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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29893-8.txt b/29893-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..969ec41 --- /dev/null +++ b/29893-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15243 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, History of Religion, by Allan Menzies + + +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: History of Religion + A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems + + +Author: Allan Menzies + + + +Release Date: September 2, 2009 [eBook #29893] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RELIGION*** + + +E-text prepared by Ron Swanson + + + +HISTORY OF RELIGION + +A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the +Origin and Character of the Great Systems + +by + +ALLAN MENZIES, D.D. + +Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of St. Andrews + + +Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the +world.--ACTS xv. 18. + + + + + + + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons +597-599 Fifth Avenue +1917 + + + + +FIRST EDITION . . . _April_ 1895 +SECOND EDITION . . _September_ 1895 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1897 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1900 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _January_ 1902 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1903 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1905 +THIRD EDITION . . . _January_ 1908 +FOURTH EDITION . . _September_ 1911 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1914 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1918 + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book makes no pretence to be a guide to all the mythologies, or +to all the religious practices which have prevailed in the world. It +is intended to aid the student who desires to obtain a general idea +of comparative religion, by exhibiting the subject as a connected and +organic whole, and by indicating the leading points of view from +which each of the great systems may best be understood. A certain +amount of discussion is employed in order to bring clearly before the +reader the great motives and ideas by which the various religions are +inspired, and the movements of thought which they present. And the +attempt is made to exhibit the great manifestations of human piety in +their genealogical connection. The writer has ventured to deal with +the religions of the Bible, each in its proper historical place, and +trusts that he has not by doing so rendered any disservice either to +Christian faith or to the science of religion. It is obvious that in +a work claiming to be scientific, and appealing to men of every +faith, all religions must be treated impartially, and that the same +method must be applied to each of them. + +In a field of study, every part of which is being illuminated almost +every year by fresh discoveries, such a sketch as the present can be +merely tentative, and must soon, in many of its parts, grow +antiquated and be superseded. And where so much depends on the +selection of some facts out of many which might have been employed, +it will no doubt appear to readers who have some acquaintance with +the subject, that here and there a better choice might have been +made. The writer hopes that the great difficulty will not be +overlooked with which he has had to contend, of compressing a vast +subject into a compendious statement without allowing its life and +interest to evaporate in the process. + +For a fuller bibliography than is given in this volume the reader may +consult the works of Dr. C. P. Tiele, and of Dr. Chantepie de la +Saussaye. It will readily be believed that the writer of this volume +has been indebted to many an author whom he has not named. + +ST. ANDREWS, 1895. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE THIRD (REVISED) EDITION + + +Since this book first appeared twelve years ago it has been several +times reprinted without change. Advantage has now been taken, +however, of a call for a fresh issue, to introduce into it some +alterations and additions, such as its stereotyped form allows. Some +mistakes have been corrected, the names of recent books have been +added to the bibliographies, and in some chapters, especially those +dealing with the Semitic religions, considerable changes have been +made. In going over the book for this purpose, I have seen very +clearly that if it had been called for and written at this time +instead of twelve years ago, some things which are in it need not +have appeared, and additions might have been made which are not now +possible. The last twelve years have made a great change in the study +of religions; the prejudices with which it was regarded have almost +passed away, powerful forces have been enlisted in its service, and +admirable works have appeared dealing with various parts of the vast +field. Yet I am glad to think that the attempt made in this book to +furnish a simple introduction to a deeply important study, and +especially to promote the understanding of the religions of the Bible +by placing them in their connection with the religion of mankind at +large, may still prove useful. + +ST. ANDREWS, _June_ 1907. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION + + +This book is now being reprinted in a somewhat larger type, and an +opportunity is given, less restricted than the last, for making +changes in it. It is impossible for me at present to re-write it; it +appears substantially as it was. Some alterations and additions have +been made in the earlier chapters, and the bibliographies have been +brought more nearly up to date. I would take this opportunity of +directing the attention of readers of this book to the published +Proceedings of the Oxford Congress of the History of Religion, held +in September 1908. They will there see how large this field of study +has now grown, and what varied life and movement every part of it +contains. I have given references only to the addresses of the +Presidents of the Sections of the Congress, in which a fresh review +will be found of recent progress in the study of each of the great +religions. + +ST. ANDREWS, _July_ 1910. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I +THE RELIGION OF THE EARLY WORLD + + +CHAPTER I +INTRODUCTION + PAGE +Position of the science--Unity of all religion--The growth of +religion continuous--Preliminary definition of religion-- +Criticism of other definitions--Fuller definition--Religion +and civilisation advance together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-18 + + +CHAPTER II +THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION + +Origin of civilisation--It was from the savage state that +civilisation was by degrees produced--The religion of +savages--All savages have religion--It is a psychological +necessity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-28 + + +CHAPTER III +THE EARLIEST OBJECTS OF WORSHIP + +Nature-worship--Ancestor-worship--Fetish-worship--A supreme +being--Which gods were first worshipped?--Fetish-gods came +first--Spirits, human or quasi-human, came first--Theories +of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Tylor--Animism--The minor +nature-worship came first--Theories of Mr. M. Müller and of +Ed. von Hartmann--The great nature-powers came first--Both +nature-worship and the worship of spirits are sources of +early religion--Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-50 + + +CHAPTER IV +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--BELIEF + +Growth of the great gods--Polytheism--Kathenotheism--The +minor nature-worship--The worship of animals--Trees, wells, +stones--The state after death--Growth of the great religions +out of these beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51-65 + + +CHAPTER V +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--PRACTICES + +Sacrifice--Prayer--Sacred places, objects, persons--Magic-- +Character of early religion--Early religion and morality . . 66-78 + + +CHAPTER VI +NATIONAL RELIGION + +Classifications of religions--Rise of national religion--It +affords a new social bond--And a better God--Example--The +Inca religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79-90 + + +PART II +ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS + + +CHAPTER VII +BABYLON AND ASSYRIA + +People and literature--Worship of spirits--Worship of +animals--The great Gods--Mythology--The state religion . . . 91-105 + + +CHAPTER VIII +CHINA + +History of China--The literature of the religion--The state +religion of ancient China--Heaven--The spirits--Ancestors-- +Confucius--His life--His doctrine--Taoism--Buddhism in China 106-125 + + +CHAPTER IX +THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT + +History and literature--1. Animal worship--Theories +accounting for it--2. The great Gods--They also are local-- +Mythology--Dynasties of gods--Ra--Osiris--Ptah--Was the +earliest religion monotheistic?--Syncretism--Pantheism-- +Worship--3. The doctrine of the other life--Treatment of the +dead--The spirit in the under-world--_The Book of the Dead_-- +Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126-157 + + +PART III +THE SEMITIC GROUP + + +CHAPTER X +THE SEMITIC RELIGION + +Home of the Semites--Character of the race--Their early +religious ideas--Difference between Semitic and Aryan +religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159-169 + + +CHAPTER XI +CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS + +The Religion of the Canaanites--The Phenicians--Their gods-- +Astral deities of Phenicia--Influence of Phenician art . . . 170-178 + + +CHAPTER XII +ISRAEL + +The sacred literature--The people--Jehovah--The early ritual +was simple--Contact with Canaanite religion--Danger of +fusion--Religious conflict--The monarchy--Religion not +centralised--The Prophets--The old religion national-- +Criticism of the old religion by the prophets--Appearance of +Universalism--Ethical monotheism--Individualism of the +prophetic teaching--The reforms--Deuteronomy--Earlier codes-- +The exile--The return; the reform of Ezra--Character of the +later religion--Heathenish elements of Judaism--Spiritual +elements--The Psalms--The Synagogue--The national hopes--The +state after death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179-216 + + +CHAPTER XIII +ISLAM + +Arabia before Mahomet--The old religion--Confusion of +worship--Allah--Judaism and Christianity in Arabia--Mahomet, +early life--His religious impressions--The revelations--His +preaching--Persecution--Trials; decides to leave Mecca-- +Mahomet at Medina--New religious union--Breach with Judaism +and Christianity--Domestic--Conquest of Mecca--Mecca made the +capital of Islam--Spread of Islam--The duties of the Moslem-- +The Koran--Islam a universal religion . . . . . . . . . . . . 217-242 + + +PART IV +THE ARYAN GROUP + + +CHAPTER XIV +THE ARYAN RELIGION + +The Aryans, their early home--Their civilisation described-- +Little known of their gods--Their worship was domestic . . . 243-255 + + +CHAPTER XV +THE TEUTONS + +The Aryans in Europe--The ancient Germans--The early German +gods--The working religion--Later German religion--Iceland-- +The Eddas--The gods of the Eddas--The twilight of the gods . 256-273 + + +CHAPTER XVI +GREECE + +People and land--Earliest religion; functional deities-- +Growth of Greek gods--Stones, animals, trees--Greek religion +is local--Artistic tendency--Early Eastern influences-- +Homer--The Homeric gods--Worship in Homer--Omens--The state +after death--Hesiod--The poets and the working religion--Rise +of religious art--Festivals and games--Zeus and Apollo-- +Change of the Greek spirit in sixth century B.C.--New +religious feeling; the mysteries--Religion and philosophy . . 274-304 + + +CHAPTER XVII +THE RELIGION OF ROME + +Roman religion was different from Greek--The earliest gods of +Rome are functional beings--The worship of these beings--The +great gods--Sacred persons--Roman religion legal rather than +priestly--Changes introduced from without--Etruria--Greek +gods in Rome--The Graeco-Roman religion--Decay and confusion 305-323 + + +CHAPTER XVIII +THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA + +I. _The Vedic Religion_ + +Relation of Indian to Aryan religion--The Rigveda--The Vedic +gods--Hymns to the gods--To what stage does this religion +belong?--It is primitive--It is advanced--In spite of many +gods, a tendency to Monotheism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324-337 + + +CHAPTER XIX +INDIA + +II. _Brahmanism_ + +The caste system: the Brahmans--The growth of the sacred +literature--Sacrifice--Practical life--Philosophy-- +Transmigration--Later developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338-352 + + +CHAPTER XX +INDIA + +III. _Buddhism_ + +The literature--Was there a personal founder?--The story of +the founder--Is Buddhism a revolt against Brahmanism?--The +Buddha--The doctrine--Buddhist morality--Nirvana--No gods-- +The order--Buddhism made popular--Conclusion--Buddhism is not +a complete religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353-380 + + +CHAPTER XXI +PERSIA + +Sources--The contents of the Zend-Avesta are composite-- +Zoroaster--Primitive religion of Iran--The call of +Zarathustra--The doctrine--Its inconsistencies--Man is called +to judge between the gods--This religion is essentially +intolerant--Growth of Mazdeism--Organisation of the heavenly +beings--The attributes of Ahura--Ancient testimonies to the +Persian religion--The Vendidad: laws of purity--How this +doctrine entered Mazdeism--Influence of Mazdeism on Judaism +and in other directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381-408 + + +PART V +UNIVERSAL RELIGION + + +CHAPTER XXII +CHRISTIANITY + +State of Jewish religion at the Christian era--The teaching +of Jesus--His person and work--Universalism of Christianity-- +The Apostle Paul--What Christianity received from Judaism-- +And from the Greek world--The different religions of +Christian nations and the common Christianity . . . . . . . . 409-425 + + +CHAPTER XXIII +CONCLUSION + +Tribal, national, and individual religion--This the central +development--Has to be studied in nations--Periods of general +advance in religion--Conditions of religious progress . . . . 426-434 + + +INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435-440 + + + + +PART I +THE RELIGION OF THE EARLY WORLD + + + + +CHAPTER I +INTRODUCTION + + +The science to which this little volume is devoted is a comparatively +new one. It is scarcely half a century since the attention of Western +Europe began to fix itself seriously on the great religions of the +East, and the study of these ancient systems aroused reflection on +the great facts that the world possesses not one religion only, but +several, nay, many religions, and that these exhibit both great +differences and great resemblances. The agitation of mind then +awakened by the thought that other faiths might be compared with +Christianity, has to a large extent passed away; and on the other +hand fresh fields of knowledge have been opened to the student of the +worships of mankind. By new methods of research the religions of +Greece and Rome have come to be known as they never were before; and +all the other religions of which we formerly knew anything have been +led to tell their stories in a new way. A new study--that of the +earliest human life on the earth--has brought to light many primitive +beliefs and practices, which seem to explain early religious ideas; +and the accounts of missionaries and others about savage tribes now +existing in different parts of the world, are seen to be full of a +significance which was not noticed formerly. We are thus in a very +different position from our fathers for studying the religion of the +world as a whole. To them their own religion was the true one and all +the others were false. Calvin speaks of the "immense welter of +errors" in which the whole world outside of Christianity is immersed; +it is unnecessary for him to deal with these errors, he can at once +proceed to set forth the true doctrine. The belief of the early +fathers of the Church, that all worships but those of Judaism and +Christianity were directed to demons, and that the demons bore sway +in them, practically prevailed till our own day; and it could not but +do so, since no other religions than these were really known. That +ignorance has ceased, and we are responsible for forming a view of +the subject according to the light that has been given us. + +The science of religion, though of such recent origin, has already +passed beyond its earliest stage, as a reference even to its earlier +and its later names will show. "Comparative Religion" was the title +given at first to the combined study of various religions. What had +to be done, it was thought, was to compare them. The facts about them +had to be collected, the systems arranged according to the best +information procurable, and then laid side by side, that it might be +seen what features they had in common and what each had to +distinguish it from the others. Work of this kind is still abundantly +necessary. The collection of materials and the specifying of the +similarities and dissimilarities of the various faiths will long +occupy many workers. + +Unity of all Religion.--But recent works on the religions of the +world regarded as a whole have been called "histories." We have the +well-known _History of Religion_ of M. Chantepie de la Saussaye, now +in its third edition, and the _Comparative History of the Religions +of Antiquity_ of M. Tiele. A history of religion may be either of two +things. The word history may be used as in the term Natural History, +to denote a reasoned account of this department of human life, +without attempting any chronological sequence; or it may be used as +when we speak of the History of the Romans, an attempt being made to +tell the story of religion in the world in the order of time. In +either case the use of the term "history" indicates that the study +now aims at something more than the accumulation of materials and the +pointing out of resemblances and analogies, namely, at arranging the +materials at its command so as to show them in an organic connection. +This, it cannot be doubted, is the task which the science of religion +is now called to attempt. What every one with any interest in the +subject is striving after, is a knowledge of the religions of the +world not as isolated systems which, though having many points of +resemblance, may yet, for all we know, be of separate and independent +growth, but as connected with each other and as forming parts of one +whole. Our science, in fact, is seeking to grasp the religions of the +world as manifestations of the religion of the world.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The above statement is criticised by Mr. L. H. Jordan in +his excellent work, _Comparative Religion_, p. 485, but is in the +main a true account of what has taken place. Mr. Jordan strongly +holds that Comparative Religion is a science by itself, and ought to +be distinguished from the History of Religion, though the latter is, +of course, its necessary foundation.] + +In rising to this conception of its task, the science of religion is +only obeying the impulse which dominates every department of study in +modern times. What every science is doing is to seek to show the +unity of law amid the multiplicity of the phenomena with which it has +to deal, to gather up the many into one, or rather to show how the +one has given rise to the many. In the study of religion, if it be +really a science, this impulse of all science must surely be felt. +Here also we must cherish the conviction that an order does exist +amid the apparent disorder, if we could but find it. We must believe +that the religious beliefs and practices of mankind are not a mere +chaos, not a mere incessant outburst of unreason, consistent only in +that it has appeared in every age and every country of the world, but +that they form a cosmos, and may be known, if we take the right way, +as a part of human life from which reason has never been absent, and +in which a growing purpose has fulfilled and still fulfils itself. +Some theories, it is true, from which the world formerly hoped much, +are not now relied on, and the present tendency is to abstain from +any general doctrine of the subject, and to be content with careful +collection and arrangement of the facts in special parts of the +field. Caution is no doubt most needful in the attempt to form a view +of this great study as a whole. Yet something of this kind is +possible, and is beyond all doubt much called for. It is the aim of +this little work not only to describe the leading features of the +great religions, but also to set forth some of the results which +appear to have been reached regarding the relation in which these +systems stand to each other. + +The Growth of Religion Continuous.--We shall not pretend to set out +on this enterprise without any assumptions. The first and principal +assumption we make is that in religion as in other departments of +human life there has been a development from the beginning, even till +now, and that the growth of religion has gone on according to the +ordinary laws of human progress. This is a position which, begin the +study at whatever point he may, the student of this subject will find +himself compelled to take up, if he is not to renounce altogether the +idea of understanding it as a whole. To understand anything means, to +the thought of the present day, to know how it has come to be what it +is; of any historical phenomenon at least it is certain that it +cannot be understood except by tracing its history up to the root. We +assume, therefore, until it be disproved, that in this as in other +departments of human activity, growth has been continuous from the +first. In every other branch of historical study, this assumption is +made. The history of institutions is traced back in a continuous line +to an age before there was any family or any such thing as property. +The methods by which men have earned their subsistence on the earth +are known equally far back; and there is no break in the development +from the hooked stick to the steam plough. And should it not be the +same in religion? Here also shall we not assume, until we find it +proved to be incorrect, that there has been no break in the growth of +ideas and practices from the earliest days till now, and that the +highest religion of the present day is organically connected with +that religion which man had at first? It is, indeed, in many ways far +removed from the earliest religion, but what was most essential in +the earliest belief still lives in it, and what was fittest to +survive of its earliest motives, still prompts its worship. Should we +adopt this view, we shall find many of the difficulties disappear +which have frequently stood in the way of this study. When, according +to the new tendency that seems to govern all modern thought, +institutions and beliefs are regarded not as fixed things, but as +things growing from something that was there before, and tending +towards something that is coming, they cease to arouse contempt, or +jealousy, or hatred. If we can regard religions as stages in the +evolution of religion, then we have no motive either to depreciate or +unduly to extol any of them. The earlier stages of the development +will have a peculiar interest for us, just as we look with affection +on the home of our ancestors even though we should not choose to +dwell there. We shall not divide religions into the true one, +Christianity, and the false ones, all the rest; no religion will be +to us a mere superstition, nor shall we regard any as unguided by +God. Feeling that we cannot understand our own religion aright +without understanding those out of which it has been built up, we +shall value these others for the part they have played in the great +movement, and our own most of all, without which they could not be +made perfect. In the light of this principle of growth we shall find +good in the lowest, and shall see that the good and true rather than +the evil and false, furnish the ultimate meaning of even the poorest +systems. + +We start then with the assumption that religion is a thing which has +developed from the first, as law has, or as art has; and the best +method we can follow, if it should prove practicable, will be to +follow its movement from the beginning. We must not presume to hope +that everything will be made clear, or that we shall meet with no +religious phenomena to which we cannot assign their place in the +development. We must remember that ground is often lost as well as +won in human history, and that in religions as in nations +degeneration frequently occurs as well as progress. We must not be +too sure that we shall be able to find any plain path leading through +the immeasurable forests of man's religious sentiments and practices. +Yet we may at least expect to find evidence of the direction which on +the whole the growth of religion has followed. + +Preliminary Definition of Religion.--But, before we can set out on +this inquiry, we are met by the question, What is it that we suppose +to have been thus developed? In order to trace any process of +evolution it is necessary to define that which is evolved; for it +belongs to the very idea of evolution that the identity of the +subject of it is not changed on the way up, but that the germ and the +finished product are the same entity, only differing from each other +in that the one has still to grow while the other is grown. Futile +were it indeed to sketch a history of religion with the savage at one +end of it and the Christian thinker at the other, if it could be said +that in no point did the religion of the savage and that of the +Christian coincide, but that the product was a thing of entirely +different nature from the germ. It seems necessary, therefore, in the +first place, to say what that is, of which we are to attempt the +history; or in other words, to say what we mean by religion. + +It must not be forgotten that an adequate definition of a thing which +is growing can only be reached when the growth is complete. During +its growth it is showing what it is, and its higher as well as its +lower manifestations are part of its nature. The world has not yet +found out completely, but is still in the course of finding out, what +religion is. Any definition propounded at this stage must, therefore, +be of an elementary and provisional character. I propose then as a +working definition of religion in the meantime, that it is "The +worship of higher powers." This appears at first sight a very meagre +account of the matter; but if we consider what it implies, we shall +find it is not so meagre. In the first place it involves an element +of belief. No one will worship higher powers unless he believes that +such powers exist. This is the intellectual factor. Not that the +intellectual is distinguished in early forms of religion from the +other factors, any more than grammar is distinguished by early man as +an element of language. But something intellectual, some creed, is +present implicitly even in the earliest worships. Should there be no +belief in higher powers, true worship cannot continue. If it be +continued in outward act, it has lost reality to the mind of the +worshipper, and the result is an apparent or a sham religion, a +worship devoid of one of the essential conditions of religion. This +is true at every stage. But in the second place, these powers which +are worshipped are "higher." Religion has respect, not to beings men +regard as on a level with themselves or even beneath themselves, but +to beings in some way above and beyond themselves, and whom they are +disposed to approach with reverence. When objects appear to be +worshipped for which the worshipper feels contempt, and which a +moment afterwards he will maltreat or throw away, there also one of +the essential conditions is absent, and such worship must be judged +to fall short of religion. There may no doubt be some religion in it; +the object he worships may appear to the savage, in whose mind there +is little continuity, at one moment to be higher than himself and the +next moment to be lower; but the result of the whole is something +less than religion. And in the third place these higher powers are +worshipped. That is to say, religion is not only belief in the higher +powers but it is a cultivating of relations with them, it is a +practical activity continuously directed to these beings. It is not +only a thinking but also a doing; this also is essential to it. When +worship is discontinued, religion ceases; a principle indeed not to +be applied too narrowly, since the apparent cessation of worship may +be merely its transition to another, possibly a higher form; but +religion is not present unless there be not only a belief in higher +powers but an effort of one kind or another to keep on good terms +with them. + +Criticism of other Definitions.--What has now been said will enable +us to judge of several of the definitions of religion which have been +put before the world in recent years. Without going back to the +definitions offered by philosophers who wrote before the scientific +study of our subject had begun, and limiting ourselves to those which +have been propounded in the interests of our science, we notice that +several make religion consist in an intellectual activity.[2] Thus +Mr. Max Müller[3] says that "Religion is a mental faculty or +disposition which independent of, nay, in spite of, sense and reason, +enables man to apprehend the Infinite under different names, and +under varying disguises. Without that faculty ... no religion would +be possible." To this definition there are various strong objections. +It implies that there is only one way in which men come to believe in +higher beings; they arrive at that belief by finding something which +transcends them and which they cannot understand; _i.e._ by an +intellectual process. It may be doubted whether the sense of +disappointment with the finite is the only road, or even a common +road, to belief in gods. Mr. Müller's omission, moreover, from his +definition, of the practical side of religion, of the element of +worship, is a fatal objection to it. Belief and worship are +inseparable sides of religion, which does not come fully into +existence till both are present. In a later work[4] Mr. Müller admits +the force of this objection, urged by several scholars, to his +definition, and modifies it as follows: "Religion consists in the +perception of the infinite under such manifestations as are able to +influence the moral character of man." In this form the definition +recognises that worship, the practical activity in which man's moral +character shows itself in fear, gratitude, love, contrition, is an +essential part of religion, and that perceptions of the infinite +apart from this are only one side of it. His original definition, +however, has played too large a part in the history of our subject to +be left without careful notice. The same objection applies to Mr. +Herbert Spencer's account of the matter. Mr. Spencer finds the basis +of all religion in the inscrutableness of the Power which the +universe manifests to us. The belief common to all religions, he +holds, is the presence of something which passes comprehension. The +idea of the absolute and unconditioned he regards as accompanying all +our consciousness of things conditioned and limited, and as being not +a negative notion, not merely the denial of limits, but a positive +one. The unconditioned is that of which all our thoughts and ideas +are manifestations, but which we never can know, with regard to which +we cannot affirm anything but that it exists. This definition like +that last noticed traces religion to the defects in man's knowledge, +and rather to a negative than a positive element in his experience. +It also comes under the objection that it traces religion rather to +an intellectual than a practical motive, and omits the element of +worship. + +[Footnote 2: Though Mr. Tylor defines religion as the "belief in +spiritual beings," he is not to be charged with making it too much a +matter of the intellect. He uses the word belief in a wide sense as +including the practices it involves. In the word "spiritual," +however, Mr. Tylor brings into the definition his theory of Animism, +and thus makes it unserviceable for those who do not adopt that +theory.] + +[Footnote 3: _Introduction to the Science of Religion_, 1882, p. 13. +The definition was put forward in the year 1873, and in his lectures +on the Origin of Religion, 1882, Mr. Müller adhered to it as being in +the main sound (p. 23).] + +[Footnote 4: _Natural Religion_, 1888, pp. 188, 193.] + +Other scholars have explained religion as the action of the curiosity +of the human mind, of that impulse which prompts man to investigate +the causes of things, and specially to seek for the first cause of +all things. Here we touch what is certainly to be recognised as an +invariable feature of religion; it always professes to explain the +world, and to bring unity to man's mind by clearing up the problems +which perplex him, and affording him a commanding point of view, from +which he may see all the parts of the world and of life fall into +their places. This, however, does not tell us what religion itself +is. This curiosity, this impulse to know, are not specifically +religious; they belong rather to philosophy. Other motives than those +connected with knowledge entered from the first into man's worship. +Curiosity impelled him to seek the first cause of things; in religion +he saw something that promised to explain the world to him, and to +explain him to himself. But it was something more than curiosity that +made him regard that cause, when found, as a god, and pay it +reverence and sacrifice. What is the motive of worship? Wonder, no +doubt, is always present in it, but what is there in it beyond +wonder? No definition of religion can be regarded as complete in +which the motive of worship is left undetermined. That is of the +essence of the matter. There must be a moral as well as an +intellectual quality which is characteristic of religion. What is +religion morally? Acts of worship may be specified in which every +conceivable moral quality seeks to express itself. The most +contradictory motives, pride and anger and revenge, as well as fear +or hunger or contrition, enter into such acts. But if religion is a +matter of sentiment as well as of outward posture, these acts of +worship cannot all be equally entitled to the name, and something is +wanted to complete our definition. + +Fuller Definition.--Let us add what seems to be wanting; and say that +religion is the "worship of higher powers from a sense of need"! This +will remind the reader of Schleiermacher's definition--"a sense of +infinite dependence." It was always objected to that definition, that +it made religion no more than a sentiment, a mood, but that besides +this, it is both belief and action. But the truth Schleiermacher +urged was one of essential importance to the matter. Belief in gods +and acts of worship paid to them do not constitute religion unless +the sentiment, the sense of need, be also there. These three +together, feeling, belief, and will expressing itself in action, +constitute religion both in the lowest and in the highest levels of +civilisation. + +A belief must exist, to take a step farther, that the being +worshipped is capable of supplying what the worshipper requires. Men +do not pray nor bring offerings to beings they suppose to be +incapable of attending to them, or powerless to do them any good or +evil. It is implied in every act of worship that the being addressed +is a power who is able to do for the worshipper what he cannot do for +himself. It is his inability to help himself or to supply his own +needs that sends the worshipper to his god, who has a power he +himself has not. If he could help himself he would not need religion, +if his life were either perfectly prosperous and even, so that there +was nothing left to wish for, or perfectly miserable and +unsuccessful, so that there was no room for hope, he would not resort +to higher powers; but neither of these two being the case, his life +on the contrary being a mixed lot of good and evil, in which there +are blessings his own forces cannot secure, and dangers from which no +efforts of his own can save him, and the belief having arisen within +him, in what way we need not now inquire, that higher powers exist +who can, if they will, defend and prosper him, in this way he has +religion, he keeps up intercourse with higher powers. And thus +religion is not necessarily, even in its most primitive form, a +manifestation of mere selfishness. Though gifts are offered which are +expected to please the higher beings, and though benefits are asked +of which the worshipper is urgently in need, such transactions are +not necessarily sordid any more than similar applications between +human beings, between two friends, or between a parent and a child. +Even the savage living in entire isolation, at war with every one and +conscious of no needs but those of food and shelter, will not seek +benefits from his god without some feeling of attachment, nor without +some sense of strengthened friendship should the benefit be granted +him. When once this sense of friendship has arisen, religion is +present, the man has come to be in living relation with a higher +power, whom he conceives, no doubt, after his own likeness, but +nevertheless as greater than he is. + +This then is what we conceive to be the essence of religion--the +worship of higher powers, from a sense of need; and it is of this +that we are to trace the history though only in the barest outlines. +The definition itself suggests in what way the development may be +expected to work itself out. According as the needs change their +character, of which men are conscious, so will their religion also +change. The gradual elevation and refinement of human needs, in the +growth of civilisation, is the motive force of the development of +religion. The deities themselves, their past history and their +present character, the sacrifices offered to them, and the benefits +aimed at in intercourse with them, all must grow up as man himself +grows, from rudeness to refinement and from caprice to order. At its +lowest, religion is perhaps an individual affair between the savage +and his god, and has to do with material individual needs. At a +higher stage (not always nor even commonly later in time) it is the +affair of a family, of a tribe, or of a combination of tribes, and +with each of these extensions the requests grow broader and less +personal which have to be presented to the deity; the religion +becomes a common worship for public ends. The needs of the nomad are +other than those of the settled agriculturist, and those of the +countryman differ from those of the citizen, and those of the +Laplander from those of the Negro, and these differences will be +reflected in the aspect of the deities and in the observances +celebrated in their honour. When art begins to stir within a nation, +the gods have to adapt themselves to the new taste. As society grows +more humane, cruel and sanguinary religious observances, though they +may long keep a hold of the ignorant and excitable, lose their +support in the public conscience and are sentenced to change or to +extinction. And when a new consciousness of personal human dignity +springs up, and men come to feel the infinite value and the infinite +responsibility of personal life, the old public religion is felt to +be cold and distant, and religious services of a more personal and +more intimate kind are sought for. + +Thus religion and civilisation advance together; according as the +civilisation is in any people, so is its religion. It is vain, +broadly speaking, to look for the combination of primitive manners +and customs with a lofty spiritual faith. The converse it is true may +often seem to take place. Religion, or rather religious creeds and +practices, often seem to lag behind civilisation and to maintain +themselves long after the reason and the conscience of a people has +condemned them. That is because religion is what man values most in +his life, and he is loath to change observances in which his +affections are powerfully engaged. But religion must reflect the +ideals of the society in which it exists; the needs which the society +feels at the time must be the burden of its prayers; its sacrifices +must be such as the general sentiment allows; its gods, to retain the +allegiance of the community, must alter with time and prove +themselves alive and in touch with their people. And if it be the +case that civilisation has on the whole advanced upwards from the +first; if, as Mr. Tylor assures us,[5] man began with his lowest and +has, in spite of occasional declines, on the whole been improving +ever since, then of religion also the same will be true. It also will +be found to begin with its rudest forms and gradually to grow better. +Religion in fact is the inner side of civilisation, and expresses the +essential spirit of human life in various ages and nations. The +religion of a race is the truest expression of its character, and +reflects most faithfully its attitude and aims and policy. The +religion of an age shows what at that time constituted the object of +man's aspiration and endeavour, as older hopes grew pale and new +hopes rose on his sight. Thus the study of the religions of the world +is the study of the very soul of its history; it is the study of the +desires and aspirations which throughout the course of history men +have not been ashamed, nay, which they have been proud and determined +to confess. No more fascinating study could possibly engage us. It is +true that the requirements for the adequate treatment of the subject +are such as few indeed can hope to possess. He who would treat the +history of religion aright ought to know thoroughly the whole of the +history of civilisation; he should have explored the vast domain of +savage life and thought that has recently been opened up to us, and +he should be at home in every century of every nation from the +beginning of history. At a time like this, when new light is being +poured every year on every part of our subject, no statement of it +can be more than tentative and partial. The student will be directed +at each step to sources of fuller information. + +[Footnote 5: _Primitive Culture_, chap. ii.] + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED (GENERAL) + +_Outlines of the History of Religion to the Spread of the Universal +Religions_. By Dr. C. P. Tiele. Translation. In Trübner's Oriental +Series. Very condensed and in somewhat technical language; but the +work of one of the greatest masters of the subject. A full +Bibliography is appended to the various chapters. + +_Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte_, von P. D. Chantepie de la +Saussaye. Freiburg, 1887. The English translation has an altered +title, viz. _Manual of the Science of Religion_, Longmans, 1891. The +Third Edition (1905) is practically a different book, and consists of +studies, each by an expert, of the various religions. + +_Religious Systems of the World_ (Sonnenschein, 1892) is a full +collection of descriptions of the various religions, by persons +specially acquainted with them; of very unequal merit. + +Mr. Max Müller's works cited above, also his more recent volumes of +Gifford Lectures, contain a number of general discussions. + +See also the Gifford Lectures of the late Mr. Ed. Caird, and the late +Prof. Tiele. + +Pfleiderer's _Philosophy of Religion_, 4 vols. + +Pünjer, _Geschichte der christl. Religionsphilosophie_, 2 vols. +1880-83. + +Rauwenhoff, _Wijsbegeerde van den Godsdienst_, 2 vols. 1887 (also in +German). + +M. Jastrow, _The Study of Religion_, 1901. + +L. H. Jordan, _Comparative Religion, its Origin and Growth_, 1905. + +_Revue de l'histoire des religions_, edited by M. J. Réville. + +_Archiv für Religionswissenschaft_, edited by Alb. Dieterich. + +Reinach, Orpheus, _Histoire Générale des Religions_, 1909. + +Hastings, _Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics_, vol. i. A-Art, 1908. + +_The New Schaff-Heizog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge_ has +excellent articles on the various religions. + +Louis H. Jordan, _Comparative Religion_, 1905. An account of the +progress of our study, with extensive bibliography. + +Galloway, _The Principles of Religious Development_, a psychological +and philosophical study, 1909. + +_Proceedings of the Oxford International Congress of the History of +Religions_, 1908. 2 vols. The addresses of the Presidents of the +Sections give a record of the most recent progress in every part of +our study. Of these see, for this chapter, Count Goblet d'Alviella, +vol. ii. pp. 365 _sqq_. on the Method and Scope of the History of +Religion. + + + + +CHAPTER II +THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION + + +Origin of Civilisation.--Every inhabited country, we are assured by +ethnologists, was once peopled by savages; the stone age everywhere +came before the age of metals. Antecedent to every civilisation that +has sprung up on the earth is this dim period, the period of the cave +dwellers and afterwards of the lake dwellers. There can be no +chronology nor any exact knowledge of these early men who lived by +hunting, with stone weapons, animals which are now extinct. How from +his earliest and most helpless state man came in various ways to help +himself; how he discovered fire, how he improved his weapons and +invented tools, how he learned to tame certain of the animals on +which he had formerly made war, and instead of wandering about the +world came to settle in one place and till the soil, and how family +life came to be instituted, and the father as well as the mother to +act as guardian to the children; all that is a vast history, which +must be read in its own place. Immense, indeed, were the labours +early man had to undergo, in wrestling his way up from a life like +that of the brutes to a life in which his own distinctive nature +could begin to display itself. + +It was from the savage state that civilisation was by degrees +produced. The theory that man was originally civilised and humane, +and that it was by a fall, by a degeneration from that earliest +condition, that the state of savagery made its appearance, is now +generally abandoned. There may be instances of such degeneration +having taken place; but on the whole, the conviction now obtains that +civilisation is the result of progressive development, and was the +result man conquered for himself by his age-long struggles with his +environment. That development did not take place in all lands alike. +In some it proceeded faster than in others, and its advances were due +oftener to propagation from without, than to unaided growth from +within; as one race came in contact with another new ideas were +aroused of the possibilities of life in various directions. In some +lands the development has scarcely taken place at all. There remain +to this day races who are judged to be still in the primitive +condition. Not all savage tribes are thought to be in that condition. +The bushmen of Australia, the Andaman Islanders, and others,[1] are +found to be in such a state in point of habits and acquirements that +they must be considered as races which have fallen from a higher +position, and present instances of degeneration. But a multitude of +savage tribes remain in all quarters of the globe who do not appear +to have been thus enfeebled, and who are held to be still in that +state in which the dwellers in all parts of the earth were before +what we now call civilisation began. They are races among whom +civilisation did not spring up, as it did in China or in Peru. From +these races we may learn in a general way, though in this great +caution is required, what the ancestors of all the civilised nations +were. It confirms this conclusion that we find in every civilised +nation a number of phenomena, practices, beliefs, stories, which the +mental condition of the nation as we know it does not account for, +which manifestly are not outgrowths of the civilisation, but relics +of an older state of life, which civilisation has not entirely +obliterated; and that these practices, beliefs, and stories can be +exactly matched by those of the savage races. The inference is drawn +that civilisation has sprung from savage life, that, as Mr. Tylor +says, "the savage state represents the early condition of mankind, +out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed by +causes still in operation." To trace the history of civilisation, +therefore, it is necessary to go back to the earliest knowledge we +have of human life upon the earth, and to ask what germs and +rudiments can be discovered among savages of law, of institutions, of +arts and sciences. Such works as Maine's _Ancient Law_, Tylor's +_Primitive Culture_, Lubbock's _Origin of Civilisation_, show how +fruitful this method is, and what floods of light it pours on the +history of society. + +[Footnote 1: Instances in Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, chap. ii., +where the theory of degeneration is fully discussed.] + +Now what is true of civilisation generally will be true also of +religion, which is one of its principal elements. If every country +was once inhabited by savages, then the original religion of every +country must have been a religion of savages; and in the later +religion there will be features which have been carried on from the +earlier one. This, indeed, we must in any case expect to find. No new +religion can enter on its career on a soil quite unprepared, on which +no gods have been worshipped before. (That would imply that there had +been races in the world without religion, on which we shall speak +presently.) A new faith has always to begin by adjusting itself to +that which it found in possession of the soil, and it always adopts +what it can of the old system. We should expect then that the great +religions of the world should exhibit features which do not belong to +their own structure, but which they inherited, with or against their +will, from their uncivilised predecessors. And that is the case, as +we shall see afterwards, with all the great religions. They are all +full of survivals of the savage state. The old religious associations +cling to the face of a land and refuse to be uprooted, whatever +changes take place among the gods above. Superstitious practices +continue among a race long after a truth has been preached there with +which they are entirely inconsistent. Stories are long told about the +gods, quite out of keeping with their character in the theology of +the new faith, pointing to a time when not so much was expected of a +god. In Mr. Lang's _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, the reader will find +an admirable collection of material showing how the popular elements +of an old religion survive in a new one in which they are quite out +of place. There is none of the great religions to which this does not +apply. + +Now, if it be the case that each of the great religions has been +built upon a primitive religion formerly occupying the same ground, +it might appear that we must, in order to understand any of the great +religions, study first, in each case, the savage system which it +superseded. It would be a serious prospect for the student if he had +to make a separate study of a set of savage beliefs as an approach to +each of the ten or twelve great religions. But this, as we shall see +afterwards, is not the case. There is a great family likeness in the +religions of savages, and we may even allow ourselves to speak not of +the religions but of the religion of early races. In the next chapter +an attempt will be made to describe that religion; but we may say +here that there are some features which are generally, though by no +means always found in it, and that these features may be regarded for +practical purposes as the religion of the primitive world, which +everywhere was the forerunner of the great systems. This is the +jungle, as it were, overspreading all the early world, out of which +like giant trees the great religions arose, and from which they +derived and still derive a nourishment they cannot disown. Indeed, we +may go much farther. In some of their leading doctrines, the great +religions show the most striking affinity with one another. China and +Egypt have some doctrines in common which are also found in the +religion of the Incas; the Aryan and the Semitic religions know them +too. Should these doctrines be found in the religion of savages, it +will at least be a question whether the great religions all alike +borrowed and developed them from that source, or whether any other +explanation of the case can be found. Evidently we cannot make any +progress with our subject till we have taken a general view of this +religion of savages and come to some conclusions regarding it. + +A few words must be said, by way of preface to this subject, on the +mental habits of early races. We cannot hope to understand the +thoughts of those people without knowing how they came to have such +thoughts, how they were accustomed to think. Now of the savage we may +say that he is just like a child who has not yet learned to think +correctly, or to know things truly. He is making all kinds of +experiments in thought, and being led into all sorts of errors and +confusion; and if the child takes years, the savage may take +millenniums, to get free from these. He does not know the difference +between one thing and another, between himself and the lower animals, +or between an animal and a water-spout. He does not know how far +things are away from him, nor what makes them move and act as they +do; why, for example, the sun and moon go round the sky, or why the +wind blows. He cannot tell why things have this or that peculiar +appearance; why, for example, the rabbit has no tail, why the sky is +red in the morning, why some stones are like men. And he wants to +know all these things, and is for ever asking questions. But almost +any answer will do for him, the first explanation that turns up is +accepted; and while a child finds out pretty soon if he has been told +wrong, the savage is so ignorant that he cannot see the absurdest +explanation to be false, but sticks to it seriously and goes on using +it. There is no consistency in the contents of his mind, and +inconsistency does not distress him. He has no classes and orders of +things, but considers each thing by itself as it occurs, without +putting it in its place with reference to other things. He has no +idea of what is possible and what is impossible; these words in fact +would have no meaning for him, since he is not aware of any laws by +which events are governed. His imagination, accordingly, is not under +any restraint; he hits upon all kinds of grotesque theories, and, +having no critical faculty to test them, he repeats them and +seriously believes them. The stories of the nursery, in which there +are no impossibilities, in which a man may visit the sun and the +winds in their homes and find them at their broth, in which the +beasts can speak, in which the witch or the fairy knows at any +distance what is going on and can turn up just at the nick of time, +in which ghosts walk, in which anything can be changed into anything, +a hero going through half a dozen transformations to escape from so +many dangers,--these are to the savage not incredible nor foolish +tales, to him they are very real, and very serious matters. He lives, +in fact, we are told by the authorities on the subject, in the +myth-making period of the world; in the period when such incidents as +occur in the tales of fairyland and in the stories of mythology are +matter of common belief, and even, it is thought, of common +experience, so that when the story is put in a good form, it lives +and is believed as a true record of what has actually taken place. + +On one feature of the savage imagination in particular we must fix +our attention. The savage regards all things as animated,--as +animated with a life like his own. Of his own life he has no very +exalted idea; he has no notion how different he really is from +anything around him; as he is himself, so he supposes other beings to +be also, not only the animals but the trees and all that moves and +even what does not move, even rocks and stones. He is living himself; +he regards all these as living too. He imagines them like himself, +and supposes them to have feelings and passions like his own, to +reason as he does, and even if he is told they speak as he does, that +is not incredible to him. Thus he lives in a world of infinite +confusion, in which there are no laws, no classes of beings, no means +of knowing what may happen, or of verifying any statement, where +every effort of fancy may be believed. The mental world of savages +has been compared to the ravings of a whole world turned lunatic. We +survey it, however, without horror, because we know that reason is +not unseated there, but striving towards her kingdom. That is the +experience that had to be gone through, these are part of the +experiments, such as every child has still to make, by which the +knowledge of the world is gradually arrived at. + +Amid this apparent universal confusion a certain consistency of view +is to be observed. It might be expected that the savage habit of +thought, acting independently in different parts of the world, would +lead to an infinite number of divergent and inconsistent views of the +nature of things and of man's place in the world. But this is not +found to be the case. Mr. Lang accounts as follows for the diffusion +of the same stories all over the world: "An ancient identity of +mental status, and the working of similar mental forces at the +attempt to explain the same phenomena, will account without any +theory of borrowing, or of transmission of myth, or of original unity +of race, for the world-wide diffusion of many mythical conceptions." +Mr. Tylor says that the same imaginative processes regularly recur, +that world-wide myths show the regularity and the consistency of the +human imagination. M. Réville, in his _Religions des peuples +non-civilisés_, remarks that the character of savage religions is +everywhere the same; that only the forms vary. + +Now of the things that all savages possess, certainly religion is +one. It is practically agreed that religion, the belief in and +worship of gods, is universal at the savage stage; and the accounts +which some travellers have given of tribes without religion are +either set down to misunderstanding, or are thought to be +insufficient to invalidate the assertion that religion is a universal +feature of savage life. + +How did it get there? How comes it that men so near the lowest human +state, so devoid of all that has been since acquired, should yet be +found to have this mode of thought universally diffused among them? + +It has been ascribed to a primitive revelation. At the beginning, it +is said, God, with the other gifts He gave to man, gave him religion; +that is to say, gave him not only a disposition for reverence and +piety, but a certain amount of religious knowledge, so that he set +out with a stock of religious ideas which were not elaborated by his +own efforts, but bestowed on him ready made. It is impossible, +however, to conceive how this could be done. If the religion given at +first was a lofty and pure one,--and no other need be thought of in +such a connection,--then it implies a condition of human life far +above the struggles and uncertainties of savage existence; and both +the civilisation and the religion must have been lost afterwards. But +how could all mankind forget a pure religion? Mankind in that case +cannot have been fit for the possession of it; it was given +prematurely. No. The history of early civilisation is the history of +a struggle in which man has everything to conquer, and in which he is +not remembering something he had lost, but advancing by new routes to +a land he never reached before. And if civilisation was won for the +first time, so was religion. + +We may also put aside the theory that man had religion from the first +as an innate idea, that he found information all ready and prepared +in his mind of what it was proper to do in this direction, and how it +was to be done. There was indeed a suggestion from within; but it was +due not to any special faculty lying outside the essential structure +of human nature, but to the constitution of the human mind itself. We +cannot go into the philosophical question of the basis of religion in +the human mind.[2] It would seem to be a psychological necessity. At +all stages of his existence the world of which man is aware outside +him, and the world of feelings and desires within him are in +conflict. But the conviction lives within him that in some way they +can be brought into harmony, and that a power exists which rules in +both of these discordant realms and in which, if he can identify +himself with it, he also will escape from their discord. If this be +so, then this necessity to seek after a higher power must have begun +to operate as soon as human consciousness appeared. The savage +certainly was never unacquainted with the discrepancy between what he +wanted and what the world would give him, between the inner man so +full of desires and plans, and that outward nature which denied him +his desires and thwarted his plans, and before which he felt so +feeble and insecure. He also could not but be driven, if his life was +to go on at all on any tolerable basis, to believe in something that +had to do both with the world outside him and with the world of his +heart, in a being which both had sympathy with his desires and power +to give effect to them outwardly. + +[Footnote 2: See on this subject Prof. Edward Caird's Gifford +Lectures, _The Evolution of Religion_, 1893. Galloway, _The +Principles of Religious Development_.] + +The whole of the early world did entertain such a belief. This is the +first and the most important instance of uniformity of thought at a +stage through which every nation once passed; all men at that stage +believe in gods. We will not refuse the name of religion to this side +of savage life, even should the needs be low and material which send +the savage to his god, though his god be a being who in us would +excite the very opposite of reverence, and though his treatment of +his god be far from what to us seems worthy, or even though he strove +to appease a multitude of spirits which he conceived as flitting +about him, before he came to form a settled relation of confidence +with one being whom he took for his own god. Where the sense of need +has sent a human being to hold intercourse with a higher power, there +we hold religion is making its appearance. And if this is universally +the case among men at the savage stage, then religion is universal +among the ancestors of all nations; it did not need to be invented +when kings and priests appeared and wanted it as an instrument for +their own purposes; it was there before there were any kings or +priests, and is an inheritance which has come down to all mankind +from the time when human intelligence first turned to the effort to +understand the world. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_For this and the three following chapters_ + +J. B. Tylor, _Anthropology_, Third Edition, 1891. + +J. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, Fourth Edition, 1903. + +Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, Third Edition, 1900. A new edition is now +appearing in parts. + +A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, new edition, 1899. + +Th. Achelis, in De la Saussaye. + +Waitz und Gerland, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, 1859-72. + +Brinton, _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, 1897. + +The reports of travellers and missionaries are, of course, important. + + + + +CHAPTER III +THE EARLIEST OBJECTS OF WORSHIP + + +We must now make some attempt to set forth the principal features of +the religion of savages. It is an attempt of some difficulty; for +savage religion is an immense and bewildering jungle of all manner of +extraordinary growths. It is described in detail in large books and +if we try to sum it up in a short statement, we may be told that +essential features have been omitted. No one set of savages has +anything that can be called a system, and different sets of savages +are not alike. For the present purpose we are obliged to include +under the name, tribes who occupy various positions in the scale of +human advancement, and tribes in all sorts of geographical positions, +in hot climates and in cold, both rude savages and those who are +nobler; and these will, of course, have a variety of ideas and needs, +and in so far, different religions. After reading such a book as Mr. +Frazer's _Golden Bough_, or turning over the pages of Waitz and +Gerland's _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, one is inclined to regard +it as a hopeless task to reduce savage religion to any compact +statement. + +Mr. Tylor's orderly collections, in his great book _Primitive +Culture_, of materials bearing on different features of early +religion are a help for which the student cannot be sufficiently +thankful. After all, it is not the whole of savage religion that we +are responsible for here, but only those parts of it that grew and +survived in higher faiths. Remembering what has been said as to the +uniformity of savage thought amid its great variety of forms, and +looking for those parts of it which have proved to have life in them, +rather than for what is merely curious and grotesque, we may venture +on our task not without hope. In the present chapter we shall inquire +what beings savages worship as gods. Of these we shall find that +there are several classes; and it will be necessary to notice the +great discussions which have arisen on the question which of these +classes of deities was first worshipped by man. The objects +worshipped by men in low stages of civilisation may be arranged in +four classes, viz.-- + + 1. Parts of nature (_a_) great, (_b_) small. + 2. Spirits of ancestors and other spirits. + 3. Objects supposed to be haunted by spirits (fetish-worship). + 4. A Supreme Being. + +1. Nature-worship.--It is not difficult to realise why early man +turned to the great elements of nature as beings who could help him, +and whom he ought, therefore, to cultivate. The farther we go back in +civilisation, the less protection has man against the weather, the +more do his subsistence and his comfort depend on the action of the +sun, the winds, the rain. If, according to the habits of early +thought, he conceived these beings as living like himself and as +guided by feelings and motives similar to his own, he could not fail +to wish to open up communication with them. That simple view, that +they were living beings with feelings like his own, was enough to go +upon. In his anxieties for food or warmth he could not fail to think +of the beings who, he had observed, had power to supply him with +these comforts, of the rain which he had noticed was able to make +food grow, of the sun whose warmth he knew. The thunderstorm was a +being who had power to put an end to a long drought; the winds could +break the trees, could dry up the wet earth, or could bring rain. +Heaven was over all, and the Earth was the supporter and fertile +producer of all; from her all life came. The moon as well as the sun +was a friendly power, nay, in some climates, more friendly. Fire was +a living being certainly, on whom much depended; and so was the great +lake or the ocean. This is what M. Réville calls the great +Nature-worship, in comparison with the minor Nature-worship to be +noticed presently. + +We do not now enter on the subject of mythology; that is to say, of +the names men very early began to give to the great natural objects +of worship, the characters they ascribed to them, the stories they +told about them. That process of myth-making began very early, and is +to be found at work in every part of the world. But at first it was +simply the natural being itself, conceived as living, that was +worshipped, not a spirit or a person thought to dwell in it. Of this, +abundant evidence has survived in the great religions. Jupiter is +just the sky, the Greek god Helios is just the sun, and the goddess +Selene the moon. In China heaven itself is worshipped to this day. +The Babylonians worshipped the stars. The Vedic gods are primarily +the elements. From savage life examples of this earliest state of +matters can also be quoted, though mythology has nearly everywhere +greatly confused it. The Mincopies adore the sun as a beneficent +deity, the moon as an inferior god. To the Natchez the sun is the +supreme god; with some tribes of North America the chief god is +heaven blowing, the sky with a wind in it, what Longfellow calls the +"Great Spirit" or blowing. The Incas invoked together the Creator and +the Sun and Thunder. Thunder was one of the great gods of the +Germans. The Samoyede bows to the Sun every morning and every evening +and says. "When thou arisest I also arise; when thou settest I also +betake myself to rest." To the Ojibways Fire is a divine being, to be +well entertained, with whom no liberties must be taken. In every land +men are to be found who worship the Earth as a great deity, calling +her by her own name and serving her with suitable rites. In the +_Prometheus_ of Ĉschylus the hero addresses his appeal as follows to +the beings he regards as gods of old race who will sympathise with +him against the upstart Zeus:-- + + Ether of Heaven and Winds untired of wing, + Rivers whose fountains fail not, and thou Sea, + Laughing in waves innumerable! O Earth, + All-mother!--Yea and on the Sun I call, + Whose orb scans all things; look on me and see + How I, a god, am wronged by gods. + _Lewis Campbell_, line 85 _sq_. + +The minor Nature-worship has to do with rivers and springs, with +trees and groves, with crops and fruits, with rocks and stones, and +with the lower animals. Here also we must bear in mind the habit of +mind of early man, who regarded all things as animated and as like +himself. It was not necessary for one who thought in this way to +suppose that the spring was haunted by a nymph or the oak inhabited +by a dryad, before he felt that the spring or the oak had a claim on +him, and brought offerings to secure their friendship. The Nile and +the Ganges did not become sacred by having a mythical being added to +them as their spirit; they were themselves sacred beings. Every +country is studded with names which reveal to the scholar the +primeval sanctity of the spots they belong to; the mountain, the +grove, and the individual tree, the rocky gorge, the rock, the grassy +knoll, each was once an object of reverence. Britain is full of +sacred wells, which once received prayers and offerings. There is no +animal that has not once been worshipped. A marked feature of +primitive life also is the worship of nature not in its particular +objects but in its living processes. In a multitude of curious rites, +some of which still survive in local usages, and have only recently +been explained, primitive man brought himself into relations with +nature in its growth, decay, and resurrection. He sympathised with it +and imitated it, and he thus sought to make himself sure of the +benefits which he saw bestowed by some power which he apprehended in +its processes and believed able to further him. + +2. Ancestor-worship.--A set of beings of a very different kind comes +next. If man found in the world which he beheld outside him a number +of objects he could make gods, his domestic experience forced him to +consider certain beings of a different kind, of whom the outward +world could tell him nothing. The worship of the dead, of ancestors, +is diffused throughout nearly the whole of antiquity, it is practised +by most savages. Man at an early stage does not fully realise the +meaning of death. He interprets death after the analogy of dreams, in +which he judges that the spirit leaves the body and traverses distant +regions, coming back to the body again when the journey is ended. A +vision is to him an instance of the same thing. He sees a friend, +who, he afterwards learns, was far from him at the time, and he +judges that it was the spirit of his friend which visited him. Thus +there arises in his mind the conception of a human spirit which is +able to leave the body and dwell at a distance from it. It is called +by various names,--the shade, the image, the heart, as perhaps when +Elisha says his heart went with Gehazi when he went to meet Naaman +the Syrian (2 Kings v. 26), the breath, the soul. When the breath or +spirit goes away and stays away (in spite of efforts made to bring it +back) the man dies. But the spirit is not dead. It has gone away and +is staying somewhere else. The spirit resembles the body in shape, +but it is of a thin and light consistence, and is able to move about +and to pass through the smallest openings, to make unpleasant noises, +and to cause its presence to be felt in a variety of ways. In the +very earliest times, the savage regards the spirit which has left the +house as an enemy, and uses a variety of precautions to keep it from +coming back to trouble him (vampires, ghosts, _lemures_). Whether +from such fear or from more liberal motives, much is done to please +the spirits of the departed and to increase their comfort in the +abodes to which they have gone. At their burial or cremation all they +may be supposed to want where they are going, _i.e._ the things they +used on earth, are made to accompany them; food and weapons are +placed beside them; servants are killed whose spirits are to wait on +them, even a wife, voluntarily or without being asked, gives up her +earthly life to accompany her husband. Offerings of food and drink +are made to them afterwards, prayers are addressed to them, memorials +of them, of various kinds, are preserved in the houses they occupied. + +It was the universal belief of the early world that the person +continued to exist after the death of the body; and this furnished +the materials for a religion which was more widely prevalent in +antiquity than the worship of any god. In some forms of it, indeed, +the spirit appears to have been treated as an enemy, and this worship +might be judged to fall short of religion, which is the cultivation, +not the avoidance, of intercourse with higher powers. The savage has +no hope from the spirit, and does not seek his intercourse. But in +most forms of the belief in the continued life of the departed, other +sentiments than fear prevail; natural affection is felt for the lost +relative; the ancestor represents the family, to which the individual +is called to subordinate and to some extent even to sacrifice +himself; the spirit of the dead is the upholder of a family tradition +which the living must hold sacred. Even in those cases in which +nothing but fear is apparent, these latter sentiments may also be to +some extent operative. + +3. Fetish-worship.--The early world has still another kind of deity. +In the case of all those we have considered, the god stands in some +respect above the worshipper; man reverences the sun, spirit, or +animal, for some quality in them that is admirable or that gives them +a hold over him; they are in some ways beyond him. Among certain sets +of savages, however, notably in South Africa, this feature of +religion partially disappears, and objects are reverenced not for any +intrinsic quality in them that makes them worthy of regard, but +because of a spirit which is supposed to be connected with them. +Stones, trees, twigs, pieces of bark, roots, corn, claws of birds, +teeth, skin, feathers, articles of human manufacture, any conceivable +object, will be held in reverence by the savage and regarded as +embodying a spirit. Anything that strikes his fancy as being out of +the common he will take up and add to his museum of objects, each of +which has in it a hidden power. That power, be it repeated, is not +connected with the natural quality of the object, but is due to a +spirit which has come to reside in it, and which may very possibly +leave it again. Having chosen this deity and set it up for worship, +the man can use it as he thinks fit. He addresses prayers to it and +extols its virtues; but should his enterprise not prosper, he will +cast his deity aside as useless, and cease to worship it; he will +address it with torrents of abuse, and will even beat it, to make it +serve him better. It is a deity at his disposal, to serve in the +accomplishment of his desires; the individual keeps gods of his own +to help him in his undertakings. + +The name "fetishism," by which this kind of worship is known, is of +Portuguese origin; it is derived from _feitiço_, "made," "artificial" +(compare the old English _fetys_, used by Chaucer); and this term, +used of the charms and amulets worn in the Roman Catholic religion of +the period, was applied by the Portuguese sailors of the eighteenth +century to the deities they saw worshipped by the negroes of the West +Coast of Africa. De Brosses, a French savant of last century, brought +the word fetishism into use as a term for the type of religion of the +lowest races. The word has given rise to some confusion, having been +applied by Comte and other writers to the worship of the heavenly +bodies and of the great features of nature. It is best to limit it, +as has been done above, to the worship of such natural objects as are +reverenced not for their own power or excellence but because they are +supposed to be occupied each by a spirit. + +Can this be called religion? In the full sense of the term it cannot. +We should remember that it is not the casual object, but the spirit +connected with it that the savage worships; but even then we shall be +obliged to hold that the fetish worshipper is rather seeking after +religion than actually in possession of it. + +4. A Supreme Being.--Is it necessary to add another class of deity to +these three, and to say that besides nature-gods and spirits early +man also worshipped a Supreme Being above all these? In most savage +religions there is a principal deity to whom the others are +subordinate. But if we carefully examine one by one the supreme gods +of these religions, we shall find reason to doubt whether they really +have a common character so as to form a class by themselves. Many of +them are nature gods who have outgrown the other deities of that +class and come to occupy an isolated position. The North American +Indians, as we saw, worship the Great Spirit, the heaven with its +breath, to whom sun and moon and other ordinances of nature act as +ministers. In many cases heaven is the highest god. In others again +the sun is supreme. Ukko the great god of the Finns is a heaven- and +rain-god. Perkunas the god of the Lithuanians is connected with +thunder. On the other hand there are instances in which the supreme +god appears to be a different being from the nature-god. The +Samoyedes worship the sun and moon and the spirits of other parts of +nature; but they also believe in a good spirit who is above all. The +Supreme Being of the islands of the Pacific bears in New Zealand the +name of Tangaroa, and is spoken of in quite metaphysical terms as the +uncreated and eternal Creator. Here we may suspect Christian +influence. With the Zulus Unkulunkulu the Old-old one might be +supposed to be a kind of first cause. But on looking nearer we find +he is distinctly a man, the first man, the common ancestor; beyond +which idea speculation does not seem to go. Among many North American +tribes it is usual to find an animal the chief deity, the hare or the +musk-rat or the coyote. It is very common to find in savage beliefs a +vague far-off god who is at the back of all the others, takes little +part in the management of things, and receives little worship. But it +is impossible to judge what that being was at an earlier time; he may +have been a nature-god or a spirit who has by degrees grown faint and +come to occupy this position. We cannot judge from the supreme beings +of savages, such as they are, that the belief in a supreme being was +generally diffused in the world[1] in the earliest times, and is not +to be derived from any of the processes from which the other gods +arose. We shall see afterwards how natural the tendency is which, +where there are several gods, brings one of them to the front while +the others lose importance. For a theory of primitive monotheism the +supreme gods of savages certainly do not furnish sufficient evidence; +they do not appear to have sprung all from the same source, but to +have advanced from very different quarters to the supreme position, +in obedience to that native instinct of man's mind which causes him, +even when he believes in many gods, to make one of them supreme. + +[Footnote 1: _Cf._ A. Lang, _The Making of Religion_ (1898); +Galloway, _Studies in the Philosophy of Religion_ (1904), p. 123, +_sqq._] + +Which Gods were First Worshipped?--If then early man formed his gods +from parts of nature and from spirits of departed ancestors or +heroes, and even, should the more backward races now existing +represent a stage of human life belonging to the early world, from +spirits residing in outward objects, which of these is the original +root of all the religions of the world? The claim has been made for +each of these kinds of religion, that it came first. + +1. Fetish-gods came First.--Till recently the view prevailed that all +the religion of the world has sprung out of fetishism. First the +savage took for his god some casual object, as we have described, +then he chose higher objects, trees and mountains, rivers and lakes, +and even the sun and stars. The heavens at last became his supreme +fetish, and at a higher level, when he had learned about spirits, he +would make a spirit his fetish, and so at last come to Monotheism. + +This view is attractive because it places the beginning of religion +in the lowest known form of it and thus makes for the belief that the +course of the world's faith has been upward from the first. But it +presents the gravest difficulties; for why should the savage make a +god of a stick or a stone, and attribute to it supernatural powers? +Who told him about a god, that he should call a stick god, or about +supernatural powers, that he should suppose a stick to work wonders? +There is nothing in the stick to suggest such notions; that he should +make gods in this way, that the belief in wonderful powers should +originate in this way, is surely quite incredible. Much more likely +is it, surely, that he got the notion of God from some other quarter +and applied it in his own grotesque and degraded way; than that the +notion of God was taken first from such poor forms and applied +afterwards to objects better suited to it. Religion and civilisation +go hand in hand, and if civilisation can decay (and leading +anthropologists declare that the debased tribes of Australia and West +Africa show signs of a higher civilisation they have lost) then +religion also may decay. A lower race may borrow religious ideas from +a higher and adapt them to their own position, _i.e._ degrade them. +And the progress of religion may still have been upwards on the +whole, although retrograde movements have taken place in certain +races. On these and other grounds it is now held with growing +certainty that fetishism cannot be the original form of religion, and +that the higher stages of it are not to be derived from that one. The +races among whom fetishism is found exhibit a well-known feature of +the decadence of religion, namely that the great god or gods have +grown weak and faint, and smaller gods and spirits have crowded in to +fill up the blank thus caused. Worship is transferred from the great +beings who are the original gods of the tribe and whom it still +professes in a vague way to believe, to numerous smaller beings, and +from the good gods to the bad. + +2. Spirits, Human or Quasi-human, came First.--Is the worship of +spirits then the original form of religions. This has been powerfully +maintained in this country by Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Tylor. +According to Mr. Spencer "the rudimentary form of all religion is the +propitiation of dead ancestors." Men concluded, as soon as they were +capable of such reasoning, that the life they witnessed in plants and +animals, in sun and moon and other parts of nature, was due to their +being inhabited by the spirits of departed men. With all respect for +the splendid exposition given by Mr. Spencer[2] of the early beliefs +of mankind regarding spirits, it is impossible to think that he has +made out his case when he treats the gods of early India and of +Greece as deified ancestors. If the natural incredulity we feel at +being told that Jupiter, Indra, the sun, the sacred mountain, and the +stars all alike came to be worshipped because each of them +represented some departed human hero, is not at once decisive, we +have only to wait a little to see whether some other theory cannot +account for these gods in a simpler way. + +[Footnote 2: _Sociology_, vol. i. Also _Ecclesiastical Institutions_, +p. 675; "ghost-propitiation is the origin of all religions."] + +Mr. Tylor also derives all religion from the worship of spirits, but +in a different way. His is the most comprehensive system of Animism, +using that term in the narrower sense of soul-worship. Starting from +the doctrine of souls, reached by early man in the way described +above (p. 33, _sqq._), he argues that when once this notion was +reached it would be applied to other beings as well as man. Not +having learned to distinguish himself clearly from other beings, man +would judge that they had souls like his own; and so every part of +nature came to have its soul, and everything that went on in the +universe was to be explained as the activity of souls. It was in this +way, according to Mr. Tylor, that the view of the universal animation +of nature, characteristic of early thought, was reached. "As the +human body was held to live and act by virtue of its own inhabiting +spirit-soul, so the operations of the world seemed to be carried on +by other spirits." At this point the soul is an unsubstantial essence +inhabiting a body, it has its life and activity only in connection +with the body; but the step was easily taken to the further belief in +spirits like the souls, but not attached to any body. The spirits +moved about freely, like the genii, demons, fairies, and beings of +all kinds, with whom to the mind of antiquity the world was so +crowded. + +Three classes of spirits we have up to this point: those of +ancestors, those attached to the various parts of the life of nature, +and those existing independently. Can the higher nature-deities be +accounted for by this theory as well as the minor spirits of the +parts of nature? Mr. Tylor considers that they can; he declares that +the "higher deities of polytheism have their place in the general +animistic system of mankind." He acknowledges that, with few +exceptions, great gods have a place as well as smaller gods in every +non-civilised system of religion. But in origin and essence he holds +they are the same. "The difference is rather of rank than of nature." +As chiefs and kings are among men so are the great gods among the +lesser spirits. The sun, the heavens, the stars, are living beings, +because they have spirits as man has a soul, or as a spring has a +spirit that haunts it. Thus in the doctrine of souls is found the +origin of the whole of early religion. Mr. Tylor confesses, however, +that it is impossible to trace the process by which the doctrine of +souls gave rise to the belief in the great gods. + +The weakness of this view is that it involves a denial that the great +powers of nature could be worshipped before the process of reasoning +had been completed which led to the belief that they had souls or +spirits. But how did early man regard these great powers before this? +Did they not appear to him adorable by the very impressions they made +upon his various senses? Did he really need to argue out the belief +that they had souls, before he felt drawn to wonder at them, and to +seek to enter into relations with them? + +Animism.--The word Animism, it should here be noticed, is used in the +study of religions in a wider sense than that of Mr. Tylor. Many of +the great religions are known to have arisen out of a primitive +worship of spirits and to have advanced from that stage to a +worship of gods. The god differs from the spirit in having a marked +personal character, while the spirits form a vague and somewhat +undistinguishable crowd; in having a regular _clientèle_ of +worshippers, whereas the spirit is only served by those who need to +communicate with him; in having therefore a regular worship, while +the spirit is only worshipped when the occasion arises; and in being +served from feelings of attachment and trust, and not like the +spirits from fear. When gods appear, some writers hold, then and not +till then does religion begin; before that point is reached magic and +exorcism are the forms used for addressing the unseen beings, but +when it is reached we have worship; intercourse is deliberately +sought with beings who hold regular relations with man. The word +Animism is best employed to denote the worship of spirits as +distinguished from that of gods. Whether or not early man derived his +belief in the multitude of spirits by which he believed himself to be +surrounded, from his belief in the separable human soul, there is no +doubt that he did consider himself to be so surrounded. Animism in +this sense is undoubtedly the beginning of some at least of the great +religions. + +3. The Minor Nature-worship came First.--M. Réville holds[3] that the +tree and the river and other such beings were the first gods, and +that the deification of the great powers of nature came afterwards as +an extension of the same principle. Mr. Max Müller seems to share +this view when he says that man was led from the worship of +semi-tangible objects, which provided him with semi-deities, to that +of intangible objects, which gave him deities proper. The Germans, as +a rule, hold the view that the great nature-worship came first, and +that the sanctity of the tree and the river came to them from above, +these objects being regarded as lesser living beings deserving to be +worshipped as well as the greater ones. The English school let the +sanctity of these objects come to them as it were from below; when +man has come to believe in spirits, he concludes that they have +spirits too, and worships the spirits he supposes to dwell in them. +It does not seem that these theories are entirely exclusive of each +other. French writers suppose that the minor nature-worship first +sprang up of itself, half-animal man respecting the animals as +rivals, the trees as fruit-bearers for his hunger, and so on, and +that spirits were added to these beings when the great animistic +movement of thought in which these writers believe took place, of +course at a very early period.[4] + +[Footnote 3: Réville, _Histoire des religions des peuples +non-civilisés_, ii. 225.] + +[Footnote 4: This view is the basis of M. André Lefèvre's _La +Religion_. Paris, 1892.] + +4. The Great Nature-powers came First.--We come in the last place to +that class of deities which we spoke of first--the powers of nature. +By several great writers it is held that the worship of these is the +original form of all religion. We shall give two of the leading +theories on the subject, that of Mr. Max Müller and that of Ed. von +Hartmann. + +Mr. Max Müller has written very strongly against the view that +fetishism is a primary form of religion, and holds that the worship +of casual objects is not a stage of religion once universally +prevalent, but is, on the contrary, a parasitical development and of +accidental origin. He does not tell us what the original religion of +mankind was. The work in which he deals most directly with this +question[5] is concerned chiefly with the Indian faith, the early +stages of which he regards as the most typical instance of the growth +of religion generally. He does not, however, tell us definitely out +of what earlier kind of religion that of the Aryans grew, which India +best teaches us to know, or what religion they had before they +developed that of the Vedic hymns. We may infer, however, what his +view on this point is from the very interesting sketch he draws of +the psychological advance man could make, in selecting objects of +reverence, from one class of things to another (p. 179, _sqq._). +First, there are tangible objects, which, however, Mr. Max Müller +denies that mankind as a whole ever did worship; such things as +stones, shells, and bones. Then second, semi-tangible objects; such +as trees, mountains, rivers, the sea, the earth, which supply the +material for what may be called _semi-deities_. And third, intangible +objects, such as the sky, the stars, the sun, the dawn, the moon; in +these are to be seen the germs of _deities_. At each of these stages +man is seeking not for something finite but for the infinite; from +the first he has a presentiment of something far beyond; he grasps +successive objects of worship not for themselves but for what they +seem to tell of, though it is not there, and this sense of the +infinite, even in poor and inadequate beliefs, is the germ of +religion in him. When he rises after his long journey to fix his +regards on the great powers of nature, he apprehends in them +something great and transcendent. He applies to them great titles; he +calls them _devas_, shining ones; _asuras_, living ones; and, at +length, _amartas_, immortal ones. At first these were no more than +descriptive titles, applied to the great visible phenomena of nature +as a class. They expressed the admiration and wonder the young mind +of man felt itself compelled to pay to these magnificent beings. But +by giving them these names he was led instinctively to regard them as +persons; he ascribed to them human attributes and dramatic actions, +so that they became definite, transcendent, living personalities. In +these, more than in any former objects of his adoration, his craving +for the infinite was satisfied. Thus the ancient Aryan advanced, +"from the visible to the invisible, from the bright beings that could +be touched, like the river that could be seen, like the thunder that +could be heard, like the sun, to the devas that could no longer be +touched or heard or seen.... The way was traced out by nature +herself." + +[Footnote 5: _Lectures on the Origin of Religion_, 1882.] + +This famous theory is, when we come to examine it, rather puzzling. +It does not account for the first beginnings of religion except by +inference, and it does so in two contradictory ways; for, on the one +hand, Mr. Max Müller enumerates tangible objects first as those from +which men rose to higher objects, and on the other he denies that +fetishism is a primitive formation. He suggests that there were +earlier gods than the devas, but he tells us nothing about them, +except that they were not fully deities; they were only semi-deities, +or not deities at all. The worship of spirits he leaves entirely out +of consideration; religion did not, in his view, begin with Animism. +When he does tell us of the beginnings of religion, what is his view? +The religion of the Aryans began, and it is a type--the other +religions presumably began in the same way, _e.g._ those of China and +of Egypt--by the impression made on man from without by great natural +objects co-operating with his inner presentiment of the infinite, +which they met to a greater degree than any objects he had tried +before. Religion was due accordingly to ĉsthetic impressions from +without, answering an ĉsthetic and intellectual inner need. Those +needs, then, which led men to make gods of the great powers of earth +and heaven were not of an animal or material nature, but belonged to +the intellectual part of his constitution. Those who framed such a +religion for themselves must have been raised above the pressing +necessities and cares of savage life; they were not absorbed in the +task of making their living, but had leisure to stand and admire the +heavenly bodies, and to analyse the impressions made on them by the +waters and the thunder. Nay, they had sufficient power of abstraction +to form a class of such great beings, to bestow on them a common +title, not only one but several progressive common titles, each +expressing a deeper reflection than the last. Thus did they reflect +on the nature of the cosmic powers, taken as a class. This, +evidently, is not the beginning of religion. It is the religion of a +comparatively lofty civilisation; lower stages of civilisation, and +of religion also, must have preceded this one. Even the heavenly +bodies, it appears to many scholars, must have been worshipped by men +who regarded them not with ĉsthetic admiration and intellectual +satisfaction only, but in the light of more pressing and practical +interests. + +We take Edward von Hartmann as the representative of those who, like +Mr. Max Müller, trace the origin of religion to the worship of the +heavenly powers, but who carry back that worship to the earliest +stage. Writers who disagree with his philosophy take grave exception +to his treatment of religion, for he regards religion, as he +considers consciousness itself, not as an original and inseparable +element of human nature, but as a thing acquired by man on his way +upwards; and he finds the original motive of religion to have lain in +egoistic eudĉmonism, in the selfish desire of happiness, which at +that stage of man's life determined all his actions. The account, +however, given by Von Hartmann of the beginning of religion in the +adoration of the powers of nature is of singular freshness and power, +and we can deduct from it, after stating it, the peculiarities +arising out of his philosophical system. + +The first religion that existed in the world had for its objects the +heavenly powers. The objects worshipped are known, indeed, before +religion begins; the illusions of early thought have settled on the +heavenly powers before they are worshipped; on the outward object the +mind has conferred the character of a living and acting being, which +it is henceforth to wear. This transformation, poetic fancy, not mere +logic and not merely utilitarian considerations, has brought about. +But religion only begins when man sets himself to worship these +beings, and to this he is driven by his material needs. Religion +begins in a being as yet without religion and without morality. The +need for food is the motive that brings about the change, for that +pure egoist early man has seen that the powers of nature are able to +help or hinder him in his search for a living; the sun can set his +plants growing or can burn them up, and the thunderstorm can revive +them. His happiness depends on these powers, and he seeks to set up +relations with them. He seeks to gain as an ally the heavenly power +who is so able to further or to thwart his aims; he makes known to it +his wishes by calling upon it, and he offers presents to it. He +worships the heavenly powers, and religion has begun. Worship lends +to these powers, though they were known before, a fixity and reality +they did not formerly possess. Von Hartmann is inclined to trace all +the various worships of these powers, which have prevailed in the +most different parts of the earth, to the same original centre, while +at the same time he maintains that even if all the instances of this +worship cannot be referred to any common origin, it must have arisen +in this way, wherever men of the same nature dwelt; the psychological +necessity of this development accounts for the appearance of this +same religion in different lands and among dissimilar races. + +The worship of the heavenly powers, accordingly, is with this writer +the original religion. While admitting that the worship of domestic +spirits grew up in the way described by the English anthropologists, +he denies that Animism is ever a religion by itself without being +combined with higher beliefs. He denies also that fetishism could +ever be an original religious product, or that men could ever pass +from having no religion to the religion of fetishism. Wherever it +appears, it is a religion of decay. All the religion in the world has +come from the worship of nature, which, whether arising at one centre +or at several, spread over the world, and is to be recognised, +clearly or dimly, in the religions of all lands. + +This view of the origin of religion is shared in the main by Otto +Pfleiderer,[6] and other German writers. It was from the impressions +made on man by the powers of nature, these scholars hold, and not +from his belief in spirits, that his religion came. But it was not +necessarily due to pure egoism, as Von Hartmann represents; the +earliest religions need not, they hold, have been a mere attempt at +bribery. The motives which first caused man to worship the heavenly +powers surely arose from other needs than that for food alone. The +intellectual craving, the desire to know the nature of the world he +lived in, and to refer himself to the highest principle of it, as far +as that could be attained; the ĉsthetic need, the desire to have to +do with objects which filled his imagination; the moral need, the +desire not to occupy a purely isolated position, but to place himself +under some authority, and to feel some obligation, these also, though +in the dimmest way, as matters of presentiment rather than clear +consciousness, entered into the earliest worship of the heavenly +powers. This view has the great advantage over that of Von Hartmann, +that it makes the development of religion continuous from the first, +instead of representing it as being originally a purely selfish +thing, into which the character of affection and devotion only +entered at some subsequent stage. If man's nature is essentially +religious, then all that constitutes religion must have been with him +from the first, in however unconscious and undeveloped form. + +[Footnote 6: _Philosophy of Religion_, vol. iii. chap. i.] + +Conclusion.--We have enumerated the different kinds of gods +worshipped by early man--fetishes, spirits, the powers of nature. We +have found a general agreement that fetishism is not an original form +of religion, but a product of the decay of higher forms in +unfavourable conditions. As to the other two kinds of deities, it is +impossible to deny that gods have been formed from the very first in +each of these two ways. The domestic worship of the early world +cannot be derived from nature-worship, but grew out of the belief +awakened in early man, by the familiar experiences mentioned above. +That the greater nature-worship, on the other hand, can be derived +from the belief in spirits is an assertion which can never be proved, +or even made probable; that it arose from the impressions produced on +early man by the great objects and forces of nature, is a thing we +can understand and believe. The minor nature-worship is also a very +intelligible thing, even without Mr. Tylor's theory of souls to +explain it. What more natural than that the savage should worship the +great oak or the waterfall, or should think himself surrounded by +invisible beings, even if he did not frame the latter on the model of +the human soul? We arrive therefore at the conclusion that with the +exception of the doctrines about death and the abode of spirits, we +must regard the worship of nature as the root of the world's +religion. + +We must beware, however, of imputing to the thoughts of early men +about their gods, any such qualities as consistency or regularity. +The power of holding at one and the same time religious beliefs which +are inconsistent with each other, is one which even in the most +developed religions is by no means wanting; and how much more was +this the case among men who lived before there was any exact thought! +The savage could have a variety of gods of very different natures, +who formed in his mind quite a happy family. When he found a new god, +that did not oblige him to part with any old one; it was one god he +was seeking, but he could not settle on one god as yet, when there +were so many beings with a good claim to the position. He made his +gods not out of nothing, but out of a great variety of experiences +and impressions, and they acted and reacted on each other in an +endless variety of ways. One god came to the front here and another +there; an object was deified here from one reason and there from +another; new gods in time turned old and were less thought of while +forgotten gods of former days came back to memory and were worshipped +once more. Endless change, endless recurrences of growth and of decay +filled up those great spaces and periods, measureless and trackless +almost as the expanses of the ocean, that were covered by the +prehistoric life of mankind. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_, 1896. + +E. S. Hartland, in _Proceedings of Oxford Congress of the History of +Religion_, p. 21, _sqq._ + +Of the large class of books reporting the manners and beliefs of +special savage races we may specify-- + +D. G. Brinton, _The Myths of the New World_, 1896. + +W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, 1876. + +Kingsley, Miss, _West African Studies_, 1899. + +Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_, 1863-72. + +Duff Macdonald, _Africana, the Heart of Heathen Africa_, 1882. + +G. Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-Western +and Western Australia_, 1841. + +Spencer and Gilpen. _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, 1899. + + + + +CHAPTER IV +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--BELIEF + + +We have seen from what materials early man made his gods. As the gods +differed in their origin, they differed also from the very first in +the mode of their development. The great nature-gods gave rise to one +kind of religion, and the minor nature-gods to another, the thought +of the departed members of the household to a third. But these +various religions could not develop side by side without influencing +each other. These different worships began in the very earliest times +to get mixed up together; there is none of the great religions which +we do not find to be a combination of them. It will be well to +consider them in the first place separately. + +1. Growth of the Great Gods.--Taking them in the order we have +already followed, we come first to the great nature-worship, of which +heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, dawn and sunset, and then the +phenomena of the weather, rain, storm, and thunder and lightning, are +the objects. It cannot be too clearly borne in mind that what was +worshipped was originally the natural object itself, regarded, after +the earliest habit of thought, as living. To heaven itself, to the +sun as he rose or set, to the storm itself, men addressed prayers and +made offerings; and in many quarters, both among savages and in the +great religions, the same thing occurs to this day. + +But it was impossible for man to stop here, his imagination would not +allow him to do so. In some races, imagination was more active than +in others, but nowhere was it quite inoperative; and so it happened +that man was led, here to a greater there to a less extent, beyond +the direct and simple adoration of the powers of nature. When he +began to give them names, a first and a great step was taken in +advance of the original simplicity. A name is a power; if it is +anything more than a mere title or label, and all primitive names are +more than this, it brings with it associations of its own, and thus +men are led to ascribe to the object indicated by the name, a new +character and new powers. They proceed to argue about the name and +draw conclusions from it as to the nature of the being they worship, +and so come to think of their deity in quite a different manner. Even +to classify objects together and give them a common title, "the +bright ones," or "the living ones," as the early Aryans did, gives +them an independent position of their own, and tempts the imagination +to go further in describing them. Striving to find names for those +beings he worships and thinks about so much, early man gives them the +names of living creatures with whom he is familiar, and in this way +he brings them much nearer to himself, and at the same time appears +to himself to know a great deal more about them. The moon, for +example, has horns, the moon is a cow. Heaven is over all, heaven is +a father. And as he knows all about a cow, and all about a father, he +at once has these deities made much more real to him, they have an +independent existence to him. But, on the other hand, he has got +something more in his deity than there is in the natural object. It +is no longer the mere naked heaven or the mere moon he worships; but +these beings with additions made to them by his own imagination. + +As time goes on the additions grow more and more. Having got living +persons for his deities, early man readily goes on to weave their +histories and their relations. If the moon is a cow, the sun is a +bull chasing her round the sky. This is an instance of a principle +which obtains in many at least of the early religions and which it is +important to remember, viz. that the powers of nature were first +identified with animals. The zoomorphic stage of the nature-gods +comes before the anthropomorphic (_cf._ the signs of the zodiac), and +in many savage tribes it still survives. + +But it is when the gods begin to be thought of after the likeness of +human beings that the decisive step is made in their development. If +heaven is a father, it is easy to go on from that. Earth will be the +corresponding mother (an idea found all over the world); and all men +will be their children. If the sun is invested with a name of +masculine gender (but the sun is frequently feminine), he must do +feats becoming such a character. If the storm is a male god, he will +be a warrior or a huntsman. Thus the god acquires a personal +character and an independent movement; what is told about him has +reference, of course, to the natural object he sprang from, or the +season with which he is connected; but the deity is becoming more and +more separate from the natural object, and acquiring a character and +history of his own. The stories connected with the god vary according +to the habits and the imaginations of different peoples; in some +cases the gods remain pure and exalted beings, in others savage and +indecent myths are accumulated around them, and these primitive myths +adhere to their persons long after they themselves have felt an +upward tendency and acquired a civilised character with the moral +elevation of their peoples. We shall see in many instances how the +nature-gods were personified, made into beasts, made into men, and +surrounded with myths and legends. That is the natural history of the +nature-gods; the process through which they must pass if they grow at +all. + +Polytheism.--Another general feature of the worship of the great +natural objects has to be mentioned. Each god has a history of his +own; he has grown up separately as men concentrated their attention +upon him. But as one god grows up after another, or as the gods who +grow up in two countries are afterwards brought together, it comes to +pass that there are many of them, and none of them is necessarily +supreme. What is the worshipper to do? The least reflection will +convince us that in any act of worship man fixes his attention on one +object only. That belongs to the very nature of religion; as a child +could not treat several men at once as its father, nor a servant be +equally faithful to several masters, so man naturally tends to have +one god. He turns to the highest he knows, who is most likely to be +able to help him, and there cannot be two highests, but only one. But +man's position in the early world does not allow him to be true to +this religious instinct. As he sees one aspect of the world to-day, +and another to-morrow, he cannot, when his god is a power of nature, +always see the same god before him. But can he not worship another +god when the first one is out of sight and out of mind? Though he +worshipped heaven yesterday, can he not worship the sun to-day, or +the storm, or the great sea? And though the former generation +worshipped one of these beings in the foremost place, may not the +existing generation devote itself principally to another? That power +does not cease to be a deity which is not immediately before his +mind. It is still a deity, and in a while he will turn to it again, +and make it first. Thus it comes about by inevitable logic that when +man gets his gods from nature, he has a number of them. When he gets +a new god he does not deny the god he had before; he is not yet in a +position to conclude that there can only be one god. When he is +worshipping he feels as if there were only one; but this feeling +applies at different times to a number of different beings, and from +such inconsistency he lacks the power to free himself. The other is a +god too; all the gods he has ever worshipped he may on occasion +worship again. Nor can he refuse to recognise the gods of others; to +them no doubt they are gods, if not to him; they are beings of the +same class with his god. And thus early man is a polytheist. +Polytheism is a complex product; it is the addition to each other of +a number of cults which have grown up separately. + +In Polytheism, however, very different religious positions are +possible. Men may feel that the whole set of the gods in whose +existence they believe have claims on them, and may regard themselves +as worshippers of them all, resorting, as feeling and old association +moves them, now to one and now to another, or defining the places or +occasions at which each of them is to be sought, or in some other way +adjusting their various claims; or, on the other hand, while +believing in the existence of many gods, they may confine their +worship to one. A man knows that there are many gods, but says that +he has only to do with one of them. This is a religious position very +frequently met with in antiquity. A circle of gods is believed in, +but one of them comes into prominence at a time and is worshipped as +supreme. This is called Kathenotheism: the worship of one god at a +time. The title was invented by Mr. Max Müller, who also gives the +title of Henotheism to that position in which many gods are believed +in as existing, but worship is given to only one. The following are +examples of the various positions:-- + + The language of Polytheism is--"Father Zeus that rulest from Ida, + most glorious, most great, and thou sun that seest all things, and + ye rivers and thou earth, and ye that in the underworld punish + whosoever sweareth falsely--be ye witnesses."--_Iliad_, iii. 280. + +The Jews at the time of Josiah were accomplished polytheists, as we +may see from the catalogue of the worships suppressed at Jerusalem by +that monarch, 2 Kings xxiii. The gods of each of the surrounding +tribes appear to have been worshipped there, and the old gods of the +separate tribes and families of Israel appear to have been kept up. + +Kathenotheism.--The Vedic poets, as we shall see, speak of the god +they are immediately addressing as supreme, and heap upon him all the +highest attributes, while not thinking of denying the divinity of +other gods. + + The language of Henotheism is--"Thou, O Jehovah, art far above all + the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods" (Ps. xcvii. 9). + "There is none like unto Thee among the gods, O Lord!... Thou art + great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone" (Ps. lxxxvi. + 8, 10). Here the other gods are recognised as existing, but only + one is worshipped. Compare also St Paul: "There are gods many, and + lords many, but to us there is one God" (1 Cor. viii. 5, 6). + + The language of Monotheism is--"All the gods of the peoples are + idols: but Jehovah made the heavens" (Ps. xcvi. 5), and "Thou shalt + have no other god before Me." + +A further religious position to be noticed here is that of Dualism. +Not all dualism comes from nature-worship, but in a land where a +beneficent and a harmful natural force are in striking antagonism to +each other, this may take place. Man, when he interprets the kindly +influences of nature as the blessings of the good god, naturally +interprets the agencies which blight or ruin as being also the +manifestation of a living power, but of an evil one. Thanks to the +good god alternate, in this case, with efforts to counteract or to +appease the bad one; if the two appear to be nearly balanced, then +neither is supreme, and both overawe the mind and receive worship. +But in general we may remark that the greater nature-worship is of an +elevating tendency. It brings man into relations with powers which +are truly great, and places him even physically in the position of +looking up, not down. Where the nature-power is a harsh one, a +scorching sun, a tempestuous sea, the self-command and self-sacrifice +called out by the worship of them may be, if not carried to extremes, +a bracing discipline; but with some exceptions the nature-gods are +good, and have to do with light and with kindness. + +2. The Minor Nature-worship.--The worship of the great powers of +nature has a universal character; it can be carried on anywhere; +wandering tribes carry it with them; heaven and the sun and the winds +can be addressed in every land. The minor nature-worship differs from +it in this respect: an animal is only worshipped in the country where +it occurs, and the worship of the tree, the well, the stone, is +altogether local. With this local nature-worship the world was, in +early times, thickly overspread; and manifold survivals of it are +still to be found even in lands where the primitive religion has been +longest superseded. This is the religion of local observance and +local legend, which clings to the face of a country in spite of +public changes of creed, and, when the old religion has departed, is +found to have secured a shelter for itself in the new one. + +In this minor nature-worship which spreads its network over all the +early world, the character of primitive society is clearly +represented; the small communities have their small local +worships--each clan, almost each kraal, has its shrine, its god, and +limits itself to its own sacred things. Religion is a bond connecting +together the members of small groups of men, but separating them from +the members of other groups. The following are some of the more +important developments of this. + +(_a_) The Worship of Animals.--Primitive man had to hold his own +against the animals by force of strength and cunning; and he was well +acquainted with them. He respected them for the qualities in which +they excelled him, the hare for his swiftness, the beaver for his +skill, the fox for his craftiness. What he worshipped, however, was +not the individuals of a species, but the species as a whole, +typified perhaps in a great hare or a great fox, the mythical first +parent of the species, and possessing its qualities in a supreme +degree. It happened apparently over the whole world, with the +exception of most branches of the Aryan family, that men at a very +early stage regarded themselves as related by the tie of descent, +some to one species of animals or of plants and some to another. From +this belief tribes took their names, each member tattooing the figure +of his animal ancestor on his person. The Bechuanas, for example, are +divided into crocodile-men, fish-, ape-, buffalo-, elephant-, and +lion-men, and so on. The hairy or scaly ancestor is the "totem" of +the tribe, and they consider that animal sacred, and will not eat the +flesh of it. All who bear the same totem regard each other as of +kindred blood, as descended from the same ancestor. The totem may +also be a vegetable, in which case no member of the stock will gather +or eat it. + +Totemism is to be seen in operation at the present day in various +parts of the world. North America is, perhaps, its classic land in +modern times. It is, however, a stage of society through which all +races have at one time or another passed. According to the latest +investigations totemism is not to be regarded as itself a religion; +the totem being regarded not as a superior but as an equal. Its +influence on the early growth of religion, however, was great, and +widely ramified.[1] From this two important consequences follow which +will meet us again and again in our study of the great religions. The +first is animal-worship, a phenomenon of frequent occurrence and of +perplexing import. Mr. McLennan has shown that much at least of the +widespread worship of animals is to be traced to an early totem-stage +of society,[2] when animals were held sacred as the ancestors of men. +In the second place, totemism explains the view taken in the early +world of the nature of religious fellowship. In modern times people +regard each other as brothers in religion when they believe the same +doctrines. It is belief, an intellectual or spiritual agreement, that +binds them together. The ancient religious union was of a quite +different nature. People then regarded each other as brothers because +they were of the same blood, descended from the same ancestor. In the +Bible the Hebrews are all descended from Abraham, the Edomites from +Esau, etc. That is the necessary condition of brotherhood in early +times; only those could join in a religious rite who were of the same +blood. For men of another blood there was another worship, another +god. It is an earlier stage of this view, when men are of the same +worship because they are descended from the same animal, and when +they worship that animal. + +[Footnote 1: J. G. Frazer, "Totemism," in the _Encyclopĉdia +Britannica_, vol. xxiii., and now his _Totemism and Exogamy_. It was +formerly held that the Semites were an exception, having never passed +through the totemistic stage. Mr. Robertson Smith, in his _Religion +of the Semites_, maintains that, though they are past that stage when +we first know them, the traces of it are apparent in their +institutions, and that their sacrifices especially are based on ideas +belonging to it. Wellhausen does not agree with him in this.] + +[Footnote 2: _Fortnightly Review_, 1869-70. See also Mr. Lang's +_Myth, Ritual and Religion_ in many passages.] + +(_b_) Trees, Wells, Stones.--The worship of each of these three is in +itself a great subject, and we can do no more than mention the +leading views which appear to have entered into them. Mannhardt in +his _Feld- und Waldkulte_ and Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ have +studied the survivals of tree-worship in the local customs of the +peasantry of Europe. Early man appears to have worshipped trees as +wonderful living beings; but his thought soon advanced to the +conception of a tree-spirit, of which the tree itself was either the +body or the dwelling, and which possessed various powers, such as +that of commanding rain, or that of causing fertility in plants or in +animals. From the tree-spirit, again, the tree-god was further +formed, a being who was able to quit the sacred tree or who presided +over many trees. Of these beliefs the fast-decaying usages of the +Maypole and the Harvest May still remind us. + +The well, in a similar manner, may first have been worshipped in and +for itself, and then a nymph may have been added to it. The worship +of wells consisted in throwing precious articles into them, or +hanging such offerings on the surrounding trees, and asking some boon +from the deity.[3] Rivers and lakes were also held sacred. The +worship of stones, that is of stones not treated by art, but regarded +as sacred in the form in which they were found, was widely diffused +among early races; but this is a subject on which light is still +called for. The Caaba of Mecca and the stone of the temple of Diana +at Ephesus are famous isolated instances of it; but it has been +suggested that the standing stones or menhirs which are found in +every part of Europe, and in the south and west of Asia, were objects +of this worship. In Palestine these stones are not found, though they +occur in the neighbouring lands; and this is attributed by Major +Conder[4] to the zeal of the orthodox kings, who, we know from the +Bible, destroyed all the monuments of idolatry in their territory. + +[Footnote 3: In Mr. G. A. Gomme's _Ethnology in Folklore_ many sacred +wells are mentioned which are still, or were lately, frequented in +England. St. Wallach's well and bath, in the parish of Glass, +Morayshire, was much resorted to within living memory.] + +[Footnote 4: _Scottish Review_, 1894, vol. xvii. p. 33, "Rude Stone +Monuments in Syria."] + +What is common to these cults, and cannot be disregarded, is their +local nature. This gives its colour to all the religion of early man. +The god of the sacred tree cannot be worshipped anywhere else than +where the tree stands, and he who would have his wishes granted by +the well must come to it. The deity of this kind of religion has his +abode at a certain spot, and he is a fixed, not a movable deity. +There is a story, or a set of stories, connected with his shrine, and +there are observances of one kind or another to be done there; and +this goes on from age to age. Now a deity who is fixed to one spot +will be worshipped by the people who dwell around that spot. The god +will have his own people and dwell among them, and they alone will be +his worshippers. And thus the surface of the earth comes to be +parcelled out among a number of deities, each seated, like a little +prince, at his own court among his own people. In passing from his +own home to a distant spot, a man will leave the territory of his own +god and enter on that of another, and as the god can only be +worshipped at his own shrine, the man will leave his religion when he +leaves his home, and either be compelled to serve the gods of +strangers, or to perform no religious duties at all.[5] Thus the +ideas connected with totemism meet and harmonise in many old +countries with those connected with local shrines.[6] Those dwelling +around the shrine form a kindred of one blood, of which the local god +is both the progenitor and the living head. Religion is thus both +strictly tribal and strictly local. It is for his brethren of the +tribe, for those in whose veins the blood of the same divine ancestor +runs, that a man's enthusiasm is kindled in acts of worship; it is +his duty to his clan that he then realises, the prosperity of his +clan that he desires. To those of other stems no religious bond +unites him, they are men of another blood, of another worship. His +religious duty is to love his neighbour, or fellow-tribesman, to hate +his enemy, the man of another tribe. And on the other hand, as +religion consists in approaches to a particular spot and the +performance of certain rites, it is left behind when these rites are +accomplished, and the man is away from his god. The sanctuary is +regarded with extreme veneration, often with shrinking and terror, +but distance makes a change, the religion alters with travel, and is +left behind. This religion was on the whole a more exciting and +intense thing than that of the great nature powers; and was far more +interwoven with social life; but it also presented the greatest +obstacles to progress, limiting men's affections to their own kin and +their own land, and confining them in an inveterate conservatism. + +[Footnote 5: As illustrating this circle of ideas, compare the +following passages in the Bible: Genesis xxviii.; Ruth i. 16; 1 Sam. +xxvi. 19; 2 Kings v. 17; and of a later period, Psalm xlii.] + +[Footnote 6: See on this whole subject Mr. Robertson Smith's +_Religion of the Semites_.] + +3. The State after Death.--The belief that the human spirit was not +extinguished at the death of the body, but entered on an existence +without the body somewhere else, opened the door to a wide range of +speculation; and the ideas arrived at by early man as to the place of +spirits and the life beyond, are a principal part of that antique +religion of which the great systems are the heirs. The funeral +practices of prehistoric times, when various articles were placed in +the tomb along with the body of the departed hero or father, and +various sacrifices made to him at his burial or cremation and at +anniversary festivals afterwards, show that the spirits of the dead +were conceived as carrying on the same kind of existence as they had +led here, though an existence unsubstantial and of little power; +"strengthless heads" Homer calls them. Food and drink were of use to +them; for the finer part of it was supposed to reach them. The taste +of blood revived them; and various pleasures were possible to +them.[7] This belief, it will be seen, differs from all the modern +doctrines of a continued existence. It is not the resurrection of the +body that the savage believes in. He knows well enough that the body +does not rise; but he also knows that the spirit can exist and move +and do a number of things that were done in life, without the body. +Nor can he be said to believe in the immortality of the soul. That +term describes a free and unfettered existence after death, but to +the savage the spirit after death has but a troubled and frail +existence; it is tethered to certain spots on the earth, known to it +formerly; it cannot do much, it lives under many limitations and +constraints. Nor, again, can it be said that retribution after death +is a true designation of the early belief. That may be found here and +there in early times, but generally the other life is less under a +divine government than this one; death takes a man away from his god +as well as from his family, and the dead are left to themselves. + +[Footnote 7: On this subject compare Mr. Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, +twelfth and thirteenth chapters.] + +While, however, this is the general background of primitive belief +about the other life, imagination is at work on the subject very +early, and various features of that life are touched with more vivid +colours, here in one way and there in another. The place where the +departed stay, their occupations, their delights, are variously +described; the land where they dwell is modelled on a land that is +known, with the addition of ideal features; they do very much what +they did on earth, hunt or feast, make music or carry on discussions. +In some cases there is a judgment-seat before which the soul appears +for its trial, and here of course the spirit-world must be divided +into two parts or more, for the reception of those who are approved +and of those who are condemned. The detailed description of the +abodes of the blest and of the damned, by no means peculiar to +Christianity, are later developments in the early world. Hell, Mr. +Tylor says, is unknown to savage thought. The doctrine of +transmigration, however, whether into plants or into lower animals, +is of early growth. + +Growth of the Great Religions out of these Beliefs.--These various +developments of thought about the gods did, as a matter of fact, take +place in primitive times, and that is almost all that can be said. In +the religion of savages the various elements we have so briefly +indicated cross and recross each other, in endless combinations; none +of them is to be found entirely by itself. There is no fetish worship +which is not accompanied by traces of an early belief in great gods; +there is no belief in great gods which is not accompanied by a belief +in lower spirits. With regard to every savage religion the student +has to ask what the constituent elements of it are, in what way the +various beliefs of the early world, beliefs arising from such +different sources, meet in it and combine with one another. + +In each of the higher religions, too, the same questions have to be +asked. The beliefs which we have sketched are the materials out of +which they also arose. They did not _originate_ the belief in high +gods with power over nature, nor the belief in the lesser spirits +which busy themselves with man's affairs. They did not originate the +belief in a life after death, nor was it left to them to appoint +sacred seasons in the year, or to consecrate the spots to which +worship has always clung. All these beliefs are prehistoric, and what +remained for the great religions was not to bring them forward for +the first time, but to surround them with a new kind of authority, +and to establish as a matter of positive ordinance or revelation what +had formerly grown up without any ordinance by the unconscious work +of custom. It was not left for any of the great founders to plant +religion in the world as a new thing, but only to add to the old +religion new forms and new sanctions. + +It may be said that if these are the elements of which religion as a +whole is made, then religion arose at first out of illusions. That is +no doubt true, in a sense. It was an illusion on the part of early +man to suppose that the powers of heaven were animated beings who +could be his allies and answer his appeals; it was an illusion to +think that the tree or the stone contained a spirit, and an illusion +to think that men's spirits can go and wander about the earth by +themselves, leaving their bodies untenanted. But these illusions were +after all only the outward and inadequate expression in which the +spirit of religion then clothed itself. Religion must always express +itself in terms of the knowledge which exists in the world at a +particular time; and if the knowledge is defective to which the world +has attained, religious beliefs must share in its defects. But, on +the other hand, religion is something more than knowledge; it is also +faith and communion, and these can be deep and true, even when the +knowledge which provides their forms of expression is greatly +mistaken. And when the forms of knowledge in which religion has +clothed itself are found to be mistaken, religion has power to leave +them behind and to adopt other forms, as the tree is clothed with +fresh leaves in place of those which are withered. + +Yet it would be wrong to admit that even in its character as +knowledge early religion was illusion and no more. The poetic +faculty, the faculty which prompts us to find outside us what we feel +to be within us and to assert its reality, led man right and not +wrong. What he worshipped was not the bare object which met the eye +and ear, but the thing as he conceived it. He conceived that there +was without him that of which his inner consciousness bore witness, +an ideal, a being not grasped by the senses, which could help him, +with which he could hold intercourse, which had the power he himself +had not. This, not the faulty outward expressions in which the +sentiment clothed itself, was the living and growing element of his +religion. + + +In addition to the books cited in this chapter, we may mention-- + +C. Bötticher, _Der Baumkultus der Hellenen_, 1856. + +J. Ferguson, _Tree and Serpent Worship_, 1868. + +J. Ferguson, _Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries_, 1872. + +J. G. Fraser, _Totemism and Exogamy_, 4 vols. 1910. An immense +collection of material on the subject of totemism, with fresh +conclusions as to the origin and meaning of the system. + + + + +CHAPTER V +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--PRACTICES + + +In early religion it is important to remember that belief counted for +much less than it now does; a man's religion consisted in the +religious acts he did, and not in the beliefs or thoughts he +cherished about his god. Worship, moreover, is that element of +religion which in all ages and lands is apt to advance most slowly. +Even in times of ferment of ideas and change of belief, we often see +that the worship of a former time, be it simple or stately, goes on +in its old forms, as if it were a thing that could not change. Men +alter their beliefs more readily than their habits, especially the +habits connected with their faith. If this is the case generally, it +was much more the case in the early world than it is now. The +religion of a shrine in old times consisted of a certain story about +the god, and certain acts done before or near the object which +represented him. There was no compulsion, however, to believe the +story if a man did the acts or took part in them. As to his private +beliefs no one inquired; if he took part in the proper acts of +worship he counted as a religious man, unless he went so far as +openly to flout the current opinions of his time. + +Nor were the acts which went to make up religion of an elaborate or +difficult nature. No minute ritual regulated in early times the +approaches to the deity; they were a matter of common knowledge, and +were fixed not by law, which did not yet exist in any form, but by +public custom and public opinion. The manner in which a god is to be +served is known of course to his own people who dwell around him; +others do not know it. The immigrants from Assyria had to send for a +Hebrew to teach them the ritual of the God of Palestine, as they were +on his ground and did not know the right way to worship Him (2 Kings +xvii. 24 _sqq._). It is later that the rite becomes a mystery, known +only to the professional guardian of the shrine or to the initiated +few. + +Sacrifice is an invariable feature of early religion. Wherever gods +are worshipped, gifts and offerings are made to them of one kind or +another. It is in this way that, in antiquity at least, the relation +with the deity was renewed, if it had been slackened or broken, or +strengthened and made sure. Sacrifice and worship are in the ancient +world identical terms. The nature of the offering and the mode of +presenting it are infinitely various, but there is always sacrifice +in one form or another. Different deities of course receive different +gifts; the tree has its roots watered, or trophies of battle or of +the chase are hung upon its branches; horses are thrown into the sea. +But of primitive sacrifice generally we may affirm that it consists +of such food and drink as men themselves partake of. Whether it be +the fruit of the field or the firstling of the flock that is offered +at the sacred stone, whether the offering is burnt before the god or +set down and left near him, or whether he is summoned to come down +from the sky or to travel from the far country to which he may have +gone, it is of the materials of a meal that the sacrifice consists. +In some cases it appears to be thought that the god consumes the +offering, as when Fire is worshipped with offerings which he burns +up, or when a fissure in the earth closes upon a victim; but in most +cases it is only the spirit or finer essence of the sacrifice that +the god enjoys; the rest he leaves to men. And thus sacrifice is +generally accompanied by a meal. The offering is presented to the god +whole, but the worshippers help to eat it. The god gets the savour of +it which rises into the air towards him, while the more material part +is devoured below. Every sacrifice is also a festival.[1] If this be +the case it is unnecessary to spend much time in considering a number +of theories formerly regarded with favour as to the original meaning +and intention of sacrifice. The view that it is originally simply a +bribe to the deity to induce him to afford some needed help, receives +a good deal of countenance from primitive expressions. "_Do ut des_," +"I give to thee that thou mayest give to me." "Here is butter, give +us cows!" "By gifts are the gods persuaded, by gifts great kings." +Was early sacrifice then simply a business transaction, in which man +bringing a prayer to the deity brought a gift too, as he was +accustomed to do to the great ones of the earth, in order that the +deity might be well disposed towards him and grant his petition? Even +if this was the case, if sacrifice were offered with the direct and +almost the avowed intention of getting good value for it, yet if it +takes the form of a meal, it is lifted above the most sordid form of +bribery. There is a difference between slipping money into a man's +hand and asking him to dinner, even if the object aimed at be in both +cases the same; and when the invitations are numerous and formal, +there must be a moral, not an immoral, relation between the two +parties. Where the sacrifice is a meal, intercourse is sought for; a +certain sympathy exists between worshipper and worshipped; they stand +to each other not only in the relation of briber and bribed, buyer +and seller, but in that of patron and client, or of father and son. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Tylor (_Prim. Cult._ vol. ii. p. 397) states that +"sacrifices to deities, from the lowest to the highest levels of +culture, consist, to the extent of nine-tenths or more, of gifts of +food and sacred banquets."] + +But granting that early sacrifice was for the most part a meal, an +observance, with a social element in it, between the god and the +worshipper, what was the object of this meal, what was the motive for +holding it? In some cases it looks as if the intention had been to +strengthen the god, and to make him more vigorous, so that he might +be able to do what was wanted of him. In the Vedic hymns this motive +undeniably is to be met with. The notion is by no means unknown in +early thought, that not only does man need God, but that God is also +dependent on man, and capable of being aided and encouraged. In rites +which are not strictly sacrifices, we notice men seeking to +sympathise with their gods in what the gods are doing, and to take a +share in it by doing similar things themselves. The Christmas and +Easter fires in pagan times connected with the worship of the sun, +are examples of this, and many other instances might be cited. + +This, however, is not the principal motive of early sacrifice. All +the incidents of it suggest that it is not merely a thing offered to +the deity, but a thing in which man takes part; if it is a meal, it +is one of which the god and the worshippers partake in common. In +China the ancestors are invited to the family feast; their place is +set for them; their share in the feast is placed before them. In the +_Iliad_,[2] we have an account of a solemn religious act: after +prayers the victims were slaughtered, choice slices were cut from +them and cooked at the fire by the worshippers, who then ate and +drank their fill; after this "all day long they worshipped the god +with music, singing the beautiful pĉan to Apollo, and his heart was +glad to hear." In the Bible we know that the blood is poured out for +the Deity, and in various sacrifices the parts He is to have are +specified, while the rest is to be eaten by the priests. In the +earlier sacrifices of the Hebrews there are no priests; those who +present the sacrifice consume it after the act of presentation, and +the occasion is one of mirth and jollity, as at a banquet (1 Sam. ix. +12, 13, and the following description; see also Exod. xxxii. 5, 6). +In fact it is a banquet. This is specially plain in the sacrifices of +the Semites, as Mr. Robertson Smith has shown. Early Semitic usage +exhibits clearly how sacrifice was an act of communion, in which the +god and his human family proclaimed and renewed their unity with each +other. The details may differ in other races, but in general it may +be said that early sacrifice was an act done not by an individual, +though plenty of individual sacrifices are also to be met with, but +by a tribe, in which all the partakers of the blood of the tribe took +part before the god who was their common ancestor, and who, as it +were, presided over and shared in their feast. In some cases of +totem-clans the totem animal is sacrificed, and all the members of +the clan eat their animal ancestor (only on such a solemn occasion +could the totem be eaten), and so renew their bond of membership and +brotherhood. A covenant is made by sacrifice, to which the deity and +all the members of his people are parties. + +[Footnote 2: I. 457 _sqq._] + +To these primitive conceptions others no doubt should be added. The +mood was not always the same which prevailed when the tribe renewed +its union with its god; that depended on circumstances. In general +the sacrifice of early days is a joyous thing, but to a fierce god +cruel rites belonged. When cannibalism was practised it also was such +a primitive sacrifice, and the most powerful means, no doubt, of +cementing the union of the god with the members of the tribe. When +the god was noted for suffering, a tragic tone prevailed, and the +sacrifice might have a dramatic character and represent the leading +incident in the history of the god. + +If we trace the history of sacrifice in any particular people we find +two opposite tendencies at work in connection with it. On the one +hand there is a disposition to smooth matters, to drop the harsher +practices, to let an animal victim suffice where a man used to be +sacrificed, to let the man off with some slight mutilation, such as +circumcision; or to allow poor people to offer a less costly victim +than the former custom claimed--the rite, in fact, becomes civilised, +and adapts itself to the feelings of a humaner period. On the other +hand there is a tendency to add to the value of the offerings, and to +reckon the efficacy of sacrifice by its cost and painfulness. In +periods of outward distress sacrifice attains a deeper earnestness, +nothing is to be left undone, and no cost to be spared to bring the +deity back to his people; darker customs which had become obsolete +are revived again,[3] the ceremonial is made more elaborate, new +kinds of sacrifice are introduced. The old social aspect of sacrifice +grows faint; it becomes a propitiation or a trespass-offering; the +notion is entertained that sacrifice is the more efficacious the more +it has cost, or the more magnificent and awful its mode of +presentation. + +[Footnote 3: An instance of human sacrifice has just taken place in a +remote part of Russia.] + +Prayer is the ordinary concomitant of sacrifice; the worshipper +explains the reason of the gift, and urges the deity to accept it, +and to grant the help that is needed. The prayers of the earliest +stage are offered on emergencies, and often appear to be intended to +attract the attention of the god who may be engaged in another +direction. The requests they contain are of the most primary sort. +Food is asked for, success in hunting or fishing, strength of arm, +rain, a good harvest, children, etc. The prayers have a ring of +urgency; they state the claims the worshipper has on the god, and +mention his former offerings as well as the present one; they praise +the power and the past acts of the deity, and adjure him by his whole +relationship to his people (and also to their enemies) to grant their +requests. As life grows more secure, the note of immediate urgency +fades out of prayer; being a feature not of an occasional worship +arising from some pressing need, but of a worship statedly offered at +set times, it tends to run into forms, and to become fixed and to +have the nature of a liturgy. Then it comes about that the words +themselves are regarded as sacred, and that the efficacy of the +sacrifice is supposed to be partly dependent on them. They are +incantations which the deity cannot resist,--charms which in +themselves have virtue to secure the desired result. + +Sacred Places, Objects, Persons.--The early world had no temples, nor +idols, nor priests. The worship of nature does not suggest the +enclosing of a space for religious acts. The natural object itself +being the sacred thing, worship is brought to it where it stands; the +gift is carried to the tree or to the well, and if the deities are +conceived as being above the earth, then the tops of hills are the +spots where man can be nearest to them. High places are sacred in all +lands. Groves and remote spots are also sacred. When man was carrying +on his struggle with the wild beasts he would regard with terror the +places where they had their lairs and strongholds; it was in this +form that the feeling of mystery with which moderns regard places +where they are cut off from all human intercourse, first appealed to +man. After this earliest stage had passed, and the grove had come to +be regarded as the dwelling of a deity, it became a place man did not +dare to approach except with the necessary precautions. We may here +explain a notion which plays a great part in early religion, but is +not specially connected with any one institution of it, the notion, +namely, of taboo. Taboo is a Polynesian term, and indicates that +which man must not use or touch, because it belongs to a deity. The +god's land must not be trodden, the animal dedicated to the god must +not be eaten, the chief who represents the god must not be lightly +treated or spoken of. These are examples of taboo where the +inviolable object or person belongs to a good god, and where the +taboo corresponds exactly with the rule of holiness.[4] But instances +are still more numerous among savages of taboo attaching to an object +because it is connected with a malignant power. The savage is +surrounded on every side by such prohibitions; there is danger at +every step that he may touch on what is forbidden to him, and draw +down on himself unforeseen penalties. The nature of the early deities +also excludes idolatry in connection with them; there is no need for +a representation of a being who is visibly present, and can be +extolled and worshipped in his own person. It was at a later stage, +when the god came to be personified and separated in thought from his +natural basis, that the need arose to make representations of him to +aid the imagination. The stones of early religion are not idols. They +are natural, not artificial stones; they are not images of the god, +but the god himself, or at least that in which the divine spirit +dwells,[5] or with which it associates itself for the purpose of +worship. And, further, the earliest time knows no priests; there is +no special class to whom alone the celebration of sacrifice is +entrusted. It would be quite inconsistent with the whole view of +sacrifice which then prevailed, to suppose that it could be done by +proxy. It was a man's own act, by which he identified himself with +his god and with his tribe, and that could only be done by a personal +service. We often find kings and chiefs sacrificing. Agamemnon does +so, Abraham and Saul do so, though the sacrifice of the latter is +disapproved of by the priestly writer. David does so without being +rebuked for it. The king or chief does this as the natural head of +his clan; some one must take the leading part in the transaction. As +religion is the principal part of politics, and the first business of +the state is to keep itself right with the gods, the head of the +state is its most natural representative on such an occasion. The +head of a household also sacrifices for his house, not only to the +spirits of the house, but in cases like that of Job, where there is +no question of ancestor-worship. Early custom did not fix in any +uniform manner by whose hands a sacrifice was to be made. + +[Footnote 4: _Religion of the Semites_, by W. R. Smith, p. 142, +_sqq._] + +[Footnote 5: _Religion of the Semites_, by W. R. Smith, p. 192.] + +Magic.--In another direction, however, we see in the earliest times +the growth of a class of persons with religious functions and +attributes. While the ordinary worship of the gods does not require +the services of any special class, there is everywhere found the man +of special knowledge and gifts, to whom men resort for needs lying +outside the scope of that worship. Every savage religion contains a +certain amount of magic, of practices, that is to say, by which it is +thought possible to influence or to foretell outward events. Early +man is not limited in his views of what may happen by any accurate +knowledge of natural laws, or of the sequence of cause and effect, +and he imagines it possible to influence nature in various ways. He +imitates what he supposes to be the causes of things, judging that +the effect will also follow; or he uses such powers as he may have +over spirits, to induce or compel them to accomplish his wishes; or +he manipulates objects he believes to have a hidden virtue, in a way +he believes calculated to bring about the desired result. Magic is +thus related both to the cult of spirits and to that of casual +objects, both to animism and to fetishism. There is generally a +special person in a tribe who knows these things, and is able to work +them. It may be the chief or king,--there are many instances in which +the chief is believed to have power to bring rain,--or it may be a +separate functionary, medicine-man, sorcerer, diviner, seer, or +whatever name be given him. He has more power over spirits than other +men have, and is able to make them do what he likes. He can heal +sickness, he can foretell the future, he can change a thing into +something else, or a man into a lower animal or a tree, or anything; +he can also assume such transformations himself at will. He uses +means to bring about such results; he knows about herbs, he has +stones or other objects endowed with special virtues, he also has +recourse to rubbing, to making images of affected parts of the body, +and to various other arts. Very frequently he is regarded as +inspired. It is the spirit dwelling in him which brings about the +wonderful results; without the spirit he could not do anything. While +the details of course vary infinitely in different tribes, the figure +of the worker of magic is an essential feature of any general sketch +of early religion. He is often a person of great political +importance; being supposed to be in closer alliance than any one else +with spiritual beings, he has a power which is much dreaded, and +which even the chief cannot disregard. + +Of Sacred Seasons there can be but few in the earliest human life, +when there is no fixed measure of time, nor any notion of regularity, +but all depends on the occurrence of need and of danger. As soon as +agriculture was engaged in, however, attention must have been fixed +on the recurrence of the seasons, and the measures of time afforded +by the moon must, at least, have been observed. The summer and the +winter solstice, the equinoxes, the new moons, these were to the +early cultivator epochs to be observed; and certain annual feasts are +found to have come into use in very early times, epochs of man's +simplest and earliest calendar, and occasions for tribal gatherings +and for such fixed religious observances as we have described. A +private religious emergency arising in the interval between two +feasts is dealt with by means of a vow; the help of the deity, that +is to say, is claimed at once, but the payment of the due +consideration for it on man's part is deferred till the time of +sacrifice comes round.[6] + +[Footnote 6: Genesis xxviii. 20; Judges xi. 30; 2 Sam. xv. 8.] + +Character of Early Religion.--We have now passed in review the +principal observances and usages of primitive religion; but before +concluding this chapter some remarks have to be made as to the +position religion held in the life of ancient times, and as to the +spirit and temper which it exhibited. In the first place, as we +remarked above, religion was in these times the most important branch +of the public service. Every uncommon occurrence had to be laid +before the god, and no important step could be taken without +consulting him; and it was a principal duty of the head of the state +to keep the god on good terms with the tribe, and to apply to him for +all the aid and protection the tribe required from him. In attending +to this, however, the chief was acting for his tribesmen; where there +was no chief these matters were not neglected, but were looked after +by common spontaneous action by the members of the tribe. The god was +their lord, their father, and they must always take him along with +them. This identification of the god with the interests of his +subjects is so close that the latter are troubled with no doubts as +to whether or not their god is with them. If they observe the +customary rules for cultivating his friendship, he must be with them; +they never imagine that he can be estranged from them. It is the +habitual attitude of early religion to take it for granted that the +god goes with his people (he generally has no other people to go +with) and helps them against their adversaries. To doubt this and to +resort to sacrifices of atonement to bring him back from his +estrangement is a later stage of religion. But if religion is in this +way a public matter, a matter of the tribe and its concerns, what +place is there in it for the individual? Individual cares and needs +may form the subject of prayers and vows, but religion on the whole +has to do with the tribe, not with the individual, or with the +individual only as a member of the tribe. It is the duty of every one +to take his part in the public approaches to the god; he must either +do so or be cut off from his tribe. For his own griefs there is +little comfort in the tribal worship; indeed, personal sorrows and +perplexities meet with but little consideration in early religion. As +the tribe is in no doubt of the goodwill of its god, and regards him +as a firm ally not easily turned away, old religion has a confident +and joyous air, strongly contrasting with the doubts and the +contrition of modern faith. The acts of worship are feasts at which +the members of the tribe rejoice and make merry before their god. To +the delights of feasting those of dance and song are added ("The +people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play"), and +frequently the merrymaking goes to the pitch of frenzy; the +worshippers dance themselves into an ecstasy; they feel the god +taking possession of them, and are hurried along by the sacred +inspiration to behaviour they would not dream of at any other time. + +Early Religion and Morality.--How did this early religion bear upon +morality? In how far was it a power for righteousness? There are two +sides to this question. In the first place, the religion of the +infant world was a strong influence for the restraint of individual +excess. The god being the parent of the tribe, its customs had his +sanction, he had no higher interest than its welfare, he was +identified with all its enterprises, its battles were his battles +also. The worship of the god therefore made strongly for loyalty to +the tribe, and for the observance of its customs; it caused a man to +forget his own interest where that of the tribe was concerned, and +unhesitatingly to sacrifice himself for the public cause. But, on the +other hand, primitive religion was an intensely conservative force; +it subjected the whole life to the customs of the tribe, and +discouraged spontaneity and independence in moral action. The duties +it prescribed were of a conventional order; a man had no duties to +those beyond his tribe, and to his fellow-tribesmen religion bade him +rather walk by rule than consult his own feelings. Of the morality +which consists in discipline and subordination to the community, +early religion was an efficient school; to the higher morality, the +law of which is found written in the heart, and which aims at +rendering higher services than those of custom, it did not attain. +The worship of the higher nature-powers, the heavenly powers of light +and kindness, tending as it did to transcend the limits of place and +of nationality, was destined powerfully to foster a more generous +morality than that of the tribal worship, and this tendency was no +doubt dimly felt by early man long before it was possible for him to +follow it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI +NATIONAL RELIGION + + +We now leave behind us the beliefs and practices of savage and +barbarous tribes, and turn to those of mighty empires. The gulf which +lies between these two parts of our subject is obviously a wide one; +and in many instances there is no bridge by which the student can +pass from one to the other. Often it is a matter of inference rather +than of direct proof that the great systems are built out of the +materials accumulated, as we have seen, in the prehistoric period. +But the inference is sufficiently strong to rest upon; in some cases +we are able to see quite clearly how the religion of the empire arose +by an uninterrupted growth out of that of the tribe; and in the cases +where this cannot be so fully made out, we yet judge that the result +came about in a similar way. We pause therefore at this point to ask +what is the nature of the transition at which we have arrived, or, in +other words, what constitutes the difference between the primitive +and the later religions? The difference is probably not one of +magnitude only; it consists not merely in the fact that the religion +of the empire is that of a much larger number of people than that of +the tribe; there is a difference in character as well as in +dimensions. With a view to the examination of this point it will be +found convenient to consider some of the proposed classifications of +religions, as most of these, though for different reasons, place the +religions of the early world in a different category from those known +to us historically. + +The old-fashioned Classification of Religions was that of the true +and the false. This our principle forbids us to accept, since we +regard the various faiths of the world as stages in the development +of religion, and therefore all relatively true. + +Another division which has done good service is that into natural and +revealed religion. By natural religion has generally been understood +such religion as human reason could attain to without supernatural +aid. But this description does not apply to any religious system that +ever prevailed largely in any country; the actual religions have all +been the work of custom and age-long tradition, not of the deliberate +operation of reason. Natural religion therefore is a term which is of +no use to us in classification; since none of the actual religions +which we have to study answers to that title. Nor is revealed +religion a term we can conveniently use in such a work as this. Many +religions claim to be the result of revelation, but few make it at +the outset of their career. The title tells us nothing about the +original character of a religion, but only that at some period in its +career the claim was made for it that its origin was supernatural. If +we grouped the revealed religions together we might find that the +members of the group had no similarity to each other beyond the +accidental circumstance that the claim of revelation had been made +for them. Besides, science cannot possibly take the revealed +character of any religion for granted, but must examine each such +faith to see if its growth cannot be accounted for without that +assumption. + +The term "natural" religion has, however, other meanings than that +just mentioned, and some of these we may find to be of more service. +It is proposed to divide religions into "natural" and "positive," or +into those which have grown up and those which have been founded. The +earlier religions were not due to the personal action of outstanding +individuals (at least if they were, as surely they must have been in +part, the individuals and their struggles are unrecorded), but were +the work of unconscious growth, and were produced by forces, which, +as they were at work in every part of the early world, may be called +natural. These religions do not appeal to the authority of any +founder, but are borne forward by custom and tradition. Some of the +later systems, on the contrary, bear the names of their founders, and +are said to have been introduced into the world at a certain time and +place. Their beginning is fixed, and they have a body of beliefs and +practices which belong to their original constitution, and possess +authority for all subsequent generations of believers. + +This classification promises well at first, but it is difficult to +apply it; some religions pass imperceptibly from the stage of custom +to that of statute, and in many religions both elements are so +largely present that it is difficult to strike the balance between +them. We are led to the conclusion that the real difference between +the earlier and the later religions is a more vital one than any of +these classifications would indicate. The authority and the positive +character of the later systems is a symptom of the change which has +produced them, but the change itself lies deeper. The higher form of +religion is due to a great step which has been taken in civilisation; +it is one of the features of the advance of society to a new stage. + +Rise of National Religion.--It is an immense step in human progress +when a set of barbarous tribes unite to form a nation. Under the +strong hand of some chief or under the pressure of some great +necessity, they give up the isolation which is both the weakness and +the strength of the tribal state of society, they choose some strong +place for their centre, they submit to a common government, and while +still remembering their separate tribal traditions and usages, they +learn to act as members of a greater community than the tribe. This +is the beginning of civilisation proper. Law takes the place of +custom; the state undertakes to punish crime, and private vengeance +is discouraged; the state also undertakes the protection of the weak, +so that humane sentiment appears, and a security is engendered in +which the arts and sciences can spring up and flourish. + +When this takes place a new type of religion also makes its +appearance. While each of the tribes may long retain its own gods, +and its peculiar rites, some one god, perhaps the god of the +strongest tribe, assumes a higher position than the rest; his worship +becomes the central religion of the community, round which the other +worships arrange themselves by degrees, until there comes to be a +system embracing them all, but itself possessing a new character. In +this way a national religion comes into existence. The details of +this process are in every case beyond our observation. It is not +perhaps for centuries after the national religion has come into +operation, that reflection is turned towards it; not till the art of +writing has come to some perfection is it described and formulated +and made statutory; and by that time all accurate memory of its +beginnings has faded away, and its origin is explained instead by a +set of legends. But though its beginnings, like all beginnings, are +obscure, the national religion is there. It has its history; the +great man who brought the tribes together, or who first devised for +them a higher form of worship, is remembered as its founder; the +foundation is ascribed to the inspiration of the chief god himself; +its sacred forms are written down and obtain the force of divine +laws, the will of the deity is a thing clearly known and expressed in +positive terms. + +It is not asserted that this description will apply to the origin of +all the national religions; the character and the circumstances of +one nation differ from those of another, and it need not be supposed +that they all reached their state worships in the same way. Some +religions have become national by conquest rather than growth; while +some which may truly be called national never attained to any +national organisation. The process we have described, however, may be +regarded as the typical one for the rise of a national out of tribal +religions, and indicates to us what we may regard as the real and +substantial difference between the stage with which we have been +occupied and that to which we are now to turn. All other differences +between the prehistoric and the historical religions may be traced to +this one. Before the religion of a nation has systematised its +doctrine and its ritual so as to merit the name of positive, before +it has provided itself with a detailed ritual or a fixed creed, or a +regular priesthood, or a set of sacred books, the momentous step has +already been taken, the new form of religious consciousness has +appeared. Men have begun to believe not only in the tribal but in the +national god or gods, and a national religion has come into +existence. + +The advance from tribal to national worship is one of the most +momentous in the whole history of religion. The nature of the change +involved in it may be summed up as follows. + +1. Men obtain a Greater God than they had before. Formerly a man +believed in the god of his tribe, one deity among many, as his tribe +was one among many, each having its own god; but now he comes to know +a god who is higher than the other tribal gods, as the king whom the +tribes have united to obey is greater than the tribal chiefs. The god +stands at a greater distance than before from the worshipper; +familiarity is lessened, and religion becomes capable of a deeper +reverence and adoration. Although the worship of the tribal god is +still kept up, yet if the new-born national consciousness is strong, +the national form of religion rather than the tribal will determine +the religious sentiment of the individual. + +2. New Social Bond.--The nature of the social force exerted by +religion is altogether changed. In tribal religion the tie of the +worshippers both to their god and to each other is that of blood; the +god is their common lineal ancestor, whose blood is in the veins of +all the tribesmen. The social bond supplied by such a religion is +limited to the members of the tribe; a man's fellow-tribesmen are his +brothers, but all other men are his enemies; with them he is at war +as his god is. Social duty is a matter of blood relationship, and +extends only to the kindred. When a national religion is arrived at, +a social obligation of a new kind will evidently make its appearance. +The national god is related by blood to only one of the tribes +composing the nation; the bond between him and the other tribes must +be of another nature. He has conquered their gods or they have +voluntarily accepted him as their chief god; in any case it is not +the tie of blood that binds them to him, but some more ideal tie, +like that between a king and his subjects, or between a patron and +his clients. And they now have a religious connection also with men +who are not their kindred. The national worship is inconsistent with +the gross materialism of the system of kinship, and places instead of +it the belief in a god further above the world, and therefore more +spiritual, and obligations to men which, as they are not derived from +a common blood, are somewhat more purely moral. + +3. A Better God.--The new god of the nation as he is higher above the +world is a being of higher and better character. He belongs to all +the tribes, and is not the mere partisan of any; like the king, he is +above tribal jealousies, and is interested in checking the violence +of all, and securing justice to all. He may be appealed to by those +who have suffered violence and who have no earthly helper; and thus +he tends to become an ideal of justice and fatherly kindness, and to +reflect in the world above the sentiments springing up in the world +below, in favour of the repression of violence and the administration +of even-handed justice. + +In these directions the religion of the nation tends to rise above +that of the tribe. The tribal worships may continue almost as they +were, the tribal gods may still be worshipped, the tribal jealousies +and conflicts still be carried on in spite of the new union, and all +the superstitions of early religion may long survive; yet a new +religious force has appeared which will in time produce a complete +new system. The true principle of classification, therefore, must be +drawn from the difference between tribal and national religion, as +this is the most vital difference, and that from which all the others +which we mentioned may be derived. + +The transition thus sketched took place at widely different periods +in different parts of the world; it began early and has taken place +even in modern times, while very many tribes in various parts of the +globe have not yet arrived at it. It is a transition of which it is +manifestly impossible to exhibit the detail; in most cases the detail +is not known, and it were a profitless task to trace how primitive +religions met, united or remained apart, and how their crossings in +one case led to a national religion, and in many others led to no +such result. Much, no doubt, is to be found on such points in special +works, and much still remains to be discovered. Various instances of +the formation of national religions will meet us in our subsequent +chapters. + +The Inca Religion.--We give, however, at this point an example of the +transition we have described, drawn from a quarter remote from the +great movements of history, and in which the facts are plain and +uncontested. Of the two great civilised communities of the New World, +discovered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, Mexico presents +a worship compounded of many elements, which, along with high and +lofty morality and great magnificence of ritual, yet retains an +extraordinary amount of cruelty and savage horror. In Peru, however, +we find a state religion which superseded savage cults still +remembered in the country, and from the _Royal Commentaries of the +Incas_, written by the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in the beginning of +the seventeenth century,[1] we are able to describe the religion of +Peru both before and after the Inca reformation. + +[Footnote 1: Printed by the Hakluyt Society.] + +"Before the Incas," this writer tells us, "each province, each +nation, and each house had its own gods, different from one another, +for they thought that a stranger's god could not attend to them but +only their own." They worshipped all manner of deities; of these are +mentioned herbs, plants, flowers, all kinds of trees, high hills, +great rocks, and the chinks in them; caves, pebbles, emeralds. They +also worshipped animals; the tiger, the lion, and the bear for their +fierceness, and the monkey for his cunning; these they did not kill, +but went down on the ground to worship them and would even suffer +themselves to be devoured by them, since they regarded these animals +as their own ancestors. All kinds of animals they treated in this +way; there was not an animal, how filthy and vile soever, so the +quaint words tell us, they did not look on as a god. Other Indians, +again, worshipped things from which they derived benefit, such as +great fountains and rivers; some worshipped the earth, and called it +mother, because it yielded their fruits; some the sea, calling it +Mamacocha; and a great number of other objects of adoration are +mentioned. They sacrificed animals and maize, but also men and women, +and these not only captives taken in war but also their own children, +smearing the idol with the blood. (In other quarters of the globe +this is a symbolic act showing that the idol and the worshippers all +partake in the same life.) Some tribes were fiercer than others, and +practised cannibalism more extensively. They were also well provided +with sorcerers and witches. + +All this the Incas altered. They were a princely family, regarding +whose origin and accession to power various legends are told; the god +they worshipped was the sun, and they considered and called +themselves the children of the sun. Their father the sun, they said, +had sent their forefathers to teach the tribes various things they +very much needed to learn; to cultivate the fields, to breed flocks, +to live in peace, to respect the wives and daughters of others, and +to have no more than one wife. The Incas knew better, it was said, +than the rest how to choose a god, and they declared that men should +worship the sun, who gave light and heat and made things grow; they +should be grateful for his benefits, and he would reward them if they +were obedient. The Indians accordingly took the sun for their god +"without father or brothers"; they considered the moon to be his +sister and wife, but did not worship her. Besides this, we hear the +Incas sought a supreme god, and called him "Pachacamac," that is +"soul of the world." This being gave life to the world and supported +it, but they did not build temples to him or offer him any sacrifice; +they worshipped him in their hearts as an unknown god. + +The practice of the Inca religion as described to us by several +Spanish writers falls a good deal short of this doctrine. Many beings +were worshipped besides the sun; a number of prayers were addressed +to the Creator and the sun and thunder. Many sacred objects also were +adored, such as embalmed bodies of ancestors and various idols. They +practised all kinds of magic, and, worst of all, many boys and girls +were offered in sacrifice, even before the Incas and on great public +occasions. The reformation of the Incas is evidently not complete; if +it had not been arrested by the arrival of the Spaniards it may be +that the purifying agency of the new religion would have found much +still to do. Enough, however, is seen to afford strong confirmation +of the principle that religion gains infinitely in elevation when a +national worship appears. The Incas were no doubt the heads of a +tribe which had conquered others, and imposed its religion on them. +The lesser conquered worships do not die out at once, but continue +along with the central one. But the latter expresses the national +spirit and aspirations; and, as settled life fosters the growth of +intelligence and of public spirit, the central worship must more and +more supersede the others, while itself casting off its superstitious +and backward elements and becoming reasonable and elevating. + +It will be convenient to indicate at this stage the further line of +study to be followed in this volume. As it is our aim to trace, +however inadequately, the growth of the religion of the world as a +whole, it is necessary that we should confine ourselves to those +parts of religious history which lie in the line of that growth, or +which serve in a conspicuous manner to illustrate the principles +according to which it has taken place. It is by no means our purpose +to give an account of all the religions of the world, nor do we seek +to form a complete magazine of the curious phenomena with which this +vast field of study is in every part so well supplied. If we have +interposed the foregoing brief account of the religion of the Incas, +it is not because of its own intrinsic importance, but because it +supplies within so brief a compass such an apt example of that +process which occurs so often in the growth of religion, by which the +unorganised rites of a multitude of clans and families give way when +the nation comes into being, to the higher and better religion of the +state. In the same way the great religions of which we must next +speak have, no doubt, only a loose connection with the central line +of the world's religious progress. No work professing to deal ever so +cursorily with our subject could omit to deal with the religion of +China nor with that of Egypt; yet neither of these faiths perhaps has +permanently enriched the religious consciousness of mankind. The +religion of Babylonia, with which each of these is connected, was +also of isolated and independent growth, and is far away from us both +in time and in historical connection. Like great and solitary +mountains of ancient formation, each on a continent distant from +ours, these faiths attract us not because we depend on them, but +because they are interesting in themselves. It was out of the same +jungle of primitive beliefs and rites, out of which our own religion +has at length grown, that each of these lifted its head to such +heights as it attained. + +After disposing of these great systems we come to the developments, +much later in point of time, which have led to the highest religion +yet attained. And here two great races or groups of peoples have to +be considered, each in its own way singularly gifted and each +contributing in a distinctive manner to the growth of religion. These +are the Semitic and the Indo-European families. Under each of these +heads we find several well-marked religions; and the nature of the +case itself points out our further procedure. Taking up first the +Semitic group,--including Islam,--since this part of the subject lies +at a greater distance from ourselves, we shall inquire whether there +is any common element in the various religions it comprises, or, in +other words, if there is a Semitic religion which may be regarded as +the origin from which the Semitic religions alike sprang, and which +gave them a common character; and we shall then proceed to discuss +the Semitic religions each by itself. We shall then discuss the +common belief of the Aryans, and go on to the religions of the more +important Aryan nations. Our last chapters will deal with +Christianity and will point out the nature of development which our +study as a whole may have taught us to recognise in the religion of +mankind. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +On the classification of Religions see Tiele's article on "Religion" +in the _Encyclopĉdia Britannica_, Ninth Edition. + +Alb. Reville, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as +illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru. _Hibbert +Lectures_, 1884. + +De la Saussaye, Third Edition, pp. 5-16, gives a good conspectus of +the various classifications which have been proposed. + + + + +PART II +ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS + + + + +CHAPTER VII +BABYLON AND ASSYRIA + + +The religion of Babylonia, of which that of Assyria is a late form, +as the Assyrians appropriated all they could of the religion and the +literature of this southern empire which they conquered, cannot be +classed along with any other without some inconvenience. In point of +remoteness in time it takes precedence even of the religions of China +and of Egypt; like these great faiths it also is, in its earlier +stage, a growth by itself in a land and people of its own, where +apparently it grew up independently from rude beginnings. It is +undoubtedly one of the Semitic religions; but it had a character of +its own which other Semitic religions did not share, and of the +simple and early Semitic religious attitude which will be set forth +in another chapter it retained but little. It had an immense +influence. Its ideas entered the religion of the Old Testament by +several roads. Abram came to Canaan through Haran from Ur of the +Chaldees; and in Canaan the religious ideas, myths, and legends of +Babylon must have been well known. The discovery of this code of +Hammurabi has shown that many of the laws of Moses were laws of +Babylonia long before Moses. In a later period the tread of +Babylonian soldiery was heard in Palestine many a time before the +great captivity, in which Israel sat down and wept remembering Zion +by the waters of Babylon. In Greece also we find that ideas which +came from Babylon had become known, by way of Phenicia, at a very +early period. Recent discoveries, however, seems to make it +impossible to assign to the religion of Mesopotamia any other place +than the first among the great faiths of the world. The ancient +connection between Mesopotamia and Egypt, surmised till now rather +than known, is coming to light, and it appears, at least, possible +that the first of these countries may have to be regarded as the +source of all the civilisations of antiquity. The pantheon of Egypt +has striking similarities to that of Babylonia, and some of the +Egyptian temples show traces of derivation from the lands of the +Tigris and Euphrates. The similarities in the case of China are not +so marked, but they are substantial. In Babylonia, therefore, we may +be dealing not with one of three isolated religions, but with the +mother of the other two. If, as Mr. Lockyer holds,[1] Egypt borrowed +astronomy from Babylon in connection with temple-building, more than +5000 years B.C., the religion of Babylon must indeed be carried far +into the past. + +[Footnote 1: _Dawn of Astronomy_, 1894.] + +People and Literature.--Certain parts of Babylonian religion are much +ruder and more superstitious than the exalted star-worship which is +its central feature, and these have been ascribed to peoples who +dwelt in Babylonia before the supposed Semitic conquest, viz. the +Accadians in the north and the Sumerians to the south, peoples not +related to the Semites in blood or in language, but generally called +Turanian, and thought to be perhaps akin to the Chinese. The +cuneiform writing which remained in use for millenniums after the +Semitic immigration as the sacred literary form, was supposed to have +been the invention of these peoples, who had also made some progress +in plastic art. + +There is, however, no direct evidence of the alleged early Semitic +invasion, and the Sumerian hypothesis of which it is a feature is now +regarded by some with less confidence. It is based on linguistic +phenomena. Hammurabi, 2250 B.C., reigned over a realm whose subjects +were of different tongues, and entrusted his records to two methods +of writing. The old Sumerian language, which cannot, in the opinion +of the best scholars, be shown to have affinity with any language of +the ancient world, came to be confined to matters of religion and +magic, and was superseded by the Assyro-Babylonian, which was +Semitic. But the feeble ray of the Sumerian hypothesis can be +dispensed with in the light which is shining on ancient Babylonia +from other quarters. For its information about that ancient land the +world was formerly dependent on the scanty notices of Greek and Latin +writers, but within the last half-century astonishing new sources of +information have been opened up. Explorations carried on by scholars +of many lands have made us acquainted with Babylonian and Assyrian +temples and palaces, and with many a great royal inscription. Great +libraries, made of brick tablets, have been discovered buried under +the ruins of the cities, and the gradual decipherment and arrangement +of this old literature is proceeding as fast as able and devoted +workers can overtake it. Those who know the subject best declare that +no complete history of Babylonian religion can yet be written. The +texts now in our possession embody many documents of much more remote +age, yet the information is as yet too fragmentary and often of too +doubtful interpretation, while the proportion it bears to the whole +of Babylonian life is too little known to supply a solid foundation +for history. With this caution we proceed to state the results which +are considered likely to prove well founded. As we saw, several +features remain in the religion in later times which appear to throw +light back upon its early condition, and it may be best to begin with +these before describing the noble structure presented on the whole by +this religion. + +1. Worship of Spirits.--The Babylonians, like the Chinese, believed +the world to be thickly peopled with spirits of all kinds; and saw in +each movement in nature the action of a "zi" or spirit. These spirits +could be to some extent controlled; though their character was not +known, yet certain charms and incantations were believed to have +power over them, and communication with the unseen world took, +therefore, the form of magic. The earliest portions of the sacred +literature consist of spells or charms believed to possess this +virtue, and these were never displaced from the collection; on the +contrary, new spells were written even after higher spiritual beings +were known and more ethical forms of addressing them had been +devised. Especially were all pains and diseases ascribed to the +agency of spirits or of sorcerers and witches, their human allies, +and the sick person naturally sent for an exorcist to expel the +spirit which was tormenting him. Some spirits were more powerful than +others, and the stronger spirit was invoked to rebuke and drive out +the weaker. The spirit of heaven and the spirit of earth were adjured +to conjure the plague-demon, the demon who was afflicting the eye, +the heart, the head, or any other part of the body. Assertions are +not wanting in the cuneiform literature that beliefs and practices of +this kind formed no part of the true religion of Babylonia, and some +scholars regard it as a late degeneration. The analogy of similar +cases points, however, to the conclusion that magic is everywhere an +early form of religion which is only overshadowed, not killed, when a +great religion arises, and which tends to reappear. It may be said +that there is no evidence of any break in Babylonian religion; if the +Sumerians yielded to the Semites, this led to no religious +revolution; the religion is Semitic from first to last. + +2. Animals.--A step above this trafficking with spirits is the +worship of animals, which Mr. Sayce considers to have been an early +form of Babylonian religion, and to afford an explanation of various +features in it. Like the gods of Egypt and those of Greece, many of +the gods of Babylon have animal emblems; this appears both in the +representations of them and in their legends. The winged bulls and +eagle-headed men of Babylonian art represent the same rise of the +gods which we know to have taken place in Egypt, from the animal to +the semi-human, and then to the fully human form. An intermediate +stage in Babylonia is that the god stands on the back of the animal +with which presumably he was formerly identified. We have an Assyrian +Dagon whose head and shoulders are covered with a fish's skin; we +have gods and goddesses who are human figures with the exception of +their wings; we have winged dragons; we have the great bulls with +human head and wings which stood as guardian deities to ward off evil +spirits at the portal of a palace. The following animals were also +connected with gods: the antelope, the serpent, which came to be the +embodiment of cunning and wickedness, the goat, the pig, the vulture. +We thus see that the rise from zoomorphism to anthropomorphism which +the Greeks afterwards carried to the highest point attainable by the +resources of art, began in Babylonia. + +Like all early religions, that of Babylonia is broken up into a +multiplicity of local worships. There is no common system, but each +place has its own god or gods and its own sacred rites. In Egypt we +shall find reason to believe that this state of matters had its +origin in an early totemistic arrangement of society; whether the +same was the case in Babylonia or not, it is vain to speculate. +Babylonian religion as we see it has risen far above the direct +worship of animals. Each god comes before us in a certain local +connection and with a special character, but they tend to grow like +each other, and their worship is organised on the same plan. The gods +of Babylonia undoubtedly belonged to different towns, and though +attempts were made in later times to bring them all together in an +imperial Babylonian religion, and to settle their relations to each +other, these attempts led to no system which was finally accepted. +The number of the recognised great gods varied, and there was always +a large number of minor gods. Each god has his own early history; +here as everywhere it is the case that the individual gods are +earlier than the system which seeks to connect them together. + +The Great Gods.--The great gods of Babylonia belong to the elements +and to the heavenly bodies. When we first see them, they are not, +like the gods of the western Semites, lords and masters, characters +taken from human families; they are not husbands and fathers but +creators and universal powers. Another mark about them is that they +have originally no wives. When they come to have wives, these are +simply doubles of themselves with no special character. A consort is +given to the god by adding a feminine termination to his name, thus +Bel receives Belit, Anu has Anat. Finally Babylonian religion is more +and more directed to the heavenly bodies. It is Astral religion +carried to its furthest point. This fixed the arrangement of its +temples, the occupations of its priests. + +We rapidly pass in review the principal Gods. One of the oldest is Ea +of Eridu, a town which stood in old times at the head of the Persian +Gulf. He is a god of the deep, whether it was that he was considered +to have come over the water from another land, or whether he is +connected with the belief which was held in Babylonia as elsewhere, +that all things originally arose out of the abyss. In later forms of +the legend his name appears as Oannes, and he is an amphibious being, +half-fish, half-man, who rises from the deep and instructs men in +arts and sciences. Works were preserved bearing his name, for he was +an author. He continues, even when little direct worship is addressed +to him, one of the greatest of the gods. Ana the sky, is the god of +Erech on the lower Euphrates. Like the Chinese, the men of Erech +regarded the sky itself as the highest god, and the maker and ruler +of all things. In Babylonia, however, the notion became spiritualised +more than in China; at first we hear that his dwelling became the +refuge of the gods during the Deluge, but in later times he is +regarded as a being quite above heaven and all created beings, and +even all the gods. A third great god is Bel of Nippur, not the later +Bel of Babylon, but an older one, identical with the Accadian +Mullilla, the lord of the under-world. The earliest gods of this +religion are those of the sea, the earth, and the sky. As they belong +to different districts of the country, they can scarcely be called a +trinity. A better approach to a trinity is formed by Ea of Eridu, +Davkina his wife who is the earth, and the sun-god Dumuzi, their +offspring. The son of Ea, also named Miri-Dugga or Merodach (Marduk), +is identified with the Egyptian Osiris; they have the same symbol, +each is a sun-god, and each has a sister who is also his wife, +Merodach has Istar, and Osiris, Isis. In Sergul the principal deity +was the fire-god, sometimes called Savul; in Cutha they worshipped +Nergal the god of death, the "strong one" who had his throne beneath. +Cutha was a favourite place of sepulture with the Babylonians. Rimmon +was a god of wind, Matu of storms. There is a dragon Tiamat, with +whom the great gods have to contend. + +The sun and the moon were worshipped everywhere; each city had its +own sun-god and its own moon-god. The preference generally shown by +nomads for the moon, since their journeys are made by night, is kept +up in early Babylonia, where the moon-god is regarded as the father +of the sun-god, and as the greater being. In Ur of the Chaldees the +moon was the principal deity. There were also towns such as Larsa and +Sippara, where the sun was the chief god; and many of the great gods +of later times were originally sun-gods. The Chaldeans, moreover, +were proverbially star-watchers, and a "zigurrath" or observatory, a +building of seven spheres corresponding to those of the planets as +they pass through the signs of the zodiac, and like them rising up to +the seat of God at the North Star, was a regular part of the later +Babylonian temple. To Babylonia is due the practice of the +orientation of temples; that is to say, the arrangement of the +building in such a way that its principal axis shall point exactly in +a desired direction. Some of the Babylonian temples were oriented so +that the sun should shine to the western end of them on the day of +the spring equinox when the inundation of the rivers began on which +the prosperity of the country so much depended. The temple was thus +an astronomical instrument of a high degree of accuracy, and the +priests who directed its building and served in it when built were +men of science and learning. A religion which is connected with the +heavenly bodies, though it does not fully supply the needs of the +lower orders and has too little energy to cope with superstition, +tends to produce a priesthood who form centres of enlightenment and +civilisation throughout the country. This was in the highest degree +the case in Babylonia. To these old astronomers the world owes the +signs of the zodiac, which were fixed not later than in the fifth +millennium B.C., and in which we see how early man beheld in the +nightly heavens the creatures which on earth he regarded as divine, +so that he worshipped them in both regions. The institution of the +Sabbath is also Babylonian; whether it was connected with the changes +of the moon, or with a week of days named after the seven planets, is +not certain. Seven is a sacred number in Babylonia, as we find in +many a connection. + +Mythology.--We come lastly, in our attempt to enumerate those parts +of Babylonian religion which have entered deeply into human thought, +to the myths. The heroic legends and romances are the most +interesting and the best-known portions of the newly-recovered +literature. We have already noticed some fragments of mythology, such +as the story of the fish-god who comes up daily from the sea, the +moon being the father of the sun, and the family history of Ea and +Davkina, with the sun their child. The two latter are evidently +inconsistent with each other. But the story about the son of Ea and +Davkina has an important further development. His name is Duzu or +Dumuzu, and he is the Tammuz of whom we hear in the Bible (Ezekiel +viii. 14), who is adored by women raising lamentations for him. He is +said to be the sun-god of spring, to whom the heat of summer is +fatal, and who dies in June. It is when moisture is failing from the +ground that he is bemoaned. His home is in Eden, for Eden belongs to +Babylonian legend, which places it near Eridu. There grows the great +world-tree which the gods love; it rises from the centre of the +world, and is nourished from springs which Ea himself replenishes. It +is a cedar (Yggdrasil, the ash-tree, we shall find, occupies the same +position with the Northern Teutons); it is sometimes found in a +highly conventional form with the figure of a cherub at each side of +it, each of whom holds in his hand a fruit. In this tree scholars +recognise both the tree of life and the tree of knowledge with which +we are familiar. The knowledge of the priests in Babylonia was not +for every one, but was jealously guarded, and kept for the initiated +alone. + +From Tammuz we naturally pass to Istar, one of the few goddesses of +old Babylonia, and by far the most famous of them. Istar was +originally the goddess of the earth, and both mother and sister of +the sun-god, for we are led to believe that she is at first the same +as Davkina. The great myth of the descent of Istar describes how she +goes down to the kingdom of the shades to seek the waters that shall +give life again to her bridegroom Tammuz. The poem in which the +narrative is preserved gives a description of the "house of darkness, +where they behold no light," and then tells how, at the orders of +Ninkigal or Allat, queen of Hades, Istar is deprived, successively, +in spite of her remonstrances, of all her ornaments, and how the +plague-demon Namtar is bidden to strike her with all manner of +diseases. The result of Istar's disappearance under the earth is that +all love and courtship cease both among men and the lower animals, +and Ea himself is appealed to, to bring to an end so unnatural a +state of affairs. A messenger is sent to the lower regions to cause +the release of Istar and the reascent of Tammuz. This goddess, +however, is known not only from this legend; she has many forms, and +passed through various fortunes. The Istar of Erech herself lures +Tammuz to his destruction. In early times Istar is also the evening +star, the bright companion of the moon. Her leading character, +however, seems to be that of a goddess of love. Fertility depends on +her; she goes under the earth to find her lover. In this character +she attracted in Babylonia a worship noted for impurity, which under +the name of Ashtoreth is found also in Phenicia and in Syria. There +is also, however, a warlike Istar, a strict goddess served by +Amazons, and capable of identification with the Greek Artemis, as the +Istar of love is identified with Aphrodite. + +Much more primitive than the legend of Istar are some parts of the +Babylonian accounts of the creation. There are several of these +accounts, some newly discovered. In one the old god Ea peoples the +original chaos with a variety of strange monsters. In another the +birth of the gods is narrated as well as that of the world; we find +also that chaos is itself conceived as a female monster, a dragon of +evil, and the god has to do battle with this power of darkness and +evil, and to bring light and the habitable world up from its realm. +It is certainly true that the Babylonian legends of the creation are +crude and inconsistent with each other, and that the account in +Genesis belongs to a much higher order of thought. The Babylonian +account of the deluge and the ark is more closely parallel to the +Bible narrative; the two cannot possibly be independent of each +other, and there may be no impropriety in holding that the Hebrew +writers were acquainted with myths of general diffusion in the world +they lived in. + +The State Religion.--The Babylonian and Assyrian religion of which we +hear in the Bible (_cf._ Isa. xl.-lxvi.) is the splendid worship of +mighty empires; it has forgotten its humble beginnings, and under the +guidance of large priestly and learned corporations has grown much in +depth and purity. Of its outward magnificence the monuments furnish +ample proof. The temple of Bel-Merodach at Babylon was a wonder of +the world. Being the god of the prevailing city of the empire, +Merodach was the greatest of all the gods, and was reverenced and +extolled as befitted the friend and patron of the greatest of +monarchs. His son Nebo was a prophet and a god of wisdom. What +Merodach was to Babylon, Assur was to Assyria; in fact, he was the +only god peculiar to Assyria. The rule that as religion grows in +outward splendour it also gains in inward strength and spirituality +is strikingly exemplified in the case before us. The gods have come +to be moral powers, who really care for men, not only for the king, +their earthly representative, but for their worshippers in general. +Merodach is praised for his mercy; he not only accompanies the king +in his wars, of which the inscriptions give us so many a wearisome +catalogue, but he heals the sick, he brings relief to him who is +mourning for his transgressions, and he brings life out of death and +receives the soul committed to his mercy to a blessed dwelling above. +Perhaps we pass here somewhat beyond the early period of the religion +and touch on its ultimate phase. The penitential hymns of the later +literature form a strong contrast to the magical incantations, which +fill so much space in the Babylonian sacred literature. The +confessions they contain are not very spiritual; the supplicant +bewails his sufferings rather than his sins. Indeed, he rather infers +from his sufferings that he has sinned, trodden, it may be, where he +ought not to have trodden, or eaten what he should not have eaten, +than confesses that he deserved to suffer for sins of which he is +aware. What is implored is outward redress or ease, not inward peace. +The removal of outward ills is taken as forgiveness. There can be no +comparison between these hymns and those of the Bible. But what they +do show is the rise in Babylonia of a religion for the individual. +The gods are sought not only officially by the state or for state +ends, but by the individual. They are believed to have regard to +individual sufferings; and the friends of a dying person believe that +the gods care for and will receive his soul. + +Our knowledge of the religion of these lands is too imperfect to +admit of wide conclusions being drawn from it. We know what the +higher religion of Babylonia was; and we also see that the higher +worship never entirely prevailed in this land; the god, like Bel or +Assur, who bore the character of a human over-lord, never drove out +the old set of spirits, nor brought the service of them to an end. As +in the case of Egypt, so here the attempts made in the direction of a +pure and spiritual worship met with no ultimate success. Babylon and +Assyria never came so near to Monotheism as did Egypt three +millenniums before Christ. Nabonidos, the last king of Babylon, +collected all the gods together in his capital, and endeavoured to +organise them in a system under Merodach as their head; but this led +to religious discord rather than to peace, since the minor deities +vehemently resented the removal of their images from their accustomed +shrines, and were understood to refuse their aid to the state on the +new conditions. The religion of Babylon was too much broken up into +independent local cults to admit of such a unification. The highest +that was reached was that one great god was adored in one city, +another in another, with some depth and spirituality. To nations +which had attained a higher faith, that of Babylon appeared to be an +idolatrous worship of many gods. That is a harsh judgment. This +religion also had life in it and advanced from a lower to a higher +stage; from a timid trafficking with spirits to a service of gods who +were ideal heads of human communities, and friends of individual men. +It was not a mere system, as the world has been accustomed to think, +of astrology and of divination of other kinds. But when Babylon and +Assyria ceased to be independent powers, and became provinces of +Persia, Bel bowed down and Nebo stooped, not to rise again. The world +of that day had no need of them. It had already attained in more than +one country to a higher religion than that of these deities. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The Histories of Antiquity, viz.-- + +Maspéro, _Histoire ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_. + +Duncker, _The History of Antiquity_, from the German, by Evelyn +Abbott. + +Rawlinson, _The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World: +Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia_. + +Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, 1884. The first volume +embraces the History of the East to the foundation of the Persian +Empire. + +Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das alte Testament_, 1903. + +Hilprecht, _Old Babylonian Inscriptions_ chiefly from Nippur, 1893. + +_Records of the Past_, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11. + +Sayce's _Hibbert Lectures_, 1887. + +Tiele, _Egyptische en Mesopotamische Godsdiensten_. + +Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, 1898. The most +complete account of the whole subject. + +Jastrow, "Religion of Babylonia," in _Dictionary of the Bible_, vol. +v. + +Jastrow, "On the Religion of the Semites," in _Oxford Proceedings_, +vol. i. p. 225, _sqq._ + +F. Jeremias in De la Saussaye, pp. 246-347. + +Bezold, _Niniva and Babylon_, 1903. + +E. H. W. Johns, _The Oldest Code of Laws in the World_, 1903. + +"On the Code of Hammurabi." E. H. W. Johns, in _Dictionary of the +Bible_, vol. v. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII +CHINA + + +The Chinese have always been a world in themselves, remote from other +races of men; yet they developed a civilisation which is in many +respects worthy to be compared with that of India or of the West. The +people who made gunpowder and paper and who printed books, long +before any of these things were done in Europe, might naturally think +themselves the foremost nation of the earth. Their civilisation, +however, has exercised no influence on the world outside of China, +nor has it advanced to the higher achievements of the human mind. As +their great wall secludes them from other nations, so do their mental +habits prevent them from a free interchange of ideas with foreigners. +The Mongolian race, indeed, from which, like the Hungarians and the +Finns, they are descended, is so different from other races in many +respects that some anthropologists suppose it to have a separate +origin. Phlegmatic and matter-of-fact by nature, exact and careful in +practical matters, and to a high degree imitative and industrious, +the Chinese are singularly devoid of imagination and indisposed to +philosophy. Their monosyllabic and uninflected language, belonging to +one of the earliest strata of human speech, and ill fitted to express +abstract or poetical ideas, is an index to their whole nature. If an +awakening, as various signs appear to indicate, is now at hand for +them, no one can tell how fast it will proceed, or what the final +issue of it may be. + +China has at present three religions, all recognised by the state and +represented in every part of the country--viz. Confucianism, Taoism, +and Buddhism. For our purpose the first of these is very much the +most important, as Taoism, originally a philosophy, quickly +degenerated into a system of magic, and Buddhism is imported into +China, and has to be spoken of elsewhere. Confucianism, being the +direct descendant of the old state religion of China, is the native +growth of the mind of the nation. Like the Chinese language, the +state religion belongs to a very early formation, and presents the +symptoms of a development which was rapid at first but was early +arrested. + +History of China.--Legend goes back to very remote antiquity and +tells in a shadowy way of the arrival of the Chinese from the West +(which scholars are agreed in regarding as a fact), and of early +potentates, patterns to all their successors, who treated the people +as their children, and invented for them the arts on which life in +China most depends. History proper begins about 2000 B.C., though the +Chinese had the art of writing a thousand years before that. +Researches, however, which are now being made by several scholars, +seem likely to lead to the conclusion that China received at least +the seeds of civilisation and some religious ideas from Mesopotamia. +That Chinese religion resembles in some respects that of Babylonia +was mentioned in the last chapter. In a work like this and in the +present state of knowledge it is necessary to deal with the religion +of China as an isolated one. When the history of the country opens, +the character, manners, and institutions of the people are already +fixed. They are already civilised and have an organised religion, +though how all this came about we cannot tell. The early kings are +men of piety, inventors of arts, and authors of fundamental maxims of +policy; but as time went on the kings grew worse and lost the +affections of their people. In the twelfth century B.C. the Chow +dynasty came into power and gave China some of its best rulers, but +it also soon fell off; the country broke up into a number of separate +feudal principalities over which the central government lost all +control, and in the sixth century Confucius is found wandering from +one independent state to another. This confusion led in the third +century B.C. to the displacement of the Chow by the Tsin dynasty. +Shi-Hoang-Ti, fourth ruler of this line, one of the strongest rulers +China ever had, assumed the title of Universal Emperor. He beat back +the enemies of China beyond the frontier, began the building of the +great wall, and broke down the power of the feudal rulers. It was +found, however, that the feudal system still lived in the affections +of the people, and as it was the religious books which mainly kept +the past in veneration, the emperor ordered their destruction and +enforced the edict with great rigour. The House of Han, however, +which replaced that of Tsin in 206 B.C., recovered the ancient +literature of the country from the hiding-places where copies of the +books had been preserved, and established in accordance with them the +very conservative constitution which has lasted to this day. + +Sources.--The books thus condemned and thus recovered supply us with +our knowledge of ancient China and of its religion. They are +political rather than religious in their nature. China has no Bible, +no book guarded by the ministers of religion as the basis of the +system they conduct; the religious teachers of China, if there are +any, are the literati, the books they preserve and study are the +Classics. These are connected with the name of Confucius, who +collected or edited them, and himself wrote one of them. They are not +thought to be inspired, but are revered because of their immemorial +antiquity. No people was ever more completely under the influence of +a book, or set of books, than the Chinese. The learned class, who +constitute the only nobility of China, receive their whole education +from the books ascribed to Confucius; which, like other authoritative +literatures, contain matter of various kinds. + +The Chinese collection consists of the five Classics (King) and the +four books (Shu). The former were edited by Confucius; the latter are +by the disciples of that sage or by Mencius, a distinguished teacher +in his school about a century after him. The five Classics are the +most sacred of all. They are as follows:-- + +I.--1. The _Yih-king_, or Book of Changes. This is a divining book; +it consists of a set of interpretations by princes of the twelfth +century B.C., of a set of lineal figures. The system is in itself of +childlike simplicity, but use and age have collected mysteries about +it. It was exempted from the proscription of Shi-Hoang-Ti. + +2. The _Shu-king_, or Book of History, contains speeches and +documents of the early princes from the twenty-fourth to the eighth +century B.C. + +3. The _Shi-king_, or Book of Poetry, consists of a collection of 300 +songs, selected by Confucius from a mass ten times as great. Some of +these pieces are extremely old. + +4. The _Le ke_, or Record of Rites. This book is said to have been +composed by the duke of Chow in the twelfth century B.C., and is the +principal source of information about the ancient state religion of +China. It contains precepts not only for religious ceremonies, but +also for social and domestic duties, and is the Chinaman's manual of +conduct to the present day. + +5. _Chun Tsew_, Spring and Autumn, contains the annals of the +principality of Loo, of which Confucius was a native, from 721-480 +B.C. They are extremely dry; and if we could understand the statement +of Mencius that Confucius by writing them (for they are his own work) +produced a great effect on the minds of his contemporaries, many +things about Chinese religion and manners would be clearer to us than +they unfortunately are. + +To these five Classics is sometimes added, as a sixth, the +_Hsiao-king_, or Book of Filial Piety, a conversation on that subject +between Confucius and a disciple. + +It is impossible to tell how much Confucius did for these old books. +Some hold that he did not change them much, nor put into them much of +his own, and that, in fact, he was himself indebted to these books +for all he is reported to have taught. On the other hand, it is +declared that he made the ancient books teach his own doctrine, and +left out all that did not suit him; and, in confirmation of this +view, the fact is pointed out that while these books as we have them +teach pure Confucianism, another religion of a different spirit was +growing up in China in Confucius's own day, which must have had some +support in the old system. It may be that Confucius did not care to +report to us all the features of the old religion, but only those of +which he approved. But the information given us about that old +religion is admittedly correct so far as it goes; and there is little +doubt that what Confucius thought best in it, and what passed through +him into the subsequent religion of China, was its most +characteristic and most important part. + +II.--The Classics of the second order comprise four books:-- + +1. The _Lun Yu_, or Digested Conversations of the Master; or, as Dr. +Legge calls it, _The Confucian Analects_. It is from this book that +we derive our information about the sage; it was compiled probably by +the disciples of his disciples. + +2. The _Ta-Heo_, or Great Learning, and + +3. The _Chung Yung_, or Doctrine of the Mean, are smaller works, +giving a more literary form to the doctrine of the sage. + +4. The _Mang-tsze_ contains the teachings of Mencius. + +The State Religion of Ancient China.--Confucius never imagined +himself to be a reformer of the religion of his country. The religion +of China is in the main the same to this day[1] as it was before he +appeared, and what is called Confucianism is simply that old system. +That the worship of Confucius himself has been added to it does not +involve any change of its structure. It is already well developed +when we first see it, and what is very peculiar, it has already +parted with all savage and irrational elements. There is no +mythology; the universal legend of the marriage of heaven and earth +is dimly recognisable, but there is no set of primitive stories about +the gods. Of human sacrifice there is only one ancient instance; +there are no rites with anything savage or cruel about them. +Everything is proper, dignified, and well arranged. The deities are +beings worthy to be worshipped, and they exact no meaningless +services. There is nothing in any part of the religion to disturb the +propriety of the worshipper or to suggest any doubts to his mind. In +no other religion of the world do we find everything in such +excellent order. + +[Footnote 1: The working religion of the present day is fully +described by Prof. de Groot in De la Saussaye, _Lehrbuch_, Third +edition.] + +On the other hand, it is not a highly-developed religion. Its beliefs +are those of extremely early times, and represent a stage of thought +at which no other national religion stood still. The organisation +common to developed systems is entirely wanting; there is no idol, no +priestly class, no Bible, no theology; the most important doctrines +are left so vague and undetermined that scholars interpret them in +opposite ways. It is a religion in which, just as in the primitive +stage, outward acts are everything, the doctrine nothing, and which +is not regulated by an organised code but by custom and precedent. +All these marks point to a formation in very early times, and to a +very early arrest of growth, before the ordinary developments of +mythology and doctrine, priesthood, ritual, and sacred literature had +time to take place. They also point to the operation of some powerful +cause, which, when the religion had developed its main features, was +able to suppress older beliefs and practices, and lead the nation to +devote itself altogether to the newer faith. How this took place we +can only conjecture, but certainly it could never have been done +unless the new faith and the national character had fitted each other +perfectly. The classical religion may, as Prof. de Groot says, have +come into existence along with the classical constitution set up by +the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. But it must have been ready to enter +into this position. + +The objects of worship in the Chinese religion arrange themselves in +three classes. The Chinaman of old worshipped and his descendant of +to-day worships still-- + + 1. Heaven. + 2. Spirits of various kinds, other than human. + 3. The spirits of dead ancestors. + +1. Heaven (Thian) is the principal Chinese deity; in strictness we +must say the sole deity, for there is no family of upper gods; heaven +receives all the worship that is directed aloft. It is the clear +vault, the friendly ever-present and all-seeing blue that is meant, +not the windy nor the rainy sky, but that which is above all +agitations, and which all beings of the air or of the earth look up +to and serve. It is conceived as living. It is not a separable +spirit, not a power behind, that is worshipped, but heaven +itself,--the living heaven of that early thought, which has not yet +come to distinguish between matter and spirit,--the living heaven +which is over all, knows all, orders and governs all. + +To this heaven other names are given, even in the oldest +writings--Ti, Ruler; or Shang-ti, Supreme Ruler. Did the Chinese +conceive this ruler as identical with heaven, or as a personality +dwelling in it or above it? It has been held that the two beliefs are +not the same; that the Chinese of the earliest times worshipped the +Supreme Ruler, _i.e._ the one God, Ti, and afterwards fell away from +that position of pure monotheism and declined to the worship of the +material object, heaven. The early Catholic missionaries argued that +the Chinese Shang-ti was equivalent to the Christian "God," and +signified a being other than the sky, the Supreme Power of the +universe. The Chinese, however, generally denied that they made any +such distinction,[2] and even declared that they could not understand +it. The names Heaven and Supreme Ruler are used by them +indiscriminately: one notices that Confucius does not use the +personal form, but only speaks of heaven; "heaven," he says, when +feeling distressed, "is destroying me." We have here, therefore, an +early form of nature-worship. + +[Footnote 2: Dr. Legge, while admitting that the Chinese originally +worshipped the vault of heaven itself, maintains that they got past +the early mode of thought which considers every natural object as +animated, before the dawn of history, and became pure theists, +believers in a supreme spiritual being. Confucius he considers to +have held a lower religious position than his countrymen had already +attained to. He also regards the worship of spirits and of ancestors +as a later perversion and degradation of the original religion of one +god. In these positions he is followed by Professor Giles, _Oxford +Proceedings_, vol. i. p. 105, _sqq._] + +The Supreme Power directs all things, and is an ever-present governor +both in the natural and in the moral sphere. These two spheres indeed +are not regarded as distinct. Nature reveals in all its changes the +mind of its ruler, and human conduct is regarded as an outward thing, +as a phenomenon on the same plane with the movements of nature; the +two are supposed to be part of one system and to act directly on each +other. As Heaven both governs the weather and looks after men's +actions, for "every day heaven witnesses our actions and is present +in the places where we are," these two aspects of providence are +closely blended and are in fact the same. Heaven makes its will known +in a natural way. It is one of the most peculiar features of Chinese +religion that it knows no revelation, no miracles, no divine +interferences. It has a belief in destiny, Ming; every one has his +Ming, but it is only known when it is accomplished. "Does Heaven +plainly declare its Ming?" Confucius is asked; and he replies, "No, +heaven speaks not; by the order of events its will is known, not +otherwise." Man learns by the external occurrences how Heaven is +disposed towards him. When there is excessive rain or long drought, +this shows that the harmony between Heaven and the earth is +disturbed. It belongs to the emperor to put this right. He alone is +entitled to offer sacrifice to Heaven; he stands in the closest +relation to Heaven, who is the ancestor of his house; and when Heaven +is seen to be displeased, the emperor must restore the harmony by +governing his subjects better or by sacrifices. In an extreme case, +when the emperor is seen to have fallen under the displeasure of +Heaven, the conclusion is drawn that he must no longer be emperor. +The people then are entitled to depose him and to set up a new ruler, +through whom the necessary transactions with Heaven can be carried +on. The belief has always been held in China, at least theoretically, +and is operative to this day, that it can be known when Heaven has +rejected a ruler, and that it belongs to the people to carry out that +sentence. + +2. The Spirits.--The worship "of the spirits" is a primary religious +duty for the Chinaman. The spirits, however, are an ill-defined set +of beings; they are generally spoken of in the plural number, and +sacrifice was offered to them as a body, no particular spirits being +named. The spirits are connected with natural objects, every part of +nature has its spirit. The sun, the moon, the five planets, clouds, +rain, wind, the five great mountains, but also every smaller +mountain, the rivers, each district, and a thousand other things, all +have their spirits.[3] The spirits are not flitting about +capriciously, but have been collected together and organised in a +hierarchy, and this has loosened their connection with natural +objects. They are spoken of as a set of beings who may be addressed +as a body. A prince alone may sacrifice to the spirit of the earth, +and to those of the mountains and rivers of his territory. But to the +spirits in general all may and should pray; they assist those who pay +them reverence and sacrifice to them. It will be seen that the +worship of heaven and that of the spirits are kept separate. The +former is the imperial worship; the emperor alone is competent to +attend to it. The latter is the official worship of minor states. Nor +are the two sets of deities wrought into a homogeneous system; we +hear that the spirits, while subordinate to Shang-ti, are not his +messengers. The surmise is not to be avoided that these two worships +came originally from different circles of ideas, and have not been +perfectly blended. The worship of heaven belongs to the higher +nature-worship, that of the spirits to the lower; the latter is +animistic, it is a worship of detached spirits, while the former is a +worship of the natural object itself. The spirits are all good; there +are scarcely any bad spirits in Chinese belief. + +[Footnote 3: The Japanese official religion, "Shin-to" (=way of the +gods, as distinguished from Butsudo, way of Buddha, _i.e._ Japanese +Buddhism), an easy worship of numberless spirits, without sacrifices +and without any moral doctrine, is allied to this branch of the +religion of China; as also is the religion of Corea. Shin-to is not +ancestral worship, and recognises no life after death.] + +3. Ancestors.--The worship of ancestors is that which is assigned to +the private individual. He does not approach Shang-ti any more than +he would address the emperor on earth; his working religion is +directed to his ancestors. The Chinese believed in the continuance of +the soul after death, and addressed solemn invitations to it to +return to the body it had forsaken. Their belief can scarcely be +described as that in personal immortality; it is the continuance of +the family rather than of the person that is thought of. The +individual does not look forward to his own future life or allow that +to influence him; there is little trace of any belief in future +rewards and punishments. China has no heaven and no hell. It is the +past, not the future, that influences the present; the departed +members of the family are believed to be still attached to it, and to +have become its tutelary spirits. In every house there is a hall of +ancestors, where worship and sacrifice is offered to them, and many +even of the details of this worship remind us strongly of the way in +which the Romans served their family heroes. Tablets belonging to the +ancestors are placed in this hall; and to these they are supposed to +come when properly invoked, so as to be present with the family. At +every important family event they are summoned to attend. This +worship has to be rendered by husband and wife jointly, so that +marriage is necessary for its performance, and an early marriage is a +religious duty. + +The family sacrifice, like all sacrifices in China, is of the nature +of a banquet, at which the living members of the family, and the +spirits who have been summoned, eat and drink together. To heighten +the illusion, the grandson was sometimes dressed in the clothes of +the departed head of the house and made the principal figure of the +celebration-- + + The dead cannot in form be here, + But there are those their part who bear; + We lead them to the highest seat + And beg that they will drink and eat: + So shall our sires our service own, + And deign our happiness to crown + With blessings still more bright.[4] + +[Footnote 4: _Shi-king_, II. vi. 5.] + +It is not only in the family that ancestors are adored. The emperor +sacrifices in a public capacity to all the ancestors of his own line, +and also to all his predecessors on the throne; a magistrate to all +who have occupied his office before him. Ancient China possessed an +elaborate ritual, and occasions of sacrifice were frequent. Every +change of season, every portent of nature, every important step +either in public or in private life, required its consecration. It is +in accordance with the genius of the people that the sacrifices are +not of the nature of propitiation, but expressions of gratitude and +devotion merely. Asceticism has no place in this religion; everything +in it is bright and sensible. He who is to offer a sacrifice prepares +himself by prayer and retirement to do so worthily; but beyond this +reasonable measure there is no afflicting of the soul, and in the +prayers belonging to the occasion self-humiliation and confession +have no place, but only thanksgivings and petitions. The petitions +are for worldly benefits and furtherance; the sacrifices are means of +procuring these from the heavenly powers. They consist chiefly of +animal victims, but fruits are also used, and with the importance of +the occasion the variety and costliness of the offerings increase. +Elaborate music also accompanies great sacrifices, and is thought to +be very acceptable to the heavenly powers. Religion is not separated +from life in China. There is no special class to take care of it; +every one has to attend himself to those sacrifices which are +incumbent on him; this is a natural, matter-of-course part of a man's +duty. As there is no Bible, there is no religious instruction, and +the doctrine is quite vague and undefined. The ritual, however, is +fixed by tradition in every detail, and if a man attends to it he +does his duty; religion is a set of acts properly and exactly done, +the proper person sacrificing always to the proper object in the +proper way. + +Confucius was not a man who tried to change the religion of his +country; indeed, he disliked to talk of religious subjects, and he +practised reverently the religion which had long prevailed in China. +His conversation was chiefly about what we should call worldly +matters, and it is hard to see why the religion of China, the same +after him as it had been before him, should be called by his name. +What led to the connection was: (1) That he taught in a clear and +simple way, as had never been done before, the theory of government +and morals which lies at the root of Chinese religion, and thus did +something, though unconsciously, to provide that religion with a +doctrine. And (2) that he collected and edited the books which are +the only literary documents the religion has, and which have formed +ever since the study of the ruling classes in China. Receiving these +books at his hands, they have naturally looked to him as the prophet +of their faith. + +His Life.--Kung-fu-tsze (_i.e._ Master Kong; the name was Latinised +by the Jesuits) is better known to us than most other religious +founders. He lived to the age of seventy-three, surrounded by +admiring disciples, who remembered what they saw in him and heard +from his lips; and this tradition is preserved in the _Lun Yu_, +Digested Conversations,[5] a work compiled, as we observed, by +disciples of the second generation. The supernatural element which in +other cases gathered so quickly round a venerated figure, is here +entirely absent; in China such growths do not take place. There may +be some tendency to idealise the moral greatness of the sage, but +there are also passages in which this tendency evidently has not been +at work; both in its candour and in the homeliness of much that is +reported, the book invites confidence as a genuine record. We see the +sage as the diligence of students in the present generation enables +us to see Kant or Wordsworth; we hear his opinions on a great variety +of subjects; we see how he behaved on occasions of state and at his +meals in private, towards princes and towards common men; we laugh at +his jokes and sigh with him at his privations. + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Legge, _Confucian Analects_.] + +He was born in 551 B.C. in a good rank of society, but was brought up +in poverty, and owed all his success to his own merits. The bent of +his mind showed itself early; as a child he amused himself with +playing at ceremonies; at thirteen, he tells us, he bent his mind to +learning, the subject of his studies being history and poetry, the +ceremonies and the music of the empire. He early arrived at the views +he always afterwards held as to the proper way to govern a people, +and he believed with all the faith of an enthusiast that a vast +improvement of society would follow the adoption of his method. It +was to public employment that he aspired from an early period of +life; but he did not readily find it in the unquiet times in which +his lot was cast. He did enjoy office for certain brief periods, and +marvellous things are told of the reformation of manners which at +once attended his efforts as a governor. All got their due; there was +no thieving, and there was no occasion to put the penal laws in +execution, for no offenders showed themselves. What was the method +which was held to have had such results? In the counsels which he +gave to various rulers who applied to him this is set forth. He +believed the power of example to be capable of effecting all that a +ruler should desire. Punishments might be dispensed with, and +excessive pains need not be bestowed on the machinery of government, +but a prince who has "rectified" himself will soon have his people +"rectified" too. The first task of a ruler is to "rectify names"; +_i.e._ there is good government when the prince is really a prince +and the minister a minister, when the father is a real father and the +son a real son. The perfect order consists of the due observance by +each rank of the duties belonging to it; there is to be a +well-regulated hierarchy in which each understands his function and +acts it out. The people are naturally good and docile, he held, and +if they are well governed they will not do wrong even though rewards +be offered for it. Thus by docile respect to tradition and authority, +which all men are willing to pay if properly guided towards it, the +pillars of the state are established. + +His Doctrine.--This is the truth which Confucius preached most +earnestly. He spoke of heaven but seldom, and of the spirits he +professed no certain knowledge; he declared towards the end of his +life that he had not prayed for many years. He was a diligent +frequenter of all religious ceremonies and a strong upholder of the +old order, but his interest in these things was not speculative or +mystical, but entirely practical. He regarded himself as a teacher of +virtue, not of religious doctrine; his watchword was "propriety," the +dutiful observance of all right and customary rules of conduct. Yet +there is not wanting an ideal element in his doctrine. He enounces +the theory, of which the whole of Chinese religion is the outward +expression, that the universe in all its parts, in nature and in man, +is an order; that that order is declared to man alike in the +ordinances of outward nature, in the constitution of society with its +various ranks and classes, and in the ritual of religion; and that it +is the whole duty of man to know that order and to conform himself to +it. The theory is one in which the state is all, the individual +nothing, and in which the present is entirely crushed under the dead +hand of the past, and all originality and progress condemned even +before they appear. If religion has been delivered from all that is +unseemly and irrational, it has also, at least to Western eyes, lost +much of its interest; the enthusiasms and excitements of its early +stages have departed, and no new enthusiasm has come in their place; +no great god-wrought deliverance thrills the memory of posterity, no +local cults excite exceptional devotion, no divine historical figure +attracts to itself personal affection. Religion has cast off fear but +has not yet risen to the inspiration of love. The domestic worship +came nearest to this, for the other worships are cold and distant +indeed; but that worship was a powerful influence for the prevention +of progress. The Christian text which hallows individual daring and +innovation, by bidding a man put his convictions above his father and +mother, would be a shocking impiety to Chinese ears. + +A temple was built to Confucius after his death and his worship was +added to the state religion. The attempt made by the emperor +Shi-Hoang-Ti in the third century after his death to suppress his +memory and the books connected with his name, was, though conducted +with great vigour, unsuccessful. The teaching of Mencius (371-288 +B.C.), the most distinguished of his disciples, added no new element +to that of Confucius. Two movements, however, have to be noticed, +which in different ways aimed at giving something richer and deeper +than Confucianism, and to which China owes the two additional +religions of Taoism and Buddhism. + +Taoism looks to Lao-tsze as its founder; but it has no personal +founder and is composed of older elements. Lao was a philosopher who +lived at the same time with Confucius, though half a century older; +Confucius met him, as we hear in the _Analects_, and spoke of him +with great respect. His work, the _Tao-te-king_, has been preserved, +and though few profess to understand it, a general idea of his +thought may be gathered from it. Lao, like Confucius, founds on the +existing system; he quotes largely from older works, and there are +sayings common to both the sages. Metaphysical thought, however, +which with Confucius was implied rather than reasoned out, here +stands in the forefront. Lao's system is a philosophy applied +practically. Tao, the ruling idea of the system, from which both it +and the religion which followed it are named, is variously rendered +Reason, Nature, the Way; the last is the nearest, though by no means +a full rendering of it. By the manifold operations attributed to it, +it reminds us of the Indian Brahma, and the riddle of Lao's obscurity +has been proposed to be solved by the supposition that he was dealing +with a doctrine imported from India which Chinese forms of speech +could but imperfectly express.[6] Tao is not personal, but something +that precedes all persons, all particular beings. It was there before +heaven was; all things are from it and return to it at last. It is +the principle at the root and the beginning of all things, by which +they move, without haste or struggle, ambition or confusion. Existing +first absolute and undeveloped, it has now been expressed; men can +know it, and the secret of all goodness, all success both for the +individual and for the state, is to know Tao and live in it. This +makes a man superior to all rules and conventions; at home with +himself he is superior to the world; he does not dissipate his +energies in learning a great number of outward things, but acts +spontaneously from an inner impulse. In this way the philosopher +looked for a return of society to simpler manners; he even imagined +that men might consent to put away the material arts of which they +thought so much, and content themselves with living according to +wisdom and being governed by the wisest. + +[Footnote 6: "Lao-Tzeu et le Brahmanisme," by E. Guimet in the +_Verhandlungen_ of the Basal Conference, 1904.] + +The moral precepts of Lao are often of singular beauty and show a +much deeper insight than the cold teaching of Confucius. Lao taught +the golden rule: "Recompense injury," he said, "with kindness." +Confucius, on being asked about this, did not agree with Lao, but +declared that kindness ought to be recompensed with kindness, but +injury with justice, as if private morality ought not to rise higher +than public policy. "Resent it not when you are reviled," Lao +teaches; and "He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes +himself is mighty." "He who knows when he has enough is rich." "The +weakest things in the world subjugate the strongest." The _Book of +Recompenses_, which is the practical manual of Taoists and is +universally read in China, sets up a high ideal of goodness, and +claims to be studied with devotion and earnestness. The task of +self-discipline is represented as one requiring faith and courage, +the continuous efforts of a lifetime, and unceasing watchfulness. If +we judge Taoism either by its philosophy or by its morals, we must +assign it a high rank among the efforts which have been made to guide +men in the way of wisdom. As a religion, however, it is a dismal +failure, and shows how little philosophy and morals can do without a +historical religious framework to support them. Taoism was not at +first a religion, and was not fitted to become one, as it neither +offered any sacred objects of its own for pious sentiment to cling +to, nor, like Confucianism, leant upon the state system. The religion +which looks to Lao as its chief figure is not based on his teaching; +at most it is connected with some of his less important doctrines. It +did not take a place in the world till five centuries after the +philosopher's death, and its rise was due partly to the emperor named +above, who was opposed to Confucius, and partly to teachers who +brought forward isolated doctrines of Lao's system which admitted of +a popular application. When the religion appears it is a system not +of philosophy but of magic. Lao had spoken of immortality as the +portion of those who lived according to Tao; under the Chin dynasty +(220 B.C.) Taoism is engaged in a search for the fairy islands, where +the herb of immortality is to be found; in the first century of our +era the head of Taoism is devising a pill which shall renew his +youth. When Buddhism enters China, in the same century Taoism borrows +from it the apparatus of religion, temples, monasteries, and +liturgies, and sets out on its career as a church. + +It was not without reason that Buddhism was sent for, if we are truly +informed, by the rulers of China, or that it spread over the country, +in the first century of our era. Neither Confucianism nor Taoism is a +religion, in the full sense of the term, as supplying by intercourse +with higher beings an inspiration for life. The former is regulative +and no more; the latter is a mere set of devices for obtaining +benefits from mysterious powers. Buddhism, on the contrary, appeals, +as we shall see when we consider it in connection with India, to +unselfish motives, and insists on the solemn responsibilities of +individual life in such a way as to raise the value of the human +person. As it appeared in China it is richer than we shall find it in +India; it has a god, unknown to southern Buddhism, and it has a +goddess Kouan Yin, "the being who hears the cries of men," sometimes +represented with a child on her knee, just like a Western Madonna. +While still essentially monastic, it offers salvation and a way of +life to all. To faith in Buddha the merciful one is also added a +belief in the paradise in which he receives believers. Thus a popular +worship is provided, which neither of the older beliefs supplied. + +It remains true that China has no religion worthy of the name. The +phenomenon may there be witnessed, which is seen with certain +differences also in Japan, that several religions exist side by side, +all of which are supported by the state and live together without +rivalry, and to all of which a man may belong at the same time. This +could not be the case if any of the three appealed strongly to +patriotic sentiment, or gave full expression to the ideals of the +nation. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +In the Sacred Books of the East, vols. iii., xvi., xxvii., and +xxviii. contain translations of Chinese Classics, by Dr. Legge. The +same writer has published three convenient volumes of his own, +containing: 1. The Life and Teachings of Confucius, 2. The Life and +Works of Mencius, 3. The Shi-King. + +Dr. Legge has also written a popular work, _The Religions of China_, +1880. Also _The Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits_, +1852. + +The best account of the old State Religion is that of J. H. Plath, +_Die Religion und der Cultus der alten Chinesen_, 1862. + +Réville, _La Religion chinoise_ (1889). The third volume of his +History. + +R. K. Douglas, _Confucianism and Taoism_, 1876. S.P.C.K. + +De Groot, in De la Saussaye. + +De Groot, _The Religious System of China_, vols. i.-iv., 1892-1901. +Also a small book, _The Religion of the Chinese_, 1910. + +Beal, _Buddhism in China_, 1884. + +Murray's _Guide to Japan_. + +J. Edkins' _Religion in China_, 1878, the account of a modern +missionary, may be consulted. + +On Taoism, Pfizmaier, _Die Lösung der Leichname und Schwerter_, 1870; +and _Die Tao-lehre von dem wahren Menschen und den Unsterblichen_, +1870. Julius Grill, _Lao-tsze's Buch vom höchsten Wesen und vom +höchsten gut_. _Tao-te-King_, 1910. Vols. xxxix.-xl. of the _S.B.E._ +give Taoist Texts. + +Revon, _Le Shintoisme_, 1907. + + + + +CHAPTER IX +THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT + + +Egypt is a land of still more ancient civilisation than China, and +its civilisation is of more interest to us, since from it the nations +of the West obtained in part the seeds of their arts and sciences. +Even to antiquity everything Egyptian appeared venerable and +mysterious, and the air of mystery is not yet removed from the +country of the Nile. We have discovered the sources of the river and +have learned to read the writing on Egyptian monuments; but the +sphinx has other riddles than these--riddles not yet solved. Who are +the Egyptians, and where did they come from? In ancient times they +were thought to have descended from the interior of Africa; now the +opinion gains ground that they were at a very early period connected +with the ancestors of the Semitic races; their language is thought to +show signs of this remote relationship. How, by whom, and when were +they formed into a nation? No one can tell; they come before us four +thousand years before Christ, a fully-formed nation, with an +elaborately organised public service, and with a civilisation both +broad and rich. And lastly, What is the religion of Egypt? What are +the earliest gods of the land, and in what relation do the various +gods which were worshipped in it stand to each other? That question +cannot at the present time be fully answered. Even should it be +proved, as it appears likely to be, that Egyptian civilisation was +derived originally from Mesopotamia, much will still be dark and +enigmatical. The foremost scholars in Egyptology confess that no +history of Egyptian religion can as yet be written. Those who have +tried to sketch it differ from each other as widely as possible, some +alleging monotheism as its starting-point, and some the worship of +animals. The religion also comes into view at the early period we +have mentioned as a fully-formed and stately public system, whose +youthful struggles, if it had any, are long past. What is most +peculiar in that religion is, that it embraces elements which appear +at first sight to have nothing whatever in common, nay, to be quite +irreconcilable with each other. We shall do well not to attempt any +construction of Egyptian religion as a whole, but to content +ourselves with examining one after another the various elements, +almost amounting to different religions, which are found in it side +by side. We shall no doubt learn something of the relations in which +they stood to each other, but it may prove that we shall find +ourselves unable to adopt any of the theological theories by which +Egyptian priests or Greek philosophers sought to combine them in one +system. + +History and Literature.--The principal thing to be remembered, in +order to understand the history of ancient Egypt, is that the country +was divided into a number of provinces or nomes, which, there is +every reason to think, were originally independent of each other. Of +these nomes there were about twenty in Upper Egypt--that is, in the +long gorge of the Nile from Elephantine in the south to Memphis in +the north; and about the same number in Lower Egypt--that is, in the +flatter country from Memphis to the sea. King Mena or Menes, founder +of the first dynasty, whose date, if he was a historical character at +all, and not a mythic founder like Minos of Crete, Manu of India, or +Mannus of Germany, cannot be later than 3200 B.C., is said to have +united for the first time the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. +But though they became united under one ruler, the nomes never forgot +their independence, nor did they cease to maintain their separate +existence as states within the empire, each having its own army, its +own ruler, its own system of taxation, its own worship. The supreme +power resided now in one nome and now in another. The first two +dynasties belonged to that of Abydos; the succeeding dynasties, to +which the earliest monuments belong, so that Egypt here begins its +real history, had their seat at Memphis. The twelfth dynasty, which +is known to us, but is both preceded and followed by a gap of half a +millennium in Egyptian history, made Thebes the capital. Thebes was +also the seat of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, which came +after the foreign domination of the shepherd kings, and under which +Egypt was at the summit of its power. Ramses II. and his successors, +the Pharaohs of the book of Genesis, belong to the nineteenth +dynasty. + +How splendid the Imperial Court of Egypt was at various periods, the +monuments tell us; these palaces, temples, and tombs are in +proportion to a power which considered itself to have the world at +its feet, and to be the manifestation of the greatest gods. +Literature is at the same high level of development with the other +arts, and writing is used for every branch of the public service. +This, the most ancient of the literatures of the world, is spread +over the immense surfaces of ancient temples and tombs, and stored up +in masses of papyrus rolls, much of which is still to be explored. +Our knowledge of ancient Egypt and its religion is still in its +infancy. The story of the decipherment of the various characters and +of the recovery of the early language of Egypt is one of the most +wonderful triumphs of scholarship. Only one remark, however, do we +now make in connection with Egyptian writing, namely, that it +illustrates in a singular manner the conservatism of the Egyptian +people, a feature of their character which is strikingly manifested +in their religion also. The ancient Egyptian did not cast away an old +usage when a new one, even a very superior one, had been introduced. +Long after metals had come into use, he still employed for various +purposes, especially those connected with religion, implements of +stone. The flint knives found in mummy-cases are connected with the +work of embalming, and show the retention of an archaic usage. The +same is true of the matter of writing. The earliest Egyptian writing +was that which is called hieroglyphic, or picture-writing. In this +system what is written down does not represent the sounds of words +the writer uses, but the ideas in his mind; it is writing without +words; a clumsy system we should say, and presenting the greatest +possible difficulties to the reader. At a very early time, however, +what is called hieratic writing was invented, in which the symbols +used represent not things but sounds, though the symbols used are +adapted from those of the earlier picture-writing. It is in this +hieratic character that the great mass of Egyptian literature is +preserved to us; but here again we find that the new system did not +banish the old one from use. Especially in religious inscriptions and +documents, the matter is given both in the newer writing and in the +older; the piece is written twice, first in hieroglyphic, the old and +sacred form, and then in hieratic, the new form, which could be +easily read. In the matter of different objects of worship, too, it +may perhaps be found that the same aversion to discard anything old +and sacred manifests itself, the same disposition rather to carry on +the old and the new together. + + +I. ANIMAL WORSHIP + +We begin with that element in Egyptian religion which is to our eyes +least rational. In the ages before and after the Christian era, when +a number of Greek and Latin writers tell us about Egypt, we find that +the religion of the country is described as consisting mainly in the +worship of animals. This excited the wonder of these writers in no +small degree. Herodotus asserts that the Egyptians counted all +animals sacred, and gives a list of those which were specially +worshipped. The hippopotamus, he says, is sacred at Papremis, the +crocodile at Thebes; and some animals are sacred all over the +country. He has much to tell of the manner in which the sacred +animals are fed and tended, and of the honours paid to them at their +death. Lucian says: "In Egypt the temple is a building of great size +and splendour, adorned with precious stones and decorated with gold +and with inscriptions; but if you go in and look for the god, you +find an ape or an ibis or a goat or a cat." The same statement is +made by Clement of Alexandria; and Celsus, the early Roman assailant +of Christianity, speaks to the same effect. Thus the popular religion +of Egypt, before and after the Christian era, had animals for its +principal objects. A representative of the sacred species sat or +crawled or hopped in the temple, and in that nome that animal was not +eaten. In the nome in which the cat was sacred all cats were +inviolable; any insult offered to a cat roused the whole population +to frenzy, and one who killed a cat, even though he was a stranger in +the place and unacquainted with its manners, forfeited his own life. +In the next nome the cat was not sacred but some other animal; and +these local differences of religion might occasion war between one +nome and another. Juvenal gives in his fifteenth satire an account of +a religious war of old standing between two neighbouring nomes, each +of which hated and insulted the animal which was worshipped in the +other. This may explain why it was impossible for the Israelites to +offer sacrifice to Jehovah in Egypt. They had to go out into the +wilderness, off Egyptian soil, before they could sacrifice animals +Egypt held sacred. + +The worship of a sacred animal in its own nome, a member of the +species dwelling in the temple and the others enjoying respect and +protection throughout that nome, this is the normal state of affairs. +Sometimes an individual animal acquires sacredness for Egypt +generally, as the bull Apis of Memphis, the bull Mnevis of +Heliopolis, or the goat of Mendes. These, though originally local +deities, might obtain a wider reverence if the nome they belonged to +rose to greater power. Animals of every size and kind were worshipped +in Egypt. Besides the large animals we have mentioned, the ape, the +dog, the little shrew-mouse, each had its local sacredness; also +snakes, frogs, and various kinds of fishes. The beetle (_scarab_) can +by no means be left without mention; and a number of trees and shrubs +were also sacred,[1] but, very curiously, not the palm. + +[Footnote 1: A very complete list of the sacred animals and trees +will be found in Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iii. p. 258, +_sqq._] + +It will be observed that our account of Egyptian animal worship is +drawn from very late sources and applies to a late period of the +religion. The religion of the earlier ages of Egypt is of quite a +different kind; the kings and priests who wrote the inscriptions of +the monuments tell us nothing about animal worship. Is that because +such worship did not flourish in their day? Not necessarily. Perhaps +they knew it well, but were not interested in it, or did not wish to +encourage it. The Egyptians certainly did not believe the worship of +animals to have been a late innovation. Manetho, an Egyptian priest +who wrote in the third century B.C., says that the worship of animals +was introduced under the second king of the second dynasty. That is +as if we should say that an old custom of which we did not know the +origin was introduced into Britain in the days of King Arthur. The +priests of Manetho's day wished animal worship to be considered a +corruption of the original religion of their country, but they could +not specify the time at which it had come in, and placed its origin +in the mythical period of history. The story of Manetho therefore +goes to prove that the origin of animal worship is anterior to +written records. + +But we have other evidence to the same effect. The earliest +representations of the deities of Egypt on the monuments testify in a +way which can scarcely be mistaken that these great beings had +originally some connection with members of the animal kingdom. The +great gods of Egypt are designated on the monuments in three ways. +Their ultimate form is human, the god is a man or woman, and as the +human figures of all the deities are drawn after one conventional +male and one conventional female pattern, a symbol is added to the +head to show which god or goddess is meant. Hathor is a woman with a +cow's horns on her head, Seb has a duck on his head, and so on. But +an earlier form of the written symbols of the deities is that which +represents them partly in human and partly in animal form. Horus +appears as a man with the head of a hawk, Hathor as a woman with the +head and horns of a cow, Bast is a woman with the head of a cat, +Osiris has the head of a bull or of an ibis, Chnum of a ram, Amon has +the head now of a ram now of a hawk. Deities also occur with human +bodies and the heads of mythical animals such as the phoenix. But +along with these semi-human, semi-animal figures there are found +still simpler symbols for the deities; they are drawn as animals. It +is only about the twelfth dynasty that the change to the higher form +takes place, but even after the step was made of representing the +gods as half-human, the older pictures of them were not discarded, +but placed side by side with the new ones. Thus we find on the same +stone two representations of Horus, one of which gives him as a man +with a hawk's head, while the other makes him simply a hawk; and +similar double representations of the other gods occur. If the gods +of Egypt were thus conceived and represented in the earliest times, +then the animal worship described by the Greek and Roman writers was +not the invention of a late age of decadence, but had its roots at +least far back in the past. The early gods of Egypt were animals, +whatever else, whatever more they were. It may be that the animal +worship of the later and weaker Egyptian periods was a revival, such +as takes place in weak periods, of a style of worship which in +earlier centuries had to a large extent disappeared in favour of a +more spiritual faith.[2] Of this only an Egyptologist can judge, but +at any rate animal worship was not a new thing in Egypt, but a very +old thing. + +[Footnote 2: This is held by Le Page Renouf, in his Hibbert Lectures, +_On the Origin and Growth of Religion, as Illustrated by the Religion +of Ancient Egypt_.] + +Theories Accounting for Animal Worship.--What did this worship mean? +and how are we to account for it? The Egyptians themselves, and the +ancient writers who turned their attention to Egypt, accounted for it +by a variety of theories; and various theories are still held on the +subject. We can only enumerate the principal ones. (1) The beasts +were worshipped for their qualities, as is said to have been the case +in Peru before the Incas (chapter vi.); each was reverenced for that +divine excellence or virtue which appeared to be manifestly resident +in it. Thus the dog was worshipped for his watchfulness and +faithfulness; the hawk for its darting flight through the upper air, +like the flashing of the sunlight or of the sun-god himself; the cow +as a great kind mother; the beetle for that wonderful procedure in +the reproduction of his kind, in which he so strikingly brings life +out of decay. (2) The beasts are not worshipped themselves; they are +only the emblems of the deities with whom they are connected, and it +is the deity who is worshipped, not the animal. This may be quite +true of later practice, but is by no means a satisfactory explanation +of its origin; for how was it arranged, and who was it that ordained +at first, that the jackal should be the emblem of Anubis, the cat of +Bast, the crocodile of Sebak, and so on? (3) Various mythological and +quasi-historical accounts of the origin of the practice are given, +such as that men long ago chose different animals for their standards +in war, or that some early king, wishing to keep his subjects +disunited, ordered that each nome should serve a different animal. It +is also told as a story of early times that the gods when they walked +on earth assumed the forms of various animals; thus the gods are +still in the animals. The gods hid in the beasts in order to be near +men and see how they did. But men found them out and worshipped them +in the disguise they had assumed. (4) The gods cannot be present in +the world and cannot be satisfactorily worshipped unless they have +bodies to dwell in--that is involved in Egyptian psychology; and as +the gods would be too much alike if they all occupied human bodies, +they chose the bodies of different animals. + +These theories of animal worship are evidently later inventions, to +account for a state of matters the real origin of which was not +known. Philosophical priests could not accommodate themselves to the +animal worship of the temples without a doctrine to justify it to +their minds. But those who resorted to such theories about animal +worship could have nothing to do with calling the system into +existence. We may be sure that a refined and cultivated people did +not take up animal worship and cling to it, in spite of its repulsive +features, with such tenacity as the Egyptians did, because of a +speculative idea of the likeness of certain beasts to certain gods, +or to express pantheistic views of the emanations of deity in animal +forms. The system, in fact, cannot have sprung up after the Egyptians +became civilised, and could not continue to exist among a civilised +people, if it was not hallowed by an immemorial antiquity. Only as a +mystery, a thing of which the origin was not known, could such a +worship continue among such a people. + +A new explanation of Egyptian animal worship has been put forward in +recent times by the Anthropological school of students of +religion,[3] and is rapidly gaining ground. The religious +circumstances of Egypt as narrated by Juvenal and Diodorus have the +strongest resemblance to the totemistic state of society described +above (chapter iv.). Here, as in Peru before the Incas, or among the +North American Indians of to-day, we have a number of communities +each with its special sacred animal, which it does not eat, but +reverences and defends. Other traces of totemistic arrangements may +be suspected here and there in Egyptian observances, but even did the +analogy extend no further than to the facts just mentioned, there +would be a case for considering whether the nomes were not first +peopled by a set of totemistic clans, who, even after they were +united in one people, preserved their early separate traditions. The +sacred animals of the nomes would then be "the totems of the clans +which first settled in these localities." Later developments of +religion never displaced these venerable emblems, if this be so, of +tribal life.[4] + +[Footnote 3: See A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, Second +Edition. Frazer's _Totemism_. Most of the modern Egyptologists +incline to the theory that animal worship, though not the only, was +one of the chief sources of Egyptian religion. Pietschmann first took +up this ground.] + +[Footnote 4: Compare the worship of animals in Babylonia, chapter +vii.] + + +II. THE GREAT GODS + +A very different set of gods are those made known to us by the +monuments and books. It is the principal problem of this religion to +explain how, along with the sacred animal, the cat or ibis or +crocodile, there was worshipped in the Egyptian temple the celestial +being, the god of heaven or of the sun, whose nature is light, who is +righteous and good, and who more and more fills the mind of the +worshipper with noble adoration, and leads him towards the high +truths of theism. These high gods of Egypt were represented, as we +have seen, from the earliest times of which we have any knowledge, +under animal forms. As far back as we can see, Hathor is a cow, and +Horus a hawk, and Anubis a jackal. Did beast worship spring by a +process of degradation from the worship of the high gods? We have +seen how difficult it is to maintain such a view. Did the higher +worship then spring by a process of development out of the lower? +That also would be hard to prove, for the high gods of Egypt are not +beasts, however magnified and spiritualised, but beings of a +different order; they are the sky, the sun, the moon, the dawn. And +as in our opening chapters we saw reason to believe that the worship +of the great powers of nature is an original thing with early man, +and explains itself without being derived from lower forms of +religion, so we must judge with regard to Egypt too. Even if some of +the great gods came from Mesopotamia, that helps us but little to +understand their history after they arrived in Egypt. In this field +also we are driven to recognise two religions, different in nature +and of independent origin, existing side by side, and seeking to come +to terms with each other; and the combination of the two is a process +in Egyptian religion which took place before the period of which we +have knowledge. It is prehistoric. + +It was formerly considered that the nature-gods of Egypt had very +little mythology connected with them; only one considerable story of +their doings was known; most of them had no history beyond the few +phrases applied by primitive thought to the great natural phenomena +to qualify them to be regarded as living and active beings. But as +more inscriptions are read, more divine myths are coming to light, +and further discoveries of the same kind may be still in store for +us. These different myths, however, are formed after the same +pattern. The great gods of Egypt are simple beings and easy to +understand, and they were never formed into an organised system like +the gods of Greece, but remain in separate dynasties or families, and +are very like each other. Many of them are sun-gods, or gods of the +morning and evening, and their stories cannot differ very widely from +each other, but they belong to different districts of the country; +that is what constitutes their difference from each other, and keeps +them separate. + +The Great Gods also are Local.--The nature-god as well as the +animal-god was worshipped in his own nome, where he dwelt in the +midst of his own community of worshippers; he was not recognised in +other nomes unless there were special reasons for it. But at the +earliest period of our knowledge of Egypt this simple early +arrangement has already undergone many modifications. Each nome has +its own special deity. Set is the god of Oxyrhynchus, Neith of Sais, +but more gods than one are worshipped in each nome. Generally there +are three; in many places there is an ennead, a nine of gods, but the +nine is a round number; there might be one or two less or more. The +god of a nome which had risen to a commanding position extended his +influence beyond his own nome, and came to share the temples of other +gods, so that he was at home in a number of places. Ra is said to +have fourteen persons--that is, fourteen views of his person have +been developed in so many different districts. But if one god could +thus be divided into several, the converse also took place; two or +more gods were combined, by the simple addition of their names +together, to form a new god. We have Ra-harmachis, Amon-ra, +Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and some even more elaborately compounded deities. + +Thus there was a constant tendency to the production of new deities; +even the attempts to combine existing deities only add to the number. +No attempt in the direction of a system of gods had any success; +local deities could not be suppressed; the nomes retained their +separate deities and religious establishments to the end. There never +was a religious organisation of Egypt generally; a priest could in +some cases pass from the religion of one nome to that of another, but +there was never a high priest of Egypt as a whole, however much a +king might wish to organise all the worships of the country in one +system. This local character of the Egyptian high gods was a source +of weakness in these great beings, and never ceased to check their +upward movement. + +The temple of a nome had, as a rule, three gods, and these formed a +family, the chief god having his consort and the third being their +son. Of these triads we may mention some:-- + + Amen-Mut-Chonsu are the triad of Thebes. + Ptah-Sechet-Imhotep " Memphis. + Osiris-Isis-Horus " Abydos (Philĉ). + Sebak-Hathor-Chonsu " Ombos. + Har-hat-Hathor-Har-sem-ta " Edfu. + +The son is the successor of his father, and it is his destiny in turn +to marry his mother and so to reproduce himself, that is his own +successor; and so though constantly dying he is ever renewed. The +mother, not being a sun-god, does not die. If we remember that the +gods have to do with the sun these things need not shock us, nor need +we wonder at the statement which is very frequently met with, that a +god is self-begotten, or that he produces his own members. + +Mythology.--A few words may be said about Egyptian mythology in +general before we speak of some of the principal gods. The usual +stories of the beginning of things are not wanting, as when the +principal god is said to have been born from a primeval egg, or a +whole family of gods to be the children of Seb and Nut; Seb, the +earth, being in Egypt the male, and Nut, heaven, the female, of these +earliest parents of all things. More than one god, moreover, is held +to have been an earthly king, and to be the founder of the royal +house which now pays him homage. "The days of Ra," for example, are +spoken of as a golden age in which perfect justice and happiness +prevailed. Many stories too may be found which profess to furnish an +explanation of some feature of nature or some institution of society, +to account for the names of places or of animals, or for the presence +of the five days which were added to the twelve lunar months in Egypt +to produce a satisfactory solar year. Many old stories of the gods +have magical efficacy when told in certain situations; one is good +against poison, but must be told in a certain way to produce the +effect. After these stories of the gods' early reign of peace, come +those relating to less happy periods, when the old god grew weak and +began to have enemies, when gods and men became disobedient to him, +when a war broke out among the gods, which is not yet brought to an +end but breaks out ever afresh; or when the old god succumbed to his +enemies, and his successor had to set out to avenge him. In some of +these stories very primitive and savage traits appear, which show +that they originated in a rude state of society. But they are about +men, not about beasts, as we might have expected of Egyptian +mythology, and the men are undoubtedly solar heroes; it is the +fortunes of the daily (not the yearly) sun, his splendid and +beneficent reign, his decline, his conflict with the powers of +darkness, his decease and his resurrection, or the vengeance exacted +on his behalf by his successor, that are spoken of, in connection now +with one god and now with another. + +Dynasties of Gods.--In the history of Egyptian religion one set of +such gods succeeds another as the prevailing dynasty, according as +the seat of empire in the country shifts to a new nome. These +religious changes could take place without great convulsions. It was +only the attempt to extinguish old established worships that was +fiercely resisted, not the addition of a new god, even as superior to +those already seated in the temple. In the earliest times known to us +Ra of Heliopolis is the chief god of Egypt; Osiris of Thinis (Abydos) +is also a great god, but the most characteristic development of +Osiris-worship belongs to a later period. Ptah of Memphis comes to +the front in the earliest dynasties. Much later is the rise of Amon +to the first place, which he held when the Greeks and Romans had to +do with Egypt. A very short account only can be given of the sets of +gods of which these are the heads. + +Ra.--Ra means "sun"; his seat is Heliopolis or "On," where Joseph's +master Potiphera, or "Priest of Ra," lived. Heliopolis is the "house +of the obelisk," the obelisk being a representation of the sun. First +a kindly old king, he is later a warrior; he has to contend with the +serpent Apep, the dragon of darkness who appears pierced by the +shafts of Ra. But as Ra sinks in the conflict he is comforted by +Hathor, the goddess of the western sky, and avenged by Horus, the +ever young and ever victorious winged sun.[5] But Ra is a god of the +under as well as the upper world. King Pi'anchi, of the twenty-second +dynasty, entered into the great temple of Ra at Heliopolis and +penetrated to the inmost chamber of it, afterwards sealing it up +again. We are told what he saw there.[6] He looked upon "his father +Ra," and saw the two boats intended for the daily journey of the god. +Ra travels in his boat through the sky, but also at night through the +under-world, of which also he is lord. The progress of the god of +light through the world of darkness is a theme which was worked out +later in much detail in connection with Osiris; but it forms part of +the earliest known religious conceptions of the Egyptians, and Ra's +voyage through the "Am Duat" or under-world, is described in +considerable detail. Many figures accompany him in this voyage, and +many are the obstacles to be overcome during the successive hours of +night before he reaches again the gates of day. The souls of men who +have died are also led by him through those nether spaces; by a +hidden knowledge, if they have been at pains to possess themselves of +it, they are able to keep close to Ra on the perilous journey. He +gives them fields to cultivate in the plains beneath, and they are +made glad by his appearance at the appointed hour in the nights that +follow. + +[Footnote 5: There are in Egyptian religion several gods called +Horus; this, the oldest one, is fused with Ra, the first sun-god, in +the double name Ra-Harmachis, a being to whom the highest attributes +are given. The symbol of this god is a recumbent lion with a man's +head, the figure in which also the kings of Egypt are represented.] + +[Footnote 6: See the inscription in _Records of the Past_, ii. 98.] + +Osiris, the sun-god of Abydos, is also reported to have been a human +being who was exalted to divine honours. (The god of the under-world +and judge of the dead, who bears the same name, is a different +figure; of him we shall speak afterwards.) He is the most interesting +and the best known of the gods of Egypt; his myth is found at length +in Plutarch, with the mystical interpretations proposed for it in +ancient times; he is also the god in whom the affinity of Egyptian +with Babylonian religion appears most clearly: cf. chapter vii. Born, +according to the myth we mentioned above, at one birth with four +other gods, of the venerable parents Seb and Nut (see above), he from +the first has Isis for his wife and sister, and his brother Set is +also born along with him, with whom he lives in perpetual hostility. +Neither can quite overcome the other, and many are the incidents of +their warfare. As a rule the gods of Egypt are serene and good +beings; here only dualism shows itself. Osiris is the good power both +morally and in the sphere of outward nature, while Set is the +embodiment of all that the Egyptian regards as evil,--darkness, the +desert, the hot south wind, sickness, and red hair. It is not the +case that Set was an imported god and belonged to Semitic invaders, +but these invaders found him more suited to their notions of deity +than any other god of Egypt, and sought to make him supreme, in +which, however, they could not succeed. The story of the +dismemberment of Osiris and of the search of Isis for his loved +remains, which she buried in fourteen different places where she +found them, is one which is found connected with other names in other +lands. Horus is the avenger of his father. Here we have this deity in +three stages--Horus the child in his mother's arms, Horus the +avenger, and Horus the successor of his father, the complete sun-god. + +This family of gods is more human and living to us than that of Ra or +than any other set of Egyptian deities. It was also more taken up in +other lands, when the gods of older peoples began to find acceptance +in the West. We see with special clearness in this case the operation +of the principle according to which the contrast of light and +darkness when represented in the gods passes into that of moral good +and evil, so that the god of light becomes the great upholder of +righteousness and dispenser of beneficence. The good god of Egyptian +religion, moreover, is accompanied by a goddess who is somewhat more +than the pale reflection of the male god, as most Egyptian goddesses +are. The incidents of the legend also lend to the divine characters a +tragic depth in which the prosperous and happy gods of Egypt do not +generally share. + +Ptah is the god of Memphis, and adjoining his temple is the chapel of +the bull Apis, who is called the "second life of Ptah." If these two +resided side by side, some theory of their relationship was needed, +and the bull became the earthly representative of the unseen deity. +Each had a worship of prehistoric antiquity, and it is vain to +theorise on their original relation to each other. As for Ptah, his +name means "he who forms," and the Greeks called him by the name of +their own Hephaistos, the artificer. In later times he came to be +identified with the sun, and was called the "honourable," "golden," +"beautiful," and "of comely face"; but earlier he seems rather to +have to do with the hidden source of the world's heat, the elemental +warmth which is at the beginning of all life. He also is, like Ra and +Osiris, a god of the under-world to which men go after death. He is +said to open the mouth of the dead--that is to say, that he hears +them and judges them. But in the upper-world too he has to do with +justice; he is called the "Lord of the Ell," a title connecting him +with measurements and boundaries, matters of the greatest importance +in Egypt. His son is Imhotep, he who comes in peace; the Greeks +regarded this god as a physician, and called him Asclepios. The +goddess of the triad is Sechet, who was also worshipped at Bubastis +under the name of Bast, and whose symbol is a cat. Ptah, it will be +seen, is a less distinct figure than either Osiris or Ra, and he very +readily passes into combinations with other gods. Ptah-Sokari and +Ptah-Sokar-Osiris are found much more frequently than Ptah alone. + +These are the chief gods of the old kingdom--that is to say, of the +first six dynasties. When we come to the great twelfth dynasty, after +the gap in the monuments which extends from 2500-2000 B.C., we find +that these gods have become faint and new gods have become supreme, +namely, the local gods of Thebes, and of the adjoining nomes. Of +these, Amon, god of Thebes, has the most distinguished history, +though Chem, the agricultural god of Coptos, and Munt of Hermonthis +were originally as important. Amon, the hidden, _i.e._ the hidden +force of nature, like Ptah, is seldom found alone; he is generally +combined with some other god, especially with Ra. The gods of +agriculture bow their heads by degrees before the sun-gods who tend +to draw to themselves all Egyptian worship; rude country +representations connected with the idea of fertility being +discredited before the religion of the royal temples which was +directed mainly to the god of light. + +Was the Earliest Religion Monotheistic?--We have mentioned only some +of the chief gods of Egypt, out of a countless number. These are the +gods favoured by kings and city priesthoods, who, we cannot doubt, +desired the religious elevation of the people. The gods they praised +were of a nature to promote that end. It will be granted that the +worship of the light-gods of Egyptian religion was fitted to lead the +minds of the Egyptians to theism. In illustration of this statement +extracts may be here given from hymns, which date as we have them +from the eighteenth dynasty 1590 B.C., but which are probably much +older. + + +TO HORUS + +The gods recognise the universal lord.... He judges the world +according to his will; heaven and earth are in subjection to him. He +giveth his commands to men, to the generations present, past, and +future; to Egyptians and to strangers. The circuit of the solar orb +is under his direction; the winds, the waters, the wood of the +plants, and all vegetables. A god of seeds, he giveth all herbs and +the abundance of the soil. He affordeth plentifulness, and giveth it +to all the earth. All men are in ecstasy, all hearts in sweetness, +all bosoms in joy, every one in adoration. Every one glorifieth his +goodness, his tenderness encircles our hearts, great is his love in +all bosoms. + + +TO TEHUTI OR PTAH + +To him is due the work of the hands, the walking of the feet, the +sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears, the breathing of the +nostrils, the courage of the heart, the vigour of the hand, activity +in body and in mouth of all the gods and men, and of all living +animals; intelligence and speech, whatever is in the heart and +whatever is on the tongue. + + +TO PTAH-TANEN + +O let us give glory to the god who hath raised up the sky and who +causeth his disk to float over the bosom of Nut, who hath made the +gods and men and all their generations, who hath made all lands and +countries and the great sea, in his name of "Let-the-earth-be." + + +TO AMON-RA + +Hail to thee, maker of all beings, lord of law, father of the gods; +maker of men, creator of beasts; lord of grains, making food for the +beast of the field.... The one without a second.... King alone, +single among the gods; of many names, unknown is their number. + + +There is a beautiful hymn addressed to the Nile, who is also +conceived as the chief deity and the ruler, nourisher, and comforter +of all creatures. From these hymns and others like them, important +conclusions have been drawn as to the nature of the earliest Egyptian +religion; namely, that those who wrote such pieces must have been +acquainted with the one true god and addressed him under these +various names, so that the true origin of Egyptian religion would be +a primitive monotheism. + +There are some texts indeed which seem to point even more strongly +than those cited to the conclusion that Egyptian religion started +from the belief in one supreme deity. Mr. Le Page Renouf quotes along +with the passages above, one from a Turin papyrus, in which words are +put into the mouth of the Almighty God, the self-existent, who made +heaven and earth, the waters, the breaths of life, fire, the gods, +men, animals, cattle, reptiles, birds, etc. This being speaks as +follows:-- + + I am the maker of the heaven and the earth.... It is I who have + given to all the gods the soul which is within them. When I open my + eyes there is light, when I close them there is darkness. I am + Chepera in the morning, Ra at noon, Tum in the evening. + +M. de la Rougé maintains that Egyptian religion, monotheistic at +first, with a noble belief in the unity of the Supreme God and in His +attributes as the Creator and Law-giver of man, fell away from that +position and grew more and more polytheistic. "It is more than 5000 +years since in the valley of the Nile the hymn began to the unity of +God and the immortality of the soul, and we find Egypt arrived in the +last ages at the most unbridled Polytheism." + +The sublimer part of Egyptian religion is demonstrably ancient, as +Mr. Le Page Renouf says; yet we are not shut up to the conclusion +that Egyptian religion as a whole is nothing but a backsliding and a +failure. If we were obliged to regard that monotheism which Egypt had +at first but failed to maintain, as a gift conferred from above, +which human powers proved unequal to conserve, then the opening of +the history of this religion would be indeed most melancholy. But +though monotheism appeared in Egypt so early, there is no necessity +to think that it was not attained by human powers. For all we know, +it was not an early but a mature product of thought, and was reached +after a long development. It is not impossible for the human mind, +starting from the works of God, to rise by its own efforts to the +belief in His invisible power and Godhead. The beginnings of this +rise of thought may be witnessed among savages, and the Egyptians in +their secluded valley had an opportunity such as no other nation had, +to work out, as their civilisation grew up from rude beginnings to +its unequalled splendour, a noble view of the Deity whose works they +adored. The god ruling from his heaven of light over the great empire +of a monarch who knew no equal in the world, possessing for his +earthly abode a temple of unsurpassed magnificence, uniting perhaps +under his sway districts long at war and extending his influence over +remote continents as the armies of Egypt prospered, such a being drew +to himself from his worshipping retinue of priests and nobles, the +highest praise and adoration, was exalted far above all other powers +in heaven and earth, and extolled even as the Creator and Ruler of +all. + +Monotheism is thus approached in thought, but only in a prophetic and +anticipatory way; the circumstances of the country forbade its +realisation as a general belief or as a working system. Even in the +highest flights of those early thinkers, when they seem to be +speaking of a god quite universal and supreme, it is a local deity +that lies at the basis of their speculations, a being who has his +temple in a certain place, who is symbolised in a certain animal, who +has a local legend and a limited popular worship. These are the facts +that clog the wings of Egyptian monotheistic speculation and bring it +to the earth again. Pure monotheism accordingly, the belief in a god +beside whom no other god exists, it might be hard to find in Egypt at +all. The last extract given above comes nearest to it; but the last +line of that extract cannot be called monotheistic. + +An attempted religious reformation at the end of the eighteenth +dynasty may be mentioned here, as it appears to have aimed at +concentrating all the worship of Egypt on a single object. The object +chosen, however, was a material one,--the sun's disk, Aten,--and +though all Egyptian gods tended to become sun-gods, some sun-gods, no +doubt, were better than others, and Aten was not the finest of them. +King Chut-en-Aten, or Glory of the Sun-disk, the royal fanatic who +made this attempt at unity, went great lengths to accomplish his +object, but the attempt was a failure, and was abandoned after his +death even by the members of his own family. What Chut-en-Aten tried +to introduce perhaps came nearer true monotheism than anything that +ever existed in Egypt. He made war on other gods and wished to +establish one only god in the land, but this exclusiveness the +Egyptians could not understand. The Egyptian believed in many gods, +and while worshipping one god with fervour, by no means denied the +existence or the power of others in other places. Even foreign +deities were in his eyes real and potent beings, each in his own +territory. It is henotheism, not monotheism, that we see in this most +religious land; the worship of one god at a time while other gods are +also believed to exist and act. The one god who is before the mind of +the worshipper is exalted above the rest, and spoken of as if no +other god required to be considered; but the worshipper does not +dream as yet of questioning the existence of other gods, or feel +himself debarred from worshipping them if he should visit their +country. + +Syncretism.--The hymns contain several other speculative positions +about the gods (chapter iv.), and we may briefly mention these. +Syncretism, as we saw, is very largely represented in Egyptian +thought, and enters, indeed, into its very bone and marrow. In the +ennead of a city the great gods may be arranged together after the +fashion of a court where one or two rule over the rest; but in +numberless passages we find the relations of gods adjusted in another +way, by making them one. Ra "comes as" Tum, the god is known here +under one name or aspect and there under another. The names of two +deities being added together, a new deity is produced; and in later +times these gods with double, treble, or multiple names are among the +most important. Raharmachis and Amonra are national gods, and have +left much evidence of themselves. + +It is a little step from syncretism to pantheism. Let the gods once +lose the individual character that keeps them separate from each +other, and it is possible for one god, who grows strong and great +enough, to swallow up all the rest, till they appear only as his +forms. In the position which they occupied in Egypt the various gods +could not disappear, their local connections kept them alive; but +they were so like one another that one of them could be regarded as a +form of another, and a multitude of them as forms of one. The god who +did most in the way of swallowing up the rest was Ra, the great +sun-god of Thebes. The Litany of Ra[7] represents that god as eternal +and self-begotten, and sings in seventy-five successive verses +seventy-five forms which he assumes; they are the forms of the gods +and of all the great elements and parts of the world. The separate +gods are reduced from the rank of independent potentates to shapes of +Ra, and thus a kind of unity is set up in the populous Egyptian +Pantheon. But Ra is not strong enough to get the better of these +shapes, and to rule a sole monarch by his own right, in his own way. +He is the god, but he is not an independent god; it is pantheism, not +theism, to which he owes his exaltation. The one in Egypt cannot +govern the many; the pure exaltation of Ra as a supreme and absolute +god does not prevent the worship of a different being in each +different town. The one sole god is for the priests alone, not for +the people; and this belief in him does not even lead to attempts to +root out the worship of animals, or to concentrate the service of the +temples on him alone. And in the absence of such attempts we read the +sentence condemning a religion which produced most noble fruits of +thought, to grow worse and not better as time went on, and to pass +away without bringing any permanent contribution to the development +of the religion of the world. + +[Footnote 7: _Records of the Past_, viii. 105.] + +Worship.--The Egyptian temple was constructed rather to afford the +god a splendid residence among his people than to accommodate a large +congregation at an act of worship. The temple was the public place of +the community, its point of meeting (for the Egyptian town has no +market-place), and its fortress when attacked (for the town is not +fortified). But while the courts of the temple were open to the +people, there was a holy place which only the priests might enter, +where the sacred ark, the symbol of the god, remained, and where +sacrifices were offered. The images about the temple were not placed +there to be worshipped, but were votive offerings meant to provide +the god with a body which he might enter when he chose. The obelisk +is such a symbol or incorporation of the sun. On certain days the +sacred objects and animals were taken in procession through the +temple grounds, or made voyages on the lake belonging to the temple, +or were even taken through the nome among the fields and dwellings of +their people; and on these occasions representations took place +symbolising the principal events in the history of the god. It was +thus that the private individual came to know the god; it was a great +festival and an occasion of the utmost joy when the divine protectors +and benefactors of the nome, who generally remained in their splendid +retirement, came forth to mingle for a brief space with the faithful +community. The worship of the gods was in Egypt, as in every nation +of the ancient world, a matter of state, not of individual concern. +It is the chief branch of the public service; the state is under the +direct rule of the gods; never was there a more absolute theocracy. +The king is a child of the god,--a conception often treated in the +most material way,--and being thus of more than human race, becomes +himself the object of worship, and even offers sacrifice to himself. +It is one of the king's chief cares to provide a stately dwelling for +the god; the king himself offers sacrifice on the most important +occasions. The god in his sacred ark goes with his people when they +are at war and fights along with them, so that every war is a holy +war. The priests are public officials, and often exercise immense +influence. The king institutes them into their functions; they are +exempt, as we may read in Genesis, from public burdens; every +function involving learning or art is in their hands. Framed in such +institutions religion is not likely to have any free growth; the time +is far distant here when men will form voluntary associations of +their own for spiritual ends. Yet, no doubt, the lay Egyptian had a +private religion of his own as well as his share in the great public +acts he witnessed. Though the gods of Egypt are nearly all good, the +evil power Set was much worshipped, and would be approached in +private as well as in the public acts depicted on the monuments, by +all who had anything to fear from him--that is to say, by all. Every +one had to treat with kindness and respect the animal species sacred +in his nome, and other sacred animals. The belief in magic was +strong; hidden powers had to be reckoned with on manifold occasions; +sickness was imputed to the agency of evil spirits, and treated by +exorcism, by persons duly trained and learned in such arts. Lucky and +unlucky days, and days suitable or unsuitable for particular +undertakings, filled the calendar; the belief in amulets and charms +was universal. Such things we expect to find among the people, even +where religious thought has risen highest. + + +THE DOCTRINE OF THE OTHER LIFE + +Most of our knowledge about ancient Egypt is drawn from the tombs. No +other nation ever bestowed so much care on the dead as the Egyptians +did, nor thought of the other world so much. The living had to +prepare for his further existence after death, and the dead claimed +from his successors on earth elaborate offices of piety. It is in +this part of the religion that there is most growth, and this part of +it in its ultimate form is best known. + +1. Treatment of the Dead.--The doctrine of the other world takes its +rise with the Egyptians in the belief common to all early races, +which was described above (chapter iii.). The spirit still lives when +the body dies, and it comes back to the body, and is affected by the +treatment the body receives. To care for the dead is the first duty +of the living, and a man must marry in order to have offspring who +will pay him the necessary attention after his death. Various things +are buried with the corpse for the use of the spirit, and offerings +are made to it from time to time afterwards. This is no more than the +common primitive belief, but the Egyptians carried it out more fully +in practice than any other people. They sought to make the body +incorruptible, embalming it and restoring to it all its organs, so +that the spirit should be able to discharge every function of life. +They placed the mummy if possible in such a situation that it should +never be disturbed to the end of time; the grave they called an +eternal dwelling. They even instituted endowments to secure due +offerings to the dead in all coming time. + +Cultivated as this part of religion was in Egypt, it could not fail +to assume a special character. For one thing, there is a variety of +names for what survives of man after death; we hear of his heart, his +soul, his shade, his luminosity; and in the later doctrine these are +all combined and made parts of one theory; all the different parts of +the man have to come together again after their dispersion at death +before his person is complete. The principal term, however, is the +"ka," image, or, as we say, genius, of the man, a non-substantial +double of him which has journeys and adventures to make, and to which +the offerings are addressed. The "ka" needs food, and regular gifts +are made to it of all it can require; it needs guidance and +instruction, and these can be conveyed to it by pictures and writings +on the walls of the tomb or in the mummy-case; even its amusement and +its need of society and of ministration can be to some extent met in +this way. It is not peculiar to Egypt that the advantages of wealth +and rank are continued after death, and that the rich can do much +more, or cause much more to be done for his eternal welfare, than the +poor. The king's mummy lies in a pyramid, where it will never be +moved; that of the noble in a rock-tomb or a stately edifice or +"mastaba"; the poor man has to be content with an inferior kind of +embalming, and a tomb of tiles if he gets any at all; and no priest +can be retained to pray for him. + +2. The Spirit in the Under-world.--Before history opens, this common +belief and practice in regard to the dead had come to be combined in +Egypt with the worship of a solar deity; a step of immense +importance, which added immeasurably to the pathos and the moral +power of this kind of religion. + +Milton says in _Lycidas_-- + + So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed; + And yet anon repairs his drooping head, + And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore + Flames in the forehead of the morning sky; + So Lycidas sank low, but mounted high. + +But what to Milton was a poetic imagination was to the early Egyptian +a serious belief. If the sun was his god, he did not say like +Wordsworth in his early period-- + + Our fate how different from thine, blest star, in this, + That no to-morrow shall our beams restore, + +but he was convinced that the history of his god, who sank under the +Western horizon, and after a period of darkness came back again to +light and triumph, was an undoubted indication of what he himself had +to look for after death. The mummy was carried across the Nile and +deposited in the west land, which is also the under-world, to share +in the repose and in the further progress of the dead. As the jackal +pervades that region, the dead is left to the care of Anubis, the +jackal-headed deity, who opens paths to him for further travel, and +leads him into the presence of the gods. The under-world is +elaborately portioned out into various parts and scenes, and manifold +are the shapes of evil and mischief with which it is peopled. On the +other hand, it contains abundance of blessings, which the departed +may secure if the proper means have been taken by himself and by his +friends surviving him. The earthly life is there repeated with all +its occupations and enjoyments, but free from fear and from decay. + +The doctrine of the dead accompanying the sun-god to the under-world, +and living under his protection, is very old in Egypt; we saw it in +an early form in connection with the god Ra. It was in connection +with Osiris, however, that it attained its widest diffusion; to the +whole Egyptian people Osiris was the lord of the world below, with +whom the departed were. The identification of the departed with +Osiris was thorough and complete; he becomes Osiris, takes the name +of the deity, and is known in the inscriptions as "Osiris N. N." Isis +is his sister, Horus his defender, Anubis his herald and guide, and +having shared the god's eclipse, he is also to share his triumph and +revival. + +3. The Book of the Dead, the most famous relic of Egyptian +literature, is a collection of pieces many of which are very ancient, +bearing on the passage of the soul through the under-world. The book +has also been called the _Funeral Ritual_; a better translation of +the title is, "Book of Coming out from the Day." The earthly life is +the day from which the deceased comes forth into the larger existence +of the world beyond. The book (or such parts of it as may be used in +each case) is the soul's _vade mecum_ for the under-world, and +contains the forms the soul must have at command in order to ward off +all the dangers of that region, and to secure an easy and happy +passage through it. How the person is to be reconstructed, the +different parts coming back to be built up again in one, how he is to +know the spirits he meets, how he is to get the gates opened for +him,--such are the subjects of various chapters; and the soul's +success in its passage depends on its knowledge of these. The words +they contain are not merely information, they have magic power to +smooth away obstacles and to open doors. Hence it is important for a +man to have learned them when alive, and, to assist his memory, a few +chapters are written on papyrus or linen, and the rolls placed with +the mummy in its case, or they are written on the walls of the tomb. +No other Egyptian work, in consequence, has been preserved in so many +copies, but one roll or set of inscriptions contains one set of +chapters and another another set. + +Does the fate of the individual after death depend then entirely on +magic; is it a question of how many of these formulĉ he is able to +remember, or how many his relatives have got written out for him? Do +no doubts intrude on his mind lest, even if he has all the requisite +knowledge at command, he himself should be found unworthy to live +with the immortals? For the most part the _Book of the Dead_ stands +on the earlier position at which man never thinks of doubting the +favour of his god, and trusts to overcome what is hostile by having +his magic ready, not by having his heart pure. But in several +chapters a deeper tone is heard. There is a form for having the stain +rubbed away from the heart of the Osiris, and if there are abundant +directions for outward purification, there are also directions for +having his sins forgiven. In the great 125th chapter the deceased +enters the Hall of the two Truths, and is separated from his sins +after he has seen the faces of the gods. Here he stands before +forty-two judges (compare the number of the nomes of Egypt) styled +Lords of Truth, each of whom is there to judge of a particular sin, +and to each he has to profess that he did not when on earth commit +that sin. I have not stolen, he has to say; I have not played the +hypocrite, I have not stolen the things of the gods, I have not made +conspiracies, I have not blasphemed, I have not clipped the skins of +the sacred beasts, I have not injured the gods, I have not +calumniated the slave to his master; and so on. The line is not yet +clearly drawn between moral and ritual or conventional offences; and +moral duty is expressed in a negative form, and appears as a shackle, +not as an inspiration. Yet the very great advance has been made here, +that divine law watches not only over specially religious matters but +over social life, and even over the thoughts of the individual heart. +The gods enjoin on a man not only to offer sacrifice and to respect +the sacred beasts, but also to do his duty as a citizen and as a +neighbour, and to keep his own lips unpolluted and his own heart +pure. It is to the same effect when we find that a man's +justification depends on the state of his heart at death. His heart +is weighed against the truth, and if it is found defective, he cannot +live again; if it turns out well, then he is justified and goes to +the fields of Aalu, the place of the blessed of Osiris. + + +CONCLUSION + +This doctrine of the life to come, like the theistic doctrine the +Egyptians at one time attained, might have seemed destined to lead to +a pure spiritual faith, from which superstition should have +disappeared. But in neither case is that result attained. The later +history of Egyptian religion is that of the increase of magic, and of +the rise of a priestly class absorbing to itself, as the older +priests who were closely connected with the civil life of the nation +had never done, all the functions of religion. Doctrine grows more +pantheistic and more recondite, mysteries and symbols are multiplied, +all to the increase of the influence of the priesthood, and to the +infinite exercise of ingenuity in coming times. Popular religion, on +the other hand, comes to be more taken up with such matters as charms +and amulets and horoscopes; and while morals did not decline from the +high level they had gained from the reign of the gods of light, the +spirit of the nation lost vigour under the growth of religiosity at +the expense of patriotism, and healthy reform grew more and more +impossible. What of the religion of Egypt lived on in other lands +which felt her influence, it is hard to say. The religious art of +Egypt, and with it no doubt some tincture of the ideas it embodied, +undoubtedly went northwards to Phenicia; and Greece owed to Phenicia, +as we shall see, many a suggestion in religious matters. Long before +Isis and Serapis were introduced in Rome in their own persons, the +legend of Osiris had flourished in Greece under new names, and the +Greek doctrine of the life to come, taught in the mysteries, has +suggested to some scholars an Egyptian origin. To the Greeks and +Romans this religion afforded an infinity of puzzles and mysteries; +to the modern world it affords the greatest example of a religion the +early promise of which was not fulfilled, the splendid moral +aspirations of which were stifled amid the superstitions they were +too weak to conquer. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +For general information Wilkinson's _Egyptians_. + +E. A. W. Budge, _History of Egypt_, vols. i.-viii., 1902-03. + +E. A. W. Budge, _The Mummy_; chapters on Egyptian funeral archĉology, +Cambridge, 1893. + +E. A. W. Budge, _The Book of the Dead_, English Translation of the +Theban Recension, 3 vols., 1910. + +Flinders Petrie, _A History of Egypt_. + +Flinders Petrie, in _Oxford Proceedings_, vol. i. p. 184, _sqq._ + +The Histories of Antiquity of Duncker, Maspero, and especially Ed. +Meyer. + +Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, 1894. + +Maspero, _Manual of Egyptian Archĉology_, Second Edition, 1895. + +Renouf's _Hibbert Lectures_. + +Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_, translated by Ballingal. + +Wiedemann, _Ägyptische Geschichte_, 1884-88; "Die Religion der alten +Aegyptier," 1890; also "Egyptian Religion," in Hastings' _Bible +Dictionary_, vol. v. + +A. O. Lange, "Die Ägypter" in De la Saussaye. _Records of the Past_, +First Series (1873-81), vols. ii., iv., vi., viii., x., xii. Second +Series, 1888-92, vols. ii.-vi. + +Benson and Gourlay, _The Temple of Mut in Asher_, 1899. + +Naville, _The Old Egyptian Faith_, translated by Colin Campbell, +1909. + +Colin Campbell, _Two Theban Queens_, 1909. A study of the +inscriptions in two royal tombs. + + + + +PART III +THE SEMITIC GROUP + + + + +CHAPTER X +THE SEMITIC RELIGION + + +As used by the modern scholar, the term Semites or Semitic races +includes the Arabs, the Hebrews, the Canaanites and Phenicians, the +Syrians or Arameans, the Babylonians and the Assyrians. This +enumeration differs from that of the tenth chapter of Genesis, where +the children of Shem include Elam, or the dwellers in Susiana, and +Lud or the Lydians, while the tribes who dwelt in Canaan before the +Hebrews are placed in another and a lower division of the human +family. The principle of the enumeration in Genesis is probably that +of geographical neighbourhood; the modern principle is that of +linguistic affinity. The peoples mentioned above spoke, or still +speak, languages which belong to the same family of human speech. The +inference from affinity of language to affinity of blood is in this +case a strong one, so that the peoples using the Semitic tongues are +considered to be of the same race. To the question, where the cradle +of the Semitic race is to be sought, most scholars now answer that we +must seek it in Arabia. From this isolated land the Semitic +dispersion spread in every direction, till Semitic language and +customs filled the earth from the south of Arabia to the north of +Syria, and from the mountains of Iran to the Mediterranean, and far +along the northern shores of Africa; of Babylonia and Assyria, where +Semitic culture and religion assumed at the dawn of human history a +very special and peculiar form, we have already spoken. We have now +to speak of Semitic religion as found in the lands bordering on the +eastern Mediterranean in a more original form. The Semitic peoples +outside of Babylonia founded no lasting empires, and showed no great +aptitude for art or for literary style; but, in point of religion, +they communicated to the world impulses of immeasurable force, which +will act powerfully on the world as long as the Prophet is named or +Christ preached. + +It is possible to define to a certain extent the typical religion of +the Semites. The Burnett lectures of the late lamented Professor +Robertson Smith[1] profess to do this; a book in which great learning +and bold speculation are remarkably combined, and which forms one of +the most important contributions to the early history, not of Semitic +religion only, but of early religion in general. The writer was +keenly interested in the study of prehistoric man and of primitive +institutions, and much of his book refers to an earlier period in the +growth of religion than that of the formation of the Semitic type. On +the question of the specific character of Semitic as distinguished +from other religions, it is one of our principal authorities. + +[Footnote 1: _Lectures on the Religion of the Semites_. First Series. +The Fundamental Institutions, 1889.] + +The Semitic races differ from the Indo-European, with whom alone we +need compare them, in their greater intensity of disposition and a +corresponding poverty of imagination. The Semite has a smaller range +of ideas, but he applies them more practically and more thoroughly. +He has, indeed, an intensely practical turn, and does not touch +philosophy except under an irresistible pressure of great practical +ideas; while for plastic art he has no native inclination. From this +it follows that the religious views he entertains appear to him less +as ideas than as facts, which must be reckoned with to their full +extent as other common facts of life must, and from which there is no +escape. His religious convictions, therefore, are apt to be carried +out to their utmost extent, even at the cost of great and painful +sacrifices. Religion admits with the Semite of less compromise, and +is less affected by fancy, than with the Aryan; it is, in fact, a +more practical matter. The result proves to be that the Semitic mind +brings religious ideas to bear on life and conduct with the greatest +possible force; the substance is more, the form less, than is the +case elsewhere. + +When we ask for the common type of working Semitic religion, where +are we to look for it? Not in Babylonia; the characteristic +Babylonian religion is Semitic, but late Semitic; it has received the +impress of high civilisation and of empire. Nor need we look for it +in the town life of Phenicia. It is in the seclusion of the Arabian +peninsula that we find it, in the district, as we saw, now regarded +as the cradle of the Semitic race, where life continues to this day +little changed from what it was before the days of Abraham. There the +type of society still exists with which scholars like Wellhausen and +Smith consider the earliest Semitic religion to be connected. It is a +society of nomad clans, which own no allegiance to any central +authority, which have no king and do not yet form a nation. This is a +stage of social growth which in every ancient people precedes the +rise of the nation and of monarchy. The Hebrews are rising out of +this stage when we first see them. Their neighbours the Moabites and +Canaanites have already passed beyond it. But all these peoples alike +have their root in a state of society when there was no large and +orderly community, but only a multitude of small and restless tribes, +when there was no written law, but only custom, and when there was no +central authority to execute justice, but it was left to a man's +fellow-clansmen to avenge his murder. + +Now the religion of the clan, the ideas of which determine the +character of later Semitic systems, may be briefly described as +follows. Each clan has its own god, perhaps he was originally an +animal, at any rate he is the father or ancestor of the clan, he is +of the same blood with them, he belongs to them and to no other clan. +So far the assertion that the Semites are naturally monotheists is +true; but the same is true of all totemistic or clannish communities. +A man is born into a community with such a divine head, and the +worship of that god is the only one possible to him. Should he be +expelled from his clan he is driven away from his god, and he cannot +obtain access into another clan except by a formal adoption as a +stranger client. The link, on the other hand between the god and his +clansmen is of the strongest. He joins in all their enterprises, +after being consulted on the subject, and having a sacrifice offered +to him, which renews the union of the clansmen to him and to each +other. Their wars are his wars; when any of them is injured or slain +he joins in their necessary acts of retaliation; it is a religious +duty for each of them to be faithful to the others, and to keep up +the tribal customs, of which the god approves. + +Thus the Semites have as many gods as they have clans; and these gods +do not greatly differ from each other. As long, moreover, as the +clans are at constant feud, no single god can grow very great. It is +only when one clan conquers others, that a king-god can arise to rule +over all alike as a monarch rules over his nobles and their +provinces. But in this type of deity the genius of Semitic religion +is already expressed. The god of the Semite is not a nature-power who +bears the same aspect to all men, but a member of a particular clan, +a person to whom the clansman occupies the same position of natural +subordination as he does to his father or his chief. The god takes +his name not from a part of nature but from a human relationship. He +is "Baal," master or owner, he is "Adon," lord; in later +circumstances he is "Melech," king. "El," mighty one, hero, is a more +generic term; like our "God," it is applied to any divine being. +These deities, it will be noticed, are all masculine; but it is not +to be supposed that the Semites had no goddesses. Not to speak of the +goddesses of Babylonia, mere doubles of the gods whose names they +bore (chapter vii.), the earliest Semites are believed by several +great scholars to have had a goddess but no god. The matriarchal +state of society, in which the mother alone ruled the family, came +before the patriarchal, and so the reign of the goddess came before +that of the god. Each community has its own Al-lat, "The Lady," as +she is called in Arabia, a strict and exacting lady, not to be +confounded with the licentious goddesses of later times; and in all +Semitic lands traces of her early prevalence are found.[2] As the +male god came to the front, the female became a less definite figure, +till she was generally a mere counterpart of the male god, with +little character of her own. With gods of this type there is little +scope for mythology. The history of the god is that of the tribe; the +gods are too little independent of their human clients to form a +society by themselves, or to give rise to stories about their doings. + +[Footnote 2: See Robertson Smith's _Kinship and Marriage in Early +Arabia_.] + +This is one side of the natural history of the Semitic gods; but that +history has another side. The lands in which the Semites dwelt were +full from the first of sacred spots; and we have to notice that the +god of a clan is also the god of a certain piece of earth where he is +supposed to dwell, which is regarded as his property, and the +fertility of which is ascribed to his beneficence. In the Bible we +read of sacred trees, of sacred wells, of sacred stones or mounds, +and of stones or pillars which were connected with sacrifice. In +various Semitic lands there are also sacred streams and sacred caves. +The Semites in fact had their share of the inheritance the whole +world has derived from the earliest times, of prehistoric religious +sites and objects. A spirit spoke in the rustling of the branches of +the tree, counsel could be procured at the spring; wherever there +appeared to be something mysterious in nature, a spirit was believed +to dwell; and especially in woods and fertile spots, where wild +beasts originally had their lair, a spirit was thought to reside, +which was approached with fear. Many of these superstitions the +various branches of the Semites long continued to hold;[3] but the +race superseded in the main this world of spirits by a set of gods, +and the magic addressed to spirits by religious observances addressed +to gods. The genius or jinn haunting the thicket, who had no regular +worshippers, but was an object of fear to all, and had to be +propitiated or controlled by mysterious arts, gave way to the god of +a clan, who took up his residence there, and received the regular +worship of his clansmen; the stone became the symbol of a deity who +had been asked and had consented to become identified with it for the +purpose of the stated rites of the clan. In this way the clan gods +became localised as the clans tended to acquire fixed settlements, +and each sacred spot was occupied by the deity of the clan who dwelt +around it. The view was held that each god was to be found at the +spot where, on some marked occasion, he had given evidence of his +power, and he who wished to enquire of that god had to go there. It +might happen that the god manifested his power at another spot to one +of his dependents on a journey, as Jehovah did to Jacob at Bethel +(Genesis xxviii.). Then that spot also was recognised as a holy one +where communication could be had with the deity, and the apparatus of +worship was erected there so that the intercourse might be suitably +carried on, as Jacob is reported to have done. In time also it came +to be thought that each god had his land which belonged to him, on +which alone his worship was possible, and so the earth was parcelled +out among a number of deities; and Naaman, who wishes to worship +Jehovah in his Syrian home, carries off two mules' burden of +Jehovah's soil, to make in the midst of Syria a little piece of the +land of the God of Israel (2 Kings v.). + +[Footnote 3: The late Professor Ives Curtius in a paper read to the +Basel Congress (1905, _Verhandlungen_, p. 154), on "Traces of Early +Semitic Religion in Syria," gives details of local sanctuaries still +resorted to in that country.] + +One circumstance remains to be mentioned which constitutes a marked +difference between the Semitic and the Aryan religions. Aryan +religion has its centre in the household; the hearth is its altar, +and the gods of the domestic cult are the departed ancestors of the +family. Semitic religion is without this cult; the hearth is not an +altar; the religious community is not the family but the clan. The +worship of ancestors, if, as there is reason to believe, it had once +been practised by the Semites (the Arabs tied a camel to the grave of +the dead chief), lost at a very early period all practical +importance. While the early Semites believed in the continued +existence of the departed, they thought of them as beings quite +destitute of energy, as "shades laid in the ground," and did not +worship them. The other world occupied, therefore, a very small space +in Semitic thought. Religion confined itself to this life; after +death, it was held, even religion came to an end. A man must enjoy +the society of his god in this life; after death he could take part +in no sacrifice, and could render to his god no thanks nor service. + +From what has been said the character of sacrifice among the Semites +is readily understood. Sacrifice is not domestic but takes place at +the spot where the god is thought to reside, or where the symbol +stands which represents him. Usually this was an upright monolith, +such as is found in every part of the world, and the central act of +the sacrifice consisted in applying the blood of the new-slain victim +to this stone. The blood was thus brought near to the god, the +clansmen also may have touched the blood at the same time; and the +act meant that the god and the tribesmen, all coming into contact +with the blood, which originally perhaps was that of the animal totem +of the clan, declared that they were of the same blood, and renewed +the bond which connected them with each other. A further feature of +early Semitic sacrifice is also that the slaughter and the blood +ceremony are succeeded by a banquet, at which the god is thought to +sit at table with his clients, his share being exposed for him on the +stone or altar. When he came to be believed to dwell aloft, his share +was burned with fire so that the smell or finer essence of it might +ascend to him. Many examples may be collected in the early historical +books of the Old Testament of sacrifices which are at the same time +social and festive occasions; in fact, in early Israel every act of +slaughter was a sacrifice, and every sacrifice a banquet. The people +dance and make merry before their god, of whose favour they have just +become assured once more by the act of communion they have observed. +The undertaking they have on hand is hallowed by his approval, so +that they can boldly advance to it; the corporate spirit of the tribe +is quickened by renewed contact with its head; all thoughts of care +are far away; the religious act makes the worshippers simply and +unaffectedly happy, if it does not even fill them with an orgiastic +ecstasy. + +This careless happiness, in connection with religious acts, is found +also in Babylonian sacrifice. It is not, however, peculiar to the +Semites, but is characteristic of the religion of the early world in +general. Nor is it peculiar to this race that religion does not +address the individual as such, but only as a member of his tribe, +and that it provides small comfort for private sorrows or longings. +The sad face is out of place in the presence of the god. Religion is +essentially a happy thing; sin is not yet thought of, and if things +go wrong, the tribe never entertains any doubt but that with proper +sacrifices and promises the god will show them his favour again and +renew their prosperity. All this is not specially Semitic, but simply +early religion. What is specially Semitic is, to repeat that with +which we set out, that gods are worshipped whose relations to their +worshippers are borrowed from existing forms of society. The god is +the father or the master or the champion, of the circle of +worshippers; he is of their kindred, he is their greatest and +strongest clansman, he belongs to them and to none but them. This, +whether it is derived--as Professor Robertson Smith thinks--from the +ideas of totemism or not, leads to a religion which is exclusive and +intense, and cannot be trifled with. The god who is a man's master, +and the head of his clan, stands in a more imperative position +towards him than the god of the sky, or than a departed ancestor. He +does not change with the seasons or the weather, nor is there any +doubt as to his intentions and demands. Semitic religion, even at +this stage, is a very real thing, and may easily, in favouring +circumstances, become a force of overmastering energy. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Hommel, _Die Semitischen Völker und Sprachen_. + +"Semites," by McCurdy, in Hastings' _Bible Dictionary_, vol. v. + +Cumont, _Les Religions orientales dans la Paganisme Romain_, 1907. + + + + +CHAPTER XI +CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS + + +When the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan and settled in +Palestine, they found that country inhabited by a race of men who +spoke the same language as themselves, and who were much further +advanced than they in civilisation. The letters of El-Amarna which +belong to this period show Syria to have been full of small +theocratic states, all pervaded, though now under the power of Egypt, +by Babylonian culture, each with a god and a settled worship of its +own. The Israelites of a later time regarded the Canaanites with such +disdain that they reckoned them (Genesis x. 6, 15) as belonging to an +inferior race; but the two peoples belonged to the same race, and had +many common ideas and practices. In religion they resembled each +other, or Israel could never have been tempted so strongly, and for +so long a period, to adopt the rites of the people they conquered. + +The Israelites were not the only people who invaded the land of the +Canaanites and stayed in it. Three such invasions took place: those +of the Phenicians, of the Philistines, and of the Hebrews--the first +and third being Semitic peoples, and perhaps the second also. The +Philistines, settling on the south-eastern corner of the +Mediterranean, had a Semitic religion, of which the fish-god Dagon, +the Fly-Baal of Ekron, and the Ashtoreth, probably of Ascalon, are +known figures. The Philistines, however, lost ultimately their +separate character, and ceased to exist as an independent people. It +will not be necessary for us to mention them again. The Phenicians, +settling on the northern sea-board of Syria, where great trade routes +to East and West converged, and where good harbours could be made, +became a nation of merchants, and kept up active communication with +the great kingdoms of the East, with Egypt, and with the islands and +the distant shores of Western Europe. The carriers of the ancient +world, they transmitted to Europe not only the spices and the fabrics +but also the ideas and the practices of Asia, and rendered to the +world the inestimable service of awaking the slumbering energies of +the Aryan peoples to new life. + +A short chapter may be devoted to the religion of the Canaanites and +to that of the Phenicians, not because these were important in +themselves, for in neither was there anything original or anything +destined to survive, but because of the light they throw on other +religions which were to have a great career. It was in conflict with +the Canaanite religion that the faith of Israel first realised its +true nature and was led to organise itself in a manner befitting its +character. And from Phenicia both Israel and Greece accepted many a +suggestion, both in external matters connected with worship and in +matters of a deeper nature. + +The religion of the Canaanites is well known to us from the Old +Testament. It is such a system as we found that of the Semites to be, +with certain peculiar developments, of which we have already seen +something in our chapter on Babylonia. A local community recognises +an invisible head, with whom it meets at the sacred spot, whom it +regards as overlord or master, of whose favour it is in no doubt, and +whom it serves with sacrifices and with lively manifestations of joy +at certain fixed periods. The god is called Baal. This, however, is +not a proper name but a title; it means lord, master, and the Baal +may have a name of his own in addition: we hear of Baal Peor, the +lord of Peor, and of many another. Baals are spoken of in the plural; +we read in Judges ii. 11 and in other passages that the Israelites +followed the Baals, that is the gods of the Canaanites. Each place +has its own Baal, who is worshipped at the local sanctuary. The +sanctuary is at an elevated spot outside the town or village, either +on a natural eminence or on a mound artificially made for the +purpose; these are the "high places" of the Old Testament; originally +Canaanite places of worship, they drew to themselves also the worship +of Israel. The apparatus of worship at these shrines is of a very +simple nature. An upright stone represents the god; it is not a +statue of him, being unhewn and having no resemblance to the human +figure. He was supposed to come to the stone when meeting with his +worshippers; and in the earliest times of Semitic religion this stone +served the purpose of an altar: the gifts, which were not originally +burned, were laid upon it, or the blood of the victim was applied to +it. But besides the altar and the upright stone or _massebah_ the +Canaanite shrine had another piece of furniture. A massive +tree-trunk, fixed in the ground and with some of its branches perhaps +still remaining, represented the female deity who is the invariable +companion of the Baal. This is the Ashera of Canaan, a word which in +the Authorised Version is translated "grove," after an error of the +Vulgate, but which in the Revised Version is rightly left +untranslated. (Judges iii. 7, vi. 25; 2 Kings xxiii. 6, there is one +in the Temple at Jerusalem; etc.) The word Ashera is in such passages +the designation of the tree which stood to represent the goddess; +whether it is ever the proper name of the goddess herself is +doubtful. At any rate Ashera, like Baal, is not the name of one +historic deity, but a name applied to the goddess of each place all +over the country. + +The character of Canaanite religion is clearly revealed in its +apparatus of worship. We saw that the Babylonians added to many of +the gods of their country a female counterpart, turning the name of +the god into a feminine form (chapter vii., also chapter x.). In +Canaan we find that Semitic worship is addressed to pairs of deities; +there is a god and a goddess at each shrine. While it would be wrong +to regard this as the general type of Semitic religion,--our chapter +on that subject points to a different conclusion, and the great gods +of Phenicia, of Moab, and of Israel are solitary beings,--we must +recognise that the worship of god and goddess was widespread in +Semitic peoples. In Canaan it is not difficult to understand it. We +have here the worship of an agricultural community; and as the Baal +is the lord of the soil and the author of its fertility, who is +entitled to receive the first-fruits, so the Ashera is the fertile +matron who represents the principle of increase. The Old Testament +leaves us in no doubt as to the kind of worship which was carried on +at these shrines. The festivals were those of the farmer's calendar; +the Baal is presented with the first-fruits of corn and wine and oil, +in the midst of general feasting and boisterous merry-making. His +consort, on the other hand, is served with rites applying in the most +direct manner the principle she represents. The shrine has a staff of +female attendants for this part of the service of religion. The +rustic worship of Palestine thus shows us a side of the religion of +Western Asia which we know from other sources to have been widely +diffused. A female deity like the Babylonian Ishtar (chapter vii.), +is served with impure rites in great cities as well as in country +districts, and her worship spread westwards with other Eastern +products. She is found as Baalit, as Mylitta,[1] as Astarte; the +Greeks call her Aphrodite, and her horrid worship found entrance in +various Greek cities. + +[Footnote 1: Herod. i. 199.] + +To the Israelites the worship of Canaan proved a great temptation +(Numbers xxv.), but they gradually rose above it. The Phenicians also +came to have gods of a much higher character, and of these also we +must speak. The Phenicians were not original in their religion any +more than in their art; their religion began with the ordinary +Semitic notions as these had been applied by the older population in +Syria, and they improved it by borrowing from various parts of the +world with which they trafficked. So various were their borrowings +that it is impossible to draw up a consistent system of their gods. +One town has one set of gods, another town another, and the same +deity wears different and even opposite characters in different +places. All that can be done is to single out a few features which we +can see to have been on the whole characteristic of Phenician +religion, and to have enabled it to influence the worship of other +peoples. + +The Phenicians were very much in earnest about the maintenance of +state and of religion. In their successive city-states of Sidon, +Tyre, and Carthage, we see them exhibiting an intense devotion to the +commonwealth, and very much under the influence of their priesthood. +Semitic religion tends to grow more sombre and intense as it +develops; and the Phenicians, while still holding the principle of a +god and goddess, concentrate their worship more and more on a single +divine figure, and come to regard that figure from a greater distance +and with greater awe. The liberal and easy-going Baals and Asheras of +agricultural life are not suited to the temple of a great commercial +city; a figure of more dignity is wanted. And thus above the crowd of +Baals there appears the Moloch or king, a much greater being and +requiring a much statelier service. Moloch also is not originally a +proper name; there are various Molochs or king-gods who rise above +the Baals, and the individuals have special designations, as +Melcarth, "king of the city." This type of deity occurs not with the +Phenicians only, but with several other Syrian peoples about the same +time. The Moloch of Sidon and Tyre is a being of the same character +as the chief gods of Moab, Ammon, and Israel. He has to do not only +with the blessings of agricultural life, but with state and +government. He is the founder of a state; he is the inventor of +navigation and of purple; he is the first king; when a colony is sent +out, it goes with his approval, and he himself leads the expedition; +he is the dread ruler whom none must disobey; the majesty, the power, +and the enterprise of the state are all embodied in him. And as the +king-god is far above the landlord-god in power, he is infinitely +removed from him in character also. The chief gods of Sidon and Tyre +have nothing luxurious or effeminate about them. They are strict and +awful beings, and must not be incautiously approached. They retain +their primitive character as sources of life, but they are destroyers +of life as well. Pure and holy themselves, they require purity and +holiness in all who draw near to them. Their priests are celibates, +their priestesses virgins. They require sacrifices of a very +different nature from those of the Baals, more costly and more +dreadful. Human sacrifices appear to have been a regular feature of +their worship: when the Israelites turn to the worship of Phenician +gods, or when they copy Phenician practices, we hear of their "making +their children pass through the fire"--that is, offering them up as +burnt-sacrifices. The Moloch requires what is most costly as a +sacrifice, or what will cause the strongest thrill of terror in his +worship. Even the first-born child is not to be kept back from him (2 +Kings xxiii. 10, Jerem. vii. 31, cf. Micah vi. 7). + +So far the origin of the Phenician gods is simple. They are purely +Semitic deities, formed on the pattern of human rulers and deriving +their attributes from that character. When a state becomes highly +organised before it is quite civilised in other respects, its +religion is apt to be stern and cruel; of this various instances may +be found in the history of religion, and the present is one of them. +The Phenician gods were of such a character as to favour the survival +of savage practices; the Semite, as we saw, is extremely +matter-of-fact and practical in his religion, and a god who was a +king would receive the same kind of offerings as the king of Sidon or +of Tyre was accustomed to. A strict and dreadful religion thus +survives beyond the savage state; pleasure is taken in trampling on +natural feelings and in setting forth shocking spectacles at the +bidding of the deity. + +Astral Deities of Phenicia.--It is not possible to arrange in a +system the remaining phenomena of Phenician religion. In the +historical period the gods have another character besides that of +being heads and rulers of communities. They are connected with the +heavenly bodies. The chief god, whatever name he bears, El, Baal, +Moloch, Rimmon, or Adonis, is always the sun. A sun-god may have come +from Egypt or Babylon, but there is no reason why the Phenicians may +not have had a sun-god from the first, whose character spread to +their other deities. And in accordance with the tendency above spoken +of, the sun-god has a consort. Sometimes his consort is the earth; +and then we have a sensuous and immoral worship such as that of the +Canaanites. Sometimes it is the moon; her name is Astarte or +Ashtoreth, and she is a very different being from the Ashera of +Canaan; the names are not the same, and the characters are opposite. +Ashtoreth, like the primitive Semitic goddess (chapter x.), is a +chaste matron; she is represented robed and in stately attitude, and +is a fit companion for the strict Moloch of the cities. Her worship +is described to us by Jeremiah, in whose time the matrons of +Jerusalem made cakes for her and poured out drink-offerings and +burned incense to her as the "queen of heaven"; all this was done +with the knowledge and co-operation of their husbands, so that the +worship had nothing immoral about it. This strict goddess is not to +be identified with Istar of Babylonia, although the names are alike. +Istar is not a moon-goddess like Ashtoreth; in Babylonia, in fact, +the moon is masculine, and the characters of the two goddesses are +opposite. The Sidonian Astarte and the Canaanite Ashera represent two +opposing types of female deity, both of which may possibly have their +reflections in Greece--the latter in the lower forms of the worship +of Aphrodite, and the former in the figures of such strict maiden +goddesses as Artemis and Athene. + +Another worship which prevailed in Phenicia should not be left +unnoticed--that of the Cabiri. There were temples of the Cabiri in +several of the towns; their worship, however, was secret, and little +was known of it even in antiquity. We know at all events that the +Cabiri were seven in number, and the number is thought to be +connected, not with the seven planets, but with the seven heavenly +spheres of early astronomy. They have a head called Eshmun, who is +the god of the eighth or highest sphere. The Cabiri are beings of a +moral character; they are not only mighty ones and creators, but they +are the children of Sydyk--that is, of Righteousness; and they give +counsel. It is here that the tendency to speculative exaltation of +the deity appears in Phenicia; but there is little of it, and neither +in this direction nor in that of morals was the religion destined to +have any remarkable growth. The service of the gods was so closely +identified with the service of the state,--for either the priest and +the king were one, as in Israel after the exile, or nothing could be +done without the priesthood,--that no independent religious +development was possible. In a theocracy religion cannot grow, at +least it cannot be openly acknowledged to do so; and the prophet and +reformer finds every influence arrayed against him. + +How greatly Israel was indebted to Phenician art is known to all. It +was by artificers from Tyre that Solomon's royal buildings were +planned and executed, when he had married a daughter of Egypt and was +compelled to aim at some magnificence. A royal temple formed part of +these buildings, and was necessarily erected according to the ideas +which prevailed in the more advanced neighbouring kingdoms. It was +from the same source that the Greeks a century or two later drew +suggestions for their sacred architecture; and thus we find that the +ground-plan of Solomon's temple and that of the Greek temple are +closely similar. Both are to be traced ultimately to the model +derived by the Phenicians from Egypt. And those who borrowed from +Phenicia the form of their temple, borrowed many other things too. In +the porch of Solomon's temple stood two great pillars of bronze, +which were called Jachin and Boaz; they were simply the symbols which +stood at the entrance to every Phenician temple of the sun-god +worshipped there. The priests of Israel were dressed like those of +Tyre and Sidon; they offered the same animals as sacrifices, they +received the same dues for their maintenance. When so much apparatus +was borrowed, it is no wonder that the gods of Phenicia were at times +worshipped at Jerusalem. We see from this whole chapter that the +religion of Israel was not so much apart from that of the other +Syrian peoples as we have been wont to imagine. Even in his religion +Israel owed something to his neighbours; his religion came to be +better than theirs, but it was the result of a movement in which they +also had taken part. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The Histories of Antiquity. E. Meyer, Duncker (see p. 101). + +Tiele's _Egyptische en Mesopotamische Godsdiensten_. Book II.: +Phenicia and Israel. + +The Histories of Israel, especially Kuenen, _The Religion of Israel_. + +F. Jeremias, in De la Saussaye, vol. i. pp. 348-383. + +E. Meyer, "Phenicia," in _Encyclopĉdia Biblica_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII +ISRAEL + + +It is a circumstance of the greatest value for the science of +religion that the Old Testament is so well known. That book is the +most valuable literary storehouse we possess of the facts and ideas +connected with the early religion of mankind; it is the best +text-book of the earlier portion of our subject. In our chapters on +primitive worship, as well as in that on the Semites, we have drawn +largely from this source, and for the earlier stages of the religion +of Israel we may refer to these chapters. We have now, however, to +deal specially with the religion of the Old Testament, and to +endeavour to show, as has been done in other cases, what was its +specific character, and how its character determined its history. The +story to be told in this chapter is, even apart from our special +interest in it, as fascinating as any in this volume; it was through +a mental movement of unparalleled grandeur, as well as through an +outward history of tragic and entrancing interest, that the Jews came +to possess the religion which was the desire of all nations, and the +chief preparation for Christianity. + +We have to begin, however, with repeating in this case what has been +and will be the burden of our opening paragraphs in many chapters of +this book, namely that the traditional ideas about the nature of this +religion require to be corrected, and that its sacred books as they +now stand do not accurately represent its history. The Old Testament +literature has suffered in a high degree what seems to be the +predestined fate of every set of sacred books. Old materials and new +are mixed up together in it; many works have been revised by later +editors, and so much changed, that laborious critical processes are +necessary before they can be used by the historian. In forming his +first impressions as to the relations the books bear to each other, +and as to the purport of the whole, the reader is naturally guided by +the order in which he finds them; but the order in which the sacred +books of the Jews stand in the Old Testament was fixed from a +peculiar point of view at a late age in Jewish history, and is in +many respects quite unnatural and misleading. To come to particulars; +the Old Testament as it stands suggests that the Law was the earliest +product of Jewish literature, and that all the details of ritual, as +well as of moral and social duty, were fixed for the Jews at the very +outset of their history; and it suggests that the books of the +prophets were written last. This, till quite recently, was generally +believed to be the case, but by the labours of a series of +illustrious scholars of the Old Testament the conclusion has been +reached, which is now less and less disputed, that the earlier +prophetic books come first in chronological order, and that the law, +which is not all of one piece, but contains a number of codes of +different periods, together with a collection of legends and +traditions drawn from various quarters and subjected to editorial +treatment, did not assume the form in which we have it till after the +exile. The historical books, in which no doubt various ancient pieces +are embodied, were written under the inspiration of prophetic ideas; +and the latest books of all are those which stand in the centre of +the Old Testament in the English Bible; the Psalter, which had been +growing during a long period before it came to contain its present +number of pieces, the books of morals and philosophy, and the book of +Job. Daniel belongs to the period of the Maccabees. The historian, +therefore, starts from the age of the prophets of the eighth century +B.C. The writings of these great men afford a graphic picture of +their time, and an entirely trustworthy account of the mental +furniture Israel then possessed. From this fixed point the student is +able to infer what happened to Israel in earlier times, and to judge +of the spirit in which the early history of the people was afterwards +written and edited. The history of Israel which the student arrives +at after these critical processes differs, it is true, in very +important respects from that which appears at first sight on the face +of the Bible. But the same thing has occurred in the case of other +nations. The sacred books of Persia also have to be turned outside in +before they furnish the historian with an account he can accept. Even +of the speeches of Mohammed the same is true. Those who undertake the +task of codifying sacred literatures have to consider the purpose to +which the books are to be put in the community, and to arrange them +so as best to serve that purpose; they do not ask, How must they be +arranged so as to exhibit the true sequence of the history?--that +interest only arises much later--but, How will they best serve the +needs of the community? The order of books in sacred collections is, +therefore, fixed by practical considerations, now of one kind and now +of another, and not according to the requirements of the student of +history. We now proceed to give the outline of the history of the +religion of Israel as it appears in the light of recent critical +investigation. + +Israel consisted originally of a group of tribes, bound together by +the memory of a great deliverance they had experienced in common, and +of battles in which they had fought side by side. Accustomed to the +free life of shepherds, they had been enslaved in Egypt and held to +intolerable tasks; but they had made their escape in a wonderful +manner under a leader who had known how to kindle them to heroic +efforts by reminding them of their religious traditions. Under his +leadership they had visited the Sinaitic peninsula after leaving +Egypt, and had wandered in the regions to the north of Sinai, till at +last they conquered territory to the east of Jordan, on which some of +them settled, while others crossed the Jordan, and took up their +abodes among the Canaanite tribes whom they found there. + +The nation and the religion came into the world at the same time. +Although the tribes retained their separate gods and religious +observances, and families among them also had their own family cults, +the bond by which they had been formed into a people and made capable +of common action was stronger than these earlier ties; the God whom +Moses proclaimed as their head inspired in them an enthusiasm and +vigour unknown before. His name was Yahweh, and is said to have a +metaphysical meaning, and to designate the god as more really +existing than any other. This is doubted; what is certain is that +Moses declared that Yahweh promised to be with the tribes, and that +they took him for their God. Jehovah, to use the more familiar form +of the name, was perhaps the God of the most powerful of the tribes; +he was probably a nature-god, and connected with storms and thunder, +and he had his seat at Mount Sinai. Thither the tribes repaired to +hold a solemn meeting with him; from there he was afterwards +represented as coming forth when about to do any mighty act for his +people. He is thought of as a being who cannot be seen, since he +dwells in clouds and darkness. He utters his voice in thunder and +storm; he is possessed of irresistible energy which he unfolds in +battle, and in which he causes his people to share when he goes +before them to war. But he is also a god of counsel, and takes the +greatest interest in the moral and social life of his people. His +human representatives, aided by his spirit, settle disputes which are +laid before them, and pronounce authoritative counsels on difficult +matters. This kind of guidance is constantly going on, so that +Jehovah is felt to be watching over the conduct of his people, and to +be an effective helper and guide in their domestic concerns, which +not every god attends to, as well as in their meetings with their +enemies. + +The Early Ritual was Simple.--In all this we have a very apt example +of the advance which, as we saw in a former chapter, religion makes +when it becomes national instead of merely tribal; when the great god +of the nation takes his place above the gods of the tribes. In +Israel, however, it is not the case that the national religion, when +it appears, at once develops a higher style of worship, and draws +attention to itself by greater pomp and deeper solemnity of form. The +priestly legislation of Exodus and Leviticus, indeed, represents this +as having been the case. Here the tribes have scarcely adopted the +service of Jehovah, when an army of thousands of priests is called +into being, for whose maintenance elaborate provision is made, and a +splendid and highly-organised worship is arranged. This directory of +worship, however, most scholars are agreed, never was in operation +till after the exile: we see in it the worship which Ezra and his +fellow-scribes aimed at introducing in the second temple at +Jerusalem. The worship of the wilderness and of the early period of +Israel in Canaan was of a very different nature. The leading features +and principles of it differed little from what we have described in +former parts of this book (chapter v., chapter x.). It was conducted +according to custom rather than statute, and its leading +characteristic was that it was a common meal at which the god was +present along with his worshippers, and assurances were given that +the good understanding still continued which bound the tribesmen to +their god and each other. It was by the person of his god rather than +by a more elaborate worship, or a more numerous priesthood, that +Israel was distinguished from Moab and Ammon. + +Contact with Canaanite Religion.--After being delivered out of Egypt +by the power of Jehovah, and entering Canaan, Israel was placed in a +position in which it is wonderful, indeed, that the national +character and the national religion were not merged in those of the +surrounding population. Bringing with them the few ideas and the +scanty appliances of the wilderness, they found themselves dwelling +amid a people whose civilisation was fully formed, and who possessed +a comparatively elaborate worship. The tribes of Canaan spoke the +same language, and were of the same race with themselves, but had +advanced to the higher life of agriculture and of cities. Their +worship was the same in principle as that of Israel, but it had a +higher organisation. The land was studded with sacred places, the +sanctity of which Israel could not deny, and which formed centres of +pilgrimage and worship. The worship of the Canaanites was described +in last chapter (chapter xi.); the reader will remember the upright +stone (masseba) representing the Baal, and the tree-trunk (ashera), +if there was no living tree, representing the goddess. If all this or +most of it was new to the Israelites, so was the sacred year which +fixed the seasons of worship in Canaan. Minor festivals were fixed by +the appearance of the new moon, or by the regular return of the +seventh day (it is doubtful if the Sabbath was observed in the +wilderness, it is connected with agriculture, and is scarcely +compatible with pastoral life); greater ones by the epochs of the +year, such as harvest and vintage. The worship connected with +agriculture in the early world is of a noisy and frantic order; and +where gods are worshipped who are connected with fertility, it is +apt, as we saw, to be marked by sexual features. + +Danger of Fusion.--The Israelites were naturally prompted to adopt +what they could of the religion of the Canaanites. The old sacred +places of the land, whether connected with their own ancestral +traditions or not, they could not help adopting; it would have been +strange, indeed, if, when they became agriculturists, they had not +adopted the agricultural festivals; and if, as was natural, they +regarded the Baal of the Canaanite as the lord of the land and the +giver of its fertility, their thanks for the harvest would be +addressed to him (Hosea ii. 8). Their worship of Jehovah could not be +left poorer than that which their neighbours addressed to Baal; for +it also they erected asheras and made use of standing stones, and of +Jehovah also they had images. One of these, which was destroyed by +Hezekiah, was in the form of a serpent: in other places Jehovah was +worshipped under the form of a bull. Where an image of him was kept, +he could be consulted by means of lots or in other ways. The ark or +chest which was kept at one of the more important shrines, +represented him most fully; it was carried into battle, and he was +thought to go with it. + +Religious Conflict.--But the more developed worship thus paid to +Jehovah after the settlement in Canaan, as it had not grown out of +the religion of Jehovah, did not truly express its spirit, and was +felt by those who believed most thoroughly in the national god, to be +a wrong way of serving him. If, moreover, the Israelites, who lived +scattered and far apart from each other among the older inhabitants, +went so far in adopting Canaanite practices, there was a danger that +Israel would forget the faith which had made him a nation, and thus +part entirely with his character and nationality. A contest thus +arose, which continued during the whole of Israelite history down to +the exile, between the few who cared for Jehovah only, and desired to +see the principles of his religion carried out purely and without +reserve, and the many who, while also professing to follow Jehovah, +saw no harm in worshipping him as other gods were worshipped, or even +in addressing other gods as well as him. This struggle is represented +in the histories as if Israel had from time to time become entirely +apostate from its own faith. But it is clear that Israel never forgot +Jehovah so far as to be incapable of being called back to him. The +call was generally a call to war. The people, having forgotten the +true source of their strength, and so lost spirit and became a prey +to their enemies, were summoned by one in whom the spirit of Jehovah +was burning freshly, to follow him to battle against their enemies. +The spirit of Jehovah, thus applied anew to the hearts of his people, +did not fail of its effect. The wave of courage and of martial ardour +spread from place to place, from tribe to tribe, and soon an army +stood in the field which struck with the old vigour, and soon shook +off the yoke of the oppressor. Jehovah thus proved himself to be +Jehovah Sebaoth, _i.e._, in the most probable rendering of the +phrase, the God of the armies of his people. A religion which proved +itself in this way could never cease to be a power in the heart of +the nation; even if the tribes, dispersing again after a victory, +soon seemed to lose touch of each other, and to be sinking deeper +than ever in the surrounding tide of Canaanite life, yet the faith, +which was associated with all the highest moments of their past +history, and was the secret of all their victories, could not die. + +The Monarchy.--It was a great advance, however, in the history of the +religion of Israel, when the judges or heroes who appeared, at +distant intervals of time and in different parts of the country, to +summon Israel to fight for freedom in the name of Jehovah, were +succeeded by the monarchy. This was a step which those most zealous +for the national faith warmly approved, and, indeed, themselves +brought about; the monarchy was founded, in the case of the first two +kings, on religious enthusiasm. The religion of Jehovah at once +became the state religion, and a more satisfactory worship was formed +at the court. The permanent union of the tribes under the monarchy +soon showed Israel to be possessed of much greater force than could +have been imagined, and within a century the people of Jehovah formed +a considerable power, which was heard of in all ends of the earth. +Instead of a set of scattered tribes they were now a homogeneous +people, conscious of a great past and looking forward to a still +greater future. As they passed rapidly from barbarism to +civilisation, Jehovah shared their rise. His energy had always been +undoubted, but he now put on in addition all the settled attributes +of kingly power--he was a great god, and a great king, a just judge, +a liberal friend--all his doings were wonderful. He had chosen Israel +for his people, and by a series of mighty acts had guided and +preserved them, and made them great. His people stood in a peculiar +position in the world; with such a god they must rise higher still, +there could be no limit to what he could do for them. + +Religion not Centralised.--We must not, however, suppose that the +rise of Jehovah to a great position, and the institution of his +worship at the court, made any great or sudden change in the +religious arrangements of the people at large. While the worship of +the monarch went on at Gibeon or at Jerusalem, the great shrines at +Bethel, at Dan, and at Beersheba were still frequented, and the +sacred places throughout the land remained in honour. Stories indeed +were told to show that they had been founded by the patriarchs for +the worship of their god, so that there need be no scruple in +frequenting them. The worship of Baal and that of Jehovah went on at +these places side by side, and neither could fail to be influenced by +the other. Sacrifice was guided by more than one principle: on the +one hand it was a common meal with the deity; and as Jehovah was +thought to have his dwelling in Heaven, his part of the banquet was +burned, so that it might ascend to him in the column of smoke. The +sacrifice of agriculturists, however, naturally turns to the idea of +presenting to the god, with joy and thankfulness, a part of the +gifts, or the first or best part of the gifts, which, as lord of the +soil, he has bestowed. The idea of propitiation or atonement does not +enter into the ordinary sacrifices at this time. Jehovah in his +sterner moods may demand more awful offerings. As we see from the +story of Abraham offering up Isaac, it was thought that Jehovah might +demand human sacrifice, and instances of such sacrifice actually +occur in the records. Jephthah dedicates his daughter; after a war +the best of the booty is offered to Jehovah, and Samuel hews Agag in +pieces before him. But such occurrences lie quite apart from ordinary +worship, which is of a joyful character and is accompanied by +merry-making of various kinds. No fixed ritual prevailed throughout +the country; the attempt to introduce uniformity came much later. +Every one knew how to sacrifice, as the stories of Manoah and of +Gideon show; it was by no means necessary that a priest should be +present. The functions of the priest indeed were often connected with +other matters than sacrifice, and might be of a humble description. +Eli with a few attendants was the guardian of the ark which was the +symbol of the presence of Jehovah. A young priest was engaged by +Micah for ten pieces of silver yearly to take charge of his +collection of idols. But the most important duty of the priesthood, +and that on which their influence mainly depended, was that of +consulting Jehovah and ascertaining his will. This was done by some +sacred object in the charge of the priest, and various objects are +named (Ephod and Teraphim are images of deities; Urim and Thummim are +the lots used on such occasions) which possessed this virtue. The +priest also acted as a judge in matters brought to him for decision, +and thus was in a position to form the unwritten law of the people, +and to set up principles of conduct which came in course of time to +be regarded as sacred. The priests' "torah" or law is the beginning +of the Jewish legislation, and we see from the humane and kindly +provisions of the earliest codes that this important function was +discharged in no unworthy way. It was thus that Jehovah acted as the +living lawgiver of his people, long before any written law existed. +With his character as a warrior, a mighty lord, and a giver of rich +gifts, he combines from the first that of one who watches over the +conduct of his people, checks their excesses, and is willing and able +to lead them on to better living. This fact will be of much +importance when the mind of the people expands and seeks to +understand more clearly his being and character. + +The Prophets.--Israel, like other nations of antiquity, had, in +addition to the priests who were professionally connected with +religion, a class of men who were organs of the deity not on account +of their position but by a special personal gift. The inspiration of +Jehovah appeared in early times in somewhat crude forms. Bands of +fervid devotees were seen, who produced in themselves by dance and +song an ecstatic enthusiasm, in which they were thought to become the +organs of the deity. These men lived in societies or guilds, which +were found in Israel for several centuries. There were such prophets +of Baal as well as of Jehovah, so that the phenomenon is not +specifically Israelite. What we hear of them does not always give us +a lofty idea of their character. They are found practising magical +tricks, and when they prophesy they all say the same thing; sometimes +they are willing to prophesy what a king wishes to hear. + +The greater prophecy of Israel arose out of such beginnings as these. +Israel was accustomed to expect to hear the will of Jehovah declared +by a speaker of whom the spirit had laid hold, and among those who +came forward to meet this expectation there appeared from time to +time men of commanding insight and of great intensity of character. +The name "seer" indicates the nature of this kind of prophecy. The +seer is one to whom Jehovah communicates his intentions personally, +perhaps without any steps having been taken on his part to place +himself in the way of the god. He sees visions while awake and in his +ordinary frame of mind, he also hears what others do not hear; and +the vision and the message have reference to the future. Things are +intimated which are shortly to come to pass, and they are things +concerning the state or the monarchy: the fate of Israel is the +burden of the prophet's intimation. Samuel's seeing led him to +institute the monarchy under Saul. The prophet Abijah declared for +the division of the kingdom into two; and his prophecy was not vain. +Elijah foretold the downfall of the house of Omri, and Elisha saw to +the accomplishment of that prediction. The prophets we see were a +great power in public affairs, and were able in important crises to +determine the course of the nation's history. Often the prophet +stands quite alone, and in opposition to the court and apparently to +the nation, and yet his words have a tendency to get themselves +fulfilled; Jehovah's word does not return to him void. At other times +the prophet seems to have many sympathisers among the nation, and to +speak as the mouthpiece of the most earnest section of the community, +the section most devoted to Jehovah; and in these cases it is less +wonderful that his words come true. When, however, we speak of the +prophets as a whole, the expression is a loose one; the prophets are +not a party that always acts together, nor a school in which the +leader is always sure of a following. A great voice sounds, perhaps +once in a century or a half-century; and these voices represent the +true tradition of Israelite religion, and develop it further. In the +time of Elijah we notice that there is a puritan movement in Israel; +a number of men are agreed together in detestation of the foreign +worships which are practised at court, and are heartily agreed in +wishing to bring back the good old ways and the pure worship of +Jehovah only. And when Elijah speaks, he gives voice to this +tendency; he claims that everything should be determined by religion; +no considerations of state should for a moment stand in the way of +the pure faith of Jehovah, by which everything should be decided; and +whatever stands in the way of this policy is dedicated to +destruction. This, broadly speaking, is the keynote of Hebrew +prophecy. + +When we come to the canonical prophets, however, we feel that there +is a great deal more in their teaching than the bare demand that +everything must give way to the requirements of religion. A great +change has taken place in their world of thought. It is no less than +that a new god and a new religion have announced themselves in the +thinking of these men. They do not say so; they are not aware of it, +and yet it is so. + +The Old Religion National.--The religion of Israel during the +monarchy is, in the full sense of the term, a national one. From a +cluster of tribes Israel has become a nation, and has begun to think +of itself as a unity. It has its national history, its national +rulers, as other nations have. In their nationality it cannot be +denied that the Israelites had much to be proud of; nor did their +rapid growth in wealth and power, which gave them several centuries +of prosperity, tend to lesson that pride. Now as they have their own +king, they have also their own god. Jehovah is the god of Israel; +Israel is the people of Jehovah, on this they were all agreed. That +Jehovah was their god did not prevent them from believing in the +existence of other gods: Chemosh was the god of Moab, a being not +very unlike Jehovah, the Baals were the old gods of Canaan. Jehovah, +of course, was the greatest and strongest, and an Israelite should +worship him, in Canaan at least; but there was no great harm if he +worshipped other gods too, when it came in his way to do so. He might +join in the worship of Baal in country places; and the king might, +without doing any harm, set up the images of the gods of his wives +beside the images of Jehovah in the capital, and if many of his +subjects joined in these other worships, it was but natural. In this +way a great variety of gods was in some reigns brought together from +different countries. + +Jehovah, however, was the special god of Israel, there could be no +doubt of that; Israel was specially pledged to him; and he on his +side was pledged to Israel, who was entitled to look to him for help +in every emergency. Jehovah had no other people; he was entirely +bound up with Israel, he must, if only for his own honour, come to +the aid of his own people when they needed him. He never could permit +Israel to suffer any fatal injury, such as deportation to a foreign +country. Religious faith forbade the thought that such a thing was +possible; if Israel was destroyed, where would Israel's religion be? +It was utter impiety, therefore, to doubt that Israel was safe, that +Jehovah watched over his own land and his own people, or that he +would guard them from any fatal harm. If, on the other hand, as was +too often the case, Israel had to submit to injury and insult from +other peoples, there could be no doubt that Jehovah took notice of +the fact, and that in due time he would set things right. It might be +some time before his attention was sufficiently directed to the case; +he might be waiting till more of the same kind of occurrences took +place before he finally interposed; but the time would come, the "Day +of the Lord" would arrive in due season, when the spoilers and +insulters of Israel would be dealt with according to their deserts, +and Israel set on high in full deliverance and peace. + +Criticism of the Old Religion by the Prophets.--The prophets, +impressed more deeply than the people by the moral character of +Jehovah, and under the pressure of great national dangers and +calamities, attained to views of God and of his ways so different +from those current at the time as to appear, when first produced, +most unpatriotic and even impious. In their character of seers they +foresaw with clearness the terrible catastrophes which were about to +burst upon their people. Amos prophesies that Israel will be carried +away captive out of his land; Isaiah announces the same thing in the +southern kingdom, and declares that only a remnant shall return. +These men are in no doubt as to the impending political annihilation +of Israel, and they set themselves to find some reason for an +occurrence so portentous, so impossible to harmonise with ordinary +religious faith. They account for it by a view of the nature of +Jehovah far exalted above that of their people. He is punishing them +for their iniquities, they say, he is so righteous that he must +punish sin, and he must punish the sin of Israel his beloved people +not less strictly, but more strictly than that of other peoples. As a +husband whose wife has gone astray must subject her to discipline +before he can receive her again to his favour, so Hosea, made a +prophet by such a domestic affliction, contends that Jehovah cannot +but deal strictly with Israel. This theory of the meaning of the +impending calamities is supported by the prophets by those +denunciations of the national sins which give so gloomy a complexion +to their works. Among the national delinquencies the disorganisation +and apparent wilfulness shown in worship have a prominent place. +Worship is not what the service of Jehovah ought to be. Other beings +than he are sought after; heathenish festivals are kept, the indecent +practices of heathen worship are introduced into that of Jehovah: +there is no seriousness, no dignity, no worthy order, in the acts of +worship that are done. Any place does for them, and many of the +places used are quite unfit, from their associations, for the service +of Jehovah. They are celebrated more as wild orgies than as solemn +approaches to the deity. + +The interests of the prophets, however, do not centre in ritual. The +worship of other gods than Jehovah, or the service of Jehovah in +unfitting ways, they could not but denounce, but they have no +positive instructions to give about worship. When the people have +apparently given up the wrong worships, and are applying themselves +with zeal to that of Jehovah, seeking his favour by austerities, or +by costly offerings, the prophets are no less severe on this line of +conduct. Every one is familiar with the passages in which they +apparently denounce sacrifice altogether as a thing God has never +asked, and by which Israel cannot hope to win his favour. These +passages do not prove that the prophets desired the entire +discontinuance of sacrifice; they merely compare sacrifice with +another line of duty which is said to be vastly more important. Not +sacrifice but mercy, not sacrifice but to do justly, and love mercy, +and walk humbly with God,--is the burden of these utterances. Even +more than by the irregularities of worship, the prophets are shocked +by the more directly moral shortcomings of their people. The people +are accused of all the acts that are forbidden in the decalogue of +Exodus xx., and of many offences not there named. Especially are the +prophets indignant at the hardheartedness of the rich towards the +poor, and at the frequent disregard of faith and truth; oppression +and bribery, gluttony and other luxurious excesses, are frequently +their mark. These most of all are the sins which have called down the +divine judgments; these are the transgressions which make it +impossible for Jehovah to turn away the punishment of Israel and of +Judah. He is, above all things, a righteous god, who loves judgment +and mercy, and a people which so manifestly fails to practice justice +and mercy cannot continue to be his people; he must destroy them. + +The prophets therefore declare that Jehovah has decided on the +rejection of his people. This shows that they have advanced to a new +conception of what Jehovah is. To them he is something more than the +mere national deity indissolubly linked to the fortunes of his +people, pledged to advance them in the world, and doomed when they +fall to fall himself along with them. He is first of all a moral +ruler; the maintenance and promotion of righteousness is far more to +him than the prosperity of any single people, even of Israel. He +loves Israel it is true; Israel is his son, whom he loves, the wife +of his youth, the people of his covenant. But that makes it the more +and not the less necessary that Israel should not be allowed to go on +in iniquity. Jehovah can be no partisan of a people that does not +walk according to his laws. Thus the prophets have arrived at a new +conception of Jehovah's character, which necessarily unfits him, +though they do not yet see this, for the _rôle_ of a national god. +They have identified him with the ideal of righteousness and mercy, +and in so doing they have made the great step, at least in principle, +from national to universal religion, from the religion that is bound +up with the history of one particular people, and cannot pass beyond +them, to the religion which is capable of being understood by all +men, and fit to be preached to all men of whatever race. + +Appearance of Universalism.--To the deeper view which they have +gained of the character of Jehovah the prophets add a wider and +higher view of his relation to the world, and to the various nations +in it. They frankly state that Jehovah has relations to other nations +than Israel. He might if he had chosen have taken some other race to +be his people; they were all at his disposal and he regarded none of +them as hostile. He is not dependent on Israel, and the inference is +clear, that if he could have done without Israel at first, he could +do without Israel still, were he driven to that. Israel is not +indispensable to the continuance of the true religion. Jehovah indeed +has a position far above that which Israelite national thought +ascribed to him. He is lord not of one nation only, but of all the +nations. He can use any of them as his instrument when and as he +chooses. It is he who has brought each of them to its present seat, +it is he who is directing their movements now. And for what end does +he wield this mighty rule? He is governing the world not in the +interests of one nation only, but in the interests of righteousness. +He is guiding the destinies of nations so as to bring about an end +which he has fixed, namely the establishment of a world-wide kingdom +of truth. The day is indeed coming as the Israelites believed when he +would hold a judgment over the world, only let Israel beware lest +that day should be darkness and not light to them; it will bring +about the punishment of sinners of whatever race. An end is to be +made of sin both in Israel and in other nations, that a new world may +begin. The position thus given to Jehovah is clearly one which lifts +him high above the rank of a national deity. The prophets understand +with growing clearness that Jehovah is the creator of the world, and +the author of all the glories, both of the celestial and of the +terrestrial frame. The Maker of the ends of the earth, and the +Governor of all the nations, though he has chosen to reveal himself +to one particular race, cannot be limited to them. The position of +Monotheism has been attained. The earlier prophets speak of the gods +of other nations as if they really existed, though for Israel Jehovah +is the only god, but by degrees the advance is made to the position +that these beings do not exist at all, and are simply "vanities" or +"nothings." Instead of saying that Jehovah is the greatest among the +gods, and that there is none like him, these preachers say that +Jehovah alone is god, and that he is the author of all that exists +and of all that takes place in the universe. A god has been unveiled +whom all beings exist to glorify, and whom all the nations of the +earth can confidently be summoned to praise. + +Ethical Monotheism.--These results were reached gradually: there is a +great difference between the teaching of Amos and that of Jeremiah. +And it must be remembered that they were attained not as other +monotheisms have been, by philosophical speculation, but by purely +moral ways. It is because Jehovah is supremely just and holy, that he +grows so great. The justice and holiness which are seen in him are +the strongest of all; the world exists for nothing else but to +realise them, and everything that stands opposed to them, whether in +Israel or in any other nation, must go down before them. It is in +this way that the conclusion is reached that Jehovah is the only God. +The moral ideal must be one. The whole of the religion of the +prophets is governed by moral considerations. God asks from man +nothing but goodness; the true sacrifices are those of the heart and +conduct. Man's intercourse with God is to be kept up as that of an +affectionate human relationship, into which no motives either of +force or of commerce enter. Although God is so just and holy, he is +perfectly placable, and ready to greet the approaches which are made +to him. It is absurd to spend so much money and toil on sacrifice, +when the happiest relations with God can be attained so much more +simply. God forgives without any sacrifice; his love and his desire +to meet with love surpass all that human relationships can show; his +constancy is like that of the returning seasons, or of the stars. He +yearns over Israel as a father over a wayward son, and will leave +nothing undone that he can do to bring his son back to him. He will +alter all his former plans to bring about that result. He will change +man's nature, and give him a new heart, if nothing short of that will +suffice; or he will change his own procedure entirely, and deal with +man not by way of commandments, but by way of inspiration, placing +his law in man's inward part, writing it in his heart, so that the +great union of God and man may be attained, which he desires. + +Individualism of the Prophetic Teaching.--Here we must pause to +notice another great advance which the prophets have been led to make +in religious knowledge. Their view of Jehovah as a purely moral +being, and of man's relation to him as a moral relation, like that +between two human beings who have to live together, such as a husband +and wife or a father and son, makes religion less a matter for the +people as a body, more a matter for the individual. When religion is +carried on by public sacrifices and stately festivals and ceremonies, +then it is the people as a whole that transacts with God, and the +individual need feel no great weight of responsibility in the matter. +But if God asks for love, if he says he does not care for sacrifice, +but insists on love and devotion, and rather than not have it will +work a miracle on man's nature, then the individual is addressed. +Every one who has any love to offer feels himself appealed to. Only +in his own heart can any one know whether or not God's desire is met; +every one, therefore, who understands the appeal becomes personally +responsible for the answer, and religion becomes a matter, not only +between God and the people, but between God and the individual as +well. Personal religion, therefore, makes its appearance among the +Jews at this time. Jeremiah carries on dialogues with God; prayer is +met with, as the outpouring, not of public needs alone, but of +private feeling; the soul has learned that it is called to a life of +its own with God, and not merely to a share in the life of the nation +with him. + +We have dwelt at some length on the ideas of the prophets; not at +such length, indeed, as to satisfy any of those who love their +writings, for we have thrown together in one view what belongs +historically to different centuries, while to the personalities of +the prophets, to their sublime certainty and their stupendous +courage, we have given no attention. We have stated the outlines also +of the great movement of thought in which advances of such +transcendent importance were made in religion. They are advances +which have not been lost, but which we still enjoy. If it is the gift +of the Semitic race to bring the thought of God to bear on life with +such direct practical force as Aryan religion never by itself +exerted, we must look with profound veneration on those Semitic +thinkers who applied this great force in the service of a God, who +has no other nature and property but that of justice and love. +Religion thus became to them and to all they influenced an engine for +the direct promotion of justice and love among men; and we do not +think the less of the prophets that the harvest of which they sowed +the seed could not be reaped in their day. + +Prophecy leads to no Immediate Reform.--The message of the prophets +seems at first sight to have been delivered long before the world was +ready for it. Even the practical measures which can be traced to +their influence are far from being in accordance with their ideas. +The causes of this we have already to some extent seen. The prophets +were not practical reformers. The amendment they called for was one +to be realised in individual lives rather than in public policy, and +they do not bring forward schemes of reform which they urge the +people as a whole to adopt; they rather fling great ideas upon the +mind of their nation, and leave it to others to find out how +practical effect may be given to their teaching. To the very end of +the Jewish state the prophets and their sympathisers appear to be in +a small minority of their nation. The people as a whole is +unconverted, the worship of idols goes on, and so does the worship of +other gods, even in the temple at Jerusalem. It has seemed to some +great scholars that Israel, as a whole, was a heathen people up to +the time of the exile, and still needed to be converted to the +religion of Jehovah. Kuenen shows[1] in a convincing way that this is +an exaggeration, and that people and prophets alike held the religion +of Jehovah to be the true religion of Israel; but up to the exile +that religion was not reformed in the way the prophets desired. + +[Footnote 1: _Hibbert Lectures_, ii.] + +The Reforms.--Yet the word of Jehovah had not returned to him void +even during this period. A considerable series of reforms are +narrated in the histories, and attested by successive codes of law +now embodied in the Pentateuch. These show that the prophetic ideas +had gained for themselves a strong party among the people, and that +in several reigns the court was under their influence. These reforms +show progress in two directions. There is a growing desire to make +the worship of Jehovah correspond to the exalted new conceptions of +his character as a being of incomparable majesty and holiness; and +there is, on the other hand, a rapid growth of moral sentiment; +justice and kindness to others are placed more and more in the +forefront of the divine requirements. We can do little more than name +the passages where the details of these matters may be found. The +reforms of Hezekiah (1 Kings xviii.) did not last long. He destroyed +a celebrated image of Jehovah, a fate which other images may have +shared, and he remodelled the worship of the holy places throughout +Judah, so as to remove its more heathenish features, and concentrate +it on Jehovah alone. Manasseh, Hezekiah's successor, pursued the +opposite policy. In his reign a large collection of strange cults, +some of them perhaps those of the individual tribes, were brought +back into use; even the barbarous rite of human sacrifice was +established at Jerusalem, and the worship of Jehovah became more +intense and darker. The shadow of the Assyrian is upon Israel, and as +generally happens in times of public anxiety, rites long disused are +imagined to have a specially national character and a peculiar +potency, and are fetched back from oblivion. The reform of Josiah (2 +Kings xxii., xxiii.) was more thorough-going than that of Hezekiah. +He made an end of all the unseemly worships his predecessor had +encouraged at Jerusalem, so that nothing but the direct worship of +Jehovah was left. The strongest step he took, however, was that he +attempted to put an end altogether to the shrines at which local +worship had hitherto been conducted, thus making a clean sweep of the +idolatry of the rural districts. All this was done, we are told, in +accordance with a law-book which had been found in the temple by +certain high officials, and which, after duly consulting a prophetess +about the matter, Josiah brought into operation, and solemnly pledged +himself and his people to observe. We are in no doubt as to the +nature of this book. The book of Deuteronomy prescribes just such +reforms as Josiah carried out, and is generally allowed to have been +the written law which was promulgated on this occasion. Now +Deuteronomy, while incorporating no doubt many old laws, is in spirit +and effect a work of the prophetic school. Its moral teaching and its +exhortations to love Jehovah, and to be true to him alone, are quite +in the manner of Jeremiah, who was living in the reign of Josiah. And +the principal reform of Josiah, namely, the suppression of the local +worships, and the concentration of all worship at the temple of +Jerusalem alone, stands in the forefront of the special laws in +Deuteronomy. Those who aimed at the reform of religion, according to +the ideas of the prophets, had thought this out. The worship of the +one supreme God should take place, they had concluded, at one place +only, and should be national in its character; the whole people +should worship the one God at its capital. Provision was made that +this should not imply the deprivation of the dwellers in country +districts of the use of flesh meat. Formerly, every act of slaughter +was a sacrifice, and it was only in connection with a sacrifice that +this food could be enjoyed. But in future, animals may be slaughtered +at a distance from Jerusalem for food only, apart from any connection +with sacrifice. The promulgation of Deuteronomy is an important epoch +in the religion of Israel. That work is the first sacred book of +Israel; from this time forward Israel knows the will of Jehovah, not +only from the prophet's living voice, but from a book which is +regarded as having divine authority. This principle once introduced +could not fail to develop; to Deuteronomy other books were afterwards +added as part of the same law, though in reality they superseded it, +and it thus proved the nucleus of the whole Jewish canon. + +Earlier Codes.--Deuteronomy was not the earliest law drawn up under +prophetic influence. Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. is recognised as being a +code by itself, and is an earlier attempt in the same direction as +Deuteronomy. The decalogue contained in Deuteronomy v., identical in +the main with that of Exodus xx., is of earlier origin than +Deuteronomy itself, but is also a prophetical work. It deals with +ritual only to the extent of removing certain obstacles to a right +worship of God, and places the chief weight of his requirements in +the fulfilment of the natural duties. An earlier decalogue which +deals principally with ritual, and which contains an early prophetic +attempt to free the worship of Jehovah from heathen abuses, is found +in Exodus xxxiv. 10-26. The oldest legislation of all is the code +found in Exodus xx. 22 to xxiii. 33, which goes by the name of the +Book of the Covenant. It is true that in form and in many of its +precepts it is identical with the Code of Hammurabi (2250 B.C.), and +so bears strong testimony to Babylonian influence. It is, however, +much more humane than that old code, and in many particulars is +independent of it. As it appears in Exodus it belongs to the times of +the early canonical prophets, and as it scarcely deals with ritual at +all, it shows the just and humane spirit cultivated by the religion +of Jehovah in an agricultural community. + +The Exile.--The reformation of Josiah was quickly undone by his +successor on the throne, and there was no further opportunity for a +reform while the people remained in Palestine. But the exile did not +cause the friends of reform to abandon their ideas. The prophets had +foretold the exile, and had maintained that the religion of Israel +would not be destroyed but rather would be saved by it, and the event +proved that they were right in this point also. The exile cured the +people definitely of idolatry, and gave them a strong grasp of the +idea that they were a peculiar people, called to a work which no +other people could accomplish or indeed understand, namely to hold +aloft in the world, and for the benefit of the world, the true +religion. This conviction forms the burden of the prophecy of the +Unknown prophet of the exile (Isaiah xl.-lxvi.). He exalts still more +highly than his predecessors the name and power of Jehovah. He is the +Creator of the ends of the earth, to whom the nations, including even +that great Babylon, are as a drop of the bucket, to be flung whither +one will; it is he who has chosen Israel for his people and who now +comforts Israel for the sorrows of the exile. In the great drama he +is unfolding in the earth Israel has a principal part to play. Israel +is called to make known to the nations who do not know him, the true +God. It had been prophesied before that the heathen nations would +come to Mount Zion to ask counsel of the God of Judah, and that +Jehovah should become law-giver and judge over them. The Unknown +enlarges on this theme with splendid imagery, and strives to persuade +the people to make this cause their own, and to rise to the +responsibility it involves. Israel is to be a prince, a leader and +commander, of the peoples. The Gentiles are to come from far bringing +their treasures and doing homage to the people of the true faith. If +Israel as a whole is not fit as yet to discharge this duty for the +world, yet there is an inner Israel, a faithful elect of the people +who sympathise entirely with Jehovah's purposes and are entirely +devoted to his will. This "Servant of Jehovah," at least, has risen +to the height of his calling; Jehovah's spirit is in him. He will not +fail nor be discouraged till the true religion is established in the +earth. At another part of the prophecy the fate of the Servant is +seen in darker colours. He is subject to ill-treatment and +misrepresentation of all sorts; even when he is suffering for the +sake of others he is derided and despised; nay, more,--he is called +to suffer martyrdom, and die for sins not his own. But even so, the +Servant will conquer in the end. He will know that his sufferings +have not been in vain; he will be the means of leading many to +righteousness and will be the instrument of Jehovah to bring in the +true religion. + +The Return. The Reform of Ezra.--Such utterances could not fail of +effect on the nation to whom they were addressed, and when the Jews +came back to Palestine they were undoubtedly inspired with a new +sense of their peculiar national mission. They at once proceeded to +show that they were to be a people apart from others, by separating +themselves rigorously and even cruelly from entanglements with the +surrounding population. They also at once set up the worship of +Jehovah as the sole God who had his one shrine at Jerusalem. Their +early experiences in Palestine were not encouraging. For a century +they remained a struggling and poor community, and it might seem +doubtful if they would prove strong enough to maintain their separate +position, and to hold up their special testimony to the world. But at +that time the Jews who had remained in Babylon came to their aid. +These men had never ceased to labour along with their brethren in +Palestine for the advancement of their nation; and in particular they +had laboured earnestly at the problem of worship, and the result of +their labours was a religious constitution so rigid in its ideas, so +logically worked out in detail, and so skilfully incorporating and +appropriating to itself all the past traditions and usages of the +race, that it might almost be said to be strong enough to stand by +itself, and would certainly afford to the people, if they adopted it, +the support and the discipline they needed. This constitution was +introduced by Ezra, the priest and scribe, in the year 444 B.C.,[2] +when he read in the ears of the people at Jerusalem (Nehemiah viii., +ix.) the new law he had brought with him from Babylon fourteen years +before, and had waited all that time to promulgate. The new law of +this period was what is called the Priestly Code; it occupies the +latter part of Exodus and a large part of Leviticus and Numbers; and +the older writings are skilfully interwoven with it, but in general +it may easily be distinguished by its tone from the work of earlier +periods. Deuteronomy, the earliest law-book, is simply tacked on to +it as if it were a part of the same code, though in reality it is +often inconsistent with the latter law. The result is the Torah or +law, or, as we call it, the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses +(Moses being regarded by a convenient fiction as the source of all +Jewish laws). This was thenceforward the law of the Jews. + +[Footnote 2: This date and many features of the story of Ezra and the +return have of late been much questioned. See "Ezra" in _Encyclopĉdia +Biblica_. The account given above follows Wellhausen.] + +The Jewish religion, of which this is the code, is generally +distinguished from the religion of Israel which prevailed down to the +exile; and several important new principles undoubtedly make their +appearance at this point. This chapter may fittingly conclude with an +enumeration first of the features of Jewish religious life connected +with the law or the priestly system, and then of those features of it +which lie outside that system. + +1. The priestly religion is founded on a sentiment which forms but +little part of the faith of early peoples, namely the sense of sin. +The prophetic denunciations of Israel's backslidings have at last +found entrance, and the people is found submitting to a system which +implies that the whole of its past history was sinful and mistaken, +and that there is a constant need for supplicating forgiveness. Every +prayer begins with a long confession of national sin, in which the +present generation also shares. "We have sinned with our fathers," +they say. This view is spread over the historical books in the +sweeping judgments passed on individual monarchs, on periods of the +national life, and especially on the whole of the Northern Kingdom +(cf. Nehemiah ix.). The old confidence in the presence of Jehovah +with his people has now departed. The earlier Israelites never +doubted that Jehovah was in the midst of them; that could be taken +for granted except when events proved the contrary. But now Jehovah +has grown greater and more awful, while the people have become +painfully aware of their deficiencies and cannot assume that he is +with them, but must take steps to secure his presence. This is no +doubt connected with the growing sense of an individual position and +responsibility in religion. To the nation or the tribe it is natural +to feel that its cause is just and that its God is with it; but the +individual, thrown upon his own inner world for his alliances, is +less apt to feel that confidence. Now the religion preached by the +prophets is essentially one for the individual. Ezekiel especially +felt himself responsible for the fate of individuals, and laboured to +awaken his fellow-countrymen one by one to a sense of their danger +and responsibility; he taught that each man had to see to his own +salvation, that each man would receive the fruit of his own acts. All +this tends to a deeper feeling and a more anxious mood in religion, +and helps to explain how the sense of sin, on which religious +progress at its higher stages depends so much, was fixed so strongly +in the Jewish mind. That the Jews underwent a radical change in their +disposition is proved by the fact that they submitted to the yoke of +the law: for it may be questioned if any people ever sacrificed their +natural liberty for the sake of their religion to such an extent as +this people did. + +2. The divine will is now received by the people in the shape of a +sacred book. They cease to look for the living voice of prophecy, and +come to think that God has given them in the Torah a perfect and +complete revelation. The book takes the place of the prophet, and in +time also to some extent of conscience. A man ceases to think for +himself what is right and good, and only asks, What does the law say? +It is true that a great part of the book is taken up with ritual, +with which the ordinary individual has not much to do, but he also +believes that the whole of his own duty is to be found there in it, +as is no doubt the case. We see from the 119th Psalm how beautiful a +form religion may assume even under these terms, when the book in +question is felt to be a spiritual treasure, and to speak the words +of a living God; but the system of a book-religion has in it the +germs of very different fruits. The sacred book is believed to be an +exhaustive directory of conduct; but to make it apply to the various +cases that arise in practical life it has to be interpreted, and +deductions have to be drawn from it. It thus comes to give many a +direction which does not appear on the surface. The secondary law, or +"tradition," is thus founded, a system which calls for the services +of a special class of students. The scribes, who interpret the law +and apply it to life, obtain great influence and become the virtual +rulers of the nation. While no doubt guided in the main by the noble +spirit of their religion, they are led by their system into many +absurdities, and their casuistry even becomes at times immoral. They +afford the classical example of the results which flow from the +doctrine of verbal inspiration, thoroughly worked out; and the life +of the Jews under them becomes highly unnatural and artificial, and +tends to occupy itself with the husk instead of the kernel of +religion. + +3. The principal part of the divine will, as expressed in the law, is +that connected with sacrifice. Sacrifice occupies the central place +in the book, and in the history it records. In this book the temple +service, thinly disguised as the service of the tabernacle in the +wilderness, is set forth as the great end and aim for which God +created the world, settled the nations in it, and called Israel to be +a people. The ritual which was observed from the exile to the +destruction of Jerusalem may be studied in Exodus and Leviticus. We +read of orders and companies of priests who offer daily and other +sacrifices according to a rule in which the smallest details are +carefully arranged, sacrifices in which little of the old cheerful +common meal now lingers, but which are mostly of a purificatory or +piacular character. The ritual of sacrifice would not appear to an +outward observer to differ very much from that in use among the +Greeks or Romans; the Jews certainly conducted it on a larger scale. +What end precisely was aimed at in it, the Jew would have found it +perhaps hard to say. It was done, he would say, because the law so +ordered it, and the law must be obeyed even if one did not quite +understand what was enjoined. The daily sacrifice removed the +impurity of the temple staff, and enabled the people to be sure that +the favour of the deity continued with them. Many sacrifices aimed at +the removal of particular sins; thankfulness also was expressed in +them, and other feelings may also have ascended with the smoke from +the altar. To Jews living at a distance the sacrifice, which could be +offered nowhere but at Jerusalem, was the chief symbol, the great +mystery, of their faith. + +4. The notion of holiness is closely connected with worship. Things +and persons are holy which belong to Jehovah, and are withdrawn from +common use. These it is dangerous to touch unwarily. Jehovah is an +unapproachable being; the high priest may come into the innermost +part of the temple, but only once a year, and no one else may come +there; the priests may enter the Holy Place, but not the people. To +speak lightly of the temple was a crime the Jews could not forgive. +The Sabbath was the Lord's day; man must not attend on it to his own +worldly concerns. The deity is surrounded with dread to an +unparalleled extent; all that belongs to him is to be regarded with +awe. Connected with the notion of holiness is that of purity. In the +later Persian religion the distinction has always to be anxiously +remembered by the believer between what belongs to the good spirit +and what has fallen under the power of the evil spirit. The Jew, +also, who is called to be holy and separate from other men, lives in +constant dread lest he should touch something unclean, and so forfeit +his own purity. There are clean animals, and unclean ones which he +must not eat; various washings of the hands and of domestic utensils +are needed in order to keep up the state of purity; many trades +involve contact with substances which make purity almost impossible. +Above all, it is defiling to eat what a heathen has cooked, or to sit +at the same table with heathens. Thus the Jew was confirmed in the +belief of his own superiority to men of other races; and was +prevented by many barriers from mingling with them, or even regarding +them as brethren. His circumcision, his Sabbath, his laws of purity, +his peculiarities of diet, the absolute impossibility of his eating +along with Gentiles, kept him separate, and helped to nourish in him +the spirit of haughtiness and exclusiveness. The accepted worshipper +of Jehovah is, with the early prophets, the man who is morally sound, +who has curbed his passions and his selfish impulses; with the later +Jew that may still be the case, but there are also a number of +indispensable preliminaries of which the prophets certainly did not +dream. The man who would go up to the hill of Jehovah must be one who +has not eaten shell-fish or pork, nor opened his shop on the Sabbath, +nor touched a dead body, nor used a spoon handed to him by a Gentile +without washing it. How all this unfitted the Jewish people to be a +missionary of the pure religion, and how adverse the whole Levitical +system was to the earnest apprehension of that religion no less than +to its diffusion, the New Testament amply shows. But it kept the +people separate from the world and constant to their faith amid even +the greatest temptations and the severest persecutions, and so +enabled them to preserve the precious treasure committed to them till +the time should come when the world was to receive it from their +hands. + +Heathenish Elements of Judaism.--In the system we have sketched, in +which the prophetic teaching was hardened into a ritual and a law, +there are various elements which do not belong to an advanced stage +of religious progress. While the sacrificial ritual, not outwardly +exalted above heathenism, is to some extent redeemed by the motives +which enter into it, the great system of clean and unclean rests on +no rational basis, and resembles the set of taboos, which no one can +explain, of a savage tribe; and the reduction of daily life under a +set of minute and troublesome rules, shows the devotion more than the +enlightenment of those who submitted to it. There was a necessity +that the vessel should be so narrow and so hard which was to keep the +wine of Jewish religion from being mixed with other liquids, but the +vessel itself belongs to the rude and early world. In the Jewish +religion of this time there are far different elements, which point +forward and not backward, and in which the future course of religious +progress is clearly anticipated. If his temple ritual was crude, and +if his law pursued him into every one of his actions, the thoughts of +the Jew were free; the truths which were unfolding their riches in +his mind were sufficient compensation for much outward restraint, and +the fair world of imagination was open to him in which the past +clothed itself with legend and the future with splendid hopes. + +Spiritual Elements.--The period after the exile is that of the +composition of the Psalms. Many of these poems may have been written +earlier; many were undoubtedly written at this time, and the belief +gains ground that the Psalmist came after the prophet, and adopted +for popular use the prophet's ideas. In the Psalter we hear the +thrill of joy and triumph as the great truths of theism come to be +grasped as certainties. The congregation now utters in song what, +when the prophet first announced it, so few had courage to believe, +that Jehovah is king, that he rules over the nations, that he is far +above all the gods, nay, that there is no other God than he. The joy +of having embraced this thought, of having escaped from all confusion +with regard to the powers that rule the world, and of seeing all +things in this splendid light, finds manifold expression. The +believers delight themselves anew in the worship of Jehovah, and see +fresh beauties in his courts, and in the service of him there; they +delight in his word in connection with every part of their +experience. They understand the world as they never did before, since +it is his work, and praise the Creator as they follow the whole +process of creation. New lights open to them on the history of their +race, new solutions occur to them of the moral difficulties they have +felt, as they saw the wicked prosper and the good cast down. There is +very little about ritual in the Psalms; it is regarded chiefly as an +offering of thanks and praise to Jehovah for his wonderful works, and +for his mercies; and it is viewed ideally as an act of homage in +which not only the immediate worshippers, but all nations on the +earth may be conceived as taking part. On the other hand, the +observance of Jehovah's moral requirements, and implicit trust in him +while one seeks to do his will, is insisted on again and again, as +the true method to please him, and to obtain his protection against +all dangers. There are few moods of the religious life that are not +represented in the Psalms: penitence, intellectual perplexity, +domestic sorrow, feebleness, loneliness, the approach of death, the +excitement of great events, the agony of persecution, quiet +contemplation of nature, each has its word. The imprecations of some +of the Psalms show a trait of the national character without which +the picture would be incomplete. It may be in part extenuated by the +consideration that in these Psalms it is the community that speaks, +and that the enemy of the good cause deserves less forbearance than +the private adversary. Whether the Psalms in general are to be +conceived as uttered by the community rather than as private +outpourings, is a question not yet decided. In either sense the +Psalms have been used and are still used as the hymn-book of +Christendom, as well as of the Jews; and it will always be a +wonderful feature in the religion of Israel, that so soon after the +truth of the one God was discovered by the prophets, it received a +form of expression which has proved fitted for the use of every +nation in the world. + +The Jews after the exile are in possession of a new form of religious +association which belongs to a high stage of growth. The temple +worship is one in which the ordinary layman has no part, or only an +occasional part to play. The priest does everything in it; even the +singing of Psalms is done by choirs of priests. And the dweller in +the country might rarely be a witness of these great solemnities. But +we know that in the Maccabean period the country was covered with +synagogues: with buildings, that is to say, where the surrounding +population met on the Sabbath, and perhaps on other days as well, to +join in common prayer, and to hear lessons of Scripture and +exhortations. Some local religious meeting was necessary; an earnest +people could not do without it, and the local sacrifices were now of +the past. But the synagogue service marks a great advance in the +religious position of the Jews. They can now meet without any act or +sacrament which they have to do in common, to engage in purely +intellectual religious exercises. The same advance, as we shall see, +took place in Greece about the same time; what moral or religious +furtherance they wanted, the earnest there began to seek from the +lectures of philosophers. The synagogue, however, was a territorial +institution; all the Jews in the neighbourhood came to its services. +It kept them acquainted with the law which otherwise they might have +forgotten, and also with the writings of the prophets, which were +regularly read, and thus strengthened the bonds which held all Jews +together, in the past history and in the growing hopes of their race. + +The National Hopes.--Judaism becomes more and more, as befits a faith +of which prophets are the principal exponents, a religion of hope. +Debarred by their subjection under successive heathen powers from +political activity, and keenly aware of their outward humiliation, +the Jews turn to an ideal world in which they are free. The prophets +had spoken of a judgment in which Jehovah would judge the whole +world, of a happy time when Israel would be at peace from all his +enemies, and God and people would dwell together in full communion; +and when the land of Israel would become the religious capital of the +world. They had added to their picture features even more ideal, and +had declared that the conflicts of external nature would cease, the +wild animals would grow tame and friendly, all physical as well as +all moral evil would disappear. It was in this world, not in a remote +region or in the land beyond death, that all this was to be realised. +Jerusalem is the centre of the picture and the Jewish nation stands +in the foreground of it as the chosen people of the God of all the +world. Now these predictions, which with the prophets are vague and +idealised, were taken by the Jews always more seriously and worked +out in detail. After the prophet comes the apocalyptic writer, such +as Daniel (the Apocalypse of the New Testament belongs to the same +class of literature), who is able to give the exact course of the +history which is to lead up to the final judgment, to fix its precise +date, and to give many details of the ultimate state of affairs. +These "revelations," which were written generally to comfort the Jews +in their trials and to encourage them to steadfastness in +persecution, were very popular. It is true that they nourished the +national pride, and enabled the Jew to feel himself superior to a +world in which he occupied outwardly no great position; but on the +other hand the hopes they fed were not necessarily unspiritual; at +the Christian era we find it to be a mark of the most genuine piety +that one should be "waiting for the redemption of Israel." At this +period the national hope was occupied with the figure of a Messiah, a +God-sent Deliverer, whose coming was to be the prelude to the +establishment of the divine kingdom. We learn from the Gospels what +various ideas were entertained by the Jews of the first century about +this "coming one," and how little Jesus Christ was felt to answer to +the common expectation. + +A few words must be said of Jewish beliefs concerning the other +world. While there are traces of an old ancestor-worship in the +earlier parts of Jewish history, no belief of the kind had much +importance in Israel. The Jews shared the general belief of the early +world that the dead continued in a shadowy existence without any +power for action. They have an under-world, Sheol, where the dead +are; Isaiah has a magnificent description of the dead kings sitting +on thrones together in Sheol and rising up to greet a newcomer who +was a great potentate on earth, with the words "Art thou also become +weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?" The dead are conceived as +continuing in a weak and unsubstantial reflection of their former +selves. They can be fetched up to the earth by magic arts to tell the +future, but this was strictly forbidden at a very early time. The +Psalms and other later books contain many plain denials that man has +any continuance to look for after death. The religion of the Old +Testament, as has often been said, is for this life. God's rewards +are to be looked for before death; once gone to the grave one can no +more enjoy God's bounty or give him thanks. God's kingdom of the +future is also a kingdom of this world; Jerusalem is its capital, and +nature is to be transformed for it. In the later period of Jewish +history, however, the hope of the future which has been so entirely +abandoned, which Job, for example, in an early chapter puts so +peremptorily away from him, creates itself afresh in a new form. In +the time of Christ the Jews believe, as a matter of course, that men +will rise again. It has been contended that the Jews derived their +later doctrine of a future life from their contact with Persia, but +it is not necessary to account for it in this way. It arose naturally +among the Jews in more ways than one. The individual believer like +Job, entirely sure of his own innocence, and feeling that he was +doomed to die of his disease without any vindication in this life, +claimed that an opportunity should be found beyond the grave to +pronounce the sentence which a just God could not omit to give. In +Daniel xii. it is foretold that men of conspicuous virtue and men of +conspicuous wickedness will have a resurrection--the former to share +the glories of the kingdom from which as teachers and martyrs they +could not be wanting, the latter to receive their punishment. And as +prophets who have been long dead are expected to return to the earth, +the gate of death is not so firmly closed as formerly and the belief +in a future life easily became current. + +Thus Judaism comes to be a religion full of contradictions, and could +not as a whole pass to other nations. The temple and the synagogue +represent opposite principles of worship. The Jew feels himself to be +entrusted with a world-religion, and yet shuts himself up in such +exclusiveness as to draw upon himself the hatred of all peoples, and +to be charged in turn with hatred of the human race. A religion of +faith and love consorts with a religion of rules and limitations. If +the faith of Israel was to fulfil its mission to the world it was +necessary that some one should come who could purge this +threshing-floor, burning the chaff and gathering up the wheat to be +the seed of the progress of mankind. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The Books of the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, in the +Revised Version. + +The Histories of Israel; Ewald, Kuenen, Wellhausen, Stade. + +Robertson Smith's _The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, and +articles in the _Encyclopĉdia Britannica_. + +Smend's _Alttestamentliche Religionsgeschichte_. + +Stade, _Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments_, 1905. + +For a criticism of the critical historians the reader may consult +_The Early Religion of Israel_, by Prof. James Robertson. + +Prof. Valeton, _Die Israeliten_, in De la Saussaye. + +Schürer, _History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ_, +1885-90. + +Kantzsch, "Religion of Israel," in _Dictionary of the Bible_, vol. v. + +E. J. Foakes-Jackson, _The Biblical History of the Hebrews_, Second +Edition. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII +ISLAM + + +In chronological order Islam stands last of all the great religions; +it appeared six centuries after Christianity, and Christian ideas +enter into it. It is, however, so essentially Semitic that it can +only be understood aright if studied in connection with the group now +occupying our attention. In Islam Semitic religion opens its arms to +embrace mankind, and accomplishes, in a fashion, the destiny to which +Judaism was invited, but which Judaism failed to realise till it was +transformed in Christianity. In Islam Semitic religion is not +transformed, but enters in its own stern and uncompromising character +into the position of a universal faith. + +This religion sprang up and entered on its career of conquest with +startling suddenness and even, some scholars hold, without any +natural preparation for its coming in the country of its birth. The +Arabs called the period before Islam the "time of ignorance"; in that +period they considered their race had no history; the new religion, +when it arose, had made a clean sweep of all that had gone before, +and had caused a new world to begin. The labours of Arabic scholars +have, however, done something to dispel the mists which hung over +early Arabia, and it is possible both to give a much more +satisfactory sketch than formerly of the earlier religion of the +Arabs, and to discern to some extent the processes which had +unconsciously been preparing for the advent of a higher and stronger +faith. + +Arabia before Mahomet.--The Arabs of the central peninsula in the +times before Mahomet were not a nation but a set of tribes--mostly +nomadic, but some of them settled in cities, who, while united by +language, custom, and traditions, had no central government or +organisation. The desert which they inhabited, as it admitted no +cultivation, kept human life uniform and unprogressive; external +influences penetrated slowly into this corner of the world, and +society was still arranged as it had been for thousands of years. The +strongest tie was that of blood. A man's fellow-tribesmen were bound +to avenge his murder; and so one slaughter led to another, and from +generation to generation the land was filled with a perpetual series +of blood-feuds. Twice a year, however, a cessation of these feuds +took place; a month came round in which there was a universal truce. +Men who were enemies then made the same pilgrimage to a distant +shrine; at such a time trade caravans could set out and travel in +safety; and the great markets or festivals then took place, which, +while based at first on religious ideas, had in most part ceased to +have any religious character. Some of these markets were, at the time +of Mahomet, national occasions: men of every tribe met and came to +know each other there; the poetry which had been composed during the +preceding months was publicly recited, so that the rise of a new poet +was known to all Arabia; the news of all the tribes circulated, and +foreign ideas and doctrines were also to be heard. In proportion as +the face of nature was hard and forbidding, social life was bright +and gay; wine, women, wit, and war provided the themes of poets and +the ordinary aims of life. + +The Old Religion.--It has generally been said that the Arabs before +Islam were irreligious. They themselves contrasted the sternness of +the new period with the gaiety of the old one. The truth is, as +Wellhausen has admirably shown,[1] that the working religion of the +country had become before the period of Islam entirely effete. Arab +religion was based on the ideas and usages which have been described +in chap. x. of this book; it is mainly from Arabia, indeed, that the +original character of Semitic religion is known to us. Each tribe had +its god, whom it regarded as a magnified master or ruler, and with +whom it held communion by sacrifice, the blood being brought in +contact with the god and the victim devoured by the tribesmen. The +god is represented sometimes by a tree, generally by a stone; a piece +of fertile land belongs to him, within which the plants and animals +are sacred; the religious meeting can be held in no other spot. Hence +the Arabs are said to be stone worshippers; but the phrase is an +awkward one: what they worshipped was not the stone but a god +connected with it. And the early gods of Arabia are a motley company; +it is only in their relations to their worshippers and in the order +of the worship paid them that they have some uniformity. The greatest +and oldest deity of the Arabs is Allat or Alilat, "the Lady." Like +the female deity found in all primitive Semitic religions, she is a +stately and commanding lady. She is not the wife of a god, nor are +unseemly ideas connected with her. She belongs to the early world in +which motherhood was synonymous with rule, since the family had no +male head; she has a character but no history: mythology has not +gathered round her. Arabia has also certain nature-gods. The stellar +deities are mostly female; there is a male sun-god Dusares. Heaven is +worshipped by some, not the blue but the rainy heaven, which is a +source of blessings. There are no gods belonging to the region under +the earth. The serpent is the only animal that receives worship. + +[Footnote 1: _Reste Arabischen Heidenthums_, p. 188.] + +But the gods of Arabia belong mostly to another class than that of +nature-gods; or at least if they ever were connected with nature, +they have parted with such associations. They are uncouth figures, +with vague legends and miscellaneous attributes. One set of them is +said to have been worshipped by the contemporaries of Noah; they are +big men, and it is their property to drink milk. Hubal was the chief +god of Mecca. It was his property to bring rain. Vadd was a great +man, with two garments, and a sword and spear, bow and quiver. +Jaghuth, "the Helper," was a portable god, not a stone probably, +since he was carried into battle by his tribe, as the ark was by the +Israelites. Another god is called "the Burner," no doubt from the +sacrifices offered to him. Each tribe has its god or set of gods, and +certain sacred objects connected with its gods. One god is found by +those who kiss or rub a certain black stone, another in connection +with a white stone, another with a tree. And of many of them there +are images; the stone has some work done on it, or there is a wooden +block roughly hewn. The "Caaba" is originally a black stone which is +kissed or rubbed at Mecca. The name was given, however, to the +cube-shaped building, in one of the walls of which the black stone +had been fixed. In this building there stood in old days images of +Abraham and Ishmael, each with divining arrows in his hand. Of such +idols a large number existed in Mahomet's time, and were destroyed by +him. In some cases the image had a house, and a person was needed to +guard it; this functionary also kept some simple apparatus for +casting lots or otherwise obtaining counsel from the deity, and oaths +and vows were made before him, to which the deity became a witness. + +To these beliefs of early Arabia must be added a lively belief in +jinns, spirits who are not gods, since the gods are above the earth, +but the jinn is compelled to haunt some part of the earth's surface. +The jinns can assume any form they choose, and are often met with in +the shape of serpents. Wellhausen surmises that the seraphs of the +Jews are to be traced to some such origin. They infest desert places, +and are nocturnal in their habits. What they do is often not observed +till afterwards. They spy upon the gods, and may bring information +from above to men whom they haunt or with whom they are in league. Of +the magic of Arabia, the signs and omens drawn from birds, from +dreams, and other occurrences, it is not necessary to speak; and we +need only say, in concluding this rough sketch of the ideas of the +early Arabs, that the belief in a life beyond was very faint; they +set out food for the dead, whom they professed to think of as still +existing, but the belief, if they entertained it, was perfunctory and +had no influence. + +Confusion of Worship.--At the period of Islam the worship of Arabia +had fallen into great confusion. The gods were stationary, but the +tribes wandered; and the consequence was that the wandering tribe +left its shrine behind it to be cared for by its successors in that +piece of country, and itself also, when it gained a new seat, +succeeded to the guardianship of a new god. Thus, on the one hand, +the worship of each shrine was constantly gathering new associations, +as each tribe which had been there left behind it some new legend or +practice; and on the other hand, pilgrimage became universal, since +each tribe had to pay periodical visits to its gods whom it had left +behind. At Mecca we read of hundreds of idols; a hundred tribes have +left there something of their own. Thus Mecca became a sacred place +for tribes far and near, and rose into national importance; and the +same was the case to a less degree in other places also. But as this +process went on, it inevitably led to the weakening of religion. The +tie of blood, which was felt always, was a far stronger thing than +the tie of a common worship for which the tribe had to go to another +part of the country, and to come in contact with a multitude of other +cults. Worship therefore became more and more a superstition: a +thing, that is to say, whose real sacredness was in the past, and +which was only kept up from pious habit; it did not supply the +inspiration of ordinary life nor guide the more active minds among +the people. + +We have not yet spoken of Allah, who is understood to be the god _par +excellence_ of Arabia. But for this there is a good reason. Allah is +not, like the other beings we have spoken of, a historical god, with +a legend, a shrine, a tribe all to himself. He is not a historical +personage, but an idea consolidated, no doubt at an early period, +into a god. Wellhausen traces the rise of Allah for us in a most +interesting way. The name, he shows, is not a proper name that +belonged to one particular figure in the pantheon of Arabia; it is +the title which the Arab conferred on his god, whatever the proper +name of that being might be. Whatever god he worshipped, he called +him Allah, Lord; and thus every Arabic god was Allah, as every head +of a household has the name of "father" and every monarch that of +"king." And as every tribal god was Allah, the thought arose, no +doubt in very early times, of one god who was common to the tribes. +Language paved the way for thought; while the tribal gods were still +believed in and adored, this figure rose above them--a being who has +no special worship of his own, who does not ask for it nor need it, +but who yet fills, as none of the lesser beings does, the character +of deity. Allah was the god of all the tribes; and as his figure grew +in the mind of the country, it was inevitable that the worship of the +historical gods should still further lose its importance, till only +the women and children really cared for it. A monotheism of a grave +and earnest kind thus made its way beside the old belief in many +gods. Mahomet found that his fellow-countrymen did not really believe +in the minor gods; when they were in danger or in urgent need of any +blessing, it was to Allah that they called. The fall of the idols, +when it came about, took place very easily; they were no longer +needed. The Arabs had come to believe in a god who dwelt in heaven +and was the creator of the world, who ordained man's life with an +irreversible decree, by whom the bitter and the sweet, both the +hitting of the mark and the missing it, were alike fixed. The moral +character of Allah was not markedly in advance of that of his people. +What a man gains by robbery he calls the gift of Allah, while what is +gained by industry is called by another name. Yet Allah is also felt +by some to keep them back from robbery; he powerfully upholds the +moral standards which have been reached. He is the defender of +strangers, the avenger of treason. His moral influence is negative, +however, rather than positive. He does not inspire with ideals of +goodness; but he holds back from evil. He is not a being who is ever +likely to enter, like the God of the Jews, into intimate and +affectionate relations with men; he is too abstract and has too +little history to be capable of such unbending; his religion, when it +comes to be fully formed, will be one of puritans and fanatics rather +than of the meek and lowly. He is the one great instance of a god +without any natural basis who has come to exercise rule. He is a god +of whom reason can thoroughly approve--no absurd legends cling to +him; he is from the first great, mighty, and moral; and he rules the +world in righteousness by inflexible standards. This religion is +coming to the surface even in the "time of ignorance." + +Judaism and Christianity in Arabia.--The question has been much +discussed whether the new religion of Arabia was due to contact with +Judaism or with Christianity. Both of these faiths were known in +Arabia before the time of the Prophet. There was a large Jewish +population at Medina, and synagogues existed in many other places; +and there were Christians in Arabia, though their Christianity was +that only of small sects and of lonely ascetics, and had failed to +convert the country as a whole. To the Arabs the Jews were "the +people of the Book," the book in the traditions of which they also +had some share. Ignorant themselves for the most part of the arts of +reading and writing, and divided among a multitude of petty worships +which they were ceasing to respect, they looked up with envy to those +whose faith had been fixed for so many ages in a literary standard. +But while the Jews were respected in Arabia, they were far from +popular. The qualities which have drawn down on them the bitter +hatred of modern peoples among whom they dwell, acted there in the +same way; their pride and exclusiveness, their keenness in business, +their profession as money-lenders, made them detested in Arabia as in +modern Germany. On the other hand, the ascetic view of life which the +Christians represented had attractions even for some of the higher +minds among the Arabs. A set of men called "Hanyfs" were well known +in Mahomet's time, who were seeking for a better religion than the +Arab worships afforded, and a better life than that of eternal feud. +The meaning of the name is controverted; those to whom it was applied +had not attached themselves to Judaism nor to Christianity; they were +people in earnest about religion who had not reached any definite +position. Even where, as with Mahomet himself, the facts of Judaism +and of Christianity were most inaccurately known, the view of God +held in these religions and the moral standard they set up could not +fail to exercise much influence. If in Arab thought itself a god like +Allah was rising to definite personal character and to a position of +great superiority over the old gods, then the inner movement was in +the same direction as the influence of older religions from without, +and the time was ripe for a new faith. It was not to be expected that +a people like the Arabs should accept a religion which had its origin +in another country, or which threatened like Christianity to bring to +an end the old tribal system; a new growth from within was needed, +and this was ready to appear. + +The beginnings of most religions are wrapt in obscurity; but the rise +of Islam is known to us with perfect certainty and in considerable +detail. The only difficulties in the way of understanding it are of a +psychological nature; we have to account for the foundation of a +religion which spread with lightning speed over many lands, and which +still continues to spread, by one whose character was in some +respects far from noble, and who was capable of stooping to +compromise and to the darkest treachery in order to gain his ends. +How a religion fitted for many races and many generations of men +could be founded by a barbarian and by the aid of barbarous +means--that is the problem of this religion. The materials for +solving it lie open before us. The Koran is undoubtedly the authentic +work of Mahomet himself: the suras or chapters are arranged in a +wrong order, and if they are read as they stand do not tell any +intelligible story; but when placed, as has now been done by +scholars,[2] in the true historical order, they show the history of +Mahomet's mind with great clearness. After the Koran came the +traditions. From the immense volume of these the industry of the +scholars of Islam as well as others has succeeded in sifting out what +is most to be relied on. In no other case is the separation of the +mythical from the historical element in the early traditions so +easily made, and the religion comes into view in the full light of +day. + +[Footnote 2: S. Lane-Poole, _The Speeches of Mohammad_, 1882; the +most important parts of the Koran chronologically arranged with a +very useful introduction.] + +Mahomet. Early Life.--Mahomet was born about 570 A.D., of a family +belonging to the Mecca branch of the Coreish, a powerful tribe, who +carried on a large caravan trade with Syria, and who were the +guardians of the sanctuary which was the central point of Arabian +religion. He entered therefore from his birth into the centre of the +faith of his country. He was early left an orphan, and was brought up +by relatives, who were kind to him but who were very poor. He had to +make his living at an early age by herding sheep, an occupation which +conduced in his case, as it has done in others, to contemplation and +thought. In early manhood he entered the service of Khadija, a rich +widow; and he made journeys in her affairs to Syria and Palestine, +where he may have seen places famous in Jewish history and may also +have come in contact with Christianity. At the age of twenty-five he +married Khadija, who was fifteen years older than himself; the +marriage was a happy one, and there were several children. He is +described as a man of middle height, with a fair skin, a pleasant +countenance, and pleasing manners; and he had proved his ability in +business. Some years after his marriage he began to think deeply +about religious subjects. He came into connection apparently with +some of those Hanyfs or penitents, mentioned above, who, without +being formed into a sect, were at one in seeking for a more +satisfactory religious position. The religion to which they were +feeling their way was a monotheism, a service of the one God of +Abraham, but not that of Judaism with its exaltation of the Jewish +race, nor that of Christianity, in which God had a Son for his +companion. Submission to the one God was to them the essence of +religion. "Islam" means submission, and the "Moslem" is the person +who thus submits himself to the one sole God, whether he be Jew or +Christian or neither. The Hanyfs also held the belief of the +Christians in a coming judgment; and the effect of their beliefs on +their lives was that they practised austerities and often retired +from the world. + +His Religious Impressions.--Mahomet at this part of his life began +also to withdraw himself, and to go apart to lonely spots for +meditation. What he meditated we see from his sayings and doings +afterwards. The contrast between the pure religion of Allah, as held +by the Hanyfs, and the popular religion of Mecca with which his birth +connected him, with its trade associations, its idols, its +unintelligible rites, was certainly a tremendous one; and if a +judgment was impending over all but the believers in Allah, it was a +terrible prospect. For many years, however, Mahomet was simply a +Hanyf. He was one who had surrendered himself, with a tender and +impressionable soul, to the divine will and guidance, and was filled +with the sense of Allah's presence and power, and of his own +accountability to him in the great and tremendous realities of life. +In addition to this, however, we have to mention a circumstance which +is generally thought to have had a determining influence in Mahomet's +production of Islam. He had a peculiar temperament; mental excitement +led in him to inner catastrophes which, whether they are classed +under epilepsy or hysteria, caused him to see visions and to believe +that certain words had been addressed to him by heavenly visitants. +The new religious movement in Arabia had secured an adherent in whom +its teachings would be felt with tremendous intensity, and would +possibly break forth with irresistible force. + +The Revelations.--Mahomet was forty years of age when the thoughts +which had long been working within him burst into open expression. +This took place by means of a vision. An angel appeared to him as he +slept on Mount Hira on one of his nightly wanderings, and held a +scroll before him which he bade him read. He had not learned to read, +but the angel insisted, and so he read; and what he read was the +earliest revealed piece of the Koran (sura 96):-- + + Read,[3] in the name of thy Lord who created, created man from a + drop. Read, for thy Lord is the Most High, who hath taught by the + pen, hath taught to man what he knew not. Nay, truly man walketh in + delusion when he deemeth that he sufficeth for himself; to thy Lord + they must all return. + +All men, _i.e._, however they may think, as the Arabs were given +to think, that they need no help but that of their own right arm, +must come before Allah's judgment and render an account to him: +this is the doctrine by which Mahomet first appealed to his +fellow-countrymen. It is a revelation. Allah teaches it by sending +down a copy of what is written in the Book in heaven, the "mother of +the Book" from which all revelations, Jewish, Christian, or Mahomet's +own, are alike derived. Mahomet has thus begun to prophesy. The first +outburst of revelation threw him into great agitation; he thought he +was possessed by a jinn; and it tended to his further distress that +an interval of two or three years elapsed before another vision took +place. Then the vision came again. "Rise up and warn!" it said to +him; "and thy Lord magnify, and thy garments purify, and abomination +shun, and grant not favours to gain increase; and wait for thy Lord." +The revelations now began to come in rapid succession, and Mahomet +now believed in his own inspiration. In this conviction he never +wavered afterwards; and there can be no doubt that the earlier +revelations were felt by him as if they came from without and were +dictated by a power he could not resist. His fellow-countrymen +naturally took another view; like other prophets, Mahomet was said to +be mad and to be possessed by a spirit; and these accusations stung +him, because he himself had at first apprehended something of the +kind. The later pieces were of a different character; he had the +power afterwards of producing a revelation to suit any situation +which arose; but the contents of the earlier ones were not unworthy +of being revelations, and such he felt them to be. + +[Footnote 3: Or, Preach!--loud reading or repetition being the mode +of claiming attention for the divine word.] + +His Preaching.--He preached the new truth at first to those with whom +he was intimate. It was not new but old; it was the religion of +Abraham that he preached, that of the Book of which both Jews and +Christians had counterparts; he did not think of founding a new +religion. He called his own household and his relatives to submit +themselves to Allah, the supreme Lord and the righteous Judge, before +whose judgment they must soon stand. They were to put away heathen +vices and to practise the duty of regular prayer, of giving alms +without hoping for any advantage from it, and of temperance. After a +time he is encouraged by new suras to preach publicly, and does so. +The Meccans, however, do not listen to him. The prophet's preaching +acquires by this opposition a sternness it did not possess at first, +and he proceeds to attack the popular worship in a way fitted to stir +up against him the bitterest hostility. The Meccans hear from him +that the religion to which all Arabia flocks together, and without +which they would do little trade, is not only a vanity but a thing +abhorrent to Allah, and undoubtedly drawing down damnation on all who +partake in it; and that their forefathers are unquestionably in hell. +Such preaching could not be tolerated; Mahomet's friends are appealed +to to stop his mouth, but in vain, and his fellow-tribesmen, though +they do not believe in him, yet protect him, as the laws of kindred +require. + +Persecution.--Mahomet suffers as other prophets have done; he is +ridiculed, misjudged, threatened. On the other hand he has his +consolations; when depressed he receives encouraging messages from +above. His enemies will perish; his cause will succeed; the day will +come when men will flock to his doctrine in crowds. Persecution, +however, is not without effect on him: on one occasion he attempted +to compromise matters with idolatry; in a sura recited at the Caaba +he allowed himself to use certain complimentary expressions about the +three daughters of Allah, in whom the Meccans put their trust. The +Meccans were much pleased with this, but Mahomet had to suffer the +reproaches of the angel Gabriel after he went home, and the +concession was erelong withdrawn. If, as appears likely, the +compromise had been deliberately planned, a strange light is thrown +on the nature of the revelations at a time not long after they had +begun to flow. But there is no approach to compromise after this. The +position of the prophet naturally grew worse after this display of +weakness, and the persecution of the townsmen more embittered; for +two years Mahomet and his followers were rigorously cut off from +intercourse with their fellow-citizens. On the other hand the +prophet's tone became harder and more sombre as he saw that no +turning back was possible. Never were the terrors of hell preached +with more intensity; it makes one's blood run cold to read the +denunciations of the Mecca unbelievers, men personally known to the +prophet, and to hear him forecast the words with which they will be +bidden to take their place for ever in the fire. Personal irritation +gives edge to the denunciations of fanaticism. Examples are sought in +Jewish history of those who rejected prophets, Moses or Noah, and +suffered a prompt and terrible judgment for so doing. The Meccans +were little moved by such threats; they had no real belief in a +future life, and scoffed at the idea of a resurrection of the body; +and for this scepticism also parallels are found by the prophet in +history, which show what fate the doubters may expect. + +From reading the Koran we should judge Mahomet to have been a +disagreeable fanatic; but he also possessed very different qualities. +Those who knew him best were most devoted to him. His followers +adhered to him with a faith which was proof against all persecutions; +we find him even ordaining that slaves who are converts may dissemble +their connection with him in order to avoid the cruel treatment it +drew down on them. Such attachment could only have been inspired by a +noble nature; his followers felt him to be indeed a teacher sent by +Allah, and were enthusiastically convinced of the truth of his +doctrine. + +Trials. He decides to leave Mecca.--In spite of this his position was +a precarious and trying one. His wife Khadija, to whom he had been +most faithful, died; so did his most powerful protector. The cause, +moreover, was not advancing at Mecca, and was not likely to do so; +and Mahomet began to consider the propriety of transferring it to new +ground. The first attempt to do so was not successful; at Taif, where +he asked to be received and to be allowed to preach, he was rudely +repulsed, so that he came back to Mecca in deep dejection. The new +opening which he sought was, however, about to present itself in +another quarter. Among the visitors to one of the feasts he met a +company of pilgrims from Medina, who both addressed him with respect +and showed that they understood his doctrines. Medina was well +acquainted with Jewish ideas, and presented a more favourable soil +for the prophet to work on; it is even suggested that the Arabs of +Medina, having heard of the Jewish expectation of a Messiah, +considered that it would be an advantage for them if the Messiah +should be of their own race, and that Mahomet might possibly be He. +The transference of the cause to Medina was, however, brought about +with great deliberation. Those who wished Mahomet to come preached +his doctrine at Medina for a year, and with encouraging success. +Pledges were given and repeated by his friends there, that they would +have no god but Allah, that they would withhold their hands from what +was not their own, that they would flee fornication, that they would +not kill new-born infants, that they would shun slander, and that +they would obey God's messenger as far as was reasonable:--these are +the practical reforms which Islam at this time demanded. The result +of these proceedings was that Mahomet advised his followers to go to +Medina. He himself waited till nearly all had gone, and did not set +out till a plot had been laid by his enemies the Coreish to +assassinate him. The Hegira or flight took place on 16th June 622 +A.D. The flight, not the birth of the prophet, forms the era of +Mohammedan chronology, since it was from the moment of the flight +that Islam entered on its victorious career. + +Mahomet at Medina.--From this point onwards the prophet is seen in a +different position and a different character. At Mecca he is a +persecuted, struggling, and unsuccessful preacher, but at Medina he +rapidly becomes the most powerful person in the commonwealth. He +organises the service of religion, but he also gives new life to the +community in other ways, terminating its feuds, uniting all its +forces in the service of Allah, and by his decisions in the cases +which are brought to him laying the foundation of a new +jurisprudence. A pure theocracy was set up at Medina, and he as the +prophet was its sole organ and administrator. In this capacity he +displayed consummate ability. Alike in religious and in civil matters +he showed the most perfect comprehension of his countrymen. He +resorted freely to compromise in order to make his religion and +policy suitable to the masses of his people and to secure their +adhesion. In this way he soon secured for himself an absolute +authority. + +The new religion thus became the cement by which a strong +commonwealth was formed out of elements formerly at variance. +Mahomet's first care on reaching Medina was to organise the service +of the faith. A place was built where the congregation could meet for +prayer and exhortation; the prophet's house beside it, or rather the +apartments of his wives, for he now had two, and was soon to have +more. The mosque, which all over the world is the local habitation of +Islam, may have been derived from the synagogue or the Christian +church. The service which takes place in it is not a sacrifice, but +consists of intellectual exercises which nourish in the hearers the +spirit of the religion. In the Mosque of Medina Mahomet taught his +converts the practices and duties which were required of them. He +taught this with great precision, and himself set an example how each +exercise was to be done; so that, as Wellhausen says, the mosque +became the exercise ground where the people were drilled in the +requirements of the new faith. "There the Moslems acquired the +_esprit de corps_ and the rigid discipline which distinguish their +armies." + +New Religious Union.--A new bond of union thus took the place of the +old tie of blood, which had been by far the strongest in Arabia. +Every Moslem regarded every other Moslem as his brother, even though +belonging to a different tribe. The claims of religion came to +supersede all others; all natural tastes, all family affections, were +taught to yield to them. Within a few years of his coming to Medina +Mahomet had forbidden the use of wine and the pursuit of art, and had +imposed on all women who adhered to him the use of the veil. In every +way the community was taught to regard itself as separated from the +former life of the country and from all who did not share the new +faith. It was represented as the duty of believers to fight against +all unbelievers: in this way the universal prevalence of the religion +was to be brought about. The courage of the faithful was stimulated +by the promise of rich booty and by the assurance that those who fell +in battle would go straight to the joys of Paradise; and the wars +they waged acquired in consequence a relentless character which was +new in Arabia. They were allowed to fight in the sacred month, in +which ancient custom ordained a universal truce. They fought with a +gloomy determination, and used their victories with a relentless +cruelty, which excited the consternation and horror of all witnesses. +They did not scruple, as other Arabs did, to fight against their +kinsmen. "Islam has rent all bonds asunder, Islam has blotted out all +treaties," they said, when reproached with their disregard of old +understandings. The prophet himself was foremost in this unrelenting +policy. Captives taken in battle were slaughtered; a whole tribe was +massacred which had joined the enemy, and had surrendered after a +siege in the hope of merciful treatment. + +Breach with Judaism and Christianity.--As Mahomet thus freed himself, +in spreading the faith of "the most merciful God," from all +considerations of mercy and of honour, he also shook off, as his +position grew strong, relations which might have proved embarrassing +with other religions. In his earlier teaching he speaks of his own +religion as being substantially the same as Judaism and Christianity. +All three have "the Book"; the Koran is a continuation and supplement +of the Jewish and Christian revelations, and he is only the last +figure in the great line of prophets who had appeared in these +religions. Like other founders, he did not at first intend to found a +new religion, but only to bring to light again and restore to +authority the original truths of these faiths, which had become +obscured. His attitude at first, therefore, was friendly to both Jews +and Christians, and his friendly feelings for the former were likely +to be strengthened by the circumstances of his coming to Medina. Not +long after his arrival, however, his attitude towards the Jews was +changed. His followers had at first prayed with their faces turned in +the direction of Jerusalem; but the prophet ordained that this should +be altered, and that they should pray with their faces turned not +towards Jerusalem but towards Mecca. This setting of a new "kiblah" +as it is called, declared that Islam was a different religion from +Judaism, and had an Arab not a Jewish centre. The hostility to the +Jews, of which this was a symptom, grew more intense; quarrels were +sought with them which ended in the utter annihilation of the Jewish +power at Medina. From Christianity also Mahomet was careful to +distinguish his religion. The Christians of Arabia were less +tenacious of their faith than were the Jews, and easily accepted +Islam, so that the hostility was not in this case so intense. The +doctrines of the Trinity and of the Incarnation were of course +denounced as intolerable blasphemies against the sole deity of Allah. + +Domestic.--The history of Mahomet during the Medina period is taken +up to some extent with the various marriages into which he entered, +and with the scandals of his household. On several occasions he +produced revelations to warrant a step in this connection which he +felt to require justification, and the modern reader is forced to +wonder how his credit survived some of those proceedings. While it is +undoubtedly the case that he did much to improve the position of +women in Arabia, the absence of any high ideal in this matter is very +apparent. + +Conquest of Mecca.--In giving his followers a new kiblah and bidding +them turn their faces towards Mecca at their prayers, Mahomet +declared that city to be the religious capital of Arabia. Though he +had left Mecca in anger, he could not forget or ignore the city which +held this place in his eyes. At first his thoughts of Mecca were +those of vengeance; he had a score to settle with the Coreish, who +had scorned and persecuted him, and had driven him forth. For several +years there was war between Medina and the Coreish; the Moslems +plundered the rich caravans of Mecca; in the great battle of Bedr +(A.D. 623) Mahomet defeated his enemies and compelled them to respect +and fear him; and they afterwards attacked and besieged him at +Medina, with no decisive result. The next step was that Mahomet made +use of the sacred month to attempt a pilgrimage to Mecca, from which +he had been absent for six years (628); and though he was prevented +from performing his devotions at the Caaba on this occasion, the +Coreish found it good to make a treaty with him, thus recognising him +as a potentate, and to promise that he should be allowed to make the +pilgrimage on a future occasion. That pilgrimage took place; and so +quickly was Mahomet's power increasing in the rest of Arabia that the +Meccans began to feel that they could not long resist him. In the +year 630 he moved against Mecca with a large army, and met with but +faint opposition. Mecca fell into his hands. He used his victory +nobly: only four persons were put to death. It was at once shown that +no injury was to be done to the city. The old worship and its various +ceremonies were preserved. All idols, of course, were destroyed, both +those about the Caaba, of which there are said to have been one for +each day in the year, and those in private houses. + +Mecca made the Capital of Islam.--In fact Mecca gained new importance +from this conquest. It was constituted by the irresistible power of +Mahomet the central sanctuary of the true religion. A year after the +victory Mahomet again visited Mecca, and performed the pilgrimage +with all its rites in his own person, setting the correct pattern in +every detail, which all pilgrims were to observe in all time coming. +Those who wish to know what the rites of Mecca are, will find them +graphically and minutely described in Captain Burton's _Pilgrimage to +El-Medinah and Mecca_; that gallant officer was one of the three +Europeans who, during the nineteenth century, assumed the disguise of +pilgrims and took part in the observances. The kissing of the sacred +black stone in the wall of the Caaba, the sevenfold circuit of the +building, the drinking of the water of the well Zem-zem, the race +from one hill-top to another in the neighbourhood of Mecca, the +throwing of seven stones at a certain spot, and the sacrifice of an +animal in a certain valley--these form a collection of rites each of +which had probably a separate origin, and of some of which the +original meaning can scarcely be made out.[4] This "block of +heathenism" Mahomet made part of his religion. He could not have +abolished it, and by adopting it in an improved form as a part of his +own system he served himself heir to the national religious +traditions, and acquired for his own religion the authority of a +national faith. "This day have I appointed your religion unto you," +are his words after fixing the forms of the pilgrimage, "and applied +Islam for you to be your religion." Islam adopts the Mecca rites, and +thereby becomes the national religion of Arabia. Hubal, the chief god +of the Caaba, disappears; Allah becomes the sole god of the shrine. +The legend that Abraham founded it is put in circulation, and it is +thus connected with the supposed earliest Arabian religion, the +religion before idolatry, the Islam before Islam. As Paul appeals to +the faith of Abraham as being a Christianity before Christ, so +Mahomet claims the Caaba for the pure worship of Allah in primeval +times. It is sacred henceforth to him alone. The rule was set up that +no idolater should be admitted to the pilgrimage, and it thus lost +its character as a heathen, and became instead a Moslem, institution. + +[Footnote 4: See for this Wellhausen's _Reste arabischen +Heidenthums_, pp. 64-98.] + +Spread of Islam.--Mecca once converted, the rest of Arabia could not +long remain outside. There was reluctance in various places to make +the change which Mahomet now required of all his countrymen. But the +penalty of refusing it was the prophet's wrath, with its terrible +attendants, war and rapine, and none of the Arabs cared enough for +their old gods to brave such terrors for their sake. The inhabitants +of Taif endeavoured to make terms, so that the change might be less +abrupt. Their ambassadors urged that fornication, usury, and the use +of wine might be allowed them, but this could not be granted; the +Taifites must accept the deprivations to which all the Moslems had +agreed. Then they asked that their Rabba, their goddess, might be +spared to them for three years, and as this was refused, for two +years, a year, a month. But the only concession they could obtain was +that they should not be obliged to destroy their goddess with their +own hands. The ancient paganism, it will be seen, fell easily and +without any tragedy. + +Mahomet did not long survive the national acceptance of his religion; +he died on 8th June 632. But he did not die without having opened up +to his followers very wide views for the future of his cause, and +started them on a career of religious war and conquest which was not +soon to be arrested. From a comparatively early period of his career +he had considered that Islam was destined to prevail not only in +Arabia but in other lands. Starting with the idea that his revelation +was only a later stage of that which had taken place in Judaism and +Christianity, he had advanced to the position that these were false +religions, and his own the only true one. Wherever he looked in the +world he could see no true religion but his own; it must therefore +take the place of all others. Accordingly he sent embassies from +Medina to Heraclius the emperor of the East, to the king of Persia, +to the governor of Egypt, and to other potentates, announcing himself +to be the "Prophet of God," and calling upon them to give up their +idolatrous worships and return to the religion of the one true God. +These embassies had small effect; but Mahomet was prepared to take +much more forcible measures in order to spread the faith. War against +infidels being one of the standing duties of the faithful, various +regulations were laid down for the treatment of captives and the +disposal of booty in such wars. God, who is said in every verse to be +forgiving and merciful, encourages the faithful in such passages to +slay and rob, and to make concubines of women taken in sacred wars. +At the moment of his death an expedition, not the first, was ready to +start against the Greek power. It is in this guise that Islam assumes +the _rôle_ of a universal religion. + +The Duties of the Moslem.--The missionary of Islam requires of his +converts nothing very difficult either in the way of belief or in the +way of action. His demands are brief and precise. They consist of the +following five points:--1. The profession of belief in the unity of +God and the mission of Mahomet. The formula runs: "There is no God +but Allah, and Mahomet is the prophet of Allah." 2. Prayer. This +consists of the repetition of a certain form of words at five +separate times each day, the worshipper standing up with his face +towards Mecca. The mosques are always open for prayer, and there is a +special service on Friday, the day of the week chosen by Mahomet in +contradistinction to the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. 3. +Almsgiving. This is done on a fixed scale, and the contributions +were, in Mahomet's time, devoted to the support of war against +infidels. 4. Fasting. This takes place during the month of Ramadan, +and the fast is very strictly observed. 5. The Hagg or pilgrimage to +Mecca. + +The Koran is the sacred book of Islam. The name means "reading"; see +above in this chapter. Like other sacred books, the Koran is arranged +in such an order that he who reads it as it stands finds it very +confused, and fails to grasp its historical meaning. The claim to +divine inspiration is made in every chapter and every line of it; God +himself is the speaker. But the divine oracles refer to very various +matters. All sorts of legal decisions, military orders, injunctions +about religious affairs, legends and speculations, have a place in +it. Of prediction of the future, indeed, there is but one instance; +the prophet disclaimed the power to work miracles, and held that no +wonders beyond those of the splendid order of the universe are +necessary to faith; and similarly he does not pose as a foreteller, +but as an organ of the divine will for the present. As the ruler of a +theocracy, the leader of armies, the judge in many a civil case, the +guardian of the manners of the people, the officiating minister in +public worship, and, let it also be mentioned, the head of a very +peculiar domestic establishment, he has a hundred matters of +immediate concern to attend to; and when he has formed his decision +on any of these matters, it takes its place in the Koran. The book +thus produced is far from being an attractive one; even in the +translation of Professor Palmer[5] it can afford pleasure to no +reader. The translation, it is true, loses the poetry and music of +the original, which are highly spoken of; but the main obstacle to +reading the Koran is its want of arrangement. The earliest suras +(chapters; literally courses of bricks) stand mostly towards the end +of the collection; the long ones in the beginning and middle are +later, and many of them are composite: two or several chapters have +been joined into one. When read in their historical order, the suras +can be read with pleasure by the student as showing the growth of the +prophet's ideas and of his cause. The earliest ones are short, +poetical, and intense. These are the suras which threw the prophet +into such excitement and distress that his hair turned white. They +are full of the wonders of God in nature and in history, of fiery +denunciation of idolatry, and of fearful threatenings. In later +pieces we come to long legends taken chiefly from the Jewish Haggadah +and the Christian Apocrypha, in which the prophet displays much +ignorance of the commonest facts of the Bible history; and as his +power increases and his functions multiply, we come to the +miscellaneous matters spoken of above. The style, at first poetic and +exalted, becomes afterwards prosaic and diffuse; it is not the +inspired seer who speaks, but the statesman or the judge; and the +placing of these later utterances in the mouth of God could not +deceive the original hearers. The Koran, like the Vedas and the +Gathas and the Jewish Scriptures, was exalted in later stages of the +religion to the highest conceivable honours; and one of the greatest +controversies of Islam raged round the question whether it had +existed from eternity and was uncreated. + +[Footnote 5: _Sacred Books of the East_, vols. vi. and xi.] + +Islam a Universal Religion.--What is most remarkable about Islam is +the rapidity of its growth. Mahomet begins life a poor and lowly +herdsman, and at his death bequeaths to his successors a kingdom +which he has formed, and which is shortly to prevail over all its +neighbours. In the same way his doctrine, confined at first to a +small circle and bitterly opposed, becomes within half a century the +faith of his nation, and not only of his nation, but of many other +lands. Within that brief space it has entered on the career of a +national religion, and has also passed beyond the national into the +universal stage, at which only two other religions have arrived at +all. The progress which Christianity took centuries to accomplish, +Islam accomplished in so many decades. The title of a universal +religion cannot be denied to it. The truth which it declared--the +doctrine of the unity and the omnipotence of God, and of the +responsibility of every human being to his Creator and Judge--is one +which does not belong to any particular race of men, but to all men. +The attitude of soul which is called Islam--that of implicit +surrender to the great God, of entire acquiescence in his decrees and +entire obedience to his will--is good for all. All should be called +to take an earnest view of their life and to realise their deep +responsibilities; and the idea expressed by the title given to God on +every page of the Koran, "The Merciful and Compassionate," that God +sympathises with the aspirations and efforts of his servants, and +that they may look up to him with love as well as fear, is one which +all can understand and feel helpful. Especially at the stage when the +world is given up to idolatry, Islam may well rank as a universal +religion; when each place has its idol, each nation its greater +idols, religion divides instead of uniting, and the frivolous and +senseless service of such petty deities prevents men from realising +their solemn obligations to the great God before whom they are all +alike, since he is the Governor and Judge of all. Islam is an +admirable corrective of heathenism; it brings the scattered and +bewildered worshippers of idols together in one lofty faith and one +simple rule. + +The weakness of Islam is that it is not progressive. Its ideas are +bald and poor; it grew too fast; its doctrines and forms were +stereotyped at the very outset of its career, and do not admit of +change. Its morality is that of the stage at which men emerge from +idolatry, and does not advance beyond that stage, so that it +perpetuates institutions and customs which are a drag on +civilisation. Mahomet's Paradise, in which the warrior is to be +ministered to by beauteous houris (the number of whom is not +mentioned), may not have been an immoral conception in his day; but +it is so now, and apparently cannot be left behind. An admirable +instrument for the discipline of populations at a low stage of +culture, and well fitted to teach them a certain measure of +self-restraint and piety, Islam cannot carry them on to the higher +development of human life and thought. It is repressive of freedom, +and the reason is that its doctrine is after all no more than +negative. Allah is but a negation of other gods; there is no store of +positive riches in his character, he does not sympathise with the +manifold growth of human activity; the inspiration he affords is a +negative inspiration, an impulse of hostility to what is over against +him, not an impulse to strive after high and fair ideals. He remains +eternally apart upon a frosty throne; his voice is heard, but he +cannot condescend. He does not enter into humanity, and therefore +cannot render to humanity the highest services. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_The Life of Mahomet_, by Sir W. Muir, 1858. + +_Mohammed_, by Wellhausen, and "The Koran," by Nöldeke, in +_Encyclopĉdia Britannica_, vol. xvi. + +The Preliminary Discourse prefixed to Sale's _Koran_; and Professor +Palmer's Introduction in _S. B. E._, vol. vi. + +_Islam_, by J. W. H. Stobart, in the "Non-Christian Religious +Systems" Series of the S.P.C.K. + +_Der Islam_, by Houtsma, in De la Saussaye. + +Hughes, _A Dictionary of Islam_ (1885, 1896). + +Sell, _The Faith of Islam_, Second Edition, 1896. + +Stanley Lane-Poole, _The Speeches and Table-talk of Mohammad_, 1882; +the most important parts of the Koran, chronologically arranged, with +a very useful introduction. + +Margoliouth. _Mohammed and the Rise of Islam_, 1905. + + + + +PART IV +THE ARYAN GROUP + + + + +CHAPTER XIV +THE ARYAN RELIGION + + +The science of language has placed it beyond dispute that the +languages of the leading European peoples are genealogically related +to each other, and that the languages of India and of Persia also +belong to the same family of speech. The Indo-European languages, +those, namely, of the higher race in India, and of the Persians, and +those of the Greeks, Italians, Celts, Germans, Slavs, Letts, and +Albanians, approach each other always more nearly as they are traced +upwards. Sanscrit is not the source of these tongues but an older +sister of the group; the mother language, which the facts prove to +have at one time existed, was a highly-inflected speech, and is +perhaps more nearly represented by Lettic than by Sanscrit; but it +can now be known only by a study of the common features of its +surviving children. + +The fact that the peoples named above are related to each other in +point of language led at once, when it was discovered, to the +conclusion that they were also of the same race, and must have come +originally from the same quarter of the world. Where, then, was the +early home of the undivided Aryan[1] race, from which the swarms +first issued which were to conquer and rule the various lands? At +first it was found in the East; the fact that Indian civilisation was +much earlier in time than that of any other Aryan people, naturally +suggested this. Professor Max Müller described in a very poetical way +how the European as well as the Indian must find in the East the +cradle of his race. From the high tableland of Asia, it was held, the +superior races came who were to rule nearly the whole of Europe, +while another migration descended towards Persia and the plains of +India. + +[Footnote 1: "Aryan" was the name of the conquering race of India. +The title "Indo-European" tells us that the race now dwells in India +and in Europe. "Indo-Germanic" describes the group by its Eastern, +and what is supposed to be its principal Western, member.] + +The theory, however, which placed the home of the Aryans on the +inhospitable steppes, the "high Pamere," of Asia, did not long +command assent; and attempts were made to place that home elsewhere, +in the valley of the Danube, on the south shores of the Baltic, or +even in the Scandinavian peninsula. The conquest, it is argued, +cannot have come from the East; it is much more probable that Aryan +speech and custom originated in the West, where it has the larger +number of representatives, and that it spread eastward. The more +extreme step has also been taken of denying that the Aryans are +related to each other at all in point of race. Unity of language, it +is argued, is no proof of unity of race--a glance over the British +Empire or even the British Islands is enough to show this. It is +maintained, therefore, that the relationship of the Aryan peoples is +not one of race but only of language and of culture; the word Aryan +denotes no more than a certain type of speech, and of accompanying +civilisation, which spread over all the peoples in question at a very +early time. Aryan language and civilisation laid hold of a number of +races not otherwise related to each other. + +The view, however, still prevails that the various lands where Aryan +speech and culture prevail were settled from one centre. When society +was in the nomadic stage, it may naturally be presumed that a +superior civilisation which had established itself in any one quarter +of the world would be carried by wandering hordes in various +directions, and that the bearers of the new civilisation would become +the conquerors and masters of the countries to which their wanderings +led them. And there is now some agreement on the part of leading +authorities as to the quarter of the world from which the migrations +of the Aryans proceeded. In the Southern Steppes of Russia, in the +great plains north of the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Sea of +Aral, there dwelt, we are told, in times far before the dawn of +history, hordes rather than tribes of men, who, though they had +originally spoken the same language, were coming to differ from each +other in speech and culture. These hordes were peoples in the process +of formation. It was natural to them to wander, and as each wandered +farther from the centre, it came to differ more markedly from the +common type. Some of these went southwards and eastwards to Persia +and India; others went westward, to conquer and possess the countries +of Europe.[2] + +[Footnote 2: _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_; Schrader +and Jevons (Griffin, 1890). This is the English of Schrader's +_Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_. Compare Dr. E. Meyer's +_History of Antiquity_, vol. i. book vi. Dr. Isaac Taylor's _Origin +of the Aryans_ gives a compendious account of the question, +concluding against the unity of the Aryans in point of race.] + +The Aryan question lies at the threshold of the history of each of +the Aryan peoples, and has to be met in the study of each of the +religions. It must be confessed that the world now knows less on this +point than it thought it did a generation ago. The difference between +the Semitic and the Aryan spirit is real and substantial, as will +appear from the study of the Aryan religions, but it is more +important as well as more possible to know these well in their +individual character than to have a correct theory of their +historical relation to each other. The student ought, however, to be +informed as to the course of a deeply interesting enquiry. + +The civilisation of the Aryans was primitive enough. The following is +from Dr. Taylor:-- + + The undivided Aryans were a pastoral people, who wandered with + their herds as the Hebrew patriarchs wandered in Canaan. Dogs, + cattle, and sheep had been domesticated, but not the pig, the + horse, the goat, or the ass; and domestic poultry were unknown. The + fibres of certain plants were plaited into mats, but wool was not + woven, and the skins of beasts were scraped with stone knives, and + sewed together into garments with sinews by the aid of needles of + bone, wood, or stone. + + Their food consisted of flesh and milk, which was not yet made into + cheese or butter. Mead, prepared from the honey of wild bees, was + the only intoxicating drink, both beer and wine being unknown. Salt + was unknown to the Asiatic branch of the Aryans, but its use had + spread rapidly among the European branches of the race. In winter + they lived in pits dug in the earth and roofed over with poles + covered with turf, or plastered with cow dung. In summer they lived + in rude waggons or in huts made of the branches of trees. Of + metals, native copper may have been beaten into ornaments, but + tools and weapons were mostly of stone. Bows were made of the wood + of the yew, ... trees were hollowed out for canoes by stone axes, + aided by the use of fire. + + According to Hehn, the old or sick were killed, wives were obtained + by purchase or capture, infants were exposed or killed. After a + time, with tillage, came the possession of property, and + established custom grew slowly into law. Their religious ideas were + based on magic and superstitious terrors, the powers of nature had + as yet assumed no anthropomorphic forms, the great name of Dyaus, + which afterwards came to mean God, signified only the bright sky. + They counted on their fingers, but they had not attained to the + idea of any number higher than one hundred.[3] + +[Footnote 3: _Origin of the Aryans_, p. 188.] + +These sketches of the early Aryan certainly attest more vigour than +refinement; and it takes some effort to realise that those who lived +in this way had already made much progress, and that these early arts +and institutions were full of promise. Savage as the early Aryan is, +he is better than his neighbours, and has made a good start in the +way of civilisation. His family arrangements, especially, are fitted +to survive and to develop. The early domestic architecture of the +Aryan countries, while it belongs to a much later period, yet gives +good evidence that the patriarchal ideal of the family was part of +the common inheritance. In every country they conquered the Aryans +lived in large patriarchal households. The sons, with their wives and +children, remained under their father's roof, the father being judge +and priest of this domestic community. We can specify other features +of the society connected with this type of household. As the family +increases and becomes too large to dwell under one roof, another +house is built, in which son or grandson, with his wife, founds a new +family. Thus a group of families arises, all related to each other by +blood, and in a position of equality, but looking to the original +house as their centre. This type of society must have been carried to +India by the Aryan invaders, who there set up patriarchal +establishments in houses which are similar in arrangement to those of +North Holland, of Iceland, or of early England. The men who lived in +this way were not agriculturists, they were shepherds and huntsmen, +and when they settled in a district they were wont to force the +former dwellers in it to till the land for them as their +inferiors.[4] + +[Footnote 4: See two recent works by Mr. G. L. Gomme, _The Village +Community_ and _Ethnology in Folklore_; also Hearn's _Aryan +Household_.] + +It is this type of civilisation which overspread the lands in early +times, and by its coming created in most instances a new world. Some +of the Aryan peoples made more rapid progress than others. They +passed early into the age of metals, and appear before us at the dawn +of history with fully-formed institutions, which bear the impress of +patriarchal ideas. Others remained longer in the stone age, and only +in historic times received the impulse which caused them to advance +to the rank of nations. The arts and inventions which are found in +many or in all of them are not necessarily a common inheritance from +the undivided Aryan age. Many of them may have come into being in +each of the lands independently, or one Aryan people may have +borrowed them from another at a later time. Starting from the common +stock of civilisation, the various races worked it out each in a way +of its own, and often, as we shall see, with wonderful similarities. + +Is it possible to give any description of the religion the Aryans had +in common before they developed it in different ways in their various +lands? We can no longer, following Mr. Max Müller, look to India to +tell us what was the common Aryan religion. Indian religion, when we +first become acquainted with it, has already grown into an elaborate +priestly system, and is evidently at a much later stage of Aryan +development than the rustic cults, with which we have a good deal of +acquaintance, in various European lands. If, however, we cannot +follow the great German scholar in this, we gladly use his words on +another aspect of the subject, when he is showing the etymological +identity of the chief god of the Aryan peoples. + +In his _Lectures on the Science of Language_, vol. ii. p. 468, he +tells us that "Zeus, the most sacred name in Greek mythology, is the +same word as Dyaus in Sanscrit, Jovis or Ju in Jupiter in Latin, Tiw +in Anglo-Saxon, preserved in Tiwsdĉg, Tuesday, the day of the Eddic +god Tyr; Zio in old High-German. + +"This word was framed," he says, "once and once only; it was not +borrowed by the Greeks from the Hindus, nor by the Romans and Germans +from the Greeks. It must have existed before the ancestors of those +primeval races became separate in language and religion; before they +left their common pastures to migrate to the right hand and to the +left.... Here, then, in this venerable word, we may look for some of +the earliest religious thoughts of our race."[5] + +[Footnote 5: See also Mr. Müller's _Hibbert Lectures_, and his +_Biographies of Words_.] + +In this instance etymology admittedly points out one of the principal +features of the common Aryan religions. But if we hope that etymology +will reveal to us many further instances of the same kind, and +introduce us to the whole Pantheon of the Aryans, we shall be +disappointed. There are one or two more cases of etymological +agreement between the gods of India and those of Europe,[6] but the +agreement is in some of these cases no more than etymological. The +Tiw or Tyr of the Teutonic mythology does not correspond in office or +character with Zeus or Jupiter, though the names are etymologically +akin. The agreement does not extend to all the religions in question, +nor does it extend in any two religions to all their gods; most of +the gods of Europe have no parallels in India. The evidence of +etymology, therefore, tells us but little of that early religion of +which we are in search. But if we consider the views and habits of +the barbarous shepherd-huntsman, who is now seen to be the typical +figure of common Aryanism, we need not seek long before we find +something that was common to all the Aryan faiths. The patriarchal +household has a religion which belongs to itself, and which is the +working bond of union of its members. The hearth is its altar, +because the forefathers of the house lie buried under it, or for +another reason. These forefathers certainly are its gods. This +hearth-cult has for its priest the father of the family; he in his +turn will be gathered to his fathers if he has a legitimate son to do +the last rites for him. No one but members of the family can partake +in the domestic worship, all unconnected with the family by blood +must be kept at a distance from these rites. This is not a religion +in which the individual counts anything for his own sake, any more +than totemistic religion is; in both it is the community alone that +serves the deity, in the one case, those acknowledging the same +totem, in the second, those united by blood in the same family. In +totemism the individual sacrifices himself to the tribe; here he is +nothing apart from his family. Aryan piety is family religion pure +and simple. It fosters sentiments which have been the strength of +Aryan society in all lands. It makes family life a sacred thing, +lends to all domestic ties the highest sanction, and causes the mere +mention of "hearth and home" to be the strongest incentive to valour +and self-denial. Even in the wild-beast ferocity with which early +men defend their homes against the intrusion of strangers, the +germs of lofty domestic and patriotic virtues may be seen. Thus +ancestor-worship, which is a part of the very beginnings of human +religion, is a more effective force among the Aryans than anywhere +else. In Egypt and China that worship is a highly artificial thing, +and has lost much of its original force. In Egypt it is the fortunes +of the dead that are most thought of; in China the cult has been +smoothed down and deprived, according to the character of the people, +of its intenser motives. Among the Aryans it combines actively with +strong family feeling, causing them to cling with an extreme tenacity +to their own gods and their own worship.[7] + +[Footnote 6: The principal are the following:-- + + 1. Dyaus, god of the sky, see above. + + 2. Sans. Ushas, goddess of dawn; Gr. [Greek: hêôs]; Lat. aurora; + Lith. auszra; A.-S. eostra. + + 3. Sans. Agni, fire, god of fire; Lat. ignis; Lith. ugnis; O.-S. + ogni. + + 4. Sans. Surya, sun; Lat. sol; Gr. [Greek: helios], also [Greek: + Seirios]; Cymr. seul. + + 5. Sans. Mâs, moon; Gr. [Greek: mênê]; Lat. mena; Lith. menu. + + Mars=Maruts, Manu=Minos=Mannus, Varuna=Ouranos, and other equations + formerly brought forward, are not now relied on by etymologists.] + +[Footnote 7: The comparative absence of ancestor-worship among the +Greeks leads Dr. Schrader to doubt whether their religion is Aryan. +The Semites and the Greeks occupy the same position in this respect +(see chapter x., chapter xvi.).] + +But those of whom we are speaking worshipped other gods besides those +of the household. The second great characteristic of Aryan religion +is its adoration of gods who are neither local nor tribal, but +universal. Dyaus, the sky, the heaven-god, can be worshipped +anywhere; so can the earth, so can the heavenly twins, who were +objects of early Aryan religion, so can the sun and moon. Not that +the Aryans always remembered that these beings were not local or +tribal. The god of heaven could be the god of a particular place too, +having a special name there; or he could be appropriated by a tribe +who gave him a title as their own particular patron. Each family +could have its own heaven-god as well as its own hearth-god. Nor are +we to think that when they worshipped beings who could be found in +every place, the Aryans overlooked the sacred places, and the sacred +objects worshipped formerly. They had themselves risen out of +savagery, and still held many of the ideas of savages. Though they +had a few great gods they could still believe in a large number of +smaller ones. The tree, the stream, still had its spirit for them, +the cave or the dark fissure its bad demon. And many a piece of magic +did they practise, such as the rain-charm which would cause even the +highest god to send what was needed. The world was well peopled with +gods, and to keep on good terms with them all was, no doubt, a matter +that required much attention and skill. + +Other features which have been stated to be characteristic of Aryan +religion are its non-priestly character, and the fact that its gods +are generally arranged in a monarchical pantheon. But neither of +these constitutes a specific difference of the kind we are in search +of. All primitive religions are non-priestly; a religion becomes +priestly at a certain stage of its growth, when it is organised +separately from the state. The monarchical pantheon, too, such as +that of Homer and of the Eddas, is an indication, not of the genius +of a religion, but of its having reached the systematising stage, and +of the political ideas according to which the system is drawn up. The +Aryan religions, it is true, arrange their gods when the time comes +to do so, after the pattern of an Aryan patriarchal establishment, +the father at the head, his sons and daughters near him, the servants +in attendance, the unorganised host of spirits, nymphs and elves, +outside. But to know the original character of the religion it is +less important to ask how the pantheon is arranged, than what gods +are worshipped, and how they are related to man. And the point which +stands out clearly is that while Semitic religion is purely tribal +and local, there is an element in Aryan religion which naturally +transcends these limits. On Semitic ground the body with whom the god +transacts is the tribe, the link is that of blood which connects all +the members of the tribe with their divine head or ancestor. In Aryan +religion also blood counts for much. The family altar is the seat of +worship, and he who has been cast out of his own family cannot +worship anywhere. The family gods are most thought of, no doubt, and +exercise immense power in the ways we have mentioned. But the worship +of which blood is the tie is not to the Aryan, as to the Semite, the +whole of religion. There are beings aloft as well as beings on the +earth and under the earth, and the worship of these beings is wider +than the family. The family may address Heaven by a special private +name, or at a particular spot, but Heaven itself was above all these +titles and places. The spirits of the household made, as all the +Semitic gods do, for separation, but the gods above made for union, +and as any community grew, the upper gods, who were worshipped by all +its members alike, became more lofty and more important. Thus we may +agree with Mr. Gomme when he speaks (_Ethnology of Folklore_, p. 68) +of the emancipation of the Aryans from the principle of local +worship, and says that the rise of the conception of gods who could +and did accompany the tribes wheresoever they travelled, was "the +greatest triumph of the Aryan race." + +Farther than this it may be dangerous to go in a field so full of +uncertainty. In all Aryan worships there are sacrifices of various +kinds and degrees of importance. The horse sacrifice appears in +several of the nations as one of distinction, but human sacrifice was +most important of all, though in each of the Aryan lands commutations +are made for it at a very early stage. The strife of Aryan with +non-Aryan religions gave rise to many superstitions; after the +conquest the gods of the latter often became the bad gods or demons +of the former, the ministers of the defeated cult were regarded as +sorcerers or witches, the dethroned gods made many an attempt to come +back to their seats, and to revive disused practices. But a religion +based, as we have seen the Aryan to be, in the family affections is +destined to rise as civilisation advances. It will be found that the +Aryan draws a less absolute distinction than the Semite between the +human and the divine. To the Semite God is, broadly speaking, a +master, or Lord, whose word is a command, in regard to whom man is a +subject, a slave. To the Aryan the relation is a freer one. His god +is more human, and art and imagination can do more in his service. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +E. Siecke, _Die religion d. Indogermanen_, 1897. + +C. F. Keary, _Outlines of Primitive Belief among the Indo-European +Races_, 1882. + + + + +CHAPTER XV +THE TEUTONS + + +The Aryans in Europe.--There is more than one European people which +before it was touched by Roman civilisation had remained for an +indefinite period--a period to be measured probably rather by +millenniums than by centuries--in the state of society described in +last chapter (see above) as occurring when the Aryans dwelt among +those whom they had conquered. In various lands alike we meet with +the combination of the patriarchal household with the village, the +combination of agricultural with pastoral life, to which the Aryans +early settled down among non-Aryan populations. This type of society, +which is the basis of feudalism, is recognised alike in India and in +Germany. It stretches far back into the past, and may even be +recognised in some quarters at the present day. + +As with civilisation so with religion. The early faith of the Slavs, +the Celts, and the Teutons is now generally regarded as best +representing that of the Aryans. It was a religion in which rite and +belief were indefinite and variable compared with those of the later +Aryan faiths of India and of Southern Europe, there being neither a +regular priesthood nor the use of writing to impart fixity to +religious forms. The river, the fountain, and the aged oak, each had +its legend and its observance of unknown antiquity. The pre-Aryan and +the Aryan elements of religion acted and reacted on each other, the +Aryan, no doubt, being the element of progress, but blending with the +other in indistinguishable mixture. The spirits of ancestors lived in +the belief and the practice of posterity; a thousand unseen agents in +the sky, and in the earth, and under the earth were believed in and +treated according to tradition, fed or flouted, bribed or exorcised, +as occasion suggested. New gods appeared, or old ones were combined +into new, or a god migrated from one province to another. Here also +myths and rituals were formed by various processes. But a more +constant growth of belief took place in connection with some gods as +larger social organisms came into existence, village communities +combining into tribes, tribes into nations. The great gods of heaven, +whatever the history of their early growth, proved specially fitted +to unite together clans and peoples. These beings received different +names in different countries. Their early history, no doubt, was not +the same in all, yet in each mythology there were figures and stories +which occurred also in others, whether in consequence of parallel +growth out of similar circumstances in each land, or from a process +of borrowing at a later time, or from both, we need not try to +decide. + +We give a short account of the religion of the Germans. That of the +Celts, which may be studied in the Hibbert Lectures of Professor +Rhys,[1] or that of the Slavs (of which there is an excellent short +summary by Mr. W. R. Morfill in _Religious Systems of the World_), +would have equally well served the purpose of exhibiting an Aryan +religion at a low stage of development, and held by a people not +thoroughly compacted into a nation. The religion of the Teutons has +the advantage for our study over these others, that it remained +longer unsuppressed by Christianity, and in its Scandinavian branch +put forth a vigorous original growth in comparatively recent times. +The latest paganism which flourished in Europe, it is also the +religion of our ancestors, on which the Christianity of the Northern +lands was grafted, and many a survival of which may still be +recognised in our own land. It therefore possesses for us even in +itself considerable interest. + +[Footnote 1: _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as +illustrated by Celtic Heathendom_, 1886.] + +Of the ancient Germans, of the dwellers in the basins of the Rhine +and the Danube, we have accounts by Cĉsar and by Tacitus.[2] After +this there is a dearth of information; the Christian missionaries to +the Germans thought it their duty to cover the former beliefs and +rites of their converts in oblivion, and abstained from giving +information about them. What we know is drawn from Church writers. +The Eddas belong to a much more developed stage of Teutonic life; +they tell their own tale, which will be noticed in its turn. + +[Footnote 2: Cĉsar, _B. Gall._ vi. 21. Tacitus, _Germania_.] + +The early Germans dwelt in scattered settlements surrounded by the +great forests and marshes which then covered Central Europe. Every +one has read the description of the brave and warlike people of whom +the Romans justly stood so much in awe, and knows about their fierce +blue eyes and their fair hair, their tall stature, their battle-cries +and charges, their hardy habits and strict morals. As the Roman +writers describe them, they are by no means savages. They do not live +in towns, but migrate from one spot to another, the community +cultivating the land it takes possession of, on a system of common +ownership with rotation of occupants. The women did the hard work, +Tacitus says; the men spent their time in the chase and in fighting. +They had an organisation beyond that of the village, being arranged +in what we may call hundreds and shires, each district having to +furnish so many men for war, electing its own heads and holding +meetings for various purposes. Amidst these local and tribal +divisions they did not forget that they were a nation different from +other nations, and invasion found them a united people. The religious +expression of this is to be found in the legend which represents the +three great divisions of the nation as descended alike from the god +Mannus, son of the earth-born Tuisco; hymns were sung to the latter +as the father of the German race. It was by hymns that this people +remembered things which were important. + +The Early German Gods.--There is a national god, then; and other gods +of whom Tacitus tells us are national too, not local or tribal. The +tribes to the south of the Baltic worship Herthus, which, Tacitus +says, is their name for Terra Mater, Mother Earth. The other gods he +mentions are called by Roman names. They worship Mercury, he says, as +their principal god; on certain days they worship him with human +sacrifices. They also worship Mars and Hercules with animal victims; +and a particular tribe, the Suevi, worship Isis. Cĉsar says the +Germans worship the sun, and Vulcan, and the moon. Tacitus mentions +other German gods; the two statements are both true. Tacitus gives +the German gods Roman names according to a common practice of +antiquity, which has been the source of much confusion; we shall see +afterwards how the Romans identified the gods of Greece also with +those of Rome. + +The equation which Tacitus gives of the German gods with Latin ones +is still in daily use in the names of the days of the week. The +Romans applied the names of the planets, which were the names of +their own gods, to the days of the week as early as the first +Christian century; and in Germany the days were called after the +German gods supposed to answer to the Roman gods in question. Half +Europe to this day calls the days of the week after the Roman, and +the other half after the German gods. We give the Latin names with +the modern French and over against them the English, in which the +names of the German gods appear more clearly than in modern German:-- + + Dies Solis, the Sun's day=Sunday. (The French _Dimanche_ is from + _Dominicus_, the Lord's Day.) + + Dies Lunĉ (Lundi)=Monday or Moon's day. + + Dies Martis (Mardi)=Tuesday, the day of Tiw or Ziu. + + Dies Mercurii (Mercredi)=Wednesday, the day of Wodan. + + Dies Jovis (Jeudi)=Thursday, the day of Thor. In German this is + _Donnerstag_, the day of Donar=Thor. + + Dies Veneris (Vendredi)=Friday, the day of Freya. + + Dies Saturni retains the Latin god's name in our Saturday. (The + French _Samedi_ is derived from Sabbath.) + +These Teutonic names for the days of the week are common to all the +branches of Teutonic speech, and must have a high antiquity. They +tell us what gods the Germans had in early times, and to what Roman +gods these were believed to correspond; but it would be a vain +endeavour to attempt to deduce from this, or indeed from any early +information we possess on the subject, the origin and nature of these +gods. From Grimm's laborious study of the question (_German +Mythology_, vol. i.) we gather that it is a matter mainly of +speculation what it was in Wodan that led the Romans to identify him +with their Mercury. Thor, who is identified with Jupiter, was +probably a sky-god, while Tiw or Ziu (whom etymology identifies with +Zeus, not Mars) was a god of war, and Freya, like Venus, had to do +with female beauty. We come to know more of these gods when we find +them in the Eddas, but it is scarcely legitimate to fill in the South +German gods of the first century from the North German gods of the +same names of the eleventh or twelfth. We reserve, therefore, our +description of the German gods till we come to the Northern +mythology. + +The Roman writers do not furnish any accurate idea of the working +religion of the Germans of their day. Cĉsar says they were not so +much under the guidance of priests as the Gauls were, and that they +were not greatly addicted to sacrifice; neither statement can be +received without scrutiny. Tacitus idealises the untutored savage as +Rousseau does, in order to rebuke the vices of a luxurious +civilisation; but his statements of actual facts may be trusted. +Knowledge recently acquired of early forest-cults disposes us to +trust him when he speaks, as he does more than once, of the peculiar +sacredness the Germans attached to woods and groves. He is idealising +when he says, "They did not confine their gods in walls nor represent +them under the likeness of men, being led thereto by considering the +greatness of the heavenly beings." A few centuries later at least we +find Christian bishops busy destroying temples of German heathenism +and burning images found in them. Undoubtedly, however, the great +sanctuary of a district was frequently, as he represents, in the +recesses of a wood. Under a mighty tree a tribe would hold its +meetings and sit in judgment and in council; and there were sacred +groves in which no human foot might stray, where the god was supposed +to dwell, where great sacrifices both of animal and of human victims +took place, where the boughs were hung with the bones of former +sacrifices which in war were carried forth at the head of the tribe +as its sacred standards. This was done by the priests, who +accompanied the host to battle, and were charged at such a time with +the infliction of all necessary punishments, since they represented +the god who was supposed to be personally present as commander. The +priests had to work the auguries when consulted on matters of state; +on private matters the paterfamilias might do this himself. The +priests also had charge of the sacred white horses, by whose neighing +the will of the deity became known. Several women are also mentioned +as having enjoyed the reputation of sacred personages; and "even in +their wives they considered that there was a certain holiness and +inspiration." + +To judge from Tacitus and from other writers of the first Christian +centuries, there was little system in the religion of Germany in +those days; the gods were not organised in a divine family, the +priests were not a caste like the Druids of France and Britain, and +religious practice was loose and variable. It must also be remembered +that what foreign writers reported on the subject was connected +rather with national and official cults than with popular local +observances. Of the latter there was an abundant growth; a +distinguished foreign writer might not know about it, but the +evidence of it survives in various forms which are only now being +seriously studied. To know the practical religion of early Germany we +have to consult the village festival and legend (as has been done by +Mannhardt in his _Wald- und Feld-kulte_ and Mr. Frazer in _The Golden +Bough_, and many a student of folklore), which, though now apparently +meaningless, were once the serious religious observance and doctrine +of the peasantry. The peasant carried his wishes and prayers to the +familiar wishing-well, and presented offerings to the spirit of the +well by throwing them into the water or hanging them on the +surrounding trees. The fairy rather than far-off Wodan was looked to +for good fortune; the rite of the fabulous village hero, with its +quaint immemorial usages, roused more enthusiasm than the stately +public ceremonial. Another side of the mind of early Germany is to be +gathered from the heroic legends and the fairy tales, many of the +elements of which, we are assured, were even then in existence. Were +these legends formed by a process of degradation; did they begin with +telling about the gods, and were they afterwards applied to heroes +and princes and common men? Or was the process in the opposite +direction from this; were the stories, first of all, those of human +warriors, their wars and loves, and did they then become mixed up +with solar and celestial ideas? Were the fairy tales originally +stories of the gods, and did they by popular and familiar treatment +fall below the dignity of their original themes till they came to be +a debased and broken-down mythology? or were they at first stories +about beasts and about clever tricks, such as savages love to tell, +and did they rise to something more dignified, till in some of them +we may trace the stories of the gods? It is not necessary that we +should answer these questions, which carry us back to an earlier time +than that with which we are concerned; but any one who knows the +tales, and will try to realise the state of mind of those who +received them not as fancy but as serious fact, will know something +of the religion of early Germany; of the strange beings, fairies, +dwarfs, magicians, talking animals, animated sun and moon and winds, +by which the German believed himself to be surrounded. + +Later German Religion.--In Southern Germany the introduction of +Christianity early put an end to any development of Teutonic religion +which might have taken place there. The old faith, however, still +maintained itself in more Northern latitudes. It was brought to +Britain by the German invaders, continued there till the seventh +century, and was brought in again in a more Northern form by the +Norsemen, who in their turn "gradually deserted Thor and Odin for the +white Christ."[3] Bede tells hardly anything of the paganism which +had been the religion of England a century before he wrote; in this +he is like other Christian teachers who might have told but did not. +But though it came to an end in England, Teutonic religion continued +to prevail in the countries from which the invaders had come. In +Frisia in the eighth century we hear of a goddess Hulda, a kind +goddess, as her name implies, who sends increase to plants and is a +patroness of fishing. A god called Fosete, or Forsete (Forseti in +modern Icelandic=chairman), identified both with Odin and with +Balder, was worshipped in Heligoland; he had a sacred well there, +from which water had to be drawn in silence. There are temples, often +in the middle of a wood, with priestly incumbents, and rich +endowments, both of lands and treasure; and human sacrifice in +various forms is said to have been in use. Idols are mentioned, even +(at Upsala in Sweden) a trinity of idols; but this is what Church +writers would naturally impute to heathens, and the statement is +discredited. No Teutonic idol has survived; the loss to art may not +be great, but such a relic would have settled the controversy. + +[Footnote 3: Kingsley's _Hereward the Wake_.] + +Iceland.--Teutonic paganism reached its highest development in +Iceland. Of this branch of it alone is there a literature, for many +of the sagas are the fruit of a literary movement in Iceland anterior +to the establishment of Christianity; and the historian Ari, who +wrote within a century after that event, gives careful information of +the earlier state of affairs. The reader of _Burnt Njal_ sees that +among the Icelanders life was short and precarious. With the spirit +of adventure, which led them to be constantly setting out on warlike +and piratical expeditions, they combined a strong tendency to local +quarrels, which filled up their life at home with a constant series +of blood-feuds. These latter are gone about in a methodical and +business-like way; custom sanctions them, the meetings of the popular +assembly do not seek to suppress or punish them if only they are +conducted according to the rules. No public authority had as yet +arisen to carry out the law between one household and another; the +avenger has his recognised place and duty. Society is patriarchal as +in other Aryan communities; each family is a community of +blood-kindred for mutual defence and also for worship. The leading +cult of Icelandic religion was the domestic worship of ancestors, +conducted by the head of the household. The dead were buried in +knolls or burrows near the dwelling, and their spirits were thought +to inhabit these places; they are said to "die into the hill." Altars +are erected and sacrifices offered there; the blood of the victim +poured out upon the ground is supposed to be enjoyed by them. These +knolls became the sacred places of their district, and many a belief +existed about these quiet neighbours and the help they afforded to +the living. "Elves" they were called, and they were thought of as a +cleanly and kindly race. The spirits of bad men, on the contrary, +lived an uneasy life, as demons, and were the workers of mischief. + +Along with this belief in the spirits of the dead as inhabiting the +burial hill of the household, there is another conception, namely, +that the dead go to a distant region of the unseen world. In Homer +also these two conceptions are combined. The Icelandic burial rites +are founded on the latter view. The "departed" is going on a long +journey, and his friends escort him as far as they can; shoes are +bound on his feet, the Hel-shoes, for Hel is the name of the region +of the dead. Gifts are given to him; horses, male and female +attendants, hawks and hounds, are burned with him on the pyre, and +his wife voluntarily accompanies him; all these he is to have with +him in the country beyond. + +In addition to the domestic cult we have that of local objects; holy +wells, waterfalls, groves, stones are worshipped. Mother Earth is +called on, so is Thunder, so is Heaven. But besides these minor +worships there is the public one, connected with a large tribe or +with a king's court. A temple on the same plan as a large +dwelling-house forms a place of meeting and of sacrifice, an asylum, +and a place of oaths and covenants. On a table in front of the high +seat stands the bowl which, filled with blood and along with certain +sticks, forms a means of divination. A gold ring also lies there, +which a man puts on when he is about to swear an oath, and which the +priest puts on at meetings. + +The priest has the duty of keeping up the building and property of +the temple and of maintaining the sacrifices. At the latter various +rites are done with the blood of victims, and those present feast on +the flesh and drink toasts. The first cup is for Wodan, various other +gods are celebrated, and there is a cup of remembrance for the +departed. Sacrifices are offered for the crops, for victory, for any +great object on which the community is bent. In this ritual there is +no evidence of any idols. Though the Icelanders are not without art, +the great gods have not yet perhaps assumed to their minds such +definite figures as to be thus set forth: no Homer has placed them +clear before the inward eye. The rites are bloody, the altar has ever +anew to be made to shine with the blood of victims. Human sacrifices +are only resorted to in times of great common danger, as a terrible +last resort; the god to whom the human victim is devoted is moved by +the bloodshed to avert his anger, or to make greater exertions for +his people. Bloodshed forms the strongest of all bonds. To link +themselves together in an indissoluble brotherhood, two friends +mingle their blood on the ground and then each of them treads on it. +The shedding of human blood at the launching of a ship or at the +laying of the foundation of a building is also known. Savage and +cruel as this religion is, there are signs that it is softening, and +that some of its darker rites are beginning to admit of commutation. +When Christianity approaches, the Icelanders feel that it must make a +great change, and that some of the cruelties which they regard as the +good old customs, will have to be laid aside. We hear of the +stipulation being made that if they receive baptism they shall not be +required to give up the removal of unpromising children nor the +eating of horseflesh. + +The Eddas, in which Scandinavian mythology reaches its ultimate form, +seem to belong to a higher plane of human life than the religion we +have described, and it has appeared to many scholars of late years +that they cannot be regarded as a pure product of paganism, but are +in great part influenced by Christianity both in matter and in +sentiment. The older Edda, written in verse, is said to have been +collected by Sĉmund Sigfusson the learned, one of the early Christian +priests of Iceland, who lived about the eleventh century. The other +Edda is in prose; it is a collection made about two centuries later. +The form given to the myths in these collections is due to the +Skalds, who flourished in Iceland in the early Middle Ages; but the +legends themselves are older. Nothing is known precisely about their +origin or early diffusion. + +The Eddas may be compared in many respects with the Homeric poems. As +in the latter, the gods form a family, the members of which come +together to a certain place for meetings, while individually they +have their own adventures, their loves, their jealousies, their +jokes, their tricks. In the Eddas too we find that the gods are not, +strictly speaking, eternal; they succeeded an older race of gods, and +their turn too may come to pass away. They are called Ĉsir, which is +the plural of As. The etymology of this is uncertain; compare the +Sanscrit Asura, said to mean the living or breathing one. The Ĉsir +are spoken of in later times, not in the Eddas, as if they had been a +race of warriors; they are said to have come in to Scandinavia and +got the better of those who lived there before, because they +worshipped a superior set of gods.[4] An historic reminiscence may +lurk here. Before the Ĉsir there were giants, and the earth with all +its parts is made of the body of one of these giants,[5] whom the new +race superseded as governors of the world. But the giants are still +there and their spirit is unchanged; there is a danger of their +interfering to subvert the rule of their successors. + +[Footnote 4: See a similar statement about the Incas, chapter vi.] + +[Footnote 5: Compare "Purusha" in the _Rigveda_.] + +There are other cosmogonic myths besides that of the division of the +giant Ymir. One is on this wise. Ere this world began, there was on +one side Niflheim, the land of mist and cold, on the other side +Muspelheim, the region of fire; between these two lay Ginnungagap, +the north side of it frozen, the south side glowing hot, and life +originated by the meeting, in one way or another, of the heat and +cold. There are very primitive myths of the shaping of man out of two +pieces of wood, of Night and Day as drivers of chariots and horses, +of the sun and moon fleeing from wolves, and so on. A more poetic +conception is the division of the world into Asgard, the garden of +the Ĉsir; Midgard, the world of man; and Utgard, the world outside. +In the first Odin has his seat Hlidskjalf; when he sits in it he can +see and understand whatever is happening in any part of the broad +world (is he the sun, then?). The third region is generally called +Jötunheim, the home of the giants, an icy region at the extreme part +of the habitable world. A bridge exists from the dwelling of men to +that of the gods; it is called Bifröst, and is the rainbow. + +The gods have various places of meeting; but their principal seat is +under a great tree, the ash. Yggdrasil[6] is a tree worthy of the +gods; it is a world-tree; its roots extend to all the worlds; its +branches spread even over heaven. Under it is the fountain Mimir, +spring of wisdom, from which Odin drinks daily. Near it is the +dwelling of the Norns, fates or weird sisters, who establish laws and +uphold them by their judgments, and allot to every man his span of +life. They are named Urd the past, Verdandi the present, and Skuld +the future. Daily do they water the ash from the spring to keep its +leaves fresh, and help it to contend with its numerous foes, for a +great serpent is continually gnawing at its root, and it has also +other troubles. This myth of Yggdrasil is the apotheosis of Teutonic +tree-worship, and is richly suggestive.[7] + +[Footnote 6: Yggdrasil=Odin's horse=the gallows. Is it the cross?] + +[Footnote 7: Carlyle in his _Heroes_, p. 18, draws out the spiritual +significance of it and of Norse mythology generally.] + +The Gods of the Eddas.--We now come to the gods of the system. Odin +is in the Eddas the founder of the world as now constituted. He has +displaced the old formless race of gods, and is the leader of a new +and vigorous race now ruling in their stead. The old scholars +rationalised Odin into a chief who had led a migration from Asia to +Norway in early times. He is the inventor of the art of writing by +runes and the founder of poetry; thus he has the aspect of a +culture-hero; that is to say, of a man of advanced views who, for the +benefits he conferred on his people, was exalted first to a hero and +then to a god. But the worship of Odin or Wodan is one of the +earliest things we know about the German race. He is the god of the +South-Germans from the very first. His earliest character is that of +a storm-god. Whether his name is connected with the German _wüthen_, +rage (Scot. _wud_) or with the Vedic Vata, who is a god of storm, he +is from the first an impetuous being. The early myth of him is +scarcely dead at this day; the peasant hears him rushing through the +woods at night. That is the "wild hunt of Wodan," he says; the god is +out with his followers, and woe to him who gets in his way! The early +Germans thought of him as a kind being who fulfilled the wishes of +men, and it was probably this side of his character that caused him +to be identified with Mercury. In the Eddic theology he is a patron +of war, as becomes the chief god of a warlike people. He arranges +battle and dispenses victory; the heroes who fall in battle he +receives into his heavenly army; they live with him in Valhalla or +Valhöll, the hall of choice. Odin chooses those who are to go there; +he is assisted in this by the Valkyries or choice-maidens. Life in +Valhalla is a constant round of fighting, the wounds of which are +healed at once, and feasting, the materials for which are ever +renewed. Odin, like other great gods, bears traces of low +surroundings, as if he had once lived among savages. He can turn +himself into an eagle or other animal to gain his object, and he has +engaged in disreputable adventures. But he tends to improve, and the +Eddas show him at his best. Here he is called the All-father, the +Ruler of all, who gave man a soul that shall never perish; and we +hear that he needs no food and takes no share himself in the feasts +of the heroes. All the righteous shall be with him in Vingolf (the +same as Valhalla), but the wicked shall go to Hel, the kingdom of Hel +or Hela, the goddess of the under-world. + +Thor or Donar, Thunder, is said to be the mightiest of the gods; he +is identified, as we saw, with Jove, but he is a rougher and more +primitive deity. He drives in a chariot drawn by two goats, and is +possessed of three things which have wonderful properties. The first +is the hammer Mjölnir, which the Frost- and Mountain-giants cannot +resist when he throws it; the second is the belt of strength, which +makes him twice as strong when he puts it on; and the third a pair of +gauntlets with which he grasps his mallet. Many stories are told of +his prowess, of his conflicts with the giants, who, however, give him +a good deal of trouble with their cunning; and of his catching the +Midgard serpent which surrounds the world at the bottom of the sea. +Being a god of storm, he forms a connection with agriculture, and +thus gains a more sedate aspect; he has also to do with marriage, and +a hammer is used symbolically at Icelandic weddings. Thor is only +half-brother to the other sons of Odin; his mother was Fiörgyn, the +earth; the worships of Odin and Thor, originally distinct, seem to +have been united at an early period. + +The god Tyr, son of Odin by a giantess, is the Eddic figure of the +German Tiw or Ziu, etymologically equivalent to Zeus or Jupiter, but +identified by the Romans with Mars. His greatness belongs to early +times; he was then a sword-god, and had an extensive worship in +various parts of Europe. In the Eddas he has scarcely any character, +and seldom takes a prominent part in the legend. Loki, by etymology a +fire-god (Germ. _Löhe_, Scot. _Lowe_),[8] is in one account the +brother of Odin, in another his son by a giantess. His character is +fitful; sometimes he acts a brotherly part by the gods and helps them +out of their difficulties by clever devices, and sometimes he +provides entertainment for them; but for the most part he is an +embodiment of cunning and mischief; his course is downwards, he tends +to become a being purely evil, setting himself heartlessly against +the wishes of the other gods, and acting so as to imperil them and +their world till they are obliged to cast him out of heaven. He is +thus a kind of Lucifer or Satan, and like the Christian devil, his +ultimate fate is to be bound till the end of the world shall arrive. +Baldur, the son of Odin and Frigga, is the best and brightest of the +gods. Like Apollo, he has to do with light, and no pollution can come +near him; he has also to do with the administration of justice, and +pronounces sentences which can never be reversed. Heimdall also is a +light and gracious god; he is the warder of the Ĉsir, and stays near +the bridge Bifröst. Of him it is told that he wants less sleep than a +bird, sees a hundred miles off by night or day, and hears the grass +grow on the ground and the wool on the sheep's back. Bragi is the god +of poetry and eloquence, the best of all skalds. + +[Footnote 8: The etymology is not perhaps correct, but it suggested +itself and influenced the view taken of this god, in very early +times.] + +Of the goddesses, Frigga, wife of Odin, stands first, an august +matron of mysterious knowledge, whom even gods consult, and by whom +men swear; she has also to do with marriage, and the childless appeal +to her. Etymologically she is scarcely to be distinguished from +Freya, wife of Odur, who, however, is lighter in character, and is +rather a goddess of love. The goddesses in the Eddas are more shadowy +figures than the gods; there are others, and an attempt is made to +reckon up twelve of them to answer to the twelve chief gods, but +their names are taken from the qualities they represent, and they +have little reality. + +The story of the death of Baldur, brought about by the evil mind of +Loki in defiance of the whole divine family, sounds the note of +tragedy in the divine family of the Eddas. The gods themselves +suffer, and are unable to retrieve the misfortune which has come upon +them. With one accord they try to get Baldur brought back from the +under-world, but they are foiled by the same agency of evil which +carried him off. With the death of Baldur the gods feel that their +rule, which, we saw, had a beginning, and with it the world they +govern, for the two are inseparably bound up with each other, is +coming to an end. The gods perish in the ruin of the world; and this +is well, for sin cleaves to them and to their house, and they are not +fit to endure. Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods, comes on; the +universe is burnt up in a mighty conflagration, and while there are +abodes of bliss and abodes of misery where some survive, the universe +as a whole is entirely changed, and a milder race of gods will rule +over a better world. + +If this mythology were found to be of native Scandinavian growth, it +would prove that Teutonic religion was capable of lofty development, +and would throw back an interesting light upon its previous history. +Here, it has been maintained, we see the Teutonic faith rising to +monotheism. Odin has among his other titles that of All-father; he is +rising above the other gods to a position of supremacy, which will +fit him, if the process were allowed, as it was not, to advance +somewhat further, to represent pure deity and to attract to himself +an undivided reverence. Here also we find a religion which was +formerly a rude intercourse between barbarous men and savage gods, +clothing itself with an ideal element. As the Greeks found religion +in beauty and the Romans in utility, so did the Germans find it at +last in pathos. They attain to the conception of suffering deity; in +Baldur a god falls victim to malice and wickedness, and the sorrow of +his fall takes possession of the whole of heaven. Thus pain and +sacrifice are hallowed, for man by the history of the gods, and his +intercourse with them leads him into heights and depths unknown +before. + +But the conviction is now establishing itself that this phase of +Teutonic religion is borrowed from Christianity, which was then +seriously menacing the existence of the old faith, and that it is the +shadow of their approaching extinction by the new religion, which +occasions among the Northern gods this feeling of sadness. They feel +themselves falling from their position; they are to be gods no +longer, but are to yield to the world-order, based on a deeper law +than theirs, which called them into being and now is preparing their +dismissal. Distinctly Christian ideas enter the old world of gods; +the ideas of sin, of sacrifice, of a final judgment, of a good god +who dies, of an evil spirit who, after prevailing for a time, is +chained up to await his doom. That a sense of guilt rests on the gods +shows that they are abandoning their rule, and they acknowledge that +their successors will be better than they have been. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Grimm's _German Mythology_, translated by Stallybrass, 4 vols. + +Grimm's _Fairy Tales_. Mr. Lang writes an Introduction to the English +translation in Bell's edition. + +Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_, 1858, and _Wald- und Feld-kulte_, +1875, 77. + +For the later Northern section, Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus +Poeticum Boreale_, especially the Excursus on Religion, i. 401. + +Dasent, _Burnt Njal; or Life in Iceland at the end of the tenth +century_. + +Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_. + +Thorpe, _Northern Mythology_. + +De la Saussaye, _The Religion of the Teutons_, 1902, the most +comprehensive statement of the whole subject. + +Ralston, _Songs of Russian People_, and _Russian Folk Tales_. + +Simrock, _Handb. der deutschen Mythologie_. + +R. M. Meyer, _Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte_, 1910. + +Sir John Rhys, _Oxford Proceedings_, p. 201, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XVI +GREECE + + +The history of Europe begins in Greece. It is there that the Aryans +in Europe first feel the touch of the arts and civilisation of the +East, and are stirred up to new activities; and the life thus +quickened in Greece transmitted its spark to Italy, and so to the +whole of Europe. + +People and Land.--There is no direct evidence that the Greeks came to +their country from elsewhere; and the theory of a Grĉco-Italic +period, in which the future inhabitants of Greece and Italy lived +together somewhere to the north of both these countries and made +common advances in civilisation, is now abandoned. There are, +however, faint indications that the Greeks spread over their country +from the north southwards. What people dwelt in it before them it is +impossible to say; the Pelasgi and Leleges, whom they themselves +conceived to have preceded them, left behind them no other trace than +that belief. When first we descry this land in the faint dawn of +history, it is tenanted by the people whose name it bears, touched +only by the Thracians to the north, and the Illyrians to the west, +these also being Aryan races. Though the Greeks are on both sides of +the Egean, which seems from the earliest times to have connected +rather than divided them, their centre of gravity is in the mainland +of Hellas, including the Peloponnesus. In this country many a +migration no doubt took place before the people was finally arranged +in it; and some of these migrations are faintly known to history. +When once the settlement had been accomplished, the nature of the +country did much to fix the institutions of the people and the mutual +relations of their various communities. Large tribes coming into the +narrow valleys and sequestered coasts of Greece necessarily broke up +into small cantons, each of which, though not cut off from +intercourse with its neighbours, was free to develop by itself. The +country is said by travellers to be the most beautiful in the world. +The branch of the Aryans which settled in it may have brought scanty +acquirements with them, but they brought great capacities. The Greeks +had an unrivalled talent for doing what they saw others do, in a much +better way, and so making it their own. They had an inborn +disposition to what is reasonable. That they had a deep-seated +inclination to what is harmonious and beautiful is proved by their +first great work of art, their language. Of that language there were +several dialects in the earliest times; the principal ones being the +broad Doric of the peninsula and the colonies, and the softer Ionic +of which the classical language is a branch. But the Greeks of all +dialects could understand each other, and regarded as barbarians +those without who spoke other tongues. Thus from the first this +people was much divided, but was also held together by strong bonds. + +Earliest Religion--Functional Deities.--The religion the Greeks +brought with them to their country was undoubtedly that which we have +discussed in our chapter on the Aryans. The primitive elements of +Aryan religion all reappear in Greece; the combination of many small +household worships with the supra-family worship of a great god or +gods, the few great gods who are surrounded by a multitude of +spirits, some of these also growing into gods, the recognition of +spiritual presences in many a natural object, living or dead. All +this we find in early Greece. The whole nation believes in Zeus; to +all he is the Lord of heaven, the giver of rain, the fertiliser of +mother earth, the supreme ruler in earth as well as in heaven, the +father of the gods as well as of men. This is the first bond of unity +in Greek religion. But every family, every village, every town has +its own peculiar worship which is to be found nowhere else. That +worship may be addressed to Zeus with a local title; each circle of +men has its own particular Zeus, who is their protector and ruler; +and thus Zeus has many forms and names. In each community there is +also the worship of the goddess of the hearth (Hestia); each +household has its own Hestia, and carries on the worship which in +other Aryan peoples is connected with the memory of departed +ancestors. But the family or the township has also other objects of +worship. There are other gods besides Zeus who are connected with +heaven, such as Apollo and Heracles. There are gods connected with +each activity of the people. Artemis is goddess of hunting, Aphrodite +of the peaceful life of nature and of gardens, and also of love. +Poseidon, the sea-god, was also worshipped inland, and was perhaps +originally a god of horses and oxen; Hephĉstus was the god of workers +in metal, Ares the god of battle. These are in their origin what are +called functional deities, that is to say, gods who are present in +the function with which they are associated, and of which they +constitute the ideal or sacred side, and who have no existence apart +from it. + +The gods of Greece in fact had their origin in that view of nature as +animated in every part, which the Greeks shared with other branches +of the Aryans, and with early man generally. Like the Latins, the +Greeks at first saw a mystery, a spirit, in every part of life; each +fountain had its nymph, each forest glade its dryad; and they felt +the gods to be returning to fresh life when spring came with its +flowers. Each of their own activities also had its unseen genius. +Each enclosure for flocks had its Apollo, "him of the sheepfold," who +protected the flock and the shepherd; and each boundary stone its +Hermes, "him of the boundary," who also watched over flocks and took +charge of marches and of paths. + +Growth of Greek Gods.--Such beings, however, are something less than +gods; and the Greeks, long before we know them, had made the step +which the Romans scarcely made at all, from the spirit to the god, +from the vague unseen power behind an object or an act, to the free +being conceived with human attributes and feelings, who can be the +patron of a community, and afford help in all its concerns. Not all +the spirits rise into gods; it depends on circumstances which of them +are selected for that advance; but the choice once made, their rise +was rapid. As the gods grew into personality and definite character, +though the function out of which they first sprang was not forgotten, +other functions were added to them; and as a god grew in power and +consideration, his worship was set up in new places, where other +titles and attributes awaited him. The local god might be identified +with the great god from a distance. The god of a powerful community, +as Athene ("she of Athens"), might be adopted wherever the influence +of that community extended; thus new gods arose and old ones took +local form. When a change took place in the habits of the people, it +was followed by a corresponding change in the character of their +gods. When agriculture comes in, the gods have to take notice of it, +the pastoral god turns agricultural, and even the huntress Artemis +becomes an encourager of fertility. When navigation rises in +importance, a number of the gods, Poseidon at their head, become +sea-gods. + +Stones, Animals, Trees.--In Greece the worship of the gods soon +superseded that of objects not possessing any human character. Traces +of such lower worships survive, it is true, in the later religion in +great abundance, but they have no influence in its development; they +only tell their story of the otherwise forgotten past. Stones were +worshipped in early Greece. Not to speak of the cromlechs and +dolmens, which are found there as in all parts of Asia and Europe, +and the meaning of which is so little understood, stones were +preserved as sacred objects in various places, even to late times, +and had no doubt originally been worshipped. The god Hermes was +represented in every period by a slab of stone set upright, a human +head and other human features being indicated on it. Even in later +Greece, boards or blocks of wood were in some places exhibited on +rare occasions, which were the oldest images of the Artemis or the +Aphrodite there adored. Though for the public eye splendid statues +had taken the place of the goddess, the original image was still +thought to have a sanctity all its own. We also notice that the gods +of Greece are associated with animals. Zeus is a bull in Crete; he +has also other transformations: Pan is a goat; Artemis is a bear in +some provinces, elsewhere a doe. The Athene of the Acropolis is a +serpent. Apollo is sometimes connected with the mouse. Along with +these identifications of the gods with animals we may mention the +animal emblems with which they are generally represented. The eagle +is the bird of Zeus, the owl of Athene, the peacock of Hera, the dove +of Aphrodite. In this connection we cannot help thinking of the +sacred animals of the Egyptian nomes; and the question may be asked +whether such animals must be taken to be in Greece also the signs of +a primitive totemism? + +Of the tree-worship of Greece much has been written of late. The oak +was the sacred tree of Zeus; he must have been conceived as living in +it; he gave oracles at Dodona by the rustling of the branches of the +tree. Athene has the olive, Apollo the palm, and also the laurel. +After the introduction of agriculture rustic cults arose, in which +the inhabitants of a village followed in sympathetic rites the +fortunes of the gods who live in the life of the plants in summer and +die with them in autumn. The god of the Semites is generally a +changeless being, who himself conducts and orders the changes of the +seasons, but in Greece we find gods whom man can accompany in the +tragedy of their fall and the triumph of their rise. We shall see +afterwards that the rustic worships of Demeter and Proserpine were +brought forward at a critical period in Greek religion, to supply an +element which was much required in it. These worships, similar, as +Mr. Frazer suggests,[1] to those still kept up by our own peasantry, +were doubtless of immemorial antiquity in Greece, though in the +earlier period they are little heard of. + +[Footnote 1: _Golden Bough_, vol. i. p. 356.] + +Thus the Greek gods grew up in the period before Greece was awakened +to new thoughts by contact with foreign peoples. Many harsh and cruel +rites were no doubt practised; human sacrifice, heard of even in +later times in remote parts of the country, was not unknown, and +practices were connected with the service of stern gods and goddesses +which, though literature is silent about them, left their mark on +custom. Zeus and one or two other gods are essentially moral, and +some duties were strongly encouraged by religion, such as those of +hospitality and strict regard for boundaries, of faithfulness to +pledge, of respect for strangers. But many of the gods are too +closely interwoven with external nature to be very decidedly moral +powers; they are like the plants and animals, neither good nor bad +but natural. + +Greek Religion is Local.--What strikes us most strongly about this +early Greek religion is its entire want of system and its local and +disintegrated character. Every town, every family, has its own +religion. There is no central authority. New gods are constantly +springing up; the old ones are constantly receiving new titles and +forming new unions with each other or with newer gods. The god of one +place is in another only a hero; the same god is represented in +different places in entirely different ways, and entirely different +legends are attached to his name. Thus the Greeks have from the first +a mythology singularly extensive and inconsistent, and their worship +also varies in each place. There is no general religion, but only a +multitude of local ones. In story and in rite old and new are mixed +up together,--what is local and what is imported, what is savage in +its nature and origin, and what is on the side of progress. This is a +state of matters which lies in every land before the beginning of +organised religion. Rites and legends are everywhere of local growth, +and the attempt to frame the various rites and legends into a +consistent ritual and a systematic account of the gods, comes later. +In Greece, as Mr. Robertson Smith observes, the earlier state of +matters continued longer and influenced the national faith more +deeply than elsewhere. As the Greeks never succeeded in forming a +central political system, so they never attained to unity in worship. +No national temple arose, the priesthood of which had power to frame +the national religion, to lay down rules for sacrifice, or to edit +sacred texts. The Greeks were less than any other people under the +sway of religious authority. While local practice was fixed, and +custom and tradition declared plainly enough what was to be regarded +as religious duty, belief was quite free to grow as circumstances or +the growth of culture dictated. A religion in such a position, and +among a people of lively imagination and specially gifted in the +direction of art, must necessarily receive its forms rather from the +artist than the priest. + +Artistic Tendency.--Thus we can discern from the first the direction +which Greek religion must take. The Greeks shaped their gods earlier +and more freely than other peoples, and went on shaping them till no +further advance could be made in that way. Long before Homer they had +been making their gods such as free men, and men endowed with a sense +of beauty, could worship. They were not content to worship lifeless +objects, but must have living beings. They were not content to +worship beings without reason, they must worship reasonable beings. +They were not inclined to regard the natural objects they worshipped +with terror or self-prostration, but rather in a spirit of genial +friendliness and sympathy as being something like themselves. And so +they turned their gods into men. The anthropomorphising tendency, +present as we have seen in other lands and at much earlier periods, +present indeed wherever religion is a growing power, had freer play +with them than with any other people. Thus the spirits of the +fountain and the tree, and of every part of nature that was +worshipped, took human form. At first, no doubt, the nymph was in the +fountain, the dryad in the oak, but as time went on the human maiden +cast off her mosses and her bark and leaves, and stood forth to +imagination a being wholly human, dwelling beside the fountain or the +tree. In the same way heaven becomes a great human father, the sea an +earth-shaking potentate drawn by dolphins over the waves, the sun a +mighty archer, fire a lame craftsman (from the flickering of flame?) +whose smithy is underground where the volcanoes are. And the figures +once arrived at, it was no hard task to spin out their stories and +their relations with each other, and to connect with them older +tales, as taste or fancy suggested. + +The thorough humanisation of the gods, the clothing of the gods in +the highest types connected with free human society, is the first +great contribution made by this gifted race to the progress of +religion. Receiving from the earlier world the same kind of gods as +other nations did, Greece proceeded to treat them in a way of her +own, idealised and refined the parts of nature held divine, and +ascribed to them not only, as all early races do, human motives and +human passions, but also human beauty and wisdom and goodness. +Whatever rude materials she received to work on, either from the +earlier dwellers on Greek soil or from foreign lands, she made them +her own by transfiguring them into ideal men and women. Thus the +Greeks reached the position, which they taught the world first in +immortal poetry and then in immortal plastic art, that man should not +bow down to anything that is beneath him, and that nature can only +become fit to be worshipped by being idealised and made human. An end +was made to the dark imagination which was so apt to creep over all +early religion, that deity and humanity may be different and +opposite; that an object devoid of reason, an object or an animal +admired not for its goodness but for something about it which man +cannot understand, may be his god and have a claim to his allegiance. +God and man are of the same nature, the Greeks found; to arrive at a +true idea of a god we have to form, on the basis of the natural +object where he is supposed to dwell, the image of an ideal man or +woman. This was a great step, but in this conception of deity the +Greeks also laid up for themselves, as we shall see, many +difficulties. + +Early Eastern Influences.--Our positive knowledge of Greek history +begins about the middle of the second millennium B.C.; we have +information of this period in the ruins of Mycenĉ and Tiryns and +other places. These remains attest a political condition widely +different from that of the patriarchal settlements of the period when +the Greeks were emerging from Aryan barbarism; very different also +from the free city life which came afterwards. The recent excavations +have brought to light the palaces of kings, built, it is evident, +according to an Eastern type, and with arrangements for the burial +and worship of dead potentates, not unlike those of the pyramids. The +art is rude, but shows large forces to have been at the command of +those who directed it. We have here, therefore, a state of matters +such as that described in the Homeric poems, in which petty kings +rule in many of the Greek towns, some of them being personages of +great rank and power. The movement in civilisation attested by these +remains is admitted to be due to an impulse from the East; but +whether this impulse was imparted by the voyages of Phenician +discoverers and merchants, or whether it came by land along the trade +routes of Asia Minor and across the Egean, is uncertain. It is in any +case traceable to North Syria, where in the early part of the second +millennium B.C. Babylonian and Egyptian influences met and gave rise +to some rude civilisation. Greece was not conquered from the East, +but stirred to new life by the communication of Eastern ideas. + +Greek religion was not much assisted, or indeed much modified in any +way, by this movement. The worship of ancestors which went on in the +palaces was not contrary to Greek sentiment, perhaps not even much +more elaborate than that sentiment required. But this part of +religion was not a growing thing in Greece; and the royal practices +did not prevent it from dying gradually away in later times. That any +god was imported into Greece at this time, is not proved. Where +Greeks and Phenicians met, as in some of the islands, a Greek and an +Eastern god might be identified; the worship of Aphrodite and that of +Astarte were fused in this way in Cyprus, and Aphrodite may thus have +acquired some new characteristics even in Greece. This is not +certain. Perhaps the most important thing to notice in this +connection is that the new type of society at the royal courts may +have furnished a model for the arrangement of the heavenly family +when that arrangement came to be made. The Eastern influence came to +an end in time, and the pressure being removed, the monarchies +crumbled away, the court worships were discontinued, and Greece was +left free, after this awaking to fuller life, to pursue her own +thoughts in her own fashion. + +Homer was regarded by the Greeks who lived after him as the founder +of their religion. Herodotus considers (ii. 53) that Homer and Hesiod +lived four hundred years before his time, and that it was they who +framed a theogony for the Greeks, gave names to the gods, assigned to +them honours and arts, and declared their several forms. These +writers accordingly formed a standard of religious belief; we know +that their works were the basis of the education of the Greek, and +they thus provided an early bond of national unity. + +The Homeric poems are the outcome, whether we regard them as the work +of one singer or of two, or of a whole school, of long processes of +growth. The poetic art which makes them the delight of all mankind is +not a first experiment, but the ripe result of an elaborate method. +The stories and the wisdom they contain are brought together from +many quarters by long accumulation. And in the same way the accounts +they give of the gods individually and of their relations to each +other are not thrown together at haphazard, but are the result of a +work of unconscious art which must have been carried on for centuries +before it issued in this form. Homer does not by any means repeat all +the stories he knows about the gods. He passes over many local myths, +especially those of the more repulsive order, which were known for +centuries after, and undoubtedly existed in his day; only what is +"worthy of a pious bard" does he reproduce. A pious bard, however, +had considerable latitude; and the phrase does not represent all that +Homer was. He was an entertainer of the public at royal courts, where +a feast was incomplete without him (_Odyssey_ viii.); he had to +produce his songs at banquets or in the open air at festivals; what +he gave had to be entertaining. This could not but influence his +choice of materials even when the gods were his theme. He could not +deal in what was most terrible about the gods, nor could he enter +into speculations or mysteries, nor could he make use of a legend +which, though it had point for the locality it belonged to, was not +generally interesting. What was powerful and dramatic, what all men +could understand, what was curious and piquant, what met the general +sentiment, that he would be led to adopt and to work up into a +telling form; he naturally sought after broad pictures, amusing +conversations, simple and true emotions, curious incidents connected +with well-known characters. Religion, it is plain, could not gain in +depth and intensity from the treatment of such poets; many of the +thoughts men had about the gods could not find expression in their +lines. But, on the other hand, we have the fact that the Greeks +accepted the Homeric representation of their religion as the standard +one; not till it had existed for centuries were voices raised against +it. And this is not strange. Homer took away nothing from the +religion of any Greek; no local worship was in any way infringed upon +by him; and on the other side he gave to the Greek world, whose +belief consisted formerly in a multitude of disconnected or even +inconsistent legends, a united system of gods, in which there was at +that stage rest for the mind, and for the imagination an +inexhaustible spring of ideal beauty. + +The Homeric Gods.--What, then, is the religion of Homer? The gods are +a set of beings not very unlike men; they present a curious +combination of human frailty with superhuman powers and virtues. To +speak first of the physical side of their nature, the gods are far +stronger than men, their frame is huger, their eye keener, their +voice louder; like the sorcerer of savage times, they can assume +other shapes to gain their ends, they can become invisible, or they +can travel very swiftly through the air. Yet, on the other hand, they +can be wounded when they strive even with men; accidents happen to +them, they require to eat and drink. They eat, it is true, ambrosia, +and drink nectar, which give immortality; and they have in their +veins not human blood but divine ichor. It is the fact of their +immortality that makes them different from men; it has happened that +a man obtained immortality and became thereby a god. The line between +gods and men may be crossed; in former times it was crossed more +frequently. The gods entered into relations with mortals; many of the +heroes are of divine extraction, and the gods are still interested in +the royal houses they thus founded. But such unions do not take place +in the poet's time. The world is growing less divine. + +Homer, however, looks further back than this, and we find in him the +belief, found also in India and in Iceland, that an older and more +savage race of gods once ruled, whom the present dynasty conquered +and dethroned. Of that older set was Kronos, the father of Zeus, and +the Titans, who are now cast down to Tartarus, the nethermost region +of all. The world known to men was apportioned at the beginning of +the present age to the three sons of Kronos, Zeus obtaining the upper +world, including heaven, which is at the top of Mount Olympus in +Thessaly; Poseidon the sea, and Hades the under-world, above +Tartarus, to which men go after death. + +Zeus rules in Olympus. He presides there over those gods who are at +present in power. He summons them to council, he sits at meals with +them. They are a very human set of beings. They are moved by ordinary +human motives; love and revenge, jealousy and anger, rule in their +breasts. They do not act from eternal principles, but as men do, from +sudden impulses or from the desire of temporary advantages for +themselves or for their favourites. They even indulge in loose +amours, and are brought into ridiculous situations. They laugh at +each other; the stronger god hurls the weaker out of Olympus to the +earth. Taking them together, we do not find the Olympians an +impressive set of beings. Taking them, however, one by one, we judge +of them quite differently. The individual gods represent lofty ideals +and are not unworthy of worship. Whatever they were once, powers of +nature, fetishes or men, whatever village legends they have brought +with them from their native place, or whatever traits of savage life +still cleave to them, to the poet they are the embodiments of various +moral excellences. Zeus, father of gods and men, combines in his +character the attributes of righteousness and of kindness; he is the +founder of social order and the defender of suppliants, he possesses +all wisdom. Hera is the matron of fully unfolded beauty and matchless +dignity; Apollo is the faithful son who carries out his father's +counsel; Athene is the warrior-maiden skilled in battle but equipped +with every kind of skill, best counsellor and guide for the mortal +whom she favours; Aphrodite is the goddess of love, in whose girdle +are contained all charms; Ares is the impetuous warrior, Hermes the +trusty messenger, of the heavenly circle; Hephĉstus, the lame and +awkward smith, is the artificer for the gods of all manner of cunning +work in metal. Around and under the Olympians are many other deities; +such as Hebe, the budding girl, and Ganymede, the youth born of human +race but taken up to heaven for his beauty to minister to the gods at +their banquets. Aphrodite is attended by the graces, Apollo by the +Muses, and the world is not stripped by Homer of its local deities, +although the chief deities now dwell aloft; mountains, rivers, caves +and isles of ocean, all have their immortal occupants. + +Worship in Homer.--The gods being of such a nature, what relations +does man keep up with them, and how do they affect his life? Worship +follows the simple practice of the early world. It is not priestly. +There are priests, and they offer sacrifices regularly at the shrines +of which they have charge, but the king can sacrifice, or the head of +the house; and while one or two temples are mentioned in the _Iliad_, +sacrifice may be offered anywhere. Temples first appear in Greece +merely as shelters for images, but in the _Iliad_ the god is +generally worshipped not by means of an image but as himself directly +present; the need of temples has not yet arisen. In the _Odyssey_ +temples of the gods are spoken of as buildings no town could be +without, but this is less primitive. Sacrifice is a feast in which +the god's portion of the viands is first offered to him, and the +worshippers then eat and drink to their hearts' content. There is a +detailed description of the proceedings in _Iliad_ i. 456 _sqq._ Here +after the feast there is music; "All day long worshipped they the god +with music, singing the beautiful pĉan to the Fardarter (Apollo); and +his heart was glad to hear." "The gods appear manifest amongst us," +we read in the seventh book of the _Odyssey_, "whensoever we offer +glorious hecatombs, and they feast by our side, sitting at the same +board." There is nothing of the nature of an expiation about such a +sacrifice; it is simply the renewal of the bond between the god and +those who look for his aid, when a new enterprise is about to be +undertaken or a solemn engagement is entered on. Prayers are very +simple. Thus prays the wounded Diomede to Athene (_Iliad_ v. 115): +"Hear me, daughter of ĉgis-bearing Zeus, unwearied maiden! If ever in +kindly mood thou stoodest by my father in the heat of battle, even so +be thou kind to me, Athene! Grant me to slay this man, and bring +within my spear-cast him that took advantage to shoot me, and +boasteth over me!" + +As there are no bad gods, good and evil are considered to be sent by +the same beings. Thus there is a great deal of uncertainty in men's +relations to the gods. "All men need the gods," we read; the Homeric +hero regards the companionship of a god as proper and necessary for +his enterprises. But some trouble must be taken in order to secure +their favour. They must not be neglected; their signs must be +attended to; above all, a man must be reverent and must studiously +practise moderation in his conduct and in his ways of thinking; else +the gods may easily be offended or made jealous, and withdraw their +countenance. And if they are to a certain extent capricious, there is +another consideration which impairs confidence in them. They are not +all-powerful. There is a point beyond which they cannot give a man +any help. Each man has a fate or destiny, which the gods did not fix +and with which they cannot interfere. When his hour comes, they must +leave him to his doom; indeed they may even deceive him, and lead him +into folly so that his fate shall overtake him. The punishment of +crime, both in this world and afterwards, is committed to a special +set of beings, the Erinnyes. The gods who are most worshipped do not +exercise that function; they are not immovably identified with the +moral order of the world, but frequently deviate from it themselves. +In the _Odyssey_, it is true, we meet with a deeper feeling. Here +Zeus is a kind of providence, in whom a man may trust when he does +right, and to all whose dispensations it behoves him humbly to +submit. A root of monotheism is present here, as in all the Aryan +religions from the first, and in Greece it is destined to have a +stately growth. The Homeric pantheon, however, as a whole, shows +religion at a stage in which it is rather an external ornament to +life than an inner inspiration. Perhaps there was never a set of real +men who thought of the gods and addressed them according to the +fashion of Homer. If such a religion ever actually existed, it was +not a strong one. These gods, with their caprices and infirmities and +their limited power, could never exercise any strong moral influence +or rouse any passion in their worshippers. They are fair-weather +gods; the religion is one of children, in whom conscience is not yet +awake and the deeper spiritual needs have not yet appeared. What the +mind of the Greek has done up to this stage is to discover that +nature is not above him; the powers of nature are human to him; they +are divine not because they are essentially different from himself, +but because they are matchless ideals of his own qualities. It is a +religion of free men. But the Greek has not yet discovered how +different he himself is from all that is around him; that element of +himself which is above nature will when he discovers it make such a +religion as the Homeric for ever impossible to him. + +Omens.--As the godhead is never far away from the Homeric Greek, and +is an active being who takes an interest in human affairs, signs of +his presence are not infrequent. The air is the scene of them; in the +flight of birds, in sudden noises, the gods send messages; lightning +is a sign from Zeus of approaching rain or hail, it may be of +approaching war. There are rules for the interpretation of signs, +which, however, are in many cases of doubtful significance. Dreams +also are a favourite channel for divine communications, but they also +may be interpreted wrongly. There are persons who have a special gift +for knowing the divine will; the seer ([Greek: mantis]) is +enlightened by the deity not by an outward sign but inwardly; he +hears the god's voice, and can declare the divine will directly. This +gift may reside in a certain family, and may be attached to a certain +spot, where a regular oracle is open for consultation. At Dodona we +read that the Selloi or Helloi, a band or family of priests of +ascetic habits, interpret the rustling of the sacred oak, and +Agamemnon consults the Pythia, the Delphic priestess, before the +Trojan war. + +The State after Death.--With regard to the state after death, belief +is not uniform in Homer. There are elaborate funeral rites which +point to the assumption that the spirit of the hero is living +somewhere and needs various things. But the life of the departed was +not mapped out in Greece as it was in Egypt. The ritual of Mycenĉ had +little influence, for the funeral celebrations in Homer are very +similar to those of other early Aryan peoples, and undoubtedly were +not imported. What then is thought of the present existence of the +hero? He has ceased to exist. The body is the man, the spirit when it +has left the body has but a shadow-life, without any strength or +hope; at the most it may revive a little at the taste of blood. But +while the worship of the departed is seen from Homer to be decaying +among the Greeks, imagination is seen to be occupied in more than one +direction with the regions where they are, and to be asserting for +them a more real and active existence than the old beliefs allowed. +The subterranean kingdom of Hades (the "Invisible") is acquiring +clearer shape. The punishments are described which certain great +transgressors, such as Tantalus and Ixion, are there undergoing; and +other details are also known. Of a different spirit is the conception +of the Elysian plains in the far west, whither the hero is taken by +the gods when he dies, and where there is no snow nor storm nor rain. + +Homer was not the only poet who furnished the Greeks with a system of +their gods; nor was his system everywhere accepted without demur. +Hesiod, writing in the latter half of the eighth century B.C., gives +a "theogony" or birth of the gods, which is also a genesis or origin +of the world, for to the Greek mind the gods and the world came into +existence together. He complains of those who on this subject have +taught fictions which resemble truths, referring perhaps to Homer. +His own system of the world is not a light and airy fabric but a +laborious work, due no doubt to professional or priestly industry, in +which the attempt is made to treat all the divine figures or +half-figured spirits the Greeks knew, genealogically, and to give a +complete enumeration of them. Myths are given, some of them of a +horrible character, which do not occur in Homer. The battle of the +gods with the Titans occupies a large part of the poem, and it +concludes with a collection of stories showing the descent of heroes +from alliances between gods and mortals. This work, as we saw, was +considered, along with the Homeric poems, as a standard authority on +the subject of the gods, and was appealed to even in the early +Christian centuries as showing what the Greeks believed. + +The Poets and the Working Religion.--The work of these poets proves +that the Greeks in their days were anxious to arrive at clear and +harmonious conceptions about the gods. The movement on which Homer +and Hesiod set their seal, of fixing the characters and attributes of +the various deities, must have been long going on; and it led, as we +see, to different results in different places. That labour when +accomplished endowed Greece with a new religion. The local rite still +went on, which acknowledged no central authority and presented the +spectacle of an infinite diversity. Each city carried on in grave and +solemn fashion the traditional worship of its own gods, on whose +favour its prosperity depended. The other gods of the Pantheon the +city did not need to worship; and moreover local worship was +addressed to a large extent to the Chthonian or earth-gods, as +Demeter and Dionysus, of whom the epic poems know but little. The +poets were of little assistance therefore to the working religion; +but on the other hand the happy and beautiful deities of Homer found +entrance wherever poetry was loved. This was a religion for all +Greece; these gods were national; though some of them belonged +originally to Ĉolia, they had become national by being enshrined in +poetry which the whole nation regarded as its own. The Homeric +conception of deity acted therefore on the whole Greek mind; all gods +rose in rank by the example, a subject was set before the mind of the +people, which the closely succeeding development of religious art +shows to have been studied in the noblest way. + +Rise of Religious Art.--The seventh century B.C. was a period of +rapid development and of great prosperity in Greece. It was the age +of colonisation; manufacture and trade were active, and though the +Phenicians were not now in the Egean, Greeks sailed to the East and +brought home with them many ideas. It was a time like the sixteenth +century in Europe, when the world of geography was quickly opening +out, and views and sentiments were also widening. Worship could not +fail to share in the upward movement of such a period, and it is here +that we find the appearance of the ideas in religious art which have +made Greece the envy of the world. Architecture received a new +impulse from Egypt and Babylon; dwellings were built, not for human +rulers, as in the Mycenĉan period, but for the gods. In country +districts or small towns the wooden shed might still suffice to +shelter the rude image, but in large towns, where the higher +conception of the gods and the artistic impulse were both present in +many minds, temples of more durable material were built. This came to +be a universal practice; among the first tasks of a new colony was +always that of erecting on a commanding site in the rising town, +splendid temples to the gods of the mother city. The Greek temple is +not a place to accommodate a large body of worshippers, but a +dwelling for the god. It is of oblong shape, and is placed on a +raised platform which is ascended by steps. It is generally +surrounded by pillars, is roofed, and has a low gable at each end. +The most important chamber in it is that containing the image of the +god. From his dim chamber the god looks out to the east through the +doorway facing him, which opens on the pillared portico in front. +Here the worshipper stands when praying, his face turned westward to +the god. As it was essential that the smoke of the sacrifice should +ascend freely to heaven, the god's real dwelling, the altar stood +outside. In some cases the roof was partly open, and the altar could +stand under the sky in the _cella_ of the god. + +In the building and adornment of the temples Greek art found its +highest exercise. The architecture of those specimens which can still +be seen or described is of a dignity and beauty never before +attained; the beings must have been lofty and reverend indeed for +whom such dwellings were formed. The gable spaces and the flat +surfaces between the tops of the pillars and the roof gave +opportunity for sculpture; and the archĉologist traces on these +metopes (spaces between the beam-ends under the roof) and friezes, +the progress of Greek sculpture from a rude stage to that in which +the sculptor has gained complete mastery over his material, and can +give an imposing representation of a myth, or place on the marble a +complete religious procession of brave men and fair women. The images +of the gods to be placed in the temples called forth the artist's +highest skill; even when the rude old god was retained, a fine work +of art could also find place. It is the ideal gods of poetry that are +coming to be worshipped; the conception of the poet is expressed in +marble. Sculpture, however, came to its highest point in Greece +somewhat later than architecture. And offerings were made to the +temples of just such rare and costly things as men loved then and +love still to store up in their houses,--bowls and cups wrought +curiously in precious metals, statues and tapestries and all kinds of +treasure. + +Festivals and Games.--The temple for which so much was done, formed +the centre of the city where it stood. In it the town deposited its +treasure and its documents; there oaths and agreements were ratified. +There also at certain times, such as the annual festival of the god +or the anniversary of some happy event in the history of the +town,--and as time went on such occasions tended to multiply,--the +town kept holiday. Women escaped from their monotonous confinement +and joined the procession to the holy place, perhaps carrying a new +dress for the deity. A sacrifice was offered, the god received his +share of the victim or victims, and the worshippers feasted on what +remained. But before this part of the proceedings arrived there was a +pause, which was filled up with various exercises all connected with +the act of worship, but tending also in a high degree to the delight +of those taking part in it. Dancing formed a part of every rite, +accompanied of course with music, and consisting not of a careless +exercise of the limbs, but of a measured and carefully trained set of +movements expressive of the emotions connected with the occasion. +This part of the religious act is obviously capable of great +expansion. We find the art of poetry also making its contributions to +religious art; poems are recited bearing on the history of the god. +The sacrifice is followed by contests of various kinds; the singers +compete for a prize, and athletic sports also take place, the +competitors for which have long been in training for them. The +winners are crowned with a wreath or branch of the plant sacred to +the god. The games of Greece, which thus arose out of acts of +worship, and some of which became so famous and attracted competitors +from every Greek-speaking land, are a notable sign of the spirit of +Greek piety. There is no asceticism in Greek religion; the god is +represented as a beautiful human person, and his worshippers appear +before him naked, in the fulness of their youthful beauty and of +their well-trained vigour, and offer him their strength and skill in +highest exercise;--the whole city, or a crowd much larger than the +city, rejoicing in the spectacle. + +Thus does Greek religion enlist in its service all the arts, and +increase as they increase. At this period irrational manifestations +of piety tend to disappear, human sacrifice and the worship of +animals are heard of afterwards only in remote quarters. The religion +which now prevails is a bright and happy self-identification with a +being conceived as a type of human beauty and excellence, by being as +far as possible beautiful oneself, creating beautiful objects, +composing beautiful verse, training the body to its highest pitch of +strength and agility, and displaying its powers in manly contests. +This conception of religion, for a short time realised in Greece, +still haunts the mind as a vision which once seen can never be +forgotten. No one whose eyes have opened to that vision can regard +any religious acts in which the effort after harmony and beauty forms +no part, as other than degraded and unworthy. + +Zeus and Apollo.--It is impossible here to enter specially on the +worship of the individual gods. Two of the gods, however, the same +who even in Homer stand above the level of the rest, still maintain +that superiority. Zeus draws to himself more and more all the +attributes of pure deity; his name comes more and more to stand +simply for "God," as if there were no other. He is the father of gods +and men; goodness and love are natural to him. He is the supreme +Ruler and Disposer, whose word is fate and whose ways pious thought +feels called to justify; but he is also the Saviour, to whom every +one may appeal. He is the source of all wisdom; all revelations come +from him. The other god who occupies a marked position is Apollo, the +god of light and the prophet of his father Zeus. His oracle at Delphi +was the most important in Greece; it was held to be the centre of the +earth, and was a meeting-place for Greeks from every quarter. His +priests exercised through the oracle a great influence on Greek life, +and as their god required strict purity and truthfulness and was the +inspirer of every kind of art and of none but noble purposes, the +worship of Apollo is one of the highest forms of Greek religion. + +Change of the Greek Spirit in the Sixth Century B.C.--But the time +was at hand when the worship of the gods of the poets was to prove, +in spite of all that art had done for it, inadequate to meet the +spiritual needs of Greece. Civilisation advances in the sixth century +B.C. with immense rapidity; the Greeks, no longer prompted by any +foreign influence, quickly learn to exercise their own powers, and to +apply them in new directions. Life grows richer and deeper, new modes +of sentiment appear, the nation grows more conscious of its unity, +and at the same time the individual learns to value himself more +highly and to assert himself more strongly. On one side thought +awakes to an independent career and traditional beliefs are subjected +to criticism; on the other spiritual needs are felt which the old +worship does not satisfy, and for which religion has to find new +outlets. + +It is far beyond our scope to deal with the religious movements of a +people thus passing into the self-conscious stage, and unfolding with +unparalleled freshness and power all the various activities of the +human mind. We can only point out a few of the lines of development +which become prominent at this period. And firstly we notice the rise +of _rationalism_, that is of the impulse to criticise belief and to +ask for that element in it which approves itself to the reflecting +mind. Reason asserts its right to judge of tradition; the doubter +suggests emendations in the legend; the piously inclined turn their +attention to those parts only which are capable of lofty treatment. +This tendency is fatal to polytheism. As reason knows not gods but +only God, the gods can only hold their place on condition that they +are what God must be, and so they all tend to become alike in their +character; attention is turned most of all to Zeus, the highest god, +and when others are worshipped, it is as his prophets or delegates. +The poets of the fifth century reflect the conviction which all the +higher minds of their country were now coming to hold, that the world +is under the rule of one god. From this they are led to take up the +questions of theodicy or of the principles of the divine government. +Ĉschylus and Sophocles, writing perhaps about the same time as the +author of the Book of Job, are full of problems of this nature. Why +is Prometheus, though the noblest benefactor of the human race, +doomed to undergo such sufferings? Why does a curse cleave to a +certain house, evil producing evil from generation to generation? +What is the relation between the divine laws which are written in the +hearts of all men, and human laws which sometimes contradict these +older ones? Thus to the educated Greeks of the fifth century the old +religion had in its essence passed away. With unexampled rapidity had +the journey here been traced which India made more slowly, which +Egypt made at a very early period, but was not able to maintain, and +which every people starting from polytheism must make if their +religion is to prosper. + +New Religious Feeling; the Mysteries.--But the conscience as well as +the mind of Greece awakes at this period, and Greek religion becomes +inspired with a deeper feeling. The simple objectivity of the Homeric +spirit is gone in which man could frankly worship beings like himself +and not very far above himself. God at this time is growing greater +and more awful, and man, less certain of himself, is beginning to +feel a new sense of mystery and of shortcoming. Whether it was due to +the anxiety and depression felt in Greece during the century before +the Persian wars, or to foreign influences, or mainly to the natural +growth of the Greek mind itself, religious phenomena of a new kind +now appear. Sacrifices are heard of, which are not merely social +reunions with the deity, but are intended to expiate some guilt or to +remove some pollution. The sense of sin has arisen, which the Homeric +world knows not, and gives a new colour to man's converse with the +deity. Another new feature is the rise into prominence of cults in +which man feels himself taken possession of and inspired by his god. +Some of these belonged to Asia Minor, the great centre of worships +accompanied with ecstasy and frenzy, but some were of native growth. +In these the common man found a satisfaction which the stately +ceremonial of the temples did not afford. The official religion had +grown cold and distant; but in the worship of Demeter or Dionysus, as +afterwards of the Phrygian Cybele, the "Great Mother" whom the Romans +imported, the least educated could feel the joy of enthusiasm and of +self-forgetting under the influence of the god, and could be closely +identified with the object of worship by performing acts in which the +experience of the god was symbolically repeated. + +The rapid rise of the worships of Demeter and Dionysus thus furnishes +an instance of the law that a religion of intellect and of art is apt +to be confronted, even when it appears to have overcome all +obstacles, by a religion of feeling, in which all the fair progress +that was made appears to be entirely set at naught. When the worship +of Zeus, Apollo, and Athene was coming to its highest splendour, +these cults began to spread rapidly. They were originally peasant +rites of unknown antiquity in Attica and Boeotia, in which, after the +manner of rustic festivals, the coming of spring or the dying of the +year were celebrated amid jest and song, and with certain prescribed +actions in which the fortune of the god, corresponding to the season, +was dramatically set forth. In spring Demeter, the mother goddess, +received her daughter Persephone, who had left her for the winter; or +in autumn Dionysus, the god of vegetation, was defeated by his +enemies and driven away or torn in pieces. These worships, when +developed and forming a prominent part of Greek religion, were called +"mysteries," not because the knowledge of them was confined to few, +but because some parts of them were transacted in deep silence, and +were the objects of such awe and reverence that they were not spoken +of. No one, moreover, could assist at these rites without being +solemnly initiated after a period of probation and purification. Of +the Eleusinian mysteries at least, which were the most widely +diffused and which formed part of the state religion of Athens, +ancient writers agree in their report that the course of training +before admission was powerfully elevating and solemnising, so that +the period of initiation was the highest point of the religious life. +It was a condition that the candidate should be pure in heart and not +conscious of any crime. There was apparently no doctrinal +instruction; everything was to be inferred from the spectacle. The +mind was kept in a state of intense and devout expectation, knowledge +and insight growing, it was held, as the time of admission came near. +Before the final act there came a period of fasting, then a march +from Athens to Eleusis along the sacred way, which was studded with +shrines; then a search for the lost goddess in the dark of a moonless +night on the plains of Eleusis, and then at last admission to the +brightly-lighted building. Here all the arts were enlisted to furnish +a spectacle of unparalleled magnificence, during which the candidate +was allowed to touch and kiss certain sacred objects of a simple +nature, and repeated a solemn formula at his admission. + +By partaking in these rites a man was believed to part with his +former sins, to form a special union with the deity, in whose nature +he was made to partake, and to be started on a career in which he +could not fail to grow morally better. It is easy to see the immense +superiority of this worship to the official rites of the temples. The +great point is that a new principle of religious association is here +introduced. The tie which binds the worshipper to his god and to his +fellow-worshippers is no longer that of blood or of common political +interests, but the higher one of a common spiritual experience. All +Greeks were eligible for initiation at Eleusis. A man was not born +into this circle, but entered it of his own free will and by means of +voluntary effort and self-denial. A community of a higher order thus +makes its appearance in Greek history, in which the limits of race +and of locality are overstepped, and each is connected with the rest, +because all have turned of their own voluntary motion to the same +ideal centre. The analogies between the community formed on the +mysteries and the Christian Church are too obvious to need to be +insisted on. The adversaries of Christianity asserted that in the +mysteries all the truths and the whole morality of that religion were +to be found. + +Religion and Philosophy.--But while the mysteries met to some extent +the craving for a closer union with deity, another need which had +long been growing in the Greek mind was to be satisfied in a very +different manner. The Greek religion we have described had very +little to offer in the way of doctrine. There are no sacred books in +it, there is no theology, there is no religious instruction. When the +mind of Greece awoke to intellectual life, and the demand was made +for an explanation of the world, and for a view of the origin of +things which should explain man to himself, the Greek religion was +manifestly little fitted to meet such a demand. But man has +everywhere looked to religion to do him this service, and a religion +which is incapable of rendering it, or which like Buddhism explicitly +refuses to take up the task, stands in a perilous position. If the +shrine has no doctrine enabling man to understand the origin and the +connection of things, he will seek such a doctrine elsewhere, and +religion will have no control over it. Another alternative is that of +Buddhism where in default of such a doctrine man is condemned to +subside into intellectual apathy. + +This, however, could never be the case with the Greeks, and their +fate in this respect proved different from that of any other people. +After their intellectual awakening took place, and when they had +begun to seek in every direction for a first principle of all things, +never doubting that the world was a system of reason, but trying one +key after another to unlock its secret, we find that religion itself +became aware of the need of the times, and that the attempt was made, +late in the day but with deep earnestness and great ability, to +construct out of the myths a reasoned account of the origin of +things. This was the aim of the Orphic poets. Orpheus, the mythical +singer of Thrace, who charmed men and beasts with his songs on earth, +had descended into Hades to fetch back his wife, who had been taken +from him, and had beheld the secrets of the under-world. The school +which was named after him dealt with the deepest problems, and sought +to explain both the nature of the gods and the destiny of the human +soul. It insisted strongly on the power and sole headship of Zeus, in +whom Greek religion had possessed from Homer downwards a figure +fitted for a monotheistic position. "Zeus is the head, Zeus the +middle, from Zeus are all things made. He is male and female, he is +the foundation of the earth and of the starry heaven, the breath in +all, the strength of fire, the root of the sea, sun, and moon. Zeus +is the king, the progenitor of all things." The god Dionysus also is +placed by the Orphic writers at the head of the whole process of +creation. The myth of his dismemberment and of the scattering of his +ashes over the whole world is made to symbolise the great thought of +the connection of all things with the same source of life. +Descriptions were also given, answering to the growing sense of +personal responsibility, of the abodes of Hades and of the fate of +souls there, and of the metempsychoses through which the soul must +pass. This teaching had an influence which it is difficult to +measure; it acted on the tragedians in their magnificent attempts to +reform the beliefs of their country by making them moral; it is to be +traced in Plato, it also found expression in the mysteries. In its +own development it gave rise to a new phenomenon in Greek religion, +that of itinerant preachers who went about appealing to individuals +to take thought for the salvation of their souls, and also, strange +to say, offering private charms and spells to put them on the right +way of salvation. + +But Greek religion was not thus to be reformed. It was not from the +priests that the growth of the higher faith of Greece was to proceed, +but from the philosophers. While much of the teaching of the +philosophers was apparently negative and destructive of faith,--for +Greece had her religious sceptics who turned the shafts of ridicule +on existing beliefs, her Agnostics who considered that nothing +certain could be affirmed about the gods, and even her secularists +who held religion to be a mere invention of priests and rulers for +their own purposes,--the course of Greek philosophy was, on the +whole, constructive, even in matters of faith, and laboured to +provide religion with a stable foundation in thought. In this great +movement of the human mind the thinkers of Greece--Socrates, Plato, +Aristotle, to name no more--were working at the same problem which +occupied the prophets of Israel, and building up the rule of one God, +a Being supremely wise and good, source of all beauty, and the worker +of all that is wrought in the universe, in place of the many fickle +and weak deities who formerly bore sway. In many ways the schools of +Greece were the forerunners of Christianity. As the Jews, carried far +from their temple, form a new principle of religious association and +learn to meet for the service of God, without any sacrifice, in pious +mental exercises, so the Greeks, for whom their temples could do so +little, form little communities of earnest seekers after truth under +some teacher. The philosopher's discourse is held by students of the +early Christianity of the West to be the model on which the Christian +sermon was formed. Some of the schools even developed a true pastoral +activity, exercising an oversight of their members, and seeking to +mould their moral life and habits according to the dictates of true +wisdom. + +Thus there arose on Greek soil, after the temples had grown cold, +what may truly be called a second Greek religion. It took possession +of the Roman world, and was, when Christianity appeared, the +prevailing form of religion among the more educated. Both in its +outward forms of association, in its doctrine of God, which went +through later developments very similar to those of Judaism, and in +its concentration of thought on ethical problems and on the moral +life of the individual, it powerfully prepared for Christianity. It +was not a religion, for it had neither any historical root nor any +belief and practice definite enough for the guidance of the common +people. Yet Christianity could not have conquered the world without +it. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, vol. ii., contains the first +attempt to deal with Greek religion in the manner now required. + +The Histories of Greece of Grote, Curtius, Abbott, and Holm. + +Roscher, _Lexikon der griechischen, a Rômischen Mythologie_. + +Dyer, _The Gods of Greece_. + +Gardner and Jevons, _Manual of Greek Antiquities_, 1895. + +L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, 1896-1907. + +Nägelsbach, _die Homerische Theologie_. + +Williamowitz, _Homerische Untersuchungen_. + +G. Anrich, _das Antike Mysterienwesen_. + +Rohde, _Psyche_, 1891. + +L. Campbell's Gifford Lectures on _Religion in Greek Literature_, +1898. + +E. Caird, _The Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers_, +1904. + +Holwerda, in De la Saussaye, Third Edition. + +Ramsay on "Religion of Greece and Asia Minor" in Hastings' _Bible +Dictionary_. + +S. Reinach, in _Oxford Proceedings_, vol. ii. p. 117, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII +THE RELIGION OF ROME + + +The Romans themselves at a certain period in their history identified +their own gods with those of Greece, and borrowed largely both from +Greek ritual and Greek mythology, so that they came to the conclusion +that the Roman and the Greek religions were essentially the same. To +the early Christian writers the religions of Greece and Rome form one +system; and the world has retained the impression that there was one +old pagan religion which assumed certain local differences in the two +countries, but was substantially the same in both. + +Roman Religion was different from Greek.--Now the fact is that while +Greek religion conquered Rome, Italy had an older religion of its +own, which was not annihilated by the more brilliant newcomer, but +remained beside it and never entered into entire fusion with it. The +Romans were not a thinking so much as an organising race; in politics +they were far ahead of the rest of the world, but in thought and +imagination they were children; and so it happened that they borrowed +ideas and usages from neighbours on this side and on that, and +organised the whole into a system they could use, the organism being +their own, but only little of the contents. + +We must therefore inquire, in the first place, as to the religion the +Romans had before they came under the influence of Greek ideas. Their +earliest religion is to be traced in the calendar of their sacred +year, in the lists of gods preserved for us in the writings of the +fathers, and in numberless usages and institutions descended from +early times. + +The sacred year of early Rome is that of an agricultural community. +The festivals have to do with sowing and reaping and storing corn, +with vintage, with flocks and herds, with wolves, with spirits of the +woods, with boundaries, with fountains, with changes of the sun and +of the moon. There are festivals of domestic life, of the household +fire, and of the spirits of the storeroom, of the spirits of the +departed, and of the household ghosts. There are also festivals +connected with warlike matters, some connected with the river and the +harbour at its mouth, and some having to do with the arts of a simple +population. The calendar, taken by itself, would create the +impression that the community using it began with agriculture and +added to it afterwards various other activities; there is nothing in +it to contradict the supposition that Roman religion had its +beginnings in the fields and in the woods. + +The earliest gods of Rome also agree with this. They are, however, a +very peculiar set of gods. Leaving the great gods in the meantime, we +notice two of the agricultural deities; there is a Saturnus, god of +sowing, and a Terminus, god of boundaries. These are what are called +functional deities, such as we met with in Greece, see chapter xvi.; +they take their name from the act or province over which they +preside. Saturnus means one who has to do with sowing; Terminus is a +boundary pure and simple. The god then, in these examples, is not a +great being who has come to have these functions placed under him as +well as others. He and the particular function belong together; he +owes all his deity to it. Now these are only examples; the same is +found to be the case with all or nearly all the distinctively Roman +gods; they are, broadly speaking, all functional beings. Each bears +the name of an object or a process; and on the other hand there is no +object and no act which has not its god. It is astounding to observe +how far the principle of the division of labour is carried among +these beings. Silvanus is the god of the wood, Lympha of the stream, +each wood and each stream having its own Silvanus or Lympha. Seia has +to do with the corn before it sprouts, Segetia with corn when shot +up, Tutilina with corn stored in the granary, Nodotus has for his +care the knots in the straw. There is a god Door, a goddess Hinge, a +god Threshold. Each act in opening infancy has its god or goddess. +The child has Cunina when lying in the cradle, Statina when he +stands, Edula when he eats, Locutius when he begins to speak, Adeona +when he makes for his mother, Abeona when he leaves her; forty-three +such gods of childhood have been counted. Pilumnus, god of the +pestle, and Diverra, goddess of the broom, may close our small sample +of the limitless crowd. + +It is usually said about these multitudinous petty deities that the +Roman was very religious, and saw in every act and everything for +which he had a name, something mysterious and supernatural. The +Greek, it is said, sees things on his own level, and adds to them a +god who is human; it is by the human spirit that he interprets them. +The Roman, on the contrary, sees things as mysteries and fills them +with gods who are not human. That is true; but the question to be +asked about these Roman gods is, to what stage of religious +development do they belong: do they prove a primitive or an advanced +stage of religious thought? It has been observed that these names of +gods are all epithets, or adjectives; and it has been supposed that +there was originally a noun belonging to them, that they were all +epithets of one great deity, or, as some are masculine and some +feminine, of a great male and a great female deity. The noun fell out +of use, it is supposed, but was still present to the mind of the +Roman, and thus his regiments of divine names are not really +designations of different persons, but titles of the same person, +supposed to be present alike in all these numberless manifestations. +But it is not easy to conceive how, if primitive Italy had reached +the conception of the unity of deity, that deity became so remarkably +subdivided, nor how his own proper name and character were lost. It +is much more natural to suppose that the petty gods of Rome were all +the deities the early Latins had, and were worshipped for their own +sake. They represent the stage of thought called Animism (see chapter +iii.) when every part of nature is thought to have its spirit, and +the number of invisible beings is liable to be multiplied +indefinitely. While other Aryan races had passed beyond this stage +when we first know them, and advanced to the belief in great gods +ruling great provinces of nature, the Latins, whose mind was +organising rather than productive, made this advance more slowly, and +instead of making it organised the spiritual world of animism with a +thoroughness nowhere else equalled.[1] They had, therefore, no gods +properly so called, but only a host of spirits. Even the beings they +possessed, who afterwards became great gods, were at first no more +than functional spirits. Janus, afterwards one of the chief deities +of Rome, is originally the "spirit of opening"; an abstraction +capable of great multiplication; a Janus could be invoked for each +act of that kind. Vesta is the spirit of the hearth; each household +had its Vesta, both in early and in later times. Juno is not one but +many: as each man had his genius, a spiritual self accompanying or +guarding him, so each woman had--not her genius, but her Juno. There +were many Vestas, many Junos; and it is only later that the great +goddess arises, who may be looked to from every quarter. Others of +the great gods of later Rome have a similar early history. Mars was +at first the spirit which made the corn grow; Diana was a +tree-spirit, Jovis or Diovis himself, though his name connects him +with the Greek Zeus and the Sanscrit Dyaus, and though he is +afterwards, like these, the god of the sky, was originally in Latin a +spirit of wine, and was worshipped, the Jovis of each village or each +farm, at the wine-feast in April when the first cask was broached. +Thus the gods of the Latins are not beings who have an independent +existence and features of their own; they are limited each to the +particular object or process from which he derives his character, and +have no realm beyond it. And the same is true of the family and +house-gods, whose worship formed perhaps the principal part of the +working religion of the Roman. The Lares represent the departed +ancestors of the family; they dwell near the spot in the house where +they were buried, and still preside over the household as they did in +life. They are worshipped daily with prayers and offerings of food +and drink; the family adore in them not so much the dead individuals, +though their masks hang on the wall, as the abstraction of its own +family continuity. The Penates or spirits of the store-chamber are +worshipped along with the Lares, they represent the continuity of the +family fortune. A more general name for the departed is the Manes, +the kind ones; they are thought of as living below the earth; it is +not individuals who are worshipped at their festivals, but the dead +in the abstract, the former upholders of the family or of the people. + +[Footnote 1: See on this Mr. Jevons's preface to Plutarch's _Romane +Questions_ (Nutt, 1892); which deserves to be published in a more +accessible form.] + +The character of Roman worship is determined by the nature of its +objects. As each of the gods has his basis in a material object or +action, there can be no need of any images of them; where the object +or the act is, there is the god, his character is expressed in it and +not to be expressed otherwise. Nor could such gods require any +temples. And what need of priests for them, when every one who knew +their names (a great deal depended on that) could place himself in +contact with them as soon as he saw the object or took in hand the +action behind which they stood? Nor can many stories be told about +gods like these,--the Romans have no mythology. The beings they +worship are not persons but abstractions. They have just enough +character to be male or female, but they cannot move about or act +independently of their natural basis; they cannot marry, nor breed +scandal, nor make war. Nor can there be any motive for identifying +with such beings a great man who has died; where there are no true +gods, there cannot be any demi-gods or heroes. Only a very limited +power can possibly be put forth by such beings; all they can do is to +give or to withhold prosperity, each in the narrow section of affairs +he has to do with. + +The aim of worship where such a set of beings is concerned, is to get +hold of the spirit or god connected with the act one has in view, and +so to deal with him as to avert his disfavour, which the Roman always +apprehended, and gain his concurrence. The house-gods are beings +possessing a stated cult, but outside the house-cult the worshipper +has to face the question at each emergency which god he ought to +address. He might choose the wrong one, which would make his act of +worship vain. If he names the god correctly he will have a hold on +him; in a case of uncertainty, therefore, he names a number of gods, +in the hope that one of them will be the right one; or he invokes +them all. "Whether thou be god or goddess" he will further say, if he +is in doubt on that point, "or by whatever name thou desirest to be +called." Each god has his proper style and title, and it is vain to +approach him without these; lists of the various gods and of their +correct styles were therefore drawn up in very early times to serve +as guides to the subject. The Latin word "indigito," to point out, +from "digitus," a finger, is the term used of addressing a god; the +lists of deities with their proper appellations were called +"indigitamenta"; and the gods named in them "Dii indigetes." The act +of worship is grave and formal; it has to be done with precision and +in strict accordance with the rules; silence is commanded; the +sacrificer repeats the prayer proper for the occasion after some one +who knows it by rote; the worshippers veil their heads. In this the +Roman ritual is markedly different from the Greek. Mommsen says the +Greek prayed bareheaded, because his prayer was contemplation, +looking at and to the gods; and the Roman with head covered, because +his prayer was an exercise of thought; and in this he sees a +characteristic indication of the difference between the two +religions. A more modern interpretation of the Roman practice is that +it arose from the fear that the worshipper might see the god whom he +has just summoned by name, which would be dangerous. If any mistake +is made in worship, the act is vain and has to be done over again. + +The Great Gods.--The foregoing is the logic of the system on which +the Roman religion, as distinguished from the foreign elements +afterwards added to it, was based; the religion, however, does not +come into view historically till it has begun to rise above such a +worship of abstractions or of petty spirits, towards a worship of +gods. It was apparently by the growth of larger social organisms that +the Latin tribes advanced to the worship of greater gods. While the +family religions continued to the end, the tribe had, as in the case +of other early peoples, a larger religion than the family, and a +union of tribes produced a religion on a still greater scale. The +history of early Rome consists of a succession of such fusions of +tribes into a larger political whole. When history opens, "Rome is a +fully-formed and united city"; but Rome is made up of several tribes, +which maintain many separate institutions. The religion of after +times bears witness to these successive unions. "Deus Fidius," the +god of good faith, is the sacred impersonation of an alliance. Mars +and Quirinus are precisely similar to each other, and each has a +flamen, or blower of the sacrificial flame, and a staff of twelve +salii or dancers. Mars is the Roman, Quirinus the Sabine deity; and +we see that the two tribes had, before they were united, very similar +worships, which were both kept up after the union. The feriae +Latinae, or Latin festival, celebrated on Mons Albanus, is common to +the Latin tribes and commemorates their union. Jovis rises into +importance with the growth of city life; he comes to be called father +Jovis, Jupiter; there are many Jupiters, but the Jupiter of the city +of Rome is the greatest and best of all; he bears the title of +Optimus Maximus. He rises above Mars, in earlier times the first +Roman god, after whom the first month of the year was called, before +the month of Janus and the month of Februus, the purifier, were added +to it. Janus, the great state-god of opening, was the only one of +whom there was a representation; Mars was represented symbolically by +a spear, but Janus was figured as a man with two faces. Vesta, the +hearth-goddess of the state, was of course a great deity with a very +important worship. + +Here we must mention a side of Roman religion which no doubt has its +roots far back in prehistoric darkness, but which could scarcely be +organised as we find it till the greater gods had risen to some +degree of power. It was believed that the gods were constantly making +signs to men, especially in occurrences which take place in the air, +such as thunder and lightning, and the flight of birds, but also in +many other ways. Some of the signs were simple, so that any one could +tell if they were lucky or the reverse, but some were not to be +interpreted except by men possessing a special knowledge of the +subject. And such men might be asked by an individual or by the state +when about to enter on any undertaking, to seek a sign from heaven +concerning that business. This became with the Romans a great and +important act, and those who had it in their hands exercised great +power. + +Sacred Persons.--The priest in the earliest times was, in the +domestic religion, the paterfamilias, in that of the tribe, which was +but an extended household, the head of the leading family, and in the +city, which was constituted after the same model, the king. Religion +was the principal part of the service of the state; the king as such +had to offer sacrifice, to cause the gods to be consulted, to +prosecute and judge and punish those who had violated the laws and +came under the anger of the gods. But as the state grew larger, +various offices were set up to relieve the king of part of these +duties; when new worships were added to the old ones, the care of +them was in some cases committed to a special person or college; and +these priesthoods and sacred guilds of early Rome maintained their +place in the constitution for many centuries, and carried on this +part of the public service long after the words they spoke and the +acts they did had become meaningless. Beginning with the sacred +persons attached to special cults, we have, first, three flamens, one +of Mars, one of Quirinus, and one of Jovis (fl. Martialis, +Quirinalis, Dialis). Mars and Quirinus have their dancers, as we +mentioned above. Other flamens of lower rank were afterwards +instituted for the separate worships of the tribes. Very old are the +"fratres arvales," field-brothers, who served the creative goddess +(Dea Dia) in the country in the month of May, with a view to a good +growing summer, dancing to her and addressing hymns to her which may +be read now but cannot be understood, and were unintelligible to the +Romans themselves. The Luperci (wolf-men) held a shepherd's festival +in the month of February, sacrificing goats and dogs to some rustic +deity, and running naked through the streets afterwards, striking +those they met with thongs cut from the hides of the victims. The six +vestal virgins are well known, who had charge of keeping up the fire +of Vesta, the house-fire of the state. They devoted their whole lives +to this office, and enjoyed great respect. These priesthoods and +corporations, instituted to secure the continuance of special cults, +are not of a nature to bring the whole of life under the influence of +the priests and so to foster a priestly type of religion. Nor were +those other religious offices of a nature to do so, which were not +attached to special cults but served the more general purpose of +assisting and advising the state in matters connected with religion. +First among these comes the office of pontifex, a word which is +variously interpreted, either as "bridge-maker,"--that being a very +important and solemn proceeding,--or as leader in a religious +procession. There were originally five pontifices, and the number was +afterwards raised to fifteen. They exercised a great variety of +functions, and had a general oversight of all religious matters, both +public and domestic. They were experts in ritual and in canon law; +they advised the state as to the proper sacrifices to be offered for +the public, and, when consulted, would also direct the private +individual. Funerals, marriages, and other domestic occurrences into +which religious considerations entered, were under their charge; and +on the occurrence of portents and omens it was their duty to indicate +the steps to be taken in order to find out what the gods wished to +signify. They had charge of the calendar, and had to fix what days +were proper for carrying on the business of the courts (_dies +fasti_), and they were the authorities on the forms of legal process. +The chief pontiff is called the "judge and arbiter of things divine +and human," and the college had manifestly a very strong position. +The same is true of the _augurs_ or experts in signs and omens. +Though they did not consult the gods about public undertakings until +the magistrate or the general asked them to do so, they had power to +stop proceedings of which they disapproved; and this at certain +periods of Roman history they very frequently did. In Cicero's +treatise on Divination a great deal of interesting matter may be +found on this subject. Another sacred college of somewhat later date +is that of the men, at first three in number, afterwards fifteen, who +acted as expounders of the sacred Sibylline books, which King Tarquin +purchased from the old woman or Sibyl, of Cumae. + +Roman Religion Legal rather than Priestly.--While some of these +priestly colleges exercised large powers, these powers were always +regarded not as inherent but deputed. The sacred offices were not +hereditary but elective; no course of training was necessary to +qualify for them; men were chosen for them by the state as for any +other public office, and those who became priests did not cease to be +citizens but continued to sit in the Senate, and, as it might happen, +to hold other offices at the same time. The growth of a priestly +caste was thus effectively prevented; religion was precluded from +having any free development of its own, and kept in the position of +an instrument for the furtherance of ends of state. There is no great +religion in which ritual is so much, doctrine and enthusiasm so +little. All these priests and colleges exist for no end but to carry +out with strict exactitude the ritual usage which is deemed necessary +to keep on good terms with the gods. They have no doctrine to teach, +no fervour to communicate, they do not even tell any stories. +Punctiliousness and anxiety attend all their proceedings. To the +Roman, Ihne says, "religion turns out to be the fear lest the gods +should punish them for neglect; any unusual occurrence may be a sign +that the gods are withdrawing their co-operation from the state, and +this must be looked into, and the due expiations used if judged +necessary." Ritual must always be carried out with the utmost +precision; it is not the goodwill of the worshipper but his +exactitude that counts. He may even cheat the gods of their due if he +is formally correct in his observance. For example, if the auspices +(the signs derived from birds) were unfavourable, they could be +repeated till a better result was obtained. + +What we have described is the religion of Rome in its original form, +before it accepted foreign modifications. Its gods are spirits of the +woods and fields, of the market, of the foray, of the treaty, of all +the aspects, in fact, which life had borne to the tribes of Central +Italy, especially to the Latins and the Sabines who combined to form +the state of Rome. These gods form no family and have no history, +they do not, like the gods of Greece, lay hold of the imagination, +nor, like those of Germany, of the affections. They are only dimly +known; but they are powerful, and it is necessary to reckon with +them; and the only relations which can be kept up with such beings +are those of business and of law. It follows that this religion is +one of constraint and not of inspiration. In this it agrees with the +Roman character, which is much more inclined to order than to +freedom, to law than to art. The word religion has here its origin; +its primary meaning is restraint or check, since the chief feeling +with which the Roman regarded his gods was that of anxiety. Not that +the gods were bad; Vediovis, the bad counterpart of Jovis, is a +vanishing figure,--but they were ill-known, and might have cause to +be angry. Worship, therefore, the practical cultivation of the +friendship of the gods, swallows up here the other elements of +religion as a whole. Religion does not free the forces of human +nature to realise themselves in spontaneous activity, but enchains +them to the punctilious service of a nonhuman authority. Everything +exciting is kept at a distance, and men are trained in obedience and +scrupulousness and self-denial. They produce no beautiful works of +art, and have hardly any stories to delight in; but they are reverent +and conscientious; private feeling is sacrificed with an austere +satisfaction to the public interest, and they accordingly build up a +great power. Living in an atmosphere of magic, where unseen dangers +lurk on every side, and there is virtue in words and forms correctly +used to avert these dangers, the Roman develops to perfection one +side of religion. To its inspirations and enthusiasms and hidden +consolation he is a stranger; but he knows it better than others as a +conservative and regulating force, which checks passion, calls for +wary and orderly conduct, and causes the individual to subordinate +himself to the community. + +Changes introduced from without.--The Roman religion had, properly +speaking, no development. What it might have become had it been left +to unfold itself without interference from without, we can only +guess; but it was early brought under the influence of more highly +developed religions, and it proved to have so little power of +resisting innovations that it speedily parted with much of its own +native character. The Romans were not unconscious that their religion +was an imperfect one; they never claimed, when they were conquering +the world, that their religion was the only true one, or had any +mission to prevail over others. They were tolerant from the first of +the religions of other peoples. The gods of other peoples they always +believed to be real beings, with whom it was well for them also to be +on good terms. If everything in the world had its spirit, these gods +also were the spirits of their own countries and nations; the very +notion of deity which the Romans entertained prevented them from +having any exclusive belief in their own gods or from denying the +right of the gods of others.[2] When therefore they came in contact +with foreign religions, they were not protected by any profound +conviction of the truth of their own, and were exposed to the full +force of the new ideas. The new religions came to them along with the +culture of peoples much further advanced in art and in thought than +they were themselves; at each such contact, therefore, they felt the +foreigner to be superior to themselves in intellectual matters; and +wherever this happens, the less highly gifted race is likely to +change in its religion as well as in other things. We have to note +the changes which were produced by such external influences. + +[Footnote 2: Cf. Celsus in Origen, _Contra Celsum_, vii. 68.] + +In the first place, Rome borrowed from Etruria. Etruscan religion was +both more developed and more savage than that of Rome. Human +sacrifice was an acknowledged feature of it; divination was carried +to absurd lengths, one great branch of it consisting in the +prediction of the future from the appearance of the entrails of +slaughtered animals. Etruria had a hell with regular torments for the +departed; in Rome the belief in a future life was much less definite. +On the other hand, Etruria had deities who were something more than +abstractions; there was a circle of twelve gods, who held meetings on +high, and regulated the affairs of the world. Above them was a power, +little defined, to which the gods were subject, a kind of fate. Greek +influence, so notably apparent in Etruscan art, is present, too, we +see, in Etruscan religion; it is through this somewhat dark passage +that Greek religious ideas first came to Rome. Under this influence +various innovations took place at Rome. Before the end of the +monarchy the Romans had begun to build houses for their gods, after +being for 170 years, we are told, without any such arrangement. The +Roman "templum" was not originally a building, but a space marked +off, according to the rules of augury, for the observation of signs. +A part of the sky was also marked off for such "observation" and +"contemplation." On such a holy site, on the Capitoline hill, there +was founded by the earlier Tarquin the temple of Jupiter which always +continued to be the principal site of Roman religion. Its +architecture was Tuscan; and it contained not only a cella or holy +place for the image of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, but also a cella for +Juno and one for Minerva. The latter was both an Etruscan and a Roman +deity, the goddess of memory. Art was thus enlisted in the service of +the gods; the divine figures acquired a reality and distinctness +quite wanting to the earlier divine abstractions; and a new notion of +deity was presented to the Roman mind. Other temples followed, to +Jupiter under other names than that which he had in the Capitol, and +to other deities. That of Faith was a very early one. It was a rule +in temple-building that the image in the cella faced the west, so +that the worshipper, praying towards it, faced the east. Here also +the Roman custom is a departure from the Greek; for in Greek temples +it is the rule that the image faces the east, and the worshipper the +west. The Roman orientation of sacred buildings has passed into the +practice of the Christian Church. From Etruria the Romans also +derived a great addition to the rules of divination; but the more +childish parts of Etruscan divination were regarded at Rome as +superstitious, though private persons might frequently resort to +them. + +Greek Gods in Rome.--While Greek ideas thus came indirectly from the +north, the south of the peninsula was becoming more and more Greek, +and the gods and temples of Hellas, established first at the +sea-ports and colonies, gradually came to Rome. This movement is +connected with the Sibylline books which were acquired by the last of +the kings. These books were brought to Rome from the Greek town of +Cumae; they were written in Greek, and contained oracles which were +ascribed to an old Greek prophetess. They were consulted in grave +emergencies of state through the officials who had charge of them, +and what they generally prescribed was that a god should be sent for +from Greece, and his worship set up in Rome. Many foreign worships +were thus imported. First came Apollo, disguised under the Latin name +of Aperta, "opener," for the books contained many of his oracles; he +was received and worshipped as a god of purification, since the state +was in need of that process at the time, as well as of prophecy. In +the year 496 B.C. came in the same way Demeter, Persephone, and +Dionysus, identified with the old Latin Ceres, Libera, and Liber; +and, a century later, Heracles, identified with the Latin Hercules. +In the year 291, on the occurrence of a plague, Asclepios, in Latin +Aesculapius, was brought from Epidauros; and when the crisis of the +contest with Hannibal was at hand (204 B.C.) Cybele, the great mother +of the gods, was fetched from Pessinus in Phrygia. The people of that +town generously handed over to the Roman ambassadors the field-stone +which was their image of the goddess, and her journey to Rome had the +desired effect, in the expulsion of Hannibal from Italy. The Venus of +Mount Eryx in Sicily arrived in Rome about the same time; a goddess +combining the characters of Aphrodite and Astarte, and quite +different from the simple old Roman Venus, who was a goddess of +Spring, and presided over gardens. + +The process of which these are the outward landmarks went on during +the whole period of the Republic, and resulted in the substitution of +what may be called with Mommsen the Grĉco-Roman, for the old Roman +religion. The change was a very profound one. Not only were some new +gods added to the old ones, not only did Greek art come to be +employed in Roman temples, not only were new rites introduced, such +as the _lectisternium_, in which couches were arranged, each with the +image of a god and that of a goddess, and tables spread to regale the +recumbent deities. The very notion of deity was changed; the Greek +god, represented by an image in human form and moving freely in the +upper world, was substituted for the Latin god who was the unseen +side of an act or process or quality, from which he had his name, +and apart from which he was not. The following is a list of the +principal Roman gods and of the Greek ones with whom they were +identified:--Jupiter (Zeus), Juno (Hera), Neptunus (Poseidon), +Minerva (Athene), Mars (Ares), Venus (Aphrodite), Diana (Artemis), +Vulcanus (Hephaestus), Vesta (Hestia), Mercurius (Hermes), Ceres +(Demeter). The identifications are by no means accurate; Jupiter and +Vesta, as we have seen, are the only two Roman gods who are really +identical with Greek gods, the other equations are founded on +accidental resemblances, and are more arbitrary than real. The result +of them was, however, that the Romans forgot to a large extent their +own gods, and got Greek ones instead. With the divine figures they +took over the mythology of Greece, and thus the gods came to be well +known with all their weaknesses, instead of as before surrounded with +mystery and awe. The worship founded on the earlier conception of the +deity, and kept up with unwavering regularity, was inapplicable to +these new gods, and inevitably lost all its reality. This is not the +only cause, but it is one of the chief causes which prepared for the +fearful spectacle presented by Roman religion at the end of the +Republic, when men of learning and distinction officiated as the +heads of a religion in which they had no belief, and which they +scoffed at in their writings. + +Among the worships which came to Rome from the East there were +several which are not of Greek, but of Oriental origin. The worship +of Cybele belongs to Asia Minor, though it had spread over Greece; +that of Dionysus also came to Greece from Asia. The practice of both +these cults was accompanied by excitement and self-abandonment on the +part of the worshippers; and they formed a great contrast to the +staid and formal worship of the Romans, the only admissible passion +in which was a calm passion for correctness. The worship of Cybele +was carried on by eunuchs, it had noisy processions, and depended on +begging for its support. When the Romans brought it to their city, +they ordained that Roman citizens should not fill leading offices in +it; but it flourished so strongly, among the numerous foreigners in +the capital and among the poor, as to show that it met a great want +there. The worship of Bacchus had to be suppressed by the state; it +was carried on at nocturnal meetings, which even citizens attended, +and it led to all kinds of irregularities. As the subject of this +chapter is not the religions of Rome, but the Roman religion, we do +not here review the numerous foreign worships which were brought to +the capital from every part of the Empire, and made Rome, towards the +close of the Republic, the residence of the gods of every nation. The +Romans as we saw were not led by any convictions of their own to deny +the truth of foreign religions; and their policy as rulers also +inclined them to tolerate all worships which did not offend against +civil order. In the provinces it was the rule not to interfere with +local religion; at Rome the authorities recognised not the imported +religion itself, of which the state did not feel called to judge, but +the association practising it, which received permission to do so. +The worship was then protected by the state--it became a _religio +licita_. Amid the meeting of all the gods and the clashing of all the +creeds which were thus brought about at Rome, the Roman religion +itself maintained its place, not as a doctrine which any one +believed, for the very priests and augurs laughed at the rites and +ceremonies they carried on, but as a ritual which was bound up with +the whole past history of Rome, and believed to be necessary for the +welfare of the state as well as for the satisfaction of the common +people. In the atmosphere of discussion and of far-reaching +scepticism which then prevailed it was not to be expected that faith +could again find any strong support in the historical religion of +Rome. The Emperor Augustus made a serious attempt to reform and +revive religion. He selected the domestic worship of the Lares as the +most living part of the old system, and ordained that the two Lares +should be worshipped along with the genius of the Emperor, and that +Rome should be divided into districts, each with its temple of this +strange trinity; while in the provinces each district was to support +a worship of Rome and of the Emperor in addition to its existing +cults. Temples were rebuilt at Rome, new ones were raised, sacred +offices were filled which had been vacant, religious games were +instituted to carry the Roman mind back to the sacred past. Livy and +Virgil treated the past from a religious point of view, showing the +sacred mission of the Roman race, and exhibiting the valour and piety +of the founders of the state. If the Roman religion could be revived +these were the proper means to do it. But the religion of the future +was not to be prepared in this way. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The sections on religion in Mommsen's _History of Rome_. + +Ramsay's _Roman Antiquities_. + +Wissowa, _Religion und Cultur der Römer_. + +Holwerda, in De la Saussaye. + +For the period of the Empire, Boissier's _La Religion Romaine_. + +See also the work of Cumont, cited at the end of chapter x. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII +THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA + +I. _The Vedic Religion_ + + +No contrast could well be greater than that between the German +religion and that of India. In the one case we have a people full of +vigour, but not yet civilised; in the other a people of high +organisation and culture, but deficient in vigour; the former +religion is one of action, the latter one of speculation. From the +original Aryan faith, to which that of the Teutons most closely +approximates, Indian religion is removed by two great steps. First we +have as a variety of Aryan faith the Indo-Iranian religion, that of +the undivided ancestors of Persians and Indians alike, in the dim +period antecedent to the Aryan settlement of India. Of this religion, +the common mother of those of Persia and of India, we shall give some +sketch after we have made acquaintance with the gods of India, at the +beginning of our Persian chapter. Indian religion is a variety of +Indo-Iranian, which is a variety of the Aryan type. Neither its +genealogy nor its character entitles it to be taken as a typical +example of the Aryan religions. In literary chronology it is the +earliest of them, inasmuch as its books are the oldest sacred +literature of Aryan faith; but in point of development it is not an +early but an advanced product. The absorbing interest it offers to +the student of our science is due to the fact that it presents in an +unbroken sequence a growth of religious thought, which, beginning +with simple conceptions and advancing to a great priestly ritual, can +be seen to pass into mysticism and asceticism, and thence to the +rejection of all gods and rites, and a system of salvation by +individual good conduct. Nowhere else can the progress of religion +through what we might call its seven ages of life be seen so clearly, +nor the logical connection of these ages with each other be +recognised so unmistakably. The present chapter deals with the +infancy and lusty youth of the religion as seen in Vedism; the later +stages of Brahmanism and Buddhism will be spoken of in subsequent +chapters. + +The Rigveda.--The Vedic religion takes its name from the Rigveda, the +oldest portion of Indian literature, and the earliest literary +document of Aryan religion. Of four vedas or collections of hymns, +the Rigveda is the oldest and most interesting. It contains a set of +hymns which, with much more of their early religious literature, the +Hindus ascribed to direct divine revelation, but which we know to +have been written by men who claimed no special inspiration. Most of +them date from the time when the Aryans, having made good their entry +in India, but without by any means altogether subduing the former +inhabitants, were dwelling in the Punjaub. The religion of the hymns +is a strongly national one. The Aryans appeal to their gods to help +them against the races, afterwards driven to the south and to the sea +coasts, who differ from themselves in colour, in physiognomy, in +language, in manners, and in religion. Nor are these conquerors by +any means an uncultivated people; they had long been using metals; +they built houses,--a number together in a village; they lived +principally by keeping cattle, but also by tillage, and by hunting. +They drank Sura, a kind of brandy, and Soma, a kind of strong ale, of +which we shall hear more. They were, as a rule, monogamous, the wife +occupying a high position in the household, and assisting her husband +in offering the domestic sacrifice. At the head of each state was a +king, as among the Greeks of Homer; he was not, however, an absolute +monarch; his people met in council and controlled him. The king +himself offered sacrifice for his tribe in his own house,--there were +no temples,--but he was frequently assisted by a man or several men +of special learning in such rites. + +The hymns of the Rigveda were written for use at sacrifices. The +sacrifice consists of food and drink of which the god who is +addressed is invited to come and partake, or which are conveyed to +the gods seated on their heavenly thrones, by means of fire. Soma, +the intoxicating juice of the soma plant, is an invariable feature of +the banquets in these hymns; the solid part consists of butter, milk, +rice or cakes; but animals were also killed, and the horse-sacrifice +was a specially important one. The hymn also is an essential part of +the rite; the sacrifice would have no virtue without it. It consists +of praise and prayer. The deity is extolled for the exploits he has +done, for his strength, for his beauty, for his wisdom or his +goodness, he is invoked again and again to partake of what has been +provided for him, and in return he is asked to send the worshipper +food or cows, guidance or protection, or whatever the latter is in +want of. + +The Vedic Gods.--And who are the gods who receive this worship? They +are parts of nature or celestial phenomena, more or less personified. +Worship is directed now to one divine being, now to another; each has +a story which is dwelt on and a number of functions belonging to him, +for the sake of which he is extolled and sought after; each god, that +is to say, has his myth. In this set of gods the myths are so clear +that we can identify with perfect confidence each of the gods with +that part of Nature from which he arose. + +M. Barth classifies the Vedic gods according to the degree in which +they have become detached from their natural basis. There are two +which are not so detached at all. Agni, who is one of the chief +deities of the Rigveda, is fire, and Soma, the deity to whom all the +hymns of the ninth book are addressed, is simply the juice of the +soma plant, the liquid part of every sacrifice. Agni is not any +particular fire, but fire as a cosmic principle, born in heaven, born +also daily at the sacrifice by the rubbing together of two pieces of +wood, his parents whom he consumes. He is a priest carrying the +offerings of men up to the gods, but he was a priest at the first +sacrifice, the primeval heavenly sacrifice, before he had come down +to men. He is also the guest and household friend of man, a kindly +and familiar being. But he pervades all nature, and all growth and +energy are due to him. Soma, also inseparably connected with all +sacrifice, who strengthens the gods and makes them immortal, is +likewise a universal principle; he too came at first from heaven, and +he too is at work all through the world. There are stories of his +first production among the gods, and of the first effects of his +appearance; he is the nourisher of plants, he gives inspiration to +the poet and fervour to prayer. Along with Agni he kindled the sun +and the stars. + +In other gods there is a nearer approach to a human figure, and the +physical side is not so obtrusive. Indra is most frequently invoked +of all the gods, and may be called the national god of this period. +He is described as a chieftain standing in a chariot drawn by two +horses. He waged a great battle, but still wages it constantly, +against the monsters of heat and drought, Vrittra, the coverer, and +Ahi the dragon, for the deliverance of the cows, the heavenly waters, +kept by them in captivity. The contest between the god and the demon +goes on for ever. Indra is also the giver of good things of every +kind, he keeps the heavenly bodies in their places, he is the author +and preserver of all life, the inspirer of all noble thoughts and the +answerer of pious prayers, the rewarder of all who trust in him, and +the forgiver of the penitent. It is good to sacrifice to him and to +offer him soma in abundance; for it strengthens him to take up afresh +his conflicts and labours as the champion of man. Indra is surrounded +by the Maruts, the storm-gods, who are separately invoked in many +hymns. They drive through the sky with splendour and with mighty +music, and bring rain to the parched earth. Their father is Rudra, +also a god of storms, the handsomest of all the gods, and, in spite +of his thunderbolts, a helpful and kindly being. Wherever he sees +evil done, he hurls his spear to smite the evildoer, but he is also a +healer of both physical and moral evils, and the best of all +physicians. Of the same order of deities are Vata or Vayu, the wind, +and Parjanya, the rain-storm. But the loftiest of all the Vedic gods +is Varuna, the great serene luminous heaven. The hymns addressed to +him are comparatively few, but among them are those which rise to the +highest moral and religious level. In language recalling that of the +psalmists and prophets of the Bible, they exalt Varuna as the creator +of the world and of heaven and the stars, as the omniscient defender +of the good and avenger of all evil, as just and holy, and yet full +of compassion, so that the conscience-stricken suppliant is +encouraged to turn to him. + +We here give a few extracts from hymns addressed to some of the gods +we have spoken of. The versions are those of the late Dr. John Muir. +A metrical version can scarcely represent the hymns with the accuracy +the scholar would desire, but, on the other hand, a literal +translation, such as that of Professor Max Müller in vol. xxxii. of +the Sacred Books of the East, gives a less true idea of the spirit of +the pieces, and is less fitted at least for a work like this. + + +TO INDRA + + Thou, Indra, oft of old hast quaffed + With keen delight, our Soma draught. + All gods delicious Soma love; + But thou, all other gods above. + Thy mother knew how well this juice + Was fitted for her infant's use, + Into a cup she crushed the sap + Which thou didst sip upon her lap; + Yes, Indra, on thy natal morn, + The very hour that thou wast born, + Thou didst those jovial tastes display, + Which still survive in strength to-day. + And once, thou prince of genial souls, + Men say thou drained'st thirty bowls. + To thee the Soma draughts proceed, + As streamlets to the lake they feed, + Or rivers to the ocean speed. + Our cup is foaming to the brim + With Soma pressed to sound of hymn. + Come, drink, thy utmost craving slake, + Like thirsty stag in forest lake, + Or bull that roams in arid waste, + And burns the cooling brook to taste. + Indulge thy taste, and quaff at will; + Drink, drink again, profusely swill! + + +ANOTHER TO INDRA + + And thou dost view with special grace, + The fair complexioned Aryan race, + Who own the gods, their laws obey, + And pious homage duly pay. + Thou giv'st us horses, cattle, gold, + As thou didst give our sires of old. + Thou sweep'st away the dark-skinned brood, + Inhuman, lawless, senseless, rude, + Who know not Indra, hate his friends, + And spoil the race which he defends. + Chase far away, the robbers, chase, + Slay those barbarians black and base. + And save us, Indra, from the spite + Of sprites that haunt us in the night, + Our rites disturb by contact vile, + Our hallowed offerings defile. + Preserve us, friend, dispel our fears, + And let us live a hundred years. + And when our earthly course we've run, + And gained the region of the Sun, + Then let us live in ceaseless glee, + Sweet Soma quaffing there with thee. + + +TO AGNI + + Great Agni, though thine essence be but one, + Thy forms are three; as fire thou blazest here, + As lightning flashest in the atmosphere, + In heaven thou flamest as the golden sun. + + It was in heaven thou hadst thy primal birth, + But thence of yore a holy sage benign, + Conveyed thee down on human hearths to shine, + And thou abid'st a denizen of earth. + + Sprung from the mystic pair by priestly hands, + In wedlock joined, forth flashes Agni bright; + But--O ye heaven and earth I tell you right-- + The unnatural child devours the parent brands. + + +TO VARUNA + + The mighty lord on high our deeds, as if at hand, espies; + The gods know all men do, though men would fain their acts disguise. + Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place, + Or hides him in his secret cell,--the gods his movements trace. + Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone + King Varuna is there, a third, and all their schemes are known. + This earth is his, to him belong those vast and boundless skies; + Both seas within him rest, and yet in that small pool he lies. + Whoever far beyond the sky should think his way to wing, + He could not there elude the grasp of Varuna the king. + His spies, descending from the skies, glide all this world around, + Their thousand eyes all-scanning sweep to earth's remotest bound. + Whate'er exists in heaven and earth, whate'er beyond the skies, + Before the eyes of Varuna, the king, unfolded lies. + The ceaseless winkings all he counts of every mortal's eyes, + He wields this universal frame as gamester throws his dice. + Those knotted nooses which thou fling'st, O God, the bad to snare, + All liars let them overtake, but all the truthful spare. + +Varuna, the all-embracing sky, is also in many hymns a solar deity. +There are also other solar deities; Mitra who is frequently invoked +along with Varuna; Surya, Savitri, Vishnu, and Pushan, are all gods +of this class. Each of these has some attributes or some story of his +own. Surya keeps his eye on men and reports their failings to Varuna +and Mitra. Savitri, the quickener, raises all things from sleep in +the morning with his long arms of gold, and covers them with sleep in +the evening. Vishnu, the active, traverses the universe with three +strides. Pushan is a shepherd who loses none of his flock; a guide +also, both in the journeys of this world and in the last journey. A +number of the principal gods have the common title of Adityas or +children of Aditi, immensity, a being too vast and undetermined to be +clearly represented. We should also mention Ushas, the dawn, a +goddess whom the sun-god is daily chasing; the Asvins or two heavenly +charioteers, who daily make the circuit of the heavens; Tvashtri, the +smith who made the thunderbolt of Indra; the Ribhus, artificers who +were once men and have been admitted to the society of the gods. Yama +is the god of the dead, he first traversed the road to the country +beyond, and now he rules over it, and comforts with substantial joys +the spirits guided there by Agni (this points to cremation which was +frequent but not universal) or by Pushan. There the Pitris or fathers +sit at the same tables with the gods, and are eternally happy. +Brahmanaspati, lord of prayer, is a god of another type, a +personification of the act of ritual, and his presence in the Vedas, +beside the elemental deities, shows how early speculation had begun. + +To what Stage does this Religion belong?--Our sketch of this system +is necessarily brief; we have now to inquire as to the place it +occupies in the religious growth of India. It is held, on the one +hand, that it is a primitive religious product, that it shows us some +of the very first efforts men made to have a religion; while on the +other hand it is held that the Vedic hymns and the Vedic system are +sacerdotal, and are due to an advanced organisation of worship and to +a special set of men who were much in advance of their age. + +1. It is Primitive.--Mr. Max Müller[1] says that "the sacred books of +India offer the same advantages ... for the study of the origin and +growth of religion ... which Sanscrit has offered for the study of +the origin and growth of human speech." Dr. Muir[2] claims that the +Vedic hymns illustrate the natural workings of the human mind in the +period of its infancy. In the Vedas, these writers consider, we are +able to watch the process by which the earliest men rose to the +belief in gods, and the naïve and simple methods by which man's first +intercourse with gods was carried on. The undoubted antiquity of +these pieces favours this view; the Rigveda is admitted on all hands +to be the earliest part of Indian literature, and many of the hymns +were written about 1500 B.C.[3] The pure and simple nature of the +Vedic religion may also appear to favour this view. It is a religion +singularly free from the lower elements of man's early faith. Savage +legends and especially immoral stories of the gods are markedly +absent from the hymns; they are also free from the element of magic +and fetishism; the gods are great beings, and religion consists in +intercourse with these great beings. Now the later religious +literature of India, the brahmanas or commentaries on the Rigveda and +the other later Vedas, contain a variety of legends and a religion by +no means free from magic. It may be maintained therefore that the +pure religion of the Aryans afterwards became contaminated by contact +with the lower religion of the tribes the Aryans had conquered. It +was from the Dravidian and Kolarian aborigines, we are told, that +Indian religion took its later corruptions. The Vedic religion has no +idols, it has no dark descriptions of hell, the caste system on which +later Brahmanism was based is absent from it, it has no demons to be +guarded against, and no bad deities. The doctrine of metempsychosis +is not found here, except perhaps in germ. The immolation of the +widow on the funeral pile of her husband is not sanctioned by the +Vedas, and of ancestor-worship only a few traces are found. All +these, it may be held, are later corruptions. The Vedic religion is a +bright and happy system, and the primitive beliefs of mankind, less +changed by the Indians than they were elsewhere, are here to be seen; +the hymns show the kind of faith to which a strong and happy race of +men naturally came, as their minds began to open to the wonders of +the world they lived in, the faith of "primitive shepherds praising +their gods as they lead their flocks to the pasture." The Indians had +preserved, longer than other peoples, the gift of recognising deity +in nature; and the primitive beliefs of mankind survive here in +something like their first integrity, while elsewhere they were +broken up and confused. + +[Footnote 1: _Origin of Religion_, p. 135.] + +[Footnote 2: _Sanscrit Texts_, vol. v. p. 4.] + +[Footnote 3: According to Mr. Max Müller the Mantra or hymn period is +to be placed 1000-800 B.C.; but other scholars place it earlier.] + +2. It is Advanced.--On the other hand, it is urged that the society +in which the hymns arose was not a primitive one, but one +considerably advanced both in arts and institutions. The Rishis +(seers), who composed them, belonged to families who cultivated such +an art; and the hymns were no artless outpourings of childlike +emotion, but were written on an elaborate metrical system for a +definite purpose, namely, to form part of great acts of worship. As +for the absence from them of savage myths and of immoral stories of +the gods, this fact does not prove that such things were not known to +the people at the time, but only that the poets did not put them in +their hymns. Mr. Lang has collected the savage myths, similar to +those of other peoples in various parts of the world, which are found +in Indian literature of a later date, and has also shown that the +hymns themselves were not quite ignorant of some of them. The Indians +knew the myth of the marriage of heaven and earth, with the +consequent birth of the gods. They had the story of the deluge. They +had the still more primitive story of the raising up of the earth +from the bottom of the sea. They had various myths of old conflicts +of the gods, and of the production of the earth and all the men in it +from the dissection of an immense prototypal human monster. Men were +of different castes, they held, because they came from different +portions of Purusha's body when it was cut up. Many stories are to be +found in Indian literature which when found elsewhere are judged to +be products of savage imagination, and the fact that the Rigveda +ignores some of them and refines others, simply shows that the +authors of that collection were on a higher level than their people +in point of cultivation and of piety, as the psalmists and the +prophets of Israel were in advance of theirs. We are led, +accordingly, towards the conclusion that during the period when the +hymns were written those who took charge of the development of +worship in India were seeking to draw away attention from the more +superstitious and childish elements of religion, and to bring to the +front the pure and lofty intercourse man could have with the good +gods. Bad gods are not cultivated; if there are foolish stories about +the gods, they are not repeated, everything dark and terrible, as +well as everything irrational, is removed from the working religion. +Ancestor-worship is not encouraged; family rites continued, but the +worship was wider than the family, and was not restricted to +particular places. The ideas connected with sacrifice are not indeed +very lofty. Sacrifice is, in the first place, barter. Gifts are +provided for the gods, that they may give in their turn. In the +second place it is a social function in which the god and the +worshipper both take part. The food, and especially the soma, +strengthens the god, and man and god are thereby drawn into close +sympathy. But in the third place sacrifice was a piece of magic. The +mere accurate performance of the rite had a mystic efficacy. It was +believed to help to uphold the order of the world; without it the +gods would grow weak, the ordinances of nature would fail, and man +would relapse to the state of savagery. The gods themselves first +sacrificed; from sacrifice they themselves were born, so that +sacrifice is an essential principle of the universe, was so in the +beginning, and must always be so. The Vedic leaders of religion, +therefore, were not merely champions of enlightenment in religion; +they were also ritualists, the rite was to them an end in itself; the +proper performance of sacrifice was their principal object. This side +of their work had, as we shall see, grave consequences. But the +Rigveda did a great work for India in cultivating gods who were +moral, and to whom man was drawn by higher than selfish motives. Gods +who are just and who watch man's conduct, and do not fail to reward +him according to his deeds, must quicken the conscience of those who +believe in them, and gods who are able to help the weak and to +forgive the penitent must make their people also merciful. In all the +aberrations of Indian religion the high moral standard set by the +Vedic gods is never lost sight of. + +Where a plurality of gods is believed in, these gods must stand in +some relation to each other; and it is of importance to notice how +the gods of the Veda are arranged. We can see here very clearly how +unstable a thing polytheism is. The position of the gods is +constantly changing with reference to each other. We find Agni +addressed as if he were undoubtedly supreme; he dwells in the highest +heavens, he generates the gods, he ordains the order of the universe; +but then we find Indra spoken of in the same way, and Varuna, and +Mitra, and others. Then we find pairs of gods addressed together. +Indra and Agni are frequently so treated; so are Varuna and Mitra. +There is no supreme god, or rather, each god is supreme in turn; the +poet wants a god capable of being exalted in every way, and does so +exalt the god he has before him. In this way a Monotheism is reached; +the mind recognises a god to whom unlimited adoration can be paid. +But it is a monotheism, as M. Barth well puts it, the titular god of +which is always changing; and Mr. Max Müller gives to this partial +monotheism the name of Kathenotheism; that is, the worship of one god +at a time without any denial that other gods exist and are worthy of +adoration. Now this form of religion, in which several gods are +worshipped, each of whom in turn is regarded as supreme, is not +peculiar to India; we have met with it already, we shall meet with it +again. But in India a peculiar way was found out of the difficulty. +The Indian gods were too little defined, too little personal, too +much alike, to maintain their separate personalities with great +tenacity; nor did they lend themselves to a monarchical form of +pantheon; no one of them was sufficiently marked out from the rest or +above the rest, to rule permanently over them. Yet the sense of unity +in Indian religion is very strong; from the first the Indian mind is +seeking a way to adjust the claims of the various gods, and view them +all as one. An early idea which makes in this direction is that of +Rita, the order, not specially connected with any one god, which +rules both in the physical and the moral world, and with which all +beings have to reckon. Philosophy is busy from the first with the +Vedic gods; the impulse to good conduct and that to mysticism are +equally innate in this religion. We can see, even in the Rigveda, +that India is to solve the problem of its many gods not in the way of +Monotheism, by making one god rule over the others, but in the way of +Pantheism, by making all the gods modes or manifestations of one +being. "Agni is all the Gods" we read here. And a religion which +arranges its objects of worship in this way will not be a religion of +action, but of speculation and of resignation. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_S. B. E._ vol. xxxii. Vedic Hymns. xlvi. Hymns to Agni. + +Muir's _Sanscrit Texts_. + +M. Müller's _Hibbert Lectures_. + +Monier Williams, _Indian Wisdom; Hinduism_ in "Non-Christian +Religious Systems" (S.P.C.K.). + +Kaegi, _The Rigveda, the oldest literature of the Indians_, 1886. + +Barth, _The Religions of India_, in Trübner's Oriental Series. + +Herrmann Oldenberg, _Die Religion der Veda_, 1894. + +Bergaigne, _La Religion Védique_, 3 vols., 1878-83. + +E. Hardy, _Die Vedisch Brahmanische Periode der Religion des alten +Indiens_. + +Lehmann, in De la Saussaye. + +Rhys Davids, _Oxford Proceedings_, vol. i. p. 1, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIX +INDIA + +II. _Brahmanism_ + + +The period in which the songs were collected by the Aryans dwelling +in the Punjaub was succeeded by a period of wars and troubles, after +which the successful race is found to have spread further towards the +East, and to have settled on the Ganges and its tributaries. Along +with this change of position a great change has also taken place in +the spirit of the people, a change which is strikingly seen in their +religion. The priesthood has come to occupy the position of a +separate class to an extent not formerly the case, and all the +phenomena are apparent which are generally found associated with a +hierocracy or rule of priests. The early religious writings have been +formed into a sacred canon: there is an active production of new +works which explain the old ones; the sacrifices grow more elaborate +and new virtues are attributed to them; and along with this hardening +and formalising of the outward parts of religion there is a religious +speculation of great volume and of great freedom of character. + +The Caste System: The Brahmans.--The key to the whole movement is to +be found in the new position of the priesthood, or in the +establishment at this period of the system of caste. Though this +system is only once mentioned in the Rigveda, and that in a hymn of +late date, scholars find traces of it in the arrangement of the +hymns, and as it is found in Persia, the Indians probably had it +before they entered India. It may even, it is judged, be traceable to +the division of ranks among the primitive Aryan families. Teutonic as +well as Indian legends are found explaining how mankind were divided +from the first into different classes.[1] But the primitive +differences of rank must have had a great development before they +took shape in the rigid caste system of India. This system appears to +be organised with a view expressly to the exaltation of the +priesthood, and must have been the result of a struggle between the +priests and the warrior or ruling classes. The priests have made +themselves indispensable in nearly all religious acts. Their very +title shows this. While _Brahman_, as the name of a god, means +primarily growth, and later, devotion or prayer, _brahmana_ (neut.) +signifies the ritual texts according to which worship is performed, +and _brahman_ (mas.) is the name of those who use such texts, and +comes to stand for the highest caste of Indian society. Without the +brahman there can be no satisfactory worship, because there can be no +security that any rite is performed correctly; and a rite which is +not performed correctly has no efficacy. Religion, therefore, is in +the hands of this caste, whose sacredness is hereditary, and cannot +be acquired in any other way than by birth. The members of that caste +and they alone are qualified to superintend religious observances, +and without them the intercourse between man and the gods cannot be +kept up. From his birth the brahman is a being of superior holiness; +he is destined for higher ends than other men, and the distinction +between him and them must be manifested in all his acts and habits +throughout his life. He is the natural lord of all the classes. + +[Footnote 1: Compare Hans Sachs, _Die Ungleichen Kinder Eva's_.] + +If the highest caste is strictly defined, so also are the others. The +second caste is that of the Kshatriyas, warriors or rulers, the third +that of the Vaisyas or farmers. These three have rank, they are the +twice-born classes (their second birth answers to confirmation, and +takes place when a young man is invested with the sacred thread). The +Sudras are the fourth and lowest class; no duty is assigned to them +in the law books but that of serving meekly the other castes. It has +been thought that the Sudras represent the conquered aborigines, the +three classes of rank belonging to the Aryan invaders, but this is +open to question. + +The student of religion has to fix his attention on the Brahmans, who +have secured themselves in the position of the leading caste. We +speak first of the literary movement in which they were concerned, +then of the sacrifices they conducted, and of their gods. We shall +then say something of the practical operation of their religion as a +rule of life, and lastly we shall come to the speculative work of +their period, which is not, however, to be set down to them alone. + +1. The Growth of the Sacred Literature.--The Vedas rose in sacredness +after the age which produced them passed away. A few centuries after +they were written they were not generally intelligible; they needed +interpretation, but at the same time the doctrine of their +inspiration rose higher and higher. The brahmans had both to +interpret the words of the old hymns and to explain how, when used at +the sacrifice, they produced the effect ascribed to them. This led to +the production of the earliest Indian prose, the brahmanas or ritual +treatises. Primarily intended to be directories of worship for the +priests, these works were enriched with all sorts of ideas about the +sacrifices, their origin, and their effects; points in the ritual are +explained in them by mythological stories which we should not +otherwise know, and we see from them that many superstitions, to +which the Vedas gave no encouragement, yet lived among the people. +Each Samhita, or collection of hymns, had its Brahmana, and some of +the collections had several. These works, though transcending in +dreariness most directories of worship, are yet of great value for +the light they throw on the history of Indian manners and ideas, as +well as on that of mythology. And as it happened among the Jews in +their later period so it happened here;--the sanctity of the text was +extended to the commentary, the brahmana also was held to be +god-given and inspired, and by some was even more highly esteemed +than the hymns themselves. A third class of inspired writings +consists of the Upanishads, or speculative treatises, of which we +shall speak later. The "Veda" in the larger sense is made up of these +three bodies of compositions, mantras, brahmanas, and upanishads. +These three belong to revelation or "S'ruti," _i.e._ hearing; what is +contained in these is to be regarded as having been heard by inspired +men from a higher source. The counterpart of S'ruti is "smriti," +_i.e._ recollection, tradition. This embraces the Sutras or works +dealing with ceremonial in the way of short rules gathered from the +older literature, with the exposition of the Vedas, with domestic +rites and conventional usages. The law books, the epics, and the +Puranas, or ancient legendary histories, also belong to this class. + +The doctrine of the Vedas, of their sacredness and of their virtues, +played a great part in Indian thought. They were revered not as a +written word, for they were not written but handed down by +memory,--the Brahman still knows his sacred literature by heart,--but +as hymns possessing supernatural powers and of far higher than human +origin. They were raised to the rank of a divinity, they were said to +have had to do with the creation of the world, or to have been among +the first created beings. The value of the study of them was not to +be exaggerated; he who engages in it, we hear, offers a complete +sacrifice, obtains for himself the world which does not pass away, +and becomes united with Brahma. The class of men who had installed +themselves as the authorised interpreters of the hymns, had evidently +taken up a very strong position. + +2. Sacrifice.--Indian ritual is an immense subject. In the Vedic +period there were several orders of sacrifice--the hymns of the +Rigveda have to do with the Soma-sacrifice alone--and several kinds +of priests, and it stands to reason that an elaborate ritual derived +from a distant age and cherished by a priestly caste which was +growing in power, could not quickly change. In spite of the +considerable amount of materials accessible in the Brahmanas and +Sutras, a history of Indian sacrifice as a whole has still to be +written. + +It is characteristic of early Indian sacrifice that it is not +confined to a temple or to any sacred spot, and that it does not +require any image of the deity. Instructions are always given for +choosing and preparing a place for the rite, and for erecting an +altar; a place had to be prepared on each occasion. The gods were +asked to come, or were thought to be seated in heaven looking on; the +sacrifice is in the open air. While the celebration proceeded +according to a certain ritual, it lay with the worshippers to fix to +what god or gods the sacrifice should be addressed. There was not one +ritual for Agni and another for Indra, but the same would serve for +either or for both. The sacrifices of which we hear in the Brahmanas +are domestic rites; they are offered by the heads of the household, +who invite ancestors also to be present. A Brahman is present to +direct those who sacrifice and the inferior priests who assist them, +and the benefits of the act extend to all the dependants of the +household. The time was determined by natural seasons or by household +events. Some sacrifices were greater than others, the more elaborate +ones requiring several days, months, or even years for their +celebration. Among the kinds of offerings which might be made we find +that of man enumerated; human sacrifice, however, if it had prevailed +in earlier times, had now grown obsolete. + +The rise of the Brahmans into a caste changed the character of the +sacrifice by making its due celebration depend more on special +knowledge, and by increasing its elaborate mystery. Once the hymn was +recognised as an essential element of such an act, the person who +could interpret the hymn and explain its effects acquired great +importance. And when the explanation of all the various features of +the sacrifice was once begun, a wide door was opened to minute +ingenuity. It is astonishing to what trifles these priestly +directories descend, what explanations are brought from every part of +earth and heaven of the most trivial circumstances, and what +sacredness is found in the very blades of grass around the altar. Now +the effect of such a treatment of ritual is inevitably that the rite +itself, the outward mechanical performance, comes to be regarded as +important, and that the ethical and religious end which was +originally aimed at, is lost sight of. The priest and those he acts +for are so intent on the minutiĉ of their celebration that they +forget about the god it is intended for. And as they are quite +convinced that the sacrifice, if offered with perfect correctness and +with nothing left out, must produce its effect, the sacrifice itself +comes to appear as the agent of the desired blessing; the god grows +less but the sacrifice grows more. This process, which may be +observed wherever ritualism exists, was carried in the period of +Brahmanism to its utmost length. In this period the old gods lost the +strong hold they had before over the people's mind; men ceased to +look for their gods to the sky or to the tempest, and began to look +instead to the long ceremonies of the priest or to the hymn he +chanted at the altar, or to the austerities he practised. Gods of a +new type now make their appearance. As in the Vedic period we saw +that Brahmanaspati, lord of prayer, had a place beside Indra and +Varuna, so now we see that the supreme deity is named Brahma. The +prayer connected with the sacrifice has given its name to the ruler +of the universe. Other names for the supreme are also found to be +making their way to general use, as the old historical and +mythological gods fall into the background, and an abstract divine +unity is sought after. Prajapati, lord of creatures, who is little +heard of in the hymns, is frequently invoked as the head of all the +gods, and a triad of gods is heard of, consisting of Agni, Vayu, +Surya, fire, the air, the sun, and summing up the divine energies. +The attributes of the gods are personified, and a set of pale +abstractions is thus added to the Pantheon; and spirits and goblins +not heard of in the hymns, though not therefore necessarily unknown +in the former period, make their appearance. These are, perhaps, the +gods of the aborigines, who thus revenge themselves, as the religion +of the invaders which at first suppressed them loses its earlier +vigour. The strong gods retire and weak gods, many and shadowy, and +bad as well as good, are worshipped. The Asuras were formerly the +gods generally, now they are evil beings with whom the good gods have +to contend. + +3. Practical Life.--We possess very complete pictures of Indian life +and manners in the period of Brahmanism. Of the codes of ancient +sages by which Hindu society was supposed to be governed many are +extant to us; and in Mr. Max Müller's _Sacred Books of the East_ the +English reader may make himself acquainted with several of these. The +most famous and the longest, is the laws of Manu, a mythical +progenitor of mankind. In the form in which we have it this work +dates probably from the second century A.D., but the body of the work +is much older. Originally a local collection of rules, it extended +its authority gradually over the entire Hindu population of India. +With other collections, also of local origin, it represents to us the +condition of Indian society after the caste system became fixed; but +much of the law thus handed down to us must have had its origin in +prehistoric times. + +The law of Manu hinges on the superiority of the Brahman over the +other castes. The Brahmans form the centre of the state and really +control everything; but their life, in turn, is framed in strict +rules, and their whole history and actions are laid down for them to +the last detail from the moment of their birth. The life of the +Brahman is divided into four periods. For a quarter of his life he is +a student living with a teacher and learning from him the sacred +knowledge of the Vedas. Every act of study begins with the so-called +Savitri-verse, "Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the divine +Vivifier. May he enlighten our understandings." This prayer, with the +mystic syllable, Om (thought to have to do with the three gods of a +triad, but probably the original meaning is Yes, an abstract +all-embracing yes, in which nothing but pure being is affirmed), is +repeated at every return to study, and also with great frequency at +other times. The teacher is more to the student than his father, and +is to be treated with the greatest deference and courtesy; these +years are a training in gentle and seemly conduct as well as in law. +His student days completed, the Brahman offers his first sacrifice, +marries, and becomes a householder. Little is said of earning a +living; the Brahman is not to be worldly, but he is to be independent +if he can. He is, however, allowed to beg if in want. But more stress +is laid on the continued pursuit of knowledge, and on the domestic +sacrifices to gods and manes which are to be his daily care. After he +has brought up a son to take charge of his house and goods, the third +stage of his life is reached; he may retire from the world and become +a recluse, giving himself to contemplation and austerities. The +fourth stage is that of the ascetic, _bhikku_ or _sannyasin_, the +aged man who having given up all possessions, all human society, and +the practice of all rites, and subsisting only on alms, seeks to +purge his heart of all desire and to become united by deep meditation +with the supreme soul, thus attaining union with Brahma and final +liberation. In this section of the laws of Manu an ideal of moral +perfection is set forth, which is not demanded at the earlier stages +of life. + +"_Let him not desire to die; let him not desire to live; let him wait +for his time as a servant for the payment of his wages._ + +"_Let him patiently bear hard words, let him not insult any one, nor +become any one's enemy for the sake of this perishable body. Against +an angry man let him not in return show anger; let him bless when he +is cursed._" + +He is to be sedulously careful not to injure any living creature, he +is to meditate on the supreme soul which is present in all organisms, +both the highest and the lowest. He is to give up all attachments, +and in this way, as his body decays, he enters even here into a state +of perfect freedom and repose and union with the great spirit. + +Such ideas prove that the mind of Brahmanism was not occupied with +sacrifices alone. Manu speaks of the superintendence of sacrifices as +only one of several careers which the Brahman might choose; and if he +might with equal right devote himself to study or to self-discipline, +we see that another side of religion than that directing itself to +external gods or occupying itself with outward acts, was pressing +itself forward. The inner world of the mind is growing larger as the +outward gods grow shadowy; it is being found that salvation may be +reached by inwards efforts as well as by outward rites, that the +search for wisdom and the work of self-conquest, and a union with the +deity which is quite apart from any offering or from any form of +worship, also lead to salvation. It is objected to the ethics of Manu +that the ideal they set up is not an active but a suffering one; the +ascetic is placed on a higher platform than the householder, men are +encouraged to withdraw from the performance of their duties in the +family and in society, and to devote themselves to an aim which, +however lofty, is personal and, so far, selfish. It is certainly a +weakness in the religion that it has no higher aim than this to set +before its most eager minds. Apart from this, life is regulated in a +way we cannot but admire. Amid the mass of trivialities and +formalities in which every action is involved there breathes a grave +humane and gentle spirit, and a sound practical morality, and the +ordinary household of the Brahman may have been a scene of activity +and cheerfulness. The Sudra, however, is spoken of everywhere as a +being whose degradation can never be removed, and to touch whom is to +be defiled. Those who belonged to no caste were in a still worse +plight and lived in the greatest misery. + +4. Philosophy.--We have seen how both in the ritual system they +administered and in the ideal they formed of the highest good, the +Brahmans were led forward from the old ground of the Vedic +nature-worship to a more inward and subjective religious attitude. +The exaltation of Brahma, the power of prayer, to be the supreme god, +was an advance from an external deity to a deity both external and +present in man's own experience; and the appearance of a new way of +salvation, though only permitted at first to the world-weary ascetic, +in which inner contemplation and absorption could lead to the highest +consummation of life, also showed that a new form of religion was at +hand. In the philosophy of the Brahmanic period, the transition is +made from the service of gods external to man, by the mechanism of +rites, to the acknowledgment of a divine being with whom man feels +himself to be inwardly akin and to whom he draws near by his own +spiritual effort. In this movement, to which we learn that members of +the lay aristocracy and even women of intellectual distinction made +important contributions, and which may have appeared in its +beginnings as a sceptical revolt against their own system, the +Brahmans yet took part, and the works in which the record of it is +contained became a part of revelation. The "Upanishads" or +"communicated doctrines," form the third branch of the sacred +knowledge, and much of this literature belongs to the period before +Buddhism. These books are read still by the educated Hindu as part of +scripture, and the philosophy of them is a part of his religion. We +can only point out the principal terms and notions of that +philosophy. + +Seeking to escape from the confusion of many gods the Indian mind is +looking out even from the Vedic period for some means to conceive of +them all as one. In the earliest period each reigned in turn as the +supreme; a god is supreme not because he is essentially the greatest +of the gods, but because circumstances have brought him to the front. +This is Henotheism. Then we have attempts to sum them all up in one +expression. Prajapati, lord of creatures, Visvakarman, maker of all +things, represent such attempts. Then we have as the supreme, Brahma, +the power of prayer,[2] a being of a different character from all his +predecessors. Brahma is an intellectual deity. He is a thinker, a +knower, he is the "Mahan Atma" or great spirit, which sits in +unbroken calm above the change and distraction of the universe. In +rendering Mahan Atma by great spirit, however, we are anticipating. +Atma, originally breath or life, comes, afterwards, to mean the +person, the self when all that is accidental is removed from it, the +essential, innermost self. Now Brahma is the great self, the inmost +essence of all things, which was before them, and is unaffected by +their changes. But man also has an atma, a self; it may be very small +and lodge in a part of the body where it cannot be detected, but it +is there, and the small atma is the same as the great one. By what +physiological doctrines this is upheld, cannot here be traced; but +the notion of the atma, the great form of which in Brahma is +identical with its small form in man, lies at the basis of Brahmanic +thought. + +[Footnote 2: On the etymology of Brahma see Mr. Max Müller's _Hibbert +Lectures_, p. 366.] + +In Brahma one god has been reached, but he has been reached by +thinking away from him everything concrete. All predicates are +unsuitable to him, as any predicate implies a limitation; he can only +be described in negatives, or in questionable metaphors. He is meant +to satisfy the religious craving for a being quite free from any +imperfection and entirely supreme--and it is the penalty of this that +he has no clear outline or character. And how indeed is he to be +related to the world? This world of change and decay, of +disappointment and sorrow, what has the perfect being to do with +that? Did he make it, and is he responsible for it? The answer to +this in Hindu thought is that the world is due to Maya, illusion. It +was due to an aberration in Brahma, which is represented in various +ways, that the transition was made from the one to the many, and this +error has been productive of all that has been suffered on the earth. +Or else it is held that it was not Brahma who became subject to +illusion, but that the illusion resides in man's views and thoughts +about the world; and if a man could free himself from the meshes of +Maya by recognising that the world is an illusion, and that nothing +exists but Brahma only, then he would have done something for his own +emancipation, the Brahma in him would be free from illusion, and he +would also have done something, though little, for the salvation of +the world from its great error. + +That the whole world-process is nothing but an illusion, a confused +and troubled dream passing over the mind of Brahma, who himself alone +is real, this is the cardinal doctrine of Brahmanism, from which +Buddhism also, as we shall see, sets out. The world is really nothing +but an apparent world; and the true wisdom, the only salvation +consists in knowing this, and in living a life in accordance with +that knowledge. The wise man should regard a world which he knows to +be illusion, with complete indifference; it can do nothing to him, he +can do nothing for it; it affects him only with an ineradicable +regret that it exists at all, and with a longing for its +disappearance. The practical outcome of the state of matters which he +recognises is firstly negative, that he must not allow the world to +influence him at all, and, secondly, positive, that he must strive to +be united with Brahma. The negative task is performed by withdrawing +the mind from all particular things, and letting it be filled with +the general, the absolute alone; and similarly by forbidding the +desires to fasten on any worldly objects, by extinguishing desire and +ceasing to be affected in any way by worldly things. The positive +task is performed by means of a mental process which we cannot here +describe, but by which the mind returns to the self that is within +and realises it as it is, cleared from all particular thoughts and +affections. These exercises cannot be called moral; where all is +illusion morality disappears. There is no good, no evil, no effort to +promote the good and lessen the evil. It is not because the world is +bad that it is condemned, but because it exists. The energy which in +other faiths is devoted to a moral struggle, is here poured into the +ascetic discipline by which the individual looks to escape altogether +from the world as it is. There are no good works, what is good is to +abstain from all works; there is no benevolence further than that the +mind must be kept clear of all that confuses or degrades; the +salvation of the individual alone is sought after; there is no desire +to spread the light and save others, since few are capable of that +knowledge of the illusive nature of all things by which alone +salvation is possible. + +This, it is plain, could never be a popular religion. Brahma, the +abstract one, does not appeal to the imagination; he could not drive +out the popular nature-gods with their definite myths and attributes. +Nor could a religion spread among the people, which regarded the +social and the domestic state as inferior, and could only be +practised by one who had left his home and family. The hermits and +ascetics and begging monks may form the religious aristocracy; but a +teaching of a different nature was necessary for the people. And we +find, in fact, two religions prevailing in India in the period of +Brahmanism; that which we have described for the enlightened, who +escapes in it from all law, all creed, all ritual, whose whole +religion more than any other which ever flourished in the world is +within the mind;[3] and on the other hand, a religion in which +outward gods are worshipped, an outward law enforced which is counted +sacred because a god or gods inspired it, and in which superstitions +gathered from all quarters find shelter. The higher religion by no +means killed the lower one, as we see in India to this day. On the +contrary, the withdrawal of the higher religion of the country to a +region whither the people could not follow, left the religion of the +people to sink into a degradation unknown before. One doctrine must +here be noticed. The belief in transmigration which Buddhism received +from the religion it found existing in India, does not belong to the +higher thought of Brahmanism described in this section; the atman or +self, which is identical with the supreme self, belongs to quite a +different order of thought from the soul which was formerly in some +one else, is now in me, and may yet come to be in many another being. +The doctrine is thought to have been an importation into India about +the time we are speaking of. It admits of being made a powerful +deterrent from vice and incentive to virtue. If my present sufferings +are due not to my acts, but to the acts of the person in whom my soul +dwelt before, it is possible for me so to act that my soul's future +existence may be better and not worse than this one, and that it +shall not sink but rise in the order of beings, and draw nearer to +its final deliverance. Of this we shall hear more in connection with +Buddhism. + +[Footnote 3: "From the standpoint of unity with Brahma, the gods are +no-gods, the Vedas no-Vedas."] + +The further development of Indian religion, apart from Buddhism, is +in two directions. There is a philosophical movement, in which the +Brahmanic ideas on God, the world, the soul and its changes, are +further worked out, and which leads to the six schools of Hindu +philosophy. On the other hand, the gods have their history. Brahma +remains the great god, but as his character is so undefined he is +little worshipped. Indra, the old national god, yields to Vishnu, the +old sun-god of the three steps (heaven, the air, the earth), who +becomes the favourite deity. The stern and destructive S'iva is a new +figure, and seems to be partly an adaptation of a god of the savage +aborigines: his worship is the most fanatical. These three, the +Creator, the Upholder, and the Destroyer, form the Trimurti, or +divine trinity of India,--a trinity arrived at not by unfolding the +riches of the one great god, but by compounding the claims of three +gods who were rivals. The doctrine of incarnation is also found here. +Vishnu has ten avatars or incarnations in human form; he comes down +to the earth when there is a special reason for his interference. In +these avatars, especially in Krishna, the dark god, whose exploits as +a hero are told in the great epic the Mahabharata, the need is to +some extent met, of which both Buddhism and Christianity lay hold, of +a divine figure who is not too far away from man, and who can be +regarded with personal affection. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Most of the books mentioned at the end of last chapter deal also with +Brahmanism. + +Of the Brahmanic literature given in the Sacred Books of the East, +the following may be mentioned:-- + + Vols. i. and xv. Upanishads. + + Vols. ii. and xiv. Sacred Laws of the Aryas. + + Vol. vii. The Institutes of Vishnu. + + Vols. xii., xxvi., and xli. The Satapatha-Brahmana (Sacrificial + Rituals). + + Vol. xxv. Manu. + + Vols. xxix., and xxx. Grihya-Sutras (Domestic Ceremonies). + + Vol. xxxiv. Vedic Hymns. xlvi. Hymns to Agni. + + Vols. xlii.-xliv. Hymns of the Atharva-Veda. + + Vols. xxxiv., xxxviii., xlviii. Vedanta Sutras. + +Muir's _Sanscrit Texts_. + +Weber, _Indische Skizzen_. + +Haug, _Aitareya Brahmana_. + + + + +CHAPTER XX +INDIA + +III. _Buddhism_ + + +In Buddhism the great movement of Indian religion works itself out to +its ultimate conclusion and reaches a stage beyond which there can be +no advance. Here we have a religion, if such it may be called, +without a god, without prayer, without priesthood or worship; a +religion which owes its great success, not to its theology, nor to +its ritual, since it has neither, but to its moral sentiment and to +its external organisation. Originating in the centre of India, and +giving practical form to Indian ideas, it spread rapidly and widely +both in the country of its birth and in neighbouring lands. It is now +extinct in India, yet it numbers more adherents than any other +religion. It has been divided since the Christian era into two great +branches. Southern Buddhism is the religion of Ceylon, of Burmah, and +of Siam; while Northern Buddhism extends over Tibet, China, and +Japan, and the islands of Java and Sumatra. + +The Literature.--These two branches of Buddhism have different +literary traditions, though some works are common to both; and these +literatures, differing from each other in language, also differ +widely in contents and in spirit. The southern tradition, composed in +Pali, the literary language of Ceylon, has recently been opened up to +scholars, and has greatly changed their views of the origin and the +true nature of this religion. The Canon of Southern Buddhism, which +we might call the Pali Bible, is a literature about twice as large as +the Bible of Europe, although if the repetitions in it were removed, +it would be somewhat smaller than the Bible. It consists of three +Pitakas, baskets or collections. The first is the Vinaya Pitaka, +dealing with discipline, but including the Mahavagga, a history of +the first beginnings of the order as the founder gathered it around +him. The second is the Sutta Pitaka or collection of teachings. It +contains the earliest account of the later life of the founder, books +of meditation and devotion, collections of sayings by the Master, +poems, fairy tales, and fables, stories about Buddhist saints, and so +on. The third collection, the Abidhamma, contains speculations and +discussions on various subjects. Much of these materials is not +peculiar to Buddhism, there is much pre-Buddhistic speculation, and +there are many stories which are not peculiar even to India. Along +with all this, however, the books give us the earliest accounts of +the life and of the death of the founder, and contain a +representation written a century after his death, of what he was +considered to have taught. The founder himself wrote nothing; but the +work of composing books about him and his doctrine began early, and +much of the canon is considered, especially by English scholars, to +have been in existence during the first Buddhist century.[1] For many +centuries they were preserved by memory alone. + +[Footnote 1: The Buddhist literature given in the _Sacred Books of +the East_ is as follows: + + Vol. x. The Dhammapada, containing the quintessence of Buddhist + morality, and the Sutta-nipata, giving teachings of Buddha on + religion. + + Vol. xi. Buddhist Suttas. Religious, moral, and philosophical + discourses. Vol. xlix. Buddhist Mahayana Sutras. + + Vol. xiii. Vinaya Texts. The Patimokha or order of discipline, and + the beginning of the Mahavagga, containing an account of the + opening of the ministry of the founder. + + Vol. xvii. Vinaya Texts ii. Mahavagga continued. Kullavagga or + discipline as established by the Master. + + Vol. xx. Kullavagga continued. + + Vols. xxii., xlv. contain Suttas of the religion of the Jainas. + + Vols. xxxv., xxxvi. Questions of King Milinda.] + +Was there a Personal Founder?--Senart in his _Essai sur la légende du +Buddha_, and Kern in his _Het Buddhisme in Indie_, both hold that we +have here to do with a sun-myth, and interpret the various features +of the legend in a very ingenious way in accordance with that theory. +This view has made few converts. Many incidents in the story are +natural, and appear to be due to a real tradition; there is literary +evidence of the early existence of the books, and the religion can be +best understood if regarded as the work of a real personality of +commanding greatness.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Recent archĉological discoveries, of which an account is +given by Mr. Rhys Davids in the _Century Magazine_, April 1902, place +it beyond doubt that the Buddha really existed, and that pious +offices were paid to his ashes after his cremation by the members of +his own clan as well as by others. Inscriptions brought to light in +1898 show that the Sakhya clan, of which he was a member, dwelt at +the time of his death in what is now a frontier district of Nepal. +Three years before that event they were driven from their old capital +Kapilavastu; but they formed a new one fifteen miles further south, +just beyond the present frontier of Nepal, and there they erected a +_stupa_ or massive stone cairn, to guard the portion of the ashes of +the Buddha which was committed to their keeping.] + +Scholars, however, are agreed as to the difficulty of drawing the +line between what is history and what is legend. Even in the early +Pali accounts the hero has become a religious figure, he wears titles +which lift him above mankind, and he has supernatural powers at his +command. A laborious critical process must be undertaken, comparing +the various narratives with each other and testing them in other +ways, before the real history can be regarded as made out beyond +question. The slight sketch of the story which we give does not aim +at such critical correctness; we merely indicate the outline of a +narrative which is one of the principal sources of the strength of +the religion. + +The Story of the Founder.--The founder's family name was Gautama, and +by that name he was commonly known during his lifetime. The personal +name given him as a child was Siddartha. Those who wished after his +death to speak of him with reverence called him Sakya-Muni, the Sage +of the Sakyas. These were a tribe who dwelt, at the period of the +story, _i.e._ half a millennium before Christ, in the country to the +north of the sacred Ganges, a few days' journey from the city of +Benares. Gautama's father, Suddhodana, was rajah (chief) of the +Sakyas; his residence was Kapilavastu, near Oude. The future sage +thus belonged to the Kshatriya class, and was accustomed to a +position of rank and ease. We hear little of his youth; he had been +married ten years, and his wife, whom he loved, had just brought him +a son, when, at the age of twenty-nine, he suddenly and secretly left +his home to devote himself to the religious life. He was led to this +step by witnessing various painful sights which caused him vividly to +realise the suffering which accompanies all existence, and made him +scorn a life of luxury. It was a time when many were seeking a better +way, and when a superior mind naturally turned to that retirement and +absorption in which it was believed that the key to life's pains and +mysteries was to be found. In the "Great Renunciation," as this act +is called, there is nothing we cannot understand. This lofty act, +however, was followed by a temptation; Mara, the spirit of evil, +urged him, but urged him in vain, to give up the purpose he had +formed. He then attached himself to Brahmanic ascetics, from whom he +learned their philosophy; and after this he devoted himself for six +years to a life of fasting and penance, the Brahmanic method for +drawing nearer the goal of the religious life. After this period he +gave up his fasting, not having profited by it as he had expected, +and returned to an ordinary diet. This change cost him the adhesion +of five disciples who had become attached to him, and had been filled +with wonder at his mortifications. But the loss was a small one +compared with the gain which was at hand. After a second great +spiritual struggle and a renewal of the temptation, he at last +reached that which he had long been seeking. Seated under a _ficus +religiosa_, the tree afterwards called the tree of knowledge, or the +Bo-tree, he rose in contemplation above all his temptations and +doubts till he beheld at length the true nature of things. From this +moment he was Buddha, Enlightened; he had the key of truth, and for +himself he was assured that sorrow and evil had lost all hold on him. +His doctrine had dawned in his mind. He had discovered the cause of +the sorrow which is so closely intertwined in man's life, and had +divined the way in which sorrow might be overcome. The method had +been found by which one could escape from the unending succession of +new lives, all painful, to which, according to the general belief of +the time, men were condemned. The words placed in the mouth of the +founder when he attained to Buddhahood tell their own tale. "Looking +for the Maker of this tabernacle, I have to run through a course of +many births so long as I do not find him; and painful is birth again +and again. But now, Maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; +thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are +broken; thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the +eternal, has attained to the extinction of all desires."[3] + +[Footnote 3: Dhammapada, _S. B. E._ x. 42.] + +The great discovery being made, and duly pondered and realised, the +question arose, What was to be done with it? The Buddha shrinks from +the work of preaching it to others. Brahma himself is brought into +the story to encourage him to make his secret known to others, and to +assure him that many will receive it with great joy. The Blessed One +consents, and thus replies: "Wide open is the gate of the Immortal to +all who have ears to hear; let them send forth faith to meet it. The +teaching is sweet and good; because I despaired of the task, I spake +not to men before."[4] He turns his steps, guided by his own +supernatural knowledge, to the city of Benares, to seek the five +monks who had formerly abandoned him. On his way thither he meets a +naked ascetic who asks the reason of his cheerful mien; he answers +that he has overcome all foes, has reached emancipation by the +destruction of desire, and has obtained Nirvana. "To found the +kingdom of Truth I go to the city of the Kasis (Benares); I will beat +the drum of the Immortal in the darkness of this world." The account +which follows of the opening of the "kingdom of righteousness" +presents many analogies to the early stages of other spiritual +movements. The founder, immovably sure of himself and of his +doctrines, goes from place to place, spending the rainy season in +town, and preaching everywhere. It is at Benares that the "wheel of +the law" is first set in motion; there the first sermon was preached. +The circumstances are also narrated under which other sermons were +delivered, details being given as to time, place, the persons who +heard them, the incidents which occasioned them. His converts at +first are few and their names are recorded, but by degrees they +become more numerous. The more devoted of them become members of his +order, Bhikkus (for Bhikshus), mendicants; they forsake domestic +life, shave their heads, adopt the yellow dress and the alms-bowl. +They also are sent out to preach. "Go ye, O Bhikkus, and wander, for +the welfare of many, out of compassion for the world, for the gain +and for the welfare of gods and men. Let not two of you go the same +way. Preach, O Bhikkus, the doctrine which is glorious in the +beginning, glorious in the middle, glorious in the end, in the +spirit, and in the letter; proclaim a consummate, perfect, and pure +life of holiness. There are beings whose mental eyes are covered with +scarcely any dust, but if the doctrine is not preached to them they +cannot attain salvation." The incidents narrated in this part of the +story are mostly connected with persons seeking admission to the +order, or persons requiring to be convinced; the doctrine and its +spread are everything. That spread takes place, as it is desired by +the Buddha, chiefly among the higher classes of society; a great +triumph is reached when Bimbisara, king of Magadha, becomes a patron +of the order, and some accounts tell of the conversion of the +Buddha's own father and mother. The work of the mission is of a +peaceful nature; the Buddha lives on good terms with the Brahmans and +with other teachers and their pupils. The only formidable opposition +he had to meet arose within the order. His cousin Dewadatta, who had +become a monk, wished to found a new order with much stricter rules +than those of the original one. The Buddha refused to attach +importance, as was proposed, to matters of clothes and food, or +living in the open air; to do so would have made his movement +narrower and less universal than he desired. + +[Footnote 4: Mahavagga, _S. B. E._ xiii. 88.] + +The beginning of the ministry is told in some detail, but of a long +period of the life only a few scattered incidents are given. There is +a detailed account of the three last months of the life. The Buddha +is now eighty years of age, and in the Maha-paranibbana Sutta[5] the +tale of his migrations and preachings is carried on according to the +same scheme as in the accounts of his early days. During the rainy +season, however, when he has reached the age of eighty, he has an +illness, and sees he cannot live long. This he tells his monks, +exhorting them with urgency to be true to the teaching and the order, +and to shed the light abroad. His end is hastened by a meal of pork +set before him by a goldsmith, a man of low caste, who hospitably +entertained him. After this his face shines with a heavenly radiance, +and as the end approaches many heavenly signs appear. The Buddha is +fully conscious that he is about to leave the world, and that his +death is an event of supreme interest to the heavenly powers, whom he +believes to be thronging around to watch his last hours. He is +solicitous, however, to soothe the grief of his friends, large +numbers of whom also are around him, and to give them such counsels +and such incentives to a faithful upholding of the cause as he yet +may. They ask about his obsequies, and he claims that the remains of +such an one as he is, of a Tathagata, "one who has attained +perfection," should be treated as men treat the remains of a king of +kings. He recognises the kindness of Ananda, his most intimate +disciple, and tries to comfort him by encouraging him to be earnest +in effort, so that he too may soon be free from evils. He directs his +disciples generally not to mourn too much at his removal as if they +were being deserted. The truths which he has set forth, and the rules +of the order he has laid down for them, are to be their teacher after +he is gone. He asks if any of them has any doubt or misgiving as to +the Buddha, or the truth, or the faith, or the way. If so, they are +to inquire freely, so that they may not reproach themselves +afterwards for not having consulted him while still among them. The +brethren, however, are silent, though addressed again and again in +the same way. In the whole assembly there is not one who has any +doubt or misgiving. Even the most backward of these brethren has +become converted (lit. "entered into the current"); he is no longer +liable to be born to a state of suffering, but is assured of eternal +salvation. + +[Footnote 5: _S. B. E._ vol. xl.] + +"Then the Blessed One addressed the brethren and said, 'Behold now, +brethren, I exhort you,' saying, 'Decay is inherent in all things +that have come into being. Work out your salvation with diligence!' + +"This was the last word of the Tathagata!" + +His death or Nirvana forms the era of Buddhist chronology, and the +date has now been approximately fixed with some certainty; it took +place somewhere in the decade 482-472 B.C. + +Is Buddhism a Revolt against Brahmanism?--Before proceeding to +discuss the religion to which this somewhat monkish narrative forms +the preface, it is necessary to say a few words on the relation which +that religion is now supposed to hold to the general history of +Indian piety. It was customary, till recently, to regard Buddha as a +great reformer, and his religion as a great revolt against that which +it found prevailing in India. He is credited with having preached +atheism as a reaction against the burdensome worship of too many +gods, with having instituted a great social movement consisting in +the abolition of caste, with having openly denied the authority of +the Vedas, till then unchallenged, and with having rebuked the pride +of Brahmanism by making his order of mendicants the representatives +of his religion. None of these assertions can now be upheld. Instead +of having been a tremendous reaction against Brahmanism it is seen +that Buddhism was the natural outgrowth of that system. The closer +knowledge of both, gained by the opening up of the sacred books of +India, tends to show that much that was formerly thought distinctive +of Buddhism was in reality inherited from Brahmanism. We saw in +dealing with the earlier form of Indian religion that a form of piety +had been struck out in it which made the ascetic independent of +sacrifice, priesthood, even of the gods, all save the one God who is +in all things. In that phase of Indian religion the authority of the +Vedas had already been impugned, an inner discipline had taken the +place of outward worship, the saint had learned to forsake the world. +This turn of religious thought produced all the phenomena of Buddhism +before the period of Gautama. The sannyasin (_vide sup._, chapter +xix.) of Brahmanism is also called bhikku, mendicant; the rules of +the older ascetics are closely similar to those of the Buddhist monk; +their very outfit, their cloak and alms-bowl, are the same. + +A circumstance which shows very clearly how far Buddhism was from +bearing the character of a revolt, is the occurrence at the same time +and in the same district of India of another movement of a very +similar nature. Jainism is an Indian religion so like Buddhism as to +have been considered by many to be a sect of the latter. It also has +an order of monks with robes and with a rule like those of the +Buddhist fraternity. It also has a human founder on whom many of the +same titles are conferred as on Gautama, and who is afterwards +deified and worshipped. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is, like +Gautama, the son of a royal house; and the Jainist and the Buddhist +legend have many features in common. Was the legend of Mahavira, +then, a sectarian version of the legend of Gautama, did no such +person exist, at least as the founder of a religious body? So it was +formerly considered; but it has now been discovered that the Buddhist +scriptures themselves bear witness to the actual existence of +Mahavira in the lifetime of Gautama, who once had an encounter with +him and confuted him. It appears then that two similar movements were +going on close together at the same time. They were independent of +each other; the two rules differ in important particulars. Jainism +carries to a much greater length than Buddhism the "ahimsa," or +prohibition of the destruction of life; the Jainists practise +austerities which Buddhism discards, and in the philosophies of the +two systems there are far-reaching discrepancies. On the other hand, +both Buddhism and Jainism borrow from Brahmanism most of their +practices and institutions; both are developments of the way of +salvation struck out not by Brahmans alone, but by men of other +castes and other views, when faith in the old national gods was +growing dim. + +We now proceed to discuss the Buddhist system, taking it as it +appears in the early books, which tell us at least what was believed +in the fourth century B.C. to have been the ideas and intentions of +the founder. The following is the formula in which the convert +expressed his desire to be admitted to the order: "I take shelter in +the Buddha, I take shelter in the Dhamma (doctrine), I take shelter +in the Samgha (order)." + +1. The Buddha.--This confession of faith is directed to a triad of +which the Buddha is the first member. Now the title Buddha was not +invented by Buddhism, but belongs to earlier Indian thought, which +held that from time to time, in a specially favoured age, an +Enlightened One and Enlightener, an omniscient and perfect teacher, +visited the world. Of these there had been in former ages +twenty-four, and the followers of Gautama held him to be the +twenty-fifth, but not the last. The application to Gautama of this +title removed him, to the believer, from the ranks of ordinary men, +and was the signal for a constantly increasing exaltation of his +person. In adhering to the Buddha, therefore, the convert is not +bowing to a mere man, but to one in whom a new type of deity is on +the way to be realised. He is a man; there is a record of his human +life, in which he made a great renunciation, abandoning, out of +compassion for men's sufferings, a position of lordly ease for that +of the mendicant. In this way he is a saviour not too exalted for the +pious heart to love and follow. Having found out in his own +experience the way of peace, and opened up that way for others, he is +a pattern and an encouragement as well as a lawgiver to the earnest +soul; and the personal relation which may thus be enjoyed with the +founder is one great secret of the success of the religion. On the +other hand, he is more than a man. The belief grew up very early that +he was not born in the ordinary way, but that his birth had been his +own voluntary act, and that his great renunciation consisted in his +choosing, out of compassion for men, to enter human life and to bear +the burden of its sufferings. In this way a religion which originally +had no gods and no worship began to supply itself with these. Some +scholars hold that it was among the lay community, among men not +thoroughly initiated into Buddhist thought, and failing to find in +the new faith what their former religions had afforded, that the +deification of the Buddha and the worship of him began; it may +certainly be doubted whether the religion could have lived long or +spread far if these deficiencies had not been early supplied. + +2. The Doctrine.--The life of the founder gives us the key to his +doctrine. We see at once that that doctrine was not negative but +positive and constructive. Neither was it socially of a revolutionary +character, nor did it deny any part of the existing religion. We +never read that Gautama's teaching was assailed by the Brahmans as +unsound; it was centuries after his death that antagonism broke out +between the order and the upholders of other systems. Nor again did +the teaching put forward a new philosophy. On certain points which we +shall notice there is a development of thought in it; but this was +not obtruded. + +In fact the doctrine is not a speculation at all, but a way of +salvation which is preached for its own sake, and carefully guarded +from being mixed up with speculative or religious controversy. The +Buddha is one who has found out a new way to be saved, and he comes +forward to preach what he has discovered, and that alone. Other +matters he leaves as they are. "All his discourses savour of +redemption as all the sea is salt." Other men may draw inferences as +to the relation his doctrine bears to the position of the Brahmans, +or to the sacrifices, or to existing beliefs; he does not draw these +inferences, he feels no need to do so. + +The doctrine professes to be an answer to a definite problem--the +problem of pain. It is the most characteristic thing about both the +founder and the doctrine, that they start from the universal +existence of pain, to seek a remedy for it; they are inspired +therefore from the first by a dark view of human life, and by the +sentiment of compassion. It was the impression made on the young +prince, of the general prevalence of suffering, that drove him forth +from the palace to be a sannyasin or devotee. In a striking sermon he +uses the figure of fire to indicate how universal is the rule of pain +in all parts of nature and of human life. "All is burning; the eye is +burning, and all it looks on and all it remembers of what it has +seen"; so it is with each of the senses, so also with the mind. The +fire is that of passion, of malice, of illusion, of birth, of age, of +death, of pain, despondency, and despair. But the nature of the +complaint from which man suffers, and also the remedy for it, are +described most clearly in the "Four Noble Truths" set forth in the +opening sermon at Benares. In these memorable utterances the teacher +expresses himself according to the rules of the medical art, first +setting forth the nature of the disease, then its cause, then how it +takes end, and lastly, the means to be adopted in order that it may +do so. + +1. The Noble Truth of _Suffering_. Birth is suffering, decay is +suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering. Presence of +objects we hate is suffering, separation from objects we love is +suffering, not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Briefly, the +fivefold clinging to existence is suffering. + +2. The Noble Truth of the _Cause of Suffering_. Thirst that leads to +rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here +and there. This thirst is threefold, namely, thirst for pleasure, +thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity. + +3. The Noble Truth of the _Cessation of Suffering_. It ceases with +the complete cessation of this thirst, a cessation which consists in +the absence of every passion, with the abandoning of this thirst, +with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire. + +4. The Noble Truth of the _Path which leads to the Cessation of +Suffering_. The holy eightfold Path; that is to say, Right Belief, +Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of +Livelihood, Right Endeavour, Right Memory, Right Meditation. + +In these statements there are some things which we can readily +understand, but also some things which are not so easy. It is a +thought with which Christians are familiar, that desire is the parent +of all sorts of pain and disappointment, that the assertion of the +self, the putting forward of personal wishes and claims, involves +suffering. And we read in the Gospels that the way to escape from +such suffering is to cease from desire, no longer to be anxious about +what this world can give us or take from us, and not to lay up +treasures. Buddhist doctrine has its moral basis in the perception of +the vanity of all human effort and desire, and in the conviction that +the true riches for man cannot consist in any of those goods to which +the heart naturally clings. Where that perception does not exist, +where the first of the Noble Truths is not accepted as beyond all +question, Buddhism can have no hold. So far the doctrine is easy to +follow. But in the second of the Truths we find that the cause of +suffering is sought in the history of the human person as Indian +thought conceives it. Man suffers because he has been born again, has +suffered a rebirth, and the cause of his rebirth is the thirst which +has been felt or even nourished in a previous existence. The thought +that suffering is due to desire is not presented simply, as it is in +our Gospels, but in connection with a doctrine of man's life and of +the connection of one generation with another, which is quite strange +to us, but apart from which primitive Buddhism held that its doctrine +of suffering could not be understood. The Buddha, after discovering +the doctrine, is at first in doubt whether or not he will preach it; +and the cause of his doubt is that he is not sure if men will be able +to understand the law of causality and the chain of existence, on +which he himself meditated a whole night after his enlightenment, and +his discovery of which he regards as a great part of his achievement. +This chain of causation is stated in a long series of asserted +processes, in which the connection between one generation and +another, and the transmission from life to life of the melancholy +heritage of desire and sorrow, is obscurely and enigmatically traced. +The beginning of all is ignorance (of the four truths); from +ignorance proceed the "samkharas" or forms of production, from these +in turn consciousness, the senses, contact, sensation, thirst, and so +on to birth and the miseries of life. Suffering is destroyed by +tracing this sequence over again in a negative way, so that, the +first member of it being destroyed, each subsequent member is +destroyed in turn. + +It is no wonder that the founder doubted whether this doctrine of +causation would be generally understood; for it is in fact an attempt +to reconcile two opposite views of the nature of the human person. In +the first place we find in early Buddhism the thought that there is +no such thing as a self in the human being; a man is made up of +various bundles of attributes and sensations called _skandhas_, but +he himself is none of these. There is no persistent substratum of a +self under these activities and forms, any more than there is a +carriage in addition to the wheels, shafts, nails, etc., of which a +carriage is composed. The Buddhist is called on to give up the belief +in a permanent ego; only where the various parts come together is the +man there. This is the well-known denial of the soul in this +religion; the soul is nothing but the "name and form" of a chance +collocation of elements. It is hard to know where this doctrine came +from; Kern says it is derived from the science of dissection, others +compare it with the doctrine of Heraclitus, taught about the same +time in Greece, that all things are in constant flux, nothing +permanent. The last words of the Master assert that decay is +universal; and the doctrine of the skandhas is a corollary from that +principle; if all the elements of which the human person is made up +are in process of decay, then the self cannot be a substantial and +persistent thing. That doctrine, however, does not go well together +with the belief in the universality and inexorableness of suffering. +If there is no self, must not consciousness come to an end when the +elements fall asunder which chance has brought together, and must not +the hour of death be also the hour of complete emancipation? This, +however, it was impossible to hold in India at the time of Gautama; +the belief in transmigration was too firmly fixed, he never thought +of disputing it. That belief indeed is what chiefly makes the +suffering of the world so lamentable. To Indian eyes the pain +actually in the world was magnified a hundred-fold by the dark +imagination of its connection with the past and with the future. What +a man suffered was the result of acts done in many former lives, all +spent in the vain misery of desire; and the sad prospect was extended +before him that death would not end his pains, but that he would be +born again and again to suffer ever anew so long as desire continued. +But if this is the case, then the soul would seem to be a durable and +persistent thing which is able to go through many lives and much +suffering without being brought to an end. On the theory of +transmigration the soul is not a mere shadow-name of an aggregation +of qualities, but the one durable thing which survives when all that +is accidental and temporary falls away from it. The doctrine of the +Skandhas and that of transmigration are thus opposed, and the +doctrine of the _nidanas_ or the chain of causation is the bridge +which satisfied Gautama's own mind, but which he was doubtful about +presenting to others, to bring them into harmony. He aimed at showing +by his catalogue of these obscure processes how the actions done in a +life set up a tendency to a corresponding existence in another life +which begins after the former one ends. Though there is no soul to be +transmitted, the moral effects of former lives are transmitted to +their successors. + +The essential doctrine of the Buddha, however, is determined by the +belief in transmigration. His cry of triumph at the time of his +enlightenment is to the effect that the long series of suffering +existences through which he has passed has now come to an end, and +that he will not be born again. And what he preaches with constant +iteration is the misery of this awful succession of births to renewal +of suffering, and the infinite blessedness of escaping from this +cycle. The disciple, when converted, is to be able to say: "Hell is +destroyed for me, and rebirth as an animal or a ghost or in any place +of woe. I am converted, I am no longer liable to be reborn in a state +of suffering, and am assured of eternal salvation." + +Now it rests with a man's own acts to end his sufferings. The chain +of causation which ends with suffering begins with ignorance. The +ignorance which is meant is that of the four noble truths, of the way +of salvation. Let a man cease from ignorance, let him accept the +Noble Truths and the insight they convey into the cause of suffering, +then by ceasing to thirst, or to burn, or in our own language by +turning his mind away from all desire, believing that what he does +will be effective for his salvation, he sets up a chain of causation +in an opposite direction, and having destroyed ignorance he may rest +assured that he has destroyed suffering too and is in the right way. +The burden he has inherited he will not need to carry any farther, +but will, when he dies, lay down for ever. + +When we look at the fourth Noble Truth, which tells what a man has to +do in order to obtain this salvation, we are at first surprised. +After the deep earnestness with which the nature of the disease and +the cause and cure of the disease have been stated, we expect that +stronger practical measures will be asked for than these eight forms +of moderation. Christianity speaks of cutting off the right hand, +plucking out the right eye, in order to cut off desire: and the +Brahmanic method of union with the Deity was, as we have seen, that +of the most extreme self-mortification united with contemplation. +This Brahmanic method, the _yoga_ by which the devotee sought to +escape from all the accidents of being and to make himself one with +the great Self, the Buddha had tried for six years; but he had given +it up for a year when the hour of his enlightenment struck, and he +explicitly condemns for others the path he had found unprofitable for +himself. It is one of two extremes, both to be avoided, "The one +extreme is a life devoted to pleasures and lusts; this is degrading, +sensual, vulgar, profitless; the other is a life given to +mortifications; this is painful, ignoble, and profitless. By avoiding +these two extremes the Tathagata has gained the knowledge of the +Middle Path, which leads to insight, wisdom, calm, to Nirvana." The +way, therefore, to escape from the Karma, the moral retribution which +works inexorably in one life the result stored up in previous lives, +is that of a careful and unintermitted self-discipline, which does +not run to extremes, but practices, with perfectly clear purpose and +self-possession, the needful virtues mentioned in the fourth of the +Noble Truths. What are these? There is to be-- + + 1. Right belief, without superstition or delusion. + + 2. Right aspiration, after such things as the thoughtful and + earnest man sets store by. + + 3. Right speech, speech that is friendly and sincere. + + 4. Right conduct, conduct that is peaceable, honourable, and pure. + + 5. Right means of livelihood, _i.e._ a pursuit which does not + involve the taking or injuring of life. + + 6. Right endeavour, _i.e._ self-restraint and watchfulness. + + 7. Right memory, _i.e._ presence of mind, not forgetting at any + time what one ought to remember; and + + 8. Right meditation, _i.e._ earnest occupation with the riddles of + life. + +This is the path; there are four stages of it-- + + 1. The stage of him who has entered the path. + + 2. The stage of him who has yet to return once to life. + + 3. The stage of him who returns not again, but may be born again as + a superior being; and + + 4. The stage of the worthy, holy one, the _Arahat_, who is free + from desire for existence, and also from pride and + self-righteousness, and who is saved and has obtained holiness, + even in this life. + +An Arahat is not equal to a Buddha; the former is himself saved, but +the perfect Buddha is able by his perfect knowledge to save others. +Of Buddhas, however, there are not many. One becomes an Arahat by a +life of strenuous and untiring discipline. Ten fetters are to be +broken by which a man is kept from freedom; self-deception is one of +them, trust in sacrifice another, and the list embraces both sensual +and intellectual weaknesses. One must watch and be sober; every act, +however trivial, is to be done with full self-consciousness and +earnestness. One must remember that he is engaged in a great and a +hard work, and must resolutely "swim upstream," estimating at its +proper value every affection and temptation that would hold him back. +The body is to be contemned, and all natural ties; emotion is to be +uprooted from the heart so that the proper state of entire calm and +undisturbedness may be maintained. Then one is an Arahat, a true +Brahman. This manner of life requires withdrawal from the world; the +true salvation can only be attained by him who has left his home for +the houseless life. But Buddhism has also a general moral code for +those who have not taken this step; the keeping of it will not save +them directly; from the life they are now leading that is impossible, +but it is a beginning; it will make it easier for them to become +Arahats and attain salvation in some future existence. For all it is +good to be free from desire; as all desire contains in itself a germ +of death, there is no approach to salvation except in this direction. + +Buddhist Morality.--Towards fellow-men Buddhist morality is based on +the notion of the equality of all; respect is to be paid to all +living beings. The five rules of righteousness which are binding on +all followers of the Buddha are: + + 1. Not to kill any living being. + + 2. Not to take that which is not given. + + 3. To refrain from adultery. + + 4. To speak no untruth. + + 5. To abstain from all intoxicating liquors. + +To these are added five more for members of the order, who are also +required to refrain from all sexual intercourse, viz.: + + 1. Not to eat after mid-day. + + 2. Not to be present at dancing, singing, music, or plays. + + 3. Not to use wreaths, scents, ointments, or personal ornaments. + + 4. Not to use a high or a broad bed. + + 5. To possess no silver or gold. + +These commandments, like those of the Decalogue, are negative in +form; but in the Buddhist scriptures a positive moral ideal is +inculcated on all, which is grave and attractive in its character, +and is sustained by a strong though quiet enthusiasm. We find here a +delicate conscientiousness as to the relations to be cultivated with +one's fellow-men; the widest toleration is enjoined, a toleration +extending to all beings, to all opinions. Hatred is to be repaid by +love, life is to be filled with kindness and compassion. The +Dhammapada and the Sutta-nipata deserve to be read by all who care +for the unseen riches of the soul. By their simple earnestness, their +quaint use of parable and metaphor, and their mingling of the +homeliest things with the highest truths, these books take rank among +the most impressive of the religious books of the world. We give only +a few jewels from this treasury. + +From the Dhammapada.--Earnestness is the path of immortality +(Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in +earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already. + +All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded +on what we have thought, it is made up of what we have thought. If a +man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a +shadow that never leaves him. + +By oneself evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is +left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong +to oneself; no one can purify another. + +From the Sutta-nipata.--To live in a suitable country, to have done +good deeds in a former existence, and a thorough study of oneself, +this is the highest blessing. + +As a mother at the risk of her life watches over her own child, her +only child, so also let every one cultivate a boundless friendly mind +towards all beings. + +A Bhikku who has turned away from desire and attachment, and is +possessed of understanding in this world, has already gone to the +immortal place, the unchangeable state of Nirvana. + +Nirvana.--Our account of the doctrine would appear incomplete if we +did not attempt to answer the question, What is Nirvana? It is, as +the last extract shows, the state of salvation in Buddhism. As we +have seen, it is the condition of the man who has escaped from the +series of rebirths, and will never be born again. It is attained even +in this life by the Arahat, in whom all desire and restlessness have +come to an end. On the other hand, it is said of such an one that he +enters Nirvana when he dies, as if it were a state not of this life, +but of the period beyond. Thus it has been much debated whether the +Buddhist (or rather Indian, for the notion is not peculiar to +Buddhism) Nirvana is extinction, annihilation, of which the quenching +of desire in this life is the prelude, or if it is a state of +negative or quiescent blessedness, on which the saint can enter here +and now, but which is only made perfect when he dies. But there are +two Nirvanas;--that of entire passionlessness attained in this life, +and the consummate Nirvana entered at death. The saint does not need +to wait for death for his redemption, nor must he hasten his death in +order to enjoy it fully; Buddha, by example and by precept, forbids +any such anticipation. Death seals that which was already won, there +is no return from the Nirvana of death to any further life. This, +however, does not amount to an assertion that the dead Arahat has no +life or knowledge in the beyond; he is freed from desire, but whether +his consciousness is altogether extinguished, Buddhism does not +decide, and regards as a vain speculation. + +No Gods.--We shall speak afterwards of this view of redemption, which +is the key to the nature of the Buddhist religion. We remark here +that it is a redemption man achieves by his own efforts, without any +outward prop or aid. In this system there is no occasion for any +priests or sacrifices, for any prayers, or for any gods. There is no +ritual, because there is no object of worship, there is no sin in the +sense of offending a higher being. The gods are denied not because of +any speculative doubt of their existence, but because in that inner +world of moral effort which man has come to feel so supremely real +and important, they have no part to play. As all the gods faded away +in Indian speculation before Brahma, so Brahma's own turn has come to +fade away. The Buddhist speaks of the gods as if they existed, and he +makes no attack on the sacrifices; but no living god fills his heart. +The Buddha is greater than all the gods; his teaching is for the +benefit of gods as well as men. But the Buddha is not an object of +worship. If the Buddhist can be said to worship any higher power, it +is the moral order which never fails to reward men according to the +deeds done in this or former existences. That is for him a real and +tremendous, though impersonal power, and in contemplating it he may +be said to worship after a fashion. But he has no aid to look for +from any power in heaven or earth in working out his salvation. +Buddhism is the most autosoteric of all religions; it declares more +uncompromisingly than any other, that man must save himself by his +own efforts, and that no one can possibly stand in his place or +relieve him of any part of his great task. All that any one, even the +Buddha, can do for another, is to enlighten him, to open his eyes to +the true knowledge, and show him the narrow path on which he must +thenceforth walk. + +3. The Order.--There were monks before Buddhism. That religion made +its appearance when Indian thought was at the stage of growth at +which monastic communities may be expected to arise. When religion +has ceased to be regarded as the affair of the nation or the tribe, +and is cherished as the affair of the individual, when the mind turns +from the sacrifices and ritual of public religion to cultivate +relations with a power known chiefly in the heart and soul, and when +religious duty has thus come to be recognised as a boundless and +all-embracing thing, not a service the hands and feet can discharge, +but the effort, never ending, still beginning, to make the whole +personality with all its acts and aims conform to the ideal, then it +is that men who are living for religion seek for such aid as they can +give each other, and find it in an order and a discipline. The rules +of the Buddhist Samgha or order are extant, and so are the rules of +the contemporary Jainist fraternity. The Samgha resembled the +Franciscan more than the other great Christian orders. The Bhikku on +joining it abandoned his family and property, assumed the yellow robe +and other scanty properties of the character, and lived thenceforth +by begging, and in strict subjection to the rules, in which every +detail of his food, his clothing, his residence, and his daily walk +and conversation, were laid down. The two great objects of the +society were mutual help in the religious life and the preaching of +the doctrine. Under the first head come the frequent meetings of +monks and the confessions they make to each other according to a +fixed form. There is no vow of obedience; the monk obeys the law, not +the human authority. In preaching they are to go one by one, and they +are to preach to all. To all who would hear it was the gate open to +this salvation. Here the Buddhist neglect of caste comes in. Buddhism +makes no general or formal declaration of the equality of all men, +nor is there any attack on the Brahman caste or any exaltation of the +lower castes. The order drew its recruits at first from the ranks of +the Brahmans. But the impelling motive of the new religion was +compassion, and genuine compassion is not to be restrained in +artificial limits. The salvation preached was fitted for all men. The +disease to be cured was one from which all suffer, and the cure was +one which all could at least begin to lay hold of. Thus Buddhism was +fitted to break through the barriers of caste, and to gather into one +religious community men of all castes alike. In the community, it was +held, these distinctions disappeared. Not birth but conduct there +made the true Brahman. The universalist tendency of the religion also +fitted it to spread to other lands. It was not limited by anything in +its teaching to the soil of India, nor to the territory of any +particular set of gods. So wide indeed is its toleration, that a man +may embrace it without giving up the faith in which he lived before. +One can add it without incongruity to one's former beliefs and +practices. The believer in Shang-ti can be a Buddhist as well as the +believer in Brahma.[6] The absence of any hierarchy or centralised +organisation enabled it to spread freely, and the very meagreness of +its doctrine, and its freedom from ritual, were also in its favour. + +[Footnote 6: Millions of Buddhists in China and Japan are also +adherents of the other religions of these countries.] + +Buddhism made Popular.--Buddhism proved able to spread over many +lands because it was so simple, and in its essence so moral and so +broadly human. But, like other faiths which have spread to many +lands, it assumed very different forms in different countries, and +the later form is often very different from the early simplicity. +Even at the outset it was not free from a strong infusion of magic; +the Arahat, like the Brahmanic ascetic before him, was believed to +obtain influence over the gods by his virtues, and thus a claim to +supernatural power is brought in, which agrees but ill with the +ethical doctrine. The religion, which at first ignored the gods and +bade each man trust to his own efforts for his highest good, became, +ere long, what a popular religion at the stage of progress prevailing +at that time necessarily was, namely, a worship of superior beings +and a method of obtaining benefits from them. The national gods were +discarded, but the deification of the founder early furnished a being +who could be worshipped. Legend grew luxuriantly round his birth and +early career; and he obtained the rank of the greatest of all the +gods. Former Buddhas who had lived in former ages still lived as +gods; and the divine family, being once founded, admitted of various +additions; even a popular deity, such as Indra, could be joined to +the growing circle. The chief scenes of the life of the founder +became holy places and objects of pilgrimage, where relics were +exposed for adoration. The growth of legend and of magic proceeded +more rapidly, and went to greater lengths, in Northern than in +Southern Buddhism; but in the land of its birth, too, Buddhism proved +unable to serve as a working religion without additions and +modifications entirely foreign to its true character. The profession +of Buddhism was combined even with the savage worship of the +non-Aryan tribes; Siva was identified with Buddha and then worshipped +instead of him, as also was Vishnu, and the perversion and +degradation of the religion prepared for its expulsion from the +country of its birth. That expulsion was probably brought about more +immediately by the advance of Mohammedanism in India, and took place +in the period of the early Middle Ages. We cannot speak here of the +strange guise Buddhism has assumed in the north of India, notably in +Tibet. The Lamaism of that country, with its perpetual living +incarnation of the divine Buddha in a succession of human +representatives, its hierarchical church strongly resembling in many +of its features the Church of Rome, and the prayer-flags and wheels +for the mechanical discharge of religious acts, have long been the +wonder of the world. + +Conclusion.--It is not from what Buddhism is now in any of the +countries where it flourishes, and where it has votaries who profess +other religions also, that we can judge of what it really is, or +estimate its value as a product of the human mind. It is to early +Buddhism that we must look for this. What are we to judge of this +religion without gods, and based on the assertion that all life is +suffering, and that the chief good is altogether to escape from life? +It is not true to characterise it as a religion in which there is no +joy, and which deliberately refuses to have anything to do with joy. +The Arahat, in whom desire is vanquished, and who has no further +birth to anticipate, is filled with a deep joy and triumph as of a +victor who has conquered every foe; and those who are less advanced +in the path yet have their share in this enthusiasm, and are inspired +by it to continue the struggle. Still Buddhism is a sad religion. It +arrives in India when the Deity there believed in has deserted the +world, and tells man he is alone in it. There is no one to help him, +no one to assure him that the good cause in a wider sense--a cause +extending beyond his own personal life--is destined to succeed; there +is no upholder of any moral order beyond that which works itself out +in each individual experience. The result is that the believer does +not trouble himself about the world, but only about his own personal +salvation. This religion is not a social force, it aims not at a +Kingdom of God to be built up by the united efforts of multitudes of +the faithful, but only at saving individual souls, which in the act +of being saved are removed beyond all activity and all contact with +the world. Buddhism, therefore, is not a power which makes actively +for civilisation. It is a powerful agent for the taming of passion +and the prevention of vagrant and lawless desires, it tends, +therefore, towards peace. But it offers no stimulus to the +realisation of the riches which are given to man in his own nature: +it checks rather than fosters enterprise, it favours a dull +conformity to rule rather than the free cultivation of various gifts. +Its ideal is to empty life of everything active and positive, rather +than to concentrate energy on a strong purpose. It does not train the +affections to virtuous and harmonious action, but denies to them all +action and consigns them to extinction. This condemnation it has +incurred by parting with that highest stimulus to human virtue and +endeavour, which lies in the belief in a living God. By so doing it +ceased to fulfil the office of a religion for men, and though, for +historical purposes, we may class it among the religions of the +world, a system which leaves its adherents free not to worship at +all, or to find satisfaction for their spiritual instincts in the +worship of beings whom it regards with indifference, comes short of +the notion of religion, and is not properly entitled to that name. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Monier Williams, _Buddhism, in its connection with Brahmanism and +Hinduism, and in its contrast with Christianity_, 1889. + +Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_ (S.P.C.K.). + +Oldenberg's, _Buddha, his Life, his Doctrine and his Order_, 1882 +(out of print). (Third German Edition, 1897.) + +Spence Hardy, _Manual of Buddhism_, 1860. + +E. Hardy, _Der Buddhismus_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI +PERSIA + + +The Aryans who entered India to become its dominant race came from +Central Asia, and left behind them there other tribes of Aryan +culture. These tribes remained in what is called Iran, in the lands, +that is to say, between the Indus, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, +and the Persian Gulf. It is from this region, a part of which bore in +ancient times the name of Ariana, that the word "Aryan" is derived. +The languages of this territory are akin to Sanscrit; and there is +ample evidence that before the Indian invasion the progenitors of the +Indians and those of the Iranians dwelt together there, and enjoyed a +common civilisation. If the civilisation was the same the religion +also was the same. How the Indo-Iranian religion was developed in +India, we have seen. At first a worship of active and militant +deities, it became by degrees a religion of a passive type, in which +a suffering, acquiescent, and brooding humanity presented to heaven +its needs and problems, and received a corresponding answer. The +Aryans who remained in Iran retained their active and practical +disposition. While by no means wanting in sensitiveness and +flexibility of mind, they were less given to speculation and more to +a robust morality than their Indian kinsmen. It has to be noted that +while the religion of India has not influenced Europe in any manifest +degree until the present century, that of Persia has contributed in a +marked way to form the world of thought in which we dwell. + +Sources.--The views generally current about the ancient religion of +Persia are derived from late Greek writers, whose accounts will be +noticed at the end of this chapter. A truer knowledge is now +possible, since the sacred books of the religion are now open to the +world. They were only obtained from the Parsis, who keep up their +ancient religion on the soil of India, during last century, and the +study of them has been very laborious and difficult, and has given +rise to great controversies which are not yet settled. These ancient +books are furnished with Eastern translations and commentaries. Is +the Western scholar to place himself under the guidance of these, +which no doubt are part of the historical tradition of the religion, +or may he claim that he is himself in as good a position as the +Oriental commentator for understanding the original meaning of the +texts; and will he best interpret them by comparing them with the +Vedas? What is their age; in which of the lands of Iran were they +written; was any part of them written by Zoroaster, or is Zoroaster +to be regarded as an historical personage at all? On all these +questions and on many others, scholars are not yet agreed; and while +so much is uncertain about the books, there must also be great +uncertainty about the history and the very nature of the religion. In +what follows we are guided mainly by the scholars who have taken +charge of the volumes connected with Persia in the _Sacred Books of +the East_.[1] In the last of these volumes (xxxi.) a new clue is +given to the subject, of which we shall gladly avail ourselves. + +[Footnote 1: Zend-Avesta, _S. B. E._, vols. iv., xxiii., xxxi.] + +The sacred books of Persia are known by the name of "Zend-Avesta," +which is an incorrect expression; we ought to say Avesta and Zend. +"Avesta," like the kindred word "Veda," signifies knowledge, and the +word "Zend" denotes here not the language of that name, but the +"commentary" afterwards added to the original knowledge or text. The +commentary is not written in the Zend language, but in Pahlavi or +Persian. The Avesta, which is written in the older Zend, the sacred +language of Persia, is, like other Bibles, a collection of books +written in different ages, and even, it may be, in different lands. +The books were brought together into one only at some period after +the Christian era. The later legends as to the supernatural +communication to Zoroaster of the earlier books need not detain us; +we must notice, however, that the preserved books of Persian religion +are held to be no more than the scanty ruins of an extensive +literature. The Avesta consisted originally of 21 Nosks or books, and +most of these were destroyed by Alexander when he invaded the East; +only one Nosk was preserved entire. As we have it, the Avesta is a +liturgical work, it contains some legends and some ancient hymns, as +well as a good deal of law, but its prevailing character is that of a +service-book, and it is to this that its partial preservation both at +the invasion of Alexander, and at that of the Mohammedans in a later +century, is probably due. It consists of three parts. The oldest is +the Yasna, a collection of liturgies, which admit and indeed invite +comparison with those of early Christianity: along with these are +found the Gathas or hymns, the only part of the Avesta composed in +verse, and written in an older dialect. The Visperad is a collection +of litanies for the sacrifice; and the Vendidad is a code of early +law, but contains also various religious legends. Besides these +works, which constitute the Avesta proper, there is the Khorda (or +small) Avesta containing devotions for various times of the day, for +the days of the month, and for the religious year; these are for the +use not of the priests alone but of all the faithful, and many of +them are still so used. + +The Contents of the Zend-Avesta are Composite.--In these works the +student soon observes that he has before him not one religious system +only but several. In one place we find a worship of one god, as if +there were no others to be considered; some of the litanies on the +other hand contain lengthy and elaborate lists of objects of worship. +In some parts the religion is personal and immediate; in others it is +priestly. Parsism is often called fire-worship, and the elements of +earth and water also obtain extreme sanctity in it, but of this also +there is in the oldest books little trace. The variety in the +literature no doubt reflects a variety in the religion of Iran. Iran +in fact had not one religion but several, and thus the problem is to +trace how these successively entered into contact with Mazdeism or +Zoroastrianism, which is the religion most native to Iran, and were +embodied in it. The different religions belonged to a certain extent +to different provinces. We know that Persia, the conqueror of Media, +was conquered in turn by the Median religion; we also know that the +religion of the Persian kings as read in their inscriptions[2] does +not correspond to any of the religious positions held in the Avesta. +The Magi, from whom also the religion as a whole derives one of its +names, belonged to Media and passed from there to greater power in +Iran as a whole. From the Scythians on the north and from Babylonia +on the south, ideas and practices were imported; and in these and +other ways, forms of religion arose as different from the faith of +Zoroaster as later forms of Christianity from the simplicity of +Christ, yet looking to him as their founder and the giver of their +law. + +[Footnote 2: _Records of the Past_, i. 107.] + +Zoroaster.--We begin with the teaching of Zoroaster. Dr. E. Meyer in +his _Geschichte des Alterthums_, vol. i., and Mr. Darmesteter in his +admirable introduction to the Avesta (_S. B. E._ vol. iv.) both treat +Zoroaster as a mythical personage, a figure-head of the official +class of the religion, who give currency to their edicts under his +name. Weighty authorities may, however, be quoted for the historical +reality of Zoroaster, and what appears to us most important of all, +the editor of the Gathas, in the _S. B. E._ vol. xxxi., departing +from his collaborateur, Mr. Darmesteter, has treated these hymns, +which give an account of the founder's acts and experiences when +first proclaiming the true doctrine, in such a way as to produce on +the mind of the reader the strongest impression of the historical +reality of the prophet and of his mission. They introduce us to a +religious movement actually in progress in the poet's time, a +movement in which a pure and lofty faith is struggling to establish +itself against prevailing superstitions. The doctrine placed in the +mouth of the reformer is that which is most central in Persian +religion; and only by such deep earnestness and devotion as is here +ascribed to him, could it have attained that position. We start, +then, with Zoroaster and his work; and first of all we ask what was +his date, where did he live, and what kind of religion did he find +existing in his country? + +The date of Zoroaster or Zarathustra--the former is the Greek, the +latter the old Iranian form of the name, contracted in Persian to +Zardusht--can only be fixed very approximately. He stands at the very +beginning of the Avesta literature, and the developments in religion +to which that literature testifies must have occupied a long period. +On the other hand no one proposes to place Zarathustra before the +departure of the Indian Aryans from the Indo-Iranian stock. From such +vague data he may be assigned perhaps to somewhere about 1400 B.C. As +to his province, there is considerable agreement among scholars that +his doctrine spread from the east of Iran westwards; and though +tradition gives him a birthplace in Media, his mission lay nearer to +India, in Bactria. + +Primitive Religion of Iran.--He did not preach to men unacquainted +with religion. Many of the religious ideas and figures of the Vedas +occur also in Persia, and by the study of these it is possible to +form certain inferences as to the mental history of Persia before +Zarathustra. Mithra the sun-god belongs to Persia as well as India. +The heaven-god known in India as Varuna grew into the principal deity +of Persia. A fire-god, wind- and rain-gods, and the serpent hostile +to man, on whom these made war, are common to both countries. The +institution of sacrifice, in which the deities are served with +offerings and with hymns, is markedly alike in both countries. In +both alike sacrifice is at first the affair not of a priesthood but +of laymen, especially of princes, and is not confined to temples but +is performed in the open air, on a spot judged to be suitable. The +most imposing sacrifice is that of the horse, and an offering of +constant occurrence is that of the intoxicating liquor, in India +Soma, in Persia by a recognised transliteration Homa, which is itself +viewed as a cosmic principle of life, and addressed as a deity. And +in both countries alike the view of sacrifice prevails in early +times, that the gods come to it to take their part in a banquet which +their worshippers share with them, and that they are strengthened and +encouraged by it. + +These similarities, and others which might be mentioned, show that +the religion of India and that of Persia started from a common stock +of ideas and usages. A further circumstance of great importance shows +not only the original identity of the two systems, but also perhaps +how they came to diverge from each other. Two generic titles for +deities occur in India. The first of these--_deva_, is said to +signify the bright or shining one, the second--_asura_, the living +one. Now these titles are also found in Persia; but the use of the +terms is different in the two countries. In India both are at first +titles for deity, but by degrees, while "deva" continues to denote +the gods who are worshipped, "asura" assumes a less favourable +meaning, until at length it comes to stand for a second order of +beings, inferior to the devas, and including such powers as are +malignant and hostile. In Persia the fortunes of the two words are +reversed. _Ahura_ becomes the god _par excellence_, the supreme god; +while "deva," the title which in India remained in honour, is in the +Avesta that of evil gods who are not to be worshipped. In this some +scholars consider that we may hear the watchwords of the conflict +which led to the separation of the two religions; there was a schism +between the followers of the Ahuras and those of the Devas, which led +to the entire separation of the two parties. This is the latest form +of the old view which makes Zoroastrianism the outcome of a religious +conflict, of a reaction against the gods afterwards worshipped in +India. There is no direct evidence of such a conflict, and the +difference we have described may be due to the natural development of +the Indo-Iranian religion in different sets of circumstances and +among different peoples. Zarathustra in the Gathas finds the +antithesis fully formed between the good and the evil deities; he +appeals to his countrymen on that matter as one which he does not +need to teach them, but with which they have long been familiar. In +speaking of his date this has to be remembered. + +We proceed now to describe from the Gathas the work and teaching of +Zarathustra. The Gathas are poems written in metres which occur also +in the Vedas, and intended, like the Indian hymns, to be used in +worship. The account which they furnish of the mission and the +teaching of the sage are thus clothed in a poetical dress, and do not +narrate bare facts as they occurred, but the facts as interpreted and +treated for religious use. They are in the mouth of Zarathustra +himself; he writes them for use at sacrifice, and remembering how +they are to be rendered, he sometimes puts in the mouth of the +celebrants the words, "Zarathustra and we." These words do not prove +that the hymns are not by him. As explained by Dr. Mills, the hymns +are seen to be very fully charged with meaning and with sentiment. +Uncouth and inartistic in expression, and demanding an immense amount +of patience and ingenuity to trace their connection of thought, they +surprise the reader when once he seizes their meaning, by the depth +and spirituality of their contents, and force him to acknowledge that +they are a worthy document of the birth of a great religion. + +The Call of Zarathustra.--The hymns give a vivid picture of that +early world in which the prophet lived. It was a world distracted +with conflict. On one side there is an agricultural community bent on +industry, and, like the Hindus, even at this day, valuing as most +sacred the cattle which form their chief substance. On the other +hand, there are men who dwell on the outskirts between the tilled +land and the wilderness, who are constantly making raids on the +farms, driving off and killing the cattle for sacrifice and for food, +and ruining the fields by destroying the irrigating works on which +their fertility depends. And there is a religious difference as well +as a difference in culture between these two sets of people. The +agriculturists are worshippers of Ahura; the contemners of the cattle +worship beings called in the Gathas "daevas." This schism was not of +Zarathustra's making, he found it going on, and being a priest was +entitled to come forward and seek to guide others with regard to it. +Such is the situation which the hymns present to us. We will try to +state the substance of some of those hymns. The naked words of them, +even when we are sure of the correctness of the translation, are +barely intelligible without lengthy commentary; and on the other +hand, no short statement in modern terms can convey the force and +solemnity of these struggling utterances. As we are dealing with the +original revelation of Zarathustra, the source of the Persian +religion, we shall give the story with some degree of detail. + +The first hymn in the arrangement presented to us in _S. B. E._ deals +with what we may term the call of Zarathustra. It sums up in a poetic +and dramatic form the religious result of the movement which led him +to come forward. + +The "Soul of the Kine" first speaks; it is the impersonation of the +agricultural community, to whom their cattle are most sacred. She +raises a complaint to Ahura and Asha (the righteousness which is an +attribute of Ahura, and like his other attributes often appears as an +independent person) of the insolence and highhanded devastation and +robbery she has to suffer. "For whom did ye fashion me," she says; +"wherefore was I made?" She appeals to the Immortals for instruction +in tillage with a view to security and welfare. + +Ahura then speaks and asks Asha what guardian has been appointed for +the kine to lead and to defend her; and Asha answers that no one, +himself free from passion and violence, could be found who was +capable of being an adequate guardian. The causes of these evils lie +at the roots of the constitution of things, and therefore those +seeking success in any enterprise must approach Ahura himself and not +any subordinate being. + +Zarathustra speaks, and confirms the utterances of Asha; it is in +Ahura himself that he and the kine place their confidence; to his +will they submit themselves; the doubts and questions arising from +their outward insecurity, they refer to him. + +Ahura speaks and answers his own question. It is true that no lord of +the kine is to be found, who in himself is quite equal to that +position, but he appoints Zarathustra as head to the agricultural +community. + +A chorus speaks, consisting of a company of the faithful supposed to +be present, or of the Ameshospends, the personified attributes of +Ahura, and praise the Lord for his bounty and for the wisdom he makes +known; but asks whom he has endowed with the Good Mind, or, as we +might say, the Holy Spirit, to make known to mortals his doctrine. +The call of Zarathustra, intimated in the foregoing verse, is +overlooked, as if it were impossible that such a one as he could +undertake the office. Ahura replies, repeating his commission to +Zarathustra, here called also by his family name of Spitama, and +promising to establish him and make him successful in his work. + +The Soul of the Kine speaks, lamenting still that no adequate lord +has been assigned her. Zarathustra is a feeble and pusillanimous man, +not one of royal state who is able to bring his purpose to effect. +The Ameshospends join in the cry for the true lord to appear. + +Zarathustra then speaks, accepting the mission in an address to +Ahura, whom he entreats to send his blessings of peace and happiness, +since none but he can give them, and to set up in the minds of the +disciples of the cause that joy and that kingdom which, though it +first comes inwardly, yet brings with it also all outward blessings. +For himself also he prays that the Good Mind and the Sovereign Power +(another of the attributes) of the Lord may hasten to come to him and +strengthen him for his mission. + +This poetical rendering of the call of Zarathustra is free both from +miraculous embellishment and from undue exaltation of the person of +the prophet, and forms a great contrast to later statements in the +Avesta, where the prophet is placed in secret conclave with Ahura, +asking him questions and receiving detailed replies which at once +rank as revelation. In the Gathas, allowing for the theological and +poetic form, everything is human and natural. We are strongly +reminded of the accounts of the calls of prophets in the Old +Testament--there is the same choice by the deity of an apparently +weak instrument to accomplish a work urgently called for by the +times, the same sense of insufficiency on the part of the prophet, +but the same absolute confidence on his part in the power of the +deity, and hence the same absolute assurance, once the mission is +accepted, that the cause which he has been called to carry forward +must succeed. In many of the following Gathas the same parallel is +strongly impressed on the mind of the reader. The sense of weakness +is expressed again and again--the prophet has no victorious career, +but is exposed to much gainsaying, which he feels acutely. Yet he +never doubts that his god is with him, and is working for him. To him +he commits his doubts and fears, of his goodness he is joyfully +assured, and his aid he expects with confidence. He is entirely +devoted to Ahura and his cause, and offers himself up with his whole +powers to work out the divine will. He will teach, he says, as long +as he is able, till he has brought all the living to believe. He is +conscious of a divine power working in him. Nothing in himself, he is +strong by the divine grace which Ahura sends him: his words have +efficacy to keep the fiends at a distance, and to advance in men's +minds the divine kingdom; like St. Paul he feels his message to be to +some a savour of life unto life, to others a savour of death unto +death. + +The Doctrine.--And what is the message he proclaims? It is a +philosophy of the origin of the world, but a philosophy the +acceptance of which involves immediate and strenuous action. The +distracted condition of the world before him requires to be +explained, so that a remedy for it may be found; and Zarathustra +prays, when he is about to bring forward his doctrine, that Ahura +would help him to explain how the material world arose. The +explanation when it appears is not quite new, it has been shaping +itself already in the mind of his people, but he sets it forth as a +dogma, and draws from it at once all its practical consequences. In +the third hymn of the first Gatha he solemnly brings forward his +doctrine before the people, and appeals to them, not as a people, but +as individuals, each for himself, with a full sense of his +responsibility, to consider it, and adopt it, and act upon it. It is +the doctrine of dualism, not in the fully developed later form in +which two personal potentates divide the universe between them from +the first, but as yet in a form more speculative and vague. There are +two primeval principles, spirits, things, as is well known--the +expression is indefinite--the counterparts of each other, independent +in their action, a better and a worse, and Zarathustra calls on his +audience to choose between them, and not to choose as do the +evildoers. The world, as it is, was made by the joint action of the +two principles, and they also fixed the alternative fates of men, for +the wicked, Hell--the worst life; and for the holy, Heaven--the best +mental state. After the creation was accomplished, the two principles +drew off from each other, the evil one making choice of evil and of +evil works, and the bounteous spirit choosing righteousness, making +his strong seat in heaven, and taking for his own those who do good +and who believe in him. The Daevas and their followers are incapable +of making a just choice between the good and the evil; they have +surrendered themselves from the outset to the "Worst Mind," the demon +of fury, and to all evil works. (There are vague suggestions here of +a temptation and a fall, but only of the evil spirits and their +followers.) From this point onwards the world is filled with a great +struggle. On the one side is Ahura, the only god worshipped by name +in the Gathas. Ahura is a heaven-god, he is, in fact, the bright +heaven, and then the good and beneficent being who dwells in +brightness. In the hymns he is losing his definite character and +becoming an abstraction, a god of dogmatics rather than of history. +He is the good principle personified, and as becomes a god of such +transcendent character, he does not act directly, but through his +satellites. His attributes personified, do his bidding, aid the +saints in spiritual ways, and prepare for the better order of things. +On the other hand are the Daevas with the demon of wrath, who +propagate everywhere lies and mischief, and heap up vengeance for +themselves against the final judgment. For the good there is nothing +better than to aid,--for they can aid, in bringing on the renovation, +dwelling with Ahura even now, and by his attributes which work in +them as well as in him, reinforcing the righteous order, and +preparing themselves to dwell where wisdom has her home. In the end +the Demon of the Lie will be rendered harmless and delivered up to +Righteousness as a captive. + +Inconsistencies.--As it happens in every such reform, the new +teaching is not quite consistent with itself; old views are taken up +into the new teaching, although they do not harmonise with it; the +spiritual way of looking at things alternates with a more worldly +way. The following are some examples of this:--The great doctrine of +Heaven and Hell as inner states, as being simply the best and the +worst state of mind, is clearly announced; but the traditional view +of future abodes of happiness and misery also appears. The +Kinvat-bridge is mentioned several times in the Gathas, over which +Iran conceived that the individual had to pass after death. If he was +righteous the bridge bore him safely over to the sacred mountain, +where the good lived again; if he was wicked, he fell off the bridge +and found himself in the place of torment. It is another +inconsistency that Zarathustra expects, on the one hand, to convert +the world by his preaching, while on the other hand his sense of the +antagonism between the good and the evil spirits and their followers +often hurries him into violent methods. One hymn concludes with a +summons to his adherents to fall on the unbelievers with the halberd, +and he is constantly predicting their sudden overthrow. Along with +this, we may mention that he sought to ally himself with powerful +families for the sake of the support they would bring the cause. The +name of Vishtaspa, king we know not of what realm, is always +associated with the prophet as that of his royal patron; other +influential friends are also mentioned. Another point, in which we +notice accommodation to existing usage, is that of sacrifice. The +Gathas have several noble passages describing the true sacrifice man +has to offer to God for his goodness, as consisting simply in the +offering of self, in the devotion to the deity of all a man is, and +all he can do. At the same time Zarathustra has not a word to say in +disparagement of the sacrifice of victims. He prays for guidance in +this part of religious duty; he desires to have everything connected +with sacrifice done in the best way and with the most effective +hymns. Thus the spiritual life is not left to stand alone. There is a +personal walk with God, our piety is said to be God's daughter in us, +his righteousness is working in us and moulding us for his purposes; +both will and deed of the good man are attributed to him, and the +processes are described with true insight by which the soul is +sanctified and wedded to her task and her true destiny; but at the +same time there is an intent looking to that sacred Fire which is an +outward representative of deity; there is the offering of victims, +even of horses, when the prophet's mind is bent on war (the +Homa-offering does not occur, and we may suppose the prophet rejected +this service of the deity by intoxication); there is the smiting of +the demons with prayer, and imprecations, similar to those in the +Psalms, against adversaries of the cause. + +It is no proof of unspirituality that the welfare of the Kine, with +whose wail the call of the prophet began, is steadily kept in view +during his mission. The agriculturists are on the side of the +righteous being, good and ever-better tillage is a means of pleasing +him; it is his will that the kine should be freed from alarms and +should prosper; and he may be appealed to to give lessons with a view +to that end. The doctrine passes far beyond its first occasion; yet +the occasion which called for it is never lost sight of. + +The Gathas, taken alone, tell us hardly anything of the religion in +which Zarathustra's fellow-countrymen believed. They believed +undoubtedly in many gods; in those parts of the Avesta which come +next to the hymns in time, polytheism is in full force. That +Zarathustra only speaks of one god, Ahura (though he also speaks of +"the Immortals" generally), may be due to the limited extent and +special purpose of the hymns, but it may also be taken as an +indication that the prophet did not needlessly interfere with the +beliefs of his people: content to preach the doctrine with which he +was charged, and which was to him the sum and substance of all +religion, he, like several other religious founders, stirred up no +strife he could avoid. The doctrine he preached was not unprepared +for in the mind of his country, and continued to be the leading +feature of Persian religion in subsequent periods. + +It is a momentous step in religious progress, which the prophet of +Iran calls on his countrymen to take. We notice the main features of +the advance. + +1. Man is Called to Judge between the Gods.--Zarathustra, like +Elijah, puts before his people the choice between two worships. +Various distinctions between the two cases might be drawn. In the +Scripture case Baal is not a bad god, but simply the wrong god for +Israel to worship. In the case of our reformer the difference between +the two worships is a deeper one. The individual is to choose his +god, he is to declare of his own motion that one god is better than +others, and that no worship whatever is to be paid to these others. +This was a new departure in antiquity; the early world loved to think +of many gods, all alike divine and worshipful, each race or clan +having its god whom it naturally served, or each part of the earth +being portioned out to a divine lord of its own. Neither Greece nor +Rome ever thought of making the individual man the arbiter among the +unseen beings whom he knew, and requiring him to decide which of them +he should consider divine, and which he should disown. In the case +before us, moreover, the choice is to be made on moral grounds. Men +are called to judge of the character of the beings who are called +gods, they are told that there is no necessity to acknowledge those +of whom they disapprove, they are emancipated from the fear of +hurtful and evil beings. There is war in heaven, and men are +encouraged to take part in that war, and to cast off allegiance to +such powers as do not make for righteousness. How there came to be +such strife among the gods, and how it became necessary that men +should judge of it, we have no clear information; we only know that +the momentous step was called for and was taken. + +The belief, however, remains even after the decision that there are +unseen evil beings, who had influence in forming the constitution of +things, and who have influence still over the government of the +world. The position taken up is not monotheism. The good god is not +sole creator or sole governor of the world, he is a limited being; +from the outset he has only in part got his own way, and he has +adversaries in the very constitution of things, whom he cannot get +rid of. Persian thought is dualistic; the conception of an Evil +Creator and Governor co-ordinate with the good one differentiates it +from the thought of India, which always tends to a principle of +unity. + +2. In the second place, this religion is essentially intolerant and +persecuting. Having chosen his side in the great war which divides +the universe, man can only prosecute that war with all his force; he +must regard the Daevas and their followers as his enemies, and try to +weaken and extinguish them. The general feeling of the ancient world +about differences in religion was that all religions were equally +legitimate, each on its own soil. The Jews, we know, shocked the +Greeks and Romans greatly by denying this, and maintaining that there +was only one true religion, namely, their own, and that all the +others were worships of gods false and vain. But the Persians came +before the Jews in this; the Gathas preach persecution, and the +insults offered by Persian kings in later times to the religions of +Egypt and Greece were no doubt justified by their convictions. In +Persia, as in Israel, religion had come to entertain the notion of +false gods. And a religion which entertains that notion must be +exclusive. Those who have refused to worship beings hitherto deemed +gods, on the ground that they ought not to be worshipped and are not +truly gods, cannot but desire to bring the worship of such beings +entirely to an end, and to make the worship of the true God prevail +instead, by rude or by gentle means, as the stage of civilisation may +in each case suggest. + +Growth of Mazdeism.--After the Gathas proper we have other hymns +written in the Gathic dialect, from which the history of the religion +after its foundation may be to some extent inferred.[3] These show +that the Zarathustrian religion was regarded, after the departure of +the founder, as a great divine institution, and was worked out on the +lines he had laid down. The forms of it became of course more fixed. +The god it serves is now called "Ahura Mazda," the "All-Knowing Lord" +(the name is afterwards contracted into the Greek Oromazdes, the +Persian Hormazd; and the religion is called from it Mazdeism); he is +still implored for spiritual blessings both for this and for the +future life, and for furtherance in agriculture. There is, however, a +tendency to address prayer not only to Ahura himself but to beings +connected with him. As if the mind wearied of dwelling on the one +supreme, the Bountiful Immortals are associated with him, the parts +of his holy creation are invoked, the fire which is most closely +identified with him, the stars which are his body, the waters, the +earth, all good animals and plants. The kine's soul receives +sacrifice, and not only the kine's soul which we have met before, but +the souls of "just men and holy women," the Fravashis or spirits not +only of the departed but of the living also, the service of which +continues and increases henceforward in Persian religion. These are +invented deities and have a shadowy character; but gods of more +substance, and more historical reality also came into view at this +point. Zarathustra becomes a god, the hymns themselves are adored; +the Homa-offering reappears, Mithra is often coupled with Ahura, +other old gods creep back and are mentioned along with the moral +abstractions, which also increase in number; in one passage there are +said to be thirty-three objects of worship, a number which also +occurs in India. + +[Footnote 3: Yasna Haptanghaiti, _S. B. E._ xxxi. p. 218, _sqq._, and +others following.] + +Organisation of the Heavenly Beings.--With all this multiplication +there is, as we shall see, no compromise of the supreme claims of +Ahura. In some of the hymns, all beings, all attributes, all places, +and all times of a sacred nature are heaped indiscriminately +together, in interminable catalogues. But this apparent confusion is +corrected by a remarkable tendency to organisation. The Persian +religion ultimately came to have a very simple and very striking +theology; and that theology was made up by transforming the +abstractions in which the founder dealt, into persons, and arranging +them after the pattern of Oriental society. In the later Yasnas +(liturgies) a figure rises into view which the Gathas do not mention; +that of Angra Mainyu, later Ahriman, the Bad Spirit. In this +counterpart of Spenta Mainyu, the Good Spirit (who is not at first +identified with Ahura, but proceeds from him), the demons obtain a +personal head, and the dualism which appears in all nature and all +human society is thus brought to a personal expression. Ahura and +Ahriman confront each other as the good power and the evil. Both +alike had part in making the world what it is. In every part of the +world, and in all that is felt and done they are at strife. Ahura, to +quote Mr. Darmesteter, is all light, truth, goodness, and knowledge; +Angra Mainyu is all darkness, falsehood, wickedness, and ignorance. +Whatever the good spirit makes, the evil spirit mars; he opposes +every creation of Ahura's with a plague of his own, it is he who +mixed poison with plants, smoke with fire, sin with man, and death +with life. + +The Attributes of Ahura.--Each of these beings has his retinue. That +of Ahura was formed first; it consists of his attributes. Even in the +hymns the attributes are regarded as persons, inseparable companions +of Ahura; appeals are made to one or another of them, according as +the worshipper seeks help from one side or the other of the divine +being. By a process which frequently occurs in religious thought, +they afterwards come to be more formally arranged and defined; there +are six of them, and each is charged with a province of the divine +economy. They are as follows: + + Vohu Mano (Bahman) Good Mind; he is the head and the guardian of + the living creation of Ahura. + + Asha Vahista (Ardibehesht), Excellent Holiness; he is the genius of + fire. + + Kshathra Vairya (Shahrevar), Perfect Sovereignty; he is the lord of + metals. + + Spenta Armaiti (Spendarmat) divine piety, conceived as female, the + goddess of the earth. + + Haurvatat (Khordat) health. + + Ameretat (Amerdat) immortality. + +The last two are a pair, and have charge conjointly of waters and of +trees. + +Ahura is himself one of these spirits; thus there are seven supreme +spirits. + +Retinue of Ahriman.--Angra Mainyu on his part comes to have a +corresponding retinue of six daevas, each being the evil counterpart +of one of the good spirits. Evil Mind, Sickness, and Decay are the +names of some of them. The whole spiritual world is ranged on the +side of the good or of the evil deity. The Izatas (Izeds) or angels +consist of gods of immemorial worship in Iran, some of whom are the +same as gods worshipped in India; but the title also applies to gods, +heavenly and earthly, of later creation, so that the class is a very +wide and elastic one. It comprises some beings who have been reduced +by the operation of the new ideas from the first to the second rank +of deities, such as Verethragna, who corresponds to the Vedic Indra, +and Mithra, the sun-god. These now appear in the same rank as gods of +the newer style, such as Sraosha, Obedience, and survivals of early +superstition, such as the "Curse of the wise," a very powerful Ized. +Zarathustra himself belongs to this class of deities, a miscellaneous +one indeed. Another class of sacred beings of world-wide extent is +that of the Fravashis spoken of above. If the good spirits are many +and various, so are the evil. Of these are the great demon-serpent +Azhi who plays a great part in Persian mythology, as Vrittra does in +Indian. Aeshma, later Asmodeus, may be named; he is one of the +Drvants, or storm-fiends. Gahi, an unfaithful goddess, has fallen to +a demon of unchastity; the Pairikas (Peris) are female tempters; the +Yatu are demons connected with sorcery. + +The firm organisation of these hosts of spiritual beings, and the +sense of a great conflict in which they are all engaged from the +greatest to the least of them, preserve Mazdeism from the weakness +and absurdity which are apt to creep over religion when the +population of the upper and the nether regions is unduly multiplied. +The faithful never forget Ahura in favour of the minor deities, nor +do they forget that morals and industry are the chief ends of +religion, and that in cultivating these they hasten the coming of the +kingdom. The following is the formula, the "Praise of Holiness," with +which every act of worship begins in the Yasts[4] (liturgies of the +Izeds): + + May Ahura Mazda be rejoiced! + + Holiness is the best of all good! + + I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zarathustra, + one who hates the daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura. + +[Footnote 4: _S. B. E._ vol. xxiii.] + +Ancient Testimonies to the Persian Religion.--It is at this stage, +while it is still in a state of vigour, that we hear of the Persian +religion from various quarters in ancient records. The chapters in +the latter half of Isaiah, which so vigorously denounce idolatry, +hail the approach of Cyrus towards Babylon, and claim unity of +religion between him and the Jews (Isaiah xliv. 28 _sq._). He is the +shepherd who is to lead Jehovah's people back to their own land, and +to cause their temple to be rebuilt. And this claim that the Jewish +and the Persian religions were the same, that the Jews and the +Persians were alike worshippers of the one true God, while all the +surrounding nations were polytheists and idolaters, was admitted on +the side of Persia. After his conquest of Babylon, Cyrus at once +permitted the exiles to return to their own land. The Persian +monarchs of the following century, Darius and Artaxerxes, continued +to take a friendly interest in the worship of Jehovah, whom they +apparently regarded as a form of their own god, "the God of heaven," +Hormazd (Ezra vii. 21). They accordingly took measures for the +rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, and for the introduction there +of the new religious constitution which had been prepared at Babylon. +This could not have happened if the religion of the Persian kings had +not been a pure service of one god,[5] and the other information we +have on the subject shows that the Mazdeism of Persia at this period +was a very elevated form of the religion. The inscriptions of Darius +do not mention the spread of the worships of Mitra and Anahita, +which, however, make their appearance in the later inscriptions of +Artaxerxes; in none of them is Ahriman spoken of. This, of course, +does not prove that he was not believed in; when the Jewish prophet +proclaims that Jehovah makes both light and darkness, that he both +wounds and heals, there may be a reference to Persian dualism. Yet +Mazdeism was capable of appearing, and did appear to the foreigner, +as a lofty worship of a god of light and goodness. The same +impression is produced by the descriptions of the Greek writers. +Herodotus (i. 131, 132) writes as follows; he is a contemporary of +Ezra: "The following statements as to the customs of the Persians is +to be relied on. They do not fashion images of the gods, nor build +temples, nor altars--they consider it wrong to do so, and count it a +proof of folly; their reason for this being, as I think, that they do +not believe the gods to be beings of the same nature with men as the +Greeks do. They are accustomed to offer sacrifices to Zeus on the +summits of mountains; they call the whole circle of heaven Zeus. They +sacrifice also to the sun, and the moon, and the earth, and to fire, +and to water, and to the winds. These are the ancient parts of their +ritual, but they have added the worship of the Queen of heaven, +Aphrodite; it was from the Assyrians and the Arabs that they acquired +this. The Assyrian name for Aphrodite is Mylitta, the Arabs call her +Alilat, the Persians, Anahita.[6] Such being their gods the Persians +sacrifice to them on this wise. They have no altar, and do not use +fire in sacrifice, nor do they have libations nor flutes, nor wreaths +nor barley. He who wishes to sacrifice takes his victim to a clean +spot and there calls on the deity, his turban wreathed, as a rule, +with myrtle. He does not think of praying for benefits for himself +individually in connection with his sacrifice; he prays for the +welfare of the Persian people and king; he himself is one of the +Persian people. He then cuts up the victim, boils the pieces and +spreads them out on the softest grass he can find--if possible, on +clover. This done, one of the Magians who has come to assist, sings a +theogony,[7] as they call the accompanying hymn; no sacrifice is +allowed to be offered without one of the Magi being present. After a +short pause the sacrificer takes up the pieces of flesh and does with +them whatever he likes." + +[Footnote 5: These two religions, Kuenen says, were more like each +other than any other two religions of antiquity.--_Religion of +Israel_, iii. 33.] + +[Footnote 6: Herodotus says Mitra; but this is a mistake, whether of +the father of history or of a transcriber.] + +[Footnote 7: One of the Yashts in praise of the particular deity.] + +In other passages Herodotus tells us of the extreme sanctity +attributed by the Persians to waters, to fire, and to the sun. He +also tells us that they regarded lying as the worst possible offence, +and next to it falling into debt, since the debtor is tempted to tell +lies. + +Plutarch writes as follows, quoting from an earlier Greek writer of +the third century B.C.: "Zoroaster the Magician,[8] who was 5000 +years before the war of Troy, named the good god Oromazes and the +other Arimonius ... Oromazes is engendered of the clearest and purest +light, Arimonius of deep darkness; and they war one upon another. The +former of these created six other gods (here follow the Amshaspands), +but the latter produceth as many other in number, of adverse +operation to the former.... There will come a time when this +Arimonius, who brings into the world plague and famine, shall of +necessity be rooted out and utterly destroyed for ever ... then shall +men be all in happy estate, they shall need no more food, nor cast +any shadow from them; and that god who hath effected all this shall +repose himself for a time, and rest in quiet." + +[Footnote 8: Holland's translation.] + +The Vendidad: Laws of Parity.--These extracts show the growth of +certain ideas which we have not noticed before. The dualism is being +worked out more in detail, other gods are coming in, and the doctrine +of the sanctity of the elements has made its appearance. That +doctrine is the basis of a new set of ideas and practices which we +have now to consider, those namely which are contained in the +Vendidad, one of the later works of the Persian canon. To pass from +the Gathas to the Vendidad is like passing from Isaiah to Leviticus, +and the laws of purity of Persian religion bear a strong analogy to +those of Judaism. The Vendidad[9] is composed principally of laws and +rules designed to direct the faithful in the great task of +maintaining their ritual purity. The whole of life is dominated in +this work by the ideas of purity and defilement; the great business +of life is to avoid impurity, and when it is contracted to remove it +in the correct manner as quickly as possible. Purity here is not +primarily sanitary or even moral; though such considerations were no +doubt indirectly present. Impure is what belongs to the bad spirit, +whether because he created it, as he did certain noxious animals, or +because he has established a hold on it as he does on men at death. A +man is impure, not because he has exposed himself to the infection of +disease, not because he has contracted a stain on his conscience, but +because he has touched something of which a Daeva has possession, and +so has come under the influence of that Daeva. Purification, +therefore, and the act of healing consist of exorcisms of various +kinds. This notion of purity plays a great part in other old +religions also; it is here that we see its original meaning most +clearly. Another great feature of the doctrine of purity in the +Vendidad is that the elements, fire, earth, and water, are holy, and +to defile them in any way is the most grievous of sins. As everything +which leaves the body is unclean, a man must not blow up a fire with +his breath, and bathing with a view to cleanliness is not to be +thought of. The disposal of the dead was a matter of immense +difficulty, since corpses, being unclean, could be committed neither +to Fire nor to the Earth. They are ordered to be exposed naked on a +building constructed for that purpose on high ground, so that birds +of prey may devour them; and a great part of the Vendidad is taken up +with directions for purification, after a death has taken place, of +the persons who were in the house, of the house itself, of those who +carried the corpse, and of the road they travelled, etc. + +[Footnote 9: _S. B. E._ vol. iv.] + +How this Doctrine Entered Mazdeism.--This system was not in force in +the time of Darius and Artaxerxes (when the dead were buried or, as +in the case of Croesus, burned) though the ideas were appearing at +that period on which it is founded; and it is plain that it has no +necessary or vital connection with the religion of Zarathustra. But +in later Mazdeism there are many such importations. This religion, in +its course from east to west, came in contact with beliefs and usages +with which, though foreign to its own nature, it yet came to terms. +Mazdeism is not originally a markedly priestly religion; it is +thought that it became so when planted in Media. No doubt there were +germs in the early Iranian religion of a priestly system. Zarathustra +himself was a priest and was favourable to due religious observances. +But it is quite contrary to his spirit that life should be governed +entirely by ritual law. It was in Media that this came to be the +case. The name of Magi, originally perhaps that of a tribe, became in +Media the name of the priesthood, and so furnished an additional +title for Mazdeism. It is to this stage of the religion that the +priestly legislation of the Vendidad, with all its puritanical +regulation of life, is to be ascribed. (The practice of exposing the +bodies of the dead to be devoured by birds of prey is probably of +Scythian origin.) In this period also, remote from the origin of the +religion, we find a new view of Zarathustra himself and of his +revelation. In the earlier sources Zarathustra composes his hymns in +a natural manner; he is not an absolute lawgiver, but depends on +princes for the carrying out of his views. In the later works the +revelation takes place in a series of private interviews between +Ahura and Zarathustra; the prophet puts questions to the god, and the +god dictates in reply sentences which are at once promulgated as +sacred laws. Mazdeism, like other religions, has its wooden age, its +verbal inspiration, and its priestly code. + +To trace the lines by which the influence of the religion of Persia +asserted itself in the wider world would be a large enterprise: only +a few indications can be given here. One great service which that +religion did to the world was undoubtedly that it had sympathy with +the Jews, and enabled Jewish monotheism to take a fresh start on its +way to become a religion for mankind. Mazdeism itself had a tinge of +universalism; Zarathustra expected his religion to spread beyond his +own land, and it did spread over all the provinces of Iran. It never +became a world-religion, but it might have done so had it not become +swathed and choked in Magism or had any new movement arisen in it to +assert the supremacy of its purely human over its artificial +elements. But Ahura himself, perhaps, was too abstract and +philosophic a god to inspire missionary ardour; it needed a being +more firmly rooted in history, a god who had done more to prove the +energy and intensity of his nature, and, further, a god more +undoubtedly omnipotent than Ahura, to establish a universal rule. + +The interesting inquiry remains, how far the Jewish religion was +modified by its contact with the Persian. The laws of purity in the +Jewish priestly code find a close parallel in the Vendidad; but with +the Israelites the notion of religious purity existed, and was worked +out in considerable detail, as we see from Deuteronomy, before the +exile, and therefore long before the period of the Vendidad. The +belief in the resurrection, found among the Jews after the exile, and +not before it, has been maintained by many to be a loan from Persia, +where the belief in future reward and punishment was a settled thing +from the time of Zarathustra. But the Jews do not appear to have +grasped this belief all at once or fully formed. They arrived at it +gradually, many Old Testament scholars affirm, and by spiritual +inferences timidly put forth at first, from their own religious +consciousness. A belief which the Jewish religion was capable of +producing of itself need not, without clearer evidence than we +possess, be regarded as borrowed. We are not on much surer ground +when we come to ask whether the angels and demons of Judaism are +connected with those of Persia. This belief also arises naturally in +Judaism, where God came to be thought of as very high and very +inaccessible, and intermediate beings were therefore needed. Some of +the figures of the Jewish spirit-world are, no doubt, due to Persia; +the Ashmodeus of the book of Tobit is a Persian figure. Later Judaism +is like Parsism in arranging the heavenly beings in a hierarchy, and +assigning to the chief angels special functions in the administration +of God's kingdom, and still more so when the upper hierarchy is +confronted by a lower one with a great adversary and father of lies +at its head. But this takes place long after the Persian contact. + +The Persian deities had, as a rule, too little legend to enable them +to be received in other countries. Ahura does not travel. Anaitis is +thought to have passed into Greece, changing her name to Aphrodite, +but also to the severer Artemis; but she is perhaps not original in +Persia. The Persian god best known in other lands was Mithra, the +sun-god and god of wisdom. He was a favourite with the Roman armies +in the early empire, and representations of him as a hero in the act +of slaying a bull in a cave have been found in many lands. There were +also mysteries connected with him, in which the candidates had to +pass through a great series of trials and hardships. Persia +influenced Europe and the west of Asia at the same period in another +way. Manicheism, a system which was one of the three great universal +religions of that time, and had a worship and a priesthood and a +sacred literature of its own, was founded by a native of Persia. He +laboured at a distance from his own country, and the doctrines he +propounded came more from Chaldea than from Persia, and consisted of +great histories, like those of the Gnostics, of the doings and +sufferings of cosmic and other persons; a great struggle between the +powers of light and those of darkness was one of its principal +features. The worship of this church was spiritual; its morals were +in theory of the purest and most ascetic kind, being founded on a +principle of dualism in the material world, and requiring much +self-denial and long fasts. The higher virtue of the system was not, +however, required of the ordinary member. Later Parsism, both in Iran +and in India, has shown a disposition to cast off dualism, and to +become, both philosophically and practically, a monistic system. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_S. B. E._ vols. iv., xxiii. (Darmesteter); xxxi. (Mills). _The +Zendavesta_, vols. v., xviii., xxiv., xxxvii., xlvii. Pahlavi Texts +(E. W. West). + +_The Histories of Antiquity_ of Duncker, Maspero, and Ed. Meyer. + +Haug's _Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the +Parsis_. Second Edition, 1878, + +F. Windischmann, _Zoroastr. Studien_, 1863. + +Geldner, "Zoroaster," in _Encyclopĉdia Britannica_; "Zoroastrianism," +in _Encyclopĉdia Bibl._ + +Mills, _A Study of the Five Zarathustrian Gathas_, 1892-94. + +Lehmann, in De la Saussaye. + +Dadhabai Naoroji, _The Parsee Religion_. + +On Mithraism, _Dieterich Eine Mithras-liturgie._ + +Cumont, _The Mysteries of Mithra_, 1903. + + + + +PART V +UNIVERSAL RELIGION + + + + +CHAPTER XXII +CHRISTIANITY + + +The writer is aware that in offering a chapter on Christianity at the +conclusion of this work, he attempts a difficult task. If treated at +all, Christianity must be dealt with in the same way as the other +religions, and no assumptions must be made for it which were not made +for them. And a view of our own religion written, not from the +standpoint of the faith and love we feel towards it but of scientific +accuracy, must appear to many pious Christians to be cold and meagre. +But, on the other hand, Christianity is the key of the arch we have +been building, the consummating member of the development we have +sought to trace, and to withhold any estimate of its character would +be to leave our work most imperfect. It seems better, therefore, that +some hints at least should be offered on this part of the subject. +Christianity cannot indeed be dealt with in the same proportion as +the other religions; that would far exceed our space. But some views +are offered regarding its essential nature, which the writer believes +to be so firmly founded in fact that even those who are not +Christians cannot deny them, and thus to afford a valid criterion for +the comparison of Christianity with other faiths. + +In the chapter on the religion of Israel we saw how the prophets +before and during the exile began to cherish the idea of a new +relation between God and man, which would not depend on sacrifice nor +be confined to Israel. God, they declared, was preparing a new age, +in which he would receive man to more intimate communion than before; +and man would be guided in the right path, not by covenants and laws, +but by the constant inspiration of a present deity. The new religion +would be one which all nations could share. Jerusalem, the seat of +the true faith, would attract all eyes; all would turn to her because +of the Lord her God. + +But, alas, instead of growing broader to realise its universal +destiny, the religion of Israel grew narrower after the exile, and +seemed to forget the prospects thus opened up to it. Judaism, though +immeasurably enriched in its inner consciousness by the teaching of +the prophets, maintained its earlier semi-heathenish forms of +worship, only surrounding them with new stateliness and new +significance; and clothed itself in a hard shell of public ritual and +personal observance. The Jews separated themselves rigorously from +the world, and cultivated an exclusive pride; as if their religion +had been given them for themselves alone, and not for mankind. Under +the Maccabees they displayed the most heroic courage and tenacity, +maintaining their own beliefs and rites amid the flood of Hellenism +which at one time almost swept them away. That they carried their +nationality unimpaired through this period is one of the most +wonderful achievements of the Jewish race. In the succeeding period, +however, many signs appeared showing that their religion was losing +energy. The rule of the priests and scribes extended more and more +over the whole of life, tradition and observance grew more and more +extensive, but the moral judgment lost its elasticity. The sense of +the divine presence grew faint, and multitudes of spirits filled the +air instead, oppressing human life with a sense of vague anxiety. As +political independence was lost, the people became less happy and +more easily excited. But while formalism held increasing sway over +their actions, imagination was free, and surrounded both the past +history of Israel and its future triumphs with manifold +embellishments. + +In such a condition was the religion of the Jews when Jesus appeared +in Palestine and created a new order of things. Christianity was at +first a movement within Judaism. Like all the religions which trace +their history to personal founders, it grew from very small +beginnings; but its doctrine was of such a nature, that if +circumstances favoured, it could not fail to spread beyond Judaism, +to men of other lands and other tongues. + +The doctrine consisted primarily in a declaration that that great +religious consummation, the kingdom of God, which the prophets had +foretold, which was regarded by the fellow-countrymen of Jesus as a +far-off hope, and which had just been heralded by John the Baptist as +being immediately at hand, had actually taken place. The perfect +state was announced to have arrived, and to be a thing not of the +future but of the present. The long-expected intercourse of God and +man on new terms of perfect agreement and sympathy, had come into +operation; any one who chose could assure himself of the fact. The +title by which Jesus described the intimate relationship of man and +God which he announced, sufficiently shows its character. God is the +Father in heaven; men are his children, and all that men have to do +is to realise that this is so, to enter the circle and begin to live +with God on such terms. The great God seeks to have every one living +with him as his child; and religion is no more, no less, than this +communion. Father and child dwell together in perfect love and +confidence; no outward regulations are needed for their intercourse, +no bargains, no traditions, no ritual, no pilgrimage, no sacrifice. +The intercourse can be carried on by any one, anywhere. It is not a +matter of apparatus, but a purely moral affair, an affair of love. +The Father knows all about the child, is able to give him all he +needs, even before he asks it; is willing to forgive his sins when he +repents of them; is anxious above all to reinforce his efforts after +goodness. The child knows that the Father is always near him, carries +every need and wish to him in prayer, even though knowing that he is +aware of them beforehand; regards all that happens, either good or +ill, as sent by him for the best ends, and seeks in every case to +know his will and to submit to it sweetly, and execute it faithfully. + +Nothing could be simpler, or deeper, or broader. Religion is here +presented free from all local or accidental or obscuring elements; +religion itself is here revealed. Accepted in this form, it does for +man all that it can. The relation between God and man is made purely +moral; the link is not that of race, nor does it consist in anything +external. The individual--every individual who will pause to hear--is +assured that there exists between God and him a natural sympathy, and +is urged to allow that sympathy to have its way. It is easy to see +what effect such a belief must have. The individual, bidden to seek +the principle of union with God not in any external circumstance or +arrangement, but in his own heart, becomes conscious of an inner +freedom from all artificial restraints. He finds in his own heart the +secret of happiness, and is raised above all fears and irritations; +and hence the forces of his nature are encouraged to unfold +themselves freely. He sees clearly what as a human person he is +called to be and to do, and feels a new energy to realise his ideals. +As God has come down to him, he is lifted up to God; a divine power +has entered his life, which is able to do all things in him and for +him. + +It may be said that what we have described are the effects of +religious inspiration generally, and may take place in connection +with any faith. But the divine impulse communicated to mankind in +Christianity differs from that of any other religion in two important +respects. In the first place, the God who here enters into union with +man possesses full reality and a character of the utmost energy. It +is Jehovah with whom we have to do here, changed, indeed, but still +the same; a God of real and irresistible power, on whom speculation +has not laid its weakening hand. The union of man with God is not +secured by making God abstract and vague, nor is his infinite +kindness and forgivingness purchased at the expense of his intensity +and awfulness. With Jesus, God is still the power who has actual +control over everything that goes on, and who is able to do even what +appears to be most impossible. He is a God of strict justice and +holiness; though he is so kind, his judgments have not ceased, but +are still impending over guilty men and a guilty people. It is he who +can cast both soul and body into hell. It is a God of such energy, +such zeal, who yet offers himself as the willing benefactor and +defender, and the loving guide and helper of the humblest of his +human creatures. In the second place, the terms of the union here +formed between God and man are such as can be found nowhere else. The +deity inspires man not to any particular kind of acts, not to +sacrifices, nor to withdrawal from the world, but inspires him simply +to realise himself. Man is assured of the sympathy of this great God, +and is then left in freedom as to the mode in which he should serve +him. No rules are prescribed; human life is not pressed into an +artificial mould, as is the case in so many great religions; no +preference is accorded to any one pursuit over others. This religion +is not a yoke to coerce men and to make them less, but an inspiration +capable of entering into every kind of life, and of making men +greater and better in whatever occupation. Even religious duties are +left to form themselves naturally; all that is insisted on is that +the child shall have living and real intercourse with the Father. +Prayer is necessary, and so is the practice of good works; the child +must keep in sympathy with the Father by doing as he does. Further +than this, the forms of the religious life are not prescribed. With +regard to morals, it is the same. The moral life is to build itself +up freely from within; goodness is not to be a matter of rule, but +the spontaneous and happy development of a principle which lives and +speaks deep in the centre of the heart. Jesus is not a lawgiver, save +in a metaphorical sense: the law which he sets up is nothing more +than that which every man, when he turns away from all that is +artificial, can find in his own breast. + +It is one feature of the spontaneity and spirituality of the religion +of Jesus, that it has no constitution. Jesus regarded himself as the +founder not of a new religion, but only of an inner circle of more +devoted believers inside the old religion of his country; he did not +therefore feel called to draw up rules for a new faith, and the +result of this is that the mechanism of the religion is of later +growth. The authority of the founder can be appealed to for a direct +and constant intercourse with God as of a child with his father, and +for the conduct of men towards each other, which such intercourse +with God necessarily implies, but for hardly anything more. Here, as +in no other historical religion, man is free. + +The religion of Jesus, therefore, is one of love alone. The divine +nature consists in love, and the impulse which religion communicates, +is simply that which proceeds from being loved and loving. And a +religion of love finds the way, as no other can, to make man free, to +unseal his energies, and to lead him upwards to the best life. The +appearance of such a religion forms the most momentous epoch of human +history. He who brought it forward must occupy a unique position in +the estimation of mankind. It can never be superseded. + +It is no doubt the case that the doctrine of Jesus was not in all +respects new. The ideas of the prophets live again in him; his +followers have always found many of the Jewish Psalms to be perfectly +suited to their experience. Jesus lived in the faith of Israel, and +considered that he had come only to make that faith better +understood, and to free it from improper accretions. What was new was +his own person. His great work was that he embodied his teaching in a +life which expressed it perfectly. It is far short of the truth to +say that there was no inconsistency between what he taught and his +own conduct. His life is a demonstration, in every detail, of the +effects of his religion; all flows with the utmost simplicity, and +even as a matter of necessity, out of the truth he taught. What he +preached was, in fact, himself; he was himself living in the kingdom +of God, to which he called others to come; he knew in his own +experience what it was to live as a child with the Father in heaven, +and to view all persons, all things, all duties, in the light of that +intercourse. All his acts and words flowed from the same spring in +his own inner experience. In no other way could his life shape itself +than as it did, and he saw with perfect clearness what men must be, +and on what terms they must live together when God and they were as +Father and children to each other. What he thus knew he lived, as if +no laws but those of the kingdom of heaven had any authority for him, +and so he presented to the world that living embodiment of the true +religion, which has been the main strength of Christianity. Jesus +announces a new union of God with man, a union in which he himself is +the first to rejoice, but which all may share along with him; and +hence his person counts for more in his religion than that of any +other religious founder in his, and necessarily becomes an object of +faith to all who enter the communion. The doctrine does not produce +its specific effect apart from the person of Jesus. Because in him +alone they know the truth which brings them peace, his followers +regard him, in a way which has no parallel in any other religion, as +their Saviour. + +But this name is given to him by his followers, as it is claimed by +himself, for another reason also. Jesus was more than a teacher. He +felt a power to be present in him which was able to supply all needs +and to comfort all sorrows; he did not shrink from summoning all who +were weary and heavy laden to come to him, nor from undertaking to +give them rest. Keenly alive to the sufferings of others, and able to +perceive even those sufferings of which they were not themselves +conscious, he felt it to be his mission to deal with the sadder side +of human life; he was a physician sent to the sick, a shepherd +seeking the lost sheep. It was among the poor and the sick, and even +among the outcasts of society, in whom the sense of need was +strongest, that he felt himself most at home and most able to fulfil +his calling. Thus the motive of compassion enters strongly into all +he said and did: but the compassion is not hopeless in this case as +in the similar case of Gautama (see chapter xx.), nor is the cure +recommended for the ills of humanity that of withdrawal from mankind +or of forgetfulness. Here there is a belief in God. The compassion +from which the religion flows is not as in the case of Gautama, that +of a preacher who has ceased to trust in any heavenly power; it is +announced as existing first of all in the heart of God Himself. God +can do all things, and in his yearning pity for his children has sent +his representative to assure them of his sympathy and to comfort them +in their sorrows. With Jesus therefore no evil is so great as not to +admit of a positive cure; he feels the remedy of all human ills to be +present in his own heart, and so he appears as the Messiah, not such +a Messiah as his countrymen looked for, but as the true Messiah, in +whom all human wants are met, and all human hopes fulfilled. The cure +which he announces for all ills consists in devotion to the will of +the Father in heaven. To give oneself unreservedly to the labour of +realising the purposes of the heavenly Father in one's own heart and +in the world, is to rise above all cares and sorrows; enthusiasm in +the Father's service is the sovereign remedy. To one who believes in +the Father, and seeks to live as his child, no despair is possible. +To be engaged in his business is at all times the highest happiness, +and his kingdom is assuredly coming, though man has still the +privilege of working for it,--the kingdom in which all darkness and +evil will be put away. + +We have indicated the chief points which in a scientific comparison +of Christianity with other religions appear to constitute its +distinctive character; and we have sought to make our statement such +as the reasonable adherent of other religions will feel to be +warranted. The points are these. Christianity is a religion of +freedom, it is a system of inner inspiration more than of external +law or system, it is embodied in the living person of its founder, in +which alone it can be truly seen; and the founder is one who is +living himself in the relation to God to which he calls men to come, +and feels himself called and sent to be the Saviour of men. + +It is impossible in this work to treat Christianity on the same scale +as the other religions; but the question of its universalism must +necessarily receive attention. Jesus himself did not expressly say +that his religion was for all men. It was his immediate aim to bring +about the renewal of the faith of his countrymen, and to give it a +more spiritual character; and some of his followers considered that +he had aimed at nothing more than this. But he formed a circle of +disciples and adherents, which afterwards came to be the Christian +Church, and he attached no ritual condition whatever to membership in +that community. Nay, more; by his repudiation of the Jewish system of +tradition he showed that the Jewish laws of ritual purity were not +binding upon his disciples, and the further inference could readily +be drawn, that one could enter the Kingdom without being a Jew at +all. The strong missionary impulse of the infant religion brought it +very early in contact with Gentile life, and the question soon arose, +whether those who refused to become Jews could yet claim a share in +the Messiah. It was the task of the Apostle Paul to work out the +theory of the universalism of Christianity, and after some conflict +the principle was recognised that in the Church all racial +differences disappear; "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek." +This controversy once settled--and a few years sufficed to settle +it--the new religion was free to spread in all directions. It spread +rapidly; the gospel was very simple and imposed no burdensome +conditions, and it soon proved itself to be capable of striking root +in any country. The Apostle Paul was the first great theologian of +the Church; but his doctrine, as will happen in such a case, does not +in all points spring out of the nature of the religion itself. The +Pauline theology is an attempt to reconcile the facts of Christianity +and especially that great stumbling-block to the Jews, the death of +the Messiah, with the requirements of Jewish thought. Instead of +seeing in the death of Christ, as the older apostles at first did, a +perplexing enigma, St. Paul saw in it the principal manifestation of +the compassion of the Saviour, and the great purpose for which he had +come into the world. He concentrated attention on Christ's death and +made the cross rather than the doctrine of the Messiah the burden of +his teaching. To understand Paul we must distinguish between his +religion and his theology. His religious position is essentially the +same as that of Jesus himself; with him, too, the new religion is +that of father and child, and of the consequences which inevitably +flow from such a union. But the movement of thought which began at +the moment of the crucifixion, the concentration of Christian faith +and love on the person of the Saviour, was now complete. The figure +of the Crucified with its powerful tragic attraction, and with its +deep lessons of conquest by self-surrender, of life by dying, +remained from St. Paul onwards, in the centre of the faith. + +The world of the early centuries was in great need of a religion, and +Christianity supplied the place which was vacant. Brought in contact, +in the great ocean of the Roman Empire where all currents met, with +religions and philosophies of every kind, it proved best suited to +the task of supplying an inspiration for life, uniting together +different classes of men and schools of thought. But in the wide +arena of the Empire it received as well as gave, and in its +encounters with strange rites and doctrines it also put on many a +strange aspect. It became the heir of the thoughts and aspirations of +a hundred empires; all the pious sentiments that flowed together from +every quarter of the world helped to enrich its doctrine, and to make +it the great reservoir it is of all the tendencies and views, even +those most contrary to each other, which are connected with religion. +Its institutions are of diverse origin. From the Jews it received its +earliest Bible, for the Christians had at first no sacred books but +those of the old covenant, and its weekly festival, though the day +was changed. Its God was the God of the Old Testament, and its +Saviour was the Messiah of Jewish prophecy, so that it was a +continuation of the Jewish religion, and the attempts which were made +by early Gnostics to dissolve this tie were soon forgotten. + +From Greece it received much. The world it had to conquer was Greek, +and the conquest could only take place by an accommodation to Greek +thought and to Greek ways. In the end of chapter xvi. we spoke of the +second Greek religion which arose under the influence of philosophy, +and found its way wherever Greek culture spread. In this great +movement, Christianity found a preparation for its coming in the +Greek world, without which its spread must have been much more +doubtful. In the Graeco-Roman religion the advances which appear in +Christianity are already prefigured. Thought has been busy in +building up a great doctrine of God, such a God as human reason can +arrive at, a Being infinitely wise and good, who is the first cause +and the hidden ground of all things, the sum of all wisdom, beauty, +and goodness, and in whom all men alike may trust. Greek thought also +found much occupation in the attempt to reach a true account of man's +moral nature and destiny. Both in theory and in practice many an +attempt was made to build up the ideal life of man, and thus many +minds were prepared for a religion which places the riches of the +inner life above all others. The Greek philosopher's school was a +semi-religious union, the central point of which was, as is the case +with Christianity also, not outward sacrifice but mental activity. It +is not wonderful therefore if Christian institutions were assimilated +to some extent to the Greek schools. It has recently been shown that +the celebration of the Eucharist came very early to bear a close +resemblance to that of a Greek mystery, and that there is an unbroken +line of connection between the discourse of the Greek philosopher and +the Christian sermon. In some of the Greek schools pastoral +visitation was practised, and the preacher kept up an oversight of +the moral conduct of his adherents. While Christianity certainly had +vigour enough to shape its own institutions, and may even be seen to +be doing so in some of the books of the New Testament, the agreement +between Greek and Christian practices amounts to something more than +coincidence. + +It was towards the end of the second century that the alliance +between Christianity and the Greek world was finally ratified. Till +then belief and practice were determined mainly by custom and +tradition; but now these were to give way to definite laws and +settled institutions. There came to full development, about the +period we have mentioned, a highly-organised system of church +government, a canon of sacred books of Christian origin, and a creed +in which the beliefs of Christians were drawn together in one +statement. It cannot be denied that the elaborate external forms with +which the religion of Jesus was thus invested went far to change its +spirit also. But this happens to every religion which reaches the +stage of organising itself in order to continue in the world and to +rule permanently in human thought and in human society. No external +forms can adequately express living religious ideas; and yet there +must be external forms in order that religious ideas may be +perpetuated. The ministers of the new truth inevitably rise in +dignity till they grow into a hierarchy. That truth inevitably seeks +to establish itself as scientifically true, and with the aid of the +ruling philosophical tendency of the day clothes itself in a view of +the universe and in a creed. Thus the essence of Christianity came to +consist not in loving the Master and following him in faith and love, +but in upholding the authority of the Church, receiving her +sacraments, and believing various metaphysical and transcendental +statements. Here also a hard shell is formed round the spiritual +kernel of the religion which, if it is fitted to preserve the latter +in rude and stormy times, is also fitted to confuse and also apt to +conceal it. + +In each of the countries to which it came, Christianity adopted what +it could of the religion formerly existing there. The old religions +of these lands were not all alike, and hence it came to pass that as +the language of Rome was transformed in various ways, and passed into +the different yet cognate tongues of the Romance nations, so the +religion of the Empire, combining with various forms of heathenism, +passed into several national religions, the differences of which are +at least as conspicuous as their similarity. In Italy Christianity +appears to be a system of local deities, each village worshipping its +own Madonna or saint. In Holland worship consists almost entirely of +preaching. In other countries the ritual and the intellectual +elements of religion are blended in varying proportions; and the +former heathenism of each land is also to be traced in many a popular +observance and belief. So great is the variety of the religions of +Europe, not to mention that of the negroes or the Shakers of America, +that many have doubted whether they ought all to be considered as +branches of one faith, or whether they would not more fitly be +regarded as so many national religions which have all alike connected +themselves with Christianity. Against this there is to be urged in +the first place that as a matter of history they are all undoubtedly +offshoots of the religion of Jesus. It may also be urged that +wherever the name of Jesus is named, his ideas must to some extent be +present, however much they are obscured and prevented from operating +by lower modes of view. The Christianity of no country ought to be +judged by the attitude of its most ignorant or even of its average +adherents; and in every land where Christianity prevails, an +influence connected with religion is at work, which makes for the +emancipation and elevation of the human person, and for the awakening +of the manifold energies of human nature. This, as we saw, is the +immediate and native tendency of the religion of Jesus; it opens the +prison doors to them that are bound; it communicates by its inner +encouragement an energy which makes the infirm forget their +weaknesses, it fills the heart with hope and opens up new views of +what man can do and can become. It is this that makes it the one +truly universal religion. Islam, it is true, has also proved its +power to live in many lands, and Buddhism has spread over half of +Asia. But Buddhism is not a full religion, it does not tend to action +but to passivity, and affords no help to progress. Islam, on the +other hand, is a yoke rather than an inspiration; it is inwardly +hostile to freedom, and is incapable of aiding in higher moral +development. Christianity has a message to which men become always +more willing to respond as they rise in the scale of civilisation; it +has proved its power to enter into the lives of various nations, and +to adapt itself to their circumstances and guide their aspirations +without humiliating them. A religion which identifies itself, as +Christianity does, with the cause of freedom in every land, and tends +to unite all men in one great brotherhood under the loving God who is +the Father of all alike, is surely the desire of all nations, and is +destined to be the faith of all mankind. + + +A bibliography of the recent study of Christianity would be far too +extensive for this book. An excellent statement on the subject will +be found at the hands of Professor Sanday in the _Oxford +Proceedings_, vol. ii. p. 263, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII +CONCLUSION + + +It will not be expected that the result of the great movement traced +in the chapters of this work can be summed up in a few words. We set +out with a definition of our subject which we said could only be +fully verified after religion had accomplished its growth and had +fully unfolded its nature. We also set out with the assumption that +all the religion of the world is one, and that it exhibits a +development which is in the main continuous, from the most elementary +to the highest stages. We shall not now attempt to justify by +argument that definition or that assumption. The history which we +have sought to place before the reader must itself be the proof of +them. All that can be done in bringing this work to a close is to +point out one great line of development, which may be recognised more +or less distinctly in the growth of each religion, and may therefore +be held to be characteristic of religion as a whole. No doubt the +growth of religion, as of other human activities, has many sides and +aspects, but perhaps it may be possible to specify the central line +of growth in which the explanation of all the subsidiary and parallel +forward movements is to be found. + +It was stated in our first chapter that religion is the expression of +human needs with reference to higher beings who are supposed to be +capable of fulfilling men's desires, and it was also stated as an +inference from this, that the growth of human needs is the cause of +religious change and progress. If this is true, then the key to the +progress of religion is to be found in the successive emergence in +human experience of higher and still higher needs. If we can discover +the order in which higher aspirations successively emerge in the +growth of humanity, then we shall possess the chief clue to the +course of religious advance. Now while there is infinite variety in +the needs and desires of men, every land and each nation having +ideals all its own, we can yet discern, on a broad view of human +progress, an advance from lower to higher needs which is common to +the human race, and manifests itself in the history of each nation. +Three successive conditions of human life stand out before us as +markedly distinct, and as occurring wherever civilisation continues +to advance. The first is that in which material needs are +all-absorbing; the second that in which freedom from material needs +has been to some extent attained, and the highest aspirations are +directed to the safety and advancement of the nation in which men +find themselves united and secure; and the third is that in which the +individual realises his own value apart from the state, and develops +a personal ideal which is thenceforward his chief end. To these three +stages of human existence three types of religion correspond, and the +growth of religion consists in the main in its passage from the lower +to the higher of these stages. + +The religion of the tribe belongs to that stage of man's existence in +which his energies are entirely occupied in the struggle against +nature and against other tribes. The conditions of his life do not +allow his higher faculties to grow, and while he is not without many +glimpses and anticipations of higher things, his religion, as a +whole, is a mass of childish fancies, and of fixed traditions which +he cannot explain, but does not venture to criticise or change. His +gods are petty and capricious beings, and his modes of influencing +them, though used with zeal and fervour, have little to do with +reason or with taste or with morality. It is in this kind of religion +that magic of all sorts is at home. + +The advance from the religion of the tribe to that of the nation was +briefly described above (chapter vi.). The leading classes of the +state at least having gained some measure of security and leisure, +ideas of a nobler order spring up in their minds. The service of the +great gods of the state is organised with befitting dignity and +splendour; the best minds contribute to it all they can in the way of +art, of poetry, of purified legend, of stately ceremonial. Patriotism +and religion are one, the offices of worship are upheld by the whole +power of the state, and the gods speak with new authority to the +spirit of the worshipper. Now it is that great religious systems +arise, so powerful, so highly organised, so splendidly adorned, and +surrounded with such venerable traditions, that they seem to be +destined for eternity. The priesthood becomes a very powerful class, +and acquires a personal holiness which marks out its members as +different from other men; the sacrifices acquire the character of +divine mysteries, every detail of which, even the most trivial, has a +sacred meaning; religious books are compiled or written, which by and +by are regarded as inspired, and as possessing absolute authority. It +is to be observed that the older style of religion is not at once +driven out by the growth of the new, but continues to flourish beside +it and under its shadow. The tribes of whom the nation is composed +still cherish and adore their own special deities. That older worship +is often thought to bring blessings which the new worship of the +state does not command, and many a piece of ancient magic, many a +practice which has no connection with the state religion, still goes +on, especially among those who are not cultivated enough to +appreciate the nobler faith which has arisen. + +This, however, does not keep the national faith from growing in +riches and consistency; and religion appears, as this growth +proceeds, to have attained the highest degree of power and authority +at which it can possibly arrive. Commanding as it does all the +resources of the nation, enriched by all that can be brought to it of +material or intellectual riches, placed in a position of absolute +exaltation and inviolableness, to what further conquests can it still +look forward? Yet when a national religion appears to be most firmly +established, the forces are most certainly at work which must ere +long lead to a far-reaching change. While the national worship has +been growing up to its highest splendours, the lives of the citizens +have also been growing richer and deeper, and the individual soul has +become aware of wants and longings which cannot be satisfied in the +national temple. The further progress of religion is apt to appear as +a revolt against the system which has grown so strong. The individual +sets out to seek a consistent intellectual view, and so figures as a +sceptic. He aims at a higher moral law than that of the priestly +system, and is accused of undermining public morality. He feels a new +call to personal goodness, a new need for personal atonement with the +ideal holiness which he has learned to apprehend; and as the public +ritual does not meet these needs, he seeks for new religious +associations and perhaps appears to preach a doctrine contrary to +patriotism, as it is subversive of the established religion of his +country, and to be wilfully destroying what his countrymen revere, +and wilfully breaking through old ties and obligations. Thus the +individualist stage of religion succeeds the national. But the +individualist stage is also, in part at least, the universal stage. +What the thinking mind and the pious heart seeks and cannot find in +the national worship, is a religion free as the seeker himself has +become free, from all that is unreasonable and artificial, a religion +therefore in which every thinking mind and every pious heart can have +a share. What is gained by individuals in this direction is capable, +therefore, if circumstances favour, of proving an acquisition not +only for the individual reformer or his nation, but for all men. But +as the rise of national religion does not bring to an end the ruder +worships of the tribes, which still go on beside it, so neither does +the rise of individualism, even in its purest form, bring to an end +the national worship. In the long run this may follow, but it does +not take place at once. All three forms of religion go on together; +the religion of magic, that of stately public sacrifices and +ceremonials, and that of intellectual effort and pious meditation and +prayer. Each no doubt influences to some extent the others, and is +influenced by them in turn. + +The movement thus indicated from tribal to national, and from +national to individual and to universal religion, is the central +development of religion, and all the minor developments which might +be traced, as that of sacrifice from rude to spiritual forms, of the +functions of the sacred class, of the morality dictated by religion +at its various stages, or of the literature connected with piety, may +be explained by reference to this one. This movement has taken place +in every nation; we have seen something of it in each of our +chapters. In some nations it has been early arrested, so that no +important contribution has there been brought to the general religion +of mankind, in others it has run its full course, and like a great +river has arrived at the ocean at last, to mingle its waters with +those of other mighty streams. + +The story of the growth of the world's religion has therefore to be +told in a number of parallel narratives, each dealing with the +experience of a separate nation. There can scarcely be any general +history of the religion of the world, in addition to those special +histories. Some epochs, it is true, stand out as having witnessed +simultaneous religious movements in many lands, as if the mind of the +whole human race had then been passing through the same crisis of +thought. The sixth century B.C. is the age of Confucius and of +Laotsze in China, of Gautama in India, of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the +Unknown Prophet of the Exile, of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and +Xenophanes, and also of the rise into prominence of the Greek +mysteries. Widely different as the movements are which thus took +place contemporaneously in these lands, we may discern in all of them +alike the tendency to plant religion in the mind and heart, and to +create a deeper union than the old external one, a union based on +common intellectual effort and spiritual sympathy. The period +immediately before and after the Christian era might also appear to +be one in which the mind of the world as a whole made a great step +forward. The union of many nations under the sway of Rome, and the +universal diffusion of the Greek language as a means of general +communication, made men conscious at this time as they had never been +before, of the unity of mankind in spite of all differences of race +and speech. A philosophy also was popular at this time which was +cosmopolitan in its character, and occupied itself with the great +problems, which are the same for all, of man's relation to the gods +and of his moral duty. If we add to this the combination which took +place at Rome and wherever different races met, of various rites and +creeds, we see that the age was one singularly disposed to the +breaking down of artificial barriers between men, and singularly +fitted to promote the growth of a belief in which men of all nations +might unite and feel themselves to be brethren. + +In these two periods we may recognise important steps in that great +Education of the Human Race which the Apostle Paul refers to in a +bold philosophy of history (Galat. iv.), and which later thinkers +have striven to set forth in detail. After the long servitude of +mankind to irrational practices and to gods who were no gods, there +comes first the period when men recognise that the true God is to be +found not merely outside them but within their hearts and minds, and +then the period when they find that the true God is the same to all +men, that they are all children of the same Father. But while these +general movements of the human mind may be acknowledged, the +education of the human race proceeds for the most part in nations. As +each nation has to elaborate its own art, its own literature, its own +system of law, so each nation has to perfect its own religion. Even +after a universal faith has appeared, religion does not cease to be a +national thing. Each people moulds the universal religion which it +has adopted into a special form, continues by means of it the rites +and traditions of the past, and expresses through it its own national +character and aspirations. Each nation as well as each individual +must necessarily have a faith specially its own, arising out of its +own character and experience and in great part incommunicable to +others. No two nations could possibly exchange religions. + +But on the other hand every nation contains within itself forms of +religion which differ from each other as widely as those of two +separate nations. It has been said that no religious belief or usage +which has once lived can ever be destroyed; and the proof of this may +be witnessed in every nation. Even after that religion has come which +has its main seat in the heart and soul, the ruder forms of piety +live on, and even at times aggressively assert themselves. If there +are classes for whom the struggle against material hardships still +continues, no lofty religion can be attained by them any more than by +savage tribes. As the conditions of their life forbid the growth of +their higher faculties, their religion cannot be one of thought or of +refinement, but must be one which promises palpable benefits or an +escape from immediate dangers. At a somewhat higher stage is the +class of those who, while partly escaped from the struggle against +want, have not yet fully realised themselves as thinking and +spiritual beings, and to whom the benefits of religion still lie +outside, rather than in the inner life. When the benefits of religion +are thus conceived, its processes must be of a mechanical nature. +Hence the various systems of apparatus for connecting the worshipper +with a source of good distant from him in time or space, and for +fetching as it were from another region, with certainty and accuracy, +needed supplies of grace. + +The further development of religion in a community so mixed must +depend on the progressive education and elevation of the people. As +more and more of them are freed first from distracting wants and +cares, and then from sordid and materialistic views, their spiritual +nature will expand. The need for God himself rather than for his +gifts, will arise and increase in their hearts, and they will grow +capable of that highest religion which is the life of the soul with +God; they will feel its beauty and will drink of the deep springs +which it contains, of strength and peace. + +To attain this true religion the human race has had to travel far and +to make many experiments. Many temples were built and fell to ruin +before the true temple of the soul was reached in which, as each +finds what he as an individual requires, there is also room for all +mankind. Even after this highest religion has been made known to men, +it has often been obscured and lost, and many a struggle has been +needed to vindicate its claims and help it to retain its rightful +place. But with growing experience the world becomes more assured +that the simplest and broadest religion ever preached upon this earth +is also the best and the truest, and that in maintaining Christianity +as at first preached, and applying it in every needed direction, lies +the hope of the future of mankind. To those who agree in this +conclusion the history of the religion of the world, full of errors +and of grievous failures as it has been seen to be, cannot appear to +have been a vain and purposeless excursion in a land of shadows. Not +without a divine call, and not without divine guidance did man set +out so early, and persevere so constantly in spite of all his +disappointments, in the search for God. + + + + +INDEX + + +Aesir, 267 + +Ahura Mazda, 387, 391, 397, 398, 405 + +Allah, 222 + +Allat, "The Lady," 165, 173, 219 + +Amartas, 44 + +Anaitis, 407 + +Ancestor-worship, + primitive, 33, 40 + China, 115 + Aryan, 250 + India, 338 + +Angels and demons, Persia, 400, 407 + +Animals, worship of, 29, 57 + in Peru, 86 + in Babylonia, 96 + in Egypt, 130 + how accounted for, 133 + in Arabia, 219 + in Greece, 277 + +Animation of Nature in savage thought, 24 + +Animism, + meaning of, 40, 96, 308 + in Roman religion, 308 + +Anthropomorphism, 53 + Babylonia, 96 + Egypt, 132 + Greece, 281 + +Apocalypse, 213 + +Arabia, + before Mahomet, 218 + gods of, 219 + Judaism and Christianity in, 223 + +Art, + Phenician, 174 + Egyptian, 132 + Greece, 280, 292 + +Aryans, the, 245 + description of, 248 + in Europe, 256 + religion, 250 + etymology of names of gods, 250 + +Ascetics, Brahmanic, 350 + +Ashera, Canaanite goddess, 172 + +Ashtoreth, 176 + +Association, forms of religious, + Totem-Clan, 70 + nation, 84 + Greek mysteries, 298 + Greek schools, 303 + new form in Israel, 212 + new form in Islam, 233 + +Asuras, 44 + + +Baal, Canaanite god, 171, 189 + +Babylon and Assyria, + religion of, 93 + connection with Egypt, 94, 96, 97 + connection with China, 93, 98 + mythology of, 100 + +Belief, + an essential part of religion, 9, 13 + less important than rite in primitive religion, 66 + +Brahman, etymology of, 339 + +Brahmanism, 338 + +Buddhism, 353, _sqq._ + in China, 123 + +_Burnt Njal_, 264 + +Burton, Captain, _Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca_, 236 + + +Caaba, 220, 236 + +Cabiri, 177 + +Canaanites, 170 + religion of, 171, 191 + +Caste, 338 + +Celts, 257 + +China, 106 + connection with Babylonia, 107 + state religion of, 111 + +Christianity, 411, _sqq._ + +Civilisation and religion advance together, 15 + origin of, 19 + +Classification of religions, 80 + +Confucius, 107, 117, _sqq._ + +Continuity of growth in religion, 6 + +Curiosity, an element of religion, 12 + + +Daniel, 213 + +Decalogues, 202 + +Definition of religion, + preliminary, 8 + fuller, 13 + +Degeneration in civilisation, 19 + in religion, 38 + +Deuteronomy, 201 + +Devas, 44, 396 + +Development of religion, 8, 51, _sqq._, 430, _sqq._ + +Domestic worship, + origin of, 33 + China, 115 + Aryans, 251 + Iceland, 264 + Greece, 275 + Rome, 311 + Brahmanic, 342 + +Dualism, 56 + + +Eddas, 266 + +Egypt, religion of, 126, _sqq._ + +Elijah and Elisha, 190 + +Elves, 265 + +Ephod, 188 + +Etruria, religion of, 318 + +Exile of Israel, 202 + +Ezra, 204 + + +Fairy Tales (German), 262 + +Fate, 289 + +Festivals, Greek, 294 + +Fetish-worship, 35 + +Fetishism, 38 + +Fire, 31 + +Frazer, Mr., 58, 59; _Golden Bough_, 28, 279 + +Frisia, religion in, 263 + +Functional deities, + Greece, 275 + Rome, 308 + +Funeral practices, 62 + Egypt, 149 + Icelandic, 264 + Greece, 282, 290 + India, 332 + Persian, 405 + + +Games, Greek, 294 + +Gautama Buddha, 356 + his death, 361 + +Germans, the ancient, 258 + their gods, 259 + their gods identified with Roman, 260 + working religion of, 260 + later religion, 263 + +Ghosts, 34 + +Gods, the great, + in Babylonia, 98 + in Egypt, 137 + of the Aryans, 252 + German, 259 + Icelandic, 266 + of Homer, 285 + Roman, 311 + Indian, 326 + +Gomme, _Ethnology in Folklore_, 60, 249, 254 + +Greece, 274 + +Grimm, German Mythology, 260 + + +Hades, 291 + +Hammurabi, 93, 95, 202 + +Hanyfs, 224 + +Hartmann, Edward von, 46 + +Heaven, 52 + an object of primitive worship, 31, 53 + Babylonia, 93 + China, 112 + Arabia, 219 + India, 318, 326, 333 + +Hegira, 231 + +Hell, 229, 265, 392 + +Henotheism, 56 + +Heroic legends, + Babylonian, 100 + German, 262 + +Hesiod, 291 + +Homer, 283 + worship in, 287 + +Homeric gods, 285 + +Hymns, + Babylonian, 101 + Egyptian, 144 + Vedic, 328 + Persian, 383. See Psalms + + +Iceland, 264 + decay of old religion of, 272 + +Idols, + none in primitive religion, 73 + Arabia, 219, 220 + German? 264 + +Immortality, + China, 115 + Egypt, 152 + +Incas, the religion of, 85-88 + +India, 324 + +Individual, the, not considered in primitive religion, 76 + +Individual religion, + Babylonia, 104 + Israel, 205 + Greece, 300 + India, 346 + a high stage of religion, 429 + the porch to universalism, 430 + See Buddhism + +Indo-Europeans. See Aryans + +Isaiah xli.-lxvi., 203 + +Islam, 217. See Mahomet + meaning of, 226 + spread of, 237 + a universal religion, 240 + weakness of, 241 + +Israel, 179 + +Israel and Canaanites, 184 + Prophets, 189 + reforms of religion, 200 + exile, 202 + the return, 204 + +Istar, 101 + + +Jainism, 362 + +Japan, 115 + +Jehovah, 182 + +Jesus Christ, 413, _sqq._ + +Jewish religion, 205 + spiritual elements of, 209 + heathenish elements of, 210 + Persian influence on? 215 + +Jinns, 220 + +Job, 215 + +Judaism, 205 _sqq._ + Hellenistic period of, 412 + at time of Christ, 413 + + +Kathenotheism, 55, 336 + +Koran, 225, 227, 239 + + +Lang, Andrew, 25, 59; _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, 22 + +Legge, Dr., 110, 113 + +Literatures, sacred, 179 + Babylonia, 93, 100 + Buddhist, 353 + China, 108 + Eddas, 266 + Egypt, 127, 154 + Koran, 225, 227, 239 + Israel, 179, 207 + Sibylline books, 319 + Vendidad, 406 + Zend-Avesta, 382 + +Local nature of early religion, 60 + +Local observances, + Aryan, 253 + old German, 262 + Icelandic, 264 + +Lockyer, _Dawn of Astronomy_, 94 + + +Magi, 405 + +Magic, 74 + Babylonia, 95 + Egypt, 155 + +Mahomet, 225, _sqq._ + preaching, 228 + leaves Mecca, 231 + at Medina, 232 + breach with Judaism and Christianity, 234 + domestic, 235 + +Manicheism, 408 + +Mannhardt, _Feld- und Waldkulte_, 59, 262 + +Manu, law of, 344 + +Massebah, 172 + +Maya, 349 + +McLennan, 59 + +Mecca, 220 + becomes capital of Islam, 235 + +Meyer, E., 247 + +Mithra, 407 + +Moloch, 174 + +Monarchical Pantheon of the Aryans, 253 + +Monotheism, + not primitive, 37, 56 + in Egypt? 144 + emergence of, in Israel, 196 + in India, 348 + +Morality, + in primitive religion, 77 + Egyptian religion, 155 + Greece, 279 + Vedic religion, 335 + Brahmanism, 345 + of Buddhism, 372 + +Moslem, + meaning of, 226 + duties of the, 238 + +Müller, Mr. Max, 10, 42, 246, 250, 332 + his theory of the origin of religion, 43 + +Mycenĉ, 282 + +Mysteries, the Greek, 298 + +Mythology, + origin of, 51 + Babylonia, 100 + Egypt, 138 + Greece, 280 + Icelandic, 267 + Indian, 333 + + +National religion, + how different from earlier form, 81, 428 + Israel, 191 + +Natural religion, 80 + +Nature gods, growth of, 51 + +Nature-worship, + the greater, 30, 43 + the minor, 32, 42, 57 + +Nirvana, 361, 373 + + +Omens, 290 + Roman, 312 + +Orientation, of temples, 100 + +Origin of religion, + (1) Primitive revelation, 26 + (2) Innate idea, 26 + (3) Psychological necessity, 27 + +Orphism, 302 + +Other World, the + in Egypt, 151 + with the Semites, 167 + Jewish beliefs about, 214 + Arabia, 220 + Iceland, 265, 266 + Homer, 283 + + +Pantheism, + in Egypt, 148 + India, 336, 348 + +Patriarchal society and religion of Aryans, 248 + +Perkunas, 36 + +Persia, 381 + primitive religion, 385 + contact of Jews with, 401, 406 + +Pfleiderer, Otto, 47 + +Phenicians, 170 + religion of, 176 + influence on Greece, 282 + +Philistines, 170 + +Philosophy, + Greek, 301 + Indian, 347 + +Polytheism, + origin of, 53 + Indian, 335 + +Prayer, + primitive, 71 + Israel, 198, 212 + Indian, 339 + Persian, 382, 394 + +Priestly code, 202, 403 + +Priests, + none in the earliest religion, 72 + not necessary in early Israel, 187 + Roman, 313 + Brahmans, 338 + +Primitive religion, the, 21 + difference between it and later forms, 79 + +Prophets, in Israel, 189 + their criticism of the old religion of Israel, 192 + +Psalms, 210. See Hymns + +Purity, laws of, + Israel, 209 + Persia, 404 + + +Rationalism, + Greece, 297 + India, 350 + +Reforms, + of Israelite religion, 200 + of Augustus, 322 + +Renouf, Le Page, 145 + +Revealed religion, 80 + +Réville, M., 25, 31, 42 + +Resurrection, 214 + +Retribution, after death, + in Egypt, 155 + Mahomet, 229 + Israel, 214 + +Rig-veda, the, 325 + +Ritualism, + Brahmanic, 343 + Roman, 314 + Persian, 403 + Jewish, 204, 208 + +Rome, 305, _sqq._ + +Rougé, M. de la, 145 + + +Sacred places, 59 + Semitic, 165 + Canaanite, 184, 200 + Arabia, 219 + Germany, 261 + +Sacred seasons, 75 + +Sacrifice, + primitive, generally a meal, 67 + in China, 114 + Semitic, 164 + human (Phenician), 175 + human (Israel), 187 + human (Icelandic), 265 + early Israelite, 183 + denounced by O. T. prophets, 193 + Jewish, 207 + Icelandic, 264 + Homeric, 287 + Persia, 394 + +Saussaye, P. D. Chantepie de la, 17 + +Savage elements in all the great religions, 21 + +Savages, + their religion falls short of the definition, 8 + represent the original state of mankind, 19 + mental habits of, 23 + all have religion, 25 + the religion of, described, 29, _sqq._ + their beliefs furnish the elements of the great religions, 63 + +Schrader (Aryans), 247, 252 + +Semites, 161 + religion of, 162 + gods of, 164, 173 + goddess of, 99, 165, 219 + +Seraph, 220 + +Shin-to, 115 + +Sin, + Babylon, 103 + Israel, 205 + +Slavs, 256 + +Smith, Robertson, 61; _Religion of the Semites_, 58, 70, 162 + +Spencer, Mr. H., 11, 39 + +Spirit, the great, 36 + +Spirits, + of dead persons, 33 + worship of, the origin of all religion? 38 + in Babylonia, 95 + in China, 114 + in Arabia, 220 + in Greece, 275 + in Persia, 398 + +Standing stones, 60 + +Sun, 30 + +Sun-gods, + Babylonia, 99 + Egypt, 140, 148 + Phenician, 176 + Arabian, 219 + +Supreme Being, an object of primitive worship? 36 + +Survival of savage state in the great religions, 21 + +Synagogue, 212 + +Syncretism, of gods in Egypt, 148 + + +Taboo, 72 + +Taoism, 121 + +Taylor, Dr. I., 247, 248 + +Temples, + not primitive, 72 + Babylonia, 99 + Egyptian, 128, 130, 136 + Phenician and Jewish, 178 + Greek, 292 + Roman, 318, 323 + +Teraphim, 188 + +Teutons, 256. See Germans + +Thunder, 30, 265, 270 + +Tiele, Dr. C. P., 15 + +Totemism, 58, 135, 277 + +Transmigration, 302, 351, 368 + +Tree-worship, + primitive, 32, 59, 278 + Babylonia, 101 + Canaanites, 172 + Arabia, 219 + Greece, 278 + +Tribal religion, 57, 77, 427 + +Tylor, Mr., _Primitive Culture_, 10, 20, 25, 29, 39, 62, 63, 68 + + +Under-world, the, + Babylonia, 100, 102 + Egypt, 140, 142, 152 + +Unity of all religion, 4 + +Universal deities of the Aryans, 252 + +Universalism, + in O. T. prophets, 195 + in Islam, 240 + in Christianity, 419 + +Urim and Thummim, 188 + + +Vedic hymns, 328 + +Vedic religion, 324, _sqq._ + its gods, 326 + is it early or late? 331 + +Vow, original meaning of, 75 + + +Waitz and Gerland's _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, 29 + +Wellhausen, J., 163, 218 + +Wells, sacred, 32, 57, 59 + +Worship, + an essential element of religion, 9 + primitive, 66 + Chinese, 112 + Egyptian, 147 + Canaanite, 173 + Israelite, 187 + Jewish, 207 + Roman, 309 + See Sacrifice + + +Zeus, etymology of, 250, 286, 296 + +Zoomorphism, 53 + +Zoroaster, 384 + his call, 388 + his doctrine, 391 + + + +PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RELIGION*** + + +******* This file should be named 29893-8.txt or 29893-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/8/9/29893 + + + +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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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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: History of Religion</p> +<p> A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems</p> +<p>Author: Allan Menzies</p> +<p>Release Date: September 2, 2009 [eBook #29893]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RELIGION***</p> +<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Ron Swanson</h3></center><br><br> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>HISTORY OF RELIGION</h1> + +<h4>A SKETCH OF PRIMITIVE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS<br> +AND PRACTICES, AND OF THE ORIGIN AND<br> +CHARACTER OF THE GREAT SYSTEMS</h4> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center>B<small>Y</small></center> +<br> +<h2>ALLAN MENZIES, D.D.</h2> + +<center><small><small>PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM +IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS</small></small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><small><small>Known unto God are all his works from the +beginning of the world.—A<small>CTS</small> xv. 18.</small></small></center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center>NEW YORK<br> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br> +597-599 FIFTH AVENUE<br> +1917</center> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6" summary="print history"> + <tr><td>F<small>IRST</small> E<small>DITION</small></td><td align="right"><i>April</i> 1895</td></tr> + <tr><td>S<small>ECOND</small> E<small>DITION</small></td><td align="right"><i> September</i> 1895</td></tr> + <tr><td><i>Reprinted</i></td><td align="right"><i>March</i> 1897</td></tr> + <tr><td><i>Reprinted</i></td><td align="right"><i>June</i> 1900</td></tr> + <tr><td><i>Reprinted</i></td><td align="right"><i>January</i> 1902</td></tr> + <tr><td><i>Reprinted</i></td><td align="right"><i>March</i> 1903</td></tr> + <tr><td><i>Reprinted</i></td><td align="right"><i>October</i> 1905</td></tr> + <tr><td>T<small>HIRD</small> E<small>DITION</small></td><td align="right"><i>January</i> 1908</td></tr> + <tr><td>F<small>OURTH</small> E<small>DITION</small></td><td align="right"><i>September</i> 1911</td></tr> + <tr><td><i>Reprinted</i></td><td align="right"><i>June</i> 1914</td></tr> + <tr><td><i>Reprinted</i></td><td align="right"><i>October</i> 1918</td></tr> +</table> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>PREFACE</h3> +<br> + +<p>This book makes no pretence to be a guide to all the mythologies, or +to all the religious practices which have prevailed in the world. It +is intended to aid the student who desires to obtain a general idea +of comparative religion, by exhibiting the subject as a connected and +organic whole, and by indicating the leading points of view from +which each of the great systems may best be understood. A certain +amount of discussion is employed in order to bring clearly before the +reader the great motives and ideas by which the various religions are +inspired, and the movements of thought which they present. And the +attempt is made to exhibit the great manifestations of human piety in +their genealogical connection. The writer has ventured to deal with +the religions of the Bible, each in its proper historical place, and +trusts that he has not by doing so rendered any disservice either to +Christian faith or to the science of religion. It is obvious that in +a work claiming to be scientific, and appealing to men of every +faith, all religions must be treated impartially, and that the same +method must be applied to each of them.</p> + +<p>In a field of study, every part of which is being illuminated almost +every year by fresh discoveries, such a sketch as the present can be +merely tentative, and must soon, in many of its parts, grow +antiquated and be superseded. And where so much depends on the +selection of some facts out of many which might have been employed, +it will no doubt appear to readers who have some acquaintance with +the subject, that here and there a better choice might have been +made. The writer hopes that the great difficulty will not be +overlooked with which he has had to contend, of compressing a vast +subject into a compendious statement without allowing its life and +interest to evaporate in the process.</p> + +<p>For a fuller bibliography than is given in this volume the reader may +consult the works of Dr. C. P. Tiele, and of Dr. Chantepie de la +Saussaye. It will readily be believed that the writer of this volume +has been indebted to many an author whom he has not named.</p> +<br> +<p> <small>S<small>T</small>. A<small>NDREWS</small>, 1895.</small></p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>PREFACE TO THE THIRD (REVISED) EDITION</h3> +<br> + +<p>Since this book first appeared twelve years ago it has been several +times reprinted without change. Advantage has now been taken, +however, of a call for a fresh issue, to introduce into it some +alterations and additions, such as its stereotyped form allows. Some +mistakes have been corrected, the names of recent books have been +added to the bibliographies, and in some chapters, especially those +dealing with the Semitic religions, considerable changes have been +made. In going over the book for this purpose, I have seen very +clearly that if it had been called for and written at this time +instead of twelve years ago, some things which are in it need not +have appeared, and additions might have been made which are not now +possible. The last twelve years have made a great change in the study +of religions; the prejudices with which it was regarded have almost +passed away, powerful forces have been enlisted in its service, and +admirable works have appeared dealing with various parts of the vast +field. Yet I am glad to think that the attempt made in this book to +furnish a simple introduction to a deeply important study, and +especially to promote the understanding of the religions of the Bible +by placing them in their connection with the religion of mankind at +large, may still prove useful.</p> +<br> +<p> <small>S<small>T</small>. A<small>NDREWS</small>, <i>June</i> 1907.</small></p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION</h3> +<br> + +<p>This book is now being reprinted in a somewhat larger type, and an +opportunity is given, less restricted than the last, for making +changes in it. It is impossible for me at present to re-write it; it +appears substantially as it was. Some alterations and additions have +been made in the earlier chapters, and the bibliographies have been +brought more nearly up to date. I would take this opportunity of +directing the attention of readers of this book to the published +Proceedings of the Oxford Congress of the History of Religion, held +in September 1908. They will there see how large this field of study +has now grown, and what varied life and movement every part of it +contains. I have given references only to the addresses of the +Presidents of the Sections of the Congress, in which a fresh review +will be found of recent progress in the study of each of the great +religions.</p> +<br> +<p> <small>S<small>T</small>. A<small>NDREWS</small>, <i>July</i> 1910.</small></p> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<br> + +<h4>PART I<br> +THE RELIGION OF THE EARLY WORLD</h4> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap1">CHAPTER I</a><br><br> +INTRODUCTION</center> + +<p>Position of the science—Unity of all religion—The growth of +religion continuous—Preliminary definition of religion—Criticism +of other definitions—Fuller definition—Religion +and civilisation advance together</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap2">CHAPTER II</a><br><br> +THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION</center> + +<p>Origin of civilisation—It was from the savage state that +civilisation was by degrees produced—The religion of +savages—All savages have religion—It is a psychological +necessity</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap3">CHAPTER III</a><br><br> +THE EARLIEST OBJECTS OF WORSHIP</center> + +<p>Nature-worship—Ancestor-worship—Fetish-worship—A supreme +being—Which gods were first worshipped?—Fetish-gods came +first—Spirits, human or quasi-human, came first—Theories +of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Tylor—Animism—The minor +nature-worship came first—Theories of Mr. M. Müller and of +Ed. von Hartmann—The great nature-powers came first—Both +nature-worship and the worship of spirits are sources of +early religion—Conclusion</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap4">CHAPTER IV</a><br><br> +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS—BELIEF</center> + +<p>Growth of the great gods—Polytheism—Kathenotheism—The +minor nature-worship—The worship of animals—Trees, wells, +stones—The state after death—Growth of the great religions +out of these beliefs</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap5">CHAPTER V</a><br><br> +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS—PRACTICES</center> + +<p>Sacrifice—Prayer—Sacred places, objects, persons—Magic—Character +of early religion—Early religion and morality</p> +<br> +<center><a href="#chap6">CHAPTER VI</a><br><br> +NATIONAL RELIGION</center> +<br> + +<p>Classifications of religions—Rise of national religion—It +affords a new social bond—And a better God—Example—The +Inca religion</p> + +<hr align="center" width="40%"> +<h4>PART II<br> +ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS</h4> + + +<center><a href="#chap7">CHAPTER VII</a><br><br> +BABYLON AND ASSYRIA</center> + +<p>People and literature—Worship of spirits—Worship of +animals—The great Gods—Mythology—The state religion</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap8">CHAPTER VIII</a><br><br> +CHINA</center> + +<p>History of China—The literature of the religion—The state +religion of ancient China—Heaven—The +spirits—Ancestors—Confucius—His +life—His doctrine—Taoism—Buddhism in China</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap9">CHAPTER IX</a><br><br> +THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT</center> + +<p>History and literature—1. Animal worship—Theories +accounting for it—2. The great Gods—They also are +local—Mythology—Dynasties of +gods—Ra—Osiris—Ptah—Was the +earliest religion monotheistic?—Syncretism—Pantheism—Worship—3. +The doctrine of the other life—Treatment of the +dead—The spirit in the under-world—<i>The Book of the +Dead</i>—Conclusion</p> + +<hr align="center" width="40%"> +<h4>PART III<br> +THE SEMITIC GROUP</h4> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap10">CHAPTER X</a><br><br> +THE SEMITIC RELIGION</center> + +<p>Home of the Semites—Character of the race—Their early +religious ideas—Difference between Semitic and Aryan +religion</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</a><br><br> +CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS</center> + +<p>The Religion of the Canaanites—The Phenicians—Their +gods—Astral deities of Phenicia—Influence of Phenician art</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</a><br><br> +ISRAEL</center> + +<p>The sacred literature—The people—Jehovah—The early ritual +was simple—Contact with Canaanite religion—Danger of +fusion—Religious conflict—The monarchy—Religion not +centralised—The Prophets—The old religion +national—Criticism of the old religion by the prophets—Appearance of +Universalism—Ethical monotheism—Individualism of the +prophetic teaching—The reforms—Deuteronomy—Earlier +codes—The exile—The return; the reform of Ezra—Character of the +later religion—Heathenish elements of Judaism—Spiritual +elements—The Psalms—The Synagogue—The national hopes—The +state after death</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</a><br><br> +ISLAM</center> + +<p>Arabia before Mahomet—The old religion—Confusion of +worship—Allah—Judaism and Christianity in Arabia—Mahomet, +early life—His religious impressions—The revelations—His +preaching—Persecution—Trials; decides to leave +Mecca—Mahomet at Medina—New religious union—Breach with Judaism +and Christianity—Domestic—Conquest of Mecca—Mecca made the +capital of Islam—Spread of Islam—The duties of the +Moslem—The Koran—Islam a universal religion</p> + +<hr align="center" width="40%"> +<h4>PART IV<br> +THE ARYAN GROUP</h4> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV</a><br><br> +THE ARYAN RELIGION</center> + +<p>The Aryans, their early home—Their civilisation +described—Little known of their gods—Their worship was domestic</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap15">CHAPTER XV</a><br><br> +THE TEUTONS</center> + +<p>The Aryans in Europe—The ancient Germans—The early German +gods—The working religion—Later German +religion—Iceland—The Eddas—The gods of the Eddas—The twilight of the gods</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI</a><br><br> +GREECE</center> + +<p>People and land—Earliest religion; functional +deities—Growth of Greek gods—Stones, animals, trees—Greek +religion is local—Artistic tendency—Early Eastern +influences—Homer—The Homeric gods—Worship in Homer—Omens—The state +after death—Hesiod—The poets and the working religion—Rise +of religious art—Festivals and games—Zeus and +Apollo—Change of the Greek spirit in sixth century <small>B.C.</small>—New +religious feeling; the mysteries—Religion and philosophy</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII</a><br><br> +THE RELIGION OF ROME</center> + +<p>Roman religion was different from Greek—The earliest gods of +Rome are functional beings—The worship of these beings—The +great gods—Sacred persons—Roman religion legal rather than +priestly—Changes introduced from without—Etruria—Greek +gods in Rome—The Graeco-Roman religion—Decay and confusion</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII</a><br><br> +THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA<br> +<br> +I. <i>The Vedic Religion</i></center> + +<p>Relation of Indian to Aryan religion—The Rigveda—The Vedic +gods—Hymns to the gods—To what stage does this religion +belong?—It is primitive—It is advanced—In spite of many +gods, a tendency to Monotheism</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX</a><br><br> +INDIA<br> +<br> +II. <i>Brahmanism</i></center> + +<p>The caste system: the Brahmans—The growth of the sacred +literature—Sacrifice—Practical +life—Philosophy—Transmigration—Later developments</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap20">CHAPTER XX</a><br><br> +INDIA<br> +<br> +III. <i>Buddhism</i></center> + +<p>The literature—Was there a personal founder?—The story of +the founder—Is Buddhism a revolt against Brahmanism?—The +Buddha—The doctrine—Buddhist morality—Nirvana—No +gods—The order—Buddhism made popular—Conclusion—Buddhism is not +a complete religion</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI</a><br><br> +PERSIA</center> + +<p>Sources—The contents of the Zend-Avesta are +composite—Zoroaster—Primitive religion of Iran—The call of +Zarathustra—The doctrine—Its inconsistencies—Man is called +to judge between the gods—This religion is essentially +intolerant—Growth of Mazdeism—Organisation of the heavenly +beings—The attributes of Ahura—Ancient testimonies to the +Persian religion—The Vendidad: laws of purity—How this +doctrine entered Mazdeism—Influence of Mazdeism on Judaism +and in other directions</p> + +<hr align="center" width="40%"> +<h4>PART V<br> +UNIVERSAL RELIGION</h4> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII</a><br><br> +CHRISTIANITY</center> + +<p>State of Jewish religion at the Christian era—The teaching +of Jesus—His person and work—Universalism of +Christianity—The Apostle Paul—What Christianity received from +Judaism—And from the Greek world—The different religions of +Christian nations and the common Christianity</p> +<br> + +<center><a href="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII</a><br><br> +CONCLUSION</center> + +<p>Tribal, national, and individual religion—This the central +development—Has to be studied in nations—Periods of general +advance in religion—Conditions of religious progress</p> +<br> + +<p><a href="#index">INDEX</a></p> +<a name="chap1"></a><br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>PART I</h2> +<h3>THE RELIGION OF THE EARLY WORLD</h3> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER I</h4> +<center>INTRODUCTION</center> +<br> +<a name="p3"></a> +<p>The science to which this little volume is devoted is a comparatively +new one. It is scarcely half a century since the attention of Western +Europe began to fix itself seriously on the great religions of the +East, and the study of these ancient systems aroused reflection on +the great facts that the world possesses not one religion only, but +several, nay, many religions, and that these exhibit both great +differences and great resemblances. The agitation of mind then +awakened by the thought that other faiths might be compared with +Christianity, has to a large extent passed away; and on the other +hand fresh fields of knowledge have been opened to the student of the +worships of mankind. By new methods of research the religions of +Greece and Rome have come to be known as they never were before; and +all the other religions of which we formerly knew anything have been +led to tell their stories in a new way. A new study—that of the +earliest human life on the earth—has brought to light many primitive +beliefs and practices, which seem to explain early religious ideas; +and the accounts of missionaries and others about savage tribes now +existing in different parts of the world, are seen to be full of a +significance which was not noticed formerly. We are thus in a very +different position from our fathers for studying the religion of the +world as a whole. To <a name="p4"></a>them their own religion was the true one and all +the others were false. Calvin speaks of the "immense welter of +errors" in which the whole world outside of Christianity is immersed; +it is unnecessary for him to deal with these errors, he can at once +proceed to set forth the true doctrine. The belief of the early +fathers of the Church, that all worships but those of Judaism and +Christianity were directed to demons, and that the demons bore sway +in them, practically prevailed till our own day; and it could not but +do so, since no other religions than these were really known. That +ignorance has ceased, and we are responsible for forming a view of +the subject according to the light that has been given us.</p> + +<p>The science of religion, though of such recent origin, has already +passed beyond its earliest stage, as a reference even to its earlier +and its later names will show. "Comparative Religion" was the title +given at first to the combined study of various religions. What had +to be done, it was thought, was to compare them. The facts about them +had to be collected, the systems arranged according to the best +information procurable, and then laid side by side, that it might be +seen what features they had in common and what each had to +distinguish it from the others. Work of this kind is still abundantly +necessary. The collection of materials and the specifying of the +similarities and dissimilarities of the various faiths will long +occupy many workers.</p> + +<p><b>Unity of all Religion.</b>—But recent works on the religions of the +world regarded as a whole have been called "histories." We have the +well-known <i>History of Religion</i> of M. Chantepie de la Saussaye, now +in its third edition, and the <i>Comparative History of the Religions +of Antiquity</i> of M. Tiele. A history of religion may be either of two +things. The word history may be used as in the term Natural History, +to denote a reasoned account of this department of <a name="p5"></a>human life, +without attempting any chronological sequence; or it may be used as +when we speak of the History of the Romans, an attempt being made to +tell the story of religion in the world in the order of time. In +either case the use of the term "history" indicates that the study +now aims at something more than the accumulation of materials and the +pointing out of resemblances and analogies, namely, at arranging the +materials at its command so as to show them in an organic connection. +This, it cannot be doubted, is the task which the science of religion +is now called to attempt. What every one with any interest in the +subject is striving after, is a knowledge of the religions of the +world not as isolated systems which, though having many points of +resemblance, may yet, for all we know, be of separate and independent +growth, but as connected with each other and as forming parts of one +whole. Our science, in fact, is seeking to grasp the religions of the +world as manifestations of the religion of the world.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> The above statement is criticised by Mr. L. H. Jordan in +his excellent work, <i>Comparative Religion</i>, p. 485, but is in the +main a true account of what has taken place. Mr. Jordan strongly +holds that Comparative Religion is a science by itself, and ought to +be distinguished from the History of Religion, though the latter is, +of course, its necessary foundation.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In rising to this conception of its task, the science of religion is +only obeying the impulse which dominates every department of study in +modern times. What every science is doing is to seek to show the +unity of law amid the multiplicity of the phenomena with which it has +to deal, to gather up the many into one, or rather to show how the +one has given rise to the many. In the study of religion, if it be +really a science, this impulse of all science must surely be felt. +Here also we must cherish the conviction that an order does exist +amid the apparent disorder, if we could but find it. We must believe +that the religious beliefs and practices of mankind are not a mere +chaos, <a name="p6"></a>not a mere incessant outburst of unreason, consistent only in +that it has appeared in every age and every country of the world, but +that they form a cosmos, and may be known, if we take the right way, +as a part of human life from which reason has never been absent, and +in which a growing purpose has fulfilled and still fulfils itself. +Some theories, it is true, from which the world formerly hoped much, +are not now relied on, and the present tendency is to abstain from +any general doctrine of the subject, and to be content with careful +collection and arrangement of the facts in special parts of the +field. Caution is no doubt most needful in the attempt to form a view +of this great study as a whole. Yet something of this kind is +possible, and is beyond all doubt much called for. It is the aim of +this little work not only to describe the leading features of the +great religions, but also to set forth some of the results which +appear to have been reached regarding the relation in which these +systems stand to each other.</p> + +<p><b>The Growth of Religion Continuous.</b>—We shall not pretend to set out +on this enterprise without any assumptions. The first and principal +assumption we make is that in religion as in other departments of +human life there has been a development from the beginning, even till +now, and that the growth of religion has gone on according to the +ordinary laws of human progress. This is a position which, begin the +study at whatever point he may, the student of this subject will find +himself compelled to take up, if he is not to renounce altogether the +idea of understanding it as a whole. To understand anything means, to +the thought of the present day, to know how it has come to be what it +is; of any historical phenomenon at least it is certain that it +cannot be understood except by tracing its history up to the root. We +assume, therefore, until it be disproved, that in this as in other +departments of human activity, growth has <a name="p7"></a>been continuous from the +first. In every other branch of historical study, this assumption is +made. The history of institutions is traced back in a continuous line +to an age before there was any family or any such thing as property. +The methods by which men have earned their subsistence on the earth +are known equally far back; and there is no break in the development +from the hooked stick to the steam plough. And should it not be the +same in religion? Here also shall we not assume, until we find it +proved to be incorrect, that there has been no break in the growth of +ideas and practices from the earliest days till now, and that the +highest religion of the present day is organically connected with +that religion which man had at first? It is, indeed, in many ways far +removed from the earliest religion, but what was most essential in +the earliest belief still lives in it, and what was fittest to +survive of its earliest motives, still prompts its worship. Should we +adopt this view, we shall find many of the difficulties disappear +which have frequently stood in the way of this study. When, according +to the new tendency that seems to govern all modern thought, +institutions and beliefs are regarded not as fixed things, but as +things growing from something that was there before, and tending +towards something that is coming, they cease to arouse contempt, or +jealousy, or hatred. If we can regard religions as stages in the +evolution of religion, then we have no motive either to depreciate or +unduly to extol any of them. The earlier stages of the development +will have a peculiar interest for us, just as we look with affection +on the home of our ancestors even though we should not choose to +dwell there. We shall not divide religions into the true one, +Christianity, and the false ones, all the rest; no religion will be +to us a mere superstition, nor shall we regard any as unguided by +God. Feeling that we cannot understand our own religion aright +without understanding those <a name="p8"></a>out of which it has been built up, we +shall value these others for the part they have played in the great +movement, and our own most of all, without which they could not be +made perfect. In the light of this principle of growth we shall find +good in the lowest, and shall see that the good and true rather than +the evil and false, furnish the ultimate meaning of even the poorest +systems.</p> + +<p>We start then with the assumption that religion is a thing which has +developed from the first, as law has, or as art has; and the best +method we can follow, if it should prove practicable, will be to +follow its movement from the beginning. We must not presume to hope +that everything will be made clear, or that we shall meet with no +religious phenomena to which we cannot assign their place in the +development. We must remember that ground is often lost as well as +won in human history, and that in religions as in nations +degeneration frequently occurs as well as progress. We must not be +too sure that we shall be able to find any plain path leading through +the immeasurable forests of man's religious sentiments and practices. +Yet we may at least expect to find evidence of the direction which on +the whole the growth of religion has followed.</p> + +<p><b>Preliminary Definition of Religion.</b>—But, before we can set out on +this inquiry, we are met by the question, What is it that we suppose +to have been thus developed? In order to trace any process of +evolution it is necessary to define that which is evolved; for it +belongs to the very idea of evolution that the identity of the +subject of it is not changed on the way up, but that the germ and the +finished product are the same entity, only differing from each other +in that the one has still to grow while the other is grown. Futile +were it indeed to sketch a history of religion with the savage at one +end of it and the Christian thinker at the other, if it could be said +that <a name="p9"></a>in no point did the religion of the savage and that of the +Christian coincide, but that the product was a thing of entirely +different nature from the germ. It seems necessary, therefore, in the +first place, to say what that is, of which we are to attempt the +history; or in other words, to say what we mean by religion.</p> + +<p>It must not be forgotten that an adequate definition of a thing which +is growing can only be reached when the growth is complete. During +its growth it is showing what it is, and its higher as well as its +lower manifestations are part of its nature. The world has not yet +found out completely, but is still in the course of finding out, what +religion is. Any definition propounded at this stage must, therefore, +be of an elementary and provisional character. I propose then as a +working definition of religion in the meantime, that it is <b>"The +worship of higher powers."</b> This appears at first sight a very meagre +account of the matter; but if we consider what it implies, we shall +find it is not so meagre. In the first place it involves an element +of belief. No one will worship higher powers unless he believes that +such powers exist. This is the intellectual factor. Not that the +intellectual is distinguished in early forms of religion from the +other factors, any more than grammar is distinguished by early man as +an element of language. But something intellectual, some creed, is +present implicitly even in the earliest worships. Should there be no +belief in higher powers, true worship cannot continue. If it be +continued in outward act, it has lost reality to the mind of the +worshipper, and the result is an apparent or a sham religion, a +worship devoid of one of the essential conditions of religion. This +is true at every stage. But in the second place, these powers which +are worshipped are "higher." Religion has respect, not to beings men +regard as on a level with themselves or even beneath themselves, but +to beings in some way above and beyond themselves, and <a name="p10"></a>whom they are +disposed to approach with reverence. When objects appear to be +worshipped for which the worshipper feels contempt, and which a +moment afterwards he will maltreat or throw away, there also one of +the essential conditions is absent, and such worship must be judged +to fall short of religion. There may no doubt be some religion in it; +the object he worships may appear to the savage, in whose mind there +is little continuity, at one moment to be higher than himself and the +next moment to be lower; but the result of the whole is something +less than religion. And in the third place these higher powers are +worshipped. That is to say, religion is not only belief in the higher +powers but it is a cultivating of relations with them, it is a +practical activity continuously directed to these beings. It is not +only a thinking but also a doing; this also is essential to it. When +worship is discontinued, religion ceases; a principle indeed not to +be applied too narrowly, since the apparent cessation of worship may +be merely its transition to another, possibly a higher form; but +religion is not present unless there be not only a belief in higher +powers but an effort of one kind or another to keep on good terms +with them.</p> + +<p><b>Criticism of other Definitions.</b>—What has now been said will enable +us to judge of several of the definitions of religion which have been +put before the world in recent years. Without going back to the +definitions offered by philosophers who wrote before the scientific +study of our subject had begun, and limiting ourselves to those which +have been propounded in the interests of our science, we notice that +several make religion consist in an intellectual activity.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> Thus +Mr. Max Müller<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> <a name="p11"></a>says that "Religion is a mental faculty or +disposition which independent of, nay, in spite of, sense and reason, +enables man to apprehend the Infinite under different names, and +under varying disguises. Without that faculty ... no religion would +be possible." To this definition there are various strong objections. +It implies that there is only one way in which men come to believe in +higher beings; they arrive at that belief by finding something which +transcends them and which they cannot understand; <i>i.e.</i> by an +intellectual process. It may be doubted whether the sense of +disappointment with the finite is the only road, or even a common +road, to belief in gods. Mr. Müller's omission, moreover, from his +definition, of the practical side of religion, of the element of +worship, is a fatal objection to it. Belief and worship are +inseparable sides of religion, which does not come fully into +existence till both are present. In a later work<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> Mr. Müller admits +the force of this objection, urged by several scholars, to his +definition, and modifies it as follows: "Religion consists in the +perception of the infinite under such manifestations as are able to +influence the moral character of man." In this form the definition +recognises that worship, the practical activity in which man's moral +character shows itself in fear, gratitude, love, contrition, is an +essential part of religion, and that perceptions of the infinite +apart from this are only one side of it. His original definition, +however, has played too large a part in the history of our subject to +be left without careful notice. The same objection applies to Mr. +Herbert Spencer's account of the matter. Mr. Spencer finds the basis +of all religion in the inscrutableness of the Power which the +universe manifests to us. The belief common to all religions, he +holds, is the presence of something <a name="p12"></a>which passes comprehension. The +idea of the absolute and unconditioned he regards as accompanying all +our consciousness of things conditioned and limited, and as being not +a negative notion, not merely the denial of limits, but a positive +one. The unconditioned is that of which all our thoughts and ideas +are manifestations, but which we never can know, with regard to which +we cannot affirm anything but that it exists. This definition like +that last noticed traces religion to the defects in man's knowledge, +and rather to a negative than a positive element in his experience. +It also comes under the objection that it traces religion rather to +an intellectual than a practical motive, and omits the element of +worship.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Though Mr. Tylor defines religion as the "belief in +spiritual beings," he is not to be charged with making it too much a +matter of the intellect. He uses the word belief in a wide sense as +including the practices it involves. In the word "spiritual," +however, Mr. Tylor brings into the definition his theory of Animism, +and thus makes it unserviceable for those who do not adopt that +theory.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> <i>Introduction to the Science of Religion</i>, 1882, p. 13. +The definition was put forward in the year 1873, and in his lectures +on the Origin of Religion, 1882, Mr. Müller adhered to it as being in +the main sound (p. 23).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> <i>Natural Religion</i>, 1888, pp. 188, 193.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Other scholars have explained religion as the action of the curiosity +of the human mind, of that impulse which prompts man to investigate +the causes of things, and specially to seek for the first cause of +all things. Here we touch what is certainly to be recognised as an +invariable feature of religion; it always professes to explain the +world, and to bring unity to man's mind by clearing up the problems +which perplex him, and affording him a commanding point of view, from +which he may see all the parts of the world and of life fall into +their places. This, however, does not tell us what religion itself +is. This curiosity, this impulse to know, are not specifically +religious; they belong rather to philosophy. Other motives than those +connected with knowledge entered from the first into man's worship. +Curiosity impelled him to seek the first cause of things; in religion +he saw something that promised to explain the world to him, and to +explain him to himself. But it was something more than curiosity that +made him regard that cause, when found, as a god, and pay it +reverence and sacrifice. What is the motive of worship? Wonder, no +doubt, is always present in it, but what is there in it beyond +wonder? No definition of religion can be regarded as complete in +which the motive of <a name="p13"></a>worship is left undetermined. That is of the +essence of the matter. There must be a moral as well as an +intellectual quality which is characteristic of religion. What is +religion morally? Acts of worship may be specified in which every +conceivable moral quality seeks to express itself. The most +contradictory motives, pride and anger and revenge, as well as fear +or hunger or contrition, enter into such acts. But if religion is a +matter of sentiment as well as of outward posture, these acts of +worship cannot all be equally entitled to the name, and something is +wanted to complete our definition.</p> + +<p><b>Fuller Definition.</b>—Let us add what seems to be wanting; and say that +religion is the <b>"worship of higher powers from a sense of need"!</b> This +will remind the reader of Schleiermacher's definition—"a sense of +infinite dependence." It was always objected to that definition, that +it made religion no more than a sentiment, a mood, but that besides +this, it is both belief and action. But the truth Schleiermacher +urged was one of essential importance to the matter. Belief in gods +and acts of worship paid to them do not constitute religion unless +the sentiment, the sense of need, be also there. These three +together, feeling, belief, and will expressing itself in action, +constitute religion both in the lowest and in the highest levels of +civilisation.</p> + +<p>A belief must exist, to take a step farther, that the being +worshipped is capable of supplying what the worshipper requires. Men +do not pray nor bring offerings to beings they suppose to be +incapable of attending to them, or powerless to do them any good or +evil. It is implied in every act of worship that the being addressed +is a power who is able to do for the worshipper what he cannot do for +himself. It is his inability to help himself or to supply his own +needs that sends the worshipper to his god, who has a power he +himself has not. If he could help himself he would not need religion, +if his life were either <a name="p14"></a>perfectly prosperous and even, so that there +was nothing left to wish for, or perfectly miserable and +unsuccessful, so that there was no room for hope, he would not resort +to higher powers; but neither of these two being the case, his life +on the contrary being a mixed lot of good and evil, in which there +are blessings his own forces cannot secure, and dangers from which no +efforts of his own can save him, and the belief having arisen within +him, in what way we need not now inquire, that higher powers exist +who can, if they will, defend and prosper him, in this way he has +religion, he keeps up intercourse with higher powers. And thus +religion is not necessarily, even in its most primitive form, a +manifestation of mere selfishness. Though gifts are offered which are +expected to please the higher beings, and though benefits are asked +of which the worshipper is urgently in need, such transactions are +not necessarily sordid any more than similar applications between +human beings, between two friends, or between a parent and a child. +Even the savage living in entire isolation, at war with every one and +conscious of no needs but those of food and shelter, will not seek +benefits from his god without some feeling of attachment, nor without +some sense of strengthened friendship should the benefit be granted +him. When once this sense of friendship has arisen, religion is +present, the man has come to be in living relation with a higher +power, whom he conceives, no doubt, after his own likeness, but +nevertheless as greater than he is.</p> + +<p>This then is what we conceive to be the essence of religion—the +worship of higher powers, from a sense of need; and it is of this +that we are to trace the history though only in the barest outlines. +The definition itself suggests in what way the development may be +expected to work itself out. According as the needs change their +character, of which men are conscious, so will their religion also +change. The <a name="p15"></a>gradual elevation and refinement of human needs, in the +growth of civilisation, is the motive force of the development of +religion. The deities themselves, their past history and their +present character, the sacrifices offered to them, and the benefits +aimed at in intercourse with them, all must grow up as man himself +grows, from rudeness to refinement and from caprice to order. At its +lowest, religion is perhaps an individual affair between the savage +and his god, and has to do with material individual needs. At a +higher stage (not always nor even commonly later in time) it is the +affair of a family, of a tribe, or of a combination of tribes, and +with each of these extensions the requests grow broader and less +personal which have to be presented to the deity; the religion +becomes a common worship for public ends. The needs of the nomad are +other than those of the settled agriculturist, and those of the +countryman differ from those of the citizen, and those of the +Laplander from those of the Negro, and these differences will be +reflected in the aspect of the deities and in the observances +celebrated in their honour. When art begins to stir within a nation, +the gods have to adapt themselves to the new taste. As society grows +more humane, cruel and sanguinary religious observances, though they +may long keep a hold of the ignorant and excitable, lose their +support in the public conscience and are sentenced to change or to +extinction. And when a new consciousness of personal human dignity +springs up, and men come to feel the infinite value and the infinite +responsibility of personal life, the old public religion is felt to +be cold and distant, and religious services of a more personal and +more intimate kind are sought for.</p> + +<p>Thus <b>religion and civilisation advance together;</b> according as the +civilisation is in any people, so is its religion. It is vain, +broadly speaking, to look for the combination of primitive manners +and customs with a <a name="p16"></a>lofty spiritual faith. The converse it is true may +often seem to take place. Religion, or rather religious creeds and +practices, often seem to lag behind civilisation and to maintain +themselves long after the reason and the conscience of a people has +condemned them. That is because religion is what man values most in +his life, and he is loath to change observances in which his +affections are powerfully engaged. But religion must reflect the +ideals of the society in which it exists; the needs which the society +feels at the time must be the burden of its prayers; its sacrifices +must be such as the general sentiment allows; its gods, to retain the +allegiance of the community, must alter with time and prove +themselves alive and in touch with their people. And if it be the +case that civilisation has on the whole advanced upwards from the +first; if, as Mr. Tylor assures us,<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> man began with his lowest and +has, in spite of occasional declines, on the whole been improving +ever since, then of religion also the same will be true. It also will +be found to begin with its rudest forms and gradually to grow better. +Religion in fact is the inner side of civilisation, and expresses the +essential spirit of human life in various ages and nations. The +religion of a race is the truest expression of its character, and +reflects most faithfully its attitude and aims and policy. The +religion of an age shows what at that time constituted the object of +man's aspiration and endeavour, as older hopes grew pale and new +hopes rose on his sight. Thus the study of the religions of the world +is the study of the very soul of its history; it is the study of the +desires and aspirations which throughout the course of history men +have not been ashamed, nay, which they have been proud and determined +to confess. No more fascinating study could possibly engage us. It is +true that the requirements for the adequate treatment of the subject +are such as few indeed can hope to possess. He who would treat the +history of <a name="p17"></a>religion aright ought to know thoroughly the whole of the +history of civilisation; he should have explored the vast domain of +savage life and thought that has recently been opened up to us, and +he should be at home in every century of every nation from the +beginning of history. At a time like this, when new light is being +poured every year on every part of our subject, no statement of it +can be more than tentative and partial. The student will be directed +at each step to sources of fuller information.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> <i>Primitive Culture</i>, chap. ii.</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small> (G<small>ENERAL</small>)</small></center> + +<blockquote><small><i>Outlines of the History of Religion to the Spread of the Universal +Religions</i>. By Dr. C. P. Tiele. Translation. In Trübner's Oriental +Series. Very condensed and in somewhat technical language; but the +work of one of the greatest masters of the subject. A full +Bibliography is appended to the various chapters.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte</i>, von P. D. Chantepie de la +Saussaye. Freiburg, 1887. The English translation has an altered +title, viz. <i>Manual of the Science of Religion</i>, Longmans, 1891. The +Third Edition (1905) is practically a different book, and consists of +studies, each by an expert, of the various religions.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Religious Systems of the World</i> (Sonnenschein, 1892) is a full +collection of descriptions of the various religions, by persons +specially acquainted with them; of very unequal merit.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Mr. Max Müller's works cited above, also his more recent volumes of +Gifford Lectures, contain a number of general discussions.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>See also the Gifford Lectures of the late Mr. Ed. Caird, and the late +Prof. Tiele.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Pfleiderer's <i>Philosophy of Religion</i>, 4 vols.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Pünjer, <i>Geschichte der christl. Religionsphilosophie</i>, 2 vols. +1880-83.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Rauwenhoff, <i>Wijsbegeerde van den Godsdienst</i>, 2 vols. 1887 (also in +German).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>M. Jastrow, <i>The Study of Religion</i>, 1901.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>L. H. Jordan, <i>Comparative Religion, its Origin and Growth</i>, 1905.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Revue de l'histoire des religions</i>, edited by M. J. Réville.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Archiv für Religionswissenschaft</i>, edited by Alb. Dieterich.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Reinach, Orpheus, <i>Histoire Générale des Religions</i>, 1909.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Hastings, <i>Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics</i>, vol. i. A-Art, 1908.</small></blockquote> +<a name="p18"></a> +<blockquote><small><i>The New Schaff-Heizog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge</i> has +excellent articles on the various religions.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Louis H. Jordan, <i>Comparative Religion</i>, 1905. An account of the +progress of our study, with extensive bibliography.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Galloway, <i>The Principles of Religious Development</i>, a psychological +and philosophical study, 1909.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Proceedings of the Oxford International Congress of the History of +Religions</i>, 1908. 2 vols. The addresses of the Presidents of the +Sections give a record of the most recent progress in every part of +our study. Of these see, for this chapter, Count Goblet d'Alviella, +vol. ii. pp. 365 <i>sqq</i>. on the Method and Scope of the History of +Religion.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap2"></a><br><a name="p19"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER II</h4> +<center>THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION</center> +<br> + +<p><b>Origin of Civilisation.</b>—Every inhabited country, we are assured by +ethnologists, was once peopled by savages; the stone age everywhere +came before the age of metals. Antecedent to every civilisation that +has sprung up on the earth is this dim period, the period of the cave +dwellers and afterwards of the lake dwellers. There can be no +chronology nor any exact knowledge of these early men who lived by +hunting, with stone weapons, animals which are now extinct. How from +his earliest and most helpless state man came in various ways to help +himself; how he discovered fire, how he improved his weapons and +invented tools, how he learned to tame certain of the animals on +which he had formerly made war, and instead of wandering about the +world came to settle in one place and till the soil, and how family +life came to be instituted, and the father as well as the mother to +act as guardian to the children; all that is a vast history, which +must be read in its own place. Immense, indeed, were the labours +early man had to undergo, in wrestling his way up from a life like +that of the brutes to a life in which his own distinctive nature +could begin to display itself.</p> + +<p><b>It was from the savage state that civilisation was by degrees +produced.</b> The theory that man was originally civilised and humane, +and that it was by a fall, by a degeneration from that earliest +condition, <a name="p20"></a>that the state of savagery made its appearance, is now +generally abandoned. There may be instances of such degeneration +having taken place; but on the whole, the conviction now obtains that +civilisation is the result of progressive development, and was the +result man conquered for himself by his age-long struggles with his +environment. That development did not take place in all lands alike. +In some it proceeded faster than in others, and its advances were due +oftener to propagation from without, than to unaided growth from +within; as one race came in contact with another new ideas were +aroused of the possibilities of life in various directions. In some +lands the development has scarcely taken place at all. There remain +to this day races who are judged to be still in the primitive +condition. Not all savage tribes are thought to be in that condition. +The bushmen of Australia, the Andaman Islanders, and others,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> are +found to be in such a state in point of habits and acquirements that +they must be considered as races which have fallen from a higher +position, and present instances of degeneration. But a multitude of +savage tribes remain in all quarters of the globe who do not appear +to have been thus enfeebled, and who are held to be still in that +state in which the dwellers in all parts of the earth were before +what we now call civilisation began. They are races among whom +civilisation did not spring up, as it did in China or in Peru. From +these races we may learn in a general way, though in this great +caution is required, what the ancestors of all the civilised nations +were. It confirms this conclusion that we find in every civilised +nation a number of phenomena, practices, beliefs, stories, which the +mental condition of the nation as we know it does not account for, +which manifestly are not outgrowths of the civilisation, but relics +of an older state of life, which civilisation has <a name="p21"></a>not entirely +obliterated; and that these practices, beliefs, and stories can be +exactly matched by those of the savage races. The inference is drawn +that civilisation has sprung from savage life, that, as Mr. Tylor +says, "the savage state represents the early condition of mankind, +out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed by +causes still in operation." To trace the history of civilisation, +therefore, it is necessary to go back to the earliest knowledge we +have of human life upon the earth, and to ask what germs and +rudiments can be discovered among savages of law, of institutions, of +arts and sciences. Such works as Maine's <i>Ancient Law</i>, Tylor's +<i>Primitive Culture</i>, Lubbock's <i>Origin of Civilisation</i>, show how +fruitful this method is, and what floods of light it pours on the +history of society.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Instances in Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>, chap. ii., +where the theory of degeneration is fully discussed.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Now what is true of civilisation generally will be true also of +religion, which is one of its principal elements. If every country +was once inhabited by savages, then <b>the original religion of every +country</b> must have been <b>a religion of savages</b>; and in the later +religion there will be features which have been carried on from the +earlier one. This, indeed, we must in any case expect to find. No new +religion can enter on its career on a soil quite unprepared, on which +no gods have been worshipped before. (That would imply that there had +been races in the world without religion, on which we shall speak +presently.) A new faith has always to begin by adjusting itself to +that which it found in possession of the soil, and it always adopts +what it can of the old system. We should expect then that the great +religions of the world should exhibit features which do not belong to +their own structure, but which they inherited, with or against their +will, from their uncivilised predecessors. And that is the case, as +we shall see afterwards, with all the great religions. They are all +full of survivals of the savage state. The old religious associations +cling to the face of a land and <a name="p22"></a>refuse to be uprooted, whatever +changes take place among the gods above. Superstitious practices +continue among a race long after a truth has been preached there with +which they are entirely inconsistent. Stories are long told about the +gods, quite out of keeping with their character in the theology of +the new faith, pointing to a time when not so much was expected of a +god. In Mr. Lang's <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, the reader will find +an admirable collection of material showing how the popular elements +of an old religion survive in a new one in which they are quite out +of place. There is none of the great religions to which this does not +apply.</p> + +<p>Now, if it be the case that each of the great religions has been +built upon a primitive religion formerly occupying the same ground, +it might appear that we must, in order to understand any of the great +religions, study first, in each case, the savage system which it +superseded. It would be a serious prospect for the student if he had +to make a separate study of a set of savage beliefs as an approach to +each of the ten or twelve great religions. But this, as we shall see +afterwards, is not the case. There is a great family likeness in the +religions of savages, and we may even allow ourselves to speak not of +the religions but of the religion of early races. In the next chapter +an attempt will be made to describe that religion; but we may say +here that there are some features which are generally, though by no +means always found in it, and that these features may be regarded for +practical purposes as the religion of the primitive world, which +everywhere was the forerunner of the great systems. This is the +jungle, as it were, overspreading all the early world, out of which +like giant trees the great religions arose, and from which they +derived and still derive a nourishment they cannot disown. Indeed, we +may go much farther. In some of their leading doctrines, the great +religions show the most striking affinity with one <a name="p23"></a>another. China and +Egypt have some doctrines in common which are also found in the +religion of the Incas; the Aryan and the Semitic religions know them +too. Should these doctrines be found in the religion of savages, it +will at least be a question whether the great religions all alike +borrowed and developed them from that source, or whether any other +explanation of the case can be found. Evidently we cannot make any +progress with our subject till we have taken a general view of this +religion of savages and come to some conclusions regarding it.</p> + +<p>A few words must be said, by way of preface to this subject, on the +<b>mental habits of early races</b>. We cannot hope to understand the +thoughts of those people without knowing how they came to have such +thoughts, how they were accustomed to think. Now of the savage we may +say that he is just like a child who has not yet learned to think +correctly, or to know things truly. He is making all kinds of +experiments in thought, and being led into all sorts of errors and +confusion; and if the child takes years, the savage may take +millenniums, to get free from these. He does not know the difference +between one thing and another, between himself and the lower animals, +or between an animal and a water-spout. He does not know how far +things are away from him, nor what makes them move and act as they +do; why, for example, the sun and moon go round the sky, or why the +wind blows. He cannot tell why things have this or that peculiar +appearance; why, for example, the rabbit has no tail, why the sky is +red in the morning, why some stones are like men. And he wants to +know all these things, and is for ever asking questions. But almost +any answer will do for him, the first explanation that turns up is +accepted; and while a child finds out pretty soon if he has been told +wrong, the savage is so ignorant that he cannot see the absurdest +explanation to be false, but sticks to it seriously and goes on using +it. There is no consistency <a name="p24"></a>in the contents of his mind, and +inconsistency does not distress him. He has no classes and orders of +things, but considers each thing by itself as it occurs, without +putting it in its place with reference to other things. He has no +idea of what is possible and what is impossible; these words in fact +would have no meaning for him, since he is not aware of any laws by +which events are governed. His imagination, accordingly, is not under +any restraint; he hits upon all kinds of grotesque theories, and, +having no critical faculty to test them, he repeats them and +seriously believes them. The stories of the nursery, in which there +are no impossibilities, in which a man may visit the sun and the +winds in their homes and find them at their broth, in which the +beasts can speak, in which the witch or the fairy knows at any +distance what is going on and can turn up just at the nick of time, +in which ghosts walk, in which anything can be changed into anything, +a hero going through half a dozen transformations to escape from so +many dangers,—these are to the savage not incredible nor foolish +tales, to him they are very real, and very serious matters. He lives, +in fact, we are told by the authorities on the subject, in the +myth-making period of the world; in the period when such incidents as +occur in the tales of fairyland and in the stories of mythology are +matter of common belief, and even, it is thought, of common +experience, so that when the story is put in a good form, it lives +and is believed as a true record of what has actually taken place.</p> + +<p>On one feature of the savage imagination in particular we must fix +our attention. The savage regards all things as <b>animated</b>,—as +animated with a life like his own. Of his own life he has no very +exalted idea; he has no notion how different he really is from +anything around him; as he is himself, so he supposes other beings to +be also, not only the animals but the trees and all that moves and +even what does not move, even rocks and stones. He is living himself; +he regards all <a name="p25"></a>these as living too. He imagines them like himself, +and supposes them to have feelings and passions like his own, to +reason as he does, and even if he is told they speak as he does, that +is not incredible to him. Thus he lives in a world of infinite +confusion, in which there are no laws, no classes of beings, no means +of knowing what may happen, or of verifying any statement, where +every effort of fancy may be believed. The mental world of savages +has been compared to the ravings of a whole world turned lunatic. We +survey it, however, without horror, because we know that reason is +not unseated there, but striving towards her kingdom. That is the +experience that had to be gone through, these are part of the +experiments, such as every child has still to make, by which the +knowledge of the world is gradually arrived at.</p> + +<p>Amid this apparent universal confusion a certain consistency of view +is to be observed. It might be expected that the savage habit of +thought, acting independently in different parts of the world, would +lead to an infinite number of divergent and inconsistent views of the +nature of things and of man's place in the world. But this is not +found to be the case. Mr. Lang accounts as follows for the diffusion +of the same stories all over the world: "An ancient identity of +mental status, and the working of similar mental forces at the +attempt to explain the same phenomena, will account without any +theory of borrowing, or of transmission of myth, or of original unity +of race, for the world-wide diffusion of many mythical conceptions." +Mr. Tylor says that the same imaginative processes regularly recur, +that world-wide myths show the regularity and the consistency of the +human imagination. M. Réville, in his <i>Religions des peuples +non-civilisés</i>, remarks that the character of savage religions is +everywhere the same; that only the forms vary.</p> + +<p>Now of the things that <b>all savages possess</b>, certainly <b>religion</b> is +one. It is practically agreed that religion, <a name="p26"></a>the belief in and +worship of gods, is universal at the savage stage; and the accounts +which some travellers have given of tribes without religion are +either set down to misunderstanding, or are thought to be +insufficient to invalidate the assertion that religion is a universal +feature of savage life.</p> + +<p>How did it get there? How comes it that men so near the lowest human +state, so devoid of all that has been since acquired, should yet be +found to have this mode of thought universally diffused among them?</p> + +<p>It has been ascribed to a <b>primitive revelation</b>. At the beginning, it +is said, God, with the other gifts He gave to man, gave him religion; +that is to say, gave him not only a disposition for reverence and +piety, but a certain amount of religious knowledge, so that he set +out with a stock of religious ideas which were not elaborated by his +own efforts, but bestowed on him ready made. It is impossible, +however, to conceive how this could be done. If the religion given at +first was a lofty and pure one,—and no other need be thought of in +such a connection,—then it implies a condition of human life far +above the struggles and uncertainties of savage existence; and both +the civilisation and the religion must have been lost afterwards. But +how could all mankind forget a pure religion? Mankind in that case +cannot have been fit for the possession of it; it was given +prematurely. No. The history of early civilisation is the history of +a struggle in which man has everything to conquer, and in which he is +not remembering something he had lost, but advancing by new routes to +a land he never reached before. And if civilisation was won for the +first time, so was religion.</p> + +<p>We may also put aside the theory that man had religion from the first +as <b>an innate idea</b>, that he found information all ready and prepared +in his mind of what it was proper to do in this direction, and how it +was to be done. There was indeed a suggestion from within; <a name="p27"></a>but it was +due not to any special faculty lying outside the essential structure +of human nature, but to the constitution of the human mind itself. We +cannot go into the philosophical question of the basis of religion in +the human mind.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> It would seem to be a <b>psychological necessity</b>. At +all stages of his existence the world of which man is aware outside +him, and the world of feelings and desires within him are in +conflict. But the conviction lives within him that in some way they +can be brought into harmony, and that a power exists which rules in +both of these discordant realms and in which, if he can identify +himself with it, he also will escape from their discord. If this be +so, then this necessity to seek after a higher power must have begun +to operate as soon as human consciousness appeared. The savage +certainly was never unacquainted with the discrepancy between what he +wanted and what the world would give him, between the inner man so +full of desires and plans, and that outward nature which denied him +his desires and thwarted his plans, and before which he felt so +feeble and insecure. He also could not but be driven, if his life was +to go on at all on any tolerable basis, to believe in something that +had to do both with the world outside him and with the world of his +heart, in a being which both had sympathy with his desires and power +to give effect to them outwardly.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> See on this subject Prof. Edward Caird's Gifford +Lectures, <i>The Evolution of Religion</i>, 1893. Galloway, <i>The +Principles of Religious Development</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The whole of the early world did entertain such a belief. This is the +first and the most important instance of uniformity of thought at a +stage through which every nation once passed; all men at that stage +believe in gods. We will not refuse the name of religion to this side +of savage life, even should the needs be low and material which send +the savage to his god, though his god be a being who in us would +excite the very <a name="p28"></a>opposite of reverence, and though his treatment of +his god be far from what to us seems worthy, or even though he strove +to appease a multitude of spirits which he conceived as flitting +about him, before he came to form a settled relation of confidence +with one being whom he took for his own god. Where the sense of need +has sent a human being to hold intercourse with a higher power, there +we hold religion is making its appearance. And if this is universally +the case among men at the savage stage, then religion is universal +among the ancestors of all nations; it did not need to be invented +when kings and priests appeared and wanted it as an instrument for +their own purposes; it was there before there were any kings or +priests, and is an inheritance which has come down to all mankind +from the time when human intelligence first turned to the effort to +understand the world.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small><br><br> +<i>For this and the three following chapters</i></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>J. B. Tylor, <i>Anthropology</i>, Third Edition, 1891.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>J. B. Tylor, <i>Primitive Culture</i>, Fourth Edition, 1903.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Frazer, <i>The Golden Bough</i>, Third Edition, 1900. A new edition is now +appearing in parts.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>A. Lang, <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, new edition, 1899.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Th. Achelis, in De la Saussaye.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Waitz und Gerland, <i>Anthropologie der Naturvölker</i>, 1859-72.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Brinton, <i>Religions of Primitive Peoples</i>, 1897.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>The reports of travellers and missionaries are, of course, important.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap3"></a><br><a name="p29"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER III</h4> +<center>THE EARLIEST OBJECTS OF WORSHIP</center> +<br> + +<p>We must now make some attempt to set forth the principal features of +the religion of savages. It is an attempt of some difficulty; for +savage religion is an immense and bewildering jungle of all manner of +extraordinary growths. It is described in detail in large books and +if we try to sum it up in a short statement, we may be told that +essential features have been omitted. No one set of savages has +anything that can be called a system, and different sets of savages +are not alike. For the present purpose we are obliged to include +under the name, tribes who occupy various positions in the scale of +human advancement, and tribes in all sorts of geographical positions, +in hot climates and in cold, both rude savages and those who are +nobler; and these will, of course, have a variety of ideas and needs, +and in so far, different religions. After reading such a book as Mr. +Frazer's <i>Golden Bough</i>, or turning over the pages of Waitz and +Gerland's <i>Anthropologie der Naturvölker</i>, one is inclined to regard +it as a hopeless task to reduce savage religion to any compact +statement.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tylor's orderly collections, in his great book <i>Primitive +Culture</i>, of materials bearing on different features of early +religion are a help for which the student cannot be sufficiently +thankful. After all, it is not the whole of savage religion that we +are <a name="p30"></a>responsible for here, but only those parts of it that grew and +survived in higher faiths. Remembering what has been said as to the +uniformity of savage thought amid its great variety of forms, and +looking for those parts of it which have proved to have life in them, +rather than for what is merely curious and grotesque, we may venture +on our task not without hope. In the present chapter we shall inquire +what beings savages worship as gods. Of these we shall find that +there are several classes; and it will be necessary to notice the +great discussions which have arisen on the question which of these +classes of deities was first worshipped by man. The objects +worshipped by men in low stages of civilisation may be arranged in +four classes, viz.—</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="list1"> + <tr><td valign="top"> 1. </td><td>Parts of nature (<i>a</i>) great, (<i>b</i>) small.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 2.</td><td>Spirits of ancestors and other spirits.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 3.</td><td>Objects supposed to be haunted by spirits (fetish-worship).</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 4.</td><td>A Supreme Being.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>1. <b>Nature-worship.</b>—It is not difficult to realise why early man +turned to the great elements of nature as beings who could help him, +and whom he ought, therefore, to cultivate. The farther we go back in +civilisation, the less protection has man against the weather, the +more do his subsistence and his comfort depend on the action of the +sun, the winds, the rain. If, according to the habits of early +thought, he conceived these beings as living like himself and as +guided by feelings and motives similar to his own, he could not fail +to wish to open up communication with them. That simple view, that +they were living beings with feelings like his own, was enough to go +upon. In his anxieties for food or warmth he could not fail to think +of the beings who, he had observed, had power to supply him with +these comforts, of the rain which he had noticed was able to make +food grow, of the sun whose warmth he <a name="p31"></a>knew. The thunderstorm was a +being who had power to put an end to a long drought; the winds could +break the trees, could dry up the wet earth, or could bring rain. +Heaven was over all, and the Earth was the supporter and fertile +producer of all; from her all life came. The moon as well as the sun +was a friendly power, nay, in some climates, more friendly. Fire was +a living being certainly, on whom much depended; and so was the great +lake or the ocean. This is what M. Réville calls the great +Nature-worship, in comparison with the minor Nature-worship to be +noticed presently.</p> + +<p>We do not now enter on the subject of mythology; that is to say, of +the names men very early began to give to the great natural objects +of worship, the characters they ascribed to them, the stories they +told about them. That process of myth-making began very early, and is +to be found at work in every part of the world. But at first it was +simply the natural being itself, conceived as living, that was +worshipped, not a spirit or a person thought to dwell in it. Of this, +abundant evidence has survived in the great religions. Jupiter is +just the sky, the Greek god Helios is just the sun, and the goddess +Selene the moon. In China heaven itself is worshipped to this day. +The Babylonians worshipped the stars. The Vedic gods are primarily +the elements. From savage life examples of this earliest state of +matters can also be quoted, though mythology has nearly everywhere +greatly confused it. The Mincopies adore the sun as a beneficent +deity, the moon as an inferior god. To the Natchez the sun is the +supreme god; with some tribes of North America the chief god is +heaven blowing, the sky with a wind in it, what Longfellow calls the +"Great Spirit" or blowing. The Incas invoked together the Creator and +the Sun and Thunder. Thunder was one of the great gods of the +Germans. The Samoyede bows to the Sun every morning and every evening +and says. "When thou arisest I also arise; when thou <a name="p32"></a>settest I also +betake myself to rest." To the Ojibways Fire is a divine being, to be +well entertained, with whom no liberties must be taken. In every land +men are to be found who worship the Earth as a great deity, calling +her by her own name and serving her with suitable rites. In the +<i>Prometheus</i> of Ĉschylus the hero addresses his appeal as follows to +the beings he regards as gods of old race who will sympathise with +him against the upstart Zeus:—</p> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem1"> + <tr><td><small>Ether of Heaven and Winds untired of wing,<br> + Rivers whose fountains fail not, and thou Sea,<br> + Laughing in waves innumerable! O Earth,<br> + All-mother!—Yea and on the Sun I call,<br> + Whose orb scans all things; look on me and see <br> + How I, a god, am wronged by gods.</small></td></tr> + <tr><td align="right"><small><i>Lewis Campbell</i>, line 85 <i>sq</i>.</small></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The <b>minor Nature-worship</b> has to do with rivers and springs, with +trees and groves, with crops and fruits, with rocks and stones, and +with the lower animals. Here also we must bear in mind the habit of +mind of early man, who regarded all things as animated and as like +himself. It was not necessary for one who thought in this way to +suppose that the spring was haunted by a nymph or the oak inhabited +by a dryad, before he felt that the spring or the oak had a claim on +him, and brought offerings to secure their friendship. The Nile and +the Ganges did not become sacred by having a mythical being added to +them as their spirit; they were themselves sacred beings. Every +country is studded with names which reveal to the scholar the +primeval sanctity of the spots they belong to; the mountain, the +grove, and the individual tree, the rocky gorge, the rock, the grassy +knoll, each was once an object of reverence. Britain is full of +sacred wells, which once received prayers and offerings. There is no +animal that has not once been worshipped. A marked feature of +primitive life also is the worship of nature not in its particular +objects but in <a name="p33"></a>its living processes. In a multitude of curious rites, +some of which still survive in local usages, and have only recently +been explained, primitive man brought himself into relations with +nature in its growth, decay, and resurrection. He sympathised with it +and imitated it, and he thus sought to make himself sure of the +benefits which he saw bestowed by some power which he apprehended in +its processes and believed able to further him.</p> + +<p>2. <b>Ancestor-worship.</b>—A set of beings of a very different kind comes +next. If man found in the world which he beheld outside him a number +of objects he could make gods, his domestic experience forced him to +consider certain beings of a different kind, of whom the outward +world could tell him nothing. The worship of the dead, of ancestors, +is diffused throughout nearly the whole of antiquity, it is practised +by most savages. Man at an early stage does not fully realise the +meaning of death. He interprets death after the analogy of dreams, in +which he judges that the spirit leaves the body and traverses distant +regions, coming back to the body again when the journey is ended. A +vision is to him an instance of the same thing. He sees a friend, +who, he afterwards learns, was far from him at the time, and he +judges that it was the spirit of his friend which visited him. Thus +there arises in his mind the conception of a human spirit which is +able to leave the body and dwell at a distance from it. It is called +by various names,—the shade, the image, the heart, as perhaps when +Elisha says his heart went with Gehazi when he went to meet Naaman +the Syrian (2 Kings v. 26), the breath, the soul. When the breath or +spirit goes away and stays away (in spite of efforts made to bring it +back) the man dies. But the spirit is not dead. It has gone away and +is staying somewhere else. The spirit resembles the body in shape, +but it is of a thin and light consistence, and is able to move about +and to pass through the smallest openings, to <a name="p34"></a>make unpleasant noises, +and to cause its presence to be felt in a variety of ways. In the +very earliest times, the savage regards the spirit which has left the +house as an enemy, and uses a variety of precautions to keep it from +coming back to trouble him (vampires, ghosts, <i>lemures</i>). Whether +from such fear or from more liberal motives, much is done to please +the spirits of the departed and to increase their comfort in the +abodes to which they have gone. At their burial or cremation all they +may be supposed to want where they are going, <i>i.e.</i> the things they +used on earth, are made to accompany them; food and weapons are +placed beside them; servants are killed whose spirits are to wait on +them, even a wife, voluntarily or without being asked, gives up her +earthly life to accompany her husband. Offerings of food and drink +are made to them afterwards, prayers are addressed to them, memorials +of them, of various kinds, are preserved in the houses they occupied.</p> + +<p>It was the universal belief of the early world that the person +continued to exist after the death of the body; and this furnished +the materials for a religion which was more widely prevalent in +antiquity than the worship of any god. In some forms of it, indeed, +the spirit appears to have been treated as an enemy, and this worship +might be judged to fall short of religion, which is the cultivation, +not the avoidance, of intercourse with higher powers. The savage has +no hope from the spirit, and does not seek his intercourse. But in +most forms of the belief in the continued life of the departed, other +sentiments than fear prevail; natural affection is felt for the lost +relative; the ancestor represents the family, to which the individual +is called to subordinate and to some extent even to sacrifice +himself; the spirit of the dead is the upholder of a family tradition +which the living must hold sacred. Even in those cases in which +nothing but fear is apparent, these latter sentiments may also be to +some extent operative.</p> +<a name="p35"></a> +<p>3. <b>Fetish-worship.</b>—The early world has still another kind of deity. +In the case of all those we have considered, the god stands in some +respect above the worshipper; man reverences the sun, spirit, or +animal, for some quality in them that is admirable or that gives them +a hold over him; they are in some ways beyond him. Among certain sets +of savages, however, notably in South Africa, this feature of +religion partially disappears, and objects are reverenced not for any +intrinsic quality in them that makes them worthy of regard, but +because of a spirit which is supposed to be connected with them. +Stones, trees, twigs, pieces of bark, roots, corn, claws of birds, +teeth, skin, feathers, articles of human manufacture, any conceivable +object, will be held in reverence by the savage and regarded as +embodying a spirit. Anything that strikes his fancy as being out of +the common he will take up and add to his museum of objects, each of +which has in it a hidden power. That power, be it repeated, is not +connected with the natural quality of the object, but is due to a +spirit which has come to reside in it, and which may very possibly +leave it again. Having chosen this deity and set it up for worship, +the man can use it as he thinks fit. He addresses prayers to it and +extols its virtues; but should his enterprise not prosper, he will +cast his deity aside as useless, and cease to worship it; he will +address it with torrents of abuse, and will even beat it, to make it +serve him better. It is a deity at his disposal, to serve in the +accomplishment of his desires; the individual keeps gods of his own +to help him in his undertakings.</p> + +<p>The name "fetishism," by which this kind of worship is known, is of +Portuguese origin; it is derived from <i>feitiço</i>, "made," "artificial" +(compare the old English <i>fetys</i>, used by Chaucer); and this term, +used of the charms and amulets worn in the Roman Catholic religion of +the period, was applied by the Portuguese <a name="p36"></a>sailors of the eighteenth +century to the deities they saw worshipped by the negroes of the West +Coast of Africa. De Brosses, a French savant of last century, brought +the word fetishism into use as a term for the type of religion of the +lowest races. The word has given rise to some confusion, having been +applied by Comte and other writers to the worship of the heavenly +bodies and of the great features of nature. It is best to limit it, +as has been done above, to the worship of such natural objects as are +reverenced not for their own power or excellence but because they are +supposed to be occupied each by a spirit.</p> + +<p>Can this be called religion? In the full sense of the term it cannot. +We should remember that it is not the casual object, but the spirit +connected with it that the savage worships; but even then we shall be +obliged to hold that the fetish worshipper is rather seeking after +religion than actually in possession of it.</p> + +<p>4. <b>A Supreme Being.</b>—Is it necessary to add another class of deity to +these three, and to say that besides nature-gods and spirits early +man also worshipped a Supreme Being above all these? In most savage +religions there is a principal deity to whom the others are +subordinate. But if we carefully examine one by one the supreme gods +of these religions, we shall find reason to doubt whether they really +have a common character so as to form a class by themselves. Many of +them are nature gods who have outgrown the other deities of that +class and come to occupy an isolated position. The North American +Indians, as we saw, worship the Great Spirit, the heaven with its +breath, to whom sun and moon and other ordinances of nature act as +ministers. In many cases heaven is the highest god. In others again +the sun is supreme. Ukko the great god of the Finns is a heaven- and +rain-god. Perkunas the god of the Lithuanians is connected with +thunder. On the other hand there are instances in which the supreme +god appears to be a different being <a name="p37"></a>from the nature-god. The +Samoyedes worship the sun and moon and the spirits of other parts of +nature; but they also believe in a good spirit who is above all. The +Supreme Being of the islands of the Pacific bears in New Zealand the +name of Tangaroa, and is spoken of in quite metaphysical terms as the +uncreated and eternal Creator. Here we may suspect Christian +influence. With the Zulus Unkulunkulu the Old-old one might be +supposed to be a kind of first cause. But on looking nearer we find +he is distinctly a man, the first man, the common ancestor; beyond +which idea speculation does not seem to go. Among many North American +tribes it is usual to find an animal the chief deity, the hare or the +musk-rat or the coyote. It is very common to find in savage beliefs a +vague far-off god who is at the back of all the others, takes little +part in the management of things, and receives little worship. But it +is impossible to judge what that being was at an earlier time; he may +have been a nature-god or a spirit who has by degrees grown faint and +come to occupy this position. We cannot judge from the supreme beings +of savages, such as they are, that the belief in a supreme being was +generally diffused in the world<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> in the earliest times, and is not +to be derived from any of the processes from which the other gods +arose. We shall see afterwards how natural the tendency is which, +where there are several gods, brings one of them to the front while +the others lose importance. For a theory of primitive monotheism the +supreme gods of savages certainly do not furnish sufficient evidence; +they do not appear to have sprung all from the same source, but to +have advanced from very different quarters to the supreme position, +in obedience to that native instinct of man's mind which causes him, +even when he believes in many gods, to make one of them supreme.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Cf.</i> A. Lang, <i>The Making of Religion</i> (1898); +Galloway, <i>Studies in the Philosophy of Religion</i> (1904), p. 123, +<i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> +<a name="p38"></a> +<p><b>Which Gods were First Worshipped?</b>—If then early man formed his gods +from parts of nature and from spirits of departed ancestors or +heroes, and even, should the more backward races now existing +represent a stage of human life belonging to the early world, from +spirits residing in outward objects, which of these is the original +root of all the religions of the world? The claim has been made for +each of these kinds of religion, that it came first.</p> + +<p>1. <b>Fetish-gods came First.</b>—Till recently the view prevailed that all +the religion of the world has sprung out of fetishism. First the +savage took for his god some casual object, as we have described, +then he chose higher objects, trees and mountains, rivers and lakes, +and even the sun and stars. The heavens at last became his supreme +fetish, and at a higher level, when he had learned about spirits, he +would make a spirit his fetish, and so at last come to Monotheism.</p> + +<p>This view is attractive because it places the beginning of religion +in the lowest known form of it and thus makes for the belief that the +course of the world's faith has been upward from the first. But it +presents the gravest difficulties; for why should the savage make a +god of a stick or a stone, and attribute to it supernatural powers? +Who told him about a god, that he should call a stick god, or about +supernatural powers, that he should suppose a stick to work wonders? +There is nothing in the stick to suggest such notions; that he should +make gods in this way, that the belief in wonderful powers should +originate in this way, is surely quite incredible. Much more likely +is it, surely, that he got the notion of God from some other quarter +and applied it in his own grotesque and degraded way; than that the +notion of God was taken first from such poor forms and applied +afterwards to objects better suited to it. Religion and civilisation +go hand in hand, and if civilisation can decay (and leading +anthropologists declare that the debased tribes of Australia and West +Africa show <a name="p39"></a>signs of a higher civilisation they have lost) then +religion also may decay. A lower race may borrow religious ideas from +a higher and adapt them to their own position, <i>i.e.</i> degrade them. +And the progress of religion may still have been upwards on the +whole, although retrograde movements have taken place in certain +races. On these and other grounds it is now held with growing +certainty that fetishism cannot be the original form of religion, and +that the higher stages of it are not to be derived from that one. The +races among whom fetishism is found exhibit a well-known feature of +the decadence of religion, namely that the great god or gods have +grown weak and faint, and smaller gods and spirits have crowded in to +fill up the blank thus caused. Worship is transferred from the great +beings who are the original gods of the tribe and whom it still +professes in a vague way to believe, to numerous smaller beings, and +from the good gods to the bad.</p> + +<p>2. <b>Spirits, Human or Quasi-human, came First.</b>—Is the worship of +spirits then the original form of religions. This has been powerfully +maintained in this country by Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Tylor. +According to <b>Mr. Spencer</b> "the rudimentary form of all religion is the +propitiation of dead ancestors." Men concluded, as soon as they were +capable of such reasoning, that the life they witnessed in plants and +animals, in sun and moon and other parts of nature, was due to their +being inhabited by the spirits of departed men. With all respect for +the splendid exposition given by Mr. Spencer<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> of the early beliefs +of mankind regarding spirits, it is impossible to think that he has +made out his case when he treats the gods of early India and of +Greece as deified ancestors. If the natural incredulity we feel at +being told that Jupiter, Indra, the sun, the sacred mountain, and the +stars all alike came to be worshipped <a name="p40"></a>because each of them +represented some departed human hero, is not at once decisive, we +have only to wait a little to see whether some other theory cannot +account for these gods in a simpler way.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> <i>Sociology</i>, vol. i. Also <i>Ecclesiastical Institutions</i>, +p. 675; "ghost-propitiation is the origin of all religions."</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Mr. Tylor</b> also derives all religion from the worship of spirits, but +in a different way. His is the most comprehensive system of Animism, +using that term in the narrower sense of soul-worship. Starting from +the doctrine of souls, reached by early man in the way described +above (<a href="#p33">p. 33</a>, <i>sqq.</i>), he argues that when once this notion was +reached it would be applied to other beings as well as man. Not +having learned to distinguish himself clearly from other beings, man +would judge that they had souls like his own; and so every part of +nature came to have its soul, and everything that went on in the +universe was to be explained as the activity of souls. It was in this +way, according to Mr. Tylor, that the view of the universal animation +of nature, characteristic of early thought, was reached. "As the +human body was held to live and act by virtue of its own inhabiting +spirit-soul, so the operations of the world seemed to be carried on +by other spirits." At this point the soul is an unsubstantial essence +inhabiting a body, it has its life and activity only in connection +with the body; but the step was easily taken to the further belief in +spirits like the souls, but not attached to any body. The spirits +moved about freely, like the genii, demons, fairies, and beings of +all kinds, with whom to the mind of antiquity the world was so +crowded.</p> + +<p>Three classes of spirits we have up to this point: those of +ancestors, those attached to the various parts of the life of nature, +and those existing independently. Can the higher nature-deities be +accounted for by this theory as well as the minor spirits of the +parts of nature? Mr. Tylor considers that they can; he declares that +the "higher deities of polytheism have their place in the general +animistic system of mankind." He <a name="p41"></a>acknowledges that, with few +exceptions, great gods have a place as well as smaller gods in every +non-civilised system of religion. But in origin and essence he holds +they are the same. "The difference is rather of rank than of nature." +As chiefs and kings are among men so are the great gods among the +lesser spirits. The sun, the heavens, the stars, are living beings, +because they have spirits as man has a soul, or as a spring has a +spirit that haunts it. Thus in the doctrine of souls is found the +origin of the whole of early religion. Mr. Tylor confesses, however, +that it is impossible to trace the process by which the doctrine of +souls gave rise to the belief in the great gods.</p> + +<p>The weakness of this view is that it involves a denial that the great +powers of nature could be worshipped before the process of reasoning +had been completed which led to the belief that they had souls or +spirits. But how did early man regard these great powers before this? +Did they not appear to him adorable by the very impressions they made +upon his various senses? Did he really need to argue out the belief +that they had souls, before he felt drawn to wonder at them, and to +seek to enter into relations with them?</p> + +<p><b>Animism.</b>—The word Animism, it should here be noticed, is used in the +study of religions in a wider sense than that of Mr. Tylor. Many of +the great religions are known to have arisen out of a primitive +worship of spirits and to have advanced from that stage to a worship +of gods. The god differs from the spirit in having a marked personal +character, while the spirits form a vague and somewhat +undistinguishable crowd; in having a regular <i>clientèle</i> of +worshippers, whereas the spirit is only served by those who need to +communicate with him; in having therefore a regular worship, while +the spirit is only worshipped when the occasion arises; and in being +served from feelings of attachment and trust, and not like the +spirits from fear. When gods appear, some writers hold, then and not +till then does <a name="p42"></a>religion begin; before that point is reached magic and +exorcism are the forms used for addressing the unseen beings, but +when it is reached we have worship; intercourse is deliberately +sought with beings who hold regular relations with man. The word +Animism is best employed to denote the worship of spirits as +distinguished from that of gods. Whether or not early man derived his +belief in the multitude of spirits by which he believed himself to be +surrounded, from his belief in the separable human soul, there is no +doubt that he did consider himself to be so surrounded. Animism in +this sense is undoubtedly the beginning of some at least of the great +religions.</p> + +<p>3. <b>The Minor Nature-worship came First.</b>—<b>M. Réville</b> holds<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> that the +tree and the river and other such beings were the first gods, and +that the deification of the great powers of nature came afterwards as +an extension of the same principle. Mr. Max Müller seems to share +this view when he says that man was led from the worship of +semi-tangible objects, which provided him with semi-deities, to that +of intangible objects, which gave him deities proper. The Germans, as +a rule, hold the view that the great nature-worship came first, and +that the sanctity of the tree and the river came to them from above, +these objects being regarded as lesser living beings deserving to be +worshipped as well as the greater ones. The English school let the +sanctity of these objects come to them as it were from below; when +man has come to believe in spirits, he concludes that they have +spirits too, and worships the spirits he supposes to dwell in them. +It does not seem that these theories are entirely exclusive of each +other. French writers suppose that the minor nature-worship first +sprang up of itself, half-animal man respecting the animals as +rivals, the trees as fruit-bearers for his hunger, and so on, and +that spirits were added <a name="p43"></a>to these beings when the great animistic +movement of thought in which these writers believe took place, of +course at a very early period.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> Réville, <i>Histoire des religions des peuples +non-civilisés</i>, ii. 225.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> This view is the basis of M. André Lefèvre's <i>La +Religion</i>. Paris, 1892.</small></blockquote> + +<p>4. <b>The Great Nature-powers came First.</b>—We come in the last place to +that class of deities which we spoke of first—the powers of nature. +By several great writers it is held that the worship of these is the +original form of all religion. We shall give two of the leading +theories on the subject, that of Mr. Max Müller and that of Ed. von +Hartmann.</p> + +<p><b>Mr. Max Müller</b> has written very strongly against the view that +fetishism is a primary form of religion, and holds that the worship +of casual objects is not a stage of religion once universally +prevalent, but is, on the contrary, a parasitical development and of +accidental origin. He does not tell us what the original religion of +mankind was. The work in which he deals most directly with this +question<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> is concerned chiefly with the Indian faith, the early +stages of which he regards as the most typical instance of the growth +of religion generally. He does not, however, tell us definitely out +of what earlier kind of religion that of the Aryans grew, which India +best teaches us to know, or what religion they had before they +developed that of the Vedic hymns. We may infer, however, what his +view on this point is from the very interesting sketch he draws of +the psychological advance man could make, in selecting objects of +reverence, from one class of things to another (p. 179, <i>sqq.</i>). +First, there are tangible objects, which, however, Mr. Max Müller +denies that mankind as a whole ever did worship; such things as +stones, shells, and bones. Then second, semi-tangible objects; such +as trees, mountains, rivers, the sea, the earth, which supply the +material for what may be called <i>semi-deities</i>. And third, intangible +objects, such as the <a name="p44"></a>sky, the stars, the sun, the dawn, the moon; in +these are to be seen the germs of <i>deities</i>. At each of these stages +man is seeking not for something finite but for the infinite; from +the first he has a presentiment of something far beyond; he grasps +successive objects of worship not for themselves but for what they +seem to tell of, though it is not there, and this sense of the +infinite, even in poor and inadequate beliefs, is the germ of +religion in him. When he rises after his long journey to fix his +regards on the great powers of nature, he apprehends in them +something great and transcendent. He applies to them great titles; he +calls them <i>devas</i>, shining ones; <i>asuras</i>, living ones; and, at +length, <i>amartas</i>, immortal ones. At first these were no more than +descriptive titles, applied to the great visible phenomena of nature +as a class. They expressed the admiration and wonder the young mind +of man felt itself compelled to pay to these magnificent beings. But +by giving them these names he was led instinctively to regard them as +persons; he ascribed to them human attributes and dramatic actions, +so that they became definite, transcendent, living personalities. In +these, more than in any former objects of his adoration, his craving +for the infinite was satisfied. Thus the ancient Aryan advanced, +"from the visible to the invisible, from the bright beings that could +be touched, like the river that could be seen, like the thunder that +could be heard, like the sun, to the devas that could no longer be +touched or heard or seen.... The way was traced out by nature +herself."</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> <i>Lectures on the Origin of Religion</i>, 1882.</small></blockquote> + +<p>This famous theory is, when we come to examine it, rather puzzling. +It does not account for the first beginnings of religion except by +inference, and it does so in two contradictory ways; for, on the one +hand, Mr. Max Müller enumerates tangible objects first as those from +which men rose to higher objects, and on the other he denies that +fetishism is a primitive formation. He suggests that there were +earlier gods than the <a name="p45"></a>devas, but he tells us nothing about them, +except that they were not fully deities; they were only semi-deities, +or not deities at all. The worship of spirits he leaves entirely out +of consideration; religion did not, in his view, begin with Animism. +When he does tell us of the beginnings of religion, what is his view? +The religion of the Aryans began, and it is a type—the other +religions presumably began in the same way, <i>e.g.</i> those of China and +of Egypt—by the impression made on man from without by great natural +objects co-operating with his inner presentiment of the infinite, +which they met to a greater degree than any objects he had tried +before. Religion was due accordingly to ĉsthetic impressions from +without, answering an ĉsthetic and intellectual inner need. Those +needs, then, which led men to make gods of the great powers of earth +and heaven were not of an animal or material nature, but belonged to +the intellectual part of his constitution. Those who framed such a +religion for themselves must have been raised above the pressing +necessities and cares of savage life; they were not absorbed in the +task of making their living, but had leisure to stand and admire the +heavenly bodies, and to analyse the impressions made on them by the +waters and the thunder. Nay, they had sufficient power of abstraction +to form a class of such great beings, to bestow on them a common +title, not only one but several progressive common titles, each +expressing a deeper reflection than the last. Thus did they reflect +on the nature of the cosmic powers, taken as a class. This, +evidently, is not the beginning of religion. It is the religion of a +comparatively lofty civilisation; lower stages of civilisation, and +of religion also, must have preceded this one. Even the heavenly +bodies, it appears to many scholars, must have been worshipped by men +who regarded them not with ĉsthetic admiration and intellectual +satisfaction only, but in the light of more pressing and practical +interests.</p> +<a name="p46"></a> +<p>We take <b>Edward von Hartmann</b> as the representative of those who, like +Mr. Max Müller, trace the origin of religion to the worship of the +heavenly powers, but who carry back that worship to the earliest +stage. Writers who disagree with his philosophy take grave exception +to his treatment of religion, for he regards religion, as he +considers consciousness itself, not as an original and inseparable +element of human nature, but as a thing acquired by man on his way +upwards; and he finds the original motive of religion to have lain in +egoistic eudĉmonism, in the selfish desire of happiness, which at +that stage of man's life determined all his actions. The account, +however, given by Von Hartmann of the beginning of religion in the +adoration of the powers of nature is of singular freshness and power, +and we can deduct from it, after stating it, the peculiarities +arising out of his philosophical system.</p> + +<p>The first religion that existed in the world had for its objects the +heavenly powers. The objects worshipped are known, indeed, before +religion begins; the illusions of early thought have settled on the +heavenly powers before they are worshipped; on the outward object the +mind has conferred the character of a living and acting being, which +it is henceforth to wear. This transformation, poetic fancy, not mere +logic and not merely utilitarian considerations, has brought about. +But religion only begins when man sets himself to worship these +beings, and to this he is driven by his material needs. Religion +begins in a being as yet without religion and without morality. The +need for food is the motive that brings about the change, for that +pure egoist early man has seen that the powers of nature are able to +help or hinder him in his search for a living; the sun can set his +plants growing or can burn them up, and the thunderstorm can revive +them. His happiness depends on these powers, and he seeks to set up +relations with them. He seeks to gain as an ally the heavenly power +who is so able to further or to thwart his aims; <a name="p47"></a>he makes known to it +his wishes by calling upon it, and he offers presents to it. He +worships the heavenly powers, and religion has begun. Worship lends +to these powers, though they were known before, a fixity and reality +they did not formerly possess. Von Hartmann is inclined to trace all +the various worships of these powers, which have prevailed in the +most different parts of the earth, to the same original centre, while +at the same time he maintains that even if all the instances of this +worship cannot be referred to any common origin, it must have arisen +in this way, wherever men of the same nature dwelt; the psychological +necessity of this development accounts for the appearance of this +same religion in different lands and among dissimilar races.</p> + +<p>The worship of the heavenly powers, accordingly, is with this writer +the original religion. While admitting that the worship of domestic +spirits grew up in the way described by the English anthropologists, +he denies that Animism is ever a religion by itself without being +combined with higher beliefs. He denies also that fetishism could +ever be an original religious product, or that men could ever pass +from having no religion to the religion of fetishism. Wherever it +appears, it is a religion of decay. All the religion in the world has +come from the worship of nature, which, whether arising at one centre +or at several, spread over the world, and is to be recognised, +clearly or dimly, in the religions of all lands.</p> + +<p>This view of the origin of religion is shared in the main by Otto +Pfleiderer,<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> and other German writers. It was from the impressions +made on man by the powers of nature, these scholars hold, and not +from his belief in spirits, that his religion came. But it was not +necessarily due to pure egoism, as Von Hartmann represents; the +earliest religions need not, they hold, have been a mere attempt at +bribery. The motives which first caused man to worship the heavenly +powers <a name="p48"></a>surely arose from other needs than that for food alone. The +intellectual craving, the desire to know the nature of the world he +lived in, and to refer himself to the highest principle of it, as far +as that could be attained; the ĉsthetic need, the desire to have to +do with objects which filled his imagination; the moral need, the +desire not to occupy a purely isolated position, but to place himself +under some authority, and to feel some obligation, these also, though +in the dimmest way, as matters of presentiment rather than clear +consciousness, entered into the earliest worship of the heavenly +powers. This view has the great advantage over that of Von Hartmann, +that it makes the development of religion continuous from the first, +instead of representing it as being originally a purely selfish +thing, into which the character of affection and devotion only +entered at some subsequent stage. If man's nature is essentially +religious, then all that constitutes religion must have been with him +from the first, in however unconscious and undeveloped form.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> <i>Philosophy of Religion</i>, vol. iii. chap. i.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Conclusion.</b>—We have enumerated the different kinds of gods +worshipped by early man—fetishes, spirits, the powers of nature. We +have found a general agreement that fetishism is not an original form +of religion, but a product of the decay of higher forms in +unfavourable conditions. As to the other two kinds of deities, it is +impossible to deny that gods have been formed from the very first in +each of these two ways. The domestic worship of the early world +cannot be derived from nature-worship, but grew out of the belief +awakened in early man, by the familiar experiences mentioned above. +That the greater nature-worship, on the other hand, can be derived +from the belief in spirits is an assertion which can never be proved, +or even made probable; that it arose from the impressions produced on +early man by the great objects and forces of nature, is a thing we +can understand and believe. The minor nature-worship is also a very +intelligible thing, even <a name="p49"></a>without Mr. Tylor's theory of souls to +explain it. What more natural than that the savage should worship the +great oak or the waterfall, or should think himself surrounded by +invisible beings, even if he did not frame the latter on the model of +the human soul? We arrive therefore at the conclusion that with the +exception of the doctrines about death and the abode of spirits, we +must regard the worship of nature as the root of the world's +religion.</p> + +<p>We must beware, however, of imputing to the thoughts of early men +about their gods, any such qualities as consistency or regularity. +The power of holding at one and the same time religious beliefs which +are inconsistent with each other, is one which even in the most +developed religions is by no means wanting; and how much more was +this the case among men who lived before there was any exact thought! +The savage could have a variety of gods of very different natures, +who formed in his mind quite a happy family. When he found a new god, +that did not oblige him to part with any old one; it was one god he +was seeking, but he could not settle on one god as yet, when there +were so many beings with a good claim to the position. He made his +gods not out of nothing, but out of a great variety of experiences +and impressions, and they acted and reacted on each other in an +endless variety of ways. One god came to the front here and another +there; an object was deified here from one reason and there from +another; new gods in time turned old and were less thought of while +forgotten gods of former days came back to memory and were worshipped +once more. Endless change, endless recurrences of growth and of decay +filled up those great spaces and periods, measureless and trackless +almost as the expanses of the ocean, that were covered by the +prehistoric life of mankind.</p> +<br><a name="p50"></a> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>Jevons, <i>Introduction to the History of Religion</i>, 1896.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. S. Hartland, in <i>Proceedings of Oxford Congress of the History of +Religion</i>, p. 21, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Of the large class of books reporting the manners and beliefs of +special savage races we may specify—</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>D. G. Brinton, <i>The Myths of the New World</i>, 1896.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>W. W. Gill, <i>Myths and Songs from the South Pacific</i>, 1876.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Kingsley, Miss, <i>West African Studies</i>, 1899.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Callaway, <i>The Religious System of the Amazulu</i>, 1863-72.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Duff Macdonald, <i>Africana, the Heart of Heathen Africa</i>, 1882.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>G. Grey, <i>Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-Western +and Western Australia</i>, 1841.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Spencer and Gilpen. <i>Native Tribes of Central Australia</i>, 1899.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap4"></a><br><a name="p51"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER IV</h4> +<center>EARLY DEVELOPMENTS—BELIEF</center> +<br> + +<p>We have seen from what materials early man made his gods. As the gods +differed in their origin, they differed also from the very first in +the mode of their development. The great nature-gods gave rise to one +kind of religion, and the minor nature-gods to another, the thought +of the departed members of the household to a third. But these +various religions could not develop side by side without influencing +each other. These different worships began in the very earliest times +to get mixed up together; there is none of the great religions which +we do not find to be a combination of them. It will be well to +consider them in the first place separately.</p> + +<p>1. <b>Growth of the Great Gods.</b>—Taking them in the order we have +already followed, we come first to the great nature-worship, of which +heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, dawn and sunset, and then the +phenomena of the weather, rain, storm, and thunder and lightning, are +the objects. It cannot be too clearly borne in mind that what was +worshipped was originally the natural object itself, regarded, after +the earliest habit of thought, as living. To heaven itself, to the +sun as he rose or set, to the storm itself, men addressed prayers and +made offerings; and in many quarters, both among savages and in the +great religions, the same thing occurs to this day.</p> + +<p>But it was impossible for man to stop here, his <a name="p52"></a>imagination would not +allow him to do so. In some races, imagination was more active than +in others, but nowhere was it quite inoperative; and so it happened +that man was led, here to a greater there to a less extent, beyond +the direct and simple adoration of the powers of nature. When he +began to give them names, a first and a great step was taken in +advance of the original simplicity. A name is a power; if it is +anything more than a mere title or label, and all primitive names are +more than this, it brings with it associations of its own, and thus +men are led to ascribe to the object indicated by the name, a new +character and new powers. They proceed to argue about the name and +draw conclusions from it as to the nature of the being they worship, +and so come to think of their deity in quite a different manner. Even +to classify objects together and give them a common title, "the +bright ones," or "the living ones," as the early Aryans did, gives +them an independent position of their own, and tempts the imagination +to go further in describing them. Striving to find names for those +beings he worships and thinks about so much, early man gives them the +names of living creatures with whom he is familiar, and in this way +he brings them much nearer to himself, and at the same time appears +to himself to know a great deal more about them. The moon, for +example, has horns, the moon is a cow. Heaven is over all, heaven is +a father. And as he knows all about a cow, and all about a father, he +at once has these deities made much more real to him, they have an +independent existence to him. But, on the other hand, he has got +something more in his deity than there is in the natural object. It +is no longer the mere naked heaven or the mere moon he worships; but +these beings with additions made to them by his own imagination.</p> + +<p>As time goes on the additions grow more and more. Having got living +persons for his deities, early man readily goes on to weave their +histories and their <a name="p53"></a>relations. If the moon is a cow, the sun is a +bull chasing her round the sky. This is an instance of a principle +which obtains in many at least of the early religions and which it is +important to remember, viz. that the powers of nature were first +identified with animals. The zoomorphic stage of the nature-gods +comes before the anthropomorphic (<i>cf.</i> the signs of the zodiac), and +in many savage tribes it still survives.</p> + +<p>But it is when the gods begin to be thought of after the likeness of +human beings that the decisive step is made in their development. If +heaven is a father, it is easy to go on from that. Earth will be the +corresponding mother (an idea found all over the world); and all men +will be their children. If the sun is invested with a name of +masculine gender (but the sun is frequently feminine), he must do +feats becoming such a character. If the storm is a male god, he will +be a warrior or a huntsman. Thus the god acquires a personal +character and an independent movement; what is told about him has +reference, of course, to the natural object he sprang from, or the +season with which he is connected; but the deity is becoming more and +more separate from the natural object, and acquiring a character and +history of his own. The stories connected with the god vary according +to the habits and the imaginations of different peoples; in some +cases the gods remain pure and exalted beings, in others savage and +indecent myths are accumulated around them, and these primitive myths +adhere to their persons long after they themselves have felt an +upward tendency and acquired a civilised character with the moral +elevation of their peoples. We shall see in many instances how the +nature-gods were personified, made into beasts, made into men, and +surrounded with myths and legends. That is the natural history of the +nature-gods; the process through which they must pass if they grow at +all.</p> + +<p><b>Polytheism.</b>—Another general feature of the worship <a name="p54"></a>of the great +natural objects has to be mentioned. Each god has a history of his +own; he has grown up separately as men concentrated their attention +upon him. But as one god grows up after another, or as the gods who +grow up in two countries are afterwards brought together, it comes to +pass that there are many of them, and none of them is necessarily +supreme. What is the worshipper to do? The least reflection will +convince us that in any act of worship man fixes his attention on one +object only. That belongs to the very nature of religion; as a child +could not treat several men at once as its father, nor a servant be +equally faithful to several masters, so man naturally tends to have +one god. He turns to the highest he knows, who is most likely to be +able to help him, and there cannot be two highests, but only one. But +man's position in the early world does not allow him to be true to +this religious instinct. As he sees one aspect of the world to-day, +and another to-morrow, he cannot, when his god is a power of nature, +always see the same god before him. But can he not worship another +god when the first one is out of sight and out of mind? Though he +worshipped heaven yesterday, can he not worship the sun to-day, or +the storm, or the great sea? And though the former generation +worshipped one of these beings in the foremost place, may not the +existing generation devote itself principally to another? That power +does not cease to be a deity which is not immediately before his +mind. It is still a deity, and in a while he will turn to it again, +and make it first. Thus it comes about by inevitable logic that when +man gets his gods from nature, he has a number of them. When he gets +a new god he does not deny the god he had before; he is not yet in a +position to conclude that there can only be one god. When he is +worshipping he feels as if there were only one; but this feeling +applies at different times to a number of different beings, and from +such inconsistency he lacks the power to free himself. The <a name="p55"></a>other is a +god too; all the gods he has ever worshipped he may on occasion +worship again. Nor can he refuse to recognise the gods of others; to +them no doubt they are gods, if not to him; they are beings of the +same class with his god. And thus early man is a polytheist. +Polytheism is a complex product; it is the addition to each other of +a number of cults which have grown up separately.</p> + +<p>In Polytheism, however, very different religious positions are +possible. Men may feel that the whole set of the gods in whose +existence they believe have claims on them, and may regard themselves +as worshippers of them all, resorting, as feeling and old association +moves them, now to one and now to another, or defining the places or +occasions at which each of them is to be sought, or in some other way +adjusting their various claims; or, on the other hand, while +believing in the existence of many gods, they may confine their +worship to one. A man knows that there are many gods, but says that +he has only to do with one of them. This is a religious position very +frequently met with in antiquity. A circle of gods is believed in, +but one of them comes into prominence at a time and is worshipped as +supreme. This is called Kathenotheism: the worship of one god at a +time. The title was invented by Mr. Max Müller, who also gives the +title of Henotheism to that position in which many gods are believed +in as existing, but worship is given to only one. The following are +examples of the various positions:—</p> + +<blockquote>The language of <b>Polytheism</b> is—"Father Zeus that rulest from Ida, +most glorious, most great, and thou sun that seest all things, and ye +rivers and thou earth, and ye that in the underworld punish whosoever +sweareth falsely—be ye witnesses."—<i>Iliad</i>, iii. 280.</blockquote> + +<p>The Jews at the time of Josiah were accomplished polytheists, as we +may see from the catalogue of the worships suppressed at Jerusalem by +that monarch, <a name="p56"></a>2 Kings xxiii. The gods of each of the surrounding +tribes appear to have been worshipped there, and the old gods of the +separate tribes and families of Israel appear to have been kept up.</p> + +<p><b>Kathenotheism.</b>—The Vedic poets, as we shall see, speak of the god +they are immediately addressing as supreme, and heap upon him all the +highest attributes, while not thinking of denying the divinity of +other gods.</p> + +<blockquote>The language of <b>Henotheism</b> is—"Thou, O Jehovah, art far above all +the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods" (Ps. xcvii. 9). +"There is none like unto Thee among the gods, O Lord!... Thou art +great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone" (Ps. lxxxvi. 8, +10). Here the other gods are recognised as existing, but only one is +worshipped. Compare also St Paul: "There are gods many, and lords +many, but to us there is one God" (1 Cor. viii. 5, 6).</blockquote> + +<blockquote>The language of <b>Monotheism</b> is—"All the gods of the peoples are +idols: but Jehovah made the heavens" (Ps. xcvi. 5), and "Thou shalt +have no other god before Me."</blockquote> + +<p>A further religious position to be noticed here is that of Dualism. +Not all dualism comes from nature-worship, but in a land where a +beneficent and a harmful natural force are in striking antagonism to +each other, this may take place. Man, when he interprets the kindly +influences of nature as the blessings of the good god, naturally +interprets the agencies which blight or ruin as being also the +manifestation of a living power, but of an evil one. Thanks to the +good god alternate, in this case, with efforts to counteract or to +appease the bad one; if the two appear to be nearly balanced, then +neither is supreme, and both overawe the mind and receive worship. +But in general we may remark that the greater nature-worship is of an +elevating tendency. It brings man into relations with powers <a name="p57"></a>which +are truly great, and places him even physically in the position of +looking up, not down. Where the nature-power is a harsh one, a +scorching sun, a tempestuous sea, the self-command and self-sacrifice +called out by the worship of them may be, if not carried to extremes, +a bracing discipline; but with some exceptions the nature-gods are +good, and have to do with light and with kindness.</p> + +<p>2. <b>The Minor Nature-worship.</b>—The worship of the great powers of +nature has a universal character; it can be carried on anywhere; +wandering tribes carry it with them; heaven and the sun and the winds +can be addressed in every land. The minor nature-worship differs from +it in this respect: an animal is only worshipped in the country where +it occurs, and the worship of the tree, the well, the stone, is +altogether local. With this local nature-worship the world was, in +early times, thickly overspread; and manifold survivals of it are +still to be found even in lands where the primitive religion has been +longest superseded. This is the religion of local observance and +local legend, which clings to the face of a country in spite of +public changes of creed, and, when the old religion has departed, is +found to have secured a shelter for itself in the new one.</p> + +<p>In this minor nature-worship which spreads its network over all the +early world, the character of primitive society is clearly +represented; the small communities have their small local +worships—each clan, almost each kraal, has its shrine, its god, and +limits itself to its own sacred things. Religion is a bond connecting +together the members of small groups of men, but separating them from +the members of other groups. The following are some of the more +important developments of this.</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) <b>The Worship of Animals.</b>—Primitive man had to hold his own +against the animals by force of strength and cunning; and he was well +acquainted with them. <a name="p58"></a>He respected them for the qualities in which +they excelled him, the hare for his swiftness, the beaver for his +skill, the fox for his craftiness. What he worshipped, however, was +not the individuals of a species, but the species as a whole, +typified perhaps in a great hare or a great fox, the mythical first +parent of the species, and possessing its qualities in a supreme +degree. It happened apparently over the whole world, with the +exception of most branches of the Aryan family, that men at a very +early stage regarded themselves as related by the tie of descent, +some to one species of animals or of plants and some to another. From +this belief tribes took their names, each member tattooing the figure +of his animal ancestor on his person. The Bechuanas, for example, are +divided into crocodile-men, fish-, ape-, buffalo-, elephant-, and +lion-men, and so on. The hairy or scaly ancestor is the "totem" of +the tribe, and they consider that animal sacred, and will not eat the +flesh of it. All who bear the same totem regard each other as of +kindred blood, as descended from the same ancestor. The totem may +also be a vegetable, in which case no member of the stock will gather +or eat it.</p> + +<p>Totemism is to be seen in operation at the present day in various +parts of the world. North America is, perhaps, its classic land in +modern times. It is, however, a stage of society through which all +races have at one time or another passed. According to the latest +investigations totemism is not to be regarded as itself a religion; +the totem being regarded not as a superior but as an equal. Its +influence on the early growth of religion, however, was great, and +widely ramified.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> From this two important consequences follow which +will meet us again and again in our study of the great <a name="p59"></a>religions. The +first is animal-worship, a phenomenon of frequent occurrence and of +perplexing import. Mr. M<small><small><sup>c</sup></small></small>Lennan has shown that much at least of the +widespread worship of animals is to be traced to an early totem-stage +of society,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> when animals were held sacred as the ancestors of men. +In the second place, totemism explains the view taken in the early +world of the nature of religious fellowship. In modern times people +regard each other as brothers in religion when they believe the same +doctrines. It is belief, an intellectual or spiritual agreement, that +binds them together. The ancient religious union was of a quite +different nature. People then regarded each other as brothers because +they were of the same blood, descended from the same ancestor. In the +Bible the Hebrews are all descended from Abraham, the Edomites from +Esau, etc. That is the necessary condition of brotherhood in early +times; only those could join in a religious rite who were of the same +blood. For men of another blood there was another worship, another +god. It is an earlier stage of this view, when men are of the same +worship because they are descended from the same animal, and when +they worship that animal.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> J. G. Frazer, "Totemism," in the <i>Encyclopĉdia +Britannica</i>, vol. xxiii., and now his <i>Totemism and Exogamy</i>. It was +formerly held that the Semites were an exception, having never passed +through the totemistic stage. Mr. Robertson Smith, in his <i>Religion +of the Semites</i>, maintains that, though they are past that stage when +we first know them, the traces of it are apparent in their +institutions, and that their sacrifices especially are based on ideas +belonging to it. Wellhausen does not agree with him in this.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, 1869-70. See also Mr. Lang's +<i>Myth, Ritual and Religion</i> in many passages.</small></blockquote> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) <b>Trees, Wells, Stones.</b>—The worship of each of these three is in +itself a great subject, and we can do no more than mention the +leading views which appear to have entered into them. Mannhardt in +his <i>Feld- und Waldkulte</i> and Frazer in <i>The Golden Bough</i> have +studied the survivals of tree-worship in the local customs of the +peasantry of Europe. Early man appears to have worshipped trees as +wonderful living beings; but his thought soon advanced to the +conception of a tree-spirit, of which the tree itself was either the +body or the dwelling, and which possessed various powers, such as +that of commanding rain, or that of causing fertility in plants or in +animals. From the <a name="p60"></a>tree-spirit, again, the tree-god was further +formed, a being who was able to quit the sacred tree or who presided +over many trees. Of these beliefs the fast-decaying usages of the +Maypole and the Harvest May still remind us.</p> + +<p>The well, in a similar manner, may first have been worshipped in and +for itself, and then a nymph may have been added to it. The worship +of wells consisted in throwing precious articles into them, or +hanging such offerings on the surrounding trees, and asking some boon +from the deity.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> Rivers and lakes were also held sacred. The +worship of stones, that is of stones not treated by art, but regarded +as sacred in the form in which they were found, was widely diffused +among early races; but this is a subject on which light is still +called for. The Caaba of Mecca and the stone of the temple of Diana +at Ephesus are famous isolated instances of it; but it has been +suggested that the standing stones or menhirs which are found in +every part of Europe, and in the south and west of Asia, were objects +of this worship. In Palestine these stones are not found, though they +occur in the neighbouring lands; and this is attributed by Major +Conder<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> to the zeal of the orthodox kings, who, we know from the +Bible, destroyed all the monuments of idolatry in their territory.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> In Mr. G. A. Gomme's <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i> many sacred +wells are mentioned which are still, or were lately, frequented in +England. St. Wallach's well and bath, in the parish of Glass, +Morayshire, was much resorted to within living memory.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> <i>Scottish Review</i>, 1894, vol. xvii. p. 33, "Rude Stone +Monuments in Syria."</small></blockquote> + +<p>What is common to these cults, and cannot be disregarded, is their +local nature. This gives its colour to all the religion of early man. +The god of the sacred tree cannot be worshipped anywhere else than +where the tree stands, and he who would have his wishes granted by +the well must come to it. The deity of this kind of religion has his +abode at a certain spot, and he is a <a name="p61"></a>fixed, not a movable deity. +There is a story, or a set of stories, connected with his shrine, and +there are observances of one kind or another to be done there; and +this goes on from age to age. Now a deity who is fixed to one spot +will be worshipped by the people who dwell around that spot. The god +will have his own people and dwell among them, and they alone will be +his worshippers. And thus the surface of the earth comes to be +parcelled out among a number of deities, each seated, like a little +prince, at his own court among his own people. In passing from his +own home to a distant spot, a man will leave the territory of his own +god and enter on that of another, and as the god can only be +worshipped at his own shrine, the man will leave his religion when he +leaves his home, and either be compelled to serve the gods of +strangers, or to perform no religious duties at all.<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> Thus the +ideas connected with totemism meet and harmonise in many old +countries with those connected with local shrines.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> Those dwelling +around the shrine form a kindred of one blood, of which the local god +is both the progenitor and the living head. Religion is thus both +strictly tribal and strictly local. It is for his brethren of the +tribe, for those in whose veins the blood of the same divine ancestor +runs, that a man's enthusiasm is kindled in acts of worship; it is +his duty to his clan that he then realises, the prosperity of his +clan that he desires. To those of other stems no religious bond +unites him, they are men of another blood, of another worship. His +religious duty is to love his neighbour, or fellow-tribesman, to hate +his enemy, the man of another tribe. And on the other hand, as +religion consists in approaches to a particular spot and the +performance of certain rites, it is left behind when these rites are +accomplished, and <a name="p62"></a>the man is away from his god. The sanctuary is +regarded with extreme veneration, often with shrinking and terror, +but distance makes a change, the religion alters with travel, and is +left behind. This religion was on the whole a more exciting and +intense thing than that of the great nature powers; and was far more +interwoven with social life; but it also presented the greatest +obstacles to progress, limiting men's affections to their own kin and +their own land, and confining them in an inveterate conservatism.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> As illustrating this circle of ideas, compare the +following passages in the Bible: Genesis xxviii.; Ruth i. 16; 1 Sam. +xxvi. 19; 2 Kings v. 17; and of a later period, Psalm xlii.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> See on this whole subject Mr. Robertson Smith's +<i>Religion of the Semites</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>3. <b>The State after Death.</b>—The belief that the human spirit was not +extinguished at the death of the body, but entered on an existence +without the body somewhere else, opened the door to a wide range of +speculation; and the ideas arrived at by early man as to the place of +spirits and the life beyond, are a principal part of that antique +religion of which the great systems are the heirs. The funeral +practices of prehistoric times, when various articles were placed in +the tomb along with the body of the departed hero or father, and +various sacrifices made to him at his burial or cremation and at +anniversary festivals afterwards, show that the spirits of the dead +were conceived as carrying on the same kind of existence as they had +led here, though an existence unsubstantial and of little power; +"strengthless heads" Homer calls them. Food and drink were of use to +them; for the finer part of it was supposed to reach them. The taste +of blood revived them; and various pleasures were possible to +them.<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> This belief, it will be seen, differs from all the modern +doctrines of a continued existence. It is not the resurrection of the +body that the savage believes in. He knows well enough that the body +does not rise; but he also knows that the spirit can exist and move +and do a number of things that were done in life, without the body. +Nor can he be said to believe in the immortality of the soul. That +<a name="p63"></a>term describes a free and unfettered existence after death, but to +the savage the spirit after death has but a troubled and frail +existence; it is tethered to certain spots on the earth, known to it +formerly; it cannot do much, it lives under many limitations and +constraints. Nor, again, can it be said that retribution after death +is a true designation of the early belief. That may be found here and +there in early times, but generally the other life is less under a +divine government than this one; death takes a man away from his god +as well as from his family, and the dead are left to themselves.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> On this subject compare Mr. Tylor's <i>Primitive Culture</i>, +twelfth and thirteenth chapters.</small></blockquote> + +<p>While, however, this is the general background of primitive belief +about the other life, imagination is at work on the subject very +early, and various features of that life are touched with more vivid +colours, here in one way and there in another. The place where the +departed stay, their occupations, their delights, are variously +described; the land where they dwell is modelled on a land that is +known, with the addition of ideal features; they do very much what +they did on earth, hunt or feast, make music or carry on discussions. +In some cases there is a judgment-seat before which the soul appears +for its trial, and here of course the spirit-world must be divided +into two parts or more, for the reception of those who are approved +and of those who are condemned. The detailed description of the +abodes of the blest and of the damned, by no means peculiar to +Christianity, are later developments in the early world. Hell, Mr. +Tylor says, is unknown to savage thought. The doctrine of +transmigration, however, whether into plants or into lower animals, +is of early growth.</p> + +<p><b>Growth of the Great Religions out of these Beliefs.</b>—These various +developments of thought about the gods did, as a matter of fact, take +place in primitive times, and that is almost all that can be said. In +the religion of savages the various elements we have so briefly +indicated cross and recross each other, in endless <a name="p64"></a>combinations; none +of them is to be found entirely by itself. There is no fetish worship +which is not accompanied by traces of an early belief in great gods; +there is no belief in great gods which is not accompanied by a belief +in lower spirits. With regard to every savage religion the student +has to ask what the constituent elements of it are, in what way the +various beliefs of the early world, beliefs arising from such +different sources, meet in it and combine with one another.</p> + +<p>In each of the higher religions, too, the same questions have to be +asked. The beliefs which we have sketched are the materials out of +which they also arose. They did not <i>originate</i> the belief in high +gods with power over nature, nor the belief in the lesser spirits +which busy themselves with man's affairs. They did not originate the +belief in a life after death, nor was it left to them to appoint +sacred seasons in the year, or to consecrate the spots to which +worship has always clung. All these beliefs are prehistoric, and what +remained for the great religions was not to bring them forward for +the first time, but to surround them with a new kind of authority, +and to establish as a matter of positive ordinance or revelation what +had formerly grown up without any ordinance by the unconscious work +of custom. It was not left for any of the great founders to plant +religion in the world as a new thing, but only to add to the old +religion new forms and new sanctions.</p> + +<p>It may be said that if these are the elements of which religion as a +whole is made, then religion arose at first out of illusions. That is +no doubt true, in a sense. It was an illusion on the part of early +man to suppose that the powers of heaven were animated beings who +could be his allies and answer his appeals; it was an illusion to +think that the tree or the stone contained a spirit, and an illusion +to think that men's spirits can go and wander about the earth by +themselves, leaving their bodies untenanted. But these illusions were +after <a name="p65"></a>all only the outward and inadequate expression in which the +spirit of religion then clothed itself. Religion must always express +itself in terms of the knowledge which exists in the world at a +particular time; and if the knowledge is defective to which the world +has attained, religious beliefs must share in its defects. But, on +the other hand, religion is something more than knowledge; it is also +faith and communion, and these can be deep and true, even when the +knowledge which provides their forms of expression is greatly +mistaken. And when the forms of knowledge in which religion has +clothed itself are found to be mistaken, religion has power to leave +them behind and to adopt other forms, as the tree is clothed with +fresh leaves in place of those which are withered.</p> + +<p>Yet it would be wrong to admit that even in its character as +knowledge early religion was illusion and no more. The poetic +faculty, the faculty which prompts us to find outside us what we feel +to be within us and to assert its reality, led man right and not +wrong. What he worshipped was not the bare object which met the eye +and ear, but the thing as he conceived it. He conceived that there +was without him that of which his inner consciousness bore witness, +an ideal, a being not grasped by the senses, which could help him, +with which he could hold intercourse, which had the power he himself +had not. This, not the faulty outward expressions in which the +sentiment clothed itself, was the living and growing element of his +religion.</p> +<br> + +<blockquote><small>In addition to the books cited in this chapter, we may mention—</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>C. Bötticher, <i>Der Baumkultus der Hellenen</i>, 1856.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>J. Ferguson, <i>Tree and Serpent Worship</i>, 1868.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>J. Ferguson, <i>Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries</i>, 1872.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>J. G. Fraser, <i>Totemism and Exogamy</i>, 4 vols. 1910. An immense +collection of material on the subject of totemism, with fresh +conclusions as to the origin and meaning of the system.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap5"></a><br><a name="p66"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER V</h4> +<center>EARLY DEVELOPMENTS—PRACTICES</center> +<br> + +<p>In early religion it is important to remember that belief counted for +much less than it now does; a man's religion consisted in the +religious acts he did, and not in the beliefs or thoughts he +cherished about his god. Worship, moreover, is that element of +religion which in all ages and lands is apt to advance most slowly. +Even in times of ferment of ideas and change of belief, we often see +that the worship of a former time, be it simple or stately, goes on +in its old forms, as if it were a thing that could not change. Men +alter their beliefs more readily than their habits, especially the +habits connected with their faith. If this is the case generally, it +was much more the case in the early world than it is now. The +religion of a shrine in old times consisted of a certain story about +the god, and certain acts done before or near the object which +represented him. There was no compulsion, however, to believe the +story if a man did the acts or took part in them. As to his private +beliefs no one inquired; if he took part in the proper acts of +worship he counted as a religious man, unless he went so far as +openly to flout the current opinions of his time.</p> + +<p>Nor were the acts which went to make up religion of an elaborate or +difficult nature. No minute ritual regulated in early times the +approaches to the deity; they were a matter of common knowledge, and +were fixed not by law, which did not yet exist in any form, but by +public custom and public opinion. The manner in <a name="p67"></a>which a god is to be +served is known of course to his own people who dwell around him; +others do not know it. The immigrants from Assyria had to send for a +Hebrew to teach them the ritual of the God of Palestine, as they were +on his ground and did not know the right way to worship Him (2 Kings +xvii. 24 <i>sqq.</i>). It is later that the rite becomes a mystery, known +only to the professional guardian of the shrine or to the initiated +few.</p> + +<p><b>Sacrifice</b> is an invariable feature of early religion. Wherever gods +are worshipped, gifts and offerings are made to them of one kind or +another. It is in this way that, in antiquity at least, the relation +with the deity was renewed, if it had been slackened or broken, or +strengthened and made sure. Sacrifice and worship are in the ancient +world identical terms. The nature of the offering and the mode of +presenting it are infinitely various, but there is always sacrifice +in one form or another. Different deities of course receive different +gifts; the tree has its roots watered, or trophies of battle or of +the chase are hung upon its branches; horses are thrown into the sea. +But of primitive sacrifice generally we may affirm that it consists +of such food and drink as men themselves partake of. Whether it be +the fruit of the field or the firstling of the flock that is offered +at the sacred stone, whether the offering is burnt before the god or +set down and left near him, or whether he is summoned to come down +from the sky or to travel from the far country to which he may have +gone, it is of the materials of a meal that the sacrifice consists. +In some cases it appears to be thought that the god consumes the +offering, as when Fire is worshipped with offerings which he burns +up, or when a fissure in the earth closes upon a victim; but in most +cases it is only the spirit or finer essence of the sacrifice that +the god enjoys; the rest he leaves to men. And thus sacrifice is +generally accompanied by a meal. The offering is presented to the god +whole, <a name="p68"></a>but the worshippers help to eat it. The god gets the savour of +it which rises into the air towards him, while the more material part +is devoured below. Every sacrifice is also a festival.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> If this be +the case it is unnecessary to spend much time in considering a number +of theories formerly regarded with favour as to the original meaning +and intention of sacrifice. The view that it is originally simply a +bribe to the deity to induce him to afford some needed help, receives +a good deal of countenance from primitive expressions. "<i>Do ut des</i>," +"I give to thee that thou mayest give to me." "Here is butter, give +us cows!" "By gifts are the gods persuaded, by gifts great kings." +Was early sacrifice then simply a business transaction, in which man +bringing a prayer to the deity brought a gift too, as he was +accustomed to do to the great ones of the earth, in order that the +deity might be well disposed towards him and grant his petition? Even +if this was the case, if sacrifice were offered with the direct and +almost the avowed intention of getting good value for it, yet if it +takes the form of a meal, it is lifted above the most sordid form of +bribery. There is a difference between slipping money into a man's +hand and asking him to dinner, even if the object aimed at be in both +cases the same; and when the invitations are numerous and formal, +there must be a moral, not an immoral, relation between the two +parties. Where the sacrifice is a meal, intercourse is sought for; a +certain sympathy exists between worshipper and worshipped; they stand +to each other not only in the relation of briber and bribed, buyer +and seller, but in that of patron and client, or of father and son.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Mr. Tylor (<i>Prim. Cult.</i> vol. ii. p. 397) states that +"sacrifices to deities, from the lowest to the highest levels of +culture, consist, to the extent of nine-tenths or more, of gifts of +food and sacred banquets."</small></blockquote> + +<p>But granting that early sacrifice was for the most part a meal, an +observance, with a social element in it, between the god and the +worshipper, what was the object of this meal, what was the motive for +holding it? <a name="p69"></a>In some cases it looks as if the intention had been to +strengthen the god, and to make him more vigorous, so that he might +be able to do what was wanted of him. In the Vedic hymns this motive +undeniably is to be met with. The notion is by no means unknown in +early thought, that not only does man need God, but that God is also +dependent on man, and capable of being aided and encouraged. In rites +which are not strictly sacrifices, we notice men seeking to +sympathise with their gods in what the gods are doing, and to take a +share in it by doing similar things themselves. The Christmas and +Easter fires in pagan times connected with the worship of the sun, +are examples of this, and many other instances might be cited.</p> + +<p>This, however, is not the principal motive of early sacrifice. All +the incidents of it suggest that it is not merely a thing offered to +the deity, but a thing in which man takes part; if it is a meal, it +is one of which the god and the worshippers partake in common. In +China the ancestors are invited to the family feast; their place is +set for them; their share in the feast is placed before them. In the +<i>Iliad</i>,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> we have an account of a solemn religious act: after prayers +the victims were slaughtered, choice slices were cut from them and +cooked at the fire by the worshippers, who then ate and drank their +fill; after this "all day long they worshipped the god with music, +singing the beautiful pĉan to Apollo, and his heart was glad to +hear." In the Bible we know that the blood is poured out for the +Deity, and in various sacrifices the parts He is to have are +specified, while the rest is to be eaten by the priests. In the +earlier sacrifices of the Hebrews there are no priests; those who +present the sacrifice consume it after the act of presentation, and +the occasion is one of mirth and jollity, as at a banquet (1 Sam. ix. +12, 13, and the following description; see also Exod. xxxii. 5, 6). +In fact it is a banquet. This is specially plain in <a name="p70"></a>the sacrifices of +the Semites, as Mr. Robertson Smith has shown. Early Semitic usage +exhibits clearly how sacrifice was an act of communion, in which the +god and his human family proclaimed and renewed their unity with each +other. The details may differ in other races, but in general it may +be said that early sacrifice was an act done not by an individual, +though plenty of individual sacrifices are also to be met with, but +by a tribe, in which all the partakers of the blood of the tribe took +part before the god who was their common ancestor, and who, as it +were, presided over and shared in their feast. In some cases of +totem-clans the totem animal is sacrificed, and all the members of +the clan eat their animal ancestor (only on such a solemn occasion +could the totem be eaten), and so renew their bond of membership and +brotherhood. A covenant is made by sacrifice, to which the deity and +all the members of his people are parties.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> I. 457 <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> + +<p>To these primitive conceptions others no doubt should be added. The +mood was not always the same which prevailed when the tribe renewed +its union with its god; that depended on circumstances. In general +the sacrifice of early days is a joyous thing, but to a fierce god +cruel rites belonged. When cannibalism was practised it also was such +a primitive sacrifice, and the most powerful means, no doubt, of +cementing the union of the god with the members of the tribe. When +the god was noted for suffering, a tragic tone prevailed, and the +sacrifice might have a dramatic character and represent the leading +incident in the history of the god.</p> + +<p>If we trace the history of sacrifice in any particular people we find +two opposite tendencies at work in connection with it. On the one +hand there is a disposition to smooth matters, to drop the harsher +practices, to let an animal victim suffice where a man used to be +sacrificed, to let the man off with some slight mutilation, such as +circumcision; or to allow poor people to offer a less costly victim +than the former custom <a name="p71"></a>claimed—the rite, in fact, becomes civilised, +and adapts itself to the feelings of a humaner period. On the other +hand there is a tendency to add to the value of the offerings, and to +reckon the efficacy of sacrifice by its cost and painfulness. In +periods of outward distress sacrifice attains a deeper earnestness, +nothing is to be left undone, and no cost to be spared to bring the +deity back to his people; darker customs which had become obsolete +are revived again,<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> the ceremonial is made more elaborate, new +kinds of sacrifice are introduced. The old social aspect of sacrifice +grows faint; it becomes a propitiation or a trespass-offering; the +notion is entertained that sacrifice is the more efficacious the more +it has cost, or the more magnificent and awful its mode of +presentation.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> An instance of human sacrifice has just taken place in a +remote part of Russia.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Prayer</b> is the ordinary concomitant of sacrifice; the worshipper +explains the reason of the gift, and urges the deity to accept it, +and to grant the help that is needed. The prayers of the earliest +stage are offered on emergencies, and often appear to be intended to +attract the attention of the god who may be engaged in another +direction. The requests they contain are of the most primary sort. +Food is asked for, success in hunting or fishing, strength of arm, +rain, a good harvest, children, etc. The prayers have a ring of +urgency; they state the claims the worshipper has on the god, and +mention his former offerings as well as the present one; they praise +the power and the past acts of the deity, and adjure him by his whole +relationship to his people (and also to their enemies) to grant their +requests. As life grows more secure, the note of immediate urgency +fades out of prayer; being a feature not of an occasional worship +arising from some pressing need, but of a worship statedly offered at +set times, it tends to run into forms, and to become fixed and to +have the nature of a liturgy. Then it comes about that <a name="p72"></a>the words +themselves are regarded as sacred, and that the efficacy of the +sacrifice is supposed to be partly dependent on them. They are +incantations which the deity cannot resist,—charms which in +themselves have virtue to secure the desired result.</p> + +<p><b>Sacred Places, Objects, Persons.</b>—The early world had no temples, nor +idols, nor priests. The worship of nature does not suggest the +enclosing of a space for religious acts. The natural object itself +being the sacred thing, worship is brought to it where it stands; the +gift is carried to the tree or to the well, and if the deities are +conceived as being above the earth, then the tops of hills are the +spots where man can be nearest to them. High places are sacred in all +lands. Groves and remote spots are also sacred. When man was carrying +on his struggle with the wild beasts he would regard with terror the +places where they had their lairs and strongholds; it was in this +form that the feeling of mystery with which moderns regard places +where they are cut off from all human intercourse, first appealed to +man. After this earliest stage had passed, and the grove had come to +be regarded as the dwelling of a deity, it became a place man did not +dare to approach except with the necessary precautions. We may here +explain a notion which plays a great part in early religion, but is +not specially connected with any one institution of it, the notion, +namely, of taboo. <b>Taboo</b> is a Polynesian term, and indicates that +which man must not use or touch, because it belongs to a deity. The +god's land must not be trodden, the animal dedicated to the god must +not be eaten, the chief who represents the god must not be lightly +treated or spoken of. These are examples of taboo where the +inviolable object or person belongs to a good god, and where the +taboo corresponds exactly with the rule of holiness.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> But instances +are still more numerous among <a name="p73"></a>savages of taboo attaching to an object +because it is connected with a malignant power. The savage is +surrounded on every side by such prohibitions; there is danger at +every step that he may touch on what is forbidden to him, and draw +down on himself unforeseen penalties. The nature of the early deities +also excludes <b>idolatry</b> in connection with them; there is no need for +a representation of a being who is visibly present, and can be +extolled and worshipped in his own person. It was at a later stage, +when the god came to be personified and separated in thought from his +natural basis, that the need arose to make representations of him to +aid the imagination. The stones of early religion are not idols. They +are natural, not artificial stones; they are not images of the god, +but the god himself, or at least that in which the divine spirit +dwells,<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> or with which it associates itself for the purpose of +worship. And, further, the earliest time knows no priests; there is +no special class to whom alone the celebration of sacrifice is +entrusted. It would be quite inconsistent with the whole view of +sacrifice which then prevailed, to suppose that it could be done by +proxy. It was a man's own act, by which he identified himself with +his god and with his tribe, and that could only be done by a personal +service. We often find kings and chiefs sacrificing. Agamemnon does +so, Abraham and Saul do so, though the sacrifice of the latter is +disapproved of by the priestly writer. David does so without being +rebuked for it. The king or chief does this as the natural head of +his clan; some one must take the leading part in the transaction. As +religion is the principal part of politics, and the first business of +the state is to keep itself right with the gods, the head of the +state is its most natural representative on such an occasion. The +head of a household also sacrifices for his house, not only to the +spirits of the house, but in cases like <a name="p74"></a>that of Job, where there is +no question of ancestor-worship. Early custom did not fix in any +uniform manner by whose hands a sacrifice was to be made.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, by W. R. Smith, p. 142, +<i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, by W. R. Smith, p. 192.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Magic.</b>—In another direction, however, we see in the earliest times +the growth of a class of persons with religious functions and +attributes. While the ordinary worship of the gods does not require +the services of any special class, there is everywhere found the man +of special knowledge and gifts, to whom men resort for needs lying +outside the scope of that worship. Every savage religion contains a +certain amount of magic, of practices, that is to say, by which it is +thought possible to influence or to foretell outward events. Early +man is not limited in his views of what may happen by any accurate +knowledge of natural laws, or of the sequence of cause and effect, +and he imagines it possible to influence nature in various ways. He +imitates what he supposes to be the causes of things, judging that +the effect will also follow; or he uses such powers as he may have +over spirits, to induce or compel them to accomplish his wishes; or +he manipulates objects he believes to have a hidden virtue, in a way +he believes calculated to bring about the desired result. Magic is +thus related both to the cult of spirits and to that of casual +objects, both to animism and to fetishism. There is generally a +special person in a tribe who knows these things, and is able to work +them. It may be the chief or king,—there are many instances in which +the chief is believed to have power to bring rain,—or it may be a +separate functionary, medicine-man, sorcerer, diviner, seer, or +whatever name be given him. He has more power over spirits than other +men have, and is able to make them do what he likes. He can heal +sickness, he can foretell the future, he can change a thing into +something else, or a man into a lower animal or a tree, or anything; +he can also assume such transformations himself at will. He uses +means to bring about such results; he knows about <a name="p75"></a>herbs, he has +stones or other objects endowed with special virtues, he also has +recourse to rubbing, to making images of affected parts of the body, +and to various other arts. Very frequently he is regarded as +inspired. It is the spirit dwelling in him which brings about the +wonderful results; without the spirit he could not do anything. While +the details of course vary infinitely in different tribes, the figure +of the worker of magic is an essential feature of any general sketch +of early religion. He is often a person of great political +importance; being supposed to be in closer alliance than any one else +with spiritual beings, he has a power which is much dreaded, and +which even the chief cannot disregard.</p> + +<p>Of <b>Sacred Seasons</b> there can be but few in the earliest human life, +when there is no fixed measure of time, nor any notion of regularity, +but all depends on the occurrence of need and of danger. As soon as +agriculture was engaged in, however, attention must have been fixed +on the recurrence of the seasons, and the measures of time afforded +by the moon must, at least, have been observed. The summer and the +winter solstice, the equinoxes, the new moons, these were to the +early cultivator epochs to be observed; and certain annual feasts are +found to have come into use in very early times, epochs of man's +simplest and earliest calendar, and occasions for tribal gatherings +and for such fixed religious observances as we have described. A +private religious emergency arising in the interval between two +feasts is dealt with by means of a vow; the help of the deity, that +is to say, is claimed at once, but the payment of the due +consideration for it on man's part is deferred till the time of +sacrifice comes round.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> Genesis xxviii. 20; Judges xi. 30; 2 Sam. xv. 8.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Character of Early Religion.</b>—We have now passed in review the +principal observances and usages of primitive religion; but before +concluding this chapter <a name="p76"></a>some remarks have to be made as to the +position religion held in the life of ancient times, and as to the +spirit and temper which it exhibited. In the first place, as we +remarked above, religion was in these times the most important branch +of the public service. Every uncommon occurrence had to be laid +before the god, and no important step could be taken without +consulting him; and it was a principal duty of the head of the state +to keep the god on good terms with the tribe, and to apply to him for +all the aid and protection the tribe required from him. In attending +to this, however, the chief was acting for his tribesmen; where there +was no chief these matters were not neglected, but were looked after +by common spontaneous action by the members of the tribe. The god was +their lord, their father, and they must always take him along with +them. This identification of the god with the interests of his +subjects is so close that the latter are troubled with no doubts as +to whether or not their god is with them. If they observe the +customary rules for cultivating his friendship, he must be with them; +they never imagine that he can be estranged from them. It is the +habitual attitude of early religion to take it for granted that the +god goes with his people (he generally has no other people to go +with) and helps them against their adversaries. To doubt this and to +resort to sacrifices of atonement to bring him back from his +estrangement is a later stage of religion. But if religion is in this +way a public matter, a matter of the tribe and its concerns, what +place is there in it for the individual? Individual cares and needs +may form the subject of prayers and vows, but religion on the whole +has to do with the tribe, not with the individual, or with the +individual only as a member of the tribe. It is the duty of every one +to take his part in the public approaches to the god; he must either +do so or be cut off from his tribe. For his own griefs there is +little comfort in the tribal worship; <a name="p77"></a>indeed, personal sorrows and +perplexities meet with but little consideration in early religion. As +the tribe is in no doubt of the goodwill of its god, and regards him +as a firm ally not easily turned away, old religion has a confident +and joyous air, strongly contrasting with the doubts and the +contrition of modern faith. The acts of worship are feasts at which +the members of the tribe rejoice and make merry before their god. To +the delights of feasting those of dance and song are added ("The +people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play"), and +frequently the merrymaking goes to the pitch of frenzy; the +worshippers dance themselves into an ecstasy; they feel the god +taking possession of them, and are hurried along by the sacred +inspiration to behaviour they would not dream of at any other time.</p> + +<p><b>Early Religion and Morality.</b>—How did this early religion bear upon +morality? In how far was it a power for righteousness? There are two +sides to this question. In the first place, the religion of the +infant world was a strong influence for the restraint of individual +excess. The god being the parent of the tribe, its customs had his +sanction, he had no higher interest than its welfare, he was +identified with all its enterprises, its battles were his battles +also. The worship of the god therefore made strongly for loyalty to +the tribe, and for the observance of its customs; it caused a man to +forget his own interest where that of the tribe was concerned, and +unhesitatingly to sacrifice himself for the public cause. But, on the +other hand, primitive religion was an intensely conservative force; +it subjected the whole life to the customs of the tribe, and +discouraged spontaneity and independence in moral action. The duties +it prescribed were of a conventional order; a man had no duties to +those beyond his tribe, and to his fellow-tribesmen religion bade him +rather walk by rule than consult his own feelings. Of the morality +which consists in discipline and subordination <a name="p78"></a>to the community, +early religion was an efficient school; to the higher morality, the +law of which is found written in the heart, and which aims at +rendering higher services than those of custom, it did not attain. +The worship of the higher nature-powers, the heavenly powers of light +and kindness, tending as it did to transcend the limits of place and +of nationality, was destined powerfully to foster a more generous +morality than that of the tribal worship, and this tendency was no +doubt dimly felt by early man long before it was possible for him to +follow it.</p> +<a name="chap6"></a><br><a name="p79"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER VI</h4> +<center>NATIONAL RELIGION</center> +<br> + +<p>We now leave behind us the beliefs and practices of savage and +barbarous tribes, and turn to those of mighty empires. The gulf which +lies between these two parts of our subject is obviously a wide one; +and in many instances there is no bridge by which the student can +pass from one to the other. Often it is a matter of inference rather +than of direct proof that the great systems are built out of the +materials accumulated, as we have seen, in the prehistoric period. +But the inference is sufficiently strong to rest upon; in some cases +we are able to see quite clearly how the religion of the empire arose +by an uninterrupted growth out of that of the tribe; and in the cases +where this cannot be so fully made out, we yet judge that the result +came about in a similar way. We pause therefore at this point to ask +what is the nature of the transition at which we have arrived, or, in +other words, what constitutes the difference between the primitive +and the later religions? The difference is probably not one of +magnitude only; it consists not merely in the fact that the religion +of the empire is that of a much larger number of people than that of +the tribe; there is a difference in character as well as in +dimensions. With a view to the examination of this point it will be +found convenient to consider some of the proposed classifications of +religions, as most of these, though for different <a name="p80"></a>reasons, place the +religions of the early world in a different category from those known +to us historically.</p> + +<p>The old-fashioned <b>Classification of Religions</b> was that of the true +and the false. This our principle forbids us to accept, since we +regard the various faiths of the world as stages in the development +of religion, and therefore all relatively true.</p> + +<p>Another division which has done good service is that into natural and +revealed religion. By natural religion has generally been understood +such religion as human reason could attain to without supernatural +aid. But this description does not apply to any religious system that +ever prevailed largely in any country; the actual religions have all +been the work of custom and age-long tradition, not of the deliberate +operation of reason. Natural religion therefore is a term which is of +no use to us in classification; since none of the actual religions +which we have to study answers to that title. Nor is revealed +religion a term we can conveniently use in such a work as this. Many +religions claim to be the result of revelation, but few make it at +the outset of their career. The title tells us nothing about the +original character of a religion, but only that at some period in its +career the claim was made for it that its origin was supernatural. If +we grouped the revealed religions together we might find that the +members of the group had no similarity to each other beyond the +accidental circumstance that the claim of revelation had been made +for them. Besides, science cannot possibly take the revealed +character of any religion for granted, but must examine each such +faith to see if its growth cannot be accounted for without that +assumption.</p> + +<p>The term "natural" religion has, however, other meanings than that +just mentioned, and some of these we may find to be of more service. +It is proposed to divide religions into "natural" and "positive," or +into those which have grown up and those which have been founded. The +earlier religions were not due to the <a name="p81"></a>personal action of outstanding +individuals (at least if they were, as surely they must have been in +part, the individuals and their struggles are unrecorded), but were +the work of unconscious growth, and were produced by forces, which, +as they were at work in every part of the early world, may be called +natural. These religions do not appeal to the authority of any +founder, but are borne forward by custom and tradition. Some of the +later systems, on the contrary, bear the names of their founders, and +are said to have been introduced into the world at a certain time and +place. Their beginning is fixed, and they have a body of beliefs and +practices which belong to their original constitution, and possess +authority for all subsequent generations of believers.</p> + +<p>This classification promises well at first, but it is difficult to +apply it; some religions pass imperceptibly from the stage of custom +to that of statute, and in many religions both elements are so +largely present that it is difficult to strike the balance between +them. We are led to the conclusion that the real difference between +the earlier and the later religions is a more vital one than any of +these classifications would indicate. The authority and the positive +character of the later systems is a symptom of the change which has +produced them, but the change itself lies deeper. The higher form of +religion is due to a great step which has been taken in civilisation; +it is one of the features of the advance of society to a new stage.</p> + +<p><b>Rise of National Religion.</b>—It is an immense step in human progress +when a set of barbarous tribes unite to form a nation. Under the +strong hand of some chief or under the pressure of some great +necessity, they give up the isolation which is both the weakness and +the strength of the tribal state of society, they choose some strong +place for their centre, they submit to a common government, and while +still remembering their separate tribal traditions and usages, they +learn to act as members <a name="p82"></a>of a greater community than the tribe. This +is the beginning of civilisation proper. Law takes the place of +custom; the state undertakes to punish crime, and private vengeance +is discouraged; the state also undertakes the protection of the weak, +so that humane sentiment appears, and a security is engendered in +which the arts and sciences can spring up and flourish.</p> + +<p>When this takes place a new type of religion also makes its +appearance. While each of the tribes may long retain its own gods, +and its peculiar rites, some one god, perhaps the god of the +strongest tribe, assumes a higher position than the rest; his worship +becomes the central religion of the community, round which the other +worships arrange themselves by degrees, until there comes to be a +system embracing them all, but itself possessing a new character. In +this way a national religion comes into existence. The details of +this process are in every case beyond our observation. It is not +perhaps for centuries after the national religion has come into +operation, that reflection is turned towards it; not till the art of +writing has come to some perfection is it described and formulated +and made statutory; and by that time all accurate memory of its +beginnings has faded away, and its origin is explained instead by a +set of legends. But though its beginnings, like all beginnings, are +obscure, the national religion is there. It has its history; the +great man who brought the tribes together, or who first devised for +them a higher form of worship, is remembered as its founder; the +foundation is ascribed to the inspiration of the chief god himself; +its sacred forms are written down and obtain the force of divine +laws, the will of the deity is a thing clearly known and expressed in +positive terms.</p> + +<p>It is not asserted that this description will apply to the origin of +all the national religions; the character and the circumstances of +one nation differ from those of another, and it need not be supposed +that they all <a name="p83"></a>reached their state worships in the same way. Some +religions have become national by conquest rather than growth; while +some which may truly be called national never attained to any +national organisation. The process we have described, however, may be +regarded as the typical one for the rise of a national out of tribal +religions, and indicates to us what we may regard as the real and +substantial difference between the stage with which we have been +occupied and that to which we are now to turn. All other differences +between the prehistoric and the historical religions may be traced to +this one. Before the religion of a nation has systematised its +doctrine and its ritual so as to merit the name of positive, before +it has provided itself with a detailed ritual or a fixed creed, or a +regular priesthood, or a set of sacred books, the momentous step has +already been taken, the new form of religious consciousness has +appeared. Men have begun to believe not only in the tribal but in the +national god or gods, and a national religion has come into +existence.</p> + +<p>The advance from tribal to national worship is one of the most +momentous in the whole history of religion. The nature of the change +involved in it may be summed up as follows.</p> + +<p>1. Men obtain a <b>Greater God</b> than they had before. Formerly a man +believed in the god of his tribe, one deity among many, as his tribe +was one among many, each having its own god; but now he comes to know +a god who is higher than the other tribal gods, as the king whom the +tribes have united to obey is greater than the tribal chiefs. The god +stands at a greater distance than before from the worshipper; +familiarity is lessened, and religion becomes capable of a deeper +reverence and adoration. Although the worship of the tribal god is +still kept up, yet if the new-born national consciousness is strong, +the national form of religion rather than the tribal will determine +the religious sentiment of the individual.</p> +<a name="p84"></a> +<p>2. <b>New Social Bond.</b>—The nature of the social force exerted by +religion is altogether changed. In tribal religion the tie of the +worshippers both to their god and to each other is that of blood; the +god is their common lineal ancestor, whose blood is in the veins of +all the tribesmen. The social bond supplied by such a religion is +limited to the members of the tribe; a man's fellow-tribesmen are his +brothers, but all other men are his enemies; with them he is at war +as his god is. Social duty is a matter of blood relationship, and +extends only to the kindred. When a national religion is arrived at, +a social obligation of a new kind will evidently make its appearance. +The national god is related by blood to only one of the tribes +composing the nation; the bond between him and the other tribes must +be of another nature. He has conquered their gods or they have +voluntarily accepted him as their chief god; in any case it is not +the tie of blood that binds them to him, but some more ideal tie, +like that between a king and his subjects, or between a patron and +his clients. And they now have a religious connection also with men +who are not their kindred. The national worship is inconsistent with +the gross materialism of the system of kinship, and places instead of +it the belief in a god further above the world, and therefore more +spiritual, and obligations to men which, as they are not derived from +a common blood, are somewhat more purely moral.</p> + +<p>3. <b>A Better God.</b>—The new god of the nation as he is higher above the +world is a being of higher and better character. He belongs to all +the tribes, and is not the mere partisan of any; like the king, he is +above tribal jealousies, and is interested in checking the violence +of all, and securing justice to all. He may be appealed to by those +who have suffered violence and who have no earthly helper; and thus +he tends to become an ideal of justice and fatherly kindness, and to +reflect in the world above the <a name="p85"></a>sentiments springing up in the world +below, in favour of the repression of violence and the administration +of even-handed justice.</p> + +<p>In these directions the religion of the nation tends to rise above +that of the tribe. The tribal worships may continue almost as they +were, the tribal gods may still be worshipped, the tribal jealousies +and conflicts still be carried on in spite of the new union, and all +the superstitions of early religion may long survive; yet a new +religious force has appeared which will in time produce a complete +new system. The true principle of classification, therefore, must be +drawn from the difference between tribal and national religion, as +this is the most vital difference, and that from which all the others +which we mentioned may be derived.</p> + +<p>The transition thus sketched took place at widely different periods +in different parts of the world; it began early and has taken place +even in modern times, while very many tribes in various parts of the +globe have not yet arrived at it. It is a transition of which it is +manifestly impossible to exhibit the detail; in most cases the detail +is not known, and it were a profitless task to trace how primitive +religions met, united or remained apart, and how their crossings in +one case led to a national religion, and in many others led to no +such result. Much, no doubt, is to be found on such points in special +works, and much still remains to be discovered. Various instances of +the formation of national religions will meet us in our subsequent +chapters.</p> + +<p><b>The Inca Religion.</b>—We give, however, at this point an example of the +transition we have described, drawn from a quarter remote from the +great movements of history, and in which the facts are plain and +uncontested. Of the two great civilised communities of the New World, +discovered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, Mexico presents +a worship compounded of many elements, which, along with high and +lofty <a name="p86"></a>morality and great magnificence of ritual, yet retains an +extraordinary amount of cruelty and savage horror. In Peru, however, +we find a state religion which superseded savage cults still +remembered in the country, and from the <i>Royal Commentaries of the +Incas</i>, written by the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in the beginning of +the seventeenth century,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> we are able to describe the religion of +Peru both before and after the Inca reformation.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Printed by the Hakluyt Society.</small></blockquote> + +<p>"Before the Incas," this writer tells us, "each province, each +nation, and each house had its own gods, different from one another, +for they thought that a stranger's god could not attend to them but +only their own." They worshipped all manner of deities; of these are +mentioned herbs, plants, flowers, all kinds of trees, high hills, +great rocks, and the chinks in them; caves, pebbles, emeralds. They +also worshipped animals; the tiger, the lion, and the bear for their +fierceness, and the monkey for his cunning; these they did not kill, +but went down on the ground to worship them and would even suffer +themselves to be devoured by them, since they regarded these animals +as their own ancestors. All kinds of animals they treated in this +way; there was not an animal, how filthy and vile soever, so the +quaint words tell us, they did not look on as a god. Other Indians, +again, worshipped things from which they derived benefit, such as +great fountains and rivers; some worshipped the earth, and called it +mother, because it yielded their fruits; some the sea, calling it +Mamacocha; and a great number of other objects of adoration are +mentioned. They sacrificed animals and maize, but also men and women, +and these not only captives taken in war but also their own children, +smearing the idol with the blood. (In other quarters of the globe +this is a symbolic act showing that the idol and the worshippers all +partake in the same life.) Some tribes were fiercer than others, and +practised <a name="p87"></a>cannibalism more extensively. They were also well provided +with sorcerers and witches.</p> + +<p>All this the Incas altered. They were a princely family, regarding +whose origin and accession to power various legends are told; the god +they worshipped was the sun, and they considered and called +themselves the children of the sun. Their father the sun, they said, +had sent their forefathers to teach the tribes various things they +very much needed to learn; to cultivate the fields, to breed flocks, +to live in peace, to respect the wives and daughters of others, and +to have no more than one wife. The Incas knew better, it was said, +than the rest how to choose a god, and they declared that men should +worship the sun, who gave light and heat and made things grow; they +should be grateful for his benefits, and he would reward them if they +were obedient. The Indians accordingly took the sun for their god +"without father or brothers"; they considered the moon to be his +sister and wife, but did not worship her. Besides this, we hear the +Incas sought a supreme god, and called him "Pachacamac," that is +"soul of the world." This being gave life to the world and supported +it, but they did not build temples to him or offer him any sacrifice; +they worshipped him in their hearts as an unknown god.</p> + +<p>The practice of the Inca religion as described to us by several +Spanish writers falls a good deal short of this doctrine. Many beings +were worshipped besides the sun; a number of prayers were addressed +to the Creator and the sun and thunder. Many sacred objects also were +adored, such as embalmed bodies of ancestors and various idols. They +practised all kinds of magic, and, worst of all, many boys and girls +were offered in sacrifice, even before the Incas and on great public +occasions. The reformation of the Incas is evidently not complete; if +it had not been arrested by the arrival of the Spaniards it may be +that the purifying agency of the new religion would have found much +<a name="p88"></a>still to do. Enough, however, is seen to afford strong confirmation +of the principle that religion gains infinitely in elevation when a +national worship appears. The Incas were no doubt the heads of a +tribe which had conquered others, and imposed its religion on them. +The lesser conquered worships do not die out at once, but continue +along with the central one. But the latter expresses the national +spirit and aspirations; and, as settled life fosters the growth of +intelligence and of public spirit, the central worship must more and +more supersede the others, while itself casting off its superstitious +and backward elements and becoming reasonable and elevating.</p> + +<p>It will be convenient to indicate at this stage the further line of +study to be followed in this volume. As it is our aim to trace, +however inadequately, the growth of the religion of the world as a +whole, it is necessary that we should confine ourselves to those +parts of religious history which lie in the line of that growth, or +which serve in a conspicuous manner to illustrate the principles +according to which it has taken place. It is by no means our purpose +to give an account of all the religions of the world, nor do we seek +to form a complete magazine of the curious phenomena with which this +vast field of study is in every part so well supplied. If we have +interposed the foregoing brief account of the religion of the Incas, +it is not because of its own intrinsic importance, but because it +supplies within so brief a compass such an apt example of that +process which occurs so often in the growth of religion, by which the +unorganised rites of a multitude of clans and families give way when +the nation comes into being, to the higher and better religion of the +state. In the same way the great religions of which we must next +speak have, no doubt, only a loose connection with the central line +of the world's religious progress. No work professing to deal ever so +cursorily with our subject could omit to deal <a name="p89"></a>with the religion of +China nor with that of Egypt; yet neither of these faiths perhaps has +permanently enriched the religious consciousness of mankind. The +religion of Babylonia, with which each of these is connected, was +also of isolated and independent growth, and is far away from us both +in time and in historical connection. Like great and solitary +mountains of ancient formation, each on a continent distant from +ours, these faiths attract us not because we depend on them, but +because they are interesting in themselves. It was out of the same +jungle of primitive beliefs and rites, out of which our own religion +has at length grown, that each of these lifted its head to such +heights as it attained.</p> + +<p>After disposing of these great systems we come to the developments, +much later in point of time, which have led to the highest religion +yet attained. And here two great races or groups of peoples have to +be considered, each in its own way singularly gifted and each +contributing in a distinctive manner to the growth of religion. These +are the Semitic and the Indo-European families. Under each of these +heads we find several well-marked religions; and the nature of the +case itself points out our further procedure. Taking up first the +Semitic group,—including Islam,—since this part of the subject lies +at a greater distance from ourselves, we shall inquire whether there +is any common element in the various religions it comprises, or, in +other words, if there is a Semitic religion which may be regarded as +the origin from which the Semitic religions alike sprang, and which +gave them a common character; and we shall then proceed to discuss +the Semitic religions each by itself. We shall then discuss the +common belief of the Aryans, and go on to the religions of the more +important Aryan nations. Our last chapters will deal with +Christianity and will point out the nature of development which our +study as a whole may have taught us to recognise in the religion of +mankind.</p> +<br><a name="p90"></a> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>On the classification of Religions see Tiele's article on "Religion" +in the <i>Encyclopĉdia Britannica</i>, Ninth Edition.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Alb. Reville, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as +illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru. <i>Hibbert +Lectures</i>, 1884.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>De la Saussaye, Third Edition, pp. 5-16, gives a good conspectus of +the various classifications which have been proposed.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap7"></a><br><a name="p91"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>PART II</h2> +<h3>ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS</h3> +<br><a name="p93"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER VII</h4> +<center>BABYLON AND ASSYRIA</center> +<br> + +<p>The religion of Babylonia, of which that of Assyria is a late form, +as the Assyrians appropriated all they could of the religion and the +literature of this southern empire which they conquered, cannot be +classed along with any other without some inconvenience. In point of +remoteness in time it takes precedence even of the religions of China +and of Egypt; like these great faiths it also is, in its earlier +stage, a growth by itself in a land and people of its own, where +apparently it grew up independently from rude beginnings. It is +undoubtedly one of the Semitic religions; but it had a character of +its own which other Semitic religions did not share, and of the +simple and early Semitic religious attitude which will be set forth +in another chapter it retained but little. It had an immense +influence. Its ideas entered the religion of the Old Testament by +several roads. Abram came to Canaan through Haran from Ur of the +Chaldees; and in Canaan the religious ideas, myths, and legends of +Babylon must have been well known. The discovery of this code of +Hammurabi has shown that many of the laws of Moses were laws of +Babylonia long before Moses. In a later period the tread of +Babylonian soldiery was heard in Palestine many a time before the +great captivity, in which Israel sat down and wept remembering Zion +by the waters of Babylon. In Greece also we find that ideas which +came from Babylon had become known, by way of <a name="p94"></a>Phenicia, at a very +early period. Recent discoveries, however, seems to make it +impossible to assign to the religion of Mesopotamia any other place +than the first among the great faiths of the world. The ancient +connection between Mesopotamia and Egypt, surmised till now rather +than known, is coming to light, and it appears, at least, possible +that the first of these countries may have to be regarded as the +source of all the civilisations of antiquity. The pantheon of Egypt +has striking similarities to that of Babylonia, and some of the +Egyptian temples show traces of derivation from the lands of the +Tigris and Euphrates. The similarities in the case of China are not +so marked, but they are substantial. In Babylonia, therefore, we may +be dealing not with one of three isolated religions, but with the +mother of the other two. If, as Mr. Lockyer holds,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> Egypt borrowed +astronomy from Babylon in connection with temple-building, more than +5000 years <small>B.C.</small>, the religion of Babylon must indeed be carried far +into the past.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Dawn of Astronomy</i>, 1894.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>People and Literature.</b>—Certain parts of Babylonian religion are much +ruder and more superstitious than the exalted star-worship which is +its central feature, and these have been ascribed to peoples who +dwelt in Babylonia before the supposed Semitic conquest, viz. the +Accadians in the north and the Sumerians to the south, peoples not +related to the Semites in blood or in language, but generally called +Turanian, and thought to be perhaps akin to the Chinese. The +cuneiform writing which remained in use for millenniums after the +Semitic immigration as the sacred literary form, was supposed to have +been the invention of these peoples, who had also made some progress +in plastic art.</p> + +<p>There is, however, no direct evidence of the alleged early Semitic +invasion, and the Sumerian hypothesis of which it is a feature is now +regarded by some with less confidence. It is based on linguistic +phenomena. <a name="p95"></a>Hammurabi, 2250 <small>B.C.</small>, reigned over a realm whose subjects +were of different tongues, and entrusted his records to two methods +of writing. The old Sumerian language, which cannot, in the opinion +of the best scholars, be shown to have affinity with any language of +the ancient world, came to be confined to matters of religion and +magic, and was superseded by the Assyro-Babylonian, which was +Semitic. But the feeble ray of the Sumerian hypothesis can be +dispensed with in the light which is shining on ancient Babylonia +from other quarters. For its information about that ancient land the +world was formerly dependent on the scanty notices of Greek and Latin +writers, but within the last half-century astonishing new sources of +information have been opened up. Explorations carried on by scholars +of many lands have made us acquainted with Babylonian and Assyrian +temples and palaces, and with many a great royal inscription. Great +libraries, made of brick tablets, have been discovered buried under +the ruins of the cities, and the gradual decipherment and arrangement +of this old literature is proceeding as fast as able and devoted +workers can overtake it. Those who know the subject best declare that +no complete history of Babylonian religion can yet be written. The +texts now in our possession embody many documents of much more remote +age, yet the information is as yet too fragmentary and often of too +doubtful interpretation, while the proportion it bears to the whole +of Babylonian life is too little known to supply a solid foundation +for history. With this caution we proceed to state the results which +are considered likely to prove well founded. As we saw, several +features remain in the religion in later times which appear to throw +light back upon its early condition, and it may be best to begin with +these before describing the noble structure presented on the whole by +this religion.</p> + +<p>1. <b>Worship of Spirits.</b>—The Babylonians, like the Chinese, believed +the world to be thickly peopled with <a name="p96"></a>spirits of all kinds; and saw in +each movement in nature the action of a "zi" or spirit. These spirits +could be to some extent controlled; though their character was not +known, yet certain charms and incantations were believed to have +power over them, and communication with the unseen world took, +therefore, the form of magic. The earliest portions of the sacred +literature consist of spells or charms believed to possess this +virtue, and these were never displaced from the collection; on the +contrary, new spells were written even after higher spiritual beings +were known and more ethical forms of addressing them had been +devised. Especially were all pains and diseases ascribed to the +agency of spirits or of sorcerers and witches, their human allies, +and the sick person naturally sent for an exorcist to expel the +spirit which was tormenting him. Some spirits were more powerful than +others, and the stronger spirit was invoked to rebuke and drive out +the weaker. The spirit of heaven and the spirit of earth were adjured +to conjure the plague-demon, the demon who was afflicting the eye, +the heart, the head, or any other part of the body. Assertions are +not wanting in the cuneiform literature that beliefs and practices of +this kind formed no part of the true religion of Babylonia, and some +scholars regard it as a late degeneration. The analogy of similar +cases points, however, to the conclusion that magic is everywhere an +early form of religion which is only overshadowed, not killed, when a +great religion arises, and which tends to reappear. It may be said +that there is no evidence of any break in Babylonian religion; if the +Sumerians yielded to the Semites, this led to no religious +revolution; the religion is Semitic from first to last.</p> + +<p>2. <b>Animals.</b>—A step above this trafficking with spirits is the +worship of animals, which Mr. Sayce considers to have been an early +form of Babylonian religion, and to afford an explanation of various +features in it. Like the gods of Egypt and those of Greece, many of +the gods of <a name="p97"></a>Babylon have animal emblems; this appears both in the +representations of them and in their legends. The winged bulls and +eagle-headed men of Babylonian art represent the same rise of the +gods which we know to have taken place in Egypt, from the animal to +the semi-human, and then to the fully human form. An intermediate +stage in Babylonia is that the god stands on the back of the animal +with which presumably he was formerly identified. We have an Assyrian +Dagon whose head and shoulders are covered with a fish's skin; we +have gods and goddesses who are human figures with the exception of +their wings; we have winged dragons; we have the great bulls with +human head and wings which stood as guardian deities to ward off evil +spirits at the portal of a palace. The following animals were also +connected with gods: the antelope, the serpent, which came to be the +embodiment of cunning and wickedness, the goat, the pig, the vulture. +We thus see that the rise from zoomorphism to anthropomorphism which +the Greeks afterwards carried to the highest point attainable by the +resources of art, began in Babylonia.</p> + +<p>Like all early religions, that of Babylonia is broken up into a +multiplicity of local worships. There is no common system, but each +place has its own god or gods and its own sacred rites. In Egypt we +shall find reason to believe that this state of matters had its +origin in an early totemistic arrangement of society; whether the +same was the case in Babylonia or not, it is vain to speculate. +Babylonian religion as we see it has risen far above the direct +worship of animals. Each god comes before us in a certain local +connection and with a special character, but they tend to grow like +each other, and their worship is organised on the same plan. The gods +of Babylonia undoubtedly belonged to different towns, and though +attempts were made in later times to bring them all together in an +imperial Babylonian religion, and to settle their relations to each +other, these attempts led to no system which <a name="p98"></a>was finally accepted. +The number of the recognised great gods varied, and there was always +a large number of minor gods. Each god has his own early history; +here as everywhere it is the case that the individual gods are +earlier than the system which seeks to connect them together.</p> + +<p><b>The Great Gods.</b>—The great gods of Babylonia belong to the elements +and to the heavenly bodies. When we first see them, they are not, +like the gods of the western Semites, lords and masters, characters +taken from human families; they are not husbands and fathers but +creators and universal powers. Another mark about them is that they +have originally no wives. When they come to have wives, these are +simply doubles of themselves with no special character. A consort is +given to the god by adding a feminine termination to his name, thus +Bel receives Belit, Anu has Anat. Finally Babylonian religion is more +and more directed to the heavenly bodies. It is Astral religion +carried to its furthest point. This fixed the arrangement of its +temples, the occupations of its priests.</p> + +<p>We rapidly pass in review the <b>principal Gods</b>. One of the oldest is <b>Ea</b> +of Eridu, a town which stood in old times at the head of the Persian +Gulf. He is a god of the deep, whether it was that he was considered +to have come over the water from another land, or whether he is +connected with the belief which was held in Babylonia as elsewhere, +that all things originally arose out of the abyss. In later forms of +the legend his name appears as Oannes, and he is an amphibious being, +half-fish, half-man, who rises from the deep and instructs men in +arts and sciences. Works were preserved bearing his name, for he was +an author. He continues, even when little direct worship is addressed +to him, one of the greatest of the gods. <b>Ana</b> the sky, is the god of +Erech on the lower Euphrates. Like the Chinese, the men of Erech +regarded the sky itself as the highest god, <a name="p99"></a>and the maker and ruler +of all things. In Babylonia, however, the notion became spiritualised +more than in China; at first we hear that his dwelling became the +refuge of the gods during the Deluge, but in later times he is +regarded as a being quite above heaven and all created beings, and +even all the gods. A third great god is <b>Bel</b> of Nippur, not the later +Bel of Babylon, but an older one, identical with the Accadian +Mullilla, the lord of the under-world. The earliest gods of this +religion are those of the sea, the earth, and the sky. As they belong +to different districts of the country, they can scarcely be called a +trinity. A better approach to a trinity is formed by <b>Ea</b> of Eridu, +<b>Davkina</b> his wife who is the earth, and the sun-god <b>Dumuzi</b>, their +offspring. The son of <b>Ea</b>, also named Miri-Dugga or Merodach (Marduk), +is identified with the Egyptian Osiris; they have the same symbol, +each is a sun-god, and each has a sister who is also his wife, +Merodach has Istar, and Osiris, Isis. In Sergul the principal deity +was the fire-god, sometimes called <b>Savul</b>; in Cutha they worshipped +<b>Nergal</b> the god of death, the "strong one" who had his throne beneath. +Cutha was a favourite place of sepulture with the Babylonians. <b>Rimmon</b> +was a god of wind, <b>Matu</b> of storms. There is a dragon <b>Tiamat</b>, with +whom the great gods have to contend.</p> + +<p>The <b>sun</b> and the <b>moon</b> were worshipped everywhere; each city had its +own sun-god and its own moon-god. The preference generally shown by +nomads for the moon, since their journeys are made by night, is kept +up in early Babylonia, where the moon-god is regarded as the father +of the sun-god, and as the greater being. In Ur of the Chaldees the +moon was the principal deity. There were also towns such as Larsa and +Sippara, where the sun was the chief god; and many of the great gods +of later times were originally sun-gods. The Chaldeans, moreover, +were proverbially star-watchers, and a "zigurrath" or observatory, a +<a name="p100"></a>building of seven spheres corresponding to those of the planets as +they pass through the signs of the zodiac, and like them rising up to +the seat of God at the North Star, was a regular part of the later +Babylonian temple. To Babylonia is due the practice of the +orientation of temples; that is to say, the arrangement of the +building in such a way that its principal axis shall point exactly in +a desired direction. Some of the Babylonian temples were oriented so +that the sun should shine to the western end of them on the day of +the spring equinox when the inundation of the rivers began on which +the prosperity of the country so much depended. The temple was thus +an astronomical instrument of a high degree of accuracy, and the +priests who directed its building and served in it when built were +men of science and learning. A religion which is connected with the +heavenly bodies, though it does not fully supply the needs of the +lower orders and has too little energy to cope with superstition, +tends to produce a priesthood who form centres of enlightenment and +civilisation throughout the country. This was in the highest degree +the case in Babylonia. To these old astronomers the world owes the +signs of the zodiac, which were fixed not later than in the fifth +millennium <small>B.C.</small>, and in which we see how early man beheld in the +nightly heavens the creatures which on earth he regarded as divine, +so that he worshipped them in both regions. The institution of the +Sabbath is also Babylonian; whether it was connected with the changes +of the moon, or with a week of days named after the seven planets, is +not certain. Seven is a sacred number in Babylonia, as we find in +many a connection.</p> + +<p><b>Mythology.</b>—We come lastly, in our attempt to enumerate those parts +of Babylonian religion which have entered deeply into human thought, +to the myths. The heroic legends and romances are the most +interesting and the best-known portions of the newly-recovered +<a name="p101"></a>literature. We have already noticed some fragments of mythology, such +as the story of the fish-god who comes up daily from the sea, the +moon being the father of the sun, and the family history of Ea and +Davkina, with the sun their child. The two latter are evidently +inconsistent with each other. But the story about the son of Ea and +Davkina has an important further development. His name is Duzu or +Dumuzu, and he is the <b>Tammuz</b> of whom we hear in the Bible (Ezekiel +viii. 14), who is adored by women raising lamentations for him. He is +said to be the sun-god of spring, to whom the heat of summer is +fatal, and who dies in June. It is when moisture is failing from the +ground that he is bemoaned. His home is in Eden, for Eden belongs to +Babylonian legend, which places it near Eridu. There grows the great +world-tree which the gods love; it rises from the centre of the +world, and is nourished from springs which Ea himself replenishes. It +is a cedar (Yggdrasil, the ash-tree, we shall find, occupies the same +position with the Northern Teutons); it is sometimes found in a +highly conventional form with the figure of a cherub at each side of +it, each of whom holds in his hand a fruit. In this tree scholars +recognise both the tree of life and the tree of knowledge with which +we are familiar. The knowledge of the priests in Babylonia was not +for every one, but was jealously guarded, and kept for the initiated +alone.</p> + +<p>From Tammuz we naturally pass to <b>Istar</b>, one of the few goddesses of +old Babylonia, and by far the most famous of them. Istar was +originally the goddess of the earth, and both mother and sister of +the sun-god, for we are led to believe that she is at first the same +as Davkina. The great myth of the <b>descent of Istar</b> describes how she +goes down to the kingdom of the shades to seek the waters that shall +give life again to her bridegroom Tammuz. The poem in which the +narrative is preserved gives a description of the "house of darkness, +where they behold no light," and then <a name="p102"></a>tells how, at the orders of +Ninkigal or Allat, queen of Hades, Istar is deprived, successively, +in spite of her remonstrances, of all her ornaments, and how the +plague-demon Namtar is bidden to strike her with all manner of +diseases. The result of Istar's disappearance under the earth is that +all love and courtship cease both among men and the lower animals, +and Ea himself is appealed to, to bring to an end so unnatural a +state of affairs. A messenger is sent to the lower regions to cause +the release of Istar and the reascent of Tammuz. This goddess, +however, is known not only from this legend; she has many forms, and +passed through various fortunes. The Istar of Erech herself lures +Tammuz to his destruction. In early times Istar is also the evening +star, the bright companion of the moon. Her leading character, +however, seems to be that of a goddess of love. Fertility depends on +her; she goes under the earth to find her lover. In this character +she attracted in Babylonia a worship noted for impurity, which under +the name of Ashtoreth is found also in Phenicia and in Syria. There +is also, however, a warlike Istar, a strict goddess served by +Amazons, and capable of identification with the Greek Artemis, as the +Istar of love is identified with Aphrodite.</p> + +<p>Much more primitive than the legend of Istar are some parts of the +Babylonian accounts of the creation. There are several of these +accounts, some newly discovered. In one the old god Ea peoples the +original chaos with a variety of strange monsters. In another the +birth of the gods is narrated as well as that of the world; we find +also that chaos is itself conceived as a female monster, a dragon of +evil, and the god has to do battle with this power of darkness and +evil, and to bring light and the habitable world up from its realm. +It is certainly true that the Babylonian legends of the creation are +crude and inconsistent with each other, and that the account in +Genesis belongs to a much higher order of thought. The Babylonian +account of the <a name="p103"></a>deluge and the ark is more closely parallel to the +Bible narrative; the two cannot possibly be independent of each +other, and there may be no impropriety in holding that the Hebrew +writers were acquainted with myths of general diffusion in the world +they lived in.</p> + +<p><b>The State Religion.</b>—The Babylonian and Assyrian religion of which we +hear in the Bible (<i>cf.</i> Isa. xl.-lxvi.) is the splendid worship of +mighty empires; it has forgotten its humble beginnings, and under the +guidance of large priestly and learned corporations has grown much in +depth and purity. Of its outward magnificence the monuments furnish +ample proof. The temple of Bel-Merodach at Babylon was a wonder of +the world. Being the god of the prevailing city of the empire, +Merodach was the greatest of all the gods, and was reverenced and +extolled as befitted the friend and patron of the greatest of +monarchs. His son Nebo was a prophet and a god of wisdom. What +Merodach was to Babylon, Assur was to Assyria; in fact, he was the +only god peculiar to Assyria. The rule that as religion grows in +outward splendour it also gains in inward strength and spirituality +is strikingly exemplified in the case before us. The gods have come +to be moral powers, who really care for men, not only for the king, +their earthly representative, but for their worshippers in general. +Merodach is praised for his mercy; he not only accompanies the king +in his wars, of which the inscriptions give us so many a wearisome +catalogue, but he heals the sick, he brings relief to him who is +mourning for his transgressions, and he brings life out of death and +receives the soul committed to his mercy to a blessed dwelling above. +Perhaps we pass here somewhat beyond the early period of the religion +and touch on its ultimate phase. The penitential hymns of the later +literature form a strong contrast to the magical incantations, which +fill so much space in the Babylonian sacred literature. The +confessions they contain are not very spiritual; the supplicant +bewails <a name="p104"></a>his sufferings rather than his sins. Indeed, he rather infers +from his sufferings that he has sinned, trodden, it may be, where he +ought not to have trodden, or eaten what he should not have eaten, +than confesses that he deserved to suffer for sins of which he is +aware. What is implored is outward redress or ease, not inward peace. +The removal of outward ills is taken as forgiveness. There can be no +comparison between these hymns and those of the Bible. But what they +do show is the rise in Babylonia of a religion for the individual. +The gods are sought not only officially by the state or for state +ends, but by the individual. They are believed to have regard to +individual sufferings; and the friends of a dying person believe that +the gods care for and will receive his soul.</p> + +<p>Our knowledge of the religion of these lands is too imperfect to +admit of wide conclusions being drawn from it. We know what the +higher religion of Babylonia was; and we also see that the higher +worship never entirely prevailed in this land; the god, like Bel or +Assur, who bore the character of a human over-lord, never drove out +the old set of spirits, nor brought the service of them to an end. As +in the case of Egypt, so here the attempts made in the direction of a +pure and spiritual worship met with no ultimate success. Babylon and +Assyria never came so near to Monotheism as did Egypt three +millenniums before Christ. Nabonidos, the last king of Babylon, +collected all the gods together in his capital, and endeavoured to +organise them in a system under Merodach as their head; but this led +to religious discord rather than to peace, since the minor deities +vehemently resented the removal of their images from their accustomed +shrines, and were understood to refuse their aid to the state on the +new conditions. The religion of Babylon was too much broken up into +independent local cults to admit of such a unification. The highest +that was reached was that one great god was adored in one city, +another <a name="p105"></a>in another, with some depth and spirituality. To nations +which had attained a higher faith, that of Babylon appeared to be an +idolatrous worship of many gods. That is a harsh judgment. This +religion also had life in it and advanced from a lower to a higher +stage; from a timid trafficking with spirits to a service of gods who +were ideal heads of human communities, and friends of individual men. +It was not a mere system, as the world has been accustomed to think, +of astrology and of divination of other kinds. But when Babylon and +Assyria ceased to be independent powers, and became provinces of +Persia, Bel bowed down and Nebo stooped, not to rise again. The world +of that day had no need of them. It had already attained in more than +one country to a higher religion than that of these deities.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>The Histories of Antiquity, viz.—</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Maspéro, <i>Histoire ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Duncker, <i>The History of Antiquity</i>, from the German, by Evelyn +Abbott.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Rawlinson, <i>The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World: +Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Ed. Meyer, <i>Geschichte des Alterthums</i>, 1884. The first volume +embraces the History of the East to the foundation of the Persian +Empire.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Schrader, <i>Die Keilinschriften und das alte Testament</i>, 1903.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Hilprecht, <i>Old Babylonian Inscriptions</i> chiefly from Nippur, 1893.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Records of the Past</i>, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Sayce's <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, 1887.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Tiele, <i>Egyptische en Mesopotamische Godsdiensten</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Jastrow, <i>The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria</i>, 1898. The most +complete account of the whole subject.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Jastrow, "Religion of Babylonia," in <i>Dictionary of the Bible</i>, vol. +v.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Jastrow, "On the Religion of the Semites," in <i>Oxford Proceedings</i>, +vol. i. p. 225, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>F. Jeremias in De la Saussaye, pp. 246-347.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Bezold, <i>Niniva and Babylon</i>, 1903.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. H. W. Johns, <i>The Oldest Code of Laws in the World</i>, 1903.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>"On the Code of Hammurabi." E. H. W. Johns, in <i>Dictionary of the +Bible</i>, vol. v.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap8"></a><br><a name="p106"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER VIII</h4> +<center>CHINA</center> +<br> + +<p>The Chinese have always been a world in themselves, remote from other +races of men; yet they developed a civilisation which is in many +respects worthy to be compared with that of India or of the West. The +people who made gunpowder and paper and who printed books, long +before any of these things were done in Europe, might naturally think +themselves the foremost nation of the earth. Their civilisation, +however, has exercised no influence on the world outside of China, +nor has it advanced to the higher achievements of the human mind. As +their great wall secludes them from other nations, so do their mental +habits prevent them from a free interchange of ideas with foreigners. +The Mongolian race, indeed, from which, like the Hungarians and the +Finns, they are descended, is so different from other races in many +respects that some anthropologists suppose it to have a separate +origin. Phlegmatic and matter-of-fact by nature, exact and careful in +practical matters, and to a high degree imitative and industrious, +the Chinese are singularly devoid of imagination and indisposed to +philosophy. Their monosyllabic and uninflected language, belonging to +one of the earliest strata of human speech, and ill fitted to express +abstract or poetical ideas, is an index to their whole nature. If an +awakening, as various signs appear to indicate, is now at hand for +them, no <a name="p107"></a>one can tell how fast it will proceed, or what the final +issue of it may be.</p> + +<p>China has at present three religions, all recognised by the state and +represented in every part of the country—viz. Confucianism, Taoism, +and Buddhism. For our purpose the first of these is very much the +most important, as Taoism, originally a philosophy, quickly +degenerated into a system of magic, and Buddhism is imported into +China, and has to be spoken of elsewhere. Confucianism, being the +direct descendant of the old state religion of China, is the native +growth of the mind of the nation. Like the Chinese language, the +state religion belongs to a very early formation, and presents the +symptoms of a development which was rapid at first but was early +arrested.</p> + +<p><b>History of China.</b>—Legend goes back to very remote antiquity and +tells in a shadowy way of the arrival of the Chinese from the West +(which scholars are agreed in regarding as a fact), and of early +potentates, patterns to all their successors, who treated the people +as their children, and invented for them the arts on which life in +China most depends. History proper begins about 2000 <small>B.C.</small>, though the +Chinese had the art of writing a thousand years before that. +Researches, however, which are now being made by several scholars, +seem likely to lead to the conclusion that China received at least +the seeds of civilisation and some religious ideas from Mesopotamia. +That Chinese religion resembles in some respects that of Babylonia +was mentioned in the <a href="#p94">last chapter</a>. In a work like this and in +the present state of knowledge it is necessary to deal with the +religion of China as an isolated one. When the history of the country +opens, the character, manners, and institutions of the people are +already fixed. They are already civilised and have an organised +religion, though how all this came about we cannot tell. The early +kings are men of piety, inventors of arts, and authors of fundamental +maxims of policy; but as time <a name="p108"></a>went on the kings grew worse and lost +the affections of their people. In the twelfth century <small>B.C.</small> the Chow +dynasty came into power and gave China some of its best rulers, but +it also soon fell off; the country broke up into a number of separate +feudal principalities over which the central government lost all +control, and in the sixth century Confucius is found wandering from +one independent state to another. This confusion led in the third +century <small>B.C.</small> to the displacement of the Chow by the Tsin dynasty. +Shi-Hoang-Ti, fourth ruler of this line, one of the strongest rulers +China ever had, assumed the title of Universal Emperor. He beat back +the enemies of China beyond the frontier, began the building of the +great wall, and broke down the power of the feudal rulers. It was +found, however, that the feudal system still lived in the affections +of the people, and as it was the religious books which mainly kept +the past in veneration, the emperor ordered their destruction and +enforced the edict with great rigour. The House of Han, however, +which replaced that of Tsin in 206 <small>B.C.</small>, recovered the ancient +literature of the country from the hiding-places where copies of the +books had been preserved, and established in accordance with them the +very conservative constitution which has lasted to this day.</p> + +<p><b>Sources.</b>—The books thus condemned and thus recovered supply us with +our knowledge of ancient China and of its religion. They are +political rather than religious in their nature. China has no Bible, +no book guarded by the ministers of religion as the basis of the +system they conduct; the religious teachers of China, if there are +any, are the literati, the books they preserve and study are the +Classics. These are connected with the name of Confucius, who +collected or edited them, and himself wrote one of them. They are not +thought to be inspired, but are revered because of their immemorial +antiquity. No people was ever more completely under the influence of +a book, or set of books, than the <a name="p109"></a>Chinese. The learned class, who +constitute the only nobility of China, receive their whole education +from the books ascribed to Confucius; which, like other authoritative +literatures, contain matter of various kinds.</p> + +<p>The Chinese collection consists of the five Classics (King) and the +four books (Shu). The former were edited by Confucius; the latter are +by the disciples of that sage or by Mencius, a distinguished teacher +in his school about a century after him. The five Classics are the +most sacred of all. They are as follows:—</p> + +<p>I.—1. The <i>Yih-king</i>, or Book of Changes. This is a divining book; +it consists of a set of interpretations by princes of the twelfth +century <small>B.C.</small>, of a set of lineal figures. The system is in itself of +childlike simplicity, but use and age have collected mysteries about +it. It was exempted from the proscription of Shi-Hoang-Ti.</p> + +<p>2. The <i>Shu-king</i>, or Book of History, contains speeches and +documents of the early princes from the twenty-fourth to the eighth +century <small>B.C.</small></p> + +<p>3. The <i>Shi-king</i>, or Book of Poetry, consists of a collection of 300 +songs, selected by Confucius from a mass ten times as great. Some of +these pieces are extremely old.</p> + +<p>4. The <i>Le ke</i>, or Record of Rites. This book is said to have been +composed by the duke of Chow in the twelfth century <small>B.C.</small>, and is the +principal source of information about the ancient state religion of +China. It contains precepts not only for religious ceremonies, but +also for social and domestic duties, and is the Chinaman's manual of +conduct to the present day.</p> + +<p>5. <i>Chun Tsew</i>, Spring and Autumn, contains the annals of the +principality of Loo, of which Confucius was a native, from 721-480 +<small>B.C.</small> They are extremely dry; and if we could understand the statement +of Mencius that Confucius by writing them (for they are his own work) +produced a great effect on the minds <a name="p110"></a>of his contemporaries, many +things about Chinese religion and manners would be clearer to us than +they unfortunately are.</p> + +<p>To these five Classics is sometimes added, as a sixth, the +<i>Hsiao-king</i>, or Book of Filial Piety, a conversation on that subject +between Confucius and a disciple.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to tell how much Confucius did for these old books. +Some hold that he did not change them much, nor put into them much of +his own, and that, in fact, he was himself indebted to these books +for all he is reported to have taught. On the other hand, it is +declared that he made the ancient books teach his own doctrine, and +left out all that did not suit him; and, in confirmation of this +view, the fact is pointed out that while these books as we have them +teach pure Confucianism, another religion of a different spirit was +growing up in China in Confucius's own day, which must have had some +support in the old system. It may be that Confucius did not care to +report to us all the features of the old religion, but only those of +which he approved. But the information given us about that old +religion is admittedly correct so far as it goes; and there is little +doubt that what Confucius thought best in it, and what passed through +him into the subsequent religion of China, was its most +characteristic and most important part.</p> + +<p>II.—The Classics of the second order comprise four books:—</p> + +<p>1. The <i>Lun Yu</i>, or Digested Conversations of the Master; or, as Dr. +Legge calls it, <i>The Confucian Analects</i>. It is from this book that +we derive our information about the sage; it was compiled probably by +the disciples of his disciples.</p> + +<p>2. The <i>Ta-Heo</i>, or Great Learning, and</p> + +<p>3. The <i>Chung Yung</i>, or Doctrine of the Mean, are smaller works, +giving a more literary form to the doctrine of the sage.</p> + +<p>4. The <i>Mang-tsze</i> contains the teachings of Mencius.</p> +<a name="p111"></a> +<p><b>The State Religion of Ancient China.</b>—Confucius never imagined +himself to be a reformer of the religion of his country. The religion +of China is in the main the same to this day<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> as it was before he +appeared, and what is called Confucianism is simply that old system. +That the worship of Confucius himself has been added to it does not +involve any change of its structure. It is already well developed +when we first see it, and what is very peculiar, it has already +parted with all savage and irrational elements. There is no +mythology; the universal legend of the marriage of heaven and earth +is dimly recognisable, but there is no set of primitive stories about +the gods. Of human sacrifice there is only one ancient instance; +there are no rites with anything savage or cruel about them. +Everything is proper, dignified, and well arranged. The deities are +beings worthy to be worshipped, and they exact no meaningless +services. There is nothing in any part of the religion to disturb the +propriety of the worshipper or to suggest any doubts to his mind. In +no other religion of the world do we find everything in such +excellent order.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> The working religion of the present day is fully +described by Prof. de Groot in De la Saussaye, <i>Lehrbuch</i>, Third +edition.</small></blockquote> + +<p>On the other hand, it is not a highly-developed religion. Its beliefs +are those of extremely early times, and represent a stage of thought +at which no other national religion stood still. The organisation +common to developed systems is entirely wanting; there is no idol, no +priestly class, no Bible, no theology; the most important doctrines +are left so vague and undetermined that scholars interpret them in +opposite ways. It is a religion in which, just as in the primitive +stage, outward acts are everything, the doctrine nothing, and which +is not regulated by an organised code but by custom and precedent. +All these marks point to a formation in very early times, and to a +very early arrest of growth, before the ordinary <a name="p112"></a>developments of +mythology and doctrine, priesthood, ritual, and sacred literature had +time to take place. They also point to the operation of some powerful +cause, which, when the religion had developed its main features, was +able to suppress older beliefs and practices, and lead the nation to +devote itself altogether to the newer faith. How this took place we +can only conjecture, but certainly it could never have been done +unless the new faith and the national character had fitted each other +perfectly. The classical religion may, as Prof. de Groot says, have +come into existence along with the classical constitution set up by +the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. But it must have been ready to enter +into this position.</p> + +<p>The <b>objects of worship</b> in the Chinese religion arrange themselves in +three classes. The Chinaman of old worshipped and his descendant of +to-day worships still—</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="list2"> + <tr><td valign="top"> 1. </td><td>Heaven.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 2.</td><td>Spirits of various kinds, other than human.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 3.</td><td>The spirits of dead ancestors.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>1. <b>Heaven</b> (Thian) is the principal Chinese deity; in strictness we +must say the sole deity, for there is no family of upper gods; heaven +receives all the worship that is directed aloft. It is the clear +vault, the friendly ever-present and all-seeing blue that is meant, +not the windy nor the rainy sky, but that which is above all +agitations, and which all beings of the air or of the earth look up +to and serve. It is conceived as living. It is not a separable +spirit, not a power behind, that is worshipped, but heaven +itself,—the living heaven of that early thought, which has not yet +come to distinguish between matter and spirit,—the living heaven +which is over all, knows all, orders and governs all.</p> + +<p>To this heaven other names are given, even in the oldest +writings—Ti, Ruler; or Shang-ti, Supreme Ruler. Did the Chinese +conceive this ruler as identical <a name="p113"></a>with heaven, or as a personality +dwelling in it or above it? It has been held that the two beliefs are +not the same; that the Chinese of the earliest times worshipped the +Supreme Ruler, <i>i.e.</i> the one God, Ti, and afterwards fell away from +that position of pure monotheism and declined to the worship of the +material object, heaven. The early Catholic missionaries argued that +the Chinese Shang-ti was equivalent to the Christian "God," and +signified a being other than the sky, the Supreme Power of the +universe. The Chinese, however, generally denied that they made any +such distinction,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> and even declared that they could not understand +it. The names Heaven and Supreme Ruler are used by them +indiscriminately: one notices that Confucius does not use the +personal form, but only speaks of heaven; "heaven," he says, when +feeling distressed, "is destroying me." We have here, therefore, an +early form of nature-worship.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Dr. Legge, while admitting that the Chinese originally +worshipped the vault of heaven itself, maintains that they got past +the early mode of thought which considers every natural object as +animated, before the dawn of history, and became pure theists, +believers in a supreme spiritual being. Confucius he considers to +have held a lower religious position than his countrymen had already +attained to. He also regards the worship of spirits and of ancestors +as a later perversion and degradation of the original religion of one +god. In these positions he is followed by Professor Giles, <i>Oxford +Proceedings</i>, vol. i. p. 105, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> + +<p>The Supreme Power directs all things, and is an ever-present governor +both in the natural and in the moral sphere. These two spheres indeed +are not regarded as distinct. Nature reveals in all its changes the +mind of its ruler, and human conduct is regarded as an outward thing, +as a phenomenon on the same plane with the movements of nature; the +two are supposed to be part of one system and to act directly on each +other. As Heaven both governs the weather and looks after men's +actions, for "every day heaven witnesses our actions and is present +in the places where we are," these two aspects of providence are +closely <a name="p114"></a>blended and are in fact the same. Heaven makes its will known +in a natural way. It is one of the most peculiar features of Chinese +religion that it knows no revelation, no miracles, no divine +interferences. It has a belief in destiny, Ming; every one has his +Ming, but it is only known when it is accomplished. "Does Heaven +plainly declare its Ming?" Confucius is asked; and he replies, "No, +heaven speaks not; by the order of events its will is known, not +otherwise." Man learns by the external occurrences how Heaven is +disposed towards him. When there is excessive rain or long drought, +this shows that the harmony between Heaven and the earth is +disturbed. It belongs to the emperor to put this right. He alone is +entitled to offer sacrifice to Heaven; he stands in the closest +relation to Heaven, who is the ancestor of his house; and when Heaven +is seen to be displeased, the emperor must restore the harmony by +governing his subjects better or by sacrifices. In an extreme case, +when the emperor is seen to have fallen under the displeasure of +Heaven, the conclusion is drawn that he must no longer be emperor. +The people then are entitled to depose him and to set up a new ruler, +through whom the necessary transactions with Heaven can be carried +on. The belief has always been held in China, at least theoretically, +and is operative to this day, that it can be known when Heaven has +rejected a ruler, and that it belongs to the people to carry out that +sentence.</p> + +<p>2. <b>The Spirits.</b>—The worship "of the spirits" is a primary religious +duty for the Chinaman. The spirits, however, are an ill-defined set +of beings; they are generally spoken of in the plural number, and +sacrifice was offered to them as a body, no particular spirits being +named. The spirits are connected with natural objects, every part of +nature has its spirit. The sun, the moon, the five planets, clouds, +rain, wind, the five great mountains, but also every smaller +mountain, the rivers, each district, and a thousand other things, all +<a name="p115"></a>have their spirits.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> The spirits are not flitting about +capriciously, but have been collected together and organised in a +hierarchy, and this has loosened their connection with natural +objects. They are spoken of as a set of beings who may be addressed +as a body. A prince alone may sacrifice to the spirit of the earth, +and to those of the mountains and rivers of his territory. But to the +spirits in general all may and should pray; they assist those who pay +them reverence and sacrifice to them. It will be seen that the +worship of heaven and that of the spirits are kept separate. The +former is the imperial worship; the emperor alone is competent to +attend to it. The latter is the official worship of minor states. Nor +are the two sets of deities wrought into a homogeneous system; we +hear that the spirits, while subordinate to Shang-ti, are not his +messengers. The surmise is not to be avoided that these two worships +came originally from different circles of ideas, and have not been +perfectly blended. The worship of heaven belongs to the higher +nature-worship, that of the spirits to the lower; the latter is +animistic, it is a worship of detached spirits, while the former is a +worship of the natural object itself. The spirits are all good; there +are scarcely any bad spirits in Chinese belief.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> The Japanese official religion, "Shin-to" (=way of the +gods, as distinguished from Butsudo, way of Buddha, <i>i.e.</i> Japanese +Buddhism), an easy worship of numberless spirits, without sacrifices +and without any moral doctrine, is allied to this branch of the +religion of China; as also is the religion of Corea. Shin-to is not +ancestral worship, and recognises no life after death.</small></blockquote> + +<p>3. <b>Ancestors.</b>—The worship of ancestors is that which is assigned to +the private individual. He does not approach Shang-ti any more than +he would address the emperor on earth; his working religion is +directed to his ancestors. The Chinese believed in the continuance of +the soul after death, and addressed solemn invitations to it to +return to the body it had forsaken. Their belief can scarcely be +described as that in personal <a name="p116"></a>immortality; it is the continuance of +the family rather than of the person that is thought of. The +individual does not look forward to his own future life or allow that +to influence him; there is little trace of any belief in future +rewards and punishments. China has no heaven and no hell. It is the +past, not the future, that influences the present; the departed +members of the family are believed to be still attached to it, and to +have become its tutelary spirits. In every house there is a hall of +ancestors, where worship and sacrifice is offered to them, and many +even of the details of this worship remind us strongly of the way in +which the Romans served their family heroes. Tablets belonging to the +ancestors are placed in this hall; and to these they are supposed to +come when properly invoked, so as to be present with the family. At +every important family event they are summoned to attend. This +worship has to be rendered by husband and wife jointly, so that +marriage is necessary for its performance, and an early marriage is a +religious duty.</p> + +<p>The family sacrifice, like all sacrifices in China, is of the nature +of a banquet, at which the living members of the family, and the +spirits who have been summoned, eat and drink together. To heighten +the illusion, the grandson was sometimes dressed in the clothes of +the departed head of the house and made the principal figure of the +celebration—</p> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem2"> + <tr><td><small>The dead cannot in form be here,<br> + But there are those their part who bear;<br> + We lead them to the highest seat<br> + And beg that they will drink and eat:<br> + So shall our sires our service own,<br> + And deign our happiness to crown<br> + With blessings still more bright.<small><sup>4</sup></small></small></td></tr> +</table> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> <i>Shi-king</i>, II. vi. 5.</small></blockquote> + +<p>It is not only in the family that ancestors are adored. The emperor +sacrifices in a public capacity to all the ancestors of his own line, +and also to all his predecessors <a name="p117"></a>on the throne; a magistrate to all +who have occupied his office before him. Ancient China possessed an +elaborate ritual, and occasions of sacrifice were frequent. Every +change of season, every portent of nature, every important step either +in public or in private life, required its consecration. It is in +accordance with the genius of the people that the sacrifices are not +of the nature of propitiation, but expressions of gratitude and +devotion merely. Asceticism has no place in this religion; everything +in it is bright and sensible. He who is to offer a sacrifice prepares +himself by prayer and retirement to do so worthily; but beyond this +reasonable measure there is no afflicting of the soul, and in the +prayers belonging to the occasion self-humiliation and confession +have no place, but only thanksgivings and petitions. The petitions +are for worldly benefits and furtherance; the sacrifices are means of +procuring these from the heavenly powers. They consist chiefly of +animal victims, but fruits are also used, and with the importance of +the occasion the variety and costliness of the offerings increase. +Elaborate music also accompanies great sacrifices, and is thought to +be very acceptable to the heavenly powers. Religion is not separated +from life in China. There is no special class to take care of it; +every one has to attend himself to those sacrifices which are +incumbent on him; this is a natural, matter-of-course part of a man's +duty. As there is no Bible, there is no religious instruction, and +the doctrine is quite vague and undefined. The ritual, however, is +fixed by tradition in every detail, and if a man attends to it he +does his duty; religion is a set of acts properly and exactly done, +the proper person sacrificing always to the proper object in the +proper way.</p> + +<p><b>Confucius</b> was not a man who tried to change the religion of his +country; indeed, he disliked to talk of religious subjects, and he +practised reverently the religion which had long prevailed in China. +His conversation was chiefly about what we should call worldly +<a name="p118"></a>matters, and it is hard to see why the religion of China, the same +after him as it had been before him, should be called by his name. +What led to the connection was: (1) That he taught in a clear and +simple way, as had never been done before, the theory of government +and morals which lies at the root of Chinese religion, and thus did +something, though unconsciously, to provide that religion with a +doctrine. And (2) that he collected and edited the books which are +the only literary documents the religion has, and which have formed +ever since the study of the ruling classes in China. Receiving these +books at his hands, they have naturally looked to him as the prophet +of their faith.</p> + +<p><b>His Life.</b>—Kung-fu-tsze (<i>i.e.</i> Master Kong; the name was Latinised +by the Jesuits) is better known to us than most other religious +founders. He lived to the age of seventy-three, surrounded by +admiring disciples, who remembered what they saw in him and heard +from his lips; and this tradition is preserved in the <i>Lun Yu</i>, +Digested Conversations,<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> a work compiled, as we observed, by +disciples of the second generation. The supernatural element which in +other cases gathered so quickly round a venerated figure, is here +entirely absent; in China such growths do not take place. There may +be some tendency to idealise the moral greatness of the sage, but +there are also passages in which this tendency evidently has not been +at work; both in its candour and in the homeliness of much that is +reported, the book invites confidence as a genuine record. We see the +sage as the diligence of students in the present generation enables +us to see Kant or Wordsworth; we hear his opinions on a great variety +of subjects; we see how he behaved on occasions of state and at his +meals in private, towards princes and towards common men; we laugh at +his jokes and sigh with him at his privations.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> Dr. Legge, <i>Confucian Analects</i>.</small></blockquote> +<a name="p119"></a> +<p>He was born in 551 <small>B.C.</small> in a good rank of society, but was brought up +in poverty, and owed all his success to his own merits. The bent of +his mind showed itself early; as a child he amused himself with +playing at ceremonies; at thirteen, he tells us, he bent his mind to +learning, the subject of his studies being history and poetry, the +ceremonies and the music of the empire. He early arrived at the views +he always afterwards held as to the proper way to govern a people, +and he believed with all the faith of an enthusiast that a vast +improvement of society would follow the adoption of his method. It +was to public employment that he aspired from an early period of +life; but he did not readily find it in the unquiet times in which +his lot was cast. He did enjoy office for certain brief periods, and +marvellous things are told of the reformation of manners which at +once attended his efforts as a governor. All got their due; there was +no thieving, and there was no occasion to put the penal laws in +execution, for no offenders showed themselves. What was the method +which was held to have had such results? In the counsels which he +gave to various rulers who applied to him this is set forth. He +believed the power of example to be capable of effecting all that a +ruler should desire. Punishments might be dispensed with, and +excessive pains need not be bestowed on the machinery of government, +but a prince who has "rectified" himself will soon have his people +"rectified" too. The first task of a ruler is to "rectify names"; +<i>i.e.</i> there is good government when the prince is really a prince +and the minister a minister, when the father is a real father and the +son a real son. The perfect order consists of the due observance by +each rank of the duties belonging to it; there is to be a +well-regulated hierarchy in which each understands his function and +acts it out. The people are naturally good and docile, he held, and +if they are well governed they will not do wrong even though rewards +be offered <a name="p120"></a>for it. Thus by docile respect to tradition and authority, +which all men are willing to pay if properly guided towards it, the +pillars of the state are established.</p> + +<p><b>His Doctrine.</b>—This is the truth which Confucius preached most +earnestly. He spoke of heaven but seldom, and of the spirits he +professed no certain knowledge; he declared towards the end of his +life that he had not prayed for many years. He was a diligent +frequenter of all religious ceremonies and a strong upholder of the +old order, but his interest in these things was not speculative or +mystical, but entirely practical. He regarded himself as a teacher of +virtue, not of religious doctrine; his watchword was "propriety," the +dutiful observance of all right and customary rules of conduct. Yet +there is not wanting an ideal element in his doctrine. He enounces +the theory, of which the whole of Chinese religion is the outward +expression, that the universe in all its parts, in nature and in man, +is an order; that that order is declared to man alike in the +ordinances of outward nature, in the constitution of society with its +various ranks and classes, and in the ritual of religion; and that it +is the whole duty of man to know that order and to conform himself to +it. The theory is one in which the state is all, the individual +nothing, and in which the present is entirely crushed under the dead +hand of the past, and all originality and progress condemned even +before they appear. If religion has been delivered from all that is +unseemly and irrational, it has also, at least to Western eyes, lost +much of its interest; the enthusiasms and excitements of its early +stages have departed, and no new enthusiasm has come in their place; +no great god-wrought deliverance thrills the memory of posterity, no +local cults excite exceptional devotion, no divine historical figure +attracts to itself personal affection. Religion has cast off fear but +has not yet risen to the inspiration of love. The domestic worship +came nearest to this, for the other <a name="p121"></a>worships are cold and distant +indeed; but that worship was a powerful influence for the prevention +of progress. The Christian text which hallows individual daring and +innovation, by bidding a man put his convictions above his father and +mother, would be a shocking impiety to Chinese ears.</p> + +<p>A temple was built to Confucius after his death and his worship was +added to the state religion. The attempt made by the emperor +Shi-Hoang-Ti in the third century after his death to suppress his +memory and the books connected with his name, was, though conducted +with great vigour, unsuccessful. The teaching of Mencius (371-288 +<small>B.C.</small>), the most distinguished of his disciples, added no new element +to that of Confucius. Two movements, however, have to be noticed, +which in different ways aimed at giving something richer and deeper +than Confucianism, and to which China owes the two additional +religions of Taoism and Buddhism.</p> + +<p><b>Taoism</b> looks to Lao-tsze as its founder; but it has no personal +founder and is composed of older elements. Lao was a philosopher who +lived at the same time with Confucius, though half a century older; +Confucius met him, as we hear in the <i>Analects</i>, and spoke of him +with great respect. His work, the <i>Tao-te-king</i>, has been preserved, +and though few profess to understand it, a general idea of his +thought may be gathered from it. Lao, like Confucius, founds on the +existing system; he quotes largely from older works, and there are +sayings common to both the sages. Metaphysical thought, however, +which with Confucius was implied rather than reasoned out, here +stands in the forefront. Lao's system is a philosophy applied +practically. Tao, the ruling idea of the system, from which both it +and the religion which followed it are named, is variously rendered +Reason, Nature, the Way; the last is the nearest, though by no means +a full rendering of it. By the manifold operations attributed to it, +it reminds us of the Indian <a name="p122"></a>Brahma, and the riddle of Lao's obscurity +has been proposed to be solved by the supposition that he was dealing +with a doctrine imported from India which Chinese forms of speech +could but imperfectly express.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> Tao is not personal, but something +that precedes all persons, all particular beings. It was there before +heaven was; all things are from it and return to it at last. It is +the principle at the root and the beginning of all things, by which +they move, without haste or struggle, ambition or confusion. Existing +first absolute and undeveloped, it has now been expressed; men can +know it, and the secret of all goodness, all success both for the +individual and for the state, is to know Tao and live in it. This +makes a man superior to all rules and conventions; at home with +himself he is superior to the world; he does not dissipate his +energies in learning a great number of outward things, but acts +spontaneously from an inner impulse. In this way the philosopher +looked for a return of society to simpler manners; he even imagined +that men might consent to put away the material arts of which they +thought so much, and content themselves with living according to +wisdom and being governed by the wisest.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> "Lao-Tzeu et le Brahmanisme," by E. Guimet in the +<i>Verhandlungen</i> of the Basal Conference, 1904.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The moral precepts of Lao are often of singular beauty and show a +much deeper insight than the cold teaching of Confucius. Lao taught +the golden rule: "Recompense injury," he said, "with kindness." +Confucius, on being asked about this, did not agree with Lao, but +declared that kindness ought to be recompensed with kindness, but +injury with justice, as if private morality ought not to rise higher +than public policy. "Resent it not when you are reviled," Lao +teaches; and "He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes +himself is mighty." "He who knows when he has enough is rich." "The +weakest things in the world subjugate the strongest." The <i>Book of +<a name="p123"></a>Recompenses</i>, which is the practical manual of Taoists and is +universally read in China, sets up a high ideal of goodness, and +claims to be studied with devotion and earnestness. The task of +self-discipline is represented as one requiring faith and courage, +the continuous efforts of a lifetime, and unceasing watchfulness. If +we judge Taoism either by its philosophy or by its morals, we must +assign it a high rank among the efforts which have been made to guide +men in the way of wisdom. As a religion, however, it is a dismal +failure, and shows how little philosophy and morals can do without a +historical religious framework to support them. Taoism was not at +first a religion, and was not fitted to become one, as it neither +offered any sacred objects of its own for pious sentiment to cling +to, nor, like Confucianism, leant upon the state system. The religion +which looks to Lao as its chief figure is not based on his teaching; +at most it is connected with some of his less important doctrines. It +did not take a place in the world till five centuries after the +philosopher's death, and its rise was due partly to the emperor named +<a href="#p121">above,</a> who was opposed to Confucius, and partly to teachers +who brought forward isolated doctrines of Lao's system which admitted +of a popular application. When the religion appears it is a system +not of philosophy but of magic. Lao had spoken of immortality as the +portion of those who lived according to Tao; under the Chin dynasty +(220 <small>B.C.</small>) Taoism is engaged in a search for the fairy islands, where +the herb of immortality is to be found; in the first century of our +era the head of Taoism is devising a pill which shall renew his +youth. When Buddhism enters China, in the same century Taoism borrows +from it the apparatus of religion, temples, monasteries, and +liturgies, and sets out on its career as a church.</p> + +<p>It was not without reason that <b>Buddhism</b> was sent for, if we are truly +informed, by the rulers of China, <a name="p124"></a>or that it spread over the country, +in the first century of our era. Neither Confucianism nor Taoism is a +religion, in the full sense of the term, as supplying by intercourse +with higher beings an inspiration for life. The former is regulative +and no more; the latter is a mere set of devices for obtaining +benefits from mysterious powers. Buddhism, on the contrary, appeals, +as we shall see when we consider it in connection with India, to +unselfish motives, and insists on the solemn responsibilities of +individual life in such a way as to raise the value of the human +person. As it appeared in China it is richer than we shall find it in +India; it has a god, unknown to southern Buddhism, and it has a +goddess Kouan Yin, "the being who hears the cries of men," sometimes +represented with a child on her knee, just like a Western Madonna. +While still essentially monastic, it offers salvation and a way of +life to all. To faith in Buddha the merciful one is also added a +belief in the paradise in which he receives believers. Thus a popular +worship is provided, which neither of the older beliefs supplied.</p> + +<p>It remains true that China has no religion worthy of the name. The +phenomenon may there be witnessed, which is seen with certain +differences also in Japan, that several religions exist side by side, +all of which are supported by the state and live together without +rivalry, and to all of which a man may belong at the same time. This +could not be the case if any of the three appealed strongly to +patriotic sentiment, or gave full expression to the ideals of the +nation.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>In the Sacred Books of the East, vols. iii., xvi., xxvii., and +xxviii. contain translations of Chinese Classics, by Dr. Legge. The +same writer has published three convenient volumes of his own, +containing: 1. The Life and Teachings of Confucius, 2. The Life and +Works of Mencius, 3. The Shi-King.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Dr. Legge has also written a popular work, <i>The Religions of China</i>, +1880. Also <i>The Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits</i>, +1852.</small></blockquote> +<a name="p125"></a> +<blockquote><small>The best account of the old State Religion is that of J. H. Plath, +<i>Die Religion und der Cultus der alten Chinesen</i>, 1862.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Réville, <i>La Religion chinoise</i> (1889). The third volume of his +History.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>R. K. Douglas, <i>Confucianism and Taoism</i>, 1876. S.P.C.K.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>De Groot, in De la Saussaye.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>De Groot, <i>The Religious System of China</i>, vols. i.-iv., 1892-1901. +Also a small book, <i>The Religion of the Chinese</i>, 1910.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Beal, <i>Buddhism in China</i>, 1884.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Murray's <i>Guide to Japan</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>J. Edkins' <i>Religion in China</i>, 1878, the account of a modern +missionary, may be consulted.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>On Taoism, Pfizmaier, <i>Die Lösung der Leichname und Schwerter</i>, 1870; +and <i>Die Tao-lehre von dem wahren Menschen und den Unsterblichen</i>, +1870. Julius Grill, <i>Lao-tsze's Buch vom höchsten Wesen und vom +höchsten gut</i>. <i>Tao-te-King</i>, 1910. Vols. xxxix.-xl. of the <i>S.B.E.</i> +give Taoist Texts.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Revon, <i>Le Shintoisme</i>, 1907.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap9"></a><br><a name="p126"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER IX</h4> +<center>THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT</center> +<br> + +<p>Egypt is a land of still more ancient civilisation than China, and +its civilisation is of more interest to us, since from it the nations +of the West obtained in part the seeds of their arts and sciences. +Even to antiquity everything Egyptian appeared venerable and +mysterious, and the air of mystery is not yet removed from the +country of the Nile. We have discovered the sources of the river and +have learned to read the writing on Egyptian monuments; but the +sphinx has other riddles than these—riddles not yet solved. Who are +the Egyptians, and where did they come from? In ancient times they +were thought to have descended from the interior of Africa; now the +opinion gains ground that they were at a very early period connected +with the ancestors of the Semitic races; their language is thought to +show signs of this remote relationship. How, by whom, and when were +they formed into a nation? No one can tell; they come before us four +thousand years before Christ, a fully-formed nation, with an +elaborately organised public service, and with a civilisation both +broad and rich. And lastly, What is the religion of Egypt? What are +the earliest gods of the land, and in what relation do the various +gods which were worshipped in it stand to each other? That question +cannot at the present time be fully answered. Even should it be +proved, as it appears likely to be, that <a name="p127"></a>Egyptian civilisation was +derived originally from Mesopotamia, much will still be dark and +enigmatical. The foremost scholars in Egyptology confess that no +history of Egyptian religion can as yet be written. Those who have +tried to sketch it differ from each other as widely as possible, some +alleging monotheism as its starting-point, and some the worship of +animals. The religion also comes into view at the early period we +have mentioned as a fully-formed and stately public system, whose +youthful struggles, if it had any, are long past. What is most +peculiar in that religion is, that it embraces elements which appear +at first sight to have nothing whatever in common, nay, to be quite +irreconcilable with each other. We shall do well not to attempt any +construction of Egyptian religion as a whole, but to content +ourselves with examining one after another the various elements, +almost amounting to different religions, which are found in it side +by side. We shall no doubt learn something of the relations in which +they stood to each other, but it may prove that we shall find +ourselves unable to adopt any of the theological theories by which +Egyptian priests or Greek philosophers sought to combine them in one +system.</p> + +<p><b>History and Literature.</b>—The principal thing to be remembered, in +order to understand the history of ancient Egypt, is that the country +was divided into a number of provinces or nomes, which, there is +every reason to think, were originally independent of each other. Of +these nomes there were about twenty in Upper Egypt—that is, in the +long gorge of the Nile from Elephantine in the south to Memphis in +the north; and about the same number in Lower Egypt—that is, in the +flatter country from Memphis to the sea. King Mena or Menes, founder +of the first dynasty, whose date, if he was a historical character at +all, and not a mythic founder like Minos of Crete, Manu of India, or +Mannus of Germany, cannot be <a name="p128"></a>later than 3200 <small>B.C.</small>, is said to have +united for the first time the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. +But though they became united under one ruler, the nomes never forgot +their independence, nor did they cease to maintain their separate +existence as states within the empire, each having its own army, its +own ruler, its own system of taxation, its own worship. The supreme +power resided now in one nome and now in another. The first two +dynasties belonged to that of Abydos; the succeeding dynasties, to +which the earliest monuments belong, so that Egypt here begins its +real history, had their seat at Memphis. The twelfth dynasty, which +is known to us, but is both preceded and followed by a gap of half a +millennium in Egyptian history, made Thebes the capital. Thebes was +also the seat of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, which came +after the foreign domination of the shepherd kings, and under which +Egypt was at the summit of its power. Ramses II. and his successors, +the Pharaohs of the book of Genesis, belong to the nineteenth +dynasty.</p> + +<p>How splendid the Imperial Court of Egypt was at various periods, the +monuments tell us; these palaces, temples, and tombs are in +proportion to a power which considered itself to have the world at +its feet, and to be the manifestation of the greatest gods. +Literature is at the same high level of development with the other +arts, and writing is used for every branch of the public service. +This, the most ancient of the literatures of the world, is spread +over the immense surfaces of ancient temples and tombs, and stored up +in masses of papyrus rolls, much of which is still to be explored. +Our knowledge of ancient Egypt and its religion is still in its +infancy. The story of the decipherment of the various characters and +of the recovery of the early language of Egypt is one of the most +wonderful triumphs of scholarship. Only one remark, however, do we +now make in connection with Egyptian writing, <a name="p129"></a>namely, that it +illustrates in a singular manner the conservatism of the Egyptian +people, a feature of their character which is strikingly manifested +in their religion also. The ancient Egyptian did not cast away an old +usage when a new one, even a very superior one, had been introduced. +Long after metals had come into use, he still employed for various +purposes, especially those connected with religion, implements of +stone. The flint knives found in mummy-cases are connected with the +work of embalming, and show the retention of an archaic usage. The +same is true of the matter of writing. The earliest Egyptian writing +was that which is called hieroglyphic, or picture-writing. In this +system what is written down does not represent the sounds of words +the writer uses, but the ideas in his mind; it is writing without +words; a clumsy system we should say, and presenting the greatest +possible difficulties to the reader. At a very early time, however, +what is called hieratic writing was invented, in which the symbols +used represent not things but sounds, though the symbols used are +adapted from those of the earlier picture-writing. It is in this +hieratic character that the great mass of Egyptian literature is +preserved to us; but here again we find that the new system did not +banish the old one from use. Especially in religious inscriptions and +documents, the matter is given both in the newer writing and in the +older; the piece is written twice, first in hieroglyphic, the old and +sacred form, and then in hieratic, the new form, which could be +easily read. In the matter of different objects of worship, too, it +may perhaps be found that the same aversion to discard anything old +and sacred manifests itself, the same disposition rather to carry on +the old and the new together.</p> +<br> +<a name="p130"></a> + +<center>I. A<small>NIMAL</small> W<small>ORSHIP</small></center> + +<p>We begin with that element in Egyptian religion which is to our eyes +least rational. In the ages before and after the Christian era, when +a number of Greek and Latin writers tell us about Egypt, we find that +the religion of the country is described as consisting mainly in the +worship of animals. This excited the wonder of these writers in no +small degree. Herodotus asserts that the Egyptians counted all +animals sacred, and gives a list of those which were specially +worshipped. The hippopotamus, he says, is sacred at Papremis, the +crocodile at Thebes; and some animals are sacred all over the +country. He has much to tell of the manner in which the sacred +animals are fed and tended, and of the honours paid to them at their +death. Lucian says: "In Egypt the temple is a building of great size +and splendour, adorned with precious stones and decorated with gold +and with inscriptions; but if you go in and look for the god, you +find an ape or an ibis or a goat or a cat." The same statement is +made by Clement of Alexandria; and Celsus, the early Roman assailant +of Christianity, speaks to the same effect. Thus the popular religion +of Egypt, before and after the Christian era, had animals for its +principal objects. A representative of the sacred species sat or +crawled or hopped in the temple, and in that nome that animal was not +eaten. In the nome in which the cat was sacred all cats were +inviolable; any insult offered to a cat roused the whole population +to frenzy, and one who killed a cat, even though he was a stranger in +the place and unacquainted with its manners, forfeited his own life. +In the next nome the cat was not sacred but some other animal; and +these local differences of religion might occasion war between one +nome and another. Juvenal gives in his fifteenth satire an account of +a religious war of old standing between two neighbouring <a name="p131"></a>nomes, each +of which hated and insulted the animal which was worshipped in the +other. This may explain why it was impossible for the Israelites to +offer sacrifice to Jehovah in Egypt. They had to go out into the +wilderness, off Egyptian soil, before they could sacrifice animals +Egypt held sacred.</p> + +<p>The worship of a sacred animal in its own nome, a member of the +species dwelling in the temple and the others enjoying respect and +protection throughout that nome, this is the normal state of affairs. +Sometimes an individual animal acquires sacredness for Egypt +generally, as the bull Apis of Memphis, the bull Mnevis of +Heliopolis, or the goat of Mendes. These, though originally local +deities, might obtain a wider reverence if the nome they belonged to +rose to greater power. Animals of every size and kind were worshipped +in Egypt. Besides the large animals we have mentioned, the ape, the +dog, the little shrew-mouse, each had its local sacredness; also +snakes, frogs, and various kinds of fishes. The beetle (<i>scarab</i>) can +by no means be left without mention; and a number of trees and shrubs +were also sacred,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> but, very curiously, not the palm.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> A very complete list of the sacred animals and trees +will be found in Wilkinson's <i>Ancient Egyptians</i>, vol. iii. p. 258, +<i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> + +<p>It will be observed that our account of Egyptian animal worship is +drawn from very late sources and applies to a late period of the +religion. The religion of the earlier ages of Egypt is of quite a +different kind; the kings and priests who wrote the inscriptions of +the monuments tell us nothing about animal worship. Is that because +such worship did not flourish in their day? Not necessarily. Perhaps +they knew it well, but were not interested in it, or did not wish to +encourage it. The Egyptians certainly did not believe the worship of +animals to have been a late innovation. Manetho, an Egyptian priest +who wrote in the third century <small>B.C.</small>, says that the worship of animals +was introduced under the second king of the second dynasty. That is +as if <a name="p132"></a>we should say that an old custom of which we did not know the +origin was introduced into Britain in the days of King Arthur. The +priests of Manetho's day wished animal worship to be considered a +corruption of the original religion of their country, but they could +not specify the time at which it had come in, and placed its origin +in the mythical period of history. The story of Manetho therefore +goes to prove that the origin of animal worship is anterior to +written records.</p> + +<p>But we have other evidence to the same effect. The earliest +representations of the deities of Egypt on the monuments testify in a +way which can scarcely be mistaken that these great beings had +originally some connection with members of the animal kingdom. The +great gods of Egypt are designated on the monuments in three ways. +Their ultimate form is human, the god is a man or woman, and as the +human figures of all the deities are drawn after one conventional +male and one conventional female pattern, a symbol is added to the +head to show which god or goddess is meant. Hathor is a woman with a +cow's horns on her head, Seb has a duck on his head, and so on. But +an earlier form of the written symbols of the deities is that which +represents them partly in human and partly in animal form. Horus +appears as a man with the head of a hawk, Hathor as a woman with the +head and horns of a cow, Bast is a woman with the head of a cat, +Osiris has the head of a bull or of an ibis, Chnum of a ram, Amon has +the head now of a ram now of a hawk. Deities also occur with human +bodies and the heads of mythical animals such as the phoenix. But +along with these semi-human, semi-animal figures there are found +still simpler symbols for the deities; they are drawn as animals. It +is only about the twelfth dynasty that the change to the higher form +takes place, but even after the step was made of representing the +gods as half-human, the older pictures of them were not discarded, +but placed side by side with the new ones. Thus we <a name="p133"></a>find on the same +stone two representations of Horus, one of which gives him as a man +with a hawk's head, while the other makes him simply a hawk; and +similar double representations of the other gods occur. If the gods +of Egypt were thus conceived and represented in the earliest times, +then the animal worship described by the Greek and Roman writers was +not the invention of a late age of decadence, but had its roots at +least far back in the past. The early gods of Egypt were animals, +whatever else, whatever more they were. It may be that the animal +worship of the later and weaker Egyptian periods was a revival, such +as takes place in weak periods, of a style of worship which in +earlier centuries had to a large extent disappeared in favour of a +more spiritual faith.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> Of this only an Egyptologist can judge, but +at any rate animal worship was not a new thing in Egypt, but a very +old thing.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> This is held by Le Page Renouf, in his Hibbert Lectures, +<i>On the Origin and Growth of Religion, as Illustrated by the Religion +of Ancient Egypt</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Theories Accounting for Animal Worship.</b>—What did this worship mean? +and how are we to account for it? The Egyptians themselves, and the +ancient writers who turned their attention to Egypt, accounted for it +by a variety of theories; and various theories are still held on the +subject. We can only enumerate the principal ones. (1) The beasts +were worshipped for their qualities, as is said to have been the case +in Peru before the Incas (<a href="#p86">see above</a>); each was reverenced for that divine +excellence or virtue which appeared to be manifestly resident in it. +Thus the dog was worshipped for his watchfulness and faithfulness; +the hawk for its darting flight through the upper air, like the +flashing of the sunlight or of the sun-god himself; the cow as a +great kind mother; the beetle for that wonderful procedure in the +reproduction of his kind, in which he so strikingly brings life out +of decay. (2) The beasts are not worshipped themselves; they are only +the emblems of the deities with whom they are connected, and it is +the deity who is worshipped, not <a name="p134"></a>the animal. This may be quite true +of later practice, but is by no means a satisfactory explanation of +its origin; for how was it arranged, and who was it that ordained at +first, that the jackal should be the emblem of Anubis, the cat of +Bast, the crocodile of Sebak, and so on? (3) Various mythological and +quasi-historical accounts of the origin of the practice are given, +such as that men long ago chose different animals for their standards +in war, or that some early king, wishing to keep his subjects +disunited, ordered that each nome should serve a different animal. It +is also told as a story of early times that the gods when they walked +on earth assumed the forms of various animals; thus the gods are +still in the animals. The gods hid in the beasts in order to be near +men and see how they did. But men found them out and worshipped them +in the disguise they had assumed. (4) The gods cannot be present in +the world and cannot be satisfactorily worshipped unless they have +bodies to dwell in—that is involved in Egyptian psychology; and as +the gods would be too much alike if they all occupied human bodies, +they chose the bodies of different animals.</p> + +<p>These theories of animal worship are evidently later inventions, to +account for a state of matters the real origin of which was not +known. Philosophical priests could not accommodate themselves to the +animal worship of the temples without a doctrine to justify it to +their minds. But those who resorted to such theories about animal +worship could have nothing to do with calling the system into +existence. We may be sure that a refined and cultivated people did +not take up animal worship and cling to it, in spite of its repulsive +features, with such tenacity as the Egyptians did, because of a +speculative idea of the likeness of certain beasts to certain gods, +or to express pantheistic views of the emanations of deity in animal +forms. The system, in fact, cannot have sprung up after the Egyptians +became civilised, and could not continue to exist among a <a name="p135"></a>civilised +people, if it was not hallowed by an immemorial antiquity. Only as a +mystery, a thing of which the origin was not known, could such a +worship continue among such a people.</p> + +<p>A new explanation of Egyptian animal worship has been put forward in +recent times by the Anthropological school of students of +religion,<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> and is rapidly gaining ground. The religious +circumstances of Egypt as narrated by Juvenal and Diodorus have the +strongest resemblance to the totemistic state of society described +<a href="#p57">above</a>. Here, as in Peru before the Incas, or among +the North American Indians of to-day, we have a number of communities +each with its special sacred animal, which it does not eat, but +reverences and defends. Other traces of totemistic arrangements may +be suspected here and there in Egyptian observances, but even did the +analogy extend no further than to the facts just mentioned, there +would be a case for considering whether the nomes were not first +peopled by a set of totemistic clans, who, even after they were +united in one people, preserved their early separate traditions. The +sacred animals of the nomes would then be "the totems of the clans +which first settled in these localities." Later developments of +religion never displaced these venerable emblems, if this be so, of +tribal life.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> See A. Lang, <i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, Second +Edition. Frazer's <i>Totemism</i>. Most of the modern Egyptologists +incline to the theory that animal worship, though not the only, was +one of the chief sources of Egyptian religion. Pietschmann first took +up this ground.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> Compare the worship of animals in <a href="#p96">Babylonia</a>.</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<center>II. T<small>HE</small> G<small>REAT</small> G<small>ODS</small></center> + +<p>A very different set of gods are those made known to us by the +monuments and books. It is the principal problem of this religion to +explain how, along with the sacred animal, the cat or ibis or +crocodile, there was worshipped in the Egyptian temple the celestial +<a name="p136"></a>being, the god of heaven or of the sun, whose nature is light, who is +righteous and good, and who more and more fills the mind of the +worshipper with noble adoration, and leads him towards the high +truths of theism. These high gods of Egypt were represented, as we +have seen, from the earliest times of which we have any knowledge, +under animal forms. As far back as we can see, Hathor is a cow, and +Horus a hawk, and Anubis a jackal. Did beast worship spring by a +process of degradation from the worship of the high gods? We have +seen how difficult it is to maintain such a view. Did the higher +worship then spring by a process of development out of the lower? +That also would be hard to prove, for the high gods of Egypt are not +beasts, however magnified and spiritualised, but beings of a +different order; they are the sky, the sun, the moon, the dawn. And +as in our opening chapters we saw reason to believe that the worship +of the great powers of nature is an original thing with early man, +and explains itself without being derived from lower forms of +religion, so we must judge with regard to Egypt too. Even if some of +the great gods came from Mesopotamia, that helps us but little to +understand their history after they arrived in Egypt. In this field +also we are driven to recognise two religions, different in nature +and of independent origin, existing side by side, and seeking to come +to terms with each other; and the combination of the two is a process +in Egyptian religion which took place before the period of which we +have knowledge. It is prehistoric.</p> + +<p>It was formerly considered that the nature-gods of Egypt had very +little mythology connected with them; only one considerable story of +their doings was known; most of them had no history beyond the few +phrases applied by primitive thought to the great natural phenomena +to qualify them to be regarded as living and active beings. But as +more inscriptions are read, more divine myths are coming to light, +and further <a name="p137"></a>discoveries of the same kind may be still in store for +us. These different myths, however, are formed after the same +pattern. The great gods of Egypt are simple beings and easy to +understand, and they were never formed into an organised system like +the gods of Greece, but remain in separate dynasties or families, and +are very like each other. Many of them are sun-gods, or gods of the +morning and evening, and their stories cannot differ very widely from +each other, but they belong to different districts of the country; +that is what constitutes their difference from each other, and +keeps them separate.</p> + +<p><b>The Great Gods also are Local.</b>—The nature-god as well as the +animal-god was worshipped in his own nome, where he dwelt in the +midst of his own community of worshippers; he was not recognised in +other nomes unless there were special reasons for it. But at the +earliest period of our knowledge of Egypt this simple early +arrangement has already undergone many modifications. Each nome has +its own special deity. Set is the god of Oxyrhynchus, Neith of Sais, +but more gods than one are worshipped in each nome. Generally there +are three; in many places there is an ennead, a nine of gods, but the +nine is a round number; there might be one or two less or more. The +god of a nome which had risen to a commanding position extended his +influence beyond his own nome, and came to share the temples of other +gods, so that he was at home in a number of places. Ra is said to +have fourteen persons—that is, fourteen views of his person have +been developed in so many different districts. But if one god could +thus be divided into several, the converse also took place; two or +more gods were combined, by the simple addition of their names +together, to form a new god. We have Ra-harmachis, Amon-ra, +Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and some even more elaborately compounded deities.</p> + +<p>Thus there was a constant tendency to the production <a name="p138"></a>of new deities; +even the attempts to combine existing deities only add to the number. +No attempt in the direction of a system of gods had any success; +local deities could not be suppressed; the nomes retained their +separate deities and religious establishments to the end. There never +was a religious organisation of Egypt generally; a priest could in +some cases pass from the religion of one nome to that of another, but +there was never a high priest of Egypt as a whole, however much a +king might wish to organise all the worships of the country in one +system. This local character of the Egyptian high gods was a source +of weakness in these great beings, and never ceased to check their +upward movement.</p> + +<p>The temple of a nome had, as a rule, three gods, and these formed a +family, the chief god having his consort and the third being their +son. Of these triads we may mention some:—</p> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="table of gods"> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Amen-Mut-Chonsu</td> + <td valign="top">are the triad of </td> + <td valign="top">Thebes.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Ptah-Sechet-Imhotep</td> + <td align="center" valign="top">"</td> + <td valign="top">Memphis.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Osiris-Isis-Horus</td> + <td align="center" valign="top">"</td> + <td valign="top">Abydos (Philĉ).</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Sebak-Hathor-Chonsu</td> + <td align="center" valign="top">"</td> + <td valign="top">Ombos.</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td valign="top">Har-hat-Hathor-Har-sem-ta </td> + <td align="center" valign="top">"</td> + <td valign="top">Edfu.</td> + </tr> +</table> + +<p>The son is the successor of his father, and it is his destiny in turn +to marry his mother and so to reproduce himself, that is his own +successor; and so though constantly dying he is ever renewed. The +mother, not being a sun-god, does not die. If we remember that the +gods have to do with the sun these things need not shock us, nor need +we wonder at the statement which is very frequently met with, that a +god is self-begotten, or that he produces his own members.</p> + +<p><b>Mythology.</b>—A few words may be said about Egyptian mythology in +general before we speak of some of the principal gods. The usual +stories of the beginning of things are not wanting, as when the +principal god is said to have been born from a primeval <a name="p139"></a>egg, or a +whole family of gods to be the children of Seb and Nut; Seb, the +earth, being in Egypt the male, and Nut, heaven, the female, of these +earliest parents of all things. More than one god, moreover, is held +to have been an earthly king, and to be the founder of the royal +house which now pays him homage. "The days of Ra," for example, are +spoken of as a golden age in which perfect justice and happiness +prevailed. Many stories too may be found which profess to furnish an +explanation of some feature of nature or some institution of society, +to account for the names of places or of animals, or for the presence +of the five days which were added to the twelve lunar months in Egypt +to produce a satisfactory solar year. Many old stories of the gods +have magical efficacy when told in certain situations; one is good +against poison, but must be told in a certain way to produce the +effect. After these stories of the gods' early reign of peace, come +those relating to less happy periods, when the old god grew weak and +began to have enemies, when gods and men became disobedient to him, +when a war broke out among the gods, which is not yet brought to an +end but breaks out ever afresh; or when the old god succumbed to his +enemies, and his successor had to set out to avenge him. In some of +these stories very primitive and savage traits appear, which show +that they originated in a rude state of society. But they are about +men, not about beasts, as we might have expected of Egyptian +mythology, and the men are undoubtedly solar heroes; it is the +fortunes of the daily (not the yearly) sun, his splendid and +beneficent reign, his decline, his conflict with the powers of +darkness, his decease and his resurrection, or the vengeance exacted +on his behalf by his successor, that are spoken of, in connection now +with one god and now with another.</p> + +<p><b>Dynasties of Gods.</b>—In the history of Egyptian religion one set of +such gods succeeds another as the prevailing dynasty, according as +the seat of empire in <a name="p140"></a>the country shifts to a new nome. These +religious changes could take place without great convulsions. It was +only the attempt to extinguish old established worships that was +fiercely resisted, not the addition of a new god, even as superior to +those already seated in the temple. In the earliest times known to us +Ra of Heliopolis is the chief god of Egypt; Osiris of Thinis (Abydos) +is also a great god, but the most characteristic development of +Osiris-worship belongs to a later period. Ptah of Memphis comes to +the front in the earliest dynasties. Much later is the rise of Amon +to the first place, which he held when the Greeks and Romans had to +do with Egypt. A very short account only can be given of the sets of +gods of which these are the heads.</p> + +<p><b>Ra.</b>—Ra means "sun"; his seat is Heliopolis or "On," where Joseph's +master Potiphera, or "Priest of Ra," lived. Heliopolis is the "house +of the obelisk," the obelisk being a representation of the sun. First +a kindly old king, he is later a warrior; he has to contend with the +serpent Apep, the dragon of darkness who appears pierced by the +shafts of Ra. But as Ra sinks in the conflict he is comforted by +Hathor, the goddess of the western sky, and avenged by Horus, the +ever young and ever victorious winged sun.<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> But Ra is a god of the +under as well as the upper world. King Pi'anchi, of the twenty-second +dynasty, entered into the great temple of Ra at Heliopolis and +penetrated to the inmost chamber of it, afterwards sealing it up +again. We are told what he saw there.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> He looked upon "his father +Ra," and saw the two boats intended for the daily journey of the god. +Ra travels in his boat through the sky, but also at night through the +under-world, of which also he is lord. The progress of the <a name="p141"></a>god of +light through the world of darkness is a theme which was worked out +later in much detail in connection with Osiris; but it forms part of +the earliest known religious conceptions of the Egyptians, and Ra's +voyage through the "Am Duat" or under-world, is described in +considerable detail. Many figures accompany him in this voyage, and +many are the obstacles to be overcome during the successive hours of +night before he reaches again the gates of day. The souls of men who +have died are also led by him through those nether spaces; by a +hidden knowledge, if they have been at pains to possess themselves of +it, they are able to keep close to Ra on the perilous journey. He +gives them fields to cultivate in the plains beneath, and they are +made glad by his appearance at the appointed hour in the nights that +follow.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> There are in Egyptian religion several gods called +Horus; this, the oldest one, is fused with Ra, the first sun-god, in +the double name Ra-Harmachis, a being to whom the highest attributes +are given. The symbol of this god is a recumbent lion with a man's +head, the figure in which also the kings of Egypt are represented.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> See the inscription in +<i>Records of the Past</i>, ii. 98.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Osiris</b>, the sun-god of Abydos, is also reported to have been a human +being who was exalted to divine honours. (The god of the under-world +and judge of the dead, who bears the same name, is a different +figure; of him we shall speak afterwards.) He is the most interesting +and the best known of the gods of Egypt; his myth is found at length +in Plutarch, with the mystical interpretations proposed for it in +ancient times; he is also the god in whom the affinity of Egyptian +with Babylonian religion appears most clearly: cf. <a href="#p99">above.</a> Born, +according to the myth we mentioned above, at one birth with four +other gods, of the venerable parents Seb and Nut (<a href="#p139">see above</a>), he from +the first has <b>Isis</b> for his wife and sister, and his brother <b>Set</b> is +also born along with him, with whom he lives in perpetual hostility. +Neither can quite overcome the other, and many are the incidents of +their warfare. As a rule the gods of Egypt are serene and good +beings; here only dualism shows itself. Osiris is the good power both +morally and in the sphere of outward nature, while Set is the +embodiment of all that the Egyptian regards as evil,—darkness, the +desert, the hot south wind, sickness, and <a name="p142"></a>red hair. It is not the +case that Set was an imported god and belonged to Semitic invaders, +but these invaders found him more suited to their notions of deity +than any other god of Egypt, and sought to make him supreme, in +which, however, they could not succeed. The story of the +dismemberment of Osiris and of the search of Isis for his loved +remains, which she buried in fourteen different places where she +found them, is one which is found connected with other names in other +lands. <b>Horus</b> is the avenger of his father. Here we have this deity in +three stages—Horus the child in his mother's arms, Horus the +avenger, and Horus the successor of his father, the complete sun-god.</p> + +<p>This family of gods is more human and living to us than that of Ra or +than any other set of Egyptian deities. It was also more taken up in +other lands, when the gods of older peoples began to find acceptance +in the West. We see with special clearness in this case the operation +of the principle according to which the contrast of light and +darkness when represented in the gods passes into that of moral good +and evil, so that the god of light becomes the great upholder of +righteousness and dispenser of beneficence. The good god of Egyptian +religion, moreover, is accompanied by a goddess who is somewhat more +than the pale reflection of the male god, as most Egyptian goddesses +are. The incidents of the legend also lend to the divine characters a +tragic depth in which the prosperous and happy gods of Egypt do not +generally share.</p> + +<p><b>Ptah</b> is the god of Memphis, and adjoining his temple is the chapel of +the bull Apis, who is called the "second life of Ptah." If these two +resided side by side, some theory of their relationship was needed, +and the bull became the earthly representative of the unseen deity. +Each had a worship of prehistoric antiquity, and it is vain to +theorise on their original relation to each other. As for Ptah, his +name means "he who forms," and the Greeks called him by the name of +their own Hephaistos, <a name="p143"></a>the artificer. In later times he came to be +identified with the sun, and was called the "honourable," "golden," +"beautiful," and "of comely face"; but earlier he seems rather to +have to do with the hidden source of the world's heat, the elemental +warmth which is at the beginning of all life. He also is, like Ra and +Osiris, a god of the under-world to which men go after death. He is +said to open the mouth of the dead—that is to say, that he hears +them and judges them. But in the upper-world too he has to do with +justice; he is called the "Lord of the Ell," a title connecting him +with measurements and boundaries, matters of the greatest importance +in Egypt. His son is <b>Imhotep</b>, he who comes in peace; the Greeks +regarded this god as a physician, and called him Asclepios. The +goddess of the triad is <b>Sechet</b>, who was also worshipped at Bubastis +under the name of Bast, and whose symbol is a cat. Ptah, it will be +seen, is a less distinct figure than either Osiris or Ra, and he very +readily passes into combinations with other gods. Ptah-Sokari and +Ptah-Sokar-Osiris are found much more frequently than Ptah alone.</p> + +<p>These are the chief gods of the old kingdom—that is to say, of the +first six dynasties. When we come to the great twelfth dynasty, after +the gap in the monuments which extends from 2500-2000 <small>B.C.</small>, we find +that these gods have become faint and new gods have become supreme, +namely, the local gods of Thebes, and of the adjoining nomes. Of +these, <b>Amon</b>, god of Thebes, has the most distinguished history, +though <b>Chem</b>, the agricultural god of Coptos, and <b>Munt</b> of Hermonthis +were originally as important. Amon, the hidden, <i>i.e.</i> the hidden +force of nature, like Ptah, is seldom found alone; he is generally +combined with some other god, especially with Ra. The gods of +agriculture bow their heads by degrees before the sun-gods who tend +to draw to themselves all Egyptian worship; rude country +representations connected with the idea of fertility being +discredited <a name="p144"></a>before the religion of the royal temples which was +directed mainly to the god of light.</p> + +<p><b>Was the Earliest Religion Monotheistic?</b>—We have mentioned only some +of the chief gods of Egypt, out of a countless number. These are the +gods favoured by kings and city priesthoods, who, we cannot doubt, +desired the religious elevation of the people. The gods they praised +were of a nature to promote that end. It will be granted that the +worship of the light-gods of Egyptian religion was fitted to lead the +minds of the Egyptians to theism. In illustration of this statement +extracts may be here given from hymns, which date as we have them +from the eighteenth dynasty 1590 <small>B.C.</small>, but which are probably much +older.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>T<small>O</small> H<small>ORUS</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>The gods recognise the universal lord.... He judges the world +according to his will; heaven and earth are in subjection to him. He +giveth his commands to men, to the generations present, past, and +future; to Egyptians and to strangers. The circuit of the solar orb +is under his direction; the winds, the waters, the wood of the +plants, and all vegetables. A god of seeds, he giveth all herbs and +the abundance of the soil. He affordeth plentifulness, and giveth it +to all the earth. All men are in ecstasy, all hearts in sweetness, +all bosoms in joy, every one in adoration. Every one glorifieth his +goodness, his tenderness encircles our hearts, great is his love in +all bosoms.</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<center><small>T<small>O</small> T<small>EHUTI OR</small> P<small>TAH</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>To him is due the work of the hands, the walking of the feet, the +sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears, the breathing of the +nostrils, the courage of the heart, the vigour of the hand, activity +in body and in mouth of all the gods and men, and of all living +animals; intelligence and speech, whatever is in the heart and +whatever is on the tongue.</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<center><small>T<small>O</small> P<small>TAH-TANEN</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>O let us give glory to the god who hath raised up the sky and who +causeth his disk to float over the bosom of Nut, who hath made the +gods and men and all their generations, who hath made all lands and +countries and the great sea, in his name of "Let-the-earth-be."</small></blockquote> +<br> +<a name="p145"></a> +<center><small>T<small>O</small> A<small>MON-RA</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>Hail to thee, maker of all beings, lord of law, father of the gods; +maker of men, creator of beasts; lord of grains, making food for the +beast of the field.... The one without a second.... King alone, +single among the gods; of many names, unknown is their number.</small></blockquote> +<br> + +<p>There is a beautiful hymn addressed to the Nile, who is also +conceived as the chief deity and the ruler, nourisher, and comforter +of all creatures. From these hymns and others like them, important +conclusions have been drawn as to the nature of the earliest Egyptian +religion; namely, that those who wrote such pieces must have been +acquainted with the one true god and addressed him under these +various names, so that the true origin of Egyptian religion would be +a primitive monotheism.</p> + +<p>There are some texts indeed which seem to point even more strongly +than those cited to the conclusion that Egyptian religion started +from the belief in one supreme deity. Mr. Le Page Renouf quotes along +with the passages above, one from a Turin papyrus, in which words are +put into the mouth of the Almighty God, the self-existent, who made +heaven and earth, the waters, the breaths of life, fire, the gods, +men, animals, cattle, reptiles, birds, etc. This being speaks as +follows:—</p> + +<blockquote><small>I am the maker of the heaven and the earth.... It is I who have given +to all the gods the soul which is within them. When I open my eyes +there is light, when I close them there is darkness. I am Chepera in +the morning, Ra at noon, Tum in the evening.</small></blockquote> + +<p>M. de la Rougé maintains that Egyptian religion, monotheistic at +first, with a noble belief in the unity of the Supreme God and in His +attributes as the Creator and Law-giver of man, fell away from that +position and grew more and more polytheistic. "It is more than 5000 +years since in the valley of the Nile the hymn began to the unity of +God and the <a name="p146"></a>immortality of the soul, and we find Egypt arrived in the +last ages at the most unbridled Polytheism." + +<p>The sublimer part of Egyptian religion is demonstrably ancient, as +Mr. Le Page Renouf says; yet we are not shut up to the conclusion +that Egyptian religion as a whole is nothing but a backsliding and a +failure. If we were obliged to regard that monotheism which Egypt had +at first but failed to maintain, as a gift conferred from above, +which human powers proved unequal to conserve, then the opening of +the history of this religion would be indeed most melancholy. But +though monotheism appeared in Egypt so early, there is no necessity +to think that it was not attained by human powers. For all we know, +it was not an early but a mature product of thought, and was reached +after a long development. It is not impossible for the human mind, +starting from the works of God, to rise by its own efforts to the +belief in His invisible power and Godhead. The beginnings of this +rise of thought may be witnessed among savages, and the Egyptians in +their secluded valley had an opportunity such as no other nation had, +to work out, as their civilisation grew up from rude beginnings to +its unequalled splendour, a noble view of the Deity whose works they +adored. The god ruling from his heaven of light over the great empire +of a monarch who knew no equal in the world, possessing for his +earthly abode a temple of unsurpassed magnificence, uniting perhaps +under his sway districts long at war and extending his influence over +remote continents as the armies of Egypt prospered, such a being drew +to himself from his worshipping retinue of priests and nobles, the +highest praise and adoration, was exalted far above all other powers +in heaven and earth, and extolled even as the Creator and Ruler of +all.</p> + +<p>Monotheism is thus approached in thought, but only in a prophetic and +anticipatory way; the circumstances of the country forbade its +realisation as a <a name="p147"></a>general belief or as a working system. Even in the +highest flights of those early thinkers, when they seem to be +speaking of a god quite universal and supreme, it is a local deity +that lies at the basis of their speculations, a being who has his +temple in a certain place, who is symbolised in a certain animal, who +has a local legend and a limited popular worship. These are the facts +that clog the wings of Egyptian monotheistic speculation and bring it +to the earth again. Pure monotheism accordingly, the belief in a god +beside whom no other god exists, it might be hard to find in Egypt at +all. The last extract given above comes nearest to it; but the last +line of that extract cannot be called monotheistic.</p> + +<p>An attempted religious reformation at the end of the eighteenth +dynasty may be mentioned here, as it appears to have aimed at +concentrating all the worship of Egypt on a single object. The object +chosen, however, was a material one,—the sun's disk, Aten,—and +though all Egyptian gods tended to become sun-gods, some sun-gods, no +doubt, were better than others, and Aten was not the finest of them. +King Chut-en-Aten, or Glory of the Sun-disk, the royal fanatic who +made this attempt at unity, went great lengths to accomplish his +object, but the attempt was a failure, and was abandoned after his +death even by the members of his own family. What Chut-en-Aten tried +to introduce perhaps came nearer true monotheism than anything that +ever existed in Egypt. He made war on other gods and wished to +establish one only god in the land, but this exclusiveness the +Egyptians could not understand. The Egyptian believed in many gods, +and while worshipping one god with fervour, by no means denied the +existence or the power of others in other places. Even foreign +deities were in his eyes real and potent beings, each in his own +territory. It is henotheism, not monotheism, that we see in this most +religious land; the <a name="p148"></a>worship of one god at a time while other gods are +also believed to exist and act. The one god who is before the mind of +the worshipper is exalted above the rest, and spoken of as if no +other god required to be considered; but the worshipper does not +dream as yet of questioning the existence of other gods, or feel +himself debarred from worshipping them if he should visit their +country.</p> + +<p><b>Syncretism.</b>—The hymns contain several other speculative positions +about the gods (<a href="#p55">see above</a> <i>sqq.</i>), and we may briefly mention these. +Syncretism, as we saw, is very largely represented in Egyptian +thought, and enters, indeed, into its very bone and marrow. In the +ennead of a city the great gods may be arranged together after the +fashion of a court where one or two rule over the rest; but in +numberless passages we find the relations of gods adjusted in another +way, by making them one. Ra "comes as" Tum, the god is known here +under one name or aspect and there under another. The names of two +deities being added together, a new deity is produced; and in later +times these gods with double, treble, or multiple names are among the +most important. Raharmachis and Amonra are national gods, and have +left much evidence of themselves.</p> + +<p>It is a little step from syncretism to <b>pantheism</b>. Let the gods once +lose the individual character that keeps them separate from each +other, and it is possible for one god, who grows strong and great +enough, to swallow up all the rest, till they appear only as his +forms. In the position which they occupied in Egypt the various gods +could not disappear, their local connections kept them alive; but +they were so like one another that one of them could be regarded as a +form of another, and a multitude of them as forms of one. The god who +did most in the way of swallowing up the rest was Ra, the great +sun-god of Thebes. The Litany of Ra<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> <a name="p149"></a>represents that god as eternal +and self-begotten, and sings in seventy-five successive verses +seventy-five forms which he assumes; they are the forms of the gods +and of all the great elements and parts of the world. The separate +gods are reduced from the rank of independent potentates to shapes of +Ra, and thus a kind of unity is set up in the populous Egyptian +Pantheon. But Ra is not strong enough to get the better of these +shapes, and to rule a sole monarch by his own right, in his own way. +He is the god, but he is not an independent god; it is pantheism, not +theism, to which he owes his exaltation. The one in Egypt cannot +govern the many; the pure exaltation of Ra as a supreme and absolute +god does not prevent the worship of a different being in each +different town. The one sole god is for the priests alone, not for +the people; and this belief in him does not even lead to attempts to +root out the worship of animals, or to concentrate the service of the +temples on him alone. And in the absence of such attempts we read the +sentence condemning a religion which produced most noble fruits of +thought, to grow worse and not better as time went on, and to pass +away without bringing any permanent contribution to the development +of the religion of the world.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> <i>Records of the Past</i>, viii. 105.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Worship.</b>—The Egyptian temple was constructed rather to afford the +god a splendid residence among his people than to accommodate a large +congregation at an act of worship. The temple was the public place of +the community, its point of meeting (for the Egyptian town has no +market-place), and its fortress when attacked (for the town is not +fortified). But while the courts of the temple were open to the +people, there was a holy place which only the priests might enter, +where the sacred ark, the symbol of the god, remained, and where +sacrifices were offered. The images about the temple were not placed +there to be worshipped, but were votive offerings meant to provide +the god with a body which he might enter when he chose. The obelisk +is such a <a name="p150"></a>symbol or incorporation of the sun. On certain days the +sacred objects and animals were taken in procession through the +temple grounds, or made voyages on the lake belonging to the temple, +or were even taken through the nome among the fields and dwellings of +their people; and on these occasions representations took place +symbolising the principal events in the history of the god. It was +thus that the private individual came to know the god; it was a great +festival and an occasion of the utmost joy when the divine protectors +and benefactors of the nome, who generally remained in their splendid +retirement, came forth to mingle for a brief space with the faithful +community. The worship of the gods was in Egypt, as in every nation +of the ancient world, a matter of state, not of individual concern. +It is the chief branch of the public service; the state is under the +direct rule of the gods; never was there a more absolute theocracy. +The king is a child of the god,—a conception often treated in the +most material way,—and being thus of more than human race, becomes +himself the object of worship, and even offers sacrifice to himself. +It is one of the king's chief cares to provide a stately dwelling for +the god; the king himself offers sacrifice on the most important +occasions. The god in his sacred ark goes with his people when they +are at war and fights along with them, so that every war is a holy +war. The priests are public officials, and often exercise immense +influence. The king institutes them into their functions; they are +exempt, as we may read in Genesis, from public burdens; every +function involving learning or art is in their hands. Framed in such +institutions religion is not likely to have any free growth; the time +is far distant here when men will form voluntary associations of +their own for spiritual ends. Yet, no doubt, the lay Egyptian had a +private religion of his own as well as his share in the great public +acts he witnessed. Though the gods of Egypt are nearly all good, the +evil power Set was much worshipped, <a name="p151"></a>and would be approached in +private as well as in the public acts depicted on the monuments, by +all who had anything to fear from him—that is to say, by all. Every +one had to treat with kindness and respect the animal species sacred +in his nome, and other sacred animals. The belief in magic was +strong; hidden powers had to be reckoned with on manifold occasions; +sickness was imputed to the agency of evil spirits, and treated by +exorcism, by persons duly trained and learned in such arts. Lucky and +unlucky days, and days suitable or unsuitable for particular +undertakings, filled the calendar; the belief in amulets and charms +was universal. Such things we expect to find among the people, even +where religious thought has risen highest.</p> +<br> + +<center>T<small>HE</small> D<small>OCTRINE OF THE OTHER</small> L<small>IFE</small></center> + +<p>Most of our knowledge about ancient Egypt is drawn from the tombs. No +other nation ever bestowed so much care on the dead as the Egyptians +did, nor thought of the other world so much. The living had to +prepare for his further existence after death, and the dead claimed +from his successors on earth elaborate offices of piety. It is in +this part of the religion that there is most growth, and this part of +it in its ultimate form is best known.</p> + +<p>1. <b>Treatment of the Dead.</b>—The doctrine of the other world takes its +rise with the Egyptians in the belief common to all early races, +which was described <a href="#p33">above</a>. The spirit still lives +when the body dies, and it comes back to the body, and is affected by +the treatment the body receives. To care for the dead is the first +duty of the living, and a man must marry in order to have offspring +who will pay him the necessary attention after his death. Various +things are buried with the corpse for the use of the spirit, and +offerings are made to it from time to time afterwards. This is no +more than the common primitive belief, but the <a name="p152"></a>Egyptians carried it +out more fully in practice than any other people. They sought to make +the body incorruptible, embalming it and restoring to it all its +organs, so that the spirit should be able to discharge every function +of life. They placed the mummy if possible in such a situation that +it should never be disturbed to the end of time; the grave they +called an eternal dwelling. They even instituted endowments to secure +due offerings to the dead in all coming time.</p> + +<p>Cultivated as this part of religion was in Egypt, it could not fail +to assume a special character. For one thing, there is a variety of +names for what survives of man after death; we hear of his heart, his +soul, his shade, his luminosity; and in the later doctrine these are +all combined and made parts of one theory; all the different parts of +the man have to come together again after their dispersion at death +before his person is complete. The principal term, however, is the +"ka," image, or, as we say, genius, of the man, a non-substantial +double of him which has journeys and adventures to make, and to which +the offerings are addressed. The "ka" needs food, and regular gifts +are made to it of all it can require; it needs guidance and +instruction, and these can be conveyed to it by pictures and writings +on the walls of the tomb or in the mummy-case; even its amusement and +its need of society and of ministration can be to some extent met in +this way. It is not peculiar to Egypt that the advantages of wealth +and rank are continued after death, and that the rich can do much +more, or cause much more to be done for his eternal welfare, than the +poor. The king's mummy lies in a pyramid, where it will never be +moved; that of the noble in a rock-tomb or a stately edifice or +"mastaba"; the poor man has to be content with an inferior kind of +embalming, and a tomb of tiles if he gets any at all; and no priest +can be retained to pray for him.</p> + +<p>2. <b>The Spirit in the Under-world.</b>—Before history <a name="p153"></a>opens, this common +belief and practice in regard to the dead had come to be combined in +Egypt with the worship of a solar deity; a step of immense +importance, which added immeasurably to the pathos and the moral +power of this kind of religion.</p> + +<p>Milton says in <i>Lycidas</i>—</p> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem3"> + <tr><td><small>So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed;<br> + And yet anon repairs his drooping head,<br> + And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore<br> + Flames in the forehead of the morning sky;<br> + So Lycidas sank low, but mounted high.</small></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>But what to Milton was a poetic imagination was to the early Egyptian +a serious belief. If the sun was his god, he did not say like +Wordsworth in his early period—</p> + +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem4"> + <tr><td><small>Our fate how different from thine, blest star, in this,<br> + That no to-morrow shall our beams restore,</small></td></tr> +</table> + +<p>but he was convinced that the history of his god, who sank under the +Western horizon, and after a period of darkness came back again to +light and triumph, was an undoubted indication of what he himself had +to look for after death. The mummy was carried across the Nile and +deposited in the west land, which is also the under-world, to share +in the repose and in the further progress of the dead. As the jackal +pervades that region, the dead is left to the care of Anubis, the +jackal-headed deity, who opens paths to him for further travel, and +leads him into the presence of the gods. The under-world is +elaborately portioned out into various parts and scenes, and manifold +are the shapes of evil and mischief with which it is peopled. On the +other hand, it contains abundance of blessings, which the departed +may secure if the proper means have been taken by himself and by his +friends surviving him. The earthly life is there repeated with all +its occupations and enjoyments, but free from fear and from decay.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of the dead accompanying the sun-god <a name="p154"></a>to the under-world, +and living under his protection, is very old in Egypt; we saw it in +an early form in connection with the god Ra. It was in connection +with Osiris, however, that it attained its widest diffusion; to the +whole Egyptian people Osiris was the lord of the world below, with +whom the departed were. The identification of the departed with +Osiris was thorough and complete; he becomes Osiris, takes the name +of the deity, and is known in the inscriptions as "Osiris N. N." Isis +is his sister, Horus his defender, Anubis his herald and guide, and +having shared the god's eclipse, he is also to share his triumph and +revival.</p> + +<p>3. <b>The Book of the Dead</b>, the most famous relic of Egyptian +literature, is a collection of pieces many of which are very ancient, +bearing on the passage of the soul through the under-world. The book +has also been called the <i>Funeral Ritual;</i> a better translation of +the title is, "Book of Coming out from the Day." The earthly life is +the day from which the deceased comes forth into the larger existence +of the world beyond. The book (or such parts of it as may be used in +each case) is the soul's <i>vade mecum</i> for the under-world, and +contains the forms the soul must have at command in order to ward off +all the dangers of that region, and to secure an easy and happy +passage through it. How the person is to be reconstructed, the +different parts coming back to be built up again in one, how he is to +know the spirits he meets, how he is to get the gates opened for +him,—such are the subjects of various chapters; and the soul's +success in its passage depends on its knowledge of these. The words +they contain are not merely information, they have magic power to +smooth away obstacles and to open doors. Hence it is important for a +man to have learned them when alive, and, to assist his memory, a few +chapters are written on papyrus or linen, and the rolls placed with +the mummy in its case, or they are written on the walls of the tomb. +No other Egyptian work, in consequence, has been <a name="p155"></a>preserved in so many +copies, but one roll or set of inscriptions contains one set of +chapters and another another set.</p> + +<p>Does the fate of the individual after death depend then entirely on +magic; is it a question of how many of these formulĉ he is able to +remember, or how many his relatives have got written out for him? Do +no doubts intrude on his mind lest, even if he has all the requisite +knowledge at command, he himself should be found unworthy to live +with the immortals? For the most part the <i>Book of the Dead</i> stands +on the earlier position at which man never thinks of doubting the +favour of his god, and trusts to overcome what is hostile by having +his magic ready, not by having his heart pure. But in several +chapters a deeper tone is heard. There is a form for having the stain +rubbed away from the heart of the Osiris, and if there are abundant +directions for outward purification, there are also directions for +having his sins forgiven. In the great 125th chapter the deceased +enters the Hall of the two Truths, and is separated from his sins +after he has seen the faces of the gods. Here he stands before +forty-two judges (compare the number of the nomes of Egypt) styled +Lords of Truth, each of whom is there to judge of a particular sin, +and to each he has to profess that he did not when on earth commit +that sin. I have not stolen, he has to say; I have not played the +hypocrite, I have not stolen the things of the gods, I have not made +conspiracies, I have not blasphemed, I have not clipped the skins of +the sacred beasts, I have not injured the gods, I have not +calumniated the slave to his master; and so on. The line is not yet +clearly drawn between moral and ritual or conventional offences; and +moral duty is expressed in a negative form, and appears as a shackle, +not as an inspiration. Yet the very great advance has been made here, +that divine law watches not only over specially religious matters but +over social life, and even over the thoughts of the individual heart. +<a name="p156"></a>The gods enjoin on a man not only to offer sacrifice and to respect +the sacred beasts, but also to do his duty as a citizen and as a +neighbour, and to keep his own lips unpolluted and his own heart +pure. It is to the same effect when we find that a man's +justification depends on the state of his heart at death. His heart +is weighed against the truth, and if it is found defective, he cannot +live again; if it turns out well, then he is justified and goes to +the fields of Aalu, the place of the blessed of Osiris.</p> +<br> + +<center>C<small>ONCLUSION</small></center> + +<p>This doctrine of the life to come, like the theistic doctrine the +Egyptians at one time attained, might have seemed destined to lead to +a pure spiritual faith, from which superstition should have +disappeared. But in neither case is that result attained. The later +history of Egyptian religion is that of the increase of magic, and of +the rise of a priestly class absorbing to itself, as the older +priests who were closely connected with the civil life of the nation +had never done, all the functions of religion. Doctrine grows more +pantheistic and more recondite, mysteries and symbols are multiplied, +all to the increase of the influence of the priesthood, and to the +infinite exercise of ingenuity in coming times. Popular religion, on +the other hand, comes to be more taken up with such matters as charms +and amulets and horoscopes; and while morals did not decline from the +high level they had gained from the reign of the gods of light, the +spirit of the nation lost vigour under the growth of religiosity at +the expense of patriotism, and healthy reform grew more and more +impossible. What of the religion of Egypt lived on in other lands +which felt her influence, it is hard to say. The religious art of +Egypt, and with it no doubt some tincture of the ideas it embodied, +<a name="p157"></a>undoubtedly went northwards to Phenicia; and Greece owed to Phenicia, +as we shall see, many a suggestion in religious matters. Long before +Isis and Serapis were introduced in Rome in their own persons, the +legend of Osiris had flourished in Greece under new names, and the +Greek doctrine of the life to come, taught in the mysteries, has +suggested to some scholars an Egyptian origin. To the Greeks and +Romans this religion afforded an infinity of puzzles and mysteries; +to the modern world it affords the greatest example of a religion the +early promise of which was not fulfilled, the splendid moral +aspirations of which were stifled amid the superstitions they were +too weak to conquer.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>For general information Wilkinson's <i>Egyptians</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. A. W. Budge, <i>History of Egypt</i>, vols. i.-viii., 1902-03.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. A. W. Budge, <i>The Mummy;</i> chapters on Egyptian funeral archĉology, +Cambridge, 1893.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. A. W. Budge, <i>The Book of the Dead</i>, English Translation of the +Theban Recension, 3 vols., 1910.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Flinders Petrie, <i>A History of Egypt</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Flinders Petrie, in <i>Oxford Proceedings</i>, vol. i. p. 184, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>The Histories of Antiquity of Duncker, Maspero, and especially Ed. +Meyer.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Erman, <i>Life in Ancient Egypt</i>, 1894.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Maspero, <i>Manual of Egyptian Archĉology</i>, Second Edition, 1895.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Renouf's <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Tiele, <i>History of the Egyptian Religion</i>, translated by Ballingal.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Wiedemann, <i>Ägyptische Geschichte</i>, 1884-88; "Die Religion der alten +Aegyptier," 1890; also "Egyptian Religion," in Hastings' <i>Bible +Dictionary</i>, vol. v.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>A. O. Lange, "Die Ägypter" in De la Saussaye. <i>Records of the Past</i>, +First Series (1873-81), vols. ii., iv., vi., viii., x., xii. Second +Series, 1888-92, vols. ii.-vi.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Benson and Gourlay, <i>The Temple of Mut in Asher</i>, 1899.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Naville, <i>The Old Egyptian Faith</i>, translated by Colin Campbell, +1909.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Colin Campbell, <i>Two Theban Queens</i>, 1909. A study of the +inscriptions in two royal tombs.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap10"></a><br><a name="p159"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>PART III</h2> +<h3>THE SEMITIC GROUP</h3> +<br><a name="p161"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER X</h4> +<center>THE SEMITIC RELIGION</center> +<br> + +<p>As used by the modern scholar, the term Semites or Semitic races +includes the Arabs, the Hebrews, the Canaanites and Phenicians, the +Syrians or Arameans, the Babylonians and the Assyrians. This +enumeration differs from that of the tenth chapter of Genesis, where +the children of Shem include Elam, or the dwellers in Susiana, and +Lud or the Lydians, while the tribes who dwelt in Canaan before the +Hebrews are placed in another and a lower division of the human +family. The principle of the enumeration in Genesis is probably that +of geographical neighbourhood; the modern principle is that of +linguistic affinity. The peoples mentioned above spoke, or still +speak, languages which belong to the same family of human speech. The +inference from affinity of language to affinity of blood is in this +case a strong one, so that the peoples using the Semitic tongues are +considered to be of the same race. To the question, where the cradle +of the Semitic race is to be sought, most scholars now answer that we +must seek it in Arabia. From this isolated land the Semitic +dispersion spread in every direction, till Semitic language and +customs filled the earth from the south of Arabia to the north of +Syria, and from the mountains of Iran to the Mediterranean, and far +along the northern shores of Africa; of Babylonia and Assyria, where +Semitic culture and religion assumed at the dawn of human history a +very special and peculiar <a name="p162"></a>form, we have already spoken. We have now +to speak of Semitic religion as found in the lands bordering on the +eastern Mediterranean in a more original form. The Semitic peoples +outside of Babylonia founded no lasting empires, and showed no great +aptitude for art or for literary style; but, in point of religion, +they communicated to the world impulses of immeasurable force, which +will act powerfully on the world as long as the Prophet is named or +Christ preached.</p> + +<p>It is possible to define to a certain extent the typical religion of +the Semites. The Burnett lectures of the late lamented Professor +Robertson Smith<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> profess to do this; a book in which great learning +and bold speculation are remarkably combined, and which forms one of +the most important contributions to the early history, not of Semitic +religion only, but of early religion in general. The writer was +keenly interested in the study of prehistoric man and of primitive +institutions, and much of his book refers to an earlier period in the +growth of religion than that of the formation of the Semitic type. On +the question of the specific character of Semitic as distinguished +from other religions, it is one of our principal authorities.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Lectures on the Religion of the Semites</i>. First Series. +The Fundamental Institutions, 1889.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The Semitic races differ from the Indo-European, with whom alone we +need compare them, in their greater intensity of disposition and a +corresponding poverty of imagination. The Semite has a smaller range +of ideas, but he applies them more practically and more thoroughly. +He has, indeed, an intensely practical turn, and does not touch +philosophy except under an irresistible pressure of great practical +ideas; while for plastic art he has no native inclination. From this +it follows that the religious views he entertains appear to him less +as ideas than as facts, which must be reckoned with to their full +extent as other common facts of life must, and from which there <a name="p163"></a>is no +escape. His religious convictions, therefore, are apt to be carried +out to their utmost extent, even at the cost of great and painful +sacrifices. Religion admits with the Semite of less compromise, and +is less affected by fancy, than with the Aryan; it is, in fact, a +more practical matter. The result proves to be that the Semitic mind +brings religious ideas to bear on life and conduct with the greatest +possible force; the substance is more, the form less, than is the +case elsewhere.</p> + +<p>When we ask for the common type of working Semitic religion, where +are we to look for it? Not in Babylonia; the characteristic +Babylonian religion is Semitic, but late Semitic; it has received the +impress of high civilisation and of empire. Nor need we look for it +in the town life of Phenicia. It is in the seclusion of the Arabian +peninsula that we find it, in the district, as we saw, now regarded +as the cradle of the Semitic race, where life continues to this day +little changed from what it was before the days of Abraham. There the +type of society still exists with which scholars like Wellhausen and +Smith consider the earliest Semitic religion to be connected. It is a +society of nomad clans, which own no allegiance to any central +authority, which have no king and do not yet form a nation. This is a +stage of social growth which in every ancient people precedes the +rise of the nation and of monarchy. The Hebrews are rising out of +this stage when we first see them. Their neighbours the Moabites and +Canaanites have already passed beyond it. But all these peoples alike +have their root in a state of society when there was no large and +orderly community, but only a multitude of small and restless tribes, +when there was no written law, but only custom, and when there was no +central authority to execute justice, but it was left to a man's +fellow-clansmen to avenge his murder.</p> + +<p>Now the religion of the clan, the ideas of which determine the +character of later Semitic systems, may <a name="p164"></a>be briefly described as +follows. Each clan has its own god, perhaps he was originally an +animal, at any rate he is the father or ancestor of the clan, he is +of the same blood with them, he belongs to them and to no other clan. +So far the assertion that the Semites are naturally monotheists is +true; but the same is true of all totemistic or clannish communities. +A man is born into a community with such a divine head, and the +worship of that god is the only one possible to him. Should he be +expelled from his clan he is driven away from his god, and he cannot +obtain access into another clan except by a formal adoption as a +stranger client. The link, on the other hand between the god and his +clansmen is of the strongest. He joins in all their enterprises, +after being consulted on the subject, and having a sacrifice offered +to him, which renews the union of the clansmen to him and to each +other. Their wars are his wars; when any of them is injured or slain +he joins in their necessary acts of retaliation; it is a religious +duty for each of them to be faithful to the others, and to keep up +the tribal customs, of which the god approves.</p> + +<p>Thus the Semites have as many gods as they have clans; and these gods +do not greatly differ from each other. As long, moreover, as the +clans are at constant feud, no single god can grow very great. It is +only when one clan conquers others, that a king-god can arise to rule +over all alike as a monarch rules over his nobles and their +provinces. But in this type of deity the genius of Semitic religion +is already expressed. The god of the Semite is not a nature-power who +bears the same aspect to all men, but a member of a particular clan, +a person to whom the clansman occupies the same position of natural +subordination as he does to his father or his chief. The god takes +his name not from a part of nature but from a human relationship. He +is "Baal," master or owner, he is "Adon," lord; in later +circumstances he is "Melech," king. "El," mighty one, <a name="p165"></a>hero, is a more +generic term; like our "God," it is applied to any divine being. +These deities, it will be noticed, are all masculine; but it is not +to be supposed that the Semites had no goddesses. Not to speak of the +goddesses of Babylonia, mere doubles of the gods whose names they +bore (<a href="#p98">see above</a>), the earliest Semites are believed by several great +scholars to have had a goddess but no god. The matriarchal state of +society, in which the mother alone ruled the family, came before the +patriarchal, and so the reign of the goddess came before that of the +god. Each community has its own Al-lat, "The Lady," as she is called +in Arabia, a strict and exacting lady, not to be confounded with the +licentious goddesses of later times; and in all Semitic lands traces +of her early prevalence are found.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> As the male god came to the +front, the female became a less definite figure, till she was +generally a mere counterpart of the male god, with little character +of her own. With gods of this type there is little scope for +mythology. The history of the god is that of the tribe; the gods are +too little independent of their human clients to form a society by +themselves, or to give rise to stories about their doings.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> See Robertson Smith's <i>Kinship and Marriage in Early +Arabia</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>This is one side of the natural history of the Semitic gods; but that +history has another side. The lands in which the Semites dwelt were +full from the first of sacred spots; and we have to notice that the +god of a clan is also the god of a certain piece of earth where he is +supposed to dwell, which is regarded as his property, and the +fertility of which is ascribed to his beneficence. In the Bible we +read of sacred trees, of sacred wells, of sacred stones or mounds, +and of stones or pillars which were connected with sacrifice. In +various Semitic lands there are also sacred streams and sacred caves. +The Semites in fact had their share of the inheritance the whole +world has derived from the earliest times, of prehistoric religious +sites and objects. A spirit spoke <a name="p166"></a>in the rustling of the branches of +the tree, counsel could be procured at the spring; wherever there +appeared to be something mysterious in nature, a spirit was believed +to dwell; and especially in woods and fertile spots, where wild +beasts originally had their lair, a spirit was thought to reside, +which was approached with fear. Many of these superstitions the +various branches of the Semites long continued to hold;<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> but the +race superseded in the main this world of spirits by a set of gods, +and the magic addressed to spirits by religious observances addressed +to gods. The genius or jinn haunting the thicket, who had no regular +worshippers, but was an object of fear to all, and had to be +propitiated or controlled by mysterious arts, gave way to the god of +a clan, who took up his residence there, and received the regular +worship of his clansmen; the stone became the symbol of a deity who +had been asked and had consented to become identified with it for the +purpose of the stated rites of the clan. In this way the clan gods +became localised as the clans tended to acquire fixed settlements, +and each sacred spot was occupied by the deity of the clan who dwelt +around it. The view was held that each god was to be found at the +spot where, on some marked occasion, he had given evidence of his +power, and he who wished to enquire of that god had to go there. It +might happen that the god manifested his power at another spot to one +of his dependents on a journey, as Jehovah did to Jacob at Bethel +(Genesis xxviii.). Then that spot also was recognised as a holy one +where communication could be had with the deity, and the apparatus of +worship was erected there so that the intercourse might be suitably +carried on, as Jacob is reported to have done. In time also it came +to be thought that each god had his land which belonged to him, on +which alone his worship was possible, and so <a name="p167"></a>the earth was parcelled +out among a number of deities; and Naaman, who wishes to worship +Jehovah in his Syrian home, carries off two mules' burden of +Jehovah's soil, to make in the midst of Syria a little piece of the +land of the God of Israel (2 Kings v.).</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> The late Professor Ives Curtius in a paper read to the +Basel Congress (1905, <i>Verhandlungen</i>, p. 154), on "Traces of Early +Semitic Religion in Syria," gives details of local sanctuaries still +resorted to in that country.</small></blockquote> + +<p>One circumstance remains to be mentioned which constitutes a marked +difference between the Semitic and the Aryan religions. Aryan +religion has its centre in the household; the hearth is its altar, +and the gods of the domestic cult are the departed ancestors of the +family. Semitic religion is without this cult; the hearth is not an +altar; the religious community is not the family but the clan. The +worship of ancestors, if, as there is reason to believe, it had once +been practised by the Semites (the Arabs tied a camel to the grave of +the dead chief), lost at a very early period all practical +importance. While the early Semites believed in the continued +existence of the departed, they thought of them as beings quite +destitute of energy, as "shades laid in the ground," and did not +worship them. The other world occupied, therefore, a very small space +in Semitic thought. Religion confined itself to this life; after +death, it was held, even religion came to an end. A man must enjoy +the society of his god in this life; after death he could take part +in no sacrifice, and could render to his god no thanks nor service.</p> + +<p>From what has been said the character of sacrifice among the Semites +is readily understood. Sacrifice is not domestic but takes place at +the spot where the god is thought to reside, or where the symbol +stands which represents him. Usually this was an upright monolith, +such as is found in every part of the world, and the central act of +the sacrifice consisted in applying the blood of the new-slain victim +to this stone. The blood was thus brought near to the god, the +clansmen also may have touched the blood at the same time; and the +act meant that the god and the tribesmen, all coming into contact +with the blood, which originally <a name="p168"></a>perhaps was that of the animal totem +of the clan, declared that they were of the same blood, and renewed +the bond which connected them with each other. A further feature of +early Semitic sacrifice is also that the slaughter and the blood +ceremony are succeeded by a banquet, at which the god is thought to +sit at table with his clients, his share being exposed for him on the +stone or altar. When he came to be believed to dwell aloft, his share +was burned with fire so that the smell or finer essence of it might +ascend to him. Many examples may be collected in the early historical +books of the Old Testament of sacrifices which are at the same time +social and festive occasions; in fact, in early Israel every act of +slaughter was a sacrifice, and every sacrifice a banquet. The people +dance and make merry before their god, of whose favour they have just +become assured once more by the act of communion they have observed. +The undertaking they have on hand is hallowed by his approval, so +that they can boldly advance to it; the corporate spirit of the tribe +is quickened by renewed contact with its head; all thoughts of care +are far away; the religious act makes the worshippers simply and +unaffectedly happy, if it does not even fill them with an orgiastic +ecstasy.</p> + +<p>This careless happiness, in connection with religious acts, is found +also in Babylonian sacrifice. It is not, however, peculiar to the +Semites, but is characteristic of the religion of the early world in +general. Nor is it peculiar to this race that religion does not +address the individual as such, but only as a member of his tribe, +and that it provides small comfort for private sorrows or longings. +The sad face is out of place in the presence of the god. Religion is +essentially a happy thing; sin is not yet thought of, and if things +go wrong, the tribe never entertains any doubt but that with proper +sacrifices and promises the god will show them his favour again and +renew their prosperity. All this is not specially Semitic, but simply +early religion. <a name="p169"></a>What is specially Semitic is, to repeat that with +which we set out, that gods are worshipped whose relations to their +worshippers are borrowed from existing forms of society. The god is +the father or the master or the champion, of the circle of +worshippers; he is of their kindred, he is their greatest and +strongest clansman, he belongs to them and to none but them. This, +whether it is derived—as Professor Robertson Smith thinks—from the +ideas of totemism or not, leads to a religion which is exclusive and +intense, and cannot be trifled with. The god who is a man's master, +and the head of his clan, stands in a more imperative position +towards him than the god of the sky, or than a departed ancestor. He +does not change with the seasons or the weather, nor is there any +doubt as to his intentions and demands. Semitic religion, even at +this stage, is a very real thing, and may easily, in favouring +circumstances, become a force of overmastering energy.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>Hommel, <i>Die Semitischen Völker und Sprachen</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>"Semites," by M<small><small><sup>c</sup></small></small>Curdy, in Hastings' <i>Bible Dictionary</i>, vol. v.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Cumont, <i>Les Religions orientales dans la Paganisme Romain</i>, 1907.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap11"></a><br><a name="p170"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XI</h4> +<center>CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS</center> +<br> + +<p>When the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan and settled in +Palestine, they found that country inhabited by a race of men who +spoke the same language as themselves, and who were much further +advanced than they in civilisation. The letters of El-Amarna which +belong to this period show Syria to have been full of small +theocratic states, all pervaded, though now under the power of Egypt, +by Babylonian culture, each with a god and a settled worship of its +own. The Israelites of a later time regarded the Canaanites with such +disdain that they reckoned them (Genesis x. 6, 15) as belonging to an +inferior race; but the two peoples belonged to the same race, and had +many common ideas and practices. In religion they resembled each +other, or Israel could never have been tempted so strongly, and for +so long a period, to adopt the rites of the people they conquered.</p> + +<p>The Israelites were not the only people who invaded the land of the +Canaanites and stayed in it. Three such invasions took place: those +of the Phenicians, of the Philistines, and of the Hebrews—the first +and third being Semitic peoples, and perhaps the second also. The +Philistines, settling on the south-eastern corner of the +Mediterranean, had a Semitic religion, of which the fish-god Dagon, +the Fly-Baal of Ekron, and the Ashtoreth, probably of Ascalon, are +known figures. The Philistines, however, lost ultimately their +separate <a name="p171"></a>character, and ceased to exist as an independent people. It +will not be necessary for us to mention them again. The Phenicians, +settling on the northern sea-board of Syria, where great trade routes +to East and West converged, and where good harbours could be made, +became a nation of merchants, and kept up active communication with +the great kingdoms of the East, with Egypt, and with the islands and +the distant shores of Western Europe. The carriers of the ancient +world, they transmitted to Europe not only the spices and the fabrics +but also the ideas and the practices of Asia, and rendered to the +world the inestimable service of awaking the slumbering energies of +the Aryan peoples to new life.</p> + +<p>A short chapter may be devoted to the religion of the Canaanites and +to that of the Phenicians, not because these were important in +themselves, for in neither was there anything original or anything +destined to survive, but because of the light they throw on other +religions which were to have a great career. It was in conflict with +the Canaanite religion that the faith of Israel first realised its +true nature and was led to organise itself in a manner befitting its +character. And from Phenicia both Israel and Greece accepted many a +suggestion, both in external matters connected with worship and in +matters of a deeper nature.</p> + +<p><b>The religion of the Canaanites</b> is well known to us from the Old +Testament. It is such a system as we found that of the Semites to be, +with certain peculiar developments, of which we have already seen +something in our chapter on Babylonia. A local community recognises +an invisible head, with whom it meets at the sacred spot, whom it +regards as overlord or master, of whose favour it is in no doubt, and +whom it serves with sacrifices and with lively manifestations of joy +at certain fixed periods. The god is called <b>Baal</b>. This, however, is +not a proper name but a title; it means lord, master, and the Baal +may have a name of his <a name="p172"></a>own in addition: we hear of Baal Peor, the +lord of Peor, and of many another. Baals are spoken of in the plural; +we read in Judges ii. 11 and in other passages that the Israelites +followed the Baals, that is the gods of the Canaanites. Each place +has its own Baal, who is worshipped at the local sanctuary. The +sanctuary is at an elevated spot outside the town or village, either +on a natural eminence or on a mound artificially made for the +purpose; these are the "high places" of the Old Testament; originally +Canaanite places of worship, they drew to themselves also the worship +of Israel. The apparatus of worship at these shrines is of a very +simple nature. An upright stone represents the god; it is not a +statue of him, being unhewn and having no resemblance to the human +figure. He was supposed to come to the stone when meeting with his +worshippers; and in the earliest times of Semitic religion this stone +served the purpose of an altar: the gifts, which were not originally +burned, were laid upon it, or the blood of the victim was applied to +it. But besides the altar and the upright stone or <i>massebah</i> the +Canaanite shrine had another piece of furniture. A massive +tree-trunk, fixed in the ground and with some of its branches perhaps +still remaining, represented the female deity who is the invariable +companion of the Baal. This is the <b>Ashera</b> of Canaan, a word which in +the Authorised Version is translated "grove," after an error of the +Vulgate, but which in the Revised Version is rightly left +untranslated. (Judges iii. 7, vi. 25; 2 Kings xxiii. 6, there is one +in the Temple at Jerusalem; etc.) The word Ashera is in such passages +the designation of the tree which stood to represent the goddess; +whether it is ever the proper name of the goddess herself is +doubtful. At any rate Ashera, like Baal, is not the name of one +historic deity, but a name applied to the goddess of each place all +over the country.</p> + +<p>The character of Canaanite religion is clearly <a name="p173"></a>revealed in its +apparatus of worship. We saw that the Babylonians added to many of +the gods of their country a female counterpart, turning the name of +the god into a feminine form (<a href="#p98">see above</a>, and <a href="#p165">also</a>). In Canaan we find +that Semitic worship is addressed to pairs of deities; there is a god +and a goddess at each shrine. While it would be wrong to regard this +as the general type of Semitic religion,—our chapter on that subject +points to a different conclusion, and the great gods of Phenicia, of +Moab, and of Israel are solitary beings,—we must recognise that the +worship of god and goddess was widespread in Semitic peoples. In +Canaan it is not difficult to understand it. We have here the worship +of an agricultural community; and as the Baal is the lord of the soil +and the author of its fertility, who is entitled to receive the +first-fruits, so the Ashera is the fertile matron who represents the +principle of increase. The Old Testament leaves us in no doubt as to +the kind of worship which was carried on at these shrines. The +festivals were those of the farmer's calendar; the Baal is presented +with the first-fruits of corn and wine and oil, in the midst of +general feasting and boisterous merry-making. His consort, on the +other hand, is served with rites applying in the most direct manner +the principle she represents. The shrine has a staff of female +attendants for this part of the service of religion. The rustic +worship of Palestine thus shows us a side of the religion of Western +Asia which we know from other sources to have been widely diffused. A +female deity like the Babylonian Ishtar (<a href="#p102">see above</a>), is served with +impure rites in great cities as well as in country districts, and her +worship spread westwards with other Eastern products. She is found as +Baalit, as Mylitta,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> as Astarte; the Greeks call her Aphrodite, and +her horrid worship found entrance in various Greek cities.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Herod. i. 199.</small></blockquote> + +<p>To the Israelites the worship of Canaan proved a <a name="p174"></a>great temptation +(Numbers xxv.), but they gradually rose above it. The <b>Phenicians</b> also +came to have gods of a much higher character, and of these also we +must speak. The Phenicians were not original in their religion any +more than in their art; their religion began with the ordinary +Semitic notions as these had been applied by the older population in +Syria, and they improved it by borrowing from various parts of the +world with which they trafficked. So various were their borrowings +that it is impossible to draw up a consistent system of their gods. +One town has one set of gods, another town another, and the same +deity wears different and even opposite characters in different +places. All that can be done is to single out a few features which we +can see to have been on the whole characteristic of Phenician +religion, and to have enabled it to influence the worship of other +peoples.</p> + +<p>The Phenicians were very much in earnest about the maintenance of +state and of religion. In their successive city-states of Sidon, +Tyre, and Carthage, we see them exhibiting an intense devotion to the +commonwealth, and very much under the influence of their priesthood. +Semitic religion tends to grow more sombre and intense as it +develops; and the Phenicians, while still holding the principle of a +god and goddess, concentrate their worship more and more on a single +divine figure, and come to regard that figure from a greater distance +and with greater awe. The liberal and easy-going Baals and Asheras of +agricultural life are not suited to the temple of a great commercial +city; a figure of more dignity is wanted. And thus above the crowd of +Baals there appears the <b>Moloch</b> or king, a much greater being and +requiring a much statelier service. Moloch also is not originally a +proper name; there are various Molochs or king-gods who rise above +the Baals, and the individuals have special designations, as +Melcarth, "king of the city." This type of deity occurs not <a name="p175"></a>with the +Phenicians only, but with several other Syrian peoples about the same +time. The Moloch of Sidon and Tyre is a being of the same character +as the chief gods of Moab, Ammon, and Israel. He has to do not only +with the blessings of agricultural life, but with state and +government. He is the founder of a state; he is the inventor of +navigation and of purple; he is the first king; when a colony is sent +out, it goes with his approval, and he himself leads the expedition; +he is the dread ruler whom none must disobey; the majesty, the power, +and the enterprise of the state are all embodied in him. And as the +king-god is far above the landlord-god in power, he is infinitely +removed from him in character also. The chief gods of Sidon and Tyre +have nothing luxurious or effeminate about them. They are strict and +awful beings, and must not be incautiously approached. They retain +their primitive character as sources of life, but they are destroyers +of life as well. Pure and holy themselves, they require purity and +holiness in all who draw near to them. Their priests are celibates, +their priestesses virgins. They require sacrifices of a very +different nature from those of the Baals, more costly and more +dreadful. Human sacrifices appear to have been a regular feature of +their worship: when the Israelites turn to the worship of Phenician +gods, or when they copy Phenician practices, we hear of their "making +their children pass through the fire"—that is, offering them up as +burnt-sacrifices. The Moloch requires what is most costly as a +sacrifice, or what will cause the strongest thrill of terror in his +worship. Even the first-born child is not to be kept back from him (2 +Kings xxiii. 10, Jerem. vii. 31, cf. Micah vi. 7).</p> + +<p>So far the origin of the Phenician gods is simple. They are purely +Semitic deities, formed on the pattern of human rulers and deriving +their attributes from that character. When a state becomes highly +organised <a name="p176"></a>before it is quite civilised in other respects, its +religion is apt to be stern and cruel; of this various instances may +be found in the history of religion, and the present is one of them. +The Phenician gods were of such a character as to favour the survival +of savage practices; the Semite, as we saw, is extremely +matter-of-fact and practical in his religion, and a god who was a +king would receive the same kind of offerings as the king of Sidon or +of Tyre was accustomed to. A strict and dreadful religion thus +survives beyond the savage state; pleasure is taken in trampling on +natural feelings and in setting forth shocking spectacles at the +bidding of the deity.</p> + +<p><b>Astral Deities of Phenicia.</b>—It is not possible to arrange in a +system the remaining phenomena of Phenician religion. In the +historical period the gods have another character besides that of +being heads and rulers of communities. They are connected with the +heavenly bodies. The chief god, whatever name he bears, El, Baal, +Moloch, Rimmon, or Adonis, is always the sun. A sun-god may have come +from Egypt or Babylon, but there is no reason why the Phenicians may +not have had a sun-god from the first, whose character spread to +their other deities. And in accordance with the tendency above spoken +of, the sun-god has a consort. Sometimes his consort is the earth; +and then we have a sensuous and immoral worship such as that of the +Canaanites. Sometimes it is the moon; her name is Astarte or +Ashtoreth, and she is a very different being from the Ashera of +Canaan; the names are not the same, and the characters are opposite. +Ashtoreth, like the primitive Semitic goddess (<a href="#p165">see above</a>), is a chaste +matron; she is represented robed and in stately attitude, and is a +fit companion for the strict Moloch of the cities. Her worship is +described to us by Jeremiah, in whose time the matrons of Jerusalem +made cakes for her and poured out drink-offerings and burned incense +to her as the "queen of <a name="p177"></a>heaven"; all this was done with the knowledge +and co-operation of their husbands, so that the worship had nothing +immoral about it. This strict goddess is not to be identified with +Istar of Babylonia, although the names are alike. Istar is not a +moon-goddess like Ashtoreth; in Babylonia, in fact, the moon is +masculine, and the characters of the two goddesses are opposite. The +Sidonian Astarte and the Canaanite Ashera represent two opposing +types of female deity, both of which may possibly have their +reflections in Greece—the latter in the lower forms of the worship +of Aphrodite, and the former in the figures of such strict maiden +goddesses as Artemis and Athene.</p> + +<p>Another worship which prevailed in Phenicia should not be left +unnoticed—that of the <b>Cabiri</b>. There were temples of the Cabiri in +several of the towns; their worship, however, was secret, and little +was known of it even in antiquity. We know at all events that the +Cabiri were seven in number, and the number is thought to be +connected, not with the seven planets, but with the seven heavenly +spheres of early astronomy. They have a head called Eshmun, who is +the god of the eighth or highest sphere. The Cabiri are beings of a +moral character; they are not only mighty ones and creators, but they +are the children of Sydyk—that is, of Righteousness; and they give +counsel. It is here that the tendency to speculative exaltation of +the deity appears in Phenicia; but there is little of it, and neither +in this direction nor in that of morals was the religion destined to +have any remarkable growth. The service of the gods was so closely +identified with the service of the state,—for either the priest and +the king were one, as in Israel after the exile, or nothing could be +done without the priesthood,—that no independent religious +development was possible. In a theocracy religion cannot grow, at +least it cannot be openly acknowledged to do so; and the prophet and +reformer finds every influence arrayed against him.</p> +<a name="p178"></a> +<p>How greatly Israel was indebted to <b>Phenician art</b> is known to all. It +was by artificers from Tyre that Solomon's royal buildings were +planned and executed, when he had married a daughter of Egypt and was +compelled to aim at some magnificence. A royal temple formed part of +these buildings, and was necessarily erected according to the ideas +which prevailed in the more advanced neighbouring kingdoms. It was +from the same source that the Greeks a century or two later drew +suggestions for their sacred architecture; and thus we find that the +ground-plan of Solomon's temple and that of the Greek temple are +closely similar. Both are to be traced ultimately to the model +derived by the Phenicians from Egypt. And those who borrowed from +Phenicia the form of their temple, borrowed many other things too. In +the porch of Solomon's temple stood two great pillars of bronze, +which were called Jachin and Boaz; they were simply the symbols which +stood at the entrance to every Phenician temple of the sun-god +worshipped there. The priests of Israel were dressed like those of +Tyre and Sidon; they offered the same animals as sacrifices, they +received the same dues for their maintenance. When so much apparatus +was borrowed, it is no wonder that the gods of Phenicia were at times +worshipped at Jerusalem. We see from this whole chapter that the +religion of Israel was not so much apart from that of the other +Syrian peoples as we have been wont to imagine. Even in his religion +Israel owed something to his neighbours; his religion came to be +better than theirs, but it was the result of a movement in which they +also had taken part.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>The Histories of Antiquity. E. Meyer, Duncker (see p. 101).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Tiele's <i>Egyptische en Mesopotamische Godsdiensten</i>. Book II.: +Phenicia and Israel.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>The Histories of Israel, especially Kuenen, <i>The Religion of Israel</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>F. Jeremias, in De la Saussaye, vol. i. pp. 348-383.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. Meyer, "Phenicia," in <i>Encyclopĉdia Biblica</i>.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap12"></a><br><a name="p179"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XII</h4> +<center>ISRAEL</center> +<br> + +<p>It is a circumstance of the greatest value for the science of +religion that the Old Testament is so well known. That book is the +most valuable literary storehouse we possess of the facts and ideas +connected with the early religion of mankind; it is the best +text-book of the earlier portion of our subject. In our chapters on +primitive worship, as well as in that on the Semites, we have drawn +largely from this source, and for the earlier stages of the religion +of Israel we may refer to these chapters. We have now, however, to +deal specially with the religion of the Old Testament, and to +endeavour to show, as has been done in other cases, what was its +specific character, and how its character determined its history. The +story to be told in this chapter is, even apart from our special +interest in it, as fascinating as any in this volume; it was through +a mental movement of unparalleled grandeur, as well as through an +outward history of tragic and entrancing interest, that the Jews came +to possess the religion which was the desire of all nations, and the +chief preparation for Christianity.</p> + +<p>We have to begin, however, with repeating in this case what has been +and will be the burden of our opening paragraphs in many chapters of +this book, namely that the traditional ideas about the nature of this +religion require to be corrected, and that its sacred <a name="p180"></a>books as they +now stand do not accurately represent its history. The Old Testament +literature has suffered in a high degree what seems to be the +predestined fate of every set of sacred books. Old materials and new +are mixed up together in it; many works have been revised by later +editors, and so much changed, that laborious critical processes are +necessary before they can be used by the historian. In forming his +first impressions as to the relations the books bear to each other, +and as to the purport of the whole, the reader is naturally guided by +the order in which he finds them; but the order in which the sacred +books of the Jews stand in the Old Testament was fixed from a +peculiar point of view at a late age in Jewish history, and is in +many respects quite unnatural and misleading. To come to particulars; +the Old Testament as it stands suggests that the Law was the earliest +product of Jewish literature, and that all the details of ritual, as +well as of moral and social duty, were fixed for the Jews at the very +outset of their history; and it suggests that the books of the +prophets were written last. This, till quite recently, was generally +believed to be the case, but by the labours of a series of +illustrious scholars of the Old Testament the conclusion has been +reached, which is now less and less disputed, that the earlier +prophetic books come first in chronological order, and that the law, +which is not all of one piece, but contains a number of codes of +different periods, together with a collection of legends and +traditions drawn from various quarters and subjected to editorial +treatment, did not assume the form in which we have it till after the +exile. The historical books, in which no doubt various ancient pieces +are embodied, were written under the inspiration of prophetic ideas; +and the latest books of all are those which stand in the centre of +the Old Testament in the English Bible; the Psalter, which had been +growing during a long period before it came to contain its present +number of pieces, the books of <a name="p181"></a>morals and philosophy, and the book of +Job. Daniel belongs to the period of the Maccabees. The historian, +therefore, starts from the age of the prophets of the eighth century +<small>B.C.</small> The writings of these great men afford a graphic picture of +their time, and an entirely trustworthy account of the mental +furniture Israel then possessed. From this fixed point the student is +able to infer what happened to Israel in earlier times, and to judge +of the spirit in which the early history of the people was afterwards +written and edited. The history of Israel which the student arrives +at after these critical processes differs, it is true, in very +important respects from that which appears at first sight on the face +of the Bible. But the same thing has occurred in the case of other +nations. The sacred books of Persia also have to be turned outside in +before they furnish the historian with an account he can accept. Even +of the speeches of Mohammed the same is true. Those who undertake the +task of codifying sacred literatures have to consider the purpose to +which the books are to be put in the community, and to arrange them +so as best to serve that purpose; they do not ask, How must they be +arranged so as to exhibit the true sequence of the history?—that +interest only arises much later—but, How will they best serve the +needs of the community? The order of books in sacred collections is, +therefore, fixed by practical considerations, now of one kind and now +of another, and not according to the requirements of the student of +history. We now proceed to give the outline of the history of the +religion of Israel as it appears in the light of recent critical +investigation.</p> + +<p>Israel consisted originally of a group of tribes, bound together by +the memory of a great deliverance they had experienced in common, and +of battles in which they had fought side by side. Accustomed to the +free life of shepherds, they had been enslaved in Egypt and held to +intolerable tasks; but they had made their escape in a wonderful +manner under a leader who <a name="p182"></a>had known how to kindle them to heroic +efforts by reminding them of their religious traditions. Under his +leadership they had visited the Sinaitic peninsula after leaving +Egypt, and had wandered in the regions to the north of Sinai, till at +last they conquered territory to the east of Jordan, on which some of +them settled, while others crossed the Jordan, and took up their +abodes among the Canaanite tribes whom they found there.</p> + +<p>The nation and the religion came into the world at the same time. +Although the tribes retained their separate gods and religious +observances, and families among them also had their own family cults, +the bond by which they had been formed into a people and made capable +of common action was stronger than these earlier ties; the God whom +Moses proclaimed as their head inspired in them an enthusiasm and +vigour unknown before. His name was Yahweh, and is said to have a +metaphysical meaning, and to designate the god as more really +existing than any other. This is doubted; what is certain is that +Moses declared that Yahweh promised to be with the tribes, and that +they took him for their God. Jehovah, to use the more familiar form +of the name, was perhaps the God of the most powerful of the tribes; +he was probably a nature-god, and connected with storms and thunder, +and he had his seat at Mount Sinai. Thither the tribes repaired to +hold a solemn meeting with him; from there he was afterwards +represented as coming forth when about to do any mighty act for his +people. He is thought of as a being who cannot be seen, since he +dwells in clouds and darkness. He utters his voice in thunder and +storm; he is possessed of irresistible energy which he unfolds in +battle, and in which he causes his people to share when he goes +before them to war. But he is also a god of counsel, and takes the +greatest interest in the moral and social life of his people. His +human representatives, aided by his spirit, settle disputes which are +laid before them, and pronounce authoritative counsels on difficult +<a name="p183"></a>matters. This kind of guidance is constantly going on, so that +Jehovah is felt to be watching over the conduct of his people, and to +be an effective helper and guide in their domestic concerns, which +not every god attends to, as well as in their meetings with their +enemies.</p> + +<p><b>The Early Ritual was Simple.</b>—In all this we have a very apt example +of the advance which, as we saw in a former chapter, religion makes +when it becomes national instead of merely tribal; when the great god +of the nation takes his place above the gods of the tribes. In +Israel, however, it is not the case that the national religion, when +it appears, at once develops a higher style of worship, and draws +attention to itself by greater pomp and deeper solemnity of form. The +priestly legislation of Exodus and Leviticus, indeed, represents this +as having been the case. Here the tribes have scarcely adopted the +service of Jehovah, when an army of thousands of priests is called +into being, for whose maintenance elaborate provision is made, and a +splendid and highly-organised worship is arranged. This directory of +worship, however, most scholars are agreed, never was in operation +till after the exile: we see in it the worship which Ezra and his +fellow-scribes aimed at introducing in the second temple at +Jerusalem. The worship of the wilderness and of the early period of +Israel in Canaan was of a very different nature. The leading features +and principles of it differed little from what we have described in +former parts of this book (<a href="#p69">see above</a> <i>sqq.</i>, and <a href="#p168">also</a>). It was conducted +according to custom rather than statute, and its leading +characteristic was that it was a common meal at which the god was +present along with his worshippers, and assurances were given that +the good understanding still continued which bound the tribesmen to +their god and each other. It was by the person of his god rather than +by a more elaborate worship, or a more numerous priesthood, that +Israel was distinguished from Moab and Ammon.</p> +<a name="p184"></a> +<p><b>Contact with Canaanite Religion.</b>—After being delivered out of Egypt +by the power of Jehovah, and entering Canaan, Israel was placed in a +position in which it is wonderful, indeed, that the national +character and the national religion were not merged in those of the +surrounding population. Bringing with them the few ideas and the +scanty appliances of the wilderness, they found themselves dwelling +amid a people whose civilisation was fully formed, and who possessed +a comparatively elaborate worship. The tribes of Canaan spoke the +same language, and were of the same race with themselves, but had +advanced to the higher life of agriculture and of cities. Their +worship was the same in principle as that of Israel, but it had a +higher organisation. The land was studded with sacred places, the +sanctity of which Israel could not deny, and which formed centres of +pilgrimage and worship. The worship of the Canaanites was described +in last chapter (<a href="#p171">see above</a>); the reader will remember the upright +stone (masseba) representing the Baal, and the tree-trunk (ashera), +if there was no living tree, representing the goddess. If all this or +most of it was new to the Israelites, so was the sacred year which +fixed the seasons of worship in Canaan. Minor festivals were fixed by +the appearance of the new moon, or by the regular return of the +seventh day (it is doubtful if the Sabbath was observed in the +wilderness, it is connected with agriculture, and is scarcely +compatible with pastoral life); greater ones by the epochs of the +year, such as harvest and vintage. The worship connected with +agriculture in the early world is of a noisy and frantic order; and +where gods are worshipped who are connected with fertility, it is +apt, as we saw, to be marked by sexual features.</p> + +<p><b>Danger of Fusion.</b>—The Israelites were naturally prompted to adopt +what they could of the religion of the Canaanites. The old sacred +places of the land, whether connected with their own ancestral +traditions <a name="p185"></a>or not, they could not help adopting; it would have been +strange, indeed, if, when they became agriculturists, they had not +adopted the agricultural festivals; and if, as was natural, they +regarded the Baal of the Canaanite as the lord of the land and the +giver of its fertility, their thanks for the harvest would be +addressed to him (Hosea ii. 8). Their worship of Jehovah could not be +left poorer than that which their neighbours addressed to Baal; for +it also they erected asheras and made use of standing stones, and of +Jehovah also they had images. One of these, which was destroyed by +Hezekiah, was in the form of a serpent: in other places Jehovah was +worshipped under the form of a bull. Where an image of him was kept, +he could be consulted by means of lots or in other ways. The ark or +chest which was kept at one of the more important shrines, +represented him most fully; it was carried into battle, and he was +thought to go with it.</p> + +<p><b>Religious Conflict.</b>—But the more developed worship thus paid to +Jehovah after the settlement in Canaan, as it had not grown out of +the religion of Jehovah, did not truly express its spirit, and was +felt by those who believed most thoroughly in the national god, to be +a wrong way of serving him. If, moreover, the Israelites, who lived +scattered and far apart from each other among the older inhabitants, +went so far in adopting Canaanite practices, there was a danger that +Israel would forget the faith which had made him a nation, and thus +part entirely with his character and nationality. A contest thus +arose, which continued during the whole of Israelite history down to +the exile, between the few who cared for Jehovah only, and desired to +see the principles of his religion carried out purely and without +reserve, and the many who, while also professing to follow Jehovah, +saw no harm in worshipping him as other gods were worshipped, or even +in addressing other gods as well as him. This struggle is represented +in the histories as if Israel had from time to time become <a name="p186"></a>entirely +apostate from its own faith. But it is clear that Israel never forgot +Jehovah so far as to be incapable of being called back to him. The +call was generally a call to war. The people, having forgotten the +true source of their strength, and so lost spirit and became a prey +to their enemies, were summoned by one in whom the spirit of Jehovah +was burning freshly, to follow him to battle against their enemies. +The spirit of Jehovah, thus applied anew to the hearts of his people, +did not fail of its effect. The wave of courage and of martial ardour +spread from place to place, from tribe to tribe, and soon an army +stood in the field which struck with the old vigour, and soon shook +off the yoke of the oppressor. Jehovah thus proved himself to be +Jehovah Sebaoth, <i>i.e.</i>, in the most probable rendering of the +phrase, the God of the armies of his people. A religion which proved +itself in this way could never cease to be a power in the heart of +the nation; even if the tribes, dispersing again after a victory, +soon seemed to lose touch of each other, and to be sinking deeper +than ever in the surrounding tide of Canaanite life, yet the faith, +which was associated with all the highest moments of their past +history, and was the secret of all their victories, could not die.</p> + +<p><b>The Monarchy.</b>—It was a great advance, however, in the history of the +religion of Israel, when the judges or heroes who appeared, at +distant intervals of time and in different parts of the country, to +summon Israel to fight for freedom in the name of Jehovah, were +succeeded by the monarchy. This was a step which those most zealous +for the national faith warmly approved, and, indeed, themselves +brought about; the monarchy was founded, in the case of the first two +kings, on religious enthusiasm. The religion of Jehovah at once +became the state religion, and a more satisfactory worship was formed +at the court. The permanent union of the tribes under the monarchy +soon showed Israel to be possessed of much greater force than could +have been imagined, <a name="p187"></a>and within a century the people of Jehovah formed +a considerable power, which was heard of in all ends of the earth. +Instead of a set of scattered tribes they were now a homogeneous +people, conscious of a great past and looking forward to a still +greater future. As they passed rapidly from barbarism to +civilisation, Jehovah shared their rise. His energy had always been +undoubted, but he now put on in addition all the settled attributes +of kingly power—he was a great god, and a great king, a just judge, +a liberal friend—all his doings were wonderful. He had chosen Israel +for his people, and by a series of mighty acts had guided and +preserved them, and made them great. His people stood in a peculiar +position in the world; with such a god they must rise higher still, +there could be no limit to what he could do for them.</p> + +<p><b>Religion not Centralised.</b>—We must not, however, suppose that the +rise of Jehovah to a great position, and the institution of his +worship at the court, made any great or sudden change in the +religious arrangements of the people at large. While the worship of +the monarch went on at Gibeon or at Jerusalem, the great shrines at +Bethel, at Dan, and at Beersheba were still frequented, and the +sacred places throughout the land remained in honour. Stories indeed +were told to show that they had been founded by the patriarchs for +the worship of their god, so that there need be no scruple in +frequenting them. The worship of Baal and that of Jehovah went on at +these places side by side, and neither could fail to be influenced by +the other. Sacrifice was guided by more than one principle: on the +one hand it was a common meal with the deity; and as Jehovah was +thought to have his dwelling in Heaven, his part of the banquet was +burned, so that it might ascend to him in the column of smoke. The +sacrifice of agriculturists, however, naturally turns to the idea of +presenting to the god, with joy and thankfulness, a part of the +gifts, or the first or best part of the gifts, which, as lord of the +<a name="p188"></a>soil, he has bestowed. The idea of propitiation or atonement does not +enter into the ordinary sacrifices at this time. Jehovah in his +sterner moods may demand more awful offerings. As we see from the +story of Abraham offering up Isaac, it was thought that Jehovah might +demand human sacrifice, and instances of such sacrifice actually +occur in the records. Jephthah dedicates his daughter; after a war +the best of the booty is offered to Jehovah, and Samuel hews Agag in +pieces before him. But such occurrences lie quite apart from ordinary +worship, which is of a joyful character and is accompanied by +merry-making of various kinds. No fixed ritual prevailed throughout +the country; the attempt to introduce uniformity came much later. +Every one knew how to sacrifice, as the stories of Manoah and of +Gideon show; it was by no means necessary that a priest should be +present. The functions of the priest indeed were often connected with +other matters than sacrifice, and might be of a humble description. +Eli with a few attendants was the guardian of the ark which was the +symbol of the presence of Jehovah. A young priest was engaged by +Micah for ten pieces of silver yearly to take charge of his +collection of idols. But the most important duty of the priesthood, +and that on which their influence mainly depended, was that of +consulting Jehovah and ascertaining his will. This was done by some +sacred object in the charge of the priest, and various objects are +named (Ephod and Teraphim are images of deities; Urim and Thummim are +the lots used on such occasions) which possessed this virtue. The +priest also acted as a judge in matters brought to him for decision, +and thus was in a position to form the unwritten law of the people, +and to set up principles of conduct which came in course of time to +be regarded as sacred. The priests' "torah" or law is the beginning +of the Jewish legislation, and we see from the humane and kindly +provisions of the earliest codes that this important function was +discharged in no unworthy way. <a name="p189"></a>It was thus that Jehovah acted as the +living lawgiver of his people, long before any written law existed. +With his character as a warrior, a mighty lord, and a giver of rich +gifts, he combines from the first that of one who watches over the +conduct of his people, checks their excesses, and is willing and able +to lead them on to better living. This fact will be of much +importance when the mind of the people expands and seeks to +understand more clearly his being and character.</p> + +<p><b>The Prophets.</b>—Israel, like other nations of antiquity, had, in +addition to the priests who were professionally connected with +religion, a class of men who were organs of the deity not on account +of their position but by a special personal gift. The inspiration of +Jehovah appeared in early times in somewhat crude forms. Bands of +fervid devotees were seen, who produced in themselves by dance and +song an ecstatic enthusiasm, in which they were thought to become the +organs of the deity. These men lived in societies or guilds, which +were found in Israel for several centuries. There were such prophets +of Baal as well as of Jehovah, so that the phenomenon is not +specifically Israelite. What we hear of them does not always give us +a lofty idea of their character. They are found practising magical +tricks, and when they prophesy they all say the same thing; sometimes +they are willing to prophesy what a king wishes to hear.</p> + +<p>The greater prophecy of Israel arose out of such beginnings as these. +Israel was accustomed to expect to hear the will of Jehovah declared +by a speaker of whom the spirit had laid hold, and among those who +came forward to meet this expectation there appeared from time to +time men of commanding insight and of great intensity of character. +The name "seer" indicates the nature of this kind of prophecy. The +seer is one to whom Jehovah communicates his intentions personally, +perhaps without any steps having been taken on his part to place +himself in the way of the god. He sees <a name="p190"></a>visions while awake and in his +ordinary frame of mind, he also hears what others do not hear; and +the vision and the message have reference to the future. Things are +intimated which are shortly to come to pass, and they are things +concerning the state or the monarchy: the fate of Israel is the +burden of the prophet's intimation. Samuel's seeing led him to +institute the monarchy under Saul. The prophet Abijah declared for +the division of the kingdom into two; and his prophecy was not vain. +Elijah foretold the downfall of the house of Omri, and Elisha saw to +the accomplishment of that prediction. The prophets we see were a +great power in public affairs, and were able in important crises to +determine the course of the nation's history. Often the prophet +stands quite alone, and in opposition to the court and apparently to +the nation, and yet his words have a tendency to get themselves +fulfilled; Jehovah's word does not return to him void. At other times +the prophet seems to have many sympathisers among the nation, and to +speak as the mouthpiece of the most earnest section of the community, +the section most devoted to Jehovah; and in these cases it is less +wonderful that his words come true. When, however, we speak of the +prophets as a whole, the expression is a loose one; the prophets are +not a party that always acts together, nor a school in which the +leader is always sure of a following. A great voice sounds, perhaps +once in a century or a half-century; and these voices represent the +true tradition of Israelite religion, and develop it further. In the +time of Elijah we notice that there is a puritan movement in Israel; +a number of men are agreed together in detestation of the foreign +worships which are practised at court, and are heartily agreed in +wishing to bring back the good old ways and the pure worship of +Jehovah only. And when Elijah speaks, he gives voice to this +tendency; he claims that everything should be determined by religion; +no considerations of state should for a moment stand in the <a name="p191"></a>way of +the pure faith of Jehovah, by which everything should be decided; and +whatever stands in the way of this policy is dedicated to +destruction. This, broadly speaking, is the keynote of Hebrew +prophecy.</p> + +<p>When we come to the canonical prophets, however, we feel that there +is a great deal more in their teaching than the bare demand that +everything must give way to the requirements of religion. A great +change has taken place in their world of thought. It is no less than +that a new god and a new religion have announced themselves in the +thinking of these men. They do not say so; they are not aware of it, +and yet it is so.</p> + +<p><b>The Old Religion National.</b>—The religion of Israel during the +monarchy is, in the full sense of the term, a national one. From a +cluster of tribes Israel has become a nation, and has begun to think +of itself as a unity. It has its national history, its national +rulers, as other nations have. In their nationality it cannot be +denied that the Israelites had much to be proud of; nor did their +rapid growth in wealth and power, which gave them several centuries +of prosperity, tend to lesson that pride. Now as they have their own +king, they have also their own god. Jehovah is the god of Israel; +Israel is the people of Jehovah, on this they were all agreed. That +Jehovah was their god did not prevent them from believing in the +existence of other gods: Chemosh was the god of Moab, a being not +very unlike Jehovah, the Baals were the old gods of Canaan. Jehovah, +of course, was the greatest and strongest, and an Israelite should +worship him, in Canaan at least; but there was no great harm if he +worshipped other gods too, when it came in his way to do so. He might +join in the worship of Baal in country places; and the king might, +without doing any harm, set up the images of the gods of his wives +beside the images of Jehovah in the capital, and if many of his +subjects joined in these other worships, it was but natural. In this +way a great variety of <a name="p192"></a>gods was in some reigns brought together from +different countries.</p> + +<p>Jehovah, however, was the special god of Israel, there could be no +doubt of that; Israel was specially pledged to him; and he on his +side was pledged to Israel, who was entitled to look to him for help +in every emergency. Jehovah had no other people; he was entirely +bound up with Israel, he must, if only for his own honour, come to +the aid of his own people when they needed him. He never could permit +Israel to suffer any fatal injury, such as deportation to a foreign +country. Religious faith forbade the thought that such a thing was +possible; if Israel was destroyed, where would Israel's religion be? +It was utter impiety, therefore, to doubt that Israel was safe, that +Jehovah watched over his own land and his own people, or that he +would guard them from any fatal harm. If, on the other hand, as was +too often the case, Israel had to submit to injury and insult from +other peoples, there could be no doubt that Jehovah took notice of +the fact, and that in due time he would set things right. It might be +some time before his attention was sufficiently directed to the case; +he might be waiting till more of the same kind of occurrences took +place before he finally interposed; but the time would come, the "Day +of the Lord" would arrive in due season, when the spoilers and +insulters of Israel would be dealt with according to their deserts, +and Israel set on high in full deliverance and peace.</p> + +<p><b>Criticism of the Old Religion by the Prophets.</b>—The prophets, +impressed more deeply than the people by the moral character of +Jehovah, and under the pressure of great national dangers and +calamities, attained to views of God and of his ways so different +from those current at the time as to appear, when first produced, +most unpatriotic and even impious. In their character of seers they +foresaw with clearness the terrible catastrophes which were about to +burst upon their people. Amos prophesies that Israel <a name="p193"></a>will be carried +away captive out of his land; Isaiah announces the same thing in the +southern kingdom, and declares that only a remnant shall return. +These men are in no doubt as to the impending political annihilation +of Israel, and they set themselves to find some reason for an +occurrence so portentous, so impossible to harmonise with ordinary +religious faith. They account for it by a view of the nature of +Jehovah far exalted above that of their people. He is punishing them +for their iniquities, they say, he is so righteous that he must +punish sin, and he must punish the sin of Israel his beloved people +not less strictly, but more strictly than that of other peoples. As a +husband whose wife has gone astray must subject her to discipline +before he can receive her again to his favour, so Hosea, made a +prophet by such a domestic affliction, contends that Jehovah cannot +but deal strictly with Israel. This theory of the meaning of the +impending calamities is supported by the prophets by those +denunciations of the national sins which give so gloomy a complexion +to their works. Among the national delinquencies the disorganisation +and apparent wilfulness shown in worship have a prominent place. +Worship is not what the service of Jehovah ought to be. Other beings +than he are sought after; heathenish festivals are kept, the indecent +practices of heathen worship are introduced into that of Jehovah: +there is no seriousness, no dignity, no worthy order, in the acts of +worship that are done. Any place does for them, and many of the +places used are quite unfit, from their associations, for the service +of Jehovah. They are celebrated more as wild orgies than as solemn +approaches to the deity.</p> + +<p>The interests of the prophets, however, do not centre in ritual. The +worship of other gods than Jehovah, or the service of Jehovah in +unfitting ways, they could not but denounce, but they have no +positive instructions to give about worship. When the people have +<a name="p194"></a>apparently given up the wrong worships, and are applying themselves +with zeal to that of Jehovah, seeking his favour by austerities, or +by costly offerings, the prophets are no less severe on this line of +conduct. Every one is familiar with the passages in which they +apparently denounce sacrifice altogether as a thing God has never +asked, and by which Israel cannot hope to win his favour. These +passages do not prove that the prophets desired the entire +discontinuance of sacrifice; they merely compare sacrifice with +another line of duty which is said to be vastly more important. Not +sacrifice but mercy, not sacrifice but to do justly, and love mercy, +and walk humbly with God,—is the burden of these utterances. Even +more than by the irregularities of worship, the prophets are shocked +by the more directly moral shortcomings of their people. The people +are accused of all the acts that are forbidden in the decalogue of +Exodus xx., and of many offences not there named. Especially are the +prophets indignant at the hardheartedness of the rich towards the +poor, and at the frequent disregard of faith and truth; oppression +and bribery, gluttony and other luxurious excesses, are frequently +their mark. These most of all are the sins which have called down the +divine judgments; these are the transgressions which make it +impossible for Jehovah to turn away the punishment of Israel and of +Judah. He is, above all things, a righteous god, who loves judgment +and mercy, and a people which so manifestly fails to practice justice +and mercy cannot continue to be his people; he must destroy them.</p> + +<p><b>The prophets</b> therefore <b>declare that Jehovah has decided on the +rejection of his people.</b> This shows that they have advanced to a new +conception of what Jehovah is. To them he is something more than the +mere national deity indissolubly linked to the fortunes of his +people, pledged to advance them in the world, and doomed when they +fall to fall himself along with <a name="p195"></a>them. He is first of all a moral +ruler; the maintenance and promotion of righteousness is far more to +him than the prosperity of any single people, even of Israel. He +loves Israel it is true; Israel is his son, whom he loves, the wife +of his youth, the people of his covenant. But that makes it the more +and not the less necessary that Israel should not be allowed to go on +in iniquity. Jehovah can be no partisan of a people that does not +walk according to his laws. Thus the prophets have arrived at a new +conception of Jehovah's character, which necessarily unfits him, +though they do not yet see this, for the <i>rôle</i> of a national god. +They have identified him with the ideal of righteousness and mercy, +and in so doing they have made the great step, at least in principle, +from national to universal religion, from the religion that is bound +up with the history of one particular people, and cannot pass beyond +them, to the religion which is capable of being understood by all +men, and fit to be preached to all men of whatever race.</p> + +<p><b>Appearance of Universalism.</b>—To the deeper view which they have +gained of the character of Jehovah the prophets add a wider and +higher view of his relation to the world, and to the various nations +in it. They frankly state that Jehovah has relations to other nations +than Israel. He might if he had chosen have taken some other race to +be his people; they were all at his disposal and he regarded none of +them as hostile. He is not dependent on Israel, and the inference is +clear, that if he could have done without Israel at first, he could +do without Israel still, were he driven to that. Israel is not +indispensable to the continuance of the true religion. Jehovah indeed +has a position far above that which Israelite national thought +ascribed to him. He is lord not of one nation only, but of all the +nations. He can use any of them as his instrument when and as he +chooses. It is he who has brought each of them to its present seat, +it <a name="p196"></a>is he who is directing their movements now. And for what end does +he wield this mighty rule? He is governing the world not in the +interests of one nation only, but in the interests of righteousness. +He is guiding the destinies of nations so as to bring about an end +which he has fixed, namely the establishment of a world-wide kingdom +of truth. The day is indeed coming as the Israelites believed when he +would hold a judgment over the world, only let Israel beware lest +that day should be darkness and not light to them; it will bring +about the punishment of sinners of whatever race. An end is to be +made of sin both in Israel and in other nations, that a new world may +begin. The position thus given to Jehovah is clearly one which lifts +him high above the rank of a national deity. The prophets understand +with growing clearness that Jehovah is the creator of the world, and +the author of all the glories, both of the celestial and of the +terrestrial frame. The Maker of the ends of the earth, and the +Governor of all the nations, though he has chosen to reveal himself +to one particular race, cannot be limited to them. The position of +Monotheism has been attained. The earlier prophets speak of the gods +of other nations as if they really existed, though for Israel Jehovah +is the only god, but by degrees the advance is made to the position +that these beings do not exist at all, and are simply "vanities" or +"nothings." Instead of saying that Jehovah is the greatest among the +gods, and that there is none like him, these preachers say that +Jehovah alone is god, and that he is the author of all that exists +and of all that takes place in the universe. A god has been unveiled +whom all beings exist to glorify, and whom all the nations of the +earth can confidently be summoned to praise.</p> + +<p><b>Ethical Monotheism.</b>—These results were reached gradually: there is a +great difference between the teaching of Amos and that of Jeremiah. +And it must be remembered that they were attained not as other +<a name="p197"></a>monotheisms have been, by philosophical speculation, but by purely +moral ways. It is because Jehovah is supremely just and holy, that he +grows so great. The justice and holiness which are seen in him are +the strongest of all; the world exists for nothing else but to +realise them, and everything that stands opposed to them, whether in +Israel or in any other nation, must go down before them. It is in +this way that the conclusion is reached that Jehovah is the only God. +The moral ideal must be one. The whole of the religion of the +prophets is governed by moral considerations. God asks from man +nothing but goodness; the true sacrifices are those of the heart and +conduct. Man's intercourse with God is to be kept up as that of an +affectionate human relationship, into which no motives either of +force or of commerce enter. Although God is so just and holy, he is +perfectly placable, and ready to greet the approaches which are made +to him. It is absurd to spend so much money and toil on sacrifice, +when the happiest relations with God can be attained so much more +simply. God forgives without any sacrifice; his love and his desire +to meet with love surpass all that human relationships can show; his +constancy is like that of the returning seasons, or of the stars. He +yearns over Israel as a father over a wayward son, and will leave +nothing undone that he can do to bring his son back to him. He will +alter all his former plans to bring about that result. He will change +man's nature, and give him a new heart, if nothing short of that will +suffice; or he will change his own procedure entirely, and deal with +man not by way of commandments, but by way of inspiration, placing +his law in man's inward part, writing it in his heart, so that the +great union of God and man may be attained, which he desires.</p> + +<p><b>Individualism of the Prophetic Teaching.</b>—Here we must pause to +notice another great advance which the prophets have been led to make +in religious knowledge. <a name="p198"></a>Their view of Jehovah as a purely moral +being, and of man's relation to him as a moral relation, like that +between two human beings who have to live together, such as a husband +and wife or a father and son, makes religion less a matter for the +people as a body, more a matter for the individual. When religion is +carried on by public sacrifices and stately festivals and ceremonies, +then it is the people as a whole that transacts with God, and the +individual need feel no great weight of responsibility in the matter. +But if God asks for love, if he says he does not care for sacrifice, +but insists on love and devotion, and rather than not have it will +work a miracle on man's nature, then the individual is addressed. +Every one who has any love to offer feels himself appealed to. Only +in his own heart can any one know whether or not God's desire is met; +every one, therefore, who understands the appeal becomes personally +responsible for the answer, and religion becomes a matter, not only +between God and the people, but between God and the individual as +well. Personal religion, therefore, makes its appearance among the +Jews at this time. Jeremiah carries on dialogues with God; prayer is +met with, as the outpouring, not of public needs alone, but of +private feeling; the soul has learned that it is called to a life of +its own with God, and not merely to a share in the life of the nation +with him.</p> + +<p>We have dwelt at some length on the ideas of the prophets; not at +such length, indeed, as to satisfy any of those who love their +writings, for we have thrown together in one view what belongs +historically to different centuries, while to the personalities of +the prophets, to their sublime certainty and their stupendous +courage, we have given no attention. We have stated the outlines also +of the great movement of thought in which advances of such +transcendent importance were made in religion. They are advances +which have not been lost, but which we still enjoy. If it is the gift +of <a name="p199"></a>the Semitic race to bring the thought of God to bear on life with +such direct practical force as Aryan religion never by itself +exerted, we must look with profound veneration on those Semitic +thinkers who applied this great force in the service of a God, who +has no other nature and property but that of justice and love. +Religion thus became to them and to all they influenced an engine for +the direct promotion of justice and love among men; and we do not +think the less of the prophets that the harvest of which they sowed +the seed could not be reaped in their day.</p> + +<p><b>Prophecy leads to no Immediate Reform.</b>—The message of the prophets +seems at first sight to have been delivered long before the world was +ready for it. Even the practical measures which can be traced to +their influence are far from being in accordance with their ideas. +The causes of this we have already to some extent seen. The prophets +were not practical reformers. The amendment they called for was one +to be realised in individual lives rather than in public policy, and +they do not bring forward schemes of reform which they urge the +people as a whole to adopt; they rather fling great ideas upon the +mind of their nation, and leave it to others to find out how +practical effect may be given to their teaching. To the very end of +the Jewish state the prophets and their sympathisers appear to be in +a small minority of their nation. The people as a whole is +unconverted, the worship of idols goes on, and so does the worship of +other gods, even in the temple at Jerusalem. It has seemed to some +great scholars that Israel, as a whole, was a heathen people up to +the time of the exile, and still needed to be converted to the +religion of Jehovah. Kuenen shows<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> in a convincing way that this is +an exaggeration, and that people and prophets alike held the religion +of Jehovah to be the true religion of Israel; <a name="p200"></a>but up to the exile +that religion was not reformed in the way the prophets desired.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, ii.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>The Reforms.</b>—Yet the word of Jehovah had not returned to him void +even during this period. A considerable series of reforms are +narrated in the histories, and attested by successive codes of law +now embodied in the Pentateuch. These show that the prophetic ideas +had gained for themselves a strong party among the people, and that +in several reigns the court was under their influence. These reforms +show progress in two directions. There is a growing desire to make +the worship of Jehovah correspond to the exalted new conceptions of +his character as a being of incomparable majesty and holiness; and +there is, on the other hand, a rapid growth of moral sentiment; +justice and kindness to others are placed more and more in the +forefront of the divine requirements. We can do little more than name +the passages where the details of these matters may be found. The +<b>reforms of Hezekiah</b> (1 Kings xviii.) did not last long. He destroyed +a celebrated image of Jehovah, a fate which other images may have +shared, and he remodelled the worship of the holy places throughout +Judah, so as to remove its more heathenish features, and concentrate +it on Jehovah alone. Manasseh, Hezekiah's successor, pursued the +opposite policy. In his reign a large collection of strange cults, +some of them perhaps those of the individual tribes, were brought +back into use; even the barbarous rite of human sacrifice was +established at Jerusalem, and the worship of Jehovah became more +intense and darker. The shadow of the Assyrian is upon Israel, and as +generally happens in times of public anxiety, rites long disused are +imagined to have a specially national character and a peculiar +potency, and are fetched back from oblivion. The <b>reform of Josiah</b> (2 +Kings xxii., xxiii.) was more thorough-going than that of Hezekiah. +He made an end of all the unseemly worships his predecessor had +encouraged at Jerusalem, so that nothing <a name="p201"></a>but the direct worship of +Jehovah was left. The strongest step he took, however, was that he +attempted to put an end altogether to the shrines at which local +worship had hitherto been conducted, thus making a clean sweep of the +idolatry of the rural districts. All this was done, we are told, in +accordance with a law-book which had been found in the temple by +certain high officials, and which, after duly consulting a prophetess +about the matter, Josiah brought into operation, and solemnly pledged +himself and his people to observe. We are in no doubt as to the +nature of this book. The book of <b>Deuteronomy</b> prescribes just such +reforms as Josiah carried out, and is generally allowed to have been +the written law which was promulgated on this occasion. Now +Deuteronomy, while incorporating no doubt many old laws, is in spirit +and effect a work of the prophetic school. Its moral teaching and its +exhortations to love Jehovah, and to be true to him alone, are quite +in the manner of Jeremiah, who was living in the reign of Josiah. And +the principal reform of Josiah, namely, the suppression of the local +worships, and the concentration of all worship at the temple of +Jerusalem alone, stands in the forefront of the special laws in +Deuteronomy. Those who aimed at the reform of religion, according to +the ideas of the prophets, had thought this out. The worship of the +one supreme God should take place, they had concluded, at one place +only, and should be national in its character; the whole people +should worship the one God at its capital. Provision was made that +this should not imply the deprivation of the dwellers in country +districts of the use of flesh meat. Formerly, every act of slaughter +was a sacrifice, and it was only in connection with a sacrifice that +this food could be enjoyed. But in future, animals may be slaughtered +at a distance from Jerusalem for food only, apart from any connection +with sacrifice. The promulgation of Deuteronomy is an important epoch +in the religion of Israel. That <a name="p202"></a>work is the first sacred book of +Israel; from this time forward Israel knows the will of Jehovah, not +only from the prophet's living voice, but from a book which is +regarded as having divine authority. This principle once introduced +could not fail to develop; to Deuteronomy other books were afterwards +added as part of the same law, though in reality they superseded it, +and it thus proved the nucleus of the whole Jewish canon.</p> + +<p><b>Earlier Codes.</b>—Deuteronomy was not the earliest law drawn up under +prophetic influence. Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. is recognised as being a +code by itself, and is an earlier attempt in the same direction as +Deuteronomy. The decalogue contained in Deuteronomy v., identical in +the main with that of Exodus xx., is of earlier origin than +Deuteronomy itself, but is also a prophetical work. It deals with +ritual only to the extent of removing certain obstacles to a right +worship of God, and places the chief weight of his requirements in +the fulfilment of the natural duties. An earlier decalogue which +deals principally with ritual, and which contains an early prophetic +attempt to free the worship of Jehovah from heathen abuses, is found +in Exodus xxxiv. 10-26. The oldest legislation of all is the code +found in Exodus xx. 22 to xxiii. 33, which goes by the name of the +Book of the Covenant. It is true that in form and in many of its +precepts it is identical with the Code of Hammurabi (2250 <small>B.C.</small>), and +so bears strong testimony to Babylonian influence. It is, however, +much more humane than that old code, and in many particulars is +independent of it. As it appears in Exodus it belongs to the times of +the early canonical prophets, and as it scarcely deals with ritual at +all, it shows the just and humane spirit cultivated by the religion +of Jehovah in an agricultural community.</p> + +<p><b>The Exile.</b>—The reformation of Josiah was quickly undone by his +successor on the throne, and there was no further opportunity for a +reform while the people remained in Palestine. But the exile did not +cause <a name="p203"></a>the friends of reform to abandon their ideas. The prophets had +foretold the exile, and had maintained that the religion of Israel +would not be destroyed but rather would be saved by it, and the event +proved that they were right in this point also. The exile cured the +people definitely of idolatry, and gave them a strong grasp of the +idea that they were a peculiar people, called to a work which no +other people could accomplish or indeed understand, namely to hold +aloft in the world, and for the benefit of the world, the true +religion. This conviction forms the burden of the prophecy of <b>the +Unknown prophet</b> of the exile (Isaiah xl.-lxvi.). He exalts still more +highly than his predecessors the name and power of Jehovah. He is the +Creator of the ends of the earth, to whom the nations, including even +that great Babylon, are as a drop of the bucket, to be flung whither +one will; it is he who has chosen Israel for his people and who now +comforts Israel for the sorrows of the exile. In the great drama he +is unfolding in the earth Israel has a principal part to play. Israel +is called to make known to the nations who do not know him, the true +God. It had been prophesied before that the heathen nations would +come to Mount Zion to ask counsel of the God of Judah, and that +Jehovah should become law-giver and judge over them. The Unknown +enlarges on this theme with splendid imagery, and strives to persuade +the people to make this cause their own, and to rise to the +responsibility it involves. Israel is to be a prince, a leader and +commander, of the peoples. The Gentiles are to come from far bringing +their treasures and doing homage to the people of the true faith. If +Israel as a whole is not fit as yet to discharge this duty for the +world, yet there is an inner Israel, a faithful elect of the people +who sympathise entirely with Jehovah's purposes and are entirely +devoted to his will. This "Servant of Jehovah," at least, has risen +to the height of his calling; Jehovah's spirit is in him. He will not +<a name="p204"></a>fail nor be discouraged till the true religion is established in the +earth. At another part of the prophecy the fate of the Servant is +seen in darker colours. He is subject to ill-treatment and +misrepresentation of all sorts; even when he is suffering for the +sake of others he is derided and despised; nay, more,—he is called +to suffer martyrdom, and die for sins not his own. But even so, the +Servant will conquer in the end. He will know that his sufferings +have not been in vain; he will be the means of leading many to +righteousness and will be the instrument of Jehovah to bring in the +true religion.</p> + +<p><b>The Return. The Reform of Ezra.</b>—Such utterances could not fail of +effect on the nation to whom they were addressed, and when the Jews +came back to Palestine they were undoubtedly inspired with a new +sense of their peculiar national mission. They at once proceeded to +show that they were to be a people apart from others, by separating +themselves rigorously and even cruelly from entanglements with the +surrounding population. They also at once set up the worship of +Jehovah as the sole God who had his one shrine at Jerusalem. Their +early experiences in Palestine were not encouraging. For a century +they remained a struggling and poor community, and it might seem +doubtful if they would prove strong enough to maintain their separate +position, and to hold up their special testimony to the world. But at +that time the Jews who had remained in Babylon came to their aid. +These men had never ceased to labour along with their brethren in +Palestine for the advancement of their nation; and in particular they +had laboured earnestly at the problem of worship, and the result of +their labours was a religious constitution so rigid in its ideas, so +logically worked out in detail, and so skilfully incorporating and +appropriating to itself all the past traditions and usages of the +race, that it might almost be said to be strong enough to stand by +itself, and would <a name="p205"></a>certainly afford to the people, if they adopted it, +the support and the discipline they needed. This constitution was +introduced by Ezra, the priest and scribe, in the year 444 <small>B.C.</small>,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> +when he read in the ears of the people at Jerusalem (Nehemiah viii., +ix.) the new law he had brought with him from Babylon fourteen years +before, and had waited all that time to promulgate. The new law of +this period was what is called the Priestly Code; it occupies the +latter part of Exodus and a large part of Leviticus and Numbers; and +the older writings are skilfully interwoven with it, but in general +it may easily be distinguished by its tone from the work of earlier +periods. Deuteronomy, the earliest law-book, is simply tacked on to +it as if it were a part of the same code, though in reality it is +often inconsistent with the latter law. The result is the Torah or +law, or, as we call it, the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses +(Moses being regarded by a convenient fiction as the source of all +Jewish laws). This was thenceforward the law of the Jews.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> This date and many features of the story of Ezra and the +return have of late been much questioned. See "Ezra" in <i>Encyclopĉdia +Biblica</i>. The account given above follows Wellhausen.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The <b>Jewish religion</b>, of which this is the code, is generally +distinguished from the religion of Israel which prevailed down to the +exile; and several important new principles undoubtedly make their +appearance at this point. This chapter may fittingly conclude with an +enumeration first of the features of Jewish religious life connected +with the law or the priestly system, and then of those features of it +which lie outside that system.</p> + +<p>1. The priestly religion is founded on a sentiment which forms but +little part of the faith of early peoples, namely <b>the sense of sin</b>. +The prophetic denunciations of Israel's backslidings have at last +found entrance, and the people is found submitting to a system which +implies that the whole of its past history was sinful and mistaken, +and that there is a constant need for <a name="p206"></a>supplicating forgiveness. Every +prayer begins with a long confession of national sin, in which the +present generation also shares. "We have sinned with our fathers," +they say. This view is spread over the historical books in the +sweeping judgments passed on individual monarchs, on periods of the +national life, and especially on the whole of the Northern Kingdom +(cf. Nehemiah ix.). The old confidence in the presence of Jehovah +with his people has now departed. The earlier Israelites never +doubted that Jehovah was in the midst of them; that could be taken +for granted except when events proved the contrary. But now Jehovah +has grown greater and more awful, while the people have become +painfully aware of their deficiencies and cannot assume that he is +with them, but must take steps to secure his presence. This is no +doubt connected with the growing sense of an individual position and +responsibility in religion. To the nation or the tribe it is natural +to feel that its cause is just and that its God is with it; but the +individual, thrown upon his own inner world for his alliances, is +less apt to feel that confidence. Now the religion preached by the +prophets is essentially one for the individual. Ezekiel especially +felt himself responsible for the fate of individuals, and laboured to +awaken his fellow-countrymen one by one to a sense of their danger +and responsibility; he taught that each man had to see to his own +salvation, that each man would receive the fruit of his own acts. All +this tends to a deeper feeling and a more anxious mood in religion, +and helps to explain how the sense of sin, on which religious +progress at its higher stages depends so much, was fixed so strongly +in the Jewish mind. That the Jews underwent a radical change in their +disposition is proved by the fact that they submitted to the yoke of +the law: for it may be questioned if any people ever sacrificed their +natural liberty for the sake of their religion to such an extent as +this people did.</p> + +<p>2. The divine will is now received by the people in <a name="p207"></a>the shape of a +<b>sacred book</b>. They cease to look for the living voice of prophecy, and +come to think that God has given them in the Torah a perfect and +complete revelation. The book takes the place of the prophet, and in +time also to some extent of conscience. A man ceases to think for +himself what is right and good, and only asks, What does the law say? +It is true that a great part of the book is taken up with ritual, +with which the ordinary individual has not much to do, but he also +believes that the whole of his own duty is to be found there in it, +as is no doubt the case. We see from the 119th Psalm how beautiful a +form religion may assume even under these terms, when the book in +question is felt to be a spiritual treasure, and to speak the words +of a living God; but the system of a book-religion has in it the +germs of very different fruits. The sacred book is believed to be an +exhaustive directory of conduct; but to make it apply to the various +cases that arise in practical life it has to be interpreted, and +deductions have to be drawn from it. It thus comes to give many a +direction which does not appear on the surface. The secondary law, or +"tradition," is thus founded, a system which calls for the services +of a special class of students. The scribes, who interpret the law +and apply it to life, obtain great influence and become the virtual +rulers of the nation. While no doubt guided in the main by the noble +spirit of their religion, they are led by their system into many +absurdities, and their casuistry even becomes at times immoral. They +afford the classical example of the results which flow from the +doctrine of verbal inspiration, thoroughly worked out; and the life +of the Jews under them becomes highly unnatural and artificial, and +tends to occupy itself with the husk instead of the kernel of +religion.</p> + +<p>3. The principal part of the divine will, as expressed in the law, is +that connected with sacrifice. <b>Sacrifice</b> occupies the central place +in the book, and in the <a name="p208"></a>history it records. In this book the temple +service, thinly disguised as the service of the tabernacle in the +wilderness, is set forth as the great end and aim for which God +created the world, settled the nations in it, and called Israel to be +a people. The ritual which was observed from the exile to the +destruction of Jerusalem may be studied in Exodus and Leviticus. We +read of orders and companies of priests who offer daily and other +sacrifices according to a rule in which the smallest details are +carefully arranged, sacrifices in which little of the old cheerful +common meal now lingers, but which are mostly of a purificatory or +piacular character. The ritual of sacrifice would not appear to an +outward observer to differ very much from that in use among the +Greeks or Romans; the Jews certainly conducted it on a larger scale. +What end precisely was aimed at in it, the Jew would have found it +perhaps hard to say. It was done, he would say, because the law so +ordered it, and the law must be obeyed even if one did not quite +understand what was enjoined. The daily sacrifice removed the +impurity of the temple staff, and enabled the people to be sure that +the favour of the deity continued with them. Many sacrifices aimed at +the removal of particular sins; thankfulness also was expressed in +them, and other feelings may also have ascended with the smoke from +the altar. To Jews living at a distance the sacrifice, which could be +offered nowhere but at Jerusalem, was the chief symbol, the great +mystery, of their faith.</p> + +<p>4. The notion of <b>holiness</b> is closely connected with worship. Things +and persons are holy which belong to Jehovah, and are withdrawn from +common use. These it is dangerous to touch unwarily. Jehovah is an +unapproachable being; the high priest may come into the innermost +part of the temple, but only once a year, and no one else may come +there; the priests may enter the Holy Place, but not the people. To +speak lightly of the temple was a crime the Jews could not forgive. +<a name="p209"></a>The Sabbath was the Lord's day; man must not attend on it to his own +worldly concerns. The deity is surrounded with dread to an +unparalleled extent; all that belongs to him is to be regarded with +awe. Connected with the notion of holiness is that of purity. In the +later Persian religion the distinction has always to be anxiously +remembered by the believer between what belongs to the good spirit +and what has fallen under the power of the evil spirit. The Jew, +also, who is called to be holy and separate from other men, lives in +constant dread lest he should touch something unclean, and so forfeit +his own purity. There are clean animals, and unclean ones which he +must not eat; various washings of the hands and of domestic utensils +are needed in order to keep up the state of purity; many trades +involve contact with substances which make purity almost impossible. +Above all, it is defiling to eat what a heathen has cooked, or to sit +at the same table with heathens. Thus the Jew was confirmed in the +belief of his own superiority to men of other races; and was +prevented by many barriers from mingling with them, or even regarding +them as brethren. His circumcision, his Sabbath, his laws of purity, +his peculiarities of diet, the absolute impossibility of his eating +along with Gentiles, kept him separate, and helped to nourish in him +the spirit of haughtiness and exclusiveness. The accepted worshipper +of Jehovah is, with the early prophets, the man who is morally sound, +who has curbed his passions and his selfish impulses; with the later +Jew that may still be the case, but there are also a number of +indispensable preliminaries of which the prophets certainly did not +dream. The man who would go up to the hill of Jehovah must be one who +has not eaten shell-fish or pork, nor opened his shop on the Sabbath, +nor touched a dead body, nor used a spoon handed to him by a Gentile +without washing it. How all this unfitted the Jewish people to be a +missionary of the pure religion, <a name="p210"></a>and how adverse the whole Levitical +system was to the earnest apprehension of that religion no less than +to its diffusion, the New Testament amply shows. But it kept the +people separate from the world and constant to their faith amid even +the greatest temptations and the severest persecutions, and so +enabled them to preserve the precious treasure committed to them till +the time should come when the world was to receive it from their +hands.</p> + +<p><b>Heathenish Elements of Judaism.</b>—In the system we have sketched, in +which the prophetic teaching was hardened into a ritual and a law, +there are various elements which do not belong to an advanced stage +of religious progress. While the sacrificial ritual, not outwardly +exalted above heathenism, is to some extent redeemed by the motives +which enter into it, the great system of clean and unclean rests on +no rational basis, and resembles the set of taboos, which no one can +explain, of a savage tribe; and the reduction of daily life under a +set of minute and troublesome rules, shows the devotion more than the +enlightenment of those who submitted to it. There was a necessity +that the vessel should be so narrow and so hard which was to keep the +wine of Jewish religion from being mixed with other liquids, but the +vessel itself belongs to the rude and early world. In the Jewish +religion of this time there are far different elements, which point +forward and not backward, and in which the future course of religious +progress is clearly anticipated. If his temple ritual was crude, and +if his law pursued him into every one of his actions, the thoughts of +the Jew were free; the truths which were unfolding their riches in +his mind were sufficient compensation for much outward restraint, and +the fair world of imagination was open to him in which the past +clothed itself with legend and the future with splendid hopes.</p> + +<p><b>Spiritual Elements.</b>—The period after the exile is that of the +composition of the <b>Psalms</b>. Many of these <a name="p211"></a>poems may have been written +earlier; many were undoubtedly written at this time, and the belief +gains ground that the Psalmist came after the prophet, and adopted +for popular use the prophet's ideas. In the Psalter we hear the +thrill of joy and triumph as the great truths of theism come to be +grasped as certainties. The congregation now utters in song what, +when the prophet first announced it, so few had courage to believe, +that Jehovah is king, that he rules over the nations, that he is far +above all the gods, nay, that there is no other God than he. The joy +of having embraced this thought, of having escaped from all confusion +with regard to the powers that rule the world, and of seeing all +things in this splendid light, finds manifold expression. The +believers delight themselves anew in the worship of Jehovah, and see +fresh beauties in his courts, and in the service of him there; they +delight in his word in connection with every part of their +experience. They understand the world as they never did before, since +it is his work, and praise the Creator as they follow the whole +process of creation. New lights open to them on the history of their +race, new solutions occur to them of the moral difficulties they have +felt, as they saw the wicked prosper and the good cast down. There is +very little about ritual in the Psalms; it is regarded chiefly as an +offering of thanks and praise to Jehovah for his wonderful works, and +for his mercies; and it is viewed ideally as an act of homage in +which not only the immediate worshippers, but all nations on the +earth may be conceived as taking part. On the other hand, the +observance of Jehovah's moral requirements, and implicit trust in him +while one seeks to do his will, is insisted on again and again, as +the true method to please him, and to obtain his protection against +all dangers. There are few moods of the religious life that are not +represented in the Psalms: penitence, intellectual perplexity, +domestic sorrow, feebleness, loneliness, the approach of <a name="p212"></a>death, the +excitement of great events, the agony of persecution, quiet +contemplation of nature, each has its word. The imprecations of some +of the Psalms show a trait of the national character without which +the picture would be incomplete. It may be in part extenuated by the +consideration that in these Psalms it is the community that speaks, +and that the enemy of the good cause deserves less forbearance than +the private adversary. Whether the Psalms in general are to be +conceived as uttered by the community rather than as private +outpourings, is a question not yet decided. In either sense the +Psalms have been used and are still used as the hymn-book of +Christendom, as well as of the Jews; and it will always be a +wonderful feature in the religion of Israel, that so soon after the +truth of the one God was discovered by the prophets, it received a +form of expression which has proved fitted for the use of every +nation in the world.</p> + +<p>The Jews after the exile are in possession of a <b>new form of religious +association</b> which belongs to a high stage of growth. The temple +worship is one in which the ordinary layman has no part, or only an +occasional part to play. The priest does everything in it; even the +singing of Psalms is done by choirs of priests. And the dweller in +the country might rarely be a witness of these great solemnities. But +we know that in the Maccabean period the country was covered with +synagogues: with buildings, that is to say, where the surrounding +population met on the Sabbath, and perhaps on other days as well, to +join in common prayer, and to hear lessons of Scripture and +exhortations. Some local religious meeting was necessary; an earnest +people could not do without it, and the local sacrifices were now of +the past. But the synagogue service marks a great advance in the +religious position of the Jews. They can now meet without any act or +sacrament which they have to do <a name="p213"></a>in common, to engage in purely +intellectual religious exercises. The same advance, as we shall see, +took place in Greece about the same time; what moral or religious +furtherance they wanted, the earnest there began to seek from the +lectures of philosophers. The synagogue, however, was a territorial +institution; all the Jews in the neighbourhood came to its services. +It kept them acquainted with the law which otherwise they might have +forgotten, and also with the writings of the prophets, which were +regularly read, and thus strengthened the bonds which held all Jews +together, in the past history and in the growing hopes of their race.</p> + +<p><b>The National Hopes.</b>—Judaism becomes more and more, as befits a faith +of which prophets are the principal exponents, a religion of hope. +Debarred by their subjection under successive heathen powers from +political activity, and keenly aware of their outward humiliation, +the Jews turn to an ideal world in which they are free. The prophets +had spoken of a judgment in which Jehovah would judge the whole +world, of a happy time when Israel would be at peace from all his +enemies, and God and people would dwell together in full communion; +and when the land of Israel would become the religious capital of the +world. They had added to their picture features even more ideal, and +had declared that the conflicts of external nature would cease, the +wild animals would grow tame and friendly, all physical as well as +all moral evil would disappear. It was in this world, not in a remote +region or in the land beyond death, that all this was to be realised. +Jerusalem is the centre of the picture and the Jewish nation stands +in the foreground of it as the chosen people of the God of all the +world. Now these predictions, which with the prophets are vague and +idealised, were taken by the Jews always more seriously and worked +out in detail. After the prophet comes the apocalyptic writer, such +as Daniel <a name="p214"></a>(the Apocalypse of the New Testament belongs to the same +class of literature), who is able to give the exact course of the +history which is to lead up to the final judgment, to fix its precise +date, and to give many details of the ultimate state of affairs. +These "revelations," which were written generally to comfort the Jews +in their trials and to encourage them to steadfastness in +persecution, were very popular. It is true that they nourished the +national pride, and enabled the Jew to feel himself superior to a +world in which he occupied outwardly no great position; but on the +other hand the hopes they fed were not necessarily unspiritual; at +the Christian era we find it to be a mark of the most genuine piety +that one should be "waiting for the redemption of Israel." At this +period the national hope was occupied with the figure of a Messiah, a +God-sent Deliverer, whose coming was to be the prelude to the +establishment of the divine kingdom. We learn from the Gospels what +various ideas were entertained by the Jews of the first century about +this "coming one," and how little Jesus Christ was felt to answer to +the common expectation.</p> + +<p>A few words must be said of <b>Jewish beliefs concerning the other +world</b>. While there are traces of an old ancestor-worship in the +earlier parts of Jewish history, no belief of the kind had much +importance in Israel. The Jews shared the general belief of the early +world that the dead continued in a shadowy existence without any +power for action. They have an under-world, Sheol, where the dead +are; Isaiah has a magnificent description of the dead kings sitting +on thrones together in Sheol and rising up to greet a newcomer who +was a great potentate on earth, with the words "Art thou also become +weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?" The dead are conceived as +continuing in a weak and unsubstantial reflection of their former +selves. They can be fetched up to the <a name="p215"></a>earth by magic arts to tell the +future, but this was strictly forbidden at a very early time. The +Psalms and other later books contain many plain denials that man has +any continuance to look for after death. The religion of the Old +Testament, as has often been said, is for this life. God's rewards +are to be looked for before death; once gone to the grave one can no +more enjoy God's bounty or give him thanks. God's kingdom of the +future is also a kingdom of this world; Jerusalem is its capital, and +nature is to be transformed for it. In the later period of Jewish +history, however, the hope of the future which has been so entirely +abandoned, which Job, for example, in an early chapter puts so +peremptorily away from him, creates itself afresh in a new form. In +the time of Christ the Jews believe, as a matter of course, that men +will rise again. It has been contended that the Jews derived their +later doctrine of a future life from their contact with Persia, but +it is not necessary to account for it in this way. It arose naturally +among the Jews in more ways than one. The individual believer like +Job, entirely sure of his own innocence, and feeling that he was +doomed to die of his disease without any vindication in this life, +claimed that an opportunity should be found beyond the grave to +pronounce the sentence which a just God could not omit to give. In +Daniel xii. it is foretold that men of conspicuous virtue and men of +conspicuous wickedness will have a resurrection—the former to share +the glories of the kingdom from which as teachers and martyrs they +could not be wanting, the latter to receive their punishment. And as +prophets who have been long dead are expected to return to the earth, +the gate of death is not so firmly closed as formerly and the belief +in a future life easily became current.</p> + +<p>Thus Judaism comes to be a religion full of contradictions, and could +not as a whole pass to other nations. The temple and the synagogue +represent <a name="p216"></a>opposite principles of worship. The Jew feels himself to be +entrusted with a world-religion, and yet shuts himself up in such +exclusiveness as to draw upon himself the hatred of all peoples, and +to be charged in turn with hatred of the human race. A religion of +faith and love consorts with a religion of rules and limitations. If +the faith of Israel was to fulfil its mission to the world it was +necessary that some one should come who could purge this +threshing-floor, burning the chaff and gathering up the wheat to be +the seed of the progress of mankind.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>The Books of the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, in the +Revised Version.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>The Histories of Israel; Ewald, Kuenen, Wellhausen, Stade.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Robertson Smith's <i>The Old Testament in the Jewish Church</i>, and +articles in the <i>Encyclopĉdia Britannica</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Smend's <i>Alttestamentliche Religionsgeschichte</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Stade, <i>Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments</i>, 1905.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>For a criticism of the critical historians the reader may consult +<i>The Early Religion of Israel</i>, by Prof. James Robertson.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Prof. Valeton, <i>Die Israeliten</i>, in De la Saussaye.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Schürer, <i>History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ</i>, +1885-90.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Kantzsch, "Religion of Israel," in <i>Dictionary of the Bible</i>, vol. v.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. J. Foakes-Jackson, <i>The Biblical History of the Hebrews</i>, Second +Edition.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap13"></a><br><a name="p217"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XIII</h4> +<center>ISLAM</center> +<br> + +<p>In chronological order Islam stands last of all the great religions; +it appeared six centuries after Christianity, and Christian ideas +enter into it. It is, however, so essentially Semitic that it can +only be understood aright if studied in connection with the group now +occupying our attention. In Islam Semitic religion opens its arms to +embrace mankind, and accomplishes, in a fashion, the destiny to which +Judaism was invited, but which Judaism failed to realise till it was +transformed in Christianity. In Islam Semitic religion is not +transformed, but enters in its own stern and uncompromising character +into the position of a universal faith.</p> + +<p>This religion sprang up and entered on its career of conquest with +startling suddenness and even, some scholars hold, without any +natural preparation for its coming in the country of its birth. The +Arabs called the period before Islam the "time of ignorance"; in that +period they considered their race had no history; the new religion, +when it arose, had made a clean sweep of all that had gone before, +and had caused a new world to begin. The labours of Arabic scholars +have, however, done something to dispel the mists which hung over +early Arabia, and it is possible both to give a much more +satisfactory sketch than formerly of the earlier religion of the +Arabs, and to discern to some extent the processes which had +unconsciously been preparing for the advent of a higher and stronger +faith.</p> +<a name="p218"></a> +<p><b>Arabia before Mahomet.</b>—The Arabs of the central peninsula in the +times before Mahomet were not a nation but a set of tribes—mostly +nomadic, but some of them settled in cities, who, while united by +language, custom, and traditions, had no central government or +organisation. The desert which they inhabited, as it admitted no +cultivation, kept human life uniform and unprogressive; external +influences penetrated slowly into this corner of the world, and +society was still arranged as it had been for thousands of years. The +strongest tie was that of blood. A man's fellow-tribesmen were bound +to avenge his murder; and so one slaughter led to another, and from +generation to generation the land was filled with a perpetual series +of blood-feuds. Twice a year, however, a cessation of these feuds +took place; a month came round in which there was a universal truce. +Men who were enemies then made the same pilgrimage to a distant +shrine; at such a time trade caravans could set out and travel in +safety; and the great markets or festivals then took place, which, +while based at first on religious ideas, had in most part ceased to +have any religious character. Some of these markets were, at the time +of Mahomet, national occasions: men of every tribe met and came to +know each other there; the poetry which had been composed during the +preceding months was publicly recited, so that the rise of a new poet +was known to all Arabia; the news of all the tribes circulated, and +foreign ideas and doctrines were also to be heard. In proportion as +the face of nature was hard and forbidding, social life was bright +and gay; wine, women, wit, and war provided the themes of poets and +the ordinary aims of life.</p> + +<p><b>The Old Religion.</b>—It has generally been said that the Arabs before +Islam were irreligious. They themselves contrasted the sternness of +the new period with the gaiety of the old one. The truth is, as +Wellhausen has admirably shown,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> that the working religion of the +<a name="p219"></a>country had become before the period of Islam entirely effete. Arab +religion was based on the ideas and usages which have been described +in <a href="#chap10">chap. x.</a> of this book; it is mainly from Arabia, indeed, that the +original character of Semitic religion is known to us. Each tribe had +its god, whom it regarded as a magnified master or ruler, and with +whom it held communion by sacrifice, the blood being brought in +contact with the god and the victim devoured by the tribesmen. The +god is represented sometimes by a tree, generally by a stone; a piece +of fertile land belongs to him, within which the plants and animals +are sacred; the religious meeting can be held in no other spot. Hence +the Arabs are said to be stone worshippers; but the phrase is an +awkward one: what they worshipped was not the stone but a god +connected with it. And the early gods of Arabia are a motley company; +it is only in their relations to their worshippers and in the order +of the worship paid them that they have some uniformity. The greatest +and oldest deity of the Arabs is Allat or Alilat, "the Lady." Like +the female deity found in all primitive Semitic religions, she is a +stately and commanding lady. She is not the wife of a god, nor are +unseemly ideas connected with her. She belongs to the early world in +which motherhood was synonymous with rule, since the family had no +male head; she has a character but no history: mythology has not +gathered round her. Arabia has also certain nature-gods. The stellar +deities are mostly female; there is a male sun-god Dusares. Heaven is +worshipped by some, not the blue but the rainy heaven, which is a +source of blessings. There are no gods belonging to the region under +the earth. The serpent is the only animal that receives worship.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Reste Arabischen Heidenthums</i>, p. 188.</small></blockquote> + +<p>But <b>the gods of Arabia</b> belong mostly to another class than that of +nature-gods; or at least if they ever were connected with nature, +they have parted with such associations. They are uncouth figures, +with vague legends and miscellaneous attributes. One set of them <a name="p220"></a>is +said to have been worshipped by the contemporaries of Noah; they are +big men, and it is their property to drink milk. Hubal was the chief +god of Mecca. It was his property to bring rain. Vadd was a great +man, with two garments, and a sword and spear, bow and quiver. +Jaghuth, "the Helper," was a portable god, not a stone probably, +since he was carried into battle by his tribe, as the ark was by the +Israelites. Another god is called "the Burner," no doubt from the +sacrifices offered to him. Each tribe has its god or set of gods, and +certain sacred objects connected with its gods. One god is found by +those who kiss or rub a certain black stone, another in connection +with a white stone, another with a tree. And of many of them there +are images; the stone has some work done on it, or there is a wooden +block roughly hewn. The "Caaba" is originally a black stone which is +kissed or rubbed at Mecca. The name was given, however, to the +cube-shaped building, in one of the walls of which the black stone +had been fixed. In this building there stood in old days images of +Abraham and Ishmael, each with divining arrows in his hand. Of such +idols a large number existed in Mahomet's time, and were destroyed by +him. In some cases the image had a house, and a person was needed to +guard it; this functionary also kept some simple apparatus for +casting lots or otherwise obtaining counsel from the deity, and oaths +and vows were made before him, to which the deity became a witness.</p> + +<p>To these beliefs of early Arabia must be added a lively belief in +<b>jinns</b>, spirits who are not gods, since the gods are above the earth, +but the jinn is compelled to haunt some part of the earth's surface. +The jinns can assume any form they choose, and are often met with in +the shape of serpents. Wellhausen surmises that the seraphs of the +Jews are to be traced to some such origin. They infest desert places, +and are nocturnal in their habits. What they do is often not observed +<a name="p221"></a>till afterwards. They spy upon the gods, and may bring information +from above to men whom they haunt or with whom they are in league. Of +the magic of Arabia, the signs and omens drawn from birds, from +dreams, and other occurrences, it is not necessary to speak; and we +need only say, in concluding this rough sketch of the ideas of the +early Arabs, that the belief in a life beyond was very faint; they +set out food for the dead, whom they professed to think of as still +existing, but the belief, if they entertained it, was perfunctory and +had no influence.</p> + +<p><b>Confusion of Worship.</b>—At the period of Islam the worship of Arabia +had fallen into great confusion. The gods were stationary, but the +tribes wandered; and the consequence was that the wandering tribe +left its shrine behind it to be cared for by its successors in that +piece of country, and itself also, when it gained a new seat, +succeeded to the guardianship of a new god. Thus, on the one hand, +the worship of each shrine was constantly gathering new associations, +as each tribe which had been there left behind it some new legend or +practice; and on the other hand, pilgrimage became universal, since +each tribe had to pay periodical visits to its gods whom it had left +behind. At Mecca we read of hundreds of idols; a hundred tribes have +left there something of their own. Thus Mecca became a sacred place +for tribes far and near, and rose into national importance; and the +same was the case to a less degree in other places also. But as this +process went on, it inevitably led to the weakening of religion. The +tie of blood, which was felt always, was a far stronger thing than +the tie of a common worship for which the tribe had to go to another +part of the country, and to come in contact with a multitude of other +cults. Worship therefore became more and more a superstition: a +thing, that is to say, whose real sacredness was in the past, and +which was only kept up from pious habit; it did not supply the +inspiration <a name="p222"></a>of ordinary life nor guide the more active minds among +the people.</p> + +<p>We have not yet spoken of <b>Allah</b>, who is understood to be the god <i>par +excellence</i> of Arabia. But for this there is a good reason. Allah is +not, like the other beings we have spoken of, a historical god, with +a legend, a shrine, a tribe all to himself. He is not a historical +personage, but an idea consolidated, no doubt at an early period, +into a god. Wellhausen traces the rise of Allah for us in a most +interesting way. The name, he shows, is not a proper name that +belonged to one particular figure in the pantheon of Arabia; it is +the title which the Arab conferred on his god, whatever the proper +name of that being might be. Whatever god he worshipped, he called +him Allah, Lord; and thus every Arabic god was Allah, as every head +of a household has the name of "father" and every monarch that of +"king." And as every tribal god was Allah, the thought arose, no +doubt in very early times, of one god who was common to the tribes. +Language paved the way for thought; while the tribal gods were still +believed in and adored, this figure rose above them—a being who has +no special worship of his own, who does not ask for it nor need it, +but who yet fills, as none of the lesser beings does, the character +of deity. Allah was the god of all the tribes; and as his figure grew +in the mind of the country, it was inevitable that the worship of the +historical gods should still further lose its importance, till only +the women and children really cared for it. A monotheism of a grave +and earnest kind thus made its way beside the old belief in many +gods. Mahomet found that his fellow-countrymen did not really believe +in the minor gods; when they were in danger or in urgent need of any +blessing, it was to Allah that they called. The fall of the idols, +when it came about, took place very easily; they were no longer +needed. The Arabs had come to believe in a god who dwelt in <a name="p223"></a>heaven +and was the creator of the world, who ordained man's life with an +irreversible decree, by whom the bitter and the sweet, both the +hitting of the mark and the missing it, were alike fixed. The moral +character of Allah was not markedly in advance of that of his people. +What a man gains by robbery he calls the gift of Allah, while what is +gained by industry is called by another name. Yet Allah is also felt +by some to keep them back from robbery; he powerfully upholds the +moral standards which have been reached. He is the defender of +strangers, the avenger of treason. His moral influence is negative, +however, rather than positive. He does not inspire with ideals of +goodness; but he holds back from evil. He is not a being who is ever +likely to enter, like the God of the Jews, into intimate and +affectionate relations with men; he is too abstract and has too +little history to be capable of such unbending; his religion, when it +comes to be fully formed, will be one of puritans and fanatics rather +than of the meek and lowly. He is the one great instance of a god +without any natural basis who has come to exercise rule. He is a god +of whom reason can thoroughly approve—no absurd legends cling to +him; he is from the first great, mighty, and moral; and he rules the +world in righteousness by inflexible standards. This religion is +coming to the surface even in the "time of ignorance."</p> + +<p><b>Judaism and Christianity in Arabia.</b>—The question has been much +discussed whether the new religion of Arabia was due to contact with +Judaism or with Christianity. Both of these faiths were known in +Arabia before the time of the Prophet. There was a large Jewish +population at Medina, and synagogues existed in many other places; +and there were Christians in Arabia, though their Christianity was +that only of small sects and of lonely ascetics, and had failed to +convert the country as a whole. To the Arabs the Jews were "the +people of the Book," the book in the <a name="p224"></a>traditions of which they also +had some share. Ignorant themselves for the most part of the arts of +reading and writing, and divided among a multitude of petty worships +which they were ceasing to respect, they looked up with envy to those +whose faith had been fixed for so many ages in a literary standard. +But while the Jews were respected in Arabia, they were far from +popular. The qualities which have drawn down on them the bitter +hatred of modern peoples among whom they dwell, acted there in the +same way; their pride and exclusiveness, their keenness in business, +their profession as money-lenders, made them detested in Arabia as in +modern Germany. On the other hand, the ascetic view of life which the +Christians represented had attractions even for some of the higher +minds among the Arabs. A set of men called "Hanyfs" were well known +in Mahomet's time, who were seeking for a better religion than the +Arab worships afforded, and a better life than that of eternal feud. +The meaning of the name is controverted; those to whom it was applied +had not attached themselves to Judaism nor to Christianity; they were +people in earnest about religion who had not reached any definite +position. Even where, as with Mahomet himself, the facts of Judaism +and of Christianity were most inaccurately known, the view of God +held in these religions and the moral standard they set up could not +fail to exercise much influence. If in Arab thought itself a god like +Allah was rising to definite personal character and to a position of +great superiority over the old gods, then the inner movement was in +the same direction as the influence of older religions from without, +and the time was ripe for a new faith. It was not to be expected that +a people like the Arabs should accept a religion which had its origin +in another country, or which threatened like Christianity to bring to +an end the old tribal system; a new growth from within was needed, +and this was ready to appear.</p> +<a name="p225"></a> +<p>The beginnings of most religions are wrapt in obscurity; but the rise +of Islam is known to us with perfect certainty and in considerable +detail. The only difficulties in the way of understanding it are of a +psychological nature; we have to account for the foundation of a +religion which spread with lightning speed over many lands, and which +still continues to spread, by one whose character was in some +respects far from noble, and who was capable of stooping to +compromise and to the darkest treachery in order to gain his ends. +How a religion fitted for many races and many generations of men +could be founded by a barbarian and by the aid of barbarous +means—that is the problem of this religion. The materials for +solving it lie open before us. The Koran is undoubtedly the authentic +work of Mahomet himself: the suras or chapters are arranged in a +wrong order, and if they are read as they stand do not tell any +intelligible story; but when placed, as has now been done by +scholars,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> in the true historical order, they show the history of +Mahomet's mind with great clearness. After the Koran came the +traditions. From the immense volume of these the industry of the +scholars of Islam as well as others has succeeded in sifting out what +is most to be relied on. In no other case is the separation of the +mythical from the historical element in the early traditions so +easily made, and the religion comes into view in the full light of +day.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> S. Lane-Poole, <i>The Speeches of Mohammad</i>, 1882; the +most important parts of the Koran chronologically arranged with a +very useful introduction.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Mahomet. Early Life.</b>—Mahomet was born about 570 <small>A.D.</small>, of a family +belonging to the Mecca branch of the Coreish, a powerful tribe, who +carried on a large caravan trade with Syria, and who were the +guardians of the sanctuary which was the central point of Arabian +religion. He entered therefore from his birth into the centre of the +faith of his country. <a name="p226"></a>He was early left an orphan, and was brought up +by relatives, who were kind to him but who were very poor. He had to +make his living at an early age by herding sheep, an occupation which +conduced in his case, as it has done in others, to contemplation and +thought. In early manhood he entered the service of Khadija, a rich +widow; and he made journeys in her affairs to Syria and Palestine, +where he may have seen places famous in Jewish history and may also +have come in contact with Christianity. At the age of twenty-five he +married Khadija, who was fifteen years older than himself; the +marriage was a happy one, and there were several children. He is +described as a man of middle height, with a fair skin, a pleasant +countenance, and pleasing manners; and he had proved his ability in +business. Some years after his marriage he began to think deeply +about religious subjects. He came into connection apparently with +some of those Hanyfs or penitents, mentioned above, who, without +being formed into a sect, were at one in seeking for a more +satisfactory religious position. The religion to which they were +feeling their way was a monotheism, a service of the one God of +Abraham, but not that of Judaism with its exaltation of the Jewish +race, nor that of Christianity, in which God had a Son for his +companion. Submission to the one God was to them the essence of +religion. "Islam" means submission, and the "Moslem" is the person +who thus submits himself to the one sole God, whether he be Jew or +Christian or neither. The Hanyfs also held the belief of the +Christians in a coming judgment; and the effect of their beliefs on +their lives was that they practised austerities and often retired +from the world.</p> + +<p><b>His Religious Impressions.</b>—Mahomet at this part of his life began +also to withdraw himself, and to go apart to lonely spots for +meditation. What he meditated we see from his sayings and doings +afterwards. The contrast between the pure religion of Allah, as <a name="p227"></a>held +by the Hanyfs, and the popular religion of Mecca with which his birth +connected him, with its trade associations, its idols, its +unintelligible rites, was certainly a tremendous one; and if a +judgment was impending over all but the believers in Allah, it was a +terrible prospect. For many years, however, Mahomet was simply a +Hanyf. He was one who had surrendered himself, with a tender and +impressionable soul, to the divine will and guidance, and was filled +with the sense of Allah's presence and power, and of his own +accountability to him in the great and tremendous realities of life. +In addition to this, however, we have to mention a circumstance which +is generally thought to have had a determining influence in Mahomet's +production of Islam. He had a peculiar temperament; mental excitement +led in him to inner catastrophes which, whether they are classed +under epilepsy or hysteria, caused him to see visions and to believe +that certain words had been addressed to him by heavenly visitants. +The new religious movement in Arabia had secured an adherent in whom +its teachings would be felt with tremendous intensity, and would +possibly break forth with irresistible force.</p> + +<p><b>The Revelations.</b>—Mahomet was forty years of age when the thoughts +which had long been working within him burst into open expression. +This took place by means of a vision. An angel appeared to him as he +slept on Mount Hira on one of his nightly wanderings, and held a +scroll before him which he bade him read. He had not learned to read, +but the angel insisted, and so he read; and what he read was the +earliest revealed piece of the Koran (sura 96):—</p> + +<blockquote><small>Read,<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> in the name of thy Lord who created, created man from a +drop. Read, for thy Lord is the Most High, who hath taught by the +pen, hath taught to man what he knew not. Nay, truly man walketh in +delusion when he deemeth that he sufficeth for himself; to thy Lord +they must all return.</small></blockquote> +<a name="p228"></a> +<p>All men, <i>i.e.</i>, however they may think, as the Arabs were given to +think, that they need no help but that of their own right arm, must +come before Allah's judgment and render an account to him: this is +the doctrine by which Mahomet first appealed to his +fellow-countrymen. It is a revelation. Allah teaches it by sending +down a copy of what is written in the Book in heaven, the "mother of +the Book" from which all revelations, Jewish, Christian, or Mahomet's +own, are alike derived. Mahomet has thus begun to prophesy. The first +outburst of revelation threw him into great agitation; he thought he +was possessed by a jinn; and it tended to his further distress that +an interval of two or three years elapsed before another vision took +place. Then the vision came again. "Rise up and warn!" it said to +him; "and thy Lord magnify, and thy garments purify, and abomination +shun, and grant not favours to gain increase; and wait for thy Lord." +The revelations now began to come in rapid succession, and Mahomet +now believed in his own inspiration. In this conviction he never +wavered afterwards; and there can be no doubt that the earlier +revelations were felt by him as if they came from without and were +dictated by a power he could not resist. His fellow-countrymen +naturally took another view; like other prophets, Mahomet was said to +be mad and to be possessed by a spirit; and these accusations stung +him, because he himself had at first apprehended something of the +kind. The later pieces were of a different character; he had the +power afterwards of producing a revelation to suit any situation +which arose; but the contents of the earlier ones were not unworthy +of being revelations, and such he felt them to be.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> Or, Preach!—loud reading or repetition being the mode +of claiming attention for the divine word.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>His Preaching.</b>—He preached the new truth at first to those with whom +he was intimate. It was not new but old; it was the religion of +Abraham that he preached, that of the Book of which both Jews and +Christians <a name="p229"></a>had counterparts; he did not think of founding a new +religion. He called his own household and his relatives to submit +themselves to Allah, the supreme Lord and the righteous Judge, before +whose judgment they must soon stand. They were to put away heathen +vices and to practise the duty of regular prayer, of giving alms +without hoping for any advantage from it, and of temperance. After a +time he is encouraged by new suras to preach publicly, and does so. +The Meccans, however, do not listen to him. The prophet's preaching +acquires by this opposition a sternness it did not possess at first, +and he proceeds to attack the popular worship in a way fitted to stir +up against him the bitterest hostility. The Meccans hear from him +that the religion to which all Arabia flocks together, and without +which they would do little trade, is not only a vanity but a thing +abhorrent to Allah, and undoubtedly drawing down damnation on all who +partake in it; and that their forefathers are unquestionably in hell. +Such preaching could not be tolerated; Mahomet's friends are appealed +to to stop his mouth, but in vain, and his fellow-tribesmen, though +they do not believe in him, yet protect him, as the laws of kindred +require.</p> + +<p><b>Persecution.</b>—Mahomet suffers as other prophets have done; he is +ridiculed, misjudged, threatened. On the other hand he has his +consolations; when depressed he receives encouraging messages from +above. His enemies will perish; his cause will succeed; the day will +come when men will flock to his doctrine in crowds. Persecution, +however, is not without effect on him: on one occasion he attempted +to compromise matters with idolatry; in a sura recited at the Caaba +he allowed himself to use certain complimentary expressions about the +three daughters of Allah, in whom the Meccans put their trust. The +Meccans were much pleased with this, but Mahomet had to suffer the +reproaches of the angel Gabriel after he went home, and the +concession was erelong withdrawn. If, as appears likely, the +<a name="p230"></a>compromise had been deliberately planned, a strange light is thrown +on the nature of the revelations at a time not long after they had +begun to flow. But there is no approach to compromise after this. The +position of the prophet naturally grew worse after this display of +weakness, and the persecution of the townsmen more embittered; for +two years Mahomet and his followers were rigorously cut off from +intercourse with their fellow-citizens. On the other hand the +prophet's tone became harder and more sombre as he saw that no +turning back was possible. Never were the terrors of hell preached +with more intensity; it makes one's blood run cold to read the +denunciations of the Mecca unbelievers, men personally known to the +prophet, and to hear him forecast the words with which they will be +bidden to take their place for ever in the fire. Personal irritation +gives edge to the denunciations of fanaticism. Examples are sought in +Jewish history of those who rejected prophets, Moses or Noah, and +suffered a prompt and terrible judgment for so doing. The Meccans +were little moved by such threats; they had no real belief in a +future life, and scoffed at the idea of a resurrection of the body; +and for this scepticism also parallels are found by the prophet in +history, which show what fate the doubters may expect.</p> + +<p>From reading the Koran we should judge Mahomet to have been a +disagreeable fanatic; but he also possessed very different qualities. +Those who knew him best were most devoted to him. His followers +adhered to him with a faith which was proof against all persecutions; +we find him even ordaining that slaves who are converts may dissemble +their connection with him in order to avoid the cruel treatment it +drew down on them. Such attachment could only have been inspired by a +noble nature; his followers felt him to be indeed a teacher sent by +Allah, and were enthusiastically convinced of the truth of his +doctrine.</p> +<a name="p231"></a> +<p><b>Trials. He decides to leave Mecca.</b>—In spite of this his position was +a precarious and trying one. His wife Khadija, to whom he had been +most faithful, died; so did his most powerful protector. The cause, +moreover, was not advancing at Mecca, and was not likely to do so; +and Mahomet began to consider the propriety of transferring it to new +ground. The first attempt to do so was not successful; at Taif, where +he asked to be received and to be allowed to preach, he was rudely +repulsed, so that he came back to Mecca in deep dejection. The new +opening which he sought was, however, about to present itself in +another quarter. Among the visitors to one of the feasts he met a +company of pilgrims from Medina, who both addressed him with respect +and showed that they understood his doctrines. Medina was well +acquainted with Jewish ideas, and presented a more favourable soil +for the prophet to work on; it is even suggested that the Arabs of +Medina, having heard of the Jewish expectation of a Messiah, +considered that it would be an advantage for them if the Messiah +should be of their own race, and that Mahomet might possibly be He. +The transference of the cause to Medina was, however, brought about +with great deliberation. Those who wished Mahomet to come preached +his doctrine at Medina for a year, and with encouraging success. +Pledges were given and repeated by his friends there, that they would +have no god but Allah, that they would withhold their hands from what +was not their own, that they would flee fornication, that they would +not kill new-born infants, that they would shun slander, and that +they would obey God's messenger as far as was reasonable:—these are +the practical reforms which Islam at this time demanded. The result +of these proceedings was that Mahomet advised his followers to go to +Medina. He himself waited till nearly all had gone, and did not set +out till a plot had been laid by his enemies the Coreish to +assassinate him. The <b>Hegira</b> or flight took <a name="p232"></a>place on 16th June 622 +<small>A.D.</small> The flight, not the birth of the prophet, forms the era of +Mohammedan chronology, since it was from the moment of the flight +that Islam entered on its victorious career.</p> + +<p><b>Mahomet at Medina.</b>—From this point onwards the prophet is seen in a +different position and a different character. At Mecca he is a +persecuted, struggling, and unsuccessful preacher, but at Medina he +rapidly becomes the most powerful person in the commonwealth. He +organises the service of religion, but he also gives new life to the +community in other ways, terminating its feuds, uniting all its +forces in the service of Allah, and by his decisions in the cases +which are brought to him laying the foundation of a new +jurisprudence. A pure theocracy was set up at Medina, and he as the +prophet was its sole organ and administrator. In this capacity he +displayed consummate ability. Alike in religious and in civil matters +he showed the most perfect comprehension of his countrymen. He +resorted freely to compromise in order to make his religion and +policy suitable to the masses of his people and to secure their +adhesion. In this way he soon secured for himself an absolute +authority.</p> + +<p>The new religion thus became the cement by which a strong +commonwealth was formed out of elements formerly at variance. +Mahomet's first care on reaching Medina was to organise the service +of the faith. A place was built where the congregation could meet for +prayer and exhortation; the prophet's house beside it, or rather the +apartments of his wives, for he now had two, and was soon to have +more. The mosque, which all over the world is the local habitation of +Islam, may have been derived from the synagogue or the Christian +church. The service which takes place in it is not a sacrifice, but +consists of intellectual exercises which nourish in the hearers the +spirit of the religion. In the Mosque of Medina Mahomet taught his +converts the practices and duties which were required of them. He +taught this <a name="p233"></a>with great precision, and himself set an example how each +exercise was to be done; so that, as Wellhausen says, the mosque +became the exercise ground where the people were drilled in the +requirements of the new faith. "There the Moslems acquired the +<i>esprit de corps</i> and the rigid discipline which distinguish their +armies."</p> + +<p><b>New Religious Union.</b>—A new bond of union thus took the place of the +old tie of blood, which had been by far the strongest in Arabia. +Every Moslem regarded every other Moslem as his brother, even though +belonging to a different tribe. The claims of religion came to +supersede all others; all natural tastes, all family affections, were +taught to yield to them. Within a few years of his coming to Medina +Mahomet had forbidden the use of wine and the pursuit of art, and had +imposed on all women who adhered to him the use of the veil. In every +way the community was taught to regard itself as separated from the +former life of the country and from all who did not share the new +faith. It was represented as the duty of believers to fight against +all unbelievers: in this way the universal prevalence of the religion +was to be brought about. The courage of the faithful was stimulated +by the promise of rich booty and by the assurance that those who fell +in battle would go straight to the joys of Paradise; and the wars +they waged acquired in consequence a relentless character which was +new in Arabia. They were allowed to fight in the sacred month, in +which ancient custom ordained a universal truce. They fought with a +gloomy determination, and used their victories with a relentless +cruelty, which excited the consternation and horror of all witnesses. +They did not scruple, as other Arabs did, to fight against their +kinsmen. "Islam has rent all bonds asunder, Islam has blotted out all +treaties," they said, when reproached with their disregard of old +understandings. The prophet himself was foremost in this unrelenting +policy. Captives taken in battle were slaughtered; <a name="p234"></a>a whole tribe was +massacred which had joined the enemy, and had surrendered after a +siege in the hope of merciful treatment.</p> + +<p><b>Breach with Judaism and Christianity.</b>—As Mahomet thus freed himself, +in spreading the faith of "the most merciful God," from all +considerations of mercy and of honour, he also shook off, as his +position grew strong, relations which might have proved embarrassing +with other religions. In his earlier teaching he speaks of his own +religion as being substantially the same as Judaism and Christianity. +All three have "the Book"; the Koran is a continuation and supplement +of the Jewish and Christian revelations, and he is only the last +figure in the great line of prophets who had appeared in these +religions. Like other founders, he did not at first intend to found a +new religion, but only to bring to light again and restore to +authority the original truths of these faiths, which had become +obscured. His attitude at first, therefore, was friendly to both Jews +and Christians, and his friendly feelings for the former were likely +to be strengthened by the circumstances of his coming to Medina. Not +long after his arrival, however, his attitude towards the Jews was +changed. His followers had at first prayed with their faces turned in +the direction of Jerusalem; but the prophet ordained that this should +be altered, and that they should pray with their faces turned not +towards Jerusalem but towards Mecca. This setting of a new "kiblah" +as it is called, declared that Islam was a different religion from +Judaism, and had an Arab not a Jewish centre. The hostility to the +Jews, of which this was a symptom, grew more intense; quarrels were +sought with them which ended in the utter annihilation of the Jewish +power at Medina. From Christianity also Mahomet was careful to +distinguish his religion. The Christians of Arabia were less +tenacious of their faith than were the Jews, and easily accepted +Islam, so that the hostility was not in this case so intense. The +doctrines of the Trinity and of the Incarnation were of <a name="p235"></a>course +denounced as intolerable blasphemies against the sole deity of Allah.</p> + +<p><b>Domestic.</b>—The history of Mahomet during the Medina period is taken +up to some extent with the various marriages into which he entered, +and with the scandals of his household. On several occasions he +produced revelations to warrant a step in this connection which he +felt to require justification, and the modern reader is forced to +wonder how his credit survived some of those proceedings. While it is +undoubtedly the case that he did much to improve the position of +women in Arabia, the absence of any high ideal in this matter is very +apparent.</p> + +<p><b>Conquest of Mecca.</b>—In giving his followers a new kiblah and bidding +them turn their faces towards Mecca at their prayers, Mahomet +declared that city to be the religious capital of Arabia. Though he +had left Mecca in anger, he could not forget or ignore the city which +held this place in his eyes. At first his thoughts of Mecca were +those of vengeance; he had a score to settle with the Coreish, who +had scorned and persecuted him, and had driven him forth. For several +years there was war between Medina and the Coreish; the Moslems +plundered the rich caravans of Mecca; in the great battle of Bedr +(<small>A.D.</small> 623) Mahomet defeated his enemies and compelled them to respect +and fear him; and they afterwards attacked and besieged him at +Medina, with no decisive result. The next step was that Mahomet made +use of the sacred month to attempt a pilgrimage to Mecca, from which +he had been absent for six years (628); and though he was prevented +from performing his devotions at the Caaba on this occasion, the +Coreish found it good to make a treaty with him, thus recognising him +as a potentate, and to promise that he should be allowed to make the +pilgrimage on a future occasion. That pilgrimage took place; and so +quickly was Mahomet's power increasing in the rest of Arabia that the +Meccans began to feel that they could not long <a name="p236"></a>resist him. In the +year 630 he moved against Mecca with a large army, and met with but +faint opposition. Mecca fell into his hands. He used his victory +nobly: only four persons were put to death. It was at once shown that +no injury was to be done to the city. The old worship and its various +ceremonies were preserved. All idols, of course, were destroyed, both +those about the Caaba, of which there are said to have been one for +each day in the year, and those in private houses.</p> + +<p><b>Mecca made the Capital of Islam.</b>—In fact Mecca gained new importance +from this conquest. It was constituted by the irresistible power of +Mahomet the central sanctuary of the true religion. A year after the +victory Mahomet again visited Mecca, and performed the pilgrimage +with all its rites in his own person, setting the correct pattern in +every detail, which all pilgrims were to observe in all time coming. +Those who wish to know what the rites of Mecca are, will find them +graphically and minutely described in Captain Burton's <i>Pilgrimage to +El-Medinah and Mecca;</i> that gallant officer was one of the three +Europeans who, during the nineteenth century, assumed the disguise of +pilgrims and took part in the observances. The kissing of the sacred +black stone in the wall of the Caaba, the sevenfold circuit of the +building, the drinking of the water of the well Zem-zem, the race +from one hill-top to another in the neighbourhood of Mecca, the +throwing of seven stones at a certain spot, and the sacrifice of an +animal in a certain valley—these form a collection of rites each of +which had probably a separate origin, and of some of which the +original meaning can scarcely be made out.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> This "block of +heathenism" Mahomet made part of his religion. He could not have +abolished it, and by adopting it in an improved form as a part of his +own system he served himself heir to the national religious +traditions, and acquired for his own religion the authority of a +national faith. "This day have I <a name="p237"></a>appointed your religion unto you," +are his words after fixing the forms of the pilgrimage, "and applied +Islam for you to be your religion." Islam adopts the Mecca rites, and +thereby becomes the national religion of Arabia. Hubal, the chief god +of the Caaba, disappears; Allah becomes the sole god of the shrine. +The legend that Abraham founded it is put in circulation, and it is +thus connected with the supposed earliest Arabian religion, the +religion before idolatry, the Islam before Islam. As Paul appeals to +the faith of Abraham as being a Christianity before Christ, so +Mahomet claims the Caaba for the pure worship of Allah in primeval +times. It is sacred henceforth to him alone. The rule was set up that +no idolater should be admitted to the pilgrimage, and it thus lost +its character as a heathen, and became instead a Moslem, institution.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> See for this Wellhausen's <i>Reste arabischen +Heidenthums</i>, pp. 64-98.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Spread of Islam.</b>—Mecca once converted, the rest of Arabia could not +long remain outside. There was reluctance in various places to make +the change which Mahomet now required of all his countrymen. But the +penalty of refusing it was the prophet's wrath, with its terrible +attendants, war and rapine, and none of the Arabs cared enough for +their old gods to brave such terrors for their sake. The inhabitants +of Taif endeavoured to make terms, so that the change might be less +abrupt. Their ambassadors urged that fornication, usury, and the use +of wine might be allowed them, but this could not be granted; the +Taifites must accept the deprivations to which all the Moslems had +agreed. Then they asked that their Rabba, their goddess, might be +spared to them for three years, and as this was refused, for two +years, a year, a month. But the only concession they could obtain was +that they should not be obliged to destroy their goddess with their +own hands. The ancient paganism, it will be seen, fell easily and +without any tragedy.</p> + +<p>Mahomet did not long survive the national acceptance of his religion; +he died on 8th June 632. But he did <a name="p238"></a>not die without having opened up +to his followers very wide views for the future of his cause, and +started them on a career of religious war and conquest which was not +soon to be arrested. From a comparatively early period of his career +he had considered that Islam was destined to prevail not only in +Arabia but in other lands. Starting with the idea that his revelation +was only a later stage of that which had taken place in Judaism and +Christianity, he had advanced to the position that these were false +religions, and his own the only true one. Wherever he looked in the +world he could see no true religion but his own; it must therefore +take the place of all others. Accordingly he sent embassies from +Medina to Heraclius the emperor of the East, to the king of Persia, +to the governor of Egypt, and to other potentates, announcing himself +to be the "Prophet of God," and calling upon them to give up their +idolatrous worships and return to the religion of the one true God. +These embassies had small effect; but Mahomet was prepared to take +much more forcible measures in order to spread the faith. War against +infidels being one of the standing duties of the faithful, various +regulations were laid down for the treatment of captives and the +disposal of booty in such wars. God, who is said in every verse to be +forgiving and merciful, encourages the faithful in such passages to +slay and rob, and to make concubines of women taken in sacred wars. +At the moment of his death an expedition, not the first, was ready to +start against the Greek power. It is in this guise that Islam assumes +the <i>rôle</i> of a universal religion.</p> + +<p><b>The Duties of the Moslem.</b>—The missionary of Islam requires of his +converts nothing very difficult either in the way of belief or in the +way of action. His demands are brief and precise. They consist of the +following five points:—1. The profession of belief in the unity of +God and the mission of Mahomet. The formula runs: "There is no God +but Allah, and Mahomet is the prophet of Allah." 2. Prayer. This +consists of the repetition of a <a name="p239"></a>certain form of words at five +separate times each day, the worshipper standing up with his face +towards Mecca. The mosques are always open for prayer, and there is a +special service on Friday, the day of the week chosen by Mahomet in +contradistinction to the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. 3. +Almsgiving. This is done on a fixed scale, and the contributions +were, in Mahomet's time, devoted to the support of war against +infidels. 4. Fasting. This takes place during the month of Ramadan, +and the fast is very strictly observed. 5. The Hagg or pilgrimage to +Mecca.</p> + +<p><b>The Koran</b> is the sacred book of Islam. The name means "reading"; see +<a href="#p227">above</a>. Like other sacred books, the Koran is arranged in such an +order that he who reads it as it stands finds it very confused, and +fails to grasp its historical meaning. The claim to divine +inspiration is made in every chapter and every line of it; God +himself is the speaker. But the divine oracles refer to very various +matters. All sorts of legal decisions, military orders, injunctions +about religious affairs, legends and speculations, have a place in +it. Of prediction of the future, indeed, there is but one instance; +the prophet disclaimed the power to work miracles, and held that no +wonders beyond those of the splendid order of the universe are +necessary to faith; and similarly he does not pose as a foreteller, +but as an organ of the divine will for the present. As the ruler of a +theocracy, the leader of armies, the judge in many a civil case, the +guardian of the manners of the people, the officiating minister in +public worship, and, let it also be mentioned, the head of a very +peculiar domestic establishment, he has a hundred matters of +immediate concern to attend to; and when he has formed his decision +on any of these matters, it takes its place in the Koran. The book +thus produced is far from being an attractive one; even in the +translation of Professor Palmer<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> it can afford pleasure to no +<a name="p240"></a>reader. The translation, it is true, loses the poetry and music of +the original, which are highly spoken of; but the main obstacle to +reading the Koran is its want of arrangement. The earliest suras +(chapters; literally courses of bricks) stand mostly towards the end +of the collection; the long ones in the beginning and middle are +later, and many of them are composite: two or several chapters have +been joined into one. When read in their historical order, the suras +can be read with pleasure by the student as showing the growth of the +prophet's ideas and of his cause. The earliest ones are short, +poetical, and intense. These are the suras which threw the prophet +into such excitement and distress that his hair turned white. They +are full of the wonders of God in nature and in history, of fiery +denunciation of idolatry, and of fearful threatenings. In later +pieces we come to long legends taken chiefly from the Jewish Haggadah +and the Christian Apocrypha, in which the prophet displays much +ignorance of the commonest facts of the Bible history; and as his +power increases and his functions multiply, we come to the +miscellaneous matters spoken of above. The style, at first poetic and +exalted, becomes afterwards prosaic and diffuse; it is not the +inspired seer who speaks, but the statesman or the judge; and the +placing of these later utterances in the mouth of God could not +deceive the original hearers. The Koran, like the Vedas and the +Gathas and the Jewish Scriptures, was exalted in later stages of the +religion to the highest conceivable honours; and one of the greatest +controversies of Islam raged round the question whether it had +existed from eternity and was uncreated.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> <i>Sacred Books of the East</i>, vols. vi. and xi.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Islam a Universal Religion.</b>—What is most remarkable about Islam is +the rapidity of its growth. Mahomet begins life a poor and lowly +herdsman, and at his death bequeaths to his successors a kingdom +which he has formed, and which is shortly to prevail over all its +neighbours. In the same way his doctrine, confined at <a name="p241"></a>first to a +small circle and bitterly opposed, becomes within half a century the +faith of his nation, and not only of his nation, but of many other +lands. Within that brief space it has entered on the career of a +national religion, and has also passed beyond the national into the +universal stage, at which only two other religions have arrived at +all. The progress which Christianity took centuries to accomplish, +Islam accomplished in so many decades. The title of a universal +religion cannot be denied to it. The truth which it declared—the +doctrine of the unity and the omnipotence of God, and of the +responsibility of every human being to his Creator and Judge—is one +which does not belong to any particular race of men, but to all men. +The attitude of soul which is called Islam—that of implicit +surrender to the great God, of entire acquiescence in his decrees and +entire obedience to his will—is good for all. All should be called +to take an earnest view of their life and to realise their deep +responsibilities; and the idea expressed by the title given to God on +every page of the Koran, "The Merciful and Compassionate," that God +sympathises with the aspirations and efforts of his servants, and +that they may look up to him with love as well as fear, is one which +all can understand and feel helpful. Especially at the stage when the +world is given up to idolatry, Islam may well rank as a universal +religion; when each place has its idol, each nation its greater +idols, religion divides instead of uniting, and the frivolous and +senseless service of such petty deities prevents men from realising +their solemn obligations to the great God before whom they are all +alike, since he is the Governor and Judge of all. Islam is an +admirable corrective of heathenism; it brings the scattered and +bewildered worshippers of idols together in one lofty faith and one +simple rule.</p> + +<p>The weakness of Islam is that it is not progressive. Its ideas are +bald and poor; it grew too fast; its doctrines and forms were +stereotyped at the very <a name="p242"></a>outset of its career, and do not admit of +change. Its morality is that of the stage at which men emerge from +idolatry, and does not advance beyond that stage, so that it +perpetuates institutions and customs which are a drag on +civilisation. Mahomet's Paradise, in which the warrior is to be +ministered to by beauteous houris (the number of whom is not +mentioned), may not have been an immoral conception in his day; but +it is so now, and apparently cannot be left behind. An admirable +instrument for the discipline of populations at a low stage of +culture, and well fitted to teach them a certain measure of +self-restraint and piety, Islam cannot carry them on to the higher +development of human life and thought. It is repressive of freedom, +and the reason is that its doctrine is after all no more than +negative. Allah is but a negation of other gods; there is no store of +positive riches in his character, he does not sympathise with the +manifold growth of human activity; the inspiration he affords is a +negative inspiration, an impulse of hostility to what is over against +him, not an impulse to strive after high and fair ideals. He remains +eternally apart upon a frosty throne; his voice is heard, but he +cannot condescend. He does not enter into humanity, and therefore +cannot render to humanity the highest services.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small><i>The Life of Mahomet</i>, by Sir W. Muir, 1858.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Mohammed</i>, by Wellhausen, and "The Koran," by Nöldeke, in +<i>Encyclopĉdia Britannica</i>, vol. xvi.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>The Preliminary Discourse prefixed to Sale's <i>Koran;</i> and Professor +Palmer's Introduction in <i>S. B. E.</i>, vol. vi.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Islam</i>, by J. W. H. Stobart, in the "Non-Christian Religious +Systems" Series of the S.P.C.K.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>Der Islam</i>, by Houtsma, in De la Saussaye.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Hughes, <i>A Dictionary of Islam</i> (1885, 1896).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Sell, <i>The Faith of Islam</i>, Second Edition, 1896.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Stanley Lane-Poole, <i>The Speeches and Table-talk of Mohammad</i>, 1882; +the most important parts of the Koran, chronologically arranged, with +a very useful introduction.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Margoliouth. <i>Mohammed and the Rise of Islam</i>, 1905.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap14"></a><br><a name="p243"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>PART IV</h2> +<h3>THE ARYAN GROUP</h3> +<br><a name="p245"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XIV</h4> +<center>THE ARYAN RELIGION</center> +<br> + +<p>The science of language has placed it beyond dispute that the +languages of the leading European peoples are genealogically related +to each other, and that the languages of India and of Persia also +belong to the same family of speech. The Indo-European languages, +those, namely, of the higher race in India, and of the Persians, and +those of the Greeks, Italians, Celts, Germans, Slavs, Letts, and +Albanians, approach each other always more nearly as they are traced +upwards. Sanscrit is not the source of these tongues but an older +sister of the group; the mother language, which the facts prove to +have at one time existed, was a highly-inflected speech, and is +perhaps more nearly represented by Lettic than by Sanscrit; but it +can now be known only by a study of the common features of its +surviving children.</p> + +<p>The fact that the peoples named above are related to each other in +point of language led at once, when it was discovered, to the +conclusion that they were also of the same race, and must have come +originally from the same quarter of the world. Where, then, was the +early home of the undivided Aryan<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> race, from which the swarms +first issued which were to conquer and rule the <a name="p246"></a>various lands? At +first it was found in the East; the fact that Indian civilisation was +much earlier in time than that of any other Aryan people, naturally +suggested this. Professor Max Müller described in a very poetical way +how the European as well as the Indian must find in the East the +cradle of his race. From the high tableland of Asia, it was held, the +superior races came who were to rule nearly the whole of Europe, +while another migration descended towards Persia and the plains of +India.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> "Aryan" was the name of the conquering race of India. +The title "Indo-European" tells us that the race now dwells in India +and in Europe. "Indo-Germanic" describes the group by its Eastern, +and what is supposed to be its principal Western, member.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The theory, however, which placed the home of the Aryans on the +inhospitable steppes, the "high Pamere," of Asia, did not long +command assent; and attempts were made to place that home elsewhere, +in the valley of the Danube, on the south shores of the Baltic, or +even in the Scandinavian peninsula. The conquest, it is argued, +cannot have come from the East; it is much more probable that Aryan +speech and custom originated in the West, where it has the larger +number of representatives, and that it spread eastward. The more +extreme step has also been taken of denying that the Aryans are +related to each other at all in point of race. Unity of language, it +is argued, is no proof of unity of race—a glance over the British +Empire or even the British Islands is enough to show this. It is +maintained, therefore, that the relationship of the Aryan peoples is +not one of race but only of language and of culture; the word Aryan +denotes no more than a certain type of speech, and of accompanying +civilisation, which spread over all the peoples in question at a very +early time. Aryan language and civilisation laid hold of a number of +races not otherwise related to each other.</p> + +<p>The view, however, still prevails that the various lands where Aryan +speech and culture prevail were settled from one centre. When society +was in the nomadic stage, it may naturally be presumed that a +superior civilisation which had established itself in any one <a name="p247"></a>quarter +of the world would be carried by wandering hordes in various +directions, and that the bearers of the new civilisation would become +the conquerors and masters of the countries to which their wanderings +led them. And there is now some agreement on the part of leading +authorities as to the quarter of the world from which the migrations +of the Aryans proceeded. In the Southern Steppes of Russia, in the +great plains north of the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Sea of +Aral, there dwelt, we are told, in times far before the dawn of +history, hordes rather than tribes of men, who, though they had +originally spoken the same language, were coming to differ from each +other in speech and culture. These hordes were peoples in the process +of formation. It was natural to them to wander, and as each wandered +farther from the centre, it came to differ more markedly from the +common type. Some of these went southwards and eastwards to Persia +and India; others went westward, to conquer and possess the countries +of Europe.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> <i>Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples;</i> Schrader +and Jevons (Griffin, 1890). This is the English of Schrader's +<i>Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte</i>. Compare Dr. E. Meyer's +<i>History of Antiquity</i>, vol. i. book vi. Dr. Isaac Taylor's <i>Origin +of the Aryans</i> gives a compendious account of the question, +concluding against the unity of the Aryans in point of race.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The Aryan question lies at the threshold of the history of each of +the Aryan peoples, and has to be met in the study of each of the +religions. It must be confessed that the world now knows less on this +point than it thought it did a generation ago. The difference between +the Semitic and the Aryan spirit is real and substantial, as will +appear from the study of the Aryan religions, but it is more +important as well as more possible to know these well in their +individual character than to have a correct theory of their +historical relation to each other. The student ought, however, to be +informed as to the course of a deeply interesting enquiry.</p> +<a name="p248"></a> +<p>The civilisation of the Aryans was primitive enough. The following is +from Dr. Taylor:—</p> + +<blockquote><small>The undivided Aryans were a pastoral people, who wandered with their +herds as the Hebrew patriarchs wandered in Canaan. Dogs, cattle, and +sheep had been domesticated, but not the pig, the horse, the goat, or +the ass; and domestic poultry were unknown. The fibres of certain +plants were plaited into mats, but wool was not woven, and the skins +of beasts were scraped with stone knives, and sewed together into +garments with sinews by the aid of needles of bone, wood, or stone.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Their food consisted of flesh and milk, which was not yet made into +cheese or butter. Mead, prepared from the honey of wild bees, was the +only intoxicating drink, both beer and wine being unknown. Salt was +unknown to the Asiatic branch of the Aryans, but its use had spread +rapidly among the European branches of the race. In winter they lived +in pits dug in the earth and roofed over with poles covered with +turf, or plastered with cow dung. In summer they lived in rude +waggons or in huts made of the branches of trees. Of metals, native +copper may have been beaten into ornaments, but tools and weapons +were mostly of stone. Bows were made of the wood of the yew, ... +trees were hollowed out for canoes by stone axes, aided by the use of +fire.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>According to Hehn, the old or sick were killed, wives were obtained +by purchase or capture, infants were exposed or killed. After a time, +with tillage, came the possession of property, and established custom +grew slowly into law. Their religious ideas were based on magic and +superstitious terrors, the powers of nature had as yet assumed no +anthropomorphic forms, the great name of Dyaus, which afterwards came +to mean God, signified only the bright sky. They counted on their +fingers, but they had not attained to the idea of any number higher +than one hundred.<small><sup>3</sup></small></small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> <i>Origin of the Aryans</i>, p. 188.</small></blockquote> + +<p>These sketches of the early Aryan certainly attest more vigour than +refinement; and it takes some effort to realise that those who lived +in this way had already made much progress, and that these early arts +and institutions were full of promise. Savage as the early Aryan is, +he is better than his neighbours, and has made a good start in the +way of civilisation. His family arrangements, especially, are fitted +to survive and to develop. The early domestic architecture of the +Aryan countries, while it belongs to a much later <a name="p249"></a>period, yet gives +good evidence that the patriarchal ideal of the family was part of +the common inheritance. In every country they conquered the Aryans +lived in large patriarchal households. The sons, with their wives and +children, remained under their father's roof, the father being judge +and priest of this domestic community. We can specify other features +of the society connected with this type of household. As the family +increases and becomes too large to dwell under one roof, another +house is built, in which son or grandson, with his wife, founds a new +family. Thus a group of families arises, all related to each other by +blood, and in a position of equality, but looking to the original +house as their centre. This type of society must have been carried to +India by the Aryan invaders, who there set up patriarchal +establishments in houses which are similar in arrangement to those of +North Holland, of Iceland, or of early England. The men who lived in +this way were not agriculturists, they were shepherds and huntsmen, +and when they settled in a district they were wont to force the +former dwellers in it to till the land for them as their +inferiors.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> See two recent works by Mr. G. L. Gomme, <i>The Village +Community</i> and <i>Ethnology in Folklore;</i> also Hearn's <i>Aryan +Household</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>It is this type of civilisation which overspread the lands in early +times, and by its coming created in most instances a new world. Some +of the Aryan peoples made more rapid progress than others. They +passed early into the age of metals, and appear before us at the dawn +of history with fully-formed institutions, which bear the impress of +patriarchal ideas. Others remained longer in the stone age, and only +in historic times received the impulse which caused them to advance +to the rank of nations. The arts and inventions which are found in +many or in all of them are not necessarily a common inheritance from +the undivided Aryan age. Many of them may have come into being in +each of the lands independently, or one <a name="p250"></a>Aryan people may have +borrowed them from another at a later time. Starting from the common +stock of civilisation, the various races worked it out each in a way +of its own, and often, as we shall see, with wonderful similarities.</p> + +<p>Is it possible to give any description of the religion the Aryans had +in common before they developed it in different ways in their various +lands? We can no longer, following Mr. Max Müller, look to India to +tell us what was the common Aryan religion. Indian religion, when we +first become acquainted with it, has already grown into an elaborate +priestly system, and is evidently at a much later stage of Aryan +development than the rustic cults, with which we have a good deal of +acquaintance, in various European lands. If, however, we cannot +follow the great German scholar in this, we gladly use his words on +another aspect of the subject, when he is showing the etymological +identity of the chief god of the Aryan peoples.</p> + +<p>In his <i>Lectures on the Science of Language</i>, vol. ii. p. 468, he +tells us that "Zeus, the most sacred name in Greek mythology, is the +same word as Dyaus in Sanscrit, Jovis or Ju in Jupiter in Latin, Tiw +in Anglo-Saxon, preserved in Tiwsdĉg, Tuesday, the day of the Eddic +god Tyr; Zio in old High-German.</p> + +<p>"This word was framed," he says, "once and once only; it was not +borrowed by the Greeks from the Hindus, nor by the Romans and Germans +from the Greeks. It must have existed before the ancestors of those +primeval races became separate in language and religion; before they +left their common pastures to migrate to the right hand and to the +left.... Here, then, in this venerable word, we may look for some of +the earliest religious thoughts of our race."<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> See also Mr. Müller's <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>, and his +<i>Biographies of Words</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In this instance etymology admittedly points out one of the principal +features of the common Aryan religions. But if we hope that etymology +will reveal <a name="p251"></a>to us many further instances of the same kind, and +introduce us to the whole Pantheon of the Aryans, we shall be +disappointed. There are one or two more cases of etymological +agreement between the gods of India and those of Europe,<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> but the +agreement is in some of these cases no more than etymological. The +Tiw or Tyr of the Teutonic mythology does not correspond in office or +character with Zeus or Jupiter, though the names are etymologically +akin. The agreement does not extend to all the religions in question, +nor does it extend in any two religions to all their gods; most of +the gods of Europe have no parallels in India. The evidence of +etymology, therefore, tells us but little of that early religion of +which we are in search. But if we consider the views and habits of +the barbarous shepherd-huntsman, who is now seen to be the typical +figure of common Aryanism, we need not seek long before we find +something that was common to all the Aryan faiths. The patriarchal +household has a religion which belongs to itself, and which is the +working bond of union of its members. The hearth is its altar, +because the forefathers of the house lie buried under it, or for +another reason. These forefathers certainly are its gods. This +hearth-cult has for its priest the father of the family; he in his +turn will be gathered to his fathers if he has a legitimate son to do +the last rites for him. No one but members of the family can partake +in the domestic worship, all unconnected with the family by blood +must be kept at a distance from these rites. This is not a religion +in <a name="p252"></a>which the individual counts anything for his own sake, any more +than totemistic religion is; in both it is the community alone that +serves the deity, in the one case, those acknowledging the same +totem, in the second, those united by blood in the same family. In +totemism the individual sacrifices himself to the tribe; here he is +nothing apart from his family. Aryan piety is family religion pure +and simple. It fosters sentiments which have been the strength of +Aryan society in all lands. It makes family life a sacred thing, +lends to all domestic ties the highest sanction, and causes the mere +mention of "hearth and home" to be the strongest incentive to valour +and self-denial. Even in the wild-beast ferocity with which early men +defend their homes against the intrusion of strangers, the germs of +lofty domestic and patriotic virtues may be seen. Thus +ancestor-worship, which is a part of the very beginnings of human +religion, is a more effective force among the Aryans than anywhere +else. In Egypt and China that worship is a highly artificial thing, +and has lost much of its original force. In Egypt it is the fortunes +of the dead that are most thought of; in China the cult has been +smoothed down and deprived, according to the character of the people, +of its intenser motives. Among the Aryans it combines actively with +strong family feeling, causing them to cling with an extreme tenacity +to their own gods and their own worship.<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> The principal are the following:—<br> +<br> +1. Dyaus, god of the sky, see above.<br> +<br> +2. Sans. Ushas, goddess of dawn; Gr. [Greek: hêôs]; Lat. aurora; Lith. +auszra; A.-S. eostra.<br> +<Br> +3. Sans. Agni, fire, god of fire; Lat. ignis; Lith. ugnis; O.-S. +ogni.<br> +<br> +4. Sans. Surya, sun; Lat. sol; Gr. [Greek: helios], also [Greek: +Seirios]; Cymr. seul.<br> +<br> +5. Sans. Mâs, moon; Gr. [Greek: mênê]; Lat. mena; Lith. menu.<br> +<br> +Mars=Maruts, Manu=Minos=Mannus, Varuna=Ouranos, and other equations +formerly brought forward, are not now relied on by etymologists.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> The comparative absence of ancestor-worship among the +Greeks leads Dr. Schrader to doubt whether their religion is Aryan. +The Semites and the Greeks occupy the same position in this respect +(see <a href="#p166">above</a> and <a href="#p290">below</a>).</small></blockquote> + +<p>But those of whom we are speaking worshipped other gods besides those +of the household. The second great characteristic of Aryan religion +is its adoration of gods who are neither local nor tribal, but +universal. Dyaus, the sky, the heaven-god, can be worshipped +anywhere; so can the earth, so can the heavenly twins, who were +objects of early Aryan religion, so can the sun and moon. Not that +the Aryans always remembered that <a name="p253"></a>these beings were not local or +tribal. The god of heaven could be the god of a particular place too, +having a special name there; or he could be appropriated by a tribe +who gave him a title as their own particular patron. Each family +could have its own heaven-god as well as its own hearth-god. Nor are +we to think that when they worshipped beings who could be found in +every place, the Aryans overlooked the sacred places, and the sacred +objects worshipped formerly. They had themselves risen out of +savagery, and still held many of the ideas of savages. Though they +had a few great gods they could still believe in a large number of +smaller ones. The tree, the stream, still had its spirit for them, +the cave or the dark fissure its bad demon. And many a piece of magic +did they practise, such as the rain-charm which would cause even the +highest god to send what was needed. The world was well peopled with +gods, and to keep on good terms with them all was, no doubt, a matter +that required much attention and skill.</p> + +<p>Other features which have been stated to be characteristic of Aryan +religion are its non-priestly character, and the fact that its gods +are generally arranged in a monarchical pantheon. But neither of +these constitutes a specific difference of the kind we are in search +of. All primitive religions are non-priestly; a religion becomes +priestly at a certain stage of its growth, when it is organised +separately from the state. The monarchical pantheon, too, such as +that of Homer and of the Eddas, is an indication, not of the genius +of a religion, but of its having reached the systematising stage, and +of the political ideas according to which the system is drawn up. The +Aryan religions, it is true, arrange their gods when the time comes +to do so, after the pattern of an Aryan patriarchal establishment, +the father at the head, his sons and daughters near him, the servants +in attendance, the unorganised host of spirits, nymphs and elves, +outside. But to know the original <a name="p254"></a>character of the religion it is +less important to ask how the pantheon is arranged, than what gods +are worshipped, and how they are related to man. And the point which +stands out clearly is that while Semitic religion is purely tribal +and local, there is an element in Aryan religion which naturally +transcends these limits. On Semitic ground the body with whom the god +transacts is the tribe, the link is that of blood which connects all +the members of the tribe with their divine head or ancestor. In Aryan +religion also blood counts for much. The family altar is the seat of +worship, and he who has been cast out of his own family cannot +worship anywhere. The family gods are most thought of, no doubt, and +exercise immense power in the ways we have mentioned. But the worship +of which blood is the tie is not to the Aryan, as to the Semite, the +whole of religion. There are beings aloft as well as beings on the +earth and under the earth, and the worship of these beings is wider +than the family. The family may address Heaven by a special private +name, or at a particular spot, but Heaven itself was above all these +titles and places. The spirits of the household made, as all the +Semitic gods do, for separation, but the gods above made for union, +and as any community grew, the upper gods, who were worshipped by all +its members alike, became more lofty and more important. Thus we may +agree with Mr. Gomme when he speaks (<i>Ethnology of Folklore</i>, p. 68) +of the emancipation of the Aryans from the principle of local +worship, and says that the rise of the conception of gods who could +and did accompany the tribes wheresoever they travelled, was "the +greatest triumph of the Aryan race."</p> + +<p>Farther than this it may be dangerous to go in a field so full of +uncertainty. In all Aryan worships there are sacrifices of various +kinds and degrees of importance. The horse sacrifice appears in +several of the nations as one of distinction, but human sacrifice was +most important of all, though in each of the Aryan lands <a name="p255"></a>commutations +are made for it at a very early stage. The strife of Aryan with +non-Aryan religions gave rise to many superstitions; after the +conquest the gods of the latter often became the bad gods or demons +of the former, the ministers of the defeated cult were regarded as +sorcerers or witches, the dethroned gods made many an attempt to come +back to their seats, and to revive disused practices. But a religion +based, as we have seen the Aryan to be, in the family affections is +destined to rise as civilisation advances. It will be found that the +Aryan draws a less absolute distinction than the Semite between the +human and the divine. To the Semite God is, broadly speaking, a +master, or Lord, whose word is a command, in regard to whom man is a +subject, a slave. To the Aryan the relation is a freer one. His god +is more human, and art and imagination can do more in his service.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>E. Siecke, <i>Die religion d. Indogermanen</i>, 1897.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>C. F. Keary, <i>Outlines of Primitive Belief among the Indo-European +Races</i>, 1882.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap15"></a><br><a name="p256"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XV</h4> +<center>THE TEUTONS</center> +<br> + +<p><b>The Aryans in Europe.</b>—There is more than one European people which +before it was touched by Roman civilisation had remained for an +indefinite period—a period to be measured probably rather by +millenniums than by centuries—in the state of society described in +last chapter (<a href="#p249">see above</a>, <i>sqq.</i>) as occurring when the Aryans dwelt +among those whom they had conquered. In various lands alike we meet +with the combination of the patriarchal household with the village, +the combination of agricultural with pastoral life, to which the +Aryans early settled down among non-Aryan populations. This type of +society, which is the basis of feudalism, is recognised alike in +India and in Germany. It stretches far back into the past, and may +even be recognised in some quarters at the present day.</p> + +<p>As with civilisation so with religion. The early faith of the Slavs, +the Celts, and the Teutons is now generally regarded as best +representing that of the Aryans. It was a religion in which rite and +belief were indefinite and variable compared with those of the later +Aryan faiths of India and of Southern Europe, there being neither a +regular priesthood nor the use of writing to impart fixity to +religious forms. The river, the fountain, and the aged oak, each had +its legend and its observance of unknown antiquity. The pre-Aryan and +the Aryan elements of religion acted and reacted on each <a name="p257"></a>other, the +Aryan, no doubt, being the element of progress, but blending with the +other in indistinguishable mixture. The spirits of ancestors lived in +the belief and the practice of posterity; a thousand unseen agents in +the sky, and in the earth, and under the earth were believed in and +treated according to tradition, fed or flouted, bribed or exorcised, +as occasion suggested. New gods appeared, or old ones were combined +into new, or a god migrated from one province to another. Here also +myths and rituals were formed by various processes. But a more +constant growth of belief took place in connection with some gods as +larger social organisms came into existence, village communities +combining into tribes, tribes into nations. The great gods of heaven, +whatever the history of their early growth, proved specially fitted +to unite together clans and peoples. These beings received different +names in different countries. Their early history, no doubt, was not +the same in all, yet in each mythology there were figures and stories +which occurred also in others, whether in consequence of parallel +growth out of similar circumstances in each land, or from a process +of borrowing at a later time, or from both, we need not try to +decide.</p> + +<p>We give a short account of the religion of the Germans. That of the +Celts, which may be studied in the Hibbert Lectures of Professor +Rhys,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> or that of the Slavs (of which there is an excellent short +summary by Mr. W. R. Morfill in <i>Religious Systems of the World</i>), +would have equally well served the purpose of exhibiting an Aryan +religion at a low stage of development, and held by a people not +thoroughly compacted into a nation. The religion of the Teutons has +the advantage for our study over these others, that it remained +longer unsuppressed by Christianity, and in its Scandinavian branch +put forth a vigorous original growth in comparatively recent times. +The <a name="p258"></a>latest paganism which flourished in Europe, it is also the +religion of our ancestors, on which the Christianity of the Northern +lands was grafted, and many a survival of which may still be +recognised in our own land. It therefore possesses for us even in +itself considerable interest.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as +illustrated by Celtic Heathendom</i>, 1886.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Of <b>the ancient Germans</b>, of the dwellers in the basins of the Rhine +and the Danube, we have accounts by Cĉsar and by Tacitus.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> After +this there is a dearth of information; the Christian missionaries to +the Germans thought it their duty to cover the former beliefs and +rites of their converts in oblivion, and abstained from giving +information about them. What we know is drawn from Church writers. +The Eddas belong to a much more developed stage of Teutonic life; +they tell their own tale, which will be noticed in its turn.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Cĉsar, <i>B. Gall.</i> vi. 21. Tacitus, <i>Germania</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The early Germans dwelt in scattered settlements surrounded by the +great forests and marshes which then covered Central Europe. Every +one has read the description of the brave and warlike people of whom +the Romans justly stood so much in awe, and knows about their fierce +blue eyes and their fair hair, their tall stature, their battle-cries +and charges, their hardy habits and strict morals. As the Roman +writers describe them, they are by no means savages. They do not live +in towns, but migrate from one spot to another, the community +cultivating the land it takes possession of, on a system of common +ownership with rotation of occupants. The women did the hard work, +Tacitus says; the men spent their time in the chase and in fighting. +They had an organisation beyond that of the village, being arranged +in what we may call hundreds and shires, each district having to +furnish so many men for war, electing its own heads and holding +meetings for various purposes. Amidst these local and <a name="p259"></a>tribal +divisions they did not forget that they were a nation different from +other nations, and invasion found them a united people. The religious +expression of this is to be found in the legend which represents the +three great divisions of the nation as descended alike from the god +Mannus, son of the earth-born Tuisco; hymns were sung to the latter +as the father of the German race. It was by hymns that this people +remembered things which were important.</p> + +<p><b>The Early German Gods.</b>—There is a national god, then; and other gods +of whom Tacitus tells us are national too, not local or tribal. The +tribes to the south of the Baltic worship Herthus, which, Tacitus +says, is their name for Terra Mater, Mother Earth. The other gods he +mentions are called by Roman names. They worship Mercury, he says, as +their principal god; on certain days they worship him with human +sacrifices. They also worship Mars and Hercules with animal victims; +and a particular tribe, the Suevi, worship Isis. Cĉsar says the +Germans worship the sun, and Vulcan, and the moon. Tacitus mentions +other German gods; the two statements are both true. Tacitus gives +the German gods Roman names according to a common practice of +antiquity, which has been the source of much confusion; we shall see +afterwards how the Romans identified the gods of Greece also with +those of Rome.</p> + +<p>The equation which Tacitus gives of the German gods with Latin ones +is still in daily use in the names of the days of the week. The +Romans applied the names of the planets, which were the names of +their own gods, to the days of the week as early as the first +Christian century; and in Germany the days were called after the +German gods supposed to answer to the Roman gods in question. Half +Europe to this day calls the days of the week after the Roman, and +the other half after the German gods. We give the Latin names with +the modern French and over against <a name="p260"></a>them the English, in which the +names of the German gods appear more clearly than in modern German:—</p> + +<blockquote><small>Dies Solis, the Sun's day=Sunday. (The French <i>Dimanche</i> is from +<i>Dominicus</i>, the Lord's Day.)<br> +<br> +Dies Lunĉ (Lundi)=Monday or Moon's day.<br> +<br> +Dies Martis (Mardi)=Tuesday, the day of Tiw or Ziu.<br> +<br> +Dies Mercurii (Mercredi)=Wednesday, the day of Wodan.<br> +<br> +Dies Jovis (Jeudi)=Thursday, the day of Thor. In German this is +<i>Donnerstag</i>, the day of Donar=Thor.<br> +<br> +Dies Veneris (Vendredi)=Friday, the day of Freya.<br> +<br> +Dies Saturni retains the Latin god's name in our Saturday. (The +French <i>Samedi</i> is derived from Sabbath.)</small></blockquote> + +<p>These Teutonic names for the days of the week are common to all the +branches of Teutonic speech, and must have a high antiquity. They +tell us what gods the Germans had in early times, and to what Roman +gods these were believed to correspond; but it would be a vain +endeavour to attempt to deduce from this, or indeed from any early +information we possess on the subject, the origin and nature of these +gods. From Grimm's laborious study of the question (<i>German +Mythology</i>, vol. i.) we gather that it is a matter mainly of +speculation what it was in Wodan that led the Romans to identify him +with their Mercury. Thor, who is identified with Jupiter, was +probably a sky-god, while Tiw or Ziu (whom etymology identifies with +Zeus, not Mars) was a god of war, and Freya, like Venus, had to do +with female beauty. We come to know more of these gods when we find +them in the Eddas, but it is scarcely legitimate to fill in the South +German gods of the first century from the North German gods of the +same names of the eleventh or twelfth. We reserve, therefore, our +description of the German gods till we come to the Northern +mythology.</p> + +<p>The Roman writers do not furnish any accurate idea of <b>the working +religion of the Germans</b> of their day. Cĉsar says they were not so +much under the guidance of priests as the Gauls were, and that they +were not greatly addicted to sacrifice; neither statement can <a name="p261"></a>be +received without scrutiny. Tacitus idealises the untutored savage as +Rousseau does, in order to rebuke the vices of a luxurious +civilisation; but his statements of actual facts may be trusted. +Knowledge recently acquired of early forest-cults disposes us to +trust him when he speaks, as he does more than once, of the peculiar +sacredness the Germans attached to woods and groves. He is idealising +when he says, "They did not confine their gods in walls nor represent +them under the likeness of men, being led thereto by considering the +greatness of the heavenly beings." A few centuries later at least we +find Christian bishops busy destroying temples of German heathenism +and burning images found in them. Undoubtedly, however, the great +sanctuary of a district was frequently, as he represents, in the +recesses of a wood. Under a mighty tree a tribe would hold its +meetings and sit in judgment and in council; and there were sacred +groves in which no human foot might stray, where the god was supposed +to dwell, where great sacrifices both of animal and of human victims +took place, where the boughs were hung with the bones of former +sacrifices which in war were carried forth at the head of the tribe +as its sacred standards. This was done by the priests, who +accompanied the host to battle, and were charged at such a time with +the infliction of all necessary punishments, since they represented +the god who was supposed to be personally present as commander. The +priests had to work the auguries when consulted on matters of state; +on private matters the paterfamilias might do this himself. The +priests also had charge of the sacred white horses, by whose neighing +the will of the deity became known. Several women are also mentioned +as having enjoyed the reputation of sacred personages; and "even in +their wives they considered that there was a certain holiness and +inspiration."</p> + +<p>To judge from Tacitus and from other writers of the first Christian +centuries, there was little system in the <a name="p262"></a>religion of Germany in +those days; the gods were not organised in a divine family, the +priests were not a caste like the Druids of France and Britain, and +religious practice was loose and variable. It must also be remembered +that what foreign writers reported on the subject was connected +rather with national and official cults than with popular local +observances. Of the latter there was an abundant growth; a +distinguished foreign writer might not know about it, but the +evidence of it survives in various forms which are only now being +seriously studied. To know the practical religion of early Germany we +have to consult the village festival and legend (as has been done by +Mannhardt in his <i>Wald- und Feld-kulte</i> and Mr. Frazer in <i>The Golden +Bough</i>, and many a student of folklore), which, though now apparently +meaningless, were once the serious religious observance and doctrine +of the peasantry. The peasant carried his wishes and prayers to the +familiar wishing-well, and presented offerings to the spirit of the +well by throwing them into the water or hanging them on the +surrounding trees. The fairy rather than far-off Wodan was looked to +for good fortune; the rite of the fabulous village hero, with its +quaint immemorial usages, roused more enthusiasm than the stately +public ceremonial. Another side of the mind of early Germany is to be +gathered from the heroic legends and the fairy tales, many of the +elements of which, we are assured, were even then in existence. Were +these legends formed by a process of degradation; did they begin with +telling about the gods, and were they afterwards applied to heroes +and princes and common men? Or was the process in the opposite +direction from this; were the stories, first of all, those of human +warriors, their wars and loves, and did they then become mixed up +with solar and celestial ideas? Were the fairy tales originally +stories of the gods, and did they by popular and familiar treatment +fall below the dignity of their original themes till they came to be +a debased and <a name="p263"></a>broken-down mythology? or were they at first stories +about beasts and about clever tricks, such as savages love to tell, +and did they rise to something more dignified, till in some of them +we may trace the stories of the gods? It is not necessary that we +should answer these questions, which carry us back to an earlier time +than that with which we are concerned; but any one who knows the +tales, and will try to realise the state of mind of those who +received them not as fancy but as serious fact, will know something +of the religion of early Germany; of the strange beings, fairies, +dwarfs, magicians, talking animals, animated sun and moon and winds, +by which the German believed himself to be surrounded.</p> + +<p><b>Later German Religion.</b>—In Southern Germany the introduction of +Christianity early put an end to any development of Teutonic religion +which might have taken place there. The old faith, however, still +maintained itself in more Northern latitudes. It was brought to +Britain by the German invaders, continued there till the seventh +century, and was brought in again in a more Northern form by the +Norsemen, who in their turn "gradually deserted Thor and Odin for the +white Christ."<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> Bede tells hardly anything of the paganism which +had been the religion of England a century before he wrote; in this +he is like other Christian teachers who might have told but did not. +But though it came to an end in England, Teutonic religion continued +to prevail in the countries from which the invaders had come. In +Frisia in the eighth century we hear of a goddess Hulda, a kind +goddess, as her name implies, who sends increase to plants and is a +patroness of fishing. A god called Fosete, or Forsete (Forseti in +modern Icelandic=chairman), identified both with Odin and with +Balder, was worshipped in Heligoland; he had a sacred well there, +from which water had to be drawn in silence. There are temples, often +in the <a name="p264"></a>middle of a wood, with priestly incumbents, and rich +endowments, both of lands and treasure; and human sacrifice in +various forms is said to have been in use. Idols are mentioned, even +(at Upsala in Sweden) a trinity of idols; but this is what Church +writers would naturally impute to heathens, and the statement is +discredited. No Teutonic idol has survived; the loss to art may not +be great, but such a relic would have settled the controversy.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> Kingsley's <i>Hereward the Wake</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Iceland.</b>—Teutonic paganism reached its highest development in +Iceland. Of this branch of it alone is there a literature, for many +of the sagas are the fruit of a literary movement in Iceland anterior +to the establishment of Christianity; and the historian Ari, who +wrote within a century after that event, gives careful information of +the earlier state of affairs. The reader of <i>Burnt Njal</i> sees that +among the Icelanders life was short and precarious. With the spirit +of adventure, which led them to be constantly setting out on warlike +and piratical expeditions, they combined a strong tendency to local +quarrels, which filled up their life at home with a constant series +of blood-feuds. These latter are gone about in a methodical and +business-like way; custom sanctions them, the meetings of the popular +assembly do not seek to suppress or punish them if only they are +conducted according to the rules. No public authority had as yet +arisen to carry out the law between one household and another; the +avenger has his recognised place and duty. Society is patriarchal as +in other Aryan communities; each family is a community of +blood-kindred for mutual defence and also for worship. The leading +cult of Icelandic religion was the domestic worship of ancestors, +conducted by the head of the household. The dead were buried in +knolls or burrows near the dwelling, and their spirits were thought +to inhabit these places; they are said to "die into the hill." Altars +are erected and sacrifices offered there; the blood of the victim +poured out upon <a name="p265"></a>the ground is supposed to be enjoyed by them. These +knolls became the sacred places of their district, and many a belief +existed about these quiet neighbours and the help they afforded to +the living. "Elves" they were called, and they were thought of as a +cleanly and kindly race. The spirits of bad men, on the contrary, +lived an uneasy life, as demons, and were the workers of mischief.</p> + +<p>Along with this belief in the spirits of the dead as inhabiting the +burial hill of the household, there is another conception, namely, +that the dead go to a distant region of the unseen world. In Homer +also these two conceptions are combined. The Icelandic burial rites +are founded on the latter view. The "departed" is going on a long +journey, and his friends escort him as far as they can; shoes are +bound on his feet, the Hel-shoes, for Hel is the name of the region +of the dead. Gifts are given to him; horses, male and female +attendants, hawks and hounds, are burned with him on the pyre, and +his wife voluntarily accompanies him; all these he is to have with +him in the country beyond.</p> + +<p>In addition to the domestic cult we have that of local objects; holy +wells, waterfalls, groves, stones are worshipped. Mother Earth is +called on, so is Thunder, so is Heaven. But besides these minor +worships there is the public one, connected with a large tribe or +with a king's court. A temple on the same plan as a large +dwelling-house forms a place of meeting and of sacrifice, an asylum, +and a place of oaths and covenants. On a table in front of the high +seat stands the bowl which, filled with blood and along with certain +sticks, forms a means of divination. A gold ring also lies there, +which a man puts on when he is about to swear an oath, and which the +priest puts on at meetings.</p> + +<p>The priest has the duty of keeping up the building and property of +the temple and of maintaining the sacrifices. At the latter various +rites are done with the blood of victims, and those present feast on +the <a name="p266"></a>flesh and drink toasts. The first cup is for Wodan, various other +gods are celebrated, and there is a cup of remembrance for the +departed. Sacrifices are offered for the crops, for victory, for any +great object on which the community is bent. In this ritual there is +no evidence of any idols. Though the Icelanders are not without art, +the great gods have not yet perhaps assumed to their minds such +definite figures as to be thus set forth: no Homer has placed them +clear before the inward eye. The rites are bloody, the altar has ever +anew to be made to shine with the blood of victims. Human sacrifices +are only resorted to in times of great common danger, as a terrible +last resort; the god to whom the human victim is devoted is moved by +the bloodshed to avert his anger, or to make greater exertions for +his people. Bloodshed forms the strongest of all bonds. To link +themselves together in an indissoluble brotherhood, two friends +mingle their blood on the ground and then each of them treads on it. +The shedding of human blood at the launching of a ship or at the +laying of the foundation of a building is also known. Savage and +cruel as this religion is, there are signs that it is softening, and +that some of its darker rites are beginning to admit of commutation. +When Christianity approaches, the Icelanders feel that it must make a +great change, and that some of the cruelties which they regard as the +good old customs, will have to be laid aside. We hear of the +stipulation being made that if they receive baptism they shall not be +required to give up the removal of unpromising children nor the +eating of horseflesh.</p> + +<p><b>The Eddas</b>, in which Scandinavian mythology reaches its ultimate form, +seem to belong to a higher plane of human life than the religion we +have described, and it has appeared to many scholars of late years +that they cannot be regarded as a pure product of paganism, but are +in great part influenced by Christianity both in matter and in +sentiment. The older Edda, written <a name="p267"></a>in verse, is said to have been +collected by Sĉmund Sigfusson the learned, one of the early Christian +priests of Iceland, who lived about the eleventh century. The other +Edda is in prose; it is a collection made about two centuries later. +The form given to the myths in these collections is due to the +Skalds, who flourished in Iceland in the early Middle Ages; but the +legends themselves are older. Nothing is known precisely about their +origin or early diffusion.</p> + +<p>The Eddas may be compared in many respects with the Homeric poems. As +in the latter, the gods form a family, the members of which come +together to a certain place for meetings, while individually they +have their own adventures, their loves, their jealousies, their +jokes, their tricks. In the Eddas too we find that the gods are not, +strictly speaking, eternal; they succeeded an older race of gods, and +their turn too may come to pass away. They are called Ĉsir, which is +the plural of As. The etymology of this is uncertain; compare the +Sanscrit Asura, said to mean the living or breathing one. The Ĉsir +are spoken of in later times, not in the Eddas, as if they had been a +race of warriors; they are said to have come in to Scandinavia and +got the better of those who lived there before, because they +worshipped a superior set of gods.<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> An historic reminiscence may +lurk here. Before the Ĉsir there were giants, and the earth with all +its parts is made of the body of one of these giants,<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> whom the new +race superseded as governors of the world. But the giants are still +there and their spirit is unchanged; there is a danger of their +interfering to subvert the rule of their successors.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> See a similar statement about the Incas, <a href="#p87">above</a>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> Compare "Purusha" in the <i>Rigveda</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>There are other cosmogonic myths besides that of the division of the +giant Ymir. One is on this wise. Ere this world began, there was on +one side Niflheim, the land of mist and cold, on the other side +Muspelheim, <a name="p268"></a>the region of fire; between these two lay Ginnungagap, +the north side of it frozen, the south side glowing hot, and life +originated by the meeting, in one way or another, of the heat and +cold. There are very primitive myths of the shaping of man out of two +pieces of wood, of Night and Day as drivers of chariots and horses, +of the sun and moon fleeing from wolves, and so on. A more poetic +conception is the division of the world into Asgard, the garden of +the Ĉsir; Midgard, the world of man; and Utgard, the world outside. +In the first Odin has his seat Hlidskjalf; when he sits in it he can +see and understand whatever is happening in any part of the broad +world (is he the sun, then?). The third region is generally called +Jötunheim, the home of the giants, an icy region at the extreme part +of the habitable world. A bridge exists from the dwelling of men to +that of the gods; it is called Bifröst, and is the rainbow.</p> + +<p>The gods have various places of meeting; but their principal seat is +under a great tree, the ash. Yggdrasil<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> is a tree worthy of the +gods; it is a world-tree; its roots extend to all the worlds; its +branches spread even over heaven. Under it is the fountain Mimir, +spring of wisdom, from which Odin drinks daily. Near it is the +dwelling of the Norns, fates or weird sisters, who establish laws and +uphold them by their judgments, and allot to every man his span of +life. They are named Urd the past, Verdandi the present, and Skuld +the future. Daily do they water the ash from the spring to keep its +leaves fresh, and help it to contend with its numerous foes, for a +great serpent is continually gnawing at its root, and it has also +other troubles. This myth of Yggdrasil is the apotheosis of Teutonic +tree-worship, and is richly suggestive.<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> Yggdrasil=Odin's horse=the gallows. Is it the cross?</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> Carlyle in his <i>Heroes</i>, p. 18, draws out the spiritual +significance of it and of Norse mythology generally.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>The Gods of the Eddas.</b>—We now come to the gods <a name="p269"></a>of the system. <b>Odin</b> +is in the Eddas the founder of the world as now constituted. He has +displaced the old formless race of gods, and is the leader of a new +and vigorous race now ruling in their stead. The old scholars +rationalised Odin into a chief who had led a migration from Asia to +Norway in early times. He is the inventor of the art of writing by +runes and the founder of poetry; thus he has the aspect of a +culture-hero; that is to say, of a man of advanced views who, for the +benefits he conferred on his people, was exalted first to a hero and +then to a god. But the worship of Odin or Wodan is one of the +earliest things we know about the German race. He is the god of the +South-Germans from the very first. His earliest character is that of +a storm-god. Whether his name is connected with the German <i>wüthen</i>, +rage (Scot. <i>wud</i>) or with the Vedic Vata, who is a god of storm, he +is from the first an impetuous being. The early myth of him is +scarcely dead at this day; the peasant hears him rushing through the +woods at night. That is the "wild hunt of Wodan," he says; the god is +out with his followers, and woe to him who gets in his way! The early +Germans thought of him as a kind being who fulfilled the wishes of +men, and it was probably this side of his character that caused him +to be identified with Mercury. In the Eddic theology he is a patron +of war, as becomes the chief god of a warlike people. He arranges +battle and dispenses victory; the heroes who fall in battle he +receives into his heavenly army; they live with him in Valhalla or +Valhöll, the hall of choice. Odin chooses those who are to go there; +he is assisted in this by the Valkyries or choice-maidens. Life in +Valhalla is a constant round of fighting, the wounds of which are +healed at once, and feasting, the materials for which are ever +renewed. Odin, like other great gods, bears traces of low +surroundings, as if he had once lived among savages. He can turn +himself into an eagle or other animal to gain his object, and he has +engaged in <a name="p270"></a>disreputable adventures. But he tends to improve, and the +Eddas show him at his best. Here he is called the All-father, the +Ruler of all, who gave man a soul that shall never perish; and we +hear that he needs no food and takes no share himself in the feasts +of the heroes. All the righteous shall be with him in Vingolf (the +same as Valhalla), but the wicked shall go to Hel, the kingdom of Hel +or Hela, the goddess of the under-world.</p> + +<p><b>Thor</b> or Donar, Thunder, is said to be the mightiest of the gods; he +is identified, as we saw, with Jove, but he is a rougher and more +primitive deity. He drives in a chariot drawn by two goats, and is +possessed of three things which have wonderful properties. The first +is the hammer Mjölnir, which the Frost- and Mountain-giants cannot +resist when he throws it; the second is the belt of strength, which +makes him twice as strong when he puts it on; and the third a pair of +gauntlets with which he grasps his mallet. Many stories are told of +his prowess, of his conflicts with the giants, who, however, give him +a good deal of trouble with their cunning; and of his catching the +Midgard serpent which surrounds the world at the bottom of the sea. +Being a god of storm, he forms a connection with agriculture, and +thus gains a more sedate aspect; he has also to do with marriage, and +a hammer is used symbolically at Icelandic weddings. Thor is only +half-brother to the other sons of Odin; his mother was Fiörgyn, the +earth; the worships of Odin and Thor, originally distinct, seem to +have been united at an early period.</p> + +<p>The god <b>Tyr</b>, son of Odin by a giantess, is the Eddic figure of the +German Tiw or Ziu, etymologically equivalent to Zeus or Jupiter, but +identified by the Romans with Mars. His greatness belongs to early +times; he was then a sword-god, and had an extensive worship in +various parts of Europe. In the Eddas he has scarcely any character, +and seldom takes a prominent <a name="p271"></a>part in the legend. <b>Loki</b>, by etymology a +fire-god (Germ. <i>Löhe</i>, Scot. <i>Lowe</i>),<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> is in one account the +brother of Odin, in another his son by a giantess. His character is +fitful; sometimes he acts a brotherly part by the gods and helps them +out of their difficulties by clever devices, and sometimes he +provides entertainment for them; but for the most part he is an +embodiment of cunning and mischief; his course is downwards, he tends +to become a being purely evil, setting himself heartlessly against +the wishes of the other gods, and acting so as to imperil them and +their world till they are obliged to cast him out of heaven. He is +thus a kind of Lucifer or Satan, and like the Christian devil, his +ultimate fate is to be bound till the end of the world shall arrive. +<b>Baldur</b>, the son of Odin and Frigga, is the best and brightest of the +gods. Like Apollo, he has to do with light, and no pollution can come +near him; he has also to do with the administration of justice, and +pronounces sentences which can never be reversed. <b>Heimdall</b> also is a +light and gracious god; he is the warder of the Ĉsir, and stays near +the bridge Bifröst. Of him it is told that he wants less sleep than a +bird, sees a hundred miles off by night or day, and hears the grass +grow on the ground and the wool on the sheep's back. <b>Bragi</b> is the god +of poetry and eloquence, the best of all skalds.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> The etymology is not perhaps correct, but it suggested +itself and influenced the view taken of this god, in very early +times.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Of the goddesses, <b>Frigga</b>, wife of Odin, stands first, an august +matron of mysterious knowledge, whom even gods consult, and by whom +men swear; she has also to do with marriage, and the childless appeal +to her. Etymologically she is scarcely to be distinguished from +<b>Freya</b>, wife of Odur, who, however, is lighter in character, and is +rather a goddess of love. The goddesses in the Eddas are more shadowy +figures than the gods; there are others, and an attempt is made to +reckon up twelve of them to answer to the twelve chief gods, but +their <a name="p272"></a>names are taken from the qualities they represent, and they +have little reality.</p> + +<p>The story of the <b>death of Baldur</b>, brought about by the evil mind of +Loki in defiance of the whole divine family, sounds the note of +tragedy in the divine family of the Eddas. The gods themselves +suffer, and are unable to retrieve the misfortune which has come upon +them. With one accord they try to get Baldur brought back from the +under-world, but they are foiled by the same agency of evil which +carried him off. With the death of Baldur the gods feel that their +rule, which, we saw, had a beginning, and with it the world they +govern, for the two are inseparably bound up with each other, is +coming to an end. The gods perish in the ruin of the world; and this +is well, for sin cleaves to them and to their house, and they are not +fit to endure. <b>Ragnarök</b>, the twilight of the gods, comes on; the +universe is burnt up in a mighty conflagration, and while there are +abodes of bliss and abodes of misery where some survive, the universe +as a whole is entirely changed, and a milder race of gods will rule +over a better world.</p> + +<p>If this mythology were found to be of native Scandinavian growth, it +would prove that Teutonic religion was capable of lofty development, +and would throw back an interesting light upon its previous history. +Here, it has been maintained, we see the Teutonic faith rising to +monotheism. Odin has among his other titles that of All-father; he is +rising above the other gods to a position of supremacy, which will +fit him, if the process were allowed, as it was not, to advance +somewhat further, to represent pure deity and to attract to himself +an undivided reverence. Here also we find a religion which was +formerly a rude intercourse between barbarous men and savage gods, +clothing itself with an ideal element. As the Greeks found religion +in beauty and the Romans in utility, so did the Germans find it at +last in pathos. They attain to the conception of <a name="p273"></a>suffering deity; in +Baldur a god falls victim to malice and wickedness, and the sorrow of +his fall takes possession of the whole of heaven. Thus pain and +sacrifice are hallowed, for man by the history of the gods, and his +intercourse with them leads him into heights and depths unknown +before.</p> + +<p>But the conviction is now establishing itself that this phase of +Teutonic religion is borrowed from Christianity, which was then +seriously menacing the existence of the old faith, and that it is the +shadow of their approaching extinction by the new religion, which +occasions among the Northern gods this feeling of sadness. They feel +themselves falling from their position; they are to be gods no +longer, but are to yield to the world-order, based on a deeper law +than theirs, which called them into being and now is preparing their +dismissal. Distinctly Christian ideas enter the old world of gods; +the ideas of sin, of sacrifice, of a final judgment, of a good god +who dies, of an evil spirit who, after prevailing for a time, is +chained up to await his doom. That a sense of guilt rests on the gods +shows that they are abandoning their rule, and they acknowledge that +their successors will be better than they have been.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>Grimm's <i>German Mythology</i>, translated by Stallybrass, 4 vols.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Grimm's <i>Fairy Tales</i>. Mr. Lang writes an Introduction to the English +translation in Bell's edition.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Mannhardt, <i>Germanische Mythen</i>, 1858, and <i>Wald- und Feld-kulte</i>, +1875, 77.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>For the later Northern section, Vigfusson and Powell's <i>Corpus +Poeticum Boreale</i>, especially the Excursus on Religion, i. 401.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Dasent, <i>Burnt Njal; or Life in Iceland at the end of the tenth +century</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Mallet's <i>Northern Antiquities</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Thorpe, <i>Northern Mythology</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>De la Saussaye, <i>The Religion of the Teutons</i>, 1902, the most +comprehensive statement of the whole subject.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Ralston, <i>Songs of Russian People</i>, and <i>Russian Folk Tales</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Simrock, <i>Handb. der deutschen Mythologie</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>R. M. Meyer, <i>Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte</i>, 1910.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Sir John Rhys, <i>Oxford Proceedings</i>, p. 201, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> +<a name="chap16"></a><br><a name="p274"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XVI</h4> +<center>GREECE</center> +<br> + +<p>The history of Europe begins in Greece. It is there that the Aryans +in Europe first feel the touch of the arts and civilisation of the +East, and are stirred up to new activities; and the life thus +quickened in Greece transmitted its spark to Italy, and so to the +whole of Europe.</p> + +<p><b>People and Land.</b>—There is no direct evidence that the Greeks came to +their country from elsewhere; and the theory of a Grĉco-Italic +period, in which the future inhabitants of Greece and Italy lived +together somewhere to the north of both these countries and made +common advances in civilisation, is now abandoned. There are, +however, faint indications that the Greeks spread over their country +from the north southwards. What people dwelt in it before them it is +impossible to say; the Pelasgi and Leleges, whom they themselves +conceived to have preceded them, left behind them no other trace than +that belief. When first we descry this land in the faint dawn of +history, it is tenanted by the people whose name it bears, touched +only by the Thracians to the north, and the Illyrians to the west, +these also being Aryan races. Though the Greeks are on both sides of +the Egean, which seems from the earliest times to have connected +rather than divided them, their centre of gravity is in the mainland +of Hellas, including the Peloponnesus. In this country many a +migration no doubt took place before the people <a name="p275"></a>was finally arranged +in it; and some of these migrations are faintly known to history. +When once the settlement had been accomplished, the nature of the +country did much to fix the institutions of the people and the mutual +relations of their various communities. Large tribes coming into the +narrow valleys and sequestered coasts of Greece necessarily broke up +into small cantons, each of which, though not cut off from +intercourse with its neighbours, was free to develop by itself. The +country is said by travellers to be the most beautiful in the world. +The branch of the Aryans which settled in it may have brought scanty +acquirements with them, but they brought great capacities. The Greeks +had an unrivalled talent for doing what they saw others do, in a much +better way, and so making it their own. They had an inborn +disposition to what is reasonable. That they had a deep-seated +inclination to what is harmonious and beautiful is proved by their +first great work of art, their language. Of that language there were +several dialects in the earliest times; the principal ones being the +broad Doric of the peninsula and the colonies, and the softer Ionic +of which the classical language is a branch. But the Greeks of all +dialects could understand each other, and regarded as barbarians +those without who spoke other tongues. Thus from the first this +people was much divided, but was also held together by strong bonds.</p> + +<p><b>Earliest Religion</b>—<b>Functional Deities.</b>—The religion the Greeks +brought with them to their country was undoubtedly that which we have +discussed in our chapter on the Aryans. The primitive elements of +Aryan religion all reappear in Greece; the combination of many small +household worships with the supra-family worship of a great god or +gods, the few great gods who are surrounded by a multitude of +spirits, some of these also growing into gods, the recognition of +spiritual presences in many a natural object, living or dead. All +this we find in early Greece. The whole nation <a name="p276"></a>believes in Zeus; to +all he is the Lord of heaven, the giver of rain, the fertiliser of +mother earth, the supreme ruler in earth as well as in heaven, the +father of the gods as well as of men. This is the first bond of unity +in Greek religion. But every family, every village, every town has +its own peculiar worship which is to be found nowhere else. That +worship may be addressed to Zeus with a local title; each circle of +men has its own particular Zeus, who is their protector and ruler; +and thus Zeus has many forms and names. In each community there is +also the worship of the goddess of the hearth (Hestia); each +household has its own Hestia, and carries on the worship which in +other Aryan peoples is connected with the memory of departed +ancestors. But the family or the township has also other objects of +worship. There are other gods besides Zeus who are connected with +heaven, such as Apollo and Heracles. There are gods connected with +each activity of the people. Artemis is goddess of hunting, Aphrodite +of the peaceful life of nature and of gardens, and also of love. +Poseidon, the sea-god, was also worshipped inland, and was perhaps +originally a god of horses and oxen; Hephĉstus was the god of workers +in metal, Ares the god of battle. These are in their origin what are +called functional deities, that is to say, gods who are present in +the function with which they are associated, and of which they +constitute the ideal or sacred side, and who have no existence apart +from it.</p> + +<p>The gods of Greece in fact had their origin in that view of nature as +animated in every part, which the Greeks shared with other branches +of the Aryans, and with early man generally. Like the Latins, the +Greeks at first saw a mystery, a spirit, in every part of life; each +fountain had its nymph, each forest glade its dryad; and they felt +the gods to be returning to fresh life when spring came with its +flowers. Each of their own activities also had its unseen genius. +Each enclosure for flocks had its Apollo, "him of the sheepfold," <a name="p277"></a>who +protected the flock and the shepherd; and each boundary stone its +Hermes, "him of the boundary," who also watched over flocks and took +charge of marches and of paths.</p> + +<p><b>Growth of Greek Gods.</b>—Such beings, however, are something less than +gods; and the Greeks, long before we know them, had made the step +which the Romans scarcely made at all, from the spirit to the god, +from the vague unseen power behind an object or an act, to the free +being conceived with human attributes and feelings, who can be the +patron of a community, and afford help in all its concerns. Not all +the spirits rise into gods; it depends on circumstances which of them +are selected for that advance; but the choice once made, their rise +was rapid. As the gods grew into personality and definite character, +though the function out of which they first sprang was not forgotten, +other functions were added to them; and as a god grew in power and +consideration, his worship was set up in new places, where other +titles and attributes awaited him. The local god might be identified +with the great god from a distance. The god of a powerful community, +as Athene ("she of Athens"), might be adopted wherever the influence +of that community extended; thus new gods arose and old ones took +local form. When a change took place in the habits of the people, it +was followed by a corresponding change in the character of their +gods. When agriculture comes in, the gods have to take notice of it, +the pastoral god turns agricultural, and even the huntress Artemis +becomes an encourager of fertility. When navigation rises in +importance, a number of the gods, Poseidon at their head, become +sea-gods.</p> + +<p><b>Stones, Animals, Trees.</b>—In Greece the worship of the gods soon +superseded that of objects not possessing any human character. Traces +of such lower worships survive, it is true, in the later religion in +great abundance, but they have no influence in its development; they +only tell their story of the otherwise forgotten past. Stones <a name="p278"></a>were +worshipped in early Greece. Not to speak of the cromlechs and +dolmens, which are found there as in all parts of Asia and Europe, +and the meaning of which is so little understood, stones were +preserved as sacred objects in various places, even to late times, +and had no doubt originally been worshipped. The god Hermes was +represented in every period by a slab of stone set upright, a human +head and other human features being indicated on it. Even in later +Greece, boards or blocks of wood were in some places exhibited on +rare occasions, which were the oldest images of the Artemis or the +Aphrodite there adored. Though for the public eye splendid statues +had taken the place of the goddess, the original image was still +thought to have a sanctity all its own. We also notice that the gods +of Greece are associated with animals. Zeus is a bull in Crete; he +has also other transformations: Pan is a goat; Artemis is a bear in +some provinces, elsewhere a doe. The Athene of the Acropolis is a +serpent. Apollo is sometimes connected with the mouse. Along with +these identifications of the gods with animals we may mention the +animal emblems with which they are generally represented. The eagle +is the bird of Zeus, the owl of Athene, the peacock of Hera, the dove +of Aphrodite. In this connection we cannot help thinking of the +sacred animals of the Egyptian nomes; and the question may be asked +whether such animals must be taken to be in Greece also the signs of +a primitive totemism?</p> + +<p>Of the tree-worship of Greece much has been written of late. The oak +was the sacred tree of Zeus; he must have been conceived as living in +it; he gave oracles at Dodona by the rustling of the branches of the +tree. Athene has the olive, Apollo the palm, and also the laurel. +After the introduction of agriculture rustic cults arose, in which +the inhabitants of a village followed in sympathetic rites the +fortunes of the gods who live in the life of the plants in summer and +die with them <a name="p279"></a>in autumn. The god of the Semites is generally a +changeless being, who himself conducts and orders the changes of the +seasons, but in Greece we find gods whom man can accompany in the +tragedy of their fall and the triumph of their rise. We shall see +afterwards that the rustic worships of Demeter and Proserpine were +brought forward at a critical period in Greek religion, to supply an +element which was much required in it. These worships, similar, as +Mr. Frazer suggests,<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> to those still kept up by our own peasantry, +were doubtless of immemorial antiquity in Greece, though in the +earlier period they are little heard of.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Golden Bough</i>, vol. i. p. 356.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Thus the Greek gods grew up in the period before Greece was awakened +to new thoughts by contact with foreign peoples. Many harsh and cruel +rites were no doubt practised; human sacrifice, heard of even in +later times in remote parts of the country, was not unknown, and +practices were connected with the service of stern gods and goddesses +which, though literature is silent about them, left their mark on +custom. Zeus and one or two other gods are essentially moral, and +some duties were strongly encouraged by religion, such as those of +hospitality and strict regard for boundaries, of faithfulness to +pledge, of respect for strangers. But many of the gods are too +closely interwoven with external nature to be very decidedly moral +powers; they are like the plants and animals, neither good nor bad +but natural.</p> + +<p><b>Greek Religion is Local.</b>—What strikes us most strongly about this +early Greek religion is its entire want of system and its local and +disintegrated character. Every town, every family, has its own +religion. There is no central authority. New gods are constantly +springing up; the old ones are constantly receiving new titles and +forming new unions with each other or with newer gods. The god of one +place is in another only a hero; the same god is represented in +different places in entirely different ways, and entirely different +<a name="p280"></a>legends are attached to his name. Thus the Greeks have from the first +a mythology singularly extensive and inconsistent, and their worship +also varies in each place. There is no general religion, but only a +multitude of local ones. In story and in rite old and new are mixed +up together,—what is local and what is imported, what is savage in +its nature and origin, and what is on the side of progress. This is a +state of matters which lies in every land before the beginning of +organised religion. Rites and legends are everywhere of local growth, +and the attempt to frame the various rites and legends into a +consistent ritual and a systematic account of the gods, comes later. +In Greece, as Mr. Robertson Smith observes, the earlier state of +matters continued longer and influenced the national faith more +deeply than elsewhere. As the Greeks never succeeded in forming a +central political system, so they never attained to unity in worship. +No national temple arose, the priesthood of which had power to frame +the national religion, to lay down rules for sacrifice, or to edit +sacred texts. The Greeks were less than any other people under the +sway of religious authority. While local practice was fixed, and +custom and tradition declared plainly enough what was to be regarded +as religious duty, belief was quite free to grow as circumstances or +the growth of culture dictated. A religion in such a position, and +among a people of lively imagination and specially gifted in the +direction of art, must necessarily receive its forms rather from the +artist than the priest.</p> + +<p><b>Artistic Tendency.</b>—Thus we can discern from the first the direction +which Greek religion must take. The Greeks shaped their gods earlier +and more freely than other peoples, and went on shaping them till no +further advance could be made in that way. Long before Homer they had +been making their gods such as free men, and men endowed with a sense +of beauty, could worship. They were not content to worship lifeless +<a name="p281"></a>objects, but must have living beings. They were not content to +worship beings without reason, they must worship reasonable beings. +They were not inclined to regard the natural objects they worshipped +with terror or self-prostration, but rather in a spirit of genial +friendliness and sympathy as being something like themselves. And so +they turned their gods into men. The anthropomorphising tendency, +present as we have seen in other lands and at much earlier periods, +present indeed wherever religion is a growing power, had freer play +with them than with any other people. Thus the spirits of the +fountain and the tree, and of every part of nature that was +worshipped, took human form. At first, no doubt, the nymph was in the +fountain, the dryad in the oak, but as time went on the human maiden +cast off her mosses and her bark and leaves, and stood forth to +imagination a being wholly human, dwelling beside the fountain or the +tree. In the same way heaven becomes a great human father, the sea an +earth-shaking potentate drawn by dolphins over the waves, the sun a +mighty archer, fire a lame craftsman (from the flickering of flame?) +whose smithy is underground where the volcanoes are. And the figures +once arrived at, it was no hard task to spin out their stories and +their relations with each other, and to connect with them older +tales, as taste or fancy suggested.</p> + +<p>The thorough humanisation of the gods, the clothing of the gods in +the highest types connected with free human society, is the first +great contribution made by this gifted race to the progress of +religion. Receiving from the earlier world the same kind of gods as +other nations did, Greece proceeded to treat them in a way of her +own, idealised and refined the parts of nature held divine, and +ascribed to them not only, as all early races do, human motives and +human passions, but also human beauty and wisdom and goodness. +Whatever rude materials she received to work on, either from the +earlier dwellers on Greek soil or from foreign lands, <a name="p282"></a>she made them +her own by transfiguring them into ideal men and women. Thus the +Greeks reached the position, which they taught the world first in +immortal poetry and then in immortal plastic art, that man should not +bow down to anything that is beneath him, and that nature can only +become fit to be worshipped by being idealised and made human. An end +was made to the dark imagination which was so apt to creep over all +early religion, that deity and humanity may be different and +opposite; that an object devoid of reason, an object or an animal +admired not for its goodness but for something about it which man +cannot understand, may be his god and have a claim to his allegiance. +God and man are of the same nature, the Greeks found; to arrive at a +true idea of a god we have to form, on the basis of the natural +object where he is supposed to dwell, the image of an ideal man or +woman. This was a great step, but in this conception of deity the +Greeks also laid up for themselves, as we shall see, many +difficulties.</p> + +<p><b>Early Eastern Influences.</b>—Our positive knowledge of Greek history +begins about the middle of the second millennium <small>B.C.</small>; we have +information of this period in the ruins of Mycenĉ and Tiryns and +other places. These remains attest a political condition widely +different from that of the patriarchal settlements of the period when +the Greeks were emerging from Aryan barbarism; very different also +from the free city life which came afterwards. The recent excavations +have brought to light the palaces of kings, built, it is evident, +according to an Eastern type, and with arrangements for the burial +and worship of dead potentates, not unlike those of the pyramids. The +art is rude, but shows large forces to have been at the command of +those who directed it. We have here, therefore, a state of matters +such as that described in the Homeric poems, in which petty kings +rule in many of the Greek towns, some of them being personages of +great rank and power. The movement in civilisation attested by these +<a name="p283"></a>remains is admitted to be due to an impulse from the East; but +whether this impulse was imparted by the voyages of Phenician +discoverers and merchants, or whether it came by land along the trade +routes of Asia Minor and across the Egean, is uncertain. It is in any +case traceable to North Syria, where in the early part of the second +millennium <small>B.C.</small> Babylonian and Egyptian influences met and gave rise +to some rude civilisation. Greece was not conquered from the East, +but stirred to new life by the communication of Eastern ideas.</p> + +<p>Greek religion was not much assisted, or indeed much modified in any +way, by this movement. The worship of ancestors which went on in the +palaces was not contrary to Greek sentiment, perhaps not even much +more elaborate than that sentiment required. But this part of +religion was not a growing thing in Greece; and the royal practices +did not prevent it from dying gradually away in later times. That any +god was imported into Greece at this time, is not proved. Where +Greeks and Phenicians met, as in some of the islands, a Greek and an +Eastern god might be identified; the worship of Aphrodite and that of +Astarte were fused in this way in Cyprus, and Aphrodite may thus have +acquired some new characteristics even in Greece. This is not +certain. Perhaps the most important thing to notice in this +connection is that the new type of society at the royal courts may +have furnished a model for the arrangement of the heavenly family +when that arrangement came to be made. The Eastern influence came to +an end in time, and the pressure being removed, the monarchies +crumbled away, the court worships were discontinued, and Greece was +left free, after this awaking to fuller life, to pursue her own +thoughts in her own fashion.</p> + +<p><b>Homer</b> was regarded by the Greeks who lived after him as the founder +of their religion. Herodotus considers (ii. 53) that Homer and Hesiod +lived four hundred <a name="p284"></a>years before his time, and that it was they who +framed a theogony for the Greeks, gave names to the gods, assigned to +them honours and arts, and declared their several forms. These +writers accordingly formed a standard of religious belief; we know +that their works were the basis of the education of the Greek, and +they thus provided an early bond of national unity.</p> + +<p>The Homeric poems are the outcome, whether we regard them as the work +of one singer or of two, or of a whole school, of long processes of +growth. The poetic art which makes them the delight of all mankind is +not a first experiment, but the ripe result of an elaborate method. +The stories and the wisdom they contain are brought together from +many quarters by long accumulation. And in the same way the accounts +they give of the gods individually and of their relations to each +other are not thrown together at haphazard, but are the result of a +work of unconscious art which must have been carried on for centuries +before it issued in this form. Homer does not by any means repeat all +the stories he knows about the gods. He passes over many local myths, +especially those of the more repulsive order, which were known for +centuries after, and undoubtedly existed in his day; only what is +"worthy of a pious bard" does he reproduce. A pious bard, however, +had considerable latitude; and the phrase does not represent all that +Homer was. He was an entertainer of the public at royal courts, where +a feast was incomplete without him (<i>Odyssey</i> viii.); he had to +produce his songs at banquets or in the open air at festivals; what +he gave had to be entertaining. This could not but influence his +choice of materials even when the gods were his theme. He could not +deal in what was most terrible about the gods, nor could he enter +into speculations or mysteries, nor could he make use of a legend +which, though it had point for the locality it belonged to, was not +generally interesting. What was powerful and dramatic, what all men +could <a name="p285"></a>understand, what was curious and piquant, what met the general +sentiment, that he would be led to adopt and to work up into a +telling form; he naturally sought after broad pictures, amusing +conversations, simple and true emotions, curious incidents connected +with well-known characters. Religion, it is plain, could not gain in +depth and intensity from the treatment of such poets; many of the +thoughts men had about the gods could not find expression in their +lines. But, on the other hand, we have the fact that the Greeks +accepted the Homeric representation of their religion as the standard +one; not till it had existed for centuries were voices raised against +it. And this is not strange. Homer took away nothing from the +religion of any Greek; no local worship was in any way infringed upon +by him; and on the other side he gave to the Greek world, whose +belief consisted formerly in a multitude of disconnected or even +inconsistent legends, a united system of gods, in which there was at +that stage rest for the mind, and for the imagination an +inexhaustible spring of ideal beauty.</p> + +<p><b>The Homeric Gods.</b>—What, then, is the religion of Homer? The gods are +a set of beings not very unlike men; they present a curious +combination of human frailty with superhuman powers and virtues. To +speak first of the physical side of their nature, the gods are far +stronger than men, their frame is huger, their eye keener, their +voice louder; like the sorcerer of savage times, they can assume +other shapes to gain their ends, they can become invisible, or they +can travel very swiftly through the air. Yet, on the other hand, they +can be wounded when they strive even with men; accidents happen to +them, they require to eat and drink. They eat, it is true, ambrosia, +and drink nectar, which give immortality; and they have in their +veins not human blood but divine ichor. It is the fact of their +immortality that makes them different from men; it has happened that +a man obtained immortality and became thereby <a name="p286"></a>a god. The line between +gods and men may be crossed; in former times it was crossed more +frequently. The gods entered into relations with mortals; many of the +heroes are of divine extraction, and the gods are still interested in +the royal houses they thus founded. But such unions do not take place +in the poet's time. The world is growing less divine.</p> + +<p>Homer, however, looks further back than this, and we find in him the +belief, found also in India and in Iceland, that an older and more +savage race of gods once ruled, whom the present dynasty conquered +and dethroned. Of that older set was Kronos, the father of Zeus, and +the Titans, who are now cast down to Tartarus, the nethermost region +of all. The world known to men was apportioned at the beginning of +the present age to the three sons of Kronos, Zeus obtaining the upper +world, including heaven, which is at the top of Mount Olympus in +Thessaly; Poseidon the sea, and Hades the under-world, above +Tartarus, to which men go after death.</p> + +<p>Zeus rules in Olympus. He presides there over those gods who are at +present in power. He summons them to council, he sits at meals with +them. They are a very human set of beings. They are moved by ordinary +human motives; love and revenge, jealousy and anger, rule in their +breasts. They do not act from eternal principles, but as men do, from +sudden impulses or from the desire of temporary advantages for +themselves or for their favourites. They even indulge in loose +amours, and are brought into ridiculous situations. They laugh at +each other; the stronger god hurls the weaker out of Olympus to the +earth. Taking them together, we do not find the Olympians an +impressive set of beings. Taking them, however, one by one, we judge +of them quite differently. The individual gods represent lofty ideals +and are not unworthy of worship. Whatever they were once, powers of +nature, fetishes or men, whatever village legends they have brought +with them from their <a name="p287"></a>native place, or whatever traits of savage life +still cleave to them, to the poet they are the embodiments of various +moral excellences. Zeus, father of gods and men, combines in his +character the attributes of righteousness and of kindness; he is the +founder of social order and the defender of suppliants, he possesses +all wisdom. Hera is the matron of fully unfolded beauty and matchless +dignity; Apollo is the faithful son who carries out his father's +counsel; Athene is the warrior-maiden skilled in battle but equipped +with every kind of skill, best counsellor and guide for the mortal +whom she favours; Aphrodite is the goddess of love, in whose girdle +are contained all charms; Ares is the impetuous warrior, Hermes the +trusty messenger, of the heavenly circle; Hephĉstus, the lame and +awkward smith, is the artificer for the gods of all manner of cunning +work in metal. Around and under the Olympians are many other deities; +such as Hebe, the budding girl, and Ganymede, the youth born of human +race but taken up to heaven for his beauty to minister to the gods at +their banquets. Aphrodite is attended by the graces, Apollo by the +Muses, and the world is not stripped by Homer of its local deities, +although the chief deities now dwell aloft; mountains, rivers, caves +and isles of ocean, all have their immortal occupants.</p> + +<p><b>Worship in Homer.</b>—The gods being of such a nature, what relations +does man keep up with them, and how do they affect his life? Worship +follows the simple practice of the early world. It is not priestly. +There are priests, and they offer sacrifices regularly at the shrines +of which they have charge, but the king can sacrifice, or the head of +the house; and while one or two temples are mentioned in the <i>Iliad</i>, +sacrifice may be offered anywhere. Temples first appear in Greece +merely as shelters for images, but in the <i>Iliad</i> the god is +generally worshipped not by means of an image but as himself directly +present; the need of temples has not <a name="p288"></a>yet arisen. In the <i>Odyssey</i> +temples of the gods are spoken of as buildings no town could be +without, but this is less primitive. Sacrifice is a feast in which +the god's portion of the viands is first offered to him, and the +worshippers then eat and drink to their hearts' content. There is a +detailed description of the proceedings in <i>Iliad</i> i. 456 <i>sqq.</i> Here +after the feast there is music; "All day long worshipped they the god +with music, singing the beautiful pĉan to the Fardarter (Apollo); and +his heart was glad to hear." "The gods appear manifest amongst us," +we read in the seventh book of the <i>Odyssey</i>, "whensoever we offer +glorious hecatombs, and they feast by our side, sitting at the same +board." There is nothing of the nature of an expiation about such a +sacrifice; it is simply the renewal of the bond between the god and +those who look for his aid, when a new enterprise is about to be +undertaken or a solemn engagement is entered on. Prayers are very +simple. Thus prays the wounded Diomede to Athene (<i>Iliad</i> v. 115): +"Hear me, daughter of ĉgis-bearing Zeus, unwearied maiden! If ever in +kindly mood thou stoodest by my father in the heat of battle, even so +be thou kind to me, Athene! Grant me to slay this man, and bring +within my spear-cast him that took advantage to shoot me, and +boasteth over me!"</p> + +<p>As there are no bad gods, good and evil are considered to be sent by +the same beings. Thus there is a great deal of uncertainty in men's +relations to the gods. "All men need the gods," we read; the Homeric +hero regards the companionship of a god as proper and necessary for +his enterprises. But some trouble must be taken in order to secure +their favour. They must not be neglected; their signs must be +attended to; above all, a man must be reverent and must studiously +practise moderation in his conduct and in his ways of thinking; else +the gods may easily be offended or made jealous, and withdraw their +countenance. And if they <a name="p289"></a>are to a certain extent capricious, there is +another consideration which impairs confidence in them. They are not +all-powerful. There is a point beyond which they cannot give a man +any help. Each man has a fate or destiny, which the gods did not fix +and with which they cannot interfere. When his hour comes, they must +leave him to his doom; indeed they may even deceive him, and lead him +into folly so that his fate shall overtake him. The punishment of +crime, both in this world and afterwards, is committed to a special +set of beings, the Erinnyes. The gods who are most worshipped do not +exercise that function; they are not immovably identified with the +moral order of the world, but frequently deviate from it themselves. +In the <i>Odyssey</i>, it is true, we meet with a deeper feeling. Here +Zeus is a kind of providence, in whom a man may trust when he does +right, and to all whose dispensations it behoves him humbly to +submit. A root of monotheism is present here, as in all the Aryan +religions from the first, and in Greece it is destined to have a +stately growth. The Homeric pantheon, however, as a whole, shows +religion at a stage in which it is rather an external ornament to +life than an inner inspiration. Perhaps there was never a set of real +men who thought of the gods and addressed them according to the +fashion of Homer. If such a religion ever actually existed, it was +not a strong one. These gods, with their caprices and infirmities and +their limited power, could never exercise any strong moral influence +or rouse any passion in their worshippers. They are fair-weather +gods; the religion is one of children, in whom conscience is not yet +awake and the deeper spiritual needs have not yet appeared. What the +mind of the Greek has done up to this stage is to discover that +nature is not above him; the powers of nature are human to him; they +are divine not because they are essentially different from himself, +but because they are matchless ideals of his own qualities. It is a +religion of free men. But the Greek has not <a name="p290"></a>yet discovered how +different he himself is from all that is around him; that element of +himself which is above nature will when he discovers it make such a +religion as the Homeric for ever impossible to him.</p> + +<p><b>Omens.</b>—As the godhead is never far away from the Homeric Greek, and +is an active being who takes an interest in human affairs, signs of +his presence are not infrequent. The air is the scene of them; in the +flight of birds, in sudden noises, the gods send messages; lightning +is a sign from Zeus of approaching rain or hail, it may be of +approaching war. There are rules for the interpretation of signs, +which, however, are in many cases of doubtful significance. Dreams +also are a favourite channel for divine communications, but they also +may be interpreted wrongly. There are persons who have a special gift +for knowing the divine will; the seer ([Greek: mantis]) is +enlightened by the deity not by an outward sign but inwardly; he +hears the god's voice, and can declare the divine will directly. This +gift may reside in a certain family, and may be attached to a certain +spot, where a regular oracle is open for consultation. At Dodona we +read that the Selloi or Helloi, a band or family of priests of +ascetic habits, interpret the rustling of the sacred oak, and +Agamemnon consults the Pythia, the Delphic priestess, before the +Trojan war.</p> + +<p><b>The State after Death.</b>—With regard to the state after death, belief +is not uniform in Homer. There are elaborate funeral rites which +point to the assumption that the spirit of the hero is living +somewhere and needs various things. But the life of the departed was +not mapped out in Greece as it was in Egypt. The ritual of Mycenĉ had +little influence, for the funeral celebrations in Homer are very +similar to those of other early Aryan peoples, and undoubtedly were +not imported. What then is thought of the present existence of the +hero? He has ceased to exist. The body is the man, the spirit when it +has left the body has but a <a name="p291"></a>shadow-life, without any strength or +hope; at the most it may revive a little at the taste of blood. But +while the worship of the departed is seen from Homer to be decaying +among the Greeks, imagination is seen to be occupied in more than one +direction with the regions where they are, and to be asserting for +them a more real and active existence than the old beliefs allowed. +The subterranean kingdom of Hades (the "Invisible") is acquiring +clearer shape. The punishments are described which certain great +transgressors, such as Tantalus and Ixion, are there undergoing; and +other details are also known. Of a different spirit is the conception +of the Elysian plains in the far west, whither the hero is taken by +the gods when he dies, and where there is no snow nor storm nor rain.</p> + +<p>Homer was not the only poet who furnished the Greeks with a system of +their gods; nor was his system everywhere accepted without demur. +<b>Hesiod</b>, writing in the latter half of the eighth century <small>B.C.</small>, gives +a "theogony" or birth of the gods, which is also a genesis or origin +of the world, for to the Greek mind the gods and the world came into +existence together. He complains of those who on this subject have +taught fictions which resemble truths, referring perhaps to Homer. +His own system of the world is not a light and airy fabric but a +laborious work, due no doubt to professional or priestly industry, in +which the attempt is made to treat all the divine figures or +half-figured spirits the Greeks knew, genealogically, and to give a +complete enumeration of them. Myths are given, some of them of a +horrible character, which do not occur in Homer. The battle of the +gods with the Titans occupies a large part of the poem, and it +concludes with a collection of stories showing the descent of heroes +from alliances between gods and mortals. This work, as we saw, was +considered, along with the Homeric poems, as a standard authority on +the subject of the gods, and was appealed <a name="p292"></a>to even in the early +Christian centuries as showing what the Greeks believed.</p> + +<p><b>The Poets and the Working Religion.</b>—The work of these poets proves +that the Greeks in their days were anxious to arrive at clear and +harmonious conceptions about the gods. The movement on which Homer +and Hesiod set their seal, of fixing the characters and attributes of +the various deities, must have been long going on; and it led, as we +see, to different results in different places. That labour when +accomplished endowed Greece with a new religion. The local rite still +went on, which acknowledged no central authority and presented the +spectacle of an infinite diversity. Each city carried on in grave and +solemn fashion the traditional worship of its own gods, on whose +favour its prosperity depended. The other gods of the Pantheon the +city did not need to worship; and moreover local worship was +addressed to a large extent to the Chthonian or earth-gods, as +Demeter and Dionysus, of whom the epic poems know but little. The +poets were of little assistance therefore to the working religion; +but on the other hand the happy and beautiful deities of Homer found +entrance wherever poetry was loved. This was a religion for all +Greece; these gods were national; though some of them belonged +originally to Ĉolia, they had become national by being enshrined in +poetry which the whole nation regarded as its own. The Homeric +conception of deity acted therefore on the whole Greek mind; all gods +rose in rank by the example, a subject was set before the mind of the +people, which the closely succeeding development of religious art +shows to have been studied in the noblest way.</p> + +<p><b>Rise of Religious Art.</b>—The seventh century <small>B.C.</small> was a period of +rapid development and of great prosperity in Greece. It was the age +of colonisation; manufacture and trade were active, and though the +Phenicians were not now in the Egean, Greeks sailed <a name="p293"></a>to the East and +brought home with them many ideas. It was a time like the sixteenth +century in Europe, when the world of geography was quickly opening +out, and views and sentiments were also widening. Worship could not +fail to share in the upward movement of such a period, and it is here +that we find the appearance of the ideas in religious art which have +made Greece the envy of the world. Architecture received a new +impulse from Egypt and Babylon; dwellings were built, not for human +rulers, as in the Mycenĉan period, but for the gods. In country +districts or small towns the wooden shed might still suffice to +shelter the rude image, but in large towns, where the higher +conception of the gods and the artistic impulse were both present in +many minds, temples of more durable material were built. This came to +be a universal practice; among the first tasks of a new colony was +always that of erecting on a commanding site in the rising town, +splendid temples to the gods of the mother city. The Greek temple is +not a place to accommodate a large body of worshippers, but a +dwelling for the god. It is of oblong shape, and is placed on a +raised platform which is ascended by steps. It is generally +surrounded by pillars, is roofed, and has a low gable at each end. +The most important chamber in it is that containing the image of the +god. From his dim chamber the god looks out to the east through the +doorway facing him, which opens on the pillared portico in front. +Here the worshipper stands when praying, his face turned westward to +the god. As it was essential that the smoke of the sacrifice should +ascend freely to heaven, the god's real dwelling, the altar stood +outside. In some cases the roof was partly open, and the altar could +stand under the sky in the <i>cella</i> of the god.</p> + +<p>In the building and adornment of the temples Greek art found its +highest exercise. The architecture of those specimens which can still +be seen or described <a name="p294"></a>is of a dignity and beauty never before +attained; the beings must have been lofty and reverend indeed for +whom such dwellings were formed. The gable spaces and the flat +surfaces between the tops of the pillars and the roof gave +opportunity for sculpture; and the archĉologist traces on these +metopes (spaces between the beam-ends under the roof) and friezes, +the progress of Greek sculpture from a rude stage to that in which +the sculptor has gained complete mastery over his material, and can +give an imposing representation of a myth, or place on the marble a +complete religious procession of brave men and fair women. The images +of the gods to be placed in the temples called forth the artist's +highest skill; even when the rude old god was retained, a fine work +of art could also find place. It is the ideal gods of poetry that are +coming to be worshipped; the conception of the poet is expressed in +marble. Sculpture, however, came to its highest point in Greece +somewhat later than architecture. And offerings were made to the +temples of just such rare and costly things as men loved then and +love still to store up in their houses,—bowls and cups wrought +curiously in precious metals, statues and tapestries and all kinds of +treasure.</p> + +<p><b>Festivals and Games.</b>—The temple for which so much was done, formed +the centre of the city where it stood. In it the town deposited its +treasure and its documents; there oaths and agreements were ratified. +There also at certain times, such as the annual festival of the god +or the anniversary of some happy event in the history of the +town,—and as time went on such occasions tended to multiply,—the +town kept holiday. Women escaped from their monotonous confinement +and joined the procession to the holy place, perhaps carrying a new +dress for the deity. A sacrifice was offered, the god received his +share of the victim or victims, and the worshippers feasted on what +remained. But before this part of the proceedings arrived <a name="p295"></a>there was a +pause, which was filled up with various exercises all connected with +the act of worship, but tending also in a high degree to the delight +of those taking part in it. Dancing formed a part of every rite, +accompanied of course with music, and consisting not of a careless +exercise of the limbs, but of a measured and carefully trained set of +movements expressive of the emotions connected with the occasion. +This part of the religious act is obviously capable of great +expansion. We find the art of poetry also making its contributions to +religious art; poems are recited bearing on the history of the god. +The sacrifice is followed by contests of various kinds; the singers +compete for a prize, and athletic sports also take place, the +competitors for which have long been in training for them. The +winners are crowned with a wreath or branch of the plant sacred to +the god. The games of Greece, which thus arose out of acts of +worship, and some of which became so famous and attracted competitors +from every Greek-speaking land, are a notable sign of the spirit of +Greek piety. There is no asceticism in Greek religion; the god is +represented as a beautiful human person, and his worshippers appear +before him naked, in the fulness of their youthful beauty and of +their well-trained vigour, and offer him their strength and skill in +highest exercise;—the whole city, or a crowd much larger than the +city, rejoicing in the spectacle.</p> + +<p>Thus does Greek religion enlist in its service all the arts, and +increase as they increase. At this period irrational manifestations +of piety tend to disappear, human sacrifice and the worship of +animals are heard of afterwards only in remote quarters. The religion +which now prevails is a bright and happy self-identification with a +being conceived as a type of human beauty and excellence, by being as +far as possible beautiful oneself, creating beautiful objects, +composing beautiful verse, training the body to its highest pitch <a name="p296"></a>of +strength and agility, and displaying its powers in manly contests. +This conception of religion, for a short time realised in Greece, +still haunts the mind as a vision which once seen can never be +forgotten. No one whose eyes have opened to that vision can regard +any religious acts in which the effort after harmony and beauty forms +no part, as other than degraded and unworthy.</p> + +<p><b>Zeus and Apollo.</b>—It is impossible here to enter specially on the +worship of the individual gods. Two of the gods, however, the same +who even in Homer stand above the level of the rest, still maintain +that superiority. Zeus draws to himself more and more all the +attributes of pure deity; his name comes more and more to stand +simply for "God," as if there were no other. He is the father of gods +and men; goodness and love are natural to him. He is the supreme +Ruler and Disposer, whose word is fate and whose ways pious thought +feels called to justify; but he is also the Saviour, to whom every +one may appeal. He is the source of all wisdom; all revelations come +from him. The other god who occupies a marked position is Apollo, the +god of light and the prophet of his father Zeus. His oracle at Delphi +was the most important in Greece; it was held to be the centre of the +earth, and was a meeting-place for Greeks from every quarter. His +priests exercised through the oracle a great influence on Greek life, +and as their god required strict purity and truthfulness and was the +inspirer of every kind of art and of none but noble purposes, the +worship of Apollo is one of the highest forms of Greek religion.</p> + +<p><b>Change of the Greek Spirit in the Sixth Century <small>B.C.</small></b>—But the time +was at hand when the worship of the gods of the poets was to prove, +in spite of all that art had done for it, inadequate to meet the +spiritual needs of Greece. Civilisation advances in the sixth century +<small>B.C.</small> with immense rapidity; the Greeks, no longer prompted by any +foreign influence, quickly learn to exercise their own powers, and to +apply them in new <a name="p297"></a>directions. Life grows richer and deeper, new modes +of sentiment appear, the nation grows more conscious of its unity, +and at the same time the individual learns to value himself more +highly and to assert himself more strongly. On one side thought +awakes to an independent career and traditional beliefs are subjected +to criticism; on the other spiritual needs are felt which the old +worship does not satisfy, and for which religion has to find new +outlets.</p> + +<p>It is far beyond our scope to deal with the religious movements of a +people thus passing into the self-conscious stage, and unfolding with +unparalleled freshness and power all the various activities of the +human mind. We can only point out a few of the lines of development +which become prominent at this period. And firstly we notice the rise +of <i>rationalism</i>, that is of the impulse to criticise belief and to +ask for that element in it which approves itself to the reflecting +mind. Reason asserts its right to judge of tradition; the doubter +suggests emendations in the legend; the piously inclined turn their +attention to those parts only which are capable of lofty treatment. +This tendency is fatal to polytheism. As reason knows not gods but +only God, the gods can only hold their place on condition that they +are what God must be, and so they all tend to become alike in their +character; attention is turned most of all to Zeus, the highest god, +and when others are worshipped, it is as his prophets or delegates. +The poets of the fifth century reflect the conviction which all the +higher minds of their country were now coming to hold, that the world +is under the rule of one god. From this they are led to take up the +questions of theodicy or of the principles of the divine government. +Ĉschylus and Sophocles, writing perhaps about the same time as the +author of the Book of Job, are full of problems of this nature. Why +is Prometheus, though the noblest benefactor of the human race, +doomed to undergo such sufferings? Why does a curse cleave <a name="p298"></a>to a +certain house, evil producing evil from generation to generation? +What is the relation between the divine laws which are written in the +hearts of all men, and human laws which sometimes contradict these +older ones? Thus to the educated Greeks of the fifth century the old +religion had in its essence passed away. With unexampled rapidity had +the journey here been traced which India made more slowly, which +Egypt made at a very early period, but was not able to maintain, and +which every people starting from polytheism must make if their +religion is to prosper.</p> + +<p><b>New Religious Feeling; the Mysteries.</b>—But the conscience as well as +the mind of Greece awakes at this period, and Greek religion becomes +inspired with a deeper feeling. The simple objectivity of the Homeric +spirit is gone in which man could frankly worship beings like himself +and not very far above himself. God at this time is growing greater +and more awful, and man, less certain of himself, is beginning to +feel a new sense of mystery and of shortcoming. Whether it was due to +the anxiety and depression felt in Greece during the century before +the Persian wars, or to foreign influences, or mainly to the natural +growth of the Greek mind itself, religious phenomena of a new kind +now appear. Sacrifices are heard of, which are not merely social +reunions with the deity, but are intended to expiate some guilt or to +remove some pollution. The sense of sin has arisen, which the Homeric +world knows not, and gives a new colour to man's converse with the +deity. Another new feature is the rise into prominence of cults in +which man feels himself taken possession of and inspired by his god. +Some of these belonged to Asia Minor, the great centre of worships +accompanied with ecstasy and frenzy, but some were of native growth. +In these the common man found a satisfaction which the stately +ceremonial of the temples did not afford. The official religion had +grown cold and distant; but in the worship of Demeter or Dionysus, as +afterwards <a name="p299"></a>of the Phrygian Cybele, the "Great Mother" whom the Romans +imported, the least educated could feel the joy of enthusiasm and of +self-forgetting under the influence of the god, and could be closely +identified with the object of worship by performing acts in which the +experience of the god was symbolically repeated.</p> + +<p>The rapid rise of the worships of Demeter and Dionysus thus furnishes +an instance of the law that a religion of intellect and of art is apt +to be confronted, even when it appears to have overcome all +obstacles, by a religion of feeling, in which all the fair progress +that was made appears to be entirely set at naught. When the worship +of Zeus, Apollo, and Athene was coming to its highest splendour, +these cults began to spread rapidly. They were originally peasant +rites of unknown antiquity in Attica and Boeotia, in which, after the +manner of rustic festivals, the coming of spring or the dying of the +year were celebrated amid jest and song, and with certain prescribed +actions in which the fortune of the god, corresponding to the season, +was dramatically set forth. In spring Demeter, the mother goddess, +received her daughter Persephone, who had left her for the winter; or +in autumn Dionysus, the god of vegetation, was defeated by his +enemies and driven away or torn in pieces. These worships, when +developed and forming a prominent part of Greek religion, were called +"mysteries," not because the knowledge of them was confined to few, +but because some parts of them were transacted in deep silence, and +were the objects of such awe and reverence that they were not spoken +of. No one, moreover, could assist at these rites without being +solemnly initiated after a period of probation and purification. Of +the Eleusinian mysteries at least, which were the most widely +diffused and which formed part of the state religion of Athens, +ancient writers agree in their report that the course of training +before admission was powerfully elevating and solemnising, so that +the period of <a name="p300"></a>initiation was the highest point of the religious life. +It was a condition that the candidate should be pure in heart and not +conscious of any crime. There was apparently no doctrinal +instruction; everything was to be inferred from the spectacle. The +mind was kept in a state of intense and devout expectation, knowledge +and insight growing, it was held, as the time of admission came near. +Before the final act there came a period of fasting, then a march +from Athens to Eleusis along the sacred way, which was studded with +shrines; then a search for the lost goddess in the dark of a moonless +night on the plains of Eleusis, and then at last admission to the +brightly-lighted building. Here all the arts were enlisted to furnish +a spectacle of unparalleled magnificence, during which the candidate +was allowed to touch and kiss certain sacred objects of a simple +nature, and repeated a solemn formula at his admission.</p> + +<p>By partaking in these rites a man was believed to part with his +former sins, to form a special union with the deity, in whose nature +he was made to partake, and to be started on a career in which he +could not fail to grow morally better. It is easy to see the immense +superiority of this worship to the official rites of the temples. The +great point is that a new principle of religious association is here +introduced. The tie which binds the worshipper to his god and to his +fellow-worshippers is no longer that of blood or of common political +interests, but the higher one of a common spiritual experience. All +Greeks were eligible for initiation at Eleusis. A man was not born +into this circle, but entered it of his own free will and by means of +voluntary effort and self-denial. A community of a higher order thus +makes its appearance in Greek history, in which the limits of race +and of locality are overstepped, and each is connected with the rest, +because all have turned of their own voluntary motion to the same +ideal centre. The analogies between the <a name="p301"></a>community formed on the +mysteries and the Christian Church are too obvious to need to be +insisted on. The adversaries of Christianity asserted that in the +mysteries all the truths and the whole morality of that religion were +to be found.</p> + +<p><b>Religion and Philosophy.</b>—But while the mysteries met to some extent +the craving for a closer union with deity, another need which had +long been growing in the Greek mind was to be satisfied in a very +different manner. The Greek religion we have described had very +little to offer in the way of doctrine. There are no sacred books in +it, there is no theology, there is no religious instruction. When the +mind of Greece awoke to intellectual life, and the demand was made +for an explanation of the world, and for a view of the origin of +things which should explain man to himself, the Greek religion was +manifestly little fitted to meet such a demand. But man has +everywhere looked to religion to do him this service, and a religion +which is incapable of rendering it, or which like Buddhism explicitly +refuses to take up the task, stands in a perilous position. If the +shrine has no doctrine enabling man to understand the origin and the +connection of things, he will seek such a doctrine elsewhere, and +religion will have no control over it. Another alternative is that of +Buddhism where in default of such a doctrine man is condemned to +subside into intellectual apathy.</p> + +<p>This, however, could never be the case with the Greeks, and their +fate in this respect proved different from that of any other people. +After their intellectual awakening took place, and when they had +begun to seek in every direction for a first principle of all things, +never doubting that the world was a system of reason, but trying one +key after another to unlock its secret, we find that religion itself +became aware of the need of the times, and that the attempt was made, +late in the day but with deep earnestness and great ability, to +construct out of the myths a reasoned account of the <a name="p302"></a>origin of +things. This was the aim of the <b>Orphic</b> poets. Orpheus, the mythical +singer of Thrace, who charmed men and beasts with his songs on earth, +had descended into Hades to fetch back his wife, who had been taken +from him, and had beheld the secrets of the under-world. The school +which was named after him dealt with the deepest problems, and sought +to explain both the nature of the gods and the destiny of the human +soul. It insisted strongly on the power and sole headship of Zeus, in +whom Greek religion had possessed from Homer downwards a figure +fitted for a monotheistic position. "Zeus is the head, Zeus the +middle, from Zeus are all things made. He is male and female, he is +the foundation of the earth and of the starry heaven, the breath in +all, the strength of fire, the root of the sea, sun, and moon. Zeus +is the king, the progenitor of all things." The god Dionysus also is +placed by the Orphic writers at the head of the whole process of +creation. The myth of his dismemberment and of the scattering of his +ashes over the whole world is made to symbolise the great thought of +the connection of all things with the same source of life. +Descriptions were also given, answering to the growing sense of +personal responsibility, of the abodes of Hades and of the fate of +souls there, and of the metempsychoses through which the soul must +pass. This teaching had an influence which it is difficult to +measure; it acted on the tragedians in their magnificent attempts to +reform the beliefs of their country by making them moral; it is to be +traced in Plato, it also found expression in the mysteries. In its +own development it gave rise to a new phenomenon in Greek religion, +that of itinerant preachers who went about appealing to individuals +to take thought for the salvation of their souls, and also, strange +to say, offering private charms and spells to put them on the right +way of salvation.</p> + +<p>But Greek religion was not thus to be reformed. It was not from the +priests that the growth of the higher faith of Greece was to proceed, +but from the <a name="p303"></a>philosophers. While much of the teaching of the +philosophers was apparently negative and destructive of faith,—for +Greece had her religious sceptics who turned the shafts of ridicule +on existing beliefs, her Agnostics who considered that nothing +certain could be affirmed about the gods, and even her secularists +who held religion to be a mere invention of priests and rulers for +their own purposes,—the course of Greek philosophy was, on the +whole, constructive, even in matters of faith, and laboured to +provide religion with a stable foundation in thought. In this great +movement of the human mind the thinkers of Greece—Socrates, Plato, +Aristotle, to name no more—were working at the same problem which +occupied the prophets of Israel, and building up the rule of one God, +a Being supremely wise and good, source of all beauty, and the worker +of all that is wrought in the universe, in place of the many fickle +and weak deities who formerly bore sway. In many ways the schools of +Greece were the forerunners of Christianity. As the Jews, carried far +from their temple, form a new principle of religious association and +learn to meet for the service of God, without any sacrifice, in pious +mental exercises, so the Greeks, for whom their temples could do so +little, form little communities of earnest seekers after truth under +some teacher. The philosopher's discourse is held by students of the +early Christianity of the West to be the model on which the Christian +sermon was formed. Some of the schools even developed a true pastoral +activity, exercising an oversight of their members, and seeking to +mould their moral life and habits according to the dictates of true +wisdom.</p> + +<p>Thus there arose on Greek soil, after the temples had grown cold, +what may truly be called a second Greek religion. It took possession +of the Roman world, and was, when Christianity appeared, the +prevailing form of religion among the more educated. Both in its +outward forms of association, in its doctrine of God, which went +<a name="p304"></a>through later developments very similar to those of Judaism, and in +its concentration of thought on ethical problems and on the moral +life of the individual, it powerfully prepared for Christianity. It +was not a religion, for it had neither any historical root nor any +belief and practice definite enough for the guidance of the common +people. Yet Christianity could not have conquered the world without +it.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>E. Meyer, <i>Geschichte des Alterthums</i>, vol. ii., contains the first +attempt to deal with Greek religion in the manner now required.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>The Histories of Greece of Grote, Curtius, Abbott, and Holm.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Roscher, <i>Lexikon der griechischen, a Rômischen Mythologie</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Dyer, <i>The Gods of Greece</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Gardner and Jevons, <i>Manual of Greek Antiquities</i>, 1895.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>L. R. Farnell, <i>The Cults of the Greek States</i>, 1896-1907.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Nägelsbach, <i>die Homerische Theologie</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Williamowitz, <i>Homerische Untersuchungen</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>G. Anrich, <i>das Antike Mysterienwesen</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>ohde, <i>Psyche</i>, 1891.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>L. Campbell's Gifford Lectures on <i>Religion in Greek Literature</i>, +1898.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. Caird, <i>The Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers</i>, +1904.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Holwerda, in De la Saussaye, Third Edition.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Ramsay on "Religion of Greece and Asia Minor" in Hastings' <i>Bible +Dictionary</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>S. Reinach, in <i>Oxford Proceedings</i>, vol. ii. p. 117, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> +<a name="chap17"></a><br><a name="p305"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XVII</h4> +<center>THE RELIGION OF ROME</center> +<br> + +<p>The Romans themselves at a certain period in their history identified +their own gods with those of Greece, and borrowed largely both from +Greek ritual and Greek mythology, so that they came to the conclusion +that the Roman and the Greek religions were essentially the same. To +the early Christian writers the religions of Greece and Rome form one +system; and the world has retained the impression that there was one +old pagan religion which assumed certain local differences in the two +countries, but was substantially the same in both.</p> + +<p><b>Roman Religion was different from Greek.</b>—Now the fact is that while +Greek religion conquered Rome, Italy had an older religion of its +own, which was not annihilated by the more brilliant newcomer, but +remained beside it and never entered into entire fusion with it. The +Romans were not a thinking so much as an organising race; in politics +they were far ahead of the rest of the world, but in thought and +imagination they were children; and so it happened that they borrowed +ideas and usages from neighbours on this side and on that, and +organised the whole into a system they could use, the organism being +their own, but only little of the contents.</p> + +<p>We must therefore inquire, in the first place, as to the religion the +Romans had before they came under the influence of Greek ideas. Their +earliest religion is to be traced in the calendar of their sacred +year, in <a name="p306"></a>the lists of gods preserved for us in the writings of the +fathers, and in numberless usages and institutions descended from +early times.</p> + +<p>The sacred year of early Rome is that of an agricultural community. +The festivals have to do with sowing and reaping and storing corn, +with vintage, with flocks and herds, with wolves, with spirits of the +woods, with boundaries, with fountains, with changes of the sun and +of the moon. There are festivals of domestic life, of the household +fire, and of the spirits of the storeroom, of the spirits of the +departed, and of the household ghosts. There are also festivals +connected with warlike matters, some connected with the river and the +harbour at its mouth, and some having to do with the arts of a simple +population. The calendar, taken by itself, would create the +impression that the community using it began with agriculture and +added to it afterwards various other activities; there is nothing in +it to contradict the supposition that Roman religion had its +beginnings in the fields and in the woods.</p> + +<p><b>The earliest gods of Rome</b> also agree with this. They are, however, a +very peculiar set of gods. Leaving the great gods in the meantime, we +notice two of the agricultural deities; there is a <b>Saturnus</b>, god of +sowing, and a <b>Terminus</b>, god of boundaries. These are what are called +functional deities, such as we met with in Greece, <a href="#p275">see above</a>, <i>sqq.</i>; +they take their name from the act or province over which they +preside. Saturnus means one who has to do with sowing; Terminus is a +boundary pure and simple. The god then, in these examples, is not a +great being who has come to have these functions placed under him as +well as others. He and the particular function belong together; he +owes all his deity to it. Now these are only examples; the same is +found to be the case with all or nearly all the distinctively Roman +gods; they are, broadly speaking, all functional beings. Each bears +the name of an object or a process; and on the other hand there is no +object and no act <a name="p307"></a>which has not its god. It is astounding to observe +how far the principle of the division of labour is carried among +these beings. <b>Silvanus</b> is the god of the wood, <b>Lympha</b> of the stream, +each wood and each stream having its own Silvanus or Lympha. Seia has +to do with the corn before it sprouts, Segetia with corn when shot +up, Tutilina with corn stored in the granary, Nodotus has for his +care the knots in the straw. There is a god Door, a goddess Hinge, a +god Threshold. Each act in opening infancy has its god or goddess. +The child has Cunina when lying in the cradle, Statina when he +stands, Edula when he eats, Locutius when he begins to speak, Adeona +when he makes for his mother, Abeona when he leaves her; forty-three +such gods of childhood have been counted. Pilumnus, god of the +pestle, and Diverra, goddess of the broom, may close our small sample +of the limitless crowd.</p> + +<p>It is usually said about these multitudinous petty deities that the +Roman was very religious, and saw in every act and everything for +which he had a name, something mysterious and supernatural. The +Greek, it is said, sees things on his own level, and adds to them a +god who is human; it is by the human spirit that he interprets them. +The Roman, on the contrary, sees things as mysteries and fills them +with gods who are not human. That is true; but the question to be +asked about these Roman gods is, to what stage of religious +development do they belong: do they prove a primitive or an advanced +stage of religious thought? It has been observed that these names of +gods are all epithets, or adjectives; and it has been supposed that +there was originally a noun belonging to them, that they were all +epithets of one great deity, or, as some are masculine and some +feminine, of a great male and a great female deity. The noun fell out +of use, it is supposed, but was still present to the mind of the +Roman, and thus his regiments of divine names are not really +designations of different persons, but titles <a name="p308"></a>of the same person, +supposed to be present alike in all these numberless manifestations. +But it is not easy to conceive how, if primitive Italy had reached +the conception of the unity of deity, that deity became so remarkably +subdivided, nor how his own proper name and character were lost. It +is much more natural to suppose that the petty gods of Rome were all +the deities the early Latins had, and were worshipped for their own +sake. They represent the stage of thought called Animism (see <a href="#p41">above</a>) +when every part of nature is thought to have its spirit, and the +number of invisible beings is liable to be multiplied indefinitely. +While other Aryan races had passed beyond this stage when we first +know them, and advanced to the belief in great gods ruling great +provinces of nature, the Latins, whose mind was organising rather +than productive, made this advance more slowly, and instead of making +it organised the spiritual world of animism with a thoroughness +nowhere else equalled.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> They had, therefore, no gods properly so +called, but only a host of spirits. Even the beings they possessed, +who afterwards became great gods, were at first no more than +functional spirits. <b>Janus</b>, afterwards one of the chief deities of +Rome, is originally the "spirit of opening"; an abstraction capable +of great multiplication; a Janus could be invoked for each act of +that kind. <b>Vesta</b> is the spirit of the hearth; each household had its +Vesta, both in early and in later times. <b>Juno</b> is not one but many: as +each man had his genius, a spiritual self accompanying or guarding +him, so each woman had—not her genius, but her Juno. There were many +Vestas, many Junos; and it is only later that the great goddess +arises, who may be looked to from every quarter. Others of the great +gods of later Rome have a similar early history. <b>Mars</b> was at first +the spirit which made the corn grow; <b>Diana</b> was a <a name="p309"></a>tree-spirit, <b>Jovis</b> +or Diovis himself, though his name connects him with the Greek Zeus +and the Sanscrit Dyaus, and though he is afterwards, like these, the +god of the sky, was originally in Latin a spirit of wine, and was +worshipped, the Jovis of each village or each farm, at the wine-feast +in April when the first cask was broached. Thus the gods of the +Latins are not beings who have an independent existence and features +of their own; they are limited each to the particular object or +process from which he derives his character, and have no realm beyond +it. And the same is true of the family and house-gods, whose worship +formed perhaps the principal part of the working religion of the +Roman. The <b>Lares</b> represent the departed ancestors of the family; they +dwell near the spot in the house where they were buried, and still +preside over the household as they did in life. They are worshipped +daily with prayers and offerings of food and drink; the family adore +in them not so much the dead individuals, though their masks hang on +the wall, as the abstraction of its own family continuity. The +<b>Penates</b> or spirits of the store-chamber are worshipped along with the +Lares, they represent the continuity of the family fortune. A more +general name for the departed is the <b>Manes</b>, the kind ones; they are +thought of as living below the earth; it is not individuals who are +worshipped at their festivals, but the dead in the abstract, the +former upholders of the family or of the people.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> See on this Mr. Jevons's preface to Plutarch's <i>Romane +Questions</i> (Nutt, 1892); which deserves to be published in a more +accessible form.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The character of <b>Roman worship</b> is determined by the nature of its +objects. As each of the gods has his basis in a material object or +action, there can be no need of any images of them; where the object +or the act is, there is the god, his character is expressed in it and +not to be expressed otherwise. Nor could such gods require any +temples. And what need of priests for them, when every one who knew +their names (a great deal depended on that) could place <a name="p310"></a>himself in +contact with them as soon as he saw the object or took in hand the +action behind which they stood? Nor can many stories be told about +gods like these,—the Romans have no mythology. The beings they +worship are not persons but abstractions. They have just enough +character to be male or female, but they cannot move about or act +independently of their natural basis; they cannot marry, nor breed +scandal, nor make war. Nor can there be any motive for identifying +with such beings a great man who has died; where there are no true +gods, there cannot be any demi-gods or heroes. Only a very limited +power can possibly be put forth by such beings; all they can do is to +give or to withhold prosperity, each in the narrow section of affairs +he has to do with.</p> + +<p>The aim of worship where such a set of beings is concerned, is to get +hold of the spirit or god connected with the act one has in view, and +so to deal with him as to avert his disfavour, which the Roman always +apprehended, and gain his concurrence. The house-gods are beings +possessing a stated cult, but outside the house-cult the worshipper +has to face the question at each emergency which god he ought to +address. He might choose the wrong one, which would make his act of +worship vain. If he names the god correctly he will have a hold on +him; in a case of uncertainty, therefore, he names a number of gods, +in the hope that one of them will be the right one; or he invokes +them all. "Whether thou be god or goddess" he will further say, if he +is in doubt on that point, "or by whatever name thou desirest to be +called." Each god has his proper style and title, and it is vain to +approach him without these; lists of the various gods and of their +correct styles were therefore drawn up in very early times to serve +as guides to the subject. The Latin word "indigito," to point out, +from "digitus," a finger, is the term used of addressing a god; the +lists of deities <a name="p311"></a>with their proper appellations were called +"indigitamenta"; and the gods named in them "Dii indigetes." The act +of worship is grave and formal; it has to be done with precision and +in strict accordance with the rules; silence is commanded; the +sacrificer repeats the prayer proper for the occasion after some one +who knows it by rote; the worshippers veil their heads. In this the +Roman ritual is markedly different from the Greek. Mommsen says the +Greek prayed bareheaded, because his prayer was contemplation, +looking at and to the gods; and the Roman with head covered, because +his prayer was an exercise of thought; and in this he sees a +characteristic indication of the difference between the two +religions. A more modern interpretation of the Roman practice is that +it arose from the fear that the worshipper might see the god whom he +has just summoned by name, which would be dangerous. If any mistake +is made in worship, the act is vain and has to be done over again.</p> + +<p><b>The Great Gods.</b>—The foregoing is the logic of the system on which +the Roman religion, as distinguished from the foreign elements +afterwards added to it, was based; the religion, however, does not +come into view historically till it has begun to rise above such a +worship of abstractions or of petty spirits, towards a worship of +gods. It was apparently by the growth of larger social organisms that +the Latin tribes advanced to the worship of greater gods. While the +family religions continued to the end, the tribe had, as in the case +of other early peoples, a larger religion than the family, and a +union of tribes produced a religion on a still greater scale. The +history of early Rome consists of a succession of such fusions of +tribes into a larger political whole. When history opens, "Rome is a +fully-formed and united city"; but Rome is made up of several tribes, +which maintain many separate institutions. The religion of after +times bears witness to these successive unions. "Deus Fidius," the +god of <a name="p312"></a>good faith, is the sacred impersonation of an alliance. <b>Mars</b> +and <b>Quirinus</b> are precisely similar to each other, and each has a +flamen, or blower of the sacrificial flame, and a staff of twelve +salii or dancers. Mars is the Roman, Quirinus the Sabine deity; and +we see that the two tribes had, before they were united, very similar +worships, which were both kept up after the union. The feriae +Latinae, or Latin festival, celebrated on Mons Albanus, is common to +the Latin tribes and commemorates their union. Jovis rises into +importance with the growth of city life; he comes to be called father +Jovis, Jupiter; there are many Jupiters, but the <b>Jupiter</b> of the city +of Rome is the greatest and best of all; he bears the title of +<b>Optimus Maximus</b>. He rises above Mars, in earlier times the first +Roman god, after whom the first month of the year was called, before +the month of Janus and the month of Februus, the purifier, were added +to it. Janus, the great state-god of opening, was the only one of +whom there was a representation; Mars was represented symbolically by +a spear, but Janus was figured as a man with two faces. Vesta, the +hearth-goddess of the state, was of course a great deity with a very +important worship.</p> + +<p>Here we must mention a side of Roman religion which no doubt has its +roots far back in prehistoric darkness, but which could scarcely be +organised as we find it till the greater gods had risen to some +degree of power. It was believed that the gods were constantly making +signs to men, especially in occurrences which take place in the air, +such as thunder and lightning, and the flight of birds, but also in +many other ways. Some of the signs were simple, so that any one could +tell if they were lucky or the reverse, but some were not to be +interpreted except by men possessing a special knowledge of the +subject. And such men might be asked by an individual or by the state +when about to enter on any undertaking, to seek a sign from heaven +concerning that business. This became with the Romans <a name="p313"></a>a great and +important act, and those who had it in their hands exercised great +power.</p> + +<p><b>Sacred Persons.</b>—The priest in the earliest times was, in the +domestic religion, the paterfamilias, in that of the tribe, which was +but an extended household, the head of the leading family, and in the +city, which was constituted after the same model, the king. Religion +was the principal part of the service of the state; the king as such +had to offer sacrifice, to cause the gods to be consulted, to +prosecute and judge and punish those who had violated the laws and +came under the anger of the gods. But as the state grew larger, +various offices were set up to relieve the king of part of these +duties; when new worships were added to the old ones, the care of +them was in some cases committed to a special person or college; and +these priesthoods and sacred guilds of early Rome maintained their +place in the constitution for many centuries, and carried on this +part of the public service long after the words they spoke and the +acts they did had become meaningless. Beginning with the sacred +persons attached to special cults, we have, first, three flamens, one +of Mars, one of Quirinus, and one of Jovis (fl. Martialis, +Quirinalis, Dialis). Mars and Quirinus have their dancers, as we +mentioned above. Other flamens of lower rank were afterwards +instituted for the separate worships of the tribes. Very old are the +"fratres arvales," field-brothers, who served the creative goddess +(Dea Dia) in the country in the month of May, with a view to a good +growing summer, dancing to her and addressing hymns to her which may +be read now but cannot be understood, and were unintelligible to the +Romans themselves. The Luperci (wolf-men) held a shepherd's festival +in the month of February, sacrificing goats and dogs to some rustic +deity, and running naked through the streets afterwards, striking +those they met with thongs cut from the hides of the victims. The six +vestal virgins are well known, who had charge of keeping up <a name="p314"></a>the fire +of Vesta, the house-fire of the state. They devoted their whole lives +to this office, and enjoyed great respect. These priesthoods and +corporations, instituted to secure the continuance of special cults, +are not of a nature to bring the whole of life under the influence of +the priests and so to foster a priestly type of religion. Nor were +those other religious offices of a nature to do so, which were not +attached to special cults but served the more general purpose of +assisting and advising the state in matters connected with religion. +First among these comes the office of pontifex, a word which is +variously interpreted, either as "bridge-maker,"—that being a very +important and solemn proceeding,—or as leader in a religious +procession. There were originally five pontifices, and the number was +afterwards raised to fifteen. They exercised a great variety of +functions, and had a general oversight of all religious matters, both +public and domestic. They were experts in ritual and in canon law; +they advised the state as to the proper sacrifices to be offered for +the public, and, when consulted, would also direct the private +individual. Funerals, marriages, and other domestic occurrences into +which religious considerations entered, were under their charge; and +on the occurrence of portents and omens it was their duty to indicate +the steps to be taken in order to find out what the gods wished to +signify. They had charge of the calendar, and had to fix what days +were proper for carrying on the business of the courts (<i>dies +fasti</i>), and they were the authorities on the forms of legal process. +The chief pontiff is called the "judge and arbiter of things divine +and human," and the college had manifestly a very strong position. +The same is true of the <i>augurs</i> or experts in signs and omens. +Though they did not consult the gods about public undertakings until +the magistrate or the general asked them to do so, they had power to +stop proceedings of which they disapproved; and this at certain +periods of Roman history they very frequently <a name="p315"></a>did. In Cicero's +treatise on Divination a great deal of interesting matter may be +found on this subject. Another sacred college of somewhat later date +is that of the men, at first three in number, afterwards fifteen, who +acted as expounders of the sacred Sibylline books, which King Tarquin +purchased from the old woman or Sibyl, of Cumae.</p> + +<p><b>Roman Religion Legal rather than Priestly.</b>—While some of these +priestly colleges exercised large powers, these powers were always +regarded not as inherent but deputed. The sacred offices were not +hereditary but elective; no course of training was necessary to +qualify for them; men were chosen for them by the state as for any +other public office, and those who became priests did not cease to be +citizens but continued to sit in the Senate, and, as it might happen, +to hold other offices at the same time. The growth of a priestly +caste was thus effectively prevented; religion was precluded from +having any free development of its own, and kept in the position of +an instrument for the furtherance of ends of state. There is no great +religion in which ritual is so much, doctrine and enthusiasm so +little. All these priests and colleges exist for no end but to carry +out with strict exactitude the ritual usage which is deemed necessary +to keep on good terms with the gods. They have no doctrine to teach, +no fervour to communicate, they do not even tell any stories. +Punctiliousness and anxiety attend all their proceedings. To the +Roman, Ihne says, "religion turns out to be the fear lest the gods +should punish them for neglect; any unusual occurrence may be a sign +that the gods are withdrawing their co-operation from the state, and +this must be looked into, and the due expiations used if judged +necessary." Ritual must always be carried out with the utmost +precision; it is not the goodwill of the worshipper but his +exactitude that counts. He may even cheat the gods of their due if he +is formally correct in his observance. For example, if the auspices +<a name="p316"></a>(the signs derived from birds) were unfavourable, they could be +repeated till a better result was obtained.</p> + +<p>What we have described is the religion of Rome in its original form, +before it accepted foreign modifications. Its gods are spirits of the +woods and fields, of the market, of the foray, of the treaty, of all +the aspects, in fact, which life had borne to the tribes of Central +Italy, especially to the Latins and the Sabines who combined to form +the state of Rome. These gods form no family and have no history, +they do not, like the gods of Greece, lay hold of the imagination, +nor, like those of Germany, of the affections. They are only dimly +known; but they are powerful, and it is necessary to reckon with +them; and the only relations which can be kept up with such beings +are those of business and of law. It follows that this religion is +one of constraint and not of inspiration. In this it agrees with the +Roman character, which is much more inclined to order than to +freedom, to law than to art. The word religion has here its origin; +its primary meaning is restraint or check, since the chief feeling +with which the Roman regarded his gods was that of anxiety. Not that +the gods were bad; Vediovis, the bad counterpart of Jovis, is a +vanishing figure,—but they were ill-known, and might have cause to +be angry. Worship, therefore, the practical cultivation of the +friendship of the gods, swallows up here the other elements of +religion as a whole. Religion does not free the forces of human +nature to realise themselves in spontaneous activity, but enchains +them to the punctilious service of a nonhuman authority. Everything +exciting is kept at a distance, and men are trained in obedience and +scrupulousness and self-denial. They produce no beautiful works of +art, and have hardly any stories to delight in; but they are reverent +and conscientious; private feeling is sacrificed with an austere +satisfaction to the public interest, and they accordingly build up a +great power. Living in an atmosphere of magic, where <a name="p317"></a>unseen dangers +lurk on every side, and there is virtue in words and forms correctly +used to avert these dangers, the Roman develops to perfection one +side of religion. To its inspirations and enthusiasms and hidden +consolation he is a stranger; but he knows it better than others as a +conservative and regulating force, which checks passion, calls for +wary and orderly conduct, and causes the individual to subordinate +himself to the community.</p> + +<p><b>Changes introduced from without.</b>—The Roman religion had, properly +speaking, no development. What it might have become had it been left +to unfold itself without interference from without, we can only +guess; but it was early brought under the influence of more highly +developed religions, and it proved to have so little power of +resisting innovations that it speedily parted with much of its own +native character. The Romans were not unconscious that their religion +was an imperfect one; they never claimed, when they were conquering +the world, that their religion was the only true one, or had any +mission to prevail over others. They were tolerant from the first of +the religions of other peoples. The gods of other peoples they always +believed to be real beings, with whom it was well for them also to be +on good terms. If everything in the world had its spirit, these gods +also were the spirits of their own countries and nations; the very +notion of deity which the Romans entertained prevented them from +having any exclusive belief in their own gods or from denying the +right of the gods of others.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> When therefore they came in contact +with foreign religions, they were not protected by any profound +conviction of the truth of their own, and were exposed to the full +force of the new ideas. The new religions came to them along with the +culture of peoples much further advanced in art and in thought than +they were themselves; at each such contact, therefore, they felt the +<a name="p318"></a>foreigner to be superior to themselves in intellectual matters; and +wherever this happens, the less highly gifted race is likely to +change in its religion as well as in other things. We have to note +the changes which were produced by such external influences.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Cf. Celsus in Origen, <i>Contra Celsum</i>, vii. 68.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In the first place, Rome borrowed from <b>Etruria</b>. Etruscan religion was +both more developed and more savage than that of Rome. Human +sacrifice was an acknowledged feature of it; divination was carried +to absurd lengths, one great branch of it consisting in the +prediction of the future from the appearance of the entrails of +slaughtered animals. Etruria had a hell with regular torments for the +departed; in Rome the belief in a future life was much less definite. +On the other hand, Etruria had deities who were something more than +abstractions; there was a circle of twelve gods, who held meetings on +high, and regulated the affairs of the world. Above them was a power, +little defined, to which the gods were subject, a kind of fate. Greek +influence, so notably apparent in Etruscan art, is present, too, we +see, in Etruscan religion; it is through this somewhat dark passage +that Greek religious ideas first came to Rome. Under this influence +various innovations took place at Rome. Before the end of the +monarchy the Romans had begun to build houses for their gods, after +being for 170 years, we are told, without any such arrangement. The +Roman "templum" was not originally a building, but a space marked +off, according to the rules of augury, for the observation of signs. +A part of the sky was also marked off for such "observation" and +"contemplation." On such a holy site, on the Capitoline hill, there +was founded by the earlier Tarquin the temple of Jupiter which always +continued to be the principal site of Roman religion. Its +architecture was Tuscan; and it contained not only a cella or holy +place for the image of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, but also a cella for +Juno and one for Minerva. The latter was both an Etruscan and a <a name="p319"></a>Roman +deity, the goddess of memory. Art was thus enlisted in the service of +the gods; the divine figures acquired a reality and distinctness +quite wanting to the earlier divine abstractions; and a new notion of +deity was presented to the Roman mind. Other temples followed, to +Jupiter under other names than that which he had in the Capitol, and +to other deities. That of Faith was a very early one. It was a rule +in temple-building that the image in the cella faced the west, so +that the worshipper, praying towards it, faced the east. Here also +the Roman custom is a departure from the Greek; for in Greek temples +it is the rule that the image faces the east, and the worshipper the +west. The Roman orientation of sacred buildings has passed into the +practice of the Christian Church. From Etruria the Romans also +derived a great addition to the rules of divination; but the more +childish parts of Etruscan divination were regarded at Rome as +superstitious, though private persons might frequently resort to +them.</p> + +<p><b>Greek Gods in Rome.</b>—While Greek ideas thus came indirectly from the +north, the south of the peninsula was becoming more and more Greek, +and the gods and temples of Hellas, established first at the +sea-ports and colonies, gradually came to Rome. This movement is +connected with the Sibylline books which were acquired by the last of +the kings. These books were brought to Rome from the Greek town of +Cumae; they were written in Greek, and contained oracles which were +ascribed to an old Greek prophetess. They were consulted in grave +emergencies of state through the officials who had charge of them, +and what they generally prescribed was that a god should be sent for +from Greece, and his worship set up in Rome. Many foreign worships +were thus imported. First came Apollo, disguised under the Latin name +of Aperta, "opener," for the books contained many of his oracles; he +was received and worshipped as a god of purification, since the state +was in need of that process at the time, as <a name="p320"></a>well as of prophecy. In +the year 496 <small>B.C.</small> came in the same way Demeter, Persephone, and +Dionysus, identified with the old Latin Ceres, Libera, and Liber; +and, a century later, Heracles, identified with the Latin Hercules. +In the year 291, on the occurrence of a plague, Asclepios, in Latin +Aesculapius, was brought from Epidauros; and when the crisis of the +contest with Hannibal was at hand (204 <small>B.C.</small>) Cybele, the great mother +of the gods, was fetched from Pessinus in Phrygia. The people of that +town generously handed over to the Roman ambassadors the field-stone +which was their image of the goddess, and her journey to Rome had the +desired effect, in the expulsion of Hannibal from Italy. The Venus of +Mount Eryx in Sicily arrived in Rome about the same time; a goddess +combining the characters of Aphrodite and Astarte, and quite +different from the simple old Roman Venus, who was a goddess of +Spring, and presided over gardens.</p> + +<p>The process of which these are the outward landmarks went on during +the whole period of the Republic, and resulted in the substitution of +what may be called with Mommsen the Grĉco-Roman, for the old Roman +religion. The change was a very profound one. Not only were some new +gods added to the old ones, not only did Greek art come to be +employed in Roman temples, not only were new rites introduced, such +as the <i>lectisternium</i>, in which couches were arranged, each with the +image of a god and that of a goddess, and tables spread to regale the +recumbent deities. The very notion of deity was changed; the Greek +god, represented by an image in human form and moving freely in the +upper world, was substituted for the Latin god who was the unseen +side of an act or process or quality, from which he had his name, and +apart from which he was not. The following is a list of the principal +Roman gods and of the Greek ones with whom they were +identified:—Jupiter (Zeus), Juno <a name="p321"></a>(Hera), Neptunus (Poseidon), +Minerva (Athene), Mars (Ares), Venus (Aphrodite), Diana (Artemis), +Vulcanus (Hephaestus), Vesta (Hestia), Mercurius (Hermes), Ceres +(Demeter). The identifications are by no means accurate; Jupiter and +Vesta, as we have seen, are the only two Roman gods who are really +identical with Greek gods, the other equations are founded on +accidental resemblances, and are more arbitrary than real. The result +of them was, however, that the Romans forgot to a large extent their +own gods, and got Greek ones instead. With the divine figures they +took over the mythology of Greece, and thus the gods came to be well +known with all their weaknesses, instead of as before surrounded with +mystery and awe. The worship founded on the earlier conception of the +deity, and kept up with unwavering regularity, was inapplicable to +these new gods, and inevitably lost all its reality. This is not the +only cause, but it is one of the chief causes which prepared for the +fearful spectacle presented by Roman religion at the end of the +Republic, when men of learning and distinction officiated as the +heads of a religion in which they had no belief, and which they +scoffed at in their writings.</p> + +<p>Among the worships which came to Rome from the East there were +several which are not of Greek, but of Oriental origin. The worship +of Cybele belongs to Asia Minor, though it had spread over Greece; +that of Dionysus also came to Greece from Asia. The practice of both +these cults was accompanied by excitement and self-abandonment on the +part of the worshippers; and they formed a great contrast to the +staid and formal worship of the Romans, the only admissible passion +in which was a calm passion for correctness. The worship of Cybele +was carried on by eunuchs, it had noisy processions, and depended on +begging for its support. When the Romans brought it to their city, +they ordained that Roman citizens should not fill leading offices in +it; but it flourished so strongly, <a name="p322"></a>among the numerous foreigners in +the capital and among the poor, as to show that it met a great want +there. The worship of Bacchus had to be suppressed by the state; it +was carried on at nocturnal meetings, which even citizens attended, +and it led to all kinds of irregularities. As the subject of this +chapter is not the religions of Rome, but the Roman religion, we do +not here review the numerous foreign worships which were brought to +the capital from every part of the Empire, and made Rome, towards the +close of the Republic, the residence of the gods of every nation. The +Romans as we saw were not led by any convictions of their own to deny +the truth of foreign religions; and their policy as rulers also +inclined them to tolerate all worships which did not offend against +civil order. In the provinces it was the rule not to interfere with +local religion; at Rome the authorities recognised not the imported +religion itself, of which the state did not feel called to judge, but +the association practising it, which received permission to do so. +The worship was then protected by the state—it became a <i>religio +licita</i>. Amid the meeting of all the gods and the clashing of all the +creeds which were thus brought about at Rome, the Roman religion +itself maintained its place, not as a doctrine which any one +believed, for the very priests and augurs laughed at the rites and +ceremonies they carried on, but as a ritual which was bound up with +the whole past history of Rome, and believed to be necessary for the +welfare of the state as well as for the satisfaction of the common +people. In the atmosphere of discussion and of far-reaching +scepticism which then prevailed it was not to be expected that faith +could again find any strong support in the historical religion of +Rome. The Emperor Augustus made a serious attempt to reform and +revive religion. He selected the domestic worship of the Lares as the +most living part of the old system, and ordained that the two Lares +should be worshipped along with the genius <a name="p323"></a>of the Emperor, and that +Rome should be divided into districts, each with its temple of this +strange trinity; while in the provinces each district was to support +a worship of Rome and of the Emperor in addition to its existing +cults. Temples were rebuilt at Rome, new ones were raised, sacred +offices were filled which had been vacant, religious games were +instituted to carry the Roman mind back to the sacred past. Livy and +Virgil treated the past from a religious point of view, showing the +sacred mission of the Roman race, and exhibiting the valour and piety +of the founders of the state. If the Roman religion could be revived +these were the proper means to do it. But the religion of the future +was not to be prepared in this way.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>The sections on religion in Mommsen's <i>History of Rome</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Ramsay's <i>Roman Antiquities</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Wissowa, <i>Religion und Cultur der Römer</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Holwerda, in De la Saussaye.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>For the period of the Empire, Boissier's <i>La Religion Romaine</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>See also the work of Cumont, cited <a href="#p169">above</a>.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap18"></a><br><a name="p324"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XVIII</h4> +<center>THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA<br> +<br> +I. <i>The Vedic Religion</i></center> +<br> + +<p>No contrast could well be greater than that between the German +religion and that of India. In the one case we have a people full of +vigour, but not yet civilised; in the other a people of high +organisation and culture, but deficient in vigour; the former +religion is one of action, the latter one of speculation. From the +original Aryan faith, to which that of the Teutons most closely +approximates, Indian religion is removed by two great steps. First we +have as a variety of Aryan faith the Indo-Iranian religion, that of +the undivided ancestors of Persians and Indians alike, in the dim +period antecedent to the Aryan settlement of India. Of this religion, +the common mother of those of Persia and of India, we shall give some +sketch after we have made acquaintance with the gods of India, at the +beginning of our Persian chapter. Indian religion is a variety of +Indo-Iranian, which is a variety of the Aryan type. Neither its +genealogy nor its character entitles it to be taken as a typical +example of the Aryan religions. In literary chronology it is the +earliest of them, inasmuch as its books are the oldest sacred +literature of Aryan faith; but in point of development it is not an +early but an advanced product. The absorbing interest it offers to +the student of our science is due to the fact that it presents in an +unbroken sequence a growth of religious <a name="p325"></a>thought, which, beginning +with simple conceptions and advancing to a great priestly ritual, can +be seen to pass into mysticism and asceticism, and thence to the +rejection of all gods and rites, and a system of salvation by +individual good conduct. Nowhere else can the progress of religion +through what we might call its seven ages of life be seen so clearly, +nor the logical connection of these ages with each other be +recognised so unmistakably. The present chapter deals with the +infancy and lusty youth of the religion as seen in Vedism; the later +stages of Brahmanism and Buddhism will be spoken of in subsequent +chapters.</p> + +<p><b>The Rigveda.</b>—The Vedic religion takes its name from the Rigveda, the +oldest portion of Indian literature, and the earliest literary +document of Aryan religion. Of four vedas or collections of hymns, +the Rigveda is the oldest and most interesting. It contains a set of +hymns which, with much more of their early religious literature, the +Hindus ascribed to direct divine revelation, but which we know to +have been written by men who claimed no special inspiration. Most of +them date from the time when the Aryans, having made good their entry +in India, but without by any means altogether subduing the former +inhabitants, were dwelling in the Punjaub. The religion of the hymns +is a strongly national one. The Aryans appeal to their gods to help +them against the races, afterwards driven to the south and to the sea +coasts, who differ from themselves in colour, in physiognomy, in +language, in manners, and in religion. Nor are these conquerors by +any means an uncultivated people; they had long been using metals; +they built houses,—a number together in a village; they lived +principally by keeping cattle, but also by tillage, and by hunting. +They drank Sura, a kind of brandy, and Soma, a kind of strong ale, of +which we shall hear more. They were, as a rule, monogamous, the wife +occupying a high position in the household, and assisting her husband +in offering <a name="p326"></a>the domestic sacrifice. At the head of each state was a +king, as among the Greeks of Homer; he was not, however, an absolute +monarch; his people met in council and controlled him. The king +himself offered sacrifice for his tribe in his own house,—there were +no temples,—but he was frequently assisted by a man or several men +of special learning in such rites.</p> + +<p>The hymns of the Rigveda were written for use at sacrifices. The +sacrifice consists of food and drink of which the god who is +addressed is invited to come and partake, or which are conveyed to +the gods seated on their heavenly thrones, by means of fire. Soma, +the intoxicating juice of the soma plant, is an invariable feature of +the banquets in these hymns; the solid part consists of butter, milk, +rice or cakes; but animals were also killed, and the horse-sacrifice +was a specially important one. The hymn also is an essential part of +the rite; the sacrifice would have no virtue without it. It consists +of praise and prayer. The deity is extolled for the exploits he has +done, for his strength, for his beauty, for his wisdom or his +goodness, he is invoked again and again to partake of what has been +provided for him, and in return he is asked to send the worshipper +food or cows, guidance or protection, or whatever the latter is in +want of.</p> + +<p><b>The Vedic Gods.</b>—And who are the gods who receive this worship? They +are parts of nature or celestial phenomena, more or less personified. +Worship is directed now to one divine being, now to another; each has +a story which is dwelt on and a number of functions belonging to him, +for the sake of which he is extolled and sought after; each god, that +is to say, has his myth. In this set of gods the myths are so clear +that we can identify with perfect confidence each of the gods with +that part of Nature from which he arose.</p> + +<p>M. Barth classifies the Vedic gods according to the degree in which +they have become detached from their natural basis. There are two +which are not so detached <a name="p327"></a>at all. <b>Agni</b>, who is one of the chief +deities of the Rigveda, is fire, and <b>Soma</b>, the deity to whom all the +hymns of the ninth book are addressed, is simply the juice of the +soma plant, the liquid part of every sacrifice. Agni is not any +particular fire, but fire as a cosmic principle, born in heaven, born +also daily at the sacrifice by the rubbing together of two pieces of +wood, his parents whom he consumes. He is a priest carrying the +offerings of men up to the gods, but he was a priest at the first +sacrifice, the primeval heavenly sacrifice, before he had come down +to men. He is also the guest and household friend of man, a kindly +and familiar being. But he pervades all nature, and all growth and +energy are due to him. Soma, also inseparably connected with all +sacrifice, who strengthens the gods and makes them immortal, is +likewise a universal principle; he too came at first from heaven, and +he too is at work all through the world. There are stories of his +first production among the gods, and of the first effects of his +appearance; he is the nourisher of plants, he gives inspiration to +the poet and fervour to prayer. Along with Agni he kindled the sun +and the stars.</p> + +<p>In other gods there is a nearer approach to a human figure, and the +physical side is not so obtrusive. <b>Indra</b> is most frequently invoked +of all the gods, and may be called the national god of this period. +He is described as a chieftain standing in a chariot drawn by two +horses. He waged a great battle, but still wages it constantly, +against the monsters of heat and drought, Vrittra, the coverer, and +Ahi the dragon, for the deliverance of the cows, the heavenly waters, +kept by them in captivity. The contest between the god and the demon +goes on for ever. Indra is also the giver of good things of every +kind, he keeps the heavenly bodies in their places, he is the author +and preserver of all life, the inspirer of all noble thoughts and the +answerer of pious prayers, the rewarder of all who trust in him, and +the forgiver of the penitent. It is good to sacrifice to him <a name="p328"></a>and to +offer him soma in abundance; for it strengthens him to take up afresh +his conflicts and labours as the champion of man. Indra is surrounded +by the <b>Maruts</b>, the storm-gods, who are separately invoked in many +hymns. They drive through the sky with splendour and with mighty +music, and bring rain to the parched earth. Their father is <b>Rudra</b>, +also a god of storms, the handsomest of all the gods, and, in spite +of his thunderbolts, a helpful and kindly being. Wherever he sees +evil done, he hurls his spear to smite the evildoer, but he is also a +healer of both physical and moral evils, and the best of all +physicians. Of the same order of deities are <b>Vata</b> or <b>Vayu</b>, the wind, +and <b>Parjanya</b>, the rain-storm. But the loftiest of all the Vedic gods +is <b>Varuna</b>, the great serene luminous heaven. The hymns addressed to +him are comparatively few, but among them are those which rise to the +highest moral and religious level. In language recalling that of the +psalmists and prophets of the Bible, they exalt Varuna as the creator +of the world and of heaven and the stars, as the omniscient defender +of the good and avenger of all evil, as just and holy, and yet full +of compassion, so that the conscience-stricken suppliant is +encouraged to turn to him.</p> + +<p>We here give a few extracts from hymns addressed to some of the gods +we have spoken of. The versions are those of the late Dr. John Muir. +A metrical version can scarcely represent the hymns with the accuracy +the scholar would desire, but, on the other hand, a literal +translation, such as that of Professor Max Müller in vol. xxxii. of +the Sacred Books of the East, gives a less true idea of the spirit of +the pieces, and is less fitted at least for a work like this.</p> +<br><a name="p329"></a> + +<center><small>T<small>O</small> I<small>NDRA</small></small></center> +<br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem5"> + <tr><td><small>Thou, Indra, oft of old hast quaffed<br> + With keen delight, our Soma draught.<br> + All gods delicious Soma love;<br> + But thou, all other gods above.<br> + Thy mother knew how well this juice<br> + Was fitted for her infant's use,<br> + Into a cup she crushed the sap<br> + Which thou didst sip upon her lap;<br> + Yes, Indra, on thy natal morn,<br> + The very hour that thou wast born,<br> + Thou didst those jovial tastes display,<br> + Which still survive in strength to-day.<br> + And once, thou prince of genial souls,<br> + Men say thou drained'st thirty bowls.<br> + To thee the Soma draughts proceed,<br> + As streamlets to the lake they feed,<br> + Or rivers to the ocean speed.<br> + Our cup is foaming to the brim<br> + With Soma pressed to sound of hymn.<br> + Come, drink, thy utmost craving slake,<br> + Like thirsty stag in forest lake,<br> + Or bull that roams in arid waste,<br> + And burns the cooling brook to taste.<br> + Indulge thy taste, and quaff at will;<br> + Drink, drink again, profusely swill!</small></td></tr> +</table><br> +<br> + +<center><small>A<small>NOTHER TO</small> I<small>NDRA</small></small></center> +<br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem6"> + <tr><td><small>And thou dost view with special grace,<br> + The fair complexioned Aryan race,<br> + Who own the gods, their laws obey,<br> + And pious homage duly pay.<br> + Thou giv'st us horses, cattle, gold,<br> + As thou didst give our sires of old.<br> + Thou sweep'st away the dark-skinned brood,<br> + Inhuman, lawless, senseless, rude,<br> + Who know not Indra, hate his friends,<br> + And spoil the race which he defends.<br> + Chase far away, the robbers, chase,<br> + Slay those barbarians black and base.<br> + And save us, Indra, from the spite<br> + Of sprites that haunt us in the night,<br> + Our rites disturb by contact vile,<br> + Our hallowed offerings defile.<br> + Preserve us, friend, dispel our fears,<br> + And let us live a hundred years.<br> + And when our earthly course we've run,<br> + And gained the region of the Sun,<br> + Then let us live in ceaseless glee,<br> + Sweet Soma quaffing there with thee.</small></td></tr> +</table><br> +<br><a name="p330"></a> + +<center><small>T<small>O</small> A<small>GNI</small></small></center> +<br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem7"> + <tr><td><small>Great Agni, though thine essence be but one,<br> + Thy forms are three; as fire thou blazest here,<br> + As lightning flashest in the atmosphere,<br> + In heaven thou flamest as the golden sun.<br> + <br> + It was in heaven thou hadst thy primal birth,<br> + But thence of yore a holy sage benign,<br> + Conveyed thee down on human hearths to shine,<br> + And thou abid'st a denizen of earth.<br> + <br> + Sprung from the mystic pair by priestly hands,<br> + In wedlock joined, forth flashes Agni bright;<br> + But—O ye heaven and earth I tell you right—<br> + The unnatural child devours the parent brands.</small></td></tr> +</table><br> +<br> + +<center><small>T<small>O</small> V<small>ARUNA</small></small></center> +<br> +<table align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="poem8"> + <tr><td><small>The mighty lord on high our deeds, as if at hand, espies;<br> + The gods know all men do, though men would fain their acts disguise.<br> + Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place,<br> + Or hides him in his secret cell,—the gods his movements trace.<br> + Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone<br> + King Varuna is there, a third, and all their schemes are known.<br> + This earth is his, to him belong those vast and boundless skies;<br> + Both seas within him rest, and yet in that small pool he lies.<br> + Whoever far beyond the sky should think his way to wing,<br> + He could not there elude the grasp of Varuna the king.<br> + His spies, descending from the skies, glide all this world around,<br> + Their thousand eyes all-scanning sweep to earth's remotest bound.<br> + Whate'er exists in heaven and earth, whate'er beyond the skies,<br> + Before the eyes of Varuna, the king, unfolded lies.<br> + The ceaseless winkings all he counts of every mortal's eyes,<br> + He wields this universal frame as gamester throws his dice.<br> + Those knotted nooses which thou fling'st, O God, the bad to snare,<br> + All liars let them overtake, but all the truthful spare.</small></td></tr> +</table><br> + +<p>Varuna, the all-embracing sky, is also in many hymns a solar deity. +There are also other solar deities; <b>Mitra</b> who is frequently invoked +along with Varuna; <b>Surya</b>, <b>Savitri</b>, <b>Vishnu</b>, and +<b>Pushan</b>, are all gods +of this class. Each of these has some attributes or some story of his +own. Surya keeps his eye on men and reports their failings to Varuna +and Mitra. Savitri, the quickener, raises <a name="p331"></a>all things from sleep in +the morning with his long arms of gold, and covers them with sleep in +the evening. Vishnu, the active, traverses the universe with three +strides. Pushan is a shepherd who loses none of his flock; a guide +also, both in the journeys of this world and in the last journey. A +number of the principal gods have the common title of <b>Adityas</b> or +children of <b>Aditi</b>, immensity, a being too vast and undetermined to be +clearly represented. We should also mention <b>Ushas</b>, the dawn, a +goddess whom the sun-god is daily chasing; the <b>Asvins</b> or two heavenly +charioteers, who daily make the circuit of the heavens; <b>Tvashtri</b>, the +smith who made the thunderbolt of Indra; the <b>Ribhus</b>, artificers who +were once men and have been admitted to the society of the gods. <b>Yama</b> +is the god of the dead, he first traversed the road to the country +beyond, and now he rules over it, and comforts with substantial joys +the spirits guided there by Agni (this points to cremation which was +frequent but not universal) or by Pushan. There the Pitris or fathers +sit at the same tables with the gods, and are eternally happy. +<b>Brahmanaspati</b>, lord of prayer, is a god of another type, a +personification of the act of ritual, and his presence in the Vedas, +beside the elemental deities, shows how early speculation had begun.</p> + +<p><b>To what Stage does this Religion belong?</b>—Our sketch of this system +is necessarily brief; we have now to inquire as to the place it +occupies in the religious growth of India. It is held, on the one +hand, that it is a primitive religious product, that it shows us some +of the very first efforts men made to have a religion; while on the +other hand it is held that the Vedic hymns and the Vedic system are +sacerdotal, and are due to an advanced organisation of worship and to +a special set of men who were much in advance of their age.</p> + +<p>1. <b>It is Primitive.</b>—Mr. Max Müller<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> says that "the sacred books of +India offer the same advantages ... for the study of the origin and +growth of religion ... which <a name="p332"></a>Sanscrit has offered for the study of +the origin and growth of human speech." Dr. Muir<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> claims that the +Vedic hymns illustrate the natural workings of the human mind in the +period of its infancy. In the Vedas, these writers consider, we are +able to watch the process by which the earliest men rose to the +belief in gods, and the naïve and simple methods by which man's first +intercourse with gods was carried on. The undoubted antiquity of +these pieces favours this view; the Rigveda is admitted on all hands +to be the earliest part of Indian literature, and many of the hymns +were written about 1500 <small>B.C.<small><sup>3</sup></small></small> The pure and simple nature of the +Vedic religion may also appear to favour this view. It is a religion +singularly free from the lower elements of man's early faith. Savage +legends and especially immoral stories of the gods are markedly +absent from the hymns; they are also free from the element of magic +and fetishism; the gods are great beings, and religion consists in +intercourse with these great beings. Now the later religious +literature of India, the brahmanas or commentaries on the Rigveda and +the other later Vedas, contain a variety of legends and a religion by +no means free from magic. It may be maintained therefore that the +pure religion of the Aryans afterwards became contaminated by contact +with the lower religion of the tribes the Aryans had conquered. It +was from the Dravidian and Kolarian aborigines, we are told, that +Indian religion took its later corruptions. The Vedic religion has no +idols, it has no dark descriptions of hell, the caste system on which +later Brahmanism was based is absent from it, it has no demons to be +guarded against, and no bad deities. The doctrine of metempsychosis +is not found here, except perhaps in germ. The immolation of the +widow on the funeral pile of her husband is not sanctioned by the +Vedas, and of <a name="p333"></a>ancestor-worship only a few traces are found. All +these, it may be held, are later corruptions. The Vedic religion is a +bright and happy system, and the primitive beliefs of mankind, less +changed by the Indians than they were elsewhere, are here to be seen; +the hymns show the kind of faith to which a strong and happy race of +men naturally came, as their minds began to open to the wonders of +the world they lived in, the faith of "primitive shepherds praising +their gods as they lead their flocks to the pasture." The Indians had +preserved, longer than other peoples, the gift of recognising deity +in nature; and the primitive beliefs of mankind survive here in +something like their first integrity, while elsewhere they were +broken up and confused.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> <i>Origin of Religion</i>, p. 135.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> <i>Sanscrit Texts</i>, vol. v. p. 4.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> According to Mr. Max Müller the Mantra or hymn period is +to be placed 1000-800 <small>B.C.</small>; but other scholars place it earlier.</small></blockquote> + +<p>2. <b>It is Advanced.</b>—On the other hand, it is urged that the society +in which the hymns arose was not a primitive one, but one +considerably advanced both in arts and institutions. The Rishis +(seers), who composed them, belonged to families who cultivated such +an art; and the hymns were no artless outpourings of childlike +emotion, but were written on an elaborate metrical system for a +definite purpose, namely, to form part of great acts of worship. As +for the absence from them of savage myths and of immoral stories of +the gods, this fact does not prove that such things were not known to +the people at the time, but only that the poets did not put them in +their hymns. Mr. Lang has collected the savage myths, similar to +those of other peoples in various parts of the world, which are found +in Indian literature of a later date, and has also shown that the +hymns themselves were not quite ignorant of some of them. The Indians +knew the myth of the marriage of heaven and earth, with the +consequent birth of the gods. They had the story of the deluge. They +had the still more primitive story of the raising up of the earth +from the bottom of the sea. They had various myths of old conflicts +of the gods, and of the <a name="p334"></a>production of the earth and all the men in it +from the dissection of an immense prototypal human monster. Men were +of different castes, they held, because they came from different +portions of Purusha's body when it was cut up. Many stories are to be +found in Indian literature which when found elsewhere are judged to +be products of savage imagination, and the fact that the Rigveda +ignores some of them and refines others, simply shows that the +authors of that collection were on a higher level than their people +in point of cultivation and of piety, as the psalmists and the +prophets of Israel were in advance of theirs. We are led, +accordingly, towards the conclusion that during the period when the +hymns were written those who took charge of the development of +worship in India were seeking to draw away attention from the more +superstitious and childish elements of religion, and to bring to the +front the pure and lofty intercourse man could have with the good +gods. Bad gods are not cultivated; if there are foolish stories about +the gods, they are not repeated, everything dark and terrible, as +well as everything irrational, is removed from the working religion. +Ancestor-worship is not encouraged; family rites continued, but the +worship was wider than the family, and was not restricted to +particular places. The ideas connected with sacrifice are not indeed +very lofty. Sacrifice is, in the first place, barter. Gifts are +provided for the gods, that they may give in their turn. In the +second place it is a social function in which the god and the +worshipper both take part. The food, and especially the soma, +strengthens the god, and man and god are thereby drawn into close +sympathy. But in the third place sacrifice was a piece of magic. The +mere accurate performance of the rite had a mystic efficacy. It was +believed to help to uphold the order of the world; without it the +gods would grow weak, the ordinances of nature would fail, and man +would relapse to the state of savagery. <a name="p335"></a>The gods themselves first +sacrificed; from sacrifice they themselves were born, so that +sacrifice is an essential principle of the universe, was so in the +beginning, and must always be so. The Vedic leaders of religion, +therefore, were not merely champions of enlightenment in religion; +they were also ritualists, the rite was to them an end in itself; the +proper performance of sacrifice was their principal object. This side +of their work had, as we shall see, grave consequences. But the +Rigveda did a great work for India in cultivating gods who were +moral, and to whom man was drawn by higher than selfish motives. Gods +who are just and who watch man's conduct, and do not fail to reward +him according to his deeds, must quicken the conscience of those who +believe in them, and gods who are able to help the weak and to +forgive the penitent must make their people also merciful. In all the +aberrations of Indian religion the high moral standard set by the +Vedic gods is never lost sight of.</p> + +<p>Where a plurality of gods is believed in, these gods must stand in +some relation to each other; and it is of importance to notice <b>how +the gods of the Veda are arranged</b>. We can see here very clearly how +unstable a thing polytheism is. The position of the gods is +constantly changing with reference to each other. We find Agni +addressed as if he were undoubtedly supreme; he dwells in the highest +heavens, he generates the gods, he ordains the order of the universe; +but then we find Indra spoken of in the same way, and Varuna, and +Mitra, and others. Then we find pairs of gods addressed together. +Indra and Agni are frequently so treated; so are Varuna and Mitra. +There is no supreme god, or rather, each god is supreme in turn; the +poet wants a god capable of being exalted in every way, and does so +exalt the god he has before him. In this way a Monotheism is reached; +the mind recognises a god to whom unlimited adoration <a name="p336"></a>can be paid. +But it is a monotheism, as M. Barth well puts it, the titular god of +which is always changing; and Mr. Max Müller gives to this partial +monotheism the name of Kathenotheism; that is, the worship of one god +at a time without any denial that other gods exist and are worthy of +adoration. Now this form of religion, in which several gods are +worshipped, each of whom in turn is regarded as supreme, is not +peculiar to India; we have met with it already, we shall meet with it +again. But in India a peculiar way was found out of the difficulty. +The Indian gods were too little defined, too little personal, too +much alike, to maintain their separate personalities with great +tenacity; nor did they lend themselves to a monarchical form of +pantheon; no one of them was sufficiently marked out from the rest or +above the rest, to rule permanently over them. Yet the sense of unity +in Indian religion is very strong; from the first the Indian mind is +seeking a way to adjust the claims of the various gods, and view them +all as one. An early idea which makes in this direction is that of +<b>Rita</b>, the order, not specially connected with any one god, which +rules both in the physical and the moral world, and with which all +beings have to reckon. Philosophy is busy from the first with the +Vedic gods; the impulse to good conduct and that to mysticism are +equally innate in this religion. We can see, even in the Rigveda, +that India is to solve the problem of its many gods not in the way of +Monotheism, by making one god rule over the others, but in the way of +Pantheism, by making all the gods modes or manifestations of one +being. "Agni is all the Gods" we read here. And a religion which +arranges its objects of worship in this way will not be a religion of +action, but of speculation and of resignation.</p> +<br><a name="p337"></a> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small><i>S. B. E.</i> vol. xxxii. Vedic Hymns. xlvi. Hymns to Agni.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Muir's <i>Sanscrit Texts</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>M. Müller's <i>Hibbert Lectures</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Monier Williams, <i>Indian Wisdom; Hinduism</i> in "Non-Christian +Religious Systems" (S.P.C.K.).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Kaegi, <i>The Rigveda, the oldest literature of the Indians</i>, 1886.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Barth, <i>The Religions of India</i>, in Trübner's Oriental Series.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Herrmann Oldenberg, <i>Die Religion der Veda</i>, 1894.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Bergaigne, <i>La Religion Védique</i>, 3 vols., 1878-83.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. Hardy, <i>Die Vedisch Brahmanische Periode der Religion des alten +Indiens</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Lehmann, in De la Saussaye.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Rhys Davids, <i>Oxford Proceedings</i>, vol. i. p. 1, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> +<a name="chap19"></a><br><a name="p338"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XIX</h4> +<center>INDIA<br> +<br> +II. <i>Brahmanism</i></center> +<br> + +<p>The period in which the songs were collected by the Aryans dwelling +in the Punjaub was succeeded by a period of wars and troubles, after +which the successful race is found to have spread further towards the +East, and to have settled on the Ganges and its tributaries. Along +with this change of position a great change has also taken place in +the spirit of the people, a change which is strikingly seen in their +religion. The priesthood has come to occupy the position of a +separate class to an extent not formerly the case, and all the +phenomena are apparent which are generally found associated with a +hierocracy or rule of priests. The early religious writings have been +formed into a sacred canon: there is an active production of new +works which explain the old ones; the sacrifices grow more elaborate +and new virtues are attributed to them; and along with this hardening +and formalising of the outward parts of religion there is a religious +speculation of great volume and of great freedom of character.</p> + +<p><b>The Caste System: The Brahmans.</b>—The key to the whole movement is to +be found in the new position of the priesthood, or in the +establishment at this period of the system of caste. Though this +system is only once mentioned in the Rigveda, and that in a hymn of +late date, scholars find traces of it in the arrangement of the +hymns, and as it is found in Persia, the Indians probably had it +before they entered India. It may even, it is judged, be traceable to +the division of ranks <a name="p339"></a>among the primitive Aryan families. Teutonic as +well as Indian legends are found explaining how mankind were divided +from the first into different classes.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> But the primitive +differences of rank must have had a great development before they +took shape in the rigid caste system of India. This system appears to +be organised with a view expressly to the exaltation of the +priesthood, and must have been the result of a struggle between the +priests and the warrior or ruling classes. The priests have made +themselves indispensable in nearly all religious acts. Their very +title shows this. While <i>Brahman</i>, as the name of a god, means +primarily growth, and later, devotion or prayer, <i>brahmana</i> (neut.) +signifies the ritual texts according to which worship is performed, +and <i>brahman</i> (mas.) is the name of those who use such texts, and +comes to stand for the highest caste of Indian society. Without the +brahman there can be no satisfactory worship, because there can be no +security that any rite is performed correctly; and a rite which is +not performed correctly has no efficacy. Religion, therefore, is in +the hands of this caste, whose sacredness is hereditary, and cannot +be acquired in any other way than by birth. The members of that caste +and they alone are qualified to superintend religious observances, +and without them the intercourse between man and the gods cannot be +kept up. From his birth the brahman is a being of superior holiness; +he is destined for higher ends than other men, and the distinction +between him and them must be manifested in all his acts and habits +throughout his life. He is the natural lord of all the classes.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Compare Hans Sachs, <i>Die Ungleichen Kinder Eva's</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<p>If the highest caste is strictly defined, so also are the others. The +second caste is that of the <b>Kshatriyas</b>, warriors or rulers, the third +that of the <b>Vaisyas</b> or farmers. These three have rank, they are the +twice-born classes (their second birth answers to confirmation, and +takes place when a young man is invested with the <a name="p340"></a>sacred thread). The +<b>Sudras</b> are the fourth and lowest class; no duty is assigned to them +in the law books but that of serving meekly the other castes. It has +been thought that the Sudras represent the conquered aborigines, the +three classes of rank belonging to the Aryan invaders, but this is +open to question.</p> + +<p>The student of religion has to fix his attention on the Brahmans, who +have secured themselves in the position of the leading caste. We +speak first of the literary movement in which they were concerned, +then of the sacrifices they conducted, and of their gods. We shall +then say something of the practical operation of their religion as a +rule of life, and lastly we shall come to the speculative work of +their period, which is not, however, to be set down to them alone.</p> + +<p>1. <b>The Growth of the Sacred Literature.</b>—The Vedas rose in sacredness +after the age which produced them passed away. A few centuries after +they were written they were not generally intelligible; they needed +interpretation, but at the same time the doctrine of their +inspiration rose higher and higher. The brahmans had both to +interpret the words of the old hymns and to explain how, when used at +the sacrifice, they produced the effect ascribed to them. This led to +the production of the earliest Indian prose, the brahmanas or ritual +treatises. Primarily intended to be directories of worship for the +priests, these works were enriched with all sorts of ideas about the +sacrifices, their origin, and their effects; points in the ritual are +explained in them by mythological stories which we should not +otherwise know, and we see from them that many superstitions, to +which the Vedas gave no encouragement, yet lived among the people. +Each Samhita, or collection of hymns, had its Brahmana, and some of +the collections had several. These works, though transcending in +dreariness most directories of worship, are yet of great value for +the light they throw on the history of Indian manners and ideas, as +well as <a name="p341"></a>on that of mythology. And as it happened among the Jews in +their later period so it happened here;—the sanctity of the text was +extended to the commentary, the brahmana also was held to be +god-given and inspired, and by some was even more highly esteemed +than the hymns themselves. A third class of inspired writings +consists of the Upanishads, or speculative treatises, of which we +shall speak later. The "Veda" in the larger sense is made up of these +three bodies of compositions, mantras, brahmanas, and upanishads. +These three belong to revelation or "S'ruti," <i>i.e.</i> hearing; what is +contained in these is to be regarded as having been heard by inspired +men from a higher source. The counterpart of S'ruti is "smriti," +<i>i.e.</i> recollection, tradition. This embraces the Sutras or works +dealing with ceremonial in the way of short rules gathered from the +older literature, with the exposition of the Vedas, with domestic +rites and conventional usages. The law books, the epics, and the +Puranas, or ancient legendary histories, also belong to this class.</p> + +<p>The doctrine of the Vedas, of their sacredness and of their virtues, +played a great part in Indian thought. They were revered not as a +written word, for they were not written but handed down by +memory,—the Brahman still knows his sacred literature by heart,—but +as hymns possessing supernatural powers and of far higher than human +origin. They were raised to the rank of a divinity, they were said to +have had to do with the creation of the world, or to have been among +the first created beings. The value of the study of them was not to +be exaggerated; he who engages in it, we hear, offers a complete +sacrifice, obtains for himself the world which does not pass away, +and becomes united with Brahma. The class of men who had installed +themselves as the authorised interpreters of the hymns, had evidently +taken up a very strong position.</p> + +<p>2. <b>Sacrifice.</b>—Indian ritual is an immense subject. <a name="p342"></a>In the Vedic +period there were several orders of sacrifice—the hymns of the +Rigveda have to do with the Soma-sacrifice alone—and several kinds +of priests, and it stands to reason that an elaborate ritual derived +from a distant age and cherished by a priestly caste which was +growing in power, could not quickly change. In spite of the +considerable amount of materials accessible in the Brahmanas and +Sutras, a history of Indian sacrifice as a whole has still to be +written.</p> + +<p>It is characteristic of early Indian sacrifice that it is not +confined to a temple or to any sacred spot, and that it does not +require any image of the deity. Instructions are always given for +choosing and preparing a place for the rite, and for erecting an +altar; a place had to be prepared on each occasion. The gods were +asked to come, or were thought to be seated in heaven looking on; the +sacrifice is in the open air. While the celebration proceeded +according to a certain ritual, it lay with the worshippers to fix to +what god or gods the sacrifice should be addressed. There was not one +ritual for Agni and another for Indra, but the same would serve for +either or for both. The sacrifices of which we hear in the Brahmanas +are domestic rites; they are offered by the heads of the household, +who invite ancestors also to be present. A Brahman is present to +direct those who sacrifice and the inferior priests who assist them, +and the benefits of the act extend to all the dependants of the +household. The time was determined by natural seasons or by household +events. Some sacrifices were greater than others, the more elaborate +ones requiring several days, months, or even years for their +celebration. Among the kinds of offerings which might be made we find +that of man enumerated; human sacrifice, however, if it had prevailed +in earlier times, had now grown obsolete.</p> + +<p>The rise of the Brahmans into a caste changed the character of the +sacrifice by making its due celebration depend more on special +knowledge, and by increasing <a name="p343"></a>its elaborate mystery. Once the hymn was +recognised as an essential element of such an act, the person who +could interpret the hymn and explain its effects acquired great +importance. And when the explanation of all the various features of +the sacrifice was once begun, a wide door was opened to minute +ingenuity. It is astonishing to what trifles these priestly +directories descend, what explanations are brought from every part of +earth and heaven of the most trivial circumstances, and what +sacredness is found in the very blades of grass around the altar. Now +the effect of such a treatment of ritual is inevitably that the rite +itself, the outward mechanical performance, comes to be regarded as +important, and that the ethical and religious end which was +originally aimed at, is lost sight of. The priest and those he acts +for are so intent on the minutiĉ of their celebration that they +forget about the god it is intended for. And as they are quite +convinced that the sacrifice, if offered with perfect correctness and +with nothing left out, must produce its effect, the sacrifice itself +comes to appear as the agent of the desired blessing; the god grows +less but the sacrifice grows more. This process, which may be +observed wherever ritualism exists, was carried in the period of +Brahmanism to its utmost length. In this period the old gods lost the +strong hold they had before over the people's mind; men ceased to +look for their gods to the sky or to the tempest, and began to look +instead to the long ceremonies of the priest or to the hymn he +chanted at the altar, or to the austerities he practised. Gods of a +new type now make their appearance. As in the Vedic period we saw +that Brahmanaspati, lord of prayer, had a place beside Indra and +Varuna, so now we see that the supreme deity is named <b>Brahma</b>. The +prayer connected with the sacrifice has given its name to the ruler +of the universe. Other names for the supreme are also found to be +making their way to general use, as the old historical and +mythological gods fall into the background, and an <a name="p344"></a>abstract divine +unity is sought after. <b>Prajapati</b>, lord of creatures, who is little +heard of in the hymns, is frequently invoked as the head of all the +gods, and a triad of gods is heard of, consisting of Agni, Vayu, +Surya, fire, the air, the sun, and summing up the divine energies. +The attributes of the gods are personified, and a set of pale +abstractions is thus added to the Pantheon; and spirits and goblins +not heard of in the hymns, though not therefore necessarily unknown +in the former period, make their appearance. These are, perhaps, the +gods of the aborigines, who thus revenge themselves, as the religion +of the invaders which at first suppressed them loses its earlier +vigour. The strong gods retire and weak gods, many and shadowy, and +bad as well as good, are worshipped. The Asuras were formerly the +gods generally, now they are evil beings with whom the good gods have +to contend.</p> + +<p>3. <b>Practical Life.</b>—We possess very complete pictures of Indian life +and manners in the period of Brahmanism. Of the codes of ancient +sages by which Hindu society was supposed to be governed many are +extant to us; and in Mr. Max Müller's <i>Sacred Books of the East</i> the +English reader may make himself acquainted with several of these. The +most famous and the longest, is the laws of Manu, a mythical +progenitor of mankind. In the form in which we have it this work +dates probably from the second century <small>A.D.</small>, but the body of the work +is much older. Originally a local collection of rules, it extended +its authority gradually over the entire Hindu population of India. +With other collections, also of local origin, it represents to us the +condition of Indian society after the caste system became fixed; but +much of the law thus handed down to us must have had its origin in +prehistoric times.</p> + +<p>The law of Manu hinges on the superiority of the Brahman over the +other castes. The Brahmans form the centre of the state and really +control everything; but their life, in turn, is framed in strict +rules, and their <a name="p345"></a>whole history and actions are laid down for them to +the last detail from the moment of their birth. The life of the +Brahman is divided into four periods. For a quarter of his life he is +a student living with a teacher and learning from him the sacred +knowledge of the Vedas. Every act of study begins with the so-called +Savitri-verse, "Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the divine +Vivifier. May he enlighten our understandings." This prayer, with the +mystic syllable, Om (thought to have to do with the three gods of a +triad, but probably the original meaning is Yes, an abstract +all-embracing yes, in which nothing but pure being is affirmed), is +repeated at every return to study, and also with great frequency at +other times. The teacher is more to the student than his father, and +is to be treated with the greatest deference and courtesy; these +years are a training in gentle and seemly conduct as well as in law. +His student days completed, the Brahman offers his first sacrifice, +marries, and becomes a householder. Little is said of earning a +living; the Brahman is not to be worldly, but he is to be independent +if he can. He is, however, allowed to beg if in want. But more stress +is laid on the continued pursuit of knowledge, and on the domestic +sacrifices to gods and manes which are to be his daily care. After he +has brought up a son to take charge of his house and goods, the third +stage of his life is reached; he may retire from the world and become +a recluse, giving himself to contemplation and austerities. The +fourth stage is that of the ascetic, <i>bhikku</i> or <i>sannyasin</i>, the +aged man who having given up all possessions, all human society, and +the practice of all rites, and subsisting only on alms, seeks to +purge his heart of all desire and to become united by deep meditation +with the supreme soul, thus attaining union with Brahma and final +liberation. In this section of the laws of Manu an ideal of moral +perfection is set forth, which is not demanded at the earlier stages +of life.</p> +<a name="p346"></a> +<p>"<i>Let him not desire to die; let him not desire to live; let him wait +for his time as a servant for the payment of his wages.</i></p> + +<p>"<i>Let him patiently bear hard words, let him not insult any one, nor +become any one's enemy for the sake of this perishable body. Against +an angry man let him not in return show anger; let him bless when he +is cursed.</i>"</p> + +<p>He is to be sedulously careful not to injure any living creature, he +is to meditate on the supreme soul which is present in all organisms, +both the highest and the lowest. He is to give up all attachments, +and in this way, as his body decays, he enters even here into a state +of perfect freedom and repose and union with the great spirit.</p> + +<p>Such ideas prove that the mind of Brahmanism was not occupied with +sacrifices alone. Manu speaks of the superintendence of sacrifices as +only one of several careers which the Brahman might choose; and if he +might with equal right devote himself to study or to self-discipline, +we see that another side of religion than that directing itself to +external gods or occupying itself with outward acts, was pressing +itself forward. The inner world of the mind is growing larger as the +outward gods grow shadowy; it is being found that salvation may be +reached by inwards efforts as well as by outward rites, that the +search for wisdom and the work of self-conquest, and a union with the +deity which is quite apart from any offering or from any form of +worship, also lead to salvation. It is objected to the ethics of Manu +that the ideal they set up is not an active but a suffering one; the +ascetic is placed on a higher platform than the householder, men are +encouraged to withdraw from the performance of their duties in the +family and in society, and to devote themselves to an aim which, +however lofty, is personal and, so far, selfish. It is certainly a +weakness in the religion that it has no higher aim than this to set +before its most eager minds. Apart from this, life is regulated in a +way we cannot but admire. Amid the mass of trivialities and +formalities in which <a name="p347"></a>every action is involved there breathes a grave +humane and gentle spirit, and a sound practical morality, and the +ordinary household of the Brahman may have been a scene of activity +and cheerfulness. The Sudra, however, is spoken of everywhere as a +being whose degradation can never be removed, and to touch whom is to +be defiled. Those who belonged to no caste were in a still worse +plight and lived in the greatest misery.</p> + +<p>4. <b>Philosophy.</b>—We have seen how both in the ritual system they +administered and in the ideal they formed of the highest good, the +Brahmans were led forward from the old ground of the Vedic +nature-worship to a more inward and subjective religious attitude. +The exaltation of Brahma, the power of prayer, to be the supreme god, +was an advance from an external deity to a deity both external and +present in man's own experience; and the appearance of a new way of +salvation, though only permitted at first to the world-weary ascetic, +in which inner contemplation and absorption could lead to the highest +consummation of life, also showed that a new form of religion was at +hand. In the philosophy of the Brahmanic period, the transition is +made from the service of gods external to man, by the mechanism of +rites, to the acknowledgment of a divine being with whom man feels +himself to be inwardly akin and to whom he draws near by his own +spiritual effort. In this movement, to which we learn that members of +the lay aristocracy and even women of intellectual distinction made +important contributions, and which may have appeared in its +beginnings as a sceptical revolt against their own system, the +Brahmans yet took part, and the works in which the record of it is +contained became a part of revelation. The "Upanishads" or +"communicated doctrines," form the third branch of the sacred +knowledge, and much of this literature belongs to the period before +Buddhism. These books are read still by the educated Hindu as part of +scripture, and the philosophy of them is a part <a name="p348"></a>of his religion. We +can only point out the principal terms and notions of that +philosophy.</p> + +<p>Seeking to escape from the confusion of many gods the Indian mind is +looking out even from the Vedic period for some means to conceive of +them all as one. In the earliest period each reigned in turn as the +supreme; a god is supreme not because he is essentially the greatest +of the gods, but because circumstances have brought him to the front. +This is Henotheism. Then we have attempts to sum them all up in one +expression. Prajapati, lord of creatures, Visvakarman, maker of all +things, represent such attempts. Then we have as the supreme, Brahma, +the power of prayer,<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> a being of a different character from all his +predecessors. Brahma is an intellectual deity. He is a thinker, a +knower, he is the "Mahan Atma" or great spirit, which sits in +unbroken calm above the change and distraction of the universe. In +rendering Mahan Atma by great spirit, however, we are anticipating. +Atma, originally breath or life, comes, afterwards, to mean the +person, the self when all that is accidental is removed from it, the +essential, innermost self. Now Brahma is the great self, the inmost +essence of all things, which was before them, and is unaffected by +their changes. But man also has an atma, a self; it may be very small +and lodge in a part of the body where it cannot be detected, but it +is there, and the small atma is the same as the great one. By what +physiological doctrines this is upheld, cannot here be traced; but +the notion of the atma, the great form of which in Brahma is +identical with its small form in man, lies at the basis of Brahmanic +thought.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> On the etymology of Brahma see Mr. Max Müller's <i>Hibbert +Lectures</i>, p. 366.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In Brahma one god has been reached, but he has been reached by +thinking away from him everything concrete. All predicates are +unsuitable to him, as any predicate implies a limitation; he can only +be described in negatives, or in questionable metaphors. He is <a name="p349"></a>meant +to satisfy the religious craving for a being quite free from any +imperfection and entirely supreme—and it is the penalty of this that +he has no clear outline or character. And how indeed is he to be +related to the world? This world of change and decay, of +disappointment and sorrow, what has the perfect being to do with +that? Did he make it, and is he responsible for it? The answer to +this in Hindu thought is that the world is due to <b>Maya</b>, illusion. It +was due to an aberration in Brahma, which is represented in various +ways, that the transition was made from the one to the many, and this +error has been productive of all that has been suffered on the earth. +Or else it is held that it was not Brahma who became subject to +illusion, but that the illusion resides in man's views and thoughts +about the world; and if a man could free himself from the meshes of +Maya by recognising that the world is an illusion, and that nothing +exists but Brahma only, then he would have done something for his own +emancipation, the Brahma in him would be free from illusion, and he +would also have done something, though little, for the salvation of +the world from its great error.</p> + +<p>That the whole world-process is nothing but an illusion, a confused +and troubled dream passing over the mind of Brahma, who himself alone +is real, this is the cardinal doctrine of Brahmanism, from which +Buddhism also, as we shall see, sets out. The world is really nothing +but an apparent world; and the true wisdom, the only salvation +consists in knowing this, and in living a life in accordance with +that knowledge. The wise man should regard a world which he knows to +be illusion, with complete indifference; it can do nothing to him, he +can do nothing for it; it affects him only with an ineradicable +regret that it exists at all, and with a longing for its +disappearance. The practical outcome of the state of matters which he +recognises is firstly negative, that he must not allow the world to +influence him at all, and, secondly, positive, that he <a name="p350"></a>must strive to +be united with Brahma. The negative task is performed by withdrawing +the mind from all particular things, and letting it be filled with +the general, the absolute alone; and similarly by forbidding the +desires to fasten on any worldly objects, by extinguishing desire and +ceasing to be affected in any way by worldly things. The positive +task is performed by means of a mental process which we cannot here +describe, but by which the mind returns to the self that is within +and realises it as it is, cleared from all particular thoughts and +affections. These exercises cannot be called moral; where all is +illusion morality disappears. There is no good, no evil, no effort to +promote the good and lessen the evil. It is not because the world is +bad that it is condemned, but because it exists. The energy which in +other faiths is devoted to a moral struggle, is here poured into the +ascetic discipline by which the individual looks to escape altogether +from the world as it is. There are no good works, what is good is to +abstain from all works; there is no benevolence further than that the +mind must be kept clear of all that confuses or degrades; the +salvation of the individual alone is sought after; there is no desire +to spread the light and save others, since few are capable of that +knowledge of the illusive nature of all things by which alone +salvation is possible.</p> + +<p>This, it is plain, could never be a popular religion. Brahma, the +abstract one, does not appeal to the imagination; he could not drive +out the popular nature-gods with their definite myths and attributes. +Nor could a religion spread among the people, which regarded the +social and the domestic state as inferior, and could only be +practised by one who had left his home and family. The hermits and +ascetics and begging monks may form the religious aristocracy; but a +teaching of a different nature was necessary for the people. And we +find, in fact, two religions prevailing in India in the period of +Brahmanism; that <a name="p351"></a>which we have described for the enlightened, who +escapes in it from all law, all creed, all ritual, whose whole +religion more than any other which ever flourished in the world is +within the mind;<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> and on the other hand, a religion in which +outward gods are worshipped, an outward law enforced which is counted +sacred because a god or gods inspired it, and in which superstitions +gathered from all quarters find shelter. The higher religion by no +means killed the lower one, as we see in India to this day. On the +contrary, the withdrawal of the higher religion of the country to a +region whither the people could not follow, left the religion of the +people to sink into a degradation unknown before. One doctrine must +here be noticed. The belief in <b>transmigration</b> which Buddhism received +from the religion it found existing in India, does not belong to the +higher thought of Brahmanism described in this section; the atman or +self, which is identical with the supreme self, belongs to quite a +different order of thought from the soul which was formerly in some +one else, is now in me, and may yet come to be in many another being. +The doctrine is thought to have been an importation into India about +the time we are speaking of. It admits of being made a powerful +deterrent from vice and incentive to virtue. If my present sufferings +are due not to my acts, but to the acts of the person in whom my soul +dwelt before, it is possible for me so to act that my soul's future +existence may be better and not worse than this one, and that it +shall not sink but rise in the order of beings, and draw nearer to +its final deliverance. Of this we shall hear more in connection with +Buddhism.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> "From the standpoint of unity with Brahma, the gods are +no-gods, the Vedas no-Vedas."</small></blockquote> + +<p>The further development of Indian religion, apart from Buddhism, is +in two directions. There is a philosophical movement, in which the +Brahmanic ideas on God, the world, the soul and its changes, are +further <a name="p352"></a>worked out, and which leads to the six schools of Hindu +philosophy. On the other hand, the gods have their history. Brahma +remains the great god, but as his character is so undefined he is +little worshipped. Indra, the old national god, yields to Vishnu, the +old sun-god of the three steps (heaven, the air, the earth), who +becomes the favourite deity. The stern and destructive S'iva is a new +figure, and seems to be partly an adaptation of a god of the savage +aborigines: his worship is the most fanatical. These three, the +Creator, the Upholder, and the Destroyer, form the Trimurti, or +divine trinity of India,—a trinity arrived at not by unfolding the +riches of the one great god, but by compounding the claims of three +gods who were rivals. The doctrine of incarnation is also found here. +Vishnu has ten avatars or incarnations in human form; he comes down +to the earth when there is a special reason for his interference. In +these avatars, especially in Krishna, the dark god, whose exploits as +a hero are told in the great epic the Mahabharata, the need is to +some extent met, of which both Buddhism and Christianity lay hold, of +a divine figure who is not too far away from man, and who can be +regarded with personal affection.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>Most of the books mentioned at the end of last chapter deal also with +Brahmanism.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Of the Brahmanic literature given in the Sacred Books of the East, +the following may be mentioned:—<br> +<br> + Vols. i. and xv. Upanishads.<br> +<br> + Vols. ii. and xiv. Sacred Laws of the Aryas.<br> +<br> + Vol. vii. The Institutes of Vishnu.<br> +<br> + Vols. xii., xxvi., and xli. The Satapatha-Brahmana (Sacrificial + Rituals).<br> +<br> + Vol. xxv. Manu.<br> +<br> + Vols. xxix., and xxx. Grihya-Sutras (Domestic Ceremonies).<br> +<br> + Vol. xxxiv. Vedic Hymns. xlvi. Hymns to Agni.<br> +<br> + Vols. xlii.-xliv. Hymns of the Atharva-Veda.<br> +<br> + Vols. xxxiv., xxxviii., xlviii. Vedanta Sutras.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Muir's <i>Sanscrit Texts</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Weber, <i>Indische Skizzen</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Haug, <i>Aitareya Brahmana</i>.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap20"></a><br><a name="p353"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XX</h4> +<center>INDIA<br> +<br> +III. <i>Buddhism</i></center> +<br> + +<p>In Buddhism the great movement of Indian religion works itself out to +its ultimate conclusion and reaches a stage beyond which there can be +no advance. Here we have a religion, if such it may be called, +without a god, without prayer, without priesthood or worship; a +religion which owes its great success, not to its theology, nor to +its ritual, since it has neither, but to its moral sentiment and to +its external organisation. Originating in the centre of India, and +giving practical form to Indian ideas, it spread rapidly and widely +both in the country of its birth and in neighbouring lands. It is now +extinct in India, yet it numbers more adherents than any other +religion. It has been divided since the Christian era into two great +branches. Southern Buddhism is the religion of Ceylon, of Burmah, and +of Siam; while Northern Buddhism extends over Tibet, China, and +Japan, and the islands of Java and Sumatra.</p> + +<p><b>The Literature.</b>—These two branches of Buddhism have different +literary traditions, though some works are common to both; and these +literatures, differing from each other in language, also differ +widely in contents and in spirit. The southern tradition, composed in +Pali, the literary language of Ceylon, has <a name="p354"></a>recently been opened up to +scholars, and has greatly changed their views of the origin and the +true nature of this religion. The Canon of Southern Buddhism, which +we might call the Pali Bible, is a literature about twice as large as +the Bible of Europe, although if the repetitions in it were removed, +it would be somewhat smaller than the Bible. It consists of three +Pitakas, baskets or collections. The first is the Vinaya Pitaka, +dealing with discipline, but including the Mahavagga, a history of +the first beginnings of the order as the founder gathered it around +him. The second is the Sutta Pitaka or collection of teachings. It +contains the earliest account of the later life of the founder, books +of meditation and devotion, collections of sayings by the Master, +poems, fairy tales, and fables, stories about Buddhist saints, and so +on. The third collection, the Abidhamma, contains speculations and +discussions on various subjects. Much of these materials is not +peculiar to Buddhism, there is much pre-Buddhistic speculation, and +there are many stories which are not peculiar even to India. Along +with all this, however, the books give us the earliest accounts of +the life and of the death of the founder, and contain a +representation written a century after his death, of what he was +considered to have taught. The founder himself wrote nothing; but the +work of composing books about him and his doctrine began early, and +much of the canon is considered, especially by English scholars, to +have been in existence during the first Buddhist century.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> For many +centuries they were preserved by memory alone.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> The Buddhist literature given in the <i>Sacred Books of +the East</i> is as follows:<br> +<br> + Vol. x. The Dhammapada, containing the quintessence of Buddhist + morality, and the Sutta-nipata, giving teachings of Buddha on + religion.<br> +<br> + Vol. xi. Buddhist Suttas. Religious, moral, and philosophical + discourses. Vol. xlix. Buddhist Mahayana Sutras.<br> +<br> + Vol. xiii. Vinaya Texts. The Patimokha or order of discipline, and + the beginning of the Mahavagga, containing an account of the + opening of the ministry of the founder.<br> +<br> + Vol. xvii. Vinaya Texts ii. Mahavagga continued. Kullavagga + or discipline as established by the Master.<br> +<br> + Vol. xx. Kullavagga continued.<br> +<br> + Vols. xxii., xlv. contain Suttas of the religion of the Jainas.<br> +<br> + Vols. xxxv., xxxvi. Questions of King Milinda.</small></blockquote> +<a name="p355"></a> +<p><b>Was there a Personal Founder?</b>—Senart in his <i>Essai sur la légende du +Buddha</i>, and Kern in his <i>Het Buddhisme in Indie</i>, both hold that we +have here to do with a sun-myth, and interpret the various features +of the legend in a very ingenious way in accordance with that theory. +This view has made few converts. Many incidents in the story are +natural, and appear to be due to a real tradition; there is literary +evidence of the early existence of the books, and the religion can be +best understood if regarded as the work of a real personality of +commanding greatness.<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> Recent archĉological discoveries, of which an account is +given by Mr. Rhys Davids in the <i>Century Magazine</i>, April 1902, place +it beyond doubt that the Buddha really existed, and that pious +offices were paid to his ashes after his cremation by the members of +his own clan as well as by others. Inscriptions brought to light in +1898 show that the Sakhya clan, of which he was a member, dwelt at +the time of his death in what is now a frontier district of Nepal. +Three years before that event they were driven from their old capital +Kapilavastu; but they formed a new one fifteen miles further south, +just beyond the present frontier of Nepal, and there they erected a +<i>stupa</i> or massive stone cairn, to guard the portion of the ashes of +the Buddha which was committed to their keeping.</small></blockquote> + +<p>Scholars, however, are agreed as to the difficulty of drawing the +line between what is history and what is legend. Even in the early +Pali accounts the hero has become a religious figure, he wears titles +which lift him above mankind, and he has supernatural powers at his +command. A laborious critical process must be undertaken, comparing +the various narratives with each other and testing them in other +ways, before the real history can be regarded as made out beyond +question. The slight sketch of the story which we give does not aim +at such critical correctness; we merely indicate the outline of a +narrative which is one of the principal sources of the strength of +the religion.</p> +<a name="p356"></a> +<p><b>The Story of the Founder.</b>—The founder's family name was Gautama, and +by that name he was commonly known during his lifetime. The personal +name given him as a child was Siddartha. Those who wished after his +death to speak of him with reverence called him Sakya-Muni, the Sage +of the Sakyas. These were a tribe who dwelt, at the period of the +story, <i>i.e.</i> half a millennium before Christ, in the country to the +north of the sacred Ganges, a few days' journey from the city of +Benares. Gautama's father, Suddhodana, was rajah (chief) of the +Sakyas; his residence was Kapilavastu, near Oude. The future sage +thus belonged to the Kshatriya class, and was accustomed to a +position of rank and ease. We hear little of his youth; he had been +married ten years, and his wife, whom he loved, had just brought him +a son, when, at the age of twenty-nine, he suddenly and secretly left +his home to devote himself to the religious life. He was led to this +step by witnessing various painful sights which caused him vividly to +realise the suffering which accompanies all existence, and made him +scorn a life of luxury. It was a time when many were seeking a better +way, and when a superior mind naturally turned to that retirement and +absorption in which it was believed that the key to life's pains and +mysteries was to be found. In the "Great Renunciation," as this act +is called, there is nothing we cannot understand. This lofty act, +however, was followed by a temptation; Mara, the spirit of evil, +urged him, but urged him in vain, to give up the purpose he had +formed. He then attached himself to Brahmanic ascetics, from whom he +learned their philosophy; and after this he devoted himself for six +years to a life of fasting and penance, the Brahmanic method for +drawing nearer the goal of the religious life. After this period he +gave up his fasting, not having profited by it as he had expected, +and returned to an ordinary diet. This change cost him the adhesion +of five disciples who had become attached to him, and <a name="p357"></a>had been filled +with wonder at his mortifications. But the loss was a small one +compared with the gain which was at hand. After a second great +spiritual struggle and a renewal of the temptation, he at last +reached that which he had long been seeking. Seated under a <i>ficus +religiosa</i>, the tree afterwards called the tree of knowledge, or the +Bo-tree, he rose in contemplation above all his temptations and +doubts till he beheld at length the true nature of things. From this +moment he was Buddha, Enlightened; he had the key of truth, and for +himself he was assured that sorrow and evil had lost all hold on him. +His doctrine had dawned in his mind. He had discovered the cause of +the sorrow which is so closely intertwined in man's life, and had +divined the way in which sorrow might be overcome. The method had +been found by which one could escape from the unending succession of +new lives, all painful, to which, according to the general belief of +the time, men were condemned. The words placed in the mouth of the +founder when he attained to Buddhahood tell their own tale. "Looking +for the Maker of this tabernacle, I have to run through a course of +many births so long as I do not find him; and painful is birth again +and again. But now, Maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; +thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are +broken; thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the +eternal, has attained to the extinction of all desires."<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small></p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> Dhammapada, <i>S. B. E.</i> x. 42.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The great discovery being made, and duly pondered and realised, the +question arose, What was to be done with it? The Buddha shrinks from +the work of preaching it to others. Brahma himself is brought into +the story to encourage him to make his secret known to others, and to +assure him that many will receive it with great joy. The Blessed One +consents, and thus replies: "Wide open is the gate of the Immortal to +<a name="p358"></a>all who have ears to hear; let them send forth faith to meet it. The +teaching is sweet and good; because I despaired of the task, I spake +not to men before."<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> He turns his steps, guided by his own +supernatural knowledge, to the city of Benares, to seek the five +monks who had formerly abandoned him. On his way thither he meets a +naked ascetic who asks the reason of his cheerful mien; he answers +that he has overcome all foes, has reached emancipation by the +destruction of desire, and has obtained Nirvana. "To found the +kingdom of Truth I go to the city of the Kasis (Benares); I will beat +the drum of the Immortal in the darkness of this world." The account +which follows of the opening of the "kingdom of righteousness" +presents many analogies to the early stages of other spiritual +movements. The founder, immovably sure of himself and of his +doctrines, goes from place to place, spending the rainy season in +town, and preaching everywhere. It is at Benares that the "wheel of +the law" is first set in motion; there the first sermon was preached. +The circumstances are also narrated under which other sermons were +delivered, details being given as to time, place, the persons who +heard them, the incidents which occasioned them. His converts at +first are few and their names are recorded, but by degrees they +become more numerous. The more devoted of them become members of his +order, Bhikkus (for Bhikshus), mendicants; they forsake domestic +life, shave their heads, adopt the yellow dress and the alms-bowl. +They also are sent out to preach. "Go ye, O Bhikkus, and wander, for +the welfare of many, out of compassion for the world, for the gain +and for the welfare of gods and men. Let not two of you go the same +way. Preach, O Bhikkus, the doctrine which is glorious in the +beginning, glorious in the middle, glorious in the end, in the +spirit, and in the letter; proclaim a consummate, perfect, and pure +life <a name="p359"></a>of holiness. There are beings whose mental eyes are covered with +scarcely any dust, but if the doctrine is not preached to them they +cannot attain salvation." The incidents narrated in this part of the +story are mostly connected with persons seeking admission to the +order, or persons requiring to be convinced; the doctrine and its +spread are everything. That spread takes place, as it is desired by +the Buddha, chiefly among the higher classes of society; a great +triumph is reached when Bimbisara, king of Magadha, becomes a patron +of the order, and some accounts tell of the conversion of the +Buddha's own father and mother. The work of the mission is of a +peaceful nature; the Buddha lives on good terms with the Brahmans and +with other teachers and their pupils. The only formidable opposition +he had to meet arose within the order. His cousin Dewadatta, who had +become a monk, wished to found a new order with much stricter rules +than those of the original one. The Buddha refused to attach +importance, as was proposed, to matters of clothes and food, or +living in the open air; to do so would have made his movement +narrower and less universal than he desired.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> Mahavagga, <i>S. B. E.</i> xiii. 88.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The beginning of the ministry is told in some detail, but of a long +period of the life only a few scattered incidents are given. There is +a detailed account of the three last months of the life. The Buddha +is now eighty years of age, and in the Maha-paranibbana Sutta<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> the +tale of his migrations and preachings is carried on according to the +same scheme as in the accounts of his early days. During the rainy +season, however, when he has reached the age of eighty, he has an +illness, and sees he cannot live long. This he tells his monks, +exhorting them with urgency to be true to the teaching and the order, +and to shed the light abroad. His end is hastened by a meal of pork +set before him by a goldsmith, a man of low caste, <a name="p360"></a>who hospitably +entertained him. After this his face shines with a heavenly radiance, +and as the end approaches many heavenly signs appear. The Buddha is +fully conscious that he is about to leave the world, and that his +death is an event of supreme interest to the heavenly powers, whom he +believes to be thronging around to watch his last hours. He is +solicitous, however, to soothe the grief of his friends, large +numbers of whom also are around him, and to give them such counsels +and such incentives to a faithful upholding of the cause as he yet +may. They ask about his obsequies, and he claims that the remains of +such an one as he is, of a Tathagata, "one who has attained +perfection," should be treated as men treat the remains of a king of +kings. He recognises the kindness of Ananda, his most intimate +disciple, and tries to comfort him by encouraging him to be earnest +in effort, so that he too may soon be free from evils. He directs his +disciples generally not to mourn too much at his removal as if they +were being deserted. The truths which he has set forth, and the rules +of the order he has laid down for them, are to be their teacher after +he is gone. He asks if any of them has any doubt or misgiving as to +the Buddha, or the truth, or the faith, or the way. If so, they are +to inquire freely, so that they may not reproach themselves +afterwards for not having consulted him while still among them. The +brethren, however, are silent, though addressed again and again in +the same way. In the whole assembly there is not one who has any +doubt or misgiving. Even the most backward of these brethren has +become converted (lit. "entered into the current"); he is no longer +liable to be born to a state of suffering, but is assured of eternal +salvation.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> <i>S. B. E.</i> vol. xl.</small></blockquote> + +<p>"Then the Blessed One addressed the brethren and said, 'Behold now, +brethren, I exhort you,' saying, 'Decay is inherent in all things +that have come into being. Work out your salvation with diligence!'</p> +<a name="p361"></a> +<p>"This was the last word of the Tathagata!"</p> + +<p>His death or Nirvana forms the era of Buddhist chronology, and the +date has now been approximately fixed with some certainty; it took +place somewhere in the decade 482-472 <small>B.C.</small></p> + +<p><b>Is Buddhism a Revolt against Brahmanism?</b>—Before proceeding to +discuss the religion to which this somewhat monkish narrative forms +the preface, it is necessary to say a few words on the relation which +that religion is now supposed to hold to the general history of +Indian piety. It was customary, till recently, to regard Buddha as a +great reformer, and his religion as a great revolt against that which +it found prevailing in India. He is credited with having preached +atheism as a reaction against the burdensome worship of too many +gods, with having instituted a great social movement consisting in +the abolition of caste, with having openly denied the authority of +the Vedas, till then unchallenged, and with having rebuked the pride +of Brahmanism by making his order of mendicants the representatives +of his religion. None of these assertions can now be upheld. Instead +of having been a tremendous reaction against Brahmanism it is seen +that Buddhism was the natural outgrowth of that system. The closer +knowledge of both, gained by the opening up of the sacred books of +India, tends to show that much that was formerly thought distinctive +of Buddhism was in reality inherited from Brahmanism. We saw in +dealing with the earlier form of Indian religion that a form of piety +had been struck out in it which made the ascetic independent of +sacrifice, priesthood, even of the gods, all save the one God who is +in all things. In that phase of Indian religion the authority of the +Vedas had already been impugned, an inner discipline had taken the +place of outward worship, the saint had learned to forsake the world. +This turn of religious thought produced all the phenomena of Buddhism +before the period of Gautama. The <a name="p362"></a>sannyasin (<a href="#p345"><i>vide sup.</i></a>) of +Brahmanism is also called bhikku, mendicant; the rules of the older +ascetics are closely similar to those of the Buddhist monk; their +very outfit, their cloak and alms-bowl, are the same.</p> + +<p>A circumstance which shows very clearly how far Buddhism was from +bearing the character of a revolt, is the occurrence at the same time +and in the same district of India of another movement of a very +similar nature. <b>Jainism</b> is an Indian religion so like Buddhism as to +have been considered by many to be a sect of the latter. It also has +an order of monks with robes and with a rule like those of the +Buddhist fraternity. It also has a human founder on whom many of the +same titles are conferred as on Gautama, and who is afterwards +deified and worshipped. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is, like +Gautama, the son of a royal house; and the Jainist and the Buddhist +legend have many features in common. Was the legend of Mahavira, +then, a sectarian version of the legend of Gautama, did no such +person exist, at least as the founder of a religious body? So it was +formerly considered; but it has now been discovered that the Buddhist +scriptures themselves bear witness to the actual existence of +Mahavira in the lifetime of Gautama, who once had an encounter with +him and confuted him. It appears then that two similar movements were +going on close together at the same time. They were independent of +each other; the two rules differ in important particulars. Jainism +carries to a much greater length than Buddhism the "ahimsa," or +prohibition of the destruction of life; the Jainists practise +austerities which Buddhism discards, and in the philosophies of the +two systems there are far-reaching discrepancies. On the other hand, +both Buddhism and Jainism borrow from Brahmanism most of their +practices and institutions; both are developments of the way of +salvation struck out <a name="p363"></a>not by Brahmans alone, but by men of other +castes and other views, when faith in the old national gods was +growing dim.</p> + +<p>We now proceed to discuss <b>the Buddhist system</b>, taking it as it +appears in the early books, which tell us at least what was believed +in the fourth century <small>B.C.</small> to have been the ideas and intentions of +the founder. The following is the formula in which the convert +expressed his desire to be admitted to the order: "I take shelter in +the Buddha, I take shelter in the Dhamma (doctrine), I take shelter +in the Samgha (order)."</p> + +<p>1. <b>The Buddha.</b>—This confession of faith is directed to a triad of +which the Buddha is the first member. Now the title Buddha was not +invented by Buddhism, but belongs to earlier Indian thought, which +held that from time to time, in a specially favoured age, an +Enlightened One and Enlightener, an omniscient and perfect teacher, +visited the world. Of these there had been in former ages +twenty-four, and the followers of Gautama held him to be the +twenty-fifth, but not the last. The application to Gautama of this +title removed him, to the believer, from the ranks of ordinary men, +and was the signal for a constantly increasing exaltation of his +person. In adhering to the Buddha, therefore, the convert is not +bowing to a mere man, but to one in whom a new type of deity is on +the way to be realised. He is a man; there is a record of his human +life, in which he made a great renunciation, abandoning, out of +compassion for men's sufferings, a position of lordly ease for that +of the mendicant. In this way he is a saviour not too exalted for the +pious heart to love and follow. Having found out in his own +experience the way of peace, and opened up that way for others, he is +a pattern and an encouragement as well as a lawgiver to the earnest +soul; and the personal relation which may thus be enjoyed with the +founder is one great secret of the success of the religion. <a name="p364"></a>On the +other hand, he is more than a man. The belief grew up very early that +he was not born in the ordinary way, but that his birth had been his +own voluntary act, and that his great renunciation consisted in his +choosing, out of compassion for men, to enter human life and to bear +the burden of its sufferings. In this way a religion which originally +had no gods and no worship began to supply itself with these. Some +scholars hold that it was among the lay community, among men not +thoroughly initiated into Buddhist thought, and failing to find in +the new faith what their former religions had afforded, that the +deification of the Buddha and the worship of him began; it may +certainly be doubted whether the religion could have lived long or +spread far if these deficiencies had not been early supplied.</p> + +<p>2. <b>The Doctrine.</b>—The life of the founder gives us the key to his +doctrine. We see at once that that doctrine was not negative but +positive and constructive. Neither was it socially of a revolutionary +character, nor did it deny any part of the existing religion. We +never read that Gautama's teaching was assailed by the Brahmans as +unsound; it was centuries after his death that antagonism broke out +between the order and the upholders of other systems. Nor again did +the teaching put forward a new philosophy. On certain points which we +shall notice there is a development of thought in it; but this was +not obtruded.</p> + +<p>In fact <b>the doctrine is</b> not a speculation at all, but <b>a way of +salvation</b> which is preached for its own sake, and carefully guarded +from being mixed up with speculative or religious controversy. The +Buddha is one who has found out a new way to be saved, and he comes +forward to preach what he has discovered, and that alone. Other +matters he leaves as they are. "All his discourses savour of +redemption as all the sea is salt." Other men may draw inferences as +to the relation his doctrine bears to the position of the <a name="p365"></a>Brahmans, +or to the sacrifices, or to existing beliefs; he does not draw these +inferences, he feels no need to do so.</p> + +<p>The doctrine professes to be an answer to a definite problem—the +problem of pain. It is the most characteristic thing about both the +founder and the doctrine, that they start from the universal +existence of pain, to seek a remedy for it; they are inspired +therefore from the first by a dark view of human life, and by the +sentiment of compassion. It was the impression made on the young +prince, of the general prevalence of suffering, that drove him forth +from the palace to be a sannyasin or devotee. In a striking sermon he +uses the figure of fire to indicate how universal is the rule of pain +in all parts of nature and of human life. "All is burning; the eye is +burning, and all it looks on and all it remembers of what it has +seen"; so it is with each of the senses, so also with the mind. The +fire is that of passion, of malice, of illusion, of birth, of age, of +death, of pain, despondency, and despair. But the nature of the +complaint from which man suffers, and also the remedy for it, are +described most clearly in the <b>"Four Noble Truths"</b> set forth in the +opening sermon at Benares. In these memorable utterances the teacher +expresses himself according to the rules of the medical art, first +setting forth the nature of the disease, then its cause, then how it +takes end, and lastly, the means to be adopted in order that it may +do so.</p> + +<p>1. The Noble Truth of <i>Suffering</i>. Birth is suffering, decay is +suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering. Presence of +objects we hate is suffering, separation from objects we love is +suffering, not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Briefly, the +fivefold clinging to existence is suffering.</p> + +<p>2. The Noble Truth of the <i>Cause of Suffering</i>. Thirst that leads to +rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here +and there. This thirst is <a name="p366"></a>threefold, namely, thirst for pleasure, +thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity.</p> + +<p>3. The Noble Truth of the <i>Cessation of Suffering</i>. It ceases with +the complete cessation of this thirst, a cessation which consists in +the absence of every passion, with the abandoning of this thirst, +with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire.</p> + +<p>4. The Noble Truth of the <i>Path which leads to the Cessation of +Suffering</i>. The holy eightfold Path; that is to say, Right Belief, +Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of +Livelihood, Right Endeavour, Right Memory, Right Meditation.</p> + +<p>In these statements there are some things which we can readily +understand, but also some things which are not so easy. It is a +thought with which Christians are familiar, that desire is the parent +of all sorts of pain and disappointment, that the assertion of the +self, the putting forward of personal wishes and claims, involves +suffering. And we read in the Gospels that the way to escape from +such suffering is to cease from desire, no longer to be anxious about +what this world can give us or take from us, and not to lay up +treasures. Buddhist doctrine has its moral basis in the perception of +the vanity of all human effort and desire, and in the conviction that +the true riches for man cannot consist in any of those goods to which +the heart naturally clings. Where that perception does not exist, +where the first of the Noble Truths is not accepted as beyond all +question, Buddhism can have no hold. So far the doctrine is easy to +follow. But in the second of the Truths we find that the cause of +suffering is sought in the history of the human person as Indian +thought conceives it. Man suffers because he has been born again, has +suffered a rebirth, and the cause of his rebirth is the thirst which +has been felt or even nourished in a previous existence. The thought +that suffering is due to desire is not presented simply, as it is in +our Gospels, but in connection with a doctrine of man's <a name="p367"></a>life and of +the connection of one generation with another, which is quite strange +to us, but apart from which primitive Buddhism held that its doctrine +of suffering could not be understood. The Buddha, after discovering +the doctrine, is at first in doubt whether or not he will preach it; +and the cause of his doubt is that he is not sure if men will be able +to understand the law of causality and the chain of existence, on +which he himself meditated a whole night after his enlightenment, and +his discovery of which he regards as a great part of his achievement. +This <b>chain of causation</b> is stated in a long series of asserted +processes, in which the connection between one generation and +another, and the transmission from life to life of the melancholy +heritage of desire and sorrow, is obscurely and enigmatically traced. +The beginning of all is ignorance (of the four truths); from +ignorance proceed the "samkharas" or forms of production, from these +in turn consciousness, the senses, contact, sensation, thirst, and so +on to birth and the miseries of life. Suffering is destroyed by +tracing this sequence over again in a negative way, so that, the +first member of it being destroyed, each subsequent member is +destroyed in turn.</p> + +<p>It is no wonder that the founder doubted whether this doctrine of +causation would be generally understood; for it is in fact an attempt +to reconcile two opposite views of the nature of the human person. In +the first place we find in early Buddhism the thought that there is +no such thing as a self in the human being; a man is made up of +various bundles of attributes and sensations called <i>skandhas</i>, but +he himself is none of these. There is no persistent substratum of a +self under these activities and forms, any more than there is a +carriage in addition to the wheels, shafts, nails, etc., of which a +carriage is composed. The Buddhist is called on to give up the belief +in a permanent ego; only where the various parts come <a name="p368"></a>together is the +man there. This is the well-known denial of the soul in this +religion; the soul is nothing but the "name and form" of a chance +collocation of elements. It is hard to know where this doctrine came +from; Kern says it is derived from the science of dissection, others +compare it with the doctrine of Heraclitus, taught about the same +time in Greece, that all things are in constant flux, nothing +permanent. The last words of the Master assert that decay is +universal; and the doctrine of the skandhas is a corollary from that +principle; if all the elements of which the human person is made up +are in process of decay, then the self cannot be a substantial and +persistent thing. That doctrine, however, does not go well together +with the belief in the universality and inexorableness of suffering. +If there is no self, must not consciousness come to an end when the +elements fall asunder which chance has brought together, and must not +the hour of death be also the hour of complete emancipation? This, +however, it was impossible to hold in India at the time of Gautama; +the belief in <b>transmigration</b> was too firmly fixed, he never thought +of disputing it. That belief indeed is what chiefly makes the +suffering of the world so lamentable. To Indian eyes the pain +actually in the world was magnified a hundred-fold by the dark +imagination of its connection with the past and with the future. What +a man suffered was the result of acts done in many former lives, all +spent in the vain misery of desire; and the sad prospect was extended +before him that death would not end his pains, but that he would be +born again and again to suffer ever anew so long as desire continued. +But if this is the case, then the soul would seem to be a durable and +persistent thing which is able to go through many lives and much +suffering without being brought to an end. On the theory of +transmigration the soul is not a mere shadow-name of an aggregation +of qualities, but the one durable <a name="p369"></a>thing which survives when all that +is accidental and temporary falls away from it. The doctrine of the +Skandhas and that of transmigration are thus opposed, and the +doctrine of the <i>nidanas</i> or the chain of causation is the bridge +which satisfied Gautama's own mind, but which he was doubtful about +presenting to others, to bring them into harmony. He aimed at showing +by his catalogue of these obscure processes how the actions done in a +life set up a tendency to a corresponding existence in another life +which begins after the former one ends. Though there is no soul to be +transmitted, the moral effects of former lives are transmitted to +their successors.</p> + +<p>The essential doctrine of the Buddha, however, is determined by the +belief in transmigration. His cry of triumph at the time of his +enlightenment is to the effect that the long series of suffering +existences through which he has passed has now come to an end, and +that he will not be born again. And what he preaches with constant +iteration is the misery of this awful succession of births to renewal +of suffering, and the infinite blessedness of escaping from this +cycle. The disciple, when converted, is to be able to say: "Hell is +destroyed for me, and rebirth as an animal or a ghost or in any place +of woe. I am converted, I am no longer liable to be reborn in a state +of suffering, and am assured of eternal salvation."</p> + +<p>Now it rests with a man's own acts to end his sufferings. The chain +of causation which ends with suffering begins with ignorance. The +ignorance which is meant is that of the four noble truths, of the way +of salvation. Let a man cease from ignorance, let him accept the +Noble Truths and the insight they convey into the cause of suffering, +then by ceasing to thirst, or to burn, or in our own language by +turning his mind away from all desire, believing that what he does +will be effective for his salvation, he sets up a chain of causation +in an opposite direction, and having destroyed <a name="p370"></a>ignorance he may rest +assured that he has destroyed suffering too and is in the right way. +The burden he has inherited he will not need to carry any farther, +but will, when he dies, lay down for ever.</p> + +<p>When we look at <b>the fourth Noble Truth</b>, which tells what a man has to +do in order to obtain this salvation, we are at first surprised. +After the deep earnestness with which the nature of the disease and +the cause and cure of the disease have been stated, we expect that +stronger practical measures will be asked for than these eight forms +of moderation. Christianity speaks of cutting off the right hand, +plucking out the right eye, in order to cut off desire: and the +Brahmanic method of union with the Deity was, as we have seen, that +of the most extreme self-mortification united with contemplation. +This Brahmanic method, the <i>yoga</i> by which the devotee sought to +escape from all the accidents of being and to make himself one with +the great Self, the Buddha had tried for six years; but he had given +it up for a year when the hour of his enlightenment struck, and he +explicitly condemns for others the path he had found unprofitable for +himself. It is one of two extremes, both to be avoided, "The one +extreme is a life devoted to pleasures and lusts; this is degrading, +sensual, vulgar, profitless; the other is a life given to +mortifications; this is painful, ignoble, and profitless. By avoiding +these two extremes the Tathagata has gained the knowledge of the +Middle Path, which leads to insight, wisdom, calm, to Nirvana." The +way, therefore, to escape from the Karma, the moral retribution which +works inexorably in one life the result stored up in previous lives, +is that of a careful and unintermitted self-discipline, which does +not run to extremes, but practices, with perfectly clear purpose and +self-possession, the needful virtues mentioned in the fourth of the +Noble Truths. What are these? There is to be—</p> +<a name="p371"></a> +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="list3"> + <tr><td valign="top"> 1. </td><td>Right belief, without superstition or delusion.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 2.</td><td>Right aspiration, after such things as the thoughtful and earnest man sets store by.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 3.</td><td>Right speech, speech that is friendly and sincere.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 4.</td><td>Right conduct, conduct that is peaceable, honourable, and pure.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 5.</td><td>Right means of livelihood, <i>i.e.</i> a pursuit which does not involve the taking or injuring of life.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 6.</td><td>Right endeavour, <i>i.e.</i> self-restraint and watchfulness.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 7.</td><td>Right memory, <i>i.e.</i> presence of mind, not forgetting at any time what one ought to remember; and</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 8.</td><td>Right meditation, <i>i.e.</i> earnest occupation with the riddles of life.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>This is the path; there are four stages of it—</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="list4"> + <tr><td valign="top"> 1. </td><td>The stage of him who has entered the path.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 2.</td><td>The stage of him who has yet to return once to life.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 3.</td><td>The stage of him who returns not again, but may be born again as a superior being; and</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 4.</td><td>The stage of the worthy, holy one, the <i>Arahat</i>, who is free + from desire for existence, and also from pride and + self-righteousness, and who is saved and has obtained + holiness, even in this life.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>An <b>Arahat</b> is not equal to a Buddha; the former is himself saved, but +the perfect Buddha is able by his perfect knowledge to save others. +Of Buddhas, however, there are not many. One becomes an Arahat by a +life of strenuous and untiring discipline. Ten fetters are to be +broken by which a man is kept from freedom; self-deception is one of +them, trust in sacrifice another, and the list embraces both sensual +and intellectual weaknesses. One must watch and be sober; every act, +however trivial, is to be done with full self-consciousness and +earnestness. One must remember that he is engaged in a great and a +hard work, and must resolutely "swim upstream," estimating at its +proper value every affection and temptation that would hold him back. +The body is to be contemned, and all natural ties; emotion is to be +uprooted from the heart so that the <a name="p372"></a>proper state of entire calm and +undisturbedness may be maintained. Then one is an Arahat, a true +Brahman. This manner of life requires withdrawal from the world; the +true salvation can only be attained by him who has left his home for +the houseless life. But Buddhism has also a general moral code for +those who have not taken this step; the keeping of it will not save +them directly; from the life they are now leading that is impossible, +but it is a beginning; it will make it easier for them to become +Arahats and attain salvation in some future existence. For all it is +good to be free from desire; as all desire contains in itself a germ +of death, there is no approach to salvation except in this direction.</p> + +<p><b>Buddhist Morality.</b>—Towards fellow-men Buddhist morality is based on +the notion of the equality of all; respect is to be paid to all +living beings. The five rules of righteousness which are binding on +all followers of the Buddha are:</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="list5"> + <tr><td valign="top"> 1. </td><td>Not to kill any living being.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 2.</td><td>Not to take that which is not given.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 3.</td><td>To refrain from adultery.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 4.</td><td>To speak no untruth.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 5.</td><td>To abstain from all intoxicating liquors.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>To these are added five more for members of the order, who are also +required to refrain from all sexual intercourse, viz.:</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="list6"> + <tr><td valign="top"> 1. </td><td>Not to eat after mid-day.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 2.</td><td>Not to be present at dancing, singing, music, or plays.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 3.</td><td>Not to use wreaths, scents, ointments, or personal ornaments.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 4.</td><td>Not to use a high or a broad bed.</td></tr> + <tr><td valign="top"> 5.</td><td>To possess no silver or gold.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>These commandments, like those of the Decalogue, are negative in +form; but in the Buddhist scriptures a positive moral ideal is +inculcated on all, which is grave and attractive in its character, +and is sustained by a strong though quiet enthusiasm. We find here a +delicate <a name="p373"></a>conscientiousness as to the relations to be cultivated with +one's fellow-men; the widest toleration is enjoined, a toleration +extending to all beings, to all opinions. Hatred is to be repaid by +love, life is to be filled with kindness and compassion. The +Dhammapada and the Sutta-nipata deserve to be read by all who care +for the unseen riches of the soul. By their simple earnestness, their +quaint use of parable and metaphor, and their mingling of the +homeliest things with the highest truths, these books take rank among +the most impressive of the religious books of the world. We give only +a few jewels from this treasury.</p> + +<p><b>From the Dhammapada.</b>—Earnestness is the path of immortality +(Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in +earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already.</p> + +<p>All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded +on what we have thought, it is made up of what we have thought. If a +man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a +shadow that never leaves him.</p> + +<p>By oneself evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is +left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong +to oneself; no one can purify another.</p> + +<p><b>From the Sutta-nipata.</b>—To live in a suitable country, to have done +good deeds in a former existence, and a thorough study of oneself, +this is the highest blessing.</p> + +<p>As a mother at the risk of her life watches over her own child, her +only child, so also let every one cultivate a boundless friendly mind +towards all beings.</p> + +<p>A Bhikku who has turned away from desire and attachment, and is +possessed of understanding in this world, has already gone to the +immortal place, the unchangeable state of Nirvana.</p> + +<p><b>Nirvana.</b>—Our account of the doctrine would appear incomplete if we +did not attempt to answer the question, What is Nirvana? It is, as +the last extract shows, <a name="p374"></a>the state of salvation in Buddhism. As we +have seen, it is the condition of the man who has escaped from the +series of rebirths, and will never be born again. It is attained even +in this life by the Arahat, in whom all desire and restlessness have +come to an end. On the other hand, it is said of such an one that he +enters Nirvana when he dies, as if it were a state not of this life, +but of the period beyond. Thus it has been much debated whether the +Buddhist (or rather Indian, for the notion is not peculiar to +Buddhism) Nirvana is extinction, annihilation, of which the quenching +of desire in this life is the prelude, or if it is a state of +negative or quiescent blessedness, on which the saint can enter here +and now, but which is only made perfect when he dies. But there are +two Nirvanas;—that of entire passionlessness attained in this life, +and the consummate Nirvana entered at death. The saint does not need +to wait for death for his redemption, nor must he hasten his death in +order to enjoy it fully; Buddha, by example and by precept, forbids +any such anticipation. Death seals that which was already won, there +is no return from the Nirvana of death to any further life. This, +however, does not amount to an assertion that the dead Arahat has no +life or knowledge in the beyond; he is freed from desire, but whether +his consciousness is altogether extinguished, Buddhism does not +decide, and regards as a vain speculation.</p> + +<p><b>No Gods.</b>—We shall speak afterwards of this view of redemption, which +is the key to the nature of the Buddhist religion. We remark here +that it is a redemption man achieves by his own efforts, without any +outward prop or aid. In this system there is no occasion for any +priests or sacrifices, for any prayers, or for any gods. There is no +ritual, because there is no object of worship, there is no sin in the +sense of offending a higher being. The gods are denied not because of +any speculative doubt of their existence, <a name="p375"></a>but because in that inner +world of moral effort which man has come to feel so supremely real +and important, they have no part to play. As all the gods faded away +in Indian speculation before Brahma, so Brahma's own turn has come to +fade away. The Buddhist speaks of the gods as if they existed, and he +makes no attack on the sacrifices; but no living god fills his heart. +The Buddha is greater than all the gods; his teaching is for the +benefit of gods as well as men. But the Buddha is not an object of +worship. If the Buddhist can be said to worship any higher power, it +is the moral order which never fails to reward men according to the +deeds done in this or former existences. That is for him a real and +tremendous, though impersonal power, and in contemplating it he may +be said to worship after a fashion. But he has no aid to look for +from any power in heaven or earth in working out his salvation. +Buddhism is the most autosoteric of all religions; it declares more +uncompromisingly than any other, that man must save himself by his +own efforts, and that no one can possibly stand in his place or +relieve him of any part of his great task. All that any one, even the +Buddha, can do for another, is to enlighten him, to open his eyes to +the true knowledge, and show him the narrow path on which he must +thenceforth walk.</p> + +<p>3. <b>The Order.</b>—There were monks before Buddhism. That religion made +its appearance when Indian thought was at the stage of growth at +which monastic communities may be expected to arise. When religion +has ceased to be regarded as the affair of the nation or the tribe, +and is cherished as the affair of the individual, when the mind turns +from the sacrifices and ritual of public religion to cultivate +relations with a power known chiefly in the heart and soul, and when +religious duty has thus come to be recognised as a boundless and +all-embracing thing, not a service the hands and feet can discharge, +but the effort, never ending, still beginning, <a name="p376"></a>to make the whole +personality with all its acts and aims conform to the ideal, then it +is that men who are living for religion seek for such aid as they can +give each other, and find it in an order and a discipline. The rules +of the Buddhist Samgha or order are extant, and so are the rules of +the contemporary Jainist fraternity. The Samgha resembled the +Franciscan more than the other great Christian orders. The Bhikku on +joining it abandoned his family and property, assumed the yellow robe +and other scanty properties of the character, and lived thenceforth +by begging, and in strict subjection to the rules, in which every +detail of his food, his clothing, his residence, and his daily walk +and conversation, were laid down. The two great objects of the +society were mutual help in the religious life and the preaching of +the doctrine. Under the first head come the frequent meetings of +monks and the confessions they make to each other according to a +fixed form. There is no vow of obedience; the monk obeys the law, not +the human authority. In preaching they are to go one by one, and they +are to preach to all. To all who would hear it was the gate open to +this salvation. Here the Buddhist neglect of caste comes in. Buddhism +makes no general or formal declaration of the equality of all men, +nor is there any attack on the Brahman caste or any exaltation of the +lower castes. The order drew its recruits at first from the ranks of +the Brahmans. But the impelling motive of the new religion was +compassion, and genuine compassion is not to be restrained in +artificial limits. The salvation preached was fitted for all men. The +disease to be cured was one from which all suffer, and the cure was +one which all could at least begin to lay hold of. Thus Buddhism was +fitted to break through the barriers of caste, and to gather into one +religious community men of all castes alike. In the community, it was +held, these distinctions disappeared. Not birth but conduct there +made the true <a name="p377"></a>Brahman. The universalist tendency of the religion also +fitted it to spread to other lands. It was not limited by anything in +its teaching to the soil of India, nor to the territory of any +particular set of gods. So wide indeed is its toleration, that a man +may embrace it without giving up the faith in which he lived before. +One can add it without incongruity to one's former beliefs and +practices. The believer in Shang-ti can be a Buddhist as well as the +believer in Brahma.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> The absence of any hierarchy or centralised +organisation enabled it to spread freely, and the very meagreness of +its doctrine, and its freedom from ritual, were also in its favour.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> Millions of Buddhists in China and Japan are also +adherents of the other religions of these countries.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Buddhism made Popular.</b>—Buddhism proved able to spread over many +lands because it was so simple, and in its essence so moral and so +broadly human. But, like other faiths which have spread to many +lands, it assumed very different forms in different countries, and +the later form is often very different from the early simplicity. +Even at the outset it was not free from a strong infusion of magic; +the Arahat, like the Brahmanic ascetic before him, was believed to +obtain influence over the gods by his virtues, and thus a claim to +supernatural power is brought in, which agrees but ill with the +ethical doctrine. The religion, which at first ignored the gods and +bade each man trust to his own efforts for his highest good, became, +ere long, what a popular religion at the stage of progress prevailing +at that time necessarily was, namely, a worship of superior beings +and a method of obtaining benefits from them. The national gods were +discarded, but the deification of the founder early furnished a being +who could be worshipped. Legend grew luxuriantly round his birth and +early career; and he obtained the rank of the greatest of all the +gods. Former Buddhas who had lived in former ages still lived as +gods; and <a name="p378"></a>the divine family, being once founded, admitted of various +additions; even a popular deity, such as Indra, could be joined to +the growing circle. The chief scenes of the life of the founder +became holy places and objects of pilgrimage, where relics were +exposed for adoration. The growth of legend and of magic proceeded +more rapidly, and went to greater lengths, in Northern than in +Southern Buddhism; but in the land of its birth, too, Buddhism proved +unable to serve as a working religion without additions and +modifications entirely foreign to its true character. The profession +of Buddhism was combined even with the savage worship of the +non-Aryan tribes; Siva was identified with Buddha and then worshipped +instead of him, as also was Vishnu, and the perversion and +degradation of the religion prepared for its expulsion from the +country of its birth. That expulsion was probably brought about more +immediately by the advance of Mohammedanism in India, and took place +in the period of the early Middle Ages. We cannot speak here of the +strange guise Buddhism has assumed in the north of India, notably in +Tibet. The Lamaism of that country, with its perpetual living +incarnation of the divine Buddha in a succession of human +representatives, its hierarchical church strongly resembling in many +of its features the Church of Rome, and the prayer-flags and wheels +for the mechanical discharge of religious acts, have long been the +wonder of the world.</p> + +<p><b>Conclusion.</b>—It is not from what Buddhism is now in any of the +countries where it flourishes, and where it has votaries who profess +other religions also, that we can judge of what it really is, or +estimate its value as a product of the human mind. It is to early +Buddhism that we must look for this. What are we to judge of this +religion without gods, and based on the assertion that all life is +suffering, and that the chief good is altogether to escape from life? +It is not true to characterise it as <a name="p379"></a>a religion in which there is no +joy, and which deliberately refuses to have anything to do with joy. +The Arahat, in whom desire is vanquished, and who has no further +birth to anticipate, is filled with a deep joy and triumph as of a +victor who has conquered every foe; and those who are less advanced +in the path yet have their share in this enthusiasm, and are inspired +by it to continue the struggle. Still Buddhism is a sad religion. It +arrives in India when the Deity there believed in has deserted the +world, and tells man he is alone in it. There is no one to help him, +no one to assure him that the good cause in a wider sense—a cause +extending beyond his own personal life—is destined to succeed; there +is no upholder of any moral order beyond that which works itself out +in each individual experience. The result is that the believer does +not trouble himself about the world, but only about his own personal +salvation. This religion is not a social force, it aims not at a +Kingdom of God to be built up by the united efforts of multitudes of +the faithful, but only at saving individual souls, which in the act +of being saved are removed beyond all activity and all contact with +the world. Buddhism, therefore, is not a power which makes actively +for civilisation. It is a powerful agent for the taming of passion +and the prevention of vagrant and lawless desires, it tends, +therefore, towards peace. But it offers no stimulus to the +realisation of the riches which are given to man in his own nature: +it checks rather than fosters enterprise, it favours a dull +conformity to rule rather than the free cultivation of various gifts. +Its ideal is to empty life of everything active and positive, rather +than to concentrate energy on a strong purpose. It does not train the +affections to virtuous and harmonious action, but denies to them all +action and consigns them to extinction. This condemnation it has +incurred by parting with that highest stimulus to human virtue and +endeavour, which lies in the belief in a living God. By so doing it +ceased to <a name="p380"></a>fulfil the office of a religion for men, and though, for +historical purposes, we may class it among the religions of the +world, a system which leaves its adherents free not to worship at +all, or to find satisfaction for their spiritual instincts in the +worship of beings whom it regards with indifference, comes short of +the notion of religion, and is not properly entitled to that name.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small>Monier Williams, <i>Buddhism, in its connection with Brahmanism and +Hinduism, and in its contrast with Christianity</i>, 1889.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Rhys Davids, <i>Buddhism</i> (S.P.C.K.).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Oldenberg's, <i>Buddha, his Life, his Doctrine and his Order</i>, 1882 +(out of print). (Third German Edition, 1897.)</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Spence Hardy, <i>Manual of Buddhism</i>, 1860.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>E. Hardy, <i>Der Buddhismus</i>.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap21"></a><br><a name="p381"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XXI</h4> +<center>PERSIA</center> +<br> + +<p>The Aryans who entered India to become its dominant race came from +Central Asia, and left behind them there other tribes of Aryan +culture. These tribes remained in what is called Iran, in the lands, +that is to say, between the Indus, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, +and the Persian Gulf. It is from this region, a part of which bore in +ancient times the name of Ariana, that the word "Aryan" is derived. +The languages of this territory are akin to Sanscrit; and there is +ample evidence that before the Indian invasion the progenitors of the +Indians and those of the Iranians dwelt together there, and enjoyed a +common civilisation. If the civilisation was the same the religion +also was the same. How the Indo-Iranian religion was developed in +India, we have seen. At first a worship of active and militant +deities, it became by degrees a religion of a passive type, in which +a suffering, acquiescent, and brooding humanity presented to heaven +its needs and problems, and received a corresponding answer. The +Aryans who remained in Iran retained their active and practical +disposition. While by no means wanting in sensitiveness and +flexibility of mind, they were less given to speculation and more to +a robust morality than their Indian kinsmen. It has to be noted that +while the religion of India has not influenced Europe in any manifest +degree until the present century, that of Persia <a name="p382"></a>has contributed in a +marked way to form the world of thought in which we dwell.</p> + +<p><b>Sources.</b>—The views generally current about the ancient religion of +Persia are derived from late Greek writers, whose accounts will be +noticed at the end of this chapter. A truer knowledge is now +possible, since the sacred books of the religion are now open to the +world. They were only obtained from the Parsis, who keep up their +ancient religion on the soil of India, during last century, and the +study of them has been very laborious and difficult, and has given +rise to great controversies which are not yet settled. These ancient +books are furnished with Eastern translations and commentaries. Is +the Western scholar to place himself under the guidance of these, +which no doubt are part of the historical tradition of the religion, +or may he claim that he is himself in as good a position as the +Oriental commentator for understanding the original meaning of the +texts; and will he best interpret them by comparing them with the +Vedas? What is their age; in which of the lands of Iran were they +written; was any part of them written by Zoroaster, or is Zoroaster +to be regarded as an historical personage at all? On all these +questions and on many others, scholars are not yet agreed; and while +so much is uncertain about the books, there must also be great +uncertainty about the history and the very nature of the religion. In +what follows we are guided mainly by the scholars who have taken +charge of the volumes connected with Persia in the <i>Sacred Books of +the East</i>.<small><small><sup>1</sup></small></small> In the last of these volumes (xxxi.) a new clue is +given to the subject, of which we shall gladly avail ourselves.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>1</sup></small> Zend-Avesta, <i>S. B. E.</i>, vols. iv., xxiii., xxxi.</small></blockquote> + +<p>The sacred books of Persia are known by the name of <b>"Zend-Avesta,"</b> +which is an incorrect expression; we ought to say Avesta and Zend. +"Avesta," like the kindred word "Veda," signifies knowledge, and the +word <a name="p383"></a>"Zend" denotes here not the language of that name, but the +"commentary" afterwards added to the original knowledge or text. The +commentary is not written in the Zend language, but in Pahlavi or +Persian. The Avesta, which is written in the older Zend, the sacred +language of Persia, is, like other Bibles, a collection of books +written in different ages, and even, it may be, in different lands. +The books were brought together into one only at some period after +the Christian era. The later legends as to the supernatural +communication to Zoroaster of the earlier books need not detain us; +we must notice, however, that the preserved books of Persian religion +are held to be no more than the scanty ruins of an extensive +literature. The Avesta consisted originally of 21 Nosks or books, and +most of these were destroyed by Alexander when he invaded the East; +only one Nosk was preserved entire. As we have it, the Avesta is a +liturgical work, it contains some legends and some ancient hymns, as +well as a good deal of law, but its prevailing character is that of a +service-book, and it is to this that its partial preservation both at +the invasion of Alexander, and at that of the Mohammedans in a later +century, is probably due. It consists of three parts. The oldest is +the Yasna, a collection of liturgies, which admit and indeed invite +comparison with those of early Christianity: along with these are +found the Gathas or hymns, the only part of the Avesta composed in +verse, and written in an older dialect. The Visperad is a collection +of litanies for the sacrifice; and the Vendidad is a code of early +law, but contains also various religious legends. Besides these +works, which constitute the Avesta proper, there is the Khorda (or +small) Avesta containing devotions for various times of the day, for +the days of the month, and for the religious year; these are for the +use not of the priests alone but of all the faithful, and many of +them are still so used.</p> + +<p><b>The Contents of the Zend-Avesta are Composite.</b>—<a name="p384"></a>In these works the +student soon observes that he has before him not one religious system +only but several. In one place we find a worship of one god, as if +there were no others to be considered; some of the litanies on the +other hand contain lengthy and elaborate lists of objects of worship. +In some parts the religion is personal and immediate; in others it is +priestly. Parsism is often called fire-worship, and the elements of +earth and water also obtain extreme sanctity in it, but of this also +there is in the oldest books little trace. The variety in the +literature no doubt reflects a variety in the religion of Iran. Iran +in fact had not one religion but several, and thus the problem is to +trace how these successively entered into contact with Mazdeism or +Zoroastrianism, which is the religion most native to Iran, and were +embodied in it. The different religions belonged to a certain extent +to different provinces. We know that Persia, the conqueror of Media, +was conquered in turn by the Median religion; we also know that the +religion of the Persian kings as read in their inscriptions<small><small><sup>2</sup></small></small> does +not correspond to any of the religious positions held in the Avesta. +The Magi, from whom also the religion as a whole derives one of its +names, belonged to Media and passed from there to greater power in +Iran as a whole. From the Scythians on the north and from Babylonia +on the south, ideas and practices were imported; and in these and +other ways, forms of religion arose as different from the faith of +Zoroaster as later forms of Christianity from the simplicity of +Christ, yet looking to him as their founder and the giver of their +law.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>2</sup></small> <i>Records of the Past</i>, i. 107.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Zoroaster.</b>—We begin with the teaching of Zoroaster. Dr. E. Meyer in +his <i>Geschichte des Alterthums</i>, vol. i., and Mr. Darmesteter in his +admirable introduction to the Avesta (<i>S. B. E.</i> vol. iv.) both treat +Zoroaster as a mythical personage, a figure-head of the official +class of the religion, who give currency to their edicts <a name="p385"></a>under his +name. Weighty authorities may, however, be quoted for the historical +reality of Zoroaster, and what appears to us most important of all, +the editor of the Gathas, in the <i>S. B. E.</i> vol. xxxi., departing +from his collaborateur, Mr. Darmesteter, has treated these hymns, +which give an account of the founder's acts and experiences when +first proclaiming the true doctrine, in such a way as to produce on +the mind of the reader the strongest impression of the historical +reality of the prophet and of his mission. They introduce us to a +religious movement actually in progress in the poet's time, a +movement in which a pure and lofty faith is struggling to establish +itself against prevailing superstitions. The doctrine placed in the +mouth of the reformer is that which is most central in Persian +religion; and only by such deep earnestness and devotion as is here +ascribed to him, could it have attained that position. We start, +then, with Zoroaster and his work; and first of all we ask what was +his date, where did he live, and what kind of religion did he find +existing in his country?</p> + +<p>The date of Zoroaster or Zarathustra—the former is the Greek, the +latter the old Iranian form of the name, contracted in Persian to +Zardusht—can only be fixed very approximately. He stands at the very +beginning of the Avesta literature, and the developments in religion +to which that literature testifies must have occupied a long period. +On the other hand no one proposes to place Zarathustra before the +departure of the Indian Aryans from the Indo-Iranian stock. From such +vague data he may be assigned perhaps to somewhere about 1400 <small>B.C.</small> As +to his province, there is considerable agreement among scholars that +his doctrine spread from the east of Iran westwards; and though +tradition gives him a birthplace in Media, his mission lay nearer to +India, in Bactria.</p> + +<p><b>Primitive Religion of Iran.</b>—He did not preach to men unacquainted +with religion. Many of the religious <a name="p386"></a>ideas and figures of the Vedas +occur also in Persia, and by the study of these it is possible to +form certain inferences as to the mental history of Persia before +Zarathustra. Mithra the sun-god belongs to Persia as well as India. +The heaven-god known in India as Varuna grew into the principal deity +of Persia. A fire-god, wind- and rain-gods, and the serpent hostile +to man, on whom these made war, are common to both countries. The +institution of sacrifice, in which the deities are served with +offerings and with hymns, is markedly alike in both countries. In +both alike sacrifice is at first the affair not of a priesthood but +of laymen, especially of princes, and is not confined to temples but +is performed in the open air, on a spot judged to be suitable. The +most imposing sacrifice is that of the horse, and an offering of +constant occurrence is that of the intoxicating liquor, in India +Soma, in Persia by a recognised transliteration Homa, which is itself +viewed as a cosmic principle of life, and addressed as a deity. And +in both countries alike the view of sacrifice prevails in early +times, that the gods come to it to take their part in a banquet which +their worshippers share with them, and that they are strengthened and +encouraged by it.</p> + +<p>These similarities, and others which might be mentioned, show that +the religion of India and that of Persia started from a common stock +of ideas and usages. A further circumstance of great importance shows +not only the original identity of the two systems, but also perhaps +how they came to diverge from each other. Two generic titles for +deities occur in India. The first of these—<i>deva</i>, is said to +signify the bright or shining one, the second—<i>asura</i>, the living +one. Now these titles are also found in Persia; but the use of the +terms is different in the two countries. In India both are at first +titles for deity, but by degrees, while "deva" continues to denote +the gods who are worshipped, "asura" assumes a less favourable +<a name="p387"></a>meaning, until at length it comes to stand for a second order of +beings, inferior to the devas, and including such powers as are +malignant and hostile. In Persia the fortunes of the two words are +reversed. <i>Ahura</i> becomes the god <i>par excellence</i>, the supreme god; +while "deva," the title which in India remained in honour, is in the +Avesta that of evil gods who are not to be worshipped. In this some +scholars consider that we may hear the watchwords of the conflict +which led to the separation of the two religions; there was a schism +between the followers of the Ahuras and those of the Devas, which led +to the entire separation of the two parties. This is the latest form +of the old view which makes Zoroastrianism the outcome of a religious +conflict, of a reaction against the gods afterwards worshipped in +India. There is no direct evidence of such a conflict, and the +difference we have described may be due to the natural development of +the Indo-Iranian religion in different sets of circumstances and +among different peoples. Zarathustra in the Gathas finds the +antithesis fully formed between the good and the evil deities; he +appeals to his countrymen on that matter as one which he does not +need to teach them, but with which they have long been familiar. In +speaking of his date this has to be remembered.</p> + +<p>We proceed now to describe from <b>the Gathas</b> the work and teaching of +Zarathustra. The Gathas are poems written in metres which occur also +in the Vedas, and intended, like the Indian hymns, to be used in +worship. The account which they furnish of the mission and the +teaching of the sage are thus clothed in a poetical dress, and do not +narrate bare facts as they occurred, but the facts as interpreted and +treated for religious use. They are in the mouth of Zarathustra +himself; he writes them for use at sacrifice, and remembering how +they are to be rendered, he sometimes puts in the mouth of the +celebrants the words, <a name="p388"></a>"Zarathustra and we." These words do not prove +that the hymns are not by him. As explained by Dr. Mills, the hymns +are seen to be very fully charged with meaning and with sentiment. +Uncouth and inartistic in expression, and demanding an immense amount +of patience and ingenuity to trace their connection of thought, they +surprise the reader when once he seizes their meaning, by the depth +and spirituality of their contents, and force him to acknowledge that +they are a worthy document of the birth of a great religion.</p> + +<p><b>The Call of Zarathustra.</b>—The hymns give a vivid picture of that +early world in which the prophet lived. It was a world distracted +with conflict. On one side there is an agricultural community bent on +industry, and, like the Hindus, even at this day, valuing as most +sacred the cattle which form their chief substance. On the other +hand, there are men who dwell on the outskirts between the tilled +land and the wilderness, who are constantly making raids on the +farms, driving off and killing the cattle for sacrifice and for food, +and ruining the fields by destroying the irrigating works on which +their fertility depends. And there is a religious difference as well +as a difference in culture between these two sets of people. The +agriculturists are worshippers of Ahura; the contemners of the cattle +worship beings called in the Gathas "daevas." This schism was not of +Zarathustra's making, he found it going on, and being a priest was +entitled to come forward and seek to guide others with regard to it. +Such is the situation which the hymns present to us. We will try to +state the substance of some of those hymns. The naked words of them, +even when we are sure of the correctness of the translation, are +barely intelligible without lengthy commentary; and on the other +hand, no short statement in modern terms can convey the force and +solemnity of these struggling utterances. As we are dealing with the +original revelation of <a name="p389"></a>Zarathustra, the source of the Persian +religion, we shall give the story with some degree of detail.</p> + +<p>The first hymn in the arrangement presented to us in <i>S. B. E.</i> deals +with what we may term the call of Zarathustra. It sums up in a poetic +and dramatic form the religious result of the movement which led him +to come forward.</p> + +<p>The "Soul of the Kine" first speaks; it is the impersonation of the +agricultural community, to whom their cattle are most sacred. She +raises a complaint to Ahura and Asha (the righteousness which is an +attribute of Ahura, and like his other attributes often appears as an +independent person) of the insolence and highhanded devastation and +robbery she has to suffer. "For whom did ye fashion me," she says; +"wherefore was I made?" She appeals to the Immortals for instruction +in tillage with a view to security and welfare.</p> + +<p>Ahura then speaks and asks Asha what guardian has been appointed for +the kine to lead and to defend her; and Asha answers that no one, +himself free from passion and violence, could be found who was +capable of being an adequate guardian. The causes of these evils lie +at the roots of the constitution of things, and therefore those +seeking success in any enterprise must approach Ahura himself and not +any subordinate being.</p> + +<p>Zarathustra speaks, and confirms the utterances of Asha; it is in +Ahura himself that he and the kine place their confidence; to his +will they submit themselves; the doubts and questions arising from +their outward insecurity, they refer to him.</p> + +<p>Ahura speaks and answers his own question. It is true that no lord of +the kine is to be found, who in himself is quite equal to that +position, but he appoints Zarathustra as head to the agricultural +community.</p> + +<p>A chorus speaks, consisting of a company of the faithful supposed to +be present, or of the Ameshospends, the personified attributes of +Ahura, and praise the Lord <a name="p390"></a>for his bounty and for the wisdom he makes +known; but asks whom he has endowed with the Good Mind, or, as we +might say, the Holy Spirit, to make known to mortals his doctrine. +The call of Zarathustra, intimated in the foregoing verse, is +overlooked, as if it were impossible that such a one as he could +undertake the office. Ahura replies, repeating his commission to +Zarathustra, here called also by his family name of Spitama, and +promising to establish him and make him successful in his work.</p> + +<p>The Soul of the Kine speaks, lamenting still that no adequate lord +has been assigned her. Zarathustra is a feeble and pusillanimous man, +not one of royal state who is able to bring his purpose to effect. +The Ameshospends join in the cry for the true lord to appear.</p> + +<p>Zarathustra then speaks, accepting the mission in an address to +Ahura, whom he entreats to send his blessings of peace and happiness, +since none but he can give them, and to set up in the minds of the +disciples of the cause that joy and that kingdom which, though it +first comes inwardly, yet brings with it also all outward blessings. +For himself also he prays that the Good Mind and the Sovereign Power +(another of the attributes) of the Lord may hasten to come to him and +strengthen him for his mission.</p> + +<p>This poetical rendering of the call of Zarathustra is free both from +miraculous embellishment and from undue exaltation of the person of +the prophet, and forms a great contrast to later statements in the +Avesta, where the prophet is placed in secret conclave with Ahura, +asking him questions and receiving detailed replies which at once +rank as revelation. In the Gathas, allowing for the theological and +poetic form, everything is human and natural. We are strongly +reminded of the accounts of the calls of prophets in the Old +Testament—there is the same choice by the deity of an apparently +weak instrument to accomplish <a name="p391"></a>a work urgently called for by the +times, the same sense of insufficiency on the part of the prophet, +but the same absolute confidence on his part in the power of the +deity, and hence the same absolute assurance, once the mission is +accepted, that the cause which he has been called to carry forward +must succeed. In many of the following Gathas the same parallel is +strongly impressed on the mind of the reader. The sense of weakness +is expressed again and again—the prophet has no victorious career, +but is exposed to much gainsaying, which he feels acutely. Yet he +never doubts that his god is with him, and is working for him. To him +he commits his doubts and fears, of his goodness he is joyfully +assured, and his aid he expects with confidence. He is entirely +devoted to Ahura and his cause, and offers himself up with his whole +powers to work out the divine will. He will teach, he says, as long +as he is able, till he has brought all the living to believe. He is +conscious of a divine power working in him. Nothing in himself, he is +strong by the divine grace which Ahura sends him: his words have +efficacy to keep the fiends at a distance, and to advance in men's +minds the divine kingdom; like St. Paul he feels his message to be to +some a savour of life unto life, to others a savour of death unto +death.</p> + +<p><b>The Doctrine.</b>—And what is the message he proclaims? It is a +philosophy of the origin of the world, but a philosophy the +acceptance of which involves immediate and strenuous action. The +distracted condition of the world before him requires to be +explained, so that a remedy for it may be found; and Zarathustra +prays, when he is about to bring forward his doctrine, that Ahura +would help him to explain how the material world arose. The +explanation when it appears is not quite new, it has been shaping +itself already in the mind of his people, but he sets it forth as a +dogma, and draws from it at once all its practical consequences. In +the third hymn of the first Gatha he solemnly brings <a name="p392"></a>forward his +doctrine before the people, and appeals to them, not as a people, but +as individuals, each for himself, with a full sense of his +responsibility, to consider it, and adopt it, and act upon it. It is +the doctrine of dualism, not in the fully developed later form in +which two personal potentates divide the universe between them from +the first, but as yet in a form more speculative and vague. There are +two primeval principles, spirits, things, as is well known—the +expression is indefinite—the counterparts of each other, independent +in their action, a better and a worse, and Zarathustra calls on his +audience to choose between them, and not to choose as do the +evildoers. The world, as it is, was made by the joint action of the +two principles, and they also fixed the alternative fates of men, for +the wicked, Hell—the worst life; and for the holy, Heaven—the best +mental state. After the creation was accomplished, the two principles +drew off from each other, the evil one making choice of evil and of +evil works, and the bounteous spirit choosing righteousness, making +his strong seat in heaven, and taking for his own those who do good +and who believe in him. The Daevas and their followers are incapable +of making a just choice between the good and the evil; they have +surrendered themselves from the outset to the "Worst Mind," the demon +of fury, and to all evil works. (There are vague suggestions here of +a temptation and a fall, but only of the evil spirits and their +followers.) From this point onwards the world is filled with a great +struggle. On the one side is Ahura, the only god worshipped by name +in the Gathas. Ahura is a heaven-god, he is, in fact, the bright +heaven, and then the good and beneficent being who dwells in +brightness. In the hymns he is losing his definite character and +becoming an abstraction, a god of dogmatics rather than of history. +He is the good principle personified, and as becomes a god of such +transcendent character, he does not act directly, but through his +<a name="p393"></a>satellites. His attributes personified, do his bidding, aid the +saints in spiritual ways, and prepare for the better order of things. +On the other hand are the Daevas with the demon of wrath, who +propagate everywhere lies and mischief, and heap up vengeance for +themselves against the final judgment. For the good there is nothing +better than to aid,—for they can aid, in bringing on the renovation, +dwelling with Ahura even now, and by his attributes which work in +them as well as in him, reinforcing the righteous order, and +preparing themselves to dwell where wisdom has her home. In the end +the Demon of the Lie will be rendered harmless and delivered up to +Righteousness as a captive.</p> + +<p><b>Inconsistencies.</b>—As it happens in every such reform, the new +teaching is not quite consistent with itself; old views are taken up +into the new teaching, although they do not harmonise with it; the +spiritual way of looking at things alternates with a more worldly +way. The following are some examples of this:—The great doctrine of +Heaven and Hell as inner states, as being simply the best and the +worst state of mind, is clearly announced; but the traditional view +of future abodes of happiness and misery also appears. The +Kinvat-bridge is mentioned several times in the Gathas, over which +Iran conceived that the individual had to pass after death. If he was +righteous the bridge bore him safely over to the sacred mountain, +where the good lived again; if he was wicked, he fell off the bridge +and found himself in the place of torment. It is another +inconsistency that Zarathustra expects, on the one hand, to convert +the world by his preaching, while on the other hand his sense of the +antagonism between the good and the evil spirits and their followers +often hurries him into violent methods. One hymn concludes with a +summons to his adherents to fall on the unbelievers with the halberd, +and he is constantly predicting their sudden overthrow. Along with +this, we <a name="p394"></a>may mention that he sought to ally himself with powerful +families for the sake of the support they would bring the cause. The +name of Vishtaspa, king we know not of what realm, is always +associated with the prophet as that of his royal patron; other +influential friends are also mentioned. Another point, in which we +notice accommodation to existing usage, is that of sacrifice. The +Gathas have several noble passages describing the true sacrifice man +has to offer to God for his goodness, as consisting simply in the +offering of self, in the devotion to the deity of all a man is, and +all he can do. At the same time Zarathustra has not a word to say in +disparagement of the sacrifice of victims. He prays for guidance in +this part of religious duty; he desires to have everything connected +with sacrifice done in the best way and with the most effective +hymns. Thus the spiritual life is not left to stand alone. There is a +personal walk with God, our piety is said to be God's daughter in us, +his righteousness is working in us and moulding us for his purposes; +both will and deed of the good man are attributed to him, and the +processes are described with true insight by which the soul is +sanctified and wedded to her task and her true destiny; but at the +same time there is an intent looking to that sacred Fire which is an +outward representative of deity; there is the offering of victims, +even of horses, when the prophet's mind is bent on war (the +Homa-offering does not occur, and we may suppose the prophet rejected +this service of the deity by intoxication); there is the smiting of +the demons with prayer, and imprecations, similar to those in the +Psalms, against adversaries of the cause.</p> + +<p>It is no proof of unspirituality that the welfare of the Kine, with +whose wail the call of the prophet began, is steadily kept in view +during his mission. The agriculturists are on the side of the +righteous being, good and ever-better tillage is a means of pleasing +him; it is his will that the kine should be freed from <a name="p395"></a>alarms and +should prosper; and he may be appealed to to give lessons with a view +to that end. The doctrine passes far beyond its first occasion; yet +the occasion which called for it is never lost sight of.</p> + +<p>The Gathas, taken alone, tell us hardly anything of the religion in +which Zarathustra's fellow-countrymen believed. They believed +undoubtedly in many gods; in those parts of the Avesta which come +next to the hymns in time, polytheism is in full force. That +Zarathustra only speaks of one god, Ahura (though he also speaks of +"the Immortals" generally), may be due to the limited extent and +special purpose of the hymns, but it may also be taken as an +indication that the prophet did not needlessly interfere with the +beliefs of his people: content to preach the doctrine with which he +was charged, and which was to him the sum and substance of all +religion, he, like several other religious founders, stirred up no +strife he could avoid. The doctrine he preached was not unprepared +for in the mind of his country, and continued to be the leading +feature of Persian religion in subsequent periods.</p> + +<p>It is a momentous step in religious progress, which the prophet of +Iran calls on his countrymen to take. We notice the main features of +the advance.</p> + +<p>1. <b>Man is Called to Judge between the Gods.</b>—Zarathustra, like +Elijah, puts before his people the choice between two worships. +Various distinctions between the two cases might be drawn. In the +Scripture case Baal is not a bad god, but simply the wrong god for +Israel to worship. In the case of our reformer the difference between +the two worships is a deeper one. The individual is to choose his +god, he is to declare of his own motion that one god is better than +others, and that no worship whatever is to be paid to these others. +This was a new departure in antiquity; the early world loved to think +of many gods, all alike divine and worshipful, each race or clan +having its god whom it naturally served, or each <a name="p396"></a>part of the earth +being portioned out to a divine lord of its own. Neither Greece nor +Rome ever thought of making the individual man the arbiter among the +unseen beings whom he knew, and requiring him to decide which of them +he should consider divine, and which he should disown. In the case +before us, moreover, the choice is to be made on moral grounds. Men +are called to judge of the character of the beings who are called +gods, they are told that there is no necessity to acknowledge those +of whom they disapprove, they are emancipated from the fear of +hurtful and evil beings. There is war in heaven, and men are +encouraged to take part in that war, and to cast off allegiance to +such powers as do not make for righteousness. How there came to be +such strife among the gods, and how it became necessary that men +should judge of it, we have no clear information; we only know that +the momentous step was called for and was taken.</p> + +<p>The belief, however, remains even after the decision that there are +unseen evil beings, who had influence in forming the constitution of +things, and who have influence still over the government of the +world. The position taken up is not monotheism. The good god is not +sole creator or sole governor of the world, he is a limited being; +from the outset he has only in part got his own way, and he has +adversaries in the very constitution of things, whom he cannot get +rid of. Persian thought is dualistic; the conception of an Evil +Creator and Governor co-ordinate with the good one differentiates it +from the thought of India, which always tends to a principle of +unity.</p> + +<p>2. In the second place, <b>this religion is essentially intolerant</b> and +persecuting. Having chosen his side in the great war which divides +the universe, man can only prosecute that war with all his force; he +must regard the Daevas and their followers as his enemies, and try to +weaken and extinguish them. The general <a name="p397"></a>feeling of the ancient world +about differences in religion was that all religions were equally +legitimate, each on its own soil. The Jews, we know, shocked the +Greeks and Romans greatly by denying this, and maintaining that there +was only one true religion, namely, their own, and that all the +others were worships of gods false and vain. But the Persians came +before the Jews in this; the Gathas preach persecution, and the +insults offered by Persian kings in later times to the religions of +Egypt and Greece were no doubt justified by their convictions. In +Persia, as in Israel, religion had come to entertain the notion of +false gods. And a religion which entertains that notion must be +exclusive. Those who have refused to worship beings hitherto deemed +gods, on the ground that they ought not to be worshipped and are not +truly gods, cannot but desire to bring the worship of such beings +entirely to an end, and to make the worship of the true God prevail +instead, by rude or by gentle means, as the stage of civilisation may +in each case suggest.</p> + +<p><b>Growth of Mazdeism.</b>—After the Gathas proper we have other hymns +written in the Gathic dialect, from which the history of the religion +after its foundation may be to some extent inferred.<small><small><sup>3</sup></small></small> These show +that the Zarathustrian religion was regarded, after the departure of +the founder, as a great divine institution, and was worked out on the +lines he had laid down. The forms of it became of course more fixed. +The god it serves is now called "Ahura Mazda," the "All-Knowing Lord" +(the name is afterwards contracted into the Greek Oromazdes, the +Persian Hormazd; and the religion is called from it Mazdeism); he is +still implored for spiritual blessings both for this and for the +future life, and for furtherance in agriculture. There is, however, a +tendency to address prayer not only to Ahura himself but to beings +connected with him. <a name="p398"></a>As if the mind wearied of dwelling on the one +supreme, the Bountiful Immortals are associated with him, the parts +of his holy creation are invoked, the fire which is most closely +identified with him, the stars which are his body, the waters, the +earth, all good animals and plants. The kine's soul receives +sacrifice, and not only the kine's soul which we have met before, but +the souls of "just men and holy women," the <b>Fravashis</b> or spirits not +only of the departed but of the living also, the service of which +continues and increases henceforward in Persian religion. These are +invented deities and have a shadowy character; but gods of more +substance, and more historical reality also came into view at this +point. Zarathustra becomes a god, the hymns themselves are adored; +the Homa-offering reappears, Mithra is often coupled with Ahura, +other old gods creep back and are mentioned along with the moral +abstractions, which also increase in number; in one passage there are +said to be thirty-three objects of worship, a number which also +occurs in India.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>3</sup></small> Yasna Haptanghaiti, <i>S. B. E.</i> xxxi. p. 218, <i>sqq.</i>, and +others following.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Organisation of the Heavenly Beings.</b>—With all this multiplication +there is, as we shall see, no compromise of the supreme claims of +Ahura. In some of the hymns, all beings, all attributes, all places, +and all times of a sacred nature are heaped indiscriminately +together, in interminable catalogues. But this apparent confusion is +corrected by a remarkable tendency to organisation. The Persian +religion ultimately came to have a very simple and very striking +theology; and that theology was made up by transforming the +abstractions in which the founder dealt, into persons, and arranging +them after the pattern of Oriental society. In the later Yasnas +(liturgies) a figure rises into view which the Gathas do not mention; +that of Angra Mainyu, later Ahriman, the Bad Spirit. In this +counterpart of Spenta Mainyu, the Good Spirit (who is not at first +identified with Ahura, but proceeds <a name="p399"></a>from him), the demons obtain a +personal head, and the dualism which appears in all nature and all +human society is thus brought to a personal expression. Ahura and +Ahriman confront each other as the good power and the evil. Both +alike had part in making the world what it is. In every part of the +world, and in all that is felt and done they are at strife. Ahura, to +quote Mr. Darmesteter, is all light, truth, goodness, and knowledge; +Angra Mainyu is all darkness, falsehood, wickedness, and ignorance. +Whatever the good spirit makes, the evil spirit mars; he opposes +every creation of Ahura's with a plague of his own, it is he who +mixed poison with plants, smoke with fire, sin with man, and death +with life.</p> + +<p><b>The Attributes of Ahura.</b>—Each of these beings has his retinue. That +of Ahura was formed first; it consists of his attributes. Even in the +hymns the attributes are regarded as persons, inseparable companions +of Ahura; appeals are made to one or another of them, according as +the worshipper seeks help from one side or the other of the divine +being. By a process which frequently occurs in religious thought, +they afterwards come to be more formally arranged and defined; there +are six of them, and each is charged with a province of the divine +economy. They are as follows:</p> + +<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" summary="list7"> + <tr><td> </td><td>Vohu Mano (Bahman) Good Mind; he is the head and the guardian of + the living creation of Ahura.<br><br></td></tr> + <tr><td> </td><td>Asha Vahista (Ardibehesht), Excellent Holiness; he is the genius of + fire.<br><br></td></tr> + <tr><td> </td><td>Kshathra Vairya (Shahrevar), Perfect Sovereignty; he is the lord of + metals.<br><br></td></tr> + <tr><td> </td><td>Spenta Armaiti (Spendarmat) divine piety, conceived as female, the + goddess of the earth.<br><br></td></tr> + <tr><td> </td><td>Haurvatat (Khordat) health.<br><br></td></tr> + <tr><td> </td><td>Ameretat (Amerdat) immortality.</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The last two are a pair, and have charge conjointly of waters and of +trees.</p> +<a name="p400"></a> +<p>Ahura is himself one of these spirits; thus there are seven supreme +spirits.</p> + +<p><b>Retinue of Ahriman.</b>—Angra Mainyu on his part comes to have a +corresponding retinue of six daevas, each being the evil counterpart +of one of the good spirits. Evil Mind, Sickness, and Decay are the +names of some of them. The whole spiritual world is ranged on the +side of the good or of the evil deity. The <b>Izatas</b> (Izeds) or angels +consist of gods of immemorial worship in Iran, some of whom are the +same as gods worshipped in India; but the title also applies to gods, +heavenly and earthly, of later creation, so that the class is a very +wide and elastic one. It comprises some beings who have been reduced +by the operation of the new ideas from the first to the second rank +of deities, such as Verethragna, who corresponds to the Vedic Indra, +and Mithra, the sun-god. These now appear in the same rank as gods of +the newer style, such as Sraosha, Obedience, and survivals of early +superstition, such as the "Curse of the wise," a very powerful Ized. +Zarathustra himself belongs to this class of deities, a miscellaneous +one indeed. Another class of sacred beings of world-wide extent is +that of the Fravashis spoken of above. If the good spirits are many +and various, so are the evil. Of these are the great demon-serpent +Azhi who plays a great part in Persian mythology, as Vrittra does in +Indian. Aeshma, later Asmodeus, may be named; he is one of the +Drvants, or storm-fiends. Gahi, an unfaithful goddess, has fallen to +a demon of unchastity; the Pairikas (Peris) are female tempters; the +Yatu are demons connected with sorcery.</p> + +<p>The firm organisation of these hosts of spiritual beings, and the +sense of a great conflict in which they are all engaged from the +greatest to the least of them, preserve Mazdeism from the weakness +and absurdity which are apt to creep over religion when the +population of the upper and the nether regions is unduly <a name="p401"></a>multiplied. +The faithful never forget Ahura in favour of the minor deities, nor +do they forget that morals and industry are the chief ends of +religion, and that in cultivating these they hasten the coming of the +kingdom. The following is the formula, the "Praise of Holiness," with +which every act of worship begins in the Yasts<small><small><sup>4</sup></small></small> (liturgies of the +Izeds):</p> + +<blockquote><small>May Ahura Mazda be rejoiced!<br><br> + Holiness is the best of all good!<br><br> + I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zarathustra, + one who hates the daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>4</sup></small> <i>S. B. E.</i> vol. xxiii.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>Ancient Testimonies to the Persian Religion.</b>—It is at this stage, +while it is still in a state of vigour, that we hear of the Persian +religion from various quarters in ancient records. The chapters in +the latter half of Isaiah, which so vigorously denounce idolatry, +hail the approach of Cyrus towards Babylon, and claim unity of +religion between him and the Jews (Isaiah xliv. 28 <i>sq.</i>). He is the +shepherd who is to lead Jehovah's people back to their own land, and +to cause their temple to be rebuilt. And this claim that the Jewish +and the Persian religions were the same, that the Jews and the +Persians were alike worshippers of the one true God, while all the +surrounding nations were polytheists and idolaters, was admitted on +the side of Persia. After his conquest of Babylon, Cyrus at once +permitted the exiles to return to their own land. The Persian +monarchs of the following century, Darius and Artaxerxes, continued +to take a friendly interest in the worship of Jehovah, whom they +apparently regarded as a form of their own god, "the God of heaven," +Hormazd (Ezra vii. 21). They accordingly took measures for the +rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, and for the introduction there +of the new religious constitution which had been prepared at Babylon. +This could not have happened if the religion of the Persian kings had +<a name="p402"></a>not been a pure service of one god,<small><small><sup>5</sup></small></small> and the other information we +have on the subject shows that the Mazdeism of Persia at this period +was a very elevated form of the religion. The inscriptions of Darius +do not mention the spread of the worships of Mitra and Anahita, +which, however, make their appearance in the later inscriptions of +Artaxerxes; in none of them is Ahriman spoken of. This, of course, +does not prove that he was not believed in; when the Jewish prophet +proclaims that Jehovah makes both light and darkness, that he both +wounds and heals, there may be a reference to Persian dualism. Yet +Mazdeism was capable of appearing, and did appear to the foreigner, +as a lofty worship of a god of light and goodness. The same +impression is produced by the descriptions of the Greek writers. +Herodotus (i. 131, 132) writes as follows; he is a contemporary of +Ezra: "The following statements as to the customs of the Persians is +to be relied on. They do not fashion images of the gods, nor build +temples, nor altars—they consider it wrong to do so, and count it a +proof of folly; their reason for this being, as I think, that they do +not believe the gods to be beings of the same nature with men as the +Greeks do. They are accustomed to offer sacrifices to Zeus on the +summits of mountains; they call the whole circle of heaven Zeus. They +sacrifice also to the sun, and the moon, and the earth, and to fire, +and to water, and to the winds. These are the ancient parts of their +ritual, but they have added the worship of the Queen of heaven, +Aphrodite; it was from the Assyrians and the Arabs that they acquired +this. The Assyrian name for Aphrodite is Mylitta, the Arabs call her +Alilat, the Persians, Anahita.<small><small><sup>6</sup></small></small> Such being their gods the Persians +sacrifice to them on this wise. They <a name="p403"></a>have no altar, and do not use +fire in sacrifice, nor do they have libations nor flutes, nor wreaths +nor barley. He who wishes to sacrifice takes his victim to a clean +spot and there calls on the deity, his turban wreathed, as a rule, +with myrtle. He does not think of praying for benefits for himself +individually in connection with his sacrifice; he prays for the +welfare of the Persian people and king; he himself is one of the +Persian people. He then cuts up the victim, boils the pieces and +spreads them out on the softest grass he can find—if possible, on +clover. This done, one of the Magians who has come to assist, sings a +theogony,<small><small><sup>7</sup></small></small> as they call the accompanying hymn; no sacrifice is +allowed to be offered without one of the Magi being present. After a +short pause the sacrificer takes up the pieces of flesh and does with +them whatever he likes."</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>5</sup></small> These two religions, Kuenen says, were more like each +other than any other two religions of antiquity.—<i>Religion of +Israel</i>, iii. 33.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>6</sup></small> Herodotus says Mitra; but this is a mistake, whether of +the father of history or of a transcriber.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>7</sup></small> One of the Yashts in praise of the particular deity.</small></blockquote> + +<p>In other passages Herodotus tells us of the extreme sanctity +attributed by the Persians to waters, to fire, and to the sun. He +also tells us that they regarded lying as the worst possible offence, +and next to it falling into debt, since the debtor is tempted to tell +lies.</p> + +<p>Plutarch writes as follows, quoting from an earlier Greek writer of +the third century <small>B.C.</small>: "Zoroaster the Magician,<small><small><sup>8</sup></small></small> who was 5000 +years before the war of Troy, named the good god Oromazes and the +other Arimonius ... Oromazes is engendered of the clearest and purest +light, Arimonius of deep darkness; and they war one upon another. The +former of these created six other gods (here follow the Amshaspands), +but the latter produceth as many other in number, of adverse +operation to the former.... There will come a time when this +Arimonius, who brings into the world plague and famine, shall of +necessity be rooted out and utterly destroyed for ever ... then shall +men be all in happy estate, they shall need no more food, nor cast +any shadow from them; and that god who hath effected <a name="p404"></a>all this shall +repose himself for a time, and rest in quiet."</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>8</sup></small> Holland's translation.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>The Vendidad: Laws of Parity.</b>—These extracts show the growth of +certain ideas which we have not noticed before. The dualism is being +worked out more in detail, other gods are coming in, and the doctrine +of the sanctity of the elements has made its appearance. That +doctrine is the basis of a new set of ideas and practices which we +have now to consider, those namely which are contained in the +Vendidad, one of the later works of the Persian canon. To pass from +the Gathas to the Vendidad is like passing from Isaiah to Leviticus, +and the laws of purity of Persian religion bear a strong analogy to +those of Judaism. The Vendidad<small><small><sup>9</sup></small></small> is composed principally of laws and +rules designed to direct the faithful in the great task of +maintaining their ritual purity. The whole of life is dominated in +this work by the ideas of purity and defilement; the great business +of life is to avoid impurity, and when it is contracted to remove it +in the correct manner as quickly as possible. Purity here is not +primarily sanitary or even moral; though such considerations were no +doubt indirectly present. Impure is what belongs to the bad spirit, +whether because he created it, as he did certain noxious animals, or +because he has established a hold on it as he does on men at death. A +man is impure, not because he has exposed himself to the infection of +disease, not because he has contracted a stain on his conscience, but +because he has touched something of which a Daeva has possession, and +so has come under the influence of that Daeva. Purification, +therefore, and the act of healing consist of exorcisms of various +kinds. This notion of purity plays a great part in other old +religions also; it is here that we see its original meaning most +clearly. Another great feature of the doctrine of purity in the +Vendidad is that the elements, fire, earth, and water, are holy, and +to defile them in any <a name="p405"></a>way is the most grievous of sins. As everything +which leaves the body is unclean, a man must not blow up a fire with +his breath, and bathing with a view to cleanliness is not to be +thought of. The disposal of the dead was a matter of immense +difficulty, since corpses, being unclean, could be committed neither +to Fire nor to the Earth. They are ordered to be exposed naked on a +building constructed for that purpose on high ground, so that birds +of prey may devour them; and a great part of the Vendidad is taken up +with directions for purification, after a death has taken place, of +the persons who were in the house, of the house itself, of those who +carried the corpse, and of the road they travelled, etc.</p> + +<blockquote><small><small><sup>9</sup></small> <i>S. B. E.</i> vol. iv.</small></blockquote> + +<p><b>How this Doctrine Entered Mazdeism.</b>—This system was not in force in +the time of Darius and Artaxerxes (when the dead were buried or, as +in the case of Croesus, burned) though the ideas were appearing at +that period on which it is founded; and it is plain that it has no +necessary or vital connection with the religion of Zarathustra. But +in later Mazdeism there are many such importations. This religion, in +its course from east to west, came in contact with beliefs and usages +with which, though foreign to its own nature, it yet came to terms. +Mazdeism is not originally a markedly priestly religion; it is +thought that it became so when planted in Media. No doubt there were +germs in the early Iranian religion of a priestly system. Zarathustra +himself was a priest and was favourable to due religious observances. +But it is quite contrary to his spirit that life should be governed +entirely by ritual law. It was in Media that this came to be the +case. The name of Magi, originally perhaps that of a tribe, became in +Media the name of the priesthood, and so furnished an additional +title for Mazdeism. It is to this stage of the religion that the +priestly legislation of the Vendidad, with all its puritanical +regulation of life, is to be ascribed. (The practice of exposing the +bodies of the dead to be <a name="p406"></a>devoured by birds of prey is probably of +Scythian origin.) In this period also, remote from the origin of the +religion, we find a new view of Zarathustra himself and of his +revelation. In the earlier sources Zarathustra composes his hymns in +a natural manner; he is not an absolute lawgiver, but depends on +princes for the carrying out of his views. In the later works the +revelation takes place in a series of private interviews between +Ahura and Zarathustra; the prophet puts questions to the god, and the +god dictates in reply sentences which are at once promulgated as +sacred laws. Mazdeism, like other religions, has its wooden age, its +verbal inspiration, and its priestly code.</p> + +<p>To trace the lines by which the influence of the religion of Persia +asserted itself in the wider world would be a large enterprise: only +a few indications can be given here. One great service which that +religion did to the world was undoubtedly that it had sympathy with +the Jews, and enabled Jewish monotheism to take a fresh start on its +way to become a religion for mankind. Mazdeism itself had a tinge of +universalism; Zarathustra expected his religion to spread beyond his +own land, and it did spread over all the provinces of Iran. It never +became a world-religion, but it might have done so had it not become +swathed and choked in Magism or had any new movement arisen in it to +assert the supremacy of its purely human over its artificial +elements. But Ahura himself, perhaps, was too abstract and +philosophic a god to inspire missionary ardour; it needed a being +more firmly rooted in history, a god who had done more to prove the +energy and intensity of his nature, and, further, a god more +undoubtedly omnipotent than Ahura, to establish a universal rule.</p> + +<p>The interesting inquiry remains, how far the Jewish religion was +modified by its contact with the Persian. The laws of purity in the +Jewish priestly code find a close parallel in the Vendidad; but with +the Israelites the notion of religious purity existed, and was worked +<a name="p407"></a>out in considerable detail, as we see from Deuteronomy, before the +exile, and therefore long before the period of the Vendidad. The +belief in the resurrection, found among the Jews after the exile, and +not before it, has been maintained by many to be a loan from Persia, +where the belief in future reward and punishment was a settled thing +from the time of Zarathustra. But the Jews do not appear to have +grasped this belief all at once or fully formed. They arrived at it +gradually, many Old Testament scholars affirm, and by spiritual +inferences timidly put forth at first, from their own religious +consciousness. A belief which the Jewish religion was capable of +producing of itself need not, without clearer evidence than we +possess, be regarded as borrowed. We are not on much surer ground +when we come to ask whether the angels and demons of Judaism are +connected with those of Persia. This belief also arises naturally in +Judaism, where God came to be thought of as very high and very +inaccessible, and intermediate beings were therefore needed. Some of +the figures of the Jewish spirit-world are, no doubt, due to Persia; +the Ashmodeus of the book of Tobit is a Persian figure. Later Judaism +is like Parsism in arranging the heavenly beings in a hierarchy, and +assigning to the chief angels special functions in the administration +of God's kingdom, and still more so when the upper hierarchy is +confronted by a lower one with a great adversary and father of lies +at its head. But this takes place long after the Persian contact.</p> + +<p>The Persian deities had, as a rule, too little legend to enable them +to be received in other countries. Ahura does not travel. Anaitis is +thought to have passed into Greece, changing her name to Aphrodite, +but also to the severer Artemis; but she is perhaps not original in +Persia. The Persian god best known in other lands was Mithra, the +sun-god and god of wisdom. He was a favourite with the Roman armies +in the early empire, and representations of him as a hero in the act +of <a name="p408"></a>slaying a bull in a cave have been found in many lands. There were +also mysteries connected with him, in which the candidates had to +pass through a great series of trials and hardships. Persia +influenced Europe and the west of Asia at the same period in another +way. Manicheism, a system which was one of the three great universal +religions of that time, and had a worship and a priesthood and a +sacred literature of its own, was founded by a native of Persia. He +laboured at a distance from his own country, and the doctrines he +propounded came more from Chaldea than from Persia, and consisted of +great histories, like those of the Gnostics, of the doings and +sufferings of cosmic and other persons; a great struggle between the +powers of light and those of darkness was one of its principal +features. The worship of this church was spiritual; its morals were +in theory of the purest and most ascetic kind, being founded on a +principle of dualism in the material world, and requiring much +self-denial and long fasts. The higher virtue of the system was not, +however, required of the ordinary member. Later Parsism, both in Iran +and in India, has shown a disposition to cast off dualism, and to +become, both philosophically and practically, a monistic system.</p> +<br> + +<center><small>B<small>OOKS</small> R<small>ECOMMENDED</small></small></center> + +<blockquote><small><i>S. B. E.</i> vols. iv., xxiii. (Darmesteter); xxxi. (Mills). <i>The +Zendavesta</i>, vols. v., xviii., xxiv., xxxvii., xlvii. Pahlavi Texts +(E. W. West).</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small><i>The Histories of Antiquity</i> of Duncker, Maspero, and Ed. Meyer.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Haug's <i>Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the +Parsis</i>. Second Edition, 1878,</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>F. Windischmann, <i>Zoroastr. Studien</i>, 1863.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Geldner, "Zoroaster," in <i>Encyclopĉdia Britannica;</i> "Zoroastrianism," +in <i>Encyclopĉdia Bibl.</i></small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Mills, <i>A Study of the Five Zarathustrian Gathas</i>, 1892-94.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Lehmann, in De la Saussaye.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Dadhabai Naoroji, <i>The Parsee Religion</i>.</small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>On Mithraism, <i>Dieterich Eine Mithras-liturgie.</i></small></blockquote> + +<blockquote><small>Cumont, <i>The Mysteries of Mithra</i>, 1903.</small></blockquote> +<a name="chap22"></a><br><a name="p409"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h2>PART V</h2> +<h3>UNIVERSAL RELIGION</h3> +<br><a name="p411"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XXII</h4> +<center>CHRISTIANITY</center> +<br> + +<p>The writer is aware that in offering a chapter on Christianity at the +conclusion of this work, he attempts a difficult task. If treated at +all, Christianity must be dealt with in the same way as the other +religions, and no assumptions must be made for it which were not made +for them. And a view of our own religion written, not from the +standpoint of the faith and love we feel towards it but of scientific +accuracy, must appear to many pious Christians to be cold and meagre. +But, on the other hand, Christianity is the key of the arch we have +been building, the consummating member of the development we have +sought to trace, and to withhold any estimate of its character would +be to leave our work most imperfect. It seems better, therefore, that +some hints at least should be offered on this part of the subject. +Christianity cannot indeed be dealt with in the same proportion as +the other religions; that would far exceed our space. But some views +are offered regarding its essential nature, which the writer believes +to be so firmly founded in fact that even those who are not +Christians cannot deny them, and thus to afford a valid criterion for +the comparison of Christianity with other faiths.</p> + +<p>In the chapter on the religion of Israel we saw how the prophets +before and during the exile began to cherish the idea of a new +relation between God and <a name="p412"></a>man, which would not depend on sacrifice nor +be confined to Israel. God, they declared, was preparing a new age, +in which he would receive man to more intimate communion than before; +and man would be guided in the right path, not by covenants and laws, +but by the constant inspiration of a present deity. The new religion +would be one which all nations could share. Jerusalem, the seat of +the true faith, would attract all eyes; all would turn to her because +of the Lord her God.</p> + +<p>But, alas, instead of growing broader to realise its universal +destiny, the religion of Israel grew narrower after the exile, and +seemed to forget the prospects thus opened up to it. Judaism, though +immeasurably enriched in its inner consciousness by the teaching of +the prophets, maintained its earlier semi-heathenish forms of +worship, only surrounding them with new stateliness and new +significance; and clothed itself in a hard shell of public ritual and +personal observance. The Jews separated themselves rigorously from +the world, and cultivated an exclusive pride; as if their religion +had been given them for themselves alone, and not for mankind. Under +the Maccabees they displayed the most heroic courage and tenacity, +maintaining their own beliefs and rites amid the flood of Hellenism +which at one time almost swept them away. That they carried their +nationality unimpaired through this period is one of the most +wonderful achievements of the Jewish race. In the succeeding period, +however, many signs appeared showing that their religion was losing +energy. The rule of the priests and scribes extended more and more +over the whole of life, tradition and observance grew more and more +extensive, but the moral judgment lost its elasticity. The sense of +the divine presence grew faint, and multitudes of spirits filled the +air instead, oppressing human life with a sense of vague anxiety. As +political independence was lost, the people became less happy and +more easily excited. But while formalism <a name="p413"></a>held increasing sway over +their actions, imagination was free, and surrounded both the past +history of Israel and its future triumphs with manifold +embellishments.</p> + +<p>In such a condition was the religion of the Jews when Jesus appeared +in Palestine and created a new order of things. Christianity was at +first a movement within Judaism. Like all the religions which trace +their history to personal founders, it grew from very small +beginnings; but its doctrine was of such a nature, that if +circumstances favoured, it could not fail to spread beyond Judaism, +to men of other lands and other tongues.</p> + +<p>The doctrine consisted primarily in a declaration that that great +religious consummation, the kingdom of God, which the prophets had +foretold, which was regarded by the fellow-countrymen of Jesus as a +far-off hope, and which had just been heralded by John the Baptist as +being immediately at hand, had actually taken place. The perfect +state was announced to have arrived, and to be a thing not of the +future but of the present. The long-expected intercourse of God and +man on new terms of perfect agreement and sympathy, had come into +operation; any one who chose could assure himself of the fact. The +title by which Jesus described the intimate relationship of man and +God which he announced, sufficiently shows its character. God is the +Father in heaven; men are his children, and all that men have to do +is to realise that this is so, to enter the circle and begin to live +with God on such terms. The great God seeks to have every one living +with him as his child; and religion is no more, no less, than this +communion. Father and child dwell together in perfect love and +confidence; no outward regulations are needed for their intercourse, +no bargains, no traditions, no ritual, no pilgrimage, no sacrifice. +The intercourse can be carried on by any one, anywhere. It is not a +matter of apparatus, but a purely moral affair, an affair of <a name="p414"></a>love. +The Father knows all about the child, is able to give him all he +needs, even before he asks it; is willing to forgive his sins when he +repents of them; is anxious above all to reinforce his efforts after +goodness. The child knows that the Father is always near him, carries +every need and wish to him in prayer, even though knowing that he is +aware of them beforehand; regards all that happens, either good or +ill, as sent by him for the best ends, and seeks in every case to +know his will and to submit to it sweetly, and execute it faithfully.</p> + +<p>Nothing could be simpler, or deeper, or broader. Religion is here +presented free from all local or accidental or obscuring elements; +religion itself is here revealed. Accepted in this form, it does for +man all that it can. The relation between God and man is made purely +moral; the link is not that of race, nor does it consist in anything +external. The individual—every individual who will pause to hear—is +assured that there exists between God and him a natural sympathy, and +is urged to allow that sympathy to have its way. It is easy to see +what effect such a belief must have. The individual, bidden to seek +the principle of union with God not in any external circumstance or +arrangement, but in his own heart, becomes conscious of an inner +freedom from all artificial restraints. He finds in his own heart the +secret of happiness, and is raised above all fears and irritations; +and hence the forces of his nature are encouraged to unfold +themselves freely. He sees clearly what as a human person he is +called to be and to do, and feels a new energy to realise his ideals. +As God has come down to him, he is lifted up to God; a divine power +has entered his life, which is able to do all things in him and for +him.</p> + +<p>It may be said that what we have described are the effects of +religious inspiration generally, and may take place in connection +with any faith. But the <a name="p415"></a>divine impulse communicated to mankind in +Christianity differs from that of any other religion in two important +respects. In the first place, the God who here enters into union with +man possesses full reality and a character of the utmost energy. It +is Jehovah with whom we have to do here, changed, indeed, but still +the same; a God of real and irresistible power, on whom speculation +has not laid its weakening hand. The union of man with God is not +secured by making God abstract and vague, nor is his infinite +kindness and forgivingness purchased at the expense of his intensity +and awfulness. With Jesus, God is still the power who has actual +control over everything that goes on, and who is able to do even what +appears to be most impossible. He is a God of strict justice and +holiness; though he is so kind, his judgments have not ceased, but +are still impending over guilty men and a guilty people. It is he who +can cast both soul and body into hell. It is a God of such energy, +such zeal, who yet offers himself as the willing benefactor and +defender, and the loving guide and helper of the humblest of his +human creatures. In the second place, the terms of the union here +formed between God and man are such as can be found nowhere else. The +deity inspires man not to any particular kind of acts, not to +sacrifices, nor to withdrawal from the world, but inspires him simply +to realise himself. Man is assured of the sympathy of this great God, +and is then left in freedom as to the mode in which he should serve +him. No rules are prescribed; human life is not pressed into an +artificial mould, as is the case in so many great religions; no +preference is accorded to any one pursuit over others. This religion +is not a yoke to coerce men and to make them less, but an inspiration +capable of entering into every kind of life, and of making men +greater and better in whatever occupation. Even religious duties are +left to form themselves naturally; all that is insisted on is that +the child shall have <a name="p416"></a>living and real intercourse with the Father. +Prayer is necessary, and so is the practice of good works; the child +must keep in sympathy with the Father by doing as he does. Further +than this, the forms of the religious life are not prescribed. With +regard to morals, it is the same. The moral life is to build itself +up freely from within; goodness is not to be a matter of rule, but +the spontaneous and happy development of a principle which lives and +speaks deep in the centre of the heart. Jesus is not a lawgiver, save +in a metaphorical sense: the law which he sets up is nothing more +than that which every man, when he turns away from all that is +artificial, can find in his own breast.</p> + +<p>It is one feature of the spontaneity and spirituality of the religion +of Jesus, that it has no constitution. Jesus regarded himself as the +founder not of a new religion, but only of an inner circle of more +devoted believers inside the old religion of his country; he did not +therefore feel called to draw up rules for a new faith, and the +result of this is that the mechanism of the religion is of later +growth. The authority of the founder can be appealed to for a direct +and constant intercourse with God as of a child with his father, and +for the conduct of men towards each other, which such intercourse +with God necessarily implies, but for hardly anything more. Here, as +in no other historical religion, man is free.</p> + +<p>The religion of Jesus, therefore, is one of love alone. The divine +nature consists in love, and the impulse which religion communicates, +is simply that which proceeds from being loved and loving. And a +religion of love finds the way, as no other can, to make man free, to +unseal his energies, and to lead him upwards to the best life. The +appearance of such a religion forms the most momentous epoch of human +history. He who brought it forward must occupy a unique position in +the estimation of mankind. It can never be superseded.</p> +<a name="p417"></a> +<p>It is no doubt the case that the doctrine of Jesus was not in all +respects new. The ideas of the prophets live again in him; his +followers have always found many of the Jewish Psalms to be perfectly +suited to their experience. Jesus lived in the faith of Israel, and +considered that he had come only to make that faith better +understood, and to free it from improper accretions. What was new was +his own person. His great work was that he embodied his teaching in a +life which expressed it perfectly. It is far short of the truth to +say that there was no inconsistency between what he taught and his +own conduct. His life is a demonstration, in every detail, of the +effects of his religion; all flows with the utmost simplicity, and +even as a matter of necessity, out of the truth he taught. What he +preached was, in fact, himself; he was himself living in the kingdom +of God, to which he called others to come; he knew in his own +experience what it was to live as a child with the Father in heaven, +and to view all persons, all things, all duties, in the light of that +intercourse. All his acts and words flowed from the same spring in +his own inner experience. In no other way could his life shape itself +than as it did, and he saw with perfect clearness what men must be, +and on what terms they must live together when God and they were as +Father and children to each other. What he thus knew he lived, as if +no laws but those of the kingdom of heaven had any authority for him, +and so he presented to the world that living embodiment of the true +religion, which has been the main strength of Christianity. Jesus +announces a new union of God with man, a union in which he himself is +the first to rejoice, but which all may share along with him; and +hence his person counts for more in his religion than that of any +other religious founder in his, and necessarily becomes an object of +faith to all who enter the communion. The doctrine does not produce +its specific effect apart from the person of Jesus. Because in him +<a name="p418"></a>alone they know the truth which brings them peace, his followers +regard him, in a way which has no parallel in any other religion, as +their Saviour.</p> + +<p>But this name is given to him by his followers, as it is claimed by +himself, for another reason also. Jesus was more than a teacher. He +felt a power to be present in him which was able to supply all needs +and to comfort all sorrows; he did not shrink from summoning all who +were weary and heavy laden to come to him, nor from undertaking to +give them rest. Keenly alive to the sufferings of others, and able to +perceive even those sufferings of which they were not themselves +conscious, he felt it to be his mission to deal with the sadder side +of human life; he was a physician sent to the sick, a shepherd +seeking the lost sheep. It was among the poor and the sick, and even +among the outcasts of society, in whom the sense of need was +strongest, that he felt himself most at home and most able to fulfil +his calling. Thus the motive of compassion enters strongly into all +he said and did: but the compassion is not hopeless in this case as +in the similar case of Gautama (<a href="#p357">see above</a> and <a href="#p364">also</a>), nor is the cure +recommended for the ills of humanity that of withdrawal from mankind +or of forgetfulness. Here there is a belief in God. The compassion +from which the religion flows is not as in the case of Gautama, that +of a preacher who has ceased to trust in any heavenly power; it is +announced as existing first of all in the heart of God Himself. God +can do all things, and in his yearning pity for his children has sent +his representative to assure them of his sympathy and to comfort them +in their sorrows. With Jesus therefore no evil is so great as not to +admit of a positive cure; he feels the remedy of all human ills to be +present in his own heart, and so he appears as the Messiah, not such +a Messiah as his countrymen looked for, but as the true Messiah, in +whom all human wants are met, and all human hopes fulfilled. The cure +which he announces for all ills consists in devotion to <a name="p419"></a>the will of +the Father in heaven. To give oneself unreservedly to the labour of +realising the purposes of the heavenly Father in one's own heart and +in the world, is to rise above all cares and sorrows; enthusiasm in +the Father's service is the sovereign remedy. To one who believes in +the Father, and seeks to live as his child, no despair is possible. +To be engaged in his business is at all times the highest happiness, +and his kingdom is assuredly coming, though man has still the +privilege of working for it,—the kingdom in which all darkness and +evil will be put away.</p> + +<p>We have indicated the chief points which in a scientific comparison +of Christianity with other religions appear to constitute its +distinctive character; and we have sought to make our statement such +as the reasonable adherent of other religions will feel to be +warranted. The points are these. Christianity is a religion of +freedom, it is a system of inner inspiration more than of external +law or system, it is embodied in the living person of its founder, in +which alone it can be truly seen; and the founder is one who is +living himself in the relation to God to which he calls men to come, +and feels himself called and sent to be the Saviour of men.</p> + +<p>It is impossible in this work to treat Christianity on the same scale +as the other religions; but the question of its universalism must +necessarily receive attention. Jesus himself did not expressly say +that his religion was for all men. It was his immediate aim to bring +about the renewal of the faith of his countrymen, and to give it a +more spiritual character; and some of his followers considered that +he had aimed at nothing more than this. But he formed a circle of +disciples and adherents, which afterwards came to be the Christian +Church, and he attached no ritual condition whatever to membership in +that community. Nay, more; by his repudiation of the Jewish system of +tradition he showed that the Jewish laws of ritual purity were not +binding upon his disciples, and the further inference could readily +be <a name="p420"></a>drawn, that one could enter the Kingdom without being a Jew at +all. The strong missionary impulse of the infant religion brought it +very early in contact with Gentile life, and the question soon arose, +whether those who refused to become Jews could yet claim a share in +the Messiah. It was the task of the Apostle Paul to work out the +theory of the universalism of Christianity, and after some conflict +the principle was recognised that in the Church all racial +differences disappear; "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek." +This controversy once settled—and a few years sufficed to settle +it—the new religion was free to spread in all directions. It spread +rapidly; the gospel was very simple and imposed no burdensome +conditions, and it soon proved itself to be capable of striking root +in any country. The Apostle Paul was the first great theologian of +the Church; but his doctrine, as will happen in such a case, does not +in all points spring out of the nature of the religion itself. The +Pauline theology is an attempt to reconcile the facts of Christianity +and especially that great stumbling-block to the Jews, the death of +the Messiah, with the requirements of Jewish thought. Instead of +seeing in the death of Christ, as the older apostles at first did, a +perplexing enigma, St. Paul saw in it the principal manifestation of +the compassion of the Saviour, and the great purpose for which he had +come into the world. He concentrated attention on Christ's death and +made the cross rather than the doctrine of the Messiah the burden of +his teaching. To understand Paul we must distinguish between his +religion and his theology. His religious position is essentially the +same as that of Jesus himself; with him, too, the new religion is +that of father and child, and of the consequences which inevitably +flow from such a union. But the movement of thought which began at +the moment of the crucifixion, the concentration of Christian faith +and love on the person of the Saviour, was now complete. The figure +of the Crucified with its powerful tragic <a name="p421"></a>attraction, and with its +deep lessons of conquest by self-surrender, of life by dying, +remained from St. Paul onwards, in the centre of the faith.</p> + +<p>The world of the early centuries was in great need of a religion, and +Christianity supplied the place which was vacant. Brought in contact, +in the great ocean of the Roman Empire where all currents met, with +religions and philosophies of every kind, it proved best suited to +the task of supplying an inspiration for life, uniting together +different classes of men and schools of thought. But in the wide +arena of the Empire it received as well as gave, and in its +encounters with strange rites and doctrines it also put on many a +strange aspect. It became the heir of the thoughts and aspirations of +a hundred empires; all the pious sentiments that flowed together from +every quarter of the world helped to enrich its doctrine, and to make +it the great reservoir it is of all the tendencies and views, even +those most contrary to each other, which are connected with religion. +Its institutions are of diverse origin. From the Jews it received its +earliest Bible, for the Christians had at first no sacred books but +those of the old covenant, and its weekly festival, though the day +was changed. Its God was the God of the Old Testament, and its +Saviour was the Messiah of Jewish prophecy, so that it was a +continuation of the Jewish religion, and the attempts which were made +by early Gnostics to dissolve this tie were soon forgotten.</p> + +<p>From Greece it received much. The world it had to conquer was Greek, +and the conquest could only take place by an accommodation to Greek +thought and to Greek ways. In the end of chapter xvi. we spoke of the +second Greek religion which arose under the influence of philosophy, +and found its way wherever Greek culture spread. In this great +movement, Christianity found a preparation for its coming in the +Greek world, without which its spread must have been much more +doubtful. In the Graeco-Roman religion the <a name="p422"></a>advances which appear in +Christianity are already prefigured. Thought has been busy in +building up a great doctrine of God, such a God as human reason can +arrive at, a Being infinitely wise and good, who is the first cause +and the hidden ground of all things, the sum of all wisdom, beauty, +and goodness, and in whom all men alike may trust. Greek thought also +found much occupation in the attempt to reach a true account of man's +moral nature and destiny. Both in theory and in practice many an +attempt was made to build up the ideal life of man, and thus many +minds were prepared for a religion which places the riches of the +inner life above all others. The Greek philosopher's school was a +semi-religious union, the central point of which was, as is the case +with Christianity also, not outward sacrifice but mental activity. It +is not wonderful therefore if Christian institutions were assimilated +to some extent to the Greek schools. It has recently been shown that +the celebration of the Eucharist came very early to bear a close +resemblance to that of a Greek mystery, and that there is an unbroken +line of connection between the discourse of the Greek philosopher and +the Christian sermon. In some of the Greek schools pastoral +visitation was practised, and the preacher kept up an oversight of +the moral conduct of his adherents. While Christianity certainly had +vigour enough to shape its own institutions, and may even be seen to +be doing so in some of the books of the New Testament, the agreement +between Greek and Christian practices amounts to something more than +coincidence.</p> + +<p>It was towards the end of the second century that the alliance +between Christianity and the Greek world was finally ratified. Till +then belief and practice were determined mainly by custom and +tradition; but now these were to give way to definite laws and +settled institutions. There came to full development, about the +period we have mentioned, a highly-organised <a name="p423"></a>system of church +government, a canon of sacred books of Christian origin, and a creed +in which the beliefs of Christians were drawn together in one +statement. It cannot be denied that the elaborate external forms with +which the religion of Jesus was thus invested went far to change its +spirit also. But this happens to every religion which reaches the +stage of organising itself in order to continue in the world and to +rule permanently in human thought and in human society. No external +forms can adequately express living religious ideas; and yet there +must be external forms in order that religious ideas may be +perpetuated. The ministers of the new truth inevitably rise in +dignity till they grow into a hierarchy. That truth inevitably seeks +to establish itself as scientifically true, and with the aid of the +ruling philosophical tendency of the day clothes itself in a view of +the universe and in a creed. Thus the essence of Christianity came to +consist not in loving the Master and following him in faith and love, +but in upholding the authority of the Church, receiving her +sacraments, and believing various metaphysical and transcendental +statements. Here also a hard shell is formed round the spiritual +kernel of the religion which, if it is fitted to preserve the latter +in rude and stormy times, is also fitted to confuse and also apt to +conceal it.</p> + +<p>In each of the countries to which it came, Christianity adopted what +it could of the religion formerly existing there. The old religions +of these lands were not all alike, and hence it came to pass that as +the language of Rome was transformed in various ways, and passed into +the different yet cognate tongues of the Romance nations, so the +religion of the Empire, combining with various forms of heathenism, +passed into several national religions, the differences of which are +at least as conspicuous as their similarity. In Italy Christianity +appears to be a system of local deities, each village worshipping its +own Madonna or saint. <a name="p424"></a>In Holland worship consists almost entirely of +preaching. In other countries the ritual and the intellectual +elements of religion are blended in varying proportions; and the +former heathenism of each land is also to be traced in many a popular +observance and belief. So great is the variety of the religions of +Europe, not to mention that of the negroes or the Shakers of America, +that many have doubted whether they ought all to be considered as +branches of one faith, or whether they would not more fitly be +regarded as so many national religions which have all alike connected +themselves with Christianity. Against this there is to be urged in +the first place that as a matter of history they are all undoubtedly +offshoots of the religion of Jesus. It may also be urged that +wherever the name of Jesus is named, his ideas must to some extent be +present, however much they are obscured and prevented from operating +by lower modes of view. The Christianity of no country ought to be +judged by the attitude of its most ignorant or even of its average +adherents; and in every land where Christianity prevails, an +influence connected with religion is at work, which makes for the +emancipation and elevation of the human person, and for the awakening +of the manifold energies of human nature. This, as we saw, is the +immediate and native tendency of the religion of Jesus; it opens the +prison doors to them that are bound; it communicates by its inner +encouragement an energy which makes the infirm forget their +weaknesses, it fills the heart with hope and opens up new views of +what man can do and can become. It is this that makes it the one +truly universal religion. Islam, it is true, has also proved its +power to live in many lands, and Buddhism has spread over half of +Asia. But Buddhism is not a full religion, it does not tend to action +but to passivity, and affords no help to progress. Islam, on the +other hand, is a yoke rather than an inspiration; it is inwardly +hostile to freedom, and is incapable of aiding <a name="p425"></a>in higher moral +development. Christianity has a message to which men become always +more willing to respond as they rise in the scale of civilisation; it +has proved its power to enter into the lives of various nations, and +to adapt itself to their circumstances and guide their aspirations +without humiliating them. A religion which identifies itself, as +Christianity does, with the cause of freedom in every land, and tends +to unite all men in one great brotherhood under the loving God who is +the Father of all alike, is surely the desire of all nations, and is +destined to be the faith of all mankind.</p> +<br> + +<blockquote><small>A bibliography of the recent study of Christianity would be far too +extensive for this book. An excellent statement on the subject will +be found at the hands of Professor Sanday in the <i>Oxford +Proceedings</i>, vol. ii. p. 263, <i>sqq.</i></small></blockquote> +<a name="chap23"></a><br><a name="p426"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER XXIII</h4> +<center>CONCLUSION</center> +<br> + +<p>It will not be expected that the result of the great movement traced +in the chapters of this work can be summed up in a few words. We set +out with a definition of our subject which we said could only be +fully verified after religion had accomplished its growth and had +fully unfolded its nature. We also set out with the assumption that +all the religion of the world is one, and that it exhibits a +development which is in the main continuous, from the most elementary +to the highest stages. We shall not now attempt to justify by +argument that definition or that assumption. The history which we +have sought to place before the reader must itself be the proof of +them. All that can be done in bringing this work to a close is to +point out one great line of development, which may be recognised more +or less distinctly in the growth of each religion, and may therefore +be held to be characteristic of religion as a whole. No doubt the +growth of religion, as of other human activities, has many sides and +aspects, but perhaps it may be possible to specify the central line +of growth in which the explanation of all the subsidiary and parallel +forward movements is to be found.</p> + +<p>It was stated in our first chapter that religion is the expression of +human needs with reference to higher beings who are supposed to be +capable of fulfilling <a name="p427"></a>men's desires, and it was also stated as an +inference from this, that the growth of human needs is the cause of +religious change and progress. If this is true, then the key to the +progress of religion is to be found in the successive emergence in +human experience of higher and still higher needs. If we can discover +the order in which higher aspirations successively emerge in the +growth of humanity, then we shall possess the chief clue to the +course of religious advance. Now while there is infinite variety in +the needs and desires of men, every land and each nation having +ideals all its own, we can yet discern, on a broad view of human +progress, an advance from lower to higher needs which is common to +the human race, and manifests itself in the history of each nation. +Three successive conditions of human life stand out before us as +markedly distinct, and as occurring wherever civilisation continues +to advance. The first is that in which material needs are +all-absorbing; the second that in which freedom from material needs +has been to some extent attained, and the highest aspirations are +directed to the safety and advancement of the nation in which men +find themselves united and secure; and the third is that in which the +individual realises his own value apart from the state, and develops +a personal ideal which is thenceforward his chief end. To these three +stages of human existence three types of religion correspond, and the +growth of religion consists in the main in its passage from the lower +to the higher of these stages.</p> + +<p>The religion of the tribe belongs to that stage of man's existence in +which his energies are entirely occupied in the struggle against +nature and against other tribes. The conditions of his life do not +allow his higher faculties to grow, and while he is not without many +glimpses and anticipations of higher things, his religion, as a +whole, is a mass of childish fancies, and of fixed traditions which +he cannot explain, <a name="p428"></a>but does not venture to criticise or change. His +gods are petty and capricious beings, and his modes of influencing +them, though used with zeal and fervour, have little to do with +reason or with taste or with morality. It is in this kind of religion +that magic of all sorts is at home.</p> + +<p>The advance from the religion of the tribe to that of the nation was +briefly described <a href="#p81">above</a>, <i>sqq.</i>. The leading classes of the +state at least having gained some measure of security and leisure, +ideas of a nobler order spring up in their minds. The service of the +great gods of the state is organised with befitting dignity and +splendour; the best minds contribute to it all they can in the way of +art, of poetry, of purified legend, of stately ceremonial. Patriotism +and religion are one, the offices of worship are upheld by the whole +power of the state, and the gods speak with new authority to the +spirit of the worshipper. Now it is that great religious systems +arise, so powerful, so highly organised, so splendidly adorned, and +surrounded with such venerable traditions, that they seem to be +destined for eternity. The priesthood becomes a very powerful class, +and acquires a personal holiness which marks out its members as +different from other men; the sacrifices acquire the character of +divine mysteries, every detail of which, even the most trivial, has a +sacred meaning; religious books are compiled or written, which by and +by are regarded as inspired, and as possessing absolute authority. It +is to be observed that the older style of religion is not at once +driven out by the growth of the new, but continues to flourish beside +it and under its shadow. The tribes of whom the nation is composed +still cherish and adore their own special deities. That older worship +is often thought to bring blessings which the new worship of the +state does not command, and many a piece of ancient magic, many a +practice which has no connection with the state religion, still goes +on, especially among <a name="p429"></a>those who are not cultivated enough to +appreciate the nobler faith which has arisen.</p> + +<p>This, however, does not keep the national faith from growing in +riches and consistency; and religion appears, as this growth +proceeds, to have attained the highest degree of power and authority +at which it can possibly arrive. Commanding as it does all the +resources of the nation, enriched by all that can be brought to it of +material or intellectual riches, placed in a position of absolute +exaltation and inviolableness, to what further conquests can it still +look forward? Yet when a national religion appears to be most firmly +established, the forces are most certainly at work which must ere +long lead to a far-reaching change. While the national worship has +been growing up to its highest splendours, the lives of the citizens +have also been growing richer and deeper, and the individual soul has +become aware of wants and longings which cannot be satisfied in the +national temple. The further progress of religion is apt to appear as +a revolt against the system which has grown so strong. The individual +sets out to seek a consistent intellectual view, and so figures as a +sceptic. He aims at a higher moral law than that of the priestly +system, and is accused of undermining public morality. He feels a new +call to personal goodness, a new need for personal atonement with the +ideal holiness which he has learned to apprehend; and as the public +ritual does not meet these needs, he seeks for new religious +associations and perhaps appears to preach a doctrine contrary to +patriotism, as it is subversive of the established religion of his +country, and to be wilfully destroying what his countrymen revere, +and wilfully breaking through old ties and obligations. Thus the +individualist stage of religion succeeds the national. But the +individualist stage is also, in part at least, the universal stage. +What the thinking mind and the pious heart seeks and cannot find in +the national worship, is a religion free as the seeker himself has +<a name="p430"></a>become free, from all that is unreasonable and artificial, a religion +therefore in which every thinking mind and every pious heart can have +a share. What is gained by individuals in this direction is capable, +therefore, if circumstances favour, of proving an acquisition not +only for the individual reformer or his nation, but for all men. But +as the rise of national religion does not bring to an end the ruder +worships of the tribes, which still go on beside it, so neither does +the rise of individualism, even in its purest form, bring to an end +the national worship. In the long run this may follow, but it does +not take place at once. All three forms of religion go on together; +the religion of magic, that of stately public sacrifices and +ceremonials, and that of intellectual effort and pious meditation and +prayer. Each no doubt influences to some extent the others, and is +influenced by them in turn.</p> + +<p>The movement thus indicated from tribal to national, and from +national to individual and to universal religion, is the central +development of religion, and all the minor developments which might +be traced, as that of sacrifice from rude to spiritual forms, of the +functions of the sacred class, of the morality dictated by religion +at its various stages, or of the literature connected with piety, may +be explained by reference to this one. This movement has taken place +in every nation; we have seen something of it in each of our +chapters. In some nations it has been early arrested, so that no +important contribution has there been brought to the general religion +of mankind, in others it has run its full course, and like a great +river has arrived at the ocean at last, to mingle its waters with +those of other mighty streams.</p> + +<p>The story of the growth of the world's religion has therefore to be +told in a number of parallel narratives, each dealing with the +experience of a separate nation. There can scarcely be any general +history of the religion of the world, in addition to those special +histories. Some epochs, it is true, stand out as having witnessed +<a name="p431"></a>simultaneous religious movements in many lands, as if the mind of the +whole human race had then been passing through the same crisis of +thought. The sixth century <small>B.C.</small> is the age of Confucius and of +Laotsze in China, of Gautama in India, of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the +Unknown Prophet of the Exile, of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and +Xenophanes, and also of the rise into prominence of the Greek +mysteries. Widely different as the movements are which thus took +place contemporaneously in these lands, we may discern in all of them +alike the tendency to plant religion in the mind and heart, and to +create a deeper union than the old external one, a union based on +common intellectual effort and spiritual sympathy. The period +immediately before and after the Christian era might also appear to +be one in which the mind of the world as a whole made a great step +forward. The union of many nations under the sway of Rome, and the +universal diffusion of the Greek language as a means of general +communication, made men conscious at this time as they had never been +before, of the unity of mankind in spite of all differences of race +and speech. A philosophy also was popular at this time which was +cosmopolitan in its character, and occupied itself with the great +problems, which are the same for all, of man's relation to the gods +and of his moral duty. If we add to this the combination which took +place at Rome and wherever different races met, of various rites and +creeds, we see that the age was one singularly disposed to the +breaking down of artificial barriers between men, and singularly +fitted to promote the growth of a belief in which men of all nations +might unite and feel themselves to be brethren.</p> + +<p>In these two periods we may recognise important steps in that great +Education of the Human Race which the Apostle Paul refers to in a +bold philosophy of history (Galat. iv.), and which later thinkers +have striven to set forth in detail. After the long servitude <a name="p432"></a>of +mankind to irrational practices and to gods who were no gods, there +comes first the period when men recognise that the true God is to be +found not merely outside them but within their hearts and minds, and +then the period when they find that the true God is the same to all +men, that they are all children of the same Father. But while these +general movements of the human mind may be acknowledged, the +education of the human race proceeds for the most part in nations. As +each nation has to elaborate its own art, its own literature, its own +system of law, so each nation has to perfect its own religion. Even +after a universal faith has appeared, religion does not cease to be a +national thing. Each people moulds the universal religion which it +has adopted into a special form, continues by means of it the rites +and traditions of the past, and expresses through it its own national +character and aspirations. Each nation as well as each individual +must necessarily have a faith specially its own, arising out of its +own character and experience and in great part incommunicable to +others. No two nations could possibly exchange religions.</p> + +<p>But on the other hand every nation contains within itself forms of +religion which differ from each other as widely as those of two +separate nations. It has been said that no religious belief or usage +which has once lived can ever be destroyed; and the proof of this may +be witnessed in every nation. Even after that religion has come which +has its main seat in the heart and soul, the ruder forms of piety +live on, and even at times aggressively assert themselves. If there +are classes for whom the struggle against material hardships still +continues, no lofty religion can be attained by them any more than by +savage tribes. As the conditions of their life forbid the growth of +their higher faculties, their religion cannot be one of thought or of +refinement, but must be one which promises palpable benefits or an +escape from immediate <a name="p433"></a>dangers. At a somewhat higher stage is the +class of those who, while partly escaped from the struggle against +want, have not yet fully realised themselves as thinking and +spiritual beings, and to whom the benefits of religion still lie +outside, rather than in the inner life. When the benefits of religion +are thus conceived, its processes must be of a mechanical nature. +Hence the various systems of apparatus for connecting the worshipper +with a source of good distant from him in time or space, and for +fetching as it were from another region, with certainty and accuracy, +needed supplies of grace.</p> + +<p>The further development of religion in a community so mixed must +depend on the progressive education and elevation of the people. As +more and more of them are freed first from distracting wants and +cares, and then from sordid and materialistic views, their spiritual +nature will expand. The need for God himself rather than for his +gifts, will arise and increase in their hearts, and they will grow +capable of that highest religion which is the life of the soul with +God; they will feel its beauty and will drink of the deep springs +which it contains, of strength and peace.</p> + +<p>To attain this true religion the human race has had to travel far and +to make many experiments. Many temples were built and fell to ruin +before the true temple of the soul was reached in which, as each +finds what he as an individual requires, there is also room for all +mankind. Even after this highest religion has been made known to men, +it has often been obscured and lost, and many a struggle has been +needed to vindicate its claims and help it to retain its rightful +place. But with growing experience the world becomes more assured +that the simplest and broadest religion ever preached upon this earth +is also the best and the truest, and that in maintaining Christianity +as at first preached, and applying it in every needed direction, lies +the hope of the future of <a name="p434"></a>mankind. To those who agree in this +conclusion the history of the religion of the world, full of errors +and of grievous failures as it has been seen to be, cannot appear to +have been a vain and purposeless excursion in a land of shadows. Not +without a divine call, and not without divine guidance did man set +out so early, and persevere so constantly in spite of all his +disappointments, in the search for God.</p> +<a name="index"></a><br><a name="p435"></a> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<h3>INDEX</h3> +<br> + +Aesir, <a href="#p267">267</a><br> +<br> +Ahura Mazda, <a href="#p387">387</a>, +<a href="#p391">391</a>, +<a href="#p397">397</a>, +<a href="#p398">398</a>, +<a href="#p405">405</a><br> +<br> +Allah, <a href="#p222">222</a><br> +<br> +Allat, "The Lady," <a href="#p165">165</a>, +<a href="#p173">173</a>, +<a href="#p219">219</a><br> +<br> +Amartas, <a href="#p44">44</a><br> +<br> +Anaitis, <a href="#p407">407</a><br> +<br> +Ancestor-worship,<br> + primitive, <a href="#p33">33</a>, +<a href="#p40">40</a><br> + China, <a href="#p115">115</a><br> + Aryan, <a href="#p250">250</a><br> + India, <a href="#p338">338</a><br> +<br> +Angels and demons, Persia, <a href="#p400">400</a>, +<a href="#p407">407</a><br> +<br> +Animals, worship of, <a href="#p29">29</a>, +<a href="#p57">57</a><br> + in Peru, <a href="#p86">86</a><br> + in Babylonia, <a href="#p96">96</a><br> + in Egypt, <a href="#p130">130</a><br> + how accounted for, <a href="#p133">133</a><br> + in Arabia, <a href="#p219">219</a><br> + in Greece, <a href="#p277">277</a><br> +<br> +Animation of Nature in savage thought, <a href="#p24">24</a><br> +<br> +Animism,<br> + meaning of, <a href="#p40">40</a>, +<a href="#p96">96</a>, +<a href="#p308">308</a><br> + in Roman religion, <a href="#p308">308</a><br> +<br> +Anthropomorphism, <a href="#p53">53</a><br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p96">96</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p132">132</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p281">281</a><br> +<br> +Apocalypse, <a href="#p213">213</a><br> +<br> +Arabia,<br> + before Mahomet, <a href="#p218">218</a><br> + gods of, <a href="#p219">219</a><br> + Judaism and Christianity in, <a href="#p223">223</a><br> +<br> +Art,<br> + Phenician, <a href="#p174">174</a><br> + Egyptian, <a href="#p132">132</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p280">280</a>, +<a href="#p292">292</a><br> +<a name="aryans"></a><br> +Aryans, the, <a href="#p245">245</a><br> + description of, <a href="#p248">248</a><br> + in Europe, <a href="#p256">256</a><br> + religion, <a href="#p250">250</a><br> + etymology of names of gods, <a href="#p250">250</a><br> +<br> +Ascetics, Brahmanic, <a href="#p350">350</a><br> +<br> +Ashera, Canaanite goddess, <a href="#p172">172</a><br> +<br> +Ashtoreth, <a href="#p176">176</a><br> +<br> +Association, forms of religious,<br> + Totem-Clan, <a href="#p70">70</a><br> + nation, <a href="#p84">84</a><br> + Greek mysteries, <a href="#p298">298</a><br> + Greek schools, <a href="#p303">303</a><br> + new form in Israel, <a href="#p212">212</a><br> + new form in Islam, <a href="#p233">233</a><br> +<br> +Asuras, <a href="#p44">44</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Baal, Canaanite god, <a href="#p171">171</a>, +<a href="#p189">189</a><br> +<br> +Babylon and Assyria,<br> + religion of, <a href="#p93">93</a><br> + connection with Egypt, <a href="#p94">94</a>, +<a href="#p96">96</a>, +<a href="#p97">97</a><br> + connection with China, <a href="#p93">93</a>, +<a href="#p98">98</a><br> + mythology of, <a href="#p100">100</a><br> +<br> +Belief,<br> + an essential part of religion, <a href="#p9">9</a>, +<a href="#p13">13</a><br> + less important than rite in primitive religion, <a href="#p66">66</a><br> +<br> +Brahman, etymology of, <a href="#p339">339</a><br> +<br> +Brahmanism, <a href="#p338">338</a><br> +<a name="buddhism"></a><br> +Buddhism, <a href="#p353">353</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> + in China, <a href="#p123">123</a><br> +<br> +<i>Burnt Njal</i>, <a href="#p264">264</a><br> +<br> +Burton, Captain, <i>Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca</i>, <a href="#p236">236</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Caaba, <a href="#p220">220</a>, <a href="#p236">236</a><br> +<br> +Cabiri, <a href="#p177">177</a><br> +<br> +Canaanites, <a href="#p170">170</a><br> + religion of, <a href="#p171">171</a>, +<a href="#p191">191</a><br> +<br> +Caste, <a href="#p338">338</a><br> +<br> +Celts, <a href="#p257">257</a><br> +<br> +China, <a href="#p106">106</a><br> + connection with Babylonia, <a href="#p107">107</a><br> + state religion of, <a href="#p111">111</a><br> +<br> +Christianity, <a href="#p411">411</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> +<br> +Civilisation and religion advance together, <a href="#p15">15</a><br> + origin of, <a href="#p19">19</a><br> +<br> +Classification of religions, <a href="#p80">80</a><br> +<br> +Confucius, <a href="#p107">107</a>, +<a href="#p117">117</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> +<br> +Continuity of growth in religion, <a href="#p6">6</a><br> +<br> +Curiosity, an element of religion, <a href="#p12">12</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Daniel, <a href="#p213">213</a><br> +<br> +Decalogues, <a href="#p202">202</a><br> +<br> +Definition of religion,<br> + preliminary, <a href="#p8">8</a><br> + fuller, <a href="#p13">13</a><br> +<br> +Degeneration in civilisation, <a href="#p19">19</a><br> + in religion, <a href="#p38">38</a><br> +<br> +Deuteronomy, <a href="#p201">201</a><br> +<br> +Devas, <a href="#p44">44</a>, +<a href="#p396">396</a><br> +<br> +Development of religion, <a href="#p8">8</a>, +<a href="#p51">51</a>, <i>sqq.</i>, +<a href="#p430">430</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> +<br> +Domestic worship,<br> + origin of, <a href="#p33">33</a><br> + China, <a href="#p115">115</a><br> + Aryans, <a href="#p251">251</a><br> + Iceland, <a href="#p264">264</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p275">275</a><br> + Rome, <a href="#p311">311</a><br> + Brahmanic, <a href="#p342">342</a><br> +<br> +Dualism, <a href="#p56">56</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Eddas, <a href="#p266">266</a><br> +<br> +Egypt, religion of, <a href="#p126">126</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> +<br> +Elijah and Elisha, <a href="#p190">190</a><br> +<br> +Elves, <a href="#p265">265</a><br> +<br> +Ephod, <a href="#p188">188</a><br> +<br> +Etruria, religion of, <a href="#p318">318</a><br> +<br> +Exile of Israel, <a href="#p202">202</a><br> +<br> +Ezra, <a href="#p204">204</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Fairy Tales (German), <a href="#p262">262</a><br> +<br> +Fate, <a href="#p289">289</a><br> +<br> +Festivals, Greek, <a href="#p294">294</a><br> +<br> +Fetish-worship, <a href="#p35">35</a><br> +<br> +Fetishism, <a href="#p38">38</a><br> +<br> +Fire, <a href="#p31">31</a><br> +<br> +Frazer, Mr., <a href="#p58">58</a>, +<a href="#p59">59</a>; +<i>Golden Bough</i>, <a href="#p28">28</a>, +<a href="#p279">279</a><br> +<br> +Frisia, religion in, <a href="#p263">263</a><br> +<br> +Functional deities,<br> + Greece, <a href="#p275">275</a><br> + Rome, <a href="#p308">308</a><br> +<br> +Funeral practices, <a href="#p62">62</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p149">149</a><br> + Icelandic, <a href="#p264">264</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p282">282</a>, +<a href="#p290">290</a><br> + India, <a href="#p332">332</a><br> + Persian, <a href="#p405">405</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Games, Greek, <a href="#p294">294</a><br> +<br> +Gautama Buddha, <a href="#p356">356</a><br> + his death, <a href="#p361">361</a><br> +<a name="germans"></a><br> +Germans, the ancient, <a href="#p258">258</a><br> + their gods, <a href="#p259">259</a><br> + their gods identified with Roman, <a href="#p260">260</a><br> + working religion of, <a href="#p260">260</a><br> + later religion, <a href="#p263">263</a><br> +<br> +Ghosts, <a href="#p34">34</a><br> +<br> +Gods, the great,<br> + in Babylonia, <a href="#p98">98</a><br> + in Egypt, <a href="#p137">137</a><br> + of the Aryans, <a href="#p252">252</a><br> + German, <a href="#p259">259</a><br> + Icelandic, <a href="#p266">266</a><br> + of Homer, <a href="#p285">285</a><br> + Roman, <a href="#p311">311</a><br> + Indian, <a href="#p326">326</a><br> +<br> +Gomme, <i>Ethnology in Folklore</i>, <a href="#p60">60</a>, +<a href="#p249">249</a>, +<a href="#p254">254</a><br> +<br> +Greece, <a href="#p274">274</a><br> +<br> +Grimm, German Mythology, <a href="#p260">260</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Hades, <a href="#p291">291</a><br> +<br> +Hammurabi, <a href="#p93">93</a>, +<a href="#p95">95</a>, +<a href="#p202">202</a><br> +<br> +Hanyfs, <a href="#p224">224</a><br> +<br> +Hartmann, Edward von, <a href="#p46">46</a><br> +<br> +Heaven, <a href="#p52">52</a><br> + an object of primitive worship, <a href="#p31">31</a>, +<a href="#p53">53</a><br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p93">93</a><br> + China, <a href="#p112">112</a><br> + Arabia, <a href="#p219">219</a><br> + India, <a href="#p318">318</a>, +<a href="#p326">326</a>, +<a href="#p333">333</a><br> +<br> +Hegira, <a href="#p231">231</a><br> +<br> +Hell, <a href="#p229">229</a>, +<a href="#p265">265</a>, +<a href="#p392">392</a><br> +<br> +Henotheism, <a href="#p56">56</a><br> +<br> +Heroic legends,<br> + Babylonian, <a href="#p100">100</a><br> + German, <a href="#p262">262</a><br> +<br> +Hesiod, <a href="#p291">291</a><br> +<br> +Homer, <a href="#p283">283</a><br> + worship in, <a href="#p287">287</a><br> +<br> +Homeric gods, <a href="#p285">285</a><br> +<a name="hymns"></a><br> +Hymns,<br> + Babylonian, <a href="#p101">101</a><br> + Egyptian, <a href="#p144">144</a><br> + Vedic, <a href="#p328">328</a><br> + Persian, <a href="#p383">383</a>. See <a href="#psalms">Psalms</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Iceland, <a href="#p264">264</a><br> + decay of old religion of, <a href="#p272">272</a><br> +<br> +Idols,<br> + none in primitive religion, <a href="#p73">73</a><br> + Arabia, <a href="#p219">219</a>, +<a href="#p220">220</a><br> + German? <a href="#p264">264</a><br> +<br> +Immortality,<br> + China, <a href="#p115">115</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p152">152</a><br> +<br> +Incas, the religion of, <a href="#p85">85-88</a><br> +<br> +India, <a href="#p324">324</a><br> +<br> +Individual, the, not considered in primitive religion, <a href="#p76">76</a><br> +<br> +Individual religion,<br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p104">104</a><br> + Israel, <a href="#p205">205</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p300">300</a><br> + India, <a href="#p346">346</a><br> + a high stage of religion, <a href="#p429">429</a><br> + the porch to universalism, <a href="#p430">430</a><br> + See <a href="#buddhism">Buddhism</a><br> +<br> +Indo-Europeans. See <a href="#aryans">Aryans</a><br> +<br> +Isaiah xli.-lxvi., <a href="#p203">203</a><br> +<br> +Islam, <a href="#p217">217</a>. See <a href="#mahomet">Mahomet</a><br> + meaning of, <a href="#p226">226</a><br> + spread of, <a href="#p237">237</a><br> + a universal religion, <a href="#p240">240</a><br> + weakness of, <a href="#p241">241</a><br> +<br> +Israel, <a href="#p179">179</a><br> +<br> +Israel and Canaanites, <a href="#p184">184</a><br> + Prophets, <a href="#p189">189</a><br> + reforms of religion, <a href="#p200">200</a><br> + exile, <a href="#p202">202</a><br> + the return, <a href="#p204">204</a><br> +<br> +Istar, <a href="#p101">101</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Jainism, <a href="#p362">362</a><br> +<br> +Japan, <a href="#p115">115</a><br> +<br> +Jehovah, <a href="#p182">182</a><br> +<br> +Jesus Christ, <a href="#p413">413</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> +<br> +Jewish religion, <a href="#p205">205</a><br> + spiritual elements of, <a href="#p209">209</a><br> + heathenish elements of, <a href="#p210">210</a><br> + Persian influence on? <a href="#p215">215</a><br> +<br> +Jinns, <a href="#p220">220</a><br> +<br> +Job, <a href="#p215">215</a><br> +<br> +Judaism, <a href="#p205">205</a> <i>sqq.</i><br> + Hellenistic period of, <a href="#p412">412</a><br> + at time of Christ, <a href="#p413">413</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Kathenotheism, <a href="#p55">55</a>, +<a href="#p336">336</a><br> +<br> +Koran, <a href="#p225">225</a>, +<a href="#p227">227</a>, +<a href="#p239">239</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Lang, Andrew, <a href="#p25">25</a>, +<a href="#p59">59</a>; +<i>Myth, Ritual, and Religion</i>, <a href="#p22">22</a><br> +<br> +Legge, Dr., <a href="#p110">110</a>, +<a href="#p113">113</a><br> +<br> +Literatures, sacred, <a href="#p179">179</a><br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p93">93</a>, +<a href="#p100">100</a><br> + Buddhist, <a href="#p353">353</a><br> + China, <a href="#p108">108</a><br> + Eddas, <a href="#p266">266</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p127">127</a>, +<a href="#p154">154</a><br> + Koran, <a href="#p225">225</a>, +<a href="#p227">227</a>, +<a href="#p239">239</a><br> + Israel, <a href="#p179">179</a>, +<a href="#p207">207</a><br> + Sibylline books, <a href="#p319">319</a><br> + Vendidad, <a href="#p406">406</a><br> + Zend-Avesta, <a href="#p382">382</a><br> +<br> +Local nature of early religion, <a href="#p60">60</a><br> +<br> +Local observances,<br> + Aryan, <a href="#p253">253</a><br> + old German, <a href="#p262">262</a><br> + Icelandic, <a href="#p264">264</a><br> +<br> +Lockyer, <i>Dawn of Astronomy</i>, <a href="#p94">94</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Magi, <a href="#p405">405</a><br> +<br> +Magic, <a href="#p74">74</a><br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p95">95</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p155">155</a><br> +<a name="mahomet"></a><br> +Mahomet, <a href="#p225">225</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> + preaching, <a href="#p228">228</a><br> + leaves Mecca, <a href="#p231">231</a><br> + at Medina, <a href="#p232">232</a><br> + breach with Judaism and Christianity, <a href="#p234">234</a><br> + domestic, <a href="#p235">235</a><br> +<br> +Manicheism, <a href="#p408">408</a><br> +<br> +Mannhardt, <i>Feld- und Waldkulte</i>, <a href="#p59">59</a>, +<a href="#p262">262</a><br> +<br> +Manu, law of, <a href="#p344">344</a><br> +<br> +Massebah, <a href="#p172">172</a><br> +<br> +Maya, <a href="#p349">349</a><br> +<br> +M<small><small><sup>c</sup></small></small>Lennan, <a href="#p59">59</a><br> +<br> +Mecca, <a href="#p220">220</a><br> + becomes capital of Islam, <a href="#p235">235</a><br> +<br> +Meyer, E., <a href="#p247">247</a><br> +<br> +Mithra, <a href="#p407">407</a><br> +<br> +Moloch, <a href="#p174">174</a><br> +<br> +Monarchical Pantheon of the Aryans, <a href="#p253">253</a><br> +<br> +Monotheism,<br> + not primitive, <a href="#p37">37</a>, +<a href="#p56">56</a><br> + in Egypt? <a href="#p144">144</a><br> + emergence of, in Israel, <a href="#p196">196</a><br> + in India, <a href="#p348">348</a><br> +<br> +Morality,<br> + in primitive religion, <a href="#p77">77</a><br> + Egyptian religion, <a href="#p155">155</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p279">279</a><br> + Vedic religion, <a href="#p335">335</a><br> + Brahmanism, <a href="#p345">345</a><br> + of Buddhism, <a href="#p372">372</a><br> +<br> +Moslem,<br> + meaning of, <a href="#p226">226</a><br> + duties of the, <a href="#p238">238</a><br> +<br> +Müller, Mr. Max, <a href="#p10">10</a>, +<a href="#p42">42</a>, +<a href="#p246">246</a>, +<a href="#p250">250</a>, +<a href="#p332">332</a><br> + his theory of the origin of religion, <a href="#p43">43</a><br> +<br> +Mycenĉ, <a href="#p282">282</a><br> +<br> +Mysteries, the Greek, <a href="#p298">298</a><br> +<br> +Mythology,<br> + origin of, <a href="#p51">51</a><br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p100">100</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p138">138</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p280">280</a><br> + Icelandic, <a href="#p267">267</a><br> + Indian, <a href="#p333">333</a><br> +<br> +<br> +National religion,<br> + how different from earlier form, <a href="#p81">81</a>, +<a href="#p428">428</a><br> + Israel, <a href="#p191">191</a><br> +<br> +Natural religion, <a href="#p80">80</a><br> +<br> +Nature gods, growth of, <a href="#p51">51</a><br> +<br> +Nature-worship,<br> + the greater, <a href="#p30">30</a>, +<a href="#p43">43</a><br> + the minor, <a href="#p32">32</a>, +<a href="#p42">42</a>, +<a href="#p57">57</a><br> +<br> +Nirvana, <a href="#p361">361</a>, +<a href="#p373">373</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Omens, <a href="#p290">290</a><br> + Roman, <a href="#p312">312</a><br> +<br> +Orientation, of temples, <a href="#p100">100</a><br> +<br> +Origin of religion,<br> + (1) Primitive revelation, <a href="#p26">26</a><br> + (2) Innate idea, <a href="#p26">26</a><br> + (3) Psychological necessity, <a href="#p27">27</a><br> +<br> +Orphism, <a href="#p302">302</a><br> +<br> +Other World, the<br> + in Egypt, <a href="#p151">151</a><br> + with the Semites, <a href="#p167">167</a><br> + Jewish beliefs about, <a href="#p214">214</a><br> + Arabia, <a href="#p220">220</a><br> + Iceland, <a href="#p265">265</a>, +<a href="#p266">266</a><br> + Homer, <a href="#p283">283</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Pantheism,<br> + in Egypt, <a href="#p148">148</a><br> + India, <a href="#p336">336</a>, +<a href="#p348">348</a><br> +<br> +Patriarchal society and religion of Aryans, <a href="#p248">248</a><br> +<br> +Perkunas, <a href="#p36">36</a><br> +<br> +Persia, <a href="#p381">381</a><br> + primitive religion, <a href="#p385">385</a><br> + contact of Jews with, <a href="#p401">401</a>, +<a href="#p406">406</a><br> +<br> +Pfleiderer, Otto, <a href="#p47">47</a><br> +<br> +Phenicians, <a href="#p170">170</a><br> + religion of, <a href="#p176">176</a><br> + influence on Greece, <a href="#p282">282</a><br> +<br> +Philistines, <a href="#p170">170</a><br> +<br> +Philosophy,<br> + Greek, <a href="#p301">301</a><br> + Indian, <a href="#p347">347</a><br> +<br> +Polytheism,<br> + origin of, <a href="#p53">53</a><br> + Indian, <a href="#p335">335</a><br> +<br> +Prayer,<br> + primitive, <a href="#p71">71</a><br> + Israel, <a href="#p198">198</a>, +<a href="#p212">212</a><br> + Indian, <a href="#p339">339</a><br> + Persian, <a href="#p382">382</a>, +<a href="#p394">394</a><br> +<br> +Priestly code, <a href="#p202">202</a>, +<a href="#p403">403</a><br> +<br> +Priests,<br> + none in the earliest religion, <a href="#p72">72</a><br> + not necessary in early Israel, <a href="#p187">187</a><br> + Roman, <a href="#p313">313</a><br> + Brahmans, <a href="#p338">338</a><br> +<br> +Primitive religion, the, <a href="#p21">21</a><br> + difference between it and later forms, <a href="#p79">79</a><br> +<br> +Prophets, in Israel, <a href="#p189">189</a><br> + their criticism of the old religion of Israel, <a href="#p192">192</a><br> +<a name="psalms"></a><br> +Psalms, <a href="#p210">210</a>. See <a href="#hymns">Hymns</a><br> +<br> +Purity, laws of,<br> + Israel, <a href="#p209">209</a><br> + Persia, <a href="#p404">404</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Rationalism,<br> + Greece, <a href="#p297">297</a><br> + India, <a href="#p350">350</a><br> +<br> +Reforms,<br> + of Israelite religion, <a href="#p200">200</a><br> + of Augustus, <a href="#p322">322</a><br> +<br> +Renouf, Le Page, <a href="#p145">145</a><br> +<br> +Revealed religion, <a href="#p80">80</a><br> +<br> +Réville, M., <a href="#p25">25</a>, +<a href="#p31">31</a>, +<a href="#p42">42</a><br> +<br> +Resurrection, <a href="#p214">214</a><br> +<br> +Retribution, after death,<br> + in Egypt, <a href="#p155">155</a><br> + Mahomet, <a href="#p229">229</a><br> + Israel, <a href="#p214">214</a><br> +<br> +Rig-veda, the, <a href="#p325">325</a><br> +<br> +Ritualism,<br> + Brahmanic, <a href="#p343">343</a><br> + Roman, <a href="#p314">314</a><br> + Persian, <a href="#p403">403</a><br> + Jewish, <a href="#p204">204</a>, +<a href="#p208">208</a><br> +<br> +Rome, <a href="#p305">305</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> +<br> +Rougé, M. de la, <a href="#p145">145</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Sacred places, <a href="#p59">59</a><br> + Semitic, <a href="#p165">165</a><br> + Canaanite, <a href="#p184">184</a>, +<a href="#p200">200</a><br> + Arabia, <a href="#p219">219</a><br> + Germany, <a href="#p261">261</a><br> +<br> +Sacred seasons, <a href="#p75">75</a><br> +<a name="sacrifice"></a><br> +Sacrifice,<br> + primitive, generally a meal, <a href="#p67">67</a><br> + in China, <a href="#p114">114</a><br> + Semitic, <a href="#p164">164</a><br> + human (Phenician), <a href="#p175">175</a><br> + human (Israel), <a href="#p187">187</a><br> + human (Icelandic), <a href="#p265">265</a><br> + early Israelite, <a href="#p183">183</a><br> + denounced by O. T. prophets, <a href="#p193">193</a><br> + Jewish, <a href="#p207">207</a><br> + Icelandic, <a href="#p264">264</a><br> + Homeric, <a href="#p287">287</a><br> + Persia, <a href="#p394">394</a><br> +<br> +Saussaye, P. D. Chantepie de la, <a href="#p17">17</a><br> +<br> +Savage elements in all the great religions, <a href="#p21">21</a><br> +<br> +Savages,<br> + their religion falls short of the definition, <a href="#p8">8</a><br> + represent the original state of mankind, <a href="#p19">19</a><br> + mental habits of, <a href="#p23">23</a><br> + all have religion, <a href="#p25">25</a><br> + the religion of, described, <a href="#p29">29</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> + their beliefs furnish the elements of the great religions, <a href="#p63">63</a><br> +<br> +Schrader (Aryans), <a href="#p247">247</a>, +<a href="#p252">252</a><br> +<br> +Semites, <a href="#p161">161</a><br> + religion of, <a href="#p162">162</a><br> + gods of, <a href="#p164">164</a>, +<a href="#p173">173</a><br> + goddess of, <a href="#p99">99</a>, +<a href="#p165">165</a>, +<a href="#p219">219</a><br> +<br> +Seraph, <a href="#p220">220</a><br> +<br> +Shin-to, <a href="#p115">115</a><br> +<br> +Sin,<br> + Babylon, <a href="#p103">103</a><br> + Israel, <a href="#p205">205</a><br> +<br> +Slavs, <a href="#p256">256</a><br> +<br> +Smith, Robertson, <a href="#p61">61</a>; <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, <a href="#p58">58</a>, +<a href="#p70">70</a>, +<a href="#p162">162</a><br> +<br> +Spencer, Mr. H., <a href="#p11">11</a>, +<a href="#p39">39</a><br> +<br> +Spirit, the great, <a href="#p39">39</a>36<br> +<br> +Spirits,<br> + of dead persons, <a href="#p33">33</a><br> + worship of, the origin of all religion? <a href="#p38">38</a><br> + in Babylonia, <a href="#p95">95</a><br> + in China, <a href="#p114">114</a><br> + in Arabia, <a href="#p220">220</a><br> + in Greece, <a href="#p275">275</a><br> + in Persia, <a href="#p398">398</a><br> +<br> +Standing stones, <a href="#p60">60</a><br> +<br> +Sun, <a href="#p30">30</a><br> +<br> +Sun-gods,<br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p99">99</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p140">140</a>, +<a href="#p148">148</a><br> + Phenician, <a href="#p176">176</a><br> + Arabian, <a href="#p219">219</a><br> +<br> +Supreme Being, an object of primitive worship? <a href="#p36">36</a><br> +<br> +Survival of savage state in the great religions, <a href="#p21">21</a><br> +<br> +Synagogue, <a href="#p212">212</a><br> +<br> +Syncretism, of gods in Egypt, <a href="#p148">148</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Taboo, <a href="#p72">72</a><br> +<br> +Taoism, <a href="#p121">121</a><br> +<br> +Taylor, Dr. I., <a href="#p247">247</a>, +<a href="#p248">248</a><br> +<br> +Temples,<br> + not primitive, <a href="#p72">72</a><br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p99">99</a><br> + Egyptian, <a href="#p128">128</a>, +<a href="#p130">130</a>, +<a href="#p136">136</a><br> + Phenician and Jewish, <a href="#p178">178</a><br> + Greek, <a href="#p292">292</a><br> + Roman, <a href="#p318">318</a>, +<a href="#p323">323</a><br> +<br> +Teraphim, <a href="#p188">188</a><br> +<br> +Teutons, <a href="#p256">256</a>. See <a href="#germans">Germans</a><br> +<br> +Thunder, <a href="#p30">30</a>, +<a href="#p265">265</a>, +<a href="#p270">270</a><br> +<br> +Tiele, Dr. C. P., <a href="#p15">15</a><br> +<br> +Totemism, <a href="#p58">58</a>, +<a href="#p135">135</a>, +<a href="#p277">277</a><br> +<br> +Transmigration, <a href="#p302">302</a>, +<a href="#p351">351</a>, +<a href="#p368">368</a><br> +<br> +Tree-worship,<br> + primitive, <a href="#p32">32</a>, +<a href="#p59">59</a>, +<a href="#p278">278</a><br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p101">101</a><br> + Canaanites, <a href="#p172">172</a><br> + Arabia, <a href="#p219">219</a><br> + Greece, <a href="#p278">278</a><br> +<br> +Tribal religion, <a href="#p57">57</a>, +<a href="#p77">77</a>, +<a href="#p427">427</a><br> +<br> +Tylor, Mr., <i>Primitive Culture</i>, <a href="#p10">10</a>, +<a href="#p20">20</a>, +<a href="#p25">25</a>, +<a href="#p29">29</a>, +<a href="#p39">39</a>, +<a href="#p62">62</a>, +<a href="#p63">63</a>, +<a href="#p68">68</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Under-world, the,<br> + Babylonia, <a href="#p100">100</a>, +<a href="#p102">102</a><br> + Egypt, <a href="#p140">140</a>, +<a href="#p142">142</a>, +<a href="#p152">152</a><br> +<br> +Unity of all religion, <a href="#p4">4</a><br> +<br> +Universal deities of the Aryans, <a href="#p252">252</a><br> +<br> +Universalism,<br> + in O. T. prophets, <a href="#p195">195</a><br> + in Islam, <a href="#p240">240</a><br> + in Christianity, <a href="#p419">419</a><br> +<br> +Urim and Thummim, <a href="#p188">188</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Vedic hymns, <a href="#p328">328</a><br> +<br> +Vedic religion, <a href="#p324">324</a>, <i>sqq.</i><br> + its gods, <a href="#p326">326</a><br> + is it early or late? <a href="#p331">331</a><br> +<br> +Vow, original meaning of, <a href="#p75">75</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Waitz and Gerland's <i>Anthropologie der Naturvölker</i>, <a href="#p29">29</a><br> +<br> +Wellhausen, J., <a href="#p163">163</a>, +<a href="#p218">218</a><br> +<br> +Wells, sacred, <a href="#p32">32</a>, +<a href="#p57">57</a>, +<a href="#p59">59</a><br> +<br> +Worship,<br> + an essential element of religion, <a href="#p9">9</a><br> + primitive, <a href="#p66">66</a><br> + Chinese, <a href="#p112">112</a><br> + Egyptian, <a href="#p147">147</a><br> + Canaanite, <a href="#p173">173</a><br> + Israelite, <a href="#p187">187</a><br> + Jewish, <a href="#p207">207</a><br> + Roman, <a href="#p309">309</a><br> + See <a href="#sacrifice">Sacrifice</a><br> +<br> +<br> +Zeus, etymology of, <a href="#p250">250</a>, +<a href="#p286">286</a>, +<a href="#p296">296</a><br> +<br> +Zoomorphism, <a href="#p53">53</a><br> +<br> +Zoroaster, <a href="#p384">384</a><br> + his call, <a href="#p388">388</a><br> + his doctrine, <a href="#p391">391</a><br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<center><small>PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET.</small></center> +<br> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" noshade> + +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RELIGION***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 29893-h.txt or 29893-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/8/9/29893">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/8/9/29893</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>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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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: History of Religion + A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the Origin and Character of the Great Systems + + +Author: Allan Menzies + + + +Release Date: September 2, 2009 [eBook #29893] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RELIGION*** + + +E-text prepared by Ron Swanson + + + +HISTORY OF RELIGION + +A Sketch of Primitive Religious Beliefs and Practices, and of the +Origin and Character of the Great Systems + +by + +ALLAN MENZIES, D.D. + +Professor of Biblical Criticism in the University of St. Andrews + + +Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the +world.--ACTS xv. 18. + + + + + + + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons +597-599 Fifth Avenue +1917 + + + + +FIRST EDITION . . . _April_ 1895 +SECOND EDITION . . _September_ 1895 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1897 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1900 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _January_ 1902 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _March_ 1903 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1905 +THIRD EDITION . . . _January_ 1908 +FOURTH EDITION . . _September_ 1911 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _June_ 1914 +_Reprinted_ . . . . _October_ 1918 + + + + +PREFACE + + +This book makes no pretence to be a guide to all the mythologies, or +to all the religious practices which have prevailed in the world. It +is intended to aid the student who desires to obtain a general idea +of comparative religion, by exhibiting the subject as a connected and +organic whole, and by indicating the leading points of view from +which each of the great systems may best be understood. A certain +amount of discussion is employed in order to bring clearly before the +reader the great motives and ideas by which the various religions are +inspired, and the movements of thought which they present. And the +attempt is made to exhibit the great manifestations of human piety in +their genealogical connection. The writer has ventured to deal with +the religions of the Bible, each in its proper historical place, and +trusts that he has not by doing so rendered any disservice either to +Christian faith or to the science of religion. It is obvious that in +a work claiming to be scientific, and appealing to men of every +faith, all religions must be treated impartially, and that the same +method must be applied to each of them. + +In a field of study, every part of which is being illuminated almost +every year by fresh discoveries, such a sketch as the present can be +merely tentative, and must soon, in many of its parts, grow +antiquated and be superseded. And where so much depends on the +selection of some facts out of many which might have been employed, +it will no doubt appear to readers who have some acquaintance with +the subject, that here and there a better choice might have been +made. The writer hopes that the great difficulty will not be +overlooked with which he has had to contend, of compressing a vast +subject into a compendious statement without allowing its life and +interest to evaporate in the process. + +For a fuller bibliography than is given in this volume the reader may +consult the works of Dr. C. P. Tiele, and of Dr. Chantepie de la +Saussaye. It will readily be believed that the writer of this volume +has been indebted to many an author whom he has not named. + +ST. ANDREWS, 1895. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE THIRD (REVISED) EDITION + + +Since this book first appeared twelve years ago it has been several +times reprinted without change. Advantage has now been taken, +however, of a call for a fresh issue, to introduce into it some +alterations and additions, such as its stereotyped form allows. Some +mistakes have been corrected, the names of recent books have been +added to the bibliographies, and in some chapters, especially those +dealing with the Semitic religions, considerable changes have been +made. In going over the book for this purpose, I have seen very +clearly that if it had been called for and written at this time +instead of twelve years ago, some things which are in it need not +have appeared, and additions might have been made which are not now +possible. The last twelve years have made a great change in the study +of religions; the prejudices with which it was regarded have almost +passed away, powerful forces have been enlisted in its service, and +admirable works have appeared dealing with various parts of the vast +field. Yet I am glad to think that the attempt made in this book to +furnish a simple introduction to a deeply important study, and +especially to promote the understanding of the religions of the Bible +by placing them in their connection with the religion of mankind at +large, may still prove useful. + +ST. ANDREWS, _June_ 1907. + + + + +PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION + + +This book is now being reprinted in a somewhat larger type, and an +opportunity is given, less restricted than the last, for making +changes in it. It is impossible for me at present to re-write it; it +appears substantially as it was. Some alterations and additions have +been made in the earlier chapters, and the bibliographies have been +brought more nearly up to date. I would take this opportunity of +directing the attention of readers of this book to the published +Proceedings of the Oxford Congress of the History of Religion, held +in September 1908. They will there see how large this field of study +has now grown, and what varied life and movement every part of it +contains. I have given references only to the addresses of the +Presidents of the Sections of the Congress, in which a fresh review +will be found of recent progress in the study of each of the great +religions. + +ST. ANDREWS, _July_ 1910. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +PART I +THE RELIGION OF THE EARLY WORLD + + +CHAPTER I +INTRODUCTION + PAGE +Position of the science--Unity of all religion--The growth of +religion continuous--Preliminary definition of religion-- +Criticism of other definitions--Fuller definition--Religion +and civilisation advance together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-18 + + +CHAPTER II +THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION + +Origin of civilisation--It was from the savage state that +civilisation was by degrees produced--The religion of +savages--All savages have religion--It is a psychological +necessity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-28 + + +CHAPTER III +THE EARLIEST OBJECTS OF WORSHIP + +Nature-worship--Ancestor-worship--Fetish-worship--A supreme +being--Which gods were first worshipped?--Fetish-gods came +first--Spirits, human or quasi-human, came first--Theories +of Mr. Spencer and Mr. Tylor--Animism--The minor +nature-worship came first--Theories of Mr. M. Mueller and of +Ed. von Hartmann--The great nature-powers came first--Both +nature-worship and the worship of spirits are sources of +early religion--Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29-50 + + +CHAPTER IV +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--BELIEF + +Growth of the great gods--Polytheism--Kathenotheism--The +minor nature-worship--The worship of animals--Trees, wells, +stones--The state after death--Growth of the great religions +out of these beliefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51-65 + + +CHAPTER V +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--PRACTICES + +Sacrifice--Prayer--Sacred places, objects, persons--Magic-- +Character of early religion--Early religion and morality . . 66-78 + + +CHAPTER VI +NATIONAL RELIGION + +Classifications of religions--Rise of national religion--It +affords a new social bond--And a better God--Example--The +Inca religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79-90 + + +PART II +ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS + + +CHAPTER VII +BABYLON AND ASSYRIA + +People and literature--Worship of spirits--Worship of +animals--The great Gods--Mythology--The state religion . . . 91-105 + + +CHAPTER VIII +CHINA + +History of China--The literature of the religion--The state +religion of ancient China--Heaven--The spirits--Ancestors-- +Confucius--His life--His doctrine--Taoism--Buddhism in China 106-125 + + +CHAPTER IX +THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT + +History and literature--1. Animal worship--Theories +accounting for it--2. The great Gods--They also are local-- +Mythology--Dynasties of gods--Ra--Osiris--Ptah--Was the +earliest religion monotheistic?--Syncretism--Pantheism-- +Worship--3. The doctrine of the other life--Treatment of the +dead--The spirit in the under-world--_The Book of the Dead_-- +Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126-157 + + +PART III +THE SEMITIC GROUP + + +CHAPTER X +THE SEMITIC RELIGION + +Home of the Semites--Character of the race--Their early +religious ideas--Difference between Semitic and Aryan +religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159-169 + + +CHAPTER XI +CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS + +The Religion of the Canaanites--The Phenicians--Their gods-- +Astral deities of Phenicia--Influence of Phenician art . . . 170-178 + + +CHAPTER XII +ISRAEL + +The sacred literature--The people--Jehovah--The early ritual +was simple--Contact with Canaanite religion--Danger of +fusion--Religious conflict--The monarchy--Religion not +centralised--The Prophets--The old religion national-- +Criticism of the old religion by the prophets--Appearance of +Universalism--Ethical monotheism--Individualism of the +prophetic teaching--The reforms--Deuteronomy--Earlier codes-- +The exile--The return; the reform of Ezra--Character of the +later religion--Heathenish elements of Judaism--Spiritual +elements--The Psalms--The Synagogue--The national hopes--The +state after death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179-216 + + +CHAPTER XIII +ISLAM + +Arabia before Mahomet--The old religion--Confusion of +worship--Allah--Judaism and Christianity in Arabia--Mahomet, +early life--His religious impressions--The revelations--His +preaching--Persecution--Trials; decides to leave Mecca-- +Mahomet at Medina--New religious union--Breach with Judaism +and Christianity--Domestic--Conquest of Mecca--Mecca made the +capital of Islam--Spread of Islam--The duties of the Moslem-- +The Koran--Islam a universal religion . . . . . . . . . . . . 217-242 + + +PART IV +THE ARYAN GROUP + + +CHAPTER XIV +THE ARYAN RELIGION + +The Aryans, their early home--Their civilisation described-- +Little known of their gods--Their worship was domestic . . . 243-255 + + +CHAPTER XV +THE TEUTONS + +The Aryans in Europe--The ancient Germans--The early German +gods--The working religion--Later German religion--Iceland-- +The Eddas--The gods of the Eddas--The twilight of the gods . 256-273 + + +CHAPTER XVI +GREECE + +People and land--Earliest religion; functional deities-- +Growth of Greek gods--Stones, animals, trees--Greek religion +is local--Artistic tendency--Early Eastern influences-- +Homer--The Homeric gods--Worship in Homer--Omens--The state +after death--Hesiod--The poets and the working religion--Rise +of religious art--Festivals and games--Zeus and Apollo-- +Change of the Greek spirit in sixth century B.C.--New +religious feeling; the mysteries--Religion and philosophy . . 274-304 + + +CHAPTER XVII +THE RELIGION OF ROME + +Roman religion was different from Greek--The earliest gods of +Rome are functional beings--The worship of these beings--The +great gods--Sacred persons--Roman religion legal rather than +priestly--Changes introduced from without--Etruria--Greek +gods in Rome--The Graeco-Roman religion--Decay and confusion 305-323 + + +CHAPTER XVIII +THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA + +I. _The Vedic Religion_ + +Relation of Indian to Aryan religion--The Rigveda--The Vedic +gods--Hymns to the gods--To what stage does this religion +belong?--It is primitive--It is advanced--In spite of many +gods, a tendency to Monotheism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324-337 + + +CHAPTER XIX +INDIA + +II. _Brahmanism_ + +The caste system: the Brahmans--The growth of the sacred +literature--Sacrifice--Practical life--Philosophy-- +Transmigration--Later developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338-352 + + +CHAPTER XX +INDIA + +III. _Buddhism_ + +The literature--Was there a personal founder?--The story of +the founder--Is Buddhism a revolt against Brahmanism?--The +Buddha--The doctrine--Buddhist morality--Nirvana--No gods-- +The order--Buddhism made popular--Conclusion--Buddhism is not +a complete religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353-380 + + +CHAPTER XXI +PERSIA + +Sources--The contents of the Zend-Avesta are composite-- +Zoroaster--Primitive religion of Iran--The call of +Zarathustra--The doctrine--Its inconsistencies--Man is called +to judge between the gods--This religion is essentially +intolerant--Growth of Mazdeism--Organisation of the heavenly +beings--The attributes of Ahura--Ancient testimonies to the +Persian religion--The Vendidad: laws of purity--How this +doctrine entered Mazdeism--Influence of Mazdeism on Judaism +and in other directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381-408 + + +PART V +UNIVERSAL RELIGION + + +CHAPTER XXII +CHRISTIANITY + +State of Jewish religion at the Christian era--The teaching +of Jesus--His person and work--Universalism of Christianity-- +The Apostle Paul--What Christianity received from Judaism-- +And from the Greek world--The different religions of +Christian nations and the common Christianity . . . . . . . . 409-425 + + +CHAPTER XXIII +CONCLUSION + +Tribal, national, and individual religion--This the central +development--Has to be studied in nations--Periods of general +advance in religion--Conditions of religious progress . . . . 426-434 + + +INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435-440 + + + + +PART I +THE RELIGION OF THE EARLY WORLD + + + + +CHAPTER I +INTRODUCTION + + +The science to which this little volume is devoted is a comparatively +new one. It is scarcely half a century since the attention of Western +Europe began to fix itself seriously on the great religions of the +East, and the study of these ancient systems aroused reflection on +the great facts that the world possesses not one religion only, but +several, nay, many religions, and that these exhibit both great +differences and great resemblances. The agitation of mind then +awakened by the thought that other faiths might be compared with +Christianity, has to a large extent passed away; and on the other +hand fresh fields of knowledge have been opened to the student of the +worships of mankind. By new methods of research the religions of +Greece and Rome have come to be known as they never were before; and +all the other religions of which we formerly knew anything have been +led to tell their stories in a new way. A new study--that of the +earliest human life on the earth--has brought to light many primitive +beliefs and practices, which seem to explain early religious ideas; +and the accounts of missionaries and others about savage tribes now +existing in different parts of the world, are seen to be full of a +significance which was not noticed formerly. We are thus in a very +different position from our fathers for studying the religion of the +world as a whole. To them their own religion was the true one and all +the others were false. Calvin speaks of the "immense welter of +errors" in which the whole world outside of Christianity is immersed; +it is unnecessary for him to deal with these errors, he can at once +proceed to set forth the true doctrine. The belief of the early +fathers of the Church, that all worships but those of Judaism and +Christianity were directed to demons, and that the demons bore sway +in them, practically prevailed till our own day; and it could not but +do so, since no other religions than these were really known. That +ignorance has ceased, and we are responsible for forming a view of +the subject according to the light that has been given us. + +The science of religion, though of such recent origin, has already +passed beyond its earliest stage, as a reference even to its earlier +and its later names will show. "Comparative Religion" was the title +given at first to the combined study of various religions. What had +to be done, it was thought, was to compare them. The facts about them +had to be collected, the systems arranged according to the best +information procurable, and then laid side by side, that it might be +seen what features they had in common and what each had to +distinguish it from the others. Work of this kind is still abundantly +necessary. The collection of materials and the specifying of the +similarities and dissimilarities of the various faiths will long +occupy many workers. + +Unity of all Religion.--But recent works on the religions of the +world regarded as a whole have been called "histories." We have the +well-known _History of Religion_ of M. Chantepie de la Saussaye, now +in its third edition, and the _Comparative History of the Religions +of Antiquity_ of M. Tiele. A history of religion may be either of two +things. The word history may be used as in the term Natural History, +to denote a reasoned account of this department of human life, +without attempting any chronological sequence; or it may be used as +when we speak of the History of the Romans, an attempt being made to +tell the story of religion in the world in the order of time. In +either case the use of the term "history" indicates that the study +now aims at something more than the accumulation of materials and the +pointing out of resemblances and analogies, namely, at arranging the +materials at its command so as to show them in an organic connection. +This, it cannot be doubted, is the task which the science of religion +is now called to attempt. What every one with any interest in the +subject is striving after, is a knowledge of the religions of the +world not as isolated systems which, though having many points of +resemblance, may yet, for all we know, be of separate and independent +growth, but as connected with each other and as forming parts of one +whole. Our science, in fact, is seeking to grasp the religions of the +world as manifestations of the religion of the world.[1] + +[Footnote 1: The above statement is criticised by Mr. L. H. Jordan in +his excellent work, _Comparative Religion_, p. 485, but is in the +main a true account of what has taken place. Mr. Jordan strongly +holds that Comparative Religion is a science by itself, and ought to +be distinguished from the History of Religion, though the latter is, +of course, its necessary foundation.] + +In rising to this conception of its task, the science of religion is +only obeying the impulse which dominates every department of study in +modern times. What every science is doing is to seek to show the +unity of law amid the multiplicity of the phenomena with which it has +to deal, to gather up the many into one, or rather to show how the +one has given rise to the many. In the study of religion, if it be +really a science, this impulse of all science must surely be felt. +Here also we must cherish the conviction that an order does exist +amid the apparent disorder, if we could but find it. We must believe +that the religious beliefs and practices of mankind are not a mere +chaos, not a mere incessant outburst of unreason, consistent only in +that it has appeared in every age and every country of the world, but +that they form a cosmos, and may be known, if we take the right way, +as a part of human life from which reason has never been absent, and +in which a growing purpose has fulfilled and still fulfils itself. +Some theories, it is true, from which the world formerly hoped much, +are not now relied on, and the present tendency is to abstain from +any general doctrine of the subject, and to be content with careful +collection and arrangement of the facts in special parts of the +field. Caution is no doubt most needful in the attempt to form a view +of this great study as a whole. Yet something of this kind is +possible, and is beyond all doubt much called for. It is the aim of +this little work not only to describe the leading features of the +great religions, but also to set forth some of the results which +appear to have been reached regarding the relation in which these +systems stand to each other. + +The Growth of Religion Continuous.--We shall not pretend to set out +on this enterprise without any assumptions. The first and principal +assumption we make is that in religion as in other departments of +human life there has been a development from the beginning, even till +now, and that the growth of religion has gone on according to the +ordinary laws of human progress. This is a position which, begin the +study at whatever point he may, the student of this subject will find +himself compelled to take up, if he is not to renounce altogether the +idea of understanding it as a whole. To understand anything means, to +the thought of the present day, to know how it has come to be what it +is; of any historical phenomenon at least it is certain that it +cannot be understood except by tracing its history up to the root. We +assume, therefore, until it be disproved, that in this as in other +departments of human activity, growth has been continuous from the +first. In every other branch of historical study, this assumption is +made. The history of institutions is traced back in a continuous line +to an age before there was any family or any such thing as property. +The methods by which men have earned their subsistence on the earth +are known equally far back; and there is no break in the development +from the hooked stick to the steam plough. And should it not be the +same in religion? Here also shall we not assume, until we find it +proved to be incorrect, that there has been no break in the growth of +ideas and practices from the earliest days till now, and that the +highest religion of the present day is organically connected with +that religion which man had at first? It is, indeed, in many ways far +removed from the earliest religion, but what was most essential in +the earliest belief still lives in it, and what was fittest to +survive of its earliest motives, still prompts its worship. Should we +adopt this view, we shall find many of the difficulties disappear +which have frequently stood in the way of this study. When, according +to the new tendency that seems to govern all modern thought, +institutions and beliefs are regarded not as fixed things, but as +things growing from something that was there before, and tending +towards something that is coming, they cease to arouse contempt, or +jealousy, or hatred. If we can regard religions as stages in the +evolution of religion, then we have no motive either to depreciate or +unduly to extol any of them. The earlier stages of the development +will have a peculiar interest for us, just as we look with affection +on the home of our ancestors even though we should not choose to +dwell there. We shall not divide religions into the true one, +Christianity, and the false ones, all the rest; no religion will be +to us a mere superstition, nor shall we regard any as unguided by +God. Feeling that we cannot understand our own religion aright +without understanding those out of which it has been built up, we +shall value these others for the part they have played in the great +movement, and our own most of all, without which they could not be +made perfect. In the light of this principle of growth we shall find +good in the lowest, and shall see that the good and true rather than +the evil and false, furnish the ultimate meaning of even the poorest +systems. + +We start then with the assumption that religion is a thing which has +developed from the first, as law has, or as art has; and the best +method we can follow, if it should prove practicable, will be to +follow its movement from the beginning. We must not presume to hope +that everything will be made clear, or that we shall meet with no +religious phenomena to which we cannot assign their place in the +development. We must remember that ground is often lost as well as +won in human history, and that in religions as in nations +degeneration frequently occurs as well as progress. We must not be +too sure that we shall be able to find any plain path leading through +the immeasurable forests of man's religious sentiments and practices. +Yet we may at least expect to find evidence of the direction which on +the whole the growth of religion has followed. + +Preliminary Definition of Religion.--But, before we can set out on +this inquiry, we are met by the question, What is it that we suppose +to have been thus developed? In order to trace any process of +evolution it is necessary to define that which is evolved; for it +belongs to the very idea of evolution that the identity of the +subject of it is not changed on the way up, but that the germ and the +finished product are the same entity, only differing from each other +in that the one has still to grow while the other is grown. Futile +were it indeed to sketch a history of religion with the savage at one +end of it and the Christian thinker at the other, if it could be said +that in no point did the religion of the savage and that of the +Christian coincide, but that the product was a thing of entirely +different nature from the germ. It seems necessary, therefore, in the +first place, to say what that is, of which we are to attempt the +history; or in other words, to say what we mean by religion. + +It must not be forgotten that an adequate definition of a thing which +is growing can only be reached when the growth is complete. During +its growth it is showing what it is, and its higher as well as its +lower manifestations are part of its nature. The world has not yet +found out completely, but is still in the course of finding out, what +religion is. Any definition propounded at this stage must, therefore, +be of an elementary and provisional character. I propose then as a +working definition of religion in the meantime, that it is "The +worship of higher powers." This appears at first sight a very meagre +account of the matter; but if we consider what it implies, we shall +find it is not so meagre. In the first place it involves an element +of belief. No one will worship higher powers unless he believes that +such powers exist. This is the intellectual factor. Not that the +intellectual is distinguished in early forms of religion from the +other factors, any more than grammar is distinguished by early man as +an element of language. But something intellectual, some creed, is +present implicitly even in the earliest worships. Should there be no +belief in higher powers, true worship cannot continue. If it be +continued in outward act, it has lost reality to the mind of the +worshipper, and the result is an apparent or a sham religion, a +worship devoid of one of the essential conditions of religion. This +is true at every stage. But in the second place, these powers which +are worshipped are "higher." Religion has respect, not to beings men +regard as on a level with themselves or even beneath themselves, but +to beings in some way above and beyond themselves, and whom they are +disposed to approach with reverence. When objects appear to be +worshipped for which the worshipper feels contempt, and which a +moment afterwards he will maltreat or throw away, there also one of +the essential conditions is absent, and such worship must be judged +to fall short of religion. There may no doubt be some religion in it; +the object he worships may appear to the savage, in whose mind there +is little continuity, at one moment to be higher than himself and the +next moment to be lower; but the result of the whole is something +less than religion. And in the third place these higher powers are +worshipped. That is to say, religion is not only belief in the higher +powers but it is a cultivating of relations with them, it is a +practical activity continuously directed to these beings. It is not +only a thinking but also a doing; this also is essential to it. When +worship is discontinued, religion ceases; a principle indeed not to +be applied too narrowly, since the apparent cessation of worship may +be merely its transition to another, possibly a higher form; but +religion is not present unless there be not only a belief in higher +powers but an effort of one kind or another to keep on good terms +with them. + +Criticism of other Definitions.--What has now been said will enable +us to judge of several of the definitions of religion which have been +put before the world in recent years. Without going back to the +definitions offered by philosophers who wrote before the scientific +study of our subject had begun, and limiting ourselves to those which +have been propounded in the interests of our science, we notice that +several make religion consist in an intellectual activity.[2] Thus +Mr. Max Mueller[3] says that "Religion is a mental faculty or +disposition which independent of, nay, in spite of, sense and reason, +enables man to apprehend the Infinite under different names, and +under varying disguises. Without that faculty ... no religion would +be possible." To this definition there are various strong objections. +It implies that there is only one way in which men come to believe in +higher beings; they arrive at that belief by finding something which +transcends them and which they cannot understand; _i.e._ by an +intellectual process. It may be doubted whether the sense of +disappointment with the finite is the only road, or even a common +road, to belief in gods. Mr. Mueller's omission, moreover, from his +definition, of the practical side of religion, of the element of +worship, is a fatal objection to it. Belief and worship are +inseparable sides of religion, which does not come fully into +existence till both are present. In a later work[4] Mr. Mueller admits +the force of this objection, urged by several scholars, to his +definition, and modifies it as follows: "Religion consists in the +perception of the infinite under such manifestations as are able to +influence the moral character of man." In this form the definition +recognises that worship, the practical activity in which man's moral +character shows itself in fear, gratitude, love, contrition, is an +essential part of religion, and that perceptions of the infinite +apart from this are only one side of it. His original definition, +however, has played too large a part in the history of our subject to +be left without careful notice. The same objection applies to Mr. +Herbert Spencer's account of the matter. Mr. Spencer finds the basis +of all religion in the inscrutableness of the Power which the +universe manifests to us. The belief common to all religions, he +holds, is the presence of something which passes comprehension. The +idea of the absolute and unconditioned he regards as accompanying all +our consciousness of things conditioned and limited, and as being not +a negative notion, not merely the denial of limits, but a positive +one. The unconditioned is that of which all our thoughts and ideas +are manifestations, but which we never can know, with regard to which +we cannot affirm anything but that it exists. This definition like +that last noticed traces religion to the defects in man's knowledge, +and rather to a negative than a positive element in his experience. +It also comes under the objection that it traces religion rather to +an intellectual than a practical motive, and omits the element of +worship. + +[Footnote 2: Though Mr. Tylor defines religion as the "belief in +spiritual beings," he is not to be charged with making it too much a +matter of the intellect. He uses the word belief in a wide sense as +including the practices it involves. In the word "spiritual," +however, Mr. Tylor brings into the definition his theory of Animism, +and thus makes it unserviceable for those who do not adopt that +theory.] + +[Footnote 3: _Introduction to the Science of Religion_, 1882, p. 13. +The definition was put forward in the year 1873, and in his lectures +on the Origin of Religion, 1882, Mr. Mueller adhered to it as being in +the main sound (p. 23).] + +[Footnote 4: _Natural Religion_, 1888, pp. 188, 193.] + +Other scholars have explained religion as the action of the curiosity +of the human mind, of that impulse which prompts man to investigate +the causes of things, and specially to seek for the first cause of +all things. Here we touch what is certainly to be recognised as an +invariable feature of religion; it always professes to explain the +world, and to bring unity to man's mind by clearing up the problems +which perplex him, and affording him a commanding point of view, from +which he may see all the parts of the world and of life fall into +their places. This, however, does not tell us what religion itself +is. This curiosity, this impulse to know, are not specifically +religious; they belong rather to philosophy. Other motives than those +connected with knowledge entered from the first into man's worship. +Curiosity impelled him to seek the first cause of things; in religion +he saw something that promised to explain the world to him, and to +explain him to himself. But it was something more than curiosity that +made him regard that cause, when found, as a god, and pay it +reverence and sacrifice. What is the motive of worship? Wonder, no +doubt, is always present in it, but what is there in it beyond +wonder? No definition of religion can be regarded as complete in +which the motive of worship is left undetermined. That is of the +essence of the matter. There must be a moral as well as an +intellectual quality which is characteristic of religion. What is +religion morally? Acts of worship may be specified in which every +conceivable moral quality seeks to express itself. The most +contradictory motives, pride and anger and revenge, as well as fear +or hunger or contrition, enter into such acts. But if religion is a +matter of sentiment as well as of outward posture, these acts of +worship cannot all be equally entitled to the name, and something is +wanted to complete our definition. + +Fuller Definition.--Let us add what seems to be wanting; and say that +religion is the "worship of higher powers from a sense of need"! This +will remind the reader of Schleiermacher's definition--"a sense of +infinite dependence." It was always objected to that definition, that +it made religion no more than a sentiment, a mood, but that besides +this, it is both belief and action. But the truth Schleiermacher +urged was one of essential importance to the matter. Belief in gods +and acts of worship paid to them do not constitute religion unless +the sentiment, the sense of need, be also there. These three +together, feeling, belief, and will expressing itself in action, +constitute religion both in the lowest and in the highest levels of +civilisation. + +A belief must exist, to take a step farther, that the being +worshipped is capable of supplying what the worshipper requires. Men +do not pray nor bring offerings to beings they suppose to be +incapable of attending to them, or powerless to do them any good or +evil. It is implied in every act of worship that the being addressed +is a power who is able to do for the worshipper what he cannot do for +himself. It is his inability to help himself or to supply his own +needs that sends the worshipper to his god, who has a power he +himself has not. If he could help himself he would not need religion, +if his life were either perfectly prosperous and even, so that there +was nothing left to wish for, or perfectly miserable and +unsuccessful, so that there was no room for hope, he would not resort +to higher powers; but neither of these two being the case, his life +on the contrary being a mixed lot of good and evil, in which there +are blessings his own forces cannot secure, and dangers from which no +efforts of his own can save him, and the belief having arisen within +him, in what way we need not now inquire, that higher powers exist +who can, if they will, defend and prosper him, in this way he has +religion, he keeps up intercourse with higher powers. And thus +religion is not necessarily, even in its most primitive form, a +manifestation of mere selfishness. Though gifts are offered which are +expected to please the higher beings, and though benefits are asked +of which the worshipper is urgently in need, such transactions are +not necessarily sordid any more than similar applications between +human beings, between two friends, or between a parent and a child. +Even the savage living in entire isolation, at war with every one and +conscious of no needs but those of food and shelter, will not seek +benefits from his god without some feeling of attachment, nor without +some sense of strengthened friendship should the benefit be granted +him. When once this sense of friendship has arisen, religion is +present, the man has come to be in living relation with a higher +power, whom he conceives, no doubt, after his own likeness, but +nevertheless as greater than he is. + +This then is what we conceive to be the essence of religion--the +worship of higher powers, from a sense of need; and it is of this +that we are to trace the history though only in the barest outlines. +The definition itself suggests in what way the development may be +expected to work itself out. According as the needs change their +character, of which men are conscious, so will their religion also +change. The gradual elevation and refinement of human needs, in the +growth of civilisation, is the motive force of the development of +religion. The deities themselves, their past history and their +present character, the sacrifices offered to them, and the benefits +aimed at in intercourse with them, all must grow up as man himself +grows, from rudeness to refinement and from caprice to order. At its +lowest, religion is perhaps an individual affair between the savage +and his god, and has to do with material individual needs. At a +higher stage (not always nor even commonly later in time) it is the +affair of a family, of a tribe, or of a combination of tribes, and +with each of these extensions the requests grow broader and less +personal which have to be presented to the deity; the religion +becomes a common worship for public ends. The needs of the nomad are +other than those of the settled agriculturist, and those of the +countryman differ from those of the citizen, and those of the +Laplander from those of the Negro, and these differences will be +reflected in the aspect of the deities and in the observances +celebrated in their honour. When art begins to stir within a nation, +the gods have to adapt themselves to the new taste. As society grows +more humane, cruel and sanguinary religious observances, though they +may long keep a hold of the ignorant and excitable, lose their +support in the public conscience and are sentenced to change or to +extinction. And when a new consciousness of personal human dignity +springs up, and men come to feel the infinite value and the infinite +responsibility of personal life, the old public religion is felt to +be cold and distant, and religious services of a more personal and +more intimate kind are sought for. + +Thus religion and civilisation advance together; according as the +civilisation is in any people, so is its religion. It is vain, +broadly speaking, to look for the combination of primitive manners +and customs with a lofty spiritual faith. The converse it is true may +often seem to take place. Religion, or rather religious creeds and +practices, often seem to lag behind civilisation and to maintain +themselves long after the reason and the conscience of a people has +condemned them. That is because religion is what man values most in +his life, and he is loath to change observances in which his +affections are powerfully engaged. But religion must reflect the +ideals of the society in which it exists; the needs which the society +feels at the time must be the burden of its prayers; its sacrifices +must be such as the general sentiment allows; its gods, to retain the +allegiance of the community, must alter with time and prove +themselves alive and in touch with their people. And if it be the +case that civilisation has on the whole advanced upwards from the +first; if, as Mr. Tylor assures us,[5] man began with his lowest and +has, in spite of occasional declines, on the whole been improving +ever since, then of religion also the same will be true. It also will +be found to begin with its rudest forms and gradually to grow better. +Religion in fact is the inner side of civilisation, and expresses the +essential spirit of human life in various ages and nations. The +religion of a race is the truest expression of its character, and +reflects most faithfully its attitude and aims and policy. The +religion of an age shows what at that time constituted the object of +man's aspiration and endeavour, as older hopes grew pale and new +hopes rose on his sight. Thus the study of the religions of the world +is the study of the very soul of its history; it is the study of the +desires and aspirations which throughout the course of history men +have not been ashamed, nay, which they have been proud and determined +to confess. No more fascinating study could possibly engage us. It is +true that the requirements for the adequate treatment of the subject +are such as few indeed can hope to possess. He who would treat the +history of religion aright ought to know thoroughly the whole of the +history of civilisation; he should have explored the vast domain of +savage life and thought that has recently been opened up to us, and +he should be at home in every century of every nation from the +beginning of history. At a time like this, when new light is being +poured every year on every part of our subject, no statement of it +can be more than tentative and partial. The student will be directed +at each step to sources of fuller information. + +[Footnote 5: _Primitive Culture_, chap. ii.] + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED (GENERAL) + +_Outlines of the History of Religion to the Spread of the Universal +Religions_. By Dr. C. P. Tiele. Translation. In Truebner's Oriental +Series. Very condensed and in somewhat technical language; but the +work of one of the greatest masters of the subject. A full +Bibliography is appended to the various chapters. + +_Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte_, von P. D. Chantepie de la +Saussaye. Freiburg, 1887. The English translation has an altered +title, viz. _Manual of the Science of Religion_, Longmans, 1891. The +Third Edition (1905) is practically a different book, and consists of +studies, each by an expert, of the various religions. + +_Religious Systems of the World_ (Sonnenschein, 1892) is a full +collection of descriptions of the various religions, by persons +specially acquainted with them; of very unequal merit. + +Mr. Max Mueller's works cited above, also his more recent volumes of +Gifford Lectures, contain a number of general discussions. + +See also the Gifford Lectures of the late Mr. Ed. Caird, and the late +Prof. Tiele. + +Pfleiderer's _Philosophy of Religion_, 4 vols. + +Puenjer, _Geschichte der christl. Religionsphilosophie_, 2 vols. +1880-83. + +Rauwenhoff, _Wijsbegeerde van den Godsdienst_, 2 vols. 1887 (also in +German). + +M. Jastrow, _The Study of Religion_, 1901. + +L. H. Jordan, _Comparative Religion, its Origin and Growth_, 1905. + +_Revue de l'histoire des religions_, edited by M. J. Reville. + +_Archiv fuer Religionswissenschaft_, edited by Alb. Dieterich. + +Reinach, Orpheus, _Histoire Generale des Religions_, 1909. + +Hastings, _Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics_, vol. i. A-Art, 1908. + +_The New Schaff-Heizog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge_ has +excellent articles on the various religions. + +Louis H. Jordan, _Comparative Religion_, 1905. An account of the +progress of our study, with extensive bibliography. + +Galloway, _The Principles of Religious Development_, a psychological +and philosophical study, 1909. + +_Proceedings of the Oxford International Congress of the History of +Religions_, 1908. 2 vols. The addresses of the Presidents of the +Sections give a record of the most recent progress in every part of +our study. Of these see, for this chapter, Count Goblet d'Alviella, +vol. ii. pp. 365 _sqq_. on the Method and Scope of the History of +Religion. + + + + +CHAPTER II +THE BEGINNING OF RELIGION + + +Origin of Civilisation.--Every inhabited country, we are assured by +ethnologists, was once peopled by savages; the stone age everywhere +came before the age of metals. Antecedent to every civilisation that +has sprung up on the earth is this dim period, the period of the cave +dwellers and afterwards of the lake dwellers. There can be no +chronology nor any exact knowledge of these early men who lived by +hunting, with stone weapons, animals which are now extinct. How from +his earliest and most helpless state man came in various ways to help +himself; how he discovered fire, how he improved his weapons and +invented tools, how he learned to tame certain of the animals on +which he had formerly made war, and instead of wandering about the +world came to settle in one place and till the soil, and how family +life came to be instituted, and the father as well as the mother to +act as guardian to the children; all that is a vast history, which +must be read in its own place. Immense, indeed, were the labours +early man had to undergo, in wrestling his way up from a life like +that of the brutes to a life in which his own distinctive nature +could begin to display itself. + +It was from the savage state that civilisation was by degrees +produced. The theory that man was originally civilised and humane, +and that it was by a fall, by a degeneration from that earliest +condition, that the state of savagery made its appearance, is now +generally abandoned. There may be instances of such degeneration +having taken place; but on the whole, the conviction now obtains that +civilisation is the result of progressive development, and was the +result man conquered for himself by his age-long struggles with his +environment. That development did not take place in all lands alike. +In some it proceeded faster than in others, and its advances were due +oftener to propagation from without, than to unaided growth from +within; as one race came in contact with another new ideas were +aroused of the possibilities of life in various directions. In some +lands the development has scarcely taken place at all. There remain +to this day races who are judged to be still in the primitive +condition. Not all savage tribes are thought to be in that condition. +The bushmen of Australia, the Andaman Islanders, and others,[1] are +found to be in such a state in point of habits and acquirements that +they must be considered as races which have fallen from a higher +position, and present instances of degeneration. But a multitude of +savage tribes remain in all quarters of the globe who do not appear +to have been thus enfeebled, and who are held to be still in that +state in which the dwellers in all parts of the earth were before +what we now call civilisation began. They are races among whom +civilisation did not spring up, as it did in China or in Peru. From +these races we may learn in a general way, though in this great +caution is required, what the ancestors of all the civilised nations +were. It confirms this conclusion that we find in every civilised +nation a number of phenomena, practices, beliefs, stories, which the +mental condition of the nation as we know it does not account for, +which manifestly are not outgrowths of the civilisation, but relics +of an older state of life, which civilisation has not entirely +obliterated; and that these practices, beliefs, and stories can be +exactly matched by those of the savage races. The inference is drawn +that civilisation has sprung from savage life, that, as Mr. Tylor +says, "the savage state represents the early condition of mankind, +out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed by +causes still in operation." To trace the history of civilisation, +therefore, it is necessary to go back to the earliest knowledge we +have of human life upon the earth, and to ask what germs and +rudiments can be discovered among savages of law, of institutions, of +arts and sciences. Such works as Maine's _Ancient Law_, Tylor's +_Primitive Culture_, Lubbock's _Origin of Civilisation_, show how +fruitful this method is, and what floods of light it pours on the +history of society. + +[Footnote 1: Instances in Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, chap. ii., +where the theory of degeneration is fully discussed.] + +Now what is true of civilisation generally will be true also of +religion, which is one of its principal elements. If every country +was once inhabited by savages, then the original religion of every +country must have been a religion of savages; and in the later +religion there will be features which have been carried on from the +earlier one. This, indeed, we must in any case expect to find. No new +religion can enter on its career on a soil quite unprepared, on which +no gods have been worshipped before. (That would imply that there had +been races in the world without religion, on which we shall speak +presently.) A new faith has always to begin by adjusting itself to +that which it found in possession of the soil, and it always adopts +what it can of the old system. We should expect then that the great +religions of the world should exhibit features which do not belong to +their own structure, but which they inherited, with or against their +will, from their uncivilised predecessors. And that is the case, as +we shall see afterwards, with all the great religions. They are all +full of survivals of the savage state. The old religious associations +cling to the face of a land and refuse to be uprooted, whatever +changes take place among the gods above. Superstitious practices +continue among a race long after a truth has been preached there with +which they are entirely inconsistent. Stories are long told about the +gods, quite out of keeping with their character in the theology of +the new faith, pointing to a time when not so much was expected of a +god. In Mr. Lang's _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, the reader will find +an admirable collection of material showing how the popular elements +of an old religion survive in a new one in which they are quite out +of place. There is none of the great religions to which this does not +apply. + +Now, if it be the case that each of the great religions has been +built upon a primitive religion formerly occupying the same ground, +it might appear that we must, in order to understand any of the great +religions, study first, in each case, the savage system which it +superseded. It would be a serious prospect for the student if he had +to make a separate study of a set of savage beliefs as an approach to +each of the ten or twelve great religions. But this, as we shall see +afterwards, is not the case. There is a great family likeness in the +religions of savages, and we may even allow ourselves to speak not of +the religions but of the religion of early races. In the next chapter +an attempt will be made to describe that religion; but we may say +here that there are some features which are generally, though by no +means always found in it, and that these features may be regarded for +practical purposes as the religion of the primitive world, which +everywhere was the forerunner of the great systems. This is the +jungle, as it were, overspreading all the early world, out of which +like giant trees the great religions arose, and from which they +derived and still derive a nourishment they cannot disown. Indeed, we +may go much farther. In some of their leading doctrines, the great +religions show the most striking affinity with one another. China and +Egypt have some doctrines in common which are also found in the +religion of the Incas; the Aryan and the Semitic religions know them +too. Should these doctrines be found in the religion of savages, it +will at least be a question whether the great religions all alike +borrowed and developed them from that source, or whether any other +explanation of the case can be found. Evidently we cannot make any +progress with our subject till we have taken a general view of this +religion of savages and come to some conclusions regarding it. + +A few words must be said, by way of preface to this subject, on the +mental habits of early races. We cannot hope to understand the +thoughts of those people without knowing how they came to have such +thoughts, how they were accustomed to think. Now of the savage we may +say that he is just like a child who has not yet learned to think +correctly, or to know things truly. He is making all kinds of +experiments in thought, and being led into all sorts of errors and +confusion; and if the child takes years, the savage may take +millenniums, to get free from these. He does not know the difference +between one thing and another, between himself and the lower animals, +or between an animal and a water-spout. He does not know how far +things are away from him, nor what makes them move and act as they +do; why, for example, the sun and moon go round the sky, or why the +wind blows. He cannot tell why things have this or that peculiar +appearance; why, for example, the rabbit has no tail, why the sky is +red in the morning, why some stones are like men. And he wants to +know all these things, and is for ever asking questions. But almost +any answer will do for him, the first explanation that turns up is +accepted; and while a child finds out pretty soon if he has been told +wrong, the savage is so ignorant that he cannot see the absurdest +explanation to be false, but sticks to it seriously and goes on using +it. There is no consistency in the contents of his mind, and +inconsistency does not distress him. He has no classes and orders of +things, but considers each thing by itself as it occurs, without +putting it in its place with reference to other things. He has no +idea of what is possible and what is impossible; these words in fact +would have no meaning for him, since he is not aware of any laws by +which events are governed. His imagination, accordingly, is not under +any restraint; he hits upon all kinds of grotesque theories, and, +having no critical faculty to test them, he repeats them and +seriously believes them. The stories of the nursery, in which there +are no impossibilities, in which a man may visit the sun and the +winds in their homes and find them at their broth, in which the +beasts can speak, in which the witch or the fairy knows at any +distance what is going on and can turn up just at the nick of time, +in which ghosts walk, in which anything can be changed into anything, +a hero going through half a dozen transformations to escape from so +many dangers,--these are to the savage not incredible nor foolish +tales, to him they are very real, and very serious matters. He lives, +in fact, we are told by the authorities on the subject, in the +myth-making period of the world; in the period when such incidents as +occur in the tales of fairyland and in the stories of mythology are +matter of common belief, and even, it is thought, of common +experience, so that when the story is put in a good form, it lives +and is believed as a true record of what has actually taken place. + +On one feature of the savage imagination in particular we must fix +our attention. The savage regards all things as animated,--as +animated with a life like his own. Of his own life he has no very +exalted idea; he has no notion how different he really is from +anything around him; as he is himself, so he supposes other beings to +be also, not only the animals but the trees and all that moves and +even what does not move, even rocks and stones. He is living himself; +he regards all these as living too. He imagines them like himself, +and supposes them to have feelings and passions like his own, to +reason as he does, and even if he is told they speak as he does, that +is not incredible to him. Thus he lives in a world of infinite +confusion, in which there are no laws, no classes of beings, no means +of knowing what may happen, or of verifying any statement, where +every effort of fancy may be believed. The mental world of savages +has been compared to the ravings of a whole world turned lunatic. We +survey it, however, without horror, because we know that reason is +not unseated there, but striving towards her kingdom. That is the +experience that had to be gone through, these are part of the +experiments, such as every child has still to make, by which the +knowledge of the world is gradually arrived at. + +Amid this apparent universal confusion a certain consistency of view +is to be observed. It might be expected that the savage habit of +thought, acting independently in different parts of the world, would +lead to an infinite number of divergent and inconsistent views of the +nature of things and of man's place in the world. But this is not +found to be the case. Mr. Lang accounts as follows for the diffusion +of the same stories all over the world: "An ancient identity of +mental status, and the working of similar mental forces at the +attempt to explain the same phenomena, will account without any +theory of borrowing, or of transmission of myth, or of original unity +of race, for the world-wide diffusion of many mythical conceptions." +Mr. Tylor says that the same imaginative processes regularly recur, +that world-wide myths show the regularity and the consistency of the +human imagination. M. Reville, in his _Religions des peuples +non-civilises_, remarks that the character of savage religions is +everywhere the same; that only the forms vary. + +Now of the things that all savages possess, certainly religion is +one. It is practically agreed that religion, the belief in and +worship of gods, is universal at the savage stage; and the accounts +which some travellers have given of tribes without religion are +either set down to misunderstanding, or are thought to be +insufficient to invalidate the assertion that religion is a universal +feature of savage life. + +How did it get there? How comes it that men so near the lowest human +state, so devoid of all that has been since acquired, should yet be +found to have this mode of thought universally diffused among them? + +It has been ascribed to a primitive revelation. At the beginning, it +is said, God, with the other gifts He gave to man, gave him religion; +that is to say, gave him not only a disposition for reverence and +piety, but a certain amount of religious knowledge, so that he set +out with a stock of religious ideas which were not elaborated by his +own efforts, but bestowed on him ready made. It is impossible, +however, to conceive how this could be done. If the religion given at +first was a lofty and pure one,--and no other need be thought of in +such a connection,--then it implies a condition of human life far +above the struggles and uncertainties of savage existence; and both +the civilisation and the religion must have been lost afterwards. But +how could all mankind forget a pure religion? Mankind in that case +cannot have been fit for the possession of it; it was given +prematurely. No. The history of early civilisation is the history of +a struggle in which man has everything to conquer, and in which he is +not remembering something he had lost, but advancing by new routes to +a land he never reached before. And if civilisation was won for the +first time, so was religion. + +We may also put aside the theory that man had religion from the first +as an innate idea, that he found information all ready and prepared +in his mind of what it was proper to do in this direction, and how it +was to be done. There was indeed a suggestion from within; but it was +due not to any special faculty lying outside the essential structure +of human nature, but to the constitution of the human mind itself. We +cannot go into the philosophical question of the basis of religion in +the human mind.[2] It would seem to be a psychological necessity. At +all stages of his existence the world of which man is aware outside +him, and the world of feelings and desires within him are in +conflict. But the conviction lives within him that in some way they +can be brought into harmony, and that a power exists which rules in +both of these discordant realms and in which, if he can identify +himself with it, he also will escape from their discord. If this be +so, then this necessity to seek after a higher power must have begun +to operate as soon as human consciousness appeared. The savage +certainly was never unacquainted with the discrepancy between what he +wanted and what the world would give him, between the inner man so +full of desires and plans, and that outward nature which denied him +his desires and thwarted his plans, and before which he felt so +feeble and insecure. He also could not but be driven, if his life was +to go on at all on any tolerable basis, to believe in something that +had to do both with the world outside him and with the world of his +heart, in a being which both had sympathy with his desires and power +to give effect to them outwardly. + +[Footnote 2: See on this subject Prof. Edward Caird's Gifford +Lectures, _The Evolution of Religion_, 1893. Galloway, _The +Principles of Religious Development_.] + +The whole of the early world did entertain such a belief. This is the +first and the most important instance of uniformity of thought at a +stage through which every nation once passed; all men at that stage +believe in gods. We will not refuse the name of religion to this side +of savage life, even should the needs be low and material which send +the savage to his god, though his god be a being who in us would +excite the very opposite of reverence, and though his treatment of +his god be far from what to us seems worthy, or even though he strove +to appease a multitude of spirits which he conceived as flitting +about him, before he came to form a settled relation of confidence +with one being whom he took for his own god. Where the sense of need +has sent a human being to hold intercourse with a higher power, there +we hold religion is making its appearance. And if this is universally +the case among men at the savage stage, then religion is universal +among the ancestors of all nations; it did not need to be invented +when kings and priests appeared and wanted it as an instrument for +their own purposes; it was there before there were any kings or +priests, and is an inheritance which has come down to all mankind +from the time when human intelligence first turned to the effort to +understand the world. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_For this and the three following chapters_ + +J. B. Tylor, _Anthropology_, Third Edition, 1891. + +J. B. Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, Fourth Edition, 1903. + +Frazer, _The Golden Bough_, Third Edition, 1900. A new edition is now +appearing in parts. + +A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, new edition, 1899. + +Th. Achelis, in De la Saussaye. + +Waitz und Gerland, _Anthropologie der Naturvoelker_, 1859-72. + +Brinton, _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, 1897. + +The reports of travellers and missionaries are, of course, important. + + + + +CHAPTER III +THE EARLIEST OBJECTS OF WORSHIP + + +We must now make some attempt to set forth the principal features of +the religion of savages. It is an attempt of some difficulty; for +savage religion is an immense and bewildering jungle of all manner of +extraordinary growths. It is described in detail in large books and +if we try to sum it up in a short statement, we may be told that +essential features have been omitted. No one set of savages has +anything that can be called a system, and different sets of savages +are not alike. For the present purpose we are obliged to include +under the name, tribes who occupy various positions in the scale of +human advancement, and tribes in all sorts of geographical positions, +in hot climates and in cold, both rude savages and those who are +nobler; and these will, of course, have a variety of ideas and needs, +and in so far, different religions. After reading such a book as Mr. +Frazer's _Golden Bough_, or turning over the pages of Waitz and +Gerland's _Anthropologie der Naturvoelker_, one is inclined to regard +it as a hopeless task to reduce savage religion to any compact +statement. + +Mr. Tylor's orderly collections, in his great book _Primitive +Culture_, of materials bearing on different features of early +religion are a help for which the student cannot be sufficiently +thankful. After all, it is not the whole of savage religion that we +are responsible for here, but only those parts of it that grew and +survived in higher faiths. Remembering what has been said as to the +uniformity of savage thought amid its great variety of forms, and +looking for those parts of it which have proved to have life in them, +rather than for what is merely curious and grotesque, we may venture +on our task not without hope. In the present chapter we shall inquire +what beings savages worship as gods. Of these we shall find that +there are several classes; and it will be necessary to notice the +great discussions which have arisen on the question which of these +classes of deities was first worshipped by man. The objects +worshipped by men in low stages of civilisation may be arranged in +four classes, viz.-- + + 1. Parts of nature (_a_) great, (_b_) small. + 2. Spirits of ancestors and other spirits. + 3. Objects supposed to be haunted by spirits (fetish-worship). + 4. A Supreme Being. + +1. Nature-worship.--It is not difficult to realise why early man +turned to the great elements of nature as beings who could help him, +and whom he ought, therefore, to cultivate. The farther we go back in +civilisation, the less protection has man against the weather, the +more do his subsistence and his comfort depend on the action of the +sun, the winds, the rain. If, according to the habits of early +thought, he conceived these beings as living like himself and as +guided by feelings and motives similar to his own, he could not fail +to wish to open up communication with them. That simple view, that +they were living beings with feelings like his own, was enough to go +upon. In his anxieties for food or warmth he could not fail to think +of the beings who, he had observed, had power to supply him with +these comforts, of the rain which he had noticed was able to make +food grow, of the sun whose warmth he knew. The thunderstorm was a +being who had power to put an end to a long drought; the winds could +break the trees, could dry up the wet earth, or could bring rain. +Heaven was over all, and the Earth was the supporter and fertile +producer of all; from her all life came. The moon as well as the sun +was a friendly power, nay, in some climates, more friendly. Fire was +a living being certainly, on whom much depended; and so was the great +lake or the ocean. This is what M. Reville calls the great +Nature-worship, in comparison with the minor Nature-worship to be +noticed presently. + +We do not now enter on the subject of mythology; that is to say, of +the names men very early began to give to the great natural objects +of worship, the characters they ascribed to them, the stories they +told about them. That process of myth-making began very early, and is +to be found at work in every part of the world. But at first it was +simply the natural being itself, conceived as living, that was +worshipped, not a spirit or a person thought to dwell in it. Of this, +abundant evidence has survived in the great religions. Jupiter is +just the sky, the Greek god Helios is just the sun, and the goddess +Selene the moon. In China heaven itself is worshipped to this day. +The Babylonians worshipped the stars. The Vedic gods are primarily +the elements. From savage life examples of this earliest state of +matters can also be quoted, though mythology has nearly everywhere +greatly confused it. The Mincopies adore the sun as a beneficent +deity, the moon as an inferior god. To the Natchez the sun is the +supreme god; with some tribes of North America the chief god is +heaven blowing, the sky with a wind in it, what Longfellow calls the +"Great Spirit" or blowing. The Incas invoked together the Creator and +the Sun and Thunder. Thunder was one of the great gods of the +Germans. The Samoyede bows to the Sun every morning and every evening +and says. "When thou arisest I also arise; when thou settest I also +betake myself to rest." To the Ojibways Fire is a divine being, to be +well entertained, with whom no liberties must be taken. In every land +men are to be found who worship the Earth as a great deity, calling +her by her own name and serving her with suitable rites. In the +_Prometheus_ of Aeschylus the hero addresses his appeal as follows to +the beings he regards as gods of old race who will sympathise with +him against the upstart Zeus:-- + + Ether of Heaven and Winds untired of wing, + Rivers whose fountains fail not, and thou Sea, + Laughing in waves innumerable! O Earth, + All-mother!--Yea and on the Sun I call, + Whose orb scans all things; look on me and see + How I, a god, am wronged by gods. + _Lewis Campbell_, line 85 _sq_. + +The minor Nature-worship has to do with rivers and springs, with +trees and groves, with crops and fruits, with rocks and stones, and +with the lower animals. Here also we must bear in mind the habit of +mind of early man, who regarded all things as animated and as like +himself. It was not necessary for one who thought in this way to +suppose that the spring was haunted by a nymph or the oak inhabited +by a dryad, before he felt that the spring or the oak had a claim on +him, and brought offerings to secure their friendship. The Nile and +the Ganges did not become sacred by having a mythical being added to +them as their spirit; they were themselves sacred beings. Every +country is studded with names which reveal to the scholar the +primeval sanctity of the spots they belong to; the mountain, the +grove, and the individual tree, the rocky gorge, the rock, the grassy +knoll, each was once an object of reverence. Britain is full of +sacred wells, which once received prayers and offerings. There is no +animal that has not once been worshipped. A marked feature of +primitive life also is the worship of nature not in its particular +objects but in its living processes. In a multitude of curious rites, +some of which still survive in local usages, and have only recently +been explained, primitive man brought himself into relations with +nature in its growth, decay, and resurrection. He sympathised with it +and imitated it, and he thus sought to make himself sure of the +benefits which he saw bestowed by some power which he apprehended in +its processes and believed able to further him. + +2. Ancestor-worship.--A set of beings of a very different kind comes +next. If man found in the world which he beheld outside him a number +of objects he could make gods, his domestic experience forced him to +consider certain beings of a different kind, of whom the outward +world could tell him nothing. The worship of the dead, of ancestors, +is diffused throughout nearly the whole of antiquity, it is practised +by most savages. Man at an early stage does not fully realise the +meaning of death. He interprets death after the analogy of dreams, in +which he judges that the spirit leaves the body and traverses distant +regions, coming back to the body again when the journey is ended. A +vision is to him an instance of the same thing. He sees a friend, +who, he afterwards learns, was far from him at the time, and he +judges that it was the spirit of his friend which visited him. Thus +there arises in his mind the conception of a human spirit which is +able to leave the body and dwell at a distance from it. It is called +by various names,--the shade, the image, the heart, as perhaps when +Elisha says his heart went with Gehazi when he went to meet Naaman +the Syrian (2 Kings v. 26), the breath, the soul. When the breath or +spirit goes away and stays away (in spite of efforts made to bring it +back) the man dies. But the spirit is not dead. It has gone away and +is staying somewhere else. The spirit resembles the body in shape, +but it is of a thin and light consistence, and is able to move about +and to pass through the smallest openings, to make unpleasant noises, +and to cause its presence to be felt in a variety of ways. In the +very earliest times, the savage regards the spirit which has left the +house as an enemy, and uses a variety of precautions to keep it from +coming back to trouble him (vampires, ghosts, _lemures_). Whether +from such fear or from more liberal motives, much is done to please +the spirits of the departed and to increase their comfort in the +abodes to which they have gone. At their burial or cremation all they +may be supposed to want where they are going, _i.e._ the things they +used on earth, are made to accompany them; food and weapons are +placed beside them; servants are killed whose spirits are to wait on +them, even a wife, voluntarily or without being asked, gives up her +earthly life to accompany her husband. Offerings of food and drink +are made to them afterwards, prayers are addressed to them, memorials +of them, of various kinds, are preserved in the houses they occupied. + +It was the universal belief of the early world that the person +continued to exist after the death of the body; and this furnished +the materials for a religion which was more widely prevalent in +antiquity than the worship of any god. In some forms of it, indeed, +the spirit appears to have been treated as an enemy, and this worship +might be judged to fall short of religion, which is the cultivation, +not the avoidance, of intercourse with higher powers. The savage has +no hope from the spirit, and does not seek his intercourse. But in +most forms of the belief in the continued life of the departed, other +sentiments than fear prevail; natural affection is felt for the lost +relative; the ancestor represents the family, to which the individual +is called to subordinate and to some extent even to sacrifice +himself; the spirit of the dead is the upholder of a family tradition +which the living must hold sacred. Even in those cases in which +nothing but fear is apparent, these latter sentiments may also be to +some extent operative. + +3. Fetish-worship.--The early world has still another kind of deity. +In the case of all those we have considered, the god stands in some +respect above the worshipper; man reverences the sun, spirit, or +animal, for some quality in them that is admirable or that gives them +a hold over him; they are in some ways beyond him. Among certain sets +of savages, however, notably in South Africa, this feature of +religion partially disappears, and objects are reverenced not for any +intrinsic quality in them that makes them worthy of regard, but +because of a spirit which is supposed to be connected with them. +Stones, trees, twigs, pieces of bark, roots, corn, claws of birds, +teeth, skin, feathers, articles of human manufacture, any conceivable +object, will be held in reverence by the savage and regarded as +embodying a spirit. Anything that strikes his fancy as being out of +the common he will take up and add to his museum of objects, each of +which has in it a hidden power. That power, be it repeated, is not +connected with the natural quality of the object, but is due to a +spirit which has come to reside in it, and which may very possibly +leave it again. Having chosen this deity and set it up for worship, +the man can use it as he thinks fit. He addresses prayers to it and +extols its virtues; but should his enterprise not prosper, he will +cast his deity aside as useless, and cease to worship it; he will +address it with torrents of abuse, and will even beat it, to make it +serve him better. It is a deity at his disposal, to serve in the +accomplishment of his desires; the individual keeps gods of his own +to help him in his undertakings. + +The name "fetishism," by which this kind of worship is known, is of +Portuguese origin; it is derived from _feitico_, "made," "artificial" +(compare the old English _fetys_, used by Chaucer); and this term, +used of the charms and amulets worn in the Roman Catholic religion of +the period, was applied by the Portuguese sailors of the eighteenth +century to the deities they saw worshipped by the negroes of the West +Coast of Africa. De Brosses, a French savant of last century, brought +the word fetishism into use as a term for the type of religion of the +lowest races. The word has given rise to some confusion, having been +applied by Comte and other writers to the worship of the heavenly +bodies and of the great features of nature. It is best to limit it, +as has been done above, to the worship of such natural objects as are +reverenced not for their own power or excellence but because they are +supposed to be occupied each by a spirit. + +Can this be called religion? In the full sense of the term it cannot. +We should remember that it is not the casual object, but the spirit +connected with it that the savage worships; but even then we shall be +obliged to hold that the fetish worshipper is rather seeking after +religion than actually in possession of it. + +4. A Supreme Being.--Is it necessary to add another class of deity to +these three, and to say that besides nature-gods and spirits early +man also worshipped a Supreme Being above all these? In most savage +religions there is a principal deity to whom the others are +subordinate. But if we carefully examine one by one the supreme gods +of these religions, we shall find reason to doubt whether they really +have a common character so as to form a class by themselves. Many of +them are nature gods who have outgrown the other deities of that +class and come to occupy an isolated position. The North American +Indians, as we saw, worship the Great Spirit, the heaven with its +breath, to whom sun and moon and other ordinances of nature act as +ministers. In many cases heaven is the highest god. In others again +the sun is supreme. Ukko the great god of the Finns is a heaven- and +rain-god. Perkunas the god of the Lithuanians is connected with +thunder. On the other hand there are instances in which the supreme +god appears to be a different being from the nature-god. The +Samoyedes worship the sun and moon and the spirits of other parts of +nature; but they also believe in a good spirit who is above all. The +Supreme Being of the islands of the Pacific bears in New Zealand the +name of Tangaroa, and is spoken of in quite metaphysical terms as the +uncreated and eternal Creator. Here we may suspect Christian +influence. With the Zulus Unkulunkulu the Old-old one might be +supposed to be a kind of first cause. But on looking nearer we find +he is distinctly a man, the first man, the common ancestor; beyond +which idea speculation does not seem to go. Among many North American +tribes it is usual to find an animal the chief deity, the hare or the +musk-rat or the coyote. It is very common to find in savage beliefs a +vague far-off god who is at the back of all the others, takes little +part in the management of things, and receives little worship. But it +is impossible to judge what that being was at an earlier time; he may +have been a nature-god or a spirit who has by degrees grown faint and +come to occupy this position. We cannot judge from the supreme beings +of savages, such as they are, that the belief in a supreme being was +generally diffused in the world[1] in the earliest times, and is not +to be derived from any of the processes from which the other gods +arose. We shall see afterwards how natural the tendency is which, +where there are several gods, brings one of them to the front while +the others lose importance. For a theory of primitive monotheism the +supreme gods of savages certainly do not furnish sufficient evidence; +they do not appear to have sprung all from the same source, but to +have advanced from very different quarters to the supreme position, +in obedience to that native instinct of man's mind which causes him, +even when he believes in many gods, to make one of them supreme. + +[Footnote 1: _Cf._ A. Lang, _The Making of Religion_ (1898); +Galloway, _Studies in the Philosophy of Religion_ (1904), p. 123, +_sqq._] + +Which Gods were First Worshipped?--If then early man formed his gods +from parts of nature and from spirits of departed ancestors or +heroes, and even, should the more backward races now existing +represent a stage of human life belonging to the early world, from +spirits residing in outward objects, which of these is the original +root of all the religions of the world? The claim has been made for +each of these kinds of religion, that it came first. + +1. Fetish-gods came First.--Till recently the view prevailed that all +the religion of the world has sprung out of fetishism. First the +savage took for his god some casual object, as we have described, +then he chose higher objects, trees and mountains, rivers and lakes, +and even the sun and stars. The heavens at last became his supreme +fetish, and at a higher level, when he had learned about spirits, he +would make a spirit his fetish, and so at last come to Monotheism. + +This view is attractive because it places the beginning of religion +in the lowest known form of it and thus makes for the belief that the +course of the world's faith has been upward from the first. But it +presents the gravest difficulties; for why should the savage make a +god of a stick or a stone, and attribute to it supernatural powers? +Who told him about a god, that he should call a stick god, or about +supernatural powers, that he should suppose a stick to work wonders? +There is nothing in the stick to suggest such notions; that he should +make gods in this way, that the belief in wonderful powers should +originate in this way, is surely quite incredible. Much more likely +is it, surely, that he got the notion of God from some other quarter +and applied it in his own grotesque and degraded way; than that the +notion of God was taken first from such poor forms and applied +afterwards to objects better suited to it. Religion and civilisation +go hand in hand, and if civilisation can decay (and leading +anthropologists declare that the debased tribes of Australia and West +Africa show signs of a higher civilisation they have lost) then +religion also may decay. A lower race may borrow religious ideas from +a higher and adapt them to their own position, _i.e._ degrade them. +And the progress of religion may still have been upwards on the +whole, although retrograde movements have taken place in certain +races. On these and other grounds it is now held with growing +certainty that fetishism cannot be the original form of religion, and +that the higher stages of it are not to be derived from that one. The +races among whom fetishism is found exhibit a well-known feature of +the decadence of religion, namely that the great god or gods have +grown weak and faint, and smaller gods and spirits have crowded in to +fill up the blank thus caused. Worship is transferred from the great +beings who are the original gods of the tribe and whom it still +professes in a vague way to believe, to numerous smaller beings, and +from the good gods to the bad. + +2. Spirits, Human or Quasi-human, came First.--Is the worship of +spirits then the original form of religions. This has been powerfully +maintained in this country by Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. Tylor. +According to Mr. Spencer "the rudimentary form of all religion is the +propitiation of dead ancestors." Men concluded, as soon as they were +capable of such reasoning, that the life they witnessed in plants and +animals, in sun and moon and other parts of nature, was due to their +being inhabited by the spirits of departed men. With all respect for +the splendid exposition given by Mr. Spencer[2] of the early beliefs +of mankind regarding spirits, it is impossible to think that he has +made out his case when he treats the gods of early India and of +Greece as deified ancestors. If the natural incredulity we feel at +being told that Jupiter, Indra, the sun, the sacred mountain, and the +stars all alike came to be worshipped because each of them +represented some departed human hero, is not at once decisive, we +have only to wait a little to see whether some other theory cannot +account for these gods in a simpler way. + +[Footnote 2: _Sociology_, vol. i. Also _Ecclesiastical Institutions_, +p. 675; "ghost-propitiation is the origin of all religions."] + +Mr. Tylor also derives all religion from the worship of spirits, but +in a different way. His is the most comprehensive system of Animism, +using that term in the narrower sense of soul-worship. Starting from +the doctrine of souls, reached by early man in the way described +above (p. 33, _sqq._), he argues that when once this notion was +reached it would be applied to other beings as well as man. Not +having learned to distinguish himself clearly from other beings, man +would judge that they had souls like his own; and so every part of +nature came to have its soul, and everything that went on in the +universe was to be explained as the activity of souls. It was in this +way, according to Mr. Tylor, that the view of the universal animation +of nature, characteristic of early thought, was reached. "As the +human body was held to live and act by virtue of its own inhabiting +spirit-soul, so the operations of the world seemed to be carried on +by other spirits." At this point the soul is an unsubstantial essence +inhabiting a body, it has its life and activity only in connection +with the body; but the step was easily taken to the further belief in +spirits like the souls, but not attached to any body. The spirits +moved about freely, like the genii, demons, fairies, and beings of +all kinds, with whom to the mind of antiquity the world was so +crowded. + +Three classes of spirits we have up to this point: those of +ancestors, those attached to the various parts of the life of nature, +and those existing independently. Can the higher nature-deities be +accounted for by this theory as well as the minor spirits of the +parts of nature? Mr. Tylor considers that they can; he declares that +the "higher deities of polytheism have their place in the general +animistic system of mankind." He acknowledges that, with few +exceptions, great gods have a place as well as smaller gods in every +non-civilised system of religion. But in origin and essence he holds +they are the same. "The difference is rather of rank than of nature." +As chiefs and kings are among men so are the great gods among the +lesser spirits. The sun, the heavens, the stars, are living beings, +because they have spirits as man has a soul, or as a spring has a +spirit that haunts it. Thus in the doctrine of souls is found the +origin of the whole of early religion. Mr. Tylor confesses, however, +that it is impossible to trace the process by which the doctrine of +souls gave rise to the belief in the great gods. + +The weakness of this view is that it involves a denial that the great +powers of nature could be worshipped before the process of reasoning +had been completed which led to the belief that they had souls or +spirits. But how did early man regard these great powers before this? +Did they not appear to him adorable by the very impressions they made +upon his various senses? Did he really need to argue out the belief +that they had souls, before he felt drawn to wonder at them, and to +seek to enter into relations with them? + +Animism.--The word Animism, it should here be noticed, is used in the +study of religions in a wider sense than that of Mr. Tylor. Many of +the great religions are known to have arisen out of a primitive +worship of spirits and to have advanced from that stage to a +worship of gods. The god differs from the spirit in having a marked +personal character, while the spirits form a vague and somewhat +undistinguishable crowd; in having a regular _clientele_ of +worshippers, whereas the spirit is only served by those who need to +communicate with him; in having therefore a regular worship, while +the spirit is only worshipped when the occasion arises; and in being +served from feelings of attachment and trust, and not like the +spirits from fear. When gods appear, some writers hold, then and not +till then does religion begin; before that point is reached magic and +exorcism are the forms used for addressing the unseen beings, but +when it is reached we have worship; intercourse is deliberately +sought with beings who hold regular relations with man. The word +Animism is best employed to denote the worship of spirits as +distinguished from that of gods. Whether or not early man derived his +belief in the multitude of spirits by which he believed himself to be +surrounded, from his belief in the separable human soul, there is no +doubt that he did consider himself to be so surrounded. Animism in +this sense is undoubtedly the beginning of some at least of the great +religions. + +3. The Minor Nature-worship came First.--M. Reville holds[3] that the +tree and the river and other such beings were the first gods, and +that the deification of the great powers of nature came afterwards as +an extension of the same principle. Mr. Max Mueller seems to share +this view when he says that man was led from the worship of +semi-tangible objects, which provided him with semi-deities, to that +of intangible objects, which gave him deities proper. The Germans, as +a rule, hold the view that the great nature-worship came first, and +that the sanctity of the tree and the river came to them from above, +these objects being regarded as lesser living beings deserving to be +worshipped as well as the greater ones. The English school let the +sanctity of these objects come to them as it were from below; when +man has come to believe in spirits, he concludes that they have +spirits too, and worships the spirits he supposes to dwell in them. +It does not seem that these theories are entirely exclusive of each +other. French writers suppose that the minor nature-worship first +sprang up of itself, half-animal man respecting the animals as +rivals, the trees as fruit-bearers for his hunger, and so on, and +that spirits were added to these beings when the great animistic +movement of thought in which these writers believe took place, of +course at a very early period.[4] + +[Footnote 3: Reville, _Histoire des religions des peuples +non-civilises_, ii. 225.] + +[Footnote 4: This view is the basis of M. Andre Lefevre's _La +Religion_. Paris, 1892.] + +4. The Great Nature-powers came First.--We come in the last place to +that class of deities which we spoke of first--the powers of nature. +By several great writers it is held that the worship of these is the +original form of all religion. We shall give two of the leading +theories on the subject, that of Mr. Max Mueller and that of Ed. von +Hartmann. + +Mr. Max Mueller has written very strongly against the view that +fetishism is a primary form of religion, and holds that the worship +of casual objects is not a stage of religion once universally +prevalent, but is, on the contrary, a parasitical development and of +accidental origin. He does not tell us what the original religion of +mankind was. The work in which he deals most directly with this +question[5] is concerned chiefly with the Indian faith, the early +stages of which he regards as the most typical instance of the growth +of religion generally. He does not, however, tell us definitely out +of what earlier kind of religion that of the Aryans grew, which India +best teaches us to know, or what religion they had before they +developed that of the Vedic hymns. We may infer, however, what his +view on this point is from the very interesting sketch he draws of +the psychological advance man could make, in selecting objects of +reverence, from one class of things to another (p. 179, _sqq._). +First, there are tangible objects, which, however, Mr. Max Mueller +denies that mankind as a whole ever did worship; such things as +stones, shells, and bones. Then second, semi-tangible objects; such +as trees, mountains, rivers, the sea, the earth, which supply the +material for what may be called _semi-deities_. And third, intangible +objects, such as the sky, the stars, the sun, the dawn, the moon; in +these are to be seen the germs of _deities_. At each of these stages +man is seeking not for something finite but for the infinite; from +the first he has a presentiment of something far beyond; he grasps +successive objects of worship not for themselves but for what they +seem to tell of, though it is not there, and this sense of the +infinite, even in poor and inadequate beliefs, is the germ of +religion in him. When he rises after his long journey to fix his +regards on the great powers of nature, he apprehends in them +something great and transcendent. He applies to them great titles; he +calls them _devas_, shining ones; _asuras_, living ones; and, at +length, _amartas_, immortal ones. At first these were no more than +descriptive titles, applied to the great visible phenomena of nature +as a class. They expressed the admiration and wonder the young mind +of man felt itself compelled to pay to these magnificent beings. But +by giving them these names he was led instinctively to regard them as +persons; he ascribed to them human attributes and dramatic actions, +so that they became definite, transcendent, living personalities. In +these, more than in any former objects of his adoration, his craving +for the infinite was satisfied. Thus the ancient Aryan advanced, +"from the visible to the invisible, from the bright beings that could +be touched, like the river that could be seen, like the thunder that +could be heard, like the sun, to the devas that could no longer be +touched or heard or seen.... The way was traced out by nature +herself." + +[Footnote 5: _Lectures on the Origin of Religion_, 1882.] + +This famous theory is, when we come to examine it, rather puzzling. +It does not account for the first beginnings of religion except by +inference, and it does so in two contradictory ways; for, on the one +hand, Mr. Max Mueller enumerates tangible objects first as those from +which men rose to higher objects, and on the other he denies that +fetishism is a primitive formation. He suggests that there were +earlier gods than the devas, but he tells us nothing about them, +except that they were not fully deities; they were only semi-deities, +or not deities at all. The worship of spirits he leaves entirely out +of consideration; religion did not, in his view, begin with Animism. +When he does tell us of the beginnings of religion, what is his view? +The religion of the Aryans began, and it is a type--the other +religions presumably began in the same way, _e.g._ those of China and +of Egypt--by the impression made on man from without by great natural +objects co-operating with his inner presentiment of the infinite, +which they met to a greater degree than any objects he had tried +before. Religion was due accordingly to aesthetic impressions from +without, answering an aesthetic and intellectual inner need. Those +needs, then, which led men to make gods of the great powers of earth +and heaven were not of an animal or material nature, but belonged to +the intellectual part of his constitution. Those who framed such a +religion for themselves must have been raised above the pressing +necessities and cares of savage life; they were not absorbed in the +task of making their living, but had leisure to stand and admire the +heavenly bodies, and to analyse the impressions made on them by the +waters and the thunder. Nay, they had sufficient power of abstraction +to form a class of such great beings, to bestow on them a common +title, not only one but several progressive common titles, each +expressing a deeper reflection than the last. Thus did they reflect +on the nature of the cosmic powers, taken as a class. This, +evidently, is not the beginning of religion. It is the religion of a +comparatively lofty civilisation; lower stages of civilisation, and +of religion also, must have preceded this one. Even the heavenly +bodies, it appears to many scholars, must have been worshipped by men +who regarded them not with aesthetic admiration and intellectual +satisfaction only, but in the light of more pressing and practical +interests. + +We take Edward von Hartmann as the representative of those who, like +Mr. Max Mueller, trace the origin of religion to the worship of the +heavenly powers, but who carry back that worship to the earliest +stage. Writers who disagree with his philosophy take grave exception +to his treatment of religion, for he regards religion, as he +considers consciousness itself, not as an original and inseparable +element of human nature, but as a thing acquired by man on his way +upwards; and he finds the original motive of religion to have lain in +egoistic eudaemonism, in the selfish desire of happiness, which at +that stage of man's life determined all his actions. The account, +however, given by Von Hartmann of the beginning of religion in the +adoration of the powers of nature is of singular freshness and power, +and we can deduct from it, after stating it, the peculiarities +arising out of his philosophical system. + +The first religion that existed in the world had for its objects the +heavenly powers. The objects worshipped are known, indeed, before +religion begins; the illusions of early thought have settled on the +heavenly powers before they are worshipped; on the outward object the +mind has conferred the character of a living and acting being, which +it is henceforth to wear. This transformation, poetic fancy, not mere +logic and not merely utilitarian considerations, has brought about. +But religion only begins when man sets himself to worship these +beings, and to this he is driven by his material needs. Religion +begins in a being as yet without religion and without morality. The +need for food is the motive that brings about the change, for that +pure egoist early man has seen that the powers of nature are able to +help or hinder him in his search for a living; the sun can set his +plants growing or can burn them up, and the thunderstorm can revive +them. His happiness depends on these powers, and he seeks to set up +relations with them. He seeks to gain as an ally the heavenly power +who is so able to further or to thwart his aims; he makes known to it +his wishes by calling upon it, and he offers presents to it. He +worships the heavenly powers, and religion has begun. Worship lends +to these powers, though they were known before, a fixity and reality +they did not formerly possess. Von Hartmann is inclined to trace all +the various worships of these powers, which have prevailed in the +most different parts of the earth, to the same original centre, while +at the same time he maintains that even if all the instances of this +worship cannot be referred to any common origin, it must have arisen +in this way, wherever men of the same nature dwelt; the psychological +necessity of this development accounts for the appearance of this +same religion in different lands and among dissimilar races. + +The worship of the heavenly powers, accordingly, is with this writer +the original religion. While admitting that the worship of domestic +spirits grew up in the way described by the English anthropologists, +he denies that Animism is ever a religion by itself without being +combined with higher beliefs. He denies also that fetishism could +ever be an original religious product, or that men could ever pass +from having no religion to the religion of fetishism. Wherever it +appears, it is a religion of decay. All the religion in the world has +come from the worship of nature, which, whether arising at one centre +or at several, spread over the world, and is to be recognised, +clearly or dimly, in the religions of all lands. + +This view of the origin of religion is shared in the main by Otto +Pfleiderer,[6] and other German writers. It was from the impressions +made on man by the powers of nature, these scholars hold, and not +from his belief in spirits, that his religion came. But it was not +necessarily due to pure egoism, as Von Hartmann represents; the +earliest religions need not, they hold, have been a mere attempt at +bribery. The motives which first caused man to worship the heavenly +powers surely arose from other needs than that for food alone. The +intellectual craving, the desire to know the nature of the world he +lived in, and to refer himself to the highest principle of it, as far +as that could be attained; the aesthetic need, the desire to have to +do with objects which filled his imagination; the moral need, the +desire not to occupy a purely isolated position, but to place himself +under some authority, and to feel some obligation, these also, though +in the dimmest way, as matters of presentiment rather than clear +consciousness, entered into the earliest worship of the heavenly +powers. This view has the great advantage over that of Von Hartmann, +that it makes the development of religion continuous from the first, +instead of representing it as being originally a purely selfish +thing, into which the character of affection and devotion only +entered at some subsequent stage. If man's nature is essentially +religious, then all that constitutes religion must have been with him +from the first, in however unconscious and undeveloped form. + +[Footnote 6: _Philosophy of Religion_, vol. iii. chap. i.] + +Conclusion.--We have enumerated the different kinds of gods +worshipped by early man--fetishes, spirits, the powers of nature. We +have found a general agreement that fetishism is not an original form +of religion, but a product of the decay of higher forms in +unfavourable conditions. As to the other two kinds of deities, it is +impossible to deny that gods have been formed from the very first in +each of these two ways. The domestic worship of the early world +cannot be derived from nature-worship, but grew out of the belief +awakened in early man, by the familiar experiences mentioned above. +That the greater nature-worship, on the other hand, can be derived +from the belief in spirits is an assertion which can never be proved, +or even made probable; that it arose from the impressions produced on +early man by the great objects and forces of nature, is a thing we +can understand and believe. The minor nature-worship is also a very +intelligible thing, even without Mr. Tylor's theory of souls to +explain it. What more natural than that the savage should worship the +great oak or the waterfall, or should think himself surrounded by +invisible beings, even if he did not frame the latter on the model of +the human soul? We arrive therefore at the conclusion that with the +exception of the doctrines about death and the abode of spirits, we +must regard the worship of nature as the root of the world's +religion. + +We must beware, however, of imputing to the thoughts of early men +about their gods, any such qualities as consistency or regularity. +The power of holding at one and the same time religious beliefs which +are inconsistent with each other, is one which even in the most +developed religions is by no means wanting; and how much more was +this the case among men who lived before there was any exact thought! +The savage could have a variety of gods of very different natures, +who formed in his mind quite a happy family. When he found a new god, +that did not oblige him to part with any old one; it was one god he +was seeking, but he could not settle on one god as yet, when there +were so many beings with a good claim to the position. He made his +gods not out of nothing, but out of a great variety of experiences +and impressions, and they acted and reacted on each other in an +endless variety of ways. One god came to the front here and another +there; an object was deified here from one reason and there from +another; new gods in time turned old and were less thought of while +forgotten gods of former days came back to memory and were worshipped +once more. Endless change, endless recurrences of growth and of decay +filled up those great spaces and periods, measureless and trackless +almost as the expanses of the ocean, that were covered by the +prehistoric life of mankind. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_, 1896. + +E. S. Hartland, in _Proceedings of Oxford Congress of the History of +Religion_, p. 21, _sqq._ + +Of the large class of books reporting the manners and beliefs of +special savage races we may specify-- + +D. G. Brinton, _The Myths of the New World_, 1896. + +W. W. Gill, _Myths and Songs from the South Pacific_, 1876. + +Kingsley, Miss, _West African Studies_, 1899. + +Callaway, _The Religious System of the Amazulu_, 1863-72. + +Duff Macdonald, _Africana, the Heart of Heathen Africa_, 1882. + +G. Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-Western +and Western Australia_, 1841. + +Spencer and Gilpen. _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, 1899. + + + + +CHAPTER IV +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--BELIEF + + +We have seen from what materials early man made his gods. As the gods +differed in their origin, they differed also from the very first in +the mode of their development. The great nature-gods gave rise to one +kind of religion, and the minor nature-gods to another, the thought +of the departed members of the household to a third. But these +various religions could not develop side by side without influencing +each other. These different worships began in the very earliest times +to get mixed up together; there is none of the great religions which +we do not find to be a combination of them. It will be well to +consider them in the first place separately. + +1. Growth of the Great Gods.--Taking them in the order we have +already followed, we come first to the great nature-worship, of which +heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, dawn and sunset, and then the +phenomena of the weather, rain, storm, and thunder and lightning, are +the objects. It cannot be too clearly borne in mind that what was +worshipped was originally the natural object itself, regarded, after +the earliest habit of thought, as living. To heaven itself, to the +sun as he rose or set, to the storm itself, men addressed prayers and +made offerings; and in many quarters, both among savages and in the +great religions, the same thing occurs to this day. + +But it was impossible for man to stop here, his imagination would not +allow him to do so. In some races, imagination was more active than +in others, but nowhere was it quite inoperative; and so it happened +that man was led, here to a greater there to a less extent, beyond +the direct and simple adoration of the powers of nature. When he +began to give them names, a first and a great step was taken in +advance of the original simplicity. A name is a power; if it is +anything more than a mere title or label, and all primitive names are +more than this, it brings with it associations of its own, and thus +men are led to ascribe to the object indicated by the name, a new +character and new powers. They proceed to argue about the name and +draw conclusions from it as to the nature of the being they worship, +and so come to think of their deity in quite a different manner. Even +to classify objects together and give them a common title, "the +bright ones," or "the living ones," as the early Aryans did, gives +them an independent position of their own, and tempts the imagination +to go further in describing them. Striving to find names for those +beings he worships and thinks about so much, early man gives them the +names of living creatures with whom he is familiar, and in this way +he brings them much nearer to himself, and at the same time appears +to himself to know a great deal more about them. The moon, for +example, has horns, the moon is a cow. Heaven is over all, heaven is +a father. And as he knows all about a cow, and all about a father, he +at once has these deities made much more real to him, they have an +independent existence to him. But, on the other hand, he has got +something more in his deity than there is in the natural object. It +is no longer the mere naked heaven or the mere moon he worships; but +these beings with additions made to them by his own imagination. + +As time goes on the additions grow more and more. Having got living +persons for his deities, early man readily goes on to weave their +histories and their relations. If the moon is a cow, the sun is a +bull chasing her round the sky. This is an instance of a principle +which obtains in many at least of the early religions and which it is +important to remember, viz. that the powers of nature were first +identified with animals. The zoomorphic stage of the nature-gods +comes before the anthropomorphic (_cf._ the signs of the zodiac), and +in many savage tribes it still survives. + +But it is when the gods begin to be thought of after the likeness of +human beings that the decisive step is made in their development. If +heaven is a father, it is easy to go on from that. Earth will be the +corresponding mother (an idea found all over the world); and all men +will be their children. If the sun is invested with a name of +masculine gender (but the sun is frequently feminine), he must do +feats becoming such a character. If the storm is a male god, he will +be a warrior or a huntsman. Thus the god acquires a personal +character and an independent movement; what is told about him has +reference, of course, to the natural object he sprang from, or the +season with which he is connected; but the deity is becoming more and +more separate from the natural object, and acquiring a character and +history of his own. The stories connected with the god vary according +to the habits and the imaginations of different peoples; in some +cases the gods remain pure and exalted beings, in others savage and +indecent myths are accumulated around them, and these primitive myths +adhere to their persons long after they themselves have felt an +upward tendency and acquired a civilised character with the moral +elevation of their peoples. We shall see in many instances how the +nature-gods were personified, made into beasts, made into men, and +surrounded with myths and legends. That is the natural history of the +nature-gods; the process through which they must pass if they grow at +all. + +Polytheism.--Another general feature of the worship of the great +natural objects has to be mentioned. Each god has a history of his +own; he has grown up separately as men concentrated their attention +upon him. But as one god grows up after another, or as the gods who +grow up in two countries are afterwards brought together, it comes to +pass that there are many of them, and none of them is necessarily +supreme. What is the worshipper to do? The least reflection will +convince us that in any act of worship man fixes his attention on one +object only. That belongs to the very nature of religion; as a child +could not treat several men at once as its father, nor a servant be +equally faithful to several masters, so man naturally tends to have +one god. He turns to the highest he knows, who is most likely to be +able to help him, and there cannot be two highests, but only one. But +man's position in the early world does not allow him to be true to +this religious instinct. As he sees one aspect of the world to-day, +and another to-morrow, he cannot, when his god is a power of nature, +always see the same god before him. But can he not worship another +god when the first one is out of sight and out of mind? Though he +worshipped heaven yesterday, can he not worship the sun to-day, or +the storm, or the great sea? And though the former generation +worshipped one of these beings in the foremost place, may not the +existing generation devote itself principally to another? That power +does not cease to be a deity which is not immediately before his +mind. It is still a deity, and in a while he will turn to it again, +and make it first. Thus it comes about by inevitable logic that when +man gets his gods from nature, he has a number of them. When he gets +a new god he does not deny the god he had before; he is not yet in a +position to conclude that there can only be one god. When he is +worshipping he feels as if there were only one; but this feeling +applies at different times to a number of different beings, and from +such inconsistency he lacks the power to free himself. The other is a +god too; all the gods he has ever worshipped he may on occasion +worship again. Nor can he refuse to recognise the gods of others; to +them no doubt they are gods, if not to him; they are beings of the +same class with his god. And thus early man is a polytheist. +Polytheism is a complex product; it is the addition to each other of +a number of cults which have grown up separately. + +In Polytheism, however, very different religious positions are +possible. Men may feel that the whole set of the gods in whose +existence they believe have claims on them, and may regard themselves +as worshippers of them all, resorting, as feeling and old association +moves them, now to one and now to another, or defining the places or +occasions at which each of them is to be sought, or in some other way +adjusting their various claims; or, on the other hand, while +believing in the existence of many gods, they may confine their +worship to one. A man knows that there are many gods, but says that +he has only to do with one of them. This is a religious position very +frequently met with in antiquity. A circle of gods is believed in, +but one of them comes into prominence at a time and is worshipped as +supreme. This is called Kathenotheism: the worship of one god at a +time. The title was invented by Mr. Max Mueller, who also gives the +title of Henotheism to that position in which many gods are believed +in as existing, but worship is given to only one. The following are +examples of the various positions:-- + + The language of Polytheism is--"Father Zeus that rulest from Ida, + most glorious, most great, and thou sun that seest all things, and + ye rivers and thou earth, and ye that in the underworld punish + whosoever sweareth falsely--be ye witnesses."--_Iliad_, iii. 280. + +The Jews at the time of Josiah were accomplished polytheists, as we +may see from the catalogue of the worships suppressed at Jerusalem by +that monarch, 2 Kings xxiii. The gods of each of the surrounding +tribes appear to have been worshipped there, and the old gods of the +separate tribes and families of Israel appear to have been kept up. + +Kathenotheism.--The Vedic poets, as we shall see, speak of the god +they are immediately addressing as supreme, and heap upon him all the +highest attributes, while not thinking of denying the divinity of +other gods. + + The language of Henotheism is--"Thou, O Jehovah, art far above all + the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods" (Ps. xcvii. 9). + "There is none like unto Thee among the gods, O Lord!... Thou art + great, and doest wondrous things: Thou art God alone" (Ps. lxxxvi. + 8, 10). Here the other gods are recognised as existing, but only + one is worshipped. Compare also St Paul: "There are gods many, and + lords many, but to us there is one God" (1 Cor. viii. 5, 6). + + The language of Monotheism is--"All the gods of the peoples are + idols: but Jehovah made the heavens" (Ps. xcvi. 5), and "Thou shalt + have no other god before Me." + +A further religious position to be noticed here is that of Dualism. +Not all dualism comes from nature-worship, but in a land where a +beneficent and a harmful natural force are in striking antagonism to +each other, this may take place. Man, when he interprets the kindly +influences of nature as the blessings of the good god, naturally +interprets the agencies which blight or ruin as being also the +manifestation of a living power, but of an evil one. Thanks to the +good god alternate, in this case, with efforts to counteract or to +appease the bad one; if the two appear to be nearly balanced, then +neither is supreme, and both overawe the mind and receive worship. +But in general we may remark that the greater nature-worship is of an +elevating tendency. It brings man into relations with powers which +are truly great, and places him even physically in the position of +looking up, not down. Where the nature-power is a harsh one, a +scorching sun, a tempestuous sea, the self-command and self-sacrifice +called out by the worship of them may be, if not carried to extremes, +a bracing discipline; but with some exceptions the nature-gods are +good, and have to do with light and with kindness. + +2. The Minor Nature-worship.--The worship of the great powers of +nature has a universal character; it can be carried on anywhere; +wandering tribes carry it with them; heaven and the sun and the winds +can be addressed in every land. The minor nature-worship differs from +it in this respect: an animal is only worshipped in the country where +it occurs, and the worship of the tree, the well, the stone, is +altogether local. With this local nature-worship the world was, in +early times, thickly overspread; and manifold survivals of it are +still to be found even in lands where the primitive religion has been +longest superseded. This is the religion of local observance and +local legend, which clings to the face of a country in spite of +public changes of creed, and, when the old religion has departed, is +found to have secured a shelter for itself in the new one. + +In this minor nature-worship which spreads its network over all the +early world, the character of primitive society is clearly +represented; the small communities have their small local +worships--each clan, almost each kraal, has its shrine, its god, and +limits itself to its own sacred things. Religion is a bond connecting +together the members of small groups of men, but separating them from +the members of other groups. The following are some of the more +important developments of this. + +(_a_) The Worship of Animals.--Primitive man had to hold his own +against the animals by force of strength and cunning; and he was well +acquainted with them. He respected them for the qualities in which +they excelled him, the hare for his swiftness, the beaver for his +skill, the fox for his craftiness. What he worshipped, however, was +not the individuals of a species, but the species as a whole, +typified perhaps in a great hare or a great fox, the mythical first +parent of the species, and possessing its qualities in a supreme +degree. It happened apparently over the whole world, with the +exception of most branches of the Aryan family, that men at a very +early stage regarded themselves as related by the tie of descent, +some to one species of animals or of plants and some to another. From +this belief tribes took their names, each member tattooing the figure +of his animal ancestor on his person. The Bechuanas, for example, are +divided into crocodile-men, fish-, ape-, buffalo-, elephant-, and +lion-men, and so on. The hairy or scaly ancestor is the "totem" of +the tribe, and they consider that animal sacred, and will not eat the +flesh of it. All who bear the same totem regard each other as of +kindred blood, as descended from the same ancestor. The totem may +also be a vegetable, in which case no member of the stock will gather +or eat it. + +Totemism is to be seen in operation at the present day in various +parts of the world. North America is, perhaps, its classic land in +modern times. It is, however, a stage of society through which all +races have at one time or another passed. According to the latest +investigations totemism is not to be regarded as itself a religion; +the totem being regarded not as a superior but as an equal. Its +influence on the early growth of religion, however, was great, and +widely ramified.[1] From this two important consequences follow which +will meet us again and again in our study of the great religions. The +first is animal-worship, a phenomenon of frequent occurrence and of +perplexing import. Mr. McLennan has shown that much at least of the +widespread worship of animals is to be traced to an early totem-stage +of society,[2] when animals were held sacred as the ancestors of men. +In the second place, totemism explains the view taken in the early +world of the nature of religious fellowship. In modern times people +regard each other as brothers in religion when they believe the same +doctrines. It is belief, an intellectual or spiritual agreement, that +binds them together. The ancient religious union was of a quite +different nature. People then regarded each other as brothers because +they were of the same blood, descended from the same ancestor. In the +Bible the Hebrews are all descended from Abraham, the Edomites from +Esau, etc. That is the necessary condition of brotherhood in early +times; only those could join in a religious rite who were of the same +blood. For men of another blood there was another worship, another +god. It is an earlier stage of this view, when men are of the same +worship because they are descended from the same animal, and when +they worship that animal. + +[Footnote 1: J. G. Frazer, "Totemism," in the _Encyclopaedia +Britannica_, vol. xxiii., and now his _Totemism and Exogamy_. It was +formerly held that the Semites were an exception, having never passed +through the totemistic stage. Mr. Robertson Smith, in his _Religion +of the Semites_, maintains that, though they are past that stage when +we first know them, the traces of it are apparent in their +institutions, and that their sacrifices especially are based on ideas +belonging to it. Wellhausen does not agree with him in this.] + +[Footnote 2: _Fortnightly Review_, 1869-70. See also Mr. Lang's +_Myth, Ritual and Religion_ in many passages.] + +(_b_) Trees, Wells, Stones.--The worship of each of these three is in +itself a great subject, and we can do no more than mention the +leading views which appear to have entered into them. Mannhardt in +his _Feld- und Waldkulte_ and Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ have +studied the survivals of tree-worship in the local customs of the +peasantry of Europe. Early man appears to have worshipped trees as +wonderful living beings; but his thought soon advanced to the +conception of a tree-spirit, of which the tree itself was either the +body or the dwelling, and which possessed various powers, such as +that of commanding rain, or that of causing fertility in plants or in +animals. From the tree-spirit, again, the tree-god was further +formed, a being who was able to quit the sacred tree or who presided +over many trees. Of these beliefs the fast-decaying usages of the +Maypole and the Harvest May still remind us. + +The well, in a similar manner, may first have been worshipped in and +for itself, and then a nymph may have been added to it. The worship +of wells consisted in throwing precious articles into them, or +hanging such offerings on the surrounding trees, and asking some boon +from the deity.[3] Rivers and lakes were also held sacred. The +worship of stones, that is of stones not treated by art, but regarded +as sacred in the form in which they were found, was widely diffused +among early races; but this is a subject on which light is still +called for. The Caaba of Mecca and the stone of the temple of Diana +at Ephesus are famous isolated instances of it; but it has been +suggested that the standing stones or menhirs which are found in +every part of Europe, and in the south and west of Asia, were objects +of this worship. In Palestine these stones are not found, though they +occur in the neighbouring lands; and this is attributed by Major +Conder[4] to the zeal of the orthodox kings, who, we know from the +Bible, destroyed all the monuments of idolatry in their territory. + +[Footnote 3: In Mr. G. A. Gomme's _Ethnology in Folklore_ many sacred +wells are mentioned which are still, or were lately, frequented in +England. St. Wallach's well and bath, in the parish of Glass, +Morayshire, was much resorted to within living memory.] + +[Footnote 4: _Scottish Review_, 1894, vol. xvii. p. 33, "Rude Stone +Monuments in Syria."] + +What is common to these cults, and cannot be disregarded, is their +local nature. This gives its colour to all the religion of early man. +The god of the sacred tree cannot be worshipped anywhere else than +where the tree stands, and he who would have his wishes granted by +the well must come to it. The deity of this kind of religion has his +abode at a certain spot, and he is a fixed, not a movable deity. +There is a story, or a set of stories, connected with his shrine, and +there are observances of one kind or another to be done there; and +this goes on from age to age. Now a deity who is fixed to one spot +will be worshipped by the people who dwell around that spot. The god +will have his own people and dwell among them, and they alone will be +his worshippers. And thus the surface of the earth comes to be +parcelled out among a number of deities, each seated, like a little +prince, at his own court among his own people. In passing from his +own home to a distant spot, a man will leave the territory of his own +god and enter on that of another, and as the god can only be +worshipped at his own shrine, the man will leave his religion when he +leaves his home, and either be compelled to serve the gods of +strangers, or to perform no religious duties at all.[5] Thus the +ideas connected with totemism meet and harmonise in many old +countries with those connected with local shrines.[6] Those dwelling +around the shrine form a kindred of one blood, of which the local god +is both the progenitor and the living head. Religion is thus both +strictly tribal and strictly local. It is for his brethren of the +tribe, for those in whose veins the blood of the same divine ancestor +runs, that a man's enthusiasm is kindled in acts of worship; it is +his duty to his clan that he then realises, the prosperity of his +clan that he desires. To those of other stems no religious bond +unites him, they are men of another blood, of another worship. His +religious duty is to love his neighbour, or fellow-tribesman, to hate +his enemy, the man of another tribe. And on the other hand, as +religion consists in approaches to a particular spot and the +performance of certain rites, it is left behind when these rites are +accomplished, and the man is away from his god. The sanctuary is +regarded with extreme veneration, often with shrinking and terror, +but distance makes a change, the religion alters with travel, and is +left behind. This religion was on the whole a more exciting and +intense thing than that of the great nature powers; and was far more +interwoven with social life; but it also presented the greatest +obstacles to progress, limiting men's affections to their own kin and +their own land, and confining them in an inveterate conservatism. + +[Footnote 5: As illustrating this circle of ideas, compare the +following passages in the Bible: Genesis xxviii.; Ruth i. 16; 1 Sam. +xxvi. 19; 2 Kings v. 17; and of a later period, Psalm xlii.] + +[Footnote 6: See on this whole subject Mr. Robertson Smith's +_Religion of the Semites_.] + +3. The State after Death.--The belief that the human spirit was not +extinguished at the death of the body, but entered on an existence +without the body somewhere else, opened the door to a wide range of +speculation; and the ideas arrived at by early man as to the place of +spirits and the life beyond, are a principal part of that antique +religion of which the great systems are the heirs. The funeral +practices of prehistoric times, when various articles were placed in +the tomb along with the body of the departed hero or father, and +various sacrifices made to him at his burial or cremation and at +anniversary festivals afterwards, show that the spirits of the dead +were conceived as carrying on the same kind of existence as they had +led here, though an existence unsubstantial and of little power; +"strengthless heads" Homer calls them. Food and drink were of use to +them; for the finer part of it was supposed to reach them. The taste +of blood revived them; and various pleasures were possible to +them.[7] This belief, it will be seen, differs from all the modern +doctrines of a continued existence. It is not the resurrection of the +body that the savage believes in. He knows well enough that the body +does not rise; but he also knows that the spirit can exist and move +and do a number of things that were done in life, without the body. +Nor can he be said to believe in the immortality of the soul. That +term describes a free and unfettered existence after death, but to +the savage the spirit after death has but a troubled and frail +existence; it is tethered to certain spots on the earth, known to it +formerly; it cannot do much, it lives under many limitations and +constraints. Nor, again, can it be said that retribution after death +is a true designation of the early belief. That may be found here and +there in early times, but generally the other life is less under a +divine government than this one; death takes a man away from his god +as well as from his family, and the dead are left to themselves. + +[Footnote 7: On this subject compare Mr. Tylor's _Primitive Culture_, +twelfth and thirteenth chapters.] + +While, however, this is the general background of primitive belief +about the other life, imagination is at work on the subject very +early, and various features of that life are touched with more vivid +colours, here in one way and there in another. The place where the +departed stay, their occupations, their delights, are variously +described; the land where they dwell is modelled on a land that is +known, with the addition of ideal features; they do very much what +they did on earth, hunt or feast, make music or carry on discussions. +In some cases there is a judgment-seat before which the soul appears +for its trial, and here of course the spirit-world must be divided +into two parts or more, for the reception of those who are approved +and of those who are condemned. The detailed description of the +abodes of the blest and of the damned, by no means peculiar to +Christianity, are later developments in the early world. Hell, Mr. +Tylor says, is unknown to savage thought. The doctrine of +transmigration, however, whether into plants or into lower animals, +is of early growth. + +Growth of the Great Religions out of these Beliefs.--These various +developments of thought about the gods did, as a matter of fact, take +place in primitive times, and that is almost all that can be said. In +the religion of savages the various elements we have so briefly +indicated cross and recross each other, in endless combinations; none +of them is to be found entirely by itself. There is no fetish worship +which is not accompanied by traces of an early belief in great gods; +there is no belief in great gods which is not accompanied by a belief +in lower spirits. With regard to every savage religion the student +has to ask what the constituent elements of it are, in what way the +various beliefs of the early world, beliefs arising from such +different sources, meet in it and combine with one another. + +In each of the higher religions, too, the same questions have to be +asked. The beliefs which we have sketched are the materials out of +which they also arose. They did not _originate_ the belief in high +gods with power over nature, nor the belief in the lesser spirits +which busy themselves with man's affairs. They did not originate the +belief in a life after death, nor was it left to them to appoint +sacred seasons in the year, or to consecrate the spots to which +worship has always clung. All these beliefs are prehistoric, and what +remained for the great religions was not to bring them forward for +the first time, but to surround them with a new kind of authority, +and to establish as a matter of positive ordinance or revelation what +had formerly grown up without any ordinance by the unconscious work +of custom. It was not left for any of the great founders to plant +religion in the world as a new thing, but only to add to the old +religion new forms and new sanctions. + +It may be said that if these are the elements of which religion as a +whole is made, then religion arose at first out of illusions. That is +no doubt true, in a sense. It was an illusion on the part of early +man to suppose that the powers of heaven were animated beings who +could be his allies and answer his appeals; it was an illusion to +think that the tree or the stone contained a spirit, and an illusion +to think that men's spirits can go and wander about the earth by +themselves, leaving their bodies untenanted. But these illusions were +after all only the outward and inadequate expression in which the +spirit of religion then clothed itself. Religion must always express +itself in terms of the knowledge which exists in the world at a +particular time; and if the knowledge is defective to which the world +has attained, religious beliefs must share in its defects. But, on +the other hand, religion is something more than knowledge; it is also +faith and communion, and these can be deep and true, even when the +knowledge which provides their forms of expression is greatly +mistaken. And when the forms of knowledge in which religion has +clothed itself are found to be mistaken, religion has power to leave +them behind and to adopt other forms, as the tree is clothed with +fresh leaves in place of those which are withered. + +Yet it would be wrong to admit that even in its character as +knowledge early religion was illusion and no more. The poetic +faculty, the faculty which prompts us to find outside us what we feel +to be within us and to assert its reality, led man right and not +wrong. What he worshipped was not the bare object which met the eye +and ear, but the thing as he conceived it. He conceived that there +was without him that of which his inner consciousness bore witness, +an ideal, a being not grasped by the senses, which could help him, +with which he could hold intercourse, which had the power he himself +had not. This, not the faulty outward expressions in which the +sentiment clothed itself, was the living and growing element of his +religion. + + +In addition to the books cited in this chapter, we may mention-- + +C. Boetticher, _Der Baumkultus der Hellenen_, 1856. + +J. Ferguson, _Tree and Serpent Worship_, 1868. + +J. Ferguson, _Rude Stone Monuments in all Countries_, 1872. + +J. G. Fraser, _Totemism and Exogamy_, 4 vols. 1910. An immense +collection of material on the subject of totemism, with fresh +conclusions as to the origin and meaning of the system. + + + + +CHAPTER V +EARLY DEVELOPMENTS--PRACTICES + + +In early religion it is important to remember that belief counted for +much less than it now does; a man's religion consisted in the +religious acts he did, and not in the beliefs or thoughts he +cherished about his god. Worship, moreover, is that element of +religion which in all ages and lands is apt to advance most slowly. +Even in times of ferment of ideas and change of belief, we often see +that the worship of a former time, be it simple or stately, goes on +in its old forms, as if it were a thing that could not change. Men +alter their beliefs more readily than their habits, especially the +habits connected with their faith. If this is the case generally, it +was much more the case in the early world than it is now. The +religion of a shrine in old times consisted of a certain story about +the god, and certain acts done before or near the object which +represented him. There was no compulsion, however, to believe the +story if a man did the acts or took part in them. As to his private +beliefs no one inquired; if he took part in the proper acts of +worship he counted as a religious man, unless he went so far as +openly to flout the current opinions of his time. + +Nor were the acts which went to make up religion of an elaborate or +difficult nature. No minute ritual regulated in early times the +approaches to the deity; they were a matter of common knowledge, and +were fixed not by law, which did not yet exist in any form, but by +public custom and public opinion. The manner in which a god is to be +served is known of course to his own people who dwell around him; +others do not know it. The immigrants from Assyria had to send for a +Hebrew to teach them the ritual of the God of Palestine, as they were +on his ground and did not know the right way to worship Him (2 Kings +xvii. 24 _sqq._). It is later that the rite becomes a mystery, known +only to the professional guardian of the shrine or to the initiated +few. + +Sacrifice is an invariable feature of early religion. Wherever gods +are worshipped, gifts and offerings are made to them of one kind or +another. It is in this way that, in antiquity at least, the relation +with the deity was renewed, if it had been slackened or broken, or +strengthened and made sure. Sacrifice and worship are in the ancient +world identical terms. The nature of the offering and the mode of +presenting it are infinitely various, but there is always sacrifice +in one form or another. Different deities of course receive different +gifts; the tree has its roots watered, or trophies of battle or of +the chase are hung upon its branches; horses are thrown into the sea. +But of primitive sacrifice generally we may affirm that it consists +of such food and drink as men themselves partake of. Whether it be +the fruit of the field or the firstling of the flock that is offered +at the sacred stone, whether the offering is burnt before the god or +set down and left near him, or whether he is summoned to come down +from the sky or to travel from the far country to which he may have +gone, it is of the materials of a meal that the sacrifice consists. +In some cases it appears to be thought that the god consumes the +offering, as when Fire is worshipped with offerings which he burns +up, or when a fissure in the earth closes upon a victim; but in most +cases it is only the spirit or finer essence of the sacrifice that +the god enjoys; the rest he leaves to men. And thus sacrifice is +generally accompanied by a meal. The offering is presented to the god +whole, but the worshippers help to eat it. The god gets the savour of +it which rises into the air towards him, while the more material part +is devoured below. Every sacrifice is also a festival.[1] If this be +the case it is unnecessary to spend much time in considering a number +of theories formerly regarded with favour as to the original meaning +and intention of sacrifice. The view that it is originally simply a +bribe to the deity to induce him to afford some needed help, receives +a good deal of countenance from primitive expressions. "_Do ut des_," +"I give to thee that thou mayest give to me." "Here is butter, give +us cows!" "By gifts are the gods persuaded, by gifts great kings." +Was early sacrifice then simply a business transaction, in which man +bringing a prayer to the deity brought a gift too, as he was +accustomed to do to the great ones of the earth, in order that the +deity might be well disposed towards him and grant his petition? Even +if this was the case, if sacrifice were offered with the direct and +almost the avowed intention of getting good value for it, yet if it +takes the form of a meal, it is lifted above the most sordid form of +bribery. There is a difference between slipping money into a man's +hand and asking him to dinner, even if the object aimed at be in both +cases the same; and when the invitations are numerous and formal, +there must be a moral, not an immoral, relation between the two +parties. Where the sacrifice is a meal, intercourse is sought for; a +certain sympathy exists between worshipper and worshipped; they stand +to each other not only in the relation of briber and bribed, buyer +and seller, but in that of patron and client, or of father and son. + +[Footnote 1: Mr. Tylor (_Prim. Cult._ vol. ii. p. 397) states that +"sacrifices to deities, from the lowest to the highest levels of +culture, consist, to the extent of nine-tenths or more, of gifts of +food and sacred banquets."] + +But granting that early sacrifice was for the most part a meal, an +observance, with a social element in it, between the god and the +worshipper, what was the object of this meal, what was the motive for +holding it? In some cases it looks as if the intention had been to +strengthen the god, and to make him more vigorous, so that he might +be able to do what was wanted of him. In the Vedic hymns this motive +undeniably is to be met with. The notion is by no means unknown in +early thought, that not only does man need God, but that God is also +dependent on man, and capable of being aided and encouraged. In rites +which are not strictly sacrifices, we notice men seeking to +sympathise with their gods in what the gods are doing, and to take a +share in it by doing similar things themselves. The Christmas and +Easter fires in pagan times connected with the worship of the sun, +are examples of this, and many other instances might be cited. + +This, however, is not the principal motive of early sacrifice. All +the incidents of it suggest that it is not merely a thing offered to +the deity, but a thing in which man takes part; if it is a meal, it +is one of which the god and the worshippers partake in common. In +China the ancestors are invited to the family feast; their place is +set for them; their share in the feast is placed before them. In the +_Iliad_,[2] we have an account of a solemn religious act: after +prayers the victims were slaughtered, choice slices were cut from +them and cooked at the fire by the worshippers, who then ate and +drank their fill; after this "all day long they worshipped the god +with music, singing the beautiful paean to Apollo, and his heart was +glad to hear." In the Bible we know that the blood is poured out for +the Deity, and in various sacrifices the parts He is to have are +specified, while the rest is to be eaten by the priests. In the +earlier sacrifices of the Hebrews there are no priests; those who +present the sacrifice consume it after the act of presentation, and +the occasion is one of mirth and jollity, as at a banquet (1 Sam. ix. +12, 13, and the following description; see also Exod. xxxii. 5, 6). +In fact it is a banquet. This is specially plain in the sacrifices of +the Semites, as Mr. Robertson Smith has shown. Early Semitic usage +exhibits clearly how sacrifice was an act of communion, in which the +god and his human family proclaimed and renewed their unity with each +other. The details may differ in other races, but in general it may +be said that early sacrifice was an act done not by an individual, +though plenty of individual sacrifices are also to be met with, but +by a tribe, in which all the partakers of the blood of the tribe took +part before the god who was their common ancestor, and who, as it +were, presided over and shared in their feast. In some cases of +totem-clans the totem animal is sacrificed, and all the members of +the clan eat their animal ancestor (only on such a solemn occasion +could the totem be eaten), and so renew their bond of membership and +brotherhood. A covenant is made by sacrifice, to which the deity and +all the members of his people are parties. + +[Footnote 2: I. 457 _sqq._] + +To these primitive conceptions others no doubt should be added. The +mood was not always the same which prevailed when the tribe renewed +its union with its god; that depended on circumstances. In general +the sacrifice of early days is a joyous thing, but to a fierce god +cruel rites belonged. When cannibalism was practised it also was such +a primitive sacrifice, and the most powerful means, no doubt, of +cementing the union of the god with the members of the tribe. When +the god was noted for suffering, a tragic tone prevailed, and the +sacrifice might have a dramatic character and represent the leading +incident in the history of the god. + +If we trace the history of sacrifice in any particular people we find +two opposite tendencies at work in connection with it. On the one +hand there is a disposition to smooth matters, to drop the harsher +practices, to let an animal victim suffice where a man used to be +sacrificed, to let the man off with some slight mutilation, such as +circumcision; or to allow poor people to offer a less costly victim +than the former custom claimed--the rite, in fact, becomes civilised, +and adapts itself to the feelings of a humaner period. On the other +hand there is a tendency to add to the value of the offerings, and to +reckon the efficacy of sacrifice by its cost and painfulness. In +periods of outward distress sacrifice attains a deeper earnestness, +nothing is to be left undone, and no cost to be spared to bring the +deity back to his people; darker customs which had become obsolete +are revived again,[3] the ceremonial is made more elaborate, new +kinds of sacrifice are introduced. The old social aspect of sacrifice +grows faint; it becomes a propitiation or a trespass-offering; the +notion is entertained that sacrifice is the more efficacious the more +it has cost, or the more magnificent and awful its mode of +presentation. + +[Footnote 3: An instance of human sacrifice has just taken place in a +remote part of Russia.] + +Prayer is the ordinary concomitant of sacrifice; the worshipper +explains the reason of the gift, and urges the deity to accept it, +and to grant the help that is needed. The prayers of the earliest +stage are offered on emergencies, and often appear to be intended to +attract the attention of the god who may be engaged in another +direction. The requests they contain are of the most primary sort. +Food is asked for, success in hunting or fishing, strength of arm, +rain, a good harvest, children, etc. The prayers have a ring of +urgency; they state the claims the worshipper has on the god, and +mention his former offerings as well as the present one; they praise +the power and the past acts of the deity, and adjure him by his whole +relationship to his people (and also to their enemies) to grant their +requests. As life grows more secure, the note of immediate urgency +fades out of prayer; being a feature not of an occasional worship +arising from some pressing need, but of a worship statedly offered at +set times, it tends to run into forms, and to become fixed and to +have the nature of a liturgy. Then it comes about that the words +themselves are regarded as sacred, and that the efficacy of the +sacrifice is supposed to be partly dependent on them. They are +incantations which the deity cannot resist,--charms which in +themselves have virtue to secure the desired result. + +Sacred Places, Objects, Persons.--The early world had no temples, nor +idols, nor priests. The worship of nature does not suggest the +enclosing of a space for religious acts. The natural object itself +being the sacred thing, worship is brought to it where it stands; the +gift is carried to the tree or to the well, and if the deities are +conceived as being above the earth, then the tops of hills are the +spots where man can be nearest to them. High places are sacred in all +lands. Groves and remote spots are also sacred. When man was carrying +on his struggle with the wild beasts he would regard with terror the +places where they had their lairs and strongholds; it was in this +form that the feeling of mystery with which moderns regard places +where they are cut off from all human intercourse, first appealed to +man. After this earliest stage had passed, and the grove had come to +be regarded as the dwelling of a deity, it became a place man did not +dare to approach except with the necessary precautions. We may here +explain a notion which plays a great part in early religion, but is +not specially connected with any one institution of it, the notion, +namely, of taboo. Taboo is a Polynesian term, and indicates that +which man must not use or touch, because it belongs to a deity. The +god's land must not be trodden, the animal dedicated to the god must +not be eaten, the chief who represents the god must not be lightly +treated or spoken of. These are examples of taboo where the +inviolable object or person belongs to a good god, and where the +taboo corresponds exactly with the rule of holiness.[4] But instances +are still more numerous among savages of taboo attaching to an object +because it is connected with a malignant power. The savage is +surrounded on every side by such prohibitions; there is danger at +every step that he may touch on what is forbidden to him, and draw +down on himself unforeseen penalties. The nature of the early deities +also excludes idolatry in connection with them; there is no need for +a representation of a being who is visibly present, and can be +extolled and worshipped in his own person. It was at a later stage, +when the god came to be personified and separated in thought from his +natural basis, that the need arose to make representations of him to +aid the imagination. The stones of early religion are not idols. They +are natural, not artificial stones; they are not images of the god, +but the god himself, or at least that in which the divine spirit +dwells,[5] or with which it associates itself for the purpose of +worship. And, further, the earliest time knows no priests; there is +no special class to whom alone the celebration of sacrifice is +entrusted. It would be quite inconsistent with the whole view of +sacrifice which then prevailed, to suppose that it could be done by +proxy. It was a man's own act, by which he identified himself with +his god and with his tribe, and that could only be done by a personal +service. We often find kings and chiefs sacrificing. Agamemnon does +so, Abraham and Saul do so, though the sacrifice of the latter is +disapproved of by the priestly writer. David does so without being +rebuked for it. The king or chief does this as the natural head of +his clan; some one must take the leading part in the transaction. As +religion is the principal part of politics, and the first business of +the state is to keep itself right with the gods, the head of the +state is its most natural representative on such an occasion. The +head of a household also sacrifices for his house, not only to the +spirits of the house, but in cases like that of Job, where there is +no question of ancestor-worship. Early custom did not fix in any +uniform manner by whose hands a sacrifice was to be made. + +[Footnote 4: _Religion of the Semites_, by W. R. Smith, p. 142, +_sqq._] + +[Footnote 5: _Religion of the Semites_, by W. R. Smith, p. 192.] + +Magic.--In another direction, however, we see in the earliest times +the growth of a class of persons with religious functions and +attributes. While the ordinary worship of the gods does not require +the services of any special class, there is everywhere found the man +of special knowledge and gifts, to whom men resort for needs lying +outside the scope of that worship. Every savage religion contains a +certain amount of magic, of practices, that is to say, by which it is +thought possible to influence or to foretell outward events. Early +man is not limited in his views of what may happen by any accurate +knowledge of natural laws, or of the sequence of cause and effect, +and he imagines it possible to influence nature in various ways. He +imitates what he supposes to be the causes of things, judging that +the effect will also follow; or he uses such powers as he may have +over spirits, to induce or compel them to accomplish his wishes; or +he manipulates objects he believes to have a hidden virtue, in a way +he believes calculated to bring about the desired result. Magic is +thus related both to the cult of spirits and to that of casual +objects, both to animism and to fetishism. There is generally a +special person in a tribe who knows these things, and is able to work +them. It may be the chief or king,--there are many instances in which +the chief is believed to have power to bring rain,--or it may be a +separate functionary, medicine-man, sorcerer, diviner, seer, or +whatever name be given him. He has more power over spirits than other +men have, and is able to make them do what he likes. He can heal +sickness, he can foretell the future, he can change a thing into +something else, or a man into a lower animal or a tree, or anything; +he can also assume such transformations himself at will. He uses +means to bring about such results; he knows about herbs, he has +stones or other objects endowed with special virtues, he also has +recourse to rubbing, to making images of affected parts of the body, +and to various other arts. Very frequently he is regarded as +inspired. It is the spirit dwelling in him which brings about the +wonderful results; without the spirit he could not do anything. While +the details of course vary infinitely in different tribes, the figure +of the worker of magic is an essential feature of any general sketch +of early religion. He is often a person of great political +importance; being supposed to be in closer alliance than any one else +with spiritual beings, he has a power which is much dreaded, and +which even the chief cannot disregard. + +Of Sacred Seasons there can be but few in the earliest human life, +when there is no fixed measure of time, nor any notion of regularity, +but all depends on the occurrence of need and of danger. As soon as +agriculture was engaged in, however, attention must have been fixed +on the recurrence of the seasons, and the measures of time afforded +by the moon must, at least, have been observed. The summer and the +winter solstice, the equinoxes, the new moons, these were to the +early cultivator epochs to be observed; and certain annual feasts are +found to have come into use in very early times, epochs of man's +simplest and earliest calendar, and occasions for tribal gatherings +and for such fixed religious observances as we have described. A +private religious emergency arising in the interval between two +feasts is dealt with by means of a vow; the help of the deity, that +is to say, is claimed at once, but the payment of the due +consideration for it on man's part is deferred till the time of +sacrifice comes round.[6] + +[Footnote 6: Genesis xxviii. 20; Judges xi. 30; 2 Sam. xv. 8.] + +Character of Early Religion.--We have now passed in review the +principal observances and usages of primitive religion; but before +concluding this chapter some remarks have to be made as to the +position religion held in the life of ancient times, and as to the +spirit and temper which it exhibited. In the first place, as we +remarked above, religion was in these times the most important branch +of the public service. Every uncommon occurrence had to be laid +before the god, and no important step could be taken without +consulting him; and it was a principal duty of the head of the state +to keep the god on good terms with the tribe, and to apply to him for +all the aid and protection the tribe required from him. In attending +to this, however, the chief was acting for his tribesmen; where there +was no chief these matters were not neglected, but were looked after +by common spontaneous action by the members of the tribe. The god was +their lord, their father, and they must always take him along with +them. This identification of the god with the interests of his +subjects is so close that the latter are troubled with no doubts as +to whether or not their god is with them. If they observe the +customary rules for cultivating his friendship, he must be with them; +they never imagine that he can be estranged from them. It is the +habitual attitude of early religion to take it for granted that the +god goes with his people (he generally has no other people to go +with) and helps them against their adversaries. To doubt this and to +resort to sacrifices of atonement to bring him back from his +estrangement is a later stage of religion. But if religion is in this +way a public matter, a matter of the tribe and its concerns, what +place is there in it for the individual? Individual cares and needs +may form the subject of prayers and vows, but religion on the whole +has to do with the tribe, not with the individual, or with the +individual only as a member of the tribe. It is the duty of every one +to take his part in the public approaches to the god; he must either +do so or be cut off from his tribe. For his own griefs there is +little comfort in the tribal worship; indeed, personal sorrows and +perplexities meet with but little consideration in early religion. As +the tribe is in no doubt of the goodwill of its god, and regards him +as a firm ally not easily turned away, old religion has a confident +and joyous air, strongly contrasting with the doubts and the +contrition of modern faith. The acts of worship are feasts at which +the members of the tribe rejoice and make merry before their god. To +the delights of feasting those of dance and song are added ("The +people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play"), and +frequently the merrymaking goes to the pitch of frenzy; the +worshippers dance themselves into an ecstasy; they feel the god +taking possession of them, and are hurried along by the sacred +inspiration to behaviour they would not dream of at any other time. + +Early Religion and Morality.--How did this early religion bear upon +morality? In how far was it a power for righteousness? There are two +sides to this question. In the first place, the religion of the +infant world was a strong influence for the restraint of individual +excess. The god being the parent of the tribe, its customs had his +sanction, he had no higher interest than its welfare, he was +identified with all its enterprises, its battles were his battles +also. The worship of the god therefore made strongly for loyalty to +the tribe, and for the observance of its customs; it caused a man to +forget his own interest where that of the tribe was concerned, and +unhesitatingly to sacrifice himself for the public cause. But, on the +other hand, primitive religion was an intensely conservative force; +it subjected the whole life to the customs of the tribe, and +discouraged spontaneity and independence in moral action. The duties +it prescribed were of a conventional order; a man had no duties to +those beyond his tribe, and to his fellow-tribesmen religion bade him +rather walk by rule than consult his own feelings. Of the morality +which consists in discipline and subordination to the community, +early religion was an efficient school; to the higher morality, the +law of which is found written in the heart, and which aims at +rendering higher services than those of custom, it did not attain. +The worship of the higher nature-powers, the heavenly powers of light +and kindness, tending as it did to transcend the limits of place and +of nationality, was destined powerfully to foster a more generous +morality than that of the tribal worship, and this tendency was no +doubt dimly felt by early man long before it was possible for him to +follow it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI +NATIONAL RELIGION + + +We now leave behind us the beliefs and practices of savage and +barbarous tribes, and turn to those of mighty empires. The gulf which +lies between these two parts of our subject is obviously a wide one; +and in many instances there is no bridge by which the student can +pass from one to the other. Often it is a matter of inference rather +than of direct proof that the great systems are built out of the +materials accumulated, as we have seen, in the prehistoric period. +But the inference is sufficiently strong to rest upon; in some cases +we are able to see quite clearly how the religion of the empire arose +by an uninterrupted growth out of that of the tribe; and in the cases +where this cannot be so fully made out, we yet judge that the result +came about in a similar way. We pause therefore at this point to ask +what is the nature of the transition at which we have arrived, or, in +other words, what constitutes the difference between the primitive +and the later religions? The difference is probably not one of +magnitude only; it consists not merely in the fact that the religion +of the empire is that of a much larger number of people than that of +the tribe; there is a difference in character as well as in +dimensions. With a view to the examination of this point it will be +found convenient to consider some of the proposed classifications of +religions, as most of these, though for different reasons, place the +religions of the early world in a different category from those known +to us historically. + +The old-fashioned Classification of Religions was that of the true +and the false. This our principle forbids us to accept, since we +regard the various faiths of the world as stages in the development +of religion, and therefore all relatively true. + +Another division which has done good service is that into natural and +revealed religion. By natural religion has generally been understood +such religion as human reason could attain to without supernatural +aid. But this description does not apply to any religious system that +ever prevailed largely in any country; the actual religions have all +been the work of custom and age-long tradition, not of the deliberate +operation of reason. Natural religion therefore is a term which is of +no use to us in classification; since none of the actual religions +which we have to study answers to that title. Nor is revealed +religion a term we can conveniently use in such a work as this. Many +religions claim to be the result of revelation, but few make it at +the outset of their career. The title tells us nothing about the +original character of a religion, but only that at some period in its +career the claim was made for it that its origin was supernatural. If +we grouped the revealed religions together we might find that the +members of the group had no similarity to each other beyond the +accidental circumstance that the claim of revelation had been made +for them. Besides, science cannot possibly take the revealed +character of any religion for granted, but must examine each such +faith to see if its growth cannot be accounted for without that +assumption. + +The term "natural" religion has, however, other meanings than that +just mentioned, and some of these we may find to be of more service. +It is proposed to divide religions into "natural" and "positive," or +into those which have grown up and those which have been founded. The +earlier religions were not due to the personal action of outstanding +individuals (at least if they were, as surely they must have been in +part, the individuals and their struggles are unrecorded), but were +the work of unconscious growth, and were produced by forces, which, +as they were at work in every part of the early world, may be called +natural. These religions do not appeal to the authority of any +founder, but are borne forward by custom and tradition. Some of the +later systems, on the contrary, bear the names of their founders, and +are said to have been introduced into the world at a certain time and +place. Their beginning is fixed, and they have a body of beliefs and +practices which belong to their original constitution, and possess +authority for all subsequent generations of believers. + +This classification promises well at first, but it is difficult to +apply it; some religions pass imperceptibly from the stage of custom +to that of statute, and in many religions both elements are so +largely present that it is difficult to strike the balance between +them. We are led to the conclusion that the real difference between +the earlier and the later religions is a more vital one than any of +these classifications would indicate. The authority and the positive +character of the later systems is a symptom of the change which has +produced them, but the change itself lies deeper. The higher form of +religion is due to a great step which has been taken in civilisation; +it is one of the features of the advance of society to a new stage. + +Rise of National Religion.--It is an immense step in human progress +when a set of barbarous tribes unite to form a nation. Under the +strong hand of some chief or under the pressure of some great +necessity, they give up the isolation which is both the weakness and +the strength of the tribal state of society, they choose some strong +place for their centre, they submit to a common government, and while +still remembering their separate tribal traditions and usages, they +learn to act as members of a greater community than the tribe. This +is the beginning of civilisation proper. Law takes the place of +custom; the state undertakes to punish crime, and private vengeance +is discouraged; the state also undertakes the protection of the weak, +so that humane sentiment appears, and a security is engendered in +which the arts and sciences can spring up and flourish. + +When this takes place a new type of religion also makes its +appearance. While each of the tribes may long retain its own gods, +and its peculiar rites, some one god, perhaps the god of the +strongest tribe, assumes a higher position than the rest; his worship +becomes the central religion of the community, round which the other +worships arrange themselves by degrees, until there comes to be a +system embracing them all, but itself possessing a new character. In +this way a national religion comes into existence. The details of +this process are in every case beyond our observation. It is not +perhaps for centuries after the national religion has come into +operation, that reflection is turned towards it; not till the art of +writing has come to some perfection is it described and formulated +and made statutory; and by that time all accurate memory of its +beginnings has faded away, and its origin is explained instead by a +set of legends. But though its beginnings, like all beginnings, are +obscure, the national religion is there. It has its history; the +great man who brought the tribes together, or who first devised for +them a higher form of worship, is remembered as its founder; the +foundation is ascribed to the inspiration of the chief god himself; +its sacred forms are written down and obtain the force of divine +laws, the will of the deity is a thing clearly known and expressed in +positive terms. + +It is not asserted that this description will apply to the origin of +all the national religions; the character and the circumstances of +one nation differ from those of another, and it need not be supposed +that they all reached their state worships in the same way. Some +religions have become national by conquest rather than growth; while +some which may truly be called national never attained to any +national organisation. The process we have described, however, may be +regarded as the typical one for the rise of a national out of tribal +religions, and indicates to us what we may regard as the real and +substantial difference between the stage with which we have been +occupied and that to which we are now to turn. All other differences +between the prehistoric and the historical religions may be traced to +this one. Before the religion of a nation has systematised its +doctrine and its ritual so as to merit the name of positive, before +it has provided itself with a detailed ritual or a fixed creed, or a +regular priesthood, or a set of sacred books, the momentous step has +already been taken, the new form of religious consciousness has +appeared. Men have begun to believe not only in the tribal but in the +national god or gods, and a national religion has come into +existence. + +The advance from tribal to national worship is one of the most +momentous in the whole history of religion. The nature of the change +involved in it may be summed up as follows. + +1. Men obtain a Greater God than they had before. Formerly a man +believed in the god of his tribe, one deity among many, as his tribe +was one among many, each having its own god; but now he comes to know +a god who is higher than the other tribal gods, as the king whom the +tribes have united to obey is greater than the tribal chiefs. The god +stands at a greater distance than before from the worshipper; +familiarity is lessened, and religion becomes capable of a deeper +reverence and adoration. Although the worship of the tribal god is +still kept up, yet if the new-born national consciousness is strong, +the national form of religion rather than the tribal will determine +the religious sentiment of the individual. + +2. New Social Bond.--The nature of the social force exerted by +religion is altogether changed. In tribal religion the tie of the +worshippers both to their god and to each other is that of blood; the +god is their common lineal ancestor, whose blood is in the veins of +all the tribesmen. The social bond supplied by such a religion is +limited to the members of the tribe; a man's fellow-tribesmen are his +brothers, but all other men are his enemies; with them he is at war +as his god is. Social duty is a matter of blood relationship, and +extends only to the kindred. When a national religion is arrived at, +a social obligation of a new kind will evidently make its appearance. +The national god is related by blood to only one of the tribes +composing the nation; the bond between him and the other tribes must +be of another nature. He has conquered their gods or they have +voluntarily accepted him as their chief god; in any case it is not +the tie of blood that binds them to him, but some more ideal tie, +like that between a king and his subjects, or between a patron and +his clients. And they now have a religious connection also with men +who are not their kindred. The national worship is inconsistent with +the gross materialism of the system of kinship, and places instead of +it the belief in a god further above the world, and therefore more +spiritual, and obligations to men which, as they are not derived from +a common blood, are somewhat more purely moral. + +3. A Better God.--The new god of the nation as he is higher above the +world is a being of higher and better character. He belongs to all +the tribes, and is not the mere partisan of any; like the king, he is +above tribal jealousies, and is interested in checking the violence +of all, and securing justice to all. He may be appealed to by those +who have suffered violence and who have no earthly helper; and thus +he tends to become an ideal of justice and fatherly kindness, and to +reflect in the world above the sentiments springing up in the world +below, in favour of the repression of violence and the administration +of even-handed justice. + +In these directions the religion of the nation tends to rise above +that of the tribe. The tribal worships may continue almost as they +were, the tribal gods may still be worshipped, the tribal jealousies +and conflicts still be carried on in spite of the new union, and all +the superstitions of early religion may long survive; yet a new +religious force has appeared which will in time produce a complete +new system. The true principle of classification, therefore, must be +drawn from the difference between tribal and national religion, as +this is the most vital difference, and that from which all the others +which we mentioned may be derived. + +The transition thus sketched took place at widely different periods +in different parts of the world; it began early and has taken place +even in modern times, while very many tribes in various parts of the +globe have not yet arrived at it. It is a transition of which it is +manifestly impossible to exhibit the detail; in most cases the detail +is not known, and it were a profitless task to trace how primitive +religions met, united or remained apart, and how their crossings in +one case led to a national religion, and in many others led to no +such result. Much, no doubt, is to be found on such points in special +works, and much still remains to be discovered. Various instances of +the formation of national religions will meet us in our subsequent +chapters. + +The Inca Religion.--We give, however, at this point an example of the +transition we have described, drawn from a quarter remote from the +great movements of history, and in which the facts are plain and +uncontested. Of the two great civilised communities of the New World, +discovered by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, Mexico presents +a worship compounded of many elements, which, along with high and +lofty morality and great magnificence of ritual, yet retains an +extraordinary amount of cruelty and savage horror. In Peru, however, +we find a state religion which superseded savage cults still +remembered in the country, and from the _Royal Commentaries of the +Incas_, written by the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in the beginning of +the seventeenth century,[1] we are able to describe the religion of +Peru both before and after the Inca reformation. + +[Footnote 1: Printed by the Hakluyt Society.] + +"Before the Incas," this writer tells us, "each province, each +nation, and each house had its own gods, different from one another, +for they thought that a stranger's god could not attend to them but +only their own." They worshipped all manner of deities; of these are +mentioned herbs, plants, flowers, all kinds of trees, high hills, +great rocks, and the chinks in them; caves, pebbles, emeralds. They +also worshipped animals; the tiger, the lion, and the bear for their +fierceness, and the monkey for his cunning; these they did not kill, +but went down on the ground to worship them and would even suffer +themselves to be devoured by them, since they regarded these animals +as their own ancestors. All kinds of animals they treated in this +way; there was not an animal, how filthy and vile soever, so the +quaint words tell us, they did not look on as a god. Other Indians, +again, worshipped things from which they derived benefit, such as +great fountains and rivers; some worshipped the earth, and called it +mother, because it yielded their fruits; some the sea, calling it +Mamacocha; and a great number of other objects of adoration are +mentioned. They sacrificed animals and maize, but also men and women, +and these not only captives taken in war but also their own children, +smearing the idol with the blood. (In other quarters of the globe +this is a symbolic act showing that the idol and the worshippers all +partake in the same life.) Some tribes were fiercer than others, and +practised cannibalism more extensively. They were also well provided +with sorcerers and witches. + +All this the Incas altered. They were a princely family, regarding +whose origin and accession to power various legends are told; the god +they worshipped was the sun, and they considered and called +themselves the children of the sun. Their father the sun, they said, +had sent their forefathers to teach the tribes various things they +very much needed to learn; to cultivate the fields, to breed flocks, +to live in peace, to respect the wives and daughters of others, and +to have no more than one wife. The Incas knew better, it was said, +than the rest how to choose a god, and they declared that men should +worship the sun, who gave light and heat and made things grow; they +should be grateful for his benefits, and he would reward them if they +were obedient. The Indians accordingly took the sun for their god +"without father or brothers"; they considered the moon to be his +sister and wife, but did not worship her. Besides this, we hear the +Incas sought a supreme god, and called him "Pachacamac," that is +"soul of the world." This being gave life to the world and supported +it, but they did not build temples to him or offer him any sacrifice; +they worshipped him in their hearts as an unknown god. + +The practice of the Inca religion as described to us by several +Spanish writers falls a good deal short of this doctrine. Many beings +were worshipped besides the sun; a number of prayers were addressed +to the Creator and the sun and thunder. Many sacred objects also were +adored, such as embalmed bodies of ancestors and various idols. They +practised all kinds of magic, and, worst of all, many boys and girls +were offered in sacrifice, even before the Incas and on great public +occasions. The reformation of the Incas is evidently not complete; if +it had not been arrested by the arrival of the Spaniards it may be +that the purifying agency of the new religion would have found much +still to do. Enough, however, is seen to afford strong confirmation +of the principle that religion gains infinitely in elevation when a +national worship appears. The Incas were no doubt the heads of a +tribe which had conquered others, and imposed its religion on them. +The lesser conquered worships do not die out at once, but continue +along with the central one. But the latter expresses the national +spirit and aspirations; and, as settled life fosters the growth of +intelligence and of public spirit, the central worship must more and +more supersede the others, while itself casting off its superstitious +and backward elements and becoming reasonable and elevating. + +It will be convenient to indicate at this stage the further line of +study to be followed in this volume. As it is our aim to trace, +however inadequately, the growth of the religion of the world as a +whole, it is necessary that we should confine ourselves to those +parts of religious history which lie in the line of that growth, or +which serve in a conspicuous manner to illustrate the principles +according to which it has taken place. It is by no means our purpose +to give an account of all the religions of the world, nor do we seek +to form a complete magazine of the curious phenomena with which this +vast field of study is in every part so well supplied. If we have +interposed the foregoing brief account of the religion of the Incas, +it is not because of its own intrinsic importance, but because it +supplies within so brief a compass such an apt example of that +process which occurs so often in the growth of religion, by which the +unorganised rites of a multitude of clans and families give way when +the nation comes into being, to the higher and better religion of the +state. In the same way the great religions of which we must next +speak have, no doubt, only a loose connection with the central line +of the world's religious progress. No work professing to deal ever so +cursorily with our subject could omit to deal with the religion of +China nor with that of Egypt; yet neither of these faiths perhaps has +permanently enriched the religious consciousness of mankind. The +religion of Babylonia, with which each of these is connected, was +also of isolated and independent growth, and is far away from us both +in time and in historical connection. Like great and solitary +mountains of ancient formation, each on a continent distant from +ours, these faiths attract us not because we depend on them, but +because they are interesting in themselves. It was out of the same +jungle of primitive beliefs and rites, out of which our own religion +has at length grown, that each of these lifted its head to such +heights as it attained. + +After disposing of these great systems we come to the developments, +much later in point of time, which have led to the highest religion +yet attained. And here two great races or groups of peoples have to +be considered, each in its own way singularly gifted and each +contributing in a distinctive manner to the growth of religion. These +are the Semitic and the Indo-European families. Under each of these +heads we find several well-marked religions; and the nature of the +case itself points out our further procedure. Taking up first the +Semitic group,--including Islam,--since this part of the subject lies +at a greater distance from ourselves, we shall inquire whether there +is any common element in the various religions it comprises, or, in +other words, if there is a Semitic religion which may be regarded as +the origin from which the Semitic religions alike sprang, and which +gave them a common character; and we shall then proceed to discuss +the Semitic religions each by itself. We shall then discuss the +common belief of the Aryans, and go on to the religions of the more +important Aryan nations. Our last chapters will deal with +Christianity and will point out the nature of development which our +study as a whole may have taught us to recognise in the religion of +mankind. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +On the classification of Religions see Tiele's article on "Religion" +in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, Ninth Edition. + +Alb. Reville, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as +illustrated by the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru. _Hibbert +Lectures_, 1884. + +De la Saussaye, Third Edition, pp. 5-16, gives a good conspectus of +the various classifications which have been proposed. + + + + +PART II +ISOLATED NATIONAL RELIGIONS + + + + +CHAPTER VII +BABYLON AND ASSYRIA + + +The religion of Babylonia, of which that of Assyria is a late form, +as the Assyrians appropriated all they could of the religion and the +literature of this southern empire which they conquered, cannot be +classed along with any other without some inconvenience. In point of +remoteness in time it takes precedence even of the religions of China +and of Egypt; like these great faiths it also is, in its earlier +stage, a growth by itself in a land and people of its own, where +apparently it grew up independently from rude beginnings. It is +undoubtedly one of the Semitic religions; but it had a character of +its own which other Semitic religions did not share, and of the +simple and early Semitic religious attitude which will be set forth +in another chapter it retained but little. It had an immense +influence. Its ideas entered the religion of the Old Testament by +several roads. Abram came to Canaan through Haran from Ur of the +Chaldees; and in Canaan the religious ideas, myths, and legends of +Babylon must have been well known. The discovery of this code of +Hammurabi has shown that many of the laws of Moses were laws of +Babylonia long before Moses. In a later period the tread of +Babylonian soldiery was heard in Palestine many a time before the +great captivity, in which Israel sat down and wept remembering Zion +by the waters of Babylon. In Greece also we find that ideas which +came from Babylon had become known, by way of Phenicia, at a very +early period. Recent discoveries, however, seems to make it +impossible to assign to the religion of Mesopotamia any other place +than the first among the great faiths of the world. The ancient +connection between Mesopotamia and Egypt, surmised till now rather +than known, is coming to light, and it appears, at least, possible +that the first of these countries may have to be regarded as the +source of all the civilisations of antiquity. The pantheon of Egypt +has striking similarities to that of Babylonia, and some of the +Egyptian temples show traces of derivation from the lands of the +Tigris and Euphrates. The similarities in the case of China are not +so marked, but they are substantial. In Babylonia, therefore, we may +be dealing not with one of three isolated religions, but with the +mother of the other two. If, as Mr. Lockyer holds,[1] Egypt borrowed +astronomy from Babylon in connection with temple-building, more than +5000 years B.C., the religion of Babylon must indeed be carried far +into the past. + +[Footnote 1: _Dawn of Astronomy_, 1894.] + +People and Literature.--Certain parts of Babylonian religion are much +ruder and more superstitious than the exalted star-worship which is +its central feature, and these have been ascribed to peoples who +dwelt in Babylonia before the supposed Semitic conquest, viz. the +Accadians in the north and the Sumerians to the south, peoples not +related to the Semites in blood or in language, but generally called +Turanian, and thought to be perhaps akin to the Chinese. The +cuneiform writing which remained in use for millenniums after the +Semitic immigration as the sacred literary form, was supposed to have +been the invention of these peoples, who had also made some progress +in plastic art. + +There is, however, no direct evidence of the alleged early Semitic +invasion, and the Sumerian hypothesis of which it is a feature is now +regarded by some with less confidence. It is based on linguistic +phenomena. Hammurabi, 2250 B.C., reigned over a realm whose subjects +were of different tongues, and entrusted his records to two methods +of writing. The old Sumerian language, which cannot, in the opinion +of the best scholars, be shown to have affinity with any language of +the ancient world, came to be confined to matters of religion and +magic, and was superseded by the Assyro-Babylonian, which was +Semitic. But the feeble ray of the Sumerian hypothesis can be +dispensed with in the light which is shining on ancient Babylonia +from other quarters. For its information about that ancient land the +world was formerly dependent on the scanty notices of Greek and Latin +writers, but within the last half-century astonishing new sources of +information have been opened up. Explorations carried on by scholars +of many lands have made us acquainted with Babylonian and Assyrian +temples and palaces, and with many a great royal inscription. Great +libraries, made of brick tablets, have been discovered buried under +the ruins of the cities, and the gradual decipherment and arrangement +of this old literature is proceeding as fast as able and devoted +workers can overtake it. Those who know the subject best declare that +no complete history of Babylonian religion can yet be written. The +texts now in our possession embody many documents of much more remote +age, yet the information is as yet too fragmentary and often of too +doubtful interpretation, while the proportion it bears to the whole +of Babylonian life is too little known to supply a solid foundation +for history. With this caution we proceed to state the results which +are considered likely to prove well founded. As we saw, several +features remain in the religion in later times which appear to throw +light back upon its early condition, and it may be best to begin with +these before describing the noble structure presented on the whole by +this religion. + +1. Worship of Spirits.--The Babylonians, like the Chinese, believed +the world to be thickly peopled with spirits of all kinds; and saw in +each movement in nature the action of a "zi" or spirit. These spirits +could be to some extent controlled; though their character was not +known, yet certain charms and incantations were believed to have +power over them, and communication with the unseen world took, +therefore, the form of magic. The earliest portions of the sacred +literature consist of spells or charms believed to possess this +virtue, and these were never displaced from the collection; on the +contrary, new spells were written even after higher spiritual beings +were known and more ethical forms of addressing them had been +devised. Especially were all pains and diseases ascribed to the +agency of spirits or of sorcerers and witches, their human allies, +and the sick person naturally sent for an exorcist to expel the +spirit which was tormenting him. Some spirits were more powerful than +others, and the stronger spirit was invoked to rebuke and drive out +the weaker. The spirit of heaven and the spirit of earth were adjured +to conjure the plague-demon, the demon who was afflicting the eye, +the heart, the head, or any other part of the body. Assertions are +not wanting in the cuneiform literature that beliefs and practices of +this kind formed no part of the true religion of Babylonia, and some +scholars regard it as a late degeneration. The analogy of similar +cases points, however, to the conclusion that magic is everywhere an +early form of religion which is only overshadowed, not killed, when a +great religion arises, and which tends to reappear. It may be said +that there is no evidence of any break in Babylonian religion; if the +Sumerians yielded to the Semites, this led to no religious +revolution; the religion is Semitic from first to last. + +2. Animals.--A step above this trafficking with spirits is the +worship of animals, which Mr. Sayce considers to have been an early +form of Babylonian religion, and to afford an explanation of various +features in it. Like the gods of Egypt and those of Greece, many of +the gods of Babylon have animal emblems; this appears both in the +representations of them and in their legends. The winged bulls and +eagle-headed men of Babylonian art represent the same rise of the +gods which we know to have taken place in Egypt, from the animal to +the semi-human, and then to the fully human form. An intermediate +stage in Babylonia is that the god stands on the back of the animal +with which presumably he was formerly identified. We have an Assyrian +Dagon whose head and shoulders are covered with a fish's skin; we +have gods and goddesses who are human figures with the exception of +their wings; we have winged dragons; we have the great bulls with +human head and wings which stood as guardian deities to ward off evil +spirits at the portal of a palace. The following animals were also +connected with gods: the antelope, the serpent, which came to be the +embodiment of cunning and wickedness, the goat, the pig, the vulture. +We thus see that the rise from zoomorphism to anthropomorphism which +the Greeks afterwards carried to the highest point attainable by the +resources of art, began in Babylonia. + +Like all early religions, that of Babylonia is broken up into a +multiplicity of local worships. There is no common system, but each +place has its own god or gods and its own sacred rites. In Egypt we +shall find reason to believe that this state of matters had its +origin in an early totemistic arrangement of society; whether the +same was the case in Babylonia or not, it is vain to speculate. +Babylonian religion as we see it has risen far above the direct +worship of animals. Each god comes before us in a certain local +connection and with a special character, but they tend to grow like +each other, and their worship is organised on the same plan. The gods +of Babylonia undoubtedly belonged to different towns, and though +attempts were made in later times to bring them all together in an +imperial Babylonian religion, and to settle their relations to each +other, these attempts led to no system which was finally accepted. +The number of the recognised great gods varied, and there was always +a large number of minor gods. Each god has his own early history; +here as everywhere it is the case that the individual gods are +earlier than the system which seeks to connect them together. + +The Great Gods.--The great gods of Babylonia belong to the elements +and to the heavenly bodies. When we first see them, they are not, +like the gods of the western Semites, lords and masters, characters +taken from human families; they are not husbands and fathers but +creators and universal powers. Another mark about them is that they +have originally no wives. When they come to have wives, these are +simply doubles of themselves with no special character. A consort is +given to the god by adding a feminine termination to his name, thus +Bel receives Belit, Anu has Anat. Finally Babylonian religion is more +and more directed to the heavenly bodies. It is Astral religion +carried to its furthest point. This fixed the arrangement of its +temples, the occupations of its priests. + +We rapidly pass in review the principal Gods. One of the oldest is Ea +of Eridu, a town which stood in old times at the head of the Persian +Gulf. He is a god of the deep, whether it was that he was considered +to have come over the water from another land, or whether he is +connected with the belief which was held in Babylonia as elsewhere, +that all things originally arose out of the abyss. In later forms of +the legend his name appears as Oannes, and he is an amphibious being, +half-fish, half-man, who rises from the deep and instructs men in +arts and sciences. Works were preserved bearing his name, for he was +an author. He continues, even when little direct worship is addressed +to him, one of the greatest of the gods. Ana the sky, is the god of +Erech on the lower Euphrates. Like the Chinese, the men of Erech +regarded the sky itself as the highest god, and the maker and ruler +of all things. In Babylonia, however, the notion became spiritualised +more than in China; at first we hear that his dwelling became the +refuge of the gods during the Deluge, but in later times he is +regarded as a being quite above heaven and all created beings, and +even all the gods. A third great god is Bel of Nippur, not the later +Bel of Babylon, but an older one, identical with the Accadian +Mullilla, the lord of the under-world. The earliest gods of this +religion are those of the sea, the earth, and the sky. As they belong +to different districts of the country, they can scarcely be called a +trinity. A better approach to a trinity is formed by Ea of Eridu, +Davkina his wife who is the earth, and the sun-god Dumuzi, their +offspring. The son of Ea, also named Miri-Dugga or Merodach (Marduk), +is identified with the Egyptian Osiris; they have the same symbol, +each is a sun-god, and each has a sister who is also his wife, +Merodach has Istar, and Osiris, Isis. In Sergul the principal deity +was the fire-god, sometimes called Savul; in Cutha they worshipped +Nergal the god of death, the "strong one" who had his throne beneath. +Cutha was a favourite place of sepulture with the Babylonians. Rimmon +was a god of wind, Matu of storms. There is a dragon Tiamat, with +whom the great gods have to contend. + +The sun and the moon were worshipped everywhere; each city had its +own sun-god and its own moon-god. The preference generally shown by +nomads for the moon, since their journeys are made by night, is kept +up in early Babylonia, where the moon-god is regarded as the father +of the sun-god, and as the greater being. In Ur of the Chaldees the +moon was the principal deity. There were also towns such as Larsa and +Sippara, where the sun was the chief god; and many of the great gods +of later times were originally sun-gods. The Chaldeans, moreover, +were proverbially star-watchers, and a "zigurrath" or observatory, a +building of seven spheres corresponding to those of the planets as +they pass through the signs of the zodiac, and like them rising up to +the seat of God at the North Star, was a regular part of the later +Babylonian temple. To Babylonia is due the practice of the +orientation of temples; that is to say, the arrangement of the +building in such a way that its principal axis shall point exactly in +a desired direction. Some of the Babylonian temples were oriented so +that the sun should shine to the western end of them on the day of +the spring equinox when the inundation of the rivers began on which +the prosperity of the country so much depended. The temple was thus +an astronomical instrument of a high degree of accuracy, and the +priests who directed its building and served in it when built were +men of science and learning. A religion which is connected with the +heavenly bodies, though it does not fully supply the needs of the +lower orders and has too little energy to cope with superstition, +tends to produce a priesthood who form centres of enlightenment and +civilisation throughout the country. This was in the highest degree +the case in Babylonia. To these old astronomers the world owes the +signs of the zodiac, which were fixed not later than in the fifth +millennium B.C., and in which we see how early man beheld in the +nightly heavens the creatures which on earth he regarded as divine, +so that he worshipped them in both regions. The institution of the +Sabbath is also Babylonian; whether it was connected with the changes +of the moon, or with a week of days named after the seven planets, is +not certain. Seven is a sacred number in Babylonia, as we find in +many a connection. + +Mythology.--We come lastly, in our attempt to enumerate those parts +of Babylonian religion which have entered deeply into human thought, +to the myths. The heroic legends and romances are the most +interesting and the best-known portions of the newly-recovered +literature. We have already noticed some fragments of mythology, such +as the story of the fish-god who comes up daily from the sea, the +moon being the father of the sun, and the family history of Ea and +Davkina, with the sun their child. The two latter are evidently +inconsistent with each other. But the story about the son of Ea and +Davkina has an important further development. His name is Duzu or +Dumuzu, and he is the Tammuz of whom we hear in the Bible (Ezekiel +viii. 14), who is adored by women raising lamentations for him. He is +said to be the sun-god of spring, to whom the heat of summer is +fatal, and who dies in June. It is when moisture is failing from the +ground that he is bemoaned. His home is in Eden, for Eden belongs to +Babylonian legend, which places it near Eridu. There grows the great +world-tree which the gods love; it rises from the centre of the +world, and is nourished from springs which Ea himself replenishes. It +is a cedar (Yggdrasil, the ash-tree, we shall find, occupies the same +position with the Northern Teutons); it is sometimes found in a +highly conventional form with the figure of a cherub at each side of +it, each of whom holds in his hand a fruit. In this tree scholars +recognise both the tree of life and the tree of knowledge with which +we are familiar. The knowledge of the priests in Babylonia was not +for every one, but was jealously guarded, and kept for the initiated +alone. + +From Tammuz we naturally pass to Istar, one of the few goddesses of +old Babylonia, and by far the most famous of them. Istar was +originally the goddess of the earth, and both mother and sister of +the sun-god, for we are led to believe that she is at first the same +as Davkina. The great myth of the descent of Istar describes how she +goes down to the kingdom of the shades to seek the waters that shall +give life again to her bridegroom Tammuz. The poem in which the +narrative is preserved gives a description of the "house of darkness, +where they behold no light," and then tells how, at the orders of +Ninkigal or Allat, queen of Hades, Istar is deprived, successively, +in spite of her remonstrances, of all her ornaments, and how the +plague-demon Namtar is bidden to strike her with all manner of +diseases. The result of Istar's disappearance under the earth is that +all love and courtship cease both among men and the lower animals, +and Ea himself is appealed to, to bring to an end so unnatural a +state of affairs. A messenger is sent to the lower regions to cause +the release of Istar and the reascent of Tammuz. This goddess, +however, is known not only from this legend; she has many forms, and +passed through various fortunes. The Istar of Erech herself lures +Tammuz to his destruction. In early times Istar is also the evening +star, the bright companion of the moon. Her leading character, +however, seems to be that of a goddess of love. Fertility depends on +her; she goes under the earth to find her lover. In this character +she attracted in Babylonia a worship noted for impurity, which under +the name of Ashtoreth is found also in Phenicia and in Syria. There +is also, however, a warlike Istar, a strict goddess served by +Amazons, and capable of identification with the Greek Artemis, as the +Istar of love is identified with Aphrodite. + +Much more primitive than the legend of Istar are some parts of the +Babylonian accounts of the creation. There are several of these +accounts, some newly discovered. In one the old god Ea peoples the +original chaos with a variety of strange monsters. In another the +birth of the gods is narrated as well as that of the world; we find +also that chaos is itself conceived as a female monster, a dragon of +evil, and the god has to do battle with this power of darkness and +evil, and to bring light and the habitable world up from its realm. +It is certainly true that the Babylonian legends of the creation are +crude and inconsistent with each other, and that the account in +Genesis belongs to a much higher order of thought. The Babylonian +account of the deluge and the ark is more closely parallel to the +Bible narrative; the two cannot possibly be independent of each +other, and there may be no impropriety in holding that the Hebrew +writers were acquainted with myths of general diffusion in the world +they lived in. + +The State Religion.--The Babylonian and Assyrian religion of which we +hear in the Bible (_cf._ Isa. xl.-lxvi.) is the splendid worship of +mighty empires; it has forgotten its humble beginnings, and under the +guidance of large priestly and learned corporations has grown much in +depth and purity. Of its outward magnificence the monuments furnish +ample proof. The temple of Bel-Merodach at Babylon was a wonder of +the world. Being the god of the prevailing city of the empire, +Merodach was the greatest of all the gods, and was reverenced and +extolled as befitted the friend and patron of the greatest of +monarchs. His son Nebo was a prophet and a god of wisdom. What +Merodach was to Babylon, Assur was to Assyria; in fact, he was the +only god peculiar to Assyria. The rule that as religion grows in +outward splendour it also gains in inward strength and spirituality +is strikingly exemplified in the case before us. The gods have come +to be moral powers, who really care for men, not only for the king, +their earthly representative, but for their worshippers in general. +Merodach is praised for his mercy; he not only accompanies the king +in his wars, of which the inscriptions give us so many a wearisome +catalogue, but he heals the sick, he brings relief to him who is +mourning for his transgressions, and he brings life out of death and +receives the soul committed to his mercy to a blessed dwelling above. +Perhaps we pass here somewhat beyond the early period of the religion +and touch on its ultimate phase. The penitential hymns of the later +literature form a strong contrast to the magical incantations, which +fill so much space in the Babylonian sacred literature. The +confessions they contain are not very spiritual; the supplicant +bewails his sufferings rather than his sins. Indeed, he rather infers +from his sufferings that he has sinned, trodden, it may be, where he +ought not to have trodden, or eaten what he should not have eaten, +than confesses that he deserved to suffer for sins of which he is +aware. What is implored is outward redress or ease, not inward peace. +The removal of outward ills is taken as forgiveness. There can be no +comparison between these hymns and those of the Bible. But what they +do show is the rise in Babylonia of a religion for the individual. +The gods are sought not only officially by the state or for state +ends, but by the individual. They are believed to have regard to +individual sufferings; and the friends of a dying person believe that +the gods care for and will receive his soul. + +Our knowledge of the religion of these lands is too imperfect to +admit of wide conclusions being drawn from it. We know what the +higher religion of Babylonia was; and we also see that the higher +worship never entirely prevailed in this land; the god, like Bel or +Assur, who bore the character of a human over-lord, never drove out +the old set of spirits, nor brought the service of them to an end. As +in the case of Egypt, so here the attempts made in the direction of a +pure and spiritual worship met with no ultimate success. Babylon and +Assyria never came so near to Monotheism as did Egypt three +millenniums before Christ. Nabonidos, the last king of Babylon, +collected all the gods together in his capital, and endeavoured to +organise them in a system under Merodach as their head; but this led +to religious discord rather than to peace, since the minor deities +vehemently resented the removal of their images from their accustomed +shrines, and were understood to refuse their aid to the state on the +new conditions. The religion of Babylon was too much broken up into +independent local cults to admit of such a unification. The highest +that was reached was that one great god was adored in one city, +another in another, with some depth and spirituality. To nations +which had attained a higher faith, that of Babylon appeared to be an +idolatrous worship of many gods. That is a harsh judgment. This +religion also had life in it and advanced from a lower to a higher +stage; from a timid trafficking with spirits to a service of gods who +were ideal heads of human communities, and friends of individual men. +It was not a mere system, as the world has been accustomed to think, +of astrology and of divination of other kinds. But when Babylon and +Assyria ceased to be independent powers, and became provinces of +Persia, Bel bowed down and Nebo stooped, not to rise again. The world +of that day had no need of them. It had already attained in more than +one country to a higher religion than that of these deities. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The Histories of Antiquity, viz.-- + +Maspero, _Histoire ancienne des Peuples de l'Orient_. + +Duncker, _The History of Antiquity_, from the German, by Evelyn +Abbott. + +Rawlinson, _The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World: +Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Media, and Persia_. + +Ed. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, 1884. The first volume +embraces the History of the East to the foundation of the Persian +Empire. + +Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das alte Testament_, 1903. + +Hilprecht, _Old Babylonian Inscriptions_ chiefly from Nippur, 1893. + +_Records of the Past_, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11. + +Sayce's _Hibbert Lectures_, 1887. + +Tiele, _Egyptische en Mesopotamische Godsdiensten_. + +Jastrow, _The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, 1898. The most +complete account of the whole subject. + +Jastrow, "Religion of Babylonia," in _Dictionary of the Bible_, vol. +v. + +Jastrow, "On the Religion of the Semites," in _Oxford Proceedings_, +vol. i. p. 225, _sqq._ + +F. Jeremias in De la Saussaye, pp. 246-347. + +Bezold, _Niniva and Babylon_, 1903. + +E. H. W. Johns, _The Oldest Code of Laws in the World_, 1903. + +"On the Code of Hammurabi." E. H. W. Johns, in _Dictionary of the +Bible_, vol. v. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII +CHINA + + +The Chinese have always been a world in themselves, remote from other +races of men; yet they developed a civilisation which is in many +respects worthy to be compared with that of India or of the West. The +people who made gunpowder and paper and who printed books, long +before any of these things were done in Europe, might naturally think +themselves the foremost nation of the earth. Their civilisation, +however, has exercised no influence on the world outside of China, +nor has it advanced to the higher achievements of the human mind. As +their great wall secludes them from other nations, so do their mental +habits prevent them from a free interchange of ideas with foreigners. +The Mongolian race, indeed, from which, like the Hungarians and the +Finns, they are descended, is so different from other races in many +respects that some anthropologists suppose it to have a separate +origin. Phlegmatic and matter-of-fact by nature, exact and careful in +practical matters, and to a high degree imitative and industrious, +the Chinese are singularly devoid of imagination and indisposed to +philosophy. Their monosyllabic and uninflected language, belonging to +one of the earliest strata of human speech, and ill fitted to express +abstract or poetical ideas, is an index to their whole nature. If an +awakening, as various signs appear to indicate, is now at hand for +them, no one can tell how fast it will proceed, or what the final +issue of it may be. + +China has at present three religions, all recognised by the state and +represented in every part of the country--viz. Confucianism, Taoism, +and Buddhism. For our purpose the first of these is very much the +most important, as Taoism, originally a philosophy, quickly +degenerated into a system of magic, and Buddhism is imported into +China, and has to be spoken of elsewhere. Confucianism, being the +direct descendant of the old state religion of China, is the native +growth of the mind of the nation. Like the Chinese language, the +state religion belongs to a very early formation, and presents the +symptoms of a development which was rapid at first but was early +arrested. + +History of China.--Legend goes back to very remote antiquity and +tells in a shadowy way of the arrival of the Chinese from the West +(which scholars are agreed in regarding as a fact), and of early +potentates, patterns to all their successors, who treated the people +as their children, and invented for them the arts on which life in +China most depends. History proper begins about 2000 B.C., though the +Chinese had the art of writing a thousand years before that. +Researches, however, which are now being made by several scholars, +seem likely to lead to the conclusion that China received at least +the seeds of civilisation and some religious ideas from Mesopotamia. +That Chinese religion resembles in some respects that of Babylonia +was mentioned in the last chapter. In a work like this and in the +present state of knowledge it is necessary to deal with the religion +of China as an isolated one. When the history of the country opens, +the character, manners, and institutions of the people are already +fixed. They are already civilised and have an organised religion, +though how all this came about we cannot tell. The early kings are +men of piety, inventors of arts, and authors of fundamental maxims of +policy; but as time went on the kings grew worse and lost the +affections of their people. In the twelfth century B.C. the Chow +dynasty came into power and gave China some of its best rulers, but +it also soon fell off; the country broke up into a number of separate +feudal principalities over which the central government lost all +control, and in the sixth century Confucius is found wandering from +one independent state to another. This confusion led in the third +century B.C. to the displacement of the Chow by the Tsin dynasty. +Shi-Hoang-Ti, fourth ruler of this line, one of the strongest rulers +China ever had, assumed the title of Universal Emperor. He beat back +the enemies of China beyond the frontier, began the building of the +great wall, and broke down the power of the feudal rulers. It was +found, however, that the feudal system still lived in the affections +of the people, and as it was the religious books which mainly kept +the past in veneration, the emperor ordered their destruction and +enforced the edict with great rigour. The House of Han, however, +which replaced that of Tsin in 206 B.C., recovered the ancient +literature of the country from the hiding-places where copies of the +books had been preserved, and established in accordance with them the +very conservative constitution which has lasted to this day. + +Sources.--The books thus condemned and thus recovered supply us with +our knowledge of ancient China and of its religion. They are +political rather than religious in their nature. China has no Bible, +no book guarded by the ministers of religion as the basis of the +system they conduct; the religious teachers of China, if there are +any, are the literati, the books they preserve and study are the +Classics. These are connected with the name of Confucius, who +collected or edited them, and himself wrote one of them. They are not +thought to be inspired, but are revered because of their immemorial +antiquity. No people was ever more completely under the influence of +a book, or set of books, than the Chinese. The learned class, who +constitute the only nobility of China, receive their whole education +from the books ascribed to Confucius; which, like other authoritative +literatures, contain matter of various kinds. + +The Chinese collection consists of the five Classics (King) and the +four books (Shu). The former were edited by Confucius; the latter are +by the disciples of that sage or by Mencius, a distinguished teacher +in his school about a century after him. The five Classics are the +most sacred of all. They are as follows:-- + +I.--1. The _Yih-king_, or Book of Changes. This is a divining book; +it consists of a set of interpretations by princes of the twelfth +century B.C., of a set of lineal figures. The system is in itself of +childlike simplicity, but use and age have collected mysteries about +it. It was exempted from the proscription of Shi-Hoang-Ti. + +2. The _Shu-king_, or Book of History, contains speeches and +documents of the early princes from the twenty-fourth to the eighth +century B.C. + +3. The _Shi-king_, or Book of Poetry, consists of a collection of 300 +songs, selected by Confucius from a mass ten times as great. Some of +these pieces are extremely old. + +4. The _Le ke_, or Record of Rites. This book is said to have been +composed by the duke of Chow in the twelfth century B.C., and is the +principal source of information about the ancient state religion of +China. It contains precepts not only for religious ceremonies, but +also for social and domestic duties, and is the Chinaman's manual of +conduct to the present day. + +5. _Chun Tsew_, Spring and Autumn, contains the annals of the +principality of Loo, of which Confucius was a native, from 721-480 +B.C. They are extremely dry; and if we could understand the statement +of Mencius that Confucius by writing them (for they are his own work) +produced a great effect on the minds of his contemporaries, many +things about Chinese religion and manners would be clearer to us than +they unfortunately are. + +To these five Classics is sometimes added, as a sixth, the +_Hsiao-king_, or Book of Filial Piety, a conversation on that subject +between Confucius and a disciple. + +It is impossible to tell how much Confucius did for these old books. +Some hold that he did not change them much, nor put into them much of +his own, and that, in fact, he was himself indebted to these books +for all he is reported to have taught. On the other hand, it is +declared that he made the ancient books teach his own doctrine, and +left out all that did not suit him; and, in confirmation of this +view, the fact is pointed out that while these books as we have them +teach pure Confucianism, another religion of a different spirit was +growing up in China in Confucius's own day, which must have had some +support in the old system. It may be that Confucius did not care to +report to us all the features of the old religion, but only those of +which he approved. But the information given us about that old +religion is admittedly correct so far as it goes; and there is little +doubt that what Confucius thought best in it, and what passed through +him into the subsequent religion of China, was its most +characteristic and most important part. + +II.--The Classics of the second order comprise four books:-- + +1. The _Lun Yu_, or Digested Conversations of the Master; or, as Dr. +Legge calls it, _The Confucian Analects_. It is from this book that +we derive our information about the sage; it was compiled probably by +the disciples of his disciples. + +2. The _Ta-Heo_, or Great Learning, and + +3. The _Chung Yung_, or Doctrine of the Mean, are smaller works, +giving a more literary form to the doctrine of the sage. + +4. The _Mang-tsze_ contains the teachings of Mencius. + +The State Religion of Ancient China.--Confucius never imagined +himself to be a reformer of the religion of his country. The religion +of China is in the main the same to this day[1] as it was before he +appeared, and what is called Confucianism is simply that old system. +That the worship of Confucius himself has been added to it does not +involve any change of its structure. It is already well developed +when we first see it, and what is very peculiar, it has already +parted with all savage and irrational elements. There is no +mythology; the universal legend of the marriage of heaven and earth +is dimly recognisable, but there is no set of primitive stories about +the gods. Of human sacrifice there is only one ancient instance; +there are no rites with anything savage or cruel about them. +Everything is proper, dignified, and well arranged. The deities are +beings worthy to be worshipped, and they exact no meaningless +services. There is nothing in any part of the religion to disturb the +propriety of the worshipper or to suggest any doubts to his mind. In +no other religion of the world do we find everything in such +excellent order. + +[Footnote 1: The working religion of the present day is fully +described by Prof. de Groot in De la Saussaye, _Lehrbuch_, Third +edition.] + +On the other hand, it is not a highly-developed religion. Its beliefs +are those of extremely early times, and represent a stage of thought +at which no other national religion stood still. The organisation +common to developed systems is entirely wanting; there is no idol, no +priestly class, no Bible, no theology; the most important doctrines +are left so vague and undetermined that scholars interpret them in +opposite ways. It is a religion in which, just as in the primitive +stage, outward acts are everything, the doctrine nothing, and which +is not regulated by an organised code but by custom and precedent. +All these marks point to a formation in very early times, and to a +very early arrest of growth, before the ordinary developments of +mythology and doctrine, priesthood, ritual, and sacred literature had +time to take place. They also point to the operation of some powerful +cause, which, when the religion had developed its main features, was +able to suppress older beliefs and practices, and lead the nation to +devote itself altogether to the newer faith. How this took place we +can only conjecture, but certainly it could never have been done +unless the new faith and the national character had fitted each other +perfectly. The classical religion may, as Prof. de Groot says, have +come into existence along with the classical constitution set up by +the Han dynasty 2000 years ago. But it must have been ready to enter +into this position. + +The objects of worship in the Chinese religion arrange themselves in +three classes. The Chinaman of old worshipped and his descendant of +to-day worships still-- + + 1. Heaven. + 2. Spirits of various kinds, other than human. + 3. The spirits of dead ancestors. + +1. Heaven (Thian) is the principal Chinese deity; in strictness we +must say the sole deity, for there is no family of upper gods; heaven +receives all the worship that is directed aloft. It is the clear +vault, the friendly ever-present and all-seeing blue that is meant, +not the windy nor the rainy sky, but that which is above all +agitations, and which all beings of the air or of the earth look up +to and serve. It is conceived as living. It is not a separable +spirit, not a power behind, that is worshipped, but heaven +itself,--the living heaven of that early thought, which has not yet +come to distinguish between matter and spirit,--the living heaven +which is over all, knows all, orders and governs all. + +To this heaven other names are given, even in the oldest +writings--Ti, Ruler; or Shang-ti, Supreme Ruler. Did the Chinese +conceive this ruler as identical with heaven, or as a personality +dwelling in it or above it? It has been held that the two beliefs are +not the same; that the Chinese of the earliest times worshipped the +Supreme Ruler, _i.e._ the one God, Ti, and afterwards fell away from +that position of pure monotheism and declined to the worship of the +material object, heaven. The early Catholic missionaries argued that +the Chinese Shang-ti was equivalent to the Christian "God," and +signified a being other than the sky, the Supreme Power of the +universe. The Chinese, however, generally denied that they made any +such distinction,[2] and even declared that they could not understand +it. The names Heaven and Supreme Ruler are used by them +indiscriminately: one notices that Confucius does not use the +personal form, but only speaks of heaven; "heaven," he says, when +feeling distressed, "is destroying me." We have here, therefore, an +early form of nature-worship. + +[Footnote 2: Dr. Legge, while admitting that the Chinese originally +worshipped the vault of heaven itself, maintains that they got past +the early mode of thought which considers every natural object as +animated, before the dawn of history, and became pure theists, +believers in a supreme spiritual being. Confucius he considers to +have held a lower religious position than his countrymen had already +attained to. He also regards the worship of spirits and of ancestors +as a later perversion and degradation of the original religion of one +god. In these positions he is followed by Professor Giles, _Oxford +Proceedings_, vol. i. p. 105, _sqq._] + +The Supreme Power directs all things, and is an ever-present governor +both in the natural and in the moral sphere. These two spheres indeed +are not regarded as distinct. Nature reveals in all its changes the +mind of its ruler, and human conduct is regarded as an outward thing, +as a phenomenon on the same plane with the movements of nature; the +two are supposed to be part of one system and to act directly on each +other. As Heaven both governs the weather and looks after men's +actions, for "every day heaven witnesses our actions and is present +in the places where we are," these two aspects of providence are +closely blended and are in fact the same. Heaven makes its will known +in a natural way. It is one of the most peculiar features of Chinese +religion that it knows no revelation, no miracles, no divine +interferences. It has a belief in destiny, Ming; every one has his +Ming, but it is only known when it is accomplished. "Does Heaven +plainly declare its Ming?" Confucius is asked; and he replies, "No, +heaven speaks not; by the order of events its will is known, not +otherwise." Man learns by the external occurrences how Heaven is +disposed towards him. When there is excessive rain or long drought, +this shows that the harmony between Heaven and the earth is +disturbed. It belongs to the emperor to put this right. He alone is +entitled to offer sacrifice to Heaven; he stands in the closest +relation to Heaven, who is the ancestor of his house; and when Heaven +is seen to be displeased, the emperor must restore the harmony by +governing his subjects better or by sacrifices. In an extreme case, +when the emperor is seen to have fallen under the displeasure of +Heaven, the conclusion is drawn that he must no longer be emperor. +The people then are entitled to depose him and to set up a new ruler, +through whom the necessary transactions with Heaven can be carried +on. The belief has always been held in China, at least theoretically, +and is operative to this day, that it can be known when Heaven has +rejected a ruler, and that it belongs to the people to carry out that +sentence. + +2. The Spirits.--The worship "of the spirits" is a primary religious +duty for the Chinaman. The spirits, however, are an ill-defined set +of beings; they are generally spoken of in the plural number, and +sacrifice was offered to them as a body, no particular spirits being +named. The spirits are connected with natural objects, every part of +nature has its spirit. The sun, the moon, the five planets, clouds, +rain, wind, the five great mountains, but also every smaller +mountain, the rivers, each district, and a thousand other things, all +have their spirits.[3] The spirits are not flitting about +capriciously, but have been collected together and organised in a +hierarchy, and this has loosened their connection with natural +objects. They are spoken of as a set of beings who may be addressed +as a body. A prince alone may sacrifice to the spirit of the earth, +and to those of the mountains and rivers of his territory. But to the +spirits in general all may and should pray; they assist those who pay +them reverence and sacrifice to them. It will be seen that the +worship of heaven and that of the spirits are kept separate. The +former is the imperial worship; the emperor alone is competent to +attend to it. The latter is the official worship of minor states. Nor +are the two sets of deities wrought into a homogeneous system; we +hear that the spirits, while subordinate to Shang-ti, are not his +messengers. The surmise is not to be avoided that these two worships +came originally from different circles of ideas, and have not been +perfectly blended. The worship of heaven belongs to the higher +nature-worship, that of the spirits to the lower; the latter is +animistic, it is a worship of detached spirits, while the former is a +worship of the natural object itself. The spirits are all good; there +are scarcely any bad spirits in Chinese belief. + +[Footnote 3: The Japanese official religion, "Shin-to" (=way of the +gods, as distinguished from Butsudo, way of Buddha, _i.e._ Japanese +Buddhism), an easy worship of numberless spirits, without sacrifices +and without any moral doctrine, is allied to this branch of the +religion of China; as also is the religion of Corea. Shin-to is not +ancestral worship, and recognises no life after death.] + +3. Ancestors.--The worship of ancestors is that which is assigned to +the private individual. He does not approach Shang-ti any more than +he would address the emperor on earth; his working religion is +directed to his ancestors. The Chinese believed in the continuance of +the soul after death, and addressed solemn invitations to it to +return to the body it had forsaken. Their belief can scarcely be +described as that in personal immortality; it is the continuance of +the family rather than of the person that is thought of. The +individual does not look forward to his own future life or allow that +to influence him; there is little trace of any belief in future +rewards and punishments. China has no heaven and no hell. It is the +past, not the future, that influences the present; the departed +members of the family are believed to be still attached to it, and to +have become its tutelary spirits. In every house there is a hall of +ancestors, where worship and sacrifice is offered to them, and many +even of the details of this worship remind us strongly of the way in +which the Romans served their family heroes. Tablets belonging to the +ancestors are placed in this hall; and to these they are supposed to +come when properly invoked, so as to be present with the family. At +every important family event they are summoned to attend. This +worship has to be rendered by husband and wife jointly, so that +marriage is necessary for its performance, and an early marriage is a +religious duty. + +The family sacrifice, like all sacrifices in China, is of the nature +of a banquet, at which the living members of the family, and the +spirits who have been summoned, eat and drink together. To heighten +the illusion, the grandson was sometimes dressed in the clothes of +the departed head of the house and made the principal figure of the +celebration-- + + The dead cannot in form be here, + But there are those their part who bear; + We lead them to the highest seat + And beg that they will drink and eat: + So shall our sires our service own, + And deign our happiness to crown + With blessings still more bright.[4] + +[Footnote 4: _Shi-king_, II. vi. 5.] + +It is not only in the family that ancestors are adored. The emperor +sacrifices in a public capacity to all the ancestors of his own line, +and also to all his predecessors on the throne; a magistrate to all +who have occupied his office before him. Ancient China possessed an +elaborate ritual, and occasions of sacrifice were frequent. Every +change of season, every portent of nature, every important step +either in public or in private life, required its consecration. It is +in accordance with the genius of the people that the sacrifices are +not of the nature of propitiation, but expressions of gratitude and +devotion merely. Asceticism has no place in this religion; everything +in it is bright and sensible. He who is to offer a sacrifice prepares +himself by prayer and retirement to do so worthily; but beyond this +reasonable measure there is no afflicting of the soul, and in the +prayers belonging to the occasion self-humiliation and confession +have no place, but only thanksgivings and petitions. The petitions +are for worldly benefits and furtherance; the sacrifices are means of +procuring these from the heavenly powers. They consist chiefly of +animal victims, but fruits are also used, and with the importance of +the occasion the variety and costliness of the offerings increase. +Elaborate music also accompanies great sacrifices, and is thought to +be very acceptable to the heavenly powers. Religion is not separated +from life in China. There is no special class to take care of it; +every one has to attend himself to those sacrifices which are +incumbent on him; this is a natural, matter-of-course part of a man's +duty. As there is no Bible, there is no religious instruction, and +the doctrine is quite vague and undefined. The ritual, however, is +fixed by tradition in every detail, and if a man attends to it he +does his duty; religion is a set of acts properly and exactly done, +the proper person sacrificing always to the proper object in the +proper way. + +Confucius was not a man who tried to change the religion of his +country; indeed, he disliked to talk of religious subjects, and he +practised reverently the religion which had long prevailed in China. +His conversation was chiefly about what we should call worldly +matters, and it is hard to see why the religion of China, the same +after him as it had been before him, should be called by his name. +What led to the connection was: (1) That he taught in a clear and +simple way, as had never been done before, the theory of government +and morals which lies at the root of Chinese religion, and thus did +something, though unconsciously, to provide that religion with a +doctrine. And (2) that he collected and edited the books which are +the only literary documents the religion has, and which have formed +ever since the study of the ruling classes in China. Receiving these +books at his hands, they have naturally looked to him as the prophet +of their faith. + +His Life.--Kung-fu-tsze (_i.e._ Master Kong; the name was Latinised +by the Jesuits) is better known to us than most other religious +founders. He lived to the age of seventy-three, surrounded by +admiring disciples, who remembered what they saw in him and heard +from his lips; and this tradition is preserved in the _Lun Yu_, +Digested Conversations,[5] a work compiled, as we observed, by +disciples of the second generation. The supernatural element which in +other cases gathered so quickly round a venerated figure, is here +entirely absent; in China such growths do not take place. There may +be some tendency to idealise the moral greatness of the sage, but +there are also passages in which this tendency evidently has not been +at work; both in its candour and in the homeliness of much that is +reported, the book invites confidence as a genuine record. We see the +sage as the diligence of students in the present generation enables +us to see Kant or Wordsworth; we hear his opinions on a great variety +of subjects; we see how he behaved on occasions of state and at his +meals in private, towards princes and towards common men; we laugh at +his jokes and sigh with him at his privations. + +[Footnote 5: Dr. Legge, _Confucian Analects_.] + +He was born in 551 B.C. in a good rank of society, but was brought up +in poverty, and owed all his success to his own merits. The bent of +his mind showed itself early; as a child he amused himself with +playing at ceremonies; at thirteen, he tells us, he bent his mind to +learning, the subject of his studies being history and poetry, the +ceremonies and the music of the empire. He early arrived at the views +he always afterwards held as to the proper way to govern a people, +and he believed with all the faith of an enthusiast that a vast +improvement of society would follow the adoption of his method. It +was to public employment that he aspired from an early period of +life; but he did not readily find it in the unquiet times in which +his lot was cast. He did enjoy office for certain brief periods, and +marvellous things are told of the reformation of manners which at +once attended his efforts as a governor. All got their due; there was +no thieving, and there was no occasion to put the penal laws in +execution, for no offenders showed themselves. What was the method +which was held to have had such results? In the counsels which he +gave to various rulers who applied to him this is set forth. He +believed the power of example to be capable of effecting all that a +ruler should desire. Punishments might be dispensed with, and +excessive pains need not be bestowed on the machinery of government, +but a prince who has "rectified" himself will soon have his people +"rectified" too. The first task of a ruler is to "rectify names"; +_i.e._ there is good government when the prince is really a prince +and the minister a minister, when the father is a real father and the +son a real son. The perfect order consists of the due observance by +each rank of the duties belonging to it; there is to be a +well-regulated hierarchy in which each understands his function and +acts it out. The people are naturally good and docile, he held, and +if they are well governed they will not do wrong even though rewards +be offered for it. Thus by docile respect to tradition and authority, +which all men are willing to pay if properly guided towards it, the +pillars of the state are established. + +His Doctrine.--This is the truth which Confucius preached most +earnestly. He spoke of heaven but seldom, and of the spirits he +professed no certain knowledge; he declared towards the end of his +life that he had not prayed for many years. He was a diligent +frequenter of all religious ceremonies and a strong upholder of the +old order, but his interest in these things was not speculative or +mystical, but entirely practical. He regarded himself as a teacher of +virtue, not of religious doctrine; his watchword was "propriety," the +dutiful observance of all right and customary rules of conduct. Yet +there is not wanting an ideal element in his doctrine. He enounces +the theory, of which the whole of Chinese religion is the outward +expression, that the universe in all its parts, in nature and in man, +is an order; that that order is declared to man alike in the +ordinances of outward nature, in the constitution of society with its +various ranks and classes, and in the ritual of religion; and that it +is the whole duty of man to know that order and to conform himself to +it. The theory is one in which the state is all, the individual +nothing, and in which the present is entirely crushed under the dead +hand of the past, and all originality and progress condemned even +before they appear. If religion has been delivered from all that is +unseemly and irrational, it has also, at least to Western eyes, lost +much of its interest; the enthusiasms and excitements of its early +stages have departed, and no new enthusiasm has come in their place; +no great god-wrought deliverance thrills the memory of posterity, no +local cults excite exceptional devotion, no divine historical figure +attracts to itself personal affection. Religion has cast off fear but +has not yet risen to the inspiration of love. The domestic worship +came nearest to this, for the other worships are cold and distant +indeed; but that worship was a powerful influence for the prevention +of progress. The Christian text which hallows individual daring and +innovation, by bidding a man put his convictions above his father and +mother, would be a shocking impiety to Chinese ears. + +A temple was built to Confucius after his death and his worship was +added to the state religion. The attempt made by the emperor +Shi-Hoang-Ti in the third century after his death to suppress his +memory and the books connected with his name, was, though conducted +with great vigour, unsuccessful. The teaching of Mencius (371-288 +B.C.), the most distinguished of his disciples, added no new element +to that of Confucius. Two movements, however, have to be noticed, +which in different ways aimed at giving something richer and deeper +than Confucianism, and to which China owes the two additional +religions of Taoism and Buddhism. + +Taoism looks to Lao-tsze as its founder; but it has no personal +founder and is composed of older elements. Lao was a philosopher who +lived at the same time with Confucius, though half a century older; +Confucius met him, as we hear in the _Analects_, and spoke of him +with great respect. His work, the _Tao-te-king_, has been preserved, +and though few profess to understand it, a general idea of his +thought may be gathered from it. Lao, like Confucius, founds on the +existing system; he quotes largely from older works, and there are +sayings common to both the sages. Metaphysical thought, however, +which with Confucius was implied rather than reasoned out, here +stands in the forefront. Lao's system is a philosophy applied +practically. Tao, the ruling idea of the system, from which both it +and the religion which followed it are named, is variously rendered +Reason, Nature, the Way; the last is the nearest, though by no means +a full rendering of it. By the manifold operations attributed to it, +it reminds us of the Indian Brahma, and the riddle of Lao's obscurity +has been proposed to be solved by the supposition that he was dealing +with a doctrine imported from India which Chinese forms of speech +could but imperfectly express.[6] Tao is not personal, but something +that precedes all persons, all particular beings. It was there before +heaven was; all things are from it and return to it at last. It is +the principle at the root and the beginning of all things, by which +they move, without haste or struggle, ambition or confusion. Existing +first absolute and undeveloped, it has now been expressed; men can +know it, and the secret of all goodness, all success both for the +individual and for the state, is to know Tao and live in it. This +makes a man superior to all rules and conventions; at home with +himself he is superior to the world; he does not dissipate his +energies in learning a great number of outward things, but acts +spontaneously from an inner impulse. In this way the philosopher +looked for a return of society to simpler manners; he even imagined +that men might consent to put away the material arts of which they +thought so much, and content themselves with living according to +wisdom and being governed by the wisest. + +[Footnote 6: "Lao-Tzeu et le Brahmanisme," by E. Guimet in the +_Verhandlungen_ of the Basal Conference, 1904.] + +The moral precepts of Lao are often of singular beauty and show a +much deeper insight than the cold teaching of Confucius. Lao taught +the golden rule: "Recompense injury," he said, "with kindness." +Confucius, on being asked about this, did not agree with Lao, but +declared that kindness ought to be recompensed with kindness, but +injury with justice, as if private morality ought not to rise higher +than public policy. "Resent it not when you are reviled," Lao +teaches; and "He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes +himself is mighty." "He who knows when he has enough is rich." "The +weakest things in the world subjugate the strongest." The _Book of +Recompenses_, which is the practical manual of Taoists and is +universally read in China, sets up a high ideal of goodness, and +claims to be studied with devotion and earnestness. The task of +self-discipline is represented as one requiring faith and courage, +the continuous efforts of a lifetime, and unceasing watchfulness. If +we judge Taoism either by its philosophy or by its morals, we must +assign it a high rank among the efforts which have been made to guide +men in the way of wisdom. As a religion, however, it is a dismal +failure, and shows how little philosophy and morals can do without a +historical religious framework to support them. Taoism was not at +first a religion, and was not fitted to become one, as it neither +offered any sacred objects of its own for pious sentiment to cling +to, nor, like Confucianism, leant upon the state system. The religion +which looks to Lao as its chief figure is not based on his teaching; +at most it is connected with some of his less important doctrines. It +did not take a place in the world till five centuries after the +philosopher's death, and its rise was due partly to the emperor named +above, who was opposed to Confucius, and partly to teachers who +brought forward isolated doctrines of Lao's system which admitted of +a popular application. When the religion appears it is a system not +of philosophy but of magic. Lao had spoken of immortality as the +portion of those who lived according to Tao; under the Chin dynasty +(220 B.C.) Taoism is engaged in a search for the fairy islands, where +the herb of immortality is to be found; in the first century of our +era the head of Taoism is devising a pill which shall renew his +youth. When Buddhism enters China, in the same century Taoism borrows +from it the apparatus of religion, temples, monasteries, and +liturgies, and sets out on its career as a church. + +It was not without reason that Buddhism was sent for, if we are truly +informed, by the rulers of China, or that it spread over the country, +in the first century of our era. Neither Confucianism nor Taoism is a +religion, in the full sense of the term, as supplying by intercourse +with higher beings an inspiration for life. The former is regulative +and no more; the latter is a mere set of devices for obtaining +benefits from mysterious powers. Buddhism, on the contrary, appeals, +as we shall see when we consider it in connection with India, to +unselfish motives, and insists on the solemn responsibilities of +individual life in such a way as to raise the value of the human +person. As it appeared in China it is richer than we shall find it in +India; it has a god, unknown to southern Buddhism, and it has a +goddess Kouan Yin, "the being who hears the cries of men," sometimes +represented with a child on her knee, just like a Western Madonna. +While still essentially monastic, it offers salvation and a way of +life to all. To faith in Buddha the merciful one is also added a +belief in the paradise in which he receives believers. Thus a popular +worship is provided, which neither of the older beliefs supplied. + +It remains true that China has no religion worthy of the name. The +phenomenon may there be witnessed, which is seen with certain +differences also in Japan, that several religions exist side by side, +all of which are supported by the state and live together without +rivalry, and to all of which a man may belong at the same time. This +could not be the case if any of the three appealed strongly to +patriotic sentiment, or gave full expression to the ideals of the +nation. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +In the Sacred Books of the East, vols. iii., xvi., xxvii., and +xxviii. contain translations of Chinese Classics, by Dr. Legge. The +same writer has published three convenient volumes of his own, +containing: 1. The Life and Teachings of Confucius, 2. The Life and +Works of Mencius, 3. The Shi-King. + +Dr. Legge has also written a popular work, _The Religions of China_, +1880. Also _The Notions of the Chinese concerning God and Spirits_, +1852. + +The best account of the old State Religion is that of J. H. Plath, +_Die Religion und der Cultus der alten Chinesen_, 1862. + +Reville, _La Religion chinoise_ (1889). The third volume of his +History. + +R. K. Douglas, _Confucianism and Taoism_, 1876. S.P.C.K. + +De Groot, in De la Saussaye. + +De Groot, _The Religious System of China_, vols. i.-iv., 1892-1901. +Also a small book, _The Religion of the Chinese_, 1910. + +Beal, _Buddhism in China_, 1884. + +Murray's _Guide to Japan_. + +J. Edkins' _Religion in China_, 1878, the account of a modern +missionary, may be consulted. + +On Taoism, Pfizmaier, _Die Loesung der Leichname und Schwerter_, 1870; +and _Die Tao-lehre von dem wahren Menschen und den Unsterblichen_, +1870. Julius Grill, _Lao-tsze's Buch vom hoechsten Wesen und vom +hoechsten gut_. _Tao-te-King_, 1910. Vols. xxxix.-xl. of the _S.B.E._ +give Taoist Texts. + +Revon, _Le Shintoisme_, 1907. + + + + +CHAPTER IX +THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT + + +Egypt is a land of still more ancient civilisation than China, and +its civilisation is of more interest to us, since from it the nations +of the West obtained in part the seeds of their arts and sciences. +Even to antiquity everything Egyptian appeared venerable and +mysterious, and the air of mystery is not yet removed from the +country of the Nile. We have discovered the sources of the river and +have learned to read the writing on Egyptian monuments; but the +sphinx has other riddles than these--riddles not yet solved. Who are +the Egyptians, and where did they come from? In ancient times they +were thought to have descended from the interior of Africa; now the +opinion gains ground that they were at a very early period connected +with the ancestors of the Semitic races; their language is thought to +show signs of this remote relationship. How, by whom, and when were +they formed into a nation? No one can tell; they come before us four +thousand years before Christ, a fully-formed nation, with an +elaborately organised public service, and with a civilisation both +broad and rich. And lastly, What is the religion of Egypt? What are +the earliest gods of the land, and in what relation do the various +gods which were worshipped in it stand to each other? That question +cannot at the present time be fully answered. Even should it be +proved, as it appears likely to be, that Egyptian civilisation was +derived originally from Mesopotamia, much will still be dark and +enigmatical. The foremost scholars in Egyptology confess that no +history of Egyptian religion can as yet be written. Those who have +tried to sketch it differ from each other as widely as possible, some +alleging monotheism as its starting-point, and some the worship of +animals. The religion also comes into view at the early period we +have mentioned as a fully-formed and stately public system, whose +youthful struggles, if it had any, are long past. What is most +peculiar in that religion is, that it embraces elements which appear +at first sight to have nothing whatever in common, nay, to be quite +irreconcilable with each other. We shall do well not to attempt any +construction of Egyptian religion as a whole, but to content +ourselves with examining one after another the various elements, +almost amounting to different religions, which are found in it side +by side. We shall no doubt learn something of the relations in which +they stood to each other, but it may prove that we shall find +ourselves unable to adopt any of the theological theories by which +Egyptian priests or Greek philosophers sought to combine them in one +system. + +History and Literature.--The principal thing to be remembered, in +order to understand the history of ancient Egypt, is that the country +was divided into a number of provinces or nomes, which, there is +every reason to think, were originally independent of each other. Of +these nomes there were about twenty in Upper Egypt--that is, in the +long gorge of the Nile from Elephantine in the south to Memphis in +the north; and about the same number in Lower Egypt--that is, in the +flatter country from Memphis to the sea. King Mena or Menes, founder +of the first dynasty, whose date, if he was a historical character at +all, and not a mythic founder like Minos of Crete, Manu of India, or +Mannus of Germany, cannot be later than 3200 B.C., is said to have +united for the first time the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. +But though they became united under one ruler, the nomes never forgot +their independence, nor did they cease to maintain their separate +existence as states within the empire, each having its own army, its +own ruler, its own system of taxation, its own worship. The supreme +power resided now in one nome and now in another. The first two +dynasties belonged to that of Abydos; the succeeding dynasties, to +which the earliest monuments belong, so that Egypt here begins its +real history, had their seat at Memphis. The twelfth dynasty, which +is known to us, but is both preceded and followed by a gap of half a +millennium in Egyptian history, made Thebes the capital. Thebes was +also the seat of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, which came +after the foreign domination of the shepherd kings, and under which +Egypt was at the summit of its power. Ramses II. and his successors, +the Pharaohs of the book of Genesis, belong to the nineteenth +dynasty. + +How splendid the Imperial Court of Egypt was at various periods, the +monuments tell us; these palaces, temples, and tombs are in +proportion to a power which considered itself to have the world at +its feet, and to be the manifestation of the greatest gods. +Literature is at the same high level of development with the other +arts, and writing is used for every branch of the public service. +This, the most ancient of the literatures of the world, is spread +over the immense surfaces of ancient temples and tombs, and stored up +in masses of papyrus rolls, much of which is still to be explored. +Our knowledge of ancient Egypt and its religion is still in its +infancy. The story of the decipherment of the various characters and +of the recovery of the early language of Egypt is one of the most +wonderful triumphs of scholarship. Only one remark, however, do we +now make in connection with Egyptian writing, namely, that it +illustrates in a singular manner the conservatism of the Egyptian +people, a feature of their character which is strikingly manifested +in their religion also. The ancient Egyptian did not cast away an old +usage when a new one, even a very superior one, had been introduced. +Long after metals had come into use, he still employed for various +purposes, especially those connected with religion, implements of +stone. The flint knives found in mummy-cases are connected with the +work of embalming, and show the retention of an archaic usage. The +same is true of the matter of writing. The earliest Egyptian writing +was that which is called hieroglyphic, or picture-writing. In this +system what is written down does not represent the sounds of words +the writer uses, but the ideas in his mind; it is writing without +words; a clumsy system we should say, and presenting the greatest +possible difficulties to the reader. At a very early time, however, +what is called hieratic writing was invented, in which the symbols +used represent not things but sounds, though the symbols used are +adapted from those of the earlier picture-writing. It is in this +hieratic character that the great mass of Egyptian literature is +preserved to us; but here again we find that the new system did not +banish the old one from use. Especially in religious inscriptions and +documents, the matter is given both in the newer writing and in the +older; the piece is written twice, first in hieroglyphic, the old and +sacred form, and then in hieratic, the new form, which could be +easily read. In the matter of different objects of worship, too, it +may perhaps be found that the same aversion to discard anything old +and sacred manifests itself, the same disposition rather to carry on +the old and the new together. + + +I. ANIMAL WORSHIP + +We begin with that element in Egyptian religion which is to our eyes +least rational. In the ages before and after the Christian era, when +a number of Greek and Latin writers tell us about Egypt, we find that +the religion of the country is described as consisting mainly in the +worship of animals. This excited the wonder of these writers in no +small degree. Herodotus asserts that the Egyptians counted all +animals sacred, and gives a list of those which were specially +worshipped. The hippopotamus, he says, is sacred at Papremis, the +crocodile at Thebes; and some animals are sacred all over the +country. He has much to tell of the manner in which the sacred +animals are fed and tended, and of the honours paid to them at their +death. Lucian says: "In Egypt the temple is a building of great size +and splendour, adorned with precious stones and decorated with gold +and with inscriptions; but if you go in and look for the god, you +find an ape or an ibis or a goat or a cat." The same statement is +made by Clement of Alexandria; and Celsus, the early Roman assailant +of Christianity, speaks to the same effect. Thus the popular religion +of Egypt, before and after the Christian era, had animals for its +principal objects. A representative of the sacred species sat or +crawled or hopped in the temple, and in that nome that animal was not +eaten. In the nome in which the cat was sacred all cats were +inviolable; any insult offered to a cat roused the whole population +to frenzy, and one who killed a cat, even though he was a stranger in +the place and unacquainted with its manners, forfeited his own life. +In the next nome the cat was not sacred but some other animal; and +these local differences of religion might occasion war between one +nome and another. Juvenal gives in his fifteenth satire an account of +a religious war of old standing between two neighbouring nomes, each +of which hated and insulted the animal which was worshipped in the +other. This may explain why it was impossible for the Israelites to +offer sacrifice to Jehovah in Egypt. They had to go out into the +wilderness, off Egyptian soil, before they could sacrifice animals +Egypt held sacred. + +The worship of a sacred animal in its own nome, a member of the +species dwelling in the temple and the others enjoying respect and +protection throughout that nome, this is the normal state of affairs. +Sometimes an individual animal acquires sacredness for Egypt +generally, as the bull Apis of Memphis, the bull Mnevis of +Heliopolis, or the goat of Mendes. These, though originally local +deities, might obtain a wider reverence if the nome they belonged to +rose to greater power. Animals of every size and kind were worshipped +in Egypt. Besides the large animals we have mentioned, the ape, the +dog, the little shrew-mouse, each had its local sacredness; also +snakes, frogs, and various kinds of fishes. The beetle (_scarab_) can +by no means be left without mention; and a number of trees and shrubs +were also sacred,[1] but, very curiously, not the palm. + +[Footnote 1: A very complete list of the sacred animals and trees +will be found in Wilkinson's _Ancient Egyptians_, vol. iii. p. 258, +_sqq._] + +It will be observed that our account of Egyptian animal worship is +drawn from very late sources and applies to a late period of the +religion. The religion of the earlier ages of Egypt is of quite a +different kind; the kings and priests who wrote the inscriptions of +the monuments tell us nothing about animal worship. Is that because +such worship did not flourish in their day? Not necessarily. Perhaps +they knew it well, but were not interested in it, or did not wish to +encourage it. The Egyptians certainly did not believe the worship of +animals to have been a late innovation. Manetho, an Egyptian priest +who wrote in the third century B.C., says that the worship of animals +was introduced under the second king of the second dynasty. That is +as if we should say that an old custom of which we did not know the +origin was introduced into Britain in the days of King Arthur. The +priests of Manetho's day wished animal worship to be considered a +corruption of the original religion of their country, but they could +not specify the time at which it had come in, and placed its origin +in the mythical period of history. The story of Manetho therefore +goes to prove that the origin of animal worship is anterior to +written records. + +But we have other evidence to the same effect. The earliest +representations of the deities of Egypt on the monuments testify in a +way which can scarcely be mistaken that these great beings had +originally some connection with members of the animal kingdom. The +great gods of Egypt are designated on the monuments in three ways. +Their ultimate form is human, the god is a man or woman, and as the +human figures of all the deities are drawn after one conventional +male and one conventional female pattern, a symbol is added to the +head to show which god or goddess is meant. Hathor is a woman with a +cow's horns on her head, Seb has a duck on his head, and so on. But +an earlier form of the written symbols of the deities is that which +represents them partly in human and partly in animal form. Horus +appears as a man with the head of a hawk, Hathor as a woman with the +head and horns of a cow, Bast is a woman with the head of a cat, +Osiris has the head of a bull or of an ibis, Chnum of a ram, Amon has +the head now of a ram now of a hawk. Deities also occur with human +bodies and the heads of mythical animals such as the phoenix. But +along with these semi-human, semi-animal figures there are found +still simpler symbols for the deities; they are drawn as animals. It +is only about the twelfth dynasty that the change to the higher form +takes place, but even after the step was made of representing the +gods as half-human, the older pictures of them were not discarded, +but placed side by side with the new ones. Thus we find on the same +stone two representations of Horus, one of which gives him as a man +with a hawk's head, while the other makes him simply a hawk; and +similar double representations of the other gods occur. If the gods +of Egypt were thus conceived and represented in the earliest times, +then the animal worship described by the Greek and Roman writers was +not the invention of a late age of decadence, but had its roots at +least far back in the past. The early gods of Egypt were animals, +whatever else, whatever more they were. It may be that the animal +worship of the later and weaker Egyptian periods was a revival, such +as takes place in weak periods, of a style of worship which in +earlier centuries had to a large extent disappeared in favour of a +more spiritual faith.[2] Of this only an Egyptologist can judge, but +at any rate animal worship was not a new thing in Egypt, but a very +old thing. + +[Footnote 2: This is held by Le Page Renouf, in his Hibbert Lectures, +_On the Origin and Growth of Religion, as Illustrated by the Religion +of Ancient Egypt_.] + +Theories Accounting for Animal Worship.--What did this worship mean? +and how are we to account for it? The Egyptians themselves, and the +ancient writers who turned their attention to Egypt, accounted for it +by a variety of theories; and various theories are still held on the +subject. We can only enumerate the principal ones. (1) The beasts +were worshipped for their qualities, as is said to have been the case +in Peru before the Incas (chapter vi.); each was reverenced for that +divine excellence or virtue which appeared to be manifestly resident +in it. Thus the dog was worshipped for his watchfulness and +faithfulness; the hawk for its darting flight through the upper air, +like the flashing of the sunlight or of the sun-god himself; the cow +as a great kind mother; the beetle for that wonderful procedure in +the reproduction of his kind, in which he so strikingly brings life +out of decay. (2) The beasts are not worshipped themselves; they are +only the emblems of the deities with whom they are connected, and it +is the deity who is worshipped, not the animal. This may be quite +true of later practice, but is by no means a satisfactory explanation +of its origin; for how was it arranged, and who was it that ordained +at first, that the jackal should be the emblem of Anubis, the cat of +Bast, the crocodile of Sebak, and so on? (3) Various mythological and +quasi-historical accounts of the origin of the practice are given, +such as that men long ago chose different animals for their standards +in war, or that some early king, wishing to keep his subjects +disunited, ordered that each nome should serve a different animal. It +is also told as a story of early times that the gods when they walked +on earth assumed the forms of various animals; thus the gods are +still in the animals. The gods hid in the beasts in order to be near +men and see how they did. But men found them out and worshipped them +in the disguise they had assumed. (4) The gods cannot be present in +the world and cannot be satisfactorily worshipped unless they have +bodies to dwell in--that is involved in Egyptian psychology; and as +the gods would be too much alike if they all occupied human bodies, +they chose the bodies of different animals. + +These theories of animal worship are evidently later inventions, to +account for a state of matters the real origin of which was not +known. Philosophical priests could not accommodate themselves to the +animal worship of the temples without a doctrine to justify it to +their minds. But those who resorted to such theories about animal +worship could have nothing to do with calling the system into +existence. We may be sure that a refined and cultivated people did +not take up animal worship and cling to it, in spite of its repulsive +features, with such tenacity as the Egyptians did, because of a +speculative idea of the likeness of certain beasts to certain gods, +or to express pantheistic views of the emanations of deity in animal +forms. The system, in fact, cannot have sprung up after the Egyptians +became civilised, and could not continue to exist among a civilised +people, if it was not hallowed by an immemorial antiquity. Only as a +mystery, a thing of which the origin was not known, could such a +worship continue among such a people. + +A new explanation of Egyptian animal worship has been put forward in +recent times by the Anthropological school of students of +religion,[3] and is rapidly gaining ground. The religious +circumstances of Egypt as narrated by Juvenal and Diodorus have the +strongest resemblance to the totemistic state of society described +above (chapter iv.). Here, as in Peru before the Incas, or among the +North American Indians of to-day, we have a number of communities +each with its special sacred animal, which it does not eat, but +reverences and defends. Other traces of totemistic arrangements may +be suspected here and there in Egyptian observances, but even did the +analogy extend no further than to the facts just mentioned, there +would be a case for considering whether the nomes were not first +peopled by a set of totemistic clans, who, even after they were +united in one people, preserved their early separate traditions. The +sacred animals of the nomes would then be "the totems of the clans +which first settled in these localities." Later developments of +religion never displaced these venerable emblems, if this be so, of +tribal life.[4] + +[Footnote 3: See A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, Second +Edition. Frazer's _Totemism_. Most of the modern Egyptologists +incline to the theory that animal worship, though not the only, was +one of the chief sources of Egyptian religion. Pietschmann first took +up this ground.] + +[Footnote 4: Compare the worship of animals in Babylonia, chapter +vii.] + + +II. THE GREAT GODS + +A very different set of gods are those made known to us by the +monuments and books. It is the principal problem of this religion to +explain how, along with the sacred animal, the cat or ibis or +crocodile, there was worshipped in the Egyptian temple the celestial +being, the god of heaven or of the sun, whose nature is light, who is +righteous and good, and who more and more fills the mind of the +worshipper with noble adoration, and leads him towards the high +truths of theism. These high gods of Egypt were represented, as we +have seen, from the earliest times of which we have any knowledge, +under animal forms. As far back as we can see, Hathor is a cow, and +Horus a hawk, and Anubis a jackal. Did beast worship spring by a +process of degradation from the worship of the high gods? We have +seen how difficult it is to maintain such a view. Did the higher +worship then spring by a process of development out of the lower? +That also would be hard to prove, for the high gods of Egypt are not +beasts, however magnified and spiritualised, but beings of a +different order; they are the sky, the sun, the moon, the dawn. And +as in our opening chapters we saw reason to believe that the worship +of the great powers of nature is an original thing with early man, +and explains itself without being derived from lower forms of +religion, so we must judge with regard to Egypt too. Even if some of +the great gods came from Mesopotamia, that helps us but little to +understand their history after they arrived in Egypt. In this field +also we are driven to recognise two religions, different in nature +and of independent origin, existing side by side, and seeking to come +to terms with each other; and the combination of the two is a process +in Egyptian religion which took place before the period of which we +have knowledge. It is prehistoric. + +It was formerly considered that the nature-gods of Egypt had very +little mythology connected with them; only one considerable story of +their doings was known; most of them had no history beyond the few +phrases applied by primitive thought to the great natural phenomena +to qualify them to be regarded as living and active beings. But as +more inscriptions are read, more divine myths are coming to light, +and further discoveries of the same kind may be still in store for +us. These different myths, however, are formed after the same +pattern. The great gods of Egypt are simple beings and easy to +understand, and they were never formed into an organised system like +the gods of Greece, but remain in separate dynasties or families, and +are very like each other. Many of them are sun-gods, or gods of the +morning and evening, and their stories cannot differ very widely from +each other, but they belong to different districts of the country; +that is what constitutes their difference from each other, and keeps +them separate. + +The Great Gods also are Local.--The nature-god as well as the +animal-god was worshipped in his own nome, where he dwelt in the +midst of his own community of worshippers; he was not recognised in +other nomes unless there were special reasons for it. But at the +earliest period of our knowledge of Egypt this simple early +arrangement has already undergone many modifications. Each nome has +its own special deity. Set is the god of Oxyrhynchus, Neith of Sais, +but more gods than one are worshipped in each nome. Generally there +are three; in many places there is an ennead, a nine of gods, but the +nine is a round number; there might be one or two less or more. The +god of a nome which had risen to a commanding position extended his +influence beyond his own nome, and came to share the temples of other +gods, so that he was at home in a number of places. Ra is said to +have fourteen persons--that is, fourteen views of his person have +been developed in so many different districts. But if one god could +thus be divided into several, the converse also took place; two or +more gods were combined, by the simple addition of their names +together, to form a new god. We have Ra-harmachis, Amon-ra, +Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and some even more elaborately compounded deities. + +Thus there was a constant tendency to the production of new deities; +even the attempts to combine existing deities only add to the number. +No attempt in the direction of a system of gods had any success; +local deities could not be suppressed; the nomes retained their +separate deities and religious establishments to the end. There never +was a religious organisation of Egypt generally; a priest could in +some cases pass from the religion of one nome to that of another, but +there was never a high priest of Egypt as a whole, however much a +king might wish to organise all the worships of the country in one +system. This local character of the Egyptian high gods was a source +of weakness in these great beings, and never ceased to check their +upward movement. + +The temple of a nome had, as a rule, three gods, and these formed a +family, the chief god having his consort and the third being their +son. Of these triads we may mention some:-- + + Amen-Mut-Chonsu are the triad of Thebes. + Ptah-Sechet-Imhotep " Memphis. + Osiris-Isis-Horus " Abydos (Philae). + Sebak-Hathor-Chonsu " Ombos. + Har-hat-Hathor-Har-sem-ta " Edfu. + +The son is the successor of his father, and it is his destiny in turn +to marry his mother and so to reproduce himself, that is his own +successor; and so though constantly dying he is ever renewed. The +mother, not being a sun-god, does not die. If we remember that the +gods have to do with the sun these things need not shock us, nor need +we wonder at the statement which is very frequently met with, that a +god is self-begotten, or that he produces his own members. + +Mythology.--A few words may be said about Egyptian mythology in +general before we speak of some of the principal gods. The usual +stories of the beginning of things are not wanting, as when the +principal god is said to have been born from a primeval egg, or a +whole family of gods to be the children of Seb and Nut; Seb, the +earth, being in Egypt the male, and Nut, heaven, the female, of these +earliest parents of all things. More than one god, moreover, is held +to have been an earthly king, and to be the founder of the royal +house which now pays him homage. "The days of Ra," for example, are +spoken of as a golden age in which perfect justice and happiness +prevailed. Many stories too may be found which profess to furnish an +explanation of some feature of nature or some institution of society, +to account for the names of places or of animals, or for the presence +of the five days which were added to the twelve lunar months in Egypt +to produce a satisfactory solar year. Many old stories of the gods +have magical efficacy when told in certain situations; one is good +against poison, but must be told in a certain way to produce the +effect. After these stories of the gods' early reign of peace, come +those relating to less happy periods, when the old god grew weak and +began to have enemies, when gods and men became disobedient to him, +when a war broke out among the gods, which is not yet brought to an +end but breaks out ever afresh; or when the old god succumbed to his +enemies, and his successor had to set out to avenge him. In some of +these stories very primitive and savage traits appear, which show +that they originated in a rude state of society. But they are about +men, not about beasts, as we might have expected of Egyptian +mythology, and the men are undoubtedly solar heroes; it is the +fortunes of the daily (not the yearly) sun, his splendid and +beneficent reign, his decline, his conflict with the powers of +darkness, his decease and his resurrection, or the vengeance exacted +on his behalf by his successor, that are spoken of, in connection now +with one god and now with another. + +Dynasties of Gods.--In the history of Egyptian religion one set of +such gods succeeds another as the prevailing dynasty, according as +the seat of empire in the country shifts to a new nome. These +religious changes could take place without great convulsions. It was +only the attempt to extinguish old established worships that was +fiercely resisted, not the addition of a new god, even as superior to +those already seated in the temple. In the earliest times known to us +Ra of Heliopolis is the chief god of Egypt; Osiris of Thinis (Abydos) +is also a great god, but the most characteristic development of +Osiris-worship belongs to a later period. Ptah of Memphis comes to +the front in the earliest dynasties. Much later is the rise of Amon +to the first place, which he held when the Greeks and Romans had to +do with Egypt. A very short account only can be given of the sets of +gods of which these are the heads. + +Ra.--Ra means "sun"; his seat is Heliopolis or "On," where Joseph's +master Potiphera, or "Priest of Ra," lived. Heliopolis is the "house +of the obelisk," the obelisk being a representation of the sun. First +a kindly old king, he is later a warrior; he has to contend with the +serpent Apep, the dragon of darkness who appears pierced by the +shafts of Ra. But as Ra sinks in the conflict he is comforted by +Hathor, the goddess of the western sky, and avenged by Horus, the +ever young and ever victorious winged sun.[5] But Ra is a god of the +under as well as the upper world. King Pi'anchi, of the twenty-second +dynasty, entered into the great temple of Ra at Heliopolis and +penetrated to the inmost chamber of it, afterwards sealing it up +again. We are told what he saw there.[6] He looked upon "his father +Ra," and saw the two boats intended for the daily journey of the god. +Ra travels in his boat through the sky, but also at night through the +under-world, of which also he is lord. The progress of the god of +light through the world of darkness is a theme which was worked out +later in much detail in connection with Osiris; but it forms part of +the earliest known religious conceptions of the Egyptians, and Ra's +voyage through the "Am Duat" or under-world, is described in +considerable detail. Many figures accompany him in this voyage, and +many are the obstacles to be overcome during the successive hours of +night before he reaches again the gates of day. The souls of men who +have died are also led by him through those nether spaces; by a +hidden knowledge, if they have been at pains to possess themselves of +it, they are able to keep close to Ra on the perilous journey. He +gives them fields to cultivate in the plains beneath, and they are +made glad by his appearance at the appointed hour in the nights that +follow. + +[Footnote 5: There are in Egyptian religion several gods called +Horus; this, the oldest one, is fused with Ra, the first sun-god, in +the double name Ra-Harmachis, a being to whom the highest attributes +are given. The symbol of this god is a recumbent lion with a man's +head, the figure in which also the kings of Egypt are represented.] + +[Footnote 6: See the inscription in _Records of the Past_, ii. 98.] + +Osiris, the sun-god of Abydos, is also reported to have been a human +being who was exalted to divine honours. (The god of the under-world +and judge of the dead, who bears the same name, is a different +figure; of him we shall speak afterwards.) He is the most interesting +and the best known of the gods of Egypt; his myth is found at length +in Plutarch, with the mystical interpretations proposed for it in +ancient times; he is also the god in whom the affinity of Egyptian +with Babylonian religion appears most clearly: cf. chapter vii. Born, +according to the myth we mentioned above, at one birth with four +other gods, of the venerable parents Seb and Nut (see above), he from +the first has Isis for his wife and sister, and his brother Set is +also born along with him, with whom he lives in perpetual hostility. +Neither can quite overcome the other, and many are the incidents of +their warfare. As a rule the gods of Egypt are serene and good +beings; here only dualism shows itself. Osiris is the good power both +morally and in the sphere of outward nature, while Set is the +embodiment of all that the Egyptian regards as evil,--darkness, the +desert, the hot south wind, sickness, and red hair. It is not the +case that Set was an imported god and belonged to Semitic invaders, +but these invaders found him more suited to their notions of deity +than any other god of Egypt, and sought to make him supreme, in +which, however, they could not succeed. The story of the +dismemberment of Osiris and of the search of Isis for his loved +remains, which she buried in fourteen different places where she +found them, is one which is found connected with other names in other +lands. Horus is the avenger of his father. Here we have this deity in +three stages--Horus the child in his mother's arms, Horus the +avenger, and Horus the successor of his father, the complete sun-god. + +This family of gods is more human and living to us than that of Ra or +than any other set of Egyptian deities. It was also more taken up in +other lands, when the gods of older peoples began to find acceptance +in the West. We see with special clearness in this case the operation +of the principle according to which the contrast of light and +darkness when represented in the gods passes into that of moral good +and evil, so that the god of light becomes the great upholder of +righteousness and dispenser of beneficence. The good god of Egyptian +religion, moreover, is accompanied by a goddess who is somewhat more +than the pale reflection of the male god, as most Egyptian goddesses +are. The incidents of the legend also lend to the divine characters a +tragic depth in which the prosperous and happy gods of Egypt do not +generally share. + +Ptah is the god of Memphis, and adjoining his temple is the chapel of +the bull Apis, who is called the "second life of Ptah." If these two +resided side by side, some theory of their relationship was needed, +and the bull became the earthly representative of the unseen deity. +Each had a worship of prehistoric antiquity, and it is vain to +theorise on their original relation to each other. As for Ptah, his +name means "he who forms," and the Greeks called him by the name of +their own Hephaistos, the artificer. In later times he came to be +identified with the sun, and was called the "honourable," "golden," +"beautiful," and "of comely face"; but earlier he seems rather to +have to do with the hidden source of the world's heat, the elemental +warmth which is at the beginning of all life. He also is, like Ra and +Osiris, a god of the under-world to which men go after death. He is +said to open the mouth of the dead--that is to say, that he hears +them and judges them. But in the upper-world too he has to do with +justice; he is called the "Lord of the Ell," a title connecting him +with measurements and boundaries, matters of the greatest importance +in Egypt. His son is Imhotep, he who comes in peace; the Greeks +regarded this god as a physician, and called him Asclepios. The +goddess of the triad is Sechet, who was also worshipped at Bubastis +under the name of Bast, and whose symbol is a cat. Ptah, it will be +seen, is a less distinct figure than either Osiris or Ra, and he very +readily passes into combinations with other gods. Ptah-Sokari and +Ptah-Sokar-Osiris are found much more frequently than Ptah alone. + +These are the chief gods of the old kingdom--that is to say, of the +first six dynasties. When we come to the great twelfth dynasty, after +the gap in the monuments which extends from 2500-2000 B.C., we find +that these gods have become faint and new gods have become supreme, +namely, the local gods of Thebes, and of the adjoining nomes. Of +these, Amon, god of Thebes, has the most distinguished history, +though Chem, the agricultural god of Coptos, and Munt of Hermonthis +were originally as important. Amon, the hidden, _i.e._ the hidden +force of nature, like Ptah, is seldom found alone; he is generally +combined with some other god, especially with Ra. The gods of +agriculture bow their heads by degrees before the sun-gods who tend +to draw to themselves all Egyptian worship; rude country +representations connected with the idea of fertility being +discredited before the religion of the royal temples which was +directed mainly to the god of light. + +Was the Earliest Religion Monotheistic?--We have mentioned only some +of the chief gods of Egypt, out of a countless number. These are the +gods favoured by kings and city priesthoods, who, we cannot doubt, +desired the religious elevation of the people. The gods they praised +were of a nature to promote that end. It will be granted that the +worship of the light-gods of Egyptian religion was fitted to lead the +minds of the Egyptians to theism. In illustration of this statement +extracts may be here given from hymns, which date as we have them +from the eighteenth dynasty 1590 B.C., but which are probably much +older. + + +TO HORUS + +The gods recognise the universal lord.... He judges the world +according to his will; heaven and earth are in subjection to him. He +giveth his commands to men, to the generations present, past, and +future; to Egyptians and to strangers. The circuit of the solar orb +is under his direction; the winds, the waters, the wood of the +plants, and all vegetables. A god of seeds, he giveth all herbs and +the abundance of the soil. He affordeth plentifulness, and giveth it +to all the earth. All men are in ecstasy, all hearts in sweetness, +all bosoms in joy, every one in adoration. Every one glorifieth his +goodness, his tenderness encircles our hearts, great is his love in +all bosoms. + + +TO TEHUTI OR PTAH + +To him is due the work of the hands, the walking of the feet, the +sight of the eyes, the hearing of the ears, the breathing of the +nostrils, the courage of the heart, the vigour of the hand, activity +in body and in mouth of all the gods and men, and of all living +animals; intelligence and speech, whatever is in the heart and +whatever is on the tongue. + + +TO PTAH-TANEN + +O let us give glory to the god who hath raised up the sky and who +causeth his disk to float over the bosom of Nut, who hath made the +gods and men and all their generations, who hath made all lands and +countries and the great sea, in his name of "Let-the-earth-be." + + +TO AMON-RA + +Hail to thee, maker of all beings, lord of law, father of the gods; +maker of men, creator of beasts; lord of grains, making food for the +beast of the field.... The one without a second.... King alone, +single among the gods; of many names, unknown is their number. + + +There is a beautiful hymn addressed to the Nile, who is also +conceived as the chief deity and the ruler, nourisher, and comforter +of all creatures. From these hymns and others like them, important +conclusions have been drawn as to the nature of the earliest Egyptian +religion; namely, that those who wrote such pieces must have been +acquainted with the one true god and addressed him under these +various names, so that the true origin of Egyptian religion would be +a primitive monotheism. + +There are some texts indeed which seem to point even more strongly +than those cited to the conclusion that Egyptian religion started +from the belief in one supreme deity. Mr. Le Page Renouf quotes along +with the passages above, one from a Turin papyrus, in which words are +put into the mouth of the Almighty God, the self-existent, who made +heaven and earth, the waters, the breaths of life, fire, the gods, +men, animals, cattle, reptiles, birds, etc. This being speaks as +follows:-- + + I am the maker of the heaven and the earth.... It is I who have + given to all the gods the soul which is within them. When I open my + eyes there is light, when I close them there is darkness. I am + Chepera in the morning, Ra at noon, Tum in the evening. + +M. de la Rouge maintains that Egyptian religion, monotheistic at +first, with a noble belief in the unity of the Supreme God and in His +attributes as the Creator and Law-giver of man, fell away from that +position and grew more and more polytheistic. "It is more than 5000 +years since in the valley of the Nile the hymn began to the unity of +God and the immortality of the soul, and we find Egypt arrived in the +last ages at the most unbridled Polytheism." + +The sublimer part of Egyptian religion is demonstrably ancient, as +Mr. Le Page Renouf says; yet we are not shut up to the conclusion +that Egyptian religion as a whole is nothing but a backsliding and a +failure. If we were obliged to regard that monotheism which Egypt had +at first but failed to maintain, as a gift conferred from above, +which human powers proved unequal to conserve, then the opening of +the history of this religion would be indeed most melancholy. But +though monotheism appeared in Egypt so early, there is no necessity +to think that it was not attained by human powers. For all we know, +it was not an early but a mature product of thought, and was reached +after a long development. It is not impossible for the human mind, +starting from the works of God, to rise by its own efforts to the +belief in His invisible power and Godhead. The beginnings of this +rise of thought may be witnessed among savages, and the Egyptians in +their secluded valley had an opportunity such as no other nation had, +to work out, as their civilisation grew up from rude beginnings to +its unequalled splendour, a noble view of the Deity whose works they +adored. The god ruling from his heaven of light over the great empire +of a monarch who knew no equal in the world, possessing for his +earthly abode a temple of unsurpassed magnificence, uniting perhaps +under his sway districts long at war and extending his influence over +remote continents as the armies of Egypt prospered, such a being drew +to himself from his worshipping retinue of priests and nobles, the +highest praise and adoration, was exalted far above all other powers +in heaven and earth, and extolled even as the Creator and Ruler of +all. + +Monotheism is thus approached in thought, but only in a prophetic and +anticipatory way; the circumstances of the country forbade its +realisation as a general belief or as a working system. Even in the +highest flights of those early thinkers, when they seem to be +speaking of a god quite universal and supreme, it is a local deity +that lies at the basis of their speculations, a being who has his +temple in a certain place, who is symbolised in a certain animal, who +has a local legend and a limited popular worship. These are the facts +that clog the wings of Egyptian monotheistic speculation and bring it +to the earth again. Pure monotheism accordingly, the belief in a god +beside whom no other god exists, it might be hard to find in Egypt at +all. The last extract given above comes nearest to it; but the last +line of that extract cannot be called monotheistic. + +An attempted religious reformation at the end of the eighteenth +dynasty may be mentioned here, as it appears to have aimed at +concentrating all the worship of Egypt on a single object. The object +chosen, however, was a material one,--the sun's disk, Aten,--and +though all Egyptian gods tended to become sun-gods, some sun-gods, no +doubt, were better than others, and Aten was not the finest of them. +King Chut-en-Aten, or Glory of the Sun-disk, the royal fanatic who +made this attempt at unity, went great lengths to accomplish his +object, but the attempt was a failure, and was abandoned after his +death even by the members of his own family. What Chut-en-Aten tried +to introduce perhaps came nearer true monotheism than anything that +ever existed in Egypt. He made war on other gods and wished to +establish one only god in the land, but this exclusiveness the +Egyptians could not understand. The Egyptian believed in many gods, +and while worshipping one god with fervour, by no means denied the +existence or the power of others in other places. Even foreign +deities were in his eyes real and potent beings, each in his own +territory. It is henotheism, not monotheism, that we see in this most +religious land; the worship of one god at a time while other gods are +also believed to exist and act. The one god who is before the mind of +the worshipper is exalted above the rest, and spoken of as if no +other god required to be considered; but the worshipper does not +dream as yet of questioning the existence of other gods, or feel +himself debarred from worshipping them if he should visit their +country. + +Syncretism.--The hymns contain several other speculative positions +about the gods (chapter iv.), and we may briefly mention these. +Syncretism, as we saw, is very largely represented in Egyptian +thought, and enters, indeed, into its very bone and marrow. In the +ennead of a city the great gods may be arranged together after the +fashion of a court where one or two rule over the rest; but in +numberless passages we find the relations of gods adjusted in another +way, by making them one. Ra "comes as" Tum, the god is known here +under one name or aspect and there under another. The names of two +deities being added together, a new deity is produced; and in later +times these gods with double, treble, or multiple names are among the +most important. Raharmachis and Amonra are national gods, and have +left much evidence of themselves. + +It is a little step from syncretism to pantheism. Let the gods once +lose the individual character that keeps them separate from each +other, and it is possible for one god, who grows strong and great +enough, to swallow up all the rest, till they appear only as his +forms. In the position which they occupied in Egypt the various gods +could not disappear, their local connections kept them alive; but +they were so like one another that one of them could be regarded as a +form of another, and a multitude of them as forms of one. The god who +did most in the way of swallowing up the rest was Ra, the great +sun-god of Thebes. The Litany of Ra[7] represents that god as eternal +and self-begotten, and sings in seventy-five successive verses +seventy-five forms which he assumes; they are the forms of the gods +and of all the great elements and parts of the world. The separate +gods are reduced from the rank of independent potentates to shapes of +Ra, and thus a kind of unity is set up in the populous Egyptian +Pantheon. But Ra is not strong enough to get the better of these +shapes, and to rule a sole monarch by his own right, in his own way. +He is the god, but he is not an independent god; it is pantheism, not +theism, to which he owes his exaltation. The one in Egypt cannot +govern the many; the pure exaltation of Ra as a supreme and absolute +god does not prevent the worship of a different being in each +different town. The one sole god is for the priests alone, not for +the people; and this belief in him does not even lead to attempts to +root out the worship of animals, or to concentrate the service of the +temples on him alone. And in the absence of such attempts we read the +sentence condemning a religion which produced most noble fruits of +thought, to grow worse and not better as time went on, and to pass +away without bringing any permanent contribution to the development +of the religion of the world. + +[Footnote 7: _Records of the Past_, viii. 105.] + +Worship.--The Egyptian temple was constructed rather to afford the +god a splendid residence among his people than to accommodate a large +congregation at an act of worship. The temple was the public place of +the community, its point of meeting (for the Egyptian town has no +market-place), and its fortress when attacked (for the town is not +fortified). But while the courts of the temple were open to the +people, there was a holy place which only the priests might enter, +where the sacred ark, the symbol of the god, remained, and where +sacrifices were offered. The images about the temple were not placed +there to be worshipped, but were votive offerings meant to provide +the god with a body which he might enter when he chose. The obelisk +is such a symbol or incorporation of the sun. On certain days the +sacred objects and animals were taken in procession through the +temple grounds, or made voyages on the lake belonging to the temple, +or were even taken through the nome among the fields and dwellings of +their people; and on these occasions representations took place +symbolising the principal events in the history of the god. It was +thus that the private individual came to know the god; it was a great +festival and an occasion of the utmost joy when the divine protectors +and benefactors of the nome, who generally remained in their splendid +retirement, came forth to mingle for a brief space with the faithful +community. The worship of the gods was in Egypt, as in every nation +of the ancient world, a matter of state, not of individual concern. +It is the chief branch of the public service; the state is under the +direct rule of the gods; never was there a more absolute theocracy. +The king is a child of the god,--a conception often treated in the +most material way,--and being thus of more than human race, becomes +himself the object of worship, and even offers sacrifice to himself. +It is one of the king's chief cares to provide a stately dwelling for +the god; the king himself offers sacrifice on the most important +occasions. The god in his sacred ark goes with his people when they +are at war and fights along with them, so that every war is a holy +war. The priests are public officials, and often exercise immense +influence. The king institutes them into their functions; they are +exempt, as we may read in Genesis, from public burdens; every +function involving learning or art is in their hands. Framed in such +institutions religion is not likely to have any free growth; the time +is far distant here when men will form voluntary associations of +their own for spiritual ends. Yet, no doubt, the lay Egyptian had a +private religion of his own as well as his share in the great public +acts he witnessed. Though the gods of Egypt are nearly all good, the +evil power Set was much worshipped, and would be approached in +private as well as in the public acts depicted on the monuments, by +all who had anything to fear from him--that is to say, by all. Every +one had to treat with kindness and respect the animal species sacred +in his nome, and other sacred animals. The belief in magic was +strong; hidden powers had to be reckoned with on manifold occasions; +sickness was imputed to the agency of evil spirits, and treated by +exorcism, by persons duly trained and learned in such arts. Lucky and +unlucky days, and days suitable or unsuitable for particular +undertakings, filled the calendar; the belief in amulets and charms +was universal. Such things we expect to find among the people, even +where religious thought has risen highest. + + +THE DOCTRINE OF THE OTHER LIFE + +Most of our knowledge about ancient Egypt is drawn from the tombs. No +other nation ever bestowed so much care on the dead as the Egyptians +did, nor thought of the other world so much. The living had to +prepare for his further existence after death, and the dead claimed +from his successors on earth elaborate offices of piety. It is in +this part of the religion that there is most growth, and this part of +it in its ultimate form is best known. + +1. Treatment of the Dead.--The doctrine of the other world takes its +rise with the Egyptians in the belief common to all early races, +which was described above (chapter iii.). The spirit still lives when +the body dies, and it comes back to the body, and is affected by the +treatment the body receives. To care for the dead is the first duty +of the living, and a man must marry in order to have offspring who +will pay him the necessary attention after his death. Various things +are buried with the corpse for the use of the spirit, and offerings +are made to it from time to time afterwards. This is no more than the +common primitive belief, but the Egyptians carried it out more fully +in practice than any other people. They sought to make the body +incorruptible, embalming it and restoring to it all its organs, so +that the spirit should be able to discharge every function of life. +They placed the mummy if possible in such a situation that it should +never be disturbed to the end of time; the grave they called an +eternal dwelling. They even instituted endowments to secure due +offerings to the dead in all coming time. + +Cultivated as this part of religion was in Egypt, it could not fail +to assume a special character. For one thing, there is a variety of +names for what survives of man after death; we hear of his heart, his +soul, his shade, his luminosity; and in the later doctrine these are +all combined and made parts of one theory; all the different parts of +the man have to come together again after their dispersion at death +before his person is complete. The principal term, however, is the +"ka," image, or, as we say, genius, of the man, a non-substantial +double of him which has journeys and adventures to make, and to which +the offerings are addressed. The "ka" needs food, and regular gifts +are made to it of all it can require; it needs guidance and +instruction, and these can be conveyed to it by pictures and writings +on the walls of the tomb or in the mummy-case; even its amusement and +its need of society and of ministration can be to some extent met in +this way. It is not peculiar to Egypt that the advantages of wealth +and rank are continued after death, and that the rich can do much +more, or cause much more to be done for his eternal welfare, than the +poor. The king's mummy lies in a pyramid, where it will never be +moved; that of the noble in a rock-tomb or a stately edifice or +"mastaba"; the poor man has to be content with an inferior kind of +embalming, and a tomb of tiles if he gets any at all; and no priest +can be retained to pray for him. + +2. The Spirit in the Under-world.--Before history opens, this common +belief and practice in regard to the dead had come to be combined in +Egypt with the worship of a solar deity; a step of immense +importance, which added immeasurably to the pathos and the moral +power of this kind of religion. + +Milton says in _Lycidas_-- + + So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed; + And yet anon repairs his drooping head, + And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore + Flames in the forehead of the morning sky; + So Lycidas sank low, but mounted high. + +But what to Milton was a poetic imagination was to the early Egyptian +a serious belief. If the sun was his god, he did not say like +Wordsworth in his early period-- + + Our fate how different from thine, blest star, in this, + That no to-morrow shall our beams restore, + +but he was convinced that the history of his god, who sank under the +Western horizon, and after a period of darkness came back again to +light and triumph, was an undoubted indication of what he himself had +to look for after death. The mummy was carried across the Nile and +deposited in the west land, which is also the under-world, to share +in the repose and in the further progress of the dead. As the jackal +pervades that region, the dead is left to the care of Anubis, the +jackal-headed deity, who opens paths to him for further travel, and +leads him into the presence of the gods. The under-world is +elaborately portioned out into various parts and scenes, and manifold +are the shapes of evil and mischief with which it is peopled. On the +other hand, it contains abundance of blessings, which the departed +may secure if the proper means have been taken by himself and by his +friends surviving him. The earthly life is there repeated with all +its occupations and enjoyments, but free from fear and from decay. + +The doctrine of the dead accompanying the sun-god to the under-world, +and living under his protection, is very old in Egypt; we saw it in +an early form in connection with the god Ra. It was in connection +with Osiris, however, that it attained its widest diffusion; to the +whole Egyptian people Osiris was the lord of the world below, with +whom the departed were. The identification of the departed with +Osiris was thorough and complete; he becomes Osiris, takes the name +of the deity, and is known in the inscriptions as "Osiris N. N." Isis +is his sister, Horus his defender, Anubis his herald and guide, and +having shared the god's eclipse, he is also to share his triumph and +revival. + +3. The Book of the Dead, the most famous relic of Egyptian +literature, is a collection of pieces many of which are very ancient, +bearing on the passage of the soul through the under-world. The book +has also been called the _Funeral Ritual_; a better translation of +the title is, "Book of Coming out from the Day." The earthly life is +the day from which the deceased comes forth into the larger existence +of the world beyond. The book (or such parts of it as may be used in +each case) is the soul's _vade mecum_ for the under-world, and +contains the forms the soul must have at command in order to ward off +all the dangers of that region, and to secure an easy and happy +passage through it. How the person is to be reconstructed, the +different parts coming back to be built up again in one, how he is to +know the spirits he meets, how he is to get the gates opened for +him,--such are the subjects of various chapters; and the soul's +success in its passage depends on its knowledge of these. The words +they contain are not merely information, they have magic power to +smooth away obstacles and to open doors. Hence it is important for a +man to have learned them when alive, and, to assist his memory, a few +chapters are written on papyrus or linen, and the rolls placed with +the mummy in its case, or they are written on the walls of the tomb. +No other Egyptian work, in consequence, has been preserved in so many +copies, but one roll or set of inscriptions contains one set of +chapters and another another set. + +Does the fate of the individual after death depend then entirely on +magic; is it a question of how many of these formulae he is able to +remember, or how many his relatives have got written out for him? Do +no doubts intrude on his mind lest, even if he has all the requisite +knowledge at command, he himself should be found unworthy to live +with the immortals? For the most part the _Book of the Dead_ stands +on the earlier position at which man never thinks of doubting the +favour of his god, and trusts to overcome what is hostile by having +his magic ready, not by having his heart pure. But in several +chapters a deeper tone is heard. There is a form for having the stain +rubbed away from the heart of the Osiris, and if there are abundant +directions for outward purification, there are also directions for +having his sins forgiven. In the great 125th chapter the deceased +enters the Hall of the two Truths, and is separated from his sins +after he has seen the faces of the gods. Here he stands before +forty-two judges (compare the number of the nomes of Egypt) styled +Lords of Truth, each of whom is there to judge of a particular sin, +and to each he has to profess that he did not when on earth commit +that sin. I have not stolen, he has to say; I have not played the +hypocrite, I have not stolen the things of the gods, I have not made +conspiracies, I have not blasphemed, I have not clipped the skins of +the sacred beasts, I have not injured the gods, I have not +calumniated the slave to his master; and so on. The line is not yet +clearly drawn between moral and ritual or conventional offences; and +moral duty is expressed in a negative form, and appears as a shackle, +not as an inspiration. Yet the very great advance has been made here, +that divine law watches not only over specially religious matters but +over social life, and even over the thoughts of the individual heart. +The gods enjoin on a man not only to offer sacrifice and to respect +the sacred beasts, but also to do his duty as a citizen and as a +neighbour, and to keep his own lips unpolluted and his own heart +pure. It is to the same effect when we find that a man's +justification depends on the state of his heart at death. His heart +is weighed against the truth, and if it is found defective, he cannot +live again; if it turns out well, then he is justified and goes to +the fields of Aalu, the place of the blessed of Osiris. + + +CONCLUSION + +This doctrine of the life to come, like the theistic doctrine the +Egyptians at one time attained, might have seemed destined to lead to +a pure spiritual faith, from which superstition should have +disappeared. But in neither case is that result attained. The later +history of Egyptian religion is that of the increase of magic, and of +the rise of a priestly class absorbing to itself, as the older +priests who were closely connected with the civil life of the nation +had never done, all the functions of religion. Doctrine grows more +pantheistic and more recondite, mysteries and symbols are multiplied, +all to the increase of the influence of the priesthood, and to the +infinite exercise of ingenuity in coming times. Popular religion, on +the other hand, comes to be more taken up with such matters as charms +and amulets and horoscopes; and while morals did not decline from the +high level they had gained from the reign of the gods of light, the +spirit of the nation lost vigour under the growth of religiosity at +the expense of patriotism, and healthy reform grew more and more +impossible. What of the religion of Egypt lived on in other lands +which felt her influence, it is hard to say. The religious art of +Egypt, and with it no doubt some tincture of the ideas it embodied, +undoubtedly went northwards to Phenicia; and Greece owed to Phenicia, +as we shall see, many a suggestion in religious matters. Long before +Isis and Serapis were introduced in Rome in their own persons, the +legend of Osiris had flourished in Greece under new names, and the +Greek doctrine of the life to come, taught in the mysteries, has +suggested to some scholars an Egyptian origin. To the Greeks and +Romans this religion afforded an infinity of puzzles and mysteries; +to the modern world it affords the greatest example of a religion the +early promise of which was not fulfilled, the splendid moral +aspirations of which were stifled amid the superstitions they were +too weak to conquer. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +For general information Wilkinson's _Egyptians_. + +E. A. W. Budge, _History of Egypt_, vols. i.-viii., 1902-03. + +E. A. W. Budge, _The Mummy_; chapters on Egyptian funeral archaeology, +Cambridge, 1893. + +E. A. W. Budge, _The Book of the Dead_, English Translation of the +Theban Recension, 3 vols., 1910. + +Flinders Petrie, _A History of Egypt_. + +Flinders Petrie, in _Oxford Proceedings_, vol. i. p. 184, _sqq._ + +The Histories of Antiquity of Duncker, Maspero, and especially Ed. +Meyer. + +Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, 1894. + +Maspero, _Manual of Egyptian Archaeology_, Second Edition, 1895. + +Renouf's _Hibbert Lectures_. + +Tiele, _History of the Egyptian Religion_, translated by Ballingal. + +Wiedemann, _Aegyptische Geschichte_, 1884-88; "Die Religion der alten +Aegyptier," 1890; also "Egyptian Religion," in Hastings' _Bible +Dictionary_, vol. v. + +A. O. Lange, "Die Aegypter" in De la Saussaye. _Records of the Past_, +First Series (1873-81), vols. ii., iv., vi., viii., x., xii. Second +Series, 1888-92, vols. ii.-vi. + +Benson and Gourlay, _The Temple of Mut in Asher_, 1899. + +Naville, _The Old Egyptian Faith_, translated by Colin Campbell, +1909. + +Colin Campbell, _Two Theban Queens_, 1909. A study of the +inscriptions in two royal tombs. + + + + +PART III +THE SEMITIC GROUP + + + + +CHAPTER X +THE SEMITIC RELIGION + + +As used by the modern scholar, the term Semites or Semitic races +includes the Arabs, the Hebrews, the Canaanites and Phenicians, the +Syrians or Arameans, the Babylonians and the Assyrians. This +enumeration differs from that of the tenth chapter of Genesis, where +the children of Shem include Elam, or the dwellers in Susiana, and +Lud or the Lydians, while the tribes who dwelt in Canaan before the +Hebrews are placed in another and a lower division of the human +family. The principle of the enumeration in Genesis is probably that +of geographical neighbourhood; the modern principle is that of +linguistic affinity. The peoples mentioned above spoke, or still +speak, languages which belong to the same family of human speech. The +inference from affinity of language to affinity of blood is in this +case a strong one, so that the peoples using the Semitic tongues are +considered to be of the same race. To the question, where the cradle +of the Semitic race is to be sought, most scholars now answer that we +must seek it in Arabia. From this isolated land the Semitic +dispersion spread in every direction, till Semitic language and +customs filled the earth from the south of Arabia to the north of +Syria, and from the mountains of Iran to the Mediterranean, and far +along the northern shores of Africa; of Babylonia and Assyria, where +Semitic culture and religion assumed at the dawn of human history a +very special and peculiar form, we have already spoken. We have now +to speak of Semitic religion as found in the lands bordering on the +eastern Mediterranean in a more original form. The Semitic peoples +outside of Babylonia founded no lasting empires, and showed no great +aptitude for art or for literary style; but, in point of religion, +they communicated to the world impulses of immeasurable force, which +will act powerfully on the world as long as the Prophet is named or +Christ preached. + +It is possible to define to a certain extent the typical religion of +the Semites. The Burnett lectures of the late lamented Professor +Robertson Smith[1] profess to do this; a book in which great learning +and bold speculation are remarkably combined, and which forms one of +the most important contributions to the early history, not of Semitic +religion only, but of early religion in general. The writer was +keenly interested in the study of prehistoric man and of primitive +institutions, and much of his book refers to an earlier period in the +growth of religion than that of the formation of the Semitic type. On +the question of the specific character of Semitic as distinguished +from other religions, it is one of our principal authorities. + +[Footnote 1: _Lectures on the Religion of the Semites_. First Series. +The Fundamental Institutions, 1889.] + +The Semitic races differ from the Indo-European, with whom alone we +need compare them, in their greater intensity of disposition and a +corresponding poverty of imagination. The Semite has a smaller range +of ideas, but he applies them more practically and more thoroughly. +He has, indeed, an intensely practical turn, and does not touch +philosophy except under an irresistible pressure of great practical +ideas; while for plastic art he has no native inclination. From this +it follows that the religious views he entertains appear to him less +as ideas than as facts, which must be reckoned with to their full +extent as other common facts of life must, and from which there is no +escape. His religious convictions, therefore, are apt to be carried +out to their utmost extent, even at the cost of great and painful +sacrifices. Religion admits with the Semite of less compromise, and +is less affected by fancy, than with the Aryan; it is, in fact, a +more practical matter. The result proves to be that the Semitic mind +brings religious ideas to bear on life and conduct with the greatest +possible force; the substance is more, the form less, than is the +case elsewhere. + +When we ask for the common type of working Semitic religion, where +are we to look for it? Not in Babylonia; the characteristic +Babylonian religion is Semitic, but late Semitic; it has received the +impress of high civilisation and of empire. Nor need we look for it +in the town life of Phenicia. It is in the seclusion of the Arabian +peninsula that we find it, in the district, as we saw, now regarded +as the cradle of the Semitic race, where life continues to this day +little changed from what it was before the days of Abraham. There the +type of society still exists with which scholars like Wellhausen and +Smith consider the earliest Semitic religion to be connected. It is a +society of nomad clans, which own no allegiance to any central +authority, which have no king and do not yet form a nation. This is a +stage of social growth which in every ancient people precedes the +rise of the nation and of monarchy. The Hebrews are rising out of +this stage when we first see them. Their neighbours the Moabites and +Canaanites have already passed beyond it. But all these peoples alike +have their root in a state of society when there was no large and +orderly community, but only a multitude of small and restless tribes, +when there was no written law, but only custom, and when there was no +central authority to execute justice, but it was left to a man's +fellow-clansmen to avenge his murder. + +Now the religion of the clan, the ideas of which determine the +character of later Semitic systems, may be briefly described as +follows. Each clan has its own god, perhaps he was originally an +animal, at any rate he is the father or ancestor of the clan, he is +of the same blood with them, he belongs to them and to no other clan. +So far the assertion that the Semites are naturally monotheists is +true; but the same is true of all totemistic or clannish communities. +A man is born into a community with such a divine head, and the +worship of that god is the only one possible to him. Should he be +expelled from his clan he is driven away from his god, and he cannot +obtain access into another clan except by a formal adoption as a +stranger client. The link, on the other hand between the god and his +clansmen is of the strongest. He joins in all their enterprises, +after being consulted on the subject, and having a sacrifice offered +to him, which renews the union of the clansmen to him and to each +other. Their wars are his wars; when any of them is injured or slain +he joins in their necessary acts of retaliation; it is a religious +duty for each of them to be faithful to the others, and to keep up +the tribal customs, of which the god approves. + +Thus the Semites have as many gods as they have clans; and these gods +do not greatly differ from each other. As long, moreover, as the +clans are at constant feud, no single god can grow very great. It is +only when one clan conquers others, that a king-god can arise to rule +over all alike as a monarch rules over his nobles and their +provinces. But in this type of deity the genius of Semitic religion +is already expressed. The god of the Semite is not a nature-power who +bears the same aspect to all men, but a member of a particular clan, +a person to whom the clansman occupies the same position of natural +subordination as he does to his father or his chief. The god takes +his name not from a part of nature but from a human relationship. He +is "Baal," master or owner, he is "Adon," lord; in later +circumstances he is "Melech," king. "El," mighty one, hero, is a more +generic term; like our "God," it is applied to any divine being. +These deities, it will be noticed, are all masculine; but it is not +to be supposed that the Semites had no goddesses. Not to speak of the +goddesses of Babylonia, mere doubles of the gods whose names they +bore (chapter vii.), the earliest Semites are believed by several +great scholars to have had a goddess but no god. The matriarchal +state of society, in which the mother alone ruled the family, came +before the patriarchal, and so the reign of the goddess came before +that of the god. Each community has its own Al-lat, "The Lady," as +she is called in Arabia, a strict and exacting lady, not to be +confounded with the licentious goddesses of later times; and in all +Semitic lands traces of her early prevalence are found.[2] As the +male god came to the front, the female became a less definite figure, +till she was generally a mere counterpart of the male god, with +little character of her own. With gods of this type there is little +scope for mythology. The history of the god is that of the tribe; the +gods are too little independent of their human clients to form a +society by themselves, or to give rise to stories about their doings. + +[Footnote 2: See Robertson Smith's _Kinship and Marriage in Early +Arabia_.] + +This is one side of the natural history of the Semitic gods; but that +history has another side. The lands in which the Semites dwelt were +full from the first of sacred spots; and we have to notice that the +god of a clan is also the god of a certain piece of earth where he is +supposed to dwell, which is regarded as his property, and the +fertility of which is ascribed to his beneficence. In the Bible we +read of sacred trees, of sacred wells, of sacred stones or mounds, +and of stones or pillars which were connected with sacrifice. In +various Semitic lands there are also sacred streams and sacred caves. +The Semites in fact had their share of the inheritance the whole +world has derived from the earliest times, of prehistoric religious +sites and objects. A spirit spoke in the rustling of the branches of +the tree, counsel could be procured at the spring; wherever there +appeared to be something mysterious in nature, a spirit was believed +to dwell; and especially in woods and fertile spots, where wild +beasts originally had their lair, a spirit was thought to reside, +which was approached with fear. Many of these superstitions the +various branches of the Semites long continued to hold;[3] but the +race superseded in the main this world of spirits by a set of gods, +and the magic addressed to spirits by religious observances addressed +to gods. The genius or jinn haunting the thicket, who had no regular +worshippers, but was an object of fear to all, and had to be +propitiated or controlled by mysterious arts, gave way to the god of +a clan, who took up his residence there, and received the regular +worship of his clansmen; the stone became the symbol of a deity who +had been asked and had consented to become identified with it for the +purpose of the stated rites of the clan. In this way the clan gods +became localised as the clans tended to acquire fixed settlements, +and each sacred spot was occupied by the deity of the clan who dwelt +around it. The view was held that each god was to be found at the +spot where, on some marked occasion, he had given evidence of his +power, and he who wished to enquire of that god had to go there. It +might happen that the god manifested his power at another spot to one +of his dependents on a journey, as Jehovah did to Jacob at Bethel +(Genesis xxviii.). Then that spot also was recognised as a holy one +where communication could be had with the deity, and the apparatus of +worship was erected there so that the intercourse might be suitably +carried on, as Jacob is reported to have done. In time also it came +to be thought that each god had his land which belonged to him, on +which alone his worship was possible, and so the earth was parcelled +out among a number of deities; and Naaman, who wishes to worship +Jehovah in his Syrian home, carries off two mules' burden of +Jehovah's soil, to make in the midst of Syria a little piece of the +land of the God of Israel (2 Kings v.). + +[Footnote 3: The late Professor Ives Curtius in a paper read to the +Basel Congress (1905, _Verhandlungen_, p. 154), on "Traces of Early +Semitic Religion in Syria," gives details of local sanctuaries still +resorted to in that country.] + +One circumstance remains to be mentioned which constitutes a marked +difference between the Semitic and the Aryan religions. Aryan +religion has its centre in the household; the hearth is its altar, +and the gods of the domestic cult are the departed ancestors of the +family. Semitic religion is without this cult; the hearth is not an +altar; the religious community is not the family but the clan. The +worship of ancestors, if, as there is reason to believe, it had once +been practised by the Semites (the Arabs tied a camel to the grave of +the dead chief), lost at a very early period all practical +importance. While the early Semites believed in the continued +existence of the departed, they thought of them as beings quite +destitute of energy, as "shades laid in the ground," and did not +worship them. The other world occupied, therefore, a very small space +in Semitic thought. Religion confined itself to this life; after +death, it was held, even religion came to an end. A man must enjoy +the society of his god in this life; after death he could take part +in no sacrifice, and could render to his god no thanks nor service. + +From what has been said the character of sacrifice among the Semites +is readily understood. Sacrifice is not domestic but takes place at +the spot where the god is thought to reside, or where the symbol +stands which represents him. Usually this was an upright monolith, +such as is found in every part of the world, and the central act of +the sacrifice consisted in applying the blood of the new-slain victim +to this stone. The blood was thus brought near to the god, the +clansmen also may have touched the blood at the same time; and the +act meant that the god and the tribesmen, all coming into contact +with the blood, which originally perhaps was that of the animal totem +of the clan, declared that they were of the same blood, and renewed +the bond which connected them with each other. A further feature of +early Semitic sacrifice is also that the slaughter and the blood +ceremony are succeeded by a banquet, at which the god is thought to +sit at table with his clients, his share being exposed for him on the +stone or altar. When he came to be believed to dwell aloft, his share +was burned with fire so that the smell or finer essence of it might +ascend to him. Many examples may be collected in the early historical +books of the Old Testament of sacrifices which are at the same time +social and festive occasions; in fact, in early Israel every act of +slaughter was a sacrifice, and every sacrifice a banquet. The people +dance and make merry before their god, of whose favour they have just +become assured once more by the act of communion they have observed. +The undertaking they have on hand is hallowed by his approval, so +that they can boldly advance to it; the corporate spirit of the tribe +is quickened by renewed contact with its head; all thoughts of care +are far away; the religious act makes the worshippers simply and +unaffectedly happy, if it does not even fill them with an orgiastic +ecstasy. + +This careless happiness, in connection with religious acts, is found +also in Babylonian sacrifice. It is not, however, peculiar to the +Semites, but is characteristic of the religion of the early world in +general. Nor is it peculiar to this race that religion does not +address the individual as such, but only as a member of his tribe, +and that it provides small comfort for private sorrows or longings. +The sad face is out of place in the presence of the god. Religion is +essentially a happy thing; sin is not yet thought of, and if things +go wrong, the tribe never entertains any doubt but that with proper +sacrifices and promises the god will show them his favour again and +renew their prosperity. All this is not specially Semitic, but simply +early religion. What is specially Semitic is, to repeat that with +which we set out, that gods are worshipped whose relations to their +worshippers are borrowed from existing forms of society. The god is +the father or the master or the champion, of the circle of +worshippers; he is of their kindred, he is their greatest and +strongest clansman, he belongs to them and to none but them. This, +whether it is derived--as Professor Robertson Smith thinks--from the +ideas of totemism or not, leads to a religion which is exclusive and +intense, and cannot be trifled with. The god who is a man's master, +and the head of his clan, stands in a more imperative position +towards him than the god of the sky, or than a departed ancestor. He +does not change with the seasons or the weather, nor is there any +doubt as to his intentions and demands. Semitic religion, even at +this stage, is a very real thing, and may easily, in favouring +circumstances, become a force of overmastering energy. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Hommel, _Die Semitischen Voelker und Sprachen_. + +"Semites," by McCurdy, in Hastings' _Bible Dictionary_, vol. v. + +Cumont, _Les Religions orientales dans la Paganisme Romain_, 1907. + + + + +CHAPTER XI +CANAANITES AND PHENICIANS + + +When the Children of Israel crossed the Jordan and settled in +Palestine, they found that country inhabited by a race of men who +spoke the same language as themselves, and who were much further +advanced than they in civilisation. The letters of El-Amarna which +belong to this period show Syria to have been full of small +theocratic states, all pervaded, though now under the power of Egypt, +by Babylonian culture, each with a god and a settled worship of its +own. The Israelites of a later time regarded the Canaanites with such +disdain that they reckoned them (Genesis x. 6, 15) as belonging to an +inferior race; but the two peoples belonged to the same race, and had +many common ideas and practices. In religion they resembled each +other, or Israel could never have been tempted so strongly, and for +so long a period, to adopt the rites of the people they conquered. + +The Israelites were not the only people who invaded the land of the +Canaanites and stayed in it. Three such invasions took place: those +of the Phenicians, of the Philistines, and of the Hebrews--the first +and third being Semitic peoples, and perhaps the second also. The +Philistines, settling on the south-eastern corner of the +Mediterranean, had a Semitic religion, of which the fish-god Dagon, +the Fly-Baal of Ekron, and the Ashtoreth, probably of Ascalon, are +known figures. The Philistines, however, lost ultimately their +separate character, and ceased to exist as an independent people. It +will not be necessary for us to mention them again. The Phenicians, +settling on the northern sea-board of Syria, where great trade routes +to East and West converged, and where good harbours could be made, +became a nation of merchants, and kept up active communication with +the great kingdoms of the East, with Egypt, and with the islands and +the distant shores of Western Europe. The carriers of the ancient +world, they transmitted to Europe not only the spices and the fabrics +but also the ideas and the practices of Asia, and rendered to the +world the inestimable service of awaking the slumbering energies of +the Aryan peoples to new life. + +A short chapter may be devoted to the religion of the Canaanites and +to that of the Phenicians, not because these were important in +themselves, for in neither was there anything original or anything +destined to survive, but because of the light they throw on other +religions which were to have a great career. It was in conflict with +the Canaanite religion that the faith of Israel first realised its +true nature and was led to organise itself in a manner befitting its +character. And from Phenicia both Israel and Greece accepted many a +suggestion, both in external matters connected with worship and in +matters of a deeper nature. + +The religion of the Canaanites is well known to us from the Old +Testament. It is such a system as we found that of the Semites to be, +with certain peculiar developments, of which we have already seen +something in our chapter on Babylonia. A local community recognises +an invisible head, with whom it meets at the sacred spot, whom it +regards as overlord or master, of whose favour it is in no doubt, and +whom it serves with sacrifices and with lively manifestations of joy +at certain fixed periods. The god is called Baal. This, however, is +not a proper name but a title; it means lord, master, and the Baal +may have a name of his own in addition: we hear of Baal Peor, the +lord of Peor, and of many another. Baals are spoken of in the plural; +we read in Judges ii. 11 and in other passages that the Israelites +followed the Baals, that is the gods of the Canaanites. Each place +has its own Baal, who is worshipped at the local sanctuary. The +sanctuary is at an elevated spot outside the town or village, either +on a natural eminence or on a mound artificially made for the +purpose; these are the "high places" of the Old Testament; originally +Canaanite places of worship, they drew to themselves also the worship +of Israel. The apparatus of worship at these shrines is of a very +simple nature. An upright stone represents the god; it is not a +statue of him, being unhewn and having no resemblance to the human +figure. He was supposed to come to the stone when meeting with his +worshippers; and in the earliest times of Semitic religion this stone +served the purpose of an altar: the gifts, which were not originally +burned, were laid upon it, or the blood of the victim was applied to +it. But besides the altar and the upright stone or _massebah_ the +Canaanite shrine had another piece of furniture. A massive +tree-trunk, fixed in the ground and with some of its branches perhaps +still remaining, represented the female deity who is the invariable +companion of the Baal. This is the Ashera of Canaan, a word which in +the Authorised Version is translated "grove," after an error of the +Vulgate, but which in the Revised Version is rightly left +untranslated. (Judges iii. 7, vi. 25; 2 Kings xxiii. 6, there is one +in the Temple at Jerusalem; etc.) The word Ashera is in such passages +the designation of the tree which stood to represent the goddess; +whether it is ever the proper name of the goddess herself is +doubtful. At any rate Ashera, like Baal, is not the name of one +historic deity, but a name applied to the goddess of each place all +over the country. + +The character of Canaanite religion is clearly revealed in its +apparatus of worship. We saw that the Babylonians added to many of +the gods of their country a female counterpart, turning the name of +the god into a feminine form (chapter vii., also chapter x.). In +Canaan we find that Semitic worship is addressed to pairs of deities; +there is a god and a goddess at each shrine. While it would be wrong +to regard this as the general type of Semitic religion,--our chapter +on that subject points to a different conclusion, and the great gods +of Phenicia, of Moab, and of Israel are solitary beings,--we must +recognise that the worship of god and goddess was widespread in +Semitic peoples. In Canaan it is not difficult to understand it. We +have here the worship of an agricultural community; and as the Baal +is the lord of the soil and the author of its fertility, who is +entitled to receive the first-fruits, so the Ashera is the fertile +matron who represents the principle of increase. The Old Testament +leaves us in no doubt as to the kind of worship which was carried on +at these shrines. The festivals were those of the farmer's calendar; +the Baal is presented with the first-fruits of corn and wine and oil, +in the midst of general feasting and boisterous merry-making. His +consort, on the other hand, is served with rites applying in the most +direct manner the principle she represents. The shrine has a staff of +female attendants for this part of the service of religion. The +rustic worship of Palestine thus shows us a side of the religion of +Western Asia which we know from other sources to have been widely +diffused. A female deity like the Babylonian Ishtar (chapter vii.), +is served with impure rites in great cities as well as in country +districts, and her worship spread westwards with other Eastern +products. She is found as Baalit, as Mylitta,[1] as Astarte; the +Greeks call her Aphrodite, and her horrid worship found entrance in +various Greek cities. + +[Footnote 1: Herod. i. 199.] + +To the Israelites the worship of Canaan proved a great temptation +(Numbers xxv.), but they gradually rose above it. The Phenicians also +came to have gods of a much higher character, and of these also we +must speak. The Phenicians were not original in their religion any +more than in their art; their religion began with the ordinary +Semitic notions as these had been applied by the older population in +Syria, and they improved it by borrowing from various parts of the +world with which they trafficked. So various were their borrowings +that it is impossible to draw up a consistent system of their gods. +One town has one set of gods, another town another, and the same +deity wears different and even opposite characters in different +places. All that can be done is to single out a few features which we +can see to have been on the whole characteristic of Phenician +religion, and to have enabled it to influence the worship of other +peoples. + +The Phenicians were very much in earnest about the maintenance of +state and of religion. In their successive city-states of Sidon, +Tyre, and Carthage, we see them exhibiting an intense devotion to the +commonwealth, and very much under the influence of their priesthood. +Semitic religion tends to grow more sombre and intense as it +develops; and the Phenicians, while still holding the principle of a +god and goddess, concentrate their worship more and more on a single +divine figure, and come to regard that figure from a greater distance +and with greater awe. The liberal and easy-going Baals and Asheras of +agricultural life are not suited to the temple of a great commercial +city; a figure of more dignity is wanted. And thus above the crowd of +Baals there appears the Moloch or king, a much greater being and +requiring a much statelier service. Moloch also is not originally a +proper name; there are various Molochs or king-gods who rise above +the Baals, and the individuals have special designations, as +Melcarth, "king of the city." This type of deity occurs not with the +Phenicians only, but with several other Syrian peoples about the same +time. The Moloch of Sidon and Tyre is a being of the same character +as the chief gods of Moab, Ammon, and Israel. He has to do not only +with the blessings of agricultural life, but with state and +government. He is the founder of a state; he is the inventor of +navigation and of purple; he is the first king; when a colony is sent +out, it goes with his approval, and he himself leads the expedition; +he is the dread ruler whom none must disobey; the majesty, the power, +and the enterprise of the state are all embodied in him. And as the +king-god is far above the landlord-god in power, he is infinitely +removed from him in character also. The chief gods of Sidon and Tyre +have nothing luxurious or effeminate about them. They are strict and +awful beings, and must not be incautiously approached. They retain +their primitive character as sources of life, but they are destroyers +of life as well. Pure and holy themselves, they require purity and +holiness in all who draw near to them. Their priests are celibates, +their priestesses virgins. They require sacrifices of a very +different nature from those of the Baals, more costly and more +dreadful. Human sacrifices appear to have been a regular feature of +their worship: when the Israelites turn to the worship of Phenician +gods, or when they copy Phenician practices, we hear of their "making +their children pass through the fire"--that is, offering them up as +burnt-sacrifices. The Moloch requires what is most costly as a +sacrifice, or what will cause the strongest thrill of terror in his +worship. Even the first-born child is not to be kept back from him (2 +Kings xxiii. 10, Jerem. vii. 31, cf. Micah vi. 7). + +So far the origin of the Phenician gods is simple. They are purely +Semitic deities, formed on the pattern of human rulers and deriving +their attributes from that character. When a state becomes highly +organised before it is quite civilised in other respects, its +religion is apt to be stern and cruel; of this various instances may +be found in the history of religion, and the present is one of them. +The Phenician gods were of such a character as to favour the survival +of savage practices; the Semite, as we saw, is extremely +matter-of-fact and practical in his religion, and a god who was a +king would receive the same kind of offerings as the king of Sidon or +of Tyre was accustomed to. A strict and dreadful religion thus +survives beyond the savage state; pleasure is taken in trampling on +natural feelings and in setting forth shocking spectacles at the +bidding of the deity. + +Astral Deities of Phenicia.--It is not possible to arrange in a +system the remaining phenomena of Phenician religion. In the +historical period the gods have another character besides that of +being heads and rulers of communities. They are connected with the +heavenly bodies. The chief god, whatever name he bears, El, Baal, +Moloch, Rimmon, or Adonis, is always the sun. A sun-god may have come +from Egypt or Babylon, but there is no reason why the Phenicians may +not have had a sun-god from the first, whose character spread to +their other deities. And in accordance with the tendency above spoken +of, the sun-god has a consort. Sometimes his consort is the earth; +and then we have a sensuous and immoral worship such as that of the +Canaanites. Sometimes it is the moon; her name is Astarte or +Ashtoreth, and she is a very different being from the Ashera of +Canaan; the names are not the same, and the characters are opposite. +Ashtoreth, like the primitive Semitic goddess (chapter x.), is a +chaste matron; she is represented robed and in stately attitude, and +is a fit companion for the strict Moloch of the cities. Her worship +is described to us by Jeremiah, in whose time the matrons of +Jerusalem made cakes for her and poured out drink-offerings and +burned incense to her as the "queen of heaven"; all this was done +with the knowledge and co-operation of their husbands, so that the +worship had nothing immoral about it. This strict goddess is not to +be identified with Istar of Babylonia, although the names are alike. +Istar is not a moon-goddess like Ashtoreth; in Babylonia, in fact, +the moon is masculine, and the characters of the two goddesses are +opposite. The Sidonian Astarte and the Canaanite Ashera represent two +opposing types of female deity, both of which may possibly have their +reflections in Greece--the latter in the lower forms of the worship +of Aphrodite, and the former in the figures of such strict maiden +goddesses as Artemis and Athene. + +Another worship which prevailed in Phenicia should not be left +unnoticed--that of the Cabiri. There were temples of the Cabiri in +several of the towns; their worship, however, was secret, and little +was known of it even in antiquity. We know at all events that the +Cabiri were seven in number, and the number is thought to be +connected, not with the seven planets, but with the seven heavenly +spheres of early astronomy. They have a head called Eshmun, who is +the god of the eighth or highest sphere. The Cabiri are beings of a +moral character; they are not only mighty ones and creators, but they +are the children of Sydyk--that is, of Righteousness; and they give +counsel. It is here that the tendency to speculative exaltation of +the deity appears in Phenicia; but there is little of it, and neither +in this direction nor in that of morals was the religion destined to +have any remarkable growth. The service of the gods was so closely +identified with the service of the state,--for either the priest and +the king were one, as in Israel after the exile, or nothing could be +done without the priesthood,--that no independent religious +development was possible. In a theocracy religion cannot grow, at +least it cannot be openly acknowledged to do so; and the prophet and +reformer finds every influence arrayed against him. + +How greatly Israel was indebted to Phenician art is known to all. It +was by artificers from Tyre that Solomon's royal buildings were +planned and executed, when he had married a daughter of Egypt and was +compelled to aim at some magnificence. A royal temple formed part of +these buildings, and was necessarily erected according to the ideas +which prevailed in the more advanced neighbouring kingdoms. It was +from the same source that the Greeks a century or two later drew +suggestions for their sacred architecture; and thus we find that the +ground-plan of Solomon's temple and that of the Greek temple are +closely similar. Both are to be traced ultimately to the model +derived by the Phenicians from Egypt. And those who borrowed from +Phenicia the form of their temple, borrowed many other things too. In +the porch of Solomon's temple stood two great pillars of bronze, +which were called Jachin and Boaz; they were simply the symbols which +stood at the entrance to every Phenician temple of the sun-god +worshipped there. The priests of Israel were dressed like those of +Tyre and Sidon; they offered the same animals as sacrifices, they +received the same dues for their maintenance. When so much apparatus +was borrowed, it is no wonder that the gods of Phenicia were at times +worshipped at Jerusalem. We see from this whole chapter that the +religion of Israel was not so much apart from that of the other +Syrian peoples as we have been wont to imagine. Even in his religion +Israel owed something to his neighbours; his religion came to be +better than theirs, but it was the result of a movement in which they +also had taken part. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The Histories of Antiquity. E. Meyer, Duncker (see p. 101). + +Tiele's _Egyptische en Mesopotamische Godsdiensten_. Book II.: +Phenicia and Israel. + +The Histories of Israel, especially Kuenen, _The Religion of Israel_. + +F. Jeremias, in De la Saussaye, vol. i. pp. 348-383. + +E. Meyer, "Phenicia," in _Encyclopaedia Biblica_. + + + + +CHAPTER XII +ISRAEL + + +It is a circumstance of the greatest value for the science of +religion that the Old Testament is so well known. That book is the +most valuable literary storehouse we possess of the facts and ideas +connected with the early religion of mankind; it is the best +text-book of the earlier portion of our subject. In our chapters on +primitive worship, as well as in that on the Semites, we have drawn +largely from this source, and for the earlier stages of the religion +of Israel we may refer to these chapters. We have now, however, to +deal specially with the religion of the Old Testament, and to +endeavour to show, as has been done in other cases, what was its +specific character, and how its character determined its history. The +story to be told in this chapter is, even apart from our special +interest in it, as fascinating as any in this volume; it was through +a mental movement of unparalleled grandeur, as well as through an +outward history of tragic and entrancing interest, that the Jews came +to possess the religion which was the desire of all nations, and the +chief preparation for Christianity. + +We have to begin, however, with repeating in this case what has been +and will be the burden of our opening paragraphs in many chapters of +this book, namely that the traditional ideas about the nature of this +religion require to be corrected, and that its sacred books as they +now stand do not accurately represent its history. The Old Testament +literature has suffered in a high degree what seems to be the +predestined fate of every set of sacred books. Old materials and new +are mixed up together in it; many works have been revised by later +editors, and so much changed, that laborious critical processes are +necessary before they can be used by the historian. In forming his +first impressions as to the relations the books bear to each other, +and as to the purport of the whole, the reader is naturally guided by +the order in which he finds them; but the order in which the sacred +books of the Jews stand in the Old Testament was fixed from a +peculiar point of view at a late age in Jewish history, and is in +many respects quite unnatural and misleading. To come to particulars; +the Old Testament as it stands suggests that the Law was the earliest +product of Jewish literature, and that all the details of ritual, as +well as of moral and social duty, were fixed for the Jews at the very +outset of their history; and it suggests that the books of the +prophets were written last. This, till quite recently, was generally +believed to be the case, but by the labours of a series of +illustrious scholars of the Old Testament the conclusion has been +reached, which is now less and less disputed, that the earlier +prophetic books come first in chronological order, and that the law, +which is not all of one piece, but contains a number of codes of +different periods, together with a collection of legends and +traditions drawn from various quarters and subjected to editorial +treatment, did not assume the form in which we have it till after the +exile. The historical books, in which no doubt various ancient pieces +are embodied, were written under the inspiration of prophetic ideas; +and the latest books of all are those which stand in the centre of +the Old Testament in the English Bible; the Psalter, which had been +growing during a long period before it came to contain its present +number of pieces, the books of morals and philosophy, and the book of +Job. Daniel belongs to the period of the Maccabees. The historian, +therefore, starts from the age of the prophets of the eighth century +B.C. The writings of these great men afford a graphic picture of +their time, and an entirely trustworthy account of the mental +furniture Israel then possessed. From this fixed point the student is +able to infer what happened to Israel in earlier times, and to judge +of the spirit in which the early history of the people was afterwards +written and edited. The history of Israel which the student arrives +at after these critical processes differs, it is true, in very +important respects from that which appears at first sight on the face +of the Bible. But the same thing has occurred in the case of other +nations. The sacred books of Persia also have to be turned outside in +before they furnish the historian with an account he can accept. Even +of the speeches of Mohammed the same is true. Those who undertake the +task of codifying sacred literatures have to consider the purpose to +which the books are to be put in the community, and to arrange them +so as best to serve that purpose; they do not ask, How must they be +arranged so as to exhibit the true sequence of the history?--that +interest only arises much later--but, How will they best serve the +needs of the community? The order of books in sacred collections is, +therefore, fixed by practical considerations, now of one kind and now +of another, and not according to the requirements of the student of +history. We now proceed to give the outline of the history of the +religion of Israel as it appears in the light of recent critical +investigation. + +Israel consisted originally of a group of tribes, bound together by +the memory of a great deliverance they had experienced in common, and +of battles in which they had fought side by side. Accustomed to the +free life of shepherds, they had been enslaved in Egypt and held to +intolerable tasks; but they had made their escape in a wonderful +manner under a leader who had known how to kindle them to heroic +efforts by reminding them of their religious traditions. Under his +leadership they had visited the Sinaitic peninsula after leaving +Egypt, and had wandered in the regions to the north of Sinai, till at +last they conquered territory to the east of Jordan, on which some of +them settled, while others crossed the Jordan, and took up their +abodes among the Canaanite tribes whom they found there. + +The nation and the religion came into the world at the same time. +Although the tribes retained their separate gods and religious +observances, and families among them also had their own family cults, +the bond by which they had been formed into a people and made capable +of common action was stronger than these earlier ties; the God whom +Moses proclaimed as their head inspired in them an enthusiasm and +vigour unknown before. His name was Yahweh, and is said to have a +metaphysical meaning, and to designate the god as more really +existing than any other. This is doubted; what is certain is that +Moses declared that Yahweh promised to be with the tribes, and that +they took him for their God. Jehovah, to use the more familiar form +of the name, was perhaps the God of the most powerful of the tribes; +he was probably a nature-god, and connected with storms and thunder, +and he had his seat at Mount Sinai. Thither the tribes repaired to +hold a solemn meeting with him; from there he was afterwards +represented as coming forth when about to do any mighty act for his +people. He is thought of as a being who cannot be seen, since he +dwells in clouds and darkness. He utters his voice in thunder and +storm; he is possessed of irresistible energy which he unfolds in +battle, and in which he causes his people to share when he goes +before them to war. But he is also a god of counsel, and takes the +greatest interest in the moral and social life of his people. His +human representatives, aided by his spirit, settle disputes which are +laid before them, and pronounce authoritative counsels on difficult +matters. This kind of guidance is constantly going on, so that +Jehovah is felt to be watching over the conduct of his people, and to +be an effective helper and guide in their domestic concerns, which +not every god attends to, as well as in their meetings with their +enemies. + +The Early Ritual was Simple.--In all this we have a very apt example +of the advance which, as we saw in a former chapter, religion makes +when it becomes national instead of merely tribal; when the great god +of the nation takes his place above the gods of the tribes. In +Israel, however, it is not the case that the national religion, when +it appears, at once develops a higher style of worship, and draws +attention to itself by greater pomp and deeper solemnity of form. The +priestly legislation of Exodus and Leviticus, indeed, represents this +as having been the case. Here the tribes have scarcely adopted the +service of Jehovah, when an army of thousands of priests is called +into being, for whose maintenance elaborate provision is made, and a +splendid and highly-organised worship is arranged. This directory of +worship, however, most scholars are agreed, never was in operation +till after the exile: we see in it the worship which Ezra and his +fellow-scribes aimed at introducing in the second temple at +Jerusalem. The worship of the wilderness and of the early period of +Israel in Canaan was of a very different nature. The leading features +and principles of it differed little from what we have described in +former parts of this book (chapter v., chapter x.). It was conducted +according to custom rather than statute, and its leading +characteristic was that it was a common meal at which the god was +present along with his worshippers, and assurances were given that +the good understanding still continued which bound the tribesmen to +their god and each other. It was by the person of his god rather than +by a more elaborate worship, or a more numerous priesthood, that +Israel was distinguished from Moab and Ammon. + +Contact with Canaanite Religion.--After being delivered out of Egypt +by the power of Jehovah, and entering Canaan, Israel was placed in a +position in which it is wonderful, indeed, that the national +character and the national religion were not merged in those of the +surrounding population. Bringing with them the few ideas and the +scanty appliances of the wilderness, they found themselves dwelling +amid a people whose civilisation was fully formed, and who possessed +a comparatively elaborate worship. The tribes of Canaan spoke the +same language, and were of the same race with themselves, but had +advanced to the higher life of agriculture and of cities. Their +worship was the same in principle as that of Israel, but it had a +higher organisation. The land was studded with sacred places, the +sanctity of which Israel could not deny, and which formed centres of +pilgrimage and worship. The worship of the Canaanites was described +in last chapter (chapter xi.); the reader will remember the upright +stone (masseba) representing the Baal, and the tree-trunk (ashera), +if there was no living tree, representing the goddess. If all this or +most of it was new to the Israelites, so was the sacred year which +fixed the seasons of worship in Canaan. Minor festivals were fixed by +the appearance of the new moon, or by the regular return of the +seventh day (it is doubtful if the Sabbath was observed in the +wilderness, it is connected with agriculture, and is scarcely +compatible with pastoral life); greater ones by the epochs of the +year, such as harvest and vintage. The worship connected with +agriculture in the early world is of a noisy and frantic order; and +where gods are worshipped who are connected with fertility, it is +apt, as we saw, to be marked by sexual features. + +Danger of Fusion.--The Israelites were naturally prompted to adopt +what they could of the religion of the Canaanites. The old sacred +places of the land, whether connected with their own ancestral +traditions or not, they could not help adopting; it would have been +strange, indeed, if, when they became agriculturists, they had not +adopted the agricultural festivals; and if, as was natural, they +regarded the Baal of the Canaanite as the lord of the land and the +giver of its fertility, their thanks for the harvest would be +addressed to him (Hosea ii. 8). Their worship of Jehovah could not be +left poorer than that which their neighbours addressed to Baal; for +it also they erected asheras and made use of standing stones, and of +Jehovah also they had images. One of these, which was destroyed by +Hezekiah, was in the form of a serpent: in other places Jehovah was +worshipped under the form of a bull. Where an image of him was kept, +he could be consulted by means of lots or in other ways. The ark or +chest which was kept at one of the more important shrines, +represented him most fully; it was carried into battle, and he was +thought to go with it. + +Religious Conflict.--But the more developed worship thus paid to +Jehovah after the settlement in Canaan, as it had not grown out of +the religion of Jehovah, did not truly express its spirit, and was +felt by those who believed most thoroughly in the national god, to be +a wrong way of serving him. If, moreover, the Israelites, who lived +scattered and far apart from each other among the older inhabitants, +went so far in adopting Canaanite practices, there was a danger that +Israel would forget the faith which had made him a nation, and thus +part entirely with his character and nationality. A contest thus +arose, which continued during the whole of Israelite history down to +the exile, between the few who cared for Jehovah only, and desired to +see the principles of his religion carried out purely and without +reserve, and the many who, while also professing to follow Jehovah, +saw no harm in worshipping him as other gods were worshipped, or even +in addressing other gods as well as him. This struggle is represented +in the histories as if Israel had from time to time become entirely +apostate from its own faith. But it is clear that Israel never forgot +Jehovah so far as to be incapable of being called back to him. The +call was generally a call to war. The people, having forgotten the +true source of their strength, and so lost spirit and became a prey +to their enemies, were summoned by one in whom the spirit of Jehovah +was burning freshly, to follow him to battle against their enemies. +The spirit of Jehovah, thus applied anew to the hearts of his people, +did not fail of its effect. The wave of courage and of martial ardour +spread from place to place, from tribe to tribe, and soon an army +stood in the field which struck with the old vigour, and soon shook +off the yoke of the oppressor. Jehovah thus proved himself to be +Jehovah Sebaoth, _i.e._, in the most probable rendering of the +phrase, the God of the armies of his people. A religion which proved +itself in this way could never cease to be a power in the heart of +the nation; even if the tribes, dispersing again after a victory, +soon seemed to lose touch of each other, and to be sinking deeper +than ever in the surrounding tide of Canaanite life, yet the faith, +which was associated with all the highest moments of their past +history, and was the secret of all their victories, could not die. + +The Monarchy.--It was a great advance, however, in the history of the +religion of Israel, when the judges or heroes who appeared, at +distant intervals of time and in different parts of the country, to +summon Israel to fight for freedom in the name of Jehovah, were +succeeded by the monarchy. This was a step which those most zealous +for the national faith warmly approved, and, indeed, themselves +brought about; the monarchy was founded, in the case of the first two +kings, on religious enthusiasm. The religion of Jehovah at once +became the state religion, and a more satisfactory worship was formed +at the court. The permanent union of the tribes under the monarchy +soon showed Israel to be possessed of much greater force than could +have been imagined, and within a century the people of Jehovah formed +a considerable power, which was heard of in all ends of the earth. +Instead of a set of scattered tribes they were now a homogeneous +people, conscious of a great past and looking forward to a still +greater future. As they passed rapidly from barbarism to +civilisation, Jehovah shared their rise. His energy had always been +undoubted, but he now put on in addition all the settled attributes +of kingly power--he was a great god, and a great king, a just judge, +a liberal friend--all his doings were wonderful. He had chosen Israel +for his people, and by a series of mighty acts had guided and +preserved them, and made them great. His people stood in a peculiar +position in the world; with such a god they must rise higher still, +there could be no limit to what he could do for them. + +Religion not Centralised.--We must not, however, suppose that the +rise of Jehovah to a great position, and the institution of his +worship at the court, made any great or sudden change in the +religious arrangements of the people at large. While the worship of +the monarch went on at Gibeon or at Jerusalem, the great shrines at +Bethel, at Dan, and at Beersheba were still frequented, and the +sacred places throughout the land remained in honour. Stories indeed +were told to show that they had been founded by the patriarchs for +the worship of their god, so that there need be no scruple in +frequenting them. The worship of Baal and that of Jehovah went on at +these places side by side, and neither could fail to be influenced by +the other. Sacrifice was guided by more than one principle: on the +one hand it was a common meal with the deity; and as Jehovah was +thought to have his dwelling in Heaven, his part of the banquet was +burned, so that it might ascend to him in the column of smoke. The +sacrifice of agriculturists, however, naturally turns to the idea of +presenting to the god, with joy and thankfulness, a part of the +gifts, or the first or best part of the gifts, which, as lord of the +soil, he has bestowed. The idea of propitiation or atonement does not +enter into the ordinary sacrifices at this time. Jehovah in his +sterner moods may demand more awful offerings. As we see from the +story of Abraham offering up Isaac, it was thought that Jehovah might +demand human sacrifice, and instances of such sacrifice actually +occur in the records. Jephthah dedicates his daughter; after a war +the best of the booty is offered to Jehovah, and Samuel hews Agag in +pieces before him. But such occurrences lie quite apart from ordinary +worship, which is of a joyful character and is accompanied by +merry-making of various kinds. No fixed ritual prevailed throughout +the country; the attempt to introduce uniformity came much later. +Every one knew how to sacrifice, as the stories of Manoah and of +Gideon show; it was by no means necessary that a priest should be +present. The functions of the priest indeed were often connected with +other matters than sacrifice, and might be of a humble description. +Eli with a few attendants was the guardian of the ark which was the +symbol of the presence of Jehovah. A young priest was engaged by +Micah for ten pieces of silver yearly to take charge of his +collection of idols. But the most important duty of the priesthood, +and that on which their influence mainly depended, was that of +consulting Jehovah and ascertaining his will. This was done by some +sacred object in the charge of the priest, and various objects are +named (Ephod and Teraphim are images of deities; Urim and Thummim are +the lots used on such occasions) which possessed this virtue. The +priest also acted as a judge in matters brought to him for decision, +and thus was in a position to form the unwritten law of the people, +and to set up principles of conduct which came in course of time to +be regarded as sacred. The priests' "torah" or law is the beginning +of the Jewish legislation, and we see from the humane and kindly +provisions of the earliest codes that this important function was +discharged in no unworthy way. It was thus that Jehovah acted as the +living lawgiver of his people, long before any written law existed. +With his character as a warrior, a mighty lord, and a giver of rich +gifts, he combines from the first that of one who watches over the +conduct of his people, checks their excesses, and is willing and able +to lead them on to better living. This fact will be of much +importance when the mind of the people expands and seeks to +understand more clearly his being and character. + +The Prophets.--Israel, like other nations of antiquity, had, in +addition to the priests who were professionally connected with +religion, a class of men who were organs of the deity not on account +of their position but by a special personal gift. The inspiration of +Jehovah appeared in early times in somewhat crude forms. Bands of +fervid devotees were seen, who produced in themselves by dance and +song an ecstatic enthusiasm, in which they were thought to become the +organs of the deity. These men lived in societies or guilds, which +were found in Israel for several centuries. There were such prophets +of Baal as well as of Jehovah, so that the phenomenon is not +specifically Israelite. What we hear of them does not always give us +a lofty idea of their character. They are found practising magical +tricks, and when they prophesy they all say the same thing; sometimes +they are willing to prophesy what a king wishes to hear. + +The greater prophecy of Israel arose out of such beginnings as these. +Israel was accustomed to expect to hear the will of Jehovah declared +by a speaker of whom the spirit had laid hold, and among those who +came forward to meet this expectation there appeared from time to +time men of commanding insight and of great intensity of character. +The name "seer" indicates the nature of this kind of prophecy. The +seer is one to whom Jehovah communicates his intentions personally, +perhaps without any steps having been taken on his part to place +himself in the way of the god. He sees visions while awake and in his +ordinary frame of mind, he also hears what others do not hear; and +the vision and the message have reference to the future. Things are +intimated which are shortly to come to pass, and they are things +concerning the state or the monarchy: the fate of Israel is the +burden of the prophet's intimation. Samuel's seeing led him to +institute the monarchy under Saul. The prophet Abijah declared for +the division of the kingdom into two; and his prophecy was not vain. +Elijah foretold the downfall of the house of Omri, and Elisha saw to +the accomplishment of that prediction. The prophets we see were a +great power in public affairs, and were able in important crises to +determine the course of the nation's history. Often the prophet +stands quite alone, and in opposition to the court and apparently to +the nation, and yet his words have a tendency to get themselves +fulfilled; Jehovah's word does not return to him void. At other times +the prophet seems to have many sympathisers among the nation, and to +speak as the mouthpiece of the most earnest section of the community, +the section most devoted to Jehovah; and in these cases it is less +wonderful that his words come true. When, however, we speak of the +prophets as a whole, the expression is a loose one; the prophets are +not a party that always acts together, nor a school in which the +leader is always sure of a following. A great voice sounds, perhaps +once in a century or a half-century; and these voices represent the +true tradition of Israelite religion, and develop it further. In the +time of Elijah we notice that there is a puritan movement in Israel; +a number of men are agreed together in detestation of the foreign +worships which are practised at court, and are heartily agreed in +wishing to bring back the good old ways and the pure worship of +Jehovah only. And when Elijah speaks, he gives voice to this +tendency; he claims that everything should be determined by religion; +no considerations of state should for a moment stand in the way of +the pure faith of Jehovah, by which everything should be decided; and +whatever stands in the way of this policy is dedicated to +destruction. This, broadly speaking, is the keynote of Hebrew +prophecy. + +When we come to the canonical prophets, however, we feel that there +is a great deal more in their teaching than the bare demand that +everything must give way to the requirements of religion. A great +change has taken place in their world of thought. It is no less than +that a new god and a new religion have announced themselves in the +thinking of these men. They do not say so; they are not aware of it, +and yet it is so. + +The Old Religion National.--The religion of Israel during the +monarchy is, in the full sense of the term, a national one. From a +cluster of tribes Israel has become a nation, and has begun to think +of itself as a unity. It has its national history, its national +rulers, as other nations have. In their nationality it cannot be +denied that the Israelites had much to be proud of; nor did their +rapid growth in wealth and power, which gave them several centuries +of prosperity, tend to lesson that pride. Now as they have their own +king, they have also their own god. Jehovah is the god of Israel; +Israel is the people of Jehovah, on this they were all agreed. That +Jehovah was their god did not prevent them from believing in the +existence of other gods: Chemosh was the god of Moab, a being not +very unlike Jehovah, the Baals were the old gods of Canaan. Jehovah, +of course, was the greatest and strongest, and an Israelite should +worship him, in Canaan at least; but there was no great harm if he +worshipped other gods too, when it came in his way to do so. He might +join in the worship of Baal in country places; and the king might, +without doing any harm, set up the images of the gods of his wives +beside the images of Jehovah in the capital, and if many of his +subjects joined in these other worships, it was but natural. In this +way a great variety of gods was in some reigns brought together from +different countries. + +Jehovah, however, was the special god of Israel, there could be no +doubt of that; Israel was specially pledged to him; and he on his +side was pledged to Israel, who was entitled to look to him for help +in every emergency. Jehovah had no other people; he was entirely +bound up with Israel, he must, if only for his own honour, come to +the aid of his own people when they needed him. He never could permit +Israel to suffer any fatal injury, such as deportation to a foreign +country. Religious faith forbade the thought that such a thing was +possible; if Israel was destroyed, where would Israel's religion be? +It was utter impiety, therefore, to doubt that Israel was safe, that +Jehovah watched over his own land and his own people, or that he +would guard them from any fatal harm. If, on the other hand, as was +too often the case, Israel had to submit to injury and insult from +other peoples, there could be no doubt that Jehovah took notice of +the fact, and that in due time he would set things right. It might be +some time before his attention was sufficiently directed to the case; +he might be waiting till more of the same kind of occurrences took +place before he finally interposed; but the time would come, the "Day +of the Lord" would arrive in due season, when the spoilers and +insulters of Israel would be dealt with according to their deserts, +and Israel set on high in full deliverance and peace. + +Criticism of the Old Religion by the Prophets.--The prophets, +impressed more deeply than the people by the moral character of +Jehovah, and under the pressure of great national dangers and +calamities, attained to views of God and of his ways so different +from those current at the time as to appear, when first produced, +most unpatriotic and even impious. In their character of seers they +foresaw with clearness the terrible catastrophes which were about to +burst upon their people. Amos prophesies that Israel will be carried +away captive out of his land; Isaiah announces the same thing in the +southern kingdom, and declares that only a remnant shall return. +These men are in no doubt as to the impending political annihilation +of Israel, and they set themselves to find some reason for an +occurrence so portentous, so impossible to harmonise with ordinary +religious faith. They account for it by a view of the nature of +Jehovah far exalted above that of their people. He is punishing them +for their iniquities, they say, he is so righteous that he must +punish sin, and he must punish the sin of Israel his beloved people +not less strictly, but more strictly than that of other peoples. As a +husband whose wife has gone astray must subject her to discipline +before he can receive her again to his favour, so Hosea, made a +prophet by such a domestic affliction, contends that Jehovah cannot +but deal strictly with Israel. This theory of the meaning of the +impending calamities is supported by the prophets by those +denunciations of the national sins which give so gloomy a complexion +to their works. Among the national delinquencies the disorganisation +and apparent wilfulness shown in worship have a prominent place. +Worship is not what the service of Jehovah ought to be. Other beings +than he are sought after; heathenish festivals are kept, the indecent +practices of heathen worship are introduced into that of Jehovah: +there is no seriousness, no dignity, no worthy order, in the acts of +worship that are done. Any place does for them, and many of the +places used are quite unfit, from their associations, for the service +of Jehovah. They are celebrated more as wild orgies than as solemn +approaches to the deity. + +The interests of the prophets, however, do not centre in ritual. The +worship of other gods than Jehovah, or the service of Jehovah in +unfitting ways, they could not but denounce, but they have no +positive instructions to give about worship. When the people have +apparently given up the wrong worships, and are applying themselves +with zeal to that of Jehovah, seeking his favour by austerities, or +by costly offerings, the prophets are no less severe on this line of +conduct. Every one is familiar with the passages in which they +apparently denounce sacrifice altogether as a thing God has never +asked, and by which Israel cannot hope to win his favour. These +passages do not prove that the prophets desired the entire +discontinuance of sacrifice; they merely compare sacrifice with +another line of duty which is said to be vastly more important. Not +sacrifice but mercy, not sacrifice but to do justly, and love mercy, +and walk humbly with God,--is the burden of these utterances. Even +more than by the irregularities of worship, the prophets are shocked +by the more directly moral shortcomings of their people. The people +are accused of all the acts that are forbidden in the decalogue of +Exodus xx., and of many offences not there named. Especially are the +prophets indignant at the hardheartedness of the rich towards the +poor, and at the frequent disregard of faith and truth; oppression +and bribery, gluttony and other luxurious excesses, are frequently +their mark. These most of all are the sins which have called down the +divine judgments; these are the transgressions which make it +impossible for Jehovah to turn away the punishment of Israel and of +Judah. He is, above all things, a righteous god, who loves judgment +and mercy, and a people which so manifestly fails to practice justice +and mercy cannot continue to be his people; he must destroy them. + +The prophets therefore declare that Jehovah has decided on the +rejection of his people. This shows that they have advanced to a new +conception of what Jehovah is. To them he is something more than the +mere national deity indissolubly linked to the fortunes of his +people, pledged to advance them in the world, and doomed when they +fall to fall himself along with them. He is first of all a moral +ruler; the maintenance and promotion of righteousness is far more to +him than the prosperity of any single people, even of Israel. He +loves Israel it is true; Israel is his son, whom he loves, the wife +of his youth, the people of his covenant. But that makes it the more +and not the less necessary that Israel should not be allowed to go on +in iniquity. Jehovah can be no partisan of a people that does not +walk according to his laws. Thus the prophets have arrived at a new +conception of Jehovah's character, which necessarily unfits him, +though they do not yet see this, for the _role_ of a national god. +They have identified him with the ideal of righteousness and mercy, +and in so doing they have made the great step, at least in principle, +from national to universal religion, from the religion that is bound +up with the history of one particular people, and cannot pass beyond +them, to the religion which is capable of being understood by all +men, and fit to be preached to all men of whatever race. + +Appearance of Universalism.--To the deeper view which they have +gained of the character of Jehovah the prophets add a wider and +higher view of his relation to the world, and to the various nations +in it. They frankly state that Jehovah has relations to other nations +than Israel. He might if he had chosen have taken some other race to +be his people; they were all at his disposal and he regarded none of +them as hostile. He is not dependent on Israel, and the inference is +clear, that if he could have done without Israel at first, he could +do without Israel still, were he driven to that. Israel is not +indispensable to the continuance of the true religion. Jehovah indeed +has a position far above that which Israelite national thought +ascribed to him. He is lord not of one nation only, but of all the +nations. He can use any of them as his instrument when and as he +chooses. It is he who has brought each of them to its present seat, +it is he who is directing their movements now. And for what end does +he wield this mighty rule? He is governing the world not in the +interests of one nation only, but in the interests of righteousness. +He is guiding the destinies of nations so as to bring about an end +which he has fixed, namely the establishment of a world-wide kingdom +of truth. The day is indeed coming as the Israelites believed when he +would hold a judgment over the world, only let Israel beware lest +that day should be darkness and not light to them; it will bring +about the punishment of sinners of whatever race. An end is to be +made of sin both in Israel and in other nations, that a new world may +begin. The position thus given to Jehovah is clearly one which lifts +him high above the rank of a national deity. The prophets understand +with growing clearness that Jehovah is the creator of the world, and +the author of all the glories, both of the celestial and of the +terrestrial frame. The Maker of the ends of the earth, and the +Governor of all the nations, though he has chosen to reveal himself +to one particular race, cannot be limited to them. The position of +Monotheism has been attained. The earlier prophets speak of the gods +of other nations as if they really existed, though for Israel Jehovah +is the only god, but by degrees the advance is made to the position +that these beings do not exist at all, and are simply "vanities" or +"nothings." Instead of saying that Jehovah is the greatest among the +gods, and that there is none like him, these preachers say that +Jehovah alone is god, and that he is the author of all that exists +and of all that takes place in the universe. A god has been unveiled +whom all beings exist to glorify, and whom all the nations of the +earth can confidently be summoned to praise. + +Ethical Monotheism.--These results were reached gradually: there is a +great difference between the teaching of Amos and that of Jeremiah. +And it must be remembered that they were attained not as other +monotheisms have been, by philosophical speculation, but by purely +moral ways. It is because Jehovah is supremely just and holy, that he +grows so great. The justice and holiness which are seen in him are +the strongest of all; the world exists for nothing else but to +realise them, and everything that stands opposed to them, whether in +Israel or in any other nation, must go down before them. It is in +this way that the conclusion is reached that Jehovah is the only God. +The moral ideal must be one. The whole of the religion of the +prophets is governed by moral considerations. God asks from man +nothing but goodness; the true sacrifices are those of the heart and +conduct. Man's intercourse with God is to be kept up as that of an +affectionate human relationship, into which no motives either of +force or of commerce enter. Although God is so just and holy, he is +perfectly placable, and ready to greet the approaches which are made +to him. It is absurd to spend so much money and toil on sacrifice, +when the happiest relations with God can be attained so much more +simply. God forgives without any sacrifice; his love and his desire +to meet with love surpass all that human relationships can show; his +constancy is like that of the returning seasons, or of the stars. He +yearns over Israel as a father over a wayward son, and will leave +nothing undone that he can do to bring his son back to him. He will +alter all his former plans to bring about that result. He will change +man's nature, and give him a new heart, if nothing short of that will +suffice; or he will change his own procedure entirely, and deal with +man not by way of commandments, but by way of inspiration, placing +his law in man's inward part, writing it in his heart, so that the +great union of God and man may be attained, which he desires. + +Individualism of the Prophetic Teaching.--Here we must pause to +notice another great advance which the prophets have been led to make +in religious knowledge. Their view of Jehovah as a purely moral +being, and of man's relation to him as a moral relation, like that +between two human beings who have to live together, such as a husband +and wife or a father and son, makes religion less a matter for the +people as a body, more a matter for the individual. When religion is +carried on by public sacrifices and stately festivals and ceremonies, +then it is the people as a whole that transacts with God, and the +individual need feel no great weight of responsibility in the matter. +But if God asks for love, if he says he does not care for sacrifice, +but insists on love and devotion, and rather than not have it will +work a miracle on man's nature, then the individual is addressed. +Every one who has any love to offer feels himself appealed to. Only +in his own heart can any one know whether or not God's desire is met; +every one, therefore, who understands the appeal becomes personally +responsible for the answer, and religion becomes a matter, not only +between God and the people, but between God and the individual as +well. Personal religion, therefore, makes its appearance among the +Jews at this time. Jeremiah carries on dialogues with God; prayer is +met with, as the outpouring, not of public needs alone, but of +private feeling; the soul has learned that it is called to a life of +its own with God, and not merely to a share in the life of the nation +with him. + +We have dwelt at some length on the ideas of the prophets; not at +such length, indeed, as to satisfy any of those who love their +writings, for we have thrown together in one view what belongs +historically to different centuries, while to the personalities of +the prophets, to their sublime certainty and their stupendous +courage, we have given no attention. We have stated the outlines also +of the great movement of thought in which advances of such +transcendent importance were made in religion. They are advances +which have not been lost, but which we still enjoy. If it is the gift +of the Semitic race to bring the thought of God to bear on life with +such direct practical force as Aryan religion never by itself +exerted, we must look with profound veneration on those Semitic +thinkers who applied this great force in the service of a God, who +has no other nature and property but that of justice and love. +Religion thus became to them and to all they influenced an engine for +the direct promotion of justice and love among men; and we do not +think the less of the prophets that the harvest of which they sowed +the seed could not be reaped in their day. + +Prophecy leads to no Immediate Reform.--The message of the prophets +seems at first sight to have been delivered long before the world was +ready for it. Even the practical measures which can be traced to +their influence are far from being in accordance with their ideas. +The causes of this we have already to some extent seen. The prophets +were not practical reformers. The amendment they called for was one +to be realised in individual lives rather than in public policy, and +they do not bring forward schemes of reform which they urge the +people as a whole to adopt; they rather fling great ideas upon the +mind of their nation, and leave it to others to find out how +practical effect may be given to their teaching. To the very end of +the Jewish state the prophets and their sympathisers appear to be in +a small minority of their nation. The people as a whole is +unconverted, the worship of idols goes on, and so does the worship of +other gods, even in the temple at Jerusalem. It has seemed to some +great scholars that Israel, as a whole, was a heathen people up to +the time of the exile, and still needed to be converted to the +religion of Jehovah. Kuenen shows[1] in a convincing way that this is +an exaggeration, and that people and prophets alike held the religion +of Jehovah to be the true religion of Israel; but up to the exile +that religion was not reformed in the way the prophets desired. + +[Footnote 1: _Hibbert Lectures_, ii.] + +The Reforms.--Yet the word of Jehovah had not returned to him void +even during this period. A considerable series of reforms are +narrated in the histories, and attested by successive codes of law +now embodied in the Pentateuch. These show that the prophetic ideas +had gained for themselves a strong party among the people, and that +in several reigns the court was under their influence. These reforms +show progress in two directions. There is a growing desire to make +the worship of Jehovah correspond to the exalted new conceptions of +his character as a being of incomparable majesty and holiness; and +there is, on the other hand, a rapid growth of moral sentiment; +justice and kindness to others are placed more and more in the +forefront of the divine requirements. We can do little more than name +the passages where the details of these matters may be found. The +reforms of Hezekiah (1 Kings xviii.) did not last long. He destroyed +a celebrated image of Jehovah, a fate which other images may have +shared, and he remodelled the worship of the holy places throughout +Judah, so as to remove its more heathenish features, and concentrate +it on Jehovah alone. Manasseh, Hezekiah's successor, pursued the +opposite policy. In his reign a large collection of strange cults, +some of them perhaps those of the individual tribes, were brought +back into use; even the barbarous rite of human sacrifice was +established at Jerusalem, and the worship of Jehovah became more +intense and darker. The shadow of the Assyrian is upon Israel, and as +generally happens in times of public anxiety, rites long disused are +imagined to have a specially national character and a peculiar +potency, and are fetched back from oblivion. The reform of Josiah (2 +Kings xxii., xxiii.) was more thorough-going than that of Hezekiah. +He made an end of all the unseemly worships his predecessor had +encouraged at Jerusalem, so that nothing but the direct worship of +Jehovah was left. The strongest step he took, however, was that he +attempted to put an end altogether to the shrines at which local +worship had hitherto been conducted, thus making a clean sweep of the +idolatry of the rural districts. All this was done, we are told, in +accordance with a law-book which had been found in the temple by +certain high officials, and which, after duly consulting a prophetess +about the matter, Josiah brought into operation, and solemnly pledged +himself and his people to observe. We are in no doubt as to the +nature of this book. The book of Deuteronomy prescribes just such +reforms as Josiah carried out, and is generally allowed to have been +the written law which was promulgated on this occasion. Now +Deuteronomy, while incorporating no doubt many old laws, is in spirit +and effect a work of the prophetic school. Its moral teaching and its +exhortations to love Jehovah, and to be true to him alone, are quite +in the manner of Jeremiah, who was living in the reign of Josiah. And +the principal reform of Josiah, namely, the suppression of the local +worships, and the concentration of all worship at the temple of +Jerusalem alone, stands in the forefront of the special laws in +Deuteronomy. Those who aimed at the reform of religion, according to +the ideas of the prophets, had thought this out. The worship of the +one supreme God should take place, they had concluded, at one place +only, and should be national in its character; the whole people +should worship the one God at its capital. Provision was made that +this should not imply the deprivation of the dwellers in country +districts of the use of flesh meat. Formerly, every act of slaughter +was a sacrifice, and it was only in connection with a sacrifice that +this food could be enjoyed. But in future, animals may be slaughtered +at a distance from Jerusalem for food only, apart from any connection +with sacrifice. The promulgation of Deuteronomy is an important epoch +in the religion of Israel. That work is the first sacred book of +Israel; from this time forward Israel knows the will of Jehovah, not +only from the prophet's living voice, but from a book which is +regarded as having divine authority. This principle once introduced +could not fail to develop; to Deuteronomy other books were afterwards +added as part of the same law, though in reality they superseded it, +and it thus proved the nucleus of the whole Jewish canon. + +Earlier Codes.--Deuteronomy was not the earliest law drawn up under +prophetic influence. Leviticus xvii.-xxvi. is recognised as being a +code by itself, and is an earlier attempt in the same direction as +Deuteronomy. The decalogue contained in Deuteronomy v., identical in +the main with that of Exodus xx., is of earlier origin than +Deuteronomy itself, but is also a prophetical work. It deals with +ritual only to the extent of removing certain obstacles to a right +worship of God, and places the chief weight of his requirements in +the fulfilment of the natural duties. An earlier decalogue which +deals principally with ritual, and which contains an early prophetic +attempt to free the worship of Jehovah from heathen abuses, is found +in Exodus xxxiv. 10-26. The oldest legislation of all is the code +found in Exodus xx. 22 to xxiii. 33, which goes by the name of the +Book of the Covenant. It is true that in form and in many of its +precepts it is identical with the Code of Hammurabi (2250 B.C.), and +so bears strong testimony to Babylonian influence. It is, however, +much more humane than that old code, and in many particulars is +independent of it. As it appears in Exodus it belongs to the times of +the early canonical prophets, and as it scarcely deals with ritual at +all, it shows the just and humane spirit cultivated by the religion +of Jehovah in an agricultural community. + +The Exile.--The reformation of Josiah was quickly undone by his +successor on the throne, and there was no further opportunity for a +reform while the people remained in Palestine. But the exile did not +cause the friends of reform to abandon their ideas. The prophets had +foretold the exile, and had maintained that the religion of Israel +would not be destroyed but rather would be saved by it, and the event +proved that they were right in this point also. The exile cured the +people definitely of idolatry, and gave them a strong grasp of the +idea that they were a peculiar people, called to a work which no +other people could accomplish or indeed understand, namely to hold +aloft in the world, and for the benefit of the world, the true +religion. This conviction forms the burden of the prophecy of the +Unknown prophet of the exile (Isaiah xl.-lxvi.). He exalts still more +highly than his predecessors the name and power of Jehovah. He is the +Creator of the ends of the earth, to whom the nations, including even +that great Babylon, are as a drop of the bucket, to be flung whither +one will; it is he who has chosen Israel for his people and who now +comforts Israel for the sorrows of the exile. In the great drama he +is unfolding in the earth Israel has a principal part to play. Israel +is called to make known to the nations who do not know him, the true +God. It had been prophesied before that the heathen nations would +come to Mount Zion to ask counsel of the God of Judah, and that +Jehovah should become law-giver and judge over them. The Unknown +enlarges on this theme with splendid imagery, and strives to persuade +the people to make this cause their own, and to rise to the +responsibility it involves. Israel is to be a prince, a leader and +commander, of the peoples. The Gentiles are to come from far bringing +their treasures and doing homage to the people of the true faith. If +Israel as a whole is not fit as yet to discharge this duty for the +world, yet there is an inner Israel, a faithful elect of the people +who sympathise entirely with Jehovah's purposes and are entirely +devoted to his will. This "Servant of Jehovah," at least, has risen +to the height of his calling; Jehovah's spirit is in him. He will not +fail nor be discouraged till the true religion is established in the +earth. At another part of the prophecy the fate of the Servant is +seen in darker colours. He is subject to ill-treatment and +misrepresentation of all sorts; even when he is suffering for the +sake of others he is derided and despised; nay, more,--he is called +to suffer martyrdom, and die for sins not his own. But even so, the +Servant will conquer in the end. He will know that his sufferings +have not been in vain; he will be the means of leading many to +righteousness and will be the instrument of Jehovah to bring in the +true religion. + +The Return. The Reform of Ezra.--Such utterances could not fail of +effect on the nation to whom they were addressed, and when the Jews +came back to Palestine they were undoubtedly inspired with a new +sense of their peculiar national mission. They at once proceeded to +show that they were to be a people apart from others, by separating +themselves rigorously and even cruelly from entanglements with the +surrounding population. They also at once set up the worship of +Jehovah as the sole God who had his one shrine at Jerusalem. Their +early experiences in Palestine were not encouraging. For a century +they remained a struggling and poor community, and it might seem +doubtful if they would prove strong enough to maintain their separate +position, and to hold up their special testimony to the world. But at +that time the Jews who had remained in Babylon came to their aid. +These men had never ceased to labour along with their brethren in +Palestine for the advancement of their nation; and in particular they +had laboured earnestly at the problem of worship, and the result of +their labours was a religious constitution so rigid in its ideas, so +logically worked out in detail, and so skilfully incorporating and +appropriating to itself all the past traditions and usages of the +race, that it might almost be said to be strong enough to stand by +itself, and would certainly afford to the people, if they adopted it, +the support and the discipline they needed. This constitution was +introduced by Ezra, the priest and scribe, in the year 444 B.C.,[2] +when he read in the ears of the people at Jerusalem (Nehemiah viii., +ix.) the new law he had brought with him from Babylon fourteen years +before, and had waited all that time to promulgate. The new law of +this period was what is called the Priestly Code; it occupies the +latter part of Exodus and a large part of Leviticus and Numbers; and +the older writings are skilfully interwoven with it, but in general +it may easily be distinguished by its tone from the work of earlier +periods. Deuteronomy, the earliest law-book, is simply tacked on to +it as if it were a part of the same code, though in reality it is +often inconsistent with the latter law. The result is the Torah or +law, or, as we call it, the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses +(Moses being regarded by a convenient fiction as the source of all +Jewish laws). This was thenceforward the law of the Jews. + +[Footnote 2: This date and many features of the story of Ezra and the +return have of late been much questioned. See "Ezra" in _Encyclopaedia +Biblica_. The account given above follows Wellhausen.] + +The Jewish religion, of which this is the code, is generally +distinguished from the religion of Israel which prevailed down to the +exile; and several important new principles undoubtedly make their +appearance at this point. This chapter may fittingly conclude with an +enumeration first of the features of Jewish religious life connected +with the law or the priestly system, and then of those features of it +which lie outside that system. + +1. The priestly religion is founded on a sentiment which forms but +little part of the faith of early peoples, namely the sense of sin. +The prophetic denunciations of Israel's backslidings have at last +found entrance, and the people is found submitting to a system which +implies that the whole of its past history was sinful and mistaken, +and that there is a constant need for supplicating forgiveness. Every +prayer begins with a long confession of national sin, in which the +present generation also shares. "We have sinned with our fathers," +they say. This view is spread over the historical books in the +sweeping judgments passed on individual monarchs, on periods of the +national life, and especially on the whole of the Northern Kingdom +(cf. Nehemiah ix.). The old confidence in the presence of Jehovah +with his people has now departed. The earlier Israelites never +doubted that Jehovah was in the midst of them; that could be taken +for granted except when events proved the contrary. But now Jehovah +has grown greater and more awful, while the people have become +painfully aware of their deficiencies and cannot assume that he is +with them, but must take steps to secure his presence. This is no +doubt connected with the growing sense of an individual position and +responsibility in religion. To the nation or the tribe it is natural +to feel that its cause is just and that its God is with it; but the +individual, thrown upon his own inner world for his alliances, is +less apt to feel that confidence. Now the religion preached by the +prophets is essentially one for the individual. Ezekiel especially +felt himself responsible for the fate of individuals, and laboured to +awaken his fellow-countrymen one by one to a sense of their danger +and responsibility; he taught that each man had to see to his own +salvation, that each man would receive the fruit of his own acts. All +this tends to a deeper feeling and a more anxious mood in religion, +and helps to explain how the sense of sin, on which religious +progress at its higher stages depends so much, was fixed so strongly +in the Jewish mind. That the Jews underwent a radical change in their +disposition is proved by the fact that they submitted to the yoke of +the law: for it may be questioned if any people ever sacrificed their +natural liberty for the sake of their religion to such an extent as +this people did. + +2. The divine will is now received by the people in the shape of a +sacred book. They cease to look for the living voice of prophecy, and +come to think that God has given them in the Torah a perfect and +complete revelation. The book takes the place of the prophet, and in +time also to some extent of conscience. A man ceases to think for +himself what is right and good, and only asks, What does the law say? +It is true that a great part of the book is taken up with ritual, +with which the ordinary individual has not much to do, but he also +believes that the whole of his own duty is to be found there in it, +as is no doubt the case. We see from the 119th Psalm how beautiful a +form religion may assume even under these terms, when the book in +question is felt to be a spiritual treasure, and to speak the words +of a living God; but the system of a book-religion has in it the +germs of very different fruits. The sacred book is believed to be an +exhaustive directory of conduct; but to make it apply to the various +cases that arise in practical life it has to be interpreted, and +deductions have to be drawn from it. It thus comes to give many a +direction which does not appear on the surface. The secondary law, or +"tradition," is thus founded, a system which calls for the services +of a special class of students. The scribes, who interpret the law +and apply it to life, obtain great influence and become the virtual +rulers of the nation. While no doubt guided in the main by the noble +spirit of their religion, they are led by their system into many +absurdities, and their casuistry even becomes at times immoral. They +afford the classical example of the results which flow from the +doctrine of verbal inspiration, thoroughly worked out; and the life +of the Jews under them becomes highly unnatural and artificial, and +tends to occupy itself with the husk instead of the kernel of +religion. + +3. The principal part of the divine will, as expressed in the law, is +that connected with sacrifice. Sacrifice occupies the central place +in the book, and in the history it records. In this book the temple +service, thinly disguised as the service of the tabernacle in the +wilderness, is set forth as the great end and aim for which God +created the world, settled the nations in it, and called Israel to be +a people. The ritual which was observed from the exile to the +destruction of Jerusalem may be studied in Exodus and Leviticus. We +read of orders and companies of priests who offer daily and other +sacrifices according to a rule in which the smallest details are +carefully arranged, sacrifices in which little of the old cheerful +common meal now lingers, but which are mostly of a purificatory or +piacular character. The ritual of sacrifice would not appear to an +outward observer to differ very much from that in use among the +Greeks or Romans; the Jews certainly conducted it on a larger scale. +What end precisely was aimed at in it, the Jew would have found it +perhaps hard to say. It was done, he would say, because the law so +ordered it, and the law must be obeyed even if one did not quite +understand what was enjoined. The daily sacrifice removed the +impurity of the temple staff, and enabled the people to be sure that +the favour of the deity continued with them. Many sacrifices aimed at +the removal of particular sins; thankfulness also was expressed in +them, and other feelings may also have ascended with the smoke from +the altar. To Jews living at a distance the sacrifice, which could be +offered nowhere but at Jerusalem, was the chief symbol, the great +mystery, of their faith. + +4. The notion of holiness is closely connected with worship. Things +and persons are holy which belong to Jehovah, and are withdrawn from +common use. These it is dangerous to touch unwarily. Jehovah is an +unapproachable being; the high priest may come into the innermost +part of the temple, but only once a year, and no one else may come +there; the priests may enter the Holy Place, but not the people. To +speak lightly of the temple was a crime the Jews could not forgive. +The Sabbath was the Lord's day; man must not attend on it to his own +worldly concerns. The deity is surrounded with dread to an +unparalleled extent; all that belongs to him is to be regarded with +awe. Connected with the notion of holiness is that of purity. In the +later Persian religion the distinction has always to be anxiously +remembered by the believer between what belongs to the good spirit +and what has fallen under the power of the evil spirit. The Jew, +also, who is called to be holy and separate from other men, lives in +constant dread lest he should touch something unclean, and so forfeit +his own purity. There are clean animals, and unclean ones which he +must not eat; various washings of the hands and of domestic utensils +are needed in order to keep up the state of purity; many trades +involve contact with substances which make purity almost impossible. +Above all, it is defiling to eat what a heathen has cooked, or to sit +at the same table with heathens. Thus the Jew was confirmed in the +belief of his own superiority to men of other races; and was +prevented by many barriers from mingling with them, or even regarding +them as brethren. His circumcision, his Sabbath, his laws of purity, +his peculiarities of diet, the absolute impossibility of his eating +along with Gentiles, kept him separate, and helped to nourish in him +the spirit of haughtiness and exclusiveness. The accepted worshipper +of Jehovah is, with the early prophets, the man who is morally sound, +who has curbed his passions and his selfish impulses; with the later +Jew that may still be the case, but there are also a number of +indispensable preliminaries of which the prophets certainly did not +dream. The man who would go up to the hill of Jehovah must be one who +has not eaten shell-fish or pork, nor opened his shop on the Sabbath, +nor touched a dead body, nor used a spoon handed to him by a Gentile +without washing it. How all this unfitted the Jewish people to be a +missionary of the pure religion, and how adverse the whole Levitical +system was to the earnest apprehension of that religion no less than +to its diffusion, the New Testament amply shows. But it kept the +people separate from the world and constant to their faith amid even +the greatest temptations and the severest persecutions, and so +enabled them to preserve the precious treasure committed to them till +the time should come when the world was to receive it from their +hands. + +Heathenish Elements of Judaism.--In the system we have sketched, in +which the prophetic teaching was hardened into a ritual and a law, +there are various elements which do not belong to an advanced stage +of religious progress. While the sacrificial ritual, not outwardly +exalted above heathenism, is to some extent redeemed by the motives +which enter into it, the great system of clean and unclean rests on +no rational basis, and resembles the set of taboos, which no one can +explain, of a savage tribe; and the reduction of daily life under a +set of minute and troublesome rules, shows the devotion more than the +enlightenment of those who submitted to it. There was a necessity +that the vessel should be so narrow and so hard which was to keep the +wine of Jewish religion from being mixed with other liquids, but the +vessel itself belongs to the rude and early world. In the Jewish +religion of this time there are far different elements, which point +forward and not backward, and in which the future course of religious +progress is clearly anticipated. If his temple ritual was crude, and +if his law pursued him into every one of his actions, the thoughts of +the Jew were free; the truths which were unfolding their riches in +his mind were sufficient compensation for much outward restraint, and +the fair world of imagination was open to him in which the past +clothed itself with legend and the future with splendid hopes. + +Spiritual Elements.--The period after the exile is that of the +composition of the Psalms. Many of these poems may have been written +earlier; many were undoubtedly written at this time, and the belief +gains ground that the Psalmist came after the prophet, and adopted +for popular use the prophet's ideas. In the Psalter we hear the +thrill of joy and triumph as the great truths of theism come to be +grasped as certainties. The congregation now utters in song what, +when the prophet first announced it, so few had courage to believe, +that Jehovah is king, that he rules over the nations, that he is far +above all the gods, nay, that there is no other God than he. The joy +of having embraced this thought, of having escaped from all confusion +with regard to the powers that rule the world, and of seeing all +things in this splendid light, finds manifold expression. The +believers delight themselves anew in the worship of Jehovah, and see +fresh beauties in his courts, and in the service of him there; they +delight in his word in connection with every part of their +experience. They understand the world as they never did before, since +it is his work, and praise the Creator as they follow the whole +process of creation. New lights open to them on the history of their +race, new solutions occur to them of the moral difficulties they have +felt, as they saw the wicked prosper and the good cast down. There is +very little about ritual in the Psalms; it is regarded chiefly as an +offering of thanks and praise to Jehovah for his wonderful works, and +for his mercies; and it is viewed ideally as an act of homage in +which not only the immediate worshippers, but all nations on the +earth may be conceived as taking part. On the other hand, the +observance of Jehovah's moral requirements, and implicit trust in him +while one seeks to do his will, is insisted on again and again, as +the true method to please him, and to obtain his protection against +all dangers. There are few moods of the religious life that are not +represented in the Psalms: penitence, intellectual perplexity, +domestic sorrow, feebleness, loneliness, the approach of death, the +excitement of great events, the agony of persecution, quiet +contemplation of nature, each has its word. The imprecations of some +of the Psalms show a trait of the national character without which +the picture would be incomplete. It may be in part extenuated by the +consideration that in these Psalms it is the community that speaks, +and that the enemy of the good cause deserves less forbearance than +the private adversary. Whether the Psalms in general are to be +conceived as uttered by the community rather than as private +outpourings, is a question not yet decided. In either sense the +Psalms have been used and are still used as the hymn-book of +Christendom, as well as of the Jews; and it will always be a +wonderful feature in the religion of Israel, that so soon after the +truth of the one God was discovered by the prophets, it received a +form of expression which has proved fitted for the use of every +nation in the world. + +The Jews after the exile are in possession of a new form of religious +association which belongs to a high stage of growth. The temple +worship is one in which the ordinary layman has no part, or only an +occasional part to play. The priest does everything in it; even the +singing of Psalms is done by choirs of priests. And the dweller in +the country might rarely be a witness of these great solemnities. But +we know that in the Maccabean period the country was covered with +synagogues: with buildings, that is to say, where the surrounding +population met on the Sabbath, and perhaps on other days as well, to +join in common prayer, and to hear lessons of Scripture and +exhortations. Some local religious meeting was necessary; an earnest +people could not do without it, and the local sacrifices were now of +the past. But the synagogue service marks a great advance in the +religious position of the Jews. They can now meet without any act or +sacrament which they have to do in common, to engage in purely +intellectual religious exercises. The same advance, as we shall see, +took place in Greece about the same time; what moral or religious +furtherance they wanted, the earnest there began to seek from the +lectures of philosophers. The synagogue, however, was a territorial +institution; all the Jews in the neighbourhood came to its services. +It kept them acquainted with the law which otherwise they might have +forgotten, and also with the writings of the prophets, which were +regularly read, and thus strengthened the bonds which held all Jews +together, in the past history and in the growing hopes of their race. + +The National Hopes.--Judaism becomes more and more, as befits a faith +of which prophets are the principal exponents, a religion of hope. +Debarred by their subjection under successive heathen powers from +political activity, and keenly aware of their outward humiliation, +the Jews turn to an ideal world in which they are free. The prophets +had spoken of a judgment in which Jehovah would judge the whole +world, of a happy time when Israel would be at peace from all his +enemies, and God and people would dwell together in full communion; +and when the land of Israel would become the religious capital of the +world. They had added to their picture features even more ideal, and +had declared that the conflicts of external nature would cease, the +wild animals would grow tame and friendly, all physical as well as +all moral evil would disappear. It was in this world, not in a remote +region or in the land beyond death, that all this was to be realised. +Jerusalem is the centre of the picture and the Jewish nation stands +in the foreground of it as the chosen people of the God of all the +world. Now these predictions, which with the prophets are vague and +idealised, were taken by the Jews always more seriously and worked +out in detail. After the prophet comes the apocalyptic writer, such +as Daniel (the Apocalypse of the New Testament belongs to the same +class of literature), who is able to give the exact course of the +history which is to lead up to the final judgment, to fix its precise +date, and to give many details of the ultimate state of affairs. +These "revelations," which were written generally to comfort the Jews +in their trials and to encourage them to steadfastness in +persecution, were very popular. It is true that they nourished the +national pride, and enabled the Jew to feel himself superior to a +world in which he occupied outwardly no great position; but on the +other hand the hopes they fed were not necessarily unspiritual; at +the Christian era we find it to be a mark of the most genuine piety +that one should be "waiting for the redemption of Israel." At this +period the national hope was occupied with the figure of a Messiah, a +God-sent Deliverer, whose coming was to be the prelude to the +establishment of the divine kingdom. We learn from the Gospels what +various ideas were entertained by the Jews of the first century about +this "coming one," and how little Jesus Christ was felt to answer to +the common expectation. + +A few words must be said of Jewish beliefs concerning the other +world. While there are traces of an old ancestor-worship in the +earlier parts of Jewish history, no belief of the kind had much +importance in Israel. The Jews shared the general belief of the early +world that the dead continued in a shadowy existence without any +power for action. They have an under-world, Sheol, where the dead +are; Isaiah has a magnificent description of the dead kings sitting +on thrones together in Sheol and rising up to greet a newcomer who +was a great potentate on earth, with the words "Art thou also become +weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?" The dead are conceived as +continuing in a weak and unsubstantial reflection of their former +selves. They can be fetched up to the earth by magic arts to tell the +future, but this was strictly forbidden at a very early time. The +Psalms and other later books contain many plain denials that man has +any continuance to look for after death. The religion of the Old +Testament, as has often been said, is for this life. God's rewards +are to be looked for before death; once gone to the grave one can no +more enjoy God's bounty or give him thanks. God's kingdom of the +future is also a kingdom of this world; Jerusalem is its capital, and +nature is to be transformed for it. In the later period of Jewish +history, however, the hope of the future which has been so entirely +abandoned, which Job, for example, in an early chapter puts so +peremptorily away from him, creates itself afresh in a new form. In +the time of Christ the Jews believe, as a matter of course, that men +will rise again. It has been contended that the Jews derived their +later doctrine of a future life from their contact with Persia, but +it is not necessary to account for it in this way. It arose naturally +among the Jews in more ways than one. The individual believer like +Job, entirely sure of his own innocence, and feeling that he was +doomed to die of his disease without any vindication in this life, +claimed that an opportunity should be found beyond the grave to +pronounce the sentence which a just God could not omit to give. In +Daniel xii. it is foretold that men of conspicuous virtue and men of +conspicuous wickedness will have a resurrection--the former to share +the glories of the kingdom from which as teachers and martyrs they +could not be wanting, the latter to receive their punishment. And as +prophets who have been long dead are expected to return to the earth, +the gate of death is not so firmly closed as formerly and the belief +in a future life easily became current. + +Thus Judaism comes to be a religion full of contradictions, and could +not as a whole pass to other nations. The temple and the synagogue +represent opposite principles of worship. The Jew feels himself to be +entrusted with a world-religion, and yet shuts himself up in such +exclusiveness as to draw upon himself the hatred of all peoples, and +to be charged in turn with hatred of the human race. A religion of +faith and love consorts with a religion of rules and limitations. If +the faith of Israel was to fulfil its mission to the world it was +necessary that some one should come who could purge this +threshing-floor, burning the chaff and gathering up the wheat to be +the seed of the progress of mankind. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The Books of the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha, in the +Revised Version. + +The Histories of Israel; Ewald, Kuenen, Wellhausen, Stade. + +Robertson Smith's _The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, and +articles in the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_. + +Smend's _Alttestamentliche Religionsgeschichte_. + +Stade, _Biblische Theologie des Alten Testaments_, 1905. + +For a criticism of the critical historians the reader may consult +_The Early Religion of Israel_, by Prof. James Robertson. + +Prof. Valeton, _Die Israeliten_, in De la Saussaye. + +Schuerer, _History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ_, +1885-90. + +Kantzsch, "Religion of Israel," in _Dictionary of the Bible_, vol. v. + +E. J. Foakes-Jackson, _The Biblical History of the Hebrews_, Second +Edition. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII +ISLAM + + +In chronological order Islam stands last of all the great religions; +it appeared six centuries after Christianity, and Christian ideas +enter into it. It is, however, so essentially Semitic that it can +only be understood aright if studied in connection with the group now +occupying our attention. In Islam Semitic religion opens its arms to +embrace mankind, and accomplishes, in a fashion, the destiny to which +Judaism was invited, but which Judaism failed to realise till it was +transformed in Christianity. In Islam Semitic religion is not +transformed, but enters in its own stern and uncompromising character +into the position of a universal faith. + +This religion sprang up and entered on its career of conquest with +startling suddenness and even, some scholars hold, without any +natural preparation for its coming in the country of its birth. The +Arabs called the period before Islam the "time of ignorance"; in that +period they considered their race had no history; the new religion, +when it arose, had made a clean sweep of all that had gone before, +and had caused a new world to begin. The labours of Arabic scholars +have, however, done something to dispel the mists which hung over +early Arabia, and it is possible both to give a much more +satisfactory sketch than formerly of the earlier religion of the +Arabs, and to discern to some extent the processes which had +unconsciously been preparing for the advent of a higher and stronger +faith. + +Arabia before Mahomet.--The Arabs of the central peninsula in the +times before Mahomet were not a nation but a set of tribes--mostly +nomadic, but some of them settled in cities, who, while united by +language, custom, and traditions, had no central government or +organisation. The desert which they inhabited, as it admitted no +cultivation, kept human life uniform and unprogressive; external +influences penetrated slowly into this corner of the world, and +society was still arranged as it had been for thousands of years. The +strongest tie was that of blood. A man's fellow-tribesmen were bound +to avenge his murder; and so one slaughter led to another, and from +generation to generation the land was filled with a perpetual series +of blood-feuds. Twice a year, however, a cessation of these feuds +took place; a month came round in which there was a universal truce. +Men who were enemies then made the same pilgrimage to a distant +shrine; at such a time trade caravans could set out and travel in +safety; and the great markets or festivals then took place, which, +while based at first on religious ideas, had in most part ceased to +have any religious character. Some of these markets were, at the time +of Mahomet, national occasions: men of every tribe met and came to +know each other there; the poetry which had been composed during the +preceding months was publicly recited, so that the rise of a new poet +was known to all Arabia; the news of all the tribes circulated, and +foreign ideas and doctrines were also to be heard. In proportion as +the face of nature was hard and forbidding, social life was bright +and gay; wine, women, wit, and war provided the themes of poets and +the ordinary aims of life. + +The Old Religion.--It has generally been said that the Arabs before +Islam were irreligious. They themselves contrasted the sternness of +the new period with the gaiety of the old one. The truth is, as +Wellhausen has admirably shown,[1] that the working religion of the +country had become before the period of Islam entirely effete. Arab +religion was based on the ideas and usages which have been described +in chap. x. of this book; it is mainly from Arabia, indeed, that the +original character of Semitic religion is known to us. Each tribe had +its god, whom it regarded as a magnified master or ruler, and with +whom it held communion by sacrifice, the blood being brought in +contact with the god and the victim devoured by the tribesmen. The +god is represented sometimes by a tree, generally by a stone; a piece +of fertile land belongs to him, within which the plants and animals +are sacred; the religious meeting can be held in no other spot. Hence +the Arabs are said to be stone worshippers; but the phrase is an +awkward one: what they worshipped was not the stone but a god +connected with it. And the early gods of Arabia are a motley company; +it is only in their relations to their worshippers and in the order +of the worship paid them that they have some uniformity. The greatest +and oldest deity of the Arabs is Allat or Alilat, "the Lady." Like +the female deity found in all primitive Semitic religions, she is a +stately and commanding lady. She is not the wife of a god, nor are +unseemly ideas connected with her. She belongs to the early world in +which motherhood was synonymous with rule, since the family had no +male head; she has a character but no history: mythology has not +gathered round her. Arabia has also certain nature-gods. The stellar +deities are mostly female; there is a male sun-god Dusares. Heaven is +worshipped by some, not the blue but the rainy heaven, which is a +source of blessings. There are no gods belonging to the region under +the earth. The serpent is the only animal that receives worship. + +[Footnote 1: _Reste Arabischen Heidenthums_, p. 188.] + +But the gods of Arabia belong mostly to another class than that of +nature-gods; or at least if they ever were connected with nature, +they have parted with such associations. They are uncouth figures, +with vague legends and miscellaneous attributes. One set of them is +said to have been worshipped by the contemporaries of Noah; they are +big men, and it is their property to drink milk. Hubal was the chief +god of Mecca. It was his property to bring rain. Vadd was a great +man, with two garments, and a sword and spear, bow and quiver. +Jaghuth, "the Helper," was a portable god, not a stone probably, +since he was carried into battle by his tribe, as the ark was by the +Israelites. Another god is called "the Burner," no doubt from the +sacrifices offered to him. Each tribe has its god or set of gods, and +certain sacred objects connected with its gods. One god is found by +those who kiss or rub a certain black stone, another in connection +with a white stone, another with a tree. And of many of them there +are images; the stone has some work done on it, or there is a wooden +block roughly hewn. The "Caaba" is originally a black stone which is +kissed or rubbed at Mecca. The name was given, however, to the +cube-shaped building, in one of the walls of which the black stone +had been fixed. In this building there stood in old days images of +Abraham and Ishmael, each with divining arrows in his hand. Of such +idols a large number existed in Mahomet's time, and were destroyed by +him. In some cases the image had a house, and a person was needed to +guard it; this functionary also kept some simple apparatus for +casting lots or otherwise obtaining counsel from the deity, and oaths +and vows were made before him, to which the deity became a witness. + +To these beliefs of early Arabia must be added a lively belief in +jinns, spirits who are not gods, since the gods are above the earth, +but the jinn is compelled to haunt some part of the earth's surface. +The jinns can assume any form they choose, and are often met with in +the shape of serpents. Wellhausen surmises that the seraphs of the +Jews are to be traced to some such origin. They infest desert places, +and are nocturnal in their habits. What they do is often not observed +till afterwards. They spy upon the gods, and may bring information +from above to men whom they haunt or with whom they are in league. Of +the magic of Arabia, the signs and omens drawn from birds, from +dreams, and other occurrences, it is not necessary to speak; and we +need only say, in concluding this rough sketch of the ideas of the +early Arabs, that the belief in a life beyond was very faint; they +set out food for the dead, whom they professed to think of as still +existing, but the belief, if they entertained it, was perfunctory and +had no influence. + +Confusion of Worship.--At the period of Islam the worship of Arabia +had fallen into great confusion. The gods were stationary, but the +tribes wandered; and the consequence was that the wandering tribe +left its shrine behind it to be cared for by its successors in that +piece of country, and itself also, when it gained a new seat, +succeeded to the guardianship of a new god. Thus, on the one hand, +the worship of each shrine was constantly gathering new associations, +as each tribe which had been there left behind it some new legend or +practice; and on the other hand, pilgrimage became universal, since +each tribe had to pay periodical visits to its gods whom it had left +behind. At Mecca we read of hundreds of idols; a hundred tribes have +left there something of their own. Thus Mecca became a sacred place +for tribes far and near, and rose into national importance; and the +same was the case to a less degree in other places also. But as this +process went on, it inevitably led to the weakening of religion. The +tie of blood, which was felt always, was a far stronger thing than +the tie of a common worship for which the tribe had to go to another +part of the country, and to come in contact with a multitude of other +cults. Worship therefore became more and more a superstition: a +thing, that is to say, whose real sacredness was in the past, and +which was only kept up from pious habit; it did not supply the +inspiration of ordinary life nor guide the more active minds among +the people. + +We have not yet spoken of Allah, who is understood to be the god _par +excellence_ of Arabia. But for this there is a good reason. Allah is +not, like the other beings we have spoken of, a historical god, with +a legend, a shrine, a tribe all to himself. He is not a historical +personage, but an idea consolidated, no doubt at an early period, +into a god. Wellhausen traces the rise of Allah for us in a most +interesting way. The name, he shows, is not a proper name that +belonged to one particular figure in the pantheon of Arabia; it is +the title which the Arab conferred on his god, whatever the proper +name of that being might be. Whatever god he worshipped, he called +him Allah, Lord; and thus every Arabic god was Allah, as every head +of a household has the name of "father" and every monarch that of +"king." And as every tribal god was Allah, the thought arose, no +doubt in very early times, of one god who was common to the tribes. +Language paved the way for thought; while the tribal gods were still +believed in and adored, this figure rose above them--a being who has +no special worship of his own, who does not ask for it nor need it, +but who yet fills, as none of the lesser beings does, the character +of deity. Allah was the god of all the tribes; and as his figure grew +in the mind of the country, it was inevitable that the worship of the +historical gods should still further lose its importance, till only +the women and children really cared for it. A monotheism of a grave +and earnest kind thus made its way beside the old belief in many +gods. Mahomet found that his fellow-countrymen did not really believe +in the minor gods; when they were in danger or in urgent need of any +blessing, it was to Allah that they called. The fall of the idols, +when it came about, took place very easily; they were no longer +needed. The Arabs had come to believe in a god who dwelt in heaven +and was the creator of the world, who ordained man's life with an +irreversible decree, by whom the bitter and the sweet, both the +hitting of the mark and the missing it, were alike fixed. The moral +character of Allah was not markedly in advance of that of his people. +What a man gains by robbery he calls the gift of Allah, while what is +gained by industry is called by another name. Yet Allah is also felt +by some to keep them back from robbery; he powerfully upholds the +moral standards which have been reached. He is the defender of +strangers, the avenger of treason. His moral influence is negative, +however, rather than positive. He does not inspire with ideals of +goodness; but he holds back from evil. He is not a being who is ever +likely to enter, like the God of the Jews, into intimate and +affectionate relations with men; he is too abstract and has too +little history to be capable of such unbending; his religion, when it +comes to be fully formed, will be one of puritans and fanatics rather +than of the meek and lowly. He is the one great instance of a god +without any natural basis who has come to exercise rule. He is a god +of whom reason can thoroughly approve--no absurd legends cling to +him; he is from the first great, mighty, and moral; and he rules the +world in righteousness by inflexible standards. This religion is +coming to the surface even in the "time of ignorance." + +Judaism and Christianity in Arabia.--The question has been much +discussed whether the new religion of Arabia was due to contact with +Judaism or with Christianity. Both of these faiths were known in +Arabia before the time of the Prophet. There was a large Jewish +population at Medina, and synagogues existed in many other places; +and there were Christians in Arabia, though their Christianity was +that only of small sects and of lonely ascetics, and had failed to +convert the country as a whole. To the Arabs the Jews were "the +people of the Book," the book in the traditions of which they also +had some share. Ignorant themselves for the most part of the arts of +reading and writing, and divided among a multitude of petty worships +which they were ceasing to respect, they looked up with envy to those +whose faith had been fixed for so many ages in a literary standard. +But while the Jews were respected in Arabia, they were far from +popular. The qualities which have drawn down on them the bitter +hatred of modern peoples among whom they dwell, acted there in the +same way; their pride and exclusiveness, their keenness in business, +their profession as money-lenders, made them detested in Arabia as in +modern Germany. On the other hand, the ascetic view of life which the +Christians represented had attractions even for some of the higher +minds among the Arabs. A set of men called "Hanyfs" were well known +in Mahomet's time, who were seeking for a better religion than the +Arab worships afforded, and a better life than that of eternal feud. +The meaning of the name is controverted; those to whom it was applied +had not attached themselves to Judaism nor to Christianity; they were +people in earnest about religion who had not reached any definite +position. Even where, as with Mahomet himself, the facts of Judaism +and of Christianity were most inaccurately known, the view of God +held in these religions and the moral standard they set up could not +fail to exercise much influence. If in Arab thought itself a god like +Allah was rising to definite personal character and to a position of +great superiority over the old gods, then the inner movement was in +the same direction as the influence of older religions from without, +and the time was ripe for a new faith. It was not to be expected that +a people like the Arabs should accept a religion which had its origin +in another country, or which threatened like Christianity to bring to +an end the old tribal system; a new growth from within was needed, +and this was ready to appear. + +The beginnings of most religions are wrapt in obscurity; but the rise +of Islam is known to us with perfect certainty and in considerable +detail. The only difficulties in the way of understanding it are of a +psychological nature; we have to account for the foundation of a +religion which spread with lightning speed over many lands, and which +still continues to spread, by one whose character was in some +respects far from noble, and who was capable of stooping to +compromise and to the darkest treachery in order to gain his ends. +How a religion fitted for many races and many generations of men +could be founded by a barbarian and by the aid of barbarous +means--that is the problem of this religion. The materials for +solving it lie open before us. The Koran is undoubtedly the authentic +work of Mahomet himself: the suras or chapters are arranged in a +wrong order, and if they are read as they stand do not tell any +intelligible story; but when placed, as has now been done by +scholars,[2] in the true historical order, they show the history of +Mahomet's mind with great clearness. After the Koran came the +traditions. From the immense volume of these the industry of the +scholars of Islam as well as others has succeeded in sifting out what +is most to be relied on. In no other case is the separation of the +mythical from the historical element in the early traditions so +easily made, and the religion comes into view in the full light of +day. + +[Footnote 2: S. Lane-Poole, _The Speeches of Mohammad_, 1882; the +most important parts of the Koran chronologically arranged with a +very useful introduction.] + +Mahomet. Early Life.--Mahomet was born about 570 A.D., of a family +belonging to the Mecca branch of the Coreish, a powerful tribe, who +carried on a large caravan trade with Syria, and who were the +guardians of the sanctuary which was the central point of Arabian +religion. He entered therefore from his birth into the centre of the +faith of his country. He was early left an orphan, and was brought up +by relatives, who were kind to him but who were very poor. He had to +make his living at an early age by herding sheep, an occupation which +conduced in his case, as it has done in others, to contemplation and +thought. In early manhood he entered the service of Khadija, a rich +widow; and he made journeys in her affairs to Syria and Palestine, +where he may have seen places famous in Jewish history and may also +have come in contact with Christianity. At the age of twenty-five he +married Khadija, who was fifteen years older than himself; the +marriage was a happy one, and there were several children. He is +described as a man of middle height, with a fair skin, a pleasant +countenance, and pleasing manners; and he had proved his ability in +business. Some years after his marriage he began to think deeply +about religious subjects. He came into connection apparently with +some of those Hanyfs or penitents, mentioned above, who, without +being formed into a sect, were at one in seeking for a more +satisfactory religious position. The religion to which they were +feeling their way was a monotheism, a service of the one God of +Abraham, but not that of Judaism with its exaltation of the Jewish +race, nor that of Christianity, in which God had a Son for his +companion. Submission to the one God was to them the essence of +religion. "Islam" means submission, and the "Moslem" is the person +who thus submits himself to the one sole God, whether he be Jew or +Christian or neither. The Hanyfs also held the belief of the +Christians in a coming judgment; and the effect of their beliefs on +their lives was that they practised austerities and often retired +from the world. + +His Religious Impressions.--Mahomet at this part of his life began +also to withdraw himself, and to go apart to lonely spots for +meditation. What he meditated we see from his sayings and doings +afterwards. The contrast between the pure religion of Allah, as held +by the Hanyfs, and the popular religion of Mecca with which his birth +connected him, with its trade associations, its idols, its +unintelligible rites, was certainly a tremendous one; and if a +judgment was impending over all but the believers in Allah, it was a +terrible prospect. For many years, however, Mahomet was simply a +Hanyf. He was one who had surrendered himself, with a tender and +impressionable soul, to the divine will and guidance, and was filled +with the sense of Allah's presence and power, and of his own +accountability to him in the great and tremendous realities of life. +In addition to this, however, we have to mention a circumstance which +is generally thought to have had a determining influence in Mahomet's +production of Islam. He had a peculiar temperament; mental excitement +led in him to inner catastrophes which, whether they are classed +under epilepsy or hysteria, caused him to see visions and to believe +that certain words had been addressed to him by heavenly visitants. +The new religious movement in Arabia had secured an adherent in whom +its teachings would be felt with tremendous intensity, and would +possibly break forth with irresistible force. + +The Revelations.--Mahomet was forty years of age when the thoughts +which had long been working within him burst into open expression. +This took place by means of a vision. An angel appeared to him as he +slept on Mount Hira on one of his nightly wanderings, and held a +scroll before him which he bade him read. He had not learned to read, +but the angel insisted, and so he read; and what he read was the +earliest revealed piece of the Koran (sura 96):-- + + Read,[3] in the name of thy Lord who created, created man from a + drop. Read, for thy Lord is the Most High, who hath taught by the + pen, hath taught to man what he knew not. Nay, truly man walketh in + delusion when he deemeth that he sufficeth for himself; to thy Lord + they must all return. + +All men, _i.e._, however they may think, as the Arabs were given +to think, that they need no help but that of their own right arm, +must come before Allah's judgment and render an account to him: +this is the doctrine by which Mahomet first appealed to his +fellow-countrymen. It is a revelation. Allah teaches it by sending +down a copy of what is written in the Book in heaven, the "mother of +the Book" from which all revelations, Jewish, Christian, or Mahomet's +own, are alike derived. Mahomet has thus begun to prophesy. The first +outburst of revelation threw him into great agitation; he thought he +was possessed by a jinn; and it tended to his further distress that +an interval of two or three years elapsed before another vision took +place. Then the vision came again. "Rise up and warn!" it said to +him; "and thy Lord magnify, and thy garments purify, and abomination +shun, and grant not favours to gain increase; and wait for thy Lord." +The revelations now began to come in rapid succession, and Mahomet +now believed in his own inspiration. In this conviction he never +wavered afterwards; and there can be no doubt that the earlier +revelations were felt by him as if they came from without and were +dictated by a power he could not resist. His fellow-countrymen +naturally took another view; like other prophets, Mahomet was said to +be mad and to be possessed by a spirit; and these accusations stung +him, because he himself had at first apprehended something of the +kind. The later pieces were of a different character; he had the +power afterwards of producing a revelation to suit any situation +which arose; but the contents of the earlier ones were not unworthy +of being revelations, and such he felt them to be. + +[Footnote 3: Or, Preach!--loud reading or repetition being the mode +of claiming attention for the divine word.] + +His Preaching.--He preached the new truth at first to those with whom +he was intimate. It was not new but old; it was the religion of +Abraham that he preached, that of the Book of which both Jews and +Christians had counterparts; he did not think of founding a new +religion. He called his own household and his relatives to submit +themselves to Allah, the supreme Lord and the righteous Judge, before +whose judgment they must soon stand. They were to put away heathen +vices and to practise the duty of regular prayer, of giving alms +without hoping for any advantage from it, and of temperance. After a +time he is encouraged by new suras to preach publicly, and does so. +The Meccans, however, do not listen to him. The prophet's preaching +acquires by this opposition a sternness it did not possess at first, +and he proceeds to attack the popular worship in a way fitted to stir +up against him the bitterest hostility. The Meccans hear from him +that the religion to which all Arabia flocks together, and without +which they would do little trade, is not only a vanity but a thing +abhorrent to Allah, and undoubtedly drawing down damnation on all who +partake in it; and that their forefathers are unquestionably in hell. +Such preaching could not be tolerated; Mahomet's friends are appealed +to to stop his mouth, but in vain, and his fellow-tribesmen, though +they do not believe in him, yet protect him, as the laws of kindred +require. + +Persecution.--Mahomet suffers as other prophets have done; he is +ridiculed, misjudged, threatened. On the other hand he has his +consolations; when depressed he receives encouraging messages from +above. His enemies will perish; his cause will succeed; the day will +come when men will flock to his doctrine in crowds. Persecution, +however, is not without effect on him: on one occasion he attempted +to compromise matters with idolatry; in a sura recited at the Caaba +he allowed himself to use certain complimentary expressions about the +three daughters of Allah, in whom the Meccans put their trust. The +Meccans were much pleased with this, but Mahomet had to suffer the +reproaches of the angel Gabriel after he went home, and the +concession was erelong withdrawn. If, as appears likely, the +compromise had been deliberately planned, a strange light is thrown +on the nature of the revelations at a time not long after they had +begun to flow. But there is no approach to compromise after this. The +position of the prophet naturally grew worse after this display of +weakness, and the persecution of the townsmen more embittered; for +two years Mahomet and his followers were rigorously cut off from +intercourse with their fellow-citizens. On the other hand the +prophet's tone became harder and more sombre as he saw that no +turning back was possible. Never were the terrors of hell preached +with more intensity; it makes one's blood run cold to read the +denunciations of the Mecca unbelievers, men personally known to the +prophet, and to hear him forecast the words with which they will be +bidden to take their place for ever in the fire. Personal irritation +gives edge to the denunciations of fanaticism. Examples are sought in +Jewish history of those who rejected prophets, Moses or Noah, and +suffered a prompt and terrible judgment for so doing. The Meccans +were little moved by such threats; they had no real belief in a +future life, and scoffed at the idea of a resurrection of the body; +and for this scepticism also parallels are found by the prophet in +history, which show what fate the doubters may expect. + +From reading the Koran we should judge Mahomet to have been a +disagreeable fanatic; but he also possessed very different qualities. +Those who knew him best were most devoted to him. His followers +adhered to him with a faith which was proof against all persecutions; +we find him even ordaining that slaves who are converts may dissemble +their connection with him in order to avoid the cruel treatment it +drew down on them. Such attachment could only have been inspired by a +noble nature; his followers felt him to be indeed a teacher sent by +Allah, and were enthusiastically convinced of the truth of his +doctrine. + +Trials. He decides to leave Mecca.--In spite of this his position was +a precarious and trying one. His wife Khadija, to whom he had been +most faithful, died; so did his most powerful protector. The cause, +moreover, was not advancing at Mecca, and was not likely to do so; +and Mahomet began to consider the propriety of transferring it to new +ground. The first attempt to do so was not successful; at Taif, where +he asked to be received and to be allowed to preach, he was rudely +repulsed, so that he came back to Mecca in deep dejection. The new +opening which he sought was, however, about to present itself in +another quarter. Among the visitors to one of the feasts he met a +company of pilgrims from Medina, who both addressed him with respect +and showed that they understood his doctrines. Medina was well +acquainted with Jewish ideas, and presented a more favourable soil +for the prophet to work on; it is even suggested that the Arabs of +Medina, having heard of the Jewish expectation of a Messiah, +considered that it would be an advantage for them if the Messiah +should be of their own race, and that Mahomet might possibly be He. +The transference of the cause to Medina was, however, brought about +with great deliberation. Those who wished Mahomet to come preached +his doctrine at Medina for a year, and with encouraging success. +Pledges were given and repeated by his friends there, that they would +have no god but Allah, that they would withhold their hands from what +was not their own, that they would flee fornication, that they would +not kill new-born infants, that they would shun slander, and that +they would obey God's messenger as far as was reasonable:--these are +the practical reforms which Islam at this time demanded. The result +of these proceedings was that Mahomet advised his followers to go to +Medina. He himself waited till nearly all had gone, and did not set +out till a plot had been laid by his enemies the Coreish to +assassinate him. The Hegira or flight took place on 16th June 622 +A.D. The flight, not the birth of the prophet, forms the era of +Mohammedan chronology, since it was from the moment of the flight +that Islam entered on its victorious career. + +Mahomet at Medina.--From this point onwards the prophet is seen in a +different position and a different character. At Mecca he is a +persecuted, struggling, and unsuccessful preacher, but at Medina he +rapidly becomes the most powerful person in the commonwealth. He +organises the service of religion, but he also gives new life to the +community in other ways, terminating its feuds, uniting all its +forces in the service of Allah, and by his decisions in the cases +which are brought to him laying the foundation of a new +jurisprudence. A pure theocracy was set up at Medina, and he as the +prophet was its sole organ and administrator. In this capacity he +displayed consummate ability. Alike in religious and in civil matters +he showed the most perfect comprehension of his countrymen. He +resorted freely to compromise in order to make his religion and +policy suitable to the masses of his people and to secure their +adhesion. In this way he soon secured for himself an absolute +authority. + +The new religion thus became the cement by which a strong +commonwealth was formed out of elements formerly at variance. +Mahomet's first care on reaching Medina was to organise the service +of the faith. A place was built where the congregation could meet for +prayer and exhortation; the prophet's house beside it, or rather the +apartments of his wives, for he now had two, and was soon to have +more. The mosque, which all over the world is the local habitation of +Islam, may have been derived from the synagogue or the Christian +church. The service which takes place in it is not a sacrifice, but +consists of intellectual exercises which nourish in the hearers the +spirit of the religion. In the Mosque of Medina Mahomet taught his +converts the practices and duties which were required of them. He +taught this with great precision, and himself set an example how each +exercise was to be done; so that, as Wellhausen says, the mosque +became the exercise ground where the people were drilled in the +requirements of the new faith. "There the Moslems acquired the +_esprit de corps_ and the rigid discipline which distinguish their +armies." + +New Religious Union.--A new bond of union thus took the place of the +old tie of blood, which had been by far the strongest in Arabia. +Every Moslem regarded every other Moslem as his brother, even though +belonging to a different tribe. The claims of religion came to +supersede all others; all natural tastes, all family affections, were +taught to yield to them. Within a few years of his coming to Medina +Mahomet had forbidden the use of wine and the pursuit of art, and had +imposed on all women who adhered to him the use of the veil. In every +way the community was taught to regard itself as separated from the +former life of the country and from all who did not share the new +faith. It was represented as the duty of believers to fight against +all unbelievers: in this way the universal prevalence of the religion +was to be brought about. The courage of the faithful was stimulated +by the promise of rich booty and by the assurance that those who fell +in battle would go straight to the joys of Paradise; and the wars +they waged acquired in consequence a relentless character which was +new in Arabia. They were allowed to fight in the sacred month, in +which ancient custom ordained a universal truce. They fought with a +gloomy determination, and used their victories with a relentless +cruelty, which excited the consternation and horror of all witnesses. +They did not scruple, as other Arabs did, to fight against their +kinsmen. "Islam has rent all bonds asunder, Islam has blotted out all +treaties," they said, when reproached with their disregard of old +understandings. The prophet himself was foremost in this unrelenting +policy. Captives taken in battle were slaughtered; a whole tribe was +massacred which had joined the enemy, and had surrendered after a +siege in the hope of merciful treatment. + +Breach with Judaism and Christianity.--As Mahomet thus freed himself, +in spreading the faith of "the most merciful God," from all +considerations of mercy and of honour, he also shook off, as his +position grew strong, relations which might have proved embarrassing +with other religions. In his earlier teaching he speaks of his own +religion as being substantially the same as Judaism and Christianity. +All three have "the Book"; the Koran is a continuation and supplement +of the Jewish and Christian revelations, and he is only the last +figure in the great line of prophets who had appeared in these +religions. Like other founders, he did not at first intend to found a +new religion, but only to bring to light again and restore to +authority the original truths of these faiths, which had become +obscured. His attitude at first, therefore, was friendly to both Jews +and Christians, and his friendly feelings for the former were likely +to be strengthened by the circumstances of his coming to Medina. Not +long after his arrival, however, his attitude towards the Jews was +changed. His followers had at first prayed with their faces turned in +the direction of Jerusalem; but the prophet ordained that this should +be altered, and that they should pray with their faces turned not +towards Jerusalem but towards Mecca. This setting of a new "kiblah" +as it is called, declared that Islam was a different religion from +Judaism, and had an Arab not a Jewish centre. The hostility to the +Jews, of which this was a symptom, grew more intense; quarrels were +sought with them which ended in the utter annihilation of the Jewish +power at Medina. From Christianity also Mahomet was careful to +distinguish his religion. The Christians of Arabia were less +tenacious of their faith than were the Jews, and easily accepted +Islam, so that the hostility was not in this case so intense. The +doctrines of the Trinity and of the Incarnation were of course +denounced as intolerable blasphemies against the sole deity of Allah. + +Domestic.--The history of Mahomet during the Medina period is taken +up to some extent with the various marriages into which he entered, +and with the scandals of his household. On several occasions he +produced revelations to warrant a step in this connection which he +felt to require justification, and the modern reader is forced to +wonder how his credit survived some of those proceedings. While it is +undoubtedly the case that he did much to improve the position of +women in Arabia, the absence of any high ideal in this matter is very +apparent. + +Conquest of Mecca.--In giving his followers a new kiblah and bidding +them turn their faces towards Mecca at their prayers, Mahomet +declared that city to be the religious capital of Arabia. Though he +had left Mecca in anger, he could not forget or ignore the city which +held this place in his eyes. At first his thoughts of Mecca were +those of vengeance; he had a score to settle with the Coreish, who +had scorned and persecuted him, and had driven him forth. For several +years there was war between Medina and the Coreish; the Moslems +plundered the rich caravans of Mecca; in the great battle of Bedr +(A.D. 623) Mahomet defeated his enemies and compelled them to respect +and fear him; and they afterwards attacked and besieged him at +Medina, with no decisive result. The next step was that Mahomet made +use of the sacred month to attempt a pilgrimage to Mecca, from which +he had been absent for six years (628); and though he was prevented +from performing his devotions at the Caaba on this occasion, the +Coreish found it good to make a treaty with him, thus recognising him +as a potentate, and to promise that he should be allowed to make the +pilgrimage on a future occasion. That pilgrimage took place; and so +quickly was Mahomet's power increasing in the rest of Arabia that the +Meccans began to feel that they could not long resist him. In the +year 630 he moved against Mecca with a large army, and met with but +faint opposition. Mecca fell into his hands. He used his victory +nobly: only four persons were put to death. It was at once shown that +no injury was to be done to the city. The old worship and its various +ceremonies were preserved. All idols, of course, were destroyed, both +those about the Caaba, of which there are said to have been one for +each day in the year, and those in private houses. + +Mecca made the Capital of Islam.--In fact Mecca gained new importance +from this conquest. It was constituted by the irresistible power of +Mahomet the central sanctuary of the true religion. A year after the +victory Mahomet again visited Mecca, and performed the pilgrimage +with all its rites in his own person, setting the correct pattern in +every detail, which all pilgrims were to observe in all time coming. +Those who wish to know what the rites of Mecca are, will find them +graphically and minutely described in Captain Burton's _Pilgrimage to +El-Medinah and Mecca_; that gallant officer was one of the three +Europeans who, during the nineteenth century, assumed the disguise of +pilgrims and took part in the observances. The kissing of the sacred +black stone in the wall of the Caaba, the sevenfold circuit of the +building, the drinking of the water of the well Zem-zem, the race +from one hill-top to another in the neighbourhood of Mecca, the +throwing of seven stones at a certain spot, and the sacrifice of an +animal in a certain valley--these form a collection of rites each of +which had probably a separate origin, and of some of which the +original meaning can scarcely be made out.[4] This "block of +heathenism" Mahomet made part of his religion. He could not have +abolished it, and by adopting it in an improved form as a part of his +own system he served himself heir to the national religious +traditions, and acquired for his own religion the authority of a +national faith. "This day have I appointed your religion unto you," +are his words after fixing the forms of the pilgrimage, "and applied +Islam for you to be your religion." Islam adopts the Mecca rites, and +thereby becomes the national religion of Arabia. Hubal, the chief god +of the Caaba, disappears; Allah becomes the sole god of the shrine. +The legend that Abraham founded it is put in circulation, and it is +thus connected with the supposed earliest Arabian religion, the +religion before idolatry, the Islam before Islam. As Paul appeals to +the faith of Abraham as being a Christianity before Christ, so +Mahomet claims the Caaba for the pure worship of Allah in primeval +times. It is sacred henceforth to him alone. The rule was set up that +no idolater should be admitted to the pilgrimage, and it thus lost +its character as a heathen, and became instead a Moslem, institution. + +[Footnote 4: See for this Wellhausen's _Reste arabischen +Heidenthums_, pp. 64-98.] + +Spread of Islam.--Mecca once converted, the rest of Arabia could not +long remain outside. There was reluctance in various places to make +the change which Mahomet now required of all his countrymen. But the +penalty of refusing it was the prophet's wrath, with its terrible +attendants, war and rapine, and none of the Arabs cared enough for +their old gods to brave such terrors for their sake. The inhabitants +of Taif endeavoured to make terms, so that the change might be less +abrupt. Their ambassadors urged that fornication, usury, and the use +of wine might be allowed them, but this could not be granted; the +Taifites must accept the deprivations to which all the Moslems had +agreed. Then they asked that their Rabba, their goddess, might be +spared to them for three years, and as this was refused, for two +years, a year, a month. But the only concession they could obtain was +that they should not be obliged to destroy their goddess with their +own hands. The ancient paganism, it will be seen, fell easily and +without any tragedy. + +Mahomet did not long survive the national acceptance of his religion; +he died on 8th June 632. But he did not die without having opened up +to his followers very wide views for the future of his cause, and +started them on a career of religious war and conquest which was not +soon to be arrested. From a comparatively early period of his career +he had considered that Islam was destined to prevail not only in +Arabia but in other lands. Starting with the idea that his revelation +was only a later stage of that which had taken place in Judaism and +Christianity, he had advanced to the position that these were false +religions, and his own the only true one. Wherever he looked in the +world he could see no true religion but his own; it must therefore +take the place of all others. Accordingly he sent embassies from +Medina to Heraclius the emperor of the East, to the king of Persia, +to the governor of Egypt, and to other potentates, announcing himself +to be the "Prophet of God," and calling upon them to give up their +idolatrous worships and return to the religion of the one true God. +These embassies had small effect; but Mahomet was prepared to take +much more forcible measures in order to spread the faith. War against +infidels being one of the standing duties of the faithful, various +regulations were laid down for the treatment of captives and the +disposal of booty in such wars. God, who is said in every verse to be +forgiving and merciful, encourages the faithful in such passages to +slay and rob, and to make concubines of women taken in sacred wars. +At the moment of his death an expedition, not the first, was ready to +start against the Greek power. It is in this guise that Islam assumes +the _role_ of a universal religion. + +The Duties of the Moslem.--The missionary of Islam requires of his +converts nothing very difficult either in the way of belief or in the +way of action. His demands are brief and precise. They consist of the +following five points:--1. The profession of belief in the unity of +God and the mission of Mahomet. The formula runs: "There is no God +but Allah, and Mahomet is the prophet of Allah." 2. Prayer. This +consists of the repetition of a certain form of words at five +separate times each day, the worshipper standing up with his face +towards Mecca. The mosques are always open for prayer, and there is a +special service on Friday, the day of the week chosen by Mahomet in +contradistinction to the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. 3. +Almsgiving. This is done on a fixed scale, and the contributions +were, in Mahomet's time, devoted to the support of war against +infidels. 4. Fasting. This takes place during the month of Ramadan, +and the fast is very strictly observed. 5. The Hagg or pilgrimage to +Mecca. + +The Koran is the sacred book of Islam. The name means "reading"; see +above in this chapter. Like other sacred books, the Koran is arranged +in such an order that he who reads it as it stands finds it very +confused, and fails to grasp its historical meaning. The claim to +divine inspiration is made in every chapter and every line of it; God +himself is the speaker. But the divine oracles refer to very various +matters. All sorts of legal decisions, military orders, injunctions +about religious affairs, legends and speculations, have a place in +it. Of prediction of the future, indeed, there is but one instance; +the prophet disclaimed the power to work miracles, and held that no +wonders beyond those of the splendid order of the universe are +necessary to faith; and similarly he does not pose as a foreteller, +but as an organ of the divine will for the present. As the ruler of a +theocracy, the leader of armies, the judge in many a civil case, the +guardian of the manners of the people, the officiating minister in +public worship, and, let it also be mentioned, the head of a very +peculiar domestic establishment, he has a hundred matters of +immediate concern to attend to; and when he has formed his decision +on any of these matters, it takes its place in the Koran. The book +thus produced is far from being an attractive one; even in the +translation of Professor Palmer[5] it can afford pleasure to no +reader. The translation, it is true, loses the poetry and music of +the original, which are highly spoken of; but the main obstacle to +reading the Koran is its want of arrangement. The earliest suras +(chapters; literally courses of bricks) stand mostly towards the end +of the collection; the long ones in the beginning and middle are +later, and many of them are composite: two or several chapters have +been joined into one. When read in their historical order, the suras +can be read with pleasure by the student as showing the growth of the +prophet's ideas and of his cause. The earliest ones are short, +poetical, and intense. These are the suras which threw the prophet +into such excitement and distress that his hair turned white. They +are full of the wonders of God in nature and in history, of fiery +denunciation of idolatry, and of fearful threatenings. In later +pieces we come to long legends taken chiefly from the Jewish Haggadah +and the Christian Apocrypha, in which the prophet displays much +ignorance of the commonest facts of the Bible history; and as his +power increases and his functions multiply, we come to the +miscellaneous matters spoken of above. The style, at first poetic and +exalted, becomes afterwards prosaic and diffuse; it is not the +inspired seer who speaks, but the statesman or the judge; and the +placing of these later utterances in the mouth of God could not +deceive the original hearers. The Koran, like the Vedas and the +Gathas and the Jewish Scriptures, was exalted in later stages of the +religion to the highest conceivable honours; and one of the greatest +controversies of Islam raged round the question whether it had +existed from eternity and was uncreated. + +[Footnote 5: _Sacred Books of the East_, vols. vi. and xi.] + +Islam a Universal Religion.--What is most remarkable about Islam is +the rapidity of its growth. Mahomet begins life a poor and lowly +herdsman, and at his death bequeaths to his successors a kingdom +which he has formed, and which is shortly to prevail over all its +neighbours. In the same way his doctrine, confined at first to a +small circle and bitterly opposed, becomes within half a century the +faith of his nation, and not only of his nation, but of many other +lands. Within that brief space it has entered on the career of a +national religion, and has also passed beyond the national into the +universal stage, at which only two other religions have arrived at +all. The progress which Christianity took centuries to accomplish, +Islam accomplished in so many decades. The title of a universal +religion cannot be denied to it. The truth which it declared--the +doctrine of the unity and the omnipotence of God, and of the +responsibility of every human being to his Creator and Judge--is one +which does not belong to any particular race of men, but to all men. +The attitude of soul which is called Islam--that of implicit +surrender to the great God, of entire acquiescence in his decrees and +entire obedience to his will--is good for all. All should be called +to take an earnest view of their life and to realise their deep +responsibilities; and the idea expressed by the title given to God on +every page of the Koran, "The Merciful and Compassionate," that God +sympathises with the aspirations and efforts of his servants, and +that they may look up to him with love as well as fear, is one which +all can understand and feel helpful. Especially at the stage when the +world is given up to idolatry, Islam may well rank as a universal +religion; when each place has its idol, each nation its greater +idols, religion divides instead of uniting, and the frivolous and +senseless service of such petty deities prevents men from realising +their solemn obligations to the great God before whom they are all +alike, since he is the Governor and Judge of all. Islam is an +admirable corrective of heathenism; it brings the scattered and +bewildered worshippers of idols together in one lofty faith and one +simple rule. + +The weakness of Islam is that it is not progressive. Its ideas are +bald and poor; it grew too fast; its doctrines and forms were +stereotyped at the very outset of its career, and do not admit of +change. Its morality is that of the stage at which men emerge from +idolatry, and does not advance beyond that stage, so that it +perpetuates institutions and customs which are a drag on +civilisation. Mahomet's Paradise, in which the warrior is to be +ministered to by beauteous houris (the number of whom is not +mentioned), may not have been an immoral conception in his day; but +it is so now, and apparently cannot be left behind. An admirable +instrument for the discipline of populations at a low stage of +culture, and well fitted to teach them a certain measure of +self-restraint and piety, Islam cannot carry them on to the higher +development of human life and thought. It is repressive of freedom, +and the reason is that its doctrine is after all no more than +negative. Allah is but a negation of other gods; there is no store of +positive riches in his character, he does not sympathise with the +manifold growth of human activity; the inspiration he affords is a +negative inspiration, an impulse of hostility to what is over against +him, not an impulse to strive after high and fair ideals. He remains +eternally apart upon a frosty throne; his voice is heard, but he +cannot condescend. He does not enter into humanity, and therefore +cannot render to humanity the highest services. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_The Life of Mahomet_, by Sir W. Muir, 1858. + +_Mohammed_, by Wellhausen, and "The Koran," by Noeldeke, in +_Encyclopaedia Britannica_, vol. xvi. + +The Preliminary Discourse prefixed to Sale's _Koran_; and Professor +Palmer's Introduction in _S. B. E._, vol. vi. + +_Islam_, by J. W. H. Stobart, in the "Non-Christian Religious +Systems" Series of the S.P.C.K. + +_Der Islam_, by Houtsma, in De la Saussaye. + +Hughes, _A Dictionary of Islam_ (1885, 1896). + +Sell, _The Faith of Islam_, Second Edition, 1896. + +Stanley Lane-Poole, _The Speeches and Table-talk of Mohammad_, 1882; +the most important parts of the Koran, chronologically arranged, with +a very useful introduction. + +Margoliouth. _Mohammed and the Rise of Islam_, 1905. + + + + +PART IV +THE ARYAN GROUP + + + + +CHAPTER XIV +THE ARYAN RELIGION + + +The science of language has placed it beyond dispute that the +languages of the leading European peoples are genealogically related +to each other, and that the languages of India and of Persia also +belong to the same family of speech. The Indo-European languages, +those, namely, of the higher race in India, and of the Persians, and +those of the Greeks, Italians, Celts, Germans, Slavs, Letts, and +Albanians, approach each other always more nearly as they are traced +upwards. Sanscrit is not the source of these tongues but an older +sister of the group; the mother language, which the facts prove to +have at one time existed, was a highly-inflected speech, and is +perhaps more nearly represented by Lettic than by Sanscrit; but it +can now be known only by a study of the common features of its +surviving children. + +The fact that the peoples named above are related to each other in +point of language led at once, when it was discovered, to the +conclusion that they were also of the same race, and must have come +originally from the same quarter of the world. Where, then, was the +early home of the undivided Aryan[1] race, from which the swarms +first issued which were to conquer and rule the various lands? At +first it was found in the East; the fact that Indian civilisation was +much earlier in time than that of any other Aryan people, naturally +suggested this. Professor Max Mueller described in a very poetical way +how the European as well as the Indian must find in the East the +cradle of his race. From the high tableland of Asia, it was held, the +superior races came who were to rule nearly the whole of Europe, +while another migration descended towards Persia and the plains of +India. + +[Footnote 1: "Aryan" was the name of the conquering race of India. +The title "Indo-European" tells us that the race now dwells in India +and in Europe. "Indo-Germanic" describes the group by its Eastern, +and what is supposed to be its principal Western, member.] + +The theory, however, which placed the home of the Aryans on the +inhospitable steppes, the "high Pamere," of Asia, did not long +command assent; and attempts were made to place that home elsewhere, +in the valley of the Danube, on the south shores of the Baltic, or +even in the Scandinavian peninsula. The conquest, it is argued, +cannot have come from the East; it is much more probable that Aryan +speech and custom originated in the West, where it has the larger +number of representatives, and that it spread eastward. The more +extreme step has also been taken of denying that the Aryans are +related to each other at all in point of race. Unity of language, it +is argued, is no proof of unity of race--a glance over the British +Empire or even the British Islands is enough to show this. It is +maintained, therefore, that the relationship of the Aryan peoples is +not one of race but only of language and of culture; the word Aryan +denotes no more than a certain type of speech, and of accompanying +civilisation, which spread over all the peoples in question at a very +early time. Aryan language and civilisation laid hold of a number of +races not otherwise related to each other. + +The view, however, still prevails that the various lands where Aryan +speech and culture prevail were settled from one centre. When society +was in the nomadic stage, it may naturally be presumed that a +superior civilisation which had established itself in any one quarter +of the world would be carried by wandering hordes in various +directions, and that the bearers of the new civilisation would become +the conquerors and masters of the countries to which their wanderings +led them. And there is now some agreement on the part of leading +authorities as to the quarter of the world from which the migrations +of the Aryans proceeded. In the Southern Steppes of Russia, in the +great plains north of the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Sea of +Aral, there dwelt, we are told, in times far before the dawn of +history, hordes rather than tribes of men, who, though they had +originally spoken the same language, were coming to differ from each +other in speech and culture. These hordes were peoples in the process +of formation. It was natural to them to wander, and as each wandered +farther from the centre, it came to differ more markedly from the +common type. Some of these went southwards and eastwards to Persia +and India; others went westward, to conquer and possess the countries +of Europe.[2] + +[Footnote 2: _Prehistoric Antiquities of the Aryan Peoples_; Schrader +and Jevons (Griffin, 1890). This is the English of Schrader's +_Sprachvergleichung und Urgeschichte_. Compare Dr. E. Meyer's +_History of Antiquity_, vol. i. book vi. Dr. Isaac Taylor's _Origin +of the Aryans_ gives a compendious account of the question, +concluding against the unity of the Aryans in point of race.] + +The Aryan question lies at the threshold of the history of each of +the Aryan peoples, and has to be met in the study of each of the +religions. It must be confessed that the world now knows less on this +point than it thought it did a generation ago. The difference between +the Semitic and the Aryan spirit is real and substantial, as will +appear from the study of the Aryan religions, but it is more +important as well as more possible to know these well in their +individual character than to have a correct theory of their +historical relation to each other. The student ought, however, to be +informed as to the course of a deeply interesting enquiry. + +The civilisation of the Aryans was primitive enough. The following is +from Dr. Taylor:-- + + The undivided Aryans were a pastoral people, who wandered with + their herds as the Hebrew patriarchs wandered in Canaan. Dogs, + cattle, and sheep had been domesticated, but not the pig, the + horse, the goat, or the ass; and domestic poultry were unknown. The + fibres of certain plants were plaited into mats, but wool was not + woven, and the skins of beasts were scraped with stone knives, and + sewed together into garments with sinews by the aid of needles of + bone, wood, or stone. + + Their food consisted of flesh and milk, which was not yet made into + cheese or butter. Mead, prepared from the honey of wild bees, was + the only intoxicating drink, both beer and wine being unknown. Salt + was unknown to the Asiatic branch of the Aryans, but its use had + spread rapidly among the European branches of the race. In winter + they lived in pits dug in the earth and roofed over with poles + covered with turf, or plastered with cow dung. In summer they lived + in rude waggons or in huts made of the branches of trees. Of + metals, native copper may have been beaten into ornaments, but + tools and weapons were mostly of stone. Bows were made of the wood + of the yew, ... trees were hollowed out for canoes by stone axes, + aided by the use of fire. + + According to Hehn, the old or sick were killed, wives were obtained + by purchase or capture, infants were exposed or killed. After a + time, with tillage, came the possession of property, and + established custom grew slowly into law. Their religious ideas were + based on magic and superstitious terrors, the powers of nature had + as yet assumed no anthropomorphic forms, the great name of Dyaus, + which afterwards came to mean God, signified only the bright sky. + They counted on their fingers, but they had not attained to the + idea of any number higher than one hundred.[3] + +[Footnote 3: _Origin of the Aryans_, p. 188.] + +These sketches of the early Aryan certainly attest more vigour than +refinement; and it takes some effort to realise that those who lived +in this way had already made much progress, and that these early arts +and institutions were full of promise. Savage as the early Aryan is, +he is better than his neighbours, and has made a good start in the +way of civilisation. His family arrangements, especially, are fitted +to survive and to develop. The early domestic architecture of the +Aryan countries, while it belongs to a much later period, yet gives +good evidence that the patriarchal ideal of the family was part of +the common inheritance. In every country they conquered the Aryans +lived in large patriarchal households. The sons, with their wives and +children, remained under their father's roof, the father being judge +and priest of this domestic community. We can specify other features +of the society connected with this type of household. As the family +increases and becomes too large to dwell under one roof, another +house is built, in which son or grandson, with his wife, founds a new +family. Thus a group of families arises, all related to each other by +blood, and in a position of equality, but looking to the original +house as their centre. This type of society must have been carried to +India by the Aryan invaders, who there set up patriarchal +establishments in houses which are similar in arrangement to those of +North Holland, of Iceland, or of early England. The men who lived in +this way were not agriculturists, they were shepherds and huntsmen, +and when they settled in a district they were wont to force the +former dwellers in it to till the land for them as their +inferiors.[4] + +[Footnote 4: See two recent works by Mr. G. L. Gomme, _The Village +Community_ and _Ethnology in Folklore_; also Hearn's _Aryan +Household_.] + +It is this type of civilisation which overspread the lands in early +times, and by its coming created in most instances a new world. Some +of the Aryan peoples made more rapid progress than others. They +passed early into the age of metals, and appear before us at the dawn +of history with fully-formed institutions, which bear the impress of +patriarchal ideas. Others remained longer in the stone age, and only +in historic times received the impulse which caused them to advance +to the rank of nations. The arts and inventions which are found in +many or in all of them are not necessarily a common inheritance from +the undivided Aryan age. Many of them may have come into being in +each of the lands independently, or one Aryan people may have +borrowed them from another at a later time. Starting from the common +stock of civilisation, the various races worked it out each in a way +of its own, and often, as we shall see, with wonderful similarities. + +Is it possible to give any description of the religion the Aryans had +in common before they developed it in different ways in their various +lands? We can no longer, following Mr. Max Mueller, look to India to +tell us what was the common Aryan religion. Indian religion, when we +first become acquainted with it, has already grown into an elaborate +priestly system, and is evidently at a much later stage of Aryan +development than the rustic cults, with which we have a good deal of +acquaintance, in various European lands. If, however, we cannot +follow the great German scholar in this, we gladly use his words on +another aspect of the subject, when he is showing the etymological +identity of the chief god of the Aryan peoples. + +In his _Lectures on the Science of Language_, vol. ii. p. 468, he +tells us that "Zeus, the most sacred name in Greek mythology, is the +same word as Dyaus in Sanscrit, Jovis or Ju in Jupiter in Latin, Tiw +in Anglo-Saxon, preserved in Tiwsdaeg, Tuesday, the day of the Eddic +god Tyr; Zio in old High-German. + +"This word was framed," he says, "once and once only; it was not +borrowed by the Greeks from the Hindus, nor by the Romans and Germans +from the Greeks. It must have existed before the ancestors of those +primeval races became separate in language and religion; before they +left their common pastures to migrate to the right hand and to the +left.... Here, then, in this venerable word, we may look for some of +the earliest religious thoughts of our race."[5] + +[Footnote 5: See also Mr. Mueller's _Hibbert Lectures_, and his +_Biographies of Words_.] + +In this instance etymology admittedly points out one of the principal +features of the common Aryan religions. But if we hope that etymology +will reveal to us many further instances of the same kind, and +introduce us to the whole Pantheon of the Aryans, we shall be +disappointed. There are one or two more cases of etymological +agreement between the gods of India and those of Europe,[6] but the +agreement is in some of these cases no more than etymological. The +Tiw or Tyr of the Teutonic mythology does not correspond in office or +character with Zeus or Jupiter, though the names are etymologically +akin. The agreement does not extend to all the religions in question, +nor does it extend in any two religions to all their gods; most of +the gods of Europe have no parallels in India. The evidence of +etymology, therefore, tells us but little of that early religion of +which we are in search. But if we consider the views and habits of +the barbarous shepherd-huntsman, who is now seen to be the typical +figure of common Aryanism, we need not seek long before we find +something that was common to all the Aryan faiths. The patriarchal +household has a religion which belongs to itself, and which is the +working bond of union of its members. The hearth is its altar, +because the forefathers of the house lie buried under it, or for +another reason. These forefathers certainly are its gods. This +hearth-cult has for its priest the father of the family; he in his +turn will be gathered to his fathers if he has a legitimate son to do +the last rites for him. No one but members of the family can partake +in the domestic worship, all unconnected with the family by blood +must be kept at a distance from these rites. This is not a religion +in which the individual counts anything for his own sake, any more +than totemistic religion is; in both it is the community alone that +serves the deity, in the one case, those acknowledging the same +totem, in the second, those united by blood in the same family. In +totemism the individual sacrifices himself to the tribe; here he is +nothing apart from his family. Aryan piety is family religion pure +and simple. It fosters sentiments which have been the strength of +Aryan society in all lands. It makes family life a sacred thing, +lends to all domestic ties the highest sanction, and causes the mere +mention of "hearth and home" to be the strongest incentive to valour +and self-denial. Even in the wild-beast ferocity with which early +men defend their homes against the intrusion of strangers, the +germs of lofty domestic and patriotic virtues may be seen. Thus +ancestor-worship, which is a part of the very beginnings of human +religion, is a more effective force among the Aryans than anywhere +else. In Egypt and China that worship is a highly artificial thing, +and has lost much of its original force. In Egypt it is the fortunes +of the dead that are most thought of; in China the cult has been +smoothed down and deprived, according to the character of the people, +of its intenser motives. Among the Aryans it combines actively with +strong family feeling, causing them to cling with an extreme tenacity +to their own gods and their own worship.[7] + +[Footnote 6: The principal are the following:-- + + 1. Dyaus, god of the sky, see above. + + 2. Sans. Ushas, goddess of dawn; Gr. [Greek: heos]; Lat. aurora; + Lith. auszra; A.-S. eostra. + + 3. Sans. Agni, fire, god of fire; Lat. ignis; Lith. ugnis; O.-S. + ogni. + + 4. Sans. Surya, sun; Lat. sol; Gr. [Greek: helios], also [Greek: + Seirios]; Cymr. seul. + + 5. Sans. Mas, moon; Gr. [Greek: mene]; Lat. mena; Lith. menu. + + Mars=Maruts, Manu=Minos=Mannus, Varuna=Ouranos, and other equations + formerly brought forward, are not now relied on by etymologists.] + +[Footnote 7: The comparative absence of ancestor-worship among the +Greeks leads Dr. Schrader to doubt whether their religion is Aryan. +The Semites and the Greeks occupy the same position in this respect +(see chapter x., chapter xvi.).] + +But those of whom we are speaking worshipped other gods besides those +of the household. The second great characteristic of Aryan religion +is its adoration of gods who are neither local nor tribal, but +universal. Dyaus, the sky, the heaven-god, can be worshipped +anywhere; so can the earth, so can the heavenly twins, who were +objects of early Aryan religion, so can the sun and moon. Not that +the Aryans always remembered that these beings were not local or +tribal. The god of heaven could be the god of a particular place too, +having a special name there; or he could be appropriated by a tribe +who gave him a title as their own particular patron. Each family +could have its own heaven-god as well as its own hearth-god. Nor are +we to think that when they worshipped beings who could be found in +every place, the Aryans overlooked the sacred places, and the sacred +objects worshipped formerly. They had themselves risen out of +savagery, and still held many of the ideas of savages. Though they +had a few great gods they could still believe in a large number of +smaller ones. The tree, the stream, still had its spirit for them, +the cave or the dark fissure its bad demon. And many a piece of magic +did they practise, such as the rain-charm which would cause even the +highest god to send what was needed. The world was well peopled with +gods, and to keep on good terms with them all was, no doubt, a matter +that required much attention and skill. + +Other features which have been stated to be characteristic of Aryan +religion are its non-priestly character, and the fact that its gods +are generally arranged in a monarchical pantheon. But neither of +these constitutes a specific difference of the kind we are in search +of. All primitive religions are non-priestly; a religion becomes +priestly at a certain stage of its growth, when it is organised +separately from the state. The monarchical pantheon, too, such as +that of Homer and of the Eddas, is an indication, not of the genius +of a religion, but of its having reached the systematising stage, and +of the political ideas according to which the system is drawn up. The +Aryan religions, it is true, arrange their gods when the time comes +to do so, after the pattern of an Aryan patriarchal establishment, +the father at the head, his sons and daughters near him, the servants +in attendance, the unorganised host of spirits, nymphs and elves, +outside. But to know the original character of the religion it is +less important to ask how the pantheon is arranged, than what gods +are worshipped, and how they are related to man. And the point which +stands out clearly is that while Semitic religion is purely tribal +and local, there is an element in Aryan religion which naturally +transcends these limits. On Semitic ground the body with whom the god +transacts is the tribe, the link is that of blood which connects all +the members of the tribe with their divine head or ancestor. In Aryan +religion also blood counts for much. The family altar is the seat of +worship, and he who has been cast out of his own family cannot +worship anywhere. The family gods are most thought of, no doubt, and +exercise immense power in the ways we have mentioned. But the worship +of which blood is the tie is not to the Aryan, as to the Semite, the +whole of religion. There are beings aloft as well as beings on the +earth and under the earth, and the worship of these beings is wider +than the family. The family may address Heaven by a special private +name, or at a particular spot, but Heaven itself was above all these +titles and places. The spirits of the household made, as all the +Semitic gods do, for separation, but the gods above made for union, +and as any community grew, the upper gods, who were worshipped by all +its members alike, became more lofty and more important. Thus we may +agree with Mr. Gomme when he speaks (_Ethnology of Folklore_, p. 68) +of the emancipation of the Aryans from the principle of local +worship, and says that the rise of the conception of gods who could +and did accompany the tribes wheresoever they travelled, was "the +greatest triumph of the Aryan race." + +Farther than this it may be dangerous to go in a field so full of +uncertainty. In all Aryan worships there are sacrifices of various +kinds and degrees of importance. The horse sacrifice appears in +several of the nations as one of distinction, but human sacrifice was +most important of all, though in each of the Aryan lands commutations +are made for it at a very early stage. The strife of Aryan with +non-Aryan religions gave rise to many superstitions; after the +conquest the gods of the latter often became the bad gods or demons +of the former, the ministers of the defeated cult were regarded as +sorcerers or witches, the dethroned gods made many an attempt to come +back to their seats, and to revive disused practices. But a religion +based, as we have seen the Aryan to be, in the family affections is +destined to rise as civilisation advances. It will be found that the +Aryan draws a less absolute distinction than the Semite between the +human and the divine. To the Semite God is, broadly speaking, a +master, or Lord, whose word is a command, in regard to whom man is a +subject, a slave. To the Aryan the relation is a freer one. His god +is more human, and art and imagination can do more in his service. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +E. Siecke, _Die religion d. Indogermanen_, 1897. + +C. F. Keary, _Outlines of Primitive Belief among the Indo-European +Races_, 1882. + + + + +CHAPTER XV +THE TEUTONS + + +The Aryans in Europe.--There is more than one European people which +before it was touched by Roman civilisation had remained for an +indefinite period--a period to be measured probably rather by +millenniums than by centuries--in the state of society described in +last chapter (see above) as occurring when the Aryans dwelt among +those whom they had conquered. In various lands alike we meet with +the combination of the patriarchal household with the village, the +combination of agricultural with pastoral life, to which the Aryans +early settled down among non-Aryan populations. This type of society, +which is the basis of feudalism, is recognised alike in India and in +Germany. It stretches far back into the past, and may even be +recognised in some quarters at the present day. + +As with civilisation so with religion. The early faith of the Slavs, +the Celts, and the Teutons is now generally regarded as best +representing that of the Aryans. It was a religion in which rite and +belief were indefinite and variable compared with those of the later +Aryan faiths of India and of Southern Europe, there being neither a +regular priesthood nor the use of writing to impart fixity to +religious forms. The river, the fountain, and the aged oak, each had +its legend and its observance of unknown antiquity. The pre-Aryan and +the Aryan elements of religion acted and reacted on each other, the +Aryan, no doubt, being the element of progress, but blending with the +other in indistinguishable mixture. The spirits of ancestors lived in +the belief and the practice of posterity; a thousand unseen agents in +the sky, and in the earth, and under the earth were believed in and +treated according to tradition, fed or flouted, bribed or exorcised, +as occasion suggested. New gods appeared, or old ones were combined +into new, or a god migrated from one province to another. Here also +myths and rituals were formed by various processes. But a more +constant growth of belief took place in connection with some gods as +larger social organisms came into existence, village communities +combining into tribes, tribes into nations. The great gods of heaven, +whatever the history of their early growth, proved specially fitted +to unite together clans and peoples. These beings received different +names in different countries. Their early history, no doubt, was not +the same in all, yet in each mythology there were figures and stories +which occurred also in others, whether in consequence of parallel +growth out of similar circumstances in each land, or from a process +of borrowing at a later time, or from both, we need not try to +decide. + +We give a short account of the religion of the Germans. That of the +Celts, which may be studied in the Hibbert Lectures of Professor +Rhys,[1] or that of the Slavs (of which there is an excellent short +summary by Mr. W. R. Morfill in _Religious Systems of the World_), +would have equally well served the purpose of exhibiting an Aryan +religion at a low stage of development, and held by a people not +thoroughly compacted into a nation. The religion of the Teutons has +the advantage for our study over these others, that it remained +longer unsuppressed by Christianity, and in its Scandinavian branch +put forth a vigorous original growth in comparatively recent times. +The latest paganism which flourished in Europe, it is also the +religion of our ancestors, on which the Christianity of the Northern +lands was grafted, and many a survival of which may still be +recognised in our own land. It therefore possesses for us even in +itself considerable interest. + +[Footnote 1: _Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion as +illustrated by Celtic Heathendom_, 1886.] + +Of the ancient Germans, of the dwellers in the basins of the Rhine +and the Danube, we have accounts by Caesar and by Tacitus.[2] After +this there is a dearth of information; the Christian missionaries to +the Germans thought it their duty to cover the former beliefs and +rites of their converts in oblivion, and abstained from giving +information about them. What we know is drawn from Church writers. +The Eddas belong to a much more developed stage of Teutonic life; +they tell their own tale, which will be noticed in its turn. + +[Footnote 2: Caesar, _B. Gall._ vi. 21. Tacitus, _Germania_.] + +The early Germans dwelt in scattered settlements surrounded by the +great forests and marshes which then covered Central Europe. Every +one has read the description of the brave and warlike people of whom +the Romans justly stood so much in awe, and knows about their fierce +blue eyes and their fair hair, their tall stature, their battle-cries +and charges, their hardy habits and strict morals. As the Roman +writers describe them, they are by no means savages. They do not live +in towns, but migrate from one spot to another, the community +cultivating the land it takes possession of, on a system of common +ownership with rotation of occupants. The women did the hard work, +Tacitus says; the men spent their time in the chase and in fighting. +They had an organisation beyond that of the village, being arranged +in what we may call hundreds and shires, each district having to +furnish so many men for war, electing its own heads and holding +meetings for various purposes. Amidst these local and tribal +divisions they did not forget that they were a nation different from +other nations, and invasion found them a united people. The religious +expression of this is to be found in the legend which represents the +three great divisions of the nation as descended alike from the god +Mannus, son of the earth-born Tuisco; hymns were sung to the latter +as the father of the German race. It was by hymns that this people +remembered things which were important. + +The Early German Gods.--There is a national god, then; and other gods +of whom Tacitus tells us are national too, not local or tribal. The +tribes to the south of the Baltic worship Herthus, which, Tacitus +says, is their name for Terra Mater, Mother Earth. The other gods he +mentions are called by Roman names. They worship Mercury, he says, as +their principal god; on certain days they worship him with human +sacrifices. They also worship Mars and Hercules with animal victims; +and a particular tribe, the Suevi, worship Isis. Caesar says the +Germans worship the sun, and Vulcan, and the moon. Tacitus mentions +other German gods; the two statements are both true. Tacitus gives +the German gods Roman names according to a common practice of +antiquity, which has been the source of much confusion; we shall see +afterwards how the Romans identified the gods of Greece also with +those of Rome. + +The equation which Tacitus gives of the German gods with Latin ones +is still in daily use in the names of the days of the week. The +Romans applied the names of the planets, which were the names of +their own gods, to the days of the week as early as the first +Christian century; and in Germany the days were called after the +German gods supposed to answer to the Roman gods in question. Half +Europe to this day calls the days of the week after the Roman, and +the other half after the German gods. We give the Latin names with +the modern French and over against them the English, in which the +names of the German gods appear more clearly than in modern German:-- + + Dies Solis, the Sun's day=Sunday. (The French _Dimanche_ is from + _Dominicus_, the Lord's Day.) + + Dies Lunae (Lundi)=Monday or Moon's day. + + Dies Martis (Mardi)=Tuesday, the day of Tiw or Ziu. + + Dies Mercurii (Mercredi)=Wednesday, the day of Wodan. + + Dies Jovis (Jeudi)=Thursday, the day of Thor. In German this is + _Donnerstag_, the day of Donar=Thor. + + Dies Veneris (Vendredi)=Friday, the day of Freya. + + Dies Saturni retains the Latin god's name in our Saturday. (The + French _Samedi_ is derived from Sabbath.) + +These Teutonic names for the days of the week are common to all the +branches of Teutonic speech, and must have a high antiquity. They +tell us what gods the Germans had in early times, and to what Roman +gods these were believed to correspond; but it would be a vain +endeavour to attempt to deduce from this, or indeed from any early +information we possess on the subject, the origin and nature of these +gods. From Grimm's laborious study of the question (_German +Mythology_, vol. i.) we gather that it is a matter mainly of +speculation what it was in Wodan that led the Romans to identify him +with their Mercury. Thor, who is identified with Jupiter, was +probably a sky-god, while Tiw or Ziu (whom etymology identifies with +Zeus, not Mars) was a god of war, and Freya, like Venus, had to do +with female beauty. We come to know more of these gods when we find +them in the Eddas, but it is scarcely legitimate to fill in the South +German gods of the first century from the North German gods of the +same names of the eleventh or twelfth. We reserve, therefore, our +description of the German gods till we come to the Northern +mythology. + +The Roman writers do not furnish any accurate idea of the working +religion of the Germans of their day. Caesar says they were not so +much under the guidance of priests as the Gauls were, and that they +were not greatly addicted to sacrifice; neither statement can be +received without scrutiny. Tacitus idealises the untutored savage as +Rousseau does, in order to rebuke the vices of a luxurious +civilisation; but his statements of actual facts may be trusted. +Knowledge recently acquired of early forest-cults disposes us to +trust him when he speaks, as he does more than once, of the peculiar +sacredness the Germans attached to woods and groves. He is idealising +when he says, "They did not confine their gods in walls nor represent +them under the likeness of men, being led thereto by considering the +greatness of the heavenly beings." A few centuries later at least we +find Christian bishops busy destroying temples of German heathenism +and burning images found in them. Undoubtedly, however, the great +sanctuary of a district was frequently, as he represents, in the +recesses of a wood. Under a mighty tree a tribe would hold its +meetings and sit in judgment and in council; and there were sacred +groves in which no human foot might stray, where the god was supposed +to dwell, where great sacrifices both of animal and of human victims +took place, where the boughs were hung with the bones of former +sacrifices which in war were carried forth at the head of the tribe +as its sacred standards. This was done by the priests, who +accompanied the host to battle, and were charged at such a time with +the infliction of all necessary punishments, since they represented +the god who was supposed to be personally present as commander. The +priests had to work the auguries when consulted on matters of state; +on private matters the paterfamilias might do this himself. The +priests also had charge of the sacred white horses, by whose neighing +the will of the deity became known. Several women are also mentioned +as having enjoyed the reputation of sacred personages; and "even in +their wives they considered that there was a certain holiness and +inspiration." + +To judge from Tacitus and from other writers of the first Christian +centuries, there was little system in the religion of Germany in +those days; the gods were not organised in a divine family, the +priests were not a caste like the Druids of France and Britain, and +religious practice was loose and variable. It must also be remembered +that what foreign writers reported on the subject was connected +rather with national and official cults than with popular local +observances. Of the latter there was an abundant growth; a +distinguished foreign writer might not know about it, but the +evidence of it survives in various forms which are only now being +seriously studied. To know the practical religion of early Germany we +have to consult the village festival and legend (as has been done by +Mannhardt in his _Wald- und Feld-kulte_ and Mr. Frazer in _The Golden +Bough_, and many a student of folklore), which, though now apparently +meaningless, were once the serious religious observance and doctrine +of the peasantry. The peasant carried his wishes and prayers to the +familiar wishing-well, and presented offerings to the spirit of the +well by throwing them into the water or hanging them on the +surrounding trees. The fairy rather than far-off Wodan was looked to +for good fortune; the rite of the fabulous village hero, with its +quaint immemorial usages, roused more enthusiasm than the stately +public ceremonial. Another side of the mind of early Germany is to be +gathered from the heroic legends and the fairy tales, many of the +elements of which, we are assured, were even then in existence. Were +these legends formed by a process of degradation; did they begin with +telling about the gods, and were they afterwards applied to heroes +and princes and common men? Or was the process in the opposite +direction from this; were the stories, first of all, those of human +warriors, their wars and loves, and did they then become mixed up +with solar and celestial ideas? Were the fairy tales originally +stories of the gods, and did they by popular and familiar treatment +fall below the dignity of their original themes till they came to be +a debased and broken-down mythology? or were they at first stories +about beasts and about clever tricks, such as savages love to tell, +and did they rise to something more dignified, till in some of them +we may trace the stories of the gods? It is not necessary that we +should answer these questions, which carry us back to an earlier time +than that with which we are concerned; but any one who knows the +tales, and will try to realise the state of mind of those who +received them not as fancy but as serious fact, will know something +of the religion of early Germany; of the strange beings, fairies, +dwarfs, magicians, talking animals, animated sun and moon and winds, +by which the German believed himself to be surrounded. + +Later German Religion.--In Southern Germany the introduction of +Christianity early put an end to any development of Teutonic religion +which might have taken place there. The old faith, however, still +maintained itself in more Northern latitudes. It was brought to +Britain by the German invaders, continued there till the seventh +century, and was brought in again in a more Northern form by the +Norsemen, who in their turn "gradually deserted Thor and Odin for the +white Christ."[3] Bede tells hardly anything of the paganism which +had been the religion of England a century before he wrote; in this +he is like other Christian teachers who might have told but did not. +But though it came to an end in England, Teutonic religion continued +to prevail in the countries from which the invaders had come. In +Frisia in the eighth century we hear of a goddess Hulda, a kind +goddess, as her name implies, who sends increase to plants and is a +patroness of fishing. A god called Fosete, or Forsete (Forseti in +modern Icelandic=chairman), identified both with Odin and with +Balder, was worshipped in Heligoland; he had a sacred well there, +from which water had to be drawn in silence. There are temples, often +in the middle of a wood, with priestly incumbents, and rich +endowments, both of lands and treasure; and human sacrifice in +various forms is said to have been in use. Idols are mentioned, even +(at Upsala in Sweden) a trinity of idols; but this is what Church +writers would naturally impute to heathens, and the statement is +discredited. No Teutonic idol has survived; the loss to art may not +be great, but such a relic would have settled the controversy. + +[Footnote 3: Kingsley's _Hereward the Wake_.] + +Iceland.--Teutonic paganism reached its highest development in +Iceland. Of this branch of it alone is there a literature, for many +of the sagas are the fruit of a literary movement in Iceland anterior +to the establishment of Christianity; and the historian Ari, who +wrote within a century after that event, gives careful information of +the earlier state of affairs. The reader of _Burnt Njal_ sees that +among the Icelanders life was short and precarious. With the spirit +of adventure, which led them to be constantly setting out on warlike +and piratical expeditions, they combined a strong tendency to local +quarrels, which filled up their life at home with a constant series +of blood-feuds. These latter are gone about in a methodical and +business-like way; custom sanctions them, the meetings of the popular +assembly do not seek to suppress or punish them if only they are +conducted according to the rules. No public authority had as yet +arisen to carry out the law between one household and another; the +avenger has his recognised place and duty. Society is patriarchal as +in other Aryan communities; each family is a community of +blood-kindred for mutual defence and also for worship. The leading +cult of Icelandic religion was the domestic worship of ancestors, +conducted by the head of the household. The dead were buried in +knolls or burrows near the dwelling, and their spirits were thought +to inhabit these places; they are said to "die into the hill." Altars +are erected and sacrifices offered there; the blood of the victim +poured out upon the ground is supposed to be enjoyed by them. These +knolls became the sacred places of their district, and many a belief +existed about these quiet neighbours and the help they afforded to +the living. "Elves" they were called, and they were thought of as a +cleanly and kindly race. The spirits of bad men, on the contrary, +lived an uneasy life, as demons, and were the workers of mischief. + +Along with this belief in the spirits of the dead as inhabiting the +burial hill of the household, there is another conception, namely, +that the dead go to a distant region of the unseen world. In Homer +also these two conceptions are combined. The Icelandic burial rites +are founded on the latter view. The "departed" is going on a long +journey, and his friends escort him as far as they can; shoes are +bound on his feet, the Hel-shoes, for Hel is the name of the region +of the dead. Gifts are given to him; horses, male and female +attendants, hawks and hounds, are burned with him on the pyre, and +his wife voluntarily accompanies him; all these he is to have with +him in the country beyond. + +In addition to the domestic cult we have that of local objects; holy +wells, waterfalls, groves, stones are worshipped. Mother Earth is +called on, so is Thunder, so is Heaven. But besides these minor +worships there is the public one, connected with a large tribe or +with a king's court. A temple on the same plan as a large +dwelling-house forms a place of meeting and of sacrifice, an asylum, +and a place of oaths and covenants. On a table in front of the high +seat stands the bowl which, filled with blood and along with certain +sticks, forms a means of divination. A gold ring also lies there, +which a man puts on when he is about to swear an oath, and which the +priest puts on at meetings. + +The priest has the duty of keeping up the building and property of +the temple and of maintaining the sacrifices. At the latter various +rites are done with the blood of victims, and those present feast on +the flesh and drink toasts. The first cup is for Wodan, various other +gods are celebrated, and there is a cup of remembrance for the +departed. Sacrifices are offered for the crops, for victory, for any +great object on which the community is bent. In this ritual there is +no evidence of any idols. Though the Icelanders are not without art, +the great gods have not yet perhaps assumed to their minds such +definite figures as to be thus set forth: no Homer has placed them +clear before the inward eye. The rites are bloody, the altar has ever +anew to be made to shine with the blood of victims. Human sacrifices +are only resorted to in times of great common danger, as a terrible +last resort; the god to whom the human victim is devoted is moved by +the bloodshed to avert his anger, or to make greater exertions for +his people. Bloodshed forms the strongest of all bonds. To link +themselves together in an indissoluble brotherhood, two friends +mingle their blood on the ground and then each of them treads on it. +The shedding of human blood at the launching of a ship or at the +laying of the foundation of a building is also known. Savage and +cruel as this religion is, there are signs that it is softening, and +that some of its darker rites are beginning to admit of commutation. +When Christianity approaches, the Icelanders feel that it must make a +great change, and that some of the cruelties which they regard as the +good old customs, will have to be laid aside. We hear of the +stipulation being made that if they receive baptism they shall not be +required to give up the removal of unpromising children nor the +eating of horseflesh. + +The Eddas, in which Scandinavian mythology reaches its ultimate form, +seem to belong to a higher plane of human life than the religion we +have described, and it has appeared to many scholars of late years +that they cannot be regarded as a pure product of paganism, but are +in great part influenced by Christianity both in matter and in +sentiment. The older Edda, written in verse, is said to have been +collected by Saemund Sigfusson the learned, one of the early Christian +priests of Iceland, who lived about the eleventh century. The other +Edda is in prose; it is a collection made about two centuries later. +The form given to the myths in these collections is due to the +Skalds, who flourished in Iceland in the early Middle Ages; but the +legends themselves are older. Nothing is known precisely about their +origin or early diffusion. + +The Eddas may be compared in many respects with the Homeric poems. As +in the latter, the gods form a family, the members of which come +together to a certain place for meetings, while individually they +have their own adventures, their loves, their jealousies, their +jokes, their tricks. In the Eddas too we find that the gods are not, +strictly speaking, eternal; they succeeded an older race of gods, and +their turn too may come to pass away. They are called Aesir, which is +the plural of As. The etymology of this is uncertain; compare the +Sanscrit Asura, said to mean the living or breathing one. The Aesir +are spoken of in later times, not in the Eddas, as if they had been a +race of warriors; they are said to have come in to Scandinavia and +got the better of those who lived there before, because they +worshipped a superior set of gods.[4] An historic reminiscence may +lurk here. Before the Aesir there were giants, and the earth with all +its parts is made of the body of one of these giants,[5] whom the new +race superseded as governors of the world. But the giants are still +there and their spirit is unchanged; there is a danger of their +interfering to subvert the rule of their successors. + +[Footnote 4: See a similar statement about the Incas, chapter vi.] + +[Footnote 5: Compare "Purusha" in the _Rigveda_.] + +There are other cosmogonic myths besides that of the division of the +giant Ymir. One is on this wise. Ere this world began, there was on +one side Niflheim, the land of mist and cold, on the other side +Muspelheim, the region of fire; between these two lay Ginnungagap, +the north side of it frozen, the south side glowing hot, and life +originated by the meeting, in one way or another, of the heat and +cold. There are very primitive myths of the shaping of man out of two +pieces of wood, of Night and Day as drivers of chariots and horses, +of the sun and moon fleeing from wolves, and so on. A more poetic +conception is the division of the world into Asgard, the garden of +the Aesir; Midgard, the world of man; and Utgard, the world outside. +In the first Odin has his seat Hlidskjalf; when he sits in it he can +see and understand whatever is happening in any part of the broad +world (is he the sun, then?). The third region is generally called +Joetunheim, the home of the giants, an icy region at the extreme part +of the habitable world. A bridge exists from the dwelling of men to +that of the gods; it is called Bifroest, and is the rainbow. + +The gods have various places of meeting; but their principal seat is +under a great tree, the ash. Yggdrasil[6] is a tree worthy of the +gods; it is a world-tree; its roots extend to all the worlds; its +branches spread even over heaven. Under it is the fountain Mimir, +spring of wisdom, from which Odin drinks daily. Near it is the +dwelling of the Norns, fates or weird sisters, who establish laws and +uphold them by their judgments, and allot to every man his span of +life. They are named Urd the past, Verdandi the present, and Skuld +the future. Daily do they water the ash from the spring to keep its +leaves fresh, and help it to contend with its numerous foes, for a +great serpent is continually gnawing at its root, and it has also +other troubles. This myth of Yggdrasil is the apotheosis of Teutonic +tree-worship, and is richly suggestive.[7] + +[Footnote 6: Yggdrasil=Odin's horse=the gallows. Is it the cross?] + +[Footnote 7: Carlyle in his _Heroes_, p. 18, draws out the spiritual +significance of it and of Norse mythology generally.] + +The Gods of the Eddas.--We now come to the gods of the system. Odin +is in the Eddas the founder of the world as now constituted. He has +displaced the old formless race of gods, and is the leader of a new +and vigorous race now ruling in their stead. The old scholars +rationalised Odin into a chief who had led a migration from Asia to +Norway in early times. He is the inventor of the art of writing by +runes and the founder of poetry; thus he has the aspect of a +culture-hero; that is to say, of a man of advanced views who, for the +benefits he conferred on his people, was exalted first to a hero and +then to a god. But the worship of Odin or Wodan is one of the +earliest things we know about the German race. He is the god of the +South-Germans from the very first. His earliest character is that of +a storm-god. Whether his name is connected with the German _wuethen_, +rage (Scot. _wud_) or with the Vedic Vata, who is a god of storm, he +is from the first an impetuous being. The early myth of him is +scarcely dead at this day; the peasant hears him rushing through the +woods at night. That is the "wild hunt of Wodan," he says; the god is +out with his followers, and woe to him who gets in his way! The early +Germans thought of him as a kind being who fulfilled the wishes of +men, and it was probably this side of his character that caused him +to be identified with Mercury. In the Eddic theology he is a patron +of war, as becomes the chief god of a warlike people. He arranges +battle and dispenses victory; the heroes who fall in battle he +receives into his heavenly army; they live with him in Valhalla or +Valhoell, the hall of choice. Odin chooses those who are to go there; +he is assisted in this by the Valkyries or choice-maidens. Life in +Valhalla is a constant round of fighting, the wounds of which are +healed at once, and feasting, the materials for which are ever +renewed. Odin, like other great gods, bears traces of low +surroundings, as if he had once lived among savages. He can turn +himself into an eagle or other animal to gain his object, and he has +engaged in disreputable adventures. But he tends to improve, and the +Eddas show him at his best. Here he is called the All-father, the +Ruler of all, who gave man a soul that shall never perish; and we +hear that he needs no food and takes no share himself in the feasts +of the heroes. All the righteous shall be with him in Vingolf (the +same as Valhalla), but the wicked shall go to Hel, the kingdom of Hel +or Hela, the goddess of the under-world. + +Thor or Donar, Thunder, is said to be the mightiest of the gods; he +is identified, as we saw, with Jove, but he is a rougher and more +primitive deity. He drives in a chariot drawn by two goats, and is +possessed of three things which have wonderful properties. The first +is the hammer Mjoelnir, which the Frost- and Mountain-giants cannot +resist when he throws it; the second is the belt of strength, which +makes him twice as strong when he puts it on; and the third a pair of +gauntlets with which he grasps his mallet. Many stories are told of +his prowess, of his conflicts with the giants, who, however, give him +a good deal of trouble with their cunning; and of his catching the +Midgard serpent which surrounds the world at the bottom of the sea. +Being a god of storm, he forms a connection with agriculture, and +thus gains a more sedate aspect; he has also to do with marriage, and +a hammer is used symbolically at Icelandic weddings. Thor is only +half-brother to the other sons of Odin; his mother was Fioergyn, the +earth; the worships of Odin and Thor, originally distinct, seem to +have been united at an early period. + +The god Tyr, son of Odin by a giantess, is the Eddic figure of the +German Tiw or Ziu, etymologically equivalent to Zeus or Jupiter, but +identified by the Romans with Mars. His greatness belongs to early +times; he was then a sword-god, and had an extensive worship in +various parts of Europe. In the Eddas he has scarcely any character, +and seldom takes a prominent part in the legend. Loki, by etymology a +fire-god (Germ. _Loehe_, Scot. _Lowe_),[8] is in one account the +brother of Odin, in another his son by a giantess. His character is +fitful; sometimes he acts a brotherly part by the gods and helps them +out of their difficulties by clever devices, and sometimes he +provides entertainment for them; but for the most part he is an +embodiment of cunning and mischief; his course is downwards, he tends +to become a being purely evil, setting himself heartlessly against +the wishes of the other gods, and acting so as to imperil them and +their world till they are obliged to cast him out of heaven. He is +thus a kind of Lucifer or Satan, and like the Christian devil, his +ultimate fate is to be bound till the end of the world shall arrive. +Baldur, the son of Odin and Frigga, is the best and brightest of the +gods. Like Apollo, he has to do with light, and no pollution can come +near him; he has also to do with the administration of justice, and +pronounces sentences which can never be reversed. Heimdall also is a +light and gracious god; he is the warder of the Aesir, and stays near +the bridge Bifroest. Of him it is told that he wants less sleep than a +bird, sees a hundred miles off by night or day, and hears the grass +grow on the ground and the wool on the sheep's back. Bragi is the god +of poetry and eloquence, the best of all skalds. + +[Footnote 8: The etymology is not perhaps correct, but it suggested +itself and influenced the view taken of this god, in very early +times.] + +Of the goddesses, Frigga, wife of Odin, stands first, an august +matron of mysterious knowledge, whom even gods consult, and by whom +men swear; she has also to do with marriage, and the childless appeal +to her. Etymologically she is scarcely to be distinguished from +Freya, wife of Odur, who, however, is lighter in character, and is +rather a goddess of love. The goddesses in the Eddas are more shadowy +figures than the gods; there are others, and an attempt is made to +reckon up twelve of them to answer to the twelve chief gods, but +their names are taken from the qualities they represent, and they +have little reality. + +The story of the death of Baldur, brought about by the evil mind of +Loki in defiance of the whole divine family, sounds the note of +tragedy in the divine family of the Eddas. The gods themselves +suffer, and are unable to retrieve the misfortune which has come upon +them. With one accord they try to get Baldur brought back from the +under-world, but they are foiled by the same agency of evil which +carried him off. With the death of Baldur the gods feel that their +rule, which, we saw, had a beginning, and with it the world they +govern, for the two are inseparably bound up with each other, is +coming to an end. The gods perish in the ruin of the world; and this +is well, for sin cleaves to them and to their house, and they are not +fit to endure. Ragnaroek, the twilight of the gods, comes on; the +universe is burnt up in a mighty conflagration, and while there are +abodes of bliss and abodes of misery where some survive, the universe +as a whole is entirely changed, and a milder race of gods will rule +over a better world. + +If this mythology were found to be of native Scandinavian growth, it +would prove that Teutonic religion was capable of lofty development, +and would throw back an interesting light upon its previous history. +Here, it has been maintained, we see the Teutonic faith rising to +monotheism. Odin has among his other titles that of All-father; he is +rising above the other gods to a position of supremacy, which will +fit him, if the process were allowed, as it was not, to advance +somewhat further, to represent pure deity and to attract to himself +an undivided reverence. Here also we find a religion which was +formerly a rude intercourse between barbarous men and savage gods, +clothing itself with an ideal element. As the Greeks found religion +in beauty and the Romans in utility, so did the Germans find it at +last in pathos. They attain to the conception of suffering deity; in +Baldur a god falls victim to malice and wickedness, and the sorrow of +his fall takes possession of the whole of heaven. Thus pain and +sacrifice are hallowed, for man by the history of the gods, and his +intercourse with them leads him into heights and depths unknown +before. + +But the conviction is now establishing itself that this phase of +Teutonic religion is borrowed from Christianity, which was then +seriously menacing the existence of the old faith, and that it is the +shadow of their approaching extinction by the new religion, which +occasions among the Northern gods this feeling of sadness. They feel +themselves falling from their position; they are to be gods no +longer, but are to yield to the world-order, based on a deeper law +than theirs, which called them into being and now is preparing their +dismissal. Distinctly Christian ideas enter the old world of gods; +the ideas of sin, of sacrifice, of a final judgment, of a good god +who dies, of an evil spirit who, after prevailing for a time, is +chained up to await his doom. That a sense of guilt rests on the gods +shows that they are abandoning their rule, and they acknowledge that +their successors will be better than they have been. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Grimm's _German Mythology_, translated by Stallybrass, 4 vols. + +Grimm's _Fairy Tales_. Mr. Lang writes an Introduction to the English +translation in Bell's edition. + +Mannhardt, _Germanische Mythen_, 1858, and _Wald- und Feld-kulte_, +1875, 77. + +For the later Northern section, Vigfusson and Powell's _Corpus +Poeticum Boreale_, especially the Excursus on Religion, i. 401. + +Dasent, _Burnt Njal; or Life in Iceland at the end of the tenth +century_. + +Mallet's _Northern Antiquities_. + +Thorpe, _Northern Mythology_. + +De la Saussaye, _The Religion of the Teutons_, 1902, the most +comprehensive statement of the whole subject. + +Ralston, _Songs of Russian People_, and _Russian Folk Tales_. + +Simrock, _Handb. der deutschen Mythologie_. + +R. M. Meyer, _Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte_, 1910. + +Sir John Rhys, _Oxford Proceedings_, p. 201, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XVI +GREECE + + +The history of Europe begins in Greece. It is there that the Aryans +in Europe first feel the touch of the arts and civilisation of the +East, and are stirred up to new activities; and the life thus +quickened in Greece transmitted its spark to Italy, and so to the +whole of Europe. + +People and Land.--There is no direct evidence that the Greeks came to +their country from elsewhere; and the theory of a Graeco-Italic +period, in which the future inhabitants of Greece and Italy lived +together somewhere to the north of both these countries and made +common advances in civilisation, is now abandoned. There are, +however, faint indications that the Greeks spread over their country +from the north southwards. What people dwelt in it before them it is +impossible to say; the Pelasgi and Leleges, whom they themselves +conceived to have preceded them, left behind them no other trace than +that belief. When first we descry this land in the faint dawn of +history, it is tenanted by the people whose name it bears, touched +only by the Thracians to the north, and the Illyrians to the west, +these also being Aryan races. Though the Greeks are on both sides of +the Egean, which seems from the earliest times to have connected +rather than divided them, their centre of gravity is in the mainland +of Hellas, including the Peloponnesus. In this country many a +migration no doubt took place before the people was finally arranged +in it; and some of these migrations are faintly known to history. +When once the settlement had been accomplished, the nature of the +country did much to fix the institutions of the people and the mutual +relations of their various communities. Large tribes coming into the +narrow valleys and sequestered coasts of Greece necessarily broke up +into small cantons, each of which, though not cut off from +intercourse with its neighbours, was free to develop by itself. The +country is said by travellers to be the most beautiful in the world. +The branch of the Aryans which settled in it may have brought scanty +acquirements with them, but they brought great capacities. The Greeks +had an unrivalled talent for doing what they saw others do, in a much +better way, and so making it their own. They had an inborn +disposition to what is reasonable. That they had a deep-seated +inclination to what is harmonious and beautiful is proved by their +first great work of art, their language. Of that language there were +several dialects in the earliest times; the principal ones being the +broad Doric of the peninsula and the colonies, and the softer Ionic +of which the classical language is a branch. But the Greeks of all +dialects could understand each other, and regarded as barbarians +those without who spoke other tongues. Thus from the first this +people was much divided, but was also held together by strong bonds. + +Earliest Religion--Functional Deities.--The religion the Greeks +brought with them to their country was undoubtedly that which we have +discussed in our chapter on the Aryans. The primitive elements of +Aryan religion all reappear in Greece; the combination of many small +household worships with the supra-family worship of a great god or +gods, the few great gods who are surrounded by a multitude of +spirits, some of these also growing into gods, the recognition of +spiritual presences in many a natural object, living or dead. All +this we find in early Greece. The whole nation believes in Zeus; to +all he is the Lord of heaven, the giver of rain, the fertiliser of +mother earth, the supreme ruler in earth as well as in heaven, the +father of the gods as well as of men. This is the first bond of unity +in Greek religion. But every family, every village, every town has +its own peculiar worship which is to be found nowhere else. That +worship may be addressed to Zeus with a local title; each circle of +men has its own particular Zeus, who is their protector and ruler; +and thus Zeus has many forms and names. In each community there is +also the worship of the goddess of the hearth (Hestia); each +household has its own Hestia, and carries on the worship which in +other Aryan peoples is connected with the memory of departed +ancestors. But the family or the township has also other objects of +worship. There are other gods besides Zeus who are connected with +heaven, such as Apollo and Heracles. There are gods connected with +each activity of the people. Artemis is goddess of hunting, Aphrodite +of the peaceful life of nature and of gardens, and also of love. +Poseidon, the sea-god, was also worshipped inland, and was perhaps +originally a god of horses and oxen; Hephaestus was the god of workers +in metal, Ares the god of battle. These are in their origin what are +called functional deities, that is to say, gods who are present in +the function with which they are associated, and of which they +constitute the ideal or sacred side, and who have no existence apart +from it. + +The gods of Greece in fact had their origin in that view of nature as +animated in every part, which the Greeks shared with other branches +of the Aryans, and with early man generally. Like the Latins, the +Greeks at first saw a mystery, a spirit, in every part of life; each +fountain had its nymph, each forest glade its dryad; and they felt +the gods to be returning to fresh life when spring came with its +flowers. Each of their own activities also had its unseen genius. +Each enclosure for flocks had its Apollo, "him of the sheepfold," who +protected the flock and the shepherd; and each boundary stone its +Hermes, "him of the boundary," who also watched over flocks and took +charge of marches and of paths. + +Growth of Greek Gods.--Such beings, however, are something less than +gods; and the Greeks, long before we know them, had made the step +which the Romans scarcely made at all, from the spirit to the god, +from the vague unseen power behind an object or an act, to the free +being conceived with human attributes and feelings, who can be the +patron of a community, and afford help in all its concerns. Not all +the spirits rise into gods; it depends on circumstances which of them +are selected for that advance; but the choice once made, their rise +was rapid. As the gods grew into personality and definite character, +though the function out of which they first sprang was not forgotten, +other functions were added to them; and as a god grew in power and +consideration, his worship was set up in new places, where other +titles and attributes awaited him. The local god might be identified +with the great god from a distance. The god of a powerful community, +as Athene ("she of Athens"), might be adopted wherever the influence +of that community extended; thus new gods arose and old ones took +local form. When a change took place in the habits of the people, it +was followed by a corresponding change in the character of their +gods. When agriculture comes in, the gods have to take notice of it, +the pastoral god turns agricultural, and even the huntress Artemis +becomes an encourager of fertility. When navigation rises in +importance, a number of the gods, Poseidon at their head, become +sea-gods. + +Stones, Animals, Trees.--In Greece the worship of the gods soon +superseded that of objects not possessing any human character. Traces +of such lower worships survive, it is true, in the later religion in +great abundance, but they have no influence in its development; they +only tell their story of the otherwise forgotten past. Stones were +worshipped in early Greece. Not to speak of the cromlechs and +dolmens, which are found there as in all parts of Asia and Europe, +and the meaning of which is so little understood, stones were +preserved as sacred objects in various places, even to late times, +and had no doubt originally been worshipped. The god Hermes was +represented in every period by a slab of stone set upright, a human +head and other human features being indicated on it. Even in later +Greece, boards or blocks of wood were in some places exhibited on +rare occasions, which were the oldest images of the Artemis or the +Aphrodite there adored. Though for the public eye splendid statues +had taken the place of the goddess, the original image was still +thought to have a sanctity all its own. We also notice that the gods +of Greece are associated with animals. Zeus is a bull in Crete; he +has also other transformations: Pan is a goat; Artemis is a bear in +some provinces, elsewhere a doe. The Athene of the Acropolis is a +serpent. Apollo is sometimes connected with the mouse. Along with +these identifications of the gods with animals we may mention the +animal emblems with which they are generally represented. The eagle +is the bird of Zeus, the owl of Athene, the peacock of Hera, the dove +of Aphrodite. In this connection we cannot help thinking of the +sacred animals of the Egyptian nomes; and the question may be asked +whether such animals must be taken to be in Greece also the signs of +a primitive totemism? + +Of the tree-worship of Greece much has been written of late. The oak +was the sacred tree of Zeus; he must have been conceived as living in +it; he gave oracles at Dodona by the rustling of the branches of the +tree. Athene has the olive, Apollo the palm, and also the laurel. +After the introduction of agriculture rustic cults arose, in which +the inhabitants of a village followed in sympathetic rites the +fortunes of the gods who live in the life of the plants in summer and +die with them in autumn. The god of the Semites is generally a +changeless being, who himself conducts and orders the changes of the +seasons, but in Greece we find gods whom man can accompany in the +tragedy of their fall and the triumph of their rise. We shall see +afterwards that the rustic worships of Demeter and Proserpine were +brought forward at a critical period in Greek religion, to supply an +element which was much required in it. These worships, similar, as +Mr. Frazer suggests,[1] to those still kept up by our own peasantry, +were doubtless of immemorial antiquity in Greece, though in the +earlier period they are little heard of. + +[Footnote 1: _Golden Bough_, vol. i. p. 356.] + +Thus the Greek gods grew up in the period before Greece was awakened +to new thoughts by contact with foreign peoples. Many harsh and cruel +rites were no doubt practised; human sacrifice, heard of even in +later times in remote parts of the country, was not unknown, and +practices were connected with the service of stern gods and goddesses +which, though literature is silent about them, left their mark on +custom. Zeus and one or two other gods are essentially moral, and +some duties were strongly encouraged by religion, such as those of +hospitality and strict regard for boundaries, of faithfulness to +pledge, of respect for strangers. But many of the gods are too +closely interwoven with external nature to be very decidedly moral +powers; they are like the plants and animals, neither good nor bad +but natural. + +Greek Religion is Local.--What strikes us most strongly about this +early Greek religion is its entire want of system and its local and +disintegrated character. Every town, every family, has its own +religion. There is no central authority. New gods are constantly +springing up; the old ones are constantly receiving new titles and +forming new unions with each other or with newer gods. The god of one +place is in another only a hero; the same god is represented in +different places in entirely different ways, and entirely different +legends are attached to his name. Thus the Greeks have from the first +a mythology singularly extensive and inconsistent, and their worship +also varies in each place. There is no general religion, but only a +multitude of local ones. In story and in rite old and new are mixed +up together,--what is local and what is imported, what is savage in +its nature and origin, and what is on the side of progress. This is a +state of matters which lies in every land before the beginning of +organised religion. Rites and legends are everywhere of local growth, +and the attempt to frame the various rites and legends into a +consistent ritual and a systematic account of the gods, comes later. +In Greece, as Mr. Robertson Smith observes, the earlier state of +matters continued longer and influenced the national faith more +deeply than elsewhere. As the Greeks never succeeded in forming a +central political system, so they never attained to unity in worship. +No national temple arose, the priesthood of which had power to frame +the national religion, to lay down rules for sacrifice, or to edit +sacred texts. The Greeks were less than any other people under the +sway of religious authority. While local practice was fixed, and +custom and tradition declared plainly enough what was to be regarded +as religious duty, belief was quite free to grow as circumstances or +the growth of culture dictated. A religion in such a position, and +among a people of lively imagination and specially gifted in the +direction of art, must necessarily receive its forms rather from the +artist than the priest. + +Artistic Tendency.--Thus we can discern from the first the direction +which Greek religion must take. The Greeks shaped their gods earlier +and more freely than other peoples, and went on shaping them till no +further advance could be made in that way. Long before Homer they had +been making their gods such as free men, and men endowed with a sense +of beauty, could worship. They were not content to worship lifeless +objects, but must have living beings. They were not content to +worship beings without reason, they must worship reasonable beings. +They were not inclined to regard the natural objects they worshipped +with terror or self-prostration, but rather in a spirit of genial +friendliness and sympathy as being something like themselves. And so +they turned their gods into men. The anthropomorphising tendency, +present as we have seen in other lands and at much earlier periods, +present indeed wherever religion is a growing power, had freer play +with them than with any other people. Thus the spirits of the +fountain and the tree, and of every part of nature that was +worshipped, took human form. At first, no doubt, the nymph was in the +fountain, the dryad in the oak, but as time went on the human maiden +cast off her mosses and her bark and leaves, and stood forth to +imagination a being wholly human, dwelling beside the fountain or the +tree. In the same way heaven becomes a great human father, the sea an +earth-shaking potentate drawn by dolphins over the waves, the sun a +mighty archer, fire a lame craftsman (from the flickering of flame?) +whose smithy is underground where the volcanoes are. And the figures +once arrived at, it was no hard task to spin out their stories and +their relations with each other, and to connect with them older +tales, as taste or fancy suggested. + +The thorough humanisation of the gods, the clothing of the gods in +the highest types connected with free human society, is the first +great contribution made by this gifted race to the progress of +religion. Receiving from the earlier world the same kind of gods as +other nations did, Greece proceeded to treat them in a way of her +own, idealised and refined the parts of nature held divine, and +ascribed to them not only, as all early races do, human motives and +human passions, but also human beauty and wisdom and goodness. +Whatever rude materials she received to work on, either from the +earlier dwellers on Greek soil or from foreign lands, she made them +her own by transfiguring them into ideal men and women. Thus the +Greeks reached the position, which they taught the world first in +immortal poetry and then in immortal plastic art, that man should not +bow down to anything that is beneath him, and that nature can only +become fit to be worshipped by being idealised and made human. An end +was made to the dark imagination which was so apt to creep over all +early religion, that deity and humanity may be different and +opposite; that an object devoid of reason, an object or an animal +admired not for its goodness but for something about it which man +cannot understand, may be his god and have a claim to his allegiance. +God and man are of the same nature, the Greeks found; to arrive at a +true idea of a god we have to form, on the basis of the natural +object where he is supposed to dwell, the image of an ideal man or +woman. This was a great step, but in this conception of deity the +Greeks also laid up for themselves, as we shall see, many +difficulties. + +Early Eastern Influences.--Our positive knowledge of Greek history +begins about the middle of the second millennium B.C.; we have +information of this period in the ruins of Mycenae and Tiryns and +other places. These remains attest a political condition widely +different from that of the patriarchal settlements of the period when +the Greeks were emerging from Aryan barbarism; very different also +from the free city life which came afterwards. The recent excavations +have brought to light the palaces of kings, built, it is evident, +according to an Eastern type, and with arrangements for the burial +and worship of dead potentates, not unlike those of the pyramids. The +art is rude, but shows large forces to have been at the command of +those who directed it. We have here, therefore, a state of matters +such as that described in the Homeric poems, in which petty kings +rule in many of the Greek towns, some of them being personages of +great rank and power. The movement in civilisation attested by these +remains is admitted to be due to an impulse from the East; but +whether this impulse was imparted by the voyages of Phenician +discoverers and merchants, or whether it came by land along the trade +routes of Asia Minor and across the Egean, is uncertain. It is in any +case traceable to North Syria, where in the early part of the second +millennium B.C. Babylonian and Egyptian influences met and gave rise +to some rude civilisation. Greece was not conquered from the East, +but stirred to new life by the communication of Eastern ideas. + +Greek religion was not much assisted, or indeed much modified in any +way, by this movement. The worship of ancestors which went on in the +palaces was not contrary to Greek sentiment, perhaps not even much +more elaborate than that sentiment required. But this part of +religion was not a growing thing in Greece; and the royal practices +did not prevent it from dying gradually away in later times. That any +god was imported into Greece at this time, is not proved. Where +Greeks and Phenicians met, as in some of the islands, a Greek and an +Eastern god might be identified; the worship of Aphrodite and that of +Astarte were fused in this way in Cyprus, and Aphrodite may thus have +acquired some new characteristics even in Greece. This is not +certain. Perhaps the most important thing to notice in this +connection is that the new type of society at the royal courts may +have furnished a model for the arrangement of the heavenly family +when that arrangement came to be made. The Eastern influence came to +an end in time, and the pressure being removed, the monarchies +crumbled away, the court worships were discontinued, and Greece was +left free, after this awaking to fuller life, to pursue her own +thoughts in her own fashion. + +Homer was regarded by the Greeks who lived after him as the founder +of their religion. Herodotus considers (ii. 53) that Homer and Hesiod +lived four hundred years before his time, and that it was they who +framed a theogony for the Greeks, gave names to the gods, assigned to +them honours and arts, and declared their several forms. These +writers accordingly formed a standard of religious belief; we know +that their works were the basis of the education of the Greek, and +they thus provided an early bond of national unity. + +The Homeric poems are the outcome, whether we regard them as the work +of one singer or of two, or of a whole school, of long processes of +growth. The poetic art which makes them the delight of all mankind is +not a first experiment, but the ripe result of an elaborate method. +The stories and the wisdom they contain are brought together from +many quarters by long accumulation. And in the same way the accounts +they give of the gods individually and of their relations to each +other are not thrown together at haphazard, but are the result of a +work of unconscious art which must have been carried on for centuries +before it issued in this form. Homer does not by any means repeat all +the stories he knows about the gods. He passes over many local myths, +especially those of the more repulsive order, which were known for +centuries after, and undoubtedly existed in his day; only what is +"worthy of a pious bard" does he reproduce. A pious bard, however, +had considerable latitude; and the phrase does not represent all that +Homer was. He was an entertainer of the public at royal courts, where +a feast was incomplete without him (_Odyssey_ viii.); he had to +produce his songs at banquets or in the open air at festivals; what +he gave had to be entertaining. This could not but influence his +choice of materials even when the gods were his theme. He could not +deal in what was most terrible about the gods, nor could he enter +into speculations or mysteries, nor could he make use of a legend +which, though it had point for the locality it belonged to, was not +generally interesting. What was powerful and dramatic, what all men +could understand, what was curious and piquant, what met the general +sentiment, that he would be led to adopt and to work up into a +telling form; he naturally sought after broad pictures, amusing +conversations, simple and true emotions, curious incidents connected +with well-known characters. Religion, it is plain, could not gain in +depth and intensity from the treatment of such poets; many of the +thoughts men had about the gods could not find expression in their +lines. But, on the other hand, we have the fact that the Greeks +accepted the Homeric representation of their religion as the standard +one; not till it had existed for centuries were voices raised against +it. And this is not strange. Homer took away nothing from the +religion of any Greek; no local worship was in any way infringed upon +by him; and on the other side he gave to the Greek world, whose +belief consisted formerly in a multitude of disconnected or even +inconsistent legends, a united system of gods, in which there was at +that stage rest for the mind, and for the imagination an +inexhaustible spring of ideal beauty. + +The Homeric Gods.--What, then, is the religion of Homer? The gods are +a set of beings not very unlike men; they present a curious +combination of human frailty with superhuman powers and virtues. To +speak first of the physical side of their nature, the gods are far +stronger than men, their frame is huger, their eye keener, their +voice louder; like the sorcerer of savage times, they can assume +other shapes to gain their ends, they can become invisible, or they +can travel very swiftly through the air. Yet, on the other hand, they +can be wounded when they strive even with men; accidents happen to +them, they require to eat and drink. They eat, it is true, ambrosia, +and drink nectar, which give immortality; and they have in their +veins not human blood but divine ichor. It is the fact of their +immortality that makes them different from men; it has happened that +a man obtained immortality and became thereby a god. The line between +gods and men may be crossed; in former times it was crossed more +frequently. The gods entered into relations with mortals; many of the +heroes are of divine extraction, and the gods are still interested in +the royal houses they thus founded. But such unions do not take place +in the poet's time. The world is growing less divine. + +Homer, however, looks further back than this, and we find in him the +belief, found also in India and in Iceland, that an older and more +savage race of gods once ruled, whom the present dynasty conquered +and dethroned. Of that older set was Kronos, the father of Zeus, and +the Titans, who are now cast down to Tartarus, the nethermost region +of all. The world known to men was apportioned at the beginning of +the present age to the three sons of Kronos, Zeus obtaining the upper +world, including heaven, which is at the top of Mount Olympus in +Thessaly; Poseidon the sea, and Hades the under-world, above +Tartarus, to which men go after death. + +Zeus rules in Olympus. He presides there over those gods who are at +present in power. He summons them to council, he sits at meals with +them. They are a very human set of beings. They are moved by ordinary +human motives; love and revenge, jealousy and anger, rule in their +breasts. They do not act from eternal principles, but as men do, from +sudden impulses or from the desire of temporary advantages for +themselves or for their favourites. They even indulge in loose +amours, and are brought into ridiculous situations. They laugh at +each other; the stronger god hurls the weaker out of Olympus to the +earth. Taking them together, we do not find the Olympians an +impressive set of beings. Taking them, however, one by one, we judge +of them quite differently. The individual gods represent lofty ideals +and are not unworthy of worship. Whatever they were once, powers of +nature, fetishes or men, whatever village legends they have brought +with them from their native place, or whatever traits of savage life +still cleave to them, to the poet they are the embodiments of various +moral excellences. Zeus, father of gods and men, combines in his +character the attributes of righteousness and of kindness; he is the +founder of social order and the defender of suppliants, he possesses +all wisdom. Hera is the matron of fully unfolded beauty and matchless +dignity; Apollo is the faithful son who carries out his father's +counsel; Athene is the warrior-maiden skilled in battle but equipped +with every kind of skill, best counsellor and guide for the mortal +whom she favours; Aphrodite is the goddess of love, in whose girdle +are contained all charms; Ares is the impetuous warrior, Hermes the +trusty messenger, of the heavenly circle; Hephaestus, the lame and +awkward smith, is the artificer for the gods of all manner of cunning +work in metal. Around and under the Olympians are many other deities; +such as Hebe, the budding girl, and Ganymede, the youth born of human +race but taken up to heaven for his beauty to minister to the gods at +their banquets. Aphrodite is attended by the graces, Apollo by the +Muses, and the world is not stripped by Homer of its local deities, +although the chief deities now dwell aloft; mountains, rivers, caves +and isles of ocean, all have their immortal occupants. + +Worship in Homer.--The gods being of such a nature, what relations +does man keep up with them, and how do they affect his life? Worship +follows the simple practice of the early world. It is not priestly. +There are priests, and they offer sacrifices regularly at the shrines +of which they have charge, but the king can sacrifice, or the head of +the house; and while one or two temples are mentioned in the _Iliad_, +sacrifice may be offered anywhere. Temples first appear in Greece +merely as shelters for images, but in the _Iliad_ the god is +generally worshipped not by means of an image but as himself directly +present; the need of temples has not yet arisen. In the _Odyssey_ +temples of the gods are spoken of as buildings no town could be +without, but this is less primitive. Sacrifice is a feast in which +the god's portion of the viands is first offered to him, and the +worshippers then eat and drink to their hearts' content. There is a +detailed description of the proceedings in _Iliad_ i. 456 _sqq._ Here +after the feast there is music; "All day long worshipped they the god +with music, singing the beautiful paean to the Fardarter (Apollo); and +his heart was glad to hear." "The gods appear manifest amongst us," +we read in the seventh book of the _Odyssey_, "whensoever we offer +glorious hecatombs, and they feast by our side, sitting at the same +board." There is nothing of the nature of an expiation about such a +sacrifice; it is simply the renewal of the bond between the god and +those who look for his aid, when a new enterprise is about to be +undertaken or a solemn engagement is entered on. Prayers are very +simple. Thus prays the wounded Diomede to Athene (_Iliad_ v. 115): +"Hear me, daughter of aegis-bearing Zeus, unwearied maiden! If ever in +kindly mood thou stoodest by my father in the heat of battle, even so +be thou kind to me, Athene! Grant me to slay this man, and bring +within my spear-cast him that took advantage to shoot me, and +boasteth over me!" + +As there are no bad gods, good and evil are considered to be sent by +the same beings. Thus there is a great deal of uncertainty in men's +relations to the gods. "All men need the gods," we read; the Homeric +hero regards the companionship of a god as proper and necessary for +his enterprises. But some trouble must be taken in order to secure +their favour. They must not be neglected; their signs must be +attended to; above all, a man must be reverent and must studiously +practise moderation in his conduct and in his ways of thinking; else +the gods may easily be offended or made jealous, and withdraw their +countenance. And if they are to a certain extent capricious, there is +another consideration which impairs confidence in them. They are not +all-powerful. There is a point beyond which they cannot give a man +any help. Each man has a fate or destiny, which the gods did not fix +and with which they cannot interfere. When his hour comes, they must +leave him to his doom; indeed they may even deceive him, and lead him +into folly so that his fate shall overtake him. The punishment of +crime, both in this world and afterwards, is committed to a special +set of beings, the Erinnyes. The gods who are most worshipped do not +exercise that function; they are not immovably identified with the +moral order of the world, but frequently deviate from it themselves. +In the _Odyssey_, it is true, we meet with a deeper feeling. Here +Zeus is a kind of providence, in whom a man may trust when he does +right, and to all whose dispensations it behoves him humbly to +submit. A root of monotheism is present here, as in all the Aryan +religions from the first, and in Greece it is destined to have a +stately growth. The Homeric pantheon, however, as a whole, shows +religion at a stage in which it is rather an external ornament to +life than an inner inspiration. Perhaps there was never a set of real +men who thought of the gods and addressed them according to the +fashion of Homer. If such a religion ever actually existed, it was +not a strong one. These gods, with their caprices and infirmities and +their limited power, could never exercise any strong moral influence +or rouse any passion in their worshippers. They are fair-weather +gods; the religion is one of children, in whom conscience is not yet +awake and the deeper spiritual needs have not yet appeared. What the +mind of the Greek has done up to this stage is to discover that +nature is not above him; the powers of nature are human to him; they +are divine not because they are essentially different from himself, +but because they are matchless ideals of his own qualities. It is a +religion of free men. But the Greek has not yet discovered how +different he himself is from all that is around him; that element of +himself which is above nature will when he discovers it make such a +religion as the Homeric for ever impossible to him. + +Omens.--As the godhead is never far away from the Homeric Greek, and +is an active being who takes an interest in human affairs, signs of +his presence are not infrequent. The air is the scene of them; in the +flight of birds, in sudden noises, the gods send messages; lightning +is a sign from Zeus of approaching rain or hail, it may be of +approaching war. There are rules for the interpretation of signs, +which, however, are in many cases of doubtful significance. Dreams +also are a favourite channel for divine communications, but they also +may be interpreted wrongly. There are persons who have a special gift +for knowing the divine will; the seer ([Greek: mantis]) is +enlightened by the deity not by an outward sign but inwardly; he +hears the god's voice, and can declare the divine will directly. This +gift may reside in a certain family, and may be attached to a certain +spot, where a regular oracle is open for consultation. At Dodona we +read that the Selloi or Helloi, a band or family of priests of +ascetic habits, interpret the rustling of the sacred oak, and +Agamemnon consults the Pythia, the Delphic priestess, before the +Trojan war. + +The State after Death.--With regard to the state after death, belief +is not uniform in Homer. There are elaborate funeral rites which +point to the assumption that the spirit of the hero is living +somewhere and needs various things. But the life of the departed was +not mapped out in Greece as it was in Egypt. The ritual of Mycenae had +little influence, for the funeral celebrations in Homer are very +similar to those of other early Aryan peoples, and undoubtedly were +not imported. What then is thought of the present existence of the +hero? He has ceased to exist. The body is the man, the spirit when it +has left the body has but a shadow-life, without any strength or +hope; at the most it may revive a little at the taste of blood. But +while the worship of the departed is seen from Homer to be decaying +among the Greeks, imagination is seen to be occupied in more than one +direction with the regions where they are, and to be asserting for +them a more real and active existence than the old beliefs allowed. +The subterranean kingdom of Hades (the "Invisible") is acquiring +clearer shape. The punishments are described which certain great +transgressors, such as Tantalus and Ixion, are there undergoing; and +other details are also known. Of a different spirit is the conception +of the Elysian plains in the far west, whither the hero is taken by +the gods when he dies, and where there is no snow nor storm nor rain. + +Homer was not the only poet who furnished the Greeks with a system of +their gods; nor was his system everywhere accepted without demur. +Hesiod, writing in the latter half of the eighth century B.C., gives +a "theogony" or birth of the gods, which is also a genesis or origin +of the world, for to the Greek mind the gods and the world came into +existence together. He complains of those who on this subject have +taught fictions which resemble truths, referring perhaps to Homer. +His own system of the world is not a light and airy fabric but a +laborious work, due no doubt to professional or priestly industry, in +which the attempt is made to treat all the divine figures or +half-figured spirits the Greeks knew, genealogically, and to give a +complete enumeration of them. Myths are given, some of them of a +horrible character, which do not occur in Homer. The battle of the +gods with the Titans occupies a large part of the poem, and it +concludes with a collection of stories showing the descent of heroes +from alliances between gods and mortals. This work, as we saw, was +considered, along with the Homeric poems, as a standard authority on +the subject of the gods, and was appealed to even in the early +Christian centuries as showing what the Greeks believed. + +The Poets and the Working Religion.--The work of these poets proves +that the Greeks in their days were anxious to arrive at clear and +harmonious conceptions about the gods. The movement on which Homer +and Hesiod set their seal, of fixing the characters and attributes of +the various deities, must have been long going on; and it led, as we +see, to different results in different places. That labour when +accomplished endowed Greece with a new religion. The local rite still +went on, which acknowledged no central authority and presented the +spectacle of an infinite diversity. Each city carried on in grave and +solemn fashion the traditional worship of its own gods, on whose +favour its prosperity depended. The other gods of the Pantheon the +city did not need to worship; and moreover local worship was +addressed to a large extent to the Chthonian or earth-gods, as +Demeter and Dionysus, of whom the epic poems know but little. The +poets were of little assistance therefore to the working religion; +but on the other hand the happy and beautiful deities of Homer found +entrance wherever poetry was loved. This was a religion for all +Greece; these gods were national; though some of them belonged +originally to Aeolia, they had become national by being enshrined in +poetry which the whole nation regarded as its own. The Homeric +conception of deity acted therefore on the whole Greek mind; all gods +rose in rank by the example, a subject was set before the mind of the +people, which the closely succeeding development of religious art +shows to have been studied in the noblest way. + +Rise of Religious Art.--The seventh century B.C. was a period of +rapid development and of great prosperity in Greece. It was the age +of colonisation; manufacture and trade were active, and though the +Phenicians were not now in the Egean, Greeks sailed to the East and +brought home with them many ideas. It was a time like the sixteenth +century in Europe, when the world of geography was quickly opening +out, and views and sentiments were also widening. Worship could not +fail to share in the upward movement of such a period, and it is here +that we find the appearance of the ideas in religious art which have +made Greece the envy of the world. Architecture received a new +impulse from Egypt and Babylon; dwellings were built, not for human +rulers, as in the Mycenaean period, but for the gods. In country +districts or small towns the wooden shed might still suffice to +shelter the rude image, but in large towns, where the higher +conception of the gods and the artistic impulse were both present in +many minds, temples of more durable material were built. This came to +be a universal practice; among the first tasks of a new colony was +always that of erecting on a commanding site in the rising town, +splendid temples to the gods of the mother city. The Greek temple is +not a place to accommodate a large body of worshippers, but a +dwelling for the god. It is of oblong shape, and is placed on a +raised platform which is ascended by steps. It is generally +surrounded by pillars, is roofed, and has a low gable at each end. +The most important chamber in it is that containing the image of the +god. From his dim chamber the god looks out to the east through the +doorway facing him, which opens on the pillared portico in front. +Here the worshipper stands when praying, his face turned westward to +the god. As it was essential that the smoke of the sacrifice should +ascend freely to heaven, the god's real dwelling, the altar stood +outside. In some cases the roof was partly open, and the altar could +stand under the sky in the _cella_ of the god. + +In the building and adornment of the temples Greek art found its +highest exercise. The architecture of those specimens which can still +be seen or described is of a dignity and beauty never before +attained; the beings must have been lofty and reverend indeed for +whom such dwellings were formed. The gable spaces and the flat +surfaces between the tops of the pillars and the roof gave +opportunity for sculpture; and the archaeologist traces on these +metopes (spaces between the beam-ends under the roof) and friezes, +the progress of Greek sculpture from a rude stage to that in which +the sculptor has gained complete mastery over his material, and can +give an imposing representation of a myth, or place on the marble a +complete religious procession of brave men and fair women. The images +of the gods to be placed in the temples called forth the artist's +highest skill; even when the rude old god was retained, a fine work +of art could also find place. It is the ideal gods of poetry that are +coming to be worshipped; the conception of the poet is expressed in +marble. Sculpture, however, came to its highest point in Greece +somewhat later than architecture. And offerings were made to the +temples of just such rare and costly things as men loved then and +love still to store up in their houses,--bowls and cups wrought +curiously in precious metals, statues and tapestries and all kinds of +treasure. + +Festivals and Games.--The temple for which so much was done, formed +the centre of the city where it stood. In it the town deposited its +treasure and its documents; there oaths and agreements were ratified. +There also at certain times, such as the annual festival of the god +or the anniversary of some happy event in the history of the +town,--and as time went on such occasions tended to multiply,--the +town kept holiday. Women escaped from their monotonous confinement +and joined the procession to the holy place, perhaps carrying a new +dress for the deity. A sacrifice was offered, the god received his +share of the victim or victims, and the worshippers feasted on what +remained. But before this part of the proceedings arrived there was a +pause, which was filled up with various exercises all connected with +the act of worship, but tending also in a high degree to the delight +of those taking part in it. Dancing formed a part of every rite, +accompanied of course with music, and consisting not of a careless +exercise of the limbs, but of a measured and carefully trained set of +movements expressive of the emotions connected with the occasion. +This part of the religious act is obviously capable of great +expansion. We find the art of poetry also making its contributions to +religious art; poems are recited bearing on the history of the god. +The sacrifice is followed by contests of various kinds; the singers +compete for a prize, and athletic sports also take place, the +competitors for which have long been in training for them. The +winners are crowned with a wreath or branch of the plant sacred to +the god. The games of Greece, which thus arose out of acts of +worship, and some of which became so famous and attracted competitors +from every Greek-speaking land, are a notable sign of the spirit of +Greek piety. There is no asceticism in Greek religion; the god is +represented as a beautiful human person, and his worshippers appear +before him naked, in the fulness of their youthful beauty and of +their well-trained vigour, and offer him their strength and skill in +highest exercise;--the whole city, or a crowd much larger than the +city, rejoicing in the spectacle. + +Thus does Greek religion enlist in its service all the arts, and +increase as they increase. At this period irrational manifestations +of piety tend to disappear, human sacrifice and the worship of +animals are heard of afterwards only in remote quarters. The religion +which now prevails is a bright and happy self-identification with a +being conceived as a type of human beauty and excellence, by being as +far as possible beautiful oneself, creating beautiful objects, +composing beautiful verse, training the body to its highest pitch of +strength and agility, and displaying its powers in manly contests. +This conception of religion, for a short time realised in Greece, +still haunts the mind as a vision which once seen can never be +forgotten. No one whose eyes have opened to that vision can regard +any religious acts in which the effort after harmony and beauty forms +no part, as other than degraded and unworthy. + +Zeus and Apollo.--It is impossible here to enter specially on the +worship of the individual gods. Two of the gods, however, the same +who even in Homer stand above the level of the rest, still maintain +that superiority. Zeus draws to himself more and more all the +attributes of pure deity; his name comes more and more to stand +simply for "God," as if there were no other. He is the father of gods +and men; goodness and love are natural to him. He is the supreme +Ruler and Disposer, whose word is fate and whose ways pious thought +feels called to justify; but he is also the Saviour, to whom every +one may appeal. He is the source of all wisdom; all revelations come +from him. The other god who occupies a marked position is Apollo, the +god of light and the prophet of his father Zeus. His oracle at Delphi +was the most important in Greece; it was held to be the centre of the +earth, and was a meeting-place for Greeks from every quarter. His +priests exercised through the oracle a great influence on Greek life, +and as their god required strict purity and truthfulness and was the +inspirer of every kind of art and of none but noble purposes, the +worship of Apollo is one of the highest forms of Greek religion. + +Change of the Greek Spirit in the Sixth Century B.C.--But the time +was at hand when the worship of the gods of the poets was to prove, +in spite of all that art had done for it, inadequate to meet the +spiritual needs of Greece. Civilisation advances in the sixth century +B.C. with immense rapidity; the Greeks, no longer prompted by any +foreign influence, quickly learn to exercise their own powers, and to +apply them in new directions. Life grows richer and deeper, new modes +of sentiment appear, the nation grows more conscious of its unity, +and at the same time the individual learns to value himself more +highly and to assert himself more strongly. On one side thought +awakes to an independent career and traditional beliefs are subjected +to criticism; on the other spiritual needs are felt which the old +worship does not satisfy, and for which religion has to find new +outlets. + +It is far beyond our scope to deal with the religious movements of a +people thus passing into the self-conscious stage, and unfolding with +unparalleled freshness and power all the various activities of the +human mind. We can only point out a few of the lines of development +which become prominent at this period. And firstly we notice the rise +of _rationalism_, that is of the impulse to criticise belief and to +ask for that element in it which approves itself to the reflecting +mind. Reason asserts its right to judge of tradition; the doubter +suggests emendations in the legend; the piously inclined turn their +attention to those parts only which are capable of lofty treatment. +This tendency is fatal to polytheism. As reason knows not gods but +only God, the gods can only hold their place on condition that they +are what God must be, and so they all tend to become alike in their +character; attention is turned most of all to Zeus, the highest god, +and when others are worshipped, it is as his prophets or delegates. +The poets of the fifth century reflect the conviction which all the +higher minds of their country were now coming to hold, that the world +is under the rule of one god. From this they are led to take up the +questions of theodicy or of the principles of the divine government. +Aeschylus and Sophocles, writing perhaps about the same time as the +author of the Book of Job, are full of problems of this nature. Why +is Prometheus, though the noblest benefactor of the human race, +doomed to undergo such sufferings? Why does a curse cleave to a +certain house, evil producing evil from generation to generation? +What is the relation between the divine laws which are written in the +hearts of all men, and human laws which sometimes contradict these +older ones? Thus to the educated Greeks of the fifth century the old +religion had in its essence passed away. With unexampled rapidity had +the journey here been traced which India made more slowly, which +Egypt made at a very early period, but was not able to maintain, and +which every people starting from polytheism must make if their +religion is to prosper. + +New Religious Feeling; the Mysteries.--But the conscience as well as +the mind of Greece awakes at this period, and Greek religion becomes +inspired with a deeper feeling. The simple objectivity of the Homeric +spirit is gone in which man could frankly worship beings like himself +and not very far above himself. God at this time is growing greater +and more awful, and man, less certain of himself, is beginning to +feel a new sense of mystery and of shortcoming. Whether it was due to +the anxiety and depression felt in Greece during the century before +the Persian wars, or to foreign influences, or mainly to the natural +growth of the Greek mind itself, religious phenomena of a new kind +now appear. Sacrifices are heard of, which are not merely social +reunions with the deity, but are intended to expiate some guilt or to +remove some pollution. The sense of sin has arisen, which the Homeric +world knows not, and gives a new colour to man's converse with the +deity. Another new feature is the rise into prominence of cults in +which man feels himself taken possession of and inspired by his god. +Some of these belonged to Asia Minor, the great centre of worships +accompanied with ecstasy and frenzy, but some were of native growth. +In these the common man found a satisfaction which the stately +ceremonial of the temples did not afford. The official religion had +grown cold and distant; but in the worship of Demeter or Dionysus, as +afterwards of the Phrygian Cybele, the "Great Mother" whom the Romans +imported, the least educated could feel the joy of enthusiasm and of +self-forgetting under the influence of the god, and could be closely +identified with the object of worship by performing acts in which the +experience of the god was symbolically repeated. + +The rapid rise of the worships of Demeter and Dionysus thus furnishes +an instance of the law that a religion of intellect and of art is apt +to be confronted, even when it appears to have overcome all +obstacles, by a religion of feeling, in which all the fair progress +that was made appears to be entirely set at naught. When the worship +of Zeus, Apollo, and Athene was coming to its highest splendour, +these cults began to spread rapidly. They were originally peasant +rites of unknown antiquity in Attica and Boeotia, in which, after the +manner of rustic festivals, the coming of spring or the dying of the +year were celebrated amid jest and song, and with certain prescribed +actions in which the fortune of the god, corresponding to the season, +was dramatically set forth. In spring Demeter, the mother goddess, +received her daughter Persephone, who had left her for the winter; or +in autumn Dionysus, the god of vegetation, was defeated by his +enemies and driven away or torn in pieces. These worships, when +developed and forming a prominent part of Greek religion, were called +"mysteries," not because the knowledge of them was confined to few, +but because some parts of them were transacted in deep silence, and +were the objects of such awe and reverence that they were not spoken +of. No one, moreover, could assist at these rites without being +solemnly initiated after a period of probation and purification. Of +the Eleusinian mysteries at least, which were the most widely +diffused and which formed part of the state religion of Athens, +ancient writers agree in their report that the course of training +before admission was powerfully elevating and solemnising, so that +the period of initiation was the highest point of the religious life. +It was a condition that the candidate should be pure in heart and not +conscious of any crime. There was apparently no doctrinal +instruction; everything was to be inferred from the spectacle. The +mind was kept in a state of intense and devout expectation, knowledge +and insight growing, it was held, as the time of admission came near. +Before the final act there came a period of fasting, then a march +from Athens to Eleusis along the sacred way, which was studded with +shrines; then a search for the lost goddess in the dark of a moonless +night on the plains of Eleusis, and then at last admission to the +brightly-lighted building. Here all the arts were enlisted to furnish +a spectacle of unparalleled magnificence, during which the candidate +was allowed to touch and kiss certain sacred objects of a simple +nature, and repeated a solemn formula at his admission. + +By partaking in these rites a man was believed to part with his +former sins, to form a special union with the deity, in whose nature +he was made to partake, and to be started on a career in which he +could not fail to grow morally better. It is easy to see the immense +superiority of this worship to the official rites of the temples. The +great point is that a new principle of religious association is here +introduced. The tie which binds the worshipper to his god and to his +fellow-worshippers is no longer that of blood or of common political +interests, but the higher one of a common spiritual experience. All +Greeks were eligible for initiation at Eleusis. A man was not born +into this circle, but entered it of his own free will and by means of +voluntary effort and self-denial. A community of a higher order thus +makes its appearance in Greek history, in which the limits of race +and of locality are overstepped, and each is connected with the rest, +because all have turned of their own voluntary motion to the same +ideal centre. The analogies between the community formed on the +mysteries and the Christian Church are too obvious to need to be +insisted on. The adversaries of Christianity asserted that in the +mysteries all the truths and the whole morality of that religion were +to be found. + +Religion and Philosophy.--But while the mysteries met to some extent +the craving for a closer union with deity, another need which had +long been growing in the Greek mind was to be satisfied in a very +different manner. The Greek religion we have described had very +little to offer in the way of doctrine. There are no sacred books in +it, there is no theology, there is no religious instruction. When the +mind of Greece awoke to intellectual life, and the demand was made +for an explanation of the world, and for a view of the origin of +things which should explain man to himself, the Greek religion was +manifestly little fitted to meet such a demand. But man has +everywhere looked to religion to do him this service, and a religion +which is incapable of rendering it, or which like Buddhism explicitly +refuses to take up the task, stands in a perilous position. If the +shrine has no doctrine enabling man to understand the origin and the +connection of things, he will seek such a doctrine elsewhere, and +religion will have no control over it. Another alternative is that of +Buddhism where in default of such a doctrine man is condemned to +subside into intellectual apathy. + +This, however, could never be the case with the Greeks, and their +fate in this respect proved different from that of any other people. +After their intellectual awakening took place, and when they had +begun to seek in every direction for a first principle of all things, +never doubting that the world was a system of reason, but trying one +key after another to unlock its secret, we find that religion itself +became aware of the need of the times, and that the attempt was made, +late in the day but with deep earnestness and great ability, to +construct out of the myths a reasoned account of the origin of +things. This was the aim of the Orphic poets. Orpheus, the mythical +singer of Thrace, who charmed men and beasts with his songs on earth, +had descended into Hades to fetch back his wife, who had been taken +from him, and had beheld the secrets of the under-world. The school +which was named after him dealt with the deepest problems, and sought +to explain both the nature of the gods and the destiny of the human +soul. It insisted strongly on the power and sole headship of Zeus, in +whom Greek religion had possessed from Homer downwards a figure +fitted for a monotheistic position. "Zeus is the head, Zeus the +middle, from Zeus are all things made. He is male and female, he is +the foundation of the earth and of the starry heaven, the breath in +all, the strength of fire, the root of the sea, sun, and moon. Zeus +is the king, the progenitor of all things." The god Dionysus also is +placed by the Orphic writers at the head of the whole process of +creation. The myth of his dismemberment and of the scattering of his +ashes over the whole world is made to symbolise the great thought of +the connection of all things with the same source of life. +Descriptions were also given, answering to the growing sense of +personal responsibility, of the abodes of Hades and of the fate of +souls there, and of the metempsychoses through which the soul must +pass. This teaching had an influence which it is difficult to +measure; it acted on the tragedians in their magnificent attempts to +reform the beliefs of their country by making them moral; it is to be +traced in Plato, it also found expression in the mysteries. In its +own development it gave rise to a new phenomenon in Greek religion, +that of itinerant preachers who went about appealing to individuals +to take thought for the salvation of their souls, and also, strange +to say, offering private charms and spells to put them on the right +way of salvation. + +But Greek religion was not thus to be reformed. It was not from the +priests that the growth of the higher faith of Greece was to proceed, +but from the philosophers. While much of the teaching of the +philosophers was apparently negative and destructive of faith,--for +Greece had her religious sceptics who turned the shafts of ridicule +on existing beliefs, her Agnostics who considered that nothing +certain could be affirmed about the gods, and even her secularists +who held religion to be a mere invention of priests and rulers for +their own purposes,--the course of Greek philosophy was, on the +whole, constructive, even in matters of faith, and laboured to +provide religion with a stable foundation in thought. In this great +movement of the human mind the thinkers of Greece--Socrates, Plato, +Aristotle, to name no more--were working at the same problem which +occupied the prophets of Israel, and building up the rule of one God, +a Being supremely wise and good, source of all beauty, and the worker +of all that is wrought in the universe, in place of the many fickle +and weak deities who formerly bore sway. In many ways the schools of +Greece were the forerunners of Christianity. As the Jews, carried far +from their temple, form a new principle of religious association and +learn to meet for the service of God, without any sacrifice, in pious +mental exercises, so the Greeks, for whom their temples could do so +little, form little communities of earnest seekers after truth under +some teacher. The philosopher's discourse is held by students of the +early Christianity of the West to be the model on which the Christian +sermon was formed. Some of the schools even developed a true pastoral +activity, exercising an oversight of their members, and seeking to +mould their moral life and habits according to the dictates of true +wisdom. + +Thus there arose on Greek soil, after the temples had grown cold, +what may truly be called a second Greek religion. It took possession +of the Roman world, and was, when Christianity appeared, the +prevailing form of religion among the more educated. Both in its +outward forms of association, in its doctrine of God, which went +through later developments very similar to those of Judaism, and in +its concentration of thought on ethical problems and on the moral +life of the individual, it powerfully prepared for Christianity. It +was not a religion, for it had neither any historical root nor any +belief and practice definite enough for the guidance of the common +people. Yet Christianity could not have conquered the world without +it. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +E. Meyer, _Geschichte des Alterthums_, vol. ii., contains the first +attempt to deal with Greek religion in the manner now required. + +The Histories of Greece of Grote, Curtius, Abbott, and Holm. + +Roscher, _Lexikon der griechischen, a Romischen Mythologie_. + +Dyer, _The Gods of Greece_. + +Gardner and Jevons, _Manual of Greek Antiquities_, 1895. + +L. R. Farnell, _The Cults of the Greek States_, 1896-1907. + +Naegelsbach, _die Homerische Theologie_. + +Williamowitz, _Homerische Untersuchungen_. + +G. Anrich, _das Antike Mysterienwesen_. + +Rohde, _Psyche_, 1891. + +L. Campbell's Gifford Lectures on _Religion in Greek Literature_, +1898. + +E. Caird, _The Evolution of Theology in the Greek Philosophers_, +1904. + +Holwerda, in De la Saussaye, Third Edition. + +Ramsay on "Religion of Greece and Asia Minor" in Hastings' _Bible +Dictionary_. + +S. Reinach, in _Oxford Proceedings_, vol. ii. p. 117, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII +THE RELIGION OF ROME + + +The Romans themselves at a certain period in their history identified +their own gods with those of Greece, and borrowed largely both from +Greek ritual and Greek mythology, so that they came to the conclusion +that the Roman and the Greek religions were essentially the same. To +the early Christian writers the religions of Greece and Rome form one +system; and the world has retained the impression that there was one +old pagan religion which assumed certain local differences in the two +countries, but was substantially the same in both. + +Roman Religion was different from Greek.--Now the fact is that while +Greek religion conquered Rome, Italy had an older religion of its +own, which was not annihilated by the more brilliant newcomer, but +remained beside it and never entered into entire fusion with it. The +Romans were not a thinking so much as an organising race; in politics +they were far ahead of the rest of the world, but in thought and +imagination they were children; and so it happened that they borrowed +ideas and usages from neighbours on this side and on that, and +organised the whole into a system they could use, the organism being +their own, but only little of the contents. + +We must therefore inquire, in the first place, as to the religion the +Romans had before they came under the influence of Greek ideas. Their +earliest religion is to be traced in the calendar of their sacred +year, in the lists of gods preserved for us in the writings of the +fathers, and in numberless usages and institutions descended from +early times. + +The sacred year of early Rome is that of an agricultural community. +The festivals have to do with sowing and reaping and storing corn, +with vintage, with flocks and herds, with wolves, with spirits of the +woods, with boundaries, with fountains, with changes of the sun and +of the moon. There are festivals of domestic life, of the household +fire, and of the spirits of the storeroom, of the spirits of the +departed, and of the household ghosts. There are also festivals +connected with warlike matters, some connected with the river and the +harbour at its mouth, and some having to do with the arts of a simple +population. The calendar, taken by itself, would create the +impression that the community using it began with agriculture and +added to it afterwards various other activities; there is nothing in +it to contradict the supposition that Roman religion had its +beginnings in the fields and in the woods. + +The earliest gods of Rome also agree with this. They are, however, a +very peculiar set of gods. Leaving the great gods in the meantime, we +notice two of the agricultural deities; there is a Saturnus, god of +sowing, and a Terminus, god of boundaries. These are what are called +functional deities, such as we met with in Greece, see chapter xvi.; +they take their name from the act or province over which they +preside. Saturnus means one who has to do with sowing; Terminus is a +boundary pure and simple. The god then, in these examples, is not a +great being who has come to have these functions placed under him as +well as others. He and the particular function belong together; he +owes all his deity to it. Now these are only examples; the same is +found to be the case with all or nearly all the distinctively Roman +gods; they are, broadly speaking, all functional beings. Each bears +the name of an object or a process; and on the other hand there is no +object and no act which has not its god. It is astounding to observe +how far the principle of the division of labour is carried among +these beings. Silvanus is the god of the wood, Lympha of the stream, +each wood and each stream having its own Silvanus or Lympha. Seia has +to do with the corn before it sprouts, Segetia with corn when shot +up, Tutilina with corn stored in the granary, Nodotus has for his +care the knots in the straw. There is a god Door, a goddess Hinge, a +god Threshold. Each act in opening infancy has its god or goddess. +The child has Cunina when lying in the cradle, Statina when he +stands, Edula when he eats, Locutius when he begins to speak, Adeona +when he makes for his mother, Abeona when he leaves her; forty-three +such gods of childhood have been counted. Pilumnus, god of the +pestle, and Diverra, goddess of the broom, may close our small sample +of the limitless crowd. + +It is usually said about these multitudinous petty deities that the +Roman was very religious, and saw in every act and everything for +which he had a name, something mysterious and supernatural. The +Greek, it is said, sees things on his own level, and adds to them a +god who is human; it is by the human spirit that he interprets them. +The Roman, on the contrary, sees things as mysteries and fills them +with gods who are not human. That is true; but the question to be +asked about these Roman gods is, to what stage of religious +development do they belong: do they prove a primitive or an advanced +stage of religious thought? It has been observed that these names of +gods are all epithets, or adjectives; and it has been supposed that +there was originally a noun belonging to them, that they were all +epithets of one great deity, or, as some are masculine and some +feminine, of a great male and a great female deity. The noun fell out +of use, it is supposed, but was still present to the mind of the +Roman, and thus his regiments of divine names are not really +designations of different persons, but titles of the same person, +supposed to be present alike in all these numberless manifestations. +But it is not easy to conceive how, if primitive Italy had reached +the conception of the unity of deity, that deity became so remarkably +subdivided, nor how his own proper name and character were lost. It +is much more natural to suppose that the petty gods of Rome were all +the deities the early Latins had, and were worshipped for their own +sake. They represent the stage of thought called Animism (see chapter +iii.) when every part of nature is thought to have its spirit, and +the number of invisible beings is liable to be multiplied +indefinitely. While other Aryan races had passed beyond this stage +when we first know them, and advanced to the belief in great gods +ruling great provinces of nature, the Latins, whose mind was +organising rather than productive, made this advance more slowly, and +instead of making it organised the spiritual world of animism with a +thoroughness nowhere else equalled.[1] They had, therefore, no gods +properly so called, but only a host of spirits. Even the beings they +possessed, who afterwards became great gods, were at first no more +than functional spirits. Janus, afterwards one of the chief deities +of Rome, is originally the "spirit of opening"; an abstraction +capable of great multiplication; a Janus could be invoked for each +act of that kind. Vesta is the spirit of the hearth; each household +had its Vesta, both in early and in later times. Juno is not one but +many: as each man had his genius, a spiritual self accompanying or +guarding him, so each woman had--not her genius, but her Juno. There +were many Vestas, many Junos; and it is only later that the great +goddess arises, who may be looked to from every quarter. Others of +the great gods of later Rome have a similar early history. Mars was +at first the spirit which made the corn grow; Diana was a +tree-spirit, Jovis or Diovis himself, though his name connects him +with the Greek Zeus and the Sanscrit Dyaus, and though he is +afterwards, like these, the god of the sky, was originally in Latin a +spirit of wine, and was worshipped, the Jovis of each village or each +farm, at the wine-feast in April when the first cask was broached. +Thus the gods of the Latins are not beings who have an independent +existence and features of their own; they are limited each to the +particular object or process from which he derives his character, and +have no realm beyond it. And the same is true of the family and +house-gods, whose worship formed perhaps the principal part of the +working religion of the Roman. The Lares represent the departed +ancestors of the family; they dwell near the spot in the house where +they were buried, and still preside over the household as they did in +life. They are worshipped daily with prayers and offerings of food +and drink; the family adore in them not so much the dead individuals, +though their masks hang on the wall, as the abstraction of its own +family continuity. The Penates or spirits of the store-chamber are +worshipped along with the Lares, they represent the continuity of the +family fortune. A more general name for the departed is the Manes, +the kind ones; they are thought of as living below the earth; it is +not individuals who are worshipped at their festivals, but the dead +in the abstract, the former upholders of the family or of the people. + +[Footnote 1: See on this Mr. Jevons's preface to Plutarch's _Romane +Questions_ (Nutt, 1892); which deserves to be published in a more +accessible form.] + +The character of Roman worship is determined by the nature of its +objects. As each of the gods has his basis in a material object or +action, there can be no need of any images of them; where the object +or the act is, there is the god, his character is expressed in it and +not to be expressed otherwise. Nor could such gods require any +temples. And what need of priests for them, when every one who knew +their names (a great deal depended on that) could place himself in +contact with them as soon as he saw the object or took in hand the +action behind which they stood? Nor can many stories be told about +gods like these,--the Romans have no mythology. The beings they +worship are not persons but abstractions. They have just enough +character to be male or female, but they cannot move about or act +independently of their natural basis; they cannot marry, nor breed +scandal, nor make war. Nor can there be any motive for identifying +with such beings a great man who has died; where there are no true +gods, there cannot be any demi-gods or heroes. Only a very limited +power can possibly be put forth by such beings; all they can do is to +give or to withhold prosperity, each in the narrow section of affairs +he has to do with. + +The aim of worship where such a set of beings is concerned, is to get +hold of the spirit or god connected with the act one has in view, and +so to deal with him as to avert his disfavour, which the Roman always +apprehended, and gain his concurrence. The house-gods are beings +possessing a stated cult, but outside the house-cult the worshipper +has to face the question at each emergency which god he ought to +address. He might choose the wrong one, which would make his act of +worship vain. If he names the god correctly he will have a hold on +him; in a case of uncertainty, therefore, he names a number of gods, +in the hope that one of them will be the right one; or he invokes +them all. "Whether thou be god or goddess" he will further say, if he +is in doubt on that point, "or by whatever name thou desirest to be +called." Each god has his proper style and title, and it is vain to +approach him without these; lists of the various gods and of their +correct styles were therefore drawn up in very early times to serve +as guides to the subject. The Latin word "indigito," to point out, +from "digitus," a finger, is the term used of addressing a god; the +lists of deities with their proper appellations were called +"indigitamenta"; and the gods named in them "Dii indigetes." The act +of worship is grave and formal; it has to be done with precision and +in strict accordance with the rules; silence is commanded; the +sacrificer repeats the prayer proper for the occasion after some one +who knows it by rote; the worshippers veil their heads. In this the +Roman ritual is markedly different from the Greek. Mommsen says the +Greek prayed bareheaded, because his prayer was contemplation, +looking at and to the gods; and the Roman with head covered, because +his prayer was an exercise of thought; and in this he sees a +characteristic indication of the difference between the two +religions. A more modern interpretation of the Roman practice is that +it arose from the fear that the worshipper might see the god whom he +has just summoned by name, which would be dangerous. If any mistake +is made in worship, the act is vain and has to be done over again. + +The Great Gods.--The foregoing is the logic of the system on which +the Roman religion, as distinguished from the foreign elements +afterwards added to it, was based; the religion, however, does not +come into view historically till it has begun to rise above such a +worship of abstractions or of petty spirits, towards a worship of +gods. It was apparently by the growth of larger social organisms that +the Latin tribes advanced to the worship of greater gods. While the +family religions continued to the end, the tribe had, as in the case +of other early peoples, a larger religion than the family, and a +union of tribes produced a religion on a still greater scale. The +history of early Rome consists of a succession of such fusions of +tribes into a larger political whole. When history opens, "Rome is a +fully-formed and united city"; but Rome is made up of several tribes, +which maintain many separate institutions. The religion of after +times bears witness to these successive unions. "Deus Fidius," the +god of good faith, is the sacred impersonation of an alliance. Mars +and Quirinus are precisely similar to each other, and each has a +flamen, or blower of the sacrificial flame, and a staff of twelve +salii or dancers. Mars is the Roman, Quirinus the Sabine deity; and +we see that the two tribes had, before they were united, very similar +worships, which were both kept up after the union. The feriae +Latinae, or Latin festival, celebrated on Mons Albanus, is common to +the Latin tribes and commemorates their union. Jovis rises into +importance with the growth of city life; he comes to be called father +Jovis, Jupiter; there are many Jupiters, but the Jupiter of the city +of Rome is the greatest and best of all; he bears the title of +Optimus Maximus. He rises above Mars, in earlier times the first +Roman god, after whom the first month of the year was called, before +the month of Janus and the month of Februus, the purifier, were added +to it. Janus, the great state-god of opening, was the only one of +whom there was a representation; Mars was represented symbolically by +a spear, but Janus was figured as a man with two faces. Vesta, the +hearth-goddess of the state, was of course a great deity with a very +important worship. + +Here we must mention a side of Roman religion which no doubt has its +roots far back in prehistoric darkness, but which could scarcely be +organised as we find it till the greater gods had risen to some +degree of power. It was believed that the gods were constantly making +signs to men, especially in occurrences which take place in the air, +such as thunder and lightning, and the flight of birds, but also in +many other ways. Some of the signs were simple, so that any one could +tell if they were lucky or the reverse, but some were not to be +interpreted except by men possessing a special knowledge of the +subject. And such men might be asked by an individual or by the state +when about to enter on any undertaking, to seek a sign from heaven +concerning that business. This became with the Romans a great and +important act, and those who had it in their hands exercised great +power. + +Sacred Persons.--The priest in the earliest times was, in the +domestic religion, the paterfamilias, in that of the tribe, which was +but an extended household, the head of the leading family, and in the +city, which was constituted after the same model, the king. Religion +was the principal part of the service of the state; the king as such +had to offer sacrifice, to cause the gods to be consulted, to +prosecute and judge and punish those who had violated the laws and +came under the anger of the gods. But as the state grew larger, +various offices were set up to relieve the king of part of these +duties; when new worships were added to the old ones, the care of +them was in some cases committed to a special person or college; and +these priesthoods and sacred guilds of early Rome maintained their +place in the constitution for many centuries, and carried on this +part of the public service long after the words they spoke and the +acts they did had become meaningless. Beginning with the sacred +persons attached to special cults, we have, first, three flamens, one +of Mars, one of Quirinus, and one of Jovis (fl. Martialis, +Quirinalis, Dialis). Mars and Quirinus have their dancers, as we +mentioned above. Other flamens of lower rank were afterwards +instituted for the separate worships of the tribes. Very old are the +"fratres arvales," field-brothers, who served the creative goddess +(Dea Dia) in the country in the month of May, with a view to a good +growing summer, dancing to her and addressing hymns to her which may +be read now but cannot be understood, and were unintelligible to the +Romans themselves. The Luperci (wolf-men) held a shepherd's festival +in the month of February, sacrificing goats and dogs to some rustic +deity, and running naked through the streets afterwards, striking +those they met with thongs cut from the hides of the victims. The six +vestal virgins are well known, who had charge of keeping up the fire +of Vesta, the house-fire of the state. They devoted their whole lives +to this office, and enjoyed great respect. These priesthoods and +corporations, instituted to secure the continuance of special cults, +are not of a nature to bring the whole of life under the influence of +the priests and so to foster a priestly type of religion. Nor were +those other religious offices of a nature to do so, which were not +attached to special cults but served the more general purpose of +assisting and advising the state in matters connected with religion. +First among these comes the office of pontifex, a word which is +variously interpreted, either as "bridge-maker,"--that being a very +important and solemn proceeding,--or as leader in a religious +procession. There were originally five pontifices, and the number was +afterwards raised to fifteen. They exercised a great variety of +functions, and had a general oversight of all religious matters, both +public and domestic. They were experts in ritual and in canon law; +they advised the state as to the proper sacrifices to be offered for +the public, and, when consulted, would also direct the private +individual. Funerals, marriages, and other domestic occurrences into +which religious considerations entered, were under their charge; and +on the occurrence of portents and omens it was their duty to indicate +the steps to be taken in order to find out what the gods wished to +signify. They had charge of the calendar, and had to fix what days +were proper for carrying on the business of the courts (_dies +fasti_), and they were the authorities on the forms of legal process. +The chief pontiff is called the "judge and arbiter of things divine +and human," and the college had manifestly a very strong position. +The same is true of the _augurs_ or experts in signs and omens. +Though they did not consult the gods about public undertakings until +the magistrate or the general asked them to do so, they had power to +stop proceedings of which they disapproved; and this at certain +periods of Roman history they very frequently did. In Cicero's +treatise on Divination a great deal of interesting matter may be +found on this subject. Another sacred college of somewhat later date +is that of the men, at first three in number, afterwards fifteen, who +acted as expounders of the sacred Sibylline books, which King Tarquin +purchased from the old woman or Sibyl, of Cumae. + +Roman Religion Legal rather than Priestly.--While some of these +priestly colleges exercised large powers, these powers were always +regarded not as inherent but deputed. The sacred offices were not +hereditary but elective; no course of training was necessary to +qualify for them; men were chosen for them by the state as for any +other public office, and those who became priests did not cease to be +citizens but continued to sit in the Senate, and, as it might happen, +to hold other offices at the same time. The growth of a priestly +caste was thus effectively prevented; religion was precluded from +having any free development of its own, and kept in the position of +an instrument for the furtherance of ends of state. There is no great +religion in which ritual is so much, doctrine and enthusiasm so +little. All these priests and colleges exist for no end but to carry +out with strict exactitude the ritual usage which is deemed necessary +to keep on good terms with the gods. They have no doctrine to teach, +no fervour to communicate, they do not even tell any stories. +Punctiliousness and anxiety attend all their proceedings. To the +Roman, Ihne says, "religion turns out to be the fear lest the gods +should punish them for neglect; any unusual occurrence may be a sign +that the gods are withdrawing their co-operation from the state, and +this must be looked into, and the due expiations used if judged +necessary." Ritual must always be carried out with the utmost +precision; it is not the goodwill of the worshipper but his +exactitude that counts. He may even cheat the gods of their due if he +is formally correct in his observance. For example, if the auspices +(the signs derived from birds) were unfavourable, they could be +repeated till a better result was obtained. + +What we have described is the religion of Rome in its original form, +before it accepted foreign modifications. Its gods are spirits of the +woods and fields, of the market, of the foray, of the treaty, of all +the aspects, in fact, which life had borne to the tribes of Central +Italy, especially to the Latins and the Sabines who combined to form +the state of Rome. These gods form no family and have no history, +they do not, like the gods of Greece, lay hold of the imagination, +nor, like those of Germany, of the affections. They are only dimly +known; but they are powerful, and it is necessary to reckon with +them; and the only relations which can be kept up with such beings +are those of business and of law. It follows that this religion is +one of constraint and not of inspiration. In this it agrees with the +Roman character, which is much more inclined to order than to +freedom, to law than to art. The word religion has here its origin; +its primary meaning is restraint or check, since the chief feeling +with which the Roman regarded his gods was that of anxiety. Not that +the gods were bad; Vediovis, the bad counterpart of Jovis, is a +vanishing figure,--but they were ill-known, and might have cause to +be angry. Worship, therefore, the practical cultivation of the +friendship of the gods, swallows up here the other elements of +religion as a whole. Religion does not free the forces of human +nature to realise themselves in spontaneous activity, but enchains +them to the punctilious service of a nonhuman authority. Everything +exciting is kept at a distance, and men are trained in obedience and +scrupulousness and self-denial. They produce no beautiful works of +art, and have hardly any stories to delight in; but they are reverent +and conscientious; private feeling is sacrificed with an austere +satisfaction to the public interest, and they accordingly build up a +great power. Living in an atmosphere of magic, where unseen dangers +lurk on every side, and there is virtue in words and forms correctly +used to avert these dangers, the Roman develops to perfection one +side of religion. To its inspirations and enthusiasms and hidden +consolation he is a stranger; but he knows it better than others as a +conservative and regulating force, which checks passion, calls for +wary and orderly conduct, and causes the individual to subordinate +himself to the community. + +Changes introduced from without.--The Roman religion had, properly +speaking, no development. What it might have become had it been left +to unfold itself without interference from without, we can only +guess; but it was early brought under the influence of more highly +developed religions, and it proved to have so little power of +resisting innovations that it speedily parted with much of its own +native character. The Romans were not unconscious that their religion +was an imperfect one; they never claimed, when they were conquering +the world, that their religion was the only true one, or had any +mission to prevail over others. They were tolerant from the first of +the religions of other peoples. The gods of other peoples they always +believed to be real beings, with whom it was well for them also to be +on good terms. If everything in the world had its spirit, these gods +also were the spirits of their own countries and nations; the very +notion of deity which the Romans entertained prevented them from +having any exclusive belief in their own gods or from denying the +right of the gods of others.[2] When therefore they came in contact +with foreign religions, they were not protected by any profound +conviction of the truth of their own, and were exposed to the full +force of the new ideas. The new religions came to them along with the +culture of peoples much further advanced in art and in thought than +they were themselves; at each such contact, therefore, they felt the +foreigner to be superior to themselves in intellectual matters; and +wherever this happens, the less highly gifted race is likely to +change in its religion as well as in other things. We have to note +the changes which were produced by such external influences. + +[Footnote 2: Cf. Celsus in Origen, _Contra Celsum_, vii. 68.] + +In the first place, Rome borrowed from Etruria. Etruscan religion was +both more developed and more savage than that of Rome. Human +sacrifice was an acknowledged feature of it; divination was carried +to absurd lengths, one great branch of it consisting in the +prediction of the future from the appearance of the entrails of +slaughtered animals. Etruria had a hell with regular torments for the +departed; in Rome the belief in a future life was much less definite. +On the other hand, Etruria had deities who were something more than +abstractions; there was a circle of twelve gods, who held meetings on +high, and regulated the affairs of the world. Above them was a power, +little defined, to which the gods were subject, a kind of fate. Greek +influence, so notably apparent in Etruscan art, is present, too, we +see, in Etruscan religion; it is through this somewhat dark passage +that Greek religious ideas first came to Rome. Under this influence +various innovations took place at Rome. Before the end of the +monarchy the Romans had begun to build houses for their gods, after +being for 170 years, we are told, without any such arrangement. The +Roman "templum" was not originally a building, but a space marked +off, according to the rules of augury, for the observation of signs. +A part of the sky was also marked off for such "observation" and +"contemplation." On such a holy site, on the Capitoline hill, there +was founded by the earlier Tarquin the temple of Jupiter which always +continued to be the principal site of Roman religion. Its +architecture was Tuscan; and it contained not only a cella or holy +place for the image of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, but also a cella for +Juno and one for Minerva. The latter was both an Etruscan and a Roman +deity, the goddess of memory. Art was thus enlisted in the service of +the gods; the divine figures acquired a reality and distinctness +quite wanting to the earlier divine abstractions; and a new notion of +deity was presented to the Roman mind. Other temples followed, to +Jupiter under other names than that which he had in the Capitol, and +to other deities. That of Faith was a very early one. It was a rule +in temple-building that the image in the cella faced the west, so +that the worshipper, praying towards it, faced the east. Here also +the Roman custom is a departure from the Greek; for in Greek temples +it is the rule that the image faces the east, and the worshipper the +west. The Roman orientation of sacred buildings has passed into the +practice of the Christian Church. From Etruria the Romans also +derived a great addition to the rules of divination; but the more +childish parts of Etruscan divination were regarded at Rome as +superstitious, though private persons might frequently resort to +them. + +Greek Gods in Rome.--While Greek ideas thus came indirectly from the +north, the south of the peninsula was becoming more and more Greek, +and the gods and temples of Hellas, established first at the +sea-ports and colonies, gradually came to Rome. This movement is +connected with the Sibylline books which were acquired by the last of +the kings. These books were brought to Rome from the Greek town of +Cumae; they were written in Greek, and contained oracles which were +ascribed to an old Greek prophetess. They were consulted in grave +emergencies of state through the officials who had charge of them, +and what they generally prescribed was that a god should be sent for +from Greece, and his worship set up in Rome. Many foreign worships +were thus imported. First came Apollo, disguised under the Latin name +of Aperta, "opener," for the books contained many of his oracles; he +was received and worshipped as a god of purification, since the state +was in need of that process at the time, as well as of prophecy. In +the year 496 B.C. came in the same way Demeter, Persephone, and +Dionysus, identified with the old Latin Ceres, Libera, and Liber; +and, a century later, Heracles, identified with the Latin Hercules. +In the year 291, on the occurrence of a plague, Asclepios, in Latin +Aesculapius, was brought from Epidauros; and when the crisis of the +contest with Hannibal was at hand (204 B.C.) Cybele, the great mother +of the gods, was fetched from Pessinus in Phrygia. The people of that +town generously handed over to the Roman ambassadors the field-stone +which was their image of the goddess, and her journey to Rome had the +desired effect, in the expulsion of Hannibal from Italy. The Venus of +Mount Eryx in Sicily arrived in Rome about the same time; a goddess +combining the characters of Aphrodite and Astarte, and quite +different from the simple old Roman Venus, who was a goddess of +Spring, and presided over gardens. + +The process of which these are the outward landmarks went on during +the whole period of the Republic, and resulted in the substitution of +what may be called with Mommsen the Graeco-Roman, for the old Roman +religion. The change was a very profound one. Not only were some new +gods added to the old ones, not only did Greek art come to be +employed in Roman temples, not only were new rites introduced, such +as the _lectisternium_, in which couches were arranged, each with the +image of a god and that of a goddess, and tables spread to regale the +recumbent deities. The very notion of deity was changed; the Greek +god, represented by an image in human form and moving freely in the +upper world, was substituted for the Latin god who was the unseen +side of an act or process or quality, from which he had his name, +and apart from which he was not. The following is a list of the +principal Roman gods and of the Greek ones with whom they were +identified:--Jupiter (Zeus), Juno (Hera), Neptunus (Poseidon), +Minerva (Athene), Mars (Ares), Venus (Aphrodite), Diana (Artemis), +Vulcanus (Hephaestus), Vesta (Hestia), Mercurius (Hermes), Ceres +(Demeter). The identifications are by no means accurate; Jupiter and +Vesta, as we have seen, are the only two Roman gods who are really +identical with Greek gods, the other equations are founded on +accidental resemblances, and are more arbitrary than real. The result +of them was, however, that the Romans forgot to a large extent their +own gods, and got Greek ones instead. With the divine figures they +took over the mythology of Greece, and thus the gods came to be well +known with all their weaknesses, instead of as before surrounded with +mystery and awe. The worship founded on the earlier conception of the +deity, and kept up with unwavering regularity, was inapplicable to +these new gods, and inevitably lost all its reality. This is not the +only cause, but it is one of the chief causes which prepared for the +fearful spectacle presented by Roman religion at the end of the +Republic, when men of learning and distinction officiated as the +heads of a religion in which they had no belief, and which they +scoffed at in their writings. + +Among the worships which came to Rome from the East there were +several which are not of Greek, but of Oriental origin. The worship +of Cybele belongs to Asia Minor, though it had spread over Greece; +that of Dionysus also came to Greece from Asia. The practice of both +these cults was accompanied by excitement and self-abandonment on the +part of the worshippers; and they formed a great contrast to the +staid and formal worship of the Romans, the only admissible passion +in which was a calm passion for correctness. The worship of Cybele +was carried on by eunuchs, it had noisy processions, and depended on +begging for its support. When the Romans brought it to their city, +they ordained that Roman citizens should not fill leading offices in +it; but it flourished so strongly, among the numerous foreigners in +the capital and among the poor, as to show that it met a great want +there. The worship of Bacchus had to be suppressed by the state; it +was carried on at nocturnal meetings, which even citizens attended, +and it led to all kinds of irregularities. As the subject of this +chapter is not the religions of Rome, but the Roman religion, we do +not here review the numerous foreign worships which were brought to +the capital from every part of the Empire, and made Rome, towards the +close of the Republic, the residence of the gods of every nation. The +Romans as we saw were not led by any convictions of their own to deny +the truth of foreign religions; and their policy as rulers also +inclined them to tolerate all worships which did not offend against +civil order. In the provinces it was the rule not to interfere with +local religion; at Rome the authorities recognised not the imported +religion itself, of which the state did not feel called to judge, but +the association practising it, which received permission to do so. +The worship was then protected by the state--it became a _religio +licita_. Amid the meeting of all the gods and the clashing of all the +creeds which were thus brought about at Rome, the Roman religion +itself maintained its place, not as a doctrine which any one +believed, for the very priests and augurs laughed at the rites and +ceremonies they carried on, but as a ritual which was bound up with +the whole past history of Rome, and believed to be necessary for the +welfare of the state as well as for the satisfaction of the common +people. In the atmosphere of discussion and of far-reaching +scepticism which then prevailed it was not to be expected that faith +could again find any strong support in the historical religion of +Rome. The Emperor Augustus made a serious attempt to reform and +revive religion. He selected the domestic worship of the Lares as the +most living part of the old system, and ordained that the two Lares +should be worshipped along with the genius of the Emperor, and that +Rome should be divided into districts, each with its temple of this +strange trinity; while in the provinces each district was to support +a worship of Rome and of the Emperor in addition to its existing +cults. Temples were rebuilt at Rome, new ones were raised, sacred +offices were filled which had been vacant, religious games were +instituted to carry the Roman mind back to the sacred past. Livy and +Virgil treated the past from a religious point of view, showing the +sacred mission of the Roman race, and exhibiting the valour and piety +of the founders of the state. If the Roman religion could be revived +these were the proper means to do it. But the religion of the future +was not to be prepared in this way. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +The sections on religion in Mommsen's _History of Rome_. + +Ramsay's _Roman Antiquities_. + +Wissowa, _Religion und Cultur der Roemer_. + +Holwerda, in De la Saussaye. + +For the period of the Empire, Boissier's _La Religion Romaine_. + +See also the work of Cumont, cited at the end of chapter x. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII +THE RELIGIONS OF INDIA + +I. _The Vedic Religion_ + + +No contrast could well be greater than that between the German +religion and that of India. In the one case we have a people full of +vigour, but not yet civilised; in the other a people of high +organisation and culture, but deficient in vigour; the former +religion is one of action, the latter one of speculation. From the +original Aryan faith, to which that of the Teutons most closely +approximates, Indian religion is removed by two great steps. First we +have as a variety of Aryan faith the Indo-Iranian religion, that of +the undivided ancestors of Persians and Indians alike, in the dim +period antecedent to the Aryan settlement of India. Of this religion, +the common mother of those of Persia and of India, we shall give some +sketch after we have made acquaintance with the gods of India, at the +beginning of our Persian chapter. Indian religion is a variety of +Indo-Iranian, which is a variety of the Aryan type. Neither its +genealogy nor its character entitles it to be taken as a typical +example of the Aryan religions. In literary chronology it is the +earliest of them, inasmuch as its books are the oldest sacred +literature of Aryan faith; but in point of development it is not an +early but an advanced product. The absorbing interest it offers to +the student of our science is due to the fact that it presents in an +unbroken sequence a growth of religious thought, which, beginning +with simple conceptions and advancing to a great priestly ritual, can +be seen to pass into mysticism and asceticism, and thence to the +rejection of all gods and rites, and a system of salvation by +individual good conduct. Nowhere else can the progress of religion +through what we might call its seven ages of life be seen so clearly, +nor the logical connection of these ages with each other be +recognised so unmistakably. The present chapter deals with the +infancy and lusty youth of the religion as seen in Vedism; the later +stages of Brahmanism and Buddhism will be spoken of in subsequent +chapters. + +The Rigveda.--The Vedic religion takes its name from the Rigveda, the +oldest portion of Indian literature, and the earliest literary +document of Aryan religion. Of four vedas or collections of hymns, +the Rigveda is the oldest and most interesting. It contains a set of +hymns which, with much more of their early religious literature, the +Hindus ascribed to direct divine revelation, but which we know to +have been written by men who claimed no special inspiration. Most of +them date from the time when the Aryans, having made good their entry +in India, but without by any means altogether subduing the former +inhabitants, were dwelling in the Punjaub. The religion of the hymns +is a strongly national one. The Aryans appeal to their gods to help +them against the races, afterwards driven to the south and to the sea +coasts, who differ from themselves in colour, in physiognomy, in +language, in manners, and in religion. Nor are these conquerors by +any means an uncultivated people; they had long been using metals; +they built houses,--a number together in a village; they lived +principally by keeping cattle, but also by tillage, and by hunting. +They drank Sura, a kind of brandy, and Soma, a kind of strong ale, of +which we shall hear more. They were, as a rule, monogamous, the wife +occupying a high position in the household, and assisting her husband +in offering the domestic sacrifice. At the head of each state was a +king, as among the Greeks of Homer; he was not, however, an absolute +monarch; his people met in council and controlled him. The king +himself offered sacrifice for his tribe in his own house,--there were +no temples,--but he was frequently assisted by a man or several men +of special learning in such rites. + +The hymns of the Rigveda were written for use at sacrifices. The +sacrifice consists of food and drink of which the god who is +addressed is invited to come and partake, or which are conveyed to +the gods seated on their heavenly thrones, by means of fire. Soma, +the intoxicating juice of the soma plant, is an invariable feature of +the banquets in these hymns; the solid part consists of butter, milk, +rice or cakes; but animals were also killed, and the horse-sacrifice +was a specially important one. The hymn also is an essential part of +the rite; the sacrifice would have no virtue without it. It consists +of praise and prayer. The deity is extolled for the exploits he has +done, for his strength, for his beauty, for his wisdom or his +goodness, he is invoked again and again to partake of what has been +provided for him, and in return he is asked to send the worshipper +food or cows, guidance or protection, or whatever the latter is in +want of. + +The Vedic Gods.--And who are the gods who receive this worship? They +are parts of nature or celestial phenomena, more or less personified. +Worship is directed now to one divine being, now to another; each has +a story which is dwelt on and a number of functions belonging to him, +for the sake of which he is extolled and sought after; each god, that +is to say, has his myth. In this set of gods the myths are so clear +that we can identify with perfect confidence each of the gods with +that part of Nature from which he arose. + +M. Barth classifies the Vedic gods according to the degree in which +they have become detached from their natural basis. There are two +which are not so detached at all. Agni, who is one of the chief +deities of the Rigveda, is fire, and Soma, the deity to whom all the +hymns of the ninth book are addressed, is simply the juice of the +soma plant, the liquid part of every sacrifice. Agni is not any +particular fire, but fire as a cosmic principle, born in heaven, born +also daily at the sacrifice by the rubbing together of two pieces of +wood, his parents whom he consumes. He is a priest carrying the +offerings of men up to the gods, but he was a priest at the first +sacrifice, the primeval heavenly sacrifice, before he had come down +to men. He is also the guest and household friend of man, a kindly +and familiar being. But he pervades all nature, and all growth and +energy are due to him. Soma, also inseparably connected with all +sacrifice, who strengthens the gods and makes them immortal, is +likewise a universal principle; he too came at first from heaven, and +he too is at work all through the world. There are stories of his +first production among the gods, and of the first effects of his +appearance; he is the nourisher of plants, he gives inspiration to +the poet and fervour to prayer. Along with Agni he kindled the sun +and the stars. + +In other gods there is a nearer approach to a human figure, and the +physical side is not so obtrusive. Indra is most frequently invoked +of all the gods, and may be called the national god of this period. +He is described as a chieftain standing in a chariot drawn by two +horses. He waged a great battle, but still wages it constantly, +against the monsters of heat and drought, Vrittra, the coverer, and +Ahi the dragon, for the deliverance of the cows, the heavenly waters, +kept by them in captivity. The contest between the god and the demon +goes on for ever. Indra is also the giver of good things of every +kind, he keeps the heavenly bodies in their places, he is the author +and preserver of all life, the inspirer of all noble thoughts and the +answerer of pious prayers, the rewarder of all who trust in him, and +the forgiver of the penitent. It is good to sacrifice to him and to +offer him soma in abundance; for it strengthens him to take up afresh +his conflicts and labours as the champion of man. Indra is surrounded +by the Maruts, the storm-gods, who are separately invoked in many +hymns. They drive through the sky with splendour and with mighty +music, and bring rain to the parched earth. Their father is Rudra, +also a god of storms, the handsomest of all the gods, and, in spite +of his thunderbolts, a helpful and kindly being. Wherever he sees +evil done, he hurls his spear to smite the evildoer, but he is also a +healer of both physical and moral evils, and the best of all +physicians. Of the same order of deities are Vata or Vayu, the wind, +and Parjanya, the rain-storm. But the loftiest of all the Vedic gods +is Varuna, the great serene luminous heaven. The hymns addressed to +him are comparatively few, but among them are those which rise to the +highest moral and religious level. In language recalling that of the +psalmists and prophets of the Bible, they exalt Varuna as the creator +of the world and of heaven and the stars, as the omniscient defender +of the good and avenger of all evil, as just and holy, and yet full +of compassion, so that the conscience-stricken suppliant is +encouraged to turn to him. + +We here give a few extracts from hymns addressed to some of the gods +we have spoken of. The versions are those of the late Dr. John Muir. +A metrical version can scarcely represent the hymns with the accuracy +the scholar would desire, but, on the other hand, a literal +translation, such as that of Professor Max Mueller in vol. xxxii. of +the Sacred Books of the East, gives a less true idea of the spirit of +the pieces, and is less fitted at least for a work like this. + + +TO INDRA + + Thou, Indra, oft of old hast quaffed + With keen delight, our Soma draught. + All gods delicious Soma love; + But thou, all other gods above. + Thy mother knew how well this juice + Was fitted for her infant's use, + Into a cup she crushed the sap + Which thou didst sip upon her lap; + Yes, Indra, on thy natal morn, + The very hour that thou wast born, + Thou didst those jovial tastes display, + Which still survive in strength to-day. + And once, thou prince of genial souls, + Men say thou drained'st thirty bowls. + To thee the Soma draughts proceed, + As streamlets to the lake they feed, + Or rivers to the ocean speed. + Our cup is foaming to the brim + With Soma pressed to sound of hymn. + Come, drink, thy utmost craving slake, + Like thirsty stag in forest lake, + Or bull that roams in arid waste, + And burns the cooling brook to taste. + Indulge thy taste, and quaff at will; + Drink, drink again, profusely swill! + + +ANOTHER TO INDRA + + And thou dost view with special grace, + The fair complexioned Aryan race, + Who own the gods, their laws obey, + And pious homage duly pay. + Thou giv'st us horses, cattle, gold, + As thou didst give our sires of old. + Thou sweep'st away the dark-skinned brood, + Inhuman, lawless, senseless, rude, + Who know not Indra, hate his friends, + And spoil the race which he defends. + Chase far away, the robbers, chase, + Slay those barbarians black and base. + And save us, Indra, from the spite + Of sprites that haunt us in the night, + Our rites disturb by contact vile, + Our hallowed offerings defile. + Preserve us, friend, dispel our fears, + And let us live a hundred years. + And when our earthly course we've run, + And gained the region of the Sun, + Then let us live in ceaseless glee, + Sweet Soma quaffing there with thee. + + +TO AGNI + + Great Agni, though thine essence be but one, + Thy forms are three; as fire thou blazest here, + As lightning flashest in the atmosphere, + In heaven thou flamest as the golden sun. + + It was in heaven thou hadst thy primal birth, + But thence of yore a holy sage benign, + Conveyed thee down on human hearths to shine, + And thou abid'st a denizen of earth. + + Sprung from the mystic pair by priestly hands, + In wedlock joined, forth flashes Agni bright; + But--O ye heaven and earth I tell you right-- + The unnatural child devours the parent brands. + + +TO VARUNA + + The mighty lord on high our deeds, as if at hand, espies; + The gods know all men do, though men would fain their acts disguise. + Whoever stands, whoever moves, or steals from place to place, + Or hides him in his secret cell,--the gods his movements trace. + Wherever two together plot, and deem they are alone + King Varuna is there, a third, and all their schemes are known. + This earth is his, to him belong those vast and boundless skies; + Both seas within him rest, and yet in that small pool he lies. + Whoever far beyond the sky should think his way to wing, + He could not there elude the grasp of Varuna the king. + His spies, descending from the skies, glide all this world around, + Their thousand eyes all-scanning sweep to earth's remotest bound. + Whate'er exists in heaven and earth, whate'er beyond the skies, + Before the eyes of Varuna, the king, unfolded lies. + The ceaseless winkings all he counts of every mortal's eyes, + He wields this universal frame as gamester throws his dice. + Those knotted nooses which thou fling'st, O God, the bad to snare, + All liars let them overtake, but all the truthful spare. + +Varuna, the all-embracing sky, is also in many hymns a solar deity. +There are also other solar deities; Mitra who is frequently invoked +along with Varuna; Surya, Savitri, Vishnu, and Pushan, are all gods +of this class. Each of these has some attributes or some story of his +own. Surya keeps his eye on men and reports their failings to Varuna +and Mitra. Savitri, the quickener, raises all things from sleep in +the morning with his long arms of gold, and covers them with sleep in +the evening. Vishnu, the active, traverses the universe with three +strides. Pushan is a shepherd who loses none of his flock; a guide +also, both in the journeys of this world and in the last journey. A +number of the principal gods have the common title of Adityas or +children of Aditi, immensity, a being too vast and undetermined to be +clearly represented. We should also mention Ushas, the dawn, a +goddess whom the sun-god is daily chasing; the Asvins or two heavenly +charioteers, who daily make the circuit of the heavens; Tvashtri, the +smith who made the thunderbolt of Indra; the Ribhus, artificers who +were once men and have been admitted to the society of the gods. Yama +is the god of the dead, he first traversed the road to the country +beyond, and now he rules over it, and comforts with substantial joys +the spirits guided there by Agni (this points to cremation which was +frequent but not universal) or by Pushan. There the Pitris or fathers +sit at the same tables with the gods, and are eternally happy. +Brahmanaspati, lord of prayer, is a god of another type, a +personification of the act of ritual, and his presence in the Vedas, +beside the elemental deities, shows how early speculation had begun. + +To what Stage does this Religion belong?--Our sketch of this system +is necessarily brief; we have now to inquire as to the place it +occupies in the religious growth of India. It is held, on the one +hand, that it is a primitive religious product, that it shows us some +of the very first efforts men made to have a religion; while on the +other hand it is held that the Vedic hymns and the Vedic system are +sacerdotal, and are due to an advanced organisation of worship and to +a special set of men who were much in advance of their age. + +1. It is Primitive.--Mr. Max Mueller[1] says that "the sacred books of +India offer the same advantages ... for the study of the origin and +growth of religion ... which Sanscrit has offered for the study of +the origin and growth of human speech." Dr. Muir[2] claims that the +Vedic hymns illustrate the natural workings of the human mind in the +period of its infancy. In the Vedas, these writers consider, we are +able to watch the process by which the earliest men rose to the +belief in gods, and the naive and simple methods by which man's first +intercourse with gods was carried on. The undoubted antiquity of +these pieces favours this view; the Rigveda is admitted on all hands +to be the earliest part of Indian literature, and many of the hymns +were written about 1500 B.C.[3] The pure and simple nature of the +Vedic religion may also appear to favour this view. It is a religion +singularly free from the lower elements of man's early faith. Savage +legends and especially immoral stories of the gods are markedly +absent from the hymns; they are also free from the element of magic +and fetishism; the gods are great beings, and religion consists in +intercourse with these great beings. Now the later religious +literature of India, the brahmanas or commentaries on the Rigveda and +the other later Vedas, contain a variety of legends and a religion by +no means free from magic. It may be maintained therefore that the +pure religion of the Aryans afterwards became contaminated by contact +with the lower religion of the tribes the Aryans had conquered. It +was from the Dravidian and Kolarian aborigines, we are told, that +Indian religion took its later corruptions. The Vedic religion has no +idols, it has no dark descriptions of hell, the caste system on which +later Brahmanism was based is absent from it, it has no demons to be +guarded against, and no bad deities. The doctrine of metempsychosis +is not found here, except perhaps in germ. The immolation of the +widow on the funeral pile of her husband is not sanctioned by the +Vedas, and of ancestor-worship only a few traces are found. All +these, it may be held, are later corruptions. The Vedic religion is a +bright and happy system, and the primitive beliefs of mankind, less +changed by the Indians than they were elsewhere, are here to be seen; +the hymns show the kind of faith to which a strong and happy race of +men naturally came, as their minds began to open to the wonders of +the world they lived in, the faith of "primitive shepherds praising +their gods as they lead their flocks to the pasture." The Indians had +preserved, longer than other peoples, the gift of recognising deity +in nature; and the primitive beliefs of mankind survive here in +something like their first integrity, while elsewhere they were +broken up and confused. + +[Footnote 1: _Origin of Religion_, p. 135.] + +[Footnote 2: _Sanscrit Texts_, vol. v. p. 4.] + +[Footnote 3: According to Mr. Max Mueller the Mantra or hymn period is +to be placed 1000-800 B.C.; but other scholars place it earlier.] + +2. It is Advanced.--On the other hand, it is urged that the society +in which the hymns arose was not a primitive one, but one +considerably advanced both in arts and institutions. The Rishis +(seers), who composed them, belonged to families who cultivated such +an art; and the hymns were no artless outpourings of childlike +emotion, but were written on an elaborate metrical system for a +definite purpose, namely, to form part of great acts of worship. As +for the absence from them of savage myths and of immoral stories of +the gods, this fact does not prove that such things were not known to +the people at the time, but only that the poets did not put them in +their hymns. Mr. Lang has collected the savage myths, similar to +those of other peoples in various parts of the world, which are found +in Indian literature of a later date, and has also shown that the +hymns themselves were not quite ignorant of some of them. The Indians +knew the myth of the marriage of heaven and earth, with the +consequent birth of the gods. They had the story of the deluge. They +had the still more primitive story of the raising up of the earth +from the bottom of the sea. They had various myths of old conflicts +of the gods, and of the production of the earth and all the men in it +from the dissection of an immense prototypal human monster. Men were +of different castes, they held, because they came from different +portions of Purusha's body when it was cut up. Many stories are to be +found in Indian literature which when found elsewhere are judged to +be products of savage imagination, and the fact that the Rigveda +ignores some of them and refines others, simply shows that the +authors of that collection were on a higher level than their people +in point of cultivation and of piety, as the psalmists and the +prophets of Israel were in advance of theirs. We are led, +accordingly, towards the conclusion that during the period when the +hymns were written those who took charge of the development of +worship in India were seeking to draw away attention from the more +superstitious and childish elements of religion, and to bring to the +front the pure and lofty intercourse man could have with the good +gods. Bad gods are not cultivated; if there are foolish stories about +the gods, they are not repeated, everything dark and terrible, as +well as everything irrational, is removed from the working religion. +Ancestor-worship is not encouraged; family rites continued, but the +worship was wider than the family, and was not restricted to +particular places. The ideas connected with sacrifice are not indeed +very lofty. Sacrifice is, in the first place, barter. Gifts are +provided for the gods, that they may give in their turn. In the +second place it is a social function in which the god and the +worshipper both take part. The food, and especially the soma, +strengthens the god, and man and god are thereby drawn into close +sympathy. But in the third place sacrifice was a piece of magic. The +mere accurate performance of the rite had a mystic efficacy. It was +believed to help to uphold the order of the world; without it the +gods would grow weak, the ordinances of nature would fail, and man +would relapse to the state of savagery. The gods themselves first +sacrificed; from sacrifice they themselves were born, so that +sacrifice is an essential principle of the universe, was so in the +beginning, and must always be so. The Vedic leaders of religion, +therefore, were not merely champions of enlightenment in religion; +they were also ritualists, the rite was to them an end in itself; the +proper performance of sacrifice was their principal object. This side +of their work had, as we shall see, grave consequences. But the +Rigveda did a great work for India in cultivating gods who were +moral, and to whom man was drawn by higher than selfish motives. Gods +who are just and who watch man's conduct, and do not fail to reward +him according to his deeds, must quicken the conscience of those who +believe in them, and gods who are able to help the weak and to +forgive the penitent must make their people also merciful. In all the +aberrations of Indian religion the high moral standard set by the +Vedic gods is never lost sight of. + +Where a plurality of gods is believed in, these gods must stand in +some relation to each other; and it is of importance to notice how +the gods of the Veda are arranged. We can see here very clearly how +unstable a thing polytheism is. The position of the gods is +constantly changing with reference to each other. We find Agni +addressed as if he were undoubtedly supreme; he dwells in the highest +heavens, he generates the gods, he ordains the order of the universe; +but then we find Indra spoken of in the same way, and Varuna, and +Mitra, and others. Then we find pairs of gods addressed together. +Indra and Agni are frequently so treated; so are Varuna and Mitra. +There is no supreme god, or rather, each god is supreme in turn; the +poet wants a god capable of being exalted in every way, and does so +exalt the god he has before him. In this way a Monotheism is reached; +the mind recognises a god to whom unlimited adoration can be paid. +But it is a monotheism, as M. Barth well puts it, the titular god of +which is always changing; and Mr. Max Mueller gives to this partial +monotheism the name of Kathenotheism; that is, the worship of one god +at a time without any denial that other gods exist and are worthy of +adoration. Now this form of religion, in which several gods are +worshipped, each of whom in turn is regarded as supreme, is not +peculiar to India; we have met with it already, we shall meet with it +again. But in India a peculiar way was found out of the difficulty. +The Indian gods were too little defined, too little personal, too +much alike, to maintain their separate personalities with great +tenacity; nor did they lend themselves to a monarchical form of +pantheon; no one of them was sufficiently marked out from the rest or +above the rest, to rule permanently over them. Yet the sense of unity +in Indian religion is very strong; from the first the Indian mind is +seeking a way to adjust the claims of the various gods, and view them +all as one. An early idea which makes in this direction is that of +Rita, the order, not specially connected with any one god, which +rules both in the physical and the moral world, and with which all +beings have to reckon. Philosophy is busy from the first with the +Vedic gods; the impulse to good conduct and that to mysticism are +equally innate in this religion. We can see, even in the Rigveda, +that India is to solve the problem of its many gods not in the way of +Monotheism, by making one god rule over the others, but in the way of +Pantheism, by making all the gods modes or manifestations of one +being. "Agni is all the Gods" we read here. And a religion which +arranges its objects of worship in this way will not be a religion of +action, but of speculation and of resignation. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_S. B. E._ vol. xxxii. Vedic Hymns. xlvi. Hymns to Agni. + +Muir's _Sanscrit Texts_. + +M. Mueller's _Hibbert Lectures_. + +Monier Williams, _Indian Wisdom; Hinduism_ in "Non-Christian +Religious Systems" (S.P.C.K.). + +Kaegi, _The Rigveda, the oldest literature of the Indians_, 1886. + +Barth, _The Religions of India_, in Truebner's Oriental Series. + +Herrmann Oldenberg, _Die Religion der Veda_, 1894. + +Bergaigne, _La Religion Vedique_, 3 vols., 1878-83. + +E. Hardy, _Die Vedisch Brahmanische Periode der Religion des alten +Indiens_. + +Lehmann, in De la Saussaye. + +Rhys Davids, _Oxford Proceedings_, vol. i. p. 1, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIX +INDIA + +II. _Brahmanism_ + + +The period in which the songs were collected by the Aryans dwelling +in the Punjaub was succeeded by a period of wars and troubles, after +which the successful race is found to have spread further towards the +East, and to have settled on the Ganges and its tributaries. Along +with this change of position a great change has also taken place in +the spirit of the people, a change which is strikingly seen in their +religion. The priesthood has come to occupy the position of a +separate class to an extent not formerly the case, and all the +phenomena are apparent which are generally found associated with a +hierocracy or rule of priests. The early religious writings have been +formed into a sacred canon: there is an active production of new +works which explain the old ones; the sacrifices grow more elaborate +and new virtues are attributed to them; and along with this hardening +and formalising of the outward parts of religion there is a religious +speculation of great volume and of great freedom of character. + +The Caste System: The Brahmans.--The key to the whole movement is to +be found in the new position of the priesthood, or in the +establishment at this period of the system of caste. Though this +system is only once mentioned in the Rigveda, and that in a hymn of +late date, scholars find traces of it in the arrangement of the +hymns, and as it is found in Persia, the Indians probably had it +before they entered India. It may even, it is judged, be traceable to +the division of ranks among the primitive Aryan families. Teutonic as +well as Indian legends are found explaining how mankind were divided +from the first into different classes.[1] But the primitive +differences of rank must have had a great development before they +took shape in the rigid caste system of India. This system appears to +be organised with a view expressly to the exaltation of the +priesthood, and must have been the result of a struggle between the +priests and the warrior or ruling classes. The priests have made +themselves indispensable in nearly all religious acts. Their very +title shows this. While _Brahman_, as the name of a god, means +primarily growth, and later, devotion or prayer, _brahmana_ (neut.) +signifies the ritual texts according to which worship is performed, +and _brahman_ (mas.) is the name of those who use such texts, and +comes to stand for the highest caste of Indian society. Without the +brahman there can be no satisfactory worship, because there can be no +security that any rite is performed correctly; and a rite which is +not performed correctly has no efficacy. Religion, therefore, is in +the hands of this caste, whose sacredness is hereditary, and cannot +be acquired in any other way than by birth. The members of that caste +and they alone are qualified to superintend religious observances, +and without them the intercourse between man and the gods cannot be +kept up. From his birth the brahman is a being of superior holiness; +he is destined for higher ends than other men, and the distinction +between him and them must be manifested in all his acts and habits +throughout his life. He is the natural lord of all the classes. + +[Footnote 1: Compare Hans Sachs, _Die Ungleichen Kinder Eva's_.] + +If the highest caste is strictly defined, so also are the others. The +second caste is that of the Kshatriyas, warriors or rulers, the third +that of the Vaisyas or farmers. These three have rank, they are the +twice-born classes (their second birth answers to confirmation, and +takes place when a young man is invested with the sacred thread). The +Sudras are the fourth and lowest class; no duty is assigned to them +in the law books but that of serving meekly the other castes. It has +been thought that the Sudras represent the conquered aborigines, the +three classes of rank belonging to the Aryan invaders, but this is +open to question. + +The student of religion has to fix his attention on the Brahmans, who +have secured themselves in the position of the leading caste. We +speak first of the literary movement in which they were concerned, +then of the sacrifices they conducted, and of their gods. We shall +then say something of the practical operation of their religion as a +rule of life, and lastly we shall come to the speculative work of +their period, which is not, however, to be set down to them alone. + +1. The Growth of the Sacred Literature.--The Vedas rose in sacredness +after the age which produced them passed away. A few centuries after +they were written they were not generally intelligible; they needed +interpretation, but at the same time the doctrine of their +inspiration rose higher and higher. The brahmans had both to +interpret the words of the old hymns and to explain how, when used at +the sacrifice, they produced the effect ascribed to them. This led to +the production of the earliest Indian prose, the brahmanas or ritual +treatises. Primarily intended to be directories of worship for the +priests, these works were enriched with all sorts of ideas about the +sacrifices, their origin, and their effects; points in the ritual are +explained in them by mythological stories which we should not +otherwise know, and we see from them that many superstitions, to +which the Vedas gave no encouragement, yet lived among the people. +Each Samhita, or collection of hymns, had its Brahmana, and some of +the collections had several. These works, though transcending in +dreariness most directories of worship, are yet of great value for +the light they throw on the history of Indian manners and ideas, as +well as on that of mythology. And as it happened among the Jews in +their later period so it happened here;--the sanctity of the text was +extended to the commentary, the brahmana also was held to be +god-given and inspired, and by some was even more highly esteemed +than the hymns themselves. A third class of inspired writings +consists of the Upanishads, or speculative treatises, of which we +shall speak later. The "Veda" in the larger sense is made up of these +three bodies of compositions, mantras, brahmanas, and upanishads. +These three belong to revelation or "S'ruti," _i.e._ hearing; what is +contained in these is to be regarded as having been heard by inspired +men from a higher source. The counterpart of S'ruti is "smriti," +_i.e._ recollection, tradition. This embraces the Sutras or works +dealing with ceremonial in the way of short rules gathered from the +older literature, with the exposition of the Vedas, with domestic +rites and conventional usages. The law books, the epics, and the +Puranas, or ancient legendary histories, also belong to this class. + +The doctrine of the Vedas, of their sacredness and of their virtues, +played a great part in Indian thought. They were revered not as a +written word, for they were not written but handed down by +memory,--the Brahman still knows his sacred literature by heart,--but +as hymns possessing supernatural powers and of far higher than human +origin. They were raised to the rank of a divinity, they were said to +have had to do with the creation of the world, or to have been among +the first created beings. The value of the study of them was not to +be exaggerated; he who engages in it, we hear, offers a complete +sacrifice, obtains for himself the world which does not pass away, +and becomes united with Brahma. The class of men who had installed +themselves as the authorised interpreters of the hymns, had evidently +taken up a very strong position. + +2. Sacrifice.--Indian ritual is an immense subject. In the Vedic +period there were several orders of sacrifice--the hymns of the +Rigveda have to do with the Soma-sacrifice alone--and several kinds +of priests, and it stands to reason that an elaborate ritual derived +from a distant age and cherished by a priestly caste which was +growing in power, could not quickly change. In spite of the +considerable amount of materials accessible in the Brahmanas and +Sutras, a history of Indian sacrifice as a whole has still to be +written. + +It is characteristic of early Indian sacrifice that it is not +confined to a temple or to any sacred spot, and that it does not +require any image of the deity. Instructions are always given for +choosing and preparing a place for the rite, and for erecting an +altar; a place had to be prepared on each occasion. The gods were +asked to come, or were thought to be seated in heaven looking on; the +sacrifice is in the open air. While the celebration proceeded +according to a certain ritual, it lay with the worshippers to fix to +what god or gods the sacrifice should be addressed. There was not one +ritual for Agni and another for Indra, but the same would serve for +either or for both. The sacrifices of which we hear in the Brahmanas +are domestic rites; they are offered by the heads of the household, +who invite ancestors also to be present. A Brahman is present to +direct those who sacrifice and the inferior priests who assist them, +and the benefits of the act extend to all the dependants of the +household. The time was determined by natural seasons or by household +events. Some sacrifices were greater than others, the more elaborate +ones requiring several days, months, or even years for their +celebration. Among the kinds of offerings which might be made we find +that of man enumerated; human sacrifice, however, if it had prevailed +in earlier times, had now grown obsolete. + +The rise of the Brahmans into a caste changed the character of the +sacrifice by making its due celebration depend more on special +knowledge, and by increasing its elaborate mystery. Once the hymn was +recognised as an essential element of such an act, the person who +could interpret the hymn and explain its effects acquired great +importance. And when the explanation of all the various features of +the sacrifice was once begun, a wide door was opened to minute +ingenuity. It is astonishing to what trifles these priestly +directories descend, what explanations are brought from every part of +earth and heaven of the most trivial circumstances, and what +sacredness is found in the very blades of grass around the altar. Now +the effect of such a treatment of ritual is inevitably that the rite +itself, the outward mechanical performance, comes to be regarded as +important, and that the ethical and religious end which was +originally aimed at, is lost sight of. The priest and those he acts +for are so intent on the minutiae of their celebration that they +forget about the god it is intended for. And as they are quite +convinced that the sacrifice, if offered with perfect correctness and +with nothing left out, must produce its effect, the sacrifice itself +comes to appear as the agent of the desired blessing; the god grows +less but the sacrifice grows more. This process, which may be +observed wherever ritualism exists, was carried in the period of +Brahmanism to its utmost length. In this period the old gods lost the +strong hold they had before over the people's mind; men ceased to +look for their gods to the sky or to the tempest, and began to look +instead to the long ceremonies of the priest or to the hymn he +chanted at the altar, or to the austerities he practised. Gods of a +new type now make their appearance. As in the Vedic period we saw +that Brahmanaspati, lord of prayer, had a place beside Indra and +Varuna, so now we see that the supreme deity is named Brahma. The +prayer connected with the sacrifice has given its name to the ruler +of the universe. Other names for the supreme are also found to be +making their way to general use, as the old historical and +mythological gods fall into the background, and an abstract divine +unity is sought after. Prajapati, lord of creatures, who is little +heard of in the hymns, is frequently invoked as the head of all the +gods, and a triad of gods is heard of, consisting of Agni, Vayu, +Surya, fire, the air, the sun, and summing up the divine energies. +The attributes of the gods are personified, and a set of pale +abstractions is thus added to the Pantheon; and spirits and goblins +not heard of in the hymns, though not therefore necessarily unknown +in the former period, make their appearance. These are, perhaps, the +gods of the aborigines, who thus revenge themselves, as the religion +of the invaders which at first suppressed them loses its earlier +vigour. The strong gods retire and weak gods, many and shadowy, and +bad as well as good, are worshipped. The Asuras were formerly the +gods generally, now they are evil beings with whom the good gods have +to contend. + +3. Practical Life.--We possess very complete pictures of Indian life +and manners in the period of Brahmanism. Of the codes of ancient +sages by which Hindu society was supposed to be governed many are +extant to us; and in Mr. Max Mueller's _Sacred Books of the East_ the +English reader may make himself acquainted with several of these. The +most famous and the longest, is the laws of Manu, a mythical +progenitor of mankind. In the form in which we have it this work +dates probably from the second century A.D., but the body of the work +is much older. Originally a local collection of rules, it extended +its authority gradually over the entire Hindu population of India. +With other collections, also of local origin, it represents to us the +condition of Indian society after the caste system became fixed; but +much of the law thus handed down to us must have had its origin in +prehistoric times. + +The law of Manu hinges on the superiority of the Brahman over the +other castes. The Brahmans form the centre of the state and really +control everything; but their life, in turn, is framed in strict +rules, and their whole history and actions are laid down for them to +the last detail from the moment of their birth. The life of the +Brahman is divided into four periods. For a quarter of his life he is +a student living with a teacher and learning from him the sacred +knowledge of the Vedas. Every act of study begins with the so-called +Savitri-verse, "Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the divine +Vivifier. May he enlighten our understandings." This prayer, with the +mystic syllable, Om (thought to have to do with the three gods of a +triad, but probably the original meaning is Yes, an abstract +all-embracing yes, in which nothing but pure being is affirmed), is +repeated at every return to study, and also with great frequency at +other times. The teacher is more to the student than his father, and +is to be treated with the greatest deference and courtesy; these +years are a training in gentle and seemly conduct as well as in law. +His student days completed, the Brahman offers his first sacrifice, +marries, and becomes a householder. Little is said of earning a +living; the Brahman is not to be worldly, but he is to be independent +if he can. He is, however, allowed to beg if in want. But more stress +is laid on the continued pursuit of knowledge, and on the domestic +sacrifices to gods and manes which are to be his daily care. After he +has brought up a son to take charge of his house and goods, the third +stage of his life is reached; he may retire from the world and become +a recluse, giving himself to contemplation and austerities. The +fourth stage is that of the ascetic, _bhikku_ or _sannyasin_, the +aged man who having given up all possessions, all human society, and +the practice of all rites, and subsisting only on alms, seeks to +purge his heart of all desire and to become united by deep meditation +with the supreme soul, thus attaining union with Brahma and final +liberation. In this section of the laws of Manu an ideal of moral +perfection is set forth, which is not demanded at the earlier stages +of life. + +"_Let him not desire to die; let him not desire to live; let him wait +for his time as a servant for the payment of his wages._ + +"_Let him patiently bear hard words, let him not insult any one, nor +become any one's enemy for the sake of this perishable body. Against +an angry man let him not in return show anger; let him bless when he +is cursed._" + +He is to be sedulously careful not to injure any living creature, he +is to meditate on the supreme soul which is present in all organisms, +both the highest and the lowest. He is to give up all attachments, +and in this way, as his body decays, he enters even here into a state +of perfect freedom and repose and union with the great spirit. + +Such ideas prove that the mind of Brahmanism was not occupied with +sacrifices alone. Manu speaks of the superintendence of sacrifices as +only one of several careers which the Brahman might choose; and if he +might with equal right devote himself to study or to self-discipline, +we see that another side of religion than that directing itself to +external gods or occupying itself with outward acts, was pressing +itself forward. The inner world of the mind is growing larger as the +outward gods grow shadowy; it is being found that salvation may be +reached by inwards efforts as well as by outward rites, that the +search for wisdom and the work of self-conquest, and a union with the +deity which is quite apart from any offering or from any form of +worship, also lead to salvation. It is objected to the ethics of Manu +that the ideal they set up is not an active but a suffering one; the +ascetic is placed on a higher platform than the householder, men are +encouraged to withdraw from the performance of their duties in the +family and in society, and to devote themselves to an aim which, +however lofty, is personal and, so far, selfish. It is certainly a +weakness in the religion that it has no higher aim than this to set +before its most eager minds. Apart from this, life is regulated in a +way we cannot but admire. Amid the mass of trivialities and +formalities in which every action is involved there breathes a grave +humane and gentle spirit, and a sound practical morality, and the +ordinary household of the Brahman may have been a scene of activity +and cheerfulness. The Sudra, however, is spoken of everywhere as a +being whose degradation can never be removed, and to touch whom is to +be defiled. Those who belonged to no caste were in a still worse +plight and lived in the greatest misery. + +4. Philosophy.--We have seen how both in the ritual system they +administered and in the ideal they formed of the highest good, the +Brahmans were led forward from the old ground of the Vedic +nature-worship to a more inward and subjective religious attitude. +The exaltation of Brahma, the power of prayer, to be the supreme god, +was an advance from an external deity to a deity both external and +present in man's own experience; and the appearance of a new way of +salvation, though only permitted at first to the world-weary ascetic, +in which inner contemplation and absorption could lead to the highest +consummation of life, also showed that a new form of religion was at +hand. In the philosophy of the Brahmanic period, the transition is +made from the service of gods external to man, by the mechanism of +rites, to the acknowledgment of a divine being with whom man feels +himself to be inwardly akin and to whom he draws near by his own +spiritual effort. In this movement, to which we learn that members of +the lay aristocracy and even women of intellectual distinction made +important contributions, and which may have appeared in its +beginnings as a sceptical revolt against their own system, the +Brahmans yet took part, and the works in which the record of it is +contained became a part of revelation. The "Upanishads" or +"communicated doctrines," form the third branch of the sacred +knowledge, and much of this literature belongs to the period before +Buddhism. These books are read still by the educated Hindu as part of +scripture, and the philosophy of them is a part of his religion. We +can only point out the principal terms and notions of that +philosophy. + +Seeking to escape from the confusion of many gods the Indian mind is +looking out even from the Vedic period for some means to conceive of +them all as one. In the earliest period each reigned in turn as the +supreme; a god is supreme not because he is essentially the greatest +of the gods, but because circumstances have brought him to the front. +This is Henotheism. Then we have attempts to sum them all up in one +expression. Prajapati, lord of creatures, Visvakarman, maker of all +things, represent such attempts. Then we have as the supreme, Brahma, +the power of prayer,[2] a being of a different character from all his +predecessors. Brahma is an intellectual deity. He is a thinker, a +knower, he is the "Mahan Atma" or great spirit, which sits in +unbroken calm above the change and distraction of the universe. In +rendering Mahan Atma by great spirit, however, we are anticipating. +Atma, originally breath or life, comes, afterwards, to mean the +person, the self when all that is accidental is removed from it, the +essential, innermost self. Now Brahma is the great self, the inmost +essence of all things, which was before them, and is unaffected by +their changes. But man also has an atma, a self; it may be very small +and lodge in a part of the body where it cannot be detected, but it +is there, and the small atma is the same as the great one. By what +physiological doctrines this is upheld, cannot here be traced; but +the notion of the atma, the great form of which in Brahma is +identical with its small form in man, lies at the basis of Brahmanic +thought. + +[Footnote 2: On the etymology of Brahma see Mr. Max Mueller's _Hibbert +Lectures_, p. 366.] + +In Brahma one god has been reached, but he has been reached by +thinking away from him everything concrete. All predicates are +unsuitable to him, as any predicate implies a limitation; he can only +be described in negatives, or in questionable metaphors. He is meant +to satisfy the religious craving for a being quite free from any +imperfection and entirely supreme--and it is the penalty of this that +he has no clear outline or character. And how indeed is he to be +related to the world? This world of change and decay, of +disappointment and sorrow, what has the perfect being to do with +that? Did he make it, and is he responsible for it? The answer to +this in Hindu thought is that the world is due to Maya, illusion. It +was due to an aberration in Brahma, which is represented in various +ways, that the transition was made from the one to the many, and this +error has been productive of all that has been suffered on the earth. +Or else it is held that it was not Brahma who became subject to +illusion, but that the illusion resides in man's views and thoughts +about the world; and if a man could free himself from the meshes of +Maya by recognising that the world is an illusion, and that nothing +exists but Brahma only, then he would have done something for his own +emancipation, the Brahma in him would be free from illusion, and he +would also have done something, though little, for the salvation of +the world from its great error. + +That the whole world-process is nothing but an illusion, a confused +and troubled dream passing over the mind of Brahma, who himself alone +is real, this is the cardinal doctrine of Brahmanism, from which +Buddhism also, as we shall see, sets out. The world is really nothing +but an apparent world; and the true wisdom, the only salvation +consists in knowing this, and in living a life in accordance with +that knowledge. The wise man should regard a world which he knows to +be illusion, with complete indifference; it can do nothing to him, he +can do nothing for it; it affects him only with an ineradicable +regret that it exists at all, and with a longing for its +disappearance. The practical outcome of the state of matters which he +recognises is firstly negative, that he must not allow the world to +influence him at all, and, secondly, positive, that he must strive to +be united with Brahma. The negative task is performed by withdrawing +the mind from all particular things, and letting it be filled with +the general, the absolute alone; and similarly by forbidding the +desires to fasten on any worldly objects, by extinguishing desire and +ceasing to be affected in any way by worldly things. The positive +task is performed by means of a mental process which we cannot here +describe, but by which the mind returns to the self that is within +and realises it as it is, cleared from all particular thoughts and +affections. These exercises cannot be called moral; where all is +illusion morality disappears. There is no good, no evil, no effort to +promote the good and lessen the evil. It is not because the world is +bad that it is condemned, but because it exists. The energy which in +other faiths is devoted to a moral struggle, is here poured into the +ascetic discipline by which the individual looks to escape altogether +from the world as it is. There are no good works, what is good is to +abstain from all works; there is no benevolence further than that the +mind must be kept clear of all that confuses or degrades; the +salvation of the individual alone is sought after; there is no desire +to spread the light and save others, since few are capable of that +knowledge of the illusive nature of all things by which alone +salvation is possible. + +This, it is plain, could never be a popular religion. Brahma, the +abstract one, does not appeal to the imagination; he could not drive +out the popular nature-gods with their definite myths and attributes. +Nor could a religion spread among the people, which regarded the +social and the domestic state as inferior, and could only be +practised by one who had left his home and family. The hermits and +ascetics and begging monks may form the religious aristocracy; but a +teaching of a different nature was necessary for the people. And we +find, in fact, two religions prevailing in India in the period of +Brahmanism; that which we have described for the enlightened, who +escapes in it from all law, all creed, all ritual, whose whole +religion more than any other which ever flourished in the world is +within the mind;[3] and on the other hand, a religion in which +outward gods are worshipped, an outward law enforced which is counted +sacred because a god or gods inspired it, and in which superstitions +gathered from all quarters find shelter. The higher religion by no +means killed the lower one, as we see in India to this day. On the +contrary, the withdrawal of the higher religion of the country to a +region whither the people could not follow, left the religion of the +people to sink into a degradation unknown before. One doctrine must +here be noticed. The belief in transmigration which Buddhism received +from the religion it found existing in India, does not belong to the +higher thought of Brahmanism described in this section; the atman or +self, which is identical with the supreme self, belongs to quite a +different order of thought from the soul which was formerly in some +one else, is now in me, and may yet come to be in many another being. +The doctrine is thought to have been an importation into India about +the time we are speaking of. It admits of being made a powerful +deterrent from vice and incentive to virtue. If my present sufferings +are due not to my acts, but to the acts of the person in whom my soul +dwelt before, it is possible for me so to act that my soul's future +existence may be better and not worse than this one, and that it +shall not sink but rise in the order of beings, and draw nearer to +its final deliverance. Of this we shall hear more in connection with +Buddhism. + +[Footnote 3: "From the standpoint of unity with Brahma, the gods are +no-gods, the Vedas no-Vedas."] + +The further development of Indian religion, apart from Buddhism, is +in two directions. There is a philosophical movement, in which the +Brahmanic ideas on God, the world, the soul and its changes, are +further worked out, and which leads to the six schools of Hindu +philosophy. On the other hand, the gods have their history. Brahma +remains the great god, but as his character is so undefined he is +little worshipped. Indra, the old national god, yields to Vishnu, the +old sun-god of the three steps (heaven, the air, the earth), who +becomes the favourite deity. The stern and destructive S'iva is a new +figure, and seems to be partly an adaptation of a god of the savage +aborigines: his worship is the most fanatical. These three, the +Creator, the Upholder, and the Destroyer, form the Trimurti, or +divine trinity of India,--a trinity arrived at not by unfolding the +riches of the one great god, but by compounding the claims of three +gods who were rivals. The doctrine of incarnation is also found here. +Vishnu has ten avatars or incarnations in human form; he comes down +to the earth when there is a special reason for his interference. In +these avatars, especially in Krishna, the dark god, whose exploits as +a hero are told in the great epic the Mahabharata, the need is to +some extent met, of which both Buddhism and Christianity lay hold, of +a divine figure who is not too far away from man, and who can be +regarded with personal affection. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Most of the books mentioned at the end of last chapter deal also with +Brahmanism. + +Of the Brahmanic literature given in the Sacred Books of the East, +the following may be mentioned:-- + + Vols. i. and xv. Upanishads. + + Vols. ii. and xiv. Sacred Laws of the Aryas. + + Vol. vii. The Institutes of Vishnu. + + Vols. xii., xxvi., and xli. The Satapatha-Brahmana (Sacrificial + Rituals). + + Vol. xxv. Manu. + + Vols. xxix., and xxx. Grihya-Sutras (Domestic Ceremonies). + + Vol. xxxiv. Vedic Hymns. xlvi. Hymns to Agni. + + Vols. xlii.-xliv. Hymns of the Atharva-Veda. + + Vols. xxxiv., xxxviii., xlviii. Vedanta Sutras. + +Muir's _Sanscrit Texts_. + +Weber, _Indische Skizzen_. + +Haug, _Aitareya Brahmana_. + + + + +CHAPTER XX +INDIA + +III. _Buddhism_ + + +In Buddhism the great movement of Indian religion works itself out to +its ultimate conclusion and reaches a stage beyond which there can be +no advance. Here we have a religion, if such it may be called, +without a god, without prayer, without priesthood or worship; a +religion which owes its great success, not to its theology, nor to +its ritual, since it has neither, but to its moral sentiment and to +its external organisation. Originating in the centre of India, and +giving practical form to Indian ideas, it spread rapidly and widely +both in the country of its birth and in neighbouring lands. It is now +extinct in India, yet it numbers more adherents than any other +religion. It has been divided since the Christian era into two great +branches. Southern Buddhism is the religion of Ceylon, of Burmah, and +of Siam; while Northern Buddhism extends over Tibet, China, and +Japan, and the islands of Java and Sumatra. + +The Literature.--These two branches of Buddhism have different +literary traditions, though some works are common to both; and these +literatures, differing from each other in language, also differ +widely in contents and in spirit. The southern tradition, composed in +Pali, the literary language of Ceylon, has recently been opened up to +scholars, and has greatly changed their views of the origin and the +true nature of this religion. The Canon of Southern Buddhism, which +we might call the Pali Bible, is a literature about twice as large as +the Bible of Europe, although if the repetitions in it were removed, +it would be somewhat smaller than the Bible. It consists of three +Pitakas, baskets or collections. The first is the Vinaya Pitaka, +dealing with discipline, but including the Mahavagga, a history of +the first beginnings of the order as the founder gathered it around +him. The second is the Sutta Pitaka or collection of teachings. It +contains the earliest account of the later life of the founder, books +of meditation and devotion, collections of sayings by the Master, +poems, fairy tales, and fables, stories about Buddhist saints, and so +on. The third collection, the Abidhamma, contains speculations and +discussions on various subjects. Much of these materials is not +peculiar to Buddhism, there is much pre-Buddhistic speculation, and +there are many stories which are not peculiar even to India. Along +with all this, however, the books give us the earliest accounts of +the life and of the death of the founder, and contain a +representation written a century after his death, of what he was +considered to have taught. The founder himself wrote nothing; but the +work of composing books about him and his doctrine began early, and +much of the canon is considered, especially by English scholars, to +have been in existence during the first Buddhist century.[1] For many +centuries they were preserved by memory alone. + +[Footnote 1: The Buddhist literature given in the _Sacred Books of +the East_ is as follows: + + Vol. x. The Dhammapada, containing the quintessence of Buddhist + morality, and the Sutta-nipata, giving teachings of Buddha on + religion. + + Vol. xi. Buddhist Suttas. Religious, moral, and philosophical + discourses. Vol. xlix. Buddhist Mahayana Sutras. + + Vol. xiii. Vinaya Texts. The Patimokha or order of discipline, and + the beginning of the Mahavagga, containing an account of the + opening of the ministry of the founder. + + Vol. xvii. Vinaya Texts ii. Mahavagga continued. Kullavagga or + discipline as established by the Master. + + Vol. xx. Kullavagga continued. + + Vols. xxii., xlv. contain Suttas of the religion of the Jainas. + + Vols. xxxv., xxxvi. Questions of King Milinda.] + +Was there a Personal Founder?--Senart in his _Essai sur la legende du +Buddha_, and Kern in his _Het Buddhisme in Indie_, both hold that we +have here to do with a sun-myth, and interpret the various features +of the legend in a very ingenious way in accordance with that theory. +This view has made few converts. Many incidents in the story are +natural, and appear to be due to a real tradition; there is literary +evidence of the early existence of the books, and the religion can be +best understood if regarded as the work of a real personality of +commanding greatness.[2] + +[Footnote 2: Recent archaeological discoveries, of which an account is +given by Mr. Rhys Davids in the _Century Magazine_, April 1902, place +it beyond doubt that the Buddha really existed, and that pious +offices were paid to his ashes after his cremation by the members of +his own clan as well as by others. Inscriptions brought to light in +1898 show that the Sakhya clan, of which he was a member, dwelt at +the time of his death in what is now a frontier district of Nepal. +Three years before that event they were driven from their old capital +Kapilavastu; but they formed a new one fifteen miles further south, +just beyond the present frontier of Nepal, and there they erected a +_stupa_ or massive stone cairn, to guard the portion of the ashes of +the Buddha which was committed to their keeping.] + +Scholars, however, are agreed as to the difficulty of drawing the +line between what is history and what is legend. Even in the early +Pali accounts the hero has become a religious figure, he wears titles +which lift him above mankind, and he has supernatural powers at his +command. A laborious critical process must be undertaken, comparing +the various narratives with each other and testing them in other +ways, before the real history can be regarded as made out beyond +question. The slight sketch of the story which we give does not aim +at such critical correctness; we merely indicate the outline of a +narrative which is one of the principal sources of the strength of +the religion. + +The Story of the Founder.--The founder's family name was Gautama, and +by that name he was commonly known during his lifetime. The personal +name given him as a child was Siddartha. Those who wished after his +death to speak of him with reverence called him Sakya-Muni, the Sage +of the Sakyas. These were a tribe who dwelt, at the period of the +story, _i.e._ half a millennium before Christ, in the country to the +north of the sacred Ganges, a few days' journey from the city of +Benares. Gautama's father, Suddhodana, was rajah (chief) of the +Sakyas; his residence was Kapilavastu, near Oude. The future sage +thus belonged to the Kshatriya class, and was accustomed to a +position of rank and ease. We hear little of his youth; he had been +married ten years, and his wife, whom he loved, had just brought him +a son, when, at the age of twenty-nine, he suddenly and secretly left +his home to devote himself to the religious life. He was led to this +step by witnessing various painful sights which caused him vividly to +realise the suffering which accompanies all existence, and made him +scorn a life of luxury. It was a time when many were seeking a better +way, and when a superior mind naturally turned to that retirement and +absorption in which it was believed that the key to life's pains and +mysteries was to be found. In the "Great Renunciation," as this act +is called, there is nothing we cannot understand. This lofty act, +however, was followed by a temptation; Mara, the spirit of evil, +urged him, but urged him in vain, to give up the purpose he had +formed. He then attached himself to Brahmanic ascetics, from whom he +learned their philosophy; and after this he devoted himself for six +years to a life of fasting and penance, the Brahmanic method for +drawing nearer the goal of the religious life. After this period he +gave up his fasting, not having profited by it as he had expected, +and returned to an ordinary diet. This change cost him the adhesion +of five disciples who had become attached to him, and had been filled +with wonder at his mortifications. But the loss was a small one +compared with the gain which was at hand. After a second great +spiritual struggle and a renewal of the temptation, he at last +reached that which he had long been seeking. Seated under a _ficus +religiosa_, the tree afterwards called the tree of knowledge, or the +Bo-tree, he rose in contemplation above all his temptations and +doubts till he beheld at length the true nature of things. From this +moment he was Buddha, Enlightened; he had the key of truth, and for +himself he was assured that sorrow and evil had lost all hold on him. +His doctrine had dawned in his mind. He had discovered the cause of +the sorrow which is so closely intertwined in man's life, and had +divined the way in which sorrow might be overcome. The method had +been found by which one could escape from the unending succession of +new lives, all painful, to which, according to the general belief of +the time, men were condemned. The words placed in the mouth of the +founder when he attained to Buddhahood tell their own tale. "Looking +for the Maker of this tabernacle, I have to run through a course of +many births so long as I do not find him; and painful is birth again +and again. But now, Maker of the tabernacle, thou hast been seen; +thou shalt not make up this tabernacle again. All thy rafters are +broken; thy ridge-pole is sundered; the mind, approaching the +eternal, has attained to the extinction of all desires."[3] + +[Footnote 3: Dhammapada, _S. B. E._ x. 42.] + +The great discovery being made, and duly pondered and realised, the +question arose, What was to be done with it? The Buddha shrinks from +the work of preaching it to others. Brahma himself is brought into +the story to encourage him to make his secret known to others, and to +assure him that many will receive it with great joy. The Blessed One +consents, and thus replies: "Wide open is the gate of the Immortal to +all who have ears to hear; let them send forth faith to meet it. The +teaching is sweet and good; because I despaired of the task, I spake +not to men before."[4] He turns his steps, guided by his own +supernatural knowledge, to the city of Benares, to seek the five +monks who had formerly abandoned him. On his way thither he meets a +naked ascetic who asks the reason of his cheerful mien; he answers +that he has overcome all foes, has reached emancipation by the +destruction of desire, and has obtained Nirvana. "To found the +kingdom of Truth I go to the city of the Kasis (Benares); I will beat +the drum of the Immortal in the darkness of this world." The account +which follows of the opening of the "kingdom of righteousness" +presents many analogies to the early stages of other spiritual +movements. The founder, immovably sure of himself and of his +doctrines, goes from place to place, spending the rainy season in +town, and preaching everywhere. It is at Benares that the "wheel of +the law" is first set in motion; there the first sermon was preached. +The circumstances are also narrated under which other sermons were +delivered, details being given as to time, place, the persons who +heard them, the incidents which occasioned them. His converts at +first are few and their names are recorded, but by degrees they +become more numerous. The more devoted of them become members of his +order, Bhikkus (for Bhikshus), mendicants; they forsake domestic +life, shave their heads, adopt the yellow dress and the alms-bowl. +They also are sent out to preach. "Go ye, O Bhikkus, and wander, for +the welfare of many, out of compassion for the world, for the gain +and for the welfare of gods and men. Let not two of you go the same +way. Preach, O Bhikkus, the doctrine which is glorious in the +beginning, glorious in the middle, glorious in the end, in the +spirit, and in the letter; proclaim a consummate, perfect, and pure +life of holiness. There are beings whose mental eyes are covered with +scarcely any dust, but if the doctrine is not preached to them they +cannot attain salvation." The incidents narrated in this part of the +story are mostly connected with persons seeking admission to the +order, or persons requiring to be convinced; the doctrine and its +spread are everything. That spread takes place, as it is desired by +the Buddha, chiefly among the higher classes of society; a great +triumph is reached when Bimbisara, king of Magadha, becomes a patron +of the order, and some accounts tell of the conversion of the +Buddha's own father and mother. The work of the mission is of a +peaceful nature; the Buddha lives on good terms with the Brahmans and +with other teachers and their pupils. The only formidable opposition +he had to meet arose within the order. His cousin Dewadatta, who had +become a monk, wished to found a new order with much stricter rules +than those of the original one. The Buddha refused to attach +importance, as was proposed, to matters of clothes and food, or +living in the open air; to do so would have made his movement +narrower and less universal than he desired. + +[Footnote 4: Mahavagga, _S. B. E._ xiii. 88.] + +The beginning of the ministry is told in some detail, but of a long +period of the life only a few scattered incidents are given. There is +a detailed account of the three last months of the life. The Buddha +is now eighty years of age, and in the Maha-paranibbana Sutta[5] the +tale of his migrations and preachings is carried on according to the +same scheme as in the accounts of his early days. During the rainy +season, however, when he has reached the age of eighty, he has an +illness, and sees he cannot live long. This he tells his monks, +exhorting them with urgency to be true to the teaching and the order, +and to shed the light abroad. His end is hastened by a meal of pork +set before him by a goldsmith, a man of low caste, who hospitably +entertained him. After this his face shines with a heavenly radiance, +and as the end approaches many heavenly signs appear. The Buddha is +fully conscious that he is about to leave the world, and that his +death is an event of supreme interest to the heavenly powers, whom he +believes to be thronging around to watch his last hours. He is +solicitous, however, to soothe the grief of his friends, large +numbers of whom also are around him, and to give them such counsels +and such incentives to a faithful upholding of the cause as he yet +may. They ask about his obsequies, and he claims that the remains of +such an one as he is, of a Tathagata, "one who has attained +perfection," should be treated as men treat the remains of a king of +kings. He recognises the kindness of Ananda, his most intimate +disciple, and tries to comfort him by encouraging him to be earnest +in effort, so that he too may soon be free from evils. He directs his +disciples generally not to mourn too much at his removal as if they +were being deserted. The truths which he has set forth, and the rules +of the order he has laid down for them, are to be their teacher after +he is gone. He asks if any of them has any doubt or misgiving as to +the Buddha, or the truth, or the faith, or the way. If so, they are +to inquire freely, so that they may not reproach themselves +afterwards for not having consulted him while still among them. The +brethren, however, are silent, though addressed again and again in +the same way. In the whole assembly there is not one who has any +doubt or misgiving. Even the most backward of these brethren has +become converted (lit. "entered into the current"); he is no longer +liable to be born to a state of suffering, but is assured of eternal +salvation. + +[Footnote 5: _S. B. E._ vol. xl.] + +"Then the Blessed One addressed the brethren and said, 'Behold now, +brethren, I exhort you,' saying, 'Decay is inherent in all things +that have come into being. Work out your salvation with diligence!' + +"This was the last word of the Tathagata!" + +His death or Nirvana forms the era of Buddhist chronology, and the +date has now been approximately fixed with some certainty; it took +place somewhere in the decade 482-472 B.C. + +Is Buddhism a Revolt against Brahmanism?--Before proceeding to +discuss the religion to which this somewhat monkish narrative forms +the preface, it is necessary to say a few words on the relation which +that religion is now supposed to hold to the general history of +Indian piety. It was customary, till recently, to regard Buddha as a +great reformer, and his religion as a great revolt against that which +it found prevailing in India. He is credited with having preached +atheism as a reaction against the burdensome worship of too many +gods, with having instituted a great social movement consisting in +the abolition of caste, with having openly denied the authority of +the Vedas, till then unchallenged, and with having rebuked the pride +of Brahmanism by making his order of mendicants the representatives +of his religion. None of these assertions can now be upheld. Instead +of having been a tremendous reaction against Brahmanism it is seen +that Buddhism was the natural outgrowth of that system. The closer +knowledge of both, gained by the opening up of the sacred books of +India, tends to show that much that was formerly thought distinctive +of Buddhism was in reality inherited from Brahmanism. We saw in +dealing with the earlier form of Indian religion that a form of piety +had been struck out in it which made the ascetic independent of +sacrifice, priesthood, even of the gods, all save the one God who is +in all things. In that phase of Indian religion the authority of the +Vedas had already been impugned, an inner discipline had taken the +place of outward worship, the saint had learned to forsake the world. +This turn of religious thought produced all the phenomena of Buddhism +before the period of Gautama. The sannyasin (_vide sup._, chapter +xix.) of Brahmanism is also called bhikku, mendicant; the rules of +the older ascetics are closely similar to those of the Buddhist monk; +their very outfit, their cloak and alms-bowl, are the same. + +A circumstance which shows very clearly how far Buddhism was from +bearing the character of a revolt, is the occurrence at the same time +and in the same district of India of another movement of a very +similar nature. Jainism is an Indian religion so like Buddhism as to +have been considered by many to be a sect of the latter. It also has +an order of monks with robes and with a rule like those of the +Buddhist fraternity. It also has a human founder on whom many of the +same titles are conferred as on Gautama, and who is afterwards +deified and worshipped. Mahavira, the founder of Jainism, is, like +Gautama, the son of a royal house; and the Jainist and the Buddhist +legend have many features in common. Was the legend of Mahavira, +then, a sectarian version of the legend of Gautama, did no such +person exist, at least as the founder of a religious body? So it was +formerly considered; but it has now been discovered that the Buddhist +scriptures themselves bear witness to the actual existence of +Mahavira in the lifetime of Gautama, who once had an encounter with +him and confuted him. It appears then that two similar movements were +going on close together at the same time. They were independent of +each other; the two rules differ in important particulars. Jainism +carries to a much greater length than Buddhism the "ahimsa," or +prohibition of the destruction of life; the Jainists practise +austerities which Buddhism discards, and in the philosophies of the +two systems there are far-reaching discrepancies. On the other hand, +both Buddhism and Jainism borrow from Brahmanism most of their +practices and institutions; both are developments of the way of +salvation struck out not by Brahmans alone, but by men of other +castes and other views, when faith in the old national gods was +growing dim. + +We now proceed to discuss the Buddhist system, taking it as it +appears in the early books, which tell us at least what was believed +in the fourth century B.C. to have been the ideas and intentions of +the founder. The following is the formula in which the convert +expressed his desire to be admitted to the order: "I take shelter in +the Buddha, I take shelter in the Dhamma (doctrine), I take shelter +in the Samgha (order)." + +1. The Buddha.--This confession of faith is directed to a triad of +which the Buddha is the first member. Now the title Buddha was not +invented by Buddhism, but belongs to earlier Indian thought, which +held that from time to time, in a specially favoured age, an +Enlightened One and Enlightener, an omniscient and perfect teacher, +visited the world. Of these there had been in former ages +twenty-four, and the followers of Gautama held him to be the +twenty-fifth, but not the last. The application to Gautama of this +title removed him, to the believer, from the ranks of ordinary men, +and was the signal for a constantly increasing exaltation of his +person. In adhering to the Buddha, therefore, the convert is not +bowing to a mere man, but to one in whom a new type of deity is on +the way to be realised. He is a man; there is a record of his human +life, in which he made a great renunciation, abandoning, out of +compassion for men's sufferings, a position of lordly ease for that +of the mendicant. In this way he is a saviour not too exalted for the +pious heart to love and follow. Having found out in his own +experience the way of peace, and opened up that way for others, he is +a pattern and an encouragement as well as a lawgiver to the earnest +soul; and the personal relation which may thus be enjoyed with the +founder is one great secret of the success of the religion. On the +other hand, he is more than a man. The belief grew up very early that +he was not born in the ordinary way, but that his birth had been his +own voluntary act, and that his great renunciation consisted in his +choosing, out of compassion for men, to enter human life and to bear +the burden of its sufferings. In this way a religion which originally +had no gods and no worship began to supply itself with these. Some +scholars hold that it was among the lay community, among men not +thoroughly initiated into Buddhist thought, and failing to find in +the new faith what their former religions had afforded, that the +deification of the Buddha and the worship of him began; it may +certainly be doubted whether the religion could have lived long or +spread far if these deficiencies had not been early supplied. + +2. The Doctrine.--The life of the founder gives us the key to his +doctrine. We see at once that that doctrine was not negative but +positive and constructive. Neither was it socially of a revolutionary +character, nor did it deny any part of the existing religion. We +never read that Gautama's teaching was assailed by the Brahmans as +unsound; it was centuries after his death that antagonism broke out +between the order and the upholders of other systems. Nor again did +the teaching put forward a new philosophy. On certain points which we +shall notice there is a development of thought in it; but this was +not obtruded. + +In fact the doctrine is not a speculation at all, but a way of +salvation which is preached for its own sake, and carefully guarded +from being mixed up with speculative or religious controversy. The +Buddha is one who has found out a new way to be saved, and he comes +forward to preach what he has discovered, and that alone. Other +matters he leaves as they are. "All his discourses savour of +redemption as all the sea is salt." Other men may draw inferences as +to the relation his doctrine bears to the position of the Brahmans, +or to the sacrifices, or to existing beliefs; he does not draw these +inferences, he feels no need to do so. + +The doctrine professes to be an answer to a definite problem--the +problem of pain. It is the most characteristic thing about both the +founder and the doctrine, that they start from the universal +existence of pain, to seek a remedy for it; they are inspired +therefore from the first by a dark view of human life, and by the +sentiment of compassion. It was the impression made on the young +prince, of the general prevalence of suffering, that drove him forth +from the palace to be a sannyasin or devotee. In a striking sermon he +uses the figure of fire to indicate how universal is the rule of pain +in all parts of nature and of human life. "All is burning; the eye is +burning, and all it looks on and all it remembers of what it has +seen"; so it is with each of the senses, so also with the mind. The +fire is that of passion, of malice, of illusion, of birth, of age, of +death, of pain, despondency, and despair. But the nature of the +complaint from which man suffers, and also the remedy for it, are +described most clearly in the "Four Noble Truths" set forth in the +opening sermon at Benares. In these memorable utterances the teacher +expresses himself according to the rules of the medical art, first +setting forth the nature of the disease, then its cause, then how it +takes end, and lastly, the means to be adopted in order that it may +do so. + +1. The Noble Truth of _Suffering_. Birth is suffering, decay is +suffering, illness is suffering, death is suffering. Presence of +objects we hate is suffering, separation from objects we love is +suffering, not to obtain what we desire is suffering. Briefly, the +fivefold clinging to existence is suffering. + +2. The Noble Truth of the _Cause of Suffering_. Thirst that leads to +rebirth, accompanied by pleasure and lust, finding its delight here +and there. This thirst is threefold, namely, thirst for pleasure, +thirst for existence, thirst for prosperity. + +3. The Noble Truth of the _Cessation of Suffering_. It ceases with +the complete cessation of this thirst, a cessation which consists in +the absence of every passion, with the abandoning of this thirst, +with the deliverance from it, with the destruction of desire. + +4. The Noble Truth of the _Path which leads to the Cessation of +Suffering_. The holy eightfold Path; that is to say, Right Belief, +Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of +Livelihood, Right Endeavour, Right Memory, Right Meditation. + +In these statements there are some things which we can readily +understand, but also some things which are not so easy. It is a +thought with which Christians are familiar, that desire is the parent +of all sorts of pain and disappointment, that the assertion of the +self, the putting forward of personal wishes and claims, involves +suffering. And we read in the Gospels that the way to escape from +such suffering is to cease from desire, no longer to be anxious about +what this world can give us or take from us, and not to lay up +treasures. Buddhist doctrine has its moral basis in the perception of +the vanity of all human effort and desire, and in the conviction that +the true riches for man cannot consist in any of those goods to which +the heart naturally clings. Where that perception does not exist, +where the first of the Noble Truths is not accepted as beyond all +question, Buddhism can have no hold. So far the doctrine is easy to +follow. But in the second of the Truths we find that the cause of +suffering is sought in the history of the human person as Indian +thought conceives it. Man suffers because he has been born again, has +suffered a rebirth, and the cause of his rebirth is the thirst which +has been felt or even nourished in a previous existence. The thought +that suffering is due to desire is not presented simply, as it is in +our Gospels, but in connection with a doctrine of man's life and of +the connection of one generation with another, which is quite strange +to us, but apart from which primitive Buddhism held that its doctrine +of suffering could not be understood. The Buddha, after discovering +the doctrine, is at first in doubt whether or not he will preach it; +and the cause of his doubt is that he is not sure if men will be able +to understand the law of causality and the chain of existence, on +which he himself meditated a whole night after his enlightenment, and +his discovery of which he regards as a great part of his achievement. +This chain of causation is stated in a long series of asserted +processes, in which the connection between one generation and +another, and the transmission from life to life of the melancholy +heritage of desire and sorrow, is obscurely and enigmatically traced. +The beginning of all is ignorance (of the four truths); from +ignorance proceed the "samkharas" or forms of production, from these +in turn consciousness, the senses, contact, sensation, thirst, and so +on to birth and the miseries of life. Suffering is destroyed by +tracing this sequence over again in a negative way, so that, the +first member of it being destroyed, each subsequent member is +destroyed in turn. + +It is no wonder that the founder doubted whether this doctrine of +causation would be generally understood; for it is in fact an attempt +to reconcile two opposite views of the nature of the human person. In +the first place we find in early Buddhism the thought that there is +no such thing as a self in the human being; a man is made up of +various bundles of attributes and sensations called _skandhas_, but +he himself is none of these. There is no persistent substratum of a +self under these activities and forms, any more than there is a +carriage in addition to the wheels, shafts, nails, etc., of which a +carriage is composed. The Buddhist is called on to give up the belief +in a permanent ego; only where the various parts come together is the +man there. This is the well-known denial of the soul in this +religion; the soul is nothing but the "name and form" of a chance +collocation of elements. It is hard to know where this doctrine came +from; Kern says it is derived from the science of dissection, others +compare it with the doctrine of Heraclitus, taught about the same +time in Greece, that all things are in constant flux, nothing +permanent. The last words of the Master assert that decay is +universal; and the doctrine of the skandhas is a corollary from that +principle; if all the elements of which the human person is made up +are in process of decay, then the self cannot be a substantial and +persistent thing. That doctrine, however, does not go well together +with the belief in the universality and inexorableness of suffering. +If there is no self, must not consciousness come to an end when the +elements fall asunder which chance has brought together, and must not +the hour of death be also the hour of complete emancipation? This, +however, it was impossible to hold in India at the time of Gautama; +the belief in transmigration was too firmly fixed, he never thought +of disputing it. That belief indeed is what chiefly makes the +suffering of the world so lamentable. To Indian eyes the pain +actually in the world was magnified a hundred-fold by the dark +imagination of its connection with the past and with the future. What +a man suffered was the result of acts done in many former lives, all +spent in the vain misery of desire; and the sad prospect was extended +before him that death would not end his pains, but that he would be +born again and again to suffer ever anew so long as desire continued. +But if this is the case, then the soul would seem to be a durable and +persistent thing which is able to go through many lives and much +suffering without being brought to an end. On the theory of +transmigration the soul is not a mere shadow-name of an aggregation +of qualities, but the one durable thing which survives when all that +is accidental and temporary falls away from it. The doctrine of the +Skandhas and that of transmigration are thus opposed, and the +doctrine of the _nidanas_ or the chain of causation is the bridge +which satisfied Gautama's own mind, but which he was doubtful about +presenting to others, to bring them into harmony. He aimed at showing +by his catalogue of these obscure processes how the actions done in a +life set up a tendency to a corresponding existence in another life +which begins after the former one ends. Though there is no soul to be +transmitted, the moral effects of former lives are transmitted to +their successors. + +The essential doctrine of the Buddha, however, is determined by the +belief in transmigration. His cry of triumph at the time of his +enlightenment is to the effect that the long series of suffering +existences through which he has passed has now come to an end, and +that he will not be born again. And what he preaches with constant +iteration is the misery of this awful succession of births to renewal +of suffering, and the infinite blessedness of escaping from this +cycle. The disciple, when converted, is to be able to say: "Hell is +destroyed for me, and rebirth as an animal or a ghost or in any place +of woe. I am converted, I am no longer liable to be reborn in a state +of suffering, and am assured of eternal salvation." + +Now it rests with a man's own acts to end his sufferings. The chain +of causation which ends with suffering begins with ignorance. The +ignorance which is meant is that of the four noble truths, of the way +of salvation. Let a man cease from ignorance, let him accept the +Noble Truths and the insight they convey into the cause of suffering, +then by ceasing to thirst, or to burn, or in our own language by +turning his mind away from all desire, believing that what he does +will be effective for his salvation, he sets up a chain of causation +in an opposite direction, and having destroyed ignorance he may rest +assured that he has destroyed suffering too and is in the right way. +The burden he has inherited he will not need to carry any farther, +but will, when he dies, lay down for ever. + +When we look at the fourth Noble Truth, which tells what a man has to +do in order to obtain this salvation, we are at first surprised. +After the deep earnestness with which the nature of the disease and +the cause and cure of the disease have been stated, we expect that +stronger practical measures will be asked for than these eight forms +of moderation. Christianity speaks of cutting off the right hand, +plucking out the right eye, in order to cut off desire: and the +Brahmanic method of union with the Deity was, as we have seen, that +of the most extreme self-mortification united with contemplation. +This Brahmanic method, the _yoga_ by which the devotee sought to +escape from all the accidents of being and to make himself one with +the great Self, the Buddha had tried for six years; but he had given +it up for a year when the hour of his enlightenment struck, and he +explicitly condemns for others the path he had found unprofitable for +himself. It is one of two extremes, both to be avoided, "The one +extreme is a life devoted to pleasures and lusts; this is degrading, +sensual, vulgar, profitless; the other is a life given to +mortifications; this is painful, ignoble, and profitless. By avoiding +these two extremes the Tathagata has gained the knowledge of the +Middle Path, which leads to insight, wisdom, calm, to Nirvana." The +way, therefore, to escape from the Karma, the moral retribution which +works inexorably in one life the result stored up in previous lives, +is that of a careful and unintermitted self-discipline, which does +not run to extremes, but practices, with perfectly clear purpose and +self-possession, the needful virtues mentioned in the fourth of the +Noble Truths. What are these? There is to be-- + + 1. Right belief, without superstition or delusion. + + 2. Right aspiration, after such things as the thoughtful and + earnest man sets store by. + + 3. Right speech, speech that is friendly and sincere. + + 4. Right conduct, conduct that is peaceable, honourable, and pure. + + 5. Right means of livelihood, _i.e._ a pursuit which does not + involve the taking or injuring of life. + + 6. Right endeavour, _i.e._ self-restraint and watchfulness. + + 7. Right memory, _i.e._ presence of mind, not forgetting at any + time what one ought to remember; and + + 8. Right meditation, _i.e._ earnest occupation with the riddles of + life. + +This is the path; there are four stages of it-- + + 1. The stage of him who has entered the path. + + 2. The stage of him who has yet to return once to life. + + 3. The stage of him who returns not again, but may be born again as + a superior being; and + + 4. The stage of the worthy, holy one, the _Arahat_, who is free + from desire for existence, and also from pride and + self-righteousness, and who is saved and has obtained holiness, + even in this life. + +An Arahat is not equal to a Buddha; the former is himself saved, but +the perfect Buddha is able by his perfect knowledge to save others. +Of Buddhas, however, there are not many. One becomes an Arahat by a +life of strenuous and untiring discipline. Ten fetters are to be +broken by which a man is kept from freedom; self-deception is one of +them, trust in sacrifice another, and the list embraces both sensual +and intellectual weaknesses. One must watch and be sober; every act, +however trivial, is to be done with full self-consciousness and +earnestness. One must remember that he is engaged in a great and a +hard work, and must resolutely "swim upstream," estimating at its +proper value every affection and temptation that would hold him back. +The body is to be contemned, and all natural ties; emotion is to be +uprooted from the heart so that the proper state of entire calm and +undisturbedness may be maintained. Then one is an Arahat, a true +Brahman. This manner of life requires withdrawal from the world; the +true salvation can only be attained by him who has left his home for +the houseless life. But Buddhism has also a general moral code for +those who have not taken this step; the keeping of it will not save +them directly; from the life they are now leading that is impossible, +but it is a beginning; it will make it easier for them to become +Arahats and attain salvation in some future existence. For all it is +good to be free from desire; as all desire contains in itself a germ +of death, there is no approach to salvation except in this direction. + +Buddhist Morality.--Towards fellow-men Buddhist morality is based on +the notion of the equality of all; respect is to be paid to all +living beings. The five rules of righteousness which are binding on +all followers of the Buddha are: + + 1. Not to kill any living being. + + 2. Not to take that which is not given. + + 3. To refrain from adultery. + + 4. To speak no untruth. + + 5. To abstain from all intoxicating liquors. + +To these are added five more for members of the order, who are also +required to refrain from all sexual intercourse, viz.: + + 1. Not to eat after mid-day. + + 2. Not to be present at dancing, singing, music, or plays. + + 3. Not to use wreaths, scents, ointments, or personal ornaments. + + 4. Not to use a high or a broad bed. + + 5. To possess no silver or gold. + +These commandments, like those of the Decalogue, are negative in +form; but in the Buddhist scriptures a positive moral ideal is +inculcated on all, which is grave and attractive in its character, +and is sustained by a strong though quiet enthusiasm. We find here a +delicate conscientiousness as to the relations to be cultivated with +one's fellow-men; the widest toleration is enjoined, a toleration +extending to all beings, to all opinions. Hatred is to be repaid by +love, life is to be filled with kindness and compassion. The +Dhammapada and the Sutta-nipata deserve to be read by all who care +for the unseen riches of the soul. By their simple earnestness, their +quaint use of parable and metaphor, and their mingling of the +homeliest things with the highest truths, these books take rank among +the most impressive of the religious books of the world. We give only +a few jewels from this treasury. + +From the Dhammapada.--Earnestness is the path of immortality +(Nirvana), thoughtlessness the path of death. Those who are in +earnest do not die, those who are thoughtless are as if dead already. + +All that we are is the result of what we have thought; it is founded +on what we have thought, it is made up of what we have thought. If a +man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a +shadow that never leaves him. + +By oneself evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is +left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong +to oneself; no one can purify another. + +From the Sutta-nipata.--To live in a suitable country, to have done +good deeds in a former existence, and a thorough study of oneself, +this is the highest blessing. + +As a mother at the risk of her life watches over her own child, her +only child, so also let every one cultivate a boundless friendly mind +towards all beings. + +A Bhikku who has turned away from desire and attachment, and is +possessed of understanding in this world, has already gone to the +immortal place, the unchangeable state of Nirvana. + +Nirvana.--Our account of the doctrine would appear incomplete if we +did not attempt to answer the question, What is Nirvana? It is, as +the last extract shows, the state of salvation in Buddhism. As we +have seen, it is the condition of the man who has escaped from the +series of rebirths, and will never be born again. It is attained even +in this life by the Arahat, in whom all desire and restlessness have +come to an end. On the other hand, it is said of such an one that he +enters Nirvana when he dies, as if it were a state not of this life, +but of the period beyond. Thus it has been much debated whether the +Buddhist (or rather Indian, for the notion is not peculiar to +Buddhism) Nirvana is extinction, annihilation, of which the quenching +of desire in this life is the prelude, or if it is a state of +negative or quiescent blessedness, on which the saint can enter here +and now, but which is only made perfect when he dies. But there are +two Nirvanas;--that of entire passionlessness attained in this life, +and the consummate Nirvana entered at death. The saint does not need +to wait for death for his redemption, nor must he hasten his death in +order to enjoy it fully; Buddha, by example and by precept, forbids +any such anticipation. Death seals that which was already won, there +is no return from the Nirvana of death to any further life. This, +however, does not amount to an assertion that the dead Arahat has no +life or knowledge in the beyond; he is freed from desire, but whether +his consciousness is altogether extinguished, Buddhism does not +decide, and regards as a vain speculation. + +No Gods.--We shall speak afterwards of this view of redemption, which +is the key to the nature of the Buddhist religion. We remark here +that it is a redemption man achieves by his own efforts, without any +outward prop or aid. In this system there is no occasion for any +priests or sacrifices, for any prayers, or for any gods. There is no +ritual, because there is no object of worship, there is no sin in the +sense of offending a higher being. The gods are denied not because of +any speculative doubt of their existence, but because in that inner +world of moral effort which man has come to feel so supremely real +and important, they have no part to play. As all the gods faded away +in Indian speculation before Brahma, so Brahma's own turn has come to +fade away. The Buddhist speaks of the gods as if they existed, and he +makes no attack on the sacrifices; but no living god fills his heart. +The Buddha is greater than all the gods; his teaching is for the +benefit of gods as well as men. But the Buddha is not an object of +worship. If the Buddhist can be said to worship any higher power, it +is the moral order which never fails to reward men according to the +deeds done in this or former existences. That is for him a real and +tremendous, though impersonal power, and in contemplating it he may +be said to worship after a fashion. But he has no aid to look for +from any power in heaven or earth in working out his salvation. +Buddhism is the most autosoteric of all religions; it declares more +uncompromisingly than any other, that man must save himself by his +own efforts, and that no one can possibly stand in his place or +relieve him of any part of his great task. All that any one, even the +Buddha, can do for another, is to enlighten him, to open his eyes to +the true knowledge, and show him the narrow path on which he must +thenceforth walk. + +3. The Order.--There were monks before Buddhism. That religion made +its appearance when Indian thought was at the stage of growth at +which monastic communities may be expected to arise. When religion +has ceased to be regarded as the affair of the nation or the tribe, +and is cherished as the affair of the individual, when the mind turns +from the sacrifices and ritual of public religion to cultivate +relations with a power known chiefly in the heart and soul, and when +religious duty has thus come to be recognised as a boundless and +all-embracing thing, not a service the hands and feet can discharge, +but the effort, never ending, still beginning, to make the whole +personality with all its acts and aims conform to the ideal, then it +is that men who are living for religion seek for such aid as they can +give each other, and find it in an order and a discipline. The rules +of the Buddhist Samgha or order are extant, and so are the rules of +the contemporary Jainist fraternity. The Samgha resembled the +Franciscan more than the other great Christian orders. The Bhikku on +joining it abandoned his family and property, assumed the yellow robe +and other scanty properties of the character, and lived thenceforth +by begging, and in strict subjection to the rules, in which every +detail of his food, his clothing, his residence, and his daily walk +and conversation, were laid down. The two great objects of the +society were mutual help in the religious life and the preaching of +the doctrine. Under the first head come the frequent meetings of +monks and the confessions they make to each other according to a +fixed form. There is no vow of obedience; the monk obeys the law, not +the human authority. In preaching they are to go one by one, and they +are to preach to all. To all who would hear it was the gate open to +this salvation. Here the Buddhist neglect of caste comes in. Buddhism +makes no general or formal declaration of the equality of all men, +nor is there any attack on the Brahman caste or any exaltation of the +lower castes. The order drew its recruits at first from the ranks of +the Brahmans. But the impelling motive of the new religion was +compassion, and genuine compassion is not to be restrained in +artificial limits. The salvation preached was fitted for all men. The +disease to be cured was one from which all suffer, and the cure was +one which all could at least begin to lay hold of. Thus Buddhism was +fitted to break through the barriers of caste, and to gather into one +religious community men of all castes alike. In the community, it was +held, these distinctions disappeared. Not birth but conduct there +made the true Brahman. The universalist tendency of the religion also +fitted it to spread to other lands. It was not limited by anything in +its teaching to the soil of India, nor to the territory of any +particular set of gods. So wide indeed is its toleration, that a man +may embrace it without giving up the faith in which he lived before. +One can add it without incongruity to one's former beliefs and +practices. The believer in Shang-ti can be a Buddhist as well as the +believer in Brahma.[6] The absence of any hierarchy or centralised +organisation enabled it to spread freely, and the very meagreness of +its doctrine, and its freedom from ritual, were also in its favour. + +[Footnote 6: Millions of Buddhists in China and Japan are also +adherents of the other religions of these countries.] + +Buddhism made Popular.--Buddhism proved able to spread over many +lands because it was so simple, and in its essence so moral and so +broadly human. But, like other faiths which have spread to many +lands, it assumed very different forms in different countries, and +the later form is often very different from the early simplicity. +Even at the outset it was not free from a strong infusion of magic; +the Arahat, like the Brahmanic ascetic before him, was believed to +obtain influence over the gods by his virtues, and thus a claim to +supernatural power is brought in, which agrees but ill with the +ethical doctrine. The religion, which at first ignored the gods and +bade each man trust to his own efforts for his highest good, became, +ere long, what a popular religion at the stage of progress prevailing +at that time necessarily was, namely, a worship of superior beings +and a method of obtaining benefits from them. The national gods were +discarded, but the deification of the founder early furnished a being +who could be worshipped. Legend grew luxuriantly round his birth and +early career; and he obtained the rank of the greatest of all the +gods. Former Buddhas who had lived in former ages still lived as +gods; and the divine family, being once founded, admitted of various +additions; even a popular deity, such as Indra, could be joined to +the growing circle. The chief scenes of the life of the founder +became holy places and objects of pilgrimage, where relics were +exposed for adoration. The growth of legend and of magic proceeded +more rapidly, and went to greater lengths, in Northern than in +Southern Buddhism; but in the land of its birth, too, Buddhism proved +unable to serve as a working religion without additions and +modifications entirely foreign to its true character. The profession +of Buddhism was combined even with the savage worship of the +non-Aryan tribes; Siva was identified with Buddha and then worshipped +instead of him, as also was Vishnu, and the perversion and +degradation of the religion prepared for its expulsion from the +country of its birth. That expulsion was probably brought about more +immediately by the advance of Mohammedanism in India, and took place +in the period of the early Middle Ages. We cannot speak here of the +strange guise Buddhism has assumed in the north of India, notably in +Tibet. The Lamaism of that country, with its perpetual living +incarnation of the divine Buddha in a succession of human +representatives, its hierarchical church strongly resembling in many +of its features the Church of Rome, and the prayer-flags and wheels +for the mechanical discharge of religious acts, have long been the +wonder of the world. + +Conclusion.--It is not from what Buddhism is now in any of the +countries where it flourishes, and where it has votaries who profess +other religions also, that we can judge of what it really is, or +estimate its value as a product of the human mind. It is to early +Buddhism that we must look for this. What are we to judge of this +religion without gods, and based on the assertion that all life is +suffering, and that the chief good is altogether to escape from life? +It is not true to characterise it as a religion in which there is no +joy, and which deliberately refuses to have anything to do with joy. +The Arahat, in whom desire is vanquished, and who has no further +birth to anticipate, is filled with a deep joy and triumph as of a +victor who has conquered every foe; and those who are less advanced +in the path yet have their share in this enthusiasm, and are inspired +by it to continue the struggle. Still Buddhism is a sad religion. It +arrives in India when the Deity there believed in has deserted the +world, and tells man he is alone in it. There is no one to help him, +no one to assure him that the good cause in a wider sense--a cause +extending beyond his own personal life--is destined to succeed; there +is no upholder of any moral order beyond that which works itself out +in each individual experience. The result is that the believer does +not trouble himself about the world, but only about his own personal +salvation. This religion is not a social force, it aims not at a +Kingdom of God to be built up by the united efforts of multitudes of +the faithful, but only at saving individual souls, which in the act +of being saved are removed beyond all activity and all contact with +the world. Buddhism, therefore, is not a power which makes actively +for civilisation. It is a powerful agent for the taming of passion +and the prevention of vagrant and lawless desires, it tends, +therefore, towards peace. But it offers no stimulus to the +realisation of the riches which are given to man in his own nature: +it checks rather than fosters enterprise, it favours a dull +conformity to rule rather than the free cultivation of various gifts. +Its ideal is to empty life of everything active and positive, rather +than to concentrate energy on a strong purpose. It does not train the +affections to virtuous and harmonious action, but denies to them all +action and consigns them to extinction. This condemnation it has +incurred by parting with that highest stimulus to human virtue and +endeavour, which lies in the belief in a living God. By so doing it +ceased to fulfil the office of a religion for men, and though, for +historical purposes, we may class it among the religions of the +world, a system which leaves its adherents free not to worship at +all, or to find satisfaction for their spiritual instincts in the +worship of beings whom it regards with indifference, comes short of +the notion of religion, and is not properly entitled to that name. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +Monier Williams, _Buddhism, in its connection with Brahmanism and +Hinduism, and in its contrast with Christianity_, 1889. + +Rhys Davids, _Buddhism_ (S.P.C.K.). + +Oldenberg's, _Buddha, his Life, his Doctrine and his Order_, 1882 +(out of print). (Third German Edition, 1897.) + +Spence Hardy, _Manual of Buddhism_, 1860. + +E. Hardy, _Der Buddhismus_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI +PERSIA + + +The Aryans who entered India to become its dominant race came from +Central Asia, and left behind them there other tribes of Aryan +culture. These tribes remained in what is called Iran, in the lands, +that is to say, between the Indus, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, +and the Persian Gulf. It is from this region, a part of which bore in +ancient times the name of Ariana, that the word "Aryan" is derived. +The languages of this territory are akin to Sanscrit; and there is +ample evidence that before the Indian invasion the progenitors of the +Indians and those of the Iranians dwelt together there, and enjoyed a +common civilisation. If the civilisation was the same the religion +also was the same. How the Indo-Iranian religion was developed in +India, we have seen. At first a worship of active and militant +deities, it became by degrees a religion of a passive type, in which +a suffering, acquiescent, and brooding humanity presented to heaven +its needs and problems, and received a corresponding answer. The +Aryans who remained in Iran retained their active and practical +disposition. While by no means wanting in sensitiveness and +flexibility of mind, they were less given to speculation and more to +a robust morality than their Indian kinsmen. It has to be noted that +while the religion of India has not influenced Europe in any manifest +degree until the present century, that of Persia has contributed in a +marked way to form the world of thought in which we dwell. + +Sources.--The views generally current about the ancient religion of +Persia are derived from late Greek writers, whose accounts will be +noticed at the end of this chapter. A truer knowledge is now +possible, since the sacred books of the religion are now open to the +world. They were only obtained from the Parsis, who keep up their +ancient religion on the soil of India, during last century, and the +study of them has been very laborious and difficult, and has given +rise to great controversies which are not yet settled. These ancient +books are furnished with Eastern translations and commentaries. Is +the Western scholar to place himself under the guidance of these, +which no doubt are part of the historical tradition of the religion, +or may he claim that he is himself in as good a position as the +Oriental commentator for understanding the original meaning of the +texts; and will he best interpret them by comparing them with the +Vedas? What is their age; in which of the lands of Iran were they +written; was any part of them written by Zoroaster, or is Zoroaster +to be regarded as an historical personage at all? On all these +questions and on many others, scholars are not yet agreed; and while +so much is uncertain about the books, there must also be great +uncertainty about the history and the very nature of the religion. In +what follows we are guided mainly by the scholars who have taken +charge of the volumes connected with Persia in the _Sacred Books of +the East_.[1] In the last of these volumes (xxxi.) a new clue is +given to the subject, of which we shall gladly avail ourselves. + +[Footnote 1: Zend-Avesta, _S. B. E._, vols. iv., xxiii., xxxi.] + +The sacred books of Persia are known by the name of "Zend-Avesta," +which is an incorrect expression; we ought to say Avesta and Zend. +"Avesta," like the kindred word "Veda," signifies knowledge, and the +word "Zend" denotes here not the language of that name, but the +"commentary" afterwards added to the original knowledge or text. The +commentary is not written in the Zend language, but in Pahlavi or +Persian. The Avesta, which is written in the older Zend, the sacred +language of Persia, is, like other Bibles, a collection of books +written in different ages, and even, it may be, in different lands. +The books were brought together into one only at some period after +the Christian era. The later legends as to the supernatural +communication to Zoroaster of the earlier books need not detain us; +we must notice, however, that the preserved books of Persian religion +are held to be no more than the scanty ruins of an extensive +literature. The Avesta consisted originally of 21 Nosks or books, and +most of these were destroyed by Alexander when he invaded the East; +only one Nosk was preserved entire. As we have it, the Avesta is a +liturgical work, it contains some legends and some ancient hymns, as +well as a good deal of law, but its prevailing character is that of a +service-book, and it is to this that its partial preservation both at +the invasion of Alexander, and at that of the Mohammedans in a later +century, is probably due. It consists of three parts. The oldest is +the Yasna, a collection of liturgies, which admit and indeed invite +comparison with those of early Christianity: along with these are +found the Gathas or hymns, the only part of the Avesta composed in +verse, and written in an older dialect. The Visperad is a collection +of litanies for the sacrifice; and the Vendidad is a code of early +law, but contains also various religious legends. Besides these +works, which constitute the Avesta proper, there is the Khorda (or +small) Avesta containing devotions for various times of the day, for +the days of the month, and for the religious year; these are for the +use not of the priests alone but of all the faithful, and many of +them are still so used. + +The Contents of the Zend-Avesta are Composite.--In these works the +student soon observes that he has before him not one religious system +only but several. In one place we find a worship of one god, as if +there were no others to be considered; some of the litanies on the +other hand contain lengthy and elaborate lists of objects of worship. +In some parts the religion is personal and immediate; in others it is +priestly. Parsism is often called fire-worship, and the elements of +earth and water also obtain extreme sanctity in it, but of this also +there is in the oldest books little trace. The variety in the +literature no doubt reflects a variety in the religion of Iran. Iran +in fact had not one religion but several, and thus the problem is to +trace how these successively entered into contact with Mazdeism or +Zoroastrianism, which is the religion most native to Iran, and were +embodied in it. The different religions belonged to a certain extent +to different provinces. We know that Persia, the conqueror of Media, +was conquered in turn by the Median religion; we also know that the +religion of the Persian kings as read in their inscriptions[2] does +not correspond to any of the religious positions held in the Avesta. +The Magi, from whom also the religion as a whole derives one of its +names, belonged to Media and passed from there to greater power in +Iran as a whole. From the Scythians on the north and from Babylonia +on the south, ideas and practices were imported; and in these and +other ways, forms of religion arose as different from the faith of +Zoroaster as later forms of Christianity from the simplicity of +Christ, yet looking to him as their founder and the giver of their +law. + +[Footnote 2: _Records of the Past_, i. 107.] + +Zoroaster.--We begin with the teaching of Zoroaster. Dr. E. Meyer in +his _Geschichte des Alterthums_, vol. i., and Mr. Darmesteter in his +admirable introduction to the Avesta (_S. B. E._ vol. iv.) both treat +Zoroaster as a mythical personage, a figure-head of the official +class of the religion, who give currency to their edicts under his +name. Weighty authorities may, however, be quoted for the historical +reality of Zoroaster, and what appears to us most important of all, +the editor of the Gathas, in the _S. B. E._ vol. xxxi., departing +from his collaborateur, Mr. Darmesteter, has treated these hymns, +which give an account of the founder's acts and experiences when +first proclaiming the true doctrine, in such a way as to produce on +the mind of the reader the strongest impression of the historical +reality of the prophet and of his mission. They introduce us to a +religious movement actually in progress in the poet's time, a +movement in which a pure and lofty faith is struggling to establish +itself against prevailing superstitions. The doctrine placed in the +mouth of the reformer is that which is most central in Persian +religion; and only by such deep earnestness and devotion as is here +ascribed to him, could it have attained that position. We start, +then, with Zoroaster and his work; and first of all we ask what was +his date, where did he live, and what kind of religion did he find +existing in his country? + +The date of Zoroaster or Zarathustra--the former is the Greek, the +latter the old Iranian form of the name, contracted in Persian to +Zardusht--can only be fixed very approximately. He stands at the very +beginning of the Avesta literature, and the developments in religion +to which that literature testifies must have occupied a long period. +On the other hand no one proposes to place Zarathustra before the +departure of the Indian Aryans from the Indo-Iranian stock. From such +vague data he may be assigned perhaps to somewhere about 1400 B.C. As +to his province, there is considerable agreement among scholars that +his doctrine spread from the east of Iran westwards; and though +tradition gives him a birthplace in Media, his mission lay nearer to +India, in Bactria. + +Primitive Religion of Iran.--He did not preach to men unacquainted +with religion. Many of the religious ideas and figures of the Vedas +occur also in Persia, and by the study of these it is possible to +form certain inferences as to the mental history of Persia before +Zarathustra. Mithra the sun-god belongs to Persia as well as India. +The heaven-god known in India as Varuna grew into the principal deity +of Persia. A fire-god, wind- and rain-gods, and the serpent hostile +to man, on whom these made war, are common to both countries. The +institution of sacrifice, in which the deities are served with +offerings and with hymns, is markedly alike in both countries. In +both alike sacrifice is at first the affair not of a priesthood but +of laymen, especially of princes, and is not confined to temples but +is performed in the open air, on a spot judged to be suitable. The +most imposing sacrifice is that of the horse, and an offering of +constant occurrence is that of the intoxicating liquor, in India +Soma, in Persia by a recognised transliteration Homa, which is itself +viewed as a cosmic principle of life, and addressed as a deity. And +in both countries alike the view of sacrifice prevails in early +times, that the gods come to it to take their part in a banquet which +their worshippers share with them, and that they are strengthened and +encouraged by it. + +These similarities, and others which might be mentioned, show that +the religion of India and that of Persia started from a common stock +of ideas and usages. A further circumstance of great importance shows +not only the original identity of the two systems, but also perhaps +how they came to diverge from each other. Two generic titles for +deities occur in India. The first of these--_deva_, is said to +signify the bright or shining one, the second--_asura_, the living +one. Now these titles are also found in Persia; but the use of the +terms is different in the two countries. In India both are at first +titles for deity, but by degrees, while "deva" continues to denote +the gods who are worshipped, "asura" assumes a less favourable +meaning, until at length it comes to stand for a second order of +beings, inferior to the devas, and including such powers as are +malignant and hostile. In Persia the fortunes of the two words are +reversed. _Ahura_ becomes the god _par excellence_, the supreme god; +while "deva," the title which in India remained in honour, is in the +Avesta that of evil gods who are not to be worshipped. In this some +scholars consider that we may hear the watchwords of the conflict +which led to the separation of the two religions; there was a schism +between the followers of the Ahuras and those of the Devas, which led +to the entire separation of the two parties. This is the latest form +of the old view which makes Zoroastrianism the outcome of a religious +conflict, of a reaction against the gods afterwards worshipped in +India. There is no direct evidence of such a conflict, and the +difference we have described may be due to the natural development of +the Indo-Iranian religion in different sets of circumstances and +among different peoples. Zarathustra in the Gathas finds the +antithesis fully formed between the good and the evil deities; he +appeals to his countrymen on that matter as one which he does not +need to teach them, but with which they have long been familiar. In +speaking of his date this has to be remembered. + +We proceed now to describe from the Gathas the work and teaching of +Zarathustra. The Gathas are poems written in metres which occur also +in the Vedas, and intended, like the Indian hymns, to be used in +worship. The account which they furnish of the mission and the +teaching of the sage are thus clothed in a poetical dress, and do not +narrate bare facts as they occurred, but the facts as interpreted and +treated for religious use. They are in the mouth of Zarathustra +himself; he writes them for use at sacrifice, and remembering how +they are to be rendered, he sometimes puts in the mouth of the +celebrants the words, "Zarathustra and we." These words do not prove +that the hymns are not by him. As explained by Dr. Mills, the hymns +are seen to be very fully charged with meaning and with sentiment. +Uncouth and inartistic in expression, and demanding an immense amount +of patience and ingenuity to trace their connection of thought, they +surprise the reader when once he seizes their meaning, by the depth +and spirituality of their contents, and force him to acknowledge that +they are a worthy document of the birth of a great religion. + +The Call of Zarathustra.--The hymns give a vivid picture of that +early world in which the prophet lived. It was a world distracted +with conflict. On one side there is an agricultural community bent on +industry, and, like the Hindus, even at this day, valuing as most +sacred the cattle which form their chief substance. On the other +hand, there are men who dwell on the outskirts between the tilled +land and the wilderness, who are constantly making raids on the +farms, driving off and killing the cattle for sacrifice and for food, +and ruining the fields by destroying the irrigating works on which +their fertility depends. And there is a religious difference as well +as a difference in culture between these two sets of people. The +agriculturists are worshippers of Ahura; the contemners of the cattle +worship beings called in the Gathas "daevas." This schism was not of +Zarathustra's making, he found it going on, and being a priest was +entitled to come forward and seek to guide others with regard to it. +Such is the situation which the hymns present to us. We will try to +state the substance of some of those hymns. The naked words of them, +even when we are sure of the correctness of the translation, are +barely intelligible without lengthy commentary; and on the other +hand, no short statement in modern terms can convey the force and +solemnity of these struggling utterances. As we are dealing with the +original revelation of Zarathustra, the source of the Persian +religion, we shall give the story with some degree of detail. + +The first hymn in the arrangement presented to us in _S. B. E._ deals +with what we may term the call of Zarathustra. It sums up in a poetic +and dramatic form the religious result of the movement which led him +to come forward. + +The "Soul of the Kine" first speaks; it is the impersonation of the +agricultural community, to whom their cattle are most sacred. She +raises a complaint to Ahura and Asha (the righteousness which is an +attribute of Ahura, and like his other attributes often appears as an +independent person) of the insolence and highhanded devastation and +robbery she has to suffer. "For whom did ye fashion me," she says; +"wherefore was I made?" She appeals to the Immortals for instruction +in tillage with a view to security and welfare. + +Ahura then speaks and asks Asha what guardian has been appointed for +the kine to lead and to defend her; and Asha answers that no one, +himself free from passion and violence, could be found who was +capable of being an adequate guardian. The causes of these evils lie +at the roots of the constitution of things, and therefore those +seeking success in any enterprise must approach Ahura himself and not +any subordinate being. + +Zarathustra speaks, and confirms the utterances of Asha; it is in +Ahura himself that he and the kine place their confidence; to his +will they submit themselves; the doubts and questions arising from +their outward insecurity, they refer to him. + +Ahura speaks and answers his own question. It is true that no lord of +the kine is to be found, who in himself is quite equal to that +position, but he appoints Zarathustra as head to the agricultural +community. + +A chorus speaks, consisting of a company of the faithful supposed to +be present, or of the Ameshospends, the personified attributes of +Ahura, and praise the Lord for his bounty and for the wisdom he makes +known; but asks whom he has endowed with the Good Mind, or, as we +might say, the Holy Spirit, to make known to mortals his doctrine. +The call of Zarathustra, intimated in the foregoing verse, is +overlooked, as if it were impossible that such a one as he could +undertake the office. Ahura replies, repeating his commission to +Zarathustra, here called also by his family name of Spitama, and +promising to establish him and make him successful in his work. + +The Soul of the Kine speaks, lamenting still that no adequate lord +has been assigned her. Zarathustra is a feeble and pusillanimous man, +not one of royal state who is able to bring his purpose to effect. +The Ameshospends join in the cry for the true lord to appear. + +Zarathustra then speaks, accepting the mission in an address to +Ahura, whom he entreats to send his blessings of peace and happiness, +since none but he can give them, and to set up in the minds of the +disciples of the cause that joy and that kingdom which, though it +first comes inwardly, yet brings with it also all outward blessings. +For himself also he prays that the Good Mind and the Sovereign Power +(another of the attributes) of the Lord may hasten to come to him and +strengthen him for his mission. + +This poetical rendering of the call of Zarathustra is free both from +miraculous embellishment and from undue exaltation of the person of +the prophet, and forms a great contrast to later statements in the +Avesta, where the prophet is placed in secret conclave with Ahura, +asking him questions and receiving detailed replies which at once +rank as revelation. In the Gathas, allowing for the theological and +poetic form, everything is human and natural. We are strongly +reminded of the accounts of the calls of prophets in the Old +Testament--there is the same choice by the deity of an apparently +weak instrument to accomplish a work urgently called for by the +times, the same sense of insufficiency on the part of the prophet, +but the same absolute confidence on his part in the power of the +deity, and hence the same absolute assurance, once the mission is +accepted, that the cause which he has been called to carry forward +must succeed. In many of the following Gathas the same parallel is +strongly impressed on the mind of the reader. The sense of weakness +is expressed again and again--the prophet has no victorious career, +but is exposed to much gainsaying, which he feels acutely. Yet he +never doubts that his god is with him, and is working for him. To him +he commits his doubts and fears, of his goodness he is joyfully +assured, and his aid he expects with confidence. He is entirely +devoted to Ahura and his cause, and offers himself up with his whole +powers to work out the divine will. He will teach, he says, as long +as he is able, till he has brought all the living to believe. He is +conscious of a divine power working in him. Nothing in himself, he is +strong by the divine grace which Ahura sends him: his words have +efficacy to keep the fiends at a distance, and to advance in men's +minds the divine kingdom; like St. Paul he feels his message to be to +some a savour of life unto life, to others a savour of death unto +death. + +The Doctrine.--And what is the message he proclaims? It is a +philosophy of the origin of the world, but a philosophy the +acceptance of which involves immediate and strenuous action. The +distracted condition of the world before him requires to be +explained, so that a remedy for it may be found; and Zarathustra +prays, when he is about to bring forward his doctrine, that Ahura +would help him to explain how the material world arose. The +explanation when it appears is not quite new, it has been shaping +itself already in the mind of his people, but he sets it forth as a +dogma, and draws from it at once all its practical consequences. In +the third hymn of the first Gatha he solemnly brings forward his +doctrine before the people, and appeals to them, not as a people, but +as individuals, each for himself, with a full sense of his +responsibility, to consider it, and adopt it, and act upon it. It is +the doctrine of dualism, not in the fully developed later form in +which two personal potentates divide the universe between them from +the first, but as yet in a form more speculative and vague. There are +two primeval principles, spirits, things, as is well known--the +expression is indefinite--the counterparts of each other, independent +in their action, a better and a worse, and Zarathustra calls on his +audience to choose between them, and not to choose as do the +evildoers. The world, as it is, was made by the joint action of the +two principles, and they also fixed the alternative fates of men, for +the wicked, Hell--the worst life; and for the holy, Heaven--the best +mental state. After the creation was accomplished, the two principles +drew off from each other, the evil one making choice of evil and of +evil works, and the bounteous spirit choosing righteousness, making +his strong seat in heaven, and taking for his own those who do good +and who believe in him. The Daevas and their followers are incapable +of making a just choice between the good and the evil; they have +surrendered themselves from the outset to the "Worst Mind," the demon +of fury, and to all evil works. (There are vague suggestions here of +a temptation and a fall, but only of the evil spirits and their +followers.) From this point onwards the world is filled with a great +struggle. On the one side is Ahura, the only god worshipped by name +in the Gathas. Ahura is a heaven-god, he is, in fact, the bright +heaven, and then the good and beneficent being who dwells in +brightness. In the hymns he is losing his definite character and +becoming an abstraction, a god of dogmatics rather than of history. +He is the good principle personified, and as becomes a god of such +transcendent character, he does not act directly, but through his +satellites. His attributes personified, do his bidding, aid the +saints in spiritual ways, and prepare for the better order of things. +On the other hand are the Daevas with the demon of wrath, who +propagate everywhere lies and mischief, and heap up vengeance for +themselves against the final judgment. For the good there is nothing +better than to aid,--for they can aid, in bringing on the renovation, +dwelling with Ahura even now, and by his attributes which work in +them as well as in him, reinforcing the righteous order, and +preparing themselves to dwell where wisdom has her home. In the end +the Demon of the Lie will be rendered harmless and delivered up to +Righteousness as a captive. + +Inconsistencies.--As it happens in every such reform, the new +teaching is not quite consistent with itself; old views are taken up +into the new teaching, although they do not harmonise with it; the +spiritual way of looking at things alternates with a more worldly +way. The following are some examples of this:--The great doctrine of +Heaven and Hell as inner states, as being simply the best and the +worst state of mind, is clearly announced; but the traditional view +of future abodes of happiness and misery also appears. The +Kinvat-bridge is mentioned several times in the Gathas, over which +Iran conceived that the individual had to pass after death. If he was +righteous the bridge bore him safely over to the sacred mountain, +where the good lived again; if he was wicked, he fell off the bridge +and found himself in the place of torment. It is another +inconsistency that Zarathustra expects, on the one hand, to convert +the world by his preaching, while on the other hand his sense of the +antagonism between the good and the evil spirits and their followers +often hurries him into violent methods. One hymn concludes with a +summons to his adherents to fall on the unbelievers with the halberd, +and he is constantly predicting their sudden overthrow. Along with +this, we may mention that he sought to ally himself with powerful +families for the sake of the support they would bring the cause. The +name of Vishtaspa, king we know not of what realm, is always +associated with the prophet as that of his royal patron; other +influential friends are also mentioned. Another point, in which we +notice accommodation to existing usage, is that of sacrifice. The +Gathas have several noble passages describing the true sacrifice man +has to offer to God for his goodness, as consisting simply in the +offering of self, in the devotion to the deity of all a man is, and +all he can do. At the same time Zarathustra has not a word to say in +disparagement of the sacrifice of victims. He prays for guidance in +this part of religious duty; he desires to have everything connected +with sacrifice done in the best way and with the most effective +hymns. Thus the spiritual life is not left to stand alone. There is a +personal walk with God, our piety is said to be God's daughter in us, +his righteousness is working in us and moulding us for his purposes; +both will and deed of the good man are attributed to him, and the +processes are described with true insight by which the soul is +sanctified and wedded to her task and her true destiny; but at the +same time there is an intent looking to that sacred Fire which is an +outward representative of deity; there is the offering of victims, +even of horses, when the prophet's mind is bent on war (the +Homa-offering does not occur, and we may suppose the prophet rejected +this service of the deity by intoxication); there is the smiting of +the demons with prayer, and imprecations, similar to those in the +Psalms, against adversaries of the cause. + +It is no proof of unspirituality that the welfare of the Kine, with +whose wail the call of the prophet began, is steadily kept in view +during his mission. The agriculturists are on the side of the +righteous being, good and ever-better tillage is a means of pleasing +him; it is his will that the kine should be freed from alarms and +should prosper; and he may be appealed to to give lessons with a view +to that end. The doctrine passes far beyond its first occasion; yet +the occasion which called for it is never lost sight of. + +The Gathas, taken alone, tell us hardly anything of the religion in +which Zarathustra's fellow-countrymen believed. They believed +undoubtedly in many gods; in those parts of the Avesta which come +next to the hymns in time, polytheism is in full force. That +Zarathustra only speaks of one god, Ahura (though he also speaks of +"the Immortals" generally), may be due to the limited extent and +special purpose of the hymns, but it may also be taken as an +indication that the prophet did not needlessly interfere with the +beliefs of his people: content to preach the doctrine with which he +was charged, and which was to him the sum and substance of all +religion, he, like several other religious founders, stirred up no +strife he could avoid. The doctrine he preached was not unprepared +for in the mind of his country, and continued to be the leading +feature of Persian religion in subsequent periods. + +It is a momentous step in religious progress, which the prophet of +Iran calls on his countrymen to take. We notice the main features of +the advance. + +1. Man is Called to Judge between the Gods.--Zarathustra, like +Elijah, puts before his people the choice between two worships. +Various distinctions between the two cases might be drawn. In the +Scripture case Baal is not a bad god, but simply the wrong god for +Israel to worship. In the case of our reformer the difference between +the two worships is a deeper one. The individual is to choose his +god, he is to declare of his own motion that one god is better than +others, and that no worship whatever is to be paid to these others. +This was a new departure in antiquity; the early world loved to think +of many gods, all alike divine and worshipful, each race or clan +having its god whom it naturally served, or each part of the earth +being portioned out to a divine lord of its own. Neither Greece nor +Rome ever thought of making the individual man the arbiter among the +unseen beings whom he knew, and requiring him to decide which of them +he should consider divine, and which he should disown. In the case +before us, moreover, the choice is to be made on moral grounds. Men +are called to judge of the character of the beings who are called +gods, they are told that there is no necessity to acknowledge those +of whom they disapprove, they are emancipated from the fear of +hurtful and evil beings. There is war in heaven, and men are +encouraged to take part in that war, and to cast off allegiance to +such powers as do not make for righteousness. How there came to be +such strife among the gods, and how it became necessary that men +should judge of it, we have no clear information; we only know that +the momentous step was called for and was taken. + +The belief, however, remains even after the decision that there are +unseen evil beings, who had influence in forming the constitution of +things, and who have influence still over the government of the +world. The position taken up is not monotheism. The good god is not +sole creator or sole governor of the world, he is a limited being; +from the outset he has only in part got his own way, and he has +adversaries in the very constitution of things, whom he cannot get +rid of. Persian thought is dualistic; the conception of an Evil +Creator and Governor co-ordinate with the good one differentiates it +from the thought of India, which always tends to a principle of +unity. + +2. In the second place, this religion is essentially intolerant and +persecuting. Having chosen his side in the great war which divides +the universe, man can only prosecute that war with all his force; he +must regard the Daevas and their followers as his enemies, and try to +weaken and extinguish them. The general feeling of the ancient world +about differences in religion was that all religions were equally +legitimate, each on its own soil. The Jews, we know, shocked the +Greeks and Romans greatly by denying this, and maintaining that there +was only one true religion, namely, their own, and that all the +others were worships of gods false and vain. But the Persians came +before the Jews in this; the Gathas preach persecution, and the +insults offered by Persian kings in later times to the religions of +Egypt and Greece were no doubt justified by their convictions. In +Persia, as in Israel, religion had come to entertain the notion of +false gods. And a religion which entertains that notion must be +exclusive. Those who have refused to worship beings hitherto deemed +gods, on the ground that they ought not to be worshipped and are not +truly gods, cannot but desire to bring the worship of such beings +entirely to an end, and to make the worship of the true God prevail +instead, by rude or by gentle means, as the stage of civilisation may +in each case suggest. + +Growth of Mazdeism.--After the Gathas proper we have other hymns +written in the Gathic dialect, from which the history of the religion +after its foundation may be to some extent inferred.[3] These show +that the Zarathustrian religion was regarded, after the departure of +the founder, as a great divine institution, and was worked out on the +lines he had laid down. The forms of it became of course more fixed. +The god it serves is now called "Ahura Mazda," the "All-Knowing Lord" +(the name is afterwards contracted into the Greek Oromazdes, the +Persian Hormazd; and the religion is called from it Mazdeism); he is +still implored for spiritual blessings both for this and for the +future life, and for furtherance in agriculture. There is, however, a +tendency to address prayer not only to Ahura himself but to beings +connected with him. As if the mind wearied of dwelling on the one +supreme, the Bountiful Immortals are associated with him, the parts +of his holy creation are invoked, the fire which is most closely +identified with him, the stars which are his body, the waters, the +earth, all good animals and plants. The kine's soul receives +sacrifice, and not only the kine's soul which we have met before, but +the souls of "just men and holy women," the Fravashis or spirits not +only of the departed but of the living also, the service of which +continues and increases henceforward in Persian religion. These are +invented deities and have a shadowy character; but gods of more +substance, and more historical reality also came into view at this +point. Zarathustra becomes a god, the hymns themselves are adored; +the Homa-offering reappears, Mithra is often coupled with Ahura, +other old gods creep back and are mentioned along with the moral +abstractions, which also increase in number; in one passage there are +said to be thirty-three objects of worship, a number which also +occurs in India. + +[Footnote 3: Yasna Haptanghaiti, _S. B. E._ xxxi. p. 218, _sqq._, and +others following.] + +Organisation of the Heavenly Beings.--With all this multiplication +there is, as we shall see, no compromise of the supreme claims of +Ahura. In some of the hymns, all beings, all attributes, all places, +and all times of a sacred nature are heaped indiscriminately +together, in interminable catalogues. But this apparent confusion is +corrected by a remarkable tendency to organisation. The Persian +religion ultimately came to have a very simple and very striking +theology; and that theology was made up by transforming the +abstractions in which the founder dealt, into persons, and arranging +them after the pattern of Oriental society. In the later Yasnas +(liturgies) a figure rises into view which the Gathas do not mention; +that of Angra Mainyu, later Ahriman, the Bad Spirit. In this +counterpart of Spenta Mainyu, the Good Spirit (who is not at first +identified with Ahura, but proceeds from him), the demons obtain a +personal head, and the dualism which appears in all nature and all +human society is thus brought to a personal expression. Ahura and +Ahriman confront each other as the good power and the evil. Both +alike had part in making the world what it is. In every part of the +world, and in all that is felt and done they are at strife. Ahura, to +quote Mr. Darmesteter, is all light, truth, goodness, and knowledge; +Angra Mainyu is all darkness, falsehood, wickedness, and ignorance. +Whatever the good spirit makes, the evil spirit mars; he opposes +every creation of Ahura's with a plague of his own, it is he who +mixed poison with plants, smoke with fire, sin with man, and death +with life. + +The Attributes of Ahura.--Each of these beings has his retinue. That +of Ahura was formed first; it consists of his attributes. Even in the +hymns the attributes are regarded as persons, inseparable companions +of Ahura; appeals are made to one or another of them, according as +the worshipper seeks help from one side or the other of the divine +being. By a process which frequently occurs in religious thought, +they afterwards come to be more formally arranged and defined; there +are six of them, and each is charged with a province of the divine +economy. They are as follows: + + Vohu Mano (Bahman) Good Mind; he is the head and the guardian of + the living creation of Ahura. + + Asha Vahista (Ardibehesht), Excellent Holiness; he is the genius of + fire. + + Kshathra Vairya (Shahrevar), Perfect Sovereignty; he is the lord of + metals. + + Spenta Armaiti (Spendarmat) divine piety, conceived as female, the + goddess of the earth. + + Haurvatat (Khordat) health. + + Ameretat (Amerdat) immortality. + +The last two are a pair, and have charge conjointly of waters and of +trees. + +Ahura is himself one of these spirits; thus there are seven supreme +spirits. + +Retinue of Ahriman.--Angra Mainyu on his part comes to have a +corresponding retinue of six daevas, each being the evil counterpart +of one of the good spirits. Evil Mind, Sickness, and Decay are the +names of some of them. The whole spiritual world is ranged on the +side of the good or of the evil deity. The Izatas (Izeds) or angels +consist of gods of immemorial worship in Iran, some of whom are the +same as gods worshipped in India; but the title also applies to gods, +heavenly and earthly, of later creation, so that the class is a very +wide and elastic one. It comprises some beings who have been reduced +by the operation of the new ideas from the first to the second rank +of deities, such as Verethragna, who corresponds to the Vedic Indra, +and Mithra, the sun-god. These now appear in the same rank as gods of +the newer style, such as Sraosha, Obedience, and survivals of early +superstition, such as the "Curse of the wise," a very powerful Ized. +Zarathustra himself belongs to this class of deities, a miscellaneous +one indeed. Another class of sacred beings of world-wide extent is +that of the Fravashis spoken of above. If the good spirits are many +and various, so are the evil. Of these are the great demon-serpent +Azhi who plays a great part in Persian mythology, as Vrittra does in +Indian. Aeshma, later Asmodeus, may be named; he is one of the +Drvants, or storm-fiends. Gahi, an unfaithful goddess, has fallen to +a demon of unchastity; the Pairikas (Peris) are female tempters; the +Yatu are demons connected with sorcery. + +The firm organisation of these hosts of spiritual beings, and the +sense of a great conflict in which they are all engaged from the +greatest to the least of them, preserve Mazdeism from the weakness +and absurdity which are apt to creep over religion when the +population of the upper and the nether regions is unduly multiplied. +The faithful never forget Ahura in favour of the minor deities, nor +do they forget that morals and industry are the chief ends of +religion, and that in cultivating these they hasten the coming of the +kingdom. The following is the formula, the "Praise of Holiness," with +which every act of worship begins in the Yasts[4] (liturgies of the +Izeds): + + May Ahura Mazda be rejoiced! + + Holiness is the best of all good! + + I confess myself a worshipper of Mazda, a follower of Zarathustra, + one who hates the daevas and obeys the laws of Ahura. + +[Footnote 4: _S. B. E._ vol. xxiii.] + +Ancient Testimonies to the Persian Religion.--It is at this stage, +while it is still in a state of vigour, that we hear of the Persian +religion from various quarters in ancient records. The chapters in +the latter half of Isaiah, which so vigorously denounce idolatry, +hail the approach of Cyrus towards Babylon, and claim unity of +religion between him and the Jews (Isaiah xliv. 28 _sq._). He is the +shepherd who is to lead Jehovah's people back to their own land, and +to cause their temple to be rebuilt. And this claim that the Jewish +and the Persian religions were the same, that the Jews and the +Persians were alike worshippers of the one true God, while all the +surrounding nations were polytheists and idolaters, was admitted on +the side of Persia. After his conquest of Babylon, Cyrus at once +permitted the exiles to return to their own land. The Persian +monarchs of the following century, Darius and Artaxerxes, continued +to take a friendly interest in the worship of Jehovah, whom they +apparently regarded as a form of their own god, "the God of heaven," +Hormazd (Ezra vii. 21). They accordingly took measures for the +rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, and for the introduction there +of the new religious constitution which had been prepared at Babylon. +This could not have happened if the religion of the Persian kings had +not been a pure service of one god,[5] and the other information we +have on the subject shows that the Mazdeism of Persia at this period +was a very elevated form of the religion. The inscriptions of Darius +do not mention the spread of the worships of Mitra and Anahita, +which, however, make their appearance in the later inscriptions of +Artaxerxes; in none of them is Ahriman spoken of. This, of course, +does not prove that he was not believed in; when the Jewish prophet +proclaims that Jehovah makes both light and darkness, that he both +wounds and heals, there may be a reference to Persian dualism. Yet +Mazdeism was capable of appearing, and did appear to the foreigner, +as a lofty worship of a god of light and goodness. The same +impression is produced by the descriptions of the Greek writers. +Herodotus (i. 131, 132) writes as follows; he is a contemporary of +Ezra: "The following statements as to the customs of the Persians is +to be relied on. They do not fashion images of the gods, nor build +temples, nor altars--they consider it wrong to do so, and count it a +proof of folly; their reason for this being, as I think, that they do +not believe the gods to be beings of the same nature with men as the +Greeks do. They are accustomed to offer sacrifices to Zeus on the +summits of mountains; they call the whole circle of heaven Zeus. They +sacrifice also to the sun, and the moon, and the earth, and to fire, +and to water, and to the winds. These are the ancient parts of their +ritual, but they have added the worship of the Queen of heaven, +Aphrodite; it was from the Assyrians and the Arabs that they acquired +this. The Assyrian name for Aphrodite is Mylitta, the Arabs call her +Alilat, the Persians, Anahita.[6] Such being their gods the Persians +sacrifice to them on this wise. They have no altar, and do not use +fire in sacrifice, nor do they have libations nor flutes, nor wreaths +nor barley. He who wishes to sacrifice takes his victim to a clean +spot and there calls on the deity, his turban wreathed, as a rule, +with myrtle. He does not think of praying for benefits for himself +individually in connection with his sacrifice; he prays for the +welfare of the Persian people and king; he himself is one of the +Persian people. He then cuts up the victim, boils the pieces and +spreads them out on the softest grass he can find--if possible, on +clover. This done, one of the Magians who has come to assist, sings a +theogony,[7] as they call the accompanying hymn; no sacrifice is +allowed to be offered without one of the Magi being present. After a +short pause the sacrificer takes up the pieces of flesh and does with +them whatever he likes." + +[Footnote 5: These two religions, Kuenen says, were more like each +other than any other two religions of antiquity.--_Religion of +Israel_, iii. 33.] + +[Footnote 6: Herodotus says Mitra; but this is a mistake, whether of +the father of history or of a transcriber.] + +[Footnote 7: One of the Yashts in praise of the particular deity.] + +In other passages Herodotus tells us of the extreme sanctity +attributed by the Persians to waters, to fire, and to the sun. He +also tells us that they regarded lying as the worst possible offence, +and next to it falling into debt, since the debtor is tempted to tell +lies. + +Plutarch writes as follows, quoting from an earlier Greek writer of +the third century B.C.: "Zoroaster the Magician,[8] who was 5000 +years before the war of Troy, named the good god Oromazes and the +other Arimonius ... Oromazes is engendered of the clearest and purest +light, Arimonius of deep darkness; and they war one upon another. The +former of these created six other gods (here follow the Amshaspands), +but the latter produceth as many other in number, of adverse +operation to the former.... There will come a time when this +Arimonius, who brings into the world plague and famine, shall of +necessity be rooted out and utterly destroyed for ever ... then shall +men be all in happy estate, they shall need no more food, nor cast +any shadow from them; and that god who hath effected all this shall +repose himself for a time, and rest in quiet." + +[Footnote 8: Holland's translation.] + +The Vendidad: Laws of Parity.--These extracts show the growth of +certain ideas which we have not noticed before. The dualism is being +worked out more in detail, other gods are coming in, and the doctrine +of the sanctity of the elements has made its appearance. That +doctrine is the basis of a new set of ideas and practices which we +have now to consider, those namely which are contained in the +Vendidad, one of the later works of the Persian canon. To pass from +the Gathas to the Vendidad is like passing from Isaiah to Leviticus, +and the laws of purity of Persian religion bear a strong analogy to +those of Judaism. The Vendidad[9] is composed principally of laws and +rules designed to direct the faithful in the great task of +maintaining their ritual purity. The whole of life is dominated in +this work by the ideas of purity and defilement; the great business +of life is to avoid impurity, and when it is contracted to remove it +in the correct manner as quickly as possible. Purity here is not +primarily sanitary or even moral; though such considerations were no +doubt indirectly present. Impure is what belongs to the bad spirit, +whether because he created it, as he did certain noxious animals, or +because he has established a hold on it as he does on men at death. A +man is impure, not because he has exposed himself to the infection of +disease, not because he has contracted a stain on his conscience, but +because he has touched something of which a Daeva has possession, and +so has come under the influence of that Daeva. Purification, +therefore, and the act of healing consist of exorcisms of various +kinds. This notion of purity plays a great part in other old +religions also; it is here that we see its original meaning most +clearly. Another great feature of the doctrine of purity in the +Vendidad is that the elements, fire, earth, and water, are holy, and +to defile them in any way is the most grievous of sins. As everything +which leaves the body is unclean, a man must not blow up a fire with +his breath, and bathing with a view to cleanliness is not to be +thought of. The disposal of the dead was a matter of immense +difficulty, since corpses, being unclean, could be committed neither +to Fire nor to the Earth. They are ordered to be exposed naked on a +building constructed for that purpose on high ground, so that birds +of prey may devour them; and a great part of the Vendidad is taken up +with directions for purification, after a death has taken place, of +the persons who were in the house, of the house itself, of those who +carried the corpse, and of the road they travelled, etc. + +[Footnote 9: _S. B. E._ vol. iv.] + +How this Doctrine Entered Mazdeism.--This system was not in force in +the time of Darius and Artaxerxes (when the dead were buried or, as +in the case of Croesus, burned) though the ideas were appearing at +that period on which it is founded; and it is plain that it has no +necessary or vital connection with the religion of Zarathustra. But +in later Mazdeism there are many such importations. This religion, in +its course from east to west, came in contact with beliefs and usages +with which, though foreign to its own nature, it yet came to terms. +Mazdeism is not originally a markedly priestly religion; it is +thought that it became so when planted in Media. No doubt there were +germs in the early Iranian religion of a priestly system. Zarathustra +himself was a priest and was favourable to due religious observances. +But it is quite contrary to his spirit that life should be governed +entirely by ritual law. It was in Media that this came to be the +case. The name of Magi, originally perhaps that of a tribe, became in +Media the name of the priesthood, and so furnished an additional +title for Mazdeism. It is to this stage of the religion that the +priestly legislation of the Vendidad, with all its puritanical +regulation of life, is to be ascribed. (The practice of exposing the +bodies of the dead to be devoured by birds of prey is probably of +Scythian origin.) In this period also, remote from the origin of the +religion, we find a new view of Zarathustra himself and of his +revelation. In the earlier sources Zarathustra composes his hymns in +a natural manner; he is not an absolute lawgiver, but depends on +princes for the carrying out of his views. In the later works the +revelation takes place in a series of private interviews between +Ahura and Zarathustra; the prophet puts questions to the god, and the +god dictates in reply sentences which are at once promulgated as +sacred laws. Mazdeism, like other religions, has its wooden age, its +verbal inspiration, and its priestly code. + +To trace the lines by which the influence of the religion of Persia +asserted itself in the wider world would be a large enterprise: only +a few indications can be given here. One great service which that +religion did to the world was undoubtedly that it had sympathy with +the Jews, and enabled Jewish monotheism to take a fresh start on its +way to become a religion for mankind. Mazdeism itself had a tinge of +universalism; Zarathustra expected his religion to spread beyond his +own land, and it did spread over all the provinces of Iran. It never +became a world-religion, but it might have done so had it not become +swathed and choked in Magism or had any new movement arisen in it to +assert the supremacy of its purely human over its artificial +elements. But Ahura himself, perhaps, was too abstract and +philosophic a god to inspire missionary ardour; it needed a being +more firmly rooted in history, a god who had done more to prove the +energy and intensity of his nature, and, further, a god more +undoubtedly omnipotent than Ahura, to establish a universal rule. + +The interesting inquiry remains, how far the Jewish religion was +modified by its contact with the Persian. The laws of purity in the +Jewish priestly code find a close parallel in the Vendidad; but with +the Israelites the notion of religious purity existed, and was worked +out in considerable detail, as we see from Deuteronomy, before the +exile, and therefore long before the period of the Vendidad. The +belief in the resurrection, found among the Jews after the exile, and +not before it, has been maintained by many to be a loan from Persia, +where the belief in future reward and punishment was a settled thing +from the time of Zarathustra. But the Jews do not appear to have +grasped this belief all at once or fully formed. They arrived at it +gradually, many Old Testament scholars affirm, and by spiritual +inferences timidly put forth at first, from their own religious +consciousness. A belief which the Jewish religion was capable of +producing of itself need not, without clearer evidence than we +possess, be regarded as borrowed. We are not on much surer ground +when we come to ask whether the angels and demons of Judaism are +connected with those of Persia. This belief also arises naturally in +Judaism, where God came to be thought of as very high and very +inaccessible, and intermediate beings were therefore needed. Some of +the figures of the Jewish spirit-world are, no doubt, due to Persia; +the Ashmodeus of the book of Tobit is a Persian figure. Later Judaism +is like Parsism in arranging the heavenly beings in a hierarchy, and +assigning to the chief angels special functions in the administration +of God's kingdom, and still more so when the upper hierarchy is +confronted by a lower one with a great adversary and father of lies +at its head. But this takes place long after the Persian contact. + +The Persian deities had, as a rule, too little legend to enable them +to be received in other countries. Ahura does not travel. Anaitis is +thought to have passed into Greece, changing her name to Aphrodite, +but also to the severer Artemis; but she is perhaps not original in +Persia. The Persian god best known in other lands was Mithra, the +sun-god and god of wisdom. He was a favourite with the Roman armies +in the early empire, and representations of him as a hero in the act +of slaying a bull in a cave have been found in many lands. There were +also mysteries connected with him, in which the candidates had to +pass through a great series of trials and hardships. Persia +influenced Europe and the west of Asia at the same period in another +way. Manicheism, a system which was one of the three great universal +religions of that time, and had a worship and a priesthood and a +sacred literature of its own, was founded by a native of Persia. He +laboured at a distance from his own country, and the doctrines he +propounded came more from Chaldea than from Persia, and consisted of +great histories, like those of the Gnostics, of the doings and +sufferings of cosmic and other persons; a great struggle between the +powers of light and those of darkness was one of its principal +features. The worship of this church was spiritual; its morals were +in theory of the purest and most ascetic kind, being founded on a +principle of dualism in the material world, and requiring much +self-denial and long fasts. The higher virtue of the system was not, +however, required of the ordinary member. Later Parsism, both in Iran +and in India, has shown a disposition to cast off dualism, and to +become, both philosophically and practically, a monistic system. + + +BOOKS RECOMMENDED + +_S. B. E._ vols. iv., xxiii. (Darmesteter); xxxi. (Mills). _The +Zendavesta_, vols. v., xviii., xxiv., xxxvii., xlvii. Pahlavi Texts +(E. W. West). + +_The Histories of Antiquity_ of Duncker, Maspero, and Ed. Meyer. + +Haug's _Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the +Parsis_. Second Edition, 1878, + +F. Windischmann, _Zoroastr. Studien_, 1863. + +Geldner, "Zoroaster," in _Encyclopaedia Britannica_; "Zoroastrianism," +in _Encyclopaedia Bibl._ + +Mills, _A Study of the Five Zarathustrian Gathas_, 1892-94. + +Lehmann, in De la Saussaye. + +Dadhabai Naoroji, _The Parsee Religion_. + +On Mithraism, _Dieterich Eine Mithras-liturgie._ + +Cumont, _The Mysteries of Mithra_, 1903. + + + + +PART V +UNIVERSAL RELIGION + + + + +CHAPTER XXII +CHRISTIANITY + + +The writer is aware that in offering a chapter on Christianity at the +conclusion of this work, he attempts a difficult task. If treated at +all, Christianity must be dealt with in the same way as the other +religions, and no assumptions must be made for it which were not made +for them. And a view of our own religion written, not from the +standpoint of the faith and love we feel towards it but of scientific +accuracy, must appear to many pious Christians to be cold and meagre. +But, on the other hand, Christianity is the key of the arch we have +been building, the consummating member of the development we have +sought to trace, and to withhold any estimate of its character would +be to leave our work most imperfect. It seems better, therefore, that +some hints at least should be offered on this part of the subject. +Christianity cannot indeed be dealt with in the same proportion as +the other religions; that would far exceed our space. But some views +are offered regarding its essential nature, which the writer believes +to be so firmly founded in fact that even those who are not +Christians cannot deny them, and thus to afford a valid criterion for +the comparison of Christianity with other faiths. + +In the chapter on the religion of Israel we saw how the prophets +before and during the exile began to cherish the idea of a new +relation between God and man, which would not depend on sacrifice nor +be confined to Israel. God, they declared, was preparing a new age, +in which he would receive man to more intimate communion than before; +and man would be guided in the right path, not by covenants and laws, +but by the constant inspiration of a present deity. The new religion +would be one which all nations could share. Jerusalem, the seat of +the true faith, would attract all eyes; all would turn to her because +of the Lord her God. + +But, alas, instead of growing broader to realise its universal +destiny, the religion of Israel grew narrower after the exile, and +seemed to forget the prospects thus opened up to it. Judaism, though +immeasurably enriched in its inner consciousness by the teaching of +the prophets, maintained its earlier semi-heathenish forms of +worship, only surrounding them with new stateliness and new +significance; and clothed itself in a hard shell of public ritual and +personal observance. The Jews separated themselves rigorously from +the world, and cultivated an exclusive pride; as if their religion +had been given them for themselves alone, and not for mankind. Under +the Maccabees they displayed the most heroic courage and tenacity, +maintaining their own beliefs and rites amid the flood of Hellenism +which at one time almost swept them away. That they carried their +nationality unimpaired through this period is one of the most +wonderful achievements of the Jewish race. In the succeeding period, +however, many signs appeared showing that their religion was losing +energy. The rule of the priests and scribes extended more and more +over the whole of life, tradition and observance grew more and more +extensive, but the moral judgment lost its elasticity. The sense of +the divine presence grew faint, and multitudes of spirits filled the +air instead, oppressing human life with a sense of vague anxiety. As +political independence was lost, the people became less happy and +more easily excited. But while formalism held increasing sway over +their actions, imagination was free, and surrounded both the past +history of Israel and its future triumphs with manifold +embellishments. + +In such a condition was the religion of the Jews when Jesus appeared +in Palestine and created a new order of things. Christianity was at +first a movement within Judaism. Like all the religions which trace +their history to personal founders, it grew from very small +beginnings; but its doctrine was of such a nature, that if +circumstances favoured, it could not fail to spread beyond Judaism, +to men of other lands and other tongues. + +The doctrine consisted primarily in a declaration that that great +religious consummation, the kingdom of God, which the prophets had +foretold, which was regarded by the fellow-countrymen of Jesus as a +far-off hope, and which had just been heralded by John the Baptist as +being immediately at hand, had actually taken place. The perfect +state was announced to have arrived, and to be a thing not of the +future but of the present. The long-expected intercourse of God and +man on new terms of perfect agreement and sympathy, had come into +operation; any one who chose could assure himself of the fact. The +title by which Jesus described the intimate relationship of man and +God which he announced, sufficiently shows its character. God is the +Father in heaven; men are his children, and all that men have to do +is to realise that this is so, to enter the circle and begin to live +with God on such terms. The great God seeks to have every one living +with him as his child; and religion is no more, no less, than this +communion. Father and child dwell together in perfect love and +confidence; no outward regulations are needed for their intercourse, +no bargains, no traditions, no ritual, no pilgrimage, no sacrifice. +The intercourse can be carried on by any one, anywhere. It is not a +matter of apparatus, but a purely moral affair, an affair of love. +The Father knows all about the child, is able to give him all he +needs, even before he asks it; is willing to forgive his sins when he +repents of them; is anxious above all to reinforce his efforts after +goodness. The child knows that the Father is always near him, carries +every need and wish to him in prayer, even though knowing that he is +aware of them beforehand; regards all that happens, either good or +ill, as sent by him for the best ends, and seeks in every case to +know his will and to submit to it sweetly, and execute it faithfully. + +Nothing could be simpler, or deeper, or broader. Religion is here +presented free from all local or accidental or obscuring elements; +religion itself is here revealed. Accepted in this form, it does for +man all that it can. The relation between God and man is made purely +moral; the link is not that of race, nor does it consist in anything +external. The individual--every individual who will pause to hear--is +assured that there exists between God and him a natural sympathy, and +is urged to allow that sympathy to have its way. It is easy to see +what effect such a belief must have. The individual, bidden to seek +the principle of union with God not in any external circumstance or +arrangement, but in his own heart, becomes conscious of an inner +freedom from all artificial restraints. He finds in his own heart the +secret of happiness, and is raised above all fears and irritations; +and hence the forces of his nature are encouraged to unfold +themselves freely. He sees clearly what as a human person he is +called to be and to do, and feels a new energy to realise his ideals. +As God has come down to him, he is lifted up to God; a divine power +has entered his life, which is able to do all things in him and for +him. + +It may be said that what we have described are the effects of +religious inspiration generally, and may take place in connection +with any faith. But the divine impulse communicated to mankind in +Christianity differs from that of any other religion in two important +respects. In the first place, the God who here enters into union with +man possesses full reality and a character of the utmost energy. It +is Jehovah with whom we have to do here, changed, indeed, but still +the same; a God of real and irresistible power, on whom speculation +has not laid its weakening hand. The union of man with God is not +secured by making God abstract and vague, nor is his infinite +kindness and forgivingness purchased at the expense of his intensity +and awfulness. With Jesus, God is still the power who has actual +control over everything that goes on, and who is able to do even what +appears to be most impossible. He is a God of strict justice and +holiness; though he is so kind, his judgments have not ceased, but +are still impending over guilty men and a guilty people. It is he who +can cast both soul and body into hell. It is a God of such energy, +such zeal, who yet offers himself as the willing benefactor and +defender, and the loving guide and helper of the humblest of his +human creatures. In the second place, the terms of the union here +formed between God and man are such as can be found nowhere else. The +deity inspires man not to any particular kind of acts, not to +sacrifices, nor to withdrawal from the world, but inspires him simply +to realise himself. Man is assured of the sympathy of this great God, +and is then left in freedom as to the mode in which he should serve +him. No rules are prescribed; human life is not pressed into an +artificial mould, as is the case in so many great religions; no +preference is accorded to any one pursuit over others. This religion +is not a yoke to coerce men and to make them less, but an inspiration +capable of entering into every kind of life, and of making men +greater and better in whatever occupation. Even religious duties are +left to form themselves naturally; all that is insisted on is that +the child shall have living and real intercourse with the Father. +Prayer is necessary, and so is the practice of good works; the child +must keep in sympathy with the Father by doing as he does. Further +than this, the forms of the religious life are not prescribed. With +regard to morals, it is the same. The moral life is to build itself +up freely from within; goodness is not to be a matter of rule, but +the spontaneous and happy development of a principle which lives and +speaks deep in the centre of the heart. Jesus is not a lawgiver, save +in a metaphorical sense: the law which he sets up is nothing more +than that which every man, when he turns away from all that is +artificial, can find in his own breast. + +It is one feature of the spontaneity and spirituality of the religion +of Jesus, that it has no constitution. Jesus regarded himself as the +founder not of a new religion, but only of an inner circle of more +devoted believers inside the old religion of his country; he did not +therefore feel called to draw up rules for a new faith, and the +result of this is that the mechanism of the religion is of later +growth. The authority of the founder can be appealed to for a direct +and constant intercourse with God as of a child with his father, and +for the conduct of men towards each other, which such intercourse +with God necessarily implies, but for hardly anything more. Here, as +in no other historical religion, man is free. + +The religion of Jesus, therefore, is one of love alone. The divine +nature consists in love, and the impulse which religion communicates, +is simply that which proceeds from being loved and loving. And a +religion of love finds the way, as no other can, to make man free, to +unseal his energies, and to lead him upwards to the best life. The +appearance of such a religion forms the most momentous epoch of human +history. He who brought it forward must occupy a unique position in +the estimation of mankind. It can never be superseded. + +It is no doubt the case that the doctrine of Jesus was not in all +respects new. The ideas of the prophets live again in him; his +followers have always found many of the Jewish Psalms to be perfectly +suited to their experience. Jesus lived in the faith of Israel, and +considered that he had come only to make that faith better +understood, and to free it from improper accretions. What was new was +his own person. His great work was that he embodied his teaching in a +life which expressed it perfectly. It is far short of the truth to +say that there was no inconsistency between what he taught and his +own conduct. His life is a demonstration, in every detail, of the +effects of his religion; all flows with the utmost simplicity, and +even as a matter of necessity, out of the truth he taught. What he +preached was, in fact, himself; he was himself living in the kingdom +of God, to which he called others to come; he knew in his own +experience what it was to live as a child with the Father in heaven, +and to view all persons, all things, all duties, in the light of that +intercourse. All his acts and words flowed from the same spring in +his own inner experience. In no other way could his life shape itself +than as it did, and he saw with perfect clearness what men must be, +and on what terms they must live together when God and they were as +Father and children to each other. What he thus knew he lived, as if +no laws but those of the kingdom of heaven had any authority for him, +and so he presented to the world that living embodiment of the true +religion, which has been the main strength of Christianity. Jesus +announces a new union of God with man, a union in which he himself is +the first to rejoice, but which all may share along with him; and +hence his person counts for more in his religion than that of any +other religious founder in his, and necessarily becomes an object of +faith to all who enter the communion. The doctrine does not produce +its specific effect apart from the person of Jesus. Because in him +alone they know the truth which brings them peace, his followers +regard him, in a way which has no parallel in any other religion, as +their Saviour. + +But this name is given to him by his followers, as it is claimed by +himself, for another reason also. Jesus was more than a teacher. He +felt a power to be present in him which was able to supply all needs +and to comfort all sorrows; he did not shrink from summoning all who +were weary and heavy laden to come to him, nor from undertaking to +give them rest. Keenly alive to the sufferings of others, and able to +perceive even those sufferings of which they were not themselves +conscious, he felt it to be his mission to deal with the sadder side +of human life; he was a physician sent to the sick, a shepherd +seeking the lost sheep. It was among the poor and the sick, and even +among the outcasts of society, in whom the sense of need was +strongest, that he felt himself most at home and most able to fulfil +his calling. Thus the motive of compassion enters strongly into all +he said and did: but the compassion is not hopeless in this case as +in the similar case of Gautama (see chapter xx.), nor is the cure +recommended for the ills of humanity that of withdrawal from mankind +or of forgetfulness. Here there is a belief in God. The compassion +from which the religion flows is not as in the case of Gautama, that +of a preacher who has ceased to trust in any heavenly power; it is +announced as existing first of all in the heart of God Himself. God +can do all things, and in his yearning pity for his children has sent +his representative to assure them of his sympathy and to comfort them +in their sorrows. With Jesus therefore no evil is so great as not to +admit of a positive cure; he feels the remedy of all human ills to be +present in his own heart, and so he appears as the Messiah, not such +a Messiah as his countrymen looked for, but as the true Messiah, in +whom all human wants are met, and all human hopes fulfilled. The cure +which he announces for all ills consists in devotion to the will of +the Father in heaven. To give oneself unreservedly to the labour of +realising the purposes of the heavenly Father in one's own heart and +in the world, is to rise above all cares and sorrows; enthusiasm in +the Father's service is the sovereign remedy. To one who believes in +the Father, and seeks to live as his child, no despair is possible. +To be engaged in his business is at all times the highest happiness, +and his kingdom is assuredly coming, though man has still the +privilege of working for it,--the kingdom in which all darkness and +evil will be put away. + +We have indicated the chief points which in a scientific comparison +of Christianity with other religions appear to constitute its +distinctive character; and we have sought to make our statement such +as the reasonable adherent of other religions will feel to be +warranted. The points are these. Christianity is a religion of +freedom, it is a system of inner inspiration more than of external +law or system, it is embodied in the living person of its founder, in +which alone it can be truly seen; and the founder is one who is +living himself in the relation to God to which he calls men to come, +and feels himself called and sent to be the Saviour of men. + +It is impossible in this work to treat Christianity on the same scale +as the other religions; but the question of its universalism must +necessarily receive attention. Jesus himself did not expressly say +that his religion was for all men. It was his immediate aim to bring +about the renewal of the faith of his countrymen, and to give it a +more spiritual character; and some of his followers considered that +he had aimed at nothing more than this. But he formed a circle of +disciples and adherents, which afterwards came to be the Christian +Church, and he attached no ritual condition whatever to membership in +that community. Nay, more; by his repudiation of the Jewish system of +tradition he showed that the Jewish laws of ritual purity were not +binding upon his disciples, and the further inference could readily +be drawn, that one could enter the Kingdom without being a Jew at +all. The strong missionary impulse of the infant religion brought it +very early in contact with Gentile life, and the question soon arose, +whether those who refused to become Jews could yet claim a share in +the Messiah. It was the task of the Apostle Paul to work out the +theory of the universalism of Christianity, and after some conflict +the principle was recognised that in the Church all racial +differences disappear; "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek." +This controversy once settled--and a few years sufficed to settle +it--the new religion was free to spread in all directions. It spread +rapidly; the gospel was very simple and imposed no burdensome +conditions, and it soon proved itself to be capable of striking root +in any country. The Apostle Paul was the first great theologian of +the Church; but his doctrine, as will happen in such a case, does not +in all points spring out of the nature of the religion itself. The +Pauline theology is an attempt to reconcile the facts of Christianity +and especially that great stumbling-block to the Jews, the death of +the Messiah, with the requirements of Jewish thought. Instead of +seeing in the death of Christ, as the older apostles at first did, a +perplexing enigma, St. Paul saw in it the principal manifestation of +the compassion of the Saviour, and the great purpose for which he had +come into the world. He concentrated attention on Christ's death and +made the cross rather than the doctrine of the Messiah the burden of +his teaching. To understand Paul we must distinguish between his +religion and his theology. His religious position is essentially the +same as that of Jesus himself; with him, too, the new religion is +that of father and child, and of the consequences which inevitably +flow from such a union. But the movement of thought which began at +the moment of the crucifixion, the concentration of Christian faith +and love on the person of the Saviour, was now complete. The figure +of the Crucified with its powerful tragic attraction, and with its +deep lessons of conquest by self-surrender, of life by dying, +remained from St. Paul onwards, in the centre of the faith. + +The world of the early centuries was in great need of a religion, and +Christianity supplied the place which was vacant. Brought in contact, +in the great ocean of the Roman Empire where all currents met, with +religions and philosophies of every kind, it proved best suited to +the task of supplying an inspiration for life, uniting together +different classes of men and schools of thought. But in the wide +arena of the Empire it received as well as gave, and in its +encounters with strange rites and doctrines it also put on many a +strange aspect. It became the heir of the thoughts and aspirations of +a hundred empires; all the pious sentiments that flowed together from +every quarter of the world helped to enrich its doctrine, and to make +it the great reservoir it is of all the tendencies and views, even +those most contrary to each other, which are connected with religion. +Its institutions are of diverse origin. From the Jews it received its +earliest Bible, for the Christians had at first no sacred books but +those of the old covenant, and its weekly festival, though the day +was changed. Its God was the God of the Old Testament, and its +Saviour was the Messiah of Jewish prophecy, so that it was a +continuation of the Jewish religion, and the attempts which were made +by early Gnostics to dissolve this tie were soon forgotten. + +From Greece it received much. The world it had to conquer was Greek, +and the conquest could only take place by an accommodation to Greek +thought and to Greek ways. In the end of chapter xvi. we spoke of the +second Greek religion which arose under the influence of philosophy, +and found its way wherever Greek culture spread. In this great +movement, Christianity found a preparation for its coming in the +Greek world, without which its spread must have been much more +doubtful. In the Graeco-Roman religion the advances which appear in +Christianity are already prefigured. Thought has been busy in +building up a great doctrine of God, such a God as human reason can +arrive at, a Being infinitely wise and good, who is the first cause +and the hidden ground of all things, the sum of all wisdom, beauty, +and goodness, and in whom all men alike may trust. Greek thought also +found much occupation in the attempt to reach a true account of man's +moral nature and destiny. Both in theory and in practice many an +attempt was made to build up the ideal life of man, and thus many +minds were prepared for a religion which places the riches of the +inner life above all others. The Greek philosopher's school was a +semi-religious union, the central point of which was, as is the case +with Christianity also, not outward sacrifice but mental activity. It +is not wonderful therefore if Christian institutions were assimilated +to some extent to the Greek schools. It has recently been shown that +the celebration of the Eucharist came very early to bear a close +resemblance to that of a Greek mystery, and that there is an unbroken +line of connection between the discourse of the Greek philosopher and +the Christian sermon. In some of the Greek schools pastoral +visitation was practised, and the preacher kept up an oversight of +the moral conduct of his adherents. While Christianity certainly had +vigour enough to shape its own institutions, and may even be seen to +be doing so in some of the books of the New Testament, the agreement +between Greek and Christian practices amounts to something more than +coincidence. + +It was towards the end of the second century that the alliance +between Christianity and the Greek world was finally ratified. Till +then belief and practice were determined mainly by custom and +tradition; but now these were to give way to definite laws and +settled institutions. There came to full development, about the +period we have mentioned, a highly-organised system of church +government, a canon of sacred books of Christian origin, and a creed +in which the beliefs of Christians were drawn together in one +statement. It cannot be denied that the elaborate external forms with +which the religion of Jesus was thus invested went far to change its +spirit also. But this happens to every religion which reaches the +stage of organising itself in order to continue in the world and to +rule permanently in human thought and in human society. No external +forms can adequately express living religious ideas; and yet there +must be external forms in order that religious ideas may be +perpetuated. The ministers of the new truth inevitably rise in +dignity till they grow into a hierarchy. That truth inevitably seeks +to establish itself as scientifically true, and with the aid of the +ruling philosophical tendency of the day clothes itself in a view of +the universe and in a creed. Thus the essence of Christianity came to +consist not in loving the Master and following him in faith and love, +but in upholding the authority of the Church, receiving her +sacraments, and believing various metaphysical and transcendental +statements. Here also a hard shell is formed round the spiritual +kernel of the religion which, if it is fitted to preserve the latter +in rude and stormy times, is also fitted to confuse and also apt to +conceal it. + +In each of the countries to which it came, Christianity adopted what +it could of the religion formerly existing there. The old religions +of these lands were not all alike, and hence it came to pass that as +the language of Rome was transformed in various ways, and passed into +the different yet cognate tongues of the Romance nations, so the +religion of the Empire, combining with various forms of heathenism, +passed into several national religions, the differences of which are +at least as conspicuous as their similarity. In Italy Christianity +appears to be a system of local deities, each village worshipping its +own Madonna or saint. In Holland worship consists almost entirely of +preaching. In other countries the ritual and the intellectual +elements of religion are blended in varying proportions; and the +former heathenism of each land is also to be traced in many a popular +observance and belief. So great is the variety of the religions of +Europe, not to mention that of the negroes or the Shakers of America, +that many have doubted whether they ought all to be considered as +branches of one faith, or whether they would not more fitly be +regarded as so many national religions which have all alike connected +themselves with Christianity. Against this there is to be urged in +the first place that as a matter of history they are all undoubtedly +offshoots of the religion of Jesus. It may also be urged that +wherever the name of Jesus is named, his ideas must to some extent be +present, however much they are obscured and prevented from operating +by lower modes of view. The Christianity of no country ought to be +judged by the attitude of its most ignorant or even of its average +adherents; and in every land where Christianity prevails, an +influence connected with religion is at work, which makes for the +emancipation and elevation of the human person, and for the awakening +of the manifold energies of human nature. This, as we saw, is the +immediate and native tendency of the religion of Jesus; it opens the +prison doors to them that are bound; it communicates by its inner +encouragement an energy which makes the infirm forget their +weaknesses, it fills the heart with hope and opens up new views of +what man can do and can become. It is this that makes it the one +truly universal religion. Islam, it is true, has also proved its +power to live in many lands, and Buddhism has spread over half of +Asia. But Buddhism is not a full religion, it does not tend to action +but to passivity, and affords no help to progress. Islam, on the +other hand, is a yoke rather than an inspiration; it is inwardly +hostile to freedom, and is incapable of aiding in higher moral +development. Christianity has a message to which men become always +more willing to respond as they rise in the scale of civilisation; it +has proved its power to enter into the lives of various nations, and +to adapt itself to their circumstances and guide their aspirations +without humiliating them. A religion which identifies itself, as +Christianity does, with the cause of freedom in every land, and tends +to unite all men in one great brotherhood under the loving God who is +the Father of all alike, is surely the desire of all nations, and is +destined to be the faith of all mankind. + + +A bibliography of the recent study of Christianity would be far too +extensive for this book. An excellent statement on the subject will +be found at the hands of Professor Sanday in the _Oxford +Proceedings_, vol. ii. p. 263, _sqq._ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII +CONCLUSION + + +It will not be expected that the result of the great movement traced +in the chapters of this work can be summed up in a few words. We set +out with a definition of our subject which we said could only be +fully verified after religion had accomplished its growth and had +fully unfolded its nature. We also set out with the assumption that +all the religion of the world is one, and that it exhibits a +development which is in the main continuous, from the most elementary +to the highest stages. We shall not now attempt to justify by +argument that definition or that assumption. The history which we +have sought to place before the reader must itself be the proof of +them. All that can be done in bringing this work to a close is to +point out one great line of development, which may be recognised more +or less distinctly in the growth of each religion, and may therefore +be held to be characteristic of religion as a whole. No doubt the +growth of religion, as of other human activities, has many sides and +aspects, but perhaps it may be possible to specify the central line +of growth in which the explanation of all the subsidiary and parallel +forward movements is to be found. + +It was stated in our first chapter that religion is the expression of +human needs with reference to higher beings who are supposed to be +capable of fulfilling men's desires, and it was also stated as an +inference from this, that the growth of human needs is the cause of +religious change and progress. If this is true, then the key to the +progress of religion is to be found in the successive emergence in +human experience of higher and still higher needs. If we can discover +the order in which higher aspirations successively emerge in the +growth of humanity, then we shall possess the chief clue to the +course of religious advance. Now while there is infinite variety in +the needs and desires of men, every land and each nation having +ideals all its own, we can yet discern, on a broad view of human +progress, an advance from lower to higher needs which is common to +the human race, and manifests itself in the history of each nation. +Three successive conditions of human life stand out before us as +markedly distinct, and as occurring wherever civilisation continues +to advance. The first is that in which material needs are +all-absorbing; the second that in which freedom from material needs +has been to some extent attained, and the highest aspirations are +directed to the safety and advancement of the nation in which men +find themselves united and secure; and the third is that in which the +individual realises his own value apart from the state, and develops +a personal ideal which is thenceforward his chief end. To these three +stages of human existence three types of religion correspond, and the +growth of religion consists in the main in its passage from the lower +to the higher of these stages. + +The religion of the tribe belongs to that stage of man's existence in +which his energies are entirely occupied in the struggle against +nature and against other tribes. The conditions of his life do not +allow his higher faculties to grow, and while he is not without many +glimpses and anticipations of higher things, his religion, as a +whole, is a mass of childish fancies, and of fixed traditions which +he cannot explain, but does not venture to criticise or change. His +gods are petty and capricious beings, and his modes of influencing +them, though used with zeal and fervour, have little to do with +reason or with taste or with morality. It is in this kind of religion +that magic of all sorts is at home. + +The advance from the religion of the tribe to that of the nation was +briefly described above (chapter vi.). The leading classes of the +state at least having gained some measure of security and leisure, +ideas of a nobler order spring up in their minds. The service of the +great gods of the state is organised with befitting dignity and +splendour; the best minds contribute to it all they can in the way of +art, of poetry, of purified legend, of stately ceremonial. Patriotism +and religion are one, the offices of worship are upheld by the whole +power of the state, and the gods speak with new authority to the +spirit of the worshipper. Now it is that great religious systems +arise, so powerful, so highly organised, so splendidly adorned, and +surrounded with such venerable traditions, that they seem to be +destined for eternity. The priesthood becomes a very powerful class, +and acquires a personal holiness which marks out its members as +different from other men; the sacrifices acquire the character of +divine mysteries, every detail of which, even the most trivial, has a +sacred meaning; religious books are compiled or written, which by and +by are regarded as inspired, and as possessing absolute authority. It +is to be observed that the older style of religion is not at once +driven out by the growth of the new, but continues to flourish beside +it and under its shadow. The tribes of whom the nation is composed +still cherish and adore their own special deities. That older worship +is often thought to bring blessings which the new worship of the +state does not command, and many a piece of ancient magic, many a +practice which has no connection with the state religion, still goes +on, especially among those who are not cultivated enough to +appreciate the nobler faith which has arisen. + +This, however, does not keep the national faith from growing in +riches and consistency; and religion appears, as this growth +proceeds, to have attained the highest degree of power and authority +at which it can possibly arrive. Commanding as it does all the +resources of the nation, enriched by all that can be brought to it of +material or intellectual riches, placed in a position of absolute +exaltation and inviolableness, to what further conquests can it still +look forward? Yet when a national religion appears to be most firmly +established, the forces are most certainly at work which must ere +long lead to a far-reaching change. While the national worship has +been growing up to its highest splendours, the lives of the citizens +have also been growing richer and deeper, and the individual soul has +become aware of wants and longings which cannot be satisfied in the +national temple. The further progress of religion is apt to appear as +a revolt against the system which has grown so strong. The individual +sets out to seek a consistent intellectual view, and so figures as a +sceptic. He aims at a higher moral law than that of the priestly +system, and is accused of undermining public morality. He feels a new +call to personal goodness, a new need for personal atonement with the +ideal holiness which he has learned to apprehend; and as the public +ritual does not meet these needs, he seeks for new religious +associations and perhaps appears to preach a doctrine contrary to +patriotism, as it is subversive of the established religion of his +country, and to be wilfully destroying what his countrymen revere, +and wilfully breaking through old ties and obligations. Thus the +individualist stage of religion succeeds the national. But the +individualist stage is also, in part at least, the universal stage. +What the thinking mind and the pious heart seeks and cannot find in +the national worship, is a religion free as the seeker himself has +become free, from all that is unreasonable and artificial, a religion +therefore in which every thinking mind and every pious heart can have +a share. What is gained by individuals in this direction is capable, +therefore, if circumstances favour, of proving an acquisition not +only for the individual reformer or his nation, but for all men. But +as the rise of national religion does not bring to an end the ruder +worships of the tribes, which still go on beside it, so neither does +the rise of individualism, even in its purest form, bring to an end +the national worship. In the long run this may follow, but it does +not take place at once. All three forms of religion go on together; +the religion of magic, that of stately public sacrifices and +ceremonials, and that of intellectual effort and pious meditation and +prayer. Each no doubt influences to some extent the others, and is +influenced by them in turn. + +The movement thus indicated from tribal to national, and from +national to individual and to universal religion, is the central +development of religion, and all the minor developments which might +be traced, as that of sacrifice from rude to spiritual forms, of the +functions of the sacred class, of the morality dictated by religion +at its various stages, or of the literature connected with piety, may +be explained by reference to this one. This movement has taken place +in every nation; we have seen something of it in each of our +chapters. In some nations it has been early arrested, so that no +important contribution has there been brought to the general religion +of mankind, in others it has run its full course, and like a great +river has arrived at the ocean at last, to mingle its waters with +those of other mighty streams. + +The story of the growth of the world's religion has therefore to be +told in a number of parallel narratives, each dealing with the +experience of a separate nation. There can scarcely be any general +history of the religion of the world, in addition to those special +histories. Some epochs, it is true, stand out as having witnessed +simultaneous religious movements in many lands, as if the mind of the +whole human race had then been passing through the same crisis of +thought. The sixth century B.C. is the age of Confucius and of +Laotsze in China, of Gautama in India, of Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the +Unknown Prophet of the Exile, of Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and +Xenophanes, and also of the rise into prominence of the Greek +mysteries. Widely different as the movements are which thus took +place contemporaneously in these lands, we may discern in all of them +alike the tendency to plant religion in the mind and heart, and to +create a deeper union than the old external one, a union based on +common intellectual effort and spiritual sympathy. The period +immediately before and after the Christian era might also appear to +be one in which the mind of the world as a whole made a great step +forward. The union of many nations under the sway of Rome, and the +universal diffusion of the Greek language as a means of general +communication, made men conscious at this time as they had never been +before, of the unity of mankind in spite of all differences of race +and speech. A philosophy also was popular at this time which was +cosmopolitan in its character, and occupied itself with the great +problems, which are the same for all, of man's relation to the gods +and of his moral duty. If we add to this the combination which took +place at Rome and wherever different races met, of various rites and +creeds, we see that the age was one singularly disposed to the +breaking down of artificial barriers between men, and singularly +fitted to promote the growth of a belief in which men of all nations +might unite and feel themselves to be brethren. + +In these two periods we may recognise important steps in that great +Education of the Human Race which the Apostle Paul refers to in a +bold philosophy of history (Galat. iv.), and which later thinkers +have striven to set forth in detail. After the long servitude of +mankind to irrational practices and to gods who were no gods, there +comes first the period when men recognise that the true God is to be +found not merely outside them but within their hearts and minds, and +then the period when they find that the true God is the same to all +men, that they are all children of the same Father. But while these +general movements of the human mind may be acknowledged, the +education of the human race proceeds for the most part in nations. As +each nation has to elaborate its own art, its own literature, its own +system of law, so each nation has to perfect its own religion. Even +after a universal faith has appeared, religion does not cease to be a +national thing. Each people moulds the universal religion which it +has adopted into a special form, continues by means of it the rites +and traditions of the past, and expresses through it its own national +character and aspirations. Each nation as well as each individual +must necessarily have a faith specially its own, arising out of its +own character and experience and in great part incommunicable to +others. No two nations could possibly exchange religions. + +But on the other hand every nation contains within itself forms of +religion which differ from each other as widely as those of two +separate nations. It has been said that no religious belief or usage +which has once lived can ever be destroyed; and the proof of this may +be witnessed in every nation. Even after that religion has come which +has its main seat in the heart and soul, the ruder forms of piety +live on, and even at times aggressively assert themselves. If there +are classes for whom the struggle against material hardships still +continues, no lofty religion can be attained by them any more than by +savage tribes. As the conditions of their life forbid the growth of +their higher faculties, their religion cannot be one of thought or of +refinement, but must be one which promises palpable benefits or an +escape from immediate dangers. At a somewhat higher stage is the +class of those who, while partly escaped from the struggle against +want, have not yet fully realised themselves as thinking and +spiritual beings, and to whom the benefits of religion still lie +outside, rather than in the inner life. When the benefits of religion +are thus conceived, its processes must be of a mechanical nature. +Hence the various systems of apparatus for connecting the worshipper +with a source of good distant from him in time or space, and for +fetching as it were from another region, with certainty and accuracy, +needed supplies of grace. + +The further development of religion in a community so mixed must +depend on the progressive education and elevation of the people. As +more and more of them are freed first from distracting wants and +cares, and then from sordid and materialistic views, their spiritual +nature will expand. The need for God himself rather than for his +gifts, will arise and increase in their hearts, and they will grow +capable of that highest religion which is the life of the soul with +God; they will feel its beauty and will drink of the deep springs +which it contains, of strength and peace. + +To attain this true religion the human race has had to travel far and +to make many experiments. Many temples were built and fell to ruin +before the true temple of the soul was reached in which, as each +finds what he as an individual requires, there is also room for all +mankind. Even after this highest religion has been made known to men, +it has often been obscured and lost, and many a struggle has been +needed to vindicate its claims and help it to retain its rightful +place. But with growing experience the world becomes more assured +that the simplest and broadest religion ever preached upon this earth +is also the best and the truest, and that in maintaining Christianity +as at first preached, and applying it in every needed direction, lies +the hope of the future of mankind. To those who agree in this +conclusion the history of the religion of the world, full of errors +and of grievous failures as it has been seen to be, cannot appear to +have been a vain and purposeless excursion in a land of shadows. Not +without a divine call, and not without divine guidance did man set +out so early, and persevere so constantly in spite of all his +disappointments, in the search for God. + + + + +INDEX + + +Aesir, 267 + +Ahura Mazda, 387, 391, 397, 398, 405 + +Allah, 222 + +Allat, "The Lady," 165, 173, 219 + +Amartas, 44 + +Anaitis, 407 + +Ancestor-worship, + primitive, 33, 40 + China, 115 + Aryan, 250 + India, 338 + +Angels and demons, Persia, 400, 407 + +Animals, worship of, 29, 57 + in Peru, 86 + in Babylonia, 96 + in Egypt, 130 + how accounted for, 133 + in Arabia, 219 + in Greece, 277 + +Animation of Nature in savage thought, 24 + +Animism, + meaning of, 40, 96, 308 + in Roman religion, 308 + +Anthropomorphism, 53 + Babylonia, 96 + Egypt, 132 + Greece, 281 + +Apocalypse, 213 + +Arabia, + before Mahomet, 218 + gods of, 219 + Judaism and Christianity in, 223 + +Art, + Phenician, 174 + Egyptian, 132 + Greece, 280, 292 + +Aryans, the, 245 + description of, 248 + in Europe, 256 + religion, 250 + etymology of names of gods, 250 + +Ascetics, Brahmanic, 350 + +Ashera, Canaanite goddess, 172 + +Ashtoreth, 176 + +Association, forms of religious, + Totem-Clan, 70 + nation, 84 + Greek mysteries, 298 + Greek schools, 303 + new form in Israel, 212 + new form in Islam, 233 + +Asuras, 44 + + +Baal, Canaanite god, 171, 189 + +Babylon and Assyria, + religion of, 93 + connection with Egypt, 94, 96, 97 + connection with China, 93, 98 + mythology of, 100 + +Belief, + an essential part of religion, 9, 13 + less important than rite in primitive religion, 66 + +Brahman, etymology of, 339 + +Brahmanism, 338 + +Buddhism, 353, _sqq._ + in China, 123 + +_Burnt Njal_, 264 + +Burton, Captain, _Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Mecca_, 236 + + +Caaba, 220, 236 + +Cabiri, 177 + +Canaanites, 170 + religion of, 171, 191 + +Caste, 338 + +Celts, 257 + +China, 106 + connection with Babylonia, 107 + state religion of, 111 + +Christianity, 411, _sqq._ + +Civilisation and religion advance together, 15 + origin of, 19 + +Classification of religions, 80 + +Confucius, 107, 117, _sqq._ + +Continuity of growth in religion, 6 + +Curiosity, an element of religion, 12 + + +Daniel, 213 + +Decalogues, 202 + +Definition of religion, + preliminary, 8 + fuller, 13 + +Degeneration in civilisation, 19 + in religion, 38 + +Deuteronomy, 201 + +Devas, 44, 396 + +Development of religion, 8, 51, _sqq._, 430, _sqq._ + +Domestic worship, + origin of, 33 + China, 115 + Aryans, 251 + Iceland, 264 + Greece, 275 + Rome, 311 + Brahmanic, 342 + +Dualism, 56 + + +Eddas, 266 + +Egypt, religion of, 126, _sqq._ + +Elijah and Elisha, 190 + +Elves, 265 + +Ephod, 188 + +Etruria, religion of, 318 + +Exile of Israel, 202 + +Ezra, 204 + + +Fairy Tales (German), 262 + +Fate, 289 + +Festivals, Greek, 294 + +Fetish-worship, 35 + +Fetishism, 38 + +Fire, 31 + +Frazer, Mr., 58, 59; _Golden Bough_, 28, 279 + +Frisia, religion in, 263 + +Functional deities, + Greece, 275 + Rome, 308 + +Funeral practices, 62 + Egypt, 149 + Icelandic, 264 + Greece, 282, 290 + India, 332 + Persian, 405 + + +Games, Greek, 294 + +Gautama Buddha, 356 + his death, 361 + +Germans, the ancient, 258 + their gods, 259 + their gods identified with Roman, 260 + working religion of, 260 + later religion, 263 + +Ghosts, 34 + +Gods, the great, + in Babylonia, 98 + in Egypt, 137 + of the Aryans, 252 + German, 259 + Icelandic, 266 + of Homer, 285 + Roman, 311 + Indian, 326 + +Gomme, _Ethnology in Folklore_, 60, 249, 254 + +Greece, 274 + +Grimm, German Mythology, 260 + + +Hades, 291 + +Hammurabi, 93, 95, 202 + +Hanyfs, 224 + +Hartmann, Edward von, 46 + +Heaven, 52 + an object of primitive worship, 31, 53 + Babylonia, 93 + China, 112 + Arabia, 219 + India, 318, 326, 333 + +Hegira, 231 + +Hell, 229, 265, 392 + +Henotheism, 56 + +Heroic legends, + Babylonian, 100 + German, 262 + +Hesiod, 291 + +Homer, 283 + worship in, 287 + +Homeric gods, 285 + +Hymns, + Babylonian, 101 + Egyptian, 144 + Vedic, 328 + Persian, 383. See Psalms + + +Iceland, 264 + decay of old religion of, 272 + +Idols, + none in primitive religion, 73 + Arabia, 219, 220 + German? 264 + +Immortality, + China, 115 + Egypt, 152 + +Incas, the religion of, 85-88 + +India, 324 + +Individual, the, not considered in primitive religion, 76 + +Individual religion, + Babylonia, 104 + Israel, 205 + Greece, 300 + India, 346 + a high stage of religion, 429 + the porch to universalism, 430 + See Buddhism + +Indo-Europeans. See Aryans + +Isaiah xli.-lxvi., 203 + +Islam, 217. See Mahomet + meaning of, 226 + spread of, 237 + a universal religion, 240 + weakness of, 241 + +Israel, 179 + +Israel and Canaanites, 184 + Prophets, 189 + reforms of religion, 200 + exile, 202 + the return, 204 + +Istar, 101 + + +Jainism, 362 + +Japan, 115 + +Jehovah, 182 + +Jesus Christ, 413, _sqq._ + +Jewish religion, 205 + spiritual elements of, 209 + heathenish elements of, 210 + Persian influence on? 215 + +Jinns, 220 + +Job, 215 + +Judaism, 205 _sqq._ + Hellenistic period of, 412 + at time of Christ, 413 + + +Kathenotheism, 55, 336 + +Koran, 225, 227, 239 + + +Lang, Andrew, 25, 59; _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, 22 + +Legge, Dr., 110, 113 + +Literatures, sacred, 179 + Babylonia, 93, 100 + Buddhist, 353 + China, 108 + Eddas, 266 + Egypt, 127, 154 + Koran, 225, 227, 239 + Israel, 179, 207 + Sibylline books, 319 + Vendidad, 406 + Zend-Avesta, 382 + +Local nature of early religion, 60 + +Local observances, + Aryan, 253 + old German, 262 + Icelandic, 264 + +Lockyer, _Dawn of Astronomy_, 94 + + +Magi, 405 + +Magic, 74 + Babylonia, 95 + Egypt, 155 + +Mahomet, 225, _sqq._ + preaching, 228 + leaves Mecca, 231 + at Medina, 232 + breach with Judaism and Christianity, 234 + domestic, 235 + +Manicheism, 408 + +Mannhardt, _Feld- und Waldkulte_, 59, 262 + +Manu, law of, 344 + +Massebah, 172 + +Maya, 349 + +McLennan, 59 + +Mecca, 220 + becomes capital of Islam, 235 + +Meyer, E., 247 + +Mithra, 407 + +Moloch, 174 + +Monarchical Pantheon of the Aryans, 253 + +Monotheism, + not primitive, 37, 56 + in Egypt? 144 + emergence of, in Israel, 196 + in India, 348 + +Morality, + in primitive religion, 77 + Egyptian religion, 155 + Greece, 279 + Vedic religion, 335 + Brahmanism, 345 + of Buddhism, 372 + +Moslem, + meaning of, 226 + duties of the, 238 + +Mueller, Mr. Max, 10, 42, 246, 250, 332 + his theory of the origin of religion, 43 + +Mycenae, 282 + +Mysteries, the Greek, 298 + +Mythology, + origin of, 51 + Babylonia, 100 + Egypt, 138 + Greece, 280 + Icelandic, 267 + Indian, 333 + + +National religion, + how different from earlier form, 81, 428 + Israel, 191 + +Natural religion, 80 + +Nature gods, growth of, 51 + +Nature-worship, + the greater, 30, 43 + the minor, 32, 42, 57 + +Nirvana, 361, 373 + + +Omens, 290 + Roman, 312 + +Orientation, of temples, 100 + +Origin of religion, + (1) Primitive revelation, 26 + (2) Innate idea, 26 + (3) Psychological necessity, 27 + +Orphism, 302 + +Other World, the + in Egypt, 151 + with the Semites, 167 + Jewish beliefs about, 214 + Arabia, 220 + Iceland, 265, 266 + Homer, 283 + + +Pantheism, + in Egypt, 148 + India, 336, 348 + +Patriarchal society and religion of Aryans, 248 + +Perkunas, 36 + +Persia, 381 + primitive religion, 385 + contact of Jews with, 401, 406 + +Pfleiderer, Otto, 47 + +Phenicians, 170 + religion of, 176 + influence on Greece, 282 + +Philistines, 170 + +Philosophy, + Greek, 301 + Indian, 347 + +Polytheism, + origin of, 53 + Indian, 335 + +Prayer, + primitive, 71 + Israel, 198, 212 + Indian, 339 + Persian, 382, 394 + +Priestly code, 202, 403 + +Priests, + none in the earliest religion, 72 + not necessary in early Israel, 187 + Roman, 313 + Brahmans, 338 + +Primitive religion, the, 21 + difference between it and later forms, 79 + +Prophets, in Israel, 189 + their criticism of the old religion of Israel, 192 + +Psalms, 210. See Hymns + +Purity, laws of, + Israel, 209 + Persia, 404 + + +Rationalism, + Greece, 297 + India, 350 + +Reforms, + of Israelite religion, 200 + of Augustus, 322 + +Renouf, Le Page, 145 + +Revealed religion, 80 + +Reville, M., 25, 31, 42 + +Resurrection, 214 + +Retribution, after death, + in Egypt, 155 + Mahomet, 229 + Israel, 214 + +Rig-veda, the, 325 + +Ritualism, + Brahmanic, 343 + Roman, 314 + Persian, 403 + Jewish, 204, 208 + +Rome, 305, _sqq._ + +Rouge, M. de la, 145 + + +Sacred places, 59 + Semitic, 165 + Canaanite, 184, 200 + Arabia, 219 + Germany, 261 + +Sacred seasons, 75 + +Sacrifice, + primitive, generally a meal, 67 + in China, 114 + Semitic, 164 + human (Phenician), 175 + human (Israel), 187 + human (Icelandic), 265 + early Israelite, 183 + denounced by O. T. prophets, 193 + Jewish, 207 + Icelandic, 264 + Homeric, 287 + Persia, 394 + +Saussaye, P. D. Chantepie de la, 17 + +Savage elements in all the great religions, 21 + +Savages, + their religion falls short of the definition, 8 + represent the original state of mankind, 19 + mental habits of, 23 + all have religion, 25 + the religion of, described, 29, _sqq._ + their beliefs furnish the elements of the great religions, 63 + +Schrader (Aryans), 247, 252 + +Semites, 161 + religion of, 162 + gods of, 164, 173 + goddess of, 99, 165, 219 + +Seraph, 220 + +Shin-to, 115 + +Sin, + Babylon, 103 + Israel, 205 + +Slavs, 256 + +Smith, Robertson, 61; _Religion of the Semites_, 58, 70, 162 + +Spencer, Mr. H., 11, 39 + +Spirit, the great, 36 + +Spirits, + of dead persons, 33 + worship of, the origin of all religion? 38 + in Babylonia, 95 + in China, 114 + in Arabia, 220 + in Greece, 275 + in Persia, 398 + +Standing stones, 60 + +Sun, 30 + +Sun-gods, + Babylonia, 99 + Egypt, 140, 148 + Phenician, 176 + Arabian, 219 + +Supreme Being, an object of primitive worship? 36 + +Survival of savage state in the great religions, 21 + +Synagogue, 212 + +Syncretism, of gods in Egypt, 148 + + +Taboo, 72 + +Taoism, 121 + +Taylor, Dr. I., 247, 248 + +Temples, + not primitive, 72 + Babylonia, 99 + Egyptian, 128, 130, 136 + Phenician and Jewish, 178 + Greek, 292 + Roman, 318, 323 + +Teraphim, 188 + +Teutons, 256. See Germans + +Thunder, 30, 265, 270 + +Tiele, Dr. C. P., 15 + +Totemism, 58, 135, 277 + +Transmigration, 302, 351, 368 + +Tree-worship, + primitive, 32, 59, 278 + Babylonia, 101 + Canaanites, 172 + Arabia, 219 + Greece, 278 + +Tribal religion, 57, 77, 427 + +Tylor, Mr., _Primitive Culture_, 10, 20, 25, 29, 39, 62, 63, 68 + + +Under-world, the, + Babylonia, 100, 102 + Egypt, 140, 142, 152 + +Unity of all religion, 4 + +Universal deities of the Aryans, 252 + +Universalism, + in O. T. prophets, 195 + in Islam, 240 + in Christianity, 419 + +Urim and Thummim, 188 + + +Vedic hymns, 328 + +Vedic religion, 324, _sqq._ + its gods, 326 + is it early or late? 331 + +Vow, original meaning of, 75 + + +Waitz and Gerland's _Anthropologie der Naturvoelker_, 29 + +Wellhausen, J., 163, 218 + +Wells, sacred, 32, 57, 59 + +Worship, + an essential element of religion, 9 + primitive, 66 + Chinese, 112 + Egyptian, 147 + Canaanite, 173 + Israelite, 187 + Jewish, 207 + Roman, 309 + See Sacrifice + + +Zeus, etymology of, 250, 286, 296 + +Zoomorphism, 53 + +Zoroaster, 384 + his call, 388 + his doctrine, 391 + + + +PRINTED AT THE EDINBURGH PRESS, 9 AND 11 YOUNG STREET. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF RELIGION*** + + +******* This file should be named 29893.txt or 29893.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/8/9/29893 + + + +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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