Miscellaneous Writings of Alexander Wilder

Volume 4

- Compiled by M. R. Jaqua

(Biographical information on the 19th and early 20th century Neo-Platonist, EclecticPhysician, Theosophist and Historian Alexander Wilder can be found in Volumes 1 and 2of this series.)

2012

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Contents

Platonism and Neo-Platonism

- The City of Mind- Annotations to "The Egyptian Mysteries" by Iamblichos- Platonic Technology- Emblems of the American Akademe- Iamblichus's Exhortation to Philosophy (review)

Religion and Philosophy

- Animals - Their Language and Faculties- A Chapter on English Language- Death of Three Hindu Sages- Drama of Christendom- English Language and Orthography- Introduction to "Symbolic Language of Ancient Art"- Life Eternal- Matter and Its Transmutation- Notes to "Transcendental Magic"- Practical Value of Philosophy- Religions of Greece and Rome- "Life Everlasting" (review)- The Serpent- The Serpent as Symbol- Speech- Swine and Sacred Rites- Words With Their Workings- Zorastrian Afterword

History

- Annotations to Knight's "Symbolical Language of Ancient Art"- Macbeth King of Scotland- Arguments for Incineration- Folk-lore- Interbiblcal History (Review)- Introduction to "Serpent and Siva Worship"- John James Garth Wilkinson- A Reading in Uncanonical Scripture

Short and Miscellaneous

- Bacchus (review)- Dispute Over a Stela- How Words are Made- A Jew Against the Sabbath- Letter on Alcohol- Making History Mendacious- A Return to Old Spelling- Scotch at the Holy Sepulchre- Tribute to Hiram Jones- Should Men Cut Their Hair?- What We Saw in the West- A Very Ancient Scripture- Very Old Egypt- What Happened and Who Caused it?- What is Matter?- Why Jesus was Crowned with Thorns- Vignettes

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Platonism and Neo-Platonism

The City of Mind - Alexander Wilder

All of mere transient date As symbol showeth; Here the inadequate

To fulness groweth; Here the ineffable Wrought is in love; The ever-womanlike Impels us above.

- Goethe.

In former description the city embraced the polity entire, the rulers and the people,the customs of religion and the whole system of government. The founder was reveredas a god, and the citizens were in a way regarded as of the same household. Thecontiguous territory was subject and its population were amenable accordingly to the lawsof the metropolis, as well as dependent upon it for protection. With this conception Platoframed his great production, The Republic.

The occasion was the celebrating of a festival. The worship of the goddess Bendishad just been introduced at the Piraeus from Thrace, and Sokrates with others had gonefrom Athens to take part and see the procession of Thracian sailors. The Lessor Rites ofAthena were to take place the same evening, and they were waiting by invitation at thehouse of the aged Kephalus to view the spectacle of the Torch-Race on horseback,supposed to be commemorative of the victory over the invaders from Atlantis.

As usual, Sokrates proceeded to the asking of questions that were apparently oflittle importance, but soon led the discourse to profounder matters. The explanation of therelative delights of old age led to discussion of the advantages incident to justice andinjustice, and also to the rewards and punishments received in the future life. At this point,Glaukon, the brother of Plato, demanded a statement which should be more thorough andradical. It was not enough to reprobate injustice and praise justice with reference to therewards in reputation, honors, or emoluments. He declared that what ought to be broughtinto notice was not the mere fact that justice is better than injustice, but what justice andinjustice intrinsically are; what each accomplished with the individual exercising it, with noreference whatever as to whether the result was hidden from gods and men or was in fullview, or whether it was fortunate or unfortunate.

This placed the discussion on a higher altitude. Sokrates answered that it would beeasier to understand justice as a principle that influenced an entire community. It couldafterward be traced to the individual. The city, the community, owes its very existence tothe idea of reciprocity. No one person is able to supply all his own wants. One is in needof one thing, another of something else. Many are brought together accordingly into acommon alliance, by this general necessity each of the help of the others. Each individualmost provide for himself as far as he is able, but must contribute of his labor to the others.In this matter the principle of utility ought to govern. An individual works best in the art inwhich he is most skilled and takes the most enjoyment. He will be most serviceable toothers by engaging in that art. In the division of employment that must exist, some mustprepare the material for others to manufacture into articles of use and convenience; likefood, clothing, dwellings.

So far, however, the conditions of human beings differ from those of the bruteanimal, that is satisfied with food and sleep. Mankind aspires to more luxurious modes ofliving. The wants of refined life are developed, and with these there are required other artsand other forms of employment. Individuals require to be trained in the pursuits which are

thus necessary to the general welfare.Education is of transcendent importance. Its leading function is that of

development, the bringing into manifestation native disposition and aptitude, with apurpose of training for the service to which the individual may be best fitted. This isessential in determining how justice and injustice arise into active display. Sokratesinsisted that education begin with young children while yet with their mothers and nurses.He utterly disapproved of telling them stories of monstrous beings or occurrences, or suchas would incite sentiments of hatred for causes of slight importance. God should alwaysbe described to them as good, as the cause of things that are good, but never asoccasioning evil to any one. If it is necessary to tell them things that seem otherwise, letit be after attaining maturity and then only as to individuals undergoing the rite of initiation,when they are capable of knowing the undermeaning.

Children to grow up brave and manly, to become fit for rulers and guardians of thewelfare of a people, should be told things of a character to make them have little fear ofdeath. The belief in a future state in which is perhaps a terrible condition, has no influenceto make one brave in conflict, or willing to choose death in preference to defeat andservitude. Those who speak of the condition after death, should praise it abundantly.

Lamentation at funerals, and piteous exclamations, of individuals in high repute,Sokrates declared, ought to be utterly suppressed. The good man will not consider dyingas a calamity to the other good man who is his friend, and he will not mourn for him asthough the friend had suffered something terrible. On the contrary he is self-sustained.To him the loss of a son, or brother, or property, or any other such thing, is by no meansregarded as a calamity. He will bear with meekness whatever misfortune may befall him.

Boisterous laughing, he affirmed to be as unseemly as noisy and violentlamentations. It was not becoming for a man to be overcome by a fit of either, and theresults of such emotions reflect little credit on those who give up to them.

In regard to reading and scientific study, Sokrates is represented as very strict andparticular. There is much literature that can be read with profit. But if we desire childrento pay due respect to religion, and to their parents and other superiors, there are tales anddescriptions which they ought not to read or bear. Human nature has many constituentqualities, and these should be developed carefully, giving superior attention to those inwhich the pupil is most likely to excel. The youth should be impelled to imitate thoseexamples in which individuals have been noted for courage, self-control, piety, liberality ofthought, and other qualities of that character. But he should never be encouraged toimitate any thing unworthy. Imitation is likely to become fixed in the manners and personalhabits, those of body, speech and ways of thinking. The persons who become wellendowed in the estimable qualities are themselves lovable in mind and body, and are acuteto recognize the same qualities in others who possess them.

Sensual delights and unrestricted appetite, Sokrates declared, have no placewhatever with any virtue. In their nature they are most maddening. Practices common atthat time and said to exist still in parts of the East, he insisted were most reprehensible;and that certainly they do not pertain to those who genuinely love and are beloved.

Due attention is demanded to physical training. Sokrates did not teach that a bodyin good condition made by its own excellence the soul to be good likewise. But a soul thatis good will make the best condition of body that is possible. In case that there has beenthe proper instruction, then the attention which is due to the body can be confided to the

care of the soul and understanding. In such case drunkenness will be precluded, for incase of intoxication the guardian would also need a guardian. The diet should be plain andsimple. Where luxury is at the table looseness of morals is likely to attend, and bodilydistempers result. With loose morals and diseases of body multiplying, hospitals andcourts of law are opened as the consequence.

If a man were to consult lawyers and judges, because he lacked knowledge toconduct his own affairs, it would be imputed to being without a proper bringing-up. Butwhen he wastes his time in lawsuits, either as defendant or plaintiff, taking pride at hisdexterity in making his way through the windings of legal craft and resorting to subterfugeand artful tricks to evade justice for small matters of no importance, it is far moredisgraceful. Reasoning by similar logic Sokrates declared that to have need of the medicalart when this was not required by wounds or certain periodical recurrings of disease, butwas the result of inactive habits and improper diet, was disgraceful equally as that. Theconstant thinking and discoursing of bodily conditions, he considered as superlativelyobjectionable. A person who is all the time worrying about certain differences in feelingand dizziness of the head, is likely to imagine himself to be sick and even suffering acutepain. Nor is the body healed by remedies of a physical character. On the contrary thebody is cured by the soul. But when the soul is itself ill or becoming ill it is not capable ofrendering such service.

In short, Sokrates remarked that Divinity has introduced two forms of skill: theLiberal Arts and Bodily Exercises, the one pertaining to the passionate nature and the otherto the reasoning faculty. The individual who combines the two the most perfectly, andgives them their proper place in the soul, is the most fitted, and always needed, for thesupreme magistrate.

Our philosopher here set forth a distinction which is hardly acceptable in democraticpolitics, but seems to be generally vindicated by practice. Those who take part ingovernment as citizens and rulers should be those who have received such education andtraining. The rulers should be the older and those who are governed the younger. Thechoice should be made from the aristi, the best of the citizens. Men of lower rank shouldhave no place among the ruling class. But individuals, born in nobler families, and provingunworthy of such parentage are to be placed with the proletariat, while children born inlower grades, but proving to be superior in quality may take their place accordingly.

In the city as here described there are four great classes. The individuals virtuallyselect their places for themselves. One class, for example, makes choice of philosophy,literature and scientific pursuits; another as active in matters of social organization andpublic defense; a third will be devoted to private business in its various forms. Thenfollows the class most numerous of all, the proletarian. It consists of those who have notaste or fitness for the management of affairs, but are invaluable in the innumerablerequirements of labor and service. Arbitrary legislation does not and cannot establish anyfamily or individual in any of these divisions, but each takes the place in rank and callingfor which he is best adapted, for which the others have most occasion for his service.

The whole community is as one individuality, all are parts of one body and belongso to speak to different parts of the organism. It is not the question where we are placedin the arrangement, but whether we do our work properly. Nor is there to be any classsuperlatively happy, but the whole is to be made as happy as possible.

The city, thus wisely established will be good, wise, courageous, discreet and just.

It is wise because provident, and this is because of superior knowledge. Another thingwhich is necessary is self-control, and with it, justice. When the better part of the soulgoverns the lower nature the individual is said to be superior to himself. In a city this wouldimply that the best, those superior in nature and education kept the others in order. Thisbrings the discourse to the original question of justice. A proper definition of justice is thusshown, that justice is what ought to be done. It does not regard merely external action, butwhat is internal and distinctly the interior quality. No principle or quality in one person isto be allowed to attempt what belongs to the province of another, or to meddle or interferein that which does not belong to itself. By attending to his own affairs properly, he will beled to combine everything together, as in music. Thus he is able to do what is to be done,whether acquiring wealth, managing the body or conducting public and private affairs; andin all these may reckon that what he is doing is just and good, and call the knowledgewhich guides this action, wisdom, but at the same time consider an unjust action and theopinion by which it is directed, folly.

Injustice, Sokrates explained as a conflict between the different principles of thesoul, like a revolt of some part against the whole - an aspiring to govern where it ought tobe itself in subjection. It is a sort of meddling and interfering in matters that belongdifferently. This disturbing and error constitute the vices which are known as clownishness,injustice, absence of proper restraint, pusillanimity, and indeed all kinds of baseness. Thedoing of injustice, this condition of being unjust in mind and purpose, and on the otherhand, the doing of justice, are plain to perception if injustice and justice are perceivable atall. They correspond to what is healthy and what is diseased, the one being in the bodyand the other in the soul. This last distinction named is shown by the fact that things thatare wholesome produce health, and those that are unwholesome produce disease. So,likewise, doing justly produces justice, and doing unjustly produces injustice. In ordertherefore to produce and maintain the condition of health it is necessary that everything inthe body shall be so established as to govern and be governed according to nature; andto create disorder it requires to govern and be governed contrary to nature. A similar ruleexists, by analogy, with the soul.

Thus it is manifest that the just man in his own moral nature is like the city orcommonwealth that is perfectly arranged. He is as a kingdom or aristocracy that retainsits fundamental laws inviolate; whereas everything else is sure to be involved in conditionsof disorder and misrule.

Some of the explanations which the philosopher has given are enigmatic, and to beinterpreted accordingly. It was a method employed by Pythagoras, and the parable of laterdate comes in the same category. This, however, is honey for the pure and poison for theimpure, and requires to be interpreted by itself. Plato spoke often in a veiled language andfor those having eyes to see as well as ears to hear and a heart to understand aright. Thecity described in the Republic was identical with the Grand Man of Swedenborg, of whomevery individual is a part in the corporeal organism.

"Plato's Republic is not a theory or ideal of a government among men," saysGeneral E. A. Hitchcock, "but the ideal of man in the abstract, whose condition isdetermined internally by the action and reaction of internal elements which no external lawcan reach. In this state (this city of mind) all thoughts and feelings exist in common, or asa community, under no restraints or compulsions not derived from their internal nature.Under these circumstances the family of thought and feeling generated, will represent the

character of the State, whether noble or base, elevated or depraved."The inhabitants of the city are the thoughts and feelings, the internal or spiritual

principles personified, the external form being what Plato terms "a veil." It is under a kingor aristocracy when the right reason rules; but it is under an oligarchy, and other forms ofgovernment, and finally, in the descending scale, in an anarchy, when inferior principlesusurp the ascendency.

When the great German brings his life-poem to the culminating sentence "The ever-womanlike impels us above," he propounds no suggestion of a gallant character. It is theimpulse of receptiveness which is thus represented, the readiness of mind to receiveintuitively enlightenment and moral energy from within and above itself.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 23, No. 3, September, 1908)

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Selected Annotations to "The Egyptian Mysteries" by Iamblichos

(Theurgia or The Egyptian Mysteries, by Iamblichos, Translated Anew andAnnotated by Alexander Wilder, M.D., F.A.S., Metaphysical Publishing Co., 1911, 283pp.)

Porphyry, it is well known, was a distinguished scholar, and the foremost writer inthe later Platonic School. He was a native of Tyre, and his name Molech, or King, wasrendered by Longinus into porFurioz Porphurios, denoting the royal purple, as a properequivalent. He was a disciple of Plotinos, who had broadened the field of philosophic studytill it included the "Wisdom of the East." In personal habits he followed the Pythagoreandiscipline. He was a severe critic of the Gnostic beliefs then current, and he evidentlyincluded with them also the new Christian faith. His mysticism was spiritual andcontemplative, and he regarded the ceremonial rites of the Egyptian theurgy with distrust.he favored Mithraism, which prevailed in Asia, while Iamblichos belonged rather to the cultof Serapis, which was the State religion of Egypt.

Of Anebo we know little. He is addressed as an Egyptian priest, and his name isthat of Anabu or Anubis, the Egyptian psychopompos and patron of sacred literature. Hewas a "prophet" hen niter or servant of divinity, and expounder of the oracles: andPorphyry himself an "epoptes" or initiated person, asks him accordingly to explain theEgyptian theosophic doctrines respecting the divine beings, rites and religious faith.---------

The use of images and emblems of a sacred character to typify divine power andenergy is universal. Somewhat of the divine was supposed to inhere in them. The"images" and asheras or "groves" mentioned in the Bible were of this character. So wasthe "idol in a grove," made by Queen Maachah, as well as the simulacrums which, asHerodotus states, the Egyptian women carried at the festivals.---------

Xenokrates, who was a disciple of Plato.... considered the heavens as divine andthat the substance of the divine nature was mind pure and absolute. He also describedthe stars as "visible divinities." The daemons were depicted as of a psychic nature,subordinate to that of the gods, and therefore subject to emotion and perturbation likehuman beings, while at the same time sharing in a degree in the power and intelligence ofthe gods.---------

Greek, nooz the mind or "rational soul," the essence or principle of intelligencewhich transcends the understanding or reasoning faculty, and is capable of knowing truthintuitively and instinctively from being itself of divine origin.---------

.... Porphyry has given an ancient classification of spiritual beings into four orders,the gods, daemons or guardians, the heroes or half-gods, and souls. There were otherdistinctions in the eastern countries, and we find Abammon, the Teacher, adding to thesethe archangels, angels and archons of both the higher and lower nature. These werenamed in several of the Gnostic categories that were extant at that period. "We have noconflict with blood and flesh," says the Christian apostle, "but with archonates, authorities,the world-rulers of this dark region, and spiritual forces of evil in the upper heavens."----------

This inquiry in regard to the apparitions which the candidates beheld at the initiationis made plainer by Proklos: "In the most sacred stages of the Perfective Rites," says he,"before the gods come into view, there appear intrusive figures of demons of theUnderworld, to draw away the attention of the candidate from the spotless Good to thegross and material." It may be pertinent to add that in the several Grottoes or Halls ofInitiation there was machinery ingeniously constructed for the purpose of representingdivine and other personages. See The Epicurean, by Thomas Moore, and The GreatDionysiak Myth, by Robert Brown, Jr., vi, 2, 3.---------

The agurtes or begging priest generally belonged to the worship of Rhea or Kybele,the Mother. He is frequently depicted in a most unfavorable light. Apuleius speaks of acompany of these emasculate priests in the eighth book of the Metamorphoses. They arealso described in the Republic of Plato: "Agurtae and Mantics frequent the houses of therich and persuade them that they possess a power granted by the gods to expiate, bysacrifices and chants any unjust act that has been committed and that they induce thegods by blandishments and magic rites to help them. They collected money in this way,and they also followed the selling of nostrums and telling of fortunes."----------

Greek, epopthz an epopt, seer, or beholder; a person admitted to the higherdegree of initiation. "The Perfective Rite leads the way as the muesis or mystic initiation,"says Proklos, "and after that is the epopteia or beholding." Theo describes it as threedegrees - "the Purification, Initiation and Beholding of the Divine Vision." Mr. Rober Brown,

Jr., explains the last of these very fully. "This is the Autopsia or Personal Inspection, theCrown of Mysteries, the epopteia or Divine Beholding, and he becomes an Epoptes orContemplator." (Great Dionysiak Myth, vi, 2, 3.)----------

.... The Hierogrammateus, or Scribe of the [Egyptian] Temple, was a priest of thelower class, and his duty was to keep the records, teach students the religiousobservances, and take care that they were duly obedient. The Prophets were superior tothe Scribes. The Temples of Egypt, like those of Babylonia, were seminaries forinstruction, and all departments of science and philosophy were included in their teachingsas being Sacred Learning.

.... The priests in Egypt consisted of many orders, including those who performedthe rites, the learned profession which included prophets, philosophers, poets, authors,physicians, artists, master mechanics, and also embalmers of the dead.-----------

Plutarch .... in his treatise On Isis and Osiris .... remarks that some individuals donot scruple to say that Osiris is the Sun, Isis no other than the Moon, and that Typhon isfire, or drouth, or the Ocean. But he adds in rebuttal: "No one can rationally imagine thatthese objects can be gods in themselves; for nothing can be a god that is either withoutsoul, or under the power of natural objects." He also remarks that "there is an excellentsaying among philosophers, that they who have not learned the true sense of words willalso mistake in the things that are meant."----------

Hermes is here the same as the Egyptian divinity, Thoth or Tahuti, the god oflearning and medicine. He was regarded as the Scribe or recorder who registered theactions of the dead and living, so that they "were judged out of those things which werewritten in the books." He was also the revealer of the divine will to men. His name Tahutisignifies "thrice great" or "very great," or Trismegistos, in Greek.----------

In archaic periods, the worship and literature of every people was exclusive. Everyrepast being accompanied by religious ceremonies, the Egyptians would not eat withforeigners. Aahmes II broke through this restriction and made treaties of friendship andcommerce with several Grecian and Ionian States. By his command, and at the instanceof Polykrates of Samos, a tyrant-king, Pythagoras was admitted to instruction at thetemples, and formally initiated into the sacerdotal caste. After the Persian conquest othersresorted to Egypt for similar purposes; among them Plato, Demokritos, Archimedes,Chrysippos, Euripides.-----------

The Stelae, Pillars or Tablets of Thoth, appear to be little else than a figurativeexpression for the sacred learning in possession of the Sacerdotal Caste in Egypt. .... thePyramids in that country, before their spoilation, were cased all over with tablets of stoneon which hieroglyphic writing was engraved....

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The Platonic philosophers before Iamblichos taught that the many gods are the"outshinings" or emanations of the one Super-essential Deity and not substances completeof themselves. The Ancient Sadducees are said to have held a similar opinion, notdenying the actual existence of angels and spirits, but that they existed permanently byinherent energy. The same sentiment appears in the ninety-fifth (ninety-sixth) Psalm. TheChaldaean Oracle, however, declared that "not from the eternal source did anything runforth incomplete."----------

In the Assyrian or Chaldaean Plan of Divine Orders, the following are instanced byDamaskios: 1. The Intellectible Gods. 2. The Hyparchs or superior archons. 3. TheArchons. 4. The Archangels. 5. The Axoni or unclassified who belong to no definedjurisdiction. 6. Local Genii. ----------

This is the common dogma of every ancient faith. In the Hindu category, theBrahman is the Good which is beyond essence and absolute, while Brahma is identicalwith essence. The Parsis acknowledge Zeroana, the Unlimited, and Ahurmazda, theDivine Creator. The Egyptian priests worshiped Amun, the hidden One, and Ptah, theDemiurgos or Architect of the Universe.----------

The Chaldaean Oracles also recognize this twofold mind. The one, the PureReason or Intelligence, was placed over the first Triad. "The Mind of the Father named allthings in threes, and governed them all by Mind." This mind they considered as sole,unparticipating, and essential. The other was described as participant and divisible intoparts or qualities.----------

The preexistence of the soul in the eternal world, before becoming involved in thegenesis and conditions of the earth-life, was generally believed. Even after being set freeat death, it was supposed to be, after a period of less or greater length, again attractedback to the mundane sphere. Plato illustrates this by the Vision of Eros in the Republic.The choice of the earthly condition is made by the soul itself, and very generally it differsfrom what it had been in the preceding term of life in the world. "The cause is in him whomakes the choice, and the divinity is without blame in the matter." Eros adds that after thesouls had chosen their new lives according as they drew the lots, they all went in theirorder to Lachesis, and she gave to every one the demon that he had chosen, and sent thedemon along with him to be the guardian genius of his life, and the accomplisher of the fatewhich he had chosen. Then he was born anew into the earth.----------

Greek, ulg; wood, rubbish; the negative or inert quality called matter, from whichnatural objects proceed. Aristotle first adopted the term. Plato, unable to perceive of

matter as substance per se, made use of terms signifying the "nurse" and the "receptacle"or passive force. The term "matter" is from materia, the mother-principle. The phrase"realm of matter" is adopted here, as the term implies a department in the universe, andnot simply matter itself.-----------

("On this account many of these images are consecrated in the spring, when all theworld is receiving from the gods the prolific force of the whole creation.") The custom heredescribed was universal in ancient times, and it is still found in parts of India. Its remainsalso exist in architecture and ornamentation. In the worship of the Ashera and Venus ofEryx, and of the Great Mother in Syria and Western Asia, the observances were carriedto greater extremes. King Asa of Judea is said to have deposed his mother, Maacha, fromroyal dignity for her participation - "because she made a phallos to an Ashera," I Kings i,xiv. It has been generally believed that the Festivals and Initiatory, or Perfective Rites, ofthe different countries, included the same feature, as indeed, is here admitted. It shouldbe borne in mind, however, before any hasty judgment, that the different faiths had theirtwo sides, like the right or the left, and that worshipers regarded them and took part in themaccording to their inherent disposition. Thus, in India, there are the Ascetic Siva-worshipers, and the Saktas, to this day. In this way the Mysteries presented themes forthe highest veneration, as well as phases that are esteemed as gross and lascivious.Every curious person, therefore, sees in them what he has eyes to see, and is often blindto the rest.---------

By the genesis or generation, Plutarch explains Plato to mean "only that substanceor underlying principle which is subject to change and motion, placed between the formingcause and the thing formed, transmitting hither those shapes and figures which have beencontrived and modeled" in the eternal world. Hence it means more than mere procreating,it is no less than transition from eternity where the soul is native, into the region of time andspace, where it is only a sojourner.----------

The Library of Alexandria bore the inscription of "Remedies for the Soul. A similarterm is said to have been placed over the collection of Papyri in the "House of Seti" atThebes, in Egypt.----------

The names of the gods in ancient Skythic and Euphratean languages were believedto possess some inherent virtue as well as charm. Hence the Oracle gives the injunction:

"Never change the barbarous names;For among them are terms God-given,That have ineffable virtue in Sacred Rites."

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It was held that the vital emanation from the blood of the sacrificed animals wasinvigorating to spiritual beings (Odyssey, Book IX.) But Plutarch is severe about it. He

affirms that the murderous and lascivious customs at the festivals only served "to avert andappease the malice of certain evil spirits, or to satisfy the violent and raging lusts of somethat either could not, or would not, enjoy with their bodies or by their bodies." Such, hedeclared, bring plagues and famine into town, raise wars and dissensions, till such time asthey obtain and enjoy that which they love.----------

In the Theurgic discipline of neophytes, there were several stages to be surmountedbefore arriving at the degree denominated "Perfection" or purity. We may trace them inthe chapter, as follows: 1. The coming to the divinity who is supplicated. 2. Theassimilation into the likeness of the divinity, and 3. Perfection. In the first of these degreesthe candidate was styled Most Excellent; in the second, Divine; and in the third,Theopator; as now being fully identified with Deity itself.------------

We are thus brought to the central principle of the ancient philosophy and worship;that the many divinities are in essence the One Sole Deity, and comprised in the PaternalCause of the Universe. The Orphic Carmen in the same way inculcated that all the godsand both the sexes are included in the same Zeus. They are attributes, or qualities, of theOne, personalities rather than individuals.------------

Scutellius enumerates nine classes of spiritual beings, namely: 1, Invisible Gods;2. Visible Gods of the Sky; 3. Archangels; 4. Angels; 5. Demons; 6. Leaders; 7. Princes;8. Heroes or Demi-gods; 9. Souls. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians enumerates thefollowing: 1. Princes; 2. Authorities; 3. Kosmokrators or princes of the Cosmos; 4.Spiritual essences in the super-celestial spheres. Damaskios enumerates six orders in theChaldean Categories, as follows: 1. Gods that are purely mind; 2. The Gods subsistingbefore all subordinate dominion; 3. Rulers; 4. Archangels; 5. Divinities that are confinedto no specific place or service; 6. Divinities or geniuses with specific duties.

.... the Kosmokrators, are supposed by Thomas Taylor to be the rulers of theplanets. The Assyrians and Chaldaeans enumerated nine distinct orders - three triads ofthree classes each. The Archangels correspond to the archons of the sphere of Matterappear to have been often regarded as evil potencies. The ancients, however, did notalways distinguish good and evil quite as the moderns with their ethical standards.-----------

The Greek term "autoptic spirits," meaning those which appear at the "Autopsia,"or Perfective Rite. Mr. Robert Brown, Jr., ably describes it. The candidates, or Beholders,having passed the preliminary discipline as Mystae, are ushered into the Sekos, orchamber of Initiation. "Here, deeply excited and agitated by all they have gone through,ready to believe anything and everything, in that state of abstinence, which is, or issupposed to be, most favorable to the reception of supernatural displays, with their mindsmore or less affected by drugs and their whole being permeated with the impression andexpectation of a revelation of the more than mortal, they were allowed to see. This is theAutopsia, or Personal inspection, the Crown of Mysteries, the Etopteia, or Divine

Beholding, which was used as a synonym to express the highest earthly happiness, andhe who enjoyed it became an Epoptes, or Contemplator, byond which this world couldafford him nothing." - Great Dionysiak Myth, VI, ii, 3. Compare also epistle of Paul to theCorinthians, XII, 2-4.------------

Greek, To apotvstikon, to apotelestikon, the perfective rite. The Romanstermed the ceremonies "Initiations," as signifying the beginning of a new life, while theGreeks regarded it as denoting a completing of the Herculean labors of the Soul. Theservices were conducted after the form of a dramatic representation, and Clement styledthem accordingly, "the Drama of the Mysteries." The ancient Theatre took its rise fromthese rites, as the Modern Theatre had its origin in the Mystery-Plays of the Monks of theMiddle Ages. The Athenian Theatre was a Temple of Bacchus.------------

The divine essence was anciently described in every religion as fire, and so the"eternal fire" was preserved in temples and on altars, as its symbol. Hence, the ChaldaeanOracle commands: "When thou shalt behold the Very Holy Fire without form, shining inflashes down into the depths of the world, then listen to the Voice of the Fire." Zoroasterat the Altar and Moses on Mount Sinai (Deuteronomy IV, 4) are described as hearing theVoice of the Supreme Being from such a source.--------------

"Sometimes," says Potter, "terrible apparitions astonished the trembling spectators"at the Perfective rites. This was the case everywhere. In the Chaldaean Oracles mentionis made of these direful creatures. They are called "dogs of the earth." "Thy vessel (thebody) the chthonian beasts shall make their home." This implies obsession and evilinfluences from the spiritual world.-------------

Greek, anto6anez deixiwz. Perhaps this refers to the fact also that at thefinal vision witnessed at the Perfective Rite, or Autopsia, the Beholder was revealed tohimself in the impression which it gave him. Certainly Plato and Alkibiades regarded it withdifferent sentiments.-------------

Professor Taylor Lewis defines Fqntasma (phantasma) as signifying anapparition. Chrysippos, the philosopher, gives the following meanings: Fantasia,phantasia, imagination which leads to contemplation of the Cause or origin;Fantaston, phantaston, something to impress the inagination; Fantastikon,phantastikon, a fancy or vain impulse from the mind proceeding from nothing trulyimaginable; Fantasma, phantasma, a phantom to which we are drawn by fancifulattraction. Liddell and Scott would define a phantasia as an opinion presented fromsensation; phantaston, as something leading to such an opinion; phantastikon, as thefaculty of such presentation; and phantasma, as an image presented to the mind by anobject.

------------

Here Abammon makes a new departure in the New Platonic philosophy. Plotinosand Porphyry had taught a system of doctrine analogous to the later Persian scheme, withthe Absolute One at the summit, from whom proceeded by emanation, the Over-Mind, theUniversal Soul, and Nature. To this Absolute, there might, by philosophic discipline,contemplation and ecstasy, be attained for brief periods, the enosis or intimate union.Iamblichos, however, seems to discard this doctrine with its theory of impassibleness, andto make theurgic or sacerdotal virtues the condition of excellence by which the divine partof the Soul exalts itself even above the Over-Mind, and becomes at one with the Absolute.Hence he inculcated the utility of religious rites and initiations as explained in the reply ofAbammon. He was followed in this path by Eunapios, Syrianos and by Proklos, the greatlight of the later philosophy.---------------

The Causes are to be understood to be divine beings. Plato and the Stoicphilosophers regarded the art or faculty of divination as incited by a divine rapture orenthusiasm, and an imparting of divine knowledge to human beings. They also believedthat there were divine dreams. Xenophanes, however, was a disbeliever, and Pythagorasrejected all forms of divination by sacrifices. Strato taught that the noetic faculties areactive in sleep. Plutarch explains that when the imaginative part of the soul and the divineefflux are in accord, there is a mantic inspiration. The body, he insists, is sometimesnaturally endued with the faculty of divining; and in other cases, this faculty may be set inoperation by external and artificial means.

Abammon.... denies that the sex of the seer or ecstatic is an essential in thetechnique of divination. The oracle at Delphi was served by virgin attendants, and theshrines in other places by persons of some particular age, and in a peculiar state ofalienation produced by fasting, mesmeric applications, anaesthesia or other artificialmeans.

..... Aristotle imputed the divining faculty to a melancholic temperament; others toan inhaling of certain vapors or gases, and others to a variety of causes.... Plato describespriests skilled in divining as "the interpreters of the divinity to men."------------

We are reminded of Campbell's verse: "Coming events cast their shadows before."The person whose faculties are acute thus perceives them. Plutarch defines the matteras follows: "The divining faculty when it has drawn itself farthest from the present, toucheson that which is to come; and it withdraws itself from this by a certain disposition of body,by which that state is produced which we call Inspiration or Enthusiasm."

.... "Nothing resembles death more than sleep," says Xenophon. "In sleep the soulreveals her divine quality, and being then set free from the body she beholds the future."-----------

Physicians and others having the care of the sick have been indebted to dreams forthe discovery of many remedies. Such is the testimony of Cicero, Diodoros, Plutarch andothers. Intuitive suggestion also prompts to the employing of the proper remedial

measures.....Asklepios, or Aesculpius, the patron god of the medical art, was called

Oneiropompos, or sender of dreams. There were sleep-houses at his various temples, inwhich "incubation" or mesmerism was employed. The dreams which were thus procuredwere interpreted by the prophets or mantic priests, and the remedies suggested if foundvaluable became a part of the pharmacopoeia.... Aristeides, in the reign of the Antonines,gives a very full account of this matter.------------

Greek, IIarakolouQew to follow a subject. It implies an understanding,together with a fixing of the attention till external consciousness is lost sight of.------------

Kastabalis was a city in Kappadokia. In it was a temple of Artemis or Anahita,whose priestesses or holy maids, it was affirmed, walked with bare feet upon the snow andupon burning coals without harm.------------

M. Eugene Salverte in his work on the "Philosophy of Magic" remarks that in spiteof their master's assertions to the contrary, "the enthusiastic disciples of Iamblichosaffirmed that when he prayed he was raised to the height of ten cubits from the ground;and dupes to the same metaphor, although Christians, have had the simplicity to attributea similar miracle to St. Clare and St. Francis of Assisi."

Calmet mentions "several instances of persons full of religion and piety, who, in thefervor of their visions, have been taken up into the air and remained there some time." headds that he personally knew a man to whom this occurred. Loyola, the founder of theJesuits, it is said, "was raised up from the ground to the height of two feet, while his bodyshone like light." Savonarola, who was burned at the stake, one person declares, wasseen to remain suspended at a considerable height from the floor of his dungeon.Superintendent Moeller of Freiburg testified that Anna Maria Fleischer was "raised in bed,with her whole body, head and feet to the height of nine ells and a half, so that it appearedas if she would have flown through the windows."

If the polarity of the body can be changed by the will, this would be a physicalpossibility.------------

Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and Zeno concur in the statement that the soul is itselfa several-fold nature. The "immortal principle" which proceeds from the Creator consistsof the faculty of intelligence, the episteme or overmind, and sound judgment. The "mortalpart" comprises the thumos or passionate, aggressive quality, and the epithumetic,appetitive or receptive nature.------------

Sabazios, Sabaoth or Sabbat, the god of the Planet Saturn, was better known asBacchus or Dionysos, and was also styled in semitic countries, Iao or Yava. His worshipwas more or less associated and identified with that of the Great Mother, under various

designations, and it was characterized by phalephoric processions, dances, mourning forthe slain divinity and the Watch Night. It came from Assyria as its peculiar symbols, theivy or kissos, the spotted robe or Nimr, and the Thyrso, indicate. The name Zagreus, theKissos and nimr remind us of Kissaia or Asiatic Ethiopia, and the Zagros mountainsoccupied by the Nimr. Assyria was called "the land of Nimrod." - Amos VIII------------

The staff, rod, wand, scepter, or baton, as the symbol of authority, possesses thegreatest antiquity. It appears in mythology as the scepter of Zeus charged with lightning,the caduceus of Hermes that lulled to sleep, the staff of Asklepios with the healing virtue,the narthex or thryrsos of Bacchus, and the club of Herakles. Every Roman Senatorcarried a wand. The rods of Moses and Aaron, the staff of the prophet, the wand of Kirke,the magic divining staff and the bishop's crosier belong in the same category.-----------

Branchidia or Didymea was situated near Milletus in Ionia. The temple was veryancient. It was twice burned by the Persians. The structure was of the Ionic order, but astraight road, which led from it to the sea, was bordered on each side with statues onchairs of a single block of stone with the feet close together and the hands on the kneesprecisely as at the avenues of the temples of Egypt. There was an Egyptian influence inAsia Minor and the islands of the Levant in very ancient times.-----------

Proklos explains that when initiatory ceremonies are taking place, as in spiritualmanifestations generally, baser spirits will often assume the guise of the superior genii, anddraw away souls that are not pure. Hence the Chaldean Oracles declare that it is notproper to participate in them till purity is attained. "They enchant the souls and lead themaway." Proklos says again, "In the most sacred of the Perfective Rites, they say that thecandidates first encounter the multiformed and many-shaped races which come to viewbefore the gods are to be seen; but they go on to the Mystic Cave unswerving, and havingbeen made secure by the Rites they receive the divine illumination without alloy into theirbosoms, and being stripped, so to speak, they partake of the divine nature. This, I think,"he adds, "is what takes place in the spectacular manifestations."------------

There are three modes of forecasting: prophecy, divination and guessing; and theyare referred respectively to divinity, demons and observation of the course of things.Demons appear to be the same as the "angels of the Judaean and Christian theology."Both gods and demons have a certain and unerring knowledge of things to come," saysProklos.------------

The sentiment here enforced is that no prayer or rite has any efficacy to attract adivine being, and so bring down God, but rather it exalts the worshiper to the Divinity.Proklos also says: "In the invocations and at the Autopsia, the divine essence seems aftera manner to come down to us, when really we are extending ourselves to it instead."

------------

Pythagoras and the philosophers who adopted his views describe matter as thesource of evil. This is an oriental doctrine, and was doubtless carried to the West byteachers sent out for the purpose. The same notions have more or less pervaded opinionever since, and given rise to the impression that so many seem to entertain that everythingphysical is intrinsically vile and therefore to be repressed so far as possible. But thesentiment given by Plato in "Theaetetos" would seem a more rational conception. "It is notpossible that evil shall be destroyed," says Sokrates, "for it is necessary that there shouldalways be something contrary to good. Nor can it be seated among the gods, but ofnecessity moves round this mortal nature and this region. Wherefore we ought toendeavor to fly hence as quickly as possible. But this flying consists in resembling God asmuch as possible, and this resembling is the becoming just and holy with wisdom."------------

Both Galen and Hippokrates insisted that astral knowledge is essential forphysicians; and Galen derided those physicians who denied the necessity for suchknowledge. He went so far as to declare medical men who were ignorant of astrallearning, homicides. All the medical schools of Christendom and the "Moslem" worldformerly taught astrology, and Nicholas Culpepper, in his Herbal, is careful to assign toeach medicinal plant its astral relations.-----------

It may perhaps be well to remark that the prince of demons here named is probablynot the same personification as Beel Zebul of the Gospels. That personage is styled in theGreek Testament, Baal Zeboul, the lord of the house; and in astrology it will be bourne inmind that every one of the planetary houses had its own chief.-----------

Charoneia is a district in Asia Minor, bordering on the river Meander. The name isfrom Charon, the supposed ferryman of disbodied souls across the river Styx in theUnderwold. The caves, or, rather, little openings in the ground, emitted a sulphurousvapor, sometimes destructive to life. Pliny also mentions similar cavities at Italy, nearPuteoli. They were supposed to lead to the realm of Hades.------------

Real being, only is simple and unique: evil is always complex.-----------

The Magic Art (white magic) is regarded by the Greeks as an agency of great power.They declare it to be actually the very extreme of the Sacred Knowledge. For it searchesout everything under the moon, its nature, virtue and quality: I mean the elements andtheir component parts, being animals, plants of all kinds and their fruits, stones and herbs;and in short, everything with its substance and power. Hence, therefore, it works outresults of itself: it employs schemes of every kind, images promotive of health.------------

The Magians and Theurgic priests entertained the notion that it was not in reasonfor the soul to be made pure by corporeal sacrifices, but Porphyry is said to have concededthat the inferior part of the soul, the "moral soul," might be thereby purified to a certaindegree, though not sufficiently for it to attain immortality. The "teleosis" here spoken ofwas understood by Proklos to consist in the union of the soul to the Divine Father, bymeans of the "perfective rite" or initiation; but Porphyry affirmed, as Augustine declared,that those who were thus purified, did not return to the Father or Supreme Divinity, butdwelt above the aerial region among the gods of the aether.-----------

The Pythagoreans, who are supposed to have adopted their principal philosophicnotions from Egypt, attached special honor to certain numbers and geometric figures.Plutarch affirms that they designated these as divinities, calling the equilateral triangleAthena or Wisdom; the unit, Apollo, as denoting "not many" (a-pollon); the duad or two,courage and conflict; the triad, justice; and the four, the universe; and also thirty-six asbeing the sum of the first four odd and the first four even numbers (36). The crocodile wasdescribed as producing sixty eggs and occupying sixty days in their hatching. It wasvenerated anciently in the country of the Fayum in Middle Egypt, and was the Symbol ofRa, the Sun-God, and also of Osiris, as the Sun-God of Amenti, the region of the dead.-------------

The goddess Isis, the sister and consort of Osiris, the Egyptian Bacchus, wassometimes considered to represent the Moon. When seeking for the body of her murderedhusband, a dog was said to have accompanied her. A dog is also included in the Parsiceremonies. Anubis, who was symbolized by the dog and the dog-headed baboon, wasalways commemorated in the Secret Rites. The male baboon is melancholy when themoon is hidden, and the female exhibits peculiarities common to women.-------------

Sacred animals were numerous in Egypt, every nome or district having its own. Thebulls Apis and Men were selected for their color and peculiarities of body. There were alsothe sacred bat, ram, cat, river-horse, wolf, serpent, hawk, ibis, etc. They were consideredas representing qualities indicative of soul, emotion and moral sense, qualities producedby nature and divinity. "We worship God through them," says Plutarch.

.... The cock was anciently venerated in many countries as sacred to the Sun andat the sacrifices it was customary for the divines to inspect his heart for auguries. Porphyryhas recorded similar facts in relation to the heart of the crow, the mole and the hawk.Indeed, every ancient people had its sacred bird. The eagle and the cock seem to havecontinued to modern time, and even with people were the primitive mystic purport is notknown.-------------

Marsilio Ficino, the Italian Platonist, remarks that the fire which is kindled by us ismore like heaven than like what is left behind. It is made participant of light, which is asomething incorporeal, the most powerful of all things, and as if alive, perpetually moving,dividing everything, yet not itself divisible, absorbing all things into itself, yet evading every

alien mixture; and suddenly, when it is fully set free, flying back to the celestial fire whichis latent everywhere.----------

Proklos remarks of the Perfective Discipline, "that, as the Oracles teach, itobliterates, through the divine fire, all the stains derived from generated existence." TheChaldean Oracle also says: "The mortal drawing near the sacrificial fire will have light fromDivinity."-----------

Porphyry and others of the philosophers of that period declared distinctly that thesacrifices of living creatures were not for the gods at all, but for demons and the lowerorders of spiritual essences. Indeed, their sentiments were considered as evidence of ahostility to Judaism. In archaic times, and even in many centuries of the historical period,human victims were immolated, and the Hebrew writings seem to recognize the custom(Leviticus xxvii, 28, 29; Judges xi, 30-40; Micah vi, 7.) Plutarch denounced this practice,and declared his belief that there was never a god that required it, but it was only intendedto avert and appease the malice and rancor of evil spirits. The slaughter of hogs at thefestivals of Adonis, Osiris and Demites seems to have been of the latter character, asswine were abhorred in Oriental countries.------------

This twofold phase of religious customs, the religion of the right hand and that of theleft, still exists with the worshipers of Siva and the Sakti in India. It was exhibited in theOrphic and Dionysiac worships of Greece, and in several Oriental rites. So the ascetic andthe freer religionist were alike treated according to their respective dispositions.------------

In the Egyptian System the human body was apportioned into thirty-six regions,each of which was supposed to be in charge of its own overlord or presiding divinity, andhad its class of physicians at the different temples.-------------

Plotinos has also described these classes with equal distinctness. All from theirbirth, he declares, make use of the senses before they have acquired any superiorperception. He adds that, "Some proceed no further, but pass through life considering thethings of sense to be the first and last of all; and as they apprehend that what is painfulis evil, and that whatever is pleasant is good, they think it sufficient to pursue the one andto avoid the other. Others have a greater share of intelligence, but do not rise above theearth. Some of these exhibit greater perception, but no superior moral excellence. In thethird class are the divine ones who acutely perceive supernal light, rise superior to sense,and live above the world.------------

Iamblichos, in the "Life of Pythagoras," remarks that "He who pours clean water intoa muddy well does but disturb the mud." In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus charges the

disciples not to give the holy truth to dogs, nor cast pearls before swine; for the latter willtread the jewels under their feet, and the dogs will rend the uncautious givers.------------

The "powers" are here distinctly set forth as spiritual essences. Proklos recognizesthem as belonging to the order of demons, and informs us that there is an innumerablecompany of them about every god, and that they are named by his appellations, as thoughthey were themselves the divinity. "In the most holy scenes of the Initiatory Rites," sayshe, "prior to the manifestations of the divinity as present, troups of chthonian demons maketheir appearance, calling the attention of the candidates from things pure and good to therealm of Matter."

I am reminded of the "subject-spirits" described by Emanuel Swedenborg. If oneof them is imagined by the individual with whom it is communicating, to be some particularperson, then the spirit, as if mesmerized, immediately supposes itself to be that person.------------

.... "As Manetho related, they were used in archaic times to burn living men in thecity of Ilithyia, styling them Typhonian." Aahmes, who expelled the Hyk-sos rulers, put anend to the custom. It existed in Asiatic countries, where Semitic worships existed, andeven the Hebrews seem not to have been an exception. As late as the period of thePersian wars with the Greeks, Themistokles is said to have sacrificed three Persianprisoners to the demons or chthonian gods, and Amestris, the Queen of Xerxes, to haveburied fourteen Persians alive. Even at a later period Caius Marius immolated his daughterto propitiate the gods; and some tribes still keep up the custom. There is a formula forhuman sacrifice among the Siva-worshipers of India. The putting of prisoners to death andcannibalism are vestigia of the same practice.------------

The Chaldean Oracles describe the Supreme Divinity as Fire, creative-life-bringingand intellectable. "A whirlwind drew forth the bloom of the shadowy fire and impregnatedthe wombs of the universe." (Compare Genesis, i, 2.) "She is the producer of the work,because she is the giver of life-bringing fire." The fire as a symbol in the shrine of thetemple, and the employment of sacred fire to consume the consecrated parts of thesacrifices, thus represent the Supreme Fire by which all things subsist and are madecomplete.

....The representation of the Divine essence as a supernal luminance is universal.The passage in the proem of the Johannean Gospel has been the philosophic dogma ofall periods: "In the Logos or divine reason, was life, and the life was the light of mankind."The Chaldean Oracles also says: "When thou shalt see a very holy fire without definableshape, leaping as it shines, hearken to the voice of the Fire." Moses and Zoroaster bothprofessed to hear the words of the Deity spoken out of fire. (Deut. v.)

Pure fire unmingled with material particles is not visible to the human faculty of sight.This explains satisfactorily the apparent contradiction, in which the Supreme Being isdepicted as Light, and likewise as enveloped in clouds and thick darkness.-----------

Porphyry himself, and Plotinos before him, it may be remarked, did not approve of

the killing of animals for food or sacrifice. They also regarded the touch of a dead body aspolluting to the person touched.------------

The hawk was held in special esteem in Ancient Egypt. Ra the Sun-God wasrepresented in the hieroglyphics with a hawk's head holding the solar circle in its beak; andThoth was also depicted having the same emblem, to show that he was the genius ofintelligence. The bird was regarded as having the faculty of divining. Its body after deathwas embalmed and deposited in the shrine at Buto, and whoever killed one, even byaccident, was punished by death. In Greece, likewise, the hawk was a symbol of the sun,and sacred to Apollo, the god of oracles.-------------

It was held that souls, when separated from the bodies by violence, continue toabide around the bodies, and hence that the theurgic priests were able through theiragency to draw the guardian demons to them.----------

The Egyptian priests were accustomed to exhibit simulacra of the gods in circlesand globes as symbols of the uniform principle of life. Hermes Trismegistus compareddivinity to a circle, and the sublime description will be remembered, that its centre iseverywhere and the circumference nowhere. The Pythagoreans regarded the circle assacred, and considered it as the symbol of the highest spiritual truth. It also representsvery aptly all human progress, which is never in straight lines, but in circles returning onthemselves as if advancing in ascending spirals or retrograding in vortexes tendingdownward.-----------

Porphyry: Cave of the Nymphs: "The Egyptians represented the Sun and all thedemons as not connected with anything solid or stable, but as elevated on a sailingvessel."------------

The Autopsia was the final experience at the Initiatory Rite, when the candidatebecame an epoptes or Beholder. It was at once a view of one's own interior self and avision of the Divinity. "Such a one," says Pindar, "knows the end of life and its sourcesfrom God." Paul the apostle is a little more explicit. "Such a man," says he, "was rapt intoParadise and heard ineffable things which it is not permitted a man to repeat."-----------

[Manetho] An Egyptian, Man-e-Thoth, or beloved Thoth. He was a priest atSebennytus in the province of Sais, in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphos, and compiled ahistory of ancient Egypt.-----------

The Greek term empurion (empurion), signifies "the region of fire." In the ancient

cosmology, there was a fifth element, the aether, more pure and divine than the commonatmosphere. It was an akasha, a pure fire and diviner matter; and of it the celestial bodieswere composed. In the Babylonian and other theories there were three heavens, as heredesignated: The aether-heaven, the Empyrial or fire-region, and the supra-celestial aboveall. There were divinities of the second order peculiar to each.-----------

....Neph or Num, the "Good Demon." This was the name of the Creator in Nubiaand also in Elephantina, and he was considered to be the same as Amun, the SupremeGod at Thebes. The name Neph, almost identical with the Semitic term "nephesh," or soul,reminds us that this god was considered as the "Soul of the World."----------

The Semitic name P'T'H, Phtha, signifies the opener, the revealer, the Creator.Perhaps Semitic influence in Northern Egypt, which was of remote antiquity, accounts forthe selection of the designation. When the early sovereignty of Egypt was at Memphis,Pth'ch was the chief divinity. After the expulsion of the Hyksos dynasty, the seat of powerwas transferred to Thebes in the South, and Amun or Amur-Ra (the Mystic Sun) wasexalted to supremacy. He was often figured like Kneph, with the head of a ram, indicatingthat the two were the same. Indeed, the Egyptian religion was actually at its coremonotheistic. The various divinities were only aspects or personifications of differentattributes.------------

"When we treat of matter," says Plutarch, "we need not conceive in our minds abody void of soul and of all quality and of itself wholly idle and inactive. We ought toconceive that this goddess (or divine entity) which always participates of the First God andis ever taken up with the love of those excellences and charms that are about him is notby nature opposite to him: that like a good-natured woman that is married to a man andconstantly enjoys his embraces, yet hath a fond kind of longing after him, so hath shealways a strong inclination to the God, though she be present and round about him, andthough she be impregnated with his most prime and pure particles."-----------

The twelve months were divided by astrologers into thirty-six decans, and over eachwas a decanus or episcopus, whose office was to protect against calamity. The"horoscopos" was the caster of a nativity, one who forecasted a career from the conditionsof the planets and zodiacal constellations at the time of birth.

.... The Twelve Gods who preside over the months of the year are thus designated."While," says S.F. Dunlap, "the Babylonians offered sacrifices to the spirits of the dead,and the Twelve Gods presided over the months, and the thirty-six gods over the decani ofthe calendar; while Gods innumerable, portents, prophets, soothsayers and astrologersperplexed the people, the Chaldeans philosophized in their schools on the causes of thingsand the modus operandi of Nature and Creation."-----------

Chaeremon declared the Sun to be the Creator or Demiurgos. The vivific influencesemanating from it, and the fact that the planetary world issued from it in the unknownperiods of geologic antiquity, lend an air of plausibility to the hypothesis.----------

Amasis or Aahmes II, was the successor of Apries or Pharaoh-Hophra, of theTwenty-sixth Dynasty, whom he drove from power. He belonged at Sais and bore the titleof "Son of Neith." He obliged the priests of Egypt to admit Pythagoras and Solon to thetemples to be instructed in the Egyptian learning. Bitys is conjectured to have been thepriest Utaharpenses, who made public the names of the planets, which had been asacerdotal secret, as was also the heliocentric theory.------------

The tutelary gods had secret names which it was regarded as sacrilege to divulge.(Se Exodus xx, 7; Judges xiii, 18.) "The arcane names fill the whole world" was a theurgicmaxim. Proklos also remarks: "There is a sacred name which, with sleepless, dart-likemotion, runs through the worlds, through the swift menace of the Father." Whether thename which Bitys revealed was occult like the mystic designation of Yava in the Semiticnations, is worth inquiry. The designation, Amun, for example, only means arcane orconcealed, implying that it was not regarded as the real name of the divinity.-------------

Plutarch says: "They who imagine the mind to be part of the soul err no less thanthey who make the soul a part of the body: for the mind is as far superior to the soul asthe soul is better and diviner than the body. The combination of the soul with the mindmakes the logos or reasoning faculty, and with the body, passion, of which the latter is theprinciple of pleasure and pain, and the former of virtue and vice. Of these three, the earthhas given the body, the moon the Soul, and the Sun, the mind. Every one of us is neithercourage, nor fear, nor desire, no more than flesh or fluids, but the part by which we thinkand perceive. The soul, being molded and formed by the mind and itself molding andforming the body, by encompassing it on every side, receives from it impression and form."

Plato in the Timaeos likewise treats of the two souls or parts of the soul, the onemortal and the other immortal.-----------

This phrase, "that which is," is very significant. It transcends the concept of existingand denotes real being, eternity itself. This shows the true meaning of Pope's declaration:"Whatever is is right." The Sanskrit term Satya, often rendered "truth," has exactly thesense of Being, that which is enduring and permanent, absolute fact. Hence the maxim:"There is no dharma or supreme law superior to that which is."------------

[Treatise Concerning the Gods] This work is lost. It was an explanation of thePythagorean Symbology, and is quoted by Damaskios and Olympiodoros. Proklosrestores some of the passages in his treatise upon Platonic Theology, and also adopts thearguments. At the change of the Imperial Religion in the Fourth Century the books of the

Philosophers were ordered to be destroyed on pain of death, and doubtless this workperished at that period.------------

In the divine world, noesis is poiesis - thinking is doing. What "God says" God isdoing. All things are subject to mind, and to its behests. Mind, therefore, is the king of allthings.

It was a theurgic saying, that by chants and sacrifices it was possible to revolutionizethe realms of nature and generation.------------

The Aeon, or period, was reckoned as three hundred thousand years. Proklos, inhis Commentary on the Timaeos, states that the Chaldeans had records of observationsof the stars which embraced entire cosmic cycles of time. Cicero, in his Treatise onDivination, declares that they had records of the stars for the space of 370,000 years; andDiodoros the Sicilian asserts that their observation comprehended 470,000 years. As greatantiquity was also claimed for the Egyptians. Kallisthenes when in Babylon sent thecomputations of the Chaldeans to his uncle Aristotle.-----------

According to the Egyptian notion, every person received his guardian demon at thehour of birth, and they looked no further. They regarded only the horoscope.

.... Maenander says: "The mind is our demon." The term was used with a varietyof meanings at different times.-------------

Greek, endaimonia, endaimonia. This term was employed by Plato and Aristotleto denote true and complete happiness. Its derivation fron en, or well, and daimon, adivinity, a good genius, good fortune, indicates its true signification, as the conditionfavored by the good genius; hence it denotes felicity, good fortune, prosperity, success -as being in favor with God and man.---------

The philosopher Herakleitos held that "change" is the "only persisting" condition ofthings. He taught that the Supreme Being is fire - not mere physical heat, but an aetherialprinciple; and that it acted on matter producing motion and creative activity.

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Platonic Technology *

A Glossary of Distinctive Terms used by Platon and other Philosophers in an Arcaneand Peculiar Sense

Compiled by Alexander Wilder, Professor of Psychological Science, etc., in theUnited States Medical College

Aer, h ahr. The air; the lower atmosphere which the demons or tutelary spiritsinhabit; the element or compound which is constantly in motion and changing; the PrimalDarkness (perhaps Chaos).

Agape, h agap. Lovingness; love; the complete exercising and manifesting ofthe best disposition of the mind.

Agathon, to agaOon. The Good, as considered by itself; the Supreme Good;the Divine Cause and Source of Good; that perfect principle which is in and by itself; God.

Aidios, o and aidioz. Always existing; the perpetually now-existing, to nun.As contrasted with aiwnioz, God, the essence always existing.

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Aion, o aiwn. An age; a long period of time; a period of time not defined;unlimited time; the equivalent of Zero-ana akarena; an age or lifetime; time; all time; amode of existence; (perhaps) eternity.

Aionios, aiwnioz. Lasting; continuous; without interval, unceasing; constant;preexistent (as distinguished from existence at the present time); lasting for an indefiniteperiod but not perpetually.

Aisthesis, h aisQhsiz. Perceptivity; physical sense; knowledge which isacquired through the agency of the senses.

Aither, o aiQhr. The ether; the supernal atmosphere, in which the stars areplaced, and the theoi or higher divinities dwell; the fifth element, said by Aristoteles to haveappeared prior to fire at the beginning, but by Platon immediately after it, but prior to theAir. Jacob Bryant, somewhat fancifully yet not unplausibly, derives the term from ait, anarchaic name of the sun, and fire, and aer. It is sometimes given to Zeus himself.

Aitia or aition, h aitia or aitih, to aition. The cause; the supernalagency by which every thing is produced; the principal or efficient cause; or in otherwords, the Superior or Interior Mind (nouz), and the reason or understanding.

Aletheia, h alhQeia. The Truth; the Absolute Fact; the enosis or being at oneof the excellent (to calon), the just (to dicain), and the good (to agaQon);that which is, as distinguished from the maya, or that which appears, or is physical andtransitory; the unbegotten ideal; the eternal fact; the uttering of that which is true. "If theTruth is perpetually in our soul, then that soul is immortal." - Menon. Some of theAlchemists, the medieval Mystics, formed this word from alh, breath, and Qeia, divine.

Alethes, to alhQez. See Aletheia.Anamnesis, h anamnhiz. Reminiscence; recollection; remembering;

memory; truth which has been concealed in the mind and is potentially contained in itsfaculties; ideas or concepts of the eternal world which have been latent or dormant in theinterior mind, but are now brought into conscious knowledge. "To learn is to recover ourprevious knowledge; and this is properly recollecting." See Dialectic.

Ananke, h anagch. Necessity; matter in its unconditioned form; space,abstractly considered; the phenomenal state; the physical basis on which the Divine Mindoperates; that entity without which nothing can be made to exist; that entity or conditionwhich is the very negative of Mind (probably the same as Chaos or the Primal Darkness).It is a significant fact that the modern agnostic school of reasoners, rejecting all idea ofdivine or noumenal agency, but only accepting materialistic conjectures of evolution byvirtue of arbitrary law, are more pronounced fatalists than ever were Calvinists or Moslems.Except, indeed, the prior and superior entity of mind is acknowledged, and phenomena areremanded to a subordinate rank, any other conclusion is logically impossible.

Anastasis, h anastasiz. A rising up to one's feet from a suppliant attitude;a resuscitation; a condition of spiritual being distinct from corporeal existence; a state ofbeatitude, the same as the nirvana of the Buddhists, and probably the metempsychosis ofthe Pythagoreans; the restoration from the lepsis or apostasia, by which souls left theirprior condition and became subject to necessity and the conditions of material existence.The doctrine of anastasis or removal from the Underworld or Hades to the aerial orsupernal regions, was a part of the Essenean or Mithraic theosophy, and was taken fromthe Persian religion. "The sons of this period marry, and the daughters are given inmarriage; but those who become worthy to attain that condition of existence

(aiwn), the restoration from among the dead, neither marry nor are given inmarriage. For they cannot die, because they are like angels, and are sons of God andsons of the restoration." - Gospel according to Luke, xx: 34-36.

Andria, h andria. Manliness; fortitude; presence of mind; firmness in theright; a moral condition in which the individual is neither despondent nor audacious andfoolhardy.

Angelos, d and h aggeloz. An angel; a courier or messenger; a personageof the supernal world subordinate to the deities but superior to the daemon or tutelaryspirit, probably the same as the ized of the Mithraic pantheon. Porphyrios, or Malech, thephilosopher, himself of Jewish or Syrian parentage and familiar with Chaldean literature,mentions this order in his letter to Anebo; and Iamblichos in reply explains their rank andfunctions. The Jews, whom Aristotles declares to be of Hindoo origin, brought the doctrineof angels from Babylonia.

Anthropos, o anQrwpoz. Man; one of human kind; a creature standing upontwo feet, without wings, and having nails; the only living thing on the earth that can receiveknowledge intuitionally and by the interior mind. Perhaps from anaQorw, to rise up, andpouz, the foot.

Apeiron, to aperon. The Undefined; the unconditioned; the nonexisting, whichis nevertheless capable of being made to exist; matter in the unconditioned form, as notlimited and circumscribed by the creative energy. See Aion, Ananke, Chaos.

Apodeixis, h apodeixiz. Demonstration; just reasoning; a form of reasoningthat makes a matter plain by means of that which was previously known. See Anamnesis,Dialectic, Episteme, Idea, Logos.

Apocalupis, h apocaluyiz. Uncovering of the body; the removing of a veil,screen, or curtain; hence a disclosure of arcana; a manifestation of facts and noumenalcauses; an apocalypse or revealing.

Apokatastasis, h apocatastasiz. A complete cycle in the heavens whenthe sun, moon, and planets return to the same place from which the observation was

taken; a restoration to the original condition; reestablishment. "Whom it is necessary forheaven to receive till the completion of the period of restoration of all things to the originalcondition." - Acts of the Apostles, iii : 21.

Apokrupha, ta apocrufa. Arcana; occult learning; the interior wisdom;things hidden; the contents of the sacred kista. The modern designation of thetheosophical works of certain Jewish writers of the Alexandrian school. See next.

Aporreita, ra aporrhta. Arcana; occult rites and knowledge; the sacredOrgies or Mysteries; things that may not be divulged except by incurring the guilt ofsacrilege; the sacred and arcane knowledge which is disclosed to the initiated.

Apotelesma, to apotelesma. Completing; the finishing of a rite; an arcanesymbol; the white pebble given to a candidate on his initiation as a soldier of Mithras; atalisman; a magical emblem; an Astrological symbol, having influence on destiny.

Arche, h argwn. Beginning; origin; principle; the Cause of all phenomenalexistence; the inherent principle in all development, as contrasted with the stoigeia,or elements, and the ouenecen, or end, for the sake of which all things exist. "In theinherent principle (argh) was the Reason." Plural argai - elements; principles; firstfruits; dominions; chieftains.

Archetupos, d argetupoz. The archetype, pattern, or mold; the idea orprinciple of determinate form according to which all things have been formed.

Archon, d argwn. A magistrate; a lord or potentate in the aerial region; anorder of spiritual beings inferior to the daemons or tutelary spirits, that preside over theworld, and impart worldly and material benefits to mankind.

Arete, h areth. Excellence; virtue; merit; fitness for any purpose; a justproportion of all motives; excellence as coming from the interior mind; knowledge orcognition of the Supreme Good. Platon very elaborately defines this term as embracingfronhsoz (sagacity, right purpose); dicaiosunh (justice, fidelity); andria(fortitude, presence of mind); and swfrusunh (orderly life, self-control, sobriety, andmoderation in the enjoyment of pleasure).

Arreta, ta arrhta. See Aporreta. "He was carried into paradise and heardarcane disclosures which it is not permitted to a man to repeat." - Epistles of Paulos to theCorinthians, II, xii: 4.

Asteos, d and h astewz. Self-possessed; pleasing; polished; like one wholives in a city and is urbane in manners.

Athanasia, h aQanasia. Immortality; the endless career of an ensouled beingor living essence.

Athanaton, to aOanaton. See Athanasia.Auto, to auto. The same; the identical; the selfhood; the interior mind; the

eternal and indivisible principle in humankind which is identical and of like nature andsubstance with the Divine. See Nous, Daimon.

Basileus, d basileuz. An overlord; a monarch holding supreme power in astate by divine or religious authority, as distinguished from a turaniz or an Imperator;the chief or patriarch of a family, clan, or people; the second archon at Athens, whosuperintended the religions rites.

Bathos, to baQoz. The deep or abyss; the profound; the expanse. Hebrewbau. 'II baQeia aiQhr, the expanded heaven.

Boule, h boulh. Counsel; a weighing of the advantages offered.

Chaos, to gaoz. Chaos; the primeval darkness; the first form, condition, orevolution of matter; the first material substance, still unconditioned, in which all theelements exist potentially; the infinite Void; necessity; the migma or mixture; perhapswhat Prof. Crookes considers as the fourth form of matter. See Ananke, Apeiron.

Choikos, d and h goicoz. Fluid; earthy; constituted of dust having in it theseminal principle and possibility of life; consisting of atoms; of spore-dust.

Chresimon, to grhsimion. Fitness; effectiveness to some purpose or end;the cause of good.

Chrestos, d grhstoz. Useful; worthy; noble; pertaining to temples, oracles,and arcane worship, hence a title of Apollos and other divinities; a good citizen.

Cosmos, d cosmuz. Order; trimness; the world; the universe; the extendedheavens; the general order of things.

Criterion, to crithrton. The criterion or standard of judging; the idea of rightwhich exists natively in every one.

Dadochos, o dadougoz. A torch-bcarer; one, generally of the inferior class ofinitiates, who carried a lamp or torch in the Eleusinian Mysteries, in commemoration of thesearch of Demeter for Kore-Persephoneia, and in the Dionysia of Kore for Zagreus.

Daimonion, to daimonton or daimonon ti. A guardian principle; acertain something divine; the nouz or interior mind. Usually denominated "the demon ofSokrates," and explained by him as an interior sign, voice, or influence that restrained himfrom incurring danger needlessly, or doing any thing which he ought not. "The interior mind(nouz) is our guardian." - Menandros. "An interior consciousness." - Xenophon.

Daimon, o or h daimwn. A tutelary spirit; a guardian genius; a Spiritual beingnext in rank after the deities and angels; the guardian of an oracle. There is some littleconfusion in regard to this term, strikingly analogous to that in the case of its Aryanequivalent, daeva. Kleanthes apostrophizes the Supreme Deity as Daimon, and Homerosterms the gods themselves daimones. PIato, Iamblichos, and Porphyrios rankdaimonez in the order of their spiritual rank next after the angels and immortal gods;but Ploutarchos declares them to be mortal, perhaps meaning that they are again broughtinto the conditions of birth and physical existence. Hesiodos described them as the soulsof the men who had lived in the first or Golden Age, now acting as guardians. Sokrates isrepresented in the Kratylos as stating "that daemon is a term denoting wisdom; and thatevery good man is daimonian, both while living and when dead, and is rightly called adaimon." This statement is in very close harmony with the practice of styling men of greatmerit and those who were considered to be inspired or entheast, theoi or gods. "He calledthem gods to whom the word of God came." As in the old worship daimones were thusspecially esteemed, the early Christians, in order to make it odious, were in the habit ofattaching the worst meaning to the designation. The divinities of the Greek-speakingcommunities were so denominated; and the Pharisees of Judaea styled the overlord ofPalestine "Beel-Zeboul, the archon of the daemons." Perhaps the later translation of devilsmakes much of the opprobrious meaning. The Platonists of the Alexandrian school alsomake mention of "material daimons," or spirits that are still held by corporeal conditions,a lower grade of essences that are able to assume forms which make them perceptible by

the physical senses. Deinotes, h deinothz. Moral force; power; interior energy; the power which

is felt to accompany eloquence; the peculiar influence sometimes denominated magnetic,which is perceived from eloquence; the interior operation of words and ideas. "Power inspeaking and corresponding influence in acting." - Suidas.

Deisidaimon, o and h deisidaimwn. God-fearing; of a religious andreverential turn of mind; disposed to venerate or worship; religious; revering divine andspiritual beings; conscious of the presence of the divine. "Those who fear the divinitiesfear men less." - Xenophon. "Athenians! I bear witness that in all matters you are ofexalted religious disposition." - Acts of the Apostles, xvii.

Dekanos, o decagoz. A decan; a chief of ten; a dean; the chief of the corpse-bearers; a chief of ten parts in a degree of the zodiac. Thus Iamblichos mentions thirty-sixdecans for the 360 degrees.

Demiurgos, o dhmiourgoz. An architect; an artist; the Framer of the Universe;the demiurge; the Evil Potency, as set forth by the Gnostics, who formed the materialuniverse; also, a chief magistrate in Archaian cities.

Demos, o dhmoz. The country population; the populace, as distinguished fromcitizens; an assembly of the Commons at Athens. - Euthydemos.

Desnoina, h descoiga. A lady; a queen; the goddess Demeter, honored in thePhigaleian Mysteries, represented with the head of a hippos or mare, to indicate herencounter with Poseidon, both having the equine form; but more probably a pun on herarchaic designation of Hippa or genetrix.

Despotia, h despoteia. A lordship; absolute rule, in which the head of thegovernment is not subject to the scrutiny, or other interference from a Senate or SacerdotalCollege; the dominion of a despot or plebeian not belonging to the military or sacerdotalclass; tyranny.

Diabolos, o or h diabwlwz. A detractor; a slanderer; one who falsely accusesor detracts from the good fame of another. Perhaps a corruption from Diobolos, thethunder as sent by Zeus (genitive Dioz); a son of that God, as Bacchus. It was acommon practice to change the spelling of a name in order to make it a term of reproach,as Satan, the adversary, for Seth; Beel-Zebub, the lord of flies, for Baal-Zebul, theOverlord, or the Lord of all Oracle. As Seth the Hittite divinity was probably identical withthe Oriental Bacchus, it is very possible that the designation Diobolos, or Zeus-begotten,was changed to Diabolos, devil or false accuser, and Seth in turn became Satan, oradversary. The Aryan terms Ahura, daeva, yezid, are good or evil in signification, asemployed by Brahmans or Parsis. Strabos denominated the judgment of his adversariesa diabulh.

Dialectike, h dialectich. Dialectic; discourse; the elementary principles ofinterior knowledge; the conversational method employed by Platon and his disciples, bymeans of which interior truth, which had been before latent or dormant in the mind, isbrought into the foreground of consciousness; the evolving of interior truth. SeeAnamnesis, Technike.

Dianoema, to dianohma. A conception of the mind; purpose; intention; athought; an opinion deduced from reflection. See Nous.

Dianoesis, h dianohsiz. The mind; thought; the act of thinking; the formingof a conception. See Nous.

Dianoetikos, dianohticoz, a, on. Relating to the faculty of intuition; whenceto dianohticon, the faculty of comprehending interior truth. Platon employed theadjective h dianohtich in antithesis to h doxasth, to denote the world of causes,the nounenal as contrasted with the phenomenal; the field of real knowledge asdistinguished from matters of conjecture and speculation. See Nous.

Dianoia, h dianoia. The understanding; the mind or reasoning faculty asdistinguished from the nous or intuitive principle; the faculty of tracing relations, of whichthe logoz is the open showing; the mind as distinguished from the body; the affectionsas a whole; the faculty which reasons from things known and understood to deductionsstill more recondite. "The spirit is in mankind, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveththem understanding." - Job, xxxii. "The son of God hath given us understanding that wemay know the truth." - Epistles of John, I, v.

Diathesis, h diaQesiz. A transient tendency or disposition; an arrangementof parts.

Dikaiosune, h dicaiosugh, also to oicaion. Justice; the right; doingexactly what ought to be done. Platon defines justice to include equity, truthfulness,fidelity, usefulness, and endeavor to secure the well-being of others, and holiness, or beinglike God. "Nor does it regard merely a man's external action, but what is really internal,relating to the man himself and what is properly his own; not allowing any principle in himto attempt what is the province of another, or to meddle and interfere with what does notbelong to it; but well establishing in reality his own proper affairs, and maintaining properself-government, keeping due order, becoming his own friend, and most naturally attuningthese three principles" - namely: the restraining principle of the interior mind, the will orpsychic entity, - and the epithumetic or external principle.

Dinos, h dinoz. A vortex; a turner's lathe, whence dinoz aiOhrioz, thevortex of infinity. A designation given by Aristophanes to the deity which, as he asserted,Sokrates had introduced instead of Zeus.

Dogma, to dogma. A traditional dogma, a tenet; a decree or ordinance; adoctrine or command uttered - and arbitrarily enforced. "Not facts, but dogmas, perplexmen." - Epiktetos.

Doxa, h doxa. Opinion; empirical knowledge; judgment based upon experience;conviction; physical as distinguished from moral and interior science; probable truth, theknowledge of which is acquired by the perception of the external senses. "This is calledopinion, through our combining of the recollection previously brought into action with thesense-perception recently produced." - Alkinous. The Christian writers frequently use thisterm in the sense of glory, splendor, brilliant luminosity.

Doxastikos, doxastoz, h. on. Relating to the forming of opinions; Judgingempirically from appearance; opinionable.

Doxastos, doxastoz, a, og. Pertaining to the sensible world; relating toopinion. "The opinionable is to the cognizable as the image to the reality." - Platon.

Dunamis, h duamiz. Power; a facility; energy; the necessary conditions for theexistence of any thing before that thing comes into being. Used in the New Testement todenote the orders of superior and supernal beings, miracles, wonderful powers. Also, amantic or ecstatic condition of mind. "My discourse and doctrine were in demonstrationof spirit and interior power." - Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, l, ii: 4. "I am not ashamedof this gospel: for the power of God is to salvation." - Epistle to the Romans, i: 16. To this

day the Shamans and some Christian sectaries denominate a trance by this epithet, "thepower."

Dusapodeiktos, dusapodeictoz on. Hard to demonstrate.Dusgnostos, dusgnwstoz, on. Hard to perceive; difficult of knowing. Dusgoetetos, dusgohthtoz, on. Not easy to deceive; hard of impressing with

falsehood.Dusnoeta, ta ousnohta. Things hard to understand; hence, interior

knowledge not brought out to the comprehension of persons who are external, superficial,and scientific rather than philosophical. "None of the archons of this world have knownDivine wisdom; for the psychical man receivekh not divine things, because they are foolishto him." - Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians, I., ii. "In which are certain things difficult tocomprehend, which the untaught distort to their own ruin." - Catholic Epistles of Peter, II,iii: 16.

Dusthanateo, dusQanatew. To die a lingering death; to contend against dying."Struggling against death by his superior skill (sufia), he achieved a great age." - Platon:Statesman, iii: 406.

E, 'E. Thou art. The inscription on the temple at Delphi, meaning the cognitionof the Absolute One.

E, h. He said.E gar? h gar. Is it not so? The interrogatory clause at the end of sentences in

the Dialogues.E gar an, n gar an. Else; otherwise.Ecclesia, h ecclhsia. An assembly called by public proclamation; a stated

meeting; an assembly or regular meeting of the people, as distinguished into ranks andorders, in distinction from the agora, a mixed and promiscuous assemblage; themeeting-house; the place of meeting. Also, a meeting or feast of the gods; the place ofsuch meeting. In Christian usage, the church; the association of holiness; the wholeChristian body; the hall or edifice where Christian assemblies are held; the clergy asdistinguished from the laity. From the Phoenician Kal, to call; to assemble by a publiccrier; also, the leader in the meeting.

Eclecticoi, oi eilecticui. The Eclectics. This designation, though somewhatindefinite, is generally applied to those philosophers, both of the New Academy and theAlexandrian School, and especially the followers of Potamon, who endeavored to cull thedoctrines of Platon, Zenon, Aristoteles, Epikouros, and the various Indian and Babyloniansages and prophets, and to combine them into a homogeneous system of ethics andmetaphysics. A sect of physicians of which Claudius Galenos was the brightest luminarywas also so denominated. The Neo-Platonists, and perhaps Philon, Apollonios of Tyana,etc., were generally included under this name. Their teachers, Arnmonios Sakkus,Plotinos, Porphyrios, Iamblichos, Hierokles, Proklos, Marinos, Isidoros, and Zenodotos,taught the Platonic philosophy in the form of a religion embracing some of thecharacteristic features of Jainism, the Sankhya and Pythagorean schools, and the occultrites of Mithras. See Eklektos.

Egersis, h egersiz. An awakening; rousing from sleep; resuscitation; risingup.

Eidesis, h eidhsiz. Skill; knowledge; ability; science. This term, and also the

verb eidhnai, used as a noun, denote only the mediate knowledge which we acquirethrough external sources, and is not to be confounded with that derived from intuition ordemonstration.

Eidolon, to eidwlog. A likeness; effigy; representation; simulacrum; theimage of a person or object; a wraith; a spectral representation; perhaps a spiritualmaterialization; an image formed in the mind.

Eidos, to eidoz. Form; likeness; species; the form or exemplar according towhich a thing is produced. Both Platon and Aristoteles use this term as synonymous withidea, yet often as distinct. It is the productive force in matter, but distinct from it; theindwelling energy, whereas matter is the dunamz or potentiality. See also Einai, Idea,Dunamis, Energeia.

Eikasia, h eicasa. Guess; conjecture; the knowledge of the images orshadows of bodies, as distinguished from the faith or knowledge of their property, and fromdemonstrated or intuitive knowledge.

Eikon, to eicwn. An image; a representation; a resemblance; a statue; asimile or comparison.

Einai, to einai. An infinitive verb used as a noun. Being; being in itself;absolute being; the ground and reason of all being, the noumenal as contrasted withginesOai and genesiz, the phenomenal. See Eidos, Ousia.

Eirine, h eirhnh. Peace; concord; tranquility; friendship. Probably the sameas Salam, peace, perfection, prosperity; a word common from the China Sea to theAtlantic. The Syrian goddess Salambo was the personification of this principle; as also,perhaps, the Israelitish king Salamba, or Solomon. Eirene and Sophia - peace and wisdom- were also personified in the Gnostic pantheon; and the first Konstantinos, upon theestablishment of his capital at New Rome, not only struck off coins and medals to SolInvictus, but erected temples to these two principles.

Eironeia, h eirwneia. Irony; dissimulation; language meaning differently fromwhat it seems - the method employed by Sokrates. "Under the hypocritical pretense ofknowing nothing, he attacks and brings down all the fine speakers, all the the finephilosophers of Athens, whether natives or strangers from Asia Minor and the islands." -R.W. Emerson.

Eklektos, eclectuz, h, un. Elect; chosen; choice; excellent.Ekplexis, h ecplhxiz. Terror; panic; dismay; astonishment; consternation.Ekstasis, h exstusiz. Astonishment; amazement; ecstasy; trance; a

standing or existing outside of the objective personality; a condition in which the activityof the senses is more or less suspended, and the interior consciousness is correspondinglyvivid. This term is not used by Platon or classical writers.

Ekstatikos, ecstuticoz, h, on. Having the faculty to perceive while theexternal senses are quiescent; entranced; ecstatic; transported; inspired with a divinefury; entheast; frantic; astonished.

Ektasis, h ectasiz. Extension; lengthening; stretching out; the lengtheningof a short syllable in versification.

Ekios, extoz. Outside; without; beyond. 'O ectoz, the outside; the externalsurface. Oi ectoz, those who are outside; strangers.

Elenchos, o egelloz. Scrutiny; argument; contradiction; disputation;refutation; i nvestigation; demonstration; moving; conviction; anything which seems to

convince or confute. "Confutation is the greatest and chief art of purifications." - Platon:Sophistes, 34. "Faith is the substructure of things hoped for, the certain persuasion[egelloz] of things not seen with the eyes." - Epistle to the Hebrews, xi: 1. "All scripturedivinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for the elenchos, etc., is to the end that theman may be expert, ready for good work." - Epistle to Timotheos, II, iii: 16, 17. Whenrefutation had done its utmost, and all the points of difficulty and objection had beenbrought out, the Dialectic method had accomplished its purpose. By its application thephilosophers demonstrated as a consequence that we are in possession of some elementsof knowledge which have not been derived from perception through the senses; that thereare in all minds certain notions, principles or ideas, which have been furnished by a higherfaculty, which transcend the limits of experience and reveal the knowledge of real Being.See Anamnesis, Dialektike.

Eleutherion, eleutheriotes, to eleoOeriog, to eleuOeriothz. Freedom;self-government; liberality of sentiment and action; generosity.

Eleutheros, elewQeroz, a, og. Free; able to rule one's self; liberal;liberated.

Elpis, h elpiz. Hope; trust; reliance; expectation; opinion; notion. Used byPlaton in this latter sense.

Emmanes, emmeleia. Raving; full of mantic ardor; entheast. See Entheasmos.Emmeleia, h emmeleia. A sacred dance, as at the Mysteries and Orgiastic

revels; harmony in music.Empeiria, h empeiria. Experience, especially without the knowledge or

comprehension of principles; skill; practice; reflection; the operation of the mind uponfacts and principles, elaborating them into scientific form.

Empeirikoi, oi empeiricoi. Empirics; the designation of a school of physicianswho profess to be practical, to the disregard of rational inductions. Also, philosophers, thefollowers of Herakleitos, Protagoras, and Aristippos, who appear to have ignored theexistence of any faculty beyond the receptive energy of sense, like the agnostics of thepresent century. Aristoteles may also be included.

Empousa, h empousa. An apparition; the spectral appearance witnessed byneophytes about to undergo initiation; a hobgoblin. - Hekate.

Empsuchos, emyugoz, o, h. Endowed with soul; animated; living; breathing.Energeia, h energeia. Active energy; actuality; efficacy; operative power, as

distinguished from dunamiz, or potentiality. It is the formative cause, as set forth byAristoteles. "One energy is invariably antecedent in time up to that which is primarily andeternally the Moving Cause." - Metaphysics, viii, ix.

Enkrateia, h egcrateia, also to egcrateuma. Self-command;moderation; restraint; continence; the ability to restrain by the power of will the desire ofimproper pleasures; bearing up against a natural desire or passion.

Ennoia, h ennota. An idea; interior thought; an intuitive suggestion. Ennomos, ennomoz. According to law; just; cooperating with law as a

magistrate.Entelechia, h entelegeia, from ev telei egein, being in a state of

perfection. Entelechy; actual existence; the perfected act; the completely actual;absoluteness; completion; actuality; the tendency of passive matter to perfection, and theenergy of active powers; actual existence as oppssed to possible existence. The word is

altered from the suntelegeia of the ancient Pythagoreans, and is more expressivebecause the syllable en denotes that the tendency to perfection or to the accomplishmentof the purpose is actually resident in the being of which it is predicated. "The soul is thefirst actuality of a physical body having life in potentiality [ounamit]." - Aristoteles:Concerning the Soul, ii: 5.

Entheasmos, o enOeasticoz. Entheasm; the mantic condition; inspirationby a divine spirit. See Mania.

Entheastikos, enOeasticoz, h, on. Entheast; rapt; inspired; filled or ledby a divine impulse; enthusiastic.

Entheos, egOeoz, o, h. Entheast; divinely inspired; mantic; divine; full ofGod; led by God. To enOoon, divine guidance; inspiration.

Enthousiasis or enthousiasmos, h enQousiasiz, d enQousiasmoz - alsoto enQousiasticug. Divine transport; the entheast condition; enthusiasm; theraving induced by the sacred fury; fanaticism; wild passion.

Eos, h ewz or h hwz. Morning; the dawn; daylight.Ephoros, d efuroz. An ephoros or inspector at Sparta; a guardian; a

superintendent; also a person initiated at the Greater Mysteries. See Epoptes.Epikouros, d, h epicouroz. A champion; an ally; an assistant. Epimetheus, d epimhQeuz. Wise too late; over-cunning; prudent; name of

the brother of Prometheus, who opened Pandora's casket. Episteme, h episthmh. Knowledge, especially of the good and true; positive

or demonstrated knowledge; knowledge of Real Being, or the First Principle; full andperfect knowledge, so far as it may be acquired by human beings; metaphysical science."Knowledge relates to that which is, and ignorance to what has no existence; ....and it isthe function, therefore, of knowledge to define what real being is." - Republic, v: 20. SeeEudoxia, Gnosis.

Epithumia, or epithumetikon, h epiQumia, to epiQumticon. Desire;cupidity; eager longing; appetite; lust. Plato by the latter designation only meant "thatvital impulse which leads from one sensation to another." - Henry Davis. Pertaining,however, to the phenomenal world, and being the seat of sense, this life is compared toa cave in which all are captives, having their back toward the entrance, so that all they seeare but the shadows of objects to which they attribute a perfect reality.

Epitrope, h epitroph. A trust; guardianship; reference to an arbiter; thesuperintendence of law.

Epoptes, d epopthz. A witness; a seer; a spectator; an inspector orsuperintendent; one who had attained the autopsia or self-view, the last stage of initiationin the Eleusinian Rites, and had looked upon the sacred symbols in the kista. "We werewitnesses of his majesty." - Epistles of Petros, II, i: 16. See Ephoros.

Ergon, to epgon. Work; action; business; achievement; the result ofendeavor. Sometimes used for the performance of the Sacred Rites.

Eros, o erwz. Love; desire; passion; the sexual attraction; also the god of love,like the Hindoo Kama and the Latin Amor, or Cupido. In the Orphic writings, the principleof attraction or magnetism which binds all things together; personified as the Creator, theDemiourgos, the elder Dionysos. "Eros, the most ancient, generated all things." -Argonautics. The "Platonic Love" is the eager desire of the soul for the SupremeExcellence. It is also, in a subordinate sense, the attraction of souls, its kindred immortal

essences, to each other in the world of sense, the latter being but a form of the higheruniverse. Everywhere it is the conatus of the spirit for the perfect, or of Divinity for man.*

-----------* 'Agaph [agape] was often employed by the post-classical writers in place of

Eros, especially in the New Testament. It appears to be a word of Semitic origin, fromAhab, to love, - as, Abraham loved Isaac his son, and Isaac loved his wife Rebekah, andalso "savory meat." As a noun it signifies love; also a lover. It was the designation of aking of Israel; and we find it in the Proverbs or Parables of Solomon, x:12: "Hatred stirrethup strife; but love [Ahab] covereth all transgressions." -----------

Ethos, to eQoz. A custom; habit; an established usage; an institution. "Afterthe manner of Moses." - Acts of the Apostles, xv: 1.

Ethos, to hQoz, plural ta hQh. Ethics; morals; customs; usage; practice;an ethical discourse. "Ill discourse corrupts good morals," hQh grhsta.

Euangelion, to euaggelion. Good news; a reward for bringing joyful tidings;a sacrifice of praise; evangel; gospel. "Let this be my evangel." - Homeros: Odyssey, xiv:152. "Eteonikos offered up a sacrifice for the good tidings." - Xenophon, I, vi.

Euboulia, h euboulia. Good counsel; sagacity; the art of planning wisely howto act and what to do.

Eudaimonia, h eudaimonia. Felicity; happiness; the chief good; the happystate effected by a beneficent guardian spirit.

Eudoxia, h eudoxia. Good judgment; a well-formed opinion. See episthmh.Euexia, h euexia. A good condition; doing well; a fortunate result. "Happiness

is the good work of a tutelary spirit." - Alkinous: Introduction to the Doctrines of Plato, 27.Eugeneia, h eugeneia. Noble birth; good parentage and ancestry; generosity;

excellence from good conduct in word and deed; disposition to do aright and kindly.Eunoia, h eunoia. A feeling mind; benevolence; good will; kindness;

especially, seeking the well-being of others.Eunomia, h eunomia. A state of being well governed; a good government or

constitution; the observance of justice; equity.Euporia, h eupoia. Property; resource; a faculty of procuring what is desired;

ready judgment.Eustochia, h eustogia. Skill at hitting a mark; acuteness at conjecturing;

ready wit.Exegetica, ta exhghtica. The books of the priests or learned caste,

containing an explanation of religious matters; exposition; unwritten laws; interpretations.See Hermeneutika.

Gaia or Ge, h Gaia or gh. The earth; land; soil; region; province; country. Inthe Cosmogony of Hesiodos, Gaia is personified as appearing immediately next to Chaosor Primal Darkness. She brought forth Ouranos and Pontos, without paternity, and thenaccepting the former as her consort, the two became parents of the various ancient races.Some, who are fond of tracing Indian precedents to Hellenian ideas, consider Gaia as

originating with Gaya, the country in Hindostan where Buddha Siddarta lived and attainednirvana, or divine bliss. From gaw, to become; to produce; to generate.

Galaxias, o galaxiaz. The Galaxy or Milky Way. It was fabled by thephilosophers that souls leaving eternity passed as in a galaxy into the transition-sphere.This was declared by Pythagoras; and Plato himself, in the Vision of Eros, affirms thatsouls approached the sphere of genesiz like stars. - Republic, x: 16.

Gamos, o gamoz. The union or alliance between the sexes; nuptials; marriage;also an arcane rite in the Mysteries. The same designation was applied to the unions ofthe gods, and their mutual participation of each others' powers and energies; also to theadmission of human beings to a participation of the divine nature. We find the term soapplied in the Hebrew Sacred Writings; also in the philosophical essays. "I passed bythee and saw thee; behold it was thy time, the time of love. And I spread my skirt overthee and covered thy nakedness; and I swore to thee, and entered into covenant withthee, and thou becamest mine." - Ezekiel, xvi: 8. "Now her unknown bridegroom (Eros)ascended the couch, and made Psyche his wife." - Apuleius: Metamorphoses, v."Theologists regarded this communion of the gods belonging to the same order as asacred marriage, and called it the marriage of Hera and Zeus, Ouranos and Ge, Kronosand Rhea; and again, where the superior order became associated to the inferior, they callit the marriage of Zeus and Demeter; and still again, where the superior is blended withunderling natures, they call it the marriage of Zeus and Kore. There are with the godsthese alliances to those of the same order, those of lower to higher, and of higher to thosestill farther beneath." - Proclos: Commentary on Parmenides.

Gegeios or Gigas, o gegeioz, o gigaz. A giant, or offspring of the Earth;earth-born; autochthon, one native to a region. A designation of the early races ofBabylonia, also of the Rephaites of Palestine, and other archaic and fabulous races,generally of Aethiopian origin.

Genea, h genea. Birth; race; parentage, production; a lifetime. Genethlion, to geneQlon. A birthday, or rather the fifth, eighth, or ninth day

after birth, at which time it was usual to sprinkle the infant solemnly with lustral water andconsecrate or legitimize it by passing it over or carrying it around the fire of the sacredhearth. The Semitic and other fire-worshiping priesthoods, like the Chaldean, Hebrew, andArabian, made the calculations of those periods by astrological and other portents, asacred calling. See Plato: Theaitetos, 47.

Genesis, h genesiz. Generation; creation; nativity; rank; a period of time;philosophically used to denote the transition-sphere between the states of usia oressence; from the noumenal state to the phenomenal into the world of nature. Themovement toward phenomenal existence; the metalhyiz or sharing of dual life - bya change in mode of being; a becoming as distinguished from really being; relativeexistence; the passing of the soul or prior spiritual essence from eternity into nature. Onthe ninth day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, the worshipers placed two vessels of wine, oneat the East and the other at the West, and emptied them in turn, pronouncing the wordsuiz [son] and tocuie [genitrix], as implying that man was the offspring of eternity, andnature his mother. The whole paraphernalia and ceremonial of the Mysteries related to thecoming of man into the natural world and his effort to go hence. "I think we ought to definewhat that is which is over-existent and has no genesis; and that which is in a state oftransition [genesiz] or becoming, but never really is.... There are three distinct modes

that preceded the establishing of this cosmical universe: being, space, and transition"[genesiz]. Plato: Timaios, ix, xxvii. "Others of the heavenly faculties go forth from theminto the nature-sphere of the universe, and into the cosmical universe itself, passing in dueorder through the sphere of transition [genesiz] and therefrom pervading every part." -Iamblichos: Mysteries, I, xviii. From gignomai, to become.

Genos, to genoz. A race; a genus; an order; a family; a tribe; offspring; birth;sex; the human race, etc. Iamblichos ranges the higher orders of being in genh, orders,or genera, namely: divinities, daimons or tutelaries; heroes or half-gods, and souls orpsychical essences. The Chaldeans had also archons, angels, archangels; and in thePauline or Markionic Epistles to the Chrestians of Ephesos and Kolossai, we find alsoenumerated archai, exousiai, kosmokrators, and pneumatika, which would seem to be invery close analogy. Plato uses it in the sense of elements or principles.

Geometria, h gewmetria. Geometry; the science of land-measuring. Alsogewmetren, to measure the earth; to be a geometer. There was a more arcanemeaning attached to these words by the philosophers, as well as to its sister terms,manQunw, maQoz, aQhma, all which relate to esoteric knowledge. Thus we findin Ploutarchos, the maxim ascribed to Plato: "God is constantly a geometer." (Symposiacs,viii: 2.) The democratic or popular government which Solon approved as being based onequality, was denominated arithmetical; a show of hands by wise and ignorant alike beingsufficient to determine all questions, as when Sokrates was condemned. The geometricalwas regarded by Plato and others as not to be excelled. It was also called the sacred orsacerdotal rule. "The statesman's science will never willingly establish a governmentcomposed alike of good and bad men;" "We assign to every one that employment whichis suited to his nature, and prescribe to each his peculiar art." "It endeavors to bind andweave together the natures inclining in contrary directions from each other, so as to be inaccord with the alliance that fits together the eternal part of their soul with a divine bond."The Alexandrian Platonists in like manner taught that the spiritual world was arranged ingeometrical order, as with gods, daemons or guardian spirits, heroes or half-gods, andsouls. Hence, geometry was not a technic of sensible things, but of facts transcendingthem; "a science that takes men off from sensible objects, and makes them applythemselves to the spiritual and eternal nature, the contemplation of which is the end ofphilosophy, as a view or epopteia of the arcana of initiation in Holy Rites." It is a technicof eminence according to excellence, and of all authority with sole regard to merit andability, irrespective of every consideration of equality or the accident of factitious rank.

Gephyra, h gefura. A mound; a bridge; an embankment; a space betweentwo points or parties. The Way of Holiness from Athens to Eleusis passed over theKephissos; and on the occasion of the Mysteries, men, women, and boys grouped thereand interchanged ribald jests with the worshipers. These were denominated Gephyrians;but Herodotus and Thoukydides both declare that the Gephyrai were Pheonicians fromBoiotia who were naturalized in Athens and introduced the worship of the AchaianDemeter, - perhaps the Eleusinia or Thesmophoria, - with orgiastic rites.

Glaukon, Glaucwn. Glaukon, a favorite brother of Plato, prominent in theRepublic. Named from Glaub, the owl, which was sacred to Athena.

Glykothumia, h glucoQumia. A quietness of mind; calm enjoyment. Gnome, h gnwmh. The mind; mode of thinking; the judgment; the will or

inclination; knowledge, especially esoteric learning; wisdom; a maxim. The same as

nomoz, a song, or law; the laws being anciently in rhythmic sentences.Gnosis, h gnwsiz. Knowledge; cognition; wisdom; esoteric learning. The

doctrine of the Gnostics, a sect of religionists who flourished, in the earlier centuries of theChristian era. Basilides of Alexandria, Tatian of Assyria, Markion of Poutos, and Mani werethe conspicuous teachers. Their system comprised a glomerate or digest of Chaldeantheosophy, Mithraism and certain of the earlier Christian doctrines. They were "the mostpolite, the most learned, and most wealthy of the Christian name." They appear to havehad secret worship, crypts, and signs or symbols of recognition; and some were Ophites,or serpent-worshipers. Mention is made of the Gnosis in the Pauline epistles, apparentlyas being the doctrine of the Jew Apollos. See Gospel according to Luke, xi: 52, where thelawyers are impugned for taking away the key of the Gnosis or higher wisdom; also Epistleto the Corinthians, I, viii: 1, 11; xiii: 8; Ephesians, iii: 19; Timothy, I, vi: 20. Though manyof their doctrines resembled the Platonic, they seem to have made a merit of depreciatingPlato.

Goeteia, h gohteia, also to gohteuma. Black magic; sorcery;fascination; witchcraft; juggling tricks; also the art of the orator. "They bewitch our verysouls." - Plato: Menexenos, 2.

Grammateus, o grammateuz and o ierogrammateuz. A scribe; asecretary; a teacher of the sacred laws; a theologist. The Hebrew books of Chroniclesmention the Kenites of Southern Judea as Scribes; and traditions preserved elsewhererepresent Moses as marrying a Kushite or Kenite wife; also Saul, David, and others asfamiliar with them. The nabaim or prophets, the sages of Idumea, the nazirim, andperhaps the Essens, were of the same caste. The Scribes constituted a distinct class inEgypt, and appear to have been the Pharisaian Rabbis in Palestine and Babylonia.

Hades, o Aidhz for o Aiohz. Helli, the invisible state of existence; the generalreceptacle of souls after bodily dissolution; the Underworld; the state of existence in whichsouls continue that have separated from the body before passing into other conditions;hence also perhaps the genesiz or transition-sphere. Plato in the Kratylos hints itsderivation from ael douz, always giving, the synonym of Plouton, or from ploutoz,rich; Aidoneos or Hades being the reputed lord of the Underworld. He also assimilates theterm to 'Aidz, Wise, the One who sees; which would make it appear that the Underworldwas the region of fact. The term is closely related to oidioz, perpetual; aidwz,reverence, awe, modesty; aidoiuz, to be revered; venerable - applied in the neutergender to the sexual parts, which were sacred symbols in the Mysteries as typifying thearch-arcanum of life. The Hel of the Northnen, Orcus of the Italians, Amenti of theEgyptians, Saol of the Syrians, Ereb of the Assyrians, and Patalo of the Indians, alldenoted the condition of disbodied souls.

Haplosis, h aplwsiz. The simple selfhood; a condition of divestment fromexternal conditions. - Plotinos.

Harmonia, h armonia. Harmony; established order; the cosmos; agreement;concord. Some attempt to derive the term from Hermon, the name of a mountain in Syria;as denoting Harmonia, bride of Kadmos. It may be from H'R'M, a harem or home; butmore likely it is from arma, union, marriage, connubial love. The proper name isdoubtless the feminine of Hermes, a name of Kadmos, the patron of learning. Onetradition gives the same rank to Harmonia, whose four books are declared to be as old as

the human race. Iamblichos uses the term as the synonym of xosmoz.Hebe, h "Hbh. Youth; the time of bloom; the period of physical maturity;

manhood; womanhood; the lower region of the body. Also the goddess of youth, said tohave attended on all the gods, also to have become the wife of Herakles whenimmortalized. From the Phoenician Heba, concealed, secret arcane; or Heva, she whois the source of being.

Hedra, to xdra. A sect; a throne; an assembly of suppliants; a basis, support,or foundation; vehan or vehicle of a god; an altar; a statue; something permanent.

Hekate, h Ecath. Hekate; the same as Brimo, Artemis, and Persephone; thegoddess of Night, and queen of the Underworld. The name is Epyptian, Hakte being aform of Ino.

Helene, h Elenh. Helena, the reputed wife of Menelaos. The etymology is asuncertain as the verity of the legend. Some derive it from elenh, a basket, hencesymbolical of a woman; and others from elanh, a torch, as bringing destruction to Ilian.Max Muller, however, identifies the name with Saranya, the Vedic goddess of the Dawn.It may be from the Phoenician AL, or hliuz, the sun.

Helios, o hlioz. The sun; the greatest of the stars visible in the daytime; a firein the sky only visible and the same from morning till night; an eternal living being with asoul. "We must therefore call the nature of the stars, and such things as we perceiveexisting together with the stars, the Visible Gods, the greatest and most worthy of honor,and who as seeing on every side the most acutely, are the first in rank." - Plato: Epinomis,8.

Hen, to En. The ONE; the Supreme Being; the Unity; the One Nous orIntelligence pervading the Universe; the comprehensive conscious thought or plan whichbinds all parts of the Universe in one great whole (to pan); the principle of Order; Godas always the same, and not diverse, phenomenal, or existing in change.

Henosis, h enwsiz. Oneness; unity; union; the atonement or state of beingat one. "In the reduction of your soul to its simplest selfhood (aplwsiz), its divineessence, you attain this union (enwsin). - Plotinos. See Ekstasis.

Hermes, o 'Ermhz or o 'Ermeiaz. Mercurius, or more properly the EgyptianThoth, Tat, or Kadmos; the personification of the whole Sacerdotal College; the god ofscience; the interpreter of the will of the gods. He appears to have been nearly identicalwith the Nabu of the Akkadians and Assyrians, and the Buddha of India. He wasrepresented by a phallic statue with a human head; also as the Mihr or winged disk, alsoas hawk-headed. All sacred learning, especially as relating to medicine, astronomy, andtheosophy, was imparted to this divinity. - Iamblichos: Mysteries, I, i.

Hierophantes, o ierofanthz. A hierophant; the presiding priest at Eleusiswho initiated the candidates; an initiating priest; a priest of the secret worship; aninstructor in sacred and arcane knowledge.

Hippa, h "Ippa. Hippa; the soul of the world [Proklos]; the nurse of Bacchas;the Great Mother; a name of Rhea or Kybele. The derivation of this name appears tohave been Phoenician, and to have been from the verb Hippa, to vail; to perform secretrites [Kings II, xvii, 9]. It signifies the sexual parts, and therefore by Synecdoche becamethe designation of the Mother of the Gods. Pausanias states that Poseidon, Ares, Here,Athena, and the Despoina of Arkadia were all denominated Hippian. Their worship wasbrought from beyond the Mediterranean, and they were non-HelIenian divinities. By a play

upon words which was anciently very common, the hippos or horse became the symbolof the goddess as well as of Poseidon. The horses Pegasos and Areien, are said to havebeen sons of Poseidon; and the goddess Persephone-Despania was represented with ahorse's head. The designation became also a title of the priests. Jacob Bryant says that"the Hippoi, misconstrued mares, were priestesses of the goddess Hippa, who was of oldworshiped in [Lydia, Phrygia] Thessaly and Thrace and many different regions." "The ritesof Dionysos Hippios here carried into Thrace, where the horses of Diamedes were said tobe fed with human flesh." Moore would have called them priests of the Yoni. Theyimmolated human victims in their rites; as indeed was universal in the worship of Dionysosand Poseidon in earlier periods. It is not unlikely that many of the proper namescompounded from hippos relate to the divinity in question, as was a common practice.

Hydra, h udra. The Hydra; a water-snake; t he many-headed serpent of Lernareputed to have been slain by Herekles. A serpent with a fiery body and seven heads wasan ancient Akkadian and Assyrian symbol, as well as the device of the Naga tribes of India.The fabled Zobak (Dahaka or Deiokes) was doubtless an Assyrian conqueror or dynasty,which was represented by a similar emblem. See Kabeiroi.

Hyle, h ulh. Wood; fuel; weeds; gross material; dregs; material of any kind;the vehicle of the soil. The term is used by the philosophers to denote the elementaryprinciple of physical nature; which they taught, involved the soul as it passed from heaveninto the transition-sphere. It has of itself neither form, figure, species, or quality, but isreceptive of all forms, and so the mother, nurse, and origin of all things, through Eros thedemiurgic creator. Accordingly all unbodied souls which are involved in the sphere ofchange were denominated hylic or material, as being subject to influences toward materialexistence. The word is derived from fuw, to produce, to cause to exist; whence isfusiz, nature or the producer; uioz, son or offspring: Latin filius and Spanish hijo. SeeHypodoche.

Hyparchonta, ta upargonta. The essential properties; the principles; thethings which are as contrasted with those which seem to exist.

Hyparxis, h uparxiz. Being; subsistence; the highest attainment of the soul;existence, wealth.

Hypnos, o upnoz. Sleep; repose; the magnetic sleep, such as was occasionedby the manipulating priests at the temples of Apollo, Paion, and Asklepios; the propheticsleep.

Hypokeimenon, to upoceimenon. The subject; the topic of consideration; thehypothesis; matter for thought as distinguished from ulh, or matter of potentialmanifestation. See hypothesis.

Hypodoche, h upodogh. A receptacle; receiving; the designation of matter asa vehicle of the soul. See Hyle.

Hyponoia, h uponoia. The undermenning; the real sense of a drama, allegory,fable, or myth; an allegory; a conjecture; a suspicion.

Hypostasis, h upostasiz. A foundation; a cause; basis; substruction;subject-matter; principle; inherent nature; underived existence; self-existing intelligence;confident persuasion. "Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for, the elenchos of thingsnot seen." See Hypothesis.

Hypothesis, h upoQesiz. A principle not demonstrated; the summary of adiscourse; a basis laid for anything; a foundation; the subject; the object proposed; a

plan; a condition; a philosophical opinion.

Iao, n 'Iaw or 'Iawn. Iao, an ancient name of Bacchos, used chiefly in theMysteries; perhaps the same as Yau or Yio, the Noetic god or god of Intelligence inBabylon, called also Ramaun. The name was evidently arcane.

Idea, h idea. An idea; that which is seen; the ideal; a form, shape, or figure;an abstract notion; a model or pattern; a species or kind; a plot in a drama;countenance, aspect. Upon an accurate perception of the Platonic definition of this term,the right understanding of the doctrine of the Akademe is based. The philosophertranscends the empirical method of reducing all knowledge to the accidental receptivequality of the organs of sense, with the faculties of conjecturing and reasoning superadded;by which there can be no certainty of anything. He taught that there is a world ofIntelligence, governed by one grand and presiding Unity, yet diversified by innumerableintelligential essences. That which is changeable pertains to time; the intelligential isalways in eternity. An idea is, therefore, all eternal principle which determines the powerof thought, and both transcends and controls experience. "Idea is, as regards God, amental operation by Him; as regards us, the first things perceptible by mind; as regardsmatter, a standard; but as regards the world, perceptible by itself, a pattern; but asconsidered and demonstrated with reference to itself, all existence." - Alkinous:Introduction to the Doctrines of Plato, ix. Professor Cooker thus clearly sets forth the wholedoctrine of Ideas: "Viewed in their relation to the Eternal Reason, as giving the primordialthought and law of all being, these principles are simply eioh auta caQ auta, -ideas in themselves, - the essential qualities or attributes of Him who is the supreme andultimate Cause of all existence. When regarded before the Divine imagination givingdefinite forms and relations, they are the tupoi, the parudeigmata - the types,models, patterns, ideals according to which the universe was fashioned. Contemplated intheir actual embodiment in the laws, and typical forms of the material world, they areeicunez - images of the eternal perfections of God. The world of sense pictures theworld of reason by a participation (meQexiz) of the ideas. And viewed as interwoven inthe very texture and framework of the soul they are umoiwmata - copies of the DivineIdeas which are the primordial laws of knowing, thinking, and reasoning. Ideas are thusthe nexus of relation between God and the visible universe, and between the human andthe Divine reason [nouz]. There is something divine in the world, and in the human soul,namely: the eternal laws and reasons of things, mingled with the endless diversity andchange of sensible phenomena. These ideas are 'the light of the intelligible world;' theyrender the invisible world of real Being perceptible to the reason of man." - Cooker:Christianity and Greek Philosophy, p. 337. The knowing of these ideas constitutes theepisthmh or actual knowledge, because the reality of things is from participating in anarchetypal form. These forms or ideas are therefore the eternal thoughts of the DivineIntellect; and we attain the truth when our thoughts conform with His - when our generalnotions are in conformity with the ideas." - Thompson: Laws of Thought, p. 119.

Idioma, to idiwma. A property; a peculiar endowment; a distinguishingcharacteristic; idiom. This term is much employed by the philosophers and theurgicalwriters in regard to the different orders of superior beings.

Ilus, h iluz. Dregs; slime; mud; the material principle by which the soul isinvolved in the sphere of change called genesis; chaotic substance; the objective entity,

hyle or matter, by means of which psychic essences become embodied; the condition ofthe impure soul.

Kabeiroi, oi Kabeiroi. The Kabeiri; gods of the arcane worship. As theMysteries cover the same ground, and typify what Philosophy explains, a notice of themis essential. The Kabeiri, whose rites were celebrated at Lemnos and Samothrakra,appear to have antedated the Eleusinia, Thermophoria, and other westein religiousobservances. They were Semitic deities, though probably of the earlier origin. Thedesignation is formed with equal facility from Arir, the mighty, Habor (whence Hebron, orKiriath-Arba, the city of the Few), an association, magic, - and Kabir, great, superior,ancient. Legends make them the seven sells of Ptob in Egypt and of Sedek in Palestine,Esman or Aesculapios, the Apollo Ismenios of Boiotia being included as the eighth,blending them into one. Other stories reduce the number to three or four, whose mysticnames are rendered to us as Demeter, Peruphane or Hekate, Dionysos or Hades, andHermes, Kadmos, Kadmillos or Asklapios. They are undoubtedly the divinities of the sevenplanets, as enumerated in the Panthon of Assyria, who also presided in the Underworld.Their unity was represented by a fiery Dragon, Asdar or Esmun, with seven heads, and aluminous halo of ten rays or horns. (Apocalypse of Iiannes Theologos, xii: 3.)

This dragon was the seven-headed Akkadian serpent, the Phoenician Esculapiusor serpent on a pole, which was borne upon the standard of the "Great King" - first ofAssyria, next of Persia, and afterward of Rome. The rites of Osiris, Dionysos, Poseidon,Demeter, and others, appear to have originated in the Kabeirian worship, and to havetypified alike the lepsis of the soul, its probation, and final purification. From the Mysteriesoriginated the Drama, and both culminate in Philosophy.

Kadmos, o Kadmoz. The Ancient One; the Eastern. The legend of Kadmosmakes him the son of Agenor, the Ancient of Days, who sent him forth in quest of his sisterEurope (Eres, the west, the future, the Underworld). He established many cities, gave thealphabet to the priests, and instituted Mystic rites. Indeed, he is one of the Kabeirian gods,and identical with Hermes, Thoth, and Hea of Assyria. Another legend makes him thehusband of the Sphinx, an Amazon; and another of Harmonia, the patroness of Order andBeauty.

Kakon, to cacon. That which is evil; the principle of badness; privation ofgood; disorder, whether of mind, body, or condition; class; depravity of the soul; in short,the democracy of the passions rising over the ascendancy of the interior mind. "It is notpossible that evil should be destroyed; for it is necessary that there shall be alwayssomething contrary to good; nor can it be seated among the gods, but of necessity movesround this mortal nature and this region." - Plato: Theaitetos, 84.

Kallone, h callonh. Excellence; beauty; grace; personified merit andattractiveness. "Fate, Eileithyia, and Kallone are the three who preside over thephenomenal world." - genesiz. - Plato: Banquet.

Kalon, to calon. Excellence; beauty; "excellence of form as perceived bysight, utility, and benefit to others." The term is more commonly rendered beauty, but itrelates to interior qualities, especially to utility.

Katabasis, h catsbasiz. Descending; the lepsis or entrance of the soul intothe sphere of transition, from which the anabasis is its emancipation.

Katalepsis, h catalhyiz. A seizure; an apprehension; catching an idea;

perception; conception; a condition induced by mesmerism; catalepsy. See Kataphora,Ekstasis.

Katanoesis, h catanohsiz. Discerning; perceiving; cognition;understanding; contemplation.

Kataphora, h catafora. A descent; a fall; a blow; a deep sleep; a trance;as catalepsy. See Ekstasis, Katalepsis.

Katastasis, h catastasiz. A condition; a permanent state; establishment.Katharos, caQaroz, a, on. Pure; holy; free from matter or the material

obversion; whole; divine. "If the soul is separated in a pure state from the body, takingnothing of the body with it, as not having been willingly in a common partnership with it inthe present life, but having shunned it and gathered itself within itself as constantlystudying this - this is nothing else than to pursue philosophy aright." - Plato: Phaidon, 68.

Katharotes, h caOarothz. Purity; freedom from coporeal contamination;clearness from material obsession; innocence; the state of the soul before its contact withmaterial conditions, or its descent into the transition-sphere.

Katharsis, h xaQarsiz. A cleaning; a purification; a freeing from the taint ofthe material condition. "There are two sorts of purification: one is concerned with the souland another with the body." - Plato: Sophist, 27. The preliminary rites of the Mysterieswere entitled purifications. The Dramas acted at the Theatre were also regarded as of thesame nature and purpose. Hence Iamblichos says: "When we contemplate the emotionsof others in Comedies and Tragedies, we repress our civil passions, moderate them, andare purified. In the Sacred Dramas, also, we are freed by the spectacles and narrativesof vile and wicked matters, from the hurt which occurs from the actions illustrated by them."- Mysteries, I, xi. In like manner Aristotle declares that Tragedy, by arousing pity, fear, orterror, purges the mind of these and similar passions, tempering and reducing them to justmeasure, with a kind of delight, by seeing those passions so well imitated. As Philosophywas the outcome of the Tragedies and Mysteries, and accordingly the more completeaccomplishing of their purpose, Plato made use of the Dialectic or Elenchos for that object."This is the purification at which the spirit of the Dialectic wants to arrive, that of the soulor understanding." "Proof by argument (elengoz) is the greatest of purifications; andhe who has not been convinced, though he be the Great King [of Persia] himself, is in thehighest degree impure; he is uninstructed and uncomely in those respects in which he whowould be truly happy, ought to be pure and fair." - Sophistes.

Kinesis, h xinhsiz. Motion; the first phenomenon of matter; the polarizationof atomic bodies. The word Oeuz, or god, signifies the Muse of motion.

Kirke, h Kirch. Kirke, the reputed sister of Aietes of Kolchis, and it personageof the archaic religion. The name is appareutly from Kircoz, a circle, and is evidentlyassociated with the temend or sacred temple-precinct, as well as with the choric dance ofthe Mysteries, which is said to have originated in Kolchis. She transformed thecompanions of Odysseus into animals; which is a figurative expression for the bestialdegradation of souls that covet the delights of sense-perception and the material life.

Korybuntismos, o Korubantismoz. The celebration of the Korybanticmysteries; an initiation into the Korybantic Mysteries; the religious frenzy incident to theworship of the Mother of the gods; a sacred fury. The rites were like those of Baal inSyria. The priests were denominated Kadeshim or sacred ones. They ran in procession,crying, beating drums and timbrels, and especially playing on the flute, and cutting their

flesh in honor of the slain god Aiys.

Logismos, o logismoz. A reckoning of accounts; reasoning; thinking;deliberation; the reasoning faculty.

Logistikon, to logisticon. The discursive reason; the logical faculty; thepower by which we discern conclusions from premises.

Logizesthai, to loyizesOai. Reasoning; the tracing of relation.Logos, o loyoz. A word; a discourse; speech; the external expression of the

interior thought; the thought itself; a definition; a reason; a science; an art; aproposition; the faculty of the mind which enables it to proceed from hypotheses orfundamental principles to their legitimate results. "Logos is to make one's thought clearby the voice; ....to describe it by its elements and defining." - Theaitetos.

Mageia, h mageia. The doctrines of the Magi, a caste of priests in Media,Persia, and Assyria, who instructed the youth, took charge of the Sacred fire, andperformed religious offices; sacred knowledge; wisdom; latterly magic, enchantment,occult learning, the black art.

Maieusis, h maieusiz. The office of an accoucheur. Plato gives thisdesignation to his method of drawing out the thoughts of his pupils, as delivering the mindof the disciple of the ideas with which it was pregnant. "I am not myself at all wise, and Ihave no such discovery as is the product of my own mind; but those who associate withme make a wonderful proficiency, and make it without learning anything from me, but fromtheir own resources finding and becoming possessed of many excellent things." -Theaititos, 20. See Amamnesis.

Mania, h mania. Entheasm; enthusiasm; prophetic or poetic fury; divine ordemoniac possession; the peculiar frenzy incident to religious excitement; the Bacchicinspiration ; raving; extravagant conduct. "You have all partaken with me of the mania andBacchic fury of Philosophy." - Banquet, 41. "There were two kinds of mania; oneproduced by human infirmity, the other by a divine release from the ordinary ways of men.The divine mania was subdivided into four kinds, - prophetic (or mantic), telestic, poetic,and amatory." - Phaidros, 107, 108. Plotinos defines it as entheasm, an exaltation whichassimilates the good and makes it at one with God.

Mantike, h mantich. The gift of prophecy; the prophetic art; prophecy;speaking from divine inspiration. "In proportion as prophecy is higher and more perfectthan augury, both in name and reality, in the same proportion, the ancients testify,entheasm (mania) is superior to a normal condition of mind (sufrsunh) - the onecoming from Divinity and the other from human endowments alone." - Phaidros, 48.

Mantis, o mantiz. An entheast; one under the influence of divine inspiration;a prophet; a person under the prophetic frenzy; a diviner. Ancient prophets received theirinspiration in trance or frenzy; and accordingly in the old languages the same terms areused for madness and divine inspiration.

Mathema, to maQhma, plural maQhmata. Learning; instruction; what islearned; arcane learning; mathematical and especially geometrical science; the scienceof harmony; the art of discursive reasoning, which accepts hypotheses as first principles.

Metempsychosis, h metemyugwsiz. The metempsychosis; the continuingexistence of the soul; the passing of the soul from one body or form of existence to

another. "This, or something like this, is true of our souls and their abodes." - Plato:Phaidon, 145. See Anastasis.

Methexis, h meOexiz. Participation, especially of ideas, thus uniting the humanand the divine reason. Similars do not participate.

Methodos, o meOodoz. Method; regular order of proceeding; travelling in thesame road; manner of investing; a close investigation.

Metis, h Mhtiz. Metis; Wisdom personified; the first spouse of Zeus; theHakamoth of the Gnostics; skill; intelligence.

Mithras, o MiOraz. Mithras, the chief of the Yezdis or angels; the angel of theSun; the god of truth; the Friend; Troth; fidelity to plighted faith. "He who blessethhimself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth, and he that sweareth shall swearby the God of truth." Kings II, v. 20-27. Stephanus declares Mithras to have been originallyan Ethiopian divinity, which is very likely, as he came into the Persian Pantheon at a laterperiod of history. He was also an arcane divinity, worshiped in caves and by secret rites.After the conquest of Poutos by Pompeias, Mithraism was introduced into the Roman worldand so became universal. The Apocalypse abounds with references to his ritual, as thetree of life (haoma), the second death, the manna or honey-cake, the white pebble, themornIng star, empire, white raiment, the enthroning of the "soldier," etc. The Gnosticworship, Christmas festival, and Holy Report, came from this source. The EmperorConstantinus was a "soldier of the Invincible Sun," and Paphyrias represents Mithras asthe divinity of the secret worship. The witchcraft or wisdom-craft of the Middle Ages wasa remnant of the Arcane Mithra-worship.

Mixis, h mixiz. A mixing or commingling; a mixture; the union of spiritual formswith the material principle; sexual connection; the alliance of gods and human beings.

Mneme, h mnhmh. Memory; a remembrance; the faculty by which we preservein the mind the truths of the Foreworld; a memorial; a tradition.

Moira, plural Moiroe, h moira, ai Moirai. The fixed order of things;destiny; lot; a part. There were three Fates. In the Norse mythology they were the Nornsor Weird Sisters - Urd, the Past; Verdanti, the Present or Becoming; and Skuld, theFuture. Another legend makes them two - Kaun, or the possible, and Mass, or theinevitable. The Norns sit at the root of the tree Ygdracil, and mark out human fortune."There were other three sitting round at equal distance from each other: the Fates,daughters of Necessity (Anagch), clad in white vestments; Lachesis, Klotho, andAtropos, singing to the harmony of the Seirens - Lachesis singing the Past, Klotho thePresent, and Atropos the Future." - Republic, X, xiv.

Monogenes, o, h. monogenhz. Only-begotten; born alone; principal; chief;first. Persephone, who is so designated as disjointing the inner from the outer soul, andso producing the better part of man alone.

Monoeides, o, h monoeidhz. Uniform; of one single nature; alike throughout.Morphe, h morfh. Form; shape; figure; appearance. Not synonymous with

eidos, but rather with Logos and Energeia.Muesis, h muhsiz. Initiation into the arcane worship; instruction, especially in

mystic learning. Conjectured to be derived from the Sanskrit Moksha. Mysterion, to musthrion, plural musthria. A religious festival at which

arcane rites are performed; secret worship; the secret rites of Demeter at Eleusis; theDionysiac festival; religious orgies; any secret or occult matter; a drama in which gods

and heroes were the principal characters; a dramatic representation or initiation, in whichthe human soul was represented as coming from the world of real being into the region ofchange and phenomenal existence, undergoing a remedial discipline, and so becomingpurified and enabled to enjoy divine felicity. These rites were afterward modified, andbecame a source of public entertainment. After the accession of Peisistratos, the liturgiesof the various festivals were revised. The Dionysia or Bacchic orgies were expanded intodramatic representation, the Tragedies and Comedies, - in that the Theation. Philosophywas the endeavor to unfold the ideas which underlay the dramatic and mystic exercises,hence Plato represents it as initiation into perfect Mysteries. The Christians establishedan analogous system of Mysteries, or dramas to represent scenes in the life and passionof Jesus. These in their turn evolved the Modern Theater.

Mystes, o miisthz. An initiated person; one who has been sworn, and purified,but has not yet been admitted to the autopsia. According to Plato and Sokrates, thephilosopher, though never initiated, was the true mrystes.

Mystika, ta mustica. Mystic rites; arcana; occult knowledge.

Narthex, o narOhx. Narthex or giant fennel; the stryrsos or staff, surmountedby a pine-cone, which was borne in procession at the Bacchic festivals, by neophytes.

Nebris, h nebriz. A fawn-skin; the spotted robe worn by the Bacchants. TheSem or high priest of Osiris and Isis wore a leopard-skin; also certain of the priests ofMylitta at Babylon. The Assyrian name Nimrod and the Greek Nebrod, both mean spotted,and seem to relate to the Bacchic rites.

Nektar, to nectar. Nectar; the beverage of the gods; honey; perfume. Theword is Semitic, and denotes a sacred liquor prepared from honey, which was drunk bypriests and worshipers, in Assyria.

Noeros, noeroz, a, on. Spiritual; intelligential; intelligent; capable ofunderstanding; to be perceived by the interior understanding rather than by the senses.

Noema, to nohma. Thought; an a priori idea; what is had in mind; intention;purpose; an invention; a plan; understanding; sentiment; the mind; a concept.

Noeo, noew. To revolve in mind; to consider; to know; to discern; to perceive;to know intuitively; to understand; to cognize, hence to noein, thought. "Thought andBeing are identical." - Parmenides.

Noesis, h nohsiz. Intuition; intuitive knowledge; intelligence; pure reason asdistinct from discursive knowledge. "Analagous to these four departments of knowledgeare four faculties of the soul: the noesis or pure reasoning answering to the highest;understanding (dianoes) to the second; belief (pistiz, or empirical knowledge, nowModern Science) to the third; conjecture to the last." - Plato, Republic, VI. xxi.

Noetos, nohtoz, a, on. Noetic; pertaining to the highest faculty of the mind;intelligential; conceivable in the mind only, and not as an object of sense; spiritual; divine;supreme, Topoz nohtoz, the world of intelligence, the region of spirit.

Noos or Nous, o nouz, o nouz. Intuitive Intellect; pure reason; the spirit; theInterior mind; the rational soul; the "inner man;" the daimonian; the intuitive principle ascontrasted with the logoz or reasoning faculty; God. Anaxagoras treats of the nouzao tocrathz, the Absolute Mind, which moved and established Order in the Universe;Plato believed in a nouz basileuz, or Royal Intelligence of the noumenal world;Aristoteles taught that the nouz alone, and not science, art, or sagacity could ascertain

and evolve principles. He also classified the human intelligence into Receptive andCreative - nouz paQhticoz and nouz poihticoz. "The receptive intellect, whichis as Matter, becomes all things by receiving their forms. The Creative reason givesexistence to all things, as light calls color into being. The Creative reason transcends thebody, being capable of separation from it, and from all things; it is an everlastingexistence, incapable of being mingled with matter or affected by it; prior and subsequentto the individual mind. The Receptive intellect is necessary to individual thought; but it isperishable, and by its decay all memory, and therefore individuality, is lost to the higherand immortal region." - The Soul, III, v. He divided the Creative intellect again into theepisthmonicon, or Intuitive reason, and the logisticon, or discursive faculty. Inall cases he discriminates between the nouz and the soul, as distinct entities, assigningonly to the former a place in eternity. Plotinos, whom Augustinus denominated a "re-incarnation of Plato," carried the tendencies of the Great teacher to their legitimateconclusions. Plato hesitated at the enwsiz or absolute identity of the nouz and theideas which it comprehended. Plotinos asserted that the Intuitive reason was the objectconceived, the subject conceiving and the act of conception at one. The arche or Absoluteprinciple was to en - unity above essence; the second nouz, pure reason; the third,soul. The nouz contemplates the One and exists by it; and by thought constitutes all trueexistences. The soul is evolved and depends upon the nouz.

Noumenon, to noumenon. The noumenal; an idea beyond sense perception;a cognition of the things which are; an idea inherent in the mind, transcending sense."Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius in sense, nisi ipse intellectus." - Leibnitz.

On or Ontos On, to on, to ontwz on. Real being; Absolute Being; thatwhich really is; the really-existing as distinguished from the transitory; the permanent,eternal, and unchangeable; the Eternal Goodness, Truth and Excellence; the real beingunderlying all existence; the whence and why of all things; God.

Orgia, ta urgia. Orgies; sacred rites; arcane observances; the Mysteries;the Bacchic rites; the frenzy peculiar to worship, often followed by temporary trance orcatalepsy.

Ouranos, o, ouranoz. Heaven; the Sky; the expanse; the air; also Ouranosthe camp of Gaia, the Earth and father of Kronos, the horned or rayed god. Probably theAryan divinity Varuna, the god of the sky and the waters above the sky. His dethronement,by deprivation of the lingham or creative energy, is essentially after the Hindu method.

Onsia, h ousia. Essence; substance; entity; the being and essence of things;the permanent reality; the grand and efficient cause of all phenomenal existence; thesubstance intermediate between the absolute identity and the outstanding objectiveness,combining both. Hence the order of essence, energy, and power; also of essence,transition (genesiz), nature (fusiz).

Pan, o pan. Pan, perhaps Phan, a god of the Arkadians introduced into Athensafter the Persian war; said to be the same as Amun; perhaps Phonax or Bacchus.Makrolios calls him lord of ulh; Orpheus names him Zeus, the lord of all, the Horned onewith a flute; and Sophokles, the leader of the Choral dance. He was worshiped in cavesand like Bacchus, whom he appears to resemble. Sokrates also invokes him in the lastparagraph of the Phaidros.

Pascho, pasgw. To be subject to action from without, one's self being passive;to be passive; to be affected; to experience; to have affection for; to undergo; to suffer.Perhaps few words in the Platonic literature require more attention than this verb and itsderivations.

Peirastikos, peirasticoz, h, on. Tentative; a method much employed byPlato and Sokrates to excite philosophical curiosity; nothing was asserted, but irony andingenious questioning employed to lead to doubt and confusion in regard to receiveddogma.

Periphero, periferw. To carry round; to make known; to bring back torecollection; to bring to the same point.

Periphora, h perifora. Going about; Carrying or leading about; a revolutionof a planet; an orbit; a journey; wandering; error; distraction.

Peritrope, h peritroph. A turning round; a regular succession; a revolution;a change.

Petra, h petra. A rock; the bema at the Puyx at Athens; a rock-temple wheresecret rites were performed. "Mithras was born in a rock-temple." - Porphyrios JacobBryant derives this from the Semitic Peter, to expound; to interpret. The oracular termsof Patara; Patrai, Pethor, all seem to have had this etymology. Godfrey Higgins suggeststhat the Chaldaic term Peter was the designation of the Heirophant of the arcane worship,giving us to infer that it was the designation of the Roman Pontipex, and that his thronewas the red chair of St. Peter, to which the Pope has succeeded.

Petroma, to petrwma. A stone; the stone receptacle in which certain sacredsymbols were kept in the temples; the tablet of stone which the hierophant at Eleusisexpounded at the autopsia; Semitice, Petrun.

Phantasia, h fantasia. A show; an appearance; an apparition; an abstractform or idea; an image in the mind; a perception; an imagination; a fantasy.

Philosophia, h filosofia. Love of the highest truth; desire for the knowledgeof actual fact; ardor for knowing the real and permanent; love for the truth; the exerciseof the art and faculty which lead to the knowledge of things human and divine; awithdrawing of the attention from external things, in order to attain to what is perceived bythe interior mind; knowledge of divine and eternal actuality; divine wisdom; transcendentlearning; metaphysical knowledge; philosophy; knowledge of causes and laws;noumenal science; the doctrines of a philosopher; now applied erroneously to physicalsciences. The Platonic philosophy was in a predominating sense the outgrowth of theOrphic doctrines, as represented in the Mysteries; and indeed many of the discourseswere affirmed to be dithyrambic at the time, as resembling the Estlocit Bacchic chants.

Phren, h frhn. The midriff or diaphragm; whence, by figure of speech, themind, the understanding, reason, sense, prudence. Plural, frenez: the parts about theheart; the powers of life; the faculties of the mind; the mind. Used as the synonym offrunhsiz.

Phronema, to fronhma. Sense; purpose; will; intelligence; prudence; bentof inclination; desire; propensity; tendency; pride; high spirit. "The will of the flesh isdeath, but the will of the spirit is life and peace." - Epistle to the Romans, viii: 6.

Phronesis, h fronhsiz. Thoughtfulness; sagacity; right intention; rightdirection of the energy; guidance by reason; prudence; discretion; acuteness of intellect;ability to conjecture readily in regard to what is necessary.

Phthora, h fQora. Mortality; corruption; disease; contagion; motion fromphenomenal existence toward dissolution, but not to actual annihilation; corruptible matter;the earthly condition; that which is corruptible. "So is the anastasis of the dead: the seedis sown in corruptible condition, it is raised in the state beyond change; a psychical bodyis sown, a spiritual body is raised." - Epistle to the Korinthians, xv: 42-44.

Physiologia, h fusiologia. Study of arcane knowledge of causes; noumenalscience; inquiry into the laws of nature; philosophy; physiology. "The ancient physiology,both among the Greeks and other peoples, was an exposition of nature, veiled inallegorical representations, hidden in enigmas and undermeanings, and a theology like thatof the Mysteries - the things which were spoken having a more intelligible meaning for thecommon multitude than those signified in the silence, and those denoted by the silencerequiring investigation, rather than those which had been uttered. This is evident from theOrphic, the Egyptian, and Phrygian discourses. But most of all the orgies celebrated at theMysteries, and the symbolical observances at the sacrifices, exhibit the interior meaningconveyed by the ancients." - Ploutarchos

Physis, h fusiz. That which is produced; hence nature, character, disposition,kind or species, sexual distinctions, figure, stature, constitution, general custom,substance. The term was also employed by the philosophers to denote the physical worldas distinguished alike from the world of cause, and even the sphere of transition; theprinciple of motion and rest; phenomenal existence; temporal manifestation; maya, or theillusion of the senses. Hence the word nature, as philosophically employed, denoted thepassive principle of the universe, and was typified by the Great Mother. It signified noprinciple of causation, no energy or active agency, but only the evolution and outcome ofwhat had been superinduced. The modern phrase laws of nature is therefore a paradox;and the notion which gave birth to it is closely allied to the androgynous religion of Phrygia.

Pleroma, to plhrwma. What is filled up; fulness; abundance; perfection;completeness; sum; consummation; the populace. Also the effluence and potencyimparted by the superior orders of beings. This word was much used by the Gnostics andAlexandrian Plalonists.

Pneuma, to pneuma. Breath; a blast of wind; a tempest; the breath of life;the spirit; the nouz or interior mind; a spiritual being; an inspiration; the interiortendency toward goodness; the Supreme Being; Divine Wisdom. Little used byphilosophical writers, and then in the sense of mind or faculty of thought rather than as thesuperior principle. It is in no proper sense identical with the soul or psychical essence. Itis the nouz or to logicun, whereas the soul is to Qumoeidz, and the sarx orcorporal nature, to eciQnmhticon.

Psyche, h Yugh. The Soul; the principle of identity; self; the principle of life;the personality; a person; the temper; the animating principle; the ruling inclination; thepart of man that is the seat of emotions, passions and affections; a butterfly; therefore bya press the symbol of the human soul.

Psychikos, yugicoz, h, on. Psychical; relating to the soul; unspiritual;passional; sensual; intellectual. "This is not the wisdom coming from above, but theearthly, psychical, daemon-like." - Epistle of James, iii, 15.

Radamanthos, o 'RadamanQoz. Radamanthos; the judge of human souls.From Rot-Amenti, the judge of Amenti, a name of Osiris.

Rea, h 'Rea. Rea; the Great Mother; the consort of Kronos; the same as Ri orSar-Rai, the consort of Assur in Nineveh.

Soma, to swma. A body; perhaps from shma, a sign, token, emblem. "A bodyis that being which hath these three dimensions: breadth, depth, and length; or a bulkwhich makes a forcible resistance; or whatsoever of its own nature possesseth a place." -Ploutarchos

Sophia, h sufia. Wisdom; expertness; skill; sagacity; learning; acquiredability; the doctrines of the philosophers; arcane knowledge; philosophy; the knowledgeof things human and divine; the science of principles, as distinguished from accidents; theknowledge of ideas; the understanding of causes; religion as distinguished from worship;knowledge which pertains to the interior mind; that knowledge which embraces the actualtruth and is beneficial to man; divine revelation; science relating to theology, medicine,divination, moral duty, eternity.

Theos, o Qeoz. A god; a spiritual being; he who creates or sets in order, as,from the Aryan deva, a divinity, a demon, a devil, perhaps also a priest. In the Theogoniesthere were many orders of gods, subordinate to whom were demons and heroes. Thephilosophers afterward classified them into orders, placing one Supreme Being over all,and subordinating the others in discrete degrees.

Theosophia, h Qeusofia. Divine wisdom; knowledge relating to divine things;philosophy.

Theourgios, o Qeourgioz. A priest who officiates at the initiations; an adept atsacred rites; a diviner or theologist; a therurgist; perhaps a magician or enchanter. Thescience of Iamblichos is sometimes styled Therurgy.

Thesmos, o Qesmoz. Anything established; social regulation; divine law;usage; custom; a religious chant.

Thesmophoria, ta Qesmufuria. The Thesmophoria; secret rites in honor ofDemeter, the institutor of social life. This festival was not only observed in the Hellenic andIonian cities, but there appear to have been analogous assemblages of women in Egyptand Syria. That the rites of Umura, the Bona Dea, were of the same character, is notimprobable. By ancient law, women who had been married by Usus were protected fromabsolute subjection to their husbands by separation three nights in the year. Hence, theThesmophoria was not only a festival of social order, but also of uxorial freedom andhousehold equality.

Titan, o Titan. Titan; the sun; one of the older gods worshiped before the timeof Zeus. The name is Semitic, and probably belongs to the ruling classes of Assyria. Theword Tit signifies a spot; also mire, clay; so that the Titans or Giants were chthonians, orrather autochthons. This seems to indicate them as the aboriginal Pelargian or Ethiopicpopulation of Greece, who endeavored to resist the innovation of Hellenic worship. Theslaughter of the boy Zagreas would imply a like idea.

Zeus, o Zeuz. Zeus: from the Sanskrit Dyans, or India, god of the sky - the chiefGod in the later Grecian pantheon; the archaic divinity of the Pelargians, afterwardrepresented as son of Kronos.

Zoon, to zwun. A living creature; an animal; a heavenly being.

(From The Platonist, vol. 1, pp. 30-32, 100-102, 159-60,188-94.)

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The American Akademe Import of the Emblems

(Read before The American Akademe, Feb. 19th, 1884.]

Curiosity appears to have been elicited in various quarters in regard to thedecoration and motto upon the card of membership issued by the American Akademe. Letno one impute to us any desire to be eccentric; indeed, when their full purport shall be wellunderstood, this cannot be done. We have but followed an ancient practice, and ouremblems are adopted as indicative of our central idea, and as comprising a world ofeloquent meaning in a brief limit.

Symbols and metaphors compose the framework of language. They constitute themost natural mode by which to denote every mental concept. We apply them in thecommon offices of speech; making the letters of the alphabet represent sounds, andsounds or words express our thoughts as well as using the numerical figures and algebraicletters to signify specific numbers and arithmetic combinations. The ancients were likewiseprofuse of their symbolic representations, and had a sign or emblem to indicate every ideawhich was not immediately perceptible to the corporeal senses.

The Rev. Dr. Lundy, author of Monumental Christianity, says in his Introduction: "Itis a fact that among the first and foremost nations of antiquity, philosophical and religiousideas and truths were expressed by symbols, the better to preserve and teach them.Symbolism was no more than a pictorial language addressed to the mind and soul throughthe eyes, as spoken language is an address to the inner man through the ears. Thepainted symbol, however, has the advantage of greater vividness and impressiveness thanthe verbal statement, just as the portrait of a mother, or the picture of some grand orbeautiful scenery, or of a battle, is far more effective than any lengthened description inwords. As thought cannot be expressed without language, or some outward sign andrepresentation, either in science or religion, so it is an absolute necessity to employ signs,words, or symbols, to embody and teach the facts to both. If the mathematician cannot dowithout his signs and formulae, or the merchant without his figures and secret marks, sothe religion of all antiquity could not do without symbols."

"Man cannot feed on cold ascetic dreams, And mutilate the beauty of the worldFor something far and shapeless; he must give His eyes the form of what in him aspires, His ears the sound of that diviner speechHe pines to speak, his soul the proud content Of having touched the skirts of perfect things."

I therefore respect, not to say venerate, the peculiar rites and symbology of thearchaic world. I do not believe that the devout souls of that day were mere worshipers ofstocks and stones. The religious and philosophic systems and symbolisms wereoutgrowths - the aspirations of thinking and reverent men - to solve and express in suitableform the facts which underlie and constitute all things. The stock represented the Tree ofLife, and the stone set up as a pillar denoted what Jacob called it: Beth-Al, which in theSemitic tongues meant God within. Sometimes the stones were meteoric like that ofAstarte at the Holy Island of Tyre, that of Aphrodite at Paphos, Kybele Pessinuntika in themountains of Phrygia, and that of Aluza now in the Kaaba at Mekka. The fact that they fellfrom the sky and were magnetic assured their significance as symbols, representing thedynamic force, that great principle of nature, the mother of us all. I join my deprecatoryplea in this matter with that of the amiable Lydia Maria Child: "If we have degraded theideas which they cherished with reverence, if we have rendered obscure the mysteries oflife which they adored as pure and instituted by God himself, let us not add to the injury byendeavoring to cast upon them the reproach which belongs to those who calumniatethem."

It is hardly necessary to remark again that the literature as well as the worship ofantiquity consisted largely of symbolism and symbolic utterance. The myths of the godsand heroes, and more than probable much that we are now endeavoring to decipher andinterpret as history, were of this character. Perhaps, also, the reverse of this is sometimestrue. We can see these facts in many of the relations of Herodotos, and Plutarch gives usa similar idea in his treatise on Isis and Osiris. The very names of places and individualswhich have been transmitted to us, were often employed symbolically. It is doubtlessequally true that the works of Plato abound more or less with this same kind of picture-writing.

The Hebrew Scriptures follow tile same usage. Nobody intelligently doubts thefigurative character of the account of the Garden, or Sacred Grove of Eden, which menand divine beings occupied in common, and in which a wise Serpent spoke to the womanand instructed her that she would by eating of the Tree of Knowledge herself become asa god. The apostle Paul did not hesitate to declare the story of Abraham an allegory; andthat the wanderings and adventures of the Israelites were types, written for admonition.

The serpent which Moses is recorded to have erected in the Desert near Sinai inArabia was denominated: "a sign (or symbol) of salvation, to put them in remembrance ofthe commandment of the law." Hence the introduction to the Book of Proverbs significantlydeclares that a man of understanding will attain to wise counsels - to understand a proverb(or parable) and the interpretation, the words of the wise and their dark sayings. In fact theinterior sense, rather than the outward spectacle appears to have constituted the staplematter of the old Hebrew story. It was so understood by the most notable of the ChristianFathers, Clement, Origen, Jerome and Augustin; and, indeed, we have the caution ofMaimonides himself, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, that he who had in anyway discovered thetrue meaning of the Book of Genesis ought to take care not to divulge it. Doubtlessbecause the book Ba Rashi (Concerning Wisdom) was wisdom that might be spoken onlyamong the perfect. Plato, our master in these things, has instructed us well: "To discoverthe Creator and Father of this Universe is indeed difficult; and when discovered it isimpossible to utter him to the many." We will do well to follow his counsel, "by imitating theuniform revolution and operations of Divinity, to set right our own absurd errors and

blunders."In the matter of the emblem and motto upon the card of the American Akademe the

question may be asked why we had resort to Greek antecedents. In reply I will say this:"We are not mere dwellers in the Present Time, cut off and estranged from the former lifeof the Human Race. The Past is still in being and we are part of it, as it likewise is acomponent of our own individual selves. A man or a people having no affiliation with thatwhich was of aforetime, has no legitimate existence. Especially is this true in regard towhat is sacred and intellectual."

In accordance with this idea, the older worships and religious rituals have beencharacterized by an adherence to some primitive or antique language. The rites of theKabeiri at Samothrake were celebrated in a barbarous dialect which the hearers did notunderstand. "Never change them," said the oracle; "they are God-given and possessarcane power at the initiations." Iamblichos also says: "Though it be possible to translatethem, yet they no longer preserve the same power when translated." Any personconversant with the original text of the New Testament knows how far any of our versionsfall short of expressing its meaning; and the fire of the sense smoulders in the ashes ofauthorised translations. Hence to this day the Judean Rabbi chants his liturgy inAramaean Hebrew, in which dialect ancient Judaism was constructed. The Parsi Mobedsings the Gathas in the old Baktrian language; the Brahman in Sanskrit, and the RomanChristian in Latin.

The philosopher has the Greek for his sacred tongue. The Wisdom of the East wasassimilated and so transfused into it by the Ionian sages, Herakleitos, Anaximines and theirFellow-laborers. Pythagoras added the divine lore of Egypt and Assyria. Then cameAnaxagoras with his grand postulate of Mind as the primal source of Matter and Form; andfinally Plato, God's anointed High Priest and Prophet, to show us how to read andunderstand the mystic petroma, the eternal Tablet of our being inscribed by the finger ofDivinity. As the Bible is best read in the original dialect, and the God-names of theMysteries were full of deific energy when spoken in a holy language, so we as students ofphilosophic truth are most at home in Greek. We are somehow nearer to the Master of theAkademe.

Our classic scholars appear to feel a similar impulsion. This is shown in the growingtendency to set aside the Latinized forms and orthographies, with which we are all familiar.Zeus and not Jupiter now rules in the sky; Poseidon and not Neptune is lord of the earthand sea; and Hades is god of the vital fire, and the arcane wisdom which relates to thereal life of the world beyond. Bishop Thirlwall, Grote, Gladstone, Max Muller and otherexpert Hellenists have introduced the practice of writing Greek names to a great degreeafter the orthography of the original words; and we have accordingly very respectableauthority for the peculiar spelling of our own designation, as well as the additionaladvantage of a distinction thereby from the various High Schools and scientific bodieswhich are miscalled academies.

The emblem on the card is purely Grecian. The name of the butterfly in that is alsopsyche, the same as the designation of the soul.

Mr. Richard Payne Knight, in his elegant Treatise in The Symbolical Language ofAncient Art and Mythology, remarks, (p. 160): "The celestial or aethereal soul wasrepresented in symbolic writing by the butterfly; an insect which first appears from the eggin the shape of a grub, crawling upon the earth, and feeding upon the leaves of plants. In

this state it was aptly made an emblem of man in his earthly form; when the aetherealvigor and activity of the celestial soul, the divina particula mentis, was clogged andencumbered with the material body. In its next state the grub becoming a chrysalisappeared, by its stillness, torpor and insensibility, a natural image of death, or theintermediate state between the cessation of the vital functions of the body, and theemancipation of the soul in the Funeral Pile; and the butterfly breaking from this torpidchrysalis and mounting in the air, afforded a no less natural image of the celestial soulbursting from the restraints of Matter and mixing again with its native aether. Like otheranimal symbols, it was by degrees melted into the human form; the original wings onlybeing retained, to mark its meaning. So elegant an allegory would naturally be a favoritesubject of Art among a refined and ingenious people; and it accordingly appears to havebeen more diversified and repeated by the Greek sculptors, than almost any other whichthe system of emanation, so favorable to Art, could afford." A conspicuous example is therepresentation of the soul of Achilles as a female figure with wings, seated upon the capitalof the pillar which marks his tomb, when the maid Polyxena, his betrothed wife, is aboutto be immolated, in accordance with the ancient custom of Sati.

I am not quite ready, however, to accept this conjecture with all its seemingplausibility. It was a very ancient practice to construct symbols by means of thesehomonyms. Mr. Robert Brown, the author of Poseidon, remarks: "Occult symbolism hasfrequently availed itself, either of two words of similar sound, or of one word of manifoldmeaning, by commemorating a person or event signified by one of such words ormeanings under the form of the thing signified by the other. Thus, if the name of anyparticular deity had the same sound as the word meaning fir-tree, the representation of thefir-tree was, to the initiated, the symbol of the god." It needs no further illustration to showthat the figure of psyche, the butterfly, is to be read as the divine psyche, the soul, whosepurification and exaltation we severally profess to be seeking. The expressive languageof Plato, our object is to restore to the soul its wings. The admirable work of C. W. Kingupon The Gnostics has a picture from a gem, representing the soul as a butterfly in the actof escaping from under the winged foot of Hermes, the messenger of death.

The fall of Psyche upon drinking the beverage offered her by Venus or Passion, hersubsequent imprisonment in Hades or the transition-world, and her final restoration by Erosor the Divine Love, is one of the most charming of the ancient mystic allegories.

The motto is equally suitable and eloquent: "H Yuch nai, h 'amrrotoz" -ha pauche; nai, ha ambrotos - the Soul: aye, the immortal. I know nothing that can beadded to render this confession more forcible and impressive. The Greek text is more fullof meaning than any translation. This adjective ambrotos is very closely related to theamreta of our Aryan kindred of India, the beverage of imperishable life which was drankonly by gods and god-like men. In Orphic fable Zeus, the eternal god, was calledambrotos,* immortal, as well as male and female in one. Ambrosia was the subsistenceof the divinities on Olympus.

------------* The Orphic Hymn, cited by Thomas Taylor, has afOitoz.

------------

Hence the immortality which our motto imputes to the soul is infinitely more than

mere escape or liberation from dying. It denotes the possessing of life which is inherentlyeternal, a being which transcends every thing limited and measured by Time. Such is thelife of the denizens of the world beyond, who abide in the presence of God. The soul is notmerely an undying entity, but a divine being, eternal like Him.

(The Platonist, vol. 2, pp. 46-48)

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Review: Iamblichus' Exhortation to the Study of Philosophy. Fragments of Iamblichus,

Excerpts from the Commentary of Proclus on the Chaldean Oracles, Plotinus' DiverseCogitations. First Translated from the Original Greek by Thos. Johnson, Editor of ThePlatonist. To which are Added The Golden Verses of Pythagoras. Osceola, Missouri,U.S.A., 1907.

With the translator this has been a labor of love, and to the genuine student ofphilosophy it comes with a welcome. It is no easy task to reproduce the thoughts of aGreek philosopher in an English dress, so as to express amply what was meant. TheEnglish language but imperfectly corresponds to the Greek when recondite ideas are to beexpressed. This leaves to the translator the alternatives of transferring terms after givingthem an English form, or of employing circumlocution, or leaving them imperfectlyrendered. Besides this, there is a qualification needed which is still more imperative. Thetranslator should be in rapport with the author. The attainments of the schoolmaster,however thorough his erudition, are not enough. It requires a Plato to understand Plato,and only a philosopher may interpret the utterances of a philosopher. To that credit Mr.Johnson is entitled. Philosophy has for scores of years been as food and drink to him, andhe has wrought his task with rare fidelity. In many respects he is worthy to succeedThomas Taylor, the most thorough and devoted of the students of Greek philosophy, aswell as the most derided and maligned.

The writer must plead for himself a preference for the endeavor to express reconditespeech in a form more familiar. He is loth to accept obscurity of expression as indicativeof profundity of thought. Much of the scientific jargon of the present day savors more ofaffectation than of real knowing. The croaking of the frog may be impossible for aneophyte to understand and may impress the hearer with awe, but it gives no assuranceof skill. Far wiser is the charge of Aristotle: to think like the wise, and speak like the many.

Nevertheless, we are more eager to praise than to criticize. In the work before us,we have not only an example of fidelity, but of devotion and the desire to serve. Since,thirty years ago, he ventured single-handed, to issue a periodical which should attractstudents to the works of the great philosopher, and make thoughtful readers familiar withthe aims of the Akademeia, he has not swerved in purpose, and in this last publicationshows that his hand has not forgot its cunning nor his purpose become cool or changeable.He assures us that he is still at work, and we may be certain that he will be heard fromagain. The Platonist always lives for the ages. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 23, no. 5, Sept. 1908)

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Religion and Philosophy

Animals - Their Language and Faculties

In the Atlantic Monthly for January, 1881, is a paper on "Barbarism and Civilization,"beginning with the following paragraph: "In the interior of the Island of Borneo there hasbeen found a certain race of wild creatures, of which kindred varieties have beendiscovered in the Philippine Islands, Tierra del Fuego and in Southern Africa. They walkusually almost erect upon two legs, and in that attitude measure about four feet in height.They are dark, wrinkled and hairy. They construct no habitations, form no families,scarcely associate together, sleep in trees or in caves, feed on snakes and vermin, on antsand ants' eggs, on mice, and on each other. They cannot be tamed nor forced to anylabor, and they are hunted and shot among the trees like the great gorillas of which theyare a stunted copy. When they are captured alive one finds with surprise that their uncouthjabbering sounds like articulate language. They turn up a human face to gaze upon theircaptors; the females show instincts of modesty, and, in fine, these wretched beings aremen."

This description is verified by other travelers. Dr. Foster describes the inhabitantsof the Island of Mulikolla as having bodies covered with black or brown hair, their skulls sopressed backward, the cheek-bones so high, and the face so sooty, as to impart the mostdisagreeable aspect. He further speaks of them as "a small, nimble, slender, ill-favoredset of men, who of all men border the nearest upon the tribes of monkeys."

The genus of apes commonly known as gibbons are remarkably like the race ofbeings here described. They number about half a dozen species, and live in the islandsof Borneo, Sumatra, and Java and also in Malaya, Arakan, Siam and in Hindustan. Theyare the smallest of the anthropoids, being about three feet high when in a standing posture.They are of various colors, and fond of mountain forests; indeed, they live almost entirelyin trees. They walk erect, but with an awkward gait, and use their hands to assist. Theirfeet resemble those of the chimpanzee. In the trees they are perfectly at home, and willleap from branch to branch as though having wings, and without fatigue, clearing forty feetat a bound, and catching the birds while flying. The eye can hardly trace the velocity oftheir motions. Their food is fruit and insects, and they are fond of flesh. They seem toknow more than brutes ordinarily, and indeed, to have a consciousness of right and wrong.Mr. Bennett, the author of "Wanderings in New South Wales," mentions one that he hadwith him, that stole a bar of soap, but returned it on being discovered and even endeavoredto feign innocence. He remarks: "There was something more than instinct in that action.He evidently betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong, both by his first and lastactions, and what is reason if that is not an exercise of it?"

Where human beings anal apes flourish in the same districts and exhibit about the

same capacity of understanding, the problem of distinction of race is likely to be somewhatinvolved. There may be the question raised whether between those simian anthropoidsand simioid men there is any insurmountable barrier. Then, assuming that there is, wemust next ascertain what that barrier is. The savant and naturalist, Wilhelm Von Humboldt,declared it to be the faculty of speech. "Man is man only through the power of speech;but to possess speech he must clearly be man."

However gratifying this may be to many of us who are hardly willing to look up ourcousins at the zoological gardens as our tropical parents, the later investigations in regardto the matter are not as captivating as we might expect . The San Francisco Examinerdescribes a mysterious individual who was in the habit of frequenting Woodward's Gardensduring the last year, and holding discourse with the monkeys in their own language. Goingto their cage and interchanging salutations, he would begin a harangue by uttering certainpeculiar guttural sounds resembling those of the animals. At once they would arrangethemselves in a semi-circle to listen. Sometimes his tones were serious, and the monkeyswould put on an abject expression and look an sorrowful as a monkey can. Then, again,when the tones were different, the monkeys would dance about with every appearance ofdelight and all begin to chatter at once, stopping, however, when he pointed his finger atone of the larger ones. They would remain quiet while he would seemingly carry on adialogue with one of the oldest in the cage, imitating as he discoursed all the grimaces andgestures of a monkey as well as a human being was able. This would sometimes last anhour, at the end of which he would bid them adieu and take his leave.

The writer gives a rumor that the man was once captain of a vessel, whose crewwas murdered by the natives on the coast of Brazil, who made his escape to the interiorwhere he had no companions for months except the monkeys. He observed them carefullyand acquired some knowledge of their mode of communication, which enabled him to holddiscourse with those at the gardens in San Francisco.

This would seem to be a demonstration that monkeys have a language of their own,which can be learned and employed by human beings. The notion that animals can speak,and even reason, has been entertained for many centuries, and, indeed, constitutes thebasis of the fables of Aesop and Pilpay.

The peasantry of Continental Europe still believe, as did the ancient philosophers,that the brutes, as we call them, speak a language intelligible to each other, and capableof being mastered by mankind. Accordingly it is supposed that they participate in theannual rejoicing at Christmas eve. We have heard the confident assertion that at twelveo'clock on that night every animal in its stall reverently bent the knee. In the performanceof the Mysteries or Miracle-Plays of the Middle Ages, the cattle and the flocks wererepresented as receiving the priestly benediction.

In Spain the mass of the cock is celebrated on Christmas morning, as heralding theevent, though the Synoptic Gospels indicate Easter as the more appropriate occasion. InAustria the Feast of Asses is observed, in commemoration of the story of Balsam; and onSt. Hubert's day mass is celebrated for the herds and the animals blessed and sprinkledby an archbishop. In Cornwall and Gallic France it is believed that all domestic animalspossess the power of speech on Christmas eve, end discourse upon the incidents of themorning and that the bees chant praises. There are a Saint Wolf, St. Partridge and St. Foxin the Calendar. We must not be surprised if the notion of understanding the speech ofanimals should be accepted readily, as in European countries, is a long-credited fact.

The pundits of India have professed to know the language of various races,including cranes, alligators, snakes, bulls and monkeys. It is a dispute among the learnedwhether the army of Hanumant consisted of native races, termed monkeys, or were theveritable animals. The Japanese declare that some of their people know the language offoxes; the Syrians claim to know that of bears, and the Arabs of ravens, and Persiansages that of wolves.

Mr. R. L. Garner, in an article published in several journals and also in a paper readbefore the Nineteenth Century Club, gives the record of an exhaustive course ofobservations made by himself. He noticed the conduct of a group of monkeys, at theZoological Garden in Cincinnati, that had been caged with a mandril. The monkeys wereafraid of their savage companion and had to watch his movements carefully. They wouldreport everything to each other on the instant. Mr. Garner came to the conclusion thatthere was a specific meaning to each sound which they uttered, and that it could belearned. He gave his attention to the matter for several years. It was difficult, seeminglyalmost impossible, to utter the sounds which he heard, to remember them accurately andafterward to translate them into human speech. He made use of every availableopportunity, at menageries, museums, and with animals owned by private individuals. Inthis way he achieved a fair degree of success. Going to Washington he was permitted byDr. Baker to experiment at the National Garden. Two monkeys that had been kepttogether were placed in separate cages. A phonograph was placed near the female, andseveral sounds which she was heard to utter were thus recorded. The instrument was thencarried to the other cage and the sounds repeated. This animal exhibited the greatestsurprise and perplexity, tracing the sounds to the horn, evidently recognizing them.

Limited experiments were made at the zoological gardens at Chicago, and afterwardthe test was repeated at Cincinnati with success. More than that, a record was also madeof the chimpanzees. Mr. Garner then made himself familiar with the sounds, and upontesting his skill with the several animals came to the conclusion that he had achieved agreat success.

His experiments appear to indicate the existence of what we may consider a spokenlanguage in each race or group. The simian tongue has eight or nine sounds capable ofbeing changed by modulation into several times that number. The consonants are butfaintly traced; the words are monosyllabic, and each race has its own. Mr. Garner givesus the conjecture that the present state of this speech has been reached by developmentfrom a lower form; that it resembles the early efforts of children to utter words, and that itobeys the same laws of change and growth as human speech.

He states that simians reason from cause to effect, and that this reasoning differsfrom that of human beings in degree, but not in kind. The state of their language seemsto correspond with their power to think and to express their thoughts.

This is in accordance with the proposition of Max Muller that there cannot bethinking except there are also words; and so monkeys, an well as men, must formulatetheir thoughts into words, and their words are therefore the natural exponents of theirthoughts.

It should be borne in mind that these combinations and opinions relate to the apeand monkey races, and not to the other animals. Probably they are not excluded on beingdestitute of language and reasoning faculty, but only subjected to other investigations.

The proposition that these animals have a language of their own capable of

expressing their wants, appears to be plausibly sustained. Undoubtedly this language issufficiently copious to enable them to warn against danger, to minister to each other, andto cooperate in various undertakings. It is not so easy, however, to believe that anygenuine reasoning faculty is included, or any form of memory even that exceeds the limitof immediate physical subjects. The speech of the monkey races we must suppose toconsist of the same vocal utterances as their progenitors employed thousands of yearsago. It is fixed and changes not. Mr. Garner might discourse with a monkey wild in hisnative jungle and with others more or less domesticated at the various menageries andzoological gardens, and would find the same sounds employed for the same purposes.

The savage races of mankind, on the other hand, however simian or ape-like, aremore or less characterized by a tendency to vary the sounds which they use in intercoursewith each other. When the Christian missionaries first attempted to proselyte the CaribIndiana of South America, they collected a vocabulary of words and compiled a grammarand dictionary of the language. War compelled the abandonment of the mission, but a fewyears later it was again resumed. It was now discovered that the vocabulary was of littlevalue, as the language had changed. Indeed ; this is the fate of every human dialect untilthe people became civilized and make it permanent by creating a literature. We mayhardly expect this of our quadrumanous friends. Mr. Talmage will hardly be required todispute the occupancy of his pulpit with an ape, nor Colonel Ingersoll to discuss religionand agnosticism with a chimpanzee. There will be no publishing house of monkeys toissue a new edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, nor a long-tailed simian to presideover the London Times.

Indeed, we may forbear all apprehensions of an invasion of our human province ofactivity, by the four-handed - or the four-hundred, as for that - until some Prometheusshould have appeared among them with the divine gift of fire, and the art of maintainingit. Until monkeys, apes and other authorized aspirants can reason up to that we areperfectly safe. The Irishmen exulted over the derrick because it could not vote, and we canglorify ourselves over these creatures in that they cannot create words anew to representthought, nor write, nor make a fire. If we should be additionally wise and not copy monkeyson their weak side, we would do more to maintain the distinctness incident than anyargument without the example can possibly do.

There really seems to be no other development resembling mind in these animalsthan can be accounted for as instinctive. Mr. Garner may indeed have shown that thereis no want of an articulate language, or a system of general signs, to hinder the exerciseof a reasoning faculty. We can hardly conceive, however, that they have any abidingconception of cause and effect, but only that of memory. The cat that is whipped forupsetting a flower-pot will run away with terror, if by any accident another flower-pot meeta similar fate. Besides it is as easy to hold discourse in mewing and caterwauling an inmonkey-chatter. Let us carry the matter further. The highest faculty of the reason iscomparison. This is the power of discovering truth, of exceeding in perception andconception from lower to higher and from physical to mental. The animal has no suchendowment. We do not perceive in it the power to attend to its thoughts and arrange them,to evoke a past occurrence and reflect upon it. Its conscious life is wholly a life within thesenses, and its knowledge therefrom wholly empirical. It can go no further, else it mightbecome something beyond an animal. The notion, therefore, that some have suggestedthat the human race is only an outbirth from the simian, or anthropoid, with no higher

conception of origin, appears to us more than impossible.

- Alexander Wilder, M.D.Newark, N. J.

(Medical Tribune, vol. 8, no. 4, April, 1892)

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A Chapter on the English Language - Alexander Wilder

"The maddest yet the greatest language in the world."

One of the characteristic utterances which Mr. Dickens put into the mouth of SamuelWeller, is the comparison of "addin' insult to injury, as the parrot said, ven they not onlytook him from his native land, but made him talk the English langwidge arterwards."

Foreigners, and even countrymen of our own, who are ambitious to pass forscholars, sometimes make it a point to rail at our vernacular as being ill-constructed andbarbarous. I once heard a German describe it as a "yargon," and some years ago, a"Contributor" in the Atlantic Monthly made use of the phrase, "English because it is nothingelse."

When we hear these gibes there comes up sometimes a temptation to reply to themafter the manner of Mrs. Poyser, by admitting the imputation without disputing, and thenpleading in its behalf that the principal purpose of the faults of the language is tocounterbalance some notorious infirmity of the native or favorite dialect of the individualwho is scoffing. It is indeed very true that our English tongue abounds with defects, andis not well suited in many respects for the niceties of philologic dilettanteism. It has beenfaulted for irregularities in orthography, the unfortunate uncertainty which often exists inregard to the pronouncing of words, and for the confusion which is incident to the formingof a part of the vocabulary somewhat promiscuously from several diverse languages.

It may be pleaded, however, as a reply to these strictures, that there is not alanguage in existence among the civilized nations which is not made up in similar waysfrom other dialects. Even the Latin and Greek have variations in orthography, and manywords that are foreign and barbarous; and the Hebrew, as we find it in the original text ofthe Bible, contains names and phrases that were borrowed from elsewhere. Perhaps theonly language extant that can be commended as having no foreign additions is theEsquimault. This has been intimated in several public journals. Whether, indeed, it wouldbe desirable to expurgate our English speech from external commixture may be answeredintelligently when we take into consideration that it would also be divested thereby of allscientific and literary contributions and reduced to a condition denoting ignorance andsavagery on the part of our people.

In fact, a writer in the Contributors pages of the Atlantic aptly denominates it "themaddest yet the greatest language in the world." This delineation is the fittest of any. Itmust in candor be acknowledged that the English language possesses the merit which few

others have, of expressing clearly and forcefully the thoughts, wishes and purposes ofsincere, energetic and right-minded thinkers. It permits the speaker and writer to arrangethe construction of sentences in such a manner as to place the most significant clauseswhere they will be the most effective. Its vocabulary is so extensive that it enables themto avoid tautology, and at the same time to voice the sentiment correctly and without anyabating of the strength of the utterance.

In these respects it actually excels other languages. The French abounds withidioms which confuse the learner, and there is a needless assortment of verbs andpronouns which embarrass the effort to make use of them correctly. The German, in itsturn, is loaded down with a redundance of clauses in almost every sentence, whichobscure the sense and displease the reader by the clumsiness of the expression. I haverepeatedly, after a sentence or page had been translated literally into English, taken thepains to write it over anew for the purpose of condensing the various clauses, and Isucceeded in this way in giving the true meaning in far briefer space. A friend of mine, anative of Saxe-Altenburg, a man of superior intelligence, once told me that he himselfalways made use of English in writing, when this was practicable, because of its superiorconciseness.

The late Dr. John Weisse began a study of the English language, full of prejudiceagainst it because of its irregularities, but changed his views and became an admirer. Hefound it comparatively free from the defects of most of the European tongues, and at thesame time capable of improvements which would remedy the incidental faults. He wrotea treatise setting forth his views and observations, which he summarized by the propositionto establish a system of orthography in which all words shall be spelled as they aresounded or sounded as they are spelled.

Indeed, much of the criticism which is bestowed upon our language relates to thefaults of the vocabulary. Many of the letters have different sounds for reasons which arenot directly apparent, and are often retained in words after they have long become silent.The student is obliged to consult a dictionary in order to know how to pronounce thesimplest terms, and even then is liable to be confounded by the fact that there are a scoreor thereabouts of English dictionaries in use, each having its partisans, and that inimportant instances they often disagree. For example, Worcester clashes with Websterupon the term arbutus, and we are left in uncertainty about pronouncing the word deaf.Pope made tea rhyme with obey, as indeed many an Irishman and Britishman would now.We are liable to fall into the use of provincial expressions by reason of such discrepancies.A resident of the Southern American States finds out a man to be from the North, and a"Westerner" knows the citizen of the East, by the use and sounding of words. We realizethe strait in which the Apostle Peter was involved when he was exposed in the endeavorto conceal his relations to his Master - "They that stood by came and said to Peter: 'Of atruth thou art of them, for thy speech betrayeth thee.'"

We may plead, therefore, in regard to the eccentricities of the English language, thatthey are chiefly due to the fact that it is spoken by populations of different origins, latitudesand conditions. It has been computed that the number exceeds a hundred and twentymillions, and that they are distributed over all regions of the globe. The twentieth century,now close at hand, is certain to exhibit an immense augmenting of that number. No otherdialect now in use is becoming thus general; and literature will operate to render itpermanent as well as universal.

The fact that the English language is spoken by peoples so diverse will account forthe peculiarity that many words that are obsolete in one region, or that have acquiredanother sound and meaning, are retained elsewhere in their older forms and sense. Thesame peculiarity exists, however, in other countries. The French language of Paris is quitedifferent from that of Brittany or Languedoc; the Spanish of Catalonia is barbarous to theear of the Castilian of Madrid, and German speech varies in many respects in the severalStates of the Fatherland. It is by no means wonderful that the New Englander "guesses"like John Milton, while the Southerner "reckons" as in the diction employed in the Englishversion of the Epistle of Paul to believers at Rome; or that, as Mr. Clemens ("Mark Twain")has shown in his inimitable volumes, there occurs a change of dialect or rustic speech withthe various populations along the banks of the Mississippi River. The same fact isnoticeable in Great Britain, in Kent, Cornwall, the counties of Wales, Lancashire, Yorkshire,Cumberland and the Lowlands of Scotland. There is no good reason in this matter for thepot to taunt the kettle for its blackness.

Nevertheless, there is little just cause for us to bate a word of blame in respect tothe vices of pronouncing. It is true that the matter may be explained by the fact that theyresult, to a great extent, from the practice of adopting terms from other languages withoutany changing of the sound or spelling. The person who has received only the instructionwhich is given in public schools is often perplexed with such words as debut, ennui,brochure, savant, patois, canon, or with proper names like Faure, Faust, Czech, Scheuren,Schley, Joaquin, Vallejo, Joao, Juan, Skrzynecki. There is objection often made to theteachings of foreign languages to pupils in the public schools, and yet they are certain tofind difficulty from this cause in the reading of books and newspapers. The complicationsof the United States with European countries, and especially the conflict with Spain, willresult in the overloading of the newspapers and literature with names and terms which theunwary reader is almost certain to mispronounce. Indeed, it is hardly possible for anartless person to read aloud in a social or public gathering without incurring the risk of anexperience which may not be remembered without a feeling of mortification.

This is an evil which ought to be summarily put out of the way. The need for sucha reform is becoming daily more urgent. Scientists and other specialists are multiplyingnew words, and the students of archaic literature are introducing new names from theSanskrit, Old Persian, Chinese, Assyrian, Hittite and Egyptian, which few know how topronounce correctly. One result of this is that the English language is becoming in a fairway to repeat the experience recorded of the city and tower of Bab-El, where theirlanguage was confounded in order that they might not understand one another's speech(Genesis xi.) The various terminologies and barbarous phrases are brought into use forprivileged classes of individuals, in addition to the vernacular speech which is the onlylanguage that the "plain people" understand. It reminds us of the condition of literarymatters in ancient Egypt, where the hieroglyphic or symbolic and the hieratic modes ofwriting were in use for the higher classes - the priests, scribes of the temple-schools andother lettered persons - and the demotic or epistolographic was for the others. It is hardlyin accord with the spirit of our institutions to have such distinctions, which seem to fenceapart an oligarchic professional class and a plebeian laity. Aristotle counseled wisely tothink with the wise and cultured, but to discourse in the language of the many. Few,comparatively, are sufficiently learned and scholarly, however, to speak thus simply, andthere are those who affect superior knowledge, though the attainments of such are often

only superficial. Nevertheless, so far as diversities are incident to culture or natural genius,they will manifest themselves almost spontaneously.

The attempt has been made in several countries to revise the spelling of words, inorder to do away with the difficulties of the learner. In Spain and Italy the letters whichwere esteemed superfluous, as being without sound, were taken away; and those whichremain have very generally, though not in all cases, only a single sound. The FrenchAcademy made a similar expurgation, but it is by no means so complete. Silent lettersoccur so numerously at the end of words, and as the last syllable of certain verbs, as to bea source of annoyance to pupils. The work needs to be vigorously repeated. The Russianliterary authorities have been thorough, adding new letters to their alphabet to meet therequirement to express each distinct sound definitely.

These partial reforms have increased the difficulties which are so flagrant in theEnglish vocabulary. A better way would be for the nations to agree on a uniform systemof sounding and pronouncing the letters. A few representative literates from each countrycan devise such a plan. After this shall have been effected the orthography andpronunciation can be arranged anew in the several languages, so that the spelling of everyword shall be determined by its sound and its sound by the way that it is spelled. Thiswould save the millions of pupils many years each, which are now employed in thecommitting of spelling lessons to memory at an age when the time and effort should bedevoted to other purposes.

It is true that the difficulties in the way are many. Few countries in Christendomhave a homogeneous population. Every district is characterized by a provincial languageof its own; and even in the United States there are the crude jargons of pioneerpopulations, the various modes of expression of partly assimilated Europeans, the mongreldialects of the colored inhabitants with the corrupt lingo of neighboring whites. Mark Twain,Charles Egbert Craddock, Bret Harte and Joaquin Miller appear to be perpetuating thesein our literature. There is likewise a "pigeon English" spoken by Chinese; and slang termsand phrases, often invented and adopted from gipsies, criminals and the vilest of thepopulation, are constantly intruded into familiar speech.

It may seem, upon a superficial view, as though a policy of careful and thoroughgeneral instruction might be made to obviate all these difficulties. There exists,nevertheless, a more formidable impediment in the publishing houses. Millions of dollarshave been invested in enterprises which a sweeping reformation would imperil. Thedictionaries, of which many millions of volumes have been sold, operate to fix orthographyand pronunciation in the forms now adopted, and the libraries and other collections ofbooks would be driven out of use with the dictionaries, and their commercial value thusdestroyed. It is hardly probable, therefore, that any considerable reform in English spellingwill be obtained, except such as may be incident to the constant using of words. Perhaps,however, the necessities of the telegraphic system will aid to expedite the needed change.

If, however, we compare the orthography of words as presently employed, with theway that they were spelled some centuries ago, it may be that we will find someencouragement. The Faerie Queene of Spenser, the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, andthe translation of the New Testament by Wickliff afford some favorable evidence of whatmay be possible. Words are spelled in them in forms which now seem utterly barbarous.The fact is, that many words which we now profess to derive from the Latin, actually cameinto the English language from the Norman-French, and appear in those works in their

French form as modified by the usage of the time. As examples of the mode of spellingthem employed, we may mention such words as schal, litelle, sodaine, girdelle,constablerie, extencion, anguishous. It was not considered very important, however, informer times, to be uniform or particular about spelling. Mary, the queen and consort ofWilliam III, has left a memorandum of her "crownation," and writers who were esteemedas classic, often spelled the same word in different ways. Even General Washington, inour later period, halted in his orthography.

We are indebted to the early Norman masters of England for many of thedeformities existing in our modes of spelling. Other conquered peoples, of those ofFrance, Spain and Italy, forgot their own language and adopted the Latin from theirconquerors. The Saxons and Danes of England were too robust in character, andcompelled their lords to come to them. The Saxon English was modeled originally after theDutch and Danish orthography. When the Norman clergy consented to adopt thelanguage, they changed the letters in words so that they might be themselves better ableto give the proper sounds. In this way words like haus became house, and brece wastransformed into breach. The dialect of the Scotch Lowlands preserves many of these oldforms, like kirk for church, syne for since. The ou in such words as honor, favor, error, isexplained by the fact that these words were adopted from the French, and the last syllablewas sounded distinctly in that language. In English usage, the pronunciation of manywords has been changed by the caprice of the "best speakers."

The adoption of the terminal letters ed in the preterit and participles of verbs, wherethe sound is that of t, is credited to Joseph Ritson, the antiquary. It was done for thepurpose of establishing "regularity" in derivations. Dr. James A. H. Murray, editor of thegreat Dictionary of Oxford University, pleads for a return to the former usage. "Let us," hesays, "let us recommend the restoration of the historical 't' after breath-consonants, whichprinters during the past century have industriously perverted to 'ed,' writing fetcht, blusht,prickt, drest, winkt, like Shakespere, Herbert, Milton and Addison, and as we ourselvesactually do in lost, left, felt, meant, burst, blest, taught. Laughed for laught is not a whit lessmonstrous than taughted, soughted would be for taught, sought; nor is worked for worktless odious than wroughted for wrought."

It is true, as here remarked, that we continue to retain some of the older forms ofpreterits and participles. They are classed in the grammars as irregular, and in someinstances are passing from common use. Abode is still the preterit and participle of abide;bade is the preterit of bid, held of hold, ran of run, drove of drive, drank and drunk of drink.The participles occasionally have the primitive Saxon terminal syllable en, as bidden,hidden, ridden, driven. This terminal was also used to form plural nouns, as brethren forbrothers. Housen for houses was used in the last years of the Eighteenth Century, and wehave the example of "hoaen" for hose or trousers in the English version of the Book ofDaniel. "His" is the genitive of it in every instance but one in the Common Version. Astudy of the languages from which ours was formed will show that all these apparenteccentricities of speech were as perfectly normal and legitimate as the latter usage.

Some other peculiarities deserve attention. The pronunciations given to bury, busy,business, colonel, women are not to be excused. Indeed, the etymology of these wordsindicates that they ought to be spelled differently. Bury is derived from beorgan, busy frombysig, colonel from coronel, and women from wyfmen. Indeed the common mode ofpronouncing these words reminds us of a current witticism, that in the Basque language

a word is spelled as Solomon, but pronounced Nebuchadnezzar.In this connection we will remark that English speakers have acquired the habit

peculiar to the French, of curtailing syllables, and that proper names are often spelled bysound accordingly. In fact, there are often two modes, one of which may be regarded aspatrician and the other as plebeian; as in such examples as Beauchamp and Beecham,Cockburn and Coburn, Colquhon and Calhoun or Cahoon, Cholmondeley and Chumley,Farquhar and Forker, Marjoribank and Millbank, Strachan and Strason, Taillefer orTaliafero and Tolliver, Vauxhall and Vholes. A multitude of names in the British Islandshave been thus transformed . Those of Keltic origin are more changed than the others.

Another peculiarity of the English language is the fact that it is almost absolutelywithout a grammar. Except in the possessive letter s in nouns, a few cases of pronouns,the degrees of comparison in adjectives and adverbs, and the tenses, persons andnumbers of verbs, English words have each but one form. Jack Cade, when he hangedthe schoolmaster for corrupting the youth by teaching grammar, was not altogether withoutreasonable pretext. Chaucer, Spenser, Philip Sidney, Bacon and the translators of theBible received no such instruction, except what some of them may have learned in Latinand Greek. We are not without warrant in considering that the elaborate treatises onEnglish Grammar which are now extant are really not necessary for a finished education.

There seems to be a remarkable number of words which are alike in orthographybut diverse in meaning. This is due to the fact that they have a different root. Thesimilarity is accidental. The dictionaries very properly place them apart as separate terms.Thus, box is the designation of a certain tree, a blow on the ear, a chest or receptacle, atube in a pump or in the wheel of a railway car, a small house, or a certain prescribed placein a theatre or public building.

Let is now used entirely in the sense of granting permission. Yet Francis Baconemployed it to denote forbearing. We find it in the common version of the Epistles of Paul,signifying to restrain, withhold or hold fast. I remember how my ignorance of this perplexedme in earlier years. This sentence sadly puzzled me: "I purposed to come unto you, butwas let hitherto." It seemed strange that he should be permitted to carry out a purpose andyet did not do so. Again the apostle writes to the Thessalonikans, as we read it: "Ye knowwhat withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time; for the mystery of iniquity dothalready work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way." This textseemed like nonsense till I had learned to read it in the original in the Greek Testament,where the sense is plain as daylight. The words "letteth" and "withholdeth" are exactly thesame there, and the Greek word signifies restrain. The term occurs likewise in the firstchapter of the Epistle to the Romans, in the sentence, "Who hold the truth inunrighteousness." The signification is simply that unjust men detain and hold down thetruth.

In the "Lord's Prayer" there occurs an analogous example of a word in the Greektext which comes alike from two different origins. It requires one who knows for thesolution. With one origin it may mean daily or for the coming day; in the other case itwould signify super-essential, of a superior substance. Pierre Abelard and the translatorsof the Douai version have rendered the clause in which it appears: "Give us this day oursuper-substantial bread."

The term "religion" is itself likewise somewhat indefinite in its etymology. It may bederived from relegere, to read or consider again; or from religare, to bind or fasten. The

former is the more probable. In such case it would signify veneration, combined withphilosophic contemplation; whereas, otherwise, it might mean a binding fast, as by a creedor cult. Latin writers take both views. The kindred concept, "superstition," has fallen intoworse conditions. Like its Greek synonym, [episthmh] (episteme), it originally meantthat intellection or intuitive knowing which is above the common reasoning powers, but theword is now used entirely to denote false religion or excessive and slavish religiousscrupulousness.

In this digression I will remark that I am inclined to think that the term Logos in theGreek text of the first chapter of the Gospel ascribed to John, which is translated "Word,"is a Hellenized form of the Aryan term log or lah, signifying light. This is in accordance withthe Oriental theosophy, which cognizes Light as the head and source of the Creation.

The terms "sin" and "hell" have also acquired meanings to which they were notoriginally entitled. In the Skandinavian mythology Sigyn or Sin was the consort of Loki,who was the genius of evil and a veritable Mephistopheles. One of their progeny was theSerpent, which binds the Earth in its coils; another was Hela or Hel, the mistress of theworld of the dead. The adoption of this concept by Milton in Paradise Lost is readilyperceivable. The term used in the Greek Testament, [amarzia] (hamartia), generallysignified the failure of a purpose; a coming short, or missing of the way. The definition ofmoral turpitude was rather a straining of the meaning.

"Conjure" has two etymologies and two significations. As derived from the Latinverb conjuro, it means to entreat; but when it comes from the Hindustanic term conjura itsignifies to entrance or bewitch. The Gipsies seem to have brought the word from Indiainto Europe.

"Punch" has a variety of meanings which are due to the numerous origins fromwhich it has been derived. As formed from the Hindustani numeral punja, five, it is usedto name a well-known beverage compounded of five ingredients. It is also derived fromthe Latin verb pungo, signifying to pierce or perforate, and designates a familiar instrumentused for perforating. It is likewise formed from punio, to punish, beat or bruise, and isemployed as a verb to denote a violent assaulting. It seems also to be sometimes thesame as bunch. When the term is used as the designation of the puppet in the show, itis a contracted form of the Italian diminutive Pulcinello, a chicken, a buffoon.

"Imp" originally denoted a child, and also the branch of a plant; and its diminutive,impfling, has become the designation in German of a child that has not been vaccinated.The original term has now become so degraded in common usage as generally to signifya young devil, or a child of an evil temper. "Hire" seems also to have denoted an idea ofsomething held in low estimation. It signified to do for pay what would be made worthy ifdone from love or a sense of duty. Hence the term hireling is used to describe amercenary character; and the former preterit hore became the designation of a lawyer, apaid physician, or any one receiving hire.

Many expressive words have been lost from the English language by reason ofhaving become obsolete. This is often to be regretted, as the new terms are too frequentlyless significant. It is due in a great degree to a vanity for adopting high-sounding wordsfrom some other language fancied to be more noble or worthy. Chaucer in this wayintroduced a profusion of terms from the Norman-French that were entirely unintelligibleto plain English-speaking persons. He was followed by Milton and others, till the practicebecame general in our literature. As a result of this neologism the Scots have almost alone

distinguished themselves creditably by keeping alive a large vocabulary of good old words,which we have often forgotten, but which are forceful and expressive beyond those whichhave been substituted for them. Such are douce, bonny, greet, dour, dool, fast, cuddle,cairn, strath, crag, bog, raff, crom, yowl, waft, wame, wry, wrack, sooth, chuff, laze, glen,burn, etc. These are genuine words with an origin in the dialects from which our languagewas formed.

Change of religion, whether by conversion or conquest, effects radical modificationsof the terms used in familiar speech. The Supreme Divinity of one people, faith or periodis thus made the Evil Potency of another. This has been illustrated in the career of theBrahman and Eranian septs of the Aryan peoples. A deva is a deity in India and a devilwith the Parsis. We have adopted both these terms with their distinctive meanings. Abhaga or god in India is also a bog or divinity with the Slavonians, but has beentransformed into a bogy or hobgoblin among ourselves.

We may note corresponding changes in other parts of Asia. Such titles as molokhor king, El, and perhaps Ram-ana, were applied to divinities of every cult. But Seth orSutekh, the divinity once worshiped in Egypt and Kheta-land, became the malignantTyphon of the Nile, and the Satan of Palestine. The term "yazda," which in Persiandenoted an angel that presided over a certain month and group of stars, is now used todesignate a people that is denounced as devil-worshipers. They show their relationshipsin various ways to the men of other faiths. Their chief symbol is a bird, representing theSimorg of Persia, the Garuda of India, and the Rokh or Nis-rokh of ancient Assyria.

"Magic," an old Aryan term, formerly signified holy rites and learning, but with thesubversion of the Mithraic worship in Europe, it was changed in meaning to designatesorcery and forbidden knowledge. Philosophers and students of physical science oftenincurred the peril of pursuing magic arts. A "witch" was, as the term literally signifies, aperson of superior art and skill, and "witchcraft" or wisdom-craft properly denoted the artor technique of Superior Wisdom.

Astrology likewise made its contributions to the English as well as to otherlanguages. In former times it comprehended all scientific learning within its purview. Theknowing of the heavenly bodies, their phenomena and attributes, was a prominent featurein the matter, as these were regarded as significant of events and peculiar physicalconditions. Physicians and priests were astrologers, and the medicinal plants had eachits guardian star and genius. Every Planet and constellation was believed to be the"house" of a divinity. The Assyrians and the Akkadians before them, appear to havepossessed lenses and other instruments with which to observe the sky. The plot of groundwhich was set apart for this and other religious purposes was denominated sacred, a"temenos," "tempulum" or temple. Thus, we now have the words contemplate, whichsignified to watch the sky, and consider, to study the stars and portents.*

----------* In Genesis i, 14, the stars are described as set in the expanse of the heavens as

autoth, emblems, or tokens.----------

Other familiar expressions indicate an origin from the same source. We speak ofthe fortune of a prosperous person as being "in the ascendant." The days of the week are

named from the planets, or rather from the divinities to whom they are set apart. Thus wehave the Sun-day, the Moon-day, Tiu's day, Woden's day, Thor's day, Freyja-day, Seator-day. The last of the days in this septenary cycle was regarded by the archaic Assyriansas sacred to the divinity of the outermost planet, the "Sun of the World of Night," and setapart for doing nothing.

The Romans also named the days of the week after the Sun, Moon, Mercury,Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The qualities which were attributed to the planets or totheir guardians are represented by the adjectives sultry, sun-struck, lunatic, mercurial,venereal, martial, jovial, saturnine. Friday, the day of Venus and its patron goddess, wereregarded as harbingers of good fortune; Saturn and the Moon, of evil. To this day mentalalienation is termed lunacy, and the catarrhal complaint which has been so common andtroublesome for several years past, bears the name of influenza, as being considered theeffect of the noxious influence of the moon. A calamity is described as a disaster, or thebaleful action of a star.

The mystic element which is inherent and inseparable from our nature, isrepresented by a class of terms relating to mental and spiritual illumination. The conditiondesignated ecstasy, trance or transport, rapture, implies an absence or parting of theconscious selfhood from the body to such an extent that the physical senses are closed,while the individual may be able to perceive facts and objects without their aid by meansof an inner superior faculty. The terms entheasm, enthusiasm, fanaticism also come fromwithin the category. They have now no exalted meaning in our language, but their formersignificance is demonstrated by their etymologic sense, a condition in which the person isinfilled, possessed and inspired by divinity. The prophets, sybils and ministrants at theoracles were subject at certain times to frenzy which was attributed to such a source, andtheir utterances were regarded as divine. At the present time, however, any person isstyled "enthusiastic" who is much in earnest, and a "fanatic" is one who is beside himselfin zeal.

The Moslem rulers of the Middle Ages were eager and diligent to preserve whateverof Philosophy and scientific learning had not already perished; and their efforts arecommemorated in various words of Arabian origin which are still in use. Through them thenumeral figures, the ten digits, were introduced into Christendom, and algebra or al jabara,became a branch of mathematic study. Little recesses in public libraries are calledalcoves, or the caves. Alcohol, the kohl or powder used by women to paint their eyebrows,has become the designation of rectified spirit. The familiar term almanac is formed fromal manakh, a measuring; azure lajarra, the lazuli-stone. Chemise is also an Arabic term.

The designations alchemy and chemistry have generally been referred to the Greek,[chmeia] (chemeia) or [cnmia] (chumia), which came in their turn from Egypt, the "landof Ham" (Psalm cvi, 22.) The term Ham or Cham signifies fire, and chemistry isappropriately named from the employing of fire in its manipulations. The alembic andalkali, both Arabian designations, are easily found in the same category. But alkahest orall-geist, the alchemic appellation of the universal solvent, "which no vessel contains,"cannot be included with them.

It is a curious fact that there are many words in the English language which havebeen introduced from foreign tongues, yet had an earlier origin from sources more directlycognate with our own. For example, civil, with all its derivatives, was adopted from theLatin; but the radical term is the Keltic preposition kyf or kyv, signifying together. The

words prehensile, apprehend, comprehend, are primarily from the German term hand, alsoin common use with ourselves. Nobody, however, seems to remember that ennui is fromthe same root as annoy, and that both words are from the Latin phrase venire adio.

Many words have lost their primitive meaning and acquired another which is oftenentirely foreign to the etymologic sense. Gown is the Keltic term gunn, and nice is fromthe Latin adjective nescius, ignorant. Whisky is from the Gaelic and Kymroic word uisgeor guis-qe, signifying water, and the former name, us-quebagh, is from the Irish, uisqe andbeatha, and means water of life. Knave once meant a half-grown boy; rascal, a personof low rank and character; villain, an individual in vile or servile condition. Pig, originallysignified a girl, and I have heard it used in that sense where nothing opprobrious wasmeant. Perhaps the beauty and agreeableness of the young swine led to this applying ofthe name to them.

Can is from the same original as know, thus indicating that to know means abilityto do. Ken and cunning have likewise the same derivation. Noble, though borrowed fromthe Latin, belongs to the same group; and is, indeed, a contracted form of notabilis, whichoriginally signified the possessing of superior knowledge. King once denoted the son orchosen one of the tribe. Queen was the designation of a companion, and afterward of awoman and consort. Its counterpart, quean, was formerly the same word, but has beenchanged in sense and orthography by later usage. Wife, which, curiously enough, was inthe neuter gender, meant only a woman, and it is still found in compound words in thatsense; as housewife, fishwife, midwife. English use has exalted it to mean a weddedcompanion. Home is peculiarly English in its meaning. Ugly is from ug to feel disgust.Stark once meant strong, but now only signifies utterly. Subtle and subtil are examples ofan artificial distinction, having the same origin, and yet the latter is now used to denotefineness, and the former, slyness, deceptiveness.

The terms holy, hale, hallow, heal and whole are all from one origin and implysoundness, integrity. completeness. Cure, from the Latin cura, signified simply care; butlater usage gave it the medical meaning, to heal. Will properly denotes desire or choosing,but it is now employed with its adjective wilful in the sense of obstinacy. Charity is fromcarus, dear, and as the term is used in the English version of the New Testament, it meansaltruism or neighborly regard, and never a dole or almsgiving.

It may be observed that many words which have been derived from the Latin haveunfortunately become much changed in sense. Prevent, which originally signified to comebefore, as in the English Bible, now means to hinder or intercept. Virtue, taken by itsetymology, denotes virility, masculine quality, manly excellence, courage, strength. It isnow used to mean goodness, womanly chastity, general excellence, in manifest violenceto the legitimate import of the term. Temperance primarily indicates a proper regulating,a keeping of the appetites and emotions in wholesome moderation, as set forth in thePythagoric maxim: "Nothing in excess."

lntellect, and its congeners, intelligible, intelligent, intelligence, are sources ofperplexity. As employed in common speech and in philosophic discourse, the meaningsare as diverse as though they were in different languages. In popular language, the termintellect is synonymous with understanding and reasoning faculties; but philosophically itdenotes that part or faculty of the soul which transcends these, and is capable of knowingintuitively. Intellection is accordingly intuition or immediate cognizing of actual truth,beyond sensuous perceiving. Intelligence in this sense is the capacity for knowing superior

truth apperceptively. Intelligible, which commonly denotes capable of being understood,denotes in philosophic discourse, perceptive of what is recondite or behind the apparentsense or import. Perhaps the adoption of the terms noetic and dianoetic would help outof the difficulty. The Standard Dictionary attempts to meet it by the new word intellectory.

It has been remarked that the Divine Comedy of Dante served to fix the languageof his people in a permanent form. It may be said in equal justice that the AuthorizedVersion of the Bible in like manner determined our English vernacular speech. It certainlyowes much of its favor with the "plain people" to the simple words used in the translation.They are far more easy to understand than the classic utterances of Milton, Tennyson orBrowning.

Lord Brougham praised Charles James Fox because "in his choice of words hejustly shunned foreign idioms or words borrowed, whether from the ancient or modernlanguages, and affected the pure Saxon tongue, the resources of which are unknown toso many who use it, both in speaking and writing." The same praise is due to most partsof the English Bible. In the "Lord's Prayer" there are but five words that are not of Saxonor cognate dialects, and some of these may be changed for others with advantage.

True, there are many inaccuracies in the translation which disguise the genuinemeaning. Besides this, some of the expressions are obsolescent, and many words haveacquired new definitions and thus obscure the sense. "Conversation" no longer signifiesa person's general conduct, but familiar discourse. Prevent no longer means to go orcome before. To hold now means to retain, and not to restrain. Yet with all the faults therhythm is generally so admirable and the language so plain that the Common Versionactually seems, and in fact has been, imagined by unlettered individuals to have beenwritten originally in English. The various revisions and new translations have fallen behindin this respect; and this fact alone has been sufficient to make them unacceptable exceptas specimens of literary work.

A language is much more than the words which it may contain. There is to each ofthem a history of its own, and, indeed, they are themselves souvenirs of history. Thesources from which they are derived, the modifications which they undergo, and therelations which they sustain, reflect the conditions and experiences of the peopleemploying them. "The winged word cleaves its way through time as well as space," as Mr.Hubert Bancroft eloquently affirms. It serves as the messenger of thought to convey themotions of one mind to the perception and consciousness of others. It is thus the vehicleof inspiration by which the many receive and are animated by the aspirations, the ideas,and purpose of the leaders of thought and action. It not only sets us in a place apart fromthe animal tribes, but it also indicates distinctly the people to which we belong, the peculiarculture which we have received, and in some degree, even the events which have markedthe career of our predecessors.

The words which come familiarly to our lips not only voice the thoughts which wewould utter, but they likewise shadow forth their own sources and vicissitudes. They havefulfilled similar offices for ages. If we undertake to question them we shall learn that theyhave been diversified in form, and sometimes even disguised by changes of dialect. Suchalterations indicate important modifications in the character of a people, and afford clewsto curious facts in which a world of instruction is comprehended.

We do wisely to ponder the importance of such study. We learn thereby the wordsto choose in order to give the exact sense which we are endeavoring to convey. We are

not only instructed, but exalted. A more vivid conception is gained of the sacredness ofspeech. There will be clearly indicated the inhering profaneness of slang utterance. Purespeech is every whit as estimable as pure literature.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 8, no. 7, Nov., 1898)

----------------

Death of Three Modern Hindu Sages

The philosophic associations of India have been called upon the last season to partwith their noblest and most notable men. Dayananda Sarasvati, the famous Swami orspiritual chief of the Arya-Samaj, died at Ajmir, October 30, 1883, in his sixtieth year. Hehad been for many years the centre of a religious movement, which contemplated no lessthan the restoration of the ancient Vedas to their ante-Brahmanic importance or religiousauthority, and so far as was possible the rehabilitation of the archaic Aryan religion.Dayananda was of course opposed to image-worship, caste-distinctions, and the like, andwas the strenuous advocate of the education of women and of the lawfulness andexpediency of the marriage of widows. In close analogy to Chillingworth, who uttered themaxim: "The Bible is the religion of Protestants," he took the stand that the Vedasconstituted the true Aryan revelation; what was not to be found in them was false oruseless, and what was there was the truth beyond controversy. He often held discussionswith the Pundits of Benares and other places; and they frequently, on finding themselvesunable to cope with him in argument, endeavored to win the victory by personal violenceand exciting mobs against him.

The formation of tile Arya-Samaj constitutes an important chapter in the religioushistory of India. Ram Mohun Roy, a Brahman, born in Bengal in 1780, and anaccomplished scholar in languages, had published a treatise entitled: Against the Idolatryof All Religious. It drew upon him the bitter enmity of Hindus and Moslems, because of itsfree criticism of both their religious systems. In 1816 he translated portions of the Vedasfrom Sanskrit into Bengali and Hindustani, for free circulation. The Preface contained thefollowing remarkable expression:

"I have never ceased to contemplate with the strongest feelings of regret theobstinate adherence of my countrymen to their fatal system of idolatry; violating everyhumane and social feeling for the sake of propitiating their supposed deities, especially byacts of self-destruction and the immolation of nearest relatives under the delusion ofconforming to sacred religious rites. In these practices I view with sorrow the moraldebasement of a race capable of better things, whose character render them worthy of ahappier destiny. Under these impressions I am impelled to lay before them genuinetranslations of their own Scriptures, which inculcate not only the enlightened worship ofOne God, but the purest principles of morality."

Ram Mohun Roy had frequent discussions with Christian missionaries. He wouldnot accept the doctrine of the Trinity, regarding it as a form of polytheism akin to theBrahman dogmas. He acknowledged the pre-existence of Jesus and his superior nature,and translated the Parables and Moral Discourses into Sanskrit and Bengali. He regarded

the law which teaches man to do to others as he would be done by, as "partially taught inevery system of religion," but as being the "essential characteristic of the Christianreligion." As a result, he made few friends among Christians, while his Hindu fellow-countrymen became his persecutors. His profound knowledge of the Hindu law enabledhim to defeat their endeavors to evict him from his social rank. His disciples wereconstituted into a free religious association entitled the Brahma-Samaj.

After his death in 1833, the controversies of the leaders of this organization werecontinued. They maintained that every argument in favor of the inspiration of the ChristianScriptures was even more conclusive in favor of the Vedas. It may not be generally knownthat the ancient Sacred Writings of the Hindus were kept at Benares, the Holy City, andwere only to be found in the original Sanskrit. They were virtually inaccessible, therefore,to Hindus and Europeans alike. Both parties determined to give them to this world.Several young scholars were despatched from Calcutta to Benares to study the Vedas andreport upon their contents. The result was not what had been expected. The head of theAdi Brahma-Samaj, Devandra Nath Tagora, was sagacious to perceive that howevervenerable the ideas might be as relics of an archaic age, they would be regarded now ascontaining much that was childish, erroneous and even impossible. The project ofdisseminating them among the Indian natives was abandoned; and a very free opinion inregard to their inspiration was now entertained.

Dayananda revolted against this state of things. The fundamental idea of religionwith him was revelation. He saw no alternative between a complete giving up of all religionand an unwavering belief in every word and letter of the Vedas. He knew them by heart,and to have surrendered anything in them as having come from a human source wouldhave destroyed all his faith. He considered the Vedas not only as divinely inspired, orrather expired, but as prehistoric or prehuman. He published commentaries on the Rig-Veda and the Yayur-Veda. Every historical or geographical name in the books wascarefully explained away; he regarding everything which reflected historical orgeographical information as utterly profane. They were nothing but the voice of theSupreme One. There are those now living who cherish like sentiments in regard to acritical interpretation of the Bible.

Dayananda not only held that everything contained in the Vedas was perfect truth,but he went further and endeavored to demonstrate that they mentioned the recentscientific inventions, such as the steam-engine, railway and steamboat. As Veda meansknowledge, he argued, nothing could be hid from that.

The establishment of the Arya-Samaj was the result of his teachings, and he heldthe rank of Swami, or religious head, till his death. Upon the organization of theTheosophic Society in America in 1876, [sic] he consented to receive it as a branch of hisSchool; requiring, however, of its founders a most sweeping concession to his superiorityand absolute passive obedience to his authority. When the leaders of the society took uptheir abode in Bombay, they remained for a while in affiliation; but he presently severedthe connection.

His zeal for propagandism was most intense. He visited every province of India,except Madras; and he addressed assemblies with the greatest learning and eloquence.He was impatient of contradiction as religious teachers generally are; but he was nosycophant and always had the best interests of Aryavarta at heart. It is asserted of himthat he possessed Yogi powers, and that he predicted his own death years ago, as certain

to occur before 1884.The body was burned according to immemorial usage. The pyre was very large.

Two maunds of sandal-wood, eight maunds of common fuel, four maunds of clarifiedbutter, and two and a half seers of camphor were used. A large procession chantinghymns from the Vedas, performed the last honors. Much doubt exists whether theSocieties of the Arya will not end with the life of the great pundit.

The progressive Brahmas have also lost by death their worthy leader, KeshubChunder Sen. In 1866 he led the secession from the Adi Brahma-Samaj, the originalorganization formed by Ram Mohun Roy, because its leader would not sanction his attackon Caste, also the marriage of widows. He soon became regarded with great veneration.He taught that Christ was the great Man and Mighty Reformer of the world, a man aboveordinary humanity, whose religion was entitled to the peculiar regard of Asiatics, as analtogether Oriental product and that he exhibited the grandeur of which Asiatic nature iscapable.

Visiting England in 1870 he received high praises from the prominent clergymen ofthat country. He never, however, fully realised their expectations. "England," said he in1879, "has sent after us after all, a western Christ, - an Englishman with English mannersand customs about him, and with the temper and spirit of an Englishman in him."

He gives a mystic interpretation of the whole matter. "Genuine, deep-souled,perfectly pure-minded humanity, that wholly sacrifices itself to the love and holiness ofGod, is truly divine. And to Jesus belongs that divinity. It was not personal extinction, itwas utter personal subjection; it was the personality of man at one with the personality ofGod." The resurrection is but the raising of the spirit of Jesus before the throne of therighteousness and love of God. He lives in heaven as a separate, personified soul in itsown sphere of blessedness, achieving a higher and still holier standard of perfection thanwas ever known in his life. "He lives," says Keshub, "in all Christian lives and in allChristian influences at work around us. You may deny his doctrine, you may even hate hisname, but you cannot resist his influence. Christ exists throughout Christendom like an all-pervading leaven, mysteriously and imperceptibly leavening the lives of millions of men andwomen."

He interpreted the Trinity as having the God Jehovah at the apex, the SupremeBrahma of the Vedas. "Divinity coming down to humanity is the Son; Divinity carrying uphumanity to heaven is the Holy Spirit. This is the whole philosophy of salvation." Christis humanity pure and simple, in which divinity dwells. He underlies the endless varietiesof truth and goodness in ancient and modern times. He is pure Intelligence, the Word ofGod, the mighty Logos. In all schools of philosophy and in all religious sects is one vastand identical Sonship diversely manifested.

In 1878, the daughter of Chunder Sen was married to the Maha Raja of Cuch-Behar, a few months before the age prescribed by the Samaj for such alliances. TheRajah was about to go to England, and hence the marriage was hastened. As Keshub hadzealously enforced this rule, the technical violation created a schism; and the SadharanSamaj was formed May 5, 1878. The new organisation takes advanced ground on femaleemancipation, adopting so far as practicable European manners and more liberaleducation. It also takes the lead in regard to religious freedom. The absolute dominionof the Swami, an authority resembling Popery, is discarded by the new party.

The death of Keshub Chunder Sen will hardly result in the dissolution of the Samaj;

but the Sadharan party appears to be very largely in the majority.The following sonnet on the dead sage appears in the Reis and Rayyet, a Calcutta

paper, January 12th, 1884:

In Memoriam

Babu Keshub Chunder SenBorn, 1838, Nov. 19. Died, 1884, Jan. 12.

He's gone! the soul magnificently bright Hath left its mortal tenement of clay; The radiant star hath vanished far away, From the eastern skies that gleam'd on human sight -And all the land is wrapped in gloom of night; The gorgeous flower that made the orient gay With glow and scent so rich at noon of day Hath droop'd too soon beneath a with'ring blight!We scarce can realize a loss so deep, For Keshub's magic eloquence yet ringsWithin our ears; but he is gone - and nations weep - As ne'er they wept for princes or kings -With heart-felt sorrow, for th' untimely end Of genius rare, Religion's warmest friend.

- Ram Sharma

Babu Peary Chand Mittra, a writer and teacher of great ability died at Calcutta,November 23, 1883. He was a member of the Theosophic Society at its first organizationin 1876, and held the post of President of the branch society at Bengal. He was alsosecretary of the Calcutta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He wrote muchon Metaphysical subjects and was a warm advocate of female education. His age wasseventy years. He had been in failing health, but his death leaves a vacancy not easy tosupply.

- A. W.

(The Platonist, vol. 2, p. 41)

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The Drama of Christendom - Alexander Wilder

Coleridge once asked Charles Lamb: "Did you ever hear me preach?" Lamb replied, stammering as usual: "I never heard you do anything else."In the endeavor to exhibit a subject which has agitated large communities in

Christendom, the writer hopes to present his view of the matter without coming under thatimputation. He has endeavored to study the topic as presented by the various composersof the Gospels and Epistles in the New Testament, with the sense and sentimentdepolarized, and taken with reference to the genuine meaning. There is no occasion forjuggling with texts for the purpose of enforcing a preconceived notion. It will be enough tocompare them for the sake of analysis to ascertain the purport.

It is no unfriendly reflection upon the leading conception of the writers to call it adrama. All worship is more or less dramatic. The ancient theatre was a temple; themodern theatre was developed in a church. The whole story of the three synoptic gospelsis qualified by the suggestion that Jesus declared one thing to his disciples, and theyinterpreted his words according to a preconceived belief. He is said to have proclaimedthat the "kingdom of heaven" was at hand, and even till the last they looked upon hisactions as so much preparation for an uprising. The mention of God and heaven in thecase was only an Oriental form of speech to denote the superlative character.

In the sixteenth chapter of the "Gospel according to Matthew" he makes thisdeclaration: "The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, andthen he will reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you there be somestanding here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in hiskingdom." The older Gospel ascribed to Mark has the phrase: "till they have seen thekingdom of God come in power." No wonder that discussions arose about their places inthe new order of things. The entry into Jerusalem which alarmed the priests and scribeswith fear of a massacre, would appear to them as preparatory to a grand revolt. It wouldbe what the Maccabee brothers had accomplished, a century before.

It was natural after they had observed his encounters with leading men aboutJerusalem, that they should exhibit anxiety. As they go from the temple, one of them callshis attention to the magnificence of the newer structures. "The days will come," says he,"when there will not be left a stone upon a stone, that will not be thrown down."

This was in keeping with what might be expected, and would be certain to excite thedesire to learn more. As soon as they arrive at a resting-place, they come privately withthe questions: "Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of thy coming,and of the consummation of the period."

The answer has been given by each writer in a different form. Evidently after thegreat disappointment, when no change was apparent in the world around them, there wasa different construction of the discourse, if indeed, the discourse was ever spoken at all.In the Gospels ascribed to Mark and Luke, the interrogation and reply relate only to thecatastrophe of the Jewish people. The description of the darkening of the sun and moon,was only an Oriental mode of figuring the destruction of a national polity. But in the Gospelof Matthew the dramatic representation is more extensive. The "Son of Man" appears inthe clouds of the sky after the style of an Eastern monarch entering upon his government.His heralds gather up his loyal followers, "the elect," from all the regions where they havebeen scattered. This action is illustrated by several parables to signify theaccompaniments of his advent, after which follows a description of the judgment to bemeted out to the Gentiles - "all nations."

All this would seem to be a prediction of Jewish ascendency, and the subjection ofthe various other peoples. It was sealed by the declaration: "When ye shall see all thesethings, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you: This generation shall

not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. The Heaven and the earth shall pass away, butmy words shall not pass away."

The hope of speedy restoration appears to have been deferred to a later period.The whole had been relegated to a subsequent period, as these predictions indicate. Butthere was the assurance that some of them would live to behold the grand consummation.This expectation is avowed in the various Epistles which have been included in thecollection known as the "New Testament." Thus James, the staunch supporter of orthodoxJudaism against intrusion from the outside world, addressing his epistle to the "elect"people the "twelve tribes scattered abroad," affirms that "the coming of the Lord drawethnigh." Peter also writes of "salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." This is anevident allusion to an expected deliverance from alien dominion; John confidently addsthe assertion: "It is the last time." Paul, in whose gospel the foreign peoples have agenerous share, explains the matter more explicitly. Like a true Pharisee of the school ofHillel he believes in a resurrection as part of the coming event. "We which are alive andremain unto the coming of the Lord," he declares, "shall not prevent (precede) them whichare asleep; for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice ofthe archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. After thatwe ourselves who remain shall be caught up with them."

The Apocalypse was evidently written as a sequel in the drama of the NewTestament. The book is introduced with the proclamation: "The time is at hand." It wasnecessary to sustain the authenticity of the declarations accredited to Jesus, to show thatthere had men remained alive till his predictions were accomplished. The writer of thiswork appears to have carefully devoted his efforts to this purpose. First of all there isdescribed a vision like the one described in the tenth chapter of the book of Daniel, and acollection of letters is next given, which purport to be addressed to the angels of sevenchurches in Asia minor, and are devoted to local controversies. The writer then prooeedsto the purpose of the work. First, he sees in vision a scroll that is sealed with seven seals.These are opened one by one by the personage styled "the Lamb," a mode ofrepresentation common in ancient mythology. As the seats are opened a scene appears,corresponding with the predictions in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. The similaritiesare striking, as will be seen on comparison of passages.

Matthew XXIV: "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world fora witness to all nations; and then shall the end come."

Revelation VI: "When the Lamb opened one of the seals.... I saw and behold awhite horse; and he that sat on him went forth conquering and to conquer."

Also the following:Romans X, 18: "Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the

ends of the world."Also, Colossians I, 23: "The Gospel which ye have heard, and which was preached

to every creature which is under heaven."Matthew XXIV: "And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars."Revelation VI: "When he had opened the second seal, .... there went out another

horse that was red; and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from theearth, that they should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword."

Matthew XXIV: "There shall be famines."Revelation VI: "When he had opened the third seal, .... I beheld, and lo, a black

horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice say:'A measure [quart] of wheat for a penny [a denarius, or seventeen cents]* and threemeasures of barley for a penny."

----------* About $5.50 a bushel, with money much more valuable than in later times. [1908]

----------

Matthew XXIV: "There shall be pestilence." Revelation VI: "And when he had opened the fourth seal, .... behold, a pale horse;

and his name that sat on him was Death; and Hell followed with him: and power wasgiven to them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, and with hunger, and withdeath, and with the beasts of the earth."

Matthew XXIV: "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you;and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended,and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another."

Revelation VI: "And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the soulsof them that were slain for the word of God, and the testimony which they held."

Compare Acts XXVIII, 22: "As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it isspoken against."

Matthew XXIV: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun bedarkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, andthe powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son ofMan in the heavens, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see theSon of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

Revelation VI: "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there wasa great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon becameas blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, and the heaven departed as a scrollas it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captainsand the mighty men, and every bond man and every free man, hid themselves in the densand in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks: 'Fall on us andhide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.'"

Matthew XXIV: "And he shall send his angels, with a great sound of a trumpet andthey shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to theother."

Revelation VII: "After these things I saw four angels standing on the four cornersof the earth, holding the four winds of the earth.... And I saw another angel ascending fromthe east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the fourangels, saying: 'Hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed theservants of our God in their foreheads.'

"And I heard the number - a hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of thechildren of Israel.... After this I looked, and lo, a great multitude which no man couldnumber of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues stood before the throne,and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes."

The analogies which these quotations exhibit are amply supported by other

declarations, and their purport seems to be unequivocal. The introductory sentences ofthe Apocalypse are of similar tenor. It was a revelation to "show things which must shortlycome to pass," the time of which was "at hand." And as though to show that the predictionrecorded in the Gospel of Matthew was in mind, it is announced as from a watch-tower:"Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which piercedhim; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him."

It was a period when much was attempted and much expected. The Roman peoplehad welcomed the establishment of the rule of the Caesars as an inauguration of a reignof peace. The Jews whom the Roman yoke galled by its severity were on the watch for aMessiah, a chieftain like the Maccabean brothers who would deliver them from thedominion of the alien. When the revolt took place, which was followed by the destructionof their metropolis and temple, they were expecting that their brethren beyond theEuphrates would come to their relief. Again, when some sixty years afterward, Rabbi Akibapreached a new crusade against the oppressors, they took up arms with confidence andaccepted Bar Cochba as the prince to sit on the throne of David and restore all things.When he fell and the new commonwealth was swept from existence with a terribledestruction it was a final darkening of hope for Jewish patriots. The portents in the sky, thedarkening of the sun and moon, with the falling of stars, are to be regarded as an Orientalextravagance of speech to denote the extinction of a nation. It is employed several timesin the book of Isaiah.

The drama of Christendom would seem incomplete as presented in the booklets ofthe New Testament, but for the Apocalypse. The writer was familiar with Oriental andastrologic symbology, and employed it to depict a series of visions that might representevents of human history. He completes in this way the predictions recorded in the Gospelsrelating to the "Second Coming," the Resurrection and Judgment. He by no meansdeparts from the dramatic style. He sees heaven open, revealing a white horse uponwhich sits the one faithful and true, whose real name no one knows, but he is called "theWord (Logos) of God." He is arrayed in a blood-stained robe and wears many diadems.With him comes an army also on white horses and clothed in white. Against this host arecollected the seven-headed Beast of the Mediterranean Sea, holding commission from theDragon, the Ten-Rayed Serpent of the East, and the kings of the earth with their forces.Like other ancient battles, the conflict ends in general massacre. Afterward the Dragon isimprisoned in the Abyss for "a thousand years." The reign of the victors follows. The soulsof those who had been put to death, and those that had been included in the boycott of theseven-headed Beast, were included in this number. They lived and reigned; and thisconstituted "the first resurrection."* After that period a new scene is introduced includinga conflict, overthrow, final judgment, the passing away of the sky and earth, the vision ofa new heaven and earth, and the coming of a new Jerusalem. All closes, however, withthe prediction: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand."

----------* This probably is a reference to the prediction ascribed to Jesus: John V, 28, 29:

"All who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth - those having done good, tothe resurrection of life and those doing ill to the resurrection of judgment."----------

The second coming was described by one writer to be "to them that looked for him."It was also represented as being "like a thief in the night," and again as the lightning in theEast which shines all the way to the West. Nevertheless, with all the expectations whichhad been raised, and all the portents described by Josephus and others, there was noadvent with accompanying splendors, as had been anticipated. Yet the confidence is thepredictions continued to be entertained. The endeavor has been repeated by innumerableinterpretations, to maintain the integrity of the declarations. The books of Daniel andRevelation have been ransacked and explained to aid the various theories.

During the Middle Ages the period of a thousand years was indicated as the timeof the great Assize, and an Evangel of the Holy Spirit was promulgated. After the expectedterm had passed like other occurrences, it fell into disrepute. Some even declared that themarriage of the monk, Martin Luther, to a nun would result in the birth of Antichrist, and thefinal day. But Erasmus responded to this: "Then even now there are many antichrists."

A theory was promulgated in the former half of the last century that the secondAdvent actually took place as was predicted within the lifetime of some who heard it, at theperiod of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. The fact that no such displayswere seen in the sky as had been described was evaded by the hypothesis that thedescriptions were of the nature of parable. The scene was laid in the spiritual worldbeyond physical vision, and whatever took place in the earth had such relations andcorrespondence to it as the body to the soul. The text was cited in proof: "The kingdomof God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, 'Lo here' or 'Lo there': for,behold, the kingdom of God is within you." This would make the whole advent a matter ofpersonal experience, but it would seem to reflect upon the dramatic descriptions asunnecessary.

Another theory, the reverse of this, and almost wholly in accord with the commonbeliefs prevalent in Christendom, so far as external manifestation is involved, was put forthby Mr. William Miller, about seventy years ago. It was based upon data taken from thebooks of Daniel and Revelation, interpreted by arbitrary rules, and carefully calculated. Itset the period of the grand consummation in 1843. But as this did not prove correct, therewere allowances made for corruption of text, or some technical omission. It is not,however, totally abandoned by its former adherents.

The former beliefs have generally fallen into desuetude. Something like theRenaissance appears to be becoming diffused over the intelligent classes in the Christianworld. Less attention is employed upon set doctrines and analogous topics, and moreupon the observances of social life. More lessons are taught from every-day experience,and the obligations to one another.

Emanuel Swedenborg published a treatise on the "Last Judgment," which deservesa respectful mention. He described it as witnessed by him in 1757 and was wholly anoccurring in the spiritual world. We may hardly suppose that the time in which hecontemplated this vision denoted that the judgment was an event of that date. Time anddates belong to the region of matter, and not to the world of thought. What he saw wasdoubtless true; not as a matter of time and season, but as essential fact. The Gospel ofJohn declares that the believer will not come into judgment, but has passed from death tolife. The nature of the judgment is defined. "He that doeth evil hateth the light and comethnot to the light lest his deeds should be reproved. He that doeth the truth cometh to thelight that his deeds may be made manifest."

One prediction of Swedenborg has been its own supporter. The various religiousbodies will continue with little change, but the individual, the man of the church, will enjoygreater freedom. This we see verified all around. Not only have the rack and stake goneout of fashion no longer to disgrace the name of Christendom and make it odious to a well-wisher to his kind, but the stigma of heresy is ceasing to be a terror. It is no longer anoffense or misdemeanor to succor a fellow-being simply because he has fallen under anecclesiastical ban.

In short the drama of Christendom is by no means the historical matter which hasbeen so long considered. The conflict of ages is carried on, not upon battle-fields nor inparliament chambers, but in the arena of human conviction. The court that adjudicates,the bearer of the mace of judgment, may be found in the individual consciousness. It maybe long before this becomes well or thoroughly known; but we may hope that there will yetbe a recognition of humanity as broad as the creation itself, and that in that recognitionhuman beings will be as dear to one another as they are to God.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 23, no. 1, July, 1908)

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The English Language and Orthography - Alexander Wilder

Languages are no more than the keys of Sciences. He who despises one, slightsthe other. - De La Bruyere

Perhaps no dialect ever spoken by human beings has been subject to more criticismand even censure than our own. It has to be learned by arbitrary recollection, and thewords of which it is constituted are as varied in their etymology as though they had beenselected from the languages at the building of the city and tower of Babel. No foreignerlearns it without stumbling at the accents, the proper pronouncing of words, and the betterterm to select in uttering a thought or sentiment. "The language is a yargon," I once hearda German declare.

All this is, doubtless, unqualifiedly true. But with it all we have it constantly with us,and have no choice but to make the best of it. And this, for one, I am perfectly willing todo. It is a language fuller of merits than it is of faults. It may not be as stately as Latin, oras facile and ready for handling as Greek, and may lack for musical purpose as othertongues. But like the smith in the arts, it stands in humble men at the head. It has acopious fund of terms which it is constantly increasing by importation from the differentforeign dialects, which are speedily adapted to domestic requirements, and there is littlehesitation to add to the store from the slang which is heard in one place and another.

The English speech is extending all over the globe as no other language ever didbefore, since the dawn of history. When the Assyrian monarch was the "Great King," theSemitic dialects did not extend far from the Mediterranean and river Euphrates; theconquests of Alexander and his successors made Greek known over the East and inEgypt, but failed beyond the Indus; the Latin penetrated into western and northern Europe,

becoming the language of law and literature, and the French has been a language forcourts and fashionable society in several countries of Europe. But they all have had theirday, and must yield to the coming speech. By colonization and commercial intercourse theEnglish language already holds the lead in the civilized world. Great Britain, Canada, theUnited States, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, are all peopled by English-speaking populations. It is not necessary to enumerate other regions where also it has afirm foothold. Enough that where it has penetrated, there it has come to stay. It is thelanguage most used in commercial transactions, and by the electric telegraph. With all itsfaults thick upon it, these agencies are operated to best purpose with its use.

"Speech was made," says Lloyd, "to open man to man and not to hide him; topromote commerce, and not betray it." Indeed man owes his superiority in the scale ofphysical existence to the animal races to the possessing of this faculty. He is not confinedto uniform sounds to express corresponding wants; he gives to each sound a definedmeaning which constitutes it a word. It so happens, therefore, that as the specific meaningof each word is generally arbitrarily established, different individuals and peoples make useof diverse sounds to express similar meanings. It has not been enough to attach aparticular meaning to each sound. The next step after fixing the specific sense to a termor concept, is to provide for its perpetuation. This is effected by writing it down.Accordingly, as each sound has been agreed upon by common consent to represent aword, so characters have been devised by which to represent words and sounds. Thusman is superior to animals in the possession of vocal speech as well as in the knowledgeof fire.

It is not in the nature of language to be fixed and unchangeable. Being essentiallyhuman in its developing it is as various as human beings themselves. Two nations do notspeak alike; even individuals change their modes of using words at different periods of life.Languages, like men, develop after different ways, grow old, and die out from use. Withthe completeness of our English speech few of us can read Shakspere or the commonversion of the Bible, and take the sense exactly; and the poems of Chaucer, and Englishcomposition of an older period are past the common understanding. The English that isspoken nowadays, though of the same framework, is, nevertheless, so far unlike as to beanother evolution. It has taken into its collection thousands upon thousands of terms fromforeign sources, and dropped off many hundreds that were familar with our predecessors.If an individual were to make common use of words that were employed some threecenturies ago, he would be chided for eccentricity, if not misunderstood together. With usto "let" does not mean to hinder; to "prevent," to precede. "Conversation" is now discourseand not behavior. "Justice" is not quite synonymous with "righteousness." Hence our oldbooks that contain matter of real worth, need to be compiled anew for the latergenerations.

One transformation incident to the language consists in its varied modes of spelling.This is the weak spot, the place where a remedy is most needed and hardest to apply. Inolden times when language had prescribed vocabularies that were substantially all theirown, like Latin, Greek and Hebrew, there could be simple terms for the specific objects,and others would come into existence to express relations. But now, there comeinnumerable introductions of new terms from different climates, peoples and literatures;and, so while the vocabulary has been enriched beyond measure, there has not been acorresponding assimilation. As many tens of thousands of emigrants from Europe have

yet to be transformed into Americans, so the innumerable foreign terms which have beenadopted into the language are still heterogeneous, not to say alien and barbarous. Itgrates harshly on the ear of a cultured person to hear an untaught individual pronounce.

In order to make a beginning in the way of remedying these conditions, there hasbeen a movement set on foot to procure the adoption of simplified spelling for some threehundred words. Many of the changes, however, are but a returning to the orthography ofAddison, Bacon and Shakspere. Later lexicographers, it seems, had tried to establish astandard of regularity in etymology, which has led to the using of more letters to spell thewords than are necessary in denoting the sound. But this seems to be in vivid analogy tothe five barley loaves and two small fishes for a repast for five thousand men. It needs amiracle to make it answer much purpose. There is need for something radical. Thereshould be a vowel for every sound, and no consonant should have more than one service.A vowel like a in late, hate, ball, part and what is a monstrosity. Yet when we borrow wordsfrom other languages, and continue their pronunciation with the original spelling, what canthe common reader do? He hardly knows how to sound such words as debut and ennui.

Proper names are especially atrocious. The English monarch, pedant though hewas, who required the Gaelic and Irish names to be spelled with an elimination ofsuperfluous consonants, did an invaluable service. If the Magyar and Slavonic namescould be conformed to some better way of spelling it would be a priceless boon. Iremember well my perplexity in boyhood when reading an account of the achievements ofthe Polish commanders in the struggle of 1830 for independence, how I was puzzled at thename of Skrzynecki. Not for years did I know that it was to be pronounced Skrejanetski.It was like writing Solomon and reading Nebuchadnezzar.

I have my doubts whether the difficulties can be solved by a single nation. Yet theconcept of a consensus of peoples in the matter seems visionary, if not preposterous.There are not only habitudes and prejudices to overcome, but also capitalists with theirfunds invested in dictionaries. Yet it would be a long step in the world's civilization if therecould be an agreement to adopt a common alphabet with a uniform sound for every letter.Then we would need but one more step in this direction. Every word could be spelled asit is sounded or sounded as it is spelled. Years of schooling that are now employed incommitting words to memory could then be employed in actual learning.

But we cannot afford to spend time and labor upon such a Utopia. Probably it islittle more rational than it would be for Mr. McAdoo to tunnel the Atlantic Ocean, even if hewere to live as long as Methuselah. So let us content ourselves to work at home.

It is sometimes pleaded that when we simplify the orthography we drift away fromthe original derivation, and so make it more difficult to take the sense. I acknowledge thatI am very fond of tracing etymologies. But this is a minor consideration. Few persons thinkof derivations when talking or writing. It is not in their province. Besides this, words arelike tools and clothing, not only in wearing clear to obsolete, but in regard to their form andstructure. This occurs in other languages. Who would think to derive the Spanish term"hijo" from the Latin filias, or the Italian "chiesa" from the Greek Ekklesia? Yet words wearinto untraceable shape in that way, and it will not pay to attempt to prevent it. If we wouldspeak to be understood and not in an unknown tongue, we must use the terms that arecurrent in speech.

While, therefore, feeling that three hundred words do not amount to much in the wayof simplified spelling, it may be well to adopt them for all that they will effect. It is not well

to despise the day of small things. Indeed many of the changes that have been includedwere made by Noah Webster a century ago, and have been adopted already in thiscountry. Those of us who learned our spelling in the old "American" or the later"Elementary Spelling Book" have written "honor," "error" and the like as our emendatorsnow instruct us, and also "defense," "pretense," and the like. We may wince at some ofthe proposed alterations, like "thru," but can get used to it. Habit is a kind of becomingborn over again.

Individually, I would prefer the use of the letter s to s in all verbs where it belongsto the last syllable. This is a French idiom, I am aware, and most of the words to which Iallude were from the Greek and Latin. But at first such words were introduced from theFrench language, where the change had already been made. As there are other terms,like "apprise," "enterprise," which were French at the start, the adherence to that form ofspelling would assure us a single mode to learn instead of two.

It would be no great loss if the letters c, q and x were eliminated altogether.But why may we not change the letters when we take in a word from a foreign

dialect? We have changed "lecon" to lesson with greater advantage to everybody. Whynot do it with "machine," "debut," "debris," "beau," and others of that sort? If the letter i issounded like e in Europe and the classic languages, why should it not be so pronouncedby us? This adopting of alien terms with alien sounds and barbarous orthography,constitutes the greatest difficulty to the foreigner who would master the language. SamWeller's parrot had a right to complain at being compelled to learn English.

It is apparent from the present indications that our language is in a fair way tobecome the universal speech. The lover of knowledge, the well-bred and highly-cultured,will desire it to be learned and used correctly. By no means let it degenerate into a slumdialect or a pigeon English. A debased form of speech implies a lowered standard ofmorals. If the maxim holds good "handsome is that handsome does," then it must includethe way of talking. Good thinking demands language equally good to express it aright.

With such views of the subject, and with the belief that such are the ends in view,we are warranted in giving our support and our example to the changes in Englishorthography which have been proposed. It is hardly a valid objection that they are too fewor incomplete. We must bear with our child, nurse it carefully and judiciously, in the hopeof what it will become at maturity. It will be no slight gain to shorten the period ofelementary learning, so that the pupil can devote more time and earlier years to theacquiring of necessary knowledge. We may not compute the benefits which may thus beafforded. Perhaps it is enough to sum them up with the affirmation of the accomplishedwriter of The Guardian:

"Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to Virtue, truly and essentially raises oneman above another."

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 22, no. 4, April, 1908)

--------------------

Introduction to The Symbolic Language of Ancient Art * [ - Alexander Wilder]

At a comparatively recent period, it has been usual to describe the ancient religionof Babylonia, Assyria, and other contemporary nations as a gross polytheism. Themultitude of deities, the sanguinary customs, the mad enthusiasm of the sacred orgies, thelascivious rites of the Mother-Goddess, were cited as unequivocal evidence. Every cityand community had a tutelar divinity; human victims were offered as well as animals, atthe several shrines; at special festivals, men and women, in the wild intoxication ofreligious excitement, abandoned their houses and vocations to celebrate secretceremonies, and to wander at considerable distances over the fields and mountains; andalthough in many places ascetic practices were regarded as conducive to a divine life, inothers, more noted, there was permuted an almost general license, at the public festivals,and especially at the temples. From these scenes of debasement, the popular idea of thecharacter of the ancient worship has been derived.

--------------* The Symbolic Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, by Richard Payne Knight

(1841), "A New Edition with Introduction, Additions, Notes Translated into English and aNew and Complete Index by Alexander Wilder, M.D.", with 348 illustrations by A. L.Rawson, J. W. Bouton, New York, 1892, 452 pp.--------------

But explorations have greatly modified the impressions heretofore entertained, andafforded the "poor heathen" a stronger hold upon our candor and favorable regard. Thebeliefs which we have considered absurd and immoral, were to countless millions as thebreath which sustained their life; and could not be dislodged without peril to those who hadcherished them. The religion of every person is included in his ideal of the Absolute Right.Every man's conception of the Deity is the reflection of his own interior character. Hisreligion is an integral part of himself, true in essence, superior to the forms of worship, butnecessarily contaminated with the defects of the age and country in which he lives, and ofthe race to which he belongs. All are not called to the same formulas of doctrine; everyman has a divine right to revere and copy his own ideal. The heavenly principle andSupreme Order have been the constant faith of mankind; but the forms are apparently asdiverse as the mental structures of races and individuals. There is always a dissensionbetween persons of sentiment and the scientific, between those of speculative andinvestigating mind, and the merely practical. But neither could be very useful without theexistence of the other; and true wisdom shows that it is best in all matters of religious faithto accord the widest latitude and the most perfect liberty, not by enforced toleration as ofan evil that must be borne, but generously, that every one may spontaneously follow thepath which appears to him the way of Truth.

The same rule should apply, perhaps even in a larger degree, to the religions ofarchaic time. It has been too common a practice to misunderstand them. The classicalauthors themselves were sometimes too frivolous or superficial to describe them truthfully.The teachers of the faith which superseded them, have been too zealous to expose theirdeformities, without giving due credit and consideration to their essential merits. It hasnevertheless been a matter of astonishment for us that men of superior mind should adoredeities that are represented as drunken and adulterous, and admit extravagant stories andscandalous adventures among their religious dogmas. Yet, let it be always remembered

that the human mind is never absurd on purpose, and that whenever its creations appearto us senseless, it is because we do not understand them.

Religions were born from the human soul, and not fabricated. In process of timethey evolved a twofold character, the external and the spiritual. Then symbolism becamethe handmaid to worship; and the Deity in all his attributes was represented by every formthat was conceived to possess significance. The sun and moon, the circle of the horizon,and signs of tire Zodiac, the fire upon the altar and the sacred enclosure which fromtemenos became temple, the serpent, most spirit-like and like fire of all animals, the eggwhich typified all germinal existence, the exterior emblems of sex which as the agents forpropagating and thereby perpetuating all living beings, clearly indicated the demiurgicpotency which actuated the work and function of the Creator, - these, and a host of otherobjects naturally and not inappropriately became symbols to denote characteristics ofDivinity. In process of time the personifications were regarded as distinct deities; and theOne, or Double Unity, or the Quaternion including the Triad and Mother-Goddess, becameamplified into a pantheon. The tutelar divinities of tribes were transformed into theassociate gods of nations; and the conquest of a people was followed by the transferringof its deities to a subordinate place in the retinue of the gods of the conquerors.Sometimes there were haughty innovators like the Assyrians, or iconoclasts like thePersians, who refused such concessions and destroyed the symbols of religion among thenations that had been vanquished. Again, the genius of a people changed with years, andnew deities and representations crowded out the old. In Aryan countries, this was morecommonly the case; and hence the change of doctrines as the centuries passed hasrendered the entire subject complex and more or less confused. Such complications anda forced literal construction of the mythological fables, were adroitly but most ungenerouslyseized upon by the adversaries of the popular worship to show the debasing influence ofthe ancient religions. Candid criticism, if there is any such thing, can not accept theircondemnation unqualifiedly. The attacks of Hermias,Tatian, and Athenagoras, resemblevery closely those of Voltaire against Christianity.

Ridicule is always hard to refute; but it is not the weapon of noble men. Theinterpretation of Euhemerus which transformed the gods into men, that of Tertullian whichgave them substantial existence as evil demons, and the gross sentiment of Epicurus andLucretius, which made of the myths only frivolous fables invented to amuse, having nospecific aim or meaning, were so many forms of calumny and misrepresentation. Ancientpaganism* described by writers like Ovid and Juvenal, by what it had become in its decline,is like any individual or system in the period of decay.

------------* We use this term with hesitation. It has degenerated into slang, and is generally

employed with more or less of an opprobrious meaning. The correcter expressions wouldhave been "the ancient ethnical worships," but it would hardly be understood in its truesense, and we accordingly have adopted the term in popular use, but not disrespectfully.A religion which can develop a Plato, an Epictetus, and an Anaxagoras, is not gross,superficial, or totally unworthy of candid attention. Besides, many of the rites and doctrinesincluded in the Christian, as well as in the Jewish Institute, appeared first in the othersystems. Zorastrianism anticipated far more than has been imagined. The Cross, thepriestly robes and symbols, the sacraments, the sabbath, the festivals and anniversaries,

are all anterior to the Christian era by thousands of years. The ancient worship, after it hadbeen excluded from its former shrines, and from the metropolitan towns, was maintainedfor a long time by the inhabitants of humble localities. To this fact it owes its laterdesignation. From being kept up in the pagi, or rural districts, its votaries weredenominated pagans, or provincials. - A.W.------------

The loftiest ideas are sure to degenerate in the hands of sensual persons, into agross sensualism and superstition. It was an innocence born of primitive Nature, whichhad become as strange to the Romans of the Empire as to the various peoples of moderntime, that admitted into the religions those sacred legends which we consider scandalous,and the emblems which are accused of obscenity. The Hermaic or Baalic statue thatconstituted the landmark which might not be removed without profanation,* and thatconsecrated every cross-way and intersection of highways, which more modernsuperstition has perverted to desecration, was but one simple expression of that childlikefaith which recognizes and adores God in every natural form, function, and attribute. "Letus not smile," says that incomparable woman and moralist Mrs Lydia Maria Child, "let usnot smile at their mode of tracing the Infinite and Incomprehensible Cause throughout allthe mysteries of Nature, lest by so doing we cast the shadow of our own grossness on theirpatriarchal simplicity." **

-----------* Deuteronomy, xix, 14 and xxvii, 17.** Progress of Religious Ideas, Hindostan or India, vol. i, pp. 16, 17.

------------

To this pagan symbolism is art indebted for its glories, its masterpieces, as well asthe evolution of all its laws and principles. The Canon of Proportion which Egypt, Assyria,Phoenicia, Greece, and Ionia, employed in all their great works, was deduced from thehuman form as the ideal of Divinity, and the harmonious combination of the circle, squareand triangle, in artistic representation. Nature, as an ingenious writer has plainly shown,has shaped and colored all her productions, animal and vegetable, as well as earthy andcrystalline, according to laws which may be accurately ascertained by mathematicaldemonstration; and which successful art has only pursued and imitated. The peculiarsymbolism of the ethnical religions, being in a manner transcripts and copies from nature,must necessarily, as indeed it does, constitute the source from which every true artistderives the best lessons of his sublime vocation. Even the objects and representationswhich modern fastidiousness requires to be hidden from view and excluded from familiarspeech, are important constituents of modem architecture, both in church and mosque, asthey were formerly in temples and emblems associated with the worship of the Deity. Athorough knowledge of ancient mythology and symbolism is therefore indispensable to acorrect understanding of the details and intricacies of artistic production. Religionantedated and developed human skill and identity.

The Mysteries, which appear to have evolved and perpetuated the esotericprinciples of the ancient worships, were doubtless instituted when those worships hadreached a comparative maturity. Earlier than that, they could have been hardly possible.

Like a child having the intellectual and spiritual elements chiefly enveloped in the physical,as the leaf, flower and fruit are included in the bud, so mankind at first comprehendedreligious ideas as a unity, not distinguishing the envelope from what it enclosed, the symbolfrom the idea which it typified. Afterward, they began to perceive that there was a kernelinside the shell, and even further that there was a germ or rudiment of a future plantincluded is both - that the rugged forms of worship comprised ideas and principlesramifying into the profoundest details of science, art, and philosophy. Then immortalitywas born of the faculty of veneration; for he who can perceive God in the universe willrecognise himself as divine from the existence of that power of perceiving; and that whichis divine is immortal. It is the kernel in the nut, the germ in the kernel, the entity of life inthe germ. Hence, in the fullness of time, were established the Mysteries, which evolvedfrom the phenomena of life the conception of its actual essences, and taught how purity,virtue and wisdom led to the supreme good. "Happy," Cries Pindar, "happy is he, who hathbeheld those things common to the region beyond this earth - he knows the end of life, heknows its divine origin!" *

------------* Clement: Stromata, iii. "Olbioz ostiz idwna koina eiz

qkocQonia, oiden men bion teleutan, oiden de Dioz dotonarcan."------------

The great author of the Christian religion did not hesitate or disdain to includeesoteric learning in his teachings. When he first chose his confidential disciples hepropounded his doctrines alike to them and the multitude that thronged wherever he was.But presently he observed that many, the oi polloi, sought him, because they "did eatof the loaves and were filled."* He thenceforth divided his instruction into the moral andthe esoteric; and "from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more withhim." He explained the reason to those who continued with him: "It is given to you to knowthe Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given; therefore, I speak tothem in allegories, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do theyunderstand." **

The Apostle whose name is associated above all others with the early establishmentof Christianity, likewise divided the Church into the natural or psychical, and the spiritual,and addressed his instructions to them accordingly. "We speak wisdom among them thatare perfect" or initiated, he wrote to the Corinthian believers; "we speak wisdom of Godin a Mystery, secret, which God established in advance of the present period for our glory,which none of the archons of this period knew." ***

------------* Gospel according to John, vi, 26** Gospel according to Mathew, xiii, 11, 13*** I Corinthians, ii 6-8. The archons of Athens always exercised the super-

intendency of the Eleusinia, Thesmophoria, and Bacchic festivals; and Paul, who wascontrasting the "Mystery of Godliness" with the other orgies, ingeniously adopted theirmodes of expression. In the same connection, he also denominates their initiates natural

or psychical, thus signifying that they had not attained the diviner state - that they were stillin the realm of "generation," not having passed beyond the sphere of the Moon, andtherefore had not attained the noetic or spiritual life.------------

It is not practicable to ascertain with certainty when or by whom the ancientMysteries were instituted. Their form appears to have been as diversified as the geniusof the worshipers that celebrated them, while the esoteric idea was so universally similaras to indicate identity of origin. In Rome were performed the rites of the Bona Dea, theSaturnalia and Liberalia, which seem to have been perpetrated in our festivals ofChristmas, the Blessed Virgin and St. Patrick; in Greece were the Eleusinia, or rites of theComing One, which were probably derived from the Phrygian and Chaldean rites, - alsothe Dionysia, which Herodotus asserts were introduced there by Melampus, a mantis orprophet, who got his knowledge of them by the way of the Tyrians from Egypt. The greathistorian, treating of the Orphic and Bacchic rites, declares that they "are in reality Egyptianand Pythagorean." *

-----------* Herodotus: ii, 49, 81

-----------

The Mysteries of Isis in Egypt and of the Cabeirian divinities in Asia andSamothrace, are probably anterior and the origin of the others. The Thesmophoria, orassemblages of the women in honor of the Great Mother, as the institutor of the socialstate, were celebrated in Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece and Sicily; and we notice expressionsin the Books of Exodus, Samuel and Ezekiel which indicate that they were observed by theIsraelites in Arabia and Palestine.* The rites of Serapis were introduced into Egypt byPtolemy, the Savior, and superseded the worship of Osiris; and after the conquest ofPontus, where the Persian religion prevailed, the Mysteries of Mithras were carried thenceinto the countries of the West, and existed among the Gnostic sects many centuries afterthe general dissemination of Christianity.

----------* Exodus xxxviii, 8; I Samuel ii, 22; and Ezekiel viii, 14

----------

The Albigenses, it is supposed, were Manicheans or Mithracising Christians. TheMithraic doctrines appear to have comprised all the prominent features of the Magian orChaldean system; and we need not be surprised, therefore, that they are represented asembracing magical, occult, and thaumaturgical science. The Alexandrian Platonistsevidently regarded them favorably as being older than the western systems, and probablymore genuine.

The Mysteries, whatever may have been asserted in their derogation, neverthelesspreserved the interior sense of the ancient worship. A distinguished writer* has employedhis poetic talent to depict the scenes of an initiation in Egypt; and but for the labor oftravellers and antiquaries, we would imagine that he had woven an ingenious tale of

romance. He, however, has omitted the famous Judgment-Scene of Amenti, the sublimeperiod of the disembodied soul, though indicating much that relieves the Egyptian worshipfrom the imputation of fetishism. Indeed, the Book of Job, which appears on superficialexamination to be an Idumean or Arabian production, actually seems to have been areligious allegory or drama illustrating this very subject. This is not improbable; for theApostle Paul himself does not hesitate to assert the same thing of narratives in the OldTestament, which are not easy to verify as authentic history.**

---------* Moore: The Epicurean** In the Epistle to the Galatians, the circumstances relative to the wife, concubine,

and two elder sons of Abraham are denominated allegoroumena (allegoroumena)or allegorising; and to the Corinthians he declares that the exodus from Egypt andadventures in the wilderness were tupoi (tupoi), types of symbols, which were writtenfor instruction.---------

The "Mystic Drama of Eleusis," as Clement so aptly denominates the sacred ritesor orgies of the Great Mother, Demeter, was doubtless taken from the same source as theMysteries of Isis.* It extended from the institution by the mythical Eumolpus till the ancientworship was forcibly suppressed by the Emperor Theodosius, about the year 380, a periodof more than eighteen centuries. In it appears to have been expressed all that was vitaland essential in the religion of Greece. Of its sacredness and majesty, Antiquity has butone voice.

------------* The worship of this Great Mother is not more wonderful for its antiquity in time than

for its prevalence as regards space. To the Hindu she was the Lady Isani. She was theCeres of Roman mythology, the Cybele (Kubele) of Phrygia and Lydia, and the Disa of theNorth. According to Tacitus (Germania, ix.) she was worshiped by the ancient Suevi. Shewas worshiped by the Muscovite, and representations of her are found upon the sacreddrums of the Laplanders. She swayed the ancient world, from its south-east corner in Indiato Scandinavia in the North-west; and everywhere she is the 'Mater Dolorosa.' And whois it, reader, that in the Christian world struggles for life and power under the name of theHoly Virgin, and through the sad features of the Madonna?" (Atlantic Monthly, vol. iv, p.297, - The Eleusinia, note.)-------------

Renan gives us the following outline of the holy orgies:"Setting aside the immense superiority of the Christian dogma, setting aside the lofty

moral spirit which pervades its legend (the story of Jesus and his Passion], and to whichnothing in antiquity can be compared - perhaps, if we could be permitted to assist at anancient Mystery, we would witness similar things there; symbolical spectacles in which themystagogue was actor and spectator at once, a group of representations traced in a piousfable, and almost always relating to the sojourn of a deity on the earth, to his passion, hisdescent into hell, his return to life. Sometimes it was the death of Adonis, sometimes the

mutilation of Atys, sometimes the murder of Zagreus or of Sahazius."One legend, in particular, contributed wonderfully to the commemorative

representations; it was that of Ceres and Proserpina [or Demeter and Persephoneia]. Allthe circumstances of this myth, all the incidents of the search after Proserpina by hermother, gave room for a picturesque symbolism which powerfully captivated theimagination. They imitated the actions of the goddess, and revived the sentiments of joyand grief, which must successively have animated her. There was first, a long processionmingled with burlesque scenes, purifications, watchings, fasts followed by feastings, night-marches with torches to represent the mother's search, circuits in the dark, terrors,anxieties - then, all at once, splendid fulminations. The gates of the temple opened; theactors were received into the realms of delight, where they heard voices. Changes ofscene, produced by theatrical machinery, added to the illusion; recitations of which wehave a sample in the Homeric Hymn to Ceres, broke the monotony of the representation.Each day had its name, its exercises, its games, its stations, which the actors went throughin company. One day it was a mimic battle in which they attacked each other with stones.Another day they paid homage to the Mater Dolorosa - probably a statue of Ceres as anaddolorata, a veritable Pieta. Another day they drank the cyceon (kukeon, or mixeddraught), and imitated the jests by which the old Iambe succeeded in amusing thegoddess; they made processions to the spots in the neighborhood of Eleusis, to thesacred fig-tree, and to the seaside; they ate the prescribed meats, and performed mysticrites, the significance of which was almost always lost on those who celebrated them.Mixed with these were Bacchanalian ceremonies, dances, nocturnal feasts with symbolicalinstruments.* On their return they gave the reins to joy; the burlesque resumed its pacein the gephyrismes, or farces of the bridge. As soon as the initiated had reached thebridge over the Cephissus, the inhabitants of the neighboring places, running from allquarters to see the procession, launched out into sarcasms on the holy troop, andlascivious jokes, to which they with equal wantonness replied. To this, no doubt, wereadded scenes of grotesque comicality, a species of masquerade, the influence of whichon the first sketches of the dramatic art is very perceptible. Ceremonies which involved asymbolism so vague under a realism so gross, had a great charm for the ancients and lefta profound impression; they combined what man loves most in works of imagination, avery definite form and a very free sense."

-----------* "It was the time when the Sithonian women are wont to celebrateThe Triennial Mysteries of Bacchus; Night a witness to the rites,Rhodope sounds with the clashing of acute brass by night."

- Ovid: Metamorphoses, vi."Women girded phalli to their breasts, solemnising Mysteries."

- Nonnus, xivii.-----------

"It is certain that the Mysteries of Eleusis, in particular, exerted a moral and religiousinfluence; that they consoled the present life, taught in their way the life to come, promisedrewards to the initiated, on certain conditions, not of purity and piety only, but also ofjustice; and if they did not likewise teach monotheism, which would have been a negation

of paganism, they at least approached it as nearly as paganism was permitted to do. Theysustained and cherished in the soul, by their very mystery, and by the purified worship ofNature, that sentiment of the Infinite - of God, in short - which lay at the bottom of thepopular credence, but which the anthromorphism of mythology tended incessantly toefface."*

------------* Religions of Antiquity. M. Renan asserts further that "deep researches would show

that nearly everything in Christianity that does not depend on the Gospel is mere baggagebrought from the pagan Mysteries into the hostile camp. The primitive Christian worshipwas nothing but a mystery. The whole interior police of the Church, the degrees ofinitiation, the command of silence, and a crowd of phrases in the ecclesiastical languagehave no other origin. The Revolution which overthrew Paganism seems, at first glance,a sharp, trenchant, and absolute rupture with the Past; and such, in fact, it was, if weconsider only the dogmatic rigidity and the austere moral tone which characterized the newreligion. But in respect of worship and outward observances, the change was effected byan insensible transition, and the popular faith saved its most familiar symbols fromshipwreck. Christianity introduced, at first so little change into the habits of private andsocial life, that with great numbers in the fourth and fifth centuries it remains uncertainwhether they were Pagans or Christians; many seem even to have pursued an irresolutecourse between the two worships. On its side, ART, which formed an essential part of theancient religion, had to break with scarce one of its traditions. Primitive Christian Art isreally nothing but Pagan Art in its decay, or in its lower departments. The Good Shepherdof the Catacombs in Rome is a copy from the Aristeus, or from the Apollo Nomius, whichfigure in the same posture on the pagan sarcophagi; and still caries the flute of Pan, in themidst of the four half-naked Seasons. On the Christian tombs of the Cemetery of St.Calixtus, Orpheus charms the animals. Elsewhere, the Christ as Jupiter-Pluto, and Maryas Proserpina, receive the souls that Mercury, wearing the broad-brimmed hat, andcarrying in his hand the rod of the soul-guide (psychopompes), brings to them, in presenceof the three Fates. Pegasus, the symbol of the apotheosis, Psyche, the symbol of theimmortal soul, heaven personified by an old man, the river Jordan, and Victory, figure ona host of Christian monuments."------------

The Dionysia or Mysteries of Bacchus are generally ascribed to Orpheus,* who issaid to have introduced them into Thrace at a very ancient period, eleven generationsbefore the destruction of Troy; also into Thebes and other parts of Greece. He is affirmedto have preceded all other religious teachers; and his disciples were distinguished for theirknowledge of medicine, astronomy, and music, also for the employment of symbols andtheir devotion to a life of celibacy.

-----------* Aristotle declared that no such person as Orpheus ever existed; and I entertain

no doubt of the correctness of his judgment. The name is evidently the Chaldaic Urphi, thedesignation of a celebrated oracle at Edessa, which was much consulted by theBabylonians and Persians. Pausanias asserts that Orpheus was a Magian. The legends

of his descent into Hell in quest of his wife Eurydice, and his safe return to the upperworld,however, resembles closely the other myths of the decease and subsequent resuscitationof the Mystery-gods, and conclusively establish his affiliations with Osiris, Adonis, Atys,Dionysus-Zagreus, and the other Slain Ones, Protogoni or Only-Begotten Sons. TheCabeirian as well as the Sabazian Mysteries are assigned to him, indicating that the entirelegend came by way of the Phoenicians. This people had also a famous mythicalpersonage or divinity, styled Rapha, whose sons or worshipers, the Rephaim, or Orpheans,occupied districts in Palestine and east of the Jordan. They were famed, like theirThracian namesakes, for strength of body, disposition for ascetic life, and proficiency inknowledge and the liberal arts.------------

The legend of the Dionysiac or Bacchic Mysteries recites that Dionysus-Zagreus was a sonof Zeus or Jupiter whom he had begotten in the form of a dragon upon the Virgin Kore-Persephoneia, whom older myths have made the same as Demeter or Ceres, reputed tobe her mother in the Eleusinian story. It was the purpose of Zeus to place the sun thusobtained upon the throne of Olympus. But the seven Titans surprised the young child andtore him in pieces. His heart was rescued by Athene and swallowed by Zeus, by whom hewas again begotten, and again made the heir of the universe.* All these scenes werecommemorated, each mysta being sworn to secrecy; and at the end, the Hierophantchanted: "I have escaped calamity; I have found the better lot."

-----------* That ingenious but somewhat fanciful writer, E. Pococke, fondly traces in this

legend the evidence of an ancient Lama Hierarchy in Northern Greece similar inconstitution to that still existing in Thibet. "The Lamaic system," says he, "was, at theearliest periods of Greece, undoubtedly administered with great vigor. Its contests,however, for supremacy, were many, and vigorously conducted: and but for that Tartarpopulation, which in common with the people of Lebanon, formed so powerful an elementin the colonization of primeval Phoenician Egypt, it would have been impossible to assureits dominant influence over nearly the whole of Hellas. This system of religion will be foundto have been so far modified and so far compromised, as to be compelled to take its placein the asyla of the Mysteries of Greece, in lieu of the open, and as it were state-position,it once occupied. That Lamaic sovereignty which was once wielded with the vigor of thetriple crown in its most palmy days, had lost its imperial, and still more its despoticcharacter; and an oligarchy of the Hellenic Buddhistic priesthood had taken the place ofthe absolutism of one. Their faith, and the faith of those Athenians who were initiated atthe eleusinian Mysteries, will in the sequel be shown to be identical with that ofPythagoras."

"The great head of this vast system of hierarchic domination which in those ancientdays extended over the known world with an uniformity and vigor unparalleled but by thesame system of Buddhistic Rome, during the Middle Ages was termed 'Jeenos' by theGreeks, written 'Zeenos,' an appellation given to the Buddha pontiffs of antiquity, as wellin Phoenicia as in Greece. The Greek term 'Zeus' is simply the form 'Jeyus' inflected, andis the term employed to express the Ruling Saintly Pontiff of his day. Such was theJeenos, 'the King of Gods and men,' that is of the devas (priests) and people in Greece,

long before the Homeric Days." "The succession of the Lamaic rulers in Greece appears,judging by the accounts left us by Hesiod, to have been settled by the pure decision of theruling Pontiff, in lieu of the method at present adopted in Tartary. There is one newpersonage begotten by Zeus (the Pontiff) who stands pre-eminently marked in the orphictheogony, and whose adventures constitute one of its peculiar features. Zagreus [Chakrasor ruler of a continent], 'the horned child,' is the Son of Zeus by his own daughter (orvotary) Peresphone (Parisoopani or Durga, called also Kere or Gouree). He is the favoriteof his father; a child of magnificent promise, and predestined to grow up to succeed tosupreme dominion." This intended successor to the Pontificate appears to have beenmurdered by the Tithyas [Titans] or Heretics. With the usual Buddhistic belief, however,of transmigration, the young Lama [Semele] or Great Lama Queen. Other accountsrepresent this new incarnation, who had the name of 'Dio-Nausus,' as being born upon theholy mountain of 'Meroo,' a history converted by the Greeks to the 'meros,' or thigh ofZeus!" - (India in Greece, chap. xvii.)

[I assume putting this crackpot here as a footnote is some sort of farce on thepublisher (Bouton, N.Y.), for the farce of including Rawson's several hundred illustrationsof nudes posing as "symbolic art" in the volume at hand. - digital ed.]-------------

This is the same proclamation as was made by the bride at the nuptial ceremony;and indeed the idea of a sacred marriage is conveyed by the rites of initiation. "Those whoare initiated sing: 'I have eaten from the drum; I have drank from the basin [cymbal];bearing the earthen cup, I have gone to the nuptial chamber." *

-----------* Psellus: Manuscripts

-----------

In his relation to the sun, as lord of Heaven, demiurge and Father of Creation,Bacchus was denominated IIuripaiz, Puripais, or Son of Fire, and was representedwith the phallic symbolism; as was Zeus by that of a serpent, denoting the essential spiritthat preceded all things. Hence, in the mystic cista or ark which was opened to the viewof the epopta or seer, were exhibited the egg, the phallus and the serpent, typifying theprimal essence, the demiurgic power and the organic substance which is renderedoperative - thus constituting a symbolism as lofty in sentiment or as gross in sense as isthe mind of the person witnessing the spectacle.

After Pontus to Asia Minor, previously held by Persia, had been conquered byPompey, the worship of Mithras superseded the Dionysia, and extended over the RomanEmpire. The Emperor Commodus was initiated into these Mysteries; and they have beenmaintained by a constant tradition, with their penances and tests of the courage of thecandidate for admission, through the Secret Societies of the Middle Ages and theRosicrucians, down to the modern faint reflex of the latter, the Freemasons.* The Mithraicrites supplied the model of the initiatory ceremonies observed in those societies, and aredescribed by Justin Martyr and Tertullian as resembling the Christian Sacraments. Thebelievers were admitted by the rite of baptism; they had a species of Eucharist; while thecourage and endurance of the neophyte were tested by twelve consecutive trials

denominated Tortures, undergone within a cave constructed for the purpose, and lastedforty days before he was admitted to a participation in the Mysteries.** The peculiarsymbol of these rites have been found all over Europe; and the burial place of the ThreeKings of Cologne, Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior, were shown as the tombs of theMagians that visited Bethlehem. The Gnostics borrowed largely from them; and in timetheir very festival became the Christmas of the Church. The Jews, too, derived from themthe Pharisean doctrines of future rewards and punishments, a hiererchy of angels as wellas of evil demons, the immortality of the soul, and future judgment. All these were featuresof the Zoroastrian system; but were rejected by the Sadducees or sacerdotal party whoadhered to the Mosaic polity and rejected all foreign doctrines.

------------* C.W. King: The Gnostics and their Remains, p. 47. The late Godfrey Higgins

relates (Anacalypsis, vol. i.) that a Mr. Ellis was enabled, by aid of the Masonic Symbols,to enter the adytum of a Brahmanical temple in Madras.

** "He baptizes his believers and followers; he promises the remission of sins at thesacred font, and thus initiates them into the religion of Mithras; he marks on the foreheadhis own soldiers; he celebrates the oblation of bread (with water); he brings in the symbolof the resurrection, and wins the crown with the sword - in order that he may confound andjudge us by the faith of his own followers." - Tertullian, Praescript.------------

The Cabeirian Mysteries appear to have been the least understood. Indeed, theywere probably different in different countries. Creuser traces them to the Phoencians, andassociates the worship with that of the Moon-god. Herodotus identifies the deities with thesons of Phtha or Hephaistos in Egypt; and Damascius with the seven sons of Sadyk, thePhoenician deity, of whom Esmun or Aesclepius was the eighth. They are probablyidentical with the Pataeci or fetishes of the Phoenicians. Most authors agree that theyvaried in number, and that their worship, which was very ancient in Samothrace and inPhrygia, was carried to Greece by the Pelasgians. Some believe them to have beenDemeter, Persephone, and Pluto, and others add a fourth, Cadmus or Kadmiel, the sameas Hermes and Aesculapius. They were also worshiped at Lemnos. The goddess Astartewas likewise celebrated with Pothos and Phaethon "in most holy ceremonies" of the samenature.

The peculiar form of the Hermaic statues, called "Baalim," to the Old Testament,was adopted from the Cabeirian Mysteries. According to Herodotus, "the Samothraciansreceived these Mysteries from the Pelasgians, who before they went to live in Attica, weredwellers in Samothrace, and imparted their religious ceremonies to the inhabitants. TheAthenians, then, who were the first of all the Greeks to make their statues of Hermes in thisway, learnt the practice from the Pelasgians; and by this people a religious account of thematter is given, which is explained in the Samothracian Mysteries." *

It is apparent that the idolatry ascribed to the Israelites and other inhabitants ofPalestine was borrowed from these rites. Plutarch supposed the Feast of Tabernacles tohave been Bacchanalian, and notices the carrying of the thyrsus at the feast of trumpets.The Mysteries of the Greeks were connected solely with the worship of the divinities in theUnderworld; and such appears to have constituted a part of the orgies of Baal-Peor.**

"The children of Israel walked in the statutes of the heathen, did secretly (in the Mysteries)things that were not right against the Lord their God, built high places in all their cities, setup Hermaic statues and the emblems of Venus-Astarte in every high hill and under everygreen tree, worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal-Hercules, the god ofTyre."***

------------* Herodotus, ii, 51** Psalms, cvi, 28. "They joined themselves also unto Baal-Peor, and ate the

sacrifices of the dead."*** 2 Kings, xvii, 7-17, abridged.

------------

So closely did the practices as described by the prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah,Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, resemble those connected with the Phoenician worship, includingthe mystic orgies, the sacred dances and processions, that the description of the one isequivalent to that of the other. Prior to the Babylonish captivity, the religion of Tyre, Sidon,and Palestine appears to have been general among the Israelitish tribes; but after thatevent, the Persian influence evidently predominated. But the Macedonians introduced therites of Bacchus, at a later period; and among them also we have the testimony of St.Jerome, A.D. 400, that in the place where the Redeemer cried in the manger, the lamentof women for Adonis has been heard even in recent times.* The Roman senate, in thereign of Theodosius the Great, prohibited the further exercise of the old religious rites;after which they fell into general disrepute. But they were secretly observed in all parts ofthe empire for a long period. To the fanatical hordes of Islam, proclaiming with the edgeof the cimiter that God was One and Mohammed was his Apostle, is to be accredited theextinction of the Mystic Orgies in the East, as well as the desecration of shrines and thealmost total destruction of libraries and the works of ancient art. Singular are thecompensations of history; the Arabian race planted their colonies with the Mosaic worshipin Palestine, and the Mysteries in Phoenicia, and after chiliads of years, commissioned thedestroyers to go over those lands like locusts to consume and eradicate the product of theirown planting.

-------------* Epistle 49, to Paulinus.

------------------------------

LIFE ETERNAL - Alexander Wilder

I.

"Through thy eternal life, thou breathest the breath of God. He is never far fromthee. Keep within the channel of his affinity, and all knowledge will flow in and aroundthee, illumining thy pathway."

In the Sacred Books of the ancient Persians* there is recorded the experiences ofthe soul of the righteous person passing away from the life in the earth and its receptionby the holy ones in the eternal region. Before setting out it holds a vigil of three nights atthe head of the body from which it had become separate, as though in anticipation of beingrequired to take up again the former relations. All this while it is imploring blessedness,and experiences as much bliss as living creatures enjoy. It then leaves for the celestialrealm, and is regaled all the way by fragrant breezes. Upon arriving at the Bridge ofJudgment it becomes divested of the consciousness and other qualities which it hadacquired from the corporeal world. Then appears a figure like a beautiful maiden, radiantwith celestial light, powerful, perfectly developed in form, noble of manner, vigorous like ayouth of fifteen, fair as the fairest of human beings. The new-comer salutes her asguardian, asking who she is, and adding in a transport of joy and wonder: "Never beheldI one so charming!"

Then she answers: "I am thy immortal life - they pure thought, blameless speechand worthy action - the goodness which is the law of thy whole being. Thou art now seenby me in that likeness of myself, great, good and beautiful, which is like what I also seemto thee. I had been loved before and thou has made me yet more beautiful; I wasdesirable and thou has rendered me yet more desirable; and sitting on high, thou hastexalted me yet higher by thy pure thinking, thy blameless speaking and thy righteousaction."

-------------* Hadokht Nask, fragment.

-------------

So, guided by her, the soul enters paradise, step by step, to the eternal lights. Thisvision of beatitude, this concept of the eternal life, is attainable by all who rise above theillusions of sense, which, like clouds and exhalations from the ground, shut out theheavens from our view. The eternal world of abiding reality is not afar off from any one ofus. It is in and about us. The soul, our psyche, is able, by the power which true philosophyreveals, to strip off her caterpillar shell and unfold her wings and thenceforth live her reallife as the native of a higher sphere. In this way the new and more glorious existencebegins. The universe then appears in a transfigured form. It had been contemplatedbefore where the clouds were hiding away the sun; but now our view is from an altitudefar above the vapor and mist. Instead of an inert matter filling and choking up space, thereis now beheld a continual stream of life inflowing everywhere - the original, infinite, Divinelife. "Pure and holy," says Fichte, "and as near to the infinite essence as aught to mortalapprehension can be, this life flows forth as a band which binds spirits with spirits in one;as air and ether of the world of Mind, inconceivable and incomprehensible, and yet lyingplainly revealed to the spiritual eye. Conducted by this light-stream, thought flowsunrestrained and the same from soul to soul, and returns purer and transfigured from thekindred breast. Through this arcane communion the individual finds and understands and

loves himself only in another; no isolated thinking, loving and hating, but only a thinkingand loving and hating through one another. Through this arcane communion the affinityof spirits in the invisible world streams forth into this corporeal nature and represents itselfin two sexes, which, though every spiritual tie should be severed, are still constrained, asnatural beings, to love one another. It flows forth into the affection of parents and children,of brothers and sisters; as though the souls as well as the bodies were sprung from oneblood, and the minds were branches and blossoms of the same stem. And from thenceit embraces, in narrower or wider circles, the whole sentient world. Mine eye discerns thiseternal life and motion in all the veins of sensible and spiritual nature through what seemsto others as a dead mass. It sees this life forever ascend and grow, and transform itselfinto a more spiritual expression of its own nature. The universe is spiritualized to mycontemplation, and bears the peculiar impress of the spirit - continual progress towardperfection in a straight line which stretches into infinity. So I live, and so I am; and so I amunchangeable, firm and complete for all eternity. For this being is not one which I havereceived from without; it is my own only-true being and essence."

These words of Fichte are abundantly corroborated in our own experience. "It wasfound," says Professor Tyndall, "that the mind of man is capable of penetrating far beyondthe boundary of his free senses; that the things which are seen in the material worlddepend for their action upon things unseen; in short, that besides the phenomena whichaddress the senses, there are laws and principles and processes which do not address thesenses at all, but which need and can be spiritually discerned."

In this way, accordingly, we become cognizant of our spiritual nature. In moreimmature periods of life, when the corporeal structure seemed to include everything aboutus, this was not so plain. But as the years accumulate and the interior faculties becomemore acute, the body, with all its curious organism, seems to be in some respects a thingdetached from us and a little interval away. We can contemplate it like any other object.It has been all the while necessary to us, and is still able to make us keenly sensible to thediscomforts of cold, pain and fatigue. We need not imagine, however, because of thesesusceptibilities, that our life is purely, or even chiefly, a thing of the body or itself a merecorporeal existing. The psychic nature is of a distinct quality from the bodily environment,and in due time will ripen and become individualized apart from it.

We witness the analogy to this in the vegetable kingdom. When the grain of wheatis sown in the ground and springs up, the grassy blade and stalk are vitally important, asin its turn likewise is the ear, with its growth of chaff. In due time the blossom appears andthe kernel forms. All, so far, has taken place for the sake of this result. The office of thestalk, leaves and chaffy receptacle comes now to an end. Now that the grain is perfected,they no longer belong to it, and are discarded as rubbish. In a corresponding manner, thehuman soul is sown in the corruptible body and rises from it in an incorruptible form. Weperceive this as our spiritual faculties extricate themselves from the physical envelope, andso we become clothed with immortality. "I am immortal," says Fichte, "in that I purpose toobey the law of the spirit; I do not become so."

The faith in immortality is our noblest possession. It is rooted in the core of ourbeing, and can never be taken entirely away from us. It is necessary to us in order toafford us a criterion by which to judge and determine what is right. I would shudder at thewreck which that individual would be, mentally and morally, who really imagined that fromthe moment of bodily dissolution he would totally cease to live and be. A human being, in

case that such utter extinction was to be his destiny, would not differ essentially from abrute, or be amenable to other moral obligations than the wild beasts of the forest. Theyknow no curb upon rapacious desire except that of bodily inability, and there would be noadequate reason why he should not do like them. Mankind would thus be left without theincentive of duty or the wisdom which exalts the nature above the dead level of selfishnessand bestiality. I have no confidence or belief in the genuineness of any profession of asentiment of justice which is solely the outgrowth and result of personal experience. Whenwe can perceive no higher motive than selfishness we lose sight entirely of our trueselfhood, and occupy the imagination with sensuous conceptions alone. When Death isthus made the only thing real, existence is very certain to become a burden. No matterwhat treasures of mind and rich jewels of character may be possessed, they cannot in suchcase be enjoyed, because there is no just appreciation of their value. The proprietor isreally as poor as the beggar at the door. There is no room for love and the other virtuesin a man or a world except there is faith in immortality. Love creates and prepares theplace in human hearts for the virtues to fill.

If we would attain the higher wisdom, it will be necessary for us to reject thelimitations of superficial and empiric knowledge. The narrow understanding cancomprehend no perception that exceeds its own dimensions. Some such cause as thisseems to have led many to assume that life is purely or chiefly a corporeal matter, andlimited by bodily sensibilities. A habit of reasoning thus induced probably incited theconjecture that there can be no mind or intellection except as the brain and corporealorganism exist for its development and maintenance. We may not, however, concede tothem this magnified importance. They exist solely from the life and energy which pervadethem. Even the protoplasm or initial organism which is so much insisted upon is such onlyby virtue of its inherent vital principle, and even then it is not of uniform character. It mustbe admitted that there is a protoplasm for every kind of vegetable production and for everyrace of animals. Even though it should be demonstrated that all protoplasms have likechemical and organic constituents and that we perceive no form of living thing till we havefirst the protoplasm, nevertheless, this diversification of realm, kingdom, race and speciesdisposes of the whole argument. We may relegate the entire series of phenomena to thebackground. The principle, the inherent energy, must transcend manifestations.

Everything that exists has its origin from a cause above and anterior to it. Itsmaterial basis is not altogether as definite and unequivocal as it may be imagined. It is byno means absolutely improbable that the carbon, the iron, silica and potassium which areobtained by the destructive analysis of plants were formed, to some extent, at least, fromelements derived from the atmosphere, and that lime and flint are animal productionscreated by transforming other substances. Beds of flint exist underground at Berlin, inPrussia, and at Petersburg, in Virginia, which are the secretions of infusoria. All our lime,chalk and marble seem to have been the creations of minute animals. The corallina willdeposit more lime in a single season upon their reefs than ever existed in the broadest ordeepest seas. There are air-plants which contain potassium, and there is good reason forthe supposition that the carbon which composes our peat and coal, as well as vegetablefibre, was not merely absorbed from the atmosphere, but was also derived from certainprinciples which scientific exploration has not yet been able to detect. I am ready to hearthat gold itself is solidified sunshine which has been attracted and enwombed in a matrixof quartz.

Eminent savants have assured us that all matter in its last analysis would beresolved into points of dynamic force. All the interminable series of material existence,then, are so many products of force under the direction of an omnific Will. Force, beingwithout dimension, can be nothing else than spiritual substance, and what are termed"Properties of Matter" are really so many manifestations of spirit. Accordingly, when theelements of our corporeal structure shall have been dissolved, which have once performedthe office of tissue and brain, and thus served as the vehicle of mind and understanding,it does not follow that our mental and psychic nature perish with them. In fact, this veryprocess of disintegration is constantly going on. The particles which aforetime made upour bodies and brains were afterward eliminated and their places taken by others, whilethe vital principle which had attracted and made use of them survived the departure. Theychange and pass away, but this abides and never loses its identity. It thus manifests itselfas the greater, as well as older; and we have good reason, therefore, to believe that it willcontinue when ALL the corporeal elements have parted from it. As the kernel of wheatdoes not perish when its chaffy envelope bursts and it abandons its receptacle upon thestalk, so its counterpart, the soul and personality, does not cease to be when it haswithdrawn from the body.

In the Khandagya Upanishad is a dialogue between a father and his son upon theseprofounder themes of being. "This body withers when the living selfhood has left it," saysthe father, "but the living selfhood does not perish." The son asked him to tell more; hecommanded him to bring him a fruit of the nyagradha, the sacred fig-tree. "Break it," saidthe father. "What do your see?" "Not anything," the son replied. "My son," said the father,"that subtle essence which you do not perceive there, of that very essence this greatnyagradha-tree exists."

A reply like this may be made to all who profess to doubt the fact of our immortality.Perhaps it may be difficult to prove it by logic and mathematical demonstration, so that thereasoning shall appear conclusive. We are unable to cast a measuring line over theinfinite. The creations of the understanding must of necessity fall short of compassing thefaculty of the understanding itself. Nevertheless, this disability does not warrant disbelief.The Australian savage has no developed capacity for mathematical science, yet this doesnot disprove or even obscure the existence of mathematics. The child in embryo haslungs, but does not breathe, and unweaned infants do not produce their kind, yet in bothare the rudiments of all that pertains to adult life. We likewise can enlarge the scope of ourmental vision, and may yet develop faculties which we do not now perhaps even imagineto exist. Hence we are by no means excluded from the hope of a more perfect knowing,nor from a hearty faith in the Infinite and Eternal and in our own immortality as participantsin the Divine nature.

Goethe has aptly remarked that one who thinks can never quite believe that he islikely to become non-existent, and cease to think and live. Thus spontaneously does everyhuman being cherish the sentiment of an unending life. During the later periods of ourearthly existence, we are conscious that our highest ideals are yet unrealized. Theconviction, the prophecy, the moral consciousness, hang over the mind that there will yetbe a field and opportunity to accomplish them. That was a true, as well as beautiful, sayingof Charles Fourier, that every desire which God has implanted in a human soul is also hispromise of its fruition. We may rest content, therefore, in the persuasion that the scopeof our aspirations embraces only ideals which we may yet realize. "As," says Cicero, "this

unceasing activity of the soul derives its energy from its own intrinsic and essential powers,without receiving it from any foreign or external impulse, it necessarily follows that itsactivity must continue forever."

The highest evidence of immortality, nevertheless, is of a nature too exalted andarcane to be uttered in any form of words. It is a knowledge which each may possess forhimself, but it may not be imparted. That which is personal and subjective can hardly berendered obvious to the perception of another. Thus I am unable to show conclusively toanother that I am suffering pain. He must admit the fact from my own testimony solely, asinterpreted by his own cognizance of like sensations. In fact, in order to be certain ofanything beyond the evidence of one's own sense, there must be a joint participation ofspiritual life. I may thus know that my conjugal companion loves me, but I am not able toprove this to another by any kind of testimony or reasoning. Yet I am warranted in stakingall my earthly future upon the fact.

It has been sagaciously affirmed that one must love before he can know that theobject is lovely. By a kindred analogy, it may be declared that in order to perceive ourimmortality we must possess it first. Our own interior consciousness or supra-consciousness is thus an abundant and sufficient assurance of the fact. This illustration,however, may not necessarily be extended to the individual who doubts and denies. Hemay not have become mature enough in interior perceptivity to enable such cognition, orfrom some other cause, his spiritual faculties may be dormant. It is not my province tojudge him for this. He stands or falls at another tribunal; while my works as well as hismust undergo the test of fire.

What, then, let us ask, is Life? An accepted explanation represents it as a principlethat coordinates forces. The problem, however, is not explained, except we go further. Allforce is evolved from Being, and only that which subsists from itself can employ any formof coordination. Life is correspondent to light, which in its absolute purity is both invisibleand incomprehensible, and can only be perceived after a manner by our corporeal senseswhen it has become tempered by intermingling with material constituents. The inherentprinciple of life is Love, and the tenacity to live is correlative with the energy and intensityof loving.

The human soul is a mixture of qualities and affections. What we usuallydenominate sentiments are so many elements of our being. Our affections, thoughts,wishes and impulses are not accidents of our nature but are indeed our very selves. Wedo not possess souls, but are ourselves souls in very actuality. Goodness, virtue and allthe nobler incentives, are not mere idealities void of essential vitality, but are essential factand substance. Life is by no means a mere problem of mental and physical endowment,but it includes within its volume all our qualities of heart and soul. The moral natureconstitutes the very substance and marrow of our being. We live by the will to live; ourdesire and sentiment of a continuous existence are ardent or cold, as accords with ourhope, our live, our confidence in ourselves and each other. "It is to that sense ofimmortality with which the affections inspire us," says Henry Thomas Buckle, "that I wouldappeal for the best proof of a future life."

So we live, so we are, such we have always been, and shall always continue to be.Immortality has its origin and foundation in the soul itself. It is no boon extended to theinhabitants of this earth, but by its inherent nature is beyond the sphere of the transitionaluniverse. It pertains to our essential being in the eternal region rather than to our

phenomenal existence in time. We do not receive it, because it was always an essentialof our spiritual nature. By the knowing of this we perceive and are cognizant of the infiniteVerity. We apprehend our true relations as having our citizenship in the heavenly world.By this knowledge we are made pure and holy; we are enlightened and led to live and actas immortal beings.

Thus I can understand why I am to love my neighbor. We are of a common origin,alike in nature and destiny. He is as my own self, my personality extended to another.Whatever pertains generically to me belongs likewise to him, and the divinity whicharranges my conditions superintends also his allotment. Nor do we part company at thegrave, for our relationship and affinities of spirit continue as they were from before Time.Thus my faith and cognizance of immortality endow me with a right understanding of whatis due to others. "It is an indispensable condition of a morality that is efficient," saysJacobi, "to believe in a higher order of things, of which the common and visible is anheterogeneous part that must assimilate itself to the higher."

-----------

II.

Our individuality, as we exist in this sublunary world, does not constitute the wholeof our being. Much that pertains to us essentially has never been developed in this life.Hence we are differentiated rather than integral, a grouping of qualities and characteristicsrather than a complete essence. We are influenced by others and imbued more or lessby their peculiar nature and disposition; while, on the other hand, those with whom weassociate and whom we love and esteem take somewhat from us in their turn. The traitswhich are peculiar to us are chiefly accidents of our individual mode of existence, and veryoften are the heirlooms of races and families to which we belong. Indeed, we have, all ofus, become more or less the continuation and bodying anew of ancestors. The umbilicalcord is not really divided while we exist here, and we are nourished from the life andpermeated with the thought of a thousand generations. We are shoots and branches ofthe great World-Tree, and derive sap, all of us in common, from its root.

The unexplained operations of the mind, nevertheless, may by no means be allimputed to heredity. The Rabbis tell us that several souls, human spirits, may adjointhemselves to an individual, and at certain times help, strengthen and inspire him, dwellingwith and in him. They generally leave him when their work has been accomplished; butin some instances an individual receives this aid all his lifetime. Oliver Wendell Holmesremarks in one of his works that there are times when our friends do not act likethemselves, but apparently in obedience to some other law than that of their own propernature; and also that we ourselves do things both when awake and when asleep thatsurprise us. "Perhaps," he adds, "we have co-tenants in this house we live in."

John Bunyan also has represented his Pilgrim as being on one occasion infestedby a malignant spirit that whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him insuch an artful manner that poor Christian thought that they proceeded from his own mind.We observe something of the same nature in the mesmeric phenomena, and in thecontagious enthusiasm of popular assemblages.

It is but a step further for us to acknowledge unqualifiedly the presence and agencyof invisible beings. Milton assures us that millions of these are constantly walking theearth. We may not reasonably doubt, when the physical world abounds with innumerableraces and genera of living beings, that the invisible world is no less densely peopled; notthat we all are surrounded by spiritual entities, bodied and unbodied, that are capable oftransfusing their thoughts, impulses and appetences into us. We observe something likethis in our ordinary mental operations. What we denominate reasoning is the consciousendeavor of the understanding to trace out facts, their relations and correspondences.*Beyond this region of the soul there is that of the intuitive intellect, more occult and apartfrom his world. It is not limited like the other to matters of observation and experience, butis manifestly in communication with beings and intelligences that are beyond theacknowledged realm of physical existence. Such intercourse is of the eternal world, ofwhich this material universe is but a colony. "Not when I am divorced from the connectionof the earthly world," says Fichte, "do I first gain admission into that which is above theearth. I am in it already, and I live in it more truly than in the earthly. That which theydenominate Heaven lies not beyond the grave. It is already here, diffused around ournature, and its light rises in every pure heart."

---------------* "Every thought is a soul!" - Bulwer Lytton

---------------

I am convinced that what is commonly recognized as apperception, intuition andinspiration, is this faculty of supra-conscious intelligence. It is a remembering, thereproducing and bringing into consciousness of what we knew and possessed before webecame sojourners in the region of limit and change. It belongs to that sphere of being towhich we are now in a measure oblivious and estranged. But there can be no mentalactivity without its aid, any more than there can be muscular action without the exercise ofthe will.

This declaration is by no means absurd or irrational. The soul and mind, as indeedthe brain itself and the entire nervous systems, are antecedent to sensation; and, inperfect analogy to this, the faculty of Intellection is not by any necessity a matter of physicalconsciousness. It has little to do with the brain-material, and does not oxidize or wearaway its tissues. The individual is not wearied, but actually refreshed and invigorated byits exercise. There is an ocean of mind about us, quick and electric with life, which bringsand keeps all souls in communication with each other, like the innumerable drops of waterin the ocean of our sublunary world; and its currents make the individual understanding,when under peculiar conditions of exercitation, receptive of ideas and thoughts which arenot in any common way original to it.

The attempt has been made to set forth that this is an operation performedunconsciously by the cerebral organism, but it should be cognized as the cerebration of theGreat Universal Brain, which the writers of the New Testament characterize as the HolySpirit. "Take no thought what you shall speak," said Jesus, "for it shall be given you in thatsame hour by the spirit within you."

True spirituality consists in being like God, pure and holy through righteousness, andnot in wonderful and extraordinary communications with denizens of the invisible region,

or even with the angels of the highest heaven. Nor is it well to boast or be elated with suchexperiences. To see is better than to be seen. Indeed it is very questionable whether theymay with propriety be spoken about at all. The true spouse rejoices in the possession andsociety of the conjugal mate, rather than in boons and endearments that are bestowed, butspeaks of none of them to any other person. Greater modesty than this is becoming inregard to these interior associations with the superior world. They should be kept closeand sacred from those who have no heart to appreciate them. They are subjective andinterior, supra-conscious facts of the supersensuous world, which are known only as weknow God, and hence they may not be converted into images for others to gaze upon withempty curiosity. We are cautioned against such profanation by the assurance that swinewill trample stupidly upon our pearls, and dogs will turn upon us and rend us after we havegiven them the holy bread that may not thus be desecrated. "They psychic man" whocognizes only matters of sense, Paul declares, "doth not receive the things of the spirit, forto him they are foolishness; besides, he cannot know them, because they are discernedspiritually."

For this reason we may not attempt, and we cannot properly delineate the eternalworld. We may cognize and be preconscious of it, but we are not able to comprehend itfully. It is above and beyond us, and yet is present with us; like the heaven whichtranscends and at the same time contains the earth within it. It is spiritual and divine; butto give its altitude, it profoundness and extent, is beyond our ken. We may not, however,for such reasons, circumscribe our thought and imagination within the limits of dailyobservation and experience. Such a withholding of our eyes from the vision of theimmutable and everlasting would be a suffocating of our higher nature. It would not beinnocent or blameless to be willing thus to remain "of the earth earthy," when our noblerselfhood is from heaven.

Our existence in the material universe is the result of causes which we are hardlysufficient to comprehend. It may have been for the object of perfecting our individualityand so constituting an essential means to establish our selfhood in a more completeidentity. We may not doubt that it is necessary to us, and has its uses, which we may notsafely forego. We should also bear in mind that it is the occupying of a certain sphere ofbeing, rather than the mode of dwelling in it. We are really in it before our birth, or evenour conception, and do not leave it by the dissolving of the body. That by this event weseem to forsake it is not enough; the conditions which allied us to material nature mustalso be exceeded. Otherwise, like a weed which has been cut off by the hoe in one place,we shall be certain to issue forth again in another.

Eternity is in no essential sense a Foreworld or Future State. It is purely theunconditioned, that which always IS, which changes not. The soul is native there; and itsmanifestation elsewhere is accomplished by shutting itself away, so to speak, after amanner as we shut ourselves away from everyday life in going to sleep. It thus passes intothe genesis, the transitional condition, and from being permanent becomes subject tochange, from being integral it is differentiated into qualities and faculties, from being eternalit is thus transformed into a being of Time. In this connection, evil - the privation of good -and the conditions of phenomenal existence are incident to it. Thus the corporealenvironment and the other consequences which it inherits in the world of Nature, are asthe grave, and even as hell within them, to the essential principle of life.

This is not, however, an abyss of hopeless destruction. The soul, thus enveloped

and enthralled by the pains and affections of the body, is in a crippled and impotentcondition, and in a manner alienated from the celestial home. Its interior rational principleis comparatively asleep. But it does not entirely forget. Our ego, the nobler essence, thatwhich we really are, is beyond this region of sublunary existence, immortal andimperishable. We have a superior consciousness, a spiritual sense which transcendsphysical sensibility, and it awakens betimes from this dormant state, as if for the purposeof reminding us of the celestial life. Our every conception of the Good and True is of thischaracter. These memories, for such they are, which are thus now and then aroused, haveoften a vividness as if they were now occurring. We even realize the force of the words ofSchelling: "Such as you are you have been somewhere for ages."

It is true even in this world of sense, that when we are in communion with a superiormind, we perceive ourselves passing after a manner beyond the ordinary limits of thought,and coming into the All. In the longing of the spirit after that state of perfect knowledge,purity and bliss in which it once abode, there is somewhat of the same experience. Weapprehend in a degree where we belong. We attain a deeper perception andconsciousness of that which really is. We become more intimately cognizant of the eternallaws and reasons of things, which are behind as well as mingled with the endless diversityof sensible phenomena. We then find the Highest to be the nearest - to be closer than theair which we breathe or the thoughts which we are thinking.

"Each 'Lord, appear!' thy lips pronounce contains my 'Here am I!'A special messenger I send beneath thine every sigh;Thy love is but a girdle of the love I bear to thee,And sleeping in thy 'Come, O Lord,' there lies 'Hear, child!' from me."

Many there are, however, who seem never to break the chain of illusion. Theyneither perceive nor understand anything which does not pertain to sensuous existence.It has been somewhat of a study with me whether the immortal principle in such personsdoes not return into the other world, as the rain-drops merge in the waters of the ocean,not being fixed in any real identity. It must seem as though a being possessing immortalitywould cognize the fact, and by parity of reasoning, that whoever does not is not soendowed with unending life. Nevertheless, it must be supposed that no capabilities orexperiences are ever in vain. A dormant faculty may appear to be extinct, and so remainunrecognized by us, till under circumstances which we do not well understand, it shall beroused from its lethargy. No word or outflow of divinity will return fruitless or abortive.

It may seem to many, however, to be a matter of wonderment, that if we have ourreal origin in the eternal world, we appear, nevertheless, to have no distinct or positiveremembrance of that fact. Whether we ever existed before among men, we believe, ratherthan know for certainty. This does not prove anything adverse. It has been alreadyremarked that the soul, upon entering the realm of conditioned existence, became asthough asleep, unconscious of the celestial world, but dreaming, so to speak, of scenesin the material universe. The ancient sages used to teach that human souls, before againbecoming incarnate, drank the water of Oblivion, and forgot the past, and in particular theoccurrences in which they had borne a part. Several of these wise men, however, affirmedthat they could recall to remembrance scenes and experiences of a former life. I amdisposed to regard this as possibly true. I have seen an infant that had never had a fall

since birth, exhibit the liveliest apprehension of such an accident. Perhaps this terror wassuggested by some invisible guardian, like the daemon of Sokrates, or was occasioned bysome reminiscence of such an occurrence in an anterior term of life in the earth, which hadbeen carried forward by the internal memory. Unless we may suppose that cerebrationtakes place before birth, this was not possibly an action in which the brain participated.Meanwhile, it is a significant fact, that the belief in a karma or influence from a former life,or series of lives, affecting us for good or ill, has been general and had a place in thephilosophy of every world-religion. "Who sinned," the disciples are said to have asked ofJesus, "this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?"

The forgetting of the former life and mode of being, whatever may have been thecause, appears to have been incident to the beginning of a new term of existence.Children in like manner forget the scenes and occurrences of the first months of infancy;and they even become totally ignorant respecting their parents if they are taken away fromthem during this period. It may be, however, that some individuals attain such purity in theprevious lifetime as to be able to preserve somewhat of the memory of events thenoccurring. I have heard children but a few years old narrate tales of what they did andobserved in a former term of existence, as though they remembered it accurately.Pythagoras appears to have actually preserved such reminiscence, and I can believe thesame thing of the author of the Phaedrus.

Although, however, the souls that are prisoned in this world of sense cease to knowabout the higher life, and so are as though dead, yet this exile and death do not constitutea total separation from the heavenly world. They have some remembrance of their formerstate of bliss, and yearn for a purer and nobler form of life. The interior spirit continues tolive from above. It is no parentless evolution of the physical nature, but is itself a projectionor outcome from the eternal region. Corruption is not an heir to incorruption, and thatprinciple of our being which rises in glory, a spiritual essence, was first sown before it couldexperience any evolution. It was always immortal, without reference to the sensuousnature. Immortality has nothing to do with the accidents of the body. It is in no genuinesense a condition to be attained and enjoyed by reason of the phenomenal occurring ofcorporeal dissolution. Such an immortality would fall short of the eternal life, and is littlebetter than a mirage of the imagination. The spiritual essence, the inward man thatdelights in the law of God, is the fountain of our life, and confers upon the corporealstructure all its significance. We are, therefore, immortal, imperishable and eternal, withoutbecoming so. The super-sensuous world is not a future state, in any essential sense ofthe term, but is now present and about every one of us. Our life in that sphere of being isby no means incompatible with living here on the earth. It is not necessary to lay the bodyaside in order to become free from the contamination of this material existence. The soulmay turn again toward its celestial source, contemplate it, and be at one with it, and sobecome spiritual and divine as partaking of Deity. Thus will it be delivered from theillusions of sense and the disturbances of passion which obscure its vision, and be exaltedinto the region of eternal truth, goodness and beauty. Here all things are perennial; thelove of good, the enthusiasm of the right and unselfish motive exceed all the limitations oftime and space. Whoever attains these and lives in the exercise of them, possesses lifebeyond the veil which separates the visible world from the greater universe, and is in veryfact a son of God living in eternity.

We may now understand intelligently these sayings recorded of Jesus in the fourth

Gospel: "He that heareth my word and believeth in him that sent me hath life eternal; andhe cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into the life." "He that believethin me, even though he die, he shall life; and he that is alive and believeth in me shall notdie." The living here denoted is that of angels and the various genera of celestial beingsin the eternal world. Of that region this universe is but the effigy and shadow; and of thelife of that world, this sublunary life is but the apparition and dream.

"The sense by which we lay hold on eternal life," says Fichte, "we acquire only bythe renouncing and offering up of sense, and the aims of sense, to the law which claimsour will alone and our acts; - by renouncing it with the conviction that to do so is reasonableand alone reasonable. With this renunciation of the earthly the belief in the eternal firstenters our soul, and stands isolated there, as the only stay by which we can still sustainourselves when we have relinquished everything else, as the only animating principle thatstill heaves our bosom and still inspires our life. Well was it said in the metaphors of aSacred Doctrine that a man must first die to the world and be born again in order to enterinto the Kingdom of God."

This sacred experience is prefigured by the meeting of the soul with its diviner selfat the Bridge of Judgment. The resurrection from the dead to the life eternal, the life of theeternal world, is denoted. It is the converse of the apostasy or abandoning of the celestialhome. The Ionic philosophers, after the custom of the sages of the farther East,designated it as the metempsychosis, which, though usually interpreted as meaning thetransplanting of the soul from one body to another, denotes rather the transformation andtransition from the sensuous and corporeal to the spiritual life. The Hebrew Psalmist givesthe graphic description: "He brought me out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay; he setmy feet upon a rock, and established my goings." The soul, having become immersed inthe mire of sense, and lost sight of the celestial world, is brought again to the perceptionof the truth, and stands erect in its native divinity, ransomed and redeemed. It is nowtransfigured and changed into the image of the heavenly.

The resurrection is not to be understood as a restoration from physical accident.We can afford to disencumber this subject from the gross fancies and interpretations whichoriginate in a sensuous conception. To the dead who hear and obey the divine voice thereare not promised any renewed pulsation of arteries and stimulating of the nervous system,but a birth into spiritual life. The fatal sting of death is taken away and the king of terrorsis dethroned when we cease to wander from the right. The victory thus achieved relatesto moral and not physical dissolution. "The body is dead through sin," says the greatApostle, "but the spirit lives through righteousness." "Ye are not in the flesh, but in thespirit," he says again. "You hath he quickened; ye are risen with him through theoperation of faith." "God hath quickened us and hath raised us up and made us sit in theheavenly places." These declarations shut us up to the direction: "Reckon ye alsoyourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God."

We have no occasion for apprehension or perplexity in regard to a judgment of thelast day. The form of speech is Asiatic and highly metaphoric. By those whose mentalpurview is bounded by Time, that even may be regarded as relating to some physical crisis,like the consummation of terrestrial existence, or perhaps the end of life; but in the worldof Mind there are no such limitations. The day of the Lord is from everlasting toeverlasting, always at high noon, without sunrise or sunset; it has always been, it now is,and it will never cease to be. It is a "last day" to those alone whose life and thought are still

involved in corporeal nature; it is a day of judgment to those only who love darkness ratherthan light, and are wrong-doers. But they who have attained the pure life and the trueresurrection are living all the while in the divine, eternal day. They are in the heavenlyplaces, in beatific communion with spirits and angels, and are endowed with theperceptions, faculties and energies which pertain to the life of the eternal world. We havethe assurance that as we live in family, neighborhood and society in the earth, we maylikewise sustain analogous relations with those who dwell in the celestial region. The basisof this assurance exists in our own being, and we confirm it by living in charity and doingthe right. "In all moral feeling," says Jacobi, "there is a presentiment of eternity."

The life which we live as inhabitants of the eternal world is in no sense acontinuance of the life which we live upon the earth. It is not a form or mode of existence,but a quality of being. It has no part in any action which is inspired by the considerationof a result. It consists solely of the moral essentials, love, virtue and goodness. It knowsno going and coming as in a region of space; there are no words for divisible conditionsin the language of the gods. We have no occasion to search for any one in the heavenlyworld. We are in and with those whom we love, and are permeated by them through allour being. We cognize rather than recognize them. There is no space or limit to thehuman mind, and hence our personality possesses a power of indefinite extension overthe world of spirit. The gladness of thought, the communion of love, the beatitude ofservice, the ecstasy of worship, the contemplation of the divine, make up the life there; asthey are also felt and known here to be the highest of our employments.

The whole matter, however, transcends the sphere of common reasoning. Itbelongs to the universal faith which has been cherished alike by seers and sages. Itpertains to the world of ideas, the prior realities which came with the spirit from the eternalhome. Let no one, then, seek to intermeddle and exercise dominion over the faith andconduct of another in matters of the spiritual life. It may be our province to serve as guidesand heralds of the eternal verities, but beyond that point each one must minister to himself.The truth, and not its exponent, will make us free. This liberty of the spirit, however, is nomere breaking of yokes and fetters, but an initiation and induction into the fullness of thedivine life. We are not even made subject to the will of the Most High, but render to it afree obedience.

Thus we are at one with the Divine Order which inspires and regulates the interioruniverse, and is supreme in all worlds. In this is the life eternal, the life of the eternalregion - being without change, participation of the Absolute Good. The celestial warder,our pure law and inmost spirit, conducts us onward, not only into Paradise, but to the veryfoot of the Celestial Throne.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 9, nos. 5-6, May, June, 1899)

-------------

Matter and Its Transmutation

[This was written in 1890, before even the discovery of radioactivity (a transmutation

of one element to another, as uranium to lead), and thus with severely out-dated science,but it is a philosophic article and also poses some questions still unanswered andunadmitted as far as I know. - dig. ed.]

Several years ago, Mr. Joseph Hands, M.R.C.S., of London, published a monographupon the phenomena of matter, in which he set forth several propositions, novel to thegeneral apprehension of the subject. We will endeavor to give a fair presentation of hisviews as deserving candid attention. The author had been what is called a materialist, andlike other persons changing their opinions is very precise and definite in regard to minutepoints that others are more or less likely to overlook.

It may be remarked that it is no easy task to define what matter is. Like itscounterparts, life, and spirit, with which we may think we are familiar enough to be able totell it easily, we soon find our mistake. The definition of Webster's Dictionary is a fairsample of endeavors in that direction. "That of which the sensible universe and all existentbodies are composed; anything which has exterior, occupies space, or is perceptible bythe senses." Yet this does not go to the foundation, and is therefore not philosophical.Plainly enough, what we denominate matter is not actual substance or the underlyingprinciple, but the matrix or receptacle of substance. Its very name, matter - the materia ormother-principle - implies this, as do the corresponding terms Nature and physics, whichmany love to employ to denote the productive force. Boscovik, the Italian naturalist,declared that in the last analysis it consisted of points of dynamic force. Faraday acceptedthis hypothesis.* But a point has no extension, occupies no space, and is not perceptibleto physical sense. The mind alone may cognize it, because it is a thing pertaining to thedepartment of the understanding. Matter, therefore, is that which is manifest to thecorporeal senses, rather than a thing having absolute being. It is the "passive principle,"cooperative, productive, receptive of form and giving it external quality and shape.Primitively it was unconcentrated, ethereal, imponderable; and very probably the processof its emanating is still going on. Creation as we call it is all the while taking place. Thephysical universe is not a clock which has been framed, wound up and set to running tillit shall have run down. It is an organism with its moving principle immanent in it, young andgrowing, adding to itself and very possibly disintegrating in corresponding degree.

-----------* The doctrine of solidity or impenetrability, that two bodies or kinds of matter cannot

occupy the same space, Faraday admitted to be untenable. Even Sir Isaac Newtonsuggested that the elements composing the whole earth might be compressed into thespace of a small room. Faraday describes very forcibly the absorption of matter: "We maycast into potassium oxygen, atom for atom; and again, both oxygen and hydrogen in atwofold number of atoms; and yet with all these additions the matter shall become lessand less in bulk till it is not two-thirds its original volume. A space which would contain2800 atoms, including 700 of potassium, is found to be filled by 430 of potassium alone."

It may be added that Faraday disbelieved in the materiality of atoms. "What is anatom apart from force?" he demanded. "What notion can we form of a nucleus,independent of its energy?"------------

Mr. Hands is accordingly "led to conjecture that there was once a cycle when all thegravitating material existences we now behold subsisted in a state quite as ethereal orunsubstantial as are the weightless elements presented to our feelings or senses underthe form of heat, electricity, magnetism, to which we may add those of sound, color, etc."Out of these and other subtile or rare principles originally constituting amorphous orunparticled matter, were developed what may be presumed to be compounds - the atoms,monads, or corpuscles, that constitute the sphere which we now inhabit. The differentmetals and their oxides which in part produce the rocks and soils are made up of themolecular atoms so derived. The gaseous elements sustained by the earth and oceanowe their derivation to the same sources. It is fair to presume that increase as well aschange is constantly taking place.

The numerous "elements," however, of which modern chemical science treats,cannot rationally be considered as being ultimate or primitive. Sages in all ages have beenaware of this, and speculated inquisitively in regard to the first physical principle. Thalesthe Ionian assigned the first origin to water. Herakleitos, instructed probably by the Magesof Persia, declared it to be fire, or what we might denominate a calorific ether. Faraday,who more or less combined the character of seer and philosopher with that of scientist,believed that all metals and other chemical elements would be eventually found to be butforms of air. Our own Dr. Thomas R. Fraser carried this speculation to a point, declaringmatter to consist of atoms having polarity and a twofold character, positive and negative,mineral and vegetable, or male and female. Other writers consider it a hyle, or ether, ofwhich oxygen is the positive and hydrogen the negative polarization, which become by thealchemic and vital processes all things that we find in the physical world. Mr. NormanLockyer announces hydrogen to be the primary element, and that the other bodies arecomposed of molecules grouped together in different proportions, but as being essentiallynothing but hydrogen. Berliner suggests a force setting the hydrogen-atoms in motion, andthat that force is either light or else the all-pervading electricity which causes the atoms toassume polarity, or the twofold positive and negative condition, and thus by attraction andrepulsion to produce the first motion. The substances compounded from hydrogen aremany, as our chemical text books show, and it may yet be seen that it is, as is suggested,the material from which other bodies, supposed to be distinct and even heterogeneous,were constituted by the all-potent force.

"Where is the locality in which matter is not?" Mr. Hands demands. "It doubtlessexists as an imponderable non-resistant element in the far, far away, extending into theunimaginable expanse beyond the apparent blue dome we have so often looked upwardthrough, in joy or sadness.... This so-called tenuous and apparently intangible matter canalso have an existence and locality between the molecules or atoms making up the livingand lifeless objects that surround us....

"Persons in general have no conception of the absolute and essential heavings ofNature's order of things. But the reflective mind of the philosopher perceives, or is aware,that if any one of the general laws that pervade the universe - as, for instance, the polarityof the atoms appertaining to all bodies - was to be changed or interfered with, if only for thefraction of a moment, over even perhaps a part of the great whole, all the vast worlds inexistence and their constituents would melt into a 'nothingness,' and matter would againbecome, as far as our senses are concerned, unatomized or immaterialized from this onefailure in the ruling action of Nature's government."

The next step in Mr. Hands reasoning is that of transmutation. We infer from theprevious argument that the molecules being objective, negative dynamic forces have thepower to attract and elaborate unatomized material from the invisible region of force to theincreasing of their number. Mr. Hands goes farther and propounds that "the growing plantand animal must have the capability of condensing or causing the union of theirinconceivable, uncorpusculated existences." Thus in regard to carbon, as found in thecoal-strata, peat-bogs and vegetable mold, "it could not have originated from thecircumambient air, or an alteration in its present proportional constituents must haveresulted." Where too, do the deep marine plants and sea-animals obtain their carbon?It is not found in the ocean, except just upon its surface.

"The foregoing economy must also occur relative to the origin of some of the metalsand other substances. Thus we find potash, the base of which is the metal potassium,present in the ashes produced by the combustion of aerial plants. Again, in the blood ofland and sea animals, we meet with iron; yet this metal is not found mixed up in the seaor air.... Further: relative to the origin of the metal calcium, the base of lime - whence dothe shell-fish and corallina with other marine animals obtain carbonate of lime, which formsthe frames of some and the cases or coverings of other inhabitants of the ocean?Certainly not from the seawater; for that scarcely contains a trace of this substance,except at the mouths of rivers, which amount is soon deposited to assist in forming thedifferent deltas found at the termination of the various streams that empty themselves intothe mighty ocean of waters, which fill up the deep cavities of the earth. In fact, there isgreater quantity of carbonate of lime found and deposited by some of the families of thecorallina in a few years, over one of our great up-growing marine submerged islands, thanall the lime that was ever found or existed in the broadest and deepest seas.

"The same question might be asked relative to the house-snail and land-crab, whichlatter is often found casting its shell on the common earth or grass, where it creates orsecretes a new covering, though enwrapped only in a few leaves, in which exists no lime. -From whence again comes the lime which forms the structure of the bird whilst within itsshell? There is none in the soft parts of the egg, nor is there any vascular connectionbetween the chick and its calcareous covering; and if there was an association, it wouldbe discovered on examination, that all the time of the entire shell would not be equal inweight to the quantity found in the osseous frame of the young bird, when breaking itsprison-cell.

"In continuation: All the carbonate of lime, and each particle of our chalk-beds, wereoriginally formed by living creatures. Every atom we look upon belonging to the earth'supper strata, was once instinct with animal or vegetable life. It is the calcareous shells ofthe animalcules called Foraminifera that form the white stone of which Paris is built."

The conclusion from these facts is plain, that plants have the function and capacityof collecting certain tenuous or subtile imponderable elements to form carbon, and likewiseto produce metals, as shown with potassium and iron; and also that a set of animals asthe zoophytes and shell-fish, are capable of arranging or attracting together certainamorphous principles with which they form lime.

So too in regard to the animal and vegetable origin of silicon the basis of silica orflint. Mr. Hands adduces evidence of flint formation by vegetables of the cane family, andwe may specify the common scouring-rush with the bamboo and the wheat-stalk, as wellas a particular race of animals. Appertaining to the latter class may be noticed various

infusoria possessing siliceous or flint shells, which were secreted by the animalsthemselves. Perhaps it would be better to say that these animals had the ability to attractcertain ethereal unparticled principles resident in the waters which they inhabited, bymeans of which they formed silicon. This latter being united to the pristine elements thatgo to form oxygen, constitutes silica, of which these shells or cases are made up. Thismineral silica enters into the composition of many of our scintillating stones, as flints,quartz, agate, etc.

Different races or genera, like the Grilionellae and Bacillaria, have various mineralproducts. Strata of infusoria have been discovered in different places, extending overmany miles in circumference. Professor Ehrenberg noticed beds of living flint-producingcreatures, the Diatomaceae, sixty feet in depth under Berlin. Similar observations havebeen made at Petersburg in Virginia. Later naturalists classify these animalcules asbelonging to the vegetable kingdom.

"We recognize in Geology," says Mr. Hands, "that in past times the pulverized debrisof these animals' coverings were perhaps fused, and thus formed the segments of the flintwe meet with; or they may have been fashioned through the process of attractivecohesion, that builds up and lays down so many of Nature's structures or productions.Other minerals belonging to this family, like quartz, jasper, agate, etc., were crystallized,through magnetic influence, from different solutions holding in them the constituents ofthese stones."

Hence our author makes the following deductions: "The fluids from which theseflint-producing creatures are generated do not contain silicon, or its oxide, silica. Thissequence of things proves that Nature possesses or exercises an alchemy of which we asyet know nothing beyond the bare fact of the existence of her productions. Yes, Naturehas an occult chemistry of her own, by means of which all organic or inorganic bodies areformed and afterward arranged. She at different times has collected or brought togetherinto her laboratory, the different unatomized ethereal elements with which she hasfashioned the earth, and is now creating the trees and shrubs of the forest, and thevegetation and flowers of the fields, that in turn through her means will help in part todevelop or at least influence the varied living beings surrounding her work. The subtileunparticled and imponderable principles that Nature employs to perfect her operations arevery unlike those at our command, as is the procedure in executing her work. Theeconomy of Nature's operations is, and ever will be, during our earthly sojourn, a mysteryto us.

The theory of transmutation imputed to the Alchemists will seem to derive fromthese facts, a degree of plausibility. It is very significant, however, that the production ofa new element appears to require the agency of a living agency. The flint, lime, potash,all are traced to living creatures. Life appears to be universal in all the world; and becauseof it there exist force and matter, created things and energy. Every minute particle has themeasure of life peculiar to it; and doubtless that life is operative in the polarizing principlewhich we call magnetism, and from that all the way up to the highest development. Natureis the Alchemist, the magician, the wonder-worker; and creation is no affair of ages orcycles, or even to time, but is a process in constant, perpetual action.

- Alexander Wilder, M.D.

(Medical Tribune, vol. 6, no. 7, Sept., 1890)

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Wilder Annotations to Levi's "Transcendental Magic," Doubleday Translation

[In A.E. Waite's version of Levi's book (Rider & Co., 1896) the book is separatedinto two sections, "The Doctrine of Transcendental Magic," and "The Ritual ofTranscendental Magic." The Doubleday translation is lacking the last 2 of 22 chapters ofthe Ritual section, as well as some supplementary material compared to the Waite edition.Major-General Abner Doubleday's translation (with Wilder's Notes) was somewhatsporadically serialized in Harold W. Percival's The Word from Oct., 1912 thru Sept., 1917when The Word ceased publication after 25 volumes, with the final serial ending with "tobe continued." The two translations appear to differ a great deal. Possibly the finalchapters are still in the possession of The Word Foundation, or other Levi materialDoubleday is said to have translated from the French. (Zirkoff, Blavatsky CollectedWritings, v. 1, pp 459-61) Doubleday is one of the "famous" early Theosophists, with along and active military career, and is credited with the invention of the American pastimeof baseball, among else. He was also short-term President pro tem of the earlyTheosophical Society after its birth in New York, and in 1880 was later elected VicePresident of the Society. The following compilation contains some of Wilder's annotationsto the book, which usually can stand alone as short treatments of subjects. - Compiler]

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The Druids and Bards constituted the sacerdotal caste of the Gallic and Kymraicnations. It is supposed that their rites and dogma were similar to those of the very oldestpeoples. The Stonehenge and other like structures, the dolmens and monoliths, which areimputed to them have their counterparts in Arabia and Hindustan, but not in the Aryandistricts. Like other priesthoods, the Druids were believed to possess supernatural powers,which in time were denominated magic and sorcery.------------

According to the Kabala the Sephiroth, aiones or emanations, are ten in number;namely, the Crown, Wisdom, Intelligence, Magnificence, Severity, Beauty, Victory, Glory,Foundation and Empire. The gnostics employed the same images, giving other names.The Kabalists represented the relations of the Sephiroth to one another by a number ofcircles intersecting in a mysterious manner, also by the Seir Anpin or figure of a manformed of such circles; and sometimes by a tree. Four worlds emanated from the mysticten; Aziluth, inhabited by the purest spirits; Briah, by angels subservient to them; Jezirah,occupied by cherubs and seraphs, gods and sons of gods; Asiah, peopled by the Klippoth,a race of gross, material beings of both sexes, ambitious and evil. The human personalityis constituted of elements derived from each world. It obtains the napha or passional soul,from Asiah; the ruah or spirit, of Jezirah; the nasma or reason, from Briah; and the haia

or noetic principle, from Aziluth. It is exiled into the body in order to acquire discipline ingoodness; and will continue in such exile till fully purified. This doctrine is identical withthe Zorastrian.------------

Johann Trittheim, Abbot Spanheim, on the Upper Rhine, was born in 1462. He wasa man of great learning, and so had the reputation of holding communication with spiritsand the dead. He wrote a book entitled Steganographya or Secret Writing. (See Ritual,Chap. III), which contained the art or technic of communicating thoughts to an absentperson by means of secret characters. It was reported that he produced the simulacrumof the deceased Mary of Burgundy, in her exact physical likeness to her husband, theEmperor Maximilian I.-----------

The black or Meteoric stone was and is a symbol in many temples. The famousstone at Mikka, the star of Astarte at Tyre, the image of Aphrodite at Pappa, and theemblem of the Great Mother in Asia-Minor are examples. They were magnetic.-----------

The Ophites, Serpent-Worshipers, were Gnostics and entertained sentimentssomewhat like those of the Zoroastrians, Kabalists, and Buddhists. They regarded theserpent as the source of Divine Knowledge, and the real Christ or Savior; fortifying thisdogma by the text: "As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, even so must theson of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have theeternal life." - John iii. They accordingly made a distinction between the Ophis whopersuaded man to eat of the Tree of Knowledge and become God-like, andOphiomorphos, or Satan, whom they regarded as Samael, prince of demons, and likewiseas identical with Michael, the guardian of the Jews. Valentinian appears to have been theirchief teacher; and it is evident that they derived their principal doctrines from Persia, Indiaand Egypt.-----------

An ancient dynasty of Persia was called Kainean, and Bel or Abel was worshipedin Assyria. This may have suggested the name in the legend, which describes theinimitable conflict of the tillers of the soil with the shepherd people. [[Biblical story of Cainand Abel.]]-----------

Tantalos was a king of Phrygia, who had been admitted to the feasts of the godsand afterward divulged what had been told him. The story in allegorical, and representsan individual who had been initiated into the Mysteries, and profaned them by discoursingabout them to the uninitiated.-----------

If, as has been affirmed, the force known as gravity be a form of polarization, is itnot reasonable that bodies attracted by the earth would, by a reversing of polarity, arise upfrom it instead? How do birds mount up rapidly in the air, if not by virtue of a power of this

nature?-----------

I have read that the name was Jeanne Darc, not d'Arc. It is therefore Jeanne, Jane,Johanno; but as she was a peasant there was no such patrician surname. It has beensometimes denied that she was burned; but asserted that she lived to rear a family atDomremy.-----------

Cannabis Indica, or Indian hemp. The gum of hemp has been employed for manycenturies as a "witch-herb," as well as aconite, belladona, stramoniums, and opium, toproduce visions and enable the spirit or noetic principle to leave the body unconscious, andhave communication itself with other minds and spirits elsewhere. Trance or ecstasis isof this character. The human spirit is believed to take its original form under this condition.Many of the conceits of the "Thousand and One Nights" exhibit traces of the hashishdream. It is also supposed that the assassins of Mount Lebanon, who were followers ofthe famous Sheik-al-jebel, or Mountain Patriarch, were intoxicated with hemp whenperforming their religious, and especially their Thuggish offices.------------

Many perfumes purify the atmosphere by ozonizing it; others narcotise the inhaler,or enchant him, as the gaseous emanations from the ground or from water, cast thepriestesses of Apollo at Delphi and Branchidai into ecstatic conditions.------------

[[Eloim]] This term signifies energies, and is used in the Hebrew Bible as theequivalent of angels, the collected energies that in synthesis constitute the idea of God.The exalted meaning given that the term by the moderns is nowhere equivalent to thecommon import of the word in ancient time. The Latin term, Deus or dieus, SanskritDyaus, is from the word dii, day, light, glory. Hence "Zeus," "deity" and even "devil" areterms formed from this common root.------------

Saturn or Kronos was the Adar-melek of Assyria. The electric fire, thunder andstorm, were his dominion. He was called Ramana (Syriac, Rimmon), the god of wind andSpirit at Ninevah and Kalah, and the god of Wisdom at Babylon. Yao (Jehovah or Yava)was his arcane designation.------------

[[Adonhiram]] Adon-Hiram, better known popularly as Hiram Abiff, or Hiram theGrand Master. In the "Book of Kings," it is said that Adonhiram was over the levey orconscription of men employed by Solomon to cut timber in Mount Lebanon for the Temple.Elsewhere the name Hiram, or Huram alone, is used. He is called Abiff or "his father"(Chronicles: II, iv). "I have sent a skilfum man, endued with intelligence, Huram Abiff, theson of a woman of the daughters of Dan, even Abiv a man of Tyre." A French masoniclegend represents him as having become the father of a son by the Queen of Sheba on

the occasion of her visit to Jerusalem. Women seem to have gone on embassies inancient times, to add personal charms to diplomatic ingenuity.-----------

Baron von Reichenbach applied the designation od or odylic force to the magneticprinciple. The compilers of Webster's Dictionary derive the term from odos a way, and somake the adjective odylic refer to the hylic or material force, which produces thephenomena of Mesmerism. The Hebrew word yod, however, signifies a hand; and itsderivative ad or od, a vapor or emanation. Idoni, a diviner or enchanter, is from the sameroot; as well as ido, to know. The coincidences would almost indicate od to be a Hebrewword; Odyli, however, is Hellenic.------------

The Magian or Mazdean dogma set forth that souls leaving the body sat down nearthe head for three days; after which they set out for their future destination. It wasaccordingly regarded as impious to dispose of the body for three days. Martha, it will benoticed, cites the fact of her brother's entombment as evidence that he had been dead fourdays.-----------

[[Reviving a child who had just died]] Kings I (or III) xvii, 21, 22. "And he stretchedhimself upon the child three times, and cried to the Lord and said: 'O Lord my God, I praythee, let this child's soul come into him again.' And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; andthe soul of the child came into him again, and he revived."

In the case of the child of the Shumanite, Kings II (IV) iv, it is stated that Gehaza,the servant of the prophet, applied the magic or prophetic staff first; and that notsucceeding, Elisha himself next employed personal contact. "He went up and lay over thechild, and put his mouth upon the child's mouth, and his eyes upon its eyes, and his handsupon its hands; and he stretched himself upon the child, and the flesh of the child waxedwarm. Then he went out and walked in the house to and fro; and again went up andstretched himself over the child; and the child sneezed seven times, and its flesh becamewarm."

Paul lay down by Eutychus and embraced him.------------

[[Evocation of the departed with aid of some of their possessions.]] Prince vonBismarck, it is asserted, kept the pictures of Disraeli, Cortchakoff and Victor Emanuel inhis study. Machiavelli, the celebrated Florentine statesman, is represented as performingsimilar magic artifices for the purpose of identifying himself with individuals andparticipating in their thoughts. He would mould his features after theirs, almost sinking hisown individuality. In a little time he would be merged into mental conditions like those ofthe other; feeling, seeing, thinking, and being moved in the same way and by like motives.This power, which is evidently real, is closely akin to the evocations which our author isdescribing. The law and principle are the same.------------

Medicinal plants abounded in Thessaly. Hippokrates lived there many years. It was

the fabled home of Cheiron, the Kentauer and of the Magnetes. The loadstone was foundthere and its powers observed.------------

The Dramas which were acted in the Mystic Rites were composed in verse. Hencethe phrase Lyre of Orpheus, which was applied to them metaphorically; Orpeus being thetraditional introducer of the Bacchic Worship into Greece.-----------

Cross-ways were sacred in the ancient religions, but were proscribed in Christiancountries. Hence suicides or criminals, who were excluded from "holy ground" were buriedthere.....-----------

[[Witch's Sabbath]] This Sabbath is first mentioned in Ecclesiastical History byAugustin, bishop of Hippo, about the beginning of the fifth century. It was the reunion ofa secret order, and was supposed to have originated with the Druids. I think, however, thatit was a celebration of the Secret Mithraic rites, which were observed all over Europe;probably mingled with Egyptian and other customs. Maximus of Turin, writing in the fifthcentury, describes it as a residium of Paganism. About a third of the people, we are toldby the author of the Roman de la Rose, still adhered to these occult rites. The Paulicians,Albigenees and Waldenses were accused of celebrating the Sabbath; and it is notimpossible that the witchcraft Delusion of New England had some connection with thematter. That it was an ancient worship rather than a phantastic illusion I am very certain.------------

Apuleius: The Golden Ass i, et passim - "She is a sorceress, and endowed withpowers divine; she is able to drag down the heavens, to uplift the earth, to harden therunning water, to dissolve mountains, to raise the shades of the dead, to dethrone thegods, to extinguish the stars, and to light up the depths of Tartarus itself."

The reputation of Thessaiy as a country where magic was indigenous, seems tohave been very general. Plautas and Horace use the term Thessaly to denote a sorceress.We are, however, indebted to Apuleius, the philosopher, for the most vivid illustration ofthe universal belief. It need not be wondered at, when we bear in mind that the region wasfamous in more ancient periods as a "Holy Land," or home of the gods. Mount Olympus,where Zeus and his college of "young divinities" held council, was on its Macedonianfrontier. Apollo and his sons dwelt in Thessaly and learned the sacred art of healing.Deukalion made his abode there after the Flood. He was of the Elder Titanic period andthe fabled progenitor of the Hellenic race, as well as originator of the Amphiktyonic Council.The principal arts, institutions, and religious rites in vogue, seem to have been received bythe other Greeks from Thessaly. It was the first country to overthrow the kings andestablish republican commonwealths, and it planned the original confederacy of Grecianstates. In all this, as well as in the mythological traditions, we perceive the Phrygian andPhoenician influence

The myth of the Kentaurs forcibly illustrates the early reputation and superiority ofthe Thessalians. They were represented as a wise and powerful race, skilled in "magic"science and metallurgy, and in the arts which give wealth and power. A legend describes

them as the progeny of the mares of Magnesia, and they are depicted in the form of menattached at the hips to the shoulders of horses. This is doubtless the key to the legend.Occult symbolism has frequently employed two words of like sound, or one word ofmanifold meaning to express and at the same time veil its meaning. The Aztecs of Mexicohad a hierogram of the quetzal-bird and snake; or rather a rattlesnake decked with thefeathers of the bird, to denote the God Quetzal-coatl. The symbol of the Kentaur or Hippo-ken-tauros was constructed after the same model. The goddess Kybele, or Astarte, wasalso styled Hippa, denoting the metra; and so by metonymy the Great Mother. Priestsoften assumed the name, or a designation taken from the name of the divinity, as theKabeiri, the Korybantes, the Zadokim or Sadducees of Palestine, from Sedok, Kozubasand the Kabirim or "strange gods." The priests of Hippo were the Hippoi, vulgarly mistakenfor the hippai or mares of Magnesia. The derivation of the Kentaurs from them shows thatthe former, too, were a sacerdotal tribe. Their own designation appears to have beenSemitic - from (...) kahen, a lord or priest, and (...) taur, a mountain or rock: denoting themto be priests of the rock sanctuaries where initiations were performed, and neophytes wereinstructed. Indeed Cheiron, the chief Kentaur, is described as living in a cave and as beingthe preceptor of Achilles, Asklepios, Aesculapius and others. Herakles is represented asdestroying the Kentaurs and carrying away the mares or Hippo-priests; which doubtlessmeans the overthrow of the former government and religious rites. The new sacerdotaltribe of Asklepiods succeeded, of whom Hippokrates was a distinguished member, bothby hereditary descent and formal initiation. He lived in Thessaly.

It is remarkable that his writings make mention of Chierurgike or magneticmanipulation, as an important agency in the art of healing. Indeed, the name of theillustrious Kentaur, Cheiron, is derived from ceiz cheir, the hand. Besides, there werethe Daktyli, called also Telchines, the former being also the Greek designation of fingers,and the latter meaning soothers, those who caused sleep. They were skillful in the healingart, metal-working, and sorcery; forging the sickle or boomerang of Kronos, the trident ofPoseidon and the necklace of Harmonia. They were also familiar with the loadstone, whichnow perpetuates the name of the Magnates of Thessaly, and which was employed in themystic rites of Samothrake. From these races of a remote antiquity the later arts and skillof the Greeks originated; and it is easy to perceive how their age and connection withinitiatory rites associated them with the idea of sorcery and superhuman power. As theother states of Greece derived their principal arts and knowledge from Thessaly, it wasnatural to regard that country as a region of enchantment, at a time when all science wasregarded as thaumaturgic.-------------

[[Dionysics the Areopagite]] Afterward transformed into St. Denys, of the French.His writings appeared in the fifth century, but the real author is unknown. He was atheosophist of great ability, and has been regarded as endeavoring to blend the doctrinesof the later Platonists with those of the Christians.------------

The Suras and Asuras endeavored to obtain the Amrita or beverage of immortalityby setting Mount Meru in the primeval ocean and twisting around it the Serpent-KingAnanta, thus forming a churn of large size. The Suras held by the head and the Asuras

by the tail.------------

Archimedes, the mathematician of Syracuse, was celebrated for his knowledge ofphysics. "Give me hom/ozw, a place to stand on," said he to King Hiero, "and I will movethe universe."------------

The priests of Isis and the goddess Hera (Juno) of the Peloponnesus never useda woolen garment. Elijah, the prophet, however, when he had a divine vision, covered hishead with his mantle.------------

There is a play on words in this allegory. "Occult symbolism has frequently availeditself," says the author of Poseidon, "either of two words of similar sound, or of one wordof manifold meaning, by commemorating a personage or event signified by one of suchwords or meanings under the form of the thing signified by the other." Thus in the Semiticlanguages ben signifies son, aber, a stone. So the tale that Kronos devoured stonesimagining them to be his sons, and the declaration of John the baptist that "God is able outof these stones or aberim to raise up sons or benim to Abraham."-----------

The Old Man, Zakan, Sheik, or patriarch, is common in ancient symbolism. Thename of Zaro-ana means the circle on high, the sky, the ancient one, and was applied tothe Grecian Kronos, as well as the Hebrew Abraham.----------

The followers of Cornelius Jansen, the Bishop of Ypres in Belgium, who taughtviews of Divine Grace similar to those held by the Calvanists. They divided the GallicanChurch two centuries ago and their controversies with the Jesuits and other theologiansare still debated.-----------

[["Gate" signifies an authority or gov't among Orientals.]] Thus the Sublime Porte,or Supreme Ruler in Turkey; Bab-El, or the Gate of God, the metropolis of Babylon;Pharoah, the Gate or Door in Egypt, the Gates of Hades, or Rulers of the Underworld.-----------

[["There are, however, some human souls that are born widowed, and whosespouses are retained captives by Lilith and by Naamah the queens of the striges."]] SeeIsaiah xxxiv, 13, 14, Cheyne's Translation: "She (Idumea or Arabia Jetraea) shall becomea habitation of wild dogs, and a home for owls. Jackals and wolves shall meet there, andthe satyr shall light upon his fellow; surely Lilith shall repose there and find for herself aplace of rest." Lilith or Alilat was originally the night-goddess of Arabia, identical with Istarof Assyria and Luka (Succoth-benoth, or Suku, the genitrix of the Akkadians.) Rabbi benSira relates that she was the first wife of Adam, and resisted his claim of supremacy over

her. In the contest she uttered the fatal spell-word, the Shemhamphorash, and therebyobtained wings and flew away to the Eythrean Sea. She here wedded Samael, the fallendragon, once chief of the seraphs but now ruler of striges or ogres in the desert. She haspower over all infants for the first eight days of life, and children born out of wedlock, alsofor the first of every month, and on Saturday evenings. Borrowing the serpent's form, sheseduced Eve. As the satyrs or striges were her subjects, she is represented as having themagic power of (seirim or striges) to entagle and enchant young men by her golden hair.Another consort of the arch-demon of the desert was Naamah, also a mother of striges.The Egyptian goddess, Hathor-Nehama (Atar-gatis or Derketo,) was designated Astarte,or Astareth Naamah, in Semitic countries. These striges were a race of ogres or harpies,originally fabled by Ovid and others to devour young children. One of the stories of the"Thousand and One Nights" represents a prince as encountering one of these brides ofSamael, and barely escaping her clutches. The sirens of the "Odyssey" or of the samecharacter. This term is curiously like seirim, the Idumaean demons.-------------

The Middle Ages seem to have abounded with legends of Serpents. Indeed, everyparish of note had one. Doubtless like the tales of St. Patrick banishing the snakes andtoads from Ireland they all related to the Worship of the Serpent, which anciently prevailedin Europe, and indeed all over the world, relics of which still exist in Africa and Hindustan.The Church instituted Rogation day in consideration of the various victories over dragonsthat had long infested different places, and it was customary to carry effigies of the slainanimals in procession. The Wivern or Viper was fabled to have infested the neighborhoodof a fountain near the priory of St. Benedict in Burgundy; the Graonille was a Dragonovercome by St. Clement at Metz; the Tarasque was destroyed in the first century by St.Martha in the District of Tarascon, on the river Rhone, and was said to have had scales likea crocodile. It was exhibited tied up in her garter, or cincture. The Gargonille or Gargoilewas an inhabitant of Roven, and was overcome by St. Romanns. A Viper ravaged themountains of Neufchatel and was killed by Raymond of Lully. There was a cave of theDragon in Unterwold; a rock of Dragon at Aix. The Grand Gneule of Portiers, thatdevoured the ruins of the Holy Cross, etc. The Church, like Theseus and Herakles, wasa destroyer of monsters, and in each case the legend was the allegory of the uprooting ofthe prevailing religion.------------

See Leviticus XVI. - The Hebrew text, denominates these animals, the goat forJehovah and the scape-goat for Azazel. The name Azazel was that of a divinity at Edessa,doubtless the God of the Wilderness, as Jehovah was the Lord of Chanaan. It is said thatthe Scape-goat was thrown over a precipice. This was a mode of human sacrifice in earlytimes at Bambyke, in Idumea, and even in Italy. The Romans flung men over the Tarpeianrock as an expiation.------------

The Assyrians and Akkadians before them observed the Seventh day as a religiousperiod and ceased from labor. It was sacred to the Ancient days, the Akkadian Saturn,who presiding over the Seventh planet, was supreme over all the Outer Universe. The

various naga and serpent-worshiping tribes in Upper Asia seem likewise to have celebratedtheir holy rites on the Seventh Day. Yet Hyde Clark traces a unity in the names of Siva,Saba, Sabasios, which might also include the word Sabbath.-----------

[[The use of "barbarous and unintelligible words" in black magic]] In the ChaldeanAphorisms, it is prohibited to disuse such words: "Change not barbarous names. Thereare names given from God, in every nation, which have an unspeakable power in MysticRites."

Iamblichus also vindicates their use in the Egyptian and Assyrian worship. But thissentence of Agrippa is nonsense unless it be some kind of secret writing. Indermandeclares such to be only Greek and Latin words badly read and pronounced.-----------

The names Japhet and Jupiter are the same; both being Aryan. Jepetos is theTitan and father of Prometheus the creator of mankind, whom the author of the tenthchapter of Genesis makes the eponymous ancestor of the Medians, Sythians, Armenians,Ianians and peoples of the Caucasus. Jupiter or Zeus pater, the Father of Light, is easilyidentified with Indra or Diaus-piter of the Vedas and the "Father of heaven."

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The Practical Value of Philosophy - Alexander Wilder

One afternoon, twenty years ago, I was present with others at the Tribune Building,in New York, to inspect the phonograph, which Mr. Edison had newly invented and placedon exhibition. While the magic instrument was tested and was winning admiration, a manin the party accosted me with the remark that he did not believe that there could beanything useful effected with it. The impression which his utterance made upon me wasmost disagreeable. In fact, the remark recalled former experiences of my own. Manytimes, when I have endeavored to set forth some matter that I regarded as being ofinterest, my ardor has been damped and chilled by the disheartening question: "Of whatuse is this?" Even Doctor Franklin, when experimenting with electricity, had the sameodious inquiry to answer, and could only appeal to the future for his vindication.

We encounter like experiences with philosophy; and Schiller's lines are veryappropriate:

"To some she is the Goddess great; To some the milch-cow of the field; Their care is but to calculate What butter she will yield."

The solution of the problem is given by Hardenberg ("Novalis"): "Philosophy canbake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, and Immortality." We may not,

and we do not, object to the requirement of utility, for utility is the moving principle of theuniverse. We ask, however, that the term shall have a broader scope than the minting ofcoin and the hoarding of gold. That transcendent good which is "without money andwithout price" is too precious to be measured by the "guinea's stamp." We have topurchase it with the devotion of our lives. Having purchased it, we find it at once invaluableand unsalable. Nevertheless, if one were to offer it in the market he would be found unableto transfer it.

According to the Stoic definitions given by Plutarch, wisdom is that knowledge whichincludes all truth, human and divine; philosophy is the exercise and application of the artwhich is promotive of such knowledge; and virtue is the sole and sovereign art which isthus promotive. It follows, therefore, that the true philosopher is the complete man whocontemplates, admires, and reveres That which really Is - the Infinite and Supreme; andwho is conversant likewise with those questions which concern vitally the welfare of humanbeings, counting nothing common, profane, or unclean.

The relations of Philosophy to Science are naturally and necessarily a theme ofspeculation. Like the wife and the husband in a well-ordered household, each has adepartment of its own, but is ever auxiliary to the other. Science includes that knowledgewhich comes within the purview of the understanding, in which the results of investigationhave been worked out and systematized. Philosophy goes beyond all this, and deals withprinciples and causes themselves. Science is the knowing which relates to natural objectsand phenomena; philosophy includes the supernatural or higher natural, the noumenal,the epistemonic, the spiritual - the principles on which all knowledge and being ultimatelyrest. It aspires to the knowing of God, and ramifies through all that concerns the welfareof mankind. Thus it is paramount over Science, uniting the various departments into acomplete whole, permeating them with its own essence.

It seems to me that in these days we are having too much educating that does noteducate. There is a "little learning" which is justly declared "dangerous," a knowledge thatpuffs up and inflates, but assures no spiritual growth, nor development of high moralprinciple. The committing of textbooks to memory, and becoming conversant with what isinculcated in discourses and lectures, must be approved as necessary and most valuable;but to denominate all this - "education," is almost a misuse of terms. In the course of ourmodern legislation the candidates for the various professions are made subject to officialexaminations which are confined to such learning. These are, therefore, not onlyoppressive and liable to open a path to peculation, but for all practical purposes they areveritable shams. It is true that instructors may put the student in the way of obtaining freshperceptions, but it is not possible to impart any knowledge where the main elements of itare not in the mind already.

The true education is an educing, a calling forth of that which is already present, adeveloping of the powers and faculties, exercising each along its particular line, andproperly co-ordinating and subordinating them; and he is the educator who is able toaccomplish this to the best practical result, so that the knowledge which the studentacquires becomes a constituent of his spiritual being. Thus it is in strict analogy with theprinciple of justice or righteousness which the Apostle describes as being revealed fromfaith to faith - out of the faith and mind of the one into the faith and understanding of theother.

Such being the province of Philosophy in education, we may regard it as properly

having a corresponding place and function in society. The term "civilization," in itsetymology, signifies the art or technique of living in social relations. It embraces,accordingly, all the various institutions - the home, the neighborhood, and thecommonwealth. These in their proper development make up for us all that is valuable oflife on the earth. That development is both educational and practical. It brings intoconsciousness and activity those divine qualities and principles that are in every one,though more or less dormant, and makes them the basis of our social life as well as of ourjust legislation.

The motto of the State of New York is the simple word - "Excelsior!" - an appeal toevery one to press on upward; that of Rhode Island, "Non Sibi sed Toti" - a reminder thatnone should live, act, or even die, for self alone, but do all for the good of all. Truly, inthese two legends we find plainly indicated the whole purpose and utility of human life. Sofar as their lesson is realized, it solves the problem whether life is worth living. Everythingof wisdom, duty, worship, bears direct relation toward them as ends. A person living alone,or for self alone, is virtually not a man at all. The Athenians would have called him an"idiot" (idiwthz).* Every one must sustain and maintain fraternal, neighborly, andcooperative relations with others as an elemental and necessary condition of his being.Loving and serving make up the true life.

----------* In English letters: idiotes. Idiwthz in Greek means a private person - and hence

an individual who is not distinguished, and thus a plebeian or an ignorant fellow - the lastbeing a derived meaning, from which we get "idiot."----------

Some, perhaps, may question this assertion, and desire to know why it is so.However true it may be considered, one is naturally unwilling that even so vital a truthshould be dogmatically propounded, without its reason being shown. There should be ademonstration that comes within the province of our knowledge and experience.

Let us therefore attentively consider a case in which we have sought some object,and have failed to obtain all we had hoped to secure. For instance, it is an instinct of ournature to make happiness the goal of our pursuit; and we accordingly regard whateverpromotes enjoyment as being substantially good. Often, and very generally, we fail toaccomplish our expectation; or the delights which we seek pall upon our taste or bringdisappointment, suffering, and even anguish in their train. If we are thoughtful andreflective, we may discern as the cause of such failure that in consulting our own pleasurewe had not considered what was due and just to others. Yet even that estimate of duty willfall short of the ideal Right, unless it proceeds from the conviction that to be strictly andunqualifiedly just there must be inherent in our motive a sincere good-will, even to makingthe welfare and advantage of our fellows our aim, above and instead of our own. In thisconviction lies our redemption, and we realize the full purport of the oracular saying ofJesus: "He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall findit."

This conviction, this epinoia, affords its own illumination. It needs no interpreter.In this yielding up of the life or soul as happiness, this "forsaking of father and mother," andall things esteemed as precious, there is gained a hundredfold in what is even more

precious, the eudaimonia, or blessedness. Emanuel Swedenborg has set this forth asheaven itself, heavenly joy and felicity, declaring that it "consists in willing from the heartthe good of others more than of ourselves, and the serving others for the sake of theirhappiness, without regard to any end of remuneration therefrom, but from the principle oflove."

In this question the interests of human society itself are vitally concerned. Thesentiment, however, while perhaps accepted in profession is sadly ignored in action. Littlechildren are taught to pray at night to the Father in the heavens, and afterward there isdiligently impressed upon their minds the maxim of worldly prudence: "Every one forhimself." Oftentimes the good seed and then the more prolific tares are sown by the samehand, and the divine crop is utterly choked and brought to naught.

The notion of individuality has led men to regard themselves as strangers to oneanother, as competitors, and even as adversaries. Upon this concept our politics andbusiness appear to be principally transacted. I remember pleading once with a man toconsider the strait, the necessity, and helplessness of another whom he was very certainto injure irreparably by a business proceeding; and the answer which was made to me -that "the man must take his chances."

Heartless and cruel as was this reply it seems to be in full accord with the currentmaxims of business management. Everywhere we are told that "there must be nofriendship in trade." This means, in plain speech, that no principle that may ennoblehuman nature and exalt man above a savage animal should have any place in his businessdealing with his fellow-man.

If we dig down to the foundations of this rule and usage, we shall find them to be thelegitimate deductions of a prevailing disbelief in immortality. No matter whether this beavowed or disavowed, upon this hypothesis, and upon this only, can they be maintained.If our relations with our fellow-beings are to end with the period of leaving the present lifethey can hardly be very intimate or obligatory.

If human society is to have no broader foundation than worldly conditions andcircumstances, the Social Compact has only brute force to authorize and sanctify it. Safetyfor the weaker is without any proper security. Why spare man, why respect woman, if thewheel of time is going to whirl us all into the abyss of utter extinction? The creed andinspiration of such a constitution of society is fairly and fully set forth in the maxim: "Let useat and drink, for tomorrow we die."

Truly, as men think, so they are. Wherever the rule prevails that those may takewho have the power, and only those may keep who can, the war-cry is "Vic Victis!" - woeto those that are overcome in the struggle of life! What wonder is it that a sordid self-interest often impels the wealthy and powerful to employ their arts and resources tooppress, and extort ill-recompensed service from the commonalty; the craftsmen in thevarious callings to form in their turn combinations which in scope and operation may be asunfair, exacting, and even cruel as the wrongs of which they complain; and that all groupsare jealous of one another, and bitterly hostile?

In such ways the whole commonwealth is placed in mortal peril. The true functionof government is that of a pilot to guide the ship of public affairs through every sea; but inthe all-absorbing scramble for place, power, and emolument as reward for partisan servicethere is fearful peril of shipwreck. When the public policy upon which all are dependentbecomes a football between political factions, the general welfare will be only a matter for

minor consideration. In such a condition the commonwealth becomes little else than ananarchy restrained only by the police, and so its functions are limited to the security of lifeand property alone.

In the perfect commonwealth, all the parts, like the organs of the human body, actin harmony. Society then is what Emanuel Swedenborg graphically represents as theMaximus Homo, the Grand Man, and every citizen has his place in the organism. Platodescribes it as a State ruled by philosophers - or perhaps it is better to say - where therulers are imbued with the philosophic spirit.

It is not, however, in the nature of anything human to remain stable and withoutchange. The history of the world, of peoples, of enterprises, and of individual humanbrings, has always shown progress in cycles. There is nowhere the example of a nation,or even a religion or civilization, where there was progress in straight lines. It has alwaysbeen an apparent advancing followed by a conspicuous retrograding. Plato hasaccordingly presented in detail the process of dissolution in the Ideal Commonwealth, bywhich retrograding from just and wholesome administration, the government was tobecome corrupt, oppressive, and a pernicious despotism.

We find the account in the Eighth Book of The Republic. Being subject to mutationslike other human structures the government degenerates into a mixed administration inwhich a spirit of ambition and greed of gain will take the lead, the art of war willpreponderate, and the rulers, the guardians of the State, will think lightly of philosophy andmore highly of political power. Nor does it stop long at this point, but descends intooligarchy, or more correctly, plutocracy. Then gold becomes all-powerful, and both publicand private virtue are put to the wall. The country becomes divided into two classes, oneof them enormously rich and the other miserably poor. The yeomanry - who, in mostcommunities, carry on the useful arts, pay most of the taxes and uphold the commonwealth- are hopelessly degraded into a populace. Almost all are poor, except the governingclass; paupers, tramps, and criminals multiply, and education deteriorates.

The intemperate passion for riches, and the license and extravagance that alwaysaccompany the possession of inordinate wealth, produce their characteristic fruits. On allsides there are grasping usurers and ruined spendthrifts. Drones and paupers throngevery place. Finally, the lower classes become turbulent and conscious of their power;the old checks and safeguards are removed, and the oppressed become the ruling class.Then is established a corresponding constitution of government, giving equal rights tounequal persons, together with a marvelous freedom of speech and action. Respect forage and rank dies out. Father and son, teacher and scholar, master and servant, are onthe same dead level. Every one does what he likes, with a contemptuous disregard of thelaw. He obeys or disobeys at his own pleasure. If a criminal is sentenced to death,imprisonment, or exile, he will probably be encountered the next day alive and at liberty,parading the streets like a hero. So much for the picture as it is drawn by the greatphilosopher. The career of a civil polity under such conditions may be traced by the lightof history in its vortical downward progress from the guardianship of its best citizens to thedominion of the wealthy and powerful few, and thence to the domination of theuneducated, irresponsible many - culminating in the autocracy of the political demagogue,or the imperial sway of the Man on Horseback.

The remedy for such a state of affairs, and the only proper safeguard against itsoccurrence or its recurrence, will be the same as in the case of an individual person. Our

ethics, to be stable and enduring, and adequate to the purpose, must have their foundationand their inspiration in justice and truth. Nor may we be content with the petty definitionsfor these terms that are found in dictionaries. Justice means more than a simple payingof debts and thereby becoming free from all further responsibility to the individual. It isinfinitely more than any interest of the stronger. Nor may it be measured by statutes, rules,and maxims; for it comprises all these, and more. It includes harmonious developmentof the nature, so that each faculty of the soul shall perform its own functions withoutinterfering with the others. Then the whole man is settled in the best temper, possessingself-control and justice with wisdom.

In analogy with this, the office of the commonwealth is to assure to every individualfull opportunity for his talent, letting him have, unhindered, a place and employment whichshall be most in accordance with his disposition and qualifications, and shall enable himto be most useful and profitable to the other members of the social body. For, really, in agenuine commonwealth, there is not any clashing of interests or prospering of one at theexpense of another. Everything is reciprocal: all suffer and rejoice together as onepersonality. Indeed, the true eclesia or commonwealth is, in principle and in action, a co-operative structure in which every part ministers to the rest. This is what justice means inthe full philosophic sense of the term; and to this complexion we shall, in the regeneration,come at last. It may be now, and it may long continue to be, an Utopia or a New Jerusalemthat exists only in our sublimer thought; but none the less shall we do well to contemplateit in our graver moments, and live to the ideal as best we may.

Hence we require broader and more perfect conceptions of our own nature, and ofour relations to one another and to the whole universe of being. There is never anydevelopment in a man's soul that does not more or less owe its existence to spiritualrelationship with others. The universal soul, the soul of the Grand PIan, gives itself apeculiar personal representation in every one of us; and from that representation we mustfind the essential truth which pertains to the higher life that is ours from the eternal region.We may have the philosophic insight with which to perceive it; but we must transcend thearbitrary limitations of sensuous vision and depend upon the active sense which the soulpossesses of its own quality as an outcome and portion of the Supreme Essence. For weare more or Iess aware, all of us, that there is something more of ourselves than simply thethought which refers itself to the summit of the head and the emotions that centrethemselves within the breast. "We often feel," says Emerson, "that there is another youthand age than that which is measured from the year of our natural birth." There is at timeswhat another writer calls a strange sad seeming of soul-sense that says: "Such as you areyou have been somewhere for ages."

Older than the body, the soul brings hither somewhat of its recollections. WhenSocrates in the Dialogue questions Meno as to whether Virtue or moral excellence can beimparted and implanted in a person by instruction, he succeeds in eliciting from the youngman the acknowledgment that there are in every mind apperceptions of what is just andwhat is true, which no human teacher or teaching had ever communicated. Suchapperception is a recalling into conscious memory of knowledge already possessed.

These ideas which have thus come with the inmost soul from the great Foreworldmay, therefore, justly be regarded as the most certain of all truths; and truly they embracethe most important conceptions, such as God, Eternity, Immortality, Love, Duty - everythingthat confers dignity upon human life and human endeavor, and opens the way into the

knowing and consciousness of all truth,"Every human soul has the Absolute Soul," says the eloquent Transcendentalist,

David A. Wasson, "has the whole truth, significance, and virtue of the universe as its lawfuland native resource." Therefore says Jesus: "The kingdom of the heavens is within you;"and therefore, Antoninus: "Look inward, for within is the fountain of truth;" and thereforeEckhard: "Ye have all truth potentially within you."

Plato's concept of the reconstruction of the commonwealth corresponded in all itsparticulars to what the individual ought to be. The classes of citizens, arranged as theguardian or deliberative body, the executive or military and police, and the producingyeomanry, are in strict analogy with the faculties of the soul: the nooz or higher reason,the Qumoz (thumos) or active will, and the epiQumia (epithumia) or acquisitivedisposition. In India this arrangement was crystallized into the Brahman, the military, andthe yeoman castes. The trend of all well-ordered society is toward the adopting of thishuman form of the Grand Man.

The endeavor to pervert this natural order constitutes a fundamental error ingovernments. Hence they are largely mere makeshifts, the shuttlecocks of political parties.The issue of ascendency is chiefly between the oligarchy and military class on one sideand the unstable commonalty on the other. There are constitutions, but the safeguardsto personal rights and liberty, like the levees on the Mississippi River, are swept away bythe inundations of police-power. As a result they are paralyzed and impotent to resistinvasion and encroachment by the privileged classes, the moneyed corporation, or thevender of alcoholic beverages.

We are counting too much, therefore, upon our institutions and external conditions.It was predicted by Elliott Cresson that the party that should set the colored man free woulddestroy the liberty of the others. Evil custom extends everywhere, taints everything; andso, like Plato's charioteer, the effort is fruitlessly made to drive the chariot with one horsebelonging to the sky and the other to the earth. The reliance is upon the Dollar; no valueis attached to Faith. Confucius, once visiting a town in China, was told by a woman whomhe met that her father, husband, and near of kin had all been killed by a tiger that infestedthe region.

"Why do you not remove to some other place?" he asked. "Because," said she, "wehave a good government." The sage then turned to his disciples and said: "Behold, a badgovernment is more to be dreaded than a ferocious tiger."

Man must conquer his necessities by the work of his own hand: and the operationof his own thought. Without these there will be no enrichment by a tariff, no advantage byany form of money, nor benefit by any adjustment of industry or property. It is an ideal lifewhere we neither command nor obey, but a holier one where each, from intelligent charity,gives his best effort for the good of his fellows. "The superior man is catholic and notpartisan," says Confucius; "the inferior man is partisan and not catholic."

We are thus again and again relegated to the subjective truth that all socialamelioration and regeneration must be accomplished in each individual. Public virtue isthe good thought, good word, and good deed of each citizen, and will not exist where theseare wanting. All ideas of truth and the inexorable Right dwell in every soul; but in everysoul they are at first wrapped in deep sleep produced by the draught which no vesselcontains. It is a sleep infinitely profound; and the base incense of brutish lives, like thefumes of an anaesthetic, steep them more and more in oblivion. To awaken the soul from

this Lethean condition and to bring into consciousness the truth and moral sensibilitydormant there, is the highest aim that we can achieve, and the most eminent service thatone can render to another.

Intellectual power and material success are far from being all that is to beaccomplished by culture and development. The other and higher faculty must succeedand transcend. Take that away, and there is nothing of real value left. The man and thecommonwealth, liberty and virtue, alike are dependent vitally upon it. We all are sojournershere, children of one Father, and from the Eternal region. Hence we participate in thesame nature and necessities, and may not prudently or innocently neglect what is due toone another. If one of us suffers, all are certain to be affected; not one of us may fallwithout all being involved in the calamity. By realizing this and living in harmony with thisconviction we shall also realize the practical use of Philosophy in the perception of thatwhich really is.

Thus we know the Truth, and so by possessing and doing it, the Truth shall makeus free.

(Delivered at the Philosophical Symposium of Illinois College, Jacksonville, Ill., June3, 1897)

(Intelligence [Metaphysical Magazine], vol. 7, no. 1, Dec., 1897)

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The Religions of Ancient Greece and Rome Their Underlying Psychic Facts, Theories and Speculations - Alexander Wilder

Whoever ventures to investigate the foundations of a religious faith is obliged as anhonest man to consider it upon its fairer side. "The glory of religions," says Ernest Renan,"consists in the fact that they propose an aim that is above human strength, that they boldlypursue its realization and nobly fail in the attempt to give a fixed shape to the infiniteaspirations of the human heart." With such a view and grasp of the subject we can findlittle that is common or unclean. We may not look at it through any medium which is duskywith disrespect or partisan prejudice, but must be willing to explore beyond what appearsas chaff in quest of the nutritious and germinative kernels which it may hide. Nor may weoverlook the fact that the dogmas and even the symbols and ceremonials of our later timesare to a very large degree outcomes and transformations from the ancient faiths and ritesof Greece, Rome and the older East. If we owe any veneration to the former, we oughtlikewise to accord somewhat of respect to the latter. We are not excused from this by anygrotesqueness, absurdity, or even moral dereliction which may sometimes come to view.Even modern religions in the countries which are regarded as civilized have their shadesand blemishes, and our form of civilization seems to have both drunkenness andprostitution inherent and inseparable as a component part. In our explorations of the

religion, as well as of the culture of a people, it becomes us as candid enquirers to interpretits higher rather than its lower aspect as typical.

In our survey of the various forms of religious belief in the several countries ofancient Greece and Italy, we must bear in mind that they were not permanently fixed andcrystallized, but from century to century underwent numerous and important changes. Themodes and ceremonials of public worship might be stable as being a part of the structureof society, but the religion of the family and the notions cherished by individuals weredistinct and comparatively free from external dictation.

It may be premised here that a distinction exists between things spiritual and thosewhich relate more directly to the psychic nature. Of the former we may say that they donot pertain to time, but are essentially of the eternal region. Eternity does not signifyduration, but is a condition to which everything spiritual belongs. The "eternal life," assuch, is not therefore an endless existing, but a moral state, in which the higher principlesof our being are in activity, and no longer dormant and quiescent. The spiritual person isawake to this higher condition, and so truly lives, but the unspiritual and undevelopedremain still "of the earth earthy." In accordance with this fact the Gnostic evangelist putsinto the mouth of John the Baptist the words, "He that believeth in the Son hath eternal life[the life of the eternal world], but he that believeth not shall not see life." This developmentthe preaching of John and Jesus directly indicated. "The kingdom or reign of the heavensis near," said they; "repent and believe the welcome tidings."

What is here termed "repentance" ought to be more accurately expressed anddefined. It does not mean penitence or contrition for wrong-doing. The Greek term ismetanoia, and denotes an exalting of the individual into communion with the higher noeticprinciple: a movement or progress of the soul toward the spiritual department of being,and thus its conversion from psychic to spiritual quality. It is a pleroma, an in-filling andinspiring of the whole life from the divine source of the being.

The soul or psychic nature, as we understand it, is primarily the selfhood. It is in amanner composite: on the one hand combining with the body and corporeal quality, andon the other receiving its own animating principle from the spirit or higher nature. Thusintuition, the noetic faculty, must be accredited to this superior department of being; whilethe psychic mind, the common mental endowment, the dianoia or understanding, may beregarded as the faculty of knowing by means of mental processes.

When, therefore, we treat of the psychic facts and speculations underlying theancient religions we desire to be understood as referring to matters of observation,experience and imagination, but at the same time recognizing as beyond all these anintuition of the higher truths and an aspiration to communion with the spiritual realm ofbeing. To be candid as well as intelligent upon this subject all these things must beconsidered in this purview and acknowledged.

In every people, so far as our knowledge extends, there is and has been a concept,if not an actual perception, of superior, divine Beings, and of the human soul as in someway fellow with them. In this respect, as well as in ethnic affiliation, the religions of Greeceand Rome appear to have a close family relationship to those of ancient Eran and India.There are distinct Semitic and Turanian features, indicative of former association and theinfusion of foreign blood; but the substructure indicates a like source to that of the archaicfaiths of the Aryan tribes. The Shraddha custom and the rites of worship of ancestors werecommon to them all. The sacrifices described by Virgil in his fifth book, which Aeneas

offers at the tomb of his father Anchises, were a counterpart of the funeral cakes stillplaced at the sanctuary of the dead in India. The family hearth was the altar where thedeceased progenitor received offerings of food and drink, and family worship waspropitiatory of the deceased men. Around this fire were placed the busts and simulacraof the ancestral protectors, and their preservation, as well as that of the fire, was regardedas essential to the perpetuity of the household. The bride was brought thither to beadopted into the family of her husband, and new-born children were passed through theflame as the baptism of fire which thus consecrated them and legitimated their birth. Thespirit of the divine ancestor and his sacred fire made all sacred. "What is there moreholy?" Cicero urges; "what is there more carefully fenced around with every descriptionof religious veneration than the house of each individual citizen? Here is his altar, hishearth and household divinities; here all his sacred rites, all his religious ceremonies arepreserved."

Thus the tomb was the temple, and the ancestor was the divinity, the good daemonor genius of the household. The fire upon the altar which might not go out or be fed withanything impure, became regarded in general belief as the representative and even theembodiment of the deceased one, and was invoked and supplicated by the worshipers,who esteemed themselves as "of his bone and flesh." For any one else to participate inor even witness the family or tribal worship was accounted a mortal offence. In the samespirit now no proselyte is desired to the Jewish religion.

It was the archaic belief that death was not the extinction or even cessation ofmundane existence. The animating principle, though it had ceased to quicken the body,was supposed to remain in some way allied to it. Hence came the notion that the peaceof this spiritual essence depended essentially upon proper funeral rites and statedofferings. "We gave the soul of Polydorus repose in a grave," says Aeneas to Queen Dido;"with loud voice we uttered the last farewell." In this way the religious belief of ancientRome and Greece acknowledged the existence of the human spirit as a living being, actingas a companion and protector to the kindred. We have a vulgar maxim that everyhousehold has its skeleton; the former faith, as we here see, more exalted and sublime,assigned to every family and individual a guardian genius. When families expanded intotribes these ancestral divinities were still revered. In process of time it became necessaryfor these families and tribes to confederate as peoples. In these cases they do not seemto have merged their respective religious worships, but to have developed a new onecommon to all. These tribal and household rites existed till the Roman imperial andhierarchal power had subverted the former nationalities and religions.

This type of spiritism, however, did not include the entire theosophy and pantheonof ancient Greece and Rome. There was a faith which had its inception in the superiorconsciousness. It recognized a Higher Intelligence controlling physical nature and takingpart in the affairs of men. For a time this concept was associated with the religion of thetribes and households, and partook of their exclusiveness. Each family altar or hearth-fireseems to have had its own particular guardian, a Zeus Herkeios of its own, or at leasthaving a special relation to that body of worshipers different from the one sustainedelsewhere. In an analogous manner, the Zeus of the Pelasgian Greeks having his templeand oracle at Dodona was distinct in many particulars from the Zeus who was supreme onMount Olympus. It was the culture of many centuries that made identical the divinities ofdifferent shrines that bore the same designation, and merged various forms of worship into

common rites. This was more feasible in the several countries of Greece, than at Rome.The Greeks were more flexible of temper, superior in mental qualities and of more refinedspiritual perception. The changes which transformed the Pelasgians into Hellenes werealso indicated by analogous modifications of their national religions and conceptions ofinterior truths. Aeschylos has commemorated this in his immortal drama, under the legendof the dethroning of ancient Kronos and the chaining of the unsubmissive Titan byOlympian Zeus and his younger Gods. We do not doubt that conquest and intestinerevolutions effected these changes. The allegoric tales of Theseus and Heracles evidentlysignify as much. The two heroes or half-gods are described as overcoming and slayingthe monsters and murderous offspring of the older Poseidonian divinities that devouredmen and laid waste the earth.

The people of Athens, always eager to hear and learn the new, and Spartaconservative of the old, fairly typified the rival influences at work. Very expressive was thefact that a Spartan general was commander-in-chief when Greece stood up against Persia,while the wisdom and artifice of the Athenians compelled the stand against the invaderwhich assured the victory. The insensible modifications which time always effects, andcontact with other peoples, prepared the way for a radical transformation. The domesticreligion had constituted a wall of partition between families and peoples, but theacknowledgment of a higher Power supreme in the world of nature indicated the tendencyto ulterior unification.

Even then, it was not possible for the national worships to crystallize. The religionof Zeus was to a great degree overshadowed by the worship of Apollo. With the overthrowof the pre-historic regime and the introduction of the tyrants and archons, came also theadoption of Bacchus, a Semitic divinity from the Orient. This worship gradually displacedthat of Poseidon, once prevalent in the Morea, Thessaly, and other maritime countries. Asthe son of Demeter he was admitted to her hearth at the Eleusinia; as the offspring of theEleusinian maid he shared the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The Great Dionysiak Mythaffords a key to much of the religious history and sentiment of those former times.

Only in a relative sense, however, does our present enquiry concern itself withhistoric statements. As has been already noted, the ancients cherished a profound beliefin the presence of spiritual and super human agencies in all the occurrences andvicissitudes of life. Not only did they suppose that every human soul participated in thecareer of kindred still living upon the earth, but that every department of nature likewisehad its guardians. Thus the trees had their dryads, the rivers their naiads, the mountainstheir oreads, and every religion its tutelaries. "For all men have need of divinities," saysthe author of the Odysseia.

Hence to obtain communication with the powers of the supernal world was theprominent feature of life. This was sought in various ways, by charms and magic rites, byoracles, by initiation, and by philosophic contemplation. The Pelasgian Greeks had theiroracle at Dodona, where the hierophants employed means very similar to those we hearof now, to bring themselves into rapport with divinity. The temples of Apollo at Delphi,Klaros, and Branchidai were frequented by those who sought to learn the future, and whatwas the divine will. The interpreters were wont to inhale narcotic vapors before theyuttered their vaticinations. These were regarded as prophetic, and Herodotus, as well aslater writers, gives numerous examples of their fulfilment which appear incontestable. Thehuman soul as an emanation of the divine mind was thought by many to be "in its nature

prophetic," but to have been blunted and obscured by the opaque encumbrance of thebody; through which, however, it pierced in fits of ecstasy and divine entheasm(inspiration).

Much has been said, and justly, about the ambiguity and deceptive character of theutterances, and it has been shown that they were sometimes inspired by costly presents.Yet if there had not been a certain quality of actual truth in the responses, the oracleswould never have attained the high esteem in which they were held, but would havespeedily fallen into neglect. To accept as sublime that which we do not intelligentlycomprehend, may be folly; yet none the less, the decrying as untrue or unworthy of beingknown the things which we do not understand is little better than wilful sottishness. Todoubt what is undemonstrable is not necessarily an evidence of a scientific temper; butrather the spirit that denies is that of Mephistopheles. It is not in human nature to persistfor ages in any belief or conviction except it has truth at the core.

Upon the Mysteries, however, the spiritual life of Greece was centred. These wereconnected with revelations of the interior life, of life beyond the corporeal senses. Theyconsisted of dramas, symbols and symbolic observances, expressive of the trials anddisciplines which set forth in allegory the career of the soul during its progress in earth-lifeand till it attains its final condition. They were celebrated in different forms in differentplaces, and were modified at different times; but their purpose and meaning neverchanged, and they continued to be revered as the holiest part of religious worship. Therewere the Kabeiric rites of Samothrakia and Lemnos, as well as of the archaic Pelasgianperiod, doubtless Semitic, or perhaps Akkadian in their origin and character. After thesewere the later and more famous Eleusinia. These were typical of the Grecian developmentand character. At first they were circumscribed to citizens of Eleusis; Poseidon at firstshared the sacred hearth with Demeter, and Athene was considered as his daughter.Later, however, the rites were extended over all Attika, and Iacchos, "the son," succeededto his place in the worship. Next, all Hellenes, and finally other foreigners were admittedto participate. The Greeks significantly described their Mysteries as teletai, or "perfecting,"while the Romans termed theirs "initiations," or "beginnings."

The Bacchic rites had a similar mystic significance. They differed from the othersin being catholic, open to all. There was no distinction made of sex, condition or even ofnationality. In their numerous forms they expressed every type of Grecian character. Insome countries they were gross, sensual and savage; in others they were characterizedby a frantic enthusiasm; and it seems also, incredible as some may think, that in theirhigher concept, they were as sublime and elevating as any form of spiritual worship.Pindar praised the Eleusinian rites as giving actual knowledge of life, its aims and divineinception. Plutarch bestows like commendation upon the Dionysia, and Euripides declaresthe Bacchic orgies promotive of modesty in women, and tending to develop the propheticquality. The Theatre in Greece had its origin in the Bacchic rites, and Herodotus identifiesthem with the ancient religion and philosophy. "The rites which are called Orphic andBacchic," he declares, "are in reality Egyptian and Pythagoric."

It is true indeed that myth and mystery, drama and philosophy go hand in hand, andare really the same. We have no occasion to laugh at the grotesqueness or otherincongruous features of the rites; they were all of them the outcome of human emotions,and all complete worship brings the entire nature into activity, curtailing and repressingnothing. There is nothing intrinsically vain and of no significance in human life. Ulterior

purpose - "the divinity that shapes our ends" - inspires every thought and action. Weperceive this to be forcibly illustrated in the dramas and tragedies performed at the theatre,as well as in what we really know of the perfecting rites. They all aimed to exhibit humannature, human motive, human possibilities - in short, man himself, as a temporarysojourner on the earth, but having his home, his fatherland and inheritance in the worldbeyond.

The history of Rome externally was analogous to that of the Grecian States. Thereseemed lacking, however, that accessibility to spiritual influence. The Roman paid heedscrupulously to the externals of religion, and even to augury and divination; but it was hisstudy always to be practical and utilitarian. The national religion, more than elsewhere,included the machinery of government. Rome then, as now, had her Supreme Pontiff, hersacred college and an elaborate ritual of worship. These were above everything else, andit was long believed that the formularies of worship had exceeding influence with theGodhead.* In the public services these were often repeated, lest an omission or blundershould interpose to destroy their efficacy. Wars were undertaken, battles fought oravoided, according as the omens indicated.

-----------* The employing of "barbarous terms" in the ancient temples and initiatory rites is

noticed by Porphyry. The various chants and invocations were in a "sacred language," notunderstood by the laity, as they were considered "profane," and therefore unworthy ofparticipating. Thus the Sanskrit is now used in India, and Latin in the Roman Churches,after the same pattern. The Mithraic rites, which became well nigh universal, werecharacterized by a like practice. It would seem that the Hierophant, or initiating priest, hadthe "barbarous" or Chaldaic title of Peter, signifying the Expounder. This will seem toaccount for the tradition of the Apostle Peter at Rome, and the pretension of the RomanPontiff to be Peter's successor. The "chair of Peter" at Rome was examined many yearsago and exhibited astrological symbols and the Moslem creed.------------

It was said by a Hebrew prophet:

"The King of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of two ways to usedivination; he made his arrows bright, he consulted with teraphim, he looked in the liver."

So, too, did the Pontiff at Rome, and it was believed that the mind of the Divinity wasthus revealed. Only men of the priest-caste, the patricians, were regarded as thus favored.The plebeians were not considered Romans, or permitted access to the worship. Eventheir marriages were decried as nullities and they had no rights before the law. The laterkings of Rome had endeavored to help them; two were murdered and one dethroned.

With other peoples religious faiths took form from their peculiar genius, but theRoman Commonwealth seems to have given no place to sentiment or imagination.Religion did not make Rome so much as Rome prescribed what should be religion.Fatherland was supreme above all Gods. The State was above all, and directed whatdivinities the people should worship, what rites they should observe, what oracles andmodes of divination they should employ. The Bacchic worship was introduced from

Greece, but as its rites were different from those already in use, and as it called intoexercise the emotions and pointed out a spiritual life, it was speedily outlawed andprohibited as endangering the existence of the Republic.

For a time after the conquest of Asia Minor by Pompey the worship of Mithras wasintroduced and spread over the entire Roman world. This was an Oriental religion, takingits origin from Persia and the Euphrates valley, and many of its peculiar rites were carriedinto the succeeding religion.

It is no wonder that the Romans considered themselves a religious people aboveothers. The Church was the State. There were more Gods than inhabitants. Everyphenomenon of nature, every human relation, every person and place, every virtue, qualityand even physical function had a superintending genius or divinity. Every pursuit of life,every festival, every diversion, marriage, inheritance and contract was regulated by asystem which the Pontiffs had prescribed. This goes very far to explain the traditionalgravity of Roman manners. There was nothing spontaneous, nobody free.

Philosophy finally interposed to break the chains which held fast thought andenterprise. Dropping the metaphors and symbols which were employed at the oracles andmystic rites, it essayed to enquire for truth in language plain to all, and to instruct in speecheasy to understand. The conquests of Persia had made the learning of Egypt and Indiaaccessible to the world. The Ionian sages were first to receive and promulgate theWisdom Religion. Pythagoras taught it in Magna Grecia; Anaxagoras and the Sophistsin Attika. In the schools of Athens it received a European adaptation and was transmittedthence to other countries, to be preserved to later ages. Plato taught the episteme or over-knowledge, and that justice was superior to the laws of the State. The Philosophers whoaccepted these teachings became indifferent to public affairs, and were often persecutedas cherishing principles subversive of those upon which every ancient commonwealth hadbeen founded. Zeno uttered this sentiment more distinctly than those who preceded him.He declared the individual man superior to the institutions; that the supreme merit was notto be a citizen of a country and existing for the State, but to be an upright man living inobedience to the Supreme Divinity. The hymn of Kleanthes, acknowledging Zeus asUniversal Father, declaring mankind to be his offspring and divine justice the ruler of all,became the religious creed of thinkers everywhere.

When Rome became supreme in Italy, she admitted the priest-families and nobilityof the other countries as citizens and adopted their tutelary Gods in her Pantheon. In thisway came numerous divinities of similar name and distinct character, and the incessantround of festivals and other observances which Ovid enumerates in his calendar.

The assimilation of foreign religions, however, was but a part of the results. Acultured people, even in a subject condition, is certain to acquire a powerful influence overthe less refined. The Roman over-lords were rude and barbarous. They began tosuccumb to Grecian ideas. It was impossible for conservatives like Cato to arrest the tide.Grecian art, Grecian learning and Grecian manners swept all before them. Philosophy hadalso its adherents. Choice souls adopted the lessons of the Academy; others acceptedthe Stoic doctrines; while in higher circles, even in the ranks of the priesthood, Epikuroshad his followers. Grecian schools were thronged by pupils from the noble families ofRome.

The public worship was maintained with more scrupulousness than ever. It wasopenly declared that this was solely because it was necessary to keep the common people

in order. But in their own circle the Supreme Pontiffs avowed their disbelief. Cicerorepresents Cotta as denying the existence of the Gods. As a priest he believed, but hisreason denied. The elder Pliny, though he was credulous in regard to charms and omens,yet boldly affirmed that the belief in divinity taking part in human affairs, and the dream ofexisting after death, were foolish delusions. A century and a half before this Julius Caesarhimself did not hesitate to declare in the Senate Chamber that there was no future life, andCato the Censor approved the sentiment. Yet both had held priestly offices, one asCensor and the other as Supreme Pontiff.

Thus had the ancient religions fallen into decay. Liberty of conscience took theirplace. The human soul was no more to be enthralled by local worship and patriotism, butwas restored to its citizenship in heaven.

We have not given attention in this thesis to those phenomena and occurrencesusually attributed to supernatural agencies. Classic literature abounds with them. We mayby no means ignore them or consider them as extraneous matters. We may agree withHannibal to prefer the counsel of intelligent men above the omens of an animal's carcass;but we would not contemn those phenomena which transcend the limits of the ordinaryunderstanding. We esteem the facts and theories, however, as psychic, and as pertainingdirectly to the human personality and subjective character rather than to the notions whichrelate to marvelous occurrences. We do not quite consider a worship as being essentiallya religion.

It is plain, however, that the underlying theory of the ancient faith - or perhaps weshould say the faiths of the former period was spiritual. The spirits of the dead wereregarded as active in supervising and shaping the careers of the living. This beliefconstituted every family and tribe a sacred band, and made every household tie a part ofthe religion. The fundamental law was indeed:

"Thou shalt love thy neighbour or kinsman and hate thine enemy or person ofanother stock."

Out of the family grew the Commonwealth, invested and hedged about by the samesanctities. It was a Church including the State rather than the State having a Churchestablishment. This theory accounts for many of the customs and peculiar actions whichlater generations considered absurd and even ridiculous.

Thus the earlier religions were developed from the belief in the immortality of thehuman Soul. This is a belief founded in the nature of humankind, in the innermostrecesses of our being. Its source is in the affections themselves; no one who loves everbelieves or imagines any end of existence. It persists through every change of condition,and we all instinctively and intuitively expect a fuller, larger life. It rules all our convictions;infills our thought; it inspires veneration, our highest and noblest quality; it impels to thebuilding of altars and temples for worship; it leads us to our greatest sacrifices, the partingwith what we hold dearest. Love made the human race necessary to the Divine Being, andit makes God necessary to every Soul.

Joined to this belief in immortality was the conception that daemons and divinities,human in character and quality, but superior in nature and endowments, existedeverywhere, and controlled the various occurrences and phenomena of the greater world.It thus became a part of the policy of nations to seek to learn the will of these divinities.

Oracles were consulted; and prophets as the spokesmen and interpreters of theirutterances were rivals of the priests. Sometimes as in ancient Judea (Jeremiah, xxix, 26)the latter class were able to prohibit the others, but in the long run the more spiritual beliefwas certain to hold its own. The altars and public festivals were less regarded, andinitiations were employed to develop entheasm and exalt the Soul into communion withDivinity. We would not admit that this was an empty delusion. These rites were theoutgrowth of conviction and aspirations for a life higher than that of the senses. When theformer worship had developed the superior faculty, its uses came to an end, and thespirituality which had sustained it was transferred to its successor. In the epopteia - theapocalyptic vision of the perfecting rite - doubtless men like Plato were brought, so tospeak, face to face with God. Minds do not form such concepts except there is in them acore, a substratum of truth.

Despite the scepticism which came into view among the chief men of Rome, theintroduction of Philosophy was productive of renovation. There was no violent breakingwith the past, but the old rituals and beliefs were left to those who found delight in them.As, however, men lost faith in the old religion, Philosophy was present to show them whatwas better. If Gods were no more to be found in rites and sacred observances, or in thephenomena of the external world, there was divinity in the human Soul itself. SaysSeneca:

"A holy spirit sits in every heart, and treats us as we treat it."

This is the belief which honeycombed the old religions of Greece and Rome andswept them like chaff off the threshing floor. It saved the Empire when that salvation wasnecessary for the world's welfare. We are assured that ten righteous men would havesaved Sodom in her calamity, but she had them not. Happily for Rome, she fell not withthe Caesars, because there were still Antonines in reserve. Even in the revolutions of laterages, the same divine revelation has continued to restore, renew, and uphold - not adogma merely, but spirit and life.

(Lucifer, vol. 14, May, July, 1894)

---------------

Review:Life Everlasting, By John Fiske, Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,

1901.

"The soul must be sacrificed," says Winwood Reade; "the hope in immortality mustdie. A sweet and charming illusion must be taken from the human race as youth andbeauty vanish never to return."

In refreshing contrast to this asphyxiating affirmation, we have "The IngersollLecture on the Immortality of Man," delivered at Cambridge, in December last, by JohnFiske. It is a survey of the field, with a glance at the different notions entertained, a rebuttalof the materialistic hypothesis, and a statement of reasons for the hope of something better

for human beings than an utter extinction. Quoting Euripides who suggests that what wecall life is really death, from which what we call death is an awakening, Professor Fiskemakes this statement of his belief and confidence:

"The failure of the bodily powers, the stoppage of the fluttering pulse, the coldstillness upon the features, so lately wreathed in smiles of merriment, the corruption of thetomb, the breaking of the ties of love, the loss of all that has given value to existence, thedull blankness of irremediable sorrow, the knell of everlasting farewells, - all this is seizedupon by the sovereign imagination of man and transformed into a scene of everlastingglory, such as in all the vast career of the universe is reserved for humanity alone. In thehighest of creatures the divine immanence has acquired sufficient concentration andsteadiness to survive the dissolution of the flesh, and assert an individuality untrammeledby the limitations which in the present life everywhere persistently surround it. Upon thisview death is not a calamity but a boon, not a punishment inflicted upon man but thesupreme manifestation of his exceptional prerogative as chief among God's creatures.Thus the faith in immortal life is the great poetic achievement of the human mind; it is all-pervasive, it is concerned with every moment and every aspect of our existence as moralindividuals, and it is the one thing that makes this world inhabitable for beings constructedlike ourselves." -

Professor Fiske, of course, accepts the scientific dicta of Evolution - the ape-likeprogenitors of human beings, and that man is the natural outcome of the whole cosmicprocess that had gone before. He adds, however, very pertinently, that "the belief in afuture life in a world unseen to mortal eyes, is not only coeval with the beginnings of thehuman race, but is also co-extensive with it in all its subsequent stages of development."Instead of decrying this belief as a relic of previous savagery, he accords to it a foundationin our human endowment. Man is the one creature that expects to survive the event ofphysical death. "This expectation was one of his acquisitions, gained while attaining to thehuman phase of existence."

Nevertheless, after glancing at the various opinions entertained by the differentschools of thought, Professor Fisk makes the admission that "we have no organ or facultyfor the perception of soul apart from the material structure and activities which it hasmanifested throughout the whole course of our experience." The evidence contributed byintermediaries or spiritualistic medium he dismisses with little courtesy, and turns hisattention to the materialistic speculations. These he rebuts on their own ground. "Until wecan go wherever the testimony may be, we are not entitled to affirm that there is anabsence of testimony." He then shows conclusively, we think, that our conscious life formsno part of the closed circle of physical activities, but stands entirely outside of it, concentricwith the segment which belongs to the nervous system.

It appears, however, to be the aim of the discourse, to sweep away the argumentsagainst the continuing of existence after death, rather than to prove the actual truth of thispersuasion. With his premises this is not to be wondered at. He has succeeded admirablyto this extent. The matter is beyond common study. It is not easy to show that a beingbelonging in the series of ephemerals, can acquire immortal life. The inquiry should takea higher ground. "We are haunted by an ideal life," says the late Phillips Brooks, "and itis because we have within us the beginning and possibility of it." Immortality is provedbecause its possessor has the witness in himself. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 15, no. 6, Dec., 1901)

--------------

The Serpent Serpent Symbols in Religion - Prof. Alexander Wilder

"Among all peoples that hold the gods in veneration," says Justin, the historian, "theserpent is the great symbol and mystery." Repulsive as this animal may be to many,remarkable as the statement may seem, the serpent has been regarded as the

"Father of all; in every age, In every clime adored."

He has been everywhere the revered dweller in temples, sacred shrines and groves.He was the privileged one in every Eden, generally receiving, without dividing, the honorsbestowed upon the genius or divinity of the place. Whatever the ancient faith whosemysteries we explore, the serpent (a) appears prominent among its symbols. Our ownAmerican aborigines cherished the Rattle-snake, the Egyptians venerated the Royal Asp,and the Eastern Indians the hooded Cobra (b). In ancient Assyria, the great red Dragon,the Seven-headed serpent of Akkad, surrounded with a circle of rays or horns, was borneon a standard before the armies. The god of fire, life and the healing art, Aesculapius, wasrepresented as a serpent,(c) whose eyes would charm to sleep, whose breath gave life,health and joy to human beings.

-----------(a) In the Vedas, "the most ancient books of the Aryans" extant, the serpent is

alluded to. In The Atharva Veda, there are mantras (prayers) addressed to the SerpentGod. Going further up, we find in the Rig Veda itself (X, 189) a mantra called the Sarpamantra, in which the earth is spoken of as the mother of serpents. In the AitareyaBrahmana it is said (Fifth Book, Chapter 4) that on the ninth day of Dvadasaha sacrifice,the Udgatris should walk together in the Yagnasala, or the sacrificial hall, repeating theSarpa mantra, the Drishta (seer) of which was the Sarpa Ragni (Queen of the Serpents).The earth is called the Queen of the Serpents, for she is the Queen of all that moves(Sarpat). She was in the beginning without hair, i.e., hair bushes, etc. She then saw thismantra, i.e. invoked the deity with this mantra; she obtained a motly appearance; shebecame variegated (being able to produce any form); she might like (such as) herbs,trees, and all (other) forms. Therefore the man who has such a knowledge obtains thefaculty of assuming any form he chooses.

(b) The hooded Cobra, "Cobra di Capello," is considered in India as belonging tothe highest class of serpents, and at the same time the most poisonous. Very few are theIndian magicians who can boast of curing all cases of bites from this class. All theserpents mentioned in the Puranas are the hooded snakes. They are considered to

possess a very powerful kind of ophidian force, and hence the awe with which it is lookedupon. The reluctance of the Indian magician to subjugate this class of serpents to his ownwill, is owing to the belief that if he fails in his attempt to do so, the ophidian force of theserpent acted upon recoils upon himself, and he will surely die sooner or later by a diseaseof the lungs, the organ by the exercise of the functions of which, the serpent gives out hisforce. This is also the reason why he is not usually killed by the Hindus, and explains theveneration paid him. The seven-headed monster is considered the most sacred of thoseof this earth.

(c) Here we have a different story to tell. The thousand-headed Sesha, or Ananta -"Eternal," or "Infinite knowledge," who is considered an "Ames," a manifestation of thegreat Narayana himself, is regarded as the knower of "the past, present and future."Parasurama is considered as an incarnation of Sesha, and the Mahabharata calls him aNaga, or serpent.-------------

The employing of symbols in worship may need a word of explanation. Theyconstitute the very language of religion. Indeed, signs or symbols are the ground-work ofall language. The words which we use in daily intercourse are only sounds which havebeen adapted to signify the thoughts and ideas which we desire to express. Such wordsas ripple, murmur, roar, crash, rattle, hush, when uttered, bear a certain resemblance tothe meaning which they are used to convey. The animal tribes communicate theiremotions in such a way by sounds and gestures. The human races, however, an not solimited. They employ sounds, to express conversational meanings and afterwards makeuse of written characters to represent sounds. Man is above the animals, because he cantalk; because he uses words as symbols of thoughts, and written signs as symbols ofwords. In all his culture, symbolism has been his necessary instrument and auxiliary; andas all culture in the past has been intimately allied with religion, the same fact exists inregard to worship.

Mankind has always believed in immortality. The Ancient World was passionatelyreligious. The present life was regarded as a drama in which each individual took part;and this death was the dropping of the curtain and the forsaking of the theatre in order toenter upon the real Life of the Eternal Region - the great mystery which opened the wayto the understanding of every other mystery. In no sense was it supposed to be extinction.

When the head of a people or family died, he was believed to be still in existence,and able to protect those over whom he had presided. The Tomb was consecratedaccordingly as the "Everlasting Home" in which the disbodied soul was housed (SeeEcclesiastes 5; Job III, 14.) It was a sanctuary to which offerings were brought and whereworship was rendered at stated periods (See Virgil's Aenied V.) Hence, too, in ancienttimes, the family altar was erected; the family hearth-fire was kept aglow for the worshipof the Ancestors and for offerings with which to nourish and propitiate the spirits of thedead. "All must honor the mighty dead," said the Pythian oracle to Solon; "the chiefs ofthe country who live beneath the earth." Thus every house was a sanctuary, every repasta holy communion, every burial-place a precinct for religious rites. (d)

------------(d) And I may add of the serpent rites also, so far as India is concerned. But the

reactionary Vaishnavas, at least most of them, do not allow such worship and such asanctuary for serpent-worship as all other Hindus do, saying that it forms part of Karmawith desire. The day set apart for a detailed worship of the serpent is Nigachatarthi,literally "the 4th day (set apart) for Nagas (serpents);" the "fourth day" meaning the fourthday after New Moon. This day falls on or about the --- of ---. On this day married women(men having nothing to do with this business,) take a vessel full of milk, a piece of stringdyed with saffron, and a little Kunkuma (a crimson-colored powder made of saffron, rice,etc.), and go in search of holes under trees. Whey they find one, they leave the threadsat the entrance of the hole, which they previously mark with the kunkuma powder theybrought with them: then pour the milk into the hole, the serpent living within beingsupposed to drink it. They afterwards prostrate themselves before it, uttering some prayersin Sanskrit or in their own vernaculars, which they continue even while they make predatshior circuits, generally 3 or 7, round the hole, and the tree under which it stands, and finallyprostrate themselves once more as before, and go home. The object of such worship isthat they should be prosperous, and bring forth plenty of children, and that they should notbe bitten any more by serpents. Snake-stones are generally set up, in commemoration ofa living snake formerly tenanting the spot. In most places such stones are counted by thedozen or score; they are also either set up in fulfilment of vows, and in remembrance ofblessings flowing to the donors through snake-worship.-----------

It is easy to perceive that symbols peculiar to such worship would be adopted.Accordingly the eidolon or image denoting the ancestral guardian spirit was cherished andvenerated. There were often several of these at family shrines. This custom is the originof the practice of decorating houses with pictures. In the temples, likewise, symbolicfigures were placed to represent divine personages; sometimes in the human form, andsometimes in the shape of other objects. The ancient worshiper believed that somewhatof the essential nature and quality of Divinity was present in the symbols. This has beencalled fetish-worship, and pronounced barbarous; yet the current notion, or perhaps"superstition," in regard to wedding rings and other keepsakes, are of the same character.The forms may change, but the essentials continue.

The Apollo of classic Greece was sculptured with a facial angle of ninety degreesto denote that the ideal of a God was that of a perfect man. More generally, however,some animal or physical symbol represented the divinity. Fire was everywhere adored asfiguring or embodying the principle first receptive of the Divine Energy; afterward impartingit universally as the vehicle of Life. It was so esteemed upon the sacred family altar; andthe goddess Vesta or Hestia (the Brigitta of the North) herself was indicated by the firealways burning, the "eternal fire" of the sanctuary. Thus at the temple of Moloch, theBacchus or Hercules of Tyre, the sacred fire on the altar was the only visible symbol of theGod. This was the case generally in Phoenician temples, as it was also afterwards of theTemple at Jerusalem, which Tyrian workmen are said to have built for King Solomon.

Philosophy consecrated this worship by its own dogmas. All things, it taught, werethe outcome of the Fire; all things that exist and subsist are incarnations and embodimentsof the vital warmth. As a living Principle it was, therefore, the Very God; and accordingly,in the ancient World-Religions, the Supreme Being, whether Indra, Ahurmazda, or themystic Jehovah, was described by the text: "Our God is a consuming Fire."

The serpent was prominent in every realm and continent as the favorite symbol ofthe Sacred Flame. It was common to both hemispheres, to the principal races of humankind, to the opposite conditions of savagery and civilization. In ancient and modern timesit has received veneration and homage. The Old World and the New have been in thisrespect in wonderful accord; the European and Peruvian, the Indian of Asia and the redtribes of North America, Brahmans and Buddhists, Semitic and Hamitic peoples, Negroesand Tartars, and even Israelites and Christian sects have participated in the peculiarcultus. We have no occasion to sneer at this, and an honest love of truth will not permitdenunciation. The wiser student will explore the matter critically, and investigate theworship itself, - its origin, scope and outcome, - in the modest but resolute assurance thatit involves a wealth of knowledge which he cannot afford to overlook.

Jacob Bryant, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, expressed the desire that someone would set forth at full length the history and nature of the Worship of the Serpent. Heobserved its universal prevalence among the most cultivated nations as well as degradedtribes, and made frequent allusions to its intimate association with the various religions.While the reptile itself often received but a qualified veneration, or was even abhorred, itsimage and likeness have obtained a greater honor and even devotion. "No nations wereso geographically remote, or so religiously discordant," says the Rev. John Bathurst Deans,"but that one - and only one - superstitious characteristic was common to all; that the mostcivilised and the most barbarous bowed down with the same devotion to the sameengrossing deity; and this deity either was, or was represented by, the same SacredSerpent."

It not only entered the symbolic and ritual service of every religion in which theworship of Sun constituted the principal feature, but we find it in countries like ancientSarmatia, Skandinavia and the Gold Cast of Africa, where that worship was comparativelyor altogether unknown. "Temples constructed thousands of years prior to Moses," HenryO'Brien declares, "bear the impress of its history." (Round Towers of Ireland)

So universal has been the serpent-cult as to have possessed the dimensions, if notthe importance, of a world-religion. Its reign has been as wide-spread as the dominion ofnight; extending from the most familarly known dawn to the hidden regions of the earth.The cobra and the massasaugar, the hooded snake and the rattlesnake, are even nowrevered and worshiped, with analogous rites, in the Eastern and the WesternHemispheres. The idea and motive, so far as we know, are substantially the same.

The symbology, however, was remarkable for its seeming diversity. The sacredanimal typified the Sun as lord of the heavens, the several planets, the circle of the zodiac,the cosmos itself, and the Divine Creator. It comprehended all the sanctities of archaic life.It represented the fire on the altar and the lightning in the sky; life eternal and deliverancefrom calamity; the Lord above all, and the regent of the world of the dead. It denoteduniversal space and perennial time - arcane knowledge, energy, and the imperiousNecessity. It was the symbol of the Supreme Intelligence, the unswerving truth; andhence it was applied, in a subordinate sense, to those traditionary teachers of mankindwhose invaluable benefits entitled them to extraordinary distinction. Cities, communities,tribes, nations, and even races of men, have the name of the serpent; kings made it thebadge of their authority; and astronomers mapping out the face of the sky, conformed tothe general sentiment, and placed it in various characters, among the constellations. Itwas revered as the guardian of whatever was sacred - whether of knowledge, holy rites,

the spirits of the dead, or valued treasure.We must except, however, to a certain degree at least, the early Aryan peoples of

India and Ancient Eran. They appear to have cherished none of this veneration. Noserpent-god appears in the Avesta or the Vedas; and Aryans, wherever they went,destroyed both serpent-divinities and serpent-worshiping peoples. In the religious lore, theHindu books place the great lightning serpent Ahias in the heavens, where he witholds therain; Indra overcomes him and causes the waters to flow.

The Persian or Eranian mythology describes the serpent as always a potency of evil.Araman, the Evil Spirit, is represented as sending a serpent and winter, the work of devas,to ravage the primitive country of the Aryan people. Again, the three-headed serpent,Zohak or Az-dahaka, is recorded as having conquered the country which Yima, or Yemahidhad ruled as a paradise, and as having reigned over it a thousand ("ever so many") years,destroying truth and goodness among men. From Persia we probably derive thetraditionary notion of the serpent as a symbol of Evil.

Vedic India eventually became Brahman India; and then the aboriginal Siva-worship, with the Takshak religion of the Skythic invaders, restored the serpent tosomewhat of its ancient favor. Hence we may note the contrasts; that while in Parsiliterature Zohak dominates and destroys the Paradise of Yima, the latter Hindu booksmake Takshaka, (e) the king of the serpents, a form of Yama, the Lord of the world of thedead. Indeed, one of the notions cherished in India is that serpents are the embodiedsouls of the dead; and hence serpents and their king are duly worshiped and propitiated.

-----------(e) Setha is described in the Puranas as the supporter of the world, and lord of the

nether worlds, - Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Tasitala, Mabatala, and Patala, and is saidto destroy the whole world at the end of a kalpa, by the fire remitted from his mouth.-----------

The kings of Assyria and Babylon carried the effigy of the Fiery Serpent, the "GreatRed Dragon," upon their military standards, as the ensign of their authority. Cyrus causedit to be adopted by the Persians and Medes, and it was also an ensign of the Emperors ofRome. Our British forefathers had similar standards; and tradition states that Uthyr, thefather of King Arthur, had a vision of a star in the form of the Fiery Dragon, which foretoldhis exaltation to the throne. Probably this suggested the later legend of the vision of theEmperor Constantine. The dragons derive the designation from the sacred dragon. TheTartar chieftains of Asia have the tradition of a serpent parentage, and carry a dragonstandard. Even now the serpent on the pole or cross is the astronomic symbol of theplanet Jupiter, and the coiled reptile at the base of the phallic pillar represents Satan; thusserving as reminiscences of the old idea.

Especially is the serpent the Keeper of the Tree of Knowledge. Other treasures areof the secondary importance, whether of the sky, the earth, or even of the deep. Wisdomis superior to all. The parable of the serpent in the Garden of Eden is very old, and wasconstructed out of material that had been quarried from legends that possessed animmemorial antiquity. In the folk-lore of the Ancient World were many such gardens, eachwith its man and woman artlessly simple, and each with its mystic Serpent-Guardian. Allthat was desirable, to know and so to possess, was in the custody of the serpent. and to

be obtained through his favor. The drama, however, always takes a new face; the actalways ends, when the serpent guides to the mysterious treasure, and the fruit is plucked.

In the story of the book of Genesis we an told of a Tree of Life, and a tree of theknowing of good and evil. I am of opinion that the allegory is here very arcane, and thatthe trees represented one idea - differing, however, according as the view is taken. "Youwill not die," says the serpent to the woman; "but in the day you eat thereof, then youreyes shall be opened, and you shall become as God, knowing good and evil." Upona stone in a French church is a sculpture which has been reproduced in several books.The original design (f) is said to have been found in Southern India. It is full of interestingsuggestion. It represents the tree in the center; the verious animals standing below. Onone side stands the hero-god Hercules holding his club or baton in a conspicuous manner.The helmeted goddess Pallas-Athena is on the other side with the serpent. This is, as willbe seen, an old classic illustration wrought over, as the practice was, into Christiansymbolism. Around the whole, in old Hebrew character, was the text: "The woman sawthat the tree was good for food, delightful to the view, and a tree to be desired to make oneintelligent."

-------------(f) Southern India may be said to be a storehouse of occult symbols and designs.

There are nearly twenty varieties that I know of in which the snake is represented onstones, leaving good-sized temples built in honor of the snake god, out of consideration.He is either represented with 1, 3, 5, or 7 or 10 heads, with or without a companion of theopposite sex. There are found in nearly every possible way of representing two serpentsof opposites entwining and facing each other, with the symbol of "Lingam-yoni" betweenthem. It is this last - Lingam-Yoni - that unveils the symbology of the two serpents.-------------

The explanation of this picture in probably the true interpretation of the drama andallegory of the Gardan. The story goes on: - that the woman took of the fruit and eat; thatgiving it to her husband then with her he also eat; that their eyes were opened, as theserpent had predicted; so that the "Lord God" declared that man had become as God, inthat he knew good and evil. What this power of knowing was, is intimated by theanonymous writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Strong meat belongeth to them that areof full age, even those that by reason of use have their sense exercised to discern bothgood and evil." By comparing these passages we may perceive that the serpent in Edenhad told the truth; the eating of the tree of knowledge closed the period of infant probation,making man as a God and law for himself.

Thus in the Garden of Eden, as elsewhere, the serpent appears as the possessorand disseminator of knowledge. He was the divinator, and by ophiomancy - the nahash,serpent-art - Balaam foretold the fortune of Ismail, and Joseph read the future out of hiscup. The ambassadors of Ben Hadad visiting Ahab, took their answer from his mode ofreply. In the mythology of India the Buddhistic serpent possessed the treasures ofknowledge and pure religion, and the Krishnavic Eagle had to fly far to procure them.

In the Apocrypha, mention is made of "the ancient serpent, the Devil and Satan,"and he is represented as a Dragon, red or fiery, with seven heads, surrounded by a nimbusor halo of ten horns or rays of light.

This name Satan is Hebrew perversion of the older term Set or Seth. This was thedesignation of the divinity worshiped in Northern Egypt, Palestine, and by the peopleknown as Hittites, who appear to have extended here and there over Middle and WesternAsia, from ancient Kathay or China to the Archipelago. Sedek or Zadok and Sutech areforms of the name. In the Bible this divinity is known as Baal, and once as Baal-Zephon,or Typhon; but he is also euhemerised into Seth, the progenitor of the Semitic and Hamiticraces of mankind. Change of rulers made change of Gods, and their degradation into evilpotencies. It was so in Egypt, Seth and his serpent Hof were transposed into adversaries.

The Jews who came from Babylon brought with them a new theism; Seth becameSatan, Baal Tebuly the Phoenician Aesculapius, was made Beel Zebub, prince of demonsand mortal pestilences.

Many-headed serpents were traditionary creatures of remote antiquity. In anAkkadian hymn "the huge serpent of seven heads" is noted, and in Egypt the snake Rabakis tricephalic. The Indian serpent Vasouki, has also seven heads; and many of the Naga-sculptures of Buddhistic India exhibit the same endowment. Even one form of Bacchuswas that of a "many-headed dragon." The unknown author of the Apocalypse evidentlygot his seven-headed, ten-rayed Diavolos from the Assyrian country. Even Saturn, theancient Italian divinity, was probably named from Set or Satan; and one writer calls hima serpent.

That the ancient Israelites worshiped the serpent-divinity is affirmed in their ownScriptures: "They worshiped serpents void of reason," says the writer of the bookdenominated: Wisdom of Solomon. It is also recorded that when Hezekiah became kingin Jerusalem, he removed the high places, broke the stelas or phallic pillars, cut down thegroves or Venus-symbols, and "broke in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made.""Till those days," we are told, "the children of Israel burned incense to it." (Kings II, xviii.)

The prophet Isaiah when endeavoring to declare his divine commission, relates theaccount of a vision which he had had of the Supreme Beidg sitting, as he is representedin the Assyrian Sculptures, upon a throve high above. Around him were the seraphs, eachwith six wings. In the Hebrew text of the Book of Numbers, the Brazen Serpent, is calleda seraph, or fiery serpent.

When the Christian sects began in the second century, to emerge distinctly from thevarious religions of that period, we find the serpent-symbol employed by them. In Egyptgems were worn as amulets, often engraved with human-headed serpent-figures, calledsometimes Abarae, and sometimes Iao or Jehovah. Tertullian, writing at that period,declared that the serpent was worshiped as equal or equivalent to the Christ - in otherterms, as God or the Word made flesh. The Holy Supper appears to have been a riteadopted from the worship of Mithra; though a similar observance existed in other religions.Epiphanios, a competent, though hardly a trustworthy writer, describes it as observed inthe sect to which he had belonged. A tame serpent was kept in an ark or coffer. Whenthe supper was celebrated, a loaf of bread was placed on the table, and a prayer or hymnchanted. The snake then came out of his receptacle, glided to the table, coiled round thebread, and then retired. The consecration being thus completed, the communicantspartook with great rejoicing.

Similar, in many respects, is the account of the filial sacrifice of Aeneas at hisfather's tomb (Virgil's Aenid). Bowls of wine, milk, and blood had been poured on theground, when a huge snake came from the shrine of Anchises, moving is seven coils,

glided to the altar, tasted the libation and returned. The serpent in the coffer or basket,however, was common in Greece.

The doctrine of the Gnostic Christians appears to have been based upon theBabylonian Theosophy. It represented the serpent as the genius of the divine wisdom,sent from heaven to persuade man to eat of the tree of knowledge and so become ableto know the true wisdom. The more common and popular notion, however, representedthe serpent as the spirit of an ancestor, and to be propitiated as such. In this character,the reptile has been worshiped everywhere. In the different tribes of America the rattle-snake is venerated by the name of Great Father. Quetsalcoatl, the "Fair God of Cholula,"was symbolized by a winged or feathered rattlesnake. I think, however, that this was ahieroglyph or occult symbol, to express the name of the divinity by the two forms. Thegreat temple of Montezuma at Mexico was called the House of Serpents, and innumerablerattlesnakes, it is affirmed, were fed there with human blood. The Mound-Builders of theWest, judging from their remains, were a serpent-worshiping race. The wandering tribesare such yet.

Africa seems to maintain the same cultus in its grossest forms, which existed in veryancient times. At Whydah, the Serpent-god Dangbo is revered as "the chief bliss ofmortals." He has a thousand wives or women set apart to him by religious consecration.Some of these have been "touched by the serpent," but most of them are girls vowed tohim before birth, or soon after. They are marked by a peculiar tattoo; and fulfil specificoffices, like the nautch-girls of India, and the magdalens, or temple-women, of ancientSyria. Similar customs exist in other parts of the Dark Continent. "From Liberia toBenguela," says Sir John Lubbock, "the serpent is the chief divinity." Bruce affirms that theShan-Gallas of Abyssinia were serpent-worshipers.

The term obeah which many people apply to the priests of this worship, we find alsogiven to such persons in the Hebrew text of the Bible. This may be an evidence that theywere of common race and origin. Saul, the Israelitish king, is represented as visiting anOb-woman at En-Dor. The name signifies, a well and enclosed circle, and, of course,denotes also a shrine of the aboriginal worship.

The voudu-rites which are kept up among the colored population of South Americaand the West Indies, may have been learned from the earlier Indian population, but weremore probably brought from Africa. It will be remembered that Tituba, the slave-womanin the family of Mr. Parris of Salem village, in Massachusetts in 1692, who began theperformances known as "witchcraft," was brought from the West Indies. The Haitians stillmaintain the peculiar rites, and become infuriated while engaged in the orgies. It is thendangerous for a spectator to be near; his life would pay the forfeit.

In modern India, the cobra or hooded snake is still the favorite divinity; every hamlethas one. The Mahratta women go every year at stated periods to the snake's hole, joinhands and dance round it in a circle somewhat after the fashion of the "Witches' Dance"of European story. They chant songs and finally prostrate themselves, praying to theDivine Creator for whatever they may desire. There are pictures of serpents in everyhouse, which are honored by offerings. The living snake is revered everywhere; but theyhave only his sculptured form in the Temples. It is twining round the lingham or lingham-yoni, the symbol of the Maha Deva (Siva) or the Devi-Devi (two in one); or it may be seensignificantly in the form known as the Esculapian Rod.

There was anciently a fierce combat between the Dravidio Serpent-worshipers of

India, and the Aryan conquerors. But in time the Buddhists became devotees of the Naga;and the other Hindus acceded to the Serpent-myths. Hence Vishnu, the Brahman god, isrepresented as lying on a couch in a boat consisting of the folds of the world-serpentAnanta; while from his navel springs up the mystic lotus (Nymphae nelumbo) from whosecup Brahma, the Creator, is born. Krishna, too, who is only Vishnu incarnated to redeemthe world, is pictured sometimes as being enveloped in the coils of the serpent Kalaya;upon whose head he is treading; while other cuts show the serpent biting his foot. All thisis figurative.

Siva, or Maha Deva, is the god of the Aethiopic aboriginal peoples, and really hasno place in the Brahman system. He has a serpent round his arms; and is worshiped asthe Creator, Destroyer, Regenerator, Saviour, Father of Life, and Upholder of all things.I suppose that this is the chief god under other names in the various other countries.Doubtless such gods as Bacchus, Sabazios, Seth, Sev, Kronos, were suchpersonifications; and both the phallic symbolisms and serpent-rites of the world, centre inSiva-worship or the Sakeya.

The Buddhist religion of Northern India began with a Naga, or serpent-worshipingrace. Trees, however, - especially the Pepal, which branches out into a grove, were firstesteemed by them; but, as has almost always been the case, the new faith amalgamatedwith the old. Some centuries before our era, all India was ruled by Buddhist kings; and therites were illustrated with the symbols of the tree and serpent. Plainly the Great Reformerhad discarded the ophidian worship; but later on it regained its foothold.

China has its Holy Dragon and imperial Dragon-Throne; and the Tartars, like theancient Assyrians end Egyptians, carry the effigy of the red serpent on their militarystandards. Indeed, if we accept the opinions of Quatrefages and other savants, theSerpent-worship of the world was disseminated from this region.

Herodotos relates that Herakles (Hercules) coming into Scythia, above the riverBorysthenes, was entertained by a maiden in a cave, whose body in the upper partresembled a woman, and below was that of a snake. Her progeny became the kings ofthe Skyths from the country of the Baltic and Middle Europe, into the heart of NorthernAsia. However we may interpret this myth, it is certain that the worship which the Serpent-mother represented, has been maintained in that region clear down into modern times. Ithas even interblended with Christianity. In Poland serpents and trees were worshipedtogether; but the Samogitians venerated the serpent alone as their divinity. Everylandholder kept a snake in the corner of his house, feeding it and yielding it homage.When misfortune came to hand, he imputed it to some negligence in serving the snake.

The worship was kept up in Lithuania as late as the fifteenth century. Pragueoffered sacrifices to numerous serpents, and in Livonia, the most beautiful captives, cleardown to the Middle Ages, were offered to the Serpent gods. The same cultus existed inNorway in 1555, and in Finland anad Esthonia down to the limits of the present century.The cradles of our "Caucasian race," whether in Europe or Asia, were in regions hallowedby this peculiar worship.

The old crosses of Ireland had serpent-figures coiled about them. Probably nopeople ever took more cordially to idolatry than the Irish. Similar symbols existed inScotland; and in France religious processions were common for many centuries, in whichthe effigy of a serpent or crocodile was carried in procession. Of course there was alegend with it, of a serpent killed by a missionary saint, as in the case of the mythic Patrick

of Ireland. This last story may be true; but the three essentials are evidently fictitious.There were no snakes in Ireland, except the images of them on the posts and crosses;and these remained till recent times; besides St. Patrick himself was a fictitiouspersonage. The name is Latin, and signifies father. It belonged to Liber, the RomanizedBacchus, whose festival occurred on the seventeeth day of March. (Ovid: Fasti, lines 713,etc.) The ancient gods very generally were transformed into Saints in the ChristianCalendar; the former religion merging into the new form without much friction.

Grecian mythology had similar tales of hero-gods overcoming Serpent-divinities andsucceeding to their worship, and even to their ophidian forms. Kadmos, the foretimeoriental-god, was said to have slain a dragon at Thebes, and afterward to have becomehimself a serpent. Apollo killed the Python at Delphi, and succeeded to his oracle.Esculapius, the god of the Art of healing, was both fire-god and serpent. Every templeconsecrated to his worship obtained a serpent from Epidavros to be its divinity; and theknowledge of medicine over which he presided was regarded as the wisdom of theserpent.

Even to this day, whether in our modern civilized society aping Old-World fashions,or with Brazilian Indians, the snake is the symbol of the medical art. The inventors ofChristian legends, as if to furnish a parallel of Michael the archangel contending with thedragon, not only gave us the legend of St. George overcoming one, but also coined thestory that St. Hilarius had slain the Aesculapian or Kadmaean serpent at Epidavros.

In the Samothrakian Mysteries, which were Aethiopic originally, the worshipers paidhomage to the serpent. In the Sabasian orgies of Greece and Asia Minor, a snake wasplaced in the bosom of the neophyte, and emerged at his feet. Myrtale or Olympias wasone of the Mainads officiating at these frantic rites and went in the mystic search of theslain god on Mount Harmos, raving and singing, her arms girt about with living snakes.She used to say that her famous son was the offspring, not of Philip, but of the BacchicSerpent. The mother of Octavias Caesar affirmed the same thing of her son, and actuallyexhibited in corroboration, a mark upon her body similar to the one upon the bodies of thewomen in Dahomi that have been "touched by the snake." One legend represents thephilosopher Pythagoras as having been begotten by the Python, and another makes Platothe son of the Pythian Apollo. The father of King David, or rather of his sister, was calledNahash, or serpent. (Samuel II, xvii, 25)

Mani, the Gnostic teacher, declared that Christ was the incarnation of the GreatSerpent that glided over the cradle of the infant Mary. The Rev. Mr. Deane affirms that theworship of the serpent did not, either in Egypt or Phoenicia, fly before the faith ofadvancing Christianity.

In Egypt every god of note was represented with a snake-form. Seb or Sev, theEgyptian Siva, was a Serpent-divinity; and the Royal Asp or Ouraios, was symbol alike onthe crown of the king and the head-band of the priest.

The famous Kleopatra was not done to death by an asp, as has been the traditionalstory; but she had caused the pshent or Serpent-crown of Egypt to be placed upon herhead at the supreme moment, as if to testify to the haughty Roman conqueror that she hadnot been dethroned. Even in death she was a queen.

The symbol of the serpent, not to say his trail, is still to be found in Christian usages.The tonsure of the priest belongs to pagan rites. The cup at the Eucharistic supper is animitation of the cup of the "Great Demon" that concluded the sacred repasts. The cities

of Asia Minor, including those of the Apocalyptic "Seven Churches," were notorious fortheir serpent-rites; and Mr. James Ferguson, remarking upon this fact in his great work(Tree and Serpent-Worship, p. 21), considers it by no means an accidental coincidence."The presence of such a form of faith," he declares, "may have influenced the spread ofChristianity in these cities to in extent not hitherto suspected." This supposition is probablybased upen the fact that the Serpent-worship was characterized by pilgrimages, protractedreligious services, chanting of prayers, enthusiastic frenzy and other emotionalexcitements, hypnotic visions, mantic divination, and other features of a modern "revival."(Rev. S. Baring Gould.) It may be injudicious to dilate farther on this matter, but thestatement is hard to controvert.

The Sabbath, or seventh-day of the week, was consecrated by the various archaicserpent-faiths. The priests of Apollo at Delphi in Greece, celebrated every seventh daywith the offering of prayer and the chanting of sacred hymns. Bastian relates concerningthe Raja-Naga, or Serpent-King of Kambodia, that he devoted every seventh day to prayer.Colonel Low confirms the statement - "Every seventh day," says he, "the mighty Raja-Naga, issues forth from his palace, and, having ascended a high mountain, pours out hissoul in ardent payer."

Ancient Assyria had the strictest regulations for the observance of this day. Theweek was marked out by the seven planets - the sun sad the moon - Nebo or Memoryleading the other five, and Saturn's day completing the circle. The orbit of this planetinclosed all the others and was regarded as the boundary between the world or cosmosand the upper heavens. Probably, therefore, a day being set apart to each divinity, theseventh as comprising all, was considered the most sacred of all. So the Akkadians andthe Assyrians, and other Semitic tribes, seem to have considered it. Each week in themonth had ifs own divinities. We learn from a cuneiform inscription that the seventh daywas the festival of Merodak and Zir-baniet (Succoth Benoth); the fourteenth that of Nergaland Belta; the twenty-first of Sin (the moon), and (Saniss the sun); the twenty-eighth thatof Hea and Nergal.

On the eve of the Sabbath the king was required to erect an altar, make a sacrifice,and lifting up his hand, worship in the high places of his God.

The mode of keeping the Akkad or Assyrian Sabbath would satisfy the strictestSabbatarian. It was prescribed as a "holy day, a Sabbath for the ruler of great nations;sodden flesh and cooked food he may not eat; his clothes he may not change; newgarments he may not put on; sacrifices he may not offer; the king his chariot may notdrive." Nor was he permitted to sit in or establish a place of justice; "take medicine for theailments of his body," or "a measured square."

So, the serpent, the sabbath, the Holy Repast, are common alike in the shrine ofMeradoth, the wilderness of Sinai, the grove of Epidavros, the hut of the Sarmatian, andamong the Naga-tribes of the farther East. It was an evangelic comparison: "As Moseslifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man too must be lifted up, that allmight have everlasting life;" and an injunction to be as "wise as serpents."

The meaning of this symbol addresses itself to the profoundest sentiments of ournature. All knowledge relating to life and human benefit, was associated with it.Sanchuniathon depicts the animal as being most spiritual in its nature, and the similitudeof fire. In the philosophic language, fire was understood to mean that occult principlewhich imparts life and existence to all things. We employ such names for it as spirit,

electricity, magnetism. It is all this, and more. It is that occult something that passing fromDivinity, sets the universe into action; passing from the father to the mother begins theexistence of the offspring. This mysterious principle, being always manifested by animalwarmth, was denominated fire; and so fire became its symbol. Again, too, very generally,the innumerable emblems that characterize sex, both male and female, from rude stonesand trees to the high steeple conjoined to the dark cavernous nave of the church, and thedot or letter inside the radiated triangle, were adopted to symbolize that polar principle inits twofold manifestation, by the agency of which the universe exists and all creatures areplaced within it.

The serpent-form appears to be the most beautiful, and at least among the mostprimitive in the Animal Kingdom. It is foremost among vertebrated creatures. All othervertebrates seem to be its outcome. The lizard-races are but serpents with visible organs.The feline tribes, which we admire for their litheness and grace, owe this charm to theirserpent-resemblances. In our own divine-human form the serpent likeness is everywhere.No wonder is it that the ancestral man has been regarded as a serpent. The African races,several of them, call the alimentary canal a snake. The head and spinal cord have the likeanalogy. The Gnostic form of Abraxas with radiated head and serpentine body was inkeeping with it. Disguise it as we may; blink over it too; the tendency of all perfect motionis to the spiral form, and indicates the serpent-nature.

So true is it that life, love, sex, knowledge, everything indicative of elevation to abetter or happier condition we find typified by this animal that without visible organs movesrapidly as it pleases in spiral coils.

"Serpents are revered in India as embodied souls of the dead," says ProfessorGubernatis. "In Scandinavian Mythology, Odin also assumes the form of a serpent in thesame way that Zeus [the Grecian Jupiter], becomes a serpent when he wishes to createZagreus. In Rockholts and Simrock we find indications of the same worship which is givento the serpent in India, where it is regarded as a good domestic genie. Milk is given tocertain domestic little snakes to drink; they are put to watch over little children in theircradles.... It is fabled moreover that a serpent.... procures for good and beautiful maidenshusbands worthy of them. According to a popular legend, two serpents are found in everyhouse (a male and a female), which only appear when they announce the death of themaster and mistress of the house; when they die the snakes also cease to live. To kill oneof these serpents is to kill the head of the family. Under this aspect, as a protector of thechildren, as a giver of husbands to girls, and identified with the head or progenitor of thefamily, the serpent is again a phallical form."

I do not quite accept this last statement. It is a matter, however, which everyindividual regards with his own eyes and after his own mode of comprehending. Yet I havenot the common notion of phallicism and sexuality which considers them as base and vilein their essential quality. There are pure souls as well as prurient ones, and what Divinityestablishes in its own likeness they behold as pure. Nevertheless I consider the serpentsymbolism as transcending the current notion, and while on a lower plane perhapsrepresenting the corporeal nature, yet in its true and higher sense, denoting life as a unitand undivided.

Thus to avail myself of the summaries of my excellent friend, Mr. C. StanilandWake, the serpent has been viewed with awe and veneration from primeval times, andalmost universally as a re-embodiment of a deceased human being; and as such there

were ascribed to it the attributes of life and wisdom, and the power of healing. From thisarose the notion that all mankind sprang from a serpent; and finally, that the Intelligencethat presides over the sun, was the serpent-Father. Most emphatically is this symbolizedin the Caduceus or Esculapian rod. As by a common instinct, therefore, the serpent hasbeen venerated as the parental type of all things; and so, as symbols are necessary forthe voicing of all ideas, this one symbol has been universally adopted to denote everyfaculty, function and essential attribute of our existence, whether physical, psychic orspiritual.

(The Theosophist, vol. 12, Oct., Nov., 1890, from the Progressive Thinker,Annotations by Mr. Gopalacharin.)

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The Serpent as a Symbol - Alexander Wilder

[This article is a "reworked" version with differences of Wilder's "The Serpent,"published in The Theosophist, Oct. and Nov., 1890. - dig. ed.]

It has been a theme of much curious speculation why folklore and nursery tales,abounding as they do with apparent absurdities, nevertheless keep their place sotenaciously in general favor. Cinderella and her wonderful transformation, Jack and theBean-stalk, Blue Beard with his Chamber of Horrors are as much in demand as ever theywere. The attempts to supplant them by a literature that might be regarded as morewholesome, have hardly met with success commensurate with such a purpose. Grimmand Hans Christian Andersen have endeavored this with other stories having many similarcharacteristics, but while their productions may compare favorably with those of Aesop andPilpay, they are not as acceptable as the quaint old tales of the nursery and kitchen-fire.There is a charm in the ballad of the Cow jumping over the Moon which surpasses all theirattractions.

These old tales are suited to some human condition, to some human requirementprofounder in its nature than simply the faculty of wonder or imagination. There is a life inthe curious relations which keeps them fresh in heart and thought. They have meaningsthat are more and extend further than mere moralizing. The Childish instinct which isnative to us all has some sense of this and lays hold of it with a tenacity born from the soulitself. In each of these tales there is human experience at the core, and to that which ishuman everything human in us is ready to respond. Minds with a quick intuitive visionapperceive realities, even though these may be disguised to the external faculties.

As the expression of spiritual and intellectual growth worship is a profounder studythan any other in human history. It originates from the interior life, and engages all thenobler powers of our nature. It has been less affected, perhaps, than other of our pursuitsby influences that were superlatively external. Even those of its symbols which have beenoutgrown and left behind as vulgar superstitions are, nevertheless, venerable from theirearlier mystic import and association. The old myths and allegories have still preserved

somewhat of the aroma which pious devotion found delightful and nourishing. The variousstages of former thought and experience have an importance which we cannot wiselyoverlook. Forms of religion and civilization which are diverse from our later ways may byno means be justly stigmatized as barbarous.

Language is itself a framework of symbols and metaphors. The words which we usein daily intercourse are only sounds which have become accepted to denote thoughts andideas. Such terms as ripple, murmur, roar, crash, rattle, hush, bear a certain resemblanceto the meanings which they are employed to convey. The animals hold communicationswith others of their kind by sounds and gestures which are understood at once. Thehuman races, however, are not so limited. They have brought into use a vast number ofsounds to express conventional meanings, and these are variously apportioned among thedifferent languages. Nor did they stop with these, but invented written characters to signifysounds, and the numeral figures, one, two, three, four, and the letters and signs of algebrato denote specific numbers and combinations. Man is thus superior to the animalsbecause he can talk; using words as symbols of thoughts and written signs as symbolsof words. In all his culture, symbology has been his necessary instrument and auxiliary;and as all culture in the past has been vitally interblended with religion, the same fact existsin regard to worship. All forms of worship have been characterized by correspondingsymbolism.

Human beings have always cherished the notion of immortality. The present lifewas regarded as a drama in which the individual took part. Death was looked upon as thedropping of the curtain at the end of the performance, and a forsaking of the theatre to goaway to the real life of the Eternal World. It was considered as a great mystery thatopened the way to the understanding of every other mystery.

When the head of a family or of a people died, he was believed to be remaining stillalive, and able to help and protect those over whom he had presided. The tomb wasconsecrated accordingly as the "long home," the Abode of the Ages, at which the disbodiedsoul was housed. It was a sanctuary at which worship was celebrated to the occupant.There was also a family altar in every house, and a family hearth-fire was kept aglow forthe rites of the ancestors. Offering and funeral repasts were brought to nourish andpropitiate those who were dead. "All must honor the mighty dead," says the Pythian oracleto Solon; "all must revere the chiefs of the country who are now living beneath the earth."

Every man's house was more than his castle. It was his sanctuary, which the footof a stranger might not profane; every repast was a holy communion, every burial-placea sacred precinct for religious rites. The tombs were temples.

This is the worship which still exists in China, and in a great part of India, and itaccounts for the deep horror and resentment of the population at the intrusion of foreignersand their wanton profaning of what was esteemed most sacred in life.

It is natural that such a worship would have its appropriate symbols. The eidelon,image or picture of the guardian ancestors and divinities would be preserved andvenerated. Several of these would be in the family shrines. We may trace from thiscustom the modern practice of decorating houses with busts and pictures. The templesalso were furnished with symbolic figures representing divine personages and guardians.These were sometimes in human form, but often in the shape of other objects. Theworshiper believed that somewhat of the essential substance and quality of the divinity waspresent in the symbol. This has been called fetish worship, and accounted barbarous; and

the current modern notions and perhaps "superstitions" in regard to wedding rings andkeepsakes are very much of the same character. The forms of thinking may change, butthe things continue.

In this way the several peoples of further times had their religious emblems andceremonies, occult rites, initiations and Sacred Mysteries. Their myths related to these,and the folk-lore and fairy tales of different countries have existed till our time because theywere closely interblended with them. Skeptics have derided these as fit only to amusechildren; and sciolists have hotly denounced those whom they denominated idolaters asblindly worshiping stocks and stones instead of the living Supreme Being. The illiterateand uninstructed may not have been as intelligent in their homage as might be desired.Besides, every worship has its sinister as well as its holier side, because of humaninfirmity, and beholders contemplate only what they have eyes for seeing. Nevertheless,the symbols and figures which have abounded in the different worships, even those whichhave been stigmatized as ugly and unseemly, were regarded with profound veneration asdenoting the most sublime truth of all - the kinship of mankind to Divinity. "Everything istrue, natural, significant," says Max Muller, "if we enter with a reverent spirit into themeaning of ancient art and ancient language."

With such a sentiment, ancient peoples, esteeming the vital warmth to be intimatelyconnected with the mainsprings of our existence, adopted fire as the leading symbol ofeverything divine. It was adored as figuring or embodying the principle first receptive of thedivine energy, and as imparting it universally as the vehicle of life. It was so esteemedwhen glowing in sanctuaries and hallowed shrines. The "eternal fire" was the only symbolof the Divine Being in the temple at Tyre, where Melkarth-Herakles was the Baal or tutelarygod. It was also upon the altar in the Temple of Jerusalem, and consecrated women keptit incessantly burning at the shrines of Vesta at Rome, of Hertha in Germany and of Brigitin Ireland and Scandinavia.

Philosophy sanctioned the conception. "We call the principle of existence by thename of Hestia or fire," says Plato in the Kratylos; "and they who did this in ancient timesdoubtless worshiped Hestia above all the gods." In all the world-Religions the SupremeBeing, whether Indra, Ahura-mazda, Zeus or the Jehovah of the secret shrine, wasdescribed by the sentence: "God is a consuming fire."

The humen being was believed to be of the same divine substance. "Our souls arefire," says Phurnutos. The Chaldean Oracles declare the same thing more specifically.

"Self-produced, untaught, without mother, unshaken - A name not even to be comprised in a word, Dwelling in Fire -This is God: and we his messengers, are a slight portion of God."

This Eternal Fire, "father of gods and men," was represented by numerousemblems. s Among these were the pointed turret, the obelisk and, monumental pillar, therude stone set on end and anointed, and also by candles burning in churches, and thetorch at weddings and funerals.

The Serpent was a living symbol of the same significance. As the Sacred Firetypifies the soul and life pulsating in the body, and alto the Great Soul and Intelligence bywhich is constituted the order and necessity of the universe - so the writhing animal figuredthe fire and what the fire denoted. "For," says Sankhuniathon, "the serpent was held to be

the most spirit-like and fire-like of all reptiles, moving as it does propelled by its breath andtaking a spiral direction as rapidly as it chose; for which reason it was employed in theSacred Rites and Initiations."

It represented a wonderful variety of characters. Among these were the sun in theheaven, the planets, the circle of the zodiac, the universe and its Creator. It was thesymbol of intelligence and became the badge or designation of teachers who surpassothers in wisdom. Kings, families and peoples, like the Nagas of India, had the name ortotem of the serpent, and star-gazers placed it under various forms among the signs andconstellations. It was evidently a kind of memorizer to keep in mind religious myths andusages. "Among all peoples that hold the gods in veneration,'" sass Justin, "the Serpentis the Great Symbol and Mystery." Repulsive as the animal may be to many, andincredible as the statement may seem, the sacred object has been "in every age, in everyclime adored." It has been the revered dweller in temples and sacred groves,receiving the honors without dividing them with the tutelary genius of the place. Whateverthe ancient faith whose mysteries we explore, the serpent appears prominent among itssymbols. Primitive races acknowledged the sacred animal as their Great Father andBenefactor, paying homage to him in that character. Our American aborigines cherishedthe Rattlesnake; the Egyptians venerated the Royal Asp and the Hindus still makeofferings at stated periods to the Hooded Cobra. The Emperor of China sits upon theDragon Throne. In ancient Babylon, the Great Red Dragon, the fiery seven-headedserpent of prehistoric Akkad, with ten horns or rays of flame surrounding, was borne on astandard before the armies.*

-----------* After the Medo-Persian conquest the serpent became an object of abhorrence.

The writer of the Apocalypse accordingly personifies the detested Roman Imperial Poweras "the Dragon, that archaic serpent, which is also called the Devil and the Satan thatmisleads the whole inhabited (Roman) world."-----------

In Asia Minor and Greece Aesculapius, the god of fire and the art of healing, wasrepresented by the figure of a serpent - often on a pole or staff, or like Hermes, by twoserpents peculiarly placed on the caduceus. The eyes, it was fabled, would charm tosleep, and the breath give life, health and joy to human beings. Not only in the Easternworld, but among the native tribes of both Americas, the art of the physician was signifiedby the figure of a snake.

In short, the Serpent was revered as guardian of everything most precious, whetherof esoteric knowledge, of the alphabet, of holy rites, of the spirits of the dead, of beneficialarts, or of treasures hid in the earth.

Twice we find the symbolic animal prominent in the Bible - once as an emblem andonce as an intelligent actor in religious allegory. When King Hezekiah undertook torevolutionize the worship in his dominions, it is recorded that he broke in pieces the BrazenSerpent to which the Israelites had burned incense and paid homage from their earliesthistory. It was afterward explained that an insurrection had been made aforetime againstthe authority of Moses which was suppressed by "fiery serpents - " his fellow-clansmen,the Levites or Serpent-tribe. Moses afterward placed upon a standard a copper serpent.

This was a symbol familiar to the Semitic population of Northern Egypt; and we are toldthat all who had taken part in the revolt were permitted to live upon paying homage to thesacred effigy. This serpent was commemorated as the sign or symbol of safety, and washonored by religious rites.

The other example is the story of the Garden of Eden. This memorable relationexhibits many evidences of the tampering of copyists, but still retains a resemblance to theZoroastrian legends of the primitive Aryan Home-Country and the Paradise of Yima. Acareful reading "between the lines" will reveal the serpent in this case to have been notreacherous adversary, but an actual benefactor. There had been a restriction placed uponthose dwelling in the garden, forbidding them to eat of the Tree of Knowledge as theywould then "surely die." It is not necessary to suppose prohibition was made by theSupreme Being, the very God, but rather by a personage superior in rank to his associates;perhaps a chief priest or pontiff, assuming the title and authority of God. It was a frequentpractice in ancient times for priests to give oracles and commands as the spokesmen ofDivinity. The personage in this case appears to have been a man who refreshed himselfby "walking in the garden in the cool of the day." The Serpent, or individual so denoted,was hold to dispute him. They would not die, he declared; and God knew that if theyshould eat of the tree their eyes would be opened and they would be as gods, intelligent,knowing good and evil. What he affirmed, the account sets forth as being actually true.Instead of dying they were assured of consequences of another kind, such as wereincident in adult life. The Lord God said: "Behold the man is as one of us knowing goodand evil." He was accordingly driven from the garden.*

------------ * Upon a tablet in a church in France, was formerly a singular engraving. There

was the figure of a tree with a vine twined around it laden with fruit, and animals at the foot.On one side stood a Grecian god holding a baton or thunderbolt, and on the other Pallas-Athena with her serpent (see Herodotus). The attempt to incorporate this with thesymbolism of the Bible was shown by the legend in old Hebrew characters surrounding thewhole: "The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to the view, and atree to be desired to make one intelligent."------------

This story is capable of many interpretations. It evidently prefigures an experiencewhich every person of full age undergoes, "who have their senses exercised to discerngood and evil," as the mere child does not. The Tree of Knowledge is thus the Tree ofHuman Life.

What has been aptly termed "the trail of the serpent" may be traced round the world.Only in a period comparatively recent was it associated with any conception of evil. In thebook of Isaiah the prophet describes his own receiving of mantic authority. He saw theDivinity on a high throne in the air, as the gods Assur and Ahura-Mazda are representedin ancient Persian and Assyrian sculptures. With him were seraphs, each with six wings.A seraph is a fiery serpent of the desert, according to the Hebrew lexicons, such as werecopied by the Brazen Serpent of Moses.

In Egypt, every divinity of note appears to have had a serpent as his symbol. Theimage of the Royal Asp was always on the crown of the monarch and the head-band of the

priest, to indicate them as vice-gerents of the Deity. The tradition of Kleopatra wasevidently founded on this fact. We may not suppose that she was done to death by anasp. She had caused the pshent or double crown of Egypt surmounted by the sacredimage, to be placed upon her head, as her protest to the Roman conqueror at the suprememoment that she had not been dethroned. Even in death she was queen.

Change of rulers often made changes in religious customs. Thus in earlier Egyptthe god Seth was long worshiped as a beneficent divinity. There was also a powerfulnation, the Khitans or Hittites, occupying Palestine, Syria and Mesopotamia, who revereda god with similar appellation. After a long period, the Assyrians annihilated the Hittitedominion, and new dynasties superseded the worshipers of Seth in Egypt. The fate of theconquered fell upon their divinities. In Egypt, Seth and his serpent Hof were transformedinto Evil Powers; and after the coming of the Jewish colony from Babylon we find him intheir religious system with the name of Satan, while Baalzebul, the PhoenicianAesculapius, was changed to the prince of evil demons and malignant diseases. Thetemple of Aesculapius in Pergamos, which was widely celebrated, was now called theThrone of Satan. (Revelation ii, 13)

The Aryan tribes of Upper Asia appear to have been foremost in indicating theserpent as the representative of Evil. In the fargards of the Venidad, Ahura-Mazdadiscourses of having established the Aryan Home-Country, and its desolation by Aramanthe Adversary, who sent to it a serpent and winter, "the work of devas." Also Yima hadruled a thousand years in Paradise when Zahak, the three-headed Serpent-King,overcame him, thus destroying truth and goodness among men.

In Vedic India, after a long conflict, the aboriginal worship, with the Takshak religionof the Skythic invaders, restored the Serpent to somewhat of the former distinction. Acontrast of the two Aryan peoples was thus accentuated more distinctly than before. In theEranian scheme, Zahak invades and destroys the Paradise of Yima; and in the later Hindubooks, Takshak or Tahak "the king of the Serpents," is one form of Yama, the Lord of theworld of the dead. Indeed, the belief is entertained in India that serpents are the souls ofdeceased persons, and hence that they and their king are to be revered and propitiated.In modern India, the hooded snake is still a favorite divinity, and in many districts everyfamily has one.

The Mahrata women go every year at regular periods to the snake's hole, join handsand dance around it, somewhat after the fashions of the Witches' Dance of Europeanstory. They chant songs and prostrate themselves, praying to the divine being for whateverthey may ardently desire . There are pictures of serpents in the houses, which are honoredby offerings. The living snake is venerated everywhere, but they have only a sculpturedimage in the temples. There were anciently fierce conflicts between the native serpent-worshiping races and the Aryan invaders. Yet, after many centuries, the Buddhists inNorthern India became votaries of the Naga and the other Indians acceded to the Serpent-Myths. Hence Vishnu, the Brahman god, is represented as lying in a boat upon a couchconsisting of folds of the World-Serpent Ananta; while from his navel springs the mysticlotus, and from its cup Brahma, the Creator, is born. Krishna, likewise, who its only Vishnureincarnated to redeem the world once more, is pictured in the coils of the serpent Kalaya;he, treading upon the serpent's head and the serpent biting his foot.

Siva or Maha Deva was adopted into the Brahman scheme from the aboriginaltribes. Some ethnologists consider these races as Aethiopian, and Sir Hyde Clarke has

traced the name of this divinity or some name resembling it, all over the world, even intoAfrica and America. He is honored as Creator, Destroyer, Regenerator, Father of Life andupholder of all things. One mode of representing him is as a human figure with a serpenttwining around his arm. He is substantially the same divinity that was worshiped inWestern countries under different names, as Bacchus, Sabazios, Seth, Seb, Kronos; andthus the phallic symbolism and serpent-rites of all the world had their centre in Siva-worship and the Sakteya.

Buddhism had its beginning in Northern India with a Naga or serpent-worshipingrace. Trees, however, were the first symbolic objects esteemed by the new sect; thepepal, of which the offshoots constitute a complete grove, being the most distinguished.For many years before the present era, Buddhist kings ruled over India, and we find theearly legends commemorated by symbolic figures of the Tree and Serpent. The GreatTeacher himself discarded such things, but they afterward regained their former place. Itseems to be a characteristic of every faith and scheme of doctrine, whether religious,philosophic, scientific, or political, that the newer belief becomes intermingled andamalgamated, if not overlaid altogether, by the older.

China has had its Holy Serpent and Imperial Dragon Throne; and the Khitan andMongol tribes carried an effigy of the red or fiery serpent on their military standards, as didthe Assyrians and Egyptians of old. Indeed, if we may accept the opinion of Quatrefages,the serpent-symbol was originally adopted from their country.

Herodotos relates the legend that Hercules went into Skythia, or the ancientSarmatia, the region beyond the river Danube, and was there entertained in a cave orgrotto-temple by a maiden whose body in the upper part resembled the figure of a woman,and below was that of a snake. Her progeny from this alliance became kings of theterritory extending from the region of the Baltic to the heart of Northern Asia. Whatever theinterpretation which we give this myth, the worship which this serpent-mother representedwas maintained there even down to very modern times. It even became interblended withthe later Christianity. In Poland, serpents and trees were venerated together, but theSamogitians revered the serpent alone. Every landholder kept a snake in the corner of hishouse, feeding it and rendering it homage, if ever there came any misfortune to him he wasquick to impute it to some negligence in his serving.

The worship was kept up in Lithunia as late as the fifteenth century. Prague offeredsacrifices to numerous guardian serpents; and in Livonia, clear down to the Middle Ages,the most beautiful captives were immolated to these divinities. The same cult existed inNorway in 1555, and in Finland and Esthonia, down to the limits of the nineteenth century.The cradles of the "Caucasian race," whether they were in Europe or Asia, were in regionsthus hallowed by serpent-rites.

The number Ten had a peculiar importance with the ancient peoples. It wasprobably by reason of some association with astrologic notions. In archaic Akkad, inAssyria and in India the effigy of the Sacred Serpent had seven heads. A peculiar sanctitywas attached to the fact that the planets, including the sun and moon, were seven innumber. In the early cuneiform tablets, thousands of years before the present era, welearn that the seventh day of the week was regarded as having a peculiar sacredness. Thepriests of Apollo at Delphi celebrated it with chanting of hymns and prayers. Bastianrelates a similar thing of the Raja Naga or Serpent-king of Kambodia. "Every seventh day,"says he, "the mighty Raja Naga issues forth from his palace, and having ascended a high

mountain, pours out his soul in ardent prayer." In Assyria, each seventh day in the monthhad its own divinities. The first was sacred to Merodakh and his consort Zir-banit; thesecond to Nergal and Belta; the third to Sin, the moon-god, and Shamas, the Sun-god;the fourth to Hea and Nergal. On the eve of the Sabbath the king made a sacrifice, andlifting up his hand, adored in the high place of his god. It was "a holy day, a Sabbath forthe Ruler of the nations." He might not eat sodden flesh or cooked food, change hisclothes, put on new clothes, drive in his chariot, sit as an administrator of justice, takemedicine, or make a measured square.

The general notion regarded the serpent as an embodied or symbolized ancestorthat was to be venerated in that character and propitiated. This has been significantly thecase in the American continent. The Rattlesnake was styled the Great Father, theprogenitor of the human race impersonated, and was also revered as representing the sun,the fire, and especially the lightning. The Shawnees denominate thunder the Voice of theGreat Snake, and an Ojibwa described the lightning as an immense serpent darting fromthe mouth of the Manito. The Moki Indians of Arizona hold a Snake dance every twoyears, to propitiate the Divine Father, in order that he may send abundance of rain.

The Iroquois of New York had the tradition of a horned snake that issued from thelakes, and devastated the country till the hero Heno transfixed him with a thunderbolt. TheAlgonkins described him as dwelling in Lake Manito, or Spirit Lake, and surrounded bymalevolent beings of similar form, that harassed all who failed to make propitiatoryofferings. Finally there arose the hero Manabazho, the "Great Light." He came to therescue of a kinsman who had been made a prisoner. The Demon flooded the whole regionwith water, but the hero built a raft and saved the human race. He then drove theadversary to his retreat, and transfixed him with an arrow. Then flaying off his skin, theconqueror made of it a garment and buckler. Thus armed, he attacked the remainingenemies and drove them to the South. Immediately the beaver, otter and muskrat cameto his help and restored soil to the Northern region.

Myths like these are probably history in allegory. The drama of Isis and Osirisapparently relates to the subjugation of Egypt by the shepherd or Menti, and theirexpulsion. The story of the Iroquois is susceptible to an analogous interpretation. Theyhave traditions that their hunting grounds were formerly in the West. They confederatedwith Algonkin tribes against the Alligewis, a people occupying the region between theMississippi and the Alleghanies, and finally drove them down the river never to return. TheToltecs of Mexico have a corresponding tradition that their ancestors dwelt in the distantNorthwest, and were dispossessed by a confederation of savages. This may seem toindicate them to have been the people known as the Mound-Builders. The teocallis andartificial high places of Mexico have significant analogies to the mounds of the valley of theMississippi. The Mound-Builders, so far as we are able to judge, had serpents and otheranimals for symbols of worship.

Quetzal-Cohuatl the "Fair-God" of Cholula was a Toltec divinity, and his name wasrepresented by the figure of a feathered massasauga. This was a phonetic symbol, theparoquet being styled quetzal, and the rattlesnake cohuatl. The great temple of the Aztecsat the city of Mexico was called the "House of the Serpents," and it is affirmed thatinnumerable rattlesnakes were battened there with the blood of human victims.

The Appalachian nations in the Southern States were also worshipers of fire andsacred trees, and believers in the divine and oracular powers of the Horned Serpent. The

terms manito and oki, which are for some inexplicable reason rendered "medicine," alwayssignify, as that word originally did, whatever is beyond the common province of Nature. Itis true, however, that the Brazilian and other American aborigines labeled their remedieswith the figure of a snake, as did the physicians of Greece and Asia Minor, in honor of theirserpent-divinities, Apollo and Aesculapius.

The Caribs and other tribes of Venezuela and the West Indies cherished opinionslike the others. They regarded the waters of the ocean as being the primeval chaos, andhence the abode of the Evil Spirit. The Creator was the Good Spirit. He brought the light,and was manifest as the swift lightning, which they named "the Serpent of the Sky,"believing it to be the source of all that exists.*

------------* The Salem Witchcraft of 1692 appears to have had its inception in Caribrites. Mr.

Parris, at whose house the uncanny manifestations began, had been a trader in the WestIndies. He brought away the slaves John and Tituba, with whom the peculiar abnormalactions of his children were connected. Enough transpired at the examinations to showthat they were well acquainted with the Voudou arts in vogue with Southern negroes.------------

The Spanish conquerors noted few evidences of the Ophite symbol in Peru. Yet theresidence of the Inca Huyana Capac was named "The Place of the Serpents," and therewas found the likeness of a snake over the entrance of a ruined temple rear Lake Titicaca.The Chimus, a people of Southern Peru, employed many symbols in their worship, ofwhich the Serpent was among the most conspicuous. J. G. Muller had no doubt that thatcountry was devoted to Ophiolatry.

Africa seems to maintain the same cult in its grossest forms, and as it existed in veryremote times. At Whydah the serpent-divinity bears the honored title of "the Chief Blissof mortal beings." He has a thousand wives, or women who have been devoted to him bya special religious consecration. Some of them are reputed to have become such byhaving been "touched by the snake," and they are said to have on their bodies a peculiarmark resulting from this contact.*

------------* The mother of Octavianus Caesar was said to have such a mark, and he was

sometimes, like Alexander of Macedonia, supposed to have been actually a son of theDivine Serpent.------------

Most of these snake-wives are girls that were vowed to him before their birth, orsoon after. They are marked by a special tattoo; and fulfil specific offices like the nautch-girls and devidasis of India and the magdalens or temple-women of ancient Syria andPalestine. Similar customs have existed in other regions of the Dark Continent, exceptwhere eradicated by the Moslems. "From Liberia to Benguela," says Sir John Lubbock,"the serpent is the Chief God." Bruce also affirmed that the Shangallas of Abyssinia areserpent-worshipers.

The terra ob or obeah, which is applied to ministrants of this cult, is also given to

persons of a similar character in the Bible. This may be an evidence of a common raceand origin. Saul, the first king of Israel, is recorded as visiting a Baaless or priestess of Obat En-Dor. This last term is a compound word signifying a fountain of water and a circle;and both these were necessary at a shrine of the aboriginal warship in Western Asia.

Grecian mythology contained many accounts of hero-gods overcoming inimicalserpent-divinities, and succeeding to their honors, and sometimes even to their snakyforms. Kadmos, the Oriental or Ancient One, was said to have killed a serpent near asacred fountain and to have been afterward changed into a serpent himself. The womenof Elea, when celebrating the rites of Bacchus, were wont to invoke him to come to themas a bull or a lion in flames of fire, or as a many-headed serpent. This peculiar chantsuggests this relation of the allegory of Herakles, who was reputed to have overcomeadversaries in those forms; among them, the lion of Nemea, the Hydra of Lerna, theMinotaurian Bull from Kreta, the serpent-dog Kerberos of the underworld, the Queen of theAmazons of Asia Minor, and others. In a similar category we may include the exploits ofTheseus, the eponymous hero of Athens. He represented the Ionian and Herakles theDorian tribes, conquering the older Pelasgic populations, putting an end to their sacerdotalgovernments, and thus establishing in place of the older Greece a new Hellas with theKronian Zeus and his "younger gods" for its divinities.

The earlier centuries of the present era appear to have been characterized by onlya very gradual transition in religious matters. There was, in many particulars, a closeresemblance in customs. The tonsure of the priest was common to several religions. Thecup of the Holy Supper was analogous to the cup of water given to the comrade or soldierof Mithras at the Initiations, and likewise to the cup of the Agathodaemon that concludedthe repasts at the Sacred Festivals. As the Christian communities emerged into distinctform, the serpent was retained as a religious symbol. The Rev. Mr. Deane acknowledgesunequivocally that nether in Egypt nor Phoenicia did the worship fly before the faith ofadvancing Christianity. Tertullian, who flourished at that period, affirmed that the Serpentwas venerated as equal or equivalent to the Christ - in other words, it was regarded as theLogos or Divine Light become embodied in the flesh as an inhabitant of the earth.

The cities of Asia Minor in which the "Seven Churches" of the book of Revelationhad their seats, were hot-beds of the Serpent-cult; and Mr. James Ferguson consideredthis as far from being an accidental coincidence. "The presence of such a form of faith,"says he, "may have influenced the spread of Christianity in those cities to an extent nothitherto suspected." This supposition seems to be confirmed by the fact that the severalworships were alike characterized by pilgrimages, protracted religious services, thechanting of hymns and prayers, enthusiastic frenzy and other emotional excitement,hypnotic visions, mantic divining and kindred peculiarities.

Epiphanios, a competent, but hardly a trustworthy writer, describes the Holy Supperas it was celebrated by the Markosian community to which he had belonged. A tameserpent was kept in an ark or coffer, and when the rite took place a loaf of bread wasplaced upon the altar. A hymn was then chanted, and the snake, coming from hisreceptacle coiled round the bread, and after a few moments went back. The consecrationbeing thus complete, the bread was broken in pieces and distributed to thecommunicants.*

-----------

* Very similar to this account is the description by Virgil of the sacrifice made byAeneas at the tomb or shrine of his father Anchises. Bowls of wine, milk and blood werepoured out upon the ground. Then came a huge snake from the shrine moving in theseven mystic coils. It glided to the altar, tasted of the Libations, and afterward returned toits lair.-----------

It had been the practice from earliest time to wear charms and amulets of variouskinds to ward off disease and evil influences. This was approved by physicians likeHippokrates, Galen and others of distinguished merit. The new sectaries employed themwherever Gnostic doctrines had been promulgated. Gems were worn, sometimes bearingthe omega or the name Iao, the secret appellation of Divinity, or the term Abrasax orAbraxas - the ineffable Marie. (Revelation ii, 17.) The figure of the Agathodaemon orNeph, the Egyptian serpent-divinity, had been for ages engraved on gems which wereemployed for similar purposes. It was now adopted by the new religionists, and the headof a bird or lion taken from the Mithraic symbolism placed upon it. There were variousmodifications of these forms, but the serpent was characteristic in them all. The SupremeForce, the Primal Being, was signified.

The Gnostics were more scholarly and intellectual than the other Christians, andtheir doctrines and allegories were often too recondite to be easily understood. Theirreligion is described by Clement as consisting in a perpetual attention to the soul, and anintercourse with Deity as the fountain of universal love.

After Christianity became the State religion it abounded with legends of conflict withserpents in various places. The Emperor Charlemagne built a church over the den of aserpent at Zurich. One Christian hero was described as having slain the serpent ofAesculapius at Epidavros. The story of St. George and the Dragon is a fiction of similarcharacter. It was the custom in France for many centuries to carry the elfigy of a snake orsaurian in processions. The Rogations and other festivals were instituted on purpose tocommemorate such achievements. The prominent churches had each its own dragon andlegend. There were the Gargouille of Rouen, the Wyvern of Larre, the dragon of the islandof St. Batz, which St. Paul drowned in the sea, the Turasque of Tarascon, that wasstrangled with St. Martha's garter, the Graoulli of Metz that St. Clement overcame, andmany others.

Then, too, we have the legend of St. Patrick banishing the snakes from Ireland.Nevertheless, they can hardly be said to have been thus banished, for there are a fewharmless varieties still existing in the island. Besides that, if it was the peculiar worship thatwas signified by the legend, the old crosses still remaining there, as well as those of othercountries, base the symbolic figures of serpents coiled around them. That there ever wassuch an individual as St. Patrick may be considered as doubtful. Pater, or father, is a titleof priests, and of this term the name Patricius or Patrick is a derivative; so that every priestmight be styled Patrick. Pater Liber, also, was the designation of the Roman Bacchus, andthis divinity had his annual festival on the seventeenth day of March. Many of the pagangods of Rome and Greece were metamorphosed into saints of the Calendar, thus servingto enable the religion which they represented to merge into the new Christianity withoutmuch friction or innovation. In this way Bacchus reappeared as St. Denys in France, St.Casmo in Naples, and even as St. Bacchus and St. Dionysius, with rites and offerings that

were sometimes very peculiar.Thus has the serpent, with its accompanying ceremonial and observances, the

Sabbath, the Holy Repast, the procession and pilgrimage, from remote antiquity, beencommon alike at the shrine of Bel-Merodakh, in the temples of Egypt, the wilderness ofSinai, the Grove of Epidavros, the hut of the Sarmatian, among the aborigines of America,the natives of Africa, and the Naga tribes of the Far East. We find it even in the Gospelsas an acceptable similitude. There is an injunction to be wise or wary as serpents, andalso the significant declaration: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the Wilderness, soought the son of man to be lifted up - that every one having faith in him may have lifeeternal."

The serpent-form is the most beautiful, and among the most primitive of the animalkingdom. It is foremost in having a vertebrate column; and all vertebrated animals, clearto the human race, are apparently so many outcomes and differentiations of this originalfigure. The lizard tribes are serpents with visible organs. The feline race are everywhereadmired for their Iitheness and grace; they please from their serpent-resemblances. Ourown divine-human form exhibits the likeness. No wonder is it that the ancestral man hasbeen described as a serpent. Several of the African tribes call the alimentary canal asnake. The brain and spinal cord have a serpentine figure and analogy. The Gnosticdivinity Abraxas, was represented with a radiated head and serpent-body, as if like manin the image of God. Disguise the fact as we may, blink over it too, the tendency of allperfect motion is to the spiral form, and indicates the serpentine trend in all Nature.

Hence, from primeval times, the Serpent has been regarded with awe andveneration, and there have been ascribed to it attributes of life and recondite wisdom, andthe power of healing. Thus arose the notion that all human kind sprung from a serpent,and that the Intelligence that presides over the sun was the Serpent-Father. As by acommon instinct the Serpent has been revered as the parental type of all things; and so,as symbols are necessary for the viewing of all ideas, this one symbol has been employedto denote every faculty, function and essential attribute of our existence, whether physical,psychic or spiritual.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 15, no. 1, July, 1901)

(A discourse delivered before the School of Philosophy, New York)

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Speech - Alexander Wilder, M.D.

[From a College Lecture of 1860's or 70's.]

William von Humboldt said: "Man is distinguished from the animals by the facultyof speech, but in order to possess that faculty he must be already man." The dictionaryinforms us that speech is the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds;and that man is an old Sanskrit word meaning, to think, hence a thinker. So, therefore, the

creature that thinks has the faculty of articulate speech by which to express his thoughts,in order that other thinkers may know what he is thinking. There is no speech of animals,because they do not think; certainly not in the philosophical sense of the term. To thinkimplies rationality, to judge, compare and reason; to employ any of the intellectual powersexcept sense and perception, and so to remember and call to mind, to consider anddeliberate, to ponder in mind, to judge and form opinions. It is psychical action, in thehigher sense of the term; hence more correctly, we should call it rational. I confess,however, to a little distrust of this latter word. Its radical meaning is that of reckoning up,and seems to exclude the idea of any higher faculty. It takes a human being, however, toreckon up and form decisions; and so we have the idea of mental ascending from a partto an all.

Reason is accordingly defined by Webster to be the higher as distinguished fromthe lower cognitive faculties, or sense, imagination and memory, and in contrast to thefeelings and desires including conception, judgment, reasoning and the intuitional faculty,or faculty of first truths as distinguished from the understanding. Dugald Stewart says:"Reason denotes that power by which we distinguish truth from falsehood, and right fromwrong, and by which we are enabled to contrive means for the attainment of particularends." Coleridge in fewer words but more expressively says: "The sense perceives; theunderstanding conceives; the reason comprehends." So then, passing to these highermeanings, we reiterate in other words; that only the being that has reason, the faculty ofcomprehending, of distinguishing the true and the right, and combining means for theattaining of ends, has the power of uttering thoughts in articulate speech.

We may now properly consider the organism constructed for the purpose. Theapparent simplicity of the function, first arouses our admiration. It is no less than theemploying the breath as it has finished its physiological office in the body and leavesthrough the respiratory passages, to set a simple mechanism in motion. Thus is originatedall the modulations of song which we enjoy, and the utterances of speech which impressus. It is a species of after-life of the dead. Air which has been expired, dead materialwhich has been dismissed as no longer life-giving, is thus exalted to a higher rank andsphere, that of giving external shape to thought.

It is a fond vagary of modern scientific speculation to trace the course ofdevelopment from lower creatures. The human voice has accordingly to take its turn. Themonotonous cry of animals without a spinal column and the more varied as well as loudernote of higher tribes are employed as examples. Man before birth is voiceless; duringinfancy he puts forth only a cry, acquiring articulate speech and song by means ofinstruction, finally arriving at the expression of the most refined emotions and elevatedideas. One pole, the snail-family; the other, ourselves. Which is the sublime; which theridiculous?

Insects are supplied with a variety of vocal structures; of, however, the simplestcharacter. A peculiar arrangement of vibrating membranes at the extremity of the trachea,answers the purpose for many species. In flying they compress and relax the trachealtubes and so make an audible noise. The mosquito thus makes a kind of shrieking by therapid beating of its wings. Of the vertebrate animals, those which breathe have voices;fishes generally are dumb. The serpent race expel the air through a simple chink by theforcible contraction of the muscles of the abdomen; the result being a mere hiss. Frogsimprove on this, having resonant cavities to enable this. In birds the trachea has a vocal

glottis at its bifurcation, and another glottis above for the escape of the air. They appearto have the mechanism for articulate speech; the raven and the parrot being able topronounce words with considerable distinctness. They use the tongue and parts of themouth for this purpose.

Speaking and singing are different acts. The glottis is employed for singing, thelarynx being essentially the organ for the purpose. The mouth, on the other hand, is theprincipal organ of speech, especially of whispering. In the case of audible utterance,however, a noise is created by the larynx and modified by articulation in the mouth. Thus,there really are three forms of voluntary expression; song by means of the larynx, audiblespeech by the medium of the mouth and larynx and whispering by the mouth alone. Birdswhich have no lower larynx have no voice. Man has but a single larynx, however....

The psychological history of language is a study by itself. It is one department asrelating to the analysis of men and animals; it is another as between the races and tribesof humankind.

Among the brute races, song and voice are principally employed for purposesconnected with the perpetuation of the race. There are the cries for food, the shrieks ofalarm at danger, the call of the mother to her young, and the like. Song appears to be akind of caress put forth by the male to attract the female. It may be used in a state ofcaptivity to persuade the jailers to give food; but I am not very conversant with suchmatters. The coo of the pigeon, the twitter of the swallow, the glorious stream of liquidmusic poured out by the reed-bird, are erotic or amatory. Even in the human race it issignificant that the period of puberty is indicated in the male by a change of voice andmien, which is deserving of inquiry. Much of the singing has a very curious relationship tothe amative nature. The popular poet writes love songs; the favorite singer executes themon the boards of the theatre and concert salon; and even the choicest musical instrumentsare esteemed as they best charm that part of our nature. The hymns for public worshipthat are most esteemed, exhibit the languishing emotions of a love-lorn woman, passion,strong feeling, desire, fondness, and devotion. I care not where we go. We find it so in theconcert and at the mass; in the church, the camp meeting and the prayer meeting.Religious ardor is very closely allied to sexual love; and when suffered to glow toward aCreator, a Savior or Redeemer, saint or apostle, it employs the same language but littlechanged, the same cooing utterances, which a lover instinctively uses to the one beloved.I say this with no contempt, no irreverence, no disrespect to any human being. I am onlyuttering it as having an important part in vocal psychology.

We have remarked that in the faculty of speech man was characterized as man.We have also remarked before this, that where a higher function, attribute or endowmentexisted it took the lead, and both controlled and directed all that was lower in the nature.The brain of man is an organism to which no brute possesses an equivalent. It is theabode of mind, reason, the divine spirit, the higher soul. The faculty of speech is anendowment incident to that brain and the man in it. He had no occasion for it to enable himto get food or crow love-songs, however serviceable it may be for such purposes. Hewanted it for the expression of ideas, so that his fellow, too, might know them. Thus hegave names to all objects which fixed his attention, and to their groups; he devisedpeculiar sounds or words to express their movements and conditions. How he came to dothis is no easy question to solve. We know, however, that it has not been done after

uniform methods. The number of languages has been many hundreds, if not thousands.They are often akin; yet in general structure they have also certain divergence and actualdifferences which seem to destroy the notion of original similarity. The American Indian,the Chinaman, the African, and the white races, all use different names for objects andmake their words on a different plan. The Shem, Ham and Japheth of Hebrew story do notrepresent all the races of men, but only a single variety in three great ethnic divisions.They are variant from the rest of mankind, psychically. Their words are unlike the others;and they differ in the way of declining and inflecting them.

Many of these languages are thousands of years old. One, and perhaps severalthousand years before our era, a maritime people speaking a language very similar toArabic and Hebrew traded with a black people in Spain for merino wool. The language ofMohammed and the Koran is now used from the Atlantic to Calcutta; and it differs littlefrom what it was when in unknown antiquity the Pyramids were built in Egypt. The nameof Babel is in that language as well as that of the Supreme Being as we have accepted it.Yet close beside it is the form of speech which we use - a form which extends alongsidethe other, from the easternmost Asia to the Atlantic, as well as here all over North America,the islands and Australia. Many of our commonest words are identical with or closelyrelated to those used by the Brahmans and Parsees of India; and are in their sacredbooks. The shepherds of ancient Turkestan and Bokhara, the agriculturists of old Persiawho reverently adored the sun as he arose in the morning, the Armenians, Greeks, Romanand northern peoples of Europe, were in a manner "of one lip and one speech." There arevariations as of unlike face and color of hair; but there is a linguistic unity as well as aphysical and psychical. The names of many of our domestic animals, farming implements,and common objects, are the same in Sanskrit, Latin, Greek and German.

In the structure of their languages the nations have recorded their history, especiallytheir moral, political and psychological history. In our own language we have a doubledialect, as shown by such words as God and deity, fatherly and paternal, godlike anddivine, heavenly and celestial. Why? We had Danes and Saxons for ancestors; Frenchand Romans were their conquerors and engrafted their words and ideas. England wasoccupied by the Romans 1800 years ago; then colonized by Danes and Saxons and againconquered by Frenchmen, 800 years ago. We have most words of Latin origin, and fewerof French. The Roman possessed the most energetic psychical nature, and placed hisstamp wherever he went. He made France, except Brittany, more Latin than Gallic; andwhere the Norman planted his nobility and his church in England, he planted not a Frenchbut a Roman production.

In the same way we affect a Semitic form of religious speech. We reject our ownlanguage when we wish to employ scientific words. Latin and Greek is all that wecondescend to employ. We refuse even the names which our forefathers employed forreligious purposes. God is German; but Odin, Thor, Frigga, are only allowed to namedays of the week. We go to the Latin for the names of the months. We name the sky,heaven, the heaven-up region; and we have retained from the Norse religions the wordhell, but have set it apart from the tophet-furnace of Gehenna, and then forbidden it to beuttered in good society. Augustin, Patrick perhaps, and such men have constructed ourreligious names and customs from Roman and Grecian models.

The moral and psychical energy of Rome and Thrace must have been prodigious;it has transformed our language, our religion, our laws, our habits of thinking. Thus we

perceive that words are potent in more ways than we carelessly think. This cricoidcartilage with its accompaniments, and this collected group of pharynx, palate, lips andtongue, are engines to conquer worlds with; because man was intellectual he had speech,and wrought it into language and literature, so that all who associate together may shareeach other's thoughts and knowledge, as well as hold in heredity what had beenpossessed before them. The conquering peoples possess the conquering languages.

Speech is expressive of power as well as of thought. But for speech, man nevercould have combined with his fellow to master the wild beasts; never have formedcommonwealth for mutual aid and support; never made inventions, coping withomnipotence in managing the lightning, directing the elements, and controlling affairs. Itwould have been physical strength and brute natures that would have swayed all the world;and then the conditions of brute force, savagery and slavery would have been everywhere.There would be no worship; for only as there is thought is there capacity and dispositionfor religion; and as a sequence, knowledge, refinement, morality, all that ennobles man,would have been impossible.

Intellect in the long run, sways the dominion of the world. The individual sage maybe treated with scorn and contumely, even murdered, but the thoughts which he utters areso powerful that the worst men find themselves compelled to submit to them. The facultyof speech thus exalts the true man over the false one; the men of ends and purposes overhim who has no aim beyond the present. The man who thinks is king, pontiff, senate,church, everything; other men are his agents. The gill of hemlock did not extinguishSocrates; from the tragedy of the Phaedo till the present, the immortality of the humansoul has been known and believed by every thinking man; nor can it be otherwise exceptthe active race be exterminated. Zoroaster told us that the Supreme Being created allthings by all-potent speech; an unknown writer of a singular gospel added: "In thebeginning was the Word; and the Word was next to God, and the Word was God." Somighty is speech, that it was felt and believed that it could create, that it was endowed notonly with the intellect of man, but with all the omnipotence of God.

(The Word, vol. 15, no. 2, May, 1912)

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Swine and Sacred Rites - Alexander Wilder

The three Synoptic Gospels contain an account of the drowning of a herd of swineunder circumstances that are hardly intelligible to the unsophisticated reader. They werefeeding on a mountain at the east of the lake now commonly known as the Sea of Galilee.As Jesus landed there he was met by a man, who gave his name as "Legion" because amultitude of demons possessed him. He abode in the tombs, and had become soinfuriated that he would not wear clothes, and could not be held fast even by chains. Jesushaving commanded the demons to depart, they were permitted by him to enter into theherd of swine. "And the herd rushed down the steep into the lake and were choked."

It is added that this event was regarded by the inhabitants of the region as a

presage of calamity: "Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes (orGerasenes) round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with greatfear."

This whole account must be taken in connection with what is known of the currentbeliefs and customs of the period at which these occurrences are described as takingplace. The Hebrew Scriptures and what is known of the worships of former times willafford us the necessary clues. The book of Isaiah refers to customs which seem to beara close relation to what is obscurely suggested by the story of the demoniac and the herdof swine. (See Noyes's Translation.)

'I have spread out my hands all the day To a rebellious people,That walketh in an evil way.According to their own devices; To a people that provoke me to my face continually, That sacrifice in gardens, [groves]*And burn incense on tiles; That sit in sepulchres, And lodge in caverns; And eat swine's flesh,And have broth of unclean things in their vessels."

------------* They are again described as "they that consecrate and purify themselves in

gardens or groves, after the Ahad or only one." This was the chief priest, the agatesrepresenting the divinity.------------

These were observances in the Oriental worship that prevailed in all the region fromthe Valley of the Euphrates to the Mediterranean and into Africa, Asia Minor and Greece,with modifications peculiar to each people. It was characterized by festivals at statedperiods in honor of the principal divinities, by religious processions, sacrifices and orgiasticprocedures. Hence there was a close resemblance indicative of a common origin betweenthe rites in different countries, and Mr. Robert Brown, Jr., of England, has accordinglyincluded them together in his erudite treatise, "The Great Dionysiak Myth."

The tombs were regarded as habitations or resorts of the genii or spirits of the dead,and of demons that were their companions. The relatives came thither to offer sacrificesand propitiate their favor. Other persons also lodged there to obtain prophetic dreams andspiritual communications. The demoniac with his "unclean spirit" and legion of demonsappears, therefore, to have been one of these individuals who had become infuriated bythe excitement at the orgiastic rites and his prolonged stay among the tombs where spiritswere supposed to haunt.

The case of Mary the Magdalian seems to accord with this description. Sheevidently derived the designation of Magdalen from a shrine with which she may beconsidered as having been connected. The sanctuaries of the Great Goddess were oftenbuilt in the form of a migdol, magdal or tower, and her head-dress accordingly bore a little

turret as a symbol. The service of consecrated women at those sanctuaries aspriestesses, singers, dancers and in other capacities is a familiar fact. In the orgiasticdances and excitements many of the participants became epileptic or "possessed," andwere regarded as entheast or infilled with the divinity.

Demons in those days were considered as divine beings of a lower class, and asbeing often in close relations with individuals. Afterward, however, like the devas of theearly Aryan faiths, they became, through a modification of religious sentiment, degradedfrom deities to devils, as has been the case with the bhaga or bogy of Indian theology.

The introduction of the swine into the account in the Gospels, and their speedydeath was a significant part of the episode. The animal was conspicuous beyond othersin the Sacred Rites of the East, and was also regarded somewhat in the analogy with thescapegoat of the Hebrew Ritual. We have but to look over the customs of other peoplesto corroborate this fact. In the Eleusinian at the Lesser Mysteries, the candidatespresented young female swine as their offering. Aristophanes has commemorated this inone of his plays, in which the woman entreats for money to buy a pig; "for," says she, "Imust be initiated before I die." The animal was washed in the running stream andafterward put to death in sacrifice. Probably this explains the origin of the proverb: "Thesow that was washed returns to her wallow in filth." It seems, indeed, to be an appropriateillustration of the insufficiency of an external rite to effect any radical change of character.

In Egypt, on the eve of the festival of Osiris, it was the custom for every head of ahousehold to kill a hog before the door of his house. The lintels of the door were sprinkledwith the blood. The swineherd who had brought the animal there carried away the carcass;for pork was regarded as abominable by the Egyptians. The swine was considered bythem as representing Seth, or Typhon, the murderer of the god Osiris,

The matter, however, is more fully set forth in the Phoenician legend of Adonis.Indeed, all the divinities that are described as slain and coming again to life aresubstantially the same personification. Osiris, Adonis, Allis, Asklepios, Kadmus, Tum orTammuz are the same as Bacchus, and their commemorative rites were of a dramaticcharacter, with a meaning similar to that of the Dionysiac.*

Adonis was described in one legend as engaged in hunting when he was mutilatedby a wild boar, and died from the wounds. Another form of the drama represents Ares, orMars,** as the slayer of the divinity, from jealousy of him as having won the affection ofAstarte or Salambo, the goddess of love and death. Ares took the form of a boar andattacked his young rival when in the chase.

--------------* The Theatre had its origin in such rites. The building was a temple of Bacchus,

at Athens, and of Esculapius or Asklepios, at Pergamus and Epidavros. The modernTheatre in this manner took its inception in the "Miracle Plays," in which monks and othersperformed the parts representing the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.

** "Ar," the Syrian term for a boar, would seem to have suggested the name of Aresfor the god of war and destruction. He is the same here as Molokh, the PhoenicianHercules, who was propitiated by sacrifices of human beings. The author of the book,Wisdom of Solomon, describes it: "They slew their children in sacrifices, or used SecretMysteries, or celebrated frantic Komuses or revellings of foreign rites."------------

The lament of the goddess is pathetically described by Ovid. When from theaetherial world on high she beheld him lifeless, and his body lying in his own blood, shehurried down, tearing her bosom and her hair, beating her breasts and reproaching theFates. Then she ordered that the monuments of her grief should be perpetuated, andthere should be a simulacrum of his dead body at the yearly imitations of her mourning."And this was a perpetual custom," says Maimonides, " that each year, on the beginningof the first day of the month, Tammuz, they mourned and wept for Tammuz," or Adonis.Ezekiel, the Hebrew prophet, states that he saw "in the visions of God" women at thenorthern gate of the temple at Jerusalem engaged in this mourning for the lover of Astarta.

The celebration at Byblos took place at the period when the water of the river Adonwas red in color, and so represented the blood of the divinity. The high priest thenannounced the Sacred Fast and convoked the "solemn assembling." All the inhabitantsof the region who were able flocked to the holy place. Then began the preliminaryobservances, the purifications in the groves about the temple, as described by the prophet.The search for the divine effigy began, and then the procession bore it to the sacredprecinct of the temple. The image was washed, anointed with spices and wrapped in linenand wool. A hog was slaughtered and laid beside the bier. This was a significant featureof the rites. Then followed the Lament, the "mourning for Jehid," the Beloved.*

--------------* Hebrew, IHID, the one only, and hence the beloved. Sankhuniathon relates that

Kronos sacrificed his son Ieoud in this manner and circumcised himself. As it was aSemitic custom to sacrifice the first-born son as sanctified to the Deity (Exodus, xiii, 2.) itwill be seen that there was such lamentation in every family, as for the slain divinity.---------------

There are many references in the writings of the Hebrew prophets, indicatingfamiliarity with this observance. "They shall mourn for him," says Zechariah, "as onemourneth for the Beloved One, and shall be in bitterness for him as one is in bitterness forthe first-born." "I will make it at the Mourning for the Beloved," Amos declares. "Daughterof my people," cries Jeremiah, addressing the women as a single person, "gird thyself withsackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes; make the Mourning for the Beloved, a most bitterlamentation." The mode of the celebration is likewise suggested in the Gospels, asperformed by the minions of the Great Mother. "To what shall I compare the men of thisgeneration?" Jesus demands. "They are like the boy-priests sitting in the Forum andcalling to their associates, saying;

"'We fluted to you but you did not dance;We chanted the Dirge, and you failed to beat your breasts.'"

In such ways the period of mourning was passed. Some cut off their hair, somewounded their bodies, and some bestowed themselves as devoted to the god andgoddess.* On the morning of the third day, while it was yet dark, the hierophantannounced the mourning ended. "Rejoice, Mystic," said he, "your Adon has risen for ourpreservation."

----------* See Baruch, Chap. vi, showing a similar observance at Babylon. "The priests

(Kadeshim or consecrated persons) sit in their temple-precincts, having their clothes rentand their heads and beards shaven, and nothing upon their heads. They shriek and crybefore their gods as men do at the feast (or wake) when one is dead..... The women alsosit in the paths with cords about them and burn pastiles," etc. (Herodotus, I, 199.)-----------

A large part of the season in the East is without rain, and hence it was consideredauspicious if the Vigil was ended with copious showers. It was explained that Adonis hadrisen from death and ascended on high to the arms of his divine spouse, and now that theearth rejoiced and was made fruitful.

The story of the conflict of the prophet Elijah with the prophets of the PhoenicianBaal was evidently composed upon the basis of the mystic ritual, and with thisunderstanding the initiated reader will easily comprehend the analogies. The occasion isset forth to be a prolonged drought in Palestine. The scene is presented on Mount Carmel,a promontory of the Mediterranean Sea, where had been a shrine for many centuries. Theprophets are described as preparing their sacrifice and placing it on the altar with wood,but without fire; the test being that the divinity should signify his claim by the descent ofa flame. Then, we are told, they invoked their Baal from morning till noon, going rapidlyin procession about the altar in the mystic circle-dance. "And they cried aloud, and cutthemselves after their custom, with knives and lancets." This was the practice at the Syrianand Asian rites at the annual celebration.

Elijah also adopted the course which was followed at the concluding of the Rite.Having built anew the old altar which had been torn down he made a deep trench aboutit, and after having placed his offering upon it caused water to be brought and pouredabout, drenching the wood and filling the trench. He then invoked the Deity, calling uponhim by the mystic name "IAVA," and then lightning fell from the sky, consuming the altarwith the sacrifice, and drinking up the water which had been poured out. After thismanifestion we are told that a cloud arose from the sea and discharged its welcomeshowers upon the thirsty earth.

Generally, however, in the East, the chief place in worship was given to theGoddess herself. In Asia the Great Mother, Kybele, was superior to Attis, as was Isis toOsiris, and Astarte to Adonis. Many of the customs were transmitted, with modifications,into the later worship. Lucian has given a very full account of them. He mentions the greatfestival of the Spring, and the orgies, and describes the mode of sacrifice. The victimswere crowned with garlands and driven over a precipice. Children were sacrificed in thesame manner. The parents conducted them to the temple, beating them on the way andcalling them by opprobrious epithets; and when the poor victims had come to the groundsabout the temple they were driven over the rocks to inevitable death.

Princes like Aahmes of Egypt and Numa of Rome put an end to this immolating ofhuman beings, and where this had been done it was often the practice to substituteanimals. It may be that the herd of swine in the Gaulonitis had been reared for thatpurpose, as the mode of the slaughter would seem to suggest; but it is more no doubt thatthey were designed to represent the god or animal that slew the divine Adonis. It isenough, however, that they were employed in the worship.

The interdiction of swine in sacrifice was made a political issue in Judea, under theMacedonian kings of Syria. The country had been under the dominion of Egypt and apriest named Joseph had farmed the revenues. After it had passed under the Syrianmonarch, a series of intrigues and squabbles took place for possession of the office of highpriest. According to the Jewish historians, Jesus or Jason having procured the place,introduced the Phoenician worship. The king, Antiochus Epiphanes, afterward decreeduniformity of religion over all his provinces, interdicting the Levitical service and substitutingthe worship of Zeus and Bacchus in its place. He came to Jerusalem, and having takenpossession of the temple, offered swine upon the altar, and sprinkled the place with theblood. Shrines and altars were also erected in every city and village, and swine weresacrificed there every day. The book of the law was burned, and the Bacchic worship wasmaintained everywhere.

It may be supposed with some degree of plausibility that the swine was interdictedfor food and sacrifice, because of the hatred of Macedonian supremacy. The Northmenof Europe, the Greeks and Romans, had no such antipathy. Like Adonis, they hunted theswine in the forest and gave the carcass the place of honor at the feast. Virgil depicts thegoddess Venus clad like a huntress, meeting her son "pius Aenas" incognita, and askinghim whether he has met one of her sisters urging on with loud cry the chase of the wildboar. The Odyssey, however, seems to indicate a lower estimate of the animal. Itdescribes the goddess Kirke as changing the companions of the wandering chief intoswine, thus setting forth their degradation. Under the influence of Hebrew tradition, finally,the hog has entirely ceased to be classical, but has acquired instead a commercialimportance. Nations now make solemn treaties for trading in the flesh, but the swineappears no more in song or sacred rite.

The writer of the book of Deuteronomy offers as a pretext for the prohibition of theflesh as food, that the animal though cloven-footed like the ox and sheep, nevertheless,does not chew the cud. If this really was the use, it may be regarded as an endeavor toprepare the way for effecting a total abandonment of the use of flesh. There are certainlymany reasons for supposing that it was only "because of the hardness of men's hearts"that any sanction whatever was given for the eating of flesh, and that "from the beginningit was not so." Indeed, it would be idle to impute the cause to the greediness of the animalor the filthiness of its wallow. Many of the birds that the same writer approves are far moregross and greedy, while the cleanly hare, jerboa and horse are interdicted. A recordpurporting to be of an earlier period gives sanction that "every living thing that moveth shallbe meat." This includes every species of animal, fish, bird and insect, placing humanbeings on a dietary characteristic of a standing and degraded people, like Australians andDigger Indians. The later code, in such case, would indicate an advancing civilization, andforeshadow a further moral development which would involve the disuse of fleshaltogether.

It appears more probable, however, that the prohibition took its present form in thetime of Antiochus Epiphanes and his successors. This king had overturned the Hebrewpolity and destroyed the sacred writings. The Makkabean brothers set about to found thenation anew. The work, as in the case of the Sassanian kings of Persia, resulted in arevision, additions and the loss of many writings. As Nehemiah had made a collection ofbooks, we are told that "in like manner Judas gathered together the things that were lostby reason of the war." They were edited and otherwise revised to meet the conditions of

the new nation, and we opine, the ambition of the new rulers. In this form we have themnow.

Thus we find many new regulations evidently designed to accentuate their hostilityto their former masters. Images and statues were no more permitted in sacred places.There were no more familiar neighborly minglings with persons of other nations. TheEgyptians had displayed similar exclusiveness, refusing to eat with foreigners, or even withpersons who made use of certain objectionable articles of food. This practice was nowcopied. But the most significant distinction was made by religious worship. Anciently thereligion of the family pertained to the family alone, and every tract of country had its ownexclusive customs. But conquest and neighborly intercourse had modified these matters,and it was common for princes of one nation to offer sacrifices in the temples of others.The Persians were an exception. The religion of the Mysteries was on a common ground,and from the rites of Amma, the Bona Dea at Rome, and the worship of Demeter, to thevarieties of custom in the "Great Dionysiak Myth," the swine was the victim at the altar.The proscription of this animal in sacred ceremonies and from the tables of the household,placed an insurmountable wall of partition between Judaism and the worships of othernations. This was effectually done when Judas Makkabaus overthrew the altar in thetemple upon which Antiochus had offered the hog; and with that overturning he set up anew law for the Jewish people and laid the corner-stone for the upbuilding of a new nation.

(The Ideal Review [Metaphysical Magazine], vol. 12, no. 1, April, 1900)

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Words With Their Workings - Alexander Wilder

Words are things ensouled. "There are cases," says Coleridge, "in which moreknowledge of value can be conveyed by the history of a word than by the history of acampaign." A criticism upon them, therefore, becomes a survey of the mental life of theindividual, people, or period. The conceptions which exhibit themselves in our thoughtsshow the problems with which we are occupied, and the terms which we employ todescribe them illustrate forcibly how we treat them. When, therefore, we are diligent toacquire proper forms of expression, we are building more wisely that we often imagine.The sparrow makes her nest in the house prepared for her reception; and ideas of thenobler and better sort come forth and take up their abode in the mind of the person whohas made ready for them by chaste elegance of speech as well as a culturedunderstanding.

"Every idle word that men shall speak," said Jesus, "they shall give a reason (logos)for in the day of judgment; for by thy words (reasons) thou shalt be justified, and by thywords thou shalt be condemned." Idle here means, unholy; unproductive of any goodresult; without utility. The Pharisees had wantonly ascribed one of his cures to Beelzebub,the prince of demons; thus opening their minds to regard every suggestion with favorwhich might impugn his motives and actions. "Out of the overflowing of the heart themouth speaketh," he declared to them. If, therefore, the utterers could not justify their

words by reasons, they were condemned as wicked and blasphemous.The sanctities of speech relate accordingly to moral qualities, and so require at our

hand a strict observance of the proprieties of language, the correct forms of expression,and good usage. Thus, much is due likewise to the dignity of our nature. Speech camewith humanity itself, and to be heir of all the ages would be of little value but for theheritage of vocal utterance. We can hardly over-estimate our allotment.

Sir Walter Scott has afforded us, in "Ivanhoe," a most apt and exquisite illustrationof the influence of events upon our language. The jester, Wanba, accompanying theSaxon swineherd, reminds him that the animals will become Frenchmen before long -meaning that their English designation of pigs would be changed for the correspondingFrench one of pork, when they left the company of the thrall to appear at the table of thelord. The Norman Conquest has, indeed, been impressed upon the English language bysuch transformations as from sheep to mutton, from swine to pork, from calves to veal, andfrom oxen to beef. Changes analogous to these are found in every department of ourspeech, and in the spelling of our words still more than in the words themselves. All ourancestors have had a hand in shaping the curious articulations and all the variations.Borrow's gipsy maid ought not to discard us as she did her lover in Romany Rye, nor evento flout us for being "word-mad." Our history is recorded in our language and the wordswhich we employ.

We may not, when we have anything important to say, descend to carelessness andslovenly utterance. The language which an individual employs is the symbol andexpression of his spiritual and intellectual life. It is therefore incumbent upon all writers,as well as public speakers, to observe conscientiously a strict chastity of diction, and toabstain carefully from affording any sanction of the existing abuses. They should endeavorstrenuously to use every word with sedulous regard to its more delicate shades ofmeaning, and do this so nicely that any change or substitution would invite a modifying ofthe sense. This is an act of justice to the diligent reader or hearer, as well as a becominghomage to the dignity of language itself.

Usage, I am sorry to say, has transcended its proper limits in regard to this matter,as indeed it too often does in respect to manners and morals. Solecisms are tolerated,and even slang expressions find their way into current speech. The form of words knownas double entendre often vitiates language, and even debauches its meaning. A practicehas grown up of giving words a lower sense than the legitimate one, and its evil fruit iseverywhere manifest in the abrogation of niceties of expression, and even in the totalobscuring of their proper import. Indeed, the sensuous reasoners of the resent time havecontributed largely to this debasement of language, by giving a perverted meaning to manyof our noblest terms, and particularly by degrading them to lower significations indicativeof their own inferior attitude of thought. For example, it is not easy for an unskilled readerto ascertain, even with the aid of dictionaries, the precise meaning of such words as mind,soul, intellect, reason, spirit, philosophy, science, etc.

It is, unfortunately, too much to hope that these practices will be corrected andlanguage restored to its former purity. The rule exists here, as well as elsewhere, thatrevolutions do not go backward. Lexicographers are so conscious of this that they governtheir action by it and define words according to their popular sense, rather than by theiretymology. We might deem the movement to correct this practice a salutary one; but theumpires of literature would heed it little more than the swelling ocean heeded the broom

and vociferations of Mrs. Partington. Yet the matter is not so altogether hopeless as tojustify any servile or abject conformity to the prevailing demoralization. A diligent attentionto the structure and derivation of words, as well as to the changes which they haveundergone from the attrition of daily use, will enable writers and speakers to conform to theprinciples of correct usage; and certainly, they who justly appreciate the matter will confessits importance. The most superficial and inconsiderate will be aware that one termanswers a specific purpose better than another having very similar definitions, and that thisvery often occurs in cases where dictionaries do not make these distinctions plain. Indeed,we may accept it very confidently as a dogma well established: that our verbal elementswere not constituted arbitrarily, but were adopted originally because of their interior relationto the ideas which they should convey. Every word and sound was intended to be aresemblance and imitation of thought, as well as its vehicle.

Ideas are in three planes: the natural, or sensuous; the logical, or scientific; andthe superior, or spiritual. Observation and experience pertain to the first of these,reasoning and comparison to the second, intellection to the third. It is proper to employwords representing ideas on the lower plane to represent a higher conception, as inmetaphor and allegory. Indeed, much of our language consists of words that have losttheir sensuous meaning and acquired the supersensuous. Thus, soul and spirit no longermean breath; and heaven is something more than the sky. It is not, however, equallyadmissible to give the names indicative of the higher order to that which is inferior. Wemay address and represent the Supreme Being as our Father, Lord, and King; but it is anunworthy abuse of language to style some unworthy personage a god. Such things aredone, and not unfrequently; but we are conscious of irreverence, which indicates theirimpropriety, even when it is done in irony.

Many are the abuses of speech from the disregard of this principle. There is alanguage of priests or men of the higher learning in every dialect, Professor Lesley assuresus; and the matter ought to be heeded. We darken counsel when we use words withoutknowledge. For example: it is a misnomer to style any legislative ordinance a law. Itconfounds the Word of God with the commandments of men. Law is permanent,unchangeable, divine; and it is not set in force by decree or enactment, that may bealtered or repealed. It is equally absurd to designate physical science by the appellationof philosophy. There is no natural philosophy, because philosophy is always beyond andsuperior to nature. It is the province of science to observe, analyze and compare; butphilosophy affords it the standard or criterion by which only can just comparison be made.The refusal to acknowledge such a standard, and the neglect to make use of it, willinfallibly leave the individual unknowing - agnostic. All knowledge which included withinthe domain of the physical sense and consciousness is limited by these conditions, andtherefore comes short of that intellection which enables it to be exact, and thereforephilosophic. The understanding or reasoning faculty is most excellent in its place; but theoverstanding (eristehe) or pure reason is superior.

The propriety of the words which we employ is all-important to the meaning whichwe are endeavoring to express. Metaphor has changed the purport of many expressionsto the supersensuous definition. Perhaps this is owing in a degree to the fact that thehigher sense inhered potentially in the lower. We do not say indicate to denote a pointingwith the index finger; but every one may perceive that the word should be used to expressa showing with great precision, as if pointing. The hand does duty both as our most

important member and as a symbol of all energy; we handle a tool or a subject with equalreadiness. But we apprehend and comprehend as intellectual acts, not so often physically.

Each of the senses does duty metaphorically as well as literally. To see is toperceive by mental vision as well as physically; to understand; to give attention; to becareful; to visit; to experience; to know. To hear is to give attention; to take heed; toextend faith; to understand. To smell is to give heed; to perceive; to suspect. To tasteis to try or test; to learn by trial; to share; to enjoy. To feel is to test; to be assured; tobe conscious mentally; to take internal cognizance; to know.

It has been a common observation among writers that short words intensify theforce of expression. Indeed, polysyllabic terms often obscure the meaning to the inexpertreader, and are not altogether free from the imputation of pedantry. It is not their length,however, that constitutes the objection, so much as the fact that they are exotic. Thewords of one syllable are mostly pure English or "Saxon," and, so to speak, indigenous.They are incorporated into our very thought and nature. The dissyllables are more largelyNorman-French, and wrought into our language by the events consequent upon the battleof Hastings. The longer words are generally later grafts, and are still somewhat alien tous, and unwelcome to the great body of our people. They seem to be used by individualswho affect or would be pleased to constitute a patrician class in our republican society. Infact, the high-sounding Greek and Latin derivatives belong chiefly to the technology ofcrafts and professions, and not to the living speech of our population. Their use, howevercuriously disguised, always "smells of the shop." They are used as much to conceal ideasand the want of ideas as to convey information.

We will digress a little in order to notice the attempts to simplify orthography. Thisis very desirable, but not at the total sacrifice of etymology. The endeavors, so far, havebeen sad failures. Phonetic spelling displeases the eye; and indeed, the humorists, JackDowning, Josh Billings, Artemus Ward and Petroleum V. Nasby, appear to be as attractiveexamples as we have of the proposed "spelling reform." There must be a rule established,which has not been attempted. We want no half-way measures, like those recommendedby the Philological Association. Even those set on foot by Noah Webster have beenmostly abrogated by those who edited his dictionary. He has succeeded chiefly inprovincializing the English language as it is used in the United States; but not in radicallyamending the methods of spelling. As we are now going on, we seem to be approximatinga period when our language will be independent of lexicons.

Classical pronunciations already tend to repeat the confusion of the Tower of Babel.We have the insular and Italian methods of pronouncing, and the modern German style,which would have made Caesar and Cicero run wild with horror. The indefiniteness ofsounds to letter in English is largely due to the receiving of words from the early Europeandialects, without any endeavor to amend their orthography. Our vowels, and many of ourconsonants, have thus become uncertain and indefinite in sound. It does not seemimpracticable, however, to correct this. These philologists may hold an InternationalCouncil to fix the quality of the letters of the Roman alphabet, so as to make them uniformin every language. This being done, the next step would be to reform the orthography ofevery language so as to conform to the new standard. In our own English dialect, theprincipal changes which would be thus rendered necessary, will be reduced to two classes:1. The spelling of words as they are sounded. 2. The pronunciation of words as they arespelled. Much of our corrupt orthography is due to the Norman influence. This may be

eliminated; then we should have better rules of accentuation, in place of the presentcapricious usage which has changed three times in a century. We have much to gain fromthis proceeding. The English language, with all its faults, is most suitable for purposes ofbusiness and commerce. It would, with these emendations, bid fair to become the classiclanguage of modern time. It is easy to learn, having little grammatical inflection to worrythe student.

Purists have endeavored to check the practice of adopting foreign terms. Mysympathies go with them; though the Index Expurgatoris, which, in a merry moment, wasset up in the office of The Evening Post, was rather extravagant. The needs of ourlanguage have domesticated such words as finesse, prestige, apparatus, etc., and weknow not how to get along without them. We have no homeborn English to designate theinnumerable constituents of a woman's wearing apparel. The word reliable defies assault.Colerdge first used it in The Morning Post, in 1800, and it survives the hostility of RichardGrant White and The Evening Post. I wish that transpire and present were restored to theirlegitimate meanings. It is hardly possible, however; the attrition of use will likewise wearaway letters and even syllables. We now say mob for mobile vulgus; cab for cabriolet;and, I regret to say, stage for stage-coach. This latter absurdity ought to be corrected.

Preachers of the Gospel and religious teachers generally, must be relied upon tolead in any movement for the old paths. Irreligious as we too often are, we are led by themin much of our thought and modes of expression. The translations of the Bible fixed thelanguages of Germany and England, even obstructing the endeavors to amend theversion. Pulpit literature excels all other kinds in its influence on habits of speech. Thepractice of many parents, who are not church-goers, in sending their young children toSunday-school and service, has an incalculable influence upon our modes of speaking.It is the period of impressibility; and what is stamped in during the first twelve years of lifeon earth becomes a part of the very constitution itself. It is to be earnestly desired that thisfact will have its influence to induce clergymen to be careful about their selection of words,in the outside of the pulpit. There is a moral reason behind it: purity of speech, as well aspropriety, is a most powerful agency to assure purity of life. Incorrectness of diction, slangand wanton language, are so many marks of unworthy attraction. In the little things -matters apparently unimportant as this - men make themselves really worthy, noble andgreat.

(The Homiletic Review, Sept., 1885)

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Zoroastrism: An Afterword - A. W.

In order to describe a religion accurately, one ought to have believed in it; and if themeaning of a writer is to be ascertained we should, in our thought, place ourselves in hiscondition and surroundings. The affectation of critical acumen should be laid entirelyaside. We dissipate our powers of discerning aright, when we dwell too much upon verbaltechnology or external considerations. These requirements are imperative, if we would

peruse intelligently the teachings of the great Apostle of Mazdaism.When I read and contemplate the oracular utterances of Spitaman Zarathustra, I am

impressed most vividly with their sweetness and purity, and by the familiarity full ofreverence which he always exhibits in his intimate communings with the Divine Being.When the mind is thoroughly pervaded with this sensibility, it can be no impossible matter,nor by any means unwarrantable to eliminate from the Discourses whatever is foreign orheterogeneous. Historic and hermeneutic criticism will sanction this proceeding. It shouldbe borne in mind, that it was a practice in former centuries for scribes and teachers toincorporate their own glosses, notions and explanations into the text of great writers; andthat few books that were extant before the invention of the art of printing have escapedsuch tampering.

The Zoroastrian religion is a very exalted monotheism. It was such in its inception;it continued such all through the times when evil and persecution overshadowed itsfortunes; it is such now as professed by the Ghebers and Parsis. A fire so perpetual, alight so extensive, an energy so penetrating, can proceed but from the one fountain. True,they are like utterances in the Rig-Veda, and the fragments that remain of the lore of theAkkadians, Assyrians and Egyptians. But these remain rather as historic monuments,while Zoroastrism is still a faith that inspires a people to virtue and goodness.

The plurality of good and bad spiritual powers which tainted the vulgar worship withpolytheism and idolatry was a pure concept with those who first described them. "Thedifferent gods are members of one soul", says Yaska, B.C. 400. "God, though he is one,has yet many names", says Aristotle; "because he is called according to the states intowhich he always enters anew." To the popular apprehension, the nomina became Numina.Yet, perhaps this sentiment of multiplicity could not well be avoided. No one term in humanspeech can express the All of the Divinity. We ourselves behold the One or the Many aswe contemplate Godhood from the interior or the external vision.

The seven Amshaspands of Zoroastrian literature were but the one Ahur Mazda orLiving Essence manifested in seven qualities, as Intelligence, Goodness, Truth, Power,Will, Health and Immortality. The Rig-Veda declares that "the wise in their hymns,represent under many forms, the spirit who is but one." So, as Mr. Robert Browningeniously remarks: "The Ameshaspentas equally resolve themselves, so far as actualobjective existence is concerned, into thin air."

The innumerable spiritual essences, the Yazatas and Frohars, that are treated ofin the Avesta need embarrass no one. It is hardly rational, when we observe the endlessforms and grades of living things in the realm of objective nature, that we should imaginea total blank of all life about the spiritual being. Our plummet may not find a bottom to theInfinite, enabling us to dredge up living substances on the floor of that ocean; yet we arenot authorised, therefore, to affirm that there is no God, or to deny that there are intelligentspiritual beings. Our own souls are of this nature, and we are conscious that they,therefore, rule our life and destiny through the power of the Father. We have to look buta step further in order to perceive the Foreworld, of which we, and all the bodied andunbodied souls are denizens alike. By our good disposition and activity we bring the goodabout us, while evil thought and action evolve the evil.

The "Dualism" of the Parsi philosophy denotes simply and purely the two aspectsof the Divine operation - the interior and external, the spiritual and natural, subjective beingand objective existence, organization and dissolution. So far as relates to their respective

functions, both are right as well as necessary; but the latter, when it is exalted andesteemed above the former, like Science above Philosophy, thereby becomes pervertedand morally evil. It is thus a liar ab initio and father of lies.

The essential difference between the nations of the Eranians and their Aryanbrethren was social and ethical. The true Mazdean regarded it as his duty to till the soiland live in orderly society. The Parsi Creed, of which that of Islam is a plagiarism, thusdescribes it:

"The religion of goodness, truth and justice, Bestowed upon his creatures by the Lord Is the pure faith which Zarathustra taught."

In the Ahuna-Vairyo (the will or law of God) the entire belief and philosophy of theParsis is given. The latest version of this formula which I have seen may be given insmoother expression as follows:

"As is the will of the Eternal One So through the Harmony of perfect thought His Energy brings forth the visible world, And his power sustains the rolling spheres."

Darius Hystaspes appears from the proclamation at Behistan, to have firstestablished Mazdaism as the religion of the Persian dominions. He came to the throne bythe overthrow of the Magians, and he confirmed his power by the instituting of the Eranianworship. The decree recites the matter:

"Says Darius the King: 'I have made elsewhere a Book

in the Aryan language that formerly did not exist. And I have made the text of the Divine law (Avesta),

and a Commentary of the Divine Law, and the Prayer, and the Translation.

And it was written, and I sealed it. And then the Ancient Book was restored by me in all nations,

and the nations followed it'."

Perhaps from this fact the several notions originated that the first Zoroaster wascontemporary with Darius, and that Darius himself had been instructed by the Brachmanes(or earlier Hindu Sages) and had combined their teachings with Magism. At any rate, itseems to me that to find any sentiment or illustration in the Avesta, that was originallyJewish or Semitic at all, would require the eye of a vulture, the lantern of Diogenes or theken of an archangel. Nor does human progress appear anywhere "in a straight line ofcontinuous advance”. Life is rounded, history is in cycles, and civilizations come and golike the seasons. At the heel of them all is savagery; but everywhere about them is thelife eternal.

(from Theosophical Siftings, vol. 7, 1894-95, as put online at the

Canadian Theosophical Federation's website)

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History

Annotations to Knight's "Symbolical Language of Ancient Art"

(The Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, Richard Payne Knight, ANew Edition with Introduction, Additions, Notes Translated into English, and a New andComplete Index, by Alexander Wilder, M.D., with 348 Illustrations by A. L. Rawson, J. W.Bouton, New York, 1898, 452pp.)

Selected Annotations by Wilder

.... Hercules was originally the tutelar deity of Tyre, the same as Baal or Moloch, theFire-god of the Hebrew Scriptures; and hence, by a figure of speech, he is described ashaving visited every country to which the Tyrian commercial and exploring expeditionsresorted. Some have derived the name from .... aur-chol, the light of the universe; but theSanscrit Heri-Culyus, or Lord of the Noble, is almost equally plausible. An inscription inMalta has been deciphered as follows: .... Melkarth Adonin Baal Tzura, Melkarth, our Lord,the Baal, or tutelar deity of Tyre. He was represented by the Sun, whose annual progressthrough the signs of the Zodiac was typified and commemorated by the twelve Orgies, orWorks of Hercules. This legend was plagiarized by the Greeks, and travestied after theirpeculiar manner. - A.W.------------

The secret or Mystical system appears to have been the basis of the ancientworship; the differences between the sacred rites and legends of the several countriesbeing more in form than in substance. The designation of Mystery or vailing is applied toit as having been vailed from all except the initiated. The Doctrines thus concealed weredenominated Gnosis, or knowledge, and Sophia, or wisdom; and were accounted toosacred for profane or vulgar inspection. They were regarded as including all science of ahigher character, the moral and theurgical by preference. The interior doctrines, supposedto have been treated of by the Alexandrian Jews, were called the Apocrypha, or hiddenthings; while the disclosures by the early Christian teachers were termed Apocalypse, orunvailing. The memorable words of Socrates were plain in meaning to the initiated: "Weowe the cock to Aesculapius; pay it, and do not neglect it." It was the last offering madeby candidates who had been inducted into the Greater Mysteries; and the dyingphilosopher thus avowed his consciousness that he also was undergoing the last test ordiscipline, and was about to witness the revelation. While on their probation, thecandidates were called neophytes, or new-born, and mystae, or vailed, while those that

had passed all the trials successfully were denominated epoptae, or seers, as havinglearned the wisdom of the gods. - A.W.------------

The whole legend of Charon and his boat to conduct passengers or spirits from theliving world to the region of the dead, was taken from the Egyptian Judgment of Amenti.After the inquest upon the deceased person had been satisfactorily concluded at theKiroun, or sacred tower, an offering was made to the divinities of the Underworld, and thebody ferried over the Acheron to the Catacombs. The Orphic Mysteries of Trace madethem a part of the mystic rites. - A.W.---------------

The serpent appears also to have been adopted by certain sectaries as a part of theChristian mysteries, and some remnants of the worship still exist. Adopting the book ofEnoch, and kindred treatises in preference to the New Testament, and almost entirelyoverriding the Old Testament, the Ophites constructed a doctrine of emanation after themodel of the Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Jewish Kabalists, by which they explained theproduction and evolution of all forms of existence. The Supreme Being generated fromhimself a second, Sige or Silence, and by her Sophia or Pneuma, the divine Wisdom, andthen by her the perfect being, Christ, and the imperfect one, Achamoth. These fourproduced the Holy Church according to the heavenly ideal. Meanwhile, Achamoth, theimperfect wisdom, descended into Chaos, imparting life to the elements; and finally byconjunction with matter produced the Creator, Ilda-Baoth, or "Son of Darkness." Hegenerated an emanation; then a second, till six were brought fourth, Iao, Sabaoth, Adoni,Eloi, Uraeus, and Astaphaeus. These, with himself, became the seven spirits of theplanets; he also generated archangels, angels, Energies, Potencies, to preside over thedetails of the creation. The seven then created man, a cawling monster, and bycommunicating to him the ray of divine light rendered him the image of the Supreme Being.The Demiurge, enraged that his production should be superior to himself, animated theimage of himself formed by reflection in the abyss as in a mirror. This was SatanOphiomorphus, called by the Ophites Michael and Samael - one being the reputed tutelarangel of the Jews, and the other the prince of devils. Ilda-Baoth now forbade the man toeat of the tree of knowledge, which could enable him to understand the mysteries andreceive the graces from above. But Achamoth, to defeat this project, sent her own geniusOphia or the serpent to instruct man to transgress the command so unjustly imposed uponhim. He thus became illuminated from heaven. Ilda-Baoth then made the material bodyfor a prison in which man was enthralled. Achamoth, however, continued his protector,and supplied him with divine light as he needed in his trials. Of the seed of Adam onlySeth kept alive the seed of Light. His children in the wilderness received the law from Ilda-Baoth, but through the teachings of the prophets, Achamoth caused them to receive someidea of the higher life, and afterward induced her own mother, Sophia, to move theSupreme Being to send down Christ to aid the children of Seth. She also persuaded Ilda-Baoth to prepare for his advent by his own agent John the Baptist, and also to cause thebirth of the man Jesus, this being a demiurgic rather than a divine work. At the baptism inthe Jordan, Christ entered into the man Jesus, who immediately comprehended his divinemission and began his work. Ilda-Baoth stirring up the Jews against him, he was put to

death. Immediately Sophia and Christ invested him with a body of aether and placed himat the right hand of Ilda-Baoth by whom he is unperceived. Here he collects the purifiedsouls; and when all these are restored, the world will end, and all the redeemed will enterinto the pleroma.

In their eucharist the Ophites have a living serpent which coils around the bread andthus makes it holy. This serpent is the representative of Ophis, who instructed the firstman to eat of the tree of knowledge, and so deliver himself from nakedness and the lawof jealousy. Ophis is identical with Kneph or Agathodaemon, the Serpent of the Mysteries.Mani the heresiarch taught that he crawled over the bed and overshadowed the VirginMary. The serpent-club of Aesculapius was a badge of the Ophites, who indeed aresupposed to have existed long before the Christian era. They abounded in Asia, Egypt,Spain, and all parts of the Christian world.

The Ophites and Gnostics employed secret signs of recognition. Epiphanius thusdescribes them: "On the arrival of any stranger belonging to the same belief, they havea sign given by the man to the woman, and vice versa. In holding out the hand underpretense of saluting each other, they feel and tickle it in a peculiar manner underneath thepalm, and so discover that the new-comer belongs to the same sect. Thereupon, howeverpoor they may be, they serve up to him a sumptuous feast, with abundance of meats andwine. After they are well filled the entertainer rises and withdraws, leaving his wife behind,with the command: 'show thy charity to this man, our brother.'"

The Albigenses, Cathari and Paulicians are reckoned among the worshipers of theagatheodaemon. - A.W.------------

E. Pococke derives the term Amason from the Sanscrit Uma-Soona, the childrenof Uma or Bhavani. This would imply their relation to the Thugs, which their title Oirpattaor man-slayers, would seem to corroborate.

The Amazons are mentioned as occupying Northern Africa, to the extreme west, asoverrunning Libya and Asia Minor, invading Thrace and several countries of Greece, andas constituting the Sauromatae on the river Tanais. Their country in Asia Minor was oftencalled Assyria; and they are reputed to have founded Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyma, Murina,Paphos, and other noted cities. Plato related that Eumolpus led them against Athens.Clement mentions this leader as one of the Shepherds; and he is credited by Herakleituswith having instituted the Eleusinian Mysteries. Plato also mentions the Statue of theAmazon at Athens. The grouping and arranging of these legends affords opportunity forthe solution. The Amazon at Athens was the Goddess Artemis or "Diana of theEphesians," identical with the Mother Goddess Anaitis, Astarte and Isis, whose worshipwas brought into Greece by the Shepherds. One legend represents Cadmus as havingmarried an Amazon, named Sphinx. The probabilities are, therefore, that the Amazonswere priestesses of the goddess. Indeed, Calimachus states that the queen of theAmazons had daughters, known as the Peleiades, who were the first to institute the circulardance and the pannychis or watch-night. The designation is probably Phoenician from Am,mother, and Ason, or Adon, lord; and their occupation of various Moorish and Hamiticcountries doubtless has reference to the institution of the rites and worship of the Mothergoddess. They were called man-slayers, because they offered human victims to Diana. -A.W.

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.... The Egyptian sculptures and papyri contain numerous memorials of the conquestof Northern Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Hamath, Carchemish, and Naharayn, orMesopotamia, and even Ninevah and Media. Six thousand years ago naval battlesoccurred between the Egyptians and the nations beyond the Mediterranean; and thirty-sixcenturies ago an invasion of Egypt by the confederated armies of Libya and Europe wasrepulsed. The recentness of the Hebrew manuscripts must weaken their evidence. Noneof them are a thousand years old; and their compilation hardly antedates the period of theMaccabees, or the Persian conquests. Yet they mention (Exodus xxiii, 28, Deuteronomyvii, 20, and Joshua xxiv, 11, 12) the .... tsirah, hornet or plague, that overcame theAmorites, Hittites, and other populations of Palestine; and the Egyptian records term theHyk-sos or Shepherds "the scourge" or "plague" who were driven by Ash-mosis and Thoth-mosis into Syria. (See The Nation, New York, for May 13, 1869.) Josephus, in his firsttreatise against Apion, distinctly asserts that the ancestors of the Israelites (meaning theHyk-sos) once had dominion over the Egyptians; and Professor J.P. Lesley, declaring theearlier Jewish legends unhistorical, adds that "nothing prevents us from identifying theHebrews of the Monarchy as descendants of the Hyk-sos race." Certainly "unhistorical"legends should not be employed, as Mr. Knight has employed them, against monumentalrecords. - A.W.-----------

The oracles doubtless originated from the belief that as the human soul was theemanation or offspring of the deity, it possessed a faculty of communication with the higherpowers, capable of being cultivated or developed, to the function of seership. TheMysteries seem to have been conducted on this hypothesis; and in all countries, therehave been persons reputed to be capable of comprehending the purposes of the Deity.Among the Israelites the prayer of Abraham was supposed to heal the household ofAbimelech; and a succession of prophets to preserve the nation was believed to havecontinued from Moses till the later periods, and rules were given for knowing thegenuineness (Deuteronomy, xviii, 15-22 and xiii, 1-5, also Hosea, xii, 13.) When Balak theking of Moab brought Balaam to the hill of Peor and high-places of Baal to curse Israel, thechanging of the purpose of the prophet by the Lord, appears to have been regarded asnecessary to prevent possible calamity. It is very singular, however, that after Samuel hadbeen the judge of chief magistrate till he was old, and might be supposed to have acquireda wide reputation in that capacity, Saul and his servants should seek from him in hischaracter of seer or man of God, with a fee, to learn whether to go in quest of fugitiveanimals.

The designation amphi or om-phe was applied to the oracles, whence the ompha-elof the temple at Delphi was termed by the Greeks who interpreted by sound rather thansense the omphalos or navel-stone of the world, symbol of the Mother Goddess. Thepriestess or alma at Delphi was sometimes called Pythoness, from the serpent Python, therepresentative of Apollo; he in turn was called Amphianax or king of the oracle. TheSupreme Council or Parliament of the twelve nations of the Greeks was calledAmphictyonic, either because its decrees were regarded as sacred or from being held atthe place of the oracle. Hermes was styled Pompaeus, as the messenger of God of the

oracle; and the city of Campania now celebrated for its magnificent ruins, was evidentlyso designated as a holy city, or place of oracles. The Pompeian pillars and columns ofHercules are therefore identical.

The use of the term nymphe, or its derivations to designate young women, brides,the marriage chamber, the lotus flower (Nymphaea Nelumbo) the nymphaea or oraculartemples (fire-mountains) and the labiae minores of the human female, illustrates the factthat to femininity there was supposed to pertain a peculiar divine virtue. Women weresupposed to be more receptive of the divine afflatus; and the symbols of their sexparticipated in the veneration and sanctity. Oracles existed where the Mother Goddesswas worshiped, who indeed was named Nympha. The name of the place of the oracle ofPython-Apollo was called Delphi from delphus, the womb, which fact is further illustratedby the circumstance that the pythoness was supposed to derive her mystical gift by theinhaling of an exhilarating gas, or vapor from a cleft or fissure in the ground, a cunnusdiaboli. The Egyptians denominated the interpreter of oracles, Peter; and the namesOrpheus, Pompeius, Ampelus, and perhaps Patrick, may have a similar meaning. - A.W.----------

Herodotus: II, 54, 54: "The following tale is told in Egypt concerning the oracle ofDodona in Greece, and that of Amun in Libya. My informants of the points were priests ofZeus (Amun) in Thebes. They said 'that two of the sacred women were once carried offfrom Thebes by the Phoenicians, and that the story went that one of them was sold intoLibya, and the other into Greece, and these women were the first founders of the oraclesin the two countries.' .... At Dodona the women who deliver the oracles relate the matteras follows: 'Two black doves flew away from Egyptian Thebes, and while one directed itsflight to Libya, the other came to them. She alighted on an oak, and sitting there began tospeak with a human voice, and told them that on the spot where she was there shouldthenceforth be an oracle of Zeus.... The dove which went to Libya bade the Libyans toestablish there the oracle of Amun.'"

The oak of Dodona indicates the kinship of Druidism with the ancient Pelasgianworship. R. Payne Knight suggests that the story of the doves probably arose from themystic dove on the head of Dione, as Juno or Aphrodite was anciently denominated atDodona. Sir G. Wilkinson remarks that "the two doves appear to connect this tradition withthe Phoenician Astarte, who appears to be the Baaltis or Dione of Byblus. He thinks thatthe origin of the oracle would not have been attributed to a foreigner unless there had beensome foundation for the story; and says that 'it may refer to the sending out andestablishing an oracle in the newly-discovered West (Europe), through the Phoenicians,the merchants and explorers of those days, who were in alliance with Egypt, supplied itwith many of the productions it required from other countries, and enabled it to export itsmanufactures in their ships. - A.W.-------------

.... The intelligent reader perceives the superficiality of the popular notion thatBacchus or Dionysus was but the god of wine and drunkenness, and that Orgies of secretreligious rites, were all occasions of revelling and debauchery. His worshipers in Trace,the Orpheans, were ascetics and devotees, like the Gymnosophists of India. The Bacchusof ancient worship was an Asiatic divinity, identical with Atys, Adonis, Osiris, and probably

the Maha Deva of India; and in the Grecian pantheon he appears to be a foreigner, likeHercules. As Zagreus, the son of Zeus by the Virgin Kore-Persephoneia or Demeter,afterward born anew as the son of Semele, he seems to illustrate the metempsychosis.He was probably identical with Baal-Peor, the Maobite divinity, and the deitycommemorated by the Israelites in the "Baalim" or priapic statues, often of wood, whichwere set up with the "groves" or symbols of Venus-Astarte, "on every high hill and underevery green tree." Maachah, the queen-mother, who presided over the orgies, wasdeposed from regal rank by King Asa for making a mephallitzeth, or phallic manikin, for anashere, or omphale (I Kings, xv, 13, and Herodotus, ii, 48.) The orgies, works, or nocturnalrites, consisted of dances, mystical processions, and searches after the mutilated body ofthe divine youth.

See Nonnus: iv, 273.

"He brought to light the Evian ritesOf the Egyptian Bacchus, the orgies of OsirisHe taught the initiations at the MysteriesHeld at night; and with voice disguised,He chanted to the Bacchante a Magian hymn,Making a loud wail."

These rites are mentioned in the Bible under the designation of "The Mourning forthe Only-Begotten." They were celebrated in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece. Olympia, themother of Alexander, like Maachah, was a priestess, or "sacred woman," and used to boastthat the god was the father of her son. The funeral of Jacob at Abel-mizraim (Genesis, I,II), appears to have been taken for this observance. - A.W.-------------

Herodotus: ii, 109: "The sundial, however, and the gnomon with the division of theday into twelve parts, were received by the Greeks from the Babylonians."

The Chaldaeans, or Magians, first a conquering and civilizing nation, appear to haveconstituted the learned and probably the sacerdotal caste of Babylonia and the neighboringcountries. The name Zoroaster, Zerdusht, or Zarathustra, which is applied to theirtraditional leader, appears to have been a designation of the sacred college, or of itspresident, as Zadok, or Zedek, was of the head of the sacerdotal family in Judea, andRabbi, or Rab Mag, of the chief of the college at Babylon. The Jewish Kabala, ortraditions, appear to have been derived from their religious opinions and legends, and wererevived in Judea by the Casideans, or Asideans, better known afterward as Pharsi(Persians or Pharisees). The peculiar form of this religion, known as Mithraism, wasintroduced into Pontus by Artabazes, the satrap, from which country, after its conquest byPompey, it extended over the entire Roman empire. The Mithraic rites supersede theMysteries of Bacchus, and became the foundation of the Gnostic system, which for manycenturies prevailed in Asia, Egypt, and even the remote West. Julius Caesar was assistedby a "Chaldaean" in reforming the Calendar. - A.W.---------

["....Babylonian women of every rank and condition held it to be an indispensable

duty of religion to prostitute themselves, once in their lives, in her temple, to any strangerwho came and offered money; which, whether little or much, was accepted, and appliedto sacred purposes."]

Herodotus: i. 199.The same custom existed in Armenia, Phrygia, and in Palestine, as well as in

Carthage and Italy. It prevailed also among the Israelites during the monarchy, and wasprobably a feature of the worship of Peor and the Golden Calf of the Exodus. The Hebrewprophets describe the idol-worship by all the characteristics of prostitution; and thekadeshim and kadeshueh, or men (semi-males) and women devoted to temple-service,and especially to minister to the pleasures of the worshipers, were as common in the HolyLand as among the nations around. For such a character "a sacred woman," or priestess,Judah mistook his daughter-in-law, Tamar (Genesis, xxxviii, 15); and in the reign of KingRehoboam and his queen Maachah, a priestess of the orgies, they abounded in all partsof the country. Josiah found them at the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, as well as atthe "high places"; and Hosea, referring to this peculiar form of Mylitta-worship, declaredthat Samaria loved a reward at every corn floor. The prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea,and Micah are specific and unequivocal in asserting that the lewd rites in Palestine wereprecisely like those of the nations around them. -A.W.----------

Herodotus: I, 131. "They (the Persians) have no images of the gods, no templesor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. Their wont, however, is to ascendthe summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to offer sacrifice to Zeus, which is thename they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They likewise offer to the Sun andMoon, to the Earth, to Fire, to Water, and the Winds. These are the only gods whoseworship has come down to them from ancient times. At a later period they began theworship of Urania which they borrowed from the Arabians and Assyrians. Mylitta is thename by which the Assyrians know this goddess, whom the Arabians call Alitta for Elissa),and the Persians, Mitra."

In this account is no mention of the Ormazdean system, which all modern scholarsconsider as the ancient religion of Persia. - A.W.--------

Mr. Knight, as well as Sir William Jones, appears to us too skeptical. The Avestais, to be sure, in many respects, an incomplete work, but it is obviously genuine. Despitethe foibles and blunders of Anquetil du Perron and his teacher, the Destur Darab, thelabors of Burnous have successfully vindicated him and the Avesta, from the imputationsmade against them. The discovery that the Zend was one of the languages of thecuneiform inscriptions, also helped this confirmation. Sir Henry C. Rawlinson turned thisfact to excellent account, translating a large portion of the inscriptions by means of thislanguage. The dialect used in the Avesta, however, is many centuries older than that ofthe cuneiform writings. We learn from the portions still in existence, somewhat of theschism that took place between the two great branches of the Aryan family, but notwhether the Brahmans or the Mazda-yasnians, were the chief instruments in theseparation. We read also of Ahriman, or rather Anra-Mainyas, as the Potentate of Evil,and of the Serpent or dragon-king Dahaka, as the minister of his will; but the clue is not

given, and we must ascertain it elsewhere. The well-informed orientalist, however, wethink, will perceive in Ahriman the Kissian or Susianian divinity Harmannu; and in Dahaka,the ophite dynasty of Zohak the Arabian that for a long period held Babylonia, extendingits sway to Media and Armenia, and eastward to the Indus, and perhaps by way ofCashmere and the Punjaub, under the modified name of Takshaka, to the countriesbeyond the Ganges. With this explanation it will be seen that the war of the Two Principleswas a poetic or mystical form of describing the contest of the Aryan and Hamitic(Turanian?) races; the old Iranians, giving to the evil powers the names peculiar to thereligion of their adversaries, as the Jewish Pharisees, copying from them, made the Hittitegod Seth or Satan, and Baal Zebub of Ekron, their ruler of the demon tribes.

In short, however, recently the Avesta may have been compiled and arranged, wethink its genuineness sustained. The English translation of Prof. Spiegel's GermanVersion, though often difficult to understand, will satisfy most students, so far as it goes.- A.W.---------

Modern classical scholars are disposed to make a distinction between the Romandivinity, "Neptune or the Sea," and the eastern god Poseidon: Sir H.C. Rawlinson, Mr.Gladstone, and other eminent writers, consider that although Poseidon was a Deityconnected with the Sea, he was not an actual Sea-God. We learn from Homer andHerodotus, that he was the chief god in the pantheon of Libya and Africa, and accordinglywas a Hamitic rather than an Aryan divinity. He was also worshiped in Crete, and may beidentified with the Philistine Dagon, whom G. W. Cox considers to be the same as Oannesof Babylonia and Ana or Ana-melech of Sippara. He is thus allied to the ancient worshipof the East, as the representative of wisdom and civilization; the Building-God, father ofthe Cyclopean shepherds, who revolutionized the countries which they occupied and leftbehind them the stupendous monuments of their greatness.

Mr. Knight is probably right in declaring the Minotaur to have been the ancientsymbol of the Bull, partly humanized; that representation of the Supreme Being as the Sunin Taurus, at the vernal equinox, being a general symbol in all the countries on theMediterranean and Indian Ocean. Pasiphae, the queen, is identical with Venus-Astarte.The sending of the bull by Poseidon only implied that the Libyans or Phoenicians occupiedthe country; as is also signified by the transportation thither of the maid Europa, themother of Minos and daughter of Agenor or Belus, the tutelar god of Sidon. The buildingof the Labyrinth is indicative of a similar idea; Labyrinths, or winding caverns, generallyunderground, were constructed in India, Afghanistan, Susiana, Arabia, Egypt and othercountries occupied by the Aethiopian race; and it was customary among them also tosacrifice their children, selected victims, slaves, captives, persons sent for the purposefrom tributary provinces, and all strangers not entitled to protection. The devouring ofhuman victims by the Cyclopes of Libya, the Seirens, Lamiae and Lestrygones, as well asthe Minotaur, was but a poetical figure to denote this custom. - A.W.----------

Odyssey, xi: "And I beheld Phaedra and Procris, and fair Ariadne, the daughter ofwise Minos, whom Theseus once led from Crete to the soil of sacred Athens; but he didnot enjoy her, for Artemis (Diana) slew her before-hand in the island Dia, on account of the

testimony of Dionysus."As Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, was identical with Venus-Astarte and Demeter....

so Ariadne, her daughter, is to be regarded as another form of Kore-Persephoneia. Theinterpretation of the legend is as follows: The Bull sent by Poseidon to Crete, crossing overinto Greece, and there caught by Hercules, implies that the Sidonian influence in thatisland extended to the mainland, but succumbed there to the milder cultus represented bythe Hero-God, Hercules. Theseus (Theos-Zeus) carrying away Ariadne, and herdestruction by Artemis, or Diana, expresses the failure to supersede the bloody rites.Death by the hand of Diana can hardly signify perishing in maidenhood; for the Ephesianor Amazonian goddess was not a virgin deity, but was identical with the Great Mother,Cybele, Isis, or Anaitis, whose worship in Armenia and Pontus, like that of Mylitta andVenus-Aphrodite in Assyria and Cyprus, was accompanied by the defloration ofmarriageable women.

The marriage of Ariadne to Bacchus is therefore perfectly in harmony with themystical sense, allying the tale with the loves of Venus-Astarte and Adonis, and thewanderings of Dido, Isis, Ceres, and Cybele. - A.W.---------

Plutarch: Isis and Osiris, 35. "The Greeks consider Dionysus not solely as the godof wine, but also as the lord of every function of nature." This assertion of Mr.Knight is denied by later scholars. The Hon. Mr. Gladstone declares of Poseidon that"Though God of the Sea he is not, so to speak, the Sea-God, or the Water God. He hasin him nothing of an elemental Deity." The true sea-god is Nereus. He is the building-god,and stands in close relation to the giants and other rebellions personages. "In the westernportion of the Outer Sphere, Zeus practically disappears from the governing office, andPoseidon becomes the Supreme Ruler." Hence Ulysses, in the Odyssey, comes oftenestinto collision with him; and Mr. Gladstone suggests that he was " the god or the chief-godof the Phoinikes." (Juventus Mundi, ch. viii)

Mr. Robert Brown, Jr., going farther, says: "Poseidaon, sire of gods and men," tothe Hamitic East. He was the tutelar god of Libya, as Herodotus has shown; he visited theAethiopians, and was worshiped at Philadelphia and other inland places, as well as in theisland of Crete and in Boeotia. Mr. Brown accordingly considers him as identical with theDagon of the Philistines and Hoa or Oannes of Babylon, of whom H.C. Rawlinson remarks:"Hoa occupies in the first Triad the position which in the Classical Mythology is filled byPoseidon, and in some respects he corresponds to him." - A.W.----------

Macrobius: Saturnalia, i. 18. It is noticeable that Iacchus-Sabazins is but a variantreading of the Hebrew or Phoenician designation, Jaho-Tzabaoth, a name applied by theTyrians to the Sun-God in autumn, and adopted apparently by King David from them, asthe title of the Hebrew tutelar god. See Inman, Ancient Faith Embodied in Ancient Names,i, 29, 609. - A.W.----------

Scholium on, v. 139. "Cyclopes (Kuklopes), the powers of the circle, or universe....

Modern research, we think, has pretty accurately solved the nature and characterof the Cyclopean tribes, and assigned them to the same race as the Berbers andPhoenicians, of whom they were probably off-shoots. They are described as inhabitantsof Libya and Sicily, following a pastoral life, worshiping Poseidon, and eating or moreprobably sacrificing, strangers who fell into their power. They are, again, depicted as agiant race, that introduced a massive style of architecture into Asia Minor, Greece, andItaly; also as being the progenitors of Galatus, Illyrius, and Keltus, or more literally of theGauls, Illyrians, and Celtic tribes; as workers in mines, and smiths who forged theweapons with which Zeus destroyed Aesculapius. The foundations of the First Temple atJerusalem, and the great dykes and traces of fortifications at Arvad, in Phoenicia, exactlycorrespond in character with the Cyclopean structures in Greece. There are also theremains of similar buildings in Arabia, Assyria, Persia, and even India. Euripides seemsto have afforded us the key, when he declares that the walls of Mycenae were built by theCyclopeans after the Phoenician Canon and method. Phoenician architecture isremarkable for its massiveness and for partaking of the specialities peculiar to the stylesboth of Assyria and Egypt. The round Tower-pillars, like those in the Temple of Melkarth-Hercules at Tyre, of Solomon at Jerusalem, of Atargatis, the Syrian Goddess, at Bambyke,or Hierapolis, and the remarkable pillars in Ireland, are evidently to be attributed to thesame origin. We notice that in the ancient records, the identity of nations since regardedas distinct and separate, appears to be an accepted opinion; and this may furnish anadditional clue to this problem. The shepherds of Egypt are also denominated in theChronicle, Phoenicians, Hellenes or Greeks, Arabians, and Strangers, or Xeni; and it isnot improbable that they were progenitors or akin to the shepherd-colonists of Libya andSicily, as well as many of the tribes of Greece and Palestine. They occupied large districtsin Thrace, where the Bacchic rites, as well as numerous sciences, were cultivated, all ofwhich are also ascribed to Egyptian sources by Herodotus and others. We suspect,therefore, that they owe their designation to their peculiar worship and arts. They wereophites; and the syllable ops, which is the terminal of so many ancient names, is thecontraction of ophir, a serpent. The remainder of their appellation is Kuklos, or cycle,which may mean the universe. Yet they do not transmit that designation to history, but areclassed with the Tyrian builders, the Libyans, Italian tribes, and cognate populationswherever they happened to dwell. - A.W.----------

E. Pococke, in his treatise, India in Greece, makes the Centaurs, or Kentauri, anAfghan tribe, and derives their appellation from Candahar, a city and district near theIndus. Bryant remarks (Analysis of Ancient Mythology, iii, p. 315) that they "were reputedto be of Nephelim race (see Genesis, vi, 4). Cheiron was said to have been the son of thecentaur Kronos, but the rest were the offspring of Ixion and Nephele (Lycophron, v. 1200.)They are described by Nonnus as horned, and as inseparable companions of Dionysus.He supposes them to have been the sons of Zeuth (or Jupiter) and places them for themost part in Cyprus." Ships were called Centaurs, and hence Bryant infers that they hada relation to the ark of Noah; which being of "gopher wood," he supposes was evidencefor supposing that they were built in Cyprus or Cupher. Hislop in his "Two BabyIons"refines upon this by rendering Nrphele (the cloud or female form mistaken by Ixion forJuno), "a fallen woman," from NePheL, to fall; and makes the Centaurs the progeny of a

woman debauched after the manner of the Cyprians and Assyrians, in the peculiar ritesof Mylitta and Astarte. Nonnus, as Bryant observes, makes them the offspring of Zeus inCyprus. (Dionysiaca, v, xiv, and xxxii.) "I came with great measure of ardent passion forPaphia (Venus-Astarte) by which embrace was engendered the Centaurs, casting thespore into the secret recesses of earth." (Gaia).

The mythical King Erichthonius is said to have been the offspring of Athene andHephaistos (Vulcan) a similar manner. - A.W.----------

Pausanias says (Attica, xxxi. 4), that near the Academy in Athens was a mound(bomus) sacred to Poseidon as Hippios and to Pallas-Athena as Hippia. He also says,"There is a mound by that of Athena sacred to Hygeia, and they call Athena by the nameHippia, and Dionysus by that of Melpomenos, and also Kissos." This latter term probablydenotes the Kissaean origin of the Bacchic worship, and is commemorated in orientalfashion by the pun of Kissos or Ivy, sacred to that divinity.

Pausanias also declares - Elia. I, xv, 4: "The mounds to Poseidon as Hippios, andHera as Hippia.... the mounds to Ares (Mars) as Hippios, and to Athena as Hippia."

It might be conjectured with great plausibility, that the horse and mare were placedfor the divinities whom they represented. In the Hindu Mythology each deity has a vahanor vehicle, generally a bird or animal, that is generally depicted with them, in that manner.But Jacob Bryant (Analysis of Ancient Mythology, iii.) declares Hippos and Hippa, Hippiosand Hippia were designations brought from an older language; Hippa, he remarks, beingthe same as Cybele, the Mother-goddess, worshiped in Lydia and Phrygia. She was thenurse of Dionysus after the death of his mother Semele, and his birth from the thigh of hisfather. Homer speaks of the mares reared by Phoebus in Pieria:

"That guided by Eumelus, flew like birds," and Callimachus also refers to them inhis Hymn to Apollo. "Those Hippai, misconstrued mares," Bryant declares, "werepriestesses of the goddess Hippa, who was of old worshiped in Thessaly and Thrace, andin many different regions. They chanted hymns in her temples and performed the rites offire; but the worship growing obsolete, the very terms were at last mistaken. How far thisworship once prevailed may be known from the many places denominated from Hippa.""The rites of Dionysus Hippius were carried into Thrace where the horses of Diomedeswere said to have been fed with human flesh. Those horses, xenoktonoi, which fed uponthe flesh of strangers, were the priests of Hippa, and of Dionusus, styled Hippos, or moreproperly Hippios."

Mr. Bryant explains elsewhere the cannibalism of the Laestrygones and Cyclopes,and the slaughtering of men allured by the Sirens, by the same hypothesis of humansacrifices. The horse Pegasus, said to have been the son of Poseidon and Medusa, bornfrom her neck after her head had been cut off by Perseus, is interpreted by Palaephatusas a ship; and the steed Areion, the offspring of Poseidon and Demeter-Erinnys, has inlike manner taxed the powers of the euhemerists. Mr. Bryant also supposes that the GreatFish Ceto which was sacred to Dagon or Poseidon, had the same mystical meaning as thehorse and ship.

It would curiously affect our literal interpreters of the Hebrew Scripture to learn thatthe swallowing of Jonah by the Great Fish was a figurative description of his rescue by a

ship of the Phoenicians or Philistines, being the effigy of Dagon or Ceto; and yet it isneither irrational nor incredible. - A.W.----------

Pindar: Olympic Odes, vi, 81.The story of Prometheus has an oriental aspect, and is older than the Grecian

mythology. He is styled by Lycophron, Daimon Promatheos Aithiops, the Aethiopian GodPrometheus. It is most improbable therefore that his designation expressed "providenceor foresight." He belonged, as even the Greeks acknowledge, to a previous era as well asrace. Aeschylus says:

"Yet who like me advanced To their high dignity our new-raised gods? . . . . All the secret treasuresDeep buried in the bowels of the earth, Brass, Iron, silver, gold, their use to man, Let the vain tongue make what high vaunts It may,Are my inventions all; and, in a word, Prometheus taught each useful art to man."

According to Bryant (Analysis of Ancient Mythology, ii, p. 140), Prometheus wasworshiped as a deity by the Colchians, a nation kindred with the Egyptians, and had atemple on Mount Caucasus, called the Typhonian Rock, the device over the gate of whichwas an eagle over a heart. This was a symbol of Egypt, the eagle being the crest and theheart the emblem of that country.

Diodorus asserts that Prometheus was an Egyptian deity, and one of the Orphichymns identifies him also with Kronos or Saturn. Dunlap, in his Spirit-History of Man,makes the name synonymous with the Hindu Agni, "the fire upon the altar," and Col.Wilford finds it in the designation Pramathas, the servants or votaries of Maha Deva, thatwere destroyed by the bird Garuda, the celebrated enemy of the Serpent-tribes, or Naga-worshipers. - A.W---------

See Inman: Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. i. p. 328. "Baalzebub,or Beelzebub, is usually said to mean 'my Lord of flies,' but this seems to me to be absurd.The word sabab signifies 'to murmur,' 'hum,' or 'buzz,' and when we remember theMemnons in Egypt, which gave out a murmur at sunrise, I think it more consistent withwhat we know of priestly devices, to consider that the word signifies 'My Lord thatmurmurs."'

Ancient clairvoyants or interpreters of oracles spoke with a muttering voice, as iffrom the ground. (See Isaiah, viii, 19, and xxix, 4) Baal-Zebub, of Ekron, was consultedas an oracle. But in the New Testament, the name is often written Beel-Zebul, the latterterm signifying an abode or habitation. The combination may therefore mean Baal of theTemple. After the return of the Jews from Babylonia, the Asideans, or Maccabean party(afterwards known as Pharisees or Parsees), bringing Zoroastrian sentiments with them,

applied the deity-names Seth, or Satan, and Baal-Zebub, to the Evil Potency. - A.W.-----------

Plutarch: Isis and Osiris, 50. The Hydra is evidently a reproduction of the many-headed Nagas of India, and is the designation of a constellation in the sky. As thePhoenician Hercules is the same as Cronos, or Moloch, the Sun-God, the slaying of theHydra is the poetic or mythological method of mentioning the entering of the sun into thesigns of the zodiac which lie near that constellation. The identity of Hercules with Apollo,Bacchus, and Mars is certain enough; the intelligent among the ancients did not believein the current polytheism. - A.W.----------

Few chronologies are more unsatisfactory than those of the Hebrew sacred writings.Many of the numbers are peculiar and apparently mystical rather than historical; and it isplain that discrepancies exist of a most incomprehensible character, baffling credulity.There are displayed in periods of extraordinary brevity the extremes of rustic simplicity andmature civilization; and petty inaccuracies denoting either carelessness in transcribing, oran allegorical sense which is now lost. Thus King Hezekiah at twenty-five succeeds hisfather who died at thirty-six. Ahaziah at the age of forty-two is placed on the throne of hisfather who had just died at forty. There are no old Hebrew manuscripts of the scripturesin existence; the books were collected by the Pharisee Rabbis under the earlierMaccabees and more or less revised, travestied and amended. But all the earlymanuscripts have perished; and of those versions that exist there are disagreements inthe chronology. Ideler has demonstrated that the years of the world and the whole presentchronology of the Jews were invented by the Rabbi Hillel Hanassi in the year 344. Noneof the present Hebrew manuscripts are nine hundred years old. - A.W.---------

See Inman: Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, vol. ii, pp. 611-613. Thearcane meaning of the pomegranate is evidently sexual. The goddess Nana ate of one,and became pregnant. Women celebrating the Thesmophoria, abstained from the fruitrigidly. The Greek name of this fruit, rhoia, is a pun for Rhea, the Mother-Goddess. In thephallic symbolism, generation is a part of the mystery of death, and therefore its symbol,the pomegranate, belongs very appropriately to the Queen of the Underworld, who is afterall but Isis, Rhea, and Cybele. - A.W.---------

Aeschylus: Seven Chiefs against Thebes, line 535.

"By his spear Amphlon swear." The oath by the weapon has been common till a late day. The Highlanders who

served in the army of the Pretender, regarded it; and the Sikhs, Rajpoots, and otherwarlike tribes of India preserve the custom even now. See Colonel Tod's celebrated work,Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 68: "The Rajpoot worships his horse, his sword, and the sun.... Heswears by the steel, and prostrates himself before his defensive buckler, his lance, hissword, or his dagger. The worship of the sword in the Acropolis of Athens by the Getic

Attila, with all the accompaniments of pomp and place, forms an admirable episode in theHistory of the Decline and Fall of Rome; and had Gibbon witnessed the worship of thedouble-edged sword by the Prince of Mewar and all his chivalry, the historian might haveembellished his animated account of the adoration of the cimiter, the symbol of Mars." -A.W.----------

The term Nymph.... In the later Greek writers it is applied to a young womanbetrothed or newly-married. More anciently, however, it always related to a race offemales, descended from Zeus or Oceanus, who presided over fountains and streams ofwater. Indeed, Suidas has defined nymph to mean: 1. a fountain; 2. a nubile or newlymarried woman; 3. a part of the female sexual organism. It evidently was introduced intoGreek usage to denote the female principle, supposed to be expressed by water. Hencethe lotus was named Nymphea, Jacob Bryant (Analysis of Ancient Mythology, ii. 345, etc.)has derived the term from the "Amonian" words ain, a fountain, and omphe, an oracle;afterward contracted into Numpha. It is worthy of note that nymphaea or oracle-houseswere always by such fountains; and it was doubtless from an idea of peculiar spiritual ormantistic qualities supposed to be peculiar to the female sex, that the same designationwas applied to a part of their body.

Suidas informs us that the mother of Zeus or Jupiter was called Nympha by theAthenians; thus figuring mystically his origin from the Divine Female Principle of theUniverse. - A.W.---------

Homer: Odyssey, xviii. "Beyond the city where is a Hemaic cairn" or lophos. Theexpression is doubtless an interpolation. The cairns, pillars, and obelisks, erected at thecrossings of streets (Jeremiah, xi. 13) were regarded as consecrating those places. It isa curious result that the change of religion has rendered the same spots unhallowed, andthat accordingly suicides and criminals that might not be buried in "holy ground," weredeposited at the cross-roads." - A.W.----------

Lycophron: v. 162. "Kadmilus, the Boeotian Hermes," or Mercury. The Scholiumupon the same, says, "by syncope, Cadmus."

These annotations are "clear as mud." Their most prominent idea is a theocrasy,by which several deities, as they are popularly understood, are reduced to a fewpersonages. Cadmillus is made to include the Theban Serpent-god, Cadmus, the Thothof Egypt, the Hermes of the Greeks, and the Emeph or Aesculapius of the Alexandriansand Phoenicians. The other Cabeirians embrace the gods of the universe, of generationand destruction, whether represented by Astarte, Demeter, Cybele, or Isis, not exceptingEuropa and Persephone; also Osiris, Pluto, and the judges of the Underworld. It is hardyprudent to give an opinion where men so able and accomplished have differed;nevertheless, it appears from the comparing of evidence, the Cabeirian like other sacredOrgies, were somewhat changed in different countries, but were substantially alike. Theyinvolve the leading idea of the Eleusinian and Sabazian Mysteries, and a portion of themythological history. The same dances upon the supposed plan of the planetary system,

wailing for the First-Born, dividing and occupying of the earth, and the introduction of thearts, characterize these rites. We suppose, therefore, that they comprehended the oldAsiatic Pagan system of Fire and Serpent worship, which the Phoenicians diffused overAsia, Syria, and Palestine, and conveyed to their colonies in other regions of the world;and it is probable that the Babylonians had the same. The other Mysteries were imitations.- A.W.----------

Inman: Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names, ii. 448, 449. "On ancient coinsit figured largely alone, or associated with some female symbol. It typified the maleCreator, who was represented as an upright stone, a pillar, a round tower, a tree stump,an oak-tree, a pine-tree, a maypole, a spire, an obelisk, a minaret, and the like.... In acurious drawing which is copied from Maurice's Indian Antiquities, vol. vi, p. 273, and whichrepresents a Phoenician coin, a tree resembling the palm is depicted, surrounded by theserpent, and standing between two stones; below is an altar apparently to the sacredTriad."

The Greek term for palm, Phanix, is also the designation of Phoenicia, the land ofpalm trees; and one title of the deity was Baal-Tamar, or Lord of the Palm. Thedesignation appears to have been originally one of honor. The royal shepherds of Egyptwere called Phoenicians and Hellenes, and Phoenix is said to have come from Egypt toTyre. It was originally a title of men of rank, like the Anakim or Sons of Anak in Palestine,and the Anax andron or king of men in the Iliad. Bacchus is also called Ph-anax orPhoenician, the god of the palm. The use of the palm at triumphs was a testimony to royal,or at least, noble rank. - A.W.----------

Pliny: vii, 47.Boxing, being itself a part of the ancient worship, those who perished in the contests

were regarded as sacrifices to the gods, as probably were those who perished by thegladiators. All these exhibitions were religious rather than for diversion, solely orprincipally. It must be remembered that human victims were offered in one form or anotherin Rome, Africa, Asia, and Greece, till long after the Christian Era. - A.W.----------

Nonnus: Dionysiacs, v.

"Zeus, who reigns on high, desires to rear Another Bacchus, the copy of old Dionysus, bull formed, Unfortunate Zagreus, still loved,Whom Persephoneia brought forth to the dracontian bed of Zeus."

The Orphic legend which is here cited, makes Dionysus-Zagreus the son of Zeusor Jupiter, begotten by him in the form of the sacred Dragon upon Kore, said by some tobe his daughter by Ceres or Demeter, and by others to be Demeter herself. Nonnusadopts the former idea and styles her Kore-Persephoneia. Zeus had destined this childfor King of Heaven, and placed him in charge of Apollo and the Curetes, the ancient priest-

caste of Greece, Crete, and Phrygia. But the Titans, incited by Hera, disguised themselvesunder a coat of plaster, and finding the child examining a mirror, attacked him and tore himinto seven pieces. Pallas-Athena rescued his heart which Zeus swallowed, and thusreceived again into himself the soul of the child, to be born anew in the person of thesecond Dionysus, the son of Semele. It is easy to perceive from this legend the doctrineof metempsychosis or transmigration of souls, which was a part of the Orphic andPythagorean doctrines, and doubtless came from the East. E. Pococke uses this story toillustrate his idea of an ancient Lama-hierarchy in Greece of which Zeus was the chief-pontiff. Zagreus or Chakras (universal sovereign) his son by Kore-Persephoneia (orParasou-pani Durga), his contemplated successor, having been murdered by the Titanswas born again and made the heir-apparent (India in Greece, xvii, pp. 265, 266). - A.W.----------

Sextus Empiricus: ix, 37. "They say that the Tyndaridae (Castor and Pollux)succeed to the glory of the Dioscuri who were formerly regarded as gods."

The Dioscuri were originally Phoenician divinities, the patrons of art and commerce.In Sanchoniathon, they are thus described: "To Sydye (Tzadec) were born the Dioscuri,or Cabeiri, or Corybantes, or Samothracians; they first invented the mystic ship." Thismeans evidently, even if it means no more, that the several rites observed in Phrygia andAsia, purporting to be originally from Samothrace, were substantially identical. TheGrecian myth of Jupiter and Leda is but another version of the legend. Leda is the MotherGoddess, and brings forth to Tyndarus the Flame-God, or to Zeus the lord of aether,Castor, the Sun or Morning-star, Polydeukes, the Evening-star, and Helen or Selene, theMoon. - A.W.---------

Plutarch: Isis and Osiris, q5, 46. "Nature produces nothing but what is mixed andtempered.... If nothing can come without a cause, and if a good thing can not afford acause of evil. Nature then must certainly have a peculiar source and origen of evil as wellas of good. This is the opinion of the greatest and wisest of mankind. Some believe thatthere are two Deities, as though it were rival architects, one of whom they regard as thecreator of good things, and the other of the bad. Some call the better one of them God andthe other Daemon; as doth Zoroaster the Magian, whom they assert to have lived fivethousand years before the Trojan war. This Zoroaster called the one of these Oromasd,and the other Ahriman; and affirmed that the former as to things perceptible to the senses,must resemble light, and the other, darkness and ignorance; also that Mithras was of anature between the two. For this reason the Persians call Mithras the mediator."

Mithras is the old Persian title of the Sun-God, or more correctly, as will be seen inthe Khordah-Avesta, of the herald, who goes before and announces the coming of theSun, like the Aswins. He is the first of the Izeds or Yasatas, the Lord, whose long armsgrasp what is in Eastern India and smite that which is in Western India (Susiana andBabylonia, where Ahriman and Zohak ruled), what is on the steppes or prairies of Ranha(the Amou), and what is at the end of the land (by the Southern Ocean). The name doesnot appear to have been borrowed from any western people, whether Ethiopic or Shemitic;but it was carried over Asia Minor, Egypt, and other countries, after the conquest of Pontusby Pompey; and we find it an element in the Gnostic systems and other mystic doctrines,

after the Christian era. - A.W.----------

Phurnutus: De Natura Deor., vi, p. 147.The employment of galli or eunuchs in the sacerdotal office seems to have gone

side by side with the keeping of singing-women as priestesses. Emasculation enables thebetter performance of vocal music; and it is asserted, that youths deprived of virility areemployed in the choirs of St. Peters at Rome, and perhaps, at other churches. A referenceseems to have been made to the practice in the Gospel according to Matthew: "And therebe eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake; hethat is able to receive it, let him receive it." (xix, 12) So did Origen, and very possiblyothers of note in the Christian Church; and the Roman Catholic monks, as well as theThibetan lamas, are such figuratively, or as the Jesuit obligation expresses it, "as acorpse." Among the Asiatics and Egyptians, captives and slaves were so mutilated. In thereligious rites "these mutilations were also made in honor or commemoration of thedismemberment suffered by Osiris, Mithras, Adonis, Esmun (Aesculapius), and Bacchusand they are supposed to illustrate in allegorical symbolism, the cessation of the activemale or fecundating power of the sun at the Autumnal Equinox." (Supplement to theVoyages of Anacharsis and Antenor) It took place in Phrygia on the third day of the festivalof Atys. The priests of Cybele appeared in bands or groups, exhibiting the peculiarraptures of religious frenzy, and appearing like Bacchanals or Pythonesses intoxicated withthe obsession of the divinity. In one hand they brandished the sacred knife of sacrifice;in the other were burning torches of pine. Leaving the towns, they wandered like distractedpersons over the fields and mountains in quest of the slain one, crying and bewailing.Having swallowed the mystic potion, their excitement rose to the highest pitch; they beatthemselves and ran amuck through the fields, lacerating one another with heavy chains;they danced, wounded themselves, scourged themselves and each other, and finallyhaving completed their mutilations in honor of the god about to appear, they invoked him,offering the bleeding evidences of their destroyed virility. Many died, of course, from thisviolence, and the accompanying exposure and hemorrhage; but those who survived worethe female dress from that time. The priests of the Syrian Goddess, Isis, Astarte andCybele, were of this character. They not only performed the offices of the temple, butenabled the patrons who visited the sacred enclosures to vary pederasty with fornication.When strangers were lured thither to hear their fatally winning music, both semi-males andfemales constituted the choirs; and as among the Seirens, Lamiae, and at the shrines ofthe Taurican goddess, their passions as well as misfortune, in the earlier periods thus ledthem to their death. The rites of the Sun-god and Mother-goddess were celebrated in asimilar manner by the Israelites. Judah took his daughter-in-law for a priestess; and thebook of Deuteronomy prescribed that "there shall be no kadeshah of the daughters ofIsrael, nor a kadesh of the sons of Israel." Yet under Rehoboam and Queen Maachah,who seems to have been like Olympias, a priestess of the Dionysiac or phallic worship,"there were also kadeshim in the land, and they did according to all the abomination of thenations." It may have been that emasculation was once an incident of asceticism, formonks are more ancient than Abraham; but at later periods, it was a constituent of thevices that prevailed at very many temples. - A.W.

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MacBeth, Lawful King of Scotland - Alexander Wilder, M.D., F.A.S.

Literary license, which empowers the writer of drama and romance to palter freelywith historic fact, was perhaps no more extensively employed than by Shakspeare in thetragedy of Macbeth. We are introduced to the commander of an army, victorious andhonored by his king, who is met by three "weird women," and inspired through theirsalutations to actions remarkable for treachery as well as treasonable ambition. Not onlyis it in his heart to do wickedly, but like Ahab of Israel, his wife is described as stirring himup to greater enormities than he himself would have ventured upon. As a resultShakspere's great tragedy is so deeply fixed in the general imagination that many regardit as being substantially a correct representation of actual occurrences. We are prone tooverlook the fact that history as it is usually written is moulded and colored by partisanfeeling, and that defeated parties and leaders are often described as ill-disposed and evencriminal. The drama is often constructed on the basis of such perversions.

This may be regarded as lawful for writers and to dispute it may be idle. Itnevertheless works evil, not only to the reputation of the individuals who are maligned, buttends to impair confidence in the statements of history itself. Thus it perpetuates mistakennotions in regard to leading personages and actual occurrences, which few have the timeor opportunity to correct. Such writers as Sir Walter Scott and others of less distinction,have been thus instrumental in giving an unduly vivid impression in regard to events, andestablishing erroneous as well as exaggerated conceptions of historic facts. Miss JanePorter in her well-known work, "Scottish Chiefs," long a favorite with young readers, hasventured widely in this matter of converting fact into fiction.

Macbeth makes his appearance in the drama as a Scottish Thane whom his kinghad sent to put down a rebellion. Returning after a complete success he is met by three"Witches," who salute him with designations of more exalted rank and fortune, the last ofthem hailing him as to be king of Scotland. The predicted events all occur in the order thatthey are uttered, Macbeth gaining the throne by the assassination of Duncan, the reigningmonarch, while a guest at his castle. As he hesitates at the crime, his wife, more ambitiousthan he, urges him to its perpetration.

Afterward came new crimes; remorse, forebodings, consultations with the forbiddenpowers, and disaster. Finally the kingdom is invaded by Siward, the Dane, Earl ofNorthumberland. Macbeth is slain in battle and Malcolm, the son of Duncan, becomesking.

It need not detract from interest in the tragedy, but more likely will add to it, if wemake a survey of the historic facts and traditions from which the dramatist obtained thematerial for his representations. They belong to the period when the social and religiousconditions in Europe were taking more definite and permanent forms.

The northern region of Great Britain had become known by the name which it nowbears, and was now likewise a country with a dynastic government. In earlier centuriesScotland had been occupied by rude clans, and tribes migrating from Ireland and Norway.It had borne the designation belore of Caledonia, "the Woodland," and the eastern and

northern districts were known as Alban. The principal population had been styled "Picts"from the practice, it was supposed, of painting their bodies. Pinkerton, however,denominates them "Piks," deriving the name from Vika, a region of Norway from which hepresumes that they emigrated. But the country of Galloway in the west was colonised bythe Scots, a people from Ireland, anciently known as Scotia.

Caledonia became a single dominion under Kenneth MacAlpin in 837. Therecontinued a regular succession of kings after him, chiefly hereditary, but occasionallybroken, till 1031, when Duncan was placed on the throne. His mother was Bethoc, thedaughter of Malcolm II. She was the wife of Crinan, the Abbot of Dunkeld. Theecclesiastical law forbidding the marriage of priests was not enforced at that time, andabbots often took part in political affairs, even commanding soldiers in war. Ethelwulf, thefather of Alfred the Great, of England, was a priest, and Alfred himself was bred to theChurch, as his zeal for the dissemination of learning would seem to illustrate.

The reign of Duncan lasted six years. The affirmation that he "bore his facultiesmeekly" is probably a fiction of the dranntist. He appears to have been advanced in years,and his son who bore the same name was king of Cumberland. Siward was a Danishprince and had been a follower of King Knut or Canute. He became the jarl or earl ofNorthumberland, and his sister or daughter was married to the Scotish prince.

The Annals of Ulster record of Duncan, that he "was slain by his subjects" - a suisoccisus est. The Chronicon Elegiacum is a little more definite. Duncan had besiegedDurham, and returning home unsuccessful he was put to death at Bothganan, near Elgin.It is probable that discontent had followed because of his ill fortune, and weakened his holdupon popular favor. Macbeth at this time, was a morman or man of rank, and being in thefull vigor of life, by general consent mounted the throne.

His title to that dignity, as matters were considered at that time, was as good as thatof Duncan. His father was Finley or Finlech. A Scottish jarl or nobleman of that name ismentioned by Torfaeus, the historian, and by several other writers. His family seems tohave been, like that of Douglas in the earlier years of the Stuart kings, very powerful andsecond only to the royal princes. The wife of Macbeth was Gruoch, the daughter of Bodhe,a son of Kenneth V. This king had been murdered by Malcolm ll, the grandfather ofDuncan, and the murderer grasped the royal dignity. Hence, it would not be hard todeduce that "Lady Macbeth" had inherited a blood-feud as well as political ambition, andthat the accession of her husband to the supreme authority was regarded generally asbeing simply a coming to his own.

Macbeth became King of Scotland in the year 1037 and reigned seventeen years.The various chroniclers agree in praising the beneficence of his administration. He waszealous in his efforts to promote agriculture and diffuse the blessings of peace. The fieldsyielded abundantly and the people prospered. One author remarks that if Macbeth hadpaid more attention to his interests, and less to the welfare of his subjects, the crown mighthave remained in his family; but neglecting the practice of war he fell a martyr to his ownvirtues.

The early records show that he, like other monarchs of that time, made a pilgrimageto Rome. Two historians say that in 1050 "rex Scotorum Macbetad Romae argentumspargendo distribuis" - Macbeth, the King of Scots, gave money to Rome to be distributedto the poor. This very period was a turning-point in the history of the Popedom, as well asof Europe. There had been a long controversy about supremacy with the Grecian

Emperors at Constantinople, who were at that time the arbiters of the different countries.There were likewise rival claimants to the pontifical chair, and the conflicts were sometimescharacterised by violence and even bloodshed. The dignity, and even the morality of theincumbents had sunk low in general esteem. One Pope owed his place to the efforts oftwo women of loose character, and finally the Counts of Tusculum were able to confer theoffice on a boy of twelve years, who sold it to his successor. At last in 1049, the Emperorof Germany bestowed the appointment on Bruno of Alsace, his own kinsman, who insisted,however, that it should be confirmed by an election at Rome. This was effected, and heaccepted it, taking the name of Leo IX. He had for confidential friend and counsellor thefamous monk Hildebrand, afterward Gregory VII. It was then that a general reform wasbegun, simony was condemned, and marriage - now called concubinage - was forbiddento the secular clergy.

This was the period, at which King Macbeth visited Rome. Scotland was then atpeace, and his authority was recognized abroad as well as by his own people.

A storm, however, soon began to gather. Earl Siward in 1054 led an army into thecountry ostensibly in support of the pretensions of his young kinsman, Malcolm Kenmore.A battle took place at Lanfrannan in Aberdeenshire, in which Macbeth was slain.Nevertheless, there appears to have been no decided result. If the invaders actuallygained a victory, it was dearly bought. The son of Siward was also killed, and the fatherleft Scotland immediately. His own subjects at home had risen in revolt. He died not longafter, leaving no heir to his government, and so Northumberland from being little more thanappanage to the English government, became an integral part of the English dominion, andKing Edward, the Confessor, bestowed the earldom upon Tostig, the third son of EarlGodwin. The attempt to dethrone Macbeth thus resulted in the loss of the possessions ofthe invader.

Meanwhile, Lulak, a cousin of "Lady Macbeth," the widowed queen, had becomeKing of Scotland. He appears, however, to have been a weak prince, and the mormanssoon withdrew from his support. A party that sustained the claims of Malcolm Kenmorearose in revolt, and after a reign of four months he was killed in battle at Strathbogie.Affairs continued in an unsettled condition for about a year and a half when Malcolm wasduly acknowlrdged.

Such were the principal historic facts in relation to the principal characters of thefamous tragedy. Although, however, they furnish groundwork for the play, they do notconstitute its principal attraction. The "witches" and the part assigned to them constitutea more important part of the drama. Indeed, while it is natural to admire gloriousachievement, there exists is the human mind what is often termed a love for the marvelous."All men yearn for gods," Homer declares. However strenuously it may be denied, decried,and even derided, this passion for the supernatural is an integral quality of our nature. Thegreat dramatist has catered to it in his principal productions, obtaining his material from thesources most germane to each, and adapting it to his purpose.

In Macbeth the contribution from the farther world is obtained from the Scandinavianmythology, which was also current formerly in Scotland. The "Weird Sisters Three" arenone other than the Nornas, or Wise Ones, who, it was believed, shaped the lives andcareers of human beings. They were Urd or Wyrd, the personified past; Skuld, the Future;and Verdandi, the Present. They abode in the celestial region, it was said, and wateredthe roots of the World Tree from the Well whose water sustains existence. Their

transformation into Hags plying forbidden arts, hardly needs to be explained. Conquestof a people, and change of religious creed have repeatedly effected similar transmutations.The gods of the former faiths thus become the evil demons of the newer ones, as in thisinstance, the Sisters of Fate appear as witches guiding Macbeth to his doom. Not only arethey changed in character, but they are also transferred to the dominion of Hekate, whoevidently stands for the Hel or Hela of Northern mythology, and are made fit only for "adeed without a name." In this guise they appear in the drama, and contribute largely toestablish its grandness, both in conception and representation.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 21, May, 1907)

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Arguments for Incineration

The proper disposal of the remains of the dead is a problem of our times thatpresses hard for solution. For centuries their interment has been accepted as thelegitimate method, till many have become habituated to the supposition that it was areligious obligation. Indeed, so firmly has this notion gained foothold that the individualswho suggest other modes are immediately suspected of some moral or other delinquency.It is not enough, therefore, to plead the importance of protecting the public health, andreasons of general utility; but we are brought face to face with religious as well as popularprejudice, and must meet both as we best are able. The first incineration that took placein this country was that of the body of Henry Laurens, of Charleston, South Carolina,December 8, 1792. He had commanded it expressly in his will, making the cremation ofhis body the condition of every legacy. An elaborate funeral pyre was erected, as inGreece and India, the body placed upon it, and fire applied to consume it. The exampledoes not seem, however, to have found imitators.

Mr. Laurens was no common man. He was a native of South Carolina, of Huguenotancestry, and received his education in England. Returning to America he engaged incommercial pursuits and acquired a large fortune. He became an earnest champion ofpersonal rights, and had many a contest with the crown judges, opposing stubbornly theirarbitrary rulings, and disseminating his views in pamphlets remarkable for their vigorousutterances and legal acumen. In 1771 he retired from business and spent the next threeyears in travel and attention to the education of his sons in England. He was one of thethirty-eight petitioners against the Boston Port Bill. Becoming convinced that there wouldbe no peaceful settlement of difficulties, he returned home, and became president of theSouth Carolina Council of Safety. He was also a delegate to the Continental Congress,and its presiding officer for the years 1777 and 1778. The cabals against GeneralWashington always met with his resolute opposition. In 1778 he was sent as a ministerto Holland, but was captured by a British frigate, and carried to London. Here he was kepta prisoner for fifteen months, and his papers which he had failed to destroy, became theoccasion of war between Holland and Great Britain. Many endeavors were made in vainto induce him to return to his former allegiance, and he was released in 1781. He becameone of the commissioners for negotiating peace with Great Britain, and then returned

home, where he spent his remaining years in private life, only occasionally writingspamphlet on some political or philanthropic subject.

He was a classical scholar of broad culture, and had become familiar with thepeculiar customs of ancient countries. How far his opinions were influenced by his reading,we need not guess. An occurrence in his family proved sufficient to induce him to his finaldecision. A young daughter, ill with a severe disorder, had, as he supposed, breathed herlast. Her body was duly coffined and every arrangement ready for its interment, when toevery one's astonishment, she revived and finally recovered. Probably the horror of herterrible peril of being buried alive, made an indelible impression upon the father's mind.Hence the positive condition that he made, that his heirs should burn his body, andpossibly the knowledge of this fact had its influence in preventing others from taking thecase as an example.

In 1855 a man living in Wisconsin, erected a pyre for the incineration of the body ofhis wife, but the neighbors interfered and compelled him to desist. The newspaperscommented on the matter, generally denouncing him; although it transpired that he wasa believer religiously in cremation.

The next instance, however, was destined to arouse general attention. Baron dePalm, an eccentric individual, had traveled much in this country, and was in some wayidentified with the first formation of the Theosophical Society. Dying at Roosevelt Hospitalin 1877, he bequeathed his property and papers to Colonel Henry S. Olcott and associates,adding the direction that his body should be cremated. At that time although the subjectof cremation had attracted attention in Europe, there were few that thought of it in theUnited States. Dr. F. J. LeMoyne, of Washington in Pennsylvania, the Liberty Partycandidate for Vice-President in 1844, had erected a furnace on his own premises. Herethe body of the deceased Baron was taken in December for cremation. There was agoodly number to attend the obsequies, chiefly the representatives of metropolitan journalsand a few earnest believers in that method of disposing of the dead. Colonel Olcottsuperintended the matter, delivering an address, bringing away the ashes, and a yearafterward throwing them in Hindoo style, into the ocean.

There have since been more general attention and favor given to the subject.Crematories have been erected in many of the principal cities of Europe, where buryingspots are too much in demand to permit corpses to remain undisturbed more than longenough for the bones to become denuded of flesh. We have now several in this country,at Lancaster and Pittsburg, Penn.; Fresh Pond, on Long Island; Buffalo, etc. There arecremation societies also, somewhat on the Mutual Aid plan, requiring the members tocontribute a small amount annually, and pledgingthe cremation of their bodies at death. There has been such an organization in New Yorkfor ten or twelve years, and another is about to go into operation on the New Jersey sideof the river.

There is little in the process of incineration that is repulsive. Even where it is crudelyperformed, it is due to imperfect arrangements. There is a chapel at every crematory forthe performance of religious or masonic ceremonies. The body is removed from the coffinand placed upon a crib and in a sheet saturated with an alum solution to prevent readycombustion. After the ceremonies are concluded it is placed in the retort, almostnoiselessly, and the process of incineration takes place. The whole is thus resolved intothe primitive elements; the water, ammonia and carbon are returned to the atmosphere,

and the lime of the bones left behind. The destruction is such as to leave no disagreeablethoughts or memories behind.

Decomposition in the grave or tomb accomplishes the same result, but with everyspecies of repulsive accompaniment. The melting of the fibres into a noxious fluidsubstance, the frightful changing of the features, the elimination of gases deadly to manand animal, the pollution of the earth itself, are processes of the grave and charnel. Noconsecration by religious ceremony can change the truth of the words: "Sepulchres whichindeed may appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and alluncleanness."

The practice of ancient countries has varied with the incidents of race and perhapsof religion. The earliest worship, Professor Lesley considers, was the cultus of the manesof the dead. The wake and the funeral feast are customs of vast antiquity. We findmention of them in the Book of Jeremiah as common in Judea. They are observed inIndia, China, and in Keltic Ireland. The notion that the corpse, though dead, was somehowalive, was persistent, and the rites of the dead have been kept up accordingly. The bodieswere enshrined in the home; then near the house, and from that the tomb became thesanctuary. "We enclose the soul of Polydorus in the grave," says Aeneas; and at theanniversary of the death of Anchises he declares: "I shall always account this a day to behonored, and on it statedly perform annual vows, hold solemn funeral processions, andheap the altars with offerings." The rites of initiation always commemorated one dead - thebenefactor of a people, the establisher of a nation, or the son of a god. In time it becamecustomary to set apart the ground near a temple for the interment of the dead; and so menwatched in the porches or abode among the tombs, in hope to obtain word from thedemons of the dead. When the temples became churches the same customs were carriedfrom one faith to the other; the knights were initiated with vigils in the churches, and thedead were placed in vaults beneath or in the consecrated earth around them. We areoutgrowing all this, however; the interment in cities and thickly settled districts is becomingunderstood to be fraught with danger to the living; and the cemeteries are established atpoints where it is but too vainly hoped that population will not densely congregate. Butwhat of the Ridgewood water-reservoir of Brooklyn, situate between Greenwood, CypressHills and the Evergreens? Perhaps there is no harm, but let us think.

In China, the dead are scrupulously buried in family plots, where they may receivehomage. The nobler races of India supply the pyre, doing the last offices with music andinvocations, and consigning the ashes to flowing water. The Parsees, however, deem itimpious to pollute the streams, or to profane the earth or fire with dead bodies. They placethem on the Towers of Silence, and there scavenger birds and animals may came anddevour them. Yet Cyrus and Darius Hystaspis and Xerxes had their tombs. The SacredBooks of the Hebrews represent the patriarchs as having been interred in the sepulchreat the family metropolis of Hebron, and Joseph as buried at Shechem, the Israelitish capital- his mummied body being carried with the tent-temple during their wanderings. But KingAsa was commemorated with "a very great burning" - lying in "a bed which was filled withsweet odors and divers kinds of spices, prepared by the apothecary's art" (Chronicles II,xvi. 14). A later writer significantly reminds us of the mourning feast, and of "a man's uncle,he that burneth him" (Amos vi. 7-10).

The Greeks burned their dead, or buried them, according to the custom of the class.Kreiton asked Socrates his wish in regard to his burial; and Plutarch describes the practice

of burning the bodies of the dead. The Romans of later centuries followed the samecustoms and made use of the columbaria in which the ashes were inurned. Patricianfamilies adhered to the Etruscan practice of interment, and from them modernChristendom has derived the usage. To this source we must ascribe the cherished customof placing the corpses of persons of royal or noble blood in vaults beneath churches, andof consecrating a precinct around these edifices for the burial of the privileged dead.

The time is fast ripening for a beneficial change in these respects. The sentimentis becoming more and more general that the remains of the dead should not be sufferedto menace the safety of the living. Our civilization is already dividing and estrangingfamilies, so that the family burial-grounds are almost things of the past. As populationbecomes more dense, it will be impossible to leave graves many years without digging thespot over for newer dead; and the experience of the Old World has shown that the graveswill not hold more than a certain quantity of decomposing human substance before itreaches the point of utter saturation. "Is this place of abomination consecrated ground?"asks Lady Dedlock, in Bleak House. "Is it blessed?" And Jo replies: "I'm blest if I know;but I should think it wasn't. Blest ? It ain't done it much good if it was. Blest? I shouldthink it was t'othered myself."

Such is the condition that awaits all places of earth-burial, if we continue todesecrate the earth with the remains of the dead.

In the Old World already are cemeteries repulsive. It may as well be rememberedthat our American tastes and advancement were themes of curious remark a few decadesago, because when distinguished foreigners were entertained by the city of New York, theywere driven out to Greenwood to admire its graves and monuments. It is as incongruousas when Alderman Boole treated the Turkish Ambassador to champagne and hamsandwiches, both of which are enjoined by Moslem law. New York was shamed intomaking the Central Park.

We would do abundant honor to the bodies of the dead, esteeming them worthy forthe use which they have performed. In their incineration is no lack of respect. They arethus reduced to their original elements before they are made loathsome and abhorrentfrom decay.

We have their memories then untarnished by frightful recollections, or the thoughtof what is repulsive. The fire, the purest principle in nature, has made them pure,subliming them with its own essence and removing all taint of earth and odiousdecomposition. The natural world itself, redeemed from charnel-houses and plots set apartto human decay, will be a purer, holier, more fitting world to live in. And then, becominga more sacred home for the living, its influence upon the living will tend to exalt them to astill higher plane of life. Health will be more general, and with health comes all that makeslife enjoyable and desirable. - Alexander Wilder, M.D.

(Medical Tribune, vol. 7, no. 12, Dec., 1891)

---------------

Folk-Lore

[This was written for Metaphysical Magazine's "Home Circle" column, meant forsimpler and down-to-earth treatments.]

It is an idle notion that many entertain that popular tales like those known by thename of "Mother Goose" are simple untruths and vulgar superstitions. People would soonforget them, and let them die like the stories that sailors used to tell in the forecastle. Butwhen a story is remembered, and is handed down from parents to children for manyhundreds of years, we may believe safely that in some form at some period it may havebeen true. The tales of fays and fairies that used to be told in England, and theinnumerable stories and legends of trolls, pixies and other unnatural beings, are of thisnature. They were not made up to deceive people or to scare children, but related toevents which in some way took place. Even when they seem to be absurd beyondmeasure this is the case.

Many languages have slender vocabularies. There are not words enough to denoteeverything that it is desired to speak about. Then was adopted the practice of using onename to mean some thing in some way similar to it. From that way of speaking thepractice was formed of calling things by the name of qualities, like those of character in aperson. Some men are called hogs; actors are described as stars; and foolish womenas geese.

How many of us have heard the nursery chant: "The cow jumped over the moon,"and wondered that a statement so monstrous should be kept so long in remembrance.The reason was that it was a parable, and as such was true.

A people known now as Aryans took possession of a great part of northern India.In their books and songs they made great use of the cow to signify the sky and objects inthe sky. The sky was the cow, especially when cloudy, and the rain was her milk. Whenthe cloud passed over the face of the moon it was the jumping of the cow that darkenedit.

Little Jack Horner with his Christmas pie appears to be a commonplace piece ofhistory. King Henry VIII of England had determined to annul the charters of the Romanmonasteries in England and seize their wealth. One of these took the precaution to sendthe parchment on which its charter was written to another place where it might not befound. Jack Horner was employed as the messenger. The parchment was baked insidea pie, and Jack sent to carry it as a present. Stopping to rest on his way, and hungry, heventured to break into the pie, and so discovered its precious contents. He delivered thedocument to the proper official, receiving a reward, and the charter was annulled.

The "Babes in the Wood" may likewise be set down as historic individuals indisguise. It is told and generally believed that Richard III of England usurped the thronefrom Edward V his nephew, and employed assassins to murder that prince and his brother.The story was kept alive in the ballad, which while meaning to keep in mind the cruelty ofthe king and the tragic fate of the two princes, yet described one of them as a girl, so thatthe uncle would not be able to fix upon any one as pointing him out as the murderer.

Cinderella and her slipper has always had a charm, and never is forgotten. It couldbe better explained in another language, as so much of it is a play on words. Cinderellais the aurora or Dawn, who has been one of the guests of the sun-prince during the night.The term apad means both without feet, and a footstep or slipper. She goes through the

sky without footsteps, and he follows her. The next morning she is found by the slipperand weds the prince.

There was a similar story in Egypt. Rhodope [rosy-face] was bathing, and an eaglecaught her slipper, flew away to Egypt and dropt it at the feet of prince Psametikh III. Hecaused search to be made and married her.

The story of Blue Beard, like the hero-myths of the Bible, has been apparentlyidentified in historic occurrences. It is an Esthonian legend. Blue Beard is the sun, the skybeing his beard. The wives are the hours of the day whom he kills one by one. The twelfthtakes the golden key of sunset to open the secret chamber where are the corpses of theothers. She is detected and he is about to slay her, when a youth who takes charge of thegoslings, who knew her as a child, comes and kills the husband.

In the story of Jack and the Bean-stalk, Jack's mother is the night. He barters herfor some beans, one of which sprouting, takes root and grows to the sky. Climbing up hefinds the woman, the moon, and through her sees the morning of abundance.

The notion of ill fortune of a Friday is borrowed from a religious cause. In thevarious ancient worships, Friday was the day of the Goddess - Freia, Venus, Aphrodite,Istar, etc. She portended happy fortune, as to have children was esteemed superlativefelicity, happiness being assured after death. Enterprises begun on Friday wereconsidered fortunate. The Christian prelates, to counteract such beliefs, caused Friday tobe made the day for capital punishments; from which cause solely the day came to beregarded as boding ill luck.

The fortunate look at the crescent moon has a like beginning. The new moon forvarious reasons is propitious. Then women are more likely to be kind; even to be in bestpowers of mind and reason. A fortunate glance at the crescent after it becomes visible isauspicious of her favor, good fortune, and success.

Some derive bad omens from an unexpected meeting with a sharp instrument, likea pin pointing toward them on the floor. When men were led to the scaffold to beexecuted, the doomsman kept the blade of the axe or sword directed toward them as theywalked along. - Alexander Wilder

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 12, no. 3, June, 1900)

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Review: "Between the Testaments, or Interbiblical History," by Rev. David Gregg, D.D., LL.D,

President of the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa., Funk & WagnalsCompany, New York

To the readers of the Bible generally, the period between the time of Nehemiah asindicated in the Old Testament, and the birth of Jesus, recorded in the Gospels, so far asit relates to Hebrew history, is a total blank. Nevertheless in the world outside, it was fullof event and achievement. With Nehemiah, the ascendency was Persian; in the time ofthe Gospels it was Roman. During that period Greece had won fame for art, philosophy

and statecraft; and Alexander had subjugated the nations as far as India. In all that hadhappened, the colonists in Judea made no record. When the first Ptolemy had establishedhis power in Egypt, he found no difficulty, one Sabbath day, in adding Jerusalem and Jewryto his possessions. This introduced them to the greater world.

Dr. Gregg describes this as providential. The Greek language was the most perfectand flexible then existing, and the dominion of Alexander and those who followed, operatedto diffuse it very generally. Under the influence of the Ptolemies, the Hebrew SacredWritings were translated into it, and so became not only accessible to the Israeliteseverywhere dispersed, but also "Christ's Bible and also that of the Apostles and GentileChristians." This enabled the New Testament to be produced. "If there had never been aGreek Old Testament" the author declares, "there would never have been a Greek NewTestament."

But the book attempts to give a clue to the history of the Jews during the Greeksupremacy. The main dependence is upon the accounts of Josephus and the Apocrypha.For a hundred years the Egyptian kings ruled, and then the dominion passed to the Syrianmonarchs. The high priest paid an annual tribute of twenty silver talents, and administeredthe civil government. The book of Ecclesiasticus, the "Wisdom of Jesus," is an exhibitionof the nature of their government. It was far different in form and character from whatexisted in the far-off times. A Sanhedrin or Senate, after the model of Greekcommonwealths, was now established. When the supreme power had been acquired bythe Syrian monarchs, a new high priest was appointed who registered the inhabitants ofJerusalem as citizens of Antioch, neglected the usual rites at the Temple, and introducedcustoms of the Greeks in their place. Antiochus Epiphanes attempted to complete theinnovations. He took away the money and costly furniture of the Temple, placed in it thestatue of Zeus, introduced a Grecian litany and other rites. The festival of Bacchus, theSyrian Melkarth, was celebrated, a hog sacrificed in the purlieus sprinkled with the blood,and processions carrying the thyrsus and ivy took place. The Jewish religion wassuppressed, and the Scriptures destroyed.

The result was a reaction. The revolt of the Maccabean family was followed by aconflict of years. The brothers took the lead in turn, as fast as one perished another tookhis place. The high priesthood was taken by them, the temple restored, and nationalindependence secured. At this time, other authors declare, the Canon, known by us as theOld Testament was established. For sixty-five years Judea was an independent nationwith a king and high priest of its own, - all the doing of the Maccabees, and continuing tillthe Romans succeeded the Greeks and conquered Palestine.

Dr. Gregg handles his subject in a way peculiar to himself. He regards the Bible asdivine; that through it we deal directly with God. The Canon, he declares, never will beclosed. "Human experience re-writes and re-edits it." Also, "every fresh translation of itre-writes and re-edits it." There are changes of words, and eliminations of certain phrasesand sections, and there will be more. "The consensus of modern scholarship is the arbiterhere." The books that remain in our Bible have been selected from among many others:"our Bible is a sifted book." But he is by no means willing to throw aside the Apocrypha.It is part and parcel of the Alexandrian Canon. But the Hebrews would admit nothing thatwas not written in Hebrew. They denounced the Greek additions in the Septuagist version,but as Greek-speaking worshipers were the more numerous, these scriptures were widelyaccepted. Dr. Gregg himself insists upon their intrinsic merit, declaring them "literature of

no mean order," and praising them highly.In short, the author while treating the subject carefully from the theological point of

view, also presents the historic aspect in an eligible form and greatly instructive to thestudent. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 22, no. 2, Feb., 1908)

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Introduction to Serpent and Siva Worship * [Alexander Wilder]

"Chil. ... The Prince of Elder Time, be he GodOr Daemon, Savior or Destroyer,Is capable for all; speak more plainly.B.M. Hear then. I am Maha Deva,God in the remotest East; my throneIs on the sacred Kailas, mount of the assembly;My votaries, the black men of the Indian groves,My worship, the oldest cult of men.All peoples and all faiths are mine;The hopes, passions, lusts and purposes of menAre inspired by me and led on to success.Ere the white Aryan invaded my forests,And Brahman fanatics o'erturned my altars,My children had crossed the Erythean sea -And I was the tutelar god of Babel, The Dionysos of fertile Arabia, Moloch in Syria, Baal in Tyre,Hercules, who guided the Phoenician shipsTo distant seas, and to the gardens Of the Hersperides - or wheresoe'erThe mariners cared to go;And everywhere I was revered and worshiped,At the Baal-fires, Druid-groves, in cavesAnd remote places.... Here I am calledThe Black Man of the Forest,And denounced as Satan, Prince of Evil."

"The serpent is not only monstrous and maleficent in Hindu tradition, but also atonce the learned one, and he who imparts learning; it sacrifices itself to let the hero carryaway the water of life, the water of strength, the health-giving herb or the treasure; it notonly spares but it favors the predestined hero; it destroys individuals, but preserves thespecies; it devours nations, but preserves the regenerative kings; it poisons plants, and

throws men into deep sleep, but it gives new strength in its occult domain to the sun, whogives new life to the world every morning and every spring.... Hence the worship in Indiaof the serpent, who is revered as a symbol of every species of learning." **

------------------* Serpent and Siva Worship and Mythology in Central America, Africa, and Asia; and

The Origin of Serpent Worship; Two Treatises by Hyde Clarke, M.A.I., and C. StanilandWake, M.A.I., edited by Alexander Wilder, M.D., J.W. Bouton, New York, 1877, 48pp.

** De Gubernatis: Zoological Mythology, part III, v. 405-------------

The remains of Serpent-worship are to be found in all quarters of the earth, amongnations geographically remote from each other, and supposed to be distinct incharacteristics of race, habitude, intellectual constitution and religious belief. Some faiths,like that of the Buddhists - perhaps the oldest of all, - still maintain a qualified venerationfor the sacred animal as a part of their worship; while others, even among the mostmodern, do not hesitate to display the serpent-symbol conspicuously among theirecclesiastical decorations. We see it in the architecture of churches, and even find itsreliques in the garb of priests. Moses in recorded an having erected the symbol of thePhoenician Aesculapius, the sun-god of autumn, as "a sign of salvation." The like devicewas borne upon the respective standards of the Assyrians, the Persians, the Romans, andeven the British. It was thus honored by Christians as well as "heathen." Whole sects, weare assured by the early fathers, used to partake of the Eucharistical Supper, after it hadbeen consecrated by a living snake coming from a coffer and entwining its coils about theloaves of bread.

Not only did it enter into the symbolical and ritual service of every religion in whichthe worship of the sun constituted the prominent feature, but we find it in countries wherethat worship appears to have been comparatively or altogether unknown, as in ancientSarmatia, Scandinavia, and upon the Gold Coast of Africa. In every known country of theancient world the serpent formed a prominent object of veneration, and made noinconsiderable figure in legendary and astronomical mythology. Its consecration as areligious emblem preceded the later forms of polytheism; and we find it in sacred legendsof every country, in almost every temple, symbolizing almost every deity, imaged in theheavens, stamped upon the earth, and finally made supreme in the realms of everlastingsorrow.* "No nations were so geographically remote, or so religiously discordant, but thatone and only One - superstitious characteristic was common to all; that the most civilizedand the most barbarous bowed down with the same devotion to the same engrossing deity;and that this deity either was, or was represented by the same Sacred Serpent." Itsantiquity must be accredited to a period far antedating all history.**

-----------* Rev. John Bathurst Deane, M.A.: Worship of the Serpent, chap. xiii, p. 443** Henry O'Brien: The Round Towers of Ireland, chap. xvi, p. 222. "The parent is

always senior to the offspring, but it is not quite such a truism that 'the most ancient recordof the history of the serpent-tempter is the book of Genesis.' Before a line of it was everwritten, or its author ever conceived, the allegory of the serpent was propagated all over

the world. Temples constructed thousands of years prior to the birth of Moses bear theimpress of its history."------------

A symbolism so uniform as well as peculiar must be regarded as affording plausibleevidence that the people employing it were of kindred ethnical origin. "Of all researchesthat most effectually aid us to discover the origin of a nation or people whose history isinvolved in the obscurity of ancient times, none, perhaps, are attended with such importantresults as the analysis of their theological dogmas and their religious practices. To suchmatters mankind adhere with the greatest tenacity; which, though modified and corruptedin the revolution of ages, still retain features of their original construction, when language,arts, sciences and political establishments no longer preserve distinct lineaments of theirancient constitution."* This is astonishingly exemplified in the religion of India.Notwithstanding the revolutions of time and dominion, the distractions of foreign and civilwars, and, what is more usually fatal than these, the addition of allegorical fictions, itsoriginal features are still sufficiently recognizable to identify it with the worship whichprevailed in ancient Egypt, on the plains of Assyria, in the valleys of Greece, among thenations around the Caspian and Euxine seas, and their kindred tribes in northwesternEurope.

------------* McCulloh: American Researches, page 225.

------------

But this rule, it is pleaded, can hardly be extended to the populations of the westernhemisphere. Yet the Serpent was generally revered among them; it entered widely intotheir symbolical representations, and it had essentially the same signification as among theearly nations of the Eastern Continent. But philology and physiology seem to prevent usfrom supposing that there existed any original identity of race. The ruins on the twocontinents have little in common. The teocallis of Mexico and the mounds of NorthAmerica are different from the pyramids of Egypt, and the artificial hills and "high places"of the eastern word. The resemblance in the symbols of worship is only apparent, despitethe plausible remark of Mr. Squier, that "it can hardly be supposed that a symbol strictlyarbitrary could accidentally be chosen to express the same idea." Nevertheless, thedissimilarities which appear in emblems of the same character are strikingly conspicuous.The sacred serpents of the eastern continent were by preference the cobra de capella orhooded snake of India, and the uraeus, or royal asp of Egypt. There were also "dragons"of other species, the prodigious sire of which was often noted. The apocryphal chapter ofthe book of Daniel mention such an animal at Babylon, and Alexander visited one in hislair near Taxila. But the sacred serpent of America is generally, especially among thewandering tribes, the rattlesnake. Indeed, Mr. George R. Glidden was so impressed withthe diversities as to assert that they proved that there could have been no possibleintercourse between the two continents three thousand year ago, as many hadconjectured.

It has, however, been a favorite idea of anthropologists and other speculators onthe subject of human origins, that the Old World had afforded a parentage for the

population of the New. The ten lost tribes of Israel have been evoked from their hiding-places; and even a stray passage in the apocryphal book of Esdras has done greatservice to eke out authority.* The Druids of Britain are largely a creation of the fancy fromthe barest historical basis, yet they were not wrought into shape and dimensions with anequal endeavor. One imaginative writer, however, a clergyman of some repute, hasdismissed the American savages, and through the magic of his fresh-nibbed pen, our so-called Anglo-Saxon race became lost Israelites unaware. The Abbe de Bourbourg wentfurther still. He propounds the hypothesis of a submerged continent in the middle Atlantic,which connected or at least communicated with the Old World, and was populated by theAtlantians, in which race was included the Hispano-Iberians, Ligurians, Etruscans, Moors,North Africans and Egyptians. His views, however, do not meet a cheerful acceptance.Our modern savants, though tolerably willing to have "missing links" for ancestors, do notgraciously accept in that relation either aboriginal Americans or African negroes.

----------* II Esdras, xiii, 40-42. "These are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoners

out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar, the king of Assyria,led away captive; and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into anotherland. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitudeof the heathen and go forth into a farther country where never mankind dwelt; that theymight there keep their statutes which they never kept in their own land."-----------

But Mr. Hyde Clarke, an ethnologist of superior merit, seems to indicate the wayopen for the adoption of the Australian race and its fellows. In another treatise hepropounds the opinion that "we have two streams, at least, of dark and white racesdeparting from India, and affecting us [the English and Irish] in these islands, altogetherapart from the influence of Celts and English." Prof. Huxley notes them more carefully; oneof tall stature, with fair skin and blue eyes; the other of short stature, with dark hair anddark eyes. Mr. Henry Rawlinson has indicated two such races in ancient Babylonia; theAdamu, Adamites or dark race; the other the Sarku, or light race. The Ceylonese havea tradition that Adima and Hiva, the parents of the dark race of India, once paradised onthat island, but were persuaded by an evil spirit to leave it for the mainland, and were neverpermitted to return.

There is, however, a conflict of ethnologists about these dark races, the justdetermination of which would greatly facilitate a correct judgment of the origin anddissemination of the Serpent Cultus. The school which is represented by Max Muller, theRawlinsons still other scholars, hailing we believe-from Oxford, would direct our attentionto the Turanians. These, they cry, occupied all Northern Asia and Europe, and were theaboriginal race in Hindustan, Asiatic Ethiopia, Chaldea and Babylonia. Mr. Fergusonaccordingly suggests that serpent-worship "arose among a people of Turanian origin, theprimeval inhabitants who first settled on the banks of the Lower Euphrates, and that itspread thence as from a centre to every country or land of the Old World, in which aTuranian people settled."* If we are not mistaken in our geography, this would be in theregion of Duni, at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates, called in the Assyrian tabletsKar-duniyas or Gan-duniyas. This latter name is the same as GaN-EDeN, the garden of

God; and, indeed, Sir Henry Rawlinson has pointed out the agreement of the Babylonianregion of Kar-duniyas with the Eden of the Bible.** This would make Mr. Fergusson'shypothesis square very well with the Biblical one, and perhaps sustain the theory of Mr.Robert Brown, Jr., in regard to the Great Dionysiak Myth, which seems to indicate theorigin of Bacchus-worship and its inhering ophiolatry, in Sumir and Akkad in this sameregion. But the Adamites would thus be set down as a pretty inferior race of MongolTartars, hardly likely to develop a skilful and cultured stock like the family of Cain or thebuilders of the city and tower of Babel.

-------------* Fergusson: Tree and Serpent Worship, Introductory Essay, part I, p. 3.** Forty-Sixth Report of the Royal Asiatic Society.

-------------

Mr, Wake's hypothesis is somewhat more explicit. He is of opinion that "SerpentWorship, as a developed religious system, originated in Central Asia, the home of the greatScythic stock, from whom sprang all the civilized races of the historical period. Thesepeople are the Adamites, and their legendary ancestor was at one time regarded as theGreat Serpent - his descendants being in a special sense serpent-worshipers."

But Adam, Mr. Wake suggests in another treatise, was not "the name given at firstto this mythical father of the race." He suggests that the term was formed by thecombination of the primitive Akkadian words AD, father, and DAM, mother. "It would thus,"he remarks, "originally express a dual idea, agreeably to the statement in Genesis v. 2, thatmale and female were called 'Adam.' (This agrees perfectly with the Persian and othertraditions which made the first human being androgynous or double-sexed.) When thedual idea expressed in the name was forgotten, Adam became the Great Father; the GreatMother receiving the name of Eve (Havvah), i.e., living or life" - (in Arabic, a serpent).

Mr. Wake accordingly, with much ingenuity, associates the Persians, Greeks andRomans, and probably the Hindus and Celtic people with the Medes of the earlier historicalrieriod, and through them with the Akkadians or Chaldeans of Babylonia. He gives theword ak the sense of "root or stem, lineage;" and so Ak-Ad would mean the sons of Ad orAdam. This would make the Chaldeans Adamites, and sustain the hypothesis of theoriginal home in their country. The Mad [M-Ad] or Medians who established the first kinglygovernment in the country, he suggests as the parent-stock from which the Akkadianswere derived. Somewhat similar ideas exist in various regions. The Parsees of Hindustanhave the legend of the great Ab-Ad, the first ancestor of mankind. The Hindu Puranasrefer to the reign of King It or Ait, an avatar of Siva. Egypt was named Ait or Aetos, froma king whom the Greek writers represent as a Hindu. The Puranas spoke of Yadavas,descendants of "Aetas or Yatu," that emigrated to Abyssinia.* Yama, the Brahman god ofthe Underworld, associated or identified with Takshak, the king of the serpents, wasregarded as the original progenitor of mankind. Hence it was his office to receive themafter death, and to reward or punish them according to their merits.

-----------* "The name Ethiopia may be explained in like manner - Ait or Aith, the Indian

prince, and opia, a common termination in the Mediterranean countries.

"In the History of India by Collonica-Batta, the following passage occurs: 'Under thereign of Viswamitra, first king of the dynasty of Soma Vansa (the human race), inconsequence of a battle which lasted five days, Manuvenna, heir of the ancient kings [ofthe Solar dynasty], abandoned by the Brahmans, emigrated with all his companions,passing through Arya [Iran] and the countries of Barria, till he came to the shores ofMasra,'" - Mitzra, or the Nile.-----------

The Arabs also had their ancestor Ad, and one of their tribes bore that designation.The Yezidis of Mesopotamia also venerrate Sheikh Adi, their Adam Kadmon or AncientOne, in whose honor they celebrate mysterious rites like those of the Korybantes of ancientPhrygia. Mr. Layard has preserved a hymn to this sacred personage which identifies himas divine, the architect of all things, preceding all that exists, self-originated, the One andOnly One, the Ancient of days, receiving the highest wisdom from the Eternal Essence.*The Egyptians, likewise, venerated a similar divine being, denominated At-um or At-mu,the Father of mankind. He was the first-born or Only Son whom the Egyptians mournedin their orgies. He was identical with Adon or Tammuz of Syria, or Tamuzi of the Tablets,who was also annually mourned by the women of Western Asia at the sacred rites.

-----------* Layard: Ninevah and Babylon, vol. I, iv.

-----------

Mr. Wake now carries his genealogy from Hamites and Shemites to Aryans, andeven to other people that we were beginning to consider as of different races. "It has nowbeen shown that not only are the peoples mentioned in the Toldoth Beni Noah [genealogyof the sons of Noah] rightly classed his decendants of the mythical Ad, but that the AsiaticAryans with the allied peoples of Europe to the farthest limits of the Celtic area, may alsowell be thus described. The ancient Mad [early Medians] belonged, however, to the greatScythic stock; and hence all the Turanian peoples, including the Chinese, may doubtlessbe classed among the Adamites." This would exclude perhaps the dark peoples of thetropics; but a way is made for the Mexican and kindred American peoples. Theconnecting link would seem to be our own Northern race. Says Mr. Wake: "One of thesolar heroes of the Volsung Tale is Atli, who becomes the second husband of Gudrun, thewidow of Sigurd; Sigurd himself being the slayer of the dragon Fafnir, who symbolizes thedarkness or cold of a northern winter - the Vritra of Hindu mythology. This dragon-enemyof Indra was also called Ahi, the strangling snake, who appears again as Atri; and Mr. Coxsupposes that the name Atri may be the same as Atli of the Volsung Tale. Atli, who in theNibelung Song is called Etzel, overpowers the chiefs of Niflheim [the underworld], whorefused to give up the golden treasurers which Sigurd had won from the dragon, and hethrows them into a pit full of snakes.

"The connection of the Teutonic hero with the serpent is remarkable, for in theMexican mythology we meet with a divinity having almost the same name, and associatedwith the same animal. Humboldt tells us that the Great Spirit of the Toltecs was calledTeotl; and Hardwicke says that Teotl was the Only-God of Central America. If so,however, he was a serpent-deity; for the temples of Yucatan were undoubtedly dedicated

to a deity of that nature. It is not improbable, however, that Teotl was really a generic termagreeing in this respect as curiously enough in its form with the Phoenician Taaut (Thoth).

"The god to whom the temples of Yucatan were really dedicated appears to beQuetzal-coatl - by some writers called the feathered serpent, a title belonging to hisserpent-father, Tona-catl-coatl. This Quetzal-coatl was the mysterious stranger who,according to tradition, founded the civilization of Mexico, agreeing thus in his character ofa god of wisdom with the Egyptian Thoth; reminding us of the resemblance of the nameof this deity to that of the Toltecan Teotl. But this first part of the name of the MexicanQuetzal-coatl no less resembles that borne by the Teutonic deity Etzel. Co-atl signifies 'theserpent' while Quetzal would seem to have reference to the male principIe: and thus theidea expressed in the name of the Mexican god is the male principle represented as aserpent. Quetzal-coatl, moreover, is said to be an incarnation of Tonacatl-coatl, who is themale serpent; his wife being called Cihua-coatl, meaning literally the 'woman of theserpent,' or a 'female serpent.'*

-------------* See Ancient Symbol Worship, pp. 40-41. Mr Wake then explains this same

subject as follows: The serpent was also the symbol of the Egyptian Kneph, whoresembled the Sophia of the Gnostics, the Divine Wisdom. This animal, moreover, wasthe Agathodaemon of the religions of antiquity - the giver of happiness and good fortune.It was in these capacities, rather than as having a phallic significance, that the serpent wasassociated with the sun-gods, the Chaldean Bel, the Grecian Apollo, and the Semitic Seth.But whence originated the idea of the wisdom of the serpent which let to its connection withthe legend of the "fall?" This may, perhaps, be explained by other facts which show alsothe nature of the wisdom here intended. Thus, in the annals of the Mexicans, the firstwoman, whose name was translated by the old Spanish writers "the woman of our flesh,"is always represented as accompanied by a great male serpent. This serpent is the Sun-god Tonacatl-coatl, the principal deity of the Mexican pantheon, and the goddess-motherof primitive man is called Cihua-Cohuatl, which signifies wife of the serpent. According tothis legend, which agrees with that of other American tribes, a serpent must have been thefather of the human race. This notion can be explained only on the supposition that theserpent was thought to have had at one time a human form. In the Hebrew legend thetempter speaks, and "the old serpent having two feet," of Persian mythology, is none otherthan the evil spirit Ahriman himself. The fact is that the serpent was only a symbol, or atmost an embodiment, of the spirit which it represented, as we see from the belief of certainAfrican and American tribes, which probably preserves the primitive form of thissupposition. Serpents are looked upon by these people as embodiments of their departedancestors, and an analogous notion is entertained by various Hindu tribes. No doubt thenoiseless movement and the activity of the serpent, combined with its peculiar gaze andmarvelous power of fascination, led to its being viewed as a spirit-embodiment, and hencealso as the possessor of wisdom. In the spirit-character ascribed to the serpent, we havethe explanation of the association of its worship with human sacrifice noted by Mr.Fergusson - this sacrifice being really connected with the worship of ancestors.------------

In the identification then of Atli or Etzel, who consigns his enemies to the pit of serpents,with the Great Serpent Ahi himself, we have a ground of identification of the Teutonic deitywith the Mexican serpent-god Quetzal-coatl. This view loses none of its probability if thelatter is, as Mr. Squier asserts, an incarnation of the serpent-sun, or rather a serpent-incarnation of the Sun god, since Ahi himself it a solar deity.*

-----------* In the religious symbols used by the Mexicans, Mr. Wake elsewhere remarks, "We

have another point of contact with the asiatic deities. The Sacred Tau (--) of antiquity hasits counterpart on the Mexican monuments. The Mexican symbol perfectly represents thecross-form of the Tau, but it is composed of two serpents entwined, somewhat as in thecaduceus of Mercury. That the Tau itself had such an origin we can well believe, since thename of the letter Tet (Qhth) of the Phoenician alphabet specially associated with Thothof whom the Tau is a symbol, is that of the God himself, as well as meaning serpent.-----------

"If the comparisons thus made between the Mexican and Teutonic mythologies iscorrect, the further analogies pointed out by M. Brasseur de Bourbourg may be wellfounded. Thus the Mexican Votan or Odon supposed to be the same as Quetzal-coatl maybe in reality none other than the Scandinavian Odin, Woden, or Wuotan, who also was asun-god, and whose name seems to be connected through the root vad with the Semiticata, to come, with which there is reason to believe the name of the mythical Ad may alsobe connected."

Having thus adjusted the race-affinities across the Atlantic, Mr. Wake next conductsus among the Polynesian nations. He finds Ta to be the name of a "first ancestor," whichhe considers then same as At. But he makes another distinction which ethnologists willbe slow to recognize. "Those mythological coincidences," he remarks, "are so stronglysupported by similarity of customs and linguistic affinities, that there will be no difficulty inclassing the Mexicans and kindred American peoples, and even the lighter Polynesians,with the Adamites. This being so, a still broader generalization than any yet attempted maybe made as to the peoples to be included in the Adamic division of the human race. Thesimplest classification of mankind according to cranial conformation is that of Retzius intodolichocephali or long-heads and brachiocephli or short-heads. The Mexicans and otherpeoples of the western part of the American continent belong to the latter category, as doalso the inhabitants of the area of Asia and Europe. In China and in the southern part ofAsia, as well as of Europe, the various peoples are chiefly long-headed; and this is thecase with the Hamitic population of Northern Africa. The latter are, however, certainly muchmixed with the native African element, which is purely dolichocephalic, exhibiting evidencesof its prognathism, and it is far from improbable that originally they were brachiocephaliclike the allied peoples of Western Asia. Such also, would I suggest, was the case with thelong-headed but orthognathous European and Asiatic peoples we know as Aryans; andwith the Chinese and the lighter Polynesians who are now mostly dolichocephalic.Throughout all the regions where these peoples are found there would appear to havebeen an indigenous long-headed stock, which has more or less nearly absorbed thebrachiocephalic element which was introduced long ages ago from the vast regions ofCentral Asia, and which for the want of a better term may be called Scythic. Subject to this

qualification it may probably be said that Adamic and short-headed are synonymous terms;and that among the descendants of Father Ad may therefore be classed all the peopleswho are embraced in the great brachiocephalic division of mankind, or who would havebelonged to it if they had not been physically modified by contact with peoples of the moreprimitive dolichocephalic area."

Hence Mr. Wake finally concludes: "It is difficult, indeed, to say where thedescendants of Ad are not now to be met with, or where the pre-Adamite is to be founduninfluenced by contact with them."

Professor Agassiz believed that the different human families, like the fauna andflora, were indigenous in particular regions. There is evidently a plurality of human races,and they were doubtless of different age and duration on this globe. Yet they exhibit a farless diversity than the species of animals as they appear on the several continents. Theape tribes have a common tendency toward the human ideal, but even in this respect, theydisplay a remarkable diversity from one another. Each tribe approximates humanity froma standing-point peculiarly its own. The uran is very like man in one certain way, but heis not man-like in such a manner as the chimpanzi. The two are formed and developed asif after different models. Mankind could not be evolved from any of them, for the variousraces of men have one common ideal as human beings. Many of them, to be sure, comeso far short of genuine mental and intellectual conditions as to perish without advancingbeyond a mere bestial mode of existence. But their form, their mental constitution, so faras it is developed, their very passions and appetites, their peculiar ambitions, show themto be really human beings. Whether they are immortal, whether they possess anyrudiment of spirituality in such advanced condition as to eventuate in continued existencewith the interior qualities of man cannot now be discussed or any determinate judgmentexpressed.

Mr. John D. Baldwin, of Worcester, Mass., takes direct issue in several of his workswith many of these propositions upon grounds which appear well sustained. He cites theexistence of a Malay Empire to the Polynesian Islands, of a duration extending back intoprehistoric time. It had not ceased to exist when the Portuguese first voyaged around theCape of Good Hope. It extended as far as Eater Island and required months for itscircumnavigation. "It was maritime and commercial; it had fleets of great ships; and thereis evidence that its influence reached most of the Pacific islands." Its metropolis was in theisland of Java; and the remains of Buddhistic temples, and of serpent-worship, are still tobe found. But the ancient Peruvians, the Toltecans, and other civilized American nations,differed in type from these Malay populations, and belonged to some other ethnicaldivision.

The character of the aboriginal inhabitants of Hindustan is also in dispute. Theyhave been jumbled together somewhat promiscuously into the Scythic or Turanian class,or rather unclassed tribes of mankind. Several have denominated them negroes, but SirWilliam Ellis appears to have disposed of this method of shirking the subject. Speakingof the Dravidian races, he says: "Throughout this range I have never observed, duringforty years' sojourn, any indication of true Mongolian features. Still less have I seen anysigns of Negro blood, save in the instances of imported Africans on the Western Coast."Mr. Baldwin, after propounding the theory that the Cushites or Ethiopians from Arabia hadlong preceded the Indo-Aryans in Hindustan, adds: "There are strong reasons for believingthat the Cushites found the country inhabited by a dark-colored race, similar, perhaps, to

the Malays and to the people found on most of the islands of the Indian and Pacificoceans. It was not the policy of the Cushite race to exterminate peoples found in countrieswhich they colonized and occupied. Their policy was to conciliate, civilize and absorbthem. The present physical characteristics of the people of India indicate that they pursuedthis policy in that country."* Prof. Rawlinson adds his testimony: "Recent linguisticdiscovery tends to show that a Cushite or Ethiopian race did, in the earliest times, extenditself along the shores of the Southern Ocean from Abyssinia to India. The wholepeninsula of India was peopled by a race of this character before the influx of the Aryans;it extended from the Indus along the sea-coast through the modern Beluchistan andKerman, which was the proper country of the Asiatic Ethiopians. The cities on the northernshores of the Persian Gulf are shown by the brick inscriptions to have belonged to thisrace; it was dominant in Susiana and Babylonia until overpowered in the one country byAryan, in the other by Semitic intrusion; it can be traced both by dialect and traditionthroughout the whole South coast of the Arabian peninsula, and it still exists in Abyssinia."Again, he treats of "the uniform voice of primitive antiquity which spoke of the Ethiopiansas a single race dwelling along the shores of the Southern ocean from India to the Pillarsof Hercules."**

-----------* J.D. Baldwin: Prehistoric Nations, vi, p. 218** Rawlinson: Herodotus, i, Essay xi, 2, note 8.

-----------

Mr. Hyde Clarke would induce us to modify somewhat the views that have beenentertained of Asiatic, African, and European ethnology. With a plausibility which is noteasy to contend with, taking both history and language for his starting-point, he assumesa racial affinity between the Dravidians of India to the Australians and the Hamites ofNorthern Africa. The Egyptians and the early inhabitants of Western Europe could notescape the association. Even now there exists good reason for believing that the samedark-skinned race is found on both sides of the Mediterranean. At a period preceding thehistoric appearance of the Pelasgians, we are now told that Asia Minor and WesternEurope were inhabited by races speaking a Dravidian language; anthropologically of aDravidian type, and historically represented on the monuments of Egypt . Mr. E. R. Hodgesalso declares that "before the dawn of history overspread Assyria and Mesopotamia, Mediaand Etruria were the earliest colonists of Britain, Spain, Italy and India." In short, the blackDravidian races are considered as having preceded the whole European family of nations;peopling Asia Minor, Armenia, the country of the Caucasus and Asiatic Ethiopia west ofthe Indus, as well as France, Spain and the British islands, long before the Semitic andAryan nations had appeared on the surface of history.

There is a conjecture among scientists that the Asiatic continent once occupied alarge part of the Indian ocean. Assuming this to have been the case, we opine that theDravidian race must be considered as having constituted the population of the submergedterritory. The presumed affinity with the Australians would warrant this opinion.Nevertheless, we had supposed that the wretched savages of the Andaman islands,Papua, Australia and the mountains of Hindustan, were to be considered as of some racelower than the Dravidian.

Mr. Fergusson, who supports the Turanian hypothesis, is very positive that theNagas or Serpent-Worshipers of Hindustan could not be "any of the Dravidian racesinhabiting the south of India." He says, "It does not appear that the Dravidian races everwere essentially, or to any great extent, serpent-worshipers, or ever were converted toBuddhism."* We are therefore, he concludes, reduced to seeking them among the Dasyusor various original tribes who peopled India before either if these two great dominant racesattempted to colonize it. But Ceylon and Burmah, as well as the Vindhaya region and thePunjaub, were peopled by serpent-worshipers who were denominated by their Aryanadversaries, Daisyus and Rakshasas; and serpent-worship was a characteristic of theEthiopian or Hamitic race. There are Stonehenges in Hindustan as well as in England.The May-pole festival is still in observance there, and the people call their sons Mag orMac, like the Celts of Scotland and Ireland and the Berbers of Africa.

------------* Fergusson: Tree and Serpent Worship, Introductory Essay, part II, page 61. Mr.

Fergusson also remarks that the Vishnuites are serpent-worshipers. He says: "TheVaishnava religion is derived from a group of faiths in which the serpent always plays animportant part. The eldest branch of the family was the Naga worship, pure and simple;out of that arose Buddhism, .... and on its decline two faiths - at first very similar to oneanother - rose from its ashes, the Jaina and the Vaishnava. The serpent is almost alwaysfound in Jaina temples as an object of veneration, while it appears everywhere inVaishnava tradition." But elsewhere Mr. Fergusson tells us that, although Buddhism owedits establishment to Naga tribes, yet its supporters repressed the worship of the serpent,elevating tree-worship in its place. According to him, Buddhism was chiefly influentialamong Naga tribes, and "was little more than a revival of the coarser superstitions of theaboriginal races, purified and refined by the application of Aryan morality, and elevated bydoctrines borrowed from the intellectual superiority of the Aryan races." It should not beforgotten that the Vedic religion was not that of all Aryan tribes of India (See Muir, op. cit.,part ii, pp. 377, 348-83); and it is by no means improbable that some of them retained amore primitive faith, Buddhism or Rudraism; i.e., Sivaism. To come to a proper conclusionon this important point, it is necessary to consider the real position occupied by Gautamain relation to Brahmanism. Burnouf says that he differed from his adversaries only in thedefinition he gives of salvation (du salut). (Introduction a l' Histoire du Buddhism Indien,p. 135.) Asoka, the great propagandist, was also a worshiper of Siva.------------

The pamphlet of Mr. Clarke on Serpent and Siva Worship, now republished appearsalso to demonstrate a linguistic relation between countries of Africa and America, whichhad been supposed to be the furthest remote. Names of the most familiar objects in CostaRica are similar, substantially, to those employed for a like purpose in Africa. Even the"Turanian" countries of China and Japan are not excepted in this connection. It maydoubtless be carried much farther. India and Japan give to the monkey, the elephant andtapir, the arrow, etc., names almost identical with those used in Africa and Central America.

Siva, the god-name of India, is far from being as exclusive as we had supposed.We find it in Asia Minor as Saba or Sabazius; in Greece as Seba; in Central America asSibu; in Africa as Eshowo. A snake is Sapa in India, Zebe or Kewo in America, Hebi in

Japan. Mr. Clarke accumulates evidence of this character from which he brings out thefollowing proposition: "The legend of Siva and Kali is prehistorical, and has survived inHindu mythology, and been dealt with by a later dominant race." Siva is not mentioned inthe Rig-Veda. He was no part of the religious system of the Aryan invaders of India, butwas a great divinity of the older population. After the establishment of Brahmanism inHindustan, about twelve centuries ago, he was adopted into the pantheon, together withthe lingham and serpent-symbol. But even now the worshipers of Siva stand aloof fromthe Vishnuites and devotees of Khrisna. His temples are the oldest in the Dekkan, and heis the god of the sanctuaries excavated in the mountains of Ellora.

Jacob Bryant, following in the track of the ethnology of the tenth chapter of Genesis,designated as "Amonians" or children of Ham the dark-skinned population of India, Persia,Chaldea, Syria, Asia Minor and other countries. Ham, according to Wilford, is an inflectionof the name of Siva. Mr. Baldwin, though by no means circumscribed to these limits, alsodenominates these populations, or at least the Arabico-African division, Cushites orEthiopians. Doubtless a new classification will eventually be adopted by ethnologists,which will leave the Scyths and Mongols out in their native cold. We will be enabled to takeour views from anew standing-point.

Signor Gorresio, the translator of the Ramayana, believed the people of southernIndia to be of "Hamitic origin," and cited their use of serpents, dragons and other symbolsfor proof; also, that the god they prefer to all others, and whom they specially honor in theirsacrifices, is "the terrible Rudra or Siva," whom Mr. Baldwin is very certain is a "Cushitedivinity;" and the one denominated Baal. Dr. Stevenson says: "I observe in Turnour'sdocuments relative to the religion of Ceylon that the whole of that island was overrun withdevil and serpent-worship previous to the arrival of Buddha, and I think analogy may leadus to conclude that the same was the case in India before the arrival of the Brahmans."

"The serpent-worship," remarks Mr. Baldwin, "is full of significance. This was agreat feature of the religion of the Cushites; but the 'serpent' will convey a very poor notionof its meaning to those who do not understand what it was. The serpent was regarded asa symbol of intelligence, of immortality, of protection against the power of evil spirits, andof a renewal of life or of the healing powers of nature."

The assumed identity of Siva or Bala with the Baal or Moloch-Hercules of theArabico-Phoenician worship needs only to be placed beyond cavil to give a newer andcorrector understanding of history. It shows a unity of idea between the Malayan Empireof the Pacific, the interior population of India, the Ethiopian or Ethiopian-Dravidian nationsof Africa, Asia and Europe, that may well excite astonishment. Mr. Baldwin, while insistingthat the civilization found in America when it was discovered, had originated there,borrowing nothing from Europe, nevertheless admits a communication with theMediterranean countries. "Religious symbols," he remarks, "are found in the Americanrivers which remind us of those of the Phoenicians, such as figures of the serpent, whichappear constantly, and the cross, supposed by some to represent the mounting of themagnetic needle, which was among the emblems peculiar to the goddess Astarte.... Therewas sun-worship in America, and the phallic ceremonies existed in some places in the timeof Cortez. In Asia, these ceremonies and figures of the serpent were usually associatedwith sun-worship. Humboldt was sure that these symbols came to America from the OldWorld." *

-----------* J.D. Baldwin: Ancient America, vii, pp. 185, 186

-----------

The superior evidence of language which his been adduced by Mr. Clarke in thesepages should be allowed its full weight. Such actually identical terms to express like ideas,cannot be accidental; and though the past is obscured so that our knowledge does notpenetrate its mist and mystery, the facts are very significant and suggestive. Agassiz usedto declare this continent to be the really Old World. What, if after all, the Abbe deBourbourg's conjecture was right, and the Atlantian race actual colonizers of the otherhemisphere and apostles of the serpent-religion? We are not prepared to concede theorigin of ophiolatry to the inhabitants of India. Yet we are aware that religion is very largelya matter of race; no faith of the same essential character exists in a like form amongdiverse nations; nor does a people often change the style and form of its worship withoutretaining the inherent elements very much as they existed before. The various tapes ofChristianity, like those of serpent and Siva worship, are about as numerous as the typesof mankind.

---------------

John James Garth Wilkinson

"The World knows nothing of its greatest men."

The London Times of the twentieth of October announces the death of John JamesGarth Wilkinson, eminent as a physician, as an author, philanthropist and metaphysician.Few such men live in any age, but they are the salt that preserves the earth and rendersits atmosphere healthful.

Dr. Wilkinson was the oldest son of the Hon. James John Wilkinson, Judge of theCounty Palatine of Durham, and was born in 1812. He received a liberal education, andadopted the profession of medicine, becoming a disciple and champion of the doctrinesof Samuel Hahnemann. He was justly distinguished in his calling, both for his breadth ofsentiment and success in practice. He early became a reviver of the doctrines of EmanuelSwedenborg, not in the spirit and limitations of a sectarian, but in the wider field occupiedby the great Swedish seer himself. He published a biography of Swedenborg, delineatinghim as a man of the world and in the scientific arena as well as in the theological. He alsotranslated his biologic works, The Animal Kingdom, Generation, Economy of the AnimalKingdom, and the little philosophic treatise, Divine Love and Wisdom.

Swedenborg, Mr. Emerson informs us, "printed these scientific books in the tenyears from 1734 to 1744, and they remained from that time neglected; and now, after theircentury is complete, he has at last found a pupil in Mr. Wilkinson, in London, a philosophiccritic, with a co-equal vigor of understanding and imagination comparable only to LordBacon's, who has produced his master's buried books to the day, and transferred them,with every advantage, from their forgotten Latin into English, to go round the world in ourcommercial and conquering tongue. This startling reappearance of Swedenborg, after a

hundred years, in his pupil, is not the least remarkable fact in his history. Aided, it is said,by the munificence of Mr. Clissold, and also by his literary skill, this piece of poetic justiceis done. The admirable preliminary discourses with which Mr. Wilkinson has enrichedthese volumes threw all the contemporary philosophy of England into the shade, and leaveme nothing to say on their proper grounds."

Again in his English Traits Mr. Emerson devotes a paragraph to Dr. Wilkinson,describing the man as he was intrinsically: "Wilkinson, the editor of Swedenborg, theannotator of Fourier, and the champion of Hahnemann, has brought to Metaphysics andto Physiology a native vigor, with a catholic perception of relations, equal to the highestattempts, and a rhetoric like the armory of the invincible knights of old. There is in theaction of his mind a long Atlantic roll not known except in deepest waters, and only lackingwhat ought to accompany such powers, a manifest centrality. If his mind does not rest inimmovable biases, perhaps the orbit is larger, and the return is not yet; but a mastershould inspire a confidence that he will adhere to his convictions, and give his presentstudies always the same high place."

Mr. Emerson seems to have forgotten that in every living organism its developmentsinto higher perfection are always characterized by what appears like change, and thatwhen this ceases and there is a tenacious adherence, maturity has come, and growing isat an end. J. J. Garth Wilkinson did not go to seed. His effusions were as pollen to fructifygerms elsewhere.

He began the publication of Swedenborg's scientific works in 1843, and wrote theBiography in 1848. He was in important respects a renascence of the master. He saw inexternal facts their spiritual significance. Phenomena as mere physical facts had noimportance in his view; but the truths which they embodied and vailed he perceivedquickly, as with marvelous intuition. Like Plato, he lived, moved and existed in the worldof idea, riding in a chariot with gods.

At the same time, in whatever related to the well-being of others, he was vividlyawake and outspoken. He was a physician and he magnified his vocation. He did nothesitate to write of medical legislation and the usurpations of medical bodies in disregardof personal rights in terms of warm disapproval. It is only mediocrity assuming to dictateto genius and superiority. In his pamphlets exposing the inutility and mischiefs producedby vaccination, he estimated the deaths which it occasioned at ninety thousand in fortyyears, and he demonstrated this by proofs that have not been controverted.

His treatise entitled The Human Body and Its Connection with Man is a masterpiece.The student desiring to obtain a comprehensive perception of our physical structure andits relations with the invisible and actual real nature has here the book that he wants. Hemanfully confesses that the thoughts are mostly not original with him, that he has borrowedgood things to the best of his powers. That "Nature is full of Deity" is the proposition at thebasis of his scientific beliefs. "Without a quarrel with old modes," says he, "we haveemigrated to another country, where we hope for peace."

Health he described as the birth of a human being into the realms of humanity, andthat it pursues him with new exigencies along the stages of his journey. "The heart-mandoes not live on mineral, but on social grounds; breathes not airs, but thoughts; is warmedby blood heat or affection, and drawn by living magnetism or love."

"It is a mistake," he declared, "to think that there is such a thing as the naturalhistory of disease; it has none but a human history, benignant or terrible." Of medical men

he remarked that one might say that each age of doctors never had a grandfather;"orthodox medicine in this century is a substitution and not a continuation of the scienceof the last" - it has many experiments, but almost no traditions. "Each fresh union of ourpharmacopoeia carefully weeds out old simples and fills their places with chemicals,exterminating this and that to make room for new compounds." "Of the scientific elementwe do not find that it has placed medicine upon any basis but that of experimentation."

He praised Hahnemann for the number of superstitions that be slew, the successand humaneness of doing relatively nothing in medicine, the discarding of purgatives andbleeding, which are filthy and murderous, and in the fact that Homoeopathy affects themind, grouping around it mental and moral states, and including the healing of moods,minds and tempers under the action of medicines.

Nevertheless, Wilkinson, in matters of healing, looked far beyond homoeopathicmedication. He gave a hospitable consideration to the water-cure, the movement-cure,and to "Phrenopathy." Those who practice medicine should cultivate an artistry; tactshould electrify their fingers, resolve should vertebrate their words, cordials should dropfrom their mouths, airs of reassurance should surround them, ease and cheerfulnessshould radiate from their presence. "They must verily believe that medicine is the daughterof Heaven, and that they live to be inspired and to inspire."

"In all the branch" of the New Medicine," he says again, "we have seen the unitedprinciple of faith and works assuming an additional importance as we have risen from theadministration of drugs stage by stage to the phrenopathic art. We allude to the healingpowers exerted by Christ and his apostles, and by him bequeathed to the race of man.Our pontiffs say that the age of miracles is past; but no New Testament ever told them so;Christianity, as we read it, was the institution of miracle as in the order of nature; and if theage of miracles is gone, it is because the age of Christianity is gone. The age ofmathematics would be past if no man cultivated them. On the other hand we aver, by allour honesty to our faith, that for every reason that we can perceive, a duty is neglectedhere which is a main cause of irreligion and skepticism among men. As in the scienceswhich are the kings of these late days, let this mode of healing be fairly experimented. Itbelongs to the priesthood. Let them put on the proofs of their apostolic power; let themperil all in this great attempt. Let the weak excuse of their virtue being past be exchangedfor a godly resolve to bring it back again. If they fail, it will be because they are notChristians or because Christianity cannot bide its own proofs. If they succeed, there willbe no need of missionaries any more, but mankind will sit in a right mind under them andbless their privilege and their Master's name."

Dr. Wilkinson filled the measure of all that he professed. It is easy to perceive thathe was of a dimension mentally and spiritually that even Mr. Emerson could not ascertain.Content to be a seeker for truth, and a doer of the good, be never tried from ambition orvanity to gain a factitious reputation as a scientist or philosopher; but what he found to dothat he did. He was sincere, believing and affectionate. Those, who knew him loved him.Living to an advanced term, he outlived those with whom he had been familiar, and exceptas his family were with him, he experienced what has been to so many the sad solitude ofold age. He solaced his lone hours with study and contemplation, and while the physicalpowers gradually gave way to time, the mental faculties remained without impair as beingrecruited and increased from a superior life.

- Alexander Wilder, M.D.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 10, no. 6, Dec., 1899)

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A Reading in Uncanonical Scripture - Alexander Wilder

It is the practice in the arrangement of English Bibles to distinguish the HebrewSacred Writings as "The Old Testament" and to place after them the Four canonicalGospels and accompanying compositions with the designation of "The New Testament."Besides these, however, there are several others, similar in tone and sentiment, andapparently of equal merit which are set apart by themselves and denominated "TheApocrypha," or arcane productions. In this category are included a series of works,historic, philosophic and literary, written by Jewish authors outside of Judea, and so notaccepted by the authorities at Jerusalem.

The reason for this distinction appears to have relation to the language in which theywere originally written. The Hebrew language in Judea had been superseded by theAramaic and acquired special veneration accordingly. But the Greek was odious frombeing the speech of Antiochus and other oppressors against whom the Jews had revolted.A Jewish temple had been erected and a miniature capital established in Egypt, where theGreek language was spoken, but after the securing of independence in Judea, there wasno favor to be shown. All writings not in Hebrew whatever their intrinsic merits, wereregarded as secular and profane. Even the book of Daniel did not come up to the mark.

For a long period the ruling classes of ancient communities were hostile in theintroducing of foreigners as members of the population. Greek states withheld citizenshipand refused intermarriage; and the Egyptians, probably only the priests and nobles, wouldnot even eat with foreigners. Yet we learn of no such antipathy among the peoples ofPalestine. Although it was recognized that each nationality had its tutelary god,* freeintermarriage is recorded, and a neighborly participation in each others religious worship.Moses is recorded as having married an Ethiopian woman; David, Solomon and othersas taking foreign wives. After the planting of the colony in Judea, no such exclusivenesswas developed till the introducing of the Law by Ezra and Nehemiah. After that thesentiment of isolation became developed to a high degree of intensity. When Judeabecame a province of Egypt, King Ptolemy caused the Sacred Writings to be translatedinto Greek, and the occurrence is said to have been mourned as a national calamity.

------------* Judges XI, 34.

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In illustration of this peculiar exclusiveness, it is recorded that when the first colonyproposed to set about the building of a temple, the leaders of the colony at Samaria askedto take part in the work and were curtly refused. This does not seem to have prevented

marriage alliances between the principal families, so that one of the sons of the high priestafterward became the founder of a temple and rival worship in Samaria. The work atJerusalem was obstructed till the accession of Darius Hystaspis, some twenty years later.Little is known further of the colonists for many years. When Xerxes raised his army fromthe nations under his government to invade Greece there is no mention of levies fromJerusalem or Samaria. Doubtless, there was increase in numbers, and prosperity.

After the accession of Artaxemes Longimanus there were repeated emigrations fromBabylonia to the ancient home. There was also a change in the personality of the ruler.Instead of a prince of the royal lineage, the high priest had the control of affairs, collectingthe tribute and himself paying a specified sum at his own installation. Meanwhile, Judaismtook the form of a religious rather than a political body. The books credited to Ezekiel, Ezraand Nehemiah indicate the nature and thoroughness of this change.

The introducing of the Torah or Law is imputed to Ezra, a priest, and "ready Scribein the law of Moses." In the apocryphal book bearing his name, he is described asmiraculously inspired to give forth the book anew, part to be published openly, and part tobe communicated only to the wise. The canonical record, however, declares that the priestHilkiah, an ancestor of Ezra, "found" the book in the temple, and that King Josiah hadmade it the law of his government.

It is significant that scribes seem to have taken the place before held by prophets.A statute promulgated by the high priest, Jehouda, when regent of Judah, had placedprophets under the ban.* Though it probably fell into desuetude, it could be revived whendesired.

------------* Jeremiah XXX, 26

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When Ezra came to Jerusalem he seems to have lost no time in the introducing ofthe new regulations, insisting on a general annulling of all marriages with foreigners anda repudiation of wives and children. How far this procedure resulted in creating enmity onthe part of the kindred of the discarded women, there is no record, but that such enmity didexist and led to disastrous result, is evident.

About this time Megabyzous, the viceroy of Samaria revolted and in the conflictsthat ensued the Jews became involved and Jerusalem was sacked and desolated. In thiscondition word was brought to Nehemiah, an officer of the royal court, and he was able toprocure a commission as governor of Judea. He hastened to repair the walls andfortifications, after which he set about to reform the management of public affairs. Thishaving been effected, he then collected an assembly of the people, at which the Law ofMoses was formally adopted and subscribed by such of the priests and representatives ofthe population as adhered to his policy. The special requirements to which the signerspledged themselves, were to observe the Law of Moses, to refuse marriage alliances withothers than Jews, to keep the Sabbath and seventh year, and to contribute for the supportof the temple and priests. But it was long before obedience to these regulations becamegeneral.

The book of Malachi describes the delinquencies in worship and probity in businessand conjugal fidelity. When after some years of absence Nehemiah returned to the charge

of affairs, he found the old conditions still prevalent. The religious services were performedwithout proper diligence, and the high priest had actually formed an alliance with Tobiah,a man of influence in Samara. Others had also permitted their children to be married toforeigners as before. The Sabbath was little regarded and devoted as in former time tolabor and traffic. He lost no time in the enforcing of the former regulations. The highpriess, Eliashib, appears to have had little sympathy with his innovations. The regularservice at the temple was characterized by gross neglect, and several members of hisfamily had married daughters of those Samaritan leaders who had strenuously opposedhis efforts to rebuild the fortifications of Jerusalem. Others had intermarried with aliens.Nehemiah called them to account and banished the recreant priest. With this occurrencethe narrative abruptly ends, but other authors inform as that matters fell into the formertrain, and the high priests became the chief rulers. After the death of Joiada, the son ofEliashib, there was a dispute between his sons in regard to the succession, which wasfinally decided by the murder of Joshua by his brother Johanan.

This period was full of historic events. Egypt was in revolt, and the Persian authoritywas weakening, but still all-powerful. Judea was involved in the conflicts, and was overrunby the hostile armies. There was little peace till the conquests of Alexander.

A policy or a doctrine may be vehemently opposed at one period, and then becometriumphant at a succeeding time. History is full of such instances. The children of thepersecutors rear monuments to the prophets whom their fathers had persecuted and killed.After the overthrow of the Persian empire, Simon the just, succeeded as high priest. Hewas of the party of Chasdim,* and made an energetic effort to reinstate Judaism on a firmbasis. He strengthened the wails of Jerusalem, and reformed the public worship,introducing a period which Jews long afterward mentioned with exultation. For a time theobservances of Sabbath and the religious laws appear to have been unduly strict. WhenPtolemy invaded Judea he took Jerusalem without difficulty, having entered the city on theSabbath.**

----------- * It has sometimes been suggested that Chasdim or Asidean was identical withChaldean, and Pharisa in like manner with Persia, as both these peoples had influenceover Jewish manners. But it is more generally supposed that the former term signifies,puritans, as they were strict observers of the law.

** Plutarch: Concerning Superstition.-----------

A century afterward the king of Syria, Antiochus Epiphanes, became master of allPalestine. He planned to consolidate his subjects into a homogeneous people, that shouldspeak the same language, and conform to the same laws and worship. The temple atJerusalem was dedicated to Zeus, and the Bacchic processions and even the Tantric riteswere held. The Jewish religion was proscribed on pain of death. The high priest wasdisplaced, and a successor appointed who was ready to carry out his orders to the letter.Onias, who had been superseded as a candidate now went to Egypt. Jews numberingover a hundred thousand had found homes in Alexandria. Here, by permission of KingPtolemy Philometor, they built a temple near Hierapolis, in a town now called the "City ofOnias."* It is not improbable that it was contemplated to make the new shrine the chief

sanctuary of Judaism. Alexandria had become the mart of commerce, and its famousSchool was now the World's University. Learned men with their disciples from all countriesresorted there. The ambition of the priest would be in no sense unwarrantable. Therewere Jews scattered among the other peoples, all speaking the Greek language, and sothis Greater Judea might naturally regard the sanctuary in Egypt as the home of their faith.

-----------* An analogy to this is found in Judea itself. The town on Mount Zion was called

from its founder, the "City of David" and Jebus after the Temple was erected there, wasnamed Jerusalem, or "City of Solomon."-----------

It could not be long before the Alexandrian learning would have its influence. At anearly day Aristobulus, a Jew of extensive erudition anticipating the Septuagint, madetranslations of selections from the Hebrew writings, and compared them with the teachingsof the philosophers. He affirmed that the Jewish Scriptures when interpreted allegoricallyharmonized with the utterances of the Greek sages. The translation of the Hebrew canonwas also made, and other writers like Jesus ben Sira added philosophic and literarycontributions; all which appear to have been received with favor in the Greater Judeawhere the Greek language was spoken.

This does not seem to have been acceptable to their brethren at Jerusalem. Underthe lead of the Maccabean brothers, a successful revolt had established a nationalindependence for Judea. The high priest, Eliakim, was refused entrance into Jerusalem,and the Temple had been again dedicated to the Hebrew worship.

In the reaction against the policy of Antiochus and his successors, and with it anuprising of enthusiasm for a stricter form of Judaism, the distaste for Greek usagesbecame intense. Not only was the obtruded worship discarded but we are told that JudasMaccabaeus made a new collection of the Sacred Canon,* and strict adherence to it wasrequired. The Hebrew language in which the various books were written, had passed outof familiar use, and was now regarded with special veneration. Works written in it appearto have become a sacred literature, while those which were in the current Aramaic tonguenow the dialect of the people, would be esteemed as secular or profane. The book ofDaniel seems not to have been originally regarded as belonging to the canonical number.

The Alexandrian Jews not only made a translation of the Hebrew works, but addedtreatises of their own. These were read wherever the Greek language was spoken, andwere the only works familiar to the later writers of the works which are now included in theNew Testament. But the Rabbis and scholarly Jews were generally Pharisees** and werenot willing to acknowledge the new productions as sacred learning. Yet to the commonreader they exhibit similar character and merit. Some are didactic like the Wisdom-literature; others historic, as if piecing out the Hebrew works; others are stories analogousto those of Esther, Job, Ruth and Jonah.

-----------* Maccabees II, ii, 14; also Spinosa: Tractato-Politicus** This term, the purport of which is now generally misconceived, is derived from

pharis, a charioteer. The Hebrew sacred literature was denominated "Rechab," a chariot,

as carrying the Law. The Scribes were "of the house of Rechab" (Chronicles I, ii, 55.) andalso Pharisees, or expositors. The prophets Elijah and Elisha are designated by bothterms (Kings II, ii, 12 and xiii, 14) The establishing of the Canon is generally credited tothe Pharisees. A party chiefly of priests and nobility, was indifferent or hostile to what theyregarded as unwarranted innovations. It took its name from the reputed founder of thehierarchy Zadokim or Sadducees. The arrest and execution of Jesus is imputed to them.-----------

A distinguished scholar, a clergyman in Western Pennsylvania, endeavors to arouseattention to a juster appreciation of the works included in the Apocrypha.* He regards thetranslation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek as a providential preparation of the world for theNew Testament, in the same language. "If," he affirms, "if there had never been a GreekOld Testament, there would never have been a Greek New Testament." He is equallyinsistent that the books of the Apocrypha shall be accepted. The Greek version includedthem while it was received as "the Bible of all worshipers outside of Palestine." They wereby far the larger number. Even now the Greek church and also the Roman regard themas "Holy Scripture." The early "Christian Fathers" made use of them and quoted fromthem. Bishop Wordsworth goes so far as to declare that by omitting them "the EnglishBible is not the Bible of Christendom."

-----------** Between the Testaments or Interbiblical History.

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The Alexandrian Collection, now classed as the Apocrypha, contains in the firstbook of Esdras, an attempt to condense the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and remove thediscrepancies of narrative. The brief stories of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, and theSong of the Three in the Fiery Furnace, are inserted perhaps as parables, having nohistoric significance. The book of Baruch and Wisdom of Solomon, delineate very well themoral conditions of society in the ancient world at the time. The Wisdom of Jesus benSira, is more philosophical, and will compare well with books of analogous character. Init we find the historic account of Simon the just, and what he accomplished.

The book of Tobit is little else than a romance. It treats of a family of Israelitishexiles at Nineveh, and gives details of the journey of the son into Media to collect a debt.Raphael, an archangel in human guise goes with him. Sara, his cousin, has been seventimes married, and her husbands killed by Asmodeus, the Daeva of Magian lore, becausehe desired her for himself. Tobias, instructed by Raphael, becomes an accepted suitorand marries her. He has carried the heart and liver of a fish for several days, and nowplaces them on a burning censer. The smell is too much for the demon; he flies away andreturns no more. The young man is attended by a dog, an unusual pet in those days. Heemigrates from Nineveh, because it is to be destroyed, "because those things spoken bythe prophet Jonah were certain to take place."

The book of Judith admirably exhibits ancient customs, but abounds withanachronisms, evidently employed to disguise the really historic matter. The people ofJudea are described as having recently returned from captivity, and Joiakim the son ofJeshua, is high priest in Jerusalem. Nabuchadonosa is King of Assyria and has just

conquered Media. This reminds us of a comical expression of "One-eyed Daly," atSaratoga, referring to what Alexander said to Queen Cleopatra on the island of St. Helena.Judith is described as living at Bethulia, a place not on any map. She is a widow, rich,beautiful, and in every way attractive. The city is invested by an army brought together likethat of Xerxes against Greece, from all the subject peoples. Holofernes is general, andmenaces the city with terrible threats. Judith volunteers to go to the camp of the besiegersafter the style of a fugitive. She is received and finally honored with a specialentertainment, at which she finds opportunity to slay the general. The rout of the Assyrianarmy follows and Judea is delivered.

Historians inform us that Judea was actually invaded by a Persian army underBagoas. A commander named Holofernes, a Cappadocian, appears to have led a part ofthe force. Bagoas actually took possession of Jerusalem, actually entering the temple, andtaunting the Jews that he was as sacred a person as the priest who slew his brother.

The story of the Maccabees, though written in Greek, and not accepted in theCanon, can hardly be accredited to the Alexandrians. It is evidently historic, and carriesthe history of Judea till its independence was acknowledged, and Hyrkanus became highpriest and chief magistrate. The brief century of the priest-kings who succeeded is notgiven, and how far the accounts of Josephus are trustworthy is by no means certain.Under his grandson Hyrkanus, the Parthians overran Judea, and afterward the Romansalso took part in the local contentions. They had maintained friendly treaties with the Jewsfrom the time of Judas Maccabaeus, often actually rendering beneficial help, but finally aswas their usual practice, annexing the country to their own empire.

The Apocryphal books possess a merit which renders their exclusion from EnglishBibles, without proper warrant. They certainly compare favorably with the canonical works.But it is not our province to pass judgment. The books, if not altogether veracious, werenevertheless written for a religious purpose, and are instructive. If any one is disposed toprotest that this is making too free with inspired text a pertinent answer may be found inthe words of an Indian Chief:

"The Great Spirit speaks: we hear his voice in the breeze, in the murmur of thestreams, and in the rustling of the leaves on the trees; but he does not write."

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 22, no. 3, March, 1908)

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Short and Miscellaneous

Bacchus*

The author of The Great Dionysiak Myth, Mr. Robert Brown,Jr., has given a fullerand more interior view of the fancied grape-god. Only a sciolist, after reading his pages,would think of the thyrsus-bearing divinity as essentially the patron of revels and debauch.We are conducted through a world of classical and mythological research, far outside ofOlympous, and even of Greece, over Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and the far Orient. Everywhere

we seem to have discerned the birthplace of the god; yet everywhere we learn that he wasno native, "to the manner born."

----------* The Great Dionysiak Myth, by Robert Brown, Jr., F.S.A., etc., Vols. I, II, London:

Longmans, Green & Co.----------

Osiris of Egypt was Dionysos, says Herodotus; and it was because, as Diodoros tells us,he was the son of Zeus, and reared at Nysa, in Arabia Felix, Dio-Nysos signifying the Joveof Nysa. Here Mr. Samuel Sharpe comes in with the information that Nysa was anEgyptian method of spelling Sinai backward; and that Mount Sinai had been for untoldages, before the reputed period of Moses, a "holy hill," the fabled resort of gods. Cominginto the Holy Land we there find him symbolized by the taurosphinx, minotaur or man-bull,and venerated as the Baal of the country. Mr. Brown has indeed gone further, and derivedhis name from that of the Tyrian Hercules. According to our ideas of etymology Molochwould have answered every purpose; but he chooses the compound Melqarth, the kingor Malek of the commune. The name is contracted into Mocar, Macar and Micar, forMolcar, Malcar and Milcar. Then as we well know, the m frequently changes into b, andwe have Bocar, Bacar, etc. No marvel after this that Bocchus, written else Bacus, shouldnext appear; finally settling down into Bacchus. The corollary of all this is, that this divinityis identical with Hercules, Aesculapius, Adonis, Atys, Melikertes, Zagreus, Pluto, Saturn,and a swarm of others, with horns, rays, serpent-bodies, women's bosoms, branches,leopard-skins, and other mystic pamphernalia. But the real Bacchus or Dionysos must betraced beyond Thebes, Phoenicia and Mount Sinai. He is not Hellenic or Hindu; yet wethink it not improbable that he was the original of Siva, also styled Devanisi, for Siva, Sibuor Saba, also was worshiped from Japan to Africa and Central America. But the deva orgod so generally revered, owed it all to his universal wanderings, as from India to theHellespont, and over all ancient Aethiopia from the Indus to the Atlantic. In other wordshe was an Hamitic god, the personified Sun, ruler of the world by day, and of theunderworld by night. Mr. Brown accordingly solves the entire problem by quotingNebuchadnezzar and Mr. H. Fox Talbot. This latter gentleman, an eminent Assyriologist,wrote thus concerning the religious belief of the Assyrians:

"This point then seems fully proved, that the Sun received the spirits of just men intoa heavenly abode of happiness. The great name of the Sun in Assyrian theology wasDaian-nisi or Dian-nisi, 'the judge of men.' Some years ago I ventured to affirm that thisname is the same with the Dionysus of the Greeks. All know that the worship of Dionysuswas derived from the East in very ancient times. In the early mythologies the name ofDionysus signified the Sun, for Herodotus says that the only god worshiped by theArabians was Dionysus; now it is certain that the Arabians worshiped the Sun, and theAssyrian records confirm this by saying that tribute was brought by the Queen of theArabians, who used to worship the Sun. Osiris and Dionysus were the same according tothe judgment of Plutarch. And he quotes from Heraclitus that Dionysus was Hades. ButHades or Pluto was fabled to be the judge of departed souls."

An Assyrian monarch styles the Sun Dian-nisi, the great judge of heaven and earth,and his "umbrella of state" was dedicated to him in that character. An inscription of

Nabukuduruzur reads in the translation: "To the Sun (Shamas or Shem) the judgesupreme, the temple of Dian-nisi, his temple in Babylon grandly I built." Thus Babylon isrevealed as the source whence Bacchus and his worship proceeded, as also that ofAstarte-Venus, the Great Mother of all the Old-World religions. With this clue we easilymake our way through the labyrinth of Mythology and the arcane worship of the Mysteries,and out into clear air. The ancient religions were substantially identical, as scientificinvestigation shows. "The great Dionysiak Myth" was not invented on the Levant or theAegean, but came from ChaIdea and its vicinity, "the cradle of nations, and nurse andfountain-head of the civilization and religions of the world." - W.

(Medical Tribune, vol. 1, no. 1, Nov. 15, 1878)

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A Dispute Over a Stela

It has been substantially agreed among Egyptologists that Meren-Ptah, the son ofRameses the Great, was the king under whom the Israelites left Egypt. But a Stela ormonumental pillar belonging to his reign contains an inscription which perplexesinvestigators. Professor Flinders Petrie acknowledges that "there is nothing in theinscription to corroborate the story told in the Pentateuch." He also declares further: "Thedeliverance of the Israelites from Egypt is turned into the deliverance of Egypt itself fromthe Libyan confederacy of raiding barbarians, among the hordes of which the Israeliteswere a scarcely distinguished unit."

Mr. Cope Whitehouse in a letter from Newport takes exceptions to this judgment ofProfessor Petrie. He declares it difficult to attach any importance to the Stela. "Nor isdeeper digging in Egyptian soil," he adds, "any substitute for profound research amongmanuscripts and books."

The apparent agreement of the inscription with the Egyptian authors cited byJosephus in his reply to Apion, he does not consider of great importance. "Whether thisaccount be true or only the Egyptian side of the story," he affirms that "there is nothingnovel in its corroboration of the Stela." He gives a different interpretation to the purport oftheir statements. They stated that a certain foreign race, the "Hyksos," had invaded Egypt;and that several centuries afterward the "leper" and other infected persons were allowedto occupy Auaris which the Hyksos had abandoned. They were joined by a force sufficientto command the neck of the Delta and the trade routes, but were compelled by a forcefrom the south to surrender. Unable with their cattle and young children to retreatwestward in the desert, they made their way instead to the Isthmus of Suez.

Mr. Whitehouse identifies Auaris or Hu-Aur with Howara the key to Lower Egypt.It was even more than that. It was the key of the whole Egyptian world. The whole regionnow known as the Fayoum had been transformed by drainage into a fertile district, themetropolis of the commerce between India and the Mediterranean. With the expulsion ofthe Hyksos the fortifications had been dismantled. The new-comers now resorted to it.After their surrender, the Egyptian government determined to put an end to its use oncefor all as a menace to Memphis, their northern capital. They let the Nile fill up the region,

using it as a regulator against flood and drouth. But in the period of Greek ascendency,the Ptolemies caused it to be drained once more, and granted it to their soldiers; and soit became productive land, "as in the days of Joseph" when it brought forth by handfuls.But Mr. Whitehouse reminds as that "it was not considered as a part of 'Egypt' 3,500 yearsago.

It may be well to remind readers that the Egypt or Mizraim of the Bible comprisedonly the northern part of the country. The Thebaid and contiguous territory in the Southwas known as Pathros.

We have already been shown that Egypt was very ancient and highly cultured formany reigns before Menes, and now we learn that the Fayoum was like Holland, floodedand drained as public policy dictated. What next? - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 21, no. 5, 1907)

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How Words are Made

Many of the terms in our common speech have got there in very oblique ways.Some have commended themselves by a fancied similarity of sound and idea; others havebeen considered as slang but forced a way into reputable use; and others seemed topossess an appropriateness which led the public as by instinct to accept them. Oncereceived, there is no power of the lexicographer to exclude them; we have proof of this inthe fact that there are numerous words which makers of dictionaries have shut off fromtheir pages, but everybody knows them and what they mean. Besides, they are genuineso far as relates to their etymology.

Such words as buzz, murmur, hush, hist, kiss, rattle, roar, whistle, hollow, suggesttheir meaning by their peculiar sound, and we need look no further for their origin.

At the outbreak of the Civil War the term "skedaddle" came into familiar use, todenote the disorderly flight of a little group of soldiers. Its origin called out muchdiscussion. It has been attributed to the students of Harvard University as belonging totheir college slang. Some of the first regiments at Washington in 1862 were fromMassachusetts, and Harvard men were well represented in their ranks, which fact affordsplausibility to the guess. The attempt has been made to form it from the Greek verbskedao, to scatter, which is just accurate enough for a bevy of rollicking college students.But since 1865 we have seldom heard the term used, and presume that with the comingof peace there has been little occasion calling it out.

The writer was conversing one day in the sixties with a Democratic politician aboutthe canvass of votes in a certain district in New York. He remarked that there was reasonto apprehend "shennannigin." I had never heard the word before, but perceived itsmeaning at once. It seems to be a familiar term with the Irish, and I venture the guess thatits familiar use will be a step toward the attempted preservation of the Irish language.

It was once declared that Julius Caesar with all his exploits, was not able to add aword to the speech of Rome. This may be doubted, for war generally overloads a

language with novel terms. But the writer has made the attempt with partial, it may beindifferent success. In 1858 he first applied the title of "Rogues' Gallery" to the collectionof pictures at the Headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in New York. It was adopted atonce, and since that the designation has been adopted for similar collections elsewhere.When the feasibility of the wireless telegraph became assured, he suggested thedesignation of "Marconigram" for the communications which were transmitted. There hasno other term been devised so expressive, and the analogy which has already affixed thenames of Galvini, Volta, and Faraday to their respective discoveries, should be equallyforcible as a matter of justice to Marconi. The new word is easy to pronounce, which isgreatly in its favor, and it has been made use of by several whose example is likely to befollowed.

Lullaby as a term to still young children has behind it an old Semitic tradition. Adam,we are told, had for his first wife the woman Lilith. She revolted from him when she learnedthat the marriage obligation was a pledge to "love, honor and obey." She refused toacknowledge that "the man is the head of the woman." Uttering the fated spell-word, a pairof wings grew from her shoulders. Immediately she flew away from Eden to the ErythreanSea, and became the consort of Samael, the evil demon of the desert. Henceforth shewas an ogress, who delighted in the destroying of young children. Parents accordingly, inorder to protect their offspring made use as a charm of the words "Lilith abi" - Lilith be gone- and these have finally became "lullaby."

Schooner seems to be a word of Yankee origin. The "h," however, is superfluous.Andrew Robinson was captain of a merchant vessel engaged in foreign trade. Presentlyhe planned a craft which was to be an improvement on the vessels in use. When it waslaunched it was admired by numerous spectators. One of them exclaimed in ecstaticfervor: "How she scoons along!" Captain Anderson replied: "Then scooner let her be."And so she became.

Sloop is involved in more uncertainty. It has been conjecturally derived from "slip,"and also from "shalloup," but these are only guesses.

M. Silhouette was financial minister in France in 1759, when the court of Louis XVwas at the height of extravagance. His effort to restrain expenditure was accountedparsimony, and he became the subject of numerous caricatures. One portrait of particularnote was made in black, consisting of a profile of the head and bust, resembling a darkshadow on a white surface. Hence came the term "silhouette."

"Quiz" owes its existence to a party of students in Dublin. A wager had been madethat one of them could not invent a word which within twenty-four hours would become thetalk of the town. The next morning the walls and empty spaces were placarded with theletters, "q-u-i-z." The term passed quickly into use to denote a puzzling jest.

Dun is supposed to have originated in the reign of Henry VIII of England. OneJoseph Dun was very efficient in the collecting of bad debts, giving rise to the remark thatwhen a debtor was delinquent the creditor must Dun him. Whether this story be true or notthe word was used by Lord Bacon a century later.

Many terms in common use are simply contracted from longer words. "Hack" fromhackney-coach, and "cab" from cabriolet are familiar. "Phone" for telephone is getting toofamiliar, as well as "wire" when sending of a despatch by telegraph is signified. "Stage"for a stage-coach that is driven by stages or periods of distance, is more than a centuryold, but is only an Americanism.

"Newt" is an example of accidental contracting of two words. The term originally is"ewt" or evet, to which the letter n for the article "an" has been prefixed.

The frog has great difficulty in the tracing of a root-word. Apparently it is from theSanskrit fru, to leap, from which frolic is also derived. The offspring seems to be morefortunate. "Pollywog" originates from "poll" and "wiggle," signifying wiggle-head, whichexpresses the incessant motion of the little fellows. The term "tad-pole" is from tad, a toad,and poll, and simply means "toad-head."

Such are the curious things in speech. Words wear down like tools that are muchused, often changing their meaning for others widely different.

- Alexander Wilder

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 19, no. 7, Sept., 1906)

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A Jew Declaring Against the Sabbath Observance

The "shelving of ancient Shemitic superstitions" is warmly urged by Dr. Isidor Singer,in a letter to the New York Sun, These "superstitions" are the Sabbath and the kosher diet.His statements are unequivocal and by no means difficult to sustain. He makes thisaffirmation respecting the Sabbath:

"Our Rabbis, from the most radical to the most conservative, know - and oureducated Jewish laymen at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century shouldknow, that the Sabbath, an institution far older than the Decalogue itself, had originallynothing to do with rest from labor, an over-exertion being unthinkable in those primitivetimes when industry and commerce were yet in their infant stage. The Hebrew sabbathon,like the Babylonian sabbatum, was a dies nefastus, an unlucky day, like the Friday andthirteenth of our modern superstition; and the prohibition of any activity on the seventh dayhad as little to do with genuine religion as the non-sailing of many of our war-vessels onFridays or the omission of the room 13 in several of our most progressive hotels.

"But in spite of this knowledge of its origin, the synagogue as such has not thecourage to divest the institution of the Sabbath of the religious, utilitarian, and hygienicinterpretation imposed upon it by our ancient Rabbis, ignorant of the very rudiments of ascientific study of religion, and by that pious industrial beehive the England of the Puritans.And when men like Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, of Chicago, and quite recently, Rabbi CharlesFleischer, of Boston, have the courage to draw the only logical conclusion possible fromthe present state of Judaism in countries like ours, closing their ethical theological lecturehalls on the Sabbath and opening them on Sundays only, our pseudo-orthodox Rabbis,communal leaders and journalists raise their arms in spectacular indignation, exclaimingin tones of despair: 'When the Jewish Sabbath dies, Judaism will die with it.' That is acalumny and a lie. But so much the worse for the Weltanchauung of a people of12,000,000 modern men and women, should it be able to live only on the basis of aprehistoric superstition."

The positions taken by Doctor Singer are abundantly supported by what is known

of the former history of the Sabbath. Its existence prior to the establishment of theDecalogue is set forth in the book of the Exodus. It is declared there that the Israeliteswere forbidden to gather manna on the seventh day because it was the Sabbath; also thatthose who did go out for it in spite of the prohibitions found that none had fallen. Tielestates that the Akkadians, the prehistoric inhabitants of Babylonia observed the day. Theking of Assyria was also placed under iron restraint. He might not bathe, change hisclothes, eat cooked food, hold court, or drive in his chariot because it was a "direful day."When the days and periods were set apart astrologically and assigned to particulardivinities, Saturday was dedicated to the lord of the world of the dead. The planet Saturn,being the outermost of the known planetary system and farthest from the sun, wasconsidered as the solar luminary of that region.

That many intelligent Hebrews were skeptical in regard to the accuracy andobligatory character of the Mosaic Scriptures, I have long been aware. When conversingwith one upon the story of the Exodus from Egypt and sojourn in North Arabia, he askedme in a diffident manner: "Do you really suppose that these accounts are true?" Atanother time I asked a lawyer in New York, himself a scholar, what was the beliefcherished by his people in regard to the first chapters of the book of Genesis. He repliedalmost sharply: "You are too intelligent a man to believe these accounts." These were buttwo cases out of several.

It is significant that the disposition is becoming more general and utterance morevirile, to speak right out on these matters. Subjection to a religion of shadows hascontinued long enough; a religion of substance and human relations to the right is the pathmost wanted. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 22, no. 2, Feb., 1908)

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Letter on Alcohol to Senator Blair

[To Senator Henry William Blair of New Hampshire, a presenter of legislation onTemperance]

Newark, N.J.July 14, 1887

Dear sir:I grew up in Oneida county, N.Y., when temperance and teetotalism, etc., swept

over the region like a prairie fire, and I was deeply affected by the general sentiment. Itmay be that my reply to your questions will be colored by that early influence.Nevertheless, I think I have it in my power to be candid.

I read with much care the argument of Anstie and others designed to prove thatalcohol is a food. But conviction failed me; I do not believe it. There is good in everythingif we did but know. The good of alcohol, however, does not consist in its quality a a food.

If I should modify this statement, it would be to admit the article into the catalogue ofdegraded substances along with tainted meats, crude or fermenting vegetables, etc. Iwould not expect much stamina from alcohol-nourished men.

Your other inquiry in regard to the merits of alcohol as a drink or medicine issomewhat more difficult to answer critically. I have made several personal experimentswith results more or less satisfactory. From infancy I abhorred whisky, rum and brandy,and even now can swallow either only by a forced effort.

The fermented beverages appear to have afforded a varied result. From mytwentieth year I had been a sufferer from indigestion which had refused the aid of medicineor regimen. But in 1852, almost from desperation, I resorted to ale, "Greenways," I think,using it at intervals of twice a week with most gratifying results. After some months,however, I fell off from it again. Again, when attacked by pneumonia in May, 1871, I foundit almost impossible to swallow Croton water, but could drink Albany ales with ease andbenefit. The beverage manufactured at Poughkeepsie was too strong for me. At a laterattack in January, 1885, to which I almost succumbed, I had utter intolerance of brandy,rum and whisky, which my medical advisers earnestly pressed upon me; but "Jersey cider"was used with much comfort and benefit. I am disposed, however, to divide the praise withthe acid, as counteracting the wasted condition of the body. I believe that no ale wouldhave met the case, and that I would not have survived the stronger liquors. I say this in allcandor and impartially. I have also made observations in other cases. Once, when apatient was afflicted with "hay-fever" and the case appeared intractible, I employed whiskywith gratifying results. The peculiar exaltation of vital force appeared to be the thingrequired. I presume, however, that this was but an idiosyncrasy. As a general conclusionI am satisfied that the utility of alcohol as a medicine is but precarious. When it is butoccassionally employed there may be sometimes an incidental advantage; but if the useshould be persisted in this advantage would be very certain to disappear. I have little moreto say in its favor, while as a drink I have very generally witnessed its use to be hurtful.

Physicians who have confidence in their art seldom prescribe alcohol. It is chieflydone by those who believe little in the utility of drugs, or who indulge in alcoholic stimulantsthemselves. I regard such prescribing as unquestionably a stigma upon the medicalprofession. To this complexion I am convinced we all must come at last. Till that time,however, we must expect men - aye, women, too - to become and continue drunkards,having been seduced into this degradation by their medical advisers.

Quis custodes custodiet? I remain with sincere esteem, Yours truly, Alexander Wilder

(from The Temperance Movement, by Henry William Blair, William E. SmytheCo., 1888, pp. 149-50)

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Making History Mendacious

Rameses II has been exhibited before students of Ancient Egypt as one of the most

glorious of Kings. His great battle with the Khitans or Hittites was celebrated by the poetPentaur in terms as glowing as any described by Homer or other later epic writer.Nevertheless the peculiar treaty which followed soon afterward indicates that it was littleelse than a drawn battle in which the Egyptian invader had a narrow escape. In those daysthe same standard existed which we have now. Those who were in peace or alliance withthe dominant powers were reckoned as worthy, brave and good; all others were accountedas in the wrong, cowardly, leprous and iniquitous.

Under Rameses the metropolis of Thebes in upper Egypt rose to its greatestimportance. The Nineteenth Dynasty appears to have been an offshoot of one of the alienlineages that, some centuries before, had ruled the northern provinces, and now soughtto ingratiate itself with the hierarchy by extraordinary favors. Amenhetep or Amunoph III,had diverted attention in another direction, and his extraordinary ability as exhibited in themonuments which he left, had placed the country at the head of the nations. Rameseswas evidently ambitious to excel the reputation of Amenhetep. Not pausing at monumentalworks to perpetuate his name, he employed workmen to go through his dominions, anderase the names of other monarchs, putting his own in their place. According to ProfessorNaville, an authority upon this subject, the Great Temple, known as the Rameseum, wasactually the work of earlier kings; yet he managed to secure the credit, by placing his ownstatue there, a work of extraordinary brazenness. He was not great, we are told, but hisvanity was colossal.

He has been compared to Napoleon, and Nott and Gliddon have published a pictureof him very much resembling those of the French emperor. Another papyrus describinga "conspiracy" that had been suppressed, in the Court of Rameses III, names among thoseconcerned in it, Pentaur. Whether this was the poet or some one of his name or lineagewe are not apprised. The culprit was condemned to take his own life in presence of thecourt.

The Cleveland Plain-Dealer sets forth the exploits of the royal scamp in very plainterms.

"According to the archeological explorer, Rameses went around, chisel in hand,obliterating the names of sculptor and architect and builder, and coolly substituting his own.Nor had he any regard for historical accuracy. A temple might be one thousand years old,but if Rameses liked it he never hesitated over etching his name over the corner-stone orany other handy space. The Egyptologist ascribes this Ramesan craze for personaladvertising to mere vulgar vanity - a trait unworthy of any sovereign who desired therespect of his subjects and the admiration of posterity."

Rameses, as was the fashion for Kings in former times, was "much married." Oneof the poems that were written of him described his wedding of the daughter of Khitasar(the Hittite King) in terms that would make it seem like a love-match. But as it was part ofthe treaty of peace, and she became simply a star in a constellation of queens, theopportunity for much romance must have been purely imaginary. Rameses lived and diedbefore the patriarchs of the Book of Genesis figured on the stage. He left behind him agroup of widows, fifty-nine daughters and a hundred and eleven sons.

From his time Egypt was a decaying power, often the prey of foreign conquerors anddomestic conspirators. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 21, no. 7, Nov., 1907)

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A Return to Old Spelling

President Roosevelt has issued an order that the Public Printers shall make use ofthe "Simplified Spelling." This includes some three hundred words that are to be spellednow with fewer letters and substantially as they were commonly spelled two and threehundred years ago. This may be well, for the atrocities of English spelling are numerousand unendurable. We can only regret that the President had not first endeavored to obtaincooperation with the British Government. It would be a serious misfortune to haveinnovations which should result in separate dialects in the two countries. The sameorthography should be taught and used wherever the English language is spoken.

As a reform, this change hardly penetrates skin deep. There should be one pointdistinctly aimed at - that words shall be sounded so that it may be known how to spellthem, and spelled so that it may be perceived at a glance how they should be sounded.

The plurality of sounds to a single letter is an evil that ought to be got out of the way.The changes have been rung on words ending with ough. We can name others about astroublesome. Why should not the ng be modified in words like ranging and hanging? Whynot have uniform sounds to the vowels? If necessary, a few letters can be added to thealphabet. We have added the W, and find it, as Petroleum Nasby would term it, "veryhandy." The U itself has two sounds that ought to be properly represented. Such lettersas c and q are superfluous and unnecessary.

Probably, however, there would be need of cooperation from other countries inrelation to alphabet and sounds of letters, which may not be easy to get over. But noneof them have the systemless way of attaching several sounds to a letter, so badly wroughtinto the language, and so have less to cope with. It is worth while for Professor Matthewsand his fellow-laborers to make a movement in that direction.

We confess to a strong attachment to old etymologies. It irks to find a term like filiusin Latin transformed into the Sparrish hijo, or a name like Yohana or Reginald appearingin scores of forms, but it has been and will continue to be, because usage fixes and utilityrequires to acquiesce. It seems like a favorable time to suggest these things tophilologists. The publishers of dictionaries seem to be ready, and the much-crammedarmy of school children would eagerly welcome this revolution. This changing of only threehundred spellings is too much like Tzar Nikolas's reforms, - much wanted and a meagerlittle offered. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 19, Oct., 1906)

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Scotch Soldiers at the Holy Sepulchre

The legend has been revived in several newspapers that theFirst Regiment of Royal Scots formed the guard that Pontius Pilate placed at the

Sepulchre. It is even affirmed that the archives of the regiment at Glencore in Scotland goto prove that it formed Pilate's own body guard. There has also an anecdote beenrepeated, perhaps better authenticated, that this regiment was transferred some centuriesago to the service of the King of France to act in the same capacity. It was known as theGarde d' Ecossaiss. One day the Colonel of a Picard regiment assailed the Scotchcommander about this boasted antiquity.

"Did the Royal Scots form the body guard for Pontius Pilate?" he asked.The Scotchman answered in the affirmative. The French officer followed with

another question:"And is it true that they furnished the guard at the Sepulchre of Jesus?""Certainly not," answered the Scotchman. "If they had, his body would never have

been stolen."All this tells well for a story. But like other legends of the earlier centuries it involves

anachronisms as well as an insurmountable accumulation of improbabilities.Persons are sometimes captious about the identity of the place now known as the

"Holy Sepulchre." The tomb of Joseph of Arimathea is described in the Gospel as a grottohewn out of a rock, and evidently above ground. The place which is now exhibited appearsto be a cave beneath the surface of the earth, with access as to the Mithraic caves andshrines of the old period, and much room remains for questions.

But what is even harder to explain away is the proposition about the Scotch guard.In the days of Tiberius Caesar and thereabouts there was no Scotland. The Romans knewonly of a wild country at the northern extremity of Britain inhabited by Picts or Viks fromNorway, and called it Caledonia or Woodland. Nevertheless, there was a Scotia then, andthere were Scots, but the country was in Ireland and the Scots were Irishmen. Nor did theyventure to establish their colonies in Galloway till a later century, when South Britain wasbecoming the prey of adventurers from beyond the German Ocean.

So iconoclastic is History in the way of overturning myths and legends, as well asspoiling fairy tales and good stories. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 21, no. 6, Oct., 1907)

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Tribute to Doctor Hiram K. Jones, the Representative Platonist of America

There are those who seek eagerly for notoriety and those who shrink from it. Thewise are not conscious of the wisdom of their utterances, but are astonished when theyhear these praised. It is well that both these classes exist. They are essential to the workof the world, the one influence in the doing of it properly. Doctor Jones was of this latternumber. Though too diffident to cherish ambition for leadership, he was always ready tofurther whatever would instruct or benefit others. Not satisfied with scientific andprofessional attainments, though excelling in them, he pushed enquiry beyond that hemight learn of the reasons and causes of what he saw; and so, when he could haveachieved fame as a scientist he was content with the modest pursuits of the philosopher.He took his place as a worker in his profession, as a neighbor and a citizen, everywhere

doing faithfully everything that he undertook. He cared to be good rather than great.Doctor Jones was born in Virginia, July 2, 1818. The family, however, removed to

Missouri not long afterward, where a farm had been purchased, and there he spent hisboyhood. He early developed a taste and aptitude for scientific learning. Laying aside thehoe and scythe he became a student in Illinois College, and after graduating entered themedical department to obtain also a professional education. He engaged in practice inMissouri, but perceiving the political drift toward civil conflict he returned to Jacksonville.For several years he was associated with the medical staff in one of the charitableinstitutions, but afterward established a lucrative practice.

Jacksonville is a college town. It has not only the Illinois College, but threeacademic institutions for young women and three of the State charitable institutions, andit abounds with literary clubs and societies. Doctor Jones soon found a circle where hecould be at home. He became a trustee of the college, and for many years was Professorof Philosophy. He devoted his leisure to scientific research and soon accumulated a largelibrary of scientific and philosophic publications. He had two editions of Plato's works inGreek with three English translations; also the works of Aristotle, Plutarch, Plotinus,Porphyrus, Iamblichos, Proklos and others of the ancients; Bishop Berkeley, Stewart,Hamilton, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer and other sages, and of the variousscientists and historians down to Elie Recluse. The whole collection is now the propertyof the Illinois College.

Twice he journeyed to Europe, also visiting Egypt, Palestine and Syria. He couldnot hide his light from view. Philosophy had become his favorite pursuit outside of hisprofession.

The "Plato Club," for several decades, met of Saturdays at his house in WestCollege Avenue, till the numbers were thinned-out by death. He was familiar with Mr.Emerson, and it was on a visit to Concord that there was planned the famous SummerSchool of Philosophy. The organization consisted of Mr. A. Bronson Alcott as Dean, S. H.Emery, Jr., as Director, Frank B. Sanborn as Secretary, with whom as members of theFaculty were Dr. Jones and Prof. William T. Harris, now Commissioner of Education.There were other lecturers, among them Mrs. E. D. Cheney, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Col.Thomas W. Higginson, Rev. W. H. Channing, Rev. Dr. J. S. Kedwin, David A. Wasson, Dr.F. H. Hedge, Pres. Noah Porter, Rev. Cyrus Bartol, Rowland G. Hazard, D. J. Snider andothers. The School was opened on the 16th of July, 1849, and continued year by year till1886.

Dr. Jones lectured chiefly upon the philosophy of Plato. He recognized in allreligions the common idea of the One Cause, and declared that good health is anindispensable condition for a beautiful soul. His last discourse upon "The Symposium"transcended all the rest in beauty and elegance. He was enraptured with his subject. Thenext day he left Concord and never came again.

My acquaintance with Dr. Jones began at the School in 1881. The next SummerI attended during the entire term, and we became close friends. Our intimacy continuedtill the last.

In July, 1883, was organized the "American Akademe" at Jacksonville. Dr. Joneswas its President, and monthly meetings were held at his house for ten years. Its papersand transactions were published first in "The Platonist" and afterward in eight volumes ofthe "Journal of the American Akademe." The papers were contributed by members, most

of them residents of Jacksonville, and others living elsewhere. The number of enrolledmembers exceeded four hundred.

Dr. Jones always took a warm interest in the Illinois College. His distinguishedcousin, Mr. William J. Bryan, while in attendance there, was a guest at his house. In 1877he presented the corporation of the College with a new building for lectures, meetings andlibrary, as a memorial of his deceased wife. A tablet bore her name, while his own, "HiramKennard Jones," was also commemorated upon another.

The occasion was duly honored by the college by the holding of a "PhilosophicalSymposium" in the new building, which was attended by citizens, alumni and invited guestsfrom all parts of the country. The initial address was delivered by the writer, on "ThePractical Value of Philosophy." Dr. Jones himself also spoke. The final address of theoccasion was delivered in the evening by Dr. W. T. Harris, Commissioner of Education.

Dr. Jones continued in professional pursuits till a few months before his death. Thistook place June 18, 1903. Never seeking distinction for himself, the recognition camespontaneously from all who knew him, of being the representative Platonist of America.He was a generous contributor to benevolent purposes, and he has left behind him a largeaccumulation of manuscript, which he had once contemplated publishing. He neverapproved of looking upon this life as a wretched, brief affair, but believed it the very bestfor the soul. But man can make it better. We have existed before, he declared; we go outand return; the soul has other cycles than this.

Such was the belief, such the record, of Hiram K. Jones.

- A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 18, April-June, 1905)

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Should Men Cut Their Hair? - Alexander Wilder

Whether the hair should be cut I could never quite satisfy myself. As a physiologicalpractice, I seriously doubt the propriety. Every cutting is a wounding, and there is somesort of bleeding in consequence, and waste of vital force. I think that it will be found thatlong-lived persons most frequently wear their hair long. The cutting of hair stimulates toa new growth, to supply the waste. Thus the energy required to maintain the vigor of thebody is drawn off to make good the wanton destruction. It is said, I know, that after the hairhas grown to a certain length it loses its vitality at the extremity and splits or "booms up;"whether this would be so if the hair should never be cut, I would like to know. When it iscut a fluid exudes, and forms a scar or cicatrix at each wounded extremity, indicating thatthere has been injury. Women and priests have generally worn long hair. I never couldimagine why this distinction was made. The ancient priest was very often unsexed ordevoted to a vow of celibacy, but I cannot surmise whether that had anything to do with it.Kings wore their hair long in imitation of Samson and the golden sun-god Mithras. Isuspect from this that the first men shorn were slaves and laborers; that freedmen wore

their hair unmutilated, as the crown of perfect manhood and manliness. If this be correct,the new era of freedom, when it ever shall dawn, will be characterized by men unshorn aswell as women unperverted.

I wish that our science and our civilization had better devices for preserving theintegrity of the hair. Baldness is a deformity, and premature whiteness a defect. If thehead was in health, and the body in proper vigor, I am confident that this would not be. Iam apprehensive that our dietetic habits occasion the bleaching of the hair; the stiff,arsenic-prepared hat is responsible for much of the baldness. Our hats are unhealthy,from the tricks of the hatters. I suppose there are other causes, however. Heredity hasits influence. Certain diseases wither the hair at its roots; others lower the vitality of theskin, and so depilate the body. I acknowledge that the shingled head disgusts me. Itcannot be wholesome. The most sensitive part of the head is at the back where the neckjoins. That place exposed to unusual heat or cold is liable to receive an injury that will bepermanent, if not fatal, in a short period. The whole head wants protection; and the hairaffords this as no other protection can. Men have beards because they need them, andit is wicked to cut them off. No growth or part of the body is superfluous, and we ought, ascandidates for health and long life, to preserve ourselves from violence or mutilation.Integrity is the true manly standard. (Phrenological Journal)

(Editor's Note [The Theosophist, H. P. Blavatsky] : - Fashion - which has somehowsucceeded in making "respectability" its queer ally - forbids christian civilized societywearing their hair long at this period of our century. In this the so-called christiancivilization is guilty of inconsistency, and its clergy of disrespect, since Jesus and hisApostles are shown to have worn long hair - every one of them except Paul. The Nazarsof the Old Testament never allowed the razor to touch their head. The Aryan Rishis, theYogis, the Sadhoos of every kind wore and still wear their hair long. The initiates of Tibetdo the same. In Europe, the Greek and Russian clergy alone, along with their Monks, havepreserved the wise habit, and the longevity of some of the last named is proverbial.)

(The Theosophist, vol. 4, no. 9, June, 1883)

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WHAT WE SAW IN THE WEST - Alexander Wilder

The first vivid impression that we received when visiting Illinois in 1866, was that ofan abundance of room. The stifling sensation of a crowd, which is always to us an almostinsupportable annoyance, was entirely removed. We felt that we could breathe freely. Alittle boy that we once knew wished that he was out in a ten-acre lot where he might halloo.The Grand Prairie of Illinois meets such a wish; it is a glorious place for hallooing.

This last visit revived these feelings to an almost exquisite source of enjoyment. Wedid not shout, for that is not our forte; but we looked and admired. Eighteen years,however, had changed things. There was a new Chicago that we had never seen before.In 1857 we draughted the charter of the Normal University, with men like Charles E. Hovey,

Simeon B. Wright, and J.F. Eberhardt at our elbow; and personally urged its enactment,with John A. Logan in the House of Representatives at Springfield and Norman B. Juddin the Senate to take there the leading voice. Now the University buildings are the prideof the city of Bloomington, and a new educational era exists in Illinois.

Springfield looked new and strange. We had seen it in the coldest of midwinters,when it was of little greater dimensions that a New York country village; it has expandedin every direction, with costlier and better dwellings, and tenfold evidences of prosperity.Like Albany it is in the throes of building a new capitol; the old one had gone to seedtwenty years ago. The classical Governor Beveride had replaced Oglesby, Palmer, DickYates and Colonel Bissell; and nothing was lost by the change. The public men of Illinoisthat do not go to Chicago to live, are now fond of making their home at Springfield.

One morning in January, 1857, a friend pointed out to us on that rough sidewalknear the capitol a tall, black-haired man as Abraham Lincoln that had been proposed atPhiladelphia to run for Vice-President on the Fremont ticket. On this occasion, the NationalAssociation of Eclectic Physicians were escorted by the authorities to visit the cemeterywhere American citizens had built him a splendid mausoleum; and we beheld thesarcophagus which held the corpse of the martyr President. Massachusetts and Illinoisgave the nation their noblest citizens, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Sumner, and receivedback their bodies.

Doctor Wohlgemoth acted on all occasions as master of ceremonies. He wasalways where he was wanted, doing the right thing at the right time with the air of liking todo it. He had two societies to serve; first the Eclectic State Society of Illinois and afterwardthe National Association. There are live men in the Illinois Society; and they knew howto make things ring. We enjoyed the new acquaintances very much; it would be invidiousto call names. The spectacle of the outgoing President yielding place to the new one,Professor Garrison of Chicago, and especially the investiture with the ponderous maulwhich seems to be used to keep Illinois statemen in order, was one not often acted over.Prof. Garrison found it a prodigious task to hold his "beetle" in position and make aninaugural speech; indeed, he did not try.

Governor Beveridge welcomed the National Association with a choice preparedspeech. Eloquence is easy for public men in the West; but the physicians seem to beexceptions. No one attempted a response, and the Governor was permitted to "speak hispiece" and go out unnoticed, "none so poor as to do him reverence." The business of theAssociation was transacted with about the usual alacrity.

Dr. Stow, who has been Treasurer of the Association from the beginning, waschosen its President. This was evidently a spontaneous tribute; everybody seemed to befirst in proposing it. A grand and most excellent man, Dr. James Anton of Ohio, waselected to succeed him. As usual, after elections, much of the interest died away and thesession was brought to a close. Next year the Association goes to Washington, to visit theNational bear garden. Will President Grant, or Governor Shepherd, make the speechwelcome? Echo answers ---

Illinois, does not, after all, impress us as a nice State to live in. The soil looks new-made, as if it was earthy material filled into a swamp, still reeking and without properdrainage. Vegetation is luxuriant; there is corn by the township almost, and the weeds areno vulgar growth. Magnificent dog-fennel carries the palm entirely away from vulgar oldfashioned May-weed. Crops grow as if without effort; but malaria must prevail all the time.

Old men and old women are seldom met with; what there are are generally exotics. Thedaily bread is quinine and whiskey.

The Mississippi river reminds one forcibly of Martin Chuzzlewits voyage to Eden.We had always supposed that Dickens exaggerated in that description; he did not. Thereis deadly fertility on every side. "The trees upon the banks grew thick and close; and heldup shriveled arms from out the river's depths; half growing, half decaying in the mirywater." "The weakest, forced into shapes of strange distortion languished like cripples.The best were stunted from the pressure and want of room; and high above the stems ofall, grew long rank grass, dark weeds, and frowsy underwood; not divisible into theirseparate kinds, but tangled all together into a heap; a jungle deep and dark, with neitherearth nor water at its roots, but putrid matter formed of the pulpy offal of the two, and oftheir own corruption." The population show it. "This country is hell on women!" said aMissourienne; and her appearance, as did that of others, justified the expression - sicklycabins, sickly "improvements," sickly-looking people. The weather more capricious thana woman, if that can be. We found it cold at Chicago, torrid at Springfield and St. Louis;chilly as death on the Mississippi, and varying to every extreme in Iowa and Wisconsin.

The grasshoppers had come, like locusts, and been discomfited by the rains. Therewas rain every alternate day and oftener. For scenery and healthfulness, Iowa surpassesIllinois. There are more hills and groves of trees to comfort the eyes; the population aremore Yankee-like; the fields are flower gardens. Phlox, puccoon, spearwort, baptisia, andasters, were in profusion. There was much that one having no spite at the world, couldenjoy; and God had here indeed beautified the earth.

Among the varieties we visited the camp meeting of the Spiritualists at Dubuque.These later fledglings of an enthusiastic faith have their jealousies, their bickerings, theirdifferences about conventional proprieties, very interesting to themselves but somewhattrivial to spectators. No matter; all help upheave the old geological crust. The grovewhere they met was a paradise; the appointments good: the rain somewhat disturbinghowever; and everybody whose corns were not squeezed, enjoyed it and had a good time.That made it a pleasure. We had the best of hosts, and the noblest of hostesses, andcaught delight from the very air. But queer questions would intrude into the mind. Theoutdoor lectures were well enough, comme il faut; but there were numerous appointmentsof seances and other entertainments for the evenings, each with a charge of fifty cents foradmission. Was that arrangement the nub of the affair? Twenty odd years of life as ajournalists have taught us that while the ostensible purpose of a newspaper is to furnishnews and other reading matter, the "real reality" is to make money by advertising. Editorsand what they do are only make-weights, and valued as their work helps draw advertisingpatronage. Is there any like idea in these camp meetings to attract patrons for the otherexhibitions? However, all trades must live. Let each be nourished as he feels need; wewould have it so; we love liberty and charity far more than unity of belief; and "there is butone Reason." Those who heard Stebbins, Peebles, Mrs. Severance and their fellows,were fed by it; and we give them our best wishes. We esteem everybody's faith on itsgolden side; all streams lead to the ocean, all faiths to God.

But why so many Spiritualists are believers in "Evolution" and the materialphilosophy, we cannot imagine. What is evolved and developed, must be previouslyinspired, implanted and involved. If the later developments of organic life are from andsuperior to those which preceded them, entozoa and epizoa are nobler than the creatures

they infest; the man is of a lower order than his parasites.Wisconsin looks like New York repeated. Its laws are similar; its schools, farms and

city charters all bear the New York impress. In Iowa and Illinois, villages and hamlets havecity charters like New Jersey; and schoolmasters are "professors;" but Wisconsin doesthings differently and makes less sound about it. Its towns look thrifty, but not as ifspeculation-mad: churches are well attended and schools excellent; and the brick has agolden clayey hue all its own. Near Milwaukee we observed Canada thistles, a scourgeof the East from which we had hoped that Western farmers would be exempted.

We wanted to sail around the lakes, but found that the rule of the steamboats wasto move by night and tie up daytimes, thus depriving the opportunity to view the scenery.Besides, they go at very uncertain periods. On the Mississippi, every endeavor was madeto have all pleasant for the passengers; but voyageurs on the lakes find matters lessagreeable. There is no precise time for boats to leave any place; and an assurance ofgoing today is no proof that one will not be obliged to wait till tomorrow or next day, till theboat gets a load. Reluctantly we took the railway.

Michigan is as of old, stable, plodding and substantially prosperous. Everybody is"comfortable." It has not got through with producing lumber for the distant markets. TheLake has not yet forgotten that its outlet ought to be at the southern end; and that part isindicated by any amount of swamp. The western side also show its former submerging;the eastern shore is a wide expanse of sand. The soil appears to be of all sorts; the resultof geological causes comparatively recent. Indeed a large part of the peninsula hasbeneath it a deposit of salt.

Canada, or rather Ontario, ought to be in the United States. The Iroquois Indians,more far-seeing than ourselves, did annex it to their tributary domain, when they ownedNew York. But, while American taxation is so heavy as to amount to a virtual confiscationof property; while luxuries are cheap and the necessaries of life are dear; while moneyis furnished only at enormous usury to Western men and business enterprise, and but twopercent is required from a Wall-street speculator, Canada has every good reason to keepaloof from close relations with this country. As little as the provinces are "developed," letthem keep out of debt, eschew a paper currency with its foundation a financial quicksand,and prohibit enterprises which are but forms of gambling, and they will yet surpass theUnited States in national prosperity. But we do not wish to live there.

Really, after all, New York seemed to us more prosperous, as well as more homelikethan the West. The fields were in better order, the crops more thrifty-looking, the villagesand farmhouses more comfortable and beautiful. In the West, one felt more free tobreathe and think - two benefits inestimable; but the old Empire State has a feeling as ifeverything was stable, and there was a foundation to rely upon. It will be so for manyyears, or as long as this country lasts. National prosperity will begin in New York; nationalcalamity will be inextricable when New York is prostrate. Plant Eclectic medicine here andit will root itself in the entire continent; with any other centre it will be provincial and alwayshold an inferior and subordinate place. If New York was as devoted to science andliterature as Boston, America, in a single generation, could be transformed into a scholarlyand literary people.

(The Medical Eclectic, Eclectic Medical College, N.Y.,vol. 2, 1875, pp. 195-99)

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A Very Ancient Sacred Scripture

"If I ever live to years," says President Edwards, "I will be impartial to hear reasonsof all pretended discoveries and receive them, if rational, how long soever I may have beenused to another way of thinking."

In a later generation, Emanuel Swedenborg, a scholar of encyclopedic attainments,propounded a peculiar method of interpreting the Bible, which would have put the eminenttheologian to a severe test. He ascribed internal meanings to be obtained by a law ofcorrespondence, which even now few, even of his professed admirers, have learned. Thebooks which admit this mode of interpreting he denominated The World, and accreditedthem as Sacred, or set apart as the receptacle and vehicle of truth. But he did not limit thehigher truth to these books or curtail history to the chronologic period there given. All thetime to be measured by them from Genesis to modern periods, constitutes but a stagewhich is comparatively modern, and the religious men of the term antedating the Mosaicera were classified as "The Ancient Church."

But Swedenborg wrote of divine revelations in those far-off periods made to otherpeoples. One was to a nation in the interior of Africa; another to "the Ancient Word" whichwas "preserved" in the Chinese territory but lost in other countries. "Seek for it in China,"says he; "peradventure you may find it among the Tartars."

Whether such a search would amount to anything of consequence is vastlyimprobable. Yet the suggestion is not without plausibility. The papyri and sculptures ofarchaic Egypt, and the cuneiform tablets of Assyria reveal the presence of a mighty people,the Khita or Hittites on the Upper Euphrates and the regions contiguous. They extendedtheir power into Asia Minor, overran Syria and Palestine, and contested the supremacy withEgypt under Ramases the Great, and afterward with Assyria. After that they disappearedfrom notice in Western Asia.

Who and what were they? Sculptures seem to affiliate them with the Mongolianpeoples; and it requires only a smattering of philologic knowledge to recognise in thename Cathay a designation of Khita-land. Evidently in the far-off period the same race soformidable in Western Asia became dominant in all the region styled on the maps the"Chinese Empire." The Khitans were as much a literary people as their neighbors. Theyleft in that region monuments and remains of a literature, and it is no great strain ofimagination to suppose that a similar degree of culture existed with them in their Easternhomes.

Orientals are very tenacious in matters of religion. They are reluctant to change.They may be willing to receive a new belief, but it must be in addition to the one alreadyentertained. A Buddhist in Japan has not necessarily abandoned Shintoism, nor in Chinahas he given up the doctrines of Konfucius or Lao-tse. If there was an "Ancient Word" inthe possession of the Khitans, it is by no means unlikely that men in the upper orders ofsociety among their Kathayan successors still keep it, guarding it with the most jealousexclusiveness, and actually performing worship according to it.

A German expedition of a scientific character, led by Doctor von Lecoq, has beensometime engaged in Eastern Turkestan, a former seat of Turanian Empire. It has

unearthed a library at Turfan, an oasis, which reveals the presence of a number of races,many of whose very names are unfamiliar. The manuscripts which have been found wereon paper, leather and wood. They are in ten distinct languages, besides various dialects.Two of these languages, the Central Asian Brahmin and the Naghari are little known. Athird, the Tangut, has been known only on a few rock inscriptions in Tibet. A fourth, whichwas closely related to Syriac, had never been suspected. There are also ManicheanGnostic manuscripts in modified Syrian characters, but in the "Middle Persian" language -said to be equal in volume to the entire mass of Middle Persian writings before extant.Other manuscripts are in Chinese, Tibetan, Syriac, Ughur, and "Kok-Turkish" - the primitiveTurkish language with an alphabet that bears a curious resemblance to the ancient Norse.

Thus research is eating away received opinions and affording us a broaderconception of our humanity. We are not an isolated colony of mortals cooped up betweenthe cradle and the grave, with a few brief centuries of history back of us, but a brotherhoodembracing innumerable peoples of the indefinite Past, as well as those now existing on theearth and the generations that are to succeed. The declaration of the Sage and Seer ofSweden is not unlikely to be yet proved to us, that there was and is a Sacred Recordamong the Remains of Nations in the East.

But there is much to be learned. In our desire to resuscitate knowledge of the Old,it should be with eagerness to combine its wisdom and real potencies to the New, makingthe Truth more vivid and the Right more distinct.

It may be supposed that his earlier education and habits operated to concentratehis attention upon Book-religion beyond normal proportions, but that there was a SuperiorPhilosophy extant in the region which Swedenborg indicated, at the time which he wastreating of was undoubtedly true. The remains of Sculpture and other art exhibitextraordinary skill, and where such skill exists there is corresponding illumination.

- A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 21, no. 4, August, 1907)

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The Very Old Egypt - Alexander Wilder

Professor Petrie declares that when we turn to Egypt we meet with a consecutiverecord of man covering some seven thousand years. The scribes of the time of thepyramids looked back as far to the beginning of the kingdom as we look back toCharlemagne, the founder of modern Europe. Recent Babylonian discoveries havechallenged the claims of Egypt to have preceded in civilization. But there is no suchcontinuous record. Nevertheless, it has also been insisted that no Egyptian accounts werecertain prior to the building of the pyramids. Writers considered the first three dynastiesas little else than a tissue of fables belonging to a period of barbarism.

But within the last few years much has been brought to light. We know what hasbeen going on in every generation for two thousand years before. The names of the kings

of the first dynasty have been ascertained in their order, and even their household furnitureis known. In the cemetery at Abydos, the relics of that far-off period have been exhumed,exhibiting to us matters of earlier history. Mena has always been chronicled as a king fromAbydos who united Northern Egypt to his dominion. In order to establish his power morefirmly, he founded the city of Memphis for a new capital, turning aside the channel of theNile for that purpose. It has also been ascertained that ten kings had reigned at Abydosbefore him, during a period of three hundred and fifty years.

The ethnic character of the early Egyptians has been much discussed. Theexaminations of crania found in the Thebaid or Southern Egypt, demonstrates thepresence of two races of people, a negroid and non-negroid. Mr. MacIver explains this byregarding the predynastic Egyptians as Libyans, a race very similar to the Kabyles ofAlgiers. The native designation of Bur-bur would seem to indicate this. He also believedthat some time before the Fourth Dynasty, that of the pyramid-builders, there took placean invasion from Punt (or Southern Arabia) which added another element to thepopulation. The noses became narrower and the heads broader. Afterward, between theTwelfth and Eighteenth Dynasties there were other additions, probably a warlike peoplefrom Syria, known as the Hyksos, which was followed by further change of features in thesame direction.

Professor Petrie, advances the opinion that there were at least six races in ancientEgypt. The original race, he supposes, was closely related to the Amoutes of Palestineand the Kabyles.

Miss Fawcett, who has been a more careful and thorough student of this subject,declares the conviction that the people of ancient Egypt for seven or eight thousand years,were a homogeneous race, free from admixture.

We might enquire whether the classic story does not have some importance whichdescribes an invasion of the countries by the Amazons from the region of Lake Tritoms.They are represented as passing through Egypt eastward, but sustaining friendly relationsthere as being of kindred race. It is mythic of course but myths are generally in some wayfounded on fact. Egypt was divided into nomes or provinces each of which had a hyk orruler of his own, and also a sacred animal peculiar to it, which was worshiped with divinehonors. The effigies of these animals were carried on poles, and it is fair to suppose thatthey were the totems of tribes. This is suggested by M. Loret, with great plausibility. Thereis said to be "reason to believe it was a prince of the hawk or falcon tribe of the district ofHierapolis and Edfu, who attained supremacy over most of Egypt and founded the FirstDynasty; and his descendants had a 'hawk name' as well as other titles, to symbolize this."

There is, of course, little known in regard to changes of dynasty, and obscurationsof history at several periods. There were undoubtedly invasions, conquests, and may beextermination of multitudes of the people, whose places were taken by new colonists. Thedecadence of art and culture at different times, indicates as much. As the work ofexploring goes on we may confidently expect that much that is hidden will be revealed, thatthe Apocrypher of history will be supplemented by its apocalypse.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 19, no. 3, May, 1906)

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What Has Happened and Who Caused It?

This country is in sad conditions financially. The harvests have been prolific, andthe facilities for market are abundant. There is employment for every branch of usefulindustry. The Nation is at peace with all the foreign powers, and likely so to continue.There is every external condition existing which is essential to prosperity.

Yet there is unrest everywhere. Business is clogged and enterprise arrested. Thereis an imperative demand for money in every department to set the wheels of industry inmotion and thereby alleviate these conditions. Yet we are told in reply to this demand thatthere is at this very moment an amount of currency, of coin and its representative paperfar greater in proportion to the population than ever before. But the question at oncearises: Where is it? The bankers declare with great unanimity that it is not in theirpossession; the industrial enterprises are hampered, and the commercial facilities areliable to be interrupted. Men dare not buy or sell lest there be inability to fulfil obligations.Yet the whole structure of business is little else than a system of credits, every individualdepending upon the fidelity of others, to their promises. Hence, in the midst of abundance,it has become difficult to share and enjoy; it is a state of artificial poverty.

Such catastrophes are caused by the creating of alarm. They are often attributedto unwise measures of Government. We had them in 1837, 1857, 1873, 1893. PresidentCleveland was accused of precipitating the last of these, yet he was innocent. Now, manyhave attempted to impute the present trouble to the acts of Mr. Roosevelt. How he hasdone it, we are not informed. He is an officer sworn to execute the laws, and if his actionhas brought into the open the men who disregard the laws, and thereby disturbedbusiness, it must be that what has been called business has been tainted. No man willadvocate a system of law which is to be enforced on individuals in common life, while thegreat leaders and operators are to go free.

A sensation was created some months ago by what was revealed at theinvestigations of the acts of certain officers of insurance companies. The counselemployed on that occasion made his explorations rigid, bringing into view improper andunlawful transactions by men whom all had esteemed and honored. It was a sorryspectacle. Business, public affairs and private ambitions were interwrought; and the veryair seemed to be impregnated with dishonesty. As this conviction deepened, there arosea general distrust. The State of New York holding its general election chose for Governorthe very man who had unmasked the offenders. Not having perverted his sense of dutyto screen misconduct, he was selected as being the one man that could be trusted. Yetsomehow the fact that his searching investigations first called attention to unsound anddishonest management of great corporations, seems to be carefully overlooked.

There is now a complaint from the White House to the obscurest corner of thenational domain, of a prevailing hysteria, under which depositors in banks and savingsinstitutions, have so generally withdrawn their funds, and hoarded them at home. It is acondition very similar to what existed at the beginning of the Civil War, when all speciewent rapidly out of sight. In this country, the structure of business stands on the mud-sills,the small depositors. When an alarm breaks out in the big world, the employers of laborhasten to discharge their work people by the thousands and tens of thousands. This putsan end to there being money to deposit or to spend except for absolute necessities. Yetexperience shows that business does not thrive, except when these individuals have

money to spend. They are the consumers, and without them there can be little call forproducing. This agency has been already set in operation, to keep up hard times.

The "hysteria" which has led to calling for the hundreds of millions on deposit insavings institutions is another difficulty not easy to surmount. Hysteria used to beconsidered, though not altogether accurately, as a disorder of women. It certainly is acomplaint to which depositors in savings banks are liable. And they are a class that it isnot easy to influence. The arguments which are pleaded are slow in restoring theirconfidence. A humorous friend suggests that it might be easier to procure their hoardedmoney if department stores and bargain counters should be more widely established. Butto speak seriously, confidence is a matter of slow growth and its betrayal by a fewendangers its existence over a wide field. For the present, every individual will becompelled to frugality, till we can know one another; and there must be a conscientiousdiligence on the part of those in power not to have one law for the poor and a laxer one forthe rich. - A. W.

(Meta. Mag., vol. 22, no. 1, Jan., 1908)

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What is Matter?

Two men whom I formerly knew, were holding a lively discussion over the subjectof spiritual existence. One of them as the debate reached its height challenged the otherto define what was spirit. The other replied by a problem equally recondite: "What isMatter?"

Bishop Berkeley propounded the solution in his famous treatise, that matter has onlya relative existence. In a view of absolute reality, it has no place. This he demonstratedby indisputable argument. Several writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuriesexpressed their dissent, but did not succeed in controverting his reasoning. Nothing cameforth more forcible than Lord Byron's jest, that he proved it, and therefore it was no matterwhat he said.

Emanuel Swedenborg, seer as well as philosopher, inculcated that matter originatesin the spiritual substance which is cognized as absolute being that is made in a certaindegree objective and negative. It can hardly be considered, however, as within the scopeof the common understanding to grasp this conception intelligently.

It was a proposition of the alchemists that the various metals and other bodies arebut so many aspects of a single primal matter, and they inferred that as all had a commonsource, it is possible to recompose as well as decompose them: in other words totransform one metal into another. It has long been fashionable to decry their opinions asvisionary, but as the knowledge of chemistry has become more advanced, the convictionof possible transmutation has been entertained, till now it seems to be at the point of beingrealised. It is by no means improbable, not withstanding the superciliousness of modernwriters upon the subject, that they who have been aspersed as visionaries and impostors,will be acknowledged to have been genuine scientists and inspired men.

Since the discovery of radium the problem of a primal matter has been the subjectof renewed speculation. Several savants had well nigh agreed that hydrogen, the lightestof the known elements, might have been parent of all the rest, and certainly there is muchto afford plausibility to the supposition. Other discoveries have seemed to go farther. Theether, is an element or principle which has been believed to exist because of variousmanifestations, though this has never been demonstrated by scientific experimentation.The discovery of radium, helium, argon, and other elements gave a new impulse, andalready the investigations and accompanying speculations, have divided the leadingscientists into two parties. At the meeting of the British Association for the Advancementof Science at Leicester, the first week in August, Sir William Ramsay presented a paperreporting his discoveries and opinions. With the aid of radium he has separated copperinto other elements, evolving lithium as the apparent basis. Professor Ostwald of Leipzigconfirms this, declaring it "the greatest scientific achievement since the discovery of thepracticability of applying the electric dynamo to mechanics."

After describing the processes by which Sir William converts radium into helium, andproduces also, neon, krypton, lithium and natrium; the Professor adds that when he visitedSir William in London, Sir William demonstrated to him he could produce lithium fromcopper, by the action of the emanations of radium on a solution of copper sulphate.

The paper of Sir William gave rise to a warm discussion between the chemists andelectricians. A synopsis of late discoveries will give a picture of the ways which modemscientific research has taken. Helium was first discovered in the sun by the spectroscope.From this hint thus obtained, the Hon. R J. Strutt and others found it in almost everymineral experimented upon. The secret of this, it is suggested, may lie in the fact whichhas been recently discovered, that helium is an emanation given off by radium and twoother substances.

This would seem to prove that a change of matter into another form is possible.One party of scientists accordingly propounds the hypothesis that there is really no suchthing as matter, but that it is a form assumed by electricity. The atom, therefore, is not apermanent thing, but a sphere having within its domain innumerable electrons or singlepoints of electricity. Sir Oliver Lodge describes the atom that it squirms with electricity, andthat when this escapes as in radium, the atom will at a certain point change into somethingelse.

Others, like Lord Kelvin, while conceding the infinite possibilities to which radium hasopened the way of discovery, declared to the meeting that he declines absolutely to believethe assumptions, that matter is a form of motion, and that the atom is merely whirls ofelectrons that may escape and break down bits of matter that have existed unchangedsince the earth was nebulous.

So far, the weight of evidence is for transmutation. Indeed, it is the only conclusionthat seems really philosophic. Beyond it comes necessarily the concept that matter beingthe product of a reality beyond, may be incessantly coming into existence, and perhaps asconstantly moving toward its source. - A. W.

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 21, no. 6, 1907)

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Why They Crowned Jesus with Thorns

Many eloquent and touching discourses have been delivered upon the indignitiesinflicted upon Jesus just before the crucifixion. These have been described as beingincident to the capital sentence. But several French and German savants have given anew explanation which appears far more plausible.

The examination before the Jewish high priest and Sanhedrim was essential coramnon judice, and the decision was of no legal significance whatever. As the SynopticGospels show, there was no attempt to bring the verdict to the attention of Pilate. Theimputation of blasphemy, so heinous before Jewish tribunals, would have been treatedGallio-fashion. Hence a new charge was fabricated, that of sedition and treason. Yet itnowhere appears that any account was made of the entry into Jerusalem, escorted by amultitude enthusiastically greeting Him as the "Son of David." No uprising was recorded,and Pilate took note of any disorder. The Pharisees were opposed to violence; were noteager to procure any punishment; whatever was done was left to the high priest and hisparty of Saddusees, always arrogant and cruel. (Acts v. 17, 28.) When Pilate, perceivingthe motive which instigated them, was about to dismiss the case, they caused him to beoverborne by clamor till he gave way, and uttered the sentence of death.

The scenes that are described as following were not common in the case ofcondemned prisoners. But the Roman soldiers held the Jews in contempt, and were readyto seize every opportunity to indulge their scorn. As Jesus was accused of setting himselfup as a king, the garrison at Jerusalem saw an opportunity. By a mock coronation theycould burlesque the whole Jewish people. So a saturnalian orgy was held. The prisonerwas invested with the purple robe, crowned with a diadem of thorns, and a reed placed inhis hand for a scepter. Then they prostrated themselves before him in oriental style,saluting Him as "King of the Jews." Such exhibitions and mimicry were not uncommon atAlexandria and other places where there were colonies of Jews. It was not Jesus merelywhom the soldiers were worrying; they were gratifying the anti-Semitic feeling. Hence noofficer interfered to stop the disorderly proceeding; all were willing that the Jews and theirpretensions should be treated with ribaldry. The fact that Jesus was a man whom theJewish leaders feared and hated served to give additional zest to the entertainment, andsuch a chance was sure not to be neglected. - Alexander Wilder

(Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 18, no. 2, July-Sept., 1905)

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Vignettes

The Nature of God; Matter; Freedom and Silence; Healing Power; Forms ofReligion; The Effect of War; Names that Fit Conditions; Matter, Consciousness andPower; Criticism; Fitness in Progress; Universalism; "Field of Philosophy;" What isForce?; "Knowledge;" Truth; Plato; Judgement Day; The Eternal; The Idea of Truth;Human Progress; Imperfection & Evil; Against Vaccination; The Mound Builders; CallingBack the Life; Anti-Vaccination League; Somebody to Lay the Blame On; Pertinent

Truths; Results of Vaccination; World-Ending; Religion of Zoroaster

The Nature of GodI do not lose sight of the fact that God may not be known objectively, but must be

inferred, if the matter is to be contemplated from that point of view. It is not possible toacquire knowledge without a faculty for it properly developed. The infantile eye may notrecognize color, and perhaps not light; the pre-natal eye certainly cannot. Even thehuman eye in full development sees with a different sense of vision from the eye of the cator owl. So then, any searching for God, any arguing to prove his being, will be labor lost,except so far as there is a faculty developed by which to apprehend him. - A. W. (The Ideal Review [Metaphysical Magazine], vol. 12, no. 1, April, 1900)

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MatterThe existence of matter cannot be demonstrated. It is an illusion of the senses, one

thing today and another tomorrow, not known to possess any fixed character, or to beaught else than a mere will-of-the wisp. Indeed, it may be shown, Faraday tells us, that inits ultimate analysis matter consists of points of dynamic force. But points are entitieswithout dimension, neither length nor breadth nor thickness - they must be either nothingsor spiritual facts. If the latter, then matter in its last condition is simply possibility ofbecoming, and so, full of Being. (Ibid.)

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Freedom and SilenceThere is freedom and impulse for us to attain the highest degree of illumination of

which we are capable. The girdle of Puck goes round the earth, but the human aspirationsoars beyond the path of the lightning. In every noble idea, every worthy desire we findour mediator with Divinity. The more silent the work, the more certain that life is performingit. In this is our eternity; there is nothing beyond. (Ibid.)

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Healing PowerWe all have witnessed disease set afloat on the wind, and communicated by a

touch, or even by an act of faith. A sick person is a living magazine of pestilence. Theconverse, however, is still more true. Health radiates in every direction, and is a hundred-fold more contagious than any disease. The miracles of Jesus consisted in rebuking fever,restoring a cataleptic to life, healing persons by a touch, or by a word, or at a distance,even when he had not seen them, and restoring a woman who had a canceroushemorrhage to health unwittingly by virtue going out from him. The idea back of this is thatthose who are like him may do the same things. The faculty exists, but with most personsit is latent and dormant. There have been, there always will be, prophets and illuminates

for the age in which they live. (Ibid.)

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Forms of ReligionMithraism was introduced into the Roman world from Pontos about seventy years

before the present era. It speedily pervaded every country, and became the religion of thepeople. Amalgamated with Christianity it was known as Gnosticism; apart it wasincorporated with the neo-Platonic philosophy. When the Bishops aspired to supreme rulein the Empire, they found it their chief impediment. Even Constantine was a soldier of theInvisible Sun till reasons of State made him prefer Christianity. Theodosius in 381 put theworship of Mithras under the law; but it continued in various forms till near our own times.(Ibid.)

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The Effect of WarRuskin in one of his earlier lectures made the statement that "war is the foundation

of all the arts," by which he meant also that it is the foundation of all the high virtues andfaculties of men. How far this is true in relation to the countless thousands and millionsthat are inundated in war will require further explanation. The high virtues and facultiesthat are founded on wholesale slaughter are so high that to us they are completely out ofsight. It would require the eye of a vulture to discern them. For the Christianizing ofIndians in South America by the Spaniards, of the Prussians by the Teutonic knights andof the Saxons by Charlemagne, giving them the choice to be baptized or massacred, wehave no admiration. Yet such constitute the "pomp and circumstance of glorious war." Ifart, high virtue and cultured faculties have war for their basis, how absurd was theutterance of the two old Hebrew prophets: "They shall beat their swords into ploughsharesand their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neithershall they learn war any more." Far more true than these words of Ruskin was theaffirmation of General Sherman that "war is hell." And if this be true, the promotersof war can be only its ministers. (Ibid.)

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Names that Fit ConditionsAn English paper lately undertook the collecting of coincidences of names. At

Cambridge were two Japanese students, M. Soda and M. Wisgi, their names written sideby side. A Mr. Hunter was once asked to occupy a vacant pulpit, of which the regularpreacher was Mr. Fox. At Leeds Miss Orange wedded Mr. Peel. A doctor's diary recordeda professional visit from Ann Devil. A note adds that she married a Mr. Angel.

We have a few curious associations of names here in the United States. OneWilliam C. Bryant was a tailor on Barclay street, and Tasso was a jeweler on Centre street,New York. James Thomson kept a boarding house, and Robert Burns had a "gin mill."John Quincy Adams appeared in a variety of characters which were entirely foreign to thetaste of the former President. George Washington was arrested in one of our cities some

years ago for disorderly conduct. He also told lies. Abraham Lincoln is a sober farmer in Pennsylvania, and near enough in personal

resemblance to be accounted a kinsman. Pullin is a dentist in Newark. Shoemakeris a vender of foot wear in a modest shop. (Metaphysical Magazine, vol. 19, no. 5, July,1906)

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Matter, Consciousness and PowerIt is not so very certain that conditions have limits which may not be overpassed.

We may justly question whether the quantity of matter in the globe or anywhere else isprecisely determined; the dimensions certainly are not. It may also be asked whethermatter truly ever became or ceased to be matter, and whether the "elements," as they areusually denominated, do not undergo transmutation. The analogies of nature do notsanction the notions of perpetual sameness in its various departments. We have not thewarrant for asserting that gold is always gold, silver always silver, iron always iron. Theaffinities of chemical "atoms," as they are termed, and their variableness indicate theelements to be composed of simpler material, and if this is the case there can be but fewprimal substances - barely enough to enable the evolving of the phenomena of polarity.Life, it may safely be affirmed, is the principle behind, that makes them what they seem tous. We witness this in nature. The air-plant creates potassium, for it is not found in theair or rain; the snail, the oyster and the coral, produce lime by their vital functions; thediatom makes flint and iron. The notion popularly attributed to the Alchemists is thusrealized.

We have no valid excuse for the endeavor to dodge around the Supreme Being bythe hypothesis of force in matter. If there was not life behind, there would be neither forcenor matter, neither created thing nor energy. Every molecule of matter must have a lifepeculiar to it, and that is the polarizing principle which we denominate "magnetism." Theuniverse is alive all the way through; even the earth, stones and corpses. Anything thatreally died would cease to be in that very instant.

The veil that seems to be interposed between the temporal existence and the lifewhich we are now living in the eternal world, is more in the seeming than in fact. Theclouds that hide the sun from our sight are not placed in the sky for that purpose, but areproduced from the earth beneath us. If we did not ourselves drink the Lethean draught,if we did not ourselves project the sensuous obscuring into the sky above our heads, wemight even now behold clearly the Real, which is both the ideal and the Everlasting.

The Bo-tree rooted in the earth and branched into the sky; the ash tree, ygdrasil,rooted in heaven and branched into the earth.

The truth is that which is - the essential nature of things, known in the mind; andthis knowing in the mind takes its rise in the consciousness of the thing or subject known.We cannot know that of which we have no consciousness. - A.W. (MetaphysicalMagazine, vol. 11, no. 2, Feb., 1900)----------

The repudiating of ancient learning, especially of Grecian art and culture, by ouruniversities, and the restricting of the curricula to modern science and discovery, may not

be a stealing of the cattle of the king - the lesser luminaries of the sky, but it is an attemptto deprive Apollo of his lyre and bow. There are too many who would fain remove the sunfrom the meridian and exalt stars to supreme honor. - A.W. (Ibid.)----------

In China the parent is patriarch in his household and the religious worship consistsof veneration, piety and good action. The highest duty of religion and government is theinstruction of the people. They have no lawyers. The ethics of China will not tolerate aprofession that is promotive of injustice, quarrels and animosity between men, these beingregarded in the Chinese ethics as supreme immoralities. There is no priestly caste, butworship is entirely a civil function. All may pray and invoke the spiritual powers, but therites of particular divinities are performed by special officers of the government. Everybodyis fraternal and tolerant of religious beliefs; all flourish peacefully side by side. - A.W.(Ibid.)---------------

CriticismThe criticism has sometimes been made that there was little of a philosophic nature

in the Zoroastrian literature. We are not required to be so nice in our distinctions. TheAvesta is everywhere ethical, and like all ancient writings, essentially religious. Allphilosophy takes religion for its starting-point. We are free, however, to define religion asCicero did, to be a profounder reading of the truth. But it was held anciently to include thewhole domain of knowledge. Even here the Avesta was not deficient. The Nasks treatedof religion, morals, civil government, political economy, medicine, botany, astronomy andother sciences. The students of the Zoroastrian lore were, therefore, proficient scholars.The system has survived the torch of Alexander and the cimeter of the Moslem. Millionsupon millions have been put to death for their adherence to the Pure Religion, yet whereverit survives it is manifest as the Wisdom justified by her children. - A.W. (MetaphysicalMagazine, vol. 11, no. 3, March, 1900)------------

Fitness in ProgressVery naturally the lower do not recognise the service of those who are superior.

Those that gather the fruit under the tree take little heed of those who shake it off for them.The foot and the hand may demand the office and rank of the heart. The Rabbins tell usthat Lilith, the first woman, aspired to the sphere of Adam. We find the evils of socialmisplacings on every side. Where money, the means, is exalted into the seat of justiceand intelligence, all manner of disorder is inevitable. The official Chair, the Court, andLegislature, and even the pulpit will be inspired and dominated by it. Yet evil is only alesser good. The kernel of a civilization may rot, and ours seems indeed to be festering;but from it the germ of a thriftier plant will be nourished and enabled to shoot up into ahigher and better life. Nations perish that the people may be saved. In the long run, theMercury-Hermes of the market-place will be supplanted by the messenger of the sky, whoconsoles the suffering, opens the gates of Darkness and brings life to the dead.

Human progress does not appear anywhere in a straight line of continuous advance.Life is rounded; History is in cycles, and civilizations come and go like the seasons. At the

heel of them all is savagery; but everywhere about them is the life eternal. - A.W. (Ibid.)-----------

UniversalismThomas Starr King once humorously remarked that the difference between

Unitarians and Universalists was that "Universalists believe that God is too good to damnmen, and the Unitarians believe that men are too good to be damned." But Mr. GeorgeWillis Cooke affirms that this distinction is no longer valid. "It is not a theological but apsychological difference," he declares, "that keeps these duplicated sects from closeaffiliations." He explains that the Unitaian looks upon religion more from the intellectualside, while the Universalist views it more from the intuitional and evangelic standpoint.

It would seem from this that the trend of the other denominations must be towardUniversalism. Such, in fact, appears to be the case. The doctrine of the Trinity is rathera matter for casuistic speculation, which has little interest for the laity. But the notion of aneternity of endless misery for finite beings exhibits the Deity in too hateful a character forvoluntary acceptance. Hence, deep-thinking men of the churches called orthodox, likeLyman Abbott and Dean Farrar, are becoming courageous to repudiate it, and the commonsense of the clergy is leading them, even on revival occasions, to direct the attention of theunconverted to other motives than the fear of endless punishment. Even in the RomanCatholic body a large body of communicants quietly disbelieve the dogma. They may not,like St. George Mivart, frankly avow it, lest they encounter the anathema and ecclesiasticalboycott, but they are none the less determined in their conviction. The world moves. Eventhe tendency of Protestant Christendom to return to the lap of its mother, is allied to thissentiment of moderation in dogma. To be good is to be a citizen of heaven; and to be badis to be in hell. But even then, as the philosopher of the eighteenth century declared, everyindividual will be in the condition fixed by the ruling law, and so will live the life in which hemost delights. - A.W. (Metaphysical Magazine, Jan., 1901)------------

(Field of Philosophy)The Field of philosophy is as broad as the universe. It includes all knowledge,

human and divine - everything in action as well as in contemplation which is upright andgood. It is practical in the noblest sense. To be speculative and visionary is to have insightand intelligence of the essential truth of things: to look Beyond phenomena to theoperating principle. It is a living for the ages rather than for the days, the holding of truthat its divine valuation rather than for its price in the market. (Ibid., vol. 5, no. 1, Jan., 1897)

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What is Force?Force is divinity in action. It has been described as inseparable from matter and for

that reason dependent upon it. But the fact was over looked that matter itself was but forcein its dynamic and receptive character, the feminine and maternal side of things.Reichenbach discovered an imponderable universal energy allied to heat, light, electricity,and magnetism, yet discrete, which permeated everywhere the most solid substances.This is named the "Od." Then Crookes learned of a matter transcending that which comes

within the purview of our common sensibility, purer than light and more potent thanelectricity, if not the ether itself. This he names radiant matter. Roentgen has nowexplored further and brought the occult actinic ray into open demonstration, as penetratingsubstances regarded as opaque and revealing shapes that had been hidden from oureyes. Every step brings us toward the Infinite Energy, and the demonstration that thereis nothing hid that shall not be revealed. The Apocrypha of spiritual and superior physicalknowledge, that have been so much misunderstood and ignored, are fast becomingApocalypse, and the energy which is everywhere endowing men with ability to knowsuperior truth and to exercise miraculous powers. Force, so far from being blind andfortuitous, is manifestly intelligent, and operative to the best ends. (Ibid., vol. 5, no. 2)

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(Knowledge)In order to know anything it is necessary to love it first, to desire it, and to become

in sympathy with it. The truth which nature and the universe embody is a sealed book tohim who loves it not. His knowledge, or rather his conception of knowledge, whateverpretension it may have to being scientific, is mean, superficial, small, and serving only forthe uses of the day. The man who loves not the eternal truth will never know it; and, asknowing is possessing, he will be poor, ignorant, blind, and naked. (Ibid., vol. 5, no. 3)

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(Truth)The truth, too sublime for vulgar conception, which had been taught arcanely as the

metempsychosis or transforming of the soul, was set forth by Paul as the "anastasis" orexaltation above the conditions of earth life. The final unveiling at the Mysteries disclosedto the clear-seeing spectator that same view and concept of immortality. "Happy he," saysPindar, "who beholds these things of the world beyond; he knows the purpose of life here;he knows the origin in God." (Ibid., vol. 5, no. 4)

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PlatoPlato was as eminently practical as he was profoundly speculative. He was a sage

who affected no superiority, a philosopher without arrogance, a scholar without pedantry;he lived a celibate life without being ascetic; he was of royal descent, yet neversupercilious; an aristocrat in sentiment, yet tenacious of the rights and welfare of everyone. Goodness was the foundation of his ethics, and a divine intention the core of all hisdoctrines. (Ibid., vol. 5, no. 5)

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Judgement DayWe have no occasion for apprehension or perplexity in regard to a judgment of the

last day. The form of speech is Asiatic and highly metaphorical. The event may be

regarded by those whose mental purview is bounded by Time as relating to some physicalcrisis like the consummation of terrestrial existence, or perhaps the end of life; but in theworld of mind there are no such limitations. The day of the Lord is from everlasting toeverlasting, always at high noon; it has always been, it now is, and it will never cease tobe. It is a "last day" to those alone whose life and thought are still involved in corporealnature; it is a day of judgment to those only who love darkness rather than light, and arewrong-doing. But they who have attained the pure life and the true resurrection are livingall the while in the divine, eternal day. They are in the heavenly places, in beatificcommunion with spirits and angels, and are endowed with the perceptions, faculties, andenergies which pertain to the life of the eternal world. To us is vouchafed the assurancethat as we live in family, neighborhood, and society upon the earth, we may likewisesustain analogous relations with those who dwell in the celestial region. The basis of thisassurance exists in our own being, and we confirm it by living in charity and doing the right."In all moral feeling," says Jacobi, "there is a presentiment of eternity." (Ibid., Nov., 1896)

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The EternalWe cannot properly delineate the eternal world. We may cognize it and be

preconscious of it; but we are not able to comprehend it fully. It is above and beyond us,and yet is present with us - like the heaven which transcends, and at the same timecontains the earth within it. It is spiritual and divine; but to give its altitude, profoundnessand extent is beyond our ken. We may not, however, for such reasons, circumscrible ourthought and imagination within the limits of daily observation and experience. To withholdour eyes from the vision of the immutable and everlasting would be a suffocation of ourhigher nature. Nor would it be innocent or blameless to be willing thus to remain "of theearth earthy" when our nobler selfhood is from heaven." (Intelligence [MetaphysicalMagazine], vol. 6, no. 1, June, 1897)

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(The Idea of Truth)The fact that the idea of truth, of order, of right doing, exists in every person's mind

is evidence that he is immortal, a partaker of the infinite and eternal. It is the office of theimagination to shape that idea, to make it perceptible to the mind, and to introduce it intothe heart, the daily walk, and all the life.....

Our aspiration to an ideal excellence of conduct, our endeavor to acquire morethorough knowledge, our eagerness to achieve any kind of eminent distinction - each in itsway is an endeavor to attain an exaltation that is nobler and permanent. Any moral forcethat does this is as real, and must be so acknowledge, as is the blow that makes us recoil,or fells us to the ground. (Ibid., Nov., 1897)

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(Human Progress)Nowhere does human progress appear in a straight line of continuous advance. Life

is rounded, history is in cycles, and civilizations come and go like the seasons. At the heelof them all is savagery; but everywhere about them is the life eternal. (Meta. Mag., vol.8, no. 1, April, 1898)

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Imperfection and EvilImperfection and evil are unavoidable in all derived existence. Yet they are full of

utility. They certainly enable us to obtain the necessary experience and discipline forbecoming more worthy. In this way they are beneficial and a part of the Divine purpose.The child that never stumbled never learned to walk. The errors of the man of businessare his monitors to direct him in the way of prosperity. Our own sins and misdoing areessential in an analogous way to our correction and future good conduct. The individual,however, who chooses to continue in these faults and evil conditions, thereby thwarts theirbeneficial objects. His shortcomings become turpitude. All such, turning their back to theRight, will be certain to "eat the fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices."(Ibid., June, 1898)

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Against the Vivesection BarbarismIn the Legislature of New York, at its late session, the effort was made to procure

some mitigation of the cruelties of vivisection. But the medical fraternity turned out in forceto be permitted the continuing of the atrocity in full severity. The Legislature did nothing.

A similar condition of things prevails in England. The pretense has been made thatby reason of what has been thus heard, the mortality from diphtheria and other diseaseshas greatly decreased. The Hon. Stephen Coleridge has overhauled the returns of theRegistrar-General in London, for the fifteen years immediately preceding the beginning ofthe antitoxin treatment averaged 251 a million. In the fifteen years prior to that, taken inperiods of five years each, the averages were 121 for the first, 156 for the second, and 170for the third.

The new treatment was begun in 1894. There have followed two of these five-yearperiods. The average of deaths in the first of these was 272, in the second 204. In plainwords the rate of mortality from diphtheria is higher than it was before the treatment wasbegun.

Mr. Coleridge further declares that the deaths from various diseases, to which thevivisectors have had the opportunity of applying their prophylactics of serums, etc., so farfrom being diminished, have largely increased. - A. W. (Ibid., June, 1908)

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Conjectures about the Mound Builders

(Letter to The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 1887, pp. 45-6)

Editor Am Antiquarian:Although I was born in the vicinity of the Oneida tribe, now at Green Bay, I never

took pains with their history, etc., till after they had sold their last reservation, now the landof the Oneida Community. I of course knew the Oneidas at least, the Chief Skanadant,and have seen the "Long House" where the Onondagas were, and I believe still are. Ihave also visited the Shinnereks on Long Island. They are mostly negroes, yet I foundthem having Indian traditions. I think, too, that there are Pequods still in Connecticut.

I doubt, however, the existence of "Indians" here till after their migration from nearthe Mississippi. I favor the notion that when the Northmen visited this region, the Skrallingsor progenitors of the Eskimos held the country. These notions, however, are of no valueto you.

My own tastes are historic. I have a taste for ancient history, and the explanationof worships. I desire to know the character of the American Serpent-Worship, the legendsof the various peoples, and I oscillate between the conjectures that the wild tribes areAsiatic or indigenous. The peculiar customs and worships of the two continents are soalike, and yet so unlike, that it gives a pretty wide field for the fancy.

I have conjectured that the Mound-Builders were the ancestors of the Toltecs ofMexico; that the various wild tribes drove them from the Upper Mississippi, and thenthemselves divided into peoples. Whether these tribes were the vagrant Scyths is an openquestions; many of their customs, like scalping, totemism, conjuration, shamanism, asPreller would call it, seem to indicate it. They appear much like Tartars, and I have seenthem with the Mongolian eyes.

Whether stray names like Votar for Woder, Atlan, etc., amount to much as evidenceI seriously question. I am not much of an "Evolutionist," yet I suppose much of the biblicalnarration to be allegoric rather than historic. Doubtless the races of men are infinitely olderthan we suppose, and diverse in their origin. I doubt not that if they all were to perish,there would come peculiar mundane conditions, which would be followed by theappearance of a new human race.

Yours truly, Alexander Wilder, M.D.

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Calling Back the LifeA telegraphic account from Cleveland, Ohio, dated December 10th, relates that

Mrs. Sarah Goldstein, of that city, brought back her dead child to life for a period of twohours. The child had been ill from scarlet fever for a month, and now, her body hadbecome rigid in death. The mother was weeping at the bedside. Soon she fell into atrance, and taking the body in her arms, she muttered some words not intelligible to othersin the room. The breath came back, and for two hours the little one lived again. Then thebody became rigid a second time, and she passed away. The mother, however, continuedin the trance, and when her words could be distinguished, she appeared to be talking tothe child.

This is not so wonderful as it seems at first. That something which we know as lifeis by no means an absolutely individual endowment. It is a principle as extensive as beingitself and permeates every corner in the universe. Each creature has a share which it

participates with others. Persons near of kin, and those in rapport with each other, partakemore or less of one another's energies. They often drag down by their own depressedconditions; they sustain others by their blitheness, courage and hopefulness. Individualswasted by disease or worn out by age are thus kept alive for periods of time by thesympathy and strong will of friends. Likewise, in such a case as the one here presented,it evidently is not impossible after death has supervened, but before the organism has notbecome so impaired as to unfit it totally for the coming back of the principle of life. Amother whose sympathies and affections are closely allied to her child has an occult powerof larger extent than is well understood. Doubtless, likewise, in many other instances,individuals are held back in life by this force in those about them, and sometimes even aremade to recover. Such things are miracles in the sense of wonderful, but not supernaturalexcept as being natural in a higher department of nature. - A. W. (Meta. Mag., Feb.,1908)

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Dr. Leverson in London, Annual Meeting of Anti-Vaccination LeagueThe [Annual Meeting of the] National Anti-Vaccination League of England was held

at Caxton Hall, Westminster, on the 11th of March. The proceedings were animated, andthe evidence of advancing interest all over the kingdom was most gratifying. Severalmembers of the House of Commons attended and made addresses .... Dr. Alfred RusselWallace, the savant, now a veteran approaching 85, sent a message, urging to use powerat Parliamentary elections. "Nothing is worth having, but total abolition of all vaccinationlaws," he insisted. "Also," he added, "all discrimination, public and private, againstunvaccinated persons should be declared illegal and punishable. Let us vote against everycandidate who will not promise to support such abolition, and we shall get it. There is noother way."

A letter from Dr. Sarah Newcomb Merrick, Secretary of the Massachusetts League,introduced Dr. Leverson. He took the floor, on invitation, and told the dark story ofvaccination outrage in the United States. In many cities houses are entered at dead ofnight, doors forced, the sleeping inmates roused, and none permitted to escape asaault.In 1864 a medical student followed up Brooklyn raids for two weeks and gathered evidenceof six children killed and two hundred seriously injured by vaccination. The MassachusettsAnti-Vaccination Society, believing the compulsory statute to be a violation of the FederalConstitution, carried a test case to the Supreme Court of the United States. It will beremembered that Sir Edward Coke ruled that a person cannot be compelled to submit toa surgical operation against his will. But the Court declared that the police powers of theState were not controlled by the Constitution.

To the general legal Gehenna, the State of Utah is an exception. The Legislaturepassed a bill declaring enforced vaccination a penal offense. The Governor vetoed it andthe Legislature enacted it over the veto. In Colorado and Wisconsin the Legislaturespassed bills to compel vaccination, but Governors Patterson and LaFollette vetoed them"in vigorous English worthy of the best traditions of English and American freedom."

An Anti-Vaccination League was formed in Chicago, and is bringing the matter intothe courts. Another is also at Omaha, in Nebraska.

A project is now being pushed to create a Federal Department of Public Health. It

is but a disguise by which to deceive the people as to the real purpose.Mrs. Little received a welcome as enthusiastic. She praised the work which had

been accomplished in England as prodigious, and told of what had been done inMinnesota. A law had been passed there in 1903 prohibiting the compulsory vaccinationof children. They now had to keep doctors to the line.

The Vaccination Inquirer gives a very full and fair sketch of all the proceedings andpromises a report of Dr. Leverson's address on Serum-Therapy. - A.W. (Ibid., May, 1908)

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Somebody to Lay the Blame OnPresident Jackson had required the public money on deposit in the United States

Bank to be removed to other institutions. The action was doubtless high-handed, and theWhig journals and orators were eloquent in denunciation and prediction of disaster. Thewriter was in his boyhood at the time and remembers a newspaper article purporting to beby an Irishman, relating his personal experience. He could not get paid for his work,because his boss pleaded that money could not be obtained owing to the removal of thedeposits. Patrick presently found this pleading everywhere. No work, no money, but ageneral complaining. One day his wife broke her arm, and during the excitement he gotdrunk and was arrested. When he was arraigned in court and asked for his defence, hereplied:

"Your Honor, it is all owing to the removal of the deposits." "You, too, are a sufferer. That injustifuable action has ruined us all. You are

discharged.""Long life," cried Patrick "long life to your Honor, and God bless the good man that

removed the deposits, for he has given us somebody to lay the blame on."Not many years afterward, there came a real disaster, short crops, bank failures and

wholesale bankruptcy. The financial calamity was more severe than any which has sinceoccurred. Mr. Van Buren had just been inaugurated as President, and was heldaccountable. A political overturn took place all over the country and the Democratic partywas driven from power. There was plausibility in the pretext, but extravagant extension ofcredit was the cause.

In 1857 was another occurrence of a similar character, but this time the Presidentwas not assailed.

The catastrophe of 1873 is still fresh in general remembrance. Speculation had runwild; and every enterprise, public and private, seemed to be honeycombed with jobberyand peculation. The Republican party was in power, and was held responsible. Thepolitical majority in Congress was overturned, many prominent individuals were relegatedto private life and the next presidential election exhibited a set purpose for an overturnwhich was with difficulty prevented.

Another occurring of stringency took place in the second term of PresidentCleveland, and the usual endeavor put forth to impute it to his policy. But the men whohad been displaced from power and who were in the opposition party in Congress were asmuch to blame, as they had succeeded in obstructing his efforts to place the financialcondition on a proper basis.

The present Chief Magistrate is now the target for attack. Having declared that be

would not be a candidate for reelection, many assail him who would not have done sounder different conditions. He has boldly exposed and sought to punish individuals andcorporations that were disobeying the law in their management, and procuringdishonorable advantages over their competitors, and for so doing is accused by theculpable individuals of having disturbed and arrested the course of national prosperity.Like King Ahab, who when his evil deeds were exposed, accused the prophet of being anagitator, they seek to create the impression that the President has caused the panic andobstruction in commercial business, which they had been creating. They would have usbelieve that the publishing of the procedures which have been ferreted out and exposed,the felonious methods, were the sole cause of the troubles. It is about as reasonable asthe reputed logic of the Irishman.

One night when the mercury had fallen below the zero mark two adopted citizenswere walking up Broadway. Before one of the buildings they saw a thermometer silentlyregistering the temperature.

"Ah," cried one of them, "here is the divel that makes the weather so cold."With a blow of his stick he demolished the instrument. - A. W. (Ibid., April, 1908)

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Pertinent TruthsTrue worship is a venerating of the Right. There can be nothing really learned,

nothing really known, of the superior truth, except the knowledge be reverently sought andentertained.

The demand of the age is for liberty and opportunity. Except we have these in theexercise of the Healing Art, there will be but its degradation. No more a profession, itbecomes a mere trade. Indeed, so little is the confidence of medical practitioners in theirown skill that they prefer the deadly risks of operative surgery to their own efforts.

Every profession is in arms to prevent young men from entering it. The skilledvocations are organized for this end, yet the newspapers decry the strikes and excessesof the unskilled and ignorant. Men are castigated for not working, and then are almostforcibly shut out from all kinds of profitable industry. The very children are borntrespassers encumbering the ground. Verily, these things ought not so to be; and itbehooves those who suffer to take the proper remedy into their own hands and apply itresolutely.

Religions have subordinated moral obligation to the idea of salvation of theindividual. Comte, on the other hand, based his system upon the concept of the duty ofman to his fellow-man. The error of this is that it would replace God by Humanity. It is aBuddhism. It subordinates man's personal to his social instincts. The true thinker will lookbeyond, not neglecting anything, but aspiring to the knowledge of a superior truth. -Alexander Wilder (Ibid., Oct., 1898)

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Results of VaccinationContention that a Permanent Morbid Condition Follows.

To the Editor of The Press:Sir. - For your manliness in admitting to your columns communications differing in

sentiment from your own views I thank you heartily. Approving of what the several writershave said in relation to vaccination and the evils resulting from it to the soldiers, I beg leavealso to add a word.

Sir James Paget, of London, is one who stands above others in the ranks oforthodox medicine. His works are regarded as superior authority. In his treatise onsurgery he explains the supposed utility of vaccination. He declares that it produces apermanent morbid condition of the blood, and that this morbid condition while it continuesis a safeguard against smallpox.

Accepting these statements, the former of which is undoubtedly true, it seems to becertain that the vaccinated volunteers in the war with Spain were placed in a permanentstate of disease by being vaccinated and so were made directly liable to every morbificinfluence existing wherever they went. It can be no wonder that so many succumbed. Itis the first step that costs; the others are natural consequences. - Alexander Wilder, M.D.Newark, N. J., Sept. 21, 1898.

- From The New York Press. (Ibid., Oct., 1898)

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World-Ending.An epidemic of finishing up the world runs over communities every few years.

Science is made to stand back in presence of exegesis; and the savant's voice is drownedby the shrieking of the seer. But the old shell is here yet; she has lasted, nobody knowshow long, and is good for a prodigious number of earthquakes and revolutions.

The old Libyan Sibyl, Sojourner Truth, her own age a myth, lectured lately at theCooper Institute, and reiterated the predictions: "There are awful times cumin'," said she."God has given me the foresight to tell it. These Advent people may that when Jesuscomes again he will be flyin' through the air. The Bible says that he is cumin' like a thiefin the night, an' you all know thieves don't fiy in the air. I warn you all to be prepared, forhe's comin' just as the Bible says. The awful time is near at han'."

Mother Shipton, the supposed daughter of an Incubus, four centuries ago, used tomake predictions, which have been reproduced from time to time by publishers. But likeother prophets she affected versification, and it was very poor. She spoke of the "LastDays," as follows:

"Carriages without horses shall go,And accidents fill the earth with woe;Around the world thought shall flyIn the twinkling of an eye.Water shall yet more wonders do,Now strange, but yet they shall be true;The world upside down shall beAnd gold be found at the root of a tree.

Through hills man shall rideAnd horse nor ass shall be at his side;Under water men shall walk,Shall ride, shall sleep, shall talk;In the air shall men be seenIn white, in black, in green.Iron in the water shall floatAs easy as a wooden boat;Gold shall be found and shownIn land that's not now known;Fire and water shall wonders do;England shall at last admit a Jew;The world to an end shall comeIn eighteen hundred and eighty-one.

That the two Sibyls may be speaking truth after all, we have the concurringtestimony of the stars. It is no question of moonshine. A learned pundit has shown thatwhen one or more large planets happen to be nearest to the sun, there is suchdisturbance as to cause destructive storms, long drouths, great prevalence of disease, andnumerous other evils. In the sixth and sixteenth centuries the perihelia of three planetsoccurred in coincidence, and these were eras of pestilence. In 1880 the four planets,Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune will all be nearest the sun at the same time; and hepredicts four or five years of violent epidemic. We would, in view of the two Alrunawomen, Agatha and Sojourner, and their fearful prediction, interpret the portent to be ofthe nature of catastrophe: four huge worlds thus poised in the sky, out of place, as it were,would seem to threaten the utter destruction of the equilibrium of the solar system, ageneral smash, "the wreck of matter and the crash of worlds," and we know not what else.How would it have been, if we had not all been like Topsy, "so wicked?" (unsigned)(Medical Tribune, vol. 1, no. 4, Feb., 1879)

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Religion of Zoroaster*Mr. Brown is a zealous explorer of tits archaic world, and many of his

conclusions are new to most classical and other scholars.

-----------* The Religion of Zoroaster considered in connection with Archaic Monotheism, By

R. Brown, Esq., F.S.A.-----------

His monograph on Poseidon clearly shows the non-identity of that divinity with Neptune,and his more evident relations with Dagon and Hea, both of them Ethiopic gods. TheGreat Dionysiak Myth, in like manner, has traced Bacchus from Greece, and Egypt to hisAssyrian home, showing him to be no mere wine-god, but Shem or Shamas himself, theRadamanthus or Judge of Mankind. The present monograph is also a gem in its way. Mr.

Brown agrees [with] Dr. Haug that Zoroaster was an actual person, "an eminent Baktrian,possessed of mysterious wisdom in matters both physical and spiritual, engaged incontests with various neighboring nations, the author of various occult works, versed in thelaw connected with demons and the destiny of the soul, closely connected with thereverential or mystical use of fire," etc. He was essentially a reformer, not aspiring to theinvention of a new and superior kind of faith. The Ahuryan religion was already ancient;and he did not teach the eternity of the Evil Potency as has been declared. He assertedmonotheism, the worship of one Ahura, as against that of the company of Devas. In duetime, however, when the Iranians of Baktria become bitterly hostile to the Hindoo Aryans,the latter degraded Ahura into an evil spirit, while the former transformed the devas ordeities into devils. Mithra, the "spirit of brightness and sentient friend of man," wasconsubstantial with Ahura-Mazda, and at the head of the Yazatas or angelic world. But theAvesta is hardly an exponent of the doctrines of Zoroaster, but chiefly of the Parsis.

The Vedic divinities were not, however, originally many in number. They, too, werecombined in Agni, the god of fire; and he is even identified with Yama, the Hindoo Adam,and Lord of the world of the dead, as really all deified first-ancestors were. So, accordingto Mr. Brown, one sole Divinity was the earliest in religions; the initiated so regarded thematter, while the multitude was abandoned to the cult of symbols. (unsigned) (Ibid., Vol.1, no. 10, Aug., 1879)

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