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+**The Project Gutenberg Etext of The God-Idea of the Ancients**
+or Sex in Religion
+
+by Eliza Burt Gamble
+
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+The God-Idea of the Ancients or Sex in Religion
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+by Eliza Burt Gamble
+
+August, 1996  [Etext #639]
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+Digitized by Charles Keller
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+
+
+THE GOD-IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS OR SEX IN RELIGION
+
+BY ELIZA BURT GAMBLE Author of "The Evolution of Woman"
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+Much of the material for this volume was collected during the
+time that I was preparing for the press the Evolution of Woman,
+or while searching for data bearing on the subject of
+sex-specialization.  While preparing that book for publication,
+it was my intention to include within it this branch of my
+investigation, but wishing to obtain certain facts relative to
+the foundations of religious belief and worship which were not
+accessible at that time, and knowing that considerable labor and
+patience would be required in securing these facts, I decided to
+publish the first part of the work, withholding for the time
+being that portion of it pertaining especially to the development
+of the God-idea.
+
+As mankind construct their own gods, or as the prevailing ideas
+of the unknowable reflect the inner consciousness of human
+beings, a trustworthy history of the growth of religions must
+correspond to the processes involved in the mental, moral, and
+social development of the individual and the nation.
+
+By means of data brought forward in these later times relative to
+the growth of the God-idea, it is observed that an independent
+chain of evidence has been produced in support of the facts
+recently set forth bearing upon the development of the two
+diverging lines of sexual demarcation.  In other words, it has
+been found that sex is the fundamental fact not only in the
+operations of Nature but in the construction of a god.
+
+In the Evolution of Woman it has been shown that the peculiar
+inheritance of the two sexes, female and male, is the result of
+the bias given to these separate lines of development during the
+earliest periods of sex-differentiation; and, as this division of
+labor was a necessary step in the evolutionary processes, the
+rate of progress depended largely on the subsequent adjustment of
+these two primary elements or forces.  A comprehensive study of
+prehistoric records shows that in an earlier age of existence
+upon the earth, at a time when woman's influence was in the
+ascendancy over that of man, human energy was directed by the
+altruistic characters which originated in and have been
+transmitted through the female; but after the decline of woman's
+power, all human institutions, customs, forms, and habits of
+thought are seen to reflect the egoistic qualities acquired by
+the male.
+
+Nowhere is the influence of sex more plainly manifested than in
+the formulation of religious conceptions and creeds.  With the
+rise of male power and dominion, and the corresponding repression
+of the natural female instincts, the principles which originally
+constituted the God-idea gradually gave place to a Deity better
+suited to the peculiar bias which had been given to the male
+organism.  An anthropomorphic god like that of the Jews--a god
+whose chief attributes are power and virile might--could have had
+its origin only under a system of masculine rule.
+
+Religion is especially liable to reflect the vagaries and
+weaknesses of human nature; and, as the forms and habits of
+thought connected with worship take a firmer hold on the mental
+constitution than do those belonging to any other department of
+human experience, religious conceptions should be subjected to
+frequent and careful examination in order to perceive, if
+possible, the extent to which we are holding on to ideas which
+are unsuited to existing conditions.
+
+In an age when every branch of inquiry is being subjected to
+reasonable criticism, it would seem that the origin and growth of
+religion should be investigated from beneath the surface, and
+that all the facts bearing upon it should be brought forward as a
+contribution to our fund of general information.  As well might
+we hope to gain a complete knowledge of human history by studying
+only the present aspect of society, as to expect to reach
+reasonable conclusions respecting the prevailing God-idea by
+investigating the various creeds and dogmas of existing faiths.
+
+The object of this volume is not only to furnish a brief outline
+of religious growth, but to show the effect which each of the two
+forces, female and male, has had on the development of our
+present God- idea, which investigation serves to accentuate the
+conclusions arrived at in the Evolution of Woman relative to the
+inheritance of each of the two lines of sexual demarcation.      
+
+                                  E.B.G.
+
+
+CONTENTS.  ---- CHAPTER                                          
+
+    INTRODUCTION
+  
+I.--SEX THE FOUNDATION OF THE GOD-IDEA
+II.--TREE, PLANT, AND FRUIT WORSHIP 
+III.--SUN WORSHIP--FEMALE AND MALE ENERGIES IN THE SUN
+IV.--THE DUAL GOD OF THE ANCIENTS A TRINITY ALSO  
+V.--SEPARATION OF THE FEMALE AND MAKE ELEMENTS IN THE DEITY
+VI.--CIVILIZATION OF AN ANCIENT RACE  
+VII.--CONCEALMENT OF THE EARLY DOCTRINES
+VIII.--THE ORIGINAL GOD-IDEA OF THE ISRAELITES 
+IX.--THE PHOENICIAN AND HEBREW GOD SET OR SETH  
+X.--ANCIENT SPECULATIONS CONCERNING CREATION  
+XI.--FIRE AND PHALLIC WORSHIP  
+XII.--AN ATTEMPT TO PURIFY THE SENSUALIZED FAITHS  
+XIII.--CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM
+XIV.--CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM --(Continued)
+XV.--CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND  
+XVI.--STONES OR COLUMNS AS THE DEITY  
+XVII.--SACRIFICES  
+XVIII.--THE CROSS AND A DYING SAVIOR  
+
+
+THE GOD-IDEA OF THE ANCIENTS.
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+Through a study of the primitive god-idea as manifested in
+monumental records in various parts of the world; through
+scientific investigation into the early religious conceptions of
+mankind as expressed by symbols which appear in the architecture
+and decorations of sacred edifices and shrines; by means of a
+careful examination of ancient holy objects and places still
+extant in every quarter of the globe, and through the study of
+antique art, it is not unlikely that a line of investigation has
+been marked out whereby a tolerably correct knowledge of the
+processes involved in our present religious systems may be
+obtained.  The numberless figures and sacred emblems which appear
+carved in imperishable stone in the earliest cave temples; the
+huge towers, monoliths, and rocking stones found in nearly every
+country of the globe, and which are known to be closely connected
+with primitive belief and worship, and the records found on
+tablets which are being unearthed in various parts of the world,
+are, with the unravelling of extinct tongues, proving an almost
+inexhaustible source for obtaining information bearing upon the
+early history of the human race, and, together, furnish
+indisputable evidence of the origin, development, and unity of
+religious faiths.
+
+By comparing the languages used by the earlier races to express
+their religious conceptions; by observing the similarity in the
+mythoses and sacred appellations among all tribe and nations, an
+through the discovery of the fact that the legends extant in the
+various countries of the globe are identical, or have the same
+foundation, it is probable that a clue has already been obtained
+whereby an outline of the religious history of the human family
+from a period even as remote as the "first dispersion," or from a
+time when one race comprehended the entire population of the
+globe, maybe traced.  Humboldt in his Researches observes: "In
+every part of the globe, on the ridge of the Cordilleras as well
+as in the Isle of Samothrace, in the Aegean Sea, fragments of
+primitive languages are preserved in religious rites."
+
+Regarding the identity of the fundamental ideas contained in the
+various systems of religion, both past and present, Hargrave
+Jennings, in referring to a parallel drawn by Sir William Jones,
+between the deities of Meru and Olympus, observes:
+
+"All our speculations tend to the same conclusions.  One day it
+is a discovery of cinerary vases, the next, it is etymological
+research; yet again it is ethnological investigation, and the day
+after, it is the publication of unsuspected tales from the Norse;
+but all go to heap up proof of our consanguinity with the peoples
+of history--and of an original general belief, we might add."
+
+That the religious systems of India and Egypt were originally the
+same, there can be at the present time no reasonable doubt.  The
+fact noted by various writers, of the British Sepoys, who, on
+their overland route from India, upon beholding the ruins of
+Dendera, prostrated themselves before the remains of the ancient
+temples and offered adoration to them, proves the identity of
+Indian and Egyptian deities.  These foreign devotees, being asked
+to explain the reason of their strange conduct declared that they
+"saw sculptured before them the gods of their country."
+
+Upon the subject of the identity of Eastern religions, Wilford
+remarks that one and the same code both of theology and of
+fabulous history, has been received through a range or belt about
+forty degrees broad across the old continent, in a southeast and
+northwest direction from the eastern shores of the Malaga
+peninsula to the western extremity of the British Isles, that,
+through this immense range the same religious notions reappear in
+various places under various modifications, as might be expected;
+and that there is not a greater difference between the tenets and
+worship of the Hindoos and the Greeks than exists between the
+churches of Home and Geneva.
+
+Concerning the universality of certain religious beliefs and
+opinions, Faber, commenting upon the above statement of Wilford,
+observes that, immense as is this territorial range, it is by far
+too limited to include the entire phenomenon, that the
+observation
+
+"applies with equal propriety to the entire habitable globe; for
+the arbitrary rites and opinions of every pagan nation bear so
+close a resemblance to each other, that such a coincidence can
+only have been produced by their having had a common origin. 
+Barbarism itself has not been able to efface the strong primeval
+impression.  Vestiges of the ancient general system may be traced
+in the recently discovered islands in the Pacific Ocean; and,
+when the American world was first opened to the hardy adventurers
+of Europe, its inhabitants from north to south venerated, with
+kindred ceremonies and kindred notions, the gods of Egypt and
+Hindostan, of Greece and Italy, of Phoenicia and Britain."[1]
+
+[1] Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. i.
+
+
+"Though each religion has its own peculiar growth, the seed from
+which they spring is everywhere the same."[2]
+
+[2] Max Muller, Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 48.
+
+
+The question as to whether the identity of conception and the
+similarity in detail observed in religious rites, ceremonies, and
+symbols in the various countries of the globe are due to the
+universal law of unity which governs human development, or
+whether, through the dispersion of one original people, the early
+conceptions of a Deity were spread broadcast over the entire
+earth, is perhaps not settled; yet, from the facts which have
+been brought forward during the last century, the latter theory
+seems altogether probable, such divergence in religious ideas as
+is observed among the various peoples of the earth being
+attributable to variations in temperament caused by changed
+conditions of life.  In other words, the divergence in the course
+of religious development has doubtless been due to environment.
+
+In an attempt to understand the history of the growth of the
+god-idea, the fact should be borne in mind that, from the
+earliest conception of a creative force in the animal and
+vegetable world to the latest development in theological
+speculation, there has never been what might consistently be
+termed a new religion.  On the contrary, religion like everything
+else is subject to the law of growth; therefore the faiths of
+to-day are the legitimate result, or outcome, of the primary idea
+of a Deity developed in accordance with the laws governing the
+peculiar instincts which have been in the ascendancy during the
+life of mankind on the earth.
+
+The erroneous impression which under a belief in the unknown has
+come to prevail, namely, that the moral law is the result of
+religion; or, in other words, that the human conscience is in
+some manner dependent on supernaturalism for its origin and
+maintenance, is, with a better and clearer understanding of the
+past history of the development of the human race, being
+gradually dispelled.  On one point we may reasonably rest assured
+that the knowledge of right and wrong and our sense of justice
+and right-living have been developed quite independently of all
+religious beliefs.  The moral law embodied in the golden rule is
+not an outgrowth of mysticism, or of man's notions of the
+unknowable; but, on the contrary, is the result of experience,
+and was formulated in response to a recognized law of human
+necessity,--a law which involves the fundamental principle of
+progress.  The history of human development shows conclusively
+that mankind GREW into the recognition of the moral law, that
+through sympathy, or a desire for the welfare of others,--a
+character which had its root in maternal affection,--conscience
+and the moral sense were evolved.
+
+While the moral law and the conscience may not be accounted as in
+any sense the result of man's ideas concerning the unknowable,
+neither can the errors and weaknesses developed in human nature
+be regarded as the result of religion.  Although the sexual
+excesses which during three or four thousand years were practiced
+as sacred rites, and treated as part and parcel of religion in
+various parts of the world, have had the effect to stimulate and
+strengthen the animal nature in man, yet these rites may not be
+accounted as the primary cause of the supremacy of the lower
+nature over the higher faculties.  On the contrary, the impulse
+which has been termed religion, with all the vagaries which its
+history presents, is to be regarded more as an effect than as a
+cause.  The stage of a nation's development regulates its
+religion.  Man creates his own gods; they are powerless to change
+him.
+
+As written history records only those events in human experience
+which belong to a comparatively recent period of man's existence,
+and as the primitive conceptions of a Deity lie buried beneath
+ages of corruption, glimpses of the earlier faiths of mankind, as
+has already been stated, must be looked for in the traditions,
+monuments, and languages of extinct races.
+
+In reviewing this matter we shall doubtless observe the fact that
+if the stage of a nation's growth is indicated by its religious
+conceptions, and if remnants of religious beliefs are everywhere
+present in the languages, traditions, and monuments of the past
+through a careful study of these subjects we may expect to gain a
+tolerably correct understanding not alone of the growth of the
+god-idea but of the stage of development reached by the nations
+which existed prior to the beginning of the historic age.  We
+shall be enabled also to perceive whether or not the course of
+human development during the intervening ages has been
+continuous, or whether, for some cause hitherto unexplained, true
+progress throughout a portion of this time has been arrested,
+thus producing a backward movement, or degeneracy.
+
+If we would unravel the mysteries involved in present religious
+faiths, we should begin not by attempting to analyze or explain
+any existing system or systems of belief and worship.  Such a
+course is likely to end not only in confusion and in a subsequent
+denial of the existence of the religious nature in mankind, but
+is liable, also, to create an aversion for and a distrust of the
+entire subject of religious experience.  In view of this fact it
+would appear to be not only useless but exceedingly unwise to
+spend one's time in attempting to gain a knowledge of this
+subject simply by studying the later developments in its history.
+
+If we are really desirous of obtaining information regarding
+present religious phenomena, it is plain that we should adopt the
+scientific method and turn our attention to the remote past,
+where, by careful and systematic investigation, we are enabled to
+perceive the earliest conception of a creative force and the
+fundamental basis of all religious systems, from which may be
+traced the gradual development of the god-idea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+SEX THE FOUNDATION OF THE GOD-IDEA.
+
+In the study of primitive religion, the analogy existing between
+the growth of the god-idea and the development of the human race,
+and especially of the two sex-principles, is everywhere clearly
+apparent.
+
+"Religion is to be found alone with its justification and
+explanation in the relations of the sexes.  There and therein
+only."[3]
+
+[3] Hargrave Jennings, Phallicism.
+
+
+As the conception of a deity originated in sex, or in the
+creative agencies female and male which animate Nature, we may
+reasonably expect to find, in the history of the development of
+the two sex-principles and in the notions entertained concerning
+them throughout past ages, a tolerably correct account of the
+growth of the god-idea.  We shall perceive that during an earlier
+age of human existence, not only were the reproductive powers
+throughout Nature, and especially in human beings and in animals,
+venerated as the Creator, but we shall find also that the
+prevailing ideas relative to the importance of either sex in the
+office of reproduction decided the sex of this universal creative
+force.  We shall observe also that the ideas of a god have always
+corresponded with the current opinions regarding the importance
+of either sex in human society.  In other words, so long as
+female power and influence were in the ascendency, the creative
+force was regarded as embodying the principles of the female
+nature; later, however, when woman's power waned, and the
+supremacy of man was gained, the god-idea began gradually to
+assume the male characters and attributes.
+
+Through scientific research the fact has been observed that, for
+ages after life appeared on the earth, the male had no separate
+existence; that the two sex-principles, the sperm and the germ,
+were contained within one and the same individual.  Through the
+processes of differentiation, however, these elements became
+detached, and with the separation of the male from the female,
+the reproductive functions were henceforth confided to two
+separate individuals.
+
+As originally, throughout Nature, the female was the visible
+organic unit within whom was contained the exclusive creative
+power, and as throughout the earlier ages of life on the earth
+she comprehended the male, it is not perhaps singular that, even
+after the appearance of mankind on the earth, the greater
+importance of the mother element in human society should have
+been recognized; nor, as the power to bring forth coupled with
+perceptive wisdom originally constituted the Creator, that the
+god-idea should have been female instead of male.
+
+From the facts to be observed in relation to this subject, it is
+altogether probable that for ages the generating principle
+throughout Nature was venerated as female; but with that increase
+of knowledge which was the result of observation and experience,
+juster or more correct ideas came to prevail, and subsequently
+the great fructifying energy throughout the universe came to be
+regarded as a dual indivisible force--female and male.  This
+force, or agency, constituted one God, which, as woman's
+functions in those ages were accounted of more importance than
+those of man, was oftener worshipped under the form of a female
+figure.
+
+Neith, Minerva, Athene, and Cybele, the most important deities of
+their respective countries, were adored as Perceptive Wisdom, or
+Light, while Ceres and others represented Fertility.  With the
+incoming of male dominion and supremacy, however, we observe the
+desire to annul the importance of the female and to enthrone one
+all-powerful male god whose chief attributes were power and
+might.
+
+Notwithstanding the efforts which during the historic period have
+been put forward to magnify the importance of the male both in
+human affairs and in the god-idea, still, no one, I think, can
+study the mythologies and traditions of the nations of antiquity
+without being impressed with the prominence given to the female
+element, and the deeper the study the stronger will this
+impression grow.
+
+During a certain stage of human development, religion was but a
+recognition of and a reliance upon the vivifying or fructifying
+forces throughout Nature, and in the earlier ages of man's
+career, worship consisted for the most part in the celebration of
+festivals at stated seasons of the year, notably during seed-time
+and harvest, to commemorate the benefits derived from the grain
+field and vineyard.
+
+Doubtless the first deified object was Gaia, the Earth.  As
+within the bosom of the earth was supposed to reside the
+fructifying, life-giving power, and as from it were received all
+the bounties of life, it was female.  It was the Universal
+Mother, and to her as to no other divinity worshipped by mankind,
+was offered a spontaneity of devotion and a willing
+acknowledgment of dependence.  Thus far in the history of mankind
+no temples dedicated to an undefined and undefinable God had been
+raised.  The children of Mother Earth met in the open air,
+without the precincts of any man-made shrine, and under the
+aerial canopy of heaven, acknowledged the bounties of the great
+Deity and their dependence upon her gifts.  She was a beneficent
+and all-wise God, a tender and loving parent--a mother, who
+demanded no bleeding sacrifice to reconcile her to her children. 
+The ceremonies observed at these festive seasons consisted for
+the most part in merry-making and in general thanksgiving, in
+which the gratitude of the worshippers found expression in song
+and dance, and in invocations to their Deity for a return or
+continuance of her gifts.
+
+Subsequently, through the awe and reverence inspired by the
+mysteries involved in birth and life, the adoration of the
+creative principles in vegetable existence became supplemented by
+the worship of the creative functions in human beings and in
+animals.  The earth, including the power inherent in it by which
+the continuity of existence is maintained, and by which new forms
+are continuously called into life, embodied the idea of God; and,
+as this inner force was regarded as inherent in matter, or as a
+manifestation of it, in process of time earth and the heavens,
+body and spirit, came to be worshipped under the form of a mother
+and her child, this figure being the highest expression of a
+Creator which the human mind was able to conceive.  Not only did
+this emblem represent fertility, or the fecundating energies of
+Nature, but with the power to create were combined or correlated
+all the mental qualities and attributes of the two sexes.  In
+fact the whole universe was contained in the Mother idea--the
+child, which was sometimes female, sometimes male, being a scion
+or offshoot from the eternal or universal unit.
+
+Underlying all ancient mythologies may be observed the idea that
+the earth, from which all things proceed, is female.  Even in the
+mythology of the Finns, Lapps, and Esths, Mother Earth is the
+divinity adored.  Tylor calls attention to the same idea in the
+mythology of England,
+
+"from the days when the Anglo-Saxon called upon the Earth, 'Hal
+wes thu folde fira modor' (Hail, thou Earth, men's mother), to
+the time when mediaeval Englishmen made a riddle of her asking
+'Who is Adam's mother?' and poetry continued what mythology was
+letting fall, when Milton's Archangel promised Adam a life to
+last    
+'.  .  .  till like ripe fruit thou drop          
+Into thy Mother's lap.' "[4]
+
+[4] Primitive Culture, vol.  i., p. 295.
+
+
+In the old religion the sky was the husband of the earth and the
+earth was mother of all the gods.[5] In the traditions of past
+ages the fact is clearly perceived that there was a time when the
+mother was not only the one recognized parent on earth, but that
+the female principle was worshipped as the more important
+creative force throughout Nature.
+
+[5] Max Muller, Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 279.
+
+
+Doubtless the worship of the female energy prevailed under the
+matriarchal system, and was practised at a time when women were
+the recognized heads of families and when they were regarded as
+the more important factors in human society.  The fact has been
+shown in a previous work that after women began to leave their
+homes at marriage, and after property, especially land, had
+fallen under the supervision and control of men, the latter, as
+they manipulated all the necessaries of life and the means of
+supplying them, began to regard themselves as superior beings,
+and later, to claim that as a factor in reproduction, or
+creation, the male was the more important.  With this change the
+ideas of a Deity also began to undergo a modification.  The dual
+principle necessary to creation, and which had hitherto been
+worshipped as an indivisible unity, began gradually to separate
+into its individual elements, the male representing spirit, the
+moving or forming force in the generative processes, the female
+being matter--the instrument through which spirit works.  Spirit
+which is eternal had produced matter which is destructible.  The
+fact will be observed that this doctrine prevails to a greater or
+less extent in the theologies of the present time.
+
+A little observation and reflection will show us that during this
+change in the ideas relative to a creative principle, or God,
+descent and the rights of succession which had hitherto been
+reckoned through the mother were changed from the female to the
+male line, the father having in the meantime become the only
+recognized parent.  In the Eumenides of Aeschylus, the plea of
+Orestes in extenuation of his crime is that he is not of kin to
+his mother.  Euripides, also, puts into the mouth of Apollo the
+same physiological notion, that she who bears the child is only
+its nurse.  The Hindoo Code of Menu, which, however, since its
+earliest conception, has undergone numberless mutilations to suit
+the purposes of the priests, declares that "the mother is but the
+field which brings forth the plant according to whatsoever seed
+is sown."
+
+Although, through the accumulation of property in masses and the
+capture of women for wives, men had succeeded in gaining the
+ascendancy, and although the doctrine had been propounded that
+the father is the only parent, thereby reversing the established
+manner of reckoning descent, still, as we shall hereafter
+observe, thousands of years were required to eliminate the female
+element from the god-idea.
+
+We must not lose sight of the fact that human society was first
+organized and held together by means of the gens, at the head of
+which was a woman.  The several members of this organization were
+but parts of one body cemented together by the pure principle of
+maternity, the chief duty of these members being to defend and
+protect each other if needs be with their life blood.  The fact
+has been observed, in an earlier work, that only through the gens
+was the organization of society possible.  Without it mankind
+could have accomplished nothing toward its own advancement.
+
+Thus, throughout the earlier ages of human existence, at a time
+when mankind lived nearer to Nature and before individual wealth
+and the stimulation of evil passions had engendered superstition,
+selfishness, and distrust, the maternal element constituted not
+only the binding and preserving principle in human society, but,
+together with the power to bring forth, constituted also the
+god-idea, which idea, as has already been observed, at a certain
+stage in the history of the race was portrayed by a female figure
+with a child in her arms.
+
+From all sources of information at hand are to be derived
+evidences of the fact that the earliest religion of which we have
+any account was pure Nature-worship, that whatever at any given
+time might have been the object adored, whether it were the
+earth, a tree, water, or the sun, it was simply as an emblem of
+the great energizing agency in Nature.  The moving or forming
+force in the universe constituted the god-idea.  The figure of a
+mother with her child signified not only the power to bring
+forth, but Perceptive Wisdom, or Light, as well.
+
+As through a study of Comparative Ethnology, or through an
+investigation into the customs, traditions, and mythoses of
+extant races in the various stages of development, have been
+discovered the beginnings of the religious idea and the mental
+qualities which among primitive races prompted worship, so, also,
+through extinct tongues and the symbolism used in religious rites
+and ceremonies, many of the processes have been unearthed whereby
+the original and beautiful conceptions of the Deity, and the
+worship inspired by the operations of Nature, and especially the
+creative functions in human beings gradually became obscured by
+the grossest ideas and the vilest practices.  The symbols which
+appear in connection with early religious rites and ceremonies,
+and under which are veiled the conceptions of a still earlier and
+purer age, when compared with subsequently developed notions
+relative to the same objects, indicate plainly the change which
+has been wrought in the original ideas relative to the creative
+functions, and furnish an index to the direction which human
+development, or growth, has taken.
+
+As the human race constructs its own gods, and as by the
+conceptions involved in the deities worshipped at any given time
+in the history of mankind we are able to form a correct estimate
+of the character, temperament, and aspirations of the
+worshippers, so the history of the gods of the race, as revealed
+to us through the means of symbols, monumental records, and the
+investigation of extinct tongues, proves that from a stage of
+Nature worship and a pure and rational conception of the creative
+forces in the universe, mankind, in course of time, degenerated
+into mere devotees of sensual pleasure.  With the corruption of
+human nature and the decline of mental power which followed the
+supremacy of the animal instincts, the earlier abstract idea of
+God was gradually lost sight of, and man himself in the form of a
+potentate or ruler, together with the various emblems of
+virility, came to be worshipped as the Creator.  From adorers of
+an abstract creative principle, mankind had lapsed into
+worshippers of the symbols under which this principle had been
+veiled.
+
+Although at certain stages in the history of the human race the
+evils, which as a result of the supremacy of the ruder elements
+developed in mankind had befallen the race were lamented and
+bewailed, they could not be suppressed.  Man had become a lost
+and ruined creature.  The golden age had passed away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+TREE, PLANT, AND FRUIT WORSHIP.
+
+When mankind first began to perceive the fact of an all-pervading
+agency throughout Nature, by or through which everything is
+produced, and when they began to speculate on the origin of life
+and the final cause and destiny of things, it is not in the least
+remarkable that various objects and elements, such as fire, air,
+water, trees, etc., should in their turn have been venerated as
+in some special manner embodying the divine essence.  Neither is
+it surprising although this universal agency was regarded as one,
+or as a dual entity, they should have recognized its manifold
+expressions or manifestations.
+
+To primitive man, the visible sources whence proceeded his daily
+sustenance doubtless constituted the first objects of his regard
+and adoration.  Hence, in addition to the homage paid to the
+earth, in due course of time would be added the worship of trees,
+upon which the early race was directly dependent for food.  At a
+time when the art of agriculture had not been attained, all such
+trees as yielded their fruit for the support of the human race,
+and which afforded to mankind pleasant beverages or cooling
+shade, would come to be regarded as embodying the universal
+beneficent principle--the great creating and preserving agency of
+Nature, and therefore as proper objects of veneration.
+
+According to the Phoenician theogony, "the first gods which were
+worshipped by oblations and sacrifices were the fruits of the
+earth, on which they and their descendants lived as their
+forefathers had done."
+
+Although, after the art of agriculture had been developed,
+mankind was gradually relieved from its past dependence on the
+tree as a means of support, it nevertheless continued to be
+regarded with veneration as an emblem of creative power or of
+productive energy.
+
+Among the traditions and monuments of nearly every country of the
+globe are to be found traces of a sacred tree--a Tree of Life. 
+In various countries there appear two traditional trees, the one
+typical of the continuation of physical life, the other
+representing spiritual life, or the life of the soul.  After the
+age of pure Nature-worship had passed, however, and serpent,
+fire, and phallic faiths had been introduced, the original
+signification of the tree, like that of all other religious
+emblems, became considerably changed.  Through its energies, or
+life-giving properties, existence had long been maintained, and
+for this reason, as has already been observed, it became an
+object of veneration; but, after the reproductive power in man
+had risen to the dignity of a supreme God, the tree, to the
+masses of the people, became a symbol of the physical,
+life-giving energy in mortals and in animals.  In other words, it
+became a phallic emblem representing the continuation of
+existence, or the power to reproduce or continue life on the
+earth.  As a religious symbol it became the traditional Tree of
+Life.
+
+The tree, like nearly every other object in nature, was and still
+is, in various parts of the world, either female or male, and all
+ideas connected with it are sacred and closely interwoven with
+sex.
+
+The extent to which trees have been venerated in past ages seems
+to be little understood, and there are doubtless few persons, at
+the present time, who would willingly believe that all along the
+religious stream, from its source to its latest developed
+branches, are to be observed traces of this ancient worship,
+which, in its earliest stages, was simply a recognition of
+Nature's bounties.
+
+Barlow, in his work on Symbolism, says that "the most generally
+received symbol of life is a tree--as also the most appropriate."
+
+Again the same writer observes: "Besides the monumental evidence
+thus furnished of a sacred tree, or Tree of Life, there is an
+historical and traditional evidence of the same thing, found in
+the early literature of various nations, in the customs, and
+popular usages."[6] As tree- and sun-worship, or the adoration of
+Nature's processes, finally became interwoven with phallic
+faiths, its history can be understood only after these later
+developments in the religious stream have been examined, or after
+the true significance of the serpent as a religious emblem, and
+the various ideas connected with the traditional Tree of Life,
+have been exposed.
+
+[6] Essays on Symbolism, p. 84.
+
+
+The palm, the pine, the oak, the banian, or bo, and many other
+species of trees, have, at different times, and by various
+nations, been invested with divine honors; but, in oriental
+countries, by far the most sacred among them is the Ficus
+Religiosa, or the holy bo tree of India.  Something of the true
+significance of the traditional Tree of Life may be observed in
+the ideas connected with the worship of this emblem.  The fig,
+when planted with the palm, as it frequently is in the East, near
+temples and holy shrines, is regarded as a peculiarly sacred
+object.  When entwining the palm, which is male, it is always
+female; from their embrace Kalpia, or passion, is developed. 
+This union causes the continuation of existence and the
+"revolutions of time."  The whole constitutes the Tree of Life.
+
+In Ceylon, there stands at the present time a tree which we are
+told is still worshipped by every follower of Buddha.  It is a
+sacred bo, or Ficus Religiosa, which stands adjacent to an
+ancient holy shrine known as the Brazen Monastery, now in ruins. 
+Of this tree Forlong remarks:
+
+"Though now amidst ruins and wild forests, and although having
+stood thus in solitary desolation for some 1500 years, yet there
+it still grows, and is worshipped and deeply revered by more
+millions of our race than any other god, prophet, or idol, which
+the world has ever seen."[7]
+
+[7] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 35.
+
+
+This tree is sacred to Sakyu Mooni, is 2200 years old, and is
+said to be a slip from a tree planted by Bood Gaya, one of the
+three former Buddhas who, like Sakyu Mooni, visited Ceylon. 
+Under the parent of this tree the great prophet reposed after he
+had attained perfect rest, or after he had overcome the flesh and
+become Buddha.  It was under a bo tree that Mai, Queen of Heaven,
+brought him forth, and, in fact, very many of the most important
+incidents of his life are closely connected with this sacred
+emblem.
+
+In an allusion to the bo tree of Ceylon, a slip of which is said
+to have been carried from India to that island by a certain
+priestess in the year 307 B.C., Forlong observes:
+
+"This wonderful idol has furnished shoots to half Asia, and every
+shoot is trained as much as possible like the parent, and like
+it, also, enclosed and tended.  Men watch and listen for signs
+and sounds from this holy tree just as the priests of Dodona did
+beneath their rustling oaks, and, as many people, even of these
+somewhat sceptical days, still do, beneath the pulpits of their
+pope, priest, or other oracle."[8]
+
+[8] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p, 36.
+
+
+The sacred Ficus is worshipped in India and in many of the
+Polynesian islands.
+
+Regarding the palm, Inman assures us that it is emblematical of
+the active male energy, or the continuation of existence.[9]
+
+[9] Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii., p. 448.
+
+
+Within the legends underlying the Jewish religion, it will be
+remembered that the tree appears mysteriously connected with the
+beginning of life and is interwoven with the first ideas of human
+action and experience.  The literal sense, however, of the
+allegory in Genesis concerning the woman, the tree, and the
+serpent, and its meaning as generally accepted by laymen and the
+uneducated among the priesthood, has little in common with its
+true significance as understood by the initiated.
+
+In Vedic times, the home tree was worshipped as a god, and to the
+exhilarating properties in its juice was ascribed that subtle
+quality which was regarded as the life-giving, or creative,
+energy supposed to reside in heat, and which was closely
+connected with passion or procreative energy.  This quality was
+their Bacchus, Dionysos, or god-idea--the creator not alone of
+physical existence, but of good and evil as well.  It was the
+Destroyer, yet the Regenerator, of life.
+
+Of the Zoroastrian home, or sacred tree, which by the Persians
+was worshipped for thousands of years, Layard remarks: "The plant
+or its product was called the mystical body of God, the living
+water or food of eternal life, when duly consecrated and
+administered according to Zoroastrian rites."  It has been
+suggested, and not without reason, that to this idea of the
+ancients, respecting the sacred character of the properties of
+the home juice, may be traced the "origin of the celebration of
+Jewish holy or paschal suppers and other eucharistic rites."
+
+Although by the ancients water was sometimes regarded as the
+original principle, later, wine, or the intoxicating quality
+within it, came to constitute the god-idea.  It was spirit, while
+water was matter; hence, in the sacraments, water and wine were
+commingled, wine representing the essence or blood of God; water,
+at the same time, standing for the people.  Cyprian, the bishop
+martyr, while contending for the use of wine in the Sacrament of
+the Lord's Supper, makes use of the following argument:
+
+"The Holy Spirit also is not silent in the Psalms on the
+sacrament of this thing, when He makes mention of the Lord's Cup,
+and says 'Thy intoxicating cup how excellent it is!'  Now the cup
+which intoxicates is assuredly mingled with wine, for water
+cannot intoxicate anybody.  And the Cup of the Lord in such wise
+inebriates, as Noe also was intoxicated drinking wine in Genesis. 
+.  .  .  For because Christ bore us all, in that he also bore our
+sins, we see that in the water is understood the people, but in
+the wine is showed the blood of Christ.  .  .  .  Thus,
+therefore, in consecrating the Cup of the Lord, water alone
+cannot be offered, even as wine alone cannot be offered.  For if
+anyone offer wine only, the blood of Christ is dissociated from
+us; but if the water be alone, the people are dissociated from
+Christ."[10]
+
+[10] Epistles of Cyprian, vol. i., pp. 215-217.
+
+
+The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, at which wine is mysteriously
+converted into the essence of Deity, or into the blood of Christ,
+is without doubt a relic of the idea once entertained regarding
+the homa tree.  Certain writers entertain the opinion that from
+the use of the sacred homa juice have arisen various religious
+practices and rites, such for instance as offering oblations to
+the gods, anointing holy stones, and pouring wine on sacred
+hills, also the custom of pledging oaths over glasses of wine.
+
+The May pole, a decidedly phallic emblem, whose festivals until a
+very recent time were celebrated in England by the old as well as
+the young, was usually if not always sprinkled with wine.  From
+the accounts which we have of this sacred emblem and its
+festival, it seems that no royal edict nor priestly denunciation
+was sufficient to expel it from the country.
+
+According to Dr. Stevenson, the festival of Holi or the worship
+of Holika Devata, in the island of Ceylon, "has a close
+resemblance to the English festival of the May-pole, which
+originated in a religious ceremony or festival of the Cushites
+(called Phoenicians) who anciently occupied Western Europe."[11]
+
+[11] Quoted by Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 223.
+
+
+The ash is the Scandinavian Tree of Life, and, like the sacred
+trees of all nations, is emblematical of the continuation of
+existence.  This tree has a triple root, which peculiarity
+doubtless accounts for its sacred character.  It is both female
+and male, and is said to be regarded as a "sort of Logos or
+Wisdom."  It is the first emanation from the Deity, and yet a
+Trinity in Unity.  To insult or injure this tree was sacrilege,
+to cut it down was an offense punishable with death.
+
+In the old Egyptian and Zoroastrian story, appear the
+descriptions of two Trees of Life, also a Tree of Knowledge.  In
+the accounts given of these trees, the Ficus, the female Tree of
+Life, represents the life of the soul, while the palm, the male
+Tree of Life, is that which gives physical life, which also is
+the true significance of the word "lord."  When, however, either
+of these trees stood alone, or unaccompanied by its counterpart,
+by it both of the creative principles were understood.  By these
+ideas is suggested the thought which among a certain school of
+psychologists of the present century seems to be gaining ground,
+namely: that man is a dual entity, or, in other words, that he
+has a subjective mind and an objective self, which so long as
+this life endures must co-operate or work together.
+
+In the following descriptions of Egyptian emblems, will be
+perceived some of the changes which finally took place relative
+to the idea of sex in the god-idea.
+
+In the museum of Egyptian antiquities in Berlin is a sepulchral
+tablet representing the Tree of Life.  This emblem figures the
+trunk of a tree, from the top of which emerges the bust of a
+woman--Netpe.  She is the goddess of heavenly existence, and is
+administering to the deceased the water and the bread of life,
+the latter of which is represented by a substance in the form of
+cakes or rolls.  The time at which this tablet was found is not
+known, but it is supposed to belong to the period of the XIXth
+dynasty, or about the time of Rameses II., 1400 years B.C.
+
+There is also in the Berlin museum another representation of the
+Egyptian Tree of Life, in which the trunk has given place to the
+entire body of a woman.  This, also, is Netpe, who is still
+spiritual wisdom or the maternal principle.  We are informed by
+Forlong that Diana was worshipped by the Amazons under a sacred
+tree.[12] From this symbol the tree, which grew first into the
+figure of a divine woman, and later assumed the form of a divine
+man, arose the emblem of the cross.
+
+[12] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 70.
+
+
+On the Nineveh tablets is pictured a Tree of Life which is
+surrounded by winged spirits, bearing in their hands the pine
+cone, a symbol indicating life, and which is said to have the
+same significance as the crux-ansata, or cross, among the
+Egyptians.
+
+In later ages, the Tree of Life, i. e., the divine man, or
+cross, or both together, furnish immortal food to those who lay
+hold upon them, exactly in the same manner as did Netpe, the
+goddess of wisdom, or spiritual life, in former times.  According
+to the testimony of Barlow, this is the subject "most frequently
+symbolized on early Christian sepulchral tablets and
+monuments."[13] Christ's body was the "bread of life," and his
+blood was the "wine from the Tree of Life," of which to partake
+was life eternal.  The cross, as in earlier religions,
+represented completeness of life.  The jambu tree, the Buddhist
+god-tree, is in the shape of a cross.[14]
+
+[13] Essays on Symbolism, p. 74.
+
+[14] Wilford, Asiatic Researches.
+
+
+Among the Kelti a tall oak was not only a symbol of the Deity,
+but it was Jupiter himself, while the earth from which it sprang
+was the Great Mother.  Throughout Europe, in all ages, the oak
+has received divine honors.  The fact that under its branches
+Jew, Pagan, and Christian alike swore their most solemn oaths,
+shows that its veneration was not confined to any particular
+nation or locality.
+
+The sacredness of the oak among the Druids is well attested by
+all writers who have dealt with this interesting people.  In Rome
+its branches formed the badge of victory worn by conquering
+heroes, this emblem being the highest mark of distinction which
+could be conferred upon them.
+
+Forlong assures us that the oak was even more worshipped at the
+West than was the sacred Ficus at the East.  Like it, the wood of
+the oak must be used
+
+"to call down the sacred fire from Heaven and gladden in the yule
+(Suiel or Seul) log of Christmas-tide even Christian fires, as
+well as annually renew with fire direct from Ba-al, on Beltine
+day, the sacred flame on every public and private hearth, and
+this from the temples of Meroe on the Nile, to the farthest icy
+forests and mountains of the Sklavonian."[15]
+
+[15] Faiths of Man in All Lands, vol. i., p. 68.
+
+
+Among the Druids, the mistletoe was also sacred especially when
+entwining the oak.  Together they represented the Tree of Life,
+or the two generating agencies throughout Nature.  Of the species
+of it which grows on the oak, Borlaise says that they deified the
+mistletoe and were not to look upon it but in the most devout and
+reverential manner: "When the end of the year approached, they
+marched with great solemnity to gather the mistletoe of the oak
+in order to present it to Jupiter, inviting all the world to
+assist in the ceremony."[16]
+
+[16] Borlaise.
+
+
+According to the Latin writer Pliny, the "Druids have nothing
+more sacred than the mistletoe and the tree on which it grows,
+provided it be an oak."  This plant, which is called All Heal,
+although sought after with the greatest religious ardor, is
+seldom found, but should the people who go forth at Christmas
+time in large numbers succeed in finding it they immediately set
+about preparing feasts under the tree upon which it grows; at the
+same time, in the most solemn manner, two white bulls are brought
+forth to be sacrificed.  After the feast has been prepared and
+the sacrifice made ready, the priest ascends the tree and with a
+golden pruning-knife cuts the sacred branches of the mistletoe,
+dropping them into a white cloth prepared for the occasion.  The
+bulls are then sacrificed and a prayer offered that "God would
+render his own gift prosperous to those on whom he has bestowed
+it."  They believed that administered in a potion it would impart
+fecundity to any barren animal, and that it was a remedy against
+all kinds of poison.  The branches of the mistletoe were then
+distributed among the faithful, each cherishing the token as the
+most sacred emblem of his faith.  It is thought that the
+Christmas tree is a remnant of this custom.
+
+Although the Christbaum of the Germans, the Yggdrasill of the
+Scandinavians, and the Christmas tree of the English speaking
+nations are still regarded as belonging exclusively to
+Christianity, their birthplace was the far East, and their origin
+long anterior to our present era.  This subject will be referred
+to later in these pages.  The palm, which in course of time
+became the most sacred tree of Egypt, is said to have put forth a
+shoot every month during the year.  At Christmas tide, or at the
+winter solstice, a branch from this tree was used as a symbol of
+the renewal of time or of the birth of the New Year.
+
+On the Zodiac of Dendera, preserved in the National Library at
+Paris, are two trees, the one representing the East, or India and
+China, the other, the West, or Egypt.  The former of these trees
+is putting forth a pair of leaves and is topped by the emblems of
+Siva, emblems which indicate the fructifying powers of Nature,
+whilst the Egyptian sacred tree, which is surmounted by the
+ostrich plume, the emblem of truth, is indicative of Light,
+Intelligence, or the life of the soul.  In a discourse delivered
+by Dr. Stukeley in 1760, attention was directed to the grove of
+Abraham as "that famous oak grove of Beersheba, planted by the
+illustrious prophet and first Druid--Abraham; and from whom our
+celebrated British Druids came, who were of the same patriarchal
+reformed religion, and brought the use of sacred groves to
+Britain."[17]
+
+[17] Barlow, Symbolism, p. 98.
+
+
+The fact has been ascertained that in Arabia, in very ancient
+times, there was a goddess named Azra who was worshipped under
+the form of a tree called Samurch, and that in Yemen tree-worship
+still prevails.  To the date is ascribed divine honors.  This
+tree is said to have its regular priests, services, rites, and
+festivals, and is as zealously worshipped as are the gods of any
+other country.  We are not informed as to whether the Jewish Tree
+of Life was borrowed from the Chaldeans or the Egyptians, but, as
+the significance is the same in all countries, it is of little
+consequence which furnished a copy for the writer in Genesis.
+
+In Dr. Inman's Ancient Faiths, is a drawing from the original,
+by Colonel Coombs, of the "Temptation," or of the ancient
+tree-and-serpent myth in Genesis.  This drawing, in which it is
+observed that the Jewish idea of woman as tempter is reversed,
+was copied from the inner walls of a cave in Southern India.  The
+picture is said to be a faithful representation of the version of
+the story as accepted in the East.
+
+Of the myrtle, Payne Knight says that it "was a symbol both of
+Venus and Neptune, the male and female personifications of the
+productive powers of the waters, which appear to have been
+occasionally employed in the same sense as the fig and fig leaf."
+
+The same writer refers to the fact that instead of beads, wreaths
+of foliage, generally of laurel, olive, myrtle, ivy, or oak,
+appear upon coins; sometimes encircling the symbolical figures,
+and sometimes as chaplets on their heads.  According to Strabo,
+each of these is sacred to some particular personification of the
+Deity, and "significant of some particular attribute, and in
+general, all evergreens were Dionysiac plants, that is, symbols
+of the generative power, signifying perpetuity of youth and
+vigor."  The crowns of laurel, olive, etc., with which the
+victors in the Roman triumphs and Grecian games were honored,
+were emblems of immortality, and not merely transitory marks of
+occasional distinction.[18]
+
+[18] Payne Knight, Symbolism of Ancient Art.  We are informed
+that this book was never sold, but only given away.  Although a
+copy of it was formerly in the British Museum, care was taken by
+the trustees to keep it out of the catalogues.
+
+
+The tree and serpent, according to Ferguson, are symbolized in
+all religious systems which the world has ever known.  The two
+together are typical of the processes of reproduction or
+generation.  They also symbolize good and evil and the cause
+which underlies the decline of virtue.
+
+Among the numberless fruits which from time to time have been
+regarded as divine emblems, the principal are perhaps the fig,
+the pomegranate, the mandrake, the almond, and the olive.  The
+peculiarly sacred character which we find attached to the fig
+ceases to be a mystery so soon as we remember that the organs of
+generation, male and female, had, in process of time, come to be
+objects of worship and that the fig was the emblem of the latter.
+
+A basket of this fruit is said to have been the most acceptable
+offering to the god Bacchus, and therefore, by his devotees, was
+regarded as the most sacred symbol.  The favorite material for
+phallic devices was the wood of the sacred fig, for it was by
+rubbing together pieces of it that holy fire was supposed to be
+drawn from heaven.  By holy fire, however, was meant not so much
+the natural visible element which was kindled, as that subtle
+substance contained in fire or heat which was supposed to contain
+the life principle, and which was sent in response to the
+cravings of pious devotees for procreative energy, which
+blessing, among various peoples, notably the Jews, was indicative
+of special divine favor.
+
+By pagans, Jews, and Christians, the pomegranate has long been
+regarded as a sacred emblem.  It is a symbol of reproductive
+energy.  Representations of it were embroidered on the Ephod, and
+Solomon's Temple is reported as having been literally covered
+with decorations, in which, among the devices noticed, this
+particular fruit appears the most conspicuous.  Its significance,
+as revealed by Inman and other writers, is too gross to be set
+forth in these pages.
+
+Among the most sacred plants or flowers were the lotus and the
+fleur de lis, both of which were venerated because of some real
+or fancied organic sexual peculiarity.  The lotus is adored as
+the female principle throughout Nature, or as the "womb of all
+creation," and is sacred throughout oriental countries.  It is
+said to be androgynous or hermaphrodite--hence its peculiarly
+sacred character.
+
+It has long been thought that this lily is produced without the
+aid of the male pollen, hence it would seem to be an appropriate
+emblem for that ancient sect which worshipped the female as the
+more important creative energy.
+
+Of the lotus, Inman remarks: "Amongst fourteen kinds of food and
+flowers presented to the Sanskrit God Anata, the lotus only is
+indispensable."  This emblem, as we have seen, was the symbol of
+the Great Mother, and we are assured that it was "little less
+sacred than the Queen of Heaven herself."
+
+Regarding the lotus and its universal significance as a religious
+emblem, Payne Knight says:
+
+"The lotus is the Nelumbo of Linnaeus.  This plant grows in the
+water, and amongst its broad leaves puts forth a flower, in the
+center of which is formed the seed vessel, shaped like a bell or
+inverted cone, and punctured on the top with little cavities or
+cells, in which the seeds grow.  The orifices of these cells
+being too small to let the seeds drop out when ripe, they shoot
+forth into new plants, in the places where they were formed, the
+bulb of the vessel serving as a matrix to nourish them until they
+acquire such a degree of magnitude as to burst it open and
+release themselves, after which, like other aquatic weeds, they
+take root wherever the current deposits them.  This plant,
+therefore, being thus productive of itself, and vegetating from
+its own matrix, without being fostered in the earth, was
+naturally adopted as the symbol of the productive power of the
+waters, upon which the creative spirit of the Creator operated in
+giving life and vegetation to matter.  We accordingly find it
+employed in every part of the Northern hemisphere, where the
+symbolical religion improperly called idolatry does or did
+prevail.  The sacred images of the Tartars, Japanese, and Indians
+are almost all placed upon it, of which numerous instances occur
+in the publication of Kaempfer, Sonnerat, etc: The Brama of India
+is represented sitting upon a lotus throne, and the figures upon
+the Isaic table hold the stem of this plant, surmounted by the
+seed vessel in one hand, and the cross representing the male
+organs in the other: thus signifying the universal power, both
+active and passive, attributed to that goddess."[19]
+
+[19] Symbolism of Ancient Art.
+
+
+The lotus is the most sacred and the most significant symbol
+connected with the sacred mysteries of the East.  Upon this
+subject, Maurice observes that there is no plant which has
+received such a degree of honor as has the lotus.  It was the
+consecrated symbol of the Great Mother who had brought forth the
+fecundative energies, female and male.  Not only throughout the
+Northern hemisphere was it everywhere held in profound
+veneration, but among the modern Egyptians it is still worshipped
+as symbolical of the Great First Cause.  The lotus was the emblem
+venerated in the solemn celebration of the Mysteries of Eleusis
+in Greece and the Phiditia in Carthage.
+
+In referring to the degree of homage paid to the lotus by the
+ancients, Higgins says: "And we shall find in the sequel that it
+still continues to receive the respect, if not the adoration, of
+a great part of the Christian world, unconscious, perhaps, of the
+original reason of their conduct."  It is a significant fact that
+in nearly all the sacred paintings of the Christians in the
+galleries throughout Europe, especially those of the
+Annunciation, a lily is always to be observed.  In later ages as
+the original significance of the lotus was lost, any lily came to
+be substituted.  Godfrey Higgins is sure that although the
+priests of the Romish Church are at the present time ignorant of
+the true meaning of the lotus, or lily, "it is, like many other
+very odd things, probably understood at the Vatican, or the Crypt
+of St. Peter's."[20]
+
+[20] Anacalypsis, book vii., ch. xi.
+
+
+Of the lotus of the Hindoos Nimrod says:
+
+"The lotus is a well-known allegory, of which the expanse calyx
+represents the ships of the gods floating on the surface of the
+water, and the erect flower arising out of it, the mast thereof .
+.  .  but as the ship was Isis or Magna Mater, the female
+principle, and the mast in it the male deity, these parts of the
+flower came to have certain other significations, which seem to
+have been as well known at Samosata as at Benares."[21]
+
+[21] Quoted in Anacalypsis.
+
+
+In other words it was a phallic emblem and represented the
+creative processes throughout Nature.  Susa, the name of the
+capital of the Cushites, or ancient Ethiopians, meant "the City
+of Lilies."  In India the lotus frequently appears among phallic
+devices in place of the sacred Yoni.  From the foregoing pages
+the fact will be observed that the God of the ancients embodied
+the two creative agencies throughout the universe, but as nothing
+could exist without a mother, the great Om who was the
+indivisible God and the Creator of the sun was the mother of
+these two principles, while the Tree of Life was the original
+life-giving energy upon the earth, represented in the creation
+myths of the first man Adam, and the first woman Eve or Adama.
+
+Throughout the ages, this force, or creative agency has been
+symbolized in various ways, many of which have been noted in the
+foregoing pages.  We have observed that notwithstanding the fact
+that the supremacy of the male had been established, the sacred
+Yoni and the lotus were still reverenced as symbols of the most
+exalted God.  Finally, when the masculine energy began to be
+worshipped as the more important agency in reproduction, the
+female, although still necessary to complete the god-idea, was
+veiled.
+
+Among the sect known as Lingaites, those who adored the male
+creative power, Man, Phallus, and Creator in religious symbolism
+signified one and the same thing in the minds of the people. 
+Each represented a Tree of Life, the beginning and end of all
+things.
+
+Tree-worship was condemned by the councils of Tours, Nantes, and
+Auxerre, and in the XIth century it was forbidden in England by
+the laws of Canute, but these edicts seem to have had little
+effect.  In referring to this subject, Barlow says: "In the
+XVIIIth century it existed in Livonia, and traces of it may still
+be found in the British Isles."[22] The vast area over which
+tree- and plant-worship once extended, and the tenacity with
+which it still clings to the human race, indicate the hold which,
+at an earlier age in the history of mankind, it had taken upon
+the religious feelings of mankind.
+
+[22] Essays on Symbolism, p. 118.
+
+
+So closely has this worship become entwined with that of serpent
+and phallic faiths, that it is impossible to consider it, even in
+a brief manner, without anticipating these later developments;
+yet linked with earth- and sun-worship, it doubtless prevailed
+for many ages absolutely unconnected with the grosser ideas with
+which it subsequently became associated.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+SUN-WORSHIP--FEMALE AND MALE ENERGIES IN THE SUN.
+
+"When we inquire into the worship of nations in the earliest
+periods to which we have access by writing or tradition, we find
+that the adoration of one God, without temples or images,
+universally prevailed."[23]
+
+[23] Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids.
+
+
+Underlying all the ancient religions of which we have any
+account, may be observed the great energizing force throughout
+Nature recognized and reverenced as the Deity.  This force
+embraces not only the creative energies in human beings, in
+animals, and in plants, but in the earlier ages of human history
+it included also Wisdom, or Law--that "power by which all things
+are discriminated or defined and held in their proper places." 
+The most renowned writers who have dealt with this subject agree
+in the conclusion that, during thousands of years among all the
+nations of the earth, only one God was worshipped.  This God was
+Light and Life, both of which proceeded from the sun, or more
+properly speaking were symbolized by the sun.
+
+In Egyptian hymns the Creator is invoked as the being who "dwells
+concealed in the sun"; and Greek writers speak of this luminary
+as the "generator and nourisher of all things, the ruler of the
+world."  It is thought, however, that neither of these nations
+worshipped the corporeal sun.  It was the "centre or body from
+which the pervading spirit, the original producer of order,
+fertility, and organization, continued to emanate to preserve the
+mighty structure which it had formed."
+
+It is evident that at an early age, both in Egypt and in India,
+spiritualized conceptions of sun-worship had already been formed.
+
+We have seen that Netpe, the Goddess of Light, or Heavenly
+Wisdom, conferred spiritual life on all who would accept it.  The
+Great Mother of the Gods in India was not only the source whence
+all blessings flow, but she was the Beginning and the End of all
+things.
+
+Of "Aditi, the boundless, the yonder, the beyond all and
+everything," Max Muller says that in later times she "may have
+become identified with the sky, also with the earth, but
+originally she was far beyond the sky and the earth."[24] The
+same writer quotes the following, also from a hymn of the
+Rig-Veda:
+
+[24] Origin and Growth of Religion, p. 221.
+
+
+"O Mitra and Varuna, you mount your chariot which, at the dawning
+of the dawn is golden-colored and has iron poles at the setting
+of the sun; from thence you see Aditi and Diti--that is, what is
+yonder and what is here, what is infinite and what is finite,
+what is mortal and what is immortal."[25]
+
+[25] Ibid.
+
+
+Aditi is the Great She that Is, the Everlasting.  Muller refers
+to the fact that another Hindoo poet "speaks of the dawn as the
+face of Aditi; thus indicating that Aditi is here not the dawn
+itself, but something beyond the dawn."  This Goddess, who is
+designated as the "Oldest," is implored "not only to drive away
+darkness and enemies that lurk in the dark, but likewise to
+deliver man from any sin which he may have committed."  "May
+Aditi by day protect our cattle, may she, who never deceives,
+protect us from evil."
+
+In the Egyptian as in the Indian and Hebrew religions, the two
+generating principles throughout Nature represent the Infinite,
+the Holy of Holies, the Elohim or Aleim--the Ieue.  Within the
+records of the earliest religions of Ethiopia or Arabia, Chaldea,
+Assyria, and Babylonia, is revealed the same monad principle in
+the Deity.  This monad conception, or dual unity, this God of
+Light and Life, or of Wisdom and generative force, is the same
+source whence all mythologies have sprung, and, as has been
+stated, among all peoples the fact is observed that the religious
+idea has followed substantially the same course of development,
+or growth.  Within the sacred writings of the Hindoos there is
+but one Almighty Power, usually denominated as Brahm or Brahme--
+Om or Aum.  This word in India was regarded with the same degree
+of veneration as was the sacred Ieue of the Jews.  In later ages,
+the fact is being proved that this God, into whom all the deities
+worshipped at a certain period in human history resolve
+themselves, is the sun, or if not the actual corporeal sun, then
+the supreme agency within it which was acknowledged as the great
+creative or life-force-- that dual principle which by the early
+races was recognized as Elohim, Om, Ormuzd, etc., and from which
+the productive power in human beings, in plants, and in animals
+was thought to emanate.
+
+Prior to the development of either tree or phallic worship, the
+sun as an emblem of the Deity had doubtless become the principal
+object of veneration.  Ages would probably elapse before
+primitive man would observe that all life is dependent on the
+warmth of the sun's rays, or before from experience he would
+perceive the fact that to its agency as well as to that of the
+earth he was indebted both for food and the power of motion. 
+However, as soon as this knowledge had been gained, the great orb
+of day would assume the most prominent place among the objects of
+his regard and adoration.  That such has been the case, that the
+sun, either as the actual Creator, or as an emblem of the great
+energizing force in Nature, has been worshipped by every nation
+of the globe, there is no lack of evidence to prove; neither do
+we lack proof to establish the fact that, since the adoption of
+the sun as a divine object, or perhaps I should say as the emblem
+of Wisdom and creative power, it has never been wholly eliminated
+from the god-idea of mankind.
+
+Bryant produces numberless etymological proofs to establish the
+fact that all the early names of the Deity were derived or
+compounded from some word which originally meant the sun.
+
+Max Muller says that Surya was the sun as shining in the sky. 
+Savitri was the sun as bringing light and life.  Vishnu was the
+sun as striding with three steps across the sky, etc.
+
+Inman, whose etymological researches have given him considerable
+prominence as a Sanskrit and Hebrew scholar, says that Ra, Ilos,
+Helos, Bil, Baal, Al, Allah, and Elohim were names given to the
+sun as representative of the Creator.
+
+We are assured by Godfrey Higgins that Brahme is the sun the same
+as Surya.  Brahma sprang from the navel of Brahme.  Faber in his
+Pagan Idolatry says that all the gods of the ancients "melt
+insensibly into one, they are all equally the sun."  The word
+Apollo signifies the author or generator of Light.  In the Rig
+Veda, Surya, the sun, is called Aditya.  "Truly, Surya, thou art
+great; truly Aditya, thou art great."
+
+Selden observes that whether the gods be called Osiris, or
+Omphis, or Nilus, or any other name, they all center in the sun.
+
+According to Diodorus Siculus, it was the belief of the ancients
+that Dionysos, Osiris, Serapis, Pan, Jupiter and Pluto were all
+one.  They were, the sun.
+
+Max Muller says that a very low race in India named the Santhals
+call the sun Chandro, which means "bright."  These people
+declared to the missionaries who settled among them, that Chandro
+had created the world; and when told that it would be absurd to
+say that the sun had created the world, they replied: "We do not
+mean the visible Chandro, but an invisible one."
+
+Not only did Dionysos, and all the rest of the gods who in later
+ages came to be regarded as men, represent the sun, but after the
+separation of the male and female elements in the originally
+indivisible God, Maut or Minerva, Demeter, Ceres, Isis, Juno, and
+others less important in the pagan world were also the sun, or,
+in other words, they represented the female power throughout the
+universe which was supposed to reside in the sun.
+
+In most groups of Babylonian and Assyrian divine emblems, there
+occur two distinct representations of the sun, "one being figured
+with four rays or divisions within the orb, and the other, with
+eight."  According to George Rawlinson, these figures represent a
+distinction between the male and female powers residing within
+the sun, the quartered disk signifying the male energy, and the
+eight-rayed orb appearing as the emblem of the female![26]
+
+[26] Essay x.
+
+
+During an earlier age of human history, prior to the dissensions
+which arose over the relative importance of the sexes in
+reproduction, and at a time when a mother and her child
+represented the Deity, the sun was worshiped as the female Jove. 
+Everything in the universe was a part of this great God.  At that
+time there had been no division in the god-idea.  The Creator
+constituted a dual but indivisible unity.  Dionysos formerly
+represented this God, as did also Om, Jove, Mithras, and others. 
+Jove was the "Great Virgin" whence everything proceeds.
+
+     "Jove first exists, whose thunders roll above,
+          Jove last, Jove midmost, all proceeds from Jove;
+      Female is Jove, Immortal Jove is male;
+          Jove the broad Earth, the heavens irradiate pale.     
+      Jove is the boundless Spirit, Jove the Fire,
+          That warms the world with feeling and desire."
+
+In a former work the fact has been mentioned that the first clue
+obtained by Herr Bachofen, author of Das Mutterrecht, to a former
+condition of society under which gynaecocracy, or the social and
+political pre-eminence of women, prevailed, was the importance
+attached to the female principle in the Deity in all ancient
+mythologies.
+
+According to the testimony of various writers, Om, although
+comprehending both elements of the Deity, was nevertheless female
+in signification.  Sir William Jones observes that Om means
+oracle--matrix or womb.[27] Upon this subject Godfrey Higgins,
+quoting from Drummond, remarks:
+
+[27] See Anacalypsis, book iii., ch. ii.
+
+
+"The word Om or Am in the Hebrew not only signifies might,
+strength, power, firmness, solidity, truth, but it means also
+Mother, as in Genesis ii., 24, and Love, whence the Latin Amo,
+Mamma.  If the word be taken to mean strength, then Amon will
+mean (the first syllable being in regimine) the temple of the
+strength of the generative or creative power, or the temple of
+the mighty procreative power.  If the word Am means Mother, then
+a still more recondite idea will be implied, viz.: the mother
+generative power, or the maternal generative power: perhaps the
+Urania of Persia or the Venus Aphrodite of Crete and Greece, or
+the Jupiter Genetrix of the masculine and feminine gender, or the
+Brahme Mai of India, or the Alma Venus of Lucretius.  And the
+City of On or Heliopolis will be the City of the sun, or City of
+the procreative powers of nature of which the sun was always an
+emblem."
+
+According to Prof. W. R. Smith, Om means uniting or binding, a
+fact which is explained by the early significance of the mother
+element in early society.  The name of the great Deity Om or Aum
+scarcely passes the lips of its worshippers, and when it is
+pronounced is always reverently whispered.  Regarding the mystic
+word Om, we are told that it is the name given to Delphi, and
+that "Delphi has the meaning of the female organs of generation
+called in India the Os Minxoe."
+
+Although the great God of India was female and male, yet we are
+assured by Forlong that the female energy Maya, Queen of Heaven,
+even at the present time is more heard of than the male
+principle.
+
+According to Bryant, the worship of Ham is the most ancient as
+well as the most universal of any in the world.  This writer
+remarks that Ham, instead of representing an individual, is but a
+Greek corruption of Om or Aum, the great androgynous God of
+India, a God which is identical in significance with Aleim,
+Vesta, and all the other representatives of the early dual,
+universal power.  "In the old language God was called Al, Ale,
+Alue, and Aleim, more frequently Aleim than any other name." 
+According to the testimony of Higgins, Aleim denotes the feminine
+plural.  The heathen divinities Ashtaroth and Beelzebub were both
+called Aleim, Ashtaroth being simply Astarte adorned with the
+horns of a ram.  Ishtar not unfrequently appears with the horns
+of a cow.  We are informed by Inman that whenever a goddess is
+observed with horns--emblems which by the way always indicate
+masculine power--it is to denote the fact that she is
+androgynous, or that within her is embodied the complete
+Deity--the dual reproductive energy throughout Nature.  The
+"figure becomes the emblem of divinity and power."[28]
+
+[28] Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 311.
+
+
+Mithras--the Savior, the great Persian Deity which was worshipped
+as the "Preserver," was both female and male.  Among the
+representations of this divinity which appear in the Townley
+collection in the British Museum, is one in which it is figured
+in its female character, in the act of killing the bull.  The
+Divinity Baal was both female and male.  The God of the Jews in
+an early stage of their career was called Baal.  The oriental
+Ormuzd was also dual or androgynous.
+
+Orpheus teaches that the divine nature is both female and male. 
+According to Proclus, Jupiter was an immortal maid, "the Queen of
+Heaven, and Mother of the Gods."  All things were contained
+within the womb of Jupiter.  This Virgin within whom was embodied
+the male principle "gave light and life to Eve."  She was the
+life-giving, energizing power in Nature, and was identical with
+Aleim, Om, Astarte, and others.  The Goddess Esta, or Vesta, or
+Hestia, whom Plato calls the "soul of the body of the universe,"
+is believed by Beverly and others to be the Self-Existent, the
+Great "She that Is" of the Hindoos, whose significance is
+identical with the Cushite or Phoenician Deity, Aleim.
+
+According to Marco Polo, the Chinese had but one supreme God of
+whom they had no image, and to whom they prayed for only two
+things--"a sound mind in a sound body."  They had, however, a
+lesser god--probably the same as the "Lord" (masculine) of the
+Jews, to whom they petitioned for rain, fair weather, and all the
+minor accessories of existence.  Upon the walls of the houses of
+the Chinese is a tablet to which they pay their devotion.  On
+this tablet is the name of the "high, celestial, and supreme
+God."  The principal word which this tablet contains is "Tien." 
+Of this Chinese Deity Barlow says: "The Chinese recognize in
+Tienhow, the Queen of Heaven nursing her infant son.  Connected
+with this figure is a lotus bud, symbol of the new birth.
+
+Originally in Chaldea and in Egypt, only one supreme God was
+worshipped.  This Deity was figured by a mother and her child, as
+was the great Chinese God.  It comprehended the universe and all
+the attributes of the Deity.  It was worshipped thousands of
+years prior to the birth of Mary, the Mother of Christ, and
+representations of it are still extant, not only in oriental
+lands, but in many countries of Europe.  Within the oldest
+temples of Egypt are still to be observed sacred apartments which
+contain the "Holy of Holies," and to which, in past ages, none
+might gain access but priests and priestesses of the highest
+order.  Within these apartments are pictured the mysteries of
+birth, together with the symbols of generation emblems of
+procreation.
+
+On the banks of the river Nile are observed the ruins of the
+temple of Philae, which structure, it is said, represents the
+most ancient style of architecture.  Within these ruins is to be
+seen an inner chamber in which are depicted the birth scenes of
+the child god Horus, and, indeed, everywhere among the monuments
+and ruins of Egypt, is plainly visible the fact that the creative
+power and functions in human beings, in animals, and in vegetable
+life, together with Wisdom, once constituted the god-idea.
+
+Between the ruins of the palace of Amunoph III. and the Nile are
+two colossal statues, each hewn from a single block of stone. 
+These figures, although in a sitting posture, are sixty feet
+high.  It is thought that they once formed the entrance to an
+avenue of similar figures leading up to the palace.  It has been
+supposed that the most northern statue represents Ammon, and that
+its companion piece is his Mother.  It is now believed by many
+writers, however, that these figures do not represent two persons
+at all, but that in a remote age of the world's history they were
+worshipped as the two great principles, female and male, which
+animate Nature.  The fact has been observed that Am or Om was
+originally a female Deity, within whom was contained the male
+principle; when, however, through the changes wrought in the
+relative positions of the sexes, the male element in the Divinity
+adored came to be represented as a man instead of as a child, he
+was Ammon.  He was the sun, yet notwithstanding the fact that he
+had drawn to himself the powers of the sun, he was still,
+himself, only a production of or emanation from the female Deity
+Om, Mother of the Gods and Queen of Heaven.  She it was who had
+created or brought forth the sun.
+
+There is a tradition which asserts that every morning a melodious
+sound is emitted from the first named of these two colossal
+figures as he salutes his rosy-fingered Mother whom he
+acknowledges as the source of all Light and Wisdom.  The bodies
+are described as being "without motion, the faces without
+expression, the eyes looking straight forward, yet a certain
+grand simplicity occasions them to be universally admired."
+
+The Goddess Disa or Isa of the North, as delineated on the sacred
+drums of the Laplanders, was accompanied by a child similar to
+the Horus of the Egyptians.[29] It is observed also that the
+ancient Muscovites worshipped a sacred group composed of a mother
+and her children, probably a representation of the Egyptian Isis
+and her offspring, or at least of the once universal idea of the
+Deity.
+
+[29] Jennings, Phallicism.
+
+
+The following is from Payne Knight:
+
+"A female Pantheitic figure in silver, with the borders of the
+drapery plated with gold, and the whole finished in a manner
+surpassing almost anything extant, was among the things found at
+Macon on the Saone, in the year 1764, and published by Caylus. 
+It represents Cybele, the universal mother, with the mural crown
+on her head, and the wings of pervasion growing from her
+shoulders, mixing the productive elements of heat and moisture by
+making a libation upon the flames of an altar.  On each side of
+her head is one of the Discouri, signifying the alternate
+influence of the diurnal and nocturnal Sun; and, upon a crescent
+supported by the tips of her wings, are the seven planets, each
+signified by a bust of its presiding deity resting upon a globe,
+and placed in the order of the days of the week named after them.
+
+In her left hand she holds two cornucopiae, to signify the result
+of her operation on the two hemispheres of the Earth; and upon
+them are the busts of Apollo and Diana, the presiding deities of
+these hemispheres, with a golden disk, intersected by two
+transverse lines, such as is observed on other pieces of ancient
+art, and such as the barbarians of the North employed to
+represent the solar year, divided into four parts, at the back of
+each."[30]
+
+[30] Symbolism of Ancient Art.
+
+
+It was doubtless at a time when woman constituted the head of the
+gens, and when the feminine element in the sun, in human beings,
+and in Nature generally was regarded as the more important, that
+Latona and her son Apollo were worshipped together.  Latona,
+Apollo, and Diana constituted the triune God.  The last two were
+the female and male energies, the former being the source whence
+they sprang.  As soon as one is divested of a belief in the
+popular but erroneous opinion that the gods of the early
+Egyptians and Greeks were deified heroes of former ages, he is
+prepared to perceive the fact that, although to the uninitiated
+these gods appear numberless, in reality they all represent the
+same idea, namely: the dual, moving force in Nature, together
+with Light or Wisdom.
+
+We have seen that when among the nations of antiquity
+civilization had reached its height, the god-idea was represented
+by the figure of a woman with her child; subsequently, however,
+as these nations began to decline, the creative energy
+comprehended simply physical life, or the power to reproduce, and
+was represented by various emblems which will be noticed farther
+on in this work.  In still later ages, after male reproductive
+power had become God, and when, through superstition and
+sensuality, the masses of the people had descended to the rank of
+slaves, monarchs, representing themselves to their ignorant
+subjects as the source of all blessings, even of life itself,
+appropriated the titles of the sun, and claimed for themselves
+the adoration which had formerly belonged to it.  From this fact
+has doubtless arisen the opinion so tenaciously upheld in recent
+times, that the gods of the ancients were only deified heroes of
+former times.
+
+If, during the earlier ages of human existence, all the gods
+resolved themselves into the sun, and if Light and Life, or
+Wisdom and the power to reproduce and sustain life, constituted
+the Deity, then of course God or the sun would be female or male,
+or both, according to the prevailing belief in the comparative
+creative and sustaining forces of the sexes.
+
+From what appears in the foregoing pages the fact has doubtless
+been perceived that the worship of a Virgin and Child does not,
+as is usually supposed, belong exclusively to the Romish
+Christian Church, but, on the contrary, that it constitutes the
+most remote idea of a Creator extant.  As has been hinted, there
+is little doubt that the earliest worship of the woman and child
+was much simpler than was that which came to prevail in later
+ages, at a time when every religious conception was closely
+veiled beneath a mixture of astrology and mythology.  After the
+planets came to be regarded as active agencies in reproduction,
+and powerful in directing all mundane affairs, the Virgin of the
+Sphere while she represented Nature was also the constellation
+which appeared above the horizon at the winter solstice, or at
+the time when the sun had reached its lowest point and had begun
+to return.  At this time, the 25th of December, and just as the
+days began to lengthen, this Virgin gave birth to the Sun-God. 
+It is said that he issued forth from her side, hence the legend
+that Gotama Buddha was produced from the side of Maya, and also
+the story believed by the Gnostics and other Christian sects that
+Jesus was taken from the side of Mary.[31]
+
+[31] The fact will doubtless be remembered that a similar belief
+was entertained concerning the birth of Julius Caesar.
+
+
+Within the churches and in the streets of many cities of Germany
+are to be observed figures of this traditional Virgin.  She is
+standing, one foot upon a crescent and the other on a serpent's
+head, in the mouth of which is the sprig of an apple tree on
+which is an apple.  The tail of the serpent is wound about a
+globe which is partially enveloped in clouds.  On one arm of the
+Virgin is the Child, and in the hand of the other arm she carries
+the sacred lotus.  Her head is encircled with a halo of light
+similar to the rays of the sun.
+
+One is frequently disposed to query: Do the initiated in the
+Romish Church regard these images as legitimate representations
+of Mary, the wife of Joseph and Mother of Christ, or are they
+aware of their true significance?  Certainly the various
+accessories attached to this figure betray its ancient origin and
+reveal its identity with the Egyptian, Chaldean, and Phoenician
+Virgin of the Sphere.
+
+The fact has already been observed that in the original
+representation of the "Temptation" in the cave temple of India,
+it is not the woman but the man who is the tempter, and a
+singular peculiarity observed in connection with this ancient
+female Deity is that it is SHE and NOT HER SEED who is trampling
+on the serpent, thus proving that originally woman and not man
+was worshipped as the Savior.  Another significant feature
+noticed in connection with this subject is that the oldest
+figures which represent this Goddess are black, thus proving that
+she must have belonged to a dark skinned race.
+
+This image, although black, or dark skinned, had long hair, hence
+not a negress.  The most ancient statue of Ceres was black, and
+Pausanias says that at a place called Melangea in Arcadia there
+was a black Venus.  In the Netherlands only a few years ago, was
+a church dedicated to a black goddess.  The Virgin of the Sphere
+who treads on the head of the serpent represents universal
+womanhood.  She is the Virgin of the first book of Genesis and
+mother of all the Earth.  She represents not only creative power
+but Perceptive Wisdom.  Although this Goddess is usually seen
+with the lotus in her hand, she sometimes carries ripe corn or
+wheat.
+
+The mother of Gotama Buddha was called Mai or Maya, after the
+month in which the Earth is arrayed in her most beautiful attire.
+
+Maya is the parent of universal Nature.  According to Davis, the
+mother of Mercury "is the universal genius of Nature which
+discriminated all things according to their various kinds of
+species," the same as was Muth of Egypt.  Mai is said to mean
+"one who begins to illuminate."  She was in fact the mother of
+the sun whence everything proceeds.  She was matter, within which
+was concealed spirit.
+
+In the representations of Montfaucon appears the Goddess Isis
+sitting on the lotus.  Her head, upon which is a globe, is
+surrounded by a radiant circle which evidently represents the
+sun.  On the reverse side is Ieu, the word "which is the usual
+way of the ecclesiastical authors reading the Hebrew word
+Jehovah."  Referring to this from Montfaucon, Godfrey Higgins
+observes: "Here Isis, whose veil no mortal shall ever draw aside,
+the celestial Virgin of the Sphere, is seated on the
+self-generating sacred lotus and is called Ieu or Jove."[32] She
+has also the mystic number 608 which stands for the Deity.  Her
+breasts show plainly that it is a female representation, although
+connected with the figure appears the male emblem to indicate
+that within her are contained both elements, or that the universe
+is embodied within the female.
+
+[32] Anacalypsis, book v., ch. iv.
+
+
+Higgins thinks there is no subject on which more mistakes have
+been made than on that of the Goddess Isis, both by ancients and
+moderns.  He calls attention to the inconsistency of calling her
+the moon when in many countries the moon is masculine.  He is
+quite positive that if Isis is the moon, Ceres, Proserpine,
+Venus, and all the other female gods were the same, which in view
+of the facts everywhere at hand cannot be true.  It is true,
+however, that "the planet called the moon was dedicated to her in
+judicial astrology, the same as a planet was dedicated to Venus
+or Mars.  But Venus and Mars were not these planets themselves,
+though these planets were sacred to them."[33] Higgins then calls
+attention to her temple at Sais in Egypt, and to the inscription
+which declares that "she comprehends all that is and was and is
+to be," that she is "parent of the sun," and he justly concludes
+that Isis can not be the moon.
+
+[33] Anacalypsis, book vi., ch. ii.
+
+
+Apuleius makes Isis say:
+
+"I am the parent of all things, the sovereign of the elements,
+the primary progeny of time, the most exalted of the deities, the
+first of the heavenly gods and goddesses, whose single deity the
+whole world venerates in many forms, with various rites and
+various names.  The Egyptians worship me with proper ceremonies
+and call me by my true name, Queen Isis."
+
+Isis, we are told, is called Myrionymus, or goddess with 10,000
+names.  She is the Persian Mithra, which is the same as Buddha,
+Minerva, Venus, and all the rest.
+
+Faber admits that the female principle was formerly regarded as
+the Soul of the World.  He says:
+
+"Isis was the same as Neith or Minerva; hence the inscription at
+Sais was likewise applied to that goddess.  Athenagoras informs
+us that Neith or the Athene of the Greeks was supposed to be
+Wisdom passing and diffusing itself through all things.  Hence it
+is manifest that she was thought to be the Soul of the World; for
+such is precisely the character sustained by that mythological
+personage."[34]
+
+[34] Pagan Idolatry, book i., p. 170.
+
+
+The same writer says further:
+
+"Ovid gives a similar character to Venus.  He represents her as
+moderating the whole world; as giving laws to Heaven, Earth, and
+Ocean, as the common parent both of gods and men, and as the
+productive cause both of corn and trees.  She is celebrated in
+the same manner by Lucretius, who ascribes to her that identical
+attribute of universality which the Hindoos give to their Goddess
+Isi or Devi."[35]
+
+[35] Ibid.
+
+
+It seems to be the general belief of all writers whose object is
+to disclose rather than conceal the ancient mysteries, that until
+a comparatively recent time the moon was never worshipped as
+Isis.  Until the origin and meaning of the ancient religion had
+been forgotten, and the ideas underlying the worship of Nature
+had been lost, the moon was never regarded as representing the
+female principle.
+
+When man began to regard himself as the only important factor in
+procreation, and when the sun became masculine and heat or
+passion constituted the god-idea, the moon was called Isis.  The
+moon represented the absence of heat, it therefore contained
+little of the recognized god-element.  It was, perhaps, under the
+circumstances, a fitting emblem for woman.
+
+In the sacred writings of the Hindoos there is an account of the
+moon, Soma, having been changed into a female called Chandra,
+"the white or silvery one."
+
+While speaking of the moon, Kalisch says: "The whole ritual of
+the Phoenician Goddess Astarte with whom that Queen of Heaven is
+identical, and who was the goddess of fertility seems to have
+been transferred to her."[36]
+
+[36] Historical and Critical Commentary of the Old Testament.
+
+
+To such an extent, in the earlier ages of the world had the
+female been regarded as the Creator, that in many countries where
+her worship subsequently became identified with that of the moon,
+Luna was adored as the producer of the sun.  According to the
+Babylonian creation tablets, the moon was the most important
+heavenly body.  In later ages, the gender of the sun and the moon
+seems to be exceedingly variable.  The Achts of Vancouver's
+Island worship sun and moon--the sun as female, the moon as
+male.[37] In some of the countries of Africa the moon is adored
+as female and sun-worship is unknown.  Among various peoples the
+sun and the moon are regarded as husband and wife, and among
+others as brother and sister.  In some countries, both are
+female.  I can find no instance in which both are male.  Hindoos
+and Aztecs alike, at one time, said that Luna was male and often
+that the sun was female.
+
+[37] Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 272.
+
+
+The fact that among the Persians the moon as well as the sun was
+at a certain period regarded as a source of procreative energy
+and as influencing the generative processes, is shown by various
+passages in the Avestas.  In the Khordah Avesta, praise is
+offered to "the Moon which contains the seed of cattle, to the
+only begotten Bull, to the Bull of many kinds."
+
+Perhaps the most widely diffused and universally adored
+representation of the ancient female Deity in Egypt was the
+Virgin Neit or Neith, the Athene of the Greeks and the Minerva of
+the Romans.  Her name signifies "I came from myself."  This Deity
+represents not only creative power, but abstract intelligence,
+Wisdom or Light.  Her temple at Sais was the largest in Egypt. 
+It was open at the top and bore the following inscription: "I am
+all that was and is and is to be; no mortal has lifted up my
+veil, and the fruit which I brought forth was the sun."  She was
+called also Muth, the universal mother.  Kings were especially
+honored in the title "Son of Neith."
+
+To express the idea that the female energy in the Deity
+comprehended not alone the power to bring forth, but that it
+involved all the natural powers, attributes, and possibilities of
+human nature, it was portrayed by a pure Virgin who was also a
+mother.  According to Herodotus, the worship of Minerva was
+indigenous in Lybia, whence it travelled to Egypt and was carried
+from thence to Greece.  Among the remnants of Egyptian mythology,
+the figure of a mother and child is everywhere observed.  It is
+thought by various writers that the worship of the black virgin
+and child found its way to Italy from Egypt.
+
+The change noted in the growth of the religious idea by which the
+male principle assumes the more important position in the Deity
+may, by a close investigation of the facts at hand, be easily
+traced, and, as has before been expressed, this change will be
+found to correspond with that which in an earlier age of the
+world took place in the relative positions of the sexes.  In all
+the earliest representations of the Deity, the fact is observed
+that within the mother element is contained the divinity adored,
+while the male appears as a child and dependent on the
+ministrations of the female for existence and support. 
+Gradually, however, as the importance of man begins to be
+recognized in human affairs, we find that the male energy in the
+Deity, instead of appearing as a child in the arms of its mother,
+is represented as a man, and that he is of equal importance with
+the woman; later he is identical with the sun, the woman,
+although still a necessary factor in the god-idea, being
+concealed or absorbed within the male.  It is no longer woman who
+is to bruise the serpent's head, but the seed of the woman, or
+the son.  He is Bacchus in Greece, Adonis in Syria, Christna in
+India.  He is indeed the new sun which is born on the 25th of
+December, or at the time when the solar orb has reached its
+lowest position and begins to ascend.  It is not perhaps
+necessary to add that he is also the Christ of Bethlehem, the son
+of the Virgin.
+
+Nowhere, perhaps, is the growing importance of the male in the
+god-idea more clearly traced than in the history of the Arabians. 
+Among this people are still to be found certain remnants of the
+matriarchal age--an age in which women were the recognized heads
+of families and the eponymous leaders of the gentes or clans. 
+Concerning the worship of a man and woman as god by the early
+Arabians, Prof. Robertson Smith remarks:
+
+"Except the comparatively modern Isaf and Naila in the sanctuary
+at Mecca where there are traditions of Syrian influence, I am not
+aware that the Arabs had pairs of gods represented as man and
+wife.  In the time of Mohammed the female deities, such as
+Al-lat, were regarded as daughters of the supreme male God.  But
+the older conception as we see from a Nabataean inscription in De
+Vogue, page 119, is that Al-lat is mother of the gods.  At Petra
+the mother-goddess and her son were worshipped together, and
+there are sufficient traces of the same thing elsewhere to lead
+us to regard this as having been the general rule when a god and
+goddess were worshipped in one sanctuary."[38]
+
+[38] Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, ch. vi., p. 179.
+
+
+As the worship of the black virgin and child is connected with
+the earliest religion of which we may catch a glimpse, the exact
+locality in which it first appeared must be somewhat a matter of
+conjecture, but that this idea constituted the Deity among the
+Ethiopian or early Cushite race, the people who doubtless carried
+civilization to Egypt, India, and Chaldea, is quite probable.
+
+If we bear in mind the fact that the gods of the ancients
+represented principles and powers, we shall not be surprised to
+find that Muth, Neith, or Isis, who was creator of the sun, was
+also the first emanation from the sun.  Minerva is Wisdom--the
+Logos, the Word.  She is Perception, Light, etc.  At a later
+stage in the history of religion, all emanations from the Deity
+are males who are "Saviors."
+
+That the office of the male as a creative agency is dependent on
+the female, is a fact so patent that for ages the mother
+principle could not be eliminated from the conception of a Deity,
+and the homage paid to Athene or Minerva, even after women had
+become only sexual slaves and household tools, shows the extent
+to which the idea of female supremacy in Nature and in the Deity
+had taken root.
+
+Notwithstanding the efforts which during numberless ages were
+made to dethrone the female principle in the god-idea, the Great
+Mother, under some one of her various appellations, continued,
+down to a late period in the history of the human race, to claim
+the homage and adoration of a large portion of the inhabitants of
+the globe.  And so difficult was it, even after the male element
+had declared itself supreme, to conceive of a creative force
+independently of the female principle, that oftentimes, during
+the earlier ages of their attempted separation, great confusion
+and obscurity are observed in determining the positions of male
+deities.  Zeus who in later times came to be worshipped as male
+was formerly represented as "the great dyke, the terrible virgin
+who breathes out on crime, anger, and death."  Grote refers to
+numerous writers as authority for the statement that Dionysos,
+who usually appears in Greece as masculine, and who was doubtless
+the Jehovah of the Jews, was indigenous in Thrace, Phrygia, and
+Lydia as the Great Mother Cybele.  He was identical with Bacchus,
+who although represented on various coins as a "bearded venerable
+figure" appears with the limbs, features, and character of a
+beautiful young woman.  Sometimes this Deity is portrayed with
+sprouting horns, and again with a crown of ivy.  The Phrygian
+Attis and the Syrian Adonis, as represented in monuments of
+ancient art, are androgynous personifications of the same
+attributes.  According to the testimony of the geographer
+Dionysius, the worship of Bacchus was formerly carried on in the
+British Islands in exactly the same manner as it had been in an
+earlier age in Thrace and on the banks of the Ganges.
+
+In referring to the Idean Zeus in Crete, to Demeter at Eleusis,
+to the Cabairi in Samothrace, and Dionysos at Delphi and Thebes,
+Grote observes: "That they were all to a great degree analogous,
+is shown by the way in which they necessarily run together and
+become confused in the minds of various authors."
+
+Concerning Sadi, Sadim, or Shaddai, Higgins remarks:
+
+"Parkhurst tells us it means all-bountiful--the pourer forth of
+blessings; among the Heathen, the Dea Multimammia; in fact the
+Diana of Ephesus, the Urania of Persia, the Jove of Greece,
+called by Orpheus the Mother of the Gods, each male as well as
+female--the Venus Aphrodite; in short, the genial powers of
+Nature."
+
+To which Higgins adds: "And I maintain that it means the figure
+which is often found in collections of ancient statues, most
+beautifully executed, and called the Hermaphrodite."
+
+As in the old language there was no neuter gender, the gods must
+always appear either as female or male.  For apparent reasons, in
+all the translations, through the pronouns and adjectives used,
+the more important ancient deities have all been made to appear
+as males.
+
+By at least two ancient writers Jupiter is called the Mother of
+the Gods.  In reference to a certain Greek appellation, Bryant
+observes that it is a masculine name for a feminine deity--a name
+which is said to be a corruption of Mai, the Hindoo Queen of
+Heaven.
+
+In process of time, as the world became more and more
+masculinized, so important did it become that the male should
+occupy the more exalted place in the Deity, that even the Great
+Mother of the Gods, as we have seen, is represented as male.
+
+The androgynous or plural form of the ancient Phoenician God
+Aleim, the Creator referred to in the opening chapter of Genesis,
+is clearly apparent.  This God, speaking to his counterpart,
+Wisdom, the female energy, says: "Let us make man in our own
+image, in our own likeness," and accordingly males and females
+are produced.  By those whose duty it has been in the past to
+prove that the Deity here represented is composed only of the
+masculine attributes, we are given to understand that God was
+really "speaking to himself," and that in his divine cogitations
+excessive modesty dictated the "polite form of speech"; he did
+not, therefore, say exactly what he meant, or at least did not
+mean precisely what he said.  We have to bear in mind, however,
+that as man had not at that time been created, if there were no
+female element present, this excess of politeness on the part of
+the "Lord" was wholly lost.  Surely, in a matter involving such
+an enormous stretch of power as the creation of man independently
+of the female energy, we would scarcely expect to find the high
+and mighty male potentate which was subsequently worshipped as
+the Lord of the Israelites laying aside his usual "I the Lord,"
+simply out of deference to the animals.
+
+In Christian countries, during the past eighteen hundred years,
+the greatest care has been exercised to conceal the fact that
+sun-worship underlies all forms of religion, and under Protestant
+Christianity no pains has been spared in eliminating the female
+element from the god-idea; hence the ignorance which prevails at
+the present time in relation to the fact that the Creator once
+comprehended the forces of Nature, which by an older race were
+worshipped as female.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE DUAL GOD OF THE ANCIENTS A TRINITY ALSO.
+
+Although the God of the most ancient people was a dual Unity, in
+later ages it came to be worshipped as a Trinity.  When mankind
+began to speculate on the origin of the life principle, they came
+to worship their Deity in its three capacities as Creator,
+Preserver, and Destroyer or Regenerator, each of which was female
+and male.  We have observed that, according to Higgins, when this
+Trinity was spoken of collectively, it was called after the
+feminine plural.
+
+By the various writers who have dealt with this subject during
+the last century, much surprise has been manifested over the fact
+that for untold ages the people of the earth have worshipped a
+Trinity.  Forster, in his Sketches of Hindoo Mythology, says:
+"One circumstance which forcibly struck my attention was the
+Hindoo belief of a Trinity."
+
+Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, observes that the idea of
+three persons in the Deity was diffused amongst all the nations
+of the earth, in regions as distant as Japan and Peru, that it
+was memorially acknowledged throughout the whole extent of Egypt
+and India, "flourishing with equal vigor amidst the snowy
+mountains of Thibet, and the vast deserts of Siberia."  The idea
+of a Trinity is supposed to have been first elaborated on the
+banks of the Indus, whence it was carried to the Greek and Latin
+nations.  Astrologically the triune Deity of the ancients
+portrayed the processes of Nature.
+
+This recondite doctrine as understood by the very ancient people
+which originated it, involved a knowledge of Nature far too deep
+to be appreciated or understood by their degenerate descendants,
+except perhaps by a few philosophers and scholars who imbibed it
+in a modified form from original sources in the far East.
+
+After the establishment of the Trinity, the creative energy,
+which had formerly been represented by a mother and child, came
+to be figured by the mother, father, and the life derived
+therefrom.  Sometimes the Trinity took the form of the two
+creative forces, female and male, and the Great Mother.
+
+Whenever the two creative principles were considered separately,
+there always appeared stationed over or above them, as their
+Creator, an indivisible unity.  This Creator was the "Beyond,"
+the "most High God"--Om or Aleim.  It was the Mother of the Gods
+in whom were contained all the elements of the Deity.  Among the
+representations of the god-idea which are to be observed on the
+monuments and in the temples of Egypt appear triads, each of
+which is composed of a woman stationed between a male figure and
+that of a child.  She is depicted as the Light of the sun, or
+Wisdom, while the male is manifested as the Heat of the orb of
+day.  She is crowned and always bears the male symbol of life--
+the crux-ansata.
+
+Later, it is observed that the worship of Light has in a measure
+given place to the adoration of Heat, in other words Light is no
+longer adored as essence of the Deity, Heat or Passion having
+become the most important element in creative power.
+
+After the ancient worship of the Virgin and Child had become
+somewhat changed or modified so as to better accommodate itself
+to the growing importance of the male, the most exalted
+conception of the Deity in Egypt seems to have been that of a
+trinity composed of Mout the Mother, Ammon the Father, and Chons
+the Infant Life derived from the other two.  Mout is identical
+with Neith, but she has become the wife as well as the mother of
+Ammon.  Directly below this conception of the Deity is a triad
+representing less exalted attributes, or lower degrees of wisdom,
+under the appellations of Sate, Kneph, and the child Anouk; and
+thus downward, through the varying spheres of celestial light and
+life involved in their theogony are observed the divine creative
+energies represented under the figures of Mother, Father, and the
+Life proceeding therefrom, until, finally, when the earth is
+reached, Isis, Osiris, and Horus appear as the representation of
+the creative forces in human beings, and therefore as the
+embodiment of the divine in the human.
+
+The Deity invoked in all the earlier inscriptions is a triad, and
+we are assured that in Babylonia, where Beltis is associated with
+Belus, "no god appears without a goddess."
+
+The supreme Deity of Assyria was Asshur, who was worshipped
+sometimes as female, sometimes as male.  This God doubtless
+represents the dual or triple creative principle observed in all
+the earlier forms of worship.  Asshur had no distinct temple, but
+as her position was at the head of the Pantheon, all the shrines
+throughout Assyria were supposed to have been open to her
+worship.
+
+According to Bunsen, in the Sidonian Tyrian district, there were
+originally three great gods, at the head of which appears
+Astarte--a woman who represents pure reason or intelligence; then
+follows Zeus, Demarius, and Adorus.  Without doubt this triad
+represents a monad Deity similar in character to the one observed
+in Egypt and other countries.
+
+In the minds of all well-informed persons, there is no longer any
+doubt that in Abraham's time the Canaanites worshipped the same
+gods as did the Persians and all the other nations about them--
+namely, Elohim, the dual or triune creative force in Nature.  As
+the Sun was the source whence proceeded all light and life as
+well as reproductive or generative power, it had become the
+object of adoration, and as the emblem of the Deity, it was
+worshipped by all the nations of the earth in its three
+capacities as Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer or Regenerator
+each female and male.
+
+Melchizedek, who was a priest of the most high God, blessed
+Abraham, who was a worshipper of the same Deity.  On this subject
+Dr. Shuckford says:
+
+"It is evident that Abraham and his descendants worshipped not
+only the true and living God, but they invoked him in the name of
+the Lord, and they worshipped the Lord whose name they invoked,
+so that two persons were the object of their worship, God and
+this Lord: and the Scriptures have distinguished these two
+persons from one another by this circumstance, that God no man
+hath seen at any time nor can see but the Lord whom Abraham and
+his descendants worshipped was the person who appeared to them."
+
+We are told that when chap. xxi., verse 33, of Genesis is
+correctly translated, Abraham is represented as having invoked
+Jehovah, the everlasting God.
+
+In the Hebrew name Yod-He-Vau (Jehovah), was set forth the triune
+character of the Creator; in other words, this name "comprehended
+the essential perfections of the great God," and was used in
+their Scriptures as a "kind of summary or revelation of the
+attributes of the Deity."
+
+Although Abraham, while in Egypt, was the worshipper of idols, we
+are assured that "the peculiar privilege vouchsafed to him lay in
+the revelation of God's holy name, Yod-He-Vau.  There is indeed
+much evidence going to prove that the people represented by
+Abraham understood the earlier conception of a Deity, and that
+while the great universal principle whose name it was sacrilege
+to pronounce was still acknowledged, there was another God (the
+Lord), the same as in China, whose worship they were beginning to
+adopt.  "And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me,
+and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to
+eat, and raiment to put on,
+
+So that I come again to my Father's house in peace; then shall
+the Lord be my God."
+
+He then declared that the pillar or stone which he had set up,
+and which was the emblem of male procreative energy, should be
+God's house.
+
+As at the time represented by Jacob there was evidently little or
+no spirituality among the Israelites, this Lord whom they
+worshipped was simply a life-giver in the most material or
+practical sense.
+
+The reproductive energy in man had become deified.  It had, in
+other words, come to possess all the attributes of a god, or of a
+powerful man, which in reality was the same thing.  It is this
+god personified which is represented as appearing to Abraham and
+talking with him face to face.  With this same god Jacob
+wrestled, while the real God--the dual or triune principle, the
+Jehovah or Iav, no man could behold and live.
+
+To conceal the fact that the God of Abraham originally consisted
+of a dual or triple unity, and that the Deity was identical in
+significance with that of contemporary peoples, the priests have,
+as usual, had recourse to a trick to deceive the ignorant or
+uninitiated.  In reference to this subject Godfrey Higgins says:
+
+"In the second book of Genesis the creation is described not to
+have been made by Aleim, or the Aleim, but by a God of a double
+name Ieue Aleim; which the priests have translated Lord God.  By
+using the word Lord, their object evidently is to conceal from
+their readers several difficulties which afterward arise
+respecting the names of God and this word, and which show clearly
+that the books of the Pentateuch are the writings of different
+persons."[39]
+
+[39] Anacalypsis, book ii., ch, i.
+
+
+Upon this subject Bishop Colenso observes:
+
+"And it is especially to be noted that when the Elohistic
+passages are all extracted and copied one after another, they
+form a complete, connected narrative; from which we infer that
+these must have composed the original story, and that the other
+passages were afterwards inserted by another writer, who wished
+to enlarge or supplement the primary record.  And he seems to
+have used the compound Jehovah Aleim in the first portion of his
+work in order to impress upon the reader that Jehovah, of whom he
+goes on to speak in the later portions, is the same Great Being
+who is called simply Elohim by the older writer, and notably in
+the first account of the creation."[40]
+
+[40] Lectures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite Stone, p. 7.
+
+
+We are informed by Bunsen that El, or Elohim, comprehends the
+true significance of the Deity among all the Aramaic or
+Canaanitish races, El representing the abstract principle taken
+collectively, Elohim pertaining to the separate elements as
+Creator, Preserver, and Regenerator.  Each of these Canaanitish
+races had inherited these ideas from their fathers, and, although
+they had become grossly idolatrous, "Moses knew, and educated
+Israelites remained a long time conscious, that they used them
+not merely in their real but in their most ancient sense."[41]
+Maurice and other writers call attention to the fact that Moses
+himself uses this word Elohim with verbs and adjectives in the
+plural.  That the God worshipped by the more ancient peoples,
+namely Aleim, or Elohim, the same who said, "Let us make man in
+our image," was not the Lord adored at a later age by the Jews,
+is a fact which at the present time seems to be clearly proven;
+that it constituted, however, the dual or triune unity venerated
+by all the nations on the globe of which we have any record,
+appears to be well established.
+
+[41] Bunsen, History of Egypt, vol. iv., p. 421.
+
+
+We have seen that although the two sex-principles which underlie
+Nature constituted the Creator, the ancients thought of it only
+as one and indivisible.  This indivisible aspect was the sacred
+Iav, the Holy of Holies.  When it was contemplated in its
+individual aspect it was Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, each
+of which was female and male.
+
+The difficulty of the ancients in establishing a First Cause
+seems to have been exactly the same as is ours at the present
+time.  When we say there must have been a God who created all
+things, the question at once arises, Who created God? According
+to their theories, nothing could be brought forth without the
+interaction of two creative principles, female and male; yet
+everything, even these principles, must proceed from an
+indivisible energy--an energy which, as the idea of the sex
+functions became more and more clearly defined, could not be
+contemplated except in its dual aspect.  So soon, therefore, as
+the Great First Cause was separated into its elements, a still
+higher power was immediately stationed above it as its Creator. 
+This Creator was designated as female.  It was the Mother idea
+Even gods could not be produced without a mother.
+
+In referring to the doctrines contained in the Geeta, one of the
+sacred writings of the Hindoos, Faber observes:
+
+"In the single character of Brahm, all the three offices of
+Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva are united.  He is at once the Creator,
+the Preserver, and the Destroyer.  He is the primeval
+Hermaphrodite, or the Great Father and the Great Mother blended
+together in one person."
+
+The fact that a trinity in unity, representing the female and
+male energies symbolized by the organs of generation, formerly
+constituted the Deity throughout Asia is acknowledged by all
+those who have examined either the literature or monumental
+records of oriental countries.  The Rev. Mr. Maurice bears
+testimony to the character of Eastern religious ideas in the
+following language:
+
+"Whoever will read the Geeta with attention, will perceive in
+that small tract the outlines of all the various systems of
+theology in Asia.  The curious and ancient doctrine of the
+Creator being both male and female, mentioned on a preceding
+page, to be designated in Indian temples by a very indecent
+exhibition of the masculine and feminine organs of generation in
+union, occurs in the following passage: 'I am the Father and
+Mother of this world; I plant myself upon my own nature and
+create again and again this assemblage of beings; I am generation
+and dissolution, the place where all things are deposited, and
+the inexhaustible seed of all Nature.  I am the beginning, the
+middle, and the end of all things.' "[42]
+
+[42] Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. iv., p. 705.
+
+
+According to Sir W. Jones, the Brahme, Vishnu, and Siva coalesce
+to form the mystic Om, which means the essence of life or divine
+fire.  In the Bhagavat Geeta the supreme God speaks thus
+concerning itself: "I am the holy one worthy to be known"; and
+immediately adds: "I am the mystic [trilateral] figure Om; the
+Reig, the Yagush, and the Saman Vedas."  It is a unity and still
+a trinity.  This Om or Aum stands for the Creator, Preserver, and
+Destroyer or Regenerator, and represents the threefold aspect of
+the force within the sun.  The doctrine maintained throughout the
+Geeta is not only that the great life-force represents a trinity
+in unity, but that it is both female and male.  On this subject
+Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, says:
+
+"This notion of three persons in the Deity was diffused amongst
+all the nations of the earth, established at once in regions so
+distant as Japan and Peru, immemorially acknowledged throughout
+the whole extent of Egypt and India, and flourishing with equal
+vigor amidst the snowy mountains of Thibet, and the vast deserts
+of Siberia."
+
+We have observed that the idea of a trinity as conceived by the
+so-called ancients, although at all times founded on the same
+conception, viz., that of the reproductive powers of Nature and
+especially of mankind, differed in expression according to its
+application.  Although in human beings this triune creative idea
+was expressed by the mother, father, and child, as set forth in
+the temples and on the monuments of Egypt, when applied directly
+to the sun and the planets, it appears as the Creator, Preserver,
+and Regenerator or Destroyer.
+
+Destruction, or the absence of the sun's heat, represented by
+winter, was necessary to life, and therefore the Destroyer was
+also the Regenerator and equally with the Creator and Preserver
+constituted a beneficent factor in the god-idea.  In fact as this
+third element really embodied the substance of the other two, it
+finally became the supreme God, little afterward being heard
+about the Creator and Preserver.  The Regenerator or Destroyer
+was of course the sun, which in winter died away and rose again
+in the spring-time as a beneficent Savior or renewer of life. 
+The principle involved in these processes represented Fertility,
+Life, reproductive energy.  As applied to mortals, it
+comprehended the power to create combined with perceptive Wisdom
+or Knowledge.
+
+This idea, portrayed as it was by a mother and her child, linked
+woman with the stars.  It produced the "Virgin of the Sphere,"
+Queen of Heaven, "Isiac Controller of the Zodiac," at the same
+time that it made her the mother of all mankind.
+
+Every year this Virgin of the Sphere as she appeared above the
+horizon at the winter solstice gave birth to the sun. 
+Astronomically this new sun was the Regenerator, by which all
+Nature was renewed.  Mythologically, after the higher truths
+contained in these doctrines were lost, it came to be the Savior,
+the Son of the Virgin, the seed of the woman, which was to bruise
+the serpent's head.
+
+That the religion of an ancient race comprehended a knowledge of
+the evolutionary processes of Nature may not be doubted.  The
+myths still extant, and even the oldest Assyrian inscriptions
+which have been deciphered, reveal the fact that the seeds of the
+visible universe were hidden in the "great deep"--that animal
+creation sprang from the earth and the sea through the influence
+of the sun's rays.
+
+It is now known that the philosophy of an older race involved a
+belief in the Eternity of Matter.  The abstruse doctrine of
+Reincarnation and the Renewal of Worlds seems to have formed the
+basis of their philosophy.  According to these speculations, a
+portion of the earth was destroyed or resolved into its primary
+elements every six hundred years, while at the end of each
+Kalpia, or great Cycle of several thousand years, the entire
+earth was renovated or absorbed into the two fecundating
+principles of the universe.  These two indivisible forces
+represented by Vishnu rested in the water, or brooded on the face
+of the deep. When stirred by love for each other they again
+became active, and from the germs of a former world, which had
+been absorbed by themselves, created again the earth and
+everything upon it.  In other words, "the earth sprang from the
+navel of Vishnu or Brahme."  According to the Buddhists of
+Ceylon, the universe has perished ten different times, and each
+time has been renewed by the operations of Nature, or by the
+preservation of germs from a former world.  In their mythology
+these germs are represented by a parent and a triplicated
+offspring.  It is perhaps unnecessary to add that this monad
+trinity is the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer with their great
+parent, the Mother of the Gods, which in process of time came to
+be regarded as male.  According to Wilford, Hindoo chronology
+presents fourteen different periods, six of which have already
+elapsed; we are in the seventh, which began with the flood.  Each
+of these periods is called a Manwantara, the presiding genius or
+Deity of which is a Menu.  At the close of each dynasty a total
+destruction of the world takes place, everything being destroyed
+except the ruler, or Menu, who "escapes in a boat."  Each new
+world is an exact counterpart of the one destroyed, and each Menu
+is a representation of all preceding ones.  Thus the history of
+one dynasty serves for all the rest.  This doctrine of a
+triplicated Deity appearing at the beginning of a new creation
+may be traced in nearly every country of the globe.  Among the
+Buddhists of China, Fo is mysteriously multiplied into three
+persons in the same manner as is Fo-hi, who is evidently Noah. 
+Among the Hindoos is observed the triad Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva
+springing from the monad Brahm or Brahme.  This triad appears on
+the earth at the beginning of each Manwantara in the human form
+of Menu and his three sons.  We are assured that among the
+Tartars evident traces are found of a similar God, who is seated
+on the lotus.  It is also figured on a Siberian medal in the
+imperial collection at St. Petersburg.  The Jakuthi Tartars, who
+are said to be the most numerous people of Siberia, worship a
+triplicated Deity under the three denominations of Artugon and
+Schugo-tangon and Tangara.  Faber tells us that this Tartar God
+is the same even in appellation with the Tanga-tanga of the
+Peruvians, who, like other tribes of America, seem plainly to
+have crossed over from the North-eastern extremity of Siberia. 
+Upon this subject the same writer remarks thus:
+
+"Agreeably to the mystical notion so familiar to the Hindoos,
+that the self-triplicated Great Father yet remained but one in
+essence, the Peruvians supposed their Tanga-tanga to be one in
+three, and three in one: and in consequence of the union of hero
+worship with the astronomical and material systems of idolatry
+they venerated the sun and the air, each under three images and
+three names.  The same opinions equally prevailed throughout the
+nations which lie to the west of Hindostan.  Thus the Persians
+had their Ormuzd, Mithras, and Ahriman: or, as the matter was
+sometimes represented, their self-triplicating Mithras.  The
+Syrians had their Monimus, Aziz, and Ares.  The Egyptians had
+their Emeph, Eicton, and Phtha.  The Greeks and Romans had their
+Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; three in number, though one in
+essence, and all springing from Cronus, a fourth, yet older God. 
+The Canaanites had their Baal-Spalisha or self-triplicated Baal. 
+The Goths had their Odin, Vile, and Ve, who are described as the
+three sons of Bura, the offspring of the mysterious cow, and the
+Celts had their three bulls, venerated as the living symbols of
+the triple Hu or Menu.  To the same class we must ascribe the
+triads of the Orphic and Pythagorean and Platonic schools; each
+of which must again be identified with the imperial triad of the
+old Chaldaic or Babylonian philosophy."[43]
+
+[43] Faber, Pagan Idolatry, book vi., ch. ii., p. 470.
+
+
+The history of the catastrophe known as the deluge, which, it is
+claimed, took place either in Armenia, at Cashgar, or at some
+other place in the East, is observed, in later ages, to furnish a
+covering beneath which have been veiled the mythical doctrines of
+the priests.  Of the catastrophes which from time to time have
+visited our planet, and of the belief which has come to be
+entertained by ecclesiastics that the earth will be destroyed by
+fire, Celsus writes:
+
+"The belief has spread among them, from a misunderstanding of the
+accounts of these occurrences, that after lengthened cycles of
+time, and the returns and conjunctions of planets,
+conflagrations, and floods are wont to happen, and because after
+the last flood, which took place in the time of Deucalion, the
+lapse of time, agreeably to the vicissitude of all things,
+requires a conflagration; and this made them give utterance to
+the erroneous opinion that God will descend, bringing fire like a
+torturer."[44]
+
+[44] Origen against Celsus, book iv., ch. xi.
+
+
+The mythologies of all nations are largely founded upon the
+"religious history" of a flood.  The doctrine of a triplicated
+God saved from destruction by a storm-tossed ark which rested on
+some local mountain answering to Ararat, and which was filled
+with the natural elements of reproduction, is found amongst the
+traditions of every country of the globe.  In Egypt, the
+destructive agency drives the God into the ark--or into the
+fish's belly, where he is obliged to remain until the flood
+subsides.  In other words, at the time of the destruction of the
+world, the creative agency is forced within the womb of Nature,
+there to remain until it again comes forth to recreate the world;
+nor does the symbolism end here, for this God--the sun, or the
+reproductive power within it, which every year is put to death by
+the cold of winter, must for a season remain lifeless, but, at
+the proper time, will come forth with healing in his wings.  This
+God must issue forth to life through female Nature.
+
+The god-man, Noah, who appears under one appellation or another
+in all extant mythologies, was slain, or shut up in a box, ark,
+or chest in which he or his seed was preserved from the ravages
+of a mighty flood, or from destruction by the calamity which had
+befallen the rest of mankind.  In one sense he represents a
+Savior, in another sense he is the saved, for he is the seed of a
+former world and is born again from a boat, a symbol which always
+represents the female energy.  Sometimes he is shut up in a
+wooden cow, from which he issues forth to new life.  Again this
+storm tossed mariner is born from a cave, or the door of a rocky
+cavern, within which he had been preserved from some terrible
+catastrophe, caused either by water or fire.
+
+Sir W. Jones, Faber, Higgins, and many others who have
+investigated this subject are confident that the Noah of Genesis
+is identical with Menu, the law-giver of India, and that both are
+Adam, a man who appears with his three sons at the end of each
+cycle, or six hundred years, to renovate the world.  In the six
+hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, on the
+first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. 
+The drying of the waters, and the beginning anew just at the
+close of the six hundred years, are thought to refer to the end
+of the cycle of the Neros.  A year of Menu or Buddha had expired
+and a new dynasty or Mamwantara was to begin.
+
+Regarding this trinity, Faber remarks:
+
+"Brahm then at the head of the Indian triad is Menu at the head
+of his three sons.  But that by the first Menu we are to
+understand Adam, is evident, both from the remarkable
+circumstance of himself and his consort bearing the titles of
+Adima and Iva, and from the no less remarkable tradition that one
+of his three sons was murdered by his brother at a sacrifice. 
+Hence it will follow, that Brahm at the head of the Indian triad
+is Adam at the head of his three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth. 
+Each Menu with his triple offspring is only the reappearance of a
+former Menu with his triple offspring; for, in every such
+manifestation at the commencement of each Mamwantara, the Hindoo
+Trimurti, or triad, becomes incarnate, by transmigrating from the
+human bodies occupied during a former incarnation; Brahm or the
+Unity appearing as the paternal Menu of a new age, while the
+triad, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, is exhibited in the person of
+his three sons.  .  .  .  But the ark-preserved Menu--Satyavrata
+and his three sons are certainly Noah and his three sons, Shem,
+Ham, and Japhet."
+
+Hesiod teaches that, after the flood, Chaos, Night, and black
+Erebus first appeared.[45] At this time, when there was no Earth,
+no Heaven, and no Air, an egg floated on the face of the deep,
+which, being parted, brought forth Love, or Cupid.  Out of Chaos
+this God created or formed all things.  Now Cupid is the same as
+the Greek Phanes, and Phanes is Noah, the egg being the ark or
+female principle from which he was produced.  The Greek God
+Phanes is the same as the Egyptian Osiris, who was driven into
+the ark by the "wind that blasts," or by the evil principle.
+
+[45] The Theogony.
+
+
+"As Cupid is indifferently said to have been produced from an egg
+at a time when the whole world was in disorder, and from the womb
+of the marine goddess Venus, the egg and the womb of that goddess
+must denote the same thing.  Accordingly we shall find that, on
+the one hand, Venus is immediately connected with the symbolical
+egg; and, on the other hand, that she is identical with Derceto
+and Isis, and is declared to be that general receptacle out of
+which all the hero-gods were produced.  Now there can be little
+doubt in what sense we are to understand this expression, when we
+are told that the peculiar symbol of Isis was a ship; and when we
+learn that the form assumed at the period of the deluge, by the
+Indian Isi or Bhavani, who is clearly the same as the Egyptian
+Isis, was the ship Argha, in which her consort Siva floated
+securely on the surface of the ocean.  Venus, therefore, or the
+Great Mother, the parent of Cupid from whom all mankind
+descended, must be the Ark: consequently, the egg, with which she
+is connected, must be the Ark also.  Aristophanes informs us that
+the egg out of which Love was born, was produced by Night in the
+bosom of Erebus.  But the Goddess Night, as we learn from the
+Orphic poet, was the very same person as Venus; and he celebrates
+her as the parent of the Universe, and as the general mother both
+of the hero-gods and of man.  The egg therefore produced by Night
+was produced by Venus: but Venus and the egg meant the same
+thing: even that vast floating machine, which was esteemed an
+epitome of the world, and from which was born that Deity who is
+also literally said to have been set afloat in an ark.  Sometimes
+the order of production was inverted; and, instead of the egg
+being produced by Night or Venus, Venus herself was fabled to
+have been produced from the egg.  There is a remarkable legend of
+this sort which ascribes Venus and her egg to the age of Typhon
+and Osiris, in other words, to the age in which Noah was
+compelled by the deluge to enter into the ark."[46]
+
+[46] Origin of Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. iv.
+
+
+The Preserver of the Persians, who is seated on a rainbow in
+front of their rock temples, is Mithras, who is identical with
+Noah.  Sometimes this ancient mariner is represented as riding on
+the back of a fish, and again as floating in a boat.  The God of
+Hindostan, like the classical Dionysos, was enclosed in an ark
+and driven into the sea.  According to the Gothic traditions as
+recorded in the Eddas, there once existed a beautiful world,
+which was destroyed by fire.  Another was created, which, with
+all its inhabitants save a giant and his three sons, who were
+saved in a ship, were destroyed by water.  With this triad, which
+originally sprang from a mysterious cow, the new world began. 
+This new world, which represents the present system, will in time
+be devoured by flames; but another earth will arise from the
+ocean,--an earth far more beautiful than this, upon which all
+kinds of grain and delicious fruits will grow without
+cultivation.  Veda and Vile will be there, for the conflagration
+will have been powerless to destroy them.  While the flames are
+devouring all things, two human beings, a female and a male, will
+be concealed under a hill, where they will feed upon dew, and
+will propagate so abundantly that the earth will soon be peopled
+with a new race of beings.  During the catastrophe, the sun will
+be devoured by a wolf, but before her death she will give birth
+to a daughter as resplendent as herself, who will go in the same
+path formerly trodden by her mother.
+
+The doctrines of the Gothic philosophers, as they appear in the
+Eddas, concerning the eternity of matter, the renewal or
+succession of worlds, and reincarnation are the same as those
+taught by Pythagoras, the Stoics, and other Greek schools of
+thought.
+
+Brahme or Vishnu, resting on the bottom of the sea--a goddess
+who was symbolized by the self-generating lotus--was in later
+ages the mysterious Cow of the Goths.
+
+After the natural truths concealed beneath their religious
+symbolism were wholly forgotten, and human nature through the
+over-stimulation of the animal instincts had become corrupted,
+Adam and Eve, names which doubtless for ages represented the two
+fecundating principles throughout Nature, with their sons, Cain,
+Abel, and Seth, comprehended the god-idea.  The fact has been
+observed that just six hundred years from the creation of Adam,
+or at the close of the cycle, Noah appears with his three sons to
+save or perpetuate the race.
+
+It is now believed that this account of Noah and his three sons
+is an allegory beneath which are concealed the religious
+doctrines, or perhaps I should say, the philosophical
+speculations of an older race.  The God of the ancients was
+identified with the life of man individually and with that of
+mankind collectively.  As men die each day, and as every day men
+are born, this Deity is said to die and to be renewed each day;
+and as he is the sun, or the incarnation of the sun, the rising
+and setting of this luminary depict the constantly dying and
+regenerating God of Nature, the same as do the changing seasons. 
+A similar idea reappears in their system of the renewal of worlds
+and reincarnation.
+
+Regarding the doctrine of the eternity of matter held by the
+ancients, Origen mentions a belief of the Egyptians that the
+
+"world or its substance was never produced, but that it has
+existed from all eternity.  Neither is there any such thing as
+death.  Those who perish about us every day are simply changed,
+either they take on other forms or are removed to some other
+place.  God cannot be destroyed, and as all things are parts of
+the Deity everything lives and has always lived, seeming death
+being simply change.  Remnants of these doctrines are found in
+every portion of the globe; among the Mexicans of the west as
+well as among the rude mountaineers of the Burman Empire."
+
+While contemplating the philosophical speculations of an ancient
+race Bailly gave expression to the belief, that a "profoundly
+learned race of people existed previous to the formation of any
+of our systems."  The wiser among the Greek philosophers, those
+who, it is believed, borrowed their philosophical doctrines from
+the East, declare that "there is no production of anything which
+was not before; no new substance made which did not really
+pre-exist."  Equally with matter was spirit indestructible.  "Our
+soul," says Plato, "was somewhere, before it came to exist in
+this present form; whence it appears to be immortal.  .  .  . 
+Who knows whether that which is demonstrated living, be not
+indeed rather dying, and whether that which is styled dying be
+not rather living?"
+
+To one who has given attention to the various legends relative to
+the destruction of the world by a flood, and a storm-tossed
+mariner saved in an ark or boat, it is plain that they all have
+the same significance, all are but different versions of the same
+myth, which in an early age was used to conceal the philosophical
+doctrines of an ancient people.
+
+That the early historic nations understood little concerning the
+origin and true meaning of the legends which they had inherited
+from an older race is quite evident.  The ignorance of the Greeks
+regarding the significance of these legends is shown by the
+following: When Solon, wishing to acquaint himself with the
+history of the oldest times, inquired of an Egyptian priest
+concerning the time of the flood, and the age of Deucalion or
+Phroneous or Noah, this functionary replied:
+
+"O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, nor is there an
+old man among you!  Having no ancient traditions nor any
+acquaintance with chronology, you are as yet in a state of
+intellectual infancy.  The true origin of such mutilated fables
+as you possess is this.  There have been and shall again be in
+the course of many revolving ages, numerous destructions of the
+human race; the greatest of them by fire and water, but others in
+an almost endless succession of shorter intervals."[47]
+
+[47] Quoted by Plato; also by Clement of Alexandria.
+
+
+We have observed that the symbol of the universe was an egg.  The
+egg was also the symbol of the earth and of the ark, which meant
+universal womanhood.  From the mundane egg the triplicated Deity
+sprang.  There can be little doubt at the present time that Adam,
+Noah, Menu, Osiris, and Dionysos all represent the fructifying
+power of the sun.  In process of time they each came to figure as
+male reproductive energy, and during certain periods of the
+earth's history they have each in turn been worshipped as the
+Deity.  That not only the ark was female, but that the god
+element or reproductive principle within the ark was both female
+and male, is a fact which has been lost sight of during the
+historic period, or during those ages of the world in which the
+attempt has been made to prove Nature motherless.
+
+All the germs and living creatures which were within the ark, and
+which were to reanimate the earth, were in pairs, females and
+males; and, besides, the Dove (female), the emblem of peace, was
+also present.  Even Noah himself was produced from an egg, which,
+as we have seen, is the symbol of Venus, or universal womanhood. 
+In after ages the female principle was not mentioned, but, on the
+contrary, was concealed beneath convenient symbols; and as the
+philosophical ideas underlying natural religion were lost or
+forgotten, and mankind had become too ignorant to perceive that a
+dual force, female and male which was also a Trinity, pervades
+Nature, the notion came gradually to prevail that the creative
+agency, which is spirit, is altogether male.  Hence the
+formulation of the inconceivable doctrine of a Trinity composed
+of a Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SEPARATION OF THE FEMALE AND HALE ELEMENTS IN THE DEITY.
+
+Glimpses of antiquity as far back as human ken can reach reveal
+the fact that in early ages of human society the physiological
+question of sex was a theme of the utmost importance, while
+various proofs are at hand showing that throughout the past the
+question of the relative importance of the female and male
+elements in procreation has been a fruitful source of religious
+contention and strife.  These struggles, which from time to time
+involved the entire habitable globe, were of long duration,
+subsiding only after the adherents of the one sex or the other
+had gained sufficient ascendancy over the opposite party to
+successfully erect its altars and compel the worship of its own
+peculiar gods, which worship usually included a large share of
+the temporal power.  Only since the male sex has gained
+sufficient influence to control not only human action, but human
+thought as well, have these contentions subsided.[48]
+
+[48] At the present time, through causes which are not difficult
+to understand, the question of the relative importance of the two
+sexes is again assuming a degree of importance indicative of the
+changes which are taking place in human thought, and for the
+reason that we are just witnessing the dawn of an intellectual
+age, the problems to be solved will admit of no answers other
+than those based upon a scientific foundation.
+
+
+That religious wars have not been confined to more modern times,
+and that among an early race the attempt to exalt the male
+principle met with obstinate resistance which involved mankind in
+a conflict, the violence of which has never been exceeded, are
+facts which seem altogether probable.  Indeed, there is much
+evidence going to show that the cause of the original dispersion
+of a primitive race was the contention which arose respecting
+their religious faith or regarding the physiological question of
+the relative importance of the sexes in the function of
+reproduction; and that the general war indicated in the Puranas,
+which began in India and extended over the entire habitable
+globe, and which was celebrated by the poets as "the basis of
+Grecian mythology," originated in this conflict over the
+precedence of one or the other of the sex-principles contained in
+the Deity.  Although there are no records of these wars in extant
+history, accounts of them are still preserved in the traditions
+and religious monuments of oriental countries.  In Egypt, in
+India, and to a greater or less extent in other Eastern
+countries, these physiological contests have been disguised under
+a veil of allegory, the true significance of which it is no
+longer difficult to understand.  With the light which more recent
+investigation has thrown upon the subject of the separation of
+the original sex-elements contained in the Deity, the
+significance of the following legend in the Servarasa is at once
+apparent.
+
+When Parvati (Devi) was united in marriage to Mahadeva (Siva),
+the divine pair had once a dispute on the comparative influence
+of the sexes in producing animated beings, and each resolved by
+mutual agreement to create a new race of men.  The race produced
+by Mahadeva were very numerous, and devoted themselves
+exclusively to the worship of the male Deity, but their
+intellects were dull, their bodies feeble, their limbs distorted,
+and their complexions of many different hues.  Parvati had at the
+same time created a multitude of human beings, who adored the
+female power only, and were well shaped, with sweet aspects and
+fine complexions.  A furious contest ensued between the two
+nations, and the Lingajas, or adorers of the male principle, were
+defeated in battle, but Mahadeva, enraged against the Yonigas
+(the worshippers of the female element), would have destroyed
+them with the fire of his eye if Parvati had not interposed and
+appeased him, but he would spare them only on condition that they
+should instantly leave the country with a promise to see it no
+more, and from the Yoni, which they adored as the sole cause of
+their existence, they were named Yavanas.
+
+The fact has been noticed in a previous work[49] that, according
+to Wilford, the Greeks were the descendants of the Yavanas of
+India, and that when the Ionians emigrated they adopted the name
+to distinguish themselves as adorers of the female, in opposition
+to a strong sect of male worshippers which had been driven from
+the mother country.  We are taught by the Puranas that they
+settled partly on the borders of Varaha-Dwip, or Europe, where
+they became the progenitors of the Greeks; and partly in the two
+Dwipas of Cusha, Asiatic and African.  In the Asiatic Cusha-Dwip
+they supported themselves by violence and rapine.  Parvati,
+however, or their tutelary goddess, Yoni, always protected them;
+and at length, in the fine country which they occupied, they
+became a flourishing nation.[50] Wilford relates that there is a
+sect of Hindoos who, attempting to reconcile the two systems,
+declare in their allegorical style that "Parvati and Mahadeva
+found their concurrence essential to the perfection of their
+offspring, and that Vishnu, at the request of the goddess,
+effected a reconciliation between them."[51]
+
+[49] See The Evolution of Women, p. 303.
+
+[50] Asiatic Researches, vol. iii., pp. 125-132.
+
+[51] Asiatic Researches, "Egypt and the Nile," vol. iii., pp.
+361-363.
+
+
+The people who were dominant in Asia long before the rise of the
+late Assyrian monarchy, are said to be those whom scriptural
+writers represent as Cushim, and the Hindoos as Cushas.  They
+were the descendants of Cush, or Cuth, and were believed to have
+been the architects of the Tower of Babel.  Epiphanius, Eusebius,
+and others assert that at the time of the building of this tower
+there existed two rival beliefs, the one demonstrated as
+Scuthism, the other as Ionism, or Hellenism, the latter of which
+embodied the worship of the Great Mother, or the female element,
+which was worshipped in the shape of the mystic "Iona or Dove." 
+The Scuths, on the other hand, believed in the pre-eminence of a
+Great Father, or, perhaps I should say, in a Deity composed of a
+triad containing the elements of a male  parent.  Upon this
+subject the learned Faber remarks: "I am much mistaken if some
+dissension on these points did not prevail at Babel itself; and I
+think there is reason for believing that the altercation between
+the rival sects aided the confusion of languages in producing the
+dispersion."[52]
+
+[52] Pagan Idolatry, book vi., ch. ii.
+
+
+Those who believed in the superiority of the male in the
+processes of reproduction, adored the male element in the Deity,
+while those who held that the female is the more important,
+worshipped the female energy throughout Nature under one or
+another of its symbols, sometimes as a woman with her child and
+sometimes as a dove, but oftener as an ark, box, or chest.
+
+It is evident from the sacred writings of the Hindoos that in
+India, during a period of several thousand years, there existed
+various sects, those who worshipped the male as the only creative
+force, others who adored the female as the origin of life, and
+those who paid homage to both, as alike important in the office
+of reproduction.
+
+It would seem that the fierce wars which had devastated the land
+had ceased prior to the beginning of the Tower of Babel. 
+According to the testimony of Moses, the Lord himself declared
+"Behold the people is one."  This unanimity of belief, as is
+plainly shown, was of short duration, for the Tower arose
+"upright and defiant," not, however, as an emblem of the primeval
+dual or triune God in which the female energy was predominant,
+but as a symbol of male creative power.  It was the type of
+virility which in the subsequent history of religion was to
+assume the position of the "one only and true God."
+
+It is not improbable that idolatry began with the Tower of Babel.
+
+Indeed it has been confidently asserted by certain writers that
+the earliest idols set up as emblems of the Deity, or as
+expressions of the peculiar worship of the Lingajas, were
+obelisks, columns, or towers, the first of which we have any
+account being the Tower of Babel, erected probably at Nipur in
+Chaldea.  Until a comparatively recent time, the actual
+significance of this monument seems to have been little
+understood.  Later research, however, points to the fact that it
+was a phallic device erected in opposition to a religion which
+recognized the female element throughout Nature as God.  The
+length of time which the adherents of these two doctrines had
+contended for the mastery is not known, but through the
+deciphered monuments of ancient nations, by facts gathered from
+their sacred writings, and by the general voice of tradition, it
+has been ascertained with a considerable degree of certainty that
+this great upheaval of society was the culmination of a dispute
+which had long been waged between two contending powers, and
+which finally resulted in a separation of the people, and in the
+final success, for the time being, of the sect which refused
+longer to recognize the superior importance of the female in the
+god-idea.
+
+At what time in the history of mankind the Tower of Babel was
+erected has not been ascertained, but the great antiquity of
+Chaldea is no longer questioned.  Sir Henry Rawlinson, in the
+Royal Geographical Journal says:
+
+"When Chaldea was first colonized, or at any rate when the seat
+of empire was first established there, the emporium of trade
+seems to have been at Ur of the Chaldees, which is now 150 miles
+from the sea, the Persian Gulf having retired nearly that
+distance before the sediment brought down by the Euphrates and
+Tigris."
+
+To which Baldwin adds:
+
+"A little reflection on the vast period of time required to
+effect geological changes so great as this will enable us to see
+to what a remote age in the deeps of antiquity we must go to find
+the beginning of civilization in the Mesopotamian Valley."[53]
+
+[53] Prehistoric Nations, p. 191.
+
+
+Although at the time of the building of the Tower of Babel the
+worship of a Deity in which the male principle was pre-eminent
+had not become universal, still the facts seem to indicate that
+the doctrine of male superiority which for ages had been steadily
+advancing had at length gained the ascendancy over the older
+religion.  The new faith and worship had corrupted the old, and
+through the conditions which had been imposed upon women, and the
+consequent stimulation of the lower nature in man, even the
+adherents of the older faith were losing sight of those higher
+principles which in preceding ages they had adored as God.
+
+We have seen that in every country upon the earth there is a
+tradition recounting the ravages of a flood.  Whether or not this
+legend is to be traced to an actual calamity by which a large
+portion of Asia was inundated, is not for a certainty known; but
+the fact that there was a deluge of contention and strife,
+surpassing anything perhaps which the world has ever witnessed,
+seems altogether probable.
+
+Not long after the catastrophe designated as the flood, emblems
+of the Deity, representations of the male and female elements,
+appear in profusion.  Babylon, at which place was erected the
+Tower of Belus, and Memphis, which contained the Pyramids, were
+among the first cities which were built.  As the tower typified
+the Deity worshipped by those who claimed superiority for the
+male, so the pyramids symbolized the creative agency and peculiar
+qualities of the female, or of the dual Deity which was
+worshipped as female.
+
+Although the grosser elements in human nature were rapidly
+assuming a more intensely aggressive attitude, and although the
+higher principles involved in an earlier religion were in a
+measure forgotten, it is evident that at this time humanity had
+not become wholly sensualized, and that the lower propensities
+and appetites had not assumed dominion over the reasoning
+faculties.
+
+The Great Mother Cybele, who is represented by the Sphinx, had
+doubtless been adored as a pure abstraction, her worship being
+that of the universal female principle in Nature.  She is
+pictured as the "Eldest Daughter of the Mythologies," and as "The
+Great First Cause."  She represented the past and the future. 
+She was the source whence all that was and is had proceeded.
+
+In its earliest representations, the Sphinx is figured with the
+head of a woman and the body of a lion.  By various writers it is
+stated that the Sphinxes which were brought as spoils from Asia,
+the very cradle of religion, were thus represented.  The lion,
+which symbolizes royal power and intellectual strength, is always
+attached to the chariot of Cybele.  The Sphinx is supposed to
+typify not only Cybele, but the great androgynous God of Africa
+as well.  However, as Cybele and Muth portrayed the same idea,
+namely, female power and wisdom, we are not surprised that they
+should have been worshipped under the same emblem.  Neither is it
+remarkable, when we recall the fact that the female was supposed
+to comprehend both sexes, that in certain instances a beard
+appears as an accompanying feature of the Sphinx.  We are told
+that the fourth avatar of Vishnu was a Sphinx, but a further
+search into the history of this Deity reveals the fact that her
+ninth avatar is Brahm (masculine).  The female principle has at
+length succumbed to the predominance of male power, and Vishnu
+herself has become transformed into a male God.
+
+Although the rites connected with the worship of Cybele were
+phallic they were absolutely pure.  In an allusion to this
+worship, Hargrave Jennings admits that the "spirituality to which
+women in that age of the world were observed to be more liable
+than men was peculiarly adverse to all sensual indulgence, and
+especially that of the sexes."
+
+Although the creative principle was adored under its
+representatives, the Yoni and the Lingham, still the principal
+object seems to have been, when administering the rites
+pertaining to the worship of Cybele, to ignore sex and the usual
+sex distinctions; hence we find that, in order to assume an
+androgynous appearance, the priestesses of this Goddess
+officiated in the costumes of males, while priests appeared in
+the dress peculiar to females.  However, that the sensuous
+element was to a certain extent already assuming dominion over
+the higher nature, and that priests were regarded as being
+incapable of self-control, is observed in the fact that in the
+later ages of female worship one of the principal requirements of
+a priest of Cybele was castration.
+
+It is the opinion of Grote that the story which appears in the
+Hesiodic Theogony, of the castration of Saturn and Uranus by
+their sons with sickles forged by the mother, was borrowed from
+the Phrygians, or from the worship of the Great Mother.
+
+In India, the strictest chastity was prescribed to the priests of
+Siva, a God which was worshipped as the Destroyer or Regenerator,
+and which in its earlier conception was the same as the Great
+Mother Cybele.  These priests were frequently obliged to
+officiate in a nude state, and during the ceremony should it
+appear that the symbols with which they came in contact had
+appealed to other than their highest emotions, they were
+immediately stoned by the people.[54]
+
+[54] Sonnerat, Voyage aux Indes, i., 311.
+
+
+The identity of the religions of India and Egypt has been noted
+in an earlier portion of this work.  Wilford, in his
+dissertations upon Egypt and the Nile, says that in a
+conversation which he had with some learned Brahmins, upon
+describing to them the form and peculiarities of the Great
+Pyramid, they told him that "it was a temple appropriated to the
+worship of Padma Devi."  The true Coptic name of these edifices
+is Pire Honc, which signifies a sunbeam.  Padma Devi means the
+lotus, or the Deity of generation.
+
+It is thought by many writers that these gigantic structures were
+erected by the Cushite conquerors of Egypt, who invaded and
+civilized the country, as emblems of the female Deity whom they
+worshipped.  Certainly the magnitude of these monuments and the
+ingenuity displayed in their construction indicate the
+intelligence of their builders and the exalted character of the
+Deity adored.  The Great Pyramid is in the form of a square, each
+side of whose base is seven hundred and fifty-five feet, and
+covers an area of nearly fourteen acres.  An able writer in
+describing the pyramids says that the first thing which impresses
+one is the uniform precision and systematic design apparent in
+their architecture.  They all have their sides accurately adapted
+to the four cardinal points.
+
+"In six of them which have been opened, the principal passage
+preserves the same inclination of 26 degrees to the horizon,
+being directed toward the polar star.  .  .  .  Their obliquity
+being so adjusted as to make the north side coincide with the
+obliquity of the sun's rays at the summer's solstice, has,
+combined with the former particulars, led some to suppose they
+were solely intended for astronomical uses; and certainly, if not
+altogether true, it bespeaks, at all events, an intimate
+acquaintance with astronomical rules, as well as a due regard to
+the principles of geometry.  Others have fancied them intended
+for sepulchres; and as the Egyptians, taught by their ancient
+Chaldean victors, connected astronomy with their funereal and
+religious ceremonies, they seem in this to be not far astray, if
+we but extend the application to their sacred bulls and other
+animals, and not merely to their kings, as Herodotus would have
+us suppose."[55]
+
+[55] The Round Towers of Ireland, p. 159.
+
+
+According to the testimony of Inman, the pyramid is an emblem of
+the Trinity--three in one.  The triangle typifies the flame of
+sacred fire emerging from the holy lamp. With its base upwards it
+typifies the Delta, or the door through which all come into the
+world.  With its apex uppermost, it is an emblem of the phallic
+triad.  The union of these triangles typifies the male and female
+principles uniting with each other, thus producing a new figure,
+a star, while each retains its own identity.[56]
+
+[56] Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 145.
+
+
+Thus the primary significance of the pyramid was religious, and
+in its peculiar architectural construction was manifested the
+prevailing conception of the Deity worshipped; namely, the
+fructifying energies in the sun.  We are informed that "all
+nations have at one time or another passed through violent stages
+of pyrolatry, a word which reminds us that fire and phallic cult
+flourished around the pyramids.  .  .  .  Every town in Greece
+had a Pyrtano."[57]
+
+[57] Forlong, Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in All Lands, vol.
+i., p. 325.
+
+
+As not alone the sun but the stars also had come to be venerated
+as agencies in reproduction, the worship of these objects was, as
+we have seen, closely interwoven with that of the generative
+processes throughout Nature.  The attempt to solve the great
+problem of the origin of life on the earth led these people to
+contemplate with the profoundest reverence all the visible
+objects which were believed to affect human destiny.  Hence both
+the pyramid and the tower served a double purpose, first, as
+emblems of the Deity worshipped, and, second, as monuments for
+the study of the heavenly bodies with which their religious ideas
+were so intimately connected.
+
+While comparing the early emblems which prefigure the primitive
+elements in the god-idea, Hargrave Jennings observes:
+
+"In the conveyance of certain ideas to those who contemplate it,
+the pyramid boasts of prouder significance, and impresses with a
+hint of still more impenetrable mystery.  We seem to gather dim
+supernatural ideas of the mighty Mother of Nature .  .  .  that
+almost two-sexed entity, without a name--She of the Veil which is
+never to be lifted, perhaps not even by the angels, for their
+knowledge is limited.  In short, this tremendous abstraction,
+Cybele, Ideae, Mater, Isiac controller of the Zodiacs, whatever
+she may be, has her representative in the half-buried Sphinx even
+to our own day, watching the stars although nearly swallowed up
+in the engulphing sands."[58]
+
+[58] Phallicism, p. 25.
+
+
+From the time when the two religious elements began to separate
+in the minds of the people, the prophets, seers, and priestesses
+of the old religion, those who continued to worship the Virgin
+and Child, had prophesied that a mortal woman, a virgin, would,
+independently of the male principle, bring forth a child, the
+fulfilment of which prophecy would vindicate the ancient faith
+and forever settle the dispute relative to the superiority of the
+female in the office of reproduction.  Thus would the woman
+"bruise the serpent's head."  In process of time not only
+Yonigas, but Lingajas as well, came to accept the doctrine of the
+incarnation of the sun in the bodies of earthly virgins.  By
+Lingaites, however, it was the seed of the woman and not the
+woman herself who was to conquer evil.  Finally, with the
+increasing importance of the male in human society, it is
+observed that a reconciliation has been effected between the
+female worshippers and those of the male.  Athene herself has
+acquiesced in the doctrine of male superiority.
+
+Thalat, the great Chaldean Deity, who presided over Chaos prior
+to the existence of organized matter, is finally transformed into
+a male God.  The Hindoo Vishnu, who as she slept on the bottom of
+the sea brought forth all creation, has changed her sex.  Brahm,
+the Creator, is male, and appears as a triplicated Deity in the
+form of three sons within whom is contained the essence of a
+Great Father, the female creative principle being closely veiled.
+
+Hence we see that the God of the ancients, the universal dual
+force which resides in the sun and which creates all things, is
+no longer worshipped under the figure of a mother and her child. 
+Although the female principle is still a necessary factor in the
+creative processes, and although it is capable of producing gods,
+the mother element possesses none of the essentials which
+constitute a Deity.  In other words, woman is not a Creator. 
+From the father is derived the soul of the child, while from the
+mother, or from matter, the body is formed.  Hence the prevalence
+at a certain stage of human history of divine fathers and earthly
+mothers; for instance, Alexander of Macedon, Julius Caesar, and
+later the mythical Christ who superseded Jesus, the Judean
+philosopher and teacher of mankind.
+
+Henceforth, caves, wells, cows, boxes and chests, arks, etc.,
+stand for or symbolize the female power.  We are given to
+understand, however, that for ages these symbols were as holy as
+the God himself, and among many peoples even more revered and
+worshipped.
+
+We have seen that the ancients knew that matter and force were
+alike indestructible.  According to their doctrine all Nature
+proceeded from the sun.  Hence the power back of the sun, which
+they worshipped as the Destroyer or Regenerator, or, in other
+words, as the mother of the sun, was the Great Aum or Om, the
+Aleim or Elohim, who was the indivisible God.  The creative
+agency which proceeded from the sun was both male and female, yet
+one in essence.  Later, the male appeared as spirit, the female
+as matter.  Spirit was something above and independent of Nature.
+
+It had indeed created matter from nothing.  The fact will be
+remembered that man claimed supremacy over woman on the ground
+that the male is spirit, while the female is only matter; in
+other words, that she was simply a covering for the soul, which
+is divine.
+
+Thus was the god-idea divorced from Nature, and a masculine
+principle, outside and independent of matter, set up as a
+personal potentate or ruler over the universe.
+
+The logic by which the great female principle in the Deity has
+been eliminated, and the subterfuges which have been and still
+are employed to construct and sustain a Creator who of himself is
+powerless to create, is as amusing as it is suggestive, and
+forcibly recalls to mind la couvade, in which, among certain
+tribes, the father, assuming all the duties of procreation, goes
+to bed when a child is born.[59]
+
+[59] The Evolution of Woman, p. 127.
+
+
+All mythologies prove conclusively that ages elapsed before human
+beings were rash enough, or sufficiently blinded by falsehood and
+superstition, to attempt to construct a creative force unaided by
+the female principle.  Just here it may not be out of place to
+refer to the fact that in the attempt to divorce God from Nature
+have arisen all the superstitions and senseless religious
+theories with which, since the earliest ages of metaphysical
+speculation, the human mind has been crowded.
+
+To this separation of the two original elements in the Deity, and
+the consequent exaltation of one of the factors in the creative
+processes, is to be traced the beginning of our present false,
+unnatural, and unphilosophical masculine system of religion--a
+system under which a father appears as the sole parent of the
+universe.
+
+The fact is tolerably well understood that mysticism and the
+accumulation of superstitious ideas are the result of the
+over-stimulation of the lower animal instincts.  When the
+agencies which had hitherto held the lower nature in check became
+inoperative--when man began to regard himself as a Creator and
+therefore as the superior of woman--he had reached a point at
+which he was largely controlled by supernatural or mystical
+influences.
+
+The fact is observed that in course of time the governmental
+powers are no longer in the hands of the people; the masses have
+become enslaved.  Their rulers are priests--deified tyrants who
+are unable to maintain their authority except through the
+ignorance and credulity of the masses.  Hence one is not
+surprised to find that the change which took place at a certain
+stage of human growth in respect to the manner of reckoning
+descent was instigated and enforced by religion.  Apollo had
+declared that woman is but the nurse to her own offspring. 
+Neither is it remarkable at this stage in the human career, as
+women had lost their position as heads of families, and as they
+were no longer recognized as of kin to their children, that man
+should have attempted to lessen the importance of the female
+element in the god-idea.
+
+Wherever in the history of the human race we observe a change in
+the relations of the sexes involving greater or more oppressive
+restrictions on the natural rights of women, such change, whether
+it assume a legal, social, or religious form, will, if traced to
+its source, always be found deeply rooted in the wiles of
+priestcraft.  Since the decay of the earliest form of religion,
+namely, Nature-worship, the gods have never been found ranged on
+the side of women.
+
+Later investigations are proving that the primitive idea of a
+Deity had its foundation in actual physical facts and
+experiences; and, as the maternal principle constituted the most
+important as well as the most obvious of the facts which entered
+into the conception of a Creator, and as it was the only natural
+bond capable of binding human society together, so long as reason
+was not wholly clouded by superstition and warped by sensuality,
+it could not be eliminated.  In other words, a Creator in which
+the more essential element of creative force was wanting, was
+contrary to all human experience and observation.  Indeed nothing
+could be plainer than that the deified male principle could of
+itself create nothing, and that it was dependent for its very
+existence on the female element.
+
+By this attempt to construct a masculine Deity, absurdities were
+presented to the human judgment and understanding which for ages
+could not be overcome, and by it contradictions were necessitated
+which could not be reconciled with human reason and with the
+ideas of Nature which had hitherto been held by mankind.  It was
+not, therefore, until reason had been suspended in all matters
+pertaining to religion, and blind faith in the machinations of
+priestcraft had been established, that a male God was set up as
+the sole Creator of the universe.
+
+When women, who had become the legitimate plunder not only of
+individuals but of bands of warriors whose avowed object was the
+capture of women for wives, had degenerated into mere tools or
+instruments for the gratification and pleasure of men, Perceptive
+Wisdom or Light, and Maternal Affection the Preserver of the
+race, gradually became eliminated from the god-idea of mankind. 
+Passion became God.  It was the Creator in the narrowest and most
+restricted sense.
+
+Although in an age of pure Nature-worship the ideas connected
+with reproduction, like those related to all other natural
+functions, were wholly unconnected with impurity either of
+thought or deed, still when an age arrived in which all checks to
+human passion had been withdrawn, and the lower propensities had
+gained dominion over the higher faculties, the influence of
+fertility or passion-worship on human development or growth may
+in a degree be imagined.
+
+The fact must be borne in mind that curing the later ages of
+passion-worship the creative processes and the reproductive
+organs were deified, not as an expression or symbol of the
+operations of Nature, but as a means to the stimulation of the
+lower animal instincts in man.
+
+With religion bestialized and its management regulated wholly
+with an idea to the gratification of man's sensuous desires,
+religious temples, under the supervision of the priesthood,
+became brothels, in which were openly practiced as part and
+parcel of religious rites and ceremonies the most wanton
+profligacy and the most shameless self-abandonment.  The worship
+of Aphrodite or Venus, and also that of Bacchus, originally
+consisted in homage paid to the reproductive principles contained
+in the earth, water, and sun, but, as is well known, this pure
+and beautiful worship, in later times, and especially after it
+was carried to Greece, became synonymous with the grossest
+practices and the most lawless disregard of human decency.
+
+With the light which in these later ages science and ethnological
+research are throwing upon the physiological and religious
+disputes of the ancients, the correctness of the primitive
+doctrines elaborated under purer conditions at an age when human
+beings lived nearer to Nature is being proved--namely, that
+matter like spirit is eternal and indestructible, and therefore
+that the one is as difficult of comprehension as the other, and
+that Nature, instead of being separated from spirit, is filled
+with it and can not be divorced from it; also that the female is
+the original organic unit of creation, without which nothing is
+or can be created.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CIVILIZATION OF AN ANCIENT RACE.
+
+The profound doctrines of abstractions or emanations; of the
+absorption of the individual soul into the divine ether or
+essence; of the renewal of worlds and reincarnation, were
+doubtless elaborated after the separation, in the human mind, of
+Spirit from matter, but before mankind had lost the power to
+reason abstractly.
+
+Although Pythagoras understood and believed these doctrines, he
+did not, as is well known, receive them from his degenerate
+countrymen, but, on the contrary, imbibed them from private
+sources among the orientals, where fragments of their remarkable
+learning were still extant.  He said that religion consists in
+knowing the truth and doing good, and his ideas show the grandeur
+and beauty of the earlier conception of a Deity.  He declared
+that there is only one God who is not, "as some are apt to
+imagine, seated above the world, beyond the orb of the universe,"
+but that this great power is diffused throughout Nature.  It is
+"the reason, the life, and the motion of all things."
+
+Plato believed that human beings are possessed of two souls, the
+one mortal, which perishes with the body, the other immortal,
+which continues to exist either in a state of happiness or
+misery; that the righteous soul, freed from the limitations of
+matter, returns at death to the source whence it came, and that
+the wicked, after having been detained for a while in a place
+prepared for their reception, are sent back to earth to reanimate
+other bodies.
+
+Aristotle held the opinion that the souls of human beings are
+sparks from the divine flame, while Zeno, the founder of the
+Stoic philosophy, taught that spirit acting upon matter produced
+the elements and the earth.  There is plenty of evidence going to
+show that the early Fathers in the Christian church believed in
+the doctrines of reincarnation and the renewal of worlds. 
+Neither is there any doubt but that this philosophy came from the
+East, where it originated.  It is thought that the ancient
+philosophers who elaborated these doctrines were unable to
+account for the existence of evil without a belief in the
+immortality of the soul.  Spirit was eternal, as was also matter.
+
+A soul, upon leaving the body, in course of time found its way
+back to earth, surrounded by conditions suited to its stage of
+growth.  Here it must reap all the consequences of its former
+life.  It must also during its stay on earth make the conditions
+for its next appearance upon an earthly plane.  So soon as
+through a succession of births and deaths it had perfected
+itself, it entered into a state of Nirvana.  It was absorbed into
+the great Universal Soul.  Nothing is ever lost.
+
+          "Many a house of life
+  Hath held me--seeking ever Him who wrought
+  These prisons of the senses, sorrow fraught;
+        Sore was my ceaseless strife!  
+               But now, 
+   Thou builder of this tabernacle--Thou!
+             I know Thee.  
+      Never shalt Thou build again
+          These walls of pain,  
+Nor raise the roof-tree of deceits, nor lay           
+        Fresh rafters on the clay;  
+Broken Thy house is, and the ridge-pole split!
+           Delusion fashioned it!
+  Safe pass I thence--deliverance to obtain."[60]
+
+[60] Edwin Arnold, The light of Asia.
+
+
+Regarding the opinions of the ancients on the subject of the
+eternity of matter, Higgins, in his learned work on Celtic
+Druids, says:
+
+"The eternity of matter is a well known tenet of the
+Pythagoreans, and whether right or wrong there can be no doubt
+that it was the doctrine of the oriental school, whence
+Pythagoras drew his learning.  It was a principle taken or
+mistaken from, or found amongst, the debris of that mighty mass
+of learning and science of a former period, of which, on looking
+back as far as human ken can reach, the most learned men have
+thought that they could see a faint glimmering.  Indeed, I think
+I may say something more than a faint glimmering.  For all the
+really valuable moral and philosophical doctrines we possess,
+Dutens has shown to have existed there."
+
+From what is known relative to the speculations of an ancient
+race, the fact is observed that creation was but a re-formation
+of matter.  Wisdom, or Minerva, formed the earth and the planets;
+she did not create the heavens and the earth, as did the later
+Jewish God.
+
+Of the seven principles of the universe, matter was the first,
+and of the seven principles of man, the physical body was the
+earliest.  Through evolutionary processes, or through cyclic
+periods involving millions of years, mind was developed, and in
+course of time spirit was finally manifested.
+
+Mai, the Mother of Gotama Buddha, was simply matter, or illusion,
+from which its higher manifestation, mind or spirit, was
+emerging.  She was also the mother of Mercury.  A clearer
+knowledge of the philosophical doctrines which were elaborated at
+a time when Nature-worship was beginning to decay, reveals the
+fact that the god-idea comprehended a profound knowledge of
+Nature and her laws; that while this people did not pretend to
+account for the existence of matter, they recognized a force
+operating through it whose laws were unchanged and unchanging.
+
+With these facts relative to the intelligence of an older race
+before us, the question naturally arises: What was the degree of
+civilization attained at a time when the Deity worshipped was an
+abstract principle involving the actual creative processes
+throughout Nature? and, notwithstanding our prejudices, we are
+constrained to acknowledge that these earlier conceptions are
+scarcely compatible with the barbarism which we have been taught
+to regard as the condition of all the peoples which existed prior
+to the first Greek Olympiad.  On the contrary, the origin of the
+philosophical opinions entertained by the most ancient oriental
+philosophers, and which must have arisen out of a profound
+knowledge or appreciation of Nature and her operations, point to
+a race far superior to any of those peoples which appear in early
+historic times.  Regarding these opinions, Godfrey Higgins
+remarks:
+
+"From their philosophical truth and universal reception I am
+strongly inclined to refer them to the authors of the Neros, or
+to that enlightened race, supposed by Bailly to have formerly
+existed, and to have been saved from a great catastrophe on the
+Himalaya Mountains.  This is confirmed by an observation which
+the reader will make in the sequel, that these doctrines have
+been, like all the other doctrines of antiquity, gradually
+corrupted--incarnated, if I may be permitted to compose a word
+for the occasion."
+
+Of this cycle, Bailly says: "No person could have invented the
+Neros who had not arrived at much greater perfection in astronomy
+than we know was the state of the most ancient Assyrians,
+Egyptians, and Greeks."
+
+Toward the close of the eighteenth century the celebrated
+astronomer, Bailly, published a work entitled The History of
+Ancient Astronomy, in which he endeavored to prove that a nation
+possessed of profound wisdom and great genius, and of an
+antiquity far superior to the Hindoos or Egyptians, "inhabited
+the country to the north of India, or about fifty degrees north
+latitude."  This writer has shown that "the most celebrated
+astronomical observations and inventions, from their peculiar
+character, could have taken place only in these latitudes, and
+that arts and improvements gradually travelled thence to the
+equator."
+
+A colony of Brahmins settled near the Imans, and in Northern
+Thibet, where in ancient times they established celebrated
+colleges, particularly at Nagraent and Cashmere.  In these
+institutions the treasures of Sanskrit literature were supposed
+to be deposited.  The Rev. Mr. Maurice was informed that an
+immemorial tradition prevailed at Benares that all the learning
+of India came from a country situated in forty degrees of
+northern latitude.  Other writers are of the opinion that
+civilization proceeded from Arabia; that the old Cushite race
+carried commerce, letters, and laws to all the nations of the
+East.  Which of these theories is true, if either, may not with
+certainty be proved at present; yet that in the far distant past
+a race of people existed whose achievements exceeded those of any
+of the historic nations may not be doubted.
+
+That the length of the year was calculated with greater exactness
+by an ancient and forgotten people than it was by early historic
+nations is proved by the cycle of the Neros.  This cycle, which
+was formed of 7.421 lunar revolutions of 29 days, 12 hours, 44
+minutes, and 3 seconds, or 219,146 days and a half, was equal to
+600 solar years of 365 days, 5 hours, 51 minutes, and 36 seconds,
+which time varies less than three minutes from the present
+observations of the year's length.  The length of the year as
+calculated by the Egyptians and other early historic nations was
+360 days, which fact would seem to indicate that a science of
+astronomy had been developed in an earlier age which by the most
+ancient peoples of whom we have any historic records has been
+lost or forgotten.  It has been said that if this cycle of the
+Neros "were correct to the second, if on the first of January at
+noon a new moon took place, it would take place again in exactly
+600 years at the same moment of the day, and under all the same
+circumstances."[61]
+
+[61] Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids, ch. ii., sec. 14.
+
+
+The Varaha Calpa has the famous cycle of 4,320,000,000 years for
+its duration.  This system makes the Cali Yug begin 3098 years
+B.C.  A dodecan consisted of 5 days, and 72 dodecans formed a
+natural year of 360 days.  According to the earlier calculations,
+360 solar diurnal revolutions constituted a natural year.  The
+doctrine of the ancients concerning these cycles is thus set
+forth by Godfrey Higgins:
+
+"The sun, or rather that higher principle of which the sun was
+the emblem or the shekinah, was considered to be incarnated every
+six hundred years.  Whilst the sun was in Taurus, the different
+incarnations, under whatever names they might go, were all
+considered but as incarnations of Buddha or Taurus.  When he got
+into Aries, they were in like manner considered but as
+incarnations of Cristna or Aries, and even Buddha and Cristna
+were originally considered the same, and had a thousand names in
+common, constantly repeated in their litanies--a striking proof
+of identity of origin.  Of these Zodiacal divisions the Hindoos
+formed another period, which consisted of ten ages or Calpas or
+Yugs, which they considered the duration of the world, at the end
+of which a general renovation of all things would take place. 
+They also reckoned ten Neroses to form a period, each of them
+keeping a certain relative location to the other, and together to
+form a cycle.  To effect this they doubled the precessional
+period for one sign-- viz: 2160 years--thus making 4320, which
+was a tenth of 43,200, a year of the sun, analogous to the 360
+natural days, and produced in the same manner, by multiplying the
+day of 600 by the dodecans 72 = 43,200.  They then formed another
+great year of 432,000 by again multiplying it by 10, which they
+called a Cali Yug, which was measurable both by the number 2160,
+the years the equinox preceded in a sign, and by the number 600. 
+They then had the following scheme:
+
+      A Cali Yug, or 600 (or a Neros)   432,000
+      A Dwapar, or Duo-par Age.  .  .  .864,000
+      A Treta, or tree-par Age.  .  . 1,296,000
+      A Satya, or Satis Age .  .  .  .1,728,000     
+                                      ---------
+                                      4,320,000
+
+altogether 10 Ages, making a Maha Yug or Great Age.  These were
+all equimultiples of the Cycle of the Neros 600, and of 2160, the
+twelfth part of the equinoctial precessional Cycle, and in all
+formed ten ages of 432,000 years each."[62]
+
+[62] Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 232.
+
+
+The two great religious festivals of the ancients occurred the
+one in the spring, at Easter, when all Nature was renewed, the
+other in the autumn, after the earth had yielded her bounties and
+the fruits were garnered in.  It was at these gatherings that the
+Great Mother Earth received the devout adoration of all her
+children.
+
+It is supposed that the Neros, or cycle of 600, is closely
+connected with this worship, and that it was invented to regulate
+the season for these festivals.  In process of time it was
+discovered that this cycle no longer answered, that the festival
+which had originally fallen on the first of May now occurred on
+the first of April.  This, we are told,
+
+"led ultimately to the discovery that the equinox preceded about
+2160 years in each sign or 25,920 years in the 12 signs, and this
+induced them to try if they could not form a cycle of the two. 
+On examination, they found that the 600 would not commensurate
+the 2160 years in a sign, or any number of sums of 2160 less than
+ten, but that it would with ten, or that in ten times 2160, or in
+21,600 years, the two cycles would agree; yet this artificial
+cycle would not be enough to include the cycle of 25,920.  They,
+therefore, took two of the periods of 21,600, or 43,200; and,
+multiplying both by ten--viz: 600 X 10 = 6000, and 43,200 X 10 =
+432,000--they formed a period with which the 600-year period and
+the 6000-year period would terminate and form a cycle.  Every
+432,000 years the three periods would commence anew; thus the
+three formed a year or cycle, 72 times 6000 making 432,000, and
+720 times 600 making 432,000."[63]
+
+[63] Higgins, Anacalypsis, p. 235.
+
+
+To form a great year, which would include all the cyclical
+motions of the sun and moon, and perhaps of the planets, they
+multiplied 432,000 by ten; thus they had ten periods answering to
+ten signs.  Concerning these cycles Godfrey Higgins observes:
+
+"Persons of narrow minds will be astonished at such monstrous
+cycles; but it is very certain that no period could properly be
+called the great year unless it embraced in its cycle every
+periodical movement or apparent aberration.  But their vulgar
+wonder will perhaps cease when they are told that La Place has
+proved that, if the periodical aberrations of the moon be
+correctly calculated, the great year must be extended to a
+greater length even than 4,320,000 years of the Maha Yug of the
+Hindoos, and certainly no period can be called a year of our
+planetary system which does not take in all the periodical
+motions of the planetary bodies."
+
+It is thought that as soon as these ancient astronomers perceived
+that the equinoxes preceded, they would at once attempt to
+determine the rate of precession in a given time; the precession,
+however, in one year was so small that they were obliged to
+extend their observations over immense periods.  Jones informs us
+that the Hindoos first supposed that the precession took place at
+the rate of 60 years in a degree, or 1800 in a Zodiacal sign, and
+of 21,600 in a revolution of the entire circle.  They afterwards
+came to think that the precession was at the rate of 60 years and
+a fraction of a year, and thus that the precession for a sign was
+in 1824 years, and for the circle in 21,888 years.  Subsequently
+they discovered, or thought they had discovered, the Soli-Lunar
+period of 608 years, hence they attempted to make the two go
+together.  Both, however, proved to be erroneous.
+
+In referring to the fact that among the ancient Romans existed
+the story of the twelve vultures and the twelve ages of 120 years
+each, Higgins remarks:
+
+"This arose from the following cause: They came from the East
+before the supposition that the precession took place a degree in
+about 60 years, and 1824 years in a sign had been discovered to
+be erroneous; and as they supposed the Neros made a correct cycle
+in 608 years, and believed the precessional cycle to be completed
+in 21,888, they of course made their ages into twelve.  As both
+numbers were erroneous, they would not long answer their intended
+purpose, and their meaning was soon lost, though the sacred
+periods of twelve ages and of 608 remained."
+
+According to Hipparchus and Ptolemy, the equinoxes preceded at
+the rate of a degree in 100 years, or 36,000 hundred years in 360
+degrees.  This constituted a great year, at the end of which the
+regeneration of all things takes place.  This is thought to be a
+remnant of the most ancient Hindoo speculations, and not the
+result of observation among the Greeks.  Some time after the
+arrival of the sun in Aries,
+
+"at the vernal equinox, the Indians probably discovered their
+mistake, in giving about 60 years to a degree; that they ought to
+give 50" to a year, about 72 years to a degree, and about 2160
+years to a sign; and that the Luni-Solar cycle, called the Neros,
+did not require 608 years, but 600 years only, to complete its
+period.  Hence arose the more perfect Neros."
+
+It is thought by various writers that the knowledge of the
+ancient Hindoos regarding the movements of the sun and moon in
+their cycles of nineteen and six hundred years--the Metonic
+cycle, and the Neros--proves that long before the birth of
+Hipparchus the length of the year was known with a degree of
+exactitude which that astronomer had not the means of
+determining.  It is positively asserted by astronomers that at
+least twelve hundred years were required, "during which time the
+observations must have been taken with the greatest care and
+regularly recorded," to arrive at the knowledge necessary for the
+invention of the Neros, and that such observations would have
+been impossible without the aid of the telescope.
+
+On the subject of the great learning of an ancient race, Sir W. 
+Drummond says:
+
+"The fact, however, is certain, that at some remote period there
+were mathematicians and astronomers who knew that the sun is in
+the centre of the planetary system, and that the earth, itself a
+planet, revolves round the central fire;--who calculated, or like
+ourselves attempted to calculate, the return of comets, and who
+knew that these bodies move in elliptic orbits, immensely
+elongated, having the sun in one of their foci;--who indicated
+the number of the solar years contained in the great cycle, by
+multiplying a period (variously called in the Zend, the Sanscrit,
+and the Chinese ven, van, and phen) of 180 years by another
+period of 144 years;--who reckoned the sun's distance from the
+earth at 800,000,000 of Olympic stadia; and who must, therefore,
+have taken the parallax of that luminary by a method, not only
+much more perfect than that said to be invented by Hipparchus,
+but little inferior in exactness to that now in use among the
+moderns;--who could scarcely have made a mere guess when they
+fixed the moon's distance from its primary planet at fifty-nine
+semi-diameters of the earth;--who had measured the circumference
+of our globe with so much exactness that their calculation only
+differed by a few feet from that made by our modern
+geometricians; --who held that the moon and the other planets
+were worlds like our own, and that the moon was diversified by
+mountains and valleys and seas;--who asserted that there was yet
+a planet which revolved round the sun, beyond the orbit of
+Saturn;--who reckoned the planets to be sixteen in number; --and
+who reckoned the length of the tropical year within three minutes
+of the true time; nor, indeed, were they wrong at all, if a
+tradition mentioned by Plutarch be correct."[64]
+
+[64] Drummond, On the Zodiacs, p. 36.
+
+
+Bailly, Sir W. Jones, Higgins, and Ledwich, as well as many
+modern writers, agree in the conclusion that the Indians, the
+Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Chinese were simply the
+depositaries, not the inventors, of science.  The spirit of
+inquiry which in later times is directing attention to the almost
+buried past is revealing the fact that not merely the germs
+whence our present civilization has been developed descended to
+us from the dim ages of antiquity, but that a great number of the
+actual benefits which go to make up our present state of material
+progress have come to us from prehistoric times.  The art of
+writing, of navigation (including the use of the compass), the
+working of metals, astronomy, the telescope, gunpowder,
+mathematics, democracy, building, weaving, dyeing, and many of
+the appliances of civilized life, have been appropriated by later
+ages with no acknowledgment of the source whence they were
+derived.  When Pythagoras exhibited to the Greeks some beautiful
+specimens of ancient architecture which he had brought from Egypt
+and Babylon, they simply claimed them as their own, giving no
+credit to the people who originated them; and subsequent ages,
+copying their example, have refused to acknowledge that anything
+of value had been achieved prior to the first Greek Olympiad.
+
+When Philip of Macedon opened the gold mines of Thrace, a country
+in which it will be remembered the worship of the Great Mother
+Cybele was indigenous, he found that they had been previously
+worked "at great expense and with great ingenuity by a people
+well versed in mechanics, of whom no monuments whatever are
+extant."
+
+The decorations on the breasts of some of the oldest mummies show
+that the early Egyptians understood the art of making glass.  It
+is now known that the lens as a magnifying instrument was in use
+among them.  Attention has been drawn to the fact that the
+astronomical observations of the ancients would have been
+impossible without the aid of the telescope.  Diodorus Siculus
+says there was an island west of the Celtae in which the Druids
+brought the sun and moon near them.  An instrument has recently
+been found in the sands of the Nile, the construction of which
+shows plainly that 6000 years ago the Egyptians were acquainted
+with our modern ideas of the science of astronomy.
+
+William Huntington, who has travelled widely in India, Borneo,
+the Malay Peninsula, and Egypt, says:
+
+"I think, on the whole, the most interesting experience I ever
+had was in an ancient city on the Nile in Egypt.  .  .  .  When I
+was there a year ago, and men were digging among the ruined
+temples, some curious things were brought to light, and these I
+regard as the strangest things seen in all my wanderings.  In an
+old tomb was found a curious iron and glass object, which on
+investigation proved to be a photographic camera.  It was not
+such a camera as is used now, or has been since our photography
+was invented, but something analogous to it, showing that the art
+which we thought we had discovered was really known 6000 years
+ago."
+
+The same writer states that a plow constructed on the modern plan
+was also found.  "It was not of steel but of iron, and it had the
+same shape, the same form of point and bend of mold board as we
+have now."
+
+It is reported that the dark continent possesses means of
+communication entirely unknown to Europe.  Upon this subject a
+correspondent to the New York Tribune writes:
+
+"When Khartoum fell in 1885 I was in Egypt, and I well remember
+that the Arabs settled in the neighborhood of the pyramids knew
+all about it, as well as about Gen. Gordon's death, days and
+days before the news reached Cairo by telegraph from the
+Soudanese frontier.  Yet Khartoum is thousands of miles distant
+from Cairo and the telegraph wires from the frontier were
+monopolized by the government."
+
+The same correspondent observes that these Arabs told him, months
+previously, of the defeat of the Egyptian army under Baker Pasha
+at Tokar--that they not only gave him the news, but several
+particulars concerning the matter, two full days before
+intelligence was received from the Red Sea coast.  In answer to
+the suggestion that such information might have been conveyed by
+means of signal fires, this writer says that such fires would
+have attracted the attention of the English and native scouts,
+and that the whole country is unpropitious to such methods;
+besides, no system of signal fires, no matter how elaborate,
+could have conveyed the news so quickly and in such detail.  The
+whole matter is summed up as follows:
+
+"The Arabs, therefore, have, manifestly, some other means of
+rapid communication at their command.  One is inclined to the
+presumption that they, like the learned Pundits of Northern
+India, have a knowledge of the forces of Nature that are yet
+hidden from our most eminent scientists."
+
+Can it be that the Arabs are acquainted with the very recently
+discovered scientific principle, that it is possible to transmit
+telegraphic communications without wires, and simply by means of
+magnetic currents in earth and water?
+
+Nor is this remarkable skill confined to the "barbarians of the
+Old World."  A correspondent from the far West to the New York
+Press wrote that long before the news of the Custer massacre
+reached Fort Abraham Lincoln the Sioux had communicated it to
+their brethren.  The scouts in Crook's column to the south knew
+of it almost immediately, as did those with Gibbon farther
+northwest.  The same writer says that several years ago a naval
+lieutenant ran short of provisions.  He pushed on to a settlement
+as rapidly as possible and upon arriving there found that the
+inhabitants had provided for his coming and had a bounteous store
+awaiting him.  The people in the village were of a different
+tribe from those whose domain he had passed, and so far as could
+be learned were not in communication with them.
+
+The earliest accounts which we have of Egypt and Chaldea reveal
+the fact that at a very remote period they were old and powerful
+civilizations, that they had a settled government, a pure and
+philosophical religion, and a profound knowledge of science and
+art; yet, notwithstanding the great antiquity of these
+civilizations, that of the people which created them must have
+been infinitely more remote.
+
+The earliest historic nations recognized the greatness of these
+ancient people and the extent of their dominion.  In the oldest
+geographical writings of the Sanskrit people, the ancient
+Ethiopia, or land of Cush of Greek and Hebrew antiquity, is
+clearly described.  Stephanus of Byzantium, who is said to
+represent the opinions of the most ancient Greeks, says:
+"Ethiopia was the first established country on the earth, and the
+Ethiopians were the first who introduced the worship of the Gods
+and who established laws."[65]
+
+[65] Quoted by John D. Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations, p. 62.
+
+
+Heeren in his researches says:
+
+"From the remotest times to the present, the Ethiopians have been
+one of the most celebrated, and yet the most mysterious of
+nations.  In the earliest traditions of nearly all the more
+civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this distant people
+is found.  The annals of the Egyptian priests are full of them,
+and the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris, have
+interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopians with their traditions
+of the wars and conquests of their heroes; and, at a period
+equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology.  When the Greeks
+scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians were
+celebrated in the verses of their poets, and when the faint gleam
+of tradition and fable gives way to the clear light of history,
+the lustre of the Ethiopians is not diminished."
+
+Homer says of them that they were a "divided people dwelling at
+the ends of the earth toward the setting and the rising Sun." 
+Although it is possible at the present time to discover very many
+of the facts bearing upon the civilization of this ancient
+people, it is impossible in the present condition of human
+knowledge to discover when civilized life began on the earth. 
+Whether the ancient Arabians or Ethiopians who belonged to the
+old Cushite race, and who are believed by many to be the most
+ancient people of whom we have any trace, were the first
+colonizers, or whether they were preceded by a still older
+civilization, history and tradition are alike silent; yet the
+fact seems to be tolerably well authenticated that this
+enlightened race, now nearly extinct, carried civilization to
+Chaldea more than seven thousand years B.C., that it colonized
+Egypt, engrafted its own institutions in India, colonized
+Phoenicia, and by its maritime and commercial enterprise,
+introduced civilized conditions into every quarter of the globe. 
+Even in Peru, in Mexico, in Central America, and in the United
+States are evidences of the old Cushite religion and enterprise.
+
+Baldwin, commenting on the greatness of this remarkable people,
+says that early in the period of its colonizing enterprise,
+commercial greatness, and extensive empire, it established
+colonies in the valleys of the Nile and the Euphrates, which in
+later ages became Barbary, Egypt, and Chaldea.  The ancient
+Cushite nation occupied Arabia and other extensive regions of
+Africa, India, and Western Asia to the Mediterranean.  While
+remarking upon the vastness and antiquity of this old Cushite
+race, Rawlinson says that they founded most of the towns of
+Western Asia.  The vast commercial system which formed a
+connecting link between the various countries of the globe, was
+created by this people, the great manufacturing skill and
+unrivalled maritime activity of the Phoenicians which extended
+down to the time of the Hellenes and the Romans having been a
+result of the irgenius.  It was doubtless during the supremacy of
+the ancient Cushite race that a knowledge of astronomy was
+developed and that the arts of life were carried to a high degree
+of perfection.  However, through the peculiar influences which
+were brought to bear upon human experience, this knowledge, which
+was bequeathed to their descendants or to the nations which they
+had created, was subsequently lost or practically obscured, only
+fragments of it having been preserved from the general ruin.
+
+Within these fragments have been preserved in India certain
+evidences of a profound knowledge of Nature, or of the at present
+unknown forces in the universe, a demonstration of which, in our
+own time, would probably be looked upon as a miraculous
+interposition of supernatural agencies.
+
+Regarding the refinements and luxuries of this ancient people,
+Diodorus Siculus declares that they flowed in streams of gold and
+silver, that "the porticoes of their temples were overlaid with
+gold, and that the adornments of their buildings were in some
+parts of silver and gold, and in others of ivory and precious
+stones, and other things of great value."
+
+From various observations, it is plain that the Etrurians
+represented a stage of civilization far in advance of the
+Pelasgians who founded Rome --a race which, although superior in
+numbers, arms, and influence, were, when compared with this more
+ancient people, little better than barbarians.[66]
+
+[66] It is thought that as early as the nineteenth century B.C. 
+the Pelasgians or Pelargians went to Aenonia, or Ionia.  It was a
+detachment of this people which, according to Herodotus, captured
+a number of Athenian women on the coast of Africa, lived with
+them as wives, and raised families by them, but, "because they
+differed in manners from themselves," they murdered them, which
+act was attended by a "dreadful pestilence."  It is the opinion
+of certain writers that these women were of a different religious
+faith from their captors, and that so intense and bitter was the
+feeling upon the comparative importance of the sex functions in
+pro-creation, that their husbands, unable to change their views,
+put an end to their existence.
+
+
+Nothing, perhaps, proclaims the degree of civilization attained
+by the ancient Etrurians more plainly than the exquisite
+perfection which is observed in the specimens of art found in
+their tumuli.  Within the tombs of Etruscans buried long prior to
+the foundation of Rome, or the birth of the fine arts in Greece,
+have been found unmistakable evidence of the advanced condition
+of this people.  The exquisite coloring and grouping of the
+figures on their elegant vases, one of which, on exhibition in
+the British Museum, portrays the birth of Minerva, or Wisdom,
+show the delicacy of their taste, the purity of their
+conceptions, and their true artistic skill.
+
+Among their mechanical arts, a few specimens of which have been
+preserved, is the potter's wheel, an invention which, so far as
+its utility is concerned, is declared to be absolutely
+perfect--the most complete of all the instruments of the world. 
+"It never has been improved and admits of no improvement."  In
+fact all that may be gathered concerning the ancient Etrurians, a
+people who by the most able writers upon this subject is believed
+to have been one of the first to leave the Asiatic hive, is in
+perfect accord with the facts already set forth regarding that
+mighty nation, perhaps of upper Asia, who carried the study of
+astronomy to a degree of perfection never again reached until
+after the discovery of the Copernican system, who invented the
+Neros and the Metonic Cycle, who colonized Egypt and Chaldea, and
+who carried civilization to the remotest ends of the earth.
+
+The philosophy of the Etrurians corresponds with that of the most
+ancient Hindoo system, and displays a degree of wisdom
+unparalleled by any of the peoples belonging to the early
+historic ages.  According to their cosmogony, the evolutionary or
+creative processes involved twelve vast periods of time.  At the
+end of the first period appeared the planets and the earth, in
+the second the firmament was made, in the third the waters were
+brought forth, in the fourth the sun, moon, and stars were placed
+in the heavens, in the fifth living creatures appeared on the
+earth, and in the sixth man was produced.  These six periods
+comprehended one-half the duration of the cycle.  After six more
+periods had elapsed, or after the lapse of the entire cycle of
+twelve periods, all creation was dissolved or drawn to the source
+of all life.  Subsequently a new creation was brought forth under
+which the same order of events will take place.  The involution
+of life, or its return to the great source whence it sprang, did
+not, however, involve the destruction of matter.  The seeds of
+returning life were preserved in an ark or boat--the female
+principle, within which all things are contained.  This indrawing
+of life constituted "the night of Brahme."  It was represented by
+Vishnu sleeping on the bottom of the sea.
+
+From the facts adduced in relation to the Etrurians we are not
+surprised to find that their religion was that of the ancient
+Nature worshippers, and that a mother with her child stood for
+their god-idea.  In referring to the religion of this people, and
+to the great antiquity of the worship of the Virgin and Child,
+Higgins remarks: "Amongst the Gauls, more than a hundred years
+before the Christian era, in the district of Chartres, a festival
+was celebrated in honor of the Virgin," and in the year 1747, a
+mithraic monument was found "on which is exhibited a female
+nursing an infant--the Goddess of the year nursing the God day." 
+To which he adds: "The Protestant ought to recollect that his
+mode of keeping Christmas Day is only a small part of the old
+festival as it yet exists amongst the followers of the Romish
+Church. Theirs is the remnant of the old Etruscan worship of the
+virgin and child."  As a proof of the above, Higgins cites
+Gorius's Tuscan Antiquities, where may be seen the figure of an
+old Goddess with her child in her arms, the inscription being in
+Etruscan characters.  "No doubt the Romish Church would have
+claimed her for a Madonna, but most unluckily she has her name,
+Nurtia, in Etruscan letters, on her arm, after the Etruscan
+practice."
+
+From the monuments of Etruria the fact is observed that descent
+and the rights of succession were traced in the female line, a
+condition of society which indicates the high position which must
+have been occupied by the women of that country.
+
+In Oman is said to exist a fragment of the government of the old
+Ethiopian or Cushite race.  If this is true, then we may be able
+to perceive at the present time something of the character of the
+political institutions of this ancient nation.  As no people
+remains stationary, and as degeneracy has been the rule with
+surrounding countries, we may not expect to find among the people
+of Oman a true representation of ancient conditions, yet, as has
+been observed, we may still be able to note some of the facts
+relative to the organization of society and their governmental
+institutions.
+
+In a description furnished by Palgrave, Oman is termed a kingdom,
+yet it is plain from the observations of this writer that the
+existing form of government is that of a confederacy of nations
+under a democratical system, identical with that developed during
+the later status of barbarism.  This writer himself admits that
+Oman is less a kingdom than an aggregation of municipalities, and
+that each of these municipalities or towns has a separate
+existence and is controlled by its own local chief; but that all
+are joined together in one confederacy, and subjected to the
+leadership of a grand chief whom the writer is pleased to term
+"the crown," but why, as is evident from the description given,
+bears no resemblance to a modern monarch. The chiefs who direct
+the councils of the municipalities are limited in their powers by
+"the traditional immunities of the vassals," the decision of all
+criminal cases and the administration of justice being in the
+hands of the local judges.  In the descriptions given of their
+governmental proceedings, it is stated that the whole course of
+law is considered apart from the jurisdiction of the sovereign,
+who has no power to either change or annul the enactments of the
+people.
+
+Here, it is observed, exists almost the identical form of
+government which was in use among the early historic nations,
+before governments came to be founded on wealth, or on a
+territorial basis[67]; or, in other words, before the monied and
+aristocratic classes had drawn to themselves all the powers which
+had formerly belonged to the people.
+
+[67] See The Evolution of Woman, p. 238.
+
+
+We must bear in mind the fact that under these earlier
+democratical institutions, the term "people" included not only
+men but women, and as the grand chief, the local rulers, and the
+judges held their positions by virtue of their descent from, or
+relationship to, some real or traditional leader of the gens, who
+during all the earlier ages was a woman, we may believe that the
+power of women to depose their political leaders so soon as their
+conduct became obnoxious to them was absolute and unquestioned.
+
+Doubtless, as we have seen, the government of Oman has undergone
+a considerable degree of modification since the days of Cushite
+splendor and supremacy; that, like all other nations which have
+come in contact with the Aryan and Semitic races, the tendency
+has been toward monarchial government; nevertheless, with its
+practically free institutions, representing as they do, in a
+measure, the political system of the grandest and oldest
+civilizations of which we have any knowledge, it furnishes an
+illustration of the degree of progress possible under gentile
+organization, at the same time that it points to the source
+whence has proceeded the fierce democratic spirit observed among
+succeeding nations, notably the Greeks.
+
+Modern writers agree in ascribing to the Touaricks, a people
+inhabiting the Desert of Sahara, a considerable degree of
+civilization.  We are informed that in the Sahara, which, by the
+way, is far less a barren waste than we have been taught to
+suppose it, "the Touaricks have towns, cities, and an excellent
+condition of agriculture"; that with them fruit is cultivated
+with great success and skill.  Their method of political
+organization is democratic and similar in construction and
+administration to the old Cushite municipalities.  Baldwin,
+quoting from Richardson, says: "Ghat, like all the Touarick
+countries, is a republic; all the people govern.  The woman of
+the Touaricks is not the woman of the Moors and Mussulmans
+generally.  She has here great liberty, and takes an active part
+in the affairs and transactions of life."[68]
+
+[68] Prehistoric Nations, p. 341.
+
+
+One who is disposed to search for it, will find no lack of
+evidence going to prove that in an earlier age of the world,
+prior to the written records of extant history, the human race
+had attained to a stage of civilization equal in all and superior
+in many respects to that of the present time.
+
+That this remarkable stage of progress, the actual extent of
+which has not yet been fully realized, was attained during a
+period of pure Nature-worship, or while the earth and the sun
+were venerated as emblems of the great creative energy throughout
+the universe, is a proposition which, when viewed by the light of
+more recently acquired facts, is perfectly reasonable, and
+exactly what might be expected.
+
+That this high stage of civilization was reached while women were
+the recognized heads of families and of the gentes, and at a time
+when Perceptive Wisdom, or the female energy in the Deity, was
+worshipped as the supreme God, is a fact which in time will be
+proved beyond a doubt.  Indeed, had not the judgment of man
+become warped by prejudice, and his reason clogged by
+superstition and sensuality, the fact so plainly apparent in all
+ancient mythologies, that in the early god-idea two principles
+were contained, the female being in the ascendancy, would long
+ere this have been acknowledged, and our present religious
+systems, which are but outgrowths from these mythologies, would,
+with the partial return of civilized conditions, have been so
+modified or changed as to embrace some of the fundamental truths
+which formed the basis of early religion.
+
+Regarding the religion of the ancient race which we have been
+considering, we are told that they worshipped a dual Deity, under
+the appellations of Ashtaroth and Baal, and that this God
+"comprehended the generative or reproductive powers in human
+beings and in the sun, together with Wisdom or Light."  In other
+words, they adored the great moving force throughout Nature, a
+force which they venerated as the Great Mother.
+
+Before the Zend and Sanskrit branches of the Aryan race had
+separated, their religion was doubtless that given them by their
+Cushite civilizers.  The worship of the sun and the planets, with
+which were inextricably interwoven the fructifying agencies in
+Nature, explains their devotion to the study of the heavenly
+bodies and their advanced knowledge of astronomy.  The types of
+regeneration or reproduction which they venerated were symbols of
+abstract principles, and, from facts connected with their
+religious ceremonies as practiced by their immediate successors,
+and from the pure significance attached to their emblems, we are
+justified in the conclusion before referred to, that the sensuous
+element, which became so prominent in later religious
+developments, constituted no part of their worship.
+
+The number of ages during which the most primitive religion,
+namely, that of pure Nature-worship, prevailed among the
+inhabitants of the earth may not be conjectured, and the exact
+length of time during which earth and sun adoration unalloyed by
+serpent and phallic faiths remained is not known.  It is
+probable, however, that its duration is to be measured by that of
+the supremacy of the altruistic or mother element in human
+affairs, and that the gradual engrafting of the later-developed
+sensuous faiths upon their earlier god-idea, marks the change
+from female to male supremacy.
+
+We have observed that whenever a remnant of the civilization of
+the ancient Cushites appears, exactly as might be expected, women
+hold an exalted position in human affairs, at the same time that
+the female principle constitutes the essential element in the
+Deity.
+
+Of the ancient Persians who received their religion and their
+civilization from this older race Malcolm observes:
+
+"The great respect in which the female sex was held was, no
+doubt, the principal cause of the progress they made in
+civilization.  .  .  .  It would appear that in former days the
+women of Persia had an assigned and honorable place in society;
+and we must conclude that an equal rank with the male creation,
+which is secured to them by the ordinances of Zoroaster, existed
+long before the time of that reformer, who paid too great
+attention to the habits and prejudices of his countrymen to have
+made any serious alteration in so important an usage.  We are
+told by Quintus Curtius, that Alexander would not sit in the
+presence of Sisygambis, till told to do so by that matron,
+because it is not the custom in Persia for sons to sit in the
+presence of their mothers.  There can be no stronger proof than
+this anecdote affords, of the great respect in which the female
+sex were held in that country, at the time of this invasion."[69]
+
+[69] See History of Persia.
+
+
+No one I think can study the sacred books of the Persians without
+observing the emphasis which is there placed on purity of
+character and right living.  Indeed, within no extant writings is
+the antithesis between good and evil more strongly marked, at the
+same time that their hatred of idolatry is clearly apparent.  The
+same is observed in the early writings of the Hindoos.  Within
+the Vedas, although they have been corrupted by later writers,
+may still be traced a purity of thought and life which is not
+apparent in the writings of later ages.  Not long ago I was
+informed by a learned native of India that the original writing
+of the Vedas was largely the work of women.
+
+That the early conceptions of a Deity in which women constituted
+the central and supreme figure were in Egypt correlated with the
+exercise of great temporal power, may not, in view of the facts
+at hand, longer be doubted.  By means of records revealed on
+ancient monuments, we are informed that in the age of Amunoph I. 
+a considerable degree of sovereign power in Egypt was exercised
+by a woman, Amesnofre-are, who had shared the throne with Ames. 
+She occupied it also with Amunoph, and, notwithstanding the
+statement of Herodotus, that women did not serve in the capacity
+of priests, this Queen is represented as pouring out libations to
+Amon, an office which was doubtless the highest connected with
+the priesthood.
+
+Less than forty years later, it is observed that another woman,
+Amun-nou-het, shared the throne with Thotmes I. and II. and that
+"she appears to have enjoyed far greater consideration than
+either of them."  Not alone are monuments raised in her name, but
+she appears dressed as a man, and "alone presenting offerings to
+the gods."  So important a personage was she that she is believed
+by many to be the princess who conquered the country, perhaps
+even Semiramis herself.  Her title was the "Shining Sun."[70]
+
+[70] Rawlinson, History of Herodotus, app., book ii., ch. viii.
+
+
+As these women doubtless belonged to the old Arabian, Ethiopian,
+or Cushite race, the people who had brought civilization to
+Egypt, we are not surprised to find them holding positions which
+were connected with the highest civil and religious offices.  The
+Labyrinth, in the country of the Nile, is described by ancient
+writers as containing three thousand chambers.  Strabo says of it
+that the enclosure contained as many palaces as there formerly
+were homes, and that there the priests and priestesses of each
+department were wont to congregate to discuss difficult and
+important questions of law.
+
+According to the Greeks, the Egyptian God Osiris corresponds to
+their Jupiter; and Sate, the companion of Kneph, is identical
+with Juno.  It is quite evident, however, that the Greeks
+understood little of the true significance of the gods which they
+had borrowed, or which they had inherited from older nations.  It
+would seem that as a people their conceit prevented them from
+acknowledging the dignity even of their gods, hence, they endowed
+them with the attributes best suited to their own depraved taste
+or pleasure, and then worshipped them as beings like themselves.
+
+It has been observed of the Egyptians that they were wont to
+ridicule the Greeks for regarding their gods as actual beings,
+while in reality "they were only the representations of the
+attributes and principles of Nature."  Unlike the religions which
+succeeded it, Egyptian mythology, as understood by the learned,
+was essentially philosophical, and dealt with abstractions and
+principles rather than with personalities.
+
+Notwithstanding the importance which in process of time came to
+be claimed by males, and the consequent stimulation which was
+given to the animal tendencies, it is evident, from certain
+historical and undeniable proofs in connection with this subject,
+that although woman's power in Egypt, as in all other countries,
+gradually became weakened, the effect of her influence on manners
+and social customs was never wholly extinguished.
+
+Regarding the existence of polygamy, it has been said that the
+high position occupied in ancient Egypt by the mother of the
+family, the mistress of the household, is absolutely
+irreconcilable with the existence of polygamy as a general
+practice, or of such an institution as the harem.  Although the
+plurality of wives does not appear to have been contrary to law,
+it "certainly was unusual," and although Egyptian kings
+frequently had many wives, "they followed foreign rather than
+native custom."[71]
+
+[71] Renouf, Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 81.
+
+
+Herodotus says of the women of Egypt: "They attend the markets
+and trade while the men sit at home at the loom"[72]; and
+Diodorus informs us that in Egypt "women control the men."
+
+[72] Book ii., ch. xxxv.
+
+
+Were we in possession of no direct historical evidence to prove
+that down to a late period in the history of Egypt women had not
+lost their prestige, sufficient evidence would be found in the
+fact that, notwithstanding the growing tendency of mankind in all
+the nations of the globe to suppress the female instincts and to
+reject, conceal, or belittle the woman element in the Deity,
+still Isis, the gracious mother, retained a prominent place in
+the god-idea of that country.
+
+I am not unmindful of the remarks which a reference to a past age
+of intellectual and moral greatness will call forth; indeed, I
+can almost hear some devotee of the present time remark: "So we
+are asked to regard as a sober fact the existence in the past of
+a golden age; also to believe that man was created pure and holy,
+and that he has since fallen from his high estate; in other
+words, we are to have faith in the ancient tradition of the 'fall
+of man.'"  If by the fall of man we are to understand that a
+great and universal people, who in a remote age of the world's
+history had reached a high stage of civilization, gradually
+passed out of human existence, and that a lower race, which was
+incapable of attaining to their estate, and which, by the over-
+stimulation of the lower propensities, sank into a state of
+barbarism, in which the original sublime conceptions of a Deity
+were obscured and the great learning of the past was lost, I can
+see no reason to disbelieve it, especially as all the facts, both
+of tradition and history, bearing upon this subject unite in
+proclaiming its truth.
+
+After stating that in Chaldea has been found rather the debris of
+science than the elements of it, Bailly asks:
+
+"When you see a house built of old capitals, columns, and other
+fragments of beautiful architecture, do you not conclude that a
+fine building has once existed? .  .  .  If the human mind can
+ever flatter itself with having been successful in discovering
+the truth, it is when many facts, and these facts of different
+kinds, unite in producing the same results."
+
+That the descendants of a once mighty nation lapsed into
+barbarism, forgetting the profound knowledge of the sciences
+possessed by their ancestors, is a fact too well attested at the
+present time to be doubted by those who have taken the pains to
+acquaint themselves with the evidence at hand.
+
+Regarding the manner in which this ancient civilization was
+reached, or concerning the way in which it was achieved, history
+and tradition are alike silent, although it is believed that the
+present methods of investigation will, at least in a measure,
+unravel the mystery.  At present we only know that, as far in the
+remote past as human ken can reach, evidences of a high stage of
+civilization exist which it must have required thousands upon
+thousands of years to accomplish.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+CONCEALMENT OF THE EARLY DOCTRINES.
+
+After the decline of Nature-worship, and when through the
+constantly increasing power gained by the ruder elements in human
+society a knowledge of the scientific principles underlying
+ancient religion had been partially lost or forgotten, it became
+necessary for philosophers to conceal the original conception of
+the Deity and to clothe their sacred writings in allegory.  Hence
+it is observed that every ancient form of religion has a cabala
+containing its secret doctrines--doctrines the inner meaning of
+which was known only to the few.  In order that these truths
+might be preserved, they were inscribed on the leaves of trees in
+characters or symbols understood only by the initiated.  The
+allegories beneath which these higher truths were concealed were
+handed down as traditions to succeeding generations--traditions
+in which history, astrology, and mythology are strangely
+combined.
+
+After long periods, through war, conquest, and the various
+changes incidental to shifting environment, these traditions were
+in the main forgotten.  Fragments of them, however, were from
+time to time gathered together, and, intermingled with later
+doctrines, were used by the priests as a means of increased
+self-aggrandizement and power.
+
+It is now thought that the Iliad (Rhapsodies) of Homer is only a
+number of "detached songs" which perhaps for centuries were
+delivered orally, and that they contain the secret doctrines of
+the priests.  Porphyry says that "we ought not to doubt that
+Homer has secretly represented the images of divine things under
+the concealment of fable."  It has been said of Plato that he
+banished the poems of Homer from his imaginary republic for the
+reason that the people might not be able to distinguish what is
+from what is not allegorical.  Hippolytus informs us that the
+Simonists declared that in Helen resided the principle of
+intelligence; "and thus, when all the powers were for claiming
+her for themselves, sedition and war arose, during which this
+chief power was manifested to nations."  These songs which were
+gathered together by Pisistratus and revised by Aristotle for the
+use of Alexander, have generally been regarded merely as a bit of
+history recounting a severe and protracted struggle between the
+Greeks and Trojans.
+
+Within the earliest historical accounts which we have of the
+Egyptians, we observe that their ceremonies and symbols have
+already become multitudinous, the true meaning of the latter
+being concealed.  The masses of the people, who had grown too
+sensualized and ignorant to receive the higher divine
+"mysteries," and too gross to be entrusted with their true
+significance, had become idolaters.
+
+Not only the Egyptian and Chaldean priests, but Moses and the
+Jewish doctors were well versed in religious symbolism.  The fact
+is observed, also, that as late as medieval Christianity, the
+fathers in the Church, the Christian painters, sculptors, and
+architects, still employed signs and symbols to set forth their
+religious doctrines.  Even at the present time, many of the
+emblems representing certain ideas connected with the creative
+principles, and which were part and parcel of the pagan worship,
+are still in use.  The masses of the people, however, are without
+a knowledge of their origin or early significance.
+
+Everywhere, throughout the early historic nations, were
+worshipped symbols of the attributes or functions of the dual or
+triune God.  Each symbol represented a distinctive female or male
+quality.  Animals, trees, the sea, plants, the moon, and the
+heavens were, at a certain stage of religious development,
+symbolized as parts of the Deity and worshipped as possessing
+certain female or male characteristics or attributes.
+
+It is plain that, with the decline of female power, and the
+consequent stimulation of the animal instincts in man, the pure
+creative principles involved in Nature-worship gradually became
+unsuited to the sensualized capacities and tastes of the masses;
+but in addition to this were other reasons why the female
+principle in the Deity should be concealed.  Women were already
+deposed from their former exalted position as heads of families
+and as leaders of consanguine communities.  All their rightful
+prerogatives had been usurped.  The highest development in Nature
+had become the slave of man's appetites, and motherhood, which
+had hitherto been accepted as the most exalted function either in
+heaven or on the earth, trailed in the dust.
+
+Under these conditions it is not perhaps singular that the
+capacity to bring forth, and the qualities and attributes of
+women which are correlated with it, namely, sympathy--a desire
+for the welfare of others outside of self, or altruism,--should
+no longer have been worshipped as divine, or that in their place
+should have been substituted the leading characters developed in
+man.  From the facts at hand it is plain that at a certain stage
+of human growth physical might and male reproductive energy, or
+virility, became the recognized God.  With passion as the highest
+ideal of a Creator, the female element appeared only in a
+sensualized form and simply as an appendage to the god which was
+dependent upon her ministrations.  Under the above conditions it
+is not in the least remarkable that by the priests it should have
+been deemed necessary to conceal from women the facts bound up in
+their nature.  Woman's importance as a creative agency and as a
+prime and most essential factor in the universe must be
+concealed.  "Isis must be veiled."
+
+Through the appropriation of the titles of the original dual God
+by reigning monarchs, is perceived at least one of the processes
+by which the great universal female Deity of the ancients has
+been transformed into a male god.  We are assured that the
+"redundant nomenclature of the deities of Babylon renders an
+interpretation of them impossible.  Each divinity has many
+distinct names, by which he is indifferently designated."  It is
+observed that each
+
+Deity has as many as forty or fifty titles, each of which
+represents a certain attribute.
+
+Since the invention of the cuneiform alphabet, by which pictures
+have been reduced to phonetic signs, the attempt has been made to
+arrange or classify these gods according to their proper order in
+the Pantheon, but thus far much obscurity and doubt seem to
+pervade their history.
+
+In Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian mythologies are observed
+much confusion and no small degree of mystery surrounding the
+positions occupied by certain gods.  "Children not unfrequently
+change positions with parents," but more frequently, we are told,
+"women change places with men," or, more properly speaking, the
+titles, attributes, and qualities ascribed to the Great Universal
+female God are now transferred to the reigning monarch. Thus not
+unfrequently a deity is observed which is composed of a male
+triad, the central figure of which is the king or military
+chieftain, and to which is usually appended a straggling fourth
+member, a female, who, shorn of her power, and with a doubtful
+and mysterious title, appears as wife or mistress to his
+greatness, while upon her is reflected, through him, a slight
+hint of that dignity and honor which was originally recognized as
+belonging exclusively to the recognized Deity.
+
+The Goddess Vishnu, from whose navel as she slept on the bottom
+of the sea sprang all creation, after her transformation into a
+male God, is supplemented by a wife--Lacksmir.  Lacksmir means
+wisdom; but she has become only an appendage to her "lord," upon
+whom is reflected all her former glory.
+
+So greedy did rulers become for the splendid titles belonging to
+the female divinities that we are told that "the name of the
+Great Goddess Astarte not unfrequently appears as that of a man."
+
+Although man had usurped the titles of the female God and had
+denied her recognition as an active creative agency, still, as
+nothing could be created without her, she was permitted, as we
+have seen, to remain as wife or mistress to the reigning monarch,
+in whom had come to reside infinite wisdom and power.  Her symbol
+was an ark, chest, boat, box, or cave.  This woman, although
+dignified by the title "Mother of the Gods," and even by that of
+"Queen of Heaven," is utterly without power.
+
+Not only is it plain that the titles and attributes of female
+gods have been appropriated by males, but it is also true that
+the more ancient deities, which are now known to have been
+female, have by later investigators been represented as male.
+
+The interpretations which have hitherto been put upon the
+Babylonian and Assyrian deities by many of those who have
+attempted to unravel the mysteries of an earlier stage of
+religious worship, is doubtless due to the fact that since the
+so-called historic period began, the qualities which have been
+considered godlike have all been masculine; it has therefore
+never occurred to the minds of these writers that the ancients
+may have entertained quite different notions from their own
+regarding the attributes of a Deity; hence, whenever the sex of a
+god has appeared doubtful, especially if it be in the least
+degree powerful or important, it has at once been denominated as
+masculine, and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that such
+rendering has oftentimes involved inconsistencies,
+contradictions, and absurdities which it is impossible to
+reconcile either with established facts or with common sense.
+
+Unless the symbols representing religious belief and worship are
+viewed in the light of later developed facts in mythology,
+archaeology, and philology, there occur many seeming absurdities
+and numberless facts which it is found difficult to reconcile
+with each other; especially is this true in regard to some of the
+symbols used to express the distinctive female and male
+qualities.  The serpent, for instance, although a male symbol, in
+certain ages of the world's history appears as a beautiful woman.
+
+This is accounted for by the fact that a woman and a serpent once
+stood for the god-idea.  Together they constituted an indivisible
+entity--the creating power in the universe.  They therefore
+became interchangeable terms.  The woman when appearing alone
+represented both, as did also the serpent.
+
+"In most ancient languages, probably all, the name for the
+serpent signifies Life, and the roots of these words generally
+also signify the male and female organs, and sometimes these
+conjoined.  In low French the words for Phallus and life have the
+same sound, though, as is sometimes the case, the spelling and
+gender differ"; but this fact is thought to be of no material
+importance, as "Jove, Jehova, sun, and moon have all been male
+and female by turn."
+
+No doubt many of the inconsistencies hitherto observed in the
+religion of the ancients will disappear so soon as we obtain a
+clearer knowledge of their chronology; and events which now seem
+contradictory will be satisfactorily explained when placed in
+their proper order with regard to date.  Religion, like
+everything else, is constantly shifting its position to
+accommodate itself to the changed mental conditions of its
+adherents; hence, ideas which at any given time in the past were
+perfectly suited to a people, would, in the course of five
+hundred or one thousand years, have become changed or greatly
+modified.
+
+During a certain stage in human history "all great women and
+mythical ladies were serpents"; but when monumentally or
+pictorially represented, they appeared "with the head of a woman,
+while the body was that of a reptile."  This figure represented
+Wisdom and Passion, or the spiritual and material planes of human
+existence.  The mythical woman whom Hercules met in Scythia, and
+who was doubtless the original eponymous leader of the Scythian
+people, had the head of a woman and the body of a serpent.[73]
+Even the Mexicans declare that "he, the serpent, is the sun,
+Tonakatl-Koatl, who ever accompanies their first woman."  Their
+primitive mother, they said, was Kihua-Kohuatl, which signifies a
+serpent.  In referring to this Mexican tradition, Forlong
+remarks: "So that the serpent here was represented as both Adam
+and Adama; and their Eden, as in Jewish story, was a garden of
+love and pleasure."[74]
+
+[73] Herodotus, book iv., 9.
+
+[74] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 143.
+
+
+The traditions extant among all peoples seem to connect the
+introduction of the serpent into religious symbolism, with a time
+in the history of mankind when they first began to recognize the
+fact, that through the abuse of the reproductive functions, evil,
+or human wretchedness, had gained the ascendency over the higher
+forces.  The Deity represented by a woman and a serpent involved
+the idea not alone of good, but of good and evil combined. 
+Together they prefigured not only Wisdom and generative power,
+but evil as well.  Mythologically they represented the cold of
+winter and the heat of the sun's rays, both of which were
+necessary reproduction.  From this conception sprang the Ormuzd
+and Ahryman of the Persians, the story of Adam, Eve, and the
+serpent in Genesis, and the legend of Kihua-Kohuatl and
+Tonakatl-Koatl in Mexico.
+
+"The serpent remained in the memory and affections of most early
+people as wisdom, life, goodness, and the source of knowledge and
+science, under various names such as Toth, Hermes, Themis, the
+Kneph or Sophia of Egyptians and Gnostics, and Set, Shet, or Shem
+of the Jews."[75]
+
+[75] Forlong, Rivers of Life, etc., vol. i., p. 143.
+
+
+The Serpent Goddess, although embracing evil as well as good, was
+still the "Giver of Life" and the "Teacher of Mankind."  These
+were the titles which in later ages began to be coveted by
+monarchs, and then it was that the attributes belonging to this
+Deity began to appear in connection with royalty.
+
+There is no ancient divinity about which there seems to be
+connected so much mystery as the Assyrian Hea.  When referring to
+the "great obscurity" which surrounds this God we are assured
+that there is at present "no means of determining the precise
+meaning of the cuneiform Hea, which is Babylonian rather than
+Assyrian," but that it is doubtless connected with the Arabic
+Hya, which is said to mean "life," or the female principle in
+creation.  This Deity is the God of "glory" and of "giving,"
+titles which during the earlier ages of human existence belonged
+to the Queen of Heaven, the Celestial Mother.
+
+The representation of the god Amun or Amun-ra, which superseded
+the triune Deity, Kneph, Sate, and Anouk at Thebes, and from
+which in Assyria doubtless proceeded the trinity, Amun,
+Bel-Nimrod, and Hea, is supposed to be identical with the Greek
+Zeus, which means the sun.  This God is represented by a female
+figure seated on a throne.  It is crowned with two long feathers,
+and in the right hand is observed the cross, the emblem of life. 
+Manetho, the celebrated Egyptian historian, declares that the
+name of this God signifies "concealed."
+
+There can be little doubt that the titles of the ancient
+Deity--the Destroyer or Regenerator, or, in other words, those of
+the God of life which embraced the idea of the moving force
+throughout Nature, were, in course of time, appropriated by the
+rulers of the people.  It is stated that the name of a certain
+Egyptian God appears first in connection with royalty, that "his
+name was substituted for some earlier divinity whose
+hieroglyphics were chiselled out of the monuments to make place
+for his."
+
+According to the testimony of Rawlinson, the God Hea is
+represented by the great serpent, which occupies a conspicuous
+position among the symbols of the gods on the black stones
+recording Babylonian benefactions.  Now these flat black stones
+are themselves said to symbolize the female element in the Deity,
+in contradistinction to the obelisks, which prefigure the male,
+while the serpent, for reasons which have already been explained,
+appeared for ages in connection with the figure of a woman.  In
+later inscriptions "king" is everywhere attached to the name of
+the God Hea, which fact shows that the titles ascribed to her
+were those particularly coveted by royalty.  Hence we are not
+surprised to find that in an inscription of Sardanapalus, in the
+British Museum, there "occurs a remarkable phrase in which the
+king takes the titles of Hea."
+
+Among the Assyrian inscriptions appear Bel-Nimrod, Hea, and Nin
+or Bar.  In view of the facts which have come to light regarding
+Hea, it is altogether probable that the triad Bel-Nimrod, Hea,
+and Nin represent the trinity as figured by the father, mother,
+and child.  That Nin was the son or the child of Bel-Nimrod "is
+constantly asserted in the inscriptions."  He appears also as the
+son of Hea, yet the fact that Hea should be represented as a
+woman, or as the mother of Nin, and the central figure in the
+trinity, seems not to have been observed by those who thus far
+have been engaged in deciphering these inscriptions.  By
+representing Hea as male, Nin is made to appear as the offspring
+of two fathers while he is left absolutely motherless.  To
+obviate this difficulty an ingenious attempt has been made to
+account for his existence by substituting his own wife as the
+author of his being.  Although in the numerous accounts which I
+had read of Hea, in my search for information concerning her, she
+had always been designated as male, still I was satisfied from
+the descriptions given that originally this Deity was female. 
+Therefore upon receiving a copy of Forlong's Rivers of Life and
+Faiths of Man in All Lands, I was not surprised to find the
+following:
+
+"Hoa or Hea, the Hu of our Keltic ancestors, whose symbol was the
+shield and the serpent, was worshipped near rivers and lakes, and
+if possible on the sea-shore, where were offered to her such
+emblems as a golden vessel, boat, coffer, or fish, and she was
+then named Belat Ili (the mistress of the Gods)."[76]
+
+[76] Vol. ii., p. 94.
+
+
+She was the Goddess of Water.  Of this Forlong says: "Water,
+perhaps more than fire, has always been used as a purifier.  .  .
+.  Christians have but imitated the ancients, in the use of
+Lustral water--now-a-days called Holy Water, and into which salt
+should be freely put."
+
+According to Francis Vasques, the Cibola tribes of New Mexico pay
+no adoration to anything but water, believing it to be the chief
+support of all life.  The Hindoo faith and the Greek Christian
+Church prescribe "adorations, sacrifices, and other water rites,
+and hence we find all orthodox clergy and devotees have much to
+do with rivers, seas, and wells, especially at certain annual
+solar periods."
+
+The extent to which these ancient rites are still practiced as
+part and parcel of modern religious observances is not realized
+by those who have given no special attention to the subject.  As
+spring advances, all ranks of Russians from the Czar to the
+humblest peasant proceed with their clergy to the Neva, where
+with solemn pomp the ice is broken and the water, which is held
+to be of virgin purity, is sprinkled upon the heads of Czar,
+nobles, and other dignitaries.  The following is an account given
+of the worship of Hea not many years ago in the public press:
+
+"An Imperial and Arch-episcopal procession was formed, consisting
+of, first, the High Priest of the empire in all his most gorgeous
+robes, the two masters of ceremonies walking backwards (probably
+because not of a holy enough order), long double files of white-
+and gold-robed bearers of sacred flambeaux or candles, for Fire
+must enter into every ceremony, whether it is the male or female
+energy which is being worshipped.  Following these Religieux came
+all the sacred relics and fetishes of the Church, as Maya's holy
+cup for water, all holy books, crosses, banners, with sacred
+emblems in their order, and finally the Czar, humbly, and, like
+all his people, on foot, followed by courtly throngs.  These all
+proceeded to a handsome pavilion or kiosk, erected close to the
+edge of the water, when the Metropolitan of the Church reverently
+made an incision in the ice, and took out a little water in a
+sacred golden cup bearing strange devices.  The firing of guns
+accompanied these solemn acts in all their stages, and wherever
+the grave procession moved, it always did so with measured tread,
+chanting sacred verses to the old, old Deity of our race, and
+surrounded with all the pomp of war; whilst at intervals, peals
+of Christian bells and the booming of near and distant guns added
+to the solemnity of this water pageant.  After the filling of the
+golden cup, which, of course, represents the earth and its
+fulness, and, at this season, the now expected increase, the High
+Priest placed a golden crucifix on the virgin water and blessed
+its return from wintry death, invoking the precious fluid to
+vernal life and productiveness, when lo! a holy child suddenly
+appears upon the scene, reminding us that this is everywhere the
+outcome of the 'wafers of life' in all animal as well as
+vegetable production.  Boodha in the garden of Loobim through
+which flowed a holy stream, and Christ by the brook at Bethlehem,
+nay, the first pair in the garden of the four rivers, are all the
+same idea--fertility and creation.  The high Russian Pontiff now
+slowly and solemnly stooped, and taking up some of the holy
+water, proceeded to sprinkle the vernal child--Jesus, whispered
+these crowds, but the ancients said Horus.  The sacred fluid was
+then sprinkled on the clergy, the Czar, and all dignitaries, and
+finally on the sacred emblems, banners, guns, etc.  Men and
+women, aye, wise as well as foolish, of every rank, now crowded
+forward, and on bended knee besought their Patriarch to sprinkle
+and to bless them.  Finally, the great Czar put the cup to his
+lips, humbly and reverently, and then filled it to overflowing
+with a wealth of golden pieces, for it is the still living
+representative in the nineteenth century A.C. of 'the golden
+boat' of Hea of the nineteenth century B.C.'[77]
+
+[77] Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 95.
+
+
+The symbol of Neith or Muth, Athene or Minerva, the great
+universal female principle of the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans,
+was the shield and serpent.  In Celtic Druids I find that Nath,
+the Egyptian Neith, the "goddess of wisdom and science whose
+symbol was the shield and serpent, was worshipped among the
+ancient Irish."  The male God associated with her was Naith, and
+according to Higgins represented "the opposite of Neith."
+
+In Rivers of Life is observed a reference to the Assyrian Goddess
+Hea by Lucian.  In a note Forlong says that no doubt Hea is the
+same as Haiya or Haya.  In other words she represents the
+universal hermaphrodite--the creative principle throughout
+Nature, which was originally worshipped as female.  The actual
+signification of the word Haya is "life."  In ancient Arabia it
+was applied to a group of kinsmen.
+
+The Rev. Mr. Davis is of the opinion that Noe or Noah was the
+same as Deon and that both were Hu or Hea the mighty, whose
+chariot was drawn by solar rays.  This God was in fact the same
+as Zeus, Bacchus, and all the rest of the sun and water Deities. 
+It has been observed that, according to the ancient cosmogonies,
+within water was contained the life principle, and as a woman
+presided over it, or was the only being or entity present, she
+must have been the self-existent Creator.  From this woman sprang
+all creation.  According to the account in Genesis, the Spirit of
+God moved on the face of the deep and creation began.
+
+By all nations water has been employed as a symbol of
+regeneration, and as it contained the beginning of things it was
+female.  The Hindoos regard it as sacred, and in one of their
+most solemn prayers it is thus invoked:  Waters, mothers of
+worlds, purify us![78]
+
+[78] Quoted by Inman from Colbrook, vol. i., p. 85.
+
+
+Doubtless it was from these ancient speculations regarding the
+beginnings of things that Thales, the Milesian philosopher,
+received his doctrine that water is the original principle.  The
+ancient Egyptians and the Jewish people to this day have the
+custom of pouring out all the water contained in any vessel in a
+house where a death has taken place, because of the idea that as
+the living being comes from water, so does it make its exit
+through water.  Hence "to drink or to use in any way a fluid
+which contains the life of human beings would be a foul offense."
+
+The fact is noted by Inman that in all Assyrian mythology the
+water God Hea is associated with life and with a serpent. 
+Although Rawlinson declares that Hea is Babylonian rather than
+Assyrian, may she not, in view of the facts concerning her, be
+not only Babylonian, but Egyptian, Indian, Phrygian, Mexican, and
+all the rest?
+
+It would seem that in this Deity, who is figured in connection
+with a shield and serpent, as is Minerva, and who is worshipped
+near water-- an emblem which is sacred to her,--and whose titles
+correspond exactly to those of Neith or Cybele, might be traced
+the remnants of a once universal worship--a worship in which the
+female energy constituted the Creator.
+
+Although it is declared that "great obscurity surrounds the God
+Hea," no one, I think, whose mind is free from prejudice, and who
+understands the significance of the early god-idea, and the true
+meaning of the symbols used in later ages to express it, can
+study the myths connected with this Deity without at once
+recognizing her identity with the great female God of Nature who
+was once worshipped by every people on the globe, but whose
+worship had become sensualized to satisfy the corrupted taste of
+a more depraved age--an age in which passion constituted the
+highest idea of a God.
+
+Although the serpent Deity was originally portrayed with the head
+of a woman and the body of a serpent or fish, after the change of
+sex in the god-idea which has been noted in the foregoing pages
+had been completed, it is observed that this figure is
+represented by the head of a man and the body of a serpent.  Hea,
+the great goddess to whom water, the original principle, is
+sacred, and who is suspiciously connected with Noah, the
+life-principle which appears at the close of a cycle, has changed
+her sex.  This god is now the "Ruler of the Seas," "Master of the
+Life-Boat" (the ark), and "Lord of the Earth."  The earth is his
+and the fulness thereof.  He is the "Life Giver," the "Lord of
+Hosts," who subsequently becomes the maker of heaven and earth.
+
+Minerva, who had been the first emanation from the Deity and the
+daughter of the Great Mother of the Gods, now has a father but no
+mother.  Jove, who in course of time came to be represented as a
+male Creator, brought her forth from his head.  Later, woman is
+produced from the side of man.  The male principle, symbolized by
+a serpent, has become "the one only and true God."  It is Passion
+--the "Healer of Nations"--the great "I Am."
+
+No unprejudiced individual who carefully follows the results of
+later investigation, and who attempts to unravel the mysteries
+surrounding the ancient gods and the significance of the symbols
+of worship belonging to the earliest historic times, will fail to
+note the attempt which has been made in later ages to conceal the
+fact that the Deity worshipped in very ancient times was female. 
+Neither will he fail to observe the modus operandi by which the
+attributes and prerogatives of this Deity have been shifted upon
+males--usually deified monarchs.  After priestcraft and its
+counterpart, monarchial rule, had robbed the people of all their
+natural rights, kings assumed not alone the governing functions,
+but arrogated to themselves the symbols, titles, and attributes
+of the dual Deity.  The reigning monarch became not only the
+temporal ruler and priest, but was actually God himself, the
+female principle being concealed under convenient symbols.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+THE ORIGINAL GOD-IDEA OF THE ISRAELITES.
+
+Not only were religious doctrines veiled beneath allegories and
+convenient symbols, but names also had a religious significance.
+
+We are given to understand that in Chaldea and Assyria every
+child was named by the oracle or priest, and that no one thought
+of changing the appellation which had come to him through this
+heavenly source.[79]
+
+[79] Inman, Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 3.
+
+
+Inman, in his Ancient Faiths, calls attention to the fact that in
+the Old Testament kings, priests, captains, and other great men
+have had names bestowed upon them, each of which has some
+religious signification; that this name was given the individual
+"at circumcision, or soon after birth."
+
+In the ancient names of what are designated as the Shemitic
+races, children were called after the god alone, and sometimes in
+connection with an attribute.  Especially were these names
+applied to royalty or to persons of distinction; for instance,
+names were given signifying, God the good, God the just or the
+merciful, God the strong, The Warrior God, etc.
+
+As the higher conception of a Creator was forgotten, and as human
+beings, or perhaps I should say their power to control
+circumstances coupled with the ability to reproduce or create,
+had become god, they assumed the titles or names of the Deity;
+hence, it is not perhaps singular that in later times kings and
+heroes were invested with all the attributes of the gods.
+
+We have seen that according to various writers Om or Amm was the
+holy one whose name in India it was sacrilege to pronounce.  It
+was the eternal sun, or the Great Mother.  As this word stands
+also for "tribe or people," it seems to mean, too, that which
+binds, holds, or endures.
+
+As Om or Amm signifies the Great Mother, so An or On means the
+Great Father.  Concerning the word Am-mon, Inman writes as
+follows:
+
+"The association of the words signifying mother and father
+indicates that it is to such conjunction we must refer creative
+power.  With such an androgyne element the sun was associated by
+ancient mythologists.  Jupiter was himself sometimes represented
+as being female; and the word hermaphrodite is in itself a union
+between Hermes and Aphrodite, the male and female creative
+powers.  We may fairly conclude, from the existence of names like
+the above, that there was at one time in Western as there was in
+Eastern Asia a strong feud between the adorers of On and Am, the
+Lingacitas and the Yonijas, and that they were at length
+partially united under Ammon, as they were elsewhere under Nebo
+or the Nabhi of Vishnu."[80]
+
+[80] Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i., p. 237.
+
+
+Inman relates that once when a friend of his was conversing with
+a very high-caste Hindoo he casually uttered this word Amm or Om,
+whereupon the man was so awe struck that he could scarcely speak,
+and, in a voice almost of terror, asked where his friend had
+learned the word.  Of this word Inman says:
+
+"To the Hindoos it was that incommunicable name of the Almighty,
+which no one ventured to pronounce except under the most
+religious solemnity.  And here let me pause to remark that the
+Jews were equally reverent with the name belonging to the Most
+High; and that the third commandment was very literal in its
+signification."
+
+The same writer remarks that in Thibet, too, where a worship very
+nearly identical in ceremony and doctrine with that of the Roman
+papists exists amongst the Lamas, the name of Om is still sacred.
+
+The Iav of the Jews was equally revered, but in the later ages of
+their career they seem to have lost sight of its true meaning.
+
+According to Inman's testimony and that of other etymological
+students, the true signification of the cognomen Jacob is the
+female principle.
+
+It is believed by various writers that the story of Jacob and
+Esau as related in Genesis has an esoteric as well as an exoteric
+meaning--that Jacob has reference to the female creative energy
+throughout Nature, or, rather, to the great mass of people who in
+an early age of the human race believed in the superior
+importance of the female in the office of reproduction, and that
+Esau signifies the male.  Attention is called to the fact that
+Esau is represented as a "hairy" man, rough-voiced and easily
+beguiled, while Jacob, on the other hand, is smooth-faced,
+soft-voiced, and the favorite of his mother.
+
+There is indeed much in this myth which seems to indicate that it
+is an allegory beneath which are veiled certain facts connected
+with the struggle between two early contending sects regarding
+the relative importance of the sexes in reproduction.  Of this
+Inman says:
+
+"My own impression is that Esau, or Edom, and Jacob are mystic
+names for a man and a woman, and that round these, historians
+wove a web of fancy; that ultimately the cognomen Jacob was
+recognized, and that to allow the Jewish people to trace their
+descent from a male rather than a female, the appellation of
+Israel was substituted in later productions."[81]
+
+[81] Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 607.
+
+
+As most of the myths or allegories in Genesis are now traced to a
+source far more remote than the beginning of legitimate Jewish
+history, it is not unreasonable to suppose that this story, too,
+was copied by the Jews from the traditions of earlier races; nor,
+when we remember the true meaning of the cognomen Jacob, that the
+entire story should be regarded as an attempt to set forth
+certain facts connected with the great physiological or religious
+conflict between the sexes.
+
+The significance of the idols worshipped by Jacob and his family
+is not for a certainty known, but it is believed by certain
+writers that the Seraphim and Teraphim were the usual images
+which were used to represent the male and female energies.  "Then
+Jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him:  Put
+away the strange gods that are among you."  In referring to this
+passage, Inman, in a note, says:
+
+"The critic might fairly say, looking at Genesis xxxv., 2, 'Put
+away the strange gods that are among you,' that there were images
+of God which were not strange, and that in these early times
+there were orthodoxy and heterodoxy in images as there are now. 
+In ancient times the emblem of life-giving energy was an orthodox
+emblem; it is now a horror and its place is taken by an image of
+death.  We infer from the context that Laban's gods were
+orthodox."
+
+So, also, must have been the stone pillar set up by Jacob at
+Bethel (place of the sun).  From a study of similar stones,
+examples of which are to be found in nearly every country of the
+globe, it is known that they represent the male energy, and from
+all the facts connected with the story of Laban's gods it is
+probable that they were emblems of this power.  We may suppose
+then that the "strange gods," the unorthodox gods, which Jacob
+ordered put away, were those representing the female energy.
+
+It seems strange that any person can study the history of the
+Israelitish Exodus by the light of later developments in biblical
+research without recognizing the fact that the "Lord" which
+brought the children of Israel out from the bondage of Egypt was
+the male power, which by a certain sect had been proclaimed the
+only actual creative agency, and therefore the "only one and true
+God."
+
+Although, at the time at which Abraham is said to have lived, the
+knowledge of an abstract dual or triune God still remained, yet,
+during the five hundred years which elapsed until the time of
+Moses, the grossest idolatry had come to prevail. 
+Notwithstanding the fact that Moses had learned much from the
+Egyptians, he seems not to have risen above a very gross
+conception of a deity.  His god was by turns angry, jealous,
+revengeful, vacillating, and weak.  He was in fact the embodiment
+of human passions and desires.  We have seen that the third
+person in the ancient Trinity had, in Egypt, India, and Persia,
+come to be recognized in place of the three principles originally
+worshipped--that, as it really embodied the essence of the other
+two, little was heard of the Creator and Preserver.  Doubtless
+this God was the one which Moses intended the Israelites to
+worship, but as they were unable to conceive of an abstract
+principle he invested it with a personality which, as we have
+seen, was burdened with the frailties and weaknesses common to
+themselves.
+
+As the Regenerator or Destroyer represented the processes of
+Nature,--the dying away of the sun's rays at night only to
+reappear on the following day, and the withdrawal of its warmth
+in winter only to be renewed in the spring,--so this God
+portrayed also the beneficent Creator and Preserver of all
+things, at the same time that it was the Destroyer.  It embodied
+the fundamental idea in all religions, namely, life and
+fertility.  So also did the "Lord" of the Israelites represent
+reproductive energy, but as man being spirit had come to be a
+Creator of offspring, while woman being only matter furnished the
+body, this "Lord" was male.  Connected with it was no hint of the
+female nature or principle, except the ark or chest in which it
+was carried about.  To those who have acquainted themselves with
+the significance of ancient religious symbols, the fact is plain
+that the "Lord" of the Israelites, which in their journeyings
+toward Canaan they carried in an ark or chest, and which was
+symbolized by an upright stone, was none other than a
+"Life-giver" in the most practical sense.  It was the emblem of
+virility, and from the facts at hand, at the present time, there
+is little doubt but that all the spirituality with which we find
+this "Lord" invested was an after-thought and comprehended no
+part of the belief of the Jews until after their contact with the
+Persians during the Babylonian captivity.
+
+Doubtless the story in which their journeyings toward Canaan are
+set forth contains an esoteric as well as an exoteric
+significance for ages known only to the priests, and that within
+it is embodied not alone something of the true history of this
+people, but an account also of their struggle against an older
+religion.  At this time the Israelites had practically commenced
+the elimination of the female principle from their god-idea, and
+had begun the worship of the male element, the female being
+represented by an ark, chest, or box.  This ark, as the
+receptacle of the god, was still a holy thing.
+
+Not only among the Israelites, but among other nations of the
+East, we find the devotees of the male god beginning to assume a
+position quite independent of the beliefs of their fathers.  At
+this time great towers or pillars begin to be erected in honor of
+this deity, which is figured as the "God of Life," or as the
+"Lord of Hosts."  Notwithstanding the fact that the story of the
+Exodus contains much historical truth, it is altogether probable
+that the priests have used it, as they did that of the flood, to
+conceal their religious doctrines.
+
+At the time of the Exodus, the Israelites were ignorant tribes
+without laws or letters, and while in Egypt were menials of the
+lowest order.  Hence, the laws written on the two tables of
+stone, and which it is claimed were elaborated during their
+wanderings in the wilderness of Sinai for the guidance of these
+unlettered slaves, show the desire of the priests of later times
+to invest the "chosen people" with the insignia of enlightenment.
+
+Regarding the character of the god which they worshipped, we have
+ample proof in the Old Testament.  It is plain that at the time
+of their bondage in Egypt the Jews had become the grossest
+phallic worshippers, adoring the emblems of generation, with no
+thought of their earlier significance as pure symbols of creative
+force in mortals.
+
+The fact will doubtless be remembered that, among the Jews, to be
+barren was the greatest curse, and that the principal reward
+promised to the faithful was fruitfulness of body.  The essence
+of this deity was heat or passion, and his emblem was the serpent
+or an upright stone.  It has been observed that when this "Lord"
+was invested with personality he was subject to all the frailties
+of his followers.  His chief and most emphatic characteristic,
+however, was jealousy of other gods, and most of the imprecations
+thundered against the chosen people were directed against the
+worship of the gods of surrounding nations, those which the
+Israelites had originally worshipped.
+
+That portion of the Decalogue relating to a jealous god is seen
+to belong wholly to the Jews, or to the Israelites, who were
+descendants of Jacob.  The older nations, among which was the
+ancient family of the Hebrews, knew nothing of a jealous god. 
+Notwithstanding the fact that the God of the Jews appeared and
+talked face to face with Moses, that he exhibited portions of his
+body to him, and that he thundered his law to this people from
+Mt.  Sinai, still they were constantly lapsing into the worship
+of Baal and Ashtaroth, which fact shows how deeply rooted was the
+belief in a dual or triune God.  It is plain that this "Lord,"
+the fierce anger of whom was kindled because of their
+digressions, was none other than the jealous male god which had
+but recently been elevated to the dignity of a supreme Creator.
+
+Although the angel of the Lord when he came down from Gilgal
+commanded his followers to "throw down the altars of the people
+of Bochim," they nevertheless continued to do evil in the sight
+of the Lord, and
+
+"followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round
+about them, and bound themselves unto them and provoked the Lord
+to anger.
+
+"And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.  And
+the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel."[82]
+
+[82] Judges ii., 12, 13.
+
+
+"And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do
+return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the
+strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you and prepare your hearts
+unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of
+the hand of the Philistines.
+
+"Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth
+and served the Lord only."[83]
+
+[83] I Samuel vii., 3,4.
+
+
+The extreme hatred of the schismatic faction for the opposite
+worship, and the punishments which were meted out to those who
+should dare to rebel against the chosen faith, are indicated by
+the language which throughout the Old Testament is put into the
+mouth of their Lord--a Deity which rejoices in the title of a
+jealous God.
+
+"If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy
+daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as
+thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve
+other gods, which thou hast not known thou nor thy fathers:
+
+"Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you,
+nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the
+earth even unto the other end of the earth;
+
+"Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither
+shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt
+thou conceal him:
+
+"But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon
+him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the
+people.
+
+"And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he
+hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which
+brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
+
+"And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any
+such wickedness as this is among you."[84]
+
+[84] Deuteronomy xiii.
+
+
+The constantly recurring faithlessness of the Jews, their
+restlessness and proneness to wander from their one-principled
+deity which had been set up by their priests for them to worship,
+was doubtless an unconscious effort on the part of the people to
+mitigate the outrage which had been committed against their
+Creator.  It was but a reaching out for that lost or unrecognized
+element which comprehends the more essential force both in human
+beings and in the conception of a deity.  In other words, it was
+an attempt at recognition, in the objects worshipped, of that
+missing female element which had always been worshipped, and
+without which a Creator becomes a misnomer--a meaningless,
+unexplained, and unexplainable monstrosity.
+
+When the Jews first make their appearance in history, they are
+sun worshippers, as are all the nations by which they are
+surrounded.  They are worshippers of Seth the Destroyer and
+Regenerator; but when the philosophical truths underlying the
+ancient universal religion were forgotten, or when through
+ignorance the language setting forth these mysteries was taken
+literally, Seth became identified with the Destroyer, or the Evil
+Principle.  In the meantime man had come to believe himself the
+sole creator of offspring.  He is spirit, which is eternal; woman
+is matter, which is not only destructible but altogether evil. 
+He is heat or passion--the principle through which life is
+produced.  She represents the absence of heat.  She is the simoom
+of the desert and the chilly blast which destroys.
+
+That it was no part of their plan to change their original form
+of worship for a spiritual conception of a Creator is apparent
+from their history.  On the contrary, it is plain that they
+desired simply to eliminate from the hitherto dual conception of
+a deity the female principle, which, in their arrogance, and
+because of the change which had been wrought in the relations of
+the sexes, they no longer acknowledged as important in the office
+of reproduction.
+
+It is quite true they would worship only one god--the
+"Lord,"--but that lord was, as we have seen, a deity of physical
+strength and virile might, a "Lord of Hosts," a god which was to
+be worshipped under the symbol of an upright stone--an object
+which by every nation of the globe down to a comparatively recent
+time has typified male pro-creative energy.  That the masses of
+the people, even as late as the time of Jeremiah, had no higher
+conception of a God than that indicated by an upright stone, is
+shown by that prophet when he accuses the entire house of Israel,
+"their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their
+prophets," of "saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a
+stone, Thou hast brought me forth."
+
+That the people could not, or would not, be prevailed upon to
+renounce the Queen of Heaven, the Celestial Mother, is seen in
+Jer. vii., 17, 18:
+
+"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the
+streets of Jerusalem?  The children gather wood, and the fathers
+kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes
+to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other
+gods."
+
+Also in Jeremiah xliv:
+
+"Then all the men which knew that their wives had burned incense
+unto other gods, and all the women that stood by, a great
+multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt,
+in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, As for the word that thou
+hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken
+unto thee.
+
+"But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our
+own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour
+out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our
+fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and
+in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals,
+and were well, and saw no evil.
+
+"But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven and
+to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things,
+and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
+
+"And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured
+out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship
+her and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?"
+
+That the above represents a quarrel in which the women of Judah
+openly rebelled against the worship of the "Lord," at the same
+time declaring their allegiance to the female Deity, the
+Celestial Mother, Queen of Heaven, is only too evident, the curse
+pronounced upon them by Jeremiah, in the name of the lord, having
+little effect upon them to change their purpose.
+
+"Therefore, hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah that dwell in
+the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith
+the Lord, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any
+man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, The Lord God
+liveth.
+
+"Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and
+all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be
+consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of
+them."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE PHOENICIAN AND HEBREW GOD SET OR SETH.
+
+The name of one of the oldest deities of which we have any record
+is Set (Phoenician) or Seth (Hebrew).  Traces of this God are
+found in all oriental countries; and in the most primitive
+religions, whose traditions are still extant, he (or she) appears
+as the supreme God.  After the subjection of Egypt by the
+stranger kings and the consequent introduction into the country
+of Sabianism, the dual creative force residing in the sun is
+represented by Seth.  We are told that Seth signifies "appointed
+or put in the place of the murdered Abel."
+
+That there is some deep mystery connected with this subject none
+who has studied it carefully can help observing.
+
+According to the story of creation as set forth in the Jehovistic
+account, on Saturday night, after God had finished his work, and
+immediately after he had commanded Adam to "be fruitful," he
+presents him with a staff, which we observe is handed down to
+Enoch and all the patriarchs.  Here the mystery deepens, for it
+is declared that this staff was presented so Seth, and that it
+was a branch of the Tree of Life.
+
+That beneath this allegory is veiled a contest, or perhaps a
+compromise, between the worshippers of two distinct sects, seems
+altogether probable.  That the handing down of this branch of the
+Tree of Life, first to Adam, or man, by Aleim, and its subsequent
+transference to Seth, the God of Nature, the Destroyer or
+Regenerator, seems to indicate a victory for the adherents of a
+purer religion.  The translator of Kallimachus says: "It is well
+known to the learned reader that the descendants of Cain are
+distinguished in Scripture by the name of the sons of man or
+Adam; those of Seth by the name of the sons of God."  Gen.  vi.,
+2.[85] It is stated in Julius Africanus that all the righteous
+men and patriarchs down to the Saviour himself have sprung from
+Seth and have been denominated as the sons of God in
+contradistinction to the sons of man.
+
+[85] Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 527.
+
+
+Doubtless at the time indicated by the transference of the
+creative agency from Aleim to Adam, the worship of an abstract
+principle, or of a Trinity composed of the powers of Nature, was
+losing its hold on the minds of the people, and the creative
+power, or the reproductive energy in human beings, was rapidly
+taking the place of the older Deity.  These higher principles
+forgotten, Adam, or man, had become the Creator.
+
+It is not improbable that the terms Adam, Cain, Abel, and Seth
+have an esoteric meaning which for ages was known only to the
+priests.  From various facts which in later times are being
+brought forward regarding the ancient myths of Genesis, it is
+believed that these names originally stood for races of men, and
+that subsequently certain religious doctrines came to be attached
+to them.  The offering of fruit by Cain, the elder brother, who
+was a tiller of the ground, and that of flesh by Abel, who was a
+keeper of sheep, indicates a quarrel which ended in the death of
+the latter.  After the death of Abel, or after one of these
+principles or sects was subdued, the older religion was revived,
+and Seth, as the Aleim, or as the creative power within the sun,
+was "appointed" or again worshipped.
+
+It would seem that Seth was appointed to represent the third
+person in the ancient Trinity--the Destroyer or Regenerator which
+had previously come to embody all the powers of the Creator and
+Preserver.  The fact has been observed that the very ancient
+philosophers believed matter to be eternal, hence, seeming death,
+or destruction, was necessary to renewed life or regeneration. 
+In other words, creation was but continuous change in the form of
+matter.
+
+Of the doctrines of the Sethians extant at the beginning of
+Christianity, Hippolytus says that their system "is made up of
+tenets from natural philosophers.  These tenets embrace a belief
+in the Eternal Logos--Darkness, Mist, and Tempest."  These
+elements subsequently became identified with the Evil Principle,
+or the Devil.  The cold of winter, the darkness of night, and
+water, were finally set forth as the Trinity.  Regarding cold,
+darkness, and water, or darkness, mist, and tempest, Hippolytus
+observes:
+
+"These the Sethian says are the three principles of our system;
+or when he states that three were born in paradise-- Adam, Eve,
+the serpent; or when he speaks of three persons, namely, Cain,
+Abel, Seth, and again of three others, Shem, Ham, Japheth; or
+when he mentions three patriarchs--Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; or when
+he speaks of three days before the sun, etc."
+
+The same writer says that their entire system is derived from the
+ancients; that, antecedent to the Eleusinian mysteries, were
+enacted by them the ceremonies connected with the worship of the
+Great Mother.[86]
+
+[86] Hippolytus, Refutation of all Heresies, book v., ch. 15.
+
+
+We have observed that through some process not thoroughly
+understood at the present time, the adherents of the older faith
+had succeeded in reinstating their Deity.  The powers of Nature
+had come to be represented by Typhon Seth.  It was the God of
+Death and of Life, of Destruction and Regeneration.  The simoom
+of the desert and the cold of winter were Seth, as were also the
+genial powers of Spring.  We are informed by various writers that
+Typhon Seth was feminine.  She was the early God of the Jews.  In
+other words, the Jews were formerly worshippers of a female
+Deity.  Jehovah, Iav, was originally female.
+
+Although the secret meaning of all the allegories contained in
+the Old Testament is not fully understood, still the belief that
+Cain, Abel, and Seth represented the self-triplicated Deity at a
+time when the idea of man as a creator had been accepted, or when
+his power to reproduce was becoming the highest idea of a
+creative force, is consistent with what is known of the Cabala of
+the Jews, or of the esoteric meaning of the Jewish scriptures
+formerly known only to the priests.  In other words, the ancient
+doctrines, the true meaning of which was no longer understood by
+them, were patched together as a basis for the later developments
+in Jewish religious experience.
+
+We have seen that six hundred years after Adam appears Noah,
+another self-triplicated Saviour or preserver of man, with his
+ark or seed vessel, beneath which is veiled the female element. 
+Afterward Abraham becomes the Great Father or Saviour, and later
+Moses.  That, in the time of the latter, the more ancient worship
+of a creative force in Nature represented by the Aleim, had, by
+the masses of the people, been wholly lost, is evident from the
+Old Testament writings.  The worship of the Father, the male
+power, in opposition to that of the Mother, or the female power,
+constituted the religion of Moses.  In the religion of the Jews,
+Jehovah came to be regarded as wholly male and as spirit, while
+Edam (translated "downward tending"), the female principle, was
+matter, or woman, which finally became identified with the Devil.
+
+The philosophical doctrine that spirit is evolved through matter,
+or that matter must be raised to a certain dynamical power before
+spirit can manifest itself through it, was no longer understood;
+only the husks of this doctrine --the myths and symbols of
+Nature-worship--remained; these were taken literally, and thus
+man's religion was made to conform to his lowered estate.
+
+When man had so far gained the ascendancy over woman as to assert
+that he is the sole Creator of their joint offspring, he was no
+longer of the earth earthy, but at once became the child of
+heaven.  He was, however, bound to earth through his association
+with matter, or with woman, from whom he was unable to free
+himself.  The "sons of God" were united "to the daughters of
+man."  Jahvah, the "God of hosts," who was revengeful, weak,
+jealous, and cruel, was worshipped in the place of Aleim the
+great dual force throughout Nature.  The ethereal, spiritual male
+essence resided somewhere in the heavens and created from afar,
+while the earth (female) furnished only the body or material
+substance.
+
+In the history of the god Seth is to be found a clue to the way
+in which the sublime and philosophical doctrines of the ancients,
+after their true meaning was forgotten, were finally changed so
+as to conform to the enforced humiliation and degradation of
+women.
+
+Seth or Typhon was for ages worshipped throughout Egypt, and as
+she comprehended the powers of Nature, or the creative energy
+residing in the sun and earth, little is heard of any other god. 
+Strange it is, however, that Seth is worshipped more in her
+capacity as Destroyer than as Regenerator.  So soon as we
+understand the origin and character of the Devil, and so soon as
+we divest ourselves of the false ideas which under a state of
+ignorance and gross sensuality came to prevail relative to the
+"powers of darkness," we shall perceive that his (or her) Satanic
+majesty was once a very respectable personage and a powerful
+Divinity--a Divinity which was worshipped by a people whose
+superior intelligence can scarcely be questioned.  Regarding this
+subject Higgins remarks:
+
+"Persons who have not given much consideration to these subjects
+will be apt to wonder that any people should be found to offer
+adoration to the evil principle; but they do not consider that,
+in all these recondite systems, the evil principle, or the
+Destroyer, or Lord of Death, was at the same time the
+Regenerator.  He could not destroy but to reproduce, and it was
+probably not till this principle began to be forgotten, that the
+evil being, per se, arose; for in some nations this effect seems
+to have taken place.  Thus Baal-Zebub is, in Iberno Celtic, Baal
+Lord, and Zab Death, Lord of Death; but he is also called Aleim,
+the same as the God of the Israelites; and this is right, because
+he was one of the Trimurti or Trinity.
+
+"If I be correct respecting the word Aleim being feminine, we
+here see the Lord of Death of the feminine gender; but the
+Goddess Ashtaroth or Astarte, the Eoster of the Germans, was also
+called Aleim.  Here again Aleim is feminine, which shows that I
+am right in making Aleim the plural feminine.  Thus we have
+distinctly found Aleim the Creator (Gen. i., 1), Aleim the
+Preserver, and Aleim the Destroyer, and this not by inference,
+but literally expressed."[87]
+
+[87] Anacalypsis, ch. ii., p. 66.
+
+
+At one period of their history the Hebrews worshipped Ashtaroth
+and Baal, they together representing the great Aleim, the
+indivisible God, but after the Israelites had chosen the worship
+of the male principle as an independent deity, or as the only
+important agency in the creative processes, as Baal might not be
+represented aside from his counterpart Ashtaroth, he was no
+longer adored but came to stand for something "approaching the
+Devil."  Forlong has observed the fact that, although in Hebrew
+Baal is masculine, in the Greek translations he is feminine both
+in the Old and New Testaments.[88]
+
+[88] Forlong, Rivers of Life, p. 223.
+
+
+Jehovah was originally female, so, also, was Netpe the Holy
+Spirit of the Egyptian Tree of Life.  We are given to understand
+that Netpe was the same as Rhea, the partner of Sev or Saturn,
+and that her hieroglyphic name was "Abyss of Heaven."  Osiris was
+the son of this goddess who was really a Mai or Mary, the
+Celestial Mother, he being the only God of the Egyptians who was
+born upon this earth and lived among men.  Of this Forlong
+remarks: "His birthplace was Mount Sinai; called by the Egyptians
+Nysa, hence his Greek name Dionysos."
+
+As the Palm was the first offering of Mother Earth to her
+children, so Osiris was the first offspring of the Egyptian
+Celestial Virgin to mankind.  He was the new sun which through
+the winter months had been "buried," but which in process of time
+arose to gladden all the earth.  He was also the new Sun of
+Righteousness which was to renew the world, or redeem mankind
+from sin.
+
+The female principle for the time being cast out of the Deity,
+Osiris, the male element, now outwardly assumes the position of
+supreme God.  It was, however, reserved for a later and more
+sensuous age to permanently adopt an absurdity so opposed to all
+established ideas relative to a creative force in Nature and in
+man.  Seth, the Destroyer, had been deposed, but, so deeply
+rooted in the human mind had become the idea of a female Creator,
+that Isis, the Queen of Heaven, a somewhat lower conception of
+Muth, or of universal womanhood, soon assumed the place of Seth
+beside Osiris.  Later in the history of Egypt, when the gods have
+become greatly multiplied, and the original significance of the
+deity obscured, Horus, the child and the third member in the
+later Egyptian triad, not unfrequently appears in her place as
+one of the eight great gods.
+
+The fact is observed that the history of Osiris is not alone the
+"history of the circle of the year, or of the sun dying away and
+resuscitating itself again, but that it is also the history of
+the cycle of 600."  It has been said that of the component
+elements of his hieroglyphical name, Isis is the first, and that
+the name Osiris really signifies the "Eye of Isis."
+
+According to Plutarch, Isis and Muth are identical, but from the
+evidence at hand it is plain that Muth comprehends divine
+womanhood, or the female principle as it was regarded at an
+earlier stage of human growth.  Muth is not only the parent of
+the sun, or the force which produces the sun, but she is also
+Wisdom, the first emanation from the Deity, at the same time that
+she comprehends all the possibilities of Nature.  Isis seems to
+represent the Deity at a time when the higher truths known to a
+more ancient people were beginning to lose their hold upon the
+race.
+
+Renouf informs us that the word Maat, or Muth, means Law, "not in
+that forensic sense of command issued either by a human sovereign
+authority, or by a divine legislator, like the laws of the
+Hebrews, but in the sense of that unerring order which governs
+the universe, whether in its physical or its moral aspect."[89]
+The same writer observes further that Maat "is called mistress of
+Heaven, ruler of earth, and president of the nether world," and
+in a further description of the conception embodied in this
+Deity, refers to the fact that while she is the mother of the sun
+she is also the first emanation from God.
+
+[89] The Religion of Ancient Egypt, p. 126.
+
+
+Although Typhon Seth was long worshipped as the sole Deity in
+Egypt, in later ages the god-idea came to be represented by Seth
+and Osiris.  Toward the close of Typhon Seth's reign, Horus, the
+child, the young sun, was represented "as rising from his
+hiding-place, attracting beneficent vapors to return them back as
+dews, which the Egyptians called the tears of Isis."
+
+Seth and Osiris represent a division of the Deity.  Osiris, as
+the sun, represents heat; as man, or as god, he stands for
+desire.  Seth or Typhon stands for the cold of winter, the simoom
+of the desert, or the "wind that blasts."  Seth, Osiris, and
+Horus constitute a Trinity of which Muth is the Great Mother. 
+Finally, with the gradual ascendancy of male influence and power,
+it is observed that Seth appears as the brother of Osiris.
+
+It is the opinion of Bunsen that the fundamental idea of Osiris
+and Set was "not merely the glorification of the sun, but was
+also the worship of the primitive creative power."[90] But, as in
+Egypt the creative agency was regarded as both female and male,
+the former being in the ascendancy, this fact of itself would
+seem to determine the sex and position of Seth.
+
+[90] History of Egypt, vol. iv., p. 319.
+
+
+In the ideas concerning Seth and Osiris may be observed something
+of the manner in which the fructifying agencies of the sun and
+the reproductive power in human beings were blended and together
+worshipped as the Deity; while through the history of these gods
+are to be traced some of the processes by which the idea of the
+Creator was changed from female to male.
+
+In all countries, at a certain stage in the history of religion,
+the transference of female deified power to mortal man may be
+observed.  In the attempt to change Seth or Typhon into a male
+God may be noted perhaps the first effort in Egypt to dethrone,
+or lessen the female power in the god-idea.
+
+The fact seems plain that the Great Typhon Seth, or Set, who
+conferred on the sovereigns of the eighteenth and nineteenth
+dynasties of Egypt "the symbols of life and power," was none
+other than the primitive Regenerator or Destroyer, who was for
+ages worshipped as the God of Nature the Aleim, or the
+life-giving energy throughout the universe.
+
+We have observed that when the profound principles underlying the
+most ancient doctrines had been lost or forgotten, and when
+through the decay of philosophy, and through the stimulation of
+the sensual in human nature, mankind had lost the power to reason
+abstractly, Destruction, which was symbolized by darkness or the
+absence of the sun's rays, finally became the evil principle, or
+the Devil.  Darkness and cold, which had formerly been worshipped
+as the powers which brought forth the sun, or as mother of the
+sun, in process of time became the agency which is ever warring
+with good and which is constantly destroying that which the
+latter brings forth.
+
+We are informed by Forlong that "some derive our term Devil from
+Niphl or Nevil, the wind that blasts or obstructs the growth of
+corn; and it used sometimes to be written th' evil, which is
+D'evil or Devil."
+
+It was "this Dualistic heresy which separated the Zend or Persian
+branch of the Aryans from their Vedic brethren, and compelled
+them to emigrate to the westward."[91]
+
+[91] See Rawlinson, Notes on the Early History of Babylon.
+
+
+The ancient philosophical truth that matter is eternal, and that
+the destruction of vegetable life through the agency of cold was
+one of the necessary processes of re-generation, or the renewal
+of life, had evidently been lost sight of at the time when Seth
+was dethroned in Egypt.  Wilkinson informs us that "both Seth and
+Osiris were adored until a change took place respecting Seth,
+brought about apparently by foreign influence."  Sethi or Sethos,
+a ruler whose reign represents the Augustan age of Egyptian
+splendor, received his name from this Deity.  It is said that
+during the twentieth dynasty Seth is suddenly portrayed as the
+principle of evil "with which is associated sin."  Consequently
+all the effigies of this great Goddess were destroyed and all her
+names and inscriptions "which could be reached" were effaced.
+
+Bunsen tells us that Schelling, who has made a study of Egyptian
+mythology, although totally ignorant of the later historical
+facts which by means of hieroglyphical monuments have been
+obtained, had arrived at the conclusion that Seth had occupied an
+important position in the Deity down to the fourteenth century
+B.C.  "Schelling had on mere speculative grounds been brought to
+lay down as a postulate that Typhon, at some early period, had
+been considered by the Egyptians as a beneficent and powerful
+God."
+
+Wilkinson says that the character given to Seth, who was called
+Baal-Seth and the God of the Gentiles, "is explained by his being
+the cause of evil."  We are assured that formerly "Sin the great
+serpent, or Apophis the giant, was distinct from Seth who was a
+deity and a part of the divine system.  But after the recondite
+principles underlying sun-worship were lost or forgotten; when
+cold and darkness, or the sinking away of the sun's rays, which
+are necessary to the reappearance of light and warmth, came to be
+regarded as the destructive element, or the evil principle, woman
+became identified with this principle.  She was the producer of
+evil, and came to be represented in connection with a serpent as
+the cause of all earthly or material things.  She is Destruction,
+but not Regeneration.  She is in fact matter.  The cold of winter
+and the darkness of night, which are necessary to the return of
+the sun's warmth and which were formerly set forth as a
+beneficent mother who brings forth the sun, became only the evil
+principle--that which obscures the light.  In fact Darkness or
+absence of the sun's heat has become the Devil.  It is the "cause
+of evil in the world."
+
+With woman blinded by superstition, with every instinct of the
+female nature outraged, and with her position as the central
+figure in the Deity and in the family usurped, her temples were
+soon profaned, her images defiled, and the titles representing
+her former greatness transferred to males.
+
+There is no doubt but this doctrine was the legitimate outcome of
+the decay of female influence.  Through the further stimulation
+of the lower nature of man its absurdity gradually increased,
+until under the system calling itself Christian it finally
+reached its height.  This subject will be referred to later in
+these pages.
+
+When we remember that the original representation of the Deity
+among the nations of the earth consisted of a female figure
+embracing a child, and when we observe that subsequently in the
+development of the god-idea woman appears associated with a
+serpent as the cause of evil in the world, the history of the God
+Seth, who, as we have seen, represented the processes of Nature,
+namely Destruction and Regeneration, seems quite significant as
+indicating some of the actual processes involved in this change.
+
+There can be little doubt that the facts relating to this Deity
+indicate the source whence has sprung the great theological dogma
+underlying Christianity, that woman is the cause of evil in the
+world.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+ANCIENT SPECULATIONS CONCERNING CREATION.
+
+"Daughters of Jove, All hail! but O inspire  
+The lovely song! the sacred race proclaim 
+Of ever-living gods; who sprang from Earth,  
+From the starred Heaven, and from the gloomy Night,  
+And whom the salt Deep nourished into life.   
+Declare how first the gods and Earth became;  
+The rivers and th' immeasurable sea  
+High-raging in its foam; the glittering stars,
+The wide impending Heaven; and who from these  
+Of deities arose, dispensing good;  
+Say how their treasures, how their honors each  
+Allotted shar'd: how first they held abode  
+On many-caved Olympus:--this declare,  
+Ye Muses! dwellers of the heavenly mount  
+From the beginning; say, who first arose?  
+First Chaos was: next ample-bosomed Earth,  
+Of deathless gods, who still the Olympian heights  
+Snow-topt inhabit.  .  .  .   
+Her first-born Earth produced  
+Of like immensity, the starry Heaven:  
+That he might sheltering compass her around
+On every side, and be forevermore  
+To the blest gods a mansion unremoved."[92]
+
+[92] Hesiod, The Theogony.
+
+
+So long as human beings worshipped the abstract principle of
+creation, the manifestations of which proceed from the earth and
+sun, they doubtless reasoned little on the nature of its hitherto
+inseparable parts.  They had not at that early period begun to
+look outside of Nature for their god-idea, but when through the
+peculiar course of development which had been entered upon, the
+simple conception of a creative agency originally entertained
+became obscured, mankind began to speculate on the nature and
+attributes of the two principles by which everything is produced,
+and to dispute over their relative importance in the office of
+reproduction.  Much light has been thrown upon these speculations
+by the Kosmogonies which have come down to us from the
+Phoenicians, Babylonians, and other peoples of past ages.  In the
+Phoenician Kosmogony, according to the Mokh doctrine as recorded
+by Philo, out of the kosmic egg Toleeleth (female) "sprang all
+the impregnation of creation and the beginning of the universe." 
+In this exposition of the beginnings of things, it is distinctly
+stated that the spirit which in after ages came to be regarded as
+something outside or above Nature, "had no consciousness of its
+own creation."  Commenting on the above, Bunsen is constrained to
+admit that it is usually understood as being "decidedly
+pantheistic."  He suggests, however, that the writer may HAVE
+INTENDED TO SAY (the italics are mine) that "the spirit who was
+heretofore the Creator was the unconscious spirit."
+
+Berosus, the scholar of Babylon, who, until a comparatively
+recent time has furnished all the information extant concerning
+Babylonian antiquities, in his account of the creation of man and
+of the universe, says that in the beginning all was water and
+darkness; that in the water were the beginnings of life; but as
+yet there was no order.  Men were there with the wings of birds
+and even with the feet of beasts.  There were also quadrupeds and
+men with fishes' tails, all of which had been produced by a
+twofold principle.  Over this incongruous mass a woman presided. 
+This woman is called Omoroka by the Babylonians and by the
+Chaldeans Thalatth.  The  latter name, signifies, "bearing" or
+"egg producing."
+
+In the Babylonian Kosmogony, according to Endemus, the pupil of
+Aristotle, the beginning of the universe was called Tauthe, which
+being interpreted means "Mother of the Gods."  Associated with
+her sometimes appears the male principle--Apason.  In the history
+of Berosus, there is given an account of Oaunes--a mythical
+teacher of Babylon, who appeared with the head of a human being
+and the body of a fish or serpent.  This personage brought to the
+Babylonians all the knowledge which they possessed.  Oaunes wrote
+"concerning the generation of mankind, of their different ways of
+life, and of their civil polity."  He it was who gave the above
+account of creation.  He says that finally Omoroka, or Thalatth,
+the woman who existed before the creation, was divided, one half
+of her forming the heavens, "the other half the earth."  "All
+this," Berosus declares, "was an allegorical description of
+Nature."[93]
+
+[93] Prof. Smith, Chaldean Account of Genesis, pp. 34, 35.
+
+
+In the following legend will be observed the groundwork for the
+story of the flood.  Xisuthrus was a king of Chaldea.  To him the
+deity, Kronos, appeared in a vision and warned him that upon the
+fifteenth day of the month Daesius there would be a flood, by
+which mankind would be destroyed.  He therefore enjoined him to
+write a history of the beginning, progress, and conclusion of all
+things down to the present time, and to bury it in Sippara, the
+City of the Sun.  He was commanded also to build a vessel, and
+take with him into it his friends and relations, and to convey on
+board everything necessary to sustain life, together with all the
+different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself
+fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the deity whither he was to
+sail, he was answered: "To the gods"; upon which he offered up a
+prayer for the good of mankind.  He then obeyed the divine
+admonition, and built a vessel five stadia in length and two in
+breadth.  Into this he put everything which he had prepared, and
+last of all conveyed into it his wife, his children, and his
+friends.
+
+"After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated,
+Xisuthrus sent out birds from the vessel, which not finding any
+food, nor any place whereupon they might rest their feet,
+returned to him again.  After an interval of some days, he sent
+them forth a second time; and they now returned with their feet
+tinged with mud.  He made a trial a third time with these birds;
+but they returned to him no more: from which he judged that the
+surface of the earth had appeared above the waters.  He therefore
+made an opening in the vessel, end upon looking out found that it
+was stranded upon the side of some mountain, upon which he
+immediately quitted it with his wife, his daughter, and the
+pilot.  Xisuthrus then paid his adoration to the earth: and,
+having constructed an altar, offered sacrifices to the gods, and,
+with those who had come out of the vessel with him, disappeared. 
+Him they saw no more, but they could distinguish his voice in the
+air, and could hear him admonish them to pay due regard to the
+gods.  He informed them that it was on account of his piety that
+he had been taken away to live with the gods, and that his wife
+and daughter had obtained the same honor."
+
+It is more than likely that this story, which as we have seen has
+extended to the remotest corners of the earth, has an esoteric
+meaning, and that it embodies the doctrines of the ancients
+relative to re- incarnation and the renewal of worlds.  Doubtless
+it portrays not only the end of a cycle, but that by it is
+prefigured the fortunes of a human soul, which in its ascent, is
+from time to time forced into a human body.
+
+All the early Kosmogonies are intermingled with the history of a
+great flood, from the ravages of which an ark which contained a
+man was saved.  The Gothic story of creation indicates that the
+Scythians belonged to the same race as the Chaldeans.  At the
+beginning of time when nothing had been formed, and before the
+earth, the sea, or the heavens appeared, Muspelsheim existed.  A
+breath of heat passing over the vapors, melted them into water,
+and from this water was formed a cow named Aedumla, who was the
+progenitor of Odin, Vile, and Ve, the Trinity of the Gothic
+nation.
+
+There is also another tradition, probably a later, which asserts
+that from the drops of water produced by the primeval breath of
+heat, a man, Ymer, was brought forth.  The son of Ymer was
+preserved in a storm-tossed bark, his father being dragged into
+the middle of the abyss, where, from his body the earth was
+produced.  The sea was made of his blood, the mountains of his
+bones, and the rocks of his teeth.  As three of his descendants
+were walking on the shore one day, they found two pieces of wood
+which had been washed up by the waves.  Of these they made a man
+and a woman.  The man they named Aske and the woman Emla.  From
+this pair has descended the human race.
+
+The marked resemblance between the characters of the Gothic Ymer
+and the Chaldean Omoroka, from each of whose bodies the universe
+is created, has been observed by various writers.  After
+referring to Mallet's conclusions upon this subject, Faber
+remarks:
+
+"They are indeed evidently the same person, not only in point of
+character, but, if I mistake not, in appellation: for Ymer or
+Umer is Omer-Oca expressed in a more simple form.  The difference
+of sex does by no means invalidate this opinion, which rests upon
+the perfect identity of their characters: for the Great Mother,
+like the Great Father, was an hermaphrodite; or, rather, that
+person from whom all things were supposed to be produced, was the
+Great Father and the Great Mother united together in one compound
+being.  Ymer and Omoroca are each the same as that hermaphrodite
+Jupiter of the Orphic theology."
+
+We have observed, however, that in all the older traditions this
+hermaphrodite conception is accounted as female, it is the Great
+Mother within whom is contained the male; in later ages, however,
+it is represented as male, the female being concealed beneath
+convenient symbols.
+
+The Trinity of the Goths was male; yet as Odin could not create
+independently of the female energy he is provided with a wife,
+Frigga, to whom "all fair things belonged, and who had
+priestesses among the early German tribes."  Frigga when
+worshipped alone was both female and male.  According to one
+German tradition, Tiw (Zeus), which in its earliest conception
+was female, was the parent of the first man.  This man begat
+three sons who became the fathers of the three Deutsch tribes. 
+Ish (or Ash) was the parent of the Franks and Allemans; Ing was
+the progenitor of the Swedes, Angles, and Saxons; and Er, or
+Erman, was the eponymous leader of the tribes called by the
+Romans Hermiones.
+
+The Kosmogony of the Chinese is similar in all respects to that
+of other countries.  The first man, Puoncu, was born from an egg.
+
+The Chinese say that this egg-born Puoncu, who is identical with
+Brahm, Noah, and Adam, is not the great Creator or God, but only
+the first man.  Their great God or Tien is a Unity which
+comprehends three, and their human triad--a triplicated being who
+is the parent of the human race--is a lower expression of the
+same power, and to him has finally been ascribed the office of
+Creator.
+
+The Kosmogony of the Japanese begins with the opening of the
+sacred egg from which all things were produced.  This egg is
+identical with the ark, and from it the diluvian patriarch was
+born.  He was "Baal-Peor or the lord of opening; and, from an
+idea that the Ark was an universal mother, he was considered as
+the masculine principle of generation, and was adored by his
+apostate descendants with all the abominations of phallic
+worship."
+
+In the Theogony of Hesiod, Uranus is represented as being the
+parent of three sons, and the same legend repeated in the story
+of Cronus portrays him also as a triplicated deity.  According to
+the Peruvian Kosmogony all things sprang from Viracocha who is
+said to be identical with the Greek Aphrodite.  Besides this
+superior God they venerated a triad which was closely connected
+with the sun.  These gods were called Chuquilla, Catuilla, and
+Intyllapa.  They say that as their ancestors journeyed from a
+remote country to the Northwest they bore the image of their god
+in a coifer or box made of reeds.  To the four priests who had
+charge of this box or ark he communicated his oracles and
+directions.  He not only gave them laws but taught them the
+ceremonies and sacrifices which they were to observe.  "And even
+as the pillar of cloud and fire conducted the Israelites in their
+passage through the wilderness, so this Spanish devil gave them
+notice when to advance forward, and when to stay."[94]
+
+[94] Faber, Pagan Idolatry, book i., ch. v.
+
+
+According to Marsden, the New Zealanders believe that three gods
+created the first man, and that the first woman was made from one
+of his ribs.
+
+Among the Otaheitans and various tribes of Indians, the belief
+prevails that all created things have proceeded from a
+triplicated deity who was saved from the ravages of a flood in an
+ark or ship.
+
+The fact is observed that the Theogonies and Kosmogonies of all
+peoples have reference to a flood or to the renewal of life after
+the destruction of the world, and that the Great Father who is
+preserved, and who comes forth from an ark or ship with the seeds
+of a former world, represents the beginning of a new era.  Adam
+with his three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth, Noah with his triad,
+Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Menu and his triple offspring, and so on,
+all mean exactly the same thing, namely, the renewal of life at
+the close of a cycle, or manwantara.
+
+From the traditions extant in nearly every quarter of the globe,
+it would seem that, prior to the so- called flood in the time of
+Noah, man, as a Creator, had not to any extent been worshipped,
+but, on the contrary, that the great universal dual principle
+which pervades Nature and which is back of matter and force, for
+instance Tien among the Chinese, Iav among the Hebrews, and Aum
+among the Hindoos, had been the Deity adored; but with the
+decline of virtue and knowledge, this God was gradually abandoned
+for a lesser one, a deity better suited to the comprehension of
+"fallen" man.
+
+In the Elohistic narrative of creation which appears in the first
+chapter of Genesis, a dual or triune God, female and male, says,
+Let us make man in our own image, and accordingly a male and a
+female are created.  In the Jehovistic account, however, in the
+second chapter of the same book, a document of much later date,
+man is made first and afterward woman.  In fact, in the latter
+narrative she appears as an afterthought and is created simply
+for his use; she is taken from his side and is wholly dependent
+upon him for existence.  This fact is recognized by Bishop
+Colenso in the following words:
+
+"Thus in the second account of creation, the man is APPARENTLY
+created first, and the woman is CERTAINLY created the last, of
+all living creatures; whereas, in the older story the man and
+woman are created last of all, as the crowning work of Elohim,
+and are created together--'and Elohim created man in His own
+image, in the image of Elohim created He him; male and female
+created He them.' This ancient Elohistic narrative, then, the
+Jehovist had before him; and he enlarged and enlivened it by
+introducing a number of passages recording additional incidents
+in the lives of the patriarchs before and after the flood, and
+especially by inserting the second account of the creation, ii.,
+4-25."
+
+Colenso observes that verse four of chapter second belongs to the
+Elohist, and that it was removed from its original position at
+the beginning of Gen. i., in order to form the commencement of
+the Jehovistic account of the creation.[95]
+
+[95] Lectures on the Pentateuch, p. 32.
+
+
+Quoting from Bishop Browne in the New Bible Commentary, the same
+writer remarks that in the Elohistic account of the creation "we
+have that which was probably the ancient primeval record of the
+formation of the world."[96]
+
+[96] Ibid. p. 16.
+
+
+The oldest or Elohistic portion of Genesis is, at the present
+time, seen to conceal great wisdom and a knowledge of Nature far
+surpassing that of later times.
+
+According to Higgins, the first verse of the first chapter of
+Genesis, if properly translated, would not declare that in the
+beginning God created the heavens and the earth, but that Wisdom
+"formed" the earth and the planets.  In none of the ancient
+Kosmogonies can there be a word found regarding the creation of
+matter.  From the facts which have come down to us respecting the
+speculations of the ancients, it is plain that the original
+conception was, that within the primeval beginnings described in
+their Kosmogonies, in chaos or unorganized matter, was contained
+primeval force; no attempt, however, was made by them to account
+for the creation of either motion or matter.
+
+As soon as human beings began to speculate on the attributes of
+their Deity; when the two principles composing it began to
+separate, and the idea was gaining ground that the male was the
+only important factor in reproduction, the sun became male, the
+earth and sea female.  Still, even then the doctrine seems not to
+have been questioned, that the creative agency had proceeded from
+matter, or that it was developed in and through it.  The belief
+that something can be made from nothing was reserved for a later
+age.
+
+In the oldest Semitic Kosmogonies, we are assured that the
+self-conscious God who is manifested in the order of the
+universe, proceeded out of the great abyss, and out of
+unorganized, dark, primeval matter.  During the earlier historic
+period, however, by both Jew and Gentile, the belief was
+entertained that spirit is material.  It is the essence of
+fire--a substance akin to the galvanic or electric fluid.  This
+masculine element, the manifestation of which is desire, or heat,
+and which was finally set up as an eternal, self-existent,
+creative force, or God, was originally regarded as a
+manifestation of matter, and as having no independent existence. 
+In an earlier age, this so-called creative agency is associated
+with a force far superior to itself, namely, Light or Wisdom. 
+Minerva, who is the first emanation from the Deity, "formed" all
+things.  She it is who discriminates all things and gives laws to
+the universe.  "She represented to the Greeks that spiritual
+element which lifts knowledge into wisdom, and talent into
+genius."[97] But with the importance which began to be assumed by
+man when he began to regard himself as a creator, and when
+through ignorance and sensuality the principles of a more
+enlightened race were forgotten, desire, or heat, was separated
+from matter and came to be regarded as an independent entity,
+which itself had created matter out of nothing.  Thus is noticed
+the extent to which the god-idea has been developed in
+accordance with the relative positions of the sexes.
+
+[97] L. T. Ives, Art Words.
+
+
+According to the Grecian mythology, much of which was a
+comparatively late development, mortal woman was the handiwork of
+Vulcan the Firegod, who, being commissioned by Jove to execute "a
+snare for gods and man," moulded the beauteous form of woman. 
+This is a worthy example of the contempt and scorn shown by the
+Greeks for women during the later period of their career as a
+nation.  That such contempt was a later development is shown in
+the fact that woman was originally the gift of Pallas Athene, or
+Wisdom.  When she first appeared on the scene she was crowned by
+the gods, in fact she was the first object honored with a crown. 
+Concerning the conceptions regarding women as held at an earlier
+age, and those which came to prevail after she had become "the
+cause of evil in the world," we have the following from
+Tertullian:
+
+"If there was a Pandora, whom Hesiod mentions as the first woman,
+hers was the first head the Graces crowned, for she received
+gifts from all the gods, whence she got her name Pandora.  But
+Moses, a prophet, not a poet-shepherd, shows us the first woman
+Eve having her loins more naturally girt about with leaves than
+her temples with flowers.  Pandora then is a myth."[98]
+
+[98] Tertullian, vol. i., p. 341.
+
+
+Woman, who was originally the gift of Wisdom, or Minerva, and who
+when created was garlanded with flowers as the crown of creation,
+became, in course of time, an accursed and wicked thing who must
+henceforth cover herself with leaves to hide her shame. 
+Tertullian, who, with the rest of the early fathers in the
+Christian church, had imbibed the latter doctrine concerning her,
+could not believe the tradition set forth by Hesiod; therefore
+Pandora was a myth, while the corrupted fable, that of Eve as the
+tempter, was accepted as a natural representation of womanhood.
+
+When woman was created, "all the gods conferred a gifted grace."
+
+      "Round her fair brow the lovely-tressed Hours
+      A garland twined of Spring's purpureal flowers:
+      The whole attire Minerva's graceful art
+      Disposed, adjusted, form'd to every part."[99]
+
+[99] Hesiod, Works and Days.
+
+
+Later, however, Pandora herself becomes the pourer forth of ills
+on the head of defenceless man.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+FIRE AND PHALLIC WORSHIP.
+
+     "Know, first a spirit with an active flame
+      Fills, feeds, and animates the mighty frame;
+      Runs through the watery worlds and fields of air,
+      The ponderous Earth and depths of Heav'n and there
+      Burns in the Sun and Moon, and every brilliant Star
+      Thus mingling in the mass, the general soul
+      Lives in its parts and agitates the whole."
+
+Although earth, air, water, and the sun were long venerated as
+objects of worship, as containing the life principle, in process
+of time it is observed that fire attracted the highest regard of
+human beings, and on their altars the sacred flame, said to have
+been kindled from heaven, was kept burning uninterruptedly from
+year to year, and from age to age, by bends of priests "whose
+special duty it was to see that the sacred flame was never
+extinguished."  The office of the vestal virgins in Rome was to
+preserve the holy fire.  The Egyptians, and in fact all the
+earlier civilized nations, knew that force proceeds from the sun,
+hence the frequent appearance of this orb among their symbols of
+life.  Indeed there is not a country on the globe in which, at
+some time, divine honors have not been paid to fire and to light.
+
+The Hindoos, "believing fire to be the essence of all active
+power in Nature, kept perpetual lamps burning in the innermost
+recesses of their pagodas and temples, and in the sacred edifices
+of the Greeks and Barbarians fires were preserved for the same
+reason."
+
+The festival of lamps, which was once universal throughout Egypt,
+still prevails in China.  On the evening of the fifteenth day of
+the first month in the year, every person is compelled to place
+before his door a lantern or light, such lights differing in size
+and expense according to the degree of wealth or poverty of those
+to whom they belong.  Light was the symbol of Muth (Perceptive
+Wisdom).  Among the Persians, the Egyptians, the Mexicans, the
+Jews, the Etruscans, the Greeks, and the Romans, fire was
+venerated as the essence of the Deity; and, at the present time,
+in Thibet, in China, in Japan, and in portions of Africa, it
+still forms an important part of worship. The Hebrew writings
+show conclusively that not only the Jews but all the surrounding
+nations were fire-worshippers, and that their sacrifices were not
+infrequently to the God of Fire.  Of this Forlong says:
+
+"When Rome was rearing temples to the fame and worship of Fire,
+we find the prophets of Israel occasionally denouncing the
+wickedness of its worship by their own and the nations around
+them; nevertheless, even to Christ's time Molok always had his
+offerings of children."[100]
+
+[100] Rivers of Life and Faiths of Man in an Lands, vol. i., p.
+325.
+
+
+It is believed that Abraham introduced fire-worship among the
+Jews from Ur in Mesopotamia, a land in which lights are still
+venerated, and fire altars are worshipped as containing the
+Deity.
+
+The real essence of fire which was identical with the
+life-principle was holy.  The "Lord" of the Israelites was in the
+fire which descended on Mt. Sinai, Exodus xix., 18.  "The bush
+burned with fire and the bush was not consumed," Exodus iii., 2. 
+Whether the signification of "bush" is the same as "grove," I
+know not, but Josephus assures us that the bush was holy before
+the flame appeared in it.  Because of its sacred character, it
+became the receptacle for the burning "Lord" of the Jews.  The
+ark, the religious emblem which Moses bore aloft, was simply a
+fire altar on which the fire must continually burn.  The fact
+will doubtless be observed that although the ark and the bush
+(female emblems) were invested with a certain degree of sanctity,
+they were nevertheless only receptacles for the substance within
+them.
+
+At the same time that the Jews kept sacred or holy fires
+continually burning on their altars, they carried about a serpent
+on a pole representing it to be the "healer of nations."  They
+also kept a phallic emblem in a box, chest, or ark which they
+worshipped as the "God of Hosts," the "Life Giver," etc.  It has
+been observed that although the Jews frequently lost their ark,
+they were never without their serpent-pole.  At a certain stage
+in the religious development of mankind all the temples in Africa
+and Western Asia were dedicated to Vulcan the fire god or the
+"Lord of Fire," to whom all furnaces were sacred.  The principal
+festivals in honor of this Deity took place in the spring, at the
+Easter season, and on the 23d of August, when it is said that the
+licentiousness practiced in the temples compared with those of
+the "Harvest Homes" of Europe when the sun was in Libra and the
+harvest had been garnered in.  Vulcan was the "God of
+fornication" or of passion.
+
+These excesses, which remained unchecked down to the fourth
+century before Christ, are said to have somewhat abated after the
+rise of the Stoic philosophy.
+
+Various philosophers of early historic times as well as many of
+the early fathers in the Christian church believed that God was a
+corporeal substance which in some way is manifested through fire.
+
+In Egypt, during the early ages of Christianity, "a great dispute
+took place among the monks on the question, whether God is
+corporeal."  Tertullian declared that "God is fire"; Origen, that
+"he is a subtle fire"; and various others that "he is body."
+
+There is little doubt that in early historic ages the Persians,
+who had undertaken to purify their religion, were the strongest
+and purest sect of this cult; they were in fact the genuine
+worshippers of the pure creative principles which they believed
+resided in fire.
+
+We have observed that force or spirit was originally regarded as
+a part of Nature, or in other words that it was a manifestation
+of, or an outflowing from matter, but so soon as it began to be
+considered as something apart from Nature, there at once arose a
+desire for some corporeal object to represent this unseen and
+occult principle.
+
+During many of the ages of fire-worship, holy fire, although a
+material substance, seems to have been too subtle to clearly
+represent the god-idea, hence everywhere the worship of the
+serpent is found to be interwoven with it.  In fact, so closely
+are serpent, fire, pillar, and other phallic faiths intermingled
+that it is impossible to separate them.
+
+The Persians are by some writers said to have been the earliest
+fire-worshippers: by others the truth of this statement is
+denied, while many claim, and indeed the Maji themselves
+declared, that they never worshipped fire at all in any other
+manner than as an emblem of the divine principle which they
+believed resided within it.  It is probable, however, from the
+evidence at hand, that they, like all the other nations of the
+globe, prior to the reformation led by Zarathustra and his
+daughter, had lost or nearly forgotten the profound ideas
+connected with the worship of Nature.
+
+Passion, symbolized by fire, is declared by various writers to
+have been the first idol, but later research has proved the
+falsity of this assumption.  It is true that at an early age of
+human experience the creative processes were worshipped, but such
+worship involved scientific and, I might say, spiritualized
+conceptions of the operations of Nature which in time were
+altogether lost sight of.  Gross phallicism is clearly the result
+of degeneration, and of a lapse into sensuality and superstition.
+
+I think no one can study the facts connected with fire and light
+as the Deity in the various countries in which this worship
+prevailed, without perceiving the change it gradually underwent
+during later ages, and the grossness of the ideas which became
+connected with it as compared with an earlier age when mankind
+"had no temples, but worshipped in the open air, on the tops of
+mountains."
+
+In another portion of this work we have observed that in the
+rites connected with the worship of Cybele (Light or Wisdom),
+although phallic symbols were in use, the ceremonies were
+absolutely pure, and that throughout all the earlier ages her
+worship remained free from the abominations which characterized
+the worship of later times.
+
+At what time in the history of the human race the organs of
+generation first began to appear as emblems of the Deity is not
+known.  Within the earliest cave temples, those hewn from the
+solid rock, sculptured representations of these objects are still
+to be observed.  Although until a comparatively recent period
+their true significance has been unknown, there is little doubt
+at the present time that they were originally used as symbols of
+fertility, or as emblems typifying the processes of Nature, and
+that at some remote period of the world's history they were
+worshipped as the Creator, or, at least, as representations of
+the creative agencies in the universe.
+
+Concerning the origin and character of the people who executed
+them there is scarcely a trace in written history.  Through the
+unravelling of extinct tongues, however, the monumental records
+of the ancient nations of the globe have been deciphered, and the
+system of religious symbolism in use among them is now
+understood.
+
+A small volume by various writers, printed in London some years
+ago, entitled A Comparative View of the Ancient Monuments of
+India, says:
+
+"Those who have penetrated into the abstruseness of Indian
+mythology, find that in these temples was practiced a worship
+similar to that practiced by all the several nations of the
+world, in their earliest as well as their most enlightened
+periods.  It was paid to the Phallus by the Asiatics, to Priapus
+by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, to Baal-Peor by the
+Canaanites and idolatrous Jews.  The figure is seen on the fascia
+which runs round the circus of Nismes, and over the portal of the
+Cathedral of Toulouse, and several churches of Bordeaux."
+
+Of the Lingham and Yoni and their universal acceptance as
+religious emblems, Barlow remarks that it was a "worship which
+would appear to have made the tour of the globe and to have left
+traces of its existence where we might least expect to find it." 
+In referring to the "sculptured indecencies" connected with
+religious rites, which, being wrought in imperishable stone, have
+been preserved in India and other parts of the East, Forlong says
+that when occurring in the temples or other sacred places they
+are at the present time evidently very puzzling to the pious
+Indians, and in their attempts to explain them they say they are
+placed there "in fulfilment of vows," or that they have been
+wrought there "as punishments for sins of a sexual nature,
+committed by those who executed or paid for them."  It is,
+however, the opinion of Forlong that they are simply connected
+with an older and purer worship--a worship which involved the
+union of the sex principles as the foundation of their god-idea.
+
+Regarding the cause for the "indecent" sculptures of the Orissa
+temples, the same writer quotes the following from Baboo
+Ragendralala Mitra, in his work on the Antiquities of Orissa.
+
+"A vitiated taste aided by general prevalence of immorality might
+at first sight appear to be the most likely one; but I can not
+believe that libidiousness, however depraved, would ever think of
+selecting fanes dedicated to the worship of God, as the most
+appropriate for its manifestations; for it is worthy of remark
+that they occur almost exclusively on temples and their attached
+porches, and never on enclosing walls, gateways, and other
+non-religious structures.  Our ideas of propriety, according to
+Voltaire, lead us to suppose that a ceremony (like the worship of
+Priapus) which appears to us infamous, could only be invented by
+licentiousness; but it is impossible to believe that depravity of
+manners would ever have led among any people to the establishment
+of religious ceremonies.  It is probable, on the contrary, that
+this custom was first introduced in times of simplicity--that the
+first thought was to honor the Deity in the symbol of life which
+it has given us; such a ceremony may have excited licentiousness
+among youths, and have appeared ridiculous to men of education in
+more refined, more corrupt, and more enlightened times, but it
+never had its origin in such feelings.  .  .  .  It is out of the
+question therefore to suppose that a general prevalence of vice
+would of itself, without the authority of priests and scriptures,
+suffice to lead to the defilement of holy temples."[101]
+
+[101] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 275.
+
+
+Originally the Ionians, as their name indicates, were Yoni
+worshippers, i. e., they belonged to the sect which was driven
+out of India because of their stubborn refusal to worship the
+male energy as the Creator.  During the later ages of their
+history, at a time when their religion had degenerated into a
+licensed system of vice and corruption, and after their temples
+had become brothels in which, in the name of religion, were
+practiced the most debasing ceremonies, the Greeks became ashamed
+of their ancient worship, and, like the Jews, ashamed also of
+their name.
+
+It is believed that the Greeks received from Egypt, or the East,
+their first theological conceptions of God and religion.  These
+ideas
+
+"were veiled in symbols, significant of a primitive monotheism;
+these, at a later period, being translated into symbolical or
+allegorical language, were by the poets transformed into epic or
+narrative myths, in which the original subject symbolized was
+almost effaced, whilst the allegorical expressions were received
+generally in a literal sense.  Hence, to the many, the meaning of
+the ancient doctrine was lost, and was communicated only to the
+few, under the strictest secrecy in the mysteries of Eleusis and
+Samothrace.  Thus there was a popular theology to suit the
+people, and a rational theology reserved for the educated, the
+symbolical language in both being the same, but the meaning of it
+being taken differently.  In course of time, as knowledge makes
+its way among the people, and religious enlightenment with it,
+much of what had been received literally will relapse into its
+original figurative or symbolical meaning.  Reason will resume
+her supremacy, and stereotyped dogmas will fall like pagan idols
+before advancing truth."[102]
+
+[102] Barlow, Essays on Symbolism, p. 121.
+
+
+Although, during the later ages of the human career, the higher
+truths taught by an earlier race were lost, still a slight hint
+of the beauty and purity of the more ancient worship may be
+traced through most of the ages of the history of religion.  Even
+among the profligate Greeks, the mysteries of Eleusis, celebrated
+in the temple of Ceres, were always respected.  Care should be
+taken, however, not to confound these remnants of pure Nature-
+worship with that of the courtesan Venus, whose adoration, during
+the degenerate days of Greece, represented only the lowest and
+most corrupt conception of the female energy.
+
+Down to a late date in the annals of Athens there was celebrated
+a religious festival called Thesmophoria.  The name of this
+festival is derived from one of the cognomens of Ceres--the
+goddess "who first gave laws and made life orderly."  Ceres was
+the divinity adored by the Amazons, and is essentially the same
+as the Egyptian Isis.  She represents universal female Nature. 
+The Thesmophorian rites, which are believed by most writers to
+have been introduced into Greece directly from Thrace, were
+performed by "virgins distinguished for probity in life, who
+carried about in procession sacred books upon their heads."
+
+Inman, in his Ancient Faiths, quotes an oracle of Apollo, from
+Spencer, to the effect that "Rhea the Mother of the Blessed, and
+the Queen of the Gods, loved assemblages of women."  As this
+festival is in honor of Female Nature, the various female
+attributes are adored as deities, Demeter being the first named
+by the worshippers.  After a long season of fasting, and "after
+solemn reflection on the mysteries of life, women splendidly
+attired in white garments assemble and scatter flowers in honor
+of the Great Mother."
+
+The food partaken of by the devotees at these festivals was
+cakes, very similar in shape to those which were offered to the
+Queen of Heaven by the women of Judah in the days of Jeremiah, an
+offering which it will be remembered so displeased that prophet
+that a curse was pronounced upon the entire people.
+
+As the strictest secrecy prevailed among the initiated respecting
+these rites, the exact nature of the symbols employed at the
+Thesmophorian festivals is not known; it is believed, however,
+that it was the female emblem of generation, and that this
+festival was held in honor of that event which from the earliest
+times had been prophesied by those who believed in the superior
+importance of the female, namely, that unaided by the male power,
+a woman would bring forth, and that this manifestation of female
+sufficiency would forever settle the question of the ascendancy
+of the female principle.  Through a return of the ancient ideas
+of purity and peace, mankind would be redeemed from the
+wretchedness and misery which had been the result of the decline
+of female power.  The dual idea entertained in the Thesmophorian
+worship is observed in the fact that although Ceres, the Great
+Mother, was the principal Deity honored, Proserpine, the child,
+was also comprehended, and with its Mother worshipped as part of
+the Creator.  Thus we observe that down to a late date in the
+history of Grecian mythology the idea of a Holy Mother with her
+child had not altogether disappeared as a representation of the
+god-idea.
+
+To prove the worthiness of the ideas connected with the
+Eleusinian mysteries it is stated that "there is not an instance
+on record that the honor of initiation was ever obtained by a
+very bad man."
+
+In Rome these mysteries took another name and were called "the
+rites of Bona Dea," which was but another name for Ceres.  As
+evidence of their purity we have the following:
+
+"All the distinguished Roman authors speak of these rites and in
+terms of profound respect.  Horace denounces the wretch who
+should attempt to reveal the secrets of these rites; Virgil
+mentions these mysteries with great respect; and Cicero alludes
+to them with a greater reverence than either of the poets we have
+named.  Both the Greeks and the Romans punished any insult
+offered to these mysteries with the most persevering
+vindictiveness.  Alcibiades was charged with insulting these
+religious rites, and although the proof of his offense was quite
+doubtful, yet he suffered for it for years in exile and misery,
+and it must be allowed that he was the most popular man of his
+age."[103]
+
+[103] Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.
+
+
+In Greece, the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries was in the
+hands of the Emolpidae, one of the oldest and most respected
+families of antiquity.  At Carthage, there were celebrated the
+Phiditia, religious solemnities similar to those already
+described in Greece.  During the two or three days upon which
+these festivals were celebrated, public feasts were prepared at
+which the youth were instructed by their elders in the state
+concerning the principles which were to govern their conduct in
+after life; truth, inward purity, and virtue being set forth as
+essentials to true manhood.  In later times, after these
+festivals had found their way to Rome, they gradually succumbed
+to the immorality which prevailed, and at last, when their former
+exalted significance had been forgotten, they were finally sunk
+into "the licentiousness of enjoyment, and the innocence of mirth
+was superseded by the uproar of riot and vice! Such were the
+Saturnalia."
+
+From the facts connected with the mysteries of Eleusis and the
+Thesmophorian rites, it is evident that in its earlier stages
+Nature-worship was absolutely free from the impurities which came
+to be associated with it in later times.  As the organs of
+generation had not originally been wholly disgraced and outraged,
+it is not unlikely that when the so-called "sculptured
+indecencies" appeared on the walls of the temples they were
+regarded as no more an offense against propriety and decency than
+was the reappearance of the cross, the emblem of life, in later
+times, among orthodox Christians.
+
+Neither is it probable, in an age in which nothing that is
+natural was considered indecent, and before the reproductive
+energies had become degraded, that these symbols were any more
+suggestive of impurity than are the Easter offerings upon our
+church altars at the present time.  Whatever may now be the
+significance of these offerings to those who present them, sure
+it is that they once, together with other devices connected with
+Nature-worship, were simply emblems of fertility--symbols of a
+risen and fructifying sun which by its gladdening rays re-creates
+and makes all things new again.
+
+If we carefully study the religion of past ages we will discover
+something more than a hint of an age when the generative
+functions were regarded as a sacred expression of creative power,
+and when the reproductive organs had not through over-stimulation
+and abuse been tabooed as objects altogether impure and unholy,
+and as things too disgraceful to be mentioned above a whisper. 
+Indeed there is much evidence going to show that in an earlier
+age of the world's history the degradation of mankind, through
+the abuse of the creative functions, had not been accomplished,
+and the ills of life resulting from such abuse were unknown.
+
+We may reasonably believe that those instincts in the female
+which are correlated with maternal affection and which were
+acquired by her as a protection to the germ, or, in other words,
+those characters which Nature has developed in the female to
+insure the safety and well-being of offspring, and which in a
+purer and more natural stage of human existence acted as cheeks
+upon the energies of the male, were not easily or quickly
+subdued; but when through subjection to the animal nature of man
+these instincts or characters had been denied their natural
+expression, and woman had become simply the instrument of man's
+pleasure, the comparatively pure worship of the organs of
+generation as symbols of creative power began to give place to
+the deification of these members simply as emblems of desire, or
+as instruments for the stimulation of passion.
+
+We are assured that on the banks of the Ganges, the very cradle
+of religion, are still to be found various remnants of the most
+ancient form of Nature-worship--that there are still to be
+observed "certain high places sacred to more primitive ideas than
+those represented by Vedic gods."
+
+Here devout worshippers believe that the androgynous God of
+fertility, or Nature, still manifests itself to the faithful. 
+Close beside these more ancient shrines are others representing a
+somewhat later development of religious faith--shrines, by means
+of which are indicated some of the processes involved in the
+earlier growth of the god-idea.  Not far removed from these are
+to be found, also, numerous temples or places of worship
+belonging to a still later faith--a faith in which are revealed
+the "awakening and stimulation of every sensuous feeling, and
+which has drowned in infamy every noble impulse developed in
+human nature."
+
+Of the depravity of the Jews and the immorality practiced in
+their religious rites, Forlong says:
+
+"No one can study their history, liberated from the blindness
+which our Christian up-bringing and associations cast over us,
+without seeing that the Jews were probably the grossest
+worshippers among all those Ophi--Phallo--Solar devotees who then
+covered every land and sea, from the sources of the Nile and
+Euphrates to all over the Mediterranean coasts and isles.  These
+impure faiths seem to have been very strictly maintained by Jews
+up to Hezekiah's days, and by none more so than by dissolute
+Solomon and his cruel, lascivious bandit-father, the
+brazen-faced adulterer and murderer, who broke his freely
+volunteered oath, and sacrificed six innocent sons of his king to
+his Javah."
+
+Of Solomon he says that he devoted his energies and some little
+wealth "to rearing phallic and Solophallic shrines over all the
+high places around him, and especially in front of Jerusalem, and
+on and around the Mount of Olives."  On each side of the entrance
+to his celebrated temple, under the great phallic spire which
+formed the portico, were two handsome columns over fifty feet
+high, by the side of which were the sun God Belus and his
+chariots.
+
+In a description of this temple it is represented as being one
+hundred and twenty feet long and forty feet broad, while the
+porch, a phallic emblem, "was a huge tower, forty feet long,
+twenty feet broad, and two hundred and forty feet high."  We are
+assured by Forlong that Solomon's temple was like hundreds
+observed in the East, except that its walls were a little higher
+than those usually seen, and the phallic spire out of proportion
+to the size of the structure.  "The Jewish porch is but the
+obelisk which the Egyptian placed beside his temple; the Boodhist
+pillars which stood all around their Dagobas; the pillars of
+Hercules, which stood near the Phoenician temple; and the spire
+which stands beside the Christian Church."[104]
+
+[104] Forlong, Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 219.
+
+
+The rites and ceremonies observed in the worship of Baal-Peor are
+not of a character to be described in these pages:  it is perhaps
+sufficient to state that by them the fact is clearly established
+that profligacy, regulated and controlled by the priestly order
+as part and parcel of religion, was not confined to the Gentiles;
+but, on the contrary, that the religious observances of the Jews
+prior to the Babylonian captivity were even more gross than were
+those of the Assyrians or the Hindoos.
+
+These impure faiths arose at a time when man as the sole creator
+of offspring became god, when the natural instincts of woman were
+subdued, and when passion as the highest expression of the divine
+force came to be worshipped as the most important attribute of
+humanity.
+
+The extent to which these faiths have influenced later religious
+belief and observances is scarcely realized by those who have not
+given special attention to this subject.
+
+It has been stated that in the time of Solon, law-giver of
+Athens, there were twenty temples in the various cities of Greece
+dedicated to Venus the courtesan, within which were practiced, in
+the name of religion, the most infamous rites and the most
+shameless self-abandonment; and that throughout Europe, down to a
+late period in the history of the race, religious festivals were
+celebrated at certain seasons of the year, at which the
+ceremonies performed in honor of the god of fornication were of
+the grossest nature, and at which the Bacchanalian orgies were
+only equalled by those practiced in the religious temples of
+Babylon.
+
+It is impossible longer to conceal the fact that passion,
+symbolized by a serpent, an upright stone, and by the male and
+female organs of generation, the male appearing as the "giver of
+life," the female as a necessary appendage to it, constituted the
+god-idea of mankind for at least four thousand years; and,
+instead of being confined to the earlier ages of that period, we
+shall presently see that phallic worship had not disappeared,
+under Christianity, as late and even later than the sixteenth
+century.
+
+Such has been the result of the ascendancy gained by the grosser
+elements in human nature: the highest idea of the Infinite
+passion symbolized by the organs of generation, while the
+principal rites connected with its worship are scenes of
+debauchery and self-abasement.
+
+At the present time it is by no means difficult to trace the
+growth of the god-idea.  First, as we have seen, a system of pure
+Nature-worship appeared under the symbol of a Mother and child. 
+In process of time this particular form of worship was supplanted
+by a religion under which the male principle is seen to be in the
+ascendancy over the female.  Later a more complicated system of
+Nature-worship is observed in which the underlying principles are
+concealed, or are understood only by the initiated.  Lastly,
+these philosophical and recondite principles are forgotten and
+the symbols themselves receive the adoration which once belonged
+to the Creator.  The change which the ideas concerning womanhood
+underwent from the time when the natural feminine characters and
+qualities were worshipped as God, to the days of Solon the
+Grecian law-giver, when women had become merely tools or slaves
+for the use and pleasure of men, is forcibly shown by a
+comparison of the character ascribed to the female deities at the
+two epochs mentioned.  Athene who in an earlier age had
+represented Wisdom had in the age of Solon degenerated into a
+patroness of heroes; but even as a Goddess of war her patronage
+was as nought compared with that of the courtesan Venus, at whose
+shrine "every man in Greece worshipped."
+
+The extent to which women, in the name of religion, have been
+degraded, and the part which in the past they have been compelled
+to assume in the worship of passion may not at the present time
+be disguised, as facts concerning this subject are well
+authenticated.  In a former work,[105] attention has been
+directed to the religious rites of Babylon, the city in which it
+will be remembered the Tower of Belus was situated.  Here women
+of all conditions and ranks were obliged, once in their life, to
+prostitute themselves in the temple for hire to any stranger who
+might demand such service, which revenue was appropriated by the
+priests to be applied to sacred uses.  This act it will be
+remembered was a religious obligation imposed by religious
+teachers and enforced by priestly rule.  It was a sacrifice to
+the god of passion.  A similar custom prevailed in Cyprus.
+
+[105] See Evolution of Woman, p. 228.
+
+
+Most of the temples of the later Hindoos had bands of consecrated
+women called the "Women of the Idol."  These victims of the
+priests were selected in their infancy by Brahmins for the beauty
+of their persons, and were trained to every elegant
+accomplishment that could render them attractive and which would
+insure success in the profession which they exercised at once for
+the pleasure and profit of the priesthood.  They were never
+allowed to desert the temple; and the offspring of their
+promiscuous embraces were, if males, consecrated to the service
+of the Deity in the ceremonies of this worship, and, if females,
+educated in the profession of their mothers.[106]
+
+[106] Maurice, Indian Antiquities, vol. i.
+
+
+That prostitution was a religious observance, which was practiced
+in Eastern temples, cannot in the face of accessible facts be
+doubted.  Regarding this subject, Inman says:
+
+"To us it is inconceivable, that the indulgence of passion could
+be associated with religion, but so it was.  The words expressive
+of 'sanctuary,' 'consecrated,' and 'sodomites' are in the Hebrew
+essentially the same.  It is amongst the Hindoos of to-day as it
+was in the Greece and Italy of classic times; and we find that
+'holy woman' is a title given to those who devote their bodies to
+be used for hire, which goes to the service of the temple."
+
+The extent to which ages of corruption have vitiated the purer
+instincts of human nature, and the degree to which centuries of
+sensuality and superstition have degraded the nature of man, may
+be noticed at the present time in the admissions which are
+frequently made by male writers regarding the change which during
+the history of the race has taken place in the god-idea.  None of
+the attributes of women, not even that holy instinct--maternal
+love, can by many of them be contemplated apart from the ideas of
+grossness which have attended the sex-functions during the ages
+since women first became enslaved.  As an illustration of this we
+have the following from an eminent philologist of recent times, a
+writer whose able efforts in unravelling religious myths bear
+testimony to his mental strength and literary ability.
+
+"The Chaldees believed in a celestial virgin who had purity of
+body, loveliness of person, and tenderness of affection, and she
+was one to whom the erring sinner could appeal with more chance
+of success than to a stern father.  She was portrayed as a mother
+with a child in her arms, and every attribute ascribed to her
+showing that she was supposed to be as fond as any earthly female
+ever was."[107]
+
+[107] Inman, Ancient Faiths, vol. i., p. 59.
+
+
+After thus describing the early Chaldean Deity, who, although a
+pure and spotless virgin, was nevertheless worshipped as a
+mother, or as the embodiment of the altruistic principles
+developed in mankind, this writer goes on to say: "The worship of
+the woman by man naturally led to developments which our
+COMPARATIVELY SENSITIVE NATURES [the italics are mine] shun as
+being opposed to all religious feeling," which sentiment clearly
+reveals the inability of this writer to estimate womanhood, or
+even motherhood, apart from the sensualized ideas which during
+the ages in which passion has been the recognized god have
+gathered about it.
+
+The purity of life and the high stage of civilization reached by
+an ancient people, and the fact that these conditions were
+reached under pure Nature-worship, or when the natural attributes
+of the female were regarded as the highest expression of the
+divine in the human, prove that it was neither the appreciation
+nor the deification of womanhood which "led to developments which
+sensitive natures shun as being opposed to all religious
+feeling," but, on the contrary, that it was the lack of such
+appreciation which stimulated the lower nature of man and
+encouraged every form of sensuality and superstition.  In other
+words, it was the subjection of the natural female instincts and
+the deification of brute passion during the later ages of human
+history which have degraded religion and corrupted human nature.
+
+Although at the present time it is quite impossible for scholars
+to veil the fact that the god-idea was originally worshipped as
+female, still, most modern writers who deal with this subject
+seem unable to understand the state of human society which must
+have existed when the instincts, qualities, and characters
+peculiar to the female constitution were worshipped as divine. 
+So corrupt has human nature become through over-stimulation and
+indulgence of the lower propensities, that it seems impossible
+for those who have thus far dealt with this subject to perceive
+in the earlier conceptions of a Deity any higher idea than that
+conveyed to their minds at the present time by the sexual
+attributes and physical functions of females--namely, their
+capacity to bring forth, coupled with the power to gratify the
+animal instincts of males, functions which women share with the
+lower orders of life.
+
+The fact that by an ancient race woman was regarded as the head
+or crown of creation, that she was the first emanation from the
+Deity, or, more properly speaking, that she represented
+Perceptive Wisdom, seems at the present time not to be
+comprehended, or at least not acknowledged.  The more recently
+developed idea, that she was designed as an appendage to man, and
+created specially for his use and pleasure,--a conception which
+is the direct result of the supremacy of the lower instincts over
+the higher faculties,--has for ages been taught as a religious
+doctrine which to doubt involves the rankest heresy.
+
+The androgynous Venus of the earlier ages, a deity which although
+female was figured with a beard to denote that within her were
+embraced the masculine powers, embodied a conception of universal
+womanhood and the Deity widely different from that entertained in
+the later ages of Greece, at a time when Venus the courtesan
+represented all the powers and capacities of woman considered
+worthy of deification.
+
+To such an extent, in later ages, have all our ideas of the
+Infinite become masculinized that in extant history little except
+occasional hints is to be found of the fact that during
+numberless ages of human existence the Supreme Creator was
+worshipped as female.
+
+One has only to study the Greek character to anticipate the
+manner in which any subject pertaining to women would be treated
+by that arrogant and conceited race; and, as until recently most
+of our information concerning the past has come through Greek
+sources, the distorted and one-sided view taken of human events,
+and the contempt with which the feminine half of society has been
+regarded, are in no wise surprising.  We must bear in mind the
+fact, however, that the Greeks were but the degenerate
+descendants of the highly civilized peoples whom they were
+pleased to term "barbarians," and that they knew less of the
+origin and character of the gods which they worshipped, and which
+they had borrowed from other countries, than is known of them at
+the present time.
+
+About 600 years B.C., we may believe that mankind had sunk to the
+lowest depth of human degradation, since which time humanity has
+been slowly retracting its course; not, however, with any degree
+of continuity or regularity, nor without lapses, during which for
+hundreds of years the current seemed to roll backward.  Indeed
+when we review the history of the intervening ages, and note the
+extent to which passion, prejudice, and superstition have been in
+the ascendancy over reason and judgment, we may truly say: "The
+fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth have been
+set on edge."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AN ATTEMPT TO PURIFY THE SENSUALIZED FAITHS.
+
+It has been said of the Persians that in their zeal to purify the
+sensualized faiths which everywhere prevailed they manifested a
+decided "repugnance to the worship of images, beasts, or symbols,
+while they sought to establish the worship of the only true
+creative force, or God--Holy Fire."
+
+From the facts to be gleaned concerning this people during the
+seventh and eighth centuries B.C., it is quite probable that they
+still had a faint knowledge of a former age of intellectual and
+moral greatness, and that it was their object, at that time, to
+return to the purer principles which characterized it.  That
+their efforts were subsequently copied by surrounding nations is
+shown in the facts connected with their history.
+
+Soon leading Syrians and Jews began to learn from their Eastern
+neighbor that the worship of images could scarcely be acceptable
+to a god which they were beginning to invest with a certain
+degree of spirituality.  There is little doubt, at the present
+time, that the attempt to spiritualize the religion of the Jews
+was due to the influence of the Persians.  However, the length of
+time required to effect any appreciable improvement in an
+established form of worship is shown by the fact that, two
+hundred years later, little change for the better was observed in
+the temples, in which licentiousness had become a recognized
+religious rite.  Even at the present time, it is reported that in
+many places of worship in the East there still reside "holy women
+--god's women," who, like those in Babylon, described by various
+writers, are devoted to the "god of fire."
+
+In a comparison made between the religion of Persia and the
+doctrines said to have been taught by Moses, Inman remarks:
+
+"The religion of Persia as reformed by Zoroaster so closely
+resembles the Mosaic, that it would be almost impossible to
+decide which has the precedence of the other, unless we knew how
+ancient was the teaching of Zoroaster, and how very recent was
+that said to be from Moses.  Be this as it may, we find the
+ancient Persians resemble the Jews in sacrificing upon high
+places, in paying divine honor to fire, in keeping up a sacred
+flame, in certain ceremonial cleansings, in possessing an
+hereditary priesthood who alone were allowed to offer sacrifices,
+and in making their summum bonum the possession of a numerous
+offspring."[108]
+
+[108] Ancient Faiths, vol. ii., p. 64.
+
+
+It is quite plain that by both these nations the wisdom of an
+earlier race was nearly forgotten.  Seven hundred years B.C.  the
+Persians had doubtless already adopted the worship of "One God"
+who was the Regenerator or Destroyer, a Deity which, as we have
+seen, originally comprehended the powers of Nature--namely the
+sun's heat and the cold of winter.  That at this time, however,
+they had lost the higher truths involved in the conception of
+this Deity, is evident.  They had become worshippers of fire, or
+of that subtle igneous fluid residing in fire which they believed
+to be creative force.  Although the Persiaus like all the other
+nations of the globe had lost or forgotten the higher truths
+enunciated by an older race, there is no evidence going to show
+that they ever became gross phallic worshippers like the Jews;
+that they were not such is shown in the fact that down to the
+time of Alexander the women of Persia still held a high and
+honorable position, and that the female attributes had not become
+wholly subject to male power.
+
+Had we no other evidence of the comparatively exalted character
+of the religion of the Persians than the history of the lives of
+such men as Darius, Cyrus, Artaxerxes, and others, we should
+conclude, notwithstanding the similarity in the ceremonials of
+these two religions, that some influence had been at work to
+preserve them from the cruelty and licentiousness which prevailed
+among the Jews.  It is related of Cyrus that he used to wish that
+he might live long enough to repay all the kindness which he had
+received.  It is also stated that on account of the justice and
+equity shown in his character, a great number of persons were
+desirous of committing to his care and wisdom "the disposal of
+their property, their cities, and their own persons."
+
+In striking contrast to the mild and humane character of Cyrus
+stands that of the licentious and revengeful David, a "man after
+God's own heart."
+
+"As for the heads of those that compass me about, let the
+mischief of their own lips cover them."
+
+"Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the
+fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again."[109]
+
+"Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones
+against the stones."[110]
+
+[109] Psalms cxl.
+
+[110] Ibid., cxxxvii.
+
+
+No one I think can read the Avestas without being impressed by
+the prominence there given to the subjects of temperance and
+virtue.  In their efforts to purify religion, and in the attempts
+to return to their more ancient faith, the disciples of
+Zoroaster, as early as eight hundred years before Christ, had
+adopted a highly spiritualized conception of the Deity.  They had
+taught in various portions of Asia Minor the doctrine of one God,
+a dual entity by means of which all things were created.  They
+taught also the doctrine of a resurrection and that of the
+immortality of the soul.  It was at this time that they
+originated, or at least propounded, the doctrine of hell and the
+devil, a belief exactly suited to the then weakened mental
+condition of mankind, and from which humanity has not yet gained
+sufficient intellectual and moral strength to free itself.  This
+Persian devil, which had become identified with winter or with
+the absence of the sun's rays, was now Aryhman, or the "powers of
+darkness," and was doubtless the source whence sprang the
+personal devil elaborated at a later age by Laotse in China.
+
+As the Jews had no writings prior to the time of Ezra or
+Jeremiah, it is now believed that many of the doctrines
+incorporated in their sacred books were borrowed from Persian,
+Indian, and Egyptian sources.  Resurrection from the dead, or the
+resurrection of the body, was for hundreds of years prior to the
+birth of Christ an established article of Egyptian and Persian
+faith, while spiritual regeneration, symbolized by the outward
+typification of "being born again," was the beginning of a new
+life and an admission to the heavenly state.
+
+In the Khordah Avesta we have the following concerning the
+doctrine of the resurrection and that of future rewards and
+punishments.
+
+"I am wholly without doubt in the existence of the good
+Mazdaycinian faith, in the coming of the resurrection and the
+later body, in the stepping over the bridge Chinvat, in an
+invariable recompense of good deeds and their reward, and of bad
+deeds and their punishment."
+
+The Zoroastrians, who led the way in the great intellectual and
+religious awakening which took place during the intervening years
+from 700 B.C. to 400 B.C., sought to purify all things by fire
+and water, the two principles which had come to be regarded as
+the original elements, from which, or by which, all things are
+produced.
+
+Prior to this time, in Persia, and long afterwards by various
+other nations, baptism, a rite performed at puberty, was
+connected only with the sexual obligations of the person
+receiving it, but in the age which we are considering it became
+especially a cleansing or regenerating process, and was the means
+by which the pious devotee became initiated into the mysteries of
+holy living, or by which she or he was "born again."
+
+As in their religious procedure every act was performed in
+connection with symbols, so in the matter of baptism they were
+not satisfied with the inner consciousness of regeneration, but
+must go through with certain processes which typified the new
+life upon which they had entered.  According to Wilford, the
+outward symbolization of the "new birth" in the East is
+manifested in the following manner:
+
+"For the purpose of regeneration it is directed to make an image
+of pure gold of the female power of nature, either in the shape
+of a woman or of a cow.  In this statue, the person to be
+regenerated is inclosed, and dragged out through the natural
+channel.  As a statue of pure gold and of proper dimensions would
+be too expensive, it is sufficient to make an image of the sacred
+Yoni, through which the person to be regenerated is to pass."
+
+Thus at the time Nicodemus is said to have queried concerning the
+mysteries of the new birth, it is observed that the outward forms
+of regeneration had long been in use among the pagans.  In
+passing themselves through these apertures, the applicant for
+regeneration was supposed to represent the condition of one
+"issuing from the womb to a new scope of life."
+
+According to the testimony of various writers upon this subject,
+there are still extant, not alone in oriental countries, but in
+Ireland and Scotland as well, numerous excavations or apertures
+in the rocks which by an early race were used for the same
+purpose.  Through the misconception, bigotry, and ignorance of
+the Roman Catholic missionaries in Ireland, these openings were
+designated as the "Devil's Yonies."  Although these emblems
+typified the original conception of one of their most sacred
+beliefs, namely, the "new birth," still they were "heathen
+abominations" with which the devotees of the new (?) faith must
+not become defiled.
+
+The people who executed these imperishable designs, and who have
+left in the British Isles innumerable evidences of their
+religious beliefs, are supposed by some writers to belong to a
+colony which, having been expelled from Persia on account of
+their peculiar religious beliefs, settled in the "White Island,"
+the "Island of the Blessed."  This subject will, however, be
+referred to later in this work.
+
+When we closely examine the facts connected with the evolution of
+religion, there can be little doubt that the Persians laid the
+foundation for that great moral and intellectual awakening which
+a century or two later is represented by Confucious, Gotama
+Buddha, and Pythagoras.  From the Persians, doubtless Jew and
+Gentile alike received the little leaven of spirituality which in
+later ages crept into their gross conception of a Deity.
+
+By the Persians, the Hindoos, and other nations of the East, it
+was believed that the end of each cycle of six hundred years, at
+which time a new sun or savior was to come, would mark a new era
+of religious development.  At the close of each of these cycles
+it was devoutly expected that the "golden age" of the past would
+be restored, and that mankind would again be freed from the ills
+which had overtaken them.  As many of these cycles had passed,
+numerous deliverers, saviors, or solar incarnations had appeared
+in India, Gotama Buddha having been the ninth.  In the East,
+about six or seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, not
+only one savior or prophet but three or four of them appeared.
+
+Concerning the leader of the reform in Persia there seem to be
+many conflicting accounts.  The learned Faber concludes that
+there were two Zarathustras or Zoroasters, the former being
+identical with Menu, the law giver and triplicated deity of
+India, and who by various writers is recognized as the Noah of
+the Hebrews.  According to Pliny, the former lived thousands of
+years before Christ.  Several writers concur in placing him five
+thousand years before the siege of Troy.  According to Sir Wm.
+Jones, the latter Zoroaster lived in the time of Darius
+Hystaspes.  It is now claimed that in the Dabistan, one of the
+sacred books of Persia, thirteen Zoroasters appear.  The name of
+the last great leader, together with a few of his doctrines, and
+various scattered fragments in the Gathas, are all that remain on
+record of a man whose personality stands connected with the
+earliest attempt to reform a degraded and sensualized religion.
+
+That this prophet was without honor in his own country is shown
+by the following lamentation:
+
+"To what country shall I go?  Where shall I take refuge?  What
+country gives shelter to the master, Zarathustra, and his
+companion?  None of the servants pay reverence to me, nor do the
+wicked rulers of the country.  How shall I worship thee further,
+living Wise One?  What help did Zarathustra receive when he
+proclaimed the truths?  What did he obtain through the good mind? 
+.  .  .  Why has the truthful one so few adherents, while all the
+mighty, who are unbelievers, follow the liar in great
+numbers?"[111]
+
+[111] Quoted by Viscount Amberley from Haug's Translations.
+
+
+Although the prophet Zarathustra and his companion were first
+rejected, the fact seems plain that the monotheistic doctrines
+which they set forth were subsequently accepted as the groundwork
+of the religion of Persia.
+
+In the opening verses of the 5th Gatha appears the following:
+
+"It is reported that Zarathustra Spitama possessed the best good,
+for Ahura Mazda granted him all that may be obtained by means of
+a sincere worship, forever, all that promotes the good life, and
+he gives the same to all who keep the words and perform the
+actions enjoined by the good religion.  .  .  .
+
+"Pourutschista, the Hetchataspadin, the most holy one, the most
+distinguished of the daughters of Zarathustra, formed this
+doctrine, as a reflection of the good mind, the true and wise
+one."
+
+The fact will doubtless be observed that Pourutschista was not
+merely a disciple of Zarathustra, but that she FORMED the
+doctrine which was accepted as a "reflection of the good mind."
+
+In the 5th Gatha it is stated that among those who "know the
+right paths, the law which Ahura gave to the Profitable," is
+Pourutschista the "Holy worthy of adoration among the daughters
+of Zarathustra.  .  .  .  wise female worker of Wisdom."[112]
+
+[112] Spiegel's Translation.
+
+
+Ormuzd, or Ahura Mazda, which was the essence of heat or light,
+was the principle adored by the followers of the reformed
+religion in Persia.  Throughout the Avesta the most desirable
+possession, and that which is most praised, is purity of life.
+
+     "We praise the pure man.  
+     "The best purity praise we. 
+     "The best wish praise we of the best purity. The best place
+of purity praise we, the shining, endued with all
+brightness."[113] 
+     
+      "This Earth, together with the women, we praise
+      Which bears us, which are the women, Ahura Mazda
+      Whose wishes arise from purity, these we praise--
+      Fullness, readiness, questioning, wisdom."[114]
+
+[113] Vespered xxvi.  Spiegel's Translation.
+
+[114] Yacna xxxviii.
+
+
+Praise is offered to the "everlasting female companion, the
+instructing."
+
+The following is a part of the marriage ceremony of the Persians
+as it is found in the Khorda-Avesta:
+
+"Do you both accept the contract for life with honorable mind? In
+the name and friendship of Ormuzd be ever shining, be very
+enlarged.  Be increasing.  Be victorious.  Learn purity.  Be
+worthy of good praise.  May the mind think good thoughts, the
+words speak good, the works do good.  May all wicked thoughts
+hasten away, all wicked words be diminished, all wicked works be
+burnt up. .  .  .  Win for thyself property by right-dealing. 
+Speak truth with the rulers and be obedient.  Be modest with
+friends, clever, and well wishing.  Be not cruel, be not
+covetous.  .  .  .  Combat adversaries with right.  Before an
+assembly speak only pure words.  In no wise displease thy mother. 
+Keep thine own body pure in justice."
+
+Confucius, the great Chinese teacher and philosopher, who lived
+probably in the sixth century B.C., may be said to have been a
+humanitarian or moralist instead of a mystic.  Although he
+believed in a great first principle, or cause, which he termed
+Heaven, we are given to understand that in his philosophizing
+little mention was made of it.
+
+The system known as Confucianism was not originated by Confucius.
+
+In referring to this subject Legge remarks:
+
+"He said of himself (Analects, vii., I), that he was a
+transmitter and not a maker, one who believed in and loved the
+ancients; and hence it is said in the thirtieth chapter of the
+doctrine of the Mean, ascribed to his grandson, that he handed
+down the doctrines of Yao and Shun, as if they had been his
+ancestors, and elegantly displayed the regulations of Wan and Wu,
+taking them as his models."[115]
+
+[115] Legge, Preface to vol. iii. of Shu King.
+
+
+The ancient books which Confucius interpreted or rewrote laid no
+claim to being sacred in the sense of being inspired; but, on the
+contrary, were works of wisdom put forth by historians, poets,
+and others "as they were moved in their own minds."  The most
+ancient of these doctrines was the Shu, a work which since the
+period of the Han dynasty, 202 years B.C., has been called the
+Shu King.
+
+A number of documents contained in this work date back to the
+twenty-fourth century B.C., and as they are regarded as
+historical are considered to be of greater importance than are
+any others of their ancient writings.
+
+Second in antiquity and importance is the Shih or the Book of
+Poetry.  This work contains the religious views of its writers,
+also an account of the manners, customs, and events of the times
+to which they belong.  For 5000 years, in China, Tien or Ti has
+expressed the moving or creating force in the universe.  In later
+ages it is observed that this name has been attached to royalty. 
+Hwang Ti is the present title of the Emperor of China.
+
+From some of the texts found in the Shu King, it would seem that
+the Chinese had in the remote past caught sight of the scientific
+fact that virtue is its own reward.  "Heaven graciously
+distinguishes the virtuous.  .  .  .  Heaven punishes the
+guilty."[116]
+
+[116] Max Muller, Sacred Books of the East, book iv.
+
+
+The principal object of Confucius seems to have been to inculcate
+those doctrines of his ancestors which, taking root, would in
+time bring about a return to those principles of former virtue, a
+faint knowledge of which seems still to have survived in China. 
+The following precepts are found among his teachings:
+
+"Knowledge, magnanimity, and energy are the virtues universally
+binding.  Gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness,
+and kindness constitute perfect virtue.  Sincerity is the very
+way to Heaven.  My doctrine is that of an all-pervading unity. 
+The superior man is catholic and not partisan.  The mean is
+partisan and not catholic.  The superior man is affable but not
+adulatory, the mean is adulatory but not affable."
+
+When asked for a word which should serve as a rule of practice
+for all our life he replied: "Is not Reciprocity such a word?
+What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others."  On
+one occasion the question was asked him: "What do you say
+concerning the principle that injury shall be recompensed with
+kindness?" To which he replied: "Recompense injury with justice,
+and recompense kindness with kindness."[117]
+
+[117] Lun Yu, xiv., 26.
+
+
+It is recorded by his disciples that there are four things from
+which the master was entirely free.  "He had no foregone
+conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no
+egoism."  Contrary to the rule of most reformers or leaders of
+opinion, he always regarded himself as a learner as well as
+teacher.  It is related of Confucius that he at one time desired
+a governmental position, thinking that through its occupancy he
+might the better disseminate the ancient doctrines of rectitude
+and virtue.  Offers of individual advantage could not swerve him
+from his well-grounded principles of honor.  On one occasion one
+of the rulers of the country proposed to confer upon him a city
+and its revenues, but Confucius replied: "A superior man will
+only receive reward for services which he has rendered.  I have
+given advice to the duke-king, but he has not obeyed it, and now
+he would endow me with this place! very far is he from
+understanding me."[118]
+
+[118] Quoted by Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i.,
+p. 197.
+
+
+The fact seems evident that Confucius had not sufficient strength
+of character to attempt a change in the social conditions of his
+time.  He had not that grandeur of soul which enabled him to
+strike the key-note of reform.  Monarchical institutions and
+social distinctions he did not rebuke.  The brotherhood of man
+and the levelling processes in human society were probably never
+thought of by him; certainly they were never attempted.
+
+By certain writers Confucius has been accused of insincerity in a
+few minor matters; still, the wisdom contained in his religious
+doctrines, the philosophical value of his teachings relative to
+the regulation of human conduct, and, above all, his purity of
+purpose, justly entitles his name to be enrolled among the great
+reformers of the world.
+
+The lasting influence which this man exerted upon the minds of
+his countrymen, and the appreciation in which his name and works
+are still held, are shown by the fact that his descendants
+constitute the only order of hereditary nobility in China.
+
+"He lived five hundred years before Christ; and yet to this day,
+through all the changes and chances of time and of dynasties, the
+descendants of Confucius remain the only hereditary noblemen and
+national pensioners in the empire.  Even the imperial blood
+becomes diluted, degraded, and absorbed into the body politic
+after the seventh generation; but the descendants of Confucius
+remain separate, through all the mutations of time and of
+government."[119]
+
+[119] Thomas Magee, in the Forum, vol. x., p. 204.
+
+
+Laotse, the founder of the smallest of the three sects in China,
+namely, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, was an old man when
+Confucius was in his prime.  The word Taou signifies reason, but
+the doctrines believed by the Taoists prove their system to be
+the most irrational of all the religions of the East.  In an
+article on The Taouist Religion, Warren Benton says:
+
+"The tendency in rationalism is toward the utter destruction of a
+belief in the existence of unseen spirits of evil.  Enlightened
+reason dethrones devils; but Laotse created devils innumerable,
+and the chief concern of the Taouist sect has always been to
+manipulate these emissaries of evil.  Modern rationalists deny
+the existence of devils, and relegate them to the category of
+myths and to personified ideas.  Not so the rationalist of the
+Orient.  He finds his greatest pleasure in contemplating the very
+atmosphere he breathes as filled with spirits constantly seeking
+his injury; and to outwit his satanic majesty is the chief end of
+life."[120]
+
+[120] Pop. Science, Jan. 1890.
+
+
+At a time when a personal devil was gradually assuming shape, it
+would have been singular, indeed, if there had not arisen one
+who, by his peculiar temperament and natural disposition, was
+exactly suited to the task of elaborating this doctrine in all
+its grim seriousness.  That such an one did arise in the person
+of Laotse is evident from what is known regarding his history and
+teachings.
+
+The growth of religious faith had long tended in this direction. 
+Typhon, "the wind that blasts," "Darkness," and the "cold of
+winter," constituted the foundation of a belief in a personal
+Devil; and, when the time was ripe for the appearance of his
+satanic majesty, it required only a hypochondriac-- a disordered
+mental organization--to formulate and project this gloomy and
+unwholesome doctrine.
+
+There is little known of the life and character of Laotse except
+that he labored assiduously through a long life-time for the
+establishment of certain principles or tenets which he believed
+to be essential to the well-being of humanity.  In the twentieth
+chapter of his work are found to be some hints of his personality
+and of the gloomy cast of his character.  He complains that while
+other men are joyous and gay, he alone is despondent.  He is
+"calm like a child that does not yet smile."  He is "like a
+stupid fellow, so confused does he feel.  Ordinary men are
+enlightened; he is obscure and troubled in mind.  Like the sea,
+he is forgotten and driven about like one who has no certain
+resting place.  All other men are of use; he alone is clownish
+like a peasant.  He alone is unlike other men, but he honors the
+nursing mother."
+
+Of all the various teachers which arose during the fifth, sixth,
+and seventh centuries B.C., none of them were able to rise to the
+position of moral grandeur occupied by Gotama Buddha.  The
+efforts put forth by this great teacher seem to have been humane
+rather than religious.  In his time, especially in India, society
+had become encysted beneath a crust of seemingly impenetrable
+conservatism, while religion, or priestcraft, riveted the chains
+by which the masses of the people were enslaved.
+
+The mission of Buddha was to burst asunder the bonds of the
+oppressed and to abolish all distinctions of caste.  This was to
+be accomplished through the awakening of the divine life in each
+individual.  The leading processes by which the lines of caste
+were weakened were in direct opposition to the established order
+of society.  It was a blow at the old Brahminical social and
+religious code which had grown up under the reign of
+priest-craft.
+
+Notwithstanding the sex prejudice which had come to prevail in
+India, it was directly stated by Buddha that any man or woman who
+became his disciple, who renounced the world and by abstinence
+from the lower indulgences of sense proclaimed her or his
+adherence to the higher principles of life, "at once lost either
+the privilege of a high caste or the degradation of a low one." 
+Earthly distinctions were of no consequence.  Rank depended not
+on the outward circumstance of birth, but on the ability of the
+individual to resist evil, or, upon his capacity to receive the
+higher truths enunciated by the new sun or savior--Buddha.
+
+In one of the canonical books he is represented as saying:
+
+"Since the doctrine which I teach is completely pure, it makes no
+distinction between noble and common, between rich and poor.  It
+is, for example, like water, which washes both noblemen and
+common people, both rich and poor, both good and bad, and
+purifies all without distinction.  It may, to take another
+illustration, be compared to fire, which consumes mountains,
+rocks, and all great and small objects between heaven and earth. 
+Again, my doctrine is like heaven, inasmuch as there is room
+within it without exception, for whomsoever it may be; for men
+and women, for boys and girls, for rich and poor."[121]
+
+[121] Viscount Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i.,
+p. 216.
+
+
+There is little doubt that the religion of Buddha was an attempt
+to return to the almost forgotten principles of a past age of
+spiritual and moral greatness.  According to this ancient wisdom,
+man is an immortal soul struggling for perfection.  The growth of
+the real man is a natural unfolding of the divine principle
+within, such process of evolution being accomplished through the
+power of the will.  As every individual must work out his own
+salvation, this will-force must ever be directed toward the
+complete mastery of the body, or the lower self.  In other words,
+the development of the higher life depends upon the power of the
+individual to overcome or conquer evil.  The effect of every
+thought, word, and deed is woven into the soul, and no one can
+evade the consequences of his own acts.  All sin is the result of
+selfishness, so that only when one renounces self and begins to
+live for others does the soul-life begin.  No one who has arrived
+at a state of soul-consciousness will lead a selfish or impure
+life.  On the contrary, every impulse of the devout Buddhist goes
+out toward humanity and God, of whom he is a conscious part.
+
+Gotama Buddha was not a "savior" in the sense of bloody sacrifice
+for the sins of the people.  On the contrary, he was an example
+to mankind--a man who through moral purification and a life of
+self- abnegation had prepared himself for this holy office. 
+Mythologically, or astrologically, he was the new sun born at the
+close of the cycle.  He was the great Light which revealed the
+way to eternal repose-- Nirvana.  The mythical Buddha was the
+prototype of the mythical Christ.  His mother was Mai or Mary,
+Queen of Heaven, or the Vernal Spring.  He was a new incarnation
+of the Sun--the Savior of the world.  In process of time his many
+miracles were offered as proof of his divine character.  Although
+he taught the existence of a great and universal Power, he made
+no attempt to explain the unknowable.  The Infinite is to be
+contemplated only through its manifestations.  Nirvana is not
+annihilation, as has been erroneously taught by Christian
+missionaries.  As explained by Buddhists themselves, it
+comprehends a state of absolute rest from human strife and
+wretchedness.  It is the absorption or relapsing into the great
+First Principle, whence all life is derived--a state so pure that
+the human is lost in the divine.
+
+          "Lamp of the law!  
+   I take my refuge in thy name and Thee!
+   I take my refuge in thy Law of Good!
+   I take my refuge in thy Order! Om!
+   The dew is on the Lotus!--rise, Great Sun!
+   And lift my leaf and mix me with the wave.
+   Om Mani Padme Hum, the Sunrise comes!
+   The Dewdrop slips into the shining Sea!"[122]
+
+[122] Arnold, Light of Asia.
+
+
+From the Buddhist colleges at Nolanda went forth teachers who,
+inspired with enthusiasm in the cause of human justice and
+individual liberty, endeavored to abolish the abominations which
+had grown up under Brahminical rule.  The masses of the people,
+however, were too deeply sunken in infamy, wretchedness, and
+ignorance to accept, or even understand, the pure doctrines of
+the great teacher, and, as might have been anticipated, priest-
+craft soon assumed its wonted arrogance, and eventually the whole
+paraphernalia of antiquated dogmas were tacked upon the new
+system.
+
+Through the various efforts put forth for the elevation of
+mankind during the six or seven hundred years which preceded the
+advent of Christianity, sufficient strength had been given to the
+moral impetus of humanity to create in many portions of the world
+a strong desire for a return to purer principles, and to make the
+appearance of a spiritual teacher like Christ possible.  The
+effects, however, of ages of moral and intellectual degradation,
+in which the lowest faculties have been stimulated to the highest
+degree, are not wiped out in a few centuries of struggle by the
+few among the people who desire reform.  As true reform means
+growth, those who have reached a higher stage of development can
+only point the way to others--they are powerless to effect
+changes for which the masses are unprepared.
+
+Although through a partial revival of the ideas entertained by an
+ancient people the attempt was made by Zoroaster, Confucius,
+Gotama Buddha, Pythagoras, the Stoics, and other schools of
+philosophy, to elevate the masses of the people, and, although
+the unadulterated teachings of the man called Christ were
+doubtless an outgrowth of this movement, yet the human mind had
+not, even as late as the appearance of this last-named reformer,
+sufficiently recovered from its thraldom to enable the masses to
+grasp those higher truths which had been entertained by an
+earlier civilized people.
+
+While there are doubtless many points of similarity between the
+religious system elaborated by Gotama Buddha and that enunciated
+by Christ, there is little likeness between the teachings of the
+former and those set forth by the Romish Church, or by Paul. 
+Seven hundred years B.C., the Persians had grasped the idea that
+virtue is its own reward, and that every soul is responsible for
+its own growth.  The fundamental doctrine of the Christian Church
+to-day is that of a vicarious atonement--a belief which takes
+away man's responsibility for his own misdeeds.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM.
+
+By comparing the sacred writings of the Persians with the history
+of the events connected with the conception and birth of the
+mythical Christ as recorded in the New Testament, the fact is
+observed that the latter appears to be closely connected with the
+central figure of Persian mythology.  It has been found that the
+visit of the Magi, who, following a star, were guided to the spot
+where the young child lay, was the fulfilment of a Persian
+prophecy, which is to be found in the life of Zarathustra as
+recorded in the Zendavesta, while the subsequent history of the
+same personage is seen to be almost identical with that of the
+Hindoo Sun-god Chrishna.
+
+According to the sacred books of the Persians, three sons of the
+great Zarathustra were to appear at three successive periods of
+time.  These sons were to be incarnations of the sun, and the
+result of immaculate conceptions.
+
+"The first is named Oschederbami.  He will appear in the last
+millennium of the world.  He will stop the sun for ten days and
+ten nights, and the second part of the human race will embrace
+the law, of which he will bring the 22d portion.
+
+"The second posthumous son of Zoroaster is Oschedermah.  He will
+appear four hundred years after Oschederbami.  He will stop the
+sun twenty days and twenty nights, and he will bring the 23d part
+of the law, and the third part of the world will be converted.
+
+"The third is named Sosiosch. He will be born at the end of the
+ages.  He will bring the 24th part of the law; he will stay the
+sun thirty days and thirty nights, and the whole earth will
+embrace the law of Zoroaster.  After him will be the
+resurrection."[123] This last named son was to be born of a pure
+and spotless virgin, whereupon a star would appear blazing even
+at noonday with undiminished lustre.
+
+[123] Quoted by Waite, History of the Christian Religion, p. 168.
+
+
+"You, my sons," exclaimed the seer, "will perceive its rising
+before any other nation.  As soon, therefore, as you shall behold
+the star, follow it, withersoever it shall lead you; and adore
+that mysterious child, offering your gifts to him, with profound
+humility.  He is the Almighty Word, which created the
+heavens."[124]
+
+[124] Ibid., 169.
+
+
+Waite notices the conclusion of Faber that this prediction was
+long before the birth of Christ, and states that one of the
+reasons for such a conclusion was, that in the old Irish history
+a similar prophecy appears--a prophecy which was delivered by a
+"Druid of Bokhara."  The identity of this Irish prophecy with the
+one in the East ascribed to Zarathustra or Zoroaster, is so
+singular that Faber thinks it can be accounted for only on the
+hypothesis "of an ancient emigration from Persia to Ireland by
+the northwest passage, which carried the legend with it."
+
+By those who have investigated the origin of the early gospels,
+it is stated that the story of the Magi and the star appeared in
+the Gospel of the Infancy early in the second century, and was
+subsequently incorporated into the preparatory chapters of Luke
+and Matthew.  According to Waite, there was a sect of Christians
+called Prodiceans whose leader, Prodicus, about A.D. 120, boasted
+that they had the sacred books of Zoroaster.  From an extant
+fragment of the Chronography of Africanus is the following:
+
+"Christ first of all became known from Persia.  For nothing
+escapes the learned jurists of that country, who investigated all
+things with the utmost care.  The facts, therefore, which are
+inscribed upon the golden plates, and laid up in the royal
+temples, I shall record; for it is from the temples there, and
+the priests connected with them, that the name of Christ has been
+heard of.  Now, there is a temple there to Juno, surpassing the
+royal palace, which temple Cyrus, that prince instructed in all
+piety, built, and in which he dedicated, in honor of the gods,
+golden and silver statues, and adorned them with precious stones. 
+.  .  .  Now about that time [as the records on the plates
+testify], the king having entered the temple, with the view of
+getting an interpretation of certain dreams, was addressed by the
+priest Prupupius thus: 'I congratulate thee, master: Juno has
+conceived.' 'And the king, smiling, said to him: 'Has she who is
+dead conceived?' And he said: 'Yes, she who was dead has come to
+life again, and begets life.' And the king said: 'What is this?
+explain it to me.' And he replied: 'In truth, master, the time
+for these things is at hand.  For during the whole night the
+images, both of gods and goddesses, continued beating the ground,
+saying to each other, Come, let us congratulate Juno.  And they
+say to me, Prophet, come forward, congratulate Juno, for she has
+been embraced.  And I said, How can she be embraced who no longer
+exists?  To which they reply, She has come to life again, and is
+no longer called Juno, but Urama.  For the mighty Sol has
+embraced her.' "[125]
+
+[125] Hyppolytus, vol. ii., p. 196.
+
+
+There is a tradition which asserts that during the early part of
+the second century, St. Thomas went as a missionary to Parthia;
+that after he had visited the various countries of the Parthian
+Empire, tarrying for a time at Balkh, the capital of Bactria, and
+the ancient residence of the Magi, he went to India.  Soon after
+the visit of Thomas to Persia and India, there appeared in
+Palestine and the adjacent countries a gospel of Thomas, in which
+were set forth various stories closely resembling the legends
+found in the Hindoo sacred writings.  After comparing various
+passages of the Bhagavat Purana with those of the Infancy, and
+after furnishing conclusive evidence that the latter must have
+been copied from the former, Waite says:
+
+"The conclusion must be, that while for some of the salient
+points of the Gospels of the Infancy, the authors were indebted
+to Zoroaster, and the legends of Persia, the outline of the story
+was largely filled up from the history of Crishna, as sent back
+to Palestine, by the Apostle Thomas, from the land of the
+Brahmins."
+
+Concerning the story of Herod and his order to slay all the male
+infants, there has been discovered in a cavern at Elephanta, in
+India, a sculptured representation of a huge and ferocious
+figure, bearing a drawn sword and surrounded by slaughtered
+children, while mothers appear weeping for their slain.  This
+figure is said to be of great antiquity.
+
+Mary, the Mother of Jesus, like Mai, the Mother of Gatama Buddha,
+was regarded by certain sects in the earlier ages of Christianity
+as an Immortal Virgin whose birth had been announced by an
+angel.[126] She was in fact the ancient Virgin of the Sphere--the
+Mother of the Gods--the Queen of Heaven.
+
+[126] See Gospels of Mary and the Protovangelion.
+
+
+As soon as Christ was born he conversed with Mary, as did also
+Crishna with his mother, informing her of his divine mission.
+
+Crishna was cradled among shepherds, so was Christ.  Cansa,
+fearing the loss of his kingdom, sought to destroy the life of
+the divine infant in the same manner as did Herod in the case of
+Christ.  Both children are carried away by night, after which an
+order is issued by the ruler of the country that all the young
+children throughout the kingdom be slaughtered.
+
+When Joseph and Mary arrived in Egypt, they visited the temple of
+Serapis, where "all the magistrates and priests of the idols were
+assembled."  Upon the image being interrogated concerning the
+"consternation and dread which had fallen upon all our country,"
+it answered them as follows: "The unknown god has come hither,
+who is truly God; nor is there anyone besides him, who is worthy
+of divine worship; for he is truly the son of God."  And at the
+same instant this idol fell down, and at his fall all the
+inhabitants of Egypt, besides others, ran together.[127] A
+similar story is related of Crishna.  This Indian god, the same
+as Christ, cured a leper.  A woman, after having poured a box of
+precious ointment on the head of Crishna, was healed; so also a
+woman anointed the head of Jesus.  Crishna when but a lad
+displayed remarkable mental powers and the most profound wisdom
+before the tutor who was sent to instruct him.  Christ astonished
+the school-master Zaccheus with his great learning.[128]
+
+[127] Gospel of the Infancy, ch. iv.
+
+[128] Gospel of the Infancy, ch. xx.
+
+
+Crishna had a terrible encounter with the serpent Calinaga; the
+infant Christ had also a dreadful adventure with a serpent.  Now
+this Calinaga which Crishna encountered was a serpent goddess who
+was worshipped by the sect in India which was opposed to the
+adoration of the male principle.  The early Christians, however,
+being ignorant of the allegorical meaning of the legend,
+transferred it to Christ literally.
+
+The mother of Crishna looked in his mouth and beheld all the
+nations of the earth.  The same story is reported of Christ and
+his mother.  Finally Christ, like Crishna, was crucified, and
+like him was buried.  He descended into hell and on the third day
+arose and ascended into heaven.[129]
+
+[129] It will doubtless be urged that I am quoting from the
+Apocryphal Gospels--that the genuine books of the New Testament
+are silent concerning many of these Eastern legends.  We must
+bear in mind, however, that during the earlier ages of
+Christianity, these finally rejected gospels were, equally with
+the canonical books, considered as the word of God.  The Infancy
+is thought to be one of the earliest gospels.  Justin Martyr was
+acquainted with it, A.D. 150 to 160.  It is referred to by
+Irenaeus, A.D. 190.
+
+
+In the poetical myths of the ancients the sun is yearly
+overpowered by cold or by the destructive agencies in Nature. 
+Astronomically, or astrologically, it wanders in darkness and
+desolation during the winter months; in fact dies, and descends
+into hell in order that he may rise at the Easter season to
+gladden and make all things new again.  Mythologically, this new
+sun becomes incarnate; enters again his mother's womb, and is
+born into the world in the form of a man whose mission is to
+renew human life.  Hence we have an explanation of the Eastern
+Buddhas and Crishnas, all of which were born of virgins at the
+winter solstice.
+
+The new sun which at the close of each cycle was believed by the
+more ancient people of the globe to "issue forth from the womb of
+Nature to renew the world," now that the truths underlying
+Nature-worship were lost, became a redeemer or mediator between
+earth and heaven, or between spirit and matter.  It is stated
+that at the time of the appearance of Christ not alone the Jews,
+but the Persians, the Romans, the ancient Irish, and in fact all
+the nations of the globe, were anxiously awaiting the event of
+another incarnation of the solar Deity; and that maidens of all
+classes and conditions were in a state of eager expectation, the
+more pious, or at least the more ambitious among them, being in
+almost constant attendance at the temples and sacred shrines,
+whither they went to pay homage to the male emblem of generation,
+thereby hoping to be honored as a Mai or Mary.
+
+On the wall of the temple at Luxor are a series of sculptures,
+
+"in which the miraculous annunciation, conception, birth, and
+adoration of Amunoph III., the son of the Virgin Queen Mautmes,
+is represented in a manner similar to what is described in St. 
+Luke's Gospel (ch. 1 and 2) of Jesus Christ, the son of the
+Virgin Mary, and which is found also in the Gospel of St. 
+Matthew (ch. 1) as an addition not met with in the earliest
+manuscripts,"[130] which fact has caused Sharpe, from whom the
+above is quoted, to suggest that both accounts may have been of
+Egyptian origin.
+
+[130] Barlow, Symbolism, p. 127.
+
+
+The titles "lamb," "anointed," etc., which were applied to
+Christ, all appear attached to former in- carnations of the sun,
+the first named standing for the sun in Aries.  The effigies of a
+crucified savior found in Ireland and Scotland in connection with
+the figure of a lamb, a bull, or an elephant, the latter of which
+is not a native of those countries, shows that they do not
+represent Christ, but a crucified sun-god worshipped by the
+inhabitants of the British Islands ages before the birth of the
+great Judean philosopher and teacher.
+
+It is plain that Crishna of India and the Persian Mithra
+furnished the copy for the Jesus of the Romish Church, all of
+whom mean one and the same thing--the second person in the Solar
+Trinity.  By the Jews, who attempted to ignore the female
+principle, this God is called the "Lord of Hosts" and "God of
+Sabaoth," which astronomically means God of the stars and
+constellations, and astrologically the creator or producer of the
+multitudes.  Of this God, ieue, I H S, the author of Anacalypsis
+says that he was the son of the celestial virgin, which she
+carries in her arms; the Horus, Lux, of the Egyptians, the Lux of
+St. John.
+
+"It is from this infant that Jesus took his origin; or at least
+it is from the ceremonies and worship of this infant that this
+religion came to be corrupted into what we have of it.  This
+infant is the seed of the woman who, according to Genesis, was to
+bruise the head of the serpent, which, in return, was to bruise
+his foot or heel, or the foot or heel of her seed as the figure
+of the Hindoo Crishna proves.  From the traditionary stories of
+this god Iao, which was figured annually to be born at the winter
+solstice, and to be put to death and raised to life on the third
+day at the vernal equinox, the Roman searchers after the
+evangelion or gospel made out their Jesus.  The total destruction
+of everything at Jerusalem and in Judea--buildings, records,
+everything--prevented them from coming to any absolute certainty
+respecting this person who, they were told by tradition, had come
+to preach the gospel of peace, to be their savior, in fulfilment
+of the prophecy which their sect of Israelites found in their
+writings, and who had been put to death by the Jews.  From all
+these circumstances he came to have applied to him the monogram
+of I H S.  .  .  .  and to him at last all the legendary stories
+related of the god Iao were attributed."[131]
+
+[131] Godfrey Higgins, Anacalypsis, book vi., ch. iv., p. 455.
+
+
+According to Faber, Jesus was not originally called Jesus Christ,
+but Jescua Hammassiah--Jescua meaning Joshua, and Jesus, Savior. 
+Ham is the Om of India, and Messiah, the anointed.  Commenting on
+this Higgins remarks: "It will then be, The Savior Om the
+Anointed, precisely as Isaiah had literally foretold; or reading
+in the Hebrew made, The Anointed Om the Savior.  This was the
+name of Jesus of Bethlehem."
+
+We have observed the fact that at the time of the birth of Christ
+the entire world was expecting a Savior--a new incarnation of the
+sun.  The end of a cycle had come and the entire earth was to
+undergo a process of renovation.
+
+In a poem by Virgil, who was a Druid, the birth of a wonderful
+child is celebrated, and the prophecy of a heathen Sibyl is seen
+to be identical with that of Isaiah.
+
+"The last period sung by the Sibylline prophetess is now arrived;
+and the grand series of ages.  That Series which recurs again and
+again in the course of our mundane revolution begins afresh.  Now
+the Virgin Astrea returns from heaven; and the primeval reign of
+Saturn recommences; now a new race descends from the celestial
+realms of holiness.  Do thou, Lucina, smile propitious on the
+birth of a boy who will bring to a close the present age of iron
+and introduce throughout the whole world, a new age of gold. 
+Then shall the herds no longer dread the fury of the lion, nor
+shall the poison of the serpent any longer be formidable.  Every
+venomous animal and every deleterious plant shell perish
+together.  The fields shall be yellow with corn, the grape shall
+hang its ruddy clusters from the bramble, and honey shall distil
+spontaneously from the rugged oak.  The universal globe shall
+enjoy the blessings of peace, secure under the mild sway of its
+new and divine sovereign."
+
+There is no lack of evidence to prove that for several centuries
+great numbers of Christians regarded Christ as a solar
+incarnation similar to those which from time to time were born in
+the valleys of the Nile and the Ganges.  By the fathers in the
+church Jesus Christ was named the New Sun, and in the early days
+of Christianity the Egyptians struck a coin representing O. B. or
+the holy Basilisk, with rays of light darting from his head, on
+the reverse side of which was figured "Jesus Christ as the New
+Solar Deity."
+
+The similarity if not the actual identity of the religion of
+Christ and that of the pagans in the second century is shown by
+various writers.  The Emperor Hadrian writing to his friend
+Servianus says:
+
+"Those who worship Serapis are also Christians; even those who
+style themselves the Bishops of Christ are devoted to Serapis.  .
+.  .  There is but one God for them all; him do the Christians,
+him do the Jews, him do all the Gentiles also worship."
+
+It has been said that the head of Serapis supplied the first idea
+of the portrait of Christ.  Before the figure of Serapis, in his
+temple, used to stand Isis, the Celestial Virgin, with the
+inscription "Immaculate is our Lady Isis."  In her hand she bore
+a sheaf of grain.
+
+As Serapis, or Pan, finally became Christ, so Isis, or the Queen
+of Heaven, became his mother, and to the latter were transferred
+all the titles, ceremonies, festivals, and seasons which from the
+earliest time had belonged to the great Goddess of Nature. 
+Subsequently, probably about the close of the second century,
+Christianity began slowly to emerge from the worship of Mithras
+and Serapis, "changing the names but not the substance."
+
+Upon the coinage of Constantine appears Soli Invicto Comita--"To
+the invincible sun my companion or guardian," and when the Greek
+and Roman Christians finally separated themselves from the great
+body of pagan worshippers they apologized for celebrating the
+birthday of their Savior on the 25th of December, saying that
+"they could better perform their rites when the heathen were busy
+with theirs."  We are assured that the early Christians no less
+than the Maji acknowledged Mithras as the first emanation from
+Ormuzd, or the God of Light.  He was the Savior which in an
+earlier age had represented returning life--that which follows
+the cold of winter.  It was doubtless while they worshipped the
+Persian Mithras that many of the so-called Christians gathered
+their first ideas concerning the immortality of the soul and of
+future rewards and punishments.
+
+The analogy existing between the festivals, seasons, mythoses,
+etc., of the various incarnations of the sun which were
+worshipped by the early historic nations and those belonging to
+Christianity is too striking to be the result of chance.
+
+Buddha originally represented the sun in Taurus.  Crishna was the
+sun in Aries.  The laborings and sufferings of Hercules, a god
+who was an incarnation of the latter, portrays the history of the
+passage of the sun through the signs of the Zodiac.
+
+All the principal events of Christ's life correspond to certain
+solar phases; or, in other words, all ecclesiastical calendars
+are arranged with reference to the festivals which commemorate
+the important events of his life from his conception and birth to
+his ascension and reception in heaven.  Each and every one of the
+solar deities has been born at midnight, on the 25th of December,
+at the time when the sun has reached its lowest position and
+begins to ascend.  Macrobius, a learned Roman writer, observes
+that the early historic nations "believed that the sun comes
+forth as a babe from its cradle at the winter solstice."  Neith
+is made to say, "The sun is the fruit of my womb."
+
+The 15th of August, assumption day, the time when Mary, the
+mother of Jesus, ascends to heaven is the day when the Zodiacal
+constellation Virgo, "the Greek Astrea, leaves the European
+horizon," and the "8th of September, when Virgo emerges from the
+sun's rays, is held sacred as the Nativity of the Queen of
+Heaven."
+
+Of the mid-winter festival, Bede says: "The Pagans of these isles
+began their year on the eighth of the Kalends of January, which
+is now our Christmas Day.  The night before that (24th Dec.  eve)
+was called by them the Medre-Nak, or Night of Mothers, because of
+the ceremonies which were performed on that night."[132]
+
+[132] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 430.
+
+
+Among Christians as among Pagans the Christmas season was in
+honor of "returning light," the vernal equinox of "growing light"
+and St.  John's day of "perfected light."
+
+In England, among pagan Saxons, the midwinter festival lasted
+twelve days, during which time light, fire, the sun, huge stones
+and other similar manifestations of the Deity were adored. 
+Christian and pagan alike worshipped these objects.  They called
+Christmas "the birthday of the god who is light."  The Savior, or
+the New Sun, was the true light which lighteth every man who
+cometh into the world.  According to the testimony of various
+writers, the festival held by Christians on Christmas eve used to
+resemble the Feast of Lights, celebrated in Egypt in honor of
+Neith.  The tokens distributed among friends were cakes made of
+paste in the form of babies.  These cakes were called yuledows. 
+Dow means to "grow bigger," or, "to increase."
+
+The Kalends of January at Rome were sacred to Janus and Juno to
+whom sacrifices were offered.  The Etruscans also worshipped
+Janus who was the god (or goddess) of the year.  Although this
+Deity does not appear among the twelve gods it is said to be the
+parent of them all.  It was represented as having two faces. 
+Upon one were the letters representing 365, and upon the other
+were the keys of life and death.  According to Bryant this Deity
+was called Junonius, from the goddess Juno, whose name resolves
+itself into Juneh, a dove.  In the Hebrew this name is identical
+with Yoni or Yuni--the female principle.  On the coins of this
+god (which was subsequently regarded as male) is usually figured
+a boat, although a dove with an olive branch is sometimes
+observed.[133]
+
+[133] See Faber, Pagan Idolatry.
+
+
+Juno is thought to be the same as Jana, which came from Jah of
+the Hebrews.  Diana was Diva Jana or "Dea Jana who is the same as
+Astarte or Ashtaroth of the Sidonians."
+
+Regarding the transference of the mid-winter festival of the
+pagans to the Christian calendar, Forlong says:
+
+"The early Christians undoubtedly selected this Roman Saturnalia
+as an important period in the life of Christ, at first calling it
+the time of his conception, and later of his birth, this last
+best suiting the views and feelings of their Solo- Christian
+flocks.  The Jews called the day of the Winter Solstice The Fast
+of Tebet.  The previous time was one of darkness, and on the 28th
+began their Feast of Lights."[134]
+
+[134] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 430.
+
+
+In France the ancient name for Christmas is Noel, a term which
+until recently has baffled all antiquarian research. It is now
+thought that it is formed from Nuadh and Vile which together mean
+All Heal.
+
+Although every possible effort has been put forward to give to
+this date (the 25th of December) the appearance of authenticity
+as the birth of Christ, still, so far as I am able to find, no
+one accredited with any degree of trustworthiness has ever been
+rash enough to attempt its ratification as a matter of history.
+
+Tylor calls attention to the fact that in the religious symbolism
+of the material and spiritual sun Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa
+discourse on the "growing light and dwindling darkness that
+follow the nativity," and cites the instance of Leo the Great
+who, in a sermon, rebukes the "pestiferous persuasion, that this
+solemn day is to be honored not for the birth of Christ, but for
+the rising of the New Sun."
+
+On the authority of this same prelate it is found that in the
+fifth century, the faithful, before entering the Basilica of St. 
+Peter, were wont to turn and salute the shining orb of day.
+
+The Roman winter solstice which was connected with the worship of
+Mithra, and which was named the "Birthday of the Unconquered Om,"
+was adopted by the western churches some time during the fourth
+century.  From the west it passed to the eastern churches, where
+it finally became "the solemn anniversary of the birth of
+Christ."
+
+In Ireland the ceremonies attending the mid-winter festival were
+formerly regarded as exceedingly important.  A short time before
+the approach of the winter solstice, voices were heard throughout
+the island proclaiming: "The New Year is at hand! Gather the
+Mistletoe!" The mistletoe wreaths which formed the principal
+decorations of Venus' temple were at first proscribed by the
+Christian preachers, but, in process of time they not only found
+their way into the sanctuary, but were given a place over the
+altars, their final signification being "good will to men."[135]
+
+[135] Rivers of Life, vol. i., p. 81.
+
+
+Although the tokens of friendship which were distributed by the
+pagans at the season of the mid- winter festival differed
+somewhat from those which at the present time are exchanged among
+Christians at the same season of the year, still, there can be no
+doubt that the Christmas tree, loaded with gifts, is a remnant of
+that worship under which the sun was recognized as the source
+whence all blessings flow.  Down to a late date, fire was a
+conspicuous element at the festival of the winter solstice.  As
+the yule-log blazed upon the hearth, our ancestors set up huge
+stones and danced round them, thus worshipping the god of
+fertility.
+
+On the 20th and 21st of March the sun illumines exactly half the
+earth.  At this time the Day has conquered the Night.  Light has
+dethroned Darkness, a complete victory has been gained over
+Typhon and the new god comes forth "with healing in his wings." 
+On Lady's day, the 25th of March, the Virgin conceives.  In
+Phoenicia numerous fetes were instituted to rejoice with Astarte
+in her conception.  During the months preceding the birth of the
+young sun-god the Queen of Heaven receives marked homage.
+
+In a former portion of this work we have observed that the
+festival which celebrated the return of spring was instituted by
+the inventors of the Neros thousands of years prior to the
+beginning of the Christian era, to celebrate the vernal equinox
+and to commemorate a return of Nature's bounties; but, after male
+reproductive power began to be regarded as the creator, when
+passion came to be considered as the moving force in the
+universe, and when the operations of Nature began to be typified
+by a dead man on a cross who was to rise again, Easter was
+celebrated in commemoration of a risen savior or sun-god.
+
+The following is an account given in Ramsay's Travels of Cyrus,
+concerning the vernal equinox festivals in the East.  When Cyrus
+entered the temples he found the public clad in mourning.  In a
+cavern lay the image of a young man (the dying savior) on a bed
+of flowers and odoriferous herbs Nine days were spent in fasting,
+prayers, and lamentations, after which the public sorrow ceased
+and was changed into gladness.  Songs of joy succeeded weeping
+(for Tamuz), the whole assembly singing hymns: "Adonis is
+returned to life, Urania weeps no more, he has ascended to
+heaven, he will soon return to earth and banish hence all crimes
+and miseries forever."  This scene, it will be remembered, was
+presented 500 years prior to the birth of Christ.  In Rome,
+throughout the months preceding the winter solstice, Hilaria or
+Ceres, was especially honored.  Apollo and Diana rose on the 7th
+of the Julian April and on the 10th their religious festivals
+began.
+
+On Easter morn, during the earlier ages of the church, the
+observances of Christians were exactly the same as were those of
+the so called pagans, all together hurried out long before the
+break of day that they might behold the sun ascend, or "dance" as
+they called it, for on this morning he was to "make the earth
+laugh and sing."  Pagan and Christian alike greeted each other
+with the salutation "The Lord is risen," and the reply was "The
+Lord is risen indeed."  On Easter morning the peasants of Saxony
+and Brandenburg still climb to the hilltops "to see the sun give
+his three joyful leaps."
+
+In Buckland's Land and Water it is stated that on the first of
+May all the choristers of Magdalene College, Oxford, still meet
+on the summit of their tower, 150 feet high, and sing a Latin
+hymn as the sun rises, during which time ten bells are rung "to
+welcome the gracious Apollo."  Formerly, high mass was celebrated
+here and early mass for Sol was held in the College chapel, but,
+as at the time of the Reformation this service was forbidden, "it
+has since been performed on the top of the tower."  After the
+hymn is sung "boys blow loud blasts to Sol through bright new tin
+horns."
+
+Perhaps none of the ideas which enter into present religious
+rites and ceremonies proclaims its eastern origin more forcibly
+than do those connected with the veneration of fire.  The
+testimony of all writers upon this subject agrees that in Europe,
+down to a late date in the Christian era, fire was still adored,
+and in some mysterious manner was connected with the Creator.
+
+Upon the subject of the continuation of sun and fire worship to
+modern times, it is stated that the ancient bonfires with which
+the North German hills used to be ablaze mile after mile are not
+altogether given up by local custom.  In Ireland as late as the
+year 1829, the ancient Canaanitish and Jewish rite of passing
+children through fire as a cleansing or regenerating process was
+still in operation.  It is related that at stated seasons great
+fires were lighted in public places, on which occasions, fathers,
+taking their children in their arms, would leap and run through
+the flames.  At the same time, two large fires were kindled a
+short distance from each other through which the cattle were
+driven.  It was believed that by means of this ceremony,
+fecundity is imparted both to man and beast.  May, the month in
+which all Nature revives, and in which life starts anew, is the
+time selected for the lighting of those sacred fires.  May is the
+month of the fires of Baal.  According to Maurice in his work on
+the Antiquities of India, the festival and the May-pole of Great
+Britain are the remnants of a religious ceremony once common in
+Egypt, India, and Phoenicia, which nations all worshipping the
+same Deity, celebrated the entrance of the sun into the sign of
+Taurus at the vernal equinox, but which in consequence of the
+precession of the equinoxes is removed far in the year from its
+original situation.  This festival is thought to be coeval with a
+time when the equinox actually took place at that time.  It was
+formerly in honor of the goddess Bhavania, who, under various
+names, was once worshipped in every country of the globe.  "She
+is identical with the Dea Syria of Chaldea, and the Venus Urania
+of Persia."
+
+At the present time there is direct and indisputable evidence
+that sacred fires once flamed over the whole of Britain.  A few
+days prior to Bealtine season, every flame was ordered
+extinguished, to be relighted on the first of May by holy fire
+drawn directly from the sun.  Of fire-worship Toland observes:
+
+"On May-day the Druids made prodigious fires on these cairns,
+which being every one in sight of some other could not but afford
+a glorious show over a whole nation.  These fires were in honor
+of Beal, or Bealan, Latinized by the Roman writers into Belanus,
+by which name the Gauls and their colonies understood the sun,
+and therefore, to this hour, the first of May is, by the
+aboriginal Irish, called la Bealtine, or the day of Belan's
+fires.  May-day is likewise called la Bealtine by the Highlanders
+of Scotland, who are no contemptible part of the Celtic
+offspring.  So it is with the Isle of Man: and in Armorica a
+priest is called Belee, or the servant of Bel, and the priesthood
+Belegieth."[136]
+
+[136] Quoted by Godfrey Higgins, Celtic Druids, ch. v., p. 181.
+
+
+Down to a comparatively recent time, in the British Isles, the
+youth of both sexes used to arise long before daybreak on
+May-day, and in large companies set out for the woods, there to
+gather flowers, boughs, and branches, which, on returning at
+night, were used to decorate their homes.  This festival is said
+to be the most ancient of any known, and during the earlier and
+purer ages of human faith was celebrated in honor of returning
+spring.  In later ages, however, after passion had become the
+only recognized god, May-day was celebrated with "all manner of
+obscenity and lewdness."
+
+Although the uneducated masses among the Gauls worshipped Apollo,
+Mercury, and Mars without understanding their true significance,
+the Druids, who are thought to be Pythagorians, invoked one great
+power, the animating force which pervades the universe, the
+essence of which they believed resides in fire.
+
+It is related that although after the introduction of Romish
+Christianity, May fires still continued to be lighted on Bealtine
+day, the more impressive ceremonies took place on the 23d of
+June, on the eve of the nativity of St.  John.  The early
+preachers, wishing to defer to the prejudices and usages of the
+people, "yet not so as to interfere with the celebration of
+Easter at the vernal equinox, retained the Bealtine ceremonial,
+only transferring it to the saint's day."  Of these fire
+festivals and their adoption by the Christian church Tylor says:
+
+"The solar Christmas festival has its pendant at mid-summer.  The
+summer solstice was the great season of fire festivals throughout
+Europe on the heights, of dancing round and leaping through the
+fires, of sending blazing fire-wheels to roll down from the hills
+into the valleys, in sign of the sun's descending course.  These
+ancient rites attached themselves in Christendom to St. John's
+Eve.
+
+"It seems as though the same train of symbolism which had adapted
+the mid-winter festival to the Nativity, may have suggested the
+dedication of the mid-summer festival to John the Baptist, in
+clear allusion to his words 'He must increase but I must
+decrease.' "[137]
+
+[137] Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 271.
+
+
+In a description recently given of the "moral, religious, and
+social disease" which broke out A.D. 1374, in the lower Rhine
+region, and which was denominated as the "greatest, perhaps, of
+all manifestations of possession," Andrew D. White says: "The
+immediate origin of these manifestations seems to have been the
+wild revels of St. John's Day."[138]
+
+[138] Pop. Science, vol. xxxv., p. 3.
+
+
+Upon this subject Toland observes that he has seen the people of
+Ireland running and leaping through the St.  John's fire proud of
+passing through it unsinged.  Although ignorant of the origin of
+this ceremony, they nevertheless regarded it as some kind of a
+lustration by means of which they were to be specially blessed.
+
+To every domestic hearth was carried the seed of Bealtine, or St.
+John's fire, which during the year was not permitted to go
+out.[139]
+
+[139] Although the preservation of holy fire upon every hearth
+was clearly a religious observance, still, as in those days there
+were no matches, the material benefit to be derived from this
+precaution doubtless had a significance apart from that connected
+with worship.
+
+
+According to the testimony of Tylor, the festival of John the
+Baptist was celebrated in Germany down to a late date.  This
+writer quoting from a low German book of the year 1859, refers to
+the "nod fire" which was sawed out of wood to light the St.
+John's bonfire "through which the people leapt and ran and drove
+their cattle."
+
+With regard to the worship of Fire and Light it is related that
+in Jerusalem, at the present time, the Easter service is
+performed by the bishop of the church emerging from a tomb with
+lighted tapers "from which all crave lights."
+
+On the authority of Peter Martyr, Bishop of Alexandria in the
+third century, we are informed that the place in Egypt where
+Christ was banished, which is called Maturea, a lamp is kept
+constantly burning in remembrance of this event.  Although the
+story of this banishment is doubtless borrowed from the life of
+the Hindoo god Crishna, the fact is evident that those who
+appropriated it, and used it in furbishing the mythical history
+of Christ, had no scruples against fire worship--a religion which
+we have been taught to regard as belonging exclusively to the
+pagans.
+
+In the ecclesiastical processions of the Church of Rome is
+frequently to be observed the figure of a dragon, in the mouth of
+which "holy and everlasting fire" is observed to be burning.  A
+boy follows the procession with a lighted taper, so that in case
+the fire is extinguished it may be relighted.  In referring to
+this subject the Rev. J. B. Deane says:
+
+"The whole ceremony may be considered as a lively representation
+of an ophite procession as it advanced through the sinuous
+paralleiths of Karnak.  So that no wonder the illiterate races
+were deceived into thinking that there was no harm in calling
+themselves Christians, for all their dear old faiths are
+here--fire, arks, poles, and fire in an ark."
+
+Almost innumerable instances are given by various writers upon
+this subject, showing that the sun worship of the ancients has
+been continued to the present time by the so called followers of
+Christ, in the shrines of the East, with no change even of names
+to distinguish it from that of the Christian faith.  By those who
+have spent much time in investigating the Holy Land, it is
+related that nearly all the spots in and about Jerusalem, sacred
+to Greek and Romish Christians as connected with the life and
+death of their risen Lord, are equally sacred to the pagans as
+commemorating the life and death of their Savior--the New Sun. 
+Even Gethsemane is marked by characteristics which prove that it
+is no less interesting to pagans, or, more properly speaking, to
+the pagan followers of Christ, than it is to those of the Greek
+and Romish churches.  Here is a holy tree, and not far distant is
+a cave of Mithras.  There is also to be seen a trinity of stones
+"those of Janus (Chemosh), Petros and Ion, all solar terms and
+connected with the sitting or sinking down to rest of the Kuros."
+
+Messrs. Maundrell and Sandys, who in 1697 visited all the holy
+places in and around Jerusalem, state that the entire city, but
+especially the sites of Moriah, Zion, and suburbs were hotbeds of
+fire and phallic worship as usually developed still in the East.
+
+The topography of ancient Delphi, on the site of which was built
+the village of Kastri, and at which place excavations are now
+being made under the direction of the American School of
+Archaeology, has ever been a place of peculiar interest to the
+mystic.  Here are to be found all the natural features and
+objects which gladden the heart and stimulate the imagination of
+a solo-phallic worshipper.  The holy Mt. Parnassus, the fountain
+of Kastali, the deep cave said to be Pythian, and the remnants of
+huge sepulchres hewn in the rocks all conspire to make of this
+spot a perfect abode for the god, or goddess, of fertility. 
+Here, too, is a beautiful lake and near it a sacred fig-tree
+which has been struck by lightning, or, "touched by holy fire." 
+Of this sacred place Forlong writes:
+
+"Christianity has never neglected this so-called Pagan shrine,
+nor yet misunderstood it, if we may judge by the saint she has
+located here, for Mr. Hobhouse found in the rocky chasm dipped in
+the dews of Castaly, but safe in a rocky niche, a Christian
+shrine; and close by a hut called the church of St. John; yea
+verily of Ione, she who had once reigned here supreme; whilst on
+a green plot a few yards below the basin, in a little grove of
+olive trees, stood the monastery of Panhagia or Holy Virgin, so
+that here we still have and beside her sacred form in the cleft,
+men who have consecrated their manhood to the old Mother and
+Queen of Heaven, just as if she of Syria had never been heard of.
+
+Doubtless they knew little of what civilized Europe calls
+Christianity, for I have spent many days conversing with such
+men, and seen little difference between them and those similarly
+placed in the far East--fervid Christians though Greeks and
+Syrians are."
+
+Perhaps nothing shows the extent to which the religion of the
+pagans has been retained by Christianity more than does the
+worship of the serpent.  It has been said that this reptile
+enters into every mythology extant.  Ferguson is authority for
+the statement that "he is to be found in the wilderness of Sinai,
+the groves of Epidaurus, and in Samothracian huts."  He
+constitutes a prominent factor in the religious worship of India,
+Assyria, Palestine, and Egypt, and, notwithstanding the fact that
+he is not a native of Ireland, in an earlier age representations
+of him appear in profusion among the symbols of that country.  It
+has been said that there is scarcely an Egyptian sculpture known
+in which this reptile does not figure.  The serpent whenever it
+appears as a religious emblem always typifies desire--creative
+energy--which, proceeding from the sun, is manifested in man and
+in animals.  Whether it be a veritable snake in a box, a serpent
+connected with the figure of a woman, or as a carved
+representation on monuments or stones, or as chains or wreaths on
+columns, bas-reliefs or friezes, the signification is the same.
+
+The sacred character of this reptile among the Gnostics is shown
+by the accounts given of their religious rites and ceremonies. 
+By many of these sects this holy creature was kept in a box, ark,
+or chest, and when the eucharistic service was to be performed,
+he was enticed forth from his resting- place by a bit of bread. 
+So soon as his holiness had wound himself about the offering, the
+sacrifice was complete and the service was concluded by "singing
+a hymn to Almighty God, and praying for acceptance in and through
+the serpent."
+
+In later ages when the attempt was made to abolish serpent
+worship from the Christian church, it was declared by the leaders
+in the movement that Ophiolatry had been imported from
+Persia--that it had been brought in by ignorant devotees who were
+too weak to renounce their former faith.[140]
+
+[140] Forlong, Rivers of Life.
+
+
+The extent to which the symbols representing Serpent, Sun, Tree,
+and Plant worship are still retained as part and parcel of the
+symbolism of Christianity is shown by the following report
+regarding the adoption of a seal by the Presbyterian Church which
+appeared in the daily press only a few years ago.
+
+"After the assembly opened, the committee for the selection of a
+seal made a report recommending: That the general assembly hereby
+adopts as its official seal the device of a serpent suspended
+upon a cross, uplifted within a wilderness, in form as
+represented upon the official seal of the trustees of the general
+assembly, and displayed upon a circular field of the same
+proportions.  In addition thereto the figure of a rising sun
+appearing above the margin of the wilderness, whose out-shooting
+beams shall occupy the centre of the field.  Further, the
+decoration of a demi-wreath of two palm branches (in the form of
+the wreath upon the seal of the Westminster assembly of divines),
+placed around the margin of the upper hemisphere of the field;
+and on the lower hemisphere of the field a demi-wreath composed
+of a branch of oak united with an olive branch. Further, that the
+words of the motto, 'Christus Exaltus Salvatar,' shall be
+displayed in a semi-circle upon the upper part of the field, on
+either side of the standard of the cross, and, encompassing the
+whole in a bordure, the following words, in full or in proper
+abbreviation thereof, 'The Seal of the General Assembly of the
+Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.' "
+
+The origin of the rite of Baptism as performed at the present
+time in Christian churches, may be traced directly to the worship
+of the sun, within which were supposed to reside the reproductive
+powers of Nature.  All nations have had ceremonies corresponding
+to our baptism and confirmation rites, such baptism being either
+by fire or water.  When we remember that for ages fertility, or
+the power to reproduce, constituted the idea of the Deity, we are
+not surprised to find that the original signification of the rite
+of baptism had, and still has, in some of the oriental countries,
+special reference to the child's sexual obligations.
+
+In India, the religious rites performed upon the individual occur
+at birth or soon after; at betrothal, which takes place in
+childhood; at puberty; at marriage, and at death.  The fact will
+be noticed that all sexual (spiritual) obligations and seasons
+fall within the domain of priestly supervision and surveillance. 
+The child at baptism is dedicated to Vesta, or Hestia, the Queen
+of Hearths and Homes, a divinity who is supposed to assist him in
+securing the special evidence of divine favor, namely,
+fruitfulness of body.
+
+Among Hindoos and Jews, excessive reproduction was the Lord's
+mark of favor.  In India there has been a special hell provided
+for childless women, and with Jewesses no curse was equal to
+barrenness.
+
+Baptism, or the ceremony connected with the naming of children in
+Christian countries, is seen to be identical with that performed
+in Mexico among the Aztecs.  After the lips and bosom of the
+infant had been sprinkled with water, the Lord was implored to
+"permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that was given to it
+before the foundation of the world, so that the child might be
+born anew."
+
+Among the petitions which are offered to the Deity is the
+following: "Impart to us, out of thy great mercy, thy gifts which
+we are not worthy to receive through our own merit."  In their
+moral code appear these maxims: "Keep peace with all; bear
+injuries with humility; God who sees, will avenge you."  "He who
+looks too curiously on a woman, commits adultery with his
+eyes."[141]
+
+[141] Quoted by Prescott from Sahagun.  Conquest of Mexico, book
+i., chap 3.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+CHRISTIANITY A CONTINUATION OF PAGANISM--(Continued).
+
+From the facts recorded in the foregoing pages, we have seen that
+true Christianity was but a continuation of that great movement
+which was begun in Persia seven or eight centuries before, and
+whose gathering strength had been emphasized by the humane
+doctrines set forth in the various schools of Greek philosophy.
+
+In the first century of the Christian era may be observed among
+various sects, notably the Gnostics, a desire to popularize the
+teachings of an ancient race, and to accentuate those principles
+which had been taught by Buddha, Pythagoras, the Stoic
+philosophers, the Roman jurisconsults and others.  In other words
+the object of the new religion was to stimulate the altruistic
+characters which had been developed during the evolutionary
+processes, and to strengthen and encourage the almost forgotten
+principles of justice and personal liberty upon which early
+society was founded, but which through ages of sensuality and
+selfishness had been denied expression.
+
+When we remember the tenacity with which the human mind clings to
+established beliefs and forms, it is not perhaps singular that in
+a comparatively short time these principles were lost sight of,
+and that the entire system of corrupt paganism, with Christ as
+the New Solar Deity, was reinstated; neither is it remarkable,
+when we reflect upon the length of time required to bring about
+any appreciable change in human thought and action, that the
+principles which this Great Teacher enunciated are at the present
+time only just beginning to be understood.
+
+To one who carefully studies the history of Christianity by the
+light of recently developed truths, the fact will doubtless be
+discovered that the fundamental difference existing between
+Catholic and Protestant sects is grounded in the old feud arising
+out of the relative importance of the sex-principles.  From the
+days of Zoroaster to the final establishment of Christianity by
+Paul, the tendency--although slight--had been toward the
+elevation of woman, and consequently toward a greater
+acknowledgment of the female element in the god-idea. 
+Considerable impetus was given to the cause of woman's
+advancement through the doctrines of the various schools of
+philosophy in Greece, and subsequently by the efforts put forth
+by the Roman lawyers to establish their equality with men before
+the law; hence, during the first hundred years of the Christian
+era the "new religion" seems to have contained much of the spirit
+of the ancient philosophy.
+
+By several of the early Christian sects, the second person in the
+trinity was female, as was also the Holy Ghost.
+
+In a "fragment of a gospel preserved by St. Jerome, and believed
+to have been from the original Aramaean Gospel of St. Matthew,
+with additions, the Holy Ghost (ruach), which in Hebrew is
+feminine, is called by the infant Savior, 'My Mother, the Holy
+Ghost.' "[142]
+
+[142] Barlow, Essays on Symbolism, p. 135.
+
+
+The mission of Christ was that of a Regenerator of mankind, an
+office which had been symbolized by the powers of the sun.  He
+was to restore that which was lost.  He attempted to teach to the
+masses of the people the long neglected principles of purity and
+peace.  He did not condemn woman.  He was baptized by John (Ion
+or Yon) in water, the original symbol for the female element, and
+while in the water; the Holy Ghost in form of a dove (female)
+descended upon him.  To those who have given attention to the
+symbolism of the pagan worship these facts are not without
+signification.
+
+Because of the peculiar tendency of Christ's teachings women soon
+became active factors in their promulgation.  If there were no
+other evidence to show that they publicly taught the new
+doctrines, the injunction of St. Paul, "I suffer not a woman to
+teach," would seem to imply that they were not silent.
+
+The doctrines of the Gnostics were particularly favorable to
+women.  Marcellina, who belonged to this order, was the founder
+of a sect called Marcelliens.  Of her works Waite observes: "It
+would scarcely be expected that the heretical writings of a woman
+would be preserved amid such wholesale slaughter of the obnoxious
+works of the opposite sex.  The writings of Marcellina have
+perished."[143] Not only did women teach publicly, and write, but
+according to Bunsen they claimed the privilege of baptizing their
+own sex.  The reason for this is evident.  Before baptism it was
+customary for the newly-made converts to strip and be anointed
+with oil.  After the establishment of Paul's doctrines, however,
+"the bishops and presbyters did not care to be relieved from the
+pleasant duty of baptizing the female converts."[144]
+
+[143] History of the Christian Religion, p. 405.
+
+[144] Ibid., p. 23.
+
+
+Although the utmost care has been exercised to conceal the fact
+that women equally with men, performed the offices connected with
+the early church, yet by those who have paid attention to the
+true history of this movement, there can be no doubt about the
+matter.  Notwithstanding the early tendencies of the "new
+religion" toward the recognition of women, and toward the
+restoration of the female principle in the Deity, the policy to
+be pursued by the church was soon apparent, for Paul, the real
+founder of the system calling itself Christian, and a man imbued
+with Asiatic prejudices concerning women, arrogantly declared
+that "man is the head of woman as Christ is the head of the
+Church."  Women were commanded to be under obedience.  Neither
+was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man;
+thus was re-established and emphasized the absurd doctrine of the
+Lingaites, that the male is an independent entity, that he is
+spirit and superior to the female which is matter.  After this
+indication of the policy to be pursued under the new regime, it
+would scarcely be expected that theefforts put forth by the
+various sects among the Gnostics toreinstate the female element
+either on the earth or in heavenwould be successful, and as might
+be anticipated from the factsalready adduced, as early as the
+year 325, at the council of Nice, a male trinity was formally
+established, and soon thereafter, the Collylidians, a sect which
+rigorously persisted in the adoration of the female principle,
+were condemned.  At the council of Laodicea, A.D. 365, the 11th
+canon forbade the ordination of women for the ministry and the
+44th canon prohibited them from entering the altar.
+
+The devotees of female worship, although for a time silenced,
+were evidently not convinced, and to force their understanding
+into conformity with the newly established order, the Nestorians,
+in the year 430 A. D., reopened the old dispute, and formally
+denied to Mary the title of Mother of God.  Their efforts,
+however, were of little avail, for in the year 451, at the
+council of Ephesus, the third general council, the decision of
+the Nestorians was reversed and the Virgin Mother reinstated. 
+Upon this subject Barlow remarks: "Well might those who made this
+symbolical doctrine what it now is, at length desire to do tardy
+justice to the female element, by promoting the mother to the
+place once occupied by the Egyptian Neith, and crowning her Queen
+of Heaven."[145] The fact will doubtless be observed, however,
+that by the Romish Church the idea of the god-mother differs
+widely from the Queen of Heaven--the original God of the
+ancients.  Mary the Mother of Jesus is not a Creator, but simply
+a mediator between her Son and His earthly devotees--a doctrine
+only a trifle less masculine in texture than that of an Almighty
+Father and his victimized son.  The worship of Mary was adopted
+by the so-called Christians in response to a craving in the human
+heart for a recognition of those characters developed in mankind
+which may be said to contain the germ of the divine.  The
+masculine god of the Jews was feared not loved, and his son had
+already been invested with his attributes.  He was all powerful,
+hence a mediator, a mother, was necessary to intercede in behalf
+of fallen man, and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that woman
+had become the "cause of evil in the world."
+
+[145] Essays on Symbolism, p. 134.
+
+
+The Great Goddess of the ancients, Perceptive Wisdom, the Deity
+of giving, she who represented the purely altruistic characters
+developed in mankind, and whose worship involved a scientific
+knowledge of the processes of Nature, when engrafted upon the
+so-called Christian system, although indicating an important step
+toward the recognition of the genuine creative principles, was
+not understood.  Although her effigies were brought from the East
+and made to do duty as representations of Mary, the Mother of
+Christ, a knowledge of her true significance lay hurled beneath
+ages of sensuality and selfishness.
+
+By those who have made it their business to investigate this
+subject, it is observed that there is scarcely an old church in
+Italy in which there is not to be found a remnant of a black
+virgin and child.  In very many instances these black virgins
+have been replaced by white ones, the older figures having been
+retired to some secluded niche in the church where they are held
+especially sacred by the ignorant devotees who know absolutely
+nothing of their original significance.  We are assured that many
+of these images have been painted over, ostensibly in imitation
+of bronze, but the whites of the eyes, the teeth, and colored
+lips reveal the fact that they are really not intended to
+represent bronze, but figures of a black virgin goddess and child
+whose worship has been imported into Europe from the East.  I had
+been told that one of the oldest of these images extant was to be
+found in Augsburg; a thorough search, however, in all the
+churches and cathedrals of that city failed to reveal it, but in
+the museum at Munich such a figure is to be seen.  It is in a
+state of decay, one arm of the mother and a portion of the
+child's figure being worn away.  Upon this subject Godfrey
+Higgins remarks:
+
+"If the author had wished to invent a circumstance to corroborate
+the assertion that the Romish Christ of Europe is the Crishna of
+India, how could he have desired anything more striking than the
+fact of the black virgin and child being so common in the Romish
+countries of Europe?  A black virgin and child among the white
+Germans, Swiss, French, and Italians!!!"[146]
+
+[146] Anacalypsis, book iv., ch. i., p. 175.
+
+
+We have observed that during an earlier age in the history of
+religious worship, as the female was supposed to comprehend both
+the female and male elements in creation, a belief in the
+possible creative power of the female independently of the male
+was everywhere entertained, and that after the schismatic faction
+arose which endeavored to exalt the male, the production of a son
+by a woman unaided by man, was among the Yonigas to be the sign
+which would forever settle the question of the superior
+importance of the female functions in the processes of
+reproduction, and consequently, also, her claim to the greater
+importance in the deity.
+
+The sacred books of India show that from a former belief in one
+or the other of the two creative principles throughout Nature as
+God, the people had come to accept both female and male as
+necessary elements in reproduction, the latter being the more
+important.  In course of time this change seems to have been
+universal and to have extended to all the countries of the globe.
+
+As the male could not create independently of the female, or, as
+spirit was dependent on matter for its manifestations, there
+arose a necessity for a Savior to redeem man from the evil
+effects arising from his relations with woman who was regarded as
+matter, and who in course of time became the cause of evil.
+
+Concerning the doctrines which prevailed in the earlier ages of
+Christianity relative to the ancient dual principle in creation,
+and regarding the offices which were performed by the two
+elements, male and female, in the deity, we have the following
+from Justinus, who is said to have been contemporary with Peter
+and Paul:
+
+"When Elohim had prepared and created the world as a result from
+joint pleasure, He wished to ascend up to the elevated parts of
+heaven, and to see that not anything of what pertained to the
+creation laboured under deficiency.  And He took His Own angels
+with Him, for His nature was to mount aloft, leaving Edem below;
+for inasmuch as she was earth, she was not disposed to follow
+upward her spouse.  Elohim, then, coming to the highest part of
+heaven above and beholding a light superior to that which He
+himself had created, exclaimed: 'Open me the gates, that entering
+in I may acknowledge the Lord.' "
+
+As he enters the Good One addresses him in the following manner:
+"Sit thou on my right hand."  Then the soaring male principle
+says to the Good One "permit me Lord to overturn the world which
+I have made, for my spirit is bound to men."  To which the Good
+One replies: "No evil canst thou do while thou art with me, for
+both thou and Edem made the world as a result of conjugal joy. 
+Permit Edem then, to hold possession of the world as long as she
+wishes; but you remain with me."  While the father is drawn away
+from earth to Heaven, Edem, in the meantime is bringing woes
+innumerable upon man.  Naas, who has received his evil nature
+from her, and who is a child of the Devil, has debauched Eve,
+"Henceforward vice and virtue are prevalent among men."  The
+Father seeing these things dispatches Baruch his third angel to
+Moses, and through him spake to the children of Israel, that they
+might be converted unto the Good One.  But the third angel, Naas,
+by the soul of which came from Edem upon Moses, as also upon all
+men, observed the precepts of Baruch, and caused his own peculiar
+injunctions to be hearkened unto.
+
+Again, after these occurrences Baruch, the angel of the Good One,
+was sent to the prophets to warn them against the wiles of Edem,
+but in the same manner Nass, the Devil, enticed them away, they
+being allured by him to their own destruction.  Again Elohim
+selected Hercules, an uncircumcised prophet, and sent him to
+quell the disturbance caused by Naas or Edem and to release the
+Father from their power.
+
+"These are the twelve conflicts of Hercules which He underwent,
+in order, from first to last, viz.:  Lion, and Hydra, and Boar,
+and the others successively.  For they say that these are the
+names of them among the Gentiles, and they have been derived,
+with altered denomination, from the energy of the maternal
+angels.  When he seemed to have vanquished his antagonists,
+Omphale (now she is Venus) clings to him and entices away
+Hercules, and divests him of his power, viz.:  the commands of
+Baruch which Elohim issued.  And in place of this power Babel, or
+Venus, envelops him in her own peculiar robe, that is, in the
+power of Edem, who is the power below; and in this way the
+prophecy of Hercules remained unfulfilled and his work."
+
+As men were still bound by the power of Edem, or the Devil, in
+the days of Herod the king, Baruch was again dispatched by
+Elohim, and coming to Nazareth delivered his message to Jesus,
+son of Joseph and Mary.  Nass, who, as we have seen, was the evil
+spirit in Edem, wished to entice away Jesus also.  He was not,
+however, disposed to listen but remained faithful to Baruch.
+Naas, overcome by anger at not being able to seduce him, caused
+him to be crucified.
+
+"He, leaving the body of Edem on the accursed tree, ascended to
+the Good One; saying to Edem, 'Woman, thou retainest thy Son,'
+that is, the natural and the earthly man.  But Jesus himself
+commending his spirit into the hands of the Father, ascended to
+the Good One.  Now the Good One is Priapus, and he it is who
+antecedently caused the production of everything that exists.  On
+this account he is styled Priapus, because he previously
+fashioned all things according to his design.  For this reason,
+he says, in every temple is preserved his statue, which is
+revered by every creature; and there are images of him in the
+highways carrying over his head ripened fruits, that is, the
+produce of the creation, of which he is the cause, having in the
+first instance formed, according to his design, the creation,
+when as yet it had no existence."[147]
+
+[147] Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, book v., p. 188.
+
+
+Thus the fact is observed not only that in the time of Paul,
+phallic worship still existed, but by the writings of Justinus
+and others is shown the manner in which the doctrine that woman
+is the cause of evil in the world became formulated and adopted
+as part and parcel of the Christian belief.
+
+Staniland Wake, director of the anthropological society of
+London, when commenting on the obscene myths upon which the
+Christian religion rests, remarks:
+
+"The fundamental basis of Christianity is more purely phallic
+than that of any other religion now existing, and its emotional
+nature .  .  .  shows how intimately it was related to the older
+faiths which had a phallic basis."
+
+After stating that the myth of creation and that of the flood
+have their exact counterpart in India, the Rev. Mr. Faber
+remarks that "there is no rite or ceremony directed in the
+Pentateuch of which there is not an exact copy in the rites of
+the pagans."
+
+The Christian doctrines as established by Paul, and afterwards
+formulated into a system by the Romish Church, were adopted by
+the ignorant multitude who, being incapable of understanding the
+higher principles involved, accepted the allegories beneath which
+were veiled the ancient mysteries literally, and as the highest
+expression of divine wisdom.  Hence the comparatively recent
+observation that the "new religion was eventually but the
+gathering in of the superstitions of paganism" is a matter of
+little surprise to those who have carefully examined the facts
+connected with the growth of religious faith.
+
+Under the new regime Christ became the New Solar Deity and round
+him were finally ranged all the myths of Solo-phallic worship
+which had prevailed under the adoration of Crishna at a time when
+the higher truths underlying pure Nature-worship had been
+forgotten.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CHRISTIANITY IN IRELAND.
+
+According to the accounts in the New Testament, the wise men of
+the East, meaning Persia, had foretold the coming of Christ.  The
+fulfilment of the ancient Persian prophecy as applied to Jesus,
+together with the reference to the "star" which the Maji saw, and
+which went before them till it came and stood over where the
+young child lay, furnishes a striking illustration of the manner
+in which Eastern legends and ancient sacred writings are
+interwoven with the doctrines relating to Christianity.
+
+In the sacred books of the East it is prophesied that "after
+three thousand and one hundred years of the Caligula are elapsed,
+will appear King Saca to remove wretchedness from the world."  We
+have seen that at the birth of Christ the time had arrived for a
+new solar incarnation.
+
+Regarding the introduction of Christianity into Ireland it is
+claimed by certain writers that the Irish did not receive the
+"new religion" from Greek missionaries; but when at the close of
+the cycle, a new solar deity, an avatar of Vishnu or Crishna was
+announced, and when missionaries from the East proclaimed the
+glad tidings of a risen Savior, the Irish people gladly accepted
+their teachings, not, however, as a new system, but as the
+fulfilment to them of the prophecy of the most ancient seers of
+the East, and as part and parcel of the religion of their
+forefathers.  Therefore when the devotees of the Romish faith,
+probably about the close of the fifth century of the Christian
+era, attempted to "convert" Ireland, they found a religion
+differing from their own only in the fact that it was not subject
+to Rome, and was free from the many corruptions and superstitions
+which through the extreme ignorance and misapprehension of its
+Western adherents had been engrafted upon it.
+
+Concerning the form of religious worship in Great Britain, and
+the fact that phallic worship prevailed there, Forlong writes:
+"The generality of our countrymen have no conception of the
+overruling prevalence of this faith, and the number of its
+lingham gods throughout our Islands."  These symbols were always
+in the form of an obelisk or tower, thereby indicating the
+worship of the male energy.  Although emblems of the female
+element in the deity were present, they were less pronounced and
+of far less importance than those of the male.
+
+These monuments were erected on knolls, at crossroads and centers
+of marts or villages, and were placed on platforms which were
+usually raised from five to seven steps.  A few years ago the
+shires of Gloucester, Wilts, and Somerset still claimed over two
+hundred of these crosses, though all of them were not at that
+time in a perfect state of preservation.
+
+It would seem that in Britain and Ireland the seed of the "new"
+doctrine, that which involved a recognition of the mother element
+in the god-idea, had fallen on more congenial soil, for within
+three centuries after the birth of Christ, the various original
+monuments typifying the male principle had all been ornamented
+with the symbols representing the female in the deity.  The
+ancient religious structures of the Lingaites still continued as
+recognized faith shrines, changed only by the emblems of the new
+religion which had been engrafted upon them.
+
+The earliest Greek and Roman missionaries knew full well the
+significance of these symbols, and we are given to understand
+that "a few of the more spiritual of the Christian sects made war
+upon them and all their ephemeral substitutes, such as Maypoles,
+holy-trees, real crosses, etc."  It is declared also that, as
+"later" Christians were unacquainted with the significance of
+these emblems, "they adopted them as their own, employing them as
+the mystic signs of their own faith."
+
+Although the earliest Greek and Roman missionaries understood the
+signification of these faith shrines, the complaints against them
+seem soon to have ceased, and the "fierce wars" waged over them
+appear to have left little trace of their ravages, except that
+the female emblems with which these monuments had been supplied
+by those who had received the new faith direct from the East,
+were all removed.  As the male monuments and symbols were all
+permitted to remain undisturbed, this fact of itself would seem
+to indicate that the "pagan abominations" against which these
+pious devotees of a "spiritual religion" thundered their
+denunciations, included only the female emblems.
+
+The fact must be borne in mind that the Western Church, which was
+rapidly usurping the ecclesiastical authority of Britain and
+Ireland, had not itself at this time adopted the worship of the
+Virgin Mary.
+
+A set of iconoclastic monks whom the Christian world is pleased
+to designate as St.  Patrick, and who probably early in the fifth
+century of our era amused themselves by chiseling from the Irish
+monuments many of the symbols of the female power, removed also
+the figures of serpents which had for ages appeared in connection
+with the emblems of woman, and by this act won the plaudits of an
+admiring Christian world; chiefly, however, for the skill
+manifested in "banishing snakes from Ireland."  In addition to
+this dignified amusement, we find that the same person or set of
+persons ordered to be burned hundreds of volumes of the choicest
+Irish literature, volumes which contained the annals of the
+ancient Irish nation, and in which, it is believed, was stored
+much actual information concerning the remote antiquity of the
+human race.
+
+The extent to which the worship of the male emblems of generation
+prevailed in the Christian Church even as late as the 16th
+century, proves that it was not the particular symbols connected
+with the worship of fertility upon which the Western Christian
+missionaries made war, but, on the contrary, that it was the
+recognition by them of that detested female element against
+which, even before the erection of the Tower of Babel, there had
+been almost a constant warfare.  The rites of Potin, or Photin,
+Bishop of Lyons, who was honored in Provence, Languedoc and the
+Lyonais as St. Fontin, also the rites performed in many of the
+Christian Churches as late as the 16th century, prove that the
+devotees of the Christian system were not at this time a whit
+behind their Pagan predecessors in their zeal for "heathen
+abominations."  The only difference being that the Druids, a
+people who still retained a faint conception of ancient Nature
+worship, had not become entirely divested of the purer ideas
+which in an earlier age of the race had constituted a creative
+force.
+
+That the war of the sexes was revived, and that for many
+centuries much strife was engendered over the exact importance
+which should be ascribed to the female element in the Deity may
+not be doubted.
+
+An ancient homily on Trinity Sunday has the following: "At the
+deth of a manne, three bells should be ronge as his kuyl in
+worship of the Trinitie, and for a woman, who was the Second
+Person of the Trinitie two bells should be ronge."  Upon this
+subject Hargrave Jennings remarks: "Here we have the source of
+the emblematic difficulty among the master masons who constructed
+the earlier cathedrals, as to the addition, and as to the precise
+value of the second (or feminine) tower of the Western end or
+Galilee of the Church."[148]
+
+[148] Rosicrucians, vol. i., p. 206.
+
+
+The fact that the religion of the ancient Irish, who, were
+phallic worshippers, was modified but not radically changed by
+the introduction of Christianity, is believed by at least one of
+the Irish historians of that country.  He says:
+
+"The church festivals themselves, in our Christian calendar, are
+but the direct transfers from the Tuath-de-danaans' ritual. 
+Their very names in Irish are identically the same as those by
+which they were distinguished by that early race.  If, therefore,
+surprise has heretofore been excited at the conformity observable
+between our church institutions and those of the East, let it in
+future subside at the explicit announcement that Christianity,
+with us, was the revival of a religion imported amongst us many
+ages before by the Tuath-de-danaans from the East, and not from
+any chimerical inundation of Greek missionaries--a revival upon
+which their hearts were lovingly riveted, and which Fiech, the
+Bishop of Sletty, unconsciously registers in the following
+couplet, viz.:
+
+          "The Buddhists of Irin prophesied
+           That new times of peace would come."[149]
+
+[149] The Round Towers of Ireland, p. 493.
+
+
+The conditions surrounding the ancient inhabitants of the "White
+Island," or Ireland, a remnant of which people may be observed in
+the Highlanders of Scotland, furnish an example of the fact that
+a much higher standard of life had been preserved among them than
+is known to have prevailed either among the Jews or the Greeks. 
+The comparatively advanced stage of progress which is now known
+to have existed in Ireland at the beginning of the present era,
+which even the bigotry and falsehood of Roman priestcraft have
+not been able wholly to conceal, is seen to have been a somewhat
+corrupted remnant of a civilization which followed closely on
+ancient Nature worship.[150]
+
+[150] It is thought by certain writers that when the Tuath-de-
+danaans emigrated from Persia to the "White Island" they found it
+inhabited by the Fir-Bolgs, a colony of Celts.  After conquering
+the island they engrafted upon it the religion, laws, learning
+and culture of the mother country.  In a later age the Scythians,
+whose religion was similar to that of the Fir-Bolgs, united with
+them and succeeded in making themselves masters of the situation.
+
+Hence the intermingling of races and tongues among the ancient
+Irish.  The Druids adopted, or appropriated, the religion and
+culture of the Tuath-de-danaans, who, it is claimed, were the
+real Hibernians.  The Scythians changed the name of Irin to
+Scotia--the latter being retained until the 11th century. 
+According to the annals of the ancient Irish, Scotland was
+formerly called Scotia Minor to distinguish it from Scotia Major,
+or Ireland.
+
+
+Because of their isolated position, or for some cause at present
+unknown, these people do not seem to have degenerated into a
+nation of sensualists.  It is true they had departed a long
+distance from the early conditions of mankind under which
+altruism and the abstract principle of Light or Wisdom were
+worshipped under the form of a Virgin Mother and her child, but
+they never wholly rejected the female element in their god-idea,
+nor never, so far as known, attempted to degrade womanhood. 
+Women were numbered among their legislators, at the same time
+that they officiated as educators and priestesses.  In fact
+wherever the Druidical order prevailed women exerted a powerful
+influence in all departments of human activity.  Among the
+Germans, Valleda, a Druidess, was for ages worshipped as a deity.
+
+It is recorded that St. Bridget planted a monastery for women at
+Kildare and entrusted to its inmates the keeping of the sacred
+fire, and that in later times the Asiatic missionaries founded
+there a female monkish order.  After the establishment of Western
+Christianity, however, no woman was permitted to enter into the
+monasteries, and we are assured that this ridiculous affectation
+of purity was extended even to the grave.  During the earlier
+ages of Christianity, in many portions of Ireland there were
+cemeteries for men and women distinct from each other.  "It had
+been a breach of chastity for monks and nuns to be interred
+within the same enclosure.  They should fly from temptations
+which they could not resist."
+
+Although volumes have been written to prove that Christianity was
+carried to Britain by Paul, and although the energies of scores
+of Romish writers have been employed in attempting to prove that
+Ireland was in heathen darkness prior to its conversion by the
+priests of the Romish Church, yet these efforts so vigorously put
+forward seem only to strengthen the evidence going to show that
+the Christianity of the British Isles antedates that of either
+Paul or Rome.
+
+According to Scripture, Claudia, the wife of the Senator Pudens
+of Britain, was a Christian,[151] as was also Graecina, the wife
+of Plautus, who was governor of Britain in the first century. 
+The latter, it is related, was accused before the Roman senate of
+"practicing some foreign superstition."  Although Lingard, in his
+History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, has endeavored
+to annul the force of the evidence which places two Christian
+women from Britain in Rome during the first century of our era,
+he is nevertheless constrained to use the following language: "We
+are, indeed, told that history has preserved the names of two
+British females, Claudia and Pomponia Graecina, both of them
+Christians, and both living in the first century of our
+era."[152]
+
+[151] 2 Timothy, iv., 21.
+
+[152] Vol. i., p. 1.
+
+
+
+According to the Romanists, between the years 177-181 of the
+Christian era, a British king named Lucius sent a messenger to
+the authorities at Rome, with a request that he with his people
+be admitted into the bosom of the "Holy Catholic Church."  By
+those not prejudiced in favor of the Romish hierarchy, this bit
+of amusing "evidence" shows the anxiety manifested lest the facts
+concerning the religious history of the British Isles become
+known.  Regarding this embassy of King Lucius there is an extant
+version which is far more in accordance with reason and with the
+known facts concerning this people.
+
+When we remember the advanced stage of civilization which existed
+in Ireland prior to the Christian era, and when we bear in mind
+the fact that, as in the case of Abarras mentioned by various
+Greek writers, the people of the British Isles were wont to send
+emissaries abroad for the sole purpose of gathering information
+relative to foreign laws, customs, usages, manners, and modes of
+instruction, we are not surprised to learn that the message to
+Rome sent by Lucius, instead of containing a request for
+admission to a foreign church, embodied an enquiry into the
+fundamental principles underlying Roman jurisprudence; and
+especially does this appear reasonable when we remember that the
+remodeling of the Roman code on principles of equity and justice
+had for several centuries employed the energies of the best minds
+in Rome.
+
+Concerning the planting of Christianity in Ireland, we have the
+following from Ledwich:
+
+"Thus Bishop Lawrence in Bede tells us Pope Gregory sent him and
+Austin to preach the Gospel in Britain, as if it never before had
+been heard, whereas the latter met seven British Bishops who
+nobly opposed him.  In like manner Pope Adrian commissioned Henry
+II.  to enlarge the bounds of the church, and plant the faith in
+Ireland, when it had already been evangelized for eight hundred
+years.  The faith to be planted was blind submission to Rome and
+the annual payment of Peter's pence."[153]
+
+[153] Antiquities of Ireland, p. 78.
+
+
+Of the exact time at which Romish and Greek missionaries first
+went to Ireland we are not informed, but there is ample evidence
+going to prove that a regular hierarchy had been established in
+that island before the beginning of the fifth century, and that
+this religion which had been brought in through the efforts of
+missionaries from the East was, by the legendary writers of the
+later Christian Church, ascribed to Romish monks.
+
+The Jealousy of the Romish priests, and the means employed by
+them to usurp the ecclesiastical authority of the Irish people,
+is shown in the history of their councils.  The 5th canon of the
+Council of Ceale-hythe requires
+
+"that none of Irish extraction be permitted to usurp to himself
+the sacred ministry in any one's diocese, nor let it be allowed
+such an one to touch anything which belongs to those of the holy
+order.  .  .  .; neither must he administer the eucharist to the
+people because we are not certain how or by whom he was
+ordained."
+
+After quoting the above Ledwich queries thus: If St.  Patrick had
+been a missionary of the Romish Church, would the Anglo-Saxon
+clergy have abjured the spiritual children of that see? In the
+year 670 Theodoret, Archbishop of Canterbury, decreed that they
+who were consecrated by Irish or British Bishops should be
+confirmed anew by Catholic ones.[154]
+
+[154] Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland, p. 81.
+
+
+It is observed that as early as the fourth century A.D. there
+were three hundred bishops in Ireland, and to account for so
+large a number, it is declared that ignorant legendary writers
+had recourse to the fable of St. Patrick.
+
+The remarkable "conversion" of the Irish to Romish Christianity,
+which it is said took place in the latter part of the fourth
+century or the beginning of the fifth, is to be explained by the
+fact that a number of Romish priests or monks which in later ages
+came to be designated as St. Patrick, claimed all the
+monasteries, bishops, and priests already there as a result of
+the remarkable power and pious zeal of this miracle-working
+saint.  It is claimed that St. Patrick founded over three
+thousand monasteries, consecrated three hundred bishops, and
+ordained three thousand priests.
+
+According to Ledwich and other writers, this St.  Patrick was not
+heard of earlier than the ninth century A.D., and the legend
+concerning him "was not accepted until the twelfth century, at
+which time his miracles are set forth with great gusto."
+
+Nothing, perhaps, which is recorded of this monk will go farther
+toward proving him a myth than the miracles ascribed to his
+saintship.
+
+While yet an infant he raised the dead, brought forth fire from
+ice, expelled a devil from a heifer, caused a new river to appear
+from the earth, and changed water into honey.
+
+"These were but the infant sports of this wonder-working saint. 
+The miracles recorded in holy writ, even that of creation itself,
+are paralleled, and, if possible, surpassed by those of our
+spiritual hero."[155]
+
+[155] Ledwich, Antiquities of Ireland.
+
+
+Concerning St. Patrick, Forlong writes:
+
+"Various Patricks followed from Britain and Armorika, but even
+the Catholic priest, J. F. Shearman, writes that he is forced to
+give up the idea that there ever was a real St. Patrick.  Thus
+the name must be accepted only in its Fatherly sense, and with
+the fall of the man Patrick all the miraculous and sudden
+conversions of the kings, lords, and commons of Ireland must
+vanish."[156]
+
+[156] Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 417.
+
+
+The Irish Church bishoprics differed from the Romish in that they
+were held by hereditary succession, after the custom of ancient
+nations.  All bishops were married.
+
+Prior to the introduction of the Christian system in Ireland the
+Sabian ceremonial had been succeeded by the Druidical, upon which
+had been engrafted that of the Culdees, and notwithstanding the
+fact that the Romish Church gradually usurped the ecclesiastical
+functions in Ireland, the last named people who for ages had been
+regarded as the depositaries of the ancient faith and the ancient
+system of laws, were highly respected by the people for their
+sanctity and learning.  Many of the Greek and Roman writers who
+have dealt with this subject agree in ascribing to the Druids a
+high degree of scientific knowledge and mechanical skill.  The
+principles of justice set forth in their judicial system, their
+love of learning, and the standard attained in the sciences and
+arts, prove the early people of Ireland to have been equal if not
+superior to any of the early historic nations.
+
+In referring to the number and magnitude of the monumental
+remains in Ireland, and while commenting on the mechanical skill
+of the Druids, the Rev. Smedley says:
+
+"I was present at the erection of the Luxor Obelisk in Paris, and
+yet I think that I would have felt greater emotion if I had
+witnessed the successful performance of the old Celtic engineer
+who placed on its three pedestals of stone the enormous rock
+which constitutes the Druidical altar here at Castle May."
+
+It is believed that this people understood the art of mining and
+that they were acquainted with the use of iron.  The following is
+an extract from one of Hamilton's letters on the Antrim coast:
+
+"About the year 1770 the miners, in pushing forward an adit
+toward the bed of coal, at an unexplored part of the Ballycastle
+cliff, unexpectedly broke through the rock into a narrow passage,
+so much contracted and choked up with various drippings and
+deposits on its sides and bottom, as rendered it impossible for
+any of the workmen to force through, that they might examine it
+farther.  Two lads were, therefore, made to creep in with
+candles, for the purpose of exploring this subterranean avenue. 
+They accordingly pressed forward for a considerable time, with
+much labor and difficulty, and at length entered into an
+extensive labyrinth branching off into numerous apartments, in
+the mazes and windings of which they were completely bewildered
+and lost.  After various vain attempts to return, their lights
+were extinguished, their voices became hoarse, and, becoming
+wearied and spiritless, they sat down together, in utter despair
+of an escape from this miserable dungeon.  In the meanwhile, the
+workmen in the adit became alarmed for their safety, fresh hands
+were incessantly employed, and, in the course of twenty-four
+hours, the passage was so open as to admit the most active among
+the miners .  .  .  On examining this subterranean wonder, it was
+found to be a complete gallery, which had been driven forward
+many hundred yards to the bed of coal: that it branched off into
+numerous chambers, where miners had carried on their different
+works: that these chambers were dressed in a workmanlike manner:
+that pillars were left at proper intervals to support the roof. 
+In short it was found to be an extensive mine, wrought by people
+at least as expert in the business as the present generation. 
+Some remains of the tools, and even of the baskets used in the
+works, were discovered, but in such a decayed state that, on
+being touched, they immediately crumbled to pieces.  From the
+remains which were found, there is reason to believe that the
+people who wrought these collieries anciently, were acquainted
+with the use of iron, some small pieces of which were found; it
+appeared as if some of their instruments had been thinly shod
+with that metal."
+
+Through various means the fact has been ascertained that although
+in the sixth century the buildings in Ireland were mean and
+wholly without artistic merit or skilful design, in an earlier
+age they were magnificent.  Of the causes which produced the
+decay of architecture, the extinction of the arts and sciences,
+and the general degradation of the people of this island the
+devotees of St. Paul and of the Romish Church are alike silent.
+
+For ages after the subjection of Ireland, in open defiance of the
+English, the people continued to dispense justice, and to enforce
+the old Brehon laws of the country.
+
+The lack of regard shown for English law in Ireland, even as late
+as the sixteenth century, is set forth by Baron Fingles, who
+wrote in the time of Henry VIII.  He says:
+
+"It is a great abuse and reproach that the laws and statutes made
+in this land are not observed nor kept after the making of them
+eight days, while diverse Irishmen cloth abuse and keep such laws
+and statutes which they make upon hills in this country, firm and
+stable, without breaking them for any favor or reward."
+
+By a statute of Parliament enacted at Kilkenny, it was made high
+treason to administer or observe these old Brehon laws.  The two
+enactments especially obnoxious to the English were Gahail Cinne,
+and Eiric.  The former of these enactments was that which in
+opposition to the English law of primogeniture declared that the
+estate of a parent should descend in equal proportion to all
+members of the family.  There was another law, or custom, among
+this people, which provided that the chief of the tribe or people
+should be elected by general suffrage.
+
+We have something more than a hint of the condition of ancient
+Ireland and its people in a description given by the Greeks of
+one of its inhabitants.  Abarras, who visited Greece about six
+hundred years before Christ, and who was called by the Greeks a
+Hyperborean, was a priest of the Sun, who went abroad for the
+purpose of study and observation, and to renew by his presence
+and his gifts the old friendship which had long existed between
+the Celts and the Greeks.  Strabo remarks concerning Abarras that
+he was much admired by the learned men of Greece.  Himerius says
+of him that he came
+
+"not clad in skins like a Scythian, but with a bow in his hand,
+and a quiver on his shoulders and a plaid wrapped about his body,
+a gilded belt encircled his loins, and trousers reaching from his
+waist downward to the soles of his feet.  He was easy in his
+address, agreeable in conversation, active in dispatch and secret
+in the management of great affairs; quick in judging of present
+occurrences, and ready to take his part in any sudden emergency;
+provident, withal, in guarding against futurity; diligent in
+quest of wisdom, fond of friendship; trusting very little to
+fortune; yet having the entire confidence of others, and trusted
+with everything for his prudence.  He spoke Greek with so much
+fluency that you would have thought that he had been bred or
+brought up in the Lyceum and had conversed all his life with the
+Academy of Athens.  He had frequent intercourse with Pythagoras
+whom he astonished by the variety and extent of his knowledge."
+
+From the descriptions given of the native country of Abarras by
+the Greeks, it is evident that it could have been none other than
+Ireland.
+
+Although at this time in their history, Apollo the sun-god was
+the Deity worshipped in Greece and in Ireland, still both nations
+honored Latona his mother.  The same as in the mother country
+(Persia, or Phoenicia), the oracles, or sybils of Ireland, had
+prophesied a "Savior," and three hundred years before Greek
+emissaries visited that country, its people, through the
+preaching of Eastern missionaries, had substituted for the
+worship of Latona and Apollo that of the new solar
+incarnation--the third son of Zarathustra, whose appearance had
+been heralded by a star.
+
+The identity of the symbols used by the early people of Ireland
+who were sun worshippers, and those employed in that country for
+ages after the Romish Church had usurped the ecclesiastical
+authority, has been a subject for much comment.  After describing
+the peculiar form of the early Christian Churches and the
+attention paid to the placing of the windows which were to admit
+the sun's rays, Smedley says: "It is possible, in an age of
+allegory and figures, this combination and variety expressed some
+sacred meaning with which we are unacquainted at present."
+
+The similarity observed in the sacred festivals and religious
+seasons of the ancient inhabitants of Ireland and those of the
+early Christians, the extent to which large stone crosses,
+lighted candles, the yule log and the various other symbols
+belonging to fertility, or sun worship, were retained by
+Christianity, furnish strong evidence of the fact that the latter
+system is but part and parcel of the former.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+STONES OR COLUMNS AS THE DEITY.
+
+"Throughout all the world, the first object of idolatry seems to
+have been a plain unwrought stone, placed in the ground as an
+emblem of the generative or procreative powers of Nature."[157]
+
+[157] Celtic Druids, ch. vi., p. 209.
+
+
+In the language of symbolism the upright stone prefigures either
+a man, reproductive energy, or a god, all of which at a certain
+stage in the human career had come to mean one and the same
+thing; namely, the Creator.
+
+In the earlier ages of male worship, upright stones as emblems of
+the Deity were plain unwrought shafts, but in process of time
+they began to be carved into the form of a man--a man who usually
+represented the ruler or chief of the people, and who, as he was
+the source of all power and wisdom, was supposed by the ignorant
+masses to be an incarnation of the sun.  Thus arose the spiritual
+power of monarchs, or the "divine right of kings."
+
+Wherever obelisks, columns, pillars, attenuated spires, upright
+stones or crosses at the intersection of roads are found, they
+always appear as sacred monuments, or as symbols of the Lingham
+god.
+
+The Chaldean Tower of which there are extant traditions in Mexico
+and in the South Sea Islands; the Round Towers of Ireland; the
+remarkable group of stones known as Stonehenge, in England; the
+wonderful circle at Abury through which the figure of a huge
+serpent was passed; the monuments which throughout the nations of
+the East were set up at the intersection of roads in the center
+of market- places, and the bowing stones employed as oracles in
+various portions of the world, have all the same signification,
+and proclaim the peculiar religion of the people who worshipped
+them.
+
+Whether as among the Jews in Egypt, a pillar is set up as a
+"sign" and a "witness" to the Lord, or whether as with the
+Mohammedans these figures appear as minarets with egg shaped
+summits, or as among the Irish they stand forth as stately towers
+defying time and the elements, or as among the Christians they
+appear as the steeple which points towards heaven, the symbol
+remains, and the original significance is the same.
+
+The Lord of the Israelites who was wont to manifest himself to
+his chosen people in a "pillar of smoke by day" and a "pillar of
+fire by night" is said to be none other than a reproductive
+emblem, as was also the "Lord" which "reposed in the ark of the
+covenant."  Monuments set up to symbolize the religion of the
+Parsees or fire-worshippers after they had succumbed to the
+pressure brought to bear upon them by the adorers of the male
+principle were each and all of them, like their great prototype
+the tower of Babel, typical of the universal creative power which
+was worshipped as male.
+
+Notwithstanding the fact that the male energy had come to be
+recognized as the principal factor in reproduction, it is
+observed that wherever these monuments or other symbols of
+fertility appear, there is always to be found in close connection
+with them certain emblems symbolical of the female power; thus
+showing that although the people by whom they were erected had
+become worshippers of the masculine principle, and although they
+had persuaded themselves that it was the more important element
+in the deity, they had not become so regardless of the truths of
+Nature as to attempt to construct a Creator independently of its
+most essential factor.
+
+Protestant Christianity, probably the most intensely masculine of
+all religious schemes which have claimed the attention of man,
+has not wittingly retained any of the detested female emblems,
+yet so deeply has the older symbolism taken root, that even in
+the architecture of the modern Protestant church with its
+ark-shaped nave and its window toward the rising sun, may be
+detected the remnants of that early worship which the devotees of
+this more recently developed form of religious faith so piously
+ignore.
+
+The large number of upright columns, circles of stone, cromlechs
+and cairns still extant in the British Isles, bears testimony to
+the peculiar character of the religious worship which once
+prevailed in them.  Of these shrines perhaps none is more
+remarkable than that of Stonehenge, in England.  Although during
+the numberless ages which have passed since this temple was
+erected many of the stones have fallen from their original
+places, still by the light of more recently established facts
+concerning religious symbolism, it has been possible, even under
+its present condition of decay, for scholars to unravel the
+hitherto mysterious significance of this remarkable structure. 
+Stonehenge is composed of four circles of mammoth upright shafts
+twenty feet high, the one circle within the other, with immense
+stones placed across them like architraves.
+
+In ancient symbolism the circle was the emblem of eternity, or of
+the eternal female principle.  Mountains were also sacred to the
+gods.  It has been said that a ring of mountains gave rise to
+these circular temples.  Faber assures us that a circular stone
+temple was called the circle of the world or the circle of the
+ark, that it represented at once the inclosure of the Noetic
+Ship; the egg from which creation was produced; the earth, and
+the zodiacal circle of the universe in which the sun performs its
+annual revolutions through the signs.  Stonehenge is said to be
+the temple of the water god Noah, who, as we have seen, was first
+worshipped as half woman and half fish or serpent, but who
+finally came to be regarded as a man serpent (or fish) Deity.
+
+On approaching Stonehenge from the Northeast, the first object
+which engages the attention is a rude boulder, sixteen feet high,
+in a leaning posture.  This stone has been named the Friar's
+Heel, but until recently its signification has been wholly
+unknown.
+
+Regarding the upright shaft which stands sentinel over the
+mysterious circles of mammoth stones called Stonehenge, Forlong
+says that it is no Friar's Heel, but an emblem of fertility
+dedicated to the Friday divinity.  It is represented as the
+"Genius of Fire," not the genius of ordinary fire, "but of the
+super-sensual Divinity, celestial fire."
+
+Regarding these remarkable stones to which the Lingham god is a
+mere introduction, Forlong says:
+
+"No one who has studied phallic and solar worship in the East
+could make any mistake as to the purport of the shrine at
+Stonehenge .  .  .  yet the indelicacy of the whole subject often
+so shocks the ordinary reader, that, in spite of facts, he cannot
+grant what he thinks shows so much debasement of the religious
+mind; facts are facts, however, and it only remains for us to
+account for them.  Perhaps indeed in these later times an
+artificial and lower phase of sensuality has taken the place of
+the more natural indulgence of the passions, for procreative
+purposes, which principally engrossed the thoughts of early
+worshippers."[158]
+
+[158] Rivers of Life, vol. ii., p. 233.
+
+
+Higgins is of the opinion that Stonehenge is the work of the same
+era with the caves of India, the pyramids of Egypt, and the
+stupendous monument at Carnac--a structure which, it is claimed,
+must have required for its construction an amount of labor equal
+to that of the pyramids.
+
+Undoubtedly there has never been a religious shrine which has
+excited more curiosity than has Abury, of which, unfortunately,
+nothing now remains, although in the early part of the eighteenth
+century enough had been preserved to prove the identity of its
+signification with other ancient religious monuments both in the
+British Isles and in the countries of the East.  Perhaps there is
+no way by which this shrine can be better understood than by
+quoting the exact language of those who have written upon the
+subject.  Especially is this true concerning the testimony of
+those who, after personal investigation, have given to the public
+the results of their research.
+
+In the History of Wiltshisre, published by Sir R. Colt Hoare,
+Bart., appears the following from Dr. Stukeley:
+
+"The situation of Abury is finely chosen for the purpose it was
+destined to, being the more elevated part of a plain, from whence
+there is almost an imperceptible descent every way.  But as the
+religious work in Abury, though great in itself, is but a part of
+the whole (the avenues stretching above a mile from it each way),
+the situation of the whole design is projected with great
+judgment, in a kind of large, separate plain, four or five miles
+in diameter.  Into this you descend on all sides from higher
+ground.  The whole Temple of Abury may be considered as a
+picture, and it really is so.  Therefore the founders wisely
+contrived that a spectator have an advantageous prospect of it as
+he appeared within view.  When I frequented this place, which I
+did for some years together, to take an exact account of it,
+staying a fortnight at a time, I found out the entire work by
+degrees.  The second time I was here, an avenue was a new
+amusement; the third year another.  So that at length I
+discovered the mystery of it, properly speaking, which was, that
+the whole figure represented a snake transmitted through a
+circle.  This is an hieroglyphic or symbol of highest note and
+antiquity.
+
+"In order to put this design in execution, the founders well
+studied their ground; and to make their representation more
+natural, they artfully carried it over a variety of elevations
+and depressions, which, with the curvature of the avenues,
+produces sufficiently the desired effect.  To make it still more
+elegant and picture-like, the head of the snake is carried up the
+southern promontory of Hackpen Hill, toward the village of West
+Kennet; nay, the very name of the hill is derived from the
+circumstance.  .  .  .  Thus our antiquity divides itself into
+three great parts, which will be our rule in describing this
+work.  The circle at Abury, the forepart of the snake leading
+toward Kennet, which I call Kennet Avenue; the hinder part of the
+snake leading toward Beckhampton, which I call Beckhampton
+Avenue; for they may be well looked on as avenues to the great
+temple at Abury, which part must be most eminently called the
+Temple.
+
+"The plan on which Abury was built, is that sacred hierogram of
+the Egyptians and other ancient nations, the circle and snake. 
+The whole figure is the circle, snake, and wings.  By this they
+meant to picture out, as well as they could, the nature of the
+Divinity."
+
+The temple which represents the body of the snake is formed by a
+circular agger of earth having its ditch withinside.  As this is
+contrary to the mode adopted in works of defence, it is thought
+to prove the religious character of Abury.  In a description
+given of this shrine by Higgins is the following:
+
+"These ramparts inclose an area of 1400 feet in diameter, which
+on the edge nearest the ditch was set round with a row of rough,
+unhewn stones, and in the center was ornamented with two circular
+temples, composed of the same native stones."[159]
+
+[159] Celtic Druids.  Description of plates, p. xx.
+
+
+The space of ground included within the vellum has been estimated
+at twenty-two acres, and the outward circumvallation was computed
+at 4800 feet.  The number of stones that formed this outer circle
+was originally one hundred, of which, in the year 1722, there
+were eighteen standing, and twenty-seven thrown down.
+
+In the village of Rudstone in Yorkshire there stands a huge
+stone, the significance of which, at the present time, is by
+scholars clearly understood.  Its depth below the surface of the
+ground is said to be equal to its height above, which is
+twenty-four feet.  It is five feet ten inches broad, and two feet
+thick, its weight being upwards of forty tons.[160]
+
+[160] See Rivers of Life.
+
+
+The gigantic rocking stones found in nearly every quarter of the
+globe are now known to be religious monuments of remote
+antiquity.  Not long ago I saw a description of one of these
+oracles in Buenos-Ayres, South America, and a few months later
+there appeared the following account of a similar stone found in
+Sullivan Co., N. Y.:
+
+"At first sight it would scarcely attract attention, but a closer
+observation reveals the remarkable position which it occupies. 
+The total weight of the immense boulder has been variously
+estimated at from forty to fifty tons, and its bulk at from 500
+to 700 cubic feet.  It is almost perfectly round, much resembling
+a huge orange, and so nicely balanced on a table of stone as to
+be easily set in motion by a single man, providing the operator
+exerts his strength on the north or south sides.  On either of
+the other sides the combined strength of forty elephants would
+not be sufficient to cause the least oscillation.  Although it is
+easily rocked, we are assured that as many men as could surround
+it would be unable to dislodge it from the pivot on which it
+rests."[161]
+
+[161] The St. Louis (Mo.) Republican.
+
+
+The writer of the above, who was evidently ignorant of the extent
+to which these monuments are scattered over the earth, seemed to
+regard it as a singular freak of Nature with no significance
+other than that of a natural curiosity.
+
+The round towers of Ireland, over the origin of which there has
+in the past been so much controversy, are now pretty generally
+admitted to be analogous in their use and design to Stonehenge,
+Abury, and other extant monolithic structures.
+
+Many writers have endeavored to prove that these towers were
+belfries used in connection with Christian churches; others that
+they were purgatorial columns or penitential heights, similar in
+design to the pillar of St. Simeon Stylites.  Others again have
+argued that they were used as beacons and others that they were
+intended simply as receptacles for the sacred fire known to have
+formerly been in use in the British Isles.  Although numberless
+arguments have been brought forward to refute these theories, it
+is thought that the expensive architecture alone of the elegant
+and stately columns known as Round Towers contradicts all these
+"guesses," and that their grandeur and almost absolute
+indestructibility proclaim for them a different origin from that
+of the lowly and miserable huts which in a later age were erected
+beside them for purposes of worship by the Romish Christians. 
+The same objection is made also against the theory that these
+monuments were erected in memory of the several defeats of the
+Danes.  As an answer to the argument that they were erected by
+the Danes to celebrate their victories, it is declared that such
+is the character of the hieroglyphics upon them as to make this
+theory worthless.  Besides, throughout the country of the Danes
+and Ostmen, there is nowhere to be found an example of
+architectural splendor such as is displayed in the construction
+of these columns.  In the north of Scotland was one of these
+monuments upon which were depicted war-like scenes, horses and
+their riders, warriors brandishing their weapons, and troops
+shouting for victory, while on the other side was a sumptuous
+cross, beneath which were two figures, the one evidently female,
+the other male.
+
+In Cordiner's Antiquities of Scotland is a description of an
+elaborately carved obelisk.  On one side of this column appears a
+mammoth cross, and underneath it are figures of uncouth animals. 
+Among these carvings are to be seen the Bulbul of Iran, the Boar
+of Vishnu, the elk, the fox, the lamb, and a number of dancing
+human figures.  In fact all the configurations are not only in
+their nature and import essentially Eastern, but are actually the
+symbols of the various animal forms under which "the people of
+the East contemplated the properties of the Godhead."
+
+Carnac, in upper Egypt, is a monolith of the same symbolic
+character.  It is hewn from a solid block of black granite and is
+eighty feet high.
+
+Henry O'Brien, a cultured Irishman, who when in London became, in
+his own line of investigation, one of the chief contributors to
+Fraser's Magazine while at its best, in response to a call by the
+Royal Irish Academy for productions relating to the origin and
+use of the Round Towers, declared that they were erected by a
+colony of Tuath-de-danaans, or Lingham worshippers from Persia,
+who had left their native land because of the victories gained
+over them by their rivals--the Pish de-danaans--a sect of Yoni
+worshippers; in other words, the sect which recognized the female
+element as the superior agency in reproduction, and who,
+therefore, worshipped it as divine.  In the devastating wars
+which swept over Persia and the other countries of antiquity
+prior to the age of the later Zoroaster, the Pish-de danaans were
+victorious, and, driving from the country the Tuath-de danaans,
+or male worshippers, succeeded in re-establishing, and for a time
+maintaining, the old form of worship. O'Brien claims that the
+Tuath-de-danaans who were expelled from Persia emigrated to
+Ireland, and there continued or preserved their favorite form of
+worship, the Round Towers having been erected by them in
+conformity to their peculiar religious views.  This writer
+assures us that the old Irish tongue bears unmistakable evidence
+of the relation existing between these countries.  In addition to
+the similarity of language which is found to exist between
+ancient Ireland or Iren, and Persia or Iran, the same writer
+observes that in all their customs, religious observances, and
+emblems, the resemblance is preserved.
+
+Much regret has been expressed by all the writers who have dealt
+with this subject that at an earlier age when Stonehenge, Abury,
+and various other of the ancient monumental shrines of the
+British Isles were in a better state of preservation, and before
+bigotry and religious hatred had been aroused against them, more
+minute observations of their character and of all the details
+surrounding them could not have been made; yet, notwithstanding
+the late date at which these investigations were begun, it is
+believed that a fair amount of success has crowned the efforts
+which have been put forth to unravel the mysteries bound up in
+them.
+
+When we remember that every detail connected with the sacred
+monuments of the ancients was full of significance that their
+religious ideas were all portrayed by means of symbols which
+appeared in connection with their sacred edifices--the extent to
+which a thorough understanding of these details would assist in
+revealing the mysteries involved in the universal religious
+conceptions may in a measure be realized.
+
+The identity of the symbols used to express religious ideas, and
+the extent to which the conceptions of a creative force have been
+connected in all portions of the globe, are set forth in the
+following from Barlow:
+
+"A complete history of religious symbolism should embrace all the
+religions of antiquity no less than the Christian, and it would
+require as thorough a knowledge of their tenets as of our own to
+explain satisfactorily its influence in regulating the practice
+of art."[162]
+
+[162] Symbolism, p. 10.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+SACRIFICES.
+
+Although the sun was formerly worshipped as the source of all
+good, at a certain stage in the human career it came to be
+regarded as the cause of all evil.  When Typhon Seth comprehended
+the powers of Nature, as the Destroyer and Regenerator she was
+the author of all good; but later, after the truths underlying
+Nature worship were lost, Typhon, the hot wind of the desert, was
+feared rather than worshipped.
+
+In the history of an earlier age of existence, there is not to be
+found the slightest trace of human sacrifice to atone for the
+sins of the people, or to appease the wrath of an offended God. 
+On the contrary, throughout the traditions and monumental records
+of the most ancient nations, sacrifices to the Deity-- the God of
+Nature--consisted simply in the acknowledgment of earth's
+benefits by means of a free-will offering of the bounties which
+she had brought forth.
+
+That the sacrifice either of human beings or of animals was not
+offered in an earlier age of religious faith is confidently
+asserted and, I think, proved by various writers.  Of this
+Higgins says: "I think a time may be perceived when it did not
+exist even among the Western nations."  This writer states also
+that it was not always practiced at Delphi.  Mention is made of
+the fact that among the Buddhists, to whom belongs the first book
+of Genesis, no bloody sacrifices were ever offered.
+
+It was doubtless under the worship of Muth, Neith, or Minerva,
+the first emanation from the deity and the original Buddha, that
+the first book of Genesis or Wisdom was written.  In this book
+may be observed the fact that the slaughter of animals is
+forbidden.  It is thought that with Crishna, Hercules, and the
+worshippers of the sun in Aries, the sacrifice of human beings
+and animals began.  In the second book of Genesis, which is said
+to be a Brahmin work, animals are first used for sacrifice, and
+in the third book, or the book of Generations or Re-generations
+of the race of man or the Adam, which was written after the pure
+doctrines connected with the worship of Wisdom had been
+corrupted, they are first allowed to be eaten as food.
+
+It is supposed that the practice of sacrificing human beings and
+animals took its rise in the western parts of the world after the
+sun entered Aries, and that it subsequently extended even to the
+followers of the Tauric worship, among whom it was carried to a
+frightful extent.  It is also thought that the history of Cain
+and Abel is an allegory of the followers of Crishna to justify
+their sacrifice of the yajna or lamb "in opposition to the
+Buddhist offering of bread and wine, or water, made by Cain and
+practiced by Melchizedek."[163]
+
+[163] Anacalypsis, vol. i., p. 101.
+
+
+It is now positively known that all over the world, during a
+certain stage of religious belief, either human beings or animals
+were, at stated seasons, sacrificed to the Deity.  Of the
+universality of this practice Faber says:
+
+"Throughout the whole world we find a notion prevalent that the
+gods could be appeased only by bloody sacrifices.  Now this idea
+is so thoroughly arbitrary, there being no obvious and necessary
+connection, in the way of cause and effect, between slaughtering
+a man or a beast, and recovering of the divine favor by the
+slaughterers, that its very universality involves the necessity
+of concluding that all nations have borrowed it from some common
+source."[164]
+
+[164] The Origin of Pagan Idolatry, vol. i., book 2, p. 465.
+
+
+Dr. Shuckford is constrained to admit that the sacrifices and
+ceremonies of purification practiced by Abraham and his
+descendants and those of surrounding peoples, were identical,
+with only "such trifling changes as distance of countries and
+length of time might be expected to produce."  The substitution
+of a lamb in the place of Isaac would seem to indicate a change
+from child-slaughter to that of animals.
+
+Sacrifices were offerings to the god of pro- creation.  Certain
+representatives of the life which he had bestowed must be
+returned to him as a free-will gift.  In many countries, the
+victims offered to the deity were captives taken in war; but, as
+prisoners of war and slaves were not permitted to join in the
+battles of their captors, their lives were of little value;
+hence, later, it is observed that the sacrificial victim must be
+a prince or an individual whose life was of great importance to
+the tribe.
+
+As in all hot countries the heat of the sun is the most
+destructive agency against which mankind have to contend, it is
+not perhaps singular, at a time when superstition had usurped the
+functions of the reasoning powers, that the sun-god should have
+been invested with the attributes inspired by terror, and that so
+far as possible, mankind should have deemed it necessary to
+propitiate its wrath, and, by rendering to it suitable offerings
+and sacrifices, they should have hoped to avert the calamities
+incident to its displeasure.  Neither is it remarkable when we
+remember the peculiar circumstances surrounding the Jews, and the
+fact that the offerings demanded by their god was the life which
+he had bestowed, that the sacrifices offered to Moloch, the fire
+god, should have been the members of their own household--namely,
+their children.
+
+We must not forget that the reward promised this people by
+prophet, priest, and diviner for godliness was extreme
+fruitfulness of body.  We have seen that to obtain this mark of
+godly favor, or, under pretense of serving their god, the form of
+worship prescribed by their priests, and adopted both in their
+households and in their temples was pre-eminently sensual, and
+calculated to stimulate and encourage to the highest extent their
+lower or animal nature.
+
+As the size of a man's family, or his power to reproduce, was an
+index to his favor with the Almighty the pleasure of the "Lord"
+in this matter being but the reflection of his own desires, the
+result as might reasonably be expected was overpopulation to such
+an extent that the means of subsistence within the small boundary
+of Judea was inadequate to supply the demands of the swarming
+masses of "God's children"--children which had been created for
+his honor and glory.  Surely some plan must be devised whereby
+these difficulties might be adjusted, and that, too, to use a
+modern expression, without flying in the face of Providence.  As
+the Lord had been honored and man blessed in the mere bringing
+forth of offspring, what better scheme, so soon as such blessings
+became too numerous, than to return a certain number of them to
+the giver, the god of Moloch? It is true that by this process
+children were born only to be delivered over to the ravages of
+the fire- god, but by it, was not their deity both served and
+appeased at the same time that population was kept within the
+bounds of subsistence? That great numbers were thus sacrificed is
+only too apparent from the accounts in the Jewish
+scriptures--Abraham's acts and those of Jephtha being examples of
+the manner in which this god was propitiated.
+
+In Micah, vi. chap., 7th verse, occurs an interrogation which
+furnishes something more than a hint of the practice among the
+Jews of child sacrifice.  "Shall I give my first born for my
+transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
+
+Although there is sufficient evidence to prove the enormous
+extent to which the practice of child sacrifice prevailed among
+the Jews, it is believed that much more proof would be found, had
+it not, in later times, with a view to concealing the extent of
+this practice, been expunged from their sacred writings.  Moloch
+was to the Jews what Siva came to be to the Hindoos, namely, the
+Terrible.  It is plain, however, that Siva was not formerly
+feared in India, but next to Vishnu was the best beloved of all
+their gods.  Siva was originally the androgyne god who was not
+only the Destroyer, but the beneficent Regenerator and purifier. 
+It was the cold of winter and the heat of the sun.  It was a
+conception which was a direct outgrowth of Nature worship or of
+that religious idea which was portrayed by a mother and her
+child.
+
+The conception involved in sacrifice seems to be that of a
+payment for services rendered, or desired.  The Amazulus, when
+going to battle, sacrifice to the manes of their ancestors, who,
+as older branches of the tree of life, appear to constitute their
+god-idea.  This is done that their gods "may have no cause of
+complaint, because they have made amends to them and made them
+bright."  On appearing before the enemy they say: "Can it be,
+since we have made amends to the Amadhlozi, that they will say we
+have wronged them by anything?"[165]
+
+[165] Viscount Amberley, Analysis of Religious Belief, vol. i.,
+p. 32.
+
+
+At a certain stage in human history the various peoples of the
+globe depended upon excessive numbers for their prosperity, hence
+the most precious offering to the god of pro-creation was that of
+human victims.
+
+In India, when a new colony or city was founded, in order to
+insure its prosperity, large numbers of children were delivered
+over as a bribe or offering of reconciliation to the god of
+virility.  The enormous extent to which human sacrifice has
+prevailed in India, in Egypt, in Mexico, among the Carthaginians,
+the Jews, the Druids, and even among the Greeks and Romans, is
+well attested.
+
+From the records of extant history, it would seem that human
+sacrifice usually accompanies a certain stage of sun-worship.
+Among the Aztecs in Mexico, a country in which the sun was a
+universal object of reverence and in which one of the prescribed
+duties of the boys trained in the temple was that of keeping
+alive the sacred fires, the immolation of victims became the most
+prominent feature of their public worship. We are distinctly
+told, however, that human sacrifice was not formerly practiced in
+Mexico, but that finally here as elsewhere, the idea became
+prevalent that by sacrificing human victims to the god of
+Destruction, his wrath might be appeased and the people saved
+from his vengeance.  It is stated that human sacrifices were
+adopted by the Aztecs early in the fourteenth century, about two
+hundred years before the conquest.  "Rare at first, they became
+more frequent with the wider extent of their empire; till, at
+length, almost every festival was closed with this cruel
+abomination."
+
+Notwithstanding these atrocities, in their conceptions of a
+future state of existence, and especially in their disposition of
+the unregenerate after death, are to be observed certain traces
+of human feeling and refined sensibility which are difficult to
+reconcile with the cruelty practiced in their religious rites,
+and which bear a striking contrast to the physical torture, to
+which after death the wicked are subjected not only in Mexico,
+but in countries professing a high stage of civilization and
+culture.
+
+Of their religious observances, those which had doubtless been
+inherited from an older civilization, Prescott, quoting from
+Torquemada and Sahagun, says:
+
+"Many of their ceremonies were of a light and cheerful
+complexion, consisting of the national songs and dances, in which
+both sexes joined.  Processions were made of women and children
+crowned with garlands and bearing offerings of fruits, the
+ripened maize, or the sweet incense of copal and other
+odoriferous gums, while the altars of the deity were stained with
+no blood save that of animals.  These were the peaceful rites
+derived from their Toltec predecessors."[166]
+
+[166] See Conquest of Mexico, book I, chap. iii., p. 74.
+
+
+Prior to the days of Montezuma, the Aztec priests had engrafted
+upon these simple ceremonies not only a burdensome ceremonial,
+and a polytheism similar to that of Eastern nations, but, as we
+have seen, human sacrifices and even cannibalism had become
+prominent features in religious worship. Throughout the entire
+ceremonial and religious conceptions of the Aztecs may be
+observed a display of the savage and brutal elements in human
+nature, in close connection with unmistakable evidence of a once
+higher stage of culture and refinement.
+
+In the later ages of Aztec history their most exalted deity was
+Huitzilopotchi, the Mexican Moses, the god of war.  His temples
+were the most costly and magnificent among the public edifices in
+the country, and his image bedecked with ornaments was an
+universal object of adoration.  At the dedication of his temple
+in the year 1486 more than seventy thousand captives are said to
+have perished.[167]
+
+[167] Torquemada.
+
+
+A Deity which occupied a conspicuous place in the mythology, and
+which was probably an inheritance from more ancient times, was
+Quetzalcoatl, doubtless the same as the Eastern Goddess of
+Nature, or Wisdom.  She was the "grain goddess," and "received
+offerings of fruit and flowers at her two great festivals.  She
+also took care of the growth of corn.  She was doubtless the same
+as the Earth Mother of the Finns and Esths, she who "undertakes
+the task of bringing forth the fruits."  She is evidently the
+Demeter of the Greeks, the Ceres of the Romans, etc.  She is also
+the goddess of Wisdom, for she had "instructed the nations in the
+use of metals, in agriculture, and in the art of government." 
+Under this Deity the
+
+"Earth had teemed with fruits and flowers without the pains of
+culture.  An ear of Indian corn was as much as a single man could
+carry.  The cotton, as it grew, took, of its own accord, the rich
+dies of human art.  The air was filled with intoxicating perfumes
+and the sweet melody of birds.  In short, these were the halcyon
+days, which find a place in the mythic systems of so many nations
+throughout the world.  It was the golden age of Anuhuac."
+
+We are given to understand that for some cause not explained the
+beneficent god Quetzalcoatl was banished, that he (or she) was
+deposed through the influence of some deity which had become more
+popular, or, at least, more powerful; but that when Quetzalcoatl
+departed from the country "in a winged skiff made of serpent
+skins," it was with a promise to return to the faithful, which
+promise was sacredly cherished down to the time of the Spanish
+invasion.
+
+The Mexican Mars, Huitzilopotchi, was born of a virgin.  His
+mother, a devout person, while at her devotions in the temple saw
+floating before her a bright colored feather ball, which she
+seized and placed in her bosom.  She soon became pregnant, her
+offspring being a god, who like Minerva appeared full armed with
+spear and helmet.
+
+Although the exact manner in which the Mexicans sacrificed to
+their Deity to atone for the sins of the people differs somewhat
+from the modus operandi employed in the Christian vicarious
+atonement, still the likeness existing between them is sufficient
+to indicate the fact of their common origin and the similar
+manner of their development.
+
+The Mexicans were wont to select a young and handsome man from
+their midst, whom they invested with the dignity of a god.  After
+having surrounded him with every luxury, and when they had
+showered upon him every attention, crowning him with flowers and
+worshipping him for a year or more as a Savior, they killed him,
+offering him as an atonement or sacrifice, in order that the rest
+of the people might escape the vengeance of their great Deity,
+who, it was claimed, is pleased with such offerings, and who
+demands sacrifices of this kind at the hands of his children. 
+Within blood was contained life, hence the offering of a bloody
+victim was but the returning to their god, as a free-will gift
+that which he had bestowed, such sacrifice being regarded as the
+only acceptable means of grace or reconciliation.
+
+That the offering of a victim to the Jewish God was deemed
+necessary to the fulfilment of Christian doctrine is a fact which
+is clearly shown by numerous passages in the New Testament.  "We
+are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
+once for all."  "By one offering he hath perfected forever them
+that are sanctified."[168] "Christ was once offered to bear the
+sins of many."[169]
+
+[168] Hebrews, x., 10, 14.
+
+[169] Ibid., ix., 28.
+
+
+That the Jewish Paschal feasts and the Eucharistic rites of
+Christians had their counterpart among the Mexicans is observed
+in the fact that shortly after the death of their god, cakes
+which had been prepared and blessed by the priests were offered
+by them to the people to be eaten as the veritable body of their
+sacrificed lord.
+
+The source whence the doctrine of an atonement --a bloody
+sacrifice which lies at the foundation of Christian theology--has
+proceeded is not at the present time difficult to determine, for
+we shall presently see that it, like all the leading doctrines
+contained in this later system, and which are regarded as
+exclusively Christian, had its origin in the religion of past
+ages, a religion which although originally pure, in course of
+time degenerated into the grossest phallicism and even into human
+sacrifice and cannibalism.
+
+Although among the Mexicans as among the Jews, human sacrifices
+were offered to the Deity, no hint of gross and sensual rites
+practiced in the temples of the latter is recorded.  Hence, as
+the Mexicans had not arrived at that stage of religious progress
+(?) at which sensuality inculcated as a sacred duty, and at which
+moral and physical debasement was encouraged both in public and
+private life, we may reasonably conclude that their faith
+represents a somewhat earlier stage of development than does that
+of either Jew or Greek.  In point of morality, as judged by the
+most ancient standards, or by the more modern, the Mexicans
+compare favorably with either of these nationalities.  Indeed
+when we compare the social, religious, and civil conditions of
+Mexico as we find them under Montezuma with those of the Jews
+under David or Solomon, or with those of the Greeks under Solon,
+or even with those of the Christians during the Spanish
+Inquisition when thousands upon thousands, not of captives taken
+in war, but of the noblest and best of the land, were yearly
+slaughtered for "the glory of God," there is quite as much to
+meet the approval of an enlightened conscience under the first
+named system as under that of any one of the other three.
+
+By priests the fact has long been understood that effects may be
+produced through appeals to the religious or emotional nature
+which under other circumstances would be impossible; and as, for
+thousands of years, it has been the special business of this
+class to formulate creeds for the ignorant masses, religious
+belief and the ceremonies connected with "sacred" worship, during
+certain periods of the world's history, have assumed a
+grotesqueness in design unsurpassed by the most fanciful fairy
+tales which the imagination has ever been able to create, at the
+same time that they have portrayed a depth of sensual degradation
+capable of being reached only by that order of creation which
+alone has been able to develop a religion.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+THE CROSS AND A DYING SAVIOR.
+
+In Egypt, the cross when unaccompanied by any other symbol
+signified simply creative energy both female and male, but
+whenever a distinctively female emblem was present it denoted the
+male power alone.  The Ibis, which is represented with human
+hands and feet, bears the staff of Isis in one hand and the cross
+in the other.  There is scarcely an obelisk or monument in Egypt
+upon which this figure does not appear.  The symbol or monogram
+of Venus was a circle and a cross, that of Saturn was a cross and
+a ram's horn.
+
+Plato declared that the son of God was expressed upon the
+universe in the form of the letter X, and that the second power
+of the supreme God was figured on the universe in the shape of a
+cross.
+
+There is little doubt that the early Christians understood full
+well the true meaning of the cross, and that it was no new
+device.  In later ages, however, every monument of antiquity
+marked with this symbol was claimed by the Church and by it
+believed to be of Christian origin.
+
+It is related that when the temple of Serapis at Alexandria was
+overthrown by one of the Christian Emperors, beneath its
+foundation was discovered the monogram of Christ.  The Christians
+made use of this circumstance to prove the divine origin of their
+religion, "thereby making many converts."   The Pagans, on the
+contrary, were of the opinion that "it should forever silence the
+claim put forward by the devotees of Christianity."   It is
+plain, however, that the Christians had the better of the
+argument for "the cross being uneasy under the weight of the
+temple overthrew it."
+
+On the coins of Decius, the great persecutor of the Christians,
+is to be observed the monogram of Christ which is also the
+monogram of Osiris and Jupiter Ammon.  On a medal proved to be
+Phoenician appear the cross, the rosary, and the lamb.  There is
+another form of the same monogram which signifies DCVIII.  These
+devices although in use hundreds of years prior to the Christian
+era are all said to be monograms of Christ.  At the present time
+they may be seen in almost every church in Italy.
+
+In the cave of Elephanta, in India, appears the cross in
+connection with the figure which represents male reproductive
+power.  Inman relates that a cross with a rosary attached has
+been found in use among the religious emblems of the Japanese
+Buddhists and the lamas of Thibet, and that in one of the
+frescoes of Pompeii, published at Paris, 1840, is to be seen,
+vol. v., plate 28, the representation of a phallic cross in
+connection with two small figures of Hermes.[170]
+
+[170] Inman, Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i.,
+p. 408.
+
+
+The Rev. Mr. Maurice adds his testimony to that of other
+investigators to show the universality of this emblem.  He says
+that the principal pagodas in India, viz., those of Bernares and
+Mathura, are built in the form of a cross.
+
+In the museum of the London University is a mummy upon whose
+breast is a cross "exactly in the shape of a cross upon Calvary."
+
+The true significance of this emblem, and the reason for its
+adoration are not, at the present time, difficult to understand;
+but whence comes the symbol of a dead man on a cross, and what is
+its true meaning?
+
+Perhaps there is no problem connected with ancient symbolism, or
+with mythical religion, which is more difficult to solve, than is
+the representation of a dying Savior on a cross.  It is stated by
+those who have investigated this subject, that although the sun,
+or the fructifying power within it, was adored by all the
+historic nations, no hint of a cross is to be found amongst the
+most ancient Nature worshippers.  We must then look for a
+solution of this problem to those ages in which the higher truths
+of an older race were partially forgotten, and to a time when
+phallic worship had supplanted the adoration of Light or Wisdom. 
+The cross doubtless came into use as a religious emblem at a time
+when the sexes in union began to stand for the god-idea, the
+lower end of the upright shaft being transfixed to the horizontal
+bar.
+
+As soon as the male energy became god, the cross gradually grew
+into the figure of a man with arms extended.  It became the
+original "life giver," it was Adam, the creator of the race. 
+Doubtless for ages Adam represented the god-man-phallus-Tree of
+Life, or cross idea.  He was the progenitor of the race.  From
+this same idea sprang ancestor worship, or the deification of the
+past vital spark.  The adoration paid to the Lares and Penates,
+the household gods of the Romans, on the first of May, is an
+example of this worship, as is also the homage paid by the
+Chinese to their progenitors.
+
+Of religious emblems R. P. Knight says that one of the most
+remarkable among them is a cross in the form of the letter T
+which was used as an emblem of creation and generation before the
+church adopted it as a sign of salvation.  To this representation
+of male reproductive power "was sometimes added a human head,
+which gives it the appearance of a crucifix, as it has on the
+medal of Cyzicus."
+
+Originally the figure of a dead man on a cross typified creation
+and destruction or the operations of the creative forces in
+Nature.  Everything dies only to live again.  Although man dies,
+and although the individual man becomes but a dead branch on the
+tree of life, still the tree lives.  Through the cross- phallus
+idea, or through man's power to create, existence on the earth
+continues.  Although the sun dies in winter, in spring it revives
+again to quicken and enliven Nature and make all things new.
+
+There is much evidence to show that a dying figure on a cross was
+no new conception at the advent of Christianity.  Crishna, whose
+history as we have seen is almost identical with that of Christ,
+and Ballaji, from whom the thorn-crowned figures of Jesus have
+doubtless been copied, are illustrations of this mythical figure
+of a crucified savior in India.
+
+It seems altogether probable from the facts at hand that the
+Romans worshipped a cross with a dying figure of a man upon it. 
+Minucius Felix, a Christian father, in defense of his religion,
+has the following passage:
+
+"You certainly, who worship wooden gods, are the most likely
+people to adore wooden crosses, as being parts with the same
+substance as your deities.  For what else are your ensigns,
+flags, and standards but crosses gilt and purified? Your
+victorious trophies not only represent a simple cross, but a
+cross with a man upon it.  When a pure worshipper adores the true
+God with hands extended, he makes the figure of a cross.  Thus
+you see that the sign of the cross has either some foundation in
+Nature, or in your own religion, and therefore not to be objected
+against Christians."
+
+Higgins says that it is proved as completely as it is possible to
+prove a fact of this kind that the Romans had a crucified object
+of adoration, and that this could be no other than an incarnation
+of the God Sol, represented in some way to have been crucified.
+
+An ancient medal found in Cyprus has upon one of its sides the
+figure of a crucified man with the chaplet or rosary, the same as
+those now in use by Romanists.  From the style of workmanship it
+is thought that this medal must have been anterior to the
+Macedonian conquest.
+
+There is little doubt that the early fathers and the bishops in
+the Christian church recognized in the cross the ancient emblem
+of fertility, but as the idea of a spiritual life had begun to
+take root, it was deemed proper to conceal its real significance;
+hence from a symbol representing the continuity of existence on
+the earth the cross now prefigured eternal life or existence
+after death.  Henceforward although man was dead in
+transgressions, through the cross, or through the crucified
+Christ, he received eternal life.
+
+That the original signification of this symbol was understood by
+early Christians is apparent from the fact that the Emperor
+Theodosius, between the years 378 and 395, issued a decree
+prohibiting the sign of the cross being sculptured or painted on
+the pavements of churches.  Tertullian also, after declaring that
+the devil made the sign of the cross on the foreheads of the
+followers of the Persian Mithra, accused the Christians of
+adoring the same emblem.
+
+In 280, A. C. Porphyry, referring to crosses, asked why
+theologists give passions to the gods, erect Phalli and use
+shameful language; to which the Christian Iamblichus in the year
+336 replied: "Because Phalli and crosses are signs of productive
+energy, and provocative to a continuance of the world."
+
+It was not until the second century, or until after the days of
+Justin Martyr, that the instrument upon which Jesus was executed
+was called a cross.  But whatever may have been its form, as soon
+as the myths of former religious worship began to attach
+themselves to his history, he became the symbolical dead man on a
+cross, the original sacrifice to Mahadeva.  He portrayed the same
+idea as did Crishna, Ballaji, the dying Osiris, and all the other
+sun-gods.  He, like each of these, represented a new sun at the
+beginning of a new cycle.  He was a risen savior, and to him were
+finally transferred all the festivals, seasons, symbols, and
+monograms of former solar deities.  That the figure of a dead man
+on a cross was a familiar emblem throughout Asia and various
+portions of Europe, and that numberless crucified
+gods--incarnations of the sun--have been worshipped throughout
+the East, is a fact which it has been the aim of the initiated
+among the Christian clergy to conceal, but one which no one who
+has examined the evidence with a mind free from prejudice
+attempts to deny.
+
+In Italy, on many of the earlier pictures of Christ, may be
+observed the words Deo Soli, which inscription signifies either
+"to the only God," or "to the God Sol."
+
+Of the various so-called Christian antiquities which cover the
+walls of the Vatican, we are assured by those who have acquainted
+themselves with the signification of pagan symbolism that "they
+have no more reference to Christianity than they have to the
+Emperor of China."   The same may be said with reference to the
+representations on the walls of the Catacombs.
+
+Crishna, who was the equinoctial sun in Aries, appeared 2160
+years after the first Buddha, who was the equinoctial sun in
+Taurus.  According to Plutarch they were both modern gods when
+compared with the deities which gave names to the planets. 
+Buddha, or the sun in Taurus, was worshipped in the form of a
+bull.  Crishna, or the sun in Aries, was adored under the figure
+of a ram with a man's head.  The true significance of these
+figures was the fructifying sun or reproductive energy as
+manifested in animal life, and this meaning to those who
+worshipped them was identical with the carved figures on the
+caves of India, the Lares and Penates of the Romans, and the
+stone pillars or crosses in the market-places and at the
+intersection of roads in Brittany.
+
+Eusebius says that at Elephanta they adored a Deity in the figure
+of a man in a sitting posture painted blue, having the head of a
+ram with the horns of a goat encircling a disk.  The Deity thus
+described is said to be of astronomical origin, denoting the
+power of the sun in Aries.
+
+This figure, which was one of the representations of the sun-god
+Crishna, was worshipped both in India and in Egypt.  In various
+of the manifestations of this Deity he appears in the act of
+killing a serpent.  He was the dead man on a cross and also the
+sun, which although continually dying is constantly being revived
+again.  Various incarnations of this God have appeared as
+crucified saviors.
+
+Of the avatar of Crishna known as Ballaji or Baal-Jah little is
+positively known.  Indeed there seems to be some impenetrable
+mystery surrounding this figure, which makes it impossible for
+scholars to absolutely prove that which by means of the evidence
+at hand amounts almost to a certainty.
+
+A print by Moore of this god represents him in the shape of a
+Romish crucifix, but although there is a nail hole in his foot he
+is not transfixed to a wooden cross.  Instead of a crown of
+thorns a Parthian coronet encircles his head.  As all the avatars
+of Crishna are represented with coronets, this fact has caused
+several writers to observe that the effigies of Ballaji have
+furnished the copies for the thorn-crowned Jesus.  Through the
+ignorance of the early Christians who in the second century
+adopted the religion of Crishna, the true significance of this
+coronet was not understood, hence the thorns upon the head of
+Christ.  In referring to the effigy of a crucified savior found
+in Ireland the author of The Round Towers says that it was not
+intended for our Savior for the reason that it wore the Iranian
+regal crown, instead of the Jewish crown of thorns.[171]
+
+[171] The Round Towers of Ireland, p. 298.
+
+
+Regarding this effigy, Higgins remarks that the crucified body
+without the cross reminds one that "some of the ancient sects of
+heretics held Jesus to have been crucified in the clouds."
+
+Moore, who has produced several prints of Ballaji, says he is
+unable to account for the pierced foot of a crucified figure in
+India.  He endeavors to prove, however, that this crucifix cannot
+be Hindoo "because there are duplicates of it from the same
+model."   As the mould is made of clay, he contends that only one
+cast may be made from it.  This argument falls to the ground,
+however, so soon as it is found that duplicates, or copies of
+these brass idols which may not be distinguished from the
+originals, are seen in the museum at the India House, and also in
+that of the Asiatic Society.
+
+The admission of Moore that "great influence was brought to bear
+upon him to induce him not to publish the prints of Ballaji for
+fear of giving offense," serves as a hint in determining the
+cause for the lack of information respecting this god.
+
+It is believed that, were the development of truth upon this
+subject rather than its concealment the object of Christian
+missionaries, the temples of Ballaji would have furnished more
+important information to the Christian world than would those of
+any other of the Hindoo gods; but while numberless pilgrimages
+have been made to Juggernaut and other shrines devoid of interest
+to the student, we have heard little concerning the shrines of
+this deity, although at the time Moore wrote, Terputty was in the
+possession of the English who made a profit of L15,000 a year
+from the temple.
+
+On the Brechin Tower in Ireland are two arches one within the
+other in relief.  At the top of the arch is a crucifix, and about
+midway from top to bottom on either side are two figures which,
+according to Romanist Christians, represent the Virgin Mary and
+St. John.  At the bottom of the outer arch are two couchant
+beasts, the one an elephant and the other a bull.  The figure on
+the cross has a Parthian coronet.  The appearance of a crucifix
+on the towers of Britain and Ireland has in the past led many
+writers to ascribe to these singular structures a Christian
+origin.  To the critical observer, however, the first question
+which presents itself is whence comes the elephant--an animal not
+found within these countries?--and again why should these beasts
+have been placed here as Christian emblems? The facts in the case
+as revealed by unprejudiced investigators are, that the towers in
+Ireland are not Christian monuments, and that the crucifix found
+on them is not that of Christ but of Ballaji, or of some one of
+the avatars of Crishna.
+
+The fact that the figure of Crishna as a crucified god was found
+in the ruins of a temple at Thebes in Egypt, is sufficient to
+prove his antiquity; still, as we have seen, he represents the
+god-idea at a much later date than did Buddha.  Regarding the
+evidence furnished by the Rev. Mr. Maurice of the ten avatars of
+the Indian sun-god, Higgins observes:
+
+"The only fact worthy of notice here is, that Buddha was
+universally allowed to be the first of the incarnations; that
+Crishna was of later date; that, at the era of the birth of
+Christ, eight of them had appeared on the earth, and that the
+other two were expected to follow before the end of the Caliyug,
+or of the present age."
+
+With reference to the fact that the Hindoo God originally
+represented Wisdom or the Logos, the same writer says:
+
+"Then here is DIVINE WISDOM incarnate, of whom the Bull of the
+Zodiac was the emblem.  HERE he is the Protagonos, or first
+begotten, the God or Goddess Mhtis of the Greeks, being, perhaps,
+both male and female.  Buddha, or the wise, if the word were not
+merely the name of a doctrine, seems to have been an appellation
+taken by several persons, or one person incarnate at several
+periods, and from this circumstance much confusion has
+arisen."[172]
+
+[172] Anacalypsis, book v., p. 201.
+
+
+Concerning the religion of an ancient race the following facts
+have been ascertained, namely:
+
+The first of the Buddhas or Incarnations of the Deity was
+Minerva, and her mother, who was the sun, was the mother of all
+the Buddhas.  She was Mhtis, Mubt or Mai, "the universal genius
+of Nature, who discriminated all things according to their
+various kinds of species."
+
+In the earliest ages she comprehended not only matter but the
+moving force in the universe.  She was the Deity which by a very
+ancient race was represented by the mother idea--Perceptive
+Wisdom.  She was the sun and the first emanation from the sun. 
+She was the Divine Word, the Logos, the Holy Ghost which in the
+time of Christ was again by various sects recognized as female. 
+The allegory of the Greeks concerning Jupiter taking Mhtis
+(Wisdom) to wife and from this union with her producing Minerva
+from his head, is seen to be closely connected with the doctrine
+of Buddha (Wisdom) or of the Rasit of Genesis.  According to
+Faber, the import of the Greek word Nous and of the Sanscrit Menu
+is precisely the same: each denotes mind or intelligence, and to
+the latter of them the Latin Mens is nearly allied.  "Mens, Menu,
+and perhaps our English mind are fundamentally one and the same
+word."  All these terms in an earlier age meant Buddha, Wisdom,
+or Minerva.
+
+Later, with the worship of the sun in Aries, appeared a crucified
+savior.  During the earlier ages of Crishnaism, the ideas
+typified by a dying savior were still those pertaining to the
+processes of Nature.  Matter was still believed to be
+indestructible and seeming death but a preparation for renewed
+life, or for birth into another state of existence Subsequently
+this dying sun-god, which disappeared in winter only to return
+again to re-animate Nature, became a veritable man--a man on a
+cross who must be sacrificed to Mahadeva in order that humanity
+might be saved.  Here we have the origin of the doctrine of a
+Vicarious Atonement.  Later, under the system called
+Christianity, woman, who had previously become identified with
+the evil principle, became the Tempter.  She was the cause of sin
+in the world and wholly responsible for the evil results arising
+from desire.  Indeed, according to the doctrines annunciated by
+the Christian Church, had woman, who was an after thought of the
+Almighty, never been created, man would have lived forever in a
+state of purity and bliss, free alike from the toils, pains, and
+temptations of life, and from the crafts and assaults of the
+Devil.
+
+Through the over-stimulation of the animal instincts man had
+become wholly unable to overcome the evil in his constitution,
+hence the adoption of the doctrine of Original Sin and the
+necessity for an Atonement, or for a crucified savior, who would
+take upon himself the sins of poor, weak human nature.  By simply
+believing on this crucified redeemer, man would be saved, not
+from sin itself, but from the penalty of sin.  To bolster up the
+belief in original sin and the necessity for an atonement, the
+allegory of the fruit tree and the serpent in Genesis was taken
+literally.
+
+The more the religion of the past is studied the more plainly
+will the fact appear, that not only have the ceremonies, symbols,
+festivals, and seasons adopted by Christianity been copied from
+India and Persia, but also that all the leading doctrines of the
+so-called Christian Church originated in those countries.  The
+belief in a Trinity, the Incarnation of the Deity, a Crucified
+Savior, Original Sin and a Vicarious Atonement, the last three
+having been elaborated after the ancient natural truths
+underlying sun worship had been forgotten, are all to be found in
+the East.
+
+The doctrine of a Trinity is supposed to have been received
+directly from the Platonists, who had learned it from the
+Persians; while that of a Crucified Savior, and also that of the
+seed of the woman bruising the serpent's head, belong, as we have
+seen, to the religion of Crishna.
+
+Concerning Original Sin, which is the foundation of the doctrine
+of the "Atonement," it is plain that it was not known to the
+earlier followers of Christ, but that it was subsequently copied
+from the corrupted religion of the Hindoos.
+
+The symbolical meaning of the serpent and the Tree of Life was
+doubtless understood by the earliest adherents to the Christian
+faith; it is not surprising, therefore, that by them there is no
+mention of the doctrine of Original Sin.  Their theory to account
+for evil in the world was the same as that of an ancient and
+almost forgotten race.  The belief that the soul of man is a
+spark from, or a part of the universal soul, that at the death of
+the body it returns to its source, and in process of time appears
+as the animating principle in other bodies, was believed by
+Pythagoras, Aspasia, Socrates, and Plato and, in fact, for
+thousands of years it was entertained by the best and wisest of
+the human race.  It was a part of the early Christian doctrine
+and is still believed by the followers of Buddha and by the
+Theosophists of Europe and America.
+
+Doubtless the doctrines of Re-incarnation and Karma were set
+forth by those very ancient philosophers who were the near
+descendants of the inventors of the Neros and the Metonic
+cycle--those who believed in the indestructibility of matter, and
+that spirit proceeds from or is evolved through it.  It was an
+effort on their part to solve the problem of the existence of
+evil, and was far more satisfactory to the reasoning mind than
+was the literal translation of the story of the woman, the
+forbidden apple, and the talking serpent in Genesis.
+
+Original sin of which woman is said to be the cause, and the
+necessity for a spiritual (male) savior to deliver man from the
+wretchedness which she had produced, are doctrines which took
+their rise in the grossest ignorance, and in an entire
+misconception of the natural truths which had previously been set
+forth by the figure of a dying sun-god.  Original Sin and a
+Vicarious Atonement--doctrines by means of which man has
+attempted to evade moral responsibility and the legitimate
+results of evil-doing--have, by weakening his moral sense, and by
+shifting the responsibility of his deeds upon another, resulted
+in greatly lowering the standard of human conduct.
+
+Science teaches that the penalty for sin is inherent in it, and
+that virtue is its own reward; the so-called Christian doctrines
+assert that although a man's sins be as scarlet, they may, simply
+through a certain belief, become white as wool.  It has been
+claimed that a belief in original sin caused all the human
+sacrifices in ancient times and that it "converted the Jews into
+a nation of cannibals."
+
+That the system which has borne the name of Christianity is an
+outgrowth of Sun, Serpent, and Phallic faiths is so plainly
+proven by the facts brought out by later research as no longer to
+be a matter of reasonable doubt to those who have given any
+considerable degree of attention to this subject.  The more
+exalted ideas which from the time of Zoroaster to that of Jesus
+had been struggling for existence, and which through various
+means had been gradually gaining a foothold, were, by the influx
+of Crishnaism, soon choked out, and mythical Christianity, which
+was but a gathering in of the grosser forms of the prevailing
+Hindoo faith, mounted the throne of the Roman Empire.
+
+During the nineteen hundred years that have elapsed since the
+inauguration of this system, little has been understood
+concerning the real philosophy of Christ--a philosophy which is
+seen to be simply a recognition of those higher scientific truths
+enunciated by an ancient race.
+
+The fact is observed in these later times that the altruistic
+principles involved in these teachings contain the highest
+wisdom--that they form the basis of a true social science, and
+that a high stage of civilization will never be reached until
+these principles are recognized as the foundation of human
+conduct Unselfishness, purity of life, and the brotherhood of man
+will never be realized so long as man shifts the responsibility
+of his wrong-doing upon another.
+
+Quite recently the fact has been proved that the progressive
+principle originated in the female constitution; that in
+sympathy, a character which has its root in maternal affection,
+lies the key to human progress.  Conscience and the moral sense
+are outgrowths of sympathy; therefore, that which distinguishes
+man from the lower orders of life originated in and has been
+developed through the female organization.
+
+When these plain scientific truths, which are so simple as
+scarcely to need demonstration, become popularized, doubtless our
+present god-idea will undergo a process of reconstruction, and
+the later development will probably involve conceptions more in
+keeping with science and human reason.  Surely a scientific age
+will tolerate no religious conception whose principles are not
+founded on truth.  The worship of a male god as the sole creator
+and sustainer of the universe is as unphilosophical as it is
+unreasonable and unscientific.
+
+As in many ways at the present time, mankind seems inclined to
+retrace its steps, and as upon its onward march humanity is
+beginning to manifest a willingness to return to truer and more
+primitive methods of thought and action, it is not impossible
+that in the not distant future, Perceptive Wisdom and the
+altruistic principles, together with the power to give life, may
+again be divinely enthroned in the place so long usurped by
+physical force and virile might.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The God-Idea of the Ancients
+
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