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diff --git a/43947.txt b/43947.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 117c0c5..0000000 --- a/43947.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6505 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Comparative Religion, by J. Estlin Carpenter - -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: Comparative Religion - -Author: J. Estlin Carpenter - -Release Date: October 13, 2013 [EBook #43947] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COMPARATIVE RELIGION *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines - - - - - - - - - - COMPARATIVE - RELIGION - - - BY - - J. ESTLIN CARPENTER - - D.LITT. - - PRINCIPAL OF MANCHESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD - - - - NEW YORK - HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY - - LONDON - WILLIAMS AND NORGATE - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAP. - - I INTRODUCTORY - II THE PANORAMA OF RELIGIONS - III RELIGION IN THE LOWER CULTURE - IV SPIRITS AND GODS - V SACRED ACTS - VI SACRED PRODUCTS - VII RELIGION AND MORALITY - VIII PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND DESTINY - BIBLIOGRAPHY - INDEX - - - - - "Those first affections, - Those shadowy recollections, - Which, be they what they may, - Are yet the fountain light of all our day, - Are yet a master light of all our seeing; - Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make - Our noisy years seem moments in the being - Of the eternal Silence." - WORDSWORTH. - -"To the philosopher the existence of God may seem to rest on a -syllogism; in the eyes of the historian it rests on the whole evolution -of human thought."--MAX MUeLLER. - - - - -{7} - -COMPARATIVE RELIGION - - - - -CHAPTER I - -INTRODUCTORY - -Over the chancel-arch of the church at South Leigh, a few miles west of -Oxford, is a fresco of the Last Judgment and the Resurrection, of the -type well known in mediaeval art. On the adjoining south wall stands -the stately figure of the archangel Michael. In his right hand he -holds a pair of scales. In one scale is the figure of a soul in the -attitude of prayer; beside it is Our Lady carrying a rosary. The other -contains an ox-headed demon blowing a horn. This scale rises steadily, -though another demon has climbed to the beam above to weigh it down, -and a third from hell's mouth below endeavours to drag it towards the -abyss. The same theme recurs in several other English churches; and it -is carved over the portals of many French cathedrals, as at Notre Dame -in Paris. - -Unroll a papyrus from an Egyptian tomb of the Eighteenth Dynasty before -the days of Moses, and you will see a somewhat similar {8} scene. The -just and merciful judge Osiris, "lord of life and king of eternity," -sits in the Hall of the two goddesses of Truth. Hither the soul is -brought for the ordeal which will determine his future bliss or woe. -Before forty-two assessors he declares his innocence of various -offences: "I am not a doer of what is wrong; I am not a robber; I am -not a slayer of men; I am not a niggard; I am not a teller of lies; I -am not a monopoliser of food; I am no extortioner; I am not unchaste; I -am not the causer of others' tears...." Then he is led, sometimes -supported by the two goddesses of Truth, to the actual trial. Resting -on an upright post is the beam of a balance. It is guarded by a -dog-headed ape, symbol of Thoth, "lord of the scales." Thoth has -various functions in the ancient texts, and even rises into a kind of -impersonation of the principle of intelligence in the whole universe. -Here as the computer of time and the inventor of numbers he plays the -part of secretary to Osiris. In one scale is placed the heart of the -deceased, the organ of conscience. In the other is sometimes a square -weight, sometimes an ostrich plume, symbol of truth or righteousness. -Thoth stands beside the scales, tablet in hand, to record the issue as -the soul passes to the great award. - -The scenes and the persons differ; but the fundamental conception of -judgment is the same, and it is carried out by the same method. Is -this an accidental coincidence of metaphor? {9} The figure of the -balance was naturally suggestive for the estimate of worth, and the -Psalmist cried in bitterness of heart-- - - Surely men of low degree are vanity, - And men of high degree are a lie, - In the balances they will go up; - They are altogether lighter than vanity. - - -The mysterious hand wrote upon the wall of Belshazzar's palace the -strange word Tekel, which contained the dreadful sentence, "Thou art -weighed in the balances and art found wanting." To early Indian -imagination, before the days of the Buddha (500 B.C.), the ordeal of -the balance was part of the outlook into the world beyond. In the -ancient Persian teaching, Rashnu, the angel of justice, before the -shining "Friend," the mediator Mithra, presided over the weighing of -the spirits at the bridge of destiny, over which they would pass to -heaven or hell. - -Is Michael the heir of Thoth or Rashnu? He passed into the Christian -Church from the Jewish Synagogue, where he was specially connected with -the destinies of the dead. He guided the souls of the just to the -heavenly world, where he led them into the mystic city, the counterpart -of Jerusalem below; or he stood at the gate as the angel of -righteousness to decide who should be admitted. So for the Greeks -Hermes was the guardian of the spirits of the departed, whom he -conducted {10} to the judgment in the under-world. In this respect, -then, Hermes and Michael were akin. But Hermes also played many other -parts, and the Greeks identified him with the Egyptian Thoth. When the -destinies of Hector and Achilles were weighed against each other, ere -the last mortal combat, the vase-painter could represent Hermes as -holding the balance in the presence of Zeus, much as Thoth had presided -over it before Osiris. The Etruscan artists depicted Mercury, the -Italian equivalent of Hermes, fulfilling the same function. True, the -purport of the test was different. But the symbol was the same; and -when Hermes gave place to Michael, as Christianity was carried to the -West, the scales passed from the Hellenic to the Jewish Christian -figure, though they had in the one case been used to decide the -allotment of fate, and in the other were employed for judgment. Why -they remained so long unused in Christian symbolism is obscure. The -revival of intercourse with the East through the Crusades may have -given new force to the idea as part of the great judgment-process; and -the figure to which it was most natural to assign it was that of -Thoth-Hermes-Michael. - - -The religion of the ancient Hindus was founded, as every one knows, -upon the venerable hymns collected into one sacred book under the name -of the Rig Veda. These hymns, 1017 in number, containing over {11} -10,000 verses, are now arranged in ten books, twice the number of the -divisions of the Hebrew Psalter. Like most of the Psalms they are -traditionally ascribed to different poets, in whose families they were -sung; and their authors were regarded as Rishis, bards, or sages. Of -their real origin nothing is definitely known; their composition -probably extends over many generations, perhaps over several centuries; -and dim suggestions of their super-earthly origin already appear in -some of the latest poems. They became the peculiar treasure of the -priestly order; the most laborious efforts were devised for the study -and preservation of the sacred text; the methods of pronunciation, the -rules of grammar, the principles of metre, the derivations of words, -were all elaborated with the utmost minuteness into different branches -of Vedic lore. Two other smaller Vedas, collections of sacrificial -formulae and hymns, were very early placed beside the main work, and a -fourth collection gained similar rank much later. With the development -of the great schools of Hindu philosophy, especially after the decline -of Buddhism, the whole question of authority as the foundation of -belief and reasoning was forced to the front, and this in due time was -applied to the Veda. Brahmanical speculation had been long concerned -with its divine origin. It sprang from one of the mysterious figures -in which the ancient theologians expressed their sense of the real {12} -unity of the heavenly powers, Praj[=a]pati, the "lord of creatures," -through the medium of Vach, or sacred Speech. As such it was "the -firstborn in the universe." But as proceeding from Praj[=a]pati it -issued from the world of the _an-anta_, the "un-ending" or "infinite," -which was likewise the sphere of the _a-mrita_, the "im-mortal" or -"deathless." So it belonged to the realm of the eternal, where it -could be beheld, not indeed with the eye of sense, but with the higher -discernment of the holy Seer. The philosophical schools occupied -themselves accordingly with the defence of the eternity and consequent -infallibility of the Veda. Elaborate arguments were devised to explain -the relation of words to things, and of sound in the abstract to -uttered speech or again to show how behind individuals which had their -origin in time there existed species (even of the gods) which belonged -to the timeless order transcending our experience. So the conclusion -was reached, in the words of the great philosopher Cankara (A.D. -788-820), that "the authority of the Veda with regard to the matters -stated by it is independent and direct; just as the light of the sun is -the direct means of our knowledge of form and colour." - -Just at this era, by a singular coincidence, a remarkable controversy -was raging in the schools of Mohammedan theology. Mohammed died in -A.D. 632. He had himself recorded nothing; the traditions about him -are not even {13} agreed whether he could read or write. His oracles -were taught to his disciples, who began to note down some of them -during the prophet's life; soon after his death the formal collection -of them was undertaken; and under Caliph Othman (651) four copies were -deposited in the cities of Mecca, Cufa, Basra, and Damascus. We know -the work under the name of the Koran (_Qur[=a]n_ = reading), one of the -numerous expressions which Mohammed was said to have coined for the -revelation imparted to him from on high. Later generations attached -the title exclusively to the utterances fixed in literary form, and -discerned in them a unity designed by the prophet; but it seems more -consonant with his view to regard each of the 114 discourses (_suras_) -as a unit in itself, and the whole as only a fragment of his teaching. -Many passages raise a claim to specific divine origin; others allude to -the uncreated Scripture, _umm-al-kitab_, "the mother of the book." - -On such hints was founded the remarkable doctrine that the Koran was -eternal in its essence as the word of God, a necessary attribute of the -Most High. First formulated in the middle of the eighth century (A.D. -747-748), it roused extraordinary interest outside the theological -schools. It was fostered by the early Caliphs, for it supported their -political authority, and the emphasis which it placed on the doctrine -of predestination supplied them with a potent weapon. Opposition {14} -arose on the ground of free will; the passages enforcing the principle -of predestination were evaded by the handy method of allegorical -interpretation, and the revolt of the moral consciousness led, as it -has done elsewhere, to rationalism. Public debates were held amid -general excitement, when the Caliph Ma'mun (813-833) unexpectedly -espoused the rationalist cause, and issued a decree forbidding the -discussion. The popular forces, however, were in the long run -triumphant. In 847 a new Caliph came into power, inclined for -political reasons to the higher doctrine. Lectures were instituted in -the mosques on the attributes of God, and vast audiences--the -historians report twenty and even thirty thousand hearers--listened -eagerly while the theologians disputed whether God's word could be -conceived distinct from his absolute being. Faith in the prophet -triumphed; the exaltation of the product reacted on that of the person; -and the Arabian shepherd could be regarded as the inerrant, sinless, -uncreated light, sent forth from Deity himself, who for his sake spread -out the earth and arched the heavens, and proclaimed the great -confession "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet." - - -Every great historical religion passes through numerous phases, as it -is brought into contact with different cultures, and evokes various -forms of speculative thought and inward {15} experience. Buddhism has -been no exception to this rule. It sprang up in a moral revolt against -the claims of the Brahmanical teachers, and in the midst of the -discussions of the sophists turned its back on metaphysics and sought -to concentrate attention on the Noble Path of the good life. It -offered a way of deliverance from the weary round of births and deaths -by the victory over ignorance and sin, and sought to overcome -selfishness by eliminating the idea that man has, or is, a Self. -Accordingly it presented its founder Gotama (500 B.C.), as the man who -had attained the Truth, who had by a long series of lives devoted to -the higher righteousness acquired the insight into the causes and -meaning of existence, and imparted it to his followers with -instructions to carry it forth for the welfare of their fellow-men. -For this end he founded a union or order; he instituted a discipline, -and committed his teaching to a body of disciples whose successors -gradually bore it into distant lands. He himself passed away, leaving -no trace behind. His memory was cherished with dutiful devotion. -Pilgrimages to the scenes of his birth and Buddhahood, commemorative -festivals and pious rites, kept the image of the Teacher before the -mind of the believer. But no prayer was offered to him; no worship -created any bond of fellowship between the departed Gotama and the -community which he had left on earth. - -{16} - -But in the course of several generations remarkable changes took place. -Environed by philosophical speculations, Buddhism could not remain -wholly unaffected by the great ideas of metaphysics. While one branch, -now surviving in Ceylon, Burma and Siam, remained faithful to the -Founder's exclusion of all such conceptions as being, substance, and -the like, others began to interpret the person of the Buddha in terms -of the Absolute, and identified him with the Eternal and the -Self-Existent, who from time to time for the welfare of the world took -on himself the semblance of humanity, and appeared to be born, to -attain Enlightenment, and die. The great aim of the deliverance of all -sentient beings from error, suffering, and guilt, expressed itself -further in the association with him of numerous other holy forms -sharing the same purpose of the world's salvation. - -Among these was the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light,[1] -who had made a wondrous vow in virtue of which a blessed future of -righteousness and joy in the Western Paradise was secured for all who -put their trust in him. Carried into China, this devotion acquired -great popularity, and centuries later it passed into Japan. There, -while Europe was sending its warriors to win back from the Crescent the -city of the Cross, while Bernard and Francis and Dominic were awakening -new enthusiasm for the monastic {17} life, two famous teachers, Honen -(1133-1212) and Shin-ran (1173-1262), developed the doctrine of -"salvation by faith." Honen was the only son of a military chief who -died of a wound inflicted by an enemy. On his deathbed he enjoined the -boy never to seek revenge, and bade him become a monk for the spiritual -enlightenment both of his father and his father's foe. So the lad -passed in due time into one of the great Buddhist monasteries on mount -Hiei. Long years of laborious study followed, till in 1175 he reached -the conviction that faith in Amida[2] was the true way of salvation. A -deep sense of human sinfulness and the belief in an All-Merciful -Deliverer were the essential elements of his religion. Three emperors -became his pupils, and his life, compiled by imperial order after his -death, resembles that of a mediaeval Christian saint. Visions of Amida -and of the holy teachers of the past were vouchsafed to him. He -preached--like another St. Francis--to the serpents and the birds. His -person was mysteriously transfigured, and a wondrous light filled his -dwelling. - - -[1] Also called Amitayus, the Buddha of Boundless Life. - -[2] The Japanese form of the Sanskrit Amitabha. - - -His disciple Shin-ran carried the doctrine of his master yet a little -farther. Filled with adoring gratitude to the Buddha of Boundless -Light, who, as the deliverer, was also the Buddha of Boundless Life, he -argued that infinite mercy and infinite wisdom must belong to him; and -these in their turn implied the {18} power to give effect to his great -purpose. He passed from village to village through the Eastern -provinces, rousing enthusiasm by the hymns into which he wrought his -new faith. They are still sung in the temples at the present day. But -whereas Honen had recognised a value in good works, and had enjoined -the duty of constant repetition of the sacred name of Amida, Shin-ran -insisted that all element of "self-exertion" must be purged away, and -faith in the merits of Amida--"the exertion of another"--should alone -remain. Some of the conceptions of Western teaching thus present -themselves in Japan in the midst of modes of life and thought of purely -Indian origin. Christian theologians had debated whether faith was to -be regarded as an _opus_ or a _donum_, a "work" or a "gift," was it -something to be attained by man or was it bestowed by God? The -Japanese answer was unhesitating. Faith was not earned by effort, or -achieved by merit, it was granted out of immeasurable love. "The -Buddha," we read, "confers this heart. The heart which takes refuge in -his heart is not produced by oneself. It is produced by the command of -Buddha. Hence it is called the believing heart by the Power of -Another." The natural corollary was that in due course this grace -would be bestowed on all. The Buddha of Boundless Light and Life would -overcome the darkness of ignorance and death; and this type of -Buddhism, now the most active and {19} influential in Japan, preaches -the doctrine of universal salvation. The student finds here a whole -series of parallels to the Evangelical interpretation of Christianity. -Both schemes are founded on the same essential ideas, man's need of a -deliverer, and the attainment of salvation by no human conduct but by -faith in a divine person. - - -The foregoing sketches raise many problems. What are the actual -features in different religions which are susceptible of comparison? -How can we distinguish between resemblances which are deep-seated and -spring from the fundamental principles of two given faiths, and those -which are only on the surface, and probably accidental? How far can -such parallels be ascribed to suggestion through historical contact, -and, if they lie too far apart for possibilities of any form of mutual -dependence, out of what common types of experience are they derived, -what forces of thought have shaped them, what feelings do they express? - -The student of Comparative Religion seeks answers to these and similar -questions. A vast field of inquiry is at once opened before him. It -embraces practically every continent, people, and tribe on the face of -the globe. It begins in the last period of the great ice age, when men -lived in this country in the company of the elephant, the rhinoceros, -and the mammoth, and hunted their game through {20} Germany, Belgium, -and France. In dim recesses of the caves they painted the deer, the -bison, the antelope and the wild boar, under conditions which imply -some kind of mysterious or holy place. They buried their dead with -care, and though we can ask them no questions we may infer with much -probability that they celebrated some kind of funeral meal, and -deposited implements and ornaments in the grave for the use of the -departed in the world beyond. In one case hundreds of shells were -found buried with the skull of a little child. Similar usages may be -traced through the slow advances of culture to the present day. Death -is an element of universal experience; and it is not unreasonable to -suppose that if the negroid peoples of Western Europe had worked out -some view of its meaning and consequences, there were other things to -be done or avoided out of fear or reverence for the Unseen. - -The first objects of comparison are thus found in the outward acts -which fall more or less clearly within the sphere of religion, the -places where these are performed, the persons who do them, the means -required for them, the occasions to which they are attached. These all -belong to the external world; they can be observed and recorded, even -though we may not be sure what they mean. When they are brought -together, a series of gradations of complexity can be established, -while a common purpose may be traced through all. {21} From the negro -who lays his offering of grain or fruit at the foot of a tree with the -simple utterance, "Thank you, gods," to a great Eucharistic celebration -at St. Peter's, a continuous line of ritual may be followed, in which -the action becomes more elaborate, the functions and character of the -officiating ministers more strictly defined, the accessories of worship -more complicated. This corresponds to the enrichment and elevation of -the ideas and emotions that animate the act, as that which is at first -performed as part of tribal usage and ancestral custom acquires the -force of divine institution and personal duty. - -Behind the external act lies the internal world of thought and feeling. -The social sanction may invest the ceremony itself with so much force -that the worshipper's interest may lie rather in the due performance of -the rite than in the deity to whom it is addressed. The element of -belief may be relatively vague and indefinite. But in the more highly -organised religions belief also may externalise itself through hymn and -prayer, through myth and history and prophecy. When a religion is -strong enough to create a literature, a fresh object of comparison is -presented. The utterances of poet and sage, of lawgiver and seer, can -be set side by side. Their conceptions of the Powers towards which -worship is directed can be studied; the characters and functions of the -several deities can be determined. This {22} is the intellectual -element in religion. It has often been regarded as the element of most -importance, because it seemed most readily to admit of the test of -truth. It finds its most formal expression in the articles of a creed, -and has sometimes been erected into the chief ground of the supreme -arbitrament of heaven and hell. - -There remains the element of feeling. This also may be so entangled in -tradition, so enveloped in the pressure of surrounding influences, that -it is at first obscure and indistinct. But its importance was early -recognised when the origin of religion was ascribed to fear, in the -oft-quoted line of the Roman Satirist Petronius Arbiter at the court of -Nero (who committed suicide A.D. 66)-- - - "Primus in orbe deos fecit timor. - - -In the eighteenth century the genius of Lessing (1729-1781) fastened on -the feeling of the heart as the essential foundation of religion. No -written record, no historical event, could guarantee its truth; that -lay in the constitution of the human spirit in its interpretation of -its experience. In his famous drama of "Nathan the Sage" he applied -this to the representatives of three great historical religions which -were thus brought together for comparison: the Christian Templar, the -Mohammedan Saladin, and the Jew Nathan. Herder (1744-1803) endeavoured -with the {23} materials then at command to trace the origin and -development of religion, starting from the primitive impressions made -upon the mind by the world without, and sought to interpret mythology -as the imaginative utterance of man's consciousness of the power, -light, and life in Nature. In the next generation Schleiermacher -(1767-1834) placed the essence of religion in the feeling of absolute -dependence, without attempting to define the object towards which it -was directed. The study of origins has passed out of the hands of the -philosophers and the theologians. But it cannot dispense with -psychology; and among the factors of early religious life will be found -the beginnings of wonder, reverence and awe. And this element, often -cruelly twisted into false and degraded forms, and sometimes refined in -the higher types of mysticism into the loftiest spirituality, inheres -in all practice and belief. - -What, then, is the basis of comparison among different faiths? The -student who is engaged in tracing the life-history of any one religion -will naturally start from the field of investigation thus selected. As -he widens his outlook he will find that a number of illustrative -instances force themselves upon his view. The people whose -institutions and ideas he is examining are members of a given ethnic -group. The ancient Hebrews, for instance, belong on the one side to -the life of the desert, and are kin with the nomad Arabs, {24} on the -other they are related to the authors of Babylonian culture. Or in the -course of events a new religion is brought by missionary impulse into a -less-developed civilisation, as when Buddhism passed from China through -Corea into Japan, and was planted in the midst of a cruder faith. -Widely different modes of thought are thus brought into close -juxtaposition, their relation and interaction can be examined, and the -inner forces of each compared. - -That such inquiries must be conducted without prejudice need not now be -enforced. An eighteenth-century writer might lay it down that "the -first general division of _Religion_ is into _True and False_," and -might draw the conclusion that "the chapter of _False Religions_ is by -much the longest in the History of the religious opinions and practices -of mankind."[3] Dr. Johnson could sententiously declare that "there -are two objects of curiosity, the Christian world and the Mohammedan -world--all the rest may be considered as barbarous." A learned Oxford -scholar of the last generation could speak of the "three chief false -religions," Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism. Missionaries and -travellers of an elder day, who took some form of Christianity as their -foundation, sometimes found the savages among whom they laboured -destitute of religion because they had no Father in heaven {25} and no -everlasting hell. These attitudes, it is now freely recognised, are -not scientific. For purposes of comparison no single religion can be -selected as a standard for the whole human race. Particular products -may be set side by side. The asceticism of India may be compared with -that of early Christianity. The ritual of sacrifice may be studied in -the book of Leviticus or the Hindu Br[=a]hmanas. What are sometimes -called "Ethnic Trinities" may be examined in the light of Alexandrian -theology. The _suras_ of the Koran may be read after the prophecies of -Isaiah. The various phases of the Buddhist Order, with its missionary -zeal, its power of adaptability to different cultures, its readiness to -accept new teaching, may be contrasted with the wonderful cohesiveness -and expansion of the Roman Catholic Church. The ideas of the Hellenic -mystery-religions may be found to throw light on the language of St. -Paul. Out of the multitudinous phases of human experience all the -world over innumerable resemblances will be discovered. Each is a fact -for the student, and must be treated on equal terms in the field of -science. But they will have more or less intrinsic significance in the -scale of values. Philosophy may attempt to range them in gradations of -worth, in nobility of form, in dignity of expression, in moral purity, -in social effectiveness. Beneath infinite diversity the mystic will -affirm the unity of the whole, with the poet of the {26} _Masnavi_, -Jalalu-'d-Din of Balkh (A.D. 1207-1273)-- - - "Because He that is praised is, in fact, only One, - In this respect all religions are only one religion." - - -[3] Broughton, _Dictionary of all Religions_, 1745. - - -The materials of comparison are, of course, of the most varied kind. -The interest of the ancient Greeks was early roused in the diverse -practices which they saw around them, and the observations of Herodotus -concerning the Egyptians, the Persians, the Scythians, and many another -tribe upon the fringe of barbarism, have earned for him the modern -title of the "Father of Anthropology." Travellers, missionaries, -government officers, men of trade and men of learning, have recorded -the usages of the lower culture all over the world, naturally with -varying accuracy and penetration, and a vast range of facts has been -registered through successive stages of complexity in social and -religious development. Many of these have their parallel in the -folklore of countries where the uniformity of modern civilisation has -not crushed out all traditional beliefs, while annual customs or even -village games may contain survivals of what were once important -ceremonial rites. The irruption of the Arab conquerors into Europe -brought Christianity face to face with Mohammedanism and its sacred -book. In the {27} seventeenth century the Jesuit Fathers in China -first made known the teachings of Kong-fu-tse ("Philosopher Kong") 500 -B.C. whose name they Latinised into Confucius. Towards the end of the -eighteenth century a brilliant little band of English scholars in -Calcutta began to reveal the astounding copiousness of the sacred -literature of India. During the expedition of Napoleon to Egypt in -1799 the Rosetta Stone (now in the British Museum) yielded the clue to -the hieroglyphics which cover the walls of temple and tomb. A -generation later a young British officer, Lieutenant Henry Rawlinson, -began in 1835 to copy a triple inscription on a cliff of Mount -Behistun, near Kermanshah in Persia. The work was dangerous and -difficult, but he was enabled to complete it ten years later. It -contained an identical record in three languages, Persian, Median, and -Babylonio-Assyrian, and provided the means for deciphering the -cuneiform script of the tablets and cylinders soon recovered from the -mounds of Mesopotamia. - -Meanwhile the lovers of the past were at work in many other directions. -The Swedish Lonrott collected the ancient songs of the Finnic people, -under the name of the Kalevala. Other scholars brought to light the -treasures of Scandinavian mythology in the Icelandic Edda with its two -collections of poetry and prose. In Wales and Ireland the texts which -enshrined the Celtic faith awoke new interest. The students of -classical antiquity began to {28} collect inscriptions, and it was soon -realised that the spade might be no less useful in Greece or Asia Minor -than beside the Nile or the Euphrates. - -The last century has thus accumulated an immense mass of material in -literature and art. There are codes of law regulating in the name of -deity the practice of family and social life. There are hymns of -praise or of penitence, sometimes in strange association with the -spells of magic. There are books of ritual and sacrifice, of -ceremonial order, of philosophical speculation and moral precept. -There are rules of discipline for religious communities; and there are -pictures of judgment and delineations of the heavenly life. Sculpture -and painting have been employed to give external form to the objects of -pious reverence; and the architecture of the sanctuary has wrought into -stone the fundamental conceptions of majesty, proportion, and grace. - -All this, it is plain, rests upon history. When Confucius visited the -seat of the imperial dynasty at the court of Chow, he studied with deep -interest the arrangements for the great sacrifices to Heaven and Earth; -he surveyed the ancestral temples in which the emperor offered his -worship; he inspected the Hall of Light whose walls bore paintings of -the sovereigns from the remotest times; and then he turned to his -disciples with the remark: "As we use a glass to examine the forms of -things, so must we study the past to {29} understand the present." -Comparison that confines itself solely to counting up resemblances here -and there will be of small value. We cannot comprehend the real -meaning of a single religious rite, a single sentence of any scripture, -apart from the context to which it belongs. Acts and words alike issue -out of experiences that may be hundreds of years old, and sum up -generations, it may be whole ages, of a continuous process. To trace -the successive forms of these changes, to describe the steps through -which they have passed, is like making a chart of a voyage, and laying -down the lines of continent and ocean, island and cape. Or just as the -races of man are sorted, and their characteristics are enumerated -without reference to the various causes which have produced their -modifications, so geography and ethnography might companion -_hierography_, the delineation of "the Sacred" in its concrete -manifestations. - -But behind the external evolution of a given religion, its modes of -worship, its ministers, its doctrines, lie more complicated questions. -What causes shaped these acts and moulded these beliefs? What elements -of race are to be discerned in them? How can we account for the -diversities between the religions of peoples belonging to a common -stock, like those of India and those of ancient Italy? What have been -the effects of climate, of the struggle with alien peoples and new -environment? How does the food-supply influence {30} the formation of -religious ideas? What contacts have been felt with other races, and -what positive loans or more impalpable influences have passed from one -side to the other? We, find here in _hierology_, the science of "the -Sacred," an analogue to the reasoning which accounts for the -distribution of land and water, the rise of mountain ranges and the -sculpture of valleys and river-beds out of the stratification of the -earth's crust, and builds up a science of geology; or which traces the -results of migration upon peoples, the consequences of inter-marriage -with other tribes, the disastrous issues of war, surveys the immense -variety of causes which have contributed to new developments of racial -energy, and arranges this knowledge in the science of ethnology. - -And, lastly, the values of these facts must be estimated. How far can -they be accepted as expressing the reality of the Unseen Power, and -man's relation to it? Hierology may explain how men have developed -certain practices or framed certain beliefs; to determine their -reasonableness is the task of the philosophy of religion or -_hierosophy_.[4] - - -[4] These three terms have been suggested by Count Goblet d'Alviella, -of Brussels. - - - -The study of "Comparative Religion" assumes that religion is already in -existence. It deals with actual usages, which it places side by side -to see what light they can throw upon each other. It leaves the task -of {31} formulating definitions to philosophy. It is not concerned -with origins, and does not project itself into the prehistoric past -where conjecture takes the place of evidence. An old miracle-play -directed Adam to pass across the stage "going to be created." Whether -religion first appeared in the cultus of the dead, or only entered the -field after the collapse of a reign of magic which had ceased to -satisfy man's demands for help, or was born of dread and desired to -keep its gods at a distance, only remotely affects the process of -discovering and examining the resemblances of its forms, and -interpreting the forces without and within which have produced them. -The sphere of speculation has its own attractions, but in this little -book an attempt will be made to keep to facts. - -Three hundred years ago Edward Herbert,[5] an Oxford scholar who played -many parts and played them well, in deep revolt against the -ecclesiastical doctrine that all the world outside the pale of the -Church was doomed to eternal damnation, devoted himself to the study of -comparative religion. With the materials which the classics afforded -him, he examined the recorded facts among the Greeks and Romans, the -Carthaginians and Arabs, the Phrygians, the Persians, the Assyrians. -The whole fabric of human experience was built up, he argued, on -certain common knowledges or notions, which could be distinguished by -{32} specific marks, such as priority, independence, universality, -certainty, necessity for man's well-being, and immediacy. Here were -the bases of law in relation to social order, and of religion in -relation to the Powers above man. These principles in religion were -five: (1) that there is one supreme God; (2) that he ought to be -worshipped; (3) that virtue and piety are the chief parts of divine -worship; (4) that we ought to be sorry for our sins and repent of them; -(5) that divine goodness doth dispense rewards and punishments both in -this life and after it. These truths had been implanted by the Creator -in the mind of man, and their subsequent corruption produced the -idolatries of antiquity. - - -[5] 1583-1648., elder brother of "Holy George Herbert." - - -The theory held its ground in various forms till its last echoes -appeared in highly theologic guise in the writings of Mr. Gladstone. -He pleaded that there must have been a true religion in the world -before an untrue one began to gather and incrust upon it, and this -religion included three great doctrines--the existence of the Triune -Deity, the advent of a Redeemer, and the power of the Evil One and the -defeat of the rebel angels. These had formed part of a primeval -revelation. In the Homeric theology he traced the first in the three -sons of Kronos--Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. The second he found in -Apollo, whose mother Leto represented the Woman from whom the Redeemer -should descend. The rebel angels were equated with the Titans; {33} -the power of temptation was personified in Ate; the rainbow of the -covenant was identified with Iris. The student of to-day can hardly -believe that this volume could have been published in the same year in -which Darwin and Wallace formulated the new scientific principle of -"natural selection" as the great agent in the formation of species, and -thus laid the foundation of the modern conception of evolution (1858). - -It is on this great idea that the whole study of the history of -religion is now firmly established. At the foundation of all -endeavours to classify the multitudinous facts which it embraces, lies -the conviction that whatever may be the occasional instances of -degeneration or decline, the general movement of human things advances -from the cruder and less complex to the more refined and developed. In -the range of knowledge, in the sphere of the arts, in the command over -nature, in the stability and expansion of the social order, there are -everywhere signs of growth, even if isolated groups, such as the -Australians, the Todas of India, or the Veddas of Ceylon, seem to be in -the last stages of stagnation or decay. Religion is one phase of human -culture, it expresses man's attitude to the powers around him and the -events of life. Its various forms repose upon the unity of the race. -The anthropologist is convinced that if a new tribe is discovered in -some forest in central Africa, whether its stature be large or small, -its {34} persons will contain the same limbs as other men, and will -live by the same physical processes. The sociologist expects that -their social groups will approximate to other known types of human -relations. The philologist anticipates that behind the obscurities of -their speech he will find modes of thought which he can match -elsewhere. The student of religions will in the same way be on the -look-out for customs and usages akin to those which he already knows; -he will assume that under similar conditions experience will be moulded -on similar lines, and the streams of thought and feeling--though small -causes may easily deflect their course--will tend to flow in parallel -channels as they issue from minds of the same order, and traverse -corresponding scenes. - -And just as the general theory of evolution includes the unity of -bodily structure and mental faculty, so it will vindicate what may be -called the unity of the religious consciousness. The old -classifications based on the idea that religions consisted of a body of -doctrines which must be true or false, reached by natural reflection or -imparted by supernatural revelation, disappear before a wider view. -Theologies may be many, but religion is one. It was after this truth -that the Vedic seers were groping when they cried, "Men call him Indra, -Mitra, Varuna, Agni; sages name variously him who is but one"; or -again, "the sages in their hymns give many forms to him {35} who is but -one." When the Roman Empire had brought under one rule the -multitudinous peoples of Western Asia, North Africa, and Southern and -Middle Europe, and new worships were carried hither and thither by -priest and missionary, soldier and merchant and slave, the titles and -attributes of the gods were freely blended and exchanged. Thinkers of -different schools invented various modes of harmonising rival cults. -When "Jupiter best and greatest" was surrounded by a vast crowd of -lesser deities, the philosophic mind discerned a common element running -through all their worship. "There is one Supreme God," wrote Maximus -of Madaura to Augustine, about A.D. 390, "without natural offspring, -who is, as it were, the God and Mighty Father of all. The powers of -this Deity, diffused through the universe which he has made, we worship -under many names, as we are all ignorant of his true name. Thus it -happens that while in diverse supplications we approach separated, as -it were, certain parts of the Divine Being, we are seen in reality to -be the worshippers of him in whom all these parts are one." Here is -the prayer of a Blackfoot chief of our generation in the great -ceremonial of the Sun-Dance, reported by Mr. McClintock,[6] which -blends the implications of theology with the impulses and emotions of -religion-- - - -[6] _The Old North Trail_, 1910, p. 297. - - -"Great Sun Power! I am praying for my people that they may be happy in -the summer {36} and that they may live through the cold of winter. -Many are sick and in want. Pity them and let them survive. Grant that -they may live long and have abundance. May we go through these -ceremonies correctly, as you taught our forefathers to do in the days -that are past. If we make mistakes, pity us! - -"Help us, Mother Earth! for we depend upon your goodness. Let there be -rain to water the prairies, that the grass may grow long and the -berries be abundant. - -"O Morning Star! when you look down upon us, give us peace and -refreshing sleep. - -"Great Spirit! bless our children, friends, and visitors through a -happy life. May our trails lie straight and level before us. Let us -live to be old. We are all your children, and ask these things with -good hearts." - - - - -{37} - -CHAPTER II - -THE PANORAMA OF RELIGIONS - -Twice in the history of the world has it been possible to survey a wide -panorama of religions, and twice has the interest of travellers, men of -science, and students of philosophy, been attracted by the immense -variety of worships and beliefs. In the second century of our era the -Roman Empire embraced an extraordinary range of nationalities within -its sway. In the twentieth the whole history of the human race has -been thrown open to the explorer, and an overwhelming mass of materials -from every land confronts him. It may be worth while to take a hasty -glance at the chief groups of facts that are thus disclosed, and make a -sort of map of their relations. - - -I - -The scientific curiosity of the ancient Greeks was early awakened, and -Thales of Miletus (624-546 B.C.), chief of the seven "wise men," and -founder of Greek geometry and philosophy, was believed to have studied -under the priests of Egypt, as well as to have {38} visited Asia and -become acquainted with the Chaldean astronomy. Still more extensive -travel was attributed to his younger contemporary Pythagoras, whose -varied learning was explained in late traditions by his sojourn east -and west, among the Persian Magi, the Indian Brahmans, and the Druids -of Gaul. The first great record of observations is contained in the -History of Herodotus of Halicarnassus on the coast of Asia Minor. Born -in 484 B.C., six years after Marathon, and four years old when the -Greeks put Xerxes to flight at Salamis, he devoted his maturity to the -record of the great international struggle. Hither and thither he -passed, collecting information, an eager student of human things. In -Egypt he compared the gods with those of Greece, and attempted to -distinguish two sets of elements in Hellenic religion, Egyptian and -Pelasgic. He left notes on the Babylonians and the Persians, on the -Scythians in the vast tracts east of northern Europe, on the Getae south -of the Danube. - -When the conquests of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.) threw open the -gates of Asia, a stream of travellers passed into Persia and India, -whose reports were utilised by the geographers of later days. The -religion of Zoroaster, whose name was already known to Plato, attracted -great attention. At the court of Chandragupta on the Ganges, at the -opening of the third century B.C., Megasthenes, {39} the ambassador of -Seleucus (who had succeeded to the dominions of Alexander in Asia), set -down brief memoranda on the usages and belief of the Hindus among whom -he resided. Nearer home the representatives of Mesopotamian and -Egyptian learning commended their national cultures to their -conquerors. Berosus, priest of Bel in Babylon, translated into Greek a -Babylonian work on astronomy and astrology, and compiled a history of -his country from ancient documents; while his contemporary, Manetho, of -Sebennytus in the Nile Delta, undertook a similar service for his -native land. - -Meanwhile the great library and schools at Alexandria had been founded. -Hither came students from many lands; and the Christian fathers -Eusebius and Epiphanius in the fourth century attributed to the -librarian of the royal patron of literature, Ptolemy Philadelphus -(285-247 B.C.), the design of collecting the sacred books of the -Ethiopians, Indians, Persians, Elamites, Babylonians, Assyrians, -Romans, Ph[oe]nicians, Syrians, and Greeks. The Jews had settled in -Alexandria in considerable numbers; they began to translate their -Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, and little by little they planted their -synagogues all round the Eastern Mediterranean, and finally established -their worship in Rome. The Egyptian deities in their turn went abroad. -The worship of Serapis was introduced at Athens. Isis, the sister-wife -of {40} Osiris and mother of Horus, goddess of many functions--among -others of protecting sailors--was carried round the Levant to Syria, -Asia Minor, Greece, and as far north as the Hellespont and Thrace. -Westwards she was borne to Sicily and South Italy. In due time she -entered Rome, and in spite of senatorial orders five times repeated (in -the first century B.C.), to tear down her altars and statues, she -secured her place, and received homage all through the West from the -outskirts of the Sahara to the Roman wall north of our own Tyne. - -The introduction of Greek gods had begun centuries before. As early as -493 B.C., at a time of serious famine, a temple had been built to -Demeter, Dionysus, and Persephone; many others followed; resemblances -among the native gods quickly led to identifications; and new forms of -worship tended to displace the old. After another crisis (206 B.C.) -the "Great Mother," Cybele, the Phrygian goddess of Mount Ida, was -imported. The black aerolite which was supposed to be her abode, was -presented by King Attalus to the ambassadors of the Roman senate. The -goddess was solemnly welcomed at the Port of Ostia, and was ultimately -carried by noble Roman ladies on to the Palatine hill. - -The history of later days was full of notes upon religion. Caesar -interspersed them among the narratives of his campaigns in Gaul; -Tacitus drew on his recollections as {41} an officer in active service -for his description of the Germans. There was as yet no literature in -Wales or Ireland to embody the Celtic traditions; and the Scandinavian -Saga was unborn. But the geographers, like Strabo (first century -A.D.), collected a great deal of material that must have been gathered -ultimately from travellers, soldiers, traders, and slaves. A wise and -gentle philosophic Greek, Plutarch of Chaeronea in B[oe]otia (A.D. -46-120), student at the university of Athens, lecturer on philosophy at -Rome, and finally priest of Pythian Apollo in his native city, is at -home in many religions. Beside altars to the Greek gods Dionysus, -Herakles, and Artemis, in his own streets, were those of the Egyptian -Isis and Anubis. The treatise on Isis and Osiris (commonly ascribed to -him) is an early essay in comparative religion. In the latter half of -the second century the traveller Pausanias passes through Greece, -describing its sacred sites, noting its monuments, recording -mythological traditions, and observing archaic rites. In this -fascinating guide-book to religious practice are survivals of ancient -savagery, still lingering at country shrines, set down with curious -unconsciousness of their significance. The historical method is as yet -only in its infancy. But Pausanias rightly discerned that its first -business is to know the facts. - -In Rome, where ritual tradition held its ground with extraordinary -tenacity amid the {42} decay of belief, Marcus Terentius Varro, -renowned for his wide learning (116-28 B.C.), devoted sixteen books of -his great treatise on Antiquities to "Divine Things." Like so many -other precious works of ancient literature it has disappeared, but its -contents are partly known through its use by St. Augustine in his -famous work on "The City of God." Following a division of the gods by -the chief pontiff Mucius Scaevola, he treated religion under three -heads. In the form presented by the poets' tales of the gods it was -mythical. Founded by the philosophers upon nature (_physis_) it was -physical. As administered by priests and practised in cities it was -civil. It was an old notion that religion was a legal convention -imposed by authority for purposes of popular control; and Varro does -not disdain to declare it expedient that States should be deceived in -such matters. This police-notion long regulated public custom, and -tended to render the identification of deities presenting superficial -resemblances all the more easy. - -By this time the origin of the term "religion" had begun to excite -interest, as its meaning began slowly to change. Varro's -contemporaries, Cicero (106-43 B.C.) and Lucretius (about 97-53), -discussed its derivation. Cicero connected it with the root _legere_, -to "string together," to "arrange"; while Lucretius found its origin in -_ligare_, to "bind." Philology gives little help when it {43} speaks -with uncertain voice. More important is the primitive meaning which -Mr. Warde Fowler defines as "the feeling of awe, anxiety, doubt, or -fear, which is aroused in the mind by something that cannot be -explained by a man's experience or by the natural course of cause and -effect, and which is therefore referred to the supernatural." It has -nothing to do at the outset with any special rites or doctrines. It is -not concerned with state-usage or with priestly law. In its adjectival -form "religious days" or "religious places" are not days or places -consecrated by official practice; they are days and places which have -gathered round them man's sentiments of awe and scruple. The word thus -came to be applied to anything that was in some way a source or -embodiment of mysterious forces. The naturalist Pliny can even say -that no animal is "more full of religion than the mole," because -strange medicinal powers were supposed to reside in its heart and teeth. - -But, on the other hand, a new use of it passes into Roman literature in -the writings of Cicero. The feeling of awe still lies in the -background, but the word takes on a reference to the acts which it -prompts, and thus comes to denote the whole group of rites performed in -honour of some divine being. These make up a particular cult or -worship, ordained and sanctioned by authority or tradition. "Religion" -thus comes to mean a body of religious duties, the entire series of -sacred acts in which {44} the primitive feeling is expressed. Roman -antiquity conceived these as under the care of priesthoods, legitimated -by the State. Around them lay a fringe of superstitions, which a -hostile critic like Lucretius could also sum up under the same term. -And thus in an age when philosophy was addressing itself to the whole -question of man's relation to the world and its unseen Rulers, and a -single word was wanted to describe his attitude to the varied -spectacle, "religion" was at hand to fill the place. It covered the -whole field of human experience, and as different nations presented it -in different forms, it became possible to speak of "religions" in the -sense of separate systems of worship and belief. The champion of -Christianity naturally distinguished his religion as the true from the -false; and over against the multiformity of polytheism he set the unity -of the faith of the Church. - -Of these "religions" history and philosophy sought to give some -account. As will be seen hereafter (Chap. VI), Babylon and Egypt both -claimed a divine origin for their rites, their arts, and laws. -Plutarch expressly defends the idea of revelation in the cases of Minos -of Crete, the Persian Zoroaster, Zaleucus the shepherd legislator of -the Locrians, Numa of Rome, and others. Pan was in love with Pindar, -and AEsculapius conversed with Sophocles: if such divine diversions were -allowed, how much more should these greater {45} attempts for human -welfare be prompted from heaven! Numa had been enabled through Camena -Egeria to regulate the ceremonial law as priest-king, and pontiffs, -augurs, flamens, virgins, received their duties from him with -supernatural sanctions. - -Philosophers, on the other hand, discussed the meaning of religion upon -different lines. A wide-spread view already noted presented it as a -mere instrument of policy, devised to overawe the intractable. The -diversity of religions seemed to support this view. Plato's Athenian, -in one of his latest works, the Laws, mentions the teaching of sophists -who averred that the gods existed not by nature but by art, and by the -laws of States which are different in different places, according to -the agreement of those who make them. In a fragment of a drama on -Sisyphus ascribed to Critias, the friend of Alcibiades, it was alleged -that in the primeval age of disorder and violence laws might strike -crimes committed in open day, but could not touch secret sins, hidden -in the gloomy depths of conscience. A sage advised that to moralise -men they must be made afraid. Let them invent gods who could see and -hear all things, cognisant not only of all human actions but also of -men's inmost thoughts and purposes. They were accordingly connected -with the source of the most terrifying and the most beneficent -phenomena, the sky, home alike of thunder and lightning, of the shining -sun and fertilising {46} rain, seat of divine powers helpful and -hurtful to mankind. In the discussion on "the Nature of the Gods" (by -Cicero), Cotta, of the Academic school, inquires of his Epicurean -opponent Velleius, "What think you of those who have asserted that the -whole doctrine concerning the immortal gods was the invention of -politicians, whose notion was to govern that part of the community -which reason could not influence, by religion?" - -From another point of view, however, the practical universality of -religion was again and again cited in proof of its truth. Antiquity -was not scientific in its method of treatment, and though it did not -accept all religions as altogether equal, it had no difficulty in -regarding them as substantially homogeneous. The Egyptian worship of -animals might be lashed with satiric scorn, but the mysteries of its -religion, venerable from an immemorial past, deserved the highest -respect. The process of identification of the gods of different -religions was always going on as they were carried from land to land. -The Apologist, therefore, like the Cretan Cleinias in Plato's _Laws_ -when the Athenian stranger asked him to prove the existence of the -gods, could always appeal to two main arguments--first, the fair order -of the universe and the regularity of the seasons, and secondly, the -common belief of all men, both Hellenes and barbarians. This common -belief, however, itself required explanation. Its value {47} really -depended on its origin. If that ranked no higher than the crouching -impulses of fear, it had little worth. Even if it was sought in the -sense of dependence, in quiet trust in a sheltering order, or in -intelligent inference based on the demand for a cause, the question -still pressed for an answer, "What made this possible?" The answer was -given by the doctrine of the _Logos_. - -The term _logos_ has played a famous part in philosophical theology. -It appears in our New Testament at the opening of the fourth Gospel, -"In the beginning was the Logos." Our translators render the Greek -term by the English "Word." It is derived from the verb _legein_, to -"speak" or "say." _Logos_ is primarily "what is said," utterance, or -speech. Speech, however, must mean something. When we look out upon -the objects of the world around us--rock, river, tree, horse, star--we -learn to separate them into groups, because while some say quite -different things to us, others speak to us, as it were, with nearly the -same meaning. We recognise a common meaning in various sorts of dogs, -or in still larger classes such as the whole family of birds. But in -human intercourse what is said has first been thought. _Logos_ thus -takes on another meaning; it is what thinking says _to itself_, or what -we call "reason." The processes of science consist in finding out -these meanings or reasons, and getting them into intelligible relations -with each other. {48} And when the early Greek thinkers had reached -the conception of the unity of the world, here was a term which could -be called in to express it. The world must have a meaning; it must -express some thought. And did not thought imply thinking? - -The philosophy of Heracleitus "the Obscure" (at Ephesus, 500 B.C.) has -received in modern times widely different interpretations; but whether -or not the Stoics were right in understanding his doctrine of the Logos -to imply the existence of a cosmic reason universally diffused, present -both in nature and man, it is certain that such ideas appear soon -afterwards in Greek literature. Pindar affirms the derivation of the -soul from the gods. Plato and Euripides declare the intelligence of -man both in nature and origin to be divine; and Pseudo-Epicharmus lays -it down (in the second half of the fifth century) that "there is in man -understanding, and there is also a divine Logos; but the understanding -of man is born from the divine Logos." On this basis the Stoics worked -out the conception of a fellowship between man and God which explained -the universality of religion. Its seat was in human nature. Every one -shared in the Generative Reason, the Seminal Word (the _Logos -spermatikos_). In the long course of ages, says Cicero, when the time -arrived for the sowing of the human race, God quickened it with the -gift of souls. So we possess a certain kinship with the heavenly {49} -Powers; and while among all the kinds of animals Man alone retains any -idea of Deity, among men themselves there is no nation so savage as not -to admit the necessity of believing in a God, however ignorant they may -be what sort of God they ought to believe in. - -The part played by this doctrine in the early Church is well known. -When the new faith began to attract the attention of the educated, it -was impossible that the resemblances between Christian and Hellenic -monotheism should be ignored. Philosophy had reached many of the same -truths, and poets and sages bore the same witness to the unity and -spirituality of God as the prophets and psalmists of Israel. It was -easy to suggest that the Hebrew seers had been the teachers of the -Greek; might not Plato, for instance, have learned of Jeremiah in -Egypt? On the other hand, the pleas of chronological and literary -dependence might be insufficient; there were radical differences as -well as resemblances; the Apologist might deride the diversities of -opinion and make merry over the contradictions of the schools. -Nevertheless Christianity was often presented by its defenders as "our -philosophy." The Latin writer Minucius Felix (in the second century) -is so much struck by the parallels in the higher thought that he boldly -declares, "One might think either that Christians are now philosophers, -or that philosophers were then already Christian." The martyr Justin -(about {50} A.D. 150) incorporates such teachings into the scheme of -Providence by the aid of the Logos. For Justin, as for his -co-believers, the popular religion was the work of demons. But -philosophy had combated them in the past like the new faith. If -Socrates had striven to deliver men from them, and they had compassed -his death through evil men, it was because the Logos condemned their -doings among the Greeks through him, just as among the barbarians they -were condemned by the Logos in the person of Christ. The great truths -of God and Providence, of the unity of the moral government of the -world, of the nature and destiny of man, of freedom, virtue, and -retribution, which were to be found in the writings of the wisest of -the past, were the product of "the seed of the Logos implanted in every -race of men." Those who had lived with the Logos were Christians -before Christ, though men might have called them atheists, like -Heracleitus and Socrates. All noble utterances in theology or -legislation arose through partial discovery or contemplation of the -Logos, and consequently Justin could boldly claim "whatever things have -been rightly said among all men" as "the property of us Christians." - -The cultivated and mystical Clement, who became head of the -catechetical school of Alexandria towards the close of the second -century, enforced the same theme. An enormous reader, he loved to -compare the {51} truths enunciated by Greek poets and philosophers with -the wisdom of the barbarians. Philosophy, indeed, was a special -historical manifestation of thought along a peculiar line of -development. It affected a particular race, it spread over a distinct -area, and appeared in a definite time. In these respects it resembled -the preparatory work of Israel itself. It was a discipline of -Providence, so that beside the generalisation of St. Paul that the Law -had been a tutor to bring the Jews to Christ, Clement could set -another, that philosophy had played the same part for the Greeks. On -the field of common speech Clement's contemporary, the fiery Tertullian -of Carthage, appealed to the worshipper who bore the garland of Ceres -on his brow, or walked in the purple cloak of Saturn, or wore the white -robe of Egyptian Isis--what did he mean by exclaiming "May God repay!" -or "God shall judge between us?" Here was a recognition of a supreme -authority and power, the "testimony of a soul naturally Christian." - -Such comparisons, however, had a very different side. Greece had long -had its secret mysteries, with their sacred initiations, their rites of -purity and enlightenment, their promises of welfare beyond the grave. -When the new deities from Asia Minor, from Egypt, Syria, and the -further East, were brought to Italy, the resemblances of their practice -to that of the Christian Church excited the {52} believer's alarm, and -roused at once the charge of plagiarism. There was a congregation of -Mithra at Rome as early as 67 B.C., and towards the end of the first -century of our era his mysteries began to be widely spread. Here was a -baptism; here was a "sacrament" as the neophyte took the oath on -entering the warfare with evil; here were grades of soldiership and -service; here were oblations of bread and water mingled with wine which -were naturally compared with the Lord's supper; here were doctrines of -deliverance from sin, of judgment after death and ascent to heaven, -which brought the theology and practice of Mithraism very close to that -of the Church. So Mithra bore the august titles of the holy and -righteous God; or he was the Mediator, author of order in nature and of -victory in life between the ultimate powers of good and evil. - -For a time the rivalry was acute, as his worship was carried through -the West as far as York and Chester and the Tyne. But with the triumph -of Christianity in the fourth century the sounds of conflict die away. -The men of learning, Eusebius of Caesarea (about A.D. 260-340), -Augustine (A.D. 354-430) bishop of Hippo, surveyed the religions and -philosophies of antiquity as conquerors. The faiths of Egypt, -Ph[oe]nicia, Greece, and Rome, are passed in review. With a broad -sweep of learning Eusebius comments on the ancient mythologies, the -oracles, the theory of demons, {53} the practice of human sacrifice, -the history of Mosaism. His treatise on the "Preparation for the -Gospel" is the first great work on comparative religion which issued -out of Christian theology. With generous recognition of what lay -beyond the Church he taught (in the _Theophania_) that all higher -culture was due to participation in the Logos. Idolatry might be the -work of demons; the world might be filled with the babblings of -philosophers and the follies of poets; but the Logos had been -continuously present, sowing in the hearts of men the rudiments of the -divine laws, of various orders of teaching, of doctrines of every kind. -Thus ethics, art, science, and the fairest products of human thought, -were genially brought within the scope of Revelation. - - -II - -The panorama of religions unrolled before the student of the present -day is far vaster than that which offered itself to the thinkers of -Greece and Rome, and its meaning is far better understood. When -Pausanias describes the daily sacrifice to a hero at Tronis in Phocis, -where the blood of the victim was poured down through a hole in the -grave to the dead man within, while the flesh was eaten on the spot, he -notes, like the careful author of a guide-book, a curious local usage, -but he does not know that it belongs to a group of {54} savage -practices that may be traced all round the globe. On Mount Lycaeus in -Arcadia, he tells us, was a spring which flowed with equal quantity in -summer as in winter. In time of drought the priest of Lycaean Zeus, -after due prayer and sacrifice, would dip an oak-branch into the -surface of the spring, and a mist-like vapour would rise and become a -cloud. In the midst of Hellenic culture it was still possible, as -among the negroes of West Africa or the Indians of North America, to -make rain. - -From continent to continent a multitude of observers have gathered an -immense range of facts, which show that amid numerous differences in -detail the religions of the lower culture may all be ranked together on -the basis of a common interpretation of the surrounding world. -Philosophy suggests that man can only explain nature in terms of his -own experience. He is encompassed by powers that are continually -acting on him, as he to a much smaller extent can in his turn act on -them. By various processes of observation and reflection (p. 85), he -comes to the conclusion that within his body lives something which -enables it to move and feel and think and will, until at death it goes -away. To this mysterious something many names are given, and for -purposes of modern study they are all ranked under the term "spirits." -This explanation is then applied to the behaviour of all kinds of -objects within {55} his view; though it does not at all follow that -this was actually the first explanation. The animals that are stronger -and more cunning than himself, the trees that move in the wind, the -corn that grows so mysteriously, the bubbling spring, even the things -that he himself has made, his weapons, tools, and jars, all have their -"spirits," so that the entire scene of his existence is pervaded by -them. To this doctrine, with its many branches of belief and practice, -Sir E. B. Tylor, in his classical work on _Primitive Culture_ (1871), -gave the name of "Animism," and the religions founded upon it are -called "animistic," or sometimes, from the multitude of unorganised -spirits which they recognise, "polydaemonistic" religions. - -Such religions belong to no specific ethnic group. They appear either -in existing practice or in the shape of occasional survivals in all of -the three great racial divisions of mankind--the white or Caucasic, the -yellow or Mongolian, and the black or Negroid. They are to be found -under the Equator and among the Arctic snows. They are sometimes -associated with a peculiar form of social structure regulating -inter-tribal relations known as _totemism_. It was at one time -supposed that this designated a stage of evolution through which all -peoples had passed. The totem or clan-sign, whether animal or plant, -or more rarely an inanimate object like wind, sun, or star, was -supposed to have {56} become an object of worship, and various theories -were invented to explain the divisions and subdivisions of the clans, -and the selection of their special signs. Hence, it was argued, came -the cultus of beast and bird and tree; hence the altar and the idol; -hence the animal sacrifice and the sacramental meal. In clever hands -it supplied a universal key. The extraordinary intricacy of the -subject, and the widely scattered character of the evidence, prevent -any discussion here. But the most recent researches have not sustained -these attempts. Among the Central Australian tribes the totems are not -worshipped, they are in no sense deities, no prayers or sacrifices are -offered to them. They may be brought into the sphere of religion in -some tribes as part of a social order to which a superhuman origin is -ascribed (p. 171). But totemism cannot be established as the typical -form of "primitive religion" any more than any other complicated -system. Its general diffusion is questionable. At the present day -there are large areas over which no signs of totemic organisation are -found; and many phenomena which were formerly assumed to be proofs of -totemism in the higher religions of antiquity, in Egypt, Greece, and -Italy, now receive other explanations. - -The higher forms of animistic religion pass out into polytheisms of -more or less dignity. They do not succeed in embodying themselves in -permanent literary product, they create no {57} scriptures or sacred -books. They have their rude chants, their songs for weddings and -funerals, their genealogies and tales of ancient heroes. Strange -cosmogonies float from island to island in Polynesia. The Finnic -peoples enshrined their faith in the ballads collected under the name -of the Kalevala. Among the Indians of North America speculation is -sometimes highly elaborated in mythologic tradition; and out of the -fusion of nationalities in Mexico rose a developed polytheism in which -lofty religious sentiment seems strangely blended with a hideous and -sanguinary ritual. Peru, no less, presented to the Spanish conquerors -bewildering and incongruous aspects. In these two cultures native -American civilisation reached its highest forms. In Mexico the -apparatus of religion was very minutely organised. There were immense -temples, which required large numbers of priests and servitors. The -capital alone is said to have contained 2000 sacred buildings, and the -great temple had a staff of 5000 priests. There were religious orders -and temple-schools; rites of baptism and circumcision; feasts and -sacrifices and sacraments, in which the monkish chroniclers found -strange parallels to their own practice. The issues of victory were -disastrous. With the death of the last Aztec emperor (1520) the doom -of the old gods was assured, and the Inquisition (1571) completed what -the sword of Cortes had begun. - -{58} - -In the old world Asia has been the mother of religions, but various -fates have befallen her offspring. The ancient cults of Babylonia, -after an existence longer than the period from Moses to the present -day, vanished from the scene. The teachings of Zoroaster were planted -in China in A.D. 621, and a temple was erected at the capital, Changan; -but the Persian faith could not maintain itself in such a different -culture. After the Mohammedan conquest in the eighth century it was -finally carried by a little band of exiles into India, and is still -cherished by their descendants who bear the name of Parsees. The Jew -and the Christian have only a precarious toleration in the land which -was once their home. In India and in China alone is the religion of -to-day linked in unbroken continuity with the distant past. Islam may -set itself in lineal succession to the teachers of old, and claim a -place for Mohammed in the sequence of Abraham, Moses, and Christ. But -it is the youngest, and in some respects the least original, of the -world's great faiths. - -India has its own panorama of religions, from the animistic practice of -the tribes of the jungle and the hills, up to the refined pantheism of -the philosophical school. Diversities of race have been strangely -intermingled, and fifty languages make it impossible to secure any -uniformity of culture. There are the descendants of the ancient -inhabitants who occupied the country before {59} the Aryan ancestors of -the Hindus settled themselves upon the fertile lands. They are -represented to-day by the wild tribes of Central India such as the -Bhils and Gonds. Some ten million probably profess a religion of a -well-marked animistic type. But this also lies at the base of -wide-spread popular belief and custom, where the propitiation of -spirits, the cultus of Mother Earth, and the veneration of village -deities, engage much more attention than the higher gods of Hinduism. - -The literary foundation of the religions of India lies in the ancient -hymns of the Rig Veda, sung by the immigrant Aryans as they entered -from the North-west and gradually established themselves in the Ganges -valley. These hymns were addressed to gods of earth and air and sky; -they celebrated the glories of dawn and day; they told of the conflict -between sunshine and storm; they praised Agni, the god of fire, -messenger between heaven and earth, himself as agent of the sacrifice a -kind of priest among the gods; they commemorated the dead who passed -into the upper world and adorned the sky with stars. Already in some -of the later hymns the poet's thought endeavoured to find some -principle or power that should unite these different agencies as -manifestations of one ultimate reality; and philosophic imagination at -length fixed on the conception of Brahman, a term whose original -meaning {60} seems to hover between that of sacred spell and prayer. -Viewed in a personal aspect (Brahma) as a god of popular worship, he -could be described as "Lord of all, the Maker, the Creator, Father of -all that are and are to be."[1] But behind this sovereign ruler -metaphysical abstraction placed a neuter Brahma, all-embracing, the -ground of all existence, summed up in three terms--Being, Thought, and -Bliss. Here was the ultimate Self of the whole universe; and to know -the identity of the human self with the Absolute, to be able to repeat -the mysterious words _tat tvam asi_, "that art thou," was the aim of -the forest-sages and the highest attainment of holy insight. - - -[1] So in the early Buddhist texts describing the popular religion. -Many new forms appear in these documents. - - -Meantime the social order was acquiring the first forms of caste. The -priests and the fighting men, the people who settled on the lands for -pasture and tillage, and the tribes of aborigines whom they -dispossessed and subdued, formed the basis of divisions which were -gradually multiplied with extraordinary complexity. A religious -authority was found for the whole system in the teachings of the Veda, -and to contest its claims was to defy the power which slowly spread -with subtle hold through the whole peninsula. By its side arose the -doctrine of the Deed (_karma_, p. 217), which explained the varied -conditions of human life by the principle that {61} "a man is born into -the world that he has made." The lot of each individual had a moral -meaning: it was the result of previous conduct, good or ill. This is -the conception embodied in the word "transmigration." It pictures man -as involved in a continuous series of births and deaths, and religion -and philosophy undertook in their several ways to secure him a -favourable destiny hereafter, or by various means of divine grace, or -strenuous self-discipline, or pious contemplation, to extricate him -altogether from the weary round of ignorance and pain. - -Out of these elements, a crude and ever-varying animism at the bottom, -a highly refined metaphysical pantheism at the top, figures of -incarnation and deliverance, the cultus of the dead, caste, and -transmigration, the complex strands of modern Hinduism have been woven. -Many have been the growths upon the way. The early Buddhist texts, -representing the society of the "Middle Country," show already in the -fifth century B.C. a surprising activity of speculation, busily engaged -in questioning every received doctrine of religion and morals. Some -forms held their ground for a few centuries and then disappeared. One -religious community of that date alone survives, viz. the Jains, who -still number about a million and a third. Buddhism, after sending out -its missionaries into Ceylon in the south and China in the north, was -driven from its ancient seats, and {62} only some 300,000 hold its -creed in India itself. In Burma, however, it numbers between ten and -eleven million lay adherents, and in the adjacent kingdom of Siam it -has 13,000 temples, and more than 93,000 mendicants have taken its vows. - -But Hinduism still lives on with a marvellous and self-renewing power. -Two great divine figures have been set beside the original creative -Brahma, representatives of the forces that preserve and destroy, Vishnu -and Civa (p. 128). Vishnu succeeded to the place of the Buddha; and -Hindu religion gave prominence in him to the conception of a Divine -Person who out of love for man assumed human shape to conquer evil and -establish truth. The worship of Civa has been carried everywhere by -the Brahmans; if he destroys, he also reproduces; he, too, appears to -bless and help, and the Tamil poets of South India in the early Middle -Ages sang his praises in hymns that still feed the piety of the people. -Again and again reforming teachers have initiated movements on behalf -of spiritual religion. Their followers have multiplied and broken up -into sects, but still remain within the general area of the ancestral -faith, which now embraces considerably more than 200 million souls. -The disciples of N[=a]nak (1469-1538), however, known as S[=i]khs, -formed into a semi-military organisation by the Guru Gobind "the Lion" -(1675-1708), retain their religious independence, {63} touching -Hinduism on one side and Mohammedanism on the other. They number at -the present day more than two millions, and are found almost -exclusively in the Punjab. - -China, like India, illustrates the principle of religious continuity. -Its earliest historic date is fixed by an eclipse in 776 B.C.; and the -traditions of its dynasties stretch more than a thousand years beyond. -The ancient religion depicted in the books known as the _Shu_ and the -_Shi Kings_, which Confucius (550-478 B.C.) was supposed to have edited -out of much older documents, rested upon the solemn order of the living -Heaven and Earth, with multitudinous ranks of associated spirits, and -the generations of the dead. This has remained the formal basis of the -national religion (p. 97). Meanwhile the ethical sayings of Confucius -acquired extraordinary ascendency. They formed the chief element in -the national education, and supplied the ideals of popular culture. -Carried into Japan in the sixth century of our era, they filled a gap -in the old Japanese teaching, which we know by the name of Shin-To or -"Spirits' way." Confucius himself became the object of general -commemorative homage; and annual ceremonies are still celebrated in his -honour with great splendour in the Confucian temples which adorn every -city within the empire above a certain rank.[2] - - -[2] These are at present in danger, like other public forms of Chinese -State Religion, of being rudely abolished. - - -{64} - -In the popular religion demonology and magic play a constant part, and -numerous growths out of the worship of ancestors provide ever fresh -additions to the higher ranks of spirits. These are regulated by -decrees of the Board of Rites, one of the most ancient religious -institutions in China. The spirit of a departed governor, perhaps two -centuries ago, is believed to have appeared in time of flood, and by -his beneficent influence dangers have been averted. Memorials are sent -up to Peking by the local authorities, and after repeated -manifestations divine honours are awarded. Beneath these august -personages are the spirits which preside over the trades and -professions, over the parts of a house--the door, the bed, or the -kitchen range--over the breeding of domestic animals, and a large -variety of occupations, to say nothing of medicine and disease, the -limbs of the body, and the stars. They are analogous to the Kami, the -equivalent powers in Japan (p. 91); and they are not without parallel -in religions further west. - -Half a century before Confucius, in 604, was born another sage, known -in history as Lao Tsze. Fragments of his teaching are embodied in a -small book of aphorisms, concerned with the doctrine of the Tao, the -way, the path, or course. In nature this corresponded to the ordered -round of the seasons, and the regularities which we call laws. In man -it might be seen in the line of right {65} conduct, and the inner -principles which pointed to it. On this conception, which was much -older than Lao Tsze himself, a kind of metaphysical mysticism was -reared by later disciples, not without affinities with some aspects of -the Brahmanical philosophy. They have been explained by suggestions of -travel and contact which more careful study cannot justify. The -religion of the Tao (whence the name Taoism) could never have been -popular had it not become strangely entangled with alchemy and -transformed under the influence of its later rival, Buddhism, from -which it derived much both in ritual, in ethics, and in doctrine. - -The statements about the appearance of Buddhist teachers and Buddhist -books in China before our era have been much disputed: the first -trustworthy record relates that in the year A.D. 65, a deputation of -eighteen persons was sent to Khotan to make inquiries, and they -returned two years later with books and images and a teacher. A second -teacher arrived shortly after, a temple was built at the imperial -capital, Lo-Yang, and the laborious work of translation was begun. A -stream of missionaries, Hindus, Parthians, Huns, slowly flowed into the -Flowery Land, "moved," says the chronicler, "by the desire to convert -the world." After a while the Chinese students sought the holy places -in India, and learned Sanskrit at the great Buddhist university at -Nalanda, near Buddha {66} Gaya. Vast collections of sacred literature -were gathered. The first Chinese catalogue, dated A.D. 520, enumerates -2,213 distinct works. Twelve successive revisions were made under -imperial order, and to the last, in 1737, the Emperor himself, -following the example of some of his predecessors, contributed a -preface. - -Opposed again and again by the Confucian _literati_, its temples -destroyed, its religious houses suppressed, its monks and nuns driven -back into the world, Buddhism has still lived on. It has created -impressive devotions, and generated numerous sects. It has spread -through Corea, Mongolia, and Japan; on the west it is planted in Tibet. -It has exercised immense influence on Chinese culture; architecture, -art and letters being all deeply indebted to it. In numerical -estimates of different religions common in the last century Buddhism -always headed the list, for the whole population of China--vaguely -reckoned at 400,000,000--was included in its fold. Such estimates are -no longer trustworthy.[3] The ancestral cultus of the dead under the -shelter of Confucianism, the rites of Taoist and of Buddhist priests, -are strangely blended. The incidents of life from birth to death are -never completed without help from one or other of the two faiths once -rivals, and now {67} so curiously intertwined. As early as the sixth -century a famous Buddhist scholar Fu Hhi was asked by the Emperor Wu-ti -if he was a Buddhist, and he pointed to his Taoist cap. "Are you a -Taoist?" he showed his Confucian shoes. "Are you a Confucian?" he wore -a Buddhist scarf. When the Abbe Hue made his famous journey two -generations ago, he observed that when strangers met, politeness -required that each should ask his neighbour, "To what sublime religion -do you belong?" The first might be a Confucian, the second a Taoist, -the third a disciple of the Buddha. Each would then begin to commend -the religion not his own, and they would conclude by saying, "Religions -are many, reason is one, we are all brothers." It was the maxim of Lu -Shun Yang (a distinguished Buddhist) centuries ago that "the teaching -of the sects is not different. The large-hearted man regards them as -embodying the same truths. The narrow-minded man observes only their -differences." - - -[3] The latest official estimate, February 1911, based on a reckoning -of families, gives 312,400,590 for the total Chinese people. - - -Yet another great religion, the latest born among the higher faiths of -the world, has established itself in both India and China. The first -Mohammedan invasion of India took place in A.D. 664. The followers of -the prophet are now reckoned at more than 66 millions. In 628 Mohammed -himself sent his uncle to China with presents to the Emperor. He -travelled by sea to Canton, where the first mosque was afterwards -built. {68} Good observers number the Mohammedans in China to-day at -30 millions, mostly in the north and west; and it is supposed that -there are about as many more in the Malay Archipelago. In Africa, -especially among the negroes of the west, their numbers have increased -enormously in the last century, and some two-fifths of the -multitudinous peoples of the Dark Continent, 80 millions out of 200, -are believed to live in the obedience of Islam. - -Islam, resignation or submission to the will of God, was the name given -to his religion by the prophet himself, who died in A.D. 632. But in -the hands of his first followers submission was no passive virtue. -Tradition ascribed to him the idea of addressing all known sovereigns, -and promising them safety if they accepted the faith. His successors, -therefore, conceived that the fulfilment of Allah's will demanded a -resolute effort to make known the new revelation. A fierce burst of -missionary effort carried the Moslem armies far and wide. In the year -of Mohammed's death they attacked Persia and Syria; a few years later -they invaded Egypt. Within the first century they had entered India, -and had swept through north Africa into Spain. But they had twice been -obliged to retreat from Constantinople, and in 732 they were defeated -on the Loire by Charles Martel near Tours, and forced to retire behind -the Pyrenees. - -With the same astonishing energy they {69} created centres of culture -from Baghdad to Cordova. Through Syriac versions of Aristotle's works -Arabian teachers carried Greek philosophy into Western Europe when the -light of ancient learning had grown dim. The contact with new thought -stimulated theological discussion, and the Moslem had to justify -himself against the Christian, the Zoroastrian, the Manichaean and the -Buddhist. Above the simple ritual demands of the prophet, the recital -of the creed--"There is no god but God (Allah), Mohammed is the apostle -of God"--the observance of prayer five times daily, the annual fast in -the month of Ramadh[=a]n, the bestowal of alms, and the pilgrimage to -Mecca, arose the debates of the schools and the divisions of sects. -The nature of the divine attributes, and their relation to the being or -essence of the Deity, the problems of predestination and free will, of -reason and revelation, excited eager interest. Beside the Koran vast -numbers of traditions concerning religious life and practice were -gradually put in circulation, and in the third century after Mohammed's -death they were reduced to writing in six great collections. To these -sources of truth and rules of conduct the jurists and theologians added -two others: agreement or universal consent, where beliefs and practices -are generally received though not specially sanctioned by the Koran or -tradition; and analogy, by which a doctrine or usage may be accepted as -valid because {70} of its resemblance to something legitimated by -revelation. - -Like the higher religions of India, like Judaism in its long and -chequered career whether in Palestine or in the Dispersion, like the -"universal religions" of Buddhism and Christianity, Mohammedanism has -known how to accommodate itself to very different levels of culture. -In the Arabian deserts much of the earlier animism still remains. It -is not rudely expelled either at the present day as Islam advances -through Africa. Other impulses have worked in different directions. -There are religious orders and mendicant ascetics. There are mystical -schools of refined spirituality, to which the influences of -Neo-platonism, of Christianity, and Buddhism, have all contributed. -S[=u]fiism (as this type of thought is called) was fed from various -sources, and has assumed different forms in different countries, but -its best-known literary products came from the great poets of Persia. - -From that subtle race issues the most remarkable movement which modern -Mohammedanism has produced. In 1844 a young man not twenty-five years -of age, named Ali Mohammed, of Shiraz, appeared under the title of the -"Bab" or Gate. Disciples gathered round him, and the movement was not -checked by his arrest, his imprisonment for nearly six years, and his -final execution in 1850. Thirteen years later one of his disciples -named Baha-ullah, "Splendour of God," announced {71} himself as "He -whom God shall manifest," whose advent the Bab had foretold. Exiled to -Acre, he died in 1892, and was succeeded in the leadership by his son -Abbas Efendi. The new faith declared that there was no finality in -revelation, and while recognising the Koran as a product of past -revelation, claimed to embody a new manifestation of the divine Unity. -Carried to Chicago in 1893 by a Babi merchant, it succeeded in -establishing itself in the United States; and its missionaries are -winning new adherents in India. It, too, claims to be a universal -teaching; it has already its noble army of martyrs and its holy books; -has Persia, in the midst of her miseries, given birth to a religion -which will go round the world? - - - - -{72} - -CHAPTER III - -RELIGION IN THE LOWER CULTURE - -Religion presents itself in its most obvious form as a mode of -activity. It is seen in some kind of behaviour; it prompts a -particular sort of conduct. Behind the customs and rites which are its -visible sign lie certain thoughts and feelings, often dim, indistinct, -obscure. In the totality of its beliefs, emotions, and institutions, -it is as much the product of the human spirit as poetry, or art, -science, morals, and law. It will therefore always bear some kind of -relation to the general circumstances of the social development to -which it belongs. The interpretation of the surrounding scene which is -implied in its intellectual outlook will vary with the elements of the -scene itself. But the limits of variation are much smaller than might -be expected. The questions "why" and "how" may be answered very -differently under the Equator and within the Arctic zone, but they are -the same questions, and spring from common impulses of thought. -Moreover, while race, climate, and economic conditions may all vary, it -happens to all men to be born {73} and to die. The family must be -maintained, children must be reared, food must be procured, the tribal -group must preserve its stability and, if possible, increase. There -are universal elements in human life all over the globe; and the -manifestations of religion founded upon them exhibit in consequence -marked resemblances from land to land. - -Religion always implies some kind of want. The young husband wants -male children, the hunter game, the warrior victory, the diviner the -knowledge of secrets, the saint holiness. The wants may be crude or -refined, the satisfaction of a physical appetite, protection against -some anticipated danger, the realisation of an exalted spiritual -fellowship. But religion suggests that there is some Power capable of -satisfying these wants, and undertakes to provide the means for setting -man in proper relations with it. All round him are the objects and -forces of the visible world. He learns by degrees that some help him -to gratify his desires, and others hinder them. There are many things -that he cannot understand, and some of which he dimly feels that he -must not presume to try: he is only conscious towards them of a strange -wonder and awe; they are uncanny; he cannot bring them into his -experience; he must not meddle with them, he must keep away. But other -things are more kindly, and fulfil his hopes. - -Out of such vague consciousness he gradually frames a working method. -Some sort {74} of theory is at length established after many trials, -concerning what must be done to obtain what he seeks. The line of his -action is determined in part by the ideas and expectations which have -slowly emerged out of his endeavours to get into fruitful connection -with the powers by which he is encompassed. This is the element of -belief, which lies behind religion proper, and supplies the soil in -which religious feeling and action germinate and grow. What, then, is -the kind of belief which, in the sphere of the lower culture, makes -religion possible? - -It is plain at once that no records remain of what is still sometimes -called "primitive religion." Even tribes that seem to be living in the -Stone Age have as long a past behind them as any European of light and -leading. Whatever the beliefs may be that belong to any given stage of -social culture, they are not new inventions, they depend on immemorial -tradition. And they are not, as now cherished, the results of -individual research or reflection. They are held in common by all the -members of the tribe, so that they have a kind of collective force. No -doubt in the long process of their formation and transmission -modifications may have been introduced, as some elder, shrewder than -his fellows, gave new emphasis to some leading idea, or suggested the -adoption of some fresh action. Trace them back into the dim realm of -conjecture, and some mind {75} a little more observant or ready than -his comrades must have started the first explanation, some will a -little more adventurous must have made the first experiments in -conduct. Thoughts do not issue from a "collective consciousness"; they -bear the stamp of personality, they are not begotten by abstractions, -and every fresh development starts from a single brain. But the -uniformity of experience within the group gives enormous weight to the -wisdom of the past; and constitutes a sanction which only some grave -shock can change or overthrow. - -With religion is constantly associated, both in historical record and -in the lower forms of present-day practice, another kind of activity -known as Magic. The relation between them has been variously -interpreted. The modern anthropologist, Dr. Frazer, finds himself in -unexpected agreement with the philosopher Hegel in supposing that magic -was the first to appear upon the scene. It is represented as a kind of -primitive science, founded on certain elementary axioms, such as that -"like produces like," or that things once in contact with each other -will continue to act upon each other when the contact is broken. The -Central Australian performs elaborate ceremonies to stimulate the -multiplication of the totem which provides the supply of food for his -tribe. Suppose it is the witchetty grub. A kind of pantomime is -performed representing the emergence of the {76} fully-developed insect -out of the chrysalis, typified by a long, narrow structure made of -boughs. The totem men sit inside and chant rude songs, and then crawl -out singing of the insect coming forth. - -One of the commonest illustrations is the attempt to compass the death -of an enemy by injuring or destroying an image or figure supposed to -correspond to him. Such images were made in ancient Babylonia, Egypt, -Greece, and Rome. One North American Indian will draw a figure of his -adversary in the sand, or in ashes, and prick it with a sharp stick. -Another will make a wooden image, and insert a needle into the head or -the heart. Clay is used for the purpose by the African Matabele, wax -in Arabia, the guelder rose in Japan, materials of all kinds in India. -In Scotland the _corp chre_, as it was called, was a clay body, which -was stuck full of pins, nails, and broken bits of glass, and set in a -running stream with its head to the current; a modern specimen from -Inverness-shire may be seen in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Is -all this really as Dr. Frazer supposes, prior to the birth of religion, -and does man only turn to the propitiation of superior powers when he -cannot get what he wants through magic? Of that process no evidence -can be offered. - -The essence of magic lies in some kind of compulsion or constraint. -Through the proper spell, or through the will of the magician, {77} a -control is exerted which produces the desired result. The power which -is thus claimed implies an attitude wholly unlike that of religion. -Into that attitude there enter elements of wonder and submission in the -presence of energies which man cannot master, though he desires to get -them on his side. But no observer was at hand to watch the first -processes of feeling and thought which the interaction of man and his -environment produced. The crudest forms of religion which we actually -know, meet us in tribes which have possessed them from an unknown past. -Here religion has a social character binding the members of a group -together, and tending to maintain certain uniformities of conduct and -character. Over against it stands the antisocial character of magic, -at any rate when directed against individuals. Along this line it is -urged that magic and religion have both issued out of common -conditions. In the world around all sorts of events are continually -happening. Man, in the midst of them, moves to and fro impulsively -among various objects and agencies. Out of these arise various -reactions for self-maintenance, for protection and defence. Certain -acts tend to establish themselves as successful; they make for security -and welfare. At first man's efforts have no definite direction; but -some are found effective, others are futile, and attention is -concentrated on those that produce satisfactory results. After {78} -many trials certain beliefs, certain processes, certain persons, -gradually stand out above the rest, and through them relations of -advantage are established with the environing powers. - -In such experiences lie the roots of both religion and magic. In their -earliest forms they may be as difficult to discriminate as the simplest -types of animal and vegetable life. If it be asked what distinguishes -them outwardly, when both are transmitted by tradition, both rest upon -custom, it may be answered that religion is concerned with what tends -to the stability of the community. Its interests are those of the -group. It supplies the bond of united action for clan or tribe or -people. It is pre-eminently social; it expresses itself in ceremonies, -feasts, and rites in which all can join, or in commands which all can -obey. Even the Australians, so poor in elements of worship, have -tribal laws which have been imparted to them from on high (Chap. VII). - -Over against the community stands the individual, object of all kinds -of jealousies and enmities. All sorts of antisocial arts may be -practised for his destruction. The pointing-stick of Australia -provides a common magical weapon. It is carried away into a lonely -spot in the bush, and the intending user plants it in the ground, -crouches down over it, and mutters a curse against the object of his -hatred: "May your heart be rent asunder, may your backbone be split -open!" Then {79} one evening, as the men sit round the campfire in the -dark, he creeps up stealthily behind his enemy, stoops down with his -back to the camp, points the stick over his shoulder, and mutters the -curse again. A little while after, unless saved by a more powerful -magic, the victim sickens and dies. - -Of course magic may also be used for the benefit of the individual, and -the practice of exorcism for the cure of diseases caused through -possession by evil spirits long found shelter in some branches of the -Christian Church. The kinship between Magic and Religion is clearly -marked when the priest takes the place of the devil-dancer or the -medicine man. Yet they are on different planes; religion is prescribed -and official, and demands specific services; magic falls into the -background, it becomes a secret, perhaps a forbidden, art. -Nevertheless, between religion and antisocial magic lies a large group -of rites, essentially magical in character, like the North American -Indian rain-dances or the totem-ceremonies of the Arunta in Central -Australia, designed for the general welfare. Even in much higher -cultures the spell frequently mingles with the prayer, and ceremonies -of sacrifice carry with them elements of compulsion or constraint. - -What traces, then, do the phases of religion in the lower culture -exhibit of a view of the world and its powers out of which these -diverging lines of practice might emerge? {80} In widely different -regions of the globe the forces that operate in unexpected ways, or -play through things beyond man's reach, or appear in natural objects of -striking character--an animal, a tree--are summed up in some general -term of mystery and awe. Such is the Melanesian term _mana_, first -noted by Bishop Codrington, common to a large group of languages. It -implies some supersensual power or influence; it is not itself -personal, though it may dwell in persons as in things. It is known by -the results which reveal its working. You find a stone of an unusual -shape; it may resemble some familiar object like a fruit; you lay it at -the root of the corresponding tree, or you bury it in a yam-patch; an -abundant crop follows; clearly, the stone has _mana_. It lives in the -song-words of a spell; it secures success in fighting, perhaps through -the tooth of some fierce and powerful animal; it imparts speed to the -canoe, brings fish into the net, enables the arrow to inflict a mortal -wound. But the word has a yet wider range, in the sense of power, -might, influence. By it a parent can bring a curse on a disobedient -child, a man who possesses it can work miracles; it even denotes the -divinity of the gods. And so mysterious is the whole range of the -inner life, that _mana_ covers thought, desire, feeling, and affection; -and in Hawaian it reaches out to spirit, energy of character, majesty. -Here is an immense reserve of potency pervading {81} the world, on -which man may draw for good or ill. - -Among the North American Indians similar conceptions may be traced. -The Algonquin _manitou_ represents a subtle property believed to exist -everywhere in nature, though some persons and objects possess more of -it than others. Among the Sioux the sun, the moon, the stars, thunder, -wind, are all _wakanda_. So are certain trees and animals, the cedar, -the snake, the grey elephant; and mystery-places like a particular lake -in North Dakota, or some peculiar rocks on the Yellowstone River. The -term carries with it power and sacredness; it belongs to what is -ancient, grand, and animate. The Iroquoian tribes designate this -mysterious force _orenda_. It expresses an incalculable energy, -manifested in rocks and streams and tides; in plants and trees, in -animals and man; it belongs to the earth and its mountains; it breathes -in the winds and is heard in the thunder; the clouds move by it, day -and night follow each other through it; it dwells in sun, moon, and -stars. The shy bird or quadruped which it is difficult to snare or -kill, possesses it; so does the skilful hunter; it gives victory in -intertribal games of skill, and is the secret force of endurance or -speed of foot. The prophet or the soothsayer discloses the future by -its aid; and whatever is believed to have been instrumental in -accomplishing some purpose or obtaining some good, finds in _orenda_ -the source of its effectiveness. - -{82} - -Not dissimilar is the conception of _mulungu_ among the Yaos, east of -Lake Nyassa. The term is wide-spread through the eastern group of -Bantu tongues, and is said to have the meaning of "Old One" or "Great -One"; and in this sense it has been employed as equivalent to God. But -we are expressly told that in its native use and form it does not imply -personality. Etymologically it ranks with the leg, arm, heart, head, -of the human frame. Yet it denotes rather a state or property inhering -in something, like life or health in the body, than any single object. -It indicates a kind of supernormal energy, displayed in actual -experience, but not to be detected by any physical sense. It is the -agent of wonder and mystery; the rainbow is _mulungu_; and it sums up -at once the creative energy which made the earth and animals and man, -and the powers which operate in human life. At the foot of a tree in -the village courtyard, where men sit and talk, a small offering of -flour or beer is placed on any distinctive occasion in the communal -life; at a meal, or on a journey at cross roads, a little flour is set -aside. It is "for Mulungu"; sometimes dimly conceived as a spirit -within; sometimes regarded as a universal agency in nature and affairs, -impalpable, impersonal; sometimes rising into distinctness as God. - -Such terms are, of course, generalisations from many separate -experiences. Out of this sense of mystery grow more definite ideas. -{83} The dark and solemn forest, the rushing river, the precipitous -rock, the lofty cloud-crowned mountain, the winds and storms, all -manifest a common power;[1] it lives in the snake or the bull, in the -tiger or the bear. This may be conceived in a highly complex and -abstract form. Thus the Zunis of Mexico, we are told, suppose the sun -and moon, the stars, the sky, the earth and sea, with all their various -changes, and all inanimate objects, as well as plants, animals, and -men, to belong to one great system of all-conscious and interrelated -life. One term includes them all: _hai_, "being" or "life." With the -prefix _a_, "all," the whole field of nature is summed up as _ahai_, -"life" or "the Beings." This comprehensive term includes the objects -of sensible experience regarded as personal existences, and -supersensual beings who are known as "Finishers or Makers of the paths -of life," the most exalted of all being designated "the Holder of the -paths of our lives." So in Annam life is regarded as a universal -phenomenon. It belongs not only to men and animals and plants, but to -stones and stars, to earth, fire, and wind. But it is seen in groups -and kinds rather than individuals, and the limits of its forms are not -sharply drawn; it can pass through many transformations, and possesses -indefinite possibilities of change. {84} Such conceptions have a long -history behind them. - - -[1] M. Durkheim has recently applied conceptions of the _mana_ order to -the explanation of totemism. - - -The poets of the ancient Vedic hymns beheld everything around them full -of energy. The names by which they designated what they saw all -denoted action or agency. The swift flow of the stream gained it the -title of the "runner"; as it cut away the banks or furrowed its course -deep between the rocks, it was the "plougher"; when it nourished the -fields it was the "mother"; when it marked off one territory from -another it was the "defender" or "protector." So the seers addressed -their invocations to the dawn or the sun, to the winds and the fire, to -the river or the mountain, to the earth-mother or the sky-father, as -living powers, capable of responding to the prayers of their -worshippers. Similar energy dwelt in the horse or the cow, the bird of -omen and the guardian dog. It was even shared by ritual implements -such as the stones by which the sacred soma-juice was squeezed out, or -by the products of human handiwork, the war-car, the weapon, the drum, -and the peaceful plough. - -At the present day the Batak in the north-west of Sumatra interpret the -world about them in terms of a soul-stuff or life-power called _tondi_. -A vast reservoir of this exists in the world above, and flows down upon -men and animals and plants. The biggest animal, like the tiger, the -most important of plants, like rice (chief source of food), have most -{85} _tondi_, but it is not confined to living things; the smith -attributes it to his iron, the fisherman to his boat, the tiller of the -ground to his hoe, the householder to his hearth and home. But a -further analysis is beginning. What is the relation of a man's _tondi_ -to himself? When he dies, it passes into some fresh organism. But the -rest of him, his shadow, his double, or his self, becomes a _begu_. In -life, it is the body that thinks and feels, that fears and hopes and -wills, though the presence of the _tondi_ supplies the needful energy. -But the _tondi_ also has the functions of consciousness, for it can go -away in dreams and meet the _begus_ of parents and ancestors. And the -apprehension that it may depart begets reverence and even offerings to -the _tondi_, rather than to distant gods for whom man can feel neither -fear nor love. - -We touch here another root of religious belief, which produces growths -so wide-spreading that some interpreters bring the whole range of -objects of worship within their shade. How, after all, does man -explain himself to himself? At first he does not think about thinking. -Such words as he uses are vague and elastic, like the Polynesian -_mana_, which covers a multitude of facts without and within. Only -through long dim processes does any idea corresponding to our -conception of personality come into his consciousness. He is as -confused about the objects round him as he is about himself. {86} Yet -he has some sort of initiative. Whence comes it? Little by little a -variety of experiences force on him the belief that beside the body and -its limbs he possesses something which he cannot ordinarily see, but -which is essential to his activity. He falls asleep, and lies still -upon the ground; he wakes, full of remembrance of adventure, the -localities which he has visited, the animals that he has hunted, the -dead kinsmen whom he has met. The Australians explain their dreams by -the supposition that the _yambo_, the m[=u]rup, or the _boolabong_, can -quit the body and return. "I asked one of the Kurnai" (of Gippsland), -relates Mr. Howitt, "whether he really thought his _yambo_ could go out -during sleep." "It must be so," was the answer, "for when I sleep, I -go to distant places, I see distant people, I even see and speak with -those that are dead." The great apostle of the East in the sixteenth -century, the devoted Francis Xavier, wrote home from India to the -Society of Jesus in Europe-- - - -"I find that the arguments which are to convince these ignorant people -must be by no means subtle, such as those which are found in the books -of learned schoolmen, but such as their minds can understand. They -asked me again and again how the soul of a dying person goes out of the -body, how it was, whether it was as happens to us in dreams, when we -seem to be conversing with our {87} friends and acquaintances. Ah, how -often this happens to me, dearest brethren, when I dream of you! Was -this because the soul then leaves the body?" - - -This explanation is found all round the globe. - -Many other experiences confirm the impression of some kind of dual -existence. The shadow or shade which follows a man repeats his -movements, and appears as a sort of double. It is even widely believed -in the face of the simplest evidence that a dead body casts no shadow -(of course, as it lies upon the ground the shadow may almost -disappear). Your reflection in river, pool, or lake, actually -reproduces your colour as well as your form: beware lest a crocodile -seizes it and drags you in. From ancient times down to Shelley and -Walt Whitman, poetry has designated Sleep and Death as "brothers"; in -death that which was temporarily absent in sleep has gone away for -good. It may have rushed out with the blood from a gaping wound; it -may have quietly departed with the last faint breath. So it may be -summoned back, as in Chinese custom, on the housetop, in the garden or -the field. Ghostly sounds may be heard in the forest, among the rocks, -borne along the wind; the clairvoyant may discern dimly strange faces, -vanished forms; the dead can sometimes make themselves seen in their -old haunts; {88} the world is full of unexpected indications of -presences beyond our sense. - -Such presences are grouped, for the modern student, under the general -title "spirits." But the explanations which lead to these beliefs are -not concerned with human beings only. Animals share in the incidents -of life and death; plants, even, grow and blossom and decay; and -animals, plants, and inanimate objects of all sorts may be seen in -dreams. Hence the analysis which is applied to man can be readily -extended; and another world is called into existence, strangely blended -with this, a realm of immaterial counterparts and impalpable forces. A -Fiji native, placed before a mirror, recognising himself and object -after object, whispered softly, "Now I can see into the world of -spirits." - -With the help of this elementary philosophy a vast machinery of -causation is always at hand for explaining untoward events. The -Tshi-speaking negro on the West Coast of Africa has inside him a kind -of life-power named _kra_. It existed long before his birth, for it -served in the same capacity a whole series of predecessors; and it will -continue its career after his death, when the man himself becomes a -_srahman_ or ghost. The adjoining Ga-speaking tribes modify the _kra_ -into two _kla_, one male and one female, the first of a bad -disposition, the second good, who give advice and prompt to actions -according {89} to their respective characters. Yet a third inmate -dwells in the neighbouring Yoruba-speaking folk, one in the head, one -in the stomach, and one in the great toe. Offerings are made to the -first by rubbing fowl's blood and palm oil on the forehead. The second -needs none, for it shares whatever the stomach receives. The third is -propitiated as an agent of locomotion before starting on a journey. -But the curious theme of the plurality of souls must not beguile us. - -Meantime the original _kra_ is set behind all the activities of nature, -and extended to the whole sphere of material objects. Each town or -village or district has its own local spirits, rulers of river and -valley, rock and forest and hill. Sometimes they take human shape, and -colour, white or black, for transformations of all kinds are always -possible. They are not all of equal rank; the broad lake, the -mountain, the sea where the surf breaks heavily and the frail craft are -upset--the lightning, the storm, and the earthquake--the leopard, the -crocodile, the shark, and the devastating smallpox--such are among the -dreaded manifestations of these dangerous and mysterious powers. But -the actual dead must not be forgotten; they must be provided with -ghostly counterparts of food and weapons and utensils, with cloth and -gold-dust, just as a departed chief must be accompanied into the next -life by the wives and slaves who adorned his household state in this. - -{90} - -The ritual of the dead belongs, as we have seen (p. 20), to the -earliest-known activities of European man. It is found in some form or -other in every country under the sun. Sometimes it is prompted by -fear, and has for its object to keep the dead imprisoned in the grave, -or to prevent their spirits from returning to their old haunts (p. -228). Sometimes it is warmed by affection, as the departed are -recalled to the homes where they were loved. In ancient Egypt it was -developed with the utmost elaboration, and created a literature -describing a kind of "pilgrim's progress" through the scenes of the -next world (p. 237); while in Greece and Rome the cultus of the dead -acquired, as in India and China, immense social significance. The -question that arises in the study of religion in the lower culture is -concerned with the probable connection between the two groups of -spirits, which may be broadly distinguished as spirits of nature and -spirits of the dead. That the latter are constantly propitiated in -various forms is well known. They are to be found everywhere, lurking -in the trees, flying through the air, sojourning in caves, haunting the -promontories on the rivers or hidden in the forest-depths. With them -lie the causes of disease and madness; they are malevolent and hurtful, -as well as kindly and good. What differences are to be discerned -between them and the powers of nature? Are we to suppose, with some -{91} students, that all the higher forms of religion have been -developed out of the worship of the dead, and that for gods we must -everywhere read originally ghosts? - -Consider, for example, the ancient religion of Japan, which we know by -an adaptation of two Chinese words as Shin-To, the "spirits' way," or -in its native form _kami-no-michi_.[2] Who are the _kami_, or -"spirits"? The title of "religion" has sometimes been denied to their -cultus on the ground that it contains "no set of dogmas, no sacred -book, and no moral code." Greece and Rome might, on the same plea, be -described as having no religion. The term _kami_ has for its root-idea -the significance of "that which is above." It may be applied in the -widest range of relations from the hair which is on the top of the head -to the government which rules the people. The _kami_ are, as it were, -the "highnesses"; the word is used of big things by land and sea, great -rivers, mighty mountains, roaring winds and rolling thunder; then of -rocks and trees, of animals like the tiger and the wolf, of metals, and -so of innumerable objects in earth and sky. It is not always clear -whether these were originally conceived as themselves living, or -whether they had been resolved into material body and controlling -spirit. The {92} functions of the _kami_, however, are extended and -distributed by a kind of fission; the _kami_ of food split into the -produce of trees and the parent of grasses; they preside over guilds -and crafts, the weavers, the potters, the carpenters, the swordsmen, -the boatbuilders; they guide the operations of agriculture; they -superintend the household, and watch over the kitchen range, the -saucepan, the ricepot, the well, the pond, the garden, and the -scarecrow. - - -[2] Chinese culture has probably exerted considerable influence on the -exponents of the Shinto revival in the eighteenth and nineteenth -centuries. Very different aspects are reflected in the ancient -chronicles. - - -But in this vast assembly are included also the spirits of the dead. -They likewise become _kami_ of varying rank and power. Some dwell in -temples built in their honour; some hover near their tombs; some are -kindly, and some malevolent. They mingle in the immense multiplicity -of agencies which makes every event in the universe, in the language of -the Shinto writer Motowori (1730-1801), "the act of the Kami." They -direct the changing seasons, the wind and the rain; and the good and -bad fortunes of individuals, families, and States, are due to them. -From birth to death the entire life of man is encompassed and guided by -the Kami. - -Hence came the duty of worship on which Hirata (1776-1843) lays great -stress. The heaven-descended Ninigi, progenitor of the imperial line, -was taught by his divine forefathers that "everything in the world -depends on the spirits of the _kami_ of heaven and earth, and therefore -the worship of the _kami_ is a {93} matter of primary importance. The -_kami_ who do harm are to be appeased, so that they may not punish -those who have offended them; and all the _kami_ are to be worshipped -so that they may be induced to increase their favours." Accordingly -Hirata's morning prayer before the _kami-dana_, the wooden shelf fixed -against the wall in a Shinto home about six feet from the floor, -bearing a small model of a temple or "august spirit-house," ran thus-- - - -"Reverently adoring the great God of the two palaces of Ise (the -Sun-goddess) in the first place, the 800 myriads of celestial _kami_, -the 800 myriads of ancestral _kami_, all the 1500 myriads to whom are -consecrated the great and small temples in all provinces, all islands -and all places in the great land of 8 islands, the 1500 myriads of -_kami_ whom they cause to serve them.... I pray with awe that they -will deign to correct the unwitting faults which, heard and seen by -them, I have committed, and, blessing and favouring me according to the -powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine -example, and to perform good works in the way." - - -Here, the spirits of the dead are blended with those of nature, without -any definite attempt to assign them to different ranks or functions. -Among the dead themselves there are such distinctions, which do not, -however, concern us here; there are "spirits of crookedness," {94} and -there are spirits of the clans and of the imperial line. But above the -multitudinous groups of nameless _kami_, whether once human or attached -to the physical scene, rise certain great powers which it seems very -difficult to identify with departed ghosts. The earliest traditions of -the divine evolution in the ancient chronicles contain no hint pointing -in that direction; and the comparison of the Japanese deities of earth, -fire, wind, sea, and similar great elemental forces elsewhere, is not -favourable to their derivation from the hosts of the dead. - -The student of the hymns to Fire in the Rig-Veda (_Agni_ = Latin -_ignis_) cannot fail to notice the emphasis laid upon the birth of the -god out of the wood, as the fire-drill kindles the first sparks, and -the flame leaps forth. Here is something quick-moving, vital; the fire -is the god; he may rise into cosmic significance as a pervading energy -sustaining the whole world; but he never loses his physical character, -any more than the solid earth or the encompassing sky. These are again -and again the chief co-ordinating powers of the higher animism. Their -separation out of the primeval mass of obscure and indiscriminate chaos -has been the theme of myth from Egypt to New Zealand; just as their -"bridal" has served to express the union and co-operation of the forces -of nature all around the world. - -Of this the ancient Chinese religion, still the {95} formal basis of -the national worship as performed by the Emperor, supplies perhaps the -best example. The cultus of the dead is practised in every home, and -around the incidents of life and death have gathered various Buddhist -and Taoist rites. Moreover, a rampant demonology environs the entire -field of existence; but this disordered multitude of noxious spirits -has no recognition in the imperial homage. From immemorial generations -the Chinese practice made religion a department of the State, and the -venerable book of the Rites of the great dynasty of Chow requires the -Grand Superior of Sacrifices to superintend the worship due to three -orders of _Shin_ or spirits, celestial, terrestrial, and human. Under -the sovereignty of the sky the first includes the spirits of the sun, -moon, stars, clouds, wind, rain, thunder, and the changes of the -atmosphere. In the sphere of earth are reckoned the spirits of the -mountains, rivers, plains, seas, lakes, woods, fields, and grains. - -Taken together Heaven and Earth thus include all the energies of the -universe. The world, as we see it, is, indeed, full of opposing -powers, one group (_yang_) representing light and warmth and life, the -contrary (_yin_) manifesting themselves in cold and darkness and -death.[3] But these are both encompassed by {96} the "Path" or _Tao_, -the daily course of the universe, the abiding guarantee of justice in -the distribution of good and evil in the human lot. Heaven and earth -are thus regarded as themselves active or living; they constantly -maintain the order of nature for the welfare of man. In the ancient -Odes (which Confucius was supposed to have edited) "heaven" is called -great and wide and blue. This is plainly the visible firmament; it is -addressed as parent, and sky and earth together are father and mother -of the world. They are not spirits, but are themselves animate. -"Why," laments Dr. Edkins of his Chinese hearers, "they have been often -asked, should you speak of these things which are dead matter, -fashioned from nothing by the hand of God, as living beings?" "And why -not?" they have replied. "The sky pours down rain and sunshine, the -earth produces corn and grass, we see them in perpetual movement, and -we therefore say they are living." - - -[3] The sky is the home of the _yang_; the _yin_ are referred to the -earth; in curious contrast to its powers of production and nourishment. - - -The Chinese genius was ethical rather than metaphysical. It was not -concerned with the Infinite, the Eternal, and the Absolute. But it was -deeply impressed with the moral aspects of the sky, its universality, -its comprehensive embrace of all objects and powers beneath its -far-stretching dome, its all-seeing view, its inflexible impartiality. -Its decrees are steadfast, and proceeded from its sovereign sway; and -in this capacity it bore the {97} august title of Shang Ti, "Supreme -Ruler." The scholastic philosophers of a later day analysed "Heaven" -in this capacity into the actual sky and its controlling personality, -and Shang Ti became the Moral Governor of the Universe, the equivalent -of the western God. - -Beneath the sky lay the earth, receptive of the energies descending -upon it from on high; "Heaven and Earth, Father and Mother," are -conjoined in common speech. Together they guided the changes of the -year, in steadfast tread along the annual round. Folded in their wide -compass were the Shin, charged with the regulation of the elemental -powers. Under Heaven's control were the Shin of sun and moon, planets, -stars, meteors, comets; of clouds and winds, thunder and rain; of the -seasons, months, and days. Those of the earth were organised in -territorial divisions, representing the dominions of the vassal princes -down to the district areas. The higher were graded according to the -political rank of the several provinces; beneath them were reckoned the -spirits of the mountains, forests, seas, rivers, and grains. The -privileges of worship granted to the various officials were part of the -State order, and helped to maintain political and civic stability. - -The imperial sacrifices to Heaven and Earth were performed at the -winter and the summer solstices. The great altar to Heaven {98} stands -in a large park in the southern division of Peking, a vast marble -structure in three stages, the lowest being 210 feet across. It is the -largest altar in the world. Its white colour symbolises the light -principle of the Yang. The upper stage, ninety feet in diameter, has -for its centre a round blue jade stone, the symbol of the vault above. -Here is placed the tablet to Heaven, inscribed "Throne of Sovereign -Heaven," and associated with it are tablets to deceased emperors as -well as to the Sun and Moon, the seven stars of the Great Bear, the -five Planets, the twenty-eight Constellations, and the Stars. On the -second stage, beneath the richly carved balustrade above, are the -tablets to the Clouds and Rain, to Wind and Thunder. At the -corresponding altar to the Earth on the north side of the city, square -in shape, and dark-yellow in hue, the imperial worship at the summer -solstice embraces also the five lofty Mountains, the three Hills of -Perpetual Peace, the four Seas, the five celebrated Mountains, and the -four great Rivers.[4] - - -[4] It is stated by the _North China Herald_ for July 13, that the -present Chinese Government proposes to convert the Temple of Heaven -into a model farm, and the Temple of Earth into a horse-breeding -establishment. - - -Splendid processions of princes and dignitaries, musicians and singers, -accompany the Emperor to the great ceremonial. The recent Manchu -sovereigns employed the prayers of the Ming dynasty which preceded -them: here {99} are one or two stanzas of a psalm in which the Emperor -Kia-tsing in the sixteenth century announced to Shang Ti that he would -be addressed as "dwelling in the sovereign heavens":-- - - -"O Ti, when thou hadst separated the Yin and the Yang (_i.e._ the earth -and the sky), thy creative work proceeded. - -"Thou didst produce the sun and moon and the five planets, and pure and -beautiful was their light. - -"The vault of heaven was spread out like a curtain, and the square -earth supported all upon it, and all things were happy. - -"I thy servant venture reverently to thank thee, and while I worship, -present the notice to thee, calling thee Sovereign. - - * * * * * - -"All the numerous tribes of animated beings are indebted to thy favour -for their beginning. - -"Men and things are all emparadised in thy love, O Ti. - -"All living things are indebted to thy goodness, but who knows from -whom his blessings come to him. - -"It is thou alone, O Lord, who art the true parent of all things." - - -Here the ancient view of the living sky has given place under the -influences of {100} philosophy to a creative monotheism. No image is -made of Shang Ti. As he stands at the head of the manifold ranks of -the _Shin_, he represents the last word of animism in providing an -intellectual form for religion. - - - - -{101} - -CHAPTER IV - -SPIRITS AND GODS - -Religion in the lower culture takes many forms, but, speaking broadly, -they rest upon a common interpretation of the world. Man sees around -him all kinds of motion and change. He finds in everything that -happens some energy or power; and the only kind of power which he knows -is that which he himself exerts. As long as he is alive he can run and -fight, he can throw the spear or guide the canoe; death comes to the -comrade by his side, and all is still. So in wind and stream, in beast -and tree, in the stones that fall upon the mountain side, in the stars -that march across the nightly sky, he sees a like power; they, too, -have some sort of life. - -Life as an abstract idea, a potency or principle, is but rarely -grasped. But its manifestations early attract notice, and can be -roughly explained. They are due to something inside the living body, -which can pass in and out, and can finally leave it altogether. Here -is an immense store of causality provided, to account for all the -incidents of each day's experience. Modern language calls {102} such -agents spirits, and recognises in their multitude two mingled groups, -both active: the spirits of the dead on the one hand, and those of -natural objects, the bubbling well, the gloomy forest, the raging -storm, upon the other. - -Sometimes these are merged under a common term, like the Japanese -_kami_, sometimes they are separately named. They bear different -characters of good and evil, as they are ready to help or hurt; and the -same spirit may be now kindly and now hostile, without fixity of -disposition or purpose. To such spirits the ancient Babylonians gave -the name of _zi_. Literally, we are told, the word signified "life"; -it was indicated in their picture-writing by a flowering plant; the -great gods, and even heaven and earth themselves, all had their _zi_. -The Egyptians, in like manner, ascribed to every object, to human -beings, and to gods, a double or _ka_. The word seems to be identical -with that for "food"; it was another way of indicating that all visible -things, the peoples of the earth, the dwellers in the realms above and -below, shared a common life. - -The history of religion is concerned with the process by which the -great gods rise into clear view above the host of spirits filling the -common scene; with the modes in which the forces of the world may be -grouped under their control; with the manifold combinations which -finally enable one supreme power to {103} absorb all the rest, so that -a god of the sky, like the Greek Zeus, may become a god of rain and -sunshine and atmospheric change, of earth and sea, and of the nether -world; and may thus be presented as the sole and universal energy, not -only of all outward things but also of the inner world of thought. Of -this immense development language, archaeology, literature, the -dedications of worship, the testimonies of the ancient students of -their still more ancient past in ritual and belief, contain the -scattered witness, which the student of to-day laboriously gathers and -interprets. It is the humbler object of a little manual of Comparative -Religion to set some of the principal issues of such historic evolution -side by side, and show how similar reactions of the mind of man upon -the field of his experience have wrought like results. - -As the inquirer casts his eye over the manifold varieties of the -world's faiths, he sees that they are always conditioned by the stage -of social culture out of which they emerge. The hunter who lives by -the chase, and must range over large areas for means of support; the -pastoral herdsman who has acquired the art of breeding cattle and -sheep, and slowly moves from one set of feeding-grounds to another; the -agriculturist who has learned to rely on the co-operation of earth and -sky in the annual round,--have each their own way of expressing their -view of the Powers on which they depend. - -{104} - -Little by little they are arranged in groups. The Celts, for instance, -coming to river after river in their onward march, employed the same -name again and again, "Deuona," divine (still surviving in this country -in different forms, Devon, Dee, etc.), as though all rivers belonged to -one power. They were the givers of life and health and plenty, to whom -costly sacrifices must be made. So they might bear the title "Mother," -and were akin to the powers of fertility living in the soil, the -"Mothers" (_Matres_ or _Matronae_), cognate with the "Mothers" who -fulfil similar functions in modern India. The adjacent Teutonic -peoples filled forest and field with wood-sprites and elves, dwellers -in the air and the sunlight. The springs, the streams, and the lakes, -were the home of the water-sprites or nixes; in the fall of the mighty -torrent, among the rocks on the mountain heights, in the fury of the -storm or the severity of the frost, was the strength of the giants. - -Yet further east and north the Finnic races looked out on a land of -forest and waters, of mists and winds. The spirits were ranged beneath -rulers who were figured in human form. The huntsman prayed with vow -and sacrifice to the aged Tapio, god of the woods and the wild animals. -Kekri watched over the increase of the herd, while Hillervo protected -them on the summer pastures. The grains and herbs--of less importance -to tribes {105} only imperfectly agricultural--were ascribed to the -care of Pellervoinen, who falls into the background and receives but -little veneration. Water, once worshipped as a living element -(_vesi_), is gradually supplanted by a water-god (Ahto) who rules over -the spirits of lakes and rivers, wells and springs. "Mother-earth" -still designates in the oldest poetry the living energy of the ground, -though she afterwards becomes the "lady of the earth" and consort of -the lord of the sky. The sky, Jumala, was first of all conceived as -itself living; "Jumala's weather" was like "Zeus's shower" to an -ancient Greek. And then, under the name Ukko, the sky becomes a -personal ruler, with clouds and rain, thunder and hail, beneath his -sway; who can be addressed as-- - - Ukko, thou of gods the highest, - Ukko, thou our Heavenly Father. - - -Many causes contribute to the enlargement and stability of such -conceptions. Tribes of limited local range and a meagre past without -traditions may conceive the world around them on a feeble scale. But -migration helps to enlarge the outlook. Local powers cannot accompany -tribes upon the march. Either they must be left behind and drop out of -remembrance, or they must be identified with new scenes and adapted to -fresh environments. When the horizon moves ever further forwards with -each advance, earth and sky loom vaster {106} before the imagination, -and sun and moon, the companion of each day or the protector of each -night, gain a more stately predominance. The ancestors of the Hindus, -the Greeks, the Romans, the Teutons, carried with them the worship of -the sky-god under a common name, derived from the root _div_, to -"shine" (Dyaus = Zeus = Jovis = old High German Tiu, as in Tuesday). -Other names gathered around the person in the actual firmament, such as -the Sanskrit Varuna (still recognised by some scholars as identical -with the Greek Ouranos, heaven), loftiest of all the Vedic gods. The -Aryan immigrants are already organised under kings, and Varuna sits -enthroned in sovereignty. His palace is supported by a thousand -pillars, and a thousand doors provide open access for his worshippers. -But he is in some sense omnipresent, and one of the ancient poets sang-- - - -"If a man stands or walks or hides, if he goes to lie down or to get -up, what two people sitting together whisper, King Varuna knows it, he -is there as the third. - -"This earth, too, belongs to Varuna, the king, and this wide sky with -its ends far apart. The two seas (sky and ocean) are Varuna's loins; -he is also contained in this small drop of water. - -"He who should flee far beyond the sky, even he would not be rid of -Varuna, the king." - - -{107} - -The supreme power of the universe is here conceived under a political -image. Conceptions of government and social order supply another line -of advance, parallel with the forces of nature. On the African Gold -Coast, after eighteen years' observation, Cruickshank ranged the -objects of worship in three ranks: (1) the stone, the tree, the river, -the snake, the alligator, the bundle of rags, which constituted the -private fetish of the individual; (2) the greater family deity whose -aid was sought by all alike, sometimes in a singular act of communion -which involved the swallowing of the god (p. 144); and (3) the deity of -the whole town, to whom the entire people had recourse in times of -calamity and suffering. - -The conception of the deity of a tribe or nation may be greatly -developed under the influence of victory. War becomes a struggle -between rival gods. Jephthah the Gileadite, after recounting the -triumphs of Israel to the hostile Ammonite king, states the case with -the most naked simplicity: "Yahweh, Israel's god, hath dispossessed the -Amorites from before his people Israel, and shouldest thou possess -them? Wilt thou not possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to -possess? So whomsoever Yahweh our god hath dispossessed from before -us, them will we possess" (Judges xi. 23, 24). The land of Canaan was -the gift of Israel's God, but at first his power was limited by its -boundaries: to be driven from the country was to be {108} alienated -from the right to offer him worship or receive from him protection. In -the famous battle with the Hittites, celebrated by the court-poet of -Rameses the Great (1300-1234 B.C.), the king, endangered by the flight -of his troops, appeals to the great god Amen, a form of the solar deity -Re, with confidence of help, "Amen shall bring to nought the ignorers -of God": and the answer comes, "I am with thee, I am thy father, my -hand is with thee, I am more excellent for thee than hundreds of -thousands united in one." Success thus enhanced the glory of the -victor's gods. Like the Incas of Peru in later days, the Assyrian -sovereigns confirmed their power by bringing the deities of tributary -peoples in a captive train to their own capital: and the Hebrew prophet -opens his description of the fall of Babylon by depicting the images of -the great gods Bel and Nebo as packed for deportation on the -transport-animals of the conqueror. - -Other causes further tended to give distinction to the personality of -deities, and define their spheres. A promiscuous horde of spirits has -no family relationships. A god may have a pedigree; a consort is at -his side; and the mysterious divine power reappears in a son. Instead -of the political analogy of a sovereign and his attendants, the family -conception expresses itself in a divine father, mother and child. Thus -the Ibani of Southern Nigeria recognised Adum as the father of all -{109} gods except Tamuno the creator, espoused to Okoba the principal -goddess, and mother of Eberebo, represented as a boy, to whom children -were dedicated. The Egyptian triad, Osiris, Isis and Horus, is well -known; and the divine mother with the babe upon her lap passed into the -Christian Church in the form of the Virgin Mary and her infant son. - -The divisions of the universe suggested another grouping. The Vedic -poets arranged their deities in three zones: the sky above, the -intervening atmosphere, and the earth beneath. Babylonian cosmology -placed Anu in the heaven, Bel on the earth, and Ea in the great deep, -and these three became the symbols of the order of nature, and the -divine embodiments of physical law. Homer already divides the world -between the sky-god Zeus, Poseidon of earth and sea, and Hades of the -nether realm: and Rome has its triads, like Jupiter, Mars, and -Quirinus, or again Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva. Whatever be the origin -of the number three in this connection, it reproduces itself with -strange reiteration in both hemispheres. Other groups are suggested by -the sun and moon and the five planets, and appear in sets of seven. -Egyptian summaries recognised gods in the sky, on earth, and in the -water; and the theologians of different sanctuaries loved to arrange -them in systems of nine, or three times three. - -Out of this vast and motley multitude emerge certain leading types in -correspondence {110} with certain modes of human thought, with certain -hopes and fears arising out of the changes of the human lot. Curiosity -begins to ask questions about the scene around. The child, when it has -grasped some simple view of the world, will inquire who made it; and to -the usual answer will by and by rejoin "And who made God?" Elementary -speculation does not advance so far: it is content to rest if necessary -in darkness and the void, provided there is a power which can light the -sun, and set man on his feet. But the intellectual range of thought -even in the lower culture is much wider than might have been -anticipated; while the higher religions contain abundant survivals of -the cruder imagination which simply loves a tale. - -Sometimes the creative power (especially on the American continent) is -figured as a marvellous animal, a wondrous raven, a bird-serpent, a -great hare, a mighty beaver. Or the dome of sky suggests an original -world-egg, which has been divided to make heaven and earth. Even the -Australians, whose characteristics are variously interpreted as -indications of extreme backwardness or of long decline, show figures -which belong to what Mr. Andrew Lang designated the "High Gods of Low -Races." Among the Narrinyeri in the west Nurrundere was said to have -made all things on the earth; the Wiimbaio told how Nurelli had made -the whole country with the rivers, trees, and animals. Among the {111} -Western Bantu on the African continent Nzambi (a name with many -variants over a large area) is described as "Maker and Father." "Our -forefathers told us that name. Njambi is the One-who-made-us. He is -our Father, he made these trees, that mountain, this river, these goats -and chickens, and us people." That is the simple African version of -the "ever-and-beyond." But as with so many of the chief gods, not only -on the dark continent, but elsewhere, he is regarded as a -non-interfering and therefore negligible deity. - -Sometimes speculation takes a higher flight. The Zunis of Mexico have -remained in possession of ancient traditions, uninfluenced by any -imported Christianity. After many years' residence among them Mr. -Cushing was able to gather their ideas of the origin of the world. -Awona-wilona was the Maker and Container of all, the All-Father-Father. -Through the great space of the ages there was nothing else whatever, -only black darkness everywhere. Then "in the beginning of the -new-made" Awona-wilona conceived within himself, and "thought outward -in space," whereby mists of increase, steams potent of growth, were -evolved and uplifted. Thus by means of his innate knowledge the -All-Container made himself in the person and form of the sun. With his -appearance came the brightening of the spaces with light, and with the -brightening of the spaces the great {112} mist-clouds were thickened -together and fell. Thereby was evolved water in water, yea and the -world-holding sea. And then came the production of the -Fourfold-Containing Mother-Earth and the All-Covering Father-Sky. - -With a yet bolder leap of imagination did a Polynesian poet picture the -great process. From island to island between Hawaii and New Zealand is -a "high god" known as Taaroa, Tangaloa, Tangaroa, and Kanaroa. The -Samoans said that he existed in space and wished for some place to -dwell in, so he made the heavens; and then wished to have a place under -the heavens, so he made the earth. Tahitian mythology declared (the -versions of priests and wise men differed) that he was born of night or -darkness. Then he embraced a rock, the imagined foundation of all -things, which brought forth earth and sea; the heavens were created -with sun, moon, and stars, clouds, wind, and rain, and the dry land -appeared below. The whole process was summed up in a hymn-- - - "He was: Taaroa was his name. - He abode in the void; no earth, no sea, no sky. - Taaroa calls, but nought answers, - Then, alone existing, he became the universe." - - -The relations of these creative Powers to man are conceived very -differently. The {113} Maker of the world may be continually -interested in it, and may continue to administer the processes which he -has begun. The Akkra negro looks up to the living sky, Nyongmo, as the -author of all things, who is benevolently active day by day: "We see -every day," said a fetish-man, "how the grass, the corn, and the trees, -spring forth through the rain and sunshine sent by Nyongmo [_Nyongmo -ne_ = 'Nyongmo rains'], how should he not be the creator?" So he is -invoked with prayer and rite. The great Babylonian god, Marduk, son of -Ea (god of wisdom and spells), alone succeeds in overcoming the might -of Tiamat (the Hebrew _tehom_ or "deep"), the primeval chaos with her -hideous brood of monsters, and out of her carcass makes the firmament -of heaven. He arranges the stations of the stars, he founds the earth, -and places man upon it. "His word is established," cries the poet, -"his command is unchangeable: wide is his heart, broad is his -compassion." A conqueror so splendid could not relinquish his energy, -or rest on his achievements: he must remain on the throne of the world -to direct and support its ways. Here is a prayer of Nebuchadrezzar to -this lofty deity-- - - -"O eternal ruler, lord of all being, grant that the name of the king -thou lovest, whose name thou hast proclaimed, may flourish as seems -pleasing to thee. Lead him in the right {114} way. I am the prince -that obeys thee, the creature of thy hand. Thou hast created me, and -hast entrusted to me dominion over mankind. According to thy mercy, O -lord, which thou bestowest upon all, may thy supreme rule be merciful! -The worship of thy divinity implant within my heart. Grant me what -seems good to thee, for thou art he that hast fashioned my life." - - -On the other hand, the "High Gods of Low Races" often seem to fade away -and become inactive, or at least are out of relations to man. Olorun, -lord of the sky among the African Egbas, also bore the title of Eleda, -"the Creator." But he was too remote and exalted to be the object of -human worship, and no prayer was offered to him. Among the southern -Arunta of central Australia, reports Mr. Strehlow, Altjira is believed -to live in the sky. He is like a strong man save that he has emu feet. -He created the heavenly bodies, sun, moon, and stars. When rain-clouds -come up, it is Altjira walking through the sky. Altjira shows himself -to man in the lightning, the thunder is his voice. But though thus -animate, he is no object of worship. "Altjira is a good god; he never -punishes man; therefore the blacks do not fear him, and render him -neither prayer nor sacrifice." In Indian theology the reason for the -discontinuance of homage was thus frankly stated by one of the poets -{115} of the great epic, the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata; "Men worship Civa the -destroyer because they fear him; Vishnu the preserver, because they -hope from him; but who worships Brahman the creator? _His work is -done._"[1] - - -[1] Hopkins, _India, Old and New_, p. 113. Prof. Hopkins adds that in -India to-day there are thousands of temples to Civa and Vishnu, but -only two to Brahman. - - -If the deity who has provided the scene of existence thus recedes into -the background, it is otherwise with the powers which maintain and -foster life. Among the impulses which drive man to action is the need -of food; and the sources of its supply are among the earliest objects -of his regard. A large group of agencies thus gradually wins -recognition, out of which emerge lofty forms endowed with functions far -transcending the simple energies at first ascribed to them. Even the -rude tribes of Australia, possessing no definite worship, perform -pantomimic ceremonies of a magical kind, designed to stimulate the food -supply. The men of the plum-tree totem will pretend to knock down -plums and eat them; in the initiation ceremony of the eagle-hawks two -representatives will imitate the flapping of wings and the movements of -attack, and one will finally wrench a piece of meat out of the other's -mouth. At a higher stage of animism the Indians of British North -America pray to the spirit of the wild raspberry. When the young -shoots are six or eight inches high above the ground, a small bundle is -{116} picked by the wife or daughters of the chief and cooked in a new -pot. The settlement assembles in a great circle, with the presiding -chief and the medicine-man in the midst. All close their eyes, except -certain assisting elders, while the chief offers a silent prayer that -the spirit of the plants will be propitious to them, and grant them a -good supply of suckers. - -Here the whole class of plants is already conceived as under the -control of a single power. In ruder stages the hunter will address his -petitions to the individual bear, before whose massive stature he feels -a certain awe, entreating him not to be angry or fight, but to take -pity on him. Pastoral peoples will employ domesticated animals in -sacrifice, while the products of the field occupy a second place; the -cow may become sacred, and the daily work of the dairy may rise, as -among the Todas, to the rank of religious ritual. Some element of -mysterious energy will even lie in the weapons of the chase, in the net -or the canoe, and may be found still lingering in the implements of -agriculture, such as the plough. - -Among settled communities which live by tillage the succession of the -crops from year to year acquires immense importance. Earth and sky, -the sun, the rain, and time itself in the background, are all -contributory powers, but attention is fastened upon the spirit of the -grains. The Iroquois look on the spirits of corn, of squashes, and of -beans, as three {117} sisters, who are known collectively as "Our Life" -or "Our Supporters." In central America each class of food-plants had -its corresponding spirit, which presided over its germination, -nourishment, and growth. This was called the _mama_ or "mother" of the -plant: in Peru there was a cocoa-mother, a potato-mother, a -maize-mother; just as in India the cotton-spirit is worshipped as -"cotton-mother." A "maize-mother," made of the finest stalks, was -renewed at each harvest, that the seed might preserve its vitality. -The figure, richly clothed, was ceremoniously installed, and watched -for three nights. Sacrifice was solemnly offered, and the interpreter -inquired, "Maize-mother, canst thou live till next year?" If the -spirit answered affirmatively, the figure remained for a twelvemonth; -if no reply was vouchsafed, it was taken away and burnt, and a fresh -one was consecrated. In Mexico maize was a much more important food -than in Peru, and the maize-deity acquired in consequence a much higher -rank. She became a great harvest goddess. Temple and altar were -dedicated to her; spring and summer festivals were celebrated in her -honour; and a youthful victim was slain, whose vitality might enter the -soil, and recruit her exhausted energies. - -The ceremonies connected with the cultus of the rice-spirit in the East -Indies still perpetuate in living faith beliefs once vital {118} in the -peasantry of Europe, and surviving to this day (as Mannhardt and Frazer -have shown) in many a usage of the harvest-field. Out of this group of -ideas arise divine forms which express mysteries of life and time. -What is it that guides the circle of the year? What power brings forth -the blade out of the ground, and clothes the woods with verdure? As -the months follow their constant course, are not the seasons the organs -of some sacred force, lovely figures as Greek poets taught, born of -Zeus and Themis (holy law); or angels of the Most High, ruling over -heat and cold, summer and winter, spring and autumn, as the later -Israel conceived the continuance of God's creative work? And when the -fields are bare and the leaves fall, have not the energies of -vegetation suffered an arrest, to come to life again when the great -quickening of the spring returns? So while here and there dim -speculations (as in India or Persia or the Orphic hymns of Greece) -hover round Time, the generator of all things, and the recurring -periodicity of the Year, more concrete imagination conceives the -processes of the growth, decay, and revival of vegetation under the -symbols of the life, the death, and resurrection of the deities of corn -and tree. - -To such a group belong different forms in Egypt, Syria and Greece, -whose precise origin cannot always be traced amid the bewildering -variety of functions which they came to fulfil. But they all -illustrate the same general theme. {119} In the ritual of their -worship similar motives and symbols may be traced; and the incidents of -their life-course were presented in a sort of sacred drama which -reproduced the central mystery. Such were Osiris in Egypt, Adonis (as -the Greeks called the Syrian form of the ancient Babylonian Tammuz), -Attis of Phrygia in Asia Minor, and in Greece the Thracian Dionysus, -and the divine pair Demeter and her daughter Persephone blended with -the figure of Kore "the Maid." - -The worship of Osiris early spread throughout Egypt, and its various -phases have given rise to many interpretations of his origin and -nature. Recent studies have converged upon the view that he was -primarily a vegetation deity. In the festival of sowing, small images -of the god formed out of sand or vegetable earth and corn, with yellow -faces and green cheek-bones, were solemnly buried, those of the -preceding year being removed. On the temple wall of his chamber at -Philae stalks of corn were depicted springing from his dead body, while -a priest poured water on them from a pitcher. This was the mystery of -him "who springs from the returning waters." The annual inundation -brought quickening to the seed, and in the silence and darkness of the -earth it died to live. - -Of this process Osiris became the type for thousands of years. Already -in the earliest days of the Egyptian monarchy he is presented as the -divine-human king, benevolent, wise, {120} just. To him in later times -the arts and laws of civilised life could be traced back; he was the -founder of the social order and the worship of the gods. But the -jealousy of his brother Set brought about his death. The ancient texts -do not explicitly state what followed. But his body was cut to pieces -and his limbs were scattered, until his son Horus effected their -reunion. Restored to life, he ascended to the skies, and became "Chief -of the Powers," so that he could be addressed as the "Great God." There -by his resurrection he became the pledge of immortality. Each man who -died looked to him for the gift of life. Mystically identified with -him, the deceased bore the god's name and was thus admitted into -fellowship with him. Over his body the ceremonies once performed upon -Osiris were repeated, the same formulae were recited, with the -conviction that "as surely as Osiris lives, so shall he live also." But -magic was early checked by morals, and by the sixth dynasty Osiris had -also become the august and impartial judge (p. 8). - -Such might be the splendid evolution of a deity of the grains. But -food was not, of course, the only need. The family as well as each -individual must be maintained. Mysterious powers wrought through sex. -Strange energies pulsed in processes of quickening, and these, too, -were interpreted in terms of divine agency. They found their parallels -in the operations of nature (like the Yang and {121} Yin of ancient -China), and begot new series of heavenly forms. The greater gods all -had their consorts. Birth must be placed under divine protection, just -as the organ of generation might itself be sacred. The Babylonian -looked to the spouse of Marduk, "creator of all things," to whom as -Z[=e]r-panitum, "seed-creatress," the processes of generation were -especially referred. Or with ceremony and incantation the child was -set beneath the care of Ishtar, queen of Nineveh, and goddess of the -planet Venus. The Greek prayed to Hera, Artemis, or Eileithyia; and -all round the world superhuman powers, for good or ill, gathered round -the infant life, whose aid must be sought, or whose hurt averted. -Dread agencies of disease, like fever, smallpox, or cholera, were in -like manner personalised. Demonic forces cut short the tale of years. -From the equator to the arctic zone Death is ascribed in the lowest -culture to witchcraft. Strange stories were told of his intrusion into -the world, commonly through man's transgression of some divine command. -And gradually the other world must be ruled like this; the multitudes -of the dead need a sovereign like the living; and after the fashion of -Osiris the Indian Yama, "first to spy out the path" to the unseen -realm, becomes the "King of Righteousness" before whom all must in due -time give their account (p. 244). - -Such deities, however, represent much more than the physical life. -They have a social {122} character, and have become the expression of -organised morality. On this field another group of divine powers comes -into view, symbols of order in the home or the city, charged with the -maintenance of the family or the State. Round the hearth-fire gathers -a peculiar sanctity. There is the common centre of domestic interests; -there, too, the agent by which gifts are conveyed to the spirits of the -dead. There, then, was a sacred force, dwelling in the hearth itself, -and animating the fire that burned upon it. The Greek Hestia seems -originally to have been not the goddess who made the hearth holy, nor -the sacrificial fire which it sustained, but the mysterious energy in -the actual stones upholding the consecrated flame. All kinds of -associations were attached to it; and though her personality remained -somewhat dim and indistinct, and carven forms of her were rare, and her -worship was never sacerdotalised like that of the Latin Vesta, she -nevertheless had the first place in sacrifice and prayer. She was -worshipped in the city council-hall. Athenian colonists carried her -sacred fire across the seas. The poets provided her with a pedigree, -and made her "sister of God most high, and of Hera the partner of his -throne." The sculptor placed her statue at Athens beside that of -Peace. The family deity expanded into an emblem of the unity of -government and race. But the primitive character of the ancient -hearth-power still clung to her. {123} She never rose into the lofty -functions of guide and protector of moral order like the great -city-gods Zeus, Athena, or Apollo. - -In Rome numerous powers were recognised in early days as guardians of -the home and the farm-lands. Vesta had her seat upon the hearth, which -was the centre of the family worship, and afterwards became the object -of an important city-cult. The store-chamber behind was the -dwelling-place of the Penates, and with its contents no impure person -might meddle. Where farm met farm stood the chapel of the local Lares, -and there whole households assembled, masters and slaves together, in -annual rejoicings and good fellowship. Brought into the home, the Lar -became the symbol of the family life, and the ancestral pieties -gathered round him. More vague and elastic was the conception of the -Genius, a kind of spiritual double who watched over the fortunes of the -head of the home, and through the marriage-bed provided for the -continuity of descent. This protecting power could take many forms -with continually expanding jurisdiction. The city, the colony, the -province, the "land of Britain," Rome, the Emperor himself, were thus -placed under divine care, or rather were viewed as in some way the -organs of superhuman power. In the energy which built up states and -brought peoples into order lived something that was creative and divine. - -From distant times in many forms of society {124} it was felt that -there was something mysterious in sovereignty. The king (once -connected with the priest) was hedged round with some sort of divinity -which expressed itself in language amazing to the modern mind. In the -ancient monarchies of Egypt and Babylon the royal deity was the -fundamental assumption of government, and it was represented upon the -monuments beside the Nile with startling realism. In later days the -Greek title _Theos_ (god) was boldly assumed by the sovereigns of Egypt -and Syria. It was conferred, with the associated epithet _Soter_ -(Saviour or Preserver), as early as 307 B.C., on Demetrius and his -father Antigonus, who liberated Athens from the tyranny of Cassander. -On the Rosetta stone (in the British Museum) Ptolemy V, 205 B.C., -claims the same dignity, and is described as "eternal-lived," and "the -living image of Zeus." Ephesus designated Julius Caesar as "God -manifest and the common Saviour of human life." - -This is something more than the extravagance of court-scribes, or the -fawning adulation of oriental dependents. In the worship paid to the -Roman Emperor many feelings and associations were involved. The power -which had brought peace, law, order, into the midst of a multitude of -nations and languages, and subdued to itself the jarring wills of men, -seemed something more than human. When Tertullian of Carthage coined -the strange word "Romanity," he summed up the infinite {125} variety of -energies which spread one culture from the Persian Gulf to the -Atlantic, from the cataracts of the Nile to the sources of the Tyne. -Of this mysterious force the Emperor was the symbol. So Augustus was -saluted throughout the East as "Son of God," and in inscriptions -recently discovered in Asia Minor, and referred by the historian -Mommsen to the year 11 or 9 B.C., we read the startling words: "the -birthday of the God is become the beginning of glad tidings -(_evangelia_[2]) through him to the world." He is described as "the -Saviour of the whole human race"; he is the beginning of life and the -end of sorrow that ever man was born. An inscription at Philae on the -Nile equated him with the greatest of Greek deities, for he is "star of -all Greece who has arisen as great Saviour Zeus." - - -[2] The word which designates our "Gospels." - - -This is the most highly developed form of the doctrine of the divine -king, which the Far East has retained for the sovereigns of China and -Japan to our own day. The language and practice of Roman imperialism -called forth the impassioned resistance of the early Christians, and -the clash of opposing religions is nowhere portrayed with more -desperate intensity than in the Book of Revelation at the close of our -New Testament, where Rome and her false worship are identified with the -power of the "Opposer" or Satan, and are hurled with all their -trappings of wealth and luxury into the abyss. - -{126} - -The conception of a god as "saviour" or deliverer is founded on -incidents in personal or national experience, when some unexpected -event opens a way of escape from pressing danger. When the Gauls were -advancing against Rome in 388 B.C., a strange voice of warning was -heard in the street. It was neglected, but when they had been -repelled, Camillus erected an altar and temple to the mysterious -"Speaker," Aius Locutius, whose prophetic energy was thus manifested. -In the second Punic war, when the Carthaginian general, Hannibal, was -marching against the city in 211 B.C., he suddenly changed his course -near the Capena gate. Again the might of an unknown deity was -displayed, and the grateful Romans raised a shrine to him under the -name of Tutanus Rediculus, the god who "protects and turns back." It -might be the attack of an enemy, it might be the imminence of -shipwreck, it might be a desolating plague, or any one of the -vicissitudes of fortune, the distresses and anxieties of the soul or of -the State, in the power which brought rescue or health or peace to body -or mind, or life hereafter in a better world, the grateful believer -recognised the energy of some superhuman being. Just as the making of -the world required a creative hand, just as the arts and laws of social -life were the product of some divine initiative (p. 171), just as the -higher virtues belonged to a band of spiritual forces which had a kind -of individuality of their own, {127} so the shaping of affairs bore -witness to the interest and intervention of wills above those of man. -All through the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean the greater -deities, such as Apollo, Artemis, Athena, AEsculapius, Dionysus, Isis, -Zeus, bore the title of "Deliverer." And in the mysteries which drew -so many worshippers to their rites in the first centuries of our era, -this deliverance took the form of salvation from sin, and carried with -it the promise of re-birth into eternal life. - -Similar conceptions are seen in India. The founder of Buddhism, Gotama -of the S[=a]kyan clan, was believed to have attained the Enlightenment -which enabled him to discern the whole secret of existence. After a -long series of preparatory labours in previous lives he had appeared as -a man in his last birth, to "lift off from the world the veils of -ignorance and sin." He had himself repudiated all ontological -conceptions; he had explained the human being without the hypothesis of -a soul or self, and the world without the ideas of substance or God. -But in due time the rejected metaphysics insisted on recognition; and -some three hundred years or more after his death a new interpretation -of his person arose. Under the stress of pious affection, the -influence of philosophical Brahmanism, and the need of permanent -spiritual help, he was conceived as a manifestation of the Infinite and -Eternal, who for the sake of suffering humanity from time to time {128} -condescended to seem to be born and die, that in the likeness of a man -he might impart the saving truth. So he was presented as the -Self-Existent, the Father of the world, the Protector of all creatures, -the Healer of men's sicknesses and sins. - -Over against this great figure Brahmanism placed another, that of -Vishnu, with his series of "descents," in which the Buddha was formally -incorporated as the ninth. The most famous of these were the heroes -Rama and Krishna; and Krishna became the subject of the best-known book -of Indian devotion, the Bhagavad-Gita or the "Divine Lay," which has -been sometimes supposed to show traces of the influence of the Gospel -of St. John. Here was a religion founded on the idea of divine grace -or favour on the one part, and adoring love and devotion on the other. -Krishna, also, taught a way of deliverance from the evils of human -passion and attachment to the world; and Vishnu came to be the -embodiment of divine beneficence, at once the power which maintained -the universe and revealed himself from time to time to man. - -Vishnu was an ancient Vedic deity connected with the sun; and by his -side Hindu theology set another god of venerable antiquity, once fierce -and destructive, but now known under the name of Civa, the -"auspicious." The great epic entitled the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata does not -conceal their rivalry; but with the facility of identification {129} -characteristic of Indian thought, either deity could be interpreted as -a form of the other. Civa became the representative of the energies of -dissolution and reproduction; and his worship begot in the hearts of -the mediaeval poets an ardent piety, while in other aspects it -degenerated into physical passion on the one side and extreme -asceticism on the other. But in association with Brahma, Vishnu and -Civa constituted the Trimurti, or "triple form," embracing the -principles of the creation, preservation, destruction, and renewal of -the world. Symbolised, like the Christian Trinity, by three heads -growing on one stem,[3] these lofty figures were the personal -manifestations of the Universal Spirit, the Sole Existence, the -ultimate Being, Intelligence, and Bliss. - - -[3] Some of the Celtic deities are three-faced, or three-headed. - - -By various paths was the goal of monotheism approached, but popular -practice perpetually clung to lower worships, and philosophy could -often accommodate them with ingenious justifications. A bold and -decisive judgment like that of the Egyptian Akhnaton might fix on one -of the great powers of nature--the sun--as the most suitable emblem of -Deity to be adored, and forbid all other cults. Or the various groups -and ranks of divine beings might be addressed in a kind of collective -totality, like the "all-gods" of the Vedic hymns. At Olympia {130} -there was a common altar for all the gods; and a frequent dedication of -Roman altars in later days consecrated them "to Jupiter Greatest and -Best, and the Other Immortal Gods." If reflection was sufficiently -advanced to coin abstract terms for deity, like the Babylonian -_'iluth_, or the Vedic _asuratva_ or _devatva_, some poet might -apprehend the ultimate unity, and lay it down that "the great -_asuratva_ of the _devas_ is one." Both India and Greece reached the -conception of a unity of energy in diversity of operation; "the One -with many names" was the theme of the ancient Hindu seers long before -AEschylus in almost identical words proclaimed "One form with many -names." The great sky-god Zeus, whose personality could be almost -completely detached from the visible firmament, brought the whole world -under his sway, and from the fifth century before Christ Greek poetry -abounded in lofty monotheistic language which the early Christian -apologists freely quoted in their own defence. A philosophic sovereign -like Nezahuatl, lord of Tezcuco, might build a temple to "the Unknown -God, the Cause of Causes," where no idol should be reared for worship, -nor any sacrifice of blood be offered. But other motives were more -often at work. Conquest led to the identification of the deities of -the victor and the vanquished; and the importance of military triumph -enhanced the majesty of the successful god. In his great inscription -{131} on Mount Behistun Darius celebrated the grandeur of Ahura Mazda, -"Lord All-Wise," in language resembling that of a Hebrew psalm, "A -great God is Ahura Mazda, the greatest of the gods." Under the Roman -Empire the principle of delegated authority could be invoked to explain -the unity of the Godhead above inferior agencies; in the heavenly order -there was but one sovereign, though there were many functionaries. -Even Israel had its hierarchy of ministering spirits, and the Synagogue -found it necessary to forbid pious Jews to pray to Michael or to -Gabriel. - -When the unity of the moral order was combined with the unity of -creative might, the transition to monotheism was even more complete. -It could, indeed, be deferred. In the ancient poems of the great -religious reformer whom the Greeks called Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda is the -supremely Good. Beside him are the Immortal Holy Ones, Holy Spirit, -Good Mind, Righteous Order, and the rest. True, in the oppositions of -light and darkness, heat and cold, health and sickness, plenty and -want, life and death, he is for a time hampered by the enmity of "the -Lie"; but the power of evil would be finally destroyed, and the -sovereignty of Ahura established for ever (p. 247). - -From another point of view the divine purpose of deliverance must be -conceived upon an equally world-wide scale. One type of Indian -Buddhism looked to Avalokitecvara {132} (Chinese Kwanyin, Japanese -Kwannon), who made the famous vow not to enter into final peace until -all beings--even the worst of demons in the lowest hell--should know -the saving truth and be converted. And in the Far East rises the -figure of the Buddha of Infinite Light, who is also the Buddha of -Infinite Life, whose grace will avail for universal redemption (p. 18). -The motive of creation falls away. The world is the scene of the moral -forces set in motion under the mysterious power of the Deed. No praise -rises to Amida for the wonders of the universe or the blessings of -life. But to no other may worship be offered. Here is a monotheism -where love reigns supreme, and it is content to trust that Infinite -Mercy will achieve its end. - - - - -{133} - -CHAPTER V - -SACRED ACTS - -One morning, Plato tells us, as Socrates was in the Porch of the King -Archon, he met Euthyphro, a learned Athenian soothsayer, on his way to -accuse his father of impiety for having caused the death of a slave. -Socrates, who was also expecting an accusation against himself, engaged -him in a conversation, as his manner was, on the nature of impiety, and -its opposite, piety. The talk leads Euthyphro to maintain that piety -or holiness consists in learning how to please the gods in word and -deed, by prayers and sacrifices. "Then," inquires Socrates, "sacrifice -is giving to the gods, and prayer is asking of the gods?" and Euthyphro -is driven to assent to the conclusion that piety is an art which gods -and men have of doing business with one another. It was a satirical -description of the popular Greek view. - -But the argument of Socrates really corresponds to world-wide practice. -However dim and confused the elements of belief may be, every tribe has -some rites and ceremonies which express the desire to get the Powers -{134} which encompass it upon its side. And when this desire, after -many ineffectual trials, has succeeded in establishing suitable methods -of approach, the endeavours which produce the result tend to become -fixed; they are cherished from generation to generation; they form -solemn customs which must be maintained with strict inviolate order, -even though their original meaning may have been long forgotten. -Belief may fluctuate in a kind of fluid medium of imagination, but -action cannot have this indeterminate and elastic character. Action is -the mode through which feeling obtains expression, while it helps at -the same time to intensify the emotion which calls it forth. The rite -must be done or omitted; it cannot trail off into shadow and vagueness. -And it gathers the whole weight of tribal sanction around it; so that -even the simplest elements of common usage are moulded under the -powerful pressure of the "weight of ages." - -The active side of religion may be considered under two aspects. There -is, on the one hand, the effort to enter into helpful relations with -the energies which pervade nature and operate on man. Such efforts -spring from manifold emotions of hope and fear, of affection and -reverence. They seek to inaugurate such relations; to maintain them -through the vicissitudes of experience, the phases of life, the -sequences of time; and to renew them when they have suffered sudden -{135} shock or gradual decay. By such action the original emotion is -reawakened when it has declined, and is raised to greater vividness and -higher tension. It may be summed up in the term worship, including -sacrifice and prayer, often associated with a wide range of acts -cognate in purpose, as well as with manifold varieties of sacred -persons and sacred products (Chap. VI). - -And, secondly, apart from public or private acts of homage, -thanksgiving, submission, propitiation, addressed specifically to the -higher Powers, there are modes of behaviour which are believed to be -pleasing or displeasing to them. Some things may be done, and others -may not. Certain acts, or words, or even thoughts, are forbidden; -others are enjoined. The sphere of daily conduct is thus brought into -connection with what is "above." "Act," said the Japanese teacher of -Shinto, Hirata, in the last century, "so that you shall not be ashamed -before the Kami" (p. 93). It was a universal rule. Morality is thus -placed under the guardianship of religion (Chap. VII). - - -At the funeral of Lord Palmerston (1865), the chief mourner was -observed to drop several diamond and gold rings upon the coffin as it -was lowered into the grave. A little child, seeing a steam-tram -advance with irresistible might along the road, offered it her bun. It -may be surprising to meet with a piece {136} of the primitive ritual of -the dead in the midst of a sophisticated and conventional society; but -when strong feeling is excited something must be done to give it -relief, and in parting with his rings the donor found the outlet for -his emotion as irrationally as the child before the monster which -excited at once her wonder and her impulse of goodwill. Out of such -impulses of self-expression, it may be suggested, arises the largest -class of sacrifices, when gifts are made in doing various kinds of -"business with the gods." - -In its widest use the word covers an extensive range of purposes, and -begets a large variety of questions. On whose behalf is the offering -made, a single individual, or some social group, his family or clan, a -secret society, a tribe, a nation? What persons are required for the -due performance of the rite, the head of the family, the village -magistrate, the fetish man, the priest? A complicated Vedic sacrifice -needed the co-operation of various orders of priests. What objects are -effected by it, a house or city-gate to be protected, a river to be -crossed, a battle to be won, a covenant or contract to be sealed? To -what powers does the worshipper address himself, in gratitude, homage, -or submission, seeking renewal of favour, or purging himself of some -sin, or desiring actual fellowship with his god? Behind these external -features lie more difficult problems in connection especially with -animal sacrifices, concerned {137} with the victim's qualities, and the -appropriation of them by the deity or the worshipper; with the peculiar -sanctity of blood, and the mysterious properties which it can impart; -with the notion of the transmission of the life of which it was the -vehicle; and the whole set of indefinite influences capable of -propagation by contact, like the clean and the unclean, the common and -the holy. And why, when the victim was offered, was the god supposed -to be satisfied with bones and entrails and a modest piece of meat, all -wrapped in fat? Greek wonder at so strange a practice could find no -better answer than the tale of how Prometheus once cheated the gods of -their share, and men had ever since followed his example. These -questions belong to the obscure realm of beginnings, in which various -answers are possible. All that can be attempted here is to offer a few -illustrations of the different motives that seem to lie behind -different forms of rite. - -Offerings to the dead pass through a long series of stages, from the -simple provision for the wants of the dead man in the grave up to his -proper equipment with all that is due to his rank and state in the next -life, or the maintenance of the ties of guardianship and protection -over unborn generations. The earliest human remains imply some dim -belief that the grave was the dead man's dwelling (p. 20), and there he -must be supplied with the requisites for some kind of continued {138} -existence. All over the world, food, weapons, ornaments, utensils, are -found deposited in barrow and tomb; and this practice culminates in the -complicated arrangements of an Egyptian sepulchre, where the wealthy -landowner constructed an enduring home for his double, and filled it -with representations and objects which could be magically converted to -his entertainment after death. When the dead man passes into another -world, and enters a land resembling that which he has left (Chap. -VIII), he may need wives and slaves appropriate to his rank. From -ancient Japan and still more ancient China all round the globe to -Mexico are traces of such ritual murder. The widow's self-devotion was -exalted in India to religious duty, and cases still occasionally occur -when (in spite of the British Government) she seeks to mount the pyre -and immolate herself beside her husband's corpse. In West Africa the -ghastly tale of the Grand Customs of Dahomey in the last century is -well known; and it is supposed that thousands of lives are still -annually sacrificed in the Dark Continent to this belief. Other -personal needs must be supplied, and on the Gold Coast in the last -century an observer saw fine clothes and gold buried with the chief; -and a flask of rum, his pipe and tobacco, were laid ready to his hand. -Moreover, goods of all kinds can be made over by fire; and in the -funeral rites of a Chinese family a paper house with paper {139} -furniture and large quantities of paper money may be burned for the -endowment of a departed member in his next life. - -Or the offering may be made for the cherishing of the dead in their -former home. The simplest and the most common sacrificial act in -Melanesia, Bishop Codrington tells us, is that of throwing a small -portion of food to the dead. It may be nothing more than a bit of yam -or a morsel of betel-nut; it is not for food, but for remembrance and -affection. But sometimes it is for actual nourishment. The dead in -ancient India who had none to render to them the needful sustenance, -wandered as dismal ghosts round their former dwellings, or haunted the -cross roads, compelled to feed themselves on the garbage of the -streets. The funeral meals, continued at intervals, were celebrated -for the purpose of providing the departed with new forms, and -converting them into the higher rank of "Fathers." In many lands, from -Europe to Japan and Central America, an annual feast for the dead has -been maintained in various modes both in classic antiquity and in -modern usage; and the ancient practice still survives in strangely -altered fashion in the cakes and confectionery carried on All Souls' -Day to the graves in the great Parisian cemetery of Pere Lachaise. - -Such acts of recognition and fellowship pass through very different -stages. They begin with a desire for self-identification with the -{140} mysterious power which helps or hurts; as the power is conceived -on a greater and more personal scale they turn into tribute and homage. -The West African negro passing a big rock or an unusually large tree -will add a stone or bit of wood or tuft of grass to the little heap of -such trifles at its foot; it is for the Ombwiri, or spirit of the -place. After the harvest on the plateau of Lake Tanganyika, -pilgrimages are made to the mountain of Fwambo-Liamba; at the top is a -sort of altar of small stones, and there scraps of calico, bits of -wood, flowers, beads, are laid in honour of a vague "High God" called -Lesa. The nature of such gifts may be traced through all gradations of -economic advance, just as the mode of conveying it passes through -various phases from the coarse to the refined. The pastoral nomad -brings the firstling of his flocks; the more advanced agriculturist -adds the produce of the ground. The immigrant Hebrew under Canaanite -tuition adopted the festivals of harvest and vintage, and with -firstlings and tithes wrought his husbandry into his religion when he -went to the sanctuary "to see Yahweh's face." The daily sacrifice in -the great temple of Marduk at Babylon under Nebuchadrezzar was an -epitome of the whole tillage of the land; the choicest fruits, the -finest produce of the meadow, honey, cream, oil, wine of different -vintages, must be served. In the early ritual of an Egyptian temple, -when the daily toilet of the god had {141} been performed and he had -been duly robed, painted, and oiled, his table was spread with bread, -goose, beef, wine, and water, and decorated with the flowers needed to -adorn a meal. - -In many cases such offerings carried with them the additional purpose -of actually increasing the vigour of the god. Dim notions of promoting -the divine vitality hovered in the background. The physical effect -might be reached by divers modes. Food was at first conveyed by actual -contact; it might be smeared upon the idol's mouth. Offerings to earth -spirits were buried in the ground. Water deities received them when -they were thrown into the well, the river, or the lake. Even in Greece -Poseidon's horses were driven into the sea, just as the horses of the -defeated Mallius were offered by the Gallic victors to the Rhine. -Indian realism provided the Fathers who assembled for the rice-ball -sacrifice with water and tufts of wool to cleanse themselves after the -meal. In more refined usage fire conveyed the essence of the food to -the upper airs. At Noah's sacrifice on the subsidence of the flood -Yahweh smelt the sweet savour, and in the corresponding Babylonian -narrative the gods, drawn by the scent, gathered together around the -offerer "like flies." The American Osages invited the Great Spirit, -Fire, and Earth, to smoke with them at the beginning of a new -enterprise. The Sioux lighted the pipe of peace and offered it {142} -to the sun, with the invocation, "Smoke, O Sun." - -Many and various are the ideals which have gathered round the offering, -as magic and religion have strangely blended. The sacred tree, whether -among the Celts of the West or the Syrians of the East, is hung with -rags of clothing, sometimes doubtless with the same motive which -prompts similar gifts at the tomb of a Mohammedan saint, for the -transference of diseases from the sick. The highest value was reached -among the ancient Irish, as among the Semites, in the sacrifice of the -first-born; and the long tale of human victims indicates man's -passionate desire to secure in divers forms supernatural aid. They -have been slain in crises of national danger by plague or war, in -atonement for sin,[1] or in thanksgiving for victory. They have been -immured in the foundations of houses or cities that their spirits might -remain as guardians of the gates. They have been done to death in the -seasons of the agricultural year that their lives might fertilise the -soil and quicken the grain. They have been forced to yield their -entrails to the diviner that the secrets of the future might be -unveiled. - - -[1] The sacrifices of purification and atonement are briefly considered -in Chapter VII. - - -Brahmanical speculation carried the ideas of sympathetic magic in -association with sacrifice to their highest pitch. The Vedic hymns -early formulated the idea of reciprocal {143} obligation in the crudest -terms: _Dehi me, dad[=a]mi te_--"Give to me, I give to thee." But this -simple relation was superseded in the priestly ceremonial by elaborate -parallels between the daily order of the ritual and the daily order of -the skies. The earthly sacrifices were the counterparts of those -offered by celestial priests. The "Fathers" accomplished the rising of -the sun; and when the heavenly process was imitated in the world below, -the kindling of the sacred fire came to be regarded as the actual -instrument for stimulating and maintaining the activities above. From -a yet higher point of view the whole world had issued from the -mysterious sacrifice of a cosmic Man (described in one of the latest -hymns of the Rig-Veda), out of whose person the visible universe, the -Veda, and the human race in four castes, had been created. In the -Brahmanical theology his place was taken by Praj[=a]pati, the "Lord of -Creatures," who underwent repeated offering in every sacrifice. And -just as the primeval sacrifice effected the generation of the world, so -every fresh oblation was a miniature reproduction of the cosmic event. -The Lord who had been dismembered must be reconstituted that he might -offer himself anew; and thus sacrifice was blended with the course of -Time and the period of the Year, and the perpetual dissolution and -renewal of the life that animated the mighty frame of earth and heaven. -In that upper world, moreover, the sacrificer, {144} through mystical -identification with Praj[=a]pati, was enabled to prepare a new body for -the celestial abode, and out of the altar-ground below to generate his -future divine self in the world above. - -Along other lines the conception of fellowship with Deity may be -realised through a common act. Above the personal fetish of a Gold -Coast negro to which he made offerings of rum and palm-wine, oil, corn, -sheep, goats, stood the patron god of the family. Before a separation -which would prevent them from ever again worshipping together, they -engaged in a strange kind of communion. The fetish-priest pounded up -some sacred substance and mixed it with water, which was then drunk by -the whole family in turn. During the rite the priest enjoined all -present in the name of the deity to abstain from some particular kind -of food, fish, beef, fowl, milk, or other article of diet. None of the -company tasted it again. They were united by the deity within them; -and obedience to his command bound them, however far apart, in common -worship. - -Sometimes the worshipper sat at the table of the god, who was in some -sense present at the meal celebrated in his honour. In the usage of -ancient Israel the householder shared with his family, kinsmen, -neighbours, and guests, in the sacred feast "before Yahweh." How far -the belief in Yahweh's presence was actually cherished by the -participants cannot {145} be definitely affirmed; it does not appear, -for instance, in the Babylonian ritual. But a corresponding idea may -certainly be traced in Greece and Rome. From the early cult of the -sacred stone or pillar as the abode of deity, some kind of divine power -inhered in the altar and the image; and when the members of the clan -feasted together on solemn occasions, the clan-god was present with his -worshippers. The Greek ritual sometimes provided a place for the -table-companions or "parasites," at sacred banquets, such as were held -in the temples of Apollo at Acharnae or Delos. - -An inscription at Magnesia describes a festival of twelve gods, whose -images, adorned with festal array, were carried into the marketplace, -and arranged on three cushions under a canopy. When sacrifices had -been offered, the priests and people partook of a common meal with the -gods. The old Latins and other Italians believed the deities of the -house to be present at their meals. The Penates, Mr. Warde Fowler -tells us, were the spirits of the foods. Rome celebrated its solemn -feast of Jove in the Capitoline temple every September on full-moon -day, when Jupiter, with his face painted red, Juno, and Minerva, were -present in their statues to share the meal with the magistrates and -Senate of the city. To "lay a couch for the god" (as we might say "to -lay a table") was a common phrase. Recently discovered papyri, -illustrating so {146} many aspects of daily life in the Eastern -Mediterranean, show that such hospitalities were of frequent -occurrence, alike in temples and in private houses. Among the precious -remains from Oxyrhynchus are such notes as this: "Antonius son of -Ptolemaeus invites you to dine with him at the table of our Lord Sarapis -in the house of Claudius Sarapion on the 16th at 9 o'clock." - -But the worshipper might not only eat with the god, he might more -rarely, and under special circumstances, even eat _him_. A more -intimate union was thus effected. When the altar imparted its sanctity -to the victim laid upon it, the holy food distributed to the worshipper -had some kind of divine presence in it, and virtue passed through the -meat into the eater. The late Prof. Robertson Smith, in his famous -lectures on "the Religion of the Semites," endeavoured to show that -sacrifice originally consisted in slaying the animal of the -totem-group, of which members of the totem-kin partook so that they -received into their own persons the divine power incarnated in the -totem animal. Further research has failed to confirm this view; but a -similar conception has been illustrated from another side. The -agricultural usages of which Dr. Frazer has collected so many examples, -show how out of the last sheaf, which had become the home of the -corn-spirit, the grain was baked in human form as its embodiment, and -solemnly eaten. In the East Indian archipelago, on {147} the island of -Buro, the approaching rice-harvest was welcomed by a tribal meeting -when each man brought some first-fruits from the fields, and the meal -of inauguration was known as "eating the soul of the rice." - -Twice a year was the great Mexican deity Huitzilopochtli presented in -the form of dough images to his worshippers, and with elaborate -ceremonies was consumed. Tezcatlipoca, in like manner, chief god of -the Aztecs, represented by a handsome and noble captive wearing the -divine emblems, was slain on the great altar; the body of the victim -was respectfully carried down into the court below, divided into small -pieces, and distributed among priests and nobles as blessed food. It -is strange to find such savagery associated with prayers of exalted -fervour and devotion. But ecstasy is roused by various means, and is -not affronted at the most brutal rites. There were incidents in the -Orphic cult of the Thracian Dionysus grouped under the name of the -"Omophagy" (literally "raw-eating") of like character. In frenzied -excitement the devotees flung themselves on bull or goat, rent it -asunder, and devoured the bleeding flesh. Such was the condition of -securing the actual entry of the god into the believer's person, so -that he became _entheos_, "with the god inside him." Words have -strange histories, and few now remember, when they describe the welcome -of a monarch by acclaiming crowds, or the excitement roused by a {148} -great orator, what was the earlier meaning of "enthusiasm." - - -In the "art which gods and men have of doing business with each other," -Socrates associated sacrifice with prayer (p. 133). The association is -world-wide, and here religion reaches its utmost inwardness. The -feeling which expresses itself in action will also prompt gesture and -speech; rude rhythms mould words into chant and song; and even without -a definite object of address some utterance breathes a desire. "May it -be well with the buffaloes, may they not suffer from disease and die -... may there be water and grass in plenty." So runs the dairy-ritual -of the Indian Todas, without the direct invocation of any gods. But -there is no element here of compulsion or constraint. The distinction -between prayer and spell is clear; the attitude is religious, not -magical. On the other hand, sacrifices are sometimes offered to a -"High God," as by the Dinkas of the Bahr-el-Ghazal in Central Africa to -Deng-deet, who is described as "Ruler of the universe, Creator of -mankind, the actual Father of human beings"; but, adds Captain Cummins, -imagine it does not occur to them to pray. Others, by contrast, make -morning and evening prayer part of their daily practice; the Nandi of -East Africa concludes his devotions (addressed to Asista, the ordinary -word for the sun): "I have prayed to thee, thou {149} sleepest and thou -goest, I have prayed to thee, do not say 'I am tired.'" Sometimes -prayer is offered only to the powers of mischief. The Lepchas of the -Himalayas told Dr. Hooker that they did not pray to the good spirits. -"Why should we? They do us no harm; the evil spirits that dwell in -every grove and rock and mountain, to them we must pray, for they hurt -us." To the Australian it may seem foolishness to address Baiame from -day to day: he knows, why weary him by repetitions, disturbing his rest -after his earthly labours? But the impulse of prayer does not always -take articulate form, any more than it always seeks a personal object; -and after long residence among the Euahlayi in South East Australia -Mrs. Langloh Parker pleaded that the man who invoked aid in his hour of -danger, or the woman who crooned over her babe an incantation to keep -him honest and true, shared, however dimly, the same spirit of devotion -which elsewhere prompts elaborate litanies. It is with a pious reserve -that the Khonds of Orissa pray: "We are ignorant of what it is good for -us to ask for. You know what is good for us; give it to us." - -Prayer in the lower culture is rarely individualised. It is almost -always a social act. Common prayers for food or rain, for protection -against danger, the removal of pestilence, victory over enemies, -represent the wants of all. The group may be the family, as in the -evening worship of the {150} Samoan householder, who pours a little of -his cup of ava on the ground, and prays for health, productive -plantations, and plenty of fruit. On the Lower Niger Major Leonard -found worship offered daily before an image or emblem believed to -contain the spirits of more immediate ancestors: "Preserve our lives, O -Spirit Father, who hast gone before, and make thy house fruitful, so -that we thy children shall increase and multiply and so grow rich and -powerful." - -Such prayers may be traced through many expanding phases up to the -higher petitions which seek to place the civic and moral life under the -guidance of the heroic dead. The element of bargain or contract which -Socrates so sarcastically emphasised, here drops away. "To what god or -what hero shall we pray," inquired the people of Corcyra, weary of -internal strife, at the oracle of Dodona, "in order to obtain concord, -and to govern our city fairly and well?" Chinese statecraft well -understood the significance of such worship as a social bond. The -ancient author of the _Li Chi_, or "Book of Rites," laid it down that -"the prayers of the principal in the sacrifice to the spirits, and the -benedictions of the representatives of the departed, are carefully -framed. The object of all ceremonies is to bring down the spirits from -above, even their ancestors; serving also to rectify the relations -between ruler and minister, to maintain the generous feeling between -father {151} and son, and the harmony between elder and younger -brother, to adjust the relations between high and low, and to give -their proper places to husband and wife. The whole may be said to -secure the blessing of Heaven." - -Attention is thus concentrated upon common sentiments and universal -relationships, and prayer acquires a deeper ethical meaning. It then -comes to rest upon devout experience, which seeks to interpret life in -relation to the permanent forces of justice which are believed to rule -the world. The hymns of Egypt celebrate in lofty terms the majesty and -beneficence of the gods, and the psalmists of the Nile sang of the -divine love encompassing all lands, setting every man in his place, and -amid diversities of colour and speech supplying all human needs. The -Babylonian poets addressed Shamash or Sin, sun or moon, as the symbols -of the universal order of nature, the witnesses of thought and deed -over the wide earth, the rulers on whom man could place unchanging -reliance. The Vedic singer found a similar figure of moral sovereignty -in Varuna (p. 106). Out of the depths of her distress Hecuba (in the -"Trojan Women") appeals to the mysterious Power whom she can still -glorify in her anguish: "Thou deep base of the world, and thou high -throne above the world, whoe'er thou art, unknown and hard of surmise, -chain of things to be, or reason of our reason, God, to thee I lift my -praise, seeing the silent road {152} that bringeth justice ere the end -be trod to all that breathes and dies." With a yet firmer confidence -could the Peruvian in the sixteenth century record this prayer to the -"World-animating Spirit": "O P[=a]chac[=a]mac, thou who hast existed -from the beginning, and shalt exist unto the end, who createst man by -saying "Let man be," who defendest us from evil, and preservest our -life and health, art thou in the sky or in the earth, in the clouds or -in the depths? Hear the voice of him who implores thee, and grant him -his petitions. Give us life everlasting; preserve us, and accept this -our sacrifice." - -Two or three thousand years before, the pious Egyptian had been bidden -to enter quietly into the sanctuary of God, to whom clamour is -abhorrent. "Pray to him with a longing heart in which all thy words -are hidden, so will he grant thy request, and hear that which thou -sayest and accept thy offering." Dear was this silent worship to the -higher teachers. A hymn to Thoth (p. 8) addresses him as "Thou sweet -spring for the thirsty in the desert," adding, "It is closed for those -who speak there, it is open for those who keep silence there. When the -silent man cometh, he findeth the spring." - -Petitions such as these, rooted in ethical sentiment, demand as their -moral condition purity of heart and concentration of thought. The -prophets of all ages have protested against formalism and insincerity. -The Japanese {153} god of learning, Temmangu, was once a distinguished -statesman. But he fell into unmerited disgrace (A.D. 901), and was -banished. Posthumously vindicated, he was promoted to the rank of -deity, and declared through his oracle, "All ye who come before me -hoping to attain the accomplishment of your desires, pray with hearts -pure from falsehood, clean within and without, reflecting the truth -like a mirror." The disposition of prayer must be that of life also. -It was with reference to similar slander to that from which Temmangu -had suffered, that Pindar cried, "Never be this mind in me, O Father -Zeus, but to the paths of simplicity let me cleave throughout my life, -that when dead I may set upon my children a name that shall be of no -ill repute." And Socrates prays, as he and Phaedrus rise from the shade -of the plane-tree where they have been talking, "Beloved Pan, and all -ye other gods that haunt this place, give me beauty in the inward soul, -and may the outward and the inward man be at one": to which Phaedrus -adds, "Ask the same for me, for friends should have all things in -common." - -The need of righteousness begets penitence and confession. A Buddhist -liturgy issued in China in 1412 with a preface by the Emperor Yung Loh -of the Ming dynasty, after the opening invocations, proceeded thus: "We -and all men from the very first, by reason of the grievous sins we have -committed in {154} thought, word, and deed, have lived in ignorance of -all the Buddhas, and of any way of escape from the consequences of our -conduct. We have followed only the course of this evil world, nor have -we known aught of Supreme Wisdom, and even now, though enlightened as -to our duty, yet with others we still commit heavy sins, which prevent -us from advancing in true knowledge. Therefore in the presence of Kwan -Yin [the Chinese form of Avalokitecvara, p. 131], and the Buddhas of -the ten regions, we would humble ourselves, and repent of our sins.... -For the sake of all sentient creatures in whatever capacity they be, -would that all obstacles may be removed, we confess our sins and -repent." - -A higher note is sounded here than in the famous penitential psalms of -ancient Babylon, where the poet, smitten with various distresses, -laments the unknown sins which have roused the anger of his god, and -passes into fierce incantations against the demonic powers which are -the instruments of the divine wrath. Here prayer makes a close -alliance with magic: and its formulae are always in danger of this -degeneration. In the old Italian ritual of a guild at Iguvium the -exact titles of the deity must be rehearsed, and the proper words -recited. The slightest slip invalidated the entire rite, and the -officiating priest was required to repeat the whole over again. To -this rigid adhesion to consecrated {155} forms we owe the preservation -of antique liturgical expressions left stranded in priestly usage. -Such phrases acquired a semi-magical power. The Honover (_Ahuna -Vairya_), or most sacred verse of the ancient Persian scriptures, -became a charm against evil in the fight with Ahriman and his hosts. -Passages from the Koran are used by Mohammedans as amulets against -danger. The Buddhist formula _Om mani padme hum_ is a protection from -mischievous influences, like the Lord's Prayer in the Middle Ages; and -the prayer-wheels and prayer-mills of Mongolia, in endeavouring to -enlist the aid of Nature, and harness wind and water in the service of -religion, have only turned devotion into a mechanical device. - -In the long story of Indian religion many notes are struck in the wide -range of human want, of divine grace, and adoring faith. The Vedic -poets speak with full hearts of the simple joys of earth; the happiness -of home with its passionate desires for children and long life; the -pleasures of wealth in horses and chariots and cows. Rescue from -poverty or danger, victory over the godless enemy, influence in the -assembly and superiority in debate, these are the gifts which are -sought with the utmost directness of speech: "If I, O Indra, were like -thee, the single sovereign of all wealth, my worshipper should be rich -in kine." But other tones are not wanting: "Aditi, Mitra, Varuna, -forgive us, however {156} we have sinned against you": "Before this -Varuna (p. 106) may we be sinless, him who shows mercy even to the -sinner." - -With the development of Brahmanical speculation prayer rises to more -abstract ideas: "Lead me from darkness to light, from falsehood to -truth, from death to the deathless." The association of prayer and -magic is seen in the fact that the very term _brahma_ has the double -meaning of prayer and spell, something like the Greek _euche_ or the -Hebrew "bless," which could imply a curse as well as a prayer. But in -its higher sense it gave birth to the "Lord of Prayer," Brahmanaspati, -a kind of house-priest of the gods, a heavenly personification of the -priesthood on earth, in whom resided the power of influencing events by -prayer and incantation. Nay, just as the hymns came to be regarded as -originally existing in the realm of the infinite and the undying (p. -12), so prayer was said to have been born of yore in heaven. And thus -the Lord of Prayer acquires a more lofty character as its generator and -inspirer; he is even called the "Father of the gods"; and the very -universe depends upon him, for he holds asunder the ends of the earth. -In the shining company of deities, moreover, stand Sacred Speech, and -Devotion, and Lovely Praise, and Holy Thought, with others of the -goodly fellowship of Prayer, to attest its power, and approve its worth. - -The subsequent devotion of India aspires {157} by different paths to -reach communion with the Infinite Spirit or Universal Self. The -supreme reality is presented in the triple aspects of Being, Thought, -and Bliss (_saccid[=a]nanda_). To know him alone as the Self of all -selves, is the goal rather of meditation than of prayer. Existence, -understanding, and joy, these are the ultimates of all experience, and -he who has attained them prays no more: "Seeking for emancipation I go -for refuge to that God who is the guiding light to the understanding of -all souls." This is the note of much of the later mystical piety of -Hinduism. It speaks in the language both of religion and of philosophy. - -In the first, the believer looks to his heavenly Lord with adoring -faith (p. 128) and lowly love (_bhakti_), and feels the inflowing of -divine favour or grace (_pras[=a]da_). The long line of mediaeval poets -transmitted from generation to generation passionate impulses of -devotion which expressed themselves again and again in legend and song. -"Search in thy heart," pleaded the weaver Kabir in the fifteenth -century, "search in thy heart of hearts, there is God's place of -abode." Not, however, without conditions: "Unless you have a forgiving -spirit, you will not see God." He might describe himself in his -humility as "the worst of men"; that only made the marvel of divine -grace more wonderful: "I am thy son; Thou art my Father; we both live -in the same place." - -{158} - -On the philosophical side a modern manual of Hindu practice endeavours -to combine religion and metaphysics. Ere the believer rises from bed -in the morning he should confess his unworthiness: "O Lord of the -universe, O All-Consciousness, presiding Deity of all, Vishnu, at thy -bidding, and to please thee alone, I rise this morning, and enter on -the discharge of my daily duties. I know what is righteous, yet I feel -no attraction for it; I know what is not righteous, yet I have no -repulsion from it. O Lord of the senses, O Thou seated in the heart, -may I do thy commands as ordered by thee in my conscience." But in -order to remind him of his divine origin, in this age of sordid -interests and low ideals, he is enjoined also to look upon himself as -the reflected image of God, the Eternal, the All-Knowing, the All-Glad, -and to recite the ancient verse, "I am divine and not anything else, I -am indeed Brahma above all sorrows, my form is Being, Intelligence, and -Bliss, and eternally free is my nature." - - -The duties of offering and prayer may be performed from day to day, or -they may be reserved for special occasions of enterprise, danger, and -thanksgiving. They mark the incidents of the week, the month, the -year; there are sabbaths, new moons, seed-time and harvest, and new -year festivals. This periodicity affects the whole community together. -But there are also personal events, marking {159} successive stages in -each individual career, which must be placed under the shelter of -religion, and do not all occur at the same time. From his entry into -the world to his departure from it each person passes at certain crises -out of one condition into another, and the transition requires the -protection of the powers above. Birth, the attainment of adolescence, -marriage, death, are the chief occasions marked by what M. van Gennep -has called "rites of passage." They are all connected with mysteries -of life. - -For life, in the lower culture, is exposed perpetually to dangers of -all kinds. Demonic influences continually threaten it; strange -pollutions beset it; the blood in which it is often located has about -it something weird, uncanny, sometimes unclean. So there are -preliminary rites for bringing in the soul of the child as yet unborn -from its home in the ground, among the flowers and trees, or in wells -and lakes and running streams. Among tribes which regard the mother as -unclean before birth, the uncleanness is transmitted to the child, and -ceremonies of purification must be performed for both. The child must -be guarded against the evil eye, perils of infection of various kinds, -or the attacks of hostile demons. The ritual of cleansing must be -scrupulously performed. When Apollo and the future Buddha were born, -divine beings received them; Apollo was washed in fair water, and -wondrous {160} streams, warm and cold, descended from the sky for the -Indian babe. Sometimes there is such haste to place the infant under -divine care that it is borne away at once to the temple, as Turner -noticed among the Nanumangans of Hudson's island, that its first -breathings, when only a few seconds old, may take place in the presence -of the god, and his blessing be invoked on the essentials of its life. - -Around the cradle friendly influences must be secured, the child must -be duly incorporated into the circle of the cosmic powers and of human -life. He is laid upon the ground for contact with the supporting -earth, and presented to the great vivifier, the sun, or held over the -fire. Out of the bath grew a rite of immersion designed to solemnise -his admission into the guild of mankind, and wash away the strange -element of evil which seemed to inhere in human nature. In Peru this -was exorcised by the priest, who bade it enter the water, which was -then buried in the ground. The Aztec ritual of baptism, according to -the native writer Sahagun, began: "O child, receive the water of the -lord of the world which is our life. It is to wash and purify. May -these drops remove the sin which was given to thee before the creation -of the world, since all of us are under its power." This was a real -act of regeneration, for the priest concluded: "Now he liveth anew, and -is born anew, now he is {161} purified and cleansed, now our Mother the -water again bringeth him into the world." - -After purification comes the ceremony of giving the name, fittingly -performed in the temple, as in Greece, Rome, or Mexico. Elements of -personality inhere so strangely in names, that this rite also acquires -great significance. Perhaps the name of some ancestor is chosen, who -may thus endow the child with some of his qualities, or at least be -invoked for protection and aid. Divine powers have watched over his -birth (p. 121); others may decide his destiny, like the three Greek -fateful goddesses Klotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, or the venerable -Scandinavian Norns. Or the aid of the stars must be invoked, and a -horoscope must be prepared by the astrologer. Sometimes a special -guardian power may be chosen for the infant, sometimes the choice is -reserved for him at a later stage. Or he may be dedicated from the -outset to some hallowed service, as the child Samuel was given to -Yahweh. - -More important even than the rites of birth and infancy are those of -the attainment of adolescence, when the youth is admitted to the -privileges of manhood and instructed in the secrets of the tribe. All -round the world the lower culture has its ceremonies of initiation, -which have sometimes survived in more refined forms in more highly -organised societies. They involve seclusion from the common life, for -no woman must be cognisant {162} of what takes place, severe bodily -trials to test the youth's power of endurance--fasts, scourging, loss -of front teeth, tattooing (so that his status may be recognisable at -once) and other forms of personal scarification and pain, under which -the feeble sink, and the happiest are those who die, escaping the -humiliations of the weakling's lot. Long abstinence in lonely places -begets strange dreams and visions, and raises nervous excitability to -its highest pitch. Strange forms appear with hideous faces and -mysterious trappings; appalling sounds are heard; and it is only when -the hours of terror are past that the initiated learns that the awful -figures were his own kinsmen in masks and disguises, and the Australian -is told that what he took to be the signal of Daramulun's advent was -produced by the whirling of the bull-roarer. In the midst of these -pantomimic incidents the novice dies to rise again. Perhaps he is -buried in the fetish-house; or he passes through the bath into his new -condition; or he is vivified by the sprinkling of blood. But he awakes -to a fresh life. He must be utterly forgetful of the old; he must even -sometimes feign ignorance of his parents' home and names. The elders -then impart to him the customs and traditions of the tribe. He learns -the rules of conduct, and duties of reverence and obedience to the -aged, who are thus, in tribes without formal government, placed under -the protection of religion. The {163} strain of prolonged excitement -and attention fixes precept and counsel indelibly upon his memory, and -he knows that the penalty of betrayal will be death. - -The ancient Indian ritual was more refined. The three upper castes, -the Brahman, the noble, and the cultivator of the land, belonged to the -"twice-born." Only to these was the study of the Veda permitted. When -the youth was led to his teacher to be invested with the sacred thread, -the symbol of his dignity, blessings were uttered and holy water was -sprinkled on him. Then for the first time was he permitted to repeat -the sacred verse (known as the G[=a]yatr[=i], Rig Veda, iii. 62, 10), -"Let us meditate on that excellent glory of the divine Vivifier, may he -enlighten our understandings," which is still recited daily by millions -of devout Hindus. One of the later books of the Zoroastrian faith lays -down that "it is necessary for all those of the good religion to -celebrate the ritual and become _navazud_, newly born," or born again. -The ceremony began with a purification which lasted nine nights, and -included sprinkling with water; the candidate for the priesthood must -be of the age of fifteen; he must confess his sins, endure the scourge; -and might then be regarded as regenerate. - -Within the whole group of initiates secret societies were often formed, -bound together by special vows, and using the instrumentality of -religion. Observers in West Africa and {164} elsewhere (they are also -common in Polynesia and Melanesia) have differed widely as to their -value, some denouncing them for their intolerable tyranny, others -finding them useful agents of police. They are the forerunners of more -purely religious associations such as may be seen in the mysteries of -Greece. Here, too, were ceremonies of initiation, here were pantomimic -representations of divine events, secrets of communion with deity, and -promises of life beyond the grave. Most famous, of course, were the -mysteries of Eleusis, in charge of the great family of the Eumolpids. -Already in the Homeric hymn to Demeter, before the days of Jeremiah and -Ezekiel, all Greece had been bidden to come to Eleusis, and receive -initiation into the rites of the Lady Mother and the Maid. There were -preliminaries of purification, which a Christian apologist like Clement -of Alexandria could compare with the baptism of the Church. Cleansed -from the stain of sin, the candidate was required to be devout and -holy. What was the precise nature of the revelation which he was -permitted to see is uncertain. The passion-drama of the mother's loss -of her daughter, her search and recovery, may have grown out of some -seasonal vegetation ceremonies. But they had taken on higher meanings. -The secret might not be divulged in detail; there is, however, a large -amount of testimony that ideas of death and re-birth or resurrection -{165} played a great part in this, as in other mystery-religions; the -Homeric hymn to Demeter holds out intimations of immortality; and by -some kind of communion with the deity the salvation of the believer was -assured. - -The rites of the Phrygian Sabazius touch the processes of the lower -culture at more than one point. In his great oration "on the Crown" -(315 B.C.) Demosthenes twits his opponent AEschines in such terms as -these: "You assisted your mother in the initiations, you read aloud the -books (the ritual prayers), and took part in the rest of the plot. You -put on (or, you robed the candidates in) fawn-skins; you sprinkled them -with water from the bowl; you purified and rubbed them with clay and -bran, then you raised them from their purification, and bade them say, -'I have fled the bad, and found the better.'" On the gold Orphic -tablets discovered in South Italy and Crete occur strange phrases: "I, -a kid, fell into the milk," "O blessed and happy one, thou hast put off -thy mortality and hast become divine," which are interpreted with great -probability as references to a ritual of milk-baptism in which the -initiate was born again. - -That idea was certain expressed in the mysteries of Isis, which were -widely spread in the Eastern Mediterranean (p. 40). Here, too, was a -solemn kind of death and re-birth; here, too, lustrations of the purest -water, the priestly declaration of the pardon of the {166} gods, the -mystic revelation of the Goddess, herself identified with all deities -in turn; and here, after the vision, the assurance of a blessed life to -come. The candidate for initiation into the rites of Mithra must mount -slowly through seven stages. The details of the ritual of the -successive grades are unknown; but in accordance with ancient Iranian -practice repeated ablutions were imposed till the cleansing waters had -washed away all stains of guilt. The Mithraic sacraments so closely -resembled Christian usage that they were vehemently denounced by Church -writers as a Satanic parody. They were certainly supposed to secure -happiness in the world to come. The believer who had passed through -the blood-bath of the slaughtered bull was said to be "re-born for -ever." - -Associated with sacrifice and prayer, and partaking at once of the -characters of magic and mystery, is the sacred dance. Rhythmic -movement of body and limbs readily becomes the expression of strong -feeling; and the feeling in its turn may be reawakened by the solemn -renewal of the action. When it imitates the motions of the warrior or -the huntsman it comes to possess a magical value, and the women who -remain at home will dance all day while their husbands are engaged in -battle or the chase. Does it not quicken their courage or enhance -their skill? The child in an elementary school now learns {167} his -action-songs, and sows the grain and reaps the harvest. He does not, -however, suppose that he is promoting nature's work. But the women -whose social progress has advanced to agriculture, instead of imitating -the gambols of the wolf or bear, will celebrate the operations of the -fields to stimulate their effectiveness, and at a later stage still -will go forth into the vineyards with timbrel and song. There are -dances for courtship and marriage, dances in initiations and mysteries, -dances even for the funeral. There are solemn preparations, as in the -snake-dance of the secret order of the Snakes among the Moquis of -Arizona, when the members must not only wash the snakes, but themselves -as well and everything about them (in the same water), and fast for one -day. Then any one who has been bitten will be healed, and when the -pipe is lit, the clouds from it will rise and form rain-clouds, and the -rain will fall upon the altar and the sacred things. Or the dance will -serve for the reunion of the tribe, and becomes a great social as well -as a religious institution. The Sun-dance of the Blackfoot Indians (p. -35) is the supreme expression of their religion, and their great annual -religious gathering. It must originate in a woman's vow for the -recovery of the sick, and the ceremonies are spread over a considerable -time. Some come for enjoyment, some to fast and pray. Some must -discharge their vows for the healing of sick kinsfolk; others pay the -price of deliverance {168} from peril by the infliction of self-torture -in the sun-lodge. - -The vow, the fast, and all the varied forms of asceticism which Eastern -religions have so abundantly produced, all involve common elements of -sacrifice and self-subjection. The vow, indeed, has in part the nature -of a contract. It is not magic, it is a bargain. There is no -constraint, the deity may avail himself of what is offered, or may not. -If Yahweh will go with me, says Jacob, and provide me food to eat and -clothes to wear, he shall be my god and get his tithe. But the vow -involves the surrender of something otherwise desirable. It is the -same with the ascetic, who gives up food, or clothing, or sleep, or the -bath, or speech, or a fixed home; who sits between four fires under a -blazing sun; who lacerates his back with the scourge or his flesh with -knives; who holds a flower-pot in his hand till the fingers grow round -it immovably; who hangs himself up by hooks in his bare back, or loads -himself from neck to feet with chains. Men may fast religiously to -overcome bodily desire; or to prepare the higher insight for strange -openings of vision. "The continually stuffed body," say the Amazulu, -"cannot see secret things." Lacordaire bade the brethren of his Order -scourge him that he might humble himself, and taste the pain of his -Redeemer. But the extremer forms of asceticism (especially as a -life-long practice) are always based on the idea that they are in {169} -themselves meritorious; they produce desert and desert leads to reward. -They are a mode of establishing a claim on the future bounty of heaven; -they are, after all, only another form of "doing business with the -gods." - - - - -{170} - -CHAPTER VI - -SACRED PRODUCTS - -In the intimate connection of religion with life all primitive -interests are placed under its sanction. A large portion of time is -occupied with its ceremonials. The fortunes of the tribe are bound up -with it. To the bounty of its powers they owe abundant food and safety -or success in war. Beneath its protection the newly born enter the -world, and to its care the elders are committed when they die. Its -holy persons rule in their midst; its holy places are all round about -them; its sacred objects are in their homes. It is not surprising, -therefore, that all the higher possessions of the tribe, its arts and -crafts, its traditions, its customs and laws, its stories of the gods -and their dealings with each other or with man, should be ascribed to -the same origin. Where individuality is hampered at every turn by -time-honoured conventions, and personal initiative is imperfectly -developed and timidly confined within the narrowest limits, all higher -intellectual products, command over nature, inventions, poetry and -song, the usages of {171} the social order, and the rituals for serving -the gods, carry with them a secret force, a mysterious authority, which -passes the bounds of human wisdom, and has been imparted from some -higher source. Each man is dimly conscious that his single wit could -not have compassed these things; he does not observe the long processes -and imperceptible stages of advance; he accepts the theory offered to -him by those who should know best, and looks back to the days when -kindly powers took in hand the instruction of men. - -Thus at the present day many of the Australian tribes whose condition -has probably changed little since the date of the oldest civilisations -of antiquity, regard their scanty institutions as ordained by beings -above. Ask the Narrinyeri why they adhere to any custom, the answer is -that Nurrundere commanded it. Baiame and Bunjil laid down the marriage -laws for their respective tribes; Bunjil, moreover, taught the Kulin -the arts of life; and Daramulun gave the Yuin laws which the old people -handed down from generation to generation. - -The elaborate cultures of Babylonia and Egypt claimed similar origins. -In the vast prehistoric period before the Flood the people round the -lower Euphrates had lived without rule or order, like the beasts of the -field, till a wondrous Fish-Man, whom the Greek historian called -Cannes, appeared out of the Persian Gulf with wisdom from the sea. He -{172} taught them arts and laws, and wrote concerning the generation of -mankind, their different ways of life, and their civil polity. It was -no other than Ea, god of the encircling Deep, the source of all. -Historic inscriptions told of his "books," which may have included -ancient oracles, and which certainly laid down the duties of a king. -So the famous code of Hammurabi (about 1950 B.C.), recently discovered -at Susa (1901), was handed to him, as the tablet shows, by the great -Sun-god, Shamash. - -The Egyptian priests, perhaps as late as the great Nineteenth Dynasty, -before the days of Moses, threw into definite shape the vague -traditions of immemorial antiquity, when men had lived devouring one -another, ignorant how to till the ground. Osiris (p. 119) taught the -art of tillage, the use of the plough and hoe, how to grow wheat and -barley, and the culture of the vine; and Isis added the domestic arts -of making bread and weaving linen. Osiris, moreover, appointed the -offerings to the gods, regulated the ceremonies, composed the texts and -melodies of the hymns. And among his successors was Thoth of -Hermopolis (p. 8), who introduced astronomy and divination, medicine, -arithmetic, and geometry, and whose "books," embracing a kind of -religious encyclopaedia, were known to the Christian teacher, Clement of -Alexandria, in the second century of our era. - -{173} - -So Zeus gave laws to Minos in Crete, and Apollo revealed the Spartan -constitution to Lycurgus; Numa, the traditional founder of the Roman -ceremonial law, received instruction from the nymph Egeria. The -shepherd slave, Zaleucus (whom Eusebius placed about 660 B.C.), taught -the Locrians what Athena had first taught him, and prefaced his laws by -enjoining them to revere the gods as the real causes of all things fair -and good in life, and keep their hearts pure from all evil, inasmuch as -the gods do not take pleasure in the sacrifices of the wicked, but in -the righteous and fair conduct of the good. - -From the New World come a series of similar figures. Mr. Curtin claims -to show that the vast area of the American continent is pervaded by one -system of thought incalculably old. In the central group of the most -sacred personages is the Earth with Sky and Sun conceived sometimes as -identical sometimes as distinct. The Earth-maiden on whom the Sun has -gazed, becomes a mother, and gives birth to a great hero. He bestows -on men all gifts that support existence, and it is through him that the -race lives and prospers. To the Algonkins he was Michabo or Manibozho, -the "Great Light," who imparted vision, author of wisdom, arts, and -institutions. Among the Toltecs at Tulla he was Quetzalcoatl, -virgin-born, founder of civilisation, who organised worship without -human or animal sacrifices, and endured no {174} war. The Miztecs -called him Votan, prince and legislator of his people, representative -of a higher wisdom, so that he rose to be the mediator between earth -and heaven. In the plains of Begota the white-bearded Bohica appeared -to the Mozca Indians, taught them how to sow and build, formed them -into communities, contrived an outlet for the waters of their great -lake, and, having settled the government and the ritual, retired into -ascetic penance for two thousand years. Out of the depths of Lake -Titicaca in Peru there rose one day the son and daughter of the sun and -moon, Manco Capac and Mama Ogllo, sent by their father in compassion -for men's wretched plight. They taught the ignorant folk agriculture, -the chief trades, the art of building cities, aqueducts, and roads, and -Mama Ogllo showed the women how to spin and weave. Then when all was -in order, and overseers were appointed to see that each one did his -duty, they went back to the skies. - -These stories all belong to the class known as myths. They are not -accounts of what actually happened, they are the work of religious -imagination operating on a particular group of facts, and endeavouring -to explain them. The scope of mythology, whatever may be its -particular origins, is of the widest compass. It embraces the whole -field of nature and life. It first came into modern view through the -study of classical antiquity {175} in Greece and Rome. The discovery -of Sanskrit and the investigation of its literature, especially of the -Vedic hymns, concentrated the attention of scholars for a time, -pre-eminently under the genius of Max Mueller, on the relations of myth -to language, and the resolution of various deities of India and Greece -into the phenomena of dawn and sunshine, of the thunderstorm or the -moon. - -But it was gradually found necessary to abandon one after another of -the philological identifications which had at one time been proposed -with confidence. New aspects of mythology demanded consideration. It -was not only concerned with the incidents and powers of nature, or with -the various relations of the gods. It appeared also in the field of -ritual. It often contained antique secrets of the meaning of religious -performance. It was the key to the dramatised representations of the -sacred dance, the ceremonials on which depended the welfare of the -tribe. And in proportion as action acquired a larger psychological -recognition in shaping the character of religion, and belief receded -into the background, the significance of the development of myths was -changed. - -As religion, however, became more self-conscious, the intellectual -element in it gained more force and energy, and the thinkers of the -priestly schools endeavoured to bring the claims of different deities -into some sort of order, and regulate the hierarchy of heaven. {176} -But they were often confronted with ancient elements of savagery which -could be imperfectly harmonised with the more refined ideas of a -progressive culture. Thus already in Homer, Zeus, as supreme God, -bears one significant epithet; he is _metieta_, full of _metis_ or -counsel. The word is of doubtful derivation, but with the strong -tendency of Greek imagination to turn abstract ideas into persons, -Metis is presented by Hesiod (next in literary succession to Homer) as -the daughter of Ocean, the Hellenic equivalent of the Babylonian Deep, -source of all being even for the gods. Greek thought was not yet ripe -for the ontological conception of wisdom or intelligence as inherent in -the divine nature, so the union of Thought with Zeus is represented -mythologically as a marriage, and Metis becomes the bride of the great -"king of gods and men." The result is conceived in truly savage -fashion. In order to possess her in the most intimate manner, and -embody her in his own person, Zeus suddenly swallows her. Mythology, -of course, has to provide a reason; she would bear a son who would -overthrow him. The poet (or perhaps his editor), desirous of -correcting this brutal selfishness, suggests a further plea; the -goddess should be his perpetual monitor, and warn him inwardly of good -and evil. The myth is being directly moralised. Whatever, therefore, -may be the origins of myth, whether in connection with tribal {177} -tradition, in the interpretation of the incidents of nature--as when a -Siberian described to Baron von Wrangell the occultation of one of -Jupiter's moons by saying that the blue star had swallowed another very -small star and soon after vomited it up again--or in endeavours to -picture the characters and relations of the gods, the beginnings of the -world, the birth of man, the entry of evil, sin, and death, or the -condition of those who have already passed away, the myth becomes the -reflex of the culture in the midst of which it rises. It is the -depository of human experience, of man's criticism of his own life. -And in its representations of a distant age when gods visibly consorted -with men, and deigned to instruct them in the conditions of social -welfare, mythology is the direct product of religion. - -When the gods have withdrawn from human fellowship, and no longer -choose their brides from the dwellers upon earth, or even vouchsafe to -appear among them in various forms for temporary help or promise of -blessing, the communications from heaven do not cease altogether. The -Vedic poet might challenge the existence of Indra, the fool might say -in his heart, "There is no God"; but the Powers above never left -themselves without a witness. The negro going out of his hut one -morning strikes his foot against a peculiarly shaped stone. "Art thou -there?" he inquires, and recognises the presence of a guardian and -{178} helper. The Samoan watches the behaviour of a spinning -cocoa-nut, or the flight of a bird to right or left. The Central -Asiatic notes the cracks on a tortoise's shell, much as a modern -palmist traces the lines in a human hand. The liver is selected as the -special seat of the prophetic faculty, and Babylonian and Etruscan -developed a common diagnosis of its marks. The Celt divined by the -water of wells, or the smoke and flames of ascending fires, and slew -his prisoners that the secrets of destiny might be discovered in their -entrails. China and Rome made divination the basis of elaborate state -systems. Rome produced a literature of Augury, with books of -regulations and minutes of procedure, while Plato commended it as "the -art of fellowship between gods and men," and the philosophy of the -Stoics justified it on the ground of a providential harmony between -nature and man, so that divine guidance was vouchsafed to human need. -Did not clouds and stars move by Heaven's great ordinance? - -The lot took the responsibility of decision out of the hands of man, -and vested it in the presiding deity. There is always a mystery in -chance, which could be interpreted as the will of God. The oath -implied that the heavenly Powers could be at any moment summoned to -attest man's veracity; and the vow must be fulfilled, though it might -cost Jephthah the sacrifice of his daughter. Perjury and broken vows -were early recognised {179} among the gravest of crimes. The ordeal -was in like manner the inquisition of a divine judge. When the Adum -draught was administered to an accused Ashanti upon the Gold Coast, the -god condescended to enter with it; he looked around for the signs of -guilt, and if he found none he returned with the nauseous mixture to -the light of day. It was a procedure analogous to the ancient rite -embedded in the Levitical Law as the test of a wife's faithlessness -(_cp._ Num. v. 11 _sqq._). - -Another mystery lay in dreams, which have been connected with -supersensual powers all the world over. To the savage who cannot -analyse his experience the dream-world is as real as that of his waking -hours. The dreams that follow fasts, whether compulsory through -deficient food, or voluntary through preparation for some solemn event, -possess peculiar vividness; and, when attention has been fixed upon -some expected crisis, readily acquire a prophetic significance. Divine -forms are seen, and strange intimations are conveyed from another -world. The dream verses of the Icelander brought tidings from those -who had been lost at sea. To sleep upon the grave of a dead kinsman, -still more of a hero or a seer, was the means of receiving -communications from the wisdom of the dead. Did not philosophy teach -that in sleep the mind is less hampered by its physical environment, -and attains truth more nearly; {180} and what condition was so -suitable, therefore, for the beneficent revelation of a god? - -In Greece, accordingly, the practice of sleeping at the tombs of heroes -or in the temples of gods was regularly organised. The sanctuaries of -AEsculapius, of which more than two hundred can be traced round the -Eastern Mediterranean and in Italy, were specially frequented by -patients who resorted thither for medical treatment and the advice of -the god. The sufferer must pass through the preliminary discipline of -the bath, and to his purifications must add the due offering of a -sheep. The victim's fleece was carried into the holy precincts, and on -it the sick man lay down for the night. In the visions of the dark -hours the god appeared, and prescribed the mode of cure, or even -condescended to operate himself. An inscription at Epidaurus records -that the stiffened fingers of a patient were straightened out and -restored for use by the god's own grasp. Was it surprising that -AEsculapius should become the object of increasing reverence, and in the -second century of our era should be enthroned in the highest as -"Saviour (or Preserver) of the universe"? - -Under other conditions the visitation of the god expresses itself in -poetic form. Among the ruder peoples whose songs are of the -simplest--perhaps the most childish--kind, the faculty of rhythmic -utterance seems superhuman. Words, lines, stanzas, follow {181} each -other with a spontaneity which seems out of the reach of ordinary -effort. The chants of worship have been again and again carried back -to divine authorship in a distant past. The marriage of speech with -music is no art of man. So the Finnic hero, Waeinamoeinen, conceived by -the wind, and born (after seven hundred years in the womb) by the -maiden Dmatar, added to his gifts of fertility and fire the invention -of the harp, and the teaching of wisdom, poetry, and music to man. -Odin was the god of wisdom and poetry for Scandinavia, god also of the -holy draught, which, like the Indian Soma, gave inspiration. The poet -brewed Odin's mead, bore Odin's cup; and in old Teutonic speech was -_godh-m[=a]lugr_, "god-inspired." Hermes passed in Greece as the -inventor of the lyre, which he gave to Apollo, chief among the deities -who declared to man the unerring counsel of Zeus; and Homer already -counts singer and song as alike divine. - -The lovely forms of the Muses, daughters of Zeus and Memory, or with an -alternative mother in Harmony, were endowed with functions of song and -prophecy, and between them and the historic poets stood a group, half -mythical, half human, whose names were attached to actual hymns and -poems. Such were Orpheus, Musseus, Eumolpus, Thamyris, and Linos. The -verses ascribed to them tended to acquire an authoritative character; -they were cited as a rule or norm for conduct; {182} they were on the -way to become a Scripture. Homer and Hesiod were employed in the same -way; and Plato denounces the mendicant prophets who went to rich men's -doors offering to make atonements, and quoting Homer and Hesiod as -religious guides. Nevertheless, though he proposed to banish from his -ideal State the poets who said unworthy things of the gods, he -elsewhere formulates the highest claim for poetry as a supernatural -product. The poets are only the interpreters of the gods by whom they -are severally possessed; "God takes away the minds of the poets;" "God -himself is the speaker, through them he is conversing with us." It is -the lament of the Bantus of South Africa that since the white man came -the springs of music and song have ceased to flow: "The spirits are -angry with their children, and do not teach them any more." - -Another mode of converse between deity and man was found in the oracle. -Widespread was the belief that through certain chosen persons or in -certain peculiar spots the gods deigned to communicate with those who -sought their aid. Such agencies were peculiarly numerous in the -Hellenic world, and the oracle at Delphi acquired supreme importance. -As early as the eighth century B.C., in the days of Amos and Isaiah, it -is rising into prominence as an authority that may take the leading -place in Greek religion. At one time it almost seemed as if it might -succeed {183} in co-ordinating the separate and often opposing forces -of the City States, and blend them into national unity. If that hope -was ever cherished by its guardians, they failed to realise it. The -higher minds discerned in it capacities which were never fulfilled. -They saw it give counsel to rival powers, promote enterprise, and -support plans of colonisation. They knew that it exercised a -far-reaching moral authority; it compelled reverence for oaths, and -secured respect for the lives of women, suppliants, and slaves; and -again and again in true prophetic spirit it subordinated ritual to -ethical demands. With the widest outlook over human affairs, Plato -proposes to establish the midpoint of religious legislation in Delphi -at Apollo's shrine: "He is the god who sits in the centre, on the navel -of the earth, and he is the interpreter of religion to all mankind." It -is the note of universalism: had not Jeremiah proclaimed two centuries -before on behalf of Yahweh at Jerusalem: "My house shall be called a -house of prayer for all nations"? - -When the Israelites had renewed their temple in the days of Darius, and -the scribes were beginning to busy themselves with the remains of their -national literature, Greek writers also interested themselves in the -collection of the utterances of the past. About 500 B.C. Onomacritus -gathered together the oracles of Musaeus. It was the first instance of -what became a frequent practice {184} in later days; one of Plato's -disciples, Heracleides of Pontus, undertook a similar task; so did -Chrysippus the Stoic. A special literature was thus begotten. The -circumstances which called for the successive oracles were duly -narrated; and had Delphi maintained its early position, here would have -lain the nucleus of a Scripture, which might have developed into a -permanent record of revelation. - -Italy, in like manner, had its _libri fatales_, its sacred books of -destiny. There were Etruscan oracles under the name of the nymph Begoe -or Vegone; there were the Marcian Songs, said to have been adopted as -genuine by the Roman Senate in 213 B.C. The ancient city of Veii had -its books; Tibur (Tivoli) the "lots" of the nymph Albunea. Most famous -of all were the Sibylline books, brought (according to later tradition) -from Cumae to Rome, perhaps in the last days of the monarchy, or a -little later (about 500 B.C.), and placed in the Temple of Jupiter on -the Capitol under the charge of two special guardians. These were -afterwards increased to ten, and in the year 51 B.C. to fifteen. The -office remained till the books were destroyed in A.D. 400, when -Christianity had been finally established as the imperial religion. -What they contained is doubtful; how they were consulted is not known. -Their aid was sought after prodigies, pestilence, or disaster had -awakened general alarm; but their actual {185} words were not made -public. Nevertheless they supplied the basis for important religious -innovations. The introduction of Greek deities by their sanction -profoundly affected Roman religious ideas, and left deep marks on -literature and art. - -In the year 83 B.C. the temple which contained the books was burned. -The greatest anxiety was displayed for their restoration. Envoys were -sent to Sicily, Greece, and Asia Minor to collect fresh verses; they -were deposited in a new temple, and prophecies were founded on them in -the last days of the Republic. But it was believed that spurious -verses had got into circulation, and Augustus ordered a rigid -examination. Some two thousand volumes, it is alleged, were destroyed; -those which were admitted as genuine were removed to a temple of Apollo -which Augustus had himself dedicated on the Palatine hill. Here are -the characteristics of a Canon. The books are kept under special -charge in a temple. Their authority suffices to modify old cults and -introduce new. When they perish, they must be restored. The false -must be separated from the true, the genuine eliminated from the -spurious. The Amoral element in them seems to have been entirely -subordinated to the ritual; but they were believed to express in -seasons of difficulty and danger the demands of the gods. - -The transition to what are formally called "Sacred Books" leaves a -considerable {186} literature upon the boundary. The collection of the -ancient national Finnic songs, made with so much patience by the -Swedish Lonrott, under the name of the Kalevala, presents no claim to -inspiration, but it is the poetical expression of the national -religion. In the literature of the Eddas, the Volospa (p. 248) is a -product of the prophetic spirit. After Herodotus remarked that Homer -and Hesiod made the gods of the Greeks, the Homeric poems acquired more -and more authority, until by the usage of centuries they gained a -semi-canonical position. Lectures were given upon their sacred text, -and the most extravagant methods of interpretation were employed to -reconcile them with the world-view of philosophy. The ancient Egyptian -accepted the "Book of the Dead" as his guide to the next world. -Chapters of it were inscribed on the walls of his tomb, engraved on his -coffin, or laid inside it with his mummy. It contained the charms -needful for the preservation of his soul on its journey to the land of -the West. Its authors were unknown, but it contained the secrets of -the life to come. - -The "Bibles of Humanity," as the foundation-books of the great -religions have been called, belong to one continent. Asia has been the -mother of them all. The oldest takes shape in India in the Vedic -hymns; and the immense literatures of Brahmanism, early and later -Buddhism, and the Hinduism which {187} finally drove Buddhism off the -field, follow in due course. Cognate in language with the immigrant -Aryans, the ancient Persians preserved, amid many losses, some of the -compositions of their prophet Zarathustra, mingled with religious -documents of later date, known to modern students by the name Zend -Avesta. Palestine produces Judaism, with its collection of national -literature embracing law, history, prophecy, poetry, and wisdom. -Judaism gives birth to Christianity, which sets its New Testament -beside the Old; and Judaism and Christianity lie behind Mohammed and -the Koran, where the person and the book blend in the closest union. - -In the Far East Chinese culture reposes on the so-called Classics, the -five King and the four Shu, which had a chequered history till they -finally acquired their position as fountains of knowledge and models of -composition. The ancient odes of the Shi King, the traditions of -rulers and the counsels of statesmen in the Shu King, the collections -of the teaching of Confucius and Mencius, and the remaining works which -need not be mentioned here, raise none of the claims which have been -preferred for the Indian Veda, or the Christian Bible. Nor does the -singular little book of aphorisms ascribed to Lao-Tsze, which serves as -the starting-point for Taoism (p. 67). The Shintoist of Japan finds -the earliest records of his religion in the national chronicles known -as the Kojiki and the Nihongi; and the {188} modern believer, who has -been offered an infallible Bible, responds with a profession of faith -in the practical inerrancy of his own traditional books. - -Some smaller communities claim a passing word. The Jains (p. 61), once -the rivals of the Buddhists, possess a sacred literature only less -copious. Group after group appears in mediaeval India singing the hymns -of its founder, such as the Kabir-panthis, till the poet Tulsi-Das -(born 1532) embodies in his version of the ancient R[=a]m[=a]yana the -essence of Hindu religion for some ninety millions from Bengal to the -Punjab. The Sikhs (p. 62) stay themselves upon the words of their holy -teachers in the _[=A]di-Granth_. The followers of Mani in the third -century of our era, who threatened the progress of the Christian -Church, and spread all the way from Carthage to Middle Asia, possessed -a gospel and epistles of their Prophet, portions of which were brought -to Berlin a few years ago from Chinese Turkestan. The Druzes of the -Lebanon, whose origin goes back to the Caliph Hakim at Cairo in the -eleventh century A.D., treasure the documents of the faith in 111 -treatises and epistles, starting from Hakim's vizier, Hamza. And the -hapless prophet of Persia, who designated himself the Bab (p. 70), -composed in the _Beyyan_ (among numerous other works) an exposition of -the Truth for his disciples. For such small communities a sacred -literature is in fact a necessity. {189} Without it they have no -adequate cohesion. It is at least one of the conditions of permanent -resistance to the forces of decay. - -Around the Scriptures of the greater religions devout reverence has -gathered with ardent faith. The Hindu term Veda (meaning literally -"knowledge") has a narrower and a wider sense. In its limited -application it denotes the four collections of hymns, of ritual -formulae, and sacrificial songs, of which the Rig-Veda is the most -important (p. 10). Their history must be inferred from their contents; -of the circumstances of their formation there is no external evidence, -save that the early Buddhist texts show that the fourth or Atharva-Veda -had not acquired canonical value in the days of the Teacher Gotama. -But the term Veda is also extended to include a mass of ceremonial -compositions known as Br[=a]hmanas, attached to one or other of the -ancient collections, and handed down in different religious schools. -These are all included more or less definitely in what a Western -theologian might term "Revelation." They are technically designated as -_cruti_ or "hearing"; they form the matter of the sacred teaching -transmitted orally, which must be reserved for a special order and not -imparted to the world outside. - -The books of household law, on the other hand, prescribing the domestic -ceremonies for birth, marriage, and death, regulating caste-privileges, -and laying down rules for {190} the conduct of life, were open to all. -But just as the Rig-Veda was exalted into a reproduction on earth of -what existed eternally in heaven, so endeavours were made to convert -the legal works current in particular schools into sacred codes of -divine origin. One was boldly ascribed to Vishnu, who communicated it -to the goddess of the earth. Another, most famous of all, was attached -to Manu, the eponymous hero of the human race. "Father Manu" he is -called in the Rig-Veda, and as the sire of mankind he was the founder -of social and moral order. First king, and Rishi (or seer) privileged -to behold the sacred texts, he was the inventor of rites and author of -the maxims of law. And yet higher dignity belonged to him, for he -sprang from the Self-Existent and could thus be identified with Brahma -himself; and as Praj[=a]pati (p. 143) he took part in the creation of -the world. In due course poetry and philosophy had their turn. The -immense epic known as the Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata, where tradition and myth -and imaginative speculation are blended in rich confusion, was put in -the scales by the gods against the four Vedas, and its sanctity -outweighed them all. - -The Buddhist Scriptures were early grouped in three divisions under the -title of the Three Baskets. The teachings of the Supremely Enlightened -were of course absolutely true, and his rules for the members of his -Order were of compelling authority. It was assumed {191} that they -were recited correctly at an assembly held immediately after his -decease. The "Buddha-Word" thus became the infallible standard of -faith and practice. There are traces of provision to meet difficulties -in case different elders should believe themselves to possess varying -traditions of the Buddha's commands: but not even the enormous -expansion of the Scriptures of the Great Vehicle, as preserved in China -and Japan, shook the faith of the disciple in the authentic character -of their doctrine. The higher teaching belonged to the later years of -the Buddha's life, and was transmitted by special channels. It is much -as if Gnosticism had established itself in the Christian Church of the -second century, and had formed its literature into a Canon beside our -New Testament. Nepal, according to the testimony of Bryan Hodgson, -raised its sacred books into objects of worship. Chinese respect was -satisfied when they were issued from time to time (p. 66) with a -preface by the imperial Son of Heaven. - -The oldest portion of the sacred literature collected under the name of -the Zend Avesta consists of five hymns (called Gathas), ascribed to -Zarathustra himself. They bear many marks of high antiquity, and they -acquired a peculiar sanctity, so that the later sacrificial hymns -already regard them as objects of homage to which worship should be -offered. Above the actual Scriptures rose a radiant figure, in which -the conception of revelation {192} was impersonated. Iranian thought -was markedly idealist; each earthly object had its spiritual type, its -antecedent or counterpart in the heavenly realm. The religion and law -of Zarathustra had their representative in Daena, who is already -celebrated with pious praise in the Avesta. Sacrifice is offered to -her as she dwells in the Heavenly House, the Abode of Song. Thence -Zarathustra summons her, beseeching her fellowship--she is associated -with Cista, "religious knowledge"--and he asks of her mystic powers and -righteousness in thought and speech and deed. Later teaching declared -her to be produced by Vohu Mano, the "Good Mind" of Ahura Mazda himself -(p. 131). As the actual utterance of the Lord Omniscient, the sacred -Law might also be called his _mathra cpenta_ or "Holy Word." - -Jewish theology was not altogether deficient in similar conceptions. -Corresponding to the Torah or Law imparted to Moses, was a heavenly -Torah, infinitely richer in content. It formed one of a mysterious -group of seven Realities which existed, like the Throne of Glory, Eden, -and Gehenna, before the making of the earth and sky. It was a kind of -epitome of all possible cosmic relations, so that as an architect -frames his plan for a city, God looked into the Torah when he would -create the world. Christian theology has never employed this imagery -to express its conception of Revelation. But it lies at the back of -the curious language of the Koran concerning the "Mother {193} of the -Book" (p. 13). Mohammedan theologians reckoned no less than ten ways -in which the Prophet received his revelations. Sometimes the divine -inspiration came in a dream, sometimes like the noise of a bell through -which he recognised the words which Gabriel wished him to understand. -Other books had been given previously to Moses, to David, to Jesus, and -each nation would be summoned to its own book at the judgment. The -believer in Islam recognised in the "Mother of the Book" the -pre-existent or Eternal Word, which God from time to time "sent down" -to his Prophet. It had definite size and aspect for Arab imagination. -The commentator Jalalain described it as existing in the air above the -seventh heaven. There angel guardians defended it from theft by Satan -or the change of any of its contents. It was as long as from heaven to -earth, and as broad as from east to west; and its consistency was of -one white pearl. Was it surprising that Mohammedan faith should -support the utterance of the pious Cadi Iyad (who died in Morocco, A.D. -1149): "The Koran, as it lies between the two covers is God's own word, -which he imparted by way of inspiration to the Prophet. Therefore is -it in every way inimitable, and no man can produce anything like it"? - -Christian theology has refrained from these physical emblems. But it -was possible for a scholar of unquestioned learning to declare {194} in -the pulpit of the University of Oxford barely half a century ago (1861) -that "the Bible is none other than the voice of him that sitteth upon -the throne. Every book of it, every chapter of it, every verse of it, -every word of it, every syllable of it (where are we to stop?), every -letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most High ... faultless, -unerring, supreme." - - - - -{195} - -CHAPTER VII - -RELIGION AND MORALITY - -The expression of religion in action produces the offering and the -prayer: by sacrifice and devotion, with thanksgiving and requests, do -men approach their gods. But there is another way of entering into -fruitful obedience to them. Certain kinds of conduct may be acceptable -to them, and others not. Are these concerned only with ceremonial -acts, or do they include the behaviour of men to each other? How far -does religion promote or regulate what we call morality? What are -their relations, and how do they affect one another? This question has -been discussed in innumerable treatises; attention can only be invited -to it here from the point of view of the historical comparison of -religions, without reference to philosophical definitions. Every one -admits a connection of some sort, for good or for evil, at some period -in their respective development. They may not have started hand in -hand. Their alliance may be disbanded, and morality may claim total -independence. But at some time on the journey they have marched -together. - -{196} - -The difficulty of the inquiry arises in part from the variety of views -as to the scope and essence of both morality and religion. Where do -they begin, and in what do they consist? The philosopher may demand a -complete recognition of the freedom of the will, and the independent -activity of the conscience, and savages who have no such words are set -down as destitute of morality, just as those who have no Heavenly -Father and no devil, no heaven and no hell, are described as without -religion. It is obviously impossible to expect to find everywhere our -categories of right and wrong; yet even Lord Avebury lent his high -authority to the statement that there are many savages almost entirely -without moral feeling largely on the ground of the absence of ideas of -sin, remorse, and repentance. Mr. Huxley in the same way declared it -obvious that the lower religions are entirely unethical. - -On the other hand, the idealist strenuously affirms the intimacy of the -connection. We are assured that the historical beginning of all -morality is to be found in religion; or that in the earliest period of -human history, religion and morality were necessary correlates of each -other; or that all moral commandments have originally the character of -religious commandments. And the student of comparative religion like -the late Prof. Robertson Smith cautiously affirms that "in ancient -society all morality, _as morality was then understood_, was -consecrated and enforced by religious {197} motives and sanctions." The -words which we have italicised contain exactly the limitation which is -ignored by the philosopher who requires that the gods shall be patterns -of conduct, and administrators of an ethical world-order. Plainly the -question is settled in different ways according to different standards -of what religion and morality mean. If we are content to begin low -enough down, we may see reason to believe that in that stage of thought -in which religion, magic, and custom are so strangely intertwined, -morality is also not wanting. Even the Fijian, who called some of his -gods by hideous names, such as "the Rioter," "the Brain-eater," "the -Murderer," regarded theft, adultery, and such offences, as serious. - -The difficulty of broad general statements lies in the imperfection of -our knowledge. Again and again closer observation has revealed quite -unexpected secrets. Whole ranges of belief, feeling, action, formerly -concealed from observation, have been brought to light. Thus about -twenty years ago Major Ellis, writing of the Ewe, Tshi, and Yoruba -peoples on the Gold Coast, laid it down that "religion at the stage of -growth at which we find it among these three groups of tribes, has no -connection with morals, or the relations of men to one another." But -the German missionary, Jakob Spieth, now tells us (1911) that among the -Ewe-speaking folk not only does Mother Earth punish with death those -who have sworn {198} falsely, but Mawu, God, who knows the thoughts and -hearts of men, who is the giver of everything good upon the earth--very -patient and never angry--will not allow one brother to deceive another, -or suffer the king to judge unrighteously, or permit one to burn -another's house down. Morality here is more than rudimentary; the -justice of man is put under the guardianship of God, who requires -"truth in the inward parts." Another West African observer, Major -Leonard, on the Lower Niger, describes religion as intermingled with -the whole social system of the tribes under his view. It supplies the -principle on which their law is dispensed and morality adjudicated. -The entire organisation of their common life is so interwoven with it -that they cannot get away from it. Like the Hindus, "they eat -religiously, drink religiously, bathe religiously, dress religiously, -and sin religiously." - -The beginnings of morality can no more be discovered historically than -the beginnings of religion. Language, in various nations, implies that -it springs out of custom. The foundation of practical ethics, whatever -may be the ultimate interpretation of such terms as duty and conscience -in more advanced cultures, lies in social usage. When any custom is -established with sufficient strength to serve as a rule demanding -observance, so that its breach evokes some feeling, the seed of morals -is already germinating. No group however small, no society however -crude, can cohere {199} without some such customs. They may be formed -in various ways; they are strengthened by habitual repetition; they -acquire the sanction of the past, they are usually referred, when men -have begun to ask how they came into being--just as they ask about -their own origin--to some great First Man, or some superhuman -personality in the realm above (p. 171). But always there are some -things allowable, and others forbidden: some things may (or even must) -be done, others may not. - -When custom has gained this power, it carries with it an element of -control. Impulse must not be inconsiderately indulged, it must be -governed. Private interests must be subordinated to a rule, and -conduct conformed to a standard of behaviour. In the ruder culture, -where the supply of food is of urgent importance, such rules gather -around the produce of the chase or of the ground. Among the Australian -Kurnai, for example, all game caught by the men, all roots or fruits -collected by the women, must be shared with others according to -definite arrangements. Methodic distribution is obligatory, and -self-denial in sharing and eating is thus impressed upon the young. -Moreover certain varieties of food are strictly forbidden to women, -children, and boys before initiation. - -Prohibitions of this kind, extending over many branches of conduct, are -found all over the world. They are often designated by a {200} term in -use in Polynesia, taboo (_tabu_ or _tapu_). Their origin has been much -disputed, owing to the extraordinary complexity of the circumstances -with which they are concerned. Taboo contains emphatically an element -of mystery. It comes out of a vague dim background, and implies that -some strange power will be set in perilous operation if a certain thing -is done. Such a power, obscure, indefinite, not personalised, but -mightier than men, has been recognised at the base of religion under -another term, the Melanesian _mana_ (p. 80). Taboo has been -accordingly described as a negative _mana_. It is a prohibition -against calling the weird uncanny force into the open, where it may do -unexpected hurt. - -The objects and actions placed under such taboos are various; and it is -for the anthropologist and the psychologist, if they can, to discover -their origin and application in each particular case. They involve -ideas of purity and defilement, the holy and the common, the clean and -the unclean. They gather in particular round blood, which rouses in -some animals as in many human beings an instinctive aversion and -disgust, and yet is at the same time sacred as a seat of life. They -enter at the great crises of existence, birth and death; the mother, -and perhaps also the new-born child, are unclean, and must be purified; -the corpse defiles whoever touches it. They attend the sexual -processes, which are the occasion of releasing dangerous {201} -energies. So they affect people as well as things. The king is -charged with this mysterious force, and is hedged round with taboos -lest it should suddenly burst forth against the intruder on his -sanctity. The chief, the priest, possess it in less degree. And it is -transmitted to what belongs to them. Their weapons, their food and, -above all, their persons, are sacred. The oft-quoted story of the -Maori may still be repeated here: it is not the only case of the kind. -Strong and stalwart, he found some food beside the path, and ate it. -He learned shortly afterwards that it was the remains of the king's -meal. He had violated a royal taboo. The secret power had him in its -grasp: he was speedily seized with cramp in the stomach, and in a few -hours died. - -Ritual religions are full of survivals of such taboos. "O Maker of the -material world," inquires Zarathustra of Ahura Mazda, "can he be clean -again who has eaten of the carcass of a dog, or the corpse of a man?" -In ancient Israel various foods were forbidden by religious law; the -priest might not touch a dead body; when a murder had been committed -and the murderer could not be found, the elders of the city must -solemnly purify the ground which unpunished bloodshed had defiled. -Early Roman religion contained many such prohibitions; from certain -sacrifices women and strangers and fettered criminals must withdraw; -there are traces of taboo on {202} iron and shoe-leather, on burial -grounds and spots where thunder-bolts were supposed to have fallen, and -on certain days, especially those connected with the cult of the dead. -Such taboos still play a great part in savage society, and exert no -little moral force in preserving honesty and order. In Samoa, observed -Turner, objects placed under taboo are perfectly safe; they are in no -danger of theft. Primitive morality is thus brought under the sanction -of religion. - -All over the world, as we have seen (p. 161), the young receive a very -severe training in preparation for their entry into the full privileges -and duties of the tribe. They are then instructed in the traditional -rules of conduct, the proper abstinences, the right behaviour of the -sexes. Such ceremonies are recognised as of great importance in -communities of the simplest form without political control, for it is -through them that the social ties of tribal kinship gain coherence and -strength. Various observers have testified to the consideration -displayed in Australia, for instance, towards the aged, the sick, and -the infirm. The blind are often carefully tended, and the best fed. -"As a matter of fact," says Mr. Marett, "the earlier and more -democratic types of primitive society, uncontaminated by our -civilisation, do not present many features to which the modern -conscience can take exception; but display rather the edifying -spectacle of religious {203} brotherhoods encouraging themselves by -mystical communion to common effort." - -In West Africa Miss Kingsley noted the close connection in negro -communities between religion and life. To get through day or night a -man must be right in the religious point of view; he must be on working -terms with the great world of spirits round him. In spite of much -make-believe the secret societies in which the men are enlisted under -solemn oaths, are recognised as important moral agencies. The Ukuku, -recently described by Dr. Nassau, could settle tribal quarrels, and -proclaim or enforce peace, when no individual chief or king could end -the strife. Such organisations regulate marriage laws, the duties of -parents and children, the privileges of eldership, the recognition of -age and worth. The entry into them lies through the rites of religion. - -"I have studied these societies," wrote Miss Kingsley; "I am in -possession of fairly complete knowledge of three of them. I know men -acquainted with ten other societies, and their information is -practically the same as my own, viz. that those rites consist in a -series of oath-takings as you pass from grade to grade ... Each grade -gives him a certain amount of instruction in the native law. Each -grade gives him a certain function in carrying out the law. And -finally, when he has passed through all the grades, which few men do, -when he has sworn the greatest oath {204} of all, when he knows all the -society's heart's secret, that secret is 'I am I,' the one Word. The -teaching of that Word is law, order, justice, morality. Why the one -Word teaches it, the man does not know. But he knows two things: one -that there is a law-god, and the other that, so says the wisdom of our -ancestors, his will must be worked or evil will come. So in his -generation he works to keep the young people straight." - - -Taboos may be violated unconsciously, and tribal laws may be -transgressed sometimes intentionally, sometimes by accident. The -resulting guilt must be removed, if the offender or the community is -not to incur the wrath of the affronted Powers. Sin, like holiness, -has this peculiar property that it can be communicated by contact. -Savage morality does not always rise above the confusion between the -physical and the mental. Evil qualities such as uncleanness can be -transferred from persons to things, just as from things to persons. -Pains and diseases can be extracted from the sufferer, and magically -sent into animals or objects which can be driven away or destroyed; and -moral evil can be similarly removed. When an Atkhan of the Aleutian -Islands had committed a serious offence and desired to unburden -himself, he chose a time when the sun was clear, picked up certain -weeds, and carried them about his person. After they were thus -sufficiently impregnated by contact {205} with him, he laid them down, -called the sun to witness, cast his sins upon them, and threw them into -the fire. The consuming flame burned away his guilt. - -The Peruvian made his confession to the sun, and then bathed in an -adjoining river. There he rid himself of his iniquity, saying "O thou -river, receive the sins I have this day confessed to the sun, carry -them down to the sea, and let them never more appear." The oldest and -the most recent rituals repeat the same idea in various forms. In one -of the Vedic ceremonials of sacrifice, the sacrificer and his wife -towards the close bathed and washed each other's backs. Then having -wrapped themselves in fresh garments, they stepped forth, and we read: -"Even as a snake casts its skin, so does he cast away all his sin. -There is in him not so much sin as there is in a toothless child." -Water was likewise employed in Babylonia, where the incantation ran, "I -have washed my hands, I have cleansed my body with pure spring water -which is in the town of Eridu. All evil, all that is not good, in my -body, my flesh, my limbs, begone!" Or, "By the wisdom of thy holy name -let the sin and the ban which were created for man's misery be removed, -destroyed, and driven away." - -Like physical evil such as disease, so moral evil might be attributed -to the action of spirits, and periodic ceremonies might be performed -for purging the community by driving them {206} out. Sometimes the -sins were buried in the ground; sometimes they were thrown into the -river; sometimes they were concentrated on a person or an animal; or -were magically expelled under the sanction of religion into some object -which could be destroyed. In the annual celebration of the Thargelia -at Athens, in the month of May, under the solemn sanction of Apollo, -two "purifying men" were led through the streets to be whipped with -rods, and then driven over the border of the state, bearing the -people's sins. The Levitical ritual (Lev. xvi) incorporated at a late -date a solemn ceremony on the tenth day of the first month of the -ancient religious year (in September), when an act of atonement was -performed for the whole nation. Two goats were brought into the -sanctuary, and lots were cast upon them. One was dedicated to Yahweh, -over the other the high priest confessed the iniquities of the children -of Israel; and by the laying on of hands he transferred them to the -head of the doomed animal, which was then led forth into the wilderness -for a mysterious power of evil, Azazel. As the temporary adjuncts of -so much guilt, the high priest and the goat-leader were required to -purify themselves afterwards by bathing; the high priest must change -his robes, and the goat-leader wash his clothes. - -So in modern times in Nigeria the town sins are annually laid on some -unhappy slave-girl, perhaps selected some time before. As she {207} is -led through the street the householders come forth and discharge the -year's accumulated evil on her; then she is dragged to the river, -bound, and left to drown. Japan is satisfied without a life. The -ancient ritual of purification shows that in the early centuries of the -national history a public ceremony was occasionally performed. In the -revival of Shinto usage which marked the late reign, it was re-enacted -by imperial decree in 1872 for half-yearly celebration on June 30 and -December 31, at all Shinto shrines. Four or five days before these -dates the believer was enjoined to procure from his priest a piece of -white paper cut in the shape of a garment. On this he was to write his -name and sex, with the year and month of his birth; then he must rub it -over his body, and finally breathe on it. His sins would thus be -transferred to the paper robe, which was to be taken back to the -priest. Offerings of food and purifying ceremonies would complete the -believer's release. The paper garments with their load of guilt were -then to be packed in cases which were to be put in boats, rowed out to -sea, and committed to the deep. There they would be carried to the -great Sea Plain by the Maiden of Descent-into-the-Current, who would -convey them to the Maiden of the Swift Opening, dwelling in the Eight -Hundred Meetings of the Brine of the Eight Brine Currents. She would -swallow them down with a gurgling sound, and the {208} Lord of the -Breath-blowing Place would finally blow them away into the -Root-Country, the bottom apparently of the under-world! - - -The relation of morality to religion tends to become more definite -along different lines of thought, which are constantly intertwined, and -of which three are only isolated here for the purpose of the briefest -possible illustration of the forms in which they have appeared -historically. In the first place, the world may be regarded as a scene -in which rival powers of help and hurt are engaged in constant -conflict; and the physical dualism thus exhibited may be reproduced in -the sphere of morals as a contest between powers of good and evil. -Secondly, the course of nature may be viewed as a world-order, where -seasonal uniformities are the manifestation of a permanent principle of -harmony which is the guide of human conduct, and the vicissitudes of -daily or annual experience are interpreted as the judgments of heaven -on man's doings, national or personal. And thirdly, the development of -the individual conscience may surmount the confusion which ranks ritual -offences along with moral transgressions, and the ethical life may be -set wholly free from ceremonial bondage, and carried up into the realm -of spirit. - -The lower culture all over the world ascribes disease or accident, -madness, calamity, and death, to the agency of hostile powers lying -{209} in wait for man, and breaking in on his security. The violences -of the elements, the hurricane, the flood, the earthquake, the volcanic -eruption, are in the same way the work of giants towering in might -above the common herd of the demons of air, water, or earth. The -spirits of the evil dead, especially of powerful magic-men, Shamans, -and the like, of malicious character, are potent for sickness and -disaster. But in their unorganised ranks there is no controlling or -directing force. Here and there some figure or group emerges into -prominence. At the head of the demonic hosts of Babylonian mythology -is a band of seven ruling spirits, perhaps the windy counterparts of -the sun and moon and the five planets. In Egyptian story Set (or by -his Greek name Typhon) is the evil opposite of the good Osiris whom he -does to death; or it is the sun himself who is attacked in his nightly -journey by the serpent Apap with his monstrous crew. Scandinavian -mythology was full of these conflicts. The oppositions of light and -darkness, storm and calm, warmth and cold, were felt with unusual -vehemence. Over the motley multitude of powers infesting forest and -field, the wind and the water, rose the giants of mountain and -cataract, the furious blast, the curdling frost. The giants of the -frost were evil powers, like the wolf Fenris, and the serpent Nidhogg, -who lay beneath one of the roots of the mighty cosmic tree (in -Niflheim, {210} a second being among the frost-giants, and a third -among the gods), for ever gnawing till the great world's end. Above -them rose the dread goddess Hel, the "hollow," once, apparently, the -name of the grave, and then of the power that ruled the gloomy -underworld, the abode of those who had not fallen upon the -battle-field. She, in her turn, was subordinated to Loki, once -reckoned among the gods, capricious and tricky, who becomes the father -of Hel, the wolf Fenris, and the Midgard snake, and leads the forces of -evil for the destruction of the world. He compasses the death of -Balder the fair, Odin perishes by the wolf, and Thor by the serpent; -though god and wolf and serpent in their turn sink in common ruin. But -the powers engaged in the strife are all superhuman; man has no share -in the warfare, save when the warriors pass at death into the abode of -the gods, and take their place beside them in the final conflict. Loki -is no Devil, he does not tempt, or interfere with the children of -earth; he does not affect their present conduct or future destiny. - -The oppositions of light and darkness belong to every zone all round -the world, and were perhaps most strongly felt among the Indo-Iranian -branches of the great Aryan family. The name _deva_ in ancient Indian -mythology denotes the shining powers of the upper world, the radiant -dwellers in the sky. In contrast with it stands another, the {211} -_asura_, once a title of high honour, for it clung even to Varuna, but -later degraded to the designation of demonic beings, who appear again -and again in contest with the devas for the precious drink of -immortality. So the realm of darkness is the realm of evil. Into the -pit of darkness are the wicked thrust: and when right and wrong are -presented under the forms of truth and falsehood, and untruth is -identified with gloom, the poet reached the natural symbolism--"Light -is heaven, they say, and darkness hell." - -It was, however, among the cognate Iranian people that this antithesis -acquired the greatest force, under the influence of the prophet -Zarathustra. By a curious historic-religious process which cannot here -be traced, the terms of the opposing forces were reversed. _Ahura_ (= -_asura_) remained the name of the Supreme Power, with the addition of -the term _Mazda_, "all-knowing," and the _daevas_ (= _devas_) became -the evil multitude. In the oldest part of the Zend Avesta Ahura -appears as the sole Creator, the God of light and purity and truth, who -dwells on high in the Abode of Song. Beside him is his Good Mind, and -the Holy (or beneficent, gracious) Spirit. But opposed to him in the -realm of darkness beneath is "the Lie" (_drug_), with its correlates -the Bad Mind and the Evil Spirit (_Anra Mainyu_, not yet a proper -name). The world between is the scene of continuous struggle, and in -this conflict man is called to take his {212} part. Ritual purity, -appropriate sacrifice, and personal righteousness in thought, word, and -deed, are his weapons in the fight. By these he helps to establish the -sovereignty of Ahura, and to curtail the power of "the Lie." The -earliest representations offer no account of the origin of the Drug any -more than of Ahura himself. But later speculation, impressed with the -contrasting elements of human life, began to ascribe to him, too, under -the name of Ahriman (Anra Mainyu), creative power; all noxious animals -and plants were due to him; plague and disease came from his hands; all -agencies of cold, darkness, and destruction were his work; he was the -_daeva_ of _daevas_, Lord of death, and author of temptation. And -finally, in the long process of thought the two powers of good and evil -had both issued from a still higher unity, Zervan Akarana, Time without -bound. But long ere this the Persian character had responded to -Zarathustra's teaching of warfare against "the Lie"; and Herodotus -bears testimony to their repute for loyalty to truth. For from the -earliest days the dualism of Zarathustra bound together morality and -religion in the closest alliance. How the great demand for the -ultimate victory of good was to be justified will be seen hereafter (p. -247). - -A second group of figures embodying the same idea of the connection of -morality with religion is found in the various impersonations {213} of -the Order of Nature and its correlate in Law in the world without and -the heart within. The speculations of the early Greek philosophers in -their attempts to reach an ultimate Unity behind all the diversities of -appearance familiarised the higher minds with the idea of the harmony -of the cosmos. "Law," sang Pindar, "is king of all, both mortals and -immortals." And this sovereign order is represented mythologically by -Themis, whom Hesiod exalts to be the daughter of Heaven and Earth, and -bride of Zeus. Pindar pictured her as borne in a golden car from the -primeval Ocean, the source of all, up to the sacred height of Olympus, -to be the consort of Zeus the Preserver. But though she is thus the -spouse of the sovereign of the sky, she is in another aspect identified -with Earth, scene of fixed rules both in nature and social life, for -with the cultus of the earth were associated not only the operations of -agriculture, but the rites and duties of marriage, and the maintenance -of the family. So Themis is the mother of the seasons in the annual -round, and the sequences of blossom and fruit are her work; but among -her daughters are also Fair Order, Justice, and Peace, and the world -and the State thus reflect obedience to a universal Law. - -Behind Greece lay Egypt, where tradition said that Thales, first of -Greeks to philosophise, had studied. When the soul of the dead man was -brought to the test of the balance (p. 8), {214} he was supported by -the goddesses of Ma[=a]t or Truth. Derived from the root _m[=a]_, "to -stretch out," this name covered the ideas of rectitude or right, and -Ma[=a]t was the splendid impersonation of order, law, justice, truth, -in both the physical and moral spheres. She is the daughter--or even -the eye--of the Sun-god Re. But she is conceived in still more exalted -fashion as the sovereign of all realms, and is elevated above all -relationships. She is Lady of heaven, and Queen of earth, and even -Lady of the Land of the West, the mysterious dwellings of the dead. In -one aspect she serves each of the great gods as her lord and master; in -another she knows no lord or master. So it is by her that the gods -live; she is, as it were, the law of their being; alike for sun and -moon, for days and hours, in the visible world, and for the divine king -at the head of his people. She is solemnly offered by the sovereign to -his god, and the deity responds by laying her in the heart of his -worshipper, to manifest her everlastingly before the gods. Through the -court-phrases gleams the solemn idea that sovereignty on earth is no -law to itself; it must follow the ordinances of heaven. - -Chinese insight early reached a similar thought. Before the days of -Confucius or his elder contemporary Lao-Tsze, the wiser observers had -noted the uniformity of Nature's ways. Were not Heaven and Earth the -nourishers of all things? Did not Heaven pour {215} down all kinds of -influences upon the docile and receptive Earth? Heaven was -all-observing, steadfast, impartial; and its "sincerity," seen in the -regular movements of the sun and moon, or the succession of the -seasons, becomes for the moralist the groundwork of the social order. -This daily course is called Heaven's way or path, the _Tao_ (the -highway as distinguished from by-tracks), which with unvarying energy -maintains the scene of our existence, and provides the norm or pattern -for our conduct. In the hands of Lao-Tsze this became the symbol of a -great philosophical conception. Behind the visible path which all -could see lay the hidden Tao, untrodden and enduring. Here was the -eternal source of all things, for ever streaming forth in orderly -succession, but never vaunting itself or inviting attention by -outbursts of display. It was the type for man to follow; the sage, -like Heaven, must have no personal ends; he must act, like the great -exemplar, without meddling interference, leaving his nature to fulfil -itself; let him renounce ambition and cultivate humility; only one who -has "forgotten himself" can become identified with Heaven. "Can -you"--so Lao-Tsze was said to have asked an inquirer six hundred years -before Jesus taught in Galilee--"Can you become a little child?" - -The Vedic seers were hardly less impressed with the sense of an orderly -control in contemplating the energies around them. Four {216} words -are used to denote the institutes or ordinances, the fixed norms or -standards, the solemn laws, and the steadfast path, according to which -the rivers flow, the dawn comes forth after the night, the sun -traverses the sky, and even the storm winds begin to blow. Of these -the last named, the _Rita_ (with its Zend equivalent _Asha_), the -ordered course along which all things move, presents the least -abstract, the most mythical form. For here is that which exists before -heaven and earth; they are born of it, or even in it, and its domain is -the wide space. From it, likewise, the gods proceed, and the lofty -pair, Mitra and Varuna, with Aditi and her train, are its protectors. -But through the mystical identity of the order of nature and the order -of sacrifice (p. 143), the cultus--whether on earth or in heaven--is -also its sphere. Agni, the sacrificial fire, the dear house-priest, is -Rita-born, and by its aid carries the offerings to heaven. Such, also, -is the sacred drink, the Soma, which is borne in the Rita's car, and -follows its ways. And the heavenly sacrificers, the Fathers in the -radiant world above, have grown according to the Rita, for they know -and faithfully obey the law. Thus it becomes the supreme expression of -morality, and is practically equivalent with _satya_, true (literally, -that which is), or good. Heaven and Earth are _satya_, veracious, they -can be trusted; they are _rit[=a]van_, faithful to the Path, steadfast -in the Order. Not less so is the {217} godly man; he, too, is -_rit[=a]van_ (Zend _ashavan_), the same word being used to denote -divine holiness and human piety. And thus the life of gods and men, -the order of nature, the ritual of worship, and daily duty, were all -bound together in one principle. - -Rita, however, did not establish itself as a permanent conception in -Indian theology. Its place was taken by another idea, which still -sways the thought and rules the lives of hundreds of millions of -believers in India and the Far East, _Karma_, or the doctrine of the -Deed. It is well known that this doctrine does not appear in the Vedic -hymns. It is first discussed as a great mystery in the forest-sessions -where teachers and students met together, where kings could still -instruct Brahmans, and women might speak in debate. In the Brahmana of -a Hundred Paths it is summed up in a maxim which was first formulated -in connection with ceremonial obligation, but came to have a much wider -application: "A man is born into the world that he has made"; to which -the Law-books added the warning: "The Deed does not perish." - -Man is for ever making his own world. Each act, each word, even each -thought, adds something to the spiritual fabric which he is perpetually -producing. He cannot escape the results of his own conduct. The -values for good or evil mount up from hour to hour, and their issues -must be fulfilled. When this {218} conception was carried through the -universe, the whole sphere of animated existence was placed under its -sway. The life of any single person upon earth was only an incident in -a chain of lives, stretching into the distant past as well as into the -immeasurable future. His condition hereafter would be determined by -what he had done before he entered the state that would match his deed. -Then his condition here was also determined by what he had wrought in a -previous lot. His personal qualities, his health and sickness, his -caste and rank, his wealth or poverty, all precisely matched some -elements in the moral product of his past. These were, of course, -never all precisely of one kind. They were of mingled good and evil, -and each of these would in course of time have its appropriate -consequence of joy and pain. For every shade of guilt there was a -fitting punishment, exactly adjusted in severity and duration, either -in degradation and suffering upon earth, or in some one of numerous -hells below. And similarly all good was sure of its reward, as -happiness and prosperity awaited it here, or were allotted in still -richer measure for their due periods in the heavens that rose tier -above tier beyond the sky. - -The doctrine of Transmigration has appeared in various forms, in very -different cultures. But nowhere has it swayed whole civilisations as -it has done in the East. It has expressed for innumerable multitudes -the {219} essential bond of morals and religion. There were not -wanting, indeed, teachers who criticised and rejected it when Gotama -the Buddha passed to and fro five hundred years before our era. But -while he repudiated the authority of the Vedas, the ceremonies of -sacrifice, the claims of the Brahmans, and the immortality of the gods, -he retained the doctrine of Karma at the very core of the system of -ethical culture which he offered as the way out of the weary circle of -re-birth. The whole meaning of the universe, its cosmic periods of -dissolution and evolution, was still moral; and the scene of our -existence came once more into being that the unexhausted potencies of -countless products of the Deed from the lowest hell to the topmost -heaven might realise their suspended energy. And when Buddhism became -a religion through the interpretation of the person of its founder in -terms of the Absolute and Eternal, this law of the phenomenal world of -space and time remained beyond even his power to set aside or change. - -The ethical element necessarily varies in richness of content and -intensity of feeling in different religions. In the classifications -which have been from time to time proposed, attention has often been -fixed upon its presence as the marked characteristic of a group. Thus -Prof. Tiele, of Leiden, proposed to treat the higher religions of -Revelation under two heads: (1) religions embodying a sacred {220} law, -and forming national communities, including Taoism, Confucianism, -Brahmanism, Jainism, Mazdaism, Mosaism, Judaism, and (2) universalistic -communions, Buddhism, Christianity, and to some extent Islam. Another -writer forms a class of Morality-Religions above the savage -Nature-Religions, and reckons in it the religions of Mexico and Peru, -the earliest Babylonian (often called Akkadian), Egyptian, Chinese, -Hindu, Persian, German, Roman, Greek. All such classifications are -exposed to many difficulties, but they at least bear witness to the -significance of the place which is occupied by morality in modern -estimates of the worth of great historic faiths. The aspects of any -particular development are so manifold, that any attempt to establish a -scale of rank at once lays itself open to criticism. Where, for -example, is Greece in Prof. Tiele's scheme? It is thrown back into the -group of "half-ethical anthropomorphic polytheisms." But in the hands -of poets and philosophers, the really shaping powers of Hellenic -culture, polytheism was left far behind, and on the third of the -questions suggested above in considering the relations of morality and -religion (p. 208)--their attitude to ritual obligation--Greek official -teaching sometimes reached the loftiest heights. - -For not only did philosophical and religious communities like the -Pythagoreans enunciate such maxims as these: "Purity of soul is the -{221} only divine service," or "God has no place on earth more akin to -his nature than the pure soul," but the oracle of Delphi itself was -supposed to have affirmed the worthlessness of ceremonial cleansing -without corresponding holiness of heart. Dr. Farnell translates two -utterances ascribed to the Pythia as follows: "O stranger, if holy of -soul, enter the shrine of the holy God, having but touched the lustral -water: lustration is an easy matter for the good; but all ocean with -its streams cannot cleanse the evil man"; and again: "The temples of -the gods are open to all good men, nor is there any need of -purification; no stain can ever cleave to virtue. But depart, -whosoever is baneful at heart; for thy soul will never be washed by the -cleansing of the body." Over the sanctuary of AEsculapius at Epidaurus, -where so many sufferers thronged for cure (p. 180), ran the inscription -quoted by Porphyry-- - - "Into an odorous temple he who goes - Should pure and holy be; but to be wise - In what makes holiness is to be pure." - - -The religion of Zarathustra, on the other hand, did not maintain its -primitive elevation. The prophet's G[=a]th[=a]s (p. 191) summoned the -believer to live in the fellowship of the Good Mind and in obedience to -the Most Excellent Order (_Asha vahista_), and the later Avesta seems -sometimes to repeat their high demand: {222} "Purity is for man, next -to life, the greatest good; that purity that is procured by the law of -Mazda to him who cleanses his own self with good thoughts, words, and -deeds." It is the utterance of Ahura himself. But purity may be -interpreted in very different ways: the lad who walks about over -fifteen years of age without the sacred girdle and sacred shirt, has no -forgiveness, for he has "power to destroy the world of the holy -spirit"; while, on the other hand, to pull down the scaffold on which -corpses had been deposited (the Persians employed neither burial nor -cremation) was to destroy a centre of impure contagion, and secure -pardon for all sins. - -When Moses established the administration of justice at the sanctuary -of Yahweh, he planted a powerful ethical influence in the heart of the -religion of Israel. No reader of the Old Testament needs to be -reminded of the prophetic rebukes of a monarch's crimes. Nathan and -David, Elijah and Ahab, have become universal types. The history of -Hebrew ethics shows how the conception of morality gradually passed -from the regulation of external conduct into the inner sphere of -thought; and the offender was no longer regarded merely as a member of -a tribe or nation on which punishment might alight collectively; he -stood in an immediate relation to his God. Primitive imagination could -rest content with supposing that sin had first entered the world -through the {223} subtlety of a talking snake. Later thought found -such a solution inadequate to enlarged moral experience. In the figure -of the Adversary or the Opposer, the Satan, first traceable in Israel's -literature after the Captivity, Judaism admitted a moral dualism -analogous to the opposition between Ahura Mazda and Anra Mainyu. The -Satan had, indeed, no creative power, though hordes of demons were -under his sway in the abyss, and were sent forth to do the desolating -work of madness and disease. But he was the head of a realm of evil -over against the sovereignty of God; and the intensity of the moral -consciousness of sin was reflected in the mythologic form of his -warfare against the hosts of heaven. - -Along a quite different line of thought, which may possibly have been -stimulated from the Greek side, the humanists of later Israel -endeavoured to bring nature and social life under one common conception -of divine Wisdom. The earlier prophecy had regarded the physical world -as plastic in Yahweh's hands, so that its events--such as drought or -flood, the locust and the blight, could be made the immediate -instruments of Israel's discipline. A wider culture brought new ideas. -There were statutes and ordinances for the cosmic powers just as there -were for communities of man. The universe was the product of the -divine thought, and the same agency was seen in the structure and {224} -organisation of human societies. The order of the visible scene was -due to the presence and control of Wisdom, which from the first had sat -as a kind of assessor by Yahweh's side. The moral order was no less -her work; she gave the sanction to all authority and rule; "By me kings -reign," cries the poet in her name, "and princes decree justice"; and -the men of humble heart know that their piety, "the fear of the Lord," -is her gift, and links them in joyous fellowship with the stars on high. - -That Mosaism started with a vigorous moral conception of the divine -demands, however limited might be its early scope, is generally -recognised. The gradual settlement of the immigrant tribes in the land -of Canaan, the appropriation of Canaanite sanctuaries, and the adoption -of their festivals and ritual, brought new influences which threatened -the ancient simplicity. The voices of Hebrew prophecy rang out at -Jerusalem ere Greek thought had begun to move. It was a singular -result in Israel's history that the great truths of the unity and -spirituality and holiness of God, which prophecy had won out of -impassioned experience, were confided for their preservation to a code -of Priestly Law which raised the elements of ritual and sacerdotal -caste to their highest significance in the nation's life. But the law -which declared sacrifice to be legitimate only on one altar, made room -for a new development of Israel's religion. If {225} the ancient faith -was to be maintained by a race that spread from Babylon to Rome, it -must adapt its worship to new conditions. There could be but one -temple; but a meeting-house could be built anywhere; and the Synagogue -thus became the birthplace of the congregations of the Christian Church. - - - - -{226} - -CHAPTER VIII - -PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND DESTINY - -"If a man die, shall he live again?" The question is as old as the -Book of Job, but the affirmative answer is much older. The earliest -human remains in Europe imply some provision for the dead, and it did -not occur to the peoples of the lower culture all over the world to -doubt the reality of some kind of continued existence. Did not the -living still see them in their dreams (p. 86)? - -But this life might be conceived in an infinite variety ol forms. -Where was it passed? under what conditions? what would be its -privileges and its requirements? how long would it last? To these and -a hundred other questions no uniform answers have been returned; and -numerous as are the stories of visits to the other world, there is -little agreement as to its place, its scenery, its occupations, its -society, its government, its duties, its punishments, or its rewards. -Yet no field of human imagination reflects more clearly the stage of -social and moral development which creates it. Into his pictures of -the future man has persistently woven his {227} criticism of the -present. But the tenacity of usage and convention in everything -affecting the dead has sometimes detained belief at a much lower level -than the general progress of ethical feeling might otherwise have -suggested. Religious thought does not always move forwards with equal -speed over all the relations and possibilities of life. - -The logic of the treatment of the dead is full of gaps and -inconsistencies. The same people will perform rites which rest upon -quite different theories; customs have run together in strange -incoherence. This may be sometimes due to the necessity for making -provision for different elements in the person which were united while -on earth. The wealthy Egyptian required an elaborate home in the tomb -for his double or _ka_, while his _ba_ started on its perilous journey -through the mysterious regions of the world of the dead. From the -ethical point of view, however, which chiefly concerns the student of -comparative religion, the doctrine of the next life falls into two main -divisions, as Burton and Tylor pointed out more than a generation -ago--theories of continuance, and theories of retribution. They are -connected by many intermediate stages of transition, and they range all -the way from the crudest conceptions of prolonged existence in the -grave, up to exalted solemnities of judgment, of doom, and of the -fellowship of heaven. - -When a man dies, where will his spirit dwell? {228} Perhaps it will -pass into some animal, a bear, a walrus, or a beautiful bird. Perhaps -it will haunt his old home. In that case it were well that he should -not die where he has lived; let him be carried into the open air as -death approaches, or laid in the loneliness of the woods. The Eskimo -of Greenland build a small snow hut, the entrance of which is closed as -death approaches that the inmate may pass away alone. Dr. Franz Boas -relates that a young girl once sent for him from such a lodging a few -hours before her end, to ask for some tobacco and bread, that she might -take them to her mother who had died only a few weeks before. Or the -connection between the dead man and his former dwelling may be severed -by burning down the hut and forsaking the locality, even though (as -among the Sakais of the Malay peninsula) the coming crop of tapioca or -sugar-cane should be lost by departure. Or strong measures may be -taken with the corpse by thrashing it to hasten the ejection of the -soul; the walls of the death-chamber may be beaten with sticks to drive -it away; or a professional functionary may be invoked with his broom to -sweep it out. And when the body has been carried forth, precautions -must be taken to prevent the spirit from finding its way back, and -barriers erected against its return. Only occasionally, as in ancient -Athens, was burial permitted in the house, where the venerated dead -could still protect and bless those whom they loved. - -{229} - -The tomb was sometimes constructed to resemble the home and admit the -members of the family together. Under the cliffs of Orvieto is an -Etruscan city of the dead, where the stone houses (usually with two -rooms) stand side by side in streets. The prehistoric gravemounds of -Scandinavia have disclosed sepulchral burial chambers, entered by a -gallery or passage, divided by large slabs of granite into alcoves or -stalls, round which the dead were seated. Just so does the Eskimo of -the present day arrange his dwelling. Those who had lived in caves and -left their dead there, retained the usage long after they had learned -to construct tents or build houses for themselves. The chief was -carried to the hills, as the barrows on our own moors show, or to the -mountain top, where his spirit blended perhaps with the spirit of the -place and lent an additional awe to the heights; or to secure him from -disturbance, as the Spanish observers noted in Columbia (S. America), a -river was diverted from its course, his grave was made in its bed, and -the waters, restored to their former channel, kept the secret safe. - -The dream experience only provides the world of the dead with scenery -and occupations resembling those of common life, with more rapidity of -change and mysterious ease of transformation. But when tribes have -migrated from one locality to another,--and in the vast reaches of -prehistoric time such movements were incessant though {230} slow--the -various forces of association in memory, dreaming, and tradition, would -connect the dead with the places of the past. Sometimes the course of -travel might have lain through mountain passes, or across a river, or -from beyond the sea. A journey, or a voyage was thus -suggested--Samoans said of a chief that he had "sailed"; to reach the -abode of the dead might need days of travel; so shoes as well as food -(p. 138) must be provided, and the fires, first kindled for the warmth -of the dweller in the grave below, were continued to light him on his -way. On solar analogies, such as may be found in both hemispheres, the -homes of the departed were often assigned to the East or West. - -The brotherhood of sleep and death has always been recognised, and we -still call our graveyards "cemeteries," or sleeping-places. The -ancient Israelite said of his dead that he "slept with his fathers." -Earth burial suggested a locality beneath the ground, vast and gloomy -like some huge cave. The Mesopotamian thought of it as a city, ringed -with seven walls; and even the Hebrew who pictured the underworld, -Sheol, as a gigantic pit, sometimes imagined it to be approached -through gates. There lay the nerveless feeble forms of the mighty ones -of earth. The separate nations had their several stations allotted to -them, where ghostly warriors lay dark and silent with their ghostly -swords around the ghostly thrones of ghostly kings. {231} The entry of -a new comer from Babylon awoke a ghostly wonder, and ghostly voices -greeted him from the dead. It is a strange contrast with the pageantry -of the skies, where various races, from the Australians to the Hindus -and the Greeks have seen their forefathers looking down on them as -stars. So inveterate is this belief that it was found necessary to -obtain a certificate from the Astronomer Royal to refute the rumour -that on the night on which Browning died a new star appeared in the -constellation of Orion. The Milky Way could thus be interpreted as the -path of Souls, and the Aurora Borealis resolved into the Dance of the -Dead. - -The transfer of souls through death from one kind of life to another -does not necessarily involve any moral change. The relations of earth -are resumed in the new scene. The ancient Celts who placed letters to -their friends on the pyre of a dead relative, or even expected to -receive in the next world the repayment of loans in this, conceived -existence hereafter on the same plane as the present, like the modern -Chinaman who celebrates the wedding of his spirit-son with the -spirit-daughter of a suitable friend, and thus brings peace to a -tormented house. The spirit-land of Ibo on the lower Niger had its -rivers and forests, its hills, and towns, and roads, below the ground -like those above, only more gloomy. In Tuonela, the land of the dead, -Finnic imagination pictured rivers of black water, {232} with -boisterous waterfalls and dangerous whirlpools, forests full of wild -beasts, and fields of grain which provided the death-worm with his -teeth; but it is still homely enough for Wainamoinen to find the -daughter of its ruler, Tuoni, god of death, busy with her washing. The -dead of the Mordvinians, a group of Ural-Altaic origin in the heart of -Russia, are believed to marry and beget children as on earth. Such -conceptions naturally resulted in a continuity of occupation, rank, and -service. The Spanish historian, Herrera, relates that in Mexico "every -great man had a priest or chaplain to perform the ceremonies of his -house, and when he died the chaplain was called to serve him in the -same manner, and so were his master of the household, his cup-bearer, -his dwarf, the deformed people he kept, and the brothers that had -served him, for they looked upon it as a piece of grandeur to be served -by them, and said they were going to keep house in the other world." -Yet in Mexico, as will be seen immediately, the differentiation of the -future lot had already begun. - -The chief is usually sure of admission into high society in the next -world. The Maori paradise was a paradise of the aristocracy; heroes -and men of lofty lineage went to the skies. But common souls, in -passing from one division to another of the New Zealand Hades, lost a -little of their vitality each time, until at last they died outright. -Polynesian fancy {233} sometimes mingled the seen and the unseen in -strange juxtaposition. The Fijian route to the world beyond, Mbulu, -lay through a real town with ordinary inhabitants. But it had also an -invisible portion, where dwelt the family of Samuyalo who held inquest -on departed spirits. If this trial was surmounted, a second judgment -awaited them at the hands of Ndengei, by which they were assigned to -one or other of the divisions of the underworld. A great chief who had -destroyed many towns and slain many in war, passed to Mburotu, where -amid pleasant glades the occupants lived in families and planted and -fought. But bachelors, those who had killed no enemy, or would not -have their ears bored, women who refused to be tatooed, and generally -those who had not lived so as to please the gods, were doomed to -various forms of penal suffering and degradation. - -Courage and daring are of immense social importance, and are among the -most important elements in primitive virtue. Strength, valour, skill -in war and hunting, lift men into leadership, and the pre-eminence won -here is retained hereafter. But these qualities are not limited to -chiefs. The happy land of the Greenlanders, Torngarsuk, received the -valiant workers, men who had taken many whales and seals, borne much -hardship, and been drowned at sea, and women who had died in -childbirth. A mild and unwarlike tribe in Guatemala might be persuaded -that to die by any {234} other than a natural death was to forfeit all -hope of life hereafter, the bodies of the slain being left to the -vultures and wild beasts. On the other hand, the Nicaraguan Aztecs -declared that the shades of those who died in their beds went downwards -till they came to nought; while those who fell in battle for their -country passed to the East, to the rising of the sun. - -Such was the destiny, also, of the Mexican warriors, who daily climbed -to the zenith by the sun's side with shouts of joy, and there resigned -their charge to the celestial women, who had given their lives in -childbed. Merchants, too, were in the procession, who had faced risk -and peril and died upon their journeys. But this privilege tasted only -four years, when they became birds of beautiful plumage in the -celestial gardens. In the far East, in the abode of Tlaloc, god of -waters, were those who had died by lightning or at sea, sufferers from -various diseases, and children who had been sacrificed to the -water-deities. These last, after a happy time, were born again; the -rest passed in due course to the underworld of Mictlan in the far -north, "a most obscure land, where light cometh not, and whence none -can ever return." There the rich were still rich, and the slaves still -slaves. But their term was short. Mictlan had nine divisions, and at -the end of the fourth year the spirit reached the ninth and ceased to -be. - -{235} - -This curious distribution has little moral significance, save for its -recognition of valour, as in the Teutonic welcome of the warrior into -Valhalla, or of social service, as in the case of those who give their -lives for the community, the merchant like the Greenland whaler, or the -mothers who did not survive their labour. But the beginnings of -ethical discrimination sometimes present themselves in very much more -simply organised communities. A rude social justice expresses itself -in the belief of the Kaupuis of Assam that a murdered man shall have -his murderer for his slave in the next life. The Chippeways predict -that the souls of the wicked will be pursued by phantoms of the persons -they have injured; and horses and dogs which have been ill-treated will -torment their tormentors. Murder, theft, lying, adultery, draw down a -singular chastisement in the Banks Islands. The spirits of the dead -assemble on the road to Panoi, when each fresh comer is torn to pieces -and put together again. Then the injured man has his chance. He -seizes a part of the dismembered soul, so that it cannot be -reconstructed, or at least suffers permanent mutilation. No judge -presides over the process, no law regulates it; punishment is still a -private affair. But the entry into the new life is not unconditional. -The American Choctaws conceived their dead to journey to the east, till -they reached the summit of a hill. There a long pine-trunk, {236} -smooth and slippery, stretched over the river of death below to the -next hill-top. The just passed over safely and entered paradise, the -wicked fell off into the stream beneath. It was a self-acting test, -which needed not the prior ordeal of the Avestan balance under Mithra -and Rashnu at the Chinvat bridge (p. 9). - -Sometimes a new religious motive is more or less plainly apparent. -Even the rude Fijian award depended in some way on the satisfaction of -the gods. The Tonga Islanders were more explicit; neglect of the gods -and failure to present due offerings would involve penalties hereafter. -The sun-worshipping people of Achalaque in Florida placed men of good -life and pious service and charity to the poor in the sky as stars, -while the wicked languished in misery among mountain precipices and -wild beasts. Two centuries ago Bosnian heard some of the negroes on -the Guinea coast tell of a river in the heart of the land where they -would be asked by the divine judge if they had duly kept the holy days, -abstained from forbidden meats, and maintained their oaths inviolate, -and those who could not answer rightly would be drowned. Such -anticipations really introduce a fresh principle. Above the tribal -morality, the custom of the clan, rises an obligation of no obvious and -immediate use; even ritual practice, the observance of special seasons, -or of proper taboos, the offering of prescribed {237} sacrifice, may -create new standards of order in conformity with a higher will. They -supply the groundwork on which the prophet may build the temple of the -ideal. - -The ancient Semitic cultures formulated no general doctrine of -immortality in the higher sense of the word. Faint traces of a hope of -resurrection appear here and there in Babylonian texts; but there is no -judgment beyond the grave; the chastisements of the gods arrive in this -life; and it is only occasionally that the fellowship of heaven becomes -the privilege of the great. In Israel the higher prophecy from Amos -onward interprets "Yahweh's day" as a day of doom instead of victory; -but the divine judgment would alight on the whole people, and would be -realised in no future life but in some overwhelming national -catastrophe. In Egypt the destiny of the dead was already -individualised. Around it gathered the solemnities of the Osirian -judgment-seat (p. 8); the ritual and the ethical demands of the -forty-two assessors show the moral tests advancing through the -ceremonial. The believer who passed safely through the ordeal of the -balance and was duly fortified with the proper spells, was mystically -identified with Osiris as the "justified," and different texts present -different types of future bliss. He might find a home in the fields of -Ialu, where numerous servants answered to his call, and he feasted on -the magic corn. Or a fresh form might be {238} provided for him, when -he was washed with pure water at the _meshken_ or place of new birth. -Mysterious transformations assimilated him with various gods; or he was -admitted on to the sun-bark among the worshippers of Re, and fed on his -words. But the guilty souls were subjected to unspeakable torments; -there were magistrates to measure the duration of those appointed for -extinction, and at the allotted time they were destroyed. - -Egypt, thought Herodotus, had been the teacher of immortality to -Greece. The statement is at least interesting as a sign that in the -traveller's view the Hellenic faith of his day possessed some analogies -with the Egyptian. The ethical element in it, at any rate, was gaining -more and more force. In Homer Hades, who is after all another form of -Zeus in the underworld, is sovereign, but not judge, of the nether -realm. The Erinnyes, who are originally ghosts of the dead, inflict -their punishments mostly in the life of earth; only for broken oaths is -penalty imposed below; and Tartarus, in the lowest deep, is reserved -for the giant Titans who had challenged the majesty of heaven. In the -stony asphodel meadow Achilles is but a shade among the rest; if -Menelaus is admitted to the Elysian plain, it is no superior valour but -aristocratic connection which wins him his place. Rare is the allusion -to a judgment; the tribunal of Minos, son of {239} Zeus, may be the -moralising addition of some later bard. - -But in the fifth century B.C. fresh influences are at work. Pythagoras -has founded his communities, half philosophical, half religious. The -higher thought has become markedly monotheistic, and Orphism with its -rude sacrament (p. 147) has helped to develop conceptions of fellowship -with deity which made new hopes for the future possible. So Pindar, -nearest of kin among Greek poets to the prophetio voices of Israel, -emphasises the retributive government of God. Man may be nothing more -than "a dream of a shadow," nevertheless he is not too insignificant to -escape the dooms of heaven upon his guilt, and if there is requital for -evil there are also happy islands for the blest. The ethical leaven is -already powerfully at work. The language of Cebes and Simmias in -Plato's dialogue of the _Phaedo_ shows, however, that the belief was by -no means universal; and the beautiful sepulchral reliefs at Athens give -no hint of that august tribunal of Minos, Rhadamanthus and AEacus, which -Plato pictures as engaged in judging souls. - -But the great mysteries of Eleusis certainly fostered the hope of -immortality. The conviction grew stronger that the initiated would -have a happier lot in the life to come, so that Diogenes sarcastically -inquired whether an initiated robber would be better off than an -uninitiated honest man. The inscriptions of {240} the last centuries -before our era show nothing like the consensus of feeling in an -Egyptian cemetery or a modern English graveyard. The soul is piously -committed to the ether, or, if there be rewards in the realm below, is -confided to Persephone; or it is reverently placed among the stars, in -the councils of the immortals, or in the home of the gods. Such were -the popular conventions. Philosophical speculation gathered round the -idea of transmigration, or pleaded for at least a continuance of -consciousness till the great conflagration which should end the world; -while Orphic religion held out the hope that the soul, entangled in -this earthly scene, might after long discipline rise once more to its -home with God. - -The theories of continuance all assume that the world will go upon its -usual way. Generation will follow generation in this life, but the -lower culture does not ask what will happen in the next. It cannot -take big time-surveys, like the Egyptian "millions of years" or the -Hebrew "ages of ages." The future will be like the present, as the -present has been like the past. Imagination can conceive a beginning, -it does not at first advance to an end. But the development of -astronomy in Babylonia, with the discovery of regular periodicities in -Nature, seems to have suggested the idea of a great World-Year, an -immense period beginning with creation, which would be brought to an -end by some {241} great catastrophe such as flood or fire. The flood -had already taken place. Traditions of it floated to India and Greece; -they were incorporated in ancient Hebrew story. After another immense -revolution of time would there be a similar close? There is some -evidence that this was part of Babylonian teaching in the days of -Berosus, in the middle of the third century B.C. (p. 39), but it has -not yet been discovered in the ancient cuneiform texts. The next -agency of dissolution would be heat. It was part of early Buddhist -speculation, and lodged itself in Indian thought; and from the days of -Pythagoras, in the sixth century B.C., it formed part of the Greek -philosophical outlook in different schools towards the "last things." -When the next periodic destruction took place, what would happen? -According to one answer the restoration of all things would set in, and -the entire cycle would be repeated over again. Eudemus, a pupil of -Aristotle, is said to have observed in one of his lectures that if the -Pythagoreans were to be trusted, his audience would have the privilege -of hearing him again: "You will be sitting there in the same way, and I -shall be telling you my story, holding my little stick, and everything -else will go on the same." - -This mechanical reproduction of a whole previous age down to its -minutest details did not, however, really engage the higher Greek -thought. That was chiefly occupied with the {242} abiding contrast -between that which is and that which _appears_; how could the ultimate -Unity present itself in such infinite diversity? what was the relation -of the world of change and succession to the enduring substance that -lay behind? In such questions man and his destiny had but a small -share. Pindar might sing how "God accomplisheth all ends according to -his wish; God who overtaketh the winged eagle and outstrippeth the -dolphin of the sea, and layeth low many a mortal in his haughtiness, -while to others he giveth glory unspeakable: if any man expect that in -doing ought he shall be unseen of God, he erreth." The tragedians -might wrestle with dark problems of crime and fate; and poetry and -philosophy might agree in presenting the world as the scene of a divine -thought, the manifestation of a divine energy. Regularities, fixities, -invariable successions, pointed to a definite order, divinely -maintained. But to what did it lead? What place was there in it for -man? His future might be moralised; the unethical Hades of Homer might -be replaced by the judgment-scenes of Plato; but no world-process is -suggested for the elimination of evil or the fulfilment of any divine -end. Plato might throw out the hint that Delphi should become the -interpreter of religion to all mankind; the mysteries might be opened -to slave as well as freeman, and might even admit those who were not of -Hellenic race; but there were no prophet's {243} glimpses of a purpose -leading to some all-embracing goal. Zeus orders all as he wills. -Individuals are punished, but the misdeeds, like the sufferings or -sorrows of man, are lost in the harmonious majesty of the Whole. - -Indian thought, as has been already indicated, worked out a complete -identification of life with the moral order by means of the doctrine of -the Deed (p. 217). The scheme of transmigration took up the earlier -ideas of the elder thinkers. The Vedic poets had told of the land of -Yama, who was sometimes presented as the first man to die and enter the -heavenly world. In one hymn he is associated with Varuna in the -highest heaven, where the pious live from age to age, and are sometimes -identified with the sun's rays or the stars. There kindred were -gathered, and warriors and poets received their reward, and the devout -realised the object of their prayers; and Yama sat under a tree of -goodly leaves, drinking with the gods the life-giving soma-juice, -father and master of the house, tending the heavenly sires. Deep below -was the dark pit for those who would not sacrifice to Indra, or -persecuted his worshippers. There were fiends of various kinds to -torment the wicked, the untruthful, or the seducer. But there are no -traces of any specific judgment, with definite awards of heaven and -hell. In the later scheme of life founded on the conception of Karma -such a tribunal might seem unnecessary: the product of the past works -{244} out its own result. But as Buddhist folklore shows, popular -theology required the pronouncement of a judge, and Yama took his place -as Lord of hell and King of Righteousness. - -By what channels the doctrine of successive world-ages entered Hindu -religion cannot be definitely determined. Early Buddhist teaching -assumes it as familiar, though it is not included in the prior -Brahmanical literature; and minutely describes the great conflagration -which will consume the universe through the heat engendered by the -appearance of seven suns. Karma, however, could not be destroyed. No -fire could burn it, nor could the other agencies of dissolution, like -water or wind, drown or disperse it. It must proceed unerringly to its -results. These might be for a time suspended, they could not be -frustrated for ever. Their energies lay latent, waiting their -opportunity. So a new world would arise to provide the means and the -field for their operation, and from age to age, through seasons of -dissolution and restoration, with intervals of incalculable time, the -endless process would fulfil its round. This would be no literal -repetition. The history of a new world-age would be quite fresh, for -the potencies of Karma were of infinite variety, and were for ever -being re-shaped, cancelled, or extended by the action of the new -personalities--divine, human, demonic--(reincarnation might also take -place in animal or plant)--in {245} which they were embodied. But the -immense series led to nothing. Buddhist imagination filled the -universe with worlds, each with its own systems of heaven and hell, and -projected aeons upon aeons into immeasurable time, but the sequence -pointed to no goal, for what could arrest the inexorable succession? -Was there any escape from its law? - -To that question different answers were returned by different teachers. -The forest-sages had already pleaded for the recognition of the -identity of the self within the heart with the Universal Self (p. 60). -There was the path by which the phenomenal scene could be transcended, -and the soul brought into its true fellowship with the Infinite Being, -Intelligence, and Joy. But inasmuch as this deliverance was only -realised by a few, and could not be self-wrought, it must be the result -of a divine election; they only could attain it whom the Self chose as -his own. With its repudiation of all ontological ideas of soul, or -substance, or universal Self, early Buddhism threw the whole task of -achieving emancipation on the individual, who must himself win the -higher insight and discipline his character with no aid but that of the -Teacher and his example. The passion for the salvation of the world -might generate an unexampled missionary activity, transcending all -bounds of caste and race. It might express itself in singularly {246} -comprehensive vows such as these, which were carried from China to -Japan in the seventh century A.D., and are still part of Buddhist -devotion: "There are beings without limit, let me take the vow to take -them all unto the further shore: there are depravities without number, -let me take the vow to extinguish them all: there are truths without -end, let me take the vow to know them all: there is the way of Buddha -without comparison, let me make the vow to accomplish it." But only -the wisdom of Amida, All-Merciful and All-Potent (p. 17), could avail -to harmonise the issues of Karma with the operations of grace, and -carry the world-process to the goal of universal salvation. - -The theologians and philosophers of India might devise various methods -for the believer's escape from the round of re-births; but on the -ecclesiastical side they never surmounted the practical limitation of -nationality, or sought to address themselves to the world at large; -while the mystics who more easily passed the bounds of race usually -lacked the aggressive energy which demanded the conquest and -suppression of evil and the assurance of the victory of good. It was -reserved for the Persian thinkers, led by Zarathustra, to work out a -scheme for the ultimate overthrow of the power of "the Lie" (p. 211). -Egyptian theology had impersonated the forces of evil in Set. There -were the constant oppositions of darkness {247} and light, of sickness -and health, of the desert against fertility, of drought against the -Nile, of foreign lands against Egypt. Mythically, the antagonism -between Set and his brother Osiris was continued by Isis' son Horus. -It was renewed again and again, and Set was for ever defeated, yet -always returned afresh to the strife. But no demand was raised for his -elimination. Osiris had passed into the land of Amenti, where Set -could trouble him no more. And apparently the later identification of -the deceased with Osiris meant that for him, too, the powers of death -and evil were overcome. But this did not affect Set's activity in the -existing scene, where the strife continued over the survivors day by -day. The insight of the Iranian prophet could not admit this division -of spheres, and demanded not only new heavens, but also a new earth, -where evil should have no more power, and the Righteous Order, the Good -Mind, the Bounteous Spirit, and the rest of the Immortals, should be -the unchallenged ministers of Ahura's rule. - -The history of the world, accordingly, was ultimately arranged in four -periods of three thousand years each. The life of Zarathustra closed -the third. At the end of the fourth the great era of the -_Frasho-kereti_, the entry into a new age and a new scene, would -arrive. It would be preceded at the close of each millennial series by -the advent of a deliverer, wondrously born of Zarathustra's seed. -During {248} the third of these, the last of the whole twelve, the -ancient serpent would be loosed to ravage Ahura Mazda's good creation. -But the _Saoshyant_ or "Saviour," the greatest of the three successors -of the prophet, would bring about the general resurrection. From the -Home of Song and from the hells of evil thought and word and deed the -spirits of the dead would resume their bodies. Families would be -reunited in preparation for the last purifying pain. For a mighty -conflagration would take place; the mountains would be dissolved with -fervent heat, and the whole multitude of the human race would be -overflowed by the molten metal for three days. The righteous would -pass through it like a bath of milk; the evil would be purged of the -last impulses to sin. Saoshyant and his helpers would dispense the -drink of immortality, and the final conflict with the powers of evil -would begin. Anra Mainyu, the great Serpent, with all their satellites -and the multitude of the demonic hosts, should be finally driven into -hell and consumed in the cleansing flame; and hell itself should be -"brought back for the enlargement of the world." - -The Iranian Apocalypse is not the only presentation of conflict and -victory in the widespread Indo-Germanic group. The Old Teutonic -religion produced its Volospa, the seer's high song of creation and the -overthrow of evil. Here is in brief the story of the {249} great -world-drama, the degeneracy of man, the conflicts of the gods. The -universe slowly surges to its end; there are portents in the sky, -disorders on the earth, till the whole frame of things dissolves and -all goes up in flame. But a new vision dawns: "I behold earth rise -again with its evergreen forests out of the deep; the fields shall -yield unsown; all evil shall be amended; Balder shall come back. I see -a hall, brighter than the sun, shingled with gold, standing on Gem-lea. -The righteous shall dwell therein and live in bliss for ever. The -Powerful One comes to hold high judgment, the Mighty One from above who -rules over all, and the dark dragon who flies over the earth with -corpses on his wings is driven from the scene and slinks away." There -are possibly Christian touches here and there, but the substantial -independence of the poet seems assured. - -Above the theories of world-continuance and world-cycles must be ranked -those of a world-goal, which imply more or less clearly the conception -of a world-purpose. The supreme expression of this in religious -literature is found in the Christian Bible. The prophecy of -Zarathustra belonged to the same high ethical order as that of Israel. -How much the Apocalyptic hopes of the later Judaism were stimulated by -contact with Persian thought cannot be precisely defined: the estimates -of careful scholars differ. But there is no doubt whatever of the -dependence {250} of Christianity upon Jewish Messianic expectation. -The title of its founder, Christ, is the Greek equivalent of the Jewish -term Messiah, or "Anointed." Its pictures of human destiny, of -resurrection, of judgment, of one world where the righteous shine like -the sun, and another full of fire that is not quenched, are pictures -drawn by Jewish hands. Its promises of the Advent of the Son of Man in -clouds of glory from the sky, who shall summon the nations to his great -assize, are couched in the language of earlier Jewish books. For one -religion builds upon another, and must use the speech of its country -and its time. Its forms must, therefore, necessarily change from age -to age, as the advance of knowledge and the widening of experience -suggest new problems and call for fresh solutions. But it will always -embody man's highest thought concerning the mysteries that surround -him, and will express his finest attitude to life. Its beliefs may be -gradually modified; its specific institutions may lose their power; but -history shows it to be among the most permanent of social forces, and -the most effective agent for the slow elevation of the race. - - - - -{251} - -BIBLIOGRAPHY - -Out of the immense literature produced since Max Mueller's _Essay on -Comparative Mythology_ (1856) only a small number of the most important -books can be here named, and the list is limited to works in English. -Superior figures attached to titles indicate the edition. -[Transcriber's note: the superscripted edition numbers have been -replaced with the edition in brackets.] - -GENERAL INTRODUCTION.--Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (4th ed.) (2 vols. -1903); Max Mueller, _Introd. to the Science of Religion_ (1873), -_Hibbert Lectures_ (1878), _Gifford Lectures_ (4 vols. 1889-93); W. -Robertson Smith, _Lectures on the Religion of the Semites_ (2nd ed.) -(1902); J. G. Frazer, _The Golden Bough_ (3rd editioin) (now in course -of publication); A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual and Religion_ (2nd ed.) (2 -vols. 1899), _The Making of Religion_ (2nd ed.) (1900), _Magic and -Religion_ (1901); Goblet d'Alviella, _Origin and Growth of the -Conception of God_ (Hibbert Lectures, 1892); Tiele, _Elements of the -Science of Religion_ (2 vols. 1897); F. B. Jevons, _Introduction to the -History of Religion_ (2nd ed.) (1902); Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_ -(1902), _The Tree of Life_ (1905); Farnell, _The Evolution of Religion_ -(1905); Westermaarck, _The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_ -(1906), 2 vols.; Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_ (1906), 2 vols.; -Marett, _The Threshold of Religion_ (1909). - -RELIGION IN THE LOWER CULTURE.--Ratzel, _The History of Mankind_, tr. -Butler (1896), 3 vols.; Turner, _Samoa_ (1884); Codrington, -_Melanesians_ (1891); A. B. Ellis, _Ewe-speaking Peoples_ (1890); -_Yoruba-speaking Peoples_ (1894); _Tshi-speaking Peoples_ (1897); -Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folk-lore of Northern India_ (2 vols. -1896); Miss M. H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_ (1898), _West -African Studies_ (1899); Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central -Australia_ (1899), _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (1904); -Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-eastern Australia_ (1904); Dennett, _At -the Back of the Black Man's Mind_ (1906); Roscoe, _The Baganda, their -Customs and Beliefs_ (1911); Brinton, _Myths of the New World_ (2nd -ed.) (1878); McClintock, _The Old North Trail_ (1910); _Reports of the -Bureau of Ethnology_, Smithsonian Institution, Washington. - -{252} - -For the higher religions a few of the best English introductions are -here named, in addition to the copious collection of materials in the -_Sacred Books of the East_ (50 vols.). - -BABYLONIA: Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures_ (1887), _Religions of Ancient -Egypt and Babylonia_ (1902); Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and -Assyria_ (1898), _American Lectures_. - -CELTS: Rhys, _Hibbert Lectures_ (1886); Macculloch, _The Religion of -the Ancient Celts_ (1911). - -CHINA: Legge, _Chinese Classics_ (2nd ed.) (1893), 5 vols. (in 8 -parts); de Groot, _The Religious System of China_ (1892-1910), 6 vols.: -already published, _The Religion of the Chinese_ (1910). - -CHRISTIANITY (primitive): Wernle, _Beginnings of Christianity_ (1903), -2 vols.; Pfleiderer, _Primitive Christianity_ (1906), 4 vols. Fuller -bibliography in _Encycl. Brit._, (11th ed.) by G. W. Knox. - -EGYPT: Renouf, _Hibbert Lectures_ (1879); Maspero, _The Dawn of -Civilisation_ (1894); Sayce, _Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia_ -(1902); Erman, _Handbook of Egyptian Religion_ (1907); Budge, _Osiris -and the Egyptian Resurrection_ (1911), 2 vols. - -GREECE: Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_ (1896-1909), 5 vols., -_Greece and Babylon_ (1911), _Higher Aspects of Greek Religion_ (1912); -Miss J. E. Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_ -(1903), _Themis_ (1912); Sir W. M. Ramsay, in Hastings' _Dict. of the -Bible_, extra vol. (1904), "Religion of Greece and Asia Minor." - -INDIA: Barth, _Religions of India_ (1882); Hopkins, _Religions of -India_ (1895). VEDIC: Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_ (1897) in Buehler's -_Grundriss_; Bloomfield, _Religion of the Veda_ (1909). For BUDDHISM, -_see_ Mrs. Rhys Davids' vol. in this series. HINDUISM: Monieu -Williams, _Religious Thought and Life in India_ (1883). - -ISRAEL: Kuenen, _Religion of Israel_ (1874), 3 vols.; Montefiore, -_Hibbert Lectures_ (1892); Kautzsch, in Hastings' _Dict. of the Bible_, -extra vol. (1904), "Religion of Israel." Kent, _Hist. of the Hebrew -People_, 2 vols. (1890-7); _Hist. of the Jewish People_ (1899); Addis, -_Hebrew Religion_ (1906); Marti, _Religion of the Old Testament_ (1907). - -JAINS: Jacobi in _Sacred Books of the East_, vols. xxii (1884) and xlv -(1895); Buehler, _On the Indian Sect of the Jainas_ (1904). - -JAPAN: _The Nihongi_, tr. Aston (1896), 2 vols.; Aston, _Shinto_ -(1905); papers in the _Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan_; -Griffis, _The Religions of Japan_ (4th ed.) (1904, New York); Knox, -_Development of Religion in Japan_ (1907); Tada Kanai, _The Praises of -Amida_, tr. Lloyd (1907, Tokyo). - -{253} - -MEXICO AND PERU: Reville, _Hibbert Lectures_ (1884); Payne, _History of -the New World called America_ (1892), 2 vols. - -MOHAMMEDANISM: see Prof. Margoliouth's vol. in this series. - -PERSIA: Jackson, _Zoroaster, the Prophet of ancient Iran_ (1899); -Sanjana, _Zarathushtra and Zarathushtrianism in the Avesta_ (1906, -Leipzig); Moulton, _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_ (1911). - -ROME: W. Warde Fowler, _The Roman Festivals_, 1899, _The Religious -Experience of the Roman People_ (1911); Glover, _Studies in Virgil_, -1904; Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_ (1904); -Carter, _The Religion of Numa_ (1906), _The Religious Life of Ancient -Rome_ (1912); Cumont, _Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism_ (1911), -_Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans_ (1912). - -SIKHS: Macauliffe, _The Sikh Religion_ (1909), 6 vols. - -TEUTONS: Vigfusson and Powell, _Corpus Poeticum Boreale_ (1883), 2 -vols.; Grimm, tr. Stallybrass, _Teutonic Mythology_ (1900), 4 vols.; -Chantepie de la Saussaye, _Religion of the Teutons_ (1902). - -Small popular volumes in the series on "Non-Christian Religious -Systems" (Soc. for Promoting Christian Knowledge), and more recently in -Constable's series, "Religions Ancient and Modern." Valuable articles -in Hastings' _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, and in -_Encyclopaedia Britannica_. - - - - - {253} - - INDEX - - - [=A]di-Granth, the, 188 - Aditi, 155 - Adonis, 119 - AEschylus, 130 - AEsculapius, 44, 127, 180, 221 - Africa, 111, 113 f., 140, 148, 163, 182, 203 - Agni, 34, 94 - Ahriman (Anra Mainyu), 155, 212, 248 - Ahura Mazda, 131, 211 f., 248 - Aius Locutius, 126 - Akhnaton, 129 - "All-gods," the, 129 - American Indians, North, 57, 81, 110, 173, 235 - Amida (Amitabha), 16 ff., 132, 246 - Animism, 55, 59 - Annam, 83 - Apollo, 123, 127, 145, 159, 173, 181, 183 - Artemis, 127 - Asceticism, 168 - Asha, 216, 221 - Asista, 148 - Athena, 123, 127, 173 - Athens, 228 - Attis, 119 - Augury, 178 - Augustine, St., 35, 42, 52 - Augustus, 125 - Australia, 33, 75, 78 f., 86, 110, 114 f., 149, 162, 171, 199, 202 - Avalokitecvara, 131, 154 - Awona-wilona, 111 - - - Bab, the, 70, 188 - Babylonia, 39, 58, 102, 109, 145, 151, 171, 178, 205, 209, 237, 240 - Baiame, 149, 171 - Balder, 210, 249 - Baptism, rites of, 160 - Berosus, 39, 241 - Bhagavad-G[=i]t[=a], the, 128 - Bhakti, 157 - Bible, the, 194 - Birth, deities and rites of, 121, 159 - Blackfoot Indians, the, 35, 167 - Book of the Dead, the, 186 - Brahma, 60, 156 - Brahm[=a], 60, 62, 129, 158 - Br[=a]hmanas, the, 189, 217 - Brahmanaspati, 156 - Brahmanical sacrifice, 143 - Brahmanism, 24, 128 - Buddha, the future, 159. Cp. Gotama - Buddhism, 15, 24, 61, 65, 131, 153, 155, 219, 241, 244 f. - Buddhist Scriptures, 190 - Bjunjil, 171 - - - Celts, the, 27, 41, 104, 142, 231 - Chemosh, 107 - China, 58, 63, 65, 68, 87, 90, 95, 125, 150, 178, 214, 231 - Chinese Classics, 187 - Christianity, 187, 225, 250 - Chrysippus, 184 - Cicero, 42, 46 - Civa, 62, 128 f. - Classification of religions, 220 - Clement of Alexandria, 50 f. - Confucius, 27 f., 63, 96 - Corea, 66 - Creation-myths, 110 - Cybele, 40 - - - Dahomey, 138 - Dance, the sacred, 166 - Daramulun, 162, 171 - Dead, cultus of the, 20, 90, 137 ff. - Death, 121 - Delphi, 182, 221, 242 - Demeter, 40, 119, 164 - Deng-deet, 148 - Dionysos, 40, 119, 127, 147 - Divination, 178 - Dreams, 86, 179, 229 - Druzes, the, 188 - - - Ea, 113, 172 - Earth, mother, 59, 95, 97, 173 - Eating the god, 146 - Edda, the, 27, 186 - Egypt, 7, 39, 46, 102, 109, 113, 124, 129, 151 f., 171 f., 209, - 213, 227, 237 f., 246 - Eleusinian Mysteries, 164, 239 - Entheos, 147 - Erinnyes, the, 238 - Eskimo, the, 228 f., 233 - Etruscans, the, 178, 229 - Euahlayi, the, 149 - Euripides, 48, 151 - Eusebius, 39, 52 - - - Fijians, the, 197, 233 - Finnic peoples, the, 104, 231 - First-borns sacrificed, 142 - Florida, 236 - Food-deities, 115 ff. - - - Gabriel, 131 - G[=a]th[=a]s, the, 191, 221 - Genius, the, 123 - Gold Coast negroes, 107, 138, 144, 197 - Gotama, 15, 127, 219 - Greece, 37, 90, 121 f., 145, 161 - - - Hades, 238 - Hammurabi, 172 - Heaven and Earth, 63, 94 ff., 213 ff. - Hebrews, the, 140. _See_ Israel. - Heracleides, 184 - Heracleitus, 48, 50 - Herbert, Lord, 31 - Hermes, 9 f., 181 - Herodotus, 26, 38, 238 - Hesiod, 182, 186, 213 - Hestia, 122 - Hierography, Hierology, Hierosophy, 29 f. - Hinduism, 62 - Hirata, 92 f., 135 - Homer, 181 f., 186, 238, 242 - Homeric Hymn, 164 - Huitzilopochtli, 147 - - - Incubation, 180 - India, 58, 90, 127, 139, 141 - Indra, 34, 155, 177 - Initiation ceremonies, 161 ff. - Irish sacrificed first-borns, 142 - Isis, 39 ff., 51, 109, 127, 165 - Islam. _See_ Mohammedanism. - Israel, 201, 222, 230, 237, 249 - - - Jacob, 168 - Jains, the, 61, 188 - Japan, 63, 66, 91, 125, 135, 138 f., 152, 246 - Jephthah, 107 - Jeremiah, 182 - Jews, the, 39, 58. _See_ Israel. - Judaism, 187, 223, 249 - Judgment after death, 7 ff., 233 ff. - Jumala, 105 - Juno, 145 - Jupiter, 35, 109, 130, 145 - Justin the Martyr, 49 - - - Kabir, 157, 188 - Kalevala, the, 27, 57, 186 - Kami, the, 64, 91 ff., 135 - Karma, 60, 217, 219, 243 ff. - Kings, as divine, 124 - Koran, the, 13, 69, 155, 187, 192 f. - Krishna, 128 - Kwan-yin, 132, 154 - - - Lao-Tsze, 64, 214 f. - Lares, the, 123 - Lesa, 140 - Lessing, 22 - Li Chi, the, 150 - Life after Death, 226 ff. - Life, in the universe, 83 - Logos, the, 47 f., 50, 53 - Loki, 210 - Lot, the, 178 - Lucretius, 42, 44 - Lycurgus, 173 - - - Ma[=a]t, 214 - Magic, 75 ff., 120, 142, 148, 154 - Mah[=a]bh[=a]rata, the, 190 - Mama Ogllo, 174 - Mana, 80, 85, 200 - Manco Capac, 174 - Manetho, 39 - Manitou, 81 - Manu, 190 - Marcian Songs, 184 - Marduk, 113, 140 - Mawu, 198 - Melanesia, 139, 164 - Messiah, the, 250 - Metis, 176 - Mexico, 57, 117, 147, 161, 232, 234 - Michabo, 173 - Michael, 7, 9 f., 131 - Migration, 229 - Minerva, 109, 145 - Minos, 44, 173 - Minucius Felix, 49 - Mithra, 9, 52, 166, 236 - Mitra, 34, 155 - Mohammed, 12 f., 67 f., 187, 193 - Mohammedanism, 24, 26, 58, 63, 67, 155 - Morality, 135, 195 ff. - Moses, 222 - "Mothers," 104 - Motowori, 92 - Mulungu, 82 - Musaeus, 181, 183 - Muses, the, 181 - Mysteries, 51, 164 ff., 239 - Mythology, 174 ff. - - - N[=a]nak, 62 - New Zealand, 232 - Nezahuatl, 130 - Niger, tribes of Lower, 150, 198, 231 - Noah's sacrifice, 141 - Norns, the, 161 - Numa, 44 f., 173 - Nurrundere, 171 - Nyongmo, 113 - - - Oannes, 171 - Odin, 181, 210 - Omophagy, 147 - Onomacritus, 183 - Oracles, 182 ff. - Ordeals, 179 - Orenda, 81 - Orpheus, 181 - Orphism, 147, 165, 239 f. - Osiris, 8, 109, 119, 172, 209, 237, 247 - - - P[=a]chac[=a]mac, 152 - Pan, 44, 153 - "Parasites," 145 - Parsees, the, 58 - Pausanias, 41, 53 - Penates, 123, 145 - Persephone, 40, 119, 240 - Peru, 57, 108, 117, 174 - Petronius Arbiter, 22 - Pindar, 44, 48, 153, 213, 239, 242 - Plato, 38, 45 f., 48 f., 133, 178, 182, 239, 242 - Plutarch, 41, 44 - Polydaemonistic religions, 55 - Polynesia, 112, 164 - Praj[=a]pati, 12, 143 f. - Prayer, 35, 133, 148 ff. - Prometheus, 137 - Pythagoras, 38 - Pythagoreans, 220, 239 f. - - - Quetzalcoatl, 173 - - - Rain-making, 54 - Rameses, 108 - Rashnu, 9, 236 - Religio, 42 - Rig Veda, 10 f., 59. _See_ Veda. - Rita, 216 - Rites of passage, 159 - Roman emperor, 124 - Rome, 41, 52, 90, 109, 123, 131, 145, 161, 178, 201 - - - Sabazius, 165 - Sacred Books, 185 ff. - Sacrifice, 133, 136 ff. - Samuel, 161 - Saoshyant, 248 - Sarapis, 39, 146 - Satan, the, 223 - Scandinavia, 209, 229 - Scape-goat, in Israel, 206 - Schleiermacher, 23 - Scriptures, 189 ff. - Self, doctrine of the, 85 ff. - Self, the Universal, 60, 245 - Semites, the, 142 - Set, 209 - Shamash, 151, 172 - Shang Ti, 97, 100 - Sheol, 230 - Shin, the, 95, 100 - Shinto, 63, 91, 135, 187, 207 - Sibylline books, 184 - S[=i]khs, the, 62, 188 - Sin, communicable and removable, 204 ff. - Sin (moon-god), 151 - Snake-dance, 167 - Socrates, 50, 133, 153 - Sophocles, 44 - Soter (saviour, etc.), 124 f., 127 - Spirits, 54, 102 - Stars, the dead as, 231, 240, 243 - Stoics, the, 178 - S[=u]fiism, 70 - Sun-dance, 34, 167 - Syrians, the, 142 - - - Taaroa, 112 - Taboo, 200 ff. - Tammuz, 119 - Tao, the, 215 - Taoism, 65, 67, 187 - Tertullian, 51, 124 - Tezcatlipoca, 147 - Thales, 37, 213 - Thargelia, the, 206 - Themis, 118, 213 - Thor, 210 - Thoth, 8, 152 - Tibet, 66 - Time, 143 - Todas, the, 33, 148 - Totemism, 55 - Transmigration, 61, 218 - Triads, 109 - Trimurti, 129 - Truth, goddesses of, 8 - Tutanus Rediculus, 126 - - - Ukko, 105 - Universal Religions, 70 - - - Valhalla, 235 - Varro, 42 - Varuna, 34, 106, 151, 155 f., 211, 243 - Veda, the, 136, 142, 151, 155, 163, 177, 189, 205, 215, 243 - Vegetation-gods, 118 ff. - Vesta, 122 f. - Vishnu, 62, 128 f., 158, 190 - Volospa, the, 186, 248 - Votan, 174 - Vows, 168 - - - Waeinamoeinen, 181, 232 - Wakanda, 81 - World-year, 240 - - - Xavier, Francis, 86 - - - Yahweh, 107, 144, 161, 168, 222 - Yama, 121, 243 f. - Yang and Yin, 95, 120 f. - - - Zaleucus, 44, 173 - Zarathustra (Zoroaster), 38, 44, 58, 131, 163, 187, 201, 221, 246 f. - Zend Avesta, the, 187, 191 f., 211 - Zeus, 103, 106, 109, 127, 153, 173, 176, 181, 213, 238, 243 - Zi (Babylonian), 102 - Zunis, the, 83, 111 - - - - - * * * * * * * * - - - - - THE HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY - OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE - - 16mo cloth, 50 cents net, by mail 56 cents - - - _PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION_ - - _Just Published_ - - PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY ... 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