Ancient Faiths And Modern
by Thomas Inman · English · Gutenberg #38100 · 976,051 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Ancient Faiths And Modern
Author: Thomas Inman
Release date: November 22, 2011 [eBook #38100]
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38100
Credits: Produced by David Widger
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANCIENT FAITHS AND MODERN ***
Produced by David Widger
ANCIENT FAITHS AND MODERN:
A Dissertation upon Worships, Legends and Divinities
In Central And Western Asia, Europe, And Elsewhere, Before The Christian
Era. Showing Their Relations To Religious Customs As They Now Exist.
By Thomas Inman, M.D.
Author Of "Ancient Faiths Embodied In Ancient Names," Etc., Etc.
Consulting Physician To The Royal Infirmary, Liverpool; Lecturer,
Successively, On Botany, Medical Jurisprudence, Therapeutics, Materia
Medica, And The Principles And Practice Ok Medicine, Etc., In The
Liverpool School Ok Medicine. Etc.
1876
TO THOSE
WHO THIRST AFTER KNOWLEDGE,
AND ARE NOT DETERRED FROM SEEKING IT
BY THE FEAR OF IMAGINARY DANGERS,
THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, WITH GREAT RESPECT,
By
THE AUTHOR
PREFACE.
Some thirty years ago, after a period of laborious study, I became the
House Surgeon of a large Infirmary. In that institution I was enabled to
see the practice of seven different doctors, and to compare the results
which followed from their various plans of treatment. I soon found
that the number of cures was nearly equal amongst them all, and became
certain that recovery was little influenced by the medicine given. The
conclusion drawn was that the physician could do harm, but that his
power for good was limited. This induced me to investigate the laws of
health and of disease, with an especial desire to discover some sure
ground on which the healing art might safely stand. The inquiry was a
long one, and to myself satisfactory. The conclusions to which I came
were extremely simple--amounting almost to truisms; and I was surprised
that it had required long and sustained labour to find out such very
homely truths as those which I seemed to have unearthed.
Yet, with this discovery came the assurance that, if I could induce my
medical brethren to adopt my views, they would deprive themselves of the
means of living. Men, like horses or tigers, monkeys and codfish, can do
without doctors. Here and there, it is true, that the art and skill of
the physician or surgeon can relieve pain, avert danger from accidents,
and ward off death for a time; but, in the generality of cases, doctors
are powerless. It is the business of such men, however, to magnify their
office to the utmost. They get their money ostensibly by curing the
sick; but it is clear, that the shorter the illness the fewer will be
the fees, and the more protracted the attendance the larger must be the
"honorarium." There is, then, good reason why the medical profession
should discourage too close an investigation into truth.
But, outside of this fraternity, there are many men desirous of
understanding the principles of the healing art Many of these have begun
by noticing the style of the doctor's education. They find that he is
taught in "halls," "colleges," and "schools," for a certain period of
time; and then, at about the age of two-and-twenty, he is examined by
some experienced men, and, if considered "competent," he pays certain
fees, and is then licensed to practise as physician. As all regular
doctors go through this course, it is natural that all should think and
act in a common way, and style their doctrines "orthodox." It is equally
certain that to such opinion the majority adhere through life. But
it has always happened, that many men and women have aspired to the
position of medical professors, without going through the usual career;
or, having done so, they have struck out a novel plan of practice, which
they designate a new method of cure. These have always been opposed
by the "orthodox," and the contest is carried on with varying success,
until the general public give their verdict on one side or the other.
Into the motives which sway the respective combatants we will not enter;
our chief desire being to show that each set is upheld by those who
are designated "laymen," whose education has not been medical The most
intelligent on the heterodox side have been clergymen; and many have
been the complaints of "orthodox" doctors, that "the parsons" should
patronize, so energetically as they do, medical "dissenters."
As the "clerk" takes pleasure in examining the therapeutical doctrines
of his physician, so the medical professor frequently inquires closely
into his clergyman's theological views and feels himself at liberty
to accept or oppose them, as the "clerk" adopts or attacks him and his
theory and practice. It would, indeed, be disrespectful in the listener
not to pay intelligent heed to the discourses which emanate from
the pulpit. I have myself listened to the preaching of hundreds of
university graduates, and of men who never took a degree, and have
noticed that the same diversity of style exists amongst them, as is to
be found in medical men. Some order a certain plan of treatment for a
soul, which they assert to be grievously affected, and give no reason
for what they say or do. Others give their motives for everything which
they affirm, and for the plan which they prescribe for cure. Under the
ministry of one of the last I sat for many years. Conspicuous for sound
judgment, and for a peculiarly clear oratory, his sermons were to me an
intellectual treat. From the exordium, forwards, I followed his words
closely, and lost none of his arguments. But I soon became conscious
that he never once carried his reasoning to its logical conclusion.
Still further, it was manifest that certain things were by him taken for
granted; and it was held to be culpable to inquire into the reality of
those assumptions. In fine, it was evident, that there was a Bluebeard's
closet in the house of God, into which, in the preacher's opinion, it
was death to pry!
With the idea which was gradually forced upon my mind, that there was
a systematic suppression of the truth in the pulpit, I very carefully
searched the Bible, with which I have been familiar from infancy, and
upon which, it is asserted, all our faith is founded. At this time, too,
a casual inquiry into some ancient cognomens, which have descended to
us from remote antiquity, induced me to examine into ancient faiths
generally. With this became associated an examination of all religions,
and their influence upon mankind.
I found that in every nation there have been, and still are, good men
and bad, gentle and brutal, thoughtful and ignorant. That the best men
of Paganism--Buddha, for example--did not lose, by comparison, with the
brightest light of Christianity; and that such large cities as London
and Paris, have as much vice within them as ancient Rome or modern
Calcutta. I found, moreover, that there is a culpable colouring in the
accounts given by Christian travellers of Pagan countries. The clerical
pen rests invariably and strongly upon the bad points of every heathen
cult, and contrasts them with the best elements of Christianity. I
do not know that it has ever instituted a fair comparison between
corresponding characters in each faith. As an illustration of my
meaning, let us regard the stern virtue of the Roman Lucretia, who
committed suicide, her body having been forcibly defiled by the embraces
of another than her husband, even though the ravisher was a prince. She
had heard nothing of the Jewish law or Christian gospel, nevertheless
she was far better than the wives of the nobles in the courts of Louis
the XIV. and XV., who gladly sold themselves and their daughters to the
royal lechers. These, unlike the Italian woman, were instructed both in
the law and the gospel; they attended one place or another of Christian
worship daily or weekly. Nay, if report be true, "the eldest son of the
Church," when he visited the "parc aux cerfs," made each fresh virgin,
victim of his passion, duly say her prayers before she assisted him to
commit adultery, and herself permitted fornication! We sympathize with
Paul and the early Christian fathers in their denunciations of the
Romans and Greeks for obscenities practised in honour of their gods;
but, at the same time, we feel sure that, had those apostles and
teachers lived in the middle ages, they would have denounced, with
greater warmth, the murders which were constantly being perpetrated in
honour of Jesus.
In like manner, we may greatly regret, with the writer of Psalm xiv.,
that amongst "the children of men, there is none that doeth good; no,
not one;" but we must equally bow before the statement of Ezekiel
(ch. xxii. 30), that there was no more propriety amongst the so-called
"chosen people of God," than amongst the Gentile Canaanites and
Babylonians.
Again, we feel pain when we find the great ones of the earth--aye, and
many small ones too--seeking out for villains, "willing to commit
murder for a mede," and lament that lawgivers should secretly encourage
lawlessness; but we cannot forget that Jesus of Nazareth is represented,
in John vi. 70, to have selected a devil to bring about certain
ends--see also John xiii. 26, 27, in which the agency is well marked.
Modern divines tell us that war, tumult, hatred, malice, quarrels of all
kinds, and murder come from the devil, and are the direct result of our
fallen nature; nevertheless, we remember that Jesus is reported to have
said--"I came not to send peace, but a sword; I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against the mother," &c.
(Matt. x. 34, 35). When we institute comparisons like these, the
balance is not uneven. I found, moreover, that the sharply defined line,
commonly drawn between Paganism and Christianity, is worthless--the
doctrines of the latter being, in many respects, identical with, or
deduced from, the former.
It seemed necessary, therefore, to ascertain whether, in religion,
any other line than the one in vogue in Europe, could be drawn with
certainty.
The result of my observations showed a wonderful similarity to exist
between the clerical and medical profession; and I feel that, if my
views about the cure of souls and bodies were generally adopted,
there would be no need either for parson or for doctor. Instead of
discovering, as I had hoped to do, which of all the rival sects of
Christendom is the best one, I found that all were unnecessary, that
many are degraded in doctrine and bad in practice; and that, if any
must exist, the one which effects the least mischief should be the one
selected for general adoption. It required much courage to allow myself
to believe that doctors have, taking everything into consideration,
done more harm in the world than good, and still more to announce my
conviction that Christianity was even more culpable than medicine. The
physician, when professing to cure, has too often assisted disease to
kill; and he who has had the cure of souls, has invented plans to
make believers in his doctrine miserable. The first fills his coffers
proportionally to the extent to which he can protract recovery;
the second becomes rich in proportion to the success with which he
multiplies mental terrors, and then sells repose. The one enfeebles the
body, the other cripples the intellect, and aggravates envy, hatred, and
malice. Both are equally influential in preventing man from being such
as we believe that the Almighty designed him to be.
Though we oppose the old plan of medication of body and mind, we are
far from asserting that there is no value in an honest doctor, either of
divinity or medicine. On the contrary, I have a stronger faith in my own
profession, as it has been reformed, than ever I had ere the light of
good sense had shone upon it; and I have a far more confident trust
in the religion propounded by F. W. Newman, in _Theism_, than in that
current amongst Christians in general But in such schemes of physic
and faith, very few "ministers" are necessary, shams find no place, and
emoluments are small A man who communes with his God requires no priest,
mediator, middle-man, or saint--whether virgin, martyr, or both--to
intercede for him.
Holding such opinions as these, it is not probable that I shall find
many followers. I do not seek them. My aim has been to set good sterling
stuff before the world, so that any one, whose self-reliance is great,
may receive strength. There are many who would rather die with a
physician close beside them when they are ill, than live without a
doctor; and there are few who would not rather enjoy the fear of hell
with the orthodox, than be with heretics free from such terrors--"For
sure, the pleasure is as great in being cheated, as to cheat." To all
such our writings are _caviare_. Yet, even to them, we would say that we
have warrant for our belief in statements, to which the orthodox
cannot reasonably object--viz., "If thou doest well, shalt thou not
be accepted?" (Gen. iv. 7); "In every nation, he that feareth God, and
worketh righteousness, is accepted with him" (Acts x. 35); "He that
doeth righteousness, is righteous" (1 John iii. 7).
Let me contrast my own views with those generally current amongst us. I
believe that God did not make men, any more than the beasts, to damn the
largest number of them throughout eternity. I believe that all who aver
that they have been selected by the Creator from all the world besides
as the only recipients of salvation are wrong, and deceivers of the
people. In fine, I believe that God's "tender mercies are over all his
works." The common opinion that the Almighty so revels in cruelty, that
He makes creatures to torture them, is a horrible one to me--fit only
to come from impotent Pagan priests. That Jehovah selected about one
million of bad men, out of about four hundred other millions equally
bad, solely because their progenitor, Abraham, consented to murder and
burn his son, is to me a frightful blasphemy; and, lastly, that God has
no tender mercies for nine-tenths of the human race, is to convert our
conception of the Author of all good into the conventional "Devil." The
comparison may be summed up thus: I believe in God, the Father of all
things; the so-called orthodox believe in the God Satan. I do not know
anything in all my studies which excited my attention more painfully
than the result of the analysis of Jehovah's character, as given in our
Bible. Kind to those who are said to please Him, He is a fearful demon
to all who are said to oppose Him.
How can any reasonable man hold the opinion that the Devil instigated
all atrocities of the Syrians, Chaldees, Assyrians, Romans, Turks,
Tartars, Saracens, Affghans, Mahometans, and Hindoos, and believe that
the good God drowned the whole world, and nearly every single thing that
had life; that He ordered the extermination, not only of Midianites and
Amalekites, but slaughtered, in one way or another, all the people whom
he led out of Egypt--except two--merely because they had a natural fear
of war. What was the massacre at Cawnpore to that in Jericho and other
Canaanite cities? I say it with sober seriousness--in sorrow, not in
anger--as a thinking man, and not as an advocate for, or against, any
religious view, that it is an awful thing for any nation to permit
a book to circulate, as a sacred one, in which God and the Devil are
painted in the same colours.
Into this analysis of religion I was led to enter from the observation
of a friend, who challenged me to find, in any non-Hebraic or
non-Christian country, a faith or practice equal to that current amongst
the followers of Moses and Jesus, or to discover any spot in the wide
world where there is, or has been, a civilization equal to that which
existed in Judea, and the parts inhabited by Christians. In consequence
of this defiance, it became more than ever necessary for me to study the
nature of the current faith and practice of Christendom, and to inquire
how far the latter was dependent upon the former--that is to say,
whether the practices of civilization are due to our religion, or have
gradually grown up in spite of it. The next point was to pay similar
heed to the doctrines and manner of life common amongst those to whom
our Bible has been wholly unknown.
Many of the conclusions to which I came have already appeared in the
second volume of _Ancient Faiths_, under the heads of "Religion,"
"Theology," &c.; but others came upon me when that book had been
completed, and the present supplement is designed with the idea of
expressing, still further, the extent of my views, and the evidence upon
which they are founded--with special reference to the differential value
of Christian and unchristian faith and practice.
As was natural, this involved the question constantly before my mind in
the preceding volumes--viz., "Is there in reality anything in the Hebrew
and the Christian theology essentially different from that promulgated
by the leaders of divinity in other countries?" This point has
repeatedly been discussed, and amongst the orthodox there is no
difficulty in allowing the existence of a strong similarity in all
systems of religion; but the value of the fact is supposed to be reduced
to ridicule by the monstrous assertion, that Moses and Jesus taught
all the world. Amongst the books which came under my notice, whilst
prosecuting my search, was a very remarkable one, called _The Modern
Buddhist_, now _The Wheel of the Law_, which is an account of the
religious thoughts of a Siamese monarch, with a statement of his
conversations with Christian missionaries. In this the British churchman
and non-conformist can see themselves as others see them; and the
Asiatic has quite as great, perhaps even a superior, right to call the
European "poor and benighted," as the Christian has to call the Buddhist
"a miserable Pagan."
Notwithstanding my endeavours to be perfectly "judicial," and to give
what I believe to be an impartial account of the subjects which I
describe, I have been, by certain critics, accused of special pleading.
It is, perhaps, unnecessary to deny the charge, for each reader must
judge of my fairness, or otherwise, for himself. But, on the other hand,
I retort most strongly, by averring that I have not met, in the whole
course of my reading, a religious work by an orthodox divine, which does
not "bear false witness against its neighbours."
There is in all both a _suppressio veri_ and a _suggestio falsi_,
which makes the honest inquirer almost entirely reject their books.
In addition to this, there is in them a recklessness of statement and
assertion which is unequalled, except in the fierce controversies of
ancient doctors. The perfect contempt which certain puny divines, who
have endeavoured to throw dirt upon the present Bishop of Natal, show
for the laws of evidence, and the systematic way in which they avoid
every real point at issue, are marvellous to those who know that such
people have had an university education, have studied logic, and
profess an unlimited respect for truth. In future years the theological
writings, generally, of our time will be as much objurgated by
enlightened, earnest, and thoughtful readers, as Protestants of to-day
abuse the theology and prurience of Sanchez, Thomas Aquinas, and Peter
Dens.
In conclusion, I would wish to add, that I am conscious, from the amount
of correspondence which I have had on the subject in hand, that there
is not only a wide, but a constantly extending dissatisfaction
with the current theology taught by the ministers of all
denominations--excepting, as a body, the Unitarians, and such
individuals as Bishop Colenso, Bishop Hinds, Mr Voysey, and others. The
laity are awaking to the fact that priests are strenuously endeavouring
to quench the light of reason in the fogs of faith. Unless the
Protestantism, of which Great Britain was once so proud, decides to
drift into Papism--the only legitimate harbour for those who reject
reason for a guide--it must thoroughly reform itself, and ruthlessly
reject, as "necessary to salvation," every article of belief which is
not only nonsensical or absurd, but which has unquestionably descended
from a grovelling Paganism. To this end we hope that our essays will
contribute.
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I.
A recapitulation. Destruction of an old edifice precedes the
building of another on the same site. Chichester Cathedral.
Difficulties of reconstruction. Innovators are regarded as
enemies. The Old Testament appraised. The Jews and their
pretensions. Hebraic idea of Jehovah. The sun and moon. God
and goddess. Importance of sexual perfection in a Hebrew
male. Women are prizes given to the faithful Jews. Almost
everything Jewish came from Pagan sources, except the
Sabbath. Inquiry into the New Testament necessarily follows
upon an investigation of the Old. Thoughts upon the history
of Christianity. Malignancy of its professors. Life of
Jesus, by various authors. The ground preoccupied. The
plan proposed.
In commencing another volume of a series, and one to a great extent
independent of the other two, it is advisable to pause and recapitulate
the points advanced, and the positions attained. This is the more
necessary when the present inquiry is a natural result of a preceding
one, and when an attempt is made to collect and arrange the scattered
materials into an harmonious and consistent edifice. Our volumes on the
subject of "Ancient Faiths in Ancient Names" were, to a great extent,
destructive. They struck heavy blows in all directions, wherever a false
idol was to be recognized, and they destroyed many a cherished delusion,
which was to many as dear as the apple of their eye. But, throughout
the whole process of destruction, the idea of the necessity for a
reconstruction was present to the mind of the author.
It may, indeed, be propounded as an interesting question, whether any
iconoclast ever destroys the idols which his fellow-beings cherish,
without entertaining the belief that he has something superior to offer
in their place. When the fanatic Spaniards upset, fractured, and ground
to powder the stone monsters venerated by the Mexicans, they offered to
the natives the image of a lovely virgin and her gentle son to replace
them; and when the enthusiastic Scotchmen destroyed the marble saints
and gaudy figures of the Popish churches throughout their own country,
they eagerly set forth the superiority of adoring the invisible creator
in spirit and imagination, which afforded scope for the most entrancing
mental delineations, and was far superior to reverencing an ugly effigy,
which no one with any correct taste could admire. In like manner, when
the Mahometan Caliph destroyed the library of Alexandria, he offered to
the mourners in its place the book of the Prophet Mahomet, which was, in
his eyes, a pearl of so great price as to be equivalent in value to all
the world besides.
There can be no doubt, however, that the process of destruction is far
more easy than the task of reconstruction. The engineer who is called
upon to remove a bridge, on account of the badness of its foundation,
may admire the extraordinary firmness with which every stone has been
dovetailed together, and, with the means at his command, may be unable
to construct another having a similar appearance of stability; yet,
after all, an arch which is secure and stable is preferable to one which
is good only in appearance. A very few years have elapsed since it was
found that the tower and spire of the Cathedral at Chichester had been
so built that there was imminent danger of the whole falling down. This
part of the edifice resembled certain faiths which have been raised with
great art to a vast height, with very slender and inadequate material.
So long as they were not assailed by any storm, or tested by the changes
which time produces, they seemed firm and unshakable; but, when they
were really tried, they began to undergo a process similar to that which
obtained in the Cathedral named--the admirers of the edifice attempted
to prop up the failing tower; with iron and timber they shored up its
bulging sides; they erected strong scaffolds to ease the mighty strain
upon the crumbling walls; but all in vain--the lovely spire, built upon
a foundation as rotten as the Mormon faith, came tumbling down, and
the tall emblem pointing to the sky returned once more to earth. Before
there could be any reconstruction attempted, it was necessary to procure
all the material necessary; and when, with great labour, this was
accumulated, a fresh erection was made, which was far stronger than the
first, for every stone was duly examined, and solid masonry replaced
the ancient rubble. So it has been with many a faith. Christianity has
replaced the crumbling Judaism which existed at the beginning of our
era, and the Reformed Church has since then, in many countries, replaced
the gigantic sham of Popery. But the metaphor is one which we cannot
wholly adopt, inasmuch as we believe that no faith of ancient times has
ever wholly fallen like the spire and tower of Chichester, nor has any
new system of belief the solidity of that new edifice which has replaced
the old.
The difficulties connected with reconstruction are greatly increased by
the propensity which is so common in the human mind to make the best
of that which is in actual existence and familiar to the vulgar, rather
than to adopt something entirely new. The child who dislikes to go to
bed at night equally dislikes to get up in the morning, and we have
known elderly people who have systematically preferred an old lumbering
stage-coach to a first-class compartment in a railway carriage. In every
walk of life an innovator is regarded as an enemy by the majority, and
especially by those whose practice or whose theories his discoveries
supersede.
Yet, great as is the contest which any new truth has to sustain, there
is no doubt whatever that the first part of the fight--the preliminaries
essential to conquest, are the investigation of the ground to be
occupied; the real value of the defences; the superiority of the armour;
and the temper, strength, and tenacity of the offensive weapons. The
engineer to whom is confided the attack or the defence of a town will
abandon or destroy everything which would harbour an enemy or facilitate
his operations. The fighting commodore, ere he carries his ship into
action, sacrifices readily all the gewgaws of luxury; and in like manner
the ecclesiastic ought never to endanger his position by spending his
energies in the defence of a useless outwork or a tinsel ornament.
Entertaining these views ourselves, our first effort has been to
clear the ground, and to remove every object which we consider to be
detrimental to the spread of truth.
We have demonstrated, as far as such a matter is capable of
demonstration, that the Old Testament, which has descended to us from
the Jews, is not the mine of truth which it has been supposed by so many
to be: that not only it is not a revelation given by God to man, but
that it is founded upon ideas of the Almighty which are contradicted
by the whole of animate and inanimate nature. We showed, that its
composition was wholly of human origin, and that its authors had a very
mean and degrading notion of the Lord of Heaven and Earth. We proved,
what indeed Colenso and a host of German critics have demonstrated in
another fashion, that its historical portions are not to be depended
upon; that its stories are of no more real value than so many fairy
tales or national legends; that its myths can now be readily traced
to Grecian, Babylonian, and Persian sources; that its miracles are as
apocryphal as those told of Vishnu, Siva, and other deities; and its
prophecies absolutely worthless. We proved, moreover, that the remote
antiquity of its authorship has been greatly exaggerated; that the
stories of the creation, of the flood, of Abraham, of Jacob, of the
descent into, and the exodus from, Egypt, of the career of Moses and the
Jews in the desert, of Joshua and his soldiers, of the judges and their
clients, are all apocryphal, and were fabricated at a late period of
Jewish history, with the design of inspiriting the Hebrews at a period
when their depression of spirit from foreign conquest was extreme; that
the so-called Mosaic laws were not known until long after the time of
David, and that some of the enactments--that about the Jubilee, for
example--were never promulgated at all. We showed that the Jewish
conception of the Almighty, and of His heavenly host, did not materially
differ from the Greek idea of Jupiter and his inferior deities; that
the Hebrews regarded Jehovah as having human passions and very human
failings--as loving, revengeful, stern, merry, and vacillating--as
"everything by turns and nothing long"--as forming a resolution, and
then contriving how He might, as it were, overreach Himself. We pointed
out that the Jews did, in reality, paint God and the Devil or Satan, as
the same individual, being the former to His friends, and the latter to
His enemies. Indeed, anyone who compares 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 with 1 Chron.
xxi. 1 will see this most clearly demonstrated. We called attention to
the apparently utter ignorance of the Jews that certain laws of nature
existed, and of their consequent belief that defeat, disease, famine,
slaughter, pestilence, and the like, were direct punishments of
ceremonial or other guilt; while victory, wealth, virility, and old age
were special and decided proofs of the Divine favour. We showed that
the Jews were, in general, an abject but a very boastful race, and
that their spiritual guides--the so-called prophets--were constantly
promising, but always vainly, a striking manifestation of the Almighty's
power in favour of the Hebrews when they were in the depths of misery,
that histories were fabricated to give colour to these statements, and
that these, like modern miracles of saints, were narrated as occurring
a long time ago, and in a locality which could not be visited, e.g., in
Samaria and Egypt; we showed, moreover, that the race was imitative, and
readily adopted the religious ideas and practices of those who conquered
them. Still further, we proved that the Jews had no idea whatever of a
future state, and were in utter ignorance of heaven or hell; that they
regarded the Almighty as punishing crime or rewarding goodness in
this world alone, and, consequently, we inferred either--(1) that
the conversation said to have been held between Jehovah and certain
apocryphal men did not really occur; or (2) that God did not think
the existence of a future world a matter of sufficient consequence to
communicate to His friends; or (3) that Elohim had not then created
either a habitation for the blessed, or a future prison-house for the
damned; and we pointed out that the opinions of the Pharisees about
angels, spirits, and futurity were not based upon the writings of Moses
and the prophets, but upon Persian fantasies. In fine, we showed, that
the Hebrews could not sustain the claim they made to be the especial
people of God, and that their writings are of no more value, as records
of absolute truth, or of Divine revelation, than the books of the
Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Hindoos, Chinese, or the more modern
Mahometans.
With all this we indicated that there was, throughout the nations known
as Shemitic, a general belief in the existence of an Almighty Being,
Creator, Director and Governor of the heaven, the earth, and the
sea; that He was considered to be One, yet that He was, nevertheless,
represented by a multiplicity of names, and as having many and opposite
attributes.
We also showed, that this sublime conception was very thickly coated
with human ideas, often of a debased and grovelling type, and darkened
by legends, which were invented by priests with the design of clothing
themselves, and those of their order, with a portion of the garments
which they had assigned to the Inscrutable. We showed, how the sun
and moon, the stars and planets, became interwoven with the idea of a
Celestial Being, and how they were described in turn as His ministers,
His residence, His army, and sometimes even as Himself. We showed,
moreover, that the Almighty was depicted by some as a male, having the
attributes and passions of men, by others as a female, or celestial
goddess, and by others as androgyne--not exactly a bifrons, like Janus,
but masculine and feminine, Elohim, Baalim, Ashtaroth; that in the
development of this idea, everything which has reference to the
phenomena of mundane creation was closely studied, and introduced into
one religious system or another. As a result of this, it followed, that
there were some sects and temples consecrated to the adoration of the
Creator as masculine, others as feminine, and others as both combined.
We showed still farther, that each sect adopted certain emblems, which
were intended to represent the distinctive mark of the sex under which
it worshipped the Omnipotent, and that the emblems became multiplied
as different nations came into contact with each other, learned foreign
theology, and advanced in their knowledge of natural history. To such an
extent was this symbolism, to which we refer, carried, that the sexual
idea of the Creator at last pervaded, to a greater or less degree, all
forms of worship, and gradually degraded them deeper and deeper, in
consequence of the emblems of the deity being mistaken for the deity
itself, much in the same way as the vulgar, amongst the Roman Catholics,
regard a statuette or picture of the Virgin, or an Ashantee a particular
form of idol fetish. As an example of such development, we pointed out
that the Assyrians represented the Godhead as four-fold, consisting of
the triple male and the single female element in mundane creation, and
that the idea of the trinity in unity, which is a doctrine recognized
as far back amongst all nations as history will carry us, was originally
founded solely upon the well-known fact that the characteristic of the
male is a triad, of which all the parts are really, and in no mysterious
manner, "co-eternal together and co-equal." We also showed that the
feminine idea of the Creator has, from time immemorial, been associated,
in one form or another, with that of a lovely virgin holding a child in
her arms, which is generally very young, and mostly receiving food from
a maternal bosom, the reason of which we hinted at.
We showed that the myths of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarai, Esau and
Jacob, were incorporations of the idea that the trinity and the unity,
or, to use the very words of the Athanasian creed, "the trinity in
unity," were the founders of the race of living beings, and, as such,
worthy of worship and honour throughout all ages. This union was spoken
of as "the four," and was symbolized as a square or a cross of four
points, or a cross of eight points. We showed, still farther, that
the male Creator was identified with the sun, and the female with the
crescent moon, and also with the earth; and that one of the symbols of
this celestial union of the sexes was the sun lying within the moon's
crescent.
We also demonstrated, that a very large part of Pagan worship
consisted in the performance of rites and ceremonies, whose end was the
glorification of the deity under one or other of the selected symbols,
and that a number of feasts were appointed to be held at certain
astronomical periods, in which the assistants were encouraged to indulge
in every form of sensuality (Deut. xiv. 26). We pointed out, that the
Jewish people were largely tainted by this vicious form of worship prior
to the Babylonian captivity, and that a very large portion of their
nomenclature was based upon sexual ideas of the Creator. We also showed,
that the Jewish writings encouraged certain forms of sensuality in a
conspicuous manner; that the condition of the male organ was represented
as being of such importance as to be the ground work of the covenant
between God and the Hebrews, it being declared (Gen. xvii. 14), as if by
the word of the Lord, that no man was to be allowed to live whose organ
had not been improved in a definite manner, i.e., by circumcision or
excision of the prepuce, and that no man was to be admitted into the
congregation of the faithful whose characteristic male organs had in
any way been injured or removed. Deuteronomy xxiii. 1 is conclusive upon
this point, and there is no ambiguity in the words of the decree. We
pointed out, also, that not only was abundance of offspring promised to
the faithful as a proof of God's regard to them, but that the laws, said
to be delivered by Jehovah to Moses, positively provided (see Deut. xxi.
10-14) the means by which the harems of the wealthy could be stocked in
times of war, and by which even the poor might also be indulged, in or
about the precincts of the temple, where slave and foreign women were
kept for the purpose (Numb. xxxi. 40). We pointed out that the
natural result of this licensed debauchery was a great increase in the
population, which was so much in excess of the capacity of the land to
sustain them, that it was necessary to check the number of adult mouths
by conniving at infanticide, as was done in Rajpootana up to a recent
period, and is said to be done in China now. It is clear, from the
denunciations by the prophets of the vileness of the Jews of Jerusalem,
and the impotent laws which were introduced into the so-called Mosaic
code, that the Hebrew family was to the full as bad and vile as were the
nations around them.
We further showed that there was a marked difference in the thoughts,
the doctrines, the laws, the knowledge, the writings, and the form
of worship amongst the Jews after they had come into contact with the
Babylonians, Persians, and Greeks; and we adverted to the fact that the
laws of the Persians, and those of him, whom we would designate
"the fictitious Moses," were remarkably similar; and we showed
that everything in the Old Testament, which is, by the majority of
Christians, deemed to be of Divine origin, had been derived from or
through one or other of the sources which we have named, and which we
call Pagan. From this we deduced the important corollary, either that
the so-called revelation of the Old Testament is a sham, a priestly
fabrication, and what is known as "a pious fraud," or that it was not
made originally to the Hebrews. In neither case can the Jews establish a
title to be the "chosen people of God" in any sense of the words. If the
Bible is true, the Gentiles have spiritual precedence over the Hebrews,
and the Pagans have the _pas_ of the Christians.
This deduction enabled us to recognize the importance of an extended
inquiry into the faith, religion, and practice of other nations, before
we assume ourselves to be in a position to appreciate the claims
which one human being, or any body of men, might make to be the
representatives of the Almighty, the sole recipients of His commands,
and the only medium by which prayers can be forwarded to Him. Again, the
history of the past, and a study of the present, enabled us to see that
the foundation of a new religion, or the modification of an old one, did
not destroy ancient practices, though it transferred priestly power to
a new set of men, who, while they introduced new gods and new dogmas,
endeavoured to incorporate the older ideas with new, so as to seduce or
cheat the vulgar, whom it was not judicious to slaughter, into adopting
the new faith. Consequently, we are able to understand how indecent
ideas, sexual emblems, and Pagan festivals, with many of the licentious
practices associated therewith, have been handed down from a remote
idolatry to a modern and comparatively enlightened Christianity. The
symbols of the objectionable still remain, but the things symbolized
have been altered, and the original ideas suppressed. The male triad is
a holy trinity; the monad is no longer the emblem of womankind, but of
the so-called Mother of God, or, as the Romanists say, of the
_Mater Creatoris_. But with this knowledge comes the very important
consideration, how far Christian ideas, which are founded upon Pagan
fancies, can be regarded as Divine. This, again, involves the question,
how far Jesus, who had not penetration enough to discover the true
nature of the writings to which he trusted, can be considered as an
incarnation of Divine knowledge, or of unbounded wisdom. Still further,
it became clear, after our arguments, that if the stories of the
creation of man, the fall of Adam, the life of Noah, of Abraham, of
Moses, the tale of Sinai, and the supremacy of Judah, are mythical--if
the prophetic writings are as worthless as the oracles of Dodona and of
Delphi--then all theories, dogmas, and doctrines founded upon them must
be equally valueless.
In pursuance of my subject, I pointed out that there was not a nation
known to history which had not its god or gods, a sacred priesthood, a
set of prophets, either located in one spot, or appearing as independent
vaticinators, a number of holy festivals, of hallowed shrines, of
mysterious temples, and an inner and recondite arcanum into which the
profane were not permitted to enter. I showed that other nations besides
the Jews had a sacred ark which was an emblem of a divinity; that the
use of sacrifices was common to every nation of antiquity; and that such
things had existed in Hindostan from time immemorial. I pointed out,
that there was no single precept or order contained in the Jewish
Ritual which could not be found amongst all other people, with the sole
exception of the Sabbath; and that the respect for this very strange law
was due to the ignorance of the Hebrews, who regarded Saturn as the most
high amongst the gods--information gained from the Babylonians.
Thus, an investigation into the nature and importance of Ancient Faiths
becomes a necessary prelude to, or, rather, is unavoidably followed
by, an inquiry into the beliefs, doctrines, and practices current in
Christendom generally, and in Great Britain particularly. Yet, though
I was insensibly driven forwards to complete the task which I began,
without having any definite notion of the amount of labour I should
have to undergo, I passively resisted for a long time the conclusions to
which I was drawn, feeling myself unwilling, almost, indeed, unable, to
undertake an examination which might shake my faith in the New Testament
as it had been shaken in the Old. Like many others of a thoughtful turn
of mind, I could see, without very strong regret, the Jewish writings
consigned to their appropriate niche in the library of the world; but
I shunned the effort required to take down the books of the Gospels
and Epistles and weigh them in the impartial balance of critical
truth. Nevertheless, as my work on Ancient Faiths progressed, I became
painfully conscious that I must plead guilty to the charge of mental
cowardice if I shirked the duty of examining the New, as I had
investigated the Old, Testament. But when the resolution to investigate
modern faith was at length formed, the difficulties surrounding the
subject became apparent. The history of modern faith is, to a great
extent, the history of Christianity, and the history of Christianity
must start from a history of Jesus and his apostles--Paul, Peter, James,
John, and Jude, as given in the Epistles and Gospels included in the
canon of the New Testament. To cope with any one of these histories as
they deserve to be handled would involve the work of a lifetime, and for
one man to exhaust the whole seemed to me an impossibility. There
was, in addition to this, another consideration which complicated
my difficulty still farther, viz., the fact that there were already,
written histories of the nature of those alluded to, and that it would
be useless to multiply them. It is a thankless task to pursue the
current of the Christian religion through the dark scenes which shrouded
it, from the time when it was adopted by a few "unlearned and ignorant
men," until it emerged as a power able to shake empires--from the period
wherein its professors were burned and otherwise tortured to death,
to the days when their own Christian successors racked, roasted, and
tormented their opponents, with a malignancy and cruelty as great as
that which they themselves had execrated when practised upon their
predecessors. From the moment that Christianity became a political
power, its history resembled that of any tyrant or other ruler, and it
is filled with misrepresentation, lying, fraud, the records of fighting
and slaughter, of brutal passions, frightful laws, and horrible
punishments; in fact, the record of political Christianity is that of a
Devil in sheep's clothing. Even Calvin, one of our cherished reformers,
burnt another Protestant almost in the same year as the Papists burnt
Ridley and Latimer. The English Episcopalians in Scotland, and the
Cromwellian Puritans in Ireland, showed more of the ravening wolf in
their actions than of the amiable shepherd, who "gently leads" the weak
ones of his flock. In fact, the more loud the proclamation of a pure
Christianity, the more devilish is the practice of its heralds.
When I turned to the consideration of the life of Jesus, it was clear
that the ground was already fully occupied. In 1799 a Mr Houston
published a work entitled _Ecce Homo; or, a Critical Inquiry into the
History of Jesus Christ: being an Analysis of the Gospels_, a second
edition of which was made public fourteen years afterwards, and, as
a result, its publisher (D. J. Eaton) was prosecuted, and such of the
impressions as could be collected were publicly burned in St. George's
Fields, London, by the common hangman, whose business it was to strangle
truth as well as murderers. This book, which is little known to modern
readers, is strictly what it professes to be--a critical inquiry
into the history of Jesus Christ, and it may, to a great extent, be
considered as the progenitor of more modern treatises. It does not
materially differ from the _Ecce Homo_ of to-day, or from the other
works which we shall name, except in its style and composition. Having
been written when all were in the habit of expressing their views in
strong language, and when opponents were abused in terms of coarse
invective, the author has expressed himself in a manner calculated to
offend rather than to convince, and to stir up anger rather than
to encourage thought. Yet his arguments are unanswerable, and his
deductions unimpeachable, by those who know the value of evidence and
exercise their power of ratiocination. I have been unable to find that
any work was written in refutation of the author's views, and the
only opposition to it was from the usual agent of the weak-minded, but
strong-bodied--persecution.
In more recent times, and within a very short period of each
other--so short, indeed, that we may say that the books were composed
simultaneously in Hindostan, Germany, France, and England--there have
appeared _A Voice from the Ganges,_ Strauss' _New Life of Jesus_,
Kenan's _Life of Jesus_, The English _Life of Jesus_, by Mr Thomas
Scott, of Norwood, a second _Ecce Homo_, from a modern Professor, and
_The Prophet of Nazareth_, by Owen Meredith.* In these volumes, the
historical value of the Gospel narratives closely and critically
examined, and a just appreciation of the character, preaching, and
practice of the Prophet of Nazareth are honestly sought after, and,
in the opinion of impartial readers, they must be held to have been
attained. Throughout the series which we have mentioned nothing that is
capable of demonstration, or of approximate proof, is taken for granted.
The scholarship of the critical philosopher everywhere overbears the
prejudice of the Christian bigot. Since the appearance of these another
author has treated upon the same subject, but only cursorily, and as
bearing upon other matters, in a work entitled _The Book of God; or, The
Apocalypse of Adam Oannes_, which was published anonymously, 1868.
* Whilst this sheet was in the printer's hands, a most
remarkable book was published anonymously, entitled,
_Supernatural Religion_, in two volumes. In it there is a
most scholarly account of the origin of the New Testament
writings, one which every thoughtful person should peruse.
Between the publication of the first _Ecce Homo_ and the second, viz.,
in 1836, there was printed, for private circulation, a very remarkable
work, entitled _Anacalypsis; or, an Attempt to draw aside the Veil of
the Saitic Isis_, by Godfrey Higgins. His two volumes are replete with
learning, and with deductions more startling than any which had appeared
prior to his own time; but the subject matter is so badly arranged,
that it is with very great difficulty that the trains of thought which
occupied the author's mind can be dis-. covered. His main idea is,
that very nearly everything in religion which appears to be mythical or
mysterious enfolds certain astronomical facts--such as the precession
of equinoxes, the duration of cycles of time--such as are necessary
to reproduce exactly a concordance between certain terrestrial and
celestial phenomena. With this theory he interweaves an amazing number
of facts which seem to favour the opinion enunciated in the book of
Ecclesiastes--i.e., that there is nothing new under the sun. He shows
that the idea of "incarnations," the birth of a heavenly child from a
pure virgin, and a variety of so-called Christian dogmas, have existed
in every age of which we have historical accounts.
He gives a vivid sketch of the nature of Christianity and its progress
from century to century, and he expresses himself respecting its modern
developments much in the same strain, though in a far more gentlemanlike
style, as did his contemporary, the Rev. R. Taylor, to whom was given,
or who assumed for himself, the title of the Devil's chaplain.
In the estimation of some of these writers, Jesus, the son of Mary, is
quite as mythical a being as Hercules, the son of Alcmena. This view has
been more recently adopted by some freethinkers of the present day. The
main support on which such individuals rely is the fact that there is no
mention of Jesus by any contemporary historian; and that, although
there are extant Jewish records of current history, at the time in which
Christ is said to have lived, they make no mention of him who is now
called the Saviour and of his wonderful history. It is pointed out that
the histories of the Gospels came out with marvellous rapidity, from
Alexandria, about the end of the first century, at a time when all
contemporaries of Jesus were dead.
To this work of Higgins it is probable that we shall have repeatedly
to refer, for his language is frequently so forcible that it cannot
be improved, and, moreover, he very often quotes from books, copies of
which I have been unable to obtain.
When I found that the ground which I intended to occupy had already
been so well and so ably cultivated, it occurred to me that it would be
advisable to take a wider flight than was originally contemplated, and,
instead of examining the Christian faith alone, to associate with it an
account of the faiths of those nations of whom we have some knowledge.
By this means it appeared to me, that we should be enabled to see
clearly, how far the current belief and practice of Christendom differs
from the doctrines and practices of those to whom Christianity could
never, by any possibility, have come, and we can examine, incidentally,
into the teachings of Jesus, and compare them with that of his
predecessor, Sakya Muni, or Buddha. We may also investigate impartially
such doctrines as the immaculate conception, and the existence of
angels.
When treating, however, a subject like the religions of the ancient and
modern world, it is difficult to frame the history so as to bring out
the salient points, in a manner satisfactory to the reader or to
the writer. The latter is tempted to begin, as he believes, at the
beginning, and to trace the development of religious thought from
its simplest expression up to its highest aspiration. This temptation
becomes all the stronger if, in the course of his study, he has
investigated the animal and vegetable creations. In those vast kingdoms
he sees that the philosopher is able to lead his disciples onwards
from the minute monad, or the simplest mass of matter, to the gigantic
mastodon, without any very conspicuous flaw or break in continuity; but,
on closely observing his method of proceeding, the student finds that
links which connect genera or species together are found in countries so
wide apart, that no direct communication can be supposed between the one
type and the other. Thus the gap between mammals and birds is said to
be filled by the "ornithorhynchus paradoxus," an animal living in a
vast island, in which scarcely one quadruped mammalian is known to
have existed, and where the aboriginal birds form a class peculiar to
Australia, and have no resemblance to the creature referred to.
Yet, though the temptation is great, and although we feel justified in
reasoning from the known to the unknown, and in supplying missing links
from analogy, or from our own imagination, still, we consider that it
will be our best plan to confine ourselves, as far as possible, to
that which is written, and to describe first, the religious ideas and
practices of some so-called savages; secondly, the ideas and practices
of some ancient races, whose histories, more or less perfect, have
come down to us, with a view to ascertain whether there is anything
essentially good in modern Christianity, either in faith or practice,
which is peculiar to that form of religion, or whether almost the same
style of teaching may not be found to have been common in the remote
East, at a period some centuries prior to the birth of Jesus.
As we have investigated the subjects of Sin, Salvation, Prayer,
Inspiration, &c., it is unnecessary to refer to them again.
CHAPTER II
Travellers' tales not to be trusted. Prejudice perverts
facts. The Esquimaux. Cause of reverence for parents. The
Red Indian in the presence of immigration is a moral
murderer. Inquiry into Indian religion. O. KEE. PA. Indian
reverence for phenomena of nature. Ruins of a past
civilization in America. Cairns and human sacrifices.
Manufactured goods. Bronze in Yucatan. Resemblance between
the ancient American people and certain Orientals. Abbe
Domenech's travels. Sacrifice at obsequies, idea involved
thereby. Scythian proceedings. Mexico and its theology. Two
different conceptions of deity. The Unity subdivided by
Mexicans, Jews, and Christians. The God of war and the Lord
of Hosts. The God of air a deity in Mexico, a devil in Judea
or Ephesus. Mexican baptismal regeneration. Resemblances
between the Occidental and Oriental people in many curious
doctrines. Particulars. Mexican Heaven, Hell, and Limbo.
Mexican baptism and prayers. Priests and their duties. A
parallel. Romanists and Mexicans. Confession. Expiation.
Human sacrifice to obtain pardon of sin. A comparison
suggested. Mexican education. Purity of life in the Mexican
priestesses. Father Acosta's opinion thereon. Tartary, Rome,
and Mexico have something common in culture. Education of
youth. Policy of the priesthood. Reflections thereupon.
Teocallis or houses of God. Worship. Festivals. Human
sacrifice. No sexual deities or rites. Question of
credibility--God and the Devil act alike! Aztecs and
Europeans compared. Christians have offered human sacrifice
from the time of Peter downwards. Transubstantiation is a
cannibal doctrine. Christian gods in Mexico as bad as the
Aztec deities. History of Peru. The policy of its rulers.
Roads and magazines. Nature of its government Governors were
instructed in their duties. Civil service examination.
Inauguration of youths into honourable manhood. Travelling
compulsory in rulers. Postal system--division of the people
--local magistrates--law speedy. Code of law. Punishment
without torture. Peruvians and inquisitors. Reports required
of lands and families. Register of births, &c. Rapidity of
communication. Plunder not permitted. Peace the motive for
war. The vanquished incorporated with the victors. A
paternal government. Peruvian religion. Difference between
political institutions and priestcraft. Peruvian sun god. An
invisible God recognised. Priests. Eternal life. Heaven
and Hell. Temple of the sun magnificent. Golden
ornaments. Huge urns of silver. Number of priests.
Festivals. Cannibalism not permitted. Fire made from rays of
sun and concave mirror, or by friction. Virgins of the sun.
Concubines of the Inca. Matrimony. Reflexions.
When the philosopher reads over the histories which adventurous
travellers, or Christian missionaries, have given of the religions of
the savage, or uncivilized, people whom they have visited, he feels
painfully conscious that the accounts are not implicitly to be relied
upon. In some he recognizes the fact that communications only take place
between the one party and the other by signs, which not only may be, but
very generally are, misinterpreted on both sides; in others he is able
to see, or, at least, he comes to the conclusion, that the untaught
barbarians have not a single idea which is not connected with eating
and drinking, war, revenge, and love;--that such, indeed, resemble brute
beasts, who have no more conception of hell or heaven, God and the soul,
than an elephant has of aerostation, or a crow of theology. In other
narratives the observer notices, that the individuals who interrogate
the savages are themselves enthusiasts of a high order, who ask leading
questions, and are content to receive, as a satisfactory answer,
anything which can be considered as a reply. By this means very
erroneous ideas have crept in amongst ourselves, and writers have built
arguments upon a foundation as flimsy as a shifting sand. For example,
I have repeatedly heard it alleged that every known tribe, in every part
of the world which has yet been visited, has a tradition respecting an
universal deluge, and the salvation of their progenitors by a
floating vessel; and on this has been founded the hypothesis that all
architecture, and even written characters, have an ark for their type.
This development has been very ingeniously supported by J. P. Lesley, in
_Man's Origin and Destiny_ (Trubner, London, 1868), a work replete with
learning, and bold, but somewhat unsound, deductions. This assumed fact
has also been used in support of the Biblical story of Noah, his ark,
and the universal deluge--a myth so palpably extravagant, that everyone
who professes to credit it is compelled to object to some detail, and
to lean upon some frail reed, with the hope that he may thus be pardoned
for his credulity. Since the above was written, it has been ascertained
that the tale of Noah and his deluge is adapted from an Assyrian or
Babylonian legend, written apparently with a view to make a story
fitting to the sign of the Zodiac called Aquarius, one to the full as
fabulous as that of the birth of Bacchus, and the amours of Zeus.
In some instances, moreover, and palpably in those cases where the
account of the religion of barbarous nations is given by fanatics, such
as the Roman Catholic invaders of America, or by such conquerors as
Caesar and others, who have themselves very hazy notions of their
own faith, the philosopher feels that the savage is intentionally
misrepresented; consequently, in these, as in all other instances, it
behoves the philosopher to examine the evidence at his command with
critical acumen, rather than accept the statements made by more or less
careless observers. Endeavouring, therefore, to avoid these difficulties
as far as possible, let us summarize the result of our reading, and
record the impressions left upon our mind respecting the faith, ritual,
and practice of certain modern and ancient barbarians.
Beginning with the vast American continent, we find that the Esquimaux
appear to have no conception whatever of a Creator, of a future state,
of a mundane theocracy, or of any unseen agency but good or bad
"luck." But they, nevertheless, put a certain amount of faith in
conjurers--cunning men or women who profess to be able to insure them a
good supply of seals or walrus, and protection from Arctic dangers. For
such a people as this the wants of the day form the chief, if not the
only, object of thought; and they resemble lions or eagles, who are now
all but famished in the hunt for food, and now gorged to repletion with
the result of their quest. To such a nation, Heaven, as described in the
Bible, with its sea of glass, its harpists and singers, would afford no
temptation, and, unless it was furnished with abundance of oily food, an
Esquimaux would not visit it; nor would the fires and heat of Hell have
any terrors for one whose torments on earth are connected with miserable
cold. In practice, the Esquimaux are very much what they are made by
their neighbours and visitors: they are very decently behaved to those
who treat them well, and cruel, barbarous, and revengeful to strangers
after they have themselves been worried by invaders. Alternately
gluttons and starving they obey the necessities of their existence--they
eat to keep themselves warm, and they must be anchorets as rigid as any
Theban hermit whilst they are seeking their prey. With a temperature
below zero, and winter huts constructed of ice, chastity is almost
a necessary virtue, and adultery cannot possibly be frequent. Where
everything of value is rare, covetousness is not common; but if the
holder of the coveted prize be always alert, it is quite natural that
murder shall be attempted, either by the thief or his victim. The
reverence of parents here, as elsewhere, is a necessary accompaniment of
savage life, and is quite independent of any knowledge of the decalogue.
To prevent reiteration of this observation, let us consider for a
moment, the chief if not the main cause, of the reverence given to the
father, and, more rarely, to the mother in the economy of human life. We
see that the Almighty has implanted an instinct in one or both parents,
throughout the larger part of the animal creation, to nourish, guide,
and teach their young. The duck leads her brood to a pond; the hen keeps
her chicks from water, but teaches them to pick up seeds, grubs, and
worms; whilst the cock keeps order amongst the family, The weasel
teaches its offspring how to attack its prey most advantageously, and
the eagle instructs her young ones to fly. In like manner, man is at the
head of his own household; he is the first power to which the young ones
bow; they know the weight of his arm, and dread his anger, knowing that
they will suffer from it when it is stirred up. We all know, as a rule,
that a habit contracted in childhood adheres to us throughout life,
consequently, the dread of the father which exists in the youth becomes,
very generally, filial reverence in the man. But we also know that
almost throughout the animal creation, the young and sturdy males
will, as they grow up to maturity, fight for supremacy, even with their
parents. So long as the latter retain the mastery they are respected;
but as soon as age and its accompanying weakness have made them succumb,
all filial respect vanishes. If, therefore, a parent, when old, is
unable to make himself feared by his prowess, revered for his good sense
or knowledge, or beloved for some faculty which makes him pleasing to
his family or the tribe, he is neglected, and often sacrificed, so
that the young shall have only themselves to provide food for. Even in
Christian England, where filial regard is cultivated as an essential
part of our religion, we too frequently find that parents are wholly
neglected by their adult offspring, as soon as they become, from
sickness, age, or other infirmity, useless members of the family.
Without having ever heard of a law, or set of laws, given in a desert
from Mount Sinai, the Esquimaux are as moral as modern Christians, and
more so than the ancient Jews: they certainly have not more gods than
one, and do not worship any graven image. Amongst them blasphemy is
unknown. Parents are honoured; chastity is general; murder is very
rare; theft only exists when strangers come amongst them with valuable
matters, such as cutting weapons. Amongst such a primitive people false
witness is unknown, and covetousness only exists in the presence of
travellers who have well-stocked ships or sledges. But the Esquimaux do
not keep a Sabbath of rest every seventh day; how, indeed, could they,
when many of their days have a duration of six weeks--according to the
Hebrew computation, which measures the day by sunsets. It is clear,
then, that what many persons designate Christian virtues do not
necessarily depend upon a knowledge of Jehovah, of Jesus, or of both.
The North American Indian appears to have been, when first discovered,
wholly without any distinct religious faith. It is true that some
authors have described him as reverencing his manitou, or great spirit,
and speaking of some happy hunting ground to which his soul will pass
after death; but I am unable to find any reliable testimony in support
of this poetic notion. To me it seems that the Red Indian is nothing
more than one of a ferocious tribe of men, who, having to subsist by the
chase alone, bestows all his thoughts upon getting meat, and driving off
his neighbours from interfering in his lands. To such an one a teeming
population is equivalent to a diminution in the supply of game, and
this, again, involves starvation. With him, therefore, the murder of his
neighbours becomes a matter of necessity, one which may be regarded by
him as an absolute virtue, a matter of public policy, and essentially
a moral duty; and as he is little superior to a tiger or a cat, he does
not scruple to add cruelty to homicide. He who has seen a carnivorous
beast seize its living prey, disable, without killing it, and then lie
by and watch its victim, rising now and again to give it a shake, or
a pat with its claw, can well understand how a Blackfoot Indian might
gloat over a dying Delaware, or a Mandan torture an Iroquois when he had
the chance, each regarding the other as men consider wasps and hornets.
Yet, though without religion, the Indian is not without fear. He is
terrified by strange noises, and by weird sights; there is a being whom
he dreads; and there is in every tribe a "medicine man," who is supposed
to have supernatural power, and to be able to attract good or to banish
evil fortune from the chief and his people. Practically, the Red Indian
is as superstitious about lucky and unlucky days as was the Hebrew David
and the Persian Haman, and, prior to the starting of an expedition, the
diviner is consulted, who may, possibly, answer in the words of the Lord
(?) of Judah, "let it be when thou hearest the sound of a going in the
tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt bestir thyself, for then
shall the Lord go out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines"
(2 Sam. v. 24).
But though without religion, in the usual acceptation of the word, the
Indians were not, when first the white man knew them, wholly without
ritual, or what has been designated a sacred ceremony. The celebration
to which we refer occurred every year, was conducted by a definite set
of actors, and was attended to with wonderful reverence. A full account
of such ceremony is given by G. Catlin, in a work entitled, O Kee Pa
(Truebner, London, 1867). In it figures a mystic messenger, who comes to
demand the initiation of the young men of the tribe who have attained
a fighting age; tents are then prepared, and men and women are duly
painted and otherwise disguised to represent buffaloes and bugbears,
the bad spirit, etc.; the main intention of the whole being to test the
courage, strength, and endurance of the young men by frightful tortures,
which are too disgusting for description here. At the end of the trial,
however, each votary sacrifices a joint of the little finger of one hand
to the bad spirit. At this feast-some doll-like effigies are used to
mark the "mystery" tent.
Amongst barbarians like these are, it will readily be imagined that
such virtues as chastity and charity have no existence,--that successful
theft ennobles the robber, and that the slaughter of an enemy, either by
treachery or in fair fight, is regarded as a proof of courage, much as
it was amongst the Spartan Greeks. Polygamy is simply a matter of wealth
and arrangement, and women are purchased and treated like slaves. It is
the man's business to hunt and fight, it is the woman's duty to make the
best or the most of the spoils of the chase.
Yet, with this general absence of all religion, there appears to
be, here and there, a reverence for certain strange phenomena of
nature--such as hot or bubbling fountains, sulphur springs, steaming
geysers, and curious rocks, like the celebrated pipe-stone rock in the
Sioux territory. From this all pipes ought to be made, there being as
much of orthodoxy in such bowls amongst the Indians as there is in an
"Agnus Dei" amongst Christian papists. There is, too, a reverence for
the dead occasionally to be met with, but it cannot be said to amount
to worship. In some instances, but I do not find that the custom is
general, a man is interred with his horse, weapons, and medicine bag,
as if it was expected that he would live beyond the tomb, and require in
his other state of existence that which he wanted in this.
What we have said of the North American aborigines applies with equal,
if not with greater, force to those of the South.
From what the savage redskins are, and have been, during the last two or
three centuries, a transition to what they have been in the past is very
natural; and, whilst making the step, the philosopher will be reminded
of the observation made by some profound observer, to the effect---"go
where you will, no matter how savage the nation, you will be sure to
find the remains of a previous empire, nation, or civilization." Vast
forests, scarcely yet fully explored, cover ancient cities in Ceylon
and Central America alike, and men, who toiled to build vast temples,
towers, palaces, and fortresses, are replaced by wild animals. In
the Bashan of Palestine, primeval houses of stone still stand, where
scarcely a resident is to be found, and the present inhabitants are far
inferior to the ancient race that built these enduring dwellings. Thus
the Abbe Domenech writes (_Seven Years Residence in the Great Deserts of
North America_, London, Longman, 1860), vol. I., p. 353--"From Florida
to Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, the American soil
is strewn with gigantic ruins of temples, tumuli, entrenched camps,
fortifications, towers, villages, towers of observation, gardens, wells,
artificial meadows, and high roads of the most remote antiquity."
Without entering closely into the nature of the antiquities discovered,
we may state that they comprise pyramids, cones, obelisks, hills
surrounded by a deep vallum, like that adjoining Salisbury, and earthen
constructions analogous to that at Avebury. There is evidence that
the artificial erections, which were so built as to be visible from an
enormous distance, were designed, possibly, as cairns, or memorials of
the dead, but also as spots for sacrificial offerings, resembling those
called high places in Ancient Palestine, the tumulus over Patroclus, and
the Scythian mounds in the Crimea. The altars which have been discovered
are made of baked clay or stone, and have the shape of large basins,
varying in length from nineteen inches to seventeen yards, but generally
about two yards and a-half. Under and around the altars calcined human
bones were found, and sometimes a whole skeleton was met with in the
tumulus, as if a sacrifice of men attended the funeral rites, as we
learn from Homer that it did, before Troy, when Achilles directed the
obsequies of his friend Patroclus. Cremation, as well as sepulture, was
adopted, and with the dead, ornaments, arms, and other objects, which
belonged in life to the departed, were buried; amongst these are to be
reckoned trinkets of silver and of brass, as well as of stone and bone.
As a proof of the advanced knowledge of the people referred to, I may
here quote, from memory, a note from Stevens' _Central America_, to the
effect that the bronze tools found in Yucatan, &c., amongst the quarries
whence the stone for the ancient temples was procured, are nearly as
hard as steel, and that a similar bronze is only known to have existed
in some of the ancient tombs and quarries of Egypt, an observation
which receives additional value from Domenech's remark, vol. I., p.
364--"These works of art (arms, idols, and medals, found in New Granada
tombs) are acknowledged, by the archaeologists of Panama, to possess the
characteristics of both Chinese and Egyptian art." Here, again, I would
call my readers' attention to the facts, that in very modern times
Chinese have migrated to California, Australia, Singapore, and other
distant localities, and that Fortune found Egyptian curiosities in
_virtu_, shops in China, whilst Egyptologists have discovered Chinese
manufactures in Egyptian tombs. The subject of the extent of travel in
ancient times does not enter into my present plan; but as I am desirous
to make the mind of my readers expansive enough to receive everything
which bears upon the history of man upon the earth, I may be allowed to
sow seed by the way-side, some of which may blossom as "a garden flower
grown wild." Domenech, in p. 408, vol. I., figures a remarkable stone,
by many persons supposed to be a hoax or forgery, which was found at the
base of one of the largest mounds in North America, situated in Western
Virginia. It lay in a sepulchral chamber, thirty-five feet from the
surface, was elliptic in shape, two inches and a-half long, two wide,
and about half an inch thick, and the material was of a dark colour, and
very hard. The following is a copy from Domenech's work, and, without
dwelling upon it, we may call attention to the similarity of some of
the letters with those known to, or used by the Phoenicians, Ancient
Greco-Italians, and Carthaginians. Like the Newton Stone, in Scotland,
and some Gnostic gems, it may be said to be learned "gibberish," which
"the spirits" can read but no one else.
[Illustration: 056]
There is, indeed, much more evidence than is generally supposed to
connect the ancient mound-builders in America with the inhabitants
of the Eastern Hemisphere, particularly in their modes of burial, the
nature of their earthworks, and the style of such ornaments and figures
as have been found. For example, there is one enclosure described, in
the centre of which is erected a mound and pillar, precisely resembling
the linga yoni of the East. In addition to these, carved stones have
been found, which unite together such Oriental emblems as the sun and
moon, the Tau, T and the egg, O which together make the well-known
Egyptian symbol A. Again, Domenech figures some male and female human
effigies, of whom American savans write that they represent idols of
sexual design, similar to those exposed in the _Mysteries of Eleusis_,
one of them being a badly finished image of Priapus. Domenech still
farther states, on the authority of Cortez, that a form of worship,
recalling the Egyptian mysteries of Isis and Osiris, was established in
America.
Respecting the nature of the religion of the mound builders the Abbe
writes--"The government of these nations appears to have been theocratic
or sacerdotal, like that of the Jews, and the religious administrative
and military power was, probably, vested in one and the same person.
This is clearly evinced by the taboo, or sacred monuments, being
combined with those of a purely military character," p. 366. Without
straining doubtful points too far, we may content ourselves with
affirming that the researches of Davis and Squire, of Stephens, and of
Domenech, show that the mound builders of America raised high places
for sacrificial fires; that they built huge piles of earth over dead
warriors; and, that during the funeral rites which were observed at the
obsequies, they immolated certain human victims.
Let us now pause for a moment and consider how much is involved in the
practice of making a sacrifice by fire, or otherwise, at the burial of
any deceased chieftain or honoured man. With what idea could the living
wife join her husband on the funeral pyre in India, or the ancient
Tartars have slain the horse, slaves, wives, and chief officers of a
defunct king, burying them all in a vast grave, unless they entertained
the belief that there was a life beyond the grave? The faith may have
been of the crudest form, yet the practice evidenced the belief that
those who died, and were buried together, would arise and live at the
same time and place, and in the same relative positions which they had
during life. If this be granted, it demonstrates that the early dwellers
in America had a higher conception of immortality than had the ancient
Jews, even although the latter assumed, and pertinaciously persisted in
the assertion, that they, and they only of all the nations of the
world, were taught of God--a boast to which a vast number of thoughtless
Christians give a profound reverence, and most implicit belief.
Without speculating upon the probable connexion between the
mound-builders and the inhabitants of ancient Mexico, we will endeavour,
with the aid of Prescott, and other writers, to ascertain something
of the faith professed by Montezuma and his subjects. Derived from two
sources, there were two distinct elements in the Mexican religion; one
of these was gentle and mild as the teaching of Christ, and the other,
ferocious and cruel, like the practice of such of his followers as
the sensual Crusaders, the persecuting Popes of Italy, and the brutal,
money-grubbing Spaniards. The former gradually dried up, like primitive
Christianity, and the harmlessness of the dove was replaced by the
ferocity of the wolf. It is in strict accordance with human nature,
that virtues are harder to maintain than vices, hence malignancy swelled
itself up and became dominant. The priests of the sanguinary class
contrived as burdensome a ceremonial as ever existed in Judea,
Greece, Spain, or Modern Rome, and they surrounded their deities with
conceptions as grotesque as those which are clustered round the Hindoo
gods of to-day, the divinities of the Greeks and Romans, and the
innumerable virgins, saints, and martys of mediaeval and modern papal
Christianity. The power and the inclination to make fetish is certainly
not confined to African negroes. The Mexicans recognized a supreme
Creator as the God by whom we live, one who was, for them, omnipresent
and omniscient--the giver of all good things, "without whom man is as
nothing." He was said to be "invisible, incorporeal, a being of absolute
perfection and perfect purity," "under whose wings men may find repose
and a sure defence." But this deity, though single, was subdivided
by the Mexican theologians, much in the same way as Jehovah became
separated into an innumerable host of angels, archangels, and devils,
and as Zeus was split up into an equally numerous army of gods,
goddesses, and demigods. The Mexicans had thirteen major, and about two
hundred minor, divinities, to one or other of whom each day was devoted,
much in the same way as certain modern Christians believe in one
Creator, four persons, three of whom are male and the other female,
seven archangels, and some hundreds of saints, virgins, or martyrs, to
each of whom one day of the year is consecrated. There are more gods and
goddesses in the Papal calendar than in that of Ancient Mexico, Greece,
or even Rome.
At the head of the celestial army was "the god of war," "the patron of
the kingdom," whose temples were more noble in their barbaric majesty
than any other, and to whom human beings were sacrificed in abundance.
They were the noblest creatures that could be found, and in truth, there
were very few other animals to offer in their place.
This great Mexican divinity was essentially the same as the _Jehovah
Tsebaoth_ of the Hebrew Scriptures; the Lord of Hosts of whom we read in
Exod. xv. 3, "The Lord (Jehovah) is a man of war, the Lord (Jehovah) is
His name;" and in Ps. xxiv. 8, "Who is this King of glory?--the Lord,
strong and mighty; the Lord, mighty in battle;" and again, the same idea
appears in verse 10 of the same Psalm; see also 1 Chron. xvii. 24, "The
Lord of Hosts is the God of Israel." Indeed, we should weary the reader
if we were to quote all the texts to be found in the Old Testament,
which prove that the Hebrew Jehovah was as much a god of war as was the
chief deity of the Mexicans. Modern civilization may frame the belief
that God is not "the author of confusion, but of peace" (1 Cor. xiv.
33); but the Hebrews in the East, and the Mexicans in the West, held a
different opinion. Besides the god of war there was a god of the air,
who once lived on earth, and taught metallurgy, agriculture, and the
art of government. He was essentially a human benefactor, who caused the
earth to teem with fruit and flowers, without the trouble of laborious
cultivation--his reign was analogous to the golden age of the Greeks and
Romans. But he was not wholly satisfactory, and was banished; yet he is
to have a second coming, like Elias, and a modern deity of the Eastern
world. His portrait is identical, apparently, with the commonly received
likeness of Jesus. In Christian mythology (see Eph. ii. 2), "the prince
of the power of the air" is regarded as "the adversary," or a devil.
No other deities are described in detail by Prescott, but he says that
every household had its "penates," or household gods. On turning
to Higgins, who quotes entirely from Lord Kingsborough's _Mexican
Antiquities_, we find that the Mexicans baptized their children with
what they called "water of regeneration." Their king also danced before
his god, as David did, to his chaste wife's disgust, and was consecrated
and anointed by the high priest with a holy unction as Saul and the
son of Jesse were. On one day of the year all the fires in the Mexican
kingdom were extinguished and lighted again from one sacred hearth in
the temple, which again reminds us of the Vestal Virgins, whose business
was to keep up a holy fire in Rome, and of the lamp which was to burn
perpetually in the Jewish temple (Exod. xxvii. 20). At the end of October
the Mexicans had a feast resembling our "All Souls," or "Saints," day,
which was called "the festival of advocates," because each human being
had an advocate in the heaven above to plead for him, which again
reminds us of Jesus' dictum, that children have guardian angels, who are
always in God's presence (Matt, xviii. 10)
The same people had a forty-days' fast, in honour of a god who was
tempted forty days upon a mountain, and thus resembled the Prophet of
Nazareth. He was called the morning star, and thus is to be identified
with Lucifer as well as Jesus (Isa. xiv. 12, Rev. xxii. 16), and carried
a reed for an emblem (see Eev. xxi. 15). The Mexicans honoured a cross,
and the god of air was represented sometimes as nailed to one, and even
occasionally between two other individuals.*
* As we cannot imagine that the Mexicans were aware of the
manner in which modern Christians depict Jesus on the cross,
we most, I think, seek for some idea which was common to
both the East and West. In Payne Knight's work, so often
referred to by us, there is a picture which represents a
cock with a lingam instead of a head and beak; on its
pediment there is in Greek the words, soteer kosmou, "the
saviour of the world." This is also an epithet of Siva, and
he is sometimes represented as a phallus. In this he is the
Asher or Bel of the Assyrian triad, erected higher than the
other two. In Christian history the outsiders are said to be
thieves, but it was not so in Mexico. The three crosses
are simply emblems of the "trinity."
A virgin and child were also adored, as they were in Babylonia, Assyria,
Egypt, and Hindostan, and as they are in a great part of Europe at the
present time. The people believed in vast cycles of years, at the end
of each of which there was to be a general destruction of life, and a
perfect regeneration, an idea which Higgins has shown to have existed
amongst Persians, Romans, and Jews alike. The Mexicans still further
believed in a threefold future state--a heaven for the brave, and those
who were sacrificed, there being, so far as I can discover, no abstract
idea of what we call "virtue"; a hell for the wicked; and a sort of
quiet limbo for those who were in no way distinguished. Heaven was
located in the sun, and the blessed were permitted to revel amongst
lovely clouds and singing birds, enjoying, unharmed, all the charms of
nature: a conception which is to the full as poetical, and, probably,
quite as near the truth, as that given in "Revelation." When a man died
he was burned, and, if rich, his slaves were sacrificed with him, the
Mexicans, in this respect, resembling the ancient Scythians, with whom
they had much in common. When the ceremony of giving a name to children
was gone through, their lips and bosom were sprinkled with water, and
the Lord was implored to permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that
was given to the child before the foundation of the world, so that the
infant might be born anew, or, in modern terms, regenerated (Prescott,
ch. 3). Amongst their prayers, or invocations, were the formulas, "Wilt
Thou blot us out, O Lord, for ever? Is this punishment intended, not for
our reformation, but for our destruction?" again, "Impart to us, out of
Thy great mercy, Thy gifts which we are not worthy to receive through
our own merits;" "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 eyes." These Mexican maxims so closely resemble
those to be found in the Bible, that it is difficult to believe that the
Spaniards really told the truth respecting them. The sacerdotal order
amongst the Mexicans was a numerous one, well arranged and powerful. The
priests used musical choirs in their worship, arranged the calendar, and
appointed the time for festivals. They superintended the education of
youth, and wrote up the traditions, like the "recorders" of the Jews,
Persians, other Orientals, and Christian monks, and looked to the
conservancy of the hieroglyphic paintings. There were two high priests,
who alone had to undertake the duty of offering human sacrifices,
and these were elected by the king and nobles, quite irrespective
of previous rank, and, when elected, they were inferior only to the
sovereign. When reading this, anyone who is familiar with biblical
history will bethink him of Luke iii. 3, "Annas and Caiaphas being the
high priests," the plural, not the singular, number being used, and of
the dictum of Caiaphas, John xi. 50, "It is expedient for us that one
man should die for the people, that the whole nation perish not." We
may put what construction we please upon these facts, but, whatever
interpretation we may adopt, we must acknowledge that the Hebrews, at
the time when our era commences, had two high priests who were concerned
in human sacrifice.
The priests, in general, were devoted to the service of some particular
deity, and, during the time of their attendance, lived in the temple,
celibate; but, when not on duty, they resided with their wives and
families. Thrice during the day, and once at some period of the night,
they were called to prayer, much like all the varieties of Christian
monks and nuns. They were frequent in their ablutions, in which habit
they may be contrasted with those saintly hermits, who regarded dirt as
a divine ordinance, and never washed; and they mortified the flesh by
long vigils, fasting, and cruel penance, drawing blood from their bodies
by flagellation, or by piercing them with the thorns of the aloe. The
resemblance of the Mexican sacerdotalism with Jewish and Christian
customs is thus shown to be wonderful and striking, so much so, that
the Spaniards started the idea that they had been taught by some
stray apostle of Jesus. The great cities of Mexico were divided into
districts, each of which was placed under the charge of a sort of
parochial clergy, who regulated every act of religion within their
precincts, and who administered the rites of confession and absolution.
The secrets of the confessional were held inviolable, and penances were
imposed, of much the same kind as those enjoined by the Roman Catholic
Church upon her votaries.
It was a tenet of Mexican faith, that a sin once atoned for, was, if
repeated, inexpiable a second time; consequently, confession was only
once resorted to, and that late in life; a good plan, upon the whole,
for it enabled a man whose days were numbered to get pardon "for good
and aye." It was also held that sacerdotal absolution was equivalent
to magisterial punishment. The formula of absolution contained this,
amongst other things, "O merciful Lord, Thou who knowest the secrets of
all hearts, let Thy forgiveness and favour descend, like the pure waters
of heaven, to wash away the stains from the soul. Thou knowest that this
poor man has sinned, not from his own free will, but from the influence
of the sign under which he was born." This idea may well be compared
with the current doctrine of the phrenologists, many of whom assert that
a man acts according to the configuration of his brain and cranium, and
is, therefore, only partially culpable for the commission of certain
crimes. After a copious exhortation to the penitent, in which he was
enjoined to undergo a variety of mortifications, and to perform minute
ceremonies, by way of penance, he was particularly urged to procure,
with the smallest possible delay, a slave, who was to be utilized in
sacrifice to the Deity; the priest then concluded with inculcating
charity to the poor--"Clothe the naked, and feed the hungry, whatever
privations it may cost thee, for remember their flesh is like thine."
The necessity of sacrifice, as an atonement for sin, forms an essential,
though bloody, part of both the Hebrew and the Christian faiths, and
history has long taught us that the slaughter of a man, woman, or child,
formed, in the estimation of the Ancient Greeks, and other nations, one
of the most acceptable of the forms of homage paid by a human being to
the Creator. This idea is at the very basis of the Christian theology.
It has been held, from the time of the apostle Paul to the present day,
that Jehovah would not look favourably upon mankind until He had been
propitiated, not by the sacrifice of an ordinary individual, but by the
murder, in the crudest of modes, of a being whom He personally begat,
for the purpose of killing him when arrived at maturity. In Hebrews
x. 12, we find this doctrine very distinctly enunciated, in the words,
"this man, after he had offered one sacrifice of sins for ever, sat down
on the right hand of God," and subsequently, v. 14, "by one offering he
hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Again, in Heb. ix.
26, "once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself;" and in Heb. x. 10, "we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ;" and in ix. 28, "Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many." The philosopher may doubt
whether the God whom the Christians have made for their own adoration,
is in any way different to that of King Mesha, who offered up his own
son in sacrifice, or to the Mexican one, who was contented with the
blood of a slave.*
* It is doubtful whether any Christian has ever paid real
attention to the doctrines which are familiar to his ear, or
to the hymns which an most frequently on his tongue. In the
usual fashion which is prevalent amongst ministers and
hearers, everything which is told by missionaries of heathen
deities is taken as true. Thus it has become the general
belief that the Mexican theology, which required an annual
sacrifice of human beings, whose hearts were cut out, and
offered warm, palpitating and full of blood, to a God who
was supposed to be present in a sacred stone statue, was
beyond measure atrocious. But in what consists the horror,
unless in the fact that the sacrifice was seen by the
worshippers? In Christendom people are never called upon to
see a man killed by nailing him to a cross. If they were
condemned to this penance, very little would any of them
talk of blood. As it is, the minds of the majority are
lulled to sleep by the substitution of words for facts, and
texts of Scripture for ideas; and those who are unable to
look upon a cut finger without fainting, and would not for
worlds go to see a man decapitated, talk in the serenest
manner on most sanguinary topics. A reference to a few hymns
which are general favourites will illustrate what I mean. In
"Rock of Ages," for example, we have the lines--
"Let the water and the blood
From thy riven side that flowed,
Cleanse from sin and make me pure."
Another equally popular hymn begins
"From Calv'ry's cross a fountain flows
Of water and of blood,
More healing than Bethesda's pool,
Redeeming Lord, thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power..." and again--
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuels veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains."
No congregation of Christian, or any other men, would
tolerate for a moment the introduction into divine worship
of a bath of blood, into which all those should plunge who
desired salvation. Not one would endeavour to wash his sins
away in a sanguine stream, drawn from any source whatever.
The horror which would be produced by the doctrine that such
things are necessary to appease our God, would make every
thinking being detest it. Yet, when we only play with the
idea, we can talk of such matters with holy complacency. If
any Christian wants to test his faith, let me advise him to
get a basinful of blood and place it in his bed-room, and
say twice a day, when looking on it, that's the stuff which
propitiates my God! It would not be long ere he saw the
absurdity of his theological tenets, and the coarseness of
the hierarchy which invented so frightful an idea of the
Omnipotent.
For the education of the youth of Mexico a part of the temples was
allotted, where the boys and girls of the middle and higher classes were
placed at an early period--the girls to be taught by the priestesses,
the boys by priests; and from a note in Prescott's corrected edition,
1866, p. 22, we learn that the former were even more generally pure
in life than, we have reason to believe, the Egyptian priestesses and
Christian nuns proved themselves to be, Father Acosto saying, "In truth,
it is very strange to see that this false opinion of religion hath so
great force amongst these young men and maidens of Mexico, that they
will serve the Devil with so great vigour and austerity, which many
of us do not in the service of the most high God, the which is a great
shame and confusion." It is curious to notice how the Christian priest
considers that chastity may be a snare of the Devil, as well as an
ordinance of Jehovah. The boys, in these scholastic parts of the sacred
temples, were taught the routine of monastic discipline--to decorate the
shrines of the gods with flowers, to feed the sacred fires, and to chant
in worship and at festivals. The Abbe Hue, in an account of his travels
in Thibet and Tartary, has told us repeatedly of the similarity between
the rites, practices, and ceremonies of the Romish Church and those in
use amongst the followers of the Great Lama. It is equally marvellous to
discover that the Mexican ritual resembles both. The Papalist endeavours
to explain this, by the monstrous assumption that both Tartary and
Mexico were evangelized by two different Christian Apostles. But it
seems to us more probable that the Romanists, who are known to have
adopted almost every ancient ceremony, symbol, doctrine, and the like,
have unknowingly copied from travelled Orientals, than that the cult of
the people of Thibet has travelled into America, as well as into Europe.
Into the identity of the Tartars with the Red Indians it is not my
intention to enter. The higher Mexicans were taught traditionary lore,
the mysteries of hieroglyphics, the principles of government, and
such astronomical and scientific knowledge as the priests would, or,
probably, could, impart. The girls learned to weave and embroider
coverings for the altars of the gods. Great attention was paid to
morality, and offences were punished with extreme rigour, even with
death itself. Youths were taught to eschew, vice and cleave to virtue,
to abstain from wrath, to offer violence or do wrong to no man, and to
do good where possible.
When of an age to marry, the pupils were dismissed from the convent, and
the recommendation of the principal thereof often introduced those
whom he regarded as the most competent of the students, to responsible
situations in public life. Such was the policy of the Mexican priests,
who were thus enabled to mould the mind of the young, and to train it
early to the necessity of giving reverence to religion, and especially
to its ministers--a reverence which maintained its hold on the warrior
long after every other vestige of education had been effaced. In this
matter America showed an astuteness equal to that exhibited by Papal
hierarchs in Rome.
To each of the principal temples, lands were annexed, for the
maintenance of the priests, and these glebes were augmented by
successive princes, until, under Montezuma, they were of enormous
extent, and covered every district of the* empire. The priests took the
management of their property into their own hands, and treated their
tenants with liberality and indulgence. In addition to this source of
income, they had "first fruits," and other offerings, dictated by piety
or superstition. The surplus was distributed in alms amongst the poor,
a duty strenuously prescribed by their moral code. Thus we find, adds
Prescott, whom we are closely, and almost verbatim, following, the
same religion inculcating lessons of pure philanthropy and of merciless
extermination--an inconsistency not incredible to those familiar with
the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the early ages of the
Inquisition.
In the course of a not very long life, I have heard, upon many
occasions, the argument that the persistency of the Roman Catholic
Church, in spite of its abominable corruptions, its utter contempt for
truth, its outrageous cruelty, its glaring superstition, its intolerable
arrogance, and its rapacious covetousness, proves that it is, and must
ever be regarded as a divine institution. But this argument loses all
its weight when we find that the religion of the Mexicans, which the
Spaniards declared to have sprung from the Devil, had the virtues, as
well as many vices, of the Roman faith. If one came from Heaven, the
other could not have come from Hell. The simple truth seems to be, that
crafty and designing men are always able to find dupes, and that red men
and black, the haughty Italian and the lively Frenchman, the stolid boor
and the polished orator, may all suffer alike from an education which
has taught them, in youth, to believe in the reality of a revelation
given to a class of human beings who, by its means, assume to be divine.
The Mexican temples--_teocallis_, or "houses of God "--were very
numerous, indeed there were several hundreds in each of the principal
cities of the kingdom; but we need not describe them more minutely than
to say that they were truncated pyramids terminating in a level surface,
upon which blazed the sacred fire. All religious services were public,
as in Roman Catholic countries. There were long processions of priests,
and numerous festivals of unusual sacredness, as well as monthly and
daily appropriate celebrations of worship, so that it is difficult to
conceive how the ordinary business of life was carried on. The sun was
an universal object of reverence. At a period not long prior (about 200
years) to the Spanish conquest, human sacrifices were adopted for the
first time, and they speedily became common, both as regards repetition
and the numbers of victims slaughtered. In some instances the oblations
terminated with cannibalism. The burnt offering was roasted, not
incinerated, and, like the Paschal lamb, was devoutly devoured. Sexual
rites, symbols, or worship, appear to have been very rare, for I can
only find one or two doubtful references to them. In this matter the
Mexicans were far superior to all the old Shemitic and Egyptian, as well
as the Hindoo, races. So far Prescott.
Whilst writing the foregoing, it has required some determination not to
comment very extensively upon the facts recorded, for they do, indeed,
set the thoughtful mind on fire. Amongst the questions which they
provoke, the first is, "how far the accounts given to us are to be
depended upon?" In answering this query, we readily recognize that our
authorities can only have been Spaniards, who were, to a great extent,
implacable enemies of the Mexicans, to a great extent ignorant of their
language, and bitterly hostile to them in matters of religion. But this
recognition leads us to trust the accounts which they give, for, if the
invaders had been able to treat the natives as unmitigated savages,
they would have had the more excuse for pillaging their sacred stores,
temples, and palaces, and exterminating the pagan worshippers. Again, if
the picture thus painted were a fancy one, having no real existence save
in the mind of the writer, we should be able readily to recognize its
counterpart in the Spanish history of the Peruvians, just as we are able
to ascertain the identity of the authorship of certain anonymous works
by Lord Lytton, by the existence therein of his marked peculiarity of
style. The best testimony, however, to the substantial truth of the
accounts given of the nature of the Mexican faith, is to be found in
various minute episodes of their general history, in the behaviour of
the Aztecs with each other, and towards their invaders, and the general
customs which are recorded. That the Spanish writers had a real belief
in the account of which Prescott has given us so admirable a resume, we
may feel assured, for one of them introduced the naive remark, "that the
Devil had positively taught to the Mexicans the same things which God
had taught to Christendom."
When once we have satisfied ourselves of the truth of the Spanish
accounts of the ancient Mexican institutions, we find ourselves in the
presence of some very striking religious and political facts. We see
before us a nation who had attained to as distinct a conception of the
Almighty as we have ourselves; who had discovered a heaven, a hell,
and an intermediate place, without the assistance of Jew or Greek,
Babylonian or Persian; who had instituted a sacerdotal class, and made
provision for their subsistence, without any assistance from Melchizedek
or Moses; who had adopted a principle of national education long before
such a thing was thought of in England, or in Europe. In fine, the Aztec
faith and policy were, at least, as praiseworthy, if not far nearer to
perfection, than the faith and policy which obtained in Christian Italy,
France, and Spain, during the dark and the middle ages. There is not,
indeed, any one point in which the contrast is not favourable to the
Aztecs, except in the single point of human sacrifice. Christianity can,
apparently, make a heavy accusation against the Aztec religion on this
point, and may fairly seem to reproach it for that frequency of human
sacrifice, and even cannibalism, which formed, at the time of the
Spanish conquest, an essential part of the Mexican faith.
Yet, when we dive below the surface, and examine this matter with
philosophic care, we readily see that the charge is deprived of much of
its weight. Who, for example, can compare the practice of the people
of Montezuma with that of Spaniards under the sway of Ferdinand and
Isabella, without seeing that in Spain there were human sacrifices,
which were conducted with far more cruelty than those in Mexico. We
find, in the first place, that the custom of sacrificing human
beings was no more an essential part of the Aztec, than it was of the
Christian, faith; it was only in existence two hundred years before the
Spanish invasion, and many centuries, bloodless of human offerings, had
passed away ere the period of what we may term brutality arrived. Just
so it was with the religion of Jesus; for centuries it was unstained by
blood, and comparatively meek and humble, yet, when its priesthood rose
to power, they indulged in human holocausts on a most extended scale.
The Spaniards give accounts of thousands of victims offered up at once
to the Mexican god of war; but what are these in comparison to the
victims of Paris, sacrificed by Papists on the eve and day of St.
Bartholomew, and those at Beziers.
It may be doubted by the philosopher whether the Christian religion
was not, from its very commencement, as intolerant of opposition and as
persecuting as it became hereafter.
The story of Jesus cursing a fig tree, which did not bear fruit out
of its season (Mark xi. 13, 14, 21), shows that even he, whom the
Christians take for an example, was quite capable of that pettiness,
which visits upon the innocent the vexation felt by one's self. But when
we read the story in Acts, v., about Ananias and Sapphira, we see, in
all its naked horror, a fearful Christian persecution. The victims were
done to death for deceiving an apostle. But why should we be surprised
at the followers of "the Son" doing that which "the Father" ordained? Is
there any human king who ever promulgated a more bloody order than did
Jehovah Sabaoth, the God which, amongst the Hebrews, corresponded to the
Mexican god of war, when he commissioned Samuel to say to Saul (1 Sam.
xv. 3), "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they
have; slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel
and ass!" After such a destruction of the Midianites as is narrated
in Numb, xxxi., the fearful slaughter, effected by Crusaders, of Jews,
Turks, and heretics is scarcely worth mentioning.
There was a teacher who remarked, "he who is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone" at the culprit; and surely, when our Bible,
which is treasured by so many as the only rule of faith amongst us,
details such horrible religious slaughters as are to be found in its
pages, and abounds with persecuting precepts, we had better not talk too
much about Mexican sacrifice. Was there any Aztec minister so brutal in
his religious fury as Samuel was (1 Sam. xv. 33), who hewed Agag into
pieces? The Mexican was merciful to his victim; the Hebrew was like
a modern Chinese executioner, who kills the criminal by degrees. His
cruelty has been emulated in Christian France, and under the reign of
two of her kings, we have seen a Ravaillac and Damiens tortured slowly
to death, by means too horrible to dwell upon.
The writers upon Mexico tell us of a lovely youth, who was educated for
a whole year to become a victim, and how, at the end of that time, he
was feted, adorned, and even worshipped; how four of the most charming
maidens of Mexico were selected as his wives, and how he remained in the
enjoyment of the highest honour until the time of his sacrifice arrived,
and we feel due horror at the recital. Yet, what is it compared with the
accounts we read of miserable men and women racked, in hideous dungeons,
by the most horrible tortures which an enlightened Christian ingenuity
could devise, and who then, with limbs whose loosened fibres could
scarcely sustain their bruised and mangled bodies, were led, or driven
at the sword's point, to a stake fixed in the ground, there to be tied
and burned, whilst devout Christian multitudes stood around, rejoicing,
like demons, over the hellish scene.
No one can gloat over the imaginary torments of Hell without being a
persecuting devil at heart.
Surely the Christians have too much sin amongst themselves to cast a
stone at the inhabitants of Mexico.
We find a strong offset to the horror of Aztec cruelty in the very
Bible, which we regard as the mainstay of our religious world. What,
for example, is the essential difference between a Mexican monarch
sacrificing one or ten thousand men taken in battle, and Moses
commanding the extermination of the inhabitants of Canaan, and only
saving, out of Midian, thirty-two thousand virgins, that they might
minister to the lust of his Hebrew followers? What, again, are we to say
of David's God, who would not turn away his anger from Judah until
seven sons of the preceding king had been offered up as victims? And
lastly--thought still more awful! what must we say of the fundamental
doctrines of Christianity, that Jehovah Himself sacrificed His own Son
by a cruel death; and not only so, but that He had intercourse with
an earthly woman, and had thus a son by her, for the sole purpose of
bringing about his murder? Can we object to religious cannibalism in the
Aztec, when Jesus of Nazareth is said to have urged his followers to eat
his body and to drink his blood; and when hundreds of priests have shed
the blood of millions of men, who, disbelieving the power of any man
to convert bread and wine into flesh and blood, have refused to profane
their lips by a cannibal feast?
Having now examined the nature of the Aztec faith, let us, for a while,
linger upon the fruits which it produced. Who can read the mournful
story of the fall of Mexico without contrasting, in his own mind, the
respective characters of the conquerors and the conquered? In every
so-called Christian virtue Montezuma proved himself to be superior
to the lying, unscrupulous, rapacious and covetous Cortez. Even the
greatest fire-eater who ever lived cannot fail to see that the Spaniard
would not have been victorious over the Mexican, if the latter had been
equally well equipped with arms, armour, and horses, as the former was.
We can only tell vaguely what was the condition of Anahuac prior to
the invasion of Cortez; but, from the testimony given by Prescott, we
believe that there were annual wars between adjoining tribes, who met
solely to obtain from their enemies victims for sacrifice, the battles
always ending with the day, and never being resumed for conquest, or for
the plunder of maidens to be an indulgence of a victor's lust. What the
condition of the same country under Christian rule has been, and still
is, every reader of modern and contemporary history knows; and he sees,
with regret, that Jehovah Sabaoth, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Holy
Spirit, with an army of saints, angels, virgins, and martyrs, as well as
ancient gods of the Eastern Hemisphere are, if they are to be judged by
the acts of their worshippers, as cruel, revengeful, and malignant, as
were the deities of the Mexican kingdom.
The followers of the cross will appear to be quite as despicable when
we contrast them with the Peruvians, as they were when compared with the
inhabitants of Anahuac.
There is something very fascinating in the history of Peru, as recorded
by the Spanish authors, and rendered into the English language by
Prescott. There is no account of ancient or modern people extant which
has interested me so much as those of the realm of Manco Capac. To hear
of a nation, separated by an ocean, we may, indeed, say two, and a vast
continent, from the civilized portions of Asia, Europe, and Africa,
located in a mountainous tract, where soil and water were scanty, and
locomotion was rendered difficult from the configuration of the land;
whose country was surrounded by strong natural enemies of all kinds;
whose people were unable to use such agents as steel and gunpowder, and
who were yet enabled to construct vast cities and temples, to quarry,
remove, and use in buildings, fragments of rock thirty-eight feet long,
eighteen feet broad, and six feet thick, and to transport these to
distances varying from 12 to 45 miles, to form good roads along the
mountain tops, for an extent of nearly two thousand miles, necessitating
the filling up chasms of enormous depth, and the making of suspension
bridges over rivers whose stream was too furious to bridge in the
ordinary European fashion, is perfectly astonishing.
The far-sighted Incas, to make these roads still more useful,
accompanied them by the erection of large residences, like modern
European bungalows in India, fit for the reception of a monarch with
his army, and by vast magazines of provisions, sufficient to supply
the wants of a warlike expedition, or of a population starving from an
accidental failure of crops. The Peruvians, moreover, surrounded their
chief towns with strong walls, in comparison with which the Cyclopean
constructions of the old world seem small, stunted, and almost
contemptible. It appears, in addition, that they knew how to form
long tunnels, either for the passage of troops, for the benefit of
travellers, or for the conveyance of water. All these, I say, are enough
to fire the imagination of the dullest reader of history, and to shake
the belief that civilization cannot be developed in the midst of what we
have been accustomed to call savage life, and can only be brought to
a moderate perfection by the influence of the Hebrew and Christian
writings.
Our wonder is not, however, bounded by the physical results produced by
the industrious population of Peru, it is still farther exercised by
the descriptions which are given of their wonderful domestic and foreign
policy. It would be difficult to conceive, and still more difficult
to carry into execution for many generations, a plan of government so
eminently fitted to give the greatest happiness to the greatest number,
as that which the Incas elaborated. The rulers were specially educated
to fulfil their duties in every respect, and were not permitted, as
modern princes are, to enter into the ranks of chivalry until they had
undergone a public examination, which was conducted by the oldest and
the most illustrious chiefs. The trial included tests of every warlike
and manly quality. It lasted thirty days, during which time every
competitor fared alike, living on the bare ground, and wearing a mean
attire. Those who passed the ordeal honourably were admitted formally
into the knightly order, the ceremony including an investiture of the
youth with sandals put on by the most venerable noble, equivalent to
the donning of the _toga virilis_ in Ancient Rome, and having the ear
pierced with a golden bodkin by the reigning monarch. To take off the
shoe was a ceremony exacted from all those who came into the Inca's
presence, to have it put on by a grandee was great honour.
That the rulers might understand the condition of the kingdom, they
systematically travelled, much in the same way as James V. of Scotland,
and the Caliph Haroun Alraschid, are said to have done. The Incas, in
addition to their other plans for good government, inaugurated a
postal system: divided their peoples into tens, fifties, hundreds, five
hundreds, thousands, and ten thousands, much in the same way as the
Saxon King Alfred is said to have done, whose plan is, in many respects,
conserved to the present day; and the head man of each division was in
all respects its ruler, to repress crime, to announce to his superior
officer all unusual occurrences, and to report, generally, the actual
state of his division to the chief above him. All legal trials,
or appeals, were decided in less than five days, and a code was
established, which all might readily know, a thing only attained by the
French under the first Napoleon, and long desired by England, but in
vain. Punishments were never attended with torture, or unnecessary
cruelty. In this respect the Peruvians differed from every other
civilized nation of which I have yet read. The Chinaman methodically
inflicts painful punishments which have only been surpassed by the
followers of the "gentle Jesus." The Persians and Turks have, certainly,
shown their capacity for giving pain to those who are brought before
their ministers of justice, and the Red Indians, during their day,
reduced the art of tormenting themselves, but, still more, their
prisoners, almost to perfection. The Babylonians had discovered that a
death of agony could be accomplished by means of myriads of ants. It was
reserved to Christians, eager to uphold the faith promulgated by a God
of mercy, to find out the most exquisite of torments. Even Frenchmen,
who have for centuries assumed the position of leaders of civilization,
were, until the great Revolution beat down their kings and prelates,
more ruthlessly cruel than the most fierce redskin. The Inquisition,
which arrogated to itself the power to keep the Christian religion pure,
was distinguished by the atrocity with which it gave anguish to its
victims, and it held its head high until it was put down, we may hope
for ever, by fiery republican enthusiasts, whom priestly demons, baulked
of their prey, declared to be devils incarnate. More modern hierarchs
are obliged to content themselves with making a hell for their
enemies--with foretelling a variety of punishments to be inflicted
hereafter, which cannot be enforced here.
The Incas exacted an annual report of the lands possessed by
individuals, with their condition as regards culture; and also of every
family. A register of births, marriages, and deaths was regularly kept,
so that the government might always know the real condition of the
nation, soil, and people.
As far as possible, families remained constant to their business, thus
forming a sort of trade caste, but not a rigid one. The registers were
always submitted to the perusal of the Inca, and, subsequently, kept in
the capital.
By the arrangement of "posts," and roads, an insurrection or invasion
was readily discovered, and it was speedily announced at the capital
city. The march of troops to suppress it, under these circumstances, was
easy and immediate, for every requisite for war was always at hand. In
all circumstances, plundering by the soldiery, whether at home or in an
enemy's country, was severely punished, and war was undertaken solely
with a view to peace. If a neighbour was turbulent, he was conquered,
and absorbed into the old state, and if a province was rebellious, its
worst inhabitants were carried away to some other locality, where their
power for mischief would be curtailed; a plan which, we are told, was
pursued by the Assyrian Shalmaneser (2 Kings xvii. 6), indicated by
Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 32), and carried out by Nebuzaradan (2 Kings
xxv. 11.). In fine, we may repeat, that it would be difficult for a
modern philosopher to conceive a better model of a really paternal
government than that which, it is asserted, was found by the Spaniards
when they invaded the kingdom of the Incas. Of the respective value of
Christian Spanish government, and of the so-called Pagan Inca rule, none
can doubt, who reads the present by the light of the past. The Peruvians
kept up their roads, protected their subjects, respected life, and
fostered everything which tended to increase the general happiness
and prosperity of the kingdom--all these objects, have been for a long
period neglected, and Peru, which was under the Spanish rule, one of
the blots on the face of civilization and Christianity, is only
just emerging from a long night, under the influence of Republican
institutions.
Our next step will be to ascertain the religion of the people whose
political condition contrasts so favourably with that of every other
nation of whom travel and history have informed us. But we may, in the
first place, remark, that there is no absolute or necessary connection
between the happiness, or otherwise, of a nation and its dominant
religion, as Buckle has already shown in his _History of Civilization_.
The writer of to-day can find abundant evidence in recent history to
illustrate the proposition here advanced. He can point to France,
and its condition under a sacerdotal rule, prior to the time of the
Revolution, and contrast it with its state since its rulers have
tried to make the people prosperous and happy, independently of their
religious faith. He can point to Austria and Spain, when they were laid
at the feet of the Pope of Rome, and everything was made subservient to
the demands of a powerful hierarchy, and to the same states now, when
religion is subordinate to the material welfare of the majority. Who,
that has read the story of modern Italy, or heard of the atrocities
committed under the priest-led Ferdinand of Naples--better known in
England by the sobriquet of Bomba; who, that knew anything of his
brigand-rearing towns and cities, and has visited them since they have
been ruled constitutionally, and with the priestly power curbed by a
strong hand, can doubt which set of directors are the best? Christian
Rome was never so happy under her Popes as she is now, when the
so-called head of the church is subordinate to the chief of the state.
But of all priest-ridden countries, one which would never have borne the
popish sway as she has done, if her chieftains had been sensible and
her people thoughtful, Ireland deserves our commiseration the most.
Hibernian hierarchs of the Roman faith designate their country as a
land of saints. So, perhaps, it is, if by the word is meant admirers of
laziness and filth, who consider that attention to religion justifies
murder, and every brutal crime against purse, person, and property.
As a rule, admitting of no exceptions, civil government has preceded
sacerdotal rule, and a nation is generally in a weakly and fallen
condition as soon as its affairs are directed by the priestly class.
When first the Aryans invaded Hindostan, the hierarchy was second to the
warrior caste; but as the first aggrandized their power, the second lost
their supremacy, and under Brahminic rule the foundation was laid for
pusillanimous and indolent luxury in the warrior. The power to plan,
and the nerve to enforce laws, for the benefit of all classes of the
community, is very different to that which is requisite to exalt and
enrich the priestly order; and the well-being of a state depends far
more upon the exercise of the first than of the second. Whenever,
therefore, the executive government is entirely independent of the
influence of the hierarchy, or is itself the head of that caste, it can
produce good results for the nation, no matter what may be the dogmas of
the priesthood, or the nature of the gods which are reverenced.
Still following Prescott as our guide, we find that the sun was the
great god of the Peruvians, and that the Incas assumed the title of his
true children. To that luminary a vast temple was built in Cuzco, more
radiant with gold than that of Solomon at Jerusalem. To Cuzco, as to the
capital of Judea, the name of Holy City was given, and to it pilgrims
resorted from every part of the empire. Blasphemy against the sun was
considered as bad as treason against the Inca, and both were punished
with death. A province, or city, rebellious against the sun was laid
waste, and its people exterminated. When conquest over a new tribe
subjugated it to Peru, the people were compelled to worship the sun,
temples to whose honour were erected in their territory. To these was
attached a body of priests, to instruct the people in the proper form
of adoration, which consisted in a rich and stately ceremonial. The
divinities of the conquered people were removed to Cuzco and established
in one of the temples, where they took order amongst the inferior
deities of the Peruvians.
But, though the sun was unquestionably worshipped, Prescott observes,
ch. iii, "it is a remarkable fact that many, if not most, of the rude
tribes inhabiting the vast American continent had attained to the
sublime conception of one Great Spirit, the Creator of the universe,
who, immaterial in his own nature, ought not to be dishonoured by an
attempt at a visible representation, and who, pervading all space, was
not to be circumscribed within the walls of any building, however grand
or rich."
As civilization progressed, we are told that a separate order of men,
with a liberal provision for their subsistence, was set apart for
religious service, and a minute and magnificent ceremonial contrived,
which challenged comparison with that of the most polished nations of
Christendom. This was the case with the natives of Quita, Bogota, and
others inhabiting the highlands of South America, but especially with
the Peruvians, who claimed a divine origin for the founders of their
empire, whose laws rested on a divine sanction, and whose domestic
institutions and foreign wars were directed to preserve and to propagate
their faiths. Religion was the basis of their polity, the condition of
their social existence. The government of the Incas was essentially a
lay theocracy.
The Peruvians believed in the future existence of the soul and the
resurrection of the body. They had faith in a Hell, located in the
earth's centre, and a Heaven, in which the good would revel in a life
of luxury, tranquillity, and ease. The wicked, however, were not to be
hopelessly damned and tormented for everlasting, but were to expiate
their crimes by ages of wearisome labour. They believed, also, in an
evil principle or spirit, called Cupay, to whom, however, they paid no
more attention than an ordinary Christian does to the Devil.
The great men were entombed after death, and were commonly buried with
the chief things which they required on earth. Sometimes a chieftain was
buried, not only with his treasures, but with his wives and domestics.
Frequently, over the dead, vast mounds were raised, which were
honeycombed, subsequently, with cells for the burial of others. Cairns
were as common in that part of the New World as they have been in the
Old, and the majority of buildings found at the present day in Peru have
been connected with funereal pomp.
The supreme Being in Peru was named Pachacamac, "he who gives life to
the universe," and Viracocha, of which the only translation given is
"foam of the sea." To him one temple only was raised, which is said to
have been built prior to the accession of the Incas, and largely visited
by vast numbers of distant Indians. The sun, as we have noticed, was
chiefly venerated, and to him a temple was erected in every city and
large village, and to him burnt offerings were made in abundance. The
moon was also venerated, being connected with the sun as his wife--and
Venus, called by the name of Chasca, "the youth with the long and
curling locks"--was also regarded reverentially as the page of the sun.
Temples were dedicated to thunder and to lightning as God's ministers,
and the rainbow was regarded as an emanation from the great luminary.
In addition to these, the elements, the winds, the earth, the air, the
great mountains and rivers, were considered as inferior deities, to
which were added the gods of the conquered races. The chief temple of
the sun was extraordinarily gorgeous. It was constructed of stone, and
was so finely executed, that a Spaniard declared that only two edifices
in Spain could, in the stone work, be at all compared with it like
Italian and other churches, it contained many small chapels and
subordinate buildings, and the interior was dazzling with gold. On its
western wall the deity was emblazoned as a human face surrounded with
rays of light, just as the sun is personified amongst ourselves.
The figure was engraved on a massy gold plate, thickly powdered with
emeralds and precious stones. This was so situated in front of the
great eastern portal, that the rays of the morning sun, falling upon it,
lighted up the whole temple with a wondrous sheen; but every part of
the inner walls blazed with gold. The roof was, however, "thatch" alone.
Adjoining the temple of the sun were fanes of smaller dimensions, for
the worship of the moon, stars, thunder, lightning, and the rainbow.
"All the plate, ornaments, and utensils of every description
appropriated to the uses of religion, were of gold or silver. Twelve
immense vases of silver (said to be as high as a good lance, and so
large that two men could barely encircle them with outstretched arms)
stood on the floor of the great saloon, filled with Indian corn. The
censers for the perfumes, the ewers which held the water for sacrifice,
the pipes which conducted it through subterraneous channels into
the buildings, the reservoir that received it, even the agricultural
implements used in the gardens of the temple, were all of the same
rich material. The gardens, like those belonging to the royal palaces,
sparkled with gold and silver, and various imitations of the vegetable
kingdom. Animals, also, were to be found there, amongst which the llama,
with its golden fleece, was most conspicuous, executed in the same
style, and with a degree of skill which, in this instance, probably did
not surpass the excellence of the material" The reader of Prescott will
find that he has not adopted this account without carefully estimating
the value of his authorities, and I believe that he may be fairly
trusted. The various reports, given by Spanish writers, of priests of
the grand temple, seem also to have been carefully estimated by the
historian, and the number which they amounted to is put down at four
thousand at the least.
The high priest was second in dignity only to the Inca, and he was
generally closely related to this ruler. The monarch appointed this
Peruvian pope, who held office for life. He had the appointment of
inferior priests, but all must be from the sacred race of Incas. The
high priests of the provinces were always of the blood royal. The
hierarchy wore no peculiar badge or dress, nor was it the sole
depositary of learning, and it had not to superintend education, or to
do parochial work. These duties were performed by others of the Inca
class, all of whom were holy, though not, so to speak, in "holy orders."
The priest's business was to minister in the temple; his science was
confined to a knowledge of the fasts and festivals to be observed in
connection with religion, for these were very numerous, and demanded
separate rituals. The four principal festivals were solar, i.e., at the
equinoxes and solstices, that of Midsummer being the grandest, on which
occasion every one who could find time and money enough to do so visited
the capital city. The feast was preceded by a three days' fast, and no
fires were to be lighted during that period.
When the day arrived a vast array of people, dressed in their handsomest
apparel, crowded the streets and squares, waiting for the rising of the
sun. When it appeared shouts of joy, heightened by instrumental music,
were raised in swelling tones, until the whole orb had ascended above
the horizon, after which a libation was poured of fermented liquor,
and all the nobles and the king repaired to the great temple, each
individual, except members of the royal family, removing their sandals
as they entered. After prayer came sacrifice, animals, grain, flowers,
and sweet-scented gums being the prescribed offerings; sometimes a
child or lovely maiden was also immolated, generally to commemorate a
coronation, the birth of a royal heir, or a great victory. Cannibalism
never followed the sacrifice; and it may be added, parenthetically,
that when the Incas conquered and annexed man-sacrificing and man-eating
tribes, they always abrogated the custom, and with far more decision
and firmness than Britain has shown in abolishing self-immolation of
Juggernaut pilgrims in her Indian Empire, and the burning of widows
with their dead spouses. Some may doubt whether a conqueror ought to
interfere with the religious customs of the vanquished, but few would
plead for the continuance of such customs as human sacrifice and
cannibalism.
The animal usually sacrificed by the Peruvians was the llama, and
the priest who officiated drew auguries from the appearance of the
intestines. To effect the oblation a sacred fire was now kindled by a
concave mirror which acted as "a burning glass," precisely as was done
by Numa in the days of Ancient Rome. If the sky was clouded, and no rays
could be collected, fire was produced by friction. When lighted, the
fire was committed to the care of the virgins of the sun, who were
bound to keep it up for the ensuing year. After the single sacrifice
was completed, great numbers of other animals were slaughtered, and a
regular carousal began, attended with music, dancing, and drinking,
that lasted for many days, during which period all the lower orders kept
holiday. In the distribution of bread and wine at this high festival,
the invading Spaniards saw a striking resemblance to the Christian
communion, and they recognised a similar likeness in the Peruvian
practices of confession and penance. The virgins of the sun were called
"the elect," and were young maidens taken from their homes at an early
age, and introduced into convents, where they were placed under the care
of elderly matrons, who taught them their religious duties, and how to
spin and weave, embroider and adorn hangings for the temples, and to
frame garments for the Incas. Their work was such, that it was found to
be superior to any which the Spaniards had ever seen, or were themselves
able to produce. The virgins were separated wholly, not simply, from the
world in general, but also from their own relations and friends--none
but the king and queen could enter into their convent. The closest
attention was paid to the morals of these maidens, and visitors were
sent every year to inspect the institutions, and to report on the
state of their discipline; a plan similar to which has been repeatedly
proposed in Christian England, yet never sanctioned by the parliament!
If a virgin was discovered in an intrigue she was buried alive, her
lover was strangled, and the town or village to which he belonged was
razed to the ground, and sowed with stones, to efface even the memory
of its site. These solar attendants were all of royal blood, and were
estimated to number fifteen hundred; but to provincial convents the
inferior nobility were allowed to send their daughters, and sometimes
a peculiarly lovely peasant girl was admitted. The convents were all
sumptuously furnished. But, though virgins of the sun, they were brides
of the Incas, and we cannot fail, when we read of the vast harem of the
Peruvian monarch, to think of the female establishments of the Jewish
Solomon, of the Persian Ahasuerus, and that of Louis XV. of Christian
France. If at any time the Inca reduced his harem, the superfluous
concubines were restored to their homes, swelling with the importance
which they had gained by their familiarity with the monarch.
Polygamy was permitted. Matrimony was effected by the Inca, or other
chief man, joining the hands of the parties. The king usually espoused
his own sister, but no other person was allowed to do so. No marriage
was valid without the consent of parents. As a general rule, all unions
were effected on the same day of the year, and thus the wedding of
couples was followed by general rejoicing.
The genius of the Peruvian government penetrated into the most private
recesses of domestic life, allowing no man to act for himself, even in
those personal matters in which none but himself, or his family, could
be interested. No Peruvian was too low for the fostering vigilance
of the government; none was so high that he was not made to feel his
dependence upon it in every act of his life. The government of the Incas
was the mildest, but the most searching and beneficent, of despotisms.
We now, but with great reluctance, leave our friendly guide, the
accomplished Prescott, and ask ourselves, once more, the lessons which
we have learned from the departed races of the vast American continent.
Can anyone doubt that one of the most conspicuous results obtained
is, that Christian rule, and the Christian doctrine, have not proved
themselves, in any respect, superior to the Incas' government and their
solar religion? Who can read of the civilization, the theology, and the
practice of the Peruvians, without believing one of two things--the one,
that Jewish ritualism, and the majority of Christian teaching, is of
human invention; the other, that the Almighty has revealed His will in
the Western as well as in the Eastern Hemisphere? Can any thoughtful
man believe that the brutal, covetous, lying Spaniards, who broke,
with impunity, every commandment promulgated in those Gospels, to whose
authority they professed allegiance, and upon which their faith is
founded, were better men, or more favoured by the Lord, "who loveth
righteousness and hateth iniquity," than were the gentle Peruvians, who
fell before them as lambs and sheep before wolves and tigers? Surely the
story of the Incas should make Christians, in all ages, blush for their
inferiority to those, amongst whom neither Moses, Samuel, and other
so-called prophets, Jesus, nor any of his apostles, preached; and more
strongly should it convince us that the wish to do good on a large scale
can come otherwise than by the Gospel. If grace, and peace, and love
came by the Nazarene alone, how is it--and let us ponder over the
question deeply--that all Christian countries have been, and that some
are still, conspicuous for the brutality of their political and priestly
governments, for the frequency with which they make war, for their
ferocity in the destruction of religious enemies, and for the intense
hatred evinced against rival sects, by those who call themselves the
representatives of the Prince of Peace; whilst, on the other hand,
a nation who never heard of the son of Joseph or of Mary, should be
conspicuous for the virtues which ought to adorn the soldiers of the
cross, but do not? Surely, if the saying be true, "by their fruit ye
shall know them," the denizens of the old world must be children of the
Devil, who do the work, of their father, whilst certain of the nations
of the new world, as it is called, were really children of the light,
abounding in love, charity, and goodwill towards all men.
To me it is astonishing how thoughtful men, who have read accounts of
the Mexicans and the Peruvians, can continue to believe that the Bible
is the book of God, written by holy men, whose thoughts and diction were
essentially those of the third person in the Trinity. Who can assert
that Abraham and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, were taught of God, and that to
the Hebrews alone has the Creator revealed His will? Who can see, in
the sensual king David, a man after God's heart, and applaud the brutal
murder of Agag, the destruction of the priests of Baal, by the orders
of Elijah, and the extermination of the Baalites in Israel by Jehu?
Compared with such wretches as these the Incas were angels. They had not
left to them the bloody legacy which has come to the Christian world by
means of the Old Testament: they had not been taught to believe that the
Almighty revelled in the blood of human beings: they never had, amongst
their sacred songs, verses like the following--"that thy foot may be
dipped in the blood of enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same"
(Ps. lxviii. 23).
Ah, it is time for civilized men to cease their admiration for a book
which has produced such frightful fruits, and which has converted
millions of human beings into incarnate fiends.
The Vedas and the Shasters--the writings of the Buddhists, and those of
the Parsees and the Chinese, contain, nowhere, such a justification
of wholesale murder, as do the Scriptures of the Jews and of the
Christians.* From these have been drawn the power to persecute, and, if
possible, to exterminate those who worship God in a different fashion
to those in power. Calvin was as bad as Torquemada; and, even at the
present time, it is only public opinion that prevents fanatics, like the
early New Englanders, from reducing their Christian hate to practical
torture. Everywhere the professed followers of Jesus assume the power
to torment their opponents, whenever they can do so without breaking the
civil law, and there are few pulpits from which the voice of revilement,
contumely, and denunciation is not repeatedly heard. The Romans abuse
the Anglicans; the Establishment sneers at Dissent; Nonconformists
censure all churches; and all libel those whom they call Free Thinkers
and Atheists. To find "toleration" in matters of religion, one must seek
amongst the Deists, or amongst those who refuse to see in the Bible the
revealed will of God to man.
* See Matthew x. 34, 85; Luke xii. 49, 51, 52, 53.
CHAPTER III.
Can civilization grow out of barbarism? Dislike of progress,
especially if mental. Rediscovery of ancient knowledge.
Advance and retrogression. China and Japan--influence of
strangers. Decadence of nations--followed by a rise. The
Shemitic and Negro races. Varied religious ideas. The Negro
Fetish and Obi. Jewish, Arab, and Christian communication
with the dead. Australian idea about white men. Ideas of a
soul and futurity amongst the Aryans and Egyptians. Their
priesthood. The Aryans Monotheiste. An Aryan hymn. Max
Mueller and Talboys Wheeler. Aryan conceptions compared with
Psalm civ. 1-4. Monotheism of the Egyptians. Shemitic
religions.
At one period of my life I entertained the idea that civilization never
had grown, nor ever could grow, out of barbarism. Perhaps I have not yet
wholly abandoned it. The considerations which the question involves are
all but infinite. It is doubtful whether we can reduce them into shape
without writing an extensive treatise. We will, however, attempt to do
so, and present the subject to our readers to the best of our ability.
As far as our own personal and historic experience goes, we find that
man has no natural propensity to learn beyond that which he has received
simply as an animal. With him school is a hateful place, and education
is a painful process, even in the midst of the highest civilization we
see individuals who cast from them all the luxuries of life, and descend
voluntarily to a level scarcely superior to that of the brute creation.
But those who take kindly to education, and consent to try and learn
everything which the teacher presents to their notice, are bounded by
the amount of knowledge possessed by the instructor, who cannot impart
to others information in matters of which all are ignorant. It is true
that I once read a question propounded by his schoolmaster to one of my
sons, which ran--"Enumerate upon paper all the capes, bays, and rivers
of England that you don't know by name, and describe the seas which you
have never heard of." Without dwelling upon the anecdote farther than
to say, that it points out the absurdity of the idea that education
of itself advances knowledge, we may pass on to remark, that even in
nations, whose intellect is highly cultivated, the propensity to advance
in knowledge is singularly small. Throughout the old world an inventor
is usually regarded as a visionary, or a lunatic, and flouted by all his
contemporaries.* From the time of Aristotle and Hippocrates, scarcely
any advance was made in philosophy, and, throughout Europe, the
fourteenth century was as barbarous, if not indeed more so, than the
first of our era; and to such a dark age there is a strong clerical
party in Great Britain which desires us to return.
* A man who had travelled much once said to me,--"I will
tell you the main difference between a Yankee and an
Englishman. If you inform the latter of some new discovery--
or propose the use of some recent invention for his own
benefit--he will tell you either that the thing is old, or
worthless. On the other hand, if you recount to the former
what you have told the latter of, his rejoinder will be, I
can improve upon that." This is true, and we are now
repeatedly adopting from the United States discoveries of
various kinds, which we rejected when offered to us in the
first place.
Yet, notwithstanding the propensity of cultivated nations to remain
quiescent, there do appear, from time to time, individuals who,
being discontented with things as they are, endeavour to bring about
improvements in the arts, the sciences, and the general conditions of
life. The recognition of a want, is an incentive to a thoughtful mind
to supply the exigency. Whenever an individual endeavours to attain
a definite end, he exercises his mind, not only in what he has been
already taught, but what he can observe beyond that; he rakes up, if
possible, the experience of others, studies their proceedings, and
experiments with a definite object, and ponders upon the affinities,
nature, and the like, of every substance which he surmises may be of
service to him. When, by these means, he has obtained his purpose,
he will repeatedly find that he has done no more than rediscover a
something which was known thousands of years before his time. Without
a doubt, much of the philosophy, science, art, religion, &c., of the
present day, is due to a close observation and an attainment to the
knowledge possessed by our predecessors. "Is there any thing whereof it
may be said, see this is new?--it hath been already of old time, which
was before us" (Eccles. i. 10).
If this be true, even though it may only be so to a partial extent, it
is clearly more philosophical to believe that some primeval men were
created with a considerable amount of knowledge, rather than that all
were savage, barely, if at all, superior to monkeys, and that one or
more of these, gradually elevated their race, by degrees so slow, as to
be imperceptible in less time than many thousand years.
This side of the argument receives corroboration when we study the
history of such semi-civilized countries as China, and such barbarous
regions as those of Africa and Australia. In none of these parts do
we see any general propensity to advance. In the first we see a
retrogression; there is now no effort to repair ancient roads which
have been worn away by centuries of traffic, to restore the old temples,
towers, and landmarks, erected when time was younger, or even to keep
up the teachings of Confucius. A similar apathy existed amongst the
Japanese--yet no sooner do the civilized nations of Europe show the
rulers of China and Japan that it is necessary for them to improve, if
they desire to retain their power, than they attempt to learn the arts
which have enabled their rivals to overcome them. In both cases, the
progress is recognized as due to the interference of a nation, superior
for the time being, to that whose education has been faulty. Advance,
then, in such countries, is clearly due to foreign influence, rather
than to an innate propensity to general, mental, scientific, or
practical development.
But, on the other side, it may be alleged that the African has been in
existence from time immemorial--that he has been in contact with the
civilization of ancient and modern Egypt--with Christianity--with the
ancient Tyrians and Carthaginians--with the Arabs--with the Spaniards,
Portuguese, and British, and yet the African tribes remain almost as
savage now as when they first were known. Similar remarks apply to
the inhabitants of the Andaman Isles, of the vast islands of Borneo,
Celebez, Papua, New Guinea, and others.
Yet in many places, now considered barbarous, we see the remains of
previous empires--and when we are able to find some comparatively
authentic history which tells of the overthrow of a powerful kingdom,
it is clear that the civilized people have usually been destroyed by the
barbarian. The wealth of Rome tempted the hordes from the inhospitable
north, just as the gold of Mexico and Peru were the causes of their
decadence under the Spaniards, whose people were in themselves scarcely
superior to the troops led by Alaric, Genseric, and other so called
barbarians. Yet we know, as in the case of Spain herself, that decadence
from civilization to comparative barbarism may be due to causes inherent
in the people and its governors, wholly independent of foreign conquest.
This decadence is due to the bestial propensities of man being allowed
to dominate over the intellectual, and the result is the same, whether
the animal passions be cultivated by a debased and degrading policy of
monarch and priest, or by the indolence of each individual.
By developing the train of thought thus indicated, we imagine that the
philosophical reader will conclude that amongst men, some race, family,
or tribe, has been created with intelligence, as much above the rest of
their kind as the elephant is superior to the hippopotamus, and the dog
to the cat, and that others are generically as low as is the Australian
"dingo" in the canine race. Those once perfect may deteriorate, yet
carry with them the power of rising again--whilst those originally low
never rise at all, no matter what example may be set them, unless force
is used to make them learn. To these we must add a third set, specially
to include the American, for we have no evidence whatever that the
civilization of the Aztec and Peruvian was anything more than a
restoration of the scientific knowledge of a more ancient people,
possibly of an Aryan stock. Who that is acquainted with the Shemitic
race can fail to see in its people the type of an ancient condition
which has decayed, until, like a fallen gentleman, it can only show what
once it was, by conserving and exhibiting a few ornaments of no value,
save from their age, but whose sons may yet become princes in their
paternal domains? Who that studies the negro in Africa, America, and St.
Domingo, can fail to see that he is, or, at any rate has hitherto shown
himself, almost wholly incapable of development as a philosophic man?
And who can read the pages of Prescott without recognizing the fact that
some of the ancient inhabitants of America inaugurated--unassisted, as
we judge by any example from others--a style of religion and government
of which the world has hardly, if at all, seen an equal? Yet it is
remarkable, that both the Mexican and Peruvian traced their laws and
institutions to strangers who came amongst them, as Oannes did to the
Babylonians, and who taught them what arts, religion, and science they
themselves had. The subject of centres of human life into which our
considerations have drawn us, is by far too vast for discussion here.
It involves the study of geology, of anthropology, of glossology,
of navigation, of physical geography, of climate, of the laws of
reproduction, of the influences of climate over animals, and of diet
upon man. Into all these we dare not enter: we shall confine ourselves
rather to considering the religious ideas of the lowest of the known
races of mankind; and then proceed to those which have been held by what
we may call the oscillating people, i.e., those vibrating repeatedly
between a state of empire and one of slavery, like the people of
Hindostan, Babylon, Judea, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Egypt.
When we endeavour to ascertain the religion of the negro, by which term
we include all the black native tribes of Africa, we find ourselves
almost in the position of a modern chemist seeking for the philosopher's
stone. In no single book, and I have read very many, can I find any
trustworthy evidence of the negro having any religion at all. It is true
that travellers in Abyssinia, and those who are now returned from their
successful expedition against Magdala, tell us that in Abyssinia there
is a form of religion which is evidently a corrupt form of Christianity,
but with this exception, the blacks seem to have no idea of that
congeries of fact and fiction, dogma, ritual, and practice, which passes
current for religion in more civilized countries. Yet though they have
no definite idea of a Creator, and the way in which He works throughout
the universe, they have a dread of some unseen power, and, like a number
of frightened children, dread the effects of "fetish," and the power of
the Obi or Obeah man. When the mind is predisposed to fear, and it is so
amongst the lower animals as well as in man, it is astonishing at what
contemptible objects one may stand aghast. I can vividly remember being
sent, whilst a very young child, with a message from an aunt, at whose
home I was staying, to the maid, who was washing in an outhouse, but ere
I reached the door of the latter, I was terrified at a head which seemed
to be rising from the ground, Such was my horror that I ran away, too
proud to scream, yet almost fainting with horror. To me that ancient
battered barber's doll was "fetish," and if my friends had determined to
cultivate the timidity which I then showed, it is quite possible that to
this day I might have a dread not dissimilar to that of the African.
As it was, my aunt told me that what had scared me, was only a piece of
carved and painted wood, and so put me upon my mettle, that I delivered
my message and gave the image a kick in the face; yet my valour was
short lived, and during the rest of my sojourn I dared not venture
within sight of the bugbear. To all intents and purposes that human head
was, in my estimation, the guardian of the garden--its presence made all
within its influence under taboo--had I ventured to tell a lie, or to
have been naughty, I cannot conceive that any punishment would have been
greater than being doomed to sit in the presence of the weird image.
Hence I can easily understand the abject terror of the African at
"fetish," and his dread of the Obeah man, who asserts that he can direct
upon whom he will the power of the unknown god. So great is the fear of
this negro magician, and so common is that fear to man in general, that
we sometimes find the white man as full of it as the black. I have had,
for example, under my own care, an Englishman of good education, who,
whilst superintendent of a Jamaica plantation, became so cowed by "Obi,"
that he was obliged to give up his position and return to England,
literally insane upon the subject of "fetish" and "Obeah," and wholly
unfitted for any work whatever.
The objects to which the name of "fetish" is given are very numerous--a
rock, a stone, a tree, a pool, a dried monkey, an alligator, man, or
skull--anything will suit the purpose. One which is said to be very
popular amongst chieftains is prepared somewhat in the following
manner:--The head of a father is removed after death, and so placed,
that as the brain decays and softens, it may fall into a receptacle
already half filled with palm oil or other grease. The material so
formed, consisting to a great extent of the thoughtful organ of the
sire, is then supposed to give his spirit to the son, whenever the
latter smears himself with it, or takes it as a potent medicinal spell.
The head thus placed becomes the royal "fetish," and the king goes to
take counsel from it just as ancient priests inquired, or pretended to
inquire, from the god or lord of some shrine or oracle. I cannot charge
my memory with everything that has been at one time or another regarded
as an object of wonder, worship, or "fetish," but I have an indistinct
recollection that a musical box has been venerated by Africans, as much
as the Ancilia, the Palladium, the Diana which fell down from Jupiter,
the Caaba or black stone of Mecca, the ark of the covenant, the brazen
serpent, the wood of the true cross, the nails which pierced Jesus,
and the handkerchief which was used to wipe the face of the suffering
Nazarite, all of which have been sacred amongst civilized nations, and
are still adored by some. It would be difficult for a philosopher to
draw a distinction between an African "fetish" and a Papal relic. There
is no virtue which the Romanist has attributed to old bones, old nails,
old shoes, old coats, old houses, old staircases, old bits of wood, old
links of chains, old hairs, old statues, &c., that has not been equally
attributed by negroes to some absurd fetish in Ashantee, Dahomey, or
elsewhere.
In some parts of the vast African continent, however, there seems to be
an indistinct idea of a life after death, and when a great man dies,
or is killed, his wives, and many of his slaves, are sacrificed for his
future use, and vast human sacrifices are made annually in his honour,
that the departed may hear, from time to time, of the welfare of those
whom he has left behind. Feeling indisposed to regard this practice
as the offspring of religious faith, I would compare it with the crude
conceptions of some of the lowest class in Europe and America, aye, of
some cultivated intellects as well, who profess to be able, by means
of _media_, to communicate with the dead, or who send messages to
their departed relatives by friends that are dying. The most remarkable
development of this idea which I have yet met with has recently occurred
in France, where a young man attempted to murder a beautiful young
woman, to whom he was a total stranger, the reason he assigned being,
that he intended to commit suicide immediately after the murder, so that
he might enter the future world with a pleasant companion.
We can scarcely regard the persons figuring in the following true story
as being very much superior to the King of Dahomey. In a well-cared
for English village a poor woman was about to die in the full odour of
Protestant sanctity. In youth she had lost one leg, and now had disease
in the other. To her came an old woman and said,--"I hear thou's goin'
to dee Betty, and that thou's goin' to heaven--at least parson says
so--when thou's got there, willee tell my owd man that I've just bought
that field as he set his heart on." "Oh dear," said the dying woman,
"how can I go stumping all about heaven with my legs in the state
they're in." "Well, you can tell him at anyrate if you happen to see him
go by!"
Passing from the African, let us now say a word or two about the
Australian. It is, I think, Mitchell, who states, in an account of his
travels in that country, that the white men were used in a manner so
considerate, in some instances, indeed, so kindly, that he was induced
to inquire into the cause. He found that these friendly tribes were
in the habit of eating their defunct relatives--being always short of
provisions, they used man meat, as do other starving creatures when they
devour their like--and they cooked the body much in the same way as we
do dead pig. By scalding the carcass, the cuticle and the black layer,
called _rete mucosum_, was removed, and the corpse became white. This
gave the people the notion that Europeans were their own dead relatives
returned from the spirit world. Sir G. Gray also, in his account of an
expedition to the north-west coasts of the same vast island, describes
how all the people with whom he came into contact believed in the
power of sorcery or witchcraft. Without extending our inquiry into the
undeveloped religious ideas of other barbarians, we may affirm, from the
preceding examples, that there is, even amongst the lowest human beings,
some idea of a future state, and of the existence of some unseen power,
which may work mischief upon themselves or their friends. Beyond these
vague notions the savage who has neither been taught, nor inherited the
power or propensity to learn, rarely, if ever, passes.
If, then, the surmise to which we gave utterance awhile ago is founded
in truth, we may fairly endeavour to ascertain what is the race, or
the people, which have been born with a higher religious development, a
greater capacity for learning, and a higher appreciation of the value of
agriculture and civilization than the rest of the world's inhabitants.
We now find ourselves on the threshold of a question which has, for many
years past, divided the scientific world, viz., Was there originally one
human couple only, or were there many intellectual centres? Into this
matter it would be unprofitable to enter, for to give an account of the
Chinese, Egyptian, Aryan, American, and Shemitic races, would require
many huge volumes. It will, probably, be permitted to me to omit from
the inquiry all but Aryans and Egyptians. I select these because I
have, in the preceding volumes, descanted largely upon the faith of the
Babylonians, Assyrians, Tyrians, and others, and because I believe that
these ancients have done very much to modify the faith of Europe. If
time and opportunity permitted, I fancy that anyone might make a
most interesting analysis of that which Europe owes to the Shemites,
Egyptians, and Aryans respectively; but it is beyond our powers at
present to go into the whole subject. The volumes which have recently
been published about the Ancient Hindoo religion may be counted by
dozens, and the writings of Egyptologists are almost equally numerous.
We must, therefore, content ourselves with a reference to a few main
points.
It seems to be an undoubted fact, that both the Egyptians and Aryans
recognized the existence of a soul in human beings, and believed that it
survived the dissolution of the body in some state, whose position and
physical condition were unknown. They held, moreover, that the locality
and condition of the spiritual part of man after death depended upon
the actions of the individual during life. Both people believed in the
influence of prayer, of sacrifices, of a maceration, or torturing of the
fleshy body, and they had, moreover, each of them, a priestly race,
who regulated festivals, ordained ceremonies, and prescribed everything
which those who regarded their spiritual welfare should do. I believe
that the Egyptians were, in reality, monotheistic; but my authority for
the idea has escaped me. It is certain that the ancient Aryans were so,
and I cannot do better than refer my readers to the _History of Sanscrit
Literature_, by Max Mueller, and the first vol. of the _History of
India_, by Talboys Wheeler. Yet, as the first is out of print, and the
second a volume of considerable size, it will, perhaps, be judicious if
I quote some passages from both. The following hymn, translated by M.
M., p. 559 sq., is, to my own ideas, far more grand in conception than
any other which I have read, and shows a depth or sublimity of thought
that could only be attained by a profoundly intelligent intellect.
Moderns might equal it, none could surpass it. Speaking of the
beginning, the words run, "Nothing that is, was then; even what is not,
did not exist then." The poet then proceeds to deny the existence of
the sky, and of the firmament, and yet, unable to bear the idea of an
unlimited nothing, he exclaims, "What was it that hid or covered the
existing? what was the refuge of what? was water the deep abyss, the
chaos which swallowed up everything?" Then his mind, turning away from
nature, dwells upon man, and the problem of human life. "There was no
death, therefore there was nothing immortal There was no space, no life,
and lastly, there was no time--no difference between day and night--no
solar torch by which morning might have been told from evening. That One
breathed breathless by itself, other than it, nothing since has been.
That One breathed and lived; it enjoyed more than mere existence; yet
its life was not dependent upon anything else, as our life depends upon
the air we breathe. It breathed, breathless. Darkness there was, and all
at first was veiled in gloom, profound as ocean without life." Mueller
then rather describes what the poet means than gives his words; I will,
therefore, adopt now, for the rest of the hymn, the metrical version,
which he gives at p. 564:--
"The germ that still lay covered in the husk
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat.
Then first came Love upon it, the new spring
Of mind; yea, poets in their hearts discerned,
Pondering this bond between created things And uncreated.
Comes this spark from earth,
Piercing and all-pervading, or from heaven?
These seeds were sown, and mighty power arose,
Nature below, and Power and Will above.
Who knows the secret? who proclaimed it here?
Whence, whence this manifold creation sprang?
The gods themselves came later into being.
Who knows from whence this great creation sprang?
He, from whom all this great creation came.
Whether His will created or was mute,
The Most High seer, that is in highest heaven,
He knows it; or, perchance, e'en He knows not"
One more hymn is even more distinct in its monotheism, p. 569. "In the
beginning there arose the source of golden light. He was the only born
Lord of all that is. He established the earth and this sky. Who is the
God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice? He who gives life. He who
gives strength; whose blessing all the bright gods desire; whose shadow
is immortality; whose shadow is death.... He who, through His power, is
the only King of the breathing and the awakening world. He who governs
all--man and beast.... He whose power these snowy mountains, whose power
the sea proclaims, with the distant river. He whose these regions are,
as it were, His two arms.... He through whom the sky is bright, and the
earth firm. He through whom the heaven was 'stablished, nay, the highest
heaven. He who measured out the light in the air.... He to whom heaven
and earth, standing firm by His will, look up, trembling inwardly.
He over whom the rising sun shines forth.... Where-ever the mighty
water-clouds went, where they placed the seed, and lit the fire, thence
arose He who is the only life of the bright gods.... He who, by
His might, looked even over the water-clouds, the clouds which gave
strength, and lit the sacrifice. He _who is God above all gods_.... May
He not destroy us. He, the creator of the earth; or He, the righteous,
who created the heaven. He who also created the bright and mighty
waters." In this hymn I have only omitted the repeated question--Who is
the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice?
Of the high antiquity of these productions no competent scholar
entertains a doubt. It is not certain how many years before our era it
was composed, but it is considered that it was prior to B. C. 2000, long
before the time when the ideal Moses is said to have written, and _a
fortiori_ anterior, by at least a thousand years, to the authors of the
Book of Psalms.
Talboys Wheeler remarks, p. 27--"Having thus sketched generally the
individual character of the leading deities of the Aryans as they appear
in the Rig Veda, it may be advisable to glance at that conception of One
Supreme Being, as in all and above all, which finds full expression in
the Vedic hymns. Upon this point the following passages will be found
very significant:--'Who has seen the primeval being at the time of His
being born? what is that endowed with substance that the unsubstantial
sustains? from earth are the breath and blood, but where is the
soul--who may repair to the sage to ask this? What is that One alone,
who has upheld these six spheres in the form of an unborn?'" Then
follows the hymn just quoted from M. Mueller.
I may add that the so-called gods Indra, Agni, Surya, the Maruts, &c.,
are only personifications of the abstract powers of nature, the sky,
fire, the sun, the winds, &c. These are the same conceptions as are
referred to in Ps. civ. 1-4--they are not deities, but ministers.
It will probably be said by the orthodox that these descriptions of the
creation and the Creator are mere efforts of the human mind, and not the
products of "revelation." We grant it at once, and answer, why, then,
should the comparatively miserable conceptions of one or more Hebrews,
who knew nothing of a soul or a future life till they had learned it
from the Chaldeans or the Persians, be regarded differently? Was the
Jewish ignorance the result of Divine "inspiration?" Did the Devil give
to the heathen the knowledge of Satan's origin and power? If so, why did
the Jews, and why do Christians, adopt it?
I have already mentioned that the Aryans believed in the efficacy
of prayer to their gods: they offered to them, much as we do now,
supplications for rain, abundant harvests, prolific cattle, bodily
vigour, long life, numerous progeny, &c., just as did, very rarely, the
seed of Abraham.
We may now make some quotations from the Egyptian Ritual for the Dead
(Bunsen's _Egypt_, Vol. V.). "O soul, greatest of things created" (p.
165); "I am the Great God, creating himself" (p. 172); "Oh Lord of the
great abode, Chief of the gods" (p. 177). Throughout this invocation,
however, the lord of the universe seems to be spoken of as the sun under
various titles. There is frequent reference to the danger of the soul
falling into the power of some malignant deity, and orthodoxy is secured
by addressing every good god by his or her proper title. There is no
grand conception anywhere, and the endless repetitions disgust the
ordinary reader. I must add that the sun, Osiris, and the male organ,
are spoken of as emblematic of each other.
If we next turn to the Shemitic religions, we have to contend with the
difficulty produced by the paucity of written records, and the doubts
which exist about certain epithets that relate to the gods. As far as I
can discover, there was an idea of a Supreme Being, whose name was Jeho.
Io. Iou., or the like, and Il or El. His ministers were the sun, moon,
planets, constellations, and stars. His emblems were the sexual organs,
and worship was, to a great degree, licentious. There was no conception
of a spiritual life after death, or of a state of future rewards and
punishments. Sacrifice was thought much of, but I doubt whether there
was anything like what we know as prayer. At any rate, in all those
parts of the Bible which seem to be the oldest, there is a singular
absence of any formula or command for supplication. Solomon's prayer
is comparatively of modern date. Indeed, this vacuity is implied in the
expression of one of Jesus' disciples, "Teach us to pray, as John
also taught his disciples" (Luke xi. 1), thus showing clearly that the
practice of prayer was not a Judaic, i.e., Mosaic one.*
* As a friend, who has been kind enough to assist me to
correct these sheets in their passage through the press,
considers that I ought to give some reasons for the
assertion made in the text, the following information is
appended:--
I. There are, in all, about a score of different words in
Hebrew which have been translated, "prayer," "I pray,"
"praying," &c. These are--(1) ahnah or ahna, (2) begah, (3)
ghalah, (4) ghanan, (5) loo, (6) lahgash, (7) na, (8)
gathar, (9) pagag, (10) pahlal, (11) tztlah, (12) seeagh,
(13) shoal, (14) tephilah. The rest are different forms
of the same roots.
II. These words do not, except in a few instances, really
bear the signification of "prayer" or "intercession," which
is given to them in the Authorised English Version of the
Bible; as any one may convince himself by consulting
Wigram's Hebrew concordance.
Thus, No. 1, in three instances, is translated in the A. V.
by the interjection "or,(OL)" No. 2, in the A. V. is once
used as "praying," but in other parts as "seeking" for
persons, "desiring" or "requesting," and "making." No. 8 is
translated in various parts of the A. V. "I am weak" "I
fell sick," "was not grieved," "a parturient woman crying,"
"to put one's self to pain," "is grievous," "hath laid," "is
my infirmity," and these meanings are far more common than
the signification of "prayer." No. 4 is only used twice, and
is in one place translated "by showing mercy," and in the
other by "making supplication." No. 5 is translated "O
that," "peradventure," "would God that," "if," "if haply,"
"though," and only once "I pray thee." No. 6 is translated
"enchantment," "orator," "earrings," "charmed," and once
only "prayer," with the marginal reading "secret speech."
No. 7 is in one place "now," in another "Oh," "go to," as
well as "I pray," and this in the same sense as we should
use the words to a child "I wish you would be quiet" No. 8
is generally used in the sense of "intreaty" or "prayer,"
but it once is found as "earnest," and "multiplying words,"
as in a Litany. No. 9 is used to signify "he came,"
"reached," "thou shalt meet," "fall upon," or "kill," "he
lighted" on a certain place, "they met together," and in
the 53d chapter of Isaiah the same word is used in verse 6,
"for the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," and
in verse 12, for "and made intercession for the
transgressors!" No. 10 is used almost exclusively for
prayer, but it is only found six times in the whole
Pentateuch, in one of which it is read "I had no thought"
in the A. V. No. 11 is only found twice, once in Ezra and
once in Daniel, and signifies "prayer" in both. No. 12 has
many interpretations in the A. V., viz., "meditation,"
"speaking," "talking," "complaining," "declaring," in one
instance only is it translated "pray," and that in the
apparently important text Ps. lv. 17, "Evening and morning
and at noon will I pray." As a substantive the word is
rendered as "complaint," "talking, meditation,"
"babbling," and only once "prayer," and that in Ps. lv. 2,
"Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer." No. 13 is generally
translated "ask," as we should remark, "well, if he asks me
what must I say?" "beg," as "he shall beg in harvest;"
"consulted," in the text "he consulted with images,"
"salute," "to salute him of peace;" "enquired," "Saul
enquired of the Lord;" "wished," "and wished in himself to
die;" "lent," "I have lent him to the Lord," "so that they
lent unto them." No. 14 is used exclusively for prayer, but
the word is not to be found in the whole of the Pentateuch.
III. There is reason to believe that the most important of
these words have come from the Persian, a language allied to
the Sanscrit; and if so, it is clear that the idea of
prayer was adopted by the Jews after they were patronised by
the conquerors of Babylon. Some of the other words are
Aramaic, and probably even more modern than the rest. For
example, No. 10 is compared by Furst in his Hebrew and
Chaldee Lexicon, to the Sanscrit phal, and No. 8 may also be
derived from the Persian, and a Sanscrit root gad, which
signifies "to speak to," or "call upon," Anahf No. 1, is
Aramaic.
I think that it was Mons. Weill, in his remarkable book called Moise et
le Talmud, who first drew attention to the influence of the Talmudists
upon the Jewish Scriptures. He pointed out that in the Mosaic law there
was no idea of prayer, intercession, or pardon; everything was based
upon the "lex talionis," an eye was to be paid for with an eye, murder
was to be avenged by murder, and ecclesiastical, ceremonial, and other
transgressions were to be atoned, i.e., satisfaction was to be given by
sacrifice and payments to the priest or tabernacle. But when the Jews,
after their contact with the Chaldeans, Medea, Persians, Greeks, and
Romans, began to study theology, two sects arose--the Talmudists, who
explained away the older Scriptures, interpolated narratives, or simply
texts therein, so as to suit their purposes; and the Sadducees, who
refused to adopt as matters of faith anything which was not taught by
Moses. The first was the strongest sect, and composed the majority in
the Sanhedrim. They thus had power over the sacred canon, and could
reject manuscripts or adopt them according as the purposes which were
aimed at were served. The Talmudic interpolations are supposed to b"
recognised chiefly in the more modern parts of the Old Testament,
in Ezra, Nehemiah, the second Isaiah and Jeremiah, in the books of
Zechariah and Malachi, in the Chronicles, Daniel, in many Psalms, more
sparsely in the older histories, but very largely in the Pentateuch.
From these considerations, from the absence of any order in the Mosaic
law for the priests to offer any supplication, and from, the general
absence of prayer from the sacrifices of all nations, we may conclude
that "intercession" formed no part in the Jewish religion in the early
days of its existence.
When working upon this subject I endeavoured to examine the curious
Iguvian tables, on which Aufrecht, Eircher, and Newman have bestowed
such pains. These are, I believe, the only tables extant which give
directions to the old Umbrian, or any other ancient priests, how to
conduct public sacrifices and the ensuing feasts. In them there are
directions for invocations, but no formula for prayers, unless one can
call invocations by that name. I fancy, that in some parts of the
tables there are words which may be rendered "speak," or "mutter," or
"meditate," or "pray silently."
The fact that a Hebrew historian has composed a prayer, and put it into
the mouth of King Solomon, rather than into that of a high priest, shows
that supplication for the people was not a strictly sacerdotal duty.
Even now, with all our liberality of thought, we take our prayers from
the Archbishops, and not from the crown.
But what we have said points to another important consideration, viz.,
how far our Authorized Version can be trusted as a foundation upon which
to build a theory respecting the use of prayer, when we find that the
words given in English do not correspond with the words in the original
Hebrew.
We have noticed in the text that both John and Jesus taught their
disciples to pray; we may now call attention to the idea which the
latter had of "prayer." In a parable, which was evidently intended to
represent what was common enough in his day, he says, "Two men went up
into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican;
the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself--God, I thank Thee that
I am not as other men are," &c (Luke xviii. 10-13). Surely one cannot
call a boastful enumeration of one's virtues either "supplication,"
"prayer," or "entreaty;" but we understand readily that what we should
call "meditation" was once included under the name "prayer." This
anecdote unquestionably seems to prove that there was nothing like
public prayer in the temple ritual. The idea of the Ancients was to
obtain what they wanted by costly sacrifice; the idea of the Moderns is
to obtain their desires by the expenditure of words only. We know that
Pagans used long litanies, and that Christians do so too. In Jezebel's
time "0 Baal, hear us" resounded on Mount Carmel in sonorous monotony.
We have replaced that heathen chant by another, and our cathedrals
reverberate constantly with the musical rogation, "We beseech Thee to
hear us, good Lord," uttered more than a score of times. Our orthodoxy
consists in our using English instead Phoenician words, and in calling
Baal by a word more familiar to us; and as the highest commendation
which we can give to others is to imitate them, so we praise the Ancient
heathen highly, who thought that they would be heard from their "much
speaking." It is ever easier to change our words than our practice. Like
the Pharisee, Christians boast that they are not as other men are; but
by their proceedings they show that they are like the Jews, of whose
paternity Jesus had not an exalted opinion. (See John viii. 44).
In further illustration of the absence of a set form of prayer in the
temple worship in Jerusalem, and of the independence of all devout
solicitors of priestly aid, I may point to Matthew vi. 5 to 8, wherein
we find that hypocrites offered their supplications, not only in the
temple, but at the corners of the streets. It is just possible that in
the former locality there might have been some public worship going on,
in which the saintly could join, but certainly there was no such ritual
at street corners. But if there had really been divine service in the
temple, it follows that those who joined in it would not have been
conspicuous, or deserving the name of hypocrites. The fault of these
which is mentioned by Jesus is ostentatious public prayer, i.e.9 the
doing of that which had not been prescribed by Moses.
As I have, in a preceding volume, spoken at some length concerning the
morals and manners of ancient races, and shown how, as a rule, their
conduct has been the same as that of modern Christians, and as,
moreover, the subject has been treated of in an essay by Lecky (_History
of European Morals_), I will not pursue this part of my subject further
than to remark, that we have scarcely two articles of faith--if, indeed
we have more than one--i.e., respect for one day in seven--which we have
not received, directly or indirectly, from Pagans. Even our Christianity
is but a modified Buddhism, as I shall endeavour, in my next chapter, to
show.
CHAPTER IV.
Christianity and Buddhism. The new and old world. An
impartial judge is said to be a partisan. Works on the
subject. Sakya Muni's birth, B.c. 620 (about), position in
life, original views. Parallels between Brahmin-ism,
Buddhism, Hebraism, and Christianity. History of Sakya Muni
--that of Jesus corresponds with it marvellously. Sakya
receives a commission from an angel--is henceforth a
saviour. History of Jesus follows that of Sakya. Siddartha
neither dictated nor wrote. A favourite garden. Sakya and
the Brahmins. Buddha and Christ equally persecuted. Spread
of Buddhism after Siddartha's death. Asoka a royal convert
Buddhist missionaries, b.c. 307. Their wonderful successes.
Different development of Buddhism and Christianity.
Persecution a Christian practice, Buddha tempted by the
Devil, and by women, like St Anthony. Buddha's life reduced
to writing, at least B.c. 90. Hardy on Buddhist miracles.
His remarks criticised. Necessity for miracles is doubtful.
Sakya and a future life. Resurrection from the dead. Jesus
not the first fruits of them that slept. Paul's argument
worthless. Buddhists in advance of Christians. Priestcraft
at time of Buddha and Jesus. Both did away with ceremonial.
Sakya's doctrine--compared with Christian teaching. Another
parallel between Buddha and Jesus. Commandments of Tathagata
(Buddha), or the Great Sramana. Rules for his saintly
friends--for outsiders. Definition of terms. The Sra-mana's
opinion of miracles--a comparison. The history of Jesus told
without miracles. Buddhistic confession--remarks on in
modern times. Filial respect. Public confession, murder
absolved thereby. Asoka, about B.c. 263, sent out
missionaries. Objections made against Buddhism. Ideas
respecting God. Salvation. Buddha and Jesus. Nirvana. Heaven
and Hell--Christian ideas. Apocalypse. The heaven of John
and Mahomet compared with that of Buddha. Prayer not a
Buddhist institution--nor originally a Christian one. Nature
of prayer. The developments of Buddhism, particulars--
comparison between the Eastern ancient and Western modern
practice. Abbe Hue. No sexual element in Buddhism and
Christianity at first--it has crept into both in later
times. Inquiry into the probable introduction of Buddhism
into the West. Asceticism peculiar to Buddhism and
Christianity. The Essenes, their faith and practice--
resemblance to Buddhism. John and Jesus probably Essenes.
If Jesus was inspired, so was Siddartha. Differences
between Sakya and Jesus. Jesus 'believed in an immediate
destruction of the world. Idea of preexistence in Jesus and
Sakya adopted by their followers. The basis of the two
faiths is morality--but an unsound one. Nature of the
unsoundness. Morality has a reference to a life on earth
only. The decalogue superfluous. Ideas of future rewards and
punishments. Dives and Lazarus. The world can exist without
a knowledge of a future life. God thought so when He taught
the Jews. Dogma versus morality. See how these Christians
live! There are a few good men amongst Christians.
Supplementary remarks.
From the Peruvian and Aztec religious systems in what we designate the
New World, a phrase which involves the idea that its existence was for
ages wholly unknown to the historians of the Eastern Hemisphere, we turn
to another form of faith, which demands even greater attention. Buddhism
has, probably, done more to influence the minds of men in Asia than
any other religion in any part of the globe, and its history is so
remarkable, that it deserves the attention of every philosophical
student of mankind. To the Christian it ought to be especially
interesting, inasmuch as there is strong reason to believe that the
faith current amongst ourselves is to be traced to the teaching of
Sakya Muni, whose original name, we may notice, in passing, was no more
"Buddha" than "Christ" was the cognomen of the son of Mary.
An ingenious author on one occasion wrote a charming essay "upon the
art of putting things," and I cannot read any treatise upon Buddhism,
written by a Christian, without thinking how completely "the advocate"
is to be seen throughout them all Ecclesiastical writers, who are
Protestant preachers, endeavour laboriously to prove that the teaching
of Sakya Muni could not have been inspired, and was certainly false;
whilst other writers, who have no particular leaning towards Jesus,
extol the author of Buddhism beyond that of Christianity. Truly, in such
a matter it is extremely difficult not to appear as a partisan, however
carefully the scales may be held. The very fact of endeavouring "to see
ourselves as others see us" involves the necessity of "putting things"
in a different light to that which is most common or familiar to us. A
bumptious Briton thinks more of his own Islands than a Yankee thinks of
them, and one who endeavours to describe "the wheel of the law" as an
astute Buddhist would do, and who, at the same time, compares it with
the teachings of the son of Mary, must seem to those who, without
knowing its nature, despise the former, and yet implicitly believe in
the latter, to be a partisan. Acting upon this belief, we shall not
scruple to appear as an advocate, for we believe that "an opposition"
is as good in religion as in politics, and that it behoves us all to
examine every important question in all its bearings.
In the following essay I shall not attempt to go into every detail about
the life of Sakya Muni, for to do so would weary the reader. Anyone
who wishes for such information may be referred to _Le Bouddha et sa
Religion_, par J. Barthelemy Saint Hilaire, Paris, 1860, a book which
may be fairly designated as exhaustive. The English reader may also
consult _The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists_, by Rev. R. Spence
Hardy, London, 1866, which, though very prejudiced, is extremely
suggestive. Hardy's _Eastern Monachism_ and _Manual of Buddhists_ are
about the same. _The Mahawanso_ translated by Tumour, is also a very
valuable work of reference.
There appears to be little doubt that Sakya Muni was born about 622
years before our era, and that he died when about eighty years of age,
i.e.f B.C. 542. He was thus a contemporary of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
other Jewish prophets. Though of royal birth, and of the warrior or
kingly caste, he does not appear to have been instructed in general
history, if, indeed, any such was in existence in Hindostan at that or
any other period; and we cannot find a tittle of evidence that he
ever heard of any other religion than Brahminism, the dominant faith,
apparently, of the Aryan invaders of India. In that he was taught
assiduously, and some of its tenets he most firmly believed. Amongst
others, he held that men lived in a future world, in which each one was
rewarded or punished according to his doings when in a human form. His
teaching was founded upon the belief which the Brahmins inculcated,
that all men endure misery in this world for their conduct in a previous
state of existence, and that they would once again suffer after death,
unless they conducted themselves, in this life, in a manner pleasing
to the Almighty. In this creed is clearly involved, if not distinctly
enunciated, a full acknowledgment of the existence and power of God, of
the certainty of a future life, and a desire to escape from penalties
to be inflicted therein by a supreme celestial Judge, for immorality or
impropriety committed in the present state. For these points of doctrine
Sakya did not contend, he merely laid down a different system to the
Brahmins as to the method by which salvation was to be attained, and the
penal consequences of a sinful life were to be avoided.
We may now, halting here for a moment, examine these matters for
ourselves, and inquire in what way such faith differs from our own.
The Brahmin taught that man suffers pain, misery, and death for certain
crimes committed in a previous state of existence; the Christian teaches
that each one suffers for a fault committed by ancestors who lived
thousands of years ago. Neither the one nor the other regard pain,
sorrow, suffering, and death as the normal accompaniments of life, but
both attribute them to the wrath of an offended deity, who can be, in
some way, cheated, cajoled, appeased, or propitiated. Both assert that
men are debtors to God, and that miseries are "duns" used to make men
pay their obligations to heaven. The Brahmin taught that this could be
effected by prayer, sacrifice, and sundry ceremonies to be performed
by some man who had been specially appointed for the purpose. A due
attention to morality was also inculcated, but it was apparently
considered as of less importance than ritualistic observances.
The Jew, whom so many amongst us believe to have been especially taught
by God, propounded a belief essentially similar to that of the Brahmin,
with the single exception that he had no faith in a future existence,
but thought that sacrifice and offerings, through a priesthood, were
necessary to obtain comfort in this life.
The Christian teaches that the horrors of eternity can only be escaped
by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts xvi. 30, 31), and by being
moral in addition.
The "belief" here referred to is somewhat amplified in other parts of
the Bible, and notably in John iii. 15-17, 36; vi. 39, 40; ix. 35; xi.
15; and Acts viii. 37; from which we learn that an item in the faith was
a firm hold upon the idea that Jesus was the son, the only begotten son,
of God. This dogma is still further extended in the "Apostles' Creed,"
wherein the Christians express, as articles of faith, their belief, that
Jesus Christ was the only son of God, conceived by the Holy Ghost, and
born of the Virgin Mary, &c. This tenet is somewhat varied in the Nicene
Creed, which expresses the Christian belief to be, that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the only begotten son of God--begotten of his Father before
all worlds--being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things
were made, &c.
The fundamental teaching of Sakya was, that man can only escape the
tortures of the damned, by a strict propriety of conduct in this
world, and a persistent endeavour to renounce and think nothing of the
gratifications which make life pleasant. The modern Buddhist adds to
this a belief in the absolute divinity of the founder of his faith, not
simply that he was a son of God, but a visible embodiment of a portion
of the Creative Unity. Brahmins and Buddhists believe in transmigration
of souls: the Christian does the like, only, instead of being converted
into a beast, he imagines that he will become either an angel or a
devil.
Within certain limits, we may, therefore, say that the Brahminic, the
Jewish, the Buddhist, and the Christian religions are essentially
alike, differing only upon minor points, such as the absolute value of
morality, of ceremonial, of doctrine, of asceticism, the nature of a
hypothetical antecedent, and an equally uncertain future existence, and
the best means of escaping the penalties attached, in the second state,
to impropriety of conduct in the first. If we deride the Brahmin
and the Buddhist for the faith which they entertain, our laugh must
necessarily recoil on ourselves, for we have no more unequivocal grounds
for our belief than they have for theirs. We point in vain to what we
call "Revelation," for they can do the same, and if priority in such
matters is good for anything, the Brahminic must take precedence of the
Jewish, and the Buddhist of the Christian code. Nor can we call miracles
to our exclusive aid, for the religious books of the Hindoo are as full
of them as are those of the Jew and Christian, and the stories told
in the one can be readily paralleled in impossibility, incapacity,
frivolity, and absurdity by the others.
We must remember, then, when speaking of the teaching of Sakya, that it
was constructed upon the supposed fundamental truths of Brahminism, just
as the doctrines of Jesus were built upon those of Judaism. By adopting
these, respectively, the two preachers have demonstrated their belief in
them, but neither the one nor the other have advanced our knowledge
as to the reality of the earliest faith, nor demonstrated the truth of
their subsequent assumptions.
If we now endeavour, for the sake of comparison, to place the Eastern
and the Western points of belief in parallel columns, we shall be better
able to see the points of resemblance and of difference than by any
other plan.
[Illustration: 114]
[Illustration: 115]
These are only a few of the leading points of resemblance and
difference, and might be almost indefinitely multiplied.
After this preface, we may proceed to notice that Siddartha--another
name for Buddha--was of royal birth, and born in wedlock: his mother was
called Maya Devi, and was herself the daughter of a king. His father was
of the warrior caste, and, according to ancient usage, Sakya, like Jesus
some centuries later, was presented in the temple of the God of his
parents, and recognized by a Brahmin, whom we may designate as a
predecessor, by some hundreds of years, of the Jewish Simeon (Luke ii
25, seq.)f as having the marks of a great man upon him. As Sakya grew up
to man's estate he was found to be peculiarly clever, and soon distanced
his masters, as Jesus was and did, when, at twelve years, he went into
the temple and astonished the doctors. He was always thoughtful, and
frequently remained alone. Once he wandered into a forest, (compare
Matthew iv. 1-11), in which he was found lost in thought. When obliged
to exhibit his talents, Siddartha was found to have every conceivable
excellence, bodily and mental He was, by parental desire, married to a
paragon of a wife, who showed her good sense by rejecting the use of a
veil. In this Sakya differs from Mary's son, who never married, being,
most probably, of the tribe of the Essenes. In later life Siddartha
discouraged wedlock and every form of love. But, during all his outward
happiness; Siddartha's thoughts ran upon the misery which he saw on
every side to be common in the world, and he entertained a hope that
he would be able to show man the road to a happy immortality. In these
ideas the teacher was encouraged by a god, who appeared to him by night,
and told him that the appointed time for the deliverer had come. This
comforter also recommended him to leave his wife, his wealth, his
father's house, and give up all he had, so as to be able to seek,
unencumbered, the way of salvation. Compare here the passage, Mark x.
20-30, wherein Jesus gives the same kind of advice as the angel gave
to Sakya Muni. Having become satisfied of his mission from God, he
resolutely abandoned everything, and, being really a scion of royalty,
he had much to renounce. Siddartha thus became a mendicant, dependent
upon others for food and raiment, and resembled that son of Mary, of
whom we read that he had not a residence wherein to lay his head (Matt.
viii. 20; Luke ix. 58). He was about twenty-nine years of age when he
thus became poor for the sake of mankind. Compare what is said of
Jesus, Luke iii. 23. Though Siddartha was opposed to the Brahmins, he
nevertheless studied their doctrines, as Mary's son did that of the
Hebrew theologians, thoroughly, under one of the wisest of them, for
many years. Then, leaving this teacher, he went about preaching and
doing good. So much were men impressed with his beauty, his piety, and
his doctrines, that they flocked in crowds to see him, and he taught
them whilst sitting on the brow of Mount Pandava--even kings came to
hear him. Compare here what is said of the Nazarene, Matt. iv. 23 to
Matt. viii. 1. Sakya was persecuted for a long time by a relative, who
ultimately became one of his most ardent disciples. Compare Matt. xvi.
22 and John xxi. 15, et seq. Siddartha's austerities and mortifications
of himself, in every conceivable way, were excessive during the next six
years, and these have been represented as a combat with the Devil, whose
kingdom he destroyed. At the end of this probation, Sakya Muni, finding
fasting and pain not profitable for eternal salvation, resumed the
ordinary human habits of eating, &c. This disgusted many of his
disciples, and "they walked no more with him." He was partly supported
by a slave woman, and was content to clothe himself with vestments taken
from the dead. Finally, this wonderful son of Maya heard within him a
voice, which told him that he was divine, the saviour of the world, and
the incarnation of the wisdom of God--Buddha, "the word" itself. Compare
John i. 1, et seq. This was confirmed by a miracle, and thus, at the
age of thirty-six, and at the foot of a fig tree, Sakya Muni received
a divine commission, "and the word was made flesh." But, though thus
divinely inspired, the sav
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