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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/31608-8.txt b/31608-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e14334e --- /dev/null +++ b/31608-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3501 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lords of the Ghostland, by Edgar Saltus + +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: The Lords of the Ghostland + A History of the Ideal + +Author: Edgar Saltus + +Release Date: March 12, 2010 [EBook #31608] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Adam Buchbinder, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Footnotes are placed at the end of the relevant +paragraph. In Chapters I and II, the printed "Mitra" was changed to +"Mithra" to match other occurrences in the text, which predominate. +In Chapter II, the notation [)a] represents the letter a with breve. +Also, an instance in the original text of the word "JHVH" in the +Hebrew alphabet has been changed to the Roman. + + + + +THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND + +_A History of the Ideal_ + +By EDGAR SALTUS + + "Errons, les doigts unis, dans + l'Alhambra du songe." + Renée Vivien + + NEW YORK + MITCHELL KENNERLEY + MCMVII + + COPYRIGHT, 1907 + BY EDGAR SALTUS + +_The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. USA._ + + +_By Mr. Saltus_ + + HISTORIA AMORIS + IMPERIAL PURPLE + MARY MAGDALEN + THE POMPS OF SATAN + THE PERFUME OF EROS + VANITY SQUARE + + + + +THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND + + + I Brahma 7 + + II Ormuzd 39 + + III Amon-Râ 60 + + IV Bel-Marduk 81 + + V Jehovah 109 + + VI Zeus 140 + + VII Jupiter 166 + + VIII The Nec Plus Ultra 189 + + + + +THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND + + + + +I + +BRAHMA + + +The ideal is the essence of poetry. In the virginal innocence of the +world, poetry was a term that meant discourse of the gods. A world +grown grey has learned to regard the gods as diseases of language. +Conceived, it may be, in fevers of fancy, perhaps, originally, they +were but deified words. Yet, it is as children of beauty and of dream +that they remain. + +"Mortal has made the immortal," the _Rig-Veda_ explicitly declares. +The making was surely slow. In tracing the genealogy of the divine, it +has been found that its root was fear. The root, dispersed by light, +ultimately dissolved. But, meanwhile, it founded religion, which, +revealed in storm and panic, for prophets had ignorance and dread. The +gods were not then. There were demons only, more exactly there were +diabolized expressions invented to denominate natural phenomena and +whatever else perturbed. It was in the evolution of the demoniac that +the divine appeared. Through one of time's unmeasurable gaps there +floated the idea that perhaps the phenomena that alarmed were but the +unconscious agents of superior minds. At the suggestion, irresistibly +a dramatization of nature began in which the gods were born, swarms of +them, nebulous, wayward, uncertain, that, through further gaps, became +concrete, became occasionally reducible to two great divinities, earth +and sky, whose union was imagined--a hymen which the rain +suggested--and from which broader conceptions proceeded and grander +gods emerged. + +The most poetic of these are perhaps the Hindu. At the heraldings of +newer gods, the lords of other ghostlands have, after battling +violently, swooned utterly away. But though many a fresher faith has +been brandished at them, apathetically, in serene indifference, the +princes of the Aryan sky endure. + +It is their poetry that has preserved them. To their creators poetry +was abundantly dispensed. To no other people have myths been as +frankly transparent. To none other, save only their cousins the +Persians, have fancies more luminous occurred. The Persians so +polished their dreams that they entranced the world that was. Poets +can do no more. The Hindus too were poets. They were children as well. +Their first lisp, the first recorded stammer of Indo-European speech, +is audible still in the _Rig-Veda_, a bundle of hymns tied together, +four thousand years ago, for the greater glory of Fire. The worship of +the latter led to that of the Sun and ignited the antique altars. It +flamed in Persia, lit perhaps the shrine of Vesta, afterward dazzled +the Incas, igniting, meanwhile, not altars merely, but purgatory +itself. + +In Persia, where it illuminated the face of Ormuzd, its beneficence is +told in the _Avesta_, a work of such holiness that it was polluted if +seen. In the _Rig-Veda_, there are verses which were subsequently +accounted so sacred that if a soudra overheard them the ignominy of +his caste was effaced. + +The verses, the work of shepherds who were singers, are invocations to +the dawn, to the first flushes of the morning, to the skies' +heightening hues, and the vermillion moment when the devouring Asiatic +sun appears. There are other themes, minor melodies, but the chief +inspiration is light. + +To primitive shepherds the approach of darkness was the coming of +death. The dawn, which they were never wholly sure would reappear, was +resurrection. They welcomed it with cries which the _Veda_ preserves, +which the _Avesta_ retains and the _Eddas_ repeat. The potent forces +that produced night, the powers potenter still that routed it, they +regarded as beings whose moods genuflexions could affect. In perhaps +the same spirit that Frenchmen assisted at a _lever du roi_, and +Englishmen attend a prince's levee, the Aryan breakfasted on song and +sacrifice. It was an homage to the rising sun. + +The sun was _deva_. The Sanskrit root _div_, from which the word is +derived, produced deus, devi, divinities--numberless, accursed, +adored, or forgot. The common term applied to all abstractions that +are and have been worshipped, means _That which shines_ and the name +which, in the early Orient, signified a star, designates the Deity in +the Occident to-day. + +Apologetically, Tertullian, a Christian Father, remarked: "Some think +our God is the Sun." There were excuses perhaps for those that did. +Adonai, a Hebrew term for the Almighty, is a plural. It means lords. +But the lords indicated were Baalim who were Lords of the Sun. +Moreover, when the early Christians prayed, they turned to the East. +Their holy day was, as the holy day of Christendom still is, Sunday, +day of the Sun, an expression that comes from the Norse, on whom also +shone the light of the Aryan deva. + +To shepherds who, in seeking pasture for their flocks, were seeking +also pasture for their souls, the deva became Indra. They had other +gods. There was Agni, fire; Varuna, the sky; Maruts, the tempest. +There was Mithra, day, and Yama, death. There were still others, +infantile, undulant, fluid, not infrequently ridiculous also. But it +was Indra for whom the dew and honey of the morning hymns were spread. +It was Indra who, emerging from darkness, made the earth after his +image, decorated the sky with constellations and wrapped the universe +in space. It was he who poured indifferently on just and unjust the +triple torrent of splendour, light, and life. + +Indra was triple. Triple Indra, the _Veda_ says. In that description +is the preface to a theogony of which Hesiod wrote the final page. It +was the germ of sacred dynasties that ruled the Aryan and the +Occidental skies. From it came the grandiose gods of Greece and Rome. +From it also came the paler deities of the Norse. Meanwhile ages fled. +Life nomad and patriarchal ceased. From forest and plain, temples +arose; from hymns, interpretations; from prayer, metaphysics; for +always man has tried to analyze the divine, always too, at some halt +in life, he has looked back and found it absent. + +In meditation it was discerned that Indra was an effect, not the +cause. It was discerned also that that cause was not predicable of the +gods who, in their undulance and fluidity, suggested ceaseless +transformations and consequently something that is transformed. + +The idea, patiently elaborated, resulted in a drainage of the fluid +myths and the exteriorisation of a being entirely abstract. Designated +first as Brahmanaspati, Lord of Prayer, afterward more simply as +Brahma, he was assumed to have been asleep in the secret places of the +sky, from which, on awakening, he created what is. + +The conception, ideal itself, was not, however, ideal enough. The +labour of creating was construed as a blemish on the splendour of the +Supreme. It was held that the Soul of Things could but loll, majestic +and inert, on a lotos of azure. Then, above Brahma, was lifted Brahm, +a god neuter and indeclinable; neuter as having no part in life, +indeclinable because unique. + +There was the apex of the world's most poetic creed, one distinguished +over all others in having no founder, unless a heavenly inspiration be +so regarded. But the apex required a climax. Inspiration provided it. + +The forms of matter and of man, the glittering apsaras of the +vermillion dawns, Indra himself, these and all things else were +construed into a bubble that Brahm had blown. The semblance of reality +in which men occur and, with them, the days of their temporal breath, +was attributed not to the actual but to Mâyâ--the magic of a high +god's longing for something other than himself, something that should +contrast with his eternal solitude and fill the voids of his infinite +ennui. From that longing came the bubble, a phantom universe, the +mirage of a god's desire. Earth; sea and sky; all that in them is, all +that has been and shall be, are but the changing convolutions of a +dream. + +In that dream there descended a scale of beings, above whom were set +three great lords, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva +the Destroyer, collectively the Tri-murti, the Hindu trinity expressed +in the mystically ineffable syllable Om. Between the trinity and man +came other gods, a whole host, powers of light and powers of darkness, +the divine and the demoniac fused in a hierarchy surprising but not +everlasting. Eventually the dream shall cease, the bubble break, the +universe collapse, the heavens be folded like a tent, the Tri-murti +dissolved, and in space will rest but the Soul of Things, at whose +will atoms shall reassemble and forms unite, dis-unite and reappear, +depart and return, endlessly, in recurring cycles. + +That conception, the basis perhaps of the theory of cosmological days, +is perhaps also itself but a dream, yet one that, however defective, +has a beauty which must have been too fair. Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, +originally regarded as emanations of the ideal, became concrete. +Consorts were found for them. From infinity they were lodged in idols. +A worship sensuous when not grotesque ensued, from which the ideal +took flight. + +That was the work of the clergy. Brahmanism is also. The archaic +conflict between light and darkness, the triumph of the former over +the latter, diminished, at their hands, into the figurative. That is +only reasonable. It was only reasonable also that they should claim +the triumph as their own. Without them the gods could do nothing. They +would not even be. In the _Rig-Veda_ and the _Vedas_ generally they +are transparent. The subsequent evolution of the Paramâtmâ, the +Tri-murti and the hierarchy, had, for culmination, the apotheosis of a +priesthood that had invented them and who, for the invention, deserved +the apotheosis which they claimed and got. They were priests that were +poets, and poets that were seers. But they were not sorcerers. They +could not provide successors equal to themselves. It was the later +clergy that pulled poetry from the infinite, stuffed it into idols and +prostituted it to nameless shames. + +In the _Bhagavad-Gita_ it is written: "Nothing is greater than I. In +scriptures I am prayer. I am perfume in flowers, brilliance in light. +I am life and its source. I am the soul of creation. I am the +beginning and the end. I am the Divine." + +That is Brahm. Ormuzd has faded. Zeus has passed. Jupiter has gone. +With them the divinities of Egypt and the lords of the Chaldean sky +have been reabsorbed and forgot. Brahm still is. The cohorts of Cyrus +might pray Ormuzd to peer where he glowed. There, the phalanxes of +Alexander might raise altars to Zeus. Parthians and Tatars might +dispute the land and the god. Muhammadans could bring their Allah and +Christians their creed. Indifferently Brahm has dreamed, knowing that +he has all time as these all have their day. + +The conception of that apathy, grandiose in itself and marvellous in +its persistence, was due to unknown poets that had in them the true +_souffle_ of the real ideal. But that also demanded a climax. They +produced it in the theory that the afflictions of this life are due to +transgressions in another. + +From afflictions death, they taught, is not a release, for the reason +that there is no death. There is but absorption in Brahm. Yet that +consummation cannot occur until all transgressions, past and present, +have been expiated and the soul, lifted from the eddies of migration, +becomes Brahm himself. + +To be absorbed, to be Brahm, to be God, is an ambition, certainly +vertiginous yet as surely divine. But to succeed, consciousness of +success must be lost. A mortal cannot attain divinity until +annihilation is complete. To become God nothing must be left of man. +To loose, then, every bond, to be freed from every tie, to retire from +finite things, to mount to and sink in the immutable, to see Death +die, was and is the Hindu ideal. + +Of the elect, that is. Of the higher castes, of the priest, of the +prince. But not of the people. The ideal was not for them, salvation +either. It was idle even to think about it. Set in hell, they had to +return here until in some one of the twenty-four lakhs of birth which +the chain of migrations comports, and which to saint and soudra were +alike dispensed, they arrived here in the purple. Then only was the +opportunity theirs to rescale a sky that was reserved for prelates and +rajahs. + +Suddenly, to the pariah, to the hopeless, to those who outcast in hell +were outcast from heaven, an erect and facile ladder to that sky was +brought. The Buddha furnished it. If he did not, a college of +dissidents assumed that he had, and in his name indicated a stairway +which, set among the people, all might mount and at whose summit gods +actually materialized. + +To those who believe in the Dalai Lama--there are millions that have +believed, there are millions that do--he is not a vicar of the divine, +he is himself divine, a god in a tenement of flesh who, as such, +though he die, immediately is reincarnated; a god therefore always +present among his people, whose history is a continuous gospel. In +contemporaneous Italy, a peasant may aspire to the papacy. In the +uplands of Asia, men have loftier ambitions. There they may become +Buddha, who perhaps never was, except in legend. + +In the _Lalita Vistâra_ the legend unfolds. In the strophes of the +poem one may assist at the Buddha's birth, an event which is said to +have occurred at Kapilavastu. Oriental geography is unacquainted with +the place. With the thing even Occidental philosophy is familiar. +Kapilavastu means the substance of Kapila. The substance is atheism. + +History has its hesitancies. Often it stammers uncertainly. But its +earliest pages agree in representing Kapila as the initial religious +rebel. Kapila was the first to declare the divine a human and invalid +conjecture. The announcement, with its prefaces and deductions, is +contained in the _Sankhya Karika_, a system of rationalism, still read +in India, where it is known as the godless tract. + +In the Orient, existence is usually a sordid nightmare when it does +not happen to be a golden dream. Kapila taught that it was a prison +from which release could be had only through intellectual development. +That is Kapilavastu, the substance of Kapila, where the Buddha was +born. In the _Lalita Vistâra_ it is fairyland. + +There, Gotama the Buddha is the Prince Charming of a sovereign house. +But a prince who developed into a nihilist prior to re-becoming the +god that anteriorly he had been. It was while in heaven that he +selected Mâyâ, a ranee, to be his mother. It was surrounded by the +heavenly that he appeared. The fields foamed with flowers. The skies +flamed with faces. In the air apsaras floated, fanning themselves with +peacocks' tails. The galleries of the palace festooned themselves with +pearls. On the terraces a rain of perfume fell. In the parterres Mâyâ +strolled. A tree bent and bowed to her. Touching a branch with her +hand she looked up and yawned. Painlessly from her immaculate breast +Gotama issued. An immense lotos sprouted to receive him. To cover him +a parasol dropped from above. He, however, already occupied, was +contemplating space, the myriad worlds, the myriad lives, and +announced himself their saviour. At once a deluge of roses descended. +The effulgence of a hundred thousand colours shone. A spasm of delight +pulsated. Sorrow and anger, envy and fear, fled and fainted. From the +zenith came a murmur of voices, the sound of dancing, the kiss of +timbril and of lute. + +That is Oriental poetry. Oriental philosophy is less ornate. From the +former the Buddha could not have come. From the latter he probably +did, if not in flesh at least in spirit. To that spirit antiquity was +indebted, as modernity is equally, for the doctrines of a teacher +known variously as Gotama the Enlightened and Sakya the Sage. Whether +or not the teacher himself existed is, therefore, unimportant. The +existence of the Christ has been doubted. But the doctrines of both +survive. They do more, they enchant. Occasionally they seem to +combine. The Gospels have obviously nothing in common with the _Lalita +Vistâra_, which is an apocryphal novel of uncertain date. The +resemblance that is reflected comes from the _Tripitaka_, the Three +Baskets that constitute the evangels of the Buddhist faith. + +In an appendix to the _Mahâvaggo_, it is stated that disciples of +Gotama, who knew his sermons and his parables by heart, determined the +canon "after his death." The expression might mean anything. But a +ponderable antiquity is otherwise shown. Asoko, a Hindu emperor, sent +an embassy to Ptolemy Philadelphos. The circumstance was set forth +bilingually on various heights. In another inscription Asoko +recommended the study of the _Tripitaka_ and mentioned titles of the +books. Ptolemy Philadelphos reigned at Alexandria in the early part of +the third century B.C. The _Tripitaka_ must therefore have existed +then. But the thirty-seventh year of Asoko's reign was, in a third +inscription, counted as the two hundred and fifty-seventh from the +Buddha's death, a reckoning which makes them much older. Their +existence, however, as a fourth inscription shows, was oral. +Transmitted for hundreds of years by trained schools of reciters, it +was during a synod that occurred in the first quarter of the first +century before Christ that, finally, they were written. + +In them it is recited that Mâyâ, the mother of Gotama, was immaculate. +According to St. Matthew, Maria, the mother of Jesus, was also. +Previously, in each instance, the coming of a Messiah had been +foretold. The infant Jesus was visited by magi. The infant Buddha was +visited by kings. Afterward, neither Jesus or Gotama wrote. But both +preached charity, chastity, poverty, humility, and abnegation of self. +Both fasted in a wilderness. Both were tempted by a devil. Both +announced a second advent. Both were transfigured. Both died in the +open air. At the death of each there was an earthquake. Both healed +the sick. Both were the light of a world which both said would cease +to be. + +According to _Luke_, a courtesan visited Jesus and had her sins +remitted. According to the _Mahâvaggo_, Gotama was visited by a harlot +whom he instructed in things divine.[1] In _Matthew_, Jesus is +depicted as a glutton and a wine-bibber. In the _Mahâvaggo_, the +picture of Gotama is the same.[2] In _Matthew_ it is written; "Lay not +up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth consume +and where thieves break through and steal." The _Khuddakapatho_ says: +"Righteousness is a treasure which no man can steal. It is a treasure +that abideth alway."[3] In _Luke_ it is written: "As ye would that men +should do unto you, do ye also unto them." The _Dhammaphada_ say: "Put +yourself in the place of others, do as you would be done by."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Luke vii. 37-50. Sacred Books of the East, xi. 30.] + +[Footnote 2: Matthew xi, 19. S. B. E. xiii. 92.] + +[Footnote 3: Matthew vi. 19. S. B. E. x. 191.] + +[Footnote 4: Luke vi. 31. S. B. E. x. 36.] + +The miracle of walking on the water, that of the money-bearing fish, +the story of the Woman at the Well, the proclamation of an +unpardonable sin, even the mediæval myth of the Wandering Jew, may +have originated in Buddhist legend.[5] + +[Footnote 5: _Cf._ Edmunds: Buddhist and Christian Gospels.] + +Pious minds have been disturbed by these similitudes. The resemblance +between Mâyâ and Maria has perplexed. The perhaps uncertain likeness +of Gotama to Jesus has occasioned irreverent doubts. But the +parallelisms may be fortuitous. Probably they are. Even otherwise they +but enhance the sororal beauties of faiths which if cognate are quite +distinct. Then too the penetrating charm of the parables and sermons +of the Buddha fades before the perfection of the sermons and parables +of the Christ. The birth, ministry, transfiguration, and passing of +Gotama are marvels which, however exquisite, the wholly spiritual +apparitions of the Lord efface. + +Other similarities, such as they are, may without impropriety, +perhaps, be attributed to the ideals progressus. Hindu and Chaldean +beliefs constitute the two primal inspirational faiths. From the one, +Buddhism and Zoroasterism developed. From the other the creed of +Israel and possibly that of Egypt came. Religions that followed were +afterthoughts of the divine. They were revelations sometimes more +intelligible, in one instance inexpressibly more luminous, yet +invariably reminiscent of an anterior light. + +The light of contemporaneous Buddhism is that of Catholicism--heaven +deducted, a heaven, that is, of ceaseless Magnificats. The latter +conception is Christian. But it was Persian first. Otherwise, in +common with the Church, Buddhism has saints, censers, litanies, +tonsures, holy water, fasts, and confession. Barring confession, the +extreme antiquity of which has been attested, the other rites and +ceremonies are, it may be, borrowed, but not the high morality, the +altruism, the renunciation and effacement of self, which Buddhists no +longer very scrupulously observe, perhaps, but which their religion +was the first to instil. + +Buddhism originally had neither rites nor ritual. It was merely a +mendicant order in which one tried to do what is right, with, for +reward, the hope of Pratscha-Parâmita, the peace that is beyond all +knowledge and which Nirvana provides. That peace is--or was--the +complete absence of anything, extinction utter and everlasting, a +state of absolute non-existence which no whim of Brahm may disturb. + +Buddhism denied Brahm and every tenet of Brahmanism, save only that +which concerned the immedicable misery of life. Of final deliverance +there was in Brahmanism no known mode. None at least that was +exoteric. Brahmanism rolled man ceaselessly through all forms of +existence, from the elementary to the divine, and even from the +latter, even when he was absorbed in Brahm, flung him out and back +into a fresh circle of unavoidable births. + +The theory is horrible. In the horrible occasionally is the sublime. +To Gotama it was merely absurd. He blew on it. Abruptly, the +categories of the infinite, the infant gods, shapes divine and +demoniac, the entire phantasmagoria of metempsychosis, seemed really +absorbed and Brahm himself ablated. For a moment the skies, sterilized +by a breath, seemingly were vacant. Actually they were never more +peopled. Behind the pall, tossed on an antique faith, new gods were +crouching and waiting. Buddhistic atheism had resulted but in the +production of an earlier New Testament. From the depths of the ideal, +swarms of bedecked and bejewelled divinities escorted Brahm back to a +lotos of azure. Coincidentally Gotama, enthroned in the zenith, +contemplated clusters of gods that dangled through twenty-eight abodes +of bliss which other poets created. + +In demonstrable triumph the Buddha was then, as he has been since, +even if previously his existence had been omitted. But though he never +were, there nevertheless occurred a social revolution of which he was +the nominal originator and which, had it not been diverted into other +realms, might have resulted in Brahm's entire extinction. + +Wolves do not devour each other. Ideals should not either. The +Oriental heavens were wide enough to serve as fastnesses for two sets +of hostile, germane, and ineffably poetic aberrations. There was room +even for more. There always should be. Of the divine one can have +never enough. + +The gospel according to Sakya the Eremite is divine. It is divine in +its limitless compassion, and though compassion, when analyzed, +becomes but egotism in an etherialized form, yet the gospel had other +attractions. In demonstrating that life is evil, that rebirth is evil +too, that to be born even a god is evil still,--in demonstrating these +things, while insisting that all else, Buddhism included, is but +vanity, it fractured the charm of error in which man had been +confined. + +Sakya saw men born and reborn in hell. He saw them ignorant, as +humanity has always been, unaware of their abjection as men are +to-day, and over the gulfs of existence, through the torrents of +rebirth, he offered to ferry them. But in the ferrying they had to +aid. The aid consisted in the rigorous observance of every virtue that +Christianity afterward professed. Therein is the beauty of Buddhism. +Its profundity resided in a revelation that everything human perishes +except actions and the consequences that ensue. To orthodox India its +tenets were as heretical as those of Christianity were to the Jews. +Nonetheless the doctrine became popular. But doctrines once +popularized lose their nobility. The degeneracy of Buddhism is due to +Cathay. + +To the Hindu life was an incident between two eternities, an episode +in the string of deaths and rebirths. To Mongolians it was a unique +experience. They had no knowledge of the supersensible, no suspicion +of the ideal. Among them Buddhism operated a conversion. It stimulated +a thirst for the divine. + +The thirst is unquenchable. Buddhism, in its simple severity, could +not even attempt to slake it. But on its simplicity a priesthood shook +parures. Its severity was cloaked with mantles of gold. The founder, +an atheist who had denied the gods, was transformed into one. About +him a host of divinities was strung. The most violently nihilistic of +doctrines was fanned into an idolatry puerile and meek. Nirvana became +Elysium, and a religion which began as a heresy culminated in a +superstition. That is the history of creeds. + + + + +II + +ORMUZD + + +"The purest of thoughts is that which concerns the beginning of +things." + +So Ormuzd instructed Zarathrustra. + +"And what was there at the beginning?" the prophet asked. + +"There was light and the living Word."[6] Long later the statement was +repeated in the Gospel attributed to John. Originally it occurred in +the course of a conversation that the _Avesta_ reports. In a similar +manner _Exodus_ provides a revelation which Moses received. There +Jehovah said: _'ehyèh '[)a]sher 'ehyèh_. In the _Avesta_ Ormuzd said: +_ahmi yad ahmi_.[7] Word for word the declarations are identical. Each +means _I am that I am_.[8] + +[Footnote 6: Avesta (Anquetil-Duperron), i. 393]. + +[Footnote 7: Avesta, Hormazd Yasht.] + +[Footnote 8: Exodus iii. 14.] + +The conformity of the pronouncements may be fortuitous. Their relative +priority uncertain chronology obscures. The date that orthodoxy has +assigned to Moses is about 1500 B.C. Plutarch said that Zarathrustra +lived five thousand years before the fall of Troy. Both dates are +perhaps questionable. But a possible hypothesis philology provides. +The term Jehovah is a seventeenth-century expansion of the Hebrew +Jhvh, now usually written Jahveh and commonly translated: _He who +causes to be._ The original rendering of Ormuzd is Ahura-mazda. Ahura +means _living_ and mazdaô _creator_. The period when _Exodus_ was +written is probably post-exilic. The period when the _Avesta_ was +completed is assumed to be pre-Cyrian. It was at the junction of the +two epochs that Iran and Israel met. + +But, however the pronouncements may conform, however also they may +confuse, the one reported in _Exodus_ is alone exact. In subsequent +metamorphoses the name might fade, the deity remained. Whereas, save +to diminishing Parsis, Ormuzd, once omnipotent throughout the Persian +sky, has gone. A time, though, there was, when from his throne in the +ideal he menaced the apathy of Brahm, the majesty of Zeus, when even +from the death of deaths he might have ejected Buddha and, supreme in +the Orient, ruled also in the West. Salamis prevented that. But one +may wonder whether the conquest had not already been effected, whether +for that matter the results are not apparent still. Brahma, Ormuzd, +Zeus, Jupiter, are but different conceptions of a primal idea. They +are four great gods diversely represented yet originally identical, +and whose attributes Jahveh, in his ascensions, perhaps absorbed. + +Ormuzd represented purity and light. For his worship no temple was +necessary, barely a shrine, never an image. In his celestial court +were parikas, the glittering bayaderes of love that a later faith +called peris, but his sole consorts were Prayers. About him and them +gathered amshaspands and izeds, angels and seraphs, the winged host of +loveliness that in Babylon enthralled the Jews who returned from +captivity escorted by them. The allurement of their charm, enchanting +then, enchants the world to-day. There has been little that is more +poetic, except perhaps Ormuzd himself, who symbolized whatever is +blinding in beauty, particularly the sun's effulgence, the radiance of +light. + +The light endures, though the god has gone. Yet at the time, aloof in +clear ether and aloft, he resplended in a sovereignty that only +Ahriman disputed. + +Ahriman has been more steadfast than Ormuzd. He too captivated the +captive Hebrews. The latter adopted him and called him Satan, as they +also adopted one of his minor legates, Ashmodai--transformed by the +Vulgate into Asmodeus--a little jealous devil who, in the apocryphal +_Tobit_, strangled husbands on their bridal nights. Ahriman, his +master, represented everything that was the opposite of Ormuzd. +Ahriman dwelt in darkness, Ormuzd in light. Ormuzd was primate of +purity; Ahriman, prince of whatever is base. One had angels and +archangels for aids, the other fiends and demons. Between their forces +war was constant. Each strove for the soul of man. But after death, +when, in the balance, the deeds of the defunct were weighed, there +appeared a golden-eyed redeemer, Mithra, who so closely resembled the +Christ that the world hesitated, for a moment, between them. + +It was because of these conceptions that Persia dreamed of conquering +the West. At Marathon and at Salamis that illusion was looted. History +tells of the cohorts that descended there. It relates further what +they did. But of what they thought there is no record. It was, +perhaps, too obvious. Ormuzd, god of light and, in the Orient, god of +the day, was, in the darker and duller Occident, menaced there also by +Ahriman. Politically the expedition is not very explicable. Considered +from a religious standpoint the motive is clear. But though the +Persian forces could not uphold their light in Greece, higher forces +projected it far beyond, to the remote north, to a south that was +still remoter. + +Originally the light was Vedic. It was identical with that of Agni, of +Indra and of Varuna. But while these, without subsidence, passed, +absorbed by Brahm, the light of Iran, deflecting, persisted, and so +potently that it lit the Teutonic sky, glows still in Christendom, +after refracting perhaps in Inca temples. Its revelation is due to +Zarathrustra. + +Zarathrustra, commonly written Zoroaster, is a name translatable into +"star of gold" and also into "keeper of old camels." Probably it was +first employed to designate an imaginary prophet, and then a series of +spiritual though actual successors by whom, in the course of +centuries, the _Avesta_ was evolved. Otherwise Zarathrustra and Gotama +are brothers in Brahmanaspati. Both had virgin mothers. In the lives +of both miracles are common. The advent of Zarathrustra was accounted +the ruin of demons. When he was born he laughed aloud. As a child he +slept in flames. As a man he walked on water. Before prodigies such as +these fiends fell like autumn leaves. Hence, on the part of the devil, +an attempt to seduce him from the divine. Mairya, the demon of death, +offered him, as Mara offered Gotama, as Satan offered Jesus, the +empire of the earth. Zarathrustra rebuked the devil first with stones, +then with pious words. From him, as from the Buddha and the Christ, +abashed the tempter retreated.[9] + +[Footnote 9: Darmestetter: Ormazd et Ahriman.] + +That victory over evil, the Parsis to-day regard as the capital event +in the history of the world. It was the immediate prelude to the +revelation of the Law which Ormuzd vouchsafed to his prophet. + +The revelation occurred on a mountain, in the course of conversations, +during which Zarathrustra questioned and Ormuzd, in the voice of +heaven, replied. So was the Law proclaimed in India. There Mithra and +Varuna sang it through the sky.[10] The expression is notable, for the +song of the sky is thunder and the theophany that of Sinai. There is +another _rapprochement_ in Babylonian lore and a third in the _Eddas_, +where it is related that to Sigurd the secret of the runes was sung. + +[Footnote 10: Rig-Veda, i. 151.] + +Meanwhile, the revelation completed and proclaimed, Zarathrustra died +as miraculously as he was born, foretelling, as he went, the coming of +a messiah, his own son, Coshyos--the delayed fruit of an immaculate +hymen that is not to be fecund until the end of time--but who, at the +consummation of the ages, will rejuvenate the world, affranchise it +from death, vanquish Ahriman, terminate the struggle between good and +evil, purify hell and fill it full with glory. Then the dead shall +rise and immortality be universal.[11] + +[Footnote 11: Zamyad Yasht. xix. 89 _sq._] + +Zoroaster is obviously mythical. The Buddha is also. But precisely as +the Buddhist scriptures exist, so also do the Zoroastrian. They do +more. Frequently they enlighten, occasionally they exalt. Written in +gold on perfumed leather, the original edition, limited to two copies, +was so sacred that it was sullied if seen. Burned with the palace of +Persepolis--which Alexander, the Great Sinner, in a drunken orgy, +destroyed--only fragments of the fargards remain. These tell of +creation, effected in six epochs, and of a _pairi-daêza_. + +Delitzsch voluminously asked: _Wo lag das Paradies?_ There it is. +There is the primal paradise. In it Ormuzd put Mashya, the first man, +and Mashyana, the first woman, whom Ahriman, in the form of a serpent, +seduced. Thereafter ensued the struggle in which all have or will +participate, one that, extending beyond the limits of the visible +world, arrays seasons and spirits and the senses of man in a conflict +of good and evil that can end only when, from the depths of the dawn, +radiant in the vermillion sky, Coshyos, hero of the resurrection, +triumphantly appears. + +The parallel between this romance and subsequent poetry is curious. In +Chaldea, before the fargards were, the story of Creation, of Eden, and +of the fall had been told. In Egypt, before the _Avesta_ was written, +the resurrection and the life were known. Similar legends and +prospects may or may not represent an autonomous development of +Iranian thought. The successors of the problematic Zarathrustra, the +line of magi who wrote and taught in his name, may have gathered the +tales and theories elsewhere. In the creed which they instituted there +is a trinity. India had one, Egypt another, Babylonia a third. +Babylonia had even three of them. But in Mithra, Iran had a redeemer +that no other creed possessed. In Coshyos was a saviour, virgin born, +who nowhere else was imagined. In Mara, Buddhism had a Satan. The +Persian Ahriman is Satan himself. Babylon had angels and cherubs. In +Iran there were guardian angels, there were archangels with flaming +swords, there were fairies, there were goblins, the celestial, the +poetic, the demoniac combined. Zoroasterism may or may not have had a +past, it is perhaps evident that it had a future. + +An inscription chiselled in the red granite of Ekbatana describes +Ormuzd as creator of heaven and earth. In the _Veda_ the description +of Indra is identical.[12] It was applied equally to Jahveh in Judea. +But above Jahveh, Kabbalists discerned En Soph. Above Indra +metaphysicians discovered Brahma. Similarly the Persian magi found +that Ormuzd, however perfect, was not perfect enough and, from the +depths of the ideal, they disclosed Zervan Akerene, the Eternal, from +whom all things come and to whom all return. + +[Footnote 12: R. V. x. 3. "Indra created heaven and earth."] + +That conception is not reached in the _Avesta_. It is in the +_Bundahish_, a work which, while much later, is based on earlier +traditions, memories it may be, of antediluvian legends brought from +the summits of upper Asia by Djemschid, the fabulous Abraham of the +Persians of whom Zarathrustra was the Moses. But in default of the +Eternal, the Avesta contains pictures of enduring charm. + +Among these is a highly poetic pastel that displays the soul of man +surprised in the first post-mortem ambuscades. There a figure, +beautiful or revolting, cries at him: "I am thyself, the image of +thine earthly life." + +If that life has been beautiful, the soul of man, led by itself, is +conducted to heaven. Otherwise, led still by itself, it descended to +Drûjô-demâna, the House of Destruction, where, fed on insults and +offal, it waited till its sins were destroyed. The waiting might be +long. It was not everlasting. There was Mithra to intercede. Besides, +evil was regarded but as a shadow on the surface of things. In the +seventh epoch of creation, a period yet to be, the age which Coshyos +is to usher, the shadow will fade. The wicked, purified of their +wickedness, will be received among the blessed. Even Ahriman is to be +converted. In that definite triumph of light over darkness is the +resurrection and the life, life in Garô-demâna, literally House of +Hymns, a pre-Christian heaven, yet strictly Christian, where, to the +trumpetings of angels, hosannahs are ceaselessly sung.[13] + +[Footnote 13: Yasht. xxviii. 10, xxxiv. 2.] + +John--or, more exactly, his homonym--was perhaps acquainted with that +idea, as he may have been with other theories that the _Avesta_ +contains. But the possibility is a detail. It is the idea that counts. +Behind it is the unique character of this doctrine which, in +eliminating evil, converted even Satan. + +Satan seldom gets his due. He was the first artist and has remained +the greatest. In creating evil he fashioned what is a luxury and a +necessity combined. Evil is the counterpart of excellence. Both have +their roots in nature. One could not be destroyed without the other. +For every form of evil there is a corresponding form of good. Virtue +would be meaningless were it not for vice. Honour would have no +nobility were it not for shame. If ever evil be banished from the +scheme of things, life could have no savour and joy no delight. +Happiness and unhappiness would be synonymous terms. + +It is for this reason that scoffers have mocked at heaven. Heaven may +be very different from what has been fancied. But the theory of it, +however unphilosophic, which Zoroasterism supplied, carried with it a +creed not of tears but of smiles, a religion of lofty tolerance, one +in which the demonology barely alarmed, for redemption was assured, +and so fully that on earth melancholy was accounted a folly. + +Though tolerant, it could be austere. Meanness, thanklessness, +loquaciousness, jealousy, an unbecoming attire, evil thoughts, +whatever is sensual, whatever is coarse, any promenade in mud actual +or metaphorical, severely it condemned. Particularly was avarice +censured. "There are many who do not like to give," Ormuzd, in the +_Vendidad_, confided to Zarathrustra. The high god added: "Ahriman +awaits them." + +Ahriman awaited also the harlot who, elsewhere, at that period, was +holy. Yet in lapses, confession and repentance sufficed for remission, +provided that in praying for forgiveness the sinner forgave those that +had sinned against him. If he lacked the time, were he dying, a priest +might yet save him with words whispered in the ear. That was the +extreme unction, hardly administrable, however, in case of wilful +omission of the _darûn_, which was communion. + +This sacrament, the most mystic of the Church, was observed by the +Incas, who also confessed, also atoned, who, like the Buddhists, were +baptized, but who, like the Persians, worshipped the sun and, with +perhaps a finer instinct of what the beautiful truly is, worshipped +too the rainbow.[14] + +[Footnote 14: Garcilasso: Commentarios reales.] + +Huraken, the winged and feathered serpent-god of the Toltecs, was +adored in temples that upheld a cross. The Incas lacked that symbol. +But they had a Satan. They had also the expectation of a saviour, +belief in whom could alone have consoled for the advent of Pizarro. +Over what highways of sea or sky, the living Word, which Ormuzd spoke, +reached them, there has been no somnambulist of history to divine. But +in the splendour that Cuzco was, in the golden temples of the town of +gold, along the scarlet lanes where sacred peacocks strolled and girls +more sacred still--vestals whom Pizarro's soldiers raped--in that City +of the Sun, the Word re-echoed. The mystery of it, reported back to +the Holy Office, was declared an artifice of the devil. + +Less mysteriously, through the obvious vehicle of cognate speech, it +reached the Norse, stirred the scalds, who repeated it in the Eddie +sagas. Loki and his inferior fiends are, as there represented, quite +as black as Ahriman and his cohorts. The conflict of good and evil is +almost as fully dire. But Odin is a colourless reflection of Ormuzd. +The æsir, the angels of the Scandinavian sky, are paler than the +izeds. The figure of Baldr, the redeemer, faints beside that of +Mithra. Valhalla, though perhaps less fatiguing than Garô-demâna, was +more trite in its wassails than the latter in its hymns. + +What these abstractions lacked was not the Logos but the light. +However brilliantly the Iranian sun might glow, in the sullen north +its rays were lost. The mists, obscuring it, made Valhalla dim and set +the gods in twilight. It stirred the scalds to runes but not to +inspiration. There is none in the _Eddas_. Nor was there any in the +_Nibelungen_, until the light, almost extinct, burst suddenly in the +flaming scores of Wagner. + +Transformed by ages and by man, yet lifted at last from their secular +slumber, the Persian myths achieved there their Occidental apotheosis, +and, it may be, on steps of song, mounted to the ideal where Zervan +Akerene muses. + + + + +III + +AMON-RÂ + + +"I am all that is, has been and shall be. No mortal has lifted my veil." + +That pronouncement, graven on the statue of Isis, confounded Egypt, +condemning her mysteriously for some sin, anterior and unknown, to +ignorance of the divine, leaving her, in default of revelation, to +worship what she would, jackals, hyenas, cats, hawks, the ibis; beasts +and birds. Yet to the people, whose minds were as naked as their +bodies, and who, in addition, were slaves, there must have been +something very superior in the lords of the desert and the air. +Obviously they were wise. Among them were some that knew in advance +the change of the seasons. Others, indifferent to man and independent +of him, migrated over highways known but to them. The senses of all +were keyed to vibrations. They heard the inaudible, saw the invisible, +and, though they had a language of their own, when questioned never +replied. To slaves, clearly they were gods. + +Not to the priests, however. They knew better. They but affected +belief in divinities that had perhaps emigrated from the enigmas of +geography and who were polychrome as the skies they had crossed. +Fashioned in stone, these gods were dog-headed or longly beaked. Some, +though, were alive. In temples were saurians on purple carpets, bulls +draped with spangled shawls, hawks on shimmering perches, that little +gold chains detained. Among gods of this character, the Sphinx, in its +role of eternal spectre, must have seemed the ideal. Others were +nearly sublime. Particularly there was Ausar. + +Ausar, called commonly Osiris, died for man. In an attempt to preserve +harmony, in a struggle with the real spirit of actual evil which +discord is, Osiris was slain. Being a god he arose from the dead. The +latter thereafter he judged. + +The people knew little, if anything, concerning him. They knew little +if anything at all. They had a menagerie and a full consciousness of +their own insignificance. That sufficed. In all of carnal Africa, the +priest alone possessed what then was truth and of which a part is +theology now. + +Egypt, in which the evangels began, millennia before they were +written, knew no genesis. Her history, sculptured in hieroglyphics, +was cut on pages of stone. It awoke in the falling of cataracts. It +ended with simoons in sand. The books that tell of it are pyramids, +obelisks, necropoles; constructions colossal and enigmatic; the +granite epitaphs of finite things. To-day, in the shattered temples, +from which all other gods are gone, one divinity still lingers. It is +Silence. + +In Iran sorrow was a folly. In Egypt speech was a sin. Apis could +bellow, Anubis bark; man might not even stutter. It was in the +submission of dumb obedience that the palpable eternities of the +pyramids were piled. Yet in that darkness was light, in silence was +the Word. But to behold and to hear was possible only in sanctuaries +reserved to the elect. The gods too had their castes. The lowest only +were fellahin fit to worship. On the lips of the others the priests +held always a finger. Crocodiles were less distant, hyenas more +approachable, and the Egyptian, barred from the divine, found it on +earth. He prayed to scorpions, sang hymns to scarabs, coaxed the +jackal with psalms; with dances he placated the ibis. It was +ridiculous but human. He too would have a part, however insensate, in +the dreams of all mankind. + +Yet, had he looked not down but up, he would have lifted at least a +fringe of the Isian veil. The sun, taken as a symbol only, the symbol +of life, death, and resurrection--phases which its rising, setting, +and return suggest--was the deity, the one really existing god. +Nominally, figuratively, even concretely, there were others; a whole +host, a hierarchy vaster than the Aryans knew; a great crowd of +divinities less grandiose than gaudy, that swarmed in space, strolled +through the dawns and dusk, thronged the temples, eyed the quick, +confronted the dead. They were but appearances, mere masks, +expressions, hypostases, eidolons of Râ. + +Râ was the celestial pharaoh. But not originally. Originally he was +part of a triad which itself was part of a triple trinity. Râ then was +but one divinity among many gods. These ultimately lost themselves in +him so indistinguishably that there are litanies in which the names of +seventy-five of them are used in addressing him. Regarded as the +unbegotten begetter of the first beginning, he succeeded in achieving +the incomprehensible. He became triune and remained unique. He was +Osiris, he was Isis, he was Horus. At once father, mother, and son, he +fecundated, conceived, produced, and was. + +From him gods and goddesses emanated in sidereal fireworks that +illuminated the heavens, dazzled the earth, then melted into each +other, faded away or, occasionally, flared afresh in a glare +dispelling and persistent. Among these latter was Amon. Glimmering +primarily in provincial obscurity at Thebes, the thin fire of his +shrine mounted spirally to Râ, fused its flames with his, expanding +and uniting so inseparably with them, that the two became one. Amon +means _hidden_; Amon-Râ, _the hidden light_. + +In the infinite, time is not. In heaven there is no chronology. The +date of any god's accession to supremacy there is, consequently, apart +from mortal ken. None the less that of Amon-Râ is known. At the +beginning of the earthly reign of Amonhoteph III., an edict, +scrupulously executed throughout Egypt, determined, on monument and +wall, the substitution of Amon-Râ's name for that of previously +superior gods. + +The pharaohnate of Amonhoteph began about 1500 B.C. It is from that +period, therefore, that dates the divinity's accession to the +pharaohnate of the skies. There is, or should be, a reason for all +things. There is one for that. Amonhoteph regarded himself as Amon's +son. It was one of the traits of the pharaohs, as it was also of the +Incas, to believe, or at least to assert, that their fathers, +therefore themselves, were divine. As a consequence of the idea they +prayed to their own images and likened their palaces to inns. + +Originally foreigners, invaders from Akkad or Sumer, the pharaohs +first conquered, then surprised. It was they that embanked the Nile, +turned morasses into meadows and piled the pyramids. More exactly, it +was by their commands that these miracles were contrived. To the +neolithic people whom they subjugated their divinity was clear. So +elsewhere was that of the kings of Akkad. Like them, like the Incas, +the pharaohs were of the solar race and so remained from the first +dynasty to the Greek conquest, when Alexander, to legitimatize his +sovereignty, had himself acknowledged as Amon's son. + +The ceremony had its precedents. An inscription in eulogy of the great +Rameses states that Amon, when possessing the pharaohs august mother, +engendered him as a god. On a wall of the Temple of Luxor an earlier +inscription sets forth that the god of Thebes, incarnating himself in +the person of Thotmes IV., appeared in his divine form to the +pharaoh's queen, who, at sight of his beauty, conceived. + +It was therefore not in the beast alone, but in man, that divinity +revealed itself in Egypt. That in Judea a similar revelation should +have been withheld until after the Roman occupation is hardly +explicable on the theory, general among scholars, that Moses is not a +historical character, for an identical revelation had been received in +Babylonia where Israel twice loitered. Moreover, a curious parallelism +exists between post-Mosaic prophecy and Egyptian clairvoyance. In a +papyrus of the Thotmes III. epoch--about 1600 B.C.--it is written: +"The people of the age of the son of man shall rejoice and establish +his name forever. They shall be removed from evil and the wicked shall +humble their mouths." In commenting the passage an Egyptologist noted +that the words _son of man_ are a literal translation of the original +_si-n-sa_.[15] But already in Akkad a similar prophecy had been +uttered.[16] It may be, therefore, that it was in Babylon that Israel +first heard it. + +[Footnote 15: Sayce: Guifford Lectures.] + +[Footnote 16: Jastrow: The Dibbara Epic.] + +The doctrine of a trinity, common to almost all antique beliefs, was a +blasphemy to the Jews. The belief in immortality, also prevalent, +though less general, was to them an abomination. The miracle of divine +descent they were perhaps too practical to accept. There was no room +in their creed for the dogma of future rewards and punishments, and +that, together with other articles of the Christian faith, Egypt's +elect professed. + +The slaves and mongrels that constituted the bulk of the population +were not instructed in these things and would not have understood them +if they had been. In Babylonia education was compulsory. In Egypt it +was an art, a gift, mysterious in itself, reserved to the few. To the +Egyptian, religion consisted in paraded symbols, in avenues of +sphinxes, in forests of obelisks, in pharaohs seated colossally before +the temple doors, in inscriptions that told indistinguishably of +theomorphic men and anthropomorphic gods, and in a belief in the +divinity of bulls and hawks. + +These latter had their uses. In transformations elsewhere effected, +the sacred bull may have become a golden calf, the golden hawk a +sacred dove. In Egypt they were otherwise serviceable. The worship of +them, of other birds and beasts, of insects and vipers as well, +ecclesiastically indorsed, hid the myth of metempsychosis. + +Of that the people knew nothing. When they died they ceased to be. +Even mummification, usually supposed to have been general, was not for +them. Down to an epoch relatively late it was a privilege reserved to +priests and princes. When the commonalty were embalmed it was with the +opulent design that, in a future existence, they should serve their +masters as they had in this. Embalming was a preparation for the +Judgment Day. Of that the people knew nothing either. It was even +unlawful that concerning it they should be apprised. + +In the Louvre is a statue of Ptah-meh, high priest of Memphis. On it +are the significant words: "Nothing was hidden from him." A passage of +Zosimus states that what was hidden it was illicit to reveal, except, +Jamblicus explained, to those whose discretion a long novitiate had +assured. To such only was disclosed the secret that life is death in a +land of darkness, and death is life in a land of light. + +It was because of this that the pharaohs seated themselves colossally +before the temple doors. It was because of it that their palaces were +inns and their tombs were homes. It was because of it that their +sepulchres were built for eternity and the tenements of their souls +placed there embalmed. It was because of this that the triumphs of men +were inscribed in the halls of the gods. Instead of seeking to be +absorbed, it was their own inextinguishable individuality that they +endeavoured to assert. Tombs, tenements, triumphs, these all were +preparations for the Land of Light. + +The land was Alu, the asphodel meadows of the celestial Nile that +wound through the Milky Way. To reach it a passport, visé'd by Osiris, +sufficed. The first draft of that passport was held to have been +written on tablets of alabaster, in letters of lapis lazuli, by an +eidolon of Râ, who, known in Egypt as Thoth, elsewhere was Hermes +Thrice the Greatest. + +At Memphis, Hermes was regarded as representing the personification of +divine wisdom, or, more exactly perhaps, the inventive power of the +human mind. A little library of forty-two books--which a patricist +saw, but not being initiate could not read--was attributed to him.[17] +The books contained the entire hieratic belief. Fragments that are +held to have survived in an extant Greek novel are obviously Egyptian, +but as obviously Alexandrine and neo-platonic. In the _editio +princeps_ Pheidias is mentioned. Mention of Michel Angelo would have +been less anachronistic. The original books are gone, all of them, +forever, perhaps, save one, chapters of which are as old as the fourth +dynasty and, it may be, are still older. Pyramid texts of the fifth +dynasty show that there then existed what to-day is termed _The Book +of the Dead_, a copy of which, put in a mummy's arms, was a talisman +for the soul in the Court of Amenti, a passport thence to the Land of +Light. + +[Footnote 17: Clemens Alexandrinos: Stromata vi.] + +"There is no book like it, man hath not spoken it, earth hath not +heard it"--very truthfully it recites of itself. One copy, known as +the Louvre Papyrus, presents the _Divine Comedy_, as primarily +conceived and illustrated by an archaic Doré. Text and vignettes +display the tribunal where the souls of the dead are judged. + +In the foreground is an altar. Adjacent is a figure, half griffon, +half chimera, the Beast of Amenti, perhaps too of the Apocalypse. +Beyond, an ape poises a pair of scales. For balance is an ostrich +feather. Above are the spirits of fate. At the left Osiris is +enthroned. From a balcony his assessors lean. At the right is the +entrance. There the disembodied, ushered by Truth, appears and, in +homages and genuflections, affirms negatively the decalogue; +protesting before the Master of Eternity that there is no evil in him; +praying the dwellers in Amenti that he may cross the dark way; +declaring to each that he has not committed the particular sin over +which they preside. + +"O Eater of Spirits gone out of the windows of Alu! O Master of the +Faces!" he variously calls. "O the One who associates the Splendours! +O the Glowing Feet gone out of the Night! I did not lie. I did not +kill. I have not been anxious. I did not talk abundantly. I made no +one weep. No heart have I harmed." + +The assessors listen. "I have not been anxious. I made no one weep. No +heart have I harmed." These abstentions, graces now, were virtues +then, and so efficacious that they perhaps sufficed, as rightly they +should, for absolution. + +But while the assessors listen and Osiris looks gravely on, no one +accuses. It is conscience in its nakedness, conscience exposed there +where all may see it, where for the first time perhaps it truly sees +itself, and seeing realizes what there is in it of evil and what of +good, it is that which protests. + +Still the assessors listen. Orthodoxy on the part of the respondent is +to them a minor thing. What they require is that he shall have been +merciful to his fellow creatures, true to himself. Only when it is +proven that he has done his duty to man, is he permitted to show that +he has done his duty to gods. + +The appeal continues: "I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, I gave +water to them that thirsted. O ye that dwell in Amenti! I am +unpolluted, I am pure." + +But is it true? The scales decide. The heart of the respondent is +weighed. If heavy, out it is cast to pass with him again through +life's infernal circles. But, if light as the feather in the balance +and therefore equal with truth, it is restored to the body, which then +resurrects and, in the bark of the Sun, sails the celestial Nile to Râ +and the Land of Light. + +That singer gone out of Amenti, actually, like Osiris, rose from the +dead. The picture which a papyrus forty centuries old presents, is the +dream of a vision that Michel Angelo displayed, a sketch for a papal +fresco. Such indeed was the conformity between the underlying +conceptions, that, at almost the first monition, Isis, whose veil no +mortal had raised, lifted it from her black breast and suckled there +the infant Jesus. Then, presently, in temples that had teemed, the +silence of the desert brooded. The tide of life retreated, an entire +theogony vanished, exorcised, both of them, by the sign of the cross. + +At sight of the unimagined emblem, a priesthood who in secret +sanctuaries had evolved nearly all but that, flung themselves into +crypts beneath, pulled the walls down after them, burying unembalmed +the arcana of a creed whose spirit still is immortal. + +In Egypt, then, only tombs and necropoles survived. But it is +legendary that, in the solitudes of the Thebaïd, dispossessed eidolons +of Râ, appearing in the shape of chimeras, terrified anchorites, to +whom, with vengeful eyes, they indicated their ruined altars. + + + + +IV + +BEL-MARDUK + + +The inscriptions of Assyrian kings have, many of them, the monotony of +hell. Made of boasts and shrieks, they recite the capture and sack of +cities; the torrents of blood with which, like wool, the streets were +dyed; the flaming pyramids of prisoners; the groans of men impaled; +the cries of ravished women. + +The inscriptions are not all infernal. Those that relate to +Assurbanipal--vulgarly, Sandanapallos,--are even ornate. But +Assurbanipal, while probably fiendish and certainly crapulous, was +clearly literary besides. From the spoil of sacked cities this +bibliofilou took libraries, the myths and epics of creation, sacred +texts from Eridu and Ur, volumes in the extinct tongues of Akkad and +Sumer, first editions of the Book of God. + +These, re-edited in cuneiform and kept conveniently on the second +floor of his palace, fell with Nineveh, where, until recently +recovered, for millennia they lay. Additionally, from shelves set up +in the days of Khammurabi--the Amraphel of Genesis--Nippur has yielded +ghostly tablets and Borsippa treasuries of Babylonian ken. + +These, the eldest revelations of the divine, are the last that man has +deciphered. The altars and people that heard them first, the marble +temples, the ivory palaces, the murderous throngs, are dust. The +entire civilization from which they came has vanished. Yet, traced +with a wooden reed on squares of clay, are flights of little arrows, +from which, magically, it all returns. Miraculously with these books a +world revives. Fashioned, some of them, at an epoch that in biblical +chronology is anterior to man, they tell of creation, of the serpent, +the fall and the deluge. At the gates of paradise you see man dying, +poisoned by the tree of life. Before Genesis was, already it had been +written. + +In the Chaldean Book of the Beginnings creation was effected in +successive acts. According to the epic of it, humanity's primal home +was a paradise where ten impressive persons--the models, it may be, of +antediluvian patriarchs--reigned interminably, agreeably also, finally +sinfully as well. In punishment a deluge swept them away. From the +flood there escaped one man who separated a mythical from an heroic +age. In the latter epoch, beings descended from demons built Nineveh +and Babylon; organized human existence; invented arithmetic, geometry, +astronomy and the calendar; counted the planets; numbered the days of +the year, divided them into months and weeks; established the Sabbath; +decorated the skies with the signs of the zodiac, instituting, in the +interim, colleges of savants and priests. These speculated on the +origin of things, attributed it to spontaneous generation, the descent +of man to evolution, entertaining the vulgar meanwhile with tales of +gods and ghosts.[18] + +[Footnote 18: Lenormant: Les Origines. Schrader: Die Keilenschriften. +Smith: Chaldean Genesis.] + +The cosmological texts now available were not written then. They are +drawn from others that were. But there is a vignette that probably is +of that age. It represents a man and a woman stretching their hands to +a tree. Behind the woman writhes a snake. The tree, known as the holy +cedar of Eridu, the fruit of which stimulated desire, is described in +an epic that recites the adventures of Gilgames. + +Gilgames was the national hero of Chaldea. The story of his loves with +Ishtar is repeated in the Samson and Delilah myth. Ishtar, described +in an Assyrian inscription as Our Lady of Girdles, was the original +Venus, as Gilgames was perhaps the prototype of Hercules. The legend +of his labours is represented on a seal of Sargon of Akkad, a king who +ruled fifty-seven hundred years ago. + +In the epic, Gilgames, betrayed by Ishtar, tried to find out how not +to die. In trying he reached a garden, guarded by cherubim, where the +holy cedar was. There he learned that one being only could teach him +to be immortal, and that being, Adra-Khasis, had been translated to +the Land of the Silver Sky. Adra-Khasis, was the Chaldean Noah. +Gilgames sought him and the story of the deluge follows. But with a +difference. On the seventh day, Adra-Khasis released from his ark a +dove that returned, finally a raven that did not. Then he looked out, +and looking, shrieked. Every one had perished. + +Noah was less emotional, or, if equally compassionate, the fact is not +recited. Apart from that detail and one other, the story of the flood +is common to all folklore. Even the Aztecs knew of it. Probably it +originated in the matrix of nations which the table-land of Asia was. +But only in Chaldean myth, and subsequently in Hebrew legend, was the +flood ascribed to sin. + +Gilgames' quest, meanwhile, could not have been wholly vain. In an +archaic inscription it is stated that the city of Erech was built in +olden times by the deified Gilgames.[19] + +[Footnote 19: Proc. S. B. A. xvi. 13-15.] + +How old the olden times may have been is conjectural. Modern science +has put the advent of man sixty million years ago. Chaldean chronology +is less spacious. But its traditions stretched back a hundred thousand +years. The traditions were probably imaginary. Even so, in the morning +of the world, already there were ancient cities. There was Nippur, one +of whose gods, El Lil, was lord of ghosts. There was Eridu, where Ea +was lord of man. There was Ur, where Sin was lord of the moon. There +were other divinities. There was Enmesara, lord of the land whence +none return, and Makhir, god of dreams. + +There were many more like the latter, so many that their sanctuaries +made the realm a holy land, but one which, administratively, was an +aggregate of principalities that Sargon, nearly six thousand years +ago, combined. Ultimately, from sheer age, the empire tottered. It +would have fallen had not Khammurabi surged. What Sargon made, +Khammurabi solidified. Between their colossal figures two millennia +stretch. These giants are distinct. None the less, across the ages +they seem to fuse, suggestively, not together, but into another +person. + +Sargon has descended through time clothed in a little of the poetry +which garments nation builders. But the poetry is not a mantle for the +imaginary. In the British Museum is a marble ball that he dedicated to +a god. Paris has the seal of his librarian.[20] Copies of his annals +are extant.[21] In these it is related that, when a child, his mother +put him in a basket of rushes and set him adrift on the Euphrates. +Presently he was rescued. Afterward he became a leader of men. + +[Footnote 20: Collection de Clerq. pl. 5, no. 46.] + +[Footnote 21: Cuneiform Insc. W. A. iv. 34.] + +Khammurabi was also a leader. He was a legislator as well. Sargon +united principalities, Khammurabi their shrines. From one came the +nation, from the other the god. It is in this way that they fuse. To +the composite, if it be one, history added a heightening touch. + +The Khammurabi legislation came from Bel, who, originally, was a local +sun-god of Nippur. There he was regarded as the possessor of the +Chaldean Urim and Thummin, the tablets of destiny with which he cast +the fates of men. In the mythology of Babylonia these tablets were +stolen by the god of storms, who kept them in his thunder fastness. +Among the forked flames of the lightning there they were recovered by +Bel, who revealed the law to Khammurabi. + +The theophany is perhaps similar to that of Sinai. But perhaps, too, +it is better attested. A diorite block, found at Susa in 1902, has the +law engraved on it. On the summit, a bas-relief displays the god +disclosing the statutes to the king. + +There are other analogies. Sinai was named after Sin, who, though but +a moon-god, was previously held supreme for the reason that, in +primitive Babylonia, the lunar year preceded the solar. The sanctuary +of the moon-god was Ur, of which Abraham was emir. He was more, +perhaps. Sarratu, from which Sarai comes, was the title of the +moon-goddess. In _Genesis_, Sarai is Abraham's wife. Abraham is a +derivative of Aburamu, which was one of the moon's many names.[22] + +[Footnote 22: Sayce: Guifford Lectures.] + +Among these, one in particular has since been identified with Jahveh. +In addition, a clay tablet of the age of Khammurabi, now in the +British Museum, has on it: + +[Illustration] + +That flight of arrows, being interpreted, means: _Jave ilu_, Jahveh is +god.[23] + +[Footnote 23: Delitzch: Babel und Bibel.] + +Other texts show that a title of Bel was Mâsu, a word that letter for +letter is the same as the Hebrew Mosheh or Moses.[24] + +[Footnote 24: Records of the Past, i. 91.] + +It is in this way that Sargon and Khammurabi fuse. Meanwhile the title +Mâsu, or hero, was not confined to Bel. It was given also to Marduk, +the tutelary god of Babylon, from whom local monotheism proceeded. + +That monotheism, in appearance relatively modern, actually was +archaic. The Chaldean savants knew of but one really existing god. To +them, all others were his emanations. The deus exsuperantissimus was +represented by a single stroke of the reed, a sign that in its +vagueness left him formless and incommunicable, therefore +unworshipable, hence without a temple, unless Bab-ili, Babylon, the +Gate of God, may be so construed. + +The name of the deity, fastidiously concealed from the vulgar, was, in +English, One. Not after, or beneath, or above, but before him, a +trinity swung like a screen. From it, for pendant, another trinity +dangled. From the latter fell a third. Below these glories were the +coruscations of an entire nation of inferior gods. The latter, as well +as the former, all of them, were but the fireworks of One. He alone +was. The rest, like Makhir, were gods of dream. To the savants, that +is; to the magi and seers. To the people the sidereal triads and +planetary divinities throned in the Silver Sky augustly real, equally +august, and in that celestial equality remained, until Khammurabi gave +precedence to Bel, who as Marduk, Bel or Baal Marduk, Lord Marduk, +became supreme. + +Before Bel, then, the other gods faded as the Elohim did before +Jahveh, with the possible difference that there were more to +fade--sixty-five thousand, Assurnatsipal, in an inscription, declared. +Over that army Bel-Marduk acquired the title, perhaps significant, of +Bel-Kissat, Lord of Hosts. Yet it was less as a usurper than as an +absorber that the ascension was achieved. Bel but mounted above his +former peers and from the superior height drew their attributes to +himself. It was sacrilege none the less. As such it alienated the +clergy and enraged the plebs. Begun under Khammurabi and completed +under Nabonidos, it was the reason why, during the latter's reign, +orthodox Babylon received Cyrus not as a foe but a friend. + +From the spoliation, meanwhile, no nebulousness resulted. Bel was +distinctly anthropomorphic. His earthly plaisance was the Home of the +Height, a seven-floored mountain of masonry, a rainbow pyramid of +enamelled brick. At the top was a dome. There, in a glittering +chamber, on a dazzling couch, he appeared. Elsewhere, in the +vermillion recesses of a neighbouring chapel, that winged bulls +guarded and frescoed monsters adorned, once a year he also appeared, +and, above the mercy seat, on an alabaster throne, sat, or was +supposed to sit, contemplating the tablets of destiny, determining +when men should die. + +To the Greeks, the future lay in the lap of the gods. To the +Babylonians the gods alone possessed it, as alone also they possessed +the present and the past. They had all time as all men have their day. +That day was here and it was brief. Death was a descent to Aralû, the +land whence none return, a region of the underworld, called also +Shualû, where the departed were nourished on dust. Dust they were and +to dust they returned. + +Extinction was not a punishment or even a reward, it was a law. +Punishment was visited on the transgressor here, as here also the +piety of the righteous was rewarded. When death came, just and unjust +fared alike. The Aryan and Egyptian belief in immortality had no place +in this creed, and consequently it had none either in Israel, where +Sheol was a replica of Shualû. To the Semites of Babylonia and Kanaan, +the gods alone were immortal, and immortal beings would be gods. Man +could not become divine while his deities were still human. + +Exceptionally, exceptional beings such as Gilgames and Adra-Khasis +might be translated to the land of the Silver Sky, as Elijah was +translated to heaven, but otherwise the only mortals that could reach +it were kings, for a king, in becoming sovereign, became, _ipso +facto_, celestial. As such, ages later, Alexander had himself +worshipped, and it was in imitation of his apotheosis that the +subsequent Cæsars declared themselves gods. Yet precisely as the +latter were man-made deities, so the Babylonian Baalim were very +similar to human kings. + +For their hunger was cream, oil, dates, the flesh of ewe lambs. For +their nostrils was the perfume of prayers and of psalms; for their +passions the virginity of girls. Originally the first born of men were +also given them, but while, with higher culture, that sacrifice was +abolished, the sacred harlotry, over which Ishtar presided, remained. +Judaism omitted to incorporate that, but in Kanaan, which Babylonia +profoundly influenced, it was general and, though reviled by Israel, +was tempting even, and perhaps particularly, to Solomon.[25] + +[Footnote 25: 1 Kings xi. 5. "Solomon went after Ashtoreth."] + +The latter's temple was similar to Bel's, from which the Hebraic +ritual, terms of the Law, the Torah itself, may have proceeded, as, it +may be, the Sabbath did also. On a tablet recovered from the library +of Assurbanipal it is written: "The seventh day is a fast day, a lucky +day, a sabbatuv"--literally, a day of rest for the heart.[26] + +[Footnote 26: Cuneiform Insc. W. A. ii. 32.] + +In Aralû that day never ceased; the dead there, buried, Herodotos +said, in honey, were unresurrectably dead, dead to the earth, dead to +the Silver Sky. Yet though that was an article of faith, through a +paradox profoundly poetic, there was a belief equally general, in +ghosts, in hobgoblins, in men with the faces of ravens, in others with +the bodies of scorpions, and in the post-mortem persistence of girls +that died pure. + +These latter, in searching for someone whom they might seduce, must +have afterward wandered into the presence of St. Anthony. Perhaps, +too, it was they who, as succubi, emotionalized the dreams of monks. +Yet, in view of Ishtar, they could not have been very numerous in +Babylon where, however, they had a queen, Lilît, the Lilith of the +_Talmud_, Adam's vampire wife, who conceived with him shapes of sin. +In these also the Babylonians believed, and naïvely they represented +them in forms so revolting that the sight of their own image alarmed +them away. + +From these shapes or, more exactly, from sin itself, it was very +properly held that all diseases came. Medicine consequently was a +branch of religion. The physician was a priest. He asked the patient: +Have you shed your neighbour's blood? Have you approached your +neighbour's wife? Have you stolen your neighbour's garment? Or is it +that you have failed to clothe the naked? According to the responses +he prescribed.[27] + +[Footnote 27: IV. R. 50-53. _Cf._ Delitzch: _op. cit._] + +But the priest who was a physician was also a wizard. He peeped and +muttered, or, more subtly, provided enchanted philters in which +simples had been dissolved. These devices failing, there was a series +of incantations, the _Ritual of the Whispered Charm_, in which the +most potent conjuration was the incommunicable name. To that all +things yielded, even the gods.[28] But like the Shem of the Jews, it +was probably never wholly uttered, because, save to the magi, not +wholly known. In the formulæ of the necromancers it is omitted, though +in practice it may have been pronounced. + +[Footnote 28: Lenormant: La Magie chez les Chaldéens.] + +Even that is doubtful. A knowledge of it conferred powers similar to +those that have been attributed to the Christ, and which the Sadducees +ascribed to his knowledge of the tetragrammation. A knowledge of the +Babylonian Shem was as potent. It served not only men but gods. +Ishtar, for purposes of her own, wanted to get into Aralû. In the +recovered epic of her descent, imperiously she demanded entrance: + + Porter, open thy door. + Open thy door that I may enter. + If thou dost not open thy door, + I will attack it, I will break down the bars, + I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living.[29] + +[Footnote 29: Records of the Past.] + +Ishtar was admitted. But Aralû was the land whence none return. Once +in, she could not get out until, ultimately, the incommunicable name +was uttered. The epic says that, in the interim, there was on earth +neither love nor loving. In possible connection with which +incantations have been found, deprecating "the consecrated harlots +with rebellious hearts that have abandoned the holy places."[30] + +[Footnote 30: Lenormant: _op. cit._] + +In addition to the _Ritual of the Whispered Charm_, there was the +_Illumination of Bel_, an encyclopædia of astrology in seventy-two +volumes which the suburban library of Borsippa contained. During the +captivity many Jews must have gone there. In the large light halls +they were free to read whatever they liked, religion, history, +science, the romance of all three. The books, catalogued and numbered, +were ranged on shelves. One had but to ask. The service was gratis. + +Babylon, then, prismatic and learned, was the most respectable place +on earth. For ten thousand years man had there consulted the stars. +But though respectable, it was also equivocal. During a period equally +long--or brief--the girls of the city had loosed their girdles for +Ishtar and yielded themselves to anyone, stranger or neighbour, that +asked. In the service of the goddess their brothers occasionally +feigned that they too were girls. Meanwhile, from the summit of a +seven-floored pyramid, mortals contemplated the divine. + +Beneath was cosmopolis, the golden cup that, in the words of Jeremiah, +made the whole world drunk. Seated immensely on the twin banks of the +Euphrates--banks that bridges above and tunnels beneath +interjoined--Babylon more nearly resembled a walled nation than a +fortified town. Within the gates, in an enclosure ample and noble, a +space that exceeded a hundred square miles, an area sufficient for +Paris quintupled, observatories and palaces rose above the roar of +human tides that swept in waves through the wide boulevards, surged +over the quays, flooded the gardens, eddied through the open-air +lupanar, circled among statues of gods and bulls, poured out of the +hundred gates, or broke against the polychrome walls and seethed back +in the avenues, along which, to the high flourishes of military bands, +passed armed hoplites, merchants in long robes, cloaked bedouins, +Kelts in bearskins, priests in spangled dresses, tiara'd princes, +burdened slaves, kings discrowned, furtive forms--prostitutes, +pederasts, human wolves, vermin, sheep--the flux and reflux of the +gigantic city. + +In that ocean, the captive Jews, if captive they were, rolled, lost as +a handful of salt spilt in the sea. Yet, from the depths, a few had +swum up and, filtering adroitly, had reached the dignity of high +place. One was pontiff. Others were viceroys. In addition to being +pontiff, Daniel was chancellor of the realm. Ezra was rector of the +university. As pontiff of a college of wizards, Daniel may have known +the future. As Minister of Wisdom, Ezra may have known, what is quite +as difficult, the past. For the moment there was but the present. Over +it ruled Belshazzar. + +Yet, ruler though he was, there were powers potenter than his own: +Baalim, outraged at the elevation of a parvenu god; a priesthood +consequently disaffected; and, without, at the gates, the foe. + +It would have been interesting to have assisted at the final festival +when, beneath cyclopean arches, in the sunlight of clustered +candelabra, amid the glitter of gold and white teeth, among the fair +sultanas that were strewn like flowers through the throne-room of the +imperial court, Belshazzar lay, smiling, amused rather than annoyed at +the impudent menace of Cyrus. + +Babylon was impregnable. He knew it. But the subtle Jews, the +indignant gods, the alienated priests to whom the Persian was a +redeemer, of these he did not think. Daniel had indeed warned him and, +vaguely, he had promised something which he had since forgot. + +Beyond, an orchestra was playing. Further yet, columns upheld a +ceiling so lofty that it was lost. On the adjacent wall was a frieze +of curious and chimerical beasts. Belshazzar was looking at them. In +their dumb stupidity was a suggestion of the foe. The suggestion +amused. Smiling still he raised a cup. Abruptly, before it could reach +his lips, it fell with a clatter on the lapis lazuli of the floor +beneath. Before him, on that wall, beneath those beasts, the +necromancy of the priesthood had projected an armless, fluidic hand +that mounted, descended, tracing with a forefinger the three luminous +hierograms of his doom. + +The story, a little drama, was, with the tale concerning +Nebuchadnezzar, that of Daniel, and other novels quite as strange, +evolved long later in the wide leisures of Jerusalem. The fluidic hand +did not appear. Even had it zigzagged there was no Belshazzar to +frighten. + +Only the doom was real. Cyrus was clothed with it. To the trumpetings +of heralds and the sheen of angels' wings, triumphantly he came. Then, +presently, by royal decree, the Jews, manumitted and released, +retraced their steps, burdened with spoil; with the lore of two +distinct civilizations, which, fusing in the great square letters of +the Pentateuch, was to become the poetry of all mankind. + +Babylon, ultimately, with her goblin gods and harlot goddess, sank +into her own Aralû. Nourished there on dust, Lilît, with the sister +vampires of eternal night, fed on her. + + + + +V + +JEHOVAH + + +A camel's-hair tent set in the desert was the first cathedral, the +earliest cloister of latest ideals. Set not in one desert merely but +in two, in the infinite of time as well as in that of space, there was +about it a limitlessness in which the past could sleep, the future +awake, and into which all things, the human, the divine, gods and +romance, could enter. + +The human came first. Then the gods. Then romance. The divine was +their triple expansion. It was an after growth, in other lands, that +tears had watered. In the desert it was unimagined. Only the gods had +been conceived. + +The gods were many and yet but one. Though plural they were singular. +The subjects of impersonal verbs, they represented the pronoun in such +expressions as: it rains; it thunders. "It" was Elohim. Already among +nomad Semites monotheism had begun. Yet with this distinction. Each +tribe had separate sets of Its that guided, guarded, and scourged. +Omnipresent but not omnipotent, any humiliation to the family that +they had in charge humiliated them. It made them angry, therefore +vindictive, consequently unjust. It may be that they were not very +ethical. Perhaps the bedouins were not either. Man fashions his god in +proportion to his intelligence. That of the nomad was slender. He +lacked, what the Aryan shepherd possessed, the ability for +mythological invention. The defect was due to his speech, which did +not lend itself to the deification of epithets. Even had it done so, +it is probable that his mode of life would have rendered the +paraphernalia of polytheism impossible. People constantly moving from +place to place could not be cumbered with idols. The Elohim were, +therefore, a convenience for travellers and an unidolatrous monotheism +a necessity which the absence of vehicles imposed. On the other hand, +given every facility, it is presumable that the result would have been +the same. Mythology is the mother of poetry. Idolatry is the father of +art. Neither could appeal to a people to whom delicacy was an unknown +god. Had it been known and a fetish, they could not have become the +practical people that they are. Even then they were shrewd. Their +Elohim might alarm but never delude. Israel was uncheatable even in +dream. + +Originally emigrants from Arabia, the nomads reached Syria, some +directly, others circuitously, by way of Padan-Aram and across the +Euphrates, whence perhaps their name of _Ibrim_ or Hebrews--_Those +from beyond_. In the journey Babel and Ur must have detained. These +cities, with their culture relatively deep and their observatories +equally high, became, in after days, a source of legend, of wonder, of +hatred, perhaps of revelation as well. + +At the time the nomads had no cosmogony or theories. The Chaldeans had +both. There was a story of creation, another of antediluvian kings and +of the punishment that overtook them. There was also a story of an +emir of Ur, an old man who had benevolently killed an animal instead +of his son. The story, like the others, must have impressed. In after +years the old man became Abraham, a great person, who had conversed +with the Elohim and whose descendants they were. + +The story of creation also impressed. It was enlightening and +comprehensible. The parallel theory of spontaneous generation and the +progressive evolution of the species which the magi entertained, they +probably never heard. Even otherwise it was too complex for minds as +yet untutored. The fables alone appealed. Mentally compressed into +portable shape, carried along, handed down, their origin afterward +forgotten, they became the traditions of a nation, which, eminently +conservative, preserved what it found, among other things the name, +perhaps inharmonious, of Jhvh.[31] + +[Footnote 31: Renan: Histoire du peuple d'Israël. Kuenen: De Godsdienst +van Israël.] + +That name, since found on an inscription of Sargon, appears to have +been the title of a local god of Sinai, whom the nomads may have +identified with Elohim, particularly, perhaps, since he presided over +thunder, the phenomenon that alarmed them most and which, in +consequence, inspired the greatest awe. That awe they put into the +name, the pronunciation of which, like the origin of their traditions, +they afterward forgot. In subsequent rabbinical writings it became +Shem, the Name; Shemhammephoresh, the Revealed Name, uttered but once +a year, on the day of Atonement, by the high priest in the Holy of +Holies. Mention of it by anyone else was deemed a capital offence, +though, permissibly, it might be rendered El Shaddai, the Almighty. +That term the Septuagint translated into [Greek: ho Kyrios], a Greek +form, in the singular, of the Aramaic plural Adonai, which means +Baalim, or sun lords. + +That form the Vulgate gave as Dominus and posterior theology as God. +The latter term, common to all Teutonic tongues, has no known meaning. +It designates that which, to the limited intelligence of man, has +been, and must be, incomprehensible. But the original term Jhvh, +which, in the seventeenth century, was developed into Jehovah, yet +which, the vowels being wholly conjectural, might have been developed +into anything else, clearly appealed to wayfarers to whom Chaldean +science was a book that remained closed until Nebuchadnezzar blew +their descendants back into the miraculous Babel of their youth. + +Meanwhile, apart from the name--now generally written Jahveh--apart +too from the fables and the enduring detestation which the colossal +city inspired, probably but one other thing impressed, and that was +the observance of the Sabbath. To a people whose public works were +executed by forced labour, such a day was a necessity. To vagrants it +was not, and, though the custom interested, it was not adopted by them +until their existence from nomad had become fixed. + +At this latter period they were in Kanaan. Whether in the interval a +tribe, the Beni-Israel, went down into Egypt, is a subject on which +Continental scholarship has its doubts. The early life of the tribe's +leader and legislator is usually associated with Rameses II., a +pharaoh of the XIX. dynasty. But it has been found that incidents +connected with Moses must apparently have occurred, if they occurred +at all, at a period not earlier than the XXVI. dynasty, which +constitutes a minimum difference of seven hundred years. Yet, in view +of the decalogue, with its curious analogy to the negative confession +in the _Book of the Dead_; in view also of a practice surgical and +possibly hygienic which, customary among the Egyptians, was adopted by +the Jews; in view, further, of ceremonies and symbols peculiarly +Egyptian that were also absorbed, a sojourn in Goshen there may have +been. + +The spoiling of the Egyptians, a roguery on which Israel afterward +prided herself, is a trait perhaps too typical to be lightly +dismissed. On the other hand, if Moses were, which is at least +problematic, and if, in addition to being, he was both the nephew of a +pharaoh and the son-in-law of a priest, as such one to whom, in either +quality, the arcana of the creed would be revealed, it becomes curious +that nowhere in the Pentateuch is there any doctrine of a future life. +Of the entire story, it may be that only the journey into the +Sinaiatic peninsula is true, and of that there probably remained but +tradition, on which history was based much later, by writers who had +only surmises concerning the time and circumstances in which it +occurred. + +Yet equally with the roguery, Moses may have been. Seen through modern +criticism his figure fades though his name persists. To that name the +Septuagint tried to give an Egyptian flavour. In their version it is +always [Greek: Môusês], a compound derived from the Egyptian _mô_, +water, and _usês_, saved from, or Saved-from-the-water.[32] Per contra, +the Hebrew form Mosheh is, as already indicated, the same as the +Babylonian Masû, a term which means at once leader and littérateur, in +addition to being the cognomen of a god.[33] + +[Footnote 32: Josephus: Antiq. ii. 9.] + +[Footnote 33: Sayce: The Religion of the Babylonians.] + +Moses is said to have led his people out of bondage. He was the writer +to whom the Pentateuch has been ascribed. But he was also a prophet. +In Babylon, the god of prophecy was Nebo. It was on Mount Nebo that +Jahveh commanded the prophet of Israel to die. Moreover, the divinity +that had Masû for cognomen was, as is shown by a Babylonian text, the +primitive god of the sun at Nippur, but the sun at noon, at the period +of its greatest effulgence, at the hour when it wars with whatever +opposes, when it wars as Jahveh did, or as the latter may be assumed +to have warred, since Isaiah represented him as a mighty man, roaring +at his enemies, exciting the fury of the fight, marching personally to +the conflict, and, in the Fourth Roll of the Law (Numbers), there is +mention of a book entitled: _The Wars of Jahveh_. + +Whether, then, Moses is but a composite of things Babylonian fused in +an effort to show a link between a god and a people, is conjectural. +But it is also immaterial. The one instructive fact is that, in a +retrospect, the god, immediately after the exodus, became dictator. + +Yet even in the later age, when the retrospect was effected, +conceptions were evidently immature. On one occasion the god met +Moses, tried to kill him, but finally let him go. The picture is that +of a personal struggle.[34] Again, the spectacle of his back which he +vouchsafed to Moses is construable only as an _arrière-pensée_, unless +it be profound philosophy, unless it be taken that the face of God +represents Providence, to see which would be to behold the future, +whereas the back disclosed the past. + +[Footnote 34: Exodus iv. 24-26.] + +It is, however, hardly probable that that construction occurred to the +editors of the Pentateuch, who, elsewhere, represented Jahveh as a +butcher, insatiable, jealous, vindictive, treacherous, and vain, one +that consigned all nations other than Israel to ruin and whom a poet +represented trampling people in anger, making them drunk with his +fury, and defiling his raiment with blood.[35] + +[Footnote 35: Isaiah lxiii. 1-6.] + +But in the period related in _Exodus_, Jahveh was but the tutelary god +of an itinerant tribe that, in its gipsy lack of territorial +possessions, was not even a nation. Like his people he too was a +vagrant. Like them he had no home. Other gods had temples and altars. +He lacked so much as a shrine. In prefigurement of the Wandering Jew, +each day he moved on. The threats of a land that never smiled were +reflected in his face. The sight of him was death. Certainly he was +terrible. + +This conception, corrected by later writers, was otherwise revised. In +the interim Jahveh himself was transformed. He became El, the god; +presently El Shaddai, God Almighty. In the ascension former traits +disappeared. He developed into the deity of emphatic right. Morality, +hitherto absent from religion, entered into it. Israel, who perhaps +had been careless, who, like Solomon, had followed Ishtar, became +austere. Thereafter, Judaism, of which Christianity and Muhammadanism +were the after thoughts, was destined to represent almost the sum +total of the human conscience. + +But in Kanaan, during the rude beginnings, though Jahveh was jealous, +Ishtar, known locally as Ashtoreth, allured. Conjointly with Baal, the +indigenous term for Bel, circumadjacently she ruled. The propitiatory +rites of these fair gods were debauchery and infanticide, the +loosening of the girdles of girls, the thrusting of children into +fires. It may be that these ceremonies at first amazed the Hebrews. +But conscientiously they adopted them, less perhaps through zeal than +politeness; because, in this curious epoch, on entering a country it +was thought only civil to serve the divinities that were there, in +accordance with the ritual that pleased them. + +With the mere mortal inhabitants, Israel was less ceremonious. +Commanded by Jahveh to kill, extermination was but an act of piety. It +was then, perhaps, that the _Wars of Jahveh_ were sung, a pæan that +must have been resonant with cries, with the death-rattle of kingdoms, +with the shouts of the invading host. From the breast-plates of the +chosen, the terror of Sinai gleamed. Men could not see their faces and +live. The moon was their servant. To aid them the sun stood still. +They encroached, they slaughtered, they quelled. In the conquest a +nation was born. From that bloody cradle the God of Humanity came. But +around and about it was vacancy. In emerging from one solitude the +Jews created another. They have never left it. The desert which they +made destined them to be alone on this earth, as their god was to be +solitary in heaven. + +Meanwhile there had been no kings in Israel. With the nation royalty +came. David followed Saul. After him was Solomon. It is presumably at +this period that traditions, orally transmitted from a past relatively +remote, were first put in writing. Previously it is conjectural if the +Jews could write. If they could, it is uncertain whether they made any +use of the ability other than in the possible compilation of toledoth, +such as the _Book of the Generations of Adam_ and the _Wars of +Jahveh_, works that, later, may have served as data for the +Pentateuch. Even then, the compositions must have been crude, and such +rolls as existed may have been lost when Nebuchadnezzar overturned +Jerusalem. + +Presumably, it was not until the post-exilic period that, under the +editorship perhaps of Ezra, the definitive edition of the Torah was +produced. This supposition existing texts support. In Genesis (xxxvii. +31) it is written: "These are the kings of Edom before there reigned +any king over the children of Israel." The passage shows, if it shows +anything, that there were, or had been, kings in Israel at the time +when the passage itself was written. It is, therefore, at least +post-Davidic. In Genesis another passage (xlix. 10) says: "The sceptre +shall not pass from Judah until Shiloh come." Judah was the tribe that +became pre-eminent in Israel after the captivity. The passage is +therefore post-exilic, consequently so is Genesis, and obviously the +rest of the Pentateuch as well. Or, if not obviously, perhaps +demonstrably. In II Esdras xiv. 22-48 it is stated that the writer, a +candle of understanding in his heart, and aided by five swift scribes, +recomposed the Law, which, previously burned, was known to none. + +The burning referred to is what may, perhaps, be termed religious +fiction. Barring toledoth and related data that may have been lost, +the Law had almost certainly not existed before, and this post-exilic +romance concerning it was evolved in a laudable effort to show its +Mosaic source. What is true of the Law is, in a measure, true of the +Prophets. None of them anterior to Cyrus, all are later than +Alexander. Spiritually very near to Christianity, chronologically they +are neighbourly too. If not divinely inspired, they at least disclosed +the ideal. + +Previously the ideal had not perhaps been very apparent. Apart from +secessions, rebellions, concussions, convulsions that deified Hatred +until Jahveh, in the person of Nebuchadnezzar, talked Assyrian, and +then, in the person of Cyrus, talked Zend, the god of Israel, even in +Israel, was not unique. He had a home, his first, the Temple, built +gorgeously by Solomon, where invisibly, mysteriously, perhaps +terribly, beneath the wings of cherubim that rose from the depths of +the Holy of Holies, he dwelled. But the shrine, however ornate, was +not the only one. There were other altars, other gods; the plentiful +sanctuaries of Ashera, of Moloch and of Baal. On the adjacent hilltops +the phallus stood. In the neighbouring groves the kisses of Ishtar +consumed. + +The Lady of Girdles was worshipped there not by men and women only, +but by girls with girls; by others too, not in couples, but singly, +girls who in their solitary devotions had instruments for aid.[36] +Religion, as yet, had but the slightest connection with morality, a +circumstance explicable perhaps by the fact that it resumed the +ethnical conscience of a race. Between the altar of El Shaddai and the +shrines of other gods there were many differences, of which geography +was the least. Jahveh, from a tutelary god, had indeed become the +national divinity of a chosen people. But the Moabites were the chosen +people of Chemos; the Ammonites were the chosen people of Rimmon; the +Babylonians were the chosen people of Bel. The title conferred no +distinction. As a consequence, to differentiate Jahveh from all other +gods, and Israel from all other people, to make the one unique and the +other pontiff and shepherd of the nations of the world, became the +dream of anonymous poets, one that prophets, sometimes equally +anonymous, proclaimed. It was the prophets that reviled the false +gods, denounced the abominations of Ishtar, and purified the Israelite +heart. While nothing discernible, or even imaginable, menaced, however +slightly, the great empires of that day, the prophets were the first +to realize that the Orient was dead. When the Christ announced that +the end of the world was at hand, he but reiterated anterior +predictions that presently were fulfilled. A world did end. That of +antiquity ceased to be. + +[Footnote 36: _Cf._ Deut. xxiii. 17, where _'alâmôth_ (puellæ) is +rendered in the Sapphist sense. Ezekiel xvi. 17. _Fecisti tibi +imagines masculinas._] + +It was the prophets that foretold it. Gloomy, fanatic, implacable and, +it may be, mad, yet inspired at least by genius which itself, while +madness, is a madness wholly divine, they heralded the future, they +established the past. Abraham they drew from allegory, Moses from +myth. They made them live, and so immortally that one survives in +Islam, the other in words that are a law of grace for all. + +If, in visions possibly ecstatic, they beheld heights that lost +themselves in immensity, and saw there an ineffable name seared by +forked flames on a tablet of stone; if that spectacle and the +theophany of it were but poetry, the decalogue is a fact, one so solid +that though ages have gone, though empires have crumbled, though the +customs of man have altered, though the sky itself have changed, still +is obeyed the commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. + +From Chemos in Moab, from Rimmon among the Ammonites, no such edict +had come. It felled them. Amon-Râ it tore from the celestial Nile, and +Bel-Marduk from the Silver Sky. The Refaïm hid them in shadows as +surely as they buried there the high and potent lords of Greece and +Rome. These interments, completed by others, the prophets began. For +it was they who, in addition to the command, revealed the commandant, +creator of whatever is: the Being Absolute that abhorred evil, loved +righteousness, punished the transgressor and rewarded the just; El +Shaddai, then really Lord of Hosts. + +It may be that already in Israel there had been some prescience of +this. But it lacked the authority of inspired text. The omission was +one that only seers could remedy. It was presumably in these +circumstances that an agreement was imagined which, construed as a +condition of a covenant, assumed to have been made with Abraham, was +further assumed to have been renewed to Moses. The resulting poetry +was enveloped in a romance of which Continental scholarship has +discovered two versions, woven together, perhaps by Ezra, into a +single tale. + +"In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and earth." That abrupt +declaration, presented originally in but one of the versions, had +already been pronounced of Indra and also of Ormuzd. The Hebraic +announcement alone prevailed. It emptied the firmament of its +monsters, dislodged the gods from the skies, and enthroned there a +deity at first multiple but subsequently unique. Afterward seraphs and +saints might replace the evaporated imaginings of other creeds; Satan +might create a world of his own and people it with the damned; +theology might evolve from elder faiths a newer trinity and set it +like a diadem in space; angels and archangels might refill the +devastated heavens of the past; none the less, in the light of that +austere pronouncement, for a moment Israel dwelled in contemplation of +the Ideal. + +At the time it is probable that the story of the love of the sons of +Jahveh for the daughters of men, together with the pastel of Eden as +it stands to-day, were not contained in existing accounts of that +ideal. These legends, which regarded as legends are obviously false, +but which, construed as allegories, may be profoundly true, were +probably not diffused until after the captivity, when Israel was not +more subtle, that is not possible, but, by reason of her contact with +Persia, more wise. + +The origin of evil these myths related but did not explain. Since +then, from no church has there come an adequate explanation of the +malediction under which man is supposed to labour because of the +natural propensities of beings that never were. That explanation these +myths, which orthodoxy has gravely, though sometimes reluctantly, +accepted, both provide and conceal. They date possibly from the +Ormuzdian revelation: "In the beginning was the living Word." + +John, or more exactly his homonym, repeated the pronouncement, adding: +"The word was made flesh." But, save for a mention of the glory which +he had before the world was, he omitted to further follow the thought +of Ormuzd, who, in describing paradise to Zarathrustra, likened it, in +every way, to heaven. There the first beings were, exempt from +physical necessities, pure intelligences, naked as the compilers of +Genesis translated, naked and unashamed, but naked and unashamed +because incorporeal, unincarnate and clothed in light, a vestment +which they exchanged for a garment of flesh, coats of skin as it is in +Genesis, when, descended on earth, their intelligence, previously +luminous, swooned in the senses of man. + +In Egypt, the harper going out from Amenti sang: "Life is death in a +land of darkness, death is life in a land of light." There perhaps is +the origin of evil. There too perhaps is its cure. But the view +accepted there too is pre-existence and persistence, a doctrine +blasphemous to the Jew as it was to the Assyrian, to whom the gods +alone were immortal, and to whom, in consequence, immortal beings +would be gods. In the creed of both, man was essentially evanescent. +To the Hebrew, he lived a few, brief days and then went down into +silence, where no remembrance is. There, gathered among the Refaïm to +his fathers, he remained forever, unheeded by God. + +The conception, passably rationalistic and not impossibly correct, +veiled the beautiful allegory that was latent in the Eden myth. It had +the further defect, or the additional advantage, of eliminating any +theory of future punishment and reward. In lieu of anything of the +kind, there was a doctrine that evil, in producing evil, automatically +punished itself. The doctrine is incontrovertible. But, for corollary, +went the fallacy that virtue is its own reward. Against that idea Job +protested so energetically that mediæval monks were afraid to read +what he wrote. Yet it was perhaps in demonstration of the real +significance of the allegory that a spiritualistic doctrine--always an +impiety to the orthodox--was insinuated by the Pharisees and instilled +by the Christ. + +The basis of it rested perhaps partially in the idealism of the +prophets. The clamour of their voices awoke the dead. It transformed +the skies. It transfigured Jahveh. It divested him of attributes that +were human. It outlined others that were divine. It awoke not merely +the dead, but the consciousness that a god that had a proper name +could not be the true one. Thereafter mention of it was avoided. The +vowels were dropped. It became unpronounceable, therefore +incommunicable. For it was substituted the term vaguer, and therefore +more exact, of Lord, one in whose service were fulfilled the words of +Isaiah: "I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no +God." + +In the marvel of that miraculous realization were altitudes hitherto +undreamed, peaks from whose summits there was discernible but the +valleys beneath, and another height on which stood the Son of man. Yet +marvellous though the realization was, instead of diminishing, it +increased. It did not pass. It was not forgot. Ceaselessly it +augmented. + +In the Scriptures there are many marvels. That perhaps is the +greatest. Amon, originally an obscure provincial god of Thebes, became +the supreme divinity of Egypt. Bel, originally a local god of Nippur, +became in Babylon Lord of Hosts. But Jahveh, originally the tutelary +god of squalid nomads, became the Deity of Christendom. The fact is +one that any scholarship must admit. It is the indisputable miracle of +the Bible. + + + + +VI + +ZEUS + + +In Judea, when Jahveh was addressed, he answered, if at all, with a +thunderclap. Since then he has ceased to reply. Zeus was more +complaisant. One might enter with him into the intimacy of the +infinite. The father of the Graces, the Muses, the Hours, it was +natural that he should be debonair. But he had other children. Among +them were Litai, the Prayers. In the _Vedas_, where Zeus was born, the +Prayers upheld the skies. Lame and less lofty in Greece, they could +but listen and intercede. + +The detail is taken from Homer. In his Ionian Pentateuch is the +statement that beggars are sent by Zeus, that whoever stretches a hand +is respectable in his eyes, that the mendicant who is repulsed may +perhaps be a god[37]--suggestions which, afterward, were superiorly +resumed in the dictum: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of +these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." + +[Footnote 37: Odyssey, xviii. 485, v. 447, xiv. 56.] + +The Litai were not alone in their offices. There were the oracles of +Delphi, of Trophonios and of Mopsos, where one might converse with any +divinity, even with Pan, who was a very great god. But Olympos was +neighbourly. It was charming too. There was unending spring there, +eternal youth, immortal beauty, the harmonies of divine honey-moons, +the ideal in a golden dream; a stretch of crystal parapets, from +which, leaning and laughing, radiant goddesses and resplendent gods +looked down, and to whom a people, adolescent still, looked up. + +In that morning of delight fear was absent, mystery was replaced by +joy. The pageantry of the hours may have been too near to nature to +know of shame, it was yet too close to the divine to know of hate. +Man, then, for the first time, loved what he worshipped and worshipped +what he loved. His brilliant and musical Bible moved his heart without +tormenting it. It conducted but did not constrain. It taught him that +in death all are equal and that in life the noble-minded are serene. + +In the Genesis of this Bible there is an account of a golden age and +of a paradise into which evil was introduced by woman. The account is +Hesiod's, to whom the Orient had furnished the details. It may be that +both erred. If ever there were a golden age it must have been in those +days when heaven was on earth and, mingling familiarly with men, were +processions of gods, gods of love, of light, of liberty, thousands of +them, not one of whom had ever heard an atheist's voice. Related to +humanity, of the same blood, sons of the same Aryan mother, they +differed from men only in that the latter died because they were real, +while they were deathless because ideal. + +The ideal was too fair. Presently Pallas became the soul of Athens. +But meanwhile from the East there strayed swarms of enigmatic faces; +the harlot handmaids of her Celestial Highness Ishtar, Princess of +Heaven; the mutilated priests of Tammuz her lover; dual conceptions +that resulted in Aphrodite Pandemos, the postures of Priapos, the leer +of the Lampsacene, and, with them, forms of worship comparable, in the +circumadjacent beauty, to latrinæ in a garden, ignoble shapes that +violated the candour of maidens' eyes, but with which Greece became so +accustomed that on them moral aphorisms were engraved. "In the mind of +Hellas, these things," Renan, with his usual unctuousness, declared, +"awoke but pious thoughts." + +Pious at heart Hellas was. Even art, which now is wholly profane, with +her was wholly sacred. The sanctity was due to its perfection. The +perfection was such that imbeciles who fancy that it has been or could +be surpassed show merely that they know nothing about it. At Athens, +where Pheidias created a palpable Olympos, Pallas stood colossally, a +torch in her hand, a lance at her shoulder, a shield at her side, a +plastron of gold on her immaculate breast, a golden robe about her +ivory form, and on her immortal brow a crown of gold, beneath which, +sapphire eyes, that saw and foresaw, glittered. To-day the place where +the marvellous creation stood is vacant. With the gorgeous host Pallas +has departed. But the torch she held still burns. From the emptiness +of her virginal arms, that never were filled, proceeds all +civilization. + +Adjacently at Eleusis was Demeter. Pallas was the soul of Greece. +Eleusis was the Jerusalem, Demeter the Madonna. + +Demeter--the earth, the universal mother--had, in a mystic hymen with +her brother Zeus, conceived Persephone. The latter, when young and a +maiden, beckoned perhaps by Eros, wandered from Olympos and was +gathering flowers when Pluto, borne by black horses, erupted, raped +her, and tore her away. The cries of the indignant Demeter sterilized +the earth. To assuage her, Zeus undertook to have Persephone +recovered, provided that in Hades, of which Pluto was lord, she had +eaten nothing. But the girl had--a pomegranate grain. It was the +irrevocable. Demeter yielded, as the high gods had to yield, to what +was higher than they, to Destiny. Meanwhile, in the shadows below, +Persephone was transfigured. + + Thou art more than the day or the morrow, the seasons that laugh and + that weep; + For these give joy and sorrow: but thou, Proserpina, sleep.... + O daughter of earth, of my mother, her crown and blossom of birth, + I am also, I also, thy brother; I go as I came unto earth. + In the night where thine eyes are as moons are in heaven, the night + where thou art, + Where the silence is more than all tunes, where sleep overflows from + the heart, ... + And the murmur of spirits that sleep in the shadow of gods from afar + Grows dim in thine ears and deep as the deep dim soul of a star. + In the sweet low light of thy face, under heavens untrod by the sun, + Let my soul with their souls find place and forget what was done or + undone. + Thou art more than the gods that number the days of our temporal breath + For these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death. + +Like Hesiod, Swinburne erred, though perhaps intentionally, as poets +should, for the greater glory of the Muses. Persephone brought not +death but life. The aisles of despair she filled with hope. +Transfigured herself, Pluto she transformed. She changed what had been +hell into what was to be purgatory. It was not yet Elysium, but it was +no longer Hades. Plato said that those who were in her world had no +wish at all for this. + +It is for that reason that Demeter is the Madonna of Greece, as her +ethereal daughter was the saviour. The myth of it all, brought by +Pythagoras from Egypt is very old. Known in Memphis, it was known too +in Babylon, perhaps before Memphis was. But the legend of Isis and +that of Ishtar--both of whom descended into hell--lack the transparent +charm which this idyl unfolds and of which the significance was +revealed only to initiate in epiphanies at Eleusis. + +Before these sacraments Greece stood, a finger to her lips. Yet the +whispers from them that have reached us, while furtive perhaps, are +clear. They furnished the poets with notes that are resonant still. +They lifted the drama to heights that astound. Even in the fancy balls +of Aristophanes, where men were ribald and the gods were mocked, +suddenly, in the midst of the orgy, laughter ceased, obscenities were +hushed. Afar a hymn resounded. It was the chorus of the Initiate going +measuredly by. + +The original mysteries were Hermetic. Enterable only after a prolonged +novitiate, the adept then beheld an unfolding of the theosophy of the +soul. In visions, possibly ecstatic, he saw the series of its +incarnations, the seven cycles through which it passed, the Ship of a +Million Years on which the migrations are effected and on which, at +last, from the Valley of the Shadow of Death, it sails to its primal +home. + +That home was colour, its sustenance light. There, in ethereal +evolutions, its incarnations began. At first unsubstantial and wholly +ineffable, these turned for it every object into beauty, every sound +into joy. Without needs, from beatitude to beatitude blissfully it +floated. But, subjected to the double attraction of matter and of sin, +the initiate saw the memories and attributes of its spirituality fade. +He saw it flutter, and fluttering sink. He saw that in sinking it +enveloped itself in garments that grew heavier at each descent. +Through the denser clothing he saw the desires of the flesh pulsate. +He saw them force it lower, still lower, until, fallen into its +earthly tenement, it swooned in the senses of man. From the chains of +that prison he learned that the soul's one escape was in a recovery of +the memory of what it had been when it was other than what it had +become. + +That memory the mysteries provided. Those of Eleusis differed from the +Egyptian only in detail. At Eleusis, in lieu of visions, there were +tableaux. Persephone, beckoned by desire, straying then from Olympos, +afterward fainting in the arms of Pluto, but subsequently, while +preparing her own reascension, saving and embellishing all that +approach, was the symbol, in an Hellenic setting, of the fall and +redemption of man. + +The human tragedy thus portrayed was the luminous counterpart of the +dark dramas that Athens beheld. There, in the theatre--which itself +was a church with the stage for pulpit--man, blinded by passions, the +Fates pursued and Destiny felled. + +The sombre spectacle was inexplicable. At Eleusis was enlightenment. +"Eskato Bebeloï"--_Out from here, the profane_--the heralds shouted as +the mysteries began. "Konx ompax"--_Go in peace_--they called when the +epiphanies were completed. + +In peace the initiate went, serenely, it is said, ever after. From +them the load of ignorance was lifted. But what their impressions were +is unrecorded. They were bound to secrecy. No one could learn what +occurred without being initiated, or without dying. For death too is +initiation. + +The mysteries were schools of immortality. They plentifully taught +many a lesson that Christianity afterward instilled. But their drapery +was perhaps over ornate. Truth does not need any. Truth always should +be charming. Yet always it should be naked as well. About it the +mysteries hung a raiment that was beautiful, but of which the rich +embroideries obscured. The mysteries could not have been more +fascinating, that is not possible, but, the myths removed, in simple +nudity they would have been more clear. Doubtless it was for that very +reason, in order that they might not be transparent, that the myths +were employed. It is for that very reason, perhaps, that Christianity +also adopted a few. Yet at least from cant they were free. Among the +multiple divinities of Greece, hypocrisy was the unknown god. +Consideration of the others is, to-day, usually effected through the +pages of Ovid. One might as well study Christianity in the works of +Voltaire. Christianity's brightest days were in the dark ages. The +splendid glamour of them that persists is due to many causes, among +which, in minor degree, may be the compelling glare of Greek genius. +That glare, veiled in the mysteries, philosophy reflects. + +Philosophy is but the love of wisdom. It began with Socrates. He had +no belief in the gods. The man who has none may be very religious. But +though Socrates did not believe in the gods he did not deny them. He +did what perhaps was worse. He ignored their perfectly poetic +existence. He was put to death for it, though only at the conclusion +of a long promenade during which he delivered Athenian youths of their +intelligence. Facility in the operation may have been inherited. +Socrates was the son of a midwife. His own progeny consisted in a +complete transfiguration of Athenian thought. He told of an +Intelligence, supreme, ethical, just, seeing all, hearing all, +governing all; a creator made not after the image of man but of the +soul, and visible only in the conscience. It was for that he died. +There was no such god on Olympos. + +There was an additional indictment. Socrates was accused of perverting +the _jeunesse dorée_. At a period when, everywhere, save only in +Israel, the abnormal was usual, Socrates was almost insultingly +chaste. The perversion of which he was accused was not of that order. +It was that of inciting lads to disobey their parents when the latter +opposed what he taught. + +"I am come to set a man against his father," it is written in +_Matthew_. The mission of Socrates was the same. Because of it he +died. He was the first martyr. But his death was overwhelming in its +simplicity. Even in fairyland there has been nothing more calm. By way +of preparation he said to his judges: "Were you to offer to acquit me +on condition that I no longer profess what I believe, I would answer; +'Athenians, I honour and I love you, but a god has commanded me and +that god I will obey, rather than you.'" + +In the speech was irony, with which Athens was familiar. But it also +displayed a conception, wholly new, that of maintaining at any cost +the truth. The novelty must have charmed. When Peter and the apostles +were arraigned before the Sanhedrin, their defence consisted in the +very words that Socrates had used: "We should obey God rather than +man."[38] + +[Footnote 38: Acts v. 29.] + +Socrates wrote nothing. The Buddha did not either. Neither did the +Christ. These had their evangelists. Socrates had also disciples who, +as vehicle for his ideas, employed the nightingale tongue of beauty +into which the Law and the Prophets were translated by the Septuagint +and into which the Gospels were put. + +It would be irreverent to suggest that the latter are in any way +indebted to Socratic inspiration. It would be irrelevant as well. For, +while the Intelligence that Socrates preached differed as much from +the volage and voluptuous Zeus as the God of Christendom differs from +the Jahveh of Job, yet, in a divergence so wide, an idealist, very +poor except in ideas; a teacher killed by those who knew not what they +did; a philosopher that drained the cup without even asking that it +pass from him; a mere reformer, though dangerous perhaps as every +reformer worth the name must be; but, otherwise, a mere man like any +other, only a little better, could obviously have had no share. For +reasons not minor but major, Plato could have had none either. + +It is related that a Roman invader sank back, stricken with +_deisidaimonia_--the awe that the gods inspired--at the sight of the +Pheidian Zeus. It is with a wonder not cognate certainly, yet in a +measure relative, that one considers what Socrates must have been if +millennia have gone without producing one mind approaching that of his +spiritual heir. It was uranian; but not disassociated from human +things. + +Plato, like his master, was but a man in whom the ideal was intuitive, +perhaps the infernal also. In the gardens of the Academe and along the +banks of the Ilissus, he announced a Last Judgment. The announcement, +contained in the _Phædo_, had for supplement a picture that may have +been Persian, of the righteous ascending to heaven and the wicked +descending to hell. In the _Laws_, the picture was annotated with a +statement to the effect that whatever a man may do, there is an eye +that sees him, a memory that registers and retains. In the _Republic_ +he declared that afflictions are blessings in disguise. But his +"Republic," a utopian commonwealth, was not, he said, of this world, +adding in the _Phædo_, that few are chosen though many are called. + +The mystery of the catholicism of the Incas, reported back to the Holy +Office, was there defined as an artifice of the devil. With finer +circumspection, Christian Fathers attributed the denser mystery of +Greek philosophy to the inspiration of God. + +Certainly it is ample. As exemplified by Plato it has, though, its +limitations. There is no charity in it. Plato preached humility, but +there is none in his sermons. His thought is a winged thing, as the +thought of a poet ever should be. But in the expression of it he seems +smiling, disdainful, indifferent as a statue to the poverties of the +heart. That too, perhaps, is as it should be. The high muse wears a +radiant peplum. Anxiety is banished from the minds that she haunts. +Then, also, if, in the nectar of Plato's speech, compassion is not an +ingredient, it may be because, in his violet-crowned city, it was +strewn open-handed through the beautiful streets. There, public +malediction was visited on anyone that omitted to guide a stranger on +his way. + +Israel was too strictly monotheistic to raise an altar to Pity, the +rest of antiquity too cruel. In Athens there was one. In addition +there were missions for the needy, asylums for the infirm. If +anywhere, at that period, human sympathy existed, it was in Greece. +The aristocratic silence of Plato may have been due to that fact. He +would not talk of the obvious, though he did of the vile. In one of +his books the then common and abnormal conception of sexuality was, if +not authorized, at least condoned. It is conjectural, however, whether +the conception was more monstrous than that which subsequent mysticity +evolved. + +Said Ruysbroeck: "The mystic carries her soul in her hand and gives it +to whomsoever she wishes." Said St. Francis of Sales: "The soul draws +to itself motives of love and delectates in them." What the gift and +what the delectation were, other saints have described. + +Marie de la Croix asserted that in the arms of the celestial Spouse +she swam in an ocean of delight. Concerning that Spouse, Marie +Alacoque added: "Like the most passionate of lovers he made me +understand that I should taste what is sweetest in the suavity of +caresses, and indeed, so poignant were they, that I swooned." The +ravishments which St. Theresa experienced she expressed in terms of +abandoned precision. Mme. Guyon wrote so carnally of the divine that +Bossuet exclaimed; "Seigneur, if I dared, I would pray that a seraph +with a flaming sword might come and purify my lips sullied by this +recital."[39] + +[Footnote 39: Relation sur le Quiétisme.] + +Augustin pleasantly remarked that we are all born for hell. One need +not agree with him. In the presence of the possibly monstrous and the +impossibly blasphemous, there is always a recourse. It is to turn +away, though it be to Zeus, a belief in whom, however stupid, is +ennobling beside the turpitudes that Christian mysticism produced. + +At Athens, meanwhile, the religion of State persisted. So also did +philosophy. When, occasionally, the two met, the latter bowed. That +was sufficient. Religion exacted respect, not belief. It was not a +faith, it was a law, one that for its majesty was admired and for its +poetry was beloved. In the deification of whatever is exquisite it was +but an artistic cult. The real Olympos was the Pantheon. The other was +fading away. Deeper and deeper it was sinking back into the golden +dream from which it had sprung. Further and further the crystal +parapets were retreating. Dimmer and more dim the gorgeous host +became. In words of perfect piety Epicurus pictured them in the +felicity of the ideal. There, they had no heed of man, no desire for +worship, no wish for prayer. It was unnecessary even to think of them. +Decorously, with every homage, they were being deposed. + +But if Epicurus was decorous, Evemerus was devout. It was his +endeavour, he said, not to undermine but to fortify. The gods he +described as philanthropists whom a grateful world had deified. Zeus +had waged a sacrilegious war against his father. Aphrodite was a +harlot and a procuress. The others were equally commendable. Once they +had all lived. Since then all had died. Evemerus had seen their tombs. + +One should not believe him. Their parapets are dimmer, perhaps, but +from them still they lean and laugh. They are immortal as the +hexameters in which their loves unfold. Yet, oddly enough, presently +the oracle of Delphi strangled. In his cavern Trophonios was gagged. +The voice of Mopsos withered. + +That is nothing. On the Ionian, the captain of a ship heard some one +calling loudly at him from the sea. The passengers, who were at table, +looked out astounded. Again the loud voice called: "Captain, when you +reach shore announce that the great god Pan is dead."[40] + +[Footnote 40: Plutarch: de Oracul. defect. 14.] + +It may be that it was true. It may be that after Pan the others +departed. When Paul reached Athens he found a denuded Pantheon, a +vacant Olympos, skies more empty still. + + + + +VII + +JUPITER + + +The name of the national deity of Israel is unpronounceable. The name +of the national divinity of Rome is unknown. To all but the +hierophants it was a secret. For uttering it a senator was put to +death. But Tullius Hostilius erected temples to Fear and to Pallor. It +may have been Fright. The conjecture is supported by the fact that, as +was usual, Rome had any number of deified epithets, as she had also a +quantity of little bits of gods. These latter greatly amused the +Christian Fathers. Among them was Alemona, who, in homely English, was +Wet-nurse. + +Tertullian, perhaps naïvely, remarked: "Superstition has invented +these deities for whom we have substituted angels." In addition to the +diva mater Alemona was the divus pater Vaticanus, the holy father +Vatican, who assisted at a child's first cry. There was the equally +holy father Fabulin, who attended him in his earliest efforts at +speech. Neither of them had anything else to do. + +Pavor had. At thunder, at lightning, at a meteor, at moisture on a +wall, at no matter what, at silence even, the descendants of a +she-wolf's nursling quailed. They lived in a panic. In panic the gods +were born. It is but natural, perhaps, that Fright should have been +held supreme. The other gods, mainly divinities of prey and of havoc, +were lustreless as the imaginations that conceived them. Prosaic, +unimaged, without poetry or myth, they dully persisted until pedlars +appeared with Hellenic legends and wares. To their tales Rome +listened. Then eidolons of the Olympians became naturalized there. +Zeus was transformed into Jupiter, Aphrodite into Venus, Pallas into +Minerva, Demeter into Ceres, and all of them--and with them all the +others--into an irritable police. The Greek gods enchanted, those of +Rome alarmed. Plutarch said that they were indignant if one presumed +to so much as sneeze. + +Worship, consequently, was a necessary precaution, an insurance +against divine risks, a matter of business in which the devout +bargained with the divine. Ovid represented Numa trying to elude the +exigencies of Jove. The latter had demanded the sacrifice of a head. +"You shall have a cabbage," said the king. "I mean something human." +"Some hairs then." "No, I want something alive." "We will give you a +pretty little fish." Jupiter laughed and yielded. That was much later, +after Lucretius, in putting Epicurus into verse, had declared religion +to be the mother of sin. By that time Fear and Pallor had struck +terror into the very marrow of barbarian bones. Fright was a god more +serviceable than Zeus. With him Rome conquered the world. Yet in the +conquest Fright became Might and the latter an effulgence of Jove's. + +Jove was magnificent. In the Capitol he throned so augustly that we +swear by him still. Like Rome he is immortal. But Pavor, that had +faded into him, was never invoked. The reason was not sacerdotal, it +was political. Rome never imposed her gods on the quelled. With +superior tact she lured their gods from them. At any siege, that was +her first device. To it she believed her victories were due. It was to +avoid possible reprisals and to remain invincible, that her own +national divinity she so carefully concealed that the name still is a +secret. With the gods, Rome gathered the creeds of the world, set them +like fountains among her hills, and drank of their sacred waters. Her +early deity is unknown. But the secret of her eternity is in the +religions that she absorbed. It was these that made her immortal. + +To that immortality the obscure god of an obscure people contributed +largely, perhaps, but perhaps, too, not uniquely. Jahveh might have +remained unperceived behind the veil of the sanctuary had not his +altar been illuminated by lights from other shrines. In the early days +of the empire, Rome was fully aware of the glamour of Amon, of the +star of Ormuzd, Brahm's cerulean lotos and the rainbow heights of +Bel-Marduk. But in the splendour of Jove all these were opaque. + +Jupiter, always imposing, was grandiose then. His thoughts were vast +as the sky. In a direct revelation to Vergil he said of his chosen +people: "I have set no limits to their conquest or its duration. The +empire I have given them shall be without end."[41] Hebrew prophets had +spoken similarly. Vergil must have been more truly inspired. The Roman +empire, nominally holy, figuratively still exists. Yet fulfilment of +the prophecy is due perhaps less to the God of the Gentiles than to +the God of the Jews. Though perhaps also it may be permissible to +discern in the latter a transfiguration of Jove, who originally Zeus, +and primarily not Hellenic but Hindu, ultimately became supreme. After +the terrific struggle which resulted in that final metamorphosis, +Jerusalem, disinherited, saw Rome the spiritual capital of the globe. + +[Footnote 41: Æneid i. 278.] + +Jerusalem was not a home of logic. Rome was the city of law. That law, +cold, inflexible, passionless as a sword and quite as effective, Rome +brandished at philosophy. It is said that the intellectual gymnastics +of Greece were displeasing to her traditions. It is more probable that +augurs had foreseen or oracles had foretold that philosophy would +divest her of the sword, and with it of her sceptre and her might. +Ideas cannot be decapitated. Only ridicule can demolish them. +Philosophy, mistress of irony, resisted while nations fell. It was +philosophy that first undermined established creeds and then led to +the pursuit of new ones. Yet it may be that a contributing cause was a +curious theory that the world was to end. Foretold in the _Brahmanas_, +in the _Avesta_ and in the _Eddas_, probably it was in the _Sibylline +Books_. If not, the subsequent Church may have so assumed. + + Dies iræ, dies illa, + Solvet sæclum in favilla, + Teste David cum Sibylla. + +Not alone David and the Sibyl but Etruscan seers had seen in the skies +that the tenth and last astronomical cycle had begun.[42] Plutarch, in +his life of Sylla, testified to the general belief in an approaching +cataclysm. Lucretius announced that at any moment it might occur.[43] +That was in the latter days of the republic. In the early days of the +empire the theory persisting may have induced the hope of a saviour. +Suetonius said that nature in her parturitions was elaborating a +king.[44] Afterward he added that such was Asia's archaic belief.[45] +Recent discoveries have verified the assertion. In the Akkadian Epic +of Dibbara a messiah was foretold.[46] That epic, anterior to a cognate +Egyptian prophecy,[47] anterior also to the _Sibylline Books_, was +anterior too to the Hebrew prophets and necessarily to those of Rome. + +[Footnote 42: Censorinus: De die nat. 17.] + +[Footnote 43: De rerum nat., v. 105.] + +[Footnote 44: In Augusto, 74.] + +[Footnote 45: In Vesp. 4.] + +[Footnote 46: Jastrow: _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 47: See back, Chapter III.] + +Among these was Vergil. In the fourth Eclogue he beheld an age of +gold, preceded by the advent on earth of a son of Jove, under whose +auspices the last traces of sin and sorrow were to disappear and a new +race descend from heaven. "The serpent shall die," he declared, +adding: "The time is at hand." + +The Eclogue was written 40 B.C., during the consulate of Pallio, whom +the poet wished perhaps to flatter. Then presently Ovid sang the +deathless soul and Tibullus gave rendezvous hereafter. The atmosphere +dripped with wonders. The air became charged with the miraculous. At +stated intervals the doors of temples opened of themselves. Statues +perspired visibly. There was a book that explained the mechanism of +these marvels. It interested nobody. Prodigies were matters of course. + +The people had a heaven, also a hell, both of them Greek, a purgatory +that may have been Asiatic, and, pending the advent of the son of +Jove, in Mithra they could have had a redeemer. Had it been desired, +Buddhism could have supplied gospels, India the trinity, Persia the +resurrection, Egypt the life. From Iran could have been obtained an +Intelligence, sovereign, unimaged, and just. That was unnecessary. +Long since Socrates had displayed it. In addition, Epicurus had told +of an ascension of heavens, skies beyond the sky, worlds without +number, the many mansions of a later faith. + +Meanwhile, austerity was an appanage of the stoics, in whose faultless +code the dominant note was contempt for whatever is base, respect for +all that is noble. A doctrine of great beauty, purely Greek, as was +everything else in Rome that was beautiful, its heights were too lofty +for the vulgar. It appealed only to the lettered, that is to the few, +to the infrequent disciples of Zeno and of Cicero, his prophet, who, +Erasmus said, was inspired by God. + +It may be that Cicero inspired a few of God's preachers. The latter +were not yet in Rome. Christ had not come. At that period, unique in +history, man alone existed. The temples were thronged, but the skies +were bare. Cicero knew that. Elysium and Hades were as chimerical to +him as the Epicurean heavens. "People," he said, "talk of these places +as though they had been there." But that which was superstition to him +he regarded as beneficial for others, who had to have something and +who got it, in temples where a sin was a prayer. + +There was once a play of which there has survived but the title: _The +Last Will and Testament of Defunct Jupiter._ It appeared in the days +of Diocletian, but it might have appealed when Cicero taught. Faith +then had fainted. Fright had ceased to build. Worship remained, but +religion had gone. The gods themselves were departing. The epoch +itself was apoplectic. The tramp of legions was continuous. Not alone +the skies but the world was in a ferment. It was not until a diadem, +falling from Cleopatra's golden bed, rolled to the feet of Augustus, +that the gods were stayed and faith revived. + +In the interim, prisoners had been deported from Judea. At first they +were slaves. Subsequently manumitted, they formed a colony that in the +high-viced city resembled Esther in the seraglio of Ahasuerus. Rome, +amateur of cults, always curious of foreign faiths, might have been +interested in Judaism. It had many analogies with local beliefs. Its +adherents awaited, as Rome did, a messiah. They awaited too a golden +age. For those who were weary of philosophy, they had a religion in +which there was none. For those to whom the marvellous appealed, they +had a history in which miracles were a string of pearls. For those who +were sceptic concerning the post-mortem, they offered blankness. In +addition, their god, the enemy of all others, was adapted to an empire +that recognized no sovereignty but its own. Readily might Rome have +become Hebrew. But then, with equal ease, she might have become +Egyptian. + +For those who were perhaps afraid of going to hell and yet may have +been equally afraid of not going anywhere, Egypt held passports to a +land of light. Then too, the gods of Egypt were friendly and +accessible. They mingled familiarly with those of Rome, complaisantly +with the deified Cæsars, as already they had with the pharaohs, a +condescension, parenthetically, that did not protect them from +Tiberius, who, for reasons with which religion had nothing whatever to +do, persecuted the Egyptians, as he persecuted also the Jews. None the +less, Rome, weary of local fictions, might have become converted to +foreign ideas. In default of Syrian or Copt, she might have become +Persian as already she was Greek. + +Augustus had other views. Divinities, made not merely after the image +of man but in symbols of sin, he saluted. With a hand usually small, +but in this instance tolerably large, he re-established them on their +pedestals. A relapse to spiritual infancy resulted. It was what he +sought. He wanted to be a god himself and he became one. His power +and, after him, that of his successors, had no earthly limit, no +restraint human or divine. It was the same omnipotence here that +elsewhere Jupiter wielded. + +Jupiter had flamens who told him the time of day. He had others that +read to him. For his amusement there were mimes. For his delectation, +matrons established themselves in the Capitol and affected to be his +loves. But then he was superb. Made of ivory, painted vermillion, +seated colossally on a colossal throne, a sceptre in one hand, a +thunderbolt in the other, a radiating gold crown on his august head, +and, about his limbs, a shawl of Tyrian purple, he looked every inch +the god. + +The Cæsars, if less imposing, were more potent. Their hands, in which +there was nothing symbolic, held life and death, absolute dominion +over everything, over every one. Jupiter was but a statue. They alone +were real, alone divine. To them incense ascended. At their feet +libations poured. The nectar fumes confused. Rome, mad as they, built +them temples, raised them shrines, creating for them a worship that +they accepted, as only their due perhaps, but in which their reason +fled. In accounts of the epoch there is much mention of citizens, +senators, patricians. Nominally there were such people. Actually there +were but slaves. The slaves had a succession of masters. Among them +was a lunatic, Caligula, and an imbecile, Claud. There were others. +There was Terror, there was Hatred, there was Crime. These last, +though several, were yet but one. Collectively, they were Nero. + +If philosophy ever were needed it was in his monstrous day. To anyone, +at any moment, there might be brought the laconic message: Die. In +republican Rome, philosophy separated man from sin. At that period it +was perhaps a luxury. In the imperial epoch it was a necessity. It +separated man from life. The philosophy of the republic Cicero +expounded. That of the empire Seneca produced. + +The neo-stoicism of the latter sustained the weak, consoled the just. +It was a support and a guide. It preached poverty. It condemned +wealth. It deprecated honours and pleasure. It inculcated chastity, +humility, and resignation. It detached man from earth. It inspired, or +attempted to inspire, a desire for the ideal which it represented as +the goal of the sage, who, true child of God,[48] prepared for any +torture, even for the cross,[49] yet, essentially meek,[50] sorrowed for +mankind,[51] happy if he might die for it.[52] + +[Footnote 48: De Provid. i.] + +[Footnote 49: _Cf._ Lactantius vi. 17.] + +[Footnote 50: Epit. cxx. 13.] + +[Footnote 51: Lucanus ii. 378.] + +[Footnote 52: Ibidem.] + +In iambics that caressed the ear like flutes, poets had told of +Jupiter clothed in purple and glory. They had told of his celestial +amours, of his human and of his inhuman vices. Seneca believed in +Jupiter. But not in the Jove of the poets. That god dwelled in ivory +and anapests. Seneca's deity, nowhere visible, was everywhere +present.[53] Creator of heaven and earth,[54] without whom there is +nothing,[55] from whom nothing is hidden,[56] and to whom all +belongs,[57] our Father,[58] whose will shall be done.[59] + +[Footnote 53: Nemo novit Deum. Epit. xxxi. Ubique Deus. Epit. xli.] + +[Footnote 54: Mundum hujus operis dominum et artificem. Quæst. nat. i.] + +[Footnote 55: Sine quo nihil est. Quæst. nat. vii. 31.] + +[Footnote 56: Nil Deo Clausam. Ep. lxxxx.] + +[Footnote 57: Omnia habentem. Ep. xcv.] + +[Footnote 58: Parens noster. Ep. cx.] + +[Footnote 59: Placeat homini quidquid Deo placuit. Ep. lxxv.] + +"Life," said Seneca, "is a tribulation, death a release. In order not +to fear death," he added, "think of it always. The day on which it +comes judges all others."[60] Meanwhile comfort those that sorrow.[61] +Share your bread with them that hunger.[62] Wherever there is a human +being there is place for a good deed.[63] Sin is an ulcer. Deliverance +from it is the beginning of health--salvation, _salutem_."[64] + +[Footnote 60: Ep. xxvi. 4.] + +[Footnote 61: De Clem. ii. 6.] + +[Footnote 62: Ep. xcv. 51.] + +[Footnote 63: De Vita Beata, 14.] + +[Footnote 64: Ep. xxviii. 9.] + +Words such as these suggest others. They are anterior to those which +they recall. The latter are more beautiful, they are more ample, there +is in them a poetry and a profundity that has rarely been excelled. +Yet, it may be, that a germ of them is in Seneca, or, more exactly, in +theories which, beginning in India, prophets, seers, and stoics +variously interpreted and recalled. + +However since they have charmed the world, their effect on Nero was +curious. Seneca was his preceptor. But so too was Art. The lessons of +these teachers, fusing in the demented mind of the monster, produced +transcendental depravity, the apogee of the abnormal and the +epileptically obscene. What is more important, they produced +Christianity. + +Christianity already existed in Rome, but obscurely, subterraneanly, +among a class of poor people generally detested, particularly by the +Jews. Christianity was not as yet a religion, it was but the belief of +a sect that announced that the world was to be consumed. Presently +Rome was. The conflagration, which was due to Nero, swept everything +sacred away. + +Even for a prince that, perhaps, was excessive. Nero may have felt +that he had gone too far. An emperor was omnipotent, he was not +inviolable. Tiberius was suffocated, Caligula was stabbed, Claud was +poisoned. Nero, it may be, in feeling that he had gone too far, felt +also that he needed a scapegoat. Christian pyromania suggested itself. +But probably it suggested itself first to the Jews, who, Renan has +intimated, denounced the Christians accordingly. Such may have been +the case. In any event, then it was that Christianity received its +baptism of blood. + +All antiquity was cruel, but, barring perhaps the immense Asiatic +butcheries, Nero contrived then to surpass anything that had been +done. Bloated and hideous, his hair done up in a chignon, a concave +emerald for monocle, in the crowded arena he assisted at the rape of +Christian girls. Their lovers, their brothers and fathers were either +eaten alive by beasts or, that night, dressed in tunics that had been +soaked in oil, were fastened to posts and set on fire, in order that, +as human torches, they might illuminate palace gardens, through which, +costumed as a jockey, Nero raced. + +The spectacle in the amphitheatre, which fifty thousand people beheld; +the succeeding festival at which all Rome assembled, were two acts in +the birthday of a faith. + +Then, to the cradle, presently, Wise Men came with gifts--the gold, +the frankincense, the myrrh, of creeds anterior though less divine. + + + + +VIII + +THE NEC PLUS ULTRA + + +It was after fastidious rites, the heart entirely devout and on his +knees, that Angelico di Fiesole drew a picture of the Christ. The +attitude is emulative. It is with brushes dipped in holy water that +Jesus should be displayed, though more reverent still is the absence +of any delineation. + +Reverence of that high character history formerly observed. There is +no mention of the Saviour in the chronicles of those who were blessed +in being his contemporaries. One indiscreet remark of Josephus has +been recognized as the interpolation of a later hand, well-intentioned +perhaps, but misguided. Jesus glows in the Gospels. Yet they that +awaited the day when, in a great aurora borealis, the Son of man +should appear, had passed from earth before one of the evangels was +written. + +It was a hundred years later before the texts that comprise the New +Testament were complete. It was nearly two hundred before they were +definitive. In the interim many gospels appeared. Attributed +indifferently to each of the Twelve, one was ascribed to Judas. There +was a Gospel to the Hebrews, a Gospel to the Egyptians. There were +evangels of Childhood, of Perfection and of Mary. + +These primitive memoirs were based on oral accounts of occurrences +long anterior. Into them entered extraneous beauties, felicities of +phrase and detail, which, with naïf effrontery, were put into the +mouth of one apostle or another, even into that of Jesus. The +ascription was regarded as highly commendable. It was but a way of +glorifying the Lord. Besides, the scenarii of these pious evocations +the prophets had traced in advance. + +"Rejoice, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy +King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation, lowly and +riding upon an ass." + +That king of the poor whom Zachariah had foreseen, the stumbling block +of Israel that Isaiah had foretold, the Son, mentioned by Hosea, whom +Jahveh had called out of Egypt, was the Saviour, ascending in glory as +Elijah had done. A passage incorrectly rendered by the Septuagint +indicated a virginal birth. That also was suggestive. + +The little biographies in which these developments appeared were +intended for circulation only among an author's narrow circle of +immediate friends, at most to be read aloud in devout reunions. If, +ultimately, of the entire collection, four only were retained, it is +probably because these best expressed existing convictions. Though, +irrespective of their beauties, Irenæus said that there had to be four +and could be but four, for the reason that there are four seasons, +four winds, four corners of the earth, and the four revelations of +Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus. + +It is not on that perhaps arbitrary deduction that their validity +resides, but rather because the parables and miracles which they +recite became the spiritual nourishment of a world. To their title of +eternal verities they have other and stronger claims. They have +consoled and they have ennobled. Elder creeds may have done likewise, +but these lacked that of which Christianity was the unique possessor, +the marvel of a crucified god. + +Saviours there had been. Mithra was a redeemer. Zoroaster was born of +a virgin. Persephone descended into hell. Osiris rose from the dead. +Gotama was tempted by the devil. Moses was transfigured. Elijah +ascended into heaven. But in no belief is there a parallel for the +crucifixion, although in Hindu legend, Krishna, a divinity whose +mythical infancy a mythical prototype of Herod troubled, died, nailed +by arrows to a tree. + +In Oriental lore Krishna is held to have been the eighth avatar of +Vishnu, of whom Gotama was the ninth. Krishna was therefore anterior +to the Buddha, at least in myth. But it would be a grave impropriety +to infer that with the legend concerning him the narrative of the +crucifixion has any other connection than the possible one of having +suggested it. The _Bhagavad-Purana_, in which the legend occurs, is +relatively modern, though the legend itself may, like the _Tripitaka_, +have existed orally, for centuries, before it was finally committed to +writing. + +There can, however, be no impropriety in recalling analogies that +exist between the Saviour and one whom the Orient holds also divine. +These analogies, set forth in the first chapter of the present volume, +are, it may be, wholly fortuitous, though Pliny stated that, centuries +before his day, disciples of Gotama were established on the Dead Sea +and, from a passage in Josephus, it seems probable that the Essenes +were Buddhists, in the same degree perhaps that the Pharisees were +Parsis. But the point is also obscure. It is immaterial as well. The +Gospels were not written in Jerusalem but mainly in Rome, where +crucifixions were common, as they were, for that matter, throughout +the East, but where, too, all religions were acclimated and the +supernatural was at home. + +Rome had witnessed the _tours de force_ of Apollonios of Tyana. Those +of Simon the Magician had also been beheld. Rome had seen, or, it may +be, thought she believed she had seen, Vespasian cure the halt and the +blind with a touch. The atmosphere then was charged with the +marvellous. The temples were filled with prodigies, with strange gods, +beckoning chimeras, credulous crowds. + +There was something superior. Rome was the depository of the legends +and lore of the world. A haunt of the Muses, the sensual city was a +hermitage of philosophy as well. These things collectively represented +a great literary feast, of which not all the courses have descended to +us, though, as is not impossible, a lost dish or two, transmuted, by +the alchemy of faith, from dross into gold, the Gospels may perhaps +contain. + +In that case there is cause for great thankfulness. Moreover, assuming +the transmutation, no impiety can be implied. It was as usual and as +indicated as were papyrus and the stylus. It is common to-day for a +poet, before spreading his own wings, to contemplate those of another. +Inspiration is infectious. + +A page of verse, whether Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Greek, or Latin, +was as useful then. Dante fed on the troubadours. They are lost and +forgot. He divinely stands greater than the tallest of them all. In a +measure the same may be true of those from whom the Gospels came. Yet +with a very notable difference. The _Divina Commedia_ was written for +all time. So too were the Gospels. But not intentionally. They were +written to prepare man for the immediate termination of the world. +With the most perfect propriety, therefore, anything serviceable could +have been utilized and probably was. The devout had but to lift their +eyes. In the words of Isaiah, there, before them, were the treasures +of nations; there were the camels and dromedaries bearing from every +side incense and gold; there were the sons of strangers to build up +their walls. + +The sons were many, the treasures as great. Even otherwise there was +the Law, there too were the Prophets. Moses fasted for forty days. +Elisha performed a miracle of the loaves, if he did not that of the +fishes. Job saw the Lord walking upon the sea. Jeremiah said: "Seek +and ye shall find." Isaiah bid those that sorrowed come and be +consoled. In the poem of that poet the servant of the Lord had vinegar +when he thirsted, he was spat upon and for his garments lots were +cast. + +In an effort to fill in a picture of which the central figure had +passed from the real to the ideal, these things may have been +suggestive. So also, perhaps, was the _Talmud_. The redaction of that +chaos began in the second century. But the Vedas, the Homeric poems, +the Tripitaka as well, existed in memory long before they were +committed to writing. The same is true of the _Talmud_. Orally it +existed prior to the Christ. Considered as literature, if it may be so +considered, it is the reverse of endearing. But of the many maxims +that it contains there are some of singular charm. Among others is the +Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.[65] The origin of that, +as already indicated, is traceable to the _Tripitaka_, which, +parenthetically, were so well known in Babylon that Gotama was there +regarded as a Chaldean seer. That abridgement of the Law which is +called the Golden Rule is also in the _Talmud_,[66] as also, before the +_Talmud_ was, it was in the _Tripitaka_. The injunction to love one's +enemies is equally in both. So is the very excellent suggestion that +one should consider one's own faults before admonishing a brother +concerning his defects. But the perhaps subtle intimation that the +desire to commit adultery is as reprehensible as the act, and the +rather extravagant statement that it is easier for a camel to pass +through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom +of heaven, these, originally, were perhaps uniquely Talmudic. +Currently cited with multiple others they were all so many common +sayings, which, strung together in the Gospels, became a rosary of +most perfect pearls. + +[Footnote 65: Talmud Babli: Baba bathra, 11 _a_.] + +[Footnote 66: Schabbath, 37 _a_.] + +In a passage of Irenæus it is stated that the _Gospel according to St. +Matthew_ was arranged by the Church for the benefit of the Jews who +awaited a Messiah descended from David. A Syro-Chaldaic evangel, known +as the _Gospel to the Hebrews_, had then appeared. So also had the +_Gospel according to St. Mark_. But these offered no evidence that +Jesus was the one they sought. Another was then prepared. Written in +Greek and bearing the authoritative name of Matthew, it traced from +David, Joseph's descent. + +The narrative continued: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this +wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came +together, she was found with child by the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her +husband being a just man and not willing to make her a publick +example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on +these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a +dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee +Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy +Ghost." + +The genealogy completed, though perhaps inadequately, since Jesus, not +being a son of Joseph, could not have descended from David, the Church +continued: "Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was +spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, Behold a virgin shall be +with child and shall bring forth a son and call his name Emmanuel." + +The prophecy mentioned occurs in Isaiah vii, 14. In the King James +version it is as follows: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a +son and shall call his name Immanuel." But the Aramaic reading is: +"Behold an _'almâ_ shall conceive." _'Almâ_ means young woman. The +Septuagint, in translating it, employed the term [Greek: parthenos], +or maiden. In _Matthew_ the term was retained. + +Matthew, at the time, had long been dead. Even had he been living it +is improbable that he could write in Greek. Unfortunately there were +others who could not only write Greek but read Hebrew. In particular, +there was a rabbi Aquila who retranslated Isaiah with no other purpose +than the malign object of definitely re-establishing the exact +expression which the old poet had used.[67] + +[Footnote 67: Renan: Les Evangiles.] + +It was presumably in these circumstances that the _Evangel of Mary_ +was advanced. Among other elucidations, the work contained +professional testimony of the immaculacy that was claimed. +Additionally, in reparation of the earlier oversight, the Virgin was +genealogically descended from the royal line. + +That, however, is apocryphal, and if, regarding the other genealogy, +exegesis has since obscured the luminousness of the method adapted by +the Church, the latter's intention was none the less irreproachable, +and that alone imports. Before it, before the miracle of the nativity +and the divine episodes of the transfiguration, crucifixion, +resurrection, and ascension, reverently the Occident has knelt. They +are indeed divine. If they did not occur in Judea, they have occurred +ever since. Continuously, in the hearts of the devout, they are +repeated. + +Unhappily there were heretics then as now. To the Gnostics, Jesus was +an æon that had never been. To the Docetists, he was a phantasm. There +are always brutes that can believe but in the reality of things. There +are others to whom the symbolic is dumb. In the Gospels there is much +that is figurative, there is more that is ineffable, there are +suggestions sheerly ideal. + +"In my Father's house are many mansions," the Saviour declared. In his +own ministry there are as many lights. He was a vagrant and he created +pure sentiment. He was a nihilist and he inspired a new conception of +life. He said he had not come to destroy and he changed the face of +the earth. He remitted the sins of a harlot and condemned both +marriage and love. There are other antitheses, deeper contradictions. +These perhaps are more apparent than real. Behind them there may have +been the co-ordination of a central thought. Of many gospels but few +remain. Among the lost evangels was one that Valentinian said was +imparted only to the more spiritual of the disciples. It may be that +in it a main idea was elucidated and, perhaps, as a consequence, the +meaning of the esoteric proclamation: "Before Abraham was I am." + +Yet though now the authoritative explanation be lacking, its +significance seems to run beneath the texts. At the first apparition +of Jesus, the chief preoccupation of those that stood about was what +prophet of the old days had returned in the new. Some thought him +Elijah. Others Jeremiah. Antipas feared that he was the Baptist +revived. Jesus himself asked the disciples whom he was said to be. +Later he assured them that the awaited return of Elijah had been +accomplished in John. That assurance, together with the perplexities +regarding him and the esoteric announcement which he made concerning +himself, can hardly indicate anything else than a belief in +reincarnation. + +The belief, common to all antiquity, though not necessarily valid on +that account, is not discernible in Hebrew thought, perhaps for the +reason that it is not perceptible in Babylonian. Yet the myth of Eden +barely conceals it. It is almost obvious in the allegory of Beth-el. +Solomon said: "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or +ever earth was." If the idea contained in that statement was not a +part of the philosophy attributed to the Christ, it might have been. +The amount of beauty stored in it is more enormous than in any other. + +To the materialist the beauty is meaningless. To the mathematician it +has the value of a zero from which the periphery has gone. But at the +Pillars of Hercules early geographers put on their maps: _Hic deficit +orbis_--Here ends the world. They had no suspicion that beyond that +world there stretched another twice as great. Materialists may be +equally naïf. On the other hand, they may not be. The theory of +reincarnation is one that transcends the limits of experience. + +Of the many tenets of the belief there are but two with which the +matter-of-fact agrees. One of them concerns the conservation of +energy, the other the negation of death. Theory and practice unite in +admitting that the supply of energy is invariable. Constantly it is +transformed and as constantly transposed, but whether it enter into +fungus or star, into worm or man, the loss of a particle never occurs. +Death consequently is but the constituent of a change. When it comes, +that which was living assumes a state that has in it the potentiality +of another form. A tenement has crumbled and a tenant gone forth. +Though just where is the riddle. + +In the thousand and one nights that were less astronomic than our own, +it was thought that the riddle was answered. Poets had erected an +edifice of verse and called it Creation. In the strophes of the epic +the earth was a flat and stationary parallelogram. About the earth, +and uniquely for its benefit, sun, moon and stars paraded. Above was a +deity one or multiple. Below were places of vivid discomfort. To the +latter, or to the former, the soul of man proceeded. There were no +other resorts. Creation had its limits. + +Poets younger yet more gray have presented a different conception. In +the glare of a million million of suns they have sent the earth +spinning like a midge. Beyond the uttermost horizon they have strewn +other systems, other worlds; beyond the latter, more. Wherever +imagination in its weariness would set a limit, there is space begun. + +There too is energy. Throughout the stretch of universes the same +force pulsates that is recognizable here. A deduction is obvious. +Throughout infinity are sentient beings, perhaps our brothers, perhaps +ourselves. + +The obvious, very frequently, is misleading. But the dream of +precipitation into that wonderful tornado of worlds has the merit of +more colourful idealism than that which was formerly displayed. Taken +but as an hypothesis, it holds suggestions ampler than any other +conveys. It intimates that just as the butterfly rises from the +chrysalis, so does the spiritual rise from the flesh. It indicates +that just as the sun cannot set, so is it impossible for death to be. + +There are topics about which words hover like enchanted bees. Death is +one of them. Mediævally it was represented by a skeleton to which +prose had given a rictus, poetry a scythe, and philosophy wings. From +its eyries it swooped spectral and sinister. Previously it was more +gracious. In Greece it resembled Eros. Among its attributes was +beauty. It did not alarm. It beckoned and consoled. The child of +Night, the brother of Sleep, it was less funereal than narcotic. The +theory of it generally was beneficent. But not enduring. In the change +of things death lost its charm. It became a sexless nightmare-frame of +bones topped by a grinning skull. That perhaps was excessive. In +epicurean Rome it was a marionette that invited you to wreathe +yourself with roses before they could fade. In the Muslim East it was +represented by Azrael, who was an angel. In Vedic India it was +represented by Yama, who was a god. But mediævally in Europe the +skeleton was preferred. Since then it has changed again. It is no +longer a spectral vampire. It has acquired the serenity of a natural +law. Regarding the operation of that law there are perhaps but three +valid conjectures. Rome entertained all of them. There, there was a +tomb on which was written _Umbra_. Before it was another on which was +engraved _Nihil_. Between the two was a portal behind which the _Nec +plus ultra_ stood revealed. + +The portal, fashioned by the philosophy of ages, still is open, wider +than before, on vaster horizons and unsuspected skies. Through it one +may see the explication of things; the reason why men are not born +equal, why some are rich and some are poor, why some are weak and some +are strong, why some are wise and many are not. One may see there too +the reason of joys and sorrows, the cause of tears and smiles. One may +see also how the soul changes its raiment and how it happens to have a +raiment to change. One may see all these things, and others besides, +in the revelation that this life, being the refuse of many deaths, has +acquired merits and demerits in accordance with which are present +punishments and rewards. + +In proportion as these are utilized or disregarded, so perhaps is +retrogression induced or progress achieved. But not in Hades or yet in +Elysium. These were the inventions of man for his brother. So also was +the very neighbourly heaven which the early Church devised. But +because that has gone from the sidereal chart, it does not follow that +there is no such place. Because there is nothing alarming under the +earth, it does not follow that hell has ceased to be. On the contrary. +Both are constant, though it be but in the heart. + +In the light of reincarnation it is probable that neither can occur +there without anterior cause. But probably too it is the preponderance +of either that creates the mystery of life, as it may also foreshadow +the portent of death. + +Death, it may be, is not merely a law but a place, perhaps a garage +which the traveller reaches on a demolished motor, but whence none can +proceed until all old scores are paid. Pending payment, there, perhaps +the soul must wait. But the bill of its past acquitted, it may be that +then it shall be free to pursue on trillions of spheres the +diversified course of endless life--free to pass from world to world, +from beatitude to bliss, from transformation to transfiguration, from +the transitory to the eternal; weaving, meanwhile, a garland of +migrations that stretch from sky to sky, marrying its memoirs with +those of the universe, and, finally, from some ultimate zenith, +reviewing, as it casts them aside, the masks of concluded +incarnations. + +The prospect, overwhelming in beauty, is really divine. The divine is +always utopian. But there is the supreme Alhambra of dream. It exceeds +any other, however excessive another may be. It is the _Nec plus +ultra_. Into it all may wander and never weary of the wonders that are +there. It may be unrealizable, but for that very reason it must be +also ideal. + + +FINIS HISTORIÆ DEORUM + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Lords of the Ghostland, by Edgar Saltus + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 31608-8.txt or 31608-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/0/31608/ + +Produced by Adam Buchbinder, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Lords of the Ghostland + A History of the Ideal + +Author: Edgar Saltus + +Release Date: March 12, 2010 [EBook #31608] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Adam Buchbinder, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p class="noi"><strong>Transcriber's Note</strong>: Footnotes are placed at the end of the relevant +paragraph. In Chapters I and II, the printed "Mitra" was changed to +"Mithra" to match other occurrences in the text, which predominate.</p> + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h1>THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND<br /> + +<small><em>A History of the Ideal</em></small><br /> +<br /> +<small>By EDGAR SALTUS</small></h1> + +<div class="poemblock"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Errons, les doigts unis, dans<br /></span> +<span class="i0">l'Alhambra du songe."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Renée Vivien<br /><br /></span></p> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 75px;"> +<img src="images/logo.png" width="75" height="59" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>NEW YORK<br /> +MITCHELL KENNERLEY<br /> +MCMVII</h4> + +<h5><span class="smcap">COPYRIGHT, 1907</span><br /> +BY EDGAR SALTUS<br /> +<br /><br /> +<em>The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. USA.</em></h5> + + +<p class="center"><em>By Mr. Saltus</em><br /> +<br /> +HISTORIA AMORIS<br /> +IMPERIAL PURPLE<br /> +MARY MAGDALEN<br /> +THE POMPS OF SATAN<br /> +THE PERFUME OF EROS<br /> +VANITY SQUARE</p> + + + + +<hr class="hr2" /> +<h2>THE LORDS<br /> +OF THE GHOSTLAND</h2> + + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">I</td> +<td class="tdl">Brahma</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#I">7</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">II</td> +<td class="tdl"> Ormuzd</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#II">39</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">III</td> +<td class="tdl"> Amon-Râ</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#III">60</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">IV</td> +<td class="tdl"> Bel-Marduk</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#IV">81</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">V</td> +<td class="tdl"> Jehovah</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#V">109</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">VI</td> +<td class="tdl"> Zeus</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#VI">140</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">VII</td> +<td class="tdl"> Jupiter</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#VII">166</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr1">VIII</td> +<td class="tdl"> The Nec Plus Ultra</td> +<td class="tdr2"><a href="#VIII">189</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + + +<hr class="hr2" /> + +<h2>THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND</h2> + + + +<hr class="hr3" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I<br /> +<br /> +BRAHMA</h2> + + +<p class="cap">THE ideal is the essence of poetry. In the virginal innocence of the +world, poetry was a term that meant discourse of the gods. A world +grown grey has learned to regard the gods as diseases of language. +Conceived, it may be, in fevers of fancy, perhaps, originally, they +were but deified words. Yet, it is as children of beauty and of dream +that they remain.</p> + +<p>"Mortal has made the immortal," the <em>Rig-Veda</em> explicitly declares. +The making was surely slow. In tracing the genealogy of the divine, it +has been found that its root was fear. The root, dispersed by light, +ultimately dissolved. But, meanwhile, it founded religion, which, +revealed in storm and panic, for prophets had ignorance and dread. The +gods were not then. There were demons only, more exactly there were +diabolized expressions invented to denominate natural phenomena and +whatever else perturbed. It was in the evolution of the demoniac that +the divine appeared. Through one of time's unmeasurable gaps there +floated the idea that perhaps the phenomena that alarmed were but the +unconscious agents of superior minds. At the suggestion, irresistibly +a dramatization of nature began in which the gods were born, swarms of +them, nebulous, wayward, uncertain, that, through further gaps, became +concrete, became occasionally reducible to two great divinities, earth +and sky, whose union was imagined—a hymen which the rain +suggested—and from which broader conceptions proceeded and grander +gods emerged.</p> + +<p>The most poetic of these are perhaps the Hindu. At the heraldings of +newer gods, the lords of other ghostlands have, after battling +violently, swooned utterly away. But though many a fresher faith has +been brandished at them, apathetically, in serene indifference, the +princes of the Aryan sky endure.</p> + +<p>It is their poetry that has preserved them. To their creators poetry +was abundantly dispensed. To no other people have myths been as +frankly transparent. To none other, save only their cousins the +Persians, have fancies more luminous occurred. The Persians so +polished their dreams that they entranced the world that was. Poets +can do no more. The Hindus too were poets. They were children as well. +Their first lisp, the first recorded stammer of Indo-European speech, +is audible still in the <em>Rig-Veda</em>, a bundle of hymns tied together, +four thousand years ago, for the greater glory of Fire. The worship of +the latter led to that of the Sun and ignited the antique altars. It +flamed in Persia, lit perhaps the shrine of Vesta, afterward dazzled +the Incas, igniting, meanwhile, not altars merely, but purgatory +itself.</p> + +<p>In Persia, where it illuminated the face of Ormuzd, its beneficence is +told in the <em>Avesta</em>, a work of such holiness that it was polluted if +seen. In the <em>Rig-Veda</em>, there are verses which were subsequently +accounted so sacred that if a soudra overheard them the ignominy of +his caste was effaced.</p> + +<p>The verses, the work of shepherds who were singers, are invocations to +the dawn, to the first flushes of the morning, to the skies' +heightening hues, and the vermillion moment when the devouring Asiatic +sun appears. There are other themes, minor melodies, but the chief +inspiration is light.</p> + +<p>To primitive shepherds the approach of darkness was the coming of +death. The dawn, which they were never wholly sure would reappear, was +resurrection. They welcomed it with cries which the <em>Veda</em> preserves, +which the <em>Avesta</em> retains and the <em>Eddas</em> repeat. The potent forces +that produced night, the powers potenter still that routed it, they +regarded as beings whose moods genuflexions could affect. In perhaps +the same spirit that Frenchmen assisted at a <em>lever du roi</em>, and +Englishmen attend a prince's levee, the Aryan breakfasted on song and +sacrifice. It was an homage to the rising sun.</p> + +<p>The sun was <em>deva</em>. The Sanskrit root <em>div</em>, from which the word is +derived, produced deus, devi, divinities—numberless, accursed, +adored, or forgot. The common term applied to all abstractions that +are and have been worshipped, means <em>That which shines</em> and the name +which, in the early Orient, signified a star, designates the Deity in +the Occident to-day.</p> + +<p>Apologetically, Tertullian, a Christian Father, remarked: "Some think +our God is the Sun." There were excuses perhaps for those that did. +Adonai, a Hebrew term for the Almighty, is a plural. It means lords. +But the lords indicated were Baalim who were Lords of the Sun. +Moreover, when the early Christians prayed, they turned to the East. +Their holy day was, as the holy day of Christendom still is, Sunday, +day of the Sun, an expression that comes from the Norse, on whom also +shone the light of the Aryan deva.</p> + +<p>To shepherds who, in seeking pasture for their flocks, were seeking +also pasture for their souls, the deva became Indra. They had other +gods. There was Agni, fire; Varuna, the sky; Maruts, the tempest. +There was Mithra, day, and Yama, death. There were still others, +infantile, undulant, fluid, not infrequently ridiculous also. But it +was Indra for whom the dew and honey of the morning hymns were spread. +It was Indra who, emerging from darkness, made the earth after his +image, decorated the sky with constellations and wrapped the universe +in space. It was he who poured indifferently on just and unjust the +triple torrent of splendour, light, and life.</p> + +<p>Indra was triple. Triple Indra, the <em>Veda</em> says. In that description +is the preface to a theogony of which Hesiod wrote the final page. It +was the germ of sacred dynasties that ruled the Aryan and the +Occidental skies. From it came the grandiose gods of Greece and Rome. +From it also came the paler deities of the Norse. Meanwhile ages fled. +Life nomad and patriarchal ceased. From forest and plain, temples +arose; from hymns, interpretations; from prayer, metaphysics; for +always man has tried to analyze the divine, always too, at some halt +in life, he has looked back and found it absent.</p> + +<p>In meditation it was discerned that Indra was an effect, not the +cause. It was discerned also that that cause was not predicable of the +gods who, in their undulance and fluidity, suggested ceaseless +transformations and consequently something that is transformed.</p> + +<p>The idea, patiently elaborated, resulted in a drainage of the fluid +myths and the exteriorisation of a being entirely abstract. Designated +first as Brahmanaspati, Lord of Prayer, afterward more simply as +Brahma, he was assumed to have been asleep in the secret places of the +sky, from which, on awakening, he created what is.</p> + +<p>The conception, ideal itself, was not, however, ideal enough. The +labour of creating was construed as a blemish on the splendour of the +Supreme. It was held that the Soul of Things could but loll, majestic +and inert, on a lotos of azure. Then, above Brahma, was lifted Brahm, +a god neuter and indeclinable; neuter as having no part in life, +indeclinable because unique.</p> + +<p>There was the apex of the world's most poetic creed, one distinguished +over all others in having no founder, unless a heavenly inspiration be +so regarded. But the apex required a climax. Inspiration provided it.</p> + +<p>The forms of matter and of man, the glittering apsaras of the +vermillion dawns, Indra himself, these and all things else were +construed into a bubble that Brahm had blown. The semblance of reality +in which men occur and, with them, the days of their temporal breath, +was attributed not to the actual but to Mâyâ—the magic of a high +god's longing for something other than himself, something that should +contrast with his eternal solitude and fill the voids of his infinite +ennui. From that longing came the bubble, a phantom universe, the +mirage of a god's desire. Earth; sea and sky; all that in them is, all +that has been and shall be, are but the changing convolutions of a +dream.</p> + +<p>In that dream there descended a scale of beings, above whom were set +three great lords, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva +the Destroyer, collectively the Tri-murti, the Hindu trinity expressed +in the mystically ineffable syllable Om. Between the trinity and man +came other gods, a whole host, powers of light and powers of darkness, +the divine and the demoniac fused in a hierarchy surprising but not +everlasting. Eventually the dream shall cease, the bubble break, the +universe collapse, the heavens be folded like a tent, the Tri-murti +dissolved, and in space will rest but the Soul of Things, at whose +will atoms shall reassemble and forms unite, dis-unite and reappear, +depart and return, endlessly, in recurring cycles.</p> + +<p>That conception, the basis perhaps of the theory of cosmological days, +is perhaps also itself but a dream, yet one that, however defective, +has a beauty which must have been too fair. Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, +originally regarded as emanations of the ideal, became concrete. +Consorts were found for them. From infinity they were lodged in idols. +A worship sensuous when not grotesque ensued, from which the ideal +took flight.</p> + +<p>That was the work of the clergy. Brahmanism is also. The archaic +conflict between light and darkness, the triumph of the former over +the latter, diminished, at their hands, into the figurative. That is +only reasonable. It was only reasonable also that they should claim +the triumph as their own. Without them the gods could do nothing. They +would not even be. In the <em>Rig-Veda</em> and the <em>Vedas</em> generally they +are transparent. The subsequent evolution of the Paramâtmâ, the +Tri-murti and the hierarchy, had, for culmination, the apotheosis of a +priesthood that had invented them and who, for the invention, deserved +the apotheosis which they claimed and got. They were priests that were +poets, and poets that were seers. But they were not sorcerers. They +could not provide successors equal to themselves. It was the later +clergy that pulled poetry from the infinite, stuffed it into idols and +prostituted it to nameless shames.</p> + +<p>In the <em>Bhagavad-Gita</em> it is written: "Nothing is greater than I. In +scriptures I am prayer. I am perfume in flowers, brilliance in light. +I am life and its source. I am the soul of creation. I am the +beginning and the end. I am the Divine."</p> + +<p>That is Brahm. Ormuzd has faded. Zeus has passed. Jupiter has gone. +With them the divinities of Egypt and the lords of the Chaldean sky +have been reabsorbed and forgot. Brahm still is. The cohorts of Cyrus +might pray Ormuzd to peer where he glowed. There, the phalanxes of +Alexander might raise altars to Zeus. Parthians and Tatars might +dispute the land and the god. Muhammadans could bring their Allah and +Christians their creed. Indifferently Brahm has dreamed, knowing that +he has all time as these all have their day.</p> + +<p>The conception of that apathy, grandiose in itself and marvellous in +its persistence, was due to unknown poets that had in them the true +<em>souffle</em> of the real ideal. But that also demanded a climax. They +produced it in the theory that the afflictions of this life are due to +transgressions in another.</p> + +<p>From afflictions death, they taught, is not a release, for the reason +that there is no death. There is but absorption in Brahm. Yet that +consummation cannot occur until all transgressions, past and present, +have been expiated and the soul, lifted from the eddies of migration, +becomes Brahm himself.</p> + +<p>To be absorbed, to be Brahm, to be God, is an ambition, certainly +vertiginous yet as surely divine. But to succeed, consciousness of +success must be lost. A mortal cannot attain divinity until +annihilation is complete. To become God nothing must be left of man. +To loose, then, every bond, to be freed from every tie, to retire from +finite things, to mount to and sink in the immutable, to see Death +die, was and is the Hindu ideal.</p> + +<p>Of the elect, that is. Of the higher castes, of the priest, of the +prince. But not of the people. The ideal was not for them, salvation +either. It was idle even to think about it. Set in hell, they had to +return here until in some one of the twenty-four lakhs of birth which +the chain of migrations comports, and which to saint and soudra were +alike dispensed, they arrived here in the purple. Then only was the +opportunity theirs to rescale a sky that was reserved for prelates and +rajahs.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, to the pariah, to the hopeless, to those who outcast in hell +were outcast from heaven, an erect and facile ladder to that sky was +brought. The Buddha furnished it. If he did not, a college of +dissidents assumed that he had, and in his name indicated a stairway +which, set among the people, all might mount and at whose summit gods +actually materialized.</p> + +<p>To those who believe in the Dalai Lama—there are millions that have +believed, there are millions that do—he is not a vicar of the divine, +he is himself divine, a god in a tenement of flesh who, as such, +though he die, immediately is reincarnated; a god therefore always +present among his people, whose history is a continuous gospel. In +contemporaneous Italy, a peasant may aspire to the papacy. In the +uplands of Asia, men have loftier ambitions. There they may become +Buddha, who perhaps never was, except in legend.</p> + +<p>In the <em>Lalita Vistâra</em> the legend unfolds. In the strophes of the +poem one may assist at the Buddha's birth, an event which is said to +have occurred at Kapilavastu. Oriental geography is unacquainted with +the place. With the thing even Occidental philosophy is familiar. +Kapilavastu means the substance of Kapila. The substance is atheism.</p> + +<p>History has its hesitancies. Often it stammers uncertainly. But its +earliest pages agree in representing Kapila as the initial religious +rebel. Kapila was the first to declare the divine a human and invalid +conjecture. The announcement, with its prefaces and deductions, is +contained in the <em>Sankhya Karika</em>, a system of rationalism, still read +in India, where it is known as the godless tract.</p> + +<p>In the Orient, existence is usually a sordid nightmare when it does +not happen to be a golden dream. Kapila taught that it was a prison +from which release could be had only through intellectual development. +That is Kapilavastu, the substance of Kapila, where the Buddha was +born. In the <em>Lalita Vistâra</em> it is fairyland.</p> + +<p>There, Gotama the Buddha is the Prince Charming of a sovereign house. +But a prince who developed into a nihilist prior to re-becoming the +god that anteriorly he had been. It was while in heaven that he +selected Mâyâ, a ranee, to be his mother. It was surrounded by the +heavenly that he appeared. The fields foamed with flowers. The skies +flamed with faces. In the air apsaras floated, fanning themselves with +peacocks' tails. The galleries of the palace festooned themselves with +pearls. On the terraces a rain of perfume fell. In the parterres Mâyâ +strolled. A tree bent and bowed to her. Touching a branch with her +hand she looked up and yawned. Painlessly from her immaculate breast +Gotama issued. An immense lotos sprouted to receive him. To cover him +a parasol dropped from above. He, however, already occupied, was +contemplating space, the myriad worlds, the myriad lives, and +announced himself their saviour. At once a deluge of roses descended. +The effulgence of a hundred thousand colours shone. A spasm of delight +pulsated. Sorrow and anger, envy and fear, fled and fainted. From the +zenith came a murmur of voices, the sound of dancing, the kiss of +timbril and of lute.</p> + +<p>That is Oriental poetry. Oriental philosophy is less ornate. From the +former the Buddha could not have come. From the latter he probably +did, if not in flesh at least in spirit. To that spirit antiquity was +indebted, as modernity is equally, for the doctrines of a teacher +known variously as Gotama the Enlightened and Sakya the Sage. Whether +or not the teacher himself existed is, therefore, unimportant. The +existence of the Christ has been doubted. But the doctrines of both +survive. They do more, they enchant. Occasionally they seem to +combine. The Gospels have obviously nothing in common with the <em>Lalita +Vistâra</em>, which is an apocryphal novel of uncertain date. The +resemblance that is reflected comes from the <em>Tripitaka</em>, the Three +Baskets that constitute the evangels of the Buddhist faith.</p> + +<p>In an appendix to the <em>Mahâvaggo</em>, it is stated that disciples of +Gotama, who knew his sermons and his parables by heart, determined the +canon "after his death." The expression might mean anything. But a +ponderable antiquity is otherwise shown. Asoko, a Hindu emperor, sent +an embassy to Ptolemy Philadelphos. The circumstance was set forth +bilingually on various heights. In another inscription Asoko +recommended the study of the <em>Tripitaka</em> and mentioned titles of the +books. Ptolemy Philadelphos reigned at Alexandria in the early part of +the third century B.C. The <em>Tripitaka</em> must therefore have existed +then. But the thirty-seventh year of Asoko's reign was, in a third +inscription, counted as the two hundred and fifty-seventh from the +Buddha's death, a reckoning which makes them much older. Their +existence, however, as a fourth inscription shows, was oral. +Transmitted for hundreds of years by trained schools of reciters, it +was during a synod that occurred in the first quarter of the first +century before Christ that, finally, they were written.</p> + +<p>In them it is recited that Mâyâ, the mother of Gotama, was immaculate. +According to St. Matthew, Maria, the mother of Jesus, was also. +Previously, in each instance, the coming of a Messiah had been +foretold. The infant Jesus was visited by magi. The infant Buddha was +visited by kings. Afterward, neither Jesus or Gotama wrote. But both +preached charity, chastity, poverty, humility, and abnegation of self. +Both fasted in a wilderness. Both were tempted by a devil. Both +announced a second advent. Both were transfigured. Both died in the +open air. At the death of each there was an earthquake. Both healed +the sick. Both were the light of a world which both said would cease +to be.</p> + +<p>According to <em>Luke</em>, a courtesan visited Jesus and had her sins +remitted. According to the <em>Mahâvaggo</em>, Gotama was visited by a harlot +whom he instructed in things divine.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> In <em>Matthew</em>, Jesus is +depicted as a glutton and a wine-bibber. In the <em>Mahâvaggo</em>, the +picture of Gotama is the same.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In <em>Matthew</em> it is written; "Lay not +up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth consume +and where thieves break through and steal." The <em>Khuddakapatho</em> says: +"Righteousness is a treasure which no man can steal. It is a treasure +that abideth alway."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> In <em>Luke</em> it is written: "As ye would that men +should do unto you, do ye also unto them." The <em>Dhammaphada</em> say: "Put +yourself in the place of others, do as you would be done by."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Luke vii. 37-50. Sacred Books of the East, xi. 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Matthew xi, 19. S. B. E. xiii. 92.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Matthew vi. 19. S. B. E. x. 191.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Luke vi. 31. S. B. E. x. 36.</p></div> + +<p>The miracle of walking on the water, that of the money-bearing fish, +the story of the Woman at the Well, the proclamation of an +unpardonable sin, even the mediæval myth of the Wandering Jew, may +have originated in Buddhist legend.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <em>Cf.</em> Edmunds: Buddhist and Christian Gospels.</p></div> + +<p>Pious minds have been disturbed by these similitudes. The resemblance +between Mâyâ and Maria has perplexed. The perhaps uncertain likeness +of Gotama to Jesus has occasioned irreverent doubts. But the +parallelisms may be fortuitous. Probably they are. Even otherwise they +but enhance the sororal beauties of faiths which if cognate are quite +distinct. Then too the penetrating charm of the parables and sermons +of the Buddha fades before the perfection of the sermons and parables +of the Christ. The birth, ministry, transfiguration, and passing of +Gotama are marvels which, however exquisite, the wholly spiritual +apparitions of the Lord efface.</p> + +<p>Other similarities, such as they are, may without impropriety, +perhaps, be attributed to the ideals progressus. Hindu and Chaldean +beliefs constitute the two primal inspirational faiths. From the one, +Buddhism and Zoroasterism developed. From the other the creed of +Israel and possibly that of Egypt came. Religions that followed were +afterthoughts of the divine. They were revelations sometimes more +intelligible, in one instance inexpressibly more luminous, yet +invariably reminiscent of an anterior light.</p> + +<p>The light of contemporaneous Buddhism is that of Catholicism—heaven +deducted, a heaven, that is, of ceaseless Magnificats. The latter +conception is Christian. But it was Persian first. Otherwise, in +common with the Church, Buddhism has saints, censers, litanies, +tonsures, holy water, fasts, and confession. Barring confession, the +extreme antiquity of which has been attested, the other rites and +ceremonies are, it may be, borrowed, but not the high morality, the +altruism, the renunciation and effacement of self, which Buddhists no +longer very scrupulously observe, perhaps, but which their religion +was the first to instil.</p> + +<p>Buddhism originally had neither rites nor ritual. It was merely a +mendicant order in which one tried to do what is right, with, for +reward, the hope of Pratscha-Parâmita, the peace that is beyond all +knowledge and which Nirvana provides. That peace is—or was—the +complete absence of anything, extinction utter and everlasting, a +state of absolute non-existence which no whim of Brahm may disturb.</p> + +<p>Buddhism denied Brahm and every tenet of Brahmanism, save only that +which concerned the immedicable misery of life. Of final deliverance +there was in Brahmanism no known mode. None at least that was +exoteric. Brahmanism rolled man ceaselessly through all forms of +existence, from the elementary to the divine, and even from the +latter, even when he was absorbed in Brahm, flung him out and back +into a fresh circle of unavoidable births.</p> + +<p>The theory is horrible. In the horrible occasionally is the sublime. +To Gotama it was merely absurd. He blew on it. Abruptly, the +categories of the infinite, the infant gods, shapes divine and +demoniac, the entire phantasmagoria of metempsychosis, seemed really +absorbed and Brahm himself ablated. For a moment the skies, sterilized +by a breath, seemingly were vacant. Actually they were never more +peopled. Behind the pall, tossed on an antique faith, new gods were +crouching and waiting. Buddhistic atheism had resulted but in the +production of an earlier New Testament. From the depths of the ideal, +swarms of bedecked and bejewelled divinities escorted Brahm back to a +lotos of azure. Coincidentally Gotama, enthroned in the zenith, +contemplated clusters of gods that dangled through twenty-eight abodes +of bliss which other poets created.</p> + +<p>In demonstrable triumph the Buddha was then, as he has been since, +even if previously his existence had been omitted. But though he never +were, there nevertheless occurred a social revolution of which he was +the nominal originator and which, had it not been diverted into other +realms, might have resulted in Brahm's entire extinction.</p> + +<p>Wolves do not devour each other. Ideals should not either. The +Oriental heavens were wide enough to serve as fastnesses for two sets +of hostile, germane, and ineffably poetic aberrations. There was room +even for more. There always should be. Of the divine one can have +never enough.</p> + +<p>The gospel according to Sakya the Eremite is divine. It is divine in +its limitless compassion, and though compassion, when analyzed, +becomes but egotism in an etherialized form, yet the gospel had other +attractions. In demonstrating that life is evil, that rebirth is evil +too, that to be born even a god is evil still,—in demonstrating these +things, while insisting that all else, Buddhism included, is but +vanity, it fractured the charm of error in which man had been +confined.</p> + +<p>Sakya saw men born and reborn in hell. He saw them ignorant, as +humanity has always been, unaware of their abjection as men are +to-day, and over the gulfs of existence, through the torrents of +rebirth, he offered to ferry them. But in the ferrying they had to +aid. The aid consisted in the rigorous observance of every virtue that +Christianity afterward professed. Therein is the beauty of Buddhism. +Its profundity resided in a revelation that everything human perishes +except actions and the consequences that ensue. To orthodox India its +tenets were as heretical as those of Christianity were to the Jews. +Nonetheless the doctrine became popular. But doctrines once +popularized lose their nobility. The degeneracy of Buddhism is due to +Cathay.</p> + +<p>To the Hindu life was an incident between two eternities, an episode +in the string of deaths and rebirths. To Mongolians it was a unique +experience. They had no knowledge of the supersensible, no suspicion +of the ideal. Among them Buddhism operated a conversion. It stimulated +a thirst for the divine.</p> + +<p>The thirst is unquenchable. Buddhism, in its simple severity, could +not even attempt to slake it. But on its simplicity a priesthood shook +parures. Its severity was cloaked with mantles of gold. The founder, +an atheist who had denied the gods, was transformed into one. About +him a host of divinities was strung. The most violently nihilistic of +doctrines was fanned into an idolatry puerile and meek. Nirvana became +Elysium, and a religion which began as a heresy culminated in a +superstition. That is the history of creeds.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II<br /> +<br /> +ORMUZD</h2> + + +<p class="cap">THE purest of thoughts is that which concerns the beginning of +things."</p> + +<p>So Ormuzd instructed Zarathrustra.</p> + +<p>"And what was there at the beginning?" the prophet asked.</p> + +<p>"There was light and the living Word."<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Long later the statement was +repeated in the Gospel attributed to John. Originally it occurred in +the course of a conversation that the <em>Avesta</em> reports. In a similar +manner <em>Exodus</em> provides a revelation which Moses received. There +Jehovah said: <em>'ehyèh 'Ăsher 'ehyèh</em>. In the <em>Avesta</em> Ormuzd said: +<em>ahmi yad ahmi</em>.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Word for word the declarations are identical. Each +means <em>I am that I am</em>.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Avesta (Anquetil-Duperron), i. 393</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Avesta, Hormazd Yasht.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Exodus iii. 14.</p></div> + +<p>The conformity of the pronouncements may be fortuitous. Their relative +priority uncertain chronology obscures. The date that orthodoxy has +assigned to Moses is about 1500 B.C. Plutarch said that Zarathrustra +lived five thousand years before the fall of Troy. Both dates are +perhaps questionable. But a possible hypothesis philology provides. +The term Jehovah is a seventeenth-century expansion of the Hebrew +<img src="images/jhvh.png" style="width: 30px; height: 12px" alt="Hewbrew for Jhvh" title="Hebrew" />, now usually written Jahveh and commonly translated: <em>He who +causes to be.</em> The original rendering of Ormuzd is Ahura-mazda. Ahura +means <em>living</em> and mazdaô <em>creator</em>. The period when <em>Exodus</em> was +written is probably post-exilic. The period when the <em>Avesta</em> was +completed is assumed to be pre-Cyrian. It was at the junction of the +two epochs that Iran and Israel met.</p> + +<p>But, however the pronouncements may conform, however also they may +confuse, the one reported in <em>Exodus</em> is alone exact. In subsequent +metamorphoses the name might fade, the deity remained. Whereas, save +to diminishing Parsis, Ormuzd, once omnipotent throughout the Persian +sky, has gone. A time, though, there was, when from his throne in the +ideal he menaced the apathy of Brahm, the majesty of Zeus, when even +from the death of deaths he might have ejected Buddha and, supreme in +the Orient, ruled also in the West. Salamis prevented that. But one +may wonder whether the conquest had not already been effected, whether +for that matter the results are not apparent still. Brahma, Ormuzd, +Zeus, Jupiter, are but different conceptions of a primal idea. They +are four great gods diversely represented yet originally identical, +and whose attributes Jahveh, in his ascensions, perhaps absorbed.</p> + +<p>Ormuzd represented purity and light. For his worship no temple was +necessary, barely a shrine, never an image. In his celestial court +were parikas, the glittering bayaderes of love that a later faith +called peris, but his sole consorts were Prayers. About him and them +gathered amshaspands and izeds, angels and seraphs, the winged host of +loveliness that in Babylon enthralled the Jews who returned from +captivity escorted by them. The allurement of their charm, enchanting +then, enchants the world to-day. There has been little that is more +poetic, except perhaps Ormuzd himself, who symbolized whatever is +blinding in beauty, particularly the sun's effulgence, the radiance of +light.</p> + +<p>The light endures, though the god has gone. Yet at the time, aloof in +clear ether and aloft, he resplended in a sovereignty that only +Ahriman disputed.</p> + +<p>Ahriman has been more steadfast than Ormuzd. He too captivated the +captive Hebrews. The latter adopted him and called him Satan, as they +also adopted one of his minor legates, Ashmodai—transformed by the +Vulgate into Asmodeus—a little jealous devil who, in the apocryphal +<em>Tobit</em>, strangled husbands on their bridal nights. Ahriman, his +master, represented everything that was the opposite of Ormuzd. +Ahriman dwelt in darkness, Ormuzd in light. Ormuzd was primate of +purity; Ahriman, prince of whatever is base. One had angels and +archangels for aids, the other fiends and demons. Between their forces +war was constant. Each strove for the soul of man. But after death, +when, in the balance, the deeds of the defunct were weighed, there +appeared a golden-eyed redeemer, Mithra, who so closely resembled the +Christ that the world hesitated, for a moment, between them.</p> + +<p>It was because of these conceptions that Persia dreamed of conquering +the West. At Marathon and at Salamis that illusion was looted. History +tells of the cohorts that descended there. It relates further what +they did. But of what they thought there is no record. It was, +perhaps, too obvious. Ormuzd, god of light and, in the Orient, god of +the day, was, in the darker and duller Occident, menaced there also by +Ahriman. Politically the expedition is not very explicable. Considered +from a religious standpoint the motive is clear. But though the +Persian forces could not uphold their light in Greece, higher forces +projected it far beyond, to the remote north, to a south that was +still remoter.</p> + +<p>Originally the light was Vedic. It was identical with that of Agni, of +Indra and of Varuna. But while these, without subsidence, passed, +absorbed by Brahm, the light of Iran, deflecting, persisted, and so +potently that it lit the Teutonic sky, glows still in Christendom, +after refracting perhaps in Inca temples. Its revelation is due to +Zarathrustra.</p> + +<p>Zarathrustra, commonly written Zoroaster, is a name translatable into +"star of gold" and also into "keeper of old camels." Probably it was +first employed to designate an imaginary prophet, and then a series of +spiritual though actual successors by whom, in the course of +centuries, the <em>Avesta</em> was evolved. Otherwise Zarathrustra and Gotama +are brothers in Brahmanaspati. Both had virgin mothers. In the lives +of both miracles are common. The advent of Zarathrustra was accounted +the ruin of demons. When he was born he laughed aloud. As a child he +slept in flames. As a man he walked on water. Before prodigies such as +these fiends fell like autumn leaves. Hence, on the part of the devil, +an attempt to seduce him from the divine. Mairya, the demon of death, +offered him, as Mara offered Gotama, as Satan offered Jesus, the +empire of the earth. Zarathrustra rebuked the devil first with stones, +then with pious words. From him, as from the Buddha and the Christ, +abashed the tempter retreated.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Darmestetter: Ormazd et Ahriman.</p></div> + +<p>That victory over evil, the Parsis to-day regard as the capital event +in the history of the world. It was the immediate prelude to the +revelation of the Law which Ormuzd vouchsafed to his prophet.</p> + +<p>The revelation occurred on a mountain, in the course of conversations, +during which Zarathrustra questioned and Ormuzd, in the voice of +heaven, replied. So was the Law proclaimed in India. There Mithra and +Varuna sang it through the sky.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> The expression is notable, for the +song of the sky is thunder and the theophany that of Sinai. There is +another <em>rapprochement</em> in Babylonian lore and a third in the <em>Eddas</em>, +where it is related that to Sigurd the secret of the runes was sung.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Rig-Veda, i. 151.</p></div> + +<p>Meanwhile, the revelation completed and proclaimed, Zarathrustra died +as miraculously as he was born, foretelling, as he went, the coming of +a messiah, his own son, Coshyos—the delayed fruit of an immaculate +hymen that is not to be fecund until the end of time—but who, at the +consummation of the ages, will rejuvenate the world, affranchise it +from death, vanquish Ahriman, terminate the struggle between good and +evil, purify hell and fill it full with glory. Then the dead shall +rise and immortality be universal.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Zamyad Yasht. xix. 89 <em>sq.</em></p></div> + +<p>Zoroaster is obviously mythical. The Buddha is also. But precisely as +the Buddhist scriptures exist, so also do the Zoroastrian. They do +more. Frequently they enlighten, occasionally they exalt. Written in +gold on perfumed leather, the original edition, limited to two copies, +was so sacred that it was sullied if seen. Burned with the palace of +Persepolis—which Alexander, the Great Sinner, in a drunken orgy, +destroyed—only fragments of the fargards remain. These tell of +creation, effected in six epochs, and of a <em>pairi-daêza</em>.</p> + +<p>Delitzsch voluminously asked: <em>Wo lag das Paradies?</em> There it is. +There is the primal paradise. In it Ormuzd put Mashya, the first man, +and Mashyana, the first woman, whom Ahriman, in the form of a serpent, +seduced. Thereafter ensued the struggle in which all have or will +participate, one that, extending beyond the limits of the visible +world, arrays seasons and spirits and the senses of man in a conflict +of good and evil that can end only when, from the depths of the dawn, +radiant in the vermillion sky, Coshyos, hero of the resurrection, +triumphantly appears.</p> + +<p>The parallel between this romance and subsequent poetry is curious. In +Chaldea, before the fargards were, the story of Creation, of Eden, and +of the fall had been told. In Egypt, before the <em>Avesta</em> was written, +the resurrection and the life were known. Similar legends and +prospects may or may not represent an autonomous development of +Iranian thought. The successors of the problematic Zarathrustra, the +line of magi who wrote and taught in his name, may have gathered the +tales and theories elsewhere. In the creed which they instituted there +is a trinity. India had one, Egypt another, Babylonia a third. +Babylonia had even three of them. But in Mithra, Iran had a redeemer +that no other creed possessed. In Coshyos was a saviour, virgin born, +who nowhere else was imagined. In Mara, Buddhism had a Satan. The +Persian Ahriman is Satan himself. Babylon had angels and cherubs. In +Iran there were guardian angels, there were archangels with flaming +swords, there were fairies, there were goblins, the celestial, the +poetic, the demoniac combined. Zoroasterism may or may not have had a +past, it is perhaps evident that it had a future.</p> + +<p>An inscription chiselled in the red granite of Ekbatana describes +Ormuzd as creator of heaven and earth. In the <em>Veda</em> the description +of Indra is identical.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> It was applied equally to Jahveh in Judea. +But above Jahveh, Kabbalists discerned En Soph. Above Indra +metaphysicians discovered Brahma. Similarly the Persian magi found +that Ormuzd, however perfect, was not perfect enough and, from the +depths of the ideal, they disclosed Zervan Akerene, the Eternal, from +whom all things come and to whom all return.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> R. V. x. 3. "Indra created heaven and earth."</p></div> + +<p>That conception is not reached in the <em>Avesta</em>. It is in the +<em>Bundahish</em>, a work which, while much later, is based on earlier +traditions, memories it may be, of antediluvian legends brought from +the summits of upper Asia by Djemschid, the fabulous Abraham of the +Persians of whom Zarathrustra was the Moses. But in default of the +Eternal, the Avesta contains pictures of enduring charm.</p> + +<p>Among these is a highly poetic pastel that displays the soul of man +surprised in the first post-mortem ambuscades. There a figure, +beautiful or revolting, cries at him: "I am thyself, the image of +thine earthly life."</p> + +<p>If that life has been beautiful, the soul of man, led by itself, is +conducted to heaven. Otherwise, led still by itself, it descended to +Drûjô-demâna, the House of Destruction, where, fed on insults and +offal, it waited till its sins were destroyed. The waiting might be +long. It was not everlasting. There was Mithra to intercede. Besides, +evil was regarded but as a shadow on the surface of things. In the +seventh epoch of creation, a period yet to be, the age which Coshyos +is to usher, the shadow will fade. The wicked, purified of their +wickedness, will be received among the blessed. Even Ahriman is to be +converted. In that definite triumph of light over darkness is the +resurrection and the life, life in Garô-demâna, literally House of +Hymns, a pre-Christian heaven, yet strictly Christian, where, to the +trumpetings of angels, hosannahs are ceaselessly sung.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Yasht. xxviii. 10, xxxiv. 2.</p></div> + +<p>John—or, more exactly, his homonym—was perhaps acquainted with that +idea, as he may have been with other theories that the <em>Avesta</em> +contains. But the possibility is a detail. It is the idea that counts. +Behind it is the unique character of this doctrine which, in +eliminating evil, converted even Satan.</p> + +<p>Satan seldom gets his due. He was the first artist and has remained +the greatest. In creating evil he fashioned what is a luxury and a +necessity combined. Evil is the counterpart of excellence. Both have +their roots in nature. One could not be destroyed without the other. +For every form of evil there is a corresponding form of good. Virtue +would be meaningless were it not for vice. Honour would have no +nobility were it not for shame. If ever evil be banished from the +scheme of things, life could have no savour and joy no delight. +Happiness and unhappiness would be synonymous terms.</p> + +<p>It is for this reason that scoffers have mocked at heaven. Heaven may +be very different from what has been fancied. But the theory of it, +however unphilosophic, which Zoroasterism supplied, carried with it a +creed not of tears but of smiles, a religion of lofty tolerance, one +in which the demonology barely alarmed, for redemption was assured, +and so fully that on earth melancholy was accounted a folly.</p> + +<p>Though tolerant, it could be austere. Meanness, thanklessness, +loquaciousness, jealousy, an unbecoming attire, evil thoughts, +whatever is sensual, whatever is coarse, any promenade in mud actual +or metaphorical, severely it condemned. Particularly was avarice +censured. "There are many who do not like to give," Ormuzd, in the +<em>Vendidad</em>, confided to Zarathrustra. The high god added: "Ahriman +awaits them."</p> + +<p>Ahriman awaited also the harlot who, elsewhere, at that period, was +holy. Yet in lapses, confession and repentance sufficed for remission, +provided that in praying for forgiveness the sinner forgave those that +had sinned against him. If he lacked the time, were he dying, a priest +might yet save him with words whispered in the ear. That was the +extreme unction, hardly administrable, however, in case of wilful +omission of the <em>darûn</em>, which was communion.</p> + +<p>This sacrament, the most mystic of the Church, was observed by the +Incas, who also confessed, also atoned, who, like the Buddhists, were +baptized, but who, like the Persians, worshipped the sun and, with +perhaps a finer instinct of what the beautiful truly is, worshipped +too the rainbow.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Garcilasso: Commentarios reales.</p></div> + +<p>Huraken, the winged and feathered serpent-god of the Toltecs, was +adored in temples that upheld a cross. The Incas lacked that symbol. +But they had a Satan. They had also the expectation of a saviour, +belief in whom could alone have consoled for the advent of Pizarro. +Over what highways of sea or sky, the living Word, which Ormuzd spoke, +reached them, there has been no somnambulist of history to divine. But +in the splendour that Cuzco was, in the golden temples of the town of +gold, along the scarlet lanes where sacred peacocks strolled and girls +more sacred still—vestals whom Pizarro's soldiers raped—in that City +of the Sun, the Word re-echoed. The mystery of it, reported back to +the Holy Office, was declared an artifice of the devil.</p> + +<p>Less mysteriously, through the obvious vehicle of cognate speech, it +reached the Norse, stirred the scalds, who repeated it in the Eddie +sagas. Loki and his inferior fiends are, as there represented, quite +as black as Ahriman and his cohorts. The conflict of good and evil is +almost as fully dire. But Odin is a colourless reflection of Ormuzd. +The æsir, the angels of the Scandinavian sky, are paler than the +izeds. The figure of Baldr, the redeemer, faints beside that of +Mithra. Valhalla, though perhaps less fatiguing than Garô-demâna, was +more trite in its wassails than the latter in its hymns.</p> + +<p>What these abstractions lacked was not the Logos but the light. +However brilliantly the Iranian sun might glow, in the sullen north +its rays were lost. The mists, obscuring it, made Valhalla dim and set +the gods in twilight. It stirred the scalds to runes but not to +inspiration. There is none in the <em>Eddas</em>. Nor was there any in the +<em>Nibelungen</em>, until the light, almost extinct, burst suddenly in the +flaming scores of Wagner.</p> + +<p>Transformed by ages and by man, yet lifted at last from their secular +slumber, the Persian myths achieved there their Occidental apotheosis, +and, it may be, on steps of song, mounted to the ideal where Zervan +Akerene muses.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III<br /> +<br /> +AMON-RÂ</h2> + + +<p class="cap">I AM all that is, has been and shall be. No mortal has lifted my veil."</p> + +<p>That pronouncement, graven on the statue of Isis, confounded Egypt, +condemning her mysteriously for some sin, anterior and unknown, to +ignorance of the divine, leaving her, in default of revelation, to +worship what she would, jackals, hyenas, cats, hawks, the ibis; beasts +and birds. Yet to the people, whose minds were as naked as their +bodies, and who, in addition, were slaves, there must have been +something very superior in the lords of the desert and the air. +Obviously they were wise. Among them were some that knew in advance +the change of the seasons. Others, indifferent to man and independent +of him, migrated over highways known but to them. The senses of all +were keyed to vibrations. They heard the inaudible, saw the invisible, +and, though they had a language of their own, when questioned never +replied. To slaves, clearly they were gods.</p> + +<p>Not to the priests, however. They knew better. They but affected +belief in divinities that had perhaps emigrated from the enigmas of +geography and who were polychrome as the skies they had crossed. +Fashioned in stone, these gods were dog-headed or longly beaked. Some, +though, were alive. In temples were saurians on purple carpets, bulls +draped with spangled shawls, hawks on shimmering perches, that little +gold chains detained. Among gods of this character, the Sphinx, in its +role of eternal spectre, must have seemed the ideal. Others were +nearly sublime. Particularly there was Ausar.</p> + +<p>Ausar, called commonly Osiris, died for man. In an attempt to preserve +harmony, in a struggle with the real spirit of actual evil which +discord is, Osiris was slain. Being a god he arose from the dead. The +latter thereafter he judged.</p> + +<p>The people knew little, if anything, concerning him. They knew little +if anything at all. They had a menagerie and a full consciousness of +their own insignificance. That sufficed. In all of carnal Africa, the +priest alone possessed what then was truth and of which a part is +theology now.</p> + +<p>Egypt, in which the evangels began, millennia before they were +written, knew no genesis. Her history, sculptured in hieroglyphics, +was cut on pages of stone. It awoke in the falling of cataracts. It +ended with simoons in sand. The books that tell of it are pyramids, +obelisks, necropoles; constructions colossal and enigmatic; the +granite epitaphs of finite things. To-day, in the shattered temples, +from which all other gods are gone, one divinity still lingers. It is +Silence.</p> + +<p>In Iran sorrow was a folly. In Egypt speech was a sin. Apis could +bellow, Anubis bark; man might not even stutter. It was in the +submission of dumb obedience that the palpable eternities of the +pyramids were piled. Yet in that darkness was light, in silence was +the Word. But to behold and to hear was possible only in sanctuaries +reserved to the elect. The gods too had their castes. The lowest only +were fellahin fit to worship. On the lips of the others the priests +held always a finger. Crocodiles were less distant, hyenas more +approachable, and the Egyptian, barred from the divine, found it on +earth. He prayed to scorpions, sang hymns to scarabs, coaxed the +jackal with psalms; with dances he placated the ibis. It was +ridiculous but human. He too would have a part, however insensate, in +the dreams of all mankind.</p> + +<p>Yet, had he looked not down but up, he would have lifted at least a +fringe of the Isian veil. The sun, taken as a symbol only, the symbol +of life, death, and resurrection—phases which its rising, setting, +and return suggest—was the deity, the one really existing god. +Nominally, figuratively, even concretely, there were others; a whole +host, a hierarchy vaster than the Aryans knew; a great crowd of +divinities less grandiose than gaudy, that swarmed in space, strolled +through the dawns and dusk, thronged the temples, eyed the quick, +confronted the dead. They were but appearances, mere masks, +expressions, hypostases, eidolons of Râ.</p> + +<p>Râ was the celestial pharaoh. But not originally. Originally he was +part of a triad which itself was part of a triple trinity. Râ then was +but one divinity among many gods. These ultimately lost themselves in +him so indistinguishably that there are litanies in which the names of +seventy-five of them are used in addressing him. Regarded as the +unbegotten begetter of the first beginning, he succeeded in achieving +the incomprehensible. He became triune and remained unique. He was +Osiris, he was Isis, he was Horus. At once father, mother, and son, he +fecundated, conceived, produced, and was.</p> + +<p>From him gods and goddesses emanated in sidereal fireworks that +illuminated the heavens, dazzled the earth, then melted into each +other, faded away or, occasionally, flared afresh in a glare +dispelling and persistent. Among these latter was Amon. Glimmering +primarily in provincial obscurity at Thebes, the thin fire of his +shrine mounted spirally to Râ, fused its flames with his, expanding +and uniting so inseparably with them, that the two became one. Amon +means <em>hidden</em>; Amon-Râ, <em>the hidden light</em>.</p> + +<p>In the infinite, time is not. In heaven there is no chronology. The +date of any god's accession to supremacy there is, consequently, apart +from mortal ken. None the less that of Amon-Râ is known. At the +beginning of the earthly reign of Amonhoteph III., an edict, +scrupulously executed throughout Egypt, determined, on monument and +wall, the substitution of Amon-Râ's name for that of previously +superior gods.</p> + +<p>The pharaohnate of Amonhoteph began about 1500 B.C. It is from that +period, therefore, that dates the divinity's accession to the +pharaohnate of the skies. There is, or should be, a reason for all +things. There is one for that. Amonhoteph regarded himself as Amon's +son. It was one of the traits of the pharaohs, as it was also of the +Incas, to believe, or at least to assert, that their fathers, +therefore themselves, were divine. As a consequence of the idea they +prayed to their own images and likened their palaces to inns.</p> + +<p>Originally foreigners, invaders from Akkad or Sumer, the pharaohs +first conquered, then surprised. It was they that embanked the Nile, +turned morasses into meadows and piled the pyramids. More exactly, it +was by their commands that these miracles were contrived. To the +neolithic people whom they subjugated their divinity was clear. So +elsewhere was that of the kings of Akkad. Like them, like the Incas, +the pharaohs were of the solar race and so remained from the first +dynasty to the Greek conquest, when Alexander, to legitimatize his +sovereignty, had himself acknowledged as Amon's son.</p> + +<p>The ceremony had its precedents. An inscription in eulogy of the great +Rameses states that Amon, when possessing the pharaohs august mother, +engendered him as a god. On a wall of the Temple of Luxor an earlier +inscription sets forth that the god of Thebes, incarnating himself in +the person of Thotmes IV., appeared in his divine form to the +pharaoh's queen, who, at sight of his beauty, conceived.</p> + +<p>It was therefore not in the beast alone, but in man, that divinity +revealed itself in Egypt. That in Judea a similar revelation should +have been withheld until after the Roman occupation is hardly +explicable on the theory, general among scholars, that Moses is not a +historical character, for an identical revelation had been received in +Babylonia where Israel twice loitered. Moreover, a curious parallelism +exists between post-Mosaic prophecy and Egyptian clairvoyance. In a +papyrus of the Thotmes III. epoch—about 1600 B.C.—it is written: +"The people of the age of the son of man shall rejoice and establish +his name forever. They shall be removed from evil and the wicked shall +humble their mouths." In commenting the passage an Egyptologist noted +that the words <em>son of man</em> are a literal translation of the original +<em>si-n-sa</em>.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> But already in Akkad a similar prophecy had been +uttered.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> It may be, therefore, that it was in Babylon that Israel +first heard it.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Sayce: Guifford Lectures.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Jastrow: The Dibbara Epic.</p></div> + +<p>The doctrine of a trinity, common to almost all antique beliefs, was a +blasphemy to the Jews. The belief in immortality, also prevalent, +though less general, was to them an abomination. The miracle of divine +descent they were perhaps too practical to accept. There was no room +in their creed for the dogma of future rewards and punishments, and +that, together with other articles of the Christian faith, Egypt's +elect professed.</p> + +<p>The slaves and mongrels that constituted the bulk of the population +were not instructed in these things and would not have understood them +if they had been. In Babylonia education was compulsory. In Egypt it +was an art, a gift, mysterious in itself, reserved to the few. To the +Egyptian, religion consisted in paraded symbols, in avenues of +sphinxes, in forests of obelisks, in pharaohs seated colossally before +the temple doors, in inscriptions that told indistinguishably of +theomorphic men and anthropomorphic gods, and in a belief in the +divinity of bulls and hawks.</p> + +<p>These latter had their uses. In transformations elsewhere effected, +the sacred bull may have become a golden calf, the golden hawk a +sacred dove. In Egypt they were otherwise serviceable. The worship of +them, of other birds and beasts, of insects and vipers as well, +ecclesiastically indorsed, hid the myth of metempsychosis.</p> + +<p>Of that the people knew nothing. When they died they ceased to be. +Even mummification, usually supposed to have been general, was not for +them. Down to an epoch relatively late it was a privilege reserved to +priests and princes. When the commonalty were embalmed it was with the +opulent design that, in a future existence, they should serve their +masters as they had in this. Embalming was a preparation for the +Judgment Day. Of that the people knew nothing either. It was even +unlawful that concerning it they should be apprised.</p> + +<p>In the Louvre is a statue of Ptah-meh, high priest of Memphis. On it +are the significant words: "Nothing was hidden from him." A passage of +Zosimus states that what was hidden it was illicit to reveal, except, +Jamblicus explained, to those whose discretion a long novitiate had +assured. To such only was disclosed the secret that life is death in a +land of darkness, and death is life in a land of light.</p> + +<p>It was because of this that the pharaohs seated themselves colossally +before the temple doors. It was because of it that their palaces were +inns and their tombs were homes. It was because of it that their +sepulchres were built for eternity and the tenements of their souls +placed there embalmed. It was because of this that the triumphs of men +were inscribed in the halls of the gods. Instead of seeking to be +absorbed, it was their own inextinguishable individuality that they +endeavoured to assert. Tombs, tenements, triumphs, these all were +preparations for the Land of Light.</p> + +<p>The land was Alu, the asphodel meadows of the celestial Nile that +wound through the Milky Way. To reach it a passport, visé'd by Osiris, +sufficed. The first draft of that passport was held to have been +written on tablets of alabaster, in letters of lapis lazuli, by an +eidolon of Râ, who, known in Egypt as Thoth, elsewhere was Hermes +Thrice the Greatest.</p> + +<p>At Memphis, Hermes was regarded as representing the personification of +divine wisdom, or, more exactly perhaps, the inventive power of the +human mind. A little library of forty-two books—which a patricist +saw, but not being initiate could not read—was attributed to him.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +The books contained the entire hieratic belief. Fragments that are +held to have survived in an extant Greek novel are obviously Egyptian, +but as obviously Alexandrine and neo-platonic. In the <em>editio +princeps</em> Pheidias is mentioned. Mention of Michel Angelo would have +been less anachronistic. The original books are gone, all of them, +forever, perhaps, save one, chapters of which are as old as the fourth +dynasty and, it may be, are still older. Pyramid texts of the fifth +dynasty show that there then existed what to-day is termed <em>The Book +of the Dead</em>, a copy of which, put in a mummy's arms, was a talisman +for the soul in the Court of Amenti, a passport thence to the Land of +Light.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Clemens Alexandrinos: Stromata vi.</p></div> + +<p>"There is no book like it, man hath not spoken it, earth hath not +heard it"—very truthfully it recites of itself. One copy, known as +the Louvre Papyrus, presents the <em>Divine Comedy</em>, as primarily +conceived and illustrated by an archaic Doré. Text and vignettes +display the tribunal where the souls of the dead are judged.</p> + +<p>In the foreground is an altar. Adjacent is a figure, half griffon, +half chimera, the Beast of Amenti, perhaps too of the Apocalypse. +Beyond, an ape poises a pair of scales. For balance is an ostrich +feather. Above are the spirits of fate. At the left Osiris is +enthroned. From a balcony his assessors lean. At the right is the +entrance. There the disembodied, ushered by Truth, appears and, in +homages and genuflections, affirms negatively the decalogue; +protesting before the Master of Eternity that there is no evil in him; +praying the dwellers in Amenti that he may cross the dark way; +declaring to each that he has not committed the particular sin over +which they preside.</p> + +<p>"O Eater of Spirits gone out of the windows of Alu! O Master of the +Faces!" he variously calls. "O the One who associates the Splendours! +O the Glowing Feet gone out of the Night! I did not lie. I did not +kill. I have not been anxious. I did not talk abundantly. I made no +one weep. No heart have I harmed."</p> + +<p>The assessors listen. "I have not been anxious. I made no one weep. No +heart have I harmed." These abstentions, graces now, were virtues +then, and so efficacious that they perhaps sufficed, as rightly they +should, for absolution.</p> + +<p>But while the assessors listen and Osiris looks gravely on, no one +accuses. It is conscience in its nakedness, conscience exposed there +where all may see it, where for the first time perhaps it truly sees +itself, and seeing realizes what there is in it of evil and what of +good, it is that which protests.</p> + +<p>Still the assessors listen. Orthodoxy on the part of the respondent is +to them a minor thing. What they require is that he shall have been +merciful to his fellow creatures, true to himself. Only when it is +proven that he has done his duty to man, is he permitted to show that +he has done his duty to gods.</p> + +<p>The appeal continues: "I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, I gave +water to them that thirsted. O ye that dwell in Amenti! I am +unpolluted, I am pure."</p> + +<p>But is it true? The scales decide. The heart of the respondent is +weighed. If heavy, out it is cast to pass with him again through +life's infernal circles. But, if light as the feather in the balance +and therefore equal with truth, it is restored to the body, which then +resurrects and, in the bark of the Sun, sails the celestial Nile to Râ +and the Land of Light.</p> + +<p>That singer gone out of Amenti, actually, like Osiris, rose from the +dead. The picture which a papyrus forty centuries old presents, is the +dream of a vision that Michel Angelo displayed, a sketch for a papal +fresco. Such indeed was the conformity between the underlying +conceptions, that, at almost the first monition, Isis, whose veil no +mortal had raised, lifted it from her black breast and suckled there +the infant Jesus. Then, presently, in temples that had teemed, the +silence of the desert brooded. The tide of life retreated, an entire +theogony vanished, exorcised, both of them, by the sign of the cross.</p> + +<p>At sight of the unimagined emblem, a priesthood who in secret +sanctuaries had evolved nearly all but that, flung themselves into +crypts beneath, pulled the walls down after them, burying unembalmed +the arcana of a creed whose spirit still is immortal.</p> + +<p>In Egypt, then, only tombs and necropoles survived. But it is +legendary that, in the solitudes of the Thebaïd, dispossessed eidolons +of Râ, appearing in the shape of chimeras, terrified anchorites, to +whom, with vengeful eyes, they indicated their ruined altars.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV<br /> +<br /> +BEL-MARDUK</h2> + + +<p class="cap">THE inscriptions of Assyrian kings have, many of them, the monotony of +hell. Made of boasts and shrieks, they recite the capture and sack of +cities; the torrents of blood with which, like wool, the streets were +dyed; the flaming pyramids of prisoners; the groans of men impaled; +the cries of ravished women.</p> + +<p>The inscriptions are not all infernal. Those that relate to +Assurbanipal—vulgarly, Sandanapallos,—are even ornate. But +Assurbanipal, while probably fiendish and certainly crapulous, was +clearly literary besides. From the spoil of sacked cities this +bibliofilou took libraries, the myths and epics of creation, sacred +texts from Eridu and Ur, volumes in the extinct tongues of Akkad and +Sumer, first editions of the Book of God.</p> + +<p>These, re-edited in cuneiform and kept conveniently on the second +floor of his palace, fell with Nineveh, where, until recently +recovered, for millennia they lay. Additionally, from shelves set up +in the days of Khammurabi—the Amraphel of Genesis—Nippur has yielded +ghostly tablets and Borsippa treasuries of Babylonian ken.</p> + +<p>These, the eldest revelations of the divine, are the last that man has +deciphered. The altars and people that heard them first, the marble +temples, the ivory palaces, the murderous throngs, are dust. The +entire civilization from which they came has vanished. Yet, traced +with a wooden reed on squares of clay, are flights of little arrows, +from which, magically, it all returns. Miraculously with these books a +world revives. Fashioned, some of them, at an epoch that in biblical +chronology is anterior to man, they tell of creation, of the serpent, +the fall and the deluge. At the gates of paradise you see man dying, +poisoned by the tree of life. Before Genesis was, already it had been +written.</p> + +<p>In the Chaldean Book of the Beginnings creation was effected in +successive acts. According to the epic of it, humanity's primal home +was a paradise where ten impressive persons—the models, it may be, of +antediluvian patriarchs—reigned interminably, agreeably also, finally +sinfully as well. In punishment a deluge swept them away. From the +flood there escaped one man who separated a mythical from an heroic +age. In the latter epoch, beings descended from demons built Nineveh +and Babylon; organized human existence; invented arithmetic, geometry, +astronomy and the calendar; counted the planets; numbered the days of +the year, divided them into months and weeks; established the Sabbath; +decorated the skies with the signs of the zodiac, instituting, in the +interim, colleges of savants and priests. These speculated on the +origin of things, attributed it to spontaneous generation, the descent +of man to evolution, entertaining the vulgar meanwhile with tales of +gods and ghosts.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Lenormant: Les Origines. Schrader: Die Keilenschriften. +Smith: Chaldean Genesis.</p></div> + +<p>The cosmological texts now available were not written then. They are +drawn from others that were. But there is a vignette that probably is +of that age. It represents a man and a woman stretching their hands to +a tree. Behind the woman writhes a snake. The tree, known as the holy +cedar of Eridu, the fruit of which stimulated desire, is described in +an epic that recites the adventures of Gilgames.</p> + +<p>Gilgames was the national hero of Chaldea. The story of his loves with +Ishtar is repeated in the Samson and Delilah myth. Ishtar, described +in an Assyrian inscription as Our Lady of Girdles, was the original +Venus, as Gilgames was perhaps the prototype of Hercules. The legend +of his labours is represented on a seal of Sargon of Akkad, a king who +ruled fifty-seven hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>In the epic, Gilgames, betrayed by Ishtar, tried to find out how not +to die. In trying he reached a garden, guarded by cherubim, where the +holy cedar was. There he learned that one being only could teach him +to be immortal, and that being, Adra-Khasis, had been translated to +the Land of the Silver Sky. Adra-Khasis, was the Chaldean Noah. +Gilgames sought him and the story of the deluge follows. But with a +difference. On the seventh day, Adra-Khasis released from his ark a +dove that returned, finally a raven that did not. Then he looked out, +and looking, shrieked. Every one had perished.</p> + +<p>Noah was less emotional, or, if equally compassionate, the fact is not +recited. Apart from that detail and one other, the story of the flood +is common to all folklore. Even the Aztecs knew of it. Probably it +originated in the matrix of nations which the table-land of Asia was. +But only in Chaldean myth, and subsequently in Hebrew legend, was the +flood ascribed to sin.</p> + +<p>Gilgames' quest, meanwhile, could not have been wholly vain. In an +archaic inscription it is stated that the city of Erech was built in +olden times by the deified Gilgames.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Proc. S. B. A. xvi. 13-15.</p></div> + +<p>How old the olden times may have been is conjectural. Modern science +has put the advent of man sixty million years ago. Chaldean chronology +is less spacious. But its traditions stretched back a hundred thousand +years. The traditions were probably imaginary. Even so, in the morning +of the world, already there were ancient cities. There was Nippur, one +of whose gods, El Lil, was lord of ghosts. There was Eridu, where Ea +was lord of man. There was Ur, where Sin was lord of the moon. There +were other divinities. There was Enmesara, lord of the land whence +none return, and Makhir, god of dreams.</p> + +<p>There were many more like the latter, so many that their sanctuaries +made the realm a holy land, but one which, administratively, was an +aggregate of principalities that Sargon, nearly six thousand years +ago, combined. Ultimately, from sheer age, the empire tottered. It +would have fallen had not Khammurabi surged. What Sargon made, +Khammurabi solidified. Between their colossal figures two millennia +stretch. These giants are distinct. None the less, across the ages +they seem to fuse, suggestively, not together, but into another +person.</p> + +<p>Sargon has descended through time clothed in a little of the poetry +which garments nation builders. But the poetry is not a mantle for the +imaginary. In the British Museum is a marble ball that he dedicated to +a god. Paris has the seal of his librarian.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Copies of his annals +are extant.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> In these it is related that, when a child, his mother +put him in a basket of rushes and set him adrift on the Euphrates. +Presently he was rescued. Afterward he became a leader of men.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Collection de Clerq. pl. 5, no. 46.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Cuneiform Insc. W. A. iv. 34.</p></div> + +<p>Khammurabi was also a leader. He was a legislator as well. Sargon +united principalities, Khammurabi their shrines. From one came the +nation, from the other the god. It is in this way that they fuse. To +the composite, if it be one, history added a heightening touch.</p> + +<p>The Khammurabi legislation came from Bel, who, originally, was a local +sun-god of Nippur. There he was regarded as the possessor of the +Chaldean Urim and Thummin, the tablets of destiny with which he cast +the fates of men. In the mythology of Babylonia these tablets were +stolen by the god of storms, who kept them in his thunder fastness. +Among the forked flames of the lightning there they were recovered by +Bel, who revealed the law to Khammurabi.</p> + +<p>The theophany is perhaps similar to that of Sinai. But perhaps, too, +it is better attested. A diorite block, found at Susa in 1902, has the +law engraved on it. On the summit, a bas-relief displays the god +disclosing the statutes to the king.</p> + +<p>There are other analogies. Sinai was named after Sin, who, though but +a moon-god, was previously held supreme for the reason that, in +primitive Babylonia, the lunar year preceded the solar. The sanctuary +of the moon-god was Ur, of which Abraham was emir. He was more, +perhaps. Sarratu, from which Sarai comes, was the title of the +moon-goddess. In <em>Genesis</em>, Sarai is Abraham's wife. Abraham is a +derivative of Aburamu, which was one of the moon's many names.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Sayce: Guifford Lectures.</p></div> + +<p>Among these, one in particular has since been identified with Jahveh. +In addition, a clay tablet of the age of Khammurabi, now in the +British Museum, has on it:</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/museum.png" width="200" height="39" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>That flight of arrows, being interpreted, means: <em>Jave ilu</em>, Jahveh is +god.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Delitzch: Babel und Bibel.</p></div> + +<p>Other texts show that a title of Bel was Mâsu, a word that letter for +letter is the same as the Hebrew Mosheh or Moses.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Records of the Past, i. 91.</p></div> + +<p>It is in this way that Sargon and Khammurabi fuse. Meanwhile the title +Mâsu, or hero, was not confined to Bel. It was given also to Marduk, +the tutelary god of Babylon, from whom local monotheism proceeded.</p> + +<p>That monotheism, in appearance relatively modern, actually was +archaic. The Chaldean savants knew of but one really existing god. To +them, all others were his emanations. The deus exsuperantissimus was +represented by a single stroke of the reed, a sign that in its +vagueness left him formless and incommunicable, therefore +unworshipable, hence without a temple, unless Bab-ili, Babylon, the +Gate of God, may be so construed.</p> + +<p>The name of the deity, fastidiously concealed from the vulgar, was, in +English, One. Not after, or beneath, or above, but before him, a +trinity swung like a screen. From it, for pendant, another trinity +dangled. From the latter fell a third. Below these glories were the +coruscations of an entire nation of inferior gods. The latter, as well +as the former, all of them, were but the fireworks of One. He alone +was. The rest, like Makhir, were gods of dream. To the savants, that +is; to the magi and seers. To the people the sidereal triads and +planetary divinities throned in the Silver Sky augustly real, equally +august, and in that celestial equality remained, until Khammurabi gave +precedence to Bel, who as Marduk, Bel or Baal Marduk, Lord Marduk, +became supreme.</p> + +<p>Before Bel, then, the other gods faded as the Elohim did before +Jahveh, with the possible difference that there were more to +fade—sixty-five thousand, Assurnatsipal, in an inscription, declared. +Over that army Bel-Marduk acquired the title, perhaps significant, of +Bel-Kissat, Lord of Hosts. Yet it was less as a usurper than as an +absorber that the ascension was achieved. Bel but mounted above his +former peers and from the superior height drew their attributes to +himself. It was sacrilege none the less. As such it alienated the +clergy and enraged the plebs. Begun under Khammurabi and completed +under Nabonidos, it was the reason why, during the latter's reign, +orthodox Babylon received Cyrus not as a foe but a friend.</p> + +<p>From the spoliation, meanwhile, no nebulousness resulted. Bel was +distinctly anthropomorphic. His earthly plaisance was the Home of the +Height, a seven-floored mountain of masonry, a rainbow pyramid of +enamelled brick. At the top was a dome. There, in a glittering +chamber, on a dazzling couch, he appeared. Elsewhere, in the +vermillion recesses of a neighbouring chapel, that winged bulls +guarded and frescoed monsters adorned, once a year he also appeared, +and, above the mercy seat, on an alabaster throne, sat, or was +supposed to sit, contemplating the tablets of destiny, determining +when men should die.</p> + +<p>To the Greeks, the future lay in the lap of the gods. To the +Babylonians the gods alone possessed it, as alone also they possessed +the present and the past. They had all time as all men have their day. +That day was here and it was brief. Death was a descent to Aralû, the +land whence none return, a region of the underworld, called also +Shualû, where the departed were nourished on dust. Dust they were and +to dust they returned.</p> + +<p>Extinction was not a punishment or even a reward, it was a law. +Punishment was visited on the transgressor here, as here also the +piety of the righteous was rewarded. When death came, just and unjust +fared alike. The Aryan and Egyptian belief in immortality had no place +in this creed, and consequently it had none either in Israel, where +Sheol was a replica of Shualû. To the Semites of Babylonia and Kanaan, +the gods alone were immortal, and immortal beings would be gods. Man +could not become divine while his deities were still human.</p> + +<p>Exceptionally, exceptional beings such as Gilgames and Adra-Khasis +might be translated to the land of the Silver Sky, as Elijah was +translated to heaven, but otherwise the only mortals that could reach +it were kings, for a king, in becoming sovereign, became, <em>ipso +facto</em>, celestial. As such, ages later, Alexander had himself +worshipped, and it was in imitation of his apotheosis that the +subsequent Cæsars declared themselves gods. Yet precisely as the +latter were man-made deities, so the Babylonian Baalim were very +similar to human kings.</p> + +<p>For their hunger was cream, oil, dates, the flesh of ewe lambs. For +their nostrils was the perfume of prayers and of psalms; for their +passions the virginity of girls. Originally the first born of men were +also given them, but while, with higher culture, that sacrifice was +abolished, the sacred harlotry, over which Ishtar presided, remained. +Judaism omitted to incorporate that, but in Kanaan, which Babylonia +profoundly influenced, it was general and, though reviled by Israel, +was tempting even, and perhaps particularly, to Solomon.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> 1 Kings xi. 5. "Solomon went after Ashtoreth."</p></div> + +<p>The latter's temple was similar to Bel's, from which the Hebraic +ritual, terms of the Law, the Torah itself, may have proceeded, as, it +may be, the Sabbath did also. On a tablet recovered from the library +of Assurbanipal it is written: "The seventh day is a fast day, a lucky +day, a sabbatuv"—literally, a day of rest for the heart.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Cuneiform Insc. W. A. ii. 32.</p></div> + +<p>In Aralû that day never ceased; the dead there, buried, Herodotos +said, in honey, were unresurrectably dead, dead to the earth, dead to +the Silver Sky. Yet though that was an article of faith, through a +paradox profoundly poetic, there was a belief equally general, in +ghosts, in hobgoblins, in men with the faces of ravens, in others with +the bodies of scorpions, and in the post-mortem persistence of girls +that died pure.</p> + +<p>These latter, in searching for someone whom they might seduce, must +have afterward wandered into the presence of St. Anthony. Perhaps, +too, it was they who, as succubi, emotionalized the dreams of monks. +Yet, in view of Ishtar, they could not have been very numerous in +Babylon where, however, they had a queen, Lilît, the Lilith of the +<em>Talmud</em>, Adam's vampire wife, who conceived with him shapes of sin. +In these also the Babylonians believed, and naïvely they represented +them in forms so revolting that the sight of their own image alarmed +them away.</p> + +<p>From these shapes or, more exactly, from sin itself, it was very +properly held that all diseases came. Medicine consequently was a +branch of religion. The physician was a priest. He asked the patient: +Have you shed your neighbour's blood? Have you approached your +neighbour's wife? Have you stolen your neighbour's garment? Or is it +that you have failed to clothe the naked? According to the responses +he prescribed.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> IV. R. 50-53. <em>Cf.</em> Delitzch: <em>op. cit.</em></p></div> + +<p>But the priest who was a physician was also a wizard. He peeped and +muttered, or, more subtly, provided enchanted philters in which +simples had been dissolved. These devices failing, there was a series +of incantations, the <em>Ritual of the Whispered Charm</em>, in which the +most potent conjuration was the incommunicable name. To that all +things yielded, even the gods.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> But like the Shem of the Jews, it +was probably never wholly uttered, because, save to the magi, not +wholly known. In the formulæ of the necromancers it is omitted, though +in practice it may have been pronounced.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Lenormant: La Magie chez les Chaldéens.</p></div> + +<p>Even that is doubtful. A knowledge of it conferred powers similar to +those that have been attributed to the Christ, and which the Sadducees +ascribed to his knowledge of the tetragrammation. A knowledge of the +Babylonian Shem was as potent. It served not only men but gods. +Ishtar, for purposes of her own, wanted to get into Aralû. In the +recovered epic of her descent, imperiously she demanded entrance:</p> + +<div class="poemblock2"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Porter, open thy door.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Open thy door that I may enter.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If thou dost not open thy door,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will attack it, I will break down the bars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Records of the Past.</p></div> + +<p>Ishtar was admitted. But Aralû was the land whence none return. Once +in, she could not get out until, ultimately, the incommunicable name +was uttered. The epic says that, in the interim, there was on earth +neither love nor loving. In possible connection with which +incantations have been found, deprecating "the consecrated harlots +with rebellious hearts that have abandoned the holy places."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Lenormant: <em>op. cit.</em></p></div> + +<p>In addition to the <em>Ritual of the Whispered Charm</em>, there was the +<em>Illumination of Bel</em>, an encyclopædia of astrology in seventy-two +volumes which the suburban library of Borsippa contained. During the +captivity many Jews must have gone there. In the large light halls +they were free to read whatever they liked, religion, history, +science, the romance of all three. The books, catalogued and numbered, +were ranged on shelves. One had but to ask. The service was gratis.</p> + +<p>Babylon, then, prismatic and learned, was the most respectable place +on earth. For ten thousand years man had there consulted the stars. +But though respectable, it was also equivocal. During a period equally +long—or brief—the girls of the city had loosed their girdles for +Ishtar and yielded themselves to anyone, stranger or neighbour, that +asked. In the service of the goddess their brothers occasionally +feigned that they too were girls. Meanwhile, from the summit of a +seven-floored pyramid, mortals contemplated the divine.</p> + +<p>Beneath was cosmopolis, the golden cup that, in the words of Jeremiah, +made the whole world drunk. Seated immensely on the twin banks of the +Euphrates—banks that bridges above and tunnels beneath +interjoined—Babylon more nearly resembled a walled nation than a +fortified town. Within the gates, in an enclosure ample and noble, a +space that exceeded a hundred square miles, an area sufficient for +Paris quintupled, observatories and palaces rose above the roar of +human tides that swept in waves through the wide boulevards, surged +over the quays, flooded the gardens, eddied through the open-air +lupanar, circled among statues of gods and bulls, poured out of the +hundred gates, or broke against the polychrome walls and seethed back +in the avenues, along which, to the high flourishes of military bands, +passed armed hoplites, merchants in long robes, cloaked bedouins, +Kelts in bearskins, priests in spangled dresses, tiara'd princes, +burdened slaves, kings discrowned, furtive forms—prostitutes, +pederasts, human wolves, vermin, sheep—the flux and reflux of the +gigantic city.</p> + +<p>In that ocean, the captive Jews, if captive they were, rolled, lost as +a handful of salt spilt in the sea. Yet, from the depths, a few had +swum up and, filtering adroitly, had reached the dignity of high +place. One was pontiff. Others were viceroys. In addition to being +pontiff, Daniel was chancellor of the realm. Ezra was rector of the +university. As pontiff of a college of wizards, Daniel may have known +the future. As Minister of Wisdom, Ezra may have known, what is quite +as difficult, the past. For the moment there was but the present. Over +it ruled Belshazzar.</p> + +<p>Yet, ruler though he was, there were powers potenter than his own: +Baalim, outraged at the elevation of a parvenu god; a priesthood +consequently disaffected; and, without, at the gates, the foe.</p> + +<p>It would have been interesting to have assisted at the final festival +when, beneath cyclopean arches, in the sunlight of clustered +candelabra, amid the glitter of gold and white teeth, among the fair +sultanas that were strewn like flowers through the throne-room of the +imperial court, Belshazzar lay, smiling, amused rather than annoyed at +the impudent menace of Cyrus.</p> + +<p>Babylon was impregnable. He knew it. But the subtle Jews, the +indignant gods, the alienated priests to whom the Persian was a +redeemer, of these he did not think. Daniel had indeed warned him and, +vaguely, he had promised something which he had since forgot.</p> + +<p>Beyond, an orchestra was playing. Further yet, columns upheld a +ceiling so lofty that it was lost. On the adjacent wall was a frieze +of curious and chimerical beasts. Belshazzar was looking at them. In +their dumb stupidity was a suggestion of the foe. The suggestion +amused. Smiling still he raised a cup. Abruptly, before it could reach +his lips, it fell with a clatter on the lapis lazuli of the floor +beneath. Before him, on that wall, beneath those beasts, the +necromancy of the priesthood had projected an armless, fluidic hand +that mounted, descended, tracing with a forefinger the three luminous +hierograms of his doom.</p> + +<p>The story, a little drama, was, with the tale concerning +Nebuchadnezzar, that of Daniel, and other novels quite as strange, +evolved long later in the wide leisures of Jerusalem. The fluidic hand +did not appear. Even had it zigzagged there was no Belshazzar to +frighten.</p> + +<p>Only the doom was real. Cyrus was clothed with it. To the trumpetings +of heralds and the sheen of angels' wings, triumphantly he came. Then, +presently, by royal decree, the Jews, manumitted and released, +retraced their steps, burdened with spoil; with the lore of two +distinct civilizations, which, fusing in the great square letters of +the Pentateuch, was to become the poetry of all mankind.</p> + +<p>Babylon, ultimately, with her goblin gods and harlot goddess, sank +into her own Aralû. Nourished there on dust, Lilît, with the sister +vampires of eternal night, fed on her.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V<br /> +<br /> +JEHOVAH</h2> + + +<p class="cap">A CAMEL'S-HAIR tent set in the desert was the first cathedral, the +earliest cloister of latest ideals. Set not in one desert merely but +in two, in the infinite of time as well as in that of space, there was +about it a limitlessness in which the past could sleep, the future +awake, and into which all things, the human, the divine, gods and +romance, could enter.</p> + +<p>The human came first. Then the gods. Then romance. The divine was +their triple expansion. It was an after growth, in other lands, that +tears had watered. In the desert it was unimagined. Only the gods had +been conceived.</p> + +<p>The gods were many and yet but one. Though plural they were singular. +The subjects of impersonal verbs, they represented the pronoun in such +expressions as: it rains; it thunders. "It" was Elohim. Already among +nomad Semites monotheism had begun. Yet with this distinction. Each +tribe had separate sets of Its that guided, guarded, and scourged. +Omnipresent but not omnipotent, any humiliation to the family that +they had in charge humiliated them. It made them angry, therefore +vindictive, consequently unjust. It may be that they were not very +ethical. Perhaps the bedouins were not either. Man fashions his god in +proportion to his intelligence. That of the nomad was slender. He +lacked, what the Aryan shepherd possessed, the ability for +mythological invention. The defect was due to his speech, which did +not lend itself to the deification of epithets. Even had it done so, +it is probable that his mode of life would have rendered the +paraphernalia of polytheism impossible. People constantly moving from +place to place could not be cumbered with idols. The Elohim were, +therefore, a convenience for travellers and an unidolatrous monotheism +a necessity which the absence of vehicles imposed. On the other hand, +given every facility, it is presumable that the result would have been +the same. Mythology is the mother of poetry. Idolatry is the father of +art. Neither could appeal to a people to whom delicacy was an unknown +god. Had it been known and a fetish, they could not have become the +practical people that they are. Even then they were shrewd. Their +Elohim might alarm but never delude. Israel was uncheatable even in +dream.</p> + +<p>Originally emigrants from Arabia, the nomads reached Syria, some +directly, others circuitously, by way of Padan-Aram and across the +Euphrates, whence perhaps their name of <em>Ibrim</em> or Hebrews—<em>Those +from beyond</em>. In the journey Babel and Ur must have detained. These +cities, with their culture relatively deep and their observatories +equally high, became, in after days, a source of legend, of wonder, of +hatred, perhaps of revelation as well.</p> + +<p>At the time the nomads had no cosmogony or theories. The Chaldeans had +both. There was a story of creation, another of antediluvian kings and +of the punishment that overtook them. There was also a story of an +emir of Ur, an old man who had benevolently killed an animal instead +of his son. The story, like the others, must have impressed. In after +years the old man became Abraham, a great person, who had conversed +with the Elohim and whose descendants they were.</p> + +<p>The story of creation also impressed. It was enlightening and +comprehensible. The parallel theory of spontaneous generation and the +progressive evolution of the species which the magi entertained, they +probably never heard. Even otherwise it was too complex for minds as +yet untutored. The fables alone appealed. Mentally compressed into +portable shape, carried along, handed down, their origin afterward +forgotten, they became the traditions of a nation, which, eminently +conservative, preserved what it found, among other things the name, +perhaps inharmonious, of Jhvh.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Renan: Histoire du peuple d'Israël. Kuenen: De Godsdienst +van Israël.</p></div> + +<p>That name, since found on an inscription of Sargon, appears to have +been the title of a local god of Sinai, whom the nomads may have +identified with Elohim, particularly, perhaps, since he presided over +thunder, the phenomenon that alarmed them most and which, in +consequence, inspired the greatest awe. That awe they put into the +name, the pronunciation of which, like the origin of their traditions, +they afterward forgot. In subsequent rabbinical writings it became +Shem, the Name; Shemhammephoresh, the Revealed Name, uttered but once +a year, on the day of Atonement, by the high priest in the Holy of +Holies. Mention of it by anyone else was deemed a capital offence, +though, permissibly, it might be rendered El Shaddai, the Almighty. +That term the Septuagint translated into [Greek: ho Kyrios], a Greek +form, in the singular, of the Aramaic plural Adonai, which means +Baalim, or sun lords.</p> + +<p>That form the Vulgate gave as Dominus and posterior theology as God. +The latter term, common to all Teutonic tongues, has no known meaning. +It designates that which, to the limited intelligence of man, has +been, and must be, incomprehensible. But the original term Jhvh, +which, in the seventeenth century, was developed into Jehovah, yet +which, the vowels being wholly conjectural, might have been developed +into anything else, clearly appealed to wayfarers to whom Chaldean +science was a book that remained closed until Nebuchadnezzar blew +their descendants back into the miraculous Babel of their youth.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, apart from the name—now generally written Jahveh—apart +too from the fables and the enduring detestation which the colossal +city inspired, probably but one other thing impressed, and that was +the observance of the Sabbath. To a people whose public works were +executed by forced labour, such a day was a necessity. To vagrants it +was not, and, though the custom interested, it was not adopted by them +until their existence from nomad had become fixed.</p> + +<p>At this latter period they were in Kanaan. Whether in the interval a +tribe, the Beni-Israel, went down into Egypt, is a subject on which +Continental scholarship has its doubts. The early life of the tribe's +leader and legislator is usually associated with Rameses II., a +pharaoh of the XIX. dynasty. But it has been found that incidents +connected with Moses must apparently have occurred, if they occurred +at all, at a period not earlier than the XXVI. dynasty, which +constitutes a minimum difference of seven hundred years. Yet, in view +of the decalogue, with its curious analogy to the negative confession +in the <em>Book of the Dead</em>; in view also of a practice surgical and +possibly hygienic which, customary among the Egyptians, was adopted by +the Jews; in view, further, of ceremonies and symbols peculiarly +Egyptian that were also absorbed, a sojourn in Goshen there may have +been.</p> + +<p>The spoiling of the Egyptians, a roguery on which Israel afterward +prided herself, is a trait perhaps too typical to be lightly +dismissed. On the other hand, if Moses were, which is at least +problematic, and if, in addition to being, he was both the nephew of a +pharaoh and the son-in-law of a priest, as such one to whom, in either +quality, the arcana of the creed would be revealed, it becomes curious +that nowhere in the Pentateuch is there any doctrine of a future life. +Of the entire story, it may be that only the journey into the +Sinaiatic peninsula is true, and of that there probably remained but +tradition, on which history was based much later, by writers who had +only surmises concerning the time and circumstances in which it +occurred.</p> + +<p>Yet equally with the roguery, Moses may have been. Seen through modern +criticism his figure fades though his name persists. To that name the +Septuagint tried to give an Egyptian flavour. In their version it is +always [Greek: Môusês], a compound derived from the Egyptian <em>mô</em>, +water, and <em>usês</em>, saved from, or Saved-from-the-water.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> Per contra, +the Hebrew form Mosheh is, as already indicated, the same as the +Babylonian Masû, a term which means at once leader and littérateur, in +addition to being the cognomen of a god.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Josephus: Antiq. ii. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Sayce: The Religion of the Babylonians.</p></div> + +<p>Moses is said to have led his people out of bondage. He was the writer +to whom the Pentateuch has been ascribed. But he was also a prophet. +In Babylon, the god of prophecy was Nebo. It was on Mount Nebo that +Jahveh commanded the prophet of Israel to die. Moreover, the divinity +that had Masû for cognomen was, as is shown by a Babylonian text, the +primitive god of the sun at Nippur, but the sun at noon, at the period +of its greatest effulgence, at the hour when it wars with whatever +opposes, when it wars as Jahveh did, or as the latter may be assumed +to have warred, since Isaiah represented him as a mighty man, roaring +at his enemies, exciting the fury of the fight, marching personally to +the conflict, and, in the Fourth Roll of the Law (Numbers), there is +mention of a book entitled: <em>The Wars of Jahveh</em>.</p> + +<p>Whether, then, Moses is but a composite of things Babylonian fused in +an effort to show a link between a god and a people, is conjectural. +But it is also immaterial. The one instructive fact is that, in a +retrospect, the god, immediately after the exodus, became dictator.</p> + +<p>Yet even in the later age, when the retrospect was effected, +conceptions were evidently immature. On one occasion the god met +Moses, tried to kill him, but finally let him go. The picture is that +of a personal struggle.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Again, the spectacle of his back which he +vouchsafed to Moses is construable only as an <em>arrière-pensée</em>, unless +it be profound philosophy, unless it be taken that the face of God +represents Providence, to see which would be to behold the future, +whereas the back disclosed the past.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Exodus iv. 24-26.</p></div> + +<p>It is, however, hardly probable that that construction occurred to the +editors of the Pentateuch, who, elsewhere, represented Jahveh as a +butcher, insatiable, jealous, vindictive, treacherous, and vain, one +that consigned all nations other than Israel to ruin and whom a poet +represented trampling people in anger, making them drunk with his +fury, and defiling his raiment with blood.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Isaiah lxiii. 1-6.</p></div> + +<p>But in the period related in <em>Exodus</em>, Jahveh was but the tutelary god +of an itinerant tribe that, in its gipsy lack of territorial +possessions, was not even a nation. Like his people he too was a +vagrant. Like them he had no home. Other gods had temples and altars. +He lacked so much as a shrine. In prefigurement of the Wandering Jew, +each day he moved on. The threats of a land that never smiled were +reflected in his face. The sight of him was death. Certainly he was +terrible.</p> + +<p>This conception, corrected by later writers, was otherwise revised. In +the interim Jahveh himself was transformed. He became El, the god; +presently El Shaddai, God Almighty. In the ascension former traits +disappeared. He developed into the deity of emphatic right. Morality, +hitherto absent from religion, entered into it. Israel, who perhaps +had been careless, who, like Solomon, had followed Ishtar, became +austere. Thereafter, Judaism, of which Christianity and Muhammadanism +were the after thoughts, was destined to represent almost the sum +total of the human conscience.</p> + +<p>But in Kanaan, during the rude beginnings, though Jahveh was jealous, +Ishtar, known locally as Ashtoreth, allured. Conjointly with Baal, the +indigenous term for Bel, circumadjacently she ruled. The propitiatory +rites of these fair gods were debauchery and infanticide, the +loosening of the girdles of girls, the thrusting of children into +fires. It may be that these ceremonies at first amazed the Hebrews. +But conscientiously they adopted them, less perhaps through zeal than +politeness; because, in this curious epoch, on entering a country it +was thought only civil to serve the divinities that were there, in +accordance with the ritual that pleased them.</p> + +<p>With the mere mortal inhabitants, Israel was less ceremonious. +Commanded by Jahveh to kill, extermination was but an act of piety. It +was then, perhaps, that the <em>Wars of Jahveh</em> were sung, a pæan that +must have been resonant with cries, with the death-rattle of kingdoms, +with the shouts of the invading host. From the breast-plates of the +chosen, the terror of Sinai gleamed. Men could not see their faces and +live. The moon was their servant. To aid them the sun stood still. +They encroached, they slaughtered, they quelled. In the conquest a +nation was born. From that bloody cradle the God of Humanity came. But +around and about it was vacancy. In emerging from one solitude the +Jews created another. They have never left it. The desert which they +made destined them to be alone on this earth, as their god was to be +solitary in heaven.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile there had been no kings in Israel. With the nation royalty +came. David followed Saul. After him was Solomon. It is presumably at +this period that traditions, orally transmitted from a past relatively +remote, were first put in writing. Previously it is conjectural if the +Jews could write. If they could, it is uncertain whether they made any +use of the ability other than in the possible compilation of toledoth, +such as the <em>Book of the Generations of Adam</em> and the <em>Wars of +Jahveh</em>, works that, later, may have served as data for the +Pentateuch. Even then, the compositions must have been crude, and such +rolls as existed may have been lost when Nebuchadnezzar overturned +Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>Presumably, it was not until the post-exilic period that, under the +editorship perhaps of Ezra, the definitive edition of the Torah was +produced. This supposition existing texts support. In Genesis (xxxvii. +31) it is written: "These are the kings of Edom before there reigned +any king over the children of Israel." The passage shows, if it shows +anything, that there were, or had been, kings in Israel at the time +when the passage itself was written. It is, therefore, at least +post-Davidic. In Genesis another passage (xlix. 10) says: "The sceptre +shall not pass from Judah until Shiloh come." Judah was the tribe that +became pre-eminent in Israel after the captivity. The passage is +therefore post-exilic, consequently so is Genesis, and obviously the +rest of the Pentateuch as well. Or, if not obviously, perhaps +demonstrably. In II Esdras xiv. 22-48 it is stated that the writer, a +candle of understanding in his heart, and aided by five swift scribes, +recomposed the Law, which, previously burned, was known to none.</p> + +<p>The burning referred to is what may, perhaps, be termed religious +fiction. Barring toledoth and related data that may have been lost, +the Law had almost certainly not existed before, and this post-exilic +romance concerning it was evolved in a laudable effort to show its +Mosaic source. What is true of the Law is, in a measure, true of the +Prophets. None of them anterior to Cyrus, all are later than +Alexander. Spiritually very near to Christianity, chronologically they +are neighbourly too. If not divinely inspired, they at least disclosed +the ideal.</p> + +<p>Previously the ideal had not perhaps been very apparent. Apart from +secessions, rebellions, concussions, convulsions that deified Hatred +until Jahveh, in the person of Nebuchadnezzar, talked Assyrian, and +then, in the person of Cyrus, talked Zend, the god of Israel, even in +Israel, was not unique. He had a home, his first, the Temple, built +gorgeously by Solomon, where invisibly, mysteriously, perhaps +terribly, beneath the wings of cherubim that rose from the depths of +the Holy of Holies, he dwelled. But the shrine, however ornate, was +not the only one. There were other altars, other gods; the plentiful +sanctuaries of Ashera, of Moloch and of Baal. On the adjacent hilltops +the phallus stood. In the neighbouring groves the kisses of Ishtar +consumed.</p> + +<p>The Lady of Girdles was worshipped there not by men and women only, +but by girls with girls; by others too, not in couples, but singly, +girls who in their solitary devotions had instruments for aid.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> +Religion, as yet, had but the slightest connection with morality, a +circumstance explicable perhaps by the fact that it resumed the +ethnical conscience of a race. Between the altar of El Shaddai and the +shrines of other gods there were many differences, of which geography +was the least. Jahveh, from a tutelary god, had indeed become the +national divinity of a chosen people. But the Moabites were the chosen +people of Chemos; the Ammonites were the chosen people of Rimmon; the +Babylonians were the chosen people of Bel. The title conferred no +distinction. As a consequence, to differentiate Jahveh from all other +gods, and Israel from all other people, to make the one unique and the +other pontiff and shepherd of the nations of the world, became the +dream of anonymous poets, one that prophets, sometimes equally +anonymous, proclaimed. It was the prophets that reviled the false +gods, denounced the abominations of Ishtar, and purified the Israelite +heart. While nothing discernible, or even imaginable, menaced, however +slightly, the great empires of that day, the prophets were the first +to realize that the Orient was dead. When the Christ announced that +the end of the world was at hand, he but reiterated anterior +predictions that presently were fulfilled. A world did end. That of +antiquity ceased to be.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <em>Cf.</em> Deut. xxiii. 17, where <em>'alâmôth</em> (puellæ) is +rendered in the Sapphist sense. Ezekiel xvi. 17. <em>Fecisti tibi +imagines masculinas.</em></p></div> + +<p>It was the prophets that foretold it. Gloomy, fanatic, implacable and, +it may be, mad, yet inspired at least by genius which itself, while +madness, is a madness wholly divine, they heralded the future, they +established the past. Abraham they drew from allegory, Moses from +myth. They made them live, and so immortally that one survives in +Islam, the other in words that are a law of grace for all.</p> + +<p>If, in visions possibly ecstatic, they beheld heights that lost +themselves in immensity, and saw there an ineffable name seared by +forked flames on a tablet of stone; if that spectacle and the +theophany of it were but poetry, the decalogue is a fact, one so solid +that though ages have gone, though empires have crumbled, though the +customs of man have altered, though the sky itself have changed, still +is obeyed the commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.</p> + +<p>From Chemos in Moab, from Rimmon among the Ammonites, no such edict +had come. It felled them. Amon-Râ it tore from the celestial Nile, and +Bel-Marduk from the Silver Sky. The Refaïm hid them in shadows as +surely as they buried there the high and potent lords of Greece and +Rome. These interments, completed by others, the prophets began. For +it was they who, in addition to the command, revealed the commandant, +creator of whatever is: the Being Absolute that abhorred evil, loved +righteousness, punished the transgressor and rewarded the just; El +Shaddai, then really Lord of Hosts.</p> + +<p>It may be that already in Israel there had been some prescience of +this. But it lacked the authority of inspired text. The omission was +one that only seers could remedy. It was presumably in these +circumstances that an agreement was imagined which, construed as a +condition of a covenant, assumed to have been made with Abraham, was +further assumed to have been renewed to Moses. The resulting poetry +was enveloped in a romance of which Continental scholarship has +discovered two versions, woven together, perhaps by Ezra, into a +single tale.</p> + +<p>"In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and earth." That abrupt +declaration, presented originally in but one of the versions, had +already been pronounced of Indra and also of Ormuzd. The Hebraic +announcement alone prevailed. It emptied the firmament of its +monsters, dislodged the gods from the skies, and enthroned there a +deity at first multiple but subsequently unique. Afterward seraphs and +saints might replace the evaporated imaginings of other creeds; Satan +might create a world of his own and people it with the damned; +theology might evolve from elder faiths a newer trinity and set it +like a diadem in space; angels and archangels might refill the +devastated heavens of the past; none the less, in the light of that +austere pronouncement, for a moment Israel dwelled in contemplation of +the Ideal.</p> + +<p>At the time it is probable that the story of the love of the sons of +Jahveh for the daughters of men, together with the pastel of Eden as +it stands to-day, were not contained in existing accounts of that +ideal. These legends, which regarded as legends are obviously false, +but which, construed as allegories, may be profoundly true, were +probably not diffused until after the captivity, when Israel was not +more subtle, that is not possible, but, by reason of her contact with +Persia, more wise.</p> + +<p>The origin of evil these myths related but did not explain. Since +then, from no church has there come an adequate explanation of the +malediction under which man is supposed to labour because of the +natural propensities of beings that never were. That explanation these +myths, which orthodoxy has gravely, though sometimes reluctantly, +accepted, both provide and conceal. They date possibly from the +Ormuzdian revelation: "In the beginning was the living Word."</p> + +<p>John, or more exactly his homonym, repeated the pronouncement, adding: +"The word was made flesh." But, save for a mention of the glory which +he had before the world was, he omitted to further follow the thought +of Ormuzd, who, in describing paradise to Zarathrustra, likened it, in +every way, to heaven. There the first beings were, exempt from +physical necessities, pure intelligences, naked as the compilers of +Genesis translated, naked and unashamed, but naked and unashamed +because incorporeal, unincarnate and clothed in light, a vestment +which they exchanged for a garment of flesh, coats of skin as it is in +Genesis, when, descended on earth, their intelligence, previously +luminous, swooned in the senses of man.</p> + +<p>In Egypt, the harper going out from Amenti sang: "Life is death in a +land of darkness, death is life in a land of light." There perhaps is +the origin of evil. There too perhaps is its cure. But the view +accepted there too is pre-existence and persistence, a doctrine +blasphemous to the Jew as it was to the Assyrian, to whom the gods +alone were immortal, and to whom, in consequence, immortal beings +would be gods. In the creed of both, man was essentially evanescent. +To the Hebrew, he lived a few, brief days and then went down into +silence, where no remembrance is. There, gathered among the Refaïm to +his fathers, he remained forever, unheeded by God.</p> + +<p>The conception, passably rationalistic and not impossibly correct, +veiled the beautiful allegory that was latent in the Eden myth. It had +the further defect, or the additional advantage, of eliminating any +theory of future punishment and reward. In lieu of anything of the +kind, there was a doctrine that evil, in producing evil, automatically +punished itself. The doctrine is incontrovertible. But, for corollary, +went the fallacy that virtue is its own reward. Against that idea Job +protested so energetically that mediæval monks were afraid to read +what he wrote. Yet it was perhaps in demonstration of the real +significance of the allegory that a spiritualistic doctrine—always an +impiety to the orthodox—was insinuated by the Pharisees and instilled +by the Christ.</p> + +<p>The basis of it rested perhaps partially in the idealism of the +prophets. The clamour of their voices awoke the dead. It transformed +the skies. It transfigured Jahveh. It divested him of attributes that +were human. It outlined others that were divine. It awoke not merely +the dead, but the consciousness that a god that had a proper name +could not be the true one. Thereafter mention of it was avoided. The +vowels were dropped. It became unpronounceable, therefore +incommunicable. For it was substituted the term vaguer, and therefore +more exact, of Lord, one in whose service were fulfilled the words of +Isaiah: "I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no +God."</p> + +<p>In the marvel of that miraculous realization were altitudes hitherto +undreamed, peaks from whose summits there was discernible but the +valleys beneath, and another height on which stood the Son of man. Yet +marvellous though the realization was, instead of diminishing, it +increased. It did not pass. It was not forgot. Ceaselessly it +augmented.</p> + +<p>In the Scriptures there are many marvels. That perhaps is the +greatest. Amon, originally an obscure provincial god of Thebes, became +the supreme divinity of Egypt. Bel, originally a local god of Nippur, +became in Babylon Lord of Hosts. But Jahveh, originally the tutelary +god of squalid nomads, became the Deity of Christendom. The fact is +one that any scholarship must admit. It is the indisputable miracle of +the Bible.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI<br /> +<br /> +ZEUS</h2> + + +<p class="cap">IN Judea, when Jahveh was addressed, he answered, if at all, with a +thunderclap. Since then he has ceased to reply. Zeus was more +complaisant. One might enter with him into the intimacy of the +infinite. The father of the Graces, the Muses, the Hours, it was +natural that he should be debonair. But he had other children. Among +them were Litai, the Prayers. In the <em>Vedas</em>, where Zeus was born, the +Prayers upheld the skies. Lame and less lofty in Greece, they could +but listen and intercede.</p> + +<p>The detail is taken from Homer. In his Ionian Pentateuch is the +statement that beggars are sent by Zeus, that whoever stretches a hand +is respectable in his eyes, that the mendicant who is repulsed may +perhaps be a god<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>—suggestions which, afterward, were superiorly +resumed in the dictum: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of +these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Odyssey, xviii. 485, v. 447, xiv. 56.</p></div> + +<p>The Litai were not alone in their offices. There were the oracles of +Delphi, of Trophonios and of Mopsos, where one might converse with any +divinity, even with Pan, who was a very great god. But Olympos was +neighbourly. It was charming too. There was unending spring there, +eternal youth, immortal beauty, the harmonies of divine honey-moons, +the ideal in a golden dream; a stretch of crystal parapets, from +which, leaning and laughing, radiant goddesses and resplendent gods +looked down, and to whom a people, adolescent still, looked up.</p> + +<p>In that morning of delight fear was absent, mystery was replaced by +joy. The pageantry of the hours may have been too near to nature to +know of shame, it was yet too close to the divine to know of hate. +Man, then, for the first time, loved what he worshipped and worshipped +what he loved. His brilliant and musical Bible moved his heart without +tormenting it. It conducted but did not constrain. It taught him that +in death all are equal and that in life the noble-minded are serene.</p> + +<p>In the Genesis of this Bible there is an account of a golden age and +of a paradise into which evil was introduced by woman. The account is +Hesiod's, to whom the Orient had furnished the details. It may be that +both erred. If ever there were a golden age it must have been in those +days when heaven was on earth and, mingling familiarly with men, were +processions of gods, gods of love, of light, of liberty, thousands of +them, not one of whom had ever heard an atheist's voice. Related to +humanity, of the same blood, sons of the same Aryan mother, they +differed from men only in that the latter died because they were real, +while they were deathless because ideal.</p> + +<p>The ideal was too fair. Presently Pallas became the soul of Athens. +But meanwhile from the East there strayed swarms of enigmatic faces; +the harlot handmaids of her Celestial Highness Ishtar, Princess of +Heaven; the mutilated priests of Tammuz her lover; dual conceptions +that resulted in Aphrodite Pandemos, the postures of Priapos, the leer +of the Lampsacene, and, with them, forms of worship comparable, in the +circumadjacent beauty, to latrinæ in a garden, ignoble shapes that +violated the candour of maidens' eyes, but with which Greece became so +accustomed that on them moral aphorisms were engraved. "In the mind of +Hellas, these things," Renan, with his usual unctuousness, declared, +"awoke but pious thoughts."</p> + +<p>Pious at heart Hellas was. Even art, which now is wholly profane, with +her was wholly sacred. The sanctity was due to its perfection. The +perfection was such that imbeciles who fancy that it has been or could +be surpassed show merely that they know nothing about it. At Athens, +where Pheidias created a palpable Olympos, Pallas stood colossally, a +torch in her hand, a lance at her shoulder, a shield at her side, a +plastron of gold on her immaculate breast, a golden robe about her +ivory form, and on her immortal brow a crown of gold, beneath which, +sapphire eyes, that saw and foresaw, glittered. To-day the place where +the marvellous creation stood is vacant. With the gorgeous host Pallas +has departed. But the torch she held still burns. From the emptiness +of her virginal arms, that never were filled, proceeds all +civilization.</p> + +<p>Adjacently at Eleusis was Demeter. Pallas was the soul of Greece. +Eleusis was the Jerusalem, Demeter the Madonna.</p> + +<p>Demeter—the earth, the universal mother—had, in a mystic hymen with +her brother Zeus, conceived Persephone. The latter, when young and a +maiden, beckoned perhaps by Eros, wandered from Olympos and was +gathering flowers when Pluto, borne by black horses, erupted, raped +her, and tore her away. The cries of the indignant Demeter sterilized +the earth. To assuage her, Zeus undertook to have Persephone +recovered, provided that in Hades, of which Pluto was lord, she had +eaten nothing. But the girl had—a pomegranate grain. It was the +irrevocable. Demeter yielded, as the high gods had to yield, to what +was higher than they, to Destiny. Meanwhile, in the shadows below, +Persephone was transfigured.</p> + +<div class="poemblock2"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thou art more than the day or the morrow, the seasons that laugh and that weep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these give joy and sorrow: but thou, Proserpina, sleep....<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O daughter of earth, of my mother, her crown and blossom of birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I am also, I also, thy brother; I go as I came unto earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the night where thine eyes are as moons are in heaven, the night where thou art,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the silence is more than all tunes, where sleep overflows from the heart, ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the murmur of spirits that sleep in the shadow of gods from afar<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grows dim in thine ears and deep as the deep dim soul of a star.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the sweet low light of thy face, under heavens untrod by the sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let my soul with their souls find place and forget what was done or undone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou art more than the gods that number the days of our temporal breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Like Hesiod, Swinburne erred, though perhaps intentionally, as poets +should, for the greater glory of the Muses. Persephone brought not +death but life. The aisles of despair she filled with hope. +Transfigured herself, Pluto she transformed. She changed what had been +hell into what was to be purgatory. It was not yet Elysium, but it was +no longer Hades. Plato said that those who were in her world had no +wish at all for this.</p> + +<p>It is for that reason that Demeter is the Madonna of Greece, as her +ethereal daughter was the saviour. The myth of it all, brought by +Pythagoras from Egypt is very old. Known in Memphis, it was known too +in Babylon, perhaps before Memphis was. But the legend of Isis and +that of Ishtar—both of whom descended into hell—lack the transparent +charm which this idyl unfolds and of which the significance was +revealed only to initiate in epiphanies at Eleusis.</p> + +<p>Before these sacraments Greece stood, a finger to her lips. Yet the +whispers from them that have reached us, while furtive perhaps, are +clear. They furnished the poets with notes that are resonant still. +They lifted the drama to heights that astound. Even in the fancy balls +of Aristophanes, where men were ribald and the gods were mocked, +suddenly, in the midst of the orgy, laughter ceased, obscenities were +hushed. Afar a hymn resounded. It was the chorus of the Initiate going +measuredly by.</p> + +<p>The original mysteries were Hermetic. Enterable only after a prolonged +novitiate, the adept then beheld an unfolding of the theosophy of the +soul. In visions, possibly ecstatic, he saw the series of its +incarnations, the seven cycles through which it passed, the Ship of a +Million Years on which the migrations are effected and on which, at +last, from the Valley of the Shadow of Death, it sails to its primal +home.</p> + +<p>That home was colour, its sustenance light. There, in ethereal +evolutions, its incarnations began. At first unsubstantial and wholly +ineffable, these turned for it every object into beauty, every sound +into joy. Without needs, from beatitude to beatitude blissfully it +floated. But, subjected to the double attraction of matter and of sin, +the initiate saw the memories and attributes of its spirituality fade. +He saw it flutter, and fluttering sink. He saw that in sinking it +enveloped itself in garments that grew heavier at each descent. +Through the denser clothing he saw the desires of the flesh pulsate. +He saw them force it lower, still lower, until, fallen into its +earthly tenement, it swooned in the senses of man. From the chains of +that prison he learned that the soul's one escape was in a recovery of +the memory of what it had been when it was other than what it had +become.</p> + +<p>That memory the mysteries provided. Those of Eleusis differed from the +Egyptian only in detail. At Eleusis, in lieu of visions, there were +tableaux. Persephone, beckoned by desire, straying then from Olympos, +afterward fainting in the arms of Pluto, but subsequently, while +preparing her own reascension, saving and embellishing all that +approach, was the symbol, in an Hellenic setting, of the fall and +redemption of man.</p> + +<p>The human tragedy thus portrayed was the luminous counterpart of the +dark dramas that Athens beheld. There, in the theatre—which itself +was a church with the stage for pulpit—man, blinded by passions, the +Fates pursued and Destiny felled.</p> + +<p>The sombre spectacle was inexplicable. At Eleusis was enlightenment. +"Eskato Bebeloï"—<em>Out from here, the profane</em>—the heralds shouted as +the mysteries began. "Konx ompax"—<em>Go in peace</em>—they called when the +epiphanies were completed.</p> + +<p>In peace the initiate went, serenely, it is said, ever after. From +them the load of ignorance was lifted. But what their impressions were +is unrecorded. They were bound to secrecy. No one could learn what +occurred without being initiated, or without dying. For death too is +initiation.</p> + +<p>The mysteries were schools of immortality. They plentifully taught +many a lesson that Christianity afterward instilled. But their drapery +was perhaps over ornate. Truth does not need any. Truth always should +be charming. Yet always it should be naked as well. About it the +mysteries hung a raiment that was beautiful, but of which the rich +embroideries obscured. The mysteries could not have been more +fascinating, that is not possible, but, the myths removed, in simple +nudity they would have been more clear. Doubtless it was for that very +reason, in order that they might not be transparent, that the myths +were employed. It is for that very reason, perhaps, that Christianity +also adopted a few. Yet at least from cant they were free. Among the +multiple divinities of Greece, hypocrisy was the unknown god. +Consideration of the others is, to-day, usually effected through the +pages of Ovid. One might as well study Christianity in the works of +Voltaire. Christianity's brightest days were in the dark ages. The +splendid glamour of them that persists is due to many causes, among +which, in minor degree, may be the compelling glare of Greek genius. +That glare, veiled in the mysteries, philosophy reflects.</p> + +<p>Philosophy is but the love of wisdom. It began with Socrates. He had +no belief in the gods. The man who has none may be very religious. But +though Socrates did not believe in the gods he did not deny them. He +did what perhaps was worse. He ignored their perfectly poetic +existence. He was put to death for it, though only at the conclusion +of a long promenade during which he delivered Athenian youths of their +intelligence. Facility in the operation may have been inherited. +Socrates was the son of a midwife. His own progeny consisted in a +complete transfiguration of Athenian thought. He told of an +Intelligence, supreme, ethical, just, seeing all, hearing all, +governing all; a creator made not after the image of man but of the +soul, and visible only in the conscience. It was for that he died. +There was no such god on Olympos.</p> + +<p>There was an additional indictment. Socrates was accused of perverting +the <em>jeunesse dorée</em>. At a period when, everywhere, save only in +Israel, the abnormal was usual, Socrates was almost insultingly +chaste. The perversion of which he was accused was not of that order. +It was that of inciting lads to disobey their parents when the latter +opposed what he taught.</p> + +<p>"I am come to set a man against his father," it is written in +<em>Matthew</em>. The mission of Socrates was the same. Because of it he +died. He was the first martyr. But his death was overwhelming in its +simplicity. Even in fairyland there has been nothing more calm. By way +of preparation he said to his judges: "Were you to offer to acquit me +on condition that I no longer profess what I believe, I would answer; +'Athenians, I honour and I love you, but a god has commanded me and +that god I will obey, rather than you.'"</p> + +<p>In the speech was irony, with which Athens was familiar. But it also +displayed a conception, wholly new, that of maintaining at any cost +the truth. The novelty must have charmed. When Peter and the apostles +were arraigned before the Sanhedrin, their defence consisted in the +very words that Socrates had used: "We should obey God rather than +man."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Acts v. 29.</p></div> + +<p>Socrates wrote nothing. The Buddha did not either. Neither did the +Christ. These had their evangelists. Socrates had also disciples who, +as vehicle for his ideas, employed the nightingale tongue of beauty +into which the Law and the Prophets were translated by the Septuagint +and into which the Gospels were put.</p> + +<p>It would be irreverent to suggest that the latter are in any way +indebted to Socratic inspiration. It would be irrelevant as well. For, +while the Intelligence that Socrates preached differed as much from +the volage and voluptuous Zeus as the God of Christendom differs from +the Jahveh of Job, yet, in a divergence so wide, an idealist, very +poor except in ideas; a teacher killed by those who knew not what they +did; a philosopher that drained the cup without even asking that it +pass from him; a mere reformer, though dangerous perhaps as every +reformer worth the name must be; but, otherwise, a mere man like any +other, only a little better, could obviously have had no share. For +reasons not minor but major, Plato could have had none either.</p> + +<p>It is related that a Roman invader sank back, stricken with +<em>deisidaimonia</em>—the awe that the gods inspired—at the sight of the +Pheidian Zeus. It is with a wonder not cognate certainly, yet in a +measure relative, that one considers what Socrates must have been if +millennia have gone without producing one mind approaching that of his +spiritual heir. It was uranian; but not disassociated from human +things.</p> + +<p>Plato, like his master, was but a man in whom the ideal was intuitive, +perhaps the infernal also. In the gardens of the Academe and along the +banks of the Ilissus, he announced a Last Judgment. The announcement, +contained in the <em>Phædo</em>, had for supplement a picture that may have +been Persian, of the righteous ascending to heaven and the wicked +descending to hell. In the <em>Laws</em>, the picture was annotated with a +statement to the effect that whatever a man may do, there is an eye +that sees him, a memory that registers and retains. In the <em>Republic</em> +he declared that afflictions are blessings in disguise. But his +"Republic," a utopian commonwealth, was not, he said, of this world, +adding in the <em>Phædo</em>, that few are chosen though many are called.</p> + +<p>The mystery of the catholicism of the Incas, reported back to the Holy +Office, was there defined as an artifice of the devil. With finer +circumspection, Christian Fathers attributed the denser mystery of +Greek philosophy to the inspiration of God.</p> + +<p>Certainly it is ample. As exemplified by Plato it has, though, its +limitations. There is no charity in it. Plato preached humility, but +there is none in his sermons. His thought is a winged thing, as the +thought of a poet ever should be. But in the expression of it he seems +smiling, disdainful, indifferent as a statue to the poverties of the +heart. That too, perhaps, is as it should be. The high muse wears a +radiant peplum. Anxiety is banished from the minds that she haunts. +Then, also, if, in the nectar of Plato's speech, compassion is not an +ingredient, it may be because, in his violet-crowned city, it was +strewn open-handed through the beautiful streets. There, public +malediction was visited on anyone that omitted to guide a stranger on +his way.</p> + +<p>Israel was too strictly monotheistic to raise an altar to Pity, the +rest of antiquity too cruel. In Athens there was one. In addition +there were missions for the needy, asylums for the infirm. If +anywhere, at that period, human sympathy existed, it was in Greece. +The aristocratic silence of Plato may have been due to that fact. He +would not talk of the obvious, though he did of the vile. In one of +his books the then common and abnormal conception of sexuality was, if +not authorized, at least condoned. It is conjectural, however, whether +the conception was more monstrous than that which subsequent mysticity +evolved.</p> + +<p>Said Ruysbroeck: "The mystic carries her soul in her hand and gives it +to whomsoever she wishes." Said St. Francis of Sales: "The soul draws +to itself motives of love and delectates in them." What the gift and +what the delectation were, other saints have described.</p> + +<p>Marie de la Croix asserted that in the arms of the celestial Spouse +she swam in an ocean of delight. Concerning that Spouse, Marie +Alacoque added: "Like the most passionate of lovers he made me +understand that I should taste what is sweetest in the suavity of +caresses, and indeed, so poignant were they, that I swooned." The +ravishments which St. Theresa experienced she expressed in terms of +abandoned precision. Mme. Guyon wrote so carnally of the divine that +Bossuet exclaimed; "Seigneur, if I dared, I would pray that a seraph +with a flaming sword might come and purify my lips sullied by this +recital."<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Relation sur le Quiétisme.</p></div> + +<p>Augustin pleasantly remarked that we are all born for hell. One need +not agree with him. In the presence of the possibly monstrous and the +impossibly blasphemous, there is always a recourse. It is to turn +away, though it be to Zeus, a belief in whom, however stupid, is +ennobling beside the turpitudes that Christian mysticism produced.</p> + +<p>At Athens, meanwhile, the religion of State persisted. So also did +philosophy. When, occasionally, the two met, the latter bowed. That +was sufficient. Religion exacted respect, not belief. It was not a +faith, it was a law, one that for its majesty was admired and for its +poetry was beloved. In the deification of whatever is exquisite it was +but an artistic cult. The real Olympos was the Pantheon. The other was +fading away. Deeper and deeper it was sinking back into the golden +dream from which it had sprung. Further and further the crystal +parapets were retreating. Dimmer and more dim the gorgeous host +became. In words of perfect piety Epicurus pictured them in the +felicity of the ideal. There, they had no heed of man, no desire for +worship, no wish for prayer. It was unnecessary even to think of them. +Decorously, with every homage, they were being deposed.</p> + +<p>But if Epicurus was decorous, Evemerus was devout. It was his +endeavour, he said, not to undermine but to fortify. The gods he +described as philanthropists whom a grateful world had deified. Zeus +had waged a sacrilegious war against his father. Aphrodite was a +harlot and a procuress. The others were equally commendable. Once they +had all lived. Since then all had died. Evemerus had seen their tombs.</p> + +<p>One should not believe him. Their parapets are dimmer, perhaps, but +from them still they lean and laugh. They are immortal as the +hexameters in which their loves unfold. Yet, oddly enough, presently +the oracle of Delphi strangled. In his cavern Trophonios was gagged. +The voice of Mopsos withered.</p> + +<p>That is nothing. On the Ionian, the captain of a ship heard some one +calling loudly at him from the sea. The passengers, who were at table, +looked out astounded. Again the loud voice called: "Captain, when you +reach shore announce that the great god Pan is dead."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Plutarch: de Oracul. defect. 14.</p></div> + +<p>It may be that it was true. It may be that after Pan the others +departed. When Paul reached Athens he found a denuded Pantheon, a +vacant Olympos, skies more empty still.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII<br /> +<br /> +JUPITER</h2> + + +<p class="cap">THE name of the national deity of Israel is unpronounceable. The name +of the national divinity of Rome is unknown. To all but the +hierophants it was a secret. For uttering it a senator was put to +death. But Tullius Hostilius erected temples to Fear and to Pallor. It +may have been Fright. The conjecture is supported by the fact that, as +was usual, Rome had any number of deified epithets, as she had also a +quantity of little bits of gods. These latter greatly amused the +Christian Fathers. Among them was Alemona, who, in homely English, was +Wet-nurse.</p> + +<p>Tertullian, perhaps naïvely, remarked: "Superstition has invented +these deities for whom we have substituted angels." In addition to the +diva mater Alemona was the divus pater Vaticanus, the holy father +Vatican, who assisted at a child's first cry. There was the equally +holy father Fabulin, who attended him in his earliest efforts at +speech. Neither of them had anything else to do.</p> + +<p>Pavor had. At thunder, at lightning, at a meteor, at moisture on a +wall, at no matter what, at silence even, the descendants of a +she-wolf's nursling quailed. They lived in a panic. In panic the gods +were born. It is but natural, perhaps, that Fright should have been +held supreme. The other gods, mainly divinities of prey and of havoc, +were lustreless as the imaginations that conceived them. Prosaic, +unimaged, without poetry or myth, they dully persisted until pedlars +appeared with Hellenic legends and wares. To their tales Rome +listened. Then eidolons of the Olympians became naturalized there. +Zeus was transformed into Jupiter, Aphrodite into Venus, Pallas into +Minerva, Demeter into Ceres, and all of them—and with them all the +others—into an irritable police. The Greek gods enchanted, those of +Rome alarmed. Plutarch said that they were indignant if one presumed +to so much as sneeze.</p> + +<p>Worship, consequently, was a necessary precaution, an insurance +against divine risks, a matter of business in which the devout +bargained with the divine. Ovid represented Numa trying to elude the +exigencies of Jove. The latter had demanded the sacrifice of a head. +"You shall have a cabbage," said the king. "I mean something human." +"Some hairs then." "No, I want something alive." "We will give you a +pretty little fish." Jupiter laughed and yielded. That was much later, +after Lucretius, in putting Epicurus into verse, had declared religion +to be the mother of sin. By that time Fear and Pallor had struck +terror into the very marrow of barbarian bones. Fright was a god more +serviceable than Zeus. With him Rome conquered the world. Yet in the +conquest Fright became Might and the latter an effulgence of Jove's.</p> + +<p>Jove was magnificent. In the Capitol he throned so augustly that we +swear by him still. Like Rome he is immortal. But Pavor, that had +faded into him, was never invoked. The reason was not sacerdotal, it +was political. Rome never imposed her gods on the quelled. With +superior tact she lured their gods from them. At any siege, that was +her first device. To it she believed her victories were due. It was to +avoid possible reprisals and to remain invincible, that her own +national divinity she so carefully concealed that the name still is a +secret. With the gods, Rome gathered the creeds of the world, set them +like fountains among her hills, and drank of their sacred waters. Her +early deity is unknown. But the secret of her eternity is in the +religions that she absorbed. It was these that made her immortal.</p> + +<p>To that immortality the obscure god of an obscure people contributed +largely, perhaps, but perhaps, too, not uniquely. Jahveh might have +remained unperceived behind the veil of the sanctuary had not his +altar been illuminated by lights from other shrines. In the early days +of the empire, Rome was fully aware of the glamour of Amon, of the +star of Ormuzd, Brahm's cerulean lotos and the rainbow heights of +Bel-Marduk. But in the splendour of Jove all these were opaque.</p> + +<p>Jupiter, always imposing, was grandiose then. His thoughts were vast +as the sky. In a direct revelation to Vergil he said of his chosen +people: "I have set no limits to their conquest or its duration. The +empire I have given them shall be without end."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> Hebrew prophets had +spoken similarly. Vergil must have been more truly inspired. The Roman +empire, nominally holy, figuratively still exists. Yet fulfilment of +the prophecy is due perhaps less to the God of the Gentiles than to +the God of the Jews. Though perhaps also it may be permissible to +discern in the latter a transfiguration of Jove, who originally Zeus, +and primarily not Hellenic but Hindu, ultimately became supreme. After +the terrific struggle which resulted in that final metamorphosis, +Jerusalem, disinherited, saw Rome the spiritual capital of the globe.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Æneid i. 278.</p></div> + +<p>Jerusalem was not a home of logic. Rome was the city of law. That law, +cold, inflexible, passionless as a sword and quite as effective, Rome +brandished at philosophy. It is said that the intellectual gymnastics +of Greece were displeasing to her traditions. It is more probable that +augurs had foreseen or oracles had foretold that philosophy would +divest her of the sword, and with it of her sceptre and her might. +Ideas cannot be decapitated. Only ridicule can demolish them. +Philosophy, mistress of irony, resisted while nations fell. It was +philosophy that first undermined established creeds and then led to +the pursuit of new ones. Yet it may be that a contributing cause was a +curious theory that the world was to end. Foretold in the <em>Brahmanas</em>, +in the <em>Avesta</em> and in the <em>Eddas</em>, probably it was in the <em>Sibylline +Books</em>. If not, the subsequent Church may have so assumed.</p> + +<div class="poemblock"> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dies iræ, dies illa,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Solvet sæclum in favilla,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Teste David cum Sibylla.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Not alone David and the Sibyl but Etruscan seers had seen in the skies +that the tenth and last astronomical cycle had begun.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> Plutarch, in +his life of Sylla, testified to the general belief in an approaching +cataclysm. Lucretius announced that at any moment it might occur.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> +That was in the latter days of the republic. In the early days of the +empire the theory persisting may have induced the hope of a saviour. +Suetonius said that nature in her parturitions was elaborating a +king.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> Afterward he added that such was Asia's archaic belief.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +Recent discoveries have verified the assertion. In the Akkadian Epic +of Dibbara a messiah was foretold.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> That epic, anterior to a cognate +Egyptian prophecy,<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> anterior also to the <em>Sibylline Books</em>, was +anterior too to the Hebrew prophets and necessarily to those of Rome.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Censorinus: De die nat. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> De rerum nat., v. 105.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> In Augusto, 74.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> In Vesp. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Jastrow: <em>op. cit.</em></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> See back, Chapter III.</p></div> + +<p>Among these was Vergil. In the fourth Eclogue he beheld an age of +gold, preceded by the advent on earth of a son of Jove, under whose +auspices the last traces of sin and sorrow were to disappear and a new +race descend from heaven. "The serpent shall die," he declared, +adding: "The time is at hand."</p> + +<p>The Eclogue was written 40 B.C., during the consulate of Pallio, whom +the poet wished perhaps to flatter. Then presently Ovid sang the +deathless soul and Tibullus gave rendezvous hereafter. The atmosphere +dripped with wonders. The air became charged with the miraculous. At +stated intervals the doors of temples opened of themselves. Statues +perspired visibly. There was a book that explained the mechanism of +these marvels. It interested nobody. Prodigies were matters of course.</p> + +<p>The people had a heaven, also a hell, both of them Greek, a purgatory +that may have been Asiatic, and, pending the advent of the son of +Jove, in Mithra they could have had a redeemer. Had it been desired, +Buddhism could have supplied gospels, India the trinity, Persia the +resurrection, Egypt the life. From Iran could have been obtained an +Intelligence, sovereign, unimaged, and just. That was unnecessary. +Long since Socrates had displayed it. In addition, Epicurus had told +of an ascension of heavens, skies beyond the sky, worlds without +number, the many mansions of a later faith.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, austerity was an appanage of the stoics, in whose faultless +code the dominant note was contempt for whatever is base, respect for +all that is noble. A doctrine of great beauty, purely Greek, as was +everything else in Rome that was beautiful, its heights were too lofty +for the vulgar. It appealed only to the lettered, that is to the few, +to the infrequent disciples of Zeno and of Cicero, his prophet, who, +Erasmus said, was inspired by God.</p> + +<p>It may be that Cicero inspired a few of God's preachers. The latter +were not yet in Rome. Christ had not come. At that period, unique in +history, man alone existed. The temples were thronged, but the skies +were bare. Cicero knew that. Elysium and Hades were as chimerical to +him as the Epicurean heavens. "People," he said, "talk of these places +as though they had been there." But that which was superstition to him +he regarded as beneficial for others, who had to have something and +who got it, in temples where a sin was a prayer.</p> + +<p>There was once a play of which there has survived but the title: <em>The +Last Will and Testament of Defunct Jupiter.</em> It appeared in the days +of Diocletian, but it might have appealed when Cicero taught. Faith +then had fainted. Fright had ceased to build. Worship remained, but +religion had gone. The gods themselves were departing. The epoch +itself was apoplectic. The tramp of legions was continuous. Not alone +the skies but the world was in a ferment. It was not until a diadem, +falling from Cleopatra's golden bed, rolled to the feet of Augustus, +that the gods were stayed and faith revived.</p> + +<p>In the interim, prisoners had been deported from Judea. At first they +were slaves. Subsequently manumitted, they formed a colony that in the +high-viced city resembled Esther in the seraglio of Ahasuerus. Rome, +amateur of cults, always curious of foreign faiths, might have been +interested in Judaism. It had many analogies with local beliefs. Its +adherents awaited, as Rome did, a messiah. They awaited too a golden +age. For those who were weary of philosophy, they had a religion in +which there was none. For those to whom the marvellous appealed, they +had a history in which miracles were a string of pearls. For those who +were sceptic concerning the post-mortem, they offered blankness. In +addition, their god, the enemy of all others, was adapted to an empire +that recognized no sovereignty but its own. Readily might Rome have +become Hebrew. But then, with equal ease, she might have become +Egyptian.</p> + +<p>For those who were perhaps afraid of going to hell and yet may have +been equally afraid of not going anywhere, Egypt held passports to a +land of light. Then too, the gods of Egypt were friendly and +accessible. They mingled familiarly with those of Rome, complaisantly +with the deified Cæsars, as already they had with the pharaohs, a +condescension, parenthetically, that did not protect them from +Tiberius, who, for reasons with which religion had nothing whatever to +do, persecuted the Egyptians, as he persecuted also the Jews. None the +less, Rome, weary of local fictions, might have become converted to +foreign ideas. In default of Syrian or Copt, she might have become +Persian as already she was Greek.</p> + +<p>Augustus had other views. Divinities, made not merely after the image +of man but in symbols of sin, he saluted. With a hand usually small, +but in this instance tolerably large, he re-established them on their +pedestals. A relapse to spiritual infancy resulted. It was what he +sought. He wanted to be a god himself and he became one. His power +and, after him, that of his successors, had no earthly limit, no +restraint human or divine. It was the same omnipotence here that +elsewhere Jupiter wielded.</p> + +<p>Jupiter had flamens who told him the time of day. He had others that +read to him. For his amusement there were mimes. For his delectation, +matrons established themselves in the Capitol and affected to be his +loves. But then he was superb. Made of ivory, painted vermillion, +seated colossally on a colossal throne, a sceptre in one hand, a +thunderbolt in the other, a radiating gold crown on his august head, +and, about his limbs, a shawl of Tyrian purple, he looked every inch +the god.</p> + +<p>The Cæsars, if less imposing, were more potent. Their hands, in which +there was nothing symbolic, held life and death, absolute dominion +over everything, over every one. Jupiter was but a statue. They alone +were real, alone divine. To them incense ascended. At their feet +libations poured. The nectar fumes confused. Rome, mad as they, built +them temples, raised them shrines, creating for them a worship that +they accepted, as only their due perhaps, but in which their reason +fled. In accounts of the epoch there is much mention of citizens, +senators, patricians. Nominally there were such people. Actually there +were but slaves. The slaves had a succession of masters. Among them +was a lunatic, Caligula, and an imbecile, Claud. There were others. +There was Terror, there was Hatred, there was Crime. These last, +though several, were yet but one. Collectively, they were Nero.</p> + +<p>If philosophy ever were needed it was in his monstrous day. To anyone, +at any moment, there might be brought the laconic message: Die. In +republican Rome, philosophy separated man from sin. At that period it +was perhaps a luxury. In the imperial epoch it was a necessity. It +separated man from life. The philosophy of the republic Cicero +expounded. That of the empire Seneca produced.</p> + +<p>The neo-stoicism of the latter sustained the weak, consoled the just. +It was a support and a guide. It preached poverty. It condemned +wealth. It deprecated honours and pleasure. It inculcated chastity, +humility, and resignation. It detached man from earth. It inspired, or +attempted to inspire, a desire for the ideal which it represented as +the goal of the sage, who, true child of God,<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> prepared for any +torture, even for the cross,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> yet, essentially meek,<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> sorrowed for +mankind,<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> happy if he might die for it.<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> De Provid. i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> <em>Cf.</em> Lactantius vi. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Epit. cxx. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Lucanus ii. 378.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Ibidem.</p></div> + +<p>In iambics that caressed the ear like flutes, poets had told of +Jupiter clothed in purple and glory. They had told of his celestial +amours, of his human and of his inhuman vices. Seneca believed in +Jupiter. But not in the Jove of the poets. That god dwelled in ivory +and anapests. Seneca's deity, nowhere visible, was everywhere +present.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> Creator of heaven and earth,<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> without whom there is +nothing,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> from whom nothing is hidden,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> and to whom all +belongs,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> our Father,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> whose will shall be done.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Nemo novit Deum. Epit. xxxi. Ubique Deus. Epit. xli.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Mundum hujus operis dominum et artificem. Quæst. nat. i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> Sine quo nihil est. Quæst. nat. vii. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Nil Deo Clausam. Ep. lxxxx.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Omnia habentem. Ep. xcv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Parens noster. Ep. cx.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> Placeat homini quidquid Deo placuit. Ep. lxxv.</p></div> + +<p>"Life," said Seneca, "is a tribulation, death a release. In order not +to fear death," he added, "think of it always. The day on which it +comes judges all others."<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> Meanwhile comfort those that sorrow.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> +Share your bread with them that hunger.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> Wherever there is a human +being there is place for a good deed.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> Sin is an ulcer. Deliverance +from it is the beginning of health—salvation, <em>salutem</em>."<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Ep. xxvi. 4.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> De Clem. ii. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Ep. xcv. 51.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> De Vita Beata, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Ep. xxviii. 9.</p></div> + +<p>Words such as these suggest others. They are anterior to those which +they recall. The latter are more beautiful, they are more ample, there +is in them a poetry and a profundity that has rarely been excelled. +Yet, it may be, that a germ of them is in Seneca, or, more exactly, in +theories which, beginning in India, prophets, seers, and stoics +variously interpreted and recalled.</p> + +<p>However since they have charmed the world, their effect on Nero was +curious. Seneca was his preceptor. But so too was Art. The lessons of +these teachers, fusing in the demented mind of the monster, produced +transcendental depravity, the apogee of the abnormal and the +epileptically obscene. What is more important, they produced +Christianity.</p> + +<p>Christianity already existed in Rome, but obscurely, subterraneanly, +among a class of poor people generally detested, particularly by the +Jews. Christianity was not as yet a religion, it was but the belief of +a sect that announced that the world was to be consumed. Presently +Rome was. The conflagration, which was due to Nero, swept everything +sacred away.</p> + +<p>Even for a prince that, perhaps, was excessive. Nero may have felt +that he had gone too far. An emperor was omnipotent, he was not +inviolable. Tiberius was suffocated, Caligula was stabbed, Claud was +poisoned. Nero, it may be, in feeling that he had gone too far, felt +also that he needed a scapegoat. Christian pyromania suggested itself. +But probably it suggested itself first to the Jews, who, Renan has +intimated, denounced the Christians accordingly. Such may have been +the case. In any event, then it was that Christianity received its +baptism of blood.</p> + +<p>All antiquity was cruel, but, barring perhaps the immense Asiatic +butcheries, Nero contrived then to surpass anything that had been +done. Bloated and hideous, his hair done up in a chignon, a concave +emerald for monocle, in the crowded arena he assisted at the rape of +Christian girls. Their lovers, their brothers and fathers were either +eaten alive by beasts or, that night, dressed in tunics that had been +soaked in oil, were fastened to posts and set on fire, in order that, +as human torches, they might illuminate palace gardens, through which, +costumed as a jockey, Nero raced.</p> + +<p>The spectacle in the amphitheatre, which fifty thousand people beheld; +the succeeding festival at which all Rome assembled, were two acts in +the birthday of a faith.</p> + +<p>Then, to the cradle, presently, Wise Men came with gifts—the gold, +the frankincense, the myrrh, of creeds anterior though less divine.</p> + + + +<hr /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII<br /> +<br /> +THE NEC PLUS ULTRA</h2> + + +<p class="cap">IT was after fastidious rites, the heart entirely devout and on his +knees, that Angelico di Fiesole drew a picture of the Christ. The +attitude is emulative. It is with brushes dipped in holy water that +Jesus should be displayed, though more reverent still is the absence +of any delineation.</p> + +<p>Reverence of that high character history formerly observed. There is +no mention of the Saviour in the chronicles of those who were blessed +in being his contemporaries. One indiscreet remark of Josephus has +been recognized as the interpolation of a later hand, well-intentioned +perhaps, but misguided. Jesus glows in the Gospels. Yet they that +awaited the day when, in a great aurora borealis, the Son of man +should appear, had passed from earth before one of the evangels was +written.</p> + +<p>It was a hundred years later before the texts that comprise the New +Testament were complete. It was nearly two hundred before they were +definitive. In the interim many gospels appeared. Attributed +indifferently to each of the Twelve, one was ascribed to Judas. There +was a Gospel to the Hebrews, a Gospel to the Egyptians. There were +evangels of Childhood, of Perfection and of Mary.</p> + +<p>These primitive memoirs were based on oral accounts of occurrences +long anterior. Into them entered extraneous beauties, felicities of +phrase and detail, which, with naïf effrontery, were put into the +mouth of one apostle or another, even into that of Jesus. The +ascription was regarded as highly commendable. It was but a way of +glorifying the Lord. Besides, the scenarii of these pious evocations +the prophets had traced in advance.</p> + +<p>"Rejoice, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy +King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation, lowly and +riding upon an ass."</p> + +<p>That king of the poor whom Zachariah had foreseen, the stumbling block +of Israel that Isaiah had foretold, the Son, mentioned by Hosea, whom +Jahveh had called out of Egypt, was the Saviour, ascending in glory as +Elijah had done. A passage incorrectly rendered by the Septuagint +indicated a virginal birth. That also was suggestive.</p> + +<p>The little biographies in which these developments appeared were +intended for circulation only among an author's narrow circle of +immediate friends, at most to be read aloud in devout reunions. If, +ultimately, of the entire collection, four only were retained, it is +probably because these best expressed existing convictions. Though, +irrespective of their beauties, Irenæus said that there had to be four +and could be but four, for the reason that there are four seasons, +four winds, four corners of the earth, and the four revelations of +Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus.</p> + +<p>It is not on that perhaps arbitrary deduction that their validity +resides, but rather because the parables and miracles which they +recite became the spiritual nourishment of a world. To their title of +eternal verities they have other and stronger claims. They have +consoled and they have ennobled. Elder creeds may have done likewise, +but these lacked that of which Christianity was the unique possessor, +the marvel of a crucified god.</p> + +<p>Saviours there had been. Mithra was a redeemer. Zoroaster was born of +a virgin. Persephone descended into hell. Osiris rose from the dead. +Gotama was tempted by the devil. Moses was transfigured. Elijah +ascended into heaven. But in no belief is there a parallel for the +crucifixion, although in Hindu legend, Krishna, a divinity whose +mythical infancy a mythical prototype of Herod troubled, died, nailed +by arrows to a tree.</p> + +<p>In Oriental lore Krishna is held to have been the eighth avatar of +Vishnu, of whom Gotama was the ninth. Krishna was therefore anterior +to the Buddha, at least in myth. But it would be a grave impropriety +to infer that with the legend concerning him the narrative of the +crucifixion has any other connection than the possible one of having +suggested it. The <em>Bhagavad-Purana</em>, in which the legend occurs, is +relatively modern, though the legend itself may, like the <em>Tripitaka</em>, +have existed orally, for centuries, before it was finally committed to +writing.</p> + +<p>There can, however, be no impropriety in recalling analogies that +exist between the Saviour and one whom the Orient holds also divine. +These analogies, set forth in the first chapter of the present volume, +are, it may be, wholly fortuitous, though Pliny stated that, centuries +before his day, disciples of Gotama were established on the Dead Sea +and, from a passage in Josephus, it seems probable that the Essenes +were Buddhists, in the same degree perhaps that the Pharisees were +Parsis. But the point is also obscure. It is immaterial as well. The +Gospels were not written in Jerusalem but mainly in Rome, where +crucifixions were common, as they were, for that matter, throughout +the East, but where, too, all religions were acclimated and the +supernatural was at home.</p> + +<p>Rome had witnessed the <em>tours de force</em> of Apollonios of Tyana. Those +of Simon the Magician had also been beheld. Rome had seen, or, it may +be, thought she believed she had seen, Vespasian cure the halt and the +blind with a touch. The atmosphere then was charged with the +marvellous. The temples were filled with prodigies, with strange gods, +beckoning chimeras, credulous crowds.</p> + +<p>There was something superior. Rome was the depository of the legends +and lore of the world. A haunt of the Muses, the sensual city was a +hermitage of philosophy as well. These things collectively represented +a great literary feast, of which not all the courses have descended to +us, though, as is not impossible, a lost dish or two, transmuted, by +the alchemy of faith, from dross into gold, the Gospels may perhaps +contain.</p> + +<p>In that case there is cause for great thankfulness. Moreover, assuming +the transmutation, no impiety can be implied. It was as usual and as +indicated as were papyrus and the stylus. It is common to-day for a +poet, before spreading his own wings, to contemplate those of another. +Inspiration is infectious.</p> + +<p>A page of verse, whether Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Greek, or Latin, +was as useful then. Dante fed on the troubadours. They are lost and +forgot. He divinely stands greater than the tallest of them all. In a +measure the same may be true of those from whom the Gospels came. Yet +with a very notable difference. The <em>Divina Commedia</em> was written for +all time. So too were the Gospels. But not intentionally. They were +written to prepare man for the immediate termination of the world. +With the most perfect propriety, therefore, anything serviceable could +have been utilized and probably was. The devout had but to lift their +eyes. In the words of Isaiah, there, before them, were the treasures +of nations; there were the camels and dromedaries bearing from every +side incense and gold; there were the sons of strangers to build up +their walls.</p> + +<p>The sons were many, the treasures as great. Even otherwise there was +the Law, there too were the Prophets. Moses fasted for forty days. +Elisha performed a miracle of the loaves, if he did not that of the +fishes. Job saw the Lord walking upon the sea. Jeremiah said: "Seek +and ye shall find." Isaiah bid those that sorrowed come and be +consoled. In the poem of that poet the servant of the Lord had vinegar +when he thirsted, he was spat upon and for his garments lots were +cast.</p> + +<p>In an effort to fill in a picture of which the central figure had +passed from the real to the ideal, these things may have been +suggestive. So also, perhaps, was the <em>Talmud</em>. The redaction of that +chaos began in the second century. But the Vedas, the Homeric poems, +the Tripitaka as well, existed in memory long before they were +committed to writing. The same is true of the <em>Talmud</em>. Orally it +existed prior to the Christ. Considered as literature, if it may be so +considered, it is the reverse of endearing. But of the many maxims +that it contains there are some of singular charm. Among others is the +Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> The origin of that, +as already indicated, is traceable to the <em>Tripitaka</em>, which, +parenthetically, were so well known in Babylon that Gotama was there +regarded as a Chaldean seer. That abridgement of the Law which is +called the Golden Rule is also in the <em>Talmud</em>,<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> as also, before the +<em>Talmud</em> was, it was in the <em>Tripitaka</em>. The injunction to love one's +enemies is equally in both. So is the very excellent suggestion that +one should consider one's own faults before admonishing a brother +concerning his defects. But the perhaps subtle intimation that the +desire to commit adultery is as reprehensible as the act, and the +rather extravagant statement that it is easier for a camel to pass +through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom +of heaven, these, originally, were perhaps uniquely Talmudic. +Currently cited with multiple others they were all so many common +sayings, which, strung together in the Gospels, became a rosary of +most perfect pearls.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Talmud Babli: Baba bathra, 11 <em>a</em>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Schabbath, 37 <em>a</em>.</p></div> + +<p>In a passage of Irenæus it is stated that the <em>Gospel according to St. +Matthew</em> was arranged by the Church for the benefit of the Jews who +awaited a Messiah descended from David. A Syro-Chaldaic evangel, known +as the <em>Gospel to the Hebrews</em>, had then appeared. So also had the +<em>Gospel according to St. Mark</em>. But these offered no evidence that +Jesus was the one they sought. Another was then prepared. Written in +Greek and bearing the authoritative name of Matthew, it traced from +David, Joseph's descent.</p> + +<p>The narrative continued: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this +wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came +together, she was found with child by the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her +husband being a just man and not willing to make her a publick +example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on +these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a +dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee +Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy +Ghost."</p> + +<p>The genealogy completed, though perhaps inadequately, since Jesus, not +being a son of Joseph, could not have descended from David, the Church +continued: "Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was +spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, Behold a virgin shall be +with child and shall bring forth a son and call his name Emmanuel."</p> + +<p>The prophecy mentioned occurs in Isaiah vii, 14. In the King James +version it is as follows: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a +son and shall call his name Immanuel." But the Aramaic reading is: +"Behold an <em>'almâ</em> shall conceive." <em>'Almâ</em> means young woman. The +Septuagint, in translating it, employed the term [Greek: parthenos], +or maiden. In <em>Matthew</em> the term was retained.</p> + +<p>Matthew, at the time, had long been dead. Even had he been living it +is improbable that he could write in Greek. Unfortunately there were +others who could not only write Greek but read Hebrew. In particular, +there was a rabbi Aquila who retranslated Isaiah with no other purpose +than the malign object of definitely re-establishing the exact +expression which the old poet had used.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Renan: Les Evangiles.</p></div> + +<p>It was presumably in these circumstances that the <em>Evangel of Mary</em> +was advanced. Among other elucidations, the work contained +professional testimony of the immaculacy that was claimed. +Additionally, in reparation of the earlier oversight, the Virgin was +genealogically descended from the royal line.</p> + +<p>That, however, is apocryphal, and if, regarding the other genealogy, +exegesis has since obscured the luminousness of the method adapted by +the Church, the latter's intention was none the less irreproachable, +and that alone imports. Before it, before the miracle of the nativity +and the divine episodes of the transfiguration, crucifixion, +resurrection, and ascension, reverently the Occident has knelt. They +are indeed divine. If they did not occur in Judea, they have occurred +ever since. Continuously, in the hearts of the devout, they are +repeated.</p> + +<p>Unhappily there were heretics then as now. To the Gnostics, Jesus was +an æon that had never been. To the Docetists, he was a phantasm. There +are always brutes that can believe but in the reality of things. There +are others to whom the symbolic is dumb. In the Gospels there is much +that is figurative, there is more that is ineffable, there are +suggestions sheerly ideal.</p> + +<p>"In my Father's house are many mansions," the Saviour declared. In his +own ministry there are as many lights. He was a vagrant and he created +pure sentiment. He was a nihilist and he inspired a new conception of +life. He said he had not come to destroy and he changed the face of +the earth. He remitted the sins of a harlot and condemned both +marriage and love. There are other antitheses, deeper contradictions. +These perhaps are more apparent than real. Behind them there may have +been the co-ordination of a central thought. Of many gospels but few +remain. Among the lost evangels was one that Valentinian said was +imparted only to the more spiritual of the disciples. It may be that +in it a main idea was elucidated and, perhaps, as a consequence, the +meaning of the esoteric proclamation: "Before Abraham was I am."</p> + +<p>Yet though now the authoritative explanation be lacking, its +significance seems to run beneath the texts. At the first apparition +of Jesus, the chief preoccupation of those that stood about was what +prophet of the old days had returned in the new. Some thought him +Elijah. Others Jeremiah. Antipas feared that he was the Baptist +revived. Jesus himself asked the disciples whom he was said to be. +Later he assured them that the awaited return of Elijah had been +accomplished in John. That assurance, together with the perplexities +regarding him and the esoteric announcement which he made concerning +himself, can hardly indicate anything else than a belief in +reincarnation.</p> + +<p>The belief, common to all antiquity, though not necessarily valid on +that account, is not discernible in Hebrew thought, perhaps for the +reason that it is not perceptible in Babylonian. Yet the myth of Eden +barely conceals it. It is almost obvious in the allegory of Beth-el. +Solomon said: "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or +ever earth was." If the idea contained in that statement was not a +part of the philosophy attributed to the Christ, it might have been. +The amount of beauty stored in it is more enormous than in any other.</p> + +<p>To the materialist the beauty is meaningless. To the mathematician it +has the value of a zero from which the periphery has gone. But at the +Pillars of Hercules early geographers put on their maps: <em>Hic deficit +orbis</em>—Here ends the world. They had no suspicion that beyond that +world there stretched another twice as great. Materialists may be +equally naïf. On the other hand, they may not be. The theory of +reincarnation is one that transcends the limits of experience.</p> + +<p>Of the many tenets of the belief there are but two with which the +matter-of-fact agrees. One of them concerns the conservation of +energy, the other the negation of death. Theory and practice unite in +admitting that the supply of energy is invariable. Constantly it is +transformed and as constantly transposed, but whether it enter into +fungus or star, into worm or man, the loss of a particle never occurs. +Death consequently is but the constituent of a change. When it comes, +that which was living assumes a state that has in it the potentiality +of another form. A tenement has crumbled and a tenant gone forth. +Though just where is the riddle.</p> + +<p>In the thousand and one nights that were less astronomic than our own, +it was thought that the riddle was answered. Poets had erected an +edifice of verse and called it Creation. In the strophes of the epic +the earth was a flat and stationary parallelogram. About the earth, +and uniquely for its benefit, sun, moon and stars paraded. Above was a +deity one or multiple. Below were places of vivid discomfort. To the +latter, or to the former, the soul of man proceeded. There were no +other resorts. Creation had its limits.</p> + +<p>Poets younger yet more gray have presented a different conception. In +the glare of a million million of suns they have sent the earth +spinning like a midge. Beyond the uttermost horizon they have strewn +other systems, other worlds; beyond the latter, more. Wherever +imagination in its weariness would set a limit, there is space begun.</p> + +<p>There too is energy. Throughout the stretch of universes the same +force pulsates that is recognizable here. A deduction is obvious. +Throughout infinity are sentient beings, perhaps our brothers, perhaps +ourselves.</p> + +<p>The obvious, very frequently, is misleading. But the dream of +precipitation into that wonderful tornado of worlds has the merit of +more colourful idealism than that which was formerly displayed. Taken +but as an hypothesis, it holds suggestions ampler than any other +conveys. It intimates that just as the butterfly rises from the +chrysalis, so does the spiritual rise from the flesh. It indicates +that just as the sun cannot set, so is it impossible for death to be.</p> + +<p>There are topics about which words hover like enchanted bees. Death is +one of them. Mediævally it was represented by a skeleton to which +prose had given a rictus, poetry a scythe, and philosophy wings. From +its eyries it swooped spectral and sinister. Previously it was more +gracious. In Greece it resembled Eros. Among its attributes was +beauty. It did not alarm. It beckoned and consoled. The child of +Night, the brother of Sleep, it was less funereal than narcotic. The +theory of it generally was beneficent. But not enduring. In the change +of things death lost its charm. It became a sexless nightmare-frame of +bones topped by a grinning skull. That perhaps was excessive. In +epicurean Rome it was a marionette that invited you to wreathe +yourself with roses before they could fade. In the Muslim East it was +represented by Azrael, who was an angel. In Vedic India it was +represented by Yama, who was a god. But mediævally in Europe the +skeleton was preferred. Since then it has changed again. It is no +longer a spectral vampire. It has acquired the serenity of a natural +law. Regarding the operation of that law there are perhaps but three +valid conjectures. Rome entertained all of them. There, there was a +tomb on which was written <em>Umbra</em>. Before it was another on which was +engraved <em>Nihil</em>. Between the two was a portal behind which the <em>Nec +plus ultra</em> stood revealed.</p> + +<p>The portal, fashioned by the philosophy of ages, still is open, wider +than before, on vaster horizons and unsuspected skies. Through it one +may see the explication of things; the reason why men are not born +equal, why some are rich and some are poor, why some are weak and some +are strong, why some are wise and many are not. One may see there too +the reason of joys and sorrows, the cause of tears and smiles. One may +see also how the soul changes its raiment and how it happens to have a +raiment to change. One may see all these things, and others besides, +in the revelation that this life, being the refuse of many deaths, has +acquired merits and demerits in accordance with which are present +punishments and rewards.</p> + +<p>In proportion as these are utilized or disregarded, so perhaps is +retrogression induced or progress achieved. But not in Hades or yet in +Elysium. These were the inventions of man for his brother. So also was +the very neighbourly heaven which the early Church devised. But +because that has gone from the sidereal chart, it does not follow that +there is no such place. Because there is nothing alarming under the +earth, it does not follow that hell has ceased to be. On the contrary. +Both are constant, though it be but in the heart.</p> + +<p>In the light of reincarnation it is probable that neither can occur +there without anterior cause. But probably too it is the preponderance +of either that creates the mystery of life, as it may also foreshadow +the portent of death.</p> + +<p>Death, it may be, is not merely a law but a place, perhaps a garage +which the traveller reaches on a demolished motor, but whence none can +proceed until all old scores are paid. Pending payment, there, perhaps +the soul must wait. But the bill of its past acquitted, it may be that +then it shall be free to pursue on trillions of spheres the +diversified course of endless life—free to pass from world to world, +from beatitude to bliss, from transformation to transfiguration, from +the transitory to the eternal; weaving, meanwhile, a garland of +migrations that stretch from sky to sky, marrying its memoirs with +those of the universe, and, finally, from some ultimate zenith, +reviewing, as it casts them aside, the masks of concluded +incarnations.</p> + +<p>The prospect, overwhelming in beauty, is really divine. The divine is +always utopian. But there is the supreme Alhambra of dream. It exceeds +any other, however excessive another may be. It is the <em>Nec plus +ultra</em>. Into it all may wander and never weary of the wonders that are +there. It may be unrealizable, but for that very reason it must be +also ideal.</p> + + +<h4>FINIS HISTORIÆ DEORUM</h4> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Lords of the Ghostland, by Edgar Saltus + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 31608-h.htm or 31608-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/0/31608/ + +Produced by Adam Buchbinder, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Lords of the Ghostland + A History of the Ideal + +Author: Edgar Saltus + +Release Date: March 12, 2010 [EBook #31608] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Adam Buchbinder, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: Footnotes are placed at the end of the relevant +paragraph. In Chapters I and II, the printed "Mitra" was changed to +"Mithra" to match other occurrences in the text, which predominate. +In Chapter II, the notation [)a] represents the letter a with breve. +Also, an instance in the original text of the word "JHVH" in the +Hebrew alphabet has been changed to the Roman. + + + + +THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND + +_A History of the Ideal_ + +By EDGAR SALTUS + + "Errons, les doigts unis, dans + l'Alhambra du songe." + Renee Vivien + + NEW YORK + MITCHELL KENNERLEY + MCMVII + + COPYRIGHT, 1907 + BY EDGAR SALTUS + +_The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. USA._ + + +_By Mr. Saltus_ + + HISTORIA AMORIS + IMPERIAL PURPLE + MARY MAGDALEN + THE POMPS OF SATAN + THE PERFUME OF EROS + VANITY SQUARE + + + + +THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND + + + I Brahma 7 + + II Ormuzd 39 + + III Amon-Ra 60 + + IV Bel-Marduk 81 + + V Jehovah 109 + + VI Zeus 140 + + VII Jupiter 166 + + VIII The Nec Plus Ultra 189 + + + + +THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND + + + + +I + +BRAHMA + + +The ideal is the essence of poetry. In the virginal innocence of the +world, poetry was a term that meant discourse of the gods. A world +grown grey has learned to regard the gods as diseases of language. +Conceived, it may be, in fevers of fancy, perhaps, originally, they +were but deified words. Yet, it is as children of beauty and of dream +that they remain. + +"Mortal has made the immortal," the _Rig-Veda_ explicitly declares. +The making was surely slow. In tracing the genealogy of the divine, it +has been found that its root was fear. The root, dispersed by light, +ultimately dissolved. But, meanwhile, it founded religion, which, +revealed in storm and panic, for prophets had ignorance and dread. The +gods were not then. There were demons only, more exactly there were +diabolized expressions invented to denominate natural phenomena and +whatever else perturbed. It was in the evolution of the demoniac that +the divine appeared. Through one of time's unmeasurable gaps there +floated the idea that perhaps the phenomena that alarmed were but the +unconscious agents of superior minds. At the suggestion, irresistibly +a dramatization of nature began in which the gods were born, swarms of +them, nebulous, wayward, uncertain, that, through further gaps, became +concrete, became occasionally reducible to two great divinities, earth +and sky, whose union was imagined--a hymen which the rain +suggested--and from which broader conceptions proceeded and grander +gods emerged. + +The most poetic of these are perhaps the Hindu. At the heraldings of +newer gods, the lords of other ghostlands have, after battling +violently, swooned utterly away. But though many a fresher faith has +been brandished at them, apathetically, in serene indifference, the +princes of the Aryan sky endure. + +It is their poetry that has preserved them. To their creators poetry +was abundantly dispensed. To no other people have myths been as +frankly transparent. To none other, save only their cousins the +Persians, have fancies more luminous occurred. The Persians so +polished their dreams that they entranced the world that was. Poets +can do no more. The Hindus too were poets. They were children as well. +Their first lisp, the first recorded stammer of Indo-European speech, +is audible still in the _Rig-Veda_, a bundle of hymns tied together, +four thousand years ago, for the greater glory of Fire. The worship of +the latter led to that of the Sun and ignited the antique altars. It +flamed in Persia, lit perhaps the shrine of Vesta, afterward dazzled +the Incas, igniting, meanwhile, not altars merely, but purgatory +itself. + +In Persia, where it illuminated the face of Ormuzd, its beneficence is +told in the _Avesta_, a work of such holiness that it was polluted if +seen. In the _Rig-Veda_, there are verses which were subsequently +accounted so sacred that if a soudra overheard them the ignominy of +his caste was effaced. + +The verses, the work of shepherds who were singers, are invocations to +the dawn, to the first flushes of the morning, to the skies' +heightening hues, and the vermillion moment when the devouring Asiatic +sun appears. There are other themes, minor melodies, but the chief +inspiration is light. + +To primitive shepherds the approach of darkness was the coming of +death. The dawn, which they were never wholly sure would reappear, was +resurrection. They welcomed it with cries which the _Veda_ preserves, +which the _Avesta_ retains and the _Eddas_ repeat. The potent forces +that produced night, the powers potenter still that routed it, they +regarded as beings whose moods genuflexions could affect. In perhaps +the same spirit that Frenchmen assisted at a _lever du roi_, and +Englishmen attend a prince's levee, the Aryan breakfasted on song and +sacrifice. It was an homage to the rising sun. + +The sun was _deva_. The Sanskrit root _div_, from which the word is +derived, produced deus, devi, divinities--numberless, accursed, +adored, or forgot. The common term applied to all abstractions that +are and have been worshipped, means _That which shines_ and the name +which, in the early Orient, signified a star, designates the Deity in +the Occident to-day. + +Apologetically, Tertullian, a Christian Father, remarked: "Some think +our God is the Sun." There were excuses perhaps for those that did. +Adonai, a Hebrew term for the Almighty, is a plural. It means lords. +But the lords indicated were Baalim who were Lords of the Sun. +Moreover, when the early Christians prayed, they turned to the East. +Their holy day was, as the holy day of Christendom still is, Sunday, +day of the Sun, an expression that comes from the Norse, on whom also +shone the light of the Aryan deva. + +To shepherds who, in seeking pasture for their flocks, were seeking +also pasture for their souls, the deva became Indra. They had other +gods. There was Agni, fire; Varuna, the sky; Maruts, the tempest. +There was Mithra, day, and Yama, death. There were still others, +infantile, undulant, fluid, not infrequently ridiculous also. But it +was Indra for whom the dew and honey of the morning hymns were spread. +It was Indra who, emerging from darkness, made the earth after his +image, decorated the sky with constellations and wrapped the universe +in space. It was he who poured indifferently on just and unjust the +triple torrent of splendour, light, and life. + +Indra was triple. Triple Indra, the _Veda_ says. In that description +is the preface to a theogony of which Hesiod wrote the final page. It +was the germ of sacred dynasties that ruled the Aryan and the +Occidental skies. From it came the grandiose gods of Greece and Rome. +From it also came the paler deities of the Norse. Meanwhile ages fled. +Life nomad and patriarchal ceased. From forest and plain, temples +arose; from hymns, interpretations; from prayer, metaphysics; for +always man has tried to analyze the divine, always too, at some halt +in life, he has looked back and found it absent. + +In meditation it was discerned that Indra was an effect, not the +cause. It was discerned also that that cause was not predicable of the +gods who, in their undulance and fluidity, suggested ceaseless +transformations and consequently something that is transformed. + +The idea, patiently elaborated, resulted in a drainage of the fluid +myths and the exteriorisation of a being entirely abstract. Designated +first as Brahmanaspati, Lord of Prayer, afterward more simply as +Brahma, he was assumed to have been asleep in the secret places of the +sky, from which, on awakening, he created what is. + +The conception, ideal itself, was not, however, ideal enough. The +labour of creating was construed as a blemish on the splendour of the +Supreme. It was held that the Soul of Things could but loll, majestic +and inert, on a lotos of azure. Then, above Brahma, was lifted Brahm, +a god neuter and indeclinable; neuter as having no part in life, +indeclinable because unique. + +There was the apex of the world's most poetic creed, one distinguished +over all others in having no founder, unless a heavenly inspiration be +so regarded. But the apex required a climax. Inspiration provided it. + +The forms of matter and of man, the glittering apsaras of the +vermillion dawns, Indra himself, these and all things else were +construed into a bubble that Brahm had blown. The semblance of reality +in which men occur and, with them, the days of their temporal breath, +was attributed not to the actual but to Maya--the magic of a high +god's longing for something other than himself, something that should +contrast with his eternal solitude and fill the voids of his infinite +ennui. From that longing came the bubble, a phantom universe, the +mirage of a god's desire. Earth; sea and sky; all that in them is, all +that has been and shall be, are but the changing convolutions of a +dream. + +In that dream there descended a scale of beings, above whom were set +three great lords, Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva +the Destroyer, collectively the Tri-murti, the Hindu trinity expressed +in the mystically ineffable syllable Om. Between the trinity and man +came other gods, a whole host, powers of light and powers of darkness, +the divine and the demoniac fused in a hierarchy surprising but not +everlasting. Eventually the dream shall cease, the bubble break, the +universe collapse, the heavens be folded like a tent, the Tri-murti +dissolved, and in space will rest but the Soul of Things, at whose +will atoms shall reassemble and forms unite, dis-unite and reappear, +depart and return, endlessly, in recurring cycles. + +That conception, the basis perhaps of the theory of cosmological days, +is perhaps also itself but a dream, yet one that, however defective, +has a beauty which must have been too fair. Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, +originally regarded as emanations of the ideal, became concrete. +Consorts were found for them. From infinity they were lodged in idols. +A worship sensuous when not grotesque ensued, from which the ideal +took flight. + +That was the work of the clergy. Brahmanism is also. The archaic +conflict between light and darkness, the triumph of the former over +the latter, diminished, at their hands, into the figurative. That is +only reasonable. It was only reasonable also that they should claim +the triumph as their own. Without them the gods could do nothing. They +would not even be. In the _Rig-Veda_ and the _Vedas_ generally they +are transparent. The subsequent evolution of the Paramatma, the +Tri-murti and the hierarchy, had, for culmination, the apotheosis of a +priesthood that had invented them and who, for the invention, deserved +the apotheosis which they claimed and got. They were priests that were +poets, and poets that were seers. But they were not sorcerers. They +could not provide successors equal to themselves. It was the later +clergy that pulled poetry from the infinite, stuffed it into idols and +prostituted it to nameless shames. + +In the _Bhagavad-Gita_ it is written: "Nothing is greater than I. In +scriptures I am prayer. I am perfume in flowers, brilliance in light. +I am life and its source. I am the soul of creation. I am the +beginning and the end. I am the Divine." + +That is Brahm. Ormuzd has faded. Zeus has passed. Jupiter has gone. +With them the divinities of Egypt and the lords of the Chaldean sky +have been reabsorbed and forgot. Brahm still is. The cohorts of Cyrus +might pray Ormuzd to peer where he glowed. There, the phalanxes of +Alexander might raise altars to Zeus. Parthians and Tatars might +dispute the land and the god. Muhammadans could bring their Allah and +Christians their creed. Indifferently Brahm has dreamed, knowing that +he has all time as these all have their day. + +The conception of that apathy, grandiose in itself and marvellous in +its persistence, was due to unknown poets that had in them the true +_souffle_ of the real ideal. But that also demanded a climax. They +produced it in the theory that the afflictions of this life are due to +transgressions in another. + +From afflictions death, they taught, is not a release, for the reason +that there is no death. There is but absorption in Brahm. Yet that +consummation cannot occur until all transgressions, past and present, +have been expiated and the soul, lifted from the eddies of migration, +becomes Brahm himself. + +To be absorbed, to be Brahm, to be God, is an ambition, certainly +vertiginous yet as surely divine. But to succeed, consciousness of +success must be lost. A mortal cannot attain divinity until +annihilation is complete. To become God nothing must be left of man. +To loose, then, every bond, to be freed from every tie, to retire from +finite things, to mount to and sink in the immutable, to see Death +die, was and is the Hindu ideal. + +Of the elect, that is. Of the higher castes, of the priest, of the +prince. But not of the people. The ideal was not for them, salvation +either. It was idle even to think about it. Set in hell, they had to +return here until in some one of the twenty-four lakhs of birth which +the chain of migrations comports, and which to saint and soudra were +alike dispensed, they arrived here in the purple. Then only was the +opportunity theirs to rescale a sky that was reserved for prelates and +rajahs. + +Suddenly, to the pariah, to the hopeless, to those who outcast in hell +were outcast from heaven, an erect and facile ladder to that sky was +brought. The Buddha furnished it. If he did not, a college of +dissidents assumed that he had, and in his name indicated a stairway +which, set among the people, all might mount and at whose summit gods +actually materialized. + +To those who believe in the Dalai Lama--there are millions that have +believed, there are millions that do--he is not a vicar of the divine, +he is himself divine, a god in a tenement of flesh who, as such, +though he die, immediately is reincarnated; a god therefore always +present among his people, whose history is a continuous gospel. In +contemporaneous Italy, a peasant may aspire to the papacy. In the +uplands of Asia, men have loftier ambitions. There they may become +Buddha, who perhaps never was, except in legend. + +In the _Lalita Vistara_ the legend unfolds. In the strophes of the +poem one may assist at the Buddha's birth, an event which is said to +have occurred at Kapilavastu. Oriental geography is unacquainted with +the place. With the thing even Occidental philosophy is familiar. +Kapilavastu means the substance of Kapila. The substance is atheism. + +History has its hesitancies. Often it stammers uncertainly. But its +earliest pages agree in representing Kapila as the initial religious +rebel. Kapila was the first to declare the divine a human and invalid +conjecture. The announcement, with its prefaces and deductions, is +contained in the _Sankhya Karika_, a system of rationalism, still read +in India, where it is known as the godless tract. + +In the Orient, existence is usually a sordid nightmare when it does +not happen to be a golden dream. Kapila taught that it was a prison +from which release could be had only through intellectual development. +That is Kapilavastu, the substance of Kapila, where the Buddha was +born. In the _Lalita Vistara_ it is fairyland. + +There, Gotama the Buddha is the Prince Charming of a sovereign house. +But a prince who developed into a nihilist prior to re-becoming the +god that anteriorly he had been. It was while in heaven that he +selected Maya, a ranee, to be his mother. It was surrounded by the +heavenly that he appeared. The fields foamed with flowers. The skies +flamed with faces. In the air apsaras floated, fanning themselves with +peacocks' tails. The galleries of the palace festooned themselves with +pearls. On the terraces a rain of perfume fell. In the parterres Maya +strolled. A tree bent and bowed to her. Touching a branch with her +hand she looked up and yawned. Painlessly from her immaculate breast +Gotama issued. An immense lotos sprouted to receive him. To cover him +a parasol dropped from above. He, however, already occupied, was +contemplating space, the myriad worlds, the myriad lives, and +announced himself their saviour. At once a deluge of roses descended. +The effulgence of a hundred thousand colours shone. A spasm of delight +pulsated. Sorrow and anger, envy and fear, fled and fainted. From the +zenith came a murmur of voices, the sound of dancing, the kiss of +timbril and of lute. + +That is Oriental poetry. Oriental philosophy is less ornate. From the +former the Buddha could not have come. From the latter he probably +did, if not in flesh at least in spirit. To that spirit antiquity was +indebted, as modernity is equally, for the doctrines of a teacher +known variously as Gotama the Enlightened and Sakya the Sage. Whether +or not the teacher himself existed is, therefore, unimportant. The +existence of the Christ has been doubted. But the doctrines of both +survive. They do more, they enchant. Occasionally they seem to +combine. The Gospels have obviously nothing in common with the _Lalita +Vistara_, which is an apocryphal novel of uncertain date. The +resemblance that is reflected comes from the _Tripitaka_, the Three +Baskets that constitute the evangels of the Buddhist faith. + +In an appendix to the _Mahavaggo_, it is stated that disciples of +Gotama, who knew his sermons and his parables by heart, determined the +canon "after his death." The expression might mean anything. But a +ponderable antiquity is otherwise shown. Asoko, a Hindu emperor, sent +an embassy to Ptolemy Philadelphos. The circumstance was set forth +bilingually on various heights. In another inscription Asoko +recommended the study of the _Tripitaka_ and mentioned titles of the +books. Ptolemy Philadelphos reigned at Alexandria in the early part of +the third century B.C. The _Tripitaka_ must therefore have existed +then. But the thirty-seventh year of Asoko's reign was, in a third +inscription, counted as the two hundred and fifty-seventh from the +Buddha's death, a reckoning which makes them much older. Their +existence, however, as a fourth inscription shows, was oral. +Transmitted for hundreds of years by trained schools of reciters, it +was during a synod that occurred in the first quarter of the first +century before Christ that, finally, they were written. + +In them it is recited that Maya, the mother of Gotama, was immaculate. +According to St. Matthew, Maria, the mother of Jesus, was also. +Previously, in each instance, the coming of a Messiah had been +foretold. The infant Jesus was visited by magi. The infant Buddha was +visited by kings. Afterward, neither Jesus or Gotama wrote. But both +preached charity, chastity, poverty, humility, and abnegation of self. +Both fasted in a wilderness. Both were tempted by a devil. Both +announced a second advent. Both were transfigured. Both died in the +open air. At the death of each there was an earthquake. Both healed +the sick. Both were the light of a world which both said would cease +to be. + +According to _Luke_, a courtesan visited Jesus and had her sins +remitted. According to the _Mahavaggo_, Gotama was visited by a harlot +whom he instructed in things divine.[1] In _Matthew_, Jesus is +depicted as a glutton and a wine-bibber. In the _Mahavaggo_, the +picture of Gotama is the same.[2] In _Matthew_ it is written; "Lay not +up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth consume +and where thieves break through and steal." The _Khuddakapatho_ says: +"Righteousness is a treasure which no man can steal. It is a treasure +that abideth alway."[3] In _Luke_ it is written: "As ye would that men +should do unto you, do ye also unto them." The _Dhammaphada_ say: "Put +yourself in the place of others, do as you would be done by."[4] + +[Footnote 1: Luke vii. 37-50. Sacred Books of the East, xi. 30.] + +[Footnote 2: Matthew xi, 19. S. B. E. xiii. 92.] + +[Footnote 3: Matthew vi. 19. S. B. E. x. 191.] + +[Footnote 4: Luke vi. 31. S. B. E. x. 36.] + +The miracle of walking on the water, that of the money-bearing fish, +the story of the Woman at the Well, the proclamation of an +unpardonable sin, even the mediaeval myth of the Wandering Jew, may +have originated in Buddhist legend.[5] + +[Footnote 5: _Cf._ Edmunds: Buddhist and Christian Gospels.] + +Pious minds have been disturbed by these similitudes. The resemblance +between Maya and Maria has perplexed. The perhaps uncertain likeness +of Gotama to Jesus has occasioned irreverent doubts. But the +parallelisms may be fortuitous. Probably they are. Even otherwise they +but enhance the sororal beauties of faiths which if cognate are quite +distinct. Then too the penetrating charm of the parables and sermons +of the Buddha fades before the perfection of the sermons and parables +of the Christ. The birth, ministry, transfiguration, and passing of +Gotama are marvels which, however exquisite, the wholly spiritual +apparitions of the Lord efface. + +Other similarities, such as they are, may without impropriety, +perhaps, be attributed to the ideals progressus. Hindu and Chaldean +beliefs constitute the two primal inspirational faiths. From the one, +Buddhism and Zoroasterism developed. From the other the creed of +Israel and possibly that of Egypt came. Religions that followed were +afterthoughts of the divine. They were revelations sometimes more +intelligible, in one instance inexpressibly more luminous, yet +invariably reminiscent of an anterior light. + +The light of contemporaneous Buddhism is that of Catholicism--heaven +deducted, a heaven, that is, of ceaseless Magnificats. The latter +conception is Christian. But it was Persian first. Otherwise, in +common with the Church, Buddhism has saints, censers, litanies, +tonsures, holy water, fasts, and confession. Barring confession, the +extreme antiquity of which has been attested, the other rites and +ceremonies are, it may be, borrowed, but not the high morality, the +altruism, the renunciation and effacement of self, which Buddhists no +longer very scrupulously observe, perhaps, but which their religion +was the first to instil. + +Buddhism originally had neither rites nor ritual. It was merely a +mendicant order in which one tried to do what is right, with, for +reward, the hope of Pratscha-Paramita, the peace that is beyond all +knowledge and which Nirvana provides. That peace is--or was--the +complete absence of anything, extinction utter and everlasting, a +state of absolute non-existence which no whim of Brahm may disturb. + +Buddhism denied Brahm and every tenet of Brahmanism, save only that +which concerned the immedicable misery of life. Of final deliverance +there was in Brahmanism no known mode. None at least that was +exoteric. Brahmanism rolled man ceaselessly through all forms of +existence, from the elementary to the divine, and even from the +latter, even when he was absorbed in Brahm, flung him out and back +into a fresh circle of unavoidable births. + +The theory is horrible. In the horrible occasionally is the sublime. +To Gotama it was merely absurd. He blew on it. Abruptly, the +categories of the infinite, the infant gods, shapes divine and +demoniac, the entire phantasmagoria of metempsychosis, seemed really +absorbed and Brahm himself ablated. For a moment the skies, sterilized +by a breath, seemingly were vacant. Actually they were never more +peopled. Behind the pall, tossed on an antique faith, new gods were +crouching and waiting. Buddhistic atheism had resulted but in the +production of an earlier New Testament. From the depths of the ideal, +swarms of bedecked and bejewelled divinities escorted Brahm back to a +lotos of azure. Coincidentally Gotama, enthroned in the zenith, +contemplated clusters of gods that dangled through twenty-eight abodes +of bliss which other poets created. + +In demonstrable triumph the Buddha was then, as he has been since, +even if previously his existence had been omitted. But though he never +were, there nevertheless occurred a social revolution of which he was +the nominal originator and which, had it not been diverted into other +realms, might have resulted in Brahm's entire extinction. + +Wolves do not devour each other. Ideals should not either. The +Oriental heavens were wide enough to serve as fastnesses for two sets +of hostile, germane, and ineffably poetic aberrations. There was room +even for more. There always should be. Of the divine one can have +never enough. + +The gospel according to Sakya the Eremite is divine. It is divine in +its limitless compassion, and though compassion, when analyzed, +becomes but egotism in an etherialized form, yet the gospel had other +attractions. In demonstrating that life is evil, that rebirth is evil +too, that to be born even a god is evil still,--in demonstrating these +things, while insisting that all else, Buddhism included, is but +vanity, it fractured the charm of error in which man had been +confined. + +Sakya saw men born and reborn in hell. He saw them ignorant, as +humanity has always been, unaware of their abjection as men are +to-day, and over the gulfs of existence, through the torrents of +rebirth, he offered to ferry them. But in the ferrying they had to +aid. The aid consisted in the rigorous observance of every virtue that +Christianity afterward professed. Therein is the beauty of Buddhism. +Its profundity resided in a revelation that everything human perishes +except actions and the consequences that ensue. To orthodox India its +tenets were as heretical as those of Christianity were to the Jews. +Nonetheless the doctrine became popular. But doctrines once +popularized lose their nobility. The degeneracy of Buddhism is due to +Cathay. + +To the Hindu life was an incident between two eternities, an episode +in the string of deaths and rebirths. To Mongolians it was a unique +experience. They had no knowledge of the supersensible, no suspicion +of the ideal. Among them Buddhism operated a conversion. It stimulated +a thirst for the divine. + +The thirst is unquenchable. Buddhism, in its simple severity, could +not even attempt to slake it. But on its simplicity a priesthood shook +parures. Its severity was cloaked with mantles of gold. The founder, +an atheist who had denied the gods, was transformed into one. About +him a host of divinities was strung. The most violently nihilistic of +doctrines was fanned into an idolatry puerile and meek. Nirvana became +Elysium, and a religion which began as a heresy culminated in a +superstition. That is the history of creeds. + + + + +II + +ORMUZD + + +"The purest of thoughts is that which concerns the beginning of +things." + +So Ormuzd instructed Zarathrustra. + +"And what was there at the beginning?" the prophet asked. + +"There was light and the living Word."[6] Long later the statement was +repeated in the Gospel attributed to John. Originally it occurred in +the course of a conversation that the _Avesta_ reports. In a similar +manner _Exodus_ provides a revelation which Moses received. There +Jehovah said: _'ehyeh '[)a]sher 'ehyeh_. In the _Avesta_ Ormuzd said: +_ahmi yad ahmi_.[7] Word for word the declarations are identical. Each +means _I am that I am_.[8] + +[Footnote 6: Avesta (Anquetil-Duperron), i. 393]. + +[Footnote 7: Avesta, Hormazd Yasht.] + +[Footnote 8: Exodus iii. 14.] + +The conformity of the pronouncements may be fortuitous. Their relative +priority uncertain chronology obscures. The date that orthodoxy has +assigned to Moses is about 1500 B.C. Plutarch said that Zarathrustra +lived five thousand years before the fall of Troy. Both dates are +perhaps questionable. But a possible hypothesis philology provides. +The term Jehovah is a seventeenth-century expansion of the Hebrew +Jhvh, now usually written Jahveh and commonly translated: _He who +causes to be._ The original rendering of Ormuzd is Ahura-mazda. Ahura +means _living_ and mazdao _creator_. The period when _Exodus_ was +written is probably post-exilic. The period when the _Avesta_ was +completed is assumed to be pre-Cyrian. It was at the junction of the +two epochs that Iran and Israel met. + +But, however the pronouncements may conform, however also they may +confuse, the one reported in _Exodus_ is alone exact. In subsequent +metamorphoses the name might fade, the deity remained. Whereas, save +to diminishing Parsis, Ormuzd, once omnipotent throughout the Persian +sky, has gone. A time, though, there was, when from his throne in the +ideal he menaced the apathy of Brahm, the majesty of Zeus, when even +from the death of deaths he might have ejected Buddha and, supreme in +the Orient, ruled also in the West. Salamis prevented that. But one +may wonder whether the conquest had not already been effected, whether +for that matter the results are not apparent still. Brahma, Ormuzd, +Zeus, Jupiter, are but different conceptions of a primal idea. They +are four great gods diversely represented yet originally identical, +and whose attributes Jahveh, in his ascensions, perhaps absorbed. + +Ormuzd represented purity and light. For his worship no temple was +necessary, barely a shrine, never an image. In his celestial court +were parikas, the glittering bayaderes of love that a later faith +called peris, but his sole consorts were Prayers. About him and them +gathered amshaspands and izeds, angels and seraphs, the winged host of +loveliness that in Babylon enthralled the Jews who returned from +captivity escorted by them. The allurement of their charm, enchanting +then, enchants the world to-day. There has been little that is more +poetic, except perhaps Ormuzd himself, who symbolized whatever is +blinding in beauty, particularly the sun's effulgence, the radiance of +light. + +The light endures, though the god has gone. Yet at the time, aloof in +clear ether and aloft, he resplended in a sovereignty that only +Ahriman disputed. + +Ahriman has been more steadfast than Ormuzd. He too captivated the +captive Hebrews. The latter adopted him and called him Satan, as they +also adopted one of his minor legates, Ashmodai--transformed by the +Vulgate into Asmodeus--a little jealous devil who, in the apocryphal +_Tobit_, strangled husbands on their bridal nights. Ahriman, his +master, represented everything that was the opposite of Ormuzd. +Ahriman dwelt in darkness, Ormuzd in light. Ormuzd was primate of +purity; Ahriman, prince of whatever is base. One had angels and +archangels for aids, the other fiends and demons. Between their forces +war was constant. Each strove for the soul of man. But after death, +when, in the balance, the deeds of the defunct were weighed, there +appeared a golden-eyed redeemer, Mithra, who so closely resembled the +Christ that the world hesitated, for a moment, between them. + +It was because of these conceptions that Persia dreamed of conquering +the West. At Marathon and at Salamis that illusion was looted. History +tells of the cohorts that descended there. It relates further what +they did. But of what they thought there is no record. It was, +perhaps, too obvious. Ormuzd, god of light and, in the Orient, god of +the day, was, in the darker and duller Occident, menaced there also by +Ahriman. Politically the expedition is not very explicable. Considered +from a religious standpoint the motive is clear. But though the +Persian forces could not uphold their light in Greece, higher forces +projected it far beyond, to the remote north, to a south that was +still remoter. + +Originally the light was Vedic. It was identical with that of Agni, of +Indra and of Varuna. But while these, without subsidence, passed, +absorbed by Brahm, the light of Iran, deflecting, persisted, and so +potently that it lit the Teutonic sky, glows still in Christendom, +after refracting perhaps in Inca temples. Its revelation is due to +Zarathrustra. + +Zarathrustra, commonly written Zoroaster, is a name translatable into +"star of gold" and also into "keeper of old camels." Probably it was +first employed to designate an imaginary prophet, and then a series of +spiritual though actual successors by whom, in the course of +centuries, the _Avesta_ was evolved. Otherwise Zarathrustra and Gotama +are brothers in Brahmanaspati. Both had virgin mothers. In the lives +of both miracles are common. The advent of Zarathrustra was accounted +the ruin of demons. When he was born he laughed aloud. As a child he +slept in flames. As a man he walked on water. Before prodigies such as +these fiends fell like autumn leaves. Hence, on the part of the devil, +an attempt to seduce him from the divine. Mairya, the demon of death, +offered him, as Mara offered Gotama, as Satan offered Jesus, the +empire of the earth. Zarathrustra rebuked the devil first with stones, +then with pious words. From him, as from the Buddha and the Christ, +abashed the tempter retreated.[9] + +[Footnote 9: Darmestetter: Ormazd et Ahriman.] + +That victory over evil, the Parsis to-day regard as the capital event +in the history of the world. It was the immediate prelude to the +revelation of the Law which Ormuzd vouchsafed to his prophet. + +The revelation occurred on a mountain, in the course of conversations, +during which Zarathrustra questioned and Ormuzd, in the voice of +heaven, replied. So was the Law proclaimed in India. There Mithra and +Varuna sang it through the sky.[10] The expression is notable, for the +song of the sky is thunder and the theophany that of Sinai. There is +another _rapprochement_ in Babylonian lore and a third in the _Eddas_, +where it is related that to Sigurd the secret of the runes was sung. + +[Footnote 10: Rig-Veda, i. 151.] + +Meanwhile, the revelation completed and proclaimed, Zarathrustra died +as miraculously as he was born, foretelling, as he went, the coming of +a messiah, his own son, Coshyos--the delayed fruit of an immaculate +hymen that is not to be fecund until the end of time--but who, at the +consummation of the ages, will rejuvenate the world, affranchise it +from death, vanquish Ahriman, terminate the struggle between good and +evil, purify hell and fill it full with glory. Then the dead shall +rise and immortality be universal.[11] + +[Footnote 11: Zamyad Yasht. xix. 89 _sq._] + +Zoroaster is obviously mythical. The Buddha is also. But precisely as +the Buddhist scriptures exist, so also do the Zoroastrian. They do +more. Frequently they enlighten, occasionally they exalt. Written in +gold on perfumed leather, the original edition, limited to two copies, +was so sacred that it was sullied if seen. Burned with the palace of +Persepolis--which Alexander, the Great Sinner, in a drunken orgy, +destroyed--only fragments of the fargards remain. These tell of +creation, effected in six epochs, and of a _pairi-daeza_. + +Delitzsch voluminously asked: _Wo lag das Paradies?_ There it is. +There is the primal paradise. In it Ormuzd put Mashya, the first man, +and Mashyana, the first woman, whom Ahriman, in the form of a serpent, +seduced. Thereafter ensued the struggle in which all have or will +participate, one that, extending beyond the limits of the visible +world, arrays seasons and spirits and the senses of man in a conflict +of good and evil that can end only when, from the depths of the dawn, +radiant in the vermillion sky, Coshyos, hero of the resurrection, +triumphantly appears. + +The parallel between this romance and subsequent poetry is curious. In +Chaldea, before the fargards were, the story of Creation, of Eden, and +of the fall had been told. In Egypt, before the _Avesta_ was written, +the resurrection and the life were known. Similar legends and +prospects may or may not represent an autonomous development of +Iranian thought. The successors of the problematic Zarathrustra, the +line of magi who wrote and taught in his name, may have gathered the +tales and theories elsewhere. In the creed which they instituted there +is a trinity. India had one, Egypt another, Babylonia a third. +Babylonia had even three of them. But in Mithra, Iran had a redeemer +that no other creed possessed. In Coshyos was a saviour, virgin born, +who nowhere else was imagined. In Mara, Buddhism had a Satan. The +Persian Ahriman is Satan himself. Babylon had angels and cherubs. In +Iran there were guardian angels, there were archangels with flaming +swords, there were fairies, there were goblins, the celestial, the +poetic, the demoniac combined. Zoroasterism may or may not have had a +past, it is perhaps evident that it had a future. + +An inscription chiselled in the red granite of Ekbatana describes +Ormuzd as creator of heaven and earth. In the _Veda_ the description +of Indra is identical.[12] It was applied equally to Jahveh in Judea. +But above Jahveh, Kabbalists discerned En Soph. Above Indra +metaphysicians discovered Brahma. Similarly the Persian magi found +that Ormuzd, however perfect, was not perfect enough and, from the +depths of the ideal, they disclosed Zervan Akerene, the Eternal, from +whom all things come and to whom all return. + +[Footnote 12: R. V. x. 3. "Indra created heaven and earth."] + +That conception is not reached in the _Avesta_. It is in the +_Bundahish_, a work which, while much later, is based on earlier +traditions, memories it may be, of antediluvian legends brought from +the summits of upper Asia by Djemschid, the fabulous Abraham of the +Persians of whom Zarathrustra was the Moses. But in default of the +Eternal, the Avesta contains pictures of enduring charm. + +Among these is a highly poetic pastel that displays the soul of man +surprised in the first post-mortem ambuscades. There a figure, +beautiful or revolting, cries at him: "I am thyself, the image of +thine earthly life." + +If that life has been beautiful, the soul of man, led by itself, is +conducted to heaven. Otherwise, led still by itself, it descended to +Drujo-demana, the House of Destruction, where, fed on insults and +offal, it waited till its sins were destroyed. The waiting might be +long. It was not everlasting. There was Mithra to intercede. Besides, +evil was regarded but as a shadow on the surface of things. In the +seventh epoch of creation, a period yet to be, the age which Coshyos +is to usher, the shadow will fade. The wicked, purified of their +wickedness, will be received among the blessed. Even Ahriman is to be +converted. In that definite triumph of light over darkness is the +resurrection and the life, life in Garo-demana, literally House of +Hymns, a pre-Christian heaven, yet strictly Christian, where, to the +trumpetings of angels, hosannahs are ceaselessly sung.[13] + +[Footnote 13: Yasht. xxviii. 10, xxxiv. 2.] + +John--or, more exactly, his homonym--was perhaps acquainted with that +idea, as he may have been with other theories that the _Avesta_ +contains. But the possibility is a detail. It is the idea that counts. +Behind it is the unique character of this doctrine which, in +eliminating evil, converted even Satan. + +Satan seldom gets his due. He was the first artist and has remained +the greatest. In creating evil he fashioned what is a luxury and a +necessity combined. Evil is the counterpart of excellence. Both have +their roots in nature. One could not be destroyed without the other. +For every form of evil there is a corresponding form of good. Virtue +would be meaningless were it not for vice. Honour would have no +nobility were it not for shame. If ever evil be banished from the +scheme of things, life could have no savour and joy no delight. +Happiness and unhappiness would be synonymous terms. + +It is for this reason that scoffers have mocked at heaven. Heaven may +be very different from what has been fancied. But the theory of it, +however unphilosophic, which Zoroasterism supplied, carried with it a +creed not of tears but of smiles, a religion of lofty tolerance, one +in which the demonology barely alarmed, for redemption was assured, +and so fully that on earth melancholy was accounted a folly. + +Though tolerant, it could be austere. Meanness, thanklessness, +loquaciousness, jealousy, an unbecoming attire, evil thoughts, +whatever is sensual, whatever is coarse, any promenade in mud actual +or metaphorical, severely it condemned. Particularly was avarice +censured. "There are many who do not like to give," Ormuzd, in the +_Vendidad_, confided to Zarathrustra. The high god added: "Ahriman +awaits them." + +Ahriman awaited also the harlot who, elsewhere, at that period, was +holy. Yet in lapses, confession and repentance sufficed for remission, +provided that in praying for forgiveness the sinner forgave those that +had sinned against him. If he lacked the time, were he dying, a priest +might yet save him with words whispered in the ear. That was the +extreme unction, hardly administrable, however, in case of wilful +omission of the _darun_, which was communion. + +This sacrament, the most mystic of the Church, was observed by the +Incas, who also confessed, also atoned, who, like the Buddhists, were +baptized, but who, like the Persians, worshipped the sun and, with +perhaps a finer instinct of what the beautiful truly is, worshipped +too the rainbow.[14] + +[Footnote 14: Garcilasso: Commentarios reales.] + +Huraken, the winged and feathered serpent-god of the Toltecs, was +adored in temples that upheld a cross. The Incas lacked that symbol. +But they had a Satan. They had also the expectation of a saviour, +belief in whom could alone have consoled for the advent of Pizarro. +Over what highways of sea or sky, the living Word, which Ormuzd spoke, +reached them, there has been no somnambulist of history to divine. But +in the splendour that Cuzco was, in the golden temples of the town of +gold, along the scarlet lanes where sacred peacocks strolled and girls +more sacred still--vestals whom Pizarro's soldiers raped--in that City +of the Sun, the Word re-echoed. The mystery of it, reported back to +the Holy Office, was declared an artifice of the devil. + +Less mysteriously, through the obvious vehicle of cognate speech, it +reached the Norse, stirred the scalds, who repeated it in the Eddie +sagas. Loki and his inferior fiends are, as there represented, quite +as black as Ahriman and his cohorts. The conflict of good and evil is +almost as fully dire. But Odin is a colourless reflection of Ormuzd. +The aesir, the angels of the Scandinavian sky, are paler than the +izeds. The figure of Baldr, the redeemer, faints beside that of +Mithra. Valhalla, though perhaps less fatiguing than Garo-demana, was +more trite in its wassails than the latter in its hymns. + +What these abstractions lacked was not the Logos but the light. +However brilliantly the Iranian sun might glow, in the sullen north +its rays were lost. The mists, obscuring it, made Valhalla dim and set +the gods in twilight. It stirred the scalds to runes but not to +inspiration. There is none in the _Eddas_. Nor was there any in the +_Nibelungen_, until the light, almost extinct, burst suddenly in the +flaming scores of Wagner. + +Transformed by ages and by man, yet lifted at last from their secular +slumber, the Persian myths achieved there their Occidental apotheosis, +and, it may be, on steps of song, mounted to the ideal where Zervan +Akerene muses. + + + + +III + +AMON-RA + + +"I am all that is, has been and shall be. No mortal has lifted my veil." + +That pronouncement, graven on the statue of Isis, confounded Egypt, +condemning her mysteriously for some sin, anterior and unknown, to +ignorance of the divine, leaving her, in default of revelation, to +worship what she would, jackals, hyenas, cats, hawks, the ibis; beasts +and birds. Yet to the people, whose minds were as naked as their +bodies, and who, in addition, were slaves, there must have been +something very superior in the lords of the desert and the air. +Obviously they were wise. Among them were some that knew in advance +the change of the seasons. Others, indifferent to man and independent +of him, migrated over highways known but to them. The senses of all +were keyed to vibrations. They heard the inaudible, saw the invisible, +and, though they had a language of their own, when questioned never +replied. To slaves, clearly they were gods. + +Not to the priests, however. They knew better. They but affected +belief in divinities that had perhaps emigrated from the enigmas of +geography and who were polychrome as the skies they had crossed. +Fashioned in stone, these gods were dog-headed or longly beaked. Some, +though, were alive. In temples were saurians on purple carpets, bulls +draped with spangled shawls, hawks on shimmering perches, that little +gold chains detained. Among gods of this character, the Sphinx, in its +role of eternal spectre, must have seemed the ideal. Others were +nearly sublime. Particularly there was Ausar. + +Ausar, called commonly Osiris, died for man. In an attempt to preserve +harmony, in a struggle with the real spirit of actual evil which +discord is, Osiris was slain. Being a god he arose from the dead. The +latter thereafter he judged. + +The people knew little, if anything, concerning him. They knew little +if anything at all. They had a menagerie and a full consciousness of +their own insignificance. That sufficed. In all of carnal Africa, the +priest alone possessed what then was truth and of which a part is +theology now. + +Egypt, in which the evangels began, millennia before they were +written, knew no genesis. Her history, sculptured in hieroglyphics, +was cut on pages of stone. It awoke in the falling of cataracts. It +ended with simoons in sand. The books that tell of it are pyramids, +obelisks, necropoles; constructions colossal and enigmatic; the +granite epitaphs of finite things. To-day, in the shattered temples, +from which all other gods are gone, one divinity still lingers. It is +Silence. + +In Iran sorrow was a folly. In Egypt speech was a sin. Apis could +bellow, Anubis bark; man might not even stutter. It was in the +submission of dumb obedience that the palpable eternities of the +pyramids were piled. Yet in that darkness was light, in silence was +the Word. But to behold and to hear was possible only in sanctuaries +reserved to the elect. The gods too had their castes. The lowest only +were fellahin fit to worship. On the lips of the others the priests +held always a finger. Crocodiles were less distant, hyenas more +approachable, and the Egyptian, barred from the divine, found it on +earth. He prayed to scorpions, sang hymns to scarabs, coaxed the +jackal with psalms; with dances he placated the ibis. It was +ridiculous but human. He too would have a part, however insensate, in +the dreams of all mankind. + +Yet, had he looked not down but up, he would have lifted at least a +fringe of the Isian veil. The sun, taken as a symbol only, the symbol +of life, death, and resurrection--phases which its rising, setting, +and return suggest--was the deity, the one really existing god. +Nominally, figuratively, even concretely, there were others; a whole +host, a hierarchy vaster than the Aryans knew; a great crowd of +divinities less grandiose than gaudy, that swarmed in space, strolled +through the dawns and dusk, thronged the temples, eyed the quick, +confronted the dead. They were but appearances, mere masks, +expressions, hypostases, eidolons of Ra. + +Ra was the celestial pharaoh. But not originally. Originally he was +part of a triad which itself was part of a triple trinity. Ra then was +but one divinity among many gods. These ultimately lost themselves in +him so indistinguishably that there are litanies in which the names of +seventy-five of them are used in addressing him. Regarded as the +unbegotten begetter of the first beginning, he succeeded in achieving +the incomprehensible. He became triune and remained unique. He was +Osiris, he was Isis, he was Horus. At once father, mother, and son, he +fecundated, conceived, produced, and was. + +From him gods and goddesses emanated in sidereal fireworks that +illuminated the heavens, dazzled the earth, then melted into each +other, faded away or, occasionally, flared afresh in a glare +dispelling and persistent. Among these latter was Amon. Glimmering +primarily in provincial obscurity at Thebes, the thin fire of his +shrine mounted spirally to Ra, fused its flames with his, expanding +and uniting so inseparably with them, that the two became one. Amon +means _hidden_; Amon-Ra, _the hidden light_. + +In the infinite, time is not. In heaven there is no chronology. The +date of any god's accession to supremacy there is, consequently, apart +from mortal ken. None the less that of Amon-Ra is known. At the +beginning of the earthly reign of Amonhoteph III., an edict, +scrupulously executed throughout Egypt, determined, on monument and +wall, the substitution of Amon-Ra's name for that of previously +superior gods. + +The pharaohnate of Amonhoteph began about 1500 B.C. It is from that +period, therefore, that dates the divinity's accession to the +pharaohnate of the skies. There is, or should be, a reason for all +things. There is one for that. Amonhoteph regarded himself as Amon's +son. It was one of the traits of the pharaohs, as it was also of the +Incas, to believe, or at least to assert, that their fathers, +therefore themselves, were divine. As a consequence of the idea they +prayed to their own images and likened their palaces to inns. + +Originally foreigners, invaders from Akkad or Sumer, the pharaohs +first conquered, then surprised. It was they that embanked the Nile, +turned morasses into meadows and piled the pyramids. More exactly, it +was by their commands that these miracles were contrived. To the +neolithic people whom they subjugated their divinity was clear. So +elsewhere was that of the kings of Akkad. Like them, like the Incas, +the pharaohs were of the solar race and so remained from the first +dynasty to the Greek conquest, when Alexander, to legitimatize his +sovereignty, had himself acknowledged as Amon's son. + +The ceremony had its precedents. An inscription in eulogy of the great +Rameses states that Amon, when possessing the pharaohs august mother, +engendered him as a god. On a wall of the Temple of Luxor an earlier +inscription sets forth that the god of Thebes, incarnating himself in +the person of Thotmes IV., appeared in his divine form to the +pharaoh's queen, who, at sight of his beauty, conceived. + +It was therefore not in the beast alone, but in man, that divinity +revealed itself in Egypt. That in Judea a similar revelation should +have been withheld until after the Roman occupation is hardly +explicable on the theory, general among scholars, that Moses is not a +historical character, for an identical revelation had been received in +Babylonia where Israel twice loitered. Moreover, a curious parallelism +exists between post-Mosaic prophecy and Egyptian clairvoyance. In a +papyrus of the Thotmes III. epoch--about 1600 B.C.--it is written: +"The people of the age of the son of man shall rejoice and establish +his name forever. They shall be removed from evil and the wicked shall +humble their mouths." In commenting the passage an Egyptologist noted +that the words _son of man_ are a literal translation of the original +_si-n-sa_.[15] But already in Akkad a similar prophecy had been +uttered.[16] It may be, therefore, that it was in Babylon that Israel +first heard it. + +[Footnote 15: Sayce: Guifford Lectures.] + +[Footnote 16: Jastrow: The Dibbara Epic.] + +The doctrine of a trinity, common to almost all antique beliefs, was a +blasphemy to the Jews. The belief in immortality, also prevalent, +though less general, was to them an abomination. The miracle of divine +descent they were perhaps too practical to accept. There was no room +in their creed for the dogma of future rewards and punishments, and +that, together with other articles of the Christian faith, Egypt's +elect professed. + +The slaves and mongrels that constituted the bulk of the population +were not instructed in these things and would not have understood them +if they had been. In Babylonia education was compulsory. In Egypt it +was an art, a gift, mysterious in itself, reserved to the few. To the +Egyptian, religion consisted in paraded symbols, in avenues of +sphinxes, in forests of obelisks, in pharaohs seated colossally before +the temple doors, in inscriptions that told indistinguishably of +theomorphic men and anthropomorphic gods, and in a belief in the +divinity of bulls and hawks. + +These latter had their uses. In transformations elsewhere effected, +the sacred bull may have become a golden calf, the golden hawk a +sacred dove. In Egypt they were otherwise serviceable. The worship of +them, of other birds and beasts, of insects and vipers as well, +ecclesiastically indorsed, hid the myth of metempsychosis. + +Of that the people knew nothing. When they died they ceased to be. +Even mummification, usually supposed to have been general, was not for +them. Down to an epoch relatively late it was a privilege reserved to +priests and princes. When the commonalty were embalmed it was with the +opulent design that, in a future existence, they should serve their +masters as they had in this. Embalming was a preparation for the +Judgment Day. Of that the people knew nothing either. It was even +unlawful that concerning it they should be apprised. + +In the Louvre is a statue of Ptah-meh, high priest of Memphis. On it +are the significant words: "Nothing was hidden from him." A passage of +Zosimus states that what was hidden it was illicit to reveal, except, +Jamblicus explained, to those whose discretion a long novitiate had +assured. To such only was disclosed the secret that life is death in a +land of darkness, and death is life in a land of light. + +It was because of this that the pharaohs seated themselves colossally +before the temple doors. It was because of it that their palaces were +inns and their tombs were homes. It was because of it that their +sepulchres were built for eternity and the tenements of their souls +placed there embalmed. It was because of this that the triumphs of men +were inscribed in the halls of the gods. Instead of seeking to be +absorbed, it was their own inextinguishable individuality that they +endeavoured to assert. Tombs, tenements, triumphs, these all were +preparations for the Land of Light. + +The land was Alu, the asphodel meadows of the celestial Nile that +wound through the Milky Way. To reach it a passport, vise'd by Osiris, +sufficed. The first draft of that passport was held to have been +written on tablets of alabaster, in letters of lapis lazuli, by an +eidolon of Ra, who, known in Egypt as Thoth, elsewhere was Hermes +Thrice the Greatest. + +At Memphis, Hermes was regarded as representing the personification of +divine wisdom, or, more exactly perhaps, the inventive power of the +human mind. A little library of forty-two books--which a patricist +saw, but not being initiate could not read--was attributed to him.[17] +The books contained the entire hieratic belief. Fragments that are +held to have survived in an extant Greek novel are obviously Egyptian, +but as obviously Alexandrine and neo-platonic. In the _editio +princeps_ Pheidias is mentioned. Mention of Michel Angelo would have +been less anachronistic. The original books are gone, all of them, +forever, perhaps, save one, chapters of which are as old as the fourth +dynasty and, it may be, are still older. Pyramid texts of the fifth +dynasty show that there then existed what to-day is termed _The Book +of the Dead_, a copy of which, put in a mummy's arms, was a talisman +for the soul in the Court of Amenti, a passport thence to the Land of +Light. + +[Footnote 17: Clemens Alexandrinos: Stromata vi.] + +"There is no book like it, man hath not spoken it, earth hath not +heard it"--very truthfully it recites of itself. One copy, known as +the Louvre Papyrus, presents the _Divine Comedy_, as primarily +conceived and illustrated by an archaic Dore. Text and vignettes +display the tribunal where the souls of the dead are judged. + +In the foreground is an altar. Adjacent is a figure, half griffon, +half chimera, the Beast of Amenti, perhaps too of the Apocalypse. +Beyond, an ape poises a pair of scales. For balance is an ostrich +feather. Above are the spirits of fate. At the left Osiris is +enthroned. From a balcony his assessors lean. At the right is the +entrance. There the disembodied, ushered by Truth, appears and, in +homages and genuflections, affirms negatively the decalogue; +protesting before the Master of Eternity that there is no evil in him; +praying the dwellers in Amenti that he may cross the dark way; +declaring to each that he has not committed the particular sin over +which they preside. + +"O Eater of Spirits gone out of the windows of Alu! O Master of the +Faces!" he variously calls. "O the One who associates the Splendours! +O the Glowing Feet gone out of the Night! I did not lie. I did not +kill. I have not been anxious. I did not talk abundantly. I made no +one weep. No heart have I harmed." + +The assessors listen. "I have not been anxious. I made no one weep. No +heart have I harmed." These abstentions, graces now, were virtues +then, and so efficacious that they perhaps sufficed, as rightly they +should, for absolution. + +But while the assessors listen and Osiris looks gravely on, no one +accuses. It is conscience in its nakedness, conscience exposed there +where all may see it, where for the first time perhaps it truly sees +itself, and seeing realizes what there is in it of evil and what of +good, it is that which protests. + +Still the assessors listen. Orthodoxy on the part of the respondent is +to them a minor thing. What they require is that he shall have been +merciful to his fellow creatures, true to himself. Only when it is +proven that he has done his duty to man, is he permitted to show that +he has done his duty to gods. + +The appeal continues: "I fed the hungry, clothed the naked, I gave +water to them that thirsted. O ye that dwell in Amenti! I am +unpolluted, I am pure." + +But is it true? The scales decide. The heart of the respondent is +weighed. If heavy, out it is cast to pass with him again through +life's infernal circles. But, if light as the feather in the balance +and therefore equal with truth, it is restored to the body, which then +resurrects and, in the bark of the Sun, sails the celestial Nile to Ra +and the Land of Light. + +That singer gone out of Amenti, actually, like Osiris, rose from the +dead. The picture which a papyrus forty centuries old presents, is the +dream of a vision that Michel Angelo displayed, a sketch for a papal +fresco. Such indeed was the conformity between the underlying +conceptions, that, at almost the first monition, Isis, whose veil no +mortal had raised, lifted it from her black breast and suckled there +the infant Jesus. Then, presently, in temples that had teemed, the +silence of the desert brooded. The tide of life retreated, an entire +theogony vanished, exorcised, both of them, by the sign of the cross. + +At sight of the unimagined emblem, a priesthood who in secret +sanctuaries had evolved nearly all but that, flung themselves into +crypts beneath, pulled the walls down after them, burying unembalmed +the arcana of a creed whose spirit still is immortal. + +In Egypt, then, only tombs and necropoles survived. But it is +legendary that, in the solitudes of the Thebaid, dispossessed eidolons +of Ra, appearing in the shape of chimeras, terrified anchorites, to +whom, with vengeful eyes, they indicated their ruined altars. + + + + +IV + +BEL-MARDUK + + +The inscriptions of Assyrian kings have, many of them, the monotony of +hell. Made of boasts and shrieks, they recite the capture and sack of +cities; the torrents of blood with which, like wool, the streets were +dyed; the flaming pyramids of prisoners; the groans of men impaled; +the cries of ravished women. + +The inscriptions are not all infernal. Those that relate to +Assurbanipal--vulgarly, Sandanapallos,--are even ornate. But +Assurbanipal, while probably fiendish and certainly crapulous, was +clearly literary besides. From the spoil of sacked cities this +bibliofilou took libraries, the myths and epics of creation, sacred +texts from Eridu and Ur, volumes in the extinct tongues of Akkad and +Sumer, first editions of the Book of God. + +These, re-edited in cuneiform and kept conveniently on the second +floor of his palace, fell with Nineveh, where, until recently +recovered, for millennia they lay. Additionally, from shelves set up +in the days of Khammurabi--the Amraphel of Genesis--Nippur has yielded +ghostly tablets and Borsippa treasuries of Babylonian ken. + +These, the eldest revelations of the divine, are the last that man has +deciphered. The altars and people that heard them first, the marble +temples, the ivory palaces, the murderous throngs, are dust. The +entire civilization from which they came has vanished. Yet, traced +with a wooden reed on squares of clay, are flights of little arrows, +from which, magically, it all returns. Miraculously with these books a +world revives. Fashioned, some of them, at an epoch that in biblical +chronology is anterior to man, they tell of creation, of the serpent, +the fall and the deluge. At the gates of paradise you see man dying, +poisoned by the tree of life. Before Genesis was, already it had been +written. + +In the Chaldean Book of the Beginnings creation was effected in +successive acts. According to the epic of it, humanity's primal home +was a paradise where ten impressive persons--the models, it may be, of +antediluvian patriarchs--reigned interminably, agreeably also, finally +sinfully as well. In punishment a deluge swept them away. From the +flood there escaped one man who separated a mythical from an heroic +age. In the latter epoch, beings descended from demons built Nineveh +and Babylon; organized human existence; invented arithmetic, geometry, +astronomy and the calendar; counted the planets; numbered the days of +the year, divided them into months and weeks; established the Sabbath; +decorated the skies with the signs of the zodiac, instituting, in the +interim, colleges of savants and priests. These speculated on the +origin of things, attributed it to spontaneous generation, the descent +of man to evolution, entertaining the vulgar meanwhile with tales of +gods and ghosts.[18] + +[Footnote 18: Lenormant: Les Origines. Schrader: Die Keilenschriften. +Smith: Chaldean Genesis.] + +The cosmological texts now available were not written then. They are +drawn from others that were. But there is a vignette that probably is +of that age. It represents a man and a woman stretching their hands to +a tree. Behind the woman writhes a snake. The tree, known as the holy +cedar of Eridu, the fruit of which stimulated desire, is described in +an epic that recites the adventures of Gilgames. + +Gilgames was the national hero of Chaldea. The story of his loves with +Ishtar is repeated in the Samson and Delilah myth. Ishtar, described +in an Assyrian inscription as Our Lady of Girdles, was the original +Venus, as Gilgames was perhaps the prototype of Hercules. The legend +of his labours is represented on a seal of Sargon of Akkad, a king who +ruled fifty-seven hundred years ago. + +In the epic, Gilgames, betrayed by Ishtar, tried to find out how not +to die. In trying he reached a garden, guarded by cherubim, where the +holy cedar was. There he learned that one being only could teach him +to be immortal, and that being, Adra-Khasis, had been translated to +the Land of the Silver Sky. Adra-Khasis, was the Chaldean Noah. +Gilgames sought him and the story of the deluge follows. But with a +difference. On the seventh day, Adra-Khasis released from his ark a +dove that returned, finally a raven that did not. Then he looked out, +and looking, shrieked. Every one had perished. + +Noah was less emotional, or, if equally compassionate, the fact is not +recited. Apart from that detail and one other, the story of the flood +is common to all folklore. Even the Aztecs knew of it. Probably it +originated in the matrix of nations which the table-land of Asia was. +But only in Chaldean myth, and subsequently in Hebrew legend, was the +flood ascribed to sin. + +Gilgames' quest, meanwhile, could not have been wholly vain. In an +archaic inscription it is stated that the city of Erech was built in +olden times by the deified Gilgames.[19] + +[Footnote 19: Proc. S. B. A. xvi. 13-15.] + +How old the olden times may have been is conjectural. Modern science +has put the advent of man sixty million years ago. Chaldean chronology +is less spacious. But its traditions stretched back a hundred thousand +years. The traditions were probably imaginary. Even so, in the morning +of the world, already there were ancient cities. There was Nippur, one +of whose gods, El Lil, was lord of ghosts. There was Eridu, where Ea +was lord of man. There was Ur, where Sin was lord of the moon. There +were other divinities. There was Enmesara, lord of the land whence +none return, and Makhir, god of dreams. + +There were many more like the latter, so many that their sanctuaries +made the realm a holy land, but one which, administratively, was an +aggregate of principalities that Sargon, nearly six thousand years +ago, combined. Ultimately, from sheer age, the empire tottered. It +would have fallen had not Khammurabi surged. What Sargon made, +Khammurabi solidified. Between their colossal figures two millennia +stretch. These giants are distinct. None the less, across the ages +they seem to fuse, suggestively, not together, but into another +person. + +Sargon has descended through time clothed in a little of the poetry +which garments nation builders. But the poetry is not a mantle for the +imaginary. In the British Museum is a marble ball that he dedicated to +a god. Paris has the seal of his librarian.[20] Copies of his annals +are extant.[21] In these it is related that, when a child, his mother +put him in a basket of rushes and set him adrift on the Euphrates. +Presently he was rescued. Afterward he became a leader of men. + +[Footnote 20: Collection de Clerq. pl. 5, no. 46.] + +[Footnote 21: Cuneiform Insc. W. A. iv. 34.] + +Khammurabi was also a leader. He was a legislator as well. Sargon +united principalities, Khammurabi their shrines. From one came the +nation, from the other the god. It is in this way that they fuse. To +the composite, if it be one, history added a heightening touch. + +The Khammurabi legislation came from Bel, who, originally, was a local +sun-god of Nippur. There he was regarded as the possessor of the +Chaldean Urim and Thummin, the tablets of destiny with which he cast +the fates of men. In the mythology of Babylonia these tablets were +stolen by the god of storms, who kept them in his thunder fastness. +Among the forked flames of the lightning there they were recovered by +Bel, who revealed the law to Khammurabi. + +The theophany is perhaps similar to that of Sinai. But perhaps, too, +it is better attested. A diorite block, found at Susa in 1902, has the +law engraved on it. On the summit, a bas-relief displays the god +disclosing the statutes to the king. + +There are other analogies. Sinai was named after Sin, who, though but +a moon-god, was previously held supreme for the reason that, in +primitive Babylonia, the lunar year preceded the solar. The sanctuary +of the moon-god was Ur, of which Abraham was emir. He was more, +perhaps. Sarratu, from which Sarai comes, was the title of the +moon-goddess. In _Genesis_, Sarai is Abraham's wife. Abraham is a +derivative of Aburamu, which was one of the moon's many names.[22] + +[Footnote 22: Sayce: Guifford Lectures.] + +Among these, one in particular has since been identified with Jahveh. +In addition, a clay tablet of the age of Khammurabi, now in the +British Museum, has on it: + +[Illustration] + +That flight of arrows, being interpreted, means: _Jave ilu_, Jahveh is +god.[23] + +[Footnote 23: Delitzch: Babel und Bibel.] + +Other texts show that a title of Bel was Masu, a word that letter for +letter is the same as the Hebrew Mosheh or Moses.[24] + +[Footnote 24: Records of the Past, i. 91.] + +It is in this way that Sargon and Khammurabi fuse. Meanwhile the title +Masu, or hero, was not confined to Bel. It was given also to Marduk, +the tutelary god of Babylon, from whom local monotheism proceeded. + +That monotheism, in appearance relatively modern, actually was +archaic. The Chaldean savants knew of but one really existing god. To +them, all others were his emanations. The deus exsuperantissimus was +represented by a single stroke of the reed, a sign that in its +vagueness left him formless and incommunicable, therefore +unworshipable, hence without a temple, unless Bab-ili, Babylon, the +Gate of God, may be so construed. + +The name of the deity, fastidiously concealed from the vulgar, was, in +English, One. Not after, or beneath, or above, but before him, a +trinity swung like a screen. From it, for pendant, another trinity +dangled. From the latter fell a third. Below these glories were the +coruscations of an entire nation of inferior gods. The latter, as well +as the former, all of them, were but the fireworks of One. He alone +was. The rest, like Makhir, were gods of dream. To the savants, that +is; to the magi and seers. To the people the sidereal triads and +planetary divinities throned in the Silver Sky augustly real, equally +august, and in that celestial equality remained, until Khammurabi gave +precedence to Bel, who as Marduk, Bel or Baal Marduk, Lord Marduk, +became supreme. + +Before Bel, then, the other gods faded as the Elohim did before +Jahveh, with the possible difference that there were more to +fade--sixty-five thousand, Assurnatsipal, in an inscription, declared. +Over that army Bel-Marduk acquired the title, perhaps significant, of +Bel-Kissat, Lord of Hosts. Yet it was less as a usurper than as an +absorber that the ascension was achieved. Bel but mounted above his +former peers and from the superior height drew their attributes to +himself. It was sacrilege none the less. As such it alienated the +clergy and enraged the plebs. Begun under Khammurabi and completed +under Nabonidos, it was the reason why, during the latter's reign, +orthodox Babylon received Cyrus not as a foe but a friend. + +From the spoliation, meanwhile, no nebulousness resulted. Bel was +distinctly anthropomorphic. His earthly plaisance was the Home of the +Height, a seven-floored mountain of masonry, a rainbow pyramid of +enamelled brick. At the top was a dome. There, in a glittering +chamber, on a dazzling couch, he appeared. Elsewhere, in the +vermillion recesses of a neighbouring chapel, that winged bulls +guarded and frescoed monsters adorned, once a year he also appeared, +and, above the mercy seat, on an alabaster throne, sat, or was +supposed to sit, contemplating the tablets of destiny, determining +when men should die. + +To the Greeks, the future lay in the lap of the gods. To the +Babylonians the gods alone possessed it, as alone also they possessed +the present and the past. They had all time as all men have their day. +That day was here and it was brief. Death was a descent to Aralu, the +land whence none return, a region of the underworld, called also +Shualu, where the departed were nourished on dust. Dust they were and +to dust they returned. + +Extinction was not a punishment or even a reward, it was a law. +Punishment was visited on the transgressor here, as here also the +piety of the righteous was rewarded. When death came, just and unjust +fared alike. The Aryan and Egyptian belief in immortality had no place +in this creed, and consequently it had none either in Israel, where +Sheol was a replica of Shualu. To the Semites of Babylonia and Kanaan, +the gods alone were immortal, and immortal beings would be gods. Man +could not become divine while his deities were still human. + +Exceptionally, exceptional beings such as Gilgames and Adra-Khasis +might be translated to the land of the Silver Sky, as Elijah was +translated to heaven, but otherwise the only mortals that could reach +it were kings, for a king, in becoming sovereign, became, _ipso +facto_, celestial. As such, ages later, Alexander had himself +worshipped, and it was in imitation of his apotheosis that the +subsequent Caesars declared themselves gods. Yet precisely as the +latter were man-made deities, so the Babylonian Baalim were very +similar to human kings. + +For their hunger was cream, oil, dates, the flesh of ewe lambs. For +their nostrils was the perfume of prayers and of psalms; for their +passions the virginity of girls. Originally the first born of men were +also given them, but while, with higher culture, that sacrifice was +abolished, the sacred harlotry, over which Ishtar presided, remained. +Judaism omitted to incorporate that, but in Kanaan, which Babylonia +profoundly influenced, it was general and, though reviled by Israel, +was tempting even, and perhaps particularly, to Solomon.[25] + +[Footnote 25: 1 Kings xi. 5. "Solomon went after Ashtoreth."] + +The latter's temple was similar to Bel's, from which the Hebraic +ritual, terms of the Law, the Torah itself, may have proceeded, as, it +may be, the Sabbath did also. On a tablet recovered from the library +of Assurbanipal it is written: "The seventh day is a fast day, a lucky +day, a sabbatuv"--literally, a day of rest for the heart.[26] + +[Footnote 26: Cuneiform Insc. W. A. ii. 32.] + +In Aralu that day never ceased; the dead there, buried, Herodotos +said, in honey, were unresurrectably dead, dead to the earth, dead to +the Silver Sky. Yet though that was an article of faith, through a +paradox profoundly poetic, there was a belief equally general, in +ghosts, in hobgoblins, in men with the faces of ravens, in others with +the bodies of scorpions, and in the post-mortem persistence of girls +that died pure. + +These latter, in searching for someone whom they might seduce, must +have afterward wandered into the presence of St. Anthony. Perhaps, +too, it was they who, as succubi, emotionalized the dreams of monks. +Yet, in view of Ishtar, they could not have been very numerous in +Babylon where, however, they had a queen, Lilit, the Lilith of the +_Talmud_, Adam's vampire wife, who conceived with him shapes of sin. +In these also the Babylonians believed, and naively they represented +them in forms so revolting that the sight of their own image alarmed +them away. + +From these shapes or, more exactly, from sin itself, it was very +properly held that all diseases came. Medicine consequently was a +branch of religion. The physician was a priest. He asked the patient: +Have you shed your neighbour's blood? Have you approached your +neighbour's wife? Have you stolen your neighbour's garment? Or is it +that you have failed to clothe the naked? According to the responses +he prescribed.[27] + +[Footnote 27: IV. R. 50-53. _Cf._ Delitzch: _op. cit._] + +But the priest who was a physician was also a wizard. He peeped and +muttered, or, more subtly, provided enchanted philters in which +simples had been dissolved. These devices failing, there was a series +of incantations, the _Ritual of the Whispered Charm_, in which the +most potent conjuration was the incommunicable name. To that all +things yielded, even the gods.[28] But like the Shem of the Jews, it +was probably never wholly uttered, because, save to the magi, not +wholly known. In the formulae of the necromancers it is omitted, though +in practice it may have been pronounced. + +[Footnote 28: Lenormant: La Magie chez les Chaldeens.] + +Even that is doubtful. A knowledge of it conferred powers similar to +those that have been attributed to the Christ, and which the Sadducees +ascribed to his knowledge of the tetragrammation. A knowledge of the +Babylonian Shem was as potent. It served not only men but gods. +Ishtar, for purposes of her own, wanted to get into Aralu. In the +recovered epic of her descent, imperiously she demanded entrance: + + Porter, open thy door. + Open thy door that I may enter. + If thou dost not open thy door, + I will attack it, I will break down the bars, + I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living.[29] + +[Footnote 29: Records of the Past.] + +Ishtar was admitted. But Aralu was the land whence none return. Once +in, she could not get out until, ultimately, the incommunicable name +was uttered. The epic says that, in the interim, there was on earth +neither love nor loving. In possible connection with which +incantations have been found, deprecating "the consecrated harlots +with rebellious hearts that have abandoned the holy places."[30] + +[Footnote 30: Lenormant: _op. cit._] + +In addition to the _Ritual of the Whispered Charm_, there was the +_Illumination of Bel_, an encyclopaedia of astrology in seventy-two +volumes which the suburban library of Borsippa contained. During the +captivity many Jews must have gone there. In the large light halls +they were free to read whatever they liked, religion, history, +science, the romance of all three. The books, catalogued and numbered, +were ranged on shelves. One had but to ask. The service was gratis. + +Babylon, then, prismatic and learned, was the most respectable place +on earth. For ten thousand years man had there consulted the stars. +But though respectable, it was also equivocal. During a period equally +long--or brief--the girls of the city had loosed their girdles for +Ishtar and yielded themselves to anyone, stranger or neighbour, that +asked. In the service of the goddess their brothers occasionally +feigned that they too were girls. Meanwhile, from the summit of a +seven-floored pyramid, mortals contemplated the divine. + +Beneath was cosmopolis, the golden cup that, in the words of Jeremiah, +made the whole world drunk. Seated immensely on the twin banks of the +Euphrates--banks that bridges above and tunnels beneath +interjoined--Babylon more nearly resembled a walled nation than a +fortified town. Within the gates, in an enclosure ample and noble, a +space that exceeded a hundred square miles, an area sufficient for +Paris quintupled, observatories and palaces rose above the roar of +human tides that swept in waves through the wide boulevards, surged +over the quays, flooded the gardens, eddied through the open-air +lupanar, circled among statues of gods and bulls, poured out of the +hundred gates, or broke against the polychrome walls and seethed back +in the avenues, along which, to the high flourishes of military bands, +passed armed hoplites, merchants in long robes, cloaked bedouins, +Kelts in bearskins, priests in spangled dresses, tiara'd princes, +burdened slaves, kings discrowned, furtive forms--prostitutes, +pederasts, human wolves, vermin, sheep--the flux and reflux of the +gigantic city. + +In that ocean, the captive Jews, if captive they were, rolled, lost as +a handful of salt spilt in the sea. Yet, from the depths, a few had +swum up and, filtering adroitly, had reached the dignity of high +place. One was pontiff. Others were viceroys. In addition to being +pontiff, Daniel was chancellor of the realm. Ezra was rector of the +university. As pontiff of a college of wizards, Daniel may have known +the future. As Minister of Wisdom, Ezra may have known, what is quite +as difficult, the past. For the moment there was but the present. Over +it ruled Belshazzar. + +Yet, ruler though he was, there were powers potenter than his own: +Baalim, outraged at the elevation of a parvenu god; a priesthood +consequently disaffected; and, without, at the gates, the foe. + +It would have been interesting to have assisted at the final festival +when, beneath cyclopean arches, in the sunlight of clustered +candelabra, amid the glitter of gold and white teeth, among the fair +sultanas that were strewn like flowers through the throne-room of the +imperial court, Belshazzar lay, smiling, amused rather than annoyed at +the impudent menace of Cyrus. + +Babylon was impregnable. He knew it. But the subtle Jews, the +indignant gods, the alienated priests to whom the Persian was a +redeemer, of these he did not think. Daniel had indeed warned him and, +vaguely, he had promised something which he had since forgot. + +Beyond, an orchestra was playing. Further yet, columns upheld a +ceiling so lofty that it was lost. On the adjacent wall was a frieze +of curious and chimerical beasts. Belshazzar was looking at them. In +their dumb stupidity was a suggestion of the foe. The suggestion +amused. Smiling still he raised a cup. Abruptly, before it could reach +his lips, it fell with a clatter on the lapis lazuli of the floor +beneath. Before him, on that wall, beneath those beasts, the +necromancy of the priesthood had projected an armless, fluidic hand +that mounted, descended, tracing with a forefinger the three luminous +hierograms of his doom. + +The story, a little drama, was, with the tale concerning +Nebuchadnezzar, that of Daniel, and other novels quite as strange, +evolved long later in the wide leisures of Jerusalem. The fluidic hand +did not appear. Even had it zigzagged there was no Belshazzar to +frighten. + +Only the doom was real. Cyrus was clothed with it. To the trumpetings +of heralds and the sheen of angels' wings, triumphantly he came. Then, +presently, by royal decree, the Jews, manumitted and released, +retraced their steps, burdened with spoil; with the lore of two +distinct civilizations, which, fusing in the great square letters of +the Pentateuch, was to become the poetry of all mankind. + +Babylon, ultimately, with her goblin gods and harlot goddess, sank +into her own Aralu. Nourished there on dust, Lilit, with the sister +vampires of eternal night, fed on her. + + + + +V + +JEHOVAH + + +A camel's-hair tent set in the desert was the first cathedral, the +earliest cloister of latest ideals. Set not in one desert merely but +in two, in the infinite of time as well as in that of space, there was +about it a limitlessness in which the past could sleep, the future +awake, and into which all things, the human, the divine, gods and +romance, could enter. + +The human came first. Then the gods. Then romance. The divine was +their triple expansion. It was an after growth, in other lands, that +tears had watered. In the desert it was unimagined. Only the gods had +been conceived. + +The gods were many and yet but one. Though plural they were singular. +The subjects of impersonal verbs, they represented the pronoun in such +expressions as: it rains; it thunders. "It" was Elohim. Already among +nomad Semites monotheism had begun. Yet with this distinction. Each +tribe had separate sets of Its that guided, guarded, and scourged. +Omnipresent but not omnipotent, any humiliation to the family that +they had in charge humiliated them. It made them angry, therefore +vindictive, consequently unjust. It may be that they were not very +ethical. Perhaps the bedouins were not either. Man fashions his god in +proportion to his intelligence. That of the nomad was slender. He +lacked, what the Aryan shepherd possessed, the ability for +mythological invention. The defect was due to his speech, which did +not lend itself to the deification of epithets. Even had it done so, +it is probable that his mode of life would have rendered the +paraphernalia of polytheism impossible. People constantly moving from +place to place could not be cumbered with idols. The Elohim were, +therefore, a convenience for travellers and an unidolatrous monotheism +a necessity which the absence of vehicles imposed. On the other hand, +given every facility, it is presumable that the result would have been +the same. Mythology is the mother of poetry. Idolatry is the father of +art. Neither could appeal to a people to whom delicacy was an unknown +god. Had it been known and a fetish, they could not have become the +practical people that they are. Even then they were shrewd. Their +Elohim might alarm but never delude. Israel was uncheatable even in +dream. + +Originally emigrants from Arabia, the nomads reached Syria, some +directly, others circuitously, by way of Padan-Aram and across the +Euphrates, whence perhaps their name of _Ibrim_ or Hebrews--_Those +from beyond_. In the journey Babel and Ur must have detained. These +cities, with their culture relatively deep and their observatories +equally high, became, in after days, a source of legend, of wonder, of +hatred, perhaps of revelation as well. + +At the time the nomads had no cosmogony or theories. The Chaldeans had +both. There was a story of creation, another of antediluvian kings and +of the punishment that overtook them. There was also a story of an +emir of Ur, an old man who had benevolently killed an animal instead +of his son. The story, like the others, must have impressed. In after +years the old man became Abraham, a great person, who had conversed +with the Elohim and whose descendants they were. + +The story of creation also impressed. It was enlightening and +comprehensible. The parallel theory of spontaneous generation and the +progressive evolution of the species which the magi entertained, they +probably never heard. Even otherwise it was too complex for minds as +yet untutored. The fables alone appealed. Mentally compressed into +portable shape, carried along, handed down, their origin afterward +forgotten, they became the traditions of a nation, which, eminently +conservative, preserved what it found, among other things the name, +perhaps inharmonious, of Jhvh.[31] + +[Footnote 31: Renan: Histoire du peuple d'Israel. Kuenen: De Godsdienst +van Israel.] + +That name, since found on an inscription of Sargon, appears to have +been the title of a local god of Sinai, whom the nomads may have +identified with Elohim, particularly, perhaps, since he presided over +thunder, the phenomenon that alarmed them most and which, in +consequence, inspired the greatest awe. That awe they put into the +name, the pronunciation of which, like the origin of their traditions, +they afterward forgot. In subsequent rabbinical writings it became +Shem, the Name; Shemhammephoresh, the Revealed Name, uttered but once +a year, on the day of Atonement, by the high priest in the Holy of +Holies. Mention of it by anyone else was deemed a capital offence, +though, permissibly, it might be rendered El Shaddai, the Almighty. +That term the Septuagint translated into [Greek: ho Kyrios], a Greek +form, in the singular, of the Aramaic plural Adonai, which means +Baalim, or sun lords. + +That form the Vulgate gave as Dominus and posterior theology as God. +The latter term, common to all Teutonic tongues, has no known meaning. +It designates that which, to the limited intelligence of man, has +been, and must be, incomprehensible. But the original term Jhvh, +which, in the seventeenth century, was developed into Jehovah, yet +which, the vowels being wholly conjectural, might have been developed +into anything else, clearly appealed to wayfarers to whom Chaldean +science was a book that remained closed until Nebuchadnezzar blew +their descendants back into the miraculous Babel of their youth. + +Meanwhile, apart from the name--now generally written Jahveh--apart +too from the fables and the enduring detestation which the colossal +city inspired, probably but one other thing impressed, and that was +the observance of the Sabbath. To a people whose public works were +executed by forced labour, such a day was a necessity. To vagrants it +was not, and, though the custom interested, it was not adopted by them +until their existence from nomad had become fixed. + +At this latter period they were in Kanaan. Whether in the interval a +tribe, the Beni-Israel, went down into Egypt, is a subject on which +Continental scholarship has its doubts. The early life of the tribe's +leader and legislator is usually associated with Rameses II., a +pharaoh of the XIX. dynasty. But it has been found that incidents +connected with Moses must apparently have occurred, if they occurred +at all, at a period not earlier than the XXVI. dynasty, which +constitutes a minimum difference of seven hundred years. Yet, in view +of the decalogue, with its curious analogy to the negative confession +in the _Book of the Dead_; in view also of a practice surgical and +possibly hygienic which, customary among the Egyptians, was adopted by +the Jews; in view, further, of ceremonies and symbols peculiarly +Egyptian that were also absorbed, a sojourn in Goshen there may have +been. + +The spoiling of the Egyptians, a roguery on which Israel afterward +prided herself, is a trait perhaps too typical to be lightly +dismissed. On the other hand, if Moses were, which is at least +problematic, and if, in addition to being, he was both the nephew of a +pharaoh and the son-in-law of a priest, as such one to whom, in either +quality, the arcana of the creed would be revealed, it becomes curious +that nowhere in the Pentateuch is there any doctrine of a future life. +Of the entire story, it may be that only the journey into the +Sinaiatic peninsula is true, and of that there probably remained but +tradition, on which history was based much later, by writers who had +only surmises concerning the time and circumstances in which it +occurred. + +Yet equally with the roguery, Moses may have been. Seen through modern +criticism his figure fades though his name persists. To that name the +Septuagint tried to give an Egyptian flavour. In their version it is +always [Greek: Mouses], a compound derived from the Egyptian _mo_, +water, and _uses_, saved from, or Saved-from-the-water.[32] Per contra, +the Hebrew form Mosheh is, as already indicated, the same as the +Babylonian Masu, a term which means at once leader and litterateur, in +addition to being the cognomen of a god.[33] + +[Footnote 32: Josephus: Antiq. ii. 9.] + +[Footnote 33: Sayce: The Religion of the Babylonians.] + +Moses is said to have led his people out of bondage. He was the writer +to whom the Pentateuch has been ascribed. But he was also a prophet. +In Babylon, the god of prophecy was Nebo. It was on Mount Nebo that +Jahveh commanded the prophet of Israel to die. Moreover, the divinity +that had Masu for cognomen was, as is shown by a Babylonian text, the +primitive god of the sun at Nippur, but the sun at noon, at the period +of its greatest effulgence, at the hour when it wars with whatever +opposes, when it wars as Jahveh did, or as the latter may be assumed +to have warred, since Isaiah represented him as a mighty man, roaring +at his enemies, exciting the fury of the fight, marching personally to +the conflict, and, in the Fourth Roll of the Law (Numbers), there is +mention of a book entitled: _The Wars of Jahveh_. + +Whether, then, Moses is but a composite of things Babylonian fused in +an effort to show a link between a god and a people, is conjectural. +But it is also immaterial. The one instructive fact is that, in a +retrospect, the god, immediately after the exodus, became dictator. + +Yet even in the later age, when the retrospect was effected, +conceptions were evidently immature. On one occasion the god met +Moses, tried to kill him, but finally let him go. The picture is that +of a personal struggle.[34] Again, the spectacle of his back which he +vouchsafed to Moses is construable only as an _arriere-pensee_, unless +it be profound philosophy, unless it be taken that the face of God +represents Providence, to see which would be to behold the future, +whereas the back disclosed the past. + +[Footnote 34: Exodus iv. 24-26.] + +It is, however, hardly probable that that construction occurred to the +editors of the Pentateuch, who, elsewhere, represented Jahveh as a +butcher, insatiable, jealous, vindictive, treacherous, and vain, one +that consigned all nations other than Israel to ruin and whom a poet +represented trampling people in anger, making them drunk with his +fury, and defiling his raiment with blood.[35] + +[Footnote 35: Isaiah lxiii. 1-6.] + +But in the period related in _Exodus_, Jahveh was but the tutelary god +of an itinerant tribe that, in its gipsy lack of territorial +possessions, was not even a nation. Like his people he too was a +vagrant. Like them he had no home. Other gods had temples and altars. +He lacked so much as a shrine. In prefigurement of the Wandering Jew, +each day he moved on. The threats of a land that never smiled were +reflected in his face. The sight of him was death. Certainly he was +terrible. + +This conception, corrected by later writers, was otherwise revised. In +the interim Jahveh himself was transformed. He became El, the god; +presently El Shaddai, God Almighty. In the ascension former traits +disappeared. He developed into the deity of emphatic right. Morality, +hitherto absent from religion, entered into it. Israel, who perhaps +had been careless, who, like Solomon, had followed Ishtar, became +austere. Thereafter, Judaism, of which Christianity and Muhammadanism +were the after thoughts, was destined to represent almost the sum +total of the human conscience. + +But in Kanaan, during the rude beginnings, though Jahveh was jealous, +Ishtar, known locally as Ashtoreth, allured. Conjointly with Baal, the +indigenous term for Bel, circumadjacently she ruled. The propitiatory +rites of these fair gods were debauchery and infanticide, the +loosening of the girdles of girls, the thrusting of children into +fires. It may be that these ceremonies at first amazed the Hebrews. +But conscientiously they adopted them, less perhaps through zeal than +politeness; because, in this curious epoch, on entering a country it +was thought only civil to serve the divinities that were there, in +accordance with the ritual that pleased them. + +With the mere mortal inhabitants, Israel was less ceremonious. +Commanded by Jahveh to kill, extermination was but an act of piety. It +was then, perhaps, that the _Wars of Jahveh_ were sung, a paean that +must have been resonant with cries, with the death-rattle of kingdoms, +with the shouts of the invading host. From the breast-plates of the +chosen, the terror of Sinai gleamed. Men could not see their faces and +live. The moon was their servant. To aid them the sun stood still. +They encroached, they slaughtered, they quelled. In the conquest a +nation was born. From that bloody cradle the God of Humanity came. But +around and about it was vacancy. In emerging from one solitude the +Jews created another. They have never left it. The desert which they +made destined them to be alone on this earth, as their god was to be +solitary in heaven. + +Meanwhile there had been no kings in Israel. With the nation royalty +came. David followed Saul. After him was Solomon. It is presumably at +this period that traditions, orally transmitted from a past relatively +remote, were first put in writing. Previously it is conjectural if the +Jews could write. If they could, it is uncertain whether they made any +use of the ability other than in the possible compilation of toledoth, +such as the _Book of the Generations of Adam_ and the _Wars of +Jahveh_, works that, later, may have served as data for the +Pentateuch. Even then, the compositions must have been crude, and such +rolls as existed may have been lost when Nebuchadnezzar overturned +Jerusalem. + +Presumably, it was not until the post-exilic period that, under the +editorship perhaps of Ezra, the definitive edition of the Torah was +produced. This supposition existing texts support. In Genesis (xxxvii. +31) it is written: "These are the kings of Edom before there reigned +any king over the children of Israel." The passage shows, if it shows +anything, that there were, or had been, kings in Israel at the time +when the passage itself was written. It is, therefore, at least +post-Davidic. In Genesis another passage (xlix. 10) says: "The sceptre +shall not pass from Judah until Shiloh come." Judah was the tribe that +became pre-eminent in Israel after the captivity. The passage is +therefore post-exilic, consequently so is Genesis, and obviously the +rest of the Pentateuch as well. Or, if not obviously, perhaps +demonstrably. In II Esdras xiv. 22-48 it is stated that the writer, a +candle of understanding in his heart, and aided by five swift scribes, +recomposed the Law, which, previously burned, was known to none. + +The burning referred to is what may, perhaps, be termed religious +fiction. Barring toledoth and related data that may have been lost, +the Law had almost certainly not existed before, and this post-exilic +romance concerning it was evolved in a laudable effort to show its +Mosaic source. What is true of the Law is, in a measure, true of the +Prophets. None of them anterior to Cyrus, all are later than +Alexander. Spiritually very near to Christianity, chronologically they +are neighbourly too. If not divinely inspired, they at least disclosed +the ideal. + +Previously the ideal had not perhaps been very apparent. Apart from +secessions, rebellions, concussions, convulsions that deified Hatred +until Jahveh, in the person of Nebuchadnezzar, talked Assyrian, and +then, in the person of Cyrus, talked Zend, the god of Israel, even in +Israel, was not unique. He had a home, his first, the Temple, built +gorgeously by Solomon, where invisibly, mysteriously, perhaps +terribly, beneath the wings of cherubim that rose from the depths of +the Holy of Holies, he dwelled. But the shrine, however ornate, was +not the only one. There were other altars, other gods; the plentiful +sanctuaries of Ashera, of Moloch and of Baal. On the adjacent hilltops +the phallus stood. In the neighbouring groves the kisses of Ishtar +consumed. + +The Lady of Girdles was worshipped there not by men and women only, +but by girls with girls; by others too, not in couples, but singly, +girls who in their solitary devotions had instruments for aid.[36] +Religion, as yet, had but the slightest connection with morality, a +circumstance explicable perhaps by the fact that it resumed the +ethnical conscience of a race. Between the altar of El Shaddai and the +shrines of other gods there were many differences, of which geography +was the least. Jahveh, from a tutelary god, had indeed become the +national divinity of a chosen people. But the Moabites were the chosen +people of Chemos; the Ammonites were the chosen people of Rimmon; the +Babylonians were the chosen people of Bel. The title conferred no +distinction. As a consequence, to differentiate Jahveh from all other +gods, and Israel from all other people, to make the one unique and the +other pontiff and shepherd of the nations of the world, became the +dream of anonymous poets, one that prophets, sometimes equally +anonymous, proclaimed. It was the prophets that reviled the false +gods, denounced the abominations of Ishtar, and purified the Israelite +heart. While nothing discernible, or even imaginable, menaced, however +slightly, the great empires of that day, the prophets were the first +to realize that the Orient was dead. When the Christ announced that +the end of the world was at hand, he but reiterated anterior +predictions that presently were fulfilled. A world did end. That of +antiquity ceased to be. + +[Footnote 36: _Cf._ Deut. xxiii. 17, where _'alamoth_ (puellae) is +rendered in the Sapphist sense. Ezekiel xvi. 17. _Fecisti tibi +imagines masculinas._] + +It was the prophets that foretold it. Gloomy, fanatic, implacable and, +it may be, mad, yet inspired at least by genius which itself, while +madness, is a madness wholly divine, they heralded the future, they +established the past. Abraham they drew from allegory, Moses from +myth. They made them live, and so immortally that one survives in +Islam, the other in words that are a law of grace for all. + +If, in visions possibly ecstatic, they beheld heights that lost +themselves in immensity, and saw there an ineffable name seared by +forked flames on a tablet of stone; if that spectacle and the +theophany of it were but poetry, the decalogue is a fact, one so solid +that though ages have gone, though empires have crumbled, though the +customs of man have altered, though the sky itself have changed, still +is obeyed the commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me. + +From Chemos in Moab, from Rimmon among the Ammonites, no such edict +had come. It felled them. Amon-Ra it tore from the celestial Nile, and +Bel-Marduk from the Silver Sky. The Refaim hid them in shadows as +surely as they buried there the high and potent lords of Greece and +Rome. These interments, completed by others, the prophets began. For +it was they who, in addition to the command, revealed the commandant, +creator of whatever is: the Being Absolute that abhorred evil, loved +righteousness, punished the transgressor and rewarded the just; El +Shaddai, then really Lord of Hosts. + +It may be that already in Israel there had been some prescience of +this. But it lacked the authority of inspired text. The omission was +one that only seers could remedy. It was presumably in these +circumstances that an agreement was imagined which, construed as a +condition of a covenant, assumed to have been made with Abraham, was +further assumed to have been renewed to Moses. The resulting poetry +was enveloped in a romance of which Continental scholarship has +discovered two versions, woven together, perhaps by Ezra, into a +single tale. + +"In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and earth." That abrupt +declaration, presented originally in but one of the versions, had +already been pronounced of Indra and also of Ormuzd. The Hebraic +announcement alone prevailed. It emptied the firmament of its +monsters, dislodged the gods from the skies, and enthroned there a +deity at first multiple but subsequently unique. Afterward seraphs and +saints might replace the evaporated imaginings of other creeds; Satan +might create a world of his own and people it with the damned; +theology might evolve from elder faiths a newer trinity and set it +like a diadem in space; angels and archangels might refill the +devastated heavens of the past; none the less, in the light of that +austere pronouncement, for a moment Israel dwelled in contemplation of +the Ideal. + +At the time it is probable that the story of the love of the sons of +Jahveh for the daughters of men, together with the pastel of Eden as +it stands to-day, were not contained in existing accounts of that +ideal. These legends, which regarded as legends are obviously false, +but which, construed as allegories, may be profoundly true, were +probably not diffused until after the captivity, when Israel was not +more subtle, that is not possible, but, by reason of her contact with +Persia, more wise. + +The origin of evil these myths related but did not explain. Since +then, from no church has there come an adequate explanation of the +malediction under which man is supposed to labour because of the +natural propensities of beings that never were. That explanation these +myths, which orthodoxy has gravely, though sometimes reluctantly, +accepted, both provide and conceal. They date possibly from the +Ormuzdian revelation: "In the beginning was the living Word." + +John, or more exactly his homonym, repeated the pronouncement, adding: +"The word was made flesh." But, save for a mention of the glory which +he had before the world was, he omitted to further follow the thought +of Ormuzd, who, in describing paradise to Zarathrustra, likened it, in +every way, to heaven. There the first beings were, exempt from +physical necessities, pure intelligences, naked as the compilers of +Genesis translated, naked and unashamed, but naked and unashamed +because incorporeal, unincarnate and clothed in light, a vestment +which they exchanged for a garment of flesh, coats of skin as it is in +Genesis, when, descended on earth, their intelligence, previously +luminous, swooned in the senses of man. + +In Egypt, the harper going out from Amenti sang: "Life is death in a +land of darkness, death is life in a land of light." There perhaps is +the origin of evil. There too perhaps is its cure. But the view +accepted there too is pre-existence and persistence, a doctrine +blasphemous to the Jew as it was to the Assyrian, to whom the gods +alone were immortal, and to whom, in consequence, immortal beings +would be gods. In the creed of both, man was essentially evanescent. +To the Hebrew, he lived a few, brief days and then went down into +silence, where no remembrance is. There, gathered among the Refaim to +his fathers, he remained forever, unheeded by God. + +The conception, passably rationalistic and not impossibly correct, +veiled the beautiful allegory that was latent in the Eden myth. It had +the further defect, or the additional advantage, of eliminating any +theory of future punishment and reward. In lieu of anything of the +kind, there was a doctrine that evil, in producing evil, automatically +punished itself. The doctrine is incontrovertible. But, for corollary, +went the fallacy that virtue is its own reward. Against that idea Job +protested so energetically that mediaeval monks were afraid to read +what he wrote. Yet it was perhaps in demonstration of the real +significance of the allegory that a spiritualistic doctrine--always an +impiety to the orthodox--was insinuated by the Pharisees and instilled +by the Christ. + +The basis of it rested perhaps partially in the idealism of the +prophets. The clamour of their voices awoke the dead. It transformed +the skies. It transfigured Jahveh. It divested him of attributes that +were human. It outlined others that were divine. It awoke not merely +the dead, but the consciousness that a god that had a proper name +could not be the true one. Thereafter mention of it was avoided. The +vowels were dropped. It became unpronounceable, therefore +incommunicable. For it was substituted the term vaguer, and therefore +more exact, of Lord, one in whose service were fulfilled the words of +Isaiah: "I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no +God." + +In the marvel of that miraculous realization were altitudes hitherto +undreamed, peaks from whose summits there was discernible but the +valleys beneath, and another height on which stood the Son of man. Yet +marvellous though the realization was, instead of diminishing, it +increased. It did not pass. It was not forgot. Ceaselessly it +augmented. + +In the Scriptures there are many marvels. That perhaps is the +greatest. Amon, originally an obscure provincial god of Thebes, became +the supreme divinity of Egypt. Bel, originally a local god of Nippur, +became in Babylon Lord of Hosts. But Jahveh, originally the tutelary +god of squalid nomads, became the Deity of Christendom. The fact is +one that any scholarship must admit. It is the indisputable miracle of +the Bible. + + + + +VI + +ZEUS + + +In Judea, when Jahveh was addressed, he answered, if at all, with a +thunderclap. Since then he has ceased to reply. Zeus was more +complaisant. One might enter with him into the intimacy of the +infinite. The father of the Graces, the Muses, the Hours, it was +natural that he should be debonair. But he had other children. Among +them were Litai, the Prayers. In the _Vedas_, where Zeus was born, the +Prayers upheld the skies. Lame and less lofty in Greece, they could +but listen and intercede. + +The detail is taken from Homer. In his Ionian Pentateuch is the +statement that beggars are sent by Zeus, that whoever stretches a hand +is respectable in his eyes, that the mendicant who is repulsed may +perhaps be a god[37]--suggestions which, afterward, were superiorly +resumed in the dictum: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of +these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." + +[Footnote 37: Odyssey, xviii. 485, v. 447, xiv. 56.] + +The Litai were not alone in their offices. There were the oracles of +Delphi, of Trophonios and of Mopsos, where one might converse with any +divinity, even with Pan, who was a very great god. But Olympos was +neighbourly. It was charming too. There was unending spring there, +eternal youth, immortal beauty, the harmonies of divine honey-moons, +the ideal in a golden dream; a stretch of crystal parapets, from +which, leaning and laughing, radiant goddesses and resplendent gods +looked down, and to whom a people, adolescent still, looked up. + +In that morning of delight fear was absent, mystery was replaced by +joy. The pageantry of the hours may have been too near to nature to +know of shame, it was yet too close to the divine to know of hate. +Man, then, for the first time, loved what he worshipped and worshipped +what he loved. His brilliant and musical Bible moved his heart without +tormenting it. It conducted but did not constrain. It taught him that +in death all are equal and that in life the noble-minded are serene. + +In the Genesis of this Bible there is an account of a golden age and +of a paradise into which evil was introduced by woman. The account is +Hesiod's, to whom the Orient had furnished the details. It may be that +both erred. If ever there were a golden age it must have been in those +days when heaven was on earth and, mingling familiarly with men, were +processions of gods, gods of love, of light, of liberty, thousands of +them, not one of whom had ever heard an atheist's voice. Related to +humanity, of the same blood, sons of the same Aryan mother, they +differed from men only in that the latter died because they were real, +while they were deathless because ideal. + +The ideal was too fair. Presently Pallas became the soul of Athens. +But meanwhile from the East there strayed swarms of enigmatic faces; +the harlot handmaids of her Celestial Highness Ishtar, Princess of +Heaven; the mutilated priests of Tammuz her lover; dual conceptions +that resulted in Aphrodite Pandemos, the postures of Priapos, the leer +of the Lampsacene, and, with them, forms of worship comparable, in the +circumadjacent beauty, to latrinae in a garden, ignoble shapes that +violated the candour of maidens' eyes, but with which Greece became so +accustomed that on them moral aphorisms were engraved. "In the mind of +Hellas, these things," Renan, with his usual unctuousness, declared, +"awoke but pious thoughts." + +Pious at heart Hellas was. Even art, which now is wholly profane, with +her was wholly sacred. The sanctity was due to its perfection. The +perfection was such that imbeciles who fancy that it has been or could +be surpassed show merely that they know nothing about it. At Athens, +where Pheidias created a palpable Olympos, Pallas stood colossally, a +torch in her hand, a lance at her shoulder, a shield at her side, a +plastron of gold on her immaculate breast, a golden robe about her +ivory form, and on her immortal brow a crown of gold, beneath which, +sapphire eyes, that saw and foresaw, glittered. To-day the place where +the marvellous creation stood is vacant. With the gorgeous host Pallas +has departed. But the torch she held still burns. From the emptiness +of her virginal arms, that never were filled, proceeds all +civilization. + +Adjacently at Eleusis was Demeter. Pallas was the soul of Greece. +Eleusis was the Jerusalem, Demeter the Madonna. + +Demeter--the earth, the universal mother--had, in a mystic hymen with +her brother Zeus, conceived Persephone. The latter, when young and a +maiden, beckoned perhaps by Eros, wandered from Olympos and was +gathering flowers when Pluto, borne by black horses, erupted, raped +her, and tore her away. The cries of the indignant Demeter sterilized +the earth. To assuage her, Zeus undertook to have Persephone +recovered, provided that in Hades, of which Pluto was lord, she had +eaten nothing. But the girl had--a pomegranate grain. It was the +irrevocable. Demeter yielded, as the high gods had to yield, to what +was higher than they, to Destiny. Meanwhile, in the shadows below, +Persephone was transfigured. + + Thou art more than the day or the morrow, the seasons that laugh and + that weep; + For these give joy and sorrow: but thou, Proserpina, sleep.... + O daughter of earth, of my mother, her crown and blossom of birth, + I am also, I also, thy brother; I go as I came unto earth. + In the night where thine eyes are as moons are in heaven, the night + where thou art, + Where the silence is more than all tunes, where sleep overflows from + the heart, ... + And the murmur of spirits that sleep in the shadow of gods from afar + Grows dim in thine ears and deep as the deep dim soul of a star. + In the sweet low light of thy face, under heavens untrod by the sun, + Let my soul with their souls find place and forget what was done or + undone. + Thou art more than the gods that number the days of our temporal breath + For these give labour and slumber; but thou, Proserpina, death. + +Like Hesiod, Swinburne erred, though perhaps intentionally, as poets +should, for the greater glory of the Muses. Persephone brought not +death but life. The aisles of despair she filled with hope. +Transfigured herself, Pluto she transformed. She changed what had been +hell into what was to be purgatory. It was not yet Elysium, but it was +no longer Hades. Plato said that those who were in her world had no +wish at all for this. + +It is for that reason that Demeter is the Madonna of Greece, as her +ethereal daughter was the saviour. The myth of it all, brought by +Pythagoras from Egypt is very old. Known in Memphis, it was known too +in Babylon, perhaps before Memphis was. But the legend of Isis and +that of Ishtar--both of whom descended into hell--lack the transparent +charm which this idyl unfolds and of which the significance was +revealed only to initiate in epiphanies at Eleusis. + +Before these sacraments Greece stood, a finger to her lips. Yet the +whispers from them that have reached us, while furtive perhaps, are +clear. They furnished the poets with notes that are resonant still. +They lifted the drama to heights that astound. Even in the fancy balls +of Aristophanes, where men were ribald and the gods were mocked, +suddenly, in the midst of the orgy, laughter ceased, obscenities were +hushed. Afar a hymn resounded. It was the chorus of the Initiate going +measuredly by. + +The original mysteries were Hermetic. Enterable only after a prolonged +novitiate, the adept then beheld an unfolding of the theosophy of the +soul. In visions, possibly ecstatic, he saw the series of its +incarnations, the seven cycles through which it passed, the Ship of a +Million Years on which the migrations are effected and on which, at +last, from the Valley of the Shadow of Death, it sails to its primal +home. + +That home was colour, its sustenance light. There, in ethereal +evolutions, its incarnations began. At first unsubstantial and wholly +ineffable, these turned for it every object into beauty, every sound +into joy. Without needs, from beatitude to beatitude blissfully it +floated. But, subjected to the double attraction of matter and of sin, +the initiate saw the memories and attributes of its spirituality fade. +He saw it flutter, and fluttering sink. He saw that in sinking it +enveloped itself in garments that grew heavier at each descent. +Through the denser clothing he saw the desires of the flesh pulsate. +He saw them force it lower, still lower, until, fallen into its +earthly tenement, it swooned in the senses of man. From the chains of +that prison he learned that the soul's one escape was in a recovery of +the memory of what it had been when it was other than what it had +become. + +That memory the mysteries provided. Those of Eleusis differed from the +Egyptian only in detail. At Eleusis, in lieu of visions, there were +tableaux. Persephone, beckoned by desire, straying then from Olympos, +afterward fainting in the arms of Pluto, but subsequently, while +preparing her own reascension, saving and embellishing all that +approach, was the symbol, in an Hellenic setting, of the fall and +redemption of man. + +The human tragedy thus portrayed was the luminous counterpart of the +dark dramas that Athens beheld. There, in the theatre--which itself +was a church with the stage for pulpit--man, blinded by passions, the +Fates pursued and Destiny felled. + +The sombre spectacle was inexplicable. At Eleusis was enlightenment. +"Eskato Bebeloi"--_Out from here, the profane_--the heralds shouted as +the mysteries began. "Konx ompax"--_Go in peace_--they called when the +epiphanies were completed. + +In peace the initiate went, serenely, it is said, ever after. From +them the load of ignorance was lifted. But what their impressions were +is unrecorded. They were bound to secrecy. No one could learn what +occurred without being initiated, or without dying. For death too is +initiation. + +The mysteries were schools of immortality. They plentifully taught +many a lesson that Christianity afterward instilled. But their drapery +was perhaps over ornate. Truth does not need any. Truth always should +be charming. Yet always it should be naked as well. About it the +mysteries hung a raiment that was beautiful, but of which the rich +embroideries obscured. The mysteries could not have been more +fascinating, that is not possible, but, the myths removed, in simple +nudity they would have been more clear. Doubtless it was for that very +reason, in order that they might not be transparent, that the myths +were employed. It is for that very reason, perhaps, that Christianity +also adopted a few. Yet at least from cant they were free. Among the +multiple divinities of Greece, hypocrisy was the unknown god. +Consideration of the others is, to-day, usually effected through the +pages of Ovid. One might as well study Christianity in the works of +Voltaire. Christianity's brightest days were in the dark ages. The +splendid glamour of them that persists is due to many causes, among +which, in minor degree, may be the compelling glare of Greek genius. +That glare, veiled in the mysteries, philosophy reflects. + +Philosophy is but the love of wisdom. It began with Socrates. He had +no belief in the gods. The man who has none may be very religious. But +though Socrates did not believe in the gods he did not deny them. He +did what perhaps was worse. He ignored their perfectly poetic +existence. He was put to death for it, though only at the conclusion +of a long promenade during which he delivered Athenian youths of their +intelligence. Facility in the operation may have been inherited. +Socrates was the son of a midwife. His own progeny consisted in a +complete transfiguration of Athenian thought. He told of an +Intelligence, supreme, ethical, just, seeing all, hearing all, +governing all; a creator made not after the image of man but of the +soul, and visible only in the conscience. It was for that he died. +There was no such god on Olympos. + +There was an additional indictment. Socrates was accused of perverting +the _jeunesse doree_. At a period when, everywhere, save only in +Israel, the abnormal was usual, Socrates was almost insultingly +chaste. The perversion of which he was accused was not of that order. +It was that of inciting lads to disobey their parents when the latter +opposed what he taught. + +"I am come to set a man against his father," it is written in +_Matthew_. The mission of Socrates was the same. Because of it he +died. He was the first martyr. But his death was overwhelming in its +simplicity. Even in fairyland there has been nothing more calm. By way +of preparation he said to his judges: "Were you to offer to acquit me +on condition that I no longer profess what I believe, I would answer; +'Athenians, I honour and I love you, but a god has commanded me and +that god I will obey, rather than you.'" + +In the speech was irony, with which Athens was familiar. But it also +displayed a conception, wholly new, that of maintaining at any cost +the truth. The novelty must have charmed. When Peter and the apostles +were arraigned before the Sanhedrin, their defence consisted in the +very words that Socrates had used: "We should obey God rather than +man."[38] + +[Footnote 38: Acts v. 29.] + +Socrates wrote nothing. The Buddha did not either. Neither did the +Christ. These had their evangelists. Socrates had also disciples who, +as vehicle for his ideas, employed the nightingale tongue of beauty +into which the Law and the Prophets were translated by the Septuagint +and into which the Gospels were put. + +It would be irreverent to suggest that the latter are in any way +indebted to Socratic inspiration. It would be irrelevant as well. For, +while the Intelligence that Socrates preached differed as much from +the volage and voluptuous Zeus as the God of Christendom differs from +the Jahveh of Job, yet, in a divergence so wide, an idealist, very +poor except in ideas; a teacher killed by those who knew not what they +did; a philosopher that drained the cup without even asking that it +pass from him; a mere reformer, though dangerous perhaps as every +reformer worth the name must be; but, otherwise, a mere man like any +other, only a little better, could obviously have had no share. For +reasons not minor but major, Plato could have had none either. + +It is related that a Roman invader sank back, stricken with +_deisidaimonia_--the awe that the gods inspired--at the sight of the +Pheidian Zeus. It is with a wonder not cognate certainly, yet in a +measure relative, that one considers what Socrates must have been if +millennia have gone without producing one mind approaching that of his +spiritual heir. It was uranian; but not disassociated from human +things. + +Plato, like his master, was but a man in whom the ideal was intuitive, +perhaps the infernal also. In the gardens of the Academe and along the +banks of the Ilissus, he announced a Last Judgment. The announcement, +contained in the _Phaedo_, had for supplement a picture that may have +been Persian, of the righteous ascending to heaven and the wicked +descending to hell. In the _Laws_, the picture was annotated with a +statement to the effect that whatever a man may do, there is an eye +that sees him, a memory that registers and retains. In the _Republic_ +he declared that afflictions are blessings in disguise. But his +"Republic," a utopian commonwealth, was not, he said, of this world, +adding in the _Phaedo_, that few are chosen though many are called. + +The mystery of the catholicism of the Incas, reported back to the Holy +Office, was there defined as an artifice of the devil. With finer +circumspection, Christian Fathers attributed the denser mystery of +Greek philosophy to the inspiration of God. + +Certainly it is ample. As exemplified by Plato it has, though, its +limitations. There is no charity in it. Plato preached humility, but +there is none in his sermons. His thought is a winged thing, as the +thought of a poet ever should be. But in the expression of it he seems +smiling, disdainful, indifferent as a statue to the poverties of the +heart. That too, perhaps, is as it should be. The high muse wears a +radiant peplum. Anxiety is banished from the minds that she haunts. +Then, also, if, in the nectar of Plato's speech, compassion is not an +ingredient, it may be because, in his violet-crowned city, it was +strewn open-handed through the beautiful streets. There, public +malediction was visited on anyone that omitted to guide a stranger on +his way. + +Israel was too strictly monotheistic to raise an altar to Pity, the +rest of antiquity too cruel. In Athens there was one. In addition +there were missions for the needy, asylums for the infirm. If +anywhere, at that period, human sympathy existed, it was in Greece. +The aristocratic silence of Plato may have been due to that fact. He +would not talk of the obvious, though he did of the vile. In one of +his books the then common and abnormal conception of sexuality was, if +not authorized, at least condoned. It is conjectural, however, whether +the conception was more monstrous than that which subsequent mysticity +evolved. + +Said Ruysbroeck: "The mystic carries her soul in her hand and gives it +to whomsoever she wishes." Said St. Francis of Sales: "The soul draws +to itself motives of love and delectates in them." What the gift and +what the delectation were, other saints have described. + +Marie de la Croix asserted that in the arms of the celestial Spouse +she swam in an ocean of delight. Concerning that Spouse, Marie +Alacoque added: "Like the most passionate of lovers he made me +understand that I should taste what is sweetest in the suavity of +caresses, and indeed, so poignant were they, that I swooned." The +ravishments which St. Theresa experienced she expressed in terms of +abandoned precision. Mme. Guyon wrote so carnally of the divine that +Bossuet exclaimed; "Seigneur, if I dared, I would pray that a seraph +with a flaming sword might come and purify my lips sullied by this +recital."[39] + +[Footnote 39: Relation sur le Quietisme.] + +Augustin pleasantly remarked that we are all born for hell. One need +not agree with him. In the presence of the possibly monstrous and the +impossibly blasphemous, there is always a recourse. It is to turn +away, though it be to Zeus, a belief in whom, however stupid, is +ennobling beside the turpitudes that Christian mysticism produced. + +At Athens, meanwhile, the religion of State persisted. So also did +philosophy. When, occasionally, the two met, the latter bowed. That +was sufficient. Religion exacted respect, not belief. It was not a +faith, it was a law, one that for its majesty was admired and for its +poetry was beloved. In the deification of whatever is exquisite it was +but an artistic cult. The real Olympos was the Pantheon. The other was +fading away. Deeper and deeper it was sinking back into the golden +dream from which it had sprung. Further and further the crystal +parapets were retreating. Dimmer and more dim the gorgeous host +became. In words of perfect piety Epicurus pictured them in the +felicity of the ideal. There, they had no heed of man, no desire for +worship, no wish for prayer. It was unnecessary even to think of them. +Decorously, with every homage, they were being deposed. + +But if Epicurus was decorous, Evemerus was devout. It was his +endeavour, he said, not to undermine but to fortify. The gods he +described as philanthropists whom a grateful world had deified. Zeus +had waged a sacrilegious war against his father. Aphrodite was a +harlot and a procuress. The others were equally commendable. Once they +had all lived. Since then all had died. Evemerus had seen their tombs. + +One should not believe him. Their parapets are dimmer, perhaps, but +from them still they lean and laugh. They are immortal as the +hexameters in which their loves unfold. Yet, oddly enough, presently +the oracle of Delphi strangled. In his cavern Trophonios was gagged. +The voice of Mopsos withered. + +That is nothing. On the Ionian, the captain of a ship heard some one +calling loudly at him from the sea. The passengers, who were at table, +looked out astounded. Again the loud voice called: "Captain, when you +reach shore announce that the great god Pan is dead."[40] + +[Footnote 40: Plutarch: de Oracul. defect. 14.] + +It may be that it was true. It may be that after Pan the others +departed. When Paul reached Athens he found a denuded Pantheon, a +vacant Olympos, skies more empty still. + + + + +VII + +JUPITER + + +The name of the national deity of Israel is unpronounceable. The name +of the national divinity of Rome is unknown. To all but the +hierophants it was a secret. For uttering it a senator was put to +death. But Tullius Hostilius erected temples to Fear and to Pallor. It +may have been Fright. The conjecture is supported by the fact that, as +was usual, Rome had any number of deified epithets, as she had also a +quantity of little bits of gods. These latter greatly amused the +Christian Fathers. Among them was Alemona, who, in homely English, was +Wet-nurse. + +Tertullian, perhaps naively, remarked: "Superstition has invented +these deities for whom we have substituted angels." In addition to the +diva mater Alemona was the divus pater Vaticanus, the holy father +Vatican, who assisted at a child's first cry. There was the equally +holy father Fabulin, who attended him in his earliest efforts at +speech. Neither of them had anything else to do. + +Pavor had. At thunder, at lightning, at a meteor, at moisture on a +wall, at no matter what, at silence even, the descendants of a +she-wolf's nursling quailed. They lived in a panic. In panic the gods +were born. It is but natural, perhaps, that Fright should have been +held supreme. The other gods, mainly divinities of prey and of havoc, +were lustreless as the imaginations that conceived them. Prosaic, +unimaged, without poetry or myth, they dully persisted until pedlars +appeared with Hellenic legends and wares. To their tales Rome +listened. Then eidolons of the Olympians became naturalized there. +Zeus was transformed into Jupiter, Aphrodite into Venus, Pallas into +Minerva, Demeter into Ceres, and all of them--and with them all the +others--into an irritable police. The Greek gods enchanted, those of +Rome alarmed. Plutarch said that they were indignant if one presumed +to so much as sneeze. + +Worship, consequently, was a necessary precaution, an insurance +against divine risks, a matter of business in which the devout +bargained with the divine. Ovid represented Numa trying to elude the +exigencies of Jove. The latter had demanded the sacrifice of a head. +"You shall have a cabbage," said the king. "I mean something human." +"Some hairs then." "No, I want something alive." "We will give you a +pretty little fish." Jupiter laughed and yielded. That was much later, +after Lucretius, in putting Epicurus into verse, had declared religion +to be the mother of sin. By that time Fear and Pallor had struck +terror into the very marrow of barbarian bones. Fright was a god more +serviceable than Zeus. With him Rome conquered the world. Yet in the +conquest Fright became Might and the latter an effulgence of Jove's. + +Jove was magnificent. In the Capitol he throned so augustly that we +swear by him still. Like Rome he is immortal. But Pavor, that had +faded into him, was never invoked. The reason was not sacerdotal, it +was political. Rome never imposed her gods on the quelled. With +superior tact she lured their gods from them. At any siege, that was +her first device. To it she believed her victories were due. It was to +avoid possible reprisals and to remain invincible, that her own +national divinity she so carefully concealed that the name still is a +secret. With the gods, Rome gathered the creeds of the world, set them +like fountains among her hills, and drank of their sacred waters. Her +early deity is unknown. But the secret of her eternity is in the +religions that she absorbed. It was these that made her immortal. + +To that immortality the obscure god of an obscure people contributed +largely, perhaps, but perhaps, too, not uniquely. Jahveh might have +remained unperceived behind the veil of the sanctuary had not his +altar been illuminated by lights from other shrines. In the early days +of the empire, Rome was fully aware of the glamour of Amon, of the +star of Ormuzd, Brahm's cerulean lotos and the rainbow heights of +Bel-Marduk. But in the splendour of Jove all these were opaque. + +Jupiter, always imposing, was grandiose then. His thoughts were vast +as the sky. In a direct revelation to Vergil he said of his chosen +people: "I have set no limits to their conquest or its duration. The +empire I have given them shall be without end."[41] Hebrew prophets had +spoken similarly. Vergil must have been more truly inspired. The Roman +empire, nominally holy, figuratively still exists. Yet fulfilment of +the prophecy is due perhaps less to the God of the Gentiles than to +the God of the Jews. Though perhaps also it may be permissible to +discern in the latter a transfiguration of Jove, who originally Zeus, +and primarily not Hellenic but Hindu, ultimately became supreme. After +the terrific struggle which resulted in that final metamorphosis, +Jerusalem, disinherited, saw Rome the spiritual capital of the globe. + +[Footnote 41: AEneid i. 278.] + +Jerusalem was not a home of logic. Rome was the city of law. That law, +cold, inflexible, passionless as a sword and quite as effective, Rome +brandished at philosophy. It is said that the intellectual gymnastics +of Greece were displeasing to her traditions. It is more probable that +augurs had foreseen or oracles had foretold that philosophy would +divest her of the sword, and with it of her sceptre and her might. +Ideas cannot be decapitated. Only ridicule can demolish them. +Philosophy, mistress of irony, resisted while nations fell. It was +philosophy that first undermined established creeds and then led to +the pursuit of new ones. Yet it may be that a contributing cause was a +curious theory that the world was to end. Foretold in the _Brahmanas_, +in the _Avesta_ and in the _Eddas_, probably it was in the _Sibylline +Books_. If not, the subsequent Church may have so assumed. + + Dies irae, dies illa, + Solvet saeclum in favilla, + Teste David cum Sibylla. + +Not alone David and the Sibyl but Etruscan seers had seen in the skies +that the tenth and last astronomical cycle had begun.[42] Plutarch, in +his life of Sylla, testified to the general belief in an approaching +cataclysm. Lucretius announced that at any moment it might occur.[43] +That was in the latter days of the republic. In the early days of the +empire the theory persisting may have induced the hope of a saviour. +Suetonius said that nature in her parturitions was elaborating a +king.[44] Afterward he added that such was Asia's archaic belief.[45] +Recent discoveries have verified the assertion. In the Akkadian Epic +of Dibbara a messiah was foretold.[46] That epic, anterior to a cognate +Egyptian prophecy,[47] anterior also to the _Sibylline Books_, was +anterior too to the Hebrew prophets and necessarily to those of Rome. + +[Footnote 42: Censorinus: De die nat. 17.] + +[Footnote 43: De rerum nat., v. 105.] + +[Footnote 44: In Augusto, 74.] + +[Footnote 45: In Vesp. 4.] + +[Footnote 46: Jastrow: _op. cit._] + +[Footnote 47: See back, Chapter III.] + +Among these was Vergil. In the fourth Eclogue he beheld an age of +gold, preceded by the advent on earth of a son of Jove, under whose +auspices the last traces of sin and sorrow were to disappear and a new +race descend from heaven. "The serpent shall die," he declared, +adding: "The time is at hand." + +The Eclogue was written 40 B.C., during the consulate of Pallio, whom +the poet wished perhaps to flatter. Then presently Ovid sang the +deathless soul and Tibullus gave rendezvous hereafter. The atmosphere +dripped with wonders. The air became charged with the miraculous. At +stated intervals the doors of temples opened of themselves. Statues +perspired visibly. There was a book that explained the mechanism of +these marvels. It interested nobody. Prodigies were matters of course. + +The people had a heaven, also a hell, both of them Greek, a purgatory +that may have been Asiatic, and, pending the advent of the son of +Jove, in Mithra they could have had a redeemer. Had it been desired, +Buddhism could have supplied gospels, India the trinity, Persia the +resurrection, Egypt the life. From Iran could have been obtained an +Intelligence, sovereign, unimaged, and just. That was unnecessary. +Long since Socrates had displayed it. In addition, Epicurus had told +of an ascension of heavens, skies beyond the sky, worlds without +number, the many mansions of a later faith. + +Meanwhile, austerity was an appanage of the stoics, in whose faultless +code the dominant note was contempt for whatever is base, respect for +all that is noble. A doctrine of great beauty, purely Greek, as was +everything else in Rome that was beautiful, its heights were too lofty +for the vulgar. It appealed only to the lettered, that is to the few, +to the infrequent disciples of Zeno and of Cicero, his prophet, who, +Erasmus said, was inspired by God. + +It may be that Cicero inspired a few of God's preachers. The latter +were not yet in Rome. Christ had not come. At that period, unique in +history, man alone existed. The temples were thronged, but the skies +were bare. Cicero knew that. Elysium and Hades were as chimerical to +him as the Epicurean heavens. "People," he said, "talk of these places +as though they had been there." But that which was superstition to him +he regarded as beneficial for others, who had to have something and +who got it, in temples where a sin was a prayer. + +There was once a play of which there has survived but the title: _The +Last Will and Testament of Defunct Jupiter._ It appeared in the days +of Diocletian, but it might have appealed when Cicero taught. Faith +then had fainted. Fright had ceased to build. Worship remained, but +religion had gone. The gods themselves were departing. The epoch +itself was apoplectic. The tramp of legions was continuous. Not alone +the skies but the world was in a ferment. It was not until a diadem, +falling from Cleopatra's golden bed, rolled to the feet of Augustus, +that the gods were stayed and faith revived. + +In the interim, prisoners had been deported from Judea. At first they +were slaves. Subsequently manumitted, they formed a colony that in the +high-viced city resembled Esther in the seraglio of Ahasuerus. Rome, +amateur of cults, always curious of foreign faiths, might have been +interested in Judaism. It had many analogies with local beliefs. Its +adherents awaited, as Rome did, a messiah. They awaited too a golden +age. For those who were weary of philosophy, they had a religion in +which there was none. For those to whom the marvellous appealed, they +had a history in which miracles were a string of pearls. For those who +were sceptic concerning the post-mortem, they offered blankness. In +addition, their god, the enemy of all others, was adapted to an empire +that recognized no sovereignty but its own. Readily might Rome have +become Hebrew. But then, with equal ease, she might have become +Egyptian. + +For those who were perhaps afraid of going to hell and yet may have +been equally afraid of not going anywhere, Egypt held passports to a +land of light. Then too, the gods of Egypt were friendly and +accessible. They mingled familiarly with those of Rome, complaisantly +with the deified Caesars, as already they had with the pharaohs, a +condescension, parenthetically, that did not protect them from +Tiberius, who, for reasons with which religion had nothing whatever to +do, persecuted the Egyptians, as he persecuted also the Jews. None the +less, Rome, weary of local fictions, might have become converted to +foreign ideas. In default of Syrian or Copt, she might have become +Persian as already she was Greek. + +Augustus had other views. Divinities, made not merely after the image +of man but in symbols of sin, he saluted. With a hand usually small, +but in this instance tolerably large, he re-established them on their +pedestals. A relapse to spiritual infancy resulted. It was what he +sought. He wanted to be a god himself and he became one. His power +and, after him, that of his successors, had no earthly limit, no +restraint human or divine. It was the same omnipotence here that +elsewhere Jupiter wielded. + +Jupiter had flamens who told him the time of day. He had others that +read to him. For his amusement there were mimes. For his delectation, +matrons established themselves in the Capitol and affected to be his +loves. But then he was superb. Made of ivory, painted vermillion, +seated colossally on a colossal throne, a sceptre in one hand, a +thunderbolt in the other, a radiating gold crown on his august head, +and, about his limbs, a shawl of Tyrian purple, he looked every inch +the god. + +The Caesars, if less imposing, were more potent. Their hands, in which +there was nothing symbolic, held life and death, absolute dominion +over everything, over every one. Jupiter was but a statue. They alone +were real, alone divine. To them incense ascended. At their feet +libations poured. The nectar fumes confused. Rome, mad as they, built +them temples, raised them shrines, creating for them a worship that +they accepted, as only their due perhaps, but in which their reason +fled. In accounts of the epoch there is much mention of citizens, +senators, patricians. Nominally there were such people. Actually there +were but slaves. The slaves had a succession of masters. Among them +was a lunatic, Caligula, and an imbecile, Claud. There were others. +There was Terror, there was Hatred, there was Crime. These last, +though several, were yet but one. Collectively, they were Nero. + +If philosophy ever were needed it was in his monstrous day. To anyone, +at any moment, there might be brought the laconic message: Die. In +republican Rome, philosophy separated man from sin. At that period it +was perhaps a luxury. In the imperial epoch it was a necessity. It +separated man from life. The philosophy of the republic Cicero +expounded. That of the empire Seneca produced. + +The neo-stoicism of the latter sustained the weak, consoled the just. +It was a support and a guide. It preached poverty. It condemned +wealth. It deprecated honours and pleasure. It inculcated chastity, +humility, and resignation. It detached man from earth. It inspired, or +attempted to inspire, a desire for the ideal which it represented as +the goal of the sage, who, true child of God,[48] prepared for any +torture, even for the cross,[49] yet, essentially meek,[50] sorrowed for +mankind,[51] happy if he might die for it.[52] + +[Footnote 48: De Provid. i.] + +[Footnote 49: _Cf._ Lactantius vi. 17.] + +[Footnote 50: Epit. cxx. 13.] + +[Footnote 51: Lucanus ii. 378.] + +[Footnote 52: Ibidem.] + +In iambics that caressed the ear like flutes, poets had told of +Jupiter clothed in purple and glory. They had told of his celestial +amours, of his human and of his inhuman vices. Seneca believed in +Jupiter. But not in the Jove of the poets. That god dwelled in ivory +and anapests. Seneca's deity, nowhere visible, was everywhere +present.[53] Creator of heaven and earth,[54] without whom there is +nothing,[55] from whom nothing is hidden,[56] and to whom all +belongs,[57] our Father,[58] whose will shall be done.[59] + +[Footnote 53: Nemo novit Deum. Epit. xxxi. Ubique Deus. Epit. xli.] + +[Footnote 54: Mundum hujus operis dominum et artificem. Quaest. nat. i.] + +[Footnote 55: Sine quo nihil est. Quaest. nat. vii. 31.] + +[Footnote 56: Nil Deo Clausam. Ep. lxxxx.] + +[Footnote 57: Omnia habentem. Ep. xcv.] + +[Footnote 58: Parens noster. Ep. cx.] + +[Footnote 59: Placeat homini quidquid Deo placuit. Ep. lxxv.] + +"Life," said Seneca, "is a tribulation, death a release. In order not +to fear death," he added, "think of it always. The day on which it +comes judges all others."[60] Meanwhile comfort those that sorrow.[61] +Share your bread with them that hunger.[62] Wherever there is a human +being there is place for a good deed.[63] Sin is an ulcer. Deliverance +from it is the beginning of health--salvation, _salutem_."[64] + +[Footnote 60: Ep. xxvi. 4.] + +[Footnote 61: De Clem. ii. 6.] + +[Footnote 62: Ep. xcv. 51.] + +[Footnote 63: De Vita Beata, 14.] + +[Footnote 64: Ep. xxviii. 9.] + +Words such as these suggest others. They are anterior to those which +they recall. The latter are more beautiful, they are more ample, there +is in them a poetry and a profundity that has rarely been excelled. +Yet, it may be, that a germ of them is in Seneca, or, more exactly, in +theories which, beginning in India, prophets, seers, and stoics +variously interpreted and recalled. + +However since they have charmed the world, their effect on Nero was +curious. Seneca was his preceptor. But so too was Art. The lessons of +these teachers, fusing in the demented mind of the monster, produced +transcendental depravity, the apogee of the abnormal and the +epileptically obscene. What is more important, they produced +Christianity. + +Christianity already existed in Rome, but obscurely, subterraneanly, +among a class of poor people generally detested, particularly by the +Jews. Christianity was not as yet a religion, it was but the belief of +a sect that announced that the world was to be consumed. Presently +Rome was. The conflagration, which was due to Nero, swept everything +sacred away. + +Even for a prince that, perhaps, was excessive. Nero may have felt +that he had gone too far. An emperor was omnipotent, he was not +inviolable. Tiberius was suffocated, Caligula was stabbed, Claud was +poisoned. Nero, it may be, in feeling that he had gone too far, felt +also that he needed a scapegoat. Christian pyromania suggested itself. +But probably it suggested itself first to the Jews, who, Renan has +intimated, denounced the Christians accordingly. Such may have been +the case. In any event, then it was that Christianity received its +baptism of blood. + +All antiquity was cruel, but, barring perhaps the immense Asiatic +butcheries, Nero contrived then to surpass anything that had been +done. Bloated and hideous, his hair done up in a chignon, a concave +emerald for monocle, in the crowded arena he assisted at the rape of +Christian girls. Their lovers, their brothers and fathers were either +eaten alive by beasts or, that night, dressed in tunics that had been +soaked in oil, were fastened to posts and set on fire, in order that, +as human torches, they might illuminate palace gardens, through which, +costumed as a jockey, Nero raced. + +The spectacle in the amphitheatre, which fifty thousand people beheld; +the succeeding festival at which all Rome assembled, were two acts in +the birthday of a faith. + +Then, to the cradle, presently, Wise Men came with gifts--the gold, +the frankincense, the myrrh, of creeds anterior though less divine. + + + + +VIII + +THE NEC PLUS ULTRA + + +It was after fastidious rites, the heart entirely devout and on his +knees, that Angelico di Fiesole drew a picture of the Christ. The +attitude is emulative. It is with brushes dipped in holy water that +Jesus should be displayed, though more reverent still is the absence +of any delineation. + +Reverence of that high character history formerly observed. There is +no mention of the Saviour in the chronicles of those who were blessed +in being his contemporaries. One indiscreet remark of Josephus has +been recognized as the interpolation of a later hand, well-intentioned +perhaps, but misguided. Jesus glows in the Gospels. Yet they that +awaited the day when, in a great aurora borealis, the Son of man +should appear, had passed from earth before one of the evangels was +written. + +It was a hundred years later before the texts that comprise the New +Testament were complete. It was nearly two hundred before they were +definitive. In the interim many gospels appeared. Attributed +indifferently to each of the Twelve, one was ascribed to Judas. There +was a Gospel to the Hebrews, a Gospel to the Egyptians. There were +evangels of Childhood, of Perfection and of Mary. + +These primitive memoirs were based on oral accounts of occurrences +long anterior. Into them entered extraneous beauties, felicities of +phrase and detail, which, with naif effrontery, were put into the +mouth of one apostle or another, even into that of Jesus. The +ascription was regarded as highly commendable. It was but a way of +glorifying the Lord. Besides, the scenarii of these pious evocations +the prophets had traced in advance. + +"Rejoice, daughter of Zion; shout, daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy +King cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation, lowly and +riding upon an ass." + +That king of the poor whom Zachariah had foreseen, the stumbling block +of Israel that Isaiah had foretold, the Son, mentioned by Hosea, whom +Jahveh had called out of Egypt, was the Saviour, ascending in glory as +Elijah had done. A passage incorrectly rendered by the Septuagint +indicated a virginal birth. That also was suggestive. + +The little biographies in which these developments appeared were +intended for circulation only among an author's narrow circle of +immediate friends, at most to be read aloud in devout reunions. If, +ultimately, of the entire collection, four only were retained, it is +probably because these best expressed existing convictions. Though, +irrespective of their beauties, Irenaeus said that there had to be four +and could be but four, for the reason that there are four seasons, +four winds, four corners of the earth, and the four revelations of +Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus. + +It is not on that perhaps arbitrary deduction that their validity +resides, but rather because the parables and miracles which they +recite became the spiritual nourishment of a world. To their title of +eternal verities they have other and stronger claims. They have +consoled and they have ennobled. Elder creeds may have done likewise, +but these lacked that of which Christianity was the unique possessor, +the marvel of a crucified god. + +Saviours there had been. Mithra was a redeemer. Zoroaster was born of +a virgin. Persephone descended into hell. Osiris rose from the dead. +Gotama was tempted by the devil. Moses was transfigured. Elijah +ascended into heaven. But in no belief is there a parallel for the +crucifixion, although in Hindu legend, Krishna, a divinity whose +mythical infancy a mythical prototype of Herod troubled, died, nailed +by arrows to a tree. + +In Oriental lore Krishna is held to have been the eighth avatar of +Vishnu, of whom Gotama was the ninth. Krishna was therefore anterior +to the Buddha, at least in myth. But it would be a grave impropriety +to infer that with the legend concerning him the narrative of the +crucifixion has any other connection than the possible one of having +suggested it. The _Bhagavad-Purana_, in which the legend occurs, is +relatively modern, though the legend itself may, like the _Tripitaka_, +have existed orally, for centuries, before it was finally committed to +writing. + +There can, however, be no impropriety in recalling analogies that +exist between the Saviour and one whom the Orient holds also divine. +These analogies, set forth in the first chapter of the present volume, +are, it may be, wholly fortuitous, though Pliny stated that, centuries +before his day, disciples of Gotama were established on the Dead Sea +and, from a passage in Josephus, it seems probable that the Essenes +were Buddhists, in the same degree perhaps that the Pharisees were +Parsis. But the point is also obscure. It is immaterial as well. The +Gospels were not written in Jerusalem but mainly in Rome, where +crucifixions were common, as they were, for that matter, throughout +the East, but where, too, all religions were acclimated and the +supernatural was at home. + +Rome had witnessed the _tours de force_ of Apollonios of Tyana. Those +of Simon the Magician had also been beheld. Rome had seen, or, it may +be, thought she believed she had seen, Vespasian cure the halt and the +blind with a touch. The atmosphere then was charged with the +marvellous. The temples were filled with prodigies, with strange gods, +beckoning chimeras, credulous crowds. + +There was something superior. Rome was the depository of the legends +and lore of the world. A haunt of the Muses, the sensual city was a +hermitage of philosophy as well. These things collectively represented +a great literary feast, of which not all the courses have descended to +us, though, as is not impossible, a lost dish or two, transmuted, by +the alchemy of faith, from dross into gold, the Gospels may perhaps +contain. + +In that case there is cause for great thankfulness. Moreover, assuming +the transmutation, no impiety can be implied. It was as usual and as +indicated as were papyrus and the stylus. It is common to-day for a +poet, before spreading his own wings, to contemplate those of another. +Inspiration is infectious. + +A page of verse, whether Hindu, Persian, Egyptian, Greek, or Latin, +was as useful then. Dante fed on the troubadours. They are lost and +forgot. He divinely stands greater than the tallest of them all. In a +measure the same may be true of those from whom the Gospels came. Yet +with a very notable difference. The _Divina Commedia_ was written for +all time. So too were the Gospels. But not intentionally. They were +written to prepare man for the immediate termination of the world. +With the most perfect propriety, therefore, anything serviceable could +have been utilized and probably was. The devout had but to lift their +eyes. In the words of Isaiah, there, before them, were the treasures +of nations; there were the camels and dromedaries bearing from every +side incense and gold; there were the sons of strangers to build up +their walls. + +The sons were many, the treasures as great. Even otherwise there was +the Law, there too were the Prophets. Moses fasted for forty days. +Elisha performed a miracle of the loaves, if he did not that of the +fishes. Job saw the Lord walking upon the sea. Jeremiah said: "Seek +and ye shall find." Isaiah bid those that sorrowed come and be +consoled. In the poem of that poet the servant of the Lord had vinegar +when he thirsted, he was spat upon and for his garments lots were +cast. + +In an effort to fill in a picture of which the central figure had +passed from the real to the ideal, these things may have been +suggestive. So also, perhaps, was the _Talmud_. The redaction of that +chaos began in the second century. But the Vedas, the Homeric poems, +the Tripitaka as well, existed in memory long before they were +committed to writing. The same is true of the _Talmud_. Orally it +existed prior to the Christ. Considered as literature, if it may be so +considered, it is the reverse of endearing. But of the many maxims +that it contains there are some of singular charm. Among others is the +Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth.[65] The origin of that, +as already indicated, is traceable to the _Tripitaka_, which, +parenthetically, were so well known in Babylon that Gotama was there +regarded as a Chaldean seer. That abridgement of the Law which is +called the Golden Rule is also in the _Talmud_,[66] as also, before the +_Talmud_ was, it was in the _Tripitaka_. The injunction to love one's +enemies is equally in both. So is the very excellent suggestion that +one should consider one's own faults before admonishing a brother +concerning his defects. But the perhaps subtle intimation that the +desire to commit adultery is as reprehensible as the act, and the +rather extravagant statement that it is easier for a camel to pass +through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom +of heaven, these, originally, were perhaps uniquely Talmudic. +Currently cited with multiple others they were all so many common +sayings, which, strung together in the Gospels, became a rosary of +most perfect pearls. + +[Footnote 65: Talmud Babli: Baba bathra, 11 _a_.] + +[Footnote 66: Schabbath, 37 _a_.] + +In a passage of Irenaeus it is stated that the _Gospel according to St. +Matthew_ was arranged by the Church for the benefit of the Jews who +awaited a Messiah descended from David. A Syro-Chaldaic evangel, known +as the _Gospel to the Hebrews_, had then appeared. So also had the +_Gospel according to St. Mark_. But these offered no evidence that +Jesus was the one they sought. Another was then prepared. Written in +Greek and bearing the authoritative name of Matthew, it traced from +David, Joseph's descent. + +The narrative continued: "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this +wise. When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came +together, she was found with child by the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her +husband being a just man and not willing to make her a publick +example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on +these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a +dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee +Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy +Ghost." + +The genealogy completed, though perhaps inadequately, since Jesus, not +being a son of Joseph, could not have descended from David, the Church +continued: "Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was +spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, Behold a virgin shall be +with child and shall bring forth a son and call his name Emmanuel." + +The prophecy mentioned occurs in Isaiah vii, 14. In the King James +version it is as follows: "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a +son and shall call his name Immanuel." But the Aramaic reading is: +"Behold an _'alma_ shall conceive." _'Alma_ means young woman. The +Septuagint, in translating it, employed the term [Greek: parthenos], +or maiden. In _Matthew_ the term was retained. + +Matthew, at the time, had long been dead. Even had he been living it +is improbable that he could write in Greek. Unfortunately there were +others who could not only write Greek but read Hebrew. In particular, +there was a rabbi Aquila who retranslated Isaiah with no other purpose +than the malign object of definitely re-establishing the exact +expression which the old poet had used.[67] + +[Footnote 67: Renan: Les Evangiles.] + +It was presumably in these circumstances that the _Evangel of Mary_ +was advanced. Among other elucidations, the work contained +professional testimony of the immaculacy that was claimed. +Additionally, in reparation of the earlier oversight, the Virgin was +genealogically descended from the royal line. + +That, however, is apocryphal, and if, regarding the other genealogy, +exegesis has since obscured the luminousness of the method adapted by +the Church, the latter's intention was none the less irreproachable, +and that alone imports. Before it, before the miracle of the nativity +and the divine episodes of the transfiguration, crucifixion, +resurrection, and ascension, reverently the Occident has knelt. They +are indeed divine. If they did not occur in Judea, they have occurred +ever since. Continuously, in the hearts of the devout, they are +repeated. + +Unhappily there were heretics then as now. To the Gnostics, Jesus was +an aeon that had never been. To the Docetists, he was a phantasm. There +are always brutes that can believe but in the reality of things. There +are others to whom the symbolic is dumb. In the Gospels there is much +that is figurative, there is more that is ineffable, there are +suggestions sheerly ideal. + +"In my Father's house are many mansions," the Saviour declared. In his +own ministry there are as many lights. He was a vagrant and he created +pure sentiment. He was a nihilist and he inspired a new conception of +life. He said he had not come to destroy and he changed the face of +the earth. He remitted the sins of a harlot and condemned both +marriage and love. There are other antitheses, deeper contradictions. +These perhaps are more apparent than real. Behind them there may have +been the co-ordination of a central thought. Of many gospels but few +remain. Among the lost evangels was one that Valentinian said was +imparted only to the more spiritual of the disciples. It may be that +in it a main idea was elucidated and, perhaps, as a consequence, the +meaning of the esoteric proclamation: "Before Abraham was I am." + +Yet though now the authoritative explanation be lacking, its +significance seems to run beneath the texts. At the first apparition +of Jesus, the chief preoccupation of those that stood about was what +prophet of the old days had returned in the new. Some thought him +Elijah. Others Jeremiah. Antipas feared that he was the Baptist +revived. Jesus himself asked the disciples whom he was said to be. +Later he assured them that the awaited return of Elijah had been +accomplished in John. That assurance, together with the perplexities +regarding him and the esoteric announcement which he made concerning +himself, can hardly indicate anything else than a belief in +reincarnation. + +The belief, common to all antiquity, though not necessarily valid on +that account, is not discernible in Hebrew thought, perhaps for the +reason that it is not perceptible in Babylonian. Yet the myth of Eden +barely conceals it. It is almost obvious in the allegory of Beth-el. +Solomon said: "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or +ever earth was." If the idea contained in that statement was not a +part of the philosophy attributed to the Christ, it might have been. +The amount of beauty stored in it is more enormous than in any other. + +To the materialist the beauty is meaningless. To the mathematician it +has the value of a zero from which the periphery has gone. But at the +Pillars of Hercules early geographers put on their maps: _Hic deficit +orbis_--Here ends the world. They had no suspicion that beyond that +world there stretched another twice as great. Materialists may be +equally naif. On the other hand, they may not be. The theory of +reincarnation is one that transcends the limits of experience. + +Of the many tenets of the belief there are but two with which the +matter-of-fact agrees. One of them concerns the conservation of +energy, the other the negation of death. Theory and practice unite in +admitting that the supply of energy is invariable. Constantly it is +transformed and as constantly transposed, but whether it enter into +fungus or star, into worm or man, the loss of a particle never occurs. +Death consequently is but the constituent of a change. When it comes, +that which was living assumes a state that has in it the potentiality +of another form. A tenement has crumbled and a tenant gone forth. +Though just where is the riddle. + +In the thousand and one nights that were less astronomic than our own, +it was thought that the riddle was answered. Poets had erected an +edifice of verse and called it Creation. In the strophes of the epic +the earth was a flat and stationary parallelogram. About the earth, +and uniquely for its benefit, sun, moon and stars paraded. Above was a +deity one or multiple. Below were places of vivid discomfort. To the +latter, or to the former, the soul of man proceeded. There were no +other resorts. Creation had its limits. + +Poets younger yet more gray have presented a different conception. In +the glare of a million million of suns they have sent the earth +spinning like a midge. Beyond the uttermost horizon they have strewn +other systems, other worlds; beyond the latter, more. Wherever +imagination in its weariness would set a limit, there is space begun. + +There too is energy. Throughout the stretch of universes the same +force pulsates that is recognizable here. A deduction is obvious. +Throughout infinity are sentient beings, perhaps our brothers, perhaps +ourselves. + +The obvious, very frequently, is misleading. But the dream of +precipitation into that wonderful tornado of worlds has the merit of +more colourful idealism than that which was formerly displayed. Taken +but as an hypothesis, it holds suggestions ampler than any other +conveys. It intimates that just as the butterfly rises from the +chrysalis, so does the spiritual rise from the flesh. It indicates +that just as the sun cannot set, so is it impossible for death to be. + +There are topics about which words hover like enchanted bees. Death is +one of them. Mediaevally it was represented by a skeleton to which +prose had given a rictus, poetry a scythe, and philosophy wings. From +its eyries it swooped spectral and sinister. Previously it was more +gracious. In Greece it resembled Eros. Among its attributes was +beauty. It did not alarm. It beckoned and consoled. The child of +Night, the brother of Sleep, it was less funereal than narcotic. The +theory of it generally was beneficent. But not enduring. In the change +of things death lost its charm. It became a sexless nightmare-frame of +bones topped by a grinning skull. That perhaps was excessive. In +epicurean Rome it was a marionette that invited you to wreathe +yourself with roses before they could fade. In the Muslim East it was +represented by Azrael, who was an angel. In Vedic India it was +represented by Yama, who was a god. But mediaevally in Europe the +skeleton was preferred. Since then it has changed again. It is no +longer a spectral vampire. It has acquired the serenity of a natural +law. Regarding the operation of that law there are perhaps but three +valid conjectures. Rome entertained all of them. There, there was a +tomb on which was written _Umbra_. Before it was another on which was +engraved _Nihil_. Between the two was a portal behind which the _Nec +plus ultra_ stood revealed. + +The portal, fashioned by the philosophy of ages, still is open, wider +than before, on vaster horizons and unsuspected skies. Through it one +may see the explication of things; the reason why men are not born +equal, why some are rich and some are poor, why some are weak and some +are strong, why some are wise and many are not. One may see there too +the reason of joys and sorrows, the cause of tears and smiles. One may +see also how the soul changes its raiment and how it happens to have a +raiment to change. One may see all these things, and others besides, +in the revelation that this life, being the refuse of many deaths, has +acquired merits and demerits in accordance with which are present +punishments and rewards. + +In proportion as these are utilized or disregarded, so perhaps is +retrogression induced or progress achieved. But not in Hades or yet in +Elysium. These were the inventions of man for his brother. So also was +the very neighbourly heaven which the early Church devised. But +because that has gone from the sidereal chart, it does not follow that +there is no such place. Because there is nothing alarming under the +earth, it does not follow that hell has ceased to be. On the contrary. +Both are constant, though it be but in the heart. + +In the light of reincarnation it is probable that neither can occur +there without anterior cause. But probably too it is the preponderance +of either that creates the mystery of life, as it may also foreshadow +the portent of death. + +Death, it may be, is not merely a law but a place, perhaps a garage +which the traveller reaches on a demolished motor, but whence none can +proceed until all old scores are paid. Pending payment, there, perhaps +the soul must wait. But the bill of its past acquitted, it may be that +then it shall be free to pursue on trillions of spheres the +diversified course of endless life--free to pass from world to world, +from beatitude to bliss, from transformation to transfiguration, from +the transitory to the eternal; weaving, meanwhile, a garland of +migrations that stretch from sky to sky, marrying its memoirs with +those of the universe, and, finally, from some ultimate zenith, +reviewing, as it casts them aside, the masks of concluded +incarnations. + +The prospect, overwhelming in beauty, is really divine. The divine is +always utopian. But there is the supreme Alhambra of dream. It exceeds +any other, however excessive another may be. It is the _Nec plus +ultra_. Into it all may wander and never weary of the wonders that are +there. It may be unrealizable, but for that very reason it must be +also ideal. + + +FINIS HISTORIAE DEORUM + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Lords of the Ghostland, by Edgar Saltus + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LORDS OF THE GHOSTLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 31608.txt or 31608.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/0/31608/ + +Produced by Adam Buchbinder, Chandra Friend and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +book was produced from scanned images of public domain +material from the Google Print project.) + + +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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