostitution was punished +by death, and was unknown in their cities. Idolatry was also utterly +abolished. Their treatment of the people under them was merciful; they +protected their prisoners, whom the Imperialists always massacred. The +British troops, instead of preserving neutrality, aided the Imperialists +in putting down the insurrection in such ways as this. The British +cruisers _assumed_ that the Ti-Ping junks were pirates, because they +captured Chinese vessels. The British ship Bittern and another steamer +sank every vessel but two in a rebel fleet, and gave up the crew of one +which they captured to be put to death. This is the description of another +transaction of the same kind, in the harbor of Shi-poo: "The junks were +destroyed, and their crews shot, drowned, and hunted down, until about a +thousand were killed; the Bittern's men aiding the Chinese on shore to +complete the wholesale massacre."[26] + +It is the deliberate opinion of this well-informed English writer that the +Ti-Ping insurrection would have succeeded but for British intervention; +that the Tartar dynasty would have been expelled, the Chinese regained +their autonomy, and Christianity have been established throughout the +Empire. At the end of his book he gives a table of _forty-three_ battles +and massacres in which the British soldiers and navy took part, in which +about four hundred thousand of the Ti-Pings were killed, and he estimates +that more than two millions more died of starvation in 1863 and 1864, in +the famine occasioned by the operations of the allied English, French, and +Chinese troop's, when the Ti-Pings were driven from their territories. In +view of such facts, well may an English writer say: "It is not once or +twice that the policy of the British government has been ruinous to the +best interests of the world. Disregard of international law and of treaty +law in Europe, deeds of piracy and spoliation in Asia, one vast system of +wrong and violence, have everywhere for years marked the dealings of the +British government with the weaker races of the globe."[27] + +Other Englishmen, beside "Lin-Le" and Mr. Meadows, give the same testimony +to the Christian character of this great movement in China. Captain +Fishbourne, describing his visit in H.M.S. Hermes to Nan-king, says: "It +was obvious to the commonest observer that they were practically a +different race." They had the Scriptures, many seemed to him to be +practical Christians, serious and religious, believing in a special +Providence, thinking that their trials were sent to purify them. "They +accuse us of magic," said one. "The only magic we employ is prayer to +God." The man who said this, says Captain Fishbourne, "was a little +shrivelled-up person, but he uttered words of courageous confidence in +God, and could utter the words of a hero. He and others like him have +impressed the minds of their followers with their own courage and +morality." + +The English Bishop of Victoria has constantly given the same testimony. Of +one of the Ti-Ping books Dr. Medhurst says: "There is not a word in it +which a Christian missionary might not adopt and circulate as a tract for +the benefit of the Chinese." + +Dr. Medhurst also describes a scene which took place in Shanghae, where he +was preaching in the chapel of the London Missionary Society, on the folly +of idolatry and the duty of worshipping the one true God. A man arose in +the middle of the congregation and said: "That is true! that is true! the +idols must perish. I am a Ti-Ping; we all worship one God and believe in +Jesus, and we everywhere destroy the idols. Two years ago when we began we +were only three thousand; now we have marched across the Empire, because +God was on our side." He then exhorted the people to abandon idolatry and +to believe in Jesus, and said: "We are happy in our religion, and look on +the day of our death as the happiest moment of life. When any of our +number dies, we do not weep, but congratulate each other because he has +gone to the joy of the heavenly world." + +The mission of Mr. Burlingame indicated a sincere desire on the part of +the sagacious men who then governed China, especially of Prince Kung, to +enter into relations with modern civilization and modern thought. From the +official papers of this mission,[28] it appears that Mr. Burlingame was +authorized "to transact all business with the Treaty Powers in which those +countries and China had a common interest," (communication of Prince Kung, +December 31, 1867). The Chinese government expressly states that this step +is intended as adopting the customs of diplomatic intercourse peculiar to +the West, and that in so doing the Chinese Empire means to conform to the +law of nations, as understood among the European states. It therefore +adopted "Wheaton's International Law" as the text-book and authority to be +used in its Foreign Office, and had it carefully translated into Chinese +for the use of its mandarins. This movement was the result, says Mr. +Burlingame, of the "co-operative policy" adopted by the representatives in +China of the Treaty Powers, in which they agreed to act together on all +important questions, to take no cession of territory, and never to menace +the autonomy of the Empire. They agreed "to leave her perfectly free to +develop herself according to her own form of civilization, not to +interfere with her interior affairs, to make her waters neutral, and her +land safe" (Burlingame's speech at San Francisco). There is no doubt that +if the states known as the "Treaty Powers," namely, the United States, +Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Holland, Italy, North Germany, +Russia, Spain, and Sweden, will loyally abstain from aggression and +interference in China and respect her independence, that this great +Empire will step forth from her seclusion of fifty centuries, and enter +the commonwealth of nations. + +The treaty between the United States and China of July 28, 1868, includes +provisions for the neutrality of the Chinese waters; for freedom of +worship for United States citizens in China, and for the Chinese in the +United States; for allowing voluntary emigration, and prohibiting the +compulsory coolie trade; for freedom to travel in China and the United +States by the citizens of either country; and for freedom to establish and +attend schools in both countries. + +We add to this chapter a Note, containing an interesting account, from +Hue's "Christianity in China," of an inscribed stone, proving that +Christian churches existed in China in the seventh century. These churches +were the result of the efforts of Nestorian missionaries, who were the +Protestant Christians of their age. Their success in China is another +proof that the Christianity which is to be welcomed there must be +presented in an intelligible and rational form. + + * * * * * + +NOTE. + + + The Nestorian Inscription in China.[29] + + + In 1625 some Chinese workmen, engaged in digging a foundation for a + house, outside the walls of the city of Si-ngau-Fou, the capital of the + province of Chen-si, found buried in the earth a large monumental stone + resembling those which the Chinese are in the habit of raising to + preserve to posterity the remembrance of remarkable events and + illustrious men. It was a dark-colored marble tablet, ten feet high and + five broad, and bearing on one side an inscription in ancient Chinese, + and also some other characters quite unknown in China. + + * * * * * + + Several exact tracings from the stone were sent to Europe by the + Jesuits who saw it. The library of their house at Rome had one of the + first, and it attracted numerous visitors; subsequently, another + authentic copy of the dimensions of the tablet was sent to Paris, and + deposited at the library in the Rue Richelieu, where it may still be + seen in the gallery of manuscripts. + + This monument, discovered by chance amidst rubbish in the environs of + an ancient capital of the Chinese Empire, excited a great sensation; + for on examining the stone, and endeavoring to interpret the + inscription, it was with surprise discovered that the Christian + religion had had numerous apostles in China at the beginning of the + seventh century, and that it had for a long time flourished there. The + strange characters proved to be those called _estrangelhos_, which were + in use among the ancient inhabitants of Syria, and will be found in + some Syriac manuscripts of earlier date than the eighth century. + + * * * * * + + _Monument of the great Propagation of the Luminous Doctrine in the + Central Empire, composed by Khing-Tsing, a devout Man of the Temple of + Ta-Thsin._ + + + 1. There has always been only one true Cause, essentially the first, + and without beginning, supremely intelligent and immaterial; + essentially the last, and uniting all perfections. He placed the poles + of the heavens and created all beings; marvellously holy, he is the + source of all perfection. This admirable being, is he not the _Triune_, + the true Lord without beginning, _Oloho_? + + He divided the world by a cross into four parts. After having + decomposed the primordial air, he gave birth to the two elements. + + Chaos was transformed, and then the sun and the moon appeared. He made + the sun and the moon move to produce day and night. He elaborated and + perfected the ten thousand things; but in creating the first man, he + endowed him with perfect interior harmony. He enjoined him to watch + over the sea of his desires. His nature was without vice and without + error; his heart, pure and simple, was originally without disorderly + appetites. + + 2. But Sa-Thang propagated lies, and stained by his malice that which + had been pure and holy. He proclaimed, as a truth, the equality of + greatness, and upset all ideas. This is why three hundred and + sixty-five sects, lending each other a mutual support, formed a long + chain, and wove, so to speak, a net of law. Some put the creature in + the place of the Eternal, others denied the existence of beings, and + destroyed the two principles. Others instituted prayers and sacrifices + to obtain good fortune; others proclaimed their own sanctity to deceive + mankind. The minds of men labored, and were filled with anxiety; + aspirations after the supreme good were trampled down; thus perpetually + floating about they attained to nothing, and all went from bad to + worse. The darkness thickened, men lost their sight, and for a long + time they wandered without being able to find it again. + + 3. Then our Triune God communicated his substance to the very venerable + Mi-chi-ho (Messiah), who, veiling his true majesty, appeared in the + world in the likeness of a man. The celestial spirits manifested their + joy, and a virgin brought forth the saint in Ta-Thsin. The most + splendid constellations announced this happy event; the Persians saw + the splendor, and ran to pay tribute. He fulfilled what was said of old + by the twenty-four saints; he organized, by his precepts, both families + and kingdoms; he instituted the new religion according to the true + notion of the Trinity in Unity; he regulated conscience by the true + faith; he signified to the world the eight commandments, and purged + humanity from its pollutions by opening the door to the three virtues. + He diffused life and extinguished death; he suspended the luminous sun + to destroy the dwelling of darkness, and then the lies of demons passed + away. He directed the bark of mercy towards the palace of light, and + all creatures endowed with intelligence have been succored. After + having consummated this act of power, he rose at midday towards the + Truth. Twenty-seven books have been left. He has enlarged the springs + of mercy, that men might be converted. The baptism by water and by the + Spirit is a law that purifies the soul and beautifies the exterior. The + sign of the cross unites the four quarters of the world, and restores + the harmony that had been destroyed. By striking upon a piece of wood, + we make the voice of charity and mercy resound; by sacrificing towards + the east we indicate the way of life and glory. + + Our ministers allow their beards to grow, to show that they are devoted + to their neighbors. The tonsure that they wear at the top of their + heads indicates that they have renounced worldly desires. In giving + liberty to slaves we become a link between the powerful and weak. We do + not accumulate riches, and we share with the poor that which we + possess. Fasting strengthens the intellectual powers, abstinence and + moderation preserve health. We worship seven times a day, and by our + prayers we aid the living and the dead. On the seventh day we offer + sacrifice, after having purified our hearts and received absolution for + our sins. This religion, so perfect and so excellent, is difficult to + name, but it enlightens darkness by its brilliant precepts. It is + called the Luminous Religion. + + 5. Learning alone without sanctity has no grandeur, sanctity without + learning makes no progress. When learning and sanctity proceed + harmoniously, the universe is adorned and resplendent. + + The Emperor Tai-Tsoung illustrated the Empire. He opened the + revolution, and governed men in holiness. In his time there was a man + of high virtue named Olopen, who came from the kingdom of Ta-Thsin. + Directed by the blue clouds, he bore the Scriptures of the true + doctrine; he observed the rules of the winds, and traversed difficult + and perilous countries + + In the ninth year of Tching-Kouan (636) he arrived at Tehang-ngan. The + Emperor ordered Fang-hi-wen-Ling, first minister of the Empire, to go + with a great train of attendants to the western suburb, to meet the + stranger and bring him to the palace. He had the Holy Scriptures + translated in the Imperial library. The court listened to the doctrine, + meditated on it profoundly, and understood the great unity of truth. A + special edict was promulgated for its publication and diffusion. + + In the twelfth year of Tching-Kouan, in the seventh moon, during the + autumn, the new edict was promulgated in these terms:-- + + The doctrine has no fixed name, the holy has no determinate substance; + it institutes religions suitable to various countries, and carries men + in crowds in its tracks. Olopen, a man of Ta-Thsin, and of a lofty + virtue, bearing Scriptures and images, has come to offer them in the + Supreme Court. After a minute examination of the spirit of this + religion, it has been found to be excellent, mysterious, and pacific. + The contemplation of its radical principle gives birth to perfection + and fixes the will. It is exempt from verbosity; it considers only good + results. It is useful to men, and consequently ought to be published + under the whole extent of the heavens. I, therefore, command the + magistrates to have a Ta-Thsin temple constructed in the quarter named + T-ning of the Imperial city, and twenty-one religious men shall be + installed therein. + + * * * * * + + 10. Sou-Tsoung, the illustrious and brilliant emperor, erected at + Ling-on and other towns, five in all, _luminous_ temples. The primitive + good was thus strengthened, and felicity flourished. Joyous solemnities + were inaugurated, and the Empire entered on a wide course of + prosperity. + + 11. Tai-Tsoung (764), a lettered and a warlike emperor, propagated the + holy revolution. He sought for peace and tranquillity. Every year, at + the hour of the Nativity (Christmas), he burnt celestial perfumes in + remembrance of the divine benefit; he prepared imperial feasts, to + honor the _luminous_ (Christian) multitude. + + * * * * * + + 21. This stone was raised in the second year of Kien-Tchoung of the + great dynasty of Thang (A.D. 781), on the seventh day of the moon of + the great increase. At this time the devout Ning-Chou, lord of the + doctrine, governed the luminous multitude in the Eastern country. + + Such is the translation of the famous inscription found at Si-ngau-Fou, + in 1625. On the left of the monument are to be read the following words + in the Syriac language: "In the days of the Father of Fathers, + Anan-Yeschouah, Patriarch _Catholicos_." To the right can be traced, + "Adam, Priest, and Chor-Episcopus"; and at the base of the inscription: + "In the year of the Greeks one thousand nine hundred and two (A.D. + 781), Mar Yezd-bouzid, Priest and Chor-Episcopus of the Imperial city + of Komdam, son of Millesins, priest of happy memory, of Balkh, a town + of Tokharistan (Turkistan), raised this tablet of stone, on which are + described the benefits of our Saviour, and the preaching of our fathers + in the kingdom of the Chinese. Adam, Deacon, son of Yezd-bouzid, + Chor-Episcopus; Sabar-Jesu, Priest; Gabriel, Priest, Archdeacon, and + Ecclesiarch of Komdam and Sarage." + + * * * * * + + The abridgment of Christian doctrine given in the Syro-Chinese + inscription of Si-ngau-Fou shows us, also, that the propagators of the + faith in Upper Asia in the seventh century professed the Nestorian + errors. + + Through the vague and obscure verbiage which characterizes the Chinese + style, we recognize the mode in which that heresiarch admitted the + union of the Word with man, by indwelling plenitude of grace superior + to that of all the saints. One of the persons of the Trinity + communicated himself to the very illustrious and venerable Messiah, + "veiling his majesty." That is certainly the doctrine of Nestorius; + upon that point the authority of the critics is unanimous. + + History, as we have elsewhere remarked, records the rapid progress of + the Nestorian sects in the interior of Asia, and their being able to + hold their ground, even under the sway of the Mussulmans, by means of + compromises and concessions of every kind. + + Setting out from the banks of the Tigris or the Euphrates, these ardent + and courageous propagators of the Gospel probably proceeded to + Khorassan, and then crossing the Oxus, directed their course toward the + Lake of Lop, and entered the Chinese Empire by the province of Chen-si. + Olopen, and his successors in the Christian mission, whether Syrians or + Persians by birth, certainly belonged to the Nestorian church. + + Voltaire, who did not like to trouble himself with scientific + arguments, and who was much stronger in sarcasm than in erudition, + roundly accuses the missionaries of having fabricated the inscription + on the monument of Si-ngau-Fou, from motives of "pious fraud." "As if," + says Remusat, "such a fabrication could have been practicable in the + midst of a distrustful and suspicious nation, in a country in which + magistrates and private people are equally ill-disposed towards + foreigners, and especially missionaries, where all eyes are open to + their most trivial proceedings, and where the authorities watch with + the most jealous care over everything relating to the historical + traditions and monuments of antiquity. It would be very difficult to + explain how the missionaries could have been bold enough to have + printed and published in China, and in Chinese, an inscription that had + never existed, and how they could have imitated the Chinese style, + counterfeited the manner of the writers of the dynasty of Thang, + alluded to customs little known, to local circumstances, to dates + calculated from the mysterious figures of Chinese astrology, and the + whole without betraying themselves for a moment; and with such + perfection as to impose on the most skilful men of letters, induced, of + course, by the singularity of the discovery to dispute its + authenticity. It could only have been done by one of the most erudite + of Chinese scholars, joining with the missionaries to impose on his own + countrymen." + + "Even that would not be all, for the borders of the inscription are + covered with Syrian names in fine _estranghelo_ characters. The forgers + must, then, have been not only acquainted with these characters, but + have been able to get engraved with perfect exactness ninety lines of + them, and in the ancient writing, known at present to very few." + + "This argument of Remusat's," says another learned Orientalist, M. + Felix Neve, "is of irresistible force, and we have formerly heard a + similar one maintained with the greatest confidence by M. Quatremere, + of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, and we allow + ourselves to quote the opinion of so highly qualified a judge upon this + point. Before the last century it would have been absolutely impossible + to forge in Europe a series of names and titles belonging to a + Christian nation of Western Asia; it is only since the fruits of + Assemam's labors have been made public by his family at Rome, that + there existed a sufficient knowledge of the Syriac for such a purpose; + and it is only by the publication of the manuscripts of the Vatican, + that the extent to which Nestorianism spread in the centre of Asia, and + the influence of its hierarchy in the Persian provinces could have been + estimated. There is no reason to suppose that missionaries who left + Europe in the very beginning of the seventeenth century could have + acquired a knowledge which could only be obtained from reading the + originals and not vague accounts of them." + + The sagacity of M. Saint Martin, who was for a long time the colleague + of M. Quatremere, has pointed out in a note worthy of his erudition, + another special proof, which is by no means to be neglected. + + "Amongst the various arguments," he says, "that might be urged in favor + of the legitimacy of the monument, but of which, as yet, no use has + been made, must not be forgotten the name of the priest by whom it is + said to have been erected. The name _Yezd-bouzid_ is Persian, and at the + epoch when the monument was discovered it would have been impossible to + invent it, as there existed no work where it could have been found. + Indeed, I do not think that, even since then, there has ever been any + one published in which it could have been met with. + + "It is a very celebrated name among the Armenians, and comes to them + from a martyr, a Persian by birth, and of the royal race, who perished + towards the middle of the seventh century, and rendered his name + illustrious amongst the Christian nations of the East." Saint Martin + adds in the same place, that the famous monument of Si-ngau-Fou, whose + authenticity has for a long time been called in question from the + hatred entertained against the Jesuit missionaries who discovered it, + rather than from a candid examination of its contents, is now regarded + as above all suspicion. + + + + +Chapter III. + +Brahmanism. + + + + Sec. 1. Our Knowledge of Brahmanism. Sir William Jones. + Sec. 2. Difficulty of this Study. The Complexity of the System. The Hindoos + have no History. Their Ultra-Spiritualism. + Sec. 3. Helps from Comparative Philology. The Aryans in Central Asia. + Sec. 4. The Aryans in India. The Native Races. The Vedic Age. Theology of + the Vedas. + Sec. 5. Second Period. Laws of Manu. The Brahmanic Age. + Sec. 6. The Three Hindoo Systems of Philosophy,--the Sankhya, Vedanta, and + Nyasa. + Sec. 7. Origin of the Hindoo Triad. + Sec. 8. The Epics, the Puranas, and Modern Hindoo Worship. + Sec. 9. Relation of Brahmanism to Christianity. + + + +Sec. 1. Our Knowledge of Brahmanism. Sir William Jones. + + +It is more than forty years since the writer, then a boy, was one day +searching among the heavy works of a learned library in the country to +find some entertaining reading for a summer afternoon. It was a library +rich in theology, in Greek and Latin classics, in French and Spanish +literature, but contained little to amuse a child. Led by some happy +fortune, in turning over a pile of the "Monthly Anthology" his eye was +attracted by the title of a play, "Sacontala,[30] or the Fatal Ring; an +Indian Drama, translated from the original Sanskrit and Pracrit. Calcutta, +1789," and reprinted in the Anthology in successive numbers. Gathering +them together, the boy took them into a great chestnut-tree, amid the +limbs of which he had constructed a study, and there, in the warm, +fragrant shade, read hour after hour this bewitching story. The tale was +suited to the day and the scene,--filled with images of tender girls and +religious sages, who lived amid a tropical abundance of flowers and +fruits; so blending the beauty of nature with the charm of love. Nature +becomes in it alive, and is interpenetrated with human sentiments. +Sakuntala loves the flowers as sisters; the Kesara-tree beckons to her +with its waving blossoms, and clings to her in affection as she bends over +it. The jasmine, the wife of the mango-tree, embraces her lord, who leans +down to protect his blooming bride, "the moonlight of the grove." The holy +hermits defend the timid fawn from the hunters, and the birds, grown tame +in their peaceful solitudes, look tranquilly on the intruder. The demons +occasionally disturb the sacrificial rites, but, like well-educated +demons, retire at once, as soon as the protecting Raja enters the sacred +grove. All breathes of love, gentle and generous sentiment, and quiet joys +in the bosom of a luxuriant and beautiful summer land. Thus, in this poem, +written a hundred years before Christ, we find that romantic view of +nature, unknown to the Greeks and Romans, and first appearing in our own +time in such writers as Rousseau, Goethe, and Byron. + +He who translated this poem into a European language, and communicated it +to modern readers, was Sir William Jones, one of the few first-class +scholars whom the world has produced. In him was joined a marvellous gift +of language with a love for truth and beauty, which detected by an +infallible instinct what was worth knowing, in the mighty maze of Oriental +literature. He had also the rare good fortune of being the first to +discover this domain of literature in Asia, unknown to the West till he +came to reveal it. The vast realm of Hindoo, Chinese, and Persian genius +was as much a new continent to Europe, when discovered by Sir William +Jones, as America was when made known by Columbus. Its riches had been +accumulating during thousands of years, waiting till the fortunate man +should arrive, destined to reveal to our age the barbaric pearl and gold +of the gorgeous East,--the true wealth of Ormus and of Ind. + +Sir William Jones came well equipped for his task. Some men are born +philologians, loving _words_ for their own sake,--men to whom the devious +paths of language are open highways; who, as Lord Bacon says, "have come +forth from the second general curse, which was the confusion of tongues, +by the art of grammar." Sir William Jones was one of these, perhaps the +greatest of them. A paper in his own handwriting tells us that he knew +critically eight languages,--English, Latin, French, Italian, Greek, +Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit; less perfectly eight others,--Spanish, +Portuguese, German, Runic, Hebrew, Bengali, Hindi, Turkish; and was +moderately familiar with twelve more,--Tibetian, Pali, Phalavi, Deri, +Russian, Syriac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Welsh, Swedish, Dutch, and Chinese. +There have been, perhaps, other scholars who have known as many tongues as +this. But usually they are crushed by their own accumulations, and we +never hear of their accomplishing anything. Sir William Jones was not one +of these, "deep versed in books, and shallow in himself." Language was his +instrument, but knowledge his aim. So, when he had mastered Sanskrit and +other Oriental languages, he rendered into English not only Sakuntala, but +a far more important work, "The Laws of Manu"; "almost the only work in +Sanskrit," says Max Muller, "the early date of which, assigned to it by +Sir William Jones from the first, has not been assailed." He also +translated from the Sanskrit the fables of Hitopadesa, extracts from the +Vedas, and shorter pieces. He formed a society in Calcutta for the study +of Oriental literature, was its first president, and contributed numerous +essays, all valuable, to its periodical, the "Asiatic Researches." He +wrote a grammar of the Persian language, and translated from Persian into +French the history of Nadir Shah. From the Arabic he also translated many +pieces, and among them the Seven Poems suspended in the temple at Mecca, +which, in their subjects and style, seem an Arabic anticipation of Walt +Whitman. He wrote in Latin a Book of Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry, in +English several works on the Mohammedan and Civil Law, with a translation +of the Greek Orations of Isaeus. As a lawyer, a judge, a student of +natural history, his ardor of study was equally apparent. He presented to +the Royal Society in London a large collection of valuable Oriental +manuscripts, and left a long list of studies in Sanskrit to be pursued by +those who should come after him. His generous nature showed itself in his +opposition to slavery and the slave-trade, and his open sympathy with the +American Revolution. His correspondence was large, including such names as +those of Benjamin Franklin, Sir Joseph Banks, Lord Monboddo, Gibbon, +Warren Hastings, Dr. Price, Edmund Burke, and Dr. Parr. Such a man ought +to be remembered, especially by all who take an interest in the studies to +which he has opened the way, for he was one who had a right to speak of +himself, as he has spoken in these lines:-- + + "Before thy mystic altar, heavenly truth, + I kneel in manhood, as I knelt in youth. + Thus let me kneel, till this dull form decay, + And life's last shade be brightened by thy ray, + Then shall my soul, now lost in clouds below, + Soar without bound, without consuming glow." + +Since the days of Sir William Jones immense progress has been made in the +study of Sanskrit literature, especially within the last thirty or forty +years, from the time when the Schlegels led the way in this department. +Now, professors of Sanskrit are to be found in all the great European +universities, and in this country we have at least one Sanskrit scholar of +the very highest order, Professor William D. Whitney, of Yale. The system +of Brahmanism, which a short time since could only be known to Western +readers by means of the writings of Colebrooke, Wilkins, Wilson, and a few +others, has now been made accessible by the works of Lassen, Max Muller, +Burnouf, Muir, Pictet, Bopp, Weber, Windischmann, Vivien de Saint-Martin, +and a multitude of eminent writers in France, England, and Germany.[31] + + + +Sec. 2. Difficulty of this Study. The Complexity of the System. The Hindoos +have no History. Their Ultra-Spiritualism. + + +But, notwithstanding these many helps, Brahmanism remains a difficult +study. Its source is not in a man, but in a caste. It is not the religion +of a Confucius, a Zoroaster, a Mohammed, but the religion of the Brahmans. +We call it Brahmanism, and it can be traced to no individual as its +founder or restorer. There is no personality about it.[32] It is a vast +world of ideas, but wanting the unity which is given by the life of a man, +its embodiment and representative. + +But what a system? How large, how difficult to understand! So vast, so +complicated, so full of contradictions, so various and changeable, that +its very immensity is our refuge! We say, It is impossible to do justice +to such a system; therefore do not demand it of us. + +India has been a land of mystery from the earliest times. From the most +ancient days we hear of India as the most populous nation of the world, +full of barbaric wealth and a strange wisdom. It has attracted conquerors, +and has been overrun by the armies of Semiramis, Darius, Alexander; by +Mahmud, and Tamerlane, and Nadir Shah; by Lord Clive and the Duke of +Wellington. These conquerors, from the Assyrian Queen to the British +Mercantile Company, have overrun and plundered India, but have left it the +same unintelligible, unchangeable, and marvellous country as before. It is +the same land now which the soldiers of Alexander described,--the land of +grotto temples dug out of solid porphyry; of one of the most ancient Pagan +religions of the world; of social distinctions fixed and permanent as the +earth itself; of the sacred Ganges; of the idols of Juggernaut, with its +bloody worship; the land of elephants and tigers; of fields of rice and +groves of palm; of treasuries filled with chests of gold, heaps of pearls, +diamonds, and incense. But, above all, it is the land of unintelligible +systems of belief, of puzzling incongruities, and irreconcilable +contradictions. + +The Hindoos have sacred books of great antiquity, and a rich literature +extending back twenty or thirty centuries; yet no history, no chronology, +no annals. They have a philosophy as acute, profound and, spiritual as any +in the world, which is yet harmoniously associated with the coarsest +superstitions. With a belief so abstract that it almost escapes the grasp +of the most speculative intellect, is joined the notion that sin can be +atoned for by bathing in the Ganges or repeating a text of the Veda. With +an ideal pantheism resembling that of Hegel, is united the opinion that +Brahma and Siva can be driven from the throne of the universe by any one +who will sacrifice a sufficient number of wild horses. To abstract one's +self from matter, to renounce all the gratification of the senses, to +macerate the body, is thought the true road to felicity; and nowhere in +the world are luxury, licentiousness and the gratification of the +appetites carried so far. Every civil right and privilege of ruler and +subject is fixed in a code of laws, and a body of jurisprudence older far +than the Christian era, and the object of universal reverence; but the +application of these laws rests (says Rhode) on the arbitrary decisions of +the priests, and their execution on the will of the sovereign. The +constitution of India is therefore like a house without a foundation and +without a roof. It is a principle of Hindoo religion not to kill a worm, +not even to tread on a blade of grass, for fear of injuring life; but the +torments, cruelties, and bloodshed inflicted by Indian tyrants would shock +a Nero or a Borgia. Half the best informed writers on India will tell you +that the Brahmanical religion is pure monotheism; the other half as +confidently assert that they worship a million gods. Some teach us that +the Hindoos are spiritualists and pantheists; others that their idolatry +is more gross than that of any living people. + +Is there any way of reconciling these inconsistencies? If we cannot find +such an explanation, there is at least one central point where we may +place ourselves; one elevated position, from which this mighty maze will +not seem wholly without a plan. In India the whole tendency of thought is +ideal, the whole religion a pure spiritualism. An ultra, one-sided +idealism is the central tendency of the Hindoo mind. The God of Brahmanism +is an intelligence, absorbed in the rest of profound contemplation. The +good man of this religion is he who withdraws from an evil world into +abstract thought. + +Nothing else explains the Hindoo character as this does. An eminently +religious people, it is their one-sided spiritualism, their extreme +idealism, which gives rise to all their incongruities. They have no +history and no authentic chronology, for history belongs to this world, +and chronology belongs to time. But this world and time are to them wholly +uninteresting; God and eternity are all in all. They torture themselves +with self-inflicted torments; for the body is the great enemy of the +soul's salvation, and they must beat it down by ascetic mortifications. +But asceticism, here as everywhere else, tends to self-indulgence, since +one extreme produces another. In one part of India, therefore, devotees +are swinging on hooks in honor of Siva, hanging themselves by the feet, +head downwards, over a fire, rolling on a bed of prickly thorns, jumping +on a couch filled with sharp knives, boring holes in their tongues, and +sticking their bodies full of pins and needles, or perhaps holding the +arms over the head till they stiffen in that position. Meantime in other +places whole regions are given over to sensual indulgences, and companies +of abandoned women are connected with different temples and consecrate +their gains to the support of their worship. + +As one-sided spiritualism will manifest itself in morals in the two forms +of austerity and sensuality, so in religion it shows itself in the +opposite direction of an ideal pantheism and a gross idolatry. +Spiritualism first fills the world full of God, and this is a true and +Christian view of things. But it takes another step, which is to deny all +real existence to the world, and so runs into a false pantheism. It first +says, truly, "There is nothing _without_ God." It next says, falsely, +"There is nothing _but_ God." This second step was taken in India by means +of the doctrine of _Maya_, or _Illusion. Maya_ means the delusive shows +which spirit assumes. For there is nothing but spirit; which neither +creates nor is created, neither acts nor suffers, which cannot change, and +into which all souls are absorbed when they free themselves by meditation +from the belief that they suffer or are happy, that they can experience +either pleasure or pain. The next step is to polytheism. For if God +neither creates nor destroys, but only seems to create and destroy, these +_appearances_ are not united together as being the acts of one Being, but +are separate, independent phenomena. When you remove personality from the +conception of God, as you do in removing will, you remove unity. Now if +creation be an illusion, and there be no creation, still the _appearance_ +of creation is a fact. But as there is no substance but spirit, this +_appearance_ must have its cause in spirit, that is, is a _divine_ +appearance, is God. So destruction, in the same way, is an appearance of +God, and reproduction is an appearance of God, and every other appearance +in nature is a manifestation of God. But the unity of will and person +being taken away, we have not one God, but a multitude of gods,--or +polytheism. + +Having begun this career of thought, no course was possible for the human +mind to pursue but this. An ultra spiritualism must become pantheism, and +pantheism must go on to polytheism. In India this is not a theory, but a +history. We find, side by side, a spiritualism which denies the existence +of anything but motionless spirit or Brahm, and a polytheism which +believes and worships Brahma the Creator, Siva the Destroyer, Vischnu the +Preserver, Indra the God of the Heavens, the Sactis or energies of the +gods, Krishna the Hindoo Apollo, Doorga, and a host of others, innumerable +as the changes and appearances of things. + +But such a system as this must necessarily lead also to idolatry. There is +in the human mind a tendency to worship, and men must worship something. +But they believe in one Being, the absolute Spirit, the supreme and only +God,--Para Brahm; _him_ they cannot worship, for he is literally an +unknown God. He has no qualities; no attributes, no activity. He is +neither the object of hope, fear, love, nor aversion. Since there is +nothing in the universe but spirit and illusive appearances, and they +cannot worship spirit because it is absolutely unknown, they must worship +these appearances, which are at any rate _divine_ appearances, and which +do possess some traits, qualities, character; _are_ objects of hope and +fear. But they cannot worship them as appearances, they must worship them +as persons. But if they have an inward personality or soul, they become +real beings, and also beings independent of Brahm, whose appearances they +are. They must therefore have an outward personality; in other words, a +body, a shape, emblematical and characteristic; that is to say, they +become idols. + +Accordingly idol-worship is universal in India. The most horrible and +grotesque images are carved in the stone of the grottos, stand in rude, +block-like statues in the temple, or are coarsely painted on the walls. +Figures of men with heads of elephants or of other animals, or with six or +seven human heads,--sometimes growing in a pyramid, one out of the other, +sometimes with six hands coming from one shoulder,--grisly and uncouth +monsters, like nothing in nature, yet too grotesque for symbols,--such are +the objects of the Hindoo worship. + + + +Sec. 3. Helps from Comparative Philology. The Aryans in Central Asia. + + +We have seen how hopeless the task has appeared of getting any definite +light on Hindoo chronology or history. To the ancient Egyptians events +were so important that the most trivial incidents of daily life were +written on stone and the imperishable records of the land, covering the +tombs and obelisks, have patiently waited during long centuries, till +their decipherer should come to read them. To the Hindoos, on the other +hand, all events were equally unimportant. The most unhistoric people on +earth, they cared more for the minutiae of grammar, or the subtilties of +metaphysics, than for the whole of their past. The only date which has +emerged from this vague antiquity is that of Chandragupta, a contemporary +of Alexander, and called by the Greek historians Sandracottus. He became +king B.C. 315, and as, at his accession, Buddha had been dead (by Hindoo +statement) one hundred and sixty-two years, Buddha may have died B.C. 477. +We can thus import a single date from Greek history into that of India. +This is the whole. + +But all at once light dawns on us from an unexpected quarter. While we can +learn nothing concerning the history of India from its literature, and +nothing from its inscriptions or carved temples, _language_, comes to our +aid. The fugitive and airy sounds, which seem so fleeting and so +changeable, prove to be more durable monuments than brass or granite. The +study of the Sanskrit language has told us a long story concerning the +origin of the Hindoos. It has rectified the ethnology of Blumenbach, has +taught us who were the ancestors of the nations of Europe, and has given +us the information that one great family, the Indo-European, has done most +of the work of the world. It shows us that this family consists of seven +races,--the Hindoos, the Persians, the^ Greeks, the Romans, who all +emigrated to the south from the original ancestral home; and the Kelts, +the Teutons, and Slavi, who entered Europe on the northern side of the +Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. This has been accomplished by the new +science of Comparative Philology. A comparison of languages has made it +too plain to be questioned, that these seven races were originally one; +that they must have emigrated from a region of Central Asia, at the east +of the Caspian, and northwest of India; that they were originally a +pastoral race, and gradually changed their habits as they descended from +those great plains into the valleys of the Indus and the Euphrates. In +these seven linguistic families the roots of the most common names are the +same; the grammatical constructions are also the same; so that no scholar, +who has attended to the subject, can doubt that the seven languages are +all daughters of one common mother-tongue. + +Pursuing the subject still further, it has been found possible to +conjecture with no little confidence what was the condition of family life +in this great race of Central Asia, before its dispersion. The original +stock has received the name Aryan. This designation occurs in Manu (II. +22), who says: "As far as the eastern and western oceans, between the two +mountains, lies the land which the wise have named Ar-ya-vesta, or +_inhabited by honorable men_." The people of Iran receive this same +appellation in the Zend Avesta, with the same meaning of _honorable_. +Herodotus testifies that the Medes were formerly called [Greek: Arioi] +(Herod. VII. 61). Strabo mentions that, in the time of Alexander, the +whole region about the Indus was called _Ariana_. In modern times, the +word _Iran_ for Persia and _Erin_ for Ireland are possible reminiscences +of the original family appellation. + +The Ayrans, long before the age of the Vedas or the Zend Avesta, were +living as a pastoral people on the great plains east of the Caspian Sea. +What their condition was at that epoch is deduced by the following method: +If it is found that the name of any fact is the same in two or more of the +seven tribal languages of this stock, it is evident that the name was +given to it before they separated. For there is no reason to suppose that +two nations living wide apart would have independently selected the same +word for the same object. For example, since we find that _house_ is in +Sanskrit _Damn_ and _Dam_; in Zend, _Demana_; in Greek, [Greek: Domos]; in +Latin, _Domus_; in Irish, _Dahm_; in Slavonic, _Domu_,--from which root +comes also our English word _Domestic_,--we may be pretty sure that the +original Aryans lived in houses. When we learn that _boat_ was in Sanskrit +_Nau_ or _nauka_; in Persian, _Naw, nawah;_ in Greek, [Greek: Naus]; in +Latin, _Navis_; in old Irish, _Noi_ or _nai_; in old German, _Nawa_ or +_nawi_; and in Polish _Nawa_, we cannot doubt that they knew something of +what we call in English _Nau_tical affairs, or Navigation. But as the +words designating masts, sails, yards, &c. differ wholly from each other +in all these linguistic families, it is reasonable to infer that the +Aryans, before their dispersion, went only in boats, with oars, on the +rivers of their land, the Oxus and Jaxartes, and did not sail anywhere on +the sea. + +Pursuing this method, we see that we can ask almost any question +concerning the condition of the Aryans, and obtain an answer by means of +Comparative Philology. + +Were they a pastoral people? The very word _pastoral_ gives us the answer. +For _Pa_ in Sanskrit means to watch, to guard, as men guard cattle,--from +which a whole company of words has come in all the Aryan languages. + +The results of this method of inquiry, so far as given by Pictet, are +these. Some 3000 years B.C.,[33] the Aryans, as yet undivided into +Hindoos, Persians, Kelts, Latins, Greeks, Teutons, and Slavi, were living +in Central Asia, in a region of which Bactriana was the centre. Here they +must have remained long enough to have developed their admirable language, +the mother-tongue of those which we know. They were essentially a +pastoral, but not a nomad people, having fixed homes. They had oxen, +horses, sheep, goats, hogs, and domestic fowls. Herds of cows fed in +pastures, each the property of a community, and each with a cluster of +stables in the centre. The daughters[34] of the house were the +dairy-maids; the food was chiefly the products of the dairy and the flesh +of the cattle. The cow was, however, the most important animal, and gave +its name to many plants, and even to the clouds and stars, in which men +saw heavenly herds passing over the firmament above them. + +But the Aryans were not an exclusively pastoral people; they certainly had +barley, and perhaps other cereals, before their dispersion. They possessed +the plough, the mill for grinding grain; they had hatchet,[35] hammer, +auger. The Aryans were acquainted with several metals, among which were +gold, silver, copper, tin. They knew how to spin and weave to some extent; +they were acquainted with pottery. How their houses were built we do not +know, but they contained doors, windows, and fireplaces. They had cloaks +or mantles, they boiled and roasted meat, and certainly used soup. They +had lances, swords, the bow and arrow, shields, but not armor. They had +family life, some simple laws, games, the dance, and wind instruments. +They had the decimal numeration, and their year was of three hundred and +sixty days. They worshipped the heaven, earth, sun, fire, water, wind; but +there are also plain traces of an earlier monotheism, from which this +nature-worship proceeded. + + + +Sec. 4. The Aryans in India. The Native Races. The Vedic Age. Theology of the +Vedas. + + +So far Comparative Philology takes us, and the next step forward brings us +to the Vedas, the oldest works in the Hindoo literature, but at least one +thousand or fifteen hundred years more recent than the times we have been +describing. The Aryans have separated, and the Hindoos are now in India. +It is eleven centuries before the time of Alexander. They occupy the +region between the Punjaub and the Ganges, and here was accomplished the +transition of the Aryans from warlike shepherds into agriculturists and +builders of cities.[36] + +The last hymns of the Vedas were written (says St. Martin) when they +arrived from the Indus at the Ganges, and were building their oldest city, +at the confluence of that river with the Jumna. Their complexion was then +white, and they call the race whom they conquered, and who afterward were +made _Soudras_, or lowest caste, blacks.[37] The chief gods of the Vedic +age were Indra, Varuna, Agni, Savitri, Soma. The first was the god of the +atmosphere; the second, of the Ocean of light, or Heaven; the third, of +Fire;[38] the fourth, of the Sun; and the fifth, of the Moon. Yama was the +god of death. All the powers of nature were personified in turn,--as +earth, food, wine, months, seasons, day, night, and dawn. Among all these +divinities, Indra and Agni were the chief.[39] But behind this incipient +polytheism lurks the original monotheism,--for each of these gods, in +turn, becomes the Supreme Being. The universal Deity seems to become +apparent, first in one form of nature and then in another. Such is the +opinion of Colebrooke, who says that "the ancient Hindoo religion +recognizes but one God, not yet sufficiently discriminating the creature +from the Creator." And Max Mueller says: "The hymns celebrate Varuna, +Indra, Agni, &c., and each in turn is called supreme. The whole mythology +is fluent. The powers of nature become moral beings." + +Max Mueller adds: "It would be easy to find, in the numerous hymns of the +Veda, passages in which almost every single god is represented as supreme +and absolute. Agni is called 'Ruler of the Universe'; Indra is celebrated +as the Strongest god, and in one hymn it is said, 'Indra is stronger than +all.' It is said of Soma that 'he conquers every one.'" + +But clearer traces of monotheism are to be found in the Vedas. In one hymn +of the Rig-Veda it is said: "They call him Indra, Mitra, Varuna, Agni; +then he is the well-winged heavenly Garutmat; that which is One, the wise +call it many ways; they call it Agni, Yama, Matarisvan." + +Nothing, however, will give us so good an idea of the character of these +Vedic hymns as the hymns themselves. I therefore select a few of the most +striking of those which have been translated by Colebrooke, Wilson, M. +Mueller, E. Bumont, and others. + +In the following, from one of the oldest Vedas, the unity of God seems +very clearly expressed. + + + RIG-VEDA, X. 121. + + "In the beginning there arose the Source of golden light. He was the + only born Lord of all that is. He established the earth, and this sky. + Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "He who gives life. He who gives strength; whose blessing all the + bright gods desire; whose shadow is immortality, whose shadow is death. + Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "He who through his power is the only king of the breathing and + awakening world. He who governs all, man and beast. Who is the god to + whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "He whose power these snowy mountains, whose power the sea proclaims, + with the distant river. He whose these regions are, as it were his two + arms. Who is the god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm. He through whom + heaven was stablished; nay, the highest heaven. He who measured out the + light in the air. Who is the god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "He to whom heaven and earth, standing firm by his will, look up, + trembling inwardly. He over whom the rising sun shines forth. Who is + the god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "Wherever the mighty water-clouds went, where they placed the seed and + lit the fire, thence arose he who is the only life of the bright gods. + Who is the god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "He who by his might looked even over the water-clouds, the clouds + which gave strength and lit the sacrifice; _he who is God above all + gods_. Who is the god to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? + + "May he not destroy us,--he the creator of the earth,--or he, the + righteous, who created heaven; he who also created the bright and + mighty waters. Who is the god to whom we shall offer our + sacrifices?"[40] + +The oldest and most striking account of creation is in the eleventh +chapter of the tenth Book of the Rig-Veda. Colebrooke, Max Muller, Muir, +and Goldstucker, all give a translation of this remarkable hymn and speak +of it with admiration. We take that of Colehrooke, modified by that of +Muir:-- + + + "Then there was no entity nor non-entity; no world, no sky, nor aught + above it; nothing anywhere, involving or involved; nor water deep and + dangerous. Death was not, and therefore no immortality, nor distinction + of day or night. But THAT ONE breathed calmly[41] alone with Nature, + her who is sustained within him. Other than Him, nothing existed + [which] since [has been]. Darkness there was; [for] this universe was + enveloped with darkness, and was indistinguishable waters; but that + mass, which was covered by the husk, was [at length] produced by the + power of contemplation. First desire[42] was formed in his mind; and + that became the original productive seed; which the wise, recognizing + it by the intellect in their hearts, distinguish as the bond of + non-entity with entity. + + "Did the luminous ray of these [creative acts] expand in the middle, or + above, or below? That productive energy became providence [or sentient + souls], and matter [or the elements]; Nature, who is sustained within, + was inferior; and he who sustains was above. + + "Who knows exactly, and who shall in this world declare, whence and why + this creation took place? The gods are subsequent to the production of + this world: then who can know whence it proceeded, or whence this + varied world arose, or whether it upholds [itself] or not? He who in + the highest heaven is the ruler of this universe,--he knows, or does + not know." + +If the following hymn, says Mueller, were addressed only to the Almighty, +omitting the word "Varuna," it would not disturb us in a Christian +Liturgy:-- + + + 1. "Let me not yet, O Varuna, enter into the house of clay; have mercy, + almighty, have mercy. + + 2. "If I go along trembling, like a cloud driven by the wind, have + mercy, almighty, have mercy! + + 3. "Through want of strength, thou strong and bright god, have I gone + to the wrong shore; have mercy, almighty, have mercy! + + 4. "Thirst came upon the worshipper, though he stood in the midst of + the waters; have mercy, almighty, have mercy! + + 5. "Whenever we men, O Varuna, commit an offence before the heavenly + host; whenever we break thy law through thoughtlessness; have mercy, + almighty, have mercy!" + +Out of a large number of hymns addressed to Indra, Mueller selects one that +is ascribed to Vasishtha. + + + 1. "Let no one, not even those who worship thee, delay thee far from + us! Even from afar come to our feast! Or, if thou art here, listen to + us! + + 2. "For these who here make prayers for thee, sit together near the + libation, like flies round the honey. The worshippers, anxious for + wealth, have placed their desire upon Indra, as we put our foot upon a + chariot. + + 3. "Desirous of riches, I call him who holds the thunderbolt with his + arm, and who is a good giver, like as a son calls his father. + + 4. "These libations of Soma, mixed with milk, have been prepared for + Indra: thou, armed with the thunderbolt, come with the steeds to drink + of them for thy delight; come to the house! + + 5. "May he hear us, for he has ears to hear. He is asked for riches; + will he despise our prayers? He could soon give hundreds and + thousands;--no one could check him if he wishes to give." + + 13. "Make for the sacred gods a hymn that is not small, that is well + set and beautiful! Many snares pass by him who abides with Indra + through his sacrifice. + + 14. "What mortal dares to attack him who is rich in thee? Through faith + in thee, O mighty, the strong acquires spod in the day of battle." + + 17. "Thou art well known as the benefactor of every one, whatever + battles there be. Every one of these kings of the earth implores thy + name, when wishing for help. + + 18. "If I were lord of as much as thou, I should support the sacred + bard, thou scatterer of wealth, I should not abandon him to misery. + + 19. "I should award wealth day by day to him who magnifies; I should + award it to whosoever it be. We have no other friend but thee, no other + happiness, no other father, O mighty!" + + 22. "We call for thee, O hero, like cows that have not been milked; we + praise thee as ruler of all that moves, O Indra, as ruler of all that + is immovable. + + 23. "There is no one like thee in heaven and earth; he is not born, and + will not be born. O mighty Indra, we call upon thee as we go fighting + for cows and horses." + +"In this hymn," says Mueller, "Indra is clearly conceived as the Supreme +God, and we can hardly understand how a people who had formed so exalted a +notion of the Deity and embodied it in the person of Indra, could, at the +same sacrifice, invoke other gods with equal praise. When Agni, the lord +of fire, is addressed by the poet, he is spoken of as the first god, not +inferior even to Indra. While Agni is invoked Indra is forgotten; there is +no competition between the two, nor any rivalry between them and other +gods. This is a most important feature in the religion of the Veda, and +has never been taken into consideration by those who have written on the +history of ancient polytheism."[43] + +"It is curious," says Mueller, "to watch the almost imperceptible +transition by which the phenomena of nature, if reflected in the mind of +the poet, assume the character of divine beings. The dawn is frequently +described in the Veda as it might be described by a modern poet. She is +the friend of men, she smiles like a young wife, she is the daughter of +the sky." "But the transition from _devi_, the bright, to _devi_, the +goddess, is so easy; the daughter of the sky assumes so readily the same +personality which is given to the sky, Dyaus, her father, that we can only +guess whether in every passage the poet is speaking of a bright +apparition, or of a bright goddess; of a natural vision, or of a visible +deity. The following hymn of Vashishtha will serve as an instance:-- + + "She shines upon us, like a young wife, rousing every living being to + go to his work. The fire had to be kindled by men; she brought light by + striking down darkness. + + "She rose up, spreading far and wide, and moving towards every one. She + grew in brightness, wearing her brilliant garment. The mother of the + cows (of the morning clouds), the leader of the days, she shone + gold-colored, lovely to behold. + + "She, the fortunate, who brings the eye of the god, who leads the white + and lovely steed (of the sun), the Dawn was seen, revealed by her rays; + with brilliant treasures she follows every one. + + "Thou, who art a blessing where thou art near, drive far away the + unfriendly; make the pastures wide, give us safety! Remove the haters, + bring treasures! Raise wealth to the worshipper, thou mighty Dawn. + + "Shine for us with thy best rays, thou bright Dawn, thou who + lengthenest our life, thou the love of all, who givest us food, who + givest us wealth in cows, horses, and chariots. + + "Thou, daughter of the sky, thou high-born Dawn, whom the Vasishthas + magnify with songs, give us riches high and wide: all ye gods, protect + us always with your blessings!" + +"This hymn, addressed to the Dawn, is a fair specimen of the original +simple poetry of the Veda. It has no reference to any special sacrifice, +it contains no technical expressions, it can hardly be called a hymn, in +our sense of the word. It is simply a poem expressing, without any effort, +without any display of far-fetched thought or brilliant imagery, the +feelings of a man who has watched the approach of the Dawn with mingled +delight and awe, and who was moved to give utterance to what he felt in +measured language."[44] + +"But there is a charm in these primitive strains discoverable in no other +class of poetry. Every word retains something of its radical meaning, +every epithet tells, every thought, in spite of the most intricate and +abrupt expressions, is, if we once disentangle it, true, correct, and +complete."[45] + +The Vedic literature is divided by Muller into four periods, namely, those +of the Chhandas, Mantra, Brahmana, and Sutras. The Chhandas period +contains the oldest hymns of the oldest, or Rig-Veda. To that of the +Mantras belong the later hymns of the same Veda. But the most modern of +these are older than the Brahmanas. The Brahmanas contain theology; the +older Mantras are liturgic. Mueller says that the Brahmanas, though so very +ancient, are full of pedantry, shallow and insipid grandiloquence and +priestly conceit. Next to these, in the order of time, are the Upanishads. +These are philosophical, and almost the only part of the Vedas which are +read at the present time. They are believed to contain the highest +authority for the different philosophical systems, of which we shall speak +hereafter. Their authors are unknown. More modern than these are the +Sutras. The word "Sutra" means _string_, and they consist of a string of +short sentences. Conciseness is the aim in this style, and every doctrine +is reduced to a skeleton. The numerous Sutras now extant contain the +distilled essence of all the knowledge which the Brahmans have collected +during centuries of meditation. They belong to the non-revealed +literature, as distinguished from the revealed literature,--a distinction +made by the Brahmans before the time of Buddha. At the time of the +Buddhist controversy the Sutras were admitted to be of human origin and +were consequently recent works. The distinction between the Sutras and +Brahmanas is very marked, the second being revealed. The Brahmanas were +composed by and for Brahmans and are in three collections. The Vedangas +are intermediate between the Vedic and non-Vedic literature. Panini, the +grammarian of India, was said to be contemporary with King Nanda, who was +the successor of Chandragupta, the contemporary of Alexander, and +therefore in the second half of the fourth century before Christ. Dates +are so precarious in Indian literature, says Max Mueller, that a +confirmation within a century or two is not to be despised. Now the +grammarian Katyayana completed and corrected the grammar of Panini, and +Patanjeli wrote an immense commentary on the two which became so famous as +to be imported by royal authority into Cashmere, in the first half of the +first century of our era. Mueller considers the limits of the Sutra period +to extend from 600 B.C. to 200 B.C. Buddhism before Asoka was but modified +Brahmanism. The basis of Indian chronology is the date of Chandragupta. +All dates before his time are merely hypothetical. Several classical +writers speak of him as founding an empire on the Ganges soon after the +invasion of Alexander. He was grandfather of Asoka. Indian traditions +refer to this king. + +Returning to the Brahmana period, we notice that between the Sutras and +Barahmanas come the Aranyakas, which are books written for the recluse. Of +these the Upanishads, before mentioned, form part. They presuppose the +existence of the Brahmanas. + +Rammohun Roy was surprised that Dr. Rosen should have thought it worth +while to publish the hymns of the Veda, and considered the Upanishads the +only Vedic books worth reading. They speak of the divine SELF, of the +Eternal Word in the heavens from which the hymns came. The divine SELF +they say is not to be grasped by tradition, reason, or revelation, but +only by him whom he himself grasps. In the beginning was Self alone. Atman +is the SELF in all our selves,--the Divine Self concealed by his own +qualities. This Self they sometimes call the Undeveloped and sometimes the +Not-Being. There are ten of the old Upanishads, all of which have been +published. Anquetil Du Perron translated fifty into Latin out of Persian. + +The Brahmanas are very numerous. Mueller gives stories from them and +legends. They relate to sacrifices, to the story of the deluge, and other +legends. They substituted these legends for the simple poetry of the +ancient Vedas. They must have extended over at least two hundred years, +and contained long lists of teachers. + +Mueller supposes that writing was unknown when the Rig-Veda was composed. +The thousand and ten hymns of the Vedas contain no mention of writing or +books, any more than the Homeric poems. There is no allusion to writing +during the whole of the Brahmana period, nor even through the Sutra +period. This seems incredible to us, says Mueller, only because our memory +has been systematically debilitated by newspapers and the like during +many generations. It was the business of every Brahman to learn by heart +the Vedas during the twelve years of his student life. The Guru, or +teacher, pronounces a group of words, and the pupils repeat after him. +After writing was introduced, the Brahmans were strictly forbidden to read +the Vedas, or to write them. Caesar says the same of the Druids. Even +Panini never alludes to written words or letters. None of the ordinary +modern words for book, paper, ink, or writing have been found in any +ancient Sanskrit work. No such words as _volumen_, volume; _liber_, or +inner bark of a tree; _byblos_, inner bark of papyrus; or book, that is +beech wood. But Buddha had learnt to write, as we find by a book +translated into Chinese A.D. 76. In this book Buddha instructs his +teacher; as in the "Gospel of the Infancy" Jesus explains to his teacher +the meaning of the Hebrew alphabet. So Buddha tells his teacher the names +of sixty-four alphabets. The first authentic inscription in India is of +Buddhist origin, belonging to the third century before Christ. + +In the most ancient Vedic period the language had become complete. There +is no growing language in the Vedas. + +In regard to the age of these Vedic writings, we will quote the words of +Max Mueller, at the conclusion of his admirable work on the "History of +Ancient Sanskrit Literature," from which most of this section has been +taken:-- + + + "Oriental scholars are frequently suspected of a desire to make the + literature of the Eastern nations appear more ancient than it is. As to + myself, I can truly say that nothing would be to me a more welcome + discovery, nothing would remove so many doubts and difficulties, as + some suggestions as to the manner in which certain of the Vedic hymns + could have been added to the original collection during the Brahmana or + Sutra periods, or, if possible, by the writers of our MSS., of which + most are not older than the fifteenth century. But these MSS., though + so modern, are checked by the Anukramanis. Every hymn which stands in + our MSS. is counted in the Index of Saunaka, who is anterior to the + invasion of Alexander. The Sutras, belonging to the same period as + Saunaka, prove the previous existence of every chapter of the + Brahmanas; and I doubt whether there is a single hymn in the Sanhita + of the Rig-Veda which could not be checked by some passage of the + Brahmanas and Sutras. The chronological limits assigned to the Sutra + and Brahmana periods will seem to most Sanskrit scholars too narrow + rather than too wide, and if we assign but two hundred years to the + Mantra period, from 800 to 1000 B.C., and an equal number to the + Chhandas period, from 1000 to 1200 B.C., we can do so only under the + supposition that during the early periods of history the growth of the + human mind was more luxuriant than in later times, and that the layers + of thought were formed less slowly in the primary than in the tertiary + ages of the world." + +The Vedic age, according to Mueller, will then be as follows:-- + + Sutra period, from B.C. 200 to B.C. 600. + Brahmana period, " " 600 " 800. + Mantra period, " " 800 " 1000. + Chhandas period, " " 1000 " 1200. + +Dr. Haug, a high authority, considers the Vedic period to extend from B.C. +1200 to B.C. 2000, and the very oldest hymns to have been composed B.C. +2400. + +The principal deity in the oldest Vedas is Indra, God of the air. In Greek +he becomes Zeus; in Latin, Jupiter. The hymns to Indra are not unlike some +of the Psalms of the Old Testament. Indra is called upon as the most +ancient god whom the Fathers worshipped. Next to India comes Agni, fire, +derived from the root Ag, which means "to move."[46] Fire is worshipped as +the principle of motion on earth, as Indra was the moving power above. Not +only fire, but the forms of flame, are worshipped and all that belongs to +it. Entire nature is called Aditi, whose children are named Adityas. M. +Maury quotes these words from Gotama: "Aditi is heaven; Aditi is air; +Aditi is mother, father, and son; Aditi is all the gods and the five +races; Aditi is whatever is born and will be born; in short, the heavens +and the earth, the heavens being the father and the earth the mother of +all things." This reminds one of the Greek Zeus-pateer and Gee-meteer. +Varuna is the vault of heaven. Mitra is often associated with Varuna in +the Vedic hymns. Mitra is the sun, illuminating the day, while Varuna was +the sun with an obscure face going back in the darkness from west to east +to take his luminous disk again. From Mitra seems to be derived the +Persian Mithra. There are no invocations to the stars in the Veda. But the +Aurora, or Dawn, is the object of great admiration; also, the Aswins, or +twin gods, who in Greece become the Dioscuri. The god of storms is Rudra, +supposed by some writers to be the same as Siva. The two hostile worships +of Vishnu and Siva do not appear, however, till long after this time. +Vishnu appears frequently in the Veda, and his three steps are often +spoken of. These steps measure the heavens. But his real worship came much +later. + +The religion of the Vedas was of odes and hymns, a religion of worship by +simple adoration. Sometimes there were prayers for temporal blessings, +sometimes simple sacrifices and libations. Human sacrifices have scarcely +left any trace of themselves if they ever existed, unless it be in a +typical ceremony reported in one of the Vedas. + + + +Sec. 5. Second Period. Laws of Manu. The Brahmanic Age. + + +Long after the age of the elder Vedas Brahmanism begins. Its text-book is +the Laws of Manu.[47] As yet Vishnu and Siva are not known. The former is +named once, the latter not at all. The writer only knows three Vedas. The +Atharva-Veda is later. But as Siva is mentioned in the oldest Buddhist +writings, it follows that the laws of Manu are older than these. In the +time of Manu the Aryans are still living in the valley of the Ganges. The +caste system is now in full operation, and the authority of the Brahman is +raised to its highest point. The Indus and Punjaub are not mentioned; all +this is forgotten. This work could not be later than B.C. 700, or earlier +than B.C. 1200. It was probably written about B.C. 900 or B.C. 1000. In +this view agree Wilson, Lassen, Max Mueller, and Saint-Martin. The Supreme +Deity is now Brahma, and sacrifice is still the act by which one comes +into relation with heaven. Widow-burning is not mentioned in Manu; but it +appears in the Mahabharata, one of the great epics, which is therefore +later. + +In the region of the Sarasvati, a holy river, which formerly emptied into +the Indus, but is now lost in a desert, the Aryan race of India was +transformed from nomads into a stable community.[48] There they received +their laws, and there their first cities were erected. There were founded +the Solar and Lunar monarchies. + +The Manu of the Vedas and he of the Brahmans are very different persons. +The first is called in the Vedas the father of mankind. He also escapes +from a deluge by building a ship, which he is advised to do by a fish. He +preserves the fish, which grows to a great size, and when the flood comes +acts as a tow-boat to drag the ship of Manu to a mountain.[49] This +account is contained in a Brahmana. + +The name of Manu seems afterward to have been given by the Brahmans to the +author of their code. Some extracts from this very interesting volume we +will now give, slightly abridged, from Sir William Jones's +translation.[50] From the first book, on Creation:-- + + "The universe existed in darkness, imperceptible, undefinable, + undiscoverable, and undiscovered; as if immersed in sleep." + + "Then the self-existing power, undiscovered himself, but making the + world discernible, with the five elements and other principles, + appeared in undiminished glory, dispelling the gloom." + + "He, whom the mind alone can perceive, whose essence eludes the + external organs, who has no visible parts, who exists from eternity, + even he, the soul of all beings, shone forth in person. + + "He having willed to produce various beings from his own divine + substance, first with a thought created the waters, and placed in them + a productive seed." + + "The seed became an egg bright as gold, blazing like the luminary with + a thousand beams, and in that egg he was born himself, in the form of + Brahma, the great forefather of all spirits. + + "The waters are called Nara, because they were the production of Nara, + or the spirit of God; and hence they were his first ayana, or place of + motion; he hence is named Nara yana, or moving on the waters. + + "In that egg the great power sat inactive a whole year of the creator, + at the close of which, by his thought alone, he caused the egg to + divide itself. + + "And from its two divisions he framed the heaven above and the earth + beneath; in the midst he placed the subtile ether, the eight regions, + and the permanent receptacle of waters. + + "From the supreme soul he drew forth mind, existing substantially + though unperceived by sense, immaterial; and before mind, or the + reasoning power, he produced consciousness, the internal monitor, the + ruler. + + "And before them both he produced the great principle of the soul, or + first expansion of the divine idea; and all vital forms endued with the + three qualities of goodness, passion, and darkness, and the five + perceptions of sense, and the five organs of sensation. + + "Thus, having at once pervaded with emanations from the Supreme Spirit + the minutest portions of fixed principles immensely operative, + consciousness and the five perceptions, he framed all creatures. + + "Thence proceed the great elements, endued with peculiar powers, and + mind with operations infinitely subtile, the unperishable cause of all + apparent forms. + + "This universe, therefore, is compacted from the minute portions of + those seven divine and active principles, the great soul, or first + emanation, consciousness, and five perceptions; a mutable universe from + immutable ideas. + + "Of created things, the most excellent are those which are animated; of + the animated, those which subsist by intelligence; of the intelligent, + mankind; and of men, the sacerdotal class. + + "Of priests, those eminent in learning; of the learned, those who know + their duty; of those who know it, such as perform it virtuously; and of + the virtuous, those who seek beatitude from a perfect acquaintance with + scriptural doctrine. + + "The very birth of Brahmans is a constant incarnation of Dharma, God of + justice; for the Brahman is born to promote justice, and to procure + ultimate happiness. + + "When a Brahman springs to light, he is born above the world, the chief + of all creatures, assigned to guard the treasury of duties, religious + and civil. + + "The Brahman who studies this book, having performed sacred rites, is + perpetually free from offence in thought, in word and in deed. + + "He confers purity on his living family, on his ancestors, and on his + descendants as far as the seventh person, and he alone deserves to + possess this whole earth." + +The following passages are from Book II., "On Education and the +Priesthood":-- + + "Self-love is no laudable motive, yet an exemption from self-love is + not to be found in this world: on self-love is grounded the study of + Scripture, and the practice of actions recommended in it. + + "Eager desire to act has its root in expectation of some advantage; and + with such expectation are sacrifices performed; the rules of religious + austerity and abstinence from sins are all known to arise from hope of + remuneration. + + "Not a single act here below appears ever to be done by a man free from + self-love; whatever he perform, it is wrought from his desire of a + reward. + + "He, indeed, who should persist in discharging these duties without any + view to their fruit, would attain hereafter the state of the immortals, + and even in this life would enjoy all the virtuous gratifications that + his fancy could suggest. + + "The most excellent of the three classes, being girt with the + sacrificial thread, must ask food with the respectful word Dhavati at + the beginning of the phrase; those of the second class with that word + in the middle; and those of the third with that word at the end. + + "Let him first beg food of his mother, or of his sister, or of his + mother's whole sister; then of some other female who will not disgrace + him. + + "Having collected as much of the desired food as he has occasion for, + and having presented it without guile to his preceptor, let him eat + some of it, being duly purified, with his face to the east. + + "If he seek long life, he should eat with his face to the east; if + prosperity, to the west; if truth and its reward, to the north. + + "When the student is going to read the Veda he must perform an + ablution, as the law ordains, with his face to the north; and having + paid scriptural homage, he must receive instruction, wearing a clean + vest, his members being duly composed. + + "A Brahman beginning and ending a lecture on the Veda must always + pronounce to himself the syllable om; for unless the syllable om + precede, his learning will slip away from him; and unless it follow, + nothing will be long retained. + + "A priest who shall know the Veda, and shall pronounce to himself, both + morning and evening, that syllable, and that holy text preceded by the + three words, shall attain the sanctity which the Veda confers. + + "And a twice-born man, who shall a thousand times repeat those three + (or om, the vyahritis, and the gayatri) apart from the multitude, shall + be released in a month even from a great offence, as a snake from his + slough. + + "The three great immutable words, preceded by the triliteral syllable, + and followed by the gayatri, which consists of three measures, must be + considered as the mouth, or principal part of the Veda. + + "The triliteral monosyllable is an emblem of the Supreme; the + suppressions of breath, with a mind fixed on God, are the highest + devotion; but nothing is more exalted than the gayatri; a declaration + of truth is more excellent than silence. + + "All rites ordained in the Veda, oblations to fire, and solemn + sacrifices pass away; but that which passes not away is declared to be + the syllable om, thence called acshara; since it is a symbol of God, + the Lord of created beings. + + "The act of repeating his Holy Name is ten times better than the + appointed sacrifice; an hundred times better when it is heard by no + man; and a thousand times better when it is purely mental. + + "To a man contaminated by sensuality, neither the Vedas, nor + liberality, nor sacrifices, nor strict observances, nor pious + austerities, ever procure felicity. + + "As he who digs deep with a spade comes to a spring of water, so the + student, who humbly serves his teacher, attains the knowledge which + lies deep in his teacher's mind. + + "If the sun should rise and set, while he sleeps through sensual + indulgence, and knows it not, he must fast a whole day repeating the + gayatri. + + "Let him adore God both at sunrise and at sunset, as the law ordains, + having made his ablution, and keeping his organs controlled; and with + fixed attention let him repeat the text, which he ought to repeat in a + place free from impurity. + + "The twice-born man who shall thus without intermission have passed the + time of his studentship shall ascend after death to the most exalted of + regions, and no more again spring to birth in this lower world." + +The following passages are from Book IV., "On Private Morals":-- + + "Let a Brahman, having dwelt with a preceptor during the first quarter + of a man's life, pass the second quarter of human life in his own + house, when he has contracted a legal marriage. + + "He must live with no injury, or with the least possible injury, to + animated beings, by pursuing those means of gaining subsistence, which + are strictly prescribed by law, except in times of distress. + + "Let him say what is true, but let him say what is pleasing; let him + speak no disagreeable truth, nor let him speak agreeable falsehood; + this is a primeval rule. + + "Let him say 'well and good,' or let him say 'well' only; but let him + not maintain fruitless enmity and altercation with any man. + + "All that depends on another gives pain; and all that depends on + himself gives pleasure; let him know this to be in few words the + definition of pleasure and pain. + + "And for whatever purpose a man bestows a gift, for a similar purpose + he shall receive, with due honor, a similar reward. + + "Both he who respectfully bestows a present, and he who respectfully + accepts it, shall go to a seat of bliss; but, if they act otherwise, to + a region of horror. + + "Let not a man be proud of his rigorous devotion; let him not, having + sacrificed, utter a falsehood; let him not, though injured, insult a + priest; having made a donation, let him never proclaim it. + + "By falsehood the sacrifice becomes vain; by pride the merit of + devotion is lost; by insulting priests life is diminished; and by + proclaiming a largess its fruit is destroyed. + + "For in his passage to the next world, neither his father, nor his + mother, nor his wife, nor his son, nor his kinsmen will remain his + company; his virtue alone will adhere to him. + + "Single is each man born; single he dies; single he receives the reward + of his good, and single the punishment of his evil deeds." + +From Book V., "On Diet":-- + + "The twice-born man who has intentionally eaten a mushroom, the flesh + of a tame hog, or a town cock, a leek, or an onion, or garlic, is + degraded immediately. + + "But having undesignedly tasted either of those six things, he must + perform the penance santapana, or the chandrayana, which anchorites + practise; for other things he must fast a whole day. + + "One of those harsh penances called prajapatya the twice-born man must + perform annually, to purify him from the unknown taint of illicit food; + but he must do particular penance for such food intentionally eaten. + + "He who injures no animated creature shall attain without hardship + whatever he thinks of, whatever he strives for, whatever he fixes his + mind on. + + "Flesh meat cannot be procured without injury to animals, and the + slaughter of animals obstructs the path to beatitude; from flesh meat, + therefore, let man abstain. + + "Attentively considering the formation of bodies, and the death or + confinement of embodied spirits, let him abstain from eating flesh meat + of any kind. + + "Not a mortal exists more sinful than he who, without an oblation to + the manes or the gods, desires to enlarge his own flesh with the flesh + of another creature. + + "By subsisting on pure fruit and on roots, and by eating such grains as + are eaten by hermits, a man reaps not so high a reward as by carefully + abstaining from animal food. + + "In lawfully tasting meat, in drinking fermented liquor, in caressing + women, there is no turpitude; for to such enjoyments men are naturally + prone, but a virtuous abstinence from them produces a signal + compensation. + + "Sacred learning, austere devotion, fire, holy aliment, earth, the + mind, water, smearing with cow-dung, air, prescribed acts of religion, + the sun, and time are purifiers of embodied spirits. + + "But of all pure things purity in acquiring wealth is pronounced the + most excellent; since he who gains wealth with clean hands is truly + pure; not he who is purified merely with earth and water. + + "By forgiveness of injuries, the learned are purified; by liberality, + those who have neglected their duty; by pious meditation, those who + have secret faults; by devout austerity, those who best know the Veda. + + "Bodies are cleansed by water; the mind is purified by truth; the vital + spirit, by theology and devotion; the understanding, by clear + knowledge. + + "No sacrifice is allowed to women apart from their husbands, no + religious rite, no fasting; as far only as a wife honors her lord, so + far she is exalted in heaven. + + "A faithful wife, who wishes to attain in heaven the mansion of her + husband, must do nothing unkind to him, be he living or dead. + + "Let her emaciate her body by living voluntarily on pure flowers, + roots, and fruit; but let her not, when her lord is deceased, even + pronounce the name of another man. + + "Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh + duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the + incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women as + were devoted to one only husband." + +The Sixth Book of the Laws of Manu relates to devotion. It seems that the +Brahmans were in the habit of becoming ascetics, or, as the Roman +Catholics would say, entering Religion. A Brahman, or twice-born man, who +wishes to become an ascetic, must abandon his home and family, and go to +live in the forest. His food must be roots and fruit, his clothing a bark +garment or a skin, he must bathe morning and evening, and suffer his hair +to grow. He must spend his time in reading the Veda, with a mind intent on +the Supreme Being, "a perpetual giver but no receiver of gifts; with +tender affection for all animated bodies." He is to perform various +sacrifices with offerings of fruits and flowers, practise austerities by +exposing himself to heat and cold, and "for the purpose of uniting his +soul with the Divine Spirit he must study the Upanishads." + + "A Brahman, having shuffled off his body by these modes, which great + sages practise, and becoming void of sorrow and fear, it exalted into + the divine essence." + + "Let him not wish for death. Let him not wish for life. Let him expect + his appointed time, as the hired servant expects his wages." + + "Meditating on the Supreme Spirit, without any earthly desire, with no + companion but his own soul, let him live in this world seeking the + bliss of the next." + +The anchorite is to beg food, but only once a day; if it is not given to +him, he must not be sorrowful, and if he receives it he must not be glad; +he is to meditate on the "subtle indivisible essence of the Supreme +Being," he is to be careful not to destroy the life of the smallest +insect, and he must make atonement for the death of those which he has +ignorantly destroyed by making six suppressions of his breath, repeating +at the same time the triliteral syllable A U M. He will thus at last +become united with the Eternal Spirit, and his good deeds will be +inherited by those who love him, and his evil deeds by those who hate him. + +The Seventh Book relates to the duties of rulers. One of these is to +reward the good and punish the wicked. The genius of punishment is a son +of Brahma, and has a body of pure light. Punishment is an active ruler, +governs all mankind, dispenses laws, preserves the race, and is the +perfection of justice. Without it all classes would become corrupt, all +barriers would fall, and there would be total confusion. Kings are to +respect the Brahmans, must shun vices, must select good counsellors and +brave soldiers. A King must be a father to his people. When he goes to war +he must observe the rules of honorable warfare, must not use poisoned +arrows, strike a fallen enemy, nor one who sues for life, nor one without +arms, nor one who surrenders. He is not to take too little revenue, and so +"cut up his own root"; nor too much, and so "cut up the root of others"; +he is to be severe when it is necessary, and mild when it is necessary. + +The Eighth Book relates to civil and criminal law. The Raja is to hold his +court every day, assisted by his Brahmans, and decide causes concerning +debts and loans, sales, wages, contracts, boundaries, slander, assaults, +larceny, robbery, and other crimes. The Raja, "understanding what is +expedient or inexpedient, but considering only what is law or not law," +should examine all disputes. He must protect unprotected women, restore +property to its rightful owner, not encourage litigation, and decide +according to the rules of law. These rules correspond very nearly to our +law of evidence. Witnesses are warned to speak the truth in all cases by +the consideration that, though they may think that none see them, the gods +distinctly see them and also the spirit in their own breasts. + + "The soul itself is its own witness, the soul itself is its own refuge; + offend not thy conscious soul, the supreme internal witness of men." + + "The fruit of every virtuous act which thou hast done, O good man, + since thy birth, shall depart from thee to the dogs, if thou deviate + from the truth." + + "O friend to virtue, the Supreme Spirit, which is the same with + thyself, resides in thy bosom perpetually, and is an all-knowing + inspector of thy goodness or wickedness." + +The law then proceeds to describe the punishments which the gods would +inflict upon false witnesses; but, curiously enough, allows false witness +to be given, from a benevolent motive, in order to save an innocent man +from a tyrant. This is called "the venial sin of benevolent falsehood." +The book then proceeds to describe weights and measures, and the rate of +usury, which is put down as five percent. It forbids compound interest. +The law of deposits occupies a large space, as in all Eastern countries, +where investments are difficult. A good deal is said about the wages of +servants, especially of those hired to keep cattle, and their +responsibilities. The law of slander is carefully laid down. Crimes of +violence are also minutely described, and here the _Lex Talionis_ comes +in. If a man strikes a human being or an animal so as to inflict much +pain, he shall be struck himself in the same way. A man is allowed to +correct with a small stick his wife, son, or servant, but not on the head +or any noble part of the body. The Brahmans, however, are protected by +special laws. + + "Never shall the king flay a Brahman, though convicted of all possible + crimes: let him banish the offender from his realm, but with all his + property secure and his body unhurt." + + "No greater crime is known on earth than flaying a Brahman; and the + king, therefore, must not even form in his mind the idea of killing a + priest." + +The Ninth Book relates to women, to families, and to the law of castes. It +states that women must be kept in a state of dependence. + + "Their fathers protect them in childhood; their husbands protect them + in youth; their sons protect them in age. A woman is never fit for + independence." + +It is the duty of men to watch and guard women, and very unfavorable +opinions are expressed concerning the female character. + + "Women have no business with the text of the Veda; this is fully + settled; therefore having no knowledge of expiatory texts, sinful women + must be as foul as falsehood itself. This is a fixed law." + +It is, however, stated that good women become like goddesses, and shall be +joined with their husbands in heaven; and that a man is only perfect when +he consists of three persons united,--his wife, himself, and his son. Manu +also attributes to ancient Brahmans a maxim almost verbally the same as +that of the Bible, namely, "The husband is even one person with his wife." +Nothing is said by Manu concerning the cremation of widows, but, on the +other hand, minute directions are given for the behavior of widows during +their life. Directions are also given concerning the marriage of daughters +and sons and their inheritance of property. The rest of the book is +devoted to a further description of crimes and punishments. + +The Tenth Book relates to the mixed classes and times of distress. + +The Eleventh Book relates to penance and expiation. In this book is +mentioned the remarkable rite which consists in drinking the fermented +juice of the moon-plant (or acid asclepias) with religious ceremonies. +This Hindu sacrament began in the Vedic age, and the Sanhita of the +Sama-Veda consists of hymns to be sung at the moon-plant sacrifice.[51] +This ceremony is still practised occasionally in India, and Dr. Hang has +tasted this sacred beverage, which he describes as astringent, bitter, +intoxicating, and very disagreeable.[52] It is stated by Manu that no one +has a right to drink this sacred juice who does not properly provide for +his own household. He encourages sacrifices by declaring that they are +highly meritorious and will expiate sin. Involuntary sins require a much +lighter penance than those committed with knowledge. Crimes committed by +Brahmans require a less severe penance than those performed by others; +while those committed against Brahmans involve a much deeper guilt and +require severer penance. The law declares:-- + + "From his high birth alone a Brahman is an object of veneration, even + to deities, and his declarations are decisive evidence." + + "A Brahman, who has performed an expiation with his whole mind fixed on + God, purifies his soul." + +Drinking intoxicating liquor (except in the Soma sacrifice) is strictly +prohibited, and it is even declared that a Brahman who tastes intoxicating +liquor sinks to the low caste of a Sudra. If a Brahman who has tasted the +Soma juice even smells the breath of a man who has been drinking spirits, +he must do penance by repeating the Gayatri, suppressing his breath, and +eating clarified butter. Next to Brahmans, cows were the objects of +reverence, probably because, in the earliest times, the Aryan race, as +nomads, depended on this animal for food. He who kills a cow must perform +very severe penances, among which are these:-- + + "All day he must wait on a herd of cows and stand quaffing the dust + raised by their hoofs; at night, having servilely attended them, he + must sit near and guard them." + + "Free from passion, he must stand while they stand, follow when they + move, and lie down near them when they lie down." + + "By thus waiting on a herd for three months, he who has killed a cow + atones for his guilt." + +For such offences as cutting down fruit-trees or grasses, or killing +insects, or injuring sentient creatures, the penance is to repeat so many +texts of the Veda, to eat clarified butter, or to stop the breath. A +low-born man who treats a Brahman disrespectfully, or who even overcomes +him in argument, must fast all day and fall prostrate before him. He who +strikes a Brahman shall remain in hell a thousand years. Great, however, +is the power of sincere devotion. By repentance, open confession, reading +the Scripture, almsgiving, and reformation, one is released from guilt. +Devotion, it is said, is equal to the performance of all duties; and even +the souls of worms and insects and vegetables attain heaven by the power +of devotion. But especially great is the sanctifying influence of the +Vedas. He who can repeat the whole of the Rig-Veda would be free from +guilt, even if he had killed the inhabitants of the three worlds. + +The last book of Manu is on transmigration and final beatitude. The +principle is here laid down that every human action, word, and thought +bears its appropriate fruit, good or evil. Out of the heart proceed three +sins of thought, four sins of the tongue, and three of the body, namely, +covetous, disobedient, and atheistic thoughts; scurrilous, false, +frivolous, and unkind words; and actions of theft, bodily injury, and +licentiousness. He who controls his thoughts, words, and actions is called +a triple commander. There are three qualities of the soul, giving it a +tendency to goodness, to passion, and to darkness. The first leads to +knowledge, the second to desire, the third to sensuality. To the first +belong study of Scripture, devotion, purity, self-command, and obedience. +From the second proceed hypocritical actions, anxiety, disobedience, and +self-indulgence. The third produces avarice, atheism, indolence, and every +act which a man is ashamed of doing. The object of the first quality is +virtue; of the second, worldly success; of the third, pleasure. The souls +in which the first quality is supreme rise after death to the condition of +deities; those in whom the second rules pass into the bodies of other +men; while those under the dominion of the third become beasts and +vegetables. Manu proceeds to expound, in great detail, this law of +transmigration. For great sins one is condemned to pass a great many times +into the bodies of dogs, insects, spiders, snakes, or grasses. The change +has relation to the crime: thus, he who steals grain shall be born a rat; +he who steals meat, a vulture; those who indulge in forbidden pleasures of +the senses shall have their senses made acute to endure intense pain. + +The highest of all virtues is disinterested goodness, performed from the +love of God, and based on the knowledge of the Veda. A religious action, +performed from hope of reward in this world or the next, will give one a +place in the lowest heaven. But he who performs good actions without hope +of reward, "perceiving the supreme soul in all beings, and all beings in +the supreme soul, fixing his mind on God, approaches the divine nature." + + "Let every Brahman, with fixed attention, consider all nature as + existing in the Divine Spirit; all worlds as seated in him; he alone as + the whole assemblage of gods; and he the author of all human actions." + + "Let him consider the supreme omnipresent intelligence as the sovereign + lord of the universe, by whom alone it exists, an incomprehensible + spirit; pervading all beings in five elemental forms, and causing them + to pass through birth, growth, and decay, and so to revolve like the + wheels of a car." + + "Thus the man who perceives in his own soul the supreme soul present in + all creatures, acquires equanimity toward them all, and shall be + absolved at last in the highest essence, even that of the Almighty + himself." + +We have given these copious extracts from the Brahmanic law, because this +code is so ancient and authentic, and contains the bright consummate +flower of the system, before decay began to come. + + + +Sec. 6. The Three Hindoo Systems of Philosophy,--Sankhya, Vedanta, and Nyasa. + + +Duncker says[53] that the Indian systems of philosophy were produced in +the sixth or seventh century before Christ. As the system of Buddha +implies the existence of the Sankhya philosophy, the latter must have +preceded Buddhism.[54] Moreover, Kapila and his two principles are +distinctly mentioned in the Laws of Manu,[55] and in the later +Upanishads.[56] This brings it to the Brahmana period of Max Mueller, B.C. +600 to B.C. 800, and probably still earlier. Dr. Weber at one time was of +the opinion that Kapila and Buddha were the same person, but afterward +retracted this opinion.[57] Colebrooke says that Kapila is mentioned in +the Veda itself, but intimates that this is probably another sage of the +same name.[58] The sage was even considered to be an incarnation of +Vischnu, or of Agni. The Vedanta philosophy is also said by Lassen to be +mentioned in the Laws of Manu.[59] This system is founded on the +Upanishads, and would seem to be later than that of Kapila, since it +criticises his system, and devotes much space to its confutation.[60] But +Duncker regards it as the oldest, and already beginning in the Upanishads +of the Vedas.[61] As the oldest works now extant in both systems are later +than their origin, this question of date can only be determined from their +contents. That which logically precedes the other must be chronologically +the oldest. + +The Sankhya system of Kapila is contained in many works, but notably in +the Karika, or Sankhya-Karika, by Iswara Krishna. This consists in +eighty-two memorial verses, with a commentary.[62] The Vedanta is +contained in the Sutras, the Upanishads, and especially the Brahma-Sutra +attributed to Vyasa.[63] The Nyaya is to be found in the Sutras of Gotama +and Canade.[64] + +These three systems of Hindoo philosophy, the Sankhya, the Nyaya, and the +Vedanta, reach far back into a misty twilight, which leaves it doubtful +when they began or who were their real authors. In some points they agree, +in others they are widely opposed. They all agree in having for their +object deliverance from the evils of time, change, sorrow, into an eternal +rest and peace. Their aim is, therefore, not merely speculative, but +practical. All agree in considering existence to be an evil, understanding +by existence a life in time and space. All are idealists, to whom the +world of sense and time is a delusion and snare, and who regard the Idea +as the only substance. All agree in accepting the fact of transmigration, +the cessation of which brings final deliverance. All consider that the +means of this deliverance is to be found in knowledge, in a perfect +knowledge of reality as opposed to appearance. And all are held by +Brahmans, who consider themselves orthodox, who honor the Vedas above all +other books, pay complete respect to the Hinduism of the day, perform the +daily ceremonies, and observe the usual caste rules.[65] The systems of +philosophy supplement the religious worship, but are not intended to +destroy it. The Vedantists hold that while in truth there is but one God, +the various forms of worship in the Vedas, of Indra, Agni, the Maruts, +etc., were all intended for those who could not rise to this sublime +monotheism. Those who believe in the Sankhya maintain that though it +wholly omits God, and is called "the system without a God," it merely +omits, but does not deny, the Divine existence.[66] + +Each of these philosophies has a speculative and a practical side. The +speculative problem is, How did the universe come? The practical problem +is, How shall man be delivered from evil? + +In answering the first question, the Vedanta, or Mimansa doctrine, +proceeds from a single eternal and uncreated Principle; declaring that +there is only ONE being in the universe, God or Brahm, and that all else +is Maya, or illusion. The Sankhya accepts TWO eternal and uncreated +substances, Soul and Nature. The Nyaya assumes THREE eternal and uncreated +substances,--Atoms, Souls, and God. + +The solution of the second problem is the same in all three systems. It is +by knowledge that the soul is emancipated from body or matter or nature. +Worship is inadequate, though not to be despised. Action is injurious +rather than beneficial, for it implies desire. Only knowledge can lead to +entire rest and peace. + +According to all three systems, the transmigration of the soul through +different bodies is an evil resulting from desire. As long as the soul +wishes anything, it will continue to migrate and to suffer. When it +gathers itself up into calm insight, it ceases to wander and finds repose. + +The _Vedanta_ or _Mimansa_ is supposed to be referred to in Manu.[67] +_Mimansa_ means "searching." In its logical forms it adopts the method so +common among the scholastics, in first stating the question, then giving +the objection, after that the reply to the objection, and lastly the +conclusion. The first part of the Mimansa relates to worship and the +ceremonies and ritual of the Veda. The second part teaches the doctrine of +Brahma. Brahma is the one, eternal, absolute, unchangeable Being. He +unfolds into the universe as Creator and Created. He becomes first ether, +then air, then fire, then water, then earth. From these five elements all +bodily existence proceeds. Souls are sparks from the central fire of +Brahma, separated for a time, to be absorbed again at last. + +Brahma, in his highest form as Para-Brahm, stands for the Absolute Being. +The following extract from the Sama-Veda (after Haug's translation) +expresses this: "The generation of Brahma was before all ages, unfolding +himself evermore in a beautiful glory; everything which is highest and +everything which is deepest belongs to him. Being and Not-Being are +unveiled through Brahma." + +The following passage is from a Upanishad, translated by Windischmann:-- + +"How can any one teach concerning Brahma? he is neither the known nor the +unknown. That which cannot be expressed by words, but through which all +expression comes, this I know to be Brahma. That which cannot be thought +by the mind, but by which all thinking comes, this I know is Brahma. That +which cannot be seen by the eye, but by which the eye sees, is Brahma. If +thou thinkest that thou canst know it, then in truth thou knowest it very +little. To whom it is unknown, he knows it; but to whom it is known, he +knows it not." + +This also is from Windischmann, from the Kathaka Upanishad: "One cannot +attain to it through the word, through the mind, or through the eye. It is +only reached by him who says, 'It is! It is!' He perceives it in its +essence. Its essence appears when one perceives it as it is." + +The old German expression _Istigkeit_, according to Bunsen, corresponds to +this. This also is the name of Jehovah as given to Moses from the burning +bush: "And God said unto Moses, I AM THE I AM. Thus shalt thou say unto +the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." The idea is that God +alone really exists, and that the root of all being is in him. This is +expressed in another Upanishad: "HE WHO EXISTS is the root of all +creatures; he WHO EXISTS is their foundation, and in him they rest." + +In the Vedanta philosophy this speculative pantheism is carried further. +Thus speaks Sankara, the chief teacher of the Vedanta philosophy +("Colebrooke's Essays"): "I am the great Brahma, eternal, pure, free, one, +constant, happy, existing without end. He who ceases to contemplate other +things, who retires into solitude, annihilates his desires, and subjects +his passions, he understands that Spirit is the One and the Eternal. The +wise man annihilates all sensible things in spiritual things, and +contemplates that one Spirit who resembles pure space. Brahma is without +size, quality, character, or division." + +According to this philosophy (says Bunsen) the world is the Not-Being. It +is, says Sankara, "appearance without Being; it is like the deception of a +dream." "The soul itself," he adds, "has no actual being." + +There is an essay on Vedantism in a book published in Calcutta, 1854, by a +young Hindoo, Shoshee Chunder Dutt, which describes the creation as +proceeding from Maya, in this way: "Dissatisfied with his own solitude, +Brahma feels a desire to create worlds, and then the volition ceases so +far as he is concerned, and he sinks again into his apathetic happiness, +while the desire, thus willed into existence, assumes an active character. +It becomes Maya, and by this was the universe created, without exertion on +the part of Brahma. This passing wish of Brahma carried, however, no +reality with it. And the creation proceeding from it is only an illusion. +There is only one absolute Unity really existing, and existing without +plurality. But he is like one asleep. Krishna, in the Gita, says: 'These +works (the universe) confine not me, for I am like one who sitteth aloof +uninterested in them all.' The universe is therefore all illusion, holding +a position between something and nothing. It is real as an illusion, but +unreal as being. It is not true, because it has no essence; but not false, +because its existence, even as illusion, is from God. The Vedanta +declares: 'From the highest state of Brahma to the lowest condition of a +straw, all things are delusion.'" Chunder Dutt, however, contradicts +Bunsen's assertion that the soul also is an illusion according to the +Vedanta. "The soul," he says, "is not subject to birth or death, but is in +its substance, from Brahma himself." The truth seems to be that the +Vedanta regards the individuation of the soul as from Maya and illusive, +but the substance of the soul is from Brahma, and destined to be absorbed +into him. As the body of man is to be resolved into its material elements, +so the soul of man is to be resolved into Brahma. This substance of the +soul is neither born nor dies, nor is it a thing of which it can be said, +"It was, is, or shall be." In the Gita, Krishna tells Arjun that he and +the other princes of the world "never were not."[68] + +The Vedantist philosopher, however, though he considers all souls as +emanations from God, does not believe that all of them will return into +God at death. Those only who have obtained a knowledge of God are rewarded +by absorption, but the rest continue to migrate from body to body so long +as they remain unqualified for the same. "The knower of God becomes God." +This union with the Deity is the total loss of personal identity, and is +the attainment of the highest bliss, in which are no grades and from which +is no return. This absorption comes not from good works or penances, for +these confine the soul and do not liberate it. "The confinement of fetters +is the same whether the chain be of gold or iron." "The knowledge which +realizes that everything is Brahm alone liberates the soul. It annuls the +effect both of our virtues and vices. We traverse thereby both merit and +demerit, the heart's knot is broken, all doubts are split, and all our +works perish. Only by perfect abstraction, not merely from the senses, but +also from the thinking intellect and by remaining in the knowing +intellect, does the devotee become identified with Brahm. He then remains +as pure glass when the shadow has left it. He lives destitute of passions +and affections. He lives sinless; for as water wets not the leaf of the +lotus, so sin touches not him who knows God." He stands in no further need +of virtue, for "of what use can be a winnowing fan when the sweet southern +wind is blowing." His meditations are of this sort: "I am Brahm, I am +life. I am everlasting, perfect, self-existent, undivided, joyful." + +If therefore, according to this system, knowledge alone unites the soul to +God, the question comes, Of what use are acts of virtue, penances, +sacrifices, worship? The answer is, that they effect a happy +transmigration from the lower forms of bodily life to higher ones. They +do not accomplish the great end, which is absorption and escape from Maya, +but they prepare the way for it by causing one to be born in a higher +condition. + +The second system of philosophy, the Sankhya of Kapila, is founded not on +one principle, like the Vedanta, but on two. According to the seventy +aphorisms, Nature is one of these principles. It is uncreated and eternal. +It is one, active, creating, non-intelligent. The other of the two +principles, also uncreated and eternal, is Soul, or rather Souls. Souls +are many, passive, not creative, intelligent, and in all things the +opposite to Nature. But from the union of the two all the visible universe +proceeds, according to the law of cause and effect. + +God not being recognized in this system, it is often called atheism. Its +argument, to show that no one perfect being could create the universe, is +this. Desire implies want, or imperfection. Accordingly, if God desired to +create, he would be unable to do so; if he was able, he would not desire +to do it. In neither case, therefore, could God have created the universe. +The gods are spoken of by the usual names, Brahma, Indra, etc., but are +all finite beings, belonging to the order of human souls, though superior. + +Every soul is clothed in two bodies,--the interior original body, the +individualizing force, which is eternal as itself and accompanies it +through all its migrations; and the material, secondary body, made of the +five elements, ether, air, fire, water, and earth. The original body is +subtile and spiritual. It is the office of Nature to liberate the Soul. +Nature is not what we perceive by the senses, but an invisible plastic +principle behind, which must be known by the intellect. As the Soul +ascends by goodness, it is freed by knowledge. The final result of this +emancipation is the certainty of non-existence,--"neither I am, nor is +aught mine, nor do I exist,"--which seems to be the same result as that of +Hegel, Being = Not-Being. Two or three of the aphorisms of the Karika are +as follows:-- + + + "LIX. As a dancer, having exhibited herself to the spectator, desists + from the dance, so does Nature desist, having manifested herself to the + Soul." + + "LX. Generous Nature, endued with qualities, does by manifold means + accomplish, without benefit (to herself), the wish of ungrateful Soul, + devoid of qualities." + + "LXI. Nothing, in my opinion, is more gentle than Nature; once aware of + having been seen, she does not again expose herself to the gaze of + Soul." + + "LXVI. Soul desists, because it has seen Nature. Nature desists, + because she has been seen. In their (mere) union there is no motive for + creation." + +Accordingly, the result of knowledge is to put an end to creation, and to +leave the Soul emancipated from desire, from change, from the material +body, in a state which is Being, but not Existence (_esse,_ not +_existere_; Seyn, not Da-seyn). + +This Sankhya philosophy becomes of great importance, when we consider that +it was the undoubted source of Buddhism. This doctrine which we have been +describing was the basis of Buddhism.[69] + +M. Cousin has called it the sensualism of India,[70] but certainly without +propriety. It is as purely ideal a doctrine as that of the Vedas. Its two +eternal principles are both ideal. The plastic force which is one of them, +Kapila distinctly declares cannot be perceived by the senses.[71] Soul, +the other eternal and uncreated principle, who "is witness, solitary, +bystander, spectator, and passive,"[72] is not only spiritual itself, but +is clothed with a spiritual body, within the material body. In fact, the +Karika declares the material universe to be the result of the contact of +the Soul with Nature, and consists in chains with which Nature binds +herself, for the purpose (unconscious) of delivering the Soul. When by a +process of knowledge the Soul looks through these, and perceives the +ultimate principle beyond, the material universe ceases, and both Soul and +Nature are emancipated.[73] + +One of the definitions of the Karika will call to mind the fourfold +division of the universe by the great thinker of the ninth century, +Erigena. In his work, [Greek: peri phuseos merismou] he asserts that there +is, (1.) A Nature which creates and is not created. (2.) A Nature which is +created and creates. (3.) A Nature which is created and does not create. +(4.) A Nature which neither creates nor is created. So Kapila (Karika, 3) +says, "Nature, the root of all things, is productive but not a production. +Seven principles are productions and productive. Sixteen are productions +but not productive. Soul is neither a production nor productive." + +Mr. Muir (Sanskrit Texts, Part III. p. 96) quotes the following passages +in proof of the antiquity of Kapila, and the respect paid to his doctrine +in very early times:-- + + + _Svet. Upanishad._ "The God who superintends every mode of production + and all forms, who formerly nourished with various knowledge his son + Kapila the rishi, and beheld him at his birth." + + "_Bhagavat Purana_ (I. 3, 10) makes Kapila an incarnation of Vischnu. + In his fifth incarnation, in the form of Kapila, he declared to Asuri + the Sankhya which defines the collection of principles. + + "_Bhagavat Purana_ (IX. 8, 12) relates that Kapila, being attacked by + the sons of King Sangara, destroyed them with fire which issued from + his body. But the author of the Purana denies that this was done in + _anger_. 'How could the sage, by whom the strong ship of the Sankhya + was launched, on which the man seeking emancipation crosses the ocean + of existence, entertain the distinction of friend and foe'?" + +The Sankhya system is also frequently mentioned in the Mahabarata. + +The Nyaya system differs from that of Kapila, by assuming a third eternal +and indestructible principle as the basis of matter, namely, _Atoms_. It +also assumes the existence of a Supreme Soul, Brahma, who is almighty and +allwise. It agrees with Kapila in making all souls eternal, and distinct +from body. Its evil to be overcome is the same, namely, transmigration; +and its method of release is the same, namely _Buddhi_, or knowledge. It +is a more dialectic system than the others, and is rather of the nature of +a logic than a philosophy. + +Mr. Banerjea, in his Dialogues on the Hindu philosophy, considers the +Buddhists' system as closely resembling the Nyaya system. He regards the +Buddhist Nirvana as equivalent to the emancipation of the Nyaya system. +Apavarga, or emancipation, is declared in this philosophy to be final +deliverance from pain, birth, activity, fault, and false notions. Even so +the Pali doctrinal books speak of Nirvana as an exemption from old age, +disease, and death. In it desire, anger, and ignorance are consumed by the +fire of knowledge. Here all selfish distinctions of mine and thine, all +evil thoughts, all slander and jealousy, are cut down by the weapon of +knowledge. Here we have an experience of immortality which is cessation of +all trouble and perfect felicity.[74] + + + +Sec. 7. Origin of the Hindoo Triad. + + +There had gradually grown up among the people a worship founded on that of +the ancient Vedas. In the West of India, the god RUDRA, mentioned in the +Vedic hymns, had been transformed into Siva. In the Rig-Veda Rudra is +sometimes the name for Agni.[75] He is described as father of the winds. +He is the same as Maha-deva. He is fierce and beneficent at once. He +presides over medicinal plants. According to Weber (Indische Stud., II. +19) he is the Storm-God. The same view is taken by Professor Whitney.[76] +But his worship gradually extended, until, under the name of Siva, the +Destroyer, he became one of the principal deities of India. Meantime, in +the valley of the Ganges, a similar devotion had grown up for the Vedic +god VISCHNU, who in like manner had been promoted to the chief rank in the +Hindoo Pantheon. He had been elevated to the character of a Friend and +Protector, gifted with mild attributes, and worshipped as the life of +Nature. By accepting the popular worship, the Brahmans were able to oppose +Buddhism with success. + +We have no doubt that the Hindoo Triad came from the effort of the +Brahmans to unite all India in one worship, and it may for a time have +succeeded. Images of the Trimurtti, or three-faced God, are frequent in +India, and this is still the object of Brahmanical worship. But beside +this practical motive, the tendency of thought is always toward a triad of +law, force, or elemental substance, as the best explanation of the +universe. Hence there have been Triads in so many religions: in Egypt, of +_Osiris_ the Creator, _Typhon_ the Destroyer, and _Horus_ the Preserver; +in Persia, of _Ormazd_ the Creator, _Ahriman_ the Destroyer, and _Mithra_ +the Restorer; in Buddhism, of _Buddha_ the Divine Man, _Dharmma_ the Word, +and _Sangha_ the Communion of Saints. Simple monotheism does not long +satisfy the speculative intellect, because, though it accounts for the +harmonies of creation, it leaves its discords unexplained. But a dualism +of opposing forces is found still more unsatisfactory, for the world does +not appear to be such a scene of utter warfare and discord as this. So the +mind comes to accept a Triad, in which the unities of life and growth +proceed from one element, the antagonisms from a second, and the higher +harmonies of reconciled oppositions from a third. The Brahmanical Triad +arose in the same way.[77] + +Thus grew up, from amid the spiritual pantheism into which all Hindoo +religion seemed to have settled, another system, that of the Trimurtti, or +Divine Triad; the Indian Trinity of _Brahma, Vischnu_, and _Siva_. This +Triad expresses the unity of Creation, Destruction, and Restoration. A +foundation for this already existed in a Vedic saying, that the highest +being exists in three states, that of creation, continuance, and +destruction. + +Neither of these three supreme deities of Brahmanism held any high rank in +the Vedas. Siva (Civa) does not appear therein at all, nor, according to +Lassen, is Brahma mentioned in the Vedic hymns, but first in a Upanishad. +Vischnu is spoken of in the Rig-Veda, but always as one of the names for +the sun. He is the Sun-God. His three steps are sunrise, noon, and sunset. +He is mentioned as one of the sons of Aditi; he is called the +"wide-stepping," "measurer of the world," "the strong," "the deliverer," +"renewer of life," "who sets in motion the revolutions of time," "a +protector," "preserving the highest heaven." Evidently he begins his +career in this mythology as the sun. + +BRAHMA, at first a word meaning prayer and devotion, becomes in the laws +of Manu the primal God, first-born of the creation, from the self-existent +being, in the form of a golden egg. He became the creator of all things by +the power of prayer. In the struggle for ascendency which took place +between the priests and the warriors, Brahma naturally became the deity of +the former. But, meantime, as we have seen, the worship of Vischnu had +been extending itself in one region and that of Siva in another. Then took +place those mysterious wars between the kings of the Solar and Lunar +races, of which the great epics contain all that we know. And at the close +of these wars a compromise was apparently accepted, by which Brahma, +Vischnu, and Siva were united in one supreme God, as creator, preserver, +and destroyer, all in one. + +It is almost certain that this Hindoo Triad was the result of an ingenious +and successful attempt, on the part of the Brahmans, to unite all classes +of worshippers in India against the Buddhists. In this sense the Brahmans +edited anew the Mahabharata, inserting in that epic passages extolling +Vischnu in the form of Krishna. The Greek accounts of India which followed +the invasion of Alexander speak of the worship of Hercules as prevalent +in the East, and by Hercules they apparently mean the god Krishna.[78] +The struggle between the Brahmans and Buddhists lasted during nine +centuries (from A.D. 500 to A.D. 1400), ending with the total expulsion of +Buddhism, and the triumphant establishment of the Triad, as the worship of +India.[79] + +Before this Triad or Trimurtti (of Brahma, Vischnu, and Siva) there seems +to have been another, consisting of Agni, Indra, and Surya.[80] This may +have given the hint of the second Triad, which distributed among the three +gods the attributes of Creation, Destruction, and Renovation. Of these +Brahma, the Creator, ceased soon to be popular, and the worship of Siva +and Vischnu as Krishna remain as the popular religion of India. + +One part, and a very curious one, of the worship of Vischnu is the +doctrine of the Avatars, or incarnations of that deity. There are ten of +these Avatars,--nine have passed and one is to come. The object of Vischnu +is, each time, to save the gods from destruction impending over them in +consequence of the immense power acquired by some king, giant, or demon, +by superior acts of austerity and piety. For here, as elsewhere, extreme +spiritualism is often divorced from morality; and so these extremely +pious, spiritual, and self-denying giants are the most cruel and +tyrannical monsters, who must be destroyed at all hazards. Vischnu, by +force or fraud, overcomes them all. + +His first Avatar is of the Fish, as related in the Mahabharata. The object +was to recover the Vedas, which had been stolen by a demon from Brahma +when asleep. In consequence of this loss the human race became corrupt, +and were destroyed by a deluge, except a pious prince and seven holy men +who were saved in a ship. Vischnu, as a large fish, drew the ship safely +over the water, killed the demon, and recovered the Vedas. The second +Avatar was in a Turtle, to make the drink of immortality. The third was in +a Boar, the fourth in a Man-Lion, the fifth in the Dwarf who deceived +Bali, who had become so powerful by austerities as to conquer the gods +and take possession of Heaven. In the eighth Avatar he appears as Krishna +and in the ninth as Buddha. + +This system of Avatars is so peculiar and so deeply rooted in the system, +that it would seem to indicate some law of Hindoo thought. Perhaps some +explanation may be reached thus:-- + +We observe that,-- + +Vischnu does not mediate between Brahma and Siva, but between the deities +and the lower races of men or demons. + +The danger arises from a certain fate or necessity which is superior both +to gods and men. There are laws which enable a man to get away from the +power of Brahma and Siva. + +But what is this necessity but nature, or the nature of things, the laws +of the outward world of active existences? It is not till essence becomes +existence, till spirit passes into action, that it becomes subject to law. + +The danger then is from the world of nature. The gods are pure spirit, and +spirit is everything. But, now and then, nature _seems to be something_, +it will not be ignored or lost in God. Personality, activity, or human +nature rebel against the pantheistic idealism, the abstract spiritualism +of this system. + +To conquer body, Vischnu or spirit enters into body, again and again. +Spirit must appear as body to destroy Nature. For thus is shown that +spirit cannot be excluded from anything,--that it can descend into the +lowest forms of life, and work _in_ law as well as above law. + +But all the efforts of Brahmanism could not arrest the natural development +of the system. It passed on into polytheism and idolatry. The worship of +India for many centuries has been divided into a multitude of sects. While +the majority of the Brahmans still profess to recognize the equal divinity +of Brahma, Vischnu, and Siva, the mass of the people worship Krishna, +Rama, the Lingam, and many other gods and idols. There are Hindoo atheists +who revile the Vedas; there are the Kabirs, who are a sort of Hindoo +Quakers, and oppose all worship; the _Ramanujas_, an ancient sect of +Vischnu worshippers; the _Ramavats_, living in monasteries; the _Panthis_, +who oppose all austerities; the _Maharajas_, whose religion consists with +great licentiousness. Most of these are worshippers of Vischnu or of Siva, +for Brahma-worship has wholly disappeared. + + + +Sec. 8. The Epics, the Puranas, and modern Hindoo Worship. + + +The Hindoos have two great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, each +of immense length, and very popular with the people. Mr. Talboys Wheeler +has recently incorporated both epics (of course much abridged) into his +History of India, and we must refer our readers to his work for a +knowledge of these remarkable poems. The whole life of ancient India +appears in them, and certainly they are not unworthy products of the +genius of that great nation. + +According to Lassen,[81] the period to which the great Indian epics refer +follows directly on the Vedic age. Yet they contain passages inserted at a +much later epoch, probably, indeed, as long after as the war which ended +in the expulsion of the Buddhists from India.[82] Mr. Talboys Wheeler +considers the war of Rama and the Monkeys against Ravana to refer to this +conflict, and so makes the Ramayana later than the Mahabharata. The +majority of writers, however, differ from him on this point. The writers +of the Mahabharata were evidently Brahmans, educated under the laws of +Manu.[83] But it is very difficult to fix the date of either poem with any +approach to accuracy. Lassen has proved that the greater part of the +Mahabharata was written before the political establishment of +Buddhism.[84] These epics were originally transmitted by oral tradition. +They must have been brought to their present forms by Brahmans, for their +doctrine is that of this priesthood. Now if such poems had been composed +after the time of Asoka, when Buddhism became a state religion in India, +it must have been often referred to. No such references appear in these +epics, except in some solitary passages, which are evidently modern +additions.[85] Hence the epics must have been composed before the time of +Buddhism. This argument of Lassen's is thought by Max Mueller to be +conclusive, and if so it disproves Mr. Talboys Wheeler's view of the +purpose of the Ramayana. + +Few Hindoos now read the Vedas. The Puranas and the two great epics +constitute their sacred books. The Ramayana contains about fifty thousand +lines, and is held in great veneration by the Hindoos. It describes the +youth of Rama, who is an incarnation of Vischnu, his banishment and +residence in Central India, and his war with the giants and demons of the +South, to recover his wife, Sita. It probably is founded on some real war +between the early Aryan invaders of Hindostan and the indigenous +inhabitants. + +The Mahabharata, which is probably of later date, contains about two +hundred and twenty thousand lines, and is divided into eighteen books, +each of which would make a large volume. It is supposed to have been +collected by Vyasa, who also collected the Vedas and Puranas. These +legends are very old, and seem to refer to the early history of India. +There appear to have been two Aryan dynasties in ancient India,--the Solar +and Lunar. Rama belonged to the first and Bharata to the second. Pandu, a +descendant of the last, has five brave sons, who are the heroes of this +book. One of them, Arjuna, is especially distinguished. One of the +episodes is the famous Bhagavat-gita. Another is called the Brahman's +Lament. Another describes the deluge, showing the tradition of a flood +existing in India many centuries before Christ. Another gives the story of +Savitri and Satyavan. These episodes occupy three fourths of the poem, and +from them are derived most of the legends of the Puranas. A supplement, +which is itself a longer poem than the Iliad and Odyssey combined (which +together contain about thirty thousand lines), is the source of the modern +worship of Krishna. The whole poem represents the multilateral character +of Hinduism. It indicates a higher degree of civilization than that of the +Homeric poems, and describes a vast variety of fruits and flowers existing +under culture. The characters are nobler and purer than those of Homer. +The pictures of domestic and social life are very touching; children are +dutiful to their parents, parents careful of their children; wives are +loyal and obedient, yet independent in their opinions; and peace reigns in +the domestic circle. + +The different works known as the Puranas are derived from the same +religious system as the two epics. They repeat the cosmogony of the poems, +and they relate more fully their mythological legends. Siva and Vischnu +are almost the sole objects of worship in the Puranas. There is a +sectarian element in their devotion to these deities which shows their +partiality, and prevents them from being authorities for Hindoo belief as +a whole.[86] + +The Puranas, in their original form, belong to a period, says Mr. Wilson, +a century before the Christian era. They grew out of the conflict between +Buddhism and Brahmanism. The latter system had offered no personal gods to +the people and given them no outward worship, and the masses had been +uninterested in the abstract view of Deity held by the Brahmans.[87] + +According to Mr. Wilson,[88] there are eighteen Puranas which are now read +by the common people. They are read a great deal by women. Some are very +ancient, or at least contain fragments of more ancient Puranas. The very +word signifies "antiquity." Most of them are devoted to the worship of +Vischnu. According to the Bhagavat Purana,[89] the only reasonable object +of life is to meditate on Vischnu. Brahma, who is called in one place +"the cause of causes," proclaims Vischnu to be the only pure absolute +essence, of which the universe is the manifestation. In the Vischnu +Purana, Brahma, at the head of the gods, adores Vischnu as the Supreme +Being whom he himself cannot understand. + +The power of ascetic penances is highly extolled in the Puranas, as also +in the epics. In the Bhagavat it is said that Brahma, by a penitence of +sixteen thousand years, created the universe. It is even told in the +Ramayana, that a sage of a lower caste became a Brahman by dint of +austerities, in spite of the gods who considered such a confusion of +castes a breach of Hindoo etiquette.[90] To prevent him from continuing +his devotions, they sent a beautiful nymph to tempt him, and their +daughter was the famous Sakuntala. But in the end, the obstinate old +ascetic conquered the gods, and when they still refused to Brahmanize him, +he began to create new heavens and new gods, and had already made a few +stars, when the deities thought it prudent to yield, and allowed him to +become a Brahman. It is also mentioned that the Ganges, the sacred river, +in the course of her wanderings, overflowed the sacrificial ground of +another powerful ascetic, who incontinently drank up, in his anger, all +its waters, but was finally induced by the persuasions of the gods to set +the river free again by discharging it from his ears. Such were the freaks +of sages in the times of the Puranas. + +Never was there a more complete example of piety divorced from morality +than in these theories. The most wicked demons acquire power over gods and +men, by devout asceticism. This principle is already fully developed in +the epic poems. The plot of the Ramayana turns around this idea. A Rajah, +Ravana, had become so powerful by sacrifice and devotion, that he +oppressed the gods; compelled Yama (or Death) to retire from his +dominions; compelled the sun to shine there all the year, and the moon to +be always full above his Raj. Agni (Fire) must not burn in his presence; +the Maruts (Winds) must blow only as he wishes. He cannot be hurt by gods +or demons. So Vischnu becomes incarnate as Rama and the gods become +incarnate as Monkeys, in order to destroy him. Such vast power was +supposed to be attained by piety without morality. + +The Puranas are derived from the same system as the epic poems, and carry +out further the same ideas. Siva and Vischnu are almost the only gods who +are worshipped, and they are worshipped with a sectarian zeal unknown to +the epics. Most of the Puranas contain these five topics,--Creation, +Destruction and Renovation, the Genealogy of the gods, Reigns of the +Manus, and History of the Solar and Lunar races. Their philosophy of +creation is derived from the Sanknya philosophy. Pantheism is one of their +invariable characteristics, as they always identify God and Nature; and +herein they differ from the system of Kapila. The form of the Puranas is +always that of a dialogue. The Puranas are eighteen in number, and the +contents of the whole are stated to be one million six hundred thousand +lines.[91] + +The religion of the Hindoos at the present time is very different from +that of the Vedas or Manu. Idolatry is universal, and every month has its +special worship,--April, October, and January being most sacred. April +begins the Hindoo year. During this sacred month bands of singers go from +house to house, early in the morning, singing hymns to the gods. On the +1st of April Hindoos of all castes dedicate pitchers to the shades of +their ancestors. The girls bring flowers with which to worship little +ponds of water dedicated to Siva. Women adore the river Ganges, bathing in +it and offering it flowers. They also walk in procession round the banyan +or sacred tree. Then they worship the cow, pouring water on her feet and +putting oil on her forehead. Sometimes they take a vow to feed some +particular Brahman luxuriously during the whole month. They bathe their +idols with religious care every day and offer them food. This lasts during +April and then stops. + +In May the women of India worship a goddess friendly to little babies, +named Shus-ty. They bring the infants to be blessed by some venerable +woman before the image of the goddess, whose messenger is a cat. Social +parties are also given on these occasions, although the lower castes are +kept distinct at four separate tables. The women also, not being allowed +to meet with the men at such times, have a separate entertainment by +themselves. + +The month of June is devoted to the bath of Jugger-naut, who was one of the +incarnations of Vischnu. The name, Jugger-naut, means Lord of the +Universe. His worship is comparatively recent. His idols are extremely +ugly. But the most remarkable thing perhaps about this worship is that it +destroys, for the time, the distinction of castes. While within the walls +which surround the temple Hindoos of every caste eat together from the +same dish. But as soon as they leave the temple this equality disappears. +The ceremony of the bath originated in this legend. The idol Jugger-naut, +desiring to bathe in the Ganges, came in the form of a boy to the river, +and then gave one of his golden ornaments to a confectioner for something +to eat. Next day the ornament was missing, and the priests could find it +nowhere. But that night in a dream the god revealed to a priest that he +had given it to a certain confectioner to pay for his lunch; and it being +found so, a festival was established on the spot, at which the idol is +annually bathed. + +The other festival of this month is the worship of the Ganges, the sacred +river of India. Here the people come to bathe and to offer sacrifices, +which consist of flowers, incense, and clothes. The most sacred spot is +where the river enters the sea. Before plunging into the water each one +confesses his sins to the goddess. On the surface of this river castes are +also abolished, the holiness of the river making the low-caste man also +holy. + +In the month of July is celebrated the famous ceremony of the car of +Jugger-naut, instituted to commemorate the departure of Krishna from his +native land. These cars are in the form of a pyramid, built several +stories high, and some are even fifty feet in height. They are found in +every part of India, the offerings of wealthy people, and some contain +costly statues. They are drawn by hundreds of men, it being their faith +that each one who pulls the rope will certainly go to the heaven of +Krishna when he dies. Multitudes, therefore, crowd around the rope in +order to pull, and in the excitement they sometimes fall under the wheels +and are crushed. But this is accidental, for Krishna does not desire the +suffering of his worshippers. He is a mild divinity, and not like the +fierce Siva, who loves self-torture. + +In the month of August is celebrated the nativity of Krishna, the story of +whose birth resembles that in the Gospel in this, that the tyrant whom he +came to destroy sought to kill him, but a heavenly voice told the father +to fly with the child across the Jumna, and the tyrant, like Herod, killed +the infants in the village. In this month also is a feast upon which no +fire must be kindled or food cooked, and on which the cactus-tree and +serpents are worshipped.. + +In September is the great festival of the worship of Doorga, wife of Siva. +It commences on the seventh day of the full moon and lasts three days. It +commemorates a visit made by the goddess to her parents. The idol has +three eyes and ten hands. The ceremony, which is costly, can only be +celebrated by the rich people, who also give presents on this occasion to +the poor. The image is placed in the middle of the hall of the rich man's +house. One Brahman sits before the image with flowers, holy water, +incense. Trays laden with rice, fruit, and other kinds of food are placed +near the image, and given to the Brahmans. Goats and sheep are then +sacrificed to the idol on an altar in the yard of the house. When the head +of the victim falls the people shout, "Victory to thee, O mother!" Then +the bells ring, the trumpets sound, and the people shout for joy. The +lamps are waved before the idol, and a Brahman reads aloud from the +Scripture. Then comes a dinner on each of the three days, to which the +poor and the low-caste people are also invited and are served by the +Brahmans. The people visit from house to house, and in the evening there +is music, dancing, and public shows. So that the worship of the Hindoos +is by no means all of it ascetic, but much is social and joyful, +especially in Bengal. + +In October, November, and December there are fewer ceremonies. January is +a month devoted to religious bathing. Also, in January, the religious +Hindoos invite Brahmans to read and expound the sacred books in their +houses, which are open to all hearers. In February there are festivals to +Krishna. + +The month of March is devoted to ascetic exercises, especially to the +famous one of swinging suspended by hooks. It is a festival in honor of +Siva. A procession goes through the streets and enlists followers by +putting a thread round their necks. Every man thus enlisted must join the +party and go about with it till the end of the ceremony under pain of +losing caste. On the day before the swinging, men thrust iron or bamboo +sticks through their arms or tongues. On the next day they march in +procession to the swinging tree, where the men are suspended by hooks and +whirled round the tree four or five times. + +It is considered a pious act in India to build temples, dig tanks, or +plant trees by the roadside. Rich people have idols in their houses for +daily worship, and pay a priest who comes every morning to wake up the +idols, wash and dress them, and offer them their food. In the evening he +comes again, gives them their supper and puts them to bed. + +Mr. Gangooly, in his book, from which most of the above facts are drawn, +denies emphatically the statement so commonly made that Hindoo mothers +throw their infants into the Ganges. He justly says that the maternal +instinct is as strong with them as with others; and in addition to that, +their religion teaches them to offer sacrifices for the life and health of +their children. + + + +Sec. 9. Relation of Brahmanism to Christianity. + + +Having thus attempted, in the space we can here use, to give an account of +Brahmanism, we close by showing its special relation as a system of +thought to Christianity. + +Brahmanism teaches the truth of the reality of spirit, and that spirit is +infinite, absolute, perfect, one; that it is the substance underlying all +existence. Brahmanism glows through and through with this spirituality. +Its literature, no less than its theology, teaches it. It is in the dramas +of Calidasa, as well as in the sublime strains of the Bhagavat-gita. +Something divine is present in all nature and all life,-- + + "Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, + And the round ocean and the living air." + +Now, with this Christianity is in fullest agreement. We have such passages +in the Scripture as these: "God is a Spirit"; "God is love; whoso dwelleth +in love dwelleth in God, and God in him"; "In him we live, and move, and +have our being"; "He is above all, and through all, and in us all." But +beside these texts, which strike the key-note of the music which was to +come after, there are divine strains of spiritualism, of God all in all, +which come through a long chain of teachers of the Church, sounding on in +the Confessions of Augustine, the prayers of Thomas Aquinas, Anselm, +Bonaventura, St. Bernard, through the Latin hymns of the Middle Ages, and +develop themselves at last in what is called romantic art and romantic +song. A Gothic cathedral like Antwerp or Strasburg,--what is it but a +striving upward of the soul to lose itself in God? A symphony of +Beethoven,--what is it but the same unbounded longing and striving toward +the Infinite and Eternal? The poetry of Wordsworth, of Goethe, Schiller, +Dante, Byron, Victor Hugo, Manzoni, all partake of the same element. It is +opposed to classic art and classic poetry in this, that instead of limits, +it seeks the unlimited; that is, it believes in spirit, which alone is the +unlimited; the _in_finite, that which _is,_ not that which appears; the +_essence_ of things, not their _ex_istence or outwardness. + +Thus Christianity meets and accepts the truth of Brahmanism. But how does +it fulfil Brahmanism? The deficiencies of Brahmanism are these,--that +holding to eternity, it omits time, and so loses history. It therefore is +incapable of progress, for progress takes place in time. Believing in +spirit, or infinite unlimited substance, it loses person, or definite +substance, whether infinite or finite. The Christian God is the infinite, +definite substance, self-limited or defined by his essential nature. He is +good and not bad, righteous and not the opposite, perfect love, not +perfect self-love. Christianity, therefore, gives us God as a person, and +man also as a person, and so makes it possible to consider the universe as +order, kosmos, method, beauty, and providence. For, unless we can conceive +the Infinite Substance as definite, and not undefined; that is, as a +person with positive characters; there is no difference between good and +bad, right and wrong, to-day and to-morrow, this and that, but all is one +immense chaos of indefinite spirit. The moment that creation begins, that +the spirit of the Lord moves on the face of the waters, and says, "Let +there be light," and so divides light from darkness, God becomes a person, +and man can also be a person. Things then become "separate and divisible" +which before were "huddled and lumped." + +Christianity, therefore, fulfils Brahmanism by adding to eternity time, to +the infinite the finite, to God as spirit God as nature and providence. +God in himself is the unlimited, unknown, dwelling in the light which no +man can approach unto; hidden, not by darkness, but by light. But God, as +turned toward us in nature and providence, is the infinite definite +substance, that is, having certain defined characters, though these have +no bounds as regards extent. This last view of God Christianity shares +with other religions, which differ from Brahmanism in the opposite +direction. For example, the religion of Greece and of the Greek +philosophers never loses the definite God, however high it may soar. While +Brahmanism, seeing eternity and infinity, loses time and the finite, the +Greek religion, dwelling in time, often loses the eternal and the +spiritual. Christianity is the mediator, able to mediate, not by standing +between both, but by standing beside both. It can lead the Hindoos to an +Infinite Friend, a perfect Father, a Divine Providence, and so make the +possibility for them of a new progress, and give to that ancient and +highly endowed race another chance in history. What they want is evidently +moral power, for they have all intellectual ability. The effeminate +quality which has made them slaves of tyrants during two thousand years +will be taken out of them, and a virile strength substituted, when they +come to see God as law and love,--perfect law and perfect love,--and to +see that communion with him comes, not from absorption, contemplation, and +inaction, but from active obedience, moral growth, and personal +development. For Christianity certainly teaches that we unite ourselves +with God, not by sinking into and losing our personality, in him, but by +developing it, so that we may be able to serve and love him. + + + + +Chapter IV. + +Buddhism, or the Protestantism of the East. + + + + Sec. 1. Buddhism, in its Forms, resembles Romanism; in its Spirit, + Protestantism. + Sec. 2. Extent of Buddhism. Its Scriptures. + Sec. 3. Sakyamuni, the Founder of Buddhism. + Sec. 4. Leading Doctrines of Buddhism. + Sec. 5. The Spirit of Buddhism Rational and Humane. + Sec. 6. Buddhism as a Religion. + Sec. 7. Karma and Nirvana. + Sec. 8. Good and Evil of Buddhism. + Sec. 9. Relation of Buddhism to Christianity. + + + +Sec. 1. Buddhism, in its Forms, resembles Romanism; in its Spirit, +Protestantism. + + +On first becoming acquainted with the mighty and ancient religion of +Buddha, one may be tempted to deny the correctness of this title, "The +_Protestantism_ of the East." One might say, "Why not rather the +_Romanism_ of the East?" For so numerous are the resemblances between the +customs of this system and those of the Romish Church, that the first +Catholic missionaries who encountered the priests of Buddha were +confounded, and thought that Satan had been mocking their sacred rites. +Father Bury, a Portuguese missionary,[92] when he beheld the Chinese +bonzes tonsured, using rosaries, praying in an unknown tongue, and +kneeling before images, exclaimed in astonishment: "There is not a piece +of dress, not a sacerdotal function, not a ceremony of the court of Rome, +which the Devil has not copied in this country." Mr. Davis (Transactions +of the Royal Asiatic Society, II. 491) speaks of "the celibacy of the +Buddhist clergy, and the monastic life of the societies of both sexes; to +which might be added their strings of beads, their manner of chanting +prayers, their incense, and their candles." Mr. Medhurst ("China," London, +1857) mentions the image of a virgin, called the "queen of heaven," +having an infant in her arms, and holding a cross. Confession of sins is +regularly practised. Father Huc, in his "Recollections of a Journey in +Tartary, Thibet, and China," (Hazlitt's translation), says: "The cross, +the mitre, the dalmatica, the cope, which the grand lamas wear on their +journeys, or when they are performing some ceremony out of the +temple,--the service with double choirs, the psalmody, the exorcisms, the +censer suspended from five chains, and which you can open or close at +pleasure,--the benedictions given by the lamas by extending the right hand +over the heads of the faithful,--the chaplet, ecclesiastical celibacy, +religious retirement, the worship of the saints, the fasts, the +processions, the litanies, the holy water,--all these are analogies +between the Buddhists and ourselves." And in Thibet there is also a Dalai +Lama, who is a sort of Buddhist pope. Such numerous and striking analogies +are difficult to explain. After the simple theory "que le diable y etait +pour beaucoup" was abandoned, the next opinion held by the Jesuit +missionaries was that the Buddhists had copied these customs from +Nestorian missionaries, who are known to have penetrated early even as far +as China.[93] But a serious objection to this theory is that Buddhism is +at least five hundred years older than Christianity, and that many of +these striking resemblances belong to its earliest period. Thus Wilson +(Hindu Drama) has translated plays written before the Christian era, in +which Buddhist monks appear as mendicants. The worship of relics is quite +as ancient. Fergusson[94] describes topes, or shrines for relics, of very +great antiquity, existing in India, Ceylon, Birmah, and Java. Many of them +belong to the age of Asoka, the great Buddhist emperor, who ruled all +India B.C. 250, and in whose reign Buddhism became the religion of the +state, and held its third Oecumenical Council. + +The ancient Buddhist architecture is very singular, and often very +beautiful. It consists of topes, rock-cut temples, and monasteries. Some +of the topes are monolithic columns, more than forty feet high, with +ornamented capitals. Some are immense domes of brick and stone, containing +sacred relics. The tooth of Buddha was once preserved in a magnificent +shrine in India, but was conveyed to Ceyion A.D. 311, where it still +remains an object of universal reverence. It is a piece of ivory or bone +two inches long, and is kept in six cases, the largest of which, of solid +silver, is five feet high. The other cases are inlaid with rubies and +precious stones.[95] Besides this, Ceylon possesses the "left collar-bone +relic," contained in a bell-shaped tope, fifty feet high, and the thorax +bone, which was placed in a tope built by a Hindoo Raja, B.C. 250, beside +which two others were subsequently erected, the last being eighty cubits +high. The Sanchi tope, the finest in India,[96] is a solid dome of stone, +one hundred and six feet in diameter and forty-two feet high, with a +basement and terrace, having a colonnade, now fallen, of sixty pillars, +with richly carved stone railing and gateway. + +The rock-cut temples of the Buddhists are very ancient, and are numerous +in India. Mr. Fergusson, who has made a special personal study of these +monuments, believes that more than nine hundred still remain, most of them +within the Bombay presidency. Of these, many date back two centuries +before our era. In form they singularly resemble the earliest Roman +Catholic churches. Excavated out of the solid rock, they have a nave and +side aisles, terminating in an apse or semi-dome, round which the aisle is +carried. One at Karli, built in this manner, is one hundred and twenty-six +feet long and forty-five wide, with fifteen richly carved columns on each +side, separating the nave from the aisles. The facade of this temple is +also richly ornamented, and has a great open window for lighting the +interior, beneath an elegant gallery or rood-loft. + +The Buddhist rock-cut monasteries in India are also numerous, though long +since deserted. Between seven and eight hundred are known to exist, most +of them having been excavated between B.C. 200 and A.D. 500. Buddhist +monks, then as now, took the same three vows of celibacy, poverty, and +obedience, which are taken by the members of all the Catholic orders. In +addition to this, _all_ the Buddhist priests are mendicants. They shave +their heads, wear a friar's robe tied round the waist with a rope, and beg +from house to house, carrying their wooden bowl in which to receive boiled +rice. The old monasteries of India contain chapels and cells for the +monks. The largest, however, had accommodation for only thirty or forty; +while at the present time a single monastery in Thibet, visited by MM. Huc +and Gabet (the lamasery of Kounboum), is occupied by four thousand lamas. +The structure of these monasteries shows clearly that the monkish system +of the Buddhists is far too ancient to have been copied from the +Christians. + +Is, then, the reverse true? Did the Catholic Christians derive their +monastic institutions, their bells, their rosary, their tonsure, their +incense, their mitre and cope, their worship of relics, their custom of +confession, etc., from the Buddhists? Such is the opinion of Mr. Prinsep +(Thibet, Tartary, and Mongolia, 1852) and of Lassen (Indische +Alterthumskunde). But, in reply to this view, Mr. Hardwicke objects that +we do not find in history any trace of such an influence. Possibly, +therefore, the resemblances may be the result of common human tendencies +working out, independently, the same results. If, however, it is necessary +to assume that either religion copied from the other, the Buddhists may +claim originality, on the ground of antiquity. + +But, however this may he, the question returns, Why call Buddhism the +Protestantism of the East, when all its external features so much resemble +those of the Roman Catholic Church? + +We answer: Because deeper and more essential relations connect Brahmanism +with the Romish Church, and the Buddhist system with Protestantism. The +human mind in Asia went through the same course of experience, afterward +repeated in Europe. It protested, in the interest of humanity, against +the oppression of a priestly caste. Brahmanism, like the Church of Rome, +established a system of sacramental salvation in the hands of a sacred +order. Buddhism, like Protestantism, revolted, and established a doctrine +of individual salvation based on personal character. Brahmanism, like the +Church of Rome, teaches an exclusive spiritualism, glorifying penances and +martyrdom, and considers the body the enemy of the soul. But Buddhism and +Protestantism accept nature and its laws, and make a religion of humanity +as well as of devotion. To such broad statements numerous exceptions may +doubtless be always found, but these are the large lines of distinction. + +The Roman Catholic Church and Brahmanism place the essence of religion in +sacrifices. Each is eminently a sacrificial system. The daily sacrifice of +the mass is the central feature of the Romish Church. So Brahmanism is a +system of sacrifices. But Protestantism and Buddhism save the soul by +teaching. In the Church of Rome the sermon is subordinate to the mass; in +Protestantism and in Buddhism sermons are the main instruments by which +souls are saved. Brahmanism is a system of inflexible castes; the priestly +caste is made distinct and supreme; and in Romanism the priesthood almost +constitutes the church. In Buddhism and Protestantism the laity regain +their rights. Therefore, notwithstanding the external resemblance of +Buddhist rites and ceremonies to those of the Roman Catholic Church, the +internal resemblance is to Protestantism. Buddhism in Asia, like +Protestantism in Europe, is a revolt of nature against spirit, of humanity +against caste, of individual freedom against the despotism of an order, of +salvation by faith against salvation by sacraments. And as all revolts are +apt to go too far, so it has been with Buddhism. In asserting the rights +of nature against the tyranny of spirit, Buddhism has lost God. There is +in Buddhism neither creation nor Creator. Its tracts say: "The rising of +the world is a natural case." "Its rising and perishing are by nature +itself." "It is natural that the world should rise and perish."[97] While +in Brahmanism absolute spirit is the only reality, and this world is an +illusion, the Buddhists know only this world, and the eternal world is so +entirely unknown as to be equivalent to nullity. But yet, as no revolt, +however radical, gives up _all_ its antecedents, so Buddhism has the same +_aim_ as Brahmanism, namely, to escape from the vicissitudes of time into +the absolute rest of eternity. They agree as to the object of existence; +they differ as to the method of reaching it. The Brahman and the Roman +Catholic think that eternal rest is to be obtained by intellectual +submission, by passive reception of what is taught us and done for us by +others: the Buddhist and Protestant believe it must be accomplished by an +intelligent and free obedience to Divine laws. Mr. Hodgson, who has long +studied the features of this religion in Nepaul, says: "The one infallible +diagnostic of Buddhism is a belief in the infinite capacity of the human +intellect." The name of Buddha means the Intelligent One, or the one who +is wide awake. And herein also is another resemblance to Protestantism, +which emphasizes so strongly the value of free thought and the seeking +after truth. In Judaism we find two spiritual powers,--the prophet and the +priest. The priest is the organ of the pardoning and saving love of God; +the prophet, of his inspiring truth. In the European Reformation, the +prophet revolting against the priest founded Protestantism; in the Asiatic +Reformation he founded Buddhism. Finally, Brahmanism and the Roman +Catholic Church are more religious; Buddhism and Protestant Christianity, +more moral. Such, sketched in broad outline, is the justification for the +title of this chapter; but we shall be more convinced of its accuracy +after looking more closely into the resemblances above indicated between +the religious ceremonies of the East and West. + +These resemblances are chiefly between the Buddhists and the monastic +orders of the Church of Rome. Now it is a fact, but one which has never +been sufficiently noticed, that the whole monastic system of Rome is based +on a principle foreign to the essential ideas of that church. The +fundamental doctrine of Rome is that of salvation by sacraments. This +alone justifies its maxim, that "out of communion with the Church there is +no salvation." The sacrament of Baptism regenerates the soul; the +sacrament of Penance purifies it from mortal sin; the sacrament of the +Eucharist renews its life; and that of Holy Orders qualifies the priest +for administering these and the other sacraments. But if the soul is saved +by sacraments, duly administered and received, why go into a religious +order to save the soul? Why seek by special acts of piety, self-denial, +and separation from the world that which comes sufficiently through the +usual sacraments of the church? The more we examine this subject, the more +we shall see that the whole monastic system of the Church of Rome is an +_included Protestantism_, or a Protestantism within the church. + +Many of the reformers before the Reformation were monks. Savonarola, St. +Bernard, Luther himself, were monks. From the monasteries came many of the +leaders of the Reformation. The Protestant element in the Romish Church +was shut up in monasteries during many centuries, and remained there as a +foreign substance, an alien element included in the vast body. When a +bullet, or other foreign substance, is lodged in the flesh, the vital +powers go to work and build up a little wall around it, and shut it in. So +when Catholics came who were not satisfied with a merely sacramental +salvation, and longed for a higher life, the sagacity of the Church put +them together in convents, and kept them by themselves, where they could +do no harm. One of the curious homologons of history is this repetition in +Europe of the course of events in Asia. Buddhism was, for many centuries, +tolerated in India in the same way. It took the form of a monasticism +included in Brahmanism, and remained a part of the Hindoo religion. And +so, when the crisis came and the conflict began, this Hindoo Protestantism +maintained itself for a long time in India, as Lutheranism continued for a +century in Italy, Spain, and Austria. But it was at last driven out of its +birthplace, as Protestantism was driven from Italy and Spain; and now only +the ruins of its topes, its temples, and its monasteries remain to show +how extensive was its former influence in the midst of Brahmanism. + + + +Sec. 2. Extent of Buddhism. Its Scriptures. + + +Yet, though expelled from India, and unable to maintain its control over +any Aryan race, it has exhibited a powerful propagandist element, and so +has converted to its creed the majority of the Mongol nations. It embraces +nearly or quite (for statistics here are only guesswork)[98] three hundred +millions of human beings. It is the popular religion of China; the state +religion of Thibet, and of the Birman Empire; it is the religion of Japan, +Siam, Anam, Assam, Nepaul, Ceylon, in short, of nearly the whole of +Eastern Asia. + +Concerning this vast religion we have had, until recently, very few means +of information. But, during the last quarter of a century, so many sources +have been opened, that at present we can easily study it in its original +features and its subsequent development. The sacred books of this religion +have been preserved independently, in Ceylon, Nepaul, China, and Thibet. +Mr. G. Turnour, Mr. Georgely, and Mr. R. Spence Hardy are our chief +authorities in regard to the Pitikas, or the Scriptures in the Pali +language, preserved in Ceylon. Mr. Hodgson has collected and studied the +Sanskrit Scriptures, found in Nepaul. In 1825 he transmitted to the +Asiatic Society in Bengal sixty works in Sanskrit, and two hundred and +fifty in the language of Thibet. M. Csoma, an Hungarian physician, +discovered in the Buddhist monasteries of Thibet an immense collection of +sacred books, which had been translated from the Sanskrit works previously +studied by Mr. Hodgson. In 1829 M. Schmidt found the same works in the +Mongolian. M. Stanislas Julien, an eminent student of the Chinese, has +also translated works on Buddhism from that language, which ascend to the +year 76 of our era.[99] More recently inscriptions cut upon rocks, +columns, and other monuments in Northern India, have been transcribed and +translated. Mr. James Prinsep deciphered these inscriptions, and found +them to be in the ancient language of the province of Magadha where +Buddhism first appeared. They contain the decrees of a king, or raja, +named Pyadasi, whom Mr. Turnour has shown to be the same as the famous +Asoka, before alluded to. This king appears to have come to the throne +somewhere between B.C. 319 and B.C. 260. Similar inscriptions have been +discovered throughout India, proving to the satisfaction of such scholars +as Burnouf, Prinsep, Turnour, Lassen, Weber, Max Muller, and +Saint-Hilaire, that Buddhism had become almost the state religion of +India, in the fourth century before Christ.[100] + + + +Sec. 3. Sakya-muni, the Founder of Buddhism. + + +North of Central India and of the kingdom of Oude, near the borders of +Nepaul, there reigned, at the end of the seventh century before Christ, a +wise and good king, in his capital city, Kapilavastu[101]. He was one of +the last of the great Solar race, celebrated in the ancient epics of +India. His wife, named _Maya_ because of her great beauty, became the +mother of a prince, who was named Siddartha, and afterward known as the +Buddha[102]. She died seven days after his birth, and the child was +brought up by his maternal aunt. The young prince distinguished himself by +his personal and intellectual qualities, but still more by his early +piety. It appears from the laws of Manu that it was not unusual, in the +earliest periods of Brahmanism, for those seeking a superior piety to turn +hermits, and to live alone in the forest, engaged in acts of prayer, +meditation, abstinence, and the study of the Vedas. This practice, +however, seems to have been confined to the Brahmans. It was, therefore, a +grief to the king, when his son, in the flower of his youth and highly +accomplished in every kingly faculty of body and mind, began to turn his +thoughts toward the life of an anchorite. In fact, the young Siddartha +seems to have gone through that deep experience out of which the great +prophets of mankind have always been born. The evils of the world pressed +on his heart and brain; the very air seemed full of mortality; all things +were passing away. Was anything permanent? anything stable? Nothing but +truth; only the absolute, eternal law of things. "Let me see that," said +he, "and I can give lasting peace to mankind. Then shall I become their +deliverer." So, in opposition to the strong entreaties of his father, +wife, and friends, he left the palace one night, and exchanged the +position of a prince for that of a mendicant. "I will never return to the +palace," said he, "till I have attained to the sight of the divine law, +and so become Buddha."[103] + +He first visited the Brahmans, and listened to their doctrines, but found +no satisfaction therein. The wisest among them could not teach him true +peace,--that profound inward rest, which was already called Nirvana. He +was twenty-nine years old. Although disapproving of the Brahmanic +austerities as an end, he practised them during six years, in order to +subdue the senses. He then became satisfied that the path to perfection +did not lie that way. He therefore resumed his former diet and a more +comfortable mode of life, and so lost many disciples who had been +attracted by his amazing austerity. Alone in his hermitage, he came at +last to that solid conviction, that KNOWLEDGE never to be shaken, of the +laws of things, which had seemed to him the only foundation of a truly +free life. The spot where, after a week of constant meditation, he at last +arrived at this beatific vision, became one of the most sacred places in +India. He was seated under a tree, his face to the east, not having moved +for a day and night, when he attained the triple science, which was to +rescue mankind from its woes. Twelve hundred years after the death of the +Buddha, a Chinese pilgrim was shown what then passed for the sacred tree. +It was surrounded by high brick walls, with an opening to the east, and +near it stood many topes and monasteries. In the opinion of M. +Saint-Hilaire, these ruins, and the locality of the tree, may yet be +rediscovered. The spot deserves to be sought for, since there began a +movement which has, on the whole, been a source of happiness and +improvement to immense multitudes of human beings, during twenty-four +centuries. + +Having attained this inward certainty of vision, he decided to teach the +world his truth. He knew well what it would bring him,--what opposition, +insult, neglect, scorn. But he thought of three classes of men: those who +were already on the way to the truth, and did not need him; those who were +fixed in error, and whom he could not help; and the poor doubters, +uncertain of their way. It was to help these last, the doubters, that the +Buddha went forth to preach. On his way to the holy city of India, +Benares, a serious difficulty arrested him at the Ganges, namely, his +having no money to pay the boatman for his passage. At Benares he made his +first converts, "turning the wheel of the law" for the first time. His +discourses are contained in the sacred books of the Buddhists. He +converted great numbers, his father among the rest, but met with fierce +opposition from the Hindoo Scribes and Pharisees, the leading Brahmans. So +he lived and taught, and died at the age of eighty years. + +Naturally, as soon as the prophet was dead he became very precious in all +eyes. His body was burned with much pomp, and great contention arose for +the unconsumed fragments of bone. At last they were divided into eight +parts, and a tope was erected, by each of the eight fortunate possessors, +over such relics as had fallen to him. The ancient books of the North and +South agree as to the places where the topes were built, and no Roman +Catholic relics are so well authenticated. The Buddha, who believed with +Jesus that "the flesh profiteth nothing," and that "the word is spirit and +life," would probably have been the first to condemn this idolatry. But +fetich-worship lingers in the purest religions. + +The time of the death of Sakya-muni, like most Oriental dates, is +uncertain. The Northern Buddhists, in Thibet, Nepaul, etc., vary greatly +among themselves. The Chinese Buddhists are not more certain. Lassen, +therefore, with most of the scholars, accepts as authentic the period upon +which all the authorities of the South, especially of Ceylon, agree, which +is B.C. 543. Lately Westergaard has written a monograph on the subject, in +which, by a labored argument, he places the date about two hundred years +later. Whether he will convince his brother _savans_ remains to be seen. + +Immediately after the death of Sakya-muni a general council of his most +eminent disciples was called, to fix the doctrine and discipline of the +church. The legend runs that three of the disciples were selected to +recite from memory what the sage had taught. The first was appointed to +repeat his teaching upon discipline; "for discipline," said they, "is the +soul of the law." Whereupon Upali, mounting the pulpit, repeated all of +the precepts concerning morals and the ritual. Then Ananda was chosen to +give his master's discourses concerning faith or doctrine. Finally, +Kasyapa announced the philosophy and metaphysics of the system. The +council sat during seven months, and the threefold division of the sacred +Scriptures of Buddhism was the result of their work; for Sakya-muni wrote +nothing himself. He taught by conversation only. + +The second general council was called to correct certain abuses which had +begun to creep in. It was held about a hundred years after the teacher's +death. A great fraternity of monks proposed to relax the conventual +discipline, by allowing greater liberty in taking food, in drinking +intoxicating liquor, and taking gold and silver if offered in alms. The +schismatic monks were degraded, to the number of ten thousand, but formed +a new sect. The third council, held during the reign of the great Buddhist +Emperor Asoka, was called on account of heretics, who, to the number of +sixty thousand, were degraded and expelled. After this, missionaries were +despatched to preach the word in different lands. The names and success of +these missionaries are recorded in the _Mahawanso_, or Sacred History, +translated by Mr. George Turnour from the Singhalese. But what is +remarkable is, that the relics of some of them have been recently found in +the Sanchi topes, and in other sacred buildings, contained in caskets, +with their names inscribed on them. These inscribed names correspond with +those given to the same missionaries in the historical books of Ceylon. +For example, according to the _Mahawanso_, two missionaries, one named +Kassapo (or Kasyapa), and the other called Majjhima (or Madhyama), went to +preach in the region of the Himalayan Mountains. They journeyed, preached, +suffered, and toiled, side by side, so the ancient history informs us,--a +history composed in Ceylon in the fifth century of our era, with the aid +of works still more ancient;[104] and now, when the second Sanchi tope was +opened in 1851, by Major Cunningham, the relics of these very missionaries +were discovered.[105] The tope was perfect in 1819, when visited by +Captain Fell,--"not a stone fallen." And though afterward injured, in +1822, by some amateur relic-hunters, its contents remained intact. It is a +solid hemisphere, built of rough stones without mortar, thirty-nine feet +in diameter; it has a basement six feet high, projecting all around five +feet, and so making a terrace. It is surrounded by a stone railing, with +carved figures. In the centre of this tope was found a small chamber, made +of six stones, containing the relic-box of white sandstone, about ten +inches square. Inside this were four caskets of steatite (a sacred stone +among the Buddhists), each containing small portions of burnt human bone. +On the outside lid of one of these boxes was this inscription: "Relics of +the emancipated Kasyapa Gotra, missionary to the whole Hemawanta." And on +the inside of the lid was carved: "Relics of the emancipated Madhyama." +These relics, with those of eight other leading men of the Buddhist +Church, had rested in this monument since the age of Asoka, and cannot +have been placed there later than B.C. 220. + +The missionary spirit displayed by Buddhism distinguishes it from all +other religions which preceded Christianity. The religion of Confucius +never attempted to make converts outside of China. Brahmanism never went +beyond India. The system of Zoroaster was a Persian religion; that of +Egypt was confined to the Valley of the Nile; that of Greece to the +Hellenic race. But Buddhism was inflamed with the desire of bringing all +mankind to a knowledge of its truths. Its ardent and successful +missionaries converted multitudes in Nepaul, Thibet, Birmah, Ceylon, +China, Siam, Japan; and in all these states its monasteries are to-day the +chief sources of knowledge and centres of instruction to the people. It is +idle to class such a religion as this with the superstitions which debase +mankind. Its power lay in the strength of conviction which inspired its +teachers; and that, again, must have come from the sight of truth, not the +belief in error. + + + +Sec. 4. Leading Doctrines of Buddhism. + + +What, then, are the doctrines of Buddhism? What are the essential +teachings of the Buddha and his disciples? Is it a system, as we are so +often told, which denies God and immortality? Has _atheism_ such a power +over human hearts in the East? Is the Asiatic mind thus in love with +eternal death? Let us try to discover. + +The hermit of Sakya, as we have seen, took his departure from two profound +convictions,--the evil of perpetual change, and the possibility of +something permanent. He might have used the language of the Book of +Ecclesiastes, and cried, "Vanity of vanities! all is vanity!" The profound +gloom of that wonderful book is based on the same course of thought as +that of the Buddha, namely, that everything goes round and round in a +circle; that nothing moves forward; that there is no new thing under the +sun; that the sun rises and sets, and rises again; that the wind blows +north and south, and east and west, and then returns according to its +circuits. Where can rest be found? where peace? where any certainty? +Siddartha was young; but he saw age approaching. He was in health; but he +knew that sickness and death were lying in wait for him. He could not +escape from the sight of this perpetual round of growth and decay, life +and death, joy and woe. He cried out, from the depths of his soul, for +something stable, permanent, real. + +Again, he was assured that this emancipation from change and decay was to +be found in knowledge. But by knowledge he did not intend the perception +and recollection of outward facts,--not learning. Nor did he mean +speculative knowledge, or the power of reasoning. He meant intuitive +knowledge, the sight of eternal truth, the perception of the unchanging +laws of the universe. This was a knowledge which was not to be attained by +any merely intellectual process, but by moral training, by purity of heart +and lite. Therefore he renounced the world, and went into the forest, and +became an anchorite. + +But just at this point he separated himself from the Brahmans. They also +were, and are, believers in the value of mortification, abnegation, +penance. They had their hermits in his day. But they believed in the value +of penance as accumulating merit. They practised self-denial for its own +sake. The Buddha practised it as a means to a higher end,--emancipation, +purification, intuition. And this end he believed that he had at last +attained. At last he _saw_ the truth. He became "wide awake." Illusions +disappeared; the reality was before him. He was the Buddha,--the MAN WHO +KNEW. + +Still he was a man, not a God. And here again is another point of +departure from Brahmanism. In that system, the final result of devotion +was to become absorbed in God. The doctrine of the Brahmans is divine +absorption; that of the Buddhists, human development. In the Brahmanical +system, God is everything and man nothing. In the Buddhist, man is +everything and God nothing. Here is its atheism, that it makes so much of +man as to forget God. It is perhaps "without God in the world," but it +does not deny him. It accepts the doctrine of the three worlds,--the +eternal world of absolute being; the celestial world of the gods, Brahma, +Indra, Vischnu, Siva; and the finite world, consisting of individual +souls and the laws of nature. Only it says, of the world of absolute +being, Nirvana, we know nothing. That is our aim and end; but it is the +direct opposite to all we know. It is, therefore, to us as nothing. The +celestial world, that of the gods, is even of less moment to us. What we +know are the everlasting laws of nature, by obedience to which we rise, +disobeying which we fall, by perfect obedience to which we shall at last +obtain Nirvana, and rest forever. + +To the mind of the Buddha, therefore, the world consisted of two orders of +existence,--souls and laws. He saw an infinite multitude of souls,--in +insects, animals, men,--and saw that they were surrounded by inflexible +laws,--the laws of nature. To know these and to obey them,--this was +emancipation. + +The fundamental doctrine of Buddhism, taught by its founder and received +by all Buddhists without exception, in the North and in the South, in +Birmah and Thibet, in Ceylon and China, is the doctrine of the four +sublime truths, namely:-- + + 1. All existence is evil, because all existence is subject to change + and decay. + + 2. The source of this evil is the desire for things which are to change + and pass away. + + 3. This desire, and the evil which follows it, are not inevitable; for + if we choose we can arrive at Nirvana, when both shall wholly cease. + + 4. There is a fixed and certain method to adopt, by pursuing which we + attain this end, without possibility of failure. + +These four truths are the basis of the system. They are: 1st, the evil; +2d, its cause; 3d, its end; 4th, the way of reaching the end. + +Then follow the eight steps of this way, namely:-- + + 1. Right belief, or the correct faith. + + 2. Right judgment, or wise application of that faith to life. + + 3. Right utterance, or perfect truth in all that we say and do. + + 4. Right motives, or proposing always a proper end and aim. + + 5. Right occupation, or an outward life not involving sin. + + 6. Right obedience, or faithful observance of duty. + + 7. Right memory, or a proper recollection of past conduct. + + 8. Right meditation, or keeping the mind fixed on permanent truth. + +After this system of doctrine follow certain moral commands and +prohibitions, namely, five, which apply to all men, and five others which +apply only to the novices or the monks. The five first commandments are: +1st, do not kill; 2d, do not steal; 3d, do not commit adultery; 4th, do +not lie; 5th, do not become intoxicated. The other five are: 1st, take no +solid food after noon; 2d, do not visit dances, singing, or theatrical +representations; 3d, use no ornaments or perfumery in dress; 4th, use no +luxurious beds; 5th, accept neither gold nor silver. + +All these doctrines and precepts have been the subject of innumerable +commentaries and expositions. Everything has been commented, explained, +and elucidated. Systems of casuistry as voluminous as those of the Fathers +of the Company of Jesus, systems of theology as full of minute analysis as +the great _Summa Totius Theologiae_ of St. Thomas, are to be found in the +libraries of the monasteries of Thibet and Ceylon. The monks have their +Golden Legends, their Lives of Saints, full of miracles and marvels. On +this simple basis of a few rules and convictions has arisen a vast fabric +of metaphysics. Much of this literature is instructive and entertaining. +Some of it is profound. Baur, who had made a special study of the +intricate speculations of the Gnostics, compares them with "the vast +abstractions of Buddhism." + + + +Sec. 5. The Spirit of Buddhism Rational and Humane. + + +Ultimately, two facts appear, as we contemplate this system,--first, its +rationalism; second, its humanity. + +It is a system of rationalism. It appeals throughout to human reason. It +proposes to save man, not from a future but a present hell, and to save +him by teaching. Its great means of influence is the sermon. The Buddha +preached innumerable sermons; his missionaries went abroad preaching. +Buddhism has made all its conquests honorably, by a process of rational +appeal to the human mind. It was never propagated by force, even when it +had the power of imperial rajas to support it. Certainly, it is a very +encouraging fact in the history of man, that the two religions which have +made more converts than any other, Buddhism and Christianity, have not +depended for their success on the sword of the conqueror or the frauds of +priestcraft, but have gained their victories in the fair conflict of +reason with reason. We grant that Buddhism has not been without its +superstitions and its errors; but it has not deceived, and it has not +persecuted. In this respect it can teach Christians a lesson. Buddhism has +no prejudices against those who confess another faith. The Buddhists have +founded no Inquisition; they have combined the zeal which converted +kingdoms with a toleration almost inexplicable to our Western experience. +Only one religious war has darkened their peaceful history during +twenty-three centuries,--that which took place in Thibet, but of which we +know little. A Siamese told Crawford that he believed all the religions of +the world to be branches of the true religion. A Buddhist in Ceylon sent +his son to a Christian school, and told the astonished missionary, "I +respect Christianity as much as Buddhism, for I regard it as a help to +Buddhism." MM. Hue and Gabet converted no Buddhist in Tartary and Thibet, +but they partially converted one, bringing him so far as to say that he +considered himself at the same time a good Christian and a good Buddhist. + +Buddhism is also a religion of humanity. Because it lays such stress on +reason, it respects all men, since all possess this same gift. In its +origin it broke down all castes. All men, of whatever rank, can enter its +priesthood. It has an unbounded charity for all souls, and holds it a duty +to make sacrifices for all. One legend tells us that the Buddha gave his +body for food to a starved tigress, who could not nurse her young through +weakness. An incident singularly like that in the fourth chapter of John +is recorded of the hermit, who asked a woman of low caste for water, and +when she expressed surprise said, "Give me drink, and I will give you +truth." The unconditional command, "Thou shalt not kill," which applies to +all living creatures, has had great influence in softening the manners of +the Mongols. This command is connected with the doctrine of transmigration +of souls, which is one of the essential doctrines of this system as well +as of Brahmanism. But Buddhism has abolished human sacrifices, and indeed +all bloody offerings, and its innocent altars are only crowned with +flowers and leaves. It also inculcates a positive humanity, consisting of +good actions. All its priests are supported by daily alms. It is a duty of +the Buddhist to be hospitable to strangers, to establish hospitals for the +sick and poor, and even for sick animals, to plant shade-trees, and erect +houses for travellers. Mr. Malcom, the Baptist missionary, says that he +was resting one day in a _zayat_ in a small village in Birmah, and was +scarcely seated when a woman brought a nice mat for him to lie on. Another +brought cool water, and a man went and picked for him half a dozen good +oranges. None sought or expected, he says, the least reward, but +disappeared, and left him to his repose. He adds: "None can ascend the +river without being struck with the hardihood, skill, energy, and +good-humor of the Birmese boatmen. In point of temper and morality they +are infinitely superior to the boatmen on our Western waters. In my +various trips, I have seen no quarrel nor heard a hard word." + +Mr. Malcom goes on thus: "Many of these people have never seen a white man +before, but I am constantly struck with their politeness. They desist from +anything on the slightest intimation; never crowd around to be +troublesome; and if on my showing them my watch or pencil-case, or +anything which particularly attracts them, there are more than can get a +sight, the outer ones stand aloof and wait till their turn comes.... + +"I saw no intemperance in Birmah, though an intoxicating liquor is made +easily of the juice of a palm.... + +"A man may travel from one end of the kingdom to the other without money, +feeding and lodging as well as the people." + +"I have seen thousands together, for hours, on public occasions, rejoicing +in all ardor, and no act of violence or case of intoxication.... + +"During my whole residence in the country I never saw an indecent act or +immodest gesture in man or woman.... I have seen hundreds of men and women +bathing, and no immodest or careless act.... + +"Children are treated with great kindness, not only by the mother but the +father, who, when unemployed, takes the young child in his arms, and seems +pleased to attend to it, while the mother cleans the rice or sits +unemployed at his side. I have as often seen fathers caressing female +infants as male. A widow with male and female children is more likely to +be sought in marriage than if she has none.... + +"Children are almost as reverent to parents as among the Chinese. The aged +are treated with great care and tenderness, and occupy the best places in +all assemblies." + +According to Saint-Hilaire's opinion, the Buddhist morality is one of +endurance, patience, submission, and abstinence, rather than of action, +energy, enterprise. Love for all beings is its nucleus, every animal being +our possible relative. To love our enemies, to offer our lives for +animals, to abstain from even defensive warfare, to govern ourselves, to +avoid vices, to pay obedience to superiors, to reverence age, to provide +food and shelter for men and animals, to dig wells and plant trees, to +despise no religion, show no intolerance, not to persecute, are the +virtues of these people. Polygamy is tolerated, but not approved. Monogamy +is general in Ceylon, Siam, Birinah; somewhat less so in Thibet and +Mongolia. Woman is better treated by Buddhism than by any other Oriental +religion. + + + +Sec. 6. Buddhism as a Religion. + + +But what is the religious life of Buddhism? Can there be a religion +without a God? And if Buddhism has no God, how can it have worship, +prayer, devotion? There is no doubt that it has all these. We have seen +that its _cultus_ is much like that of the Roman Catholic Church. It +differs from this church in having no secular priests, but only regulars; +all its clergy are monks, taking the three vows of poverty, chastity, and +obedience. Their vows, however, are not irrevocable; they can relinquish +the yellow robe, and return into the world, if they find they have +mistaken their vocation. + +The God of Buddhism is the Buddha himself, the deified man, who has become +an infinite being by entering Nirvana. To him prayer is addressed, and it +is so natural for man to pray, that no theory can prevent him from doing +it. In Thibet, prayer-meetings are held even in the streets. Huc says: +"There is a very touching custom at Lhassa. In the evening, just before +sundown, all the people leave their work, and meet in groups in the public +streets and squares. All kneel and begin to chant their prayers in a low +and musical tone. The concert of song which rises from all these numerous +reunions produces an immense and solemn harmony, which deeply impresses +the mind. We could not help sadly comparing this Pagan city, where all the +people prayed together, with our European cities, where men would blush to +be seen making the sign of the cross." + +In Thibet _confession_ was early enjoined. Public worship is there a +solemn confession before the assembled priests. It confers entire +absolution from sins. It consists in an open confession of sin, and a +promise to sin no more. Consecrated water is also used in the service of +the Pagodas. + +There are thirty-five Buddhas who have preceded Sakya-muni, and are +considered the chief powers for taking away sin. These are called the +"Thirty-five Buddhas of Confession." Sakya-muni, however, has been +included in the number. Some lamas are also joined with them in the sacred +pictures, as Tsonkhapa, a lama born in A.D. 1555, and others. The +mendicant priests of Buddha are bound to confess twice a month, at the new +and full moon. + +The Buddhists have also nunneries for women. It is related that +Sakya-muni consented to establish them at the earnest request of his aunt +and nurse, and of his favorite disciple, Ananda. These nuns take the same +vows as the monks. Their rules require them to show reverence even to the +youngest monk, and to use no angry or harsh words to a priest. The nun +must be willing to be taught; she must go once a fortnight for this +purpose to some virtuous teacher; she must not devote more than two weeks +at a time to spiritual retirement; she must not go out merely for +amusement; after two years' preparation she can be initiated, and she is +bound to attend the closing ceremonies of the rainy season. + + + +Sec. 7. Karma and Nirvana. + + +One of the principal metaphysical doctrines of this system is that which +it called Karma. This means the law of consequences, by which every act +committed in one life entails results in another. This law operates until +one reaches Nirvana. Mr. Hardy goes so far as to suppose that Karma causes +the merits or demerits of each soul to result at death in the production +of another consciousness, and in fact to result in a new person. But this +must be an error. Karma is the law of consequences, by which every act +receives its exact recompense in the next world, where the soul is born +again. But unless the same soul passes on, such a recompense is +impossible. + +"_Karma_" said Buddha, "is the most essential property of all beings; it +is inherited from previous births, it is the cause of all good and evil, +and the reason why some are mean and some exalted when they come into the +world. It is like the shadow which always accompanies the body." Buddha +himself obtained all his elevation by means of the Karma obtained in +previous states. No one can obtain Karma or merit, but those who hear the +discourses of Buddha. + +There has been much discussion among scholars concerning the true meaning +of Nirvana, the end of all Buddhist expectation. Is it annihilation? Or is +it absorption in God? The weight of authority, no doubt, is in favor of +the first view. Burnouf's conclusion is: "For Buddhist theists, it is the +absorption of the individual life in God; for atheists, absorption of this +individual life in the nothing. But for both, it is deliverance from all +evil, it is supreme affranchisement." In the opinion that it is +annihilation agree Max Muller, Tumour, Schmidt, and Hardy. And M. +Saint-Hilaire, while calling it "a hideous faith," nevertheless assigns it +to a third part of the human race. + +But, on the other hand, scholars of the highest rank deny this view. In +particular, Bunsen (_Gott in der Geschichte_) calls attention to the fact +that, in the oldest monuments of this religion, the earliest Sutras, +Nirvana is spoken of as a condition attained in the present life. How then +can it mean annihilation? It is a state in which all desires cease, all +passions die. Bunsen believes that the Buddha never denied or questioned +God or immortality. + +The following account of NIRVANA is taken from the Pali Sacred Books:-- + + + "Again the king of Sagal said to Nagasena: 'Is the joy of Nirvana + unmixed, or is it associated with sorrow?' The priest replied that it + is unmixed satisfaction, entirely free from sorrow. + + "Again the king of Sagal said to Nagasena: 'Is Nirvana in the east, + west, south, or north; above or below? Is there such a place as + Nirvana? If so, where is it?' Nagasena: 'Neither in the east, south, + west, nor north, neither in the sky above, nor in the earth below, nor + in any of the infinite sakwalas, is there such a place as Nirvana.' + Milinda: 'Then if Nirvana have no locality, there can be no such thing; + and when it is said that any one attains Nirvana, the declaration is + false.' Nagasena: 'There is no such place as Nirvana, and yet it + exists; the priest who seeks it in the right manner will attain it.' + 'When Nirvana is attained, is there such a place?' Nagasena: 'When a + priest attains Nirvana there is such a place.' Milinda: 'Where is that + place?' Nagasena: 'Wherever the precepts can be observed; it may be + anywhere; just as he who has two eyes can see the sky from any or all + places; or as all places may have an eastern side.'" + +The Buddhist asserts Nirvana as the object of all his hope, yet, if you +ask him what it is, may reply, "Nothing." But this cannot mean that the +highest good of man is annihilation. No pessimism could be more extreme +than such a doctrine. Such a belief is not in accordance with human +nature. Tennyson is wiser when he writes:-- + + "Whatever crazy sorrow saith, + No life that breathes with human breath + Has ever truly longed for death. + + "'T is LIFE, whereof our nerves are scant, + O life, not death, for which we pant; + More life, and fuller, that I want." + +The Buddhist, when he says that Nirvana is _nothing,_ means simply that it +is _no thing_; that it is nothing to our present conceptions; that it is +the opposite of all we know, the contradiction, of what we call life now, +a state so sublime, so wholly different from anything we know or can know +now, that it is the same thing as nothing to us. All present life is +change; _that_ is permanence: all present life is going up and down; +_that_ is stability: all present life is the life of sense; _that_ is +spirit. + +The Buddhist denies God in the same way. He is the unknowable. He is the +impossible to be conceived of. + + "Who shall name Him + And dare to say, + '_I believe in Him_'? + Who shall deny Him, + And venture to affirm, + '_I believe in Him not?_'"[106] + +To the Buddhist, in short, the element of time and the finite is all, as +to the Brahman the element of eternity is all. It is the most absolute +contradiction of Brahmanism which we can conceive. + +It seems impossible for the Eastern mind to hold at the same time the two +conceptions of God and nature, the infinite and the finite, eternity and +time. The Brahmaus accept the reality of God, the infinite and the +eternal, and omit the reality of the finite, of nature, history, time, and +the world. The Buddhist accepts the last, and ignores the first. + +This question has been fully discussed by Mr. Alger in his very able work, +"Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life," and his conclusion is +wholly opposed to the view which makes Nirvana equivalent to annihilation. + + + +Sec. 8. Good and Evil of Buddhism. + + +The good and the evil of Buddhism are thus summed up by M. Saint-Hilaire. + +He remarks that the first peculiarity of Buddhism is the wholly practical +direction taken by its founder. He proposes to himself the salvation of +mankind. He abstains from the subtle philosophy of the Brahmans, and takes +the most direct and simple way to his end. But he does not offer low and +sensual rewards; he does not, like so many lawgivers, promise to his +followers riches, pleasures, conquests, power. He invites them to +salvation by means of virtue, knowledge, and self-denial. Not in the +Vedas, nor the books which proceed from it, do we find such noble appeals, +though they too look at the infinite as their end. But the indisputable +glory of Buddha is the boundless charity to man with which his soul was +filled. He lived to instruct and guide man aright. He says in so many +words, "My law is a law of grace for all" (Burnouf, Introduction, etc., p. +198). We may add to M. Saint-Hilaire's statement, that in these words the +Buddha plainly aims at what we have called a catholic religion. In his +view of man's sorrowful life, all distinctions of rank and class fall +away; all are poor and needy together; and here, too, he comes in contact +with that Christianity which says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and +are heavy-laden." Buddha also wished to cure the sicknesses, not only of +the Hindoo life, but of the life of mankind. + +M. Saint-Hilaire adds, that, in seeking thus to help man, the means of the +Buddha are pure, like his ends. He tries to convince and to persuade: he +does not wish to compel. He allows confession, and helps the weak and +simple by explanations and parables. He also tries to guard man against +evil, by establishing habits of chastity, temperance, and self-control. He +goes forward into the Christian graces of patience, humility, and +forgiveness of injuries. He has a horror of falsehood, a reverence for +truth; he forbids slander and gossip; he teaches respect for parents, +family, life, home. + +Yet Saint-Hilaire declares that, with all these merits, Buddhism has not +been able to found a tolerable social state or a single good government. +It failed in India, the land of its birth. Nothing like the progress and +the development of Christian civilization appears in Buddhism. Something +in the heart of the system makes it sterile, notwithstanding its excellent +intentions. What is it? + +The fact is, that, notwithstanding its benevolent purposes, its radical +thought is a selfish one. It rests on pure individualism,--each man's +object is to save his own soul. All the faults of Buddhism, according to +M. Saint-Hilaire, spring from this root of egotism in the heart of the +system. + +No doubt the same idea is found in Christianity. Personal salvation is +herein included. But Christianity _starts_ from a very different point: it +is the "kingdom of Heaven." "Thy kingdom come: thy will be done on earth." +It is not going on away from time to find an unknown eternity. It is God +with us, eternity here, eternal life abiding in us now. If some narrow +Protestant sects make Christianity to consist essentially in the salvation +of our own soul hereafter, they fall into the condemnation of Buddhism. +But that is not the Christianity of Christ. Christ accepts the great +prophetic idea of a Messiah who brings down God's reign into this life. It +is the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven. It is the earth +full of the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea. It is all +mankind laboring together for this general good. + +This solitary preoccupation with one's own salvation causes the religious +teachers of Buddhism to live apart, outside of society, and take no +interest in it. There is in the Catholic and Protestant world, beside the +monk, a secular priesthood, which labors to save other men's bodies and +souls. No such priesthood exists in Buddhism. + +Moreover, not the idea of salvation from evil,--which keeps before us evil +as the object of contemplation,--but the idea of good, is the true motive +for the human conscience. This leads us up at once to God; this alone can +create love. We can only love by seeing something lovely. God must seem, +not terrible, but lovely, in order to be loved. Man must seem, not mean +and poor, but noble and beautiful, before we can love him. This idea of +the good does not appear in Buddhism, says M. Saint-Hilaire. Not a spark +of this divine flame--that which to see and show has given immortal glory +to Plato and to Socrates--has descended on Sakya-muni. The notion of +rewards, substituted for that of the infinite beauty, has perverted +everything in his system. + +Duty itself becomes corrupted, as soon as the idea of the good disappears. +It becomes then a blind submission to mere law. It is an outward +constraint, not an inward inspiration. Scepticism follows. "The world is +empty, the heart is dead surely," is its language. Nihilism arrives sooner +or later. God is nothing; man is nothing; life is nothing; death is +nothing; eternity is nothing. Hence the profound sadness of Buddhism. To +its eye all existence is evil, and the only hope is to escape from time +into eternity,--or into nothing,--as you may choose to interpret Nirvana. +While Buddhism makes God, or the good, and heaven, to be equivalent to +nothing, it intensifies and exaggerates evil. Though heaven is a blank, +hell is a very solid reality. It is present and future too. Everything in +the thousand hells of Buddhism is painted as vividly as in the hell of +Dante. God has disappeared from the universe, and in his place is only the +inexorable law, which grinds on forever. It punishes and rewards, but has +no love in it. It is only dead, cold, hard, cruel, unrelenting law. Yet +Buddhists are not atheists, any more than a child who has never heard of +God is an atheist. A child is neither deist nor atheist: he has _no_ +theology. + +The only emancipation from self-love is in the perception of an infinite +love. Buddhism, ignoring this infinite love, incapable of communion with +God, aiming at morality without religion, at humanity without piety, +becomes at last a prey to the sadness of a selfish isolation. We do not +say that this is always the case, for in all systems the heart often +redeems the errors of the head. But this is the logical drift of the +system and its usual outcome. + + + +Sec. 9. Relation of Buddhism to Christianity. + + +In closing this chapter, let us ask what relation this great system +sustains to Christianity. + +The fundamental doctrine and central idea of Buddhism is personal +salvation, or _the salvation of the soul by personal acts of faith and +obedience_. This we maintain, notwithstanding the opinion that some +schools of Buddhists teach that the soul itself is not a constant element +or a special substance, but the mere result of past merit or demerit. For +if there be no soul, there can be no transmigration. Now it is certain +that the doctrine of transmigration is the very basis of Buddhism, the +corner-stone of the system. Thus M. Saint-Hilaire says: "The chief and +most immovable fact of Buddhist metaphysics is the doctrine of +transmigration." Without a soul to migrate, there can be no migration. +Moreover, the whole ethics of the system would fall with its metaphysics, +on this theory; for why urge men to right conduct, in order to attain +happiness, or Nirvana, hereafter, if they are not to exist hereafter. No, +the soul's immortality is a radical doctrine in Buddhism, and this +doctrine is one of its points of contact with Christianity. + +Another point of contact is its doctrine of reward and punishment,--a +doctrine incompatible with the supposition that the soul does not pass on +from world to world. But this is the essence of all its ethics, the +immutable, inevitable, unalterable consequences of good and evil. In this +also it agrees with Christianity, which teaches that "whatsoever a man +soweth that shall he also reap"; that he who turns his pound into five +will he set over five cities, he who turns it into ten, over ten cities. + +A third point of contact with Christianity, however singular it may at +first appear to say so, is the doctrine of Nirvana. Nirvana, to the +Buddhist, means the absolute, eternal world, beyond time and space; that +which is nothing to us now, but will be everything hereafter. Incapable of +cognizing both time and eternity, it makes them absolute negations of each +other. + +The peculiarity of Plato, according to Mr. Emerson and other Platonists +was, that he was able to grasp and hold intellectually both +conceptions,--of God and man, the infinite and finite, the eternal and the +temporal. The merit of Christianity is, in like manner, that it is able to +take up and keep, not primarily as dogma, but as life, both these +antagonistic ideas. Christianity recognizes God as the infinite and +eternal, but recognizes also the world of time and space as real. Man +exists as well as God: we love God, we must love man too. Brahmanism loves +God, but not man; it has piety, but not humanity. Buddhism loves man, but +not God; it has humanity, but not piety; or if it has piety, it is by a +beautiful want of logic, its heart being wiser than its head. That which +seems an impossibility in these Eastern systems is a fact of daily life to +the Christian child, to the ignorant and simple Christian man or woman, +who, amid daily duty and trial, find joy in both heavenly and earthly +love. + +There is a reason for this in the inmost nature of Christianity as +compared with Buddhism. Why is it that Buddhism is a religion without God? +Sakya-muni did not ignore God. The object of his life was to attain +Nirvana, that is, to attain a union with God, the Infinite Being. He +became Buddha by this divine experience. Why, then, is not this religious +experience a constituent element in Buddhism, as it is in Christianity? +Because in Buddhism man struggles upward to find God, while in +Christianity God comes down to find man. To speak in the language of +technical theology, Buddhism is a doctrine of works, and Christianity of +grace. That which God gives all men may receive, and be united by this +community of grace in one fellowship. But the results attained by effort +alone, divide men; because some do more and receive more than others. The +saint attained Buddha, but that was because of his superhuman efforts and +sacrifices; it does not encourage others to hope for the same result. + +We see, then, that here, as elsewhere, the superiority of Christianity is +to be found in its quantity, in its fulness of life. It touches Buddhism +at all its good points, in all its truths. It accepts the Buddhistic +doctrine of rewards and punishments, of law, progress, self-denial, +self-control, humanity, charity, equality of man with man, and pity for +human sorrow; but to all this it adds--how much more! It fills up the +dreary void of Buddhism with a living God; with a life of God in man's +soul, a heaven here as well as hereafter. It gives us, in addition to the +struggle of the soul to find God, a God coming down to find the soul. It +gives a divine as real as the human, an infinite as solid as the finite. +And this it does, not by a system of thought, but by a fountain and stream +of life. If all Christian works, the New Testament included, were +destroyed, we should lose a vast deal no doubt; but we should not lose +Christianity; for that is not a book, but a life. Out of that stream of +life would be again developed the conception of Christianity, as a thought +and a belief. We should be like the people living on the banks of the +Nile, ignorant for five thousand years of its sources; not knowing whence +its beneficent inundations were derived; not knowing by what miracle its +great stream could flow on and on amid the intense heats, where no rain +falls, and fed during a course of twelve hundred miles by no single +affluent, yet not absorbed in the sand, nor evaporated by the ever-burning +sun. But though ignorant of its source, they know it has a source, and can +enjoy all its benefits and blessings. So Christianity is a full river of +life, containing truths apparently the most antagonistic, filling the soul +and heart of man and the social state of nations with its impulses and +its ideas. We should lose much in losing our positive knowledge of its +history; but if all the books were gone, the tablets of the human heart +would remain, and on these would be written the everlasting Gospel of +Jesus, in living letters which no years could efface and no changes +conceal. + + + + +Chapter V. + +Zoroaster and the Zend Avesta. + + + + Sec. 1. Ruins of the Palace of Xerxes at Persepolis. + Sec. 2. Greek Accounts of Zoroaster. Plutarch's Description of his Religion. + Sec. 3. Anquetil du Perron and his Discovery of the Zend Avesta. + Sec. 4. Epoch of Zoroaster. What do we know of him? + Sec. 5. Spirit of Zoroaster and of his Religion. + Sec. 6. Character of the Zend Avesta. + Sec. 7. Later Development of the System in the Bundehesch. + Sec. 8. Relation of the Religion of the Zend Avesta to that of the Vedas. + Sec. 9. Is Monotheism or pure Dualism the Doctrine taught in the Zend + Avesta? + Sec. 10. Relation of this System to Christianity. The Kingdom of Heaven. + + + +Sec. 1. Ruins of the Palace of Xerxes at Persepolis. + + +In the southwestern part of Persia is the lovely valley of Schiraz, in the +province of Farsistan, which is the ancient Persis. Through the long +spring and summer the plains are covered with flowers, the air is laden +with perfume, and the melody of birds, winds, and waters fills the ear. +The fields are covered with grain, which ripens in May; the grapes, +apricots, and peaches are finer than those of Europe. The nightingale (or +bulbul) sings more sweetly than elsewhere, and the rose-bush, the national +emblem of Persia, grows to the size of a tree, and is weighed down by its +luxuriant blossoms. The beauty of this region, and the loveliness of the +women of Schiraz awakened the genius of Hafiz and of Saadi, the two great +lyric poets of the East, both of whom resided here. + +At one extremity of this valley, in the hollow of a crescent formed by +rocky hills, thirty miles northwest of Schiraz, stands an immense +platform, fifty feet high above the plain, hewn partly out of the mountain +itself, and partly built up with gray marble blocks from twenty to sixty +feet long, so nicely fitted together that the joints can scarcely be +detected. This platform is about fourteen hundred feet long by nine +hundred broad, and its faces front the four quarters of the heavens. You +rise from the plain by flights of marble steps, so broad and easy that a +procession on horseback could ascend them. By these you reach a landing, +where stand as sentinels two colossal figures sculptured from great blocks +of marble. The one horn in the forehead seems to Heeren to indicate the +Unicorn; the mighty limbs, whose muscles are carved with the precision of +the Grecian chisel, induced Sir Robert Porter to believe that they +represented the sacred bulls of the Magian religion; while the solemn, +half-human repose of the features suggests some symbolic and supernatural +meaning. Passing these sentinels, who have kept their solitary watch for +centuries, you ascend by other flights of steps to the top of the terrace. +There stand, lonely and beautiful, a few gigantic columns, whose lofty +fluted shafts and elegantly carved capitals belong to an unknown order of +architecture. Fifty or sixty feet high, twelve or fifteen feet in +circumference, they, with a multitude of others, once supported the roof +of cedar, now fallen, whose beams stretched from capital to capital, and +which protected the assembled multitudes from the hot sun of Southern +Asia. Along the noble upper stairway are carved rows of figures, which +seem to be ascending by your side. They represent warriors, courtiers, +captives, men of every nation, among whom may be easily distinguished the +negro from the centre of Africa. Inscriptions abound, in that strange +arrow-headed or wedge-shaped character,--one of the most ancient and +difficult of all,--which, after long baffling the learning of Europe, has +at last begun yielded to the science and acuteness of the present century. +One of the inscriptions copied from these walls was read by Grotefend as +follows:-- + + + "Darius the King, King of Kings, son of Hystaspes, successor of the + Ruler of the World, Djemchid." + +Another:-- + + + "Xerxes the King, King of Kings, son of Darius the King, successor of + the Ruler of the World." + +More recently, other inscriptions have been deciphered, one of which is +thus given by another German Orientalist, Benfey:--[107] + + + "Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd) is a mighty God; who has created the earth, the + heaven, and men; who has given glory to men; who has made Xerxes king, + the ruler of many. I, Xerxes, King of Kings, king of the earth near and + far, son of Darius, an Achaemenid. What I have done here, and what I + have done elsewhere, I have done by the grace of Ahura-Mazda." + +In another place:-- + + + "Artaxerxes the King has declared that this great work is done by me. + May Ahura-Mazda and Mithra protect me, my building, and my + people[108]." + +Here, then, was the palace of Darius and his successors, Xerxes and +Artaxerxes, famous for their conquests,--some of which are recorded on +these walls,--who carried their victorious arms into India on the east, +Syria and Asia Minor on the west, but even more famous for being defeated +at Marathon and Thermopylae. By the side of these columns sat the great +kings of Persia, giving audience to ambassadors from distant lands. Here, +perhaps, sat Cyrus himself, the founder of the Persian monarchy, and +issued orders to rebuild Jerusalem. Here the son of Xerxes, the Ahasuerus +of Scripture, may have brought from Susa the fair Esther. For this is the +famous Persepolis, and on those loftier platforms, where only ruinous +heaps of stones now remain, stood that other palace, which Alexander +burned in his intoxication three hundred and thirty years before Christ. +"Solitary in their situation, peculiar in their character," says Heeren, +"these ruins rise above the deluge of years which has overwhelmed all the +records of human grandeur around them, and buried all traces of Susa and +Babylon. Their venerable antiquity and majestic proportions do not more +command our reverence, than the mystery which involves their construction +awakens the curiosity of the most unobservant spectator. Pillars which +belong to no known order of architecture, inscriptions in an alphabet +which continues an enigma, fabulous animals which stand as guards at the +entrance, the multiplicity of allegorical figures which decorate the +walls,--all conspire to carry us back to ages of the most remote +antiquity, over which the traditions of the East shed a doubtful and +wavering light." + +Diodorus Siculus says that at Persepolis, on the face of the mountain, +were the tombs of the kings of Persia, and that the coffins had to be +lifted up to them along the wall of rock by cords. And Ctesias tells us +that "Darius, the son of Hystaspes, had a tomb prepared for himself in the +double mountain during his lifetime, and that his parents were drawn up +with cords to see it, but fell and were killed." These very tombs are +still to be seen on the face of the mountain behind the ruins. The figures +of the kings are carved over them. One stands before an altar on which a +fire is burning. A ball representing the sun is above the altar. Over the +effigy of the king hangs in the air a winged half-length figure in fainter +lines, and resembling him. In other places he is seen contending with a +winged animal like a griffin. + +All this points at the great Iranic religion, the religion of Persia and +its monarchs for many centuries, the religion of which Zoroaster was the +great prophet, and the Avesta the sacred book. The king, as servant of +Ormazd, is worshipping the fire and the sun,--symbols of the god; he +resists the impure griffin, the creature of Ahriman; and the half-length +figure over his head is the surest evidence of the religion of Zoroaster. +For, according to the Avesta, every created being has its archetype or +Fereuer (Ferver, Fravashis), which is its ideal essence, first created by +the thought of Ormazd. Even Ormazd himself has his Fravashis,[109] and +these angelic essences are everywhere objects of worship to the disciple +of Zoroaster. We have thus found in Persepolis, not only the palace of the +great kings of Persia, but the home of that most ancient system of +Dualism, the system of Zoroaster. + + + +Sec. 2. Greek Accounts of Zoroaster. Plutarch's Description of his Religion. + + +But who was Zoroaster, and what do we know of him? He is mentioned by +Plato, about four hundred years before Christ. In speaking of the +education of a Persian prince he says that "one teacher instructs him in +the magic of Zoroaster, the son (or priest) of Ormazd (or Oromazes), in +which is comprehended all the worship of the gods." He is also spoken of +by Diodorus, Plutarch, the elder Pliny, and many writers of the first +centuries after Christ. The worship of the Magians is described by +Herodotus before Plato. Herodotus gives very minute accounts of the +ritual, priests, sacrifices, purifications, and mode of burial used by the +Persian Magi in his time, four hundred and fifty years before Christ; and +his account closely corresponds with the practices of the Parsis, or +fire-worshippers, still remaining in one or two places in Persia and India +at the present day. "The Persians," he says, "have no altars, no temples +nor images; they worship on the tops of the mountains. They adore the +heavens, and sacrifice to the sun, moon, earth, fire, water, and +winds."[110] "They do not erect altars, nor use libations, fillets, or +cakes. One of the Magi sings an ode concerning the origin of the gods, +over the sacrifice, which is laid on a bed of tender grass." "They pay +great reverence to all rivers, and must do nothing to defile them; in +burying they never put the body in the ground till it has been torn by +some bird or dog; they cover the body with wax, and then put it in the +ground." "The Magi think they do a meritorious act when they kill ants, +snakes, reptiles."[111] + +Plutarch's account of Zoroaster[112] and his precepts, is very +remarkable. It is as follows:-- + +"Some believe that there are two Gods,--as it were, two rival workmen; the +one whereof they make to be the maker of good things, and the other bad. +And some call the better of these God, and the other Daemon; as doth +Zoroastres, the Magee, whom they report to be five thousand years elder +than the Trojan times. This Zoroastres therefore called the one of these +Oromazes, and the other Arimanius; and affirmed, moreover, that the one of +them did, of anything sensible, the most resemble light, and the other +darkness and ignorance; but that Mithras was in the middle betwixt them. +For which cause, the Persians called Mithras the mediator. And they tell +us that he first taught mankind to make vows and offerings of thanksgiving +to the one, and to offer averting and feral sacrifice to the other. For +they beat a certain plant called homomy[113] in a mortar, and call upon +Pluto and the dark; and then mix it with the blood of a sacrificed wolf, +and convey it to a certain place where the sun never shines, and there +cast it away. For of plants they believe, that some pertain to the good +God, and others again to the evil Daemon; and likewise they think that +such animals as dogs, fowls, and urchins belong to the good; but water +animals to the bad, for which reason they account him happy that kills +most of them. These men, moreover, tell us a great many romantic things +about these gods, whereof these are some: They say that Oromazes, +springing from purest light, and Arimanius, on the other hand, from pitchy +darkness, these two are therefore at war with one another. And that +Oromazes made six gods[114], whereof the first was the author of +benevolence, the second of truth, the third of justice, and the rest, one +of wisdom, one of wealth, and a third of that pleasure which accrues from +good actions; and that Arimanius likewise made the like number of contrary +operations to confront them. After this, Oromazes, having first trebled +his own magnitude, mounted up aloft, so far above the sun as the sun +itself above the earth, and so bespangled the heavens with stars. But one +star (called Sirius or the Dog) he set as a kind of sentinel or scout +before all the rest. And after he had made four-and-twenty gods more, he +placed them all in an egg-shell. But those that were made by Arimanius +(being themselves also of the like number) breaking a hole in this +beauteous and glazed egg-shell, bad things came by this means to be +intermixed with good. But the fatal time is now approaching, in which +Arimanius, who by means of this brings plagues and famines upon the earth, +must of necessity be himself utterly extinguished and destroyed; at which +time, the earth, being made plain and level, there will be one life, and +one society of mankind, made all happy, and one speech. But Theopompus +saith, that, according to the opinion of the Magees, each of these gods +subdues, and is subdued by turns, for the space of three thousand years +apiece, and that for three thousand years more they quarrel and fight and +destroy each other's works; but that at last Pluto shall fail, and mankind +shall be happy, and neither need food, nor yield a shadow.[115] And that +the god who projects these things doth, for some time, take his repose and +rest; but yet this time is not so much to him although it seems so to man, +whose sleep is but short. Such, then, is the mythology of the Magees." + +We shall see presently how nearly this account corresponds with the +religion of the Parsis, as it was developed out of the primitive doctrine +of Zoroaster.[116] + +Besides what was known through the Greeks, and some accounts contained in +Arabian and Persian writers, there was, until the middle of the last +century, no certain information concerning Zoroaster and his teachings. +But the enterprise, energy, and scientific devotion of a young Frenchman +changed the whole aspect of the subject, and we are now enabled to speak +with some degree of certainty concerning this great teacher and his +doctrines. + + + +Sec. 3. Anquetil du Perron and his Discovery of the Zend Avesta. + + +Anquetil du Perron, born at Paris in 1731, devoted himself early to the +study of Oriental literature. He mastered the Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian +languages, and by his ardor in these studies attracted the attention of +Oriental scholars. Meeting one day in the Royal Library with a fragment of +the Zend Avesta, he was seized with the desire of visiting India, to +recover the lost books of Zoroaster, "and to learn the Zend language in +which they were written, and also the Sanskrit, so as to be able to read +the manuscripts in the _Bibliotheque du Roi_, which no one in Paris +understood."[117] His friends endeavored to procure him a situation in an +expedition just about to sail; but their efforts not succeeding, Du Perron +enlisted as a private soldier, telling no one of his intention till the +day before setting out, lest he should be prevented from going. He then +sent for his brother and took leave of him with many tears, resisting all +the efforts made to dissuade him from his purpose. His baggage consisted +of a little linen, a Hebrew Bible, a case of mathematical instruments, and +the works of Montaigne and Charron. A ten days' march, with other +recruits, through wet and cold, brought him to the port from whence the +expedition was to sail. Here he found that the government, struck with his +extraordinary zeal for science, had directed that he should have his +discharge and a small salary of five hundred livres. The East India +Company (French) gave him a passage gratis, and he set sail for India, +February 7, 1755, being then twenty-four years old. The first two years in +India were almost lost to him for purposes of science, on account of his +sicknesses, travels, and the state of the country disturbed by war between +England and France[118]. He travelled afoot and on horseback over a great +part of Hindostan, saw the worship of Juggernaut and the monumental caves +of Ellora, and, in 1759, arrived at Surat, where was the Parsi community +from which he hoped for help in obtaining the object of his pursuit. By +perseverance and patience he succeeded in persuading the Destours, or +priests, of these fire-worshippers, to teach him the Zend language and to +furnish him with manuscripts of the Avesta. With one hundred and eighty +valuable manuscripts he returned to Europe, and published, in 1771, his +great work,--the Avesta translated into French, with notes and +dissertations. He lived through the French Revolution, shut up with his +books, and immersed in his Oriental studies, and died, after a life of +continued labor, in 1805. Immense erudition and indomitable industry were +joined in Anquetil du Perron to a pure love of truth and an excellent +heart. + +For many years after the publication of the Avesta its genuineness and +authenticity were a matter of dispute among the learned men of Europe; Sir +William Jones especially denying it to be an ancient work, or the +production of Zoroaster. But almost all modern writers of eminence now +admit both. Already in 1826 Heeren said that these books had "stood the +fiery ordeal of criticism." "Few remains of antiquity," he remarks, "have +undergone such attentive examination as the books of the Zend Avesta. This +criticism has turned out to their advantage; the genuineness of the +principal compositions, especially of the Vendidad and Izeschne (Yacna), +has been demonstrated; and we may consider as completely ascertained all +that regards the rank of each book of the Zend Avesta." + +Rhode (one of the first of scholars of his day in this department) says: +"There is not the least doubt that these are the books ascribed in the +most ancient times to Zoroaster." Of the Vendidad he says: "It has both +the inward and outward marks of the highest antiquity, so that we fear not +to say that only prejudice or ignorance could doubt it[119]." + + + +Sec. 4. Epoch of Zoroaster. What do we know of him? + + +As to the age of these books, however, and the period at which Zoroaster +lived, there is the greatest difference of opinion. He is mentioned by +Plato (Alcibiades, I. 37), who speaks of "the magic (or religious +doctrines) of Zoroaster the Ormazdian" (_magedan Zoroastran ton +Oromazon_[120]). As Plato speaks of his religion as something established +in the form of Magism, or the system of the Medes, in West Iran, while the +Avesta appears to have originated in Bactria, or East Iran[121], this +already carries the age of Zoroaster back to at least the sixth or seventh +century before Christ. When the Avesta was written, Bactria was an +independent monarchy. Zoroaster is represented as teaching under King +Vistacpa. But the Assyrians conquered Bactria B.C. 1200, which was the +last of the Iranic kingdoms, they having previously vanquished the Medes, +Hyrcanians, Parthians, Persians, etc. As Zoroaster must have lived before +this conquest, his period is taken back to a still more remote time, about +B.C. 1300 or B.C. 1250[122] It is difficult to be more precise than this. +Bunsen indeed[123] suggests that "the date of Zoroaster, as fixed by +Aristotle, cannot be said to be so very irrational. He and Eudoxus, +according to Pliny, place him six thousand years before the death of +Plato; Hermippus, five thousand years before the Trojan war," or about +B.C. 6300 or B.C. 6350. But Bunsen adds: "At the present stage of the +inquiry the question whether this date is set too high cannot be answered +either in the negative or affirmative." Spiegel, in one of his latest +works,[124] considers Zoroaster as a neighbor and contemporary of Abraham, +therefore as living B.C. 2000 instead of B.C. 6350. Professor Whitney of +New Haven places the epoch of Zoroaster at "least B.C. 1000," and adds +that all attempts to reconstruct Persian chronology or history prior to +the reign of the first Sassanid have been relinquished as futile.[125] +Doellinger[126] thinks he may have been "somewhat later than Moses, perhaps +about B.C. 1300," but says, "it is impossible to fix precisely" when he +lived. Rawlinson[127]| merely remarks that Berosus places him anterior to +B.C. 2234. Haug is inclined to date the Gathas, the oldest songs of the +Avesta, as early as the time of Moses.[128] Rapp,[129] after a thorough +comparison of ancient writers, concludes that Zoroaster lived B.C. 1200 or +1300. In this he agrees with Duncker, who, as we have seen, decided upon +the same date. It is not far from the period given by the oldest Greek +writer who speaks of Zoroaster,--Xanthus of Sardis, a contemporary of +Darius. It is the period given by Cephalion, a writer of the second +century, who takes it from three independent sources. We have no sources +now open to us which enable us to come nearer than this to the time in +which he lived. + +Nor is anything known with certainty of the place where he lived or the +events of his life. Most modern writers suppose that he resided in +Bactria. Haug maintains that the language of the Zend books is +Bactrian[130]. A highly mythological and fabulous life of Zoroaster, +translated by Anquetil du Perron, called the Zartusht-Namah[131], +describes him as going to Iran in his thirtieth year, spending twenty +years in the desert, working miracles during ten years, and giving lessons +of philosophy in Babylon, with Pythagoras as his pupil. All this is based +on the theory (now proved to be false) of his living in the time of +Darius. "The language of the Avesta," says Max Muller, "is so much more +primitive than the inscriptions of Darius, that many centuries must have +passed between the two periods represented by these two strata of +language[132]." These inscriptions are in the Achaemenian dialect, which +is the Zend in a later stage of linguistic growth. + + + +Sec. 5. Spirit of Zoroaster and of his Religion + + +It is not likely that Zoroaster ever saw Pythagoras or even Abraham. But +though absolutely nothing is known of the events of his life, there is not +the least doubt of his existence nor of his character. He has left the +impress of his commanding genius on great regions, various races, and long +periods of time. His religion, like that of the Buddha, is essentially a +moral religion. Each of them was a revolt from the Pantheism of India, in +the interest of morality, human freedom, and the progress of the race. +They differ in this, that each takes hold of one side of morality, and +lets go the opposite. Zoroaster bases his law on the eternal distinction +between right and wrong; Sakya-muni, on the natural laws and their +consequences, either good or evil. Zoroaster's law is, therefore, the law +of justice; Sakya-muni's, the law of mercy. The one makes the supreme good +to consist in truth, duty, right; the other, in love, benevolence, and +kindness. Zoroaster teaches providence: the monk of India teaches +prudence. Zoroaster aims at holiness, the Buddha at merit. Zoroaster +teaches and emphasizes creation: the Buddha knows nothing of creation, but +only nature or law. All these oppositions run back to a single root. Both +are moral reformers; but the one moralizes according to the method of +Bishop Butler, the other after that of Archdeacon Paley. Zoroaster +cognizes all morality as having its root within, in the eternal +distinction between right and wrong motive, therefore in God; but +Sakya-muni finds it outside of the soul, in the results of good and evil +action, therefore in the nature of things. The method of salvation, +therefore, according to Zoroaster, is that of an eternal battle for good +against evil; but according to the Buddha, it is that of self-culture and +virtuous activity. + +Both of these systems, as being essentially moral systems in the interest +of humanity, proceed from persons. For it is a curious fact, that, while +the essentially spiritualistic religions are ignorant of their founders, +all the moral creeds of the world proceed from a moral source, i.e. a +human will. Brahmanism, Gnosticism, the Sufism of Persia, the Mysteries of +Egypt and Greece, Neo-Platonism, the Christian Mysticism of the Middle +Ages,--these have, strictly speaking, no founder. Every tendency to the +abstract, to the infinite, ignores personality.[133] Individual mystics we +know, but never the founder of any such system. The religions in which the +moral element is depressed, as those of Babylon, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, +Rome, are also without personal founders. But moral religions are the +religions of persons, and so we have the systems of Confucius, Buddha, +Zoroaster, Moses, Mohammed.[134] The Protestant Reformation was a protest +of the moral nature against a religion which had become divorced from +morality. Accordingly we have Luther as the founder of Protestantism; but +mediaeval Christianity grew up with no personal leader. + +The whole religion of the Avesta revolves around the person of Zoroaster, +or Zarathustra. In the oldest part of the sacred books, the Gathas of the +Yacna, he is called the _pure_ Zarathustra, good in thought, speech, and +work. It is said that Zarathustra alone knows the precepts of Ahura-Mazda +(Ormazd), and that he shall be made skilful in speech. In one of the +Gathas he expresses the desire of bringing knowledge to the pure, in the +power of Ormazd, so as to be to them strong joy (Spiegel, Gatha Ustvaiti, +XLII. 8), or, as Haug translates the same passage (Die Gathas des +Zarathustra, II. 8): "I will swear hostility to the liars, but be a strong +help to the truthful." He prays for truth, declares himself the most +faithful servant in the world of Ormazd the Wise One, and therefore begs +to know the best thing to do. As the Jewish prophets tried to escape their +mission, and called it a burden, and went to it "in the heat and +bitterness of their spirit," so Zoroaster says (according to Spiegel): +"When it came to me through your prayer, I thought that the spreading +abroad of your law through men was something difficult." + +Zoroaster was one of those who was oppressed with the sight of evil. But +it was not outward evil which most tormented him, but spiritual +evil,--evil having its origin in a depraved heart and a will turned away +from goodness. His meditations led him to the conviction that all the woe +of the world had its root in sin, and that the origin of sin was to be +found in the demonic world. He might have used the language of the Apostle +Paul and said, "We wrestle not with flesh and blood,"--that is, our +struggle is not with man, but with principles of evil, rulers of darkness, +spirits of wickedness in the supernatural world. Deeply convinced that a +great struggle was going on between the powers of light and darkness, he +called on all good men to take part in the war, and battle for the good +God against the dark and foul tempter. + +Great physical calamities added to the intensity of this conviction. It +appears that about the period of Zoroaster, some geological convulsions +had changed the climate of Northern Asia, and very suddenly produced +severe cold where before there had been an almost tropical temperature. +The first Fargard of the Vendidad has been lately translated by both +Spiegel and Haug, and begins by speaking of a good country, Aryana-Vaejo, +which was created a region of delight by Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd). Then it +adds that the "evil being, Angra-Mainyus (Ahriman), full of death, created +a mighty serpent, and winter, the work of the Devas. Ten months of winter +are there, two months of summer." Then follows, in the original document, +this statement: "Seven months of summer are (were?) there; five months of +winter were there. The latter are cold as to water, cold as to earth, cold +as to trees. There is the heart of winter; there all around falls deep +snow. There is the worst of evils." This passage has been set aside as an +interpolation by both Spiegel and Haug. But they give no reason for +supposing it such, except the difficulty of reconciling it with the +preceding passage. This difficulty, however, disappears, if we suppose it +intended to describe a great climatic change, by which the original home +of the Aryans, Aryana-Vaejo, became suddenly very much colder than before. +Such a change, if it took place, was probably the cause of the emigration +which transferred this people from Aryana-Vaejo (Old Iran) to New Iran, or +Persia. Such a history of emigration Bunsen and Haug suppose to be +contained in this first Fargard (or chapter) of the Vendidad. If so, it +takes us back further than the oldest part of the Veda, and gives the +progress of the Aryan stream to the south from its original source on the +great plains of Central Asia, till it divided into two branches, one +flowing into Persia, the other into India. The first verse of this +venerable document introduces Ormazd as saying that he had created new +regions, desirable as homes; for had he not done so, all human beings +would have crowded into this Aryana-Vaejo. Thus in the very first verse of +the Vendidad appears the affectionate recollection of these emigrant races +for their fatherland in Central Asia, and the Zoroasterian faith in a +creative and protective Providence. The awful convulsion which turned +their summer climate into the present Siberian winter of ten months' +duration was part of a divine plan. Old Iran would have been too +attractive, and all mankind would have crowded into that Eden. So the +evil Ahriman was permitted to glide into it, a new serpent of destruction, +and its seven months of summer and five of winter were changed to ten of +winter and two of summer.[135] + +This Aryana-Vaejo, Old Iran, the primeval seat of the great Indo-European +race, is supposed by Haug and Bunsen to be situated on the high plains +northeast of Samarcand, between the thirty-seventh and fortieth degrees of +north latitude, and the eighty-sixth and ninetieth of east longitude. This +region has exactly the climate described,--ten months of winter and two of +summer. The same is true of Western Thibet and most of Central Siberia. +Malte-Brun says: "The winter is nine or ten months long through almost the +whole of Siberia." June and July are the only months wholly free from +snow. On the parallel of 60 deg., the earth on the 28th of June was found +frozen, at a depth of three feet. + +But is there reason to think that the climate was ever different? +Geologists assure us that "great oscillations of climate have occurred in +times immediately antecedent to the peopling of the earth by man."[136] +But in Central and Northern Asia there is evidence of such fluctuations of +temperature in a much more recent period. In 1803, on the banks of the +Lena, in latitude 70 deg., the entire body of a mammoth fell from a mass of +ice in which it had been entombed perhaps for thousands of years, but with +the flesh so perfectly preserved that it was immediately devoured by +wolves. Since then these frozen elephants have been found in great +numbers, in so perfect a condition that the bulb of an eye of one of them +is in the Museum at Moscow.[137] They have been found as far north as 75 deg.. +Hence Lyell thinks it "reasonable to believe that a large region in +Central Asia, including perhaps the southern half of Siberia, enjoyed at +no very remote period in the earth's history a temperate climate, +sufficiently mild to afford food for numerous herds of elephants and +rhinoceroses." + +Amid these terrible convulsions of the air and ground, these antagonisms +of outward good and evil, Zoroaster developed his belief in the dualism of +all things. To his mind, as to that of the Hebrew poet, God had placed all +things against each other, two and two. No Pantheistic optimism, like that +of India, could satisfy his thought. He could not say, "Whatever is, is +right"; some things seemed fatally wrong. The world was a scene of war, +not of peace and rest. Life to the good man was not sleep, but battle. If +there was a good God over all, as he devoutly believed, there was also a +spirit of evil, of awful power, to whom we were not to yield, but with +whom we should do battle. In the far distance he saw the triumph of good; +but that triumph could only come by fighting the good fight now. But his +weapons were not carnal. "Pure thoughts" going out into "true words" and +resulting in "right actions"; this was the whole duty of man. + + + +Sec. 6. Character of the Zend Avesta. + + +A few passages, taken from different parts of the Zend Avesta, will best +illustrate these tendencies, and show how unlike it is, in its whole +spirit, to its sister, the Vedic liturgy. Twin children of the old Aryan +stock, they must have struggled together like Esau and Jacob, before they +were born. In such cases we see how superficial is the philosophy which, +beginning with synthesis instead of analysis, declares the unity of all +religions before it has seen their differences. There _is_ indeed, what +Cudworth has called "the symphony of all religions," but it cannot be +demonstrated by the easy process of gathering a few similar texts from +Confucius, the Vedas, and the Gospels, and then announcing that they all +teach the same thing. We must first find the specific idea of each, and we +may then be able to show how each of these may take its place in the +harmonious working of universal religion. + +If, in taking up the Zend Avesta, we expect to find a system of theology +or philosophy, we shall be disappointed. It is a liturgy,--a collection of +hymns, prayers, invocations, thanksgivings. It contains prayers to a +multitude of deities, among whom Ormazd is always counted supreme, and the +rest only his servants. + +"I worship and adore," says Zarathustra (Zoroaster), "the Creator of all +things, Ahura-Mazda (Ormazd), full of light! I worship the Amesha-cpentas +(Amshaspands, the seven archangels, or protecting spirits)! I worship the +body of the primal Bull, the soul of the Bull! I invoke thee, O Fire, thou +son of Ormazd, most rapid of the Immortals! I invoke Mithra, the lofty, +the immortal, the pure, the sun, the ruler, the quick Horse, the eye of +Ormazd! I invoke the holy Sraosha, gifted with holiness, and Racncu +(spirit of justice), and Arstat (spirit of truth)! I invoke the Fravashi +of good men, the Fravashi of Ormazd, the Fravashi of my own soul! I praise +the good men and women of the whole world of purity! I praise the Haoma, +health-bringing, golden, with moist stalks. I praise Sraosha, whom four +horses carry, spotless, bright-shining, swifter than the storms, who, +without sleeping, protects the world in the darkness." + +The following passages are from the oldest part of the Avesta, the +Gathas:-- + + "Good is the thought, good the speech, good the work of the pure + Zarathustra." + + "I desire by my prayer with uplifted hands this joy,--the pure works of + the Holy Spirit, Mazda,.... a disposition to perform good actions,.... + and pure gifts for both worlds, the bodily and spiritual." + + "I have intrusted my soul to Heaven.....and I will teach what is pure + so long as I can." + + "I keep forever purity and good-mindedness. Teach thou me, Ahura-Mazda, + out of thyself; from heaven, by thy mouth, whereby the world first + arose." + + "Thee have I thought, O Mazda, as the first, to praise with the + soul,.... active Creator,.... Lord of the worlds,.... Lord of good + things,.... the first fashioner,.... who made the pure creation,.... + who upholds the best soul with his understanding." + + "I praise Ahura-Mazda, who has created the cattle, created the water + and good trees, the splendor of light, the earth and all good. We + praise the Fravashis of the pure men and women,--whatever is fairest, + purest, immortal." + + "We honor the good spirit, the good kingdom, the good law,--all that is + good." + + "Here we praise the soul and body of the Bull, then our own souls, the + souls of the cattle which desire to maintain us in life,.... the good + men and women,.... the abode of the water,.... the meeting and parting + of the ways,.... the mountains which make the waters flow,.... the + strong wind created by Ahura-Mazda,.... the Haoma, giver of increase, + far from death." + + "Now give ear to me, and hear! the Wise Ones have created all. Evil + doctrine shall not again destroy the world." + + "In the beginning, the two heavenly Ones spoke--the Good to the + Evil--thus; 'Our souls, doctrines, words, works, do not unite + together.'" + + "How shall I satisfy thee, O Mazda, I, who have little wealth, few men? + How may I exalt thee according to my wish!.... I will be contented with + your desires; this is the decision of my understanding and of my soul." + +The following is from the Khordah Avesta:-- + + "In the name of God, the giver, forgiver, rich in love, praise be to + the name of Ormazd, the God with the name, 'Who always was, always is, + and always will be'; the heavenly amongst the heavenly, with the name + 'From whom alone is derived rule.' Ormazd is the greatest ruler, + mighty, wise, creator, supporter, refuge, defender, completer of good + works, overseer, pure, good, and just. + + "With all strength (bring I) thanks; to the great among beings, who + created and destroyed, and through his own determination of time, + strength, wisdom, is higher than the six Amshaspands, the circumference + of heaven, the shining sun, the brilliant moon, the wind, the water, + the fire, the earth, the trees, the cattle, the metals, mankind. + + "Offering and praise to that Lord, the completer of good works, who + made men greater than all earthly beings, and through the gift of + speech created them to rule the creatures, as warriors against the + Daevas.[138] + + "Praise the omniscience of God, who hath sent through the holy + Zarathustra peace for the creatures, the wisdom of the law,--the + enlightening derived from the heavenly understanding, and heard with + the ears,--wisdom and guidance for all beings who are, were, and will + be, (and) the wisdom of wisdoms; which effects freedom from hell for + the soul at the bridge, and leads it over to that Paradise, the + brilliant, sweet-smelling of the pure. + + "All good do I accept at thy command, O God, and think, speak, and do + it. I believe in the pure law; by every good work seek I forgiveness + for all sins. I keep pure for myself the serviceable work and + abstinence from the unprofitable. I keep pure the six powers,--thought, + speech, work, memory, mind, and understanding. According to thy will am + I able to accomplish, O accomplisher of good, thy honor, with good + thoughts, good words, good works. + + "I enter on the shining way to Paradise; may the fearful terror of hell + not overcome me! May I step over the bridge Chinevat, may I attain + Paradise, with much perfume, and all enjoyments, and all brightness. + + "Praise to the Overseer, the Lord, who rewards those who accomplish + good deeds according to his own wish, purifies at last the obedient, + and at last purifies even the wicked one of hell. All praise be to the + creator, Ormazd, the all-wise, mighty, rich in might; to the seven + Amshaspands; to Ized Bahram, the victorious annihilator of foes." + + + "HYMN TO A STAR. + + "The star Tistrya praise we, the shining, majestic, with pleasant good + dwelling, light, shining, conspicuous, going around, healthful, + bestowing joy, great, going round about from afar, with shining beams, + the pure, and the water which makes broad seas, good, far-famed, the + name of the bull created by Mazda, the strong kingly majesty, and the + Fravashi of the holy pure, Zarathustra. + + "For his brightness, for his majesty, will I praise him, the star + Tistrya, with audible praise. We praise the star Tistrya, the + brilliant, majestic, with offerings, with Haoma bound with flesh, with + Mauthra which gives wisdom to the tongue, with word and deed, with + offerings with right-spoken speech." + + "The star Tistrya, the brilliant, majestic, we praise, who glides so + softly to the sea like an arrow, who follows the heavenly will, who is + a terrible pliant arrow, a very pliant arrow, worthy of honor among + those worthy of honor, who comes from the damp mountain to the shining + mountain." + + + "HYMN TO MITHRA. + + "Mithra, whose long arms grasp forwards here with Mithra-strength; that + which is in Eastern India he seizes, and that which [is] in the Western + he smites, and what is on the steppes of Rauha, and what is at the ends + of this earth. + + "Thou, O Mithra, dost seize these, reaching out thy arms. The + unrighteous destroyed through the just is gloomy in soul. Thus thinks + the unrighteous: Mithra, the artless, does not see all these evil + deeds, all these lies. + + "But I think in my soul: No earthly man with a hundred-fold strength + thinks so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength thinks good. No + earthly man with a hundred-fold strength speaks so much evil as Mithra + with heavenly strength speaks good. No earthly man with a hundred-fold + strength does so much evil as Mithra with heavenly strength does good. + + "With no earthly man is the hundred-fold greater heavenly understanding + allied as the heavenly understanding allies itself to the heavenly + Mithra, the heavenly. No earthly man with a hundred-fold strength hears + with the ears as the heavenly Mithra, who possesses a hundred + strengths, sees every liar. Mightily goes forward Mithra, powerful in + rule marches he onwards; fair visual power, shining from afar, gives he + to the eyes." + + + "A CONFESSION, OR PATET.[139] + + "I repent of all sins. All wicked thoughts, words, and works which I + have meditated in the world, corporeal, spiritual, earthly, and + heavenly, I repent of, in your presence, ye believers. O Lord, pardon + through the three words. + + "I confess myself a Mazdayacnian, a Zarathustrian, an opponent of the + Daevas, devoted to belief in Ahura, for praise, adoration, + satisfaction, and laud. As it is the will of God, let the Zaota say to + me, Thus announces the Lord, the Pure out of Holiness, let the wise + speak. + + "I praise all good thoughts, words, and works, through thought, word, + and deed. I curse all evil thoughts, words, and works away from + thought, word, and deed. I lay hold on all good thoughts, words, and + works, with thoughts, words, and works, i.e. I perform good actions, I + dismiss all evil thoughts, words, and works, from thoughts, words, and + works, i.e. I commit no sins. + + "I give to you, ye who are Amshaspands, offering and praise, with the + heart, with the body, with my own vital powers, body and soul. The + whole powers which I possess I possess in dependence on the Yazatas. To + possess in dependence upon the Yazatas means (as much as) this: if + anything happens so that it behoves to give the body for the sake of + the soul, I give it to them. + + "I praise the best purity, I hunt away the Devs, I am thankful for the + good of the Creator Ormazd, with the opposition and unrighteousness + which come from Gana-mainyo, am I contented and agreed in the hope of + the resurrection. The Zarathustrian law created by Ormazd I take as a + plummet. For the sake of this way I repent of all sins. + + "I repent of the sins which can lay hold of the character of men, or + which have laid hold of my character, small and great which are + committed amongst men, the meanest sins as much as is (and) can be, yet + more than this, namely, all evil thoughts, words, and works which (I + have committed) for the sake of others, or others for my sake, or if + the hard sin has seized the character of an evil-doer on my + account,--such sins, thoughts, words, and works, corporeal, mental, + earthly, heavenly, I repent of with the three words: pardon, O Lord, I + repent of the sins with Patet. + + "The sins against father, mother, sister, brother, wife, child, against + spouses, against the superiors, against my own relations, against those + living with me, against those who possess equal property, against the + neighbors, against the inhabitants of the same town, against servants, + every unrighteousness through which I have been amongst sinners,--of + these sins repent I with thoughts, words, and works, corporeal as + spiritual, earthly as heavenly, with the three words: pardon, O Lord, I + repent of sins. + + "The defilement with dirt and corpses, the bringing of dirt and corpses + to the water and fire, or the bringing of fire and water to dirt and + corpses; the omission of reciting the Avesta in mind, of strewing about + hair, nails, and toothpicks, of not washing the hands, all the rest + which belongs to the category of dirt and corpses, if I have thereby + come among the sinners, so repent I of all these sins with thoughts, + words, and works, corporeal as spiritual, earthly as heavenly, with the + three words: pardon, O Lord, I repent of sin. + + "That which was the wish of Ormazd the Creator, and I ought to have + thought, and have not thought, what I ought to have spoken and have not + spoken, what I ought to have done and have not done; of these sins + repent I with thoughts, words, and works," etc. + + "That which was the wish of Ahriman, and I ought not to have thought + and yet have thought, what I ought not to have spoken and yet have + spoken, what I ought not to have done and yet have done; of these sins + I repent," etc. + + "Of all and every kind of sin which I have committed against the + creatures of Ormazd, as stars, moon, sun, and the red burning fire, the + dog, the birds, the five kinds of animals, the other good creatures + which are the property of Ormazd, between earth and heaven, if I have + become a sinner against any of these, I repent," etc. + + "Of pride, haughtiness, covetousness, slandering the dead, anger, envy, + the evil eye, shamelessness, looking at with evil intent, looking at + with evil concupiscence, stiff-neckedness, discontent with the godly + arrangements, self-willedness, sloth, despising others, mixing in + strange matters, unbelief, opposing the Divine powers, false witness, + false judgment, idol-worship, running naked, running with one shoe, the + breaking of the low (midday) prayer, the omission of the (midday) + prayer, theft, robbery, whoredom, witchcraft, worshipping with + sorcerers, unchastity, tearing the hair, as well as all other kinds of + sin which are enumerated in this Patet, or not enumerated, which I am + aware of, or not aware of, which are appointed or not appointed, which + I should have bewailed with obedience before the Lord, and have not + bewailed,--of these sins repent I with thoughts, words, and works, + corporeal as spiritual, earthly as heavenly. O Lord, pardon, I repent + with the three words, with Patet. + + "If I have taken on myself the Patet for any one and have not performed + it, and misfortune has thereby come upon his soul or his descendants, I + repent of the sin for every one with thoughts," etc. + + "With all good deeds am I in agreement, with all sins am I not in + agreement, for the good am I thankful, with iniquity am I contented. + With the punishment at the bridge, with the bonds and tormentings and + chastisements of the mighty of the law, with the punishment of the + three nights (after) the fifty-seven years am I contented and + satisfied." + +The Avesta, then, is not a system of dogmatics, but a book of worship. It +is to be read in private by the laity, or to be recited by the priests in +public. Nevertheless, just such a book may be the best help to the +knowledge of the religious opinions of an age. The deepest convictions +come to light in such a collection, not indeed in a systematic statement, +but in sincerest utterance. It will contain the faith of the heart rather +than the speculations of the intellect. Such a work can hardly be other +than authentic; for men do not forge liturgies, and, if they did, could +hardly introduce them into the worship of a religious community. + +The Avesta consists of the Vendidad, of which twenty-two Fargards, or +chapters, have been preserved; the Vispered, in twenty-seven; the Yacna, +in seventy; and the Khordah Avesta, or Little-Avesta, which contains the +Yashts, Patets, and other prayers for the use of the laity. Of these, +Spiegel considers the Gathas of the Yacna to be the oldest, next the +Vendidad, lastly, the first part of the Yacna, and the Khordah Avesta. + + + +Sec. 7. Later Development of the System in the Bundehesch. + + +The Bundehesch is a book later than these, and yet, in its contents, +running back to a very early period. Windischmann,[140] who has recently +given us a new translation of this book, says: "In regard to the +Bundehesch, I am confident that closer study of this remarkable book, and +a more exact comparison of it with the original texts, will change the +unfavorable opinion hitherto held concerning it into one of great +confidence. I am justified in believing that its author has given us +mainly only the ancient doctrine, taken by him from original texts, most +of which are now lost. The more thoroughly it is examined the more +trustworthy it will be found to be." + +The following summary of the Parsi system is mostly derived from the +Bundehesch, and the later writings of the Parsis. We have abridged it from +Rhode. In the time of Zoroaster himself, it was probably far from being so +fully elaborated. Only the germs of it are to be found in the elder books +of the Avesta. It has been doubted if the doctrine of Zerana-Akerana, or +the Monad behind the Duad, is to be found in the Avesta; though important +texts in the Vendidad[141] seem indeed to imply a Supreme and Infinite +Being, the creator both of Ormazd and Ahriman. + +In the beginning, the Eternal or Absolute Being (Zerana-Akerana) produced +two other great divine, beings. The first, who remained true to him, was +Ahura-Mazda, King of Light. The other was Ahriman (Angra-Mainyus), King of +Darkness. Ormazd found himself in a world of light and Ahriman in +boundless darkness, and the two became antagonists. + +The Infinite Being (Zerana-Akerana) now determined, in order to destroy +the evil which Ahriman had caused, to create the visible world by Ormazd; +and he fixed its duration at twelve thousand years. This was divided into +four periods of three thousand years each. In the first period Ormazd +should rule alone; in the second Ahriman should begin to operate, but +still be subordinate; in the third they should both rule together; and in +the fourth Ahriman should have the ascendency. + +Ormazd began the creation by bringing forth the Fereuers (Fravashi). +Everything which has been created, or which is to be created, has its +Fravashi, which contains the reason and basis of its existence. Even +Ormazd has his Fravashi in relation to Zerana-Akerana (the Infinite). A +spiritual and invisible world preceded, therefore, this visible material +world as its prototype. + +In creating the material world, which was in reality only an incorporation +of the spiritual world of Fravashis, Ormazd first created the firm vault +of heaven, and the earth on which it rests. On the earth he created the +high mountain Albordj[142] which soared upward through all the spheres of +the heaven, till it reached the primal light, and Ormazd made this summit +his abode. From this summit the bridge Chinevat stretches to the vault of +heaven, and to Gorodman, which is the opening in the vault above Albordj. +Gorodman is the dwelling of the Fravashis and of the blessed, and the +bridge leading to it is precisely above the abyss Duzahk,--the monstrous +gulf, the home of Ahriman beneath the earth. + +Ormazd, who knew that after the first period his battle with Ahriman would +begin, armed himself, and created for his aid the whole shining host of +heaven,--sun, moon, and stars,--mighty beings of light, wholly submissive +to him. First he created "the heroic runner, who never dies, the sun," and +made him king and ruler of the material world. From Albordj he sets out on +his course, he circles the earth in the highest spheres of heaven, and at +evening returns. Then he created the moon, which "has its own light," +which, departing from Albordj, circles the earth in a lower sphere, and +returns; then the five smaller planets, and the whole host of fixed stars, +in the lowest circle of the heavens. The space between the earth and the +firm vault of heaven is therefore divided into three spheres, that of the +sun, of the moon, and of the stars. + +The host of stars--common soldiers in the war with Ahriman--was divided +into four troops, with each its appointed leader. Twelve companies were +arranged in the twelve signs of the zodiac. All these were grouped into +four great divisions, in the east, west, north, and south. The planet +Tistrya (Jupiter) presides over and watches that in the east, and is named +Prince of the Stars; Sitavisa (Saturn) presides over the western division; +Vanant (or Mercury) over that of the south; and Hapto-iringa (Mars) over +the stars of the north. In the middle of the heavens is the great star +Mesch, Meschgah (Venus). He leads them against Ahriman. + +The dog Sirius (Sura) is another watchman of the heavens; but he is fixed +to one place, at the bridge Chinevat, keeping guard over the abyss out of +which Ahriman comes. + +When Ormazd had completed these preparations in the heavens, the first of +the four ages drew to an end, and Ahriman saw, from the gloomy depths of +his kingdom, what Ormazd had done. In opposition to this light creation, +he created a world of darkness, a terrible community, equal in number and +power to the beings of light. Ormazd, knowing all the misery that Ahriman +would cause, yet knowing that the victory would remain with himself, +offered to Ahriman peace; but Ahriman chose war. But, blinded by Ormazd's +majesty, and terrified by the sight of the pure Fravashis of holy men, he +was conquered by Ormazd's strong word, and sank back into the abyss of +darkness, where he lay fettered during the three thousand years of the +second period. + +Ormazd now completed his creation upon the earth. Sapandomad was guardian +spirit of the earth, and the earth, as Hethra, was mother of all living. +Khordad was chief of the seasons, years, months, and days, and also +protector of the water which flowed from the fountain Anduisur, from +Albordj. The planet Tistrya was commissioned to raise the water in vapor, +collect it in clouds, and let it fall in rain, with the aid of the planet +Sitavisa. These cloud-compellers were highly reverenced. Amerdad was +general deity of vegetation; but the great Mithra was the god of +fructification and reproduction in the whole organic world; his work was +to lead the Fravashis to the bodies they were to occupy. + +Everything earthly in the light-world of Ormazd had its protecting deity. +These guardian spirits were divided into series and groups, had their +captains and their associated assistants. The seven Amshaspands (in Zend, +Amesha-cpentas) were the chief among these, of whom Ormazd was first. The +other six were Bahman, King of Heaven; Ardibehescht, King of Fire; +Schariver, King of the Metals; Sapandomad, Queen of the Earth; Amerdad, +King of Vegetables; and Khordad, King of Water. + +So ended the second age. In it Ormazd had also produced the great +primitive Bull, in which, as the representative of the animal world, the +seeds of all living creatures were deposited. + +While Ormazd was thus completing his light-creation, Ahriman, in his dark +abyss, was effecting a corresponding creation of darkness,--making a +corresponding evil being for every good being created by Ormazd. These +spirits of night stood in their ranks and orders, with their seven +presiding evil spirits, or Daevas, corresponding to the Amshaspands. + +The vast preparations for this great war being completed, and the end of +the second age now coming, Ahriman was urged by one of his Daevas to begin +the conflict. He counted his host; but as he found nothing therein to +oppose to the Fravashis of good men, he sank back in dejection. Finally +the second age expired, and Ahriman now sprang aloft without fear, for he +knew that his time was come. His host followed him, but he alone succeeded +in reaching the heavens; his troops remained behind. A shudder ran over +him, and he sprang from heaven upon the earth in the form of a serpent, +penetrated to its centre, and entered into everything which he found upon +it. He passed into the primal Bull, and even into fire, the visible symbol +of Ormazd, defiling it with smoke and vapor. Then he assailed the heavens, +and a part of the stars were already in his power, and veiled in smoke and +mist, when he was attacked by Ormazd, aided by the Fravashis of holy men; +and after ninety days and ninety nights he was completely defeated, and +driven back with his troops into the abyss of Duzahk. + +But he did not remain there, for through the middle of the earth he built +a way for himself and his companions, and is now living on the earth +together with Ormazd,--according to the decree of the Infinite. + +The destruction which he produced in the world was terrible. Nevertheless, +the more evil he tried to do, the more he ignorantly fulfilled the +counsels of the Infinite, and hastened the development of good. Thus he +entered the Bull, the original animal, and injured him so that he died. +But when he died, Kaiomarts, the first man, came out of his right +shoulder, and from his left Goshurun, the soul of the Bull, who now became +the guardian spirit of the animal race. Also the whole realm of clean +animals and plants came from the Bull's body. Full of rage, Ahriman now +created the unclean animals,--for every clean beast an unclean. Thus +Ormazd created the dog, Ahriman the wolf; Ormazd all useful animals, +Ahriman all noxious ones; and so of plants. + +But to Kaiomarts, the original man, Ahriman had nothing to oppose, and so +he determined to kill him. Kaiomarts was both man and woman, but through +his death there came from him the first human pair; a tree grew from his +body, and bore ten pair of men and women. Meschia and Meschiane were the +first. They were originally innocent and made for heaven, and worshipped +Ormazd as their creator. But Ahriman tempted them. They drank milk from a +goat and so injured themselves. Then Ahriman brought them fruit, they ate +it, and lost a hundred parts of their happiness, so that only one +remained. The woman was the first to sacrifice to the Daevas. After fifty +years they had two children, Siamak and Veschak, and died a hundred years +old. For their sins they remain in hell until the resurrection. + +The human race, which had thus become mortal and miserable by the sin of +its first parents, assumed nevertheless a highly interesting position. The +man stands in the middle between the two worlds of light and darkness, +left to his own free will. As a creature of Ormazd he can and ought to +honor him, and assist him in the war with evil; but Ahriman and his Daevas +surround him night and day, and seek to mislead him, in order to increase +thereby the power of darkness. He would not be able at all to resist these +temptations, to which his first parents had already yielded, had not +Ormazd taken pity on him, and sent him a revelation of his will in the law +of Zoroaster. If he obeys these precepts he is safe from the Daevas, under +the immediate protection of Ormazd. The substance of the law is the +command, "THINK PURELY, SPEAK PURELY, ACT PURELY." All that comes from +Ormazd is pure, from Ahriman impure; and bodily purity has a like worth +with moral purity. Hence the multitude and minuteness of precepts +concerning bodily cleanliness. In fact the whole liturgic worship turns +greatly on this point. + +The Fravashis of men originally created by Ormazd are preserved in heaven, +in Ormazd's realm of light. But they must come from heaven, to be united +with a human body, and to go on a path of probation in this world, called +the "Way of the Two Destinies." Those who have chosen the good in this +world are received after death by good spirits, and guided, under the +protection of the dog Sura, to the bridge Chinevat; the wicked are dragged +thither by the Daevas. Here Ormazd holds a tribunal and decides the fate +of the souls. The good pass the bridge into the mansions of the blessed, +where they are welcomed with rejoicing by the Amshaspands; the bad fall +over into the Gulf of Duzahk, where they are tormented by the Daevas. The +duration of the punishment is fixed by Ormazd, and some are redeemed +earlier by means of the prayers and intercessions of their friends, but +many must remain till the resurrection of the dead. + +Ahriman himself effects this consummation, after having exercised great +power over men during the last three thousand years. He created seven +comets (in opposition to the seven planets), and they went on their +destructive paths through the heavens, filling all things with danger, and +all men with terror. But Ormazd placed them under the control of his +planets to restrain them. They will do so, till by the decree of the +Infinite, at the close of the last period, one of the comets will break +from his watchman, the moon, and plunge upon the earth, producing a +general conflagration. But before this Ormazd will send his Prophet +Sosioch and bring about the conversion of mankind, to be followed by the +general resurrection. + +Ormazd will clothe anew with flesh the bones of men, and relatives and +friends will recognize each other again. Then comes the great division of +the just from the sinners. + +When Ahriman shall cause the comet to fall on the earth to gratify his +destructive propensities, he will be really serving the Infinite Being +against his own will. For the conflagration caused by this comet will +change the whole earth into a stream like melted iron, which will pour +impetuously down into the realm of Ahriman. All beings must now pass +through this stream: to the righteous it will feel like warm milk, and +they will pass through to the dwellings of the just; but all the sinners +shall be borne along by the stream into the abyss of Duzahk. Here they +will burn three days and nights, then, being purified, they will invoke +Ormazd, and be received into heaven. + +Afterward Ahriman himself and all in the Duzahk shall be purified by this +fire, all evil be consumed, and all darkness banished. + +From the extinct fire there will come a more beautiful earth, pure and +perfect, and destined to be eternal. + + * * * * * + +Having given this account of the Parsi system, in its later development, +let us say that it was not an _invention_ of Zoroaster, nor of any one +else. Religions are not invented: they grow. Even the religion of Mohammed +grew out of pre-existent beliefs. The founder of a religion does not +invent it, but gives it form. It crystallizes around his own deeper +thought. So, in the time of Zoroaster, the popular imagination had filled +nature with powers and presences, and given them names, and placed them in +the heavens. For, as Schiller says:-- + + "'Tis not merely + The human being's pride which peoples space + With life and mystical predominance; + For also for the stricken heart of Love, + This visible nature and this lower world + Are all too common." + +Zoroaster organized into clearer thought the pre-existing myths, and +inspired them with moral ideas and vital power. + + + +Sec. 8. Relation of the Religion of the Zend Avesta to that of the Vedas. + + +That the Vedic religion and that of the Avesta arose out of an earlier +Aryan religion, monotheistic in its central element, but with a tendency +to immerse the Deity in nature, seems evident from the investigations of +Pictet and other scholars. This primitive religion of the Aryan race +diverged early in two directions, represented by the Veda and the Avesta. +Yet each retains much in common with the other. The names of the powers, +Indra, Sura, Naoghaithya, are in both systems. In the Veda they are gods, +in the Avesta evil spirits. Indra, worshipped throughout the Rig-Veda as +one of the highest deities, appears in the Avesta as an evil being.[143] +Sura (Cura), one of the most ancient names of Shiva, is also denounced and +opposed in the Avesta[144] as a Daeva, or Dew. And the third (Naoghaithya, +Naouhaiti), also an evil spirit in the Avesta, is the Nasatya of the +Veda,[145] one of the Acvinas or twins who precede the Dawn. The Dews or +Daevas of the Avesta are demons, in the Vedas they are gods. On the other +hand, the Ahuras, or gods, of the Avesta are Asuras, or demons, in the +Vedic belief. The original land of the race is called Aryavesta in the +Laws of Manu (II. 22), and Aryana-Vaejo in the Avesta. The God of the Sun +is named Mithra, or Mitra, in both religions. The Yima of the Parsi system +is a happy king; the Yama of the Hindoos is a stern judge in the realms of +death. The dog is hateful in the Indian system, an object of reverence in +that of Zoroaster. Both the religions dread defilement through the touch +of dead bodies. In both systems fire is regarded as divine. But the most +striking analogy perhaps is to be found in the worship paid by both to the +intoxicating fermented juice of the plant _Asclepias acida_, called Soma +in the Sanskrit and Haoma in the Zend. The identity of the Haoma with the +Indian Soma has long been proved.[146] The whole of the Sama-Veda is +devoted to this moon-plant worship; an important part of the Avesta is +occupied with hymns to Haoma. This great reverence paid to the same plant, +on account of its intoxicating qualities, carries us back to a region +where the vine was unknown, and to a race to whom intoxication was so new +an experience as to seem a gift of the gods. Wisdom appeared to come from +it, health, increased power of body and soul, long life, victory in +battle, brilliant children. What Bacchus was to the Greeks, this divine +Haoma, or Soma, was to the primitive Aryans.[147] + +It would seem, therefore, that the two religions setting out from the +same point, and having a common stock of primitive traditions, at last +said each to the other, "Your gods are my demons." The opposition was +mutual. The dualism of the Persian was odious to the Hindoo, while the +absence of a deep moral element in the Vedic system shocked the solemn +puritanism of Zoroaster. The religion of the Hindoo was to dream, that of +the Persian to fight. There could be no more fellowship between them than +there is between a Quaker and a Calvinist. + + + +Sec. 9. Is Monotheism or pure Dualism the Doctrine of the Zend Avesta? + + +We find in the Avesta, and in the oldest portion of it, the tendencies +which resulted afterward in the elaborate theories of the Bundehesch. We +find the Zearna-Akerana, in the Vendidad (XIX. 33,44,55),--"The Infinite +Time," or "All-embracing Time,"--as the creator of Ahriman, according to +some translations. Spiegel, indeed, considers this supreme being, above +both Ormazd and Ahriman, as not belonging to the original Persian +religion, but as borrowed from Semitic sources. But if so, then Ormazd is +the supreme and uncreated being, and creator of all things. Why, then, has +Ormazd a Fravashi, or archetype? And in that case, he must either himself +have created Ahriman, or else Ahriman is as eternal as he; which latter +supposition presents us with an absolute, irreconcilable dualism. The +better opinion seems, therefore, to be, that behind the two opposing +powers of good and evil, the thesis and antithesis of moral life, remains +the obscure background of original being, the identity of both, from which +both have proceeded, and into whose abyss both shall return. + +This great consummation is also intimated by the fact that in the same +Fargard of the Vendidad (XIX. 18) the future restorer or saviour is +mentioned, Sosioch (Caoshyanc), who is expected by the Parsis to come at +the end of all things, and accomplish the resurrection, and introduce a +kingdom of untroubled happiness.[148] Whether the resurrection belongs to +the primitive form of the religion remains as doubtful, but also as +probable, as when Mr. Alger discussed the whole question in his admirable +monograph on the Doctrine of the Future Life. Our remaining fragments of +the Zend Avesta say nothing of the periods of three thousand years' +duration. Two or three passages in the Avesta refer to the +resurrection.[149] But the conflict between Ormazd and Ahriman, the +present struggle between good and evil, the ideal world of the Fravashis +and good spirits,--these unquestionably belong to the original belief. + + + +Sec. 10. Relation of this System to Christianity. The Kingdom of Heaven. + + +Of this system we will say, in conclusion, that in some respects it comes +nearer to Christianity than any other. Moreover, though so long dead, like +the great nation of which it was the inspiration and life,--though swept +away by Mohammedanism,--its influence remains, and has permeated both +Judaism and Christianity. Christianity has probably received from it, +through Judaism, its doctrine of angels and devils, and its tendency to +establish evil in the world as the permanent and equal adversary of good. +Such a picture as that by Retzsch of the Devil playing chess with the +young man for his soul, such a picture as that by Guido of the conflict +between Michael and Satan, such poems as Milton's Paradise Lost and +Goethe's Faust, could perhaps never have appeared in Christendom, had it +not been for the influence of the system of Zoroaster on Jewish, and, +through Jewish, on Christian thought. It was after the return from Babylon +that the Devil and demons, in conflict with man, became a part of the +company of spiritual beings in the Jewish mythology. Angels there were +before, as messengers of God, but devils there were not; for till then an +absolute Providence ruled the world, excluding all interference of +antagonistic powers. Satan, in Job, is an angel of God, not a devil; doing +a low kind of work, indeed, a sort of critical business, fault-finding, +and looking for flaws in the saints, but still an angel, and no devil. But +after the captivity the horizon of the Jewish mind enlarged, and it took +in the conception of God as allowing freedom to man and angels, and so +permitting bad as well as good to have its way. And then came in also the +conception of a future life, and a resurrection for ultimate judgment. +These doctrines have been supposed, with good reason, to have come to the +Jews from the influence of the great system of Zoroaster. + +There is no doubt, however, that the Jewish prophets had already prepared +a point of contact and attachment for this system, and developed +affinities therewith, by their great battle-cry to the nation for right +against wrong, and their undying conviction of an ultimate restoration of +all good things. But the Jews found also in the Persian faith the one +among all religions most like their own, in this, that it had no idols, +and no worship but that addressed to the Unseen. Sun and fire were his +symbols, but he himself was hidden behind the glorious veil of being. And +it seems as if the Jews needed this support of finding another nation also +hating idolatry, before they could really rise above their tendency to +backslide into it. "In the mouth of two witnesses," the spiritual worship +of God was established; and not till Zoroaster took the hand of Moses did +the Jews cease to be idolaters. After the return from the captivity that +tendency wholly disappears. + +But a deeper and more essential point of agreement is to be found in the +special practical character of the two systems, regarding life as a battle +between right and wrong, waged by a communion of good men fighting against +bad men and bad principles. + +Perhaps, in reading the New Testament, we do not always see how much +Christianity turns around the phrase, and the idea behind it, of a +"kingdom of Heaven." The Beatitudes begin "Blessed are the poor in spirit, +for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." Both John the Baptist and Christ +announce that the _kingdom of Heaven_ is at hand. The parables revolve +round the same idea of "the kingdom." which is likened first to this, and +then to that; and so, passing on into the Epistles, we have the "kingdom +of Heaven" still as the leading conception of Christianity. "The kingdom +of God is not meat nor drink";--such are common expressions. + +The peculiar conception of the Messiah also is of the King, the Anointed +one, the Head of this divine Monarchy. When we call Jesus the Christ, we +repeat this ancient notion of the kingdom of God among men. He himself +accepted it; he called himself the Christ. "Thou sayest," said he, to +Pilate, "that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came +I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." + +All through antiquity there ran the longing for a communion or association +of the wise and good, in order to establish truth and justice in the +world. The tendency of error is to divide; the tendency of selfishness is +to separation. Only goodness and truth are capable of real communion, +interpenetration, and so of organic life and growth. This is their +strength, power, and hope. Hence all the efforts at associated action in +antiquity, such as the College of Pythagoras, the ideal Republic of Plato, +the Spartan Commonwealth, the communities of the Essenes, the monastic +institutions of Asia and Europe; and hence, too, the modern attempts, in +Protestantism, by Fourier, the Moravians, the Shakers, Saint-Simon, Robert +Owen, and others. + +But among the Jews this desire appeared, first in their national +organization, as a theosophic and theocratic community, and afterward, +when this broke down and the nation was divided, in a larger prophetic +hope of the Messianic times. There is a tendency in the human mind, when +it sees a great work to be done, to look for a leader. So the Jewish hope +looked for a leader. Their true King was to come, and under him peace and +righteousness were to reign, and the kingdom of heaven begin on earth. It +was to be on earth. It was to be here and now. And so they waited and +longed. + +Meantime, in the Persian religion, the seed of the same hope was sown. +There also the work of life was, to unite together a community of good men +and good angels, against bad men and devils, and so make a kingdom of +heaven. Long and sore should the conflict be; but the victory at last +would be sure. And they also looked for a Sosioch, or Mediator, who was to +be what the Messiah was to be to the Jews. And here was the deep and real +point of union between the two religions; and this makes the profound +meaning of the story of the Star which was seen in the East and which +guided the Magi of Zoroaster to the cradle of Christ. + +Jesus came to be the Messiah. He fulfilled that great hope as he did +others. It was not fulfilled, in the sense of the letter of a prophecy +being acted out, but in the sense of the prophecy being carried up and on +to its highest point, and so being filled full of truth and value. The +first and chief purpose of Christianity was, not to save the souls of men +hereafter, as the Church has often taught, but to found a kingdom of +heaven here, on earth and in time. It was not to say, "Lo here!" or "Lo +there!" but to say, "_Now_ is the accepted time"; "the kingdom of God is +among you." In thus continuing and developing to its highest point the +central idea of his national religion, Jesus made himself the true Christ +and fulfilled all the prophecies. Perhaps what we need now is to come back +to that notion of the kingdom of heaven here below, and of Jesus the +present king,--present, because still bearing witness to the truth. +Christians must give up thinking about Christianity as only a means of +escaping a future hell and arriving at a future heaven. They must show +now, more than ever, that, by a union of loving and truthful hearts, God +comes here, immortality begins here, and heaven lies about us. To fight +the good fight of justice and truth, as the disciples of Zoroaster tried +to fight it,--this is still the true work of man; and to make a union of +those who wish thus to fight for good against evil,--this is still the +true church of Christ. + +The old religion of Zoroaster died, Taut as the corn of wheat, which, if +it die, brings forth much fruit. + +A small body of Parsis remain to-day in Persia, and another in +India,--disciples of this venerable faith. They are a good, moral, +industrious people. Some of them are very wealthy and very generous. Until +Mr. George Peabody's large donations, no one had bestowed so much on +public objects as Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeeboy, who had given to hospitals, +schools, and charities, some years since, a million and a half of dollars. +During our Rebellion, some of the Parsis sent gifts to the Sanitary +Commission, out of sympathy with the cause of freedom and Union. + +Who can estimate the power of a single life? Of Zoroaster we do not know +the true name, nor when he lived, nor where he lived, nor exactly what he +taught. But the current from that fountain has flowed on for thousands of +years, fertilizing the souls of men out of its hidden sources, and helping +on, by the decree of Divine Providence, the ultimate triumph of good over +evil, right over wrong. + + + + +Chapter VI. + +The Gods of Egypt. + + + + Sec. 1. Antiquity and Extent of Egyptian Civilization. + Sec. 2. Religious Character of the Egyptians. Their Ritual. + Sec. 3. Theology of Egypt. Sources of our Knowledge concerning it. + Sec. 4. Central Idea of Egyptian Theology and Religion. Animal Worship. + Sec. 5. Sources of Egyptian Theology. Age of the Empire and Affinities of + the Race. + Sec. 6. The Three Orders of Gods. + Sec. 7. Influence of Egypt upon Judaism and Christianity. + + + +Sec. 1. Antiquity and Extent of Egyptian Civilization. + + +The ancient Egyptians have been the object of interest to the civilized +world in all ages; for Egypt was the favorite home of civilization, +science, and religion. It was a little country, the gift of the river +Nile; a little strip of land not more than seven miles wide, but +containing innumerable cities and towns, and in ancient times supporting +seven millions of inhabitants. Renowned for its discoveries in art and +science, it was the world's university; where Moses and Pythagoras, +Herodotus and Plato, all philosophers and lawgivers, went to school. The +Egyptians knew the length of the year and the form of the earth; they +could calculate eclipses of the sun and moon; were partially acquainted +with geometry, music, chemistry, the arts of design, medicine, anatomy, +architecture, agriculture, and mining. In architecture, in the qualities +of grandeur and massive proportions, they are yet to be surpassed. The +largest buildings elsewhere erected by man are smaller than their +pyramids; which are also the oldest human works still remaining, the +beauty of whose masonry, says Wilkinson, has not been surpassed in any +subsequent age. An obelisk of a single stone now standing in Egypt weighs +three hundred tons, and a colossus of Ramses II. nearly nine hundred. But +Herodotus describes a monolithic temple, which must have weighed five +thousand tons, and which was carried the whole length of the Nile, to the +Delta. And there is a roof of a doorway at Karnak, covered with sandstone +blocks forty feet long. Sculpture and bas-reliefs three thousand five +hundred years old, where the granite is cut with exquisite delicacy, are +still to be seen throughout Egypt. Many inventions, hitherto supposed to +be modern, such as glass, mosaics, false gems, glazed tiles, enamelling, +were well known to the Egyptians. But, for us, the most fortunate +circumstance in their taste was their fondness for writing. No nation has +ever equalled them in their love for recording all human events and +transactions. They wrote down all the details of private life with +wonderful zeal, method, and regularity. Every year, month, and day had its +record, and thus Egypt is the monumental land of the earth. Bunsen says +that "the genuine Egyptian writing is at least as old as Menes, the +founder of the Empire; perhaps three thousand years before Christ." No +other human records, whether of India or China, go back so far. Lepsius +saw the hieroglyph of the reed and inkstand on the monuments of the fourth +dynasty, and the sign of the papyrus roll on that of the twelfth dynasty, +which was the last but one of the old Empire. "No Egyptian," says +Herodotus, "omits taking accurate note of extraordinary and striking +events." Everything was written down. Scribes are seen everywhere on the +monuments, taking accounts of the products of the farms, even to every +single egg and chicken. "In spite of the ravages of time, and though +systematic excavation has scarcely yet commenced," says Bunsen, "we +possess chronological records of a date anterior to any period of which +manuscripts are preserved, or the art of writing existed in any other +quarter." Because they were thus fond of recording everything, both in +pictures and in three different kinds of writing; because they were also +fond of building and excavating temples and tombs in the imperishable +granite; because, lastly, the dryness of the air has preserved for us +these paintings, and the sand which has buried the monuments has prevented +their destruction,--we have wonderfully preserved, over an interval of +forty-five centuries, the daily habits, the opinions, and the religious +faith of that ancient time. + +The oldest mural paintings disclose a state of the arts of civilization so +advanced as to surprise even those who have made archaeology a study, and +who consequently know how few new things there are under the sun. It is +_not_ astonishing to find houses with doors and windows, with verandas, +with barns for grain, vineyards, gardens, fruit-trees, etc. We might also +expect, since man is a fighting animal, to see, as we do, pictures of +marching troops, armed with spears and shields, bows, slings, daggers, +axes, maces, and the boomerang; or to notice coats of mail, standards, +war-chariots; or to find the assault of forts by means of scaling-ladders. +But these ancient tombs also exhibit to us scenes of domestic life and +manners which would seem to belong to the nineteenth century after our +era, rather than to the fifteenth century before it. Thus we see monkeys +trained to gather fruit from the trees in an orchard; houses furnished +with a great variety of chairs, tables, ottomans, carpets, couches, as +elegant and elaborate as any used now. There are comic and _genre_ +pictures of parties, where the gentlemen and ladies are sometimes +represented as being the worse for wine; of dances where ballet-girls in +short dresses perform very modern-looking pirouettes; of exercises in +wrestling, games of ball, games of chance like chess or checkers, of +throwing knives at a mark, of the modern thimblerig, wooden dolls for +children, curiously carved wooden boxes, dice, and toy-balls. There are +men and women playing on harps, flutes, pipes, cymbals, trumpets, drums, +guitars, and tambourines. Glass was, till recently, believed to be a +modern invention, unknown to the ancients. But we find it commonly used as +early as the age of Osertasen I., more than three thousand eight hundred +years ago; and we have pictures of glass-blowing and of glass bottles as +far back as the fourth dynasty. The best Venetian glass-workers are unable +to rival some of the old Egyptian work; for the Egyptians could combine +all colors in one cup, introduce gold between two surfaces of glass, and +finish in glass details of feathers, etc., which it now requires a +microscope to make out. It is evident, therefore, that they understood the +use of the magnifying-glass. The Egyptians also imitated successfully the +colors of precious stones, and could even make statues thirteen feet high, +closely resembling an emerald. They also made mosaics in glass, of +wonderfully brilliant colors. They could cut glass, at the most remote +periods. Chinese bottles have also been found in previously unopened tombs +of the eighteenth dynasty, indicating commercial intercourse reaching as +far back as that epoch. They were able to spin and weave, and color cloth; +and were acquainted with the use of mordants, the wonder in modern +calico-printing. Pliny describes this process as used in Egypt, but +evidently without understanding its nature. Writing-paper made of the +papyrus is as old as the Pyramids. The Egyptians tanned leather and made +shoes; and the shoemakers on their benches are represented working exactly +like ours. Their carpenters used axes, saws, chisels, drills, planes, +rulers, plummets, squares, hammers, nails, and hones for sharpening. They +also understood the use of glue in cabinet-making, and there are paintings +of veneering, in which a piece of thin dark wood is fastened by glue to a +coarser piece of light wood. Their boats were propelled by sails on yards +and masts, as well as by oars. They used the blow-pipe in the manufacture +of gold chains and other ornaments. They had rings of gold and silver for +money, and weighed it in scales of a careful construction. Their +hieroglyphics are carved on the hardest granite with a delicacy and +accuracy which indicates the use of some metallic cutting instrument, +probably harder than our best steel. The siphon was known in the fifteenth +century before Christ. The most singular part of their costume was the +wig, worn by all the higher classes, who constantly shaved their heads, as +well as their chins,--which shaving of the head is supposed by Herodotus +to be the reason of the thickness of the Egyptian skull. They frequently +wore false beards. Sandals, shoes, and low boots, some very elegant, are +found in the tombs. Women wore loose robes, ear-rings, finger-rings, +bracelets, armlets, anklets, gold necklaces. In the tombs are found vases +for ointment, mirrors, combs, needles. Doctors and drugs were not unknown +to them; and the passport system is no modern invention, for their deeds +contain careful descriptions of the person, exactly in the style with +which European travellers are familiar. We have only mentioned a small +part of the customs and arts with which the tombs of the Egyptians show +them to have been familiar. These instances are mostly taken from +Wilkinson, whose works contain numerous engravings from the monuments +which more than verify all we have said. + +The celebrated French Egyptologist, M. Mariette, has very much enlarged +our knowledge of the more ancient dynasties, by his explorations, first +under a mission from the French government, and afterward from that of +Egypt. The immense temples and palaces of Thebes are all of a date at +least B.C. 1000. We know the history of Egypt very well as far back as the +time of the Hyksos, or to the eighteenth dynasty. M. Mariette has +discovered statues and Sphinxes which he believes to have been the work of +the Hyksos, the features being wholly different from that of the typical +Egyptian. Four of these Sphinxes, found by Mariette on the site of the old +Tanis, have the regular body of a lion, according to the canon of Egyptian +art, but the human heads are wholly un-Egyptian. Mariette, in describing +them, says that in the true Egyptian Sphinx there is always a quiet +majesty, the eye calm and wide open, a smile on the lips, a round face, +and a peculiar coiffure with wide open wings. Nothing of this is to be +found in these Sphinxes. Their eyes are small, the nose aquiline, the +cheeks hard, the mouth drawn down with a grave expression. + +These Shepherd Kings, the Hyksos, ruled Lower Egypt, according to Manetho, +five hundred and eleven years, which, according to Renan,[150] brings the +preceding dynasty (the fourteenth of Manetho) as early as B.C. 2000. +Monuments of the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties are common. The oldest +obelisk dates B.C. 2800. Thanks to the excavations of M. Mariette, we now +have a large quantity of sculptures and statues of a still earlier epoch. +M. Renan describes[151] tombs visited by himself, which he considers to be +the oldest known, and which he regards as being B.C. 4000,[152] where were +represented all the details of domestic life. The tone of these pictures +was glad and gay; and, what is remarkable, they had no trace of the +funeral ritual or the god Osiris. These were not like tombs, but rather +like homes. To secure the body from all profanation, it was concealed in a +pit, carefully hidden in the solid masonry. These tombs belong to the six +first dynasties. + +The great antiquity of Egyptian civilization is universally admitted; but +to fix its chronology and precise age becomes very difficult, from the +fact that the Egyptians had no era from which to date forward or backward. +This question we shall return to in a subsequent section of this chapter. + + + +Sec. 2. Religious Character of the Egyptians. Their Ritual. + + +But, wonderful as was the civilization of Egypt, it is not this which now +chiefly interests us. They were prominent among all ancient nations for +their interest in religion, especially of the ceremonial part of religion, +or worship. Herodotus says: "They are of all men the most excessively +attentive to the worship of the gods." And beside his statement to that +effect, there is evidence that the origin of much of the theology, +mythology, and ceremonies of the Hebrews and Greeks was in Egypt. "The +names of almost all the gods," says Herodotus, "came from Egypt into +Greece" (Euterpe, 50). The Greek oracles, especially that of Dodona, he +also states to have been brought from Egypt (II. 54-57), and adds, +moreover, that the Egyptians were the first who introduced public +festivals, processions, and solemn supplications, which the Greeks learned +from them. "The Egyptians, then," says he, "are beyond measure scrupulous +in matters of religion (Sec. 64). They invented the calendar, and connected +astrology therewith." "Each month and day," says Herodotus (II. 82), "is +assigned to some particular god, and each person's birthday determines his +fate." He testifies (II. 123) that "the Egyptians were also the first to +say that the soul of man is immortal, and that when the body perishes it +transmigrates through every variety of animal." It seems apparent, also, +that the Greek mysteries of Eleusis were taken from those of Isis; the +story of the wanderings of Ceres in pursuit of Proserpine being manifestly +borrowed from those of Isis in search of the body of Osiris. With this +testimony of Herodotus modern writers agree. "The Egyptians," says +Wilkinson, "were unquestionably the most pious nation of all antiquity. +The oldest monuments show their belief in a future life. And Osiris, the +Judge, is mentioned in tombs erected two thousand years before Christ." +Bunsen tells us that "it has at last been ascertained that all the great +gods of Egypt are on the oldest monuments," and says: "It is a great and +astounding fact, established beyond the possibility of doubt, that the +empire of Menes on its first appearance in history possessed an +established mythology, that is, a series of gods. Before the empire of +Menes, the separate Egyptian states had their temple worship regularly +organized." + +Everything among the Egyptians, says M. Maury,[153] took the stamp of +religion. Their writing was so full of sacred symbols that it could +scarcely be used for any purely secular purpose. Literature and science +were only branches of theology. Art labored only in the service of worship +and to glorify the gods. Religious observances were so numerous and so +imperative, that the most common labors of daily life could not be +performed without a perpetual reference to some priestly regulation. The +Egyptian only lived to worship. His fate in the future life was constantly +present to him. The sun, when it set, seemed to him to die; and when it +rose the next morning, and tricking its beams flamed once more in the +forehead of the sky, it was a perpetual symbol of a future resurrection. +Religion penetrated so deeply into the habits of the land, that it almost +made a part of the intellectual and physical organization of its +inhabitants. Habits continued during many generations at last become +instincts, and are transmitted with the blood.[154] So religion in Egypt +became an instinct. Unaltered by the dominion of the Persians, the +Ptolemies, and Romans, it was, of all polytheisms, the most obstinate in +its resistance to Christianity, and retained its devotees down to the +sixth century of our era.[155] + +There were more festivals in Egypt than among any other ancient people, +the Greeks not excepted. Every month and day was governed by a god. There +were two feasts of the New-Year, twelve of the first days of the months, +one of the rising of the dog-star (Sirius, called Sothis), and others to +the great gods, to seed-time and harvest, to the rise and fall of the +Nile. The feast of lamps at Sais was in honor of Neith, and was kept +throughout Egypt.[156] The feast of the death of Osiris; the feast of his +resurrection (when people called out, "We have found him! Good luck!"); +feasts of Isis (one of which lasted four days); the great feast at +Bubastis, greatest of all,--these were festivals belonging to all Egypt. +On one of them as many as seven hundred thousand persons sailed on the +Nile with music. At another, the image of the god was carried to the +temple by armed men, who were resisted by armed priests in a battle in +which many were often killed. + +The history of the gods was embodied in the daily life of the people. In +an old papyrus described by De Rouge,[157] it is said: "On the twelfth of +Chorak no one is to go out of doors, for on that day the transformation +of Osiris into the bird Wennu took place; on the fourteenth of Toby no +voluptuous songs must be listened to, for Isis and Nepthys bewail Osiris +on that day. On the third of Mechir no one can go on a journey, because +Set then began a war." On another day no one must go out. Another was +lucky, because on it the gods conquered Set; and a child born on that day +was supposed to live to a great age. + +Every temple had its own body of priests. They did not constitute an +exclusive caste, though they were continued in families. Priests might be +military commanders, governors of provinces, judges, and architects. +Soldiers had priests for sons, and the daughters of priests married +soldiers. Of three brothers, one was a priest, another a soldier, and a +third held a civil employment.[158] Joseph, a stranger, though naturalized +in the country, received as a wife the daughter of the High-Priest of On, +or Heliopolis. + +The priests in Egypt were of various grades, as the chief priests or +pontiffs, prophets, judges, scribes, those who examined the victims, +keepers of the robes, of the sacred animals, etc. + +Women also held offices in the temple and performed duties there, though +not as priestesses. + +The priests were exempt from taxes, and were provided for out of the +public stores. They superintended sacrifices, processions, funerals, and +were initiated into the greater and lesser mysteries; they were also +instructed in surveying. They were particular in diet, both as to quantity +and quality. Flesh of swine was particularly forbidden, and also that of +fish. Beans were held in utter abhorrence, also peas, onions, and garlic, +which, however, were offered on the altar. They bathed twice a day and +twice in the night, and shaved the head and body every three days. A great +purification took place before their fasts, which lasted from seven to +forty-two days. + +They offered prayers for the dead. + +The dress of the priests was simple, chiefly of linen, consisting of an +under-garment and a loose upper robe, with full sleeves, and the +leopard-skin above; sometimes one or two feathers in the head. + +Chaplets and flowers were laid upon the altars, such as the lotus and +papyrus, also grapes and figs in baskets, and ointment in alabaster vases. +Also necklaces, bracelets, and jewelry, were offered as thanksgivings and +invocations. + +Oxen and other animals were sacrificed, and the blood allowed to flow over +the altar. Libations of wine were poured on the altar. Incense was offered +to all the gods in censers. + +Processions were usual with the Egyptians; in one, shrines were carried on +the shoulders by long staves passed through rings. In others the statues +of the gods were carried, and arks like those of the Jews, overshadowed by +the wings of the goddess of truth spread above the sacred beetle. + +The prophets were the most highly honored of the priestly order. They +studied the ten hieratical books. The business of the stolists[159] was to +dress and undress the images, to attend to the vestments of the priests, +and to mark the beasts selected for sacrifice. The scribes were to search +for the Apis, or sacred bull, and were required to possess great learning. + +The priests had no sinecure; their life was full of minute duties and +restrictions. They seldom appeared in public, were married to one wife, +were circumcised like other Egyptians, and their whole time was occupied +either in study or the service of their gods. There was a gloomy tone to +the religion of Egypt, which struck the Greeks, whose worship was usually +cheerful. Apuleius says "the gods of Egypt rejoice in lamentations, those +of Greece in dances." Another Greek writer says, "The Egyptians offer +their gods tears." + +Until Swedenborg[160] arrived, and gave his disciples the precise measure +and form of the life to come, no religion has ever taught an immortality +as distinct in its outline and as solid in its substance as that of the +Egyptians. The Greek and Roman hereafter was shadowy and vague; that of +Buddhism remote; and the Hebrew Beyond was wholly eclipsed and overborne +by the sense of a Divine presence and power immanent in space and time. To +the Egyptian, this life was but the first step, and a very short one, of +an immense career. The sun (Ra) alternately setting and rising, was the +perpetually present type of the progress of the soul, and the Sothiac +period (symbolized by the Phoenix) of 1421 years from one heliacal rising +of Sirius at the beginning of the fixed Egyptian year to the next, was +also made to define the cycle of human transmigrations. Two Sothiac +periods correspond nearly to the three thousand years spoken of by +Herodotus, during which the soul transmigrates through animal forms before +returning to its human body. Then, to use the Egyptian language, the soul +arrived at the ship of the sun and was received by Ra into his solar +splendor. On some sarcophagi the soul is symbolized by a hawk with a human +head, carrying in his claws two rings, which probably signify the two +Sothiac cycles of its transmigrations. + +The doctrine of the immortality of the soul, says Mr. Birch,[161] is as +old as the inscriptions of the twelfth dynasty, many of which contain +extracts from the Ritual of the Dead. One hundred and forty-six chapters +of this Ritual have been translated by Mr. Birch from the text of the +Turin papyrus, the most complete in Europe. Chapters of it are found on +mummy-cases, on the wraps of mummies, on the walls of tombs, and within +the coffins on papyri. This Ritual is all that remains of the Hermetic +Books which constituted the library of the priesthood. Two antagonist +classes of deities appear in this liturgy as contending for the soul of +the deceased,--Osiris and his triad, Set and his devils. The Sun-God, +source of life, is also present. + +An interesting chapter of the Ritual is the one hundred and twenty-fifth, +called the Hall of the Two Truths. It is the process of "separating a +person from his sins," not by confession and repentance, as is usual in +other religions, but by denying them. Forty-two deities are said to be +present to feed on the blood of the wicked. The soul addresses the Lords +of Truth, and declares that it has not done evil privily, and proceeds to +specifications. He says: "I have not afflicted any. I have not told +falsehoods. I have not made the laboring man do more than his task. I have +not been idle. I have not murdered. I have not committed fraud. I have not +injured the images of the gods. I have not taken scraps of the bandages of +the dead. I have not committed adultery. I have not cheated by false +weights. I have not kept milk from sucklings. I have not caught the sacred +birds." Then, addressing each god by name, he declares: "I have not been +idle. I have not boasted. I have not stolen. I have not counterfeited, nor +killed sacred beasts, nor blasphemed, nor refused to hear the truth, nor +despised God in my heart." According to some texts, he declares, +positively, that he has loved God, that he has given bread to the hungry, +water to the thirsty, garments to the naked, and an asylum to the +abandoned. + +Funeral ceremonies among the Egyptians were often very imposing. The cost +of embalming, and the size and strength of the tomb, varied with the +position of the deceased. When the seventy days of mourning had elapsed, +the body in its case was ferried across the lake in front of the temple, +which represented the passage of the soul over the infernal stream. Then +came a dramatic representation of the trial of the soul before Osiris. The +priests, in masks, represented the gods of the underworld. Typhon accuses +the dead man, and demands his punishment. The intercessors plead for him. +A large pair of scales is set up, and in one scale his conduct is placed +in a bottle, and in the other an image of truth. These proceedings are +represented on the funeral papyri. One of these, twenty-two feet in +length, is in Dr. Abbott's collection of Egyptian antiquities, in New +York. It is beautifully written, and illustrated with careful drawings. +One represents the Hall of the Two Truths, and Osiris sitting in +judgment, with the scales of judgment before him.[162] + +Many of the virtues which we are apt to suppose a monopoly of Christian +culture appear as the ideal of these old Egyptians. Brugsch says a +thousand voices from the tombs of Egypt declare this. One inscription in +Upper Egypt says: "He loved his father, he honored his mother, he loved +his brethren, and never went from his home in bad-temper. He never +preferred the great man to the low one." Another says: "I was a wise man, +my soul loved God. I was a brother to the great men and a father to the +humble ones, and never was a mischief-maker." An inscription at Sais, on a +priest who lived in the sad days of Cambyses, says: "I honored my father, +I esteemed my mother, I loved my brothers. I found graves for the unburied +dead. I instructed little children. I took care of orphans as though they +were my own children. For great misfortunes were on Egypt in my time, and +on this city of Sais." + +Some of these declarations, in their "self-pleasing pride" of virtue, +remind one of the noble justification of himself by the Patriarch +Job.[163] Here is one of them, from the tombs of Ben-Hassan, over a Nomad +Prince:-- + +"What I have done I will say. My goodness and my kindness were ample. I +never oppressed the fatherless nor the widow. I did not treat cruelly the +fishermen, the shepherds, or the poor laborers. There was nowhere in my +time hunger or want. For I cultivated all my fields, far and near, in +order that their inhabitants might have food. I never preferred the great +and powerful to the humble and poor, but did equal justice to all." + +A king's tomb at Thebes gives us in few words the religious creed of a +Pharaoh:-- + +"I lived in truth, and fed my soul with justice. What I did to men was +done in peace, and how I loved God, God and my heart well know. I have +given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, +and a shelter to the stranger. I honored the gods with sacrifices, and the +dead with offerings." + +A rock at Lycopolis pleads for an ancient ruler thus: "I never took the +child from its mother's bosom, nor the poor man from the side of his +wife." Hundreds of stones in Egypt announce as the best gifts which the +gods can bestow on their favorites, "the respect of men, and the love of +women."[164] Religion, therefore, in Egypt, connected itself with morality +and the duties of daily life. But kings and conquerors were not above the +laws of their religion. They were obliged to recognize their power and +triumphs as not their own work, but that of the great gods of their +country. Thus, on a monumental stele discovered at Karnak by M. Mariette, +and translated by De Rouge,[165] is an inscription recording the triumphs +of Thothmes III., of the eighteenth dynasty (about B.C. 1600), which +sounds like the song of Miriam or the Hymn of Deborah. We give some +stanzas in which the god Amun addresses Thothmes:-- + + "I am come: to thee have I given to strike down Syrian princes; + Under thy feet they lie throughout the breadth of their country, + Like to the Lord of Light, I made them see thy glory, + Blinding their eyes with light, O earthly image of Amun! + + "I am come: to thee have I given to strike down Asian peoples; + Captive now thou hast led the proud Assyrian chieftains; + Decked in royal robes, I made them see thy glory; + In glittering arms and fighting, high in thy lofty chariot. + + "I am come: to thee have I given to strike down western nations; + Cyprus and the Ases have both heard thy name with terror; + Like a strong-horned bull I made them see thy glory; + Strong with piercing horns, so that none can stand before him. + + "I am come: to thee have I given to strike down Lybian archers; + All the isles of the Greeks submit to the force of thy spirit; + Like a regal lion, I made them see thy glory; + Couched by the corpse he has made, down in the rocky valley. + + "I am come: to thee have I given to strike down the ends of the ocean. + In the grasp of thy hand is the circling zone of the waters; + Like the soaring eagle, I have made them see thy glory, + Whose far-seeing eye there is none can hope to escape from." + +A similar strain of religious poetry is in the Papyrus of Sallier, in the +British Museum.[166] This is an epic by an Egyptian poet named Pentaour, +celebrating the campaigns of Ramses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks, of +the nineteenth dynasty. This great king had been called into Syria to put +down a formidable revolt of the Kheta (the Hittites of the Old Testament). +The poem seems to have been a famous one, for it had the honor of being +carved in full on the walls at Karnak, a kind of immortality which no +other epic poet has ever attained. It particularly describes an incident +in the war, when, by a stratagem of the enemy, King Ramses found himself +separated from the main body of his army and attacked by the enemy in full +force. Pentaour describes him in this situation as calling on Amun, God of +Thebes, for help, recounting the sacrifices he had offered to him, and +asking whether he would let him die in this extremity by the ignoble hands +of these Syrian tribes. "Have I not erected to thee great temples? Have I +not sacrificed to thee thirty thousand oxen? I have brought from +Elephantina obelisks to set up to thy name. I invoke thee, O my father, +Amun. I am in the midst of a throng of unknown tribes, and alone. But Amun +is better to me than thousands of archers and millions of horsemen. Amun +will prevail over the enemy." And, after defeating his foes, in his song +of triumph, the king says, "Amun-Ra has been at my right and my left in +the battles; his mind has inspired my own, and has prepared the downfall +of my enemies. Amun-Ra, my father, has brought the whole world to my +feet."[167] + +Thus universal and thus profound was the religious sentiment among the +Egyptians. + + + +Sec. 3. Theology of Egypt. Sources of our Knowledge concerning it. + + +As regards the theology of the Egyptians and their system of ideas, we +meet with difficulty from the law of secrecy which was their habit of +mind. The Egyptian priesthood enveloped with mystery every opinion, just +as they swathed the mummies, fold above fold, in preparing them for the +tomb. The names and number of their gods we learn from the monuments. +Their legends concerning them come to us through Plutarch, Herodotus, +Diodorus, and other Greek writers. Their doctrine of a future life and +future judgment is apparent in their ceremonies, the pictures on the +tombs, and the papyrus Book of the Dead. But what these gods _mean_, what +are their offices, how they stand related to each other and to mankind, +what is the ethical bearing of the religion, it is not so easy to learn. + +Nevertheless, we may find a clew to a knowledge of this system, if in no +other way, at least by ascertaining its central, ruling idea, and pursuing +this into its details. The moment that we take this course, light will +begin to dawn upon us. But before going further, let us briefly inquire +into the sources of our knowledge of Egyptian mythology. + +The first and most important place is occupied by the monuments, which +contain the names and tablets of the gods of the three orders. Then come +the sacred books of the Egyptians, known to us by Clemens Alexandrinus. +From him we learn that the Egyptians in his time had forty-two sacred +books in five classes. The first class, containing songs or hymns in +praise of the gods, were very old, dating perhaps from the time of Menes. +The other books treated of morals, astronomy, hieroglyphics, geography, +ceremonies, the deities, the education of priests, and medicine. Of these +sacred Hermaic books, one is still extant, and perhaps it is as +interesting as any of them. We have two copies of it, both on papyrus, one +found by the French at Thebes, the other by Champollion in Turin. And +Lepsius considers this last papyrus to be wholly of the date of the +eighteenth or nineteenth dynasty, consequently fifteen hundred or sixteen +hundred years before Christ, and the only example of an Egyptian book +transmitted from the times of the Pharaohs. Bunsen believes it to belong +to the fourth class of Hermaic books, containing Ordinances as to the +First Fruits, Sacrifices, Hymns, and Prayers. In this book the deceased +is the person who officiates. His soul journeying on gives utterance to +prayers, confessions, invocations. The first fifteen chapters, which make +a connected whole, are headed, "Here begins the Sections of the +Glorification in the Light of Osiris." It is illustrated by a picture of a +procession, in which the deceased soul follows his own corpse as chief +mourner, offering prayers to the Sun-God. Another part of the book is +headed, "The Book of Deliverance, in the Hall of twofold Justice," and +contains the divine judgments on the deceased. Forty-two gods occupy the +judgment-seat. Osiris, their president, bears on his breast the small +tablet of chief judge, containing a figure of Justice. Before him are seen +the scales of divine judgment. In one is placed the statue of Justice, and +in the other the heart of the deceased, who stands in person by the +balance containing his heart, while Anubis watches the other scale. Horus +examines the plummet indicating which way the beam inclines. Thoth, the +Justifier the Lord of the Divine Word, records the sentence.[168] + + + +Sec. 4. Central Idea of Egyptian Theology and Religion. Animal Worship. + + +We now proceed to ask what is the IDEA of Egyptian mythology and theology? + +We have seen that the idea of the religion of India was Spirit; the One, +the Infinite, the Eternal; a pure spiritual Pantheism, from which the +elements of time and space are quite excluded. The religion of Egypt +stands at the opposite pole of thought as its antagonist. Instead of +Spirit, it accepts Body; instead of Unity, Variety; instead of Substance, +Form. It is the physical reaction from Brahmanism. Instead of the worship +of abstract Deity, it gives us the most concrete divinity, wholly +incarnated in space and time. Instead of abstract contemplation, it gives +us ceremonial worship. Instead of the absorption of man into God, it gives +us transmigration through all bodily forms.[169] It so completely +incarnates God, as to make every type of animal existence divine; hence +the worship of animals. It makes body so sacred, that the human body must +not be allowed to perish. As the Brahman, contemplating eternity, forgot +time, and had no history, so on the other hand the Egyptian priest, to +whom every moment of time is sacred, records everything and turns every +event into history; and as it enshrines the past time historically on +monuments, so it takes hold of future time prophetically through oracles. + +The chief peculiarity about the religion of Egypt, and that which has +always caused the greatest astonishment to foreigners, was the worship of +animals. Herodotus says (Book II. Sec. 65), "That all animals in Egypt, wild +and tame, are accounted sacred, and that if any one kills these animals +wilfully he is put to death." He is, however, mistaken in asserting that +_all_ animals are sacred; for many were not so, though the majority were. +Wilkinson gives a list of the animals of Egypt to the number of over one +hundred, more than half of which were sacred, and the others not. As +hunting and fishing were favorite sports of the Egyptians, it is apparent +that there must have been animals whom it was lawful to kill. +Nevertheless, it is certain that animal worship is a striking peculiarity +of the Egyptian system. Cows were sacred to Isis, and Isis was represented +in the form of a cow. The gods often wore the heads of animals; and Kneph, +or Amun, with the ram's head, is one of the highest of the gods, known +among the Greeks as Jupiter Ammon. The worship of Apis, the sacred bull of +Memphis, the representative of Osiris, was very important among the +Egyptian ceremonies. Plutarch says that he was a fair and beautiful image +of the soul of Osiris. He was a bull with black hair, a white spot on his +forehead, and some other special marks. He was kept at Memphis in a +splendid temple. His festival lasted seven days, when a great concourse of +people assembled. When he died his body was embalmed and buried with great +pomp, and the priests went in search of another Apis, who, when discovered +by the marks, was carried to Memphis, carefully fed and exercised, and +consulted as an oracle. The burial-place of the Apis bulls was, a few +years ago, discovered near Memphis. It consists of an arched gallery hewn +in the rock, two thousand feet long and twenty feet in height and breadth. +On each side is a series of recesses, each containing a large sarcophagus +of granite, fifteen by eight feet, in which the body of a sacred bull was +deposited. In 1852 thirty of these had been already found. Before this +tomb is a paved road with lions ranged on each side, and before this a +temple with a vestibule. + +In different parts of Egypt different animals were held sacred. The animal +sacred in one place was not so regarded in another district. These sacred +animals were embalmed by the priests and buried, and the mummies of dogs, +wolves, birds, and crocodiles are found by thousands in the tombs. The +origin and motive of this worship is differently explained. It is certain +that animals were not worshipped in the same way as the great gods, but +were held sacred and treated with reverence as containing a divine +element. So, in the East, an insane person is accounted sacred, but is not +worshipped. So the Roman Catholics distinguish between Dulia and Latria, +between the worship of gods and reverence of saints. So, too, Protestants +consider the Bible a holy book and the Sabbath a holy day, but without +worshipping them. It is only just to make a similar distinction on behalf +of the Egyptians. The motives usually assigned for this worship--motives +of utility--seem no adequate explanation. "The Egyptians," says Wilkinson, +"may have deified some animals to insure their preservation, some to +prevent their unwholesome meat being used as food." But no religion was +ever established in this way. Man does not worship from utilitarian +considerations, but from an instinct of reverence. It is possible, indeed, +that such a reverential instinct may have been awakened towards certain +animals, by seeing their vast importance arising from their special +instincts and faculties. The cow and the ox, the dog, the ibis, and the +cat, may thus have appeared to the Egyptians, from their indispensable +utility, to be endowed with supernatural gifts. But this feeling itself +must have had its root in a yet deeper tendency of the Egyptian mind. They +reverenced the mysterious manifestation of God in all outward nature. No +one can look at an animal, before custom blinds our sense of strangeness, +without a feeling of wonder at the law of instinct, and the special, +distinct peculiarity which belongs to it. Every variety of animals is a +manifestation of a divine thought, and yet a thought hinted rather than +expressed. Each must mean something, must symbolize something. But what +does it mean? what does it symbolize? Continually we seem just on the +point of penetrating the secret; we almost touch the explanation, but are +baffled. A dog, a cat, a snake, a crocodile, a spider,--what does each +mean? why were they made? why this infinite variety of form, color, +faculty, character? Animals thus in their unconscious being, as +expressions of God's thoughts, are mysteries, and divine mysteries.[170] + +Now every part of the religion of Egypt shows how much they were attracted +toward _variety_, toward nature, toward the outward manifestations of the +Divine Spirit. These tendencies reached their utmost point in their +reverence for animal life. The shallow Romans, who reverenced only +themselves, and the Greeks, who worshipped nothing but human nature more +or less idealized, laughed at this Egyptian worship of animals and plants. +"O sacred nation! whose gods grow in gardens!" says Juvenal. But it +certainly shows a deeper wisdom to see something divine in nature, and to +find God in nature, than to call it common and unclean. And there is more +of truth in the Egyptian reverence for animal individuality, than in the +unfeeling indifference to the welfare of these poor relations which +Christians often display. When Jesus said that "not a sparrow falls to the +ground without your Father," he showed all these creatures to be under the +protection of their Maker. It may be foolish to worship animals, but it is +still more foolish to despise them. + +That the belief in transmigration is the explanation of animal worship is +the opinion of Bunsen. The human soul and animal soul, according to this +view, are essentially the same,--therefore the animal was considered as +sacred as man. Still, we do not _worship_ man. Animal worship, then, must +have had a still deeper root in the sense of awe before the mystery of +organized life. + + + +Sec. 5. Sources of Egyptian Theology. Age of the Empire and Affinities of the +Race. + + +But whence came this tendency in the human mind? Did it inhere in the +race, or was it the growth of external circumstances? Something, perhaps, +may be granted to each of these causes. The narrow belt of fertile land in +Egypt, fed by the overflowing Nile, quickened by the tropical sun, teeming +with inexhaustible powers of life, continually called the mind anew to the +active, creative powers of nature. And yet it may be suspected that the +law of movement by means of antagonism and reaction may have had its +influence also here. The opinion is now almost universal, that the impulse +of Egyptian civilization proceeded from Asia. This is the conclusion of +Bunsen at the end of his first volume. "The cradle of the mythology and +language of Egypt," says he, "is Asia. This result is arrived at by the +various ethnological proofs of language which finds Sanskrit words and +forms in Egypt, and of comparative anatomy, which shows the oldest +Egyptian skulls to have belonged to Caucasian races." If, then, Egyptian +civilization proceeded from Central Asia, Egyptian mythology and religion +probably came as a quite natural reaction from the extreme spiritualism of +the Hindoos. The question which remains is, whether they arrived at their +nature-worship directly or indirectly; whether, beginning with Fetichism, +they ascended to their higher conceptions of the immortal gods; or, +beginning with spiritual existence, they traced it downward into its +material manifestations; whether, in short, their system was one of +evolution or emanation. For every ancient theogony, cosmogony, or ontogony +is of one kind or the other. According to the systems of India and of +Platonism, the generation of beings is by the method of emanation. +Creation is a falling away, or an emanation from the absolute. But the +systems of Greek and Scandinavian mythology are of the opposite sort. In +these, spirit is evolved from matter; matter up to spirit works. They +begin with the lowest form of being,--night, chaos, a mundane egg,--and +evolve the higher gods therefrom. + +It is probable that we find in Egypt a double tendency. One is the Asiatic +spiritualism, the other the African naturalism. The union of the ideal and +the real, of thought and passion, of the aspirations of the soul and the +fire of a passionate nature, of abstract meditation and concrete life, had +for its result the mysterious theology and philosophy which, twenty +centuries after its burial under the desert sands, still rouses our +curiosity to penetrate the secret of this Sphinx of the Nile. + +We have seen in a former section that the institutions of Egypt, based on +a theocratic monarchy, reach back into a dim and doubtful antiquity. +Monuments, extending through thirty-five centuries, attest an age +preceding all written history. These monuments, so far as deciphered by +modern Egyptologists, have confirmed the accuracy of the lists of kings +which have come to us from Manetho. We have no monument anterior to the +fourth dynasty, but at that epoch we find the theocracy fully +organized.[171] The general accuracy of Manetho's list has been +demonstrated by the latest discoveries of M. Mariette, and has rendered +doubtful the idea of any of the dynasties being contemporaneous. + +The main chronological points, however, are by no means as yet fixed. +Thus, the beginning of the first dynasty is placed by Boeckh at B.C. 5702, +by Lepsius B.C. 3892, by Bunsen B.C. 3623, by Brugsch B.C. 4455, by Lauth +B.C. 4157, by Duncker 3233.[172] The period of the builders of the great +Pyramids is fixed by Bunsen at B.C. 3229, by Lepsius at B.C. 3124, by +Brugsch at B.C. 3686, by Lauth at B.C. 3450, and by Boeckh at B.C. +4933.[173] + +The Egyptian priests told Herodotus that there were three hundred and +thirty-one kings, from Menes to Moeris, whose names they read out of a +book. After him came eleven others, of whom Sethos was the last. From +Osiris to Amasis they counted fifteen thousand years, though Herodotus did +not believe this statement. If the three hundred and forty-two kings +really existed, it would make Menes come B.C. 9150,--at an average of +twenty-five years' reign to each king. Diodorus saw in Egypt a list of +four hundred and seventy-nine kings. But he says in another place that +Menes lived about four thousand seven hundred years before his time. +Manetho tells us that from Menes there were thirty dynasties, who reigned +five thousand three hundred and sixty-six years. But he gives a list of +four hundred and seventy-two kings in these dynasties, to the time of +Cambyses. The contradictions are so great, and the modes of reconciling +Manetho, Herodotus, Diodorus, Eratosthenes, and the monuments are so +inadequate, that we must regard the whole question of the duration of the +monarchy as unsettled. But from the time when the calendar must have been +fixed, from the skill displayed in the Pyramids, and other reasons +independent of any chronology, Duncker considers the reign of Menes as old +as B.C. 3500. + +The history of Egypt is divided into three periods, that of the old, the +middle, and the new monarchy. The first extends from the foundation of the +united kingdom by Menes to the conquest of the country by the Hyksos. The +second is from this conquest by the Hyksos till their expulsion. The +third, from the re-establishment of the monarchy by Amosis to its final +conquest by Persia. The old monarchy contained twelve dynasties; the +Hyksos or middle monarchy, five; the new monarchy, thirteen: in all, +thirty. + +The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were at first supposed to be the Hebrews: +but this hypothesis adapted itself to none of the facts. A recent treatise +by M. Chabas[174] shows that the Hyksos were an Asiatic people, occupying +the country to the northeast of Egypt. After conquering Lower Egypt, +Apapi was king of the Hyksos and Tekenen-Ra ruled over the native +Egyptians of the South. A papyrus, as interpreted by M. Chabas, narrates +that King Apapi worshipped only the god Sutech (Set), and refused to allow +the Egyptian gods to be adored. This added to the war of races a war of +religion, which resulted in the final expulsion of the Shepherds, about +B.C. 1700. The Hyksos are designated on the monuments and in the papyri as +the "Scourge" or "Plague," equivalent in Hebrew to the _Tzir'ah,_ commonly +translated "hornet," but evidently the same as the Hebrew _tzavaath_, +"plague," and the Arabic _tzeria_, "scourge," or "plague."[175] + +According to the learned Egyptologist, Dr. Brugsch, the Hebrew slaves in +Egypt are referred to in a papyrus in the British Museum of the date of +Ramses II. (B.C. 1400), in a description by a scribe named Pinebsa of the +new city of Ramses. He tells how the slaves throng around him to present +petitions against their overseers. Another papyrus reads (Lesley, "Man's +Origin and Destiny"): "The people have erected twelve buildings. They made +their tale of bricks daily, till they were finished." The first +corroboration of the biblical narrative which the Egyptian monuments +afford, and the first synchronism between Jewish and Egyptian history, +appear in the reign of Ramses II., about B.C. 1400, in the nineteenth +dynasty. + +It appears from the monuments and from the historians that somewhere about +B.C. 2000, or earlier, this great movement of warlike nomadic tribes +occurred, which resulted in the conquest of Lower Egypt by the pastoral +people known as Hyksos. It was perhaps a movement of Semitic races, the +Bedouins of the desert, like that which nearly three thousand years after +united them as warriors of Islam to overflow North Africa, Syria, Persia, +and Spain. They oppressed Egypt for five hundred years (Brugsch), and +appear on the monuments under the name of Amu (the herdsmen) or of Aadu +(the hated ones). Their kings resided at Tanis (in Egyptian Avaris), in +the Delta. That their conquests had a religious motive, and were made, +like that of Mohammed, in the interest of monotheism, seems possible. At +all events, we find one of them, Apapi, erecting a temple to Sutech (the +Semitic Baal), and refusing to allow the worship of other deities.[176] + +The majority of Egyptologists believe that the Hebrews entered Egypt while +these Hyksos kings, men of the same Semitic family and monotheistic +tendencies, were ruling in Lower Egypt. The bare subterranean temple +discovered by M. Mariette, with the well near it filled with broken +statues of the Egyptian gods, is an indication of those tendencies. The +"other king, who knew not Joseph," was a king of the eighteenth dynasty, +who conquered the Hyksos and drove them out of Egypt. Apparently the +course of events was like that which many centuries later occurred in +Spain. In both cases, the original rulers of the land, driven to the +mountains, gradually reconquered their country step by step. The result of +this reconquest of the country would also be in Egypt, as it was in Spain, +that the Semitic remnants left in the land would be subject to a severe +and oppressive rule. The Jews in Egypt, like the Moors in Spain, were +victims of a cruel bondage. Then began the most splendid period of +Egyptian history, during the seventeenth, sixteenth, fifteenth, and +fourteenth centuries before Christ. The Egyptian armies overran Syria, +Asia Minor, and Armenia as far as the Tigris. + +Ramses II., the most powerful monarch of this epoch, is probably the king +whose history is given by Herodotus and other Greek writers under the name +of Sesostris.[177] M. de Rouge believes himself able to establish this +identity. He found in the Museum at Vienna a stone covered with +inscriptions, and dedicated by a person whose name is given as Ramses +Mei-Amoun, exactly in the hieroglyphics of the great king. But this +person's name is also written elsewhere on the stone _Ses_, and a third +time as _Ses Mei-amoun,_ showing that _Ses_ was a common abbreviation of +Ramses. It is also written _Sesu_, or _Sesesu_, which is very like the +form in which Diodorus writes Sesostris, namely, _Sesoosis_.[178] Now +Ramses II., whose reign falls about B.C. 1400, erected a chain of +fortresses to defend the northeastern border of Egypt against the Syrian +nomads. One of these fortresses was named from the King Ramses, and +another Pachtum. The papyri contain accounts of these cities. One papyrus, +in the British Museum,[179] is a description by a scribe named Pinebsa, of +the aspect of the city Ramses, and of the petitions of the laborers for +relief against their overseers. These laborers are called _Apuru_, +Hebrews. In a papyrus of the Leyden Museum, an officer reports to his +superior thus: "May my lord be pleased. I have distributed food to the +soldiers and to the Hebrews, dragging stones for the great city Ramses +Meia-moum. I gave them food monthly." This corresponds with the passage +(Exodus i. 11): "They built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and +Raamses."[180] + +The birth of Moses fell under the reign of Ramses II. The Exodus was under +that of his successor, Menepthes. This king had fallen on evil times; his +power was much inferior to that of his great predecessor; and he even +condescended to propitiate the anti-Egyptian element, by worshipping its +gods. He has left his inscription on the monuments with the title, +"Worshipper of Sutech-Baal in Tanis." The name of Moses is Egyptian, and +signifies "the child." + +"Joseph," says Brugsch, "was never at the court of an Egyptian Pharaoh, +but found his place with the Semitic monarchs, who reigned at Avaris-Tanis +in the Delta, and whose power extended from this point as far as Memphis +and Heliopolis." The "king who knew not Joseph" was evidently the +restored Egyptian dynasty of Thebes. These monarchs would be naturally +averse to all the Palestinian inhabitants of the land. And the monuments +of their reigns represent the labors of subject people, under +task-masters, cutting, carrying, and laying stones for the walls of +cities. + +To what race do the Egyptians belong? The only historic document which +takes us back so far as this is the list of nations in the tenth chapter +of Genesis. We cannot, indeed, determine the time when it was written. But +Bunsen, Ebers,[181] and other ethnologists are satisfied that the author +of this chapter had a knowledge of the subject derived either from the +Phoenicians or the Egyptians. Ewald places his epoch with that of the +early Jewish kings. According to this table the Egyptians were descended +from Ham, the son of Noah, and were consequently of the same original +stock with the Japhetic and Semitic nations. They were not negroes, though +their skin was black, or at least dark.[182] According to Herodotus they +came from the heart of Africa; according to Genesis (chap. x.) from Asia. +Which is the correct view? + +The Egyptians themselves recognized no relationship with the negroes, who +only appear on the monuments as captives or slaves. + +History, therefore, helps us little in this question of race. How is it +with Comparative Philology and Comparative Anatomy? + +The Coptic language is an idiom of the old Egyptian tongue, which seems to +belong to no known linguistic group. It is related to other African +languages only through the lexicon, and similarly with the Indo-European. +Some traces of grammatic likeness to the Semitic may be found in it; yet +the view of Bunsen and Schwartz, that in very ancient times it arose from +the union of Semitic and Indo-European languages, remains only a +hypothesis.[183] Merx (in Schenkel's Bibel-Lexicon) says this view "rests +upon a wish formed in the interest of the Philosophy of History; and the +belief of a connection between these tongues is not justified by any +scientific study of philology. No such ethnological affinity can be +granted,--a proof of which is that all facts in its favor are derived from +common roots, none from common grammar." Benfey, however, assumed two +great branches of Semitic nationalities, one flowing into Africa, the +other into Western Asia.[184] Ebers[185] gives some striking resemblances +between Egyptian and Chaldaic words, and says he possesses more than three +hundred examples of this kind; and in Bunsen's fifth volume are +comparative tables which give as their result that a third part of the old +Egyptian words in Coptic literature are Semitic, and a tenth part +Indo-European. If these statements are confirmed, they may indicate some +close early relations between these races. + +The anatomy of the mummies seems to show a wide departure from negro +characteristics. The skull, chin, forehead, bony system, facial angle, +hair, limbs, are all different. The chief resemblances are in the flat +nose, and form of the backbone.[186] Scientific ethnologists have +therefore usually decided that the old Egyptians were an Asiatic people +who had become partially amalgamated with the surrounding African tribes. +Max Duncker comes to this conclusion,[187] and says that the Berber +languages are the existing representatives of the old Egyptian. This is +certainly true as concerns the Copts, whose very name is almost identical +with the word "Gupti," the old name from which the Greeks formed the term +AEgypti.[188] Alfred Maury (Revue d. D. Mondes, September, 1867) says that, +"according to all appearances, Egypt was peopled from Asia by that Hamitic +race which comprised the tribes of Palestine, Arabia, and Ethiopia. Its +ancient civilization was, consequently, the sister of that which built +Babylon and Nineveh. In the valley of the Nile, as in those of the +Euphrates and the Tigris, religion gave the motive to civilization, and in +all the three nations there was a priesthood in close alliance with an +absolute monarchy." M. de Rouge is of the same opinion. In his examination +of the monuments of the oldest dynasties, he finds the name given to the +Egyptians by themselves to be merely "the Men" (Rut),--a word which by the +usual interchange of R with L, and of T with D, is identical with the +Hebrew Lud (plural Ludim), whom the Book of Genesis declares to have been +a son of Misraim. This term was applied by the Israelites to all the races +on the southeast shore of the Mediterranean. It is, therefore, believed by +M. de Rouge that the Egyptians were of the same family with these Asiatic +tribes on the shores of Syria. Here, then, as in so many other cases, a +new civilization may have come from the union of two different races,--one +Asiatic, the other African. Asia furnished the brain, Africa the fire, and +from the immense vital force of the latter and the intellectual vigor of +the former sprang that wonderful civilization which illuminated the world +during at least five thousand years. + + + +Sec. 6. The Three Orders of Gods. + + +The Egyptian theology, or doctrine of the gods, was of two +kinds,--esoteric and exoteric, that is, an interior theology for the +initiated, and an exterior theology for the uninitiated. The exterior +theology, which was for the whole people, consisted of the mythological +accounts of Isis and Osiris, the judgments of the dead, the transmigration +of the soul, and all matters connected with the ceremonial worship of the +gods. But the interior, hidden theology is supposed to have related to the +unity and spirituality of the Deity. + +Herodotus informs us that the gods of the Egyptians were in three orders; +and Bunsen believes that he has succeeded in restoring them from the +monuments. There are eight gods of the first order, twelve gods of the +second order, and seven gods of the third order. The gods of the third +order are those of the popular worship, but those of the first seem to be +of a higher and more spiritual class. The third class of gods were +representative of the elements of nature, the sun, fire, water, earth, +air. But the gods of the first order were the gods of the priesthood, +understood by them alone, and expressing ideas which they shrank from +communicating to the people. The spiritual and ideal part of their +religion the priests kept to themselves as something which the people were +incapable of understanding. The first eight gods seem to have been a +representation of a process of divine development or emanation, and +constituted a transition from the absolute spiritualism of the Hindoos to +the religion of nature and humanity in the West. The Hindoo gods were +emanations of spirit: the gods of Greece are idealizations of Nature. But +the Egyptian gods represent spirit passing into matter and form. + +Accordingly, if we examine in detail the gods of the first order, who are +eight, we find them to possess the general principle of self-revelation, +and to constitute, taken together, a process of divine development. These +eight, according to Bunsen, are Amn, or Ammon; Khem, or Chemmis; Mut, the +Mother Goddess; Num, or Kneph; Seti, or Sate; Phtah, the Artist God; Net, +or Neith, the Goddess of Sais; and Ra, the Sun, the God of Heliopolis. But +according to Wilkinson they stand in a little different order: 1. Neph, or +Kneph; 2. Amun, or Ammon; 3. Pthah; 4. Khem; 5. Sate; 6. Maut, or Mut; 7. +Pasht, or Diana; and 8. Neith, or Minerva, in which list Pasht, the +Goddess of Bubastis, is promoted out of the second order and takes the +place of Ra, the Sun, who is degraded. + +Supposing these lists to be substantially correct, we have, as the root of +the series, Ammon, the Concealed God, or Absolute Spirit. His titles +indicate this dignity. The Greeks recognized him as corresponding to their +Zeus. He is styled King of the Gods, the Ruler, the Lord of Heaven, the +Lord of the Thrones, the Horus or God of the Two Egypts. Thebes was his +city. According to Manetho, his name means concealment; and the root "Amn" +also means to veil or conceal. His original name was Amn; thus it stands +in the rings of the twelfth dynasty. But after the eighteenth dynasty it +is Amn-Ra, meaning the Sun. "Incontestably," says Bunsen, "he stands in +Egypt as the head of the great cosmogonic development." + +Next comes Kneph, or God as Spirit,--the Spirit of God, often confounded +with Amn, also called Cnubis and Num. Both Plutarch and Diodorus tell us +that his name signifies Spirit, the Num having an evident relation with +the Greek [Greek: pneuma], and the Coptic word "Nef," meaning also to +blow. So too the Arabic "Nef" means breath, the Hebrew "Nuf," to flow, and +the Greek [Greek: pneo], to breathe. At Esneh he is called the Breath of +those in the Firmament; at Elephantina, Lord of the Inundations. He wears +the ram's head with double horns (by mistake of the Greeks attributed to +Ammon), and his worship was universal in Ethiopia. The sheep are sacred to +him, of which there were large flocks in the Thebaid, kept for their wool. +And the serpent or asp, a sign of kingly dominion,--hence called +basilisk,--is sacred to Kneph. As Creator, he appears under the figure of +a potter with a wheel. In Philae he is so represented, forming on his wheel +a figure of Osiris, with the inscription, "Num, who forms on his wheel the +Divine Limbs of Osiris." He is also called the Sculptor of all men, also +the god who made the sun and moon to revolve. Porphyry says that Pthah +sprang from an egg which came from the mouth of Kneph, in which he is +supported by high monumental authority. + +The result of this seems to be that Kneph represents the absolute Being as +Spirit, the Spirit of God moving on the face of the waters,--a moving +spirit pervading the formless chaos of matter. + +Perhaps the next god in the series is Pthah, by the Greeks called +Hephaestus, or Vulcan, representing formation, creation by the truth, +stability; called in the inscriptions, Lord of Truth, Lord of the +Beautiful Face, Father of the Beginnings, moving the Egg of the Sun and +Moon. With Horapollo and Plutarch, we may consider the Scarabeus, or +Beetle, which is his sign, as an emblem of the world and its creation. An +inscription calls him Creator of all things in the world. Iamblicus says, +"The God who creates with truth is Pthah." He was also connected with the +sun, as having thirty fingers,--the number of days in a month. He is +represented sometimes as a deformed dwarf. + +The next god in the series is Khem, the Greek Pan,--the principle of +generation, sometimes holding the ploughshare. + +Then come the feminine principles corresponding with these three latter +gods. Amun has naturally no companion. Mut, the mother, is the consort of +Khem the father. Seti,--the Ray or Arrow,--a female figure, with the horns +of a cow, is the companion of Kneph. And Neith, or Net, the goddess of +Sais, belongs to Pthah. The Greek Minerva Athene is thought to be derived +from Neith by an inversion of the letters,[189]--the Greeks writing from +left to right and the Egyptians from right to left. Her name means, "I +came from myself." Clemens says that her great shrine at Sais has an open +roof with the inscription, "I am all that was and is and is to be, and no +mortal has lifted my garment, and the fruit I bore is Helios." This would +seem to identify her with Nature. + +For the eighth god of the first order we may take either Helios or Ra or +Phra, the Sun-God; from whence came the name of the Pharaohs, or we may +take Pasht, Bubastis, the equivalent of the Greek Diana. On some accounts +it would seem that Ra was the true termination of this cycle. We should +then have, proceeding from the hidden abyss of pure Spirit, first a +breathing forth, or spirit in motion; then creation, by the word of truth; +then generation, giving life and growth; and then the female qualities of +production, wisdom, and light, completed by the Sun-God, last of the +series. Amn, or Ammon, the Concealed God, is the root, then the creative +power in Kneph, then the generative power in Khem, the Demiurgic power in +Ptah, the feminine creative principle of Nature in Neith, the productive +principle in Mut, or perhaps the nourishing principle, and then the living +stimulus of growth, which carries all forward in Ra. + +But we must now remember that two races meet in Egypt,--an Asiatic race, +which brings the ideas of the East; and an Ethiopian, inhabitants of the +land, who were already there. The first race brought the spiritual ideas +which were embodied in the higher order of gods. The Africans were filled +with the instinct of nature-worship. These two tendencies were to be +reconciled in the religion of Egypt. The first order of gods was for the +initiated, and taught them the unity, spirituality, and creative power of +God.[190] The third order--the circle of Isis and Osiris--were for the +people, and were representative of the forms and forces of outward +nature. Between the two come the second series,--a transition from the one +to the other,--children of the higher gods, parents of the lower,--neither +so abstract as the one nor so concrete as the other,--representing neither +purely divine qualities on the one side, nor merely natural forces on the +other, but rather the faculties and powers of man. Most of this series +were therefore adopted by the Greeks, whose religion was one essentially +based on human nature, and whose gods were all, or nearly all, the ideal +representations of human qualities. Hence they found in Khunsu, child of +Ammon, their Hercules, God of Strength; in Thoth, child of Kneph, they +found Hermes, God of Knowledge; in Pecht, child of Pthah, they found their +Artemis, or Diana, the Goddess of Birth, protector of women; in Athor, or +Hathor, they found their Aphrodite, Goddess of Love. Seb was Chronos, or +Time; and Nutpe was Rhea, wife of Chronos. + +The third order of gods are the children of the second series, and are +manifestations of the Divine in the outward universe. But though standing +lowest in the scale, they were the most popular gods of the Pantheon; had +more individuality and personal character than the others; were more +universally worshipped throughout Egypt, and that from the oldest times. +"The Osiris deities," says Herodotus, "are the only gods worshipped +throughout Egypt." "They stand on the oldest monuments, are the centre of +all Egyptian worship, and are perhaps the oldest original objects of +reverence," says Bunsen. How can this be if they belong to a lower order +of Deities, and what is the explanation of it? There is another historical +fact also to be explained. Down to the time of Ramses, thirteen hundred +years before Christ, Typhon, or Seth, the God of Destruction, was the +chief of this third order, and the most venerated of all the gods. After +that time a revolution occurred in the worship, which overthrew Seth, and +his name was chiselled out of the monuments, and the name of Amun inserted +in its place. This was the only change which occurred in the Egyptian +religion, so far as we know, from its commencement until the time of the +Caesars.[191] An explanation of both these facts may be given, founded on +the supposed amalgamation in Egypt of two races with their religions. +Supposing that the gods of the higher orders represented the religious +ideas of a Semitic or Aryan race entering Egypt from Asia, and that the +Osiris group were the gods of the African nature-worship, which they found +prevailing on their arrival, it is quite natural that the priests should +in their classification place their own gods highest, while they should +have allowed the external worship to go on as formerly, at least for a +time. But, after a time, as the tone of thought became more elevated, they +may have succeeded in substituting for the God of Terror and Destruction a +higher conception in the popular worship. + +The myth of Isis and Osiris, preserved for us by Plutarch, gives the most +light in relation to this order of deities. + +Seb and Nutpe, or Nut, called by the Greeks Chronos and Rhea, were the +parents of this group. Seb is therefore Time, and Nut is Motion or perhaps +Space. The Sun pronounced a curse on them, namely, that she should not be +delivered, on any day of the year. This perhaps implies the difficulty of +the thought of Creation. But Hermes, or Wisdom, who loved Rhea, won, at +dice, of the Moon, five days, the seventieth part of all her +illuminations, which he added to the three hundred and sixty days, or +twelve months. Here we have a hint of a correction of the calendar, the +necessity of which awakened a feeling of irregularity in the processes of +nature, admitting thereby the notion of change and a new creation. These +five days were the birthdays of the gods. On the first Osiris is born, and +a voice was heard saying, "The Lord of all things is now born." On the +second day, Arueris-Apollo, or the elder Horus; on the third, Typhon, who +broke through a hole in his mother's side; on the fourth, Isis; and on the +fifth, Nepthys-Venus, or Victory. Osiris and Arueris are children of the +Sun, Isis of Hermes, Typhon and Nepthys of Saturn. + +Isis became the wife of Osiris, who went through the world taming it by +means of oratory, poetry, and music. When he returned, Typhon took +seventy-two men and also a queen of Ethiopia, and made an ark the size of +Osiris's body, and at a feast proposed to give it to the one whom it +should fit. Osiris got into it, and they fastened down the lid and +soldered it and threw it into the Nile. Then Isis put on mourning and went +to search for it, and directed her inquiries to little children, who were +hence held by the Egyptians to have the faculty of divination. Then she +found Anubis, child of Osiris, by Nepthys, wife of Typhon, who told her +how the ark was entangled in a tree which grew up around it and hid it. +The king had made of this tree a pillar to support his house. Isis sat +down weeping; the women of the queen came to her, she stroked their hair, +and fragrance passed into it. She was made nurse to the queen's child, fed +him with her finger, and in the night-time, by means of a lambent flame, +burned away his impurities. She then turned herself into a swallow and +flew around the house, bewailing her fate. The queen watched her +operations, and being alarmed cried out, and so robbed her child of +immortality. Isis then begged the pillar, took it down, took out the +chest, and cried so loud that the younger son of the king died of fright. +She then took the ark and the elder son and set sail. The cold air of the +river chilled her, and she became angry and cursed it, and so dried it up. +She opened the chest, put her cheek to that of Osiris and wept bitterly. +The little boy came and peeped in; she gave him a terrible look, and he +died of fright. Isis then came to her son Horus, who was at nurse at Buto. +Typhon, hunting by moonlight, saw the ark, with the body of Osiris, which +he tore into fourteen parts and threw them about. Isis went to look for +them in a boat made of papyrus, and buried each part in a separate place. + +After this the soul of Osiris returned out of Hades to train up his son. +Then came a battle between Horus and Typhon, in which Typhon was +vanquished, but Isis allowed him to escape. There are other less important +incidents in the story, among them that Isis had another son by the soul +of Osiris after his death, who is the god called Harpocrates, represented +as lame and with his finger on his mouth.[192] + +Plutarch declares that this story is symbolical, and mentions various +explanations of the allegory. He rejects, at once, the rationalistic +explanation, which turns these gods into eminent men,--sea-captains, etc. +"I fear," says he, "this would be to stir things that are not to be +stirred, and to declare war (as Simonides says), not only against length +of time, but also against many nations and families of mankind, whom a +religious reverence towards these gods holds fast bound like men +astonished and amazed, and would be no other than going about to remove so +great and venerable names from heaven to earth, and thereby shaking and +dissolving that worship and persuasion that hath entered almost all men's +constitutions from their very birth, and opening vast doors to the +atheists' faction, who convert all divine matters into human." "Others," +he says, "consider these beings as demons intermediate between gods and +men. And Osiris afterwards became Serapis, the Pluto of the under-world." + +Other explanations of the myth are given by Plutarch. First, the +geographical explanation. According to this, Osiris is Water, especially +the Nile. Isis is Earth, especially the land of Egypt adjoining the Nile, +and overflowed by it. Horus, their son, is the Air, especially the moist, +mild air of Egypt. Typhon is Fire, especially the summer heat which dries +up the Nile and parches the land. His seventy-two associates are the +seventy-two days of greatest heat, according to the Egyptian opinion. +Nepthys, his wife, sister of Isis, is the Desert outside of Egypt, but +which in a higher inundation of the Nile being sometimes overflowed, +becomes productive, and has a child by Osiris, named Anubis. When Typhon +shuts Osiris into the ark, it is the summer heat drying up the Nile and +confining it to its channel. This ark, entangled in a tree, is where the +Nile divides into many mouths at the Delta and is overhung by the wood. +Isis, nursing the child of the king, the fragrance, etc., represent the +earth nourishing plants and animals. The body of Osiris, torn by Typhon +into fourteen parts, signifies either the division of the Nile at its +mouths or the pools of water left after the drying up of the inundation. + +There is so much in this account which accords with the facts, that there +can be no doubt of its correctness so far as it goes. At the same time it +is evidently an incomplete explanation. The story means this, but +something more. Beside the geographical view, Plutarch therefore adds a +scientific and an astronomical explanation, as well as others more +philosophical. According to these, Osiris is in general the productive, +the creative power in nature; Isis, the female property of nature, hence +called by Plato the nurse; and Typhon the destructive property in nature; +while Horus is the mediator between creation and destruction. And thus we +have the triad of Osiris, Typhon, and Horus, essentially corresponding to +the Hindoo triad, Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu, and also to the Persian triad, +Ormazd, Ahriman, and Mithra. And so this myth will express the Egyptian +view of the conflict of good and evil in the natural world. + +But it seems very likely that it was the object of the priests to elevate +this Osiris worship to a still higher meaning, making it an allegory of +the struggles, sorrows, and self-recovery of the human soul. Every human +soul after death took the name and symbols of Osiris, and then went into +the under-world to be judged by him. Connected with this was the doctrine +of transmigration, or the passage of the soul through various bodies,--a +doctrine brought out of Egypt by Pythagoras. These higher doctrines were +taught in the mysteries. "I know them," says Herodotus, "but must not tell +them." Iamblicus professes to explain them in his work on the Mysteries. +But it is not easy to say how much of his own Platonism he has mingled +therewith. According to him, they taught in the mysteries that before all +things was one God immovable in the solitude of unity. The One was to be +venerated in silence. Then Emeph, or Neph, was god in his +self-consciousness. After this in Amun, his intellect became truth, +shedding light. Truth working by art is Pthah, and art producing good is +Osiris. + +Another remarkable fact must be at least alluded to. Bunsen says, that, +according to the whole testimony of the monuments, Isis and Osiris not +only have their roots in the second order, but are also themselves the +first and the second order. Isis, Osiris, and Horus comprise all Egyptian +mythology, with the exception of Amun and Neph. Of this fact I have seen +no explanation and know of none, unless it be a sign of the purpose of the +priests to unite the two systems of spiritualism and nature-worship into +one, and to elevate and spiritualize the lower order of gods. + +One reason for thinking that the religious system of the priests was a +compromise between several different original tendencies is to be found in +the local worship of special deities in various places. In Lower Egypt the +highest god was Pthah, whom the Greeks identified with Vulcan; the god of +fire or heat, father of the sun. He was in this region the chief god, +corresponding to Ammon in Upper Egypt. Manetho says that Pthah reigned +nine thousand years before the other gods,--which must mean that this was +by far the oldest worship in Egypt. As Ammon is the head of a cosmogony +which proceeds according to emanation from spirit down to matter, so Pthah +is at the beginning of a cosmogony which ascends by a process of evolution +from matter working up to spirit. For from Pthah (heat) comes light, from +light proceeds life, from life arise gods, men, plants, animals, and all +organic existence. The inscriptions call Pthah, "Father of the Father of +the Gods," "King of both Worlds," the "God of all Beginnings," the "Former +of Things." The egg is one of his symbols, as containing a germ of life. +The scarabaeus, or beetle, which rolls its ball of earth, supposed to +contain its egg, is dedicated to Pthah. His sacred city was Memphis, in +Lower Egypt. His son, Ra, the Sun-God, had his temple at On, near by, +which the Greeks called Heliopolis, or City of the Sun. The cat is sacred +to Ra. As Pthah is the god of all beginnings in Lower Egypt, so Ra is the +vitalizing god, the active ruler of the world, holding a sceptre in one +hand and the sign of life in the other. + +The goddesses of Lower Egypt were Neith at Sais, Leto, the goddess whose +temple was at Buto, and Pacht at Babastis. In Upper Egypt, as we have +seen, the chief deity was Amun, or Ammon, the Concealed God, and Kneph, or +Knubis. With them belonged the goddess Mut[193] (the mother) and Khonso. +The two oldest gods were Mentu, the rising sun, and Atmu, the setting sun. + +We therefore find traces of the same course of religious thought in Egypt +as we shall afterward find in Greece. The earlier worship is of local +deities, who are afterwards united in a Pantheon. As Zeus was at first +worshipped in Dodona and Arcadia, Apollo in Crete and Delos, Aphrodite in +Cyprus, Athene at Athens, and afterward these tribal and provincial +deities were united in one company as the twelve gods of Olympus, so in +Egypt the various early theologies were united in the three orders, of +which Ammon was made the head. But, in both countries, each city and +province persevered in the worship of its particular deity. As Athene +continued to be the protector of Athens, and Aphrodite of Cyprus, so, in +Egypt, Set continued to be the god of Ombos, Leto of Buto, Horus of Edfu, +Khem of Coptos. + +Before concluding this section, we must say a word of the practical +morality connected with this theology. We have seen, above, the stress +laid on works of justice and mercy. There is a papyrus in the Imperial +library at Paris, which M. Chabas considers the oldest book in the world. +It is an autograph manuscript written B.C. 2200, or four thousand years +ago, by one who calls himself the son of a king. It contains practical +philosophy like that of Solomon in his proverbs. It glorifies, like the +Proverbs, wisdom. It says that "man's heart rules the man," that "the bad +man's life is what the wise know to be death," that "what we say in secret +is known to him who made our interior nature," that "he who made us is +present with us though we are alone." + +Is not the human race one, when this Egyptian four thousand years ago, +talks of life as Solomon spoke one thousand years after, in Judaea; and as +Benjamin Franklin spoke, three thousand years after Solomon, in America? + + + +Sec. 7. Influence of Egypt on Judaism and Christianity. + + +How much of the doctrine and ritual of Egypt were imported into Judaism by +Moses is a question by no means easy to settle. Of Egyptian theology +proper, or the doctrine of the gods, we find no trace in the Pentateuch. +Instead of the three orders of deities we have Jehovah; instead of the +images and pictures of the gods, we have a rigorous prohibition of +idolatry; instead of Osiris and Isis, we have a Deity above all worlds and +behind all time, with no history, no adventures, no earthly life. But it +is perhaps more strange not to find any trace of the doctrine of a future +life in Mosaism, when this was so prominent among the Egyptians. Moses +gives no account of the judgment of souls after death; he tells nothing of +the long journey and multiform experiences of the next life according to +the Egyptians, nothing of a future resurrection and return to the body. +His severe monotheism was very different from the minute characterization +of gods in the Egyptian Pantheon. The personal character of Jehovah, with +its awful authority, its stern retribution and impartial justice, was +quite another thing from the symbolic ideal type of the gods of Egypt. +Nothing of the popular myth of Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Typhon is found in +the Pentateuch, nothing of the transmigration of souls, nothing of the +worship of animals; nothing of the future life and judgment to come; +nothing of the embalming of bodies and ornamenting of tombs. The cherubim +among the Jews may resemble the Egyptian Sphinx; the priests' dress in +both are of white linen; the Urim and Thummim, symbolic jewels of the +priests, are in both; a quasi-hereditary priesthood is in each; and both +have a temple worship. But here the parallels cease. Moses left behind +Egyptian theology, and took only some hints for his ritual from the Nile. + +There may perhaps be a single exception to this statement. According to +Brugsch[194] and other writers, the Papyrus buried with the mummy +contained the doctrine of the Divine unity. The name of God was not +given, but instead the words NUK PU NUK, "I am the I am," corresponding +to the name given in Exodus iii. 14, Jahveh (in a corrupt form Jehovah). +This name, Jahveh, has the same meaning with the Egyptian Nuk pu Nuk, "I +am the I am." At least so say Egyptologists. If this is so, the +coincidence is certainly very striking. + +That some of the ritualism to which the Jews were accustomed in Egypt +should have been imported into their new ceremonial, is quite in +accordance with human nature. Christianity, also, has taken up many of the +customs of heathenism.[195] The rite of circumcision was probably adopted +by the Jews from the Egyptians, who received it from the natives of +Africa. Livingstone has found it among the tribes south of the Zambesi, +and thinks this custom there cannot be traced to any Mohammedan source. +Prichard believes it, in Egypt, to have been a relic of ancient African +customs. It still exists in Ethiopia and Abyssinia. In Egypt it existed +far earlier than the time of Abraham, as appears by ancient mummies. +Wilkinson affirms it to have been "as early as the fourth dynasty, and +probably earlier, long before the time of Abraham." Herodotus tells us +that the custom existed from the earliest times among the Egyptians and +Ethiopians, and was adopted from them by the Syrians of Palestine. Those +who regard this rite as instituted by a Divine command may still believe +that it already existed among the Jews, just as baptism existed among them +before Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize. Both in Egypt and among +the Jews it was connected with a feeling of superiority. The circumcised +were distinguished from others by a higher religious position. It is +difficult to trace the origin of sentiments so alien to our own ways of +thought; but the hygienic explanation seems hardly adequate. It may have +been a sign of the devotion of the generative power to the service of God, +and have been the first step out of the untamed license of the passions, +among the Africans. + +It has been supposed that the figure of the Cherubim among the Jews was +derived from that of the Sphinx. There were three kinds of Sphinxes in +Egypt,--the _andro-sphinx_, with the head of a man and the body of a lion; +the _crio-sphinx_, with the head of a ram and the body of a lion; and the +_hieraco-sphinx_, with the head of a hawk and a lion's body. The first was +a symbol of the union of wisdom and strength. The Sphinx was the solemn +sentinel, placed to watch the temple and the tomb, as the Cherubim watched +the gates of Paradise after the expulsion of Adam. In the Cherubim were +joined portions of the figure of a man with those of the lion, the ox, and +the eagle. In the Temple the Cherubim spread their wings above the ark; +and Wilkinson gives a picture from the Egyptian tombs of two kneeling +figures with wings spread above the scarabaeus. The Persians and the +Greeks had similar symbolic figures, meant to represent the various powers +of these separate creatures combined in one being; but the Hebrew figure +was probably imported from Egypt. + +The Egyptians had in their temples a special interior sanctuary, more holy +than the rest. So the Jews had their Holy of Holies, into which only the +high-priest went, separated by a veil from the other parts of the Temple. +The Jews were commanded on the Day of Atonement to provide a scapegoat, to +carry away the sins of the people, and the high-priest was to lay his +hands on the head of the goat and confess the national sins, "putting them +upon the head of the goat" (Lev. xvi. 21, 22), and it was said that "the +goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited." +So, among the Egyptians, whenever a victim was offered, a prayer was +repeated over its head, "that if any calamity were about to befall either +the sacrifices or the land of Egypt, it might be averted on this +head."[196] + +Such facts as these make it highly probable that Moses allowed in his +ritual many ceremonies borrowed from the Egyptian worship. + +That Egyptian Christianity had a great influence on the development of the +system of Christian doctrine is not improbable.[197] The religion of +ancient Egypt was very tenacious and not easily effaced. Successive waves +of Syrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman conquest rolled over the land, +scarcely producing any change in her religion or worship. Christianity +conquered Egypt, but was itself deeply tinged with the faith of the +conquered. Many customs found in Christendom may be traced back to Egypt. +The Egyptian at his marriage put a gold ring on his wife's finger, as a +token that he intrusted her with all his property, just as in the Church +of England service the bridegroom does the same, saying, "With all my +worldly goods I thee endow." Clemens tells us that this custom was derived +by the Christians from the Egyptians. The priests at Philae threw a piece +of gold into the Nile once a year, as the Venetian Doge did into the +Adriatic. The Feast of Candles at Sais is still marked in the Christian +calendar as Candlemas Day. The Catholic priest shaves his head as the +Egyptian priest did before him. The Episcopal minister's linen surplice +for reading the Liturgy is taken from the dress of obligation, made of +linen, worn by the priest in Egypt. Two thousand years before the Pope +assumed to hold the keys, there was an Egyptian priest at Thebes with the +title of "Keeper of the two doors of Heaven."[198] + +In the space which we have here at command we are unable to examine the +question of doctrinal influences from Egypt upon orthodox Christianity. +Four doctrines, however, are stated by the learned Egyptologist, Samuel +Sharpe, to be common to Egyptian mythology and church orthodoxy. They are +these:-- + + + 1. That the creation and government of the world is not the work of one + simple and undivided Being, but of one God made up of several persons. + This is the doctrine of plural unity. + + 2. That salvation cannot be expected from the justice or mercy of the + Supreme Judge, unless an atoning sacrifice is made to him by a divine + being. + + 3. That among the persons who compose the godhead, one, though a god, + could yet suffer pain and be put to death. + + 4. That a god or man, or a being half god and half a man once lived on + earth, born of an earthly mother but without an earthly father. + +The gods of Egypt generally appear in triads, and sometimes as three gods +in one. The triad of Thebes was Amun-Ra, Athor, and Chonso,--or father, +mother, and son. In Nubia it was Pthah, Amun-Ra, and Horus-Ra. At Philae +it was Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Other groups were Isis, Nephthys, and +Horus; Isis, Nephthys, and Osiris; Osiris, Athor, and Ra. In later times +Horus became the supreme being, and appears united with Ra and Osiris in +one figure, holding the two sceptres of Osiris, and having the hawk's head +of Horus and the sun of Ra. Eusebius says of this god that he declared +himself to be Apollo, Lord, and Bacchus. A porcelain idol worn as a charm +combines Pthah the Supreme God of Nature, with Horus the Son-God, and +Kneph the Spirit-God. The body is that of Pthah, God of Nature, with the +hawk's wings of Horus, and the ram's head of Kneph. It is curious that +Isis the mother, with Horus the child in her arms, as the merciful gods +who would save their worshippers from the vengeance of Osiris the stern +judge, became as popular a worship in Egypt in the time of Augustus, as +that of the Virgin and Child is in Italy to-day. Juvenal says that the +painters of Rome almost lived by painting the goddess Isis, the Madonna of +Egypt, which had been imported into Italy, and which was very popular +there. + +In the trial of the soul before Osiris, as represented on tablets and +papyri, are seen the images of gods interceding as mediators and offering +sacrifices on its behalf. There are four of these mediatorial gods, and +there is a tablet in the British Museum in which the deceased is shown as +placing the gods themselves on the altar as his sin-offering, and pleading +their merits.[199] + +The death of Osiris, the supreme god of all Egypt, was a central fact in +this mythology. He was killed by Typhon, the Egyptian Satan, and after +the fragments of his body had been collected by "the sad Isis," he +returned to life as king of the dead and their judge.[200] + +In connection with these facts it is deserving of notice that the doctrine +of the trinity and that of the atonement began to take shape in the hands +of the Christian theologians of Egypt. The Trinity and its symbols were +already familiar to the Egyptian mind. Plutarch says that the Egyptians +worshipped Osiris, Isis, and Horus under the form of a triangle. He adds +that they considered everything perfect to have three parts, and that +therefore their good god made himself threefold, while their god of evil +remained single. Egypt, which had exercised so powerful an influence on +the old religion of Rome, was destined also greatly to influence +Christianity. Alexandria was the head-quarters of learning and profound +religious speculations in the first centuries. Clemens, Origen, Dionysius, +Athanasius, were eminent teachers in that school. Its doctrines were[201] +that God had revealed himself to all nations by his Logos, or Word. +Christianity is its highest revelation. The common Christian lives by +faith, but the more advanced believer has gnosis, or philosophic insight +of Christianity as the eternal law of the soul. This doctrine soon +substituted speculation in place of the simplicity of early Christianity. +The influence of Alexandrian thought was increased by the high culture +which prevailed there, and by the book-trade of this Egyptian city. All +the oldest manuscripts of the Bible now extant were transcribed by +Alexandrian penmen. The oldest versions were made in Alexandria. Finally +the intense fervor of the Egyptian mind exercised its natural influence on +Christianity, as it did on Judaism and Heathenism. The Oriental +speculative element of Egyptian life was reinforced by the African fire; +and in Christianity, as before in the old religion, we find both working +together. By the side of the Alexandrian speculations on the nature of God +and the Trinity appear the maniacal devotion of the monks of the Thebaid. +The ardor of belief which had overcome even the tenacity of Judaism, and +modified it into its two Egyptian forms of the speculations of Philo and +the monastic devotion of the Therapeutae, reappeared in a like action upon +Christian belief and Christian practice. How large a part of our present +Christianity is due to these two influences we may not be able to say. But +palpable traces of Egyptian speculation appear in the Church doctrines of +the Trinity and atonement, and the material resurrection[202] of the same +particles which constitute the earthly body. And an equally evident +influence from Egyptian asceticism is found in the long history of +Christian monasticism, no trace of which appears in the New Testament, and +no authority for which can be found in any teaching or example of Christ. +The mystical theology and mystical devotion of Egypt are yet at work in +the Christian Church. But beside the _doctrines_ directly derived from +Egypt, there has probably come into Christianity another and more +important element from this source. The _spirit_ of a race, a nation, a +civilization, a religion is more indestructible than its forms, more +pervasive than its opinions, and will exercise an interior influence long +after its outward forms have disappeared. The spirit of the Egyptian +religion was reverence for the divine mystery of organic life, the worship +of God in creation, of unity in variety, of each in all. Through the +Christian Church in Egypt, the schools of Alexandria, the monks of the +Thebaid, these elements filtered into the mind of Christendom. They gave a +materialistic tone to the conceptions of the early Church, concerning God, +Satan, the angels and devils, Heaven, Hell, the judgment, and the +resurrection. They prevented thereby the triumph of a misty Oriental +spiritualism. Too gross indeed in themselves, they yet were better than +the Donatism which would have turned every spiritual fact into a ghost or +a shadow. The African spirit, in the fiery words of a Tertullian and an +Augustine, ran into a materialism, which, opposed to the opposite extreme +of idealism, saved to the Church its healthy realism. + +The elaborate work of Bunsen on "Egypt's Place in Universal History" does +not aid us much in finding the place of Egyptian religion in universal +religion. It was strictly an ethnic religion, never dreaming of extending +itself beyond the borders of the Nile, until long after the conquest of +Egypt by the Romans. Then, indeed, Egyptian temples were welcomed by the +large hospitality of Rome, and any traveller may see the ruins of the +temple of Serapis[203] at Pozzuoli, and that of Isis at Pompeii. The gods +of Greece, as we have seen, took some hints from Egypt, but the Greek +Olympus, with its bright forms, was very different from the mysterious +sombre worship of Egypt. + +The worship of variety, the recognition of the Divine in nature, the +sentiment of wonder before the mystery of the world, the feeling that the +Deity is in all life, in all form, in all change as well as in what is +permanent and stable,--this is the best element and the most original part +of the Egyptian religion. So much we can learn from it positively; and +negatively, by its entire dissolution, its passing away forever, leaving +no knowledge of itself behind, we can learn how empty is any system of +faith which is based on concealment and mystery. All the vast range of +Egyptian wisdom has gone, and disappeared from the surface of the earth, +for it was only a religion of the priests, who kept the truth to +themselves and did not venture to communicate it to the people. It was +only priestcraft, and priestcraft, like all other craft, carries in itself +the principle of death. Only truth is immortal,--open, frank, manly truth. +Confucius was true; he did not know much, but he told all he knew. Buddha +told all he knew. Moses told all he heard. So they and their works +continue, being built on faith in men. But the vast fabric of Egyptian +wisdom,--its deep theologies, its mysterious symbolism, its majestic art, +its wonderful science,--remain only as its mummies remain and as its tombs +remain, an enigma exciting and baffling our curiosity, but not adding to +our real life. + + + + +Chapter VII. + +The Gods of Greece. + + + + Sec. 1. The Land and the Race. + Sec. 2. Idea and General Character of Greek Religion. + Sec. 3. The Gods of Greece before Homer. + Sec. 4. The Gods of the Poets. + Sec. 5. The Gods of the Artists. + Sec. 6. The Gods of the Philosophers. + Sec. 7. The Worship of Greece. + Sec. 8. The Mysteries. Orphism. + Sec. 9. Relation of Greek Religion to Christianity. + + + +Sec. 1. The Land and the Race. + + +The little promontory and peninsula, famous in the history of mankind as +Greece, or Hellas, projects into the Mediterranean Sea from the South of +Europe. It is insignificant on the map, its area being only two thirds as +large as that of the State of Maine. But never was a country better +situated in order to develop a new civilization. A temperate climate, +where the vine, olive, and fig ripened with wheat, barley, and flax; a +rich alluvial soil, resting on limestone, and contained in a series of +valleys, each surrounded by mountains; a position equally remote from +excesses of heat and cold, dryness and moisture; and finally, the +ever-present neighborhood of the sea,--constituted a home well fitted for +the physical culture of a perfect race of men. + +Comparative Geography, which has pointed out so many relations between the +terrestrial conditions of nations and their moral attainments, has laid +great stress on the connection between the extent of sea-coast and a +country's civilization. The sea line of Europe, compared with its area, is +more extensive than that of any other continent, and Europe has had a more +various and complete intellectual development than elsewhere. Africa, +which has the shortest sea line compared with its area, has been most +tardy in mental activity. The sea is the highway of nations and the +promoter of commerce; and commerce, which brings different races together, +awakens the intellect by the contact of different languages, religions, +arts, and manners. Material civilization, it is true, does not commence on +the sea-shore, but in river intervals. The arts of life were invented in +the valleys of the Indus and Ganges, of the Yellow and Blue Rivers of +China, of the Euphrates and the Nile. But the Phoenician navigators in the +Mediterranean brought to the shores of Greece the knowledge of the arts of +Egypt, the manufactures of Tyre, and the products of India and Africa. +Every part of the coast of Greece is indented with bays and harbors. The +Mediterranean, large enough to separate the nations on its shores, and so +permit independent and distinct evolution of character, is not so large as +to divide them. Coasting vessels, running within sight of land, could +easily traverse its shores. All this tempted to navigation, and so the +Greeks learned to be a race of sailors. What the shore line of Europe was +to that of the other continents, that the shore line of Greece was to the +rest of Europe. Only long after, in the Baltic, the Northern +Mediterranean, did a similar land-locked sea create a similar love of +navigation among the Scandinavians.[204] + +Another feature in the physical geography of Greece must be noticed as +having an effect on the psychical condition of its inhabitants. Mountains +intersected every part, dividing its tribes from each other. In numerous +valleys, separated by these mountain walls, each clan, left to itself, +formed a special character of its own. The great chain of Pindus with its +many branches, the lofty ridges of the Peloponnesus, allowed the people of +Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, Phocis, Locris, Argolis, Arcadia, Laconia, to +attain those individual traits which distinguish them during all the +course of Greek history. + +Such physical conditions as we have described are eminently favorable to +a free and full development of national character. But this word +"development," so familiar to modern thought, implies not only outward +circumstances to educate, but a special germ to be educated. So long as +the human being is regarded as a lump of dough, to be moulded into any +shape by external influences, no such term as "development" was needed. +But philosophical historians now admit national character to be the result +of two factors,--the original ethnic germ in the race, and the terrestrial +influences which unfold it.[205] A question, therefore, of grave moment +concerns the origin of the Hellenic people. Whence are they derived? what +are their affinities? and from what region did they come? + +The science of Comparative Philology, one of the great triumphs of modern +scholarship, has enabled us now, for the first time, to answer this +question. What no Greek knew, what neither Herodotus, Plato, nor Aristotle +could tell us, we are now able to state with certainty. The Greek +language, both in its grammar and its vocabulary, belongs to the family of +Indo-European languages, of which the Sanskrit is the elder sister. Out of +eleven thousand six hundred and thirty-three Greek words, some two +thousand are found to be Sanskrit, and three thousand more to belong to +other branches of the Indo-European tongues. As the words common to the +Greek and the Sanskrit must have been in use by both races before their +separation, while living together in Central Asia, we have a clew to the +degree of civilization attained by the Greeks before they arrived in +Europe. Thus it appears that they brought from Asia a familiarity with +oxen and cows, horses, dogs, swine, goats, geese; that they could work in +metals; that they built houses, and were acquainted with the elements of +agriculture, especially with farinaceous grains; they used salt; they had +boats propelled by oars, but not sails; they divided the year by moons, +and had a decimal notation.[206] + +The Greeks, as a race, came from Asia later than the Latin races. They +belonged to that powerful Indo-European race, to which Europe owes its +civilization, and whose chief branches are the Hindoos, the Persians, the +Greeks, the Latins, the Kelts, the Teutonic tribes, and the Slavi. The +original site of the race was, as we have seen in our chapter on +Brahmanism, in Bactria; and the earliest division of this people could not +have been later than three thousand or four thousand years before the +Christian era. When the Hellenic branch entered Europe we have now no +means of saying. It was so long anterior to Greek history that all +knowledge of the time was lost, and only the faintest traditions of an +Asiatic origin of their nation are to be found in Greek writers. + +The Hellenic tribes, at the beginning of the seventh century before +Christ, were divided into four groups,--the Achaians, AEolians, Dorians, +and Ionians,--with outlying tribes more or less akin. But this Hellenic +people had been preceded in Greece by another race known as Pelasgians. It +is so difficult to say who these were, that Mr. Grote, in despair, +pronounces them unknowable, and relinquishes the problem. Some facts +concerning them may, however, be considered as established. Their +existence in Greece is pronounced by Thirwall to be "the first +unquestionable fact in Greek history." Homer speaks (Iliad, II. 681) of +"Pelasgian Argos," and of "spear-skilled Pelasgians," "noble Pelasgians," +"Pelasgians inhabiting fertile Larissa" (II. 840; X. 429). Herodotus +frequently speaks of the Pelasgians. He says that the Dorians were a +Hellenic nation, the Ionians were Pelasgic; he does not profess to know +what language the Pelasgians used, but says that those who in his time +inhabited Crestona, Placia, and other regions, spoke a barbarous language, +and that the people of Attica were formerly Pelasgic. He mentions the +Pelasgians as remaining to his time in Arcadia, after the Dorians had +expelled them from the rest of the Peloponnesus; says that the +Samothracians adopted the mysteries of the Kabiri from the Pelasgians; +that the Pelasgians sacrificed victims to unknown gods at Dodona, and +asked that oracle advice about what names they should give their gods. +These names, taken from Egypt, the Grecians received from them. Hellas was +formerly called Pelasgia. The Athenians expelled the Pelasgians from +Attica (whether justly or unjustly, Herodotus does not undertake to say), +where they were living under Mount Hymettus; whereupon the Pelasgians of +Lemnos, in revenge, carried off a number of Athenian women, and afterward +murdered them; as an expiation of which crime they were finally commanded +by the oracle at Delphi to surrender that island to Miltiades and the +Athenians. Herodotus repeatedly informs us that nearly the whole Ionian +race were formerly called Pelasgians.[207] + +From all this it appears that the Pelasgians were the ancient occupants of +nearly all Greece; that they were probably of the same stock as their +Hellenic successors, but of another branch; that their language was +somewhat different, and contained words of barbaric (that is Phoenician or +Egyptian) origin, but not so different as to remain distinct after the +conquest. From the Pelasgian names which remain, it is highly probable +that this people was of the same family with the old Italians.[208] They +must have constituted the main stem of the Greek people. The Ionians of +Attica, the most brilliant portion of the Greeks, were of Pelasgic origin. +It may be therefore assumed, without much improbability, that while the +Dorian element gave the nation its strength and vital force, the Pelasgic +was the source of its intellectual activity and success in literature and +art. Ottfried Muller remarks that "there is no doubt that most of the +ancient religions of Greece owed their origin to this race. The Zeus and +Dione of Dodona, Zeus and Here of Argos, Hephaestos and Athene of Athens, +Demeter and Cora of Eleusis, Hermes and Artemis of Arcadia, together with +Cadmus and the Cabiri of Thebes, cannot properly be referred to any other +origin."[209] + +Welcker[210] thinks that the ethnological conceptions of Aeschylus, in his +"Suppliants," are invaluable helps in the study of the Pelasgic relations +to the Greeks. The poet makes Pelasgos the king of Argos, and represents +him as ruling over the largest part of Greece. His subjects he calls +Greeks, and they vote in public assembly by holding up their hands, so +distinguishing them from the Dorians, among whom no such democracy +prevailed.[211] He protects the suppliant women against their Egyptian +persecutors, who claimed them as fugitives from slavery. The character +assigned by Aeschylus to this representative of the Pelasgian race is that +of a just, wise, and religious king, who judged that it was best to obey +God, even at the risk of displeasing man. + +It is evident, therefore, that from the earliest times there were in +Greece two distinct elements, either two different races or two very +distinct branches of a common race. First known as Pelasgians and +Hellenes, they afterwards took form as the Ionian and Dorian peoples. And +it is evident also that the Greek character, so strong yet so flexible, so +mighty to act and so open to receive, with its stern virtues and its +tender sensibilities, was the result of the mingling of these antagonist +tendencies. Two continents may have met in Greece, if to the genius of +that wonderful people Asia lent her intellect and Africa her fire. It was +the marriage of soul and body, of nature and spirit, of abstract +speculation and passionate interest in this life. Darkness rests on the +period when this national life was being created; the Greeks themselves +have preserved no record of it. + +That some powerful influence from Egypt was acting on Greece during this +forming period, and contributing its share to the great result, there can +hardly be a question. All the legends and traditions hint at such a +relation, and if this were otherwise, we might be sure that it must have +existed. Egypt was in all her power and splendor when Greece was being +settled by the Aryans from Asia. They were only a few hundred miles apart, +and the ships of Phoenicia were continually sailing to and fro between +them. + +The testimony of Greek writers to the early influence of Egypt on their +country and its religion is very full. Creuzer[212] says that the Greek +writers differed in regard to the connection of Attic and Egyptian +culture, only as to How it was, not as to Whether it was. Herodotus says +distinctly and positively[213] that most of the names of the Greek gods +came from Egypt, except some whose names came from the Pelasgians. The +Pelasgians themselves, he adds, gave these Egyptian names to the unnamed +powers of nature whom they before ignorantly worshipped, being directed by +the oracle at Dodona so to do. By "name" here, Herodotus plainly intends +more than a mere appellation. He includes also something of the +personality and character.[214] Before they were impersonal beings, powers +of nature; afterwards, under Egyptian influence, they became persons. He +particularly insists on having heard this from the priestesses of Dodona, +who also told him a story of the black pigeon from Egypt, who first +directed the oracle to be established, which he interpreted, according to +what he had heard in Egypt, to be a black Egyptian woman. He adds that the +Greeks received, not only their oracles, but their public processions, +festivals, and solemn prayers from the Egyptians. M. Maury admits the +influence of Egypt on the worship and ceremonies of Greece, and thinks it +added to their religion a more serious tone and a sentiment of veneration +for the gods, which were eminently beneficial. He doubts the story of +Herodotus concerning the derivation of gods from Egypt, giving as a +sufficient proof the fact that Homer's knowledge of Egyptian geography was +very imperfect.[215] But religious influences and geographical knowledge +are very different things. Because the mediaeval Christian writers had an +imperfect knowledge of Palestine, it does not follow that their +Christianity was not influenced in its source by Judaism. The objection to +the derivation of the Greek gods from Egypt, on account of the names on +the monuments being different from those of the Hellenic deities, is +sufficiently answered by Creuzer, who shows that the Greeks translated the +Egyptian word into an equivalent in their own language. Orphic ideas came +from Egypt into Greece, through the colonies in Thrace and +Samothrace.[216] The story of the Argive colony from Egypt, with their +leader Danaus, connects some Egyptian immigration with the old Pelasgic +ruler of that city, the walls of which contained Pelasgic masonry. The +legends concerning Cecrops, Io, and Lelex, as leading colonies from Egypt +to Athens and Megara, are too doubtful to add much to our argument. The +influence of Egypt on Greek religion in later times is universally +admitted.[217] + + + +Sec. 2. Idea and General Character of Greek Religion. + + +The idea of Greek religion, which specially distinguishes it from all +others, is the human character of its gods. The gods of Greece are men and +women, idealized men and women, men and women on a larger scale, but still +intensely human. The gods of India, as they appear in the Sacred Books, +are vast abstractions; and as they appear in sculpture, hideous and +grotesque idols. The gods of Egypt seem to pass away into mere symbols and +intellectual generalizations. But the gods of Greece are persons, warm +with life, radiant with beauty, having their human adventures, wars, +loves. The symbolical meaning of each god disappears in his personal +character. + +These beings do not keep to their own particular sphere nor confine +themselves to their special parts, but, like men and women, have many +different interests and occupations. If we suppose a number of human +beings, young and healthy and perfectly organized, to be gifted with an +immortal life and miraculous endowments of strength, wisdom, and beauty, +we shall have the gods of Olympus. + +Greek religion differs from Brahmanism in this, that its gods are not +abstract spirit, but human beings. It differs also from Buddhism, the god +in which is also a man, in this, that the gods of Greece are far less +moral than Buddha, but far more interesting. They are not trying to save +their souls, they are by no means ascetic, they have no intention of +making progress through the universe by obeying the laws of nature, but +they are bent on having a good time. Fighting, feasting, and making love +are their usual occupations. If they can be considered as governing the +world, it is in a very loose way and on a very irregular system. They +interfere with human affairs from time to time, but merely from whim or +from passion. With the common relations of life they have little to do. +They announce no moral law, and neither by precept nor example undertake +to guide men's consciences. + +The Greek religion differs from many other religions also in having no one +great founder or restorer, in having no sacred books and no priestly +caste. It was not established by the labors of a Zoroaster, Gautama, +Confucius, or Mohammed. It has no Avesta, no Vedas, no Koran. Every +religion which we have thus far considered has its sacred books, but that +of Greece has none, unless we accept the works of Homer and Hesiod as its +Bible. Still more remarkable is the fact of its having no priestly caste. +Brahmanism and Egypt have an hereditary priesthood; and in all other +religions, though the priesthood might not be hereditary, it always +constituted a distinct caste. But in Greece kings and generals and common +people offer sacrifices and prayers, as well as the priests. Priests +obtained their office, not by inheritance, but by appointment or election; +and they were often chosen for a limited time. + +Another peculiarity of the Greek religion was that its gods were not +manifestations of a supreme spirit, but were natural growths. They did not +come down from above, but came up from below. They did not emanate, they +were evolved. The Greek Pantheon is a gradual and steady development of +the national mind. And it is still more remarkable that it has three +distinct sources,--the poets, the artists, and the philosophers. Jupiter, +or Zeus in Homer, is oftenest a man of immense strength, so strong that if +he has hold of one end of a chain and all the gods hold the other, with +the earth fastened to it beside, he will be able to move them all. Far +more grand is the conception of Jupiter as it came from the chisel of +Phidias, of which Quintilian says that it added a new religious sentiment +to the religion of Greece. Then came the philosophers and gave an entirely +different and higher view of the gods. Jupiter becomes with them the +Supreme Being, father of gods and of men, omnipotent and omnipresent. + +One striking consequence of the absence of sacred books, of a sacred +priesthood, and an inspired founder of their religion, was the extreme +freedom of the whole system. The religion of Hellas was hardly a restraint +either to the mind or to the conscience. It allowed the Greeks to think +what they would and to do what they chose. They made their gods to suit +themselves, and regarded them rather as companions than as objects of +reverence. The gods lived close to them on Olympus, a precipitous and +snow-capped range full of vast cliffs, deep glens, and extensive forests, +less than ten thousand feet in height, though covered with snow on the top +even in the middle of July. + +According to the Jewish religion, man was made in the image of God; but +according to the Greek religion the gods were made in the image of men. +Heraclitus says, "Men are mortal gods, and the gods immortal men." The +Greek fancied the gods to be close to him on the summit of the mountain +which he saw among the clouds, often mingling in disguise with mankind; a +race of stronger and brighter Greeks, but not very much wiser or better. +All their own tendencies they beheld reflected in their deities. They +projected themselves upon the heavens, and saw with pleasure a race of +divine Greeks in the skies above, corresponding with the Greeks below. A +delicious religion; without austerity, asceticism, or terror; a religion +filled with forms of beauty and nobleness, kindred to their own; with gods +who were capricious indeed, but never stern, and seldom jealous or very +cruel. It was a heaven so near at hand, that their own heroes had climbed +into it, and become demigods. It was a heaven peopled with such a variety +of noble forms, that they could choose among them the protector whom they +liked best, and possibly themselves be selected as favorites by some +guardian deity. The fortunate hunter, of a moonlight night, might even +behold the graceful figure of Diana flashing through the woods in pursuit +of game, and the happy inhabitant of Cyprus come suddenly on the fair form +of Venus resting in a laurel-grove. The Dryads could be seen glancing +among the trees, the Oreads heard shouting on the mountains, and the +Naiads found asleep by the side of their streams. If the Greek chose, he +could take his gods from the poets; if he liked it better, he could find +them among the artists; or if neither of these suited him, he might go to +the philosophers for his deities. + +The Greek religion, therefore, did not guide or restrain, it only +stimulated. The Greek, by intercourse with Greek gods, became more a Greek +than ever. Every Hellenic feeling and tendency was personified and took a +divine form; which divine form reacted on the tendency to develop it still +further. All this contributed unquestionably to that wonderful phenomenon, +Greek development. Nowhere on the earth, before or since, has the human +being been educated into such a wonderful perfection, such an entire and +total unfolding of itself, as in Greece. There, every human tendency and +faculty of soul and body opened in symmetrical proportion. That small +country, so insignificant on the map of Europe, so invisible on the map of +the world, carried to perfection in a few short centuries every human art. +Everything in Greece is art; because everything is finished, done +perfectly well. In that garden of the world ripened the masterpieces of +epic, tragic, comic, lyric, didactic poetry; the masterpieces in every +school of philosophic investigation; the masterpieces of history, of +oratory, of mathematics; the masterpieces of architecture, sculpture, and +painting. Greece developed every form of human government, and in Greece +were fought and won the great battles of the world. Before Greece, +everything in human literature and art was a rude and imperfect attempt; +since Greece, everything has been a rude and imperfect imitation. + + + +Sec. 3. The Gods of Greece before Homer. + + +The Theogony of Hesiod, or Book of Genesis of the Greek gods, gives us the +history of three generations of deities. First come the Uranids; secondly, +the Titans; and thirdly, the gods of Olympus. Beginning as powers of +nature, they end as persons.[218] + +The substance of Hesiod's charming account of these three groups of gods +is as follows:-- + +First of all things was Chaos. Next was broad-bosomed Earth, or Gaia. Then +was Tartarus, dark and dim, below the earth. Next appears Eros, or Love, +most beautiful among the Immortals. From Chaos came Erebus and black +Night, and then sprang forth Ether and Day, children of Erebus and Night. +Then Earth brought forth the starry Heaven, Uranos, like to herself in +size, that he might shelter her around. Gaia, or Earth, also bore the +mountains, and Pontus or the barren Sea. + +Then Gaia intermarried with Uranos, and produced the Titans and Titanides, +namely, Ocean, Koeos, Krios, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis, +Mnemosyne, Phoebe with golden coronet, and lovely Thethys. Lastly came +Kronos, or Time; with the Cyclopes and the hundred-headed giants. All +these children were hid in the earth by Uranos, who dreaded them, till by +a contrivance of Gaia and Kronos, Uranos was dethroned, and the first age +of the gods was terminated by the birth from the sea of the last and +sweetest of the children of the Heaven, Aphrodite, or Immortal +Beauty,--the only one of this second generation who continued to reign on +Olympus; an awful, beauteous goddess, says Hesiod, beneath whose delicate +feet the verdure throve around, born in wave-washed Cyprus, but floating +past divine Cythera. Her Eros accompanied, and fair Desire followed. + +Thus was completed the second generation of gods, the children of Heaven +and Earth, called Titans. These had many children. The children of Ocean +and Tethys were the nymphs of Ocean. Hyperion and Theia had, as children, +Helios, Selene and Eos, or Sun, Moon, and Dawn. Koeos and Phoebe had Leto +and Asteria. One of the children of Krios was Pallas; those of Iapetus +were Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Atlas. Kronos married his sister Rhea, +and their children were Hestia, Demeter and Here; Hades, Poseidon, and +Zeus,--all, except Hades or Pluto, belonging to the subsequent Olympian +deities. + +The Olympian gods, with their cousins of the same generation, have grown +into persons, ceasing to be abstract ideas, or powers of nature. Five were +the children of Kronos, namely, Zeus, Poseidon, Here, Hestia, and Demeter; +six were children of Zeus, Apollo and Artemis, Hephaestos and Ares, Hermes +and Athene. The twelfth of the Olympian group, Aphrodite, belonged to the +second generation, being daughter of Uranos and of the Ocean. Beauty, +divine child of Sky and Sea, was conceived of as older than Power. + +These are the three successive groups of deities; the second supplanting +the first, the third displacing the second. The earlier gods we must needs +consider, not as persons, but as powers of nature, not yet humanized.[219] +The last, seated on Olympus, are "fair humanities." + +But now, it is remarkable that there must have been, in point of fact, +three stages of religious development, and three successive actual +theologies in Greece, corresponding very nearly to these three legendary +generations of gods. + +When the ancestors of the Hellenic race came from Asia, they must have +brought with them a nature-worship, akin to that which subsequently +appeared in India in the earliest hymns of the Vedas. Comparative +Philology, as we have before seen, has established the rule, that whatever +words are common to all the seven Indo-European families must have been +used in Central Asia before their dispersion. From this rule Pictet[220] +has inferred that the original Aryan tribes all worshipped the Heaven, the +Earth, Sun, Fire, Water, and Wind. The ancestors of the Greeks must have +brought with them into Hellas the worship of some of these elementary +deities. And we find at least two of them, Heaven and Earth, represented +in Hesiod's first class of the oldest deities. Water is there in the form +of Pontus, the Sea, and the other Uranids have the same elementary +character. + +The oldest hymns in the Vedas mark the second development of the Aryan +deities in India. The chief gods of this period are Indra, Varuna, Agni, +Savitri, Soma. Indra is the god of the air, directing the storm, the +lightning, the clouds, the rain; Varuna is the all-embracing circle of the +heavens, earth, and sea; Savitri or Surja is the Sun, King of Day, also +called Mitra; Agni is Fire; and Soma is the sacred fermented juice of the +moon-plant, often indeed the moon itself. + +As in India, so in Greece, there was a second development of gods. They +correspond in this, that the powers of nature began, in both cases, to +assume a more distinct personality. Moreover, Indra, the god of the +atmosphere, he who wields the lightning, the thunderer, the god of storms +and rain, was the chief god in the Vedic period. So also in Greece, the +chief god in this second period was Zeus. He also was the god of the +atmosphere, the thunderer, the wielder of lightning. In the name "Zeus" is +a reminiscence of Asia. Literally it means "the god," and so was not at +first a proper name. Its root is the Sanskrit _Div_, meaning "to shine." +Hence the word _Deva_, God, in the Vedic Hymns, from which comes [Greek: +Theos] and [Greek: Dis, Dios] in Greek, Deus in Latin. [Greek: Zeus +Pater] in Greek is Jupiter in Latin, coming from the Sanskrit +_Djaus-piter._ Our English words "divine," "divinity," go back for their +origin to the same Sanskrit root, _Div_. So marvellously do the wrecks of +old beliefs come drifting down the stream of time, borne up in those frail +canoes which men call words. In how many senses, higher and lower, is it +true that "in the beginning was _the Word_." + +This most ancient deity, god of storms, ruler of the atmosphere, favorite +divinity of the Aryan race in all its branches, became Indra when he +reached India, Jupiter when he arrived in Italy, Zeus when in Epirus he +became the chief god of the Pelasgi, and was worshipped at that most +ancient oracular temple of all Greece, Dodona. To him in the Iliad (XVI. +235) does Achilles pray, saying: "O King Jove, Dodonean, Pelasgian, +dwelling afar off, presiding over wintry Dodona." A reminiscence of this +old Pelasgian god long remained both in the Latin and Greek conversation, +when, speaking of the weather, they called it Zeus, or Jupiter. Horace +speaks of "cold Jupiter" and "bad Jupiter," as we should speak of a cold +or rainy day. We also find in Horace (Odes III. 2: 29) the archaic form of +the word "Jupiter," _Diespiter_, which, according to Lassen (I. 755), +means "Ruler of Heaven"; being derived from Djaus-piter. _Piter_, in +Sanskrit, originally meant, says Lassen, Ruler or Lord, as well as Father. + +In Arcadia and Boeotia the Pelasgi declared that their old deities were +born. By this is no doubt conveyed the historic consciousness that these +deities were not brought to them from abroad, but developed gradually +among themselves out of nameless powers of nature into humanized and +personal deities. In the old days it was hardly more than a fetich +worship. Here was worshipped as a plank at Samos; Athene, as a beam at +Lindus; the Pallas of Attica, as a stake; Jupiter, in one place, as a +rock; Apollo, as a triangle. + +Together with Jupiter or Zeus, the Pelasgi worshipped Gaia or Mother +Earth, in Athens, Sparta, Olympia, and other places. One of her names was +Dione; another was Rhea. In Asia she was Cybele; but everywhere she +typified the great productive power of nature. + +Another Pelasgic god was Helios, the Sun-God, worshipped with his sister +Selene, the Moon. The Pelasgi also adored the darker divinities of the +lower world. At Pylos and Elis, the king of Hades was worshipped as the +awful Aidoneus; and Persephone, his wife, was not the fair Kora of +subsequent times, but the fearful Queen of Death, the murderess, +homologous to the savage wife of Civa, in the Hindoo Pantheon. To this age +also belongs the worship of the Kabiri, nameless powers, perhaps of +Phoenician origin, connected with the worship of fire in Lemnos and +Samothrace. + +The Doric race, the second great source of the Hellenic family, entered +Greece many hundreds of years after[221] the first great Pelasgic +migration had spread itself through Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. It +brought with it another class of gods and a different tone of worship. +Their principal deities were Apollo and Artemis, though with these they +also worshipped, as secondary deities, the Pelasgic gods whose homes they +had invaded. The chief difference between the Pelasgic and Dorian +conception of religion was, that with the first it was more emotional, +with the second more moral; the first was a mystic natural religion, the +second an intellectual human religion. Ottfried Mueller[222] says that the +Dorian piety was strong, cheerful, and bright. They worshipped Daylight +and Moonlight, while the Pelasgians also reverenced Night, Darkness, and +Storm. Funeral solemnities and enthusiastic orgies did not suit the Dorian +character. The Spartans had no splendid processions like the Athenians, +but they prayed the gods "to give them what was honorable and good"; and +Zeus Ammon declared that the "calm solemnity of the prayers of the +Spartans was dearer to him than all the sacrifices of the Greeks."[223] + +Two facts are to be noticed in connection with this primitive religion. +One is the local distribution of the different deities and modes of +worship through Greece. Every tribe had its own god and its own worship. +In one place it was Zeus and Gaia; in another, Zeus and Cybele; in a +third, Apollo and Artemis. At Samothrace prevailed the worship of the +Heaven and the Earth.[224] Dione was worshipped with Zeus at Dodona.[225] +The Ionians were devoted to Poseidon, god of the sea. In Arcadia, Athene +was worshipped as Tritonia. Hermes was adored on Mount Cyllene; Eros, in +Boeotia; Pan, in Arcadia. These local deities long remained as secondary +gods, after the Pan-Hellenic worship of Olympus had overthrown their +supremacy. But one peculiarity of the Pre-Homeric religion was, that it +consisted in the adoration of different gods in different places. The +religion of Hellas, after Homer, was the worship of the twelve great +deities united on Mount Olympus. + +The second fact to be observed in this early mythology is the change of +name and of character through which each deity proceeds. Zeus alone +retains the same name from the first.[226] + +Among all Indo-European nations, the Heaven and the Earth were the two +primordial divinities. The Rig-Veda calls them "the two great parents of +the world." At Dodona, Samothrace, and Sparta they were worshipped +together. But while in India, Varuna, the Heavens, continued to be an +object of adoration in the Vedic or second period, in Greece it faded +early from the popular thought. This already shows the opposite genius of +the two nations. To the Hindoos the infinite was all important, to the +Greeks the finite. The former, therefore, retain the adoration of the +Heavens, the latter that of the Earth. + +The Earth, Gaia, became more and more important to the Hellenic mind. +Passing through various stages of development, she became, successively, +Gaia in the first generation, Rhea in the second, and Demeter ([Greek: De +meter]), Mother Earth, in the third. In like manner the Sun is +successively Hyperion, son of Heaven and Earth; Helios, son of Hyperion +and Theia; and Phoebus-Apollo, son of Zeus and Latona. The Moon is first +Phoebe, sister of Hyperion; then Selene, sister of Helios; and lastly +Artemis, sister of Apollo. Pallas, probably meaning at first "the virgin," +became afterward identified with Athene, daughter of Zeus, as +Pallas-Athene. The Urania Pontus, the salt sea, became the Titan Oceanos, +or Ocean, and in another generation Poseidon, or Neptune. + +The early gods are symbolical, the later are personal. The turning-point +is reached when Kronos, Time, arrives. The children of Time and Earth are +no longer vast shadowy abstractions, but become historical characters, +with biographies and personal qualities. Neither Time nor History existed +before Homer; when Time came, History began. + +The three male children of Time were Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades; +representing the three dimensions of space. Height, Breadth, and Depth; +Heaven, Ocean, and Hell. They also represented the threefold progress of +the human soul: its aspiration and ascent to what is noble and good, its +descent to what is profound, and its sympathy with all that is various: in +other words, its religion, its intelligence, and its affection. + +The fable of Time devouring his children, and then reproducing them, +evidently means the vicissitudes of customs and the departure and return +of fashions. Whatever is born must die; but what has been will be again. +That Eros, Love, should be at the origin of things from chaos, indicates +the primeval attraction with which the order of the universe begins. The +mutilation of Uranos, Heaven, so that he ceased to produce children, +suggests the change of the system of emanation, by which the gods descend +from the infinite, into that of evolution, by which they arise out of the +finite. It is, in fact, the end of Asia, and the beginning of Europe; for +emanation is the law of the theologies of Asia, evolution that of Europe. +Aphrodite, Beauty, was the last child of the Heavens, and yet born from +the Ocean. Beauty is not the daughter of the Heavens and the Earth, but of +the Heavens and the Ocean. The lights and shadows of the sky, the tints of +dawn, the tenderness of clouds, unite with the toss and curve of the wave +in creating Beauty. The beauty of outline appears in the sea, that of +light and color in the sky.[227] + + + +Sec. 4. The Gods of the Poets. + + +Herodotus says (II. 53), "I am of opinion that Hesiod and Homer lived four +hundred years before my time, and not more, and these were they who framed +a theogony for the Greeks, and gave names to the gods, and assigned to +them honors and arts, and declared their several forms. But the poets, +said to be before them, in my opinion, were after them." + +That two poets should create a theology and a worship for a great people, +and so unite its separate tribes into a commonwealth of united states, +seems to modern minds an absurdity. But the poets of Greece were its +prophets. They received, intensified, concentrated, the tendencies of +thought already in the air. All the drift was toward Pan-Hellenic worship +and to a humanized theology, when the Homeric writers sang their song. + +The Greeks must be conceived of as a nation of poets; hence all their +mythology was poetry. Poetry was their life and joy, written or unwritten, +sung or spoken. They were poets in the deeper sense of the word; not by +writing verses, but by looking at all nature and all life from its poetic +side. Their exquisite mythology arose out of these spontaneous instincts. +The tendency of the Greek mind was to vitalize and harmonize nature.[228] + +All the phenomena of nature, all the powers of the human soul, and all the +events of life, became a marvellous tissue of divine story. They walked +the earth, surrounded and overshadowed by heavenly attendants and +supernatural powers. But a striking peculiarity of this immense +spiritualism was that it was almost without superstition. Their gods were +not their terror, but their delight. Even the great gods of Olympus were +around them as invisible companions. Fate itself, the dark Moira, supreme +power, mistress of gods and men, was met manfully and not timorously. So +strong was the human element, the sense of personal dignity and freedom, +that the Greek lived in the midst of a supernatural world on equal terms. + +No doubt the elements of mythology are in all nations the same, consisting +of the facts of nature and the facts of life. The heavens and the earth, +day and night, the sun and moon, storms, fire, ocean, and rivers, love and +beauty, life and progress, war, wisdom, doom, and chance,--these, among +all nations, supply the material for myths. But while, with some races, +these powers remain solemn abstractions, above and behind nature, among +the Greeks they descended into nature and turned to poetry, illuminating +all of life. + +Let us imagine a Greek, possessed by the spirit of his nation and +acquainted with its legendary history, visiting the holy places of that +ideal land. On the northern boundary he sees the towering summit of +Olympus, on whose solemn heights reside the twelve great gods of his +country. When the dark clouds roll along its defiles, and the lightning +flashes from their black depths, it is Zeus, striking with his thunderbolt +some impious offender. There was held the great council of the Immortals. +When the ocean was quiet, Poseidon had left it to visit Olympus. There +came Hephaestos, quitting his subterranean fires and gloomy laborers, to +jest and be jested with, sitting by his beautiful queen. There, while the +sun hung motionless in mid-heaven, Apollo descended from his burning +chariot to join the feast. Artemis and Demeter came from the woods and +fields to unite in the high assembly, and war was suspended while Ares +made love to the goddess of Beauty. The Greek looked at Parnassus, +"soaring snow-clad through its native sky," with its Delphic cave and its +Castalian fount, or at the neighboring summits of Helicon, where Pegasus +struck his hoof and Hippocrene gushed forth, and believed that hidden in +these sunny woods might perhaps be found the muses who inspired Herodotus, +Homer, Aeschylus, and Pindar. He could go nowhere without finding some +spot over which hung the charm of romantic or tender association. Within +every brook was hidden a Naiad; by the side of every tree lurked a Dryad; +if you listen, you may hear the Oreads calling among the mountains; if you +come cautiously around that bending hill, you may catch a glimpse of the +great Pan himself. When the moonlight showers filled the forests with a +magical light, one might see the untouched Artemis gliding rapidly among +the mossy trunks. Beneath, in the deep abysses of earth, reigned the +gloomy Pluto with the sad Persephone, home-sick for the upper air. By the +sea-shore Proteus wound his horn, the Sirens sang their fatal song among +the rocks, the Nereids and Oceanides gleamed beneath the green waters, the +vast Amphitrite stretched her wide-embracing arms, and Thetis with her +water-nymphs lived in their submarine grottos. When the morning dawned, +Eos, or Aurora, went before the chariot of the Sun, dropping flowers upon +the earth. Every breeze which stirred the tree-tops was a god, going on +some errand for Aeolus. The joy of inspired thought was breathed into the +soul by Phoebus; the genial glow of life, the festal mirth, and the glad +revel were the gift of Dionysos. All nature was alive with some touch of a +divine presence. So, too, every spot of Hellas was made interesting by +some legend of Hercules, of Theseus, of Prometheus, of the great Dioscuri, +of Minos, or Daedalus, of Jason and the Argonauts. The Greeks extended +their own bright life backward through history, and upward through heroes +and demigods to Zeus himself. + +In Homer, the gods are very human. They have few traits of divinity, +scarcely of dignity. Their ridicule of Vulcan is certainly coarse; the +threats of Zeus are brutal. + +As a family, they live together on Olympus, feasting, talking, making +love, making war, deceiving each other, angry, and reconciled. They feed +on nectar and ambrosia, which makes them immortal; just as the Amrita +makes the Hindoo gods so. So in the Iliad we see them at their feast, with +Vulcan handing each the cup, pouring out nectar for them all. "And then +inextinguishable laughter arose among the immortal gods, when they saw +Vulcan bustling through the mansion. So they feasted all day till sundown; +nor did the soul want anything of the equal feast, nor of the beautiful +harp which Apollo held, nor of the Muses, who accompanied him, responding +in turn with delicious voice." + +"But when the splendid light of the sun was sunk, they retired to repose, +each one to his house, which renowned Vulcan, lame of both legs, had +built. But Olympian Zeus went to his couch, and laid down to rest beside +white-armed Here."[229] + +Or sometimes they fight together, or with mortals; instances of both +appear in the Iliad. It must be admitted that they do not appear to +advantage in these conflicts. They usually get the worst of it, and go +back to Zeus to complain. In the Twenty-first Book they fight together, +Ares against Athene, Athene also against his helper, Aphrodite; Poseidon +and Here against Apollo and Artemis, Vulcan against the river god, +Scamander. Ares called Athene impudent, and threatened to chastise her. +She seized a stone and struck him on the neck, and relaxed his knees. +Seven acres he covered falling, and his back was defiled with dust; but +Pallas-Athene jeered at him; and when Aphrodite led him away groaning +frequently, Pallas-Athene sprang after, and smote her with her hand, +dissolving her knees and dear heart. Apollo was afraid of Poseidon, and +declined fighting with him when challenged, for which Artemis rebuked him. +On this, Here tells her that she can kill stags on the mountains, but is +afraid to fight with her betters, and then proceeds to punish her, holding +both the hands of Artemis in one of hers, and beating her over the head +with her own bow. A disgraceful scene altogether, we must confess, and it +is no wonder that Plato was scandalized by such stories. + +Thus purely human were these gods; spending the summer's day in feasting +beneath the open sky; going home at sundown to sleep, like a parcel of +great boys and girls. They are immortal indeed, and can make men so +sometimes, but cannot always prevent the death of a favorite. Above them +all broods a terrible power, mightier than themselves, the dark Fate and +irresistible Necessity. For, after all, as human gods they were like men, +subject to the laws of nature. Yet as men, they are free, and in the +feeling of their freedom sometimes resist and defy fate. + +The Homeric gods move through the air like birds, like wind, like +lightning. They are stronger than men, and larger. Ares, overthrown by +Pallas, covers seven acres of ground; when wounded by Diomedes he bellowed +as loud as nine or ten thousand men, says the accurate Homer. The bodies +of the gods, inexpressibly beautiful, and commonly invisible, are, +whenever seen by men, in an aureola of light. In Homer, Apollo is the god +of archery, prophecy, and music. He is the far-darter. He shoots his +arrows at the Greeks, because his prophet had been ill-treated. "He +descended from Olympus," says Homer, "enraged in heart, having his bow and +quiver on his shoulders. But as he moved the shafts rattled on the +shoulders of him enraged; and he went onward like the night. Then he sat +near the ships, and sent an arrow, and dreadful was the clangor of the +silver bow." + +Later in the Iliad he appears again, defending the Trojans and deceiving +Achilles. In the Homeric Hymn his birth on Delos is sweetly told; and how, +when he was born, Earth smiled around, and all the goddesses shouted. +Themis fed him on nectar and ambrosia; then he sprang up, called for a +lyre and bow, and said he would declare henceforth to men the will of +Jove; and Delos, exulting, became covered with flowers.[230] + +The Second Book of the Iliad begins thus: "The rest, both gods and +horse-arraying men, slept all the night; but Jove sweet sleep possessed +not; but he pondered how he might destroy many at the Greek ships, and +honor Achilles. But this device appeared best to his mind, to send a fatal +dream to Agamemnon. And he said, 'Haste, pernicious dream, to the swift +ships, and bid Agamemnon arm the Achaeans to take wide-streeted Troy, +since Juno has persuaded all the gods to her will.'" + +This was simply a lie, sent for the destruction of the Greeks. + +In the First Book, Jupiter complains to Thetis that Juno is always +scolding him, and good right had she to do so. Presently she comes in and +accuses him of plotting something secretly with Thetis, and never letting +her know his plans. He answers her by accusations of perversity: "Thou art +always suspecting; but thou shalt produce no effect, but be further from +my heart." He then is so ungentlemanly as to threaten her with corporal +punishment. The gods murmur; but Vulcan interposes as a peacemaker, +saying, "There will be no enjoyment in our delightful banquet if you twain +thus contend." Then he arose and placed the double cup in her hands and +said, "Be patient, my mother, lest I again behold thee beaten, and cannot +help thee." + +He here refers to a time when Jupiter hung his wife up in mid-heaven with +anvils tied to her heels; and when Vulcan untied them he was pitched from +Olympus down into the island of Lemnos, whence came his lameness. A rude +and brutal head of a household was the poetic Zeus. + +No doubt other and much more sublime views of the gods are to be found in +Homer. Thus (Il. XV. 80) he compares the motion of Juno to the rapid +thought of a traveller, who, having visited many countries, says, "I was +here," "I was there." Such also is the description (Il. XIII. 17) of +Neptune descending from the top of Samothrace, with the hills and forests +trembling beneath his immortal feet. Infinite power, infinite faculty, the +gods of Homer possessed; but these were only human faculty and power +pushed to the utmost. Nothing is more beautiful than the description of +the sleep of Jupiter and Juno, "imparadised in each other's arms" (Il. +XIV. 350), while the divine earth produced beneath them a bed of flowers, +softly lifting them from the ground. But the picture is eminently human; +quite as much so as that which Milton has imitated from it. + +After Homer and Hesiod, among the Greek poets, come the lyrists. Callinus, +the Ephesian, made a religion of patriotism. Tyrtaeus (B.C. 660), somewhat +later, of Sparta, was devoted to the same theme. Pindar, the Theban, began +his career (B.C. 494) in the time of the conquests of Darius, and composed +one of his Pythian odes in the year of the battle of Marathon. He taught a +divine retribution on good and evil; taught that "the bitterest end awaits +the pleasure that is contrary to right,"[231] taught moderation, and that +"a man should always keep in view the bounds and limits of things."[232] +He declared that "Law was the ruler of gods and men." Moreover, he +proclaimed that gods and men were of one family, and though the gods were +far higher, yet that something divine was in all men.[233] And in a +famous fragment (quoted by Bunsen[234]) he calls mankind the majestic +offspring of earth; mankind, "a gentle race, beloved of heaven." + +The tragic poet, Aeschylus, is a figure like that of Michael Angelo in +Italian art, grand, sombre, and possessed by his ideas. The one which +rules him and runs darkly through all his tragedies is the supreme power +of Nemesis, the terrible destiny which is behind and above gods and men. +The favorite theme of Greek tragedy is the conflict of fate and freedom, +of the inflexible laws of nature with the passionate longings of man, of +"the emergency of the case with the despotism of the rule." This conflict +appears most vividly in the story of Prometheus, or Forethought; he, +"whose godlike crime was to be kind"; he who resisted the torments and +terrors of Zeus, relying on his own fierce mind.[235] In this respect, +Prometheus in his suffering is like Job in his sufferings. Each refuses to +say he is wrong, merely to pacify God, when he does not see that he is +wrong. As Prometheus maintains his inflexible purpose, so Job holds fast +his integrity. + +Sophocles is the most devout of the Greek tragedians, and reverence for +the gods is constantly enjoined in his tragedies. One striking passage is +where Antigone is asked if she had disobeyed the laws of the country, and +replies, "Yes; for they were not the laws of God. They did not proceed +from Justice, who dwells with the Immortals. Nor dared I, in obeying the +laws of mortal man, disobey those of the undying gods. For the gods live +from eternity, and their beginning no man knows. I know that I must die +for this offence, and I die willingly. I must have died at some time, and +a premature death I account a gain, as finishing a life filled with +sorrows."[236] This argument reminds us of the higher-law discussions of +the antislavery conflict, and the religious defiance of the fugitive +slave law by all honest men. + +Euripides represents the reaction against the religious tragedy. His is +the anti-religious tragedy. It is a sneering defiance of the religious +sentiment, a direct teaching of pessimism. Bunsen ("God in History") goes +at length into the proof of this statement, showing that in Euripides the +theology of the poets encountered and submitted to the same sceptical +reaction which followed in philosophy the divine teachings of Plato.[237] +After this time Greek poetry ceased to be the organ of Greek religion. It +is true that we have subsequent outbreaks of devout song, as in the hymn +of Cleauthes, the stoic, who followed Zeno as teacher in the Porch (B.C. +260). Though this belongs rather to philosophy than to poetry, yet on +account of its truly monotheistic and also devout quality, I add a +translation here:[238]-- + + Greatest of the gods, God with many names, God ever-ruling and ruling all things! + Zeus, origin of nature, governing the universe by law, + All hail! For it is right for mortals to address thee; + Since we are thy offspring, and we alone of all + That live and creep on earth have the power of imitative speech. + Therefore will I praise thee, and hymn forever thy power. + Thee the wide heaven, which surrounds the earth, obeys; + Following where thou wilt, willingly obeying thy law. + Thou holdest at thy service, in thy mighty hands, + The two-edged, flaming, immortal thunderbolt, + Before whose flash all nature trembles. + Thou rulest in the common reason, which goes through all, + And appears mingled in all things, great or small, + Which, filling all nature, is king of all existences. + Nor without thee, O Deity, does anything happen in the world, + From the divine ethereal pole to the great ocean, + Except only the evil preferred by the senseless wicked. + But thou also art able to bring to order that which is chaotic, + Giving form to what is formless, and making the discordant friendly; + So reducing all variety to unity, and even making good out of evil. + Thus, through all nature is one great law, + Which only the wicked seek to disobey,-- + Poor fools! who long for happiness, + But will not see nor hear the divine commands. + + * * * * * + + But do thou, O Zeus, all-bestower, cloud-compeller! + Ruler of thunder! guard men from sad error. + Father! dispel the clouds of the soul, and let us follow + The laws of thy great and just reign! + That we may be honored, let us honor thee again, + Chanting thy great deeds, as is proper for mortals. + For nothing can be better for gods or men + Than to adore with perpetual hymns the law common to all. + +The result of our investigation thus far is, that beside all the +polytheistic and anthropomorphic tendencies of the old religion, there yet +lingered a faith in one supreme God, ruler of all things. This is the +general opinion of the best writers. For example, Welcker thus speaks of +the original substance of Greek religion:[239]-- + + + "In the remotest period of Greek antiquity, we meet the words [Greek: + theos] and [Greek: daimon], and the names [Greek: Zeos] and [Greek: + Kronion]; anything older than which is not to be found in this + religion. Accordingly, the gods of these tribes were from the first + generally, if not universally, heavenly and spiritual beings. Zeus was + the immortal king of heaven, in opposition to everything visible and + temporal. This affords us a permanent background of universal ideas, + behind all special conceptions or local appellations. We recognize as + present in the beginnings of Greek history the highest mental + aspirations belonging to man. We can thus avoid the mistaken doubts + concerning this religion, which came from the influence of the + subsequent manifestations, going back to the deep root from which they + have sprung. The Divine Spirit has always been manifested in the + feelings even of the most uncultivated peoples. Afterwards, in trying + to bring this feeling into distinct consciousness, the various childish + conceptions and imperfect views of religious things arise." + + + +Sec. 5. The Gods of the Artists. + + +The artists, following the poets, developed still further the divinely +human character of the gods. The architects of the temples gave, in their +pure and harmonious forms, the conception of religious beauty and majesty. +Standing in some open elevated position, their snowy surface bathed in +sunshine, they stood in serene strength, the types of a bright and joyful +religion. A superstitious worship seeks caves and darkness; the noble +majesty of the Greek temples said plainly that they belonged to a religion +of light and peace. + +The sculptor worked originally in company with the architect. The statues +were meant to adorn the temples, the temples were made as frames and +pedestals for the statues. The marble forms stood and walked on the +pediments and gave life to the frieze. They animated the exterior, or sat, +calm and strong, in the central shrine. + +The poets, in giving a moral and human character to the gods, never quite +forgot their origin as powers of nature. Jupiter Olympus is still the god +of the sky, the thunderer. Neptune is the ruler of the ocean, the +earth-shaker. Phoebus-Apollo is the sun-god. Artemis is the moonlight, +pure, chaste, and cold. But the sculptors finally leave behind these +reminiscences, and in their hands the deities become purely moral beings. +On the brow of Jupiter sits a majestic calm; he is no angry wielder of the +thunderbolt, but the gracious and powerful ruler of the three worlds. This +conception grew up gradually, until it was fully realized by Phidias in +his statues at Olympia and Elis. Tranquil power and victorious repose +appear even in the standing Jupiters, in which last the god appears as +more youthful and active. + +The conception of Jupiter by Phidias was a great advance on that of Homer. +He, to be sure, professed to take his idea from the famous passage of the +Iliad where Jove shakes his ambrosial curls and bends his awful brows; +and, nodding, shakes heaven and earth. That might be his text, but the +sermon which he preached was far higher than it. This was the great statue +of Jupiter, his masterpiece, made of ivory and gold for the temple at +Olympia, where the games were celebrated by the united Hellenic race. +These famous games, which occurred every fifth year, lasting five days, +calling together all Greece, were to this race what the Passover was to +the Jewish nation, sacred, venerable, blending divine worship and human +joy. These games were a chronology, a constitution, and a church to the +Pan-Hellenic race. All epochs were reckoned from them; as events occurring +in such or such an Olympiad. The first Olympiad was seven hundred and +seventy-six years before Christ; and a large part of our present knowledge +of ancient chronology depends on these festivals. They bound Greece +together as by a constitution; no persons unless of genuine Hellenic blood +being allowed to contend at them, and a truce being proclaimed for all +Greece while they lasted. + +Here at Olympia, while the games continued, all Greece came together; the +poets and historians declaimed their compositions to the grand audience; +opinions were interchanged, knowledge communicated, and the national +life received both stimulus and unity. + +And here, over all, presided the great Jupiter of Phidias, within a Doric +temple, sixty-eight feet high, ninety-five wide, and two hundred and +thirty long, covered with sculptures of Pentelic marble. The god was +seated on his throne, made of gold, ebony, and ivory, studded with +precious stones. He was so colossal that, though seated, his head nearly +reached the roof, and it seemed as if he would bear it away if he rose. +There sat the monarch, his head, neck, breast, and arms in massive +proportions; the lower part of the body veiled in a flowing mantle; +bearing in his right hand a statue of Victory, in his left a sceptre with +his eagle on the top; the Hours, the Seasons, and the Graces around him; +his feet on the mysterious Sphinx; and on his face that marvellous +expression of blended majesty and sweetness, which we know not only by the +accounts of eyewitnesses, but by the numerous imitations and copies in +marble which have come down to us. One cannot fail to see, even in these +copies, a wonderful expression of power, wisdom, and goodness. The head, +with leonine locks of hair and thickly rolling beard, expresses power, the +broad brow and fixed gaze of the eyes, wisdom; while the sweet smile of +the lips indicates goodness. The throne was of cedar, ornamented with +gold, ivory, ebony, and precious stones. The sceptre was composed of +every kind of metal. The statue was forty feet high, on a pedestal of +twelve feet. To die without having seen this statue was regarded by the +Greeks as almost as great a calamity as not to have been initiated into +the mysteries.[240] + +In like manner the poetic conception of Apollo was inferior to that of the +sculptor. In the mind of the latter Phoebus is not merely an archer, not +merely a prophet and a singer, but the entire manifestation of genius. He +is inspiration; he radiates poetry, music, eloquence from his sublime +figure. The Phidian Jupiter is lost to us, except in copies, but in the +Belvedere Apollo we see how the sculptor could interpret the highest +thought of the Hellenic mind. He who visits this statue by night in the +Vatican Palace at Rome, seeing it by torchlight, has, perhaps, the most +wonderful impression left on his imagination which art can give. After +passing through the long galleries of the Vatican, where, as the torches +advance, armies of statues emerge from the darkness before you, gaze on +you with marble countenance, and sink back into the darkness behind, you +reach at last the small circular hall which contains the Apollo. The +effect of torchlight is to make the statue seem more alive. One limb, one +feature, one expression after another, is brought out as the torches move; +and the wonderful form becomes at last instinct with life. Milman has +described the statue in a few glowing but unexaggerated lines:-- + + "For mild he seemed, as in Elysian towers, + Wasting, in careless ease, the joyous hours; + Haughty, as bards have sung, with princely sway + Curbing the fierce flame-breathing steeds of day; + Beauteous, as vision seen in dreamy sleep + By holy maid, on Delphi's haunted steep." + + * * * * * + + All, all divine; no struggling muscle glows, + Through heaving vein no mantling life-blood flows, + But, animate with Deity alone, + In deathless glory lives the breathing stone."[241] + +In such a statue we see the human creative genius idealized. It is a +magnificent representation of the mind of Greece, that fountain of +original thought from which came the Songs of Homer and the Dialogues of +Plato, that unfailing source of history, tragedy, lyric poetry, scientific +investigation. In the Belvedere Apollo we see expressed at once the genius +of Homer, Aristotle, Herodotus, Aeschylus, Pindar, Thales, and Plato. + +With Apollo is associated his sister Artemis, or Diana, another exquisite +conception of Greek thought. Not the cold and cruel Diana of the poets; +not she who, in her prudish anger, turned Actaeon into a stag, who slew +Orion, who slew the children of Niobe, and demanded the death of +Iphigenia. Very different is the beautiful Diana of the sculptors, the +Artemis, or untouched one, chaste as moonlight, a wild girl, pure, free, +noble; the ideal of youthful womanhood, who can share with man manly +exercises and open-air sports, and add to manly strength a womanly grace. +So she seems in the statue; in swift motion, the air lifting her tunic +from her noble limbs, while she draws a shaft from the quiver to kill a +hind. No Greek could look at such a statue, and not learn to reverence the +purity and nobleness of womanhood. + +Pallas-Athene was the goddess of all the liberal arts and sciences. In +battle she proves too strong for Ares or Mars, as scientific war is always +too strong for that wild, furious war which Mars represented. She was the +civilizer of mankind. Her name Pallas means "virgin," and her name Athene +was supposed to be the same as the Egyptian Neith, reversed; though modern +scholars deny this etymology. + +The Parthenon, standing on the summit of Athens, built of white marble, +was surrounded by columns 34 feet high. It was 230 feet long, 102 feet +wide, and 68 high, and was perhaps the most perfect building ever raised +by man. Every part of its exterior was adorned with Phidian sculpture; and +within stood the statue of Athene herself, in ivory and gold, by the same +master hand. Another colossal statue of the great goddess stood on the +summit of the Acropolis, and her polished brazen helmet and shield, +flashing in the sun, could be seen far out at sea by vessels approaching +Athens. + +The Greek sculptors, in creating these wonderful ideals, were always +feeling after God; but for God incarnate, God in man. They sought for and +represented each divine element in human nature. They were prophets of the +future development of humanity. They showed how man is a partaker of the +divine nature. If they humanized Deity, they divinized humanity. + + + +Sec. 6. The Gods of the Philosophers. + + +The problem which the Greek philosophers set themselves to solve was the +origin of things. As we have found a double element of race and religion +running through the history of Greece, so we find a similar dualism in its +philosophy. An element of realism and another of idealism are in +opposition until the time of Plato, and are first reconciled by that great +master of thought. Realism appears in the Ionic nature-philosophy; +idealism in Orphism, the schools of Pythagoras, and the Eleatic school of +Southern Italy. + +Both these classes of thinkers sought for some central unity beneath the +outward phenomena. Thales the Milesian (B.C. 600) said it was water. His +disciple, Anaximander, called it a chaotic matter, containing in itself a +motive-power which would take the universe through successive creations +and destructions. His successor, Anaximenes, concluded the infinite +substance to be air. Heraclitus of Ephesus (B.C. 500) declared it to be +fire; by which he meant, not physical fire, but the principle of +antagonism. So, by _water_, Thales must have intended the fluid element in +things. For that Thales was not a mere materialist appears from the +sayings which have been reported as coming from him, such as this: "Of all +things, the oldest is God; the most beautiful is the world; the swiftest +is thought; the wisest is time." Or that other, that, "Death does not +differ at all from life." Thales also taught that a Divine power was in +all things. The successor of Heraclitus, Anaxagoras (B.C. 494), first +distinguished God from the world, mind from matter, leaving to each an +independent existence. + +While the Greek colonies in Asia Minor developed thus the Asiatic form of +philosophy, the colonies in Magna Graecia unfolded the Italian or ideal +side. Of these, Pythagoras was the earliest and most conspicuous. Born at +Samos (B.C. 584), he was a contemporary of Thales of Miletus. He taught +that God was one; yet not outside of the world, but in it, wholly in every +part, overseeing the beginnings of all things and their combinations.[242] + +The head of the Italian school, known as Eleatics, was Xenophanes (born +B.C. 600), who, says Zeller,[243] both a philosopher and a poet, taught +first of all a perfect monotheism. He declared God to be the one and all, +eternal, almighty, and perfect being, being all sight, feeling, and +perception. He is both infinite and finite. If he were only finite, he +could not _be_; if he were only infinite, he could not _exist_. He lives +in eternity, and exists in time.[244] + +Parmenides, scholar and successor of Xenophanes at Elea, taught that God, +as pure thought, pervaded all nature. Empedocles (about B.C. 460)[245] +followed Xenophanes, though introducing a certain dualism into his +physics. In theology he was a pure monotheist, declaring God to be the +Absolute Being, sufficient for himself, and related to the world as unity +to variety, or love to discord. We can only recognize God by the divine +element in ourselves. The bad is what is separate from God, and out of +harmony with him. + +After this came a sceptical movement, in which Gorgias, a disciple of +Empedocles (B.C. 404) and Protagoras the Abderite, taught the doctrine of +nescience. The latter said: "Whether there are gods or not we cannot say, +and life is too short to find out."[246] Prodicus explained religion as +founded in utility, Critias derived it from statecraft. They argued that +if religion was founded in human nature, all men would worship the same +gods. This view became popular in Greece at the time of the Peloponnesian +War. Euripides, as we have seen, was a sceptic. Those who denied the +popular gods were persecuted by the Athenians, but the sceptical spirit +was not checked by this course.[247] Anaxagoras escaped with his life only +through the powerful protection of Pericles. Protagoras was sentenced to +death, and his writings were burned. Diogenes was denounced as an atheist, +and a reward of a talent was offered to any one who should kill him. For +an unbelieving age is apt to be a persecuting one. When the kernel of +religion is gone, more stress is laid on keeping the shell untouched. + +It was in the midst of these dilapidated opinions that Socrates came, that +wonderful phenomenon in human history. A marvellous vision, glorifying +humanity! He may be considered as having created the science of ethics. He +first taught the doctrine of divine providence, declaring that we can only +know God in his works. He placed religion on the basis of humanity, +proclaiming the well-being of man to be the end of the universe. He +preferred the study of final causes to that of efficient causes. He did +not deny the inferior deities, but regarded them only as we regard angels +and archangels, saints and prophets; as finite beings, above man, but +infinitely below the Supreme Being. Reverence for such beings is quite +consistent with the purest monotheism. + +In Plato, says Rixner[248] the two polar tendencies of Greek philosophy +were harmonized, and realism and idealism brought into accord. The school +of realism recognized time, variety, motion, multiplicity, and nature; but +lost substance, unity, eternity, and spirit. The other, the ideal Eleatic +school, recognized unity, but lost variety, saw eternity, but ignored +time, accepted being, but omitted life and movement. + +The three views may be thus compared:-- + + Italian Philosophy, Plato. Ionian or Asiatic Atomic. + or Eleatic. + The One. The One in All. The All. + Unity. Unity and Variety. Variety. + Being. Life. Motion. + Pantheism. Divine in Nature. Naturalism. + Substance. Substance and Manifestation. Phenomena. + +The philosophy of Plato was the scientific completion of that of Socrates. +Socrates took his intellectual departure from man, and inferred nature and +God. Plato assumed God, and inferred nature and man. He made goodness and +nature godlike, by making God the substance in each. His was a divine +philosophy, since he referred all facts theoretically and practically to +God as the ground of their being. + +The style of Plato singularly combined analysis and synthesis, exact +definition with poetic life. His magnificent intellect aimed at uniting +precision in details with universal comprehension.[249] + +Plato, as regards his method of thought, was a strict and determined +transcendentalist. He declared philosophy to be the science of +unconditioned being, and asserted that this was known to the soul by its +intuitive reason, which is the organ of all philosophic insight. The +reason perceives substance, the understanding only phenomena. Being +[Greek: to on], which is the reality in all actuality, is in the ideas or +thoughts of God; and nothing exists or appears outwardly, except by the +force of this indwelling idea. The WORD is the true expression of the +nature of every object; for each has its divine and natural name, beside +its accidental human appellation. Philosophy is the recollection of what +the soul has seen of things and their names. + +The life and essence of all things is from God. Plato's idea of God is of +the purest and highest kind. God is one, he is Spirit, he is the supreme +and only real being, he is the creator of all things, his providence is +over all events. He avoids pantheism on one side, by making God a distinct +personal intelligent will; and polytheism on the other, by making him +absolute, and therefore one. Plato's theology is pure theism.[250] + +Ackermann, in "The Christian Element in Plato,"[251] says: The Platonic +theology is strikingly near that of Christianity in regard to God's being, +existence, name, and attributes. As regards the existence of God, he +argues from the movements of nature for the necessity of an original +principle of motion.[252] But the real Platonic faith in God, like that of +the Bible, rests on immediate knowledge. He gives no definition of the +essence of God, but says,[253] "To find the Maker and Father of this All +is hard, and having found him it is impossible to utter him." But the idea +of Goodness is the best expression, as is also that of Being, though +neither is adequate. The visible Sun is the image and child of the Good +Being. Just so the Scripture calls God the Father of light. Yet the idea +of God was the object and aim of his whole philosophy; therefore he calls +God the Beginning and the End;[254] and "the Measure of all things, much +more than _man_, as some people have said" (referring to Protagoras, who +taught that "man was the measure of all things"). So even Aristotle +declared that "since God is the ground of all being, the first philosophy +is theology"; and Eusebius mentions that Plato thought that no one could +understand human things who did not first look at divine things; and tells +a story of an Indian who met Socrates in Athens and asked him how he must +begin to philosophize. He replied that he must reflect on human life; +whereupon the Indian laughed and said that as long as one did not +understand divine things he could know nothing about human things. + +There is no doubt that Plato was a monotheist, and believed in one God, +and when he spoke of gods in the plural, was only using the common form of +speech. That many educated heathen were monotheists has been sufficiently +proved; and even Augustine admits that the mere use of the word "gods" +proved nothing against it, since the Hebrew Bible said, "the God of gods +has spoken." + +Aristotle (B.C. 384), the first philologian and naturalist of antiquity, +scholar of Plato, called "the Scribe of Nature," and "a reversed Plato," +differing diametrically from his master in his methods, arrived at nearly +the same theological result. He taught that there were first truths, known +by their own evidence. He comprised all notions of existence in that of +the [Greek: kosmos], in which were the two spheres of the earthly and +heavenly. The earthly sphere contained the changeable in the transient; +the heavenly sphere contained the changeable in the permanent. Above both +spheres is God, who is unchangeable, permanent, and unalterable. +Aristotle, however, omits God as Providence, and conceives him less +personally than is done by Plato. + +In the Stoical system, theism becomes pantheism.[255] There is one Being, +who is the substance of all things, from whom the universe flows forth, +and into whom it returns in regular cycles. + +Zeller[256] sums up his statements on this point thus: "From all that has +been said it appears that the Stoics did not think of God and the world as +different beings. Their system was therefore strictly pantheistic. The sum +of all real existence is originally contained in God, who is at once +universal matter and the creative force which fashions matter into the +particular materials of which things are made. We can, therefore, think of +nothing which is not either God or a manifestation of God. In point of +being, God and the world are the same, the two conceptions being declared +by the Stoics to be absolutely identical." + +The Stoic philosophy was materialism as regards the nature of things, and +necessity as regards the nature of the human will. The Stoics denied the +everlasting existence of souls as individuals, believing that at the end +of a certain cycle they would be resolved into the Divine Being. +Nevertheless, till that period arrives, they conceived the soul as +existing in a future state higher and better than this. Seneca calls the +day of death the birthday into this better world. In that world there +would be a judgment on the conduct and character of each one; there +friends would recognize each other, and renew their friendship and +society. + +While the Epicureans considered religion in all its usual forms to be a +curse to mankind, while they believed it impious to accept the popular +opinions concerning the gods, while they denied any Divine Providence or +care for man, while they rejected prayer, prophecy, divination, and +regarded fear as the foundation of religion, they yet believed, as their +master Epicurus had believed, in the existence of the immortal gods. These +beings he regarded as possessing all human attributes, except those of +weakness and pain. They are immortal and perfectly happy; exempt from +disease and change, living in celestial dwellings, clothed with bodies of +a higher kind than ours, they converse together in a sweet society of +peace and content. + +Such were the principal theological views of the Greek philosophers. With +the exception of the last, and that of the Sceptics, they were either +monotheistic or consistent with monotheism. They were, on the whole, far +higher than the legends of the poets or the visions of the artists. They +were, as the Christian Fathers were fond of saying, a preparation for +Christianity. No doubt one cause of the success of this monotheistic +religion among the Greek-speaking nations was that Greek philosophy had +undermined faith in Greek polytheism. + +This we shall consider in another section. + + + +Sec. 7. The Worship of Greece. + + +The public worship of Greece, as of other ancient nations, consisted of +sacrifices, prayers, and public festivals. The sacrifices were for +victories over their enemies, for plentiful harvests, to avert the anger +of some offended deity, for success in any enterprise, and those specially +commanded by the oracles. + +In the earliest times fruits and plants were all that were offered. +Afterward the sacrifices were libations, incense, and victims. The +libation consisted of a cup brimming with wine, which was emptied upon the +altars. The incense, at first, was merely fragrant leaves or wood, burnt +upon the altar; afterward myrrh and frankincense were used. The victims +were sheep, oxen, or other animals. To Hecate they offered a dog, to Venus +a dove, to Mars some wild animal, to Ceres the sow, because it rooted up +the corn. But it was forbidden to sacrifice the ploughing ox. The +sacrifices of men, which were common among barbarous nations, were very +rare in Greece. + +On great occasions large sacrifices were offered of numerous victims,--as +the hecatomb, which means a hundred oxen. It is a curious fact that they +had a vessel of holy water at the entrance of the temples, consecrated by +putting into it a burning torch from the altar, with which or with a +branch of laurel the worshippers were sprinkled on entering. The +worshippers were also expected to wash their bodies, or at least their +hands and feet, before going into the temple; a custom common also among +the Jews and other nations. So Ezekiel says: "I will sprinkle you with +clean water and you shall be clean." And the Apostle Paul says, in +allusion to this custom: "Let us draw near, having our hearts sprinkled +from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water." + +All these customs had a natural origin. The natural offering to the gods +is that which we like best ourselves. The Greeks, eminently a social +people, in the enjoyment of their feasts, wished to give a part of +everything to the gods. Loving wine, perfumes, and animal food, they +offered these. As it was proper to wash before feasting with each other, +it seemed only proper to do the same before offering the feast to the +gods. + +The essential part of the sacrifice was catching and pouring out the +blood of the victim; for, in the view of the ancients, blood was the seat +of life. Part of the victim was burned, and this was the portion supposed +to be consumed by the god. Another part was eaten by the worshippers, who +thus sat at table with the deity as his friends and companions. The joyful +character of Greek worship also appeared in the use of garlands of +flowers, religious dances and songs. + +All the festivals of the Greeks were religious. Some were of the seasons, +as one in February to Zeus, the giver of good weather; and another in +November to Zeus, the god of storms. There were festivals in honor of the +plough, of the threshing-floor; festivals commemorating the victories at +Marathon, Salamis, etc.; of the restoration of democracy by Thrasybulus; +feasts of the clothing of the images, on which occasion it was not lawful +to work; feasts in commemoration of those who perished in the flood of +Deucalion; feasts of nurses, feasts of youth, of women, of trades. Then +there were the great national festivals, celebrated every four years at +Olympia and Delphi, and every three and five years at Nemea and the +isthmus of Corinth. The Panathenaeic festival at Athens was held every +five years in honor of Athene, with magnificent processions, cavalcades of +horsemen, gymnastic games, military dances, recitations of the Homeric +poems, and competition in music. On the frieze of the Parthenon was +represented by the scholars of Phidias the procession of the Peplos. This +was a new dress made for the statue of Athene by young girls of Athens, +between the ages of seven and eleven years. These girls, selected at a +special ceremony, lived a year on the Acropolis, engaged in their sacred +work, and fed on a special diet. Captives were liberated on this occasion, +that all might share in the festival. + +Such festivals constituted the acme of Greek life. They were celebrated in +the open air with pomp and splendor, and visitors came from far to assist +on these occasions. Prizes were given for foot and chariot races; for +boxing, leaping, music, and even for kissing. The temples, therefore, were +not intended for worship, but chiefly to contain the image of the god. +The _cella_, or _adytum_, was small and often dark; but along the +magnificent portico or peristyle, which surrounded the four sides of the +Doric temples, the splendid processions could circulate in full view of +the multitude.[257] The temple was therefore essentially an out-door +building, with its beauty, like that of a flower, exposed to light and +air. It was covered everywhere, but not crowded, with sculpture, which was +an essential part of the building. The pediments, the pedestals on the +roofs, the metopes between the triglyphs, are as unmeaning without the +sculpture as a picture-frame without its picture. So says Mr. +Fergusson;[258] and adds that, without question, color was also everywhere +used as an integral part of the structure. + +Priesthood was sometimes hereditary, but was not confined to a class. +Kings, generals, and the heads of a family acted as priests and offered +sacrifices. It was a temporary office, and Plato recommends that there +should be an annual rotation, no man acting as priest for more than one +year. Such a state of opinion excludes the danger of priestcraft, and is +opposed to all hierarchal pretensions. The same, however, cannot be said +of the diviners and soothsayers, who were so much consulted, and whose +opinions determined so often the course of public affairs. They were often +in the pay of ambitious men. Alcibiades had augurs and oracles devoted to +his interests, who could induce the Athenians to agree to such a course as +he desired. For the Greeks were extremely anxious to penetrate the future, +and the power and influence of their oracles is, says Doellinger, a +phenomenon unique in history. + +Among these oracles, Delphi, as is well known, took the highest rank. It +was considered the centre of the earth, and was revered by the +Pan-Hellenic race. It was a supreme religious court, whose decisions were +believed to be infallible. The despotism of the Pythian decisions was, +however, tempered by their ambiguity. Their predictions, if they failed, +seldom destroyed the faith of the believers; for always some explanation +could be devised to save the credit of the oracle. Thus, the Pythian +promised the Athenians that they would take all the Syracusans prisoners. +They did not take them; but as a muster-roll of the Syracusan army fell +into their hands, this was considered to fulfil the promise.[259] +Aristides, the rhetorician, was told that the "white maidens" would take +care of him; and receiving a letter which was of advantage, he was fully +convinced that this was the "white maiden." But neither imposition nor +delusion will satisfactorily explain the phenomena connected with oracles. +The foundation of them seems to have been a state allied to the modern +manifestations of magnetic sleep and clairvoyance. + +"As the whole life of the Greeks," says Doellinger, "was penetrated by +religion," they instinctively and naturally prayed on all occasions. They +prayed at sunrise and sunset, at meal-times, for outward blessings of all +kinds, and also for virtue and wisdom. They prayed standing, with a loud +voice, and hands lifted to the heavens. They threw kisses to the gods with +their hands. + +So we see that the Greek worship, like their theology, was natural and +human, a cheerful and hopeful worship, free from superstition. This +element only arrives with the mysteries, and the worship of the Cthonic +gods. To the Olympic gods supplications were addressed as to free moral +agents, who might be persuaded or convinced, but could not be compelled. +To the under-world deities prayer took the form of adjuration, and +degenerated into magic formulas, which were supposed to force these +deities to do what was asked by the worshipper. + + + +Sec. 8. The Mysteries. Orphism. + + +The early gods of most nations are local and tribal. They belong only to +limited regions, or to small clans, and have no supposed authority or +influence beyond. This was eminently the case in Greece; and after the +great Hellenic worship had arrived, the local and family gods retained +also their position, and continued to be reverenced. In Athens, down to +the time of Alexander, each tribe in the city kept its own divinities and +sacrifices. It also happened that the supreme god of one state would be +adored as a subordinate power in another. Every place had its favorite +protector. As different cities in Italy have their different Madonnas, +whom they consider more powerful than the Madonna of their neighbors, so +in Greece the same god was invoked in various localities under different +surnames. The Arcadian Zeus had the surname of Lycaeus, derived, probably, +from [Greek: Lux], Lux, light. The Cretan Jupiter was called Asterios. +At Karia he was Stratios. Iolaus in Euripides (the Herakleidae, 347) says: +"We have gods as our allies not inferior to those of the Argives, O king; +for Juno, the wife of Jove, is their champion, but Minerva ours; and I +say, to have the best gods tends to success, for Pallas will not endure to +be conquered."[260] So, in the "Suppliants" of Aeschylus, the Egyptian +Herald says (838): "By no means do I dread the deities of this place; for +they have not nourished me nor preserved me to old age."[261] + +Two modes of worship met in Greece, together with two classes of gods. The +Pelasgi, as we have seen, worshipped unnamed impersonal powers of the +universe, without image or temple. But to this was added a worship which +probably came through Thrace, from Asia and Egypt. This element introduced +religious poetry and music, the adoration of the muses, the rites and +mysteries of Demeter, and the reverence for the Kabiri, or dark divinities +of the lower world. + +Of these, the MYSTERIES were the most significant and important. Their +origin must be referred to a great antiquity, and they continued to be +practised down to the times of the Roman Emperors. They seem not to belong +to the genuine Greek religion, but to be an alien element introduced into +it. The gods of the Mysteries are not the beings of light, but of +darkness, not the gods of Olympus, but of the under-world. Everything +connected with the Mysteries is foreign to the Hellenic mind. This +worship is secret; its spirit is of awe, terror, remorse; its object is +expiation of sin. Finally, it is a hieratic worship, in the hands of +priests. + +All this suggests Egypt as the origin of the Mysteries. The oldest were +those celebrated in the island of Samothrace, near the coast of Asia +Minor. Here Orpheus is reputed to have come and founded the Bacchic +Mysteries; while another legend reports him to have been killed by the +Bacchantes for wishing to substitute the worship of Apollo for that of +Dionysos. This latter story, taken in connection with the civilizing +influence ascribed to Orpheus, indicates his introducing a purer form of +worship. He reformed the licentious drunken rites, and established in +place of them a more serious religion. He died a martyr to this purer +faith, killed by the women, who were incited to this, no doubt, by the +priests of the old Bacchic worship. + +The worship of Dionysos Zagreus, which was the Orphic form of Bacchism, +contained the doctrines of retribution in another life,--a doctrine common +to all the Greek Mysteries. + +It would seem probable, from an investigation of this subject, that two +elements of worship are to be found in the Greek religion, which were +never quite harmonized. One is the worship of the Olympian deities, gods +of light and day, gods of this world, and interested in our present human +life. This worship tended to promote a free development of character; it +was self-possessed, cheerful, and public; it left the worshipper unalarmed +by any dread of the future, or any anxiety about his soul. For the Olympic +gods cared little about the moral character of their worshippers; and the +dark Fate which lay behind gods and men could not be propitiated by any +rites, and must be encountered manfully, as one meets the inevitable. + +The other worship, running parallel with this, was of the Cthonic gods, +deities of earth and the under-world, rulers of the night-side of nature, +and monarchs of the world to come. Their worship was solemn, mysterious, +secret, and concerned expiation of sin, and the salvation of the soul +hereafter. + +Now, when we consider that the Egyptian popular worship delighted in just +such mysteries as these; that it related to the judgment of the soul +hereafter; that its solemnities were secret and wrapped in dark symbols; +and that the same awful Cthonic deities were the objects of its +reverence;--when we also remember that Herodotus and the other Greek +writers state that the early religion of the Pelasgi was derived from +Egypt, and that Orpheus, the Thracian, brought thence his doctrine,--there +seems no good reason for denying such a source. On the other hand, nothing +can be more probable than an immense influence on Pelasgic worship, +derived through Thrace, from Egypt. This view is full of explanations, and +makes much in the Greek mythology clear which would otherwise be obscure. + +The Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, for example, seems to be an +adaptation to the Hellenic mind and land of the Egyptian myth of Osiris +and Isis. Both are symbols, first, of natural phenomena; and, secondly, of +the progress of the human soul. The sad Isis seeking Osiris, and the sad +Demeter seeking Persephone constitute evidently the same legend; only +Osiris is the Nile, evaporated into scattered pools by the burning heat, +while Persephone is the seed, the treasure of the plant, which sinks into +the earth, but is allowed to come up again as the stalk, and pass a part +of its life in the upper air. But both these nature-myths were +spiritualized in the Mysteries, and made to denote the wanderings of the +soul in its search for truth. Similar to these legends was that of +Dionysos Zagreus, belonging to Crete, according to Euripides and other +writers. Zagreus was the son of the Cretan Zeus and Persephone, and was +hewn in pieces by the Titans, his heart alone being preserved by Athene, +who gave it to Zeus. Zeus killed the Titans, and enclosed the heart in a +plaster image of his child. According to another form of the story, Zeus +swallowed the heart, and from it reproduced another Dionysos. Apollo +collected the rest of the members, and they were reunited, and restored to +life. + +The principal mysteries were those of Bacchus and Ceres. The Bacchic +mysteries were very generally celebrated throughout Greece, and were a +wild nature-worship; partaking of that frenzy which has in all nations +been considered a method of gaining a supernatural and inspired state, or +else as the result of it. The Siva worship in India, the Pythoness at +Delphi, the Schamaism of the North, the whirling dervishes of the +Mohammedans; and some of the scenes at the camp-meetings in the Western +States, belong to the same class as the Bacchic orgies. + +The Eleusinian mysteries were very different. These were in honor of +Ceres; they were imported from Egypt. The wanderings of Isis in search of +Osiris were changed to those of Ceres or Demeter (the mother-earth = Isis) +in search of Persephone. Both represented in a secondary symbolism the +wanderings of the soul, seeking God and truth. This was the same idea as +that of Apuleius in the beautiful story of Psyche. + +These mysteries were celebrated at Eleusis by the Athenians every fourth +year. They were said to have been introduced B.C. 1356, and were very +sacred. All persons were required to be initiated. If they refused it they +were supposed to be irreligious. "Have you been initiated?" was asked in +dangerous situations. The initiated were said to be calm in view of death. +It was the personal religion of the Greeks. + +In the greater mysteries at Eleusis the candidates were crowned with +myrtle, and admitted by night into a vast temple, where they were purified +and instructed, and assisted at certain grand solemnities. The doctrines +taught are unknown, but are supposed to have been the unity of God and the +immortality of the soul. But this is only conjecture. + +Bacchus is believed to have been originally an Indian god, naturalized in +Greece, and his mysteries to be Indian in their character. The genial life +of nature is the essential character of Bacchus. One of the names of the +Indian Siva is Dionichi, which very nearly resembles the Greek name of +Bacchus, Dionysos. He was taken from the Meros, or thigh of Jupiter. Now +Mount Meru, in India, is the home of the gods; by a common etymological +error the Greeks may have thought it the Greek word for _thigh_, and so +translated it. + +The Bacchic worship, in its Thracian form, was always distasteful to the +best of the Greeks; it was suspected and disliked by the enlightened, +proscribed by kings, and rejected by communities. It was an interpolated +system, foreign to the cheerful nature of Greek thought. + +As to the value of the mysteries themselves, there was a great difference +of opinion among the Greeks. The people, the orators, and many of the +poets praised them; but the philosophers either disapproved them openly, +or passed them by in silence. Socrates says no word in their favor in all +his reported conversations. Plato complains of the immoral influence +derived from believing that sin could be expiated by such ceremonies.[262] +They seem to have contained, in reality, little direct instruction, but to +have taught merely by a dramatic representation and symbolic pictures. + +Who Orpheus was, and when he lived, can never be known. But the +probabilities are that he brought from Egypt into Greece, what Moses took +from Egypt into Palestine, the Egyptian ideas of culture, law, and +civilization. He reformed the Bacchic mysteries, giving them a more +elevated and noble character, and for this he lost his life. No better +account of his work can be given than in the words of Lord Bacon. + + + "The merits of learning," says he, "in repressing the inconveniences + which grow from man to man, was lively set forth by the ancients in + that feigned relation of Orpheus' theatre, where all beasts and birds + assembled; and, forgetting their several appetites, some of prey, some + of game, some of quarrel, stood all sociably together, listening to the + airs and accords of the harp; the sound thereof no sooner ceased or was + drowned by some louder noise, but every beast returned to his own + nature; wherein is aptly described the nature and condition of men, who + are full of savage and unreclaimed desires of profit, of lust, of + revenge, which, as long as they give ear to precepts, to laws, to + religion, sweetly touched by eloquence and persuasion of books, of + sermons, of harangues, so long is society and peace maintained; but if + these instruments be silent, or that sedition and tumult make them not + audible, all things dissolve into anarchy and confusion."[263] + +Of the Orphic doctrines we are able to give a somewhat better account. As +far back as the sixth century before Christ, there were scattered through +Greece hymns, lyrical poems, and prose treatises, treating of theological +questions, and called Orphic writings. These works continued to be +produced through many centuries, and evidently met an appetite in the +Greek mind. They were not philosophy, they were not myths nor legends, but +contained a mystic and pantheistic theology.[264] The views of the +Pythagoreans entered largely into this system. The Orphic writings +develop, by degrees, a system of cosmogony, in which Time was the first +principle of things, from which came chaos and ether. Then came the +primitive egg, from which was born Phanes, or Manifestation. This being is +the expression of intelligence, and creates the heavens and the earth. The +soul is but the breath which comes from the whole universe, thus +organized, and is imprisoned in the body as in a tomb, for sins committed +in a former existence. Life is therefore not joy, but punishment and +sorrow. At death the soul escapes from this prison, to pass through many +changes, by which it will be gradually purified. All these notions are +alien to the Greek mind, and are plainly a foreign importation. The true +Greek was neither pantheist nor introspective. He did not torment himself +about the origin of evil or the beginning of the universe, but took life +as it came, cheerfully. + +The pantheism of the Orphic theology is constantly apparent. Thus, in a +poem preserved by Proclus and Eusebius it is said:[265]-- + + "Zeus, the mighty thunderer, is first, Zeus is last, + Zeus is the head, Zeus the middle of all things. + From Zeus were all things produced. He is both man and woman; + Zeus is the depth of the earth, and the height of the starry heavens; + He is the breath of all things, the force of untamed fire; + The bottom of the sea; sun, moon, and stars; + Origin of all; king of all; + One Power, one God, one great Ruler." + +And another says, still more plainly:-- + + "There is one royal body, in which all things are enclosed, + Fire and Water, Earth, Ether, Night and Day, + And Counsel, the first producer, and delightful Love, + For all these are contained in the great body of Zeus." + + + +Sec. 9. Relation of Greek Religion to Christianity. + + +One of the greatest events in the history of man, as well as one of the +most picturesque situations, was when Paul stood on the Areopagus at +Athens, carrying Christianity into Europe, offering a Semitic religion to +an Aryan race, the culmination of monotheism to one of the most elaborate +and magnificent polytheisms of the world. A strange and marvellous scene! +From the place where he stood he saw all the grandest works of human +art,--the Acropolis rose before him, a lofty precipitous rock, seeming +like a stone pedestal erected by nature as an appropriate platform for the +perfect marble temples with which man should adorn it. On this noble base +rose the Parthenon, temple of Minerva; and the temple of Neptune, with its +sacred fountain. The olive-tree of Pallas-Athene was there, and her +colossal statue. On the plain below were the temples of Theseus and +Jupiter Olympus, and innumerable others. He stood where Socrates had stood +four hundred years before, defending himself against the charge of +atheism; where Demosthenes had pleaded in immortal strains of eloquence in +behalf of Hellenic freedom; where the most solemn and venerable court of +justice known among men was wont to assemble. There he made the memorable +discourse, a few fragments only of which have come to us in the Book of +Acts, but a sketch significant of his argument. He did not begin, as in +our translation, by insulting the religion of the Greeks, and calling it +a superstition; but by praising them for their reverence and piety. Paul +respected all manifestations of awe and love toward those mysteries and +glories of the universe, in which the invisible things of God have been +clearly seen from the foundation of the world. Then he mentions his +finding the altar to the unknown God, mentioned also by Pausanias and +other Greek writers, one of whom, Diogenes Laertius, says that in a time +of plague, not knowing to what god to appeal, they let loose a number of +black and white sheep, and whereever any one laid down they erected an +altar to an unknown god, and offered sacrifices thereon. Then he announced +as his central and main theme the Most High God, maker of heaven and +earth, spiritual, not needing to receive anything from man, but giving him +all things. Next, he proclaimed the doctrine of universal human +brotherhood. God had made all men of one blood; their varieties and +differences, as well as their essential unity, being determined by a +Divine Providence. But all were equally made to seek him, and in their +various ways to find him, who is yet always near to all, since all are his +children. God is immanent in all men, says Paul, as their life. Having +thus stated the great unities of faith and points of agreement, he +proceeds only in the next instance to the oppositions and criticisms; in +which he opposes, not polytheism, but idolatry; though not blaming them +severely even for that. Lastly, he speaks of Jesus, as a man ordained by +God to judge the world and govern it in righteousness, and proved by his +resurrection from the dead to be so chosen. + +Here we observe, in this speech, monotheism came in contact with +polytheism, and the two forms of human religion met,--that which makes man +the child of God, and that which made the gods the children of men. + +The result we know. The cry was heard on the sandy shore of Eurotas and in +green Cythnus.--"Great Pan is dead." The Greek humanities, noble and +beautiful as they were, faded away before the advancing steps of the +Jewish peasant, who had dared to call God his Father and man his brother. +The parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan were stronger +than Homer's divine song and Pindar's lofty hymns. This was the religion +for man. And so it happened as Jesus had said: "My sheep hear my voice and +follow me." Those who felt in their hearts that Jesus was their true +leader followed him. + +The gods of Greece, being purely human, were so far related to +Christianity. That, too, is a human religion; a religion which makes it +its object to unfold man, and to cause all to come to the stature of +perfect men. Christianity also showed them God in the form of man; God +dwelling on the earth; God manifest in the flesh. It also taught that the +world was full of God, and that all places and persons were instinct with +a secret divinity. Schiller (as translated by Coleridge) declares that +LOVE was the source of these Greek creations:-- + + "'Tis not merely + The human being's pride that peoples space + With life and mystical predominance, + Since likewise for the stricken heart of Love + This visible nature, and this common world + Is all too narrow; yea, a deeper import + Lurks in the legend told my infant years + That lies upon that truth, we live to learn. + For fable is Love's world, his home, his birthplace; + Delightedly dwells he 'mong fays and talismans, + And spirits, and delightedly believes + Divinities, being himself divine. + The intelligible forms of ancient poets, + The fair humanities of Old Religion, + The Power, the Beauty, and the Majesty, + That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain, + Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly spring, + Or chasms or wat'ry depths;--all these have vanished. + They live no longer in the faith of Reason. + But still the heart doth need a language; still + Doth the old instinct bring back the old names." + + _The Piccolomini_, Act II. Scene 4. + +As a matter of fact we find the believers in the Greek religion more ready +to receive Christianity than were the Jews. All through Asia Minor and +Greece Christian churches were planted by Paul; a fact which shows that +the ground was somehow prepared for Christianity. It was ready for the +monotheism which Paul substituted for their multitude of gods, and for +their idolatry and image-worship. The statues had ceased to be symbols, +and the minds of the Greeks rested in the image itself. This idolatrous +worship Paul condemned, and the people heard him willingly, as he called +them up to a more spiritual worship. We think, therefore, that the Greek +religion was a real preparation for Christianity. We have seen that it was +itself in constant transition; the system of the poets passing into that +of the artists, and that of the artists into that of the philosophers; so +that the philosophic religion, in turn, was ready to change into a +Christian monotheism. + +It may be said, since philosophy had undermined the old religion and +substituted for it more noble ideas, why did it not take the seat of the +dethroned faith, and sufficiently supply its place? If it taught a pure +monotheism and profound ethics, if it threw ample and adequate light on +the problem of God, duty, and immortality, what more was needed? If ideas +are all that we want, nothing more. That Greek philosophy gave way before +Christianity shows that it did not satisfy all the cravings of the soul; +shows that man needs a religion as well as a religious philosophy, a faith +as well as an intellectual system. A religion is one thing, a speculation +is a very different thing. The old Greek religion, so long as it was a +living faith, was enough. When men really believed in the existence of +Olympian Jove, Pallas-Athene, and Phoebus-Apollo, they had something above +them to which to look up. When this faith was disintegrated, no system of +opinions, however pure and profound, could replace it. Another faith was +needed, but a faith not in conflict with the philosophy which had +destroyed polytheism; and Christianity met the want, and therefore became +the religion of the Greek-speaking world. + +Religion is a life, philosophy is thought; religion looks up, philosophy +looks in. We need both thought and life, and we need that the two shall be +in harmony. The moment they come in conflict, both suffer. Philosophy had +destroyed the ancient simple faith of the Hellenic race in their deities, +and had given them instead only the abstractions of thought. Then came +the Apostles of Christianity, teaching a religion in harmony with the +highest thought of the age, and yet preaching it out of a living faith. +Christianity did not come as a speculation about the universe, but as a +testimony. Its heralds bore witness to the facts of God's presence and +providence, of his fatherly love, of the brotherhood of man, of a rising +to a higher life, of a universal judgment hereafter on all good and evil, +and of Jesus as the inspired and ascended revealer of these truths. These +facts were accepted as realities; and once more the human mind had +something above itself solid enough to support it. + +Some of the early Christian Fathers called on the heathen poets and +philosophers to bear witness to the truth. Clement of Alexandria[266] +after quoting this passage of Plato, "around the king of all are all +things, and he is the cause of all good things," says that others, through +God's inspiration, have declared the only true God to be God. He quotes +Antisthenes to this effect: "God is not like to any; wherefore no one can +know him from an image." He quotes Cleanthes the Stoic:-- + + "If you ask me what is the nature of the good, listen: + That which is regular, just, holy, pious, + Self-governing, useful, fair, fitting, + Grave, independent, always beneficial, + That feels no fear or grief; profitable, painless, + Helpful, pleasant, safe, friendly." + +"Nor," says Clement, "must we keep the Pythagoreans in the background, who +say, 'God is one; and he is not, as some suppose, outside of this frame of +things, but within it; in all the entireness of his being he pervades the +whole circle of existence, surveying all nature, and blending in +harmonious union the whole; the author of his own forces and works, the +giver of light in heaven, and father of all; the mind and vital power of +the whole world, the mover of all things.'" + +Clement quotes Aratus the poet:-- + + "That all may be secure + Him ever they propitiate first and last. + Hail, Father! great marvel, great gain to man." + +"Thus also," says Clement, "the Ascraean Hesiod dimly speaks of God:-- + + 'For he is the king of all, and monarch + Of the immortals, and there is none that can vie with him in power.' + +"And Sophocles, the son of Sophilus, says:-- + + 'One, in truth, one is God, + Who made both heaven and the far-stretching earth; + And ocean's blue wave, and the mighty winds; + But many of us mortals, deceived in heart, + Have set up for ourselves, as a consolation in our afflictions, + Images of the gods, of stone, or wood, or brass, + Or gold, or ivory; + And, appointing to these sacrifices and vain festivals, + Are accustomed thus to practise religion.' + +"But the Thracian Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus, hierophant and poet, at +once, after his exposition of the orgies and his theology of idols, +introduces a palinode of truth with solemnity, though tardily singing the +strain:-- + + 'I shall utter to whom it is lawful; but let the doors be closed, + Nevertheless, against all the profane. But do thou hear, + O Musaeus, for I will declare what is true.' + +"He then proceeds:-- + + 'He is one, self-proceeding; and from him alone all things proceed, + And in them he himself exerts his activity; no mortal + Beholds him, but he beholds all.'" + +Professor Cocker, in his work on "Christianity and Greek Philosophy," has +devoted much thought to show that philosophy was a preparation for +Christianity, and that Greek civilization was an essential condition to +the progress of the Gospel. He points out how Greek intelligence and +culture, literature and art, trade and colonization, the universal spread +of the Greek language, and especially the results of Greek philosophy, +were "schoolmasters to bring men to Christ." He quotes a striking passage +from Pressense to this effect. Philosophy in Greece, says Pressense, had +its place in the divine plan. It dethroned the false gods. It purified the +idea of divinity. + +Cocker sums up this work of preparation done by Greek philosophy, as +seen,-- + + + "1. In the release of the popular mind from polytheistic notions, and + the purifying and spiritualizing of the theistic idea. + + "2. In the development of the theistic argument in a logical form. + + "3. In the awakening and enthronement of conscience as a law of duty, + and in the elevation and purification of the moral idea. + + "4. In the fact that, by an experiment conducted on the largest scale, + it demonstrated the insufficiency of reason to elaborate a perfect + ideal of moral excellence, and develop the moral forces necessary to + secure its realization. + + "5. It awakened and deepened the consciousness of guilt and the desire + for redemption."[267] + +The large culture of Greece was evidently adapted to Christianity. The +Jewish mind recognized no such need as that of universal culture, and this +tendency of Christianity could only have found room and opportunity among +those who had received the influence of Hellenic culture. + +The points of contact between Christianity and Greek civilization are +therefore these:-- + +1. The character of God, considered in both as an immanent, ever-working +presence, and not merely as a creating and governing will outside the +universe. + +2. The character of man, as capable of education and development, who is +not merely to obey as a servant, but to co-operate as a friend, with the +divine will, and grow up in all things. + +3. The idea of duty, as a reasonable service, and not a yoke. + +4. God's revelations, as coming, not only in nature, but also in inspired +men, and in the intuitions of the soul; a conception which resulted in the +Christian doctrine of the Trinity. + +The good of polytheism was that it saw something divine in nature. By +dividing God into numberless deities, it was able to conceive of some +divine power in all earthly objects. Hence Wordsworth, complaining that +we can see little of this divinity now in nature, cries out:-- + + "Good God! I'd rather be + A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; + So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, + Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; + Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea, + Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." + + + + +Chapter VIII. + +The Religion of Rome. + + + + + Sec. 1. Origin and essential Character of the Religion of Rome. + Sec. 2. The Gods of Rome. + Sec. 3. Worship and Ritual. + Sec. 4. The Decay of the Roman Religion. + Sec. 5. Relation of the Roman Religion to Christianity. + + + +Sec. 1. Origin and essential Character of the Religion of Rome. + + +In the Roman state nothing grew, everything was made. The practical +understanding was the despotic faculty in the genius of this people. +Fancy, imagination, humor, seem to have been omitted in the character of +the Latin race. The only form of wit which appeared among them was satire, +that is, wit used for a serious purpose, to punish crimes not amenable to +other laws, to remove abuses not to be reached by the ordinary police. The +gay, light-hearted Greek must have felt in Rome very much as a Frenchman +feels in England. The Romans did not know how to amuse themselves; they +pursued their recreations with ferocious earnestness, making always a +labor of their pleasure. They said, indeed, that it was well _sometimes_ +to unbend, _Dulce est desipere in locis_; but a Roman when unbent was like +an unbent bow, almost as stiff as before. + +In other words, all spontaneity was absent from the Roman mind. Everything +done was done on purpose, with a deliberate intention. This also appears +in their religion. Their religion was not an inspiration, but an +intention. It was all regular, precise, exact. The Roman cultus, like the +Roman state, was a compact mass, in which all varieties were merged into a +stern unity. All forms of religion might come to Rome and take their +places in its pantheon, but they must come as servants and soldiers of +the state. Rome opened a hospitable asylum to them, just as Rome had +established a refuge on the Capitoline Hill to which all outlaws might +come and be safe, on the condition of serving the community. + +As everything in Rome must serve the state, so the religion of Rome was a +state institution, an established church. But as the state can only +command and forbid outward actions, and has no control over the heart, so +the religion of Rome was essentially external. It was a system of worship, +a ritual, a ceremony. If the externals were properly attended to, it took +no notice of opinions or of sentiments. Thus we find in Cicero ("De Natura +Deorum") the chief pontiff arguing against the existence of the gods and +the use of divination. He claims to believe in religion as a pontifex, +while he argues against it as a philosopher. The toleration of Rome +consisted in this, that as long as there was outward conformity to +prescribed observances, it troubled itself very little about opinions. It +said to all religions what Gallio said to the Jews: "If it be a question +of words and names and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge +of such matters." Gallio was a genuine representative of Roman sentiment. +With religion, as long as it remained within the limits of opinion or +feeling, the magistrate had nothing to do; only when it became an act of +disobedience to the public law it was to be punished. Indeed, the very +respect for national law in the Roman mind caused it to legalize in Rome +the worship of national gods. They considered it the duty of the Jews, in +Rome, to worship the Jewish God; of Egyptians, in Rome, to worship the +gods of Egypt. "Men of a thousand nations," says Dionysius of +Halicarnassus, "come to the city, and must worship the gods of their +country, according to their laws at home." As long as the Christians in +Rome were regarded as a Jewish sect, their faith was a _religio licita_, +when it was understood to be a departure from Judaism, it was then a +criminal rebellion against a national faith[268]. + +The Roman religion has often been considered as a mere copy of that of +Greece, and has therefore been confounded with it, as very nearly the same +system. No doubt the Romans were imitators; they had no creative +imagination. They borrowed and begged their stories about the gods, from +Greece or elsewhere. But Hegel has long ago remarked that the resemblance +between the two religions is superficial. The gods of Rome, he says, are +practical gods, not theoretic; prosaic, not poetic. The religion of Rome +is serious and earnest, while that of Greece is gay. Dionysius of +Halicarnassus thinks the Roman religion the better of the two, because it +rejected the blasphemous myths concerning the loves and quarrels of the +heavenly powers. But, on the other hand, the deities of Greece were more +living and real persons, with characters of their own. The deities of Rome +were working gods, who had each a task assigned to him. They all had some +official duty to perform; while the gods of Olympus could amuse themselves +as they pleased. While the Zeus of Greece spent his time in adventures, +many of which were disreputable, the Jupiter Capitolinus remained at home, +attending to his sole business, which was to make Rome the mistress of the +world. The gods of Rome, says Hegel, are not human beings, like those of +Greece, but soulless machines, gods made by the understanding, even when +borrowed from Greek story. They were worshipped also in the interest of +the practical understanding, as givers of earthly fortune. The Romans had +no real reverence for their gods; they worshipped them in no spirit of +adoring love, but always for some useful object. It was a utilitarian +worship. Accordingly the practical faculties, engaged in useful arts, were +deified. There was a Jupiter Pistor, presiding over bakers. There was a +goddess of ovens; and a Juno Moneta, who took care of the coin. There was +a goddess who presided over doing nothing, Tranquillitas Vacuna; and even +the plague had an altar erected to it. But, after all, no deities were so +great, in the opinion of the Romans, as Rome itself. The chief distinction +of these deities was that they belonged to the Roman state[269]. + +Cicero considers the Romans to be the most religious of all nations, +because they carried their religion into all the details of life. This is +true; but one might as well consider himself a devout worshipper of iron +or of wood, because he is always using these materials, in doors and out, +in his parlor, kitchen, and stable. + +As the religion of Rome had no doctrinal system, its truths were +communicated mostly by spectacles and ceremonies, which chiefly consisted +in the wholesale slaughter of men and animals. There was something +frightful in the extent to which this was carried; for when cruelty +proceeds from a principle and purpose, it is far worse than when arising +from brutal passion. An angry man may beat his wife; but the deliberate, +repeated, and ingenious torments of the Inquisition, the massacre of +thousands of gladiators in a Roman amphitheatre, or the torture of +prisoners by the North American Indians, are all parts of a system, and +reinforced by considerations of propriety, duty, and religious reverence. + +Mommsen remarks[270], that the Roman religion in all its details was a +reflection of the Roman state. When the constitution and institutions of +Rome changed, their religion changed with them. One illustration of this +correspondence he finds in the fact that when the Romans admitted the +people of a conquered state to become citizens of Rome, their gods were +admitted with them; but in both cases the new citizens _(novensides_) +occupied a subordinate position to the old settlers _(indigites[271]_). + +That the races of Italy, among whom the Latin language originated, were of +the same great Asiatic stock as the Greeks, Germans, Kelts, and Slavic +tribes, is sufficiently proved by the unimpeachable evidence of language. +The old Latin roots and grammatic forms all retain the analogies of the +Aryan families. Their gods and their religion bear marks of the same +origin, yet with a special and marked development. For the Roman nation +was derived from at least three secondary sources,--the Latins, Sabines, +and Etruscans. To these may be added the Pelasgian settlers on the western +coast (unless these are included in the Etruscan element), and the very +ancient race of Siculi or Sikels, whose name suggests, by its phonetic +analogy, a branch of that widely wandering race, the Kelts[272]. But the +obscure and confused traditions of these Italian races help us very little +in our present inquiry. That some of the oldest Roman deities were Latin, +others Sabine, and others Etruscan, is, however, well ascertained. From +the Latin towns Alba and Lavinium came the worship of Vesta, Jupiter, +Juno, Saturn and Tellus, Diana and Mars. Niebuhr thinks that the Sabine +ritual was adopted by the Romans, and that Varro found the real remains of +Sabine chapels on the Quirinal. From Etruria came the system of +divination. Some of the oldest portions of the Roman religion were derived +from agriculture. The god Saturn took his name from sowing. Picus and +Faunus were agricultural gods. Pales, the goddess of herbage, had +offerings of milk on her festivals. The Romans, says Doellinger, had no +cosmogony of their own; a practical people, they took the world as they +found it, and did not trouble themselves about its origin. Nor had they +any favorite deities; they worshipped according to what was proper, every +one in turn at the right time. Though the most polytheistic of religions, +there ran through their system an obscure conception of one supreme being, +Jupiter Optimus-Maximus, of whom all the other deities were but qualities +and attributes. But they carried furthest of all nations this +personifying and deifying of every separate power, this minute subdivision +of the deity. Heffter[273] says this was carried to an extent which was +almost comic. They had divinities who presided over talkativeness and +silence, over beginnings and endings, over the manuring of the fields, and +over all household transactions. And as the number increased, it became +always more difficult to recollect which was the right god to appeal to +under any special circumstances. So that often they were obliged to call +on the gods in general, and, dismissing the whole polytheistic pantheon, +to invoke some unknown god, or the supreme being. Sometimes, however, in +these emergencies, new deities were created for the occasion. Thus they +came to invoke the pestilence, defeat in battle, blight, etc., as +dangerous beings whose hostility must be placated by sacrifices. A better +part of their mythology was the worship of Modesty (Pudicitia), Faith or +Fidelity (Fides), Concord (Concordia), and the gods of home. It was the +business of the pontiffs to see to the creation of new divinities. So the +Romans had a goddess Pecunia, money (from Pecus, cattle), dating from the +time when the circulating medium consisted in cows and sheep. But when +copper money came, a god of copper was added, AEsculanus; and when silver +money was invented, a god Argentarius arrived. + + + +Sec. 2. The Gods of Rome. + + +Creuzer, in speaking of the Italian worship, says that "one fact which +emerges more prominently than any other is the concourse of Oriental, +Pelasgic, Samothracian, and Hellenic elements in the religion of Rome." In +like manner the Roman deities bear traces of very different sources. We +have found reason to believe, in our previous chapters, that the religion +of Egypt had a twofold origin, from Asiatic and African elements, and that +the religion of Greece, in like manner, was derived from Egyptian and +Pelasgic sources. So, too, we find the institutions and people of Rome +partaking of a Keltic and Pelasgic origin. Let us now see what was the +character of the Roman deities. + + * * * * * + +One of the oldest and also most original of the gods of Rome was the +Sabine god JANUS. He was the deity who presided over beginnings and +endings, over the act of opening and shutting. Hence the month which +opened the year, January, received its name from this god, who also gave +his name to Janua, a gate or door[274], and probably to the hill +Janiculum[275]. + +The Romans laid great stress on all beginnings; believing that the +commencement of any course of conduct determined, by a sort of magical +necessity, its results. Bad success in an enterprise they attributed to a +wrong beginning, and the only remedy, therefore, was to begin anew. Ovid +(Fasti, I. 179) makes Janus say, "All depends on the beginning." When +other gods were worshipped, Janus was invoked first of all. He was god of +the year. His temple had four sides for the four seasons, and each side +had three windows for the months. That his temple was open in war, but +closed in peace, indicated that the character of Rome in times of war was +to attack and not to defend. She then opened her gates to send her troops +forth against the enemy; while in seasons of peace she shut them in at +home. This symbol accords well with the haughty courage of the Republic, +which commanded victory, by not admitting the possibility of defeat[276]. + +This deity is believed by Creuzer and others to have had an Indian origin, +and his name to have been derived from the Sanskrit "Jan," _to be born_. +He resembles no Greek god, and very probably travelled all the way from +Bactria to Rome. + +On the Kalends of January, which was the chief feast of Janus, it was the +duty of every Roman citizen to be careful that all he thought, said, or +did should be pure and true, because this day determined the character of +the year. All dressed themselves in holiday garb, avoided oaths, abusive +words, and quarrels, gave presents, and wished each other a happy year. +The presents were little coins with a Janus-head, and sweetmeats. It was +customary to sacrifice to Janus at the beginning of all important +business. + +Janus was the great god of the Sabines, and his most ancient temple +appears to have been on Mount Janiculum[277]. The altar of Fontus, son of +Janus, and the tomb of Numa, a Sabine king, were both supposed to be +there. Ovid also[278] makes Janus say that the Janiculum was his citadel. +Ampere remarks as a curious coincidence, that this god, represented with a +key in his hand, as the heavenly gate-keeper, should have his home on the +hill close to the Vatican, where is the tomb of Peter, who also bears a +key with the same significance. The same writer regards the Sabines as +inhabiting the hills of Rome before the Pelasgi came and gave this name of +Roma (meaning "strength") to their small fortress on one side of the +Palatine. + +In every important city of Etruria there were temples to the three gods, +JUPITER, JUNO, and MINERVA. In like manner, the magnificent temple of the +Capitol at Rome consisted of three parts,--a nave, sacred to Jupiter; and +two wings or aisles, one dedicated to Juno and the other to Minerva. This +temple was nearly square, being two hundred and fifteen feet long and two +hundred feet wide; and the wealth accumulated in it was immense. The walls +and roof were of marble, covered with gold and silver. + +JUPITER, the chief god of Rome, according to most philologists, derives +his name (like the Greek [Greek: Zeos]) from the far-away Sanskrit word "Div" or +"Diu," indicating the splendor of heaven or of day. Ju-piter is from +"Djaus-Pitar," which is the Sanskrit for _Father of Heaven_, or else from +"Diu-pitar," _Father of Light_. He is, at all events, the equivalent of +the Olympian Zeus. He carries the lightning, and, under many appellations, +is the supreme god of the skies. Many temples were erected to him in Rome, +under various designations. He was called Pluvius, Fulgurator, Tonans, +Fulminator, Imbricitor, Serenator,--from the substantives designating +rain, lightning, thunder, and the serene sky. Anything struck with +lightning became sacred, and was consecrated to Jupiter. As the supreme +being he was called Optimus Maximus, also Imperator, Victor, Invictus, +Stator, Praedator, Triumphator, and Urbis Custos. And temples or shrines +were erected to him under all these names, as the head of the armies, and +commander-in-chief of the legions; as Conqueror, as Invincible, as the +Turner of Flight, as the God of Booty, and as the Guardian of the City. +There is said to have been in Rome three hundred Jupiters, which must mean +that Jupiter was worshipped under three hundred different attributes. +Another name of this god was Elicius, from the belief that a method +existed of eliciting or drawing down the lightning; which belief probably +arose from an accidental anticipation of Dr. Franklin's famous experiment. +There were no such myths told about Jupiter as concerning the Greek Zeus. +The Latin deity was a much more solemn person, his whole time occupied +with the care of the city and state. But traces of his origin as a ruler +of the atmosphere remained rooted in language; and the Romans, in the time +of Augustus, spoke familiarly of "a cold Jupiter," for a cold sky, and of +a "bad Jupiter," for stormy weather. + +The Juno of the Capitol was the Queen of Heaven, and in this sense was the +female Jupiter. But Juno was also the goddess of womanhood, and had the +epithets of Virginensis, Matrona, and Opigena; that is, the friend of +virgins, of matrons, and the daughter of help. Her chief festival was the +Matronalia, on the first of March, hence called the "Women's Kalends." On +this day presents were given to women by their husbands and friends. Juno +was the patroness of marriage, and her month of June was believed to be +very favorable for wedlock. As Juno Lucina she presided over birth; as +Mater Matuta,[279] over children; as Juno Moneta, over the mint. + +The name of Minerva, the Roman Athene, is said to be derived from an old +Etruscan word signifying mental action.[280] In the songs of the Sabians +the word "promenervet" is used for "monet." The first syllable evidently +contains the root, which in all Aryan languages implies thought. The +Trinity of the Capitol, therefore, united Power, Wisdom, and Affection, as +Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno. The statue of Minerva was placed in schools. +She had many temples and festivals, and one of the former was dedicated to +her as Minerva Medica. + +The Roman pantheon contained three classes of gods and goddesses. First, +the old Italian divinities, Etruscan, Latin, and Sabine, naturalized and +adopted by the state. Secondly, the pale abstractions of the +understanding, invented by the College of Pontiffs for moral and political +purposes. And thirdly, the gods of Greece, imported, with a change of +name, by the literary admirers and imitators of Hellas. + +The genuine deities of the Roman religion were all of the first order. +Some of them, like Janus, Vertumnus, Faunus, Vesta, retained their +original character; others were deliberately confounded with some Greek +deity. Thus Venus, an old Latin or Sabine goddess to whom Titus Tatius +erected a temple as Venus Cloacina, and Servius Tullius another as Venus +Libertina,[281] was afterward transformed into the Greek Aphrodite, +goddess of love. If it be true, as is asserted by Naevius and Plautus, that +she was the goddess of gardens, as Venus Hortensis and Venus Fruti, then +she may have been originally the female Vertumnus. So Diana was originally +Diva Jana, and was simply the female Janus, until she was transformed into +the Greek Artemis. + +The second class of Roman divinities were those manufactured by the +pontiffs for utilitarian purposes,--almost the only instance in the +history of religion of such a deliberate piece of god-making. The purpose +of the pontiffs was excellent; but the result, naturally, was small. The +worship of such abstractions as Hope (Spes), Fear (Pallor), Concord +(Concordia), Courage (Virtus), Justice (AEquitas), Clemency (Clementia), +could have little influence, since it must have been apparent to the +worshipper himself that these were not real beings, but only his own +conceptions, thrown heavenward. + +The third class of deities were those adopted from Greece. New deities, +like Apollo, were imported, and the old ones Hellenized. The Romans had no +statues of their gods in early times; this custom they learned from +Greece. "A full river of influence," says Cicero, "and not a little brook, +has flowed into Rome out of Greece[282]." They sent to Delphi to inquire +of the Greek oracle. In a few decades, says Hartung, the Roman religion +was wholly transformed by this Greek influence; and that happened while +the senate and priests were taking the utmost care that not an iota of the +old ceremonies should be altered. Meantime the object was to identify the +objects of worship in other countries with those worshipped at home. This +was done in an arbitrary and superficial way, and caused great confusion +in the mythologies[283]. Accidental resemblances, slight coincidences of +names, were sufficient for the identification of two gods. As long as the +service of the temple was unaltered, the priests troubled themselves very +little about such changes. In this way, the twelve gods of Olympus--Zeus, +Poseidon, Apollo, Ares, Hephaestos, Hermes, Here, Athene, Artemis, +Aphrodite, Hestia, and Demeter--were naturalized or identified as Jupiter, +Neptune, Apollo, Mars, Vulcan, Mercury, Juno, Minerva, Diana, Venus, +Vesta, and Ceres, Dionysos became Liber or Bacchus; Persephone, +Proserpina; and the Muses were accepted as the Greeks had imagined them. + +To find the true Roman worship, therefore, we must divest their deities of +these Greek habiliments, and go back to their original Etruscan or Latin +characters. + +Among the Etruscans we find one doctrine unknown to the Greeks and not +adopted by the Romans; that, namely, of the higher "veiled deities,"[284] +superior to Jupiter. They also had a dodecad of six male and six female +deities, the Consentes and Complices, making a council of gods, whom +Jupiter consulted in important cases. Vertumnus was an Etruscan; so, +according to Ottfried Mueller, was the Genius. So are the Lares, or +household protectors, and Charun, or Charon, a power of the under-world. +The minute system of worship was derived by Rome from Etruria. The whole +system of omens, especially by lightning, came from the same source. + +After Janus, and three Capitoline gods (Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva), above +mentioned, the Romans worshipped a series of deities who may be classed as +follows:-- + + +I. Gods representing the powers of nature:-- + +1. SOL, the Sun. A Sabine deity. In later times the poets attributed to +him all the characters of Helios; but as a Roman god, he never emerged +into his own daylight. + +2. LUNA, the Moon. Also regarded as of Sabine origin. + +3. MATER MATUTA. Mother of Day, that is, the dawn. Worshipped at the +Matronalia in June, as the possessor of all motherly qualities, and +especially as the protector of children from ill-treatment. As the storms +were apt to go down at morning, she was appealed to to protect mariners +from shipwreck. The consul Tib. Semp. Gracchus dedicated a temple to her +B.C. 176. + +4. TEMPESTATES, the tempests. A temple was dedicated to the storms, B.C. +259. + +5. VULCANUS. This name is supposed to be from the same root as "fulgeo," +_to shine_. He was an old Italian deity. His temple is mentioned as +existing B.C. 491. + +6. FONTUS, the god of fountains. The Romans valued water so highly, that +they erected altars and temples to this divinity, and had a feast of +fountains (Fontinalia) on October 13th. There were also goddesses of +fountains, as Lynapha Juturna, the goddess of mineral springs. Egeria is +the only nymph of a fountain mentioned in Roman mythology. + +7. DIVUS PATER TIBERINUS, or Father Tiber, was of course the chief river +god. The augurs called him Coluber, the snake, from his meandering and +bending current. + +8. NEPTUNUS. The origin of this word has been a great puzzle to the +learned, who, however, connect it with nebula, a cloud, as the clouds come +from the sea. He had his temple and his festivals at Rome. + +Other deities connected with the powers of nature were PORTUNUS, the god +of harbors; SALACIA, a goddess of the salt sea; TRANQUILLITAS, the goddess +of calm weather. + + +II. Gods of human relations:-- + +1. VESTA, an ancient Latin goddess, and one of the oldest and most +revered. She was the queen of the hearth and of the household fire. She +was also the protector of the house, associated with the Lares and +Penates. Some offering was due to her at every meal. She sanctified the +home. + +Afterward, when all Rome became one vast family, Vesta became the goddess +of this public home, and her temple was the fireside of the city, in which +burned always the sacred fire, watched by the vestal virgins. In this +worship, and its associations, we find the best side of Roman +manners,--the love of home, the respect for family life, the hatred of +impurity and immodesty. She was also called "the mother," and qualified as +Mater Stata, that is, the immovable mother. + +2. The PENATES and LARES. These deities were also peculiarly Roman. The +Lar, or Lares, were supposed to be the souls of ancestors which resided in +the home and guarded it. Their images were kept in an oratory or domestic +chapel, called a Lararium, and were crowned by the master of the house to +make them propitious. The paterfamilias conducted all the domestic worship +of the household, whether of prayers or sacrifices, according to the maxim +of Cato, "Scito dominum pro tota familia rem divinam facere[285]." The +Penates were beings of a higher order than the Lares, but having much the +same offices. Their name was from the words denoting the interior of the +mansion (Penetralia, Penitus). They took part in all the joys and sorrows +of the family. To go home was "to return to one's Penates." In the same +way, "Lar meus" meant "my house "; "Lar conductus," "a hired house "; +"Larem mutare" meant to change one's house. Thus the Roman in his home +felt himself surrounded by invisible friends and guardians. No other +nation, except the Chinese, have carried this religion of home so far. +This is the tender side of the stern Roman character. Very little of +pathos or sentiment appears in Roman poetry, but the lines by Catullus to +his home are as tender as anything in modern literature. The little +peninsula of Sirmio on the Lago di Garda has been glorified by these few +words. + +3. The GENIUS. The worship of the genius of a person or place was also +peculiarly Italian. Each man had his genius, from whom his living power +and vital force came. Tertullian speaks of the genius of places. On coins +are found the Genius of Rome. Almost everything had its genius,--nations, +colonies, princes, the senate, sleep, the theatre. The marriage-bed is +called genial, because guarded by a genius. All this reminds us of the +Fravashi of the Avesta and of the Persian monuments. Yet the Genius also +takes his place among the highest gods. + + +III. Deities of the human soul:-- + +1. MENS, Mind, Intellect. + +2. PUDICITIA, Chastity. + +3. PIETAS, Piety, Reverence for Parents. + +4 FIDES, Fidelity. + +5. CONCORDIA, Concord. + +6. VIRTUS, Courage. + +7. SPES, Hope. + +8. PALLOR or PAVOR, Fear. + +9. VOLUPTAS, Pleasure. + + +IV. Deities of rural and other occupations:-- + +1. TELLUS, the Earth. + +2. SATURNUS, Saturn. The root of this name is SAO = SERO, _to sow_. Saturn +is the god of planting and sowing. + +3. OPS, goddess of the harvest. + +4. MARS. Originally an agricultural god, dangerous to crops; afterwards +god of war. + +5. SILVANUS, the wood god. + +6. FAUNUS, an old Italian deity, the patron of agriculture. + +7. TERMINUS, an old Italian deity, the guardian of limits and boundaries. + +8. CERES, goddess of the cereal grasses. + +9. LIBER, god of the vine, and of wine. + +10. BONA DEA, the good goddess. The worship of the good goddess was +imported from Greece in later times; and perhaps its basis was the worship +of Demeter. The temple of the good goddess was on Mount Aventine. At her +feast on the 1st of May all suggestions of the male sex were banished from +the house; no wine must be drunk; the myrtle, as a symbol of love, was +removed. The idea of the feast was of a chaste marriage, as helping to +preserve the human race. + +11. MAGNA MATER, or Cybele. This was a foreign worship, but early +introduced at Rome. + +12. FLORA. She was an original goddess of Italy, presiding over flowers +and blossoms. Great license was practised at her worship. + +13. VERTUMNUS, the god of gardens, was an old Italian deity, existing +before the foundation of Rome. + +14. POMONA, goddess of the harvest. + +18. PALES. A rural god, protecting cattle. At his feast men and cattle +were purified. + +The Romans had many other deities, whose worship was more or less +popular. But those now mentioned were the principal ones. This list shows +that the powers of earth were more objects of reverence than the heavenly +bodies. The sun and stars attracted this agricultural people less than the +spring and summer, seedtime and harvest. Among the Italians the country +was before the city, and Rome was founded by country people. + + + +Sec. 3. Worship and Ritual. + + +The Roman ceremonial worship was very elaborate and minute, applying to +every part of daily life. It consisted in sacrifices, prayers, festivals, +and the investigation by augurs and haruspices of the will of the gods and +the course of future events. The Romans accounted themselves an +exceedingly religious people, because their religion was so intimately +connected with the affairs of home and state. + +The Romans distinguished carefully between things sacred and profane. This +word "profane" comes from the root "fari," _to speak_; because the gods +were supposed to speak to men by symbolic events. A _fane_ is a place thus +consecrated by some divine event; a _profane_ place, one not +consecrated.[286] But that which man dedicates to the gods (_dedicat_ or +_dicat_) is sacred, or consecrated.[287] Every place which was to be +dedicated was first "liberated" by the augur from common uses; then +"consecrated" to divine uses by the pontiff. A "temple" is a place thus +separated, or cut off from other places; for the root of this word, like +that of "tempus" (time) is the same as the Greek [Greek: temno], _to +cut_. + +The Roman year was full of festivals (_feriae_) set apart for religious +uses. It was declared by the pontiffs a sin to do any common work on these +days, but works of necessity were allowed. These festivals were for +particular gods, in honor of great events in the history of Rome, or of +rural occurrences, days of purification and atonement, family feasts, or +feasts in honor of the dead. The old Roman calendar[288] was as carefully +arranged as that of modern Rome. The day began at midnight. The following +is a view of the Roman year in its relation to festivals:-- + + +_January_. + + 1. Feast of _Janus_, the god of beginnings. + 9. _Agonalia_. + 11. _Carmentalia_. In honor of the nymph Carmenta, a woman's + festival. + 16. Dedication of the _Temple of Concord_. + 31. Feast of the _Penates_. + + +_February_. + + 1. Feast of _Juno Sospita_, the Savior: an old goddess. + 13. _Faunalia_, dedicated to Faunus and the rural gods. + 15. _Lupercalia_. Feast of fruitfulness. + 17. _Fornacalia_. Feast of the oven goddess Fornax. + 18 to 28. The _Februatio_, or feast of purification and atonement, + and the _Feralia_, or feast of the dead. Februus was an old + Etrurian god of the under-world. Also, the _Charistia_, a family + festival for putting an end to quarrels among relations. + 23. Feast of _Terminus_, god of boundaries. Boundary-stones anointed + and crowned. + + +_March_. + + 1. Feast of _Mars_. Also, the _Matronalia_. The Salii, priests + of Mars, go their rounds, singing old hymns. + 6. Feast of _Vesta_. + 7. Feast of _Vejovis_ or _Vedius_, i.e. the boy Jupiter. + 14. _Equiria_, or horse-races in honor of Mars. + 15. Feast of _Anna-Perenna_, goddess of health. + 17. _Liberalia_, Feast of Bacchus. Young men invested with the + Toga-Virilis on this day. + 19 to 23. Feast of _Minerva_, for five days. Offerings made to her + by all mechanics, artists, and scholars. + + +_April_. + + 1. Feast of _Venus_, to whom the month is sacred. + 4. _Megalesia_. Feast of Cybele and Altys. It lasted six days, and + was the Roman analogue of the feast of Ceres in Greece and of Isis + in Egypt. + 12. _Cerealia_. Feast of Ceres. Games in the circus. + 15. _Fordicicia_. Feast of cows. + 21. _Palililia_. Feast of Pales, and of the founding of Rome. + 23. _Vinalia_. Feast of new wine. + 25. _Robigalia_. Feast of the goddess of blight, Robigo. + 28. _Floralia_. Feast of the goddess Flora; very licentious. + +_May_. + + 1. Feast of the _Bona Dea_, the good goddess; otherwise Maia, Ops, + Tellus, or the Earth. This was the feast held by women secretly in + the house of the pontiff. + 9. _Lemuralia_. Feast of the departed spirits or ghosts. + 12. Games to _Mars_. + 23. _Tubilustria_, to consecrate wind instruments. + +_June_. + + 1. Feast of _Carna_, goddess of the internal organs of the body, + and of _Juno Moneta_. + 4. Feast of _Bellona_. + 5. Feast of _Deus Fidius_. + 7 to 15. Feast of _Vesta_. + 19. _Matralia_. Feast of Mater Matuta. + +Other lesser festivals in this month to _Summanus, Fortuna, Fortis, +Jupiter Stator_, etc. + + +_July_. + + 1. Day devoted to changing residences, like the 1st of May in New York. + 4. _Fortuna Muliebris_. + 5. _Populifuga_. In memory of the people's flight, on some + occasion, afterward forgotten. + 7. Feast of _Juno Caprotina_. + 15. Feast of _Castor and Pollux_. + +Other festivals in this month were the _Lucaria, Neptunalia_, and +_Furinalia_. + + +_August_. + + 1. Games to _Mars_. + 17. Feast of the god _Portumnus_. + 18. _Consualia_, feast of Consus. Rape of the Sabines. + 23. _Vulcanalia_, to avert fires. + 25. _Opeconsivia_. Feast of Ops Consiva. + + +_September_. + +The chief feasts in this month were the games (_Ludi Magni_ or _Romani_) +in honor of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. + + +_October_. + + 13. _Fontinalia_. Feast of fountains, when the springs were strewed + with flowers. + 15. Sacrifice of a horse to _Mars_. + +The feasts in November are unimportant. + + +_December_. + + 5. _Faunalia_, in honor of Faunus. + 19. _Saturnalia_, sacred to Saturn. A Roman thanksgiving for the + harvest. It lasted seven days, during which the slaves had their + liberty, in memory of the age of Saturn, when all were equal. The + rich kept open table to all comers, and themselves waited on the + slaves. Presents were interchanged, schools were closed. The Senate + did not sit. + +Thus religion everywhere met the public life of the Roman by its +festivals, and laid an equal yoke on his private life by its requisition +of sacrifices, prayers, and auguries. All pursuits must be conducted +according to a system, carefully laid down by the College of Pontiffs. +Sacrifices and prayers of one or another kind were demanded during most of +the occasions of life. Hidden in our word "inaugurate" is the record of +the fact that nothing could be properly begun without the assistance of +the augurs. Sacrifices of lustration and expiation were very common, not +so much for moral offences as for ceremonial mistakes. The doctrine of the +_opus operatum_ was supreme in Roman religion. The intention was of little +importance; the question was whether the ceremony had been performed +exactly in accordance with rule. If not, it must be done again. Sometimes +fifty or a hundred victims were killed before the priestly etiquette was +contented. Sometimes magistrates must resign because the college of augurs +suspected some informality in the ceremonies of their election. Laws were +annulled and judicial proceedings revoked for the same reason. If the +augurs declared the signs unfavorable, a public meeting must be adjourned +and no business done. A single mistake in the form of a prayer would make +it ineffectual. If a man went out to walk, there was a form to be recited; +if he mounted his chariot, another. All these religious acts were of the +nature of _charms_, which acted on the gods by an inherent power, and +compelled them to be favorable, whatever their own wishes might be. The +gods were, therefore, as much the slaves of external mechanical laws as +the Romans themselves. In reality, the supreme god of Rome was law, in the +form of rule. But these rules afterward expanded, as the Roman +civilization increased, into a more generous jurisprudence. Regularity +broadened into justice.[289] But for a long period the whole of the Roman +organic law was a system of hard external method. And the rise of law as +justice and reason was the decline of religion as mere prescription and +rule. This one change is the key to the dissolution of the Roman system of +religious practices. + +The seat of Roman worship in the oldest times was the Regia in the Via +Sacra, near the Forum. This was the house of the chief pontiff, and here +the sacrifices were performed[290] by the Rex Sacrorum. Near by was the +temple of Vesta. The Palatine Hill was regarded as the home of the Latin +gods, while the Quirinal was that of the Sabine deities. But the Penates +of Rome remained at Lavinium, the old metropolis of the Latin +Confederation, and mother of the later city. Every one of the highest +officers of Rome was obliged to go and sacrifice to the ancient gods, at +this mother city of Lavinium, before entering on his office. + +The old worship of Rome was free from idolatry. Jupiter, Juno, Janus, Ops, +Vesta, were not represented by idols. This feature was subsequently +imported by means of Hellenic influences coming through Cuma and other +cities of Magna Graecia. By the same channels came the Sibylline books. +There were ten Sibyls,--the Persian, Libyan, Delphian, Cumaean, +Erythraean, Samian, Amalthaean, Hellespontine, Phrygian, and Tiburtine. +The Sibylline books authorized or commanded the worship of various Greek +gods; they were intrusted to the Decemviri. + +Roman worship was at first administered by certain patrician families, and +this was continued till B.C. 300, when plebeians were allowed to enter the +sacred colleges. A plebeian became Pontifex Maximus, for the first time, +B.C. 253. + +The pontiffs (Pontifices) derived their name (bridge-builders) from a +bridge over the Tiber, which it was their duty to build and repair in +order to sacrifice on either bank. They possessed the supreme authority in +all matters of worship, and decided questions concerning marriage, +inheritance, public games. + +The Flamens were the priests of particular deities. The office was for +life, and there were fifteen Flamens in all. The Flamen Dialis, or priest +of Jupiter, had a life burdened with etiquette. He must not take an oath, +ride, have anything tied with knots on his person, see armed men, look at +a prisoner, see any one at work on a Festa, touch a goat, or dog, or raw +flesh, or yeast. He must not bathe in the open air, pass a night outside +the city, and he could only resign his office on the death of his wife. +This office is Pelasgic, and very ancient. + +The Salii were from early times priests of Mars, who danced in armor, and +sang old hymns. The Luperci were another body of priests, also of very +ancient origin. Other colleges of priests were the Epulones, Curiones, +Tities. + +The Vestal virgins were highly honored and very sacred. Their work was to +tend the fire of Vesta, and prevent the evil omen of its extinction. They +were appointed by the Pontifex Maximus. They were selected when very +young, and could resign their office after thirty years of service. They +had a large revenue, enjoyed the highest honors, and to strike them was a +capital offence. If a criminal about to be executed met them, his life was +spared. Consuls and praetors must give way to them in the streets. They +assisted at the theatres and at all public entertainments. They could go +out to visit and to dine with their relations. Their very presence +protected any one from assault, and their intercession must not be +neglected. They prepared the sacred cakes, took part in many sacrifices, +and had the charge of a holy serpent, keeping his table supplied with +meat. + +The duty of the augurs was to inquire into the divine will; and they could +prevent any public business by declaring the omens unfavorable. The name +is probably derived from an old Aryan word, meaning "sight" or "eye," +which has come to us in the Greek [Greek: augae], and the German _auge_. +Our words "auspicious" and "auspicate" are derived from the "auspices," or +outlook on nature which these seers practised. For they were in truth the +Roman _seers_. Their business was to look, at midnight, into the starry +heavens; to observe thunder, lightning, meteors; the chirping or flying of +birds; the habits of the sacred chickens; the appearance of quadrupeds; or +casualties of various kinds, as sneezing, stumbling, spilling salt or +wine. The last relics of these superstitions are to be found in the little +books sold in Rome, in which the fortunate number in a lottery is +indicated by such accidents and events of common life. + +The Romans, when at prayer, were in the habit of covering their heads, so +that no sound of evil augury might be heard. The suppliant was to kiss his +right hand, and then turn round in a circle and sit down. Many formulae of +prayers were prescribed to be used on all occasions of life. They must be +repeated three times, at least, to insure success. Different animals were +sacrificed to different gods,--white cattle with gilded horns to Jupiter, +a bull to Apollo, a horse to Mars. Sometimes the number of victims was +enormous. On Caligula's accession, one hundred and sixty thousand victims +were killed in the Roman Empire. + +Lustrations were great acts of atonement or purification, and are often +described by ancient writers. The city was lustrated by a grand procession +of the four colleges of Augurs, Pontifices, Quindecemviri, and Septemviri. +Lucan, in his Pharsalia, describes such a lustration.[291] Tacitus gives a +like description, in his History,[292] of the ceremonies attending the +rebuilding the Capitol. On an auspicious day, beneath a serene sky, the +ground chosen for the foundation was surrounded with ribbons and flowers. +Soldiers, selected for their auspicious names, brought into the enclosure +branches from the trees sacred to the gods. The Vestal virgins, followed +by a band of children, sprinkled the place with water drawn from three +fountains and three rivers. The praetor and the pontiff next sacrificed a +swine, a sheep, and a bull, and besought Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva to +favor the undertaking. The magistrates, priests, senators, and knights +then drew the corner-stone to its place, throwing in ingots of gold and +silver. + +The Romans, ever anxious about the will of the gods, naturalized among +themselves the Etruscan institution of the Haruspices. The prodigies +observed were in the entrails of animals and the phenomena of nature. The +parts of the entrails observed were the tongue, lungs, heart, liver, gall +bladder, spleen, kidneys, and caul. If the head of the right lobe of the +liver was absent, it was considered a very bad omen. If certain fissures +existed, or were absent, it was a portent of the first importance. But the +Romans were a very practical people, and not easily deterred from their +purpose. So if one sacrifice failed they would try another and another, +until the portents were favorable. But sceptical persons were naturally +led to ask some puzzling questions, such as these, which Cicero puts in +his work on Divination:[293] How can a cleft in a liver be connected, by +any natural law, with my acquisition of a property? If it is so connected, +what would be the result, if some one else, who was about to _lose_ his +property, had examined the same victim? If you answer that the divine +energy, which extends through the universe, directs each man in the choice +of a victim, then how happens it that a man having first had an +unfavorable omen, by trying again should get a good one? How happens it +that a sacrifice to one deity gives a favorable sign, and that to another +the opposite? But these criticisms only arrived after the old Roman faith +had begun to decline. + +Funeral solemnities were held with great care and pomp, and festivals for +the dead were regularly celebrated. The dead father or mother was +accounted a god, and yet a certain terror of ancestral spectres was shown +by a practice of driving them out of the house by lustrations. For it was +uncertain whether the paternal Manes were good spirits, Lares, or evil +spirits, and Lemures. Consequently in May there was the Lemuria, or feast +for exorcising the evil spirits from houses and homes, conducted with +great solemnity. + + + +Sec. 4. The Decay of the Roman Religion. + + +"The more distinguished a Roman became," says Mommsen, "the less was he a +free man. The omnipotence of law, the despotism of the rule, drove him +into a narrow circle of thought and action, and his credit and influence +depended on the sad austerity of his life. The whole duty of man, with the +humblest and greatest of the Romans, was to keep his house in order, and +be the obedient servant of the state." While each individual could be +nothing more than a member of the community, a single link in the iron +chain of Roman power; he, on the other hand, shared the glory and might of +all-conquering Rome. Never was such _esprit de corps_ developed, never +such intense patriotism, never such absolute subservience and sacrifice +of the individual to the community. But as man is manifold and cannot be +forever confined to a single form of life, a reaction against this narrow +patriotism was to be expected in the interest of personal freedom, and it +came very naturally from Greek influences. The Roman could not contemplate +the exuberant development of Greek thought, art, literature, society, +without bitterly feeling how confined was his own range, how meagre and +empty his own life. Hence, very early, Roman society began to be +Hellenized, but especially after the unification of Italy. To quote +Mommsen once more: "The Greek civilization was grandly human and +cosmopolitan; and Rome not only was stimulated by this influence, but was +penetrated by it to its very centre." Even in politics there was a new +school, whose fixed idea was the consolidation and propagandism of +republicanism; but this Philhellenism showed itself especially in the +realm of thought and faith. As the old faith died, more ceremonies were +added; for as life goes out, forms come in. As the winter of unbelief +lowers the stream of piety, the ice of ritualism accumulates along its +banks. In addition to the three colleges of Pontiffs, Haruspices, and +Quindecemviri, another of Epulones, whose business was to attend to the +religious feasts, was instituted in A.U. 558 (B.C. 196). Contributions and +tithes of all sorts were demanded from the people. Hercules, especially, +as is more than once intimated in the plays of Plautus, became very rich +by his tithes.[294] Religion became more and more a charm, on the exact +performance of which the favor of the gods depended; so that ceremonies +were sometimes performed thirty times before the essential accuracy was +attained. + +The gods were now changed, in the hands of Greek statuaries, into +ornaments for a rich man's home. Greek myths were imported and connected +with the story of Roman deities, as Ennius made Saturn the son of Coelus, +in imitation of the genealogy of Kronos. That form of rationalism called +Euhemerism, which explains every god into a mythical king or hero, became +popular. So, too, was the doctrine of Epicharmos, who considered the +divinities as powers of nature symbolized. According to the usual course +of events, superstition and unbelief went hand in hand. As the old faith +died out, new forms of worship, like those of Cybele and Bacchus, came in. +Stern conservatives like Cato opposed all these innovations and +scepticisms, but ineffectually. + +Gibbon says that "the admirable work of Cicero,'De Natura Deorum,' is the +best clew we have to guide us through this dark abyss" (the moral and +religious teachings of the philosophers).[295] After, in the first two +books, the arguments for the existence and providence of the gods have +been set forth and denied, by Velleius the Epicurean, Cotta the +academician, and Balbus the Stoic; in the third book, Cotta, the head of +the priesthood, the Pontifex Maximus, proceeds to refute the stoical +opinion that there are gods who govern the universe and provide for the +welfare of mankind. To be sure, he says, as Pontifex, he of course +believes in the gods, but he feels free as a philosopher to deny their +existence. "I believe in the gods," says he, "on the authority and +tradition of our ancestors; but if we reason, I shall reason against their +existence." "Of course," he says, "I believe in divination, as I have +always been taught to do. But who knows whence it comes? As to the voice +of the Fauns, I never heard it; and I do not know what a Faun is. You say +that the regular course of nature proves the existence of some ordering +power. But what more regular than a tertian or quartan fever? The world +subsists by the power of nature." Cotta goes on to criticise the Roman +pantheon, ridiculing the idea of such gods as "Love, Deceit, Fear, Labor, +Envy, Old Age, Death, Darkness, Misery, Lamentation, Favor, Fraud, +Obstinacy," etc. He shows that there are many gods of the same name; +several Jupiters, Vulcans, Apollos, and Venuses. He then denies +providence, by showing that the wicked succeed and the good are +unfortunate. Finally, all was left in doubt, and the dialogue ends with a +tone of triumphant uncertainty. This was Cicero's contribution to +theology; and Cicero was far more religious than most men of his period. + +Many writers, and more recently Merivale,[296] have referred to the +remarkable debate which took place in the Roman Senate, on the occasion of +Catiline's conspiracy. Caesar, at that time chief pontiff, the highest +religious authority in the state, gave his opinion against putting the +conspirators to death; for death, says he, "is the end of all suffering. +After death there is neither pain nor pleasure (_ultra neque curae, neque +gaudii locum_)." Cato, the Stoic, remarked that Caesar had spoken well +concerning life and death. "I take it," says he, "that he regards as false +what we are told about the sufferings of the wicked hereafter," but does +not object to that statement. These speeches are reported by Sallust, and +are confirmed by Cicero's fourth Catiline Oration. The remarkable fact is, +not that such things were said, but that they were heard with total +indifference. No one seemed to think it was of any consequence one way or +the other. Suppose that when the question of the execution of Charles I. +was before Parliament, it had been opposed by the Archbishop of Canterbury +(had he been there) on the ground that after death all pain and pleasure +ceased. The absurdity of the supposition shows the different position of +the human mind at the two epochs. + +In fact, an impassable gulf yawned between the old Roman religion and +modern Roman thought. It was out of the question for an educated Roman, +who read Plato and Zeno, who listened to Cicero and Hortensius, to believe +in Janus and the Penates. "All very well for the people," said they. "The +people must be kept in order by these superstitions."[297] But the secret +could not be kept. Sincere men, like Lucretius, who saw all the evil of +these superstitions, and who had no strong religious sense, _would_ speak +out, and proclaim _all_ religion to be priestcraft and an unmitigated +evil. The poem of Lucretius, "De Rerum Natura," declares faith in the gods +to have been the curse of the human race, and immortality to be a silly +delusion. He denies the gods, providence, the human soul, and any moral +purpose in the universe. But as religion is an instinct, which will break +out in some form, and when expelled from the soul returns in disguise, +Lucretius, denying all the gods, pours out a lovely hymn to Venus, goddess +of beauty and love. + +The last philosophic protest, in behalf of a pure and authoritative faith, +came from the Stoics. The names of Seneca, Epictetus, and Aurelius +Antoninus gave dignity, if they could not bring safety, to the declining +religion of Rome. + +Seneca, indeed, was inferior to the other two in personal character, and +was more of a rhetorician than a philosopher. But noble thoughts occur in +his writings. "A sacred spirit sits in every heart," he says, "and treats +us as we treat it." He opposed idolatry, he condemned animal sacrifices. +The moral element is very marked in his brilliant pages. Philosophy, he +says, is an effort to be wise and good.[298] Physical studies he condemns +as useless.[299] Goodness is that which harmonizes with the natural +movements of the soul.[300] God and matter are the two principles of all +being; God is the active principle, matter the passive. God is spirit, and +all souls are part of this spirit.[301] Reason is the bond which unites +God and other souls, and so God dwells in all souls.[302] + +One of the best sayings of Epictetus is that "the wise man does not merely +know by tradition and hearsay that Jupiter is the father of gods and men; +but is inwardly convinced of it in his soul, and therefore cannot help +acting and feeling according to this conviction."[303] + +Epictetus declared that the philosopher could have no will but that of the +deity; he never blames fate or fortune, for he knows that no real evil can +befall the just man. The life of Epictetus was as true as his thoughts +were noble, but he had fallen on an evil age, which needed for its reform, +not a new philosophy, but a new inspiration of divine life. This steady +current downward darkened the pure soul of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, of +whom Niebuhr says,[304] "If there is any sublime human virtue, it is his." +He adds: "He was certainly the noblest character of his time; and I know +no other man who combined such unaffected kindness, mildness, and humility +with such conscientiousness and severity towards himself." "If there is +anywhere an expression of virtue, it is in the heavenly features of M. +Aurelius. His 'Meditations' are a golden book, though there are things in +it which cannot be read without deep grief, for there we find this purest +of men without happiness." Though absolute monarch of the Empire, and rich +in the universal love of his people, he was not powerful enough to resist +the steady tendency to decay in society. Nor did he know that the power +that was to renew the life of the world was already present in +Christianity. He himself was in soul almost a Christian, though he did not +know it, and though the Christian element of faith and hope was wanting. +But he expressed a thought worthy of the Gospel, when he said: "The man of +disciplined mind reverently bids Nature, who bestows all things and +resumes them again to herself, 'Give what thou wilt, and take what thou +wilt.'"[305] + +Although we have seen that Seneca speaks of a sacred, spirit which dwells +in us, other passages in his works (quoted by Zeller) show that he was, +like other Stoics, a pantheist, and meant the soul of the world. He says +(Nat. Qu., II. 45, and Prolog. 13): "Will you call God the world? You may +do so without mistake. For he is all that you see around you." "What is +God? The mind of the universe. What is God? All that you see, and all that +you do not see."[306] + +It was not philosophy which destroyed religion in Rome. Philosophy, no +doubt, weakened faith in the national gods, and made the national worship +seem absurd. But it was the general tendency downward; it was the loss of +the old Roman simplicity and purity; it was the curse of Caesarism, which, +destroying all other human life, destroyed also the life of religion. What +it came to at last, in well-endowed minds, may be seen in this extract +from the elder Pliny:-- + + "All religion is the offspring of necessity, weakness, and fear. _What_ + God is, if in truth he be anything distinct from the world, it is + beyond the compass of man's understanding to know. But it is a foolish + delusion, which has sprung from human weakness and human pride, to + imagine that such an infinite spirit would concern himself with the + petty affairs of men. It is difficult to say, whether it might not be + better for men to be wholly without religion, than to have one of this + kind, which is a reproach to its object. The vanity of man, and his + insatiable longing after existence, have led him also to dream of a + life after death. A being full of contradictions, he is the most + wretched of creatures; since the other creatures have no wants + transcending the bounds of their nature. Man is full of desires and + wants that reach to infinity, and can never be satisfied. His nature is + a lie, uniting the greatest poverty with the greatest pride. Among + these so great evils, the best thing God has bestowed on man is the + power to take his own life."[307] + +The system of the Stoics was exactly adapted to the Roman character; but, +naturally, it exaggerated its faults instead of correcting them. It +supplanted all other systems in the esteem of leading minds; but the +narrowness of the Roman intellect reacted on the philosophy, and made that +much more narrow than it was in the Greek thought. It became simple +ethics, omitting both the physical and metaphysical side. + +Turning to literature, we find in Horace a gay epicureanism, which always +says: "Enjoy this life, for it will be soon over, and after death there is +nothing left for us." Virgil tells us that those are happy who know the +causes of things, and so escape the terrors of Acheron. The serious +Tacitus, a man always in earnest, a penetrating mind, is by Bunsen called +"the last Roman prophet, but a prophet of death and judgment. He saw that +Rome hastened to ruin, and that Caesarism was an unmixed evil, but an evil +not to be remedied."[308] He declares that the gods had to mingle in Roman +affairs as protectors; they now appeared only for vengeance.[309] Tacitus +in one passage speaks of human freedom as superior to fate,[310] but in +another expresses his uncertainty on the whole question.[311] Equally +uncertain was he concerning the future life, though inclined to believe +that the soul is not extinguished with the body.[312] + +But the tone of the sepulchral monuments of that period is not so hopeful. +Here are some which are quoted by Doellinger,[313] from Muratori and +Fabretti: "Reader, enjoy thy life; for, after death, there is neither +laughter nor play, nor any kind of enjoyment." "Friend, I advise thee to +mix a goblet of wine and drink, crowning thy head with flowers. Earth and +fire consume all that remains at death." "Pilgrim, stop and listen. In +Hades is no boat and no Charon; no Eacus and no Cerberus. Once dead, we +are all alike." Another says: "Hold all a mockery, reader; nothing is our +own." + + * * * * * + +So ended the Roman religion; in superstition among the ignorant, in +unbelief among the wise. It was time that something should come to renew +hope. This was the gift which the Gospel brought to the Romans,--hope for +time, hope beyond time. This was the prayer for the Romans of the Apostle +Paul: "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, +that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost."[314] A +remarkable fact, that a Jewish writer should exhort Romans to hope and +courage! + + + +Sec. 5. Relation of the Roman Religion to Christianity. + + +The idea of Rome is law, that of Christianity is love. In Roman worship +law took the form of iron rules; in Roman theology it appeared as a stern +fate; in both as a slavery. Christianity came as freedom, in a worship +free from forms, in a view of God which left freedom to man. Christianity +came to the Roman world, not as a new theory, but as a new life. As, +during the early spring, the power of the returning sun penetrates the +soil, silently touching the springs of life; so Christianity during two +hundred years moved silently in the heart of Roman society, creating a new +faith, hope, and love. And as, at last, in the spring the grass shoots, +the buds open, the leaves appear, the flowers bloom; so, at last, +Christianity, long working in silence and shadow, suddenly became +apparent, and showed that it had been transforming the whole tone and +temper of Roman civilization. + +But wherever there is action there is also reaction, and no power or force +can wholly escape this law. So Roman thought, acted on by Christianity, +reacted and modified in many respects the Gospel. Not always in a bad way, +sometimes it helped its developments. For the Providence which made the +Gospel for the Romans made the Romans for the Gospel. + +The great legacy bequeathed to mankind by ancient Rome was law. Other +nations, it is true, had codes of law, like the Institutes of Manu in +India, or the jurisprudence of Solon and the enactments of Lycurgus. But +Roman law from the beginning was sanctified by the conviction that it was +founded on justice, and not merely on expediency or prudence. In +submitting to the laws, even when they were cruel and oppressive, the +Roman was obeying, not force, but conscience. The view which Plato gave as +an ideal in Crito was realized in Roman society from the first. Consider +the cruel enactments which made the debtors the slaves of the creditor, +and the fact that when the plebeians were ground to the earth by that +oppression, they did not attempt to resist the law, but in their despair +fled from their homes, beyond the jurisdiction of Rome, to establish a new +city where these enactments could not reach them. Only when the laws are +thus enforced by the public conscience as something sacred, does society +become possible; and this sense of the divinity which hedges a code of +laws has been transmitted from ancient Rome into the civilization of +Europe. + +Cicero, in his admirable treatise on the laws, which unfortunately we have +in an imperfect condition, devotes the whole of the first book to +establishing eternal justice as the basis of all jurisprudence. No better +text-book could have been found for the defence of what was called "the +higher law," in the great American antislavery struggle, than this work of +Cicero. "Let us establish," he says, "the principles of justice on that +supreme law which has existed from all ages before any legislative +enactments were written, or any political governments formed." "Among all +questions, there is none more important to understand than this, _that man +is born for justice_; and that law and equity have not been established by +opinion, but by nature." "It is an absurd extravagance in some +philosophers to assert that all things are necessarily just which are +established by the laws and institutions of nations." "Justice does not +consist in submission to written laws." "If the will of the people, the +decrees of the senate, the decisions of magistrates, were sufficient to +establish rights, then it might become right to rob, to commit adultery, +to forge wills, if this was sanctioned by the votes or decrees of the +majority." "The sum of all is, that what is right should be sought for its +own sake, because it is right, and not because it is enacted." + +Law appears from the very beginnings of the Roman state. The oldest +traditions make Romulus, Numa, and Servius to be legislators. From that +time, after the expulsion of the Tarquins, Rome was governed by laws. Even +the despotism of the Caesars did not interfere with the general +administration of the laws in civil affairs; for the one-man power, though +it may corrupt and degrade a state, does not immediately and directly +affect many persons in their private lives. Law continued to rule in +common affairs, and this legacy of a society organized by law was the gift +of Rome to modern Europe. How great a blessing it has been may be seen by +comparing the worst Christian government with the best of the despotic +governments of Asia. Mohammedan society is ruled by a hierarchy of +tyranny, each little tyrant being in turn the victim of the one above him. + +The feudal system, introduced by the Teutonic races, attempted to organize +Europe on the basis of military despotism; but Roman law was too strong +for feudal law, and happily for mankind overcame it and at last expelled +it. + +Christianity, in its ready hospitality for all the truth and good which it +encounters, accepted Roman jurisprudence and gave to it a new lease of +life.[315] Christian emperors and Christian lawyers codified the long line +of decrees and enactments reaching back to the Twelve Tables, and +established them as the laws of the Christian world. But the spirit of +Roman law acted on Christianity in a more subtle manner. It reproduced the +organic character of the Roman state in the Western Latin Church, and it +reproduced the soul of Roman law in the Western Latin theology. + +It has not always been sufficiently considered how much the Latin Church +was a reproduction, on a higher plane, of the old Roman Commonwealth. The +resemblance between the Roman Catholic ceremonies and those of Pagan Rome +has been often noticed. The Roman Catholic Church has borrowed from +Paganism saints' days, incense, lustrations, consecrations of sacred +places, votive-offerings, relics; winking, nodding, sweating, and bleeding +images; holy water, vestments, etc. But the Church of Rome itself, in its +central idea of authority, is a reproduction of the Roman state religion, +which was a part of the Roman state. The Eastern churches were sacerdotal +and religious; the Church of Rome added to these elements that of an +organized political authority. It was the resurrection of Rome,--Roman +ideas rising into a higher life. The Roman Catholic Church, at first an +aristocratic republic, like the Roman state, afterwards became, like the +Roman state, a disguised despotism. The Papal Church is therefore a legacy +of ancient Rome.[316] + +And just as the Roman state was first a help and then a hindrance to the +progress of humanity, so it has been with the Roman Catholic Church. +Ancient Rome gradually bound together into a vast political unity the +divided tribes and states of Europe, and so infused into them the +civilization which she had developed or received. And so the Papal Church +united Europe again, and once more permeated it with the elements of law, +of order, of Christian faith. All intelligent Protestants admit the good +done in this way by the mediaeval church. + +For example, Milman[317] says, speaking of Gregory the Great and his work, +that it was necessary that there should be some central power like the +Papacy to resist the dissolution of society at the downfall of the Roman +Empire. "The life and death of Christianity" depended, he says, "on the +rise of such a power." "It is impossible to conceive what had been the +confusion, the lawlessness, the chaotic state of the Middle Ages, without +the mediaeval Papacy." + +The whole history of Rome had infused into the minds of Western nations a +conviction of the importance of centralization in order to union. From +Rome, as a centre, had proceeded government, law, civilization. +Christianity therefore seemed to need a like centre, in order to retain +its unity. Hence the supremacy early yielded to the Bishop of Rome. His +primacy was accepted, because it was useful. The Papal Church would never +have existed, if Rome and its organizing ideas had not existed before +Christianity was born. + +In like manner the ideas developed in the Roman mind determined the course +of Western theology, as differing from that of the East. It is well known +that Eastern theological speculation was occupied with the nature of God +and the person of Christ, but that Western theology discussed sin and +salvation. Mr. Maine, in his work on "Ancient Law," considers this +difference to have been occasioned by habits of thought produced by Roman +jurisprudence. I quote his language at some length:-- + +"What has to be determined is whether jurisprudence has ever served as the +medium through which theological principles have been viewed; whether, by +supplying a peculiar language, a peculiar mode of reasoning, and a +peculiar solution of many of the problems of life, it has ever opened new +channels in which theological speculation could flow out and expand +itself." + +"On all questions," continues Mr. Maine, quoting Dean Milman, "which +concerned the person of Christ and the nature of the Trinity, the Western +world accepted passively the dogmatic system of the East." "But as soon as +the Latin-speaking empire began to live an intellectual life of its own, +its deference to the East was at once exchanged for the agitation of a +number of questions entirely foreign to Eastern speculation." "The nature +of sin and its transmission by inheritance, the debt owed by man and its +vicarious satisfaction, and like theological problems, relating not to the +divinity but to human nature, immediately began to be agitated." "I +affirm," says Mr. Maine, "without hesitation, that the difference between +the two theological systems is accounted for by the fact that, in passing +from the East to the West, theological speculation had passed from a +climate of Greek metaphysics to a climate of Roman law. For some centuries +before these controversies rose into overwhelming importance, all the +intellectual activity of the Western Romans had been expended on +jurisprudence exclusively. They had been occupied in applying a peculiar +set of principles to all combinations in which the circumstances of life +are capable of being arranged. No foreign pursuit or taste called off +their attention from this engrossing occupation, and for carrying it on +they possessed a vocabulary as accurate as it was copious, a strict method +of reasoning, a stock of general propositions on conduct more or less +verified by experience, and a rigid moral philosophy. It was impossible +that they should not select from the questions indicated by the Christian +records those which had some affinity with the order of speculations to +which they were accustomed, and that their manner of dealing with them +should not borrow something from their forensic habits. Almost every one +who has knowledge enough of Roman law to appreciate the Roman penal +system, the Roman theory of the obligations established by contract or +delict, the Roman view of debts, etc., the Roman notion of the continuance +of individual existence by universal succession, may be trusted to say +whence arose the frame of mind to which the problems of Western theology +proved so congenial, whence came the phraseology in which these problems +were stated, and whence the description of reasoning employed in their +solution." "As soon as they (the Western Church) ceased to sit at the feet +of the Greeks and began to ponder out a theology of their own, the +theology proved to be permeated with forensic ideas and couched in a +forensic phraseology. It is certain that this substratum of law in Western +theology lies exceedingly deep."[318] + +The theory of the atonement, developed by the scholastic writers, +illustrates this view. In the East, for a thousand years, the atoning work +of Christ had been viewed mainly as redemption, as a ransom paid to +obtain the freedom of mankind, enslaved by the Devil in consequence of +their sins. It was not a legal theory, or one based on notions of +jurisprudence, but it was founded on warlike notions. Men were captives +taken in war, and, like all captives in those times, destined to slavery. +Their captor was Satan, and the ransom must be paid to him, as he held +them prisoners by the law of battle. Now as Christ had committed no sin, +the Devil had no just power over him; in putting Christ to death he had +lost his rights over his other captives, and Christ could justly claim +their freedom as a compensation for this injury. Christ, therefore, +strictly and literally, according to the ancient view, "gave his life a +ransom for many." + +But the mind of Anselm, educated by notions derived from Roman +jurisprudence, substituted for this original theory of the atonement one +based upon legal ideas. All, in this theory, turns on the law of debt and +penalty. Sin he defines as "not paying to God what we owe him."[319] But +we owe God constant and entire obedience, and every sin deserves either +penalty or satisfaction. We are unable to make it good, for at every +moment we owe God all that we can do. Christ, as God-man, can satisfy God +for our omissions; his death, as offered freely, when he did not deserve +death on account of any sin of his own, is sufficient satisfaction. It +will easily be seen how entirely this argument has substituted a legal +basis for the atonement in place of the old warlike foundation. + +This, therefore, has been the legacy of ancient Rome to Christianity: +firstly, the organization of the Latin Church; secondly, the scholastic +theology, founded on notions of jurisprudence introduced into man's +relations to God. In turn, Christianity has bestowed on Western Europe +what the old Romans never knew,--a religion of love and inspiration. In +place of the hard and cold Roman life, modern Europe has sentiment and +heart united with thought and force. With Roman strength it has joined a +Christian tenderness, romance, and personal freedom. Humanity now is +greater than the social organization; the state, according to our view, is +made for man, not man for the state. We are outgrowing the hard and dry +theology which we have inherited from Roman law through the scholastic +teachers; but we shall not outgrow our inheritance from Rome of unity in +the Church, definite thought in our theology, and society organized by +law. + + + + +Chapter IX. + +The Teutonic and Scandinavian Religion. + + + + Sec. 1. The Land and the Race. + Sec. 2. Idea of the Scandinavian Religion. + Sec. 3. The Eddas and their Contents. + Sec. 4. The Gods of Scandinavia. + Sec. 5. Resemblance of the Scandinavian Mythology to that of Zoroaster. + Sec. 6. Scandinavian Worship. + Sec. 7. Social Character, Maritime Discoveries, and Political Institutions + of the Scandinavians. + Sec. 8. Relation of this System to Christianity. + + + +Sec. 1. The Land and the Race. + + +The great Teutonic or German division of the Indo-European family entered +Europe subsequently to the Keltic tribes, and before the Slavic +immigration. This people overspread and occupied a large part of Northern +Central Europe, from which the attempts of the Romans to dispossess them +proved futile. Of their early history we know very little. Bishop Percy +contrasts their love of making records, as shown by the Runic +inscriptions, with the Keltic law of secrecy. The Druids forbade any +communication of their mysteries by writing; but the German Scalds put all +their belief into popular songs, and reverenced literature as a gift of +the gods. Yet we have received very little information concerning these +tribes before the days of Caesar and Tacitus. Caesar describes them as +warlike, huge in stature; having reverence for women, who were their +augurs and diviners; worshipping the Sun, the Moon, and Fire; having no +regular priests, and paying little regard to sacrifices. He says that they +occupied their lives in hunting and war, devoting themselves from +childhood to severe labors. They reverenced chastity, and considered it as +conducive to health and strength. They were rather a pastoral than +agricultural people; no one owning land, but each having it assigned to +him temporarily. The object of this provision was said to be to prevent +accumulation of wealth and the loss of warlike habits. They fought with +cavalry supported by infantry. In the time of Augustus all attempts at +conquering Germany were relinquished, and war was maintained only in the +hope of revenging the destruction of Varus and his three legions by the +famous German chief Arminius, or Herrman[320]. + +Tacitus freely admits that the Germans were as warlike as the Romans, and +were only inferior in weapons and discipline. He pays a generous tribute +to Arminius, whom he declares to have been "beyond all question the +liberator of Germany," dying at thirty-seven, unconquered in war.[321] +Tacitus quotes from some ancient German ballads or hymns ("the only +historic monuments," says he, "that they possess") the names of Tuisto, a +god born from the earth, and Mannus, his son. Tacitus was much struck with +the physical characteristics of the race, as being so uniform. There was a +family likeness, he says, among them all,--stern blue eyes, yellow hair, +large bodies. Their wealth was in their flocks and herds. "Gold and silver +are kept from them by the anger, or perhaps by the favor, of Heaven." +Their rulers were elective, and their power was limited. Their judges were +the priests. They saw something divine in woman, and her judgments were +accepted as oracles. Such women as Veleda and Aurinia were reverenced as +prophets; "but not adored or made into goddesses," says Tacitus, with a +side-glance at some events at home. Their gods, Tacitus chooses to call +Mercury, Hercules, and Mars; but he distinctly says that the Germans had +neither idols nor temples, but worshipped in sacred groves[322]. He also +says that the Germans divined future events by pieces of sticks, by the +duel, and by the movements of sacred horses. Their leaders might decide +the less important matters, but the principal questions were settled at +public meetings. These assemblies were held at regular intervals, were +opened by the priest, were presided over by the chief, and decided all +public affairs. Tacitus remarks that the spirit of liberty goes to such +an extreme among the Germans as to destroy regularity and order. They will +not be punctual at their meetings, lest it should seem as if they attended +because commanded to come.[323] Marriage was sacred, and, unlike other +heathen nations, they were contented with one wife. They were affectionate +and constant to the marriage vow, which meant to the pure German woman one +husband, one life, one body, and one soul. The ancient Germans, like their +modern descendants, drank beer and Rhenish wine, and were divided into +numerous tribes, who afterward reappeared for the destruction of the Roman +Empire, as the Goths, Vandals, Lombards, and Franks. + +The Scandinavians were a branch of the great German family. Their +language, the old Norse, was distinguished from the Alemannic, or High +German tongue, and from the Saxonic, or Low German tongue. From the Norse +have been derived the languages of Iceland, of the Ferroe Isles, of +Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. From the Germanic branch have come German, +Dutch, Anglo-Saxon, Maeso-Gothic, and English. It was in Scandinavia that +the Teutonic race developed its special civilization and religion. Cut off +from the rest of the world by stormy seas, the people could there unfold +their ideas, and become themselves. It is therefore to Scandinavia that we +must go to study the German religion, and to find the influence exercised +on modern civilization and the present character of Europe. This influence +has been freely acknowledged by great historians. + +Montesquieu says:[324]-- + + + "The great prerogative of Scandinavia is, that it afforded the great + resource to the liberty of Europe, that is, to almost all of liberty + there is among men. The Goth Jornandes calls the North of Europe the + forge of mankind. I would rather call it the forge of those instruments + which broke the fetters manufactured in the South." + +Geijer, in his Swedish History, tells us:-- + + + "The recollections which Scandinavia has to add to those of the + Germanic race are yet the most antique in character and comparatively + the most original. They offer the completest remaining example of a + social state existing previously to the reception of influences from + Rome, and in duration stretching onward so as to come within the sphere + of historical light." + +We do not know how much of those old Northern ideas may be still mingled +with our ways of thought. The names of their gods we retain in those of +our weekdays,--Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Their popular +assemblies, or Things, were the origin of our Parliament, our Congress, +and our general assemblies. If from the South came the romantic admiration +of woman, from the North came a better respect for her rights and the +sense of her equality. Our trial by jury was immediately derived from +Scandinavia; and, according to Montesquieu, as we have seen, we owe to the +North, as the greatest inheritance of all, that desire for freedom which +is so chief an element in Christian civilization. + +Scandinavia proper consists of those regions now occupied by the kingdoms +of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The geographical peculiarity of this +country is its proximity everywhere to the sea, and the great extent of +its coast line. The great peninsula of Sweden and Norway, with the +Northern Ocean on its west, the Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia on its east, +penetrated everywhere by creeks, friths, and arms of the sea, surrounded +with innumerable islands, studded with lakes, and cleft with rivers, is +also unrivalled, except by Switzerland, in the sublime and picturesque +beauty of its mountains. The other peninsula, that of Denmark, surrounded +and penetrated also everywhere by the sea, differs in being almost level; +rising nowhere, at its highest point, more than a thousand feet above the +ocean. Containing an area of only twenty-two thousand square miles, it is +so penetrated with bays and creeks as to have four thousand miles of +coast. Like the northern peninsula, it is also surrounded with a multitude +of islands, which are so crowded together, especially on its eastern +coast, as to make an archipelago. It is impossible to look at the map of +Europe, and not be struck with the resemblance in these particulars +between its northern and southern geography. The Baltic Sea is the +Mediterranean of Northern Europe. The peninsula of Denmark, with its +multitudinous bays and islands, corresponds to Greece, the Morea, and its +archipelago. We have shown in our chapter on Greece that modern geography +teaches that the extent of coast line, when compared with the superficial +area of a country, is one of the essential conditions of civilization. Who +can fail to see the hand of Providence in the adaptation of races to the +countries they are to inhabit? The great tide of human life, flowing +westward from Central Asia, was divided into currents by the Caspian and +Black Seas, and by the lofty range of mountains which, under the name of +the Caucasus, Carpathian Mountains, and Alps, extends almost in an +unbroken line from the western coast of the Caspian to the northern limits +of Germany. The Teutonic races, Germans, Saxons, Franks, and Northmen, +were thus determined to the north, and spread themselves along the coast +and peninsulas of the Northern Mediterranean. The other branch of the +great Indo-European variety was distributed through Syria, Asia Minor, +Greece, Southern France, Italy, and Spain. Each of these vast European +families, stimulated to mental and moral activity by its proximity to +water, developed its own peculiar forms of national character, which were +afterwards united in modern European society. The North developed +individual freedom, the South social organization. The North gave force, +the South culture. From Southern Europe came literature, philosophy, laws, +arts; from the North, that respect for individual rights, that sense of +personal dignity, that energy of the single soul, which is the essential +equipoise of a high social culture. These two elements, of freedom and +civilization, always antagonist, have been in most ages hostile. The +individual freedom of the North has been equivalent to barbarism, and from +time to time has rolled down a destroying deluge over the South, almost +sweeping away its civilization, and overwhelming in a common ruin arts, +literature, and laws. On the other hand, civilization at the South has +passed into luxury, has produced effeminacy, till individual freedom has +been lost under grinding despotism. But in modern civilization a third +element has been added, which has brought these two powers of Northern +freedom and Southern culture into equipoise and harmony. This new element +is Christianity, which develops, at the same time, the sense of personal +responsibility, by teaching the individual destiny and worth of every +soul, and also the mutual dependence and interlacing brotherhood of all +human society. This Christian element in modern civilization saves it from +the double danger of a relapse into barbarism on the one hand, and a too +refined luxury on the other. The nations of Europe, to-day, which are the +most advanced in civilization, literature, and art, are also the most +deeply pervaded with the love of freedom; and the most civilized nations +on the globe, instead of being the most effeminate, are also the most +powerful. + +The Scandinavian people, destined to play so important a part in the +history of the world, were, as we have said, a branch of the great +Indo-European variety. We have seen that modern ethnology teaches that all +the races which inhabit Europe, with some trifling exceptions, belong to +one family, which originated in Central Asia. This has appeared and is +proved by means of glossology, or the science of language. The closest +resemblance exists between the seven linguistic families of Hindostan, +Persia, Greece, Rome, Germany, the Kelts, and the Slavi; and it is a most +striking fact of human history, that from the earliest period of recorded +time down to the present day a powerful people, speaking a language +belonging to one or other of these races, should have in a great measure +swayed the destinies of the world. + +Before the birth of Christ the peninsula of Denmark was called by the +Romans the Cimbric Chersonesus, or Cimbric peninsula. This name came from +the Cimbri, a people who, one hundred and eleven years before Christ, +almost overthrew the Roman Republic, exciting more terror than any event +since the days of Hannibal. More than three hundred thousand men, issuing +from the peninsula of Denmark and the adjacent regions, poured like a +torrent over Gaul and Southern Germany. They met and overthrew in +succession four Roman armies; until, finally, they were conquered by the +military skill and genius of Marius. After this eruption was checked, the +great northern volcano slumbered for centuries. Other tribes from +Asia--Goths, Vandals, Huns--combined in the overthrow of the Roman Empire. +At last the inhabitants of Scandinavia appear again under the name of +Northmen, invading and conquering England in the fifth century as Saxons, +in the ninth century as Danes, and in the eleventh as Normans again +overrunning England and France. But the peculiarity of the Scandinavian +invasions was their maritime character. Daring and skilful navigators, +they encountered the tempests of the Northern Ocean and the heavy roll of +the Atlantic in vessels so small and slight that they floated like +eggshells on the surface of the waves, and ran up the rivers of France and +England, hundreds of miles, without check from shallows or rocks. In these +fragile barks they made also the most extraordinary maritime discoveries. +The sea-kings of Norway discovered Iceland, and settled it A.D. 860 and +A.D. 874. They discovered and settled Greenland A.D. 982 and A.D. 986. On +the western coast of Greenland they planted colonies, where churches were +built, and diocesan bishoprics established, which lasted between four and +five hundred years. Finally, in A.D. 1000, they discovered, by sailing +from Greenland, the coast of Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Massachusetts Bay; +and, five hundred years before the discovery of Columbus, gathered grapes +and built houses on the southern side of Cape Cod. These facts, long +considered mythical, have been established, to the satisfaction of +European scholars, by the publication of Icelandic contemporaneous annals. +This remarkable people have furnished nearly the whole population of +England by means of the successive conquests of Saxon, Danes, and Normans, +driving the Keltic races into the mountainous regions of Wales and North +Scotland, where their descendants still remain. Colonizing themselves also +everywhere in Northern Europe, and even in Italy and Greece, they have +left the familiar stamp of their ideas and habits in all our modern +civilization[325]. + + + +Sec. 2. Idea of the Scandinavian Religion. + + +The central idea of the Scandinavian belief was the free struggle of soul +against material obstacles, the freedom of the Divine will in its conflict +with the opposing forces of nature. The gods of the Scandinavians were +always at war. It was a system of dualism, in which sunshine, summer, and +growth were waging perpetual battle with storm, snow, winter, ocean, and +terrestrial fire. As the gods, so the people. War was their business, +courage their duty, fortitude their virtue. The conflict of life with +death, of freedom with fate, of choice with necessity, of good with evil, +made up their history and destiny. + +This conflict in the natural world was especially apparent in the +struggle, annually renewed, between summer and winter. Therefore the light +and heat gods were their friends, those of darkness and cold their +enemies. For the same reason that the burning heat of summer, Typhon, was +the Satan of Egypt; so in the North the Jotuns, ice-giants, were the +Scandinavian devils. + +There are some virtues which are naturally associated together, such as +the love of truth, the sense of justice, courage, and personal +independence. There is an opposite class of virtues in like manner +naturally grouped together,--sympathy, mutual helpfulness, and a tendency +to social organization. The serious antagonism in the moral world is that +of truth and love. Most cases of conscience which present a real +difficulty resolve themselves into a conflict of truth and love. It is +hard to be true without hurting the feelings of others; it is hard to +sympathize with others and not yield a little of our inward truth. The +same antagonism is found in the religions of the world. The religions in +which truth, justice, freedom, are developed tend to isolation, coldness, +and hardness. On the other hand, the religions of brotherhood and human +sympathy tend to weakness, luxury, and slavery. + +The religion of the German races, which was the natural growth of their +organization and moral character, belonged to the first class. It was a +religion in which truth, justice, self-respect, courage, freedom, were the +essential elements. The gods were human, as in the Hellenic system, with +moral attributes. They were finite beings and limited in their powers. +They carried on a warfare with hostile and destructive agents, in which at +last they were to be vanquished and destroyed, though a restoration of the +world and the gods would follow that destruction. + +Such was the idea in all the faith of the Teutonic race. The chief virtue +of man was courage, his unpardonable sin was cowardice. "To fight a good +fight," this was the way to Valhalla. Odin sent his Choosers to every +battlefield to select the brave dead to become his companions in the joys +of heaven. + + + +Sec. 3. The Eddas and their Contents. + + +We have observed that Iceland was settled from Norway in the ninth +century. A remarkable social life grew up there, which preserved the +ideas, manners, and religion of the Teutonic people in their purity for +many hundred years, and whose Eddas and Sagas are the chief source of our +knowledge of the race. In this ultimate and barren region of the earth, +where seas of ice make thousands of square miles desolate and +impenetrable, where icy masses, elsewhere glaciers, are here mountains, +where volcanoes with terrible eruptions destroy whole regions of inhabited +country in a few days with lava, volcanic sand, and boiling water, was +developed to its highest degree the purest form of Scandinavian life. + +The religion of the Scandinavians is contained in the Eddas, which are +two,--the poetic, or elder Edda, consisting of thirty-seven poems, first +collected and published at the end of the eleventh century; and the +younger, or prose Edda, ascribed to the celebrated Snorro Sturleson, born +of a distinguished Icelandic family in the twelfth century, who, after +leading a turbulent and ambitious life, and being twice chosen supreme +magistrate, was killed A.D. 1241. The principal part of the prose Edda is +a complete synopsis of Scandinavian mythology. + +The elder Edda, which is the fountain of the mythology, consists of old +songs and ballads, which had come down from an immemorial past in the +mouths of the people, but were first collected and committed to writing by +Saemund, a Christian priest of Iceland in the eleventh century. He was a +Bard, or Scald, as well as a priest, and one of his own poems, "The +Sun-Song," is in his Edda. This word "Edda" means "great-grandmother," the +ancient mother of Scandinavian knowledge. Or perhaps this name was given +to the legends, repeated by grandmothers to their grandchildren by the +vast firesides of the old farm-houses in Iceland. + +This rhythmical Edda consists of thirty-seven poems[326]. It is in two +parts,--the first containing mythical poems concerning the gods and the +creation; the second, the legends of the heroes of Scandinavian history. +This latter portion of the Edda has the original and ancient fragments +from which the German Nibelungen-lied was afterward derived. These songs +are to the German poem what the ante-Homeric ballad literature of Greece +about Troy and Ulysses was to the Iliad and Odyssey as reduced to unity by +Homer. + +The first poem in the first part of the poetic Edda is the Voluspa, or +Wisdom of Vala. The Vala was a prophetess, possessing vast supernatural +knowledge. Some antiquarians consider the Vala to be the same as the +Nornor, or Fates. They were dark beings, whose wisdom was fearful even to +the gods, resembling in this the Greek Prometheus. The Voluspa describes +the universe before the creation, in the morning of time, before the great +Ymir lived, when there was neither sea nor shore nor heaven. It begins +thus, Vala speaking:-- + + "I command the devout attention of all noble souls, + Of all the high and the low of the race of Heimdall; + I tell the doings of the All-Father, + In the most ancient Sagas which come to my mind. + + "There was an age in which Ymir lived, + When was no sea, nor shore, nor salt waves; + No earth below, nor heaven above, + No yawning abyss and no grassy land. + + "Till the sons of Bors lifted the dome of heaven, + And created the vast Midgard (earth) below; + Then the sun of the south rose above the mountains, + And green grasses made the ground verdant. + + "The sun of the south, companion of the moon, + Held the horses of heaven with his right hand; + The sun knew not what its course should be, + The moon knew not what her power should be, + The stars knew not where their places were. + + "Then the counsellors went into the hall of judgment, + And the all-holy gods held a council. + They gave names to the night and new moon; + They called to the morning and to midday, + To the afternoon and evening, arranging the times." + +The Voluspa goes on to describe how the gods assembled on the field of +Ida, and proceeded to create metals and vegetables; after that the race of +dwarfs, who preside over the powers of nature and the mineral world. Then +Vala narrates how the three gods, Odin, Honir, and Lodur, "the mighty and +mild Aser," found Ask and Embla, the Adam and Eve of the Northern legends, +lying without soul, sense, motion, or color. Odin gave them their souls, +Honir their intellects, Lodur their blood and colored flesh. Then comes +the description of the ash-tree Yggdrasil, of the three Norns, or sisters +of destiny, who tell the Aser their doom, and the end and renewal of the +world; and how, at last, one being mightier than all shall arrive:-- + + "Then comes the mighty one to the council of the gods, + He with strength from on high who guides all things, + He decides the strife, he puts an end to struggle, + He ordains eternal laws." + +In the same way, in the Song of Hyndla, another of the poems of this Edda, +is a prediction of one who shall come, mightier than all the gods, and put +an end to the strife between Aser and the giants. The song begins:-- + + "Wake, maid of maidens! Awake, my friend! + Hyndla, sister, dwelling in the glens! + It is night, it is cloudy; let us ride together + To the sacred place, to Valhalla." + +Hyndla sings, after describing the heroes and princes born of the gods:-- + + "One shall be born higher than all, + Who grows strong with the strength of the earth; + He is famed as the greatest of rulers, + United with all nations as brethren. + + "But one day there shall come another mightier than he; + But I dare not name his name. + Few are able to see beyond + The great battle of Odin and the Wolf." + +Among the poems of the elder Edda is a Book of Proverbs, like those of +Solomon in their sagacious observations on human life and manners. It is +called the Havamal. At first we should hardly expect to find these maxims +of worldly wisdom among a people whose chief business was war. But war +develops cunning as well as courage, and battles are won by craft no less +than by daring. Consequently, among a warlike people, sagacity is +naturally cultivated. + +The Havamal contains (in its proverbial section) one hundred and ten +stanzas, mostly quatrains. The following are specimens:-- + + 1. "Carefully consider the end + Before you go to do anything, + For all is uncertain, when the enemy + Lies in wait in the house. + + 4. "The guest who enters + Needs water, a towel, and hospitality. + A kind reception secures a return + In word and in deed. + + 7. "The wise man, on coming in, + Is silent and observes, + Hears with his ears, looks with his eyes, + And carefully reflects on every event. + + 11. "No worse a companion can a man take on his journey + Than drunkenness. + Not as good as many believe + Is beer to the sons of men. + The more one drinks, the less he knows, + And less power has he over himself. + + 26. "A foolish man, in company, had better be silent. + Until he speaks no one observes his folly. + But he who knows little does not know this, + When he had better be silent. + + 29. "Do not mock at the stranger + Who comes trusting in your kindness; + For when he has warmed himself at your fire, + He may easily prove a wise man. + + 34. "It is better to depart betimes, + And not to go too often to the same house. + Love tires and turns to sadness + When one sits too often at another man's table. + + 35. "One's own house, though small, is better, + For there thou art the master. + It makes a man's heart bleed to ask + For a midday meal at the house of another. + + 36. "One's own house, though small, is better; + At home thou art the master. + Two goats and a thatched roof + Are better than begging. + + 38. "It is hard to find a man so rich + As to refuse a gift. + It is hard to find a man so generous + As to be always glad to lend. + + 42. "Is there a man whom you distrust, + And who yet can help you? + Be smooth in words and false in thought, + And pay back his deceit with cunning. + + 48. "I hung my garments on two scarecrows, + And, when dressed, they seemed + Ready for the battle. + Unclothed they were jeered at by all. + + 52. "Small as a grain of sand + Is the small sense of a fool; + Very unequal is human wisdom. + The world is made of two unequal halves. + + 53. "It is well to be wise; it is not well + To be too wise. + He has the happiest life + Who knows well what he knows. + + 54. "It is well to be wise; not well + To be too wise. + The wise man's heart is not glad + When he knows too much. + + 55. "Two burning sticks placed together + Will burn entirely away. + Man grows bright by the side of man; + Alone, he remains stupid." + +Such are the proverbs of the Havamal. This sort of proverbial wisdom may +have come down from the days when the ancestors of the Scandinavians left +Central Asia. It is like the fables and maxims of the Hitopadesa.[327] + +Another of these poems is called Odin's Song of Runes. Runes were the +Scandinavian alphabet, used for lapidary inscriptions, a thousand of which +have been discovered in Sweden, and three or four hundred in Denmark and +Norway, mostly on tombstones. This alphabet consists of sixteen letters, +with the powers of F, U, TH, O, R, K, H, N, I, A, S, T, B, L, M, Y. The +letters R, I, T, and B very nearly resemble the Roman letters of the same +values. A magical power was ascribed to these Runes, and they were carved +on sticks and then scraped off, and used as charms. These rune-charms were +of different kinds, eighteen different sorts are mentioned in this song. + +A song of Brynhilda speaks of different runes which she will teach Sigurd. +"_Runes of victory_ must those know, to conquer thine enemies. They must +be carved on the blade of thy sword. _Drink-Runes_ must thou know to make +maidens love thee. Thou must carve them on thy drinking horn. _Runes of +freedom_ must thou know to deliver the captives. _Storm-Runes_ must thou +know, to make thy vessel go safely over the waves. Carve them on the mast +and the rudder. _Herb-Runes_ thou must know to cure disease. Carve them on +the bark of the tree. _Speech-Runes_ must thou know to defeat thine enemy +in council of words, in the Thing. _Mind-Runes_ must thou know to have +good and wise thoughts. These are the Book-Runes, and Help-Runes, and +Drink-Runes, and Power-Runes, precious for whoever can use them." + +The second part of the poetic Edda contains the stories of the old heroes, +especially of Sigurd, the Achilles of Northern romance. There is also the +Song of Volund, the Northern Smith, the German Vulcan, able to make swords +of powerful temper. These songs and ballads are all serious and grave, and +sometimes tender, having in them something of the solemn tone of the old +Greek tragedy. + +The prose Edda, as we have said, was the work of Snorro Sturleson, born in +Iceland in 1178[328]. He probably transcribed most of it from the +manuscripts in his hands, or which were accessible to him, and from the +oral traditions which had been preserved in the memory of the Skalds. His +other chief work was the Heimskringla, or collection of Saga concerning +the history of the Scandinavians. In his preface to this last book he says +he "wrote it down from old stories told by intelligent people"; or from +"ancient family registers containing the pedigrees of kings," or from "old +songs and ballads which our fathers had for their amusement" + +The prose Edda begins with "The deluding of Gylfi," an ancient king of +Sweden. He was renowned for his wisdom and love of knowledge, and +determined to visit Asgard, the home of the AEsir, to learn something of +the wisdom of the gods. They, however, foreseeing his coming, prepared +various illusions to deceive him. Among other things, he saw three +thrones raised one above another. + + + "He afterwards beheld three thrones raised one above another, with a + man sitting on each of them. Upon his asking what the names of these + lords might be, his guide answered: 'He who sits on the lowest throne + is a king; his name is Har (the High or Lofty One); the second is + Jafnhar (i.e. equal to the High); but he who sitteth on the highest + throne is called Thridi (the Third).' Har, perceiving the stranger, + asked him what his errand was, adding that he should be welcome to eat + and drink without cost, as were all those who remained in Hava Hall. + Gangler said he desired first to ascertain whether there was any person + present renowned for his wisdom. + + "'If thou art not the most knowing,' replied Har, 'I fear thou wilt + hardly return safe. But go, stand there below, and propose thy + questions; here sits one who will be able to answer them.' + + "Gangler thus began his discourse: 'Who is the first, or eldest of the + gods?' + + "'In our language,' replied Har, 'he is called Alfadir (All-Father, or + the Father of All); but in the old Asgard he had twelve names.' + + "'Where is this God?' said Gangler; 'what is his power? and what hath + he done to display his glory?' + + "'He liveth,' replied Har, 'from all ages, he governeth all realms, and + swayeth all things great and small.' + + "'He hath formed,' added Jafnhar, 'heaven and earth, and the air, and + all things thereunto belonging.' + + "'And what is more,' continued Thridi, 'he hath made man, and given him + a soul which shall live and never perish, though the body shall have + mouldered away, or have been burnt to ashes. And all that are righteous + shall dwell with him in the place called Gimli, or Vingolf; but the + wicked shall go to Hel, and thence to Niflhel, which is below, in the + ninth world.'" + +Of the creation of the world the Eddas thus speak: In the day-spring of +the ages there was neither seas nor shore nor refreshing breeze; there was +neither earth below nor heaven above. The whole was only one vast abyss, +without herb and without seas. The sun had no palace, the stars no place, +the moon no power. After this there was a bright shining world of flame to +the South, and another, a cloudy and dark one, toward the North. Torrents +of venom flowed from the last into the abyss, and froze, and filled it +full of ice. But the air oozed up through it in icy vapors, which were +melted into living drops by a warm breath from the South; and from these +came the giant Ymir. From him came a race of wicked giants. Afterward, +from these same drops of fluid seeds, children of heat and cold, came the +mundane cow, whose milk fed the giants. Then arose also, in a mysterious +manner, Bor, the father of three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve, who, after +several adventures,--having killed the giant Ymir, and made out of his +body Heaven and Earth,--proceeded to form a man and woman named Ask and +Embla. Chaos having thus disappeared, Odin became the All-Father, creator +of gods and men, with Earth for his wife, and the powerful Thor for his +oldest son. So much for the cosmogony of the Edda. + +On this cosmogony, we may remark that it belongs to the class of +development, or evolution, but combined with a creation. The Hindoo, +Gnostic, and Platonic theories suppose the visible world to have emanated +from God, by a succession of fallings, from the most abstract spirit to +the most concrete matter. The Greeks and Romans, on the contrary, suppose +all things to have come by a process of evolution, or development from an +original formless and chaotic matter. The resemblance between the Greek +account of the origin of gods and men and that of the Scandinavians is +striking. Both systems begin in materialism, and are radically opposed to +the spiritualism of the other theory; and in its account of the origin of +all things from nebulous vapors and heat the Edda reminds us of the modern +scientific theories on the same subject. + +After giving this account of the formation of the world, of the gods, and +the first pair of mortals, the Edda next speaks of night and day, of the +sun and moon, of the rainbow bridge from earth to heaven, and of the great +Ash-tree where the gods sit in council. Night was the daughter of a +giant, and, like all her race, of a dark complexion. She married one of +the AEsir, or children of Odin, and their son was Day, a child light and +beautiful, like its father. The Sun and Moon were two children, the Moon +being the boy, and the Sun the girl; which peculiarity of gender still +holds in the German language. The Edda gives them chariot and horses with +which to drive daily round the heavens, and supposes their speed to be +occasioned by their fear of two gigantic wolves, from Jotunheim, or the +world of darkness, which pursue them. The rainbow is named Bifrost, woven +of three hues, and by this, as a bridge, the gods ride up every day to +heaven from the holy fountain below the earth. Near this fountain dwell +three maidens, below the great Ash-tree, who decide every man's fate. +These Fates, or Norns, are named Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld,--three words +meaning "past," "present," and "future." From Urd comes our word "weird," +and the weird sisters of Shakespeare. The red in the rainbow is burning +fire, which prevents the frost-giants of Jotunheim from going up to +heaven, which they otherwise might do. This region of the gods is called +Asgard, and contains Valhalla, where they feast every day, with all heroes +who have died in battle; drinking mead, but not out of their enemies' +skulls, as has been so often said. This mistake modern scholars have +attributed to a mistranslation of a word in the original, which means +"curved horns," the passage being, "Soon shall we drink ale out of the +curved branches of the skull," that is, of an animal. Their food is the +flesh of a boar, which is renewed every day. + +It is not to be supposed that Odin and the other gods lived quietly on +their Olympus without adventures. Many entertaining ones are narrated in +the Edda, had we room to tell them. One of these describes the death of +Baldur the Good, whom all beings loved. Having been tormented with bad +dreams, indicating that his life was in danger, he told them to the +assembled gods, who made all creatures and things, living or dead, take an +oath to do him no harm. This oath was taken by fire and water, iron and +all other metals, stones, earths, diseases, poisons, beasts, birds, and +creeping things. After this, they amused themselves at their meeting in +setting Baldur up as a mark; some hurling darts or shooting arrows at him, +and some cutting at him with swords and axes; and as nothing hurt him, it +was accounted a great honor done to Baldur. But wicked Loki, or Loke, was +envious at this; and, assuming the form of a woman, he inquired of the +goddess who had administered the oath, whether all things had taken it. +She said everything except one little shrub called mistletoe, which she +thought too young and feeble to do any harm. Therefore Loki got the +mistletoe, and, bringing it to one of the gods, persuaded him to throw it +at Baldur, who, pierced to the heart, fell dead. The grief was immense. An +especial messenger was despatched to Queen Hela, in Hell, to inquire if, +on any terms, Baldur might be ransomed. For nine days and nights he rode +through dark chasms till he crossed the river of Death, and entering the +kingdom of Hela, made known his request. Hela replied that it should now +be discovered whether Baldur was so universally loved as was represented; +for that she would permit him to return to Asgard if all creatures and all +things, without exception, would weep for him. The gods then despatched +messengers through the world to beg all things to weep for Baldur, which +they immediately did. Then you might have seen, not only crocodiles but +the most ferocious beasts dissolved in tears. Fishes wept in the water, +and birds in the air. Stones and trees were covered with pellucid +dew-drops, and, for all we know, this general grief may have been the +occasion of some of the deluges reported by geology. The messengers +returned, thinking the work done, when they found an old hag sitting in a +cavern, and begged her to weep Baldur out of Hell. But she declared that +she could gain nothing by so doing, and that Baldur might stay where he +was, like other people as good as he; planting herself apparently on the +great but somewhat selfish principle of non-intervention. So Baldur +remains in the halls of Hela. But this old woman did not go unpunished. +She was shrewdly suspected to be Loki himself in disguise, and on inquiry +so it turned out. Whereupon a hot pursuit of Loki took place, who, after +changing himself into many forms, was caught, and chained under +sharp-pointed rocks below the earth. + +The adventures of Thor are very numerous. The pleasantest, perhaps, is the +account of his journey to Jotunheim, to visit his enemies, the giants of +Cold and Darkness. On his way, being obliged to pass the night in the +forest, he came to a spacious hall, with an open door, reaching from one +side to the other. In this he went to sleep, but being aroused by an awful +earthquake, Thor and his companions crept into a chamber which opened out +of the hall. When day came they found, sleeping near them, an enormous +giant, so large, that, as it appeared, they had passed the night in the +thumb of his glove. They travelled with him all day; and the next night +Thor considered himself justified in killing this giant, who was one of +their enemies. Three times he launched his mallet with fearful force at +the giant's head, and three times the giant awoke to inquire whether it +was a leaf or an acorn which had fallen on his face. After taking leave of +their enormous and invulnerable companion, they arrived at the abodes of +Jotunheim, and the city of Utgard, and entered the city of the king, +Utgard Loki. This king inquired what great feat Thor and his companions +could do. One professed to be a great eater; on which the king of giants +called one of his servants named Logi, and placed between them a trough +filled with meat. Thor's companion ate his share, but Logi ate meat and +bone too, and the trough into the bargain, and was considered to have +conquered. Thor's other companion was a great runner, and was set to run +with a young man named Hugi, who so outstripped him that he reached the +goal before the other had gone half-way. Then Thor was asked what he could +do himself. He said he would engage in a drinking-match, and was presented +with a large horn, and was requested to empty it at a single draught, +which he expected easily to do, but on looking in the liquor seemed +scarcely diminished. The second time he tried, and lowered it slightly. A +third, and it was still only sunk half an inch. Whereupon he was laughed +at, and called for some new feat. "We have a trifling game here," +answered the king, "in which we exercise none but children. It is merely +to lift my cat from the ground." Thor put forth his whole might, but could +only lift up one foot, and was laughed at again. Angry at this, he called +for some one to wrestle with him. "My men," said King Utgard, "would think +it beneath them to wrestle with thee, but let some one call my old nurse +Eld, and let Thor wrestle with her." A toothless old woman entered the +hall, and after a violent struggle Thor began to lose his footing, and +went home excessively mortified. But it turned out afterward that all this +was illusion. The three blows of the mallet, instead of striking the +giant's head, had fallen on a mountain, which he had dexterously put +between, and made three deep ravines in it, which remain to this day. The +triumphant eater was Fire itself, disguised as a man. The successful +runner was Thought. The horn out of which Thor tried to drink was +connected with the ocean, which was lowered a few inches by his tremendous +draughts. The cat was the great Midgard Serpent, which goes round the +world, and Thor had actually pulled the earth a little way out of its +place; and the old woman was Old Age itself[329]. + +According to this mythology, there is coming a time in which the world +will be destroyed by fire and afterward renewed. This will be, preceded by +awful disasters; dreadful winters; wars, and desolations on earth; cruelty +and deceit; the sun and moon will be devoured, the stars hurled from the +sky, and the earth violently shaken. The Wolf (Fenrir), the awful Midgard +Serpent, Loki, and Hela come to battle with the gods. The great Ash-tree +will shake with fear. The Wolf (Fenrir) breaks loose, and opens his +enormous mouth. The lower jaw reaches to the earth, and the upper to +heaven. The Midgard Serpent, by the side of the Wolf, vomits forth floods +of poison. Heaven is rent in twain, and Surtur and the sons of Muspell +ride through the breach. These are the children of Light and Fire, who +dwell in the South, and who seem to belong neither to the race of gods nor +to that of giants, but to a third party, who only interfere at the close +of the conflict. While the battle goes on between the gods and the giants +they keep their effulgent bands apart on the field of battle. Meantime +Heimdall--doorkeeper of the gods--sounds his mighty trumpet, which is +heard through the whole universe, to summon the gods to conflict. The +gods, or AEsir, and all the heroes of Valhalla, arm themselves and go to +the field. Odin fights with the Wolf; Thor with the Midgard Serpent, whom +he kills, but being suffocated with the floods of venom dies himself. The +Wolf swallows Odin, but at that instant Vidar sets his foot on its lower +jaw, and laying hold of the upper jaw tears it apart. He accomplishes this +because he has on the famous shoe, the materials of which have been +collecting for ages, it being made of the shreds of shoe-leather which are +cut off in making shoes, and which, on this account, the religious +Scandinavians were careful to throw away. Loki and Heimdall fight and kill +each other. After this Surtur darts fire over the whole earth, and the +whole universe is consumed. But then comes the restitution of all things. +There will rise out of the sea a new heaven and a new earth. Two gods, +Vidar and Vali, and two human beings, a man and woman, survive the +conflagration, and with their descendants occupy the heavens and earth. +The suns of Thor come with their father's hammer and put an end to war. +Baldur, and Hodur, the blind god, come up from Hell, and the daughter of +the Sun, more beautiful than its mother, occupies its place in the skies. + + + +Sec. 4. The Gods of Scandinavia. + + +We can give no better account of the Norse pantheon than by extracting the +passages from the prose Edda, which describe the gods. We take the +translation in Mallet's Northern Antiquities:-- + + + "OF ODIN. + + "'I must now ask thee,' said Gangler, 'who are the gods that men are + bound to believe in?' + + "'There are twelve gods,' replied Har, 'to whom divine honors ought to + be rendered.' + + "'Nor are the goddesses,' added Jafhhar, 'less divine and mighty.' + + "'The first and eldest of the AEsir,' continued Thridi, 'is Odin. He + governs all things, and although the other deities are powerful, they + all serve and obey him as children do their father. Frigga is his wife. + She foresees the destinies of men, but never reveals what is to come. + For thus it is said that Odin himself told Loki, "Senseless Loki, why + wilt thou pry into futurity? Frigga alone knoweth the destinies of all, + though she telleth them never."' + + "'Odin is named Alfadir (All-father), because he is the father of all + the gods, and also Valfadir (Choosing Father), because he chooses for + his sons all those who fall in combat. For their abode he has prepared + Valhalla and Vingolf, where they are called Einherjar (Heroes or + Champions). Odin is also called Hangagud, Haptagud, and Farmagud, and, + besides these, was named in many ways when he went to King + Geirraudr.'.... + + + "OF THOR. + + "'I now ask thee,' said Gangler, 'what are the names of the other gods? + What are their functions, and what have they brought to pass?' + + "'The mightiest of them,' replied Har, 'is Thor. He is called Asa-Thor + and Auku-Thor, and is the strongest of gods and men. His realm is named + Thrudvang, and his mansion Bilskirnir, in which are five hundred and + forty halls. It is the largest house ever built. Thus it is called in + the Grimnismal:-- + + "Fire hundred halls + And forty more, + Methinketh, hath + Bowed Bilskirnir. + Of houses roofed + There's none I know + My son's surpassing." + + "'Thor has a car drawn by two goats called Tanngniost and Tanngrisnir. + From his driving about in this car he is called Auku-Thor + (Charioteer-Thor). He likewise possesses three very precious things. + The first is a mallet called Mjoelnir, which both the Frost and Mountain + Giants know to their cost when they see it hurled against them in the + air; and no wonder, for it has split many a skull of their fathers and + kindred. The second rare thing he possesses is called the belt of + strength or prowess (Megingjardir). When he girds it about him his + divine might is doubly augmented; the third, also very precious, being + his iron gauntlets, which he is obliged to put on whenever he would lay + hold of the handle of his mallet. There is no one so wise as to be able + to relate all Thor's marvellous exploits, yet I could tell thee so many + myself that hours would be whiled away ere all that I know had been + recounted.' + + + "OF BALDUR. + + "'I would rather,' said Gangler, 'hear something about the other + AEsir.' + + "'The second son of Odin,' replied Har, 'is Baldur, and it may be truly + said of him that he is the best, and that all mankind are loud in his + praise. So fair and dazzling is he in form and features, that rays of + light seem to issue from him; and thou mayst have some idea of the + beauty of his hair when I tell thee that the whitest of all plants is + called Baldur's brow. Baldur is the mildest, the wisest, and the most + eloquent of all the AEsir, yet such is his nature that the judgment he + has pronounced can never be altered. He dwells in the heavenly mansion + called Breidablik, in which nothing unclean can enter. As it is said,-- + + "'T is Breidablik called, + "Where Baldur the Fair + Hath built him a bower, + In that land where I know + The least loathliness lieth."' + + + "OF NJOeRD. + + "'The third god,' continued Har, 'is Njoerd, who dwells in the heavenly + region called Noatun. He rules over the winds, and checks the fury of + the sea and of fire, and is therefore invoked by seafarers and + fishermen. He is so wealthy that he can give possessions and treasures + to those who call on him for them. Yet Njoerd is not of the lineage of + the AEsir, for he was born and bred in Vanaheim. But the Vanir gave him + as hostage to the AEsir, receiving from them in his stead Hoenir. By + this means was peace re-established between the AEsir and Vanir. Njoerd + took to wife Skadi, the daughter of the giant Thjassi. She preferred + dwelling in the abode formerly belonging to her father, which is + situated among rocky mountains, in the region called Thrymheim, but + Njoerd loved to reside near the sea. They at last agreed that they + should pass together nine nights in Thrymheim, and then three in + Noatun. One day, when Njoerd came back from the mountains to Noatun, he + thus sang:-- + + "Of mountains I'm weary, + Not long was I there, + Not more than nine nights; + But the howl of the wolf + Methought sounded ill + To the song of the swan-bird." + + '"To which Skadi sang in reply:-- + + "Ne'er can I sleep + In my couch on the strand, + For the screams of the sea-fowl. + The mew as he comes + Every morn from the main + Is sure to awake me." + + "'Skadi then returned to the rocky mountains, and abode in Thrymheim. + There, fastening on her snow-skates and taking her bow, she passes her + time in the chase of savage beasts, and is called the Ondur goddess, + or Ondurdis.....' + + + "OF THE GOD FREY, AND THE GODDESS FREYJA. + + "'Njoerd had afterwards, at his residence at Noatun, two children, a son + named Frey, and a daughter called Freyja, both of them beauteous and + mighty. Frey is one of the most celebrated of the gods. He presides + over rain and sunshine, and all the fruits of the earth, and should be + invoked in order to obtain good harvests, and also for peace. He, + moreover, dispenses wealth among men. Freyja is the most propitious of + the goddesses; her abode in heaven is called Folkvang. To whatever + field of battle she rides, she asserts her right to one half of the + slain, the other half belonging to Odin.....' + + + "OF TYR. + + "'There is Tyr, who is the most daring and intrepid of all the gods. 'T + is he who dispenses valor in war, hence warriors do well to invoke him. + It has become proverbial to say of a man who surpasses all others in + valor that he is _Tyr-strong_, or valiant as Tyr. A man noted for his + wisdom is also said to be "wise as Tyr." Let me give thee a proof of + his intrepidity. When the AEsir were trying to persuade the wolf, + Fenrir, to let himself be bound up with the chain, Gleipnir, he, + fearing that they would never afterwards unloose him, only consented on + the condition that while they were chaining him he should keep Tyr's + right hand between his jaws. Tyr did not hesitate to put his hand in + the monster's mouth, but when Fenrir perceived that the AEsir had no + intention to unchain him, he bit the hand off at that point, which has + ever since been called the wolf's joint (ulflidr). From that time Tyr + has had but one hand. He is not regarded as a peacemaker among men.' + + + "OF THE OTHER GODS. + + "'There is another god,' continued Har, 'named Bragi, who is celebrated + for his wisdom, and more especially for his eloquence and correct forms + of speech. He is not only eminently skilled in poetry, but the art + itself is called from his name _Bragr_, which epithet is also applied + to denote a distinguished poet or poetess. His wife is named Iduna. She + keeps in a box the apples which the gods, when they feel old age + approaching, have only to taste of to become young again. It is in this + manner that they will be kept in renovated youth until Ragnaroek..... + + "'One of the gods is Heimdall, called also the White God. He is the son + of nine virgins, who were sisters, and is a very sacred and powerful + deity. He also bears the appellation of the Gold-toothed, on account of + his teeth being of pure gold, and also that of Hallinskithi. His horse + is called Gulltopp, and he dwells in Himinbjoerg at the end of Bifroest. + He is the warder of the gods, and is therefore placed on the borders of + heaven, to prevent the giants from forcing their way over the bridge. + He requires less sleep than a bird, and sees by night, as well as by + day, a hundred miles around him. So acute is his ear that no sound + escapes him, for he can even hear the grass growing on the earth, and + the wool on a sheep's back. He has a horn called the Gjallar-horn, + which is heard throughout the universe..... + + "'Among the AEsir,' continued Har,'we also reckon Hoedur, who is blind, + but extremely strong. Both gods and men would be very glad if they + never had occasion to pronounce his name, for they will long have cause + to remember the deed perpetrated by his hand. + + "'Another god is Vidar, surnamed the Silent, who wears very thick + shoes. He is almost as strong as Thor himself, and the gods place great + reliance on him in all critical conjunctures. + + "'Vali, another god, is the son of Odin and Rinda; he is bold in war, + and an excellent archer. + + "'Another is called Ullur, who is the son of Sif, and stepson of Thor. + He is so well skilled in the use of the bow, and can go so fast on his + snow-skates, that in these arts no one can contend with him. He is also + very handsome in his person, and possesses every quality of a warrior, + wherefore it is befitting to invoke him in single combats. + + "'The name of another god is Forseti, who is the son of Baldur and + Nanna, the daughter of Nef. He possesses the heavenly mansion called + Glitnir, and all disputants at law who bring their cases before him go + away perfectly reconciled.....' + + + "OF LOKI AND HIS PROGENY. + + "'There is another deity,' continued Har, 'reckoned in the number of + the AEsir, whom some call the calumniator of the gods, the contriver of + all fraud and mischief, and the disgrace of gods and men. His name is + Loki or Loptur. He is the son of the giant Farbauti.....Loki is + handsome and well made, but of a very fickle mood, and most evil + disposition. He surpasses all beings in those arts called Cunning and + Perfidy. Many a time has he exposed the gods to very great perils, and + often extricated them again by his artifices..... + + "'Loki,' continued Har, 'has likewise had three children by Angurbodi, + a giantess of Joetunheim. The first is the wolf Fenrir; the second + Jormungand, the Midgard serpent; the third Hela (Death). The gods were + not long ignorant that these monsters continued to be bred up in + Joetunheim, and, having had recourse to divination, became aware of all + the evils they would have to suffer from them; their being sprung from + such a mother was a bad presage, and from such a sire, one still worse. + All-father therefore deemed it advisable to send one of the gods to + bring them to him. When they came he threw the serpent into that deep + ocean by which the earth is engirdled. But the monster has grown to + such an enormous size that, holding his tail in his mouth, he encircles + the whole earth. Hela he cast into Niflheim, and gave her power over + nine worlds (regions), into which she distributes those who are sent to + her, that is to say, all who die through sickness or old age. Here she + possesses a habitation protected by exceedingly high walls and strongly + barred gates. Her hall is called Elvidnir; Hunger is her table; + Starvation, her knife; Delay, her man; Slowness, her maid; Precipice, + her threshold; Care, her bed; and Burning Anguish forms the hangings of + her apartments. The one half of her body is livid, the other half the + color of human flesh. She may therefore easily be recognized; the more + so, as she has a dreadfully stern and grim countenance. + + "'The wolf Fenrir was bred up among the gods; but Tyr alone had the + daring to go and feed him. Nevertheless, when the gods perceived that + he every day increased prodigiously in size, and that the oracles + warned them that he would one day become fatal to them, they determined + to make a very strong iron fetter for him, which they called Laeding. + Taking this fetter to the wolf, they bade him try his strength on it. + Fenrir, perceiving that the enterprise would not be very difficult for + him, let them do what they pleased, and then, by great muscular + exertion, burst the chain, and set himself at liberty. The gods, having + seen this, made another fetter, half as strong again as the former, + which they called Dromi, and prevailed on the wolf to put it on, + assuring him that, by breaking this, he would give an undeniable proof + of his vigor. + + "'The wolf saw well enough that it would not be so easy to break this + fetter, but finding at the same time that his strength had increased + since he broke Laeding, and thinking that he could never become famous + without running some risk, voluntarily submitted to be chained. When + the gods told him that they had finished their task, Fenrir shook + himself violently, stretched his limbs, rolled on the ground, and at + last burst his chains, which flew in pieces all around him. He thus + freed himself from Dromi, which gave rise to the proverb "_at leysa or + laeethingi eetha at drepa or droma_" (to get loose out of Laeding, or to + dash out of Dromi), when anything is to be accomplished by strong + efforts.' + + "'After this, the gods despaired of ever being able to bind the wolf; + wherefore All-father sent Skirnir, the messenger of Frey, into the + country of the Dark Elves (Svartalfaheim) to engage certain dwarfs to + make the fetter called Gleipnir. It was fashioned out of six things; to + wit, the noise made by the footfall of a cat; the beards of women; the + roots of stones; the sinews of bears; the breath of fish; and the + spittle of birds. Though thou mayest not have heard of these things + before, thou mayest easily convince thyself that we have not been + telling thee lies. Thou must have seen that women have no beards, that + cats make no noise when they run, and that there are no roots under + stones. Now I know what has been told thee to be equally true, although + there may be some things thou art not able to furnish a proof of.' + + "'I believe what thou hast told me to be true,' replied Gangler, 'for + what thou hast adduced in corroboratiou of thy statement is + conceivable. But how was the fetter smithied?' + + "'This I can tell thee,' replied Har, 'that the fetter was as smooth + and soft as a silken string, and yet, as thou wilt presently hear, of + very great strength. When it was brought to the gods they were profuse + in their thanks to the messenger for the trouble he had given himself; + and taking the wolf with them to the island called Lyngvi, in the Lake + Amsvartnir, they showed him the cord, and expressed their wish that he + would try to break it, assuring him at the same time that it was + somewhat stronger than its thinness would warrant a person in supposing + it to be. They took it themselves, one after another, in their hands, + and after attempting in vain to break it, said, "Thou alone, Fenrir, + art able to accomplish such a feat." + + "'"Methinks," replied the wolf, "that I shall acquire no fame in + breaking such a slender cord; but if any artifice has been employed in + making it, slender though it seems, it shall never come on my feet." + + "'The gods assured him that he would easily break a limber silken cord, + since he had already burst asunder iron fetters of the most solid + construction. "But if thou shouldst not succeed in breaking it," they + added, "thou wilt show that thou art too weak to cause the gods any + fear, and we will not hesitate to set thee at liberty without delay." + + "'"I fear me much," replied the wolf, "that if ye once bind me so fast + that I shall be unable to free myself by my own efforts, ye will be in + no haste to unloose me. Loath am I, therefore, to have this cord wound + round me; but in order that ye may not doubt my courage, I will + consent, provided one of you put his hand into my mouth as a pledge + that ye intend me no deceit." + + "'The gods wistfully looked at each other, and found that they had only + the choice of two evils, until Tyr stepped forward and intrepidly put + his right hand between the monster's jaws. Hereupon the gods, having + tied up the wolf, he forcibly stretched himself, as he had formerly + done, and used all his might to disengage himself, but the more efforts + he made, the tighter became the cord, until all the gods, except Tyr, + who lost his hand, burst into laughter at the sight. + + "'When the gods saw that the wolf was effectually bound, they took the + chain called Gelgja, which was fixed to the fetter, and drew it through + the middle of a large rock named Gjoell, which they sank very deep into + the earth; afterwards, to make it still more secure, they fastened the + end of the cord to a massive stone called Thviti, which they sank still + deeper. The wolf made in vain the most violent efforts to break loose, + and, opening his tremendous jaws, endeavored to bite them. The gods, + seeing this, thrust a sword into his mouth, which pierced his under jaw + up to the hilt, so that the point touched the palate. He then began to + howl horribly, and since that time the foam flows continually from his + mouth in such abundance that it forms the river called Von. There will + he remain until Ragnaroek.'" + +There are also goddesses in the Valhalla, of whom the Edda mentions +Frigga, Saga, and many others. + + + +Sec. 5. Resemblance of the Scandinavian Mythology to that of Zoroaster. + + +These are the main points of the Scandinavian mythology, the resemblance +of which to that of Zoroaster has been often remarked. Each is a dualism, +having its good and evil gods, its worlds of light and darkness, in +opposition to each other. Each has behind this dualism a dim presence, a +vague monotheism, a supreme God, infinite and eternal. In each the evil +powers are for the present conquered and bound in some subterranean +prisons, but are hereafter to break out, to battle with the gods and +overcome them, but to be destroyed themselves at the same time. Each +system speaks of a great conflagration, in which all things will be +destroyed; to be followed by the creation of a new earth, more beautiful +than the other, to be the abode of peace and joy. The duty of man in each +system is war, though this war in the Avesta is viewed rather as moral +conflict, while in the Edda it is taken more grossly for physical +struggle. The tone of the theology of Zoroaster is throughout higher and +more moral than that of the Scandinavians. Its doctrine of creation is not +a mere development by a dark, unintelligent process, nor, on the other +hand, is it a Hindoo or Gnostic system of emanation. It is neither pure +materialism on the one hand nor pantheism on the other; but a true +doctrine of creation, for an intelligent and moral purpose, by the +conscious and free act of the Creator. But in many of the details, again, +we find a singular correspondence between these two systems. Odin +corresponds to Ormazd, Loki to Ahriman, the AEsir to the Amschaspands, the +giants of Jotunheim to the Daevas. So too the ox (Adudab) is the +equivalent of the giant Ymir, and the creation of the man and woman, +Meshia and Meshiane, is correlated to Ask and Embla. Baldur resembles the +Redeemer Sosiosh. The bridge, Bifrost, which goes up to heaven, is the +bridge Chinevat, which goes from the top of Albordj to heaven. The dog +Sirius (Sura), the watchman who keeps guard over the abyss, seems also to +correspond to Surtur, the watchman of the luminous world at the South. The +earth, in the Avesta, is called Hethra, and by the ancient Germans and +Scandinavians, Hertha,--the name given by Tacitus to this goddess, +signifying the earth, in all the Teutonic languages. In like manner, the +German name for heaven, Himmel, is derived from the Sanskrit word +"Himmala," the name of the Himmalah Mountains in Central Asia, believed by +the ancient inhabitants of Asia to be the residence of their gods[330]. + + + +Sec. 6. Scandinavian Worship. + + +The religious ceremonies of the Scandinavians were simple. Their worship, +like that of the followers of Zoroaster, was at first held in the open +air; but in later times they erected temples, some of which were quite +splendid. There were three great festivals in the year. The first was at +the winter solstice, and on the longest night of the year, which was +called the Mother Night, as that which produced the rest. This great feast +was called Yul, whence comes the English Yule, the old name for Christmas, +which festival took its place when the Scandinavians became Christians. +Their festival was in honor of the sun, and was held with sacrifices, +feasting, and great mirth. The second festival was in spring, in honor of +the earth, to supplicate fruitful crops. The third was also in the spring, +in honor of Odin. The sacrifices were of fruits, afterward animals, and +occasionally, in later times, human beings. The people believed in divine +interposition, and also in a fixed destiny, but especially in themselves, +in their own force and courage. Some of them laughed at the gods, some +challenged them to fight with them, and professed to believe in nothing +but their own might and main. One warrior calls for Odin, as a foeman +alone worthy of his steel, and it was considered lawful to fight the gods. +The quicken-tree, or mountain-ash, was believed to possess great virtues, +on account of the aid it afforded to Thor on one occasion. + +Beside the priests, the Northern nations had their soothsayers. They also +believed that by the power of runes the dead could be made to speak. These +runes were called galder, and another kind of magic, mostly practised by +women, was called seid. It was thought that these wise women possessed the +power of raising and allaying storms, and of hardening the body so that +the sword could not cut it. Some charms could give preternatural strength, +others the power of crossing the sea without a ship, of creating and +destroying love, of assuming different forms, of becoming invisible, of +giving the evil eye. Garments could be charmed to protect or to destroy +the wearer. A horse's head, set on a stake, with certain imprecations, +produced fearful mischief to a foe.[331] + +Very few remains of temples have been found in the North. But (as Laing +remarks in his "Sea-Kings of Norway") the most permanent remains of the +religion of Odin are found in the usages and languages of the descendants +of those who worshipped him. These descendants all retain, in the names of +Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the recollections of the chief gods of +this mythology. Mara (the nightmare) still torments the sleep of the +English-speaking people; and the Evil One, Nokke (so says Laing), is the +ancestor of Old Nick. + +Every ninth year solemn sacrifices were held in the great temple at Upsal +in Sweden. The king and all citizens of importance must appear in person +and bring offerings. Crowds came together on these occasions, and no one +was excluded, except for some base or cowardly action. Nine human beings +were sacrificed, usually captives or slaves, but in times of great +calamity even a king was made a victim. Earl Hakon, of Norway, offered his +son in sacrifice to obtain a victory over some pirates. The bodies were +buried in groves, which thence were regarded as very sacred. One, called +Odin's grove, near the temple of Upsal, was sacred in every twig and leaf. + + + +Sec. 7. Social Character, Maritime Discoveries, and Political Institutions of +the Scandinavians. + + +Of the manners, customs, and habits of the Scandinavians, we cannot speak +at length. Society among them was divided into two classes,--the +landholder or bondsmen, and the thralls or slaves. The duty of the last +was to perform domestic service and till the ground, and they consisted of +prisoners taken in war and their children. The business of the landholder +or bondsman was war, and his chief virtue courage. His maxim was, to +conquer a single opponent, to attack two, not to yield to three, and only +to give way to four. To die in battle was their high ambition; then they +believed that they should pass to the halls of Odin. King Ragnar died +singing the pleasure of receiving death in battle, saying, "The hours of +my life have passed away; I shall die laughing." Saxo, describing a duel, +said that one of the champions fell, laughed, and died. Rather than die in +their bed, some, when sick, leaped from a rock into the sea. Others, when +dying, would be carried into a field of battle. Others induced their +friends to kill them. The Icelandic Sagas are filled with stories of +single combats, or _holm-gangs_. When not fighting they were fond of +feasting; and the man who could drink the most beer was counted the best. +The custom of drinking toasts came from the North. As the English give the +Queen, and we the President, as the first health on public occasions, so +they begin with a cup, first to Odin, and afterward to other deities, and +then to the memory of the dead, in what was called grave-beer. Their +institutions were patriarchal; the head of the family was the chief of the +tribe and also its priest. But all the freemen in a neighborhood met in +the Thing, where they decided disputes, laid down social regulations, and +determined on public measures. The Thing was, therefore, legislature, +court of justice, and executive council in one; and once a year, in some +central place, there was held a similar meeting to settle the affairs of +the whole country, called the Land-Thing or All-Thing. At this the king +was chosen for the whole community, who sometimes appointed subordinate +officers called Yarls, or earls, to preside over large districts. Respect +for women was a marked trait among the Scandinavians, as Tacitus has +noticed of their congeners, the Germans. They were admired for their +modesty, sense, and force of character, rather than for the fascinations +which the nations of the South prefer. When Thor described his battle with +the sorceress, the answer was, "Shame, Thor! to strike a woman!" The wife +was expected to be industrious and domestic. She carried the keys of the +house; and the Sagas frequently mention wives who divorced their husbands +for some offence, and took back their dowry. The Skalds, or Bards, had a +high place and great distinction among this people. Their songs +constituted the literature and history of the Scandinavians, and the +people listened, not as to the inspiration of an individual mind, but to +the pulsation of its own past life. Their praises were desired, their +satire feared, by the greatest heroes and kings. Their style was +figurative, sometimes bombastic, often obscure. + +Of the maritime expeditions of the Northmen we have already spoken. For +many centuries they were the terror of Europe, North and South. The +sea-kings of Norway appeared before Constantinople in 866, and afterward a +body-guard of the emperors of the East was composed of these pirates, who +were called the Varangians. Even before the death of Charlemagne their +depredations brought tears to his eyes; and after his death they pillaged +and burnt the principal cities of France, and even his own palace at +Aix-la-Chapelle. They carried their arms into Spain, Italy, and Greece. In +844 a band of these sea-rovers sailed up the Guadalquiver and attacked +Seville, then in possession of the Moors, and took it, and afterward +fought a battle with the troops of Abderahman II. The followers of +Mohammed and the worshippers of Odin, the turbaned Moors and the +fair-haired Norwegians, here met, each far from his original home, each +having pursued a line of conquest, which thus came in contact at their +furthest extremes. + +The Northmen in Italy sold their swords to different princes, and under +Count Rainalf built the city of Aversa in 1029[332]. In Sicily the +Northern knights defeated the Saracens, and enabled the Greek Emperor to +reconquer the island. Afterward they established themselves in Southern +Italy, and took possession of Apulia. A league formed against them by the +Greek and German Emperors and the Pope ended in the utter defeat of the +Papal and German army by three thousand Normans, and they afterward +received and held Apulia as a Papal fief. In 1060 Robert Guiscard became +Duke of Apulia and Calabria, and at last of the whole kingdom of Naples. +Sicily was conquered by his brother, Count Roger, who, with a few +Northmen, routed vast numbers of the Saracens and completed the subjection +of the island, after thirty years of war. Meantime his brother Robert +crossed the Adriatic and besieged and took Durazzo, after a fierce battle, +in which the Scandinavian soldiers of the Greek Emperor fought with the +Normans descended from the same Scandinavian ancestors. + + + +Sec. 8. Relation of this System to Christianity. + + +The first German nation converted to Christianity was that of the Goths, +whose teacher was Ulphilas, born 318, consecrated a bishop in 348. Having +made many converts to Christianity among his people, a persecution arose +against them from the pagan Goths; and in 355, in consequence of this +persecution, he sought and obtained leave to settle his converts in +Maesia. He preached with fervor, studied the Scripture in Greek and Latin, +and made the first translation of the Bible into any German language. +Fragments of his Gothic version are preserved at Upsal. This copy, called +the "Codex Argenteus," was captured by the Swedes at Prague during the +Thirty Years' War. This manuscript is of the sixth century, and, together +with some palimpsests, is the only source of our knowledge of this ancient +version[333]. + +Ulphilas was an Arian, and died confessing his faith in that form of +Unitarianism. Neander says it is to the credit of the orthodox historians +that they do not on that account abate anything of their praise of +Ulphilas for his great labors as a missionary, confessor, and doctor. His +translation was, for a long time, used all over Europe by the various +tribes of German descent. + +Ulphilas, therefore, led the way in that work which resulted in one of the +greatest events of modern history; namely, the conversion of the German +race to Christianity. It was by various families of this Teutonic +stem--Goths, Vandals, Saxons, Lombards, Burgundians, Franks--that the +Roman Empire was overthrown. If they had not been converted to +Christianity before and during these conquests, what would have been the +fate of European civilization? The only bond uniting the modern and +ancient world was the Christian faith, and this faith was so adapted to +the German character that it was everywhere accepted by them[334]. The +conversion of the Anglo-Saxons by Augustin (A.D. 597), of the Germans by +Boniface (A.D. 718-755), of the Saxons (A.D. 803), and the universal +downfall of German heathenism, was a condition _sine qua non_ of that +union of Latin and Greek culture with the German vitality, which was at +the root of modern European civilization. Previous to this the Visigoths +were converted, as we have seen; then the Ostrogoths; then the Vandals and +Gepidae,--all in the fourth century. The Franks became Christians in the +fifth century, the Alemanni and Lombards in the sixth. All of these tribes +were converted by Arian missionaries, except the Franks. But the records +of these missions have perished, for the historians were Catholics, "who," +says Milman[335], "perhaps destroyed, or disdained to preserve, the fame +of Arian conquests to a common Christianity." "It was a surprising +spectacle," says he, "to behold the Teutonic nations melting gradually +into the general mass of Christian worshippers. In every other respect +they were still distinct races. The conquering Ostrogoth or Visigoth, the +Vandal, the Burgundian, the Frank, stood apart from the subjugated Roman +population, as an armed or territorial aristocracy. They maintain, in +great part at least, their laws, their language, their habits, their +character; in religion alone they are blended into one society, constitute +one church, worship at the same altar, and render allegiance to the same +hierarchy. This is the single bond of their common humanity." + +The German races also established everywhere the feudal system, that +curious institution, which has been the subject of so much discussion, and +has perplexed the readers of history by its incongruities. These +perplexities, however, may perhaps be relieved if we see that the +essential character of this institution was this, that it was an army +permanently quartered on a subject people. This definition contains the +explanation of the whole system. The Germans had overrun and conquered the +Roman Empire. They intended to possess and retain it. But being much fewer +in numbers than the conquered people, how could they do this? Suppose that +when the Confederate States had been conquered by the Union Army it had +been determined to hold them permanently as a conquered territory. It +could be done thus. First, the original inhabitants must be disarmed and +put under stringent laws, like that of the curfew, etc. Then to every +private soldier in the Union Army a farm, say of fifty acres, would be +assigned, on condition that whenever summoned by the captain of his +company he would present himself armed to do military duty. In like manner +the captain would receive, say a hundred acres, on condition of appearing +with his company when summoned by his colonel. Then the colonel would +receive five hundred acres, on condition of appearing with his regiment +when summoned by the general. The general (_dux_, duke) must appear with +his brigade when summoned by the commander-in-chief (_imperator_, +emperor), and he would hold perhaps a thousand acres on this condition. +All this land, thus held on condition of military service, would be held +in fee, and would exemplify the actual foundation of the whole feudal +system, which was simply an arrangement by which a conquering army could +hold down the conquered nation. + +Of course, such a system as this was one of tyranny and cruelty, and +during several centuries it was tempered and softened only by the +mediatorial influence of the Christian Church. This was the only power +strong enough to shield the oppressed and to hold back the arm of the +tyrant. Feudalism served, no doubt, some useful purposes. It was a method +of riveting together, with iron nails, the conquerors and conquered, until +they could come into a union of a better kind. + +It was about the year 1000 that the people of the North were converted to +Christianity. This process of conversion was a long time going on, and +there were several relapses into paganism; so that no precise time can be +fixed for the conversion of a single nation, much less for that of the +different branches of the Scandinavian stock separately situated in Sweden +and Denmark, Iceland and Greenland, and colonized in England and Normandy. +A mission was established in Denmark, A.D. 822, and the king was baptized; +but the overthrow of this Christian king restricted the labors of the +missionary. An attempt was made in Sweden in 829, and the missionary, +Anschar, remained there a year and a half; but the mission there +established was soon overthrown. Uniting wisdom with his ardor, Anschar +established at Hamburg schools where he educated Danish and Swedish boys +to preach Christianity in their own language to their countrymen. But the +Normans laid waste this city, and the Christian schools and churches were +destroyed. About 850 a new attempt was made in Sweden, and there the +subject was laid by the king before his council or parliament, consisting +of two assemblies, and they decided to allow Christianity to be preached +and practised, apparently on the ground that this new god, Christ, might +help them in their dangers at sea, when the other gods could not. And +thus, according to the independent character of this people, Christianity +was neither allowed to be imposed upon them by their king against their +will, nor excluded from the use of those who chose to adopt it. It took +its chance with the old systems, and many of the Danes and Normans +believed in worshipping both Odin and Christ at the same time. King Harold +in Denmark, during the last half of the tenth century, favored the spread +of Christianity, and was himself baptized with his wife and son, believing +at first that the Christian God was more powerful than the heathen gods, +but finally coming to the conclusion that these last were only evil +spirits. On the other hand, some of the Danes believed that Christ was a +god, and to be worshipped; but that he was a less powerful god than Odin +or Thor. The son of King Harold, in 990, returned to paganism and drove +out the Christian priests; but his son, Canute the Great, who began to +reign in 1014, was converted to Christianity in England, and became its +zealous friend. But these fierce warriors made rather poor Christians. +Adam of Bremen says: "They so abominate tears and lamentations, and all +other signs of penitence which we think so salubrious, that they will +neither weep for their own sins nor at the death of their best friends." +Thus, in these Northern regions, Christianity grew through one or two +centuries, not like the mustard-seed, but like the leaven, infusing itself +more and more into their national life. According to the testimony of an +eye-witness, Adam of Bremen, the Swedes were very susceptible to religious +impressions. "They receive the preachers of the truth with great +kindness," says he, "if they are modest, wise, and able; and our bishops +are even allowed to preach in their great public assemblies." In Norway, +Prince Hacon, in the middle of the tenth century, attempted to establish +Christianity, which he had learned in England. He proposed to the great +national assembly that the whole nation should renounce idolatry, worship +God and Christ, keep Sundays as festivals, and Fridays as fasts. Great +opposition was made, and there was danger of universal insurrection, so +that the king had to yield, and even himself drink a toast to Odin and eat +horse-flesh, which was a heathen practice. Subsequent kings of Norway +introduced Christianity again; but the people, though willing to be +baptized, frequently continued Pagans, and only by degrees renounced, with +their old worship, their habits of piracy. The Icelanders embraced +Christianity at their All-Thing in the year 1000, but with the condition +that they might also continue their old worship, and be permitted the +eating of horse-flesh and exposition of infants. When the All-Thing broke +up, the assembled multitudes went to the hot-baths to be baptized, +preferring for this rite hot water to cold. The Scandinavians seem at this +period to have lost their faith in their old religion, and to have been in +a transition state. One warrior says that he relies more on his own +strength and arms than upon Thor. Another says, "I would have thee know +that I believe neither in idols nor spirits, but only in my own force and +courage." A warrior told King Olaff in Norway, "I am neither Christian nor +Pagan. My companions and I have no other religion than confidence in our +own strength and good success." Evidently Christianity for a long time sat +very lightly on these nations. They were willing to be baptized and accept +some of the outward ceremonies and festivals of the Catholic Church, which +were considerately made to resemble their old ones. + +Nevertheless Christianity met many of the wants of this noble race of men; +and, on the other hand, their instincts as a race were as well adapted to +promote an equal development of every side of Christian life. The Southern +races of Europe received Christianity as a religion of order; the Northern +races, as a religion of freedom. In the South of Europe the Catholic +Church, by its ingenious organization and its complex arrangements, +introduced into life discipline and culture. In the North of Europe +Protestant Christianity, by its appeals to the individual soul, awakens +conscience and stimulates to individual and national progress. The nations +of Southern Europe accepted Christianity mainly as a religion of sentiment +and feeling; the nations of Northern Europe, as a religion of truth and +principle. God adapted Christianity to the needs of these Northern races; +but he also adapted these races, with their original instincts and their +primitive religion, to the needs of Christianity. Without them, we do not +see how there could be such a thing in Europe to-day as Protestantism. It +was no accident which made the founder of the Reformation a Saxon monk, +and the cradle of the Reformation Germany. It was no accident which +brought the great Gustavus Adolphus from the northern peninsula, at the +head of his Swedish Protestants, to turn the tide of war in favor of +Protestantism and to die on the field of Lutzen, fighting for freedom of +spirit. It is no accident which makes the Scandinavian races to-day, in +Sweden and Norway, in Denmark and North Germany and Holland, in England +and the United States, almost the only Protestant nations of the world. +The old instincts still run in the blood, and cause these races to ask of +their religion, not so much the luxury of emotion or the satisfaction of +repose, in having all opinions settled for them and all actions +prescribed, as, much rather, light, freedom, and progress. To them +to-day, as to their ancestors, + + "Is life a simple art + Of duties to be done, + A game where each man takes his part, + A race where all must run; + A battle whose great scheme and scope + They little care to know; + Content, as men at arms, to cope + Each with his fronting foe." + + + + +Chapter X. + +The Jewish Religion. + + + + Sec. 1. Palestine, and the Semitic Races. + Sec. 2. Abraham; or, Judaism as the family Worship of a Supreme Being. + Sec. 3. Moses; or, Judaism as the national Worship of a just and holy King. + Sec. 4. David; or, Judaism as the personal Worship of a Father and Friend. + Sec. 5. Solomon; or, the Religious Relapse. + Sec. 6. The Prophets; or, Judaism as the Hope of a spiritual and universal + Kingdom of God. + Sec. 7. Judaism as a Preparation for Christianity. + + + +Sec. 1. Palestine, and the Semitic Races. + + +Palestine is a word equivalent to Philistia, or the land of the +Philistines. A similar name for the coast region of Syria has been found +on a monument in Nineveh,[336] and at Karnak in Egypt.[337] Josephus and +Philo use the term "Palestine," as applying to the Philistines; and the +accurate learning of Milton appears in his using it in the same +sense.[338] "The land of Canaan," "The land of Israel," and "Judaea" were +the names afterward given to the territory of the children of Israel. It +is a small country, like others as famous; for it is only about one +hundred and forty English miles in length, and forty in width. It +resembles Greece and Switzerland, not only in its small dimensions, but by +being composed of valleys, separated by chains of mountains and by ranges +of hills. It was isolated by the great sea of sand on the east, and the +Mediterranean on the west. Sharply defined on the east, west, and south, +it stretches indefinitely into Syria on the north. It is a hilly, +high-lying region, having all the characters of Greece except proximity to +the sea, and all those of Switzerland except the height of the mountains. +Its valleys were well watered and fertile. They mostly ran north and +south; none opened a way across, Judaea to the Mediterranean. This +geographical fact assisted in the isolation of the country. Two great +routes of travel passed by its borders without entering its hills. On the +west the plains of Philistia were the highway of the Assyrian and Egyptian +armies. On the north the valley of the Orontes, separated by the chain of +Lebanon from Palestine, allowed the people of Asia a free passage to the +sea. So, though surrounded by five great nations, all idolatrous,--the +Babylonians, Medes, Assyrians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians,--the people of +Judaea were enabled to develop their own character and institutions +without much interference from without. Inaccessible from the sea, and +surrounded, like the Swiss, by the natural fortifications of their hills, +like the Swiss they were also protected by their poverty from spoilers. +But being at the point of contact of three continents, they had (like the +Mahommedans afterwards) great facilities for communicating their religious +ideas to other nations. + +Palestine is so small a country that from many points the whole of it may +be overlooked[339]. Toward the east, from all points, may be seen the high +plateau of Moab and the mountains of Gilead. Snow-capped Hermon is always +visible on the north. In the heart of the land rises the beautiful +mountain Tabor, clothed with vegetation to its summit. It is almost a +perfect cone, and commands the most interesting view in all directions. +From its top, to which you ascend from Nazareth by a path which Jesus may +have trod, you see to the northeast the lofty chain of Hermon (Jebel es +Sheikh = the Captain) rising into the blue sky to the height of ten +thousand feet, covered with eternal snow. West of this appears the chain +of Lebanon. At the foot of Tabor the plain of Esdraelon extends northerly, +dotted with hills, and animated with the camps of the Arabs[340]. The Lake +of Galilee gleams, a silver line, on the east, with Bashan and the +mountains of Gilead in the distance, and farther to the southeast the +great plateau of Moab rises like a mountain wall beyond the Jordan. The +valley of the Jordan itself, sunk far below the level of the +Mediterranean, is out of sight in its deep valley; nor is anything seen of +the Dead Sea. To the northwest rises rocky Carmel, overhanging the Bay of +Accha (or Acre), on the Mediterranean. + +The whole country stands high. Hebron, at the south, is three thousand +feet above the level of the sea; Jerusalem is twenty-six hundred; the +Mount of Olives, twenty-seven hundred; and Ebal and Gerizim in Samaria, +the same. The valley in which Nazareth stands is eight hundred and twenty +feet above the sea; that at the foot of Tabor, four hundred and +thirty-nine; while the summit of Tabor itself is seventeen hundred and +fifty. From Judaea the land plunges downward very rapidly toward the east +into the valley of Jordan. The surface of Lake Galilee is already five +hundred and thirty-five feet below that of the Mediterranean, and that of +the Dead Sea is five hundred feet lower down.[341] Palestine is therefore +a mountain fastness, and most of the waves of war swept by, leaving it +untouched and unassailed. From Jerusalem to Jericho the distance is only +thirteen miles, but the latter place is a thousand feet lower than the +former, so that it was very proper to speak of a man's "going down from +Jerusalem to Jericho." + +The Jews belonged to what has been called the Semitic race. This family, +the only historic rival of the Japhetic (or Aryan) race, is ethnologically +composed of the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Phoenicians, the Hebrews +and other Syrian tribes, the Arabs and the Carthaginians. It is a race +which has been great on land and at sea. In the valley of the Euphrates +and that of the Tigris its sons carried all the arts of social life to the +highest perfection, and became mighty conquerors and warlike soldiers. On +the Mediterranean their ships, containing Phoenician navigators, explored +the coasts, made settlements at Carthage and Cadiz, and sailing out of the +Straits of Gibraltar went as far north as Great Britain, and +circumnavigated Africa two thousand years before Vasco da Gama. This race +has given to man the alphabet, the Bible, the Koran, commerce, and in +Hannibal the greatest military genius of all time. + +That the different nations inhabiting the region around the Euphrates and +Tigris, Syria and Arabia, belonged to one great race, is proved by the +unimpeachable testimony of language. The Bible genealogies trace them to +Shem, the son of Noah. Ewald,[342] who believes that this region was +inhabited by an aboriginal people long before the days of Abraham,--a +people who were driven out by the Canaanites,--nevertheless says that they +no doubt were a Semitic people. The languages of all these nations is +closely related, being almost dialects of a single tongue, the differences +between them being hardly greater than between the subdivisions of the +German group of languages.[343] That which has contributed to preserve the +close homogeneity among these tongues is, that they have little power of +growth or development. As M. Renan says, "they have less lived than +lasted."[344] + +The Phoenicians used a language almost identical with the Hebrew. A +sarcophagus of Ezmunazar, king of Sidon, dating from the fifth century +before Christ, was discovered a few years since, and is now in the Museum +of the Louvre. It contains some thirty sentences of the length of an +average verse in the Bible, and is in pure Hebrew.[345] In a play of +Plautus[346] a Carthaginian is made to speak a long passage in his native +language, the Punic tongue; this is also very readable Hebrew. The black +basalt stele, lately discovered in the land of Moab, contains an +inscription of Mesha, king of Moab, addressed to his god, Chemosh, +describing his victory over the Israelites. This is also in a Hebrew +dialect. From such facts it appears that the Hebrews, Phoenicians, and +Canaanites were all congeners with each other, and with the Babylonians +and Assyrians. + +But now the striking fact appears that the Hebrew _religion_ differed +widely from that of these other nations of the same family. The Assyrians, +Babylonians, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians all possessed a nearly +identical religion. They all believed in a supreme god, called by the +different names of Ilu, Bel, Set, Hadad, Moloch, Chemosh, Jaoh, El, Adon, +Asshur. All believed in subordinate and secondary beings, emanations from +this supreme being, his manifestations to the world, rulers of the +planets. Like other pantheistic religions, the custom prevailed among the +Semitic nations of promoting first one and then another deity to be the +supreme object of worship. Among the Assyrians, as among the Egyptians, +the gods were often arranged in triads, as that of Ann, Bel, and Ao. Anu, +or Cannes, wore the head of a fish; Bel wore the horns of a bull; Ao was +represented by a serpent. These religions represented the gods as the +spirit within nature, and behind natural objects and forces,--powers +within the world, rather than above the world. Their worship combined +cruelty and licentiousness, and was perhaps as debasing a superstition as +the world has witnessed. The Greeks, who were not puritans themselves in +their religion, were shocked at the impure orgies of this worship, and +horrified at the sacrifice of children among the Canaanites and +Carthaginians. + +How then did the Hebrews, under Moses and the later prophets, originate a +system so widely different? Their God was above nature, not in it. He +stood alone, unaccompanied by secondary deities; he made no part of a +triad; he was not associated with a female representative. His worship +required purity, not pollution; its aim was holiness, and its spirit +humane, not cruel. Monotheistic in its spirit from the first, it became an +absolute monotheism in its development. Whence this wide departure in the +Hebrews from the religious tendencies and belief of the surrounding +nations, who spoke the same language and belonged to the same stock? + +M. Renan considers this a question of race.[347] He says: "The +Indo-European race, distracted by the variety of the universe, never by +itself arrived at monotheism. The Semitic race, on the other hand, guided +by its firm and sure sight, instantly unmasked Divinity, and without +reflection or reasoning attained the purest form of religion that humanity +has known." But the Assyrians, Babylonians, Arabians before Mohammed, +Phoenicians, and Carthaginians, and perhaps the Egyptians, belonged to the +Semitic race. Yet none of these nations attained to any monotheism purer +than that of the Veda or the Avesta. The Arabs, near relations of the +Hebrews, were divided between a worship like that of Babylon and Sabaeism, +or star-worship. No doubt in all these Semitic families the idea of one +supreme god lay behind that of the secondary deities; but this was also +the case in the Aryan races. And in both this primitive monotheism receded +instead of becoming more distinct, with the single exception of the +Hebrews. M. Renan's view is not, therefore, supported by the facts. We +must look further to find the true cause, and therefore are obliged to +examine somewhat in detail the main points of Hebrew history. It would be +easy, but would not accord with our plan, to accept the common Christian +explanation, and say, "Monotheism was a direct revelation to Moses." For +we are now not able to assume such a revelation, and are obliged to +consider the subject from the outside, from the stand-point of pure +history. + + + +Sec. 2. Abraham; or, Judaism as the family Worship of a Supreme Being. + + +We have been so accustomed to regard the Jewish religion as a part of our +own, and so to look at it from within, that it is hard to take the +historic position, and to look at it from without. But to compare it with +other religions, and to see what it really is and is not, this is +necessary. It becomes more difficult to assume the attitude of an +impartial observer, because of the doctrine of verbal inspiration, so +universally taught in the Protestant Church. From childhood we have looked +on the Old Testament as inspired throughout, and all on the same level of +absolute infallibility. There is no high, no low, no degrees of certitude +or probability, where every word is assumed to be the very word of God. +But those who still hold to the plenary inspiration of the Old Testament +must consent, for our present purpose, to suspend their faith in this +doctrine, and provisionally to look at the Old Testament with the same +impartial though friendly scrutiny with which we have regarded the sacred +books of other nations. Not a little will be gained for the Jewish +Scriptures by this position. If they lose the authority which attaches to +the Word of God, they will gain the interest which belongs to the +utterance of man. + +While M. Renan finds the source of Hebrew monotheism in a like tendency in +the whole Semitic race,--a supposition which we have seen to be +contradicted by the facts,--Max Mueller regards the true origin of this +tendency to be in Abraham himself, the friend of God, and Father of the +Faithful. He calls attention to the fact that both Moses and Christ, and +subsequently Mohammed, preached no new God, but the God of Abraham. +"Thus," says he, "the faith in the one living God, which seemed to require +the admission of a monotheistic instinct grafted in every member of the +Semitic family, is traced back to one man." He adds his belief that this +faith of Abraham in one supreme God came to him by a special revelation. + +And if, by a special revelation, is meant a grand profound insight, an +inspired vision of truth, so deep and so living as to make it a reality +like that of the outward world, then we see no better explanation of the +monotheism of the Hebrews than this conviction transmitted from Abraham +through father and son, from generation to generation. + +For the most curious fact about this Jewish people is, that every one of +them[348] is a child of Abraham. All looked back with the same ancestral +pride to their great progenitor, the friend of God. This has never been +the case with any other nation, for the Arabs are not a nation. One can +hardly imagine a greater spur to patriotism than this union of pride of +descent with pride in one's nation and its institutions. The proudest and +poorest Jew shared it together. There was one distinction, and that the +most honorable, which belonged equally to all. + +We have seen that, in all the Semitic nations, behind the numerous divine +beings representing the powers of nature, there was dimly visible one +Supreme Being, of whom all these were emanations. The tendency to lose +sight of this First Great Cause, so common in the race, was reversed in +Abraham. His soul rose to the contemplation of the Perfect Being, above +all, and the source of all. With passionate love he adored this Most High +God, Maker of heaven and earth. Such was his devotion to this Almighty +Being, that men, wondering, said, "Abraham is the friend of the Most High +God!" He desired to find a home where he could bring up his children in +this pure faith, undisturbed and unperverted by the gross and low worship +around him. In some "deep dream or solemn vision" it was borne in on his +mind that he must go and find such a home. + +We are not to suppose, however, that the mind of Abraham rose to a clear +conception of the unity of God, as excluding all other divine beings. The +idea of local, tribal, family gods was too deeply rooted to be at once +relinquished. Abraham, as described in Genesis, is a great Arab chief, a +type of patriarchal life, in which all authority is paternal. The religion +of such a period is filial, and God is viewed as the protector and friend +of the family or tribe. Only the family God of Abraham was the highest of +all gods, the Almighty (Gen. xvii. 1), who was also the God of Isaac (Gen. +xxviii. 3) and of Jacob (Gen. xxxv. 11). + +Stanley[349] expresses his satisfaction that the time has past in which +the most fastidious believer can object to hearing Abraham called a +Bedouin sheik. The type has remained unchanged through all the centuries, +and the picture in the Bible of Abraham in his tent, of his hospitality, +his self-respect, his courage, and also of his less noble traits, +occasional cunning and falsehood, and cruelty toward Hagar and +Ishmael,--these qualities, good and bad, are still those of the desert. +Only in Abraham something higher and exceptional was joined with them. + +In the Book of Genesis Abraham enters quite abruptly upon the scene. His +genealogy is given in Genesis (chap, xi.), he being the ninth in descent +from Shem, each generation occupying a little more than thirty years. The +birth of Abraham is usually placed somewhere about two thousand years +before Christ. His father's name was Terah, whom the Jewish and Mohammedan +traditions describe as an idolater and maker of idols. He had two +brothers, Nahor and Haran; the latter being the father of Lot, and the +other, Nahor, being the grandfather of Rebecca, wife of Isaac. Abraham's +father, Terah, lived in Ur of the Chaldees (called in Scripture Casdim). +The Chaldees, who subsequently inhabited the region about the Persian +Gulf, seemed at first to have lived among the mountains of Armenia, at the +source of the Tigris; and this was the region where Abraham was born, a +region now occupied by the people called Curds, who are perhaps +descendants of the old Chaldees, the inhabitants of Ur. The Curds are +Mohammedans and robbers, and quite independent, never paying taxes to the +Porte. The Chaldees are frequently mentioned in Scripture and in ancient +writers. Xenophon speaks of the Carduchi as inhabitants of the mountains +of Armenia, and as making incursions thence to plunder the country, just +as the Curds do now. He says they were found there by the younger Cyrus, +and by the ten thousand Greeks. The Greeks, in their retreat, were obliged +to fight their way through them, and found them very skilful archers. So +did the Romans under Crassus and Mark Antony. And so are they described by +the Prophet Habakkuk (chap, i. 6-9):-- + + "For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, + A bitter and hasty nation, + Which marches far and wide in the earth, + To possess the dwellings that are not theirs. + They are terrible and dreadful, + Their decrees and their judgments proceed only from themselves. + Swifter than leopards are their horses, + And fiercer than the evening wolves. + Their horsemen prance proudly around; + And their horsemen shall come from afar and fly, + Like the eagle when he pounces on his prey. + They all shall come for violence, + In troops,--their glance is ever forward! + They gather captives like the sand!" + +As they were in the time of Habakkuk, so are they to-day. Shut up on every +side in the Persian Empire, their ancestors, the Carduchi, refused +obedience to the great king and his satraps, just as the Curds refuse to +obey the grand seignior and his pashas. They can raise a hundred and forty +thousand armed men. They are capable of any undertaking. Mohammed himself +said, "They would yet revolutionize the world." + +The ancient Chaldees seem to have been fire-worshippers, like the +Persians. They were renowned for the study of the heavens and the worship +of the stars, and some remains of Persian dualism still linger among their +descendants, who are accused of Devil-worship by their neighbors. + +That Abraham was a real person, and that his story is historically +reliable, can hardly be doubted by those who have the historic sense. Such +pictures, painted in detail with a Pre-Raphaelite minuteness, are not of +the nature of legends. Stories which are discreditable to his character, +and which place him in a humiliating position towards Pharaoh and +Abimelech, would not have appeared in a fictitious narrative. The mythical +accounts of Abraham, as found among the Mohammedans and in the +Talmud,[350] show, by their contrast, the difference between fable and +history. + +The events in the life of Abraham are so well known that it is not +necessary even to allude to them. We will only refer to one, as showing +that others among the tribes in Palestine, besides Abraham, had a faith in +God similar to his. This is the account of his meeting with Melchisedek. +This mysterious person has been so treated by typologists that all human +meaning has gone out of him, and he has become, to most minds, a very +vapory character.[351] But this is doing him great injustice. + +One mistake often made about him is, to assume that "Melchisedek, King of +Salem," gives us the name and residence of the man, whereas both are his +official titles. His name we do not know; his office and title had +swallowed it up. "King of Justice and King of Peace,"--this is his +designation. His office, as we believe, was to be umpire among the chiefs +of neighboring tribes. By deciding the questions which arose among them, +according to equity, he received his title of "King of Justice." By thus +preventing the bloody arbitrament of war, he gained the other name, "King +of Peace." All questions, therefore, as to where "Salem" was, fall to the +ground. Salem means "peace"; it does not mean the place of his abode. + +But in order to settle such intertribal disputes, two things were +necessary: first, that the surrounding Bedouin chiefs should agree to take +him as their arbiter; and, secondly, that some sacredness should attach to +his character, and give authority to his decisions. Like others in those +days, he was both king and priest; but he was priest "of the Most High +God,"--not of the local gods of the separate tribes, but of the highest +God, above all the rest. That he was the acknowledged arbiter of +surrounding tribes appears from the fact that Abraham paid to him tithes +out of the spoils. It is not likely that Abraham did this if there were no +precedent for it; for he regarded the spoils as belonging, not to himself, +but to the confederates in whose cause he fought. No doubt it was the +custom, as in the case of Delphi, to pay tithes to this supreme arbiter; +and in doing so Abraham was simply following the custom. The Jewish +traveller, Wolff, states that in Mesopotamia a similar custom prevails at +the present time. One sheik is selected from the rest, on account of his +superior probity and piety, and becomes their "King of Peace and +Righteousness." A similar custom, I am told, prevails among some American +tribes. Indeed, where society is organized by clans, subject to local +chiefs, some such arrangement seems necessary to prevent perpetual feuds. + +This "King of Justice and Peace" gave refreshments to Abraham and his +followers after the battle, blessing him in the name of the Most High God. +As he came from no one knows where, and has no official status or descent, +the fact that Abraham recognized him as a true priest is used in the Book +of Psalms and the Epistle to the Hebrews to prove there is a true +priesthood beside that of the house of Levi. A priest after the order of +Melchisedek is one who becomes so by having in him the true faith, though +he has "no father nor mother, beginning of days nor end of life," that is, +no genealogical position in an hereditary priesthood. + +The God of Abraham was "The Most High." He was the family God of Abraham's +tribe and of Abraham's descendants. Those who should worship other gods +would be disloyal to their tribe, false to their ancestors, and must be +regarded as outlaws. Thus the faith in a Supreme Being was first +established in the minds of the descendants of Abraham by family pride, +reverence for ancestors, and patriotic feeling. The faith of Abraham, that +his God would give to his descendants the land of Palestine, and multiply +them till they should be as numerous as the stars or the sand, was that +which made him the Father of the Faithful. + +The faith of Abraham, as we gather it from Genesis, was in God as a +Supreme Being. Though almighty, God was willing to be Abraham's personal +protector and friend. He talks with Abraham face to face. He comes to him, +and agrees to give to him and to his posterity the land of Canaan, and in +this promise Abraham has entire faith. His monotheism was indeed of an +imperfect kind. It did not exclude a belief in other gods, though they +were regarded as inferior to his own. His family God, though almighty, was +not omnipresent. He came down to learn whether the rumors concerning the +sinfulness of Sodom were correct or not. He was not quite sure of +Abraham's faith, and so he tested it by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac, +in whom alone the promise to Abraham's descendants could be fulfilled. But +though the monotheism of Abraham was of so imperfect a kind, it had in it +the root of the better kind which was to come. It was imperfect, but not +false. It was entire faith in the supreme power of Jehovah to do what he +would, and in his disposition to be a friend to the patriarch and his +posterity. It was, therefore, trust in the divine power, wisdom, and +goodness. The difference between the religion of Abraham and that of the +polytheistic nations was, that while they descended from the idea of a +Supreme Being into that of subordinate ones, he went back to that of the +Supreme, and clung to this with his whole soul. + + + +Sec. 3. Moses; or, Judaism as the national Worship of a just and holy King. + + +In speaking of Moses and of his law, it may be thought necessary to begin +by showing that such a man as Moses really existed; for modern criticism +has greatly employed itself in questioning the existence of great men. As +the telescope resolves stars into double, triple, and quadruple stars, and +finally into star-dust, so the critics, turning their optical tubes toward +that mighty orb which men call Homer, have declared that they have +resolved him into a great number of little Homers. The same process has +been attempted in regard to Shakespeare. Some have tried to show that +there never was any Shakespeare, but only many Shakespeare writers. In +like manner, the critics have sought to dissolve Moses with their powerful +analysis, and, instead of Moses, to give us a number of fragmentary +writings from different times and hands, skilfully joined together; in +fact, instead of Moses, to give us a mosaic. Criticism substitutes human +tendencies in the place of great men, does not love to believe in genius, +and often appears to think that a number of mediocrities added together +can accomplish more than one man of genius. + +Certainly this is a mistake. The easiest and most natural solution of +wonderful results is the supposition of genius, inspiration, heroism, as +their cause. Great men explain history. Napoleon explains the history of +Europe during a quarter of a century. Suppose a critic, a thousand years +hence, should resolve Napoleon into half a dozen Napoleons; would they +explain the history of Europe as well? Given a man like Napoleon, and we +can understand the French campaigns in Italy and Germany, the overthrow of +Austria, the annihilation of Prussia, the splendid host of field-marshals, +the Bonaparte circle of kings, the Codex, the Simplon Road, and the many +changes of states and governments on the map of Europe. One man of genius +explains it all. But take away the man of genius, and substitute a group +of small men in his place, and the thing is much more obscure and +unintelligible. So, given Moses, the man of genius and inspiration, and we +can understand the Exodus, understand the Jewish laws, understand the +Pentateuch, and understand the strange phenomenon of Judaism. But, instead +of Moses, given a mosaic, however skilfully put together, and the thing is +more difficult. Therefore, Moses is to be preferred to the mosaic, as the +more reasonable and probable of the two, just as Homer is preferable to +the Homerids, and Shakespeare to the Shakespeare Club.[352] + +We find in Moses the three elements of genius, inspiration, and +knowledge. Perhaps it is not difficult to distinguish them. We see the +natural genius and temperament of Moses breaking out again and again +throughout his career, as the rocky strata underlying the soil crop out in +the midst of gardens, orchards, and fields of corn. The basis of his +nature was the hardest kind of rock, with a surging subterranean fire of +passion beneath it. An awful soul, stem and terrible as Michael Angelo +conceived him, the sublime genius carving the sublime lawgiver in +congenial marble. The statue is as stern as law itself. It sits in one of +the Roman churches, between two columns, the right hand grasping the +tables of the law, the symbolic horns of power protruding from the brow, +and the austere look of the judge bent upon those on the left hand. A +fiery nature, an iron will, a rooted sense of justice, were strangely +overflowed and softened by a tenderness toward his race, which was not so +much the feeling of a brother for brethren as of a parent for children. + +Educated in the house of Pharaoh, and adopted by his daughter as her +child, taken by the powerful and learned priesthood of Egypt into their +ranks, and sharing for many years their honors and privileges, his heart +yearned toward his brethren in the land of Goshen, and he went out to see +them in their sufferings and slavery. His impetuous nature broke out in +sudden indignation at the sight of some act of cruelty, and he smote the +overseer who was torturing the Jewish slave. That act made him an exile, +and sent him to live in Arabia Petrea, as a shepherd. If he had thought +only of his own prospects and position, he would not have gone near the +Israelites at all, but lived quietly as an Egyptian priest in the palace +of Pharaoh. But, as the writer to the Hebrews says, he "refused, to be +called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction +with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a +season."[353] Another instance of his generous and tender feelings toward +his nation is seen in his behavior when the people made the golden calf. +First, his anger broke out against them, and all the sternness of the +lawgiver appeared in his command to the people to cut down their +idolatrous brethren; then the bitter tide of anger withdrew, and that of +tenderness took its place, and he returned into the mountain to the Lord +and said, "O, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods +of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin--; and if not, blot me, I +pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written." Moses did not make +much account of human life. He struck dead the Egyptian who was +ill-treating a Jew; he slew the Jews who turned to idolatry; he slew the +Midianites who tempted them; but then he was ready to give up his own life +too for the sake of his people and for the sake of the cause. This spirit +of Moses pervades his law, this same inconsistency went from his character +into his legislation; his relentless severity and his tender sympathy both +appear in it. He knows no mercy toward the transgressor, but toward the +unfortunate he is full of compassion. His law says, "Eye for eye, tooth +for tooth, hand for hand, burning for burning, stripe for stripe." But it +also says, "Ye shall neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him, for ye were +strangers in the land of Egypt. Ye shall not afflict any widow or +fatherless child." "If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by +thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer." "If thou at all take thy +neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the +sun goeth down, for that is his covering." "If thou meet thine enemy's ox +or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again." + +Such severities joined with such humanities we find in the character of +Moses, and such we find to have passed from his character into his laws. +But perhaps the deepest spring of character, and its most essential trait, +was his sense of justice as embodied in law. The great idea of a just law, +freely chosen, under its various aspects of Divine command, ceremonial +regulations, political order, and moral duty, distinguished his policy and +legislation from that of other founders of states. His laws rested on no +basis of mere temporal expediency, but on the two pivots of an absolute +Divine will and a deliberate national choice. It had the double sanction +of religion and justice; it was at once a revelation and a contract. There +was a third idea which it was the object of his whole system, and +especially of his ceremonial system, to teach and to cultivate,--that of +holiness. God is a holy God, his law is a holy law, the place of his +worship is a holy place, and the Jewish nation as his worshippers are a +holy people. This belief appears in the first revelation which he received +at the burning bush in the land of Midian. It explains many things in the +Levitical law, which without this would seem trivial and unmeaning. The +ceremonial purifications, clean and unclean meats, the arrangements of the +tabernacle, with its holy place, and its Holy of Holies, the Sabbath, the +dresses of the priests, the ointment with which the altar was anointed, +are all intended to develop in the minds of the people the idea of +holiness.[354] And there never was a people on whose souls this notion was +so fully impressed as it was upon the Jews. Examined, it means the eternal +distinction between right and wrong, between good and evil, and the +essential hostility which exists between them. Applied to God, it shows +him to have a nature essentially moral, and a true moral character. He +loves good and hates evil. He does not regard them with exactly the same +feeling. He cannot treat the good man and the bad man in exactly the same +way. More than monotheism, this perhaps is the characteristic of the +theology of Moses. + +The character of Moses had very marked deficiencies, it had its weakness +as well as its strength. He was impetuous, impatient, wanting in +self-possession and self-control. There is a verse in the Book of Numbers +(believed by Eichhorn and Eosenmuller to be an interpolation) which calls +him the meekest of men. Such a view of his character is not confirmed by +such actions as his killing the Egyptian, his breaking the stone tables, +and the like. He declares of himself that he had no power as a speaker, +being deficient probably in the organ of language. His military skill +seems small, since he appointed Joshua for the military commander, when +the people were attacked by the Amalekites. Nor did he have, what seems +more important in a legislator, the practical tact of organizing the +administration of affairs. His father-in-law, Jethro, showed him how to +delegate the details of government to subordinates, and to reserve for +himself the general superintendence. Up to that time he had tried to do +everything by himself. That great art, in administration, of selecting +proper tools to work with, Moses did not seem to have. + +Having thus briefly sketched some of the qualities of his natural genius +and character, let us see what were the essential elements of his +legislation; and first, of his theology, or teachings concerning God. + +Monotheism, as we all know, lay at the foundation of the law of Moses. But +there are different kinds of monotheism. In one sense we have seen almost +all ancient religions to have been monotheisms. All taught the existence +of a Supreme Being. But usually this Supreme Being was not the object of +worship, but had receded into the background, while subordinate gods were +those really reverenced. Moses taught that the Supreme Being who made +heaven and earth, the Most High God, was also the only object of worship. +It does not appear that Moses denied the existence of the gods who were +adored by the other nations; but he maintained that they were all inferior +and subordinate, and far beneath Jehovah, and also that Jehovah alone was +to be worshipped by the Jews. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" +(Exod. xx. 3; Deut. v. 7). "Ye shall not go after other gods" (Deut. vi. +14). "Ye shall make no mention of the name of other gods" (Exod. xxiii. +13). "For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords" (Deut. x. +17). The first great peculiarity of the theology of Moses was therefore +this, that it taught that the Infinite and Supreme Being, who in most +religions was the hidden God, was to the Jews the revealed and +ever-present God, the object of worship, obedience, trust, and love. His +name was Jahveh, the "I am," the Being of beings.[355] + +In a certain sense Moses taught the strict unity of God. "Hear, O Israel; +the Lord our God is one Lord" (Deut. vi. 4), is a statement which Jesus +calls the chief of the commandments (Mark xii. 29, 30). For when God is +conceived of as the Supreme Being he becomes at once separated by an +infinite distance from all other deities, and they cease to be gods in the +sense in which he is God. Now as Moses gave to Jehovah infinite +attributes, and taught that he was the maker and Lord of heaven and earth, +eternal (Deut. xxxiii. 27), a living God, it followed that there was no +God with him (Deut. xxxii. 39), which the prophets afterwards wrought out +into a simple monotheism. "I am God, and there is no other God beside me" +(Isaiah xliv. 8). Therefore, though Moses did not assert in terms a simple +monotheism, he taught what contained the essential germ of that idea. + +This one God, supreme and infinite, was also so spiritual that no idol, no +statue, was to be made as his symbol. He was a God of truth and stern +justice, visiting the sins of parents on the children to the third and +fourth generation of those who hated him, but showing mercy to thousands +of those who loved and obeyed him. He was a God who was merciful, +long-suffering, gracious, repenting him of the evil, and seeking still to +pardon and to bless his people. No doubt there is anthropomorphism in +Moses. But if man is made in God's image, then God is in man's image too, +and we _must_, if we think of him as a living and real God, think of him +as possessing emotions like our human emotions of love, pity, sorrow, +anger, only purified from their grossness and narrowness. + +Human actions and human passions are no doubt ascribed by Moses to God. A +good deal of criticism has been expended upon the Jewish Scriptures by +those who think that philosophy consists in making God as different and +distant from man as possible, and so prefer to speak of him as Deity, +Providence, and Nature. But it is only because man is made in the image of +God that he can revere God at all. Jacobi says that, "God, in creating, +_theo_morphizes man; man, therefore, necessarily _anthropo_morphizes God." +And Swedenborg teaches that God is a man, since man was made in the image +of God. Whenever we think of God as present and living, when we ascribe to +him pleasure and displeasure, liking and disliking, thinking, feeling, and +willing, we make him like a man. And _not_ to do this may be speculative +theism, but is practical atheism. Moses forbade the Jews to make any image +or likeness of God, yet the Pentateuch speaks of his jealousy, wrath, +repentance; he hardens Pharaoh's heart, changes his mind about Balaam, and +comes down from heaven in order to see if the people of Sodom were as +wicked as they were represented to be. These views are limitations to the +perfections of the Deity, and so far the views of Moses were limited. But +this is also the strong language of poetry, which expresses in a striking +and practical way the personality, holiness, and constant providence of +God. + +But Moses was not merely a man of genius, he was also a man of knowledge +and learning. During forty years he lived in Egypt, where all the learning +of the world was collected; and, being brought up by the daughter of +Pharaoh as her son, was in the closest relations with the priesthood. The +Egyptian priests were those to whom Pythagoras, Herodotus, and Plato went +for instruction. Their sacred books, as we have seen, taught the doctrine +of the unity and spirituality of God, of the immortality of the soul, and +its judgment in the future world, beside teaching the arts and sciences. +Moses probably knew all that these books could teach, and there is no +doubt that he made use of this knowledge afterward in writing his law. +Like the Egyptian priests he believed in one God; but, unlike them, he +taught that doctrine openly. Like them he established a priesthood, +sacrifices, festivals, and a temple service; but, unlike them, he allowed +no images or idols, no visible representations of the Unseen Being, and +instead of mystery and a hidden deity gave them revelation and a present, +open Deity. Concerning the future life, about which the Egyptians had so +much to say, Moses taught nothing. His rewards and punishments were +inflicted in this world. Retribution, individual and national, took place +here. As this could not have been from ignorance or accident, it must have +had a purpose, it must have been intentional. The silence of the +Pentateuch respecting immortality is one of the most remarkable features +in the Jewish religion. It has been often objected to. It has been +asserted that a religion without the doctrine of immortality and future +retribution is no religion. But in our time philosophy takes a different +view, declaring that there is nothing necessarily religious in the belief +of immortality, and that to do right from fear of future punishment or +hope of future reward is selfish, and therefore irreligious and immoral. +Moreover it asserts that belief in immortality is a matter of instinct, +and something to be assumed, not to be proved; and that we believe in +immortality just in proportion as the soul is full of life. Therefore, +though Moses did not teach the doctrine of immortality, he yet made it +necessary that the Jews should believe in it by the awakening influence of +his law, which roused the soul into the fullest activity. + +But beside genius, beside knowledge, did not Moses also possess that which +he claimed, a special inspiration? And if so, what was his inspiration +and what is its evidence? The evidence of his inspiration is in that which +he said and did. His inspiration, like that of Abraham, consisted in his +inward vision of God, in his sight of the divine unity and holiness, in +his feeling of the personal presence and power of the Supreme Being, in +his perception of his will and of his law. He was inwardly placed by the +Divine Providence where he could see these truths, and become the medium +of communicating them to a nation. His inspiration was deeper than that of +the greatest of subsequent prophets. It was perhaps not so large, nor so +full, nor so high, but it was more entire; and therefore the power that +went forth from the word and life of Moses was not surpassed afterward. +"There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord +knew face to face." No prophet afterward till the time of Jesus did such a +work as he did. Purity, simplicity, and strength characterized his whole +conduct. His theology, his liturgy, his moral code, and his civil code +were admirable in their design and their execution. + +We are, indeed, not able to say how much of the Pentateuch came from +Moses. Many parts of it were probably the work of other writers and of +subsequent times. But we cannot doubt that the essential ideas of the law +proceeded from him. + +We have regarded Moses and his laws on the side of religion and also on +that of morals; it remains to consider them on that of politics. What was +the form of government established by Moses? Was it despotism or freedom? +Was it monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, or republicanism? Were the Jews a +free people or an enslaved people? + +Certainly the Jews were not enslaved. They had one great protection from +despotism,--a constitution. The Mosaic law was their constitution. It was +a written constitution, and could therefore be appealed to. It was a +published constitution, and was therefore known by all the people. It was +a sacred constitution; given on the authority of God, and therefore could +not be modified, except by the same authority. This constitution therefore +was a protection against despotism. A constitution like this excludes all +arbitrary and despotic authority. We can therefore safely say that the law +of Moses saved the nation from despotism. Thus he gave them an important +element of political freedom. No matter how oppressive laws are, a +government of fixed law involves in the long run much more real freedom +than the government, however kind, which is arbitrary, and therefore +uncertain and changeable. + +But were these laws oppressive? Let us look at them in a few obvious +points of view. + +What did they exact in regard to taxation? We know that in Eastern +governments the people have been ground to the earth by taxation, and that +agriculture has been destroyed, the fruitful field become a wilderness, +and populous countries depopulated, by this one form of oppression. It is +because there has been no fixed rate of taxation. Each governor is allowed +to take as much as he can from his subordinates, and each of the +subordinates as much as he can get from his inferiors, and so on, till the +people are finally reached, out of whom it must all come. But under the +Mosaic constitution the taxes were fixed and certain. They consisted in a +poll-tax, in the first-fruits, and the tithes. The poll-tax was a +half-shekel paid every year at the Temple, by every adult Jew. The +first-fruits were rather an expression of gratitude than a tax. The tithes +were a tenth part of the annual produce of the soil, and went for the +support of the Levites and the general expenses of the government. + +Another important point relates to trials and punishments. What security +has one of a fair trial, in case he is accused of crime, or what assurance +of justice in a civil cause? Now we know that in Eastern countries +everything depends on bribery. This Moses forbade in his law. "Thou shalt +take no gift, for the gift blindeth the eyes; thou shalt not wrest the +judgment of the poor, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor." + +Again, the accuser and accused were to appear together before the judge. +The witnesses were sworn, and were examined separately. The people had +cheap justice and near at hand. "Judges and officers shalt thou make thee +in all thy gates, throughout thy tribes; and they shall judge the people +with just judgment." + +There were courts of appeal from these local judges. + +There seems to have been no legislative body, since the laws of Moses were +not only a constitution but also a code. No doubt a common law grew up +under the decisions of the local courts and courts of appeal. But +provision was made by Moses for any necessary amendment of his laws by the +reference which he made to any prophet like himself who might afterward +arise, whom the people were to obey.[356] + +There was no provision in the Jewish constitution for a supreme executive. +But the law foretold that the time would come in which they would desire a +king, and it defined his authority. He should be a constitutional king. +(Deut. xvii. 14-20.) + +We have already said that one great object and purpose of the ceremonial +law of Moses was to develop in the minds of the people the idea of +holiness. This is expressed (Lev. xix. 2), "Speak unto all the +congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be +holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." + +Another object of the ceremonial law was to surround the whole nation with +an impenetrable hedge of peculiarities, and so to keep them separate from +surrounding nations. The ceremonial law was like a shell which protected +the kernel within till it was ripe. The ritual was the thorny husk, the +theology and morality were the sacred included fruit. In this point of +view the strangest peculiarities of the ritual find an easy explanation. +The more strange they are, the better they serve their purpose. These +peculiarities produced bitter prejudice between the Jews and the +surrounding nations. Despised by their neighbors, they despised them again +in turn; and this mutual contempt has produced the result desired. The +Jews, in the very heart of the world, surrounded by great nations far more +powerful than themselves, conquered and overrun by Assyrians, Medes, +Persians, Syrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, have been more entirely +separated from other nations than the Chinese or the people of Japan. +Dispersed as they are, they are still a distinct people, a nation within +other nations. Like drops of oil floating on the water but never mingling +with it, so the Jews are found everywhere, floating drops of national life +in the midst of other nationalities. In Leviticus (xviii. 3) we find the +command, "After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall +ye not do; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring +you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances." They +have not obeyed this command in its letter, but continue to obey its +spirit in its unwritten continuation: "After the doings of the English and +French and Americans shall ye not do, nor walk in their ordinances, but +shall still continue a peculiar people." + + + +Sec. 4. David; or, Judaism as the personal Worship of a Father and friend. + + +Many disasters befell the Jews after their settlement in Palestine, which +we should allude to were we writing the heads of their history rather than +giving an account of their religion. Among these were their long conflict +with the Philistines, and their subjection by that people during twenty +years. The Philistines, it has been recently discovered, were not a +Semitic nation, and were not in the land in the time of Moses. They are +not mentioned as a powerful people in the Pentateuch or the Book of +Joshua, but suddenly appear as invaders in the time of the Judges, +completely defeating and subduing the Canaanites along the shore. In fact, +the Philistines were probably an Indo-European or Aryan people, and their +name is now believed to be the same as that of the Pelasgi. They were +probably a body of Pelasgi from the island of Crete, who, by successive +invasions, overran Palestine, and gave their name to it.[357] They were +finally reduced by David; and as his reign is the culminating period of +Judaism, we will devote some space to his character and influence. + +The life of David makes an epoch in Jewish history and human history. +Nations, like plants, have their period of flowers and of fruit. They have +their springtime, their summer, autumn, and winter. The age of David among +the Jews was like the age of Pericles among the Greeks, of Augustus among +the Romans, of Louis XIV. in France, of Charles V. in Spain. Such periods +separate themselves from those which went before and from those which +follow. The period of David seems a thousand years removed from that of +the Judges, and yet it follows it almost immediately. As a few weeks in +spring turn the brown earth to a glad green, load the trees with foliage, +and fill the air with the perfume of blossoms and the song of birds, so a +few years in the life of a nation will change barbarism into civilization, +and pour the light of literature and knowledge over a sleeping land. Arts +flourish, external enemies are conquered, inward discontents are pacified, +wealth pours in, luxury increases, genius accomplishes its triumphs. +Summer, with its flowers and fruits, has arrived. + +When a nation is ripe for such a change, the advent of a man of genius +will accomplish it. Around him the particles crystallize and take form and +beauty. Such a man was David,--a brave soldier, a great captain, a +sagacious adventurer, an artist, musician, and poet, a man of profound +religious experience; he was, more than all these, a statesman. By his +great organizing ability he made a powerful nation out of that which, when +he came to the throne, consisted of a few discordant and half-conquered +tribes. In the time of Saul the Israelites were invaded by all the +surrounding nations; by the Syrians on the north, the Ammonites and +Moabites on the east, the Amalekites and Edomites on the south, and the +Philistines on the west. In the time of David all these nations were +completely subdued, their cities garrisoned, and the power of the +Israelites submitted to from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. + +Most great men are contented to be distinguished in one thing, and to lead +a single life; but David led three lives, each distinct from the +other,--the life of a soldier and statesman, the life of a poet and +artist, the life of deep religious experience. We will look at his +character in each of these three directions. + +We have already said that David found the Israelites divided and half +conquered, and left them united and conquerors. By means of his personal +qualities he had made himself popular among the tribes. He was known as a +brave and cautious guerilla chief. His native generosity and +open-heartedness won him the love of the people. His religious tendencies +gained for him the friendship of the priests, and the great influence of +Samuel was always exerted in his favor. He was thus enabled to unite the +people, and gain their confidence till he could make use of them in larger +enterprises. The Jews were not naturally a military nation, and were never +meant to be such. Yet when their strength was united they were capable, by +their determination and tenacity of purpose, of extraordinary military +exploits. Everything depended on their _morale_. Demoralized and weakened +by doubts and scruples, or when conscious that they were disobeying the +laws of Moses, they were easily defeated by any invader. The first duty of +their general was to bring them back from their idolatries and +backslidings to the service of God. Under Joshua it only needed two great +battles to conquer the whole land of Palestine. So, reunited under David, +a few campaigns made them victorious over the surrounding nations. + +The early part of David's life was a perpetual discipline in prudence. He +was continually beset with dangers. He had to fly from the presence and +ferocious jealousy of Saul again and again, and even to take refuge with +the Philistines, who had reason enough to be his enemies. He fled from +Saul to Samuel, and took shelter under his protection. Pursued to this +retreat by the king, he had no resource but to throw himself on the mercy +of the Philistines, and he went to Gath. When he saw himself in danger +there, he pretended to be insane; insanity being throughout the East a +protection from injury. His next step was to go to the cave Adullam, and +to collect around him a body of partisans, with whom to protect himself. +Saul watched his opportunity, and when David had left the fastnesses of +the mountain, and came into the city Keilah to defend it from the +Philistines, Saul went down with a detachment of troops to besiege him, so +that he had to fly again to the mountains. Betrayed by the Ziphites, as he +had been before betrayed by the men of Keilah, he went to another +wilderness and escaped. The king continued to pursue him whenever he could +get any tidings of his position, and again David was obliged to take +refuge among the Philistines. But throughout this whole period he never +permitted himself any hostile measures against Saul, his implacable enemy. +In this he showed great wisdom, for the result of such a course would have +been a civil war, in which part of the nation would have taken sides with +one and part with the other, and David never could have ascended the +throne with the consent of the whole people. But the consequence of his +forbearance was, that when by the death of Saul the throne became vacant, +David succeeded to it with scarcely any opposition. His subsequent course +showed always the same prudence. He disarmed his enemies by kindness and +clemency. He understood the policy of making a bridge of gold for a flying +enemy. When Abner, the most influential man of his opponents, offered to +submit to him, David received him with kindness and made him a friend. And +when Abner was treacherously killed by Joab, David publicly mourned for +him, following the bier, and weeping at the grave. The historian says +concerning this: "And all the people took notice of it and it pleased +them: as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people. For all the +people understood that day that it was not of the king to slay Abner the +son of Ner." His policy was to conciliate and unite. When Saul's son was +slain by his own servants, who thought to please David by that act, he +immediately put them to death. Equally cautious and judicious was his +course in transferring the Ark and its worship to Jerusalem. He did this +only gradually, and as he saw that the people were prepared for it. + +We next will look at David in his character as man of genius, musician, +artist, poet. It is not often that an eminent statesman and soldier is, at +the same time, a distinguished poet and writer. Sometimes they can write +history or annals, like Caesar and Frederick the Great; but the imaginative +and poetic element is rarely found connected with the determined will and +practical intellect of a great commander. Alexander the Great had a taste +for good poetry, for he carried Homer with him through his campaigns; but +the taste of Napoleon went no higher than a liking for Ossian. + +But David was a poet, in whom the tender, lyrical, personal element rose +to the highest point. The daring soldier, when he took his harp, became +another man. He consoled himself and sought comfort in trial, and sang his +thankfulness in his hours of joy. The Book of Psalms, so far as it is the +work of David, is the record of his life. As Horace says of Lucilius and +his book of Odes, that the whole of the old man's life hangs suspended +therein in votive pictures; and as Goethe says that his Lyrics are a book +of confessions, in which joy and sorrow turn to song; so the Book of +Psalms can only be understood when we consider it as David's poetical +autobiography. In this he anticipates the Koran, which was the private +journal of Mohammed. + +"The harp of David," says Herder, "was his comforter and friend. In his +youth he sang to its music while tending his flocks as a shepherd on the +mountains of Judaea. By its means he had access to Saul, and could sooth +with it the dark mood of the king. In his days of exile he confided to it +his sorrows. When he triumphed over his enemies the harp became in his +royal hands a thank-offering to the deity. Afterward he organized on a +magnificent scale music and poetry in the worship of God. Four thousand +Levites, distinguished by a peculiar dress, were arranged in classes and +choirs under master-singers, of whom the three most distinguished, Asaph, +Heman, and Jeduthun, are known to us by specimens of their art. In his +Psalms his whole kingdom lives." + +We speak of the inspiration of genius, and distinguish it from the +inspiration of the religious teacher. But in ancient times the prophet and +poet were often the same, and one word (as, in Latin, "vates") was used +for both. In the case of David the two inspirations were perfectly at one. +His religion was poetry, and his poetry was religion. The genius of his +poetry is not grandeur, but beauty. Sometimes it expresses a single +thought or sentiment, as that (Psalm cxxxiii.) describing the beauty of +brotherly union, or as that (Psalm xxiii.) which paints trust in God like +that of a sheep in his shepherd. Of the same sort is the fifteenth Psalm, +"Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle?" the twenty-ninth, a description +of a thunderstorm; the sixty-seventh, "O God, be merciful to us and bless +us"; the eighty-fourth, "How lovely are thy tabernacles"; and the last +Psalm, calling on mankind to praise God in all ways. + +It is a striking fact that these Hebrew lyrics, written long before the +foundation of Rome, and before the time of Homer, should be used to-day in +Christian worship and for private devotion all over the world. + +In speaking of the Vedas and the Avesta we said that in such hymns and +liturgies the truest belief of a nation can be found. What men say to God +in their prayers may be assumed to express their practical convictions. +The Jewish religion is not to be found so surely in its Levitical code as +in these national lyrics, which were the liturgy of the people.[358] + +What then do they say concerning God? They teach his universal dominion. +They declare that none in the heaven can be compared to him (Psalm +lxxxix.); that he is to be feared above all gods (Psalm xcvi.). They teach +his eternity; declaring that he is God from everlasting to everlasting; +that a thousand years in his sight are as yesterday; that he laid the +foundations of the earth and made the heavens, and that when these perish +he will endure; that at some period they shall be changed like a garment, +but that God will always be the same (Psalm xc., cii.). They teach in +numerous places that God is the Creator of all things. They adore and +bless his fatherly love and kindness, which heals all our diseases and +redeems our life, crowning us with loving-kindness, pitying us, and +forgiving our sins (Psalm ciii.). They teach that he is in all nature +(Psalm civ.), that he searches and knows all our thoughts, and that we can +go nowhere from his presence (Psalm cxxxix.). They declare that he +protects all who trust in him (Psalm xci., cxxi.), and that he purifies +the heart and life (Psalm cxix.), creating in us a clean heart, and not +asking for sacrifice, but for a broken spirit (Psalm li.). + +These Psalms express the highest and best moments of Jewish life, and rise +in certain points to the level of Christianity. They do not contain the +Christian spirit of forgiveness, nor that of love to one's enemy. They are +still narrowed to the range of the Jewish land and nation, and do not +embrace humanity. They are mountain summits of faith, rising into the pure +air and light of day from hidden depths, and appearing as islands in the +ocean. They reach, here and there, the level of the vast continent, though +not broad enough themselves to become the home of all races and nations. + +There is nothing in the Vedas, nothing in the Avesta, nothing in the +sacred books of Egypt, or the philosophy of Greece and Rome, which so +unites the grandeur of omnipotence with the tenderness of a father toward +his child. + + + +Sec. 5. Solomon; or, the Religious Relapse. + + +We have seen how the religion of Abraham, as the family worship of the +Supreme Being, was developed into that of Moses, as the national worship +of a just and holy King. We have seen it going onward from that, ascending +in the inspirations of David into trust in an infinite God as a friend, +and love to him as a father. We now come to a period of relapse. Under +Solomon and his successors, this religion became corrupted and degraded. +Its faith was changed into doubt, its lofty courage into the fear of kings +and tyrants, its worship of the Most High into adoration of the idols of +its neighbors. The great increase of power and wealth in the hands of +Solomon corrupted his own heart and that of his people. Luxury came in; +and, as in Rome the old puritanic virtues were dissolved by the desire for +wealth and pleasure, so it happened among the Jews. Then came the +retribution, in the long captivity in Babylon, and the beginning of a new +and better life under this hard discipline. And then comes the age of the +Prophets, who gradually became the teachers of a higher and broader faith. +So, when the Jews returned to Jerusalem, they came back purified, and +prepared to become once more loyal subjects of Jehovah. + +The principle of hereditary succession, but not of primogeniture, had been +established by an agreement between David and the people when he proposed +erecting a Temple at Jerusalem. He had appointed his son Solomon as his +successor before his own death. With the entrance of Solomon we have an +entirely different personality from any whom we have thus far met. With +him also is inaugurated a new period and a different age. The age of Moses +was distinguished as that of law,--on the side of God absolute authority, +commanding and forbidding; on the side of man the only question was +between obedience and disobedience. Moses was the Law-giver, and his age +was the age of law. In the time of the Judges the question concerned +national existence and national independence. The age of the Judges was +the heroic age of the Jewish nation. The Judges were men combining +religious faith with patriotism; they were religious heroes. Then came the +time of David, in which the nation, having become independent, became also +powerful and wealthy. After his time the religion, instead of being a law +to be obeyed or an impulse to action, became ceremony and pageant. Going +one step further, it passed into reflection and meditation. In the age of +Solomon the inspiration of the national religion had already gone. A great +intellectual development had taken the place of inspiration. So that the +Jewish nation seems to have passed through a fourfold religious +experience. Religion was first law, then action, next inspiration and +sentiment, afterward ceremony, and lastly opinion and intellectual +culture. + +It is the belief of Herder and other scholars that the age of Solomon gave +birth to a copious literature, born of peace, tranquillity, and +prosperity, which has all passed away except a few Psalms, the Book of +Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. + +Solomon is personally a much less interesting character than David; for +policy is never so interesting as impulse, and the crimes of policy seem +worse than those of passion. The first act of Solomon was of this sort. He +put his brother Adonijah to death for his attempt to seize the throne. +Joab, who supported Adonijah against Solomon, was also put to death, for +which we do not grieve, when we remember his assassination of Abner and +Amasa, shedding the blood of war in peace. But the cold, unscrupulous +character of Solomon is seen in his ordering Joab to be slain in the +tabernacle while holding the horns of the altar, and causing Adonijah to +be taken by force from the same place of refuge. No religious +consideration or superstitious fear could prevent Solomon from doing what +he thought necessary for his own security. He had given Adonijah a +conditional pardon, limited to good behavior on his part. But after his +establishment on the throne Adonijah requested the mother of Solomon, +Bathsheba, to ask her son to give him for a wife the beautiful Abishag, +the last wife of David. Solomon understood this to mean, what his mother +did not understand, that his brother was still intriguing to supplant him +on the throne, and with cool policy he ordered him to immediate execution. +Solomon could pardon a criminal, but not a dangerous rival. He deposed the +high-priest for the same reason, considering him to be also dangerous. +Shimei, who seems to have been wealthy and influential as well as a +determined character, was ordered not to leave Jerusalem under penalty of +death. He did so, and Solomon put him to death. David, before his death, +had warned Solomon to keep an eye both on Joab and on Shimei, for David +could forgive his own enemies, but not those of his cause; he was not +afraid on his own account, but was afraid for the safety of his son. + +By the death of Joab and Shimei, Solomon's kingdom was established, and +the glory and power of David was carried to a still higher point of +magnificence. Supported by the prophets on the one hand and by the priests +on the other, his authority was almost unlimited. We are told that "Judah +and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating +and drinking and making merry. And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from +the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt; +they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life. And +Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and +threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the +pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow +deer, and fatted fowl." The wars of David were ended. Solomon's was a +reign of peace. "And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his +vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of +Solomon. And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, +and twelve thousand horsemen." "And God gave Solomon wisdom and +understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand +that is on the sea-shore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all +the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was +wiser than all men; than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and +Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all nations round about." +"And there came of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all +kings of the earth, which had heard of his wisdom." The great power and +wealth of the Jewish court at this period are historically verified by the +traditions still extant among the Arabs of Solomon's superhuman splendor. + +The story (1 Kings iii. 5) of Solomon's dream, in which he chose an +understanding heart and wisdom, rather than riches and honor, reminds us +of the choice of Hercules. It is not unlikely that he had such a dream, it +is quite probable that he always preferred wisdom to anything else, and it +is certain that his wisdom came from God. This is the only connection we +can trace between the dream and its fulfilment. + +Solomon inaugurated a new policy by entering into alliances and making +treaties with his powerful neighbors. He formed an alliance with the king +of Egypt, and married his daughter. He also made a treaty of commerce and +friendship with the king of Tyre on the north, and procured from him cedar +with which to build the Temple and his own palace. He received an embassy +also from the queen of Sheba, who resided in the south of Arabia. By means +of the Tyrian ships he traded to the west as far as the coasts of Spain +and Africa, and his own vessels made a coasting voyage of three years' +duration to Tarshish, from which they brought ivory, gold, silver, apes, +and peacocks. This voyage seems to have been through the Red Sea to +India.[359] He also traded in Asia, overland, with caravans. And for their +accommodation and defence he built Tadmor in the desert (afterward called +Palmyra), as a great stopping-place. This city in later days became famous +as the capital of Zenobia, and the remains of the Temple of the Sun, +standing by itself in the midst of the Great Desert, are among the most +interesting ruins in the world.[360] + +The great work of Solomon was building the Temple at Jerusalem in the +year B.C. 1005. This Temple was destroyed, and rebuilt by Nehemiah B.C. +445. It was rebuilt by Herod B.C. 17. Little remains from the time of +Solomon, except some stones in the walls of the substructions; and the +mosque of Omar now stands on the old foundation. No building of antiquity +so much resembles the Temple of Solomon as the palace of Darius at +Persepolis. In both buildings the porch opened into the large hall, both +had small chambers on the side, square masses on both sides of the porch, +and the same form of pillars. The parts of Solomon's Temple were, first, a +porch thirty feet wide and fifteen feet deep; second a large hall sixty by +thirty; and then the holy of holies, which was thirty feet cube. The whole +external dimensions of the building were only sixty feet by one hundred +and twenty, or less than many an ordinary parish church. The explanation +is that it was copied from the Tabernacle, which was a small building, and +was necessarily somewhat related to it in size. The walls were of stone, +on extensive stone foundations. Inside it was lined with cedar, with +floors of cypress, highly ornamented with carvings and gold. The brass +work consisted of two ornamented pillars called Jachin and Boaz, a brazen +tank supported by twelve brass oxen, and ten baths of brass, ornamented +with figures of lions, oxen, and cherubim. + +The Book of Kings says of Solomon (1 Kings iv. 32) that "he spake three +thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of +trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that +springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl and of +creeping things, and of fishes." He was, according to this account, a +voluminous writer on natural history, as well as an eminent poet and +moralist. Of all his compositions there remains but one, the Book of +Proverbs, which was probably in great part composed by him. It is true +that three books in the Old Testament bear his name,--Proverbs, +Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. But of these Ecclesiastes was +probably written afterward, and though the Song of Songs may have been +written by Solomon, it was probably the work of another, living at or +near his time. + +But of the Book of Proverbs there cannot be much doubt. It contains some +of the three thousand of which Solomon was the reputed author. It shows +his style of mind very clearly,--the cool understanding, the calculating +prudence, the continual reference to results, knowledge of the world as +distinguished from knowledge of human nature, or of individual character. +The Book of Proverbs contains little heroism or poetry, few large ideas, +not much enthusiasm or sentiment. It is emphatically a book of wisdom. It +has good, hard, practical sense. It is the "Poor Richard's Almanac" of +Hebrew literature. We can conceive of King Solomon and Benjamin Franklin +consulting together, and comparing notes of their observations on human +life, with much mutual satisfaction. It is curious to meet with such a +thoroughly Western intellect, a thousand years before Christ, on the +throne of the heroic David. + +Among these proverbs there are many of a kindly character. Some are +semi-Christian in their wise benevolence. Many show great shrewdness of +observation, and have an epigrammatic wit. We will give examples of each +kind:-- + + + PROVERBS HAVING A SEMI-CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. + + "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread; + If thirsty, give him water to drink, + For thou wilt heap coals of fire on his head, + And Jehovah will reward thee." + + "To deliver those that are dragged to death, + Those that totter to the slaughter, + Spare thyself not. + If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, + Doth not He that weighs the heart observe it? + Yea, He that keeps thy soul knows it. + And He will render to every man according to his works." + + "Put not thyself forth in the presence of the king, + Nor station thyself in the place of great men. + Far better it is that one should say to thee, + Come up hither! + Than that he should put thee in a lower place, + In the presence of the prince." + + "The lip of truth shall be established forever, + But the tongue of falsehood is but for a moment." + + + PROVERBS SHOWING SHREWDNESS OF OBSERVATION. + + "As one that takes a dog by the ears, + So is he that passing by becomes enraged on account of another's + quarrel." + + "Where there is no wood the fire goes out; + So where there is no talebearer contention ceases." + + "The rich rules over the poor, + And the borrower is servant to the lender." + + "The slothful man says, There is a lion without, + I shall be slain in the streets." + + "A reproof penetrates deeper into a wise man + Than a hundred stripes into a fool." + + "Hope deferred makes the heart sick." + + "The way of transgressors is hard." + + "There is that scatters, and yet increases." + + "It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer, + But when he goeth his way then he boasteth." + + + PROVERBS WITTILY EXPRESSED. + + "The legs of a lame man are not equal, + So is a proverb in the mouth of fools."[361] + + "As a thorn runs into the hand of a drunkard, + So is a proverb in the mouth of a fool."[362] + + "As clouds and wind without rain, + So is a man who boasts falsely of giving." + + "A soft tongue breaks bones." + + "As vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, + So is the sluggard to him that sends him." + + "The destruction of the poor is their poverty." + + "A merry heart is a good medicine." + +But what are human wisdom and glory? It seems that Solomon was to +illustrate its emptiness. See the king, in his old age, sinking into +idolatry and empty luxury, falling away from his God, and pointing the +moral of his own proverbs. He himself was the drunkard, into whose hand +the thorn of the proverb penetrated, without his heeding it. This prudent +and wise king, who understood so well all the snares of temptation and all +the arts of virtue, fell like the puppet of any Asiatic court. What a +contrast between the wise and great king as described in I Kings iv. 20-34 +and the same king in his degenerate old age! + +It was this last period in the life of Solomon which the writer of +Ecclesiastes took as the scene and subject of his story. With marvellous +penetration and consummate power he penetrates the mind of Solomon and +paints the blackness of desolation, the misery of satiety, the dreadful +darkness of a soul which has given itself to this world as its only +sphere. + +Never was such a picture painted of utter scepticism, of a mind wholly +darkened, and without any remaining faith in God or truth. + +These three books mark the three periods of the life of Solomon. + +The Song of Songs shows us his abounding youth, full of poetry, fire, and +charm. + +The Proverbs give his ripened manhood, wise and full of all earthly +knowledge,--Aristotle, Bacon, Socrates, and Franklin, all in one. + +And Ecclesiastes represents the darkened and gloomy scepticism of his old +age, when he sank as low down as he had before gone up. But though so sad +and dark, yet it is not without gleams of a higher and nobler joy to come. +Better than anything in Proverbs are some of the noble sentiments breaking +out in Ecclesiastes, especially at the end of the book. + +The Book of Ecclesiastes is a wonderful description of a doubt so deep, a +despair so black, that nothing in all literature can be compared to it. It +describes, in the person of Solomon, utter scepticism born of unlimited +worldly enjoyment, knowledge, and power. + +The book begins by declaring that all is vanity, that there is nothing +new under the sun, no progress in any direction, but all things revolving +in an endless circle, so that there is neither meaning nor use in the +world.[363] It declares that _work_ amounts to nothing, for one cannot do +any really good thing; that knowledge is of no use, but only produces +sorrow; that pleasure satiates.[364] Knowledge has only this advantage +over ignorance, that it enables us to see things as they are, but it does +not make them better, and the end of all is despair.[365] Sensual pleasure +is the only good.[366] Fate and necessity rule all things. Good and evil +both come at their appointed time. Men are cheated and do not see the +nullity of things, because they have the world in their heart, and are +absorbed in the present moment.[367] + +Men are only a higher class of beasts. They die like beasts, and have no +hereafter.[368] + +In the fourth chapter the writer goes more deeply into this pessimism. He +says that to die is better than to live, and better still never to have +been born. A fool is better than a wise man, because he does nothing and +cares for nothing.[369] + +Success is bad, progress is an evil; for these take us away from others, +and leave us lonely, because above them and hated by them.[370] + +Worship is idle. Do not offer the sacrifice of fools, but stop when you +are going to the Temple, and return. Do not pray. It is of no use. God +does not hear you. Dreams do not come from God, but from what you were +doing before you went to sleep. Eat and drink, that is the best.[371] All +men go as they come. + +So the dreary statement proceeds. Men are born for no end, and go no one +can tell where. Live a thousand years, it all comes to the same thing. Who +can tell what is good for a man in this shadowy, empty life?[372] + +It is better to look on death than on life, wiser to be sad than to be +cheerful. If you say, "There _have been_ good times in the past," do not +be too sure of that. If you say, "We can be good, at least, if we cannot +be happy," there is such a thing as being _too_ good, and cheating +yourself out of pleasure.[373] + +Women are worse than men. You may find one good man among a thousand, but +not one good woman.[374] + +It is best to be on the right side of the powers that be, for they can do +what they please. Speedy and certain punishment alone can keep men from +doing evil. The same thing happens to the good and to the wicked. All +things come alike to all. This life is, in short, an inexplicable puzzle. +The perpetual refrain is, eat, drink, and be merry.[375] + +It is best to do what you can, and think nothing about it. Cast your bread +on the waters, very likely you will get it again. Sow your seed either in +the morning or at night; it makes no difference.[376] + +Death is coming to all. All is vanity. I continue to preach, because I see +the truth, and may as well say it, though there is no end to talking and +writing. You may sum up all wisdom in six words: "Fear God and keep his +commandments."[377] + +The Book of Ecclesiastes teaches a great truth in an unexampled strain of +pathetic eloquence. It teaches what a black scepticism descends on the +wisest, most fortunate, most favored of mankind, when he looks only to +this world and its joys. It could, however, only have been written by one +who had gone through this dreadful experience. The intellect alone never +sounded such depths as these. Moreover, it could hardly have been written +unless in a time when such scepticism prevailed, nor by one who, having +lived it all, had not also lived _through_ it all, and found the cure for +this misery in pure unselfish obedience to truth and right. It seems, +therefore, like a Book of Confessions, or the Record of an Experience, +and as such well deserves its place in the Bible and Jewish literature. + +The Book of Job is a still more wonderful production, but in a wholly +different tone. It is full of manly faith in truth and right. It has no +jot of scepticism in it. It is a noble protest against all hypocrisies and +all shams. Job does not know why he is afflicted, but he will never +confess that he is a sinner till he sees it. The Pharisaic friends tell +him his sufferings are judgments for his sins, and advise him to admit it +to be so. But Job refuses, and declares he will utter no "words of wind" +to the Almighty. The grandest thought is here expressed in the noblest +language which the human tongue has ever uttered. + + + +Sec. 6. The Prophets; or, Judaism as the Hope of a spiritual and universal +Kingdom of God. + + +Before we proceed to examine the prophetic writings of the Old Testament, +it is desirable to make some remarks upon prophecy in general, and on the +character of the Hebrew prophets. + +Prophecy in general is a modification of inspiration. Inspiration is +sight, or rather it is insight. _All_ our knowledge comes to us through +the intellectual power which may be called sight, which is of two +kinds,--the sight of external things, or outsight; and the sight of +internal things, which is insight, or intuition. The senses constitute the +organization by which we see external things; consciousness is the +organization by which we perceive internal things. Now the organs of sense +are the same in kind, but differ in degree in all men. All human beings, +as such, have the power of perceiving an external world, by means of the +five senses. But though all have these five senses, all do not perceive +the same external phenomena by means of them. For, in the first place, +their senses differ in degrees of power. Some men's eyes are telescopic, +some microscopic, and some are blind. Some men can but partially +distinguish colors, others not at all. Some have acute hearing, others +are deaf. And secondly, what men perceive through the senses differs +according to what is about them. A man living in China cannot see Mont +Blanc or the city of New York; a man on the other side of the moon can +never see the earth. A man living in the year 1871 cannot see Alexander +the Great or the Apostle Paul. And thirdly, two persons may be looking at +the same thing, and with senses of the same degree of power, and yet one +may be able to see what the other is not able to see. Three men, one a +geologist, one a botanist, and one a painter, may look at the same +landscape, and one will see the stratification, the second will see the +flora, and the third the picturesque qualities of the scene. As regards +outsight then, though men in general have the same senses to see with, +what they see depends (1) on their quality of sense, (2) on their position +in space and time, (3) and on their state of mental culture. + +That which is true of the perception of external phenomena is also true of +the perception of internal things. + +Insight, or intuition, has the same limitations as outsight. These are (1) +the quality of the faculty of intuition; (2) the inward circumstances or +position of the soul; (3) the soul's culture or development. Those who +deny the existence of an intuitive faculty, teaching that all knowledge +comes from without through the senses, sometimes say that if there were +such a faculty as intuition, men would all possess intuitively the same +knowledge of moral and spiritual truth. They might as well say that, as +all men have eyes, all must see the same external objects. + +All men have more or less of the intuitive faculty, but some have much +more than others. Those who have the most are called, by way of eminence, +inspired men. But among these there is a difference as regards the objects +which are presented by God, in the order of his providence, to their +intuitive faculty. Some he places inwardly among visions of beauty, and +they are inspired poets and artists. Others he places inwardly amid +visions of temporal and human life, and they become inspired discoverers +and inventors. And others he places amid visions of religious truth, and +they are inspired prophets, lawgivers, and evangelists. But these again +differ in their own spiritual culture and growth. Moses and the Apostle +Paul were both inspired men, but the Apostle Paul saw truths which Moses +did not see, because the Apostle Paul had reached a higher degree of +spiritual culture. Christ alone possessed the fulness of spiritual +inspiration, because he alone had attained the fulness of spiritual life. + +Now the inspired man may look inwardly either at the past, the present, or +the future. If he look at the past he is an inspired historian; if at the +present, an inspired lawgiver, or religious teacher; if at the future, an +inspired prophet. The inspired faculty may be the same, and the difference +may be in the object inwardly present to its contemplation. The seer may +look from things past to things present, from things present to things to +come, and his inspiration be the same. He fixes his mind on the past, and +it grows clear before him, and he sees how events were and what they mean. +He looks at the present, and sees how things ought to be. He looks at the +future, and sees how things shall be. + +The Prophets of the Old Testament were not, as is commonly supposed, men +who only uttered predictions of the future. They were men of action more +than of contemplation. Strange as it may seem to us, who are accustomed to +consider their office as confined to religious prediction, their chief +duty was that of active politicians. They mixed religion and politics. +They interfered with public measures, rebuked the despotism of the kings +and the political errors of the people. Moreover, they were the +constitutional lawyers and publicists of the Hebrews, inspired to look +backward and explain the meaning of the Mosaic law as well as to look +forward to its spiritual development in the reign of the Messiah. +Prediction, therefore, of future events, was a very small part of the work +of the Prophets. Their main duty was to warn, rebuke, teach, exhort, and +encourage. + +The Hebrew prophets were under the law. They were loyal to Moses and to +his institutions. But it was to the spirit rather than to the letter, the +idea rather than the form. They differed from the priests in preferring +the moral part of the law to the ceremonial. They were great reformers in +bringing back the people from external formalism to vital obedience. They +constantly made the ceremonial part of the law subservient to the moral +part of the law. Thus Samuel said to Saul: "Hath the Lord as great delight +in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? +Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of +rams." And so afterward Isaiah declared in the name of the Lord, that the +sacrifices of a wicked people were vain, and their incense an abomination. + +We read of the schools of the Prophets, where they studied the law of +Moses, and were taught the duties of their office. In these schools music +was made use of as a medium of inspiration. + +But the office of a prophet was not limited by culture, sex, age, or +condition. Women, like Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Huldah, and Noadiah; +inexperienced youths, like Jeremiah; men of high standing in society, like +Isaiah and Daniel; humble men, like the ploughman Elisha and the herdsman +Amos; men married and unmarried, are numbered among the Prophets. Living +poorly, wearing sackcloth, feeding on vegetables, imprisoned or +assassinated by kings, stoned by the people, the most unpopular of men, +sometimes so possessed by the spirit as to rave like madmen, obliged to +denounce judgments and woes against kings and people, it is no wonder that +they often shrank from their terrible office. Jonah ran to hide in a ship +of Tarshish. They have called their message a burden, like Isaiah; they +have cried out like Jeremiah, "Ah, Lord God, I cannot speak, for I am a +child"; like Ezekiel, they have been obliged to make their faces harder +than flints in order to deliver their message. + +Dean Stanley, in speaking of the Prophets of the Old Testament, says that +their theology consisted in proclaiming the unity of God against all +polytheism, and the spirituality of God against all idolatry, in declaring +the superiority of moral to ceremonial duties, and in announcing the +supremacy of goodness above the letter, ceremony, or dogma. This makes +the contrast between the Prophets and all other sacred persons who have +existed in pagan and, he adds, even in Christian times. Dean Stanley says +the Prophets were religious teachers, without the usual faults of +religious teachers, and he proposes them as an example to the Christian +clergy. He says: "O, if the spirit of our profession, of our order, of our +body, were the spirit, or anything like the spirit, of the ancient +Prophets! If with us truth, charity, justice, fairness to opponents, were +a passion, a doctrine, a point of honor, to be upheld with the same energy +as that with which we uphold our own position and our own opinions!" + +The spirit of the world asks first, Is it safe? secondly, Is it true? The +spirit of the Prophets asks first, Is it true? secondly, Is it safe? The +spirit of the world asks first, Is it prudent? secondly, Is it right? The +spirit of the Prophets asks first, Is it right? secondly, Is it prudent? +Taken as a whole, the prophetic order of the Jewish Church remains alone. +It stands like one of those vast monuments of ancient days, with ramparts +broken, with inscriptions defaced, but stretching from hill to hill, +conveying in its long line of arches the pure rill of living water over +deep valley and thirsty plain, far above all the puny modern buildings +which have grown up at its feet, and into the midst of which it strides +with its massive substructions, its gigantic height, its majestic +proportions, unrivalled by any erection of modern time. + +The predictions of the future by the Prophets of Judaea were far higher in +their character than those which come occasionally to mankind through +dreams and presentiments. Yet no doubt they proceeded from the same +essentially Iranian faculty. This also is asserted by the Dean of +Westminster, who says that there is a power of divination granted in some +inexplicable manner to ordinary men, and he refers to such instances as +the prediction of the discovery of America by Seneca, that of the +Reformation by Dante, and the prediction of the twelve centuries of Roman +dominion by the apparition of twelve vultures to Romulus, which was so +understood four hundred years before its actual accomplishment. If such +presentiments are not always verified, neither were the predictions of +the Prophets always fulfilled. Jonah announced, in the most distinct and +absolute terms, that in forty days Nineveh should be destroyed. But the +people repented, and it was _not_ destroyed. Their predictions of the +Messiah are remarkable, especially because in speaking of him and his time +they went out of the law and the spirit of the law, and became partakers +of the spirit of the Gospel. The Prophets of the Jews, whatever else we +deny to their predictions, certainly foresaw Christianity. They describe +the coming of a time in which the law should be written in the heart, of a +king who should reign in righteousness, of a prince of peace, of one who +should rule by the power of truth, not by force, whose kingdom should be +universal and everlasting, and into which all nations of the earth should +flow. What the Prophets foresaw was not times nor seasons, not dates nor +names, not any minute particulars. But they saw a future age, they lived +out of their own time in another time, which had not yet arrived. They +left behind them Jewish ceremonialism, and entered into a moral and +spiritual religion. They dropped Jewish narrowness and called all mankind +brethren. In this they reach the highest form of foresight, which is not +simply to predict a coming event, but to live in the spirit of a future +time. + +Thus the Prophets developed the Jewish religion to its highest point. The +simple, childlike faith of Abraham became, in their higher vision, the +sight of a universal Father, and of an age in which all men and nations +should be united into one great moral kingdom. Further than this, it was +not possible to go in vision. The difference between the Prophets and +Jesus was, that he accomplished what they foresaw. His life, full of faith +in God and man, became the new seed of a higher kingdom than that of +David. He was the son of David, as inheriting the loving trust of David in +a heavenly Father; he was also the Lord of David, by fulfilling David's +love to God with his own love to man; making piety and charity one, faith +and freedom one, reason and religion one, this life and the life to come +one. He died to accomplish this union and to make this atoning sacrifice. + + + +Sec. 7. Judaism as a Preparation for Christianity. + + +After the return from the captivity the Jewish nation remained loyal to +Jehovah. The dangers of polytheism and idolatry had passed. We no more +hear of either of these tendencies, but, on the contrary, a rigid and +almost bigoted monotheism was firmly established. Their sufferings, the +teaching of their Prophets, perhaps the influence of the Persian worship, +had confirmed them in the belief that Jehovah was one and alone, and that +the gods of the nations were idols. They had lost forever the sacred ark +of the covenant and the mysterious ornaments of the high-priest. Their +kings had disappeared, and a new form of theocracy took the place of a +royal government. The high-priest, with the great council, became the +supreme authority. The government was hierarchal. + +Hellenic influences began to act on the Jewish mind, and a peculiar +dialect of Hebrew-Greek, called the Hellenistic, was formed. The +Septuagint, or Greek version of the Old Testament, was made in Alexandria +about B.C. 260. In Egypt, Greek philosophy began to affect the Jewish +mind, the final result of which was the system of Philo. Greek influences +spread to such an extent that a great religious revolution took place in +Palestine (B.C. 170), and the Temple at Jerusalem was turned into a temple +of Olympic Jupiter. Many of the priests and leading citizens accepted this +change, though the heart of the people rejected it with horror. Under +Antiochus the Temple was profaned, the sacrifices ceased, the keeping of +the Sabbath and use of the Scriptures were forbidden by a royal edict. +Then arose the Maccabees, and after a long and bitter struggle +re-established the worship of Jehovah, B.C. 141. + +After this the mass of the people, in their zeal for the law and their old +institutions, fell in to the narrow bigotry of the Pharisees. The +Sadducees were Jewish Epicureans, but though wealthy were few, and had +little influence. The Essenes were Jewish monks, living in communities, +and as little influential as are the Shakers in Massachusetts to-day. They +were not only few, but their whole system was contrary to the tone of +Jewish thought, and was probably derived from Orphic Pythagoreanism.[378] + +The Talmud, that mighty maze of Jewish thought, commencing after the +return from the captivity, contains the history of the gradual progress +and development of the national mind. The study of the Talmud is necessary +to the full understanding of the rise of Christianity. Many of the +parables and precepts of Jesus may have had their origin in these +traditions and teachings. For the Talmud contains much that is excellent, +and the originality of Jesus was not in saying what never had been thought +before, but in vitalizing all old truth out of a central spiritual life. +His originality was not novelty, but vitality. We have room here but for a +single extract.[379] + +"'Six hundred and thirteen injunctions,' says the Talmud, 'was Moses +instructed to give to the people. David reduced them all to eleven, in the +fifteenth Psalm: Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle who shall dwell +on thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly,' &c. + +"'The Prophet Isaiah reduced them to six (xxxiii. 15): He that walketh +righteously,' &c. + +"'The Prophet Micah reduced them to three (vi. 8): What doth the Lord +require of thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly +with thy God? + +"'Isaiah once more reduced them to two (lvi. 1): Keep ye judgment and do +justice. + +"'Amos (v. 4) reduced them all to one: Seek ye me and ye shall live. + +"'But lest it might be supposed from this that God could be found in the +fulfilment of his whole law only, Habakkuk said (ii. 4): The just shall +live by his faith.'" + +Thus we have seen the Jewish religion gradually developed out of the +family worship of Abraham, through the national worship of the law to the +personal and filial trust of David, and the spiritual monotheism of Job +and the Prophets. Through all these changes there ran the one golden +thread of faith in a Supreme Being who was not hidden and apart from the +world, but who came to man as to his child. + +At first this belief was narrow and like that of a child[380] We read +that when Noah went into the ark, "the Lord shut him in"; that when Babel +was built, "the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the +children of men had built"; that when Noah offered burnt-sacrifices, "the +Lord smelled a sweet savor"; that he told Moses to make him a sanctuary, +that he might dwell among the Israelites. We have seen, in our chapter on +Greece, that Homer makes Jupiter send a pernicious dream to Agamemnon, to +deceive him; in other words, makes Jupiter tell a lie to Agamemnon. But +how is the account in I Kings xxii. 20-23, any better?[381] + +But how all this ignorance was enlightened, and this narrowness enlarged, +let the magnificent theism of the Psalms, of Job, and of Isaiah testify. +Solomon declares "The heaven of heavens cannot contain him, how much less +this house that I have builded." Job and the Psalms and Isaiah describe +the omniscience, omnipresence, and inscrutable perfections of the Deity in +language to which twenty centuries have been able to add nothing.[382] + +Thus Judaism was monotheism, first as a seed, then as a blade, and then as +the ear which the sun of Christianity was to ripen into the full corn. The +highest truth was present, implicitly, in Judaism, and became explicit in +Christianity. The law was the schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. It +taught, however imperfectly, a supreme and living God; a Providence ruling +all things; a Judge rewarding good and punishing evil; a holy Being, of +purer eyes than to behold iniquity. It announced a moral law to be +obeyed, the substance of which was to love God with all the heart, and +one's neighbor as one's self. + +Wherever the Apostles of Christ went they found that Judaism had prepared +the way. Usually, in every place, they first preached to the Jews, and +made converts of them. For Judaism, though so narrow and so alien to the +Greek and Latin thought, had nevertheless pervaded all parts of the Roman +Empire. Despised and satirized by philosophers and poets, it had yet won +its way by its strength of conviction. It offered to men, not a +philosophy, but a religion; not thought, but life. Too intolerant of +differences to convert the world to monotheism, it yet made a preparation +for its conversion. This was its power, and thus it went before the face +of the Master, to prepare his way. + + + + +Chapter XI. + +Mohammed and Islam. + + + + Sec. 1. Recent Works on the Life of Mohammed. + Sec. 2. The Arabs and Arabia. + Sec. 3. Early Life of Mohammed, to the Hegira. + Sec. 4. Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira. + Sec. 5. Religious Doctrines and Practices among the Mohammedans. + Sec. 6. The Criticism of Mr. Palgrave on Mohammedan Theology. + Sec. 7. Mohammedanism a Relapse; the worst Form of Monotheism, and a + retarding Element in Civilization. + + Note. + + + +Sec. 1. Recent Works on the Life of Mohammed. + + +Dr. Samuel Johnson once declared, "There are two objects of curiosity, the +Christian world and the Mohammedan world; all the rest may be considered +as barbarous." Since Dr. Johnson's time we have learned to be curious +about other forms of human thought, and regard the famous line of Terence +as expressing more accurately the proper frame of mind for a Christian +philosopher. Nevertheless, Mohammedanism still claims a special interest +and excites a peculiar curiosity. It is the only religion which has +threatened Christianity with a dangerous rivalry. It is the only other +religion, whose origin is in the broad daylight of history. Its author is +the only one among the great men of the world who has at the same time +founded a religion, formed a people, and established an empire. The +marvellous spread of this religion is a mystery which never ceases to +stimulate the mind to new inquiry. How was it that in the short space of a +century the Arab tribes, before always at war among themselves, should +have been united into an irresistible power, and have conquered Syria, +Persia, the whole of Northern Africa and Spain? And with this religious +outbreak, this great revival of monotheism in Asia, there came also as +remarkable a renaissance of learning, which made the Arabs the teachers of +philosophy and art to Europe during a long period. Arab Spain was a focus +of light while Christian Europe lay in mediaeval darkness. And still more +interesting and perplexing is the character of Mohammed himself. What was +he,--an impostor or a prophet? Did his work advance or retard human +progress? What is his position in history? Such are some of the questions +on which we shall endeavor to throw light in the present chapter. + +Within a few years new materials for this study have been made accessible +by the labors of Weil, Caussin de Perceval, Muir, Sprenger, Doellinger, and +Arnold. Dr. Gustav Weil published his work[383] in 1843. It was drawn from +Arabic manuscripts and the Koran. When Weil began his studies on Mohammed +in 1837, he found no book except that of Gagnier, published in 1732, from +which he could derive substantial aid. But Gagnier had only collected, +without any attempt at criticism, the traditions and statements concerning +Mohammed believed by orthodox Moslems. Satisfied that a literary want +existed at this point, Dr. Weil devoted himself to such studies as should +enable him to supply it; and the result was a work concerning which Milman +says that "nothing has escaped" the diligence of its author. But four +years after appeared the book of M. Caussin de Perceval,[384] a work of +which M. Saint-Hilaire says that it marks a new era in these studies, on +account of the abundance and novelty of its details, and the light thrown +on the period which in Arabia preceded the coming of Mohammed. Dr. A. +Sprenger, an eminent German scholar, early determined to devote himself to +the study of Oriental literature in the East. He spent a long time in +India, and was for twelve years principal of a Mohammedan school in Delhi, +where he established, in 1845, an illustrated penny magazine in the Hindoo +language. After returning to Europe with a vast number of Oriental +manuscripts, he composed his Life of Mohammed,[385] the result of +extensive studies. Among the preparations for this work we will cite only +one. Dr. Sprenger edited in Calcutta the first volume of the Icaba, which +contains the names and biographies of _eight thousand_ persons who were +personally acquainted with Mohammed.[386] But, as if to embarrass us with +riches, comes also Mr. Muir[387] and presents us with another life of the +prophet, likewise drawn from original sources, and written with learning +and candor. This work, in four volumes, goes over the whole ground of the +history of Arabia before the coming of the prophet, and then, from Arabic +sources, narrates the life of Mohammed himself, up to the era of the +Hegira. The result of these researches is that we know accurately what Mr. +Hallam in his time despaired of knowing,--all the main points of the +history of Mohammed. There is no legend, no myth, to trouble us. M. +Saint-Hilaire says that the French are far less acquainted with +Charlemagne than the Moslems are with their prophet, who came two +centuries earlier. + +A Mohammedan writer, Syed Ahmed Khan Bahador, has lately published, in +English, a series of Essays on the life of Mohammed, Arabia, the Arabs, +Mohammedan traditions, and kindred topics, written from the stand-point of +a believer in Islam.[388] He is dissatisfied with all the recent works on +Mohammed, including those of Dr. Sprenger and Mr. Muir. He believes that +the Arabic sources from which these biographies are derived are not the +most authentic. The special objections, however, which this able +Mohammedan urges against these European biographies by Sprenger and Muir +do not affect any of the important points in the history, but only details +of small moment. Notwithstanding his criticisms, therefore, we may safely +assume that we are in a condition to understand the actual life and +character of Mohammed. All that the Syed says concerning the duty of an +impartial and friendly judgment of Islam and its author is, of course, +true. We shall endeavor in our treatment of Mohammed to follow this +exhortation. + +Something, however, is always gained by hearing what the believers in a +system have to say in its behalf, and these essays of the Mohammedan +scholar may help us in this way. One of the most curious parts of the +volume is that in which he treats of the prophecies concerning Mohammed in +the Old and New Testament. Most of our readers will be surprised at +learning that any such prophecies exist; and yet some of them are quite as +striking as many of those commonly adduced by writers on prophecy as +referring to Jesus Christ. For example (Deut. xviii. 15, 18), when Moses +predicts that the Lord will raise up a prophet for the Jews, _from among +their brethren_; by emphasizing this latter clause, and arguing that the +Jews had no brethren except the Ishmaelites, from whom Mohammed was born, +an argument is derived that the latter was referred to. This is +strengthened by the declaration of Moses, that this prophet should be +"_like unto me_," since Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10 declares that "there arose +no prophet _in Israel_ like unto Moses." + +Habakkuk iii. 3 says: "The Holy One came from Mount Paran." But Mount +Paran, argues our friend, is the mountain of Mecca. + +The Hebrew word translated "desire" in Haggai ii. 7, "The desire of all +nations shall come," is said by Bahador to be the same word as the name +Mohammed. He is therefore predicted by his name in this passage. + +When Isaiah says (xxi. 7), according to the Septuagint translation, that +he "saw two riders, one on an ass and one on a camel," Bahador argues that +the rider on the ass is Jesus, who so entered Jerusalem, and that the +rider on the camel is Mohammed. + +When John the Baptist was asked if he were the Christ, or Elijah, or "that +prophet," Mohammedans say that "that prophet," so anticipated, was their +own. + + + +Sec. 2. The Arabs and Arabia. + + +The Arabs are a Semitic people, belonging to the same great ethnologic +family with the Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Ethiopians, +and Carthaginians. It is a race which has given to civilized man his +literature and his religion; for the alphabet came from the Phoenicians, +and the Bible from the Jews. In Hannibal, it produced perhaps the greatest +military genius the world has seen; and the Tyrian merchants, +circumnavigating Africa, discovering Great Britain, and trading with +India, ten centuries before Christ, had no equals on the ocean until the +time of the Portuguese discoveries, twenty-five centuries after. The Arabs +alone, of the seven Semitic families, remained undistinguished and unknown +till the days of Mohammed. Their claim of being descended from Abraham is +confirmed by the unerring evidence of language. The Arabic roots are, nine +tenths of them, identical with the Hebrew; and a similarity of grammatical +forms shows a plain glossological relation. But while the Jews have a +history from the days of Abraham, the Arabs had none till Mohammed. During +twenty centuries these nomads wandered to and fro, engaged in mutual wars, +verifying the prediction (Gen. xvi. 12) concerning Ishmael: "He will be a +wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against +him." Wherever such wandering races exist, whether in Arabia, Turkistan, +or Equatorial Africa, "darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the +people." The earth has no geography, and the people no history. During all +this long period, from the time of Abraham to that of Mohammed, the Arabs +were not a nation, but only a multitude of tribes, either stationary or +wandering. But of these two the nomad or Bedouin is the true type of the +race as it exists in Northern Arabia. The Arab of the South is +in many respects different,--in language, in manners, and in +character,--confirming the old opinion of a double origin. But the +Northern Arab in his tent has remained unchanged since the days of the +Bible. Proud of his pure blood, of his freedom, of his tribe, and of his +ancient customs, he desires no change. He is, in Asia, what the North +American Indian is upon the western continent. As the Indian's, his chief +virtues are courage in war, cunning, wild justice, hospitality, and +fortitude. He is, however, of a better race,--more reflective, more +religious, and with a thirst for knowledge. The pure air and the simple +food of the Arabian plains keep him in perfect health; and the necessity +of constant watchfulness against his foes, from whom he has no defence of +rock, forest, or fortification, quickens his perceptive faculties. But the +Arab has also a sense of spiritual things, which appears to have a root in +his organization. The Arabs say: "The children of Shem are prophets, the +children of Japhet are kings, and the children of Ham are slaves." Having +no temples, no priesthood, no religious forms, their religion is less +formal and more instinctive, like that of children. The Koran says: "Every +child is born into the religion of nature; its parents make it a Jew, a +Christian, or a Magian." But when Mohammed came, the religion of the Arabs +was a jumble of monotheism and polytheism,--Judaism, Christianity, +idolatry, and fetichism. At one time there had been a powerful and +intolerant Jewish kingdom in one region. In Yemen, at another period, the +king of Abyssinia had established Christianity. But neither Judaism nor +Christianity had ever been able to conquer the peninsula; and at the end +of the sixth century idolatry was the most prevailing form of worship. + +At this time Mohammed appeared, and in a few years united in one faith all +the warring tribes of Arabia; consolidated them into a single nation, and +then wielded their mighty and enthusiastic forces against Syria, Persia, +and North Africa, triumphant wherever they moved. He, certainly, if ever +man possessed it, had the rare gift of natural empire. To him, more than +to any other of whom history makes mention, was given + + "The monarch mind, the mystery of commanding, + The birth-hour gift, the art Napoleon, + Of wielding, moulding, gathering, welding, banding, + The hearts of thousands till they moved as one." + + + +Sec. 3. Early Life of Mohammed, to the Hegira. + + +But it was not as a soldier or ambitious conqueror that Mohammed began his +career. The first forty years of his life were passed in the quiet +pursuits of trade, or taking care of the property of Khadijah. Serious, +thoughtful, devout, he made friends of all about him. His youth was +unstained by vice, and his honorable character early obtained for him the +title, given him by common consent, of Al Amin, "the faithful." At one +time he tended sheep and goats on the hills near Mecca. At Medina, after +he became distinguished he referred to this, saying, "Pick me the blackest +of those berries; they are such as I used to gather when I fed the flocks +at Mecca. Verily, no prophet has been raised up who has not performed the +work of a shepherd." When twenty-five years of age, he entered into the +service of Khadijah, a rich widow, as her agent, to take charge of her +merchandise and to sell it at Damascus. When the caravan returned, and his +adventure had proved successful, Khadijah, then forty years old, became +interested in the young man; she was wise, virtuous, and attractive; they +were married, and, till her death, Mohammed was a kind and loving husband. +Khadijah sympathized with her husband in his religious tendencies, and was +his first convert. His habit was to retire to a cave on Mount Hira to pray +and to meditate. Sadness came over him in view of the evils in the world. +One of the Suras of the Koran, supposed to belong to this period, is as +follows:-- + + _Sura 103._ + + "By the declining day I swear! + Verily, man is in the way of ruin; + Excepting such as possess faith, + And do the things which be right, + And stir up one another to truth and steadfastness." + +About this time he began to have his visions of angels, especially of +Gabriel. He saw a light, and heard a voice, and had sentences like the +above put into his mind. These communications were accompanied by strong +convulsions (epilepsy, says Weil), in which he would fall to the ground +and foam at the mouth. Sprenger considers it to have been a form of +hysteria, with a mental origin, perhaps accompanied with catalepsy. The +prophet himself said: "Inspiration descends on me in two ways. Sometimes +Gabriel cometh and communicateth the revelation, as one man to another. +This is easy. But sometimes it is as the ringing of a bell, which rends me +in pieces, and grievously afflicts me." One day, when Abu Bakr and Omar +sat in the Mosque at Medina, Mohammed came suddenly upon them, lifting up +his beard and looking at it; and Abu Bakr said, "Ah thou, for whom I would +sacrifice father and mother; white hairs are hastening upon thee!" "Yes," +said the prophet, "Hud" (Sura 11) "and its sisters have hastened my white +hairs." "And who," asked Abu Bakr, "are its sisters?" "The _Inevitable_" +(Sura 56) "and the _Striking_" (Sura 101), replied Mohammed. These three +are called the "terrific Suras." + +But these last Suras came later than the period now referred to. At this +time his visions and revelations possessed _him_; he did not possess nor +control _them_. In later years the spirit of the prophet was more subject +to the prophet. But the Koran is an unintelligible book unless we can +connect it with the biography of its writer. All the incidents of his life +took shape in some revelation. A separate revelation was given to +encourage or to rebuke him; and in his later years the too subservient +inspiration came to appease the jealousy of his wives when a new one was +added to their number. But, however it may have been afterward, in the +beginning his visions were as much a surprise to him as to others. A +careful distribution of the Suras, according to the events which befell +him, would make the Koran the best biography of the prophet. As we said of +David and his Psalms, so it may be said of Mohammed, that his life hangs +suspended in these hymns, as in votive pictures, each the record of some +grave experience.[389] + +Now, it is impossible to read the detailed accounts of this part of the +life of Mohammed, and have any doubt of his profound sincerity. His +earliest converts were his bosom-friends and the people of his household, +who were intimately acquainted with his private life. Nor does a man +easily begin an ambitious course of deception at the age of forty; having +lived till that time as a quiet, peaceful, and unobtrusive citizen,[390] +what was he to gain by this career? Long years passed before he could make +more than a handful of converts. During these weary years he was the +object of contumely and hatred to the ruling tribe in Mecca. His life was +hardly safe from them. Nothing could be more hopeless than his position +during the first twelve years of his public preaching. Only a strong +conviction of the reality of his mission could have supported him through +this long period of failure, loneliness, and contempt. During all these +years the wildest imagination could not have pictured the success which +was to come. Here is a Sura in which he finds comfort in God and his +promises.-- + + _Sura 93._ + + "By the rising sunshine! + By the night when it darkeneth! + Thy Lord hath not removed from thee, neither hath he been displeased. + And verily the future shall be better than the past.... + What! did he not find thee an orphan, and give thee a home? + And found thee astray, and directed thee?" + +In this Sura, Mohammed refers to the fact of the death of his mother, +Amina, in his seventh year, his father having died a few months before. He +visited her tomb many years after, and lifted up his voice and wept. In +reply to the questions of his companions, he said: "This is the grave of +my mother; the Lord hath permitted me to visit it, and I asked leave to +pray for her, and it was not granted. So I called my mother to +remembrance, and the tender memory of her overcame me, and I wept." The +child had been taken by his grandfather, Abd al Mut-talib, then eighty +years old, who treated him with the greatest indulgence. At his death, +shortly after, Mohammed was adopted by his uncle, Abu Talib, the chief of +the tribe. Abu Talib brought him up like his own son, making him sleep by +his bed, eat by his side, and go with him wherever he went. And when +Mohammed, assuming his inspired position, declared himself a prophet, his +uncle, then aged and universally respected, protected him from his +enemies, though Abu himself never accepted his teaching. Mohammed +therefore had good reason to bless the Providence which had provided such +protectors for his orphaned infancy. + +Among the earliest converts of Mohammed, after Khadijah, were his two +adopted children, Ali and Zeid. Ali was the son of his guardian, Abu +Talib, who had become poor, and found it hard to support his family. +Mohammed, "prompted by his usual kindness and consideration," says Mr. +Muir, went to his rich uncle Abbas, and proposed that each of them should +adopt one of Abu Talib's children, which was done. His other adopted son, +Zeid, belonged to a Syrian tribe, and had been taken captive by marauders, +sold into slavery, and given to Khadijah, who presented him to her +husband. After a while the father of Zeid heard where he was, and coming +to Mecca offered a large sum as ransom for his son. Mohammed had become +very fond of Zeid, but he called him, and gave him his choice to go or +stay. Zeid said, "I will not leave thee; thou art in the place to me of +father and mother." Then Mohammed took him to the Kaaba, and touching the +Black Stone said, "Bear witness, all here! Zeid is my son. I shall be his +heir, and he mine." So the father returned home contented, and Zeid was +henceforth known as "Zeid ibn Mohammed,"--Zeid, the son of Mohammed. + +It is reported that when Ali was about thirteen years old Mohammed was one +day praying with him in one of the retired glens near Mecca, whither they +had gone to avoid the ridicule of their opponents. Abu Talib, passing by, +said, "My nephew! what is this new faith I see thee following?" "O my +uncle," replied Mohammed, "it is the religion of God, his angels and +prophets, the religion of Abraham. The Lord hath sent me as his apostle; +and thou, uncle, art most worthy to be invited to believe." Abu Talib +replied, "I am not able, my nephew, to separate from the customs of my +forefathers, but I swear that while I live no one shall trouble thee." +Then he said to Ali, "My son, he will not invite thee to anything which is +not good; wherefore thou art free to cleave to him." + +Another early and important convert was Abu Bakr, father of Mohammed's +favorite wife, Ayesha, and afterward the prophet's successor. Ayesha said +she "could not remember the time when both her parents were not true +believers." Of Abu Bakr, the prophet said, "I never invited any to the +faith who did not show hesitation, except Abu Bakr. When I proposed Islam +to him he at once accepted it." He was thoughtful, calm, tender, and firm. +He is still known as "Al Sadich," the true one. Another of his titles is +"the Second of the Two,"--from having been the only companion of Mohammed +in his flight from Mecca. Hassan, the poet of Medina, thus says of him:-- + + "And the second of the two in the glorious cave, while the foes were + searching around, and they two were in the mountain,-- + And the prophet of the Lord, they well knew, loved him more than all + the world; he held no one equal unto him."[391] + +Abu Bakr was at this time a successful merchant, and possessed some forty +thousand dirhems. But he spent most of it in purchasing and giving freedom +to Moslem slaves, who were persecuted by their masters for their religion. +He was an influential man among the Koreish. This powerful tribe, the +rulers of Mecca, who from the first treated Mohammed with contempt, +gradually became violent persecutors of him and his followers. Their main +wrath fell on the unprotected slaves, whom they exposed to the scorching +sun, and who, in their intolerable thirst, would sometimes recant, and +acknowledge the idols. Some of them remained firm, and afterward showed +with triumph their scars. Mohammed, Abu Bakr, Ali, and all who were +connected with powerful families, were for a long time safe. For the +principal protection in such a disorganized society was the principle that +each tribe must defend every one of its members, at all hazards. Of +course, Mohammed was very desirous to gain over members of the great +families, but he felt bound to take equal pains with the poor and +helpless, as appears from the following anecdote: "The prophet was engaged +in deep converse with the chief Walid, for he greatly desired his +conversion. Then a blind man passed that way, and asked to hear the Koran. +But Mohammed was displeased with the interruption, and turned from him +roughly."[392] But he was afterward grieved to think he had slighted one +whom God had perhaps chosen, and had paid court to a reprobate. So his +remorse took the form of a divine message and embodied itself as +follows:-- + + "The prophet frowned and turned aside + Because the blind man came to him. + Who shall tell thee if he may not be purified? + Or whether thy admonition might not profit him? + The rich man + Thou receivest graciously, + Although he be not inwardly pure. + But him who cometh earnestly inquiring, + And trembling with anxiety, + Him thou dost neglect."[393] + +Mohammed did not encourage his followers to martyrdom. On the contrary, he +allowed them to dissemble to save themselves. He found one of his +disciples sobbing bitterly because he had been compelled by ill-treatment +to abuse his master and worship the idols. "But how dost thou find thy +heart?" said the prophet. "Steadfast in the faith," said he. "Then," +answered Mohammed, "if they repeat their cruelty, thou mayest repeat thy +words." He also had himself an hour of vacillation. Tired of the severe +and seemingly hopeless struggle with the Koreish, and seeing no way of +overcoming their bitter hostility, he bethought himself of the method of +compromise, more than seven centuries before America was discovered. He +had been preaching Islam five years, and had only forty or fifty converts. +Those among them who had no protectors he had advised to fly to the +Christian kingdom of Abyssinia. "Yonder," said he, pointing to the west, +"lies a land wherein no one is wronged. Go there and remain until the Lord +shall open a way for you." Some fifteen or twenty had gone, and met with a +kind reception. This was the first "Hegira," and showed the strength of +faith in these exiles, who gave up their country rather than Islam. But +they heard, before long, that the Koreish had been converted by Mohammed, +and they returned to Mecca. The facts were these. + +One day, when the chief citizens were sitting near the Kaaba, Mohammed +came, and began to recite in their hearing one of the Suras of the Koran. +In this Sura three of the goddesses worshipped by the Koreish were +mentioned. When he came to their names he added two lines in which he +conceded that their intercession might avail with God. The Koreish were so +delighted at this acknowledgment of their deities, that when he added +another line calling on them to worship Allah, they all prostrated +themselves on the ground and adored God. Then they rose, and expressed +their satisfaction, and agreed to be his followers, and receive Islam, +with this slight alteration, that their goddesses and favorite idols were +to be respected. Mohammed went home and began to be unhappy in his mind. +The compromise, it seems, lasted long enough for the Abyssinian exiles to +hear of it and to come home. But at last the prophet recovered himself, +and took back his concession. The verse of the Sura was cancelled, and +another inserted, declaring that these goddesses were only names, invented +by the idolaters. Ever after, the intercession of idols was condemned with +scorn. But Mohammed records his lapse thus in the seventeenth Sura of the +Koran:-- + + "And truly, they were near tempting thee from what we taught thee, that + thou shouldst invent a different revelation; and then they would have + inclined unto thee. + + And if we had not strengthened thee, verily thou hadst inclined to them + a little. + + Then thou shouldst not have found against us any helper." + +After this, naturally, the persecution became hotter than ever. A second +body of exiles went to Abyssinia. Had not the venerable Abu Talib +protected Mohammed, his life might have been lost. As it was, the +persecutors threatened the old man with deadly enmity unless he gave up +Mohammed. But Abu Talib, though agreeing with them in their religion, and +worshipping their gods, refused to surrender his nephew to them. Once, +when Mohammed had disappeared, and his uncle suspected that the Koreish +had seized him, he armed a party of Hashimite youths with dirks, and went +to the Kaaba, to the Koreish. But on the way he heard that Mohammed was +found. Then, in the presence of the Koreish, he told his young men to draw +their dirks, and said, "By the Lord! had ye killed him, not one of you had +remained alive." This boldness cowed their violence for a time. But as the +unpopularity of Mohammed increased, he and all his party were obliged to +take refuge with the Hashimites in a secluded quarter of the city +belonging to Abu Talib. The conversion of Omar about this time only +increased their rage. They formed an alliance against the Hashimites, +agreeing that they would neither buy nor sell, marry, nor have any +dealings with them. This oath was committed to writing, sealed, and hung +up in the Kaaba. For two or three years the Hashimites remained shut up in +their fortress, and often deprived of the necessaries of life. Their +friends would sometimes secretly supply them with provisions; but the +cries of the hungry children would often be heard by those outside. They +were blockaded in their intrenchments. But many of the chief people in +Mecca began to be moved by pity, and at last it was suggested to Abu Talib +that the bond hung up in the Kaaba had been eaten by the ants, so as to be +no longer valid. This being found to be the case, it was decided that the +league was at an end, and the Hashimites returned to their homes. But +other misfortunes were in store for Mohammed. The good Abu Talib soon +died, and, not long after, Khadijah. His protector gone, what could +Mohammed do? He left the city, and went with only Zeid for a companion on +a mission to Tayif, sixty or seventy miles east of Mecca, in hopes of +converting the inhabitants. Who can think of the prophet, in this lonely +journey, without sympathy? He was going to preach the doctrine of One God +to idolaters. But he made no impression on them, and, as he left the town, +was followed by a mob, hooting, and pelting him with stones. At last they +left him, and in the shadow of some trees he betook himself to prayer. His +words have been preserved, it is believed by the Moslems, and are as +follows: "O Lord! I make my complaint unto thee of the feebleness of my +strength, and the weakness of my plans. I am insignificant in the sight of +men. O thou most merciful! Lord of the weak! Thou art my Lord! Do not +abandon me. Leave me not a prey to these strangers, nor to my foes. If +thou art not offended, I am safe. I seek refuge in the light of thy +countenance, by which all darkness is dispersed, and peace comes. There is +no power, no help, but in thee." In that hour of prayer, the faith of +Mohammed was the same as that of Luther praying for protection against the +Pope. It was a part of the universal religion of human nature. Certainly +this man was no impostor. A man, going alone to summon an idolatrous city +to repentance, must at least have believed in his own doctrine. + +But the hour of success was at hand. No amount of error, no bitterness of +prejudice, no vested interest in falsehood, can resist the determined +conviction of a single soul. Only believe a truth strongly enough to hold +it through good report and ill report, and at last the great world of +half-believers comes round to you. And usually the success comes suddenly +at last, after weary years of disappointment. The great tree, which seems +so solid and firm, has been secretly decaying within, and is hollow at +heart; at last it falls in a moment, filling the forest with the echoes of +its ruin. The dam, which seems strong enough to resist a torrent, has been +slowly undermined by a thousand minute rills of water; at last it is +suddenly swept away, and opens a yawning breach for the tumbling cataract. +And almost as suddenly came the triumph of Mohammed. + +At Medina and in its neighborhood there had long been numerous and +powerful tribes of Jewish proselytes. In their conflicts with the +idolaters, they had often predicted the speedy coming of a prophet like +Moses. The Jewish influence was great at Medina, and that of the idolaters +was divided by bitter quarrels. Now it must be remembered that at this +time Mohammed taught a kind of modified Judaism. He came to revive the +religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He continually referred to the Old +Testament and the Talmud for authority. He was a prophet and inspired, but +not to teach anything new. He was to restore the universal religion which +God had taught to man in the beginning,--the religion of all true +patriarchs and prophets. Its essential doctrine was the unity of God, and +his supremacy and providence. Its one duty was Islam, or submission to the +Divine will. Its worship was prayer and almsgiving. At this time he did +not make belief in himself the main point; it was to profess the unity of +God, and to submit wholly to God. So that the semi-Judaized pilgrims from +Medina to Mecca were quite prepared to accept his teachings. Mohammed, at +the time of the pilgrimage, met with many of them, and they promised to +become his disciples. The pledge they took was as follows: "We will not +worship any but the one God; we will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor +kill our children (female): we will not slander at all, nor disobey the +prophet in anything that is right." This was afterward called the "Pledge +of Women," because it did not require them to fight for Islam. This faith +spread rapidly among the idolaters at Medina,--much more so than the +Jewish system. The Jews required too much of their proselytes; they +insisted on their becoming Jews. They demanded a change of all their +previous customs. But Mohammed only asked for submission. + +About this time Mohammed had his famous dream or vision, in which he was +carried by Gabriel on a winged steed to Jerusalem, to meet all the +prophets of God and be welcomed by them to their number, and then to the +seventh heaven into the presence of God. It was so vivid that he deemed it +a reality, and maintained that he had been to Jerusalem and to heaven. +This, and the Koran itself, were the only miracles he ever claimed. + +The Medina Moslems having entered into a second pledge, to receive +Mohammed and his friends, and to protect them, the prophet gave orders to +his followers to leave Mecca secretly in small parties, and repair to +Medina. As the stout sea-captain remains the last on a sinking vessel, +Mohammed stayed quietly at Mecca till all the others had gone. Only Abu +Bakr's family and his own remained. The rest of the believers, to the +number of about two hundred, had disappeared. + +The Koreish, amazed at these events, knew not what to do. Why had the +Moslems gone? and why had Mohammed remained? How dared he to stay, +unprotected, in their midst? They might kill him;--but then his tribe +would take a bloody vengeance on his murderers. At last they proposed to +seize him, and that a number of men, one from each tribe and family, +should at the same moment drive their dirks into him. Or perhaps it might +be better to send an assassin to waylay him on his way to Medina. While +they were discussing these alternatives, news was brought to them that +Mohammed also had disappeared, and Abu Bakr with him. They immediately +went to their houses. In that of Mohammed they found the young Ali, who, +being asked where his father was, replied, "I do not know. I am not his +keeper. Did you not order him to go from the city? I suppose he is gone." +Getting no more information at the house of Abu Bakr, they sent out +parties of armed men, mounted on swift horses and camels, to search the +whole route to Medina, and bring the fugitives back. After a few days the +pursuers returned, saying that there were no signs of any persons having +gone in that direction. If they had gone that way they would certainly +have overtaken them. + +Meantime where were the fugitives? Instead of going north to Medina, they +had hidden in a cave on a mountain, about five or six miles to the south +of Mecca. Here they remained concealed three days and nights, in imminent +danger from their pursuers, who once, it is said, came to the mouth of the +cave, but, seeing spiders' webs spun across the opening, concluded no one +could have gone in recently. There was a crevice in the roof through which +the morning light entered, and Abu Bakr said, "If one of them were to +look down, he would see us." "Think not so, Abu Bakr," said the prophet. +"We are two, but God is in the midst, a third." + +The next day, satisfied that the heat of the pursuit had abated, they took +the camels which had privately been brought to them from the city by the +son of Abu Bakr, and set off for Medina, leaving Mecca on the right. By +the calculations of M. Caussin de Perceval, it was on the 20th of June, +A.D. 622. + + + +Sec. 4. Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira. + + +From the Hegira the Mohammedan era begins; and from that point of the +prophet's history his fortunes rise, but his character degenerates. He has +borne adversity and opposition with a faith and a patience almost sublime; +but prosperity he will not bear so well. Down to that time he had been a +prophet, teaching God's truth to those who would receive it, and by the +manifestation of that truth commending himself to every man's conscience. +Now he was to become a politician, the head of a party, contriving +expedients for its success. Before, his only weapon was truth; now, his +chief means was force. Instead of convincing his opponents, he now +compelled them to submit by the terror of his power. His revelations +changed their tone; they adapted themselves to his needs, and on all +occasions, even when he wanted to take an extra wife, inspiration came to +his aid. + +What sadder tragedy is there than to see a great soul thus conquered by +success? "All these things," says Satan, "I will give thee, if thou wilt +fall down and worship me." When Jesus related his temptation to his +disciples he put it in the form of a parable. How could they, how can we, +understand the temptations of a nature like that of Christ! Perhaps he saw +that he could have a great apparent success by the use of worldly means. +He could bring the Jew and the Gentile to acknowledge and receive his +truth. Some slight concession to worldly wisdom, some little compromise +with existing errors, some hardly perceptible variation from perfect +truthfulness, and lo! the kingdom of God would come in that very hour, +instead of lingering through long centuries. What evils might not be +spared to the race, what woes to the world, if the divine gospel of love +to God and man were inaugurated by Christ himself! This, perhaps, was one +of the temptations. But Jesus said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He would +use only good means for good ends. He would take God's way to do God's +work. He would die on the cross, but not vary from the perfect truth. The +same temptation came to Mohammed, and he yielded. Up to the Hegira, +Mohammed might also have said, "My kingdom is not of this world." But now +the sword and falsehood were to serve him, as his most faithful servants, +in building up Islam. His _ends_ were the same as before. His object was +still to establish the service of the one living and true God. But his +_means_, henceforth, are of the earth, earthy. + +What a noble religion would Islam have been, if Mohammed could have gone +on as he began! He accepted all the essential truths of Judaism, he +recognized Moses and Christ as true teachers. He taught that there was one +universal religion, the substance of which was faith in one Supreme Being, +submission to his will, trust in his providence, and good-will to his +creatures. Prayer and alms were the only worship which God required. A +marvellous and mighty work, says Mr. Muir, had been wrought by these few +precepts. From time beyond memory Mecca and the whole peninsula had been +steeped in spiritual torpor. The influences of Judaism, Christianity, and +philosophy had been feeble and transient. Dark superstitions prevailed, +the mothers of dark vices. And now, in thirteen years of preaching, a body +of men and women had risen, who rejected idolatry; worshipped the one +great God; lived lives of prayer; practised chastity, benevolence, and +justice; and were ready to do and to bear everything for the truth. All +this came from the depth of conviction in the soul of this one man. + +To the great qualities which Mohammed had shown as a prophet and +religious teacher were now added those of the captain and statesman. He +had at last obtained a position at Medina whence he could act on the Arabs +with other forces than those of eloquence and feeling. And now the man who +for forty years had been a simple citizen and led a quiet family life--who +afterward, for thirteen years, had been a patient but despised teacher of +the unity of God--passed the last ten years of his strange career in +building up a fanatical army of warriors, destined to conquer half the +civilized world. From this period the old solution of the Mohammedan +miracle is in order; from this time the sword leads, and the Koran +follows. To this familiar explanation of Mohammedan success, Mr. Carlyle +replies with the question: "Mohammedanism triumphed with the sword? But +where did it get its sword?" We can now answer that pithy inquiry. The +simple, earnest zeal of the original believers built up a power, which +then took the sword, and conquered with it. The reward of patient, +long-enduring faith is influence; with this influence ambition serves +itself for its own purpose. Such is, more or less, the history of every +religion, and, indeed, of every political party. Sects are founded, not by +politicians, but by men of faith, by men to whom ideas are realities, by +men who are willing to die for them. Such faith always triumphs at last; +it makes a multitude of converts; it becomes a great power. The deep and +strong convictions thus created are used by worldly men for their own +purposes. That the Mohammedan impulse was thus taken possession of by +worldly men is the judgment of M. Renan.[394] "From all sides," says he, +"we come to this singular result: that the Mussulman movement was started +almost without religious faith; that, setting aside a small number of +faithful disciples, Mahomet really wrought very little conviction in +Arabia." "The party of true Mussulmans had all their strength in Omar; but +after his assassination, that is to say, twelve years after the death of +the prophet, the opposite party triumphed by the election of Othman." +"The first generation of the Hegira was completely occupied in +exterminating the primitive Mussulmans, the true fathers of Islamism." +Perhaps it is bold to question the opinions of a Semitic scholar of the +force of M. Renan, but it seems to us that he goes too far in supposing +that such a movement as that of Islam could be _started_ without a +tremendous depth of conviction. At all events, supported by such writers +as Weil, Sprenger, and Muir, we will say that it was a powerful religious +movement founded on sincerest conviction, but gradually turned aside, and +used for worldly purposes and temporal triumphs. And, in thus diverting it +from divine objects to purely human ones, Mohammed himself led the way. He +adds another, and perhaps the greatest, illustration to the long list of +noble souls whose natures have become subdued to that which they worked +in; who have sought high ends by low means; who, talking of the noblest +truths, descend into the meanest prevarications, and so throw a doubt on +all sincerity, faith, and honor. Such was the judgment of a great +thinker--Goethe--concerning Mohammed. He believes him to have been at +first profoundly sincere, but he says of him that afterward "what in his +character is earthly increases and develops itself; the divine retires and +is obscured: his doctrine becomes a means rather than an end. All kinds of +practices are employed, nor are horrors wanting." Goethe intended to write +a drama upon Mohammed, to illustrate the sad fact that every man who +attempts to realize a great idea comes in contact with the lower world, +must place himself on its level in order to influence it, and thus often +compromises his higher aims, and at last forfeits them[395]. Such a man, +in modern times, was Lord Bacon in the political world; such a man, among +conquerors, was Cromwell; and among Christian sects how often do we see +the young enthusiast and saint end as the ambitious self-seeker and +Jesuit! Then we call him a hypocrite, because he continues to use the +familiar language of the time when his heart was true and simple, though +indulging himself in luxury and sin. It is curious, when we are all so +inconsistent, that we should find it so hard to understand inconsistency. +We, all of us, often say what is right and do what is wrong; but are we +deliberate hypocrites? No! we know that we are weak; we admit that we are +inconsistent; we say amen to the "video meliora, proboque,--deteriora +sequor," but we also know that we are not deliberate and intentional +hypocrites. Let us use the same large judgment in speaking of the faults +of Cromwell, Bacon, and Mohammed. + +No one could have foreseen the cruelty of which Mohammed, hitherto always +a kind-hearted and affectionate man, was capable toward those who resisted +his purpose. This first showed itself in his treatment of the Jews. He +hoped to form an alliance with them, against the idolaters. He had +admitted the divine authority of their religion, and appealed to their +Scriptures as evidence of the truth of his own mission. He conformed to +their ritual and customs, and made Jerusalem his Kibla, toward which he +turned in prayer five times a day. In return for this he expected them to +receive him as a prophet; but this they refused to do. So he departed by +degrees from their customs, changed his Kibla to Mecca, and at last +denounced the Jews as stiff-necked unbelievers. The old quarrel between +Esau and Jacob could not be appeased, nor an alliance formed between them. + +M. Saint-Hilaire[396] does not think that the character of Mohammed +changed when he became the founder of a state and head of a conquering +party. He thinks "that he only yielded to the political necessities of his +position." Granted; but yielding to those necessities was the cause of +this gradual change in his character. The man who lies and murders from +the necessity of his political position can hardly remain a saint. +Plunder, cold-blooded execution of prisoners, self-indulgence, became the +habit of the prophet henceforth, as we shall presently see. + +The first battle against the Koreish, that of Badr, took place in January, +A.D. 624. When Mohammed had drawn up his army, he prayed earnestly for +the victory. After a desperate struggle, the Koreish fled. Mohammed +claimed, by a special revelation, the fifth part of the booty. As the +bodies of his old opponents were cast into a pit, he spoke to them +bitterly. When the prisoners were brought before him he looked fiercely at +one of them. "There is death in that glance," said the unhappy man, and +presently the prophet ordered him to be beheaded. Two days after, another +was ordered for execution. "Who will take care of my little girl?" said +he. "Hell-fire," replied Mohammed, and ordered him to be cut down. Shortly +after the battle, a Jewess who had written verses against Mohammed, was +assassinated by one of his followers; and the prophet praised him for the +deed in the public mosque. Another aged Jew, for the same offence, was +murdered by his express command. A quarrel between some Jews and Moslems +brought on an attack by Mohammed upon the Jewish tribe. They surrendered +after a siege of fifteen days, and Mohammed ordered all the prisoners to +be killed; but at last, at the urgent request of a powerful chief in +Medina, allowed them to go into exile, cursing them and their intercessor. +Mr. Muir mentions other cases of assassination of the Jews by the command +of the prophet. All these facts are derived from contemporaneous Moslem +historians, who glorify their prophet for this conduct. The worst action +perhaps of this kind was the deliberate execution of seven or eight +hundred Jewish prisoners, who had surrendered at discretion, and the sale +of their wives and children into slavery. Mohammed selected from among +these women one more beautiful than the rest, for his concubine. Whether +M. Saint-Hilaire considers all this as "yielding to the political +necessities of his position," we do not know. But this man, who could +stand by and see hundreds of captives slaughtered in cold blood, and then +retire to solace himself with the widow of one of his victims, seems to us +to have retained little of his early purity of soul. + +About this time Mohammed began to multiply wives, and to receive +revelations allowing him to do so beyond the usual limit of his law. He +added one after another to his harem, until he had ten wives, besides his +slaves. His views on such subjects are illustrated by his presenting three +beautiful female slaves, taken in war, one to his father-in-law, and the +others to his two sons-in-law. + +So, in a series of battles, with the Jewish tribes, the Koreish, the +Syrians, passed the stormy and triumphant years of the Pontiff King. Mecca +was conquered, and the Koreish submitted in A.D. 630. The tribes +throughout Arabia acquiesced, one by one, in the prophet's authority. All +paid tribute, or accepted Islam. His enemies were all under his feet; his +doctrines accepted; the rival prophets, Aswad and Museilama, overcome. +Then, in the sixty-third year of his age, death drew near. On the last day +of his life, he went into the mosque to attend morning prayer, then back +to the room of his favorite wife, Ayesha, and died in her arms. Wild with +grief, Omar declared he was not dead, but in a trance. The grave Abu Bakr +composed the excited multitude, and was chosen caliph, or successor to the +prophet. Mohammed died on June 8, A.D. 632, and was buried the next day, +amid the grief of his followers. Abu Bakr and Omar offered the prayer: +"Peace be unto thee, O prophet of God; and the mercy of the Lord, and his +blessing! We bear testimony that the prophet of God hath delivered the +message revealed to him; hath fought in the ways of the Lord until God +crowned his religion with victory; hath fulfilled his words commanding +that he alone is to be worshipped in unity; hath drawn us to himself, and +been kind and tender-hearted to believers; hath sought no recompense for +delivering to us the faith, neither hath sold it for a price at any time." +And all the people said, "Amen! Amen!" + +Concerning the character of Mohammed, enough has been already said. He was +a great man, one of the greatest ever sent upon earth. He was a man of the +deepest convictions, and for many years of the purest purposes, and was +only drawn down at last by using low means for a good end. Of his visions +and revelations, the same explanation is to be given as of those received +by Joan of Arc, and other seers of that order. How far they had an +objective basis in reality, and how far they were the result of some +abnormal activity of the imagination, it is difficult with our present +knowledge to decide. But that these visionaries fully believed in their +own inspiration, there can be little doubt. + + + +Sec. 5. Religious Doctrines and Practices among the Mohammedans. + + +As to the religion of Mohammed, and its effects on the world, it is easier +to come to an opinion than concerning his own character. Its essential +doctrine, as before indicated, is the absolute unity and supremacy of God, +as opposed to the old Arab Polytheism on the one hand and the Christian +Trinity on the other. It however admits of angels and genii. Gabriel and +Michael are the angels of power; Azriel, angel of death; Israfeel, angel +of the resurrection. Eblis, or Satan, plays an important part in this +mythology. The Koran also teaches the doctrine of Eternal Decrees, or +absolute Predestination; of prophets before Mohammed, of whom he is the +successor,--as Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus; of sacred books, of which all +that remain are the Pentateuch, Psalms, Gospels, and Koran; of an +intermediate state after death; of the resurrection and judgment. All +non-believers in Islam go into eternal fire. There are separate hells for +Christians, Jews, Sabians, Magians, idolaters, and the hypocrites of all +religions. The Moslem is judged by his actions. A balance is held by +Gabriel, one scale hanging over heaven and another over hell, and his good +deeds are placed in one and his bad ones in the other. According as his +scale inclines, he goes to heaven or hell. If he goes to heaven, he finds +there seventy-two Houris, more beautiful than angels, awaiting him, with +gardens, groves, marble palaces, and music. If women are true believers +and righteous, they will also go to heaven, but nothing is said about +husbands being provided for them. Stress is laid on prayer, ablution, +fasting, almsgiving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Wine and gaming are +forbidden. There is no recognition, in the Koran, of human brotherhood. It +is a prime duty to hate infidels and make war on them. Mohammed made it a +duty for Moslems to betray and kill their own brothers when they were +infidels; and he was obeyed in more cases than one. The Moslem sects are +as numerous as those of Christians. The Dabistan mentions seventy-three. +The two main divisions are into Sunnites and Shyites. The Persians are +mostly Shyites, and refuse to receive the Sunnite traditions. They accept +Ali, and denounce Omar. Terrible wars and cruelties have taken place +between these sects. Only a few of the Sunnite doctors acknowledge the +Shyites to be Moslems. They have a saying, "to destroy a Shyite is more +acceptable than to kill seventy other infidels of whatever sort." + +The Turks are the most zealous of the Moslems. On Friday, which is the +Sabbath of Islam, all business is suspended. Prayers are read and sermons +preached in the mosques. No one is allowed to be absent. The Ramadan fast +is universally kept. Any one who breaks it twice is considered worthy of +death. The fast lasts from sunrise to sunset. But the rich feast in the +night, and sleep during the day. The Turks have no desire to make +proselytes, but have an intolerant hatred for all outside of Islam. The +Kalif is the Chief Pontiff. The Oulema, or Parliament, is composed of the +Imans, or religious teachers, the Muftis, or doctors of law, and Kadis, or +ministers of justice. The priests in Turkey are subordinate to the civil +magistrate, who is their diocesan, and can remove them at pleasure. The +priests in daily life are like the laity, engage in the same business, and +are no more austere than they. + +Mr. Forster says, in regard to their devotion: "When I contrast the +silence of a Turkish mosque, at the hour of public prayer, with the noise +and tumult so frequent in Christian temples, I stand astonished at the +strange inversion, in the two religions, of the order of things which +might naturally be expected." "I have seen," says another, "a congregation +of at least two thousand souls assembled in the mosque of St. Sophia, with +silence so profound, that until I entered the body of the building I was +unaware that it contained a single worshipper." + +Bishop Southgate, long a missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church of the +United States, says: "I have often met with Mussulmans who seem to possess +deep religious feeling, and with whom I could exercise something of a +religious communion. I have sometimes had my own mind quickened and +benefited by the reverence with which they spoke of the Deity, and have +sometimes mingled in harmonious converse with them on holy things. I have +heard them insist with much earnestness on the duty of prayer, when they +appeared to have some spiritual sense of its nature and importance. I have +sometimes found them entertaining elevated views of moral duty, and +looking with contempt on the pleasures of this world. These are indeed +rare characters, but I should do injustice to my own conviction if I did +not confess that I had found them. In these instances I have been +uniformly struck with a strong resemblance to patriarchal piety." He +continues: "When we sat down to eat, the old Turkish Bey implored a +blessing with great solemnity, and rendered his thanks when we arose. +Before he left us he spread his carpet, and offered his evening devotions +with apparent meekness and humility; and I could not but feel how +impressive are the Oriental forms of worship when I saw his aged head +bowed to the earth in religious homage." + +Bishop Southgate adds further: "I have never known a Mussulman, sincere in +his faith and devout and punctilious in his religious duties, in whom +moral rectitude did not seem an active quality and a living principle." + +In seasons of plague "the Turks appear perfectly fearless. They do not +avoid customary intercourse and contact with friends. They remain with and +minister to the sick, with unshrinking assiduity.... In truth, there is +something imposing in the unaffected calmness of the Turks at such times. +It is a spirit of resignation which becomes truly noble when exercised +upon calamities which have already befallen them. The fidelity with which +they remain by the bedside of a friend is at least as commendable as the +almost universal readiness among the Franks to forsake it." + +Five times a day the Mezzuin proclaims the hour of prayer from the +minaret in these words: "There is no God but God. Mohammed is his prophet. +Come to prayer." In the morning call he adds, "Prayer is better than +sleep." Immediately every Mussulman leaves his occupation, and prostrates +himself on the floor or ground, wherever he may he. It is very +disreputable to omit this. + +An interesting account is given of the domestic life of Moslem women in +Syria, by Miss Rogers, in her little book called "Domestic Life in +Palestine," published in 1862. + +Miss Rogers travelled in Palestine with her brother, who was British +consul at Damascus. The following passage illustrates the character of the +women (Miss Rogers was obliged to sleep in the same room with the wives of +the governor of Arrabeh, near Naplous):-- + +"When I began to undress the women watched me with curiosity; and when I +put on my night-gown they were exceedingly astonished, and exclaimed, +'Where are you going? Why is your dress white?' They made no change for +sleeping, and there they were, in their bright-colored clothes, ready for +bed in a minute. But they stood round me till I said 'Good night,' and +then all kissed me, wishing me good dreams. Then I knelt down, and +presently, without speaking to them again, got into bed, and turned my +face to the wall, thinking over the strange day I had spent. I tried to +compose myself to sleep, though I heard the women whispering together. +When my head had rested about five minutes on the soft red silk pillow, I +felt a hand stroking my forehead, and heard a voice saying, very gently, +'Ya Habibi,' i.e. 'O beloved.' But I would not answer directly, as I did +not wish to be roused unnecessarily. I waited a little while, and my face +was touched again. I felt a kiss on my forehead, and a voice said, +'Miriam, speak to us; speak, Miriam, darling.' I could not resist any +longer; so I turned round and saw Helweh, Saleh Bek's prettiest wife, +leaning over me. I said, 'What is it, sweetness, what can I do for you?' +She answered, 'What did you do just now, when you knelt down and covered +your face with your hands?' I sat up, and said very solemnly, 'I spoke to +God, Helweh.' 'What did you say to him?' said Helweh. I replied, 'I wish +to sleep. God never sleeps. I have asked him to watch over me, and that I +may fall asleep, remembering that he never sleeps, and wake up remembering +his presence. I am very weak. God is all-powerful. I have asked him to +strengthen me with his strength.' By this time all the ladies were sitting +round me on the bed, and the slaves came and stood near. I told them I did +not know their language well enough to explain to them all I thought and +said. But as I had learned the Lord's Prayer, by heart, in Arabic, I +repeated it to them, sentence by sentence, slowly. When I began, 'Our +Father who art in heaven,' Helweh directly said, 'You told me your father +was in London.' I replied, 'I have two fathers, Helweh; one in London, who +does not know that I am here, and cannot know till I write and tell him; +and a Heavenly Father, who is here now, who is with me always, and sees +and hears us. He is your Father also. He teaches us to know good from +evil, if we listen to him and obey him.' + +"For a moment there was perfect silence. They all looked startled, and as +if they felt that they were in the presence of some unseen power. Then +Helweh said, 'What more did you say?' I continued the Lord's Prayer, and +when I came to the words, 'Give us day by day our daily bread,' they said, +'Cannot you make bread yourself?' The passage, 'Forgive us our trespasses, +as we forgive those who trespass against us,' is particularly forcible in +the Arabic language; and one of the elder women, who was particularly +severe and relentless-looking, said, 'Are you obliged to say that every +day?' as if she thought that sometimes it would be difficult to do so. +They said, 'Are you a Moslem?' I said, 'I am not called a Moslem. But I am +your sister, made by the same God, who is the one only God, the God of +all, my Father and your Father.' They asked me if I knew the Koran, and +were surprised to hear that I had read it. They handed a rosary to me, +saying, 'Do you know that?' I repeated a few of the most striking and +comprehensive attributes very carefully and slowly. Then they cried +out, 'Mashallah, the English girl is a true believer'; and the +impressionable, sensitive-looking Abyssinian slave-girls said, with one +accord, 'She is indeed an angel.' + +"Moslems, men and women, have the name of Allah constantly on their lips, +but it seems to have become a mere form. This may explain why they were so +startled when I said, 'I was speaking to God.'" She adds that if she had +only said, "I was saying my prayers," or, "I was at my devotions," it +would not have impressed them." + +Next morning, on awaking, Miss Rogers found the women from the +neighborhood had come in "to hear the English girl speak to God," and +Helweh said, "Now, Miriam, darling, will you speak to God?" At the +conclusion she asked them if they could say Amen, and after a moment of +hesitation they cried out, "Amen, amen!" Then one said, "Speak again, my +daughter, speak about _the bread_." So she repeated the Lord's Prayer with +explanations. When she left, they crowded around affectionately, saying, +"Return again, O Miriam, beloved!" + +After this pleasant little picture, we may hear something on the other +side. Two recent travellers, Mr. Palgrave and Mr. Vambery, have described +the present state of Mohammedanism in Central Arabia and Turkistan, or +Central Asia. Barth has described it as existing among the negroes in +North Africa. Count Gobineau has told us of Islam as it is in Persia at +the present day[397]. Mr. MacFarlane, in his book "Kismet, or the Doom of +Turkey," has pointed out the gradual decay of that power, and the utter +corruption of its administration. After reading such works as these,--and +among them let us not forget Mr. Lane's "Modern Egyptians,"--the +conclusion we must inevitably come to is, that the worst Christian +government, be it that of the Pope or the Czar, is very much better than +the best Mohammedan government. Everywhere we find arbitrary will taking +the place of law. In most places the people have no protection for life +or property, and know the government only through its tax-gatherers. And +all this is necessarily and logically derived from the fundamental +principle of Mohammedan theology. God is pure will, not justice, not +reason, not love. Christianity says, "God is love"; Mohammedanism says, +"God is will." Christianity says, "Trust in God"; Mohammedanism says, +"Submit to God." Hence the hardness, coldness, and cruelty of the system; +hence its utter inability to establish any good government. According to +Mr. MacFarlane, it would be a blessing to mankind to have the Turks driven +out of Europe and Asia Minor, and to have Constantinople become the +capital of Russia. The religion of Islam is an outward form, a hard shell +of authority, hollow at heart. It constantly tends to the two antagonistic +but related vices of luxury and cruelty. Under the profession of Islam, +polytheism and idolatry have always prevailed in Arabia. In Turkistan, +where slavery is an extremely cruel system, they make slaves of Moslems, +in defiance of the Koran. One chief being appealed to by Vambery (who +travelled as a Dervish), replied, "We buy and sell the Koran itself, which +is the holiest thing of all; why not buy and sell Mussulmans, who are less +holy?" + + + +Sec. 6. The Criticism of Mr. Palgrave on Mohammedan Theology. + + +Mr. Palgrave, who has given the latest and best account of the condition +of Central and Southern Arabia,[398] under the great Wahhabee revival, +sums up all Mohammedan theology as teaching a Divine unity of pure will. +God is the only force in the universe. Man is wholly passive and impotent. +He calls the system, "A pantheism of force." God has no rule but arbitrary +will. He is a tremendous unsympathizing autocrat, but is yet jealous of +his creatures, lest they should attribute to themselves something which +belongs to him. He delights in making all creatures feel that they are his +slaves. This, Mr. Palgrave asserts, is the main idea of Mohammedanism, +and of the Koran, and this was what lay in the mind of Mohammed. "Of +this," says he, "we have many authentic samples: the Saheeh, the +Commentaries of Beydawee, the Mishkat-el-Mesabeeh, and fifty similar +works, afford ample testimony on this point. But for the benefit of my +readers in general, all of whom may not have drunk equally deep at the +fountain-heads of Islamitic dogma, I will subjoin a specimen, known +perhaps to many Orientalists, yet too characteristic to be here omitted, a +repetition of which I have endured times out of number from admiring and +approving Wahhabees in Nejed. + +"Accordingly, when God--so runs the tradition,--I had better said the +blasphemy--resolved to create the human race, he took into his hands a +mass of earth, the same whence all mankind were to be formed, and in which +they after a manner pre-existed; and, having then divided the clod into +two equal portions, he threw the one half into hell, saying, 'These to +eternal fire, and I care not'; and projected the other half into heaven, +adding, 'And these to paradise, and I care not.' + +"Commentary would here be superfluous. But in this we have before us the +adequate idea of predestination, or, to give it a truer name, +pre-damnation, held and taught in the school of the Koran. Paradise and +hell are at once totally independent of love and hatred on the part of the +Deity, and of merits and demerits, of good or evil conduct, on the part of +the creature; and, in the corresponding theory, rightly so, since the very +actions which we call good or ill deserving, right or wrong, wicked or +virtuous, are in their essence all one and of one, and accordingly merit +neither praise nor blame, punishment nor recompense, except and simply +after the arbitrary value which the all-regulating will of the great +despot may choose to assign or impute to them. In a word, he burns one +individual through all eternity, amid red-hot chains and seas of molten +fire, and seats another in the plenary enjoyment of an everlasting +brothel, between forty celestial concubines, just and equally for his own +good pleasure, and because he wills it. + +"Men are thus all on one common level, here and hereafter, in their +physical, social, and moral light,--the level of slaves to one sole +master, of tools to one universal agent. But the equalizing process does +not stop here: beasts, birds, fishes, insects, all participate of the same +honor or debasement; all are, like man, the slaves of God, the tools and +automata of his will; and hence Mahomet is simply logical and +self-consistent when in the Koran he informs his followers that birds, +beasts, and the rest are 'nations' like themselves, nor does any intrinsic +distinction exist between them and the human species, except what +accidental diversity the 'King,' the 'Proud One,' the 'Mighty,' the +'Giant,' etc., as he styles his God, may have been pleased to make, just +as he willed it, and so long as he may will it." + +"The Wahhabee reformer," continues Mr. Palgrave, "formed the design of +putting back the hour-hand of Islam to its starting-point; and so far he +did well, for that hand was from the first meant to be fixed. Islam is in +its essence stationary, and was framed thus to remain. Sterile like its +God, lifeless like its First Principle and Supreme Original, in all that +constitutes true life,--for life is love, participation, and progress, and +of these the Koranic Deity has none,--it justly repudiates all change, all +advance, all development. To borrow the forcible words of Lord Houghton, +the 'written book' is the 'dead man's hand,' stiff and motionless; +whatever savors of vitality is by that alone convicted of heresy and +defection. + +"But Christianity, with its living and loving God, begetter and begotten, +spirit and movement; nay more,--a Creator made creature, the Maker and the +made existing in one; a Divinity communicating itself by uninterrupted +gradation and degree, from the most intimate union far off to the faintest +irradiation, through all that it has made for love and governs in love; +one who calls his creatures not slaves, not servants, but friends,--nay +sons,--nay gods: to sum up, a religion in whose seal and secret 'God in +man is one with man in God,' must also be necessarily a religion of +vitality, of progress, of advancement. The contrast between it and Islam +is that of movement with fixedness, of participation with sterility, of +development with barrenness, of life with petrifaction. The first vital +principle and the animating spirit of its birth must, indeed, abide ever +the same, but the outer form must change with the changing days, and new +offshoots of fresh sap and greenness be continually thrown out as +witnesses to the vitality within; else were the vine withered and the +branches dead. I have no intention here--it would be extremely out of +place--of entering on the maze of controversy, or discussing whether any +dogmatic attempt to reproduce the religious phase of a former age is +likely to succeed. I only say that life supposes movement and growth, and +both imply change; that to censure a living thing for growing and changing +is absurd; and that to attempt to hinder it from so doing by pinning it +down on a written label, or nailing it to a Procrustean framework, is +tantamount to killing it altogether. Now Christianity is living, and, +because living, must grow, must advance, must change, and was meant to do +so: onwards and forwards is a condition of its very existence; and I +cannot but think that those who do not recognize this show themselves so +far ignorant of its true nature and essence. On the other hand, Islam is +lifeless, and, because lifeless, cannot grow, cannot advance, cannot +change, and was never intended so to do; stand-still is its motto and its +most essential condition; and therefore the son of Abd-el-Wahhab, in +doing his best to bring it back to its primal simplicity, and making its +goal of its starting-point, was so far in the right, and showed himself +well acquainted with the nature and first principles of his religion." + + + +Sec. 7. Mohammedanism a Relapse; the worst Form of Monotheism, and a +retarding Element in Civilization. + + +According to this view, which is no doubt correct, the monotheism of +Mohammed is that which makes of God pure will; that is, which exaggerates +personality (since personality is in will), making the Divine One an +Infinite Free Will, or an Infinite I. But will divorced from reason and +love is wilfulness, or a purely arbitrary will. + +Now the monotheism of the Jews differed from this, in that it combined +with the idea of will the idea of justice. God not only does what he +chooses, but he chooses to do only what is right. Righteousness is an +attribute of God, with which the Jewish books are saturated. + +Still, both of these systems leave God outside of the world; _above_ all +as its Creator and Ruler, _above_ all as its Judge; but not _through_ all +and _in_ all. The idea of an Infinite Love must be added and made supreme, +in order to give us a Being who is not only above all, but also through +all and in all. This is the Christian monotheism. + +Mohammed teaches not only the unity but also the spirituality of God, but +his idea of the divine Unity is of a numeric unity, not a moral unity; and +so his idea of divine spirituality is that of an abstract +spirituality,--God abstracted from matter, and so not to be represented by +pictures and images; God withdrawn out of the world, and above all,--in a +total separation. + +Judaism also opposed idolatry and idol-worship, and taught that God was +above all, and the maker of the world; but it conceived of God as _with_ +man, by his repeated miraculous coming down in prophets, judges, kings; +also _with_ his people, the Jews, mysteriously present in their tabernacle +and temple. Their spirituality was not quite as abstract then as that of +the Mohammedans. + +But Christianity, as soon as it became the religion of a non-Semitic race, +as soon as it had converted the Greeks and Romans, not only imparted to +them its monotheism, but received from them their strong tendencies to +pantheism. They added to the God "above all," and the God "with all," the +God "in us all." True, this is also to be found in original Christianity +as proceeding from the life of Jesus. The New Testament is full of this +kind of pantheism,--God _in_ man, as well as God _with_ man. Jesus made +the step forward from God with man to God in man,--"I in them, thou in +me." The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is this idea, of God who is not only +will and power, not only wisdom and law, but also love; of a God who +desires communion and intercourse with his children, so coming and +dwelling in them. Mohammed teaches a God above us; Moses teaches a God +above us, and yet with us; Jesus teaches God above us, God with us, and +God in us. + +According to this view, Mohammedanism is a relapse. It is going back to a +lower level. It is returning from the complex idea to the simple idea. But +the complex is higher than the simple. The seed-germ, and the germ-cell, +out of which organic life comes, is lower than the organizations which are +developed out of it. The Mollusks are more complex and so are higher than +the Radiata, the Vertebrata are more complex than the Mollusks. Man is the +most complex of all, in soul as well as body. The complex idea of God, +including will, thought, and love, in the perfect unity, is higher than +the simplistic unity of will which Mohammed teaches. But the higher ought +to come out of and conquer the lower. How, then, did Mohammedanism come +out of Christianity and Judaism? + +The explanation is to be found in the law of reaction and relapse. +Reaction is going back to a lower ground, to pick up something which has +been dropped, forgotten, left behind, in the progress of man. The +condition of progress is that nothing shall be lost. The lower truth must +be preserved in the higher truth; the lower life taken up into the higher +life. Now Christianity, in going forward, had accepted from the +Indo-Germanic races that sense of God in nature, as well as God above +nature, which has always been native with those races. It took up natural +religion into monotheism. But in taking it up, it went so far as to lose +something of the true unity of God. Its doctrine of the Trinity, at least +in its Oriental forms, lost the pure personal monotheism of Judaism. No +doubt the doctrine of the Trinity embodies a great truth, but it has been +carried too far. So Mohammedanism came, as a protest against this tendency +to plurality in the godhead, as a demand for a purely personal God It is +the Unitarianism of the East. It was a new assertion of the simple unity +of God, against polytheism and against idolatry. + +The merits and demerits, the good and evil, of Mohammedanism are to be +found in this, its central idea concerning God. It has taught submission, +obedience, patience; but it has fostered a wilful individualism. It has +made social life lower. Its governments are not governments. Its virtues +are stoical. It makes life barren and empty. It encourages a savage pride +and cruelty. It makes men tyrants or slaves, women puppets, religion the +submission to an infinite despotism. Time is that it came to an end. Its +work is done. It is a hard, cold, cruel, empty faith, which should give +way to the purer forms of a higher civilization. + +No doubt, Mohammedanism was needed when it came, and has done good service +in its time. But its time is almost passed. In Europe it is an anachronism +and an anomaly, depending for its daily existence on the support received +from Christian powers, jealous of Russian advance on Constantinople. It +will be a blessing to mankind to have the capital of Russia on the +Bosphorus. A recent writer on Turkey thus speaks:-- + + + "The military strength of Mohammedanism was in its steady and + remorseless bigotry. Socially, it won by the lofty ideality of its + precepts, without pain or satiety. It accorded well, too, with the + isolate and primitive character of the municipalities scattered over + Asia. Resignation to God--a motto well according with Eastern + indolence--was borne upon its banners, while in the profusion of + delight hereafter was promised an element of endurance and courage. It + had, too, one strikingly Arabic characteristic,--simplicity. + + "One God the Arabian prophet preached to man; + One God the Orient still + Adores, through many a realm of mighty span,-- + God of power and will. + + "A God that, shrouded in his lonely light, + Rests utterly apart + From all the vast creations of his might, + From nature, man, and art. + + "A Power that at his pleasure doth create + To save or to destroy; + And to eternal pain predestinate, + As to eternal joy. + + "It is the merit and the glory of Mohammed that, beside founding + twenty spiritual empires and providing laws for the guidance through + centuries of millions of men, he shook the foundations of the faith of + heathendom. Mohammed was the impersonation of two principles that reign + in the government of God,--destruction and salvation. He would receive + nations to his favor if they accepted the faith, and utterly destroy + them if they rejected it. Yet, in the end, the sapless tree must fall." + +M. H. Blerzey,[399] in speaking of Mohammedanism in Northern Africa, +says:-- + + "At bottom there is little difference between the human sacrifices + demanded by fetichism and the contempt of life produced by the + Mussulman religion. Between the social doctrines of these Mohammedan + tribes and the sentiments of Christian communities there is an immense + abyss." + +And again:--- + + "The military and fanatic despotism of the Arabs has vested during many + centuries in the white autochthonic races of North Africa, without any + fusion taking place between the conquering element and the conquered, + without destroying at all the language and manners of the subject + people, and, in a word, without creating anything durable. The Arab + conquest was a triumph of brute force, and nothing further." + +And M. Renan, a person well qualified to judge of the character of this +religion by the most extensive and impartial studies, gives this +verdict:[400]-- + + "Islamism, following as it did on ground that was none of the best, + has, on the whole, done as much harm as good to the human race. It has + stifled everything by its dry and desolating simplicity." + +Again:-- + + "At the present time, the essential condition of a diffused + civilization is the destruction of the peculiarly Semitic element, the + destruction of the theocratic power of Islamism, consequently the + destruction of Islamism itself."[401] + +Again:-- + + "Islamism is evidently the product of an inferior, and, so to speak, of + a meagre combination of human elements. For this reason its conquests + have all been on the average plane of human nature. The savage races + have been incapable of rising to it, and, on the other hand, it has not + satisfied people who carried in themselves the seed of a stronger + civilization."[402] + + + +Note to the Chapter on Mohammed. + + +We give in this note further extracts from Mr. Palgrave's description of +the doctrine of Islam. + +"This keystone, this master thought, this parent idea, of which all the +rest is but the necessary and inevitable deduction, is contained in the +phrase far oftener repeated than understood, 'La Ilah illa Allah,' 'There +is no God but God.' A literal translation, but much too narrow for the +Arab formula, and quite inadequate to render its true force in an Arab +mouth or mind. + +"'There is no God but God' are words simply tantamount in English to the +negation of any deity save one alone; and thus much they certainly mean in +Arabic, but they imply much more also. Their full sense is, not only to +deny absolutely and unreservedly all plurality, whether of nature or of +person, in the Supreme Being, not only to establish the unity of the +Unbegetting and Unbegot, in all its simple and uncommunicable Oneness, but +besides this the words, in Arabic and among Arabs, imply that this one +Supreme Being is also the only Agent, the only Force, the only Act +existing throughout the universe, and leave to all beings else, matter or +spirit, instinct or intelligence, physical or moral, nothing but pure, +unconditional passiveness, alike in movement or in quiescence, in action +or in capacity. The sole power, the sole motor, movement, energy, and deed +is God; the rest is downright inertia and mere instrumentality, from the +highest archangel down to the simplest atom of creation. Hence, in this +one sentence,' La Ilah illa Allah,' is summed up a system which, for +want of a better name, I may be permitted to call the Pantheism of Force, +or of Act, thus exclusively assigned to God, who absorbs it all, exercises +it all, and to whom alone it can be ascribed, whether for preserving or +for destroying, for relative evil or for equally relative good. I say +'relative,' because it is clear that in such a theology no place is left +for absolute good or evil, reason or extravagance; all is abridged in the +autocratic will of the one great Agent: 'sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro +ratione voluntas'; or, more significantly still, in Arabic, 'Kema +yesha'o,' 'as he wills it,' to quote the constantly recurring expression +of the Koran. + +"Thus immeasurably and eternally exalted above, and dissimilar from, all +creatures, which lie levelled before him on one common plane of +instrumentality and inertness, God is one in the totality of omnipotent +and omnipresent action, which acknowledges no rule, standard, or limit +save his own sole and absolute will. He communicates nothing to his +creatures, for their seeming power and act ever remain his alone, and in +return he receives nothing from them; for whatever they may be, that they +are in him, by him, and from him only. And secondly, no superiority, no +distinction, no pre-eminence, can be lawfully claimed by one creature over +its fellow, in the utter equalization of their unexceptional servitude and +abasement; all are alike tools of the one solitary Force which employs +them to crush or to benefit, to truth or to error, to honor or shame, to +happiness, or misery, quite independently of their individual fitness, +deserts, or advantage, and simply because he wills it, and as he wills it. + +"One might at first think that this tremendous autocrat, this uncontrolled +and unsympathizing power, would be far above anything like passions, +desires, or inclinations. Yet such is not the case, for he has with +respect to his creatures one main feeling and source of action, namely, +jealousy of them lest they should perchance attribute to themselves +something of what is his alone, and thus encroach on his all-engrossing +kingdom. Hence he is ever more prone to punish than to reward, to inflict +than to bestow pleasure, to ruin than to build. It is his singular +satisfaction to let created beings continually feel that they are nothing +else than his slaves, his tools, and contemptible tools also, that thus +they may the better acknowledge his superiority, and know his power to be +above their power, his cunning above their cunning, his will above their +will, his pride above their pride; or rather, that there is no power, +cunning, will, or pride save his own. + +"But he himself, sterile in his inaccessible height, neither loving nor +enjoying aught save his own and self-measured decree, without son, +companion, or counsellor, is no less barren for himself than for his +creatures, and his own barrenness and lone egoism in himself is the cause +and rule of his indifferent and unregarding despotism around. The first +note is the key of the whole tune, and the primal idea of God runs through +and modifies the whole system and creed that centres in him. + +"That the notion here given of the Deity, monstrous and blasphemous as it +may appear, is exactly and literally that which the Koran conveys, or +intends to convey, I at present take for granted. But that it indeed is +so, no one who has attentively perused and thought over the Arabic text +(for mere cursory reading, especially in a translation, will not suffice) +can hesitate to allow. In fact, every phrase of the preceding sentences, +every touch in this odious portrait, has been taken, to the best of my +ability, word for word, or at least meaning for meaning, from the 'Book,' +the truest mirror of the mind and scope of its writer. + +"And that such was in reality Mahomet's mind and idea is fully confirmed +by the witness-tongue of contemporary tradition." + + + + +Chapter XII. + +The Ten Religions and Christianity. + + + + Sec. 1. General Results of this Survey. + Sec. 2. Christianity a Pleroma, or Fulness of Life. + Sec. 3. Christianity, as a Pleroma, compared with Brahmanism, Confucianism, + and Buddhism. + Sec. 4. Christianity compared with the Avesta and the Eddas. The Duad in + all Religions. + Sec. 5. Christianity and the Religions of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. + Sec. 6. Christianity in Relation to Judaism and Mohammedanism. The Monad in + all Religions. + Sec. 7. The Fulness of Christianity is derived from the life of Jesus. + Sec. 8. Christianity as a Religion of Progress and of Universal Unity. + + + +Sec. 1. General Results of this Survey. + + +We have now examined, as fully as our limits would allow, ten of the +chief religions which have enlisted the faith of mankind. We are prepared +to ask, in conclusion, what they teach us in regard to the prospects of +Christianity, and the religious future of our race. + +First, this survey must have impressed on every mind the fact that man is +eminently a religious being. We have found religion to be his supreme and +engrossing interest on every continent, in every millennium of historic +time, and in every stage of human civilization. In some periods men are +found as hunters, as shepherds, as nomads, in others they are living +associated in cities, but in all these conditions they have their +religion. The tendency to worship some superhuman power is universal. + +The opinion of the positivist school, that man passes from a theological +stage to one of metaphysics, and from that to one of science, from which +later and higher epoch both theology and philosophy are excluded, is not +in accordance with the facts we have been observing. Science and art, in +Egypt, went hand in hand with theology, during thousands of years. Science +in Greece preceded the latest forms of metaphysics, and both Greek science +and Greek philosophy were the preparation for Christian faith. In India +the Sankhya philosophy was the preparation for the Buddhist religion. +Theology and religion to-day, instead of disappearing in science, are as +vigorous as ever. Science, philosophy, and theology are all advancing +together, a noble sisterhood of thought. And, looking at facts, we may +ask, In what age or time was religion more of a living force, acting on +human affairs, than it is at present? To believe in things not seen, to +worship a power above visible nature, to look forward to an unknown +future, this is natural to man. + +In the United States there is no established religion, yet in no country +in the world is more interest taken in religion than with us. In the +Protestant denominations it has dispensed with the gorgeous and imposing +ritual, which is so attractive to the common mind, and depends mainly on +the interest of the word of truth. Yet the Protestant denominations make +converts, build churches, and support their clergy with an ardor seemingly +undiminished by the progress of science. There are no symptoms that man is +losing his interest in religion in consequence of his increasing knowledge +of nature and its laws. + +Secondly, we have seen that these religions vary exceedingly from each +other in their substance and in their forms. They have a great deal in +common, but a great deal that is different. Mr. Wentworth Higginson,[403] +in an excellent lecture, much of which has our cordial assent, says, +"Every race believes in a Creator and Governor of the world, in whom +devout souls recognize a Father also." But Buddhism, the most extensive +religion on the surface of the earth, explicitly denies creation, and +absolutely ignores any Ruler or Governor of the world. The Buddha neither +made the world nor preserves it, and the Buddha is the great object of +Buddhist worship. Mr. Higginson says: "Every race believes in +immortality." Though the Buddhists, as we have seen, believe in +immortality, it is in so obscure a form that many of the best scholars +declare that the highest aim and the last result of all progress in +Buddhism is annihilation. He continues, "Every race recognizes in its +religious precepts the brotherhood of man." The Koran teaches no such +doctrine, and it is notorious that the Brahmanical system of caste, which +has been despotic in India for twenty-five hundred years, excludes such +brotherhood. Mr. Higginson therefore is of opinion that caste has grown up +in defiance of the Vedas. The Vedas indeed are ignorant of caste, but they +are also ignorant of human brotherhood. The system of caste was not a +defiance of the Vedas. + +Nothing is gained for humanity by such statements, which are refuted +immediately by the most evident facts. The true "sympathy of religions" +does not consist in their saying the same thing, any more than a true +concord in music consists in many performers striking the same note. +Variety is the condition of harmony. These religions may, and we believe +will, be all harmonized; but thus far it is only too plain that they have +been at war with each other. In order to find the resemblances we must +begin by seeing the differences. + +Cudworth, in his great work, speaks of "the symphony of all religions," an +expression which we prefer to that of Mr. Higginson. It expresses +precisely what we conceive to be the fact, that these religions are all +capable of being brought into union, though so very different. They may +say, + + "Are not we formed, as notes of music are, + For one another, though dissimilar? + Such difference, without discord, as shall make + The sweetest sounds." + +But this harmony can only be established among the ethnic religions by +means of a catholic religion which shall be able to take each of them up +into itself, and so finally merge them in a higher union. The Greek, +Roman, and Jewish religions could not unite with each other; but they were +united by being taken up into Christianity. Christianity has assimilated +the essential ideas of the religions of Persia, Judaea, Egypt, Greece, +Rome, and Scandinavia; and each of these religions, in turn, disappeared +as it was absorbed by this powerful solvent. In the case of Greece, Rome, +Germany, and Judaea, this fact of their passing into solution in +Christianity is a matter of history. Not all the Jews became Christians, +nor has Judaism ceased to exist. This is perhaps owing to the doctrines of +the Trinity and the Deity of Christ, which offend the simplistic +monotheism of the Jewish mind. Yet Christianity at first grew out of +Judaism, and took up into itself the best part of the Jews in and out of +Palestine. + +The question therefore is this, Will Christianity be able to do for the +remaining religions of the world what it did for the Greeks, the Romans, +and the Teutonic nations? Is it capable of becoming a universal religion? + + + +Sec. 2. Christianity a Pleroma, or Fulness of Life. + + +It is evident that Christianity can become the universal human religion +only by supplying the religious wants of all the races of men who dwell on +all the face of the earth. If it can continue to give them all the truth +their own religions contain, and add something more; if it can inspire +them with all the moral life which their own religions communicate, and +yet more; and, finally, if it can unite the races of men in one family, +one kingdom of heaven,--then it is fitted to be and will become the +universal religion. It will then not share the fate of those which have +preceded it. It will not have its rise, progress, decline, and fall. It +will not become, in its turn, antiquated, and be left behind by the +advance of humanity. It will not be swallowed up in something deeper and +broader than itself. But it will appear as the desire of all nations, and +Christ will reign until he has subdued all his enemies--error, war, sin, +selfishness, tyranny, cruelty--under his feet. + +Now, as we have seen, Christianity differs from all other religions (on +the side of truth) in this, that it is a pleroma, or fulness of knowledge. +It does not differ, by teaching what has never been said or thought +before. Perhaps the substance of most of the statements of Jesus may be +found scattered through the ten religions of the world, some here and some +there. Jesus claims no monopoly of the truth. He says. "My doctrine is not +mine, but his who sent me." But he _does_ call himself "the Light of the +World," and says that though he does not come to destroy either the law or +the prophets, he comes to fulfil them in something higher. His work is to +fulfil all religions with something higher, broader, and deeper than what +they have,--accepting their truth, supplying their deficiencies. + +If this is a fact, then it will appear that Christianity comes, not as an +exclusive, but as an inclusive system. It includes everything, it excludes +nothing but limitation and deficiency. + +Whether Christianity be really such a pleroma of truth or not, must be +ascertained by a careful comparison of its teachings, and the ideas lying +back of them, with those of all other religions. We have attempted this, +to some extent, in our Introduction, and in our discussion of each +separate religion. We have seen that Christianity, in converting the +nations, always accepted something and gave something in return. Thus it +received from Egypt and Africa their powerful realism, as in the writings +of Tertullian, Origen, Augustine, and gave in return a spiritual doctrine. +It received God, as seen in nature and its organizations, and returned God +as above nature. Christianity took from Greece intellectual activity, and +returned moral life. It received from Rome organization, and returned +faith in a fatherly Providence. It took law, and gave love. From the +German races it accepted the love of individual freedom, and returned +union and brotherly love. From Judaism it accepted monotheism as the +worship of a Supreme Being, a Righteous Judge, a Holy King, and added to +this faith in God as in all nature and all life. + +But we will proceed to examine some of these points a little more +minutely. + + + +Sec. 3. Christianity, as a Pleroma, compared with Brahmanism, Confucianism, +and Buddhism. + + +Christianity and Brahmanism. The essential value of Brahmanism is its +faith in spirit as distinct from matter, eternity as distinct from time, +the infinite as opposed to the finite, substance as opposed to form. + +The essential defect of Brahmanism is its spiritual pantheism, which +denies all reality to this world, to finite souls, to time, space, matter. +In its vast unities all varieties are swallowed up, all differences come +to an end. It does not, therefore, explain the world, it denies it. It is +incapable of morality, for morality assumes the eternal distinction +between right and wrong, good and evil, and Brahmanism knows no such +difference. It is incapable of true worship, since its real God is spirit +in itself, abstracted from all attributes. Instead of immortality, it can +only teach absorption, or the disappearance of the soul in spirit, as +rain-drops disappear in the ocean. + +Christianity teaches a Supreme Being who is pure spirit, "above all, +through all, and in all," "from whom, and through whom, and to whom are +all things," "in whom we live, and move, and have our being." It is a more +spiritual religion than Brahmanism, for the latter has passed on into +polytheism and idolatry, which Christianity has always escaped. Yet while +teaching faith in a Supreme Being, the foundation and substance below all +existence, it recognizes him as A LIVING GOD. He is not absorbed in +himself, nor apart from his world, but a perpetual Providence, a personal +Friend and Father. He dwells in eternity, but is manifested in time. + +Christianity, therefore, meets the truth in Brahmanism by its doctrine of +God as Spirit, and supplies its deficiencies by its doctrine of God as a +Father. + +Christianity and the system of Confucius. The good side in the teaching of +Confucius is his admirable morality, his wisdom of life in its temporal +limitations, his reverence for the past, his strenuous conservatism of all +useful institutions, and the uninterrupted order of the social system +resting on these ideas. + +The evil in his teaching is the absence of the supernatural element, +which deprives the morality of China of enthusiasm, its social system of +vitality, its order of any progress, and its conservatism of any +improvement. It is a system without hope, and so has remained frozen in an +icy and stiff immobility for fifteen hundred years. + +But Christianity has shown itself capable of uniting conservatism with +progress, in the civilization of Christendom. It respects order, reveres +the past, holds the family sacred, and yet is able also to make continual +progress in science, in art, in literature, in the comfort of the whole +community. It therefore accepts the good and the truth in the doctrines of +Confucius, and adds to these another element of new life. + +Christianity and Buddhism. The truth in Buddhism is in its doctrine of the +relation of the soul to the laws of nature; its doctrine of consequences; +its assurance of a strict retribution for every human action; its promise +of an ultimate salvation in consequence of good works; and of a redemption +from all the woes of time by obedience to the truth. + +The evil in the system is that belonging to all legalism. It does not +inspire faith in any living and present God, or any definite immortality. +The principle, therefore, of development is wanting, and it leaves the +Mongol races standing on a low plane of civilization, restraining them +from evil, but not inspiring them by the sight of good. + +Christianity, like Buddhism, teaches that whatever a man sows that shall +he also reap; that those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for +glory, honor, and immortality shall receive eternal life; that the books +shall be opened in the last day, and every man be rewarded according to +his works; that he whose pound gains five pounds shall be ruler over five +cities. In short, Christianity, in its Scriptures and its practical +influence, has always taught salvation by works. + +Yet, beside this, Christianity teaches justification by faith, as the root +and fountain of all real obedience. It inspires faith in a Heavenly Father +who has loved his every child from before the foundation of the world; +who welcomes the sinner back when he repents and returns; whose forgiving +love creates a new life in the heart. This faith evermore tends to awaken +the dormant energies in the soul of man; and so, under its influence, one +race after another has commenced a career of progress. Christianity, +therefore, can fulfil Buddhism also. + + + +Sec. 4. Christianity compared with the Avesta and the Eddas. The Duad in all +Religions. + + +The essential truth in the Avesta and the Eddas is the same. They both +recognize the evil in the world as real, and teach the duty of fighting +against it. They avoid the pantheistic indifference of Brahmanism, and the +absence of enthusiasm in the systems of Confucius and the Buddha, by the +doctrine of a present conflict between the powers of good and evil, of +light and of darkness. This gives dignity and moral earnestness to both +systems. By fully admitting the freedom of man, they make the sense of +responsibility possible, and so purify and feed morality at its roots. + +The difficulty with both is, that they carry this dualistic view of nature +too far, leaving it an unreconciled dualism. The supreme Monad is lost +sight of in this ever-present Duad. Let us see how this view of evil, or +the dual element in life, appears in other systems. + +As the Monad in religion is an expression of one infinite supreme +presence, pervading all nature and life, so the Duad shows the antagonism +and conflict between truth and falsehood, right and wrong, good and evil, +the infinite perfection and the finite imperfection. This is a conflict +actually existing in the world, and one which religion must accept and +account for. Brahmanism does not accept it, but ignores it. This whole +conflict is Maya, a deception and illusion. Yet, in this form of illusion, +it makes itself so far felt, that it must be met by sacrifices, prayers, +penances, and the law of transmigration; until all the apparent antagonism +shall be swallowed up in the Infinite One, the only substance in the +universe. + +Buddhism recognizes the conflict more fully. It frankly accepts the Duad +as the true explanation of the actual universe. The ideal universe as +Nirvana may be one; but of this we know nothing. The actual world is a +twofold world, composed of souls and the natural laws. The battle of life +is with these laws. Every soul, by learning to obey them, is able to +conquer and use them, as steps in an ascent toward Nirvana. + +But the belief of Zoroaster and that of Scandinavia regard the Duad as +still more deeply rooted in the essence of existing things. All life is +battle,--battle with moral or physical evil. Courage is therefore the +chief virtue in both systems. The Devil first appears in theology in these +two forms of faith. The Persian devil is Ahriman; the Scandinavian devil +is Loki. Judaism, with its absolute and supreme God, could never admit +such a rival to his power as the Persian Ahriman; yet as a being +permitted, for wise purposes, to tempt and try men, he comes into their +system as Satan. Satan, on his first appearance in the Book of Job, is one +of the angels of God. He is the heavenly critic; his business is to test +human virtue by trial, and see how deep it goes. His object in testing Job +was to find whether he loved virtue for its rewards, or for its own sake. +"Does Job serve God for naught?" According to this view, the man who is +good merely for the sake of reward is not good at all. + +In the Egyptian system, as in the later faith of India, the evil principle +appears as a power of destruction. Siva and Typhon are the destroying +agencies from whom proceed all the mischief done in the world. +Nevertheless, they are gods, not devils, and have their worship and +worshippers among those whose religious nature is more imbued with fear +than with hope. The timid worshipped the deadly and destructive powers, +and their prayers were deprecations. The bolder worshipped the good gods. +Similarly, in Greece, the Chtonic deities had their shrines and +worshippers, as had the powers of Blight, Famine, and Pestilence at Rome. + +Yet only in the Avesta is this great principle of evil set forth in full +antagonism against the powers of light and love. And probably from +Persia, after the captivity, this view of Satan entered into Jewish +theology. In the Old Testament, indeed, where Satan or the Devil as a +proper name only occurs four times[404], in all which cases he is a +subordinate angel, the true Devil does not appear. In the Apocrypha he is +said (Wisdom ii. 24) to have brought death into the world. The New +Testament does not teach a doctrine of Satan, or the Devil, as something +new and revealed then for the first time, but assumes a general though +vague belief in such a being. This belief evidently existed among the Jews +when Christ came. It as evidently was not taught in the Old Testament. The +inevitable inference is that it grew up in the Jewish mind from its +communication with the Persian dualism. + +But though the doctrine of a Devil is no essential part of +Christianity[405], the reality and power of evil is fully recognized in +the New Testament and in the teachings of the Church. Indeed, in the +doctrine of everlasting punishment and of an eternal hell, it has been +carried to a dangerous extreme. The Divine sovereignty is seriously +infringed and invaded by such a view. If any outlying part of the universe +continues in a state of permanent rebellion, God is not the absolute +sovereign. But wickedness is rebellion. If any are to continue eternally +in hell, it is because they continue in perpetual wickedness; that is, the +rebellion against God will never be effectually suppressed. Only when +every knee bows, and every tongue confesses that Christ is Lord to the +glory of God the Father; only when truth and love have subdued all enemies +by converting them into friends, is redemption complete and the universe +at peace. + +Now, Christianity (in spite of the illogical doctrine of everlasting +punishment) has always inspired a faith in the redeeming power of love to +conquer all evil. It has taught that evil can be overcome by good. It +asserts truth to be more powerful than error, right than wrong. It teaches +us in our daily prayer to expect that God's kingdom shall come, and his +will shall be done on earth as it is in Heaven. It therefore fulfils the +truth in the great dualisms of the past by its untiring hope of a full +redemption from all sin and all evil. + + + +Sec. 5. Christianity and the Religions of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. + + +The Religion of Egypt. This system unfolded the truth of the Divine in +this world, of the sacredness of bodily organization, and the descent of +Deity into the ultimate parts of his creation. Its defect was its +inability to combine with this an open spiritualism. It had not the +courage of its opinions, so far as they related to the divine unity, +spirituality, and eternity. + +Christianity also accepts the doctrine of God, present in nature, in man, +in the laws of matter, in the infinite variety of things. But it adds to +this the elevated spiritualism of a monotheistic religion, and so accepts +the one and the all, unity and variety, substance and form, eternity and +time, spirit and body, as filled with God and manifesting him. + +The Religions of Greece and Rome. The beauty of nature, the charm of art, +the genius of man, were idealized and deified in the Greek pantheon. The +divinity of law, organizing human society according to universal rules of +justice, was the truth in the Roman religion. The defect of the Greek +theology was the absence of a central unity. Its polytheism carried +variety to the extreme of disorder and dissipation. The centrifugal force, +not being properly balanced by any centripetal power, inevitably ends in +dissolution. The defect of Roman worship was, that its oppressive rules +ended in killing out life. Law, in the form of a stiff external +organization, produced moral death at last in Rome, as it had produced +moral death in Judaea. + +Now Christianity, though a monotheism, and a monotheism which has +destroyed forever both polytheism and idolatry wherever it has gone, is +not that of numerical unity. The God of Christianity differs in this from +the God of Judaism and Mohammedanism. He is an infinite will; but he is +more. Christianity cognizes God as not only above nature and the soul, but +also as in nature and in the soul. Thus nature and the soul are made +divine. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity expresses this enlargement +of the Jewish monotheism from a numerical to a moral unity. The God of +Christ is human in this respect, that he is conceived of in the image of +man. Man is essentially a unit through his will, in which lies the secret +of personal identity. But besides will he has intellect, by which he comes +into communion with the universe; and affection, by which he comes into +communion with his race. Christianity conceives of God in the same way. He +is an omnipresent will as the Father, Creator, and Ruler of all things. He +is the Word, or manifested Truth in the Son, manifested through all +nature, manifested through all human life. He is the Spirit, or +inspiration of each individual soul. So he is Father, Son, and Spirit, +above all, through all, and in us all. By this larger view of Deity +Christianity was able to meet the wants of the Aryan races, in whom the +polytheistic tendency is so strong. That tendency was satisfied by this +view of God immanent in nature and immanent in human life. + +Judaism and Mohammedanism, with their more concrete monotheism, have not +been able to convert the Aryan races. Mohammedanism has never affected the +mind of India, nor disturbed the ascendency of Brahmanism there. And +though it nominally possesses Persia, yet it holds it as a subject, not as +a convert. Persian Sufism is a proof of the utter discontent of the Aryan +intellect with any monotheism of pure will. Sufism is the mystic form of +Mohammedanism, recognizing communion with God, and not merely submission, +as being the essence of true religion. During the long Mohammedan dominion +in Turkey it has not penetrated the minds or won the love of the Greek +races. It is evident that Christianity succeeded in converting the Greeks +and Romans by means of its larger view of the Deity, of which the +doctrine of the Trinity, as it stands in the creeds, is a crude illogical +expression. + + + +Sec. 6. Christianity in Relation to Judaism and Mohammedanism. The Monad in +all Religions. + + +There are three religions which teach the pure upity of God, or true +monotheism. These three Unitarian religions are Judaism, Christianity, and +Mohammedanism. They also all originated in a single race, the Semitic +race, that which has occupied the central region of the world, the centre +of three continents. It is the race which tends to a religious unity, as +that of our Aryan ancestors tended to variety. + +But what is pure monotheism? It is the worship of one alone God, separated +by the vast abyss of the infinite from all finite beings. It is the +worship of God, not as the Supreme Being only, not as the chief among many +gods, as Jupiter was the president of the dynasty on Olympus, not merely +the Most High, but as the only God. It avoids the two extremes, one of +making the Supreme Being head of a council or synod of deities, and the +other of making him indeed infinite, but an infinite abstraction, or abyss +of darkness. These are the two impure forms of monotheism. The first +prevailed in Greece, Rome, Egypt, Scandinavia. In each of these religions +there was a supreme being,--Zeus, Jupiter, Ammon, Odin,--but this supreme +god was only _primus inter pares_, first among equals. The other impure +form of monotheism prevailed in the East,--in Brahmanism, Buddhism, and +the religion of Zoroaster. In the one Parabrahm, in the other +Zerana-Akerana, in the third Nirvana itself, is the Infinite Being or +substance, wholly separate from all that is finite. It is so wholly +separate as to cease to be an object of adoration and obedience. Not +Parabrahm, but Siva, Vischnu, and Brahma; not Zerana-Akerana, but Ormazd +and the Amschaspands; not the infinite world of Nirvana, nor the mighty +Adi-Buddha, but the Buddhas of Confession, the finite Sakya-Muni, are the +objects of worship in these systems. + +Only from the Semitic race have arisen the pure monotheistic religions of +Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism. Each of these proclaims one only +God, and each makes this only God the object of all worship and service. +Judaism says, "Hear! O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord!" (Deut. vi. +4.) Originally among the Jews, God's name as the "Plural of Majesty" +indicated a unity formed from variety; but afterward it became in the word +Jahveh a unity of substance. "By my name Jehovah I was not known to them" +(i.e. to the Patriarchs).[406] That name indicates absolute Being, "I am +the I am."[407] + +Ancient Gentile monotheism vibrated between a personal God, the object of +worship, who was limited and finite, and an infinite absolute Being who +was out of sight, "whose veil no one had lifted." The peculiarity of the +Mosaic religion was to make God truly the one alone, and at the same time +truly the object of worship. + +In this respect Judaism, Christianity, and Mohammedanism agree, and in +this they differ from all other religions. Individual thinkers, like +Socrates, AEschylus, Cicero, have reached the same conviction; but these +three are the only popular religions, in which God is at once the infinite +and absolute, and the only object of worship. + +Now it is a remarkable fact that these three religions, which are the only +pure monotheistic religions, are at the same time the only religions which +have any claim to catholicity. Buddhism, though the religion of numerous +nations, seems to be the religion of only one race, namely, the Turanic +race, or Mongols. The people of India who remain Buddhists, the Singalese, +or inhabitants of Ceylon, belong to the aboriginal Tamul, or Mongol race. +With this exception then (which is no exception, as far as we know the +ethnology of Eastern Asia), the only religions which aim at Catholicism +are these three, which are also the only monotheistic religions. Judaism +aimed at catholicity and hoped for it. It had an instinct of universality, +as appeared in its numerous attempts at making proselytes of other +nations. It failed of catholicity when it refused to accept as its Christ +the man who had risen above its national limitations, and who considered +Roman tax-gatherers and Samaritans as already prepared to enter the +kingdom of the Messiah. The Jews required all their converts to become +Jews, and in doing this left the catholic ground. Christianity in the +mouth of Paul, who alone fully seized the true idea of his Master, said, +"Circumcision availeth nothing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature." +In other words, he declared that it was _not_ necessary to become a Jew in +order to be a Christian. + +The Jewish mind, so far forth as it was monotheistic, aimed at +catholicity. The unity of God carries with it, logically, the unity of +man. From one God as spirit we infer one human family. So Paul taught at +Athens. "God that made the world and all things therein, ... hath made of +one blood all races of men to dwell on all the face of the earth." + +But the Jews, though catholic as monotheists, and as worshipping a +spiritual God, were limited by their ritual and their intense national +bigotry. Hereditary and ancestral pride separated them, and still separate +them, from the rest of mankind. "_We have Abraham to our Father_" is the +talisman which has kept them together, but kept them from union with +others. + +Christianity and Mohammedanism, therefore, remain the only two really +catholic religions. Each has overpassed all the boundaries of race. +Christianity, beginning among the Jews, a Semitic people, passed into +Europe, and has become the religion of Greeks, Romans, Kelts, Germans, and +the Slavic races of Russia, and has not found it impossible to convert the +Africans, the Mongols, and the American Indians. So too the Mohammedan +religion, also beginning among the Semitic race, has become the nominal +religion of Persia, Turkey, Northern Africa, and Central Asia. Monotheism, +therefore, includes a tendency to catholicity. But Islam has everywhere +made subjects rather than converts, and so has failed of entire success. +It has not assimilated its conquests. + +The monotheism of Christianity, as we have already seen, while accepting +the absolute supremacy of the Infinite Being, so as to displace forever +all secondary or subordinate gods, yet conceives of him as the present +inspiration of all his children. It sees him coming down, to bless them in +the sunshine and the shower, as inspiring every good thought, as a +providence guiding all human lives. And by this view it fulfils both +Judaism and Mohammedanism, and takes a long step beyond them both. + + + +Sec. 7. The Fulness of Christianity is derived from the Life of Jesus. + + +Christianity has thus shown itself to be a universal solvent, capable of +receiving into itself the existing truths of the ethnic religions, and +fulfilling them with something higher. Whenever it has come in contact +with natural religion, it has assimilated it and elevated it. This is one +evidence that it is intended to become the universal religion of mankind. + +This pleroma, or fulness, integrity, all-sidedness, or by whatever name we +call it, is something deeper than thought. A system of thought might be +devised large enough to include all the truths in all the religions of the +world, putting each in its own place in relation to the rest. Such a +system might show how they all are related to each other, and all are in +harmony. But this would be a philosophy, not a religion. No such +philosophy appears in the original records of Christianity. The New +Testament does not present Jesus as a philosopher, nor Paul as a +metaphysician. There is no systematic teaching in the Gospels, nor in the +Epistles. Yet we find there, in incidental utterances, the elements of +this many-sided truth, in regard to God, man, duty, and immortality. But +we find it as life, not as thought. It is a fulness of life in the soul of +Jesus, passing into the souls of his disciples and apostles, and from them +in a continuous stream of Christian experience, down to the present time. + +The word pleroma ([Greek: plaeroma]), in the New Testament, means that +which fills up; fulness, fulfilling, filling full. The verb "to fulfil" +([Greek: plaerhoo]) carries the same significance. To "fulfil that which +was spoken by the prophets," means to fill it full of meaning and truth. +Jesus came, not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it; that is, to carry +it out further. He fulfilled Moses and the prophets, not by doing exactly +what they foretold, in their sense, but by doing it in a higher, deeper, +and larger sense. He fulfilled their thought as the flower fulfils the +bud, and as the fruit fulfils the flower. The sense of the fulness of life +in Jesus and in the Gospel seems to have struck the minds of the early +disciples, and powerfully impressed them. Hence the frequency with which +they use this verb and noun, signifying fulness. Jesus fulfilled the law, +the prophets, all righteousness, the Scriptures. He came in the fulness of +time. His joy was fulfilled. Paul prays that the disciples may be filled +full of joy, peace, and hope, with the fruits of righteousness, with all +knowledge, with the spirit of God, and with all the fulness of God. He +teaches that love fulfils the law, that the Church is the fulness of +Christ, that Christ fills all things full of himself, and that in him +dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily. + +One great distinction between Christianity and all other religions is in +this pleroma, or fulness of life which it possesses, and which, to all +appearance, came from the life of Jesus. Christianity is often said to be +differenced from ethnic religions in other ways. They are natural +religions: it is revealed. They are natural: it is supernatural. They are +human: it is divine. But _all_ truth is revealed truth; it all comes from +God, and, therefore, so far as ethnic religions contain truth, they also +are revelations. Moreover, the supernatural element is to be found in all +religions; for inspiration, in some form, is universal. All great births +of time are supernatural, making no part of the nexus of cause and effect. +How can you explain the work of Confucius, of Zoroaster, of the Buddha, of +Mohammed, out of the existing state of society, and the educational +influences of their time? All such great souls are much more the makers of +their age than its result; they are imponderable elements in civilization, +not to be accounted for by anything outside of themselves. Nor can we urge +the distinction of human and divine; for there is a divine element in all +ethnic religions, and a broadly human element in Christianity. Jesus is +as much the representative of human nature as he is the manifestation of +God. He is the Son of man, no less than the Son of God. + +One great fact which makes a broad distinction between other religions and +Christianity is that _they_ are ethnic and _it_ is catholic. They are the +religions of races and nations, limited by these lines of demarcation, by +the bounds which God has beforehand appointed. Christianity is a catholic +religion: it is the religion of the human race. It overflows all +boundaries, recognizes no limits, belongs to man as man. And this it does, +because of the fulness of its life, which it derives from its head and +fountain, Jesus Christ, in whom dwells the fulness both of godhead and of +manhood. + +It is true that the great missionary work of Christianity has long been +checked. It does not now convert whole nations. Heathenism, Mohammedanism, +Judaism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, stand beside it unmoved. What is the cause +of this check? + +The catholicity of the Gospel was born out of its fluent and full life. It +was able to convert the Greeks and Romans, and afterward Goths, Vandals, +Lombards, Franks, Scandinavians, because it came to them, not as a creed, +but as a life. But neither Roman Catholics nor Protestants have had these +large successes since the Middle Ages. Instead of a life, Christianity +became a church and a creed. When this took place, it gradually lost its +grand missionary power. It no longer preached truth, but doctrine; no +longer communicated life, but organized a body of proselytes into a rigid +church. Party spirit took the place of the original missionary spirit. +Even the majority of the German tribes was converted by Arian +missionaries, and orthodoxy has not the credit of that last grand success +of Christianity. The conversion of seventy millions of Chinese in our own +day to the religion of the Bible was not the work of Catholic or +Protestant missionaries, but of the New Testament. The Church and the +creed are probably the cause of this failure. Christianity has been +partially arrested in its natural development, first by the Papal Church, +and secondly by the too rigid creeds of orthodoxy. + +If the swarming myriads of India and Mongolia are to be converted to +Christianity, it must be done by returning to the original methods. We +must begin by recognizing and accepting the truth they already possess. We +must be willing to learn of them, in order to teach them. Comparative +Theology will become the science of missions if it help to show to +Christians the truth and good in the creeds outside of Christendom. For to +the Church and to its sects, quite as much as to the world, applies the +saying, "He that exalteth himself shall be abased, but he that humbleth +himself shall be exalted." + + + +Sec. 8. Christianity as a Religion of Progress and of Universal Unity. + + +As long as a tree or an animal lives it continues to grow. An arrest of +growth is the first symptom of the decline of life. Fulness of life, +therefore, as the essential character of Christianity, should produce a +constant development and progress; and this we find to be the case. Other +religions have their rise, progress, decline, and fall, or else are +arrested and become stationary. The religions of Persia, Egypt, Greece, +Rome, Scandinavia, have come to an end. As ethnic religions, they shared +the fortunes of the race or nation with which they were associated. The +systems of Confucius, of the Buddha, of Brahmanism, of Judaea, of +Mohammed, are arrested. They remain stationary. But, thus far, +Christianity and Christendom advance together. Christianity has developed; +out of its primitive faith, several great theologies, the mediaeval +Papacy, Protestantism, and is now evidently advancing into new and larger +forms of religious, moral, and social activity. + +The fact of a fulness of divine and human life in Jesus took form in the +doctrines of the incarnation and the Trinity. The fact of the reconciling +and uniting power of this life took form in the doctrine of the atonement. +Both of these doctrines are illogical and false, in their form, as church +doctrines. But both of them represent most essential facts. We have seen +the truths in the doctrines of incarnation and the Trinity. The truth in +the atonement is, as the word itself signifies, the at-one-making power of +the Gospel. The reconciliation of antagonist truths and opposing +tendencies, which philosophy has always unsuccessfully endeavored to state +in theory, Christianity accomplishes in practice. Christianity continually +reproduces from its depths of life a practical faith in God, both as law +and as love, in man, both as a free and yet as a providentially guided +being. It gives us God as unity and as variety, as the substance and as +the form of the world. It states the reality of evil as forcibly as any +system of dualism, and yet produces a practical faith in good as being +stronger than evil and sure to conquer it. In social life it reconciles +the authority of human law with the freedom of individual thought and +action. In the best Christian governments, we find all the order which a +despotism can guarantee, with all the freedom to which a democracy can +aspire. No such social organization is to be found outside of Christendom. +How can this be, unless it is somehow connected with Christianity? + +The civilization of Christendom consists in a practical reconciliation of +antagonist tendencies. It is a "pleroma" in social life, a fulness of +concord, a harmony of many parts. The harmony is indeed by no means +complete, for the millennium has not arrived. As yet the striking feature +of Christendom is quantity, power, variety, fulness; not as yet +co-operation, harmony, peace, union. Powers are first developed, which are +afterward to be harmonized. The sword is not yet beaten into a +ploughshare, nor has universal peace arrived. Yet such is the inevitable +tendency of things. As knowledge spreads, as wealth increases, as the +moral force of the world is enlarged, law, more and more, takes the place +of force. Men no longer wear swords by their sides to defend themselves +from attack. If attacked, they call the policeman. Towns are no longer +fortified with walls, nor are the residences of noblemen kept in a state +of defence. They are all folded in the peaceful arms of national law. So +far the atonement has prevailed. Only nations still continue to fight; but +the time is at hand when international law, the parliament of the world, +the confederation of man, shall take the place of standing armies and +iron-clad navies. + +So, in society, internal warfare must, sooner or later, come to an end. +Pauperism and crime must be treated according to Christian methods. +Criminals must be reformed, and punishment must be administered in +reference to that end. Co-operation in labor and trade must take the place +of competition. The principles by means of which these vast results will +be brought about are already known; the remaining difficulties are in +their application. Since slavery fell in the United States, one great +obstacle to the progress of man is removed. The next social evils in order +will be next assailed, and, one by one, will be destroyed. Christianity is +becoming more and more practical, and its application to life is +constantly growing more vigorous and wise. + +The law of human life is, that the development of differences must precede +their reconciliation. Variety must precede harmony, analysis must prepare +the way for synthesis, opposition must go before union. Christianity, as a +powerful stimulus applied to the human mind, first develops all the +tendencies of the soul; and afterward, by its atoning influence on the +heart, reconciles them. Christ is the Prince of Peace. He came to make +peace between man and God, between man and man, between law and love, +reason and faith, freedom and order, progress and conservatism. But he +first sends the sword, afterward the olive-branch. Nevertheless, universal +unity is the object and end of Christianity. + + + + +Index of the Principal Authors Consulted in the Preparation of this +Work. + + + +ACKERMANN (D. C.). Das Christliche im Plato. Hamburg. 1835. (Translated in +Clark's Theological Library.) (Greece.) + +AESCHYLUS, and other Greek Poets. (Greece.) + +ALGER (WM. R.). A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life. +Philadelphia: Childs. 1864. + +ALLEN (JOSEPH H.). Hebrew Men and Times. Boston. 1861. (Judaea.) + +American Oriental Society, Journal of the. New Haven; published annually. +(Oriental Religions.) + +AMPERE (J. J. A.). L'Histoire Romaine. Paris. 1864. (Rome.) + +------ ------ La Science en Orient. + +Anthropological Society of London, Memoirs of (commenced in 1863-64). + +Asiatic Journal, 1816-1843. London. + +Asiatic Researches (commenced London. 1801). + +BALDWIN (JOHN D.). Pre-Historic Nations. New York. 1869. + +BANHERJEA (Rev. K. M.). Dialogues on Hindoo Philosophy, comprising the +Nyaya, Sankhya, and Vyasa. London. 1861. (Brahmanism.) + +BAUR (F. C.). Symbolik und Mythologie. Stuttgart. 1829. + +BLEEK (ARTHUR HENRY). Avesta. The religious Books of the Parsees. +Translated into English from Spiegel's German translation. Hertford. 1864. +(Zoroaster.) + +BOeEKH. Manetho und der Hundstern period. Berlin. 1840. (Egypt.) + +BURNOUF (EUGENE). Commentaire sur le Yacna. Paris. 1823. + +------ ------ Introduction a l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien. Paris. 1844. + +------ ------ Le Bhagavata Purana, on Histoire Poetique de Krichna. Paris. +1840. + +BURNOUF (EMILE). Essai sur le Veda. 1863. + +BRUGSCH. Histoire de l'Egypte. Leipzig. 1859. ------- Aus dem Orient. + +BUNSEN (C. C. J.). Bibelwerk. Leipzig: Brockhaus. 1858. (Judaea.) + +------ ------ Gott in der Geschichte. Leipzig. 1857. + +------ ------ AEgypten's Stelle in der Weltgesehichte. Hamburg. 1845-1867. +English translation, 1868. + +CHABAS (F.). Les Pasteurs en Egypt. 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(Rome.) + +DE ROUGE (VICOMTE DE). Examen critique de l'ouvrage de M. Bunsen. Paris. +1847. (Egypt.) + +------ ------ Etudes sur le rituel Funeraire. Paris. 1860. + +------ ------ Le poeme de Pentaour. Paris. 1856. (Egypt.) + +------ ------ Memoire sur les Monuments des six premieres dynasties. +Paris. 1866. (Egypt.) + +DOLLINGER (JOHN J. I.). The Gentile and the Jew. London. Longman, 1862. +(Greece, Rome, Judaea, Egypt, &c.) + +DUNCKER (MAX). Geschichte des alterthums. Berlin. 1863. (Egypt, Babylon, +Judaea, Assyria, India, Persia.) + +DUPERRON (ANQUETIL). Le Zendavesta. Paris. 1771. 3 vols. (Zoroaster.) + +DUTT (SHOSHEE CHUNDER). Essays. Calcutta. 1854. (Brahmanism.) + +EBERS. AEgypten und die Buecher Mosis. 1870. + +EWALD (HEINRICH). Geschichte des volkes Israel (the first two volumes +translated by Russell Martineau). Goettingen. 1845-1851. (Judaea.) + +FARRAR (F. W.). Families of Speech. London. 1870. + +FAUCHE (HIPPOLYTE). Le Maha-Bharata, traduit completement du Sanscrit en +Francais. Paris. 1863. + +------ ------ Le Ramayana, traduit en Francais. Paris. 1864. (Brahmanism.) + +FERGUSSON (JAMES). The Illustrated Handbook of Architecture. London. 1855. + +FRIEDLIEB (J. H.). Die Sibyllinischen Weissagungen. Leipzig. 1852. (Rome.) + +GOBINEAU. Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l'Asie Centrale. 1866. + +GERHARD (EDUARD). Griechische Mythologie, 3 Banden. Berlin. 1854. +(Greece.) + +GIBBON (EDWARD). Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. + +GRIMM (JACOB). Deutsche Mythologie, Dritte Ausgabe. Goettingen. 1854. +(Germany.) + +GROTE (GEORGE). History of Greece. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1854. +(Greece.) + +------ ------ Plato and the other Companions of Socrates. London: Murray. +1867. (Greece.) + +HARDWICK (CHARLES). Christ and other Masters. London: Macmillan. 1863. +(Judaea, India, China, Egypt, Persia.) + +HARDY (R. SPENCE). Eastern Monachism. London: Partridge and Oakey. 1850. +(Buddhism.) + +------ ------ A Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development. London: +Partridge and Oakey. 1853. (Buddhism.) + +HARIVANSA. Appendix to the Mahabharata, translated by Langlois. Oriental +Translation Fund. London. 1834. (India.) + +HARTUNG, (J. A.). Die Religion der Roemer. Erlangen. 1836. + +------ ------ Die Religion und Mythologie der Griechen. Leipzig. 1865. + +HAUG (MARTIN). Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of +the Parsees. Bombay. 1862. (Persia.) + +HEDGE (F. H.). The Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition. Boston: Roberts & +Brothers. 1870. (Judaea.) + +HEEREN (A. H. L.). Historical Researches into the Polities, Intercourse, +and Trade of the Principal Nations of Antiquity. (English translation.) +Oxford. 1833. + +HEFFTER (M. W.). Mythologie der Griechen und Roemer. Leipzig. 1854. (Greeks +and Romans.) + +HERODOTUS, and other Greek Historians. (Greece.) + +HIGGINSON (EDWARD). The Spirit of the Bible. 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Vischnu Purana. 3 vols. 1861-1866. + +Select Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindoos. 3 vols. 1827. + +Rig-Veda-Sanhita. Translated from the original Sanskrit. 4 vols. London. +1850-1866. + + +WINDISCHMANN (FRIEDRICH). Ursagen des Arischen Volker. Munich. 1853. + +Zoroastriche Studien. 1863. Ueber das Bunddehesch. + + +Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlaendischen Gesellschaft. Leipzig. +Commenced 1847. + + +ZELLER (E.). The Stoics. Epicureans, and Sceptics (English translation). +London. 1870. + + + + +Index of Subjects Treated in this Work. + + +A. + + +Abraham, source of Hebrew monotheism, 403. + " his inspiration, 403. + " his worship of the Most High God, 404. + " his native home at the source of the Tigris, 405. + " his historic character and events of his life, 406. + " his relation to Melchisedek, 406. + " character of his faith, 408. + " his monotheism imperfect, 408. +Adam of Bremen, his account of Northern Christians, 394. +AEschylus, big religious character, 284. +Anschar, missionary to the Swedes, 393. +Antoninus, M. Aurelius, his religious character, 344. +Apollo Belvedere, in the Vatican, 289. +Arabs, the, and Arabia, 452. + " without a history till the time of Mohammed, 452. +Aristotle, his view of God, 296. +Artemis, or Diana as represented by the sculptors, 290. +Aryana-Vaejo, a region of delight, 184. + " its climate changes to cold, 185. + " supposed to be in Central Asia, 186. +Aryans, the, in Central Asia, 85. + " consist of seven races, 86. + " their name mentioned in Manu, in the Avesta, and by Herodotus, 87. + " their original home, 87. + " their mode of life, 88. + " they arrive in India, 89. +Atonement, Christian, in its early form, influenced by Egyptian thought, + 255. + " in its scholastic form, derived from Roman law, 352. +Augurs, their duties, 337. +Avesta, discovered by Duperron, 179. + + + +B. + + +Baldur, his character described, 378. + " death of, the story, 373. +Baltic Sea, the Mediterranean of modern Europe, 359. +Bona Dea, the good goddess, 330. +Bragi, the Scandinavian Apollo, 380. +Brahma, chief deity in the Laws of Manu, 125. + " his worship has entirely disappeared, 128. +Brahmanism, a difficult study, 81. + " no individual founder, 81. + " is a one-sided spiritualism, 83. + " passes into pantheism, 84. + " becomes idolatry, 85. +Buddha, his early tendency to devotion, 148. + " not a proper name, but an official title, 148. + " his birthplace In India, 148. + " his different names (note), 148. + " his father, a prince of the solar race, 148. + " his early tendency to devotion, 148. + " he arrives at Nirvana, 149. + " devotes himself to teaching, 150. + " dies at the age of eighty years, 150. + " period of his death, 150. +Buddhism, Protestantism of the East, 139. + " resemblance of its customs to those of the Romish Church, 139. + " its worship of relics very ancient, 140. + " its singular and beautiful architecture, 140. + " its shrines for relics, 141. + " its rock-cut temples and monasteries, 141. + " cannot have been copied from Catholicism, 141. + " its interior resemblance to Protestantism, 142. + " its respect for human freedom and human rights, 143. + " its belief in the capacity of the human intellect, 144. + " its monastic character, 144. + " its expulsion from India, 145. + " the religion of the Mongol nations, 146. + " its scriptures and their discovery, 147. +Buddhists, their general councils, 151. + " their missionaries and missionary spirit, 151. + " their leading doctrines, 153. + " their idea of human development and progress, 154. + " their four great truths, 155. + " their moral commandments, 156. + " their system rational and humane, 156. + " their toleration, 157. + " their benevolence and hospitality, 158. + " their worship and ritual, 159. + " their doctrines of Karma and Nirvana, 161. + " good and evil of their system, 164. + " their doctrine of transmigration, 167. + " how far their teaching resembles Christianity, 167. +Bundehesch, opinion of Windischmann concerning it, 194. + " doctrinal system of, 195. +Burlingame, Anson, his mission, 70. + + + +C. + + +Carthaginians, their language a form of Hebrew, 400. +Catholic religious, three, 18. + " " teach the unity of God, 18. + " " which have failed of universality, 19. +Ceres, Liber, Flora, and Pomona, rural deities, 330. +Chaldees of Ur, same as modern Curds, 405. +Chandragupta, contemporary of Alexander, 86. +Cherubim, its derivation from the Sphinx, 252. +Chinese civilization, its peculiarities, 32. + " " prose of Asia, 32. + " " its antiquity, 33. + " " its grotesque character, 36. +Chinese empire, its size, 33. + " history commences, 34. + " language, 34. + " wall and canals, 34. + " artesian wells, 34. + " inoculation, bronze money, mariner's compass, gunpowder, 35. + " art of printing, and libraries, 35. + " people possess freedom (note), 37. + " government based on education, 38. + " monarchy a family, 38. + " government a literary aristocracy, 38. + " civil-service examinations, 39. + " public boards and their duties, 42. + " viceroys, or governors of provinces, 42. + " agriculture carried to perfection, 43. + " "Kings," or sacred books, 47. + " philosophy in its later developments, 52. + " doctrine of the grand extreme, 52. + " doctrine of Yang and Yin, or the positive and negative essences, + 52. + " doctrine of holy men, 53. + " people, their amiable character, 59. + " " described by Lieutenant Forbes, 59. + " " described by Du Halde, 60. + " " described by Meadows, 60. + " " treatment of woman, 61. +Christian apologists, their errors, 4. + " " have regarded most religions as human inventions, 4. + " " have considered them as debasing superstitions, 4. +Christianity adapted to the Northern races, 395. + " a pleroma, or fulness of life, 492. + " an inclusive system, not exclusive, 493. + " summary of its relation to other religions, 494. + " a religion of progress, 507. + " a religion of universal unity, 508. + " has the power of continued progress, 29. + " in its various developments,29. + " meets the positive and negative side: + of Brahmanism, 24. + of Buddhism, 25. + of Confucius, 26. + of Zoroaster, 26. + of Egypt, 27. + of Greece, 28. +Cicero, his work "De Natura Deorum," 341. + " on the speech of Caesar, 342. +Circumcision, its origin and extent, 251. +Cleanthes, the Stoic, his hymn, 285. +Comparative Philology, its discoveries, 86. + " Theology either analytical or synthetical, 2. + " " its relation to Comparative Geography, 2. + " " its relation to human progress, 2. + " " must do justice to all religions, 3. + " " is still in its infancy, 3. + " " is a science, 3. + " " will furnish new evidence to the truth of + Christianity, 13. + " " will show Christianity to be a catholic religion, + adapted to all races, 15. + " " will show Christianity to be all-sided, 21. + " " will show Christianity capable of progress, 29. + " " in its probable results, 30. +Confucius, his birth and ancestors, 44, 45. + " his influence, 44, 45. + " events of his life, 45, 46. + " edits the sacred books, or Kings, 47. + " his own writings, 47. + " his Table-Talk, extracts from, 48, 49. + " had a large organ of veneration, 50. + " had great energy and persistency, 51. + " his books distributed by tract societies, 51. + " one thousand six hundred and sixty temples erected to his memory, 51. + " defects in his doctrine, 58. + " his system compared with Christianity, 59. + " good influence of his teachings, 58. +Conversion of the German races to Christianity, 390. +Cudworth and the Platonists have defended the Greek philosophers, 5. + + + +D. + + +David, his life and epoch in human history, 422. + " his great military successes, 422. + " his prudence and sagacity in affairs, 423. + " a man of genius, poet, musician, 425. + " Book of Psalms a record of his life, 425. + " his Psalms often rise to the level of Christianity, 426. +Decay of the Roman religion, 339. +Denmark and Norway converted to Christianity, 392. +Devil, the, in Old and New Testament, 498. +Divination, Cicero speaks concerning, 339-341. +Doctrinal influence of the Egyptian religion on Christianity, 258. +Downfall of German heathenism, 391. +Druids and Scalds, 355. +Duad, the, in all religions, 396. +Dualism or monotheism the doctrine of the Avesta, 203. + " of the Scandinavian system, 384. + " in Christianity, 496. +Duperron, Anquetil, his zeal for science, 178. + " " discovers the Avesta in India, 179 + + + +E. + + +Ecclesiastes, a wonderful description of utter despair, 435. +Eddas, the, chief source of our knowledge of the early Scandinavians, 363. + " elder, or poetic, described, 364. + " its author, Saemund, 364. + " prose, by Snorro Sturteson, 369. + " " its contents, 369. + " " its account of creation, 370. + " " its account of the gods and giants, 371. + " " story of Baldur, 372. + " " adventures of Thor, 374. + " " consummation of all things, 375. +Egyptian chronology, its uncertainty, 231. + " " opinions of Egyptologists concerning, 231, 232. + " " point of contact with that of the Hebrews, 233. +Egyptian civilization, its extent, 209. + " architecture, its characteristics, 209. + " knowledge of arts, 210. + " love for making records, 210. + " mural paintings in tombs, 210. + " sphinxes discovered by Marietta, 210. + " mummies, their anatomy, 237. + " religion, its influence on Judaism, 250 + " " its influence on Christianity, 253. + " " its triads, 254. +Egyptians, ancient, their great interest in religion, 214. + " their gods on the oldest monuments, 215. + " lived in order to worship, 215. + " number of their festivals, 216. + " their priests, 217. + " their doctrine of immortality, 218. + " their ritual of the dead, 219. + " their funeral ceremonies, 220. + " their domestic and social virtues, 221. + " specimen of their hymns, 222, 223. + " mysterious character of their theology, 223. + " sources of our knowledge concerning, 224. + " modern works upon (note), 225. + " their doctrine of transmigration (note), 226. + " their animal worship, 227. + " their tendency to nature-worship, 229. + " their origin, 230-236. +Epictetus, his view of religion, 343. +Epicureans, believed in God, but not in religion, 297. +Essential idea of Brahmanism, 21. + " " of Buddhism, 21. + " " of Confucius, 22. + " " of Zoroaster, 22. + " " of Egypt, 23. + " " of Greece, 24. +Ethnic religions, defined, 15. + " " most religions are such, 15. + " " related to ethnology, 15. + " " limited to races, 17. +Euripides, his tragedy anti-religious, 285. + + + +F. + + +Faunus, an old Italian god, 330. +Fenrir, the wolf, how he was fastened, 382. +Feudal system, its essential character, 391. +Flamens, priests of particular deities, 336. +Fontus, god of fountains, 328. +Frey, and his daughter Freyja, 379. + + + +G. + + +Geiger, Swedish history quoted, 357. +Genius, a Roman god, 329. +German races essentially Protestant, 395. +German tribes converted by Arian missionaries, 506. +Gods of Egypt, the three orders of, 239. + " " " names of the first order, 239. + " " " character of the first order, 240. + " " " significant of the divine unity, 242. + " " " second order of, their human qualities, 243. + " " " third order of, the Osiris group, 242. +Gods of Greece before Homer, 270. + " " " oldest were the Uranids, 270. + " " " second race of, the Titans, 271. + " " " third race of, the Olympians, 271. + " " " the oldest were gods of the elements, 272. + " " " worshipped by the Dorians, were Apollo and Artemis, 274. + " " " local distribution of, 275. + " " " first symbolical, afterward personal, 276. + " " " in Hesiod and Homer, 277. + " " " poetic character of, 279. + " " " in Homer very human beings, 280. + " " " as described by the lyric poets, 283. + " " " as described by the tragedians, 284. + " " " as unfolded by the artists, 286. + " " " as seen in the works of Phidias, 287. + " " " as described by the philosophers, 291. + " " " how related to Christianity, 310. +Gods of the Vedas are the evil spirits of the Avesta, 202. +Greece, its physical geography, 259. + " its mountains, climate, and soil, 260. + " its language akin to Sanskrit, 261. + " its people an Aryan race, 262. + " first inhabited by the Pelasgians, 262. + " afterward received the Dorians, 264. + " influenced powerfully by Egypt, 265. +Greek mysteries, derived from Asia and Egypt, 302. + " " gods of belong to the underworld, 302. + " " alien to the Greek mind, 303. + " " Eleusinian, in honor of Ceres, 305. + " " in honor of Bacchus, derived from India, 305. + " " Orphic, and their doctrines, 306. + " religion, an essentially human religion, 266. + " " its gods, men and women, 267. + " " has no founder or restorer or priesthood, 267. + " " its gods evolved, not emanations, 268. + " " its freedom and hilarity, 269. + " " as viewed by Paul, 308. + " " as regarded by the early Christian fathers, 312. + " " and philosophy, a preparation for Christianity, 313. + " worship, sacrifices, prayers, and festivals, 297. + " " in early times, 298. + " " had numerous festivals, 299. + " " connected with augurs and oracles, 300. +Gylfi, deluding of, in the Edda, 369. + + + +H. + + +Haruspices, derived from Etruria, 338. +Havamal, or proverbs of the Scandinavians, 366. +Heathen religions must contain more truth than error, 6. + " " cannot have been human inventions, 6. + " " must contain some revolution from God, 8. + " " how viewed by Christ and his apostles, 9. + " " how treated by Paul at Athens, 10. + " " how regarded by the early apologists, 12. +Heimdall, warder of the gods, 380. +Herder, his description of David, 425. +Hesiod, his account of the three groups of gods, 270. +Hindoo Epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata, 128. + " " they refer to the time succeeding the Vedic age, 128. + " " composed before the time of Buddhism, 129. +Hindoos, antagonisms of their character, 82. + " acute in speculations, but superstitious, 82. + " unite luxury and asceticism, 82. + " tend to idealism and religious spiritualism, 83. + " their doctrine of Maya, 84. +Hindoo year, calendar of, 132. + " " begins in April, a sacred month, 132. +Holy of Holies, in the Egyptian and Jewish temples, 252. +Homer his description of the gods, 280. +Horace, his view of religion, 346. +Hyksos, constitute the middle monarchy, 232. + " expelled from Egypt after five hundred years, 233. + " Hebrews in Egypt during their ascendency, 234, 235. + " or Shepherd Kings in Egypt, 213. + " a Semitic people from Asia, 232. + " conquered Lower Egypt B.C. 2000, 233. +Hyndla, song of, extracts from, 366. + + + +I. + + +Icelanders converted to Christianity, 394. +Incarnation, the fundamental doctrine of Christianity, 28. +India, always a land of mystery, 81. + " overrun by conquerors, 81. +Infinite and finite elements in Brahmanism and Christianity, 137. +Injustice done to ethnic religions, 4. +Inspiration, its origin in the intuitive faculty, 439. +Isis and Osiris, their legend, from Plutarch, 244. + " " " explanations of their myth, 246. + " " " identified with the first and second order, 248. + + + +J. + + +Janus, one of the oldest of Roman gods, 322. + " presided over beginnings and endings, 322. + " invoked before other gods, 322. + " his temple open in war, closed in peace, 322. + " believed by Creuzer to have an Indian origin, 323. + " has his chief feast in January, 323. + " a Sabine god on Mount Janiculum, 323. +Jews, a Semitic race, 399. +Job, its grandeur of thought and expression, 438. +Jones, Sir William, his life and works, 78. + " progress since his time, 80. +Judaism, a preparation for Christianity, 444. + " monotheistic after the captivity, 444. + " influenced by Greek philosophy, 444. + " its process of development, 445. + " at first childlike and narrow, 446. + " the seed of Christianity, 446. +Juno, queen of heaven, and female Jupiter, 324. + " goddess of womanhood, 324. + " her chief feast the Matronalia in March, 324. + " her month of June favorable for wedlock, 325. +Jupiter, derived his name from the Sanskrit, 324. + " had many temples in Rome, 324. + " god of the weather, of storm, of lightning, 324. + + + +K. + + +"Kings," Chinese, names and number, 47. + " teach a personal God, 57. + " republished by Confucius, 47. + + + +L. + + +Language of Ancient Egypt, 236. +Lao-tse, founder of Tao-ism, 50, 52. + " called a dragon by Confucius, 51. + " three forms of his doctrine, 54. +Lares, gods of home, 328. +Loki, the god of cunning, 381. +Lower Egypt, gods worshipped in, 248. +Lucretius, his view of religion, 343. +Luna, the moon, a Sabine deity, 327. +Lustrations, or great acts of atonement, 338. + + + +M. + + +Magna Mater, a foreign worship at Rome, 330. +Maine, his work on ancient law quoted, 351. +Mann, laws of, when written, 100. + " account of Creation, 101. + " dignity of the Brahmans, 103. + " importance of the Gayatari, 104. + " account of the twice-born man, 105. + " description of ascetic duties, 106. + " the anchorite described, 107. + " duties of the ruler described, 109. + " crimes and penalties described, 110. + " the law of castes described, 110. + " penance and expiation described, 110. + " respect for cows enjoined, 111. + " transmigration and final beatitude, 112. +Maritime character of the Scandinavians, 361. +Mars, originally an agricultural god, 330. +Materialism in Christian doctrines, derived from Egypt, 256. +Mater Matuta, Latin goddess of the dawn (note), 325, 327. +Melchisedek, king of justice and king of peace, 407. +Minerva, her name derived from an Etruscan word, 325. + goddess of mental activity, 325. + one of the three deities of the capitol, 325. +Missionary work of Christianity, why checked, 506. +Moabite inscription in the Hebrew dialect, 400. +Mohammed, recent works concerning, 448. + " lives of, by Muir, Sprenger, Weil, and others, 449. + " essays on his life by Babador, 450. + " prophecies of, in the Old Testament, 451. + " lived a private life for forty years, 454. + " his early religious tendencies, 454. + " his inspirations, 454. + " his biography in the Koran, 455. + " his mother's death, 456. + " his first converts, 457. + " protected by his tribe, 458. + " his temporary relapse, 460. + " and his followers persecuted, 461. + " his first teaching a modified Judaism, 463. + " his departure to Medina with his followers, 464. + " change in his character after the Hegira, 465. + " in his last ten years a political leader, 467. + " Goethe's view of his character, 468. + " his cruel treatment of the Jews, 469. + " his numerous wives, 470. + " his death and character, 471. +Mohammedanism, its special interest, 448. + " its essential doctrine the absolute unity of God, 472. + " its teaching concerning the Bible and Koran, 472. + " does not recognize human brotherhood, 473. + " among the Turks, its character, 473. + " promotes religious feeling, 474. + " inspires courage and resignation, 474. + " in Palestine, described by Miss Rogers, 475. + " in Central Arabia, described by Mr. Palgrave, 478. + " in Central Asia, described by M. Vambery, 477. + " in Persia, described by Count Gobmeau, 477. + " in Egypt, described by Mr. Lane, 477. + " in Turkey, described by Mr. MacFarlane, 478, 484. + " in Northern Africa, described by Barth and Blerzey, 477, + 485. + " its character given by M. Renan, 485. + " its monotheism lower than that of Judaism and Christianity, 481. + " does not convert the Aryan races, 500. + " pure from Polytheism, 502. + " has a tendency to catholicity, 503. + " a relapse to a lower stand point, 483. + " summary of its good and evil influence, 484. +Monotheism (or Dualism), the doctrine of the Avesta, 203. +Montesquieu quoted, 357. +Moses, his historic character, 409. + " described by Strabo (note), 410. + " his natural genius and temperament, 411. + " his seventy and tenderness, 412. + " his sense of justice embodied in law, 412. + " his object to teach the holiness of God, 413. + " defects of his character, 413. + " character of his monotheism, 414. + " his monotheism described by Stanley (note), 414. + " his anthropomorphic view of God, 415. + " his acquaintance with Egyptian learning, 416. + " nature of his inspiration, 417. + " political freedom secured to the Jews by his law, 418. + " object of his ceremonial law, 420. +Mythology of Scandinavia and that of Zoroaster compared, 384. + + + +N. + + +Names of our week-days Scandinavian, 358. +Neptunus, origin of the name, 328. +Nestorian inscription in China, 71-78. +Njord, ruler of the winds, 378. +Northern and Southern Europe compared, 359. +Northmen in France, Spain, Italy, and Greece, 389. +Number of Christians in the world, 146. + " of Buddhists in the world, 146. + " of Jews in the world, 146. + " of Mohammedans in the world, 146. + " of Brahmans, 146. +Nyaya, system of philosophy, assumes three principles, 122. + " system of philosophy, described by Banerjea, 123. + + + +O. + + +Odin, or All-father, eldest of the AEsir, 377. + " corresponds to Ormazd, 385. + " his festival in the spring, 386. +Opa, goddess of the harvest, 330. + + + +P. + + +Pales, a rural god, 330. +Palestine, or the land of the Philistines, 397. + " resembles Greece and Switzerland, 397. + " its mountainous character, 397. + " a small country, 398. + " its mountains and valleys, 399. +Palgrave, note giving an extract from his book, 486. +Papacy, mediaeval, good done by it, 350. + " a reproduction of the Roman state religion, 350. +Parsi religion, its influence on Judaism, 205. + " " its influence on Christianity, 204. + " " teaches a kingdom of heaven, 207. + " " still continues in Persia and India, 208. +Parthenon, the, temple of Minerva, described, 290. +Penates, gods of home, 328. +Persepolis, ruins of the palace of Xerxes at, 170. + " inscriptions of Darius and Xerxes at, 170. + " tombs of the kings of Persia at, 174. +Pharisees, Sadducets, and Essenei, 444. +Phidias, his statue of Jupiter described, 288. +Philistines, probably Pelasgi from Crete, 421. +Philosophy, early Greek, 291. + " Greek, in Asia Minor, 291. + " in Italy, 292. +Phoenicians, their language a form of Hebrew, 400. +Plato harmonizes realism and idealism, 293. + " his philosophy completes that of Socrates, 294. + " his method that of transcendentalism, 294. + " his idea of God pure and high, 295. + " Christian element in, 295. +Pliny, the elder, his view of religion, 345. +Present work, an essay, or attempt, 1. + " " companson of religions its object, 1. +Prophecy, a modification of inspiration, 438. +Prophets of the Old Testament, men of action, 440. + " politicians and constitutional lawyers, 440. + " preferred the moral law to ceremonial, 441. + " described by Dean Stanley, 441. + " their inspiration came through a common human faculty, 442. + " their predictions not always realized, 443. + " their foresight of Christianity, 443. + " developed Judaism to its highest point, 443. +Proverbs, Book of, in the Edda, 365. +Pontiffs, their authority, 336. +Positivism, its law of progress examined, 489. +Puranas, the, much read by the common people, 130. + " devoted to the worship of Vischnu, 131. + " extol the power of penances, 132. + " ideas those of the epics, 132. + " their philosophy that of the Sunkhya, 132. + + + +R. + + +Ramses II. a powerful king B.C. 1400, 233. + " supposed to be the same as Sesostris, 234. + " birth of Moses during his reign, 335. +Recognition of God in nature, best element of Egyptian religion, 257. +Relation of the religion of the Avesta to the Vedas, 201. +Results of the survey of ten religions, 489. + " in regard to their resemblance and difference, 490. +Resemblance of the Roman Catholic ceremonies to those of Pagan Rome, 350. +Roman calendar, described, 332. +Roman Catholic Church, teaches an exclusive spiritualism, 143. + " " " is eminently a sacrificial system, 143. + " " " its monastic system an included Protestantism, 145. +Roman deities adopted from Greece, 326. + " " manufactured by the pontiffs, 326. + " " representing the powers of nature, 327. + " " representing human relations, 328. + " " presiding over rural occupations, 330. + " " derived from the Etruscans, 327. + " empire gave to Christianity its outward form (note), 350. + " " united the several states of Europe, 350. + " law, its influence on Western theology, 351. + " legal notions transferred to theology, 352. + " mind, wanting in spontaneity, 316. + " " serious, practical, hard, 316. + " religion, an established church, 317. + " " regarded chiefly external conduct, 317. + " " tolerant of questions of opinion, 317. + " " not a mere copy from Greece, 318. + " " described by Hegel, 318. + " " described by Cicero, 317-319. + " " described by Mommsen, 319. + " " a polytheism, with monotheism behind it, 320. + " " deified all events, 321. +Romans, as a race, whence derived, 319. + " " belong to the Aryan family, 319. + " " composed of Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans, 320. + " " related to the Pelasgi and Celts, 320. + " their oldest deities, Latin, Sabine, and Etruscan, 320. +Roman sepulchral monuments, their tone, 346. +Roman thought and Roman religion opposed, 342. +Roman worship, very elaborate and minute, 331. + " " full of festivals, 331. + " " distinguished between things sacred and profane, 331. + " " a yoke on the public life of the Romans, 334. + " " directed by the College of Pontiffs, 334. + " " chief seat in the Via Sacra, 335. + " " governed by etiquette, 335. + " " originally free from idolatry, 336. + " " acted like a charm, 340. +Rome, ancient, its legacy to Christianity, 353. +Runes, Odin's song of, in the Edda, 368. + + + +S. + + +Salii, ancient priests of Mars, 336. +Sankhya philosophy, 114. + " founded on two principles, 120. + " considered atheistic, 120. + " the basis of Buddhism, 121. + " a very ancient system, 122. +Saturnus, Saturn, god of planting, 330. +Scandinavia, consisting of what regions, 358. + " surrounded by the sea, 358. + " its adaptation to the Teutonic race, 359. + " formerly inhabited by the Cimbri, 360. + " the home of the Northmen, 361. +Scandinavian religion, a system of dualism, 362. + " " war its essential idea, 362. + " " its virtues, truth, justice, courage, 362. +Scandinavians, their early history, 355. + " described by Caesar, 355. + " described by Tacitus, 356. + " a branch of the great German family, 357. + " their language, the Norse and its derivatives, 357. + " our inheritance from, 358. + " their manners and institutious, 387. + " their respect for women, 388. + " their Scalds, or bards, 388. + " their maritime expeditions, 389. +Sea-Kings of Norway, their discoveries, 361. +Seat of the Scandinavian race, 355. +Secrecy, the evil in Egyptian religion, 257. +Semitic races, their character and exploits, 399. + " " great navigators and discoverers, 399. + " " identity of their languages, 400. + " " nations of which they consist, 399. + " " their religion and gods, 401. + " " their tendency to monotheism, 402. +Seneca, his view of religion, 343, 344. +Serapis, the same as Osiris-Apis, 257. +Sibylline books, derived from Greece, 336. +Siculi, supposed to be Kelte (note), 320. +Silvanus, god of the woods, 330. +Siva, does not appear in the Vedas, 125. + " worshipped with Brahma and Vischnu at the present time, 127. + " worshipped in the Puranas, 132. + " girls worship him with flowers, 132. + " his wife Doorga, festival of, 134. + " men swing on hooks in honor of, 135. +Solomon, and the relapse of Judaism, 428. + " a less interesting character than David, 429. + " his unscrupulous policy, 429. + " the splendor and power of his reign, 430. + " his alliances with Egypt, Phoenicia, and Arabia, 341. + " his temple described, 432. + " his Book of Proverbs and its character, 433. + " account of his last days, 434. + " his scepticism described in Ecclesiastes, 435. +Socrates, his character and work, 293. +Sol, the sun, a Sabine deity, 327. +Soma plant of the Veda, the Haoma, 202. +Sophocles, the most devout of the Greek tragedians, 284. +Spiritualism, in Brahmanism and Christianity, 136. +Stoics, as described by Zeller, 296. + + + +T. + + +Tacitus, the spirit of his writings, 346. +Tae-Ping (or Ti-Ping) insurrection, its origin, 62. + " " its leader the heavenly prince, 62. + " " essentially a religious movement, 64. + " " based on the Bible, 65. +Tae-Pings (or Ti-Pings), their prayers, 65. + " their public religious exercises, 66. + " their moral reforms, 68. + " put down by British intervention, 68. + " worshipped one God, and believed in Jesus, 69. +Talmud, the, extracts from, 445. +Tao-te-king, its doctrines described, 54. + " resembles the system of Hegel, 54. + " its doctrine of opposites, 55. + " its resemblance to Buddhism, 55. + " its tendency to magic, 56. +Tellus, the earth, a Roman god, 330. +Tempestates, the tempests, worshipped at Rome, 327. +Terminus, an old Italian god, 330. +Three classes of Roman gods, 325. +Tiberinus, or father Tiber, a Roman god, 328. +Things, or popular assemblies of the Scandinavians, 358. +Thor, his character and prowess, 377. + " his famous mallet, 378. + " his journey to Jotunheim, 374. + " his fight with the Midgard serpent, 376. +Triad, the Hindoo, its origin, 124. + " compared with other Triads, 124. +Trinity, Christian, derived from Egypt, 255. +Trinity the, its meaning in Christianity, 500. +Truths and errors of the different systems, 21. +Tyr, the Scandinavian war god, 379. + " how he lost his hand, 380, 383. + + + +U. + + +Ulphilas, the Arian, first Christian teacher of the Germans, 390. + " his translation of the Bible into Gothic tongue, 390. + + + +V. + + +Vedanta philosophy assumes a single principle, 116. + " " knows no substance but God, 119. + " " described by Chunder Dutt, 118. + " " souls absorbed in God, 119. +Vedas, the, when written, 89-99. + " their chief gods, 89-99. + " traces of monotheism in, 90. + " some hymns given, 91, 92, 93, 95. +Vedic literature, divided into four periods, 95. + " " contains Chhandas, Mantras, Brahmans, Upanishads, Sutras, + and Vedangas, 96. + " " at first not committed to writing, 97. +Venus, an early Latin or gabine goddess, 325. +Vertumnus, god of gardens, 330. +Vesta, goddess of the hearth, 328. +Vestal Virgins, their duties, 337. +Vischnu, mentioned in the Rig-Veda as Sun-God, 125. + " his Avatars, 126. + " one of the Triad, 126. + " incarnate as Juggernaut, 133. + " worshipped as Krishna, 134, 135. + " worshipped in the Puranas, 132. +Voeluspa, or wisdom of Vala, extracts from, 364. +Vulcanus, an Italian deity, 328. + + + +W. + + +Wahhabee, revival in Arabia, described by Palgrave, 478. +Wedding ring, in Egypt and Christendom, 253. +Welcker, his opinion of the substance of Greek religion, 286. +Works on Scandinavian religion (note), 362. +Worship of the Scandinavians, 385. + + + +Z. + + +Zend Avesta, a collection of hymns, prayers, and thanksgivings, 187. + " " extracts from the Gathas, 188. + " " extract from the Khordah Avesta, 189. + " " hymn to the star Tistrya, 190. + " " hymn to Mithra, 190. + " " a confession of sin, 191. +Zoroaster, mentioned by Plato, Diodorus, and other classic writers, 175. + " account of him by Herodotus, 175. + " account of him by Plutarch, 176. + " inquiry as to his epoch, 180. + " resided in Bactria, 181. + " spirit of his religion, 182. + " he continually appears in the Avesta, 186. + " oppressed with the sight of evil, 184. + + + +The End. + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] It is one of the sagacious remarks of Goethe, that "the eighteenth +century tended to analysis, but the nineteenth will deal with synthesis." + +[2] Professor Cocker's work on "Christianity and Creek Philosophy," should +also be mentioned. + +[3] James Foster has a sermon on "The Advantages of a Revelation," in +which he declares that, at the time of Christ's coming, "just notions of +God were, in general, erased from the minds of men. His worship was +debased and polluted, and scarce any traces could be discerned of the +genuine and immutable religion of nature." + +[4] John Locke, in his "Reasonableness of Christianity," says that when +Christ came "men had given themselves up into the hands of their priests, +to fill their heads with false notions of the Deity, and their worship +with foolish rites, as they pleased; and what dread or craft once began, +devotion soon made sacred, and religion immutable." "In this state of +darkness and ignorance of the true God, vice and superstition held the +world." Quotations of this sort might be indefinitely multiplied. See an +article by the present writer, in the "Christian Examiner," March, 1857. + +[5] Mosheim's Church History, Vol. I. Chap. I. + +[6] Neander, Church History, Vol. I. p. 540 (Am. ed.). + +[7] Essays and Reviews, Article VI. + +[8] In this respect the type has changed. + +[9] The actual depth reached in the St. Louis well, before the enterprise +was abandoned, was 3,8431/2 feet on August 9, 1869. This well was bored +for the use of the St. Louis County Insane Asylum, at the public expense. +It was commenced March 31, 1866, under the direction of Mr. Charles H. +Atkeson. At the depth of 1,222 feet the water became saltish, then +sulphury. The temperature of the water, at the bottom of the well, was +105 deg.F. Toward the end of the work it seemed as if the limit of the +strength of wood and iron had been reached. The poles often broke at +points two or three thousand feet down. "Annual Report (1870) of the +Superintendent of the St. Louis County Insane Asylum." + +[10] Andrew Wilson ("The Ever-Victorious Army, Blackwood, 1868") says that +"the Chinese people stand unsurpassed, and probably unequalled, in regard +to the possession of freedom and self-government." He denies that +infanticide is common in China. "Indeed," says he, "there is nothing a +Chinaman dreads so much as to die childless. Every Chinaman desires to +have as large a family as possible; and the labors of female children are +very profitable." + +[11] Quoted by Mr. Meadows, who warrants the correctness of the account. +"The Chinese and their Rebellions," p. 404. + +[12] Dr. Legge thus arranges the Sacred Books of China, or the Chinese +Classics:-- + + A. The Five _King_. [_King_ means a web of cloth, or the warp which + keeps the threads in their place.] + + (a) _Yih-King_. (Changes.) + (b) _Shoo-King_. (History.) + (c) _She-King_. (Odes.) + (d) _Le-Ke-King_. (Rites.) + (e) _Ch'un-Ts'eu_. (Spring and Autumn. Annals from B.C. 721 to 480.) + + B. The Four Books. + + (a) _Lun-Yu_. (Analects, or Table-Talk of Confucius.) + (b) _Ta-Hio_. (Great Learning. Written by _Tsang-Sin_, a disciple + of Confucius.) + (c) _Chung-Yung_ (or Doctrine of the Mean), ascribed to _Kung-Keih_, + the grandson of Confucius. + (d) Works of _Mencius_. + +After the death of Confucius there was a period in which the Sacred Books +were much corrupted, down to the _Han_ dynasty (B.C. 201 to A.D. 24), +which collected, edited, and revised them: since which time they have been +watched with the greatest care. + +"The evidence is complete that the Classical Books of China have come down +from at least a century before our era, substantially the same as we have +them at present."--_Legge_, Vol. I. Chap. 1. Sec. 2. + +The Four Books have been translated into French, German, and English. Dr. +Marshman translated the Lun-Yu. Mr. Collie afterward published at Calcutta +the Four Books. But within a few years the labors of previous sinologues +have been almost superseded by Dr. Legge's splendid work, still in process +of publication. We have, as yet, only the volumes containing the Four +Books of Confucius and his successors, and a portion of the Kings. Dr. +Legge's work is in Chinese and English, with copious notes and extracts +from many Chinese commentators. In his notes, and his preliminary +dissertations, he endeavors to do justice to Confucius and his doctrines. +Perhaps he does not fully succeed in this, but it is evident that he +respects the Chinese sage, and is never willingly unfair to him. If to the +books above mentioned be added the works, of Pauthier, Stanislas Julien, +Mohl, and other French sinologues, and the German works on the same +subject we have a sufficient apparatus for the study of Chinese thought. + +[13] "On the top of his head was a remarkable formation, in consequence of +which he was named Kew."--Legge, Vol. I. Chap. VI. (note). + +[14] Meadows, "The Chinese and their Rebellions," p. 332. + +[15] Meadows, p. 342. + +[16] "Le Tao-te-king, le livre de la voie et de la vertu, compose dans, la +vie siecle avant l'ere Chretienne, par le philosophe Lao-tseu, traduit par +Stanislas Julien. Paris, 1842." + +[17] "Le livre des Recompenses et des Peines. Julien, 1835." + +[18] "Seyn and Nichte ist Dasselbe." Hegel. + +[19] "The meek shall inherit the earth." + +[20] See "La Magie et l'Astrologie, par Alfred Maury." + +[21] Was it some pale reflection of this Oriental philosophy which took +form in the ode of Horace, "Integer vitae" (i. 22), in which he describes +the portentous wolf which fled from him? + +[22] Meadows, p. 28. + +[23] Meadows, p. 18. + +[24] Ti-Ping Tien-Kwoh; The History of the Ti-Ping Revolution, by Lin-Le, +special agent of the Ti-Ping General-in-Chief, &c. Davy and Son, London, +1866. Vol. 1. p. 806. + +Mr. Andrew Wilson, author of "The Ever-Victorious Army" (Blackwood, 1868), +speaks with much contempt of Lin-Le's book. In a note (page 389) he +brings, certain charges against the author. Mr. Wilson's book is written to +glorify Gordon, Wood, and others, who accepted roving commissions against +the Ti-Pings; and of course he takes their view of the insurrection. The +accusations he brings against Lin-Le, even if correct, do not detract from +the apparent accuracy of that writer's story, nor from the weight of his +arguments. + +[25] Ibid., Vol. I. p. 315. These forms are given, says the writer, partly +from memory. + +[26] Hong-Kong Gazette, October 12, 1855. + +[27] Intervention and Non-Intervention, by A. G. Stapleton. + +[28] Official Papers of the Chinese Legation. Berlin: T. Calvary & Co., +Oberwasser Square. 1870. + +[29] From Hue's "Christianity in China." + +[30] Now usually written Sakoontala or Sakuntala. + +[31] To avoid multiplying footnotes, we refer here to the chief sources on +which we rely in this chapter. _C. Lassen_, Indische Altherthumskunde; +_Max Mueller_, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (and other works); +_J. Muir_, Sanskrit Texts; _Pictet_, Les Origines Indo-Europeennes; _Sir +William Jones_, Works, 13 vols.; _Vivian de Saint-Martin,_ Etude, &c., and +articles in the Revue Germanique; _Monier Williams_, Sakoontala (a new +translation), the Ramayana, and the Maha Bharata; _Horace Hayman Wilson_, +Works (containing the Vischnu Purana, &c.); _Burnouf_, Essai sur la Veda, +Le Bhagavata Purana; _Stephenson_, the Sanhita of the Sama Veda; _Ampere_, +La Science en Orient; _Bunsen_, Gott in der Geschichte; _Shea_ and +_Troyer_, The Dabistan; _Hardwick_, Christ and other Masters; _J. Talboys +Wheeler_, History of India from the Earliest Times; Works published by the +Oriental Translation Fund; _Max Duncker_, Die Geschichte der Arier; +_Rammohun Roy_, The Veds; _Mullens,_ Hindoo Philosophy. + +[32] "The soul knows no persons."--EMERSON. + +[33] All Indian dates older than 300 B.C. are uncertain. The reasons for +this one are given carefully and in full by Pictet. + +[34] Our English word _daughter_, together with the Greek [Greek: +thygater], the Zend _dughdar_, the Persian _docktar_, &c., corresponds +with the Sanskrit _duhitar_, which means both daughter and milkmaid. + +[35] _Hatchet_, in Sanskrit _takshani_, in Zend _tasha_, in Persian +_tosh_, Greek [Greek: tochos], Irish _tuagh_, Old German _deksa_, +Polish _tasalc_, Russian _tesaku._ And what is remarkable, the root _tak_ +appears in the name of the hatchet in the languages of the South Sea +Islanders and the North American Indians. + +[36] M. Vivien de Saint-Martin has determined more precisely than has been +done before the primitive country of the Aryans, and the route followed by +them in penetrating into India. They descended through Cabul to the +Punjaub, having previously reached Cabul from the region between the +Jaxartes and the Oxus. + +[37] The Rig-Veda distinguishes the Aryans from the Dasjus. Mr. Muir +quotes a multitude of texts in which Indra is called upon to protect the +former and slay the latter. + +[38] Agni, whence Ignis, in Latin. + +[39] See Talboys Wheeler, "History of India." + +[40] Mueller's Ancient Sanskrit Literature, page 569. He adds the following +remarks: "There is nothing to prove that this hymn is of a particularly +ancient date. On the contrary, there are expressions in it which seem to +belong to a later age. But even if we assign the lowest possible date to +this and similar hymns certain it is that they existed during the Mantra +period, and before the composition of the Brahmanas. For, to spite of all +the indications of a modern date, I see no possibility how we could +account for the allusions to it which occur in the Brahmanas, or for its +presence in the Sanhitas, unless we admit that this poem formed part of +the final collection of the Rig-veda-Sanhita, the work of the Mantra +period." + +[41] Max Mueller translates "breathed, breathless by itself; other than it +nothing since has been." + +[42] Max Mueller says, "Love fell upon it." + +[43] Mueller, Sanskrit Lit., p. 546. + +[44] Mueller, Sanskrit Lit., p. 552. + +[45] Ibid., p. 553. + +[46] That heat was "a form of motion" was thus early discovered. + +[47] It is the opinion of Maine ("Ancient Law") and other eminent +scholars, that this code was never fully accepted or enforced in India, +and remained always an ideal of the perfect Brahmanic state. + +[48] See Vivien de Saint-Martin, Revue Germanique, July 16, 1862. The +Sarasvati is highly praised in the Rig-Veda. Talboys Wheeler, II. 429. + +[49] Max Mueller, Sanskrit Lit., p. 425. + +[50] Institutes of Hindu Law, or the Ordinances of Manu, according to the +Gloss of Calluca, Calcutta, 1796, Sec.Sec. 5, 6, 7, 8. + +[51] See translation of the Sanhita of the Sama-Veda, by the Rev. J. +Stevenson. London, 1842. + +[52] Max Mueller, "Chips," Vol. I. p. 107. + +[53] Geschichte der Arier, Buch V. Sec. 8. + +[54] Lassen, I. 830. + +[55] Laws of Manu (XII. 50) speaks of "the two principles of nature in the +philosophy of Kapila." + +[56] Duncker, as above. + +[57] Mueller, Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 102. + +[58] Colebrooke, Miscellaneous Essays, I. 349. + +[59] Lassen, I. 834. + +[60] Colebrooke, I. 350, 352. + +[61] Duncker, I. 204 (third edition, 1867). + +[62] The Sankhya-Karika, translated by Colebrooke. Oxford, 1837. + +[63] Essay on the Vedanta, by Chunder Dutt. Calcutta, 1854. + +[64] Colebrooke, I. 262. + +[65] The Religious Aspects of Hindu Philosophy: A Prize Essay, by Joseph +Mullens, p. 43. London, 1860. See also Dialogues on the Hindu Philosophy, +by Rev. K. M. Banerjea. London, 1861. + +[66] Mullens, p. 44. + +[67] Duncker, I. 205. He refers to Manu, II. 160. + +[68] The Bhagavat-Gita, an episode in the Maha-Bharata, in an authority +with the Vedantists. + +[69] Burnouf, Introduction a l'Histoire du Buddhisme Indien, I. 511, 520. +He says that Sukya-Muni began his career with the ideas of the Sankhya +philosophy, namely, absence of God; multiplicity and eternity of human +souls; an eternal plastic nature; transmigration; and Nirvana, or +deliverance by knowledge. + +[70] Cours de l'Histoire de Philosophie, I. 200 (Paris, 1829); quoted by +Hardwick, I. 211. + +[71] Karika, 8. "It is owing to the subtilty of Nature ... that it is not +apprehended by the senses." + +[72] Karika, 19. + +[73] Karika, 58, 62, 63, 68. + +[74] Quoted from the Lalita Vistara in Dialogues on the Hindu Philosophy. +By Rev. R. M. Banerjea. London: Williams and Nordgate, 1861. + +[75] Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV. p. 253. + +[76] Journal Am. Orient. Soc., III. 318. + +[77] Even in the grammatical forms of the Sanskrit verb, this threefold +tendency of thought is indicated. It has an active, passive, and middle +voice (like that of the cognate Greek), and the reflex action of its +middle voice corresponds to the Restorer or Preserver. + +[78] See Colebrooke, Lassen, &c. + +[79] Lassen, I. 838; II. 446. + +[80] See Muir, Sanskrit Texts, Part IV. p. 136. + +[81] Lassen, Ind. Alterthum, I. 357. + +[82] Max Mueller, Sanskrit Lit., 37. + +[83] Ibid., p. 46. + +[84] Ind. Alterthum, I. 483-499. Mueller, Sanskrit Lit., 62, _note_. + +[85] As of the Atheist in the Ramayana, Javali, who advises Rama to +disobey his dead father's commands, on the ground that the dead are +nothing. + +[86] Preface to the Vischnu Purana, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson. +London, 1864. + +[87] Duncker, Geschichte, &c., II. 318. + +[88] Preface to his English translation of the Vischnu Purana. + +[89] Translated by E. Burnouf into French. + +[90] The Ramayana, &c., by Monier Williams Baden Professor of Sanskrit at +Oxford. + +[91] Preface to the translation of the Vischnu Purana, by H. H. Wilson. + +[92] Kesson, "The Cross and the Dragon" (London, 1854), quoted by +Hardwick. + +[93] See Note to Chap. II. on the Nestorian inscription in China. + +[94] Illustrated Handbook of Architecture, p. 67. + +[95] Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 224. Fergusson, p. 9. + +[96] Fergusson, p. 10. Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes of India. + +[97] Upham, Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon. + +[98] Here are a few of the guesses:-- + + Cunningham, _Bhilsa Topes_. + Christians 270 millions. + Buddhist 222 " + + Hassel, _Penny Cyclopaedia_. + Christians 120 millions. + Jews 4 " + Mohammedans 252 " + Brahmans 111 " + Buddhists 315 " + + Johnston, _Physical Atlas_. + Christians 301 millions. + Jews 5 " + Brahmans 133 " + Mohammedans 110 " + Buddhists 245 " + + Perkins, _Johnson's American Atlas_. + Christians 369 millions. + Mohammedans 160 " + Jews 6 " + Buddhists 320 " + + _New American Cyclopaedia_. + Buddhists 290 millions. + +And Professor Newmann estimates the number of Buddhists at 369 millions. + +[99] Le Bouddha et sa Religion. Par J. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire.--Eastern +Monachism. By Spence Hardy.--Burnouf, Introduction, etc.--Koeppen, Die +Religion des Buddha. + +[100] The works from which this chapter has been mostly drawn are +these:--Introduction a l'Histoire du Buddhisme indien. Par E. Burnouf. +(Paris, 1844) Le Bouddha et sa Religion. Par J. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire. +(Paris, 1860.) Eastern Monachism. By R. Spence Hardy. (London, 1850.) A +Manual of Buddhism in its Modern Development. By R. Spence Hardy. (London, +1853.) Die Religion des Buddha. Von Karl F. Koeppen. (Berlin, 1857.) +Indische Alterthumskunde. Von Christian Lassen. (Bonn, 1852.) Der +Buddhismus, Seine Dogmen, Geschichte, und Literatur. Von W. Wassiljew. +(St. Petersburg, 1860.) Ueber Buddha's Todesjahr. Von N. L. Westergaard. +(Breslau, 1862.) Gott in der Geschichte. Von C. C. J. Bunsen. (Leipzig, +1858.) The Bhilsa Topes, or Buddhist Monuments of Central India. By A. +Cunningham. (London, 1854.) Buddhism in Thibet. By Emil Schlagintweit. +(Leipzig and London, 1863.) Travels in Eastern countries by Hue and Gabet, +and others. Eeferences to Buddhism in the writings of Max Mueller, Maurice, +Baur, Hardwick, Fergusson, Pritchard, Wilson, Colebrooke, etc. + +[101] At the end of the fourth century of our era a Chinese Buddhist made +a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Buddha, and found the city in ruins. +Another Chinese pilgrim visited it A.D. 632, and was able to trace the +remains of the ruined palace, and saw a room which had been occupied by +Buddha. These travels have been translated from the Chinese by M. +Stanislas Julien. + +[102] _Buddha_ is not a proper name, but an official title. Just as we +ought not to say Jesus Christ, but always Jesus _the_ Christ, so we should +say _Siddartha_ the Buddha, or _Sakya-muni_ the Buddha, or _Gautama_ the +Buddha. The first of these names, Siddartha (contracted from +_Sarvartha-siddha_) was the baptismal name given by his father, and means +"The fulfilment of every wish." Sakya-muni means "The hermit of the race +of Sakya,"--Sakya being the ancestral name of his father's race. The name +_Gautama_ is stated by Koeppen to be "der priesterliche Beiname des +Geschlechts der Sakya,"--whatever that may mean. + +[103] The Sanskrit root, whence the English "bode" and "forebode," means +"to know." + +[104] Saint-Hilaire. + +[105] Bhilsa Topes. + +[106] Goethe, Faust. + +[107] Die Persischen Keilinscriften (Leipzig, 1847.) See also the account +of the inscription at Behistun, in Lenormant's "Manual of Ancient +History." + +[108] Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies.--Duncker, Geschichte des +Alterthums, B. II.--Heeren, The Persians.--Fergusson, Illustrated +Hand-Book of Architecture.--Creuzer, Schriften. See also the works of +Oppert, Hinks, Menant, and Lassen. + +[109] Vendidad, Fargard, XIX.--XLVI. Spiegel, translated into English by +Bleek. + +[110] Herodotus, I. 131. + +[111] Herodotus, in various parts of his history. + +[112] "Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. +London. Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship in Pater-noster Eow. 1718." +This passage concerning Zoroaster is from the "Isis and Osiris" in Vol. +IV. of this old translation. We have retained the antique terminology and +spelling. (See also the new American edition of this translation. Boston, +Little and Brown, 1871.) + +[113] This is the Haoma spoken of on page 202. + +[114] These, with Ormazd, are the seven Amshaspands enumerated on page +197. + +[115] See the account, on page 195, of these four periods of three +thousand years each. + +[116] Kleuker (Anhang zum Zend Avesta) has given a full _resume_ of the +references to Zoroaster and his religion in the Greek and Roman writers. +More recently, Professor Bapp of Tubingen has gone over the same ground in +a very instructive essay in the Zeitschrift der Deutsohen Morgenlandisshen +Gesellschaft. (Leipzig, 1865.) + +[117] Anq. du Perron, Zend Avesta; Disc. Prelim., p. vi. + +[118] At the time Anquetil du Perron was thus laboring in the cause of +science in India, two other men were in the same region devoting +themselves with equal ardor to very different objects. Clive was laying +the foundations of the British dominion in India; Schwartz was giving +himself up to a life of toil in preaching the Gospel to the Hindoos. How +little would these three men have sympathized with each other, or +appreciated each other's work! And yet how important to the progress of +humanity was that of each! + +[119] And with this conclusion the later scholars agree. Burnouf, Lassen, +Spiegel, Westergaard, Haug, Bunsen, Max Mueller, Roth, all accept the Zend +Avesta as containing in the main, if not the actual words of Zoroaster, +yet authentic reminiscences of his teaching. The Gathas of the Yacna are +now considered to be the oldest part of the Avesta, as appears from the +investigations of Haug and others. (See Dr. Martin Haug's translation and +commentary of the Five Gathas of Zarathustra. Leipzig, 1860.) + +[120] Even good scholars often follow each other in a false direction for +want of a little independent thinking. The Greek of Plato was translated +by a long succession of writers, "Zoroaster the _son_ of Oromazes," until +some one happened to think that this genitive might imply a different +relation. + +[121] Duncker (Gesch. des Alterthums, B. II.) gives at length the reasons +which prove Zoroaster and the Avesta to have originated in Bactria. + +[122] Duncker (B. II. s. 483). So Doellinger. + +[123] Egypt's Place in Universal History, Vol. III. p. 471. + +[124] Eran, das Land zwischen dem Indus und Tigris. + +[125] Journal of the Am. Or. Soc., Vol. V. No. 2, p. 353. + +[126] The Gentile and Jew, Vol. I. p. 380. + +[127] Five Great Monarchies, Vol. III. p. 94. + +[128] Essays, &c., by Martin Haug, p. 255. + +[129] Die Religion und Sitte der Perser. Von Dr. Adolf Rapp. (1865.) + +[130] Bunsen, Egypt, Vol. III. p. 455. + +[131] Written in the thirteenth century after Christ. An English +translation may be found in Dr. J. Wilson's "Parsi Religion." + +[132] Chips, Vol. I. p. 88. + +[133] So Mr. Emerson, in one of those observations which give us a system +of philosophy in a sentence, says, "The soul knows no persons." Perhaps he +should have said, "The Spirit." + +[134] Islam is, in this sense, a moral religion, its root consisting in +obedience to Allah and his prophet. Sufism, a Mohammedan mysticism, is a +heresy. + +[135] Vendidad, Farg. I. 3. "Therefore Angra-Mainyus, the death-dealing, +created a mighty serpent and snow." The _serpent_ entering into the Iranic +Eden is one of the curious coincidences of the Iranic and Hebrew +traditions. + +[136] Lyell, Principles of Geology (eighth edition), p. 77. + +[137] Idem., p. 83. A similar change from a temperate climate to extreme +cold has taken place in Greenland within five or six centuries. + +[138] The Daevas, or evil spirits of the Zend books, are the same as the +Devas, or Gods of the Sanskrit religion. + +[139] The Patets are formularies of confession. They are written in Parsi, +with occasional passages inserted in Zend. + +[140] Zoroast. Stud. 1863. + +[141] Vendidad, Fargard XIX. 33, 44, 55. + +[142] The Albordj of the Zend books is doubtless the modern range of the +Elbrooz. This mighty chain comes from the Caucasus into the northern +frontier of Persia. See a description of this region in "Histoire des +Perses, par le Comte de Gobineau. Paris, 1869." + +[143] See Burnouf, Comment, sur le Yacna, p. 528. Flotard, La Religion +primitive des Indo-Europeens. 1864. + +[144] Vendidad, Fargard X. 17. + +[145] See Spiegel's note to the tenth Fargard of the Vendidad. + +[146] See Windischmann, "Ueber den Soma-Cultus der Arien." + +[147] Perhaps one of the most widely diffused appellations is that of the +divine being. We can trace this very word _divine_ back to the ancient +root _Div_, meaning to shine. From this is derived the Sanskrit Devas, the +Zend Daeva. the Latin Deus, the German Zio, the Greek Zeus, and also +Jupiter (from Djaus-piter). See Spiegel, Zend Avesta, Einleitung, Cap. I. + +[148] Spiegel, Vend. Farg. XIX. note. + +[149] Vendidad, Farg. XVIII. 110. Farvardin-Yasht, XVI. + +[150] Article in Revue des Deux Mondes, April, 1865. + +[151] Article in Revue des Deux Mondes, April, 1865. + +[152] Other Egyptologists would not agree to this antiquity. + +[153] Revue des Deux Mondes, September 1, 1887. + +[154] Revue des Deux Mondes, p. 195. + +[155] Yet this very organic religion, "incorporate in blood and frame," +was a preparation for Christianity; and Dr. Brugsch (Aus dem Orient, p. +73) remarks, that "exactly in Egypt did Christianity find most martyrs; +and it is no accident, but a part of the Divine plan, that in the very +region where the rock-cut temples and tombs are covered with memorials of +the ancient gods and kings, there, by their side, other numerous rock-cut +inscriptions tell of a yet more profound faith and devotion born of +Christianity." + +[156] It is yet marked in the almanacs as Candlemas Day, or the +Purification of the Virgin Mary. + +[157] De Rouge, Revue Archeologique, 1853. + +[158] Ampere, Revue Arch. 1849, quoted by Doellinger. + +[159] These designations are the Greek form of the official titles. + +[160] I do not know if it has been noticed that the principle of +Swedenborg's. heaven was anticipated by Milton (Paradise Lost, V. 573),-- + + "What surmounts the reach + Of human sense I shall delineate so + By likening spiritual to corporeal forms, + As may express them best; _though what if Earth + Be but the shadow of Heaven, and things therein. + Each to the other like, more than on earth is thought_." + + + +[161] Bunsen, Egypt's Place, Vol. V. p. 129, _note_. + +[162] This Museum also contains three large mummies of the sacred bull of +Apis, a gold ring of Suphis, a gold necklace with the name of Menes, and +many other remarkable antiquities. + +[163] Book of Job, Chap. xxix. + +[164] Brugsch, as above. + +[165] Lenormant, Ancient History of the East, I. 234, in the English +translation. + +[166] Translated by De Rouge. See Revue Contemporaine, August, 1856. + +[167] Egypt 3300 Years ago. By Lanoye. + +[168] Beside the monuments and the papyri, we have as sources of +information the remains of the Egyptian historians Manetho and +Eratosthenes; the Greek accounts of Egypt by Herodotus, Plato, Diodorus +Siculus, Plutarch, Jamblichus; and the modern researches of Heeren, +Champollion, Rossalini, Young, Wilkinson. The more recent writers to be +consulted are as follows:-- + +Bunsen's "AEgypten's Stelle in der Weltgeschichte. Hamburg." (First volume +printed in 1845.) This great work was translated by C. C. Cottrel in five +8vo volumes, the last published in 1867, after the death of both author +and translator. The fifth volume of the translation contains a full +translation of the "Book of the Dead," by the learned Samuel Birch of the +British Museum. + +Essays in the Revue Archeologique and other learned periodicals, by the +Vicomte de Rouge, Professor of Egyptian Philology at Paris. Works by M. +Chabas, M. Mariette, De Brugsch, "Aus dem Orient," etc., Samuel Sharpe, A. +Maury, Lepsius, and others. + +[169] The Egyptian doctrine of transmigration differed from that of the +Hindoos in this respect, that no idea of retribution seems to be connected +with it. According to Herodotus (II. 123), the soul must pass through all +animals, fishes, insects, and birds; in short, must complete the whole +circuit of animated existence, before it again enters the body of a man; +"and this circuit of the soul," he adds, "is performed in three thousand +years." According to him, it does not begin "until the body decays." This +may give us one explanation of the system of embalming; for if the circuit +of transmigration is limited to three thousand years, and the soul cannot +leave the body till it decays (the words of Herodotus are, "the body +decaying," [Greek: tou somatos de kataphthinontos]), then if embalming +delays decay for one thousand years, so much is taken off from the journey +through animals. That the soul was believed to be kept with the body as +long as it was undecayed is also expressly stated by Servius (Comm. on the +AEneid of Virgil): "The learned Egyptians preserve the corpse from decay +in tombs in order that its soul shall remain with it, and not quickly pass +into other bodies." + +Hence, too, the extraordinary pains taken in ornamenting the tombs, as the +permanent homes of the dead during a long period. Diodorus says that they +ornamented the tombs as the enduring residences of mankind. + +Transmigration in India was retribution, but in Egypt it seems to have +been a condition of progress. It was going back into the lower +organizations, to gather up all their varied life, to add to our own. So +Tennyson suggests,-- + + "If, through lower lives I came, + Though all experience past became + Consolidate in mind and frame," etc. + +Beside the reason for embalming given above, there may have been the +motive arising from the respect for bodily organization, so deeply rooted +in the Egyptian mind. + +[170] Animals and plants, more than anything else, and animals more than +plants, are the types of variety; they embody that great law of +differentiation, one of the main laws of the universe, the law which is +opposed to that of unity, the law of centrifugal force, expressed in our +humble proverb, "It takes all sorts of people to make a world." + +[171] Maury, "Revue des Deux Mondes, 1867." "Man's Origin and Destiny, +J. P. Lesley, 1868." "Recherches sur les Monumens, etc., par M. de Rouge, +1866." + +[172] Article "AEgypten," in Schenkel's Bibel-Lexicon, 1869. Duncker, +"Geschichte des Alterthums, Dritte Auflage, 1863." + +[173] See Duncker, as above. + +[174] Les Pasteurs en Egypt, par F. Chabas. Amsterdam, 1868. + +[175] The "hornets," Ex. xxiii. 28, and Josh. xxiv. 11, 12, are not +insects, but the Hyksos, who, driven from Egypt were overrunning Syria. +See New York Nation, article on the Hyksos, May 13, 1869. + +[176] Pap. Tallier (Bunsen IV. 671) as translated by De Rouge, Goodwin, +&c.: "In the days when the land of Egypt was held by the invaders, King +Apapi (at Avaris) set up Sutekh for his lord; he worshipped no other god +in the whole land." + +[177] I follow here De Rouge, Brugsch, and Duncker, rather than Bunsen. + +[178] Athenaeum Francais, 1856. + +[179] Lesley, Man's Origin and Destiny, p. 149. Brugsch, Aus dem Orient, +p. 37. + +[180] A common title on the monuments for the king is Per-aa, in the +dialect of Upper Egypt, Pher-ao in that of Lower Egypt, meaning "The lofty +house," equivalent to the modern Turkish title, "The Sublime Porte." + +[181] "AEgypten und die Buecher Mosis, von Dr. Georg Ebers. Leipzig, 1868." +"Bunsen, Bibel-Werk," Erster Theil, p. 63. + +[182] AEschylus calls the Egyptian sailors [Greek: melanchimos]. Lucian +calls a young Egyptian "black-skinned," but Ammianus Marcellinus says, +"AEgyptii plerique subfusculi sunt et atrati." + +[183] "AEgypten und die Buecher Mosis, von Ebers, Vol. I. p. 43." + +[184] "Th. Benfey, Ueber das verhaeltniss der aegyptischen Sprache zum +semitischen Sprachstamme, 1844." + +[185] AEgypten, &c. + +[186] "The skulls of the mummies agree with history in proving that Egypt +was peopled with a variety of tribes; and physiologists, when speaking +more exactly, have divided them into three classes. The first is the +Egyptian proper, whose skull is shaped like the heads of the ancient +Theban statues and the modern Nubians. The second is a race of men more +like the Europeans, and these mummies become more common as we approach +the Delta. These are perhaps the same as the modern Copts. The third is of +an Arab race, and are like the heads of the laborers in the +pictures."--Sharpe, Hist. of Egypt, I. 3. He refers to Morton's Crania +AEgyptiaca for his authority. + +Prichard (Nat. Hist. of Man and Researches, &c.), after a full examination +of the question concerning the ethnical relations of the Egyptians, and of +Morton's craniological researches, concludes in favor of an Asiatic origin +of the Egyptians, connected with an amalgamation with the African +autocthones. + +[187] "Dieser Voelkerschaften gehorten der kaukasischen Race an; ihre +Sprachen waren dem Semitischen am naechsten Verwandt." G. des A. I. 11. + +[188] Brugsch derives it from Ki-Ptah = worshippers of Ptah. + +[189] Plato, Timaeus. Herod. II. 59. Gutschmidt and others deny this +etymologic relation of Neith to Athene. + +[190] "There is a profound consolation hidden in the old Egyptian +inscribed rocks. They show us that the weird figures, half man and half +beast, which we find carved and painted there, were not the true gods of +Egypt, but politico-religious masks, concealing the true godhead. These +rocks teach that the real object of worship was the one undivided Being, +existing from the Beginning, Creator of all things, revealing himself to +the illuminated soul as the Mosaic "I AM THE I AM." It is true that this +pure doctrine was taught only to the initiated, and the stones forbid it +to be published. 'This is a hidden mystery; tell it to no one; let it be +seen by no eye, heard by no ear: only thou and thy teacher shall possess +this knowledge.'" Brugsch, Aus dem Orient, p. 69. + +May not one reason for concealing this doctrine of the unity and +spirituality of God have been the stress of the African mind to variety +and bodily form? The priests feared to encounter this great current of +sentiment in the people, and so outwardly conformed to it. + +[191] So says Wilkinson. + +[192] The finger on the mouth symbolizes, not silence, but childhood. + +[193] The name "Mut" was also given to Neith, Pacht, and Isis. + +[194] Brugsch, Aus dem Orient, p. 48. + +[195] See Merivale, Conversion of the Northern Nations, p. 187, note, +where he gives examples of "the inveterate lingering of Pagan usages among +the nominally converted." But many of these were sanctioned by the +Catholic Church. + +[196] Kenrick, I. 372 (American edition). + +[197] See for proofs, Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity, by +Samuel Sharpe, 1863. + +[198] Sharpe, Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity. + +[199] Sharpe, as above. + +[200] The earliest form of the Christian doctrine of the atonement was +that the Devil killed Jesus in ignorance of his divine nature. The Devil +was thus deceived into doing what he had no right to do, consequently he +was obliged to pay for this by giving up the souls of sinners to which he +had a right. The Osiris myth of the death of a god, which deeply colored +the mysteries of Adonis and Eleusis, took its last form im this peculiar +doctrine of atonement. + +[201] Hase, Kirchengeschichte, Sec. 87. + +[202] Which continues in Christianity, in spite of Paul's plain statement, +"Thou sowest _not_ the body which shall be." + +[203] Serapis was not a god of the Pharaonic times, but came into Egypt +under the Ptolemies. But lately M. Mariette has shown that Serapis was the +dead bull Apis = Osiris-Apis. ([Greek: Osorapis].) + +[204] Mr. Grote (Vol. II. p. 222, American edition) refers to Strabo's +remark on the great superiority of Europe over Asia and Africa in regard +to the intersection and interpenetration of the land by the sea. He also +quotes Cicero, who says that all Greece is in close contact to the sea, +and only two or three tribes separated from it, while the Greek islands +swim among the waves with their customs and institutions. He says that the +ancients remarked the greater activity, mutability, and variety in the +life of maritime nations. + +[205] Mr. Buckle is almost the only marked exception. He nowhere +recognizes the doctrine of race. + +[206] The ox is, in Sanskrit _go_ or _gaus_, in Latin _bos_, in Greek +[Greek: bous]. + +The horse is, in Sanskrit _acva_, in Zend _acpa_, in Greek [Greek: +hippos], in Latin _equus_. + +The sheep is, in Sanskrit _avis_, in Latin _ovis_, in Greek [Greek: ois]. + +The goose is, in Sanskrit _hansa_, in Latin _anser_, in Old German _kans_, +in Greek [Greek: chaen]. + +House is, in Sanskrit _dama_, in Latin _domus_, in Greek [Greek: domos]. +Door is, in Sanskrit _dvar_ or _duara_, in Greek [Greek: thura], in Irish +_doras_. + +Boat or ship is, in Sanskrit _naus_, in Latin _navis_, in Greek [Greek: +naus]. Oar is, in Sanskrit _aritram_, in Greek [Greek: eretmos] in +Latin _remus_. + +The Greeks distinguished themselves from the Barbarians as a grain-eating +race. Barbarians ate acorns. + +[207] Herod., I. 56, 57, 146; II. 51, 171; IV. 145; V. 26; VI. 137; VII. +94; VIII. 44, 73. + +[208] Maury, Histoire des Religions de la Grece Antique, Chap. I. p. 5. He +mentions several Pelasgic words which seem to be identical with old +Italian or Etruscan names. + +[209] Mueller, Dorians, Introduction, Sec. 10. + +[210] Griechische Gotterlehre, Einleitung, Sec. 6. + +[211] See Mueller, Dorians. + +[212] Symbolik und Mythologie, Th. III., Heft 1, chap. 5, Sec. 1. + +[213] Herod. II. 50 _et seq_. + +[214] Among the ancients [Greek: Onoma] often had this force. It denoted +personality. The meaning, therefore, of Herodotus is that the Egyptians +taught the Greeks to give their deities proper names, instead of common +names. A proper name is the sign of personality. + +[215] Maury, Religions de la Grece, III. 263. + +[216] Diod. Sic., I. 92-96. + +[217] Gerhard, Griechische Mythologie, Sec. 50, Vol. 1. + +[218] Mr. Grote (History of Greece, Part I. Chap. 1.) maintains that +Heaven, Night, Sleep, and Dream "are Persons, just as much as Zeus and +Apollo." I confess that I can hardly understand his meaning. The first +have neither personal qualities, personal life, personal history, nor +personal experience; they appear only as vast abstractions, and so +disappear again. + +[219] Keats, in his Hyperion, is the only modern poet who has caught the +spirit of the mighty Titanic deities and is able to speak + + "In the large utterance of the early gods." + +[220] Pictet, Les Origines Indo-Europeenes. + +[221] B.C. 1104. Doellinger. + +[222] Die Dorier, X. 9. + +[223] Ottfried Mueller, Die Dorier. + +[224] Varro, quoted by Maury. + +[225] Dione was the female Jupiter, her name meaning simply "the goddess," +identical with the Italic "Juno," formed from [Greek: Dios]. + +[226] But not the same character. At Dodona he was invoked as the Eternal. +Pausanias (X. c. 12, Sec. 5) says that the priestesses of that shrine used +this formula in their prayer: "Zeus was, Zeus is, Zeus shall be! O great +Zeus!" On Olympus he was not conceived as eternal, but only as immortal. + +[227] Rev. G. W. Cox (A Manual of Mythology, London, 1867. The Mythology of +the Aryan Nations, London, 1870) has shown much ingenuity in his efforts +to trace the myths and legends of the Greeks, Germans, etc., back to some +original metaphors in the old Vedic speech, most of which relate to the +movements of the sun, and the phenomena of the heavens. It seems probable +that he carries this too far; for why cannot later ages originate myths as +well as the earlier? The analogies by which he seeks to approximate Greek, +Scandinavian, and Hindoo stories are often fanciful. And the sun plays so +overwhelming a part in this drama, that it reminds one of the picture in +"Hermann and Dorothea," of the traveller who looked at the sun till he +could see nothing else. + + "Schweben sichet ihr Bild, wohin er die Blicke nur wendet." + + + +[228] See Le Sentiment Religieux en Grece, d'Homere a Eschyle, par Jules +Girard, Paris, 1869. + +[229] Iliad, Book I. v. 600. + +[230] Margaret Fuller used to distinguish Apollo and Bacchus as Genius and +Geniality. + +[231] Isthmian, VI. + +[232] Pythian, II. + +[233] Nemean, VI. + +[234] God in History, IV. 10. + +[235] "Atrocem animam Catonis."--Horace. + +[236] Antigone, 450. + +[237] Yet, even in Euripides, we meet a strain like that (Hecuba, line +800), which we may render as follows:-- + + "For, though perhaps we may be helpless slaves, + Yet are the gods most strong, and over them + Sits LAW supreme. The gods are under law,-- + So do we judge,--and therefore we can live + While right and wrong stand separate forever." + + +[238] See the original in Herder's Greek text, Hellenische Blumenlese, and +in Cudworth's Intellectual System. + +[239] Welcker, Grieschische Gotterlehre, Sec. 25. + +[240] Ottfried Mueller, History of Greek Art, Sec.Sec. 115, 347. + +[241] Oxford Prize Poems, Poem for 1812. + +[242] [Greek: O men theos eis{~GREEK ANO TELEIA~} koutos de ouk, os tines uponousin, ektos tas +diakosmaeseas{~GREEK ANO TELEIA~} all en auta, olos en olo to kuklo, episkopos pasas geneses +kai kraseos ton olon.].--Clem. Alex. Cohort. ad gentes. + +[243] Monotheism among the Greeks, translated in the Contemporary Review, +March, 1867. Victor Cousin, Fragments de Philosophie Ancienne. + +[244] Quotations from Aristotle, in Rixner, I. Sec. 75. + +[245] See Rixner, Zeller, and the poem of Empedocles on the Nature of +Things ([Greek: peri phaseos]), especially the commencement of the Third +Book. + +[246] His famous doctrine, that "man is the measure of all things," meant +that there is nothing true but that which appears to man to be so at any +moment. He taught, as we should now say, the subjectivity of knowledge. + +[247] Zeller, as before cited. + +[248] Geschichte der Philosophie. + +[249] The sentence which Plato wrote over his door, [Greek: oudeis +ageometraetos eioito], probably means, "Let no one enter who has not +_definite_ thoughts." So Goethe declared that _outline_ went deepest into +the mysteries of nature. + +[250] For Proofs, see Ackermann, Cudworth, Tayler Lewis, and the +New-Englander, October, 1869. + +[251] Page 28, German edition. + +[252] Laws, X. 893. + +[253] Timaeus, IX. + +[254] Laws, IV. 715. + +[255] Zeller, as above. Also Zeller, "Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics," +translated by Reichel. London: Longmans, 1870. + +[256] Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics, p. 140. + +[257] Mr. Fergusson thinks the peristyle not intended for an ambulatory, +but is unable to assign any other satisfactory purpose. + +[258] Illustrated Hand-Book of Architecture. + +[259] Plutarch, quoted by Doellinger. + +[260] Buckley's translation, in Bohn's Classical Library. + +[261] Ibid. + +[262] Republic, II. 17. See Doellinger's discussion of this subject, in +"The Gentile and the Jew," English translation, Vol. I. p. 125. + +[263] Advancement of Learning. + +[264] Ottfried Mueller has shown that some of these writings existed in the +time of Euripides. + +[265] Cudworth's Intellectual System, I. 403 (Am. ed.). Rixner, Handbuch +der Geschichte der Philosophie, Anhang, Vol. I. + +[266] Ante-Nicene Christian Library, Vol. IV. p. 71. + +[267] Christianity and Greek Philosophy. By B. F. Cocker, D.D. New York: +Harper and Brothers. 1870. + +[268] See Neander, Church History, Vol I. p. 88, American edition. + +[269] Hegel's Philosophic in Woertlichen Ausuezgen. Berlin, 1843. + +[270] Romische Geschichte, von Theodor Mommsen, Kap. XII. + +[271] Janus, Picus, Faunus, Romulus, were _indigites_. Funke, Real +Lexicon. + +[272] See Niebuhr's Lectures on the History of Rome, for facts concerning +the Siculi. The sound _el_ appears in Keltic, Gael, Welsch, Welsh, +Belgians, Gauls, Galatians, etc. M. Grotefend (as quoted by Guigniaut, in +his notes to Creuzer) accepts this Keltic origin of the Siculi, believing +that they entered Italy from the northwest, and were gradually driven +farther south till they reached Sicily. Those who expelled them were the +Pelasgic races, who passed from Asia, south of the Caspian and Black Seas, +through Asia Minor and Greece, preceding the Hellenic races. This accounts +for the statement of Herodotus that the Pelasgi came from Lydia in Asia +Minor, without our being obliged to assume that they came by sea,--a fact +highly improbable. They were called Tyrrheanians, not from any city or +king of Lydia, but, as M. Lepsius believes, from the Greek (Latin, +_turris_), a tower, because of their Cyclopean masonry. The Roman state, +on this supposition, may have owed its origin to the union of the two +great Aryan races, the Kelts and Pelasgi. + +[273] Mythologie der Griechen und Romer, von Dr. M. W. Heffter. Leipzig, +1854. + +[274] And so our word "janitor" comes to us from this very old Italian +deity. + +[275] Ampere, L'Histoire Romaine. + +[276] This seems to us more probable than Buttman's opinion, that the +temple of Janus was originally by the gate of the city, which gate was +open in war and closed in peace. In practice, it would probably be +different. + +[277] "Quis ignorat vel dictum vel conditum a Jano Janiculum?" Solinus, +II. 3, quoted by Ampere. + +[278] + + "Arx mea collis erat, quem cultrix nomine nostro + Nuncupat haec aetas, Janiculumque vocat."--Fasti, I. 245. + + + +[279] Mater Matuta ("matutina," matinal) was a Latin goddess of the dawn, +who was absorbed into Juno, as often happened to the old Italian deities. +Hartung says: "There was no limit to the superficial levity with which the +Romans changed their worship." + +[280] The Etruscans worshipped a goddess named Menerfa or +Menfra.--Heffter. + +[281] Heffter, p. 525. _Cloaca_ is derived from _cluere_, which means _to +wash away._ Libertina or Libitina is the goddess of funerals. + +[282] Republic, II. 19. + +[283] Hartung. + +[284] "Diis quos superiores et involutes vocant."--Seneca, Quaest. Nat., +II. 41. + +[285] "De re rustica"; quoted by Merivale in the Preface to The Conversion +of the Roman Empire. + +[286] From the same root come our words "fate," "fanatic," etc. "Fanaticum +dicitur arbor fulmine icta."--Festus, 69. + +[287] From "sacrare" or "consecrare." Hence sacrament and sacerdotal. + +[288] The word "calendar" is itself derived from the Roman "Kalends," the +first day of the month. + +[289] See Merivale, The Conversion of the Roman Empire, Lect. IV. p. 74. + +[290] Doellinger, Gentile and Jew. Funke, Real Lexicon. Festus. + +[291] Book I. 592. + +[292] IV. 593. + +[293] De Divinatione, II. 12, etc. + +[294] A Greek epigram, recently translated, alludes to the same fact:-- + + "Honey and milk are sacrifice to thee, + Kind Hermes, inexpensive deity. + But Hercules demands a lamb each day, + For keeping, so he says, the wolves away. + Imports it much, meek browsers of the sod, + Whether a wolf devour you, or a god?" + + + +[295] Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Chap. II. + +[296] Conversion of the Roman Empire, Note A. + +[297] "Expedit civitates falli in religione," said Varro. + +[298] "Philosophia sapientiae amor est." "Nec philosophia sine virtute, +nec sine philosophia virtus." Epist. XCI. 5. + +[299] "Physica non faciunt bonos, sed doctos." Epist. CVI. 11. + +[300] "Bonum est, quod ad se impetum animi secundum naturam movet." Epist. +CXVIII. 9. + +[301] "Universa ex materia et Deo constant." Epist. LXV. 24. + +[302] "Socii Dei sumus et membra. Prope a te Deus est, tecum est, intus +est. Sacer intra nos Spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum +observator et custos. Deus ad homines venit; immo, in homines." Epist. +XCII. 41, 73. + +[303] Arrian's "Discourses of Epictetus," III. 24. + +[304] Lectures on the History of Rome, III. 247. + +[305] Monolog., X. 14. + +[306] Zeller, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics, p. 150. + +[307] Quoted by Neander, Church History, I. 10 (Am. ed.). + +[308] Gott in der Geschichte, Zweiter Theil, Seite 387. + +[309] Tacitus, History, I. 3. + +[310] Ibid., Annals, IV. 20. + +[311] Ibid., Annals, VI. 22. + +[312] Ibid., Agricola, 46. + +[313] The Greek and the Jew, Vol. II. p. 147. + +[314] Epistle to the Romans, xv. 13. + +[315] "The legislation of Justinian, as far as it was original, in his +Code, Pandects, and Institutes, was still almost exclusively Roman. It +might seem that Christianity could hardly penetrate into the solid and +well-compacted body of Roman law; or rather the immutable principles of +justice had been so clearly discerned by the inflexible rectitude of the +Roman mind, and so sagaciously applied by the wisdom of her great lawyers, +that Christianity was content to acquiesce in these statutes, which she +might despair, except in some respects, of rendering more +equitable."--Milman, Latin Christianity, Vol. II. p. 11. + +[316] See Ranke, History of the Popes, Chap. I., where he says that the +Roman Empire gave its outward form to Christianity (meaning _Latin_ +Christianity), and that the constitution of the hierarchy was necessarily +modelled on that of the Empire. + +[317] History of Latin Christianity, Vol. II. p. 100. + +[318] Maine, Ancient Law, Chap. IX. + +[319] "Non aliud peccare quam Deo non reddere debitum." + +[320] Caesar, Bell. Gall., I. 36, 39, 48, 50; VI. 21, 22, 23. + +[321] "Praeliis ambiguus, bello non victus."--Annals, II. 88. + +[322] Tacitus, Germania, Sec.Sec. 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9. + +[323] "Illud ex libertate vitium, quod non simul, nec ut jussi, +conveniunt."--Germania, Sec. 11. + +[324] Esprit des Loix. + +[325] See, for the history and religion of the Teutonic and Scandinavian +race, Caesar; Tacitus; Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie; Geschichte und System +der Altdeutschen Religion, von Wilhelm Muller; Northern Mythology, by +Benjamin Thorpe; The Sea-Kings of Norway, by S. Laing; Manual of +Scandinavian Mythology, by G. Pigott; Literature and Romance of Northern +Europe, by William and Mary Hewitt; Die Edda, von Karl Simrock; Aryan +Mythology, by George W. Cox; Norse Tales, by Dasent, etc. But one of the +best as well as the most accessible summaries in English of this mythology +is Mallet's Northern Antiquities, in Bohn's Antiquarian Library. This +edition is edited by Mr. Blackwell with great judgment and learning. + +[326] See Die Edda, von Karl Simrock. Stuttgart, 1855. Literature and +Romance of Northern Europe, by William and Mary Howitt. London, 1852. +Geschichte und System der Altdeutschen Religion, von Withelm Muller. +Gottingen, 1844. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, edited by Blackwell, in +Bohn's Antiquarian Library. + +[327] Hitopadesa; or, Salutary Counsels of Vishnu Sarman. Translated fiom +the Sanskrit by Francis Johnson. London and Hertford, 1848. + +[328] See Memoir of Snorro Sturleson, in Laing's Sea-Kings of Norway. + +[329] It would appear from this legend that the gods are idealizations of +human will set over against the powers of nature. The battle of the gods +and giants represents the struggles of the soul against the inexorable +laws of nature, freedom against fate, the spirit with the flesh, mind with +matter, human hope with change, disappointment, loss; "the emergency of +the case with the despotism of the rule." + +[330] Physical circumstances produced alterations in the mythologies, +whose origin was the same. Thus, Loki, the god of fire, belongs to the +AEsir, because fire is hostile to frost, but represents the treacherous +and evil subterranean fires, which in Iceland destroyed with lava, sand, +and boiling water more than was injured by cold. + +[331] Northern Mythology, by Benjamin Thorpe. + +[332] Gibbon, Chap. LVI. + +[333] Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. Neander, Church History, Vol. II. +Appendix. + +[334] See, for the conversion of the German races, Gibbon; Guizot, History +of Civilization; Merivale, Conversion of the German Nations; Milman, Latin +Christianity; Neander, History of the Christian Church; Hegel; Lecky, +History of European Morals. + +[335] Latin Christianity, Book III. Chap. II. + +[336] Palaztu, on the Western Sea. Rawlinson's Herodotus, Vol. I., p. 487. + +[337] The word has been deciphered "Pulusater." Smith's Dictionary of the +Bible, Palestine. + +[338] Ibid. + +[339] Palestine, and the Sinaitic Peninsula. By Carl Ritter. Translated by +William L. Gage. New York. 1866. + +[340] Ritter's Palestine, Vol. II. p. 315. + +[341] Lynch makes it thirteen hundred feet below the surface of the +Mediterranean. See Ritter. + +[342] History of Israel, translated by Russell Martineau, Vol. I. p. 231. + +[343] New American Cyclopaedia, art. Semitic Race. + +[344] Quoted by Le Normant, Manual of Ancient History of the East, Vol. I. +p. 71. + +[345] Remarks on the Phoenician Inscription of Sidon, by Professor William +W. Turner, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. VII. No. 1. + +[346] Poenulus, Act V. Sc. 1. + +[347] See his Essay on the People of Israel, in Studies of Religious +History and Criticism, translated by O. B. Frothingham. + +[348] Except the proselytes, who are adopted children. + +[349] History of the Jewish Church, Lect. I. + +[350] See, for these marvellous stories, Weil, Legends of the Mussulmans. + +[351] See my sermon on "Melchisedek and his Moral," in "The Hour that +Cometh," second edition. + +[352] Strabo, who probably wrote in the reign of Tiberius, thus describes +Moses:-- + + + "Moses, an Egyptian priest, who possessed a considerable tract of Lower + Egypt, unable any longer to bear with what existed there, departed + thence to Syria, and with him went out many who honored the Divine + Being. For Moses taught that the Egyptians were not right in likening + the nature of God to beasts and cattle, nor yet the Africans or even + the Greeks, in fashioning their gods in the form of men. He held that + this only was God,--that which encompasses all of us, earth and sea, + that which we call heaven, the order of the world, and the nature of + things. Of this, who that had any sense would venture to invent an + image like to anything which exists among ourselves? Far better to + abandon all statuary and sculpture, all setting apart of sacred + precincts and shrines, and to pay reverence without any image whatever. + The course prescribed was that those who have the gift of divination + for themselves or others should compose themselves to sleep within the + Temple, and those who live temperately and justly mjiy expect to + receive lome good gift from God." + + +[353] "Esteeming the reproach of the Christ" (that is, of the anointed, +or, the anointed people) "greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." + +[354] See this well explained in The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation, +by James B. Walker. + +[355] "'Behold, when I shall come to the children of Israel, and shall say +unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall +say, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto +Moses, I AM THE I AM..... Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, +I AM hath sent me unto you!' + +"It has been observed that the great epochs of the history of the Chosen +People are marked by the several names, by which in each the Divine Nature +is indicated. In the patriarchal age we have already seen that the oldest +Hebrew form by which the most general idea of Divinity is expressed is +'El-Elohim,' 'The Strong One,' 'The Strong Ones,' 'The Strong,' 'Beth-El,' +'Peni-El,' remained even to the latest times memorials of this primitive +mode of address and worship. But now a new name, and with it a new truth, +was introduced. I am Jehovah; I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, +by the name of El-Shaddai (God Almighty); but by my name Jehovah was I not +known unto them. The only certain use of it before the time of Moses is in +the name of 'Jochebed,' borne by his own mother. It was the declaration of +the simplicity, the unity, the self-existence of the Divine Nature, the +exact opposite to all the multiplied forms of idolatry, human, animal, and +celestial, that prevailed, as far as we know, everywhere else."--Stanley's +Jewish Church. + +[356] A man became a prophet only by his powers of insight and foresight; +until that was certified to the people, he was no prophet to them. When it +was, it was because he _convinced_ them by his manifestation of the truth; +consequently any revision of the law by a prophet was a constitutional +amendment by the people themselves. + +[357] Hitzig, Urgeschichte und Mythologie der Philister. Tacitus probably +referred to the Cretan origin of the Philistines, when he says that the +Jews were originally natives of the island of Crete. See his account of +Moses and his institutions, Historia, V. 1-6. + +[358] + + "Out from the heart of nature rolled + The burdens of the Bible old; + The litanies of nations came, + Like the volcano's tongue of flame, + Up from the burning core below,-- + The canticles of love and woe." + +Emerson, _The Problem_. + + +[359] See this point fully discussed in Ritter, Palestine (Am. ed.), Vol. +I. pp. 81-151. + +[360] See Weil, Biblical Legends, for the Mohammedan traditions concerning +Solomon. + +[361] For he perceives the idea, but not its application to himself. + +[362] Neither of them perceives that he is the object of the injury. + +[363] Eccles. i. 2-11. + +[364] Ibid. i. 12; ii. 11. + +[365] Ibid. ii. 12-20. + +[366] Ibid. ii. 24. + +[367] Ibid. iii. 1-11. + +[368] Ibid. iii. 18-21. + +[369] Ibid. iv. 1-3. + +[370] Ibid. iv. 9-12. + +[371] Ibid. v. 1-7, 18. + +[372] Ibid. vi. + +[373] Eccles. vii. 2, 10, 15, 16. + +[374] Ibid. vii. 26-28. + +[375] Ibid. viii. 2, 3, 4, 11, 14(ix. 2, 3), 15, 17. + +[376] Ibid. xi. 1, 2, 6. + +[377] Ibid. xii. 1-8, 9, 12, 13. + +[378] Doellinger, The Gentile and the Jew. + +[379] See article on the Talmud, Quarterly Review, 1867. + +[380] An anecdote was recently related of a little girl, five years old, +who was seen walking along the road, looking up into the trees. Being +asked what she was seeking, she replied: "Mamma told me God was +everywhere, but I cannot see him in that tree." The faith of the +patriarchs was like that of this child,--not false, but unenlightened. + +[381] "And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and +fall at Ramoth-Gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on +that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and +said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he +said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all +his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go +forth and do so." + +[382] See Greg, The Creed of Christendom, Chap. V. Also, The Spirit of the +Bible, by Edward Higginson. + +[383] Mohammed der Prophet, sein Leben und seine Lehre. Stuttgart, 1843. + +[384] Essai sur l'histoire des Arabes, avant l'Islamisme, pendant l'epoque +de Mahomet, et jusqu'a la reduction de toutes les tribus sous la loi +mussulmane. Paris. 3 vols. 8vo. 1847-48. + +[385] Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammed, etc. Von A. Sprenger. Berlin, +1861. + +[386] Sprenger, Vorrede, p. xii. + +[387] The Life of Mahomet and History of Islam. By William Muir, Esq. +London, 1858. + +[388] A Series of Essays on the Life of Mohammed, and Subjects subsidiary +thereto. By Syed Ahmed Khan Bahador. London: Trabner & Co. 1870. + +[389] + + "Quo fit ut omnis + Votiva pateat velut descripta tabella + Vita senis." + + HORACE. + + + +[390] The same remark will apply to Cromwell. + +[391] "Mohammed once asked Hassan if he had made any poetry about Abu +Bakr, and the poet repeated these lines; whereupon Mohammed laughed so +heartily as to show his back teeth, and said, 'Thou hast spoken truly, O +Hassan! It is just as thou hast said.'"--Muir, Vol. II. p. 256. + +[392] Muir, Vol. II. p. 128. + +[393] Koran, Sura 80. + +[394] Mahomet and the Origin of Islam. Studies of Religious History. +Translated by O. B. Frothingham. + +[395] Lewes, Life of Goethe, Vol. I. p. 207. + +[396] Mahomet et le Coran, par J. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire, Paris, 1865, +p. 114. + +[397] Les Religions et les Philosophies dans L'Asie Centrale. Par M. le +Comte Gobineau. Paris. + +[398] A Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia. By William +Gifford Palgrave. Third edition. 1866. London. + +[399] Article in Revue des Deux Mondes, January 15, 1868. + +[400] Studies in Religious History and Criticism. The Future of Religion +in Modem Society. + +[401] Ibid., "The Part of the Semitic People in the History of +Civilization." + +[402] Ibid. The Future of Religion in Modern Society, The Origins of +Islamism. + +[403] The Sympathy of Religions, an Address by Thomas Wentworth Higginson. +Boston, 1871. + +[404] Job i. 6, 12; ii. 1; Zech. iii. 1; 1 Chron. xxi. 1. + +[405] In the passages where Satan or the Devil is mentioned, the truth +taught is the same, and the moral result the same, whether we interpret +the phrase as meaning a personal being, or the principle of evil. In many +of these passages a personal being cannot be meant: for example, John vi. +70; Matt. xvi. 23; Mark viii. 33; 1 Cor. v. 5; 2 Cor. xii. 7; 1 Thess. ii. +18; 1 Tim. i. 20; Heb. ii. 14. + +[406] Exodus vi. 2. + +[407] Exodus iii. 14. + + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Ten Great Religions, by James Freeman Clarke + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEN GREAT RELIGIONS *** + +***** This file should be named 14674.txt or 14674.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/6/7/14674/ + +Produced by PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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