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 BL 87 .M76 1873 
 M uller, F. Max 1823-1900 
 Introduction to the science 
 of religion 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SCIENCE OF RELIGION, 
 
 FOUR LECTURES 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 
 
 WITH 
 
 TWO ESSAYS 
 
 ON FALSE ANALOGIES, AND THE FHILO^Oi^L^ . ,^ 
 OF MYTHOLOGY. /^ ^<^ '4 
 
 ' •• Vsi/fi,.;, ,.M-.\0.\*^x 
 
 F. MAX MULLER, M. A:-^f4''.i'l:i: ----- 
 
 Foreign Member of the French Institute, etc. 
 
 QUOD UBIQUE, QUOD SEMPER, QUOD AB OMNIBUS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1873. 
 
OXFORD: 
 
 h\ E. B. GARDNER, E. FICKARD HALL, AND J. H. STACY, 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO RALPH WALDO EMERSON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF HIS VISIT TO OXFORD 
 
 IN MAY, M DCCC LXXIII^ 
 
 AND IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF CONSTANT REFRESHMENT 
 
 OF HEAD AND HEART 
 
 DERIVED FROM HIS WRITINGS 
 
 DURING THE LAST TWENTY -FIVE YEARS, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 These Lectures which were intended as an intro- 
 duction to a comparative study of the principal re- 
 Hgions of the world, were delivered at the Royal 
 Institution in London, in February and March 1870, 
 and printed in Fraser's Magazine of February, March, 
 April, and May of the same year. I declined at 
 that time to publish them in a separate form, hoping 
 that I might find leisure to work up more fully the 
 materials which I had collected for many years. 
 I thought that I should thus be enabled to make 
 these lectures more interesting and more complete, 
 and at the same time meet several objections that 
 had been raised by some critics against the possi- 
 bility of a scientific study of religions, and against 
 my views on the origin, the growth, and the real 
 value of the ancient systems of faith, elaborated by 
 different branches of the human race. A small 
 edition only was printed privately, and sent to some 
 of my friends whose remarks have proved in many 
 cases most valuable and instructive. 
 
 If now I have decided on republishing these 
 Lectures, I have done so because I fear that as 
 during the three years that have elapsed since their 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 dcli\'cr}', so again during the years to come, I shall 
 find little leisure for these researches. I have just 
 finished a new edition of the text of the Rig-veda 
 in four volumes, and I now feel bound to print the 
 last volume of my large edition of the Rig-veda 
 with the commentary of Saya;^a. When that is 
 done, the translation of the hymns of the Rig-veda, 
 of which the first volume was published in 1869, 
 will have to be continued, and I see but little 
 chance that, with these tasks before me, I shall be 
 able to devote much time to my favourite study of 
 ancient language, mythology, and religion. 
 
 I should gladly have left these Lectures to their 
 ephemeral fate; but as they have been republished 
 in America, and translated in France and Italy, they 
 ha\e become the subject of friendly and unfriendly 
 remarks in several works on Comparative Theology. 
 A German translation also being on the eve of pub- 
 lication, I at last determined to publish them in their 
 original form, and to render them at least as perfect 
 as I could at the present moment. The Lectures, 
 as now printed, contain considerable portions which 
 were written in 1870, but had to be left out in the 
 course of delivery, and therefore also in Eraser's 
 Magazine. I have inserted such corrections and sup- 
 plementary notes as I had made from time to time 
 in the course of my reading, and a few remarks were 
 added at the last moment, whilst seeing these sheets 
 through the Press. 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 For more complete information on many points 
 touched upon in these Lectures, I must refer my 
 readers to my Essays on the Science of Rehgion, 
 and the Essays on Mythology, Traditions and Cus- 
 toms, published in 1867 under the title of ' Chips 
 from a German Workshop.' 
 
 The literature of Comparative Theology is growing 
 rapidly, particularly in America. The works of James 
 F. Clarke, Samuel Johnson, O. B. Frothingham, the 
 lectures of T. W. Higginson, W. C. Gannett, and J. W. 
 Chadwick, the philosophical papers by F. E. Abbot, 
 all show that the New World, in spite of all its pre- 
 occupations, has not ceased to feel at one with the 
 Old World ; all bear witness of a deep conviction 
 that the study of the ancient religions of mankind 
 will not remain v/ithout momentous practical results. 
 That study, I feel convinced, if carried on in a bold, 
 but scholar-like, careful, and reverent spirit, will re- 
 move many doubts and difficulties which are due 
 entirely to the narrowness of our religious horizon ; 
 it will enlarge our sympathies, it will raise our 
 thoughts above the small controversies of the day, 
 and at no distant future evoke in the very heart of 
 Christianity a fresh spirit, and a new life. 
 
 M. M. 
 Oxford, May 12, 1873. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Lectures on the Science of Religion :~t- 
 
 Lecture I i 
 
 Appendix to Lecture I . . . .6% 
 
 Lecture II , loi 
 
 Lecture III i44 
 
 Lecture IV 217 
 
 On False Analogies in Comparative Theology . 283 
 
 On the Philosophy of Mythology . . .335 
 
FIRST LECTURE. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 
 FEBRUARY 1 9, 187O. 
 
 ^^T'HEN I undertook for the first time to 
 deliver a course of lectures in this 
 Institution, I chose for my subject the Science 
 of Lang2tage. What I then had at heart was 
 to show to you, and to the world at large, 
 that the comparative study of the principal 
 languages of mankind was based on sound and -^ 
 scientific principles, and that it had brought. j 
 to light results which deserved a larger share 
 of public interest than they had as yet received. 
 I tried to convince not only scholars by pro- 
 fession, but historians, theologians, and philo- 
 sophers, nay everybody who had once felt the 
 charm of gazing inwardly upon the secret 
 workings of his own mind, veiled and revealed 
 as they are in the flowing folds of language, 
 
Lectures on the Seience of Religion. 
 
 that the discoveries made by comparative 
 philologists could no longer be ignored with 
 impunity; and I submitted that after the pro- 
 gress achieved in a scientific study of the 
 principal branches of the vast realm of human 
 speech, our new science, the Science of Lan- 
 guage, might claim by right its seat at the 
 Round-table of the intellectual chivalry of our 
 age. 
 
 Such was the goodness of the cause I had 
 then to defend, that, however imperfect my 
 own pleading, the verdict of the public has been 
 immediate and almost unanimous. Durine the 
 
 o 
 
 years that have elapsed since the delivery of 
 my first course of lectures, the Science of 
 Language has had its full share of public re- 
 cognition. Whether we look at the number 
 of books that have been published for the 
 advancement and elucidation of our science, 
 or at the excellent articles in the daily, weekly, 
 fortnightly, monthly, and quarterly reviews, or 
 at the frequent notices of its results scattered 
 about ill works on philosophy, theology, and 
 ancient history, we may well rest satisfied. 
 The example set by France and Germany in 
 founding chairs of Sanskrit and Comparative 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religic 
 
 Philology, has been followed of late in nearly 
 all the universities of England, Ireland, and 
 Scotland. We need not fear for the future of 
 the Science of Language. A career so auspi- 
 ciously begun, in spite of strong prejudices 
 that had to be encountered, will lead on from 
 year to year to greater triumphs. Our best 
 public schools, if they have not done so already, 
 will soon have to follow the example set by 
 the universities. It is but fair that schoolboys 
 who are made to devote so many hours every 
 day to the laborious acquisition of languages, 
 should now and then be taken by a safe guide 
 to enjoy from a higher point of view that 
 living panorama of human speech which has 
 been surveyed and carefully mapped out by 
 patient explorers and bold discoverers : nor is 
 there any longer an excuse why, even in the 
 most elementary lessons, nay I should say, why 
 more particularly in these elementary lessons, 
 the dark and dreary passages of Greek and 
 Latin, of French and German grammar, should 
 not be brightened by the electric light of Com- 
 parative Philology. 
 
 When last year I travelled in Germany I 
 found that lectures on Comparative Philology 
 
 B 2 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 were attended In the universities by nearly all 
 ^vho study Greek and Latin. At Leipzig there 
 were hundreds of students who crowded the 
 lecture room of the Professor of Comparative 
 Philology, and the classes of the Professor of 
 Sanskrit consisted of more than fifty under- 
 graduates, most of them wishing to acquire 
 that amount of knowledge of Sanskrit which 
 is absolutely necessary before entering upon a 
 study of Comparative Grammar. 
 
 The Introduction of Greek into the univer- 
 sities of Europe in the fifteenth century could 
 hardly have caused a greater revolution than 
 the discovery of Sanskrit and the study of Com- 
 parative Philology in the nineteenth. Very j 
 few indeed now take their degree of Master 
 of Arts In Germany or would be allowed to 
 teach at a public school, without having been 
 examined In the principles of Comparative 
 Philology, nay In the elements of Sanskrit 
 grammar. Why should it be different In Eng- 
 land ? The intellectual fibre, I know, is not 
 different In the youth of England and in the 
 )outli of Germany, and if there is but a fair 
 field and no favour, Comparative Philology, 
 I feel convinced, will soon hold In Enorland 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 too, that place which It ought to hold at every 
 public school, in every university, and in every 
 classical examination ^ 
 
 In beginning to-day a course of lectures on 
 the Science of Religion, — or I should rather 
 say on some . preliminary points that have to 
 be settled before we can enter upon a truly 
 scientific study of the religions of the world, — 
 I feel as I felt when first pleading in this very 
 place for the Science of Language. 
 
 I know that I shall have to meet determined 
 antagonists who will deny the possibility of a 
 scientific treatment of religions as they denied 
 the possibility of a scientific treatment of lan- 
 guages. I foresee even a far more serious 
 conflict with familiar prejudices and deep-rooted 
 convictions ; but I feel at the same time that 
 I am prepared to meet my antagonists, and 
 I have such faith in their honesty and love of 
 
 ^ Since this was written, Comparative Philology has been 
 admitted to its rightful place in the University of Oxford. 
 In the first Public Examination candidates for Honours in 
 Greek or Latin Literature will be examined in the Elements 
 of Comparative Philology as illustrating the Greek and Latin 
 languages. In the final Public Examination, Comparative 
 Philology will form a special subject, by the side of the 
 history of Ancient Literature. 
 
Lectures on the Scicnee of Religion. 
 
 truth, that I doubt not of a patient and impar- 
 tial hearing on their part, and of a verdict in- 
 fluenced by nothing but by the evidence that 
 I shall have to place before them. 
 
 In these our days it is almost impossible 
 to speak of religion without giving offence 
 either on the right or on the left. With some, 
 religion seems too sacred a subject for scien- 
 tific treatment ; with others it stands on a level 
 widi alchemy and astrology, as a mere tissue of 
 errors or halucinations, far beneath the -notice 
 of the man of science. 
 
 In a certain sense, I accept both these 
 
 views. Religion is a sacred subject, and 
 
 whether in its most perfect or in its most im- 
 
 X perfect form, it has a right to our highest 
 
 L reverence. In this respect we might learn 
 
 . something from those whom we are so ready 
 
 to teach. I quote from the Declaration of 
 
 Principles by which the church founded by 
 
 Keshub Chunder Sen professes to be guided. 
 
 After stating that no created object shall ever 
 
 be worshipped, nor any man or inferior being 
 
 or material object be treated as identical with 
 
 God, or like unto God, or as an incarnation of 
 
 God, and that no prayer or hymn shall be said 
 
Lcctiu'cs on the Science of Religion. 
 
 unto or in the name of any one except God, 
 the declaration continues : 
 
 ' No created being or object that has been 
 or may hereafter be worshipped by any sect 
 shall be ridiculed or contemned in the course of 
 the divine service to be conducted here.' 
 
 ' No book shall be acknowledged or received 
 as the Infallible Word of God : yet no book 
 which has been or may hereafter be acknow- 
 ledged by any sect to be Infallible shall be 
 ridiculed or contemned.' 
 
 ' No sect shall be vilified, ridiculed, or hated.' 
 
 No one — this I can promise — who attends 
 these lectures, be he Christian or Jew, Hindu 
 or Mohammedan, shall hear his own way of 
 serving God spoken of irreverently. But true 
 reverence does not consist in declaring a sub- 
 ject, because It Is dear to us, to be unfit for 
 free and honest inquiry : far from it ! True 
 reverence is shown in treating every subject, 
 however sacred, however dear to us, with per- 
 fect confidence ; without fear and without fa- 
 vour ; with tenderness and love, by all means, 
 but, before all, with an unflinching and un- 
 compromising loyalty to truth. 
 
 On the other hand, I fully admit that religion. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 has stood in former ages, and stands also 
 in our own age, if we look abroad, and if 
 we look into some of the highest and some 
 of the lowest places at home, on a level with 
 alchemy and astrology. There exist supersti- 
 tions, little short of fetishism ; and, what is 
 worse, there exists hypocrisy, as bad as that 
 of the Roman augurs. 
 
 In practical life it would be wrong to as- 
 sume a neutral position between such conflict- 
 ing views. Where we see that the reverence 
 due to religion is violated, we are bound to 
 protest; where we see that superstition saps 
 the roots of faith, and hypocrisy poisons the 
 springs of morality, we must take sides. But\ 
 'as students of the Science of Religion we move 
 in a higher and more serene atmosphere. We 
 study error, as the physiologist studies a dis- 
 ease, looking for its causes, tracing its influ- 
 ence, speculating on possible remedies, but 
 leaving the application of such remedies to a 
 different class of men, to the surgeon and the 
 practical physician. Diver sos diver^sajitvant ap- 
 plies here as everywhere else, and a division of 
 labour, according to the peculiar abilities and 
 tastes of different individuals, promises always 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 the best results. The student of the history of 
 the physical sciences is not angry with the 
 alchemists, nor does he argue with the astro- 
 loeists : he rather tries to enter into their view 
 of thinors, and to discover in the errors of al- 
 chemy the seeds of chemistry, and in the halu- 
 cinations of astronomy a yearning and groping 
 after a true knowledge of the heavenly bodies. 
 It is the same with the student of the Science 
 of Religion. He wants to find out what Re- 
 ligion Is, what foundation it has in the soul of 
 man, and what laws It follows in its historical 
 growth. For that purpose the study of errors Is 
 to him more instructive than the study of truth, 
 and the smiling augur as Interesting a subject 
 as the Roman suppliant who veiled his face In 
 prayer, that he might be alone with his God. 
 
 The very title of the Science of Religion will 
 jar, I know, on the ears of many persons, and a 
 comparison of all the religions of the world, In 
 which none can claim a privileged position, will 
 no doubt seem to many dangerous and reprehen- 
 sible, because ignoring that peculiar reverence 
 which everybody, down to the mere fetish wor- 
 shipper, feels for his own religion and for his own 
 God. Let me say then at once that I myself have 
 
 ^^;y^-.i 
 
10 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 shared these mlso^ivlnes, but that I have tried to 
 overcome them, because I would not and could 
 not allow myself to surrender either what I 
 hold to be the truth, or what I hold still dearer 
 than truth, the right of testing truth. Nor 
 do I regret it. I do not say that the Science 
 of Religion is all gain. No, it entails losses, 
 and losses of many things which we hold 
 dear. But this I will say, that, as far as my 
 humble judgment goes, it does not entail the 
 loss of anything that is essential to true re- 
 ligion, and that if we strike the balance hon- 
 estly, the gain is immeasurably greater than 
 the loss. 
 
 One of the first questions that was asked 
 by classical scholars when invited to consider 
 the value of the Science of Language, was, 
 ' What shall we gain by a comparative study 
 of languages ?' Languages, it was said, are 
 wanted for practical purposes, for speaking and 
 reading ; and by studying too many languages 
 at once, we run the risk of losing the firm 
 grasp which we ought to have on the few that 
 are really important. Our knowledge, by be- 
 coming wider, must needs, it was thought, be- 
 come shallower, and the gain, if there is any. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. ii 
 
 in knowing the structure of dialects which have 
 never produced any Hterature at all, would 
 certainly be outweighed by the loss in accurate 
 and practical scholarship. 
 
 If this could be said of a comparative study 
 of languages, with how much greater force will 
 it be urged against a comparative study of 
 religions ! Though I do not expect that those 
 who study the religious books of Brahmans 
 and Buddhists, of Confucius and Laotse, of 
 Mohammed and Nanak, will be accused of 
 cherishine in their secret heart the doctrines 
 of those ancient masters, or of having lost the 
 firm hold on their own religious convictions, 
 yet I doubt whether the practical utility of 
 wider studies in the vast field of the religions 
 of the world will be admitted with greater 
 readiness by professed theologians than the 
 value of a knowledge of Sanskrit, Zend, Gothic, 
 or Celtic for a thorough mastery of Greek and 
 Latin, and for a real appreciation of the nature, 
 the purpose, the laws, the growth and decay 
 of language was admitted, or is even now 
 admitted, by some of our most eminent pro- 
 fessors and teachers. 
 
 People ask. What is gained by comparison ? 
 
12 Lectures on the Scicnee of Religion. 
 
 — Why, all higher knowledge is acquired by 
 comparison, and rests on comparison. If it Is 
 said that the character of scientific research in 
 our age is pre-eminently comparative, this really 
 means that our researches are now based on 
 the widest evidence that can be obtained, on 
 the broadest inductions that can be grasped by 
 the human mind. 
 
 What can be gained by comparison ? — Why, 
 look at the study of languages. If you go 
 back but a hundred years and examine the 
 folios of the most learned writers on questions 
 connected with language, and then open a book 
 written by the merest tiro in Comparative Phi- 
 lology, you > will see what can be gained, what 
 has been gained, by the comparative method. 
 A few hundred years ago, the idea that Hebrew 
 was the original language of mankind was ac- 
 cepted as a matter of course, even as a matter 
 of faith, the only problem being to find out by 
 what process Greek, or Latin, or any other 
 language could have been developed out of 
 Hebrew. The idea, too, that language was re- 
 vealed, in the scholastic sense of the word, was 
 generally accepted, although, as early as the 
 fourth century, St. Gregory, the learned bishop of 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 13 
 
 Nyssa, had strongly protested against it^. The 
 grammatical framework of a language was either 
 considered as the result of a conventional agree- 
 ment, or the terminations of nouns and verbs 
 were supposed to have sprouted forth like buds 
 from the roots and stems of language ; and the 
 vaguest similarity in the sound and meaning 
 of words was taken to be a sufficient criterion 
 for testing their origin and their relationship. 
 Of all this philological somnambulism we hardly 
 find a trace in works published since the days 
 of Humboldt, Bopp, and Grimm. * 
 
 Has there been any loss here ? Has it not 
 been pure gain ? Does language excite our 
 admiration less, because we know that, though 
 the faculty of speaking is the work of Him 
 who works in all things, the invention of words 
 for naming each object was left to man, and was 
 achieved through the working of the human 
 mind? Is Hebrew less carefully studied, be- 
 cause it is no longer believed to be a revealed 
 language, sent down from heaven, but a lan- 
 guage closely allied to Arabic, Syriac and 
 ancient Babylonian, and receiving light from 
 
 ^ Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. i. p. 32. 
 
14 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 these cognate, and in some respects more pri- 
 mitive, languages, for the explanation of many 
 of its grammatical forms, and for the exact 
 interpretation of many of its obscure and diffi- 
 cult words ? Is the grammatical articulation 
 of Greek and Latin less instructive because 
 instead of seeing in the terminations of nouns 
 and verbs merely arbitrary signs to distinguish 
 the plural from the singular, or the future from 
 the present, we can now perceive an intelligible 
 principle in the gradual production of formal 
 out of the material elements of language ? And 
 are our etymologies less important, because, 
 instead of being suggested by superficial simi- 
 larities, they are now based on honest historical 
 and physiological research ? Lastly, has our 
 own language ceased to hold its own peculiar 
 place ? Is our love for our own native tongue 
 at all impaired ? Do men speak less boldly 
 or pray less fervently in their own mother 
 tongue, because they know its true origin and 
 its unadorned history ; because they know that 
 everything in language that goes beyond the ob- 
 jects of sense, is and must be pure metaphor ? 
 Or does any one deplore the fact that there 
 is in all languages, even in the jargons of the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 15 
 
 lowest savages, order and wisdom ; nay, some- 
 thing that makes the world akin ? 
 
 Why, then, should we hesitate to apply the 
 comparative method, which has produced such 
 great results in other spheres of knowledge, to 
 a study of religion ? That it will change many 
 of the views commonly held about the origin, 
 the character, the growth, and decay of the 
 religions of the world, I do not deny ; but 
 unless we hold that fearless progression in new 
 inquiries, which is our bounden duty and our 
 honest pride in all other branches of know^ledge, 
 is dangerous in the study of religions, unless 
 we allow ourselves to be frightened by the 
 once famous dictum, that whatever is new in 
 theology is false, this ought to be the very 
 reason why a comparative study of religions 
 should no longer be neglected or delayed. 
 
 When the students of Comparative Philology 
 boldly adapted Goethe's paradox, 'He who 
 knoius one language, knows ii07ze' people were 
 startled at first ; but they soon began to feel 
 the truth which was hidden beneath the para- 
 dox. Could Goethe have meant that Homer 
 did not know Greek, or that Shakespeare did 
 not know English, because neither of them 
 
1 6 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 knew more than his own mother tono^ue ? No ! 
 w^hat was meant was that neither Homer nor 
 Shakespeare knew what that language really 
 was which he handled with 'so much power 
 and cunning. Unfortunately the old verb ' to 
 can,' from which ' canny ' and ' cunning,' is lost 
 in English, otherwise we should be able in two 
 words to express our meaning, and to keep 
 apart the two kinds of knowledge of which we 
 are here speaking. As we say in German 
 kbnnen is not kcnnen, we might say in English, 
 to can, that is to be cunning, is not to ken, 
 that is to know ; and it would then become 
 clear at once, that the most eloquent speaker 
 and the most gifted poet, with all their cun- 
 ning of words and skilful mastery of expres- 
 sion, would have but little to say if asked, what 
 language really is ? The same applies to re- 
 ligion. He who knows one, knows none. There 
 are thousands of people whose faith is such 
 that it could move mountains, and who yet, if 
 they were asked what religion really is, would 
 remain silent, or would speak of outward tokens 
 rather than of the inward nature, or of the 
 faculty of faith. 
 
 It will be easily perceived that religion means 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. \J 
 
 at least two very different things. When we 
 speak of the Jewish, or the Christian, or the 
 Hindu rehgion, we mean a body of doctrines 
 handed down by tradition, or in canonical books, 
 and containing all that constitutes the faith of 
 Jew, Christian, or Hindu. Using religion in 
 that sense, we may say that a man has changed 
 his religion, that is, that he has adopted the 
 Christian instead of the Brahmanical body of 
 religious doctrines, just as a man may learn 
 to speak English instead of Hindustani. But 
 religion is also used in a different sense. As 
 there is a faculty of speech, independent of all 
 the historical forms of language, so there is a 
 faculty of faith in man, independent of all his- 
 torical religions. If we say that it is religion 
 which distinguishes man from the animal, we 
 do not mean the Christian or Jewish religion ; 
 we do not mean any special religion ; but we 
 mean a mental faculty, that faculty which, in- 
 dependent of, nay in spite of sense and reason, 
 enables man to apprehend the Infinite under 
 different names, and under varying disguises. 
 Without that faculty, no religion, not even the 
 lowest worship of idols and fetishes, would be 
 possible ; and if we will but listen attentively, 
 
 c 
 
1 8 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 we can hear in all relioflons a ofroanino: of the 
 \ spirit, a struggle to conceive the inconceivable, 
 to utter the unutterable, a longing after the 
 Vinfinite, a love of God. Whether the etymo- 
 logy which the ancients gave of the Greek 
 word ai'OpcoTTo?, man, be true or not (they de- 
 rived it from o apw aQpCcv, he who looks upward), 
 certain it is that what makes man man, is 
 that he alone can turn his face to heaven ; 
 certain it is that he alone yearns for something 
 that neither sense nor reason can supply. 
 "^ If then there is a philosophical discipline 
 which examines into the conditions of sensuous 
 or intuitional knowledge, and if there is another 
 philosophical discipline which examines into the 
 conditions of rational or conceptual knowledge, 
 there is clearly a place for a third philosophical 
 discipline that has to examine into the con- 
 ^ ditions of that third faculty of man, co-ordinate 
 with sense and reason, the faculty of perceiving 
 the Infinite, which is at the root of all religions. 
 In German we can distinguish that third faculty 
 by the name of Verntmft, as opposed to Ver- 
 stand, reason, and Shine, sense. In English I 
 know no better name for it, than the faculty 
 of faith, though it will have to be guarded by 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 19 
 
 careful definition, in order to confine it to those 
 objects only, which cannot be supplied either 
 by the evidence of the senses, or by the evi- 
 dence of reason. No simply historical fact can 
 ever fall under the cognisance of faith. 
 
 If we look at the history of modern thought, 
 we find that the dominant school of philosophy, 
 previous to Kant, had reduced all intellectual 
 activity to one faculty, that of the senses. 'Nihil 
 'iirTfiiellecht qiwd non ante fuerit in senstc' — 
 ^Nothing exists In the intellect but what has 
 before existed In the senses,' was their watch- 
 word ; and Leibniz answered it eplgrammati- 
 cally, but most profoundly, 'Nihil — nisi intel- 
 lechisl ' Yes, nothing but the intellect.' Then 
 followed Kant, who, in his ' Criticism of Pure 
 Reason,' written ninety years ago, but not yet 
 antiquated, proved that our knowledge requires, 
 besides the data of our sensations, the admis- 
 sion of the Intuitions of space and time, and 
 the categories, or, as we might call them, the 
 necessities of the understanding. Satisfied with 
 having established the a priori character of 
 the categories and the intuitions of space and 
 time, or, to use his own technical language, 
 satisfied with having proved the possibility of 
 
 c 2 
 
20 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 synthetic judgments a prioid, Kant declined 
 to go further, and he most energetically denied 
 to the human intellect the power of transcend- 
 ing the finite, or the faculty of approaching the 
 Divine. He closed the ancient gates through 
 which man had gazed into Infinity ; but, in 
 spite of himself, he was driven in his ' Criticism 
 of Practical Reason,' to open a side-door through 
 which to admit the sense of duty, and with it 
 the sense of the Divine. This is the vulner- 
 able point in Kant's philosophy, and if philo- 
 sophy has to explain Vv^hat is, not what ought 
 to be, there will be and can be no rest till 
 we admit, what cannot be denied, that there 
 is in man a third faculty, which I call simply 
 the faculty of apprehending the Infinite, not 
 only in religion, but in all things ; a power 
 independent of sense and reason, a power in a 
 certain sense contradicted by sense and reason, 
 but yet a very real power, which has held its 
 own from the beginning of the world, neither 
 sense nor reason being able to overcome it, 
 while it alone is able to overcome both reason 
 and sensed 
 
 ^ As this passage has given rise to strange misunder- 
 standings, I quote a passage from another lecture of mine, 
 
Lectures on tJie Science of Religio7t. i\ 
 
 According to the two meanings of the word 
 
 religion, then, the science of rehglon is divided 
 
 into twa-parts ; the former, which has to deal 
 
 with the historical forms of religion, is called 
 
 ComMrative Theology; the latter, which has 
 
 not yet published : ' It is difficult at present to speak of the 
 human mind in any technical language whatsoever, without 
 being called to order by some philosopher or other. 
 According to some, the mind is one and indivisible, and 
 it is the subject-matter only of our consciousness which 
 gives to the acts of the mind the different appearances 
 of feeling, remembering, imagining, knowing, wilHng or 
 believing. According to others, mind, as a subject, has no 
 existence whatever, and rfiothing ought to be spoken of except 
 states of consciousness, some passive, some active, some 
 mixed. I myself have been sharply taken to task for ven- 
 turing to speak, in this enlightened 19th century of ours, of 
 different faculties of the mind, — faculties being merely imagi- 
 nary creations, the illegitimate offspring of mediaeval scholas- 
 ticism. Now I confess I am amused rather than frightened 
 by such pedantry. Faculty, facultas, seems to me so good 
 a word that, if it did not exist, it ought to be invented in 
 order to express the different modes of action of what we 
 may still be allowed to call our mind. It does not commit 
 us to more than if we were to speak of the facilities or 
 agilities of the mind, and those only who change the forces 
 of nature into gods or demons, would be frightened by the 
 faculties as green-eyed monsters seated in the dark recesses of 
 our Self. I shall therefore retain the name of faculty, &c.' 
 
 On the necessity of admitting a faculty for perceiving the 
 Infinite I have treated more fully in my Lectures on the 
 Science of Language, vol. ii. pp. 625-632. 
 
22 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 _ . 
 
 to explain the^conditions under which rehgioa, 
 whether in its highest or its lowest form, is 
 ^possible, is called Theoretic Theology. 
 
 We shall at present have to deal with the 
 former only ; nay it will be" my object to show 
 that the problems which chiefly occupy theo- 
 retic theology, ought not to be taken up till 
 all the evidence that can possibly be gained 
 from a comparative study of the religions of 
 the world has been fully collected, classified, 
 and analysed. I feel certain that the time will 
 come when all that is now^ written on theology, 
 whether from an ecclesiastical or philosophical 
 point of view, will seem as antiquated, as 
 strange, as unaccountable as the works of Vos- 
 sius, Hemsterhuys, Valckenaer, and Lennep, by 
 the side of Bopp's Comparative Grammar. 
 
 It may seem strange that while theoretical 
 theology, or the analysis of the inward and 
 outward conditions under which faith is pos- 
 sible, has occupied so many thinkers, the study 
 of comparative theology has never as yet been 
 seriously taken in hand. But the explanation 
 is very simple. The materials on which alone 
 a comparative study of the religions of man- 
 kind could have been founded were not acces- 
 
Lecttwes on the Science of Religion. 23 
 
 sible in former days, while in our own days 
 they have come to light in such profusion that 
 it is almost impossible for any individual to 
 master them all. 
 
 It is well known that the Emperor Akbar 
 (1542-1605)^ had a passion for the study of 
 religions, and that he invited to his court Jews, 
 Christians, Mohammedans, Brahmans, and Zo- 
 roastrians, and had as many of their sacred 
 books as he could get access to, translated for 
 his own study 2. Yet, how small was the col- 
 lection of sacred books that even an Emperor 
 of India could command not more than 300 
 years ago, compared to what may now be found 
 in the library of any poor scholar ! We have 
 the original text of the Veda, which neither the 
 bribes nor the threats of Akbar could extort 
 from the Brahmans. The translation of the 
 Veda which he is said to have obtained, was 
 a translation of the so-called Atharva-veda, and 
 comprised most likely the Upanishads only, 
 mystic and philosophical treatises, very inte- 
 resting, very important in themselves, but as 
 
 1 See Appendix on Akbar, at the end of the first Lecture, 
 p. 68. 
 
 2 Elphinstone's History of India, ed. Cowell, book ix, cap. 3. 
 
24 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 far removed from the ancient poetry of the 
 Veda as the Talmud is from the Old Testa- 
 ment, as Sufiism is from the Koran. We have 
 the Zendavesta, the sacred writings of the so- 
 called fire-worshippers, and we possess transla- 
 tions of it, far more complete and far more 
 correct than any that the Emperor Akbar could 
 have obtained from Ardsher, a wise Zoroastrian 
 whom he invited from Kirman to India\ The 
 religion of Buddha, certainly in many respects 
 more important than either Brahmanism, or 
 Zoroastrianism, or Mohammedanism, is never 
 mentioned in the religious discussions that took 
 place every Thursday evening ^ at the imperial 
 court of Delhi. Abulfazl, it is said, the minister 
 of Akbar, could find no one to assist him in 
 his inquiries respecting Buddhism. We possess 
 the whole sacred canon of the Buddhists in va- 
 rious languages, in P41i, Burmese, and Siamese, 
 in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian, and Chinese, 
 and it is our fault entirely, if as yet there is no 
 complete translation in any European tongue 
 of this important collection of sacred books. 
 
 1 See "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1868, 
 
 p. 14. 
 
 2 See Aini Akbari, transl. by Blochmann, p. 171, note 3. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 25 
 
 The ancient religions of China again, that of 
 Confucius and that of Laotse, may now be 
 studied in excellent translations of their sacred 
 books by anybody interested in the ancient 
 faiths of mankind. 
 
 But this is not all. We owe to missionaries 
 particularly, careful accounts of the religious be- 
 lief and worship among tribes far lower in the 
 scale of civilisation than the poets of the Vedic 
 hymns, or the followers of Confucius. -Though 
 the belief of African and Melanesian savages is 
 more recent in point of time, it represents an 
 earlier and far more primitive phase in point of 
 growth, and Is therefore as instructive to the 
 student of religion as the study of uncultivated 
 dialects has proved to the student of lan- 
 guage \ 
 
 Lastly, and this, I believe, is the most im- 
 portant advantage which we enjoys as students 
 of the history of religion, we have been taught 
 the rules of critical scholarship. No one would 
 venture, now-a-days, to quote from any book, 
 whether sacred or profane, without having 
 
 1 See Tiele, De Plaats van de Godsdiensten der Natur- 
 volken in de Godsdienstgeschiedenis, Amsterdam, 1873. 
 E. B. Tylor, Fortnighdy Review, 1866, p. 71. 
 
26 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 asked these simple and yet momentous ques- 
 tions : When was it written ? Where ? and by 
 whom ? Was the author an eye-witness, or 
 does he only relate what he has heard from 
 others ? And if the latter, were his authorities 
 at least contemporaneous with the events which 
 they relate, and were they under the sway of 
 party feeling or any other disturbing influence ? 
 Was the whole book written at once, or does it 
 contain portions of an earlier date ; and if so, is 
 it possible for us to separate these earlier docu- 
 ments from the body of the book ? * 
 
 A study of the original documents on which 
 the principal religions of the world profess to 
 be founded, carried on in this spirit, has en- 
 abled some of our best living scholars to dis- 
 tinguish in each religion between what is really 
 ancient and what is comparatively modern ; be- 
 tween whatv was the doctrine of the founders 
 and their immediate disciples, and what were 
 the afterthoughts and, generally, the corrup- 
 tions of later ages. A study of these later 
 developments, of these later corruptions, or, it 
 may be, improvements, is not without its own 
 peculiar charm, and full of practical lessons ; 
 yet, as it is essential that we should know the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 27 
 
 most ancient forms of every language, before 
 we proceed to any comparisons, it is indispens- 
 able also that we should have a clear conception 
 of the most primitive form of every religion, 
 before we proceed to determine its own value, 
 and to compare it with other forms of religious 
 faith. Many an orthodox Mohammedan, for 
 instance, will relate miracles wrought by Mo- 
 hammed ; but in the Koran Mohammed says 
 distinctly, that he is a man like other men. He 
 disdains to work miracles, and appeals to the 
 great works of Allah, the rising and setting of 
 the sun, the rain that fructifies the earth, the; 
 plants that grow, and the living souls that are 
 born into the world — who can tell whence ? — 
 as the real signs and wonders in the eyes of a 
 true believer. 
 
 The Buddhist legends teem with miserable 
 miracles attributed to Buddha and his disciples 
 — miracles which in wonderfulness certainly 
 surpass the miracles of any other religion : yet 
 in their own sacred canon a saying of Buddha's 
 is recorded, prohibiting his disciples from work- 
 ing miracles, though challenged by the multi- 
 tudes, who required a sign that they might 
 believe. And what is the miracle that Buddha 
 
28 Lectures on the Scienee of Religion. 
 
 commands his disciples to perform? 'Hide, 
 your good deeds,' he says, ' and confess before j 
 the world the sins you have committed.' That 
 is the true miracle. 
 
 Modern Hinduism rests on the system of 
 caste as on a rock which no aroruments can 
 shake : but In the Veda, the highest authority 
 of the religious belief of the Hindus, no men- 
 tion occurs of the complicated system of castes, 
 such as we find it in Manu : nay, in one place, 
 where the ordinary classes of the Indian, or any 
 other society, are alluded to, viz. the priests, 
 the warriors, the citizens, and the slaves, all 
 are represented as sprung alike from Brahman, 
 the source of all beino:. 
 
 It would be too much to say that the critical 
 sifting of the authorities for a study of each 
 religion has been already fully carried out. 
 There is work enouorh still to be done. But 
 a beginning, and a very successful beginning, 
 has been made, and the results thus brought 
 to light will serve as a wholesome caution to 
 everybody who is engaged in religious re- 
 searches. Thus, if we study the primitive 
 religion of the Veda, we have to distinguish 
 most carefully, not only between the hymns 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 29 
 
 of the Rig-veda on one side, and die hymns 
 collected In the Sama-veda, Ya^r-veda, and 
 Atharva-veda on the other, but critical scho- 
 lars would distinguish with equal care between 
 the more ancient and thie more modern hymns 
 of the Rie-veda itself, so far as even the faintest 
 indications of language, of grammar, or metre 
 enable them to do so. 
 
 In order to gain a clear insight into the 
 motives and impulses of the founder of the 
 worship of Ahuramazda, we must chiefly, if not 
 entirely, depend on those portions of the Zen- 
 davesta which are written in the Gatha dialect, 
 a more primitive dialect than that of the rest 
 of the sacred code of the Zoroastrians. 
 
 In order to do justice to Buddha, we must 
 not mix the practical portions of the Tripi^'aka, 
 the Dharma, with the metaphysical portions, 
 the Abhidharma. Both, it is true, belong to 
 the sacred canon of the Buddhists; but their 
 original sources lie in very different latitudes 
 of religious thought. 
 
 We have in the history of Buddhism an 
 excellent opportunity for watching the process 
 by which a canon of sacred books is called 
 into existence. We see here, as elsewhere, 
 
30 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 that during the hfetime of the teacher, no re- 
 cord of events, no sacred code containing the 
 sayings of the master was wanted. His pre- 
 sence was enough, and thoughts of the future, 
 and more particularly, of future greatness, sel- 
 dom entered the minds of those who followed 
 him. It was only after Buddha had left the 
 world to enter into Nirva;^a, that his disciples 
 attempted to recall the sayings and doings of 
 their departed friend and master. At that 
 time everything that seemed to redound to 
 the glory of Buddha, however extraordinary 
 and incredible, was eagerly welcomed, while 
 witnesses who would have ventured to criticise 
 or reject unsupported statements, or to detract 
 in any way from the holy character of Buddha, 
 had no chance of even being listened to\ 
 And when, in spite of all this, differences of 
 opinion arose, they were not brought to the 
 test by a careful weighing of evidence, but 
 the names of ' unbeliever ' and ' heretic ' (nas- 
 tika, pasha;^^a) were quickly invented in India 
 as elsewhere, and bandied backwards and for- 
 wards between contending parties, till at last, 
 
 ^ Mahavansa, p. 12, Na;mehi tatha vatthabbam iti, 'it can- 
 not be allowed to other priests to be present.' 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 31 
 
 when the doctors disagreed, the help of the 
 secular power had to be Invoked, and kings 
 and emperors assembled councils for the sup- 
 pression of schism, for the settlement of an 
 orthodox creed, and for the completion of a 
 sacred canon. We know of King A^-oka, the 
 contemporary of Seleucus, sending his royal 
 missive to the assembled elders, and telling 
 them what to do, and what to avoid, warning- 
 them also in his own name of the apocryphal 
 or heretical character of certain books which, 
 as he thinks, ought not to be admitted into 
 the sacred canon. 
 
 We here learn a lesson, which Is confirmed 
 by the study of other religions, that canonical 
 books, though they furnish in most cases the 
 most ancient and most authentic Information 
 within the reach of the student of religion, 
 are not to be trusted implicitly, nay, that they 
 must be submitted to a more searchlne criti- 
 cism and to more stringent tests than any 
 other historical books. For that purpose the 
 Science of Language has proved in many cases 
 a most valuable auxiliary. It is not easy to 
 imitate ancient language so as to deceive the 
 practised eye of the grammarian, even if it 
 
32 ' Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 were possible to imitate ancient thought that 
 should not betray to the historian its modern 
 origin. A forged book, like the Ezour-veda, 
 which deceived even Voltaire, and was pub- 
 lished by him as ' the most precious gift for 
 which the West was indebted to the East,' 
 could hardly impose again on any Sanskrit 
 scholar of the present day. This most pre- 
 cious gift from the East to the West, is about 
 the silliest book that can be read by the stu- 
 dent of religion, and all one can say in its 
 defence is that the original writer never meant 
 it as a forgery, never Intended it for the pur- 
 pose for which it was used by Voltaire. I 
 may add that a book which has lately at- 
 tracted considerable attention. La Bible dans 
 rinde, by M. Jacolliot, belongs to the same 
 class of books. Though the passages from 
 the sacred books of the Brahmans are not 
 given in the original, but only in a very 
 poetical French translation, no Sanskrit scho- 
 lar would hesitate for one moment to say that 
 they are forgeries, and that M. Jacolliot, the 
 President of the Court of Justice at Chan- 
 dernagore, has been deceived by his native 
 teacher. We find many childish and foolish 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion, 33 
 
 things in the Veda, but when we read the 
 following line, as an extract from the Veda : 
 
 ' La femme c'est I'ame de rhumanite, — ' 
 
 it Is not difficult to see that this Is the folly 
 of the nineteenth century, and not of the child- 
 hood of the human race. M. Jacolllot's con- 
 clusions and theories are such as migfht be ex- 
 pected from his materials. 
 
 With all the genuine documents for study- 
 ing the history of the religions of mankind 
 that have lately been brought to light, and 
 with the great facilities which a more exten- 
 sive study of Oriental languages has afforded 
 to scholars at large for investigating the deep- 
 est springs of religious thought all over the 
 world, a comparative study of religions has 
 become a necessity. If we were to shrink 
 from It, other nations and other creeds would 
 take up the work. A lecture was lately de- 
 livered at Calcutta, by the minister of the Adi- 
 Samaj (i.e. the Old Church), 'On the Supe- 
 riority of Hinduism to every other existing 
 Religion.' The lecturer held that Hinduism was 
 superior to all other religions, 'because it owed 
 its name to no man ; because it acknowledged 
 
 D " 
 
34 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 no mediator between God and man ; because 
 ^ffie'"Hindu worships God, in the intensely^de- 
 -' votional sense, as the soul of the soul ; because 
 the Hindu alone can worship God at all times, 
 in business and pleasure, and everything ; be- 
 ' cause, while other Scriptures inculcate the prac- 
 tice of piety and virtue for the sake of eternal 
 happiness, the Hindu Scriptures alone maintain" 
 that God should be worshipped for the sake 
 of God alone, and virtue practised for the sake 
 
 r of virtue alone; because Hinduism inculcates 
 
 ■ universal benevolence, while other faiths merely 
 refer to man ; because Hinduism is non-sec- 
 tarian (believing that all faiths are good if the 
 men who hold them are good), non-proselytiz- 
 ing, pre-eminently tolerant, devotional to an 
 entire abstraction of the mind from time and 
 
 ^^ sense, and the concentration of it on the Di- 
 vine ; of an antiquity running back to the in- 
 fancy of the human race, and from that time till 
 now influencing in all particulars the greatest 
 affairs of the State and the most minute affairs 
 of domestic life \' 
 
 -^ A Science of Religion, based on an impar- 
 tial and truly scientific comparison of all, or 
 
 ^ See Times, Oct. 27, 1872. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 'yr^ 
 
 at all events, of the most important, religions 
 of mankind, is now only a question of time. 
 It is demanded b^ those whose voice cannot 
 be disregarded. Its tide, though implying as 
 yet a promise rather than a fulfilment, has 
 become more or less familiar in Germany, 
 France, and America ; its great problems have 
 attracted the eyes of many inquirers, and its 
 results have been anticipated either with fear 
 or with delight. It becomes therefore the duty 
 of those who have devoted their life to the 
 study of the principal religions of the world 
 in their original documents, and who value 
 religion and reverence it in whatever form it 
 may present itself, to take possession of this 
 new territory in the name of true science, and 
 thus to protect its sacred precincts from the 
 inroads of those who think that they have a 
 right to speak on the ancient religions of man- 
 kind, whether those of the Brahmans, the Zo- 
 roastrians, or Buddhists, or those of the Jews 
 and Christians, without ever having taken the 
 trouble of learning the languages in which their 
 sacred books are written. What should we 
 think of philosophers writing on the reli- 
 gion of Homer, without knowing Greek, or 
 
 D 2 
 
ofi Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 on the religion of Moses, without knowing 
 Hebrew ? 
 
 I do not wonder at Mr* Matthew Arnold^ 
 speaking scornfully of La Science des Reli- 
 gions, and I fully agree with him that such 
 statements as he quotes would take away the 
 breath of a mere man of letters. But are these 
 statements supported by the authority of any 
 scholars ? Has anybody who can read either 
 the Vedas or the Old and New Testaments in 
 the orio^inal ever maintained that ' the sacred 
 theory of the Aryas passed into Palestine from 
 Persia and India, and got possession of the 
 founder of Christianity and of his greatest 
 apostles, St. Paul and St. John ; becoming 
 more perfect, and returning more and more 
 to its true character of a " transcendent meta- 
 physic," as the doctors of the Christian Church 
 developed it?' Has Colebrooke, or Lassen, or 
 Burnouf, ever suggested ' that we Christians, 
 who are Aryas, may have the satisfaction of 
 thinking that the religion of Christ has not 
 come to us from the Semites, and that it is 
 in the hymns of the Veda and not in the Bible 
 that we are to look for the primordial source 
 
 ^ Literature and Dogma, p. 117. 
 
Lectttrcs on the Science of Religion. ^y 
 
 of any religion ; that the theory of Christ is 
 the theory of the Vedic Agni, or fire ; that the 
 Incarnation represents the Vedic solemnity of 
 ^the production oi fire, symbol of fire of every 
 kind, of all movement, life, and thought ; that 
 the Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit is the 
 Vedic Trinity of Sun, Fire, and Wind; and 
 God finally a cosmic unity.' Mr. Arnold quotes 
 indeed the name of Burnouf, but he oueht to 
 have known that Eugene Burnouf has left no 
 son and no successor. ^' ' 
 
 Those who would use a comparative study 
 of religions as a means for debasing Chris- 
 tianity by exalting the other religions of man- 
 kind, are to my mind as dangerous allies as 
 those who think it necessary to debase all other 
 religions in order to exalt Christianity. Science 
 wants no partisans. I make no secret that true 
 Christianity, I mean the religion of Christ, 
 seems to me to become more and more exalted 
 the more we know, and the more we appreciate 
 the treasures of truth hidden in the despised 
 religions of the world. But no one can ho- 
 nestly arrive at that conviction, unless he uses 
 honestly the same measure for all religions. It 
 would be fatal for any religion to claim an 
 
r 
 
 38 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 exceptional treatment, most of all for Christ- 
 ianity. Christianity enjoyed no privileges and 
 claimed no immunities when it boldly confronted 
 and confounded the most ancient and the most 
 powerful religions of the world. Even at pre- 
 sent it craves no mercy, and it receives no 
 mercy from those whom our missionaries have 
 to meet face to face in every part of the world. 
 Unless our religion has ceased to be what it 
 was, its defenders should not shrink from this 
 new trial of strength, but should encourage 
 rather than depreciate the study of compara- 
 tive theology. 
 
 And let me remark this, in the very begin- 
 ning, that no other religion, with the excep- 
 tion, perhaps, of early Buddhism, would have 
 favoured the idea of an impartial comparison 
 of the principal religions of the world— would 
 ever have tolerated our science. Nearly every 
 religion seems to adopt the language of the 
 Pharisee rather than of the Publican. It is 
 Christianity alone which, as the religion of 
 humanity, as the religion of no caste, of no- 
 chosen people, has taught us to study the 
 history of mankind, as our own, to discover 
 the traces of a divine wisdom and love in the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 39 
 
 development of all the races of the world, and 
 to recognise, if possible, even in the lowest 
 and crudest forms of religious belief, not the 
 work of the devil, but something that indicates 
 a divine guidance, something that makes us 
 perceive, with St. Peter, ' that God is no re- 
 specter of persons, but that in every nation 
 he that feareth him and worketh righteous- 
 ness is accepted with him.' . 7 
 
 In no religion was there a soil so well 
 prepared for the cultivation of Comparative 
 I Theology as in our own. The position which 
 Christianity from the very beginning took up 
 with regard to Judaism, served as the first, 
 lesson in comparative theology, and directed 
 the attention even of the unlearned to a 
 comparison of two religions, differing in their 
 conception of the Deity, in their estimate of 
 humanity, in their motives of morality, and in 
 their hope of immortality, yet sharing^ so much 
 in common that there are but few of the psalms 
 and prayers in the Old Testament in which a 
 Christian cannot heartily join even now, and 
 but few rules of morality which he ought not 
 even now to obey. If we have once learnt 
 to see in the exclusive religion of the Jews 
 
40 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 a preparation of what was to be the all-em- 
 brachig rehgion of humanity, we shall feel 
 much less difficulty in recognising in the mazes 
 of other religions a hidden purpose ; a wander- 
 ing in the desert, it may be, but a preparation 
 also for the land of promise. 
 
 A study of these two religions, the Jewish 
 and the Christian, such as it has long been 
 carried on by some of our most learned divines, 
 simultaneously with the study of Greek and 
 Roman mythology, has, in fact, served as a 
 most useful preparation for wider inquiries. 
 .Even the mistakes that have been committed 
 by earlier scholars have proved useful to those 
 who followed after; and, once corrected, they 
 are not likely to be committed again. The 
 opinion, for instance, that the pagan religions 
 were mere corruptions of the religion of the 
 Old Testament, once supported by men of high 
 authority ^and great learning, is now as com- 
 pletely surrendered as the attempts of explaining 
 Greek and Latin as corruptions of Hebrew \ 
 
 The theory again, that there was a primeval 
 
 ^ Tertullian, Apolog. xlvii : ' Unde haec, oro vos, philo- 
 sophis aut poetis tarn consimilia? Nonnisi de nostris 
 sacramentis : si de nostris sacramentis, ut de prioribus, 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 41 
 
 preternatural revelation granted to the fathers 
 of the human race, and that the grains of truth 
 which catch our eye when exploring the temples 
 of heathen idols, are the scattered fragments 
 of that sacred heirloom, — the seeds that fell 
 by the wayside or upon stony places — would 
 find but few supporters at present ; no more, 
 in fact, than the theory that there was in the 
 beginning one complete and perfect primeval 
 language, broken up in later times into the 
 numberless languages of the world. 
 
 Some other principles, too, have been estab- 
 lished within this limited sphere by a comparison 
 of Judaism and Christianity with the religions 
 of Greece and Rome, which will prove ex- 
 tremely useful in guiding us in our own re- 
 searches. It has been proved, for instance, 
 that the language of antiquity is not like the 
 language of our own times ; that the language 
 of the East is not like the lang^uaee of the 
 West ; and that, unless we make allowance 
 for this, we cannot but misinterpret the utter- 
 ances of the most ancient teachers and poets 
 
 ergo fideliora sunt nostra magisque credenda, quorum 
 imagines quoque fidem inveniunt.' See Hardwick, Christ 
 and other Masters, vol. i. p. 17. 
 
42 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 of the human race. The same words do not 
 mean the same thing In Anglo-Saxon and 
 EngHsh, in Latin and French : much less can 
 we expect that the words of any modern lan- 
 guage should be the exact equivalents of an 
 ancient Semitic language, such as the Hebrew 
 of the Old Testament. 
 
 Ancient words and ancient thoughts, for both 
 go^ogether, have in the Old Testament not 
 yet arrived at that stage of abstraction in 
 which, for instance, active powers, whether 
 natural or supernatural, can be represented in 
 any but a personal and more or less human 
 form. When we speak of a temptation from 
 within or from without, it was more natural 
 for the ancients to speak of a tempter, whether 
 in a human or in an animal form ; when we 
 speak of the ever-present help of God, they 
 call the Lord their rock, and their fortress^ 
 their buckler, and their high tower. They 
 even speak of 'the Rock that begat them' 
 (Deut. xxxii. i8.), though in a very different 
 sense from that in which Homer speaks of 
 the rock from whence man has sprung. What 
 with us is a heavenly message, or a godsend, 
 was to them a winged messenger; what we 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 43 
 
 call divine guidance, they speak of as a pillar 
 of a cloud, to lead them the way, and a pillar 
 of light to give them light ; a refuge from the 
 storm, and a shadow from the heat. What is 
 really meant is no doubt the same, and the 
 fault is ours, not theirs, if we wilfully mis- 
 interpret the language of ancient prophets, if 
 we persist in understanding their w^ords in 
 their outward and material aspect only, and 
 forget that before language had sanctioned a 
 distinction between the concrete and the ab- 
 stract, between the purely spiritual as opposed 
 to the coarsely material, the intention of the 
 speakers comprehended both the concrete and 
 the abstract, both the material and the spiri- 
 tual, in a manner which has become quite 
 strange to us, though it lives on in the lan- 
 guage of every true poet. Unless we make 
 allowance for this mental parallax, all our 
 readings in the ancient skies will be, and 
 must be, erroneous. Nay, I believe it can be 
 proved that more than half of the difficulties 
 in the history of religious thought owe their 
 origin to this constant misinterpretation of 
 ancient language by modern language, of an- 
 cient thought by modern thought. 
 
44 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 That much of what seems to us, and seemed 
 to the best among the ancients, irrational and 
 irreverent in the mythologies of India, Greece, 
 and Italy can thus be removed, and that many 
 of their childish fables can thus be read aeain 
 in their original child -like sense, has been 
 proved by the researches of Comparative My- 
 thologists. The phase of language which gives 
 rise, inevitably, we may say, to these misunder- 
 standings, is earlier than the earliest literary 
 documents. Its work in the Aryan languages 
 was done before the time of the Veda, before 
 the time of Homer, though its influence con- 
 tinues to be felt to a much later period. 
 
 Is it likely that the Semitic languages, and, 
 more particularly, Hebrew, should, as by a 
 miracle, have escaped the influence of a pro- 
 cess which is inherent in the very nature and 
 growth of language, which, in fact, may rightly 
 be called an infantijie disease, against which 
 no precautions can be of any avail ? 
 
 I believe that the Semitic laneuaees, for 
 reasons which I explained on a former occa- 
 sion, have suffered less from mythology than 
 the Aryan languages, yet we have only to read 
 the first chapters of Genesis in order to con- 
 
Lectttres on the Science of Religion. 45 
 
 vince ourselves, that we shall never understand 
 its ancient language rightly, unless we make 
 allowance for the influence of ancient language 
 on ancient thought. If we read, for instance, 
 that after the first man was created, one of his 
 ribs was taken out, and that rib made into a 
 woman, every student of ancient language sees 
 at once that this account must not be taken 
 in its bare, literal sense. We need not dwell 
 on the fact that in the first chapter of Genesis 
 a far less startling account of the creation of 
 man and woman had been given. What could 
 be simpler, and therefore truer, than : * So God 
 created man in his own image, in the image of 
 God created he him ; male and female created 
 he them. And God blessed them, and God 
 said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and 
 replenish the earth, and subdue it.' The ques- 
 tion then is, how, after this account of the 
 creation of man and woman, could there be 
 a second account of the creation of man, of 
 his lone estate in the garden of Eden, and of 
 the removal of one of his ribs, which was to 
 be made into a help meet for him ? 
 
 Those who are familiar with the genius of 
 ancient Hebrew, can hardly hesitate as to the 
 
46 Lectures on tJie Science of Religion. 
 
 original intention of such traditions. Let us 
 remember that when we, in our modern lan- 
 guages, speak of the selfsame thing, the He- 
 brews speak of the bone (^?^), the Arabs of 
 the eye of a thing. This is a well known 
 Semitic idiom, and it is not without analogies 
 in other languages. ' Bone ' seemed a telling 
 expression for what we should call the inner- 
 most essence ; ' eye ' for what we should call 
 the soul or self of a thing. In the ancient 
 hymns of the Veda, too, a poet asks : ' Who 
 has seen the first-born, when he who had no 
 bones, i. e. no form, bore him that had bones ? ' 
 i. e. when that which was formless assumed 
 form, or, it may be, when that which had no 
 essence, received an essence ? And he goes 
 on to ask : ' Where was the life, the blood, 
 the soul of the world ? Who sent to ask this 
 from any that knew it?' In the ancient lan- 
 guage of the Veda, bone, blood, breath, are 
 all meant to convey more than what we should 
 call their material meaning; but in course of 
 time, the Sanskrit dtman, meaning originally 
 breath, dwindled away into a mere pronoun, 
 and came to mean self. The same applies to 
 the Hebrew 'etzem. Originally meaning bone. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 47 
 
 It came to be used at last as a mere pronominal 
 adjective, in the sense of self or same. 
 
 After these preliminary explanations, we can 
 well understand that, while if speakings and 
 thinking in a modern language Adam might 
 have been made to say to Eve, ' Thou art the 
 same as I am,' such a thought would in ancient 
 Hebrew be expressed by: 'Thou art bone of 
 my bone, and flesh of my flesh/ Let such an 
 expression be repeated for a few generations 
 only, and a literal, that is to say, a material 
 and deceptive interpretation, would soon spring 
 up, and people would at last bring themselves 
 to believe that the first woman was formed from 
 the bone of the first man, or from a rib, for the 
 simple reason, it may be, because it could better 
 be spared than any other bone. .Such a mis- 
 understanding, once established, retained its 
 place on account of its very strangeness, for 
 a taste for the unintelligible springs up at a 
 very early time, and threatens to destroy among 
 ancient nations the power of appreciating what- 
 ever is simple, natural, and wholesome. Thus 
 only can it be explained that the account of 
 the creation of the woman obtained its place in 
 the second chapter, though in clear opposition 
 
48 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 to what had been said in the first chapter of 
 Genesis \ 
 
 It is not always possible to solve these 
 ancient riddles, nor are the interpretations 
 which have been attempted by various scholars 
 always right. The only principle I stand up 
 for is this, that misunderstandings of this kind 
 are inevitable in ancient languages, and that 
 we must be prepared to meet with them in 
 the relieions of the Semitic as well as of the 
 Aryan nations. 
 
 Let us take another Semitic religion, the 
 ancient religion of Babylon, as described to us 
 in the fragments of Berosus. The similarities 
 between that religion and the religion of the 
 Jews are not to be mistaken, but such is the 
 contrast bet\^en the simplicity of the Bible lan- 
 guage and the wild extravagance of the Baby- 
 lonian theogonies, that it requires some courage 
 to guess at the original outlines behind the 
 distorted features of* a hideous caricature ^. 
 
 We have no reason to doubt the accuracy 
 of Berosus in describing the religion of the 
 Babylonians, at least for the time in which 
 he lived. He was a Babylonian by birth, a 
 
 1 Waitz. ^ Bunsen, Egypt, iv, p. 364. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 49 
 
 priest of the temple of Belus, a contemporary 
 of Alexander the Great. He wrote the History 
 of the Chaldaeans, in Greek, evidently intend- 
 ing it to be read by the Grefek conquerors, 
 and he states in his first book that he com- 
 posed it from the registers, astronomical and 
 chronological, which were preserved at Babylon, 
 and which comprised a period of 200,000 years 
 (150,000, according to the Syncellus). The his- 
 tory of Berosus is lost. Extracts from it had 
 been made by Alexander Polyhistor, in the first 
 century before our era ; but his work too is lost. 
 It still existed, however, at the time when Euse- 
 bius (2 70-340) wrote his Chronicon, and was used 
 by him in describing the ancient history of Baby- 
 lon. But the Chronicle of Eusebius, too, is lost, 
 at least in Greek, and it is only in an Armenian 
 translation of Eusebius that many of the pas- 
 sages have been preserved to us, which refer to 
 the history of Babylon, as originally described by 
 Berosus. This Armenian translation was pub- 
 lished in 1 8 1 8, and its importance was first pointed 
 out by Niebuhr^ As we possess large extracts 
 
 ^ Eusebii Pamphili Caesariensis Episcopi Chronicon Bi- 
 partitum, nunc primum ex Armeniaco textu in Latinum 
 conversum, opera P. Jo. B. Aucher; Venetiis, 18 18. 
 
 E 
 
5© Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 from Eusebius, preserved by Georgius the 
 Syncellus, i. e. the concellaneus, or cell-com- 
 panion, the Vice-patriarch of Constantinople, 
 who wrote a Chronography about 800 a.d., it 
 is possible in several places to compare the 
 original Greek text with the Armenian, and 
 thus to establish the trustworthiness of the 
 Armenian translation. 
 
 Berosus thus describes the Babylonian tra- 
 ditions of the creation^: 
 
 ' There was a time in which all was dark- 
 ness and water, and in these were generated 
 monstrous creatures, having mixed forms ; men 
 were born with two and some with four wings, 
 with two faces, having one body, but two heads, 
 a man's and a woman's, and bearing the marks 
 of male and female nature ; and other men 
 with the legs and horns of goats, or with horses' 
 feet, and having the hind quarters of horses, 
 but the fore part of men, being in fact like 
 Hippocentaurs. Bulls also were produced 
 having human heads, and dogs with four 
 bodies, having fishes' tails springing from their 
 
 ^ Eusebii Chronicon, vol. i. p. 22. Fragmenta Histori- 
 corum, vol. ii. p. 497. 
 
Lecttires on the Science of Religion. 51 
 
 hinder parts ; and horses with dogs' heads, and 
 men and other creatures, having heads and 
 bodies of horses, but tails of fishes ; and other 
 creatures having the shape of all sorts of 
 beasts. Besides these, fishes, and reptiles, and 
 snakes and many other wonderful beings, differ- 
 ing from each other in appearance, the images 
 of which are to be seen in the temple of Belus. 
 At the head of all was a woman, called Omorka 
 (Armen. Marcaja), which is said to be Thalatth^ 
 in Chaldean, and translated in Greek, Thalassa 
 (or sea). When all these were thus together, 
 Behcs came and cut the woman in two : and 
 one half of her he made the earth, and the 
 other half the sky ; and he destroyed all the 
 creatures that were in her. But this account 
 is to be understood allegorically. For when 
 all was still moist, and creatures were born in 
 it, then the god (Belus) cut off his own head, 
 and the gods mixed the blood that flowed from 
 it with the earth, and formed men ; wherefore 
 
 ^ Mr. Sayce writes to me : * Perhaps Lenormant is right in 
 correcting QaKaTB (when compared with the Tavde or TavSr] of 
 Damascius) into Bavdrd, that is, the Assyrian Tihamtu or Tamtu, 
 the sea, the Heb. Dirtri. In this case the correspondence of the 
 Babylonian account with Genesis i. 2 will be even greater.' 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Lectures on tJie Science of Religion. 
 
 men are rational, and participate in the divine 
 intelligence.' 
 
 * And Belus, whom they explain as Zeus (and 
 the Armenians as Aramazd), cut the darkness 
 in two, and separated earth and heaven from 
 each other, and ordered the world. And ani- 
 mals which could not bear the power of the 
 light, perished. And Belus when he saw a 
 desert and fertile land, commanded one of the 
 gods to cut off his head, to mix the earth with 
 the blood flowing from it, and to form men 
 and beasts that could bear the power of the 
 light. And Belus established also the stars, and 
 the sun, and the moon, and the five planets.' 
 
 Nothing can be at first sight more senseless 
 and confused than this Babylonian version of 
 the genesis of the earth and of man ; yet, if 
 we examine it more carefully, we can still dis- 
 tinguish the following elements : 
 
 1. In the beginning there was darkness and 
 water. 
 
 In Hebrew : Darkness was upon the face 
 of the deep. 
 
 2. The heaven was divided from the earth. 
 In Hebrew : Let there be a firmament in 
 
 the midst of the waters, and let it divide the 
 
LectiLTcs on the Science of Religion. 53 
 
 waters from the waters And God called 
 
 the firmament Heaven ; .... and God called 
 the dry land Earth. 
 
 3. The stars were made, and the sun and 
 the moon, and the five planets. 
 
 In Hebrew : And God made two great lights ; 
 the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser 
 light to rule the night ; he made the stars also. 
 
 4. Animals of various kinds were created. 
 
 5. Man was created. 
 
 It is in the creation of animals in particular 
 that the extravagant imagination of the Baby- 
 lonians finds its widest scope. It is said that 
 the imaees of these creatures are to be seen in 
 the temple of Belus, and as their description 
 certainly agrees with some of the figures of gods 
 and heroes that may now be seen in the British 
 Museum, it is not unlikely that the Babylonian 
 story of the creation of these winged monsters 
 may have arisen from the contemplation of the 
 ancient idols in the temples of Babylon. But 
 this would still leave the original conception of 
 such monsters unexplained. 
 
 The most important point, however, is this, 
 that the Babylonians represented man as par- 
 ticipating in divine intelligence. The symbolical 
 
54 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 language in which they express this idea 
 is no doubt horrible and disgusting, but 
 let us recollect that the Hebrew symbol, too, 
 ' that God breathed into man's nostrils the 
 breath of life,' is after all but another weak 
 attempt at expressing the same idea, — an idea 
 so exalted that no language can ever express 
 it without loss or injury. 
 
 In order to guess with some hope of success 
 at the original meaning of ancient traditions, 
 it is absolutely necessary that we should be 
 familiar with the genius of the language in 
 which such traditions took their origin. Lan- 
 guages, for instance, which do not denote 
 grammatical gender, will be free from many 
 mythological stories which in Sanskrit, Greek, 
 and Latin are inevitable. Dr. Bleek, the in- 
 defatigable student of African languages, has 
 frequently dwelt on this fact. In the Preface 
 to his Comparative Grammar of the South- 
 African Languages, published in 1862, he says : 
 
 ' The forms of a language may be said to 
 constitute in some degree the skeleton frame 
 of the human mind whose thoughts they ex- 
 press .... How dependent, for example, the 
 highest products of the human mind, the religious 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. ^^ 
 
 ideas and conceptions of even highly civilized 
 nations, may be upon this manner of speaking 
 has been, shown by Max Muller, in his essay 
 on Compar^ive Mythology (Oxford Essays, 
 1856)^ This will become still more evident 
 from our African researches. The primary 
 cause of the ancestor worship of the one race 
 (Kafirs, Negroes, and Polynesians), and of the 
 sidereal worship, or of those forms of religion 
 which have sprung from the veneration of 
 heavenly bodies, of the other (Hottentots, 
 North-African, Semitic, and Aryan nations), is 
 supplied by the very forms of their languages. 
 The nations speaking Sex-denoting languages 
 are distinguished by a higher poetical concep- 
 tion, by which human agency is transferred to 
 other beings, and even to animate things, in 
 consequence of which their personification takes 
 place, forming the origin of almost all mytho- 
 logical legends. This faculty is not developed 
 in the Kafir mind, because not suggested by 
 the form of their language, in which the nouns 
 of persons are not (as in the Sex-denoting 
 languages) thrown together with those of inani- 
 mate beings into the same classes or genders, 
 
 Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii. pp. 1-146. 
 
rfi Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 but are in separate classes, without any gram- 
 matical distinction of sex^.' 
 
 If therefore, without possessing a knowledge 
 of the Zulu language, I venture oif an interpre- 
 tation of an account of creation that has sprung 
 up in the thought and language of the Zulus, 
 I do so with great hesitation, and only in order 
 to show, by one instance at least, that the re- 
 ligions of savages, too, will have to submit 
 hereafter to the same treatment which we ap- 
 ply to the sacred traditions of the Semitic and 
 Aryan nations. I should not be at all sur- 
 prised if the tentative interpretation which I 
 venture to propose, were proved to be unten- 
 able by those who have studied the Zulu 
 dialects, and I shall be much more ready to 
 surrender my interpretation, than to lose the 
 conviction that there is no solid foundation for 
 the study of the religions of savages except 
 the study of their languages. 
 
 ^ See also his Preface to the second volume of the Com- 
 parative Grammar, published 1869. Mr. E. B. Tylor has 
 some valuable remarks on the same subject, in his article 
 on the Religion of Savages, in the Fortnightly Review, 1866, 
 p. 80; but, not admitting the identity of language and 
 thought, he thinks that the simple anthropomorphic view is 
 the fundamental principle of mythology, and that ' the 
 disease of language' comes in at a later period only. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 57 
 
 How impossible it is to arrive at anything 
 like a correct understanding of the religious 
 sentiments of savao^e tribes without an accurate 
 and scholarlike knowledge of their dialects, is 
 best shown by the old controversy whether 
 there are any tribes of human beings entirely 
 devoid of religious sentiments or no. Those 
 who, for some reason or other, hold that re- 
 ligious sentiments are not essential to human 
 nature, find little difficulty in collecting state- 
 ments of travellers and missionaries in support 
 of their theory. Those who hold the opposite 
 opinion find no more difficulty in rebutting 
 such statements ^ Now the real point to settle 
 before we adopt the one or the other view is, 
 what kind of authority can be claimed by those 
 whose opinions we quote ; did they really know 
 the language, and did they know it, not only 
 sufficiently well to converse on ordinary subjects, 
 but to enter into a friendly and unreserved 
 conversation on topics on whicli even highly 
 educated people are so apt to misunderstand 
 each other? We want informants, in fact, 
 like Dr. Callaway, Dr. Bleek, men who are 
 
 1 See Schelling, Werke, vol. i. p. 72 ; and Mr. E. B. Tylor's 
 reply to Sir John Lubbock, Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 381. 
 
58 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 both scholars and philosophers. Savages are 
 shy and silent in the presence of white men, 
 and they have a superstitious reluctance against 
 mentioning even the names of their gods and 
 heroes. Not many years ago it was supposed, 
 on what would seem to be good authority, that 
 the Zulus had no religious ideas at all ; at pre- 
 sent our very Bishops have been silenced by 
 their theological inquiries. 
 
 Captain Gardiner, in his Narrative of a Jour- 
 ney to the Zoolu Country undertaken in 1835, 
 gives the following dialogue : 
 
 ' Have you any knowledge of the power by 
 whom the world was made '^. When you see 
 the sun rising and setting, and the trees grow- 
 ing, do you know who made them and who 
 governs them ? ' 
 
 Tpai, a Zulu (after a little pause, apparently 
 deep in thought), — 'No; we see them, but 
 cannot tell how they come ; we suppose that 
 they come of themselves.' 
 
 A. ' To whom then do you attribute your 
 success or failure in war ? ' 
 
 Tpai. ' When we are not successful, and do 
 not take cattle, we think that our father [Itongd) 
 has not looked upon us.' 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 59 
 
 A. ' Do you think your father's spirits {Ama- 
 tongo) made the world ?' 
 
 Tpal 'No.' 
 
 A. ' Where do you suppose the spirit of 
 man goes after it leaves the body?' 
 
 Tpal ' We cannot tell.' 
 
 A. 'Do you think it lives for ever?' 
 
 Tpai. ' That we cannot tell ; we believe that 
 the spirit of our forefathers looks upon us when 
 we go to war; but we do not think about it 
 at any other time.' 
 
 A. ' You admit that you cannot control the 
 sun or the moon, or even make a hair of your 
 head to grow. Have you no idea of any 
 power capable of doing this ?' 
 
 Tpai. ' No ; we know of none : we know 
 that we cannot do these things, and we sup- 
 pose that they come of themselves.' 
 
 It would be impossible to find a deeper 
 shade of religious darkness than is pictured 
 in this dialogue. But now let us hear the 
 account which the Rev. Dr. Callaway^ gives 
 of the fundamental religious notions which he, 
 after a long residence among the various clans 
 of the Zulus, after acquiring an intimate know- 
 
 ^ Dr. Callaway, Unkulunkulu, p. 54. 
 
6o Lectures on the Seience of Religion. 
 
 ledge of their language, and, what is still more 
 important, after gaining their confidence, was 
 able to extract from their old men and women. 
 They all believe, first of all, in an ancestor 
 of each particular family and clan, and also in 
 a common ancestor of the whole race of man. 
 That ancestor is generally called the U nku- 
 Tunkulu, which means the. great -great -grarid^_ 
 father \ When pressed as to the father of 
 this great-great-grandfather the general answer 
 of the Zulus seems to be that he ' branched 
 off from a reed,' or that he ' came from a bed 
 of reeds.' 
 
 Here, I cannot help suspecting that language 
 has been at work spinning mythology. In 
 Sanskrit the word (parvan) which means origin- 
 ally a knot or joint in a cane, comes to mean 
 a link, a member ; and, transferred to a family, 
 it expresses the different shoots and scions that 
 spring from the original stem. The name for 
 stem or race and lineage In Sanskrit is V2jns2., 
 which originally means a reed, a bamboo-cane. 
 In the Zulu language a reed is called uthlanga, 
 strictly speaking a reed which is capable of 
 
 Dr. Callaway, Unkulunkulu, p. 48. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 6i 
 
 throwing out offshoots \ It comes thus meta- 
 phorically to mean a source of being. A father 
 is the uthlanga of his children, who are sup- 
 posed to have branched off from him. What- 
 ever notions the ignorant of the present day 
 among the natives may have of the meaning 
 of this tradition, so much seems to be generally 
 admitted, even among Zulus, that originally it 
 could not have been intended to teach that 
 men sprang from a real reed. ' It cannot be 
 doubted,' Dr. Callaway writes, ' that the word 
 alone has come down to the people, whilst the 
 meaning has been lost' 
 
 The interpretation which I venture to pro- 
 pose of this Zulu mythe is this : — The Zulus 
 may have said originally that they were all 
 offshoots of a reed, using reed in the same 
 sense in which it is used in Sanskrit, and 
 meaning therefore no more than that they all 
 were children of one father, members of one 
 race. The word for reed being uthlanga, 
 Uthlanga was personified, and thus became the 
 mythical ancestor of the human race. Among 
 tribes where Unkulunkulu was the first man, 
 Uthlanga became the first woman (p. 58). 
 
 ^ Dr. Callaway, Unkulunkulu, p. 2, note. 
 
6a Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 Every nation, every clan, every family re- 
 quires sooner or later an ancestor. Even in 
 comparatively modern times the Britons, or the 
 inhabitants of Great Britain, were persuaded 
 that it was not good to be without an ancestor, 
 and that they might claim descent from Brutus. 
 In the same manner the Hellenes, or the an- 
 cient inhabitants of Hellas, claimed descent from 
 Hellen. The name of Hellenes, originally re- 
 stricted to a tribe living in Thessaly\ became 
 in time the name of the whole nation ^ and 
 hence it was but natural that Aeolos, the an- 
 cestor of the Aeolians, Doros, the ancestor of 
 the Dorians, and Xutkos, the father of Achaeos 
 and Ion, should all be represented as the sons 
 of Hellen. So far all is intelligible, if we will 
 only remember that this is the technical lan- 
 guage of the heraldic office of ancient Greece. 
 
 But very soon the question arose, who was 
 the father of Hellen, the ancestor of the Greeks, 
 or, according to the intellectual horizon of the 
 ancient Greeks, of the whole human race ? If 
 he was the ancestor of the whole human race, 
 or the first man, he could only be the son of 
 Zeus, the supreme god, and thus we find that 
 
 1 Horn. II. 2, 684. ' Thucyd. i. 3. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 62 
 
 Hellen is called the son of Zeus by some 
 authorities. Others, however, give a different 
 account. There was in Greece, as in many 
 countries, the tradition of a general deluge by 
 which every living being had been destroyed, 
 except a few who escaped in a boat, and who, 
 after the flood had subsided, repeopled the earth. 
 The person thus saved, according to Greek tra- 
 ditions, was Dettkalion, the ruler of Thessaly, 
 the son of Prometheus. Prometheus had told 
 him to build a ship and furnish it with pro- 
 visions, and when the flood came, he and his 
 wife Pyrrha were the only people who escaped. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the Greeks had 
 really two ancestors of the human race, both 
 Hellen and Deukalion, and in order to remove 
 this difficulty, nothing remained but to make 
 Hellen the son of Deukalion. All this is per- 
 fectly natural and intelligible, if we will only 
 learn to speak, and not only to speak, but also 
 to think the language of the ancient world. 
 
 The story then goes on to explain how Deu- 
 kalion became the father of all the people on 
 earth ; that he and his wife Pyrrha were told 
 to throw stones (or the bones of the earth) 
 backward behind them, and that these stones 
 
64 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 became men and women. Now here we have 
 clearly a mythe or a miracle, — a miracle, too, 
 without any justification, for if Pyrrha was the 
 wife of Deukalion, why should not Hellen be 
 their son ? All becomes clear, if we look at 
 the language in which the story is told. Pyrrha 
 means the Red, and was originally a name for 
 earth. As the Hellenes claimed to be indi- 
 genous or autochthonic, born of the earth where 
 they lived, Pyrrha, the red Earth, was naturally 
 called their mother, and being the mother of 
 the Hellenes, she must needs be made the 
 wife of Deukalion, the father of the Hellenes. 
 Originally, however, Deukalion, like Manu in 
 India, was represented as having alone escaped 
 from the deluge, and hence the problem how, 
 without a wife, he could have become the fa- 
 ther of the people ? It was in this perplexity, 
 no doubt, that the mythe arose of his throwing 
 stones behind him, and these stones becoming 
 the new population of the earth. The Greek 
 word for people was Xao?, that for stones Xae? ; — 
 hence what could be more natural, when chil- 
 dren asked, whence the \a6(i or the people of 
 Deukalion came, than to say that they came 
 frdfn Xae? or stones ? 
 
Lcctiu'cs on the Science of Religion. 6^ 
 
 I might give Tnany more Instances of the 
 same kind, all showing that there was a mean- 
 ing in the most meaningless traditions of an- 
 tiquity, all showing, what is still more important, 
 that these traditions, many of them in their 
 present state absurd and repulsive, regain a 
 simple, intelligible, and even beautiful character 
 if we divest them of the crust which language 
 in its inevitable decay has formed around them. 
 We never lose, we always gain, when we dis- 
 cover the most ancient intention of sacred tradi- 
 tions, instead of being satisfied with their later 
 aspect, and their modern misinterpretations. 
 
 Have we lost anything if, while reading the 
 story of Hephaestos splitting open with his • 
 axe the head of Zeus, and Athene springing 
 from it, full armed, we perceive behind this 
 savage imagery, Zeus as the bright Sky, his 
 forehead as the East, Hephaestos as the young, 
 not yet risen Sun, and Athene as the Dawn, 
 the daughter of the Sky, stepping forth from 
 the fountain-head of light — 
 
 TXavKCoTTig, with eyes like an owl (and beau- 
 tiful they are) ; 
 
 ITapOeVo?, pure as a virgin ; 
 
 Xpva-ea, the golden ; 
 
 F 
 
66 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 'AKpla, lighting up the tops of the mountains, 
 and her own s^lorious Parthenon in her own 
 favourite town of Athens ; 
 
 naXXa9, whirHng the shafts of Hght ; 
 
 'AXea, the genial warmth of the morning ; 
 
 IIp6/uLaxo9, the foremost champion in the battle 
 between night and day ; 
 
 IlaVoTrXo?, in full armour, in her panoply of 
 light, driving away the darkness of night, and 
 awakening men to a bright life, to bright 
 thoughts, to bright endeavours. 
 
 Would the Greeks have had less reverence 
 for their gods if, instead of believing that 
 Apollon and Artemis murdered the twelve 
 children of Niobe, they had perceived that 
 Niobe was, in a former period of language, a 
 name of snow and winter, and that no more 
 was intended by the ancient poet than that 
 Apollon and Artemis, the vernal deities, must 
 slay every year with their darts the brilliant 
 and beautiful, but doomed children of the 
 Snow ? Is it not something worth knowing, 
 worth knowing even to us after the lapse of 
 four or five thousand years, that before the 
 separation of the Aryan race, before the exist- 
 ence of Sanskrit, Greek, or Latin, before the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 6"] 
 
 gods of the Veda had been worshipped, and 
 before there was a sanctuary of Zeus among 
 the sacred oaks of Dodona, one supreme Deity 
 had been found, had been named, had been 
 invoked by the ancestors of our race, and had 
 been invoked by a name which has never been 
 excelled by any other name, Dyaus, Zeus, 
 Jupiter, Tyr, — all meaning light and bright- 
 ness, sky and day? 
 
 No, if a critical examination of the ancient 
 language of our own religion leads to no worse 
 results than those which have followed from a 
 careful interpretation of the petrified language 
 of ancient India and Greece, we need not fear ; 
 we shall be gainers, not losers. Like an old 
 precious medal, the ancient religion, after the 
 rust of ages has been removed, will come out 
 in all its purity and brightness : and the image 
 which it discloses will be the image of the 
 Father, the Father of all the nations upon 
 earth ; and the superscription, when we can 
 read it again, will be, not in Judaea only, but 
 in the lanoruaores of all the races of the world, 
 the Word of God, revealed, where alone it 
 can be revealed, — revealed in the heart of 
 man. 
 
 F 2 
 
APPENDIX TO LECTURE I. 
 
 As the Emperor Akbar may be considered 
 the first who ventured on a comparative study 
 of the rehgions of the world, the following 
 extracts from the Ain i Akbari, the Muntakhab 
 at Tawarikh, and the Dabistan, may be of in- 
 terest at the present moment. They are 
 taken from Dr. Blochmann's new transla- 
 tion of the Ain i Akbari, lately published at 
 Calcutta, a most valuable contribution to the 
 * Bibliotheca Indica.' It is but seldom that we 
 find in Eastern history an opportunity of con- 
 fronting two independent witnesses, particularly 
 contemporary witnesses, expressing the opinion 
 of a still reigning Emperor. Abulfazl, the 
 author of the Ain i Akbari, writes as the 
 professed friend of Akbar, whose Vizier he 
 was; Badaoni writes as the declared enerny i 
 of AbulTazl, and with an undisguised horror 
 "aF^kbar's religious views. His work, the 
 Muntakhab at Tawarikh, was kept secret, and 
 
Appendix to Lecture /. 69 
 
 was not published till the reign of Jahangir. 
 (Ain i Akbari, transl. by Blochmann, p. 104, 
 note). 
 
 I first give some extracts from Abulfazl : — 
 Al'N J7. 
 
 HIS MAJESTY AS THE SPIRITUAL GUIDE 
 OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 God, the Giver of intellect and the Creator of 
 matter, forms mankind as He pleases, and gives to 
 some comprehensiveness, and to others narrowness 
 of disposition. Hence the origin of two opposite 
 tendencies among men, one class of whom turn to 
 religious [din), and the other class to worldly thoughts 
 (dimyd). Each of these two divisions select different 
 leaders^ and mutual repulsiveness grows to open 
 rupture. It is then that men's blindness and silliness 
 ^appear in their true light ; it is then discovered how 
 rarely mutual regard and charity are to be met with. 
 
 But have the religious and the worldly tendencies 
 of men no common ground ? Is there not everywhere 
 the same enrapturing beauty^ which beams forth 
 
 ^ As prophets, the leaders of the Church ; and kings, the leaders of 
 the State. 
 
 ^ God. He may be worshipped by the meditative, and by the active 
 man. The former speculates on the essence of God, the latter rejoices 
 in the beauty of the world, and does his duty as man. Both represent 
 tendencies apparently antagonistic ; but as both strive after God, there 
 is a ground common to both. Hence mankind ought to learn that there 
 is no real antagonism between din and dtinyd. Let men rally round 
 Akbar, who joins Cuflc depth to practical wisdom. By his example, he 
 
70 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 from so many thousand hidden places ? Broad indeed 
 is the carpet^ which God has spread, and beautiful 
 the colours which He has given it. 
 
 The Lover and the Beloved are in reality one^ ; 
 
 Idle talkers speak of the Brahmin as distinct from his 
 
 idol. 
 There is but one lamp in this house, in the rays of 
 
 which, 
 Wherever I look, a bright assembly meets me. 
 
 One man thinks that by keeping his passions in 
 subjection he worships God ; and another finds self- 
 discipline in watching over the destinies of a nation. 
 The religion of thousand others consists in clinging 
 to an idea : they are happy in their sloth and unfit- 
 ness of judging for themselves. But when the time 
 of reflection comes, and men shake off the prejudices 
 of their education, the threads of the web of religious 
 blindness^ break, and the eye sees the glory of har- 
 moniousness. 
 
 teaches men how to adore God in doing one's duties ; his superhuman 
 knowledge proves that the hght of God dwells in him. The surest way 
 of pleasing God is to obey the king. 
 
 1 The world. 
 
 2 These yufic lines illustrate the idea that ' the same enrapturing 
 beauty' is everywhere. God is everywhere, in everything: hence every- 
 thing is God. Thus God, the Beloved, dwells in man, the lover, and 
 both are one. Brahmin = man ; the idol = God ; lamp = thought of 
 God ; house = man's heart. The thoughtful man sees everywhere ' the 
 bright assemblage of God's works.' 
 
 3 The text has taqlid, which means to put a collar on one's own neck, 
 to follow another blindly, especially in religious matters. ' All things 
 which refer to prophetship and revealed religion they [Abulfazl, Hakim 
 Abulfath, &c.] called taqlidiydt, i.e. things against reason, because they 
 
Appendix to LcctiLve I. 71 
 
 But the ray of such wisdom does not Hght up every 
 house, nor could every heart bear such knowledge. 
 Again, although some are enlightened, many would 
 observe silence from fear of fanatics, who lust for 
 blood, but look like men. And should any one 
 muster sufficient courage, and openly proclaim his 
 enlightened thoughts, pious simpletons would call 
 him a mad man, and throw him aside as of no 
 account, whilst ill-stared wretches would at once think 
 of heresy and atheism, and go about with the inten- 
 tion of killing him. 
 
 Whenever, from lucky circumstances, the time ar- 
 rives that a nation learns to understand how to 
 worship truth, the people will naturally look to their 
 king, on account of the high position which he occu- 
 pies, and expect him to be their spiritual leader as 
 well : for a king possesses, independent of men, the 
 ray of Divine wisdom, which banishes from his heart 
 everything that is conflicting. A king will therefore 
 sometimes observe the element of harmony in a mul- 
 titude of things, or sometimes, reversely, a multitude 
 of things in that which is apparently one ; for he 
 sits on the throne of distinction, and is thus equally 
 removed from joy or sorrow. 
 
 Now this is the case with the monarch of the 
 present age, and this book is a witness of it. 
 
 Men versed in foretelling the future, knew this 
 
 put the basis of religion upon reason, not testimony. Besides, there 
 came [during a.h. 983, or a.d. 1575] a great number of Portuguese, from 
 whom they likewise picked up doctrines justifiable by reasoning.' 
 Baddoni, ii p. 281. 
 
72 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 when His Majesty was born\ and together with 
 all others that were cognizant of the secret, they 
 have since been waiting in joyful expectation/ His 
 Majesty, however, wisely surrounded himself for a 
 time with a veil, as if he were an outsider, or a 
 stranger to their hopes. But can man counteract 
 the will of God ? His Majesty, at first, took all such 
 by surprise as were wedded to the prejudices of the 
 age ; but he could not help revealing his intentions : 
 they grew to maturity in spite of him, and are now 
 fully known. He now is the spiritual guide of the 
 ^nation, and sees in the performance of this duty a 
 means of pleasing God. He has now opened the 
 gate that leads to the right path, and satisfies the 
 thirst of all that wander about panting for truth. 
 
 But whether he checks men in their desire of 
 becoming disciples, or admits them at other times, 
 he guides them in each case to the realm of bliss. 
 Many sincere enquirers, from the mere light of his 
 wisdom, or his holy breath, obtain a degree of 
 awakening which other spiritual doctors could not 
 produce by repeated fasting and prayers for forty 
 
 ^ This is an allusion to the wonderful event which happened at the 
 birth of the emperor. Akbar spoke. ' From Mirza Shah Muhammad, 
 called Ghaznin Khan, son of Shah Begkhan, who had the title of 
 Dauran Khan, and was an Arghi'm by birth. The author heard him 
 say at Labor, in a.h. 1053, " I asked Nawab 'Aziz Kokah, who has the 
 title of Khan i A'zam whether the late emperor, like the Messiah, had 
 really spoken with his august mother." He replied, " His mother told 
 me, it was true." ' Dabistdn til Mazdhib, Calcutta Edition, p. 390. 
 Bombay edition, p. 260. The words which Christ spoke in the cradle, 
 are given in the Qoran, Sur. 19, and in the spurious gospel of the 
 Infancy of Christ, pp. 5, 1 1 1. 
 
Appendix to Lectttre I. 73 
 
 days. Numbers of those who have renounced the 
 world, as Sanndsis, Jogis^ Sevrds, Qalandais, Ha- 
 kims, and Qitfis^ and thousands of such as follow 
 worldly pursuits, as soldiers, tradespeople, mechanics, 
 and husbandmen, have daily their eyes opened to 
 insight, or have the light of their knowledge in- 
 creased. Men of all nations, young and old, friends 
 and strangers, the far and the near, look upon offering 
 a vow to His Majesty as the means of solving all 
 their difficulties, and bend down in worship on ob- 
 taining their desire. Others again, from the distance 
 of their homes, or to avoid the crowds gathering at 
 Court, offer their vows in secret, and pass their lives 
 in grateful praises. But when His Majesty leaves 
 Court, in order to settle the affairs of a province, to 
 conquer a kingdom, or to enjoy the pleasures of the 
 chase, there is not a hamlet, a town, or a city, that 
 does not send forth crowds of men and women with 
 vow-ofiferings in their hands, and prayers on their lips, 
 touching the ground with their foreheads, praising the 
 efficacy of their vows, or proclaiming the accounts of 
 the spiritual assistance received. Other multitudes 
 ask for lasting bliss, for an upright heart, for advice 
 how best to act, for strength of the body, for en- 
 lightenment, for the birth of a son, the reunion of 
 friends, a long life, increase of wealth, elevation in 
 rank, and many other things. His Majesty, who 
 knows what is really good, gives satisfactory answers 
 to every one, and applies remedies to their religious 
 perplexities. Not a day passes but people bring 
 cups of water to him, beseeching him to breathe 
 
74 Lectures on the Science of Religion, 
 
 upon it. He who reads the letters of the divine 
 orders in the book of fate, on seeing the tidings of 
 hope, takes the water with his blessed hands, places 
 it in the rays of the world-illuminating sun, and 
 fulfils the desire of the suppliant. Many sick people^ 
 of broken hopes, whose diseases the most eminent 
 physicians pronounced incurable, have been restored 
 to health by this divine means. 
 
 A more remarkable case is the following. A 
 simple-minded recluse had cut off his tongue, and 
 throwing it towards the threshold of the palace, said, 
 'If that certain blissful thought ^ which I just now 
 have, has been put into my heart by God, my tongue 
 will get well ; for the sincerity of my belief must lead 
 to a happy issue.' The day was not ended before he 
 obtained his wish. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with the religious know- 
 ledge and the piety of His Majesty, will not attach 
 any importance to some of his customs ^, remarkable 
 
 ^ ' He [Akbar] shewed himself every morning at a window, in front 
 of which multitudes came and prostrated themselves; while women 
 brought their sick infants for his benediction, and offered presents on 
 their recovery.' From the account of the Goa Missionaries who came 
 to Akbar in 1595, in Murray's Discoveries in Asia, ii. p. 96. 
 
 2 His thought was this. If Akbar is a prophet, he must, from his 
 supernatural wisdom, find out in what condition I am lying here. 
 
 ^ * He [Akbar] shewed, besides, no partiality to the Mahometans ; 
 and when in straits for money, would even plunder the mosques to 
 equip his cavalry. Yet there remained in the breast of the monarch a 
 stronghold of idolatry, on which they [the Portuguese Missionaries] 
 could never make any impression. Not only did he adore the sun, and 
 make long prayers to it four times a day ; he also held himself forth as 
 an object of worship ; and though exceedingly tolerant as to other 
 modes of faith, never would admit of any encroachments on his own 
 divinity.' Murray's Discoveries, ii. p. 95. 
 
Appendix to LectiLve I. 'j^ 
 
 as they may appear at first ; and those who know His 
 Majesty's charity and love of justice, do not even see 
 anything remarkable in them.. In the magnanimity 
 of his heart, he never thinks of his perfection, though 
 he is the ornament of the world. Hence he even 
 keeps back many who declare themselves willing to 
 become his disciples. He often says, 'Why should ij 
 claim to guide men, before I myself am guided ?' But 
 when a novice bears on his forehead the sign of 
 earnestness of purpose, and he be daily enquiring 
 more and more, His Majesty accepts him, and admits 
 him on a Sunday, when the world- illuminating sun 
 is in its highest splendour. Notwithstanding every- 
 strictness and reluctance shewn by His Majesty in j 
 admitting novices, there are many thousands, men of \ 
 all classes, who have cast over their shoulders the | 
 mantle of belief, and look upon their conversion to } 
 the New Faith as the means of obtaining every 
 blessing. 
 
 At the above-mentioned time of everlasting auspi- 
 ciousness, the novice with his turban in his hands, 
 puts his head on the feet of His Majesty. This is 
 symbolical^ and expresses that the novice, guided by 
 good fortune and the assistance of his good star, has 
 cast aside '-^ conceit and selfishness, the root of so 
 many evils, offers his heart in worship, and now 
 
 * The text has zabdn i hdl, and a little lower down, zabdn i heziifdni. 
 Zdhan i hdl, or symbolical language, is opposed to zabdn i magdl, spoken 
 words. 
 
 2 Or rather, /rom his head, as the text has, because the casting aside 
 of selfishness is symbolically expressed by taking off the turban. To 
 wear a turban is a distinction. 
 
7 6 Lectures on the Science of Religion 
 
 comes to enquire as to the means of obtaining 
 everlasting life. His Majesty, the chosen one of 
 God, then stretches out the hand of favour, raises 
 up the suppliant, and replaces the turban on his 
 head, meaning by these symbolical actions that he 
 has raised up a man of pure intentions, who from 
 seeming existence has now entered into real life. 
 His Majesty then gives the novice the Shact^, upon 
 which is engraved 'the Great Name^,' and His Ma- 
 jesty's symbolical motto, 'Alldhu Akbar' This teaches 
 the novice the truth that 
 
 ' The pure Shact and the pure sight never err' 
 
 Seeing the wonderful habits of His Majesty, his 
 sincere attendants are guided, as circumstances re- 
 quire it ; and from the wise counsels they receive, 
 they soon state their wishes openly. They learn to 
 satisfy their thirst in the spring of divine favour, and 
 gain for their wisdom and motives renewed light. 
 Others, according to their capacities, are taught 
 wisdom in excellent advices. 
 
 ^ Sha^t means aim; secondly anything round, either a ring, or a 
 thread, as the Brahminical thread. Here a ring seems to be meant. 
 Or it may be the likeness of the emperor which, according to Badaoni, 
 the members wore on their turbans. 
 
 2 The Great Name is a name of God, 'Some say, it is the word 
 Allah; others say, it is gamad, the eternal; others, alhayy, the living; 
 others, alqayyum, the everlasting; others, arrahmdn, arrahim, the clement 
 and merciful ; others almtihaimin, the protector.' Ghids. ' Qazi Hami- 
 duddin of Nagor says, ' the Great Name is the word Hil, or He (God), 
 because it has a reference to God's nature, as it shows that He has no 
 other at His side. Again, the word hu is a root, not a derivative. All 
 epithets of God are contained in it.' Kashfullughdt. 
 
Appendix to Lechtre I. 77 
 
 But it is impossible while speaking of other matters 
 besides, to give a full account of the manner in which 
 His Majesty teaches wisdom, heals dangerous dis- 
 eases, and applies remedies for the severest suffer- 
 ings. Should my occupations allow sufficient leisure, 
 and should another term of life be granted me, it is 
 my intention to lay before the world a separate 
 volume on this subject. 
 
 In another part of his work Abulfazl writes 
 (Book I, Ain 18, p. 48): 
 
 His Majesty maintains that it is a religious duty 
 and divine praise to worship fire and light ; surly, 
 ignorant men consider it forgetfulness of the Al- 
 mighty, and fire-worship. But the deep-sighted 
 know better. . . . There can be nothing improper in 
 the veneration of that exalted element which is the 
 source of man's existence, and of the duration of life ; 
 nor should base thoughts enter such a matter. . . . 
 If light and fire did not exist, we should be destitute 
 of food and medicines ; the power of sight would be 
 ;of no avail to the eyes. The fire of the sun is the 
 I torch of God's sovereignty. 
 
 And again (Book I, Ain 72, p. 154) : 
 
 Ardently feeling after God, and searching for truth, 
 His Majesty exercises upon himself both inward and 
 outward austerities, though he occasionally joins pub- 
 lic worship, in order to hush the slandering tongues 
 of the bigots of the present age. But the great 
 object of his life is the acquisition of that sound 
 
78 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 morality, the sublime loftiness of which captivates the 
 hearts of thinking sages, and silences the taunts of 
 zealots and sectarians. 
 
 The following is an account of Akbar's lite- 
 rary labours (Book I, Ain 34, p. 103) : 
 
 His Majesty's library Is divided Into several parts ; 
 , . . prose books, poetical works, Hindi, Persian, 
 Greek, Kashmlrlan, Arabic, are all separately placed. 
 Experienced readers bring them dally and read them 
 before His Majesty. He does not get tired of hear- 
 ing a book over again, but listens to the reading of It 
 with more Interest. 
 
 Philologists are constantly engaged In translating 
 Hindi, Greek, Arabic, and Persian books Into other 
 languages. Thus a part of the Zlch I Jadid i Mi'rzai 
 was translated under the superintendence of Amir 
 Fathullah of Shiraz, and also the Klshnjoshi, the 
 Gangadhar, the Mohesh Mahanand, from Hindi 
 (Sanskrit) Into Persian, according to the Interpreta- 
 tion of the author of this book^. The Mahabharat 
 which belongs to the ancient books of Hindustan 
 has likewise been translated, from Hindi into Persian, 
 under the superintendence of Nagib Khan, Maulana 
 Abdul Qadir of Badaon, and Shalk Sultan of 
 Thanesar. . . . The same learned men translated 
 
 ^ This can hardly be quite right, for these names are the names of the 
 assistants of Fathullah, viz. Kishan Jai9i, GangSdhar, Mahais (Mahe^a), 
 and Mahanand ; see Garcin de Tassy, Histoire de la Litterature Hin- 
 douie. 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 79 
 
 into Persian the Ramayan, likewise a book of an- 
 cient Hindustan, which contains the hfe of Ram 
 Chandra, but is full of interesting points of philo- 
 sophy. Haji Ibrahim of Sirhind ^ translated into Per- 
 sian the At'harban which, according to Hindus, is one 
 of the four divine books. The Lilawati, which is one 
 of the most excellent works written by Indian mathe- 
 maticians on Arithmetic, lost its Hindu veil, and 
 received a Persian garb from the hand of my elder 
 brother, Shaikh 'Abdul Faiz i Faizi. At the com- 
 mand of His Majesty, Mukammal Khan of Gujrat, 
 translated into Persian the Tajak, a well known work 
 on Astronomy. . . . The history of Kashmir, which 
 extends over the last four thousand years, has been 
 translated from Kashmirian into Persian by Maulana 
 Shah Muhammad of Shahabad. (It was rewritten by 
 Badaoni in an easier style.) . . . The Haribans, a 
 book containing the life of Krishna, was translated 
 into Persian by Maulana Sheri. By order of His 
 Majesty, the author of this volume composed a new 
 version of the Kali'lah Damnah, and published it 
 
 2 Badaoni says " that a learned Brahmin, Shaikh Bhawan, who had 
 turned Muhammadan, was ordered to translate the Atharban for him, 
 but that, as he could not translate all the passages, Shaikh Faizi and 
 Haji Ibrahim were commanded to translate the book. The latter, 
 though willing, did not write anything. Among the precepts of the 
 At'harban, there is one which says that no man will be saved unless he 
 read a certain passage. This passage contains many times the letter 1, 
 and resembles very much our La illah illallah. Besides, I found tliat a 
 Hindu, under certain conditions, may eat cow flesh; and another, that 
 Hindus bury their dead, but do not burn them. With such passages 
 the Shaikh used to defeat other Brahmins in argument ; and they had 
 in fact led him to embrace Islam. Let us praise God for his con- 
 version." 
 
8o Lectures on the Science of Religio7i. 
 
 under the title of 'Avar Danish. . . . The Hindi 
 story of the Love of Nal and Daman has been me- 
 trically translated by my brother, Shaikh Faizi. 
 
 We must now look at the other side of the 
 picture, though, I confess, that even the hostile 
 statements of Badaoni and his party only con- 
 firm the impression of Akbar's character pro- 
 duced by the friendly account of Abulfazl. 
 
 When speaking of Abulfazl, Badaoni says : 
 
 He lighted up the lamp of the Cabdhis, illustrating 
 thereby the story of .the man who, because he did not 
 know what to do, took up a lamp in broad daylight, 
 and representing himself as opposed to all sects, tied 
 the girdle of infallibility round his waist, according 
 to the saying, ' He who forms an opposition, gains 
 power.' He laid before the emperor a commentary 
 on the A'yat nl-knrsi^ which contained all subtleties 
 of the Qoran ; and though people said that it had 
 been written by his father, Abulfazl was much 
 praised. The numerical value of the letters in the 
 words Tafsir i Akbari (Akbar's commentary) gives 
 the date of composition [983]. But the emperor 
 praised it, chiefly because he expected to find in 
 Abulfazl a man capable of teaching the Mullas 
 a lesson, whose pride certainly resembles that of 
 Pharaoh, though this expectation was opposed to the 
 confidence which His Majesty had placed in me. 
 
 The reason of Abulfazl's opinionativeness and pre- 
 tensions to infallibility was this. At the time when 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. Pi 
 
 it was customary to get hold of and kill such as 
 tried to introduce innovations in religious matters 
 (as had been the case with Mir Habshi and others), 
 Shaikh 'Abdunnabi and Makhdum ul mulk, and other 
 learned men at court, unanimously represented to the 
 emperor that Shaikh Mubarik also, in as far as he 
 pretended to be Mahdi^ belonged to the class of in- 
 novators, and was not only himself damned, but led 
 others into damnation. Having obtained a sort of 
 permission tg remove him, they despatched police 
 officers to bring him before the emperor. But when 
 they found that the Shaikh, with his two sons, had 
 concealed himself, they demolished the pulpit in 
 his prayer-room. The Shaikh, at first, took uefuge 
 with Salim i Chishti at Fathpur, who then was 
 in the height of his glory, and requested him to in- 
 tercede for him. Shaikh Salim, however, sent him 
 money by some of his disciples, and told him it 
 would be better for him to go away to Gujrat. 
 Seeing that Salim took no interest in him, Shaikh 
 Mubarik applied to Mirza 'Aziz Kokah [Akbar's 
 foster-brother], who took occasion to prais^ to the 
 emperor the Shaikh's learning and voluntary poverty, 
 and the superior talents of his two sons, adding that 
 Mubarik was a most trustworthy man, that he had 
 never received lands as a present, and that he ['Azi'z] 
 could really not see why the Shaikh was so much 
 persecuted. The emperor at last gave up all thoughts 
 of killing the Shaikh. In a short time matters took 
 a more favourable turn ; and Abulfazl, when once in 
 favour with the emperor (officious as he was, and 
 
 G 
 
Lectures on tJie Science of Religion. 
 
 time-serving, openly faithless, continually studying 
 His Majesty's whims, a flatterer beyond all bounds) 
 took every opportunity of reviling in the most shame- 
 ful way that sect whose labours and motives have 
 been so little appreciated \ and became the cause 
 not only of the extirpation of these experienced 
 people, but also of the ruin of all servants of God, 
 especially of Shaikhs, pious men, of the helpless, and 
 the orphans, whose livings and grants he cut down. 
 
 Then follows Badaonfs account of the origin 
 of the religious and philosophical disputations 
 at the emperor's court : 
 
 During the year 983 A.H., many places of worship 
 were built at the command of His Majesty. The 
 cause was this. For many years previous to 983, the 
 emperor had gained in succession remarkable and de- 
 cisive victories. The empire had grown in extent 
 from day to day ; everything turned out well, and no 
 opponent was left in the whole world. His Majesty 
 had thus leisure to come into nearer contact with 
 ascetics and the disciples of the Mu'iniyyah sect, and 
 passed much of his time in discussing the word of 
 God (Qoran), and the word of the prophet (the Hadis, 
 or Tradition). Questions of Cufism, scientific discus- 
 sions, inquiries into Philosophy and Law, were the 
 order of the day. His Majesty passed whole nights 
 
 ^ Badaoni belonged to the believers in the approach of the Millen- 
 nium. A few years later, Akbar used Mahdawi rumours for his own 
 purposes ; vide below. The extract shows that there existed, before 982, 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 83 
 
 in thoughts of God : he continually occupied himself 
 with pronouncing the names Yd Jlu and Yd hddi^ 
 which had been mentioned to him\ and his heart 
 was full of reverence for Him who is the true Giver. 
 From a feeling of thankfulness for his past successes, 
 he would sit many a morning alone in prayer and 
 melancholy, on a large flat stone of an old building 
 which lay near the palace in a lonely spot, with his 
 head bent over his chest, and gathering the bliss of 
 early hours. 
 
 For these discussions, which were held every Thurs- 
 day- night. His Majesty invited the Sayyids, Shaikhs, 
 'Ulamas, and grandees, by turn. But as the guests 
 generally commenced to quarrel about their places, 
 and the order of precedence, His Majesty ordered 
 that the grandees should sit on the east side ; the 
 Sayyids on the west side ; the 'Ulamas to the south ; 
 and the Shaikhs to the north. The emperor then 
 used to go from one side to the other, and make his 
 inquiries . . ., when all at once, one night, 'the vein of 
 the neck of the 'Ulamas of the age swelled up,' and a 
 horrid noise and confusion ensued. His Majesty got 
 very angry at their rude behaviour, and said to me 
 [Badaoni], ' In future report any of the 'Ulamas that 
 
 heretical innovators, whom the emperor allowed to be persecuted. 
 Matters soon took a different turn. 
 
 1 By some ascetic. Yd hu means O He (God), and Yd hddi, Guide, 
 The frequent repetition of such names is a means of knowledge. Some 
 faqirs repeat them several thousand times during a night. 
 
 2 The text has Shab i Jiiniah, the night of Friday ; but as Muham- 
 madans commence the day at sunset, it is our Thursday night. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 Lectures on the Seience of Religion. 
 
 cannot behave and talks nonsense, and I shall make 
 him leave the hall' I gently said to Acaf Khan, ' If 
 I were to carry out this order, most of the 'Ulamas 
 would have to leave,' when His Majesty suddenly 
 asked what I had said. On hearing my answer, he 
 was highly pleased, and mentioned my remark to 
 those sitting near him. 
 
 At one of the above-mentioned meetings. His Ma- 
 jesty asked how many freeborn women a man was 
 legally allowed to marry (by nikdh). The lawyers 
 answered that four was the limit fixed by the prophet. 
 The emperor thereupon remarked that from the time 
 he had come of age, he had not restricted himself to 
 that number, and in justice to his wives, of whom he 
 had a large number, both freeborn and slaves, he now 
 wanted to know what remedy the law provided for 
 his case. Most expressed their opinions, when the 
 emperor remarked that Shaikh 'Abdunnabi had once 
 told him that one of the Mujtahids had had as many 
 as nine wives. Some of the 'Ulamas present replied 
 that the Mujtahid alluded to was Ibn Abi Laila ; 
 and that some had even allowed eighteen from a too 
 literal translation of the Qoran verse (Qor. Sur. IV. 
 3), 'Marry whatever women ye like, two and two^, 
 
 1 Thus they got 2 + 2, 3 + 3, 4 + 4-18. But the passage is usually 
 translated, ' Marry whatever women ye like, two, or three, or four.' 
 The Mujtahid who took nine unto himself, translated ' two + three + 
 four,' = 9. The question of the emperor was most ticklish, because, 
 if the lawyers adhered to the number four, which they could not 
 well avoid, the hardiiizddagi of Akbar s freeborn princesses was acknow- 
 ledged. 
 
Appendix to Lecture /. 85 
 
 and three and three, and four and four;' but this 
 was improper. His Majesty then sent a message 
 to Shaikh 'Abdunnabi, who repHed that he had 
 merely wished to point out to Akbar that a difference 
 of opinion existed on this point among lawyers, but 
 that he had not given a fatzva, in order to legalize 
 irregular marriage proceedings. This annoyed His 
 Majesty very much. 'The Shaikh,' he said, 'told me 
 at that time a very different thing from what he now 
 tells me.' He never forgot this. 
 
 After much discussion on this point, the 'Ulamas, 
 having collected every tradition on the subject, de- 
 creed, first, that by Miifah [not by nikdJi\ a man 
 might marry any number of wives he pleased ; and 
 secondly, that Mnfah marriages were allowed by 
 Imam Malik. The Shi'ahs, as was well known, loved 
 children born in Mnfah wedlock more than those 
 born by nikdJi wives, contrary to the Sunni's and 
 the Ahl i Jama at. 
 
 On the latter point also the discussion got rather 
 lively, and I would refer the reader to my work en- 
 titled Najdtnrrashid, in which the subject is briefly 
 discussed. But to make things worse, Naqib Khan 
 fetched a copy of the Mttwatta of Imam Malik, and 
 pointed to a tradition in the book, which the Imam 
 had cited as a proof against the legality of Mnfah 
 marriages. 
 
 Another night, Qazi Ya'qub, Shaikh Abulfazl, Haji 
 Ibrahim, and a few others were invited to meet His 
 Majesty in the house near the Annptaldo tank. Shaikh 
 Abulfazl had been selected as the opponent, and laid 
 
86 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 before the emperor several traditions regarding Mufah 
 marriages, which his father (Shaikh Mubarik) had col- 
 lected, and the discussion commenced. His Majesty 
 then asked me, what my opinion was on this subject. 
 I said, * The conclusion which must be drawn from so 
 many contradictory traditions and sectarian customs, 
 is this : — Imam Malik and the Shi'ahs are unanimous 
 in looking upon Mnfah marriages as legal ; Imam 
 Shafi'i and the Great Imam (Hanifah) look upon 
 Mtifah marriages as illegal. But, should at any 
 time a Qazi of the Maliki sect decide that Mnfah 
 is legal, it is legal, according to the common belief, 
 even for Shafi'is and Hanafis, Every other opinion 
 on this subject is idle talk.' This pleased His Ma- 
 jesty very much. 
 
 The emperor then said, ' I herewith appoint the 
 Maliki Qazi Husain 'Arab as the Qazi before whom 
 I lay this case concerning my wives, and you, Ya'qub, 
 are from to-day suspended.' This was immediately 
 obeyed, and Qazi Hasan, on the spot, gave a decree 
 which made Mnfah marriages legal. 
 
 The veteran lawyers, as Makhdum ul mulk, Qazi 
 Ya'qub, and others, made very long faces at these 
 proceedings. 
 
 This was the comm.encement of ' their sere and 
 yellow leaf.' 
 
 The result was that, a few days later, Maulana 
 Jalaluddin of Multan, a profound and learned man, 
 whose grant had been transferred, was ordered from 
 Agrah (to Fathpur Sikri,) and appointed Qazi of the 
 realm. Qazi Ya'qub was sent to Gaur as District Qazi. 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 8/ 
 
 From this day henceforth, ' the road of opposition 
 and difference in opinion ' lay open, and remained so 
 till His Majesty was appointed Mujtahid of the 
 empire. 
 
 During this year [983], there arrived Hakim Abul- 
 fath, Hakim Humayun (who subsequently changed 
 his name to Humayun Ouli, and lastly to Hakim 
 Humam), and Nuruddin, who as poet is known under 
 the name of Qardri. They were brothers, and came 
 from Gilan, near the Caspian Sea. The eldest bro- 
 ther, whose manners and address were exceedingly 
 winning, obtained in a short time great ascendency 
 over the emperor ; he flattered him openly, adapted 
 himself to every change in the religious ideas of His 
 Majesty, or even went in advance of them, and thus 
 became in a short time, a most intimate friend of 
 Akbar. 
 
 Soon after there came from Persia Mulla Muham- 
 mad of Yazd, who got the nickname of Yazidi, and 
 attaching himself to the emperor, commenced openly 
 to revile the Cahdbah (persons who knew Muhammad, 
 except the twelve Imams), told queer stories about 
 them, and tried hard to make the emperor a Shi'ah. 
 But he was soon left behind by Bir Bar — that bastard ! 
 — and by Shaikh Abulfazl, and Hakim Abulfath, 
 who successfully turned the emperor from the Islam, 
 and led him to reject inspiration, prophetship, the 
 miracles of the prophet and of the saints, and even 
 the whole law, so that I could no longer bear their 
 company. 
 
 At the same time, His Majesty ordered Qazi Jala- 
 
 
88 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 luddin and several 'Ulamas to write a commentary 
 on the Ooran; but this led to great rows among 
 them. 
 
 Soon after, the observance of the five prayers and 
 the fasts, and the behef in every thing connected 
 with the prophet, were put down as taqlidi, or re- 
 Hgious bHndness, and man's reason was acknowledged 
 to be the basis of all religion. Portuguese priests 
 also came frequently ; and His Majesty enquired 
 into the articles of their belief which are based upon 
 reason. 
 
 His Majesty till now [986] had shewn every sin- 
 cerity, and was diligently searching for truth. But his 
 education had been much neglected ; and surrounded 
 as he was by men of low and heretical principles, he 
 had been forced to doubt the truth of the Islam. Fall- 
 ing from one perplexity into the other, he lost sight of 
 his real object, the search of truth ; and when the strong 
 embankment of our clear law and our excellent faith 
 had once been broken through. His Majesty grew 
 colder and colder, till after the short space of five or 
 six years not a trace of Muhammadan feeling was left 
 in his heart. Matters then became very different. 
 
 The following are the principal reasons which led 
 His Majesty from the right path. I shall not give 
 all, but only some, according to the proverb, 'That 
 which is small, guides to that which is great, and a 
 sign of fear in a man points him out as the culprit' 
 
 The principal reason is the large number of learned 
 men of all denominations and sects that came from 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 89 
 
 various countries to court, and received personal inter- 
 views. Night and day people did nothing but en- 
 quire and investigate ; profound points of science, the 
 subtleties of revelation, the curiosities of history, the 
 wonders of nature, of which large volumes could only 
 give a summary abstract, were ever spoken of. His 
 Majesty collected the opinions of every one, especially 
 of such as were not Muhammadans, retaining what- 
 ever he approved of, and rejecting everything which 
 was against his disposition, and ran counter to his 
 wishes. From his earliest childhood to his manhood, 
 and from his manhood to old age, His Majesty has 
 passed through the most various phases, and through 
 all sorts of religious practices and sectarian beliefs, 
 and has collected everything which people can find in 
 books, with a talent of selection peculiar to him, 
 and a spirit of enquiry opposed to every [Islamitic] 
 principle. Thus a faith based on some elementary 
 principles traced itself on the mirror of his heart, and 
 as the result of all the influences which were brought 
 to bear on His Majesty, there grew gradually, as the 
 outline on a stone, the conviction in his heart that 
 there ivere sensible men in all religions, and abstemious 
 tJiinkers, and men endozved zvith miractdotis powers, 
 among all nations. If some true knowledge was thus 
 everywhere to be found, why should truth be confined 
 to one religion, or to a creed like the Islam, which 
 was comparatively new, and scarcely a thousand years 
 old ; why should one sect assert what another denies, 
 and why should one claim a preference without having 
 superiority conferred on itself? 
 
9© Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 Moreover Sumanis ^ and Brahmins managed to get 
 frequent private interviews with His Majesty. As 
 they surpass other learned men in their treatises on 
 morals, and on physical and religious sciences, and 
 reach a high degree in their knowledge of the future, 
 in spiritual power and human perfection, they brought 
 proofs, baised on reason and testimony, for the truth 
 of their own, and the fallacies of other religions, and 
 inculcated their doctrines so firmly, and so skilfully 
 represented things as quite self-evident which require 
 consideration, that no man, by expressing his doubts, 
 could now raise a doubt in His Majesty, even if 
 mountains were to crumble to dust, or the heavens 
 were to tear asunder. 
 
 Hence His Majesty cast aside the Islamitic revela- 
 tions regarding resurrection, the day of judgment, and 
 the details connected with it, as also all ordinances 
 based on the tradition of our prophet. He listened 
 to every abuse which the courtiers heaped on our 
 glorious and pure faith, which can be so easily fol- 
 lowed ; and eagerly seizing such opportunities, he 
 shewed in words and gestures, his satisfaction at the 
 treatment which his original religion received at their 
 hands. 
 How wise was the advice which the guardian gave a 
 
 lovely being. 
 
 ' Explained in Arab. Dictionaries as a sect in Sind who believe in 
 the transmigration of souls {tandsukh). Akbar, as will be seen from the 
 following, was convinced of the transmigration of souls, and therefore 
 rejected the doctrine of resurrection. 
 
 [Is not Sumani meant for Samana, i. e. S'rama/ia? — 'M. M.] 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 91 
 
 ' Do not smile at every face, as the rose does at every 
 
 zephyr ^.' 
 When it was too late to profit by the lesson, 
 She could but frown, and hang down the head. 
 
 For some time His Majesty called a Brahmin, whose 
 name was Puzukhotam ^, author of a commentary on 
 the . . '\ whom he asked to invent particular Sanskrit 
 names for all things in existence. At other times, a 
 Brahmin of the name of Debi was pulled up the wall 
 of the castle ^ sitting on a chdipdi, till he arrived near 
 a balcony where the emperor used to sleep. Whilst 
 thus suspended, he instructed His Majesty in the 
 secrets and legends of Hinduism, in the manner of 
 worshipping idols, the fire, the sun and stars, and of 
 revering the chief gods of these unbelievers, as Brahma, 
 Mahadev, Bishn, Kishn, Ram, and Mahamai, who are 
 supposed to have been men, but very likely never 
 existed, though some, in their idle belief, look upon 
 them as gods, and others as angels. His Majesty, on 
 hearing further how much the people of the country 
 prized their institutions, commenced to look upon 
 them with affection. The doctrine of the transmigra- 
 tion of souls especially took a deep root in his heart, 
 and he approved of the saying, ' There is no religion 
 
 ^ Just as Akbar liked the zephyr of enquiry into other religious 
 systems. But zephyrs are also destructive : they scatter the petals of 
 the rose. 
 
 2 [Probably Purushottama.— M. M.] 
 
 ^ The text has a few unintelligible words. 
 
 * Perhaps in order not to get polluted, or because the balcony be- 
 longed to the Harem. 
 
92 Lectures on the Seience of Religion. 
 
 in which the doctrine of transmigration has not taken 
 firm root.' Insincere flatterers composed treatises, in 
 order to fix the evidence for this doctrine ; and as 
 His Majesty reUshed enquiries into the sects of these 
 infidels (who cannot be counted, so numerous they 
 are, and who have no end of revealed books, but 
 nevertheless, do not belong to the AJil i Kitdb (Jews, 
 Christians, and Muhammadans), not a day passed, 
 but a new fruit of this loathsome tree ripened into 
 existence. 
 
 Sometimes again, it was Shaikh Tdjnddin of Dihli, 
 who had to attend the emperor. This Shaikh is the 
 son of Shaikh Zakariya of Ajodhan. The principal 
 'Ulamas of the age call him TdjiiV drifin, or crown of 
 the (^ufis. He had learned under Shaikh Zaman of 
 Panipat, author of a commentary on the Lawaih, and 
 of other very excellent works, was in ^ufism and 
 pantheism second only to Shaikh Ibn 'Arabi, and had 
 written a comprehensive commentary on the Nnzhat 
 nlarwdh. Like the preceding he was drawn up the 
 wall of the castle. His Majesty listened whole nights 
 to his ^ufic trifles. As the Shaikh was not overstrict^ 
 in acting according to our religious law, he spoke a 
 great deal of the pantheistic presence, which idle 
 Cufi's will talk about, and which generally leads them 
 to denial of the law and open heresy. He also intro- 
 duced polemic matters, as the ultimate salvation by 
 
 * As long as a Qufl conforms to the Qoran, he is shari; but when he 
 feels that he has drawn nearer to God, and does no longer require the 
 ordinances of the pro/anuni valgus, he is dzdd, free, and becomes a 
 heretic. 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 93 
 
 faith of Pharaoh — God's curse be upon him ! — which 
 is mentioned in the Ftccilg tilkikam ^5 or the excellence 
 of hope over fear-, and many other things to which 
 men incline from weakness of disposition, unmindful 
 of cogent reasons, or distinct religious commands, to 
 the contrary. The Shaikh is therefore one of the 
 principal culprits, who weakened His Majesty's faith 
 in the orders of our religion. He also said that 
 infidels would, of course, be kept for ever in hell, but 
 it was not likely, nor could it be proved, that the 
 piLiiishvient in hell was eternal. His explanation of. 
 some verses of the Qoran, or of the tradition of our 
 prophet, were often far-fetched. Besides, he men- 
 tioned that the phrase 'Insdn i kdmil (perfect man) 
 referred to the ruler of the age, from which he inferred 
 that the nature of a king was holy. In this way, he 
 said many agreeable things to the emperor, rarely 
 expressing the proper meaning, but rather the oppo- 
 site of what he knew to be correct. Even the sijdaJi 
 (prostration), which people mildly call zaniinbos (kiss- 
 ing the ground), he allowed to be due to the Insan i 
 kamil ; he looked upon the respect due to the king 
 as a religious command, and called the face of the 
 king Kdbah i Mnrdddt, the sanctum of desires, and 
 
 ^ Pharaoh claimed divinity, and is therefore maVun, accursed by God. 
 But according to some books, and among them the Fugiic;, Pharaoh 
 repented in the moment of death, and acknowledged Moses a true 
 prophet. 
 
 - The Islam says, Alimdn bai?ia-l hhaiifi warrijd, ' Faith stands between 
 fear and hope.' Hence it is sin to fear God's wrath more than to hope 
 for God's mercy; and so reversely. 
 
94 Lectures on the Science of Religion,. 
 
 QiblaJi i Hdjdt, the cynosure of necessities. Such 
 blasphemies^ other people supported by quoting 
 stories of no credit, and by referring to the practice 
 followed by disciples of some heads of Indian sects. 
 
 Learned monks also came from Europe, who go by 
 the name of Pddre'^. They have an infallible head, 
 called Pdpd. He can change any religious ordinances 
 as he may think advisable, and kings have to submit 
 to his authority. These monks brought the gospel, 
 and mentioned to the emperor their proofs for the 
 Trinity. His Majesty firmly believed in the truth of 
 the Christian religion, and wishing to spread the 
 doctrines of Jesus, ordered Prince Murad ^ to take a 
 few lessons in Christianity by way of auspiciousness, 
 and charged Abulfazl to translate the Gospel. In- 
 stead of the usual Bisniilldh-irrahmdn-irrahiin^, the 
 following lines were used — 
 
 ^ As the zaminhos, or the use of holy names as Ka'bah (the temple at 
 Makkah) or qiblah (Makkah, in as far as people turn to it their face 
 when praying). 
 
 2 Rodolpho Aquaviva, called by Abi:lfazl, Padri Radalf, Antonio de 
 Monserrato, Francisco Enriques. 
 
 3 Prince Murad was then about eight years old. Jahangir (Salim) 
 was born on Wednesday, the 17th Rabi'ulawwal 977. Three months 
 after him, his sister Shahzddah Khdmwt was born ; and after her 
 (perhaps in year the 978) Shah Murad, who got the nickname of 
 Pahdri, as he was born in the hills of Fathpur Sikri. Danyal was 
 born in Ajmir during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, the 
 loth Jumadalawwal 979. 
 
 * The formula ' Bisinilldh, &c.' is said by every schoolboy before he 
 commences to read from his text book. 
 
 The words A i nam i tu Jesus Kiristo are taken from the Dabistan ; 
 the edition of Badaoni has Ai 7idmi wai zhazho Kiristo, which, though 
 correct in metre {vide my 'Prosody of the Persians,' p. 33, No. 32), is 
 
Appendix to LechLve I. 95 
 
 Ai nam i tu Jesns o Khisto 
 
 (O thou whose names are Jesus and Christ) 
 
 which means, ' O thou whose name is gracious and 
 
 blessed ;' Shaikh Faizi added another half, in order to 
 
 complete the verse 
 
 Sub kanaka la siwdka Yd Ml. 
 (We praise Thee, there is no one besides Thee, O God !) 
 
 These accursed monks applied the description of 
 cursed Satan, and of his qualities, to Muhammad, the 
 best of all prophets — God's blessings rest on him and 
 his whole house! — a thing which even devils would 
 not do. 
 
 Bir Bar also impressed upon the emperor that the 
 sun was the primary origin of every thing. The ripen- 
 ing of the grain on the fields, of fruits and vegetables, 
 the illumination of the universe, and the lives of men, 
 depended upon the sun. Hence it was but proper to 
 worship and reverence this luminary ; and people in 
 praying should face towards the place where he rises, 
 instead of turning to the quarter where he sets. For 
 similar reasons, said Bir Bar, should men pay regard 
 to fire and water, stones, trees, and other forms of ex- 
 istence, even to cows and their dung, to the mark on 
 the forehead and the Brahminical thread. 
 
 Philosophers and learned men who had been at 
 Court, but were in disgrace, made themselves busy in 
 
 improbable. The formula as given in the Dabistan has a common 
 Masnawi metre {vide my 'Prosody,' p. 33, No. 31), and spells Jei-v& 
 jy>:> dezuz. The verse as given by H. Wilson (Works, ii. p. 387) has 
 no metre. 
 
96 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 bringing proofs. They said, the sun was * the greatest 
 light,' the origin of royal power. 
 
 Fire-worshippers also had come from Nausari in 
 Gujrat, and proved to His Majesty the truth of Zoro- 
 aster's doctrines. They called fire-worship ' the great 
 worship,' and impressed the emperor so favourably, 
 that he learned from them the religious terms and 
 rites of the old Parsis, and ordered Abulfazl to make 
 arrangements, that sacred fire sliould be kept burning 
 at Court by day and by night, according to the custom 
 of the ancient Persian kings, in whose fire-temples it 
 had been continually burning ; for fire was one of the 
 manifestations of God, and 'a ray of His rays.' 
 
 His Majesty, from his youth, had also been accus- 
 tomed to celebrate the Horn (a kind of fire-worship), 
 from his affection towards the Hindu princesses of his 
 Harem. 
 
 From the New Year's day of the twenty-fifth year 
 of his reign [988], His Majesty openly worshipped the 
 sun and the. fire by prostrations ; and the courtiers 
 were ordered to rise, when the candles and lamps were 
 lighted In the palace. On the festival of the eighth 
 day of Virgo, he put on the mark on the forehead, 
 like a Hindu, and appeared In the Audience Hall, 
 when several Brahmins tied, by way of auspiclousness, 
 a string with jewels on it round his hands, whilst the 
 grandees countenanced these proceedings by bringing, 
 according to their circumstances, pearls and jewels as 
 presents. The custom of Rak'hi (or tying pieces of 
 clothes round the wrists as amulets) became quite 
 common. 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 97 
 
 When orders, in opposition to the Islam, were 
 quoted by people of other religions, they were looked 
 upon by His Majesty as convincing, whilst Hinduism 
 is in reality a religion in which every order is non- 
 sense. The Originator of our belief, the Arabian 
 Saints, all were said to be adulterers, and highway 
 robbers, and all the Muhammadans were declared 
 worthy of reproof, till at length His Majesty belonged 
 to those of whom the Qoran says (Sur. 61,8): ' They 
 seek to extinguish God's light with their mouths : but 
 God will perfect his light, though the infidels be 
 averse thereto.' In fact matters went so far, that 
 proofs were no longer required when anything con- 
 nected with the Islam was to be abolished. 
 
 After Makhdum ul mulk and Shaikh 'Abdunnabi 
 had left for Makkah (987), the emperor examined 
 people about the creation of the Qoran, elicited their 
 belief, or otherwise, in revelation, and raised doubts 
 ^^n them regarding all things connected with the pro- 
 phet and the imams. He distinctly denied the exist- 
 ence of J ins, of angels, and of all other beings of the 
 invisible world, as well as the miracles of the prophet 
 and the saints ; he rejected the successive testimony 
 of the witnesses of our faith, the proofs for the truths 
 of the Qoran as far as they agree with man's reason, 
 the existence of the soul after the dissolution of the 
 body, and future rewards and punishments in as far as 
 they differed from metempsychosis. 
 
 In this year, Shaikh Mubarik of Nagor said in the 
 presence of the emperor of Bir Bar, ' Just as there are 
 
 H 
 
98 LectiLves on the Science of Religion. 
 
 interpolations in your holy books, so there are many in 
 ours (Ooran) ; hence it is impossible to trust either.' 
 
 Some shameless and ill-starred wretches also asked 
 His Majesty, why, at the approaching close of the 
 Millennium, he did not make use of the sword, ' the 
 most convincing proof,' as Shah Isma'il of Persia 
 had done. But His Majesty, at last, was convinced 
 that confidence in him as a leader was a matter of 
 time and good counsel, and did not require the sword. 
 And indeed, if His Majesty, in setting up his claims, 
 and making his innovations, had spent a little money, 
 he would have easily got most of the courtiers, and 
 much more the vulgar, into his devilish nets. 
 
 At a council meeting for renovating the religion of 
 the empire. Rajah Bhagawan said, ' I would willingly 
 believe that Hindus and Musalmans have each a bad 
 religion ; but only tell us where the new sect is, and 
 what opinion they hold, so that I may believe.' His 
 Majesty reflected a little, and ceased to urge the 
 Rajah. But the alteration of the orders of our glo- 
 rious faith was continued. 
 
 During those days also the public prayers and the 
 azd7t,which was chanted five times a day for assembly 
 to prayer in the statehall, were abolished. Names 
 like Ahmad, Muhammad, Mtictafa, &c., became offen- 
 sive to His Majesty, who thereby wished to please the 
 infidels outside, and the princesses inside, the Harem, 
 till, after some time, those courtiers who had such 
 names, changed them ; and names as Ydr Muham- 
 mad, MiLhammad Khan, were altered to RaJimat. To 
 call such ill-starred wretches by the name of our 
 
Appendix to Lecture I. 99 
 
 blessed prophet would indeed be wrong, and there 
 was not only room for improvement by altering their 
 names, but it was even necessary to change them, ac- 
 cording to the proverb, ' It is wrong to put fine jewels 
 on the neck of a pig.' 
 
 In RabVussdni 990, Mir Fathullah came from the 
 Dak'hin. ^ * >f; h^ As he had been an immediate 
 pupil of Mir Ghiasuddin Mancur of Shiraz, who had 
 not been overstrict in religious matters. His Majesty 
 thought that Fathullah would only be too glad to 
 enter into his religious scheme. But Fathullah was 
 such a stanch Shi'ah, and at the same time such 
 a worldly office-hunter, and such a worshipper of 
 mammon and of the nobility, that he would not 
 give up a jot of the tittles of bigotted Shi'ism. 
 Even in the statehall he said, with the greatest 
 composure, his Shi'ah prayers — a thing which no one 
 else would have dared to do. His Majesty, there- 
 fore, put him among the class of the bigots ; but 
 he connived at his practices, because he thought it 
 desirable to encourage a man of such attainments and 
 practical knowledge. Once the emperor, in Fathul- 
 lah's presence \ said to Bir Bar, ' I really wonder how j 
 any one in his senses can believe that a man, whose 
 body has a certain weight, could, in the space of a 
 moment, leave his bed, go up to heaven, there have 
 90,000 conversations with God, and yet on his return i 
 
 ^ As Fathullah was a good mechanic, Akbar thought that by referring 
 to the weight of a man, and the following experiment with his foot, he 
 would induce Fathullah to make a remark on the prophet's ascension 
 (»i/'ny). 
 
 H 2 
 
100 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 \ find his bed still warm ?' So also was the splitting 
 of the moon ridiculed. ' Why/ said His Majesty, 
 lifting up one foot, ' it is really impossible for me to 
 lift up the other foot ! What silly stories men will 
 believe.' And that wretch (Bir Bar) and some other 
 wretches — whose names be forgotten — said, ' Yea, we 
 believe ! Yea, we trust!' This great foot-experiment 
 was repeated over and over again. But FathuUah — 
 His Majesty had been every moment looking at him, 
 because he wanted him to say something ; for he was 
 a new-comer — looked straight before himself, and did 
 not utter a syllable, though he was all ear. 
 
 Lastly, a few passages from the Dabistan. 
 
 Salamullah also said that God's Representative 
 (Akbar) had often wept and said, * O that my body 
 were larger than all bodies together, so that the 
 people of the world could feed on it without hurting 
 other living animals ! ' 
 
 A sign of the sagacity of this king is this, that he 
 employed in his service people of all .classes, Jews, 
 Persians, Turanis, &c., because one class of people, if 
 employed to the exclusion of others, would cause re- 
 bellions, as in the case of the Uzbaks and Qizilbashes 
 (Persians), who used to dethrone their kings. Hence 
 Shah 'Abbas, son of Sultan Khudabandah i f afawi, 
 imitated the practice of Akbar, and favoured the 
 Gurji's (Georgians). Akbar paid likewise no regard 
 to hereditary power, or genealogy and fame, but 
 favoured those whom he thought to excel in know- 
 ledge and manners. 
 
SECOND LECTURE. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 
 FEBRUARY 26, 187O. 
 
 'T^^HERE Is no lack of materials for the 
 student of the Science of Religion. It 
 is true that, compared with the number of lan- 
 guages which the comparative philologist has 
 to deal with, the number of religions is small 
 In a comparative study of languages, however, 
 we find most of our materials ready for use ; 
 we possess grammars and dictionaries, while 
 it is difficult to say, where we are to look for 
 the grammars and dictionaries of the principal 
 religions of the world. Not in the catechisms, 
 or the articles, not even in the so-called creeds ^ 
 
 1 ( 
 
 What are creeds? Skeletons, freezing abstractions, 
 metaphysical expressions of unintelligible dogmas ; and 
 these I am to regard as the expositions of the fresh, living, 
 
102 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 or confessions of faith which, if they do not 
 give us an actual misrepresentation of the doc- 
 trines which they profess to epitomise, give us 
 always the shadow only, and never the soul 
 and substance of a religion. But how seldom 
 do we find even such helps ! 
 
 Among Eastern nations it is not unusual to 
 distinguish between religions that are founded 
 on a book, and others that have no such 
 vouchers to produce. The former are con- 
 sidered more respectable, and, though they 
 may contain false doctrine, they are looked 
 upon as a kind of aristocracy among the vulgar 
 and nondescript crowd of bookless or illiterate 
 religions. 
 
 To the student of religion canonical books 
 are, no doubt, of the utmost importance, 
 but he ought never to forget that canonical 
 books too give the reflected image only 
 of the real doctrines of the founder of a 
 new religion, an image always blurred and 
 
 infinite truth which came from Jesus! I might with equal 
 propriety be required to hear and receive the lispings of 
 infancy as the expressions of wisdom. Creeds are to the 
 Scriptures, what rushlights are to the sun.' — Dr. Channing, 
 On Creeds. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 103 
 
 distorted by the medium through which it had 
 to pass. But how few are the rehgions which 
 possess a sacred canon, how small is the aristo- 
 cracy of real book-religions in the history of the 
 world ! 
 
 Let us look at the two races that have been 
 the principal actors in that great drama which 
 we call the history of the world, the Aryan ^ 
 and the Semitic, and we shall find that two 
 members "only of each race can claim the pos- 
 sessToh^of a sacred code. Among the Aryans, 
 \K€ Hindus and the Persians ; among- "the She- 
 
 mites, the Heb reWjS^ and "the Arg^. In the 
 Aryan family the Hindus, In the Semitic family 
 the Hebrews, have each produced two book- 
 religions ; the Hindus have given rise to Bj;ai^ 
 manism and Buddhism ; the Hebrews to 
 McTsarsm and Christianity. Nay, it Is im- 
 portant to observe that in each family the third 
 book-religion can hardly lay claim to an inde- 
 pendent origin, but Is only a weaker repetition 
 of the first. Zoroastrianism has Its sources In 
 the same stratum which fed the deeper and 
 broader stream of Vedic religion ; Moham- 
 medanism springs, as far as Its most vital 
 doctrines are concerned, from the ancient foun- 
 
104 
 
 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 tain-head of the rehgion of Abraham, the wor- 
 shipper and the friend of the one true God. 
 
 If you keep before your mind the following 
 simple outline, you can see at one glance the 
 river-system in which the religious thought of 
 the Aryan and the Semitic nations has been 
 running for centuries — of those, at least, who 
 are in possession of sacred and canonical 
 books. 
 
 ARYAN FAMILY. 
 
 h 
 
 \eda 
 
 Zend Avesta 
 
 Zoroastrianism 
 
 Tripi^aka 
 
 Buddhism 
 
 TURANIAN- 
 
 SEMITIC FAMILY. 
 
 h 
 
 Old Testament 
 
 Mosaism 
 
 New Testament 
 
 Christianity 
 
 ARYAN. 
 
 Koran 
 
 Mohammedanism 
 
 While Buddhism is the direct offspring, and, 
 at the same time, the antagonist of Brah- 
 manism, Zoroastrianism is rather a deviation 
 from the straight course of ancient Vedic faith, 
 though it likewise contains a protest against 
 some of the doctrines of the earliest worship- 
 
Lectures en the Scienee of Religion. 105 
 
 pers of the Vedic gods. The same, or nearly 
 the same relationship holds- together the three 
 principal religions of the Semitic stock, only 
 that, chronologically, Mohammedanism is later 
 than Christianity, while Zoroastrianism is earlier 
 than Buddhism. 
 
 Observe also another, and, as we shall see, by 
 no means accidental coincidence in the parallel 
 ramifications of these two religious stems. 
 
 Buddhism, which is the offspring of, but at 
 the same time marks a reaction against the 
 ancient Brahmanism of India, withered away 
 after a time on the soil from which it had 
 sprung, and assumed its real importance only 
 after it had been transplanted from India, and 
 struck root among Turanian nations in the 
 very centre of the Asiatic continent. Buddh- 
 ism, being at its birth an Aryan religion, ended 
 by becoming the principal religion of the Tura- 
 nian world. 
 
 The same transference took place in the 
 second stem. Christianity, being the offspring 
 of Mosaism, was rejected by the Jews as 
 Buddhism was by the Brahmans. It failed 
 to fulfil its purpose as a mere reform of the 
 ancient Jewish religion, and not till it had been 
 
io6 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 transferred from Semitic to Aryan ground, from 
 the Jews to the Gentiles, did it develope its 
 real nature and assume its world-wide import- 
 ance. Having been at its birth a Semitic 
 religion, it became the principal religion of the 
 Aryan world. 
 
 There is one other nation only, outside the 
 
 pale of the Aryan and Semitic families, whic4^- 
 can claim one, or even two book-religions as 
 jts own. China became the mother, at almost 
 the same time, of two religions, each founded 
 on a sacred code — the religion of Confucius, 
 (Kung Fu-tze, i. e. Kung, the Master,) and the 
 rehorion of Lao-tse, the former resting: on the 
 Five King and the Four Shu, the latter on the 
 Tao-te-king. 
 
 With these eight religions the library of the 
 Sacred Books of the whole human race is com- 
 plete, and an accurate study of these eight 
 codes, written in Sanskrit, PMi, and Zend, in 
 Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic, lastly in Chinese, 
 might in itself not seem too formidable an 
 undertaking for a single scholar. Yet, let us 
 begin at home, and look at the enormous 
 literature devoted to the interpretation of the 
 Old Testament, and the dumber of books pub- 
 
Lectiires on the Science of Religion. 107 
 
 lished every year on controverted points in the 
 doctrine or the history of the Gospels, and you 
 may then form an Idea of what a theological 
 library would be that should contain the neces- 
 sary materials for an accurate and scholar-like 
 interpretation of the eight sacred codes. Even 
 in so modern, and, In the beginning, at least, so 
 illiterate a religion as that of Mohammed, the 
 sources that have to be consulted for the his- 
 tory of the faith during the early centuries of its 
 growth are so abundant, that few critical scholars 
 could master them in their completeness ^ 
 
 If we turn our eyes to the Aryan religions, 
 the sacred writings of the Brahmans, in the 
 narrowest acceptation of the word, might seem 
 within easy grasp. The hymns of the Rlg- 
 
 ^ Sprenger, Das Leben des Mohammed, vol. i. p. 9 : — 
 ' Die Quellen, die ich benutzt habe, sind so zahlreich, mid 
 der Zustand der Gelehrsamkeit war unter den Moslimen in 
 ihrer Urzeit von dem unsrigen so verschieden, dass die 
 INIaterialien, die ich iiber die Quellen gesammelt habe, ein 
 ziemlich beleibtes Biindchen bilden werden. Es ist in der 
 That nothwendig, die Literaturgeschichte des Islam der 
 ersten zwei Jahrhunderte zu schreiben, mn den Leser in den 
 Stand zu setzen, den hier gesammelten kritischen Apparat zu 
 benutzen. Ich gedenke die Resultate meiner Forschungen 
 als ein separates Werkchen nach der Prophetenbiographie 
 herauszugeben.' 
 
io8 Lechtres on the Science of Religion. 
 
 veda, which are the real bible of the ancient 
 faith of the Vedic Rishis, are only 1,028 in num- 
 ber, consisting- of about 10,580 verses \ The 
 commentary, however, on these hymns, of 
 which I have published five good-sized quarto 
 volumes, is estimated at 100,000 lines, consist- 
 ing of 32 syllables each, that is at 3,200,000 
 syllables^ There are, besides, the three minor 
 Vedas, the Ya^urveda, the Samaveda, the 
 Atharvaveda, which, though of less import- 
 ance for religious doctrines, are indispensable 
 for a right appreciation of the sacrificial and 
 ceremonial system of the worshippers of the 
 ancient Vedic gfods. 
 
 To each of these four Vedas belong col- 
 lections of so-called Brdhmanas, scholastic 
 treatises of a later time, it is true, but never- 
 theless written in archaic Sanskrit, and reck- 
 oned by every orthodox Hindu as part of his 
 revealed literature. Their bulk is*much larger 
 than that of the ancient Vedic hymn-books. 
 
 And all this constitutes the text only for 
 numberless treatises, essays, manuals, glosses, 
 
 ^ Max Miiller, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, 
 p. 220. 
 
 See Table, p. 109. 
 
 2 
 
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 I 
 
 c 
 
 rt C >. . 
 
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 o o^.B 
 
 
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 ci 
 
 here is a 
 mentary 
 Brahma; 
 hara-sva 
 
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 H 
 
 
 S «,*^ 
 
 " ri o 
 
 
 (/3 rt'o 
 
 
 
 
 <rf _c 
 
 fisl 
 
 «gs. 
 
 
 •^ '*: !=i ^, 
 
 > <c^ . 
 
 
 
 adha 
 Vidy 
 othei 
 life. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 o o 
 
 o o o 
 
 o o 
 
 o o 
 
 o o ' " 
 
 o o 
 
 S A&" 
 
 o o 
 
 o o o 
 
 o o 
 
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 o o 
 
 2 2 
 
 <d;.h Srt 
 
 o o 
 
 
 
 
 
 o o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 o o" 
 
 <S ITS O 
 
 CM irj 
 
 O lO 
 
 vo irj 
 
 o o 
 
 o <^ 
 
 - M vo 
 
 M in 
 
 ro M 
 
 
 00 <S 
 
 5i5 
 
 > <7i 
 ■TJ r 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 
 
 OO 
 
 .ti § a .ti a 
 
 ^ o 
 
 
 OO 
 
 .#a' 
 
 OO 
 
 > > 
 
 
 OO 
 
 
 OO 
 
 'N 
 
 
 S rt = B 
 
 1)^ rt = 
 
 m 
 
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 5 q' = 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 r£3 ^ 
 
 ^8 
 
 !- O 
 
 P3 rrT 
 
 op 
 
 rt o 
 
 O, ON 
 
 ><1 
 
 I/) 
 
 II 
 
 as 
 
 o 
 
no Led tires on the Seie?ice of Religion. 
 
 &c., forming an uninterrupted chain of theo- 
 logical literature, extending over more than 
 three thousand years, and receiving new links 
 even at the present time. There are, besides, 
 the inevitable parasites of theological litera- 
 ture, the controversial writings of different 
 schools of thought and faith, all claiming to 
 be orthodox, yet differing from each other 
 like day and night ; and lastly, the composi- 
 tions of writers, professedly at variance with 
 the opinions of the majority, declared enemies 
 of the Brahmanic faith and the Brahmanic 
 priesthood, whose accusations and insinuations, 
 whose sledge-hammers of argument, and whose 
 poisoned arrows of invective need fear no com- 
 parison with the weapons of theological warfare 
 in any other country. 
 
 Nor can we exclude the sacred law-books, 
 nor the ancient epic poems, the Mahabharata 
 and Ramaya;^a, nor the more modern, yet 
 sacred literature of India, the Pura/^as and 
 Tantras, if we wish to^ gain an insight into 
 the religious belief of millions of human beings, 
 who, though they all acknowledge the Veda as 
 their supreme authority in matters of faith, 
 are yet unable to understand one single line of 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. iii 
 
 it, and In their daily life depend entirely for 
 spiritual food on the teaching conveyed to them 
 by these more recent and more popular books. 
 
 And even then our eye would not have 
 reached many of the sacred recesses in which 
 the Hindu mind has taken refuge, either to 
 meditate on the great problems of life, or to 
 free itself from the temptations and fetters 
 of worldly existence by penances and morti- 
 fications of the most exquisite cruelty. India 
 has always been teeming with religious sects, 
 and as far as we can look back into the his- 
 tory of that marvellous country, its religious 
 life has been broken up into countless local 
 centres which it required all the ingenuity and 
 perseverance of a priestly caste to hold to- 
 gether with a semblance of dogmatic uni- 
 formity. Some of these sects may almost 
 claim the title of independent religions, as, for 
 instance, the once famous sect of the Sikhs, 
 possessing their own sacred code and their 
 own priesthood, and threatening for a time to 
 become a formidable rival of Brahmanism and 
 Mohammedanism in India. Political circum- 
 stances gave to the sect of N^nak its historical 
 prominence and more lasting fame. To the 
 
112 LechLvcs on the Science of Religion. 
 
 student of religion it is but one out of many 
 sects which took their origin in the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries, and attempted to re- 
 place the corruptions of Hinduism and Moham- 
 medanism by a purer and more spiritual wor- 
 ship. The Granth, i. e. the Volume, the sacred 
 book of the Sikhs, though tedious as a whole, 
 contains here and there treasures of really deep 
 and poetical thought : and we may soon hope 
 to have a complete translation of it by Dr. 
 Trumpp. But there are other collections of 
 religious poetry, more ancient and more ori- 
 ginal than the stanzas of Nanak ; nay, many 
 of the most beautiful verses of the Granth 
 were borrowed from these earlier authorities, 
 particularly from Kabir, the pupil of Ramanand. 
 Here there is enough to occupy the students 
 of religion : an intellectual flora of greater va- 
 riety and profuseness than even the natural 
 flora of that fertile country. 
 
 And yet we have not said a word as yet 
 of the second book-religion of India — of the 
 religion of Buddha, originally one only out of 
 numberless sects, but possessing a vitality 
 which has made its branches to overshadow 
 the largest portion of the inhabited globe. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 113 
 
 Who can say — I do not speak of European 
 scholars only, but of the most learned members 
 of the Buddhist fraternities — who can say that 
 he has read the whole of the canonical books 
 of the Buddhist Church, to say nothing of their 
 commentaries or later treatises ? The text and 
 commentaries of the Buddhist canon contain, 
 according to a statement in the Saddharma- 
 alankara\ 29,368,000 letters. Such statements 
 do not convey to our mind any very definite 
 idea, nor could any scholar vouch for their ab- 
 solute correctness. But if we consider that the 
 English Bible is said to contain about three 
 millions and a half of letters ^ (and here vowels 
 are counted separately from consonants), five 
 or six times that amount would hardly seem 
 enough as a rough estimate of the bulk of 
 the Buddhist scriptures. The Tibetan edition 
 of the Buddhist canon, consisting of two col- 
 lections, the Kanjur and Tanjur, numbers about 
 325 volumes folio, each weighing in the Pekin 
 edition from four to five pounds ^ 
 
 ^ Spence Hardy, The Legends and Theories of the 
 Buddhists, p, 66. 
 ' 3,567,180. 
 ^ Chips from a German Workshop, vol. i. p. 193. 
 
 I 
 
114 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 According to a tradition preserved by the 
 Buddhist schools of the South and of the North, 
 the sacred canon comprised originally 80,000 or 
 84,000 tracts, but most of them were lost, so 
 that there remained but 6,000 ^ 
 
 Apparently within a smaller compass lies the 
 sacred literature of the third of the Aryan 
 book-religions, the so-called Zend-Avesta. But 
 here the very scantiness of the ancient text in- 
 creases the difficulty of its successful interpre- 
 tation, and the absence of native commentaries 
 has thrown nearly the whole burden of de- 
 ciphering on the patience and ingenuity of 
 European scholars. 
 
 If lastly we turn to China, we find that the 
 religion of Confucius is founded on the Five 
 Kinof and the Four Shu — books in themselves 
 of considerable extent, and surrounded by 
 voluminous commentaries, without which even 
 the most learned scholars would not venture 
 to fathom the depth of their sacred canon 2. 
 
 Lao-tse, the contemporary or rather the 
 
 1 See Burnouf, Introduction a Thistoire du Buddhisme 
 indien, p. 37. 
 
 2 The Chinese Classics, with a Translation, Notes, Prole- 
 gomena, and Indexes. By James Legge, D. D. 7 vols. 
 London : Triibner & Co. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 115 
 
 senior of Confucius, is reported to have written 
 a large number of books ^: no less than 930 
 on different questions of faith, morality, and 
 worship, and 70 on m.agic. His principal work, 
 however, the Tao-te-king, which represents the 
 real scripture of his followers, the Tao-sse, con- 
 sists only of about 5,000 words ^, and fills no 
 more than thirty pages. But here again we 
 find that for that very reason the text is un- 
 intelligible without copious commentaries, so 
 that M. Julien had to consult more than sixty 
 commentators for the purpose of his transla- 
 tion, the earliest going back as far as the year 
 163 B.C. 
 
 There is a third established religion in China, 
 that of Fo ; but Fo is only the Chinese cor- 
 ruption of Buddha, and though the religion 
 of Buddha, as transferred from India to China, 
 has assumed a peculiar character and produced 
 an enormous literature of its own, yet Chinese 
 
 ^ Stan. Julien, Tao te king, p. xxvii. 
 
 2 Ibid. pp. xxxi. XXXV. The texts vary from 5,610, 5,630, 
 5,688 to 5,722 words. The text published by M. Stan. Julien 
 consists of 5,320 words. A new translation of the Tao-te- 
 king has been published at Leipzig by Dr. Victor von 
 Strauss, 1870. 
 
 I 2 
 
ii6 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 Buddhism cannot be called an independent re- 
 ligion, any more than Buddhism in Ceylon, 
 Burmah, and Slam, or In Nepaul, Tibet, and 
 Mongolia. 
 
 But after we have collected this library of 
 the sacred books of the world, with their in- 
 dispensable commentaries, are we then in pos- 
 session of the requisite materials for studying 
 the growth and decay of the religious convic- 
 tions of mankind at large ? Far from it. The 
 largest portion of mankind, — ay, and some of 
 the most valiant champions in the religious 
 and intellectual struggles of the world, would 
 be unrepresented in our theological library. 
 Think only of the Greeks and the Romans; 
 think of the Teutonic, the Celtic and Slavonic 
 nations ! Where are we to gain an insight into 
 what we may call their real religious convic- 
 tions, previous to the comparatively recent 
 period when their ancient temples were levelled 
 to the ground to make room for new cathe- 
 drals, and their sacred oaks were felled to 
 be changed Into crosses, planted along every 
 mountain pass and forest lane ? Homer and 
 Hesiod do not tell us what was the religion, 
 the real heart-religion, of the Greeks, nor were 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 117 
 
 their own poems ever considered as sacred, 
 or even as authoritative and binding, by the 
 highest intellects among the Greeks. In Rome 
 we have not even an Iliad or Odyssey ; and 
 when we ask for the religious worship of the 
 Teutonic, the Celtic, or the Slavonic tribes, 
 the very names of many of the deities in 
 whom they believed are forgotten and lost for 
 ever, and the scattered notices of their faith 
 have to be picked up and put together like 
 the small stones of a broken mosaic that once 
 formed the pavement in the ruined temples 
 of Rome. 
 
 The same gaps, the same want of repre- 
 sentative authorities, which we witness among 
 the Aryan, we meet again among the Semitic 
 nations, as soon as we step out of the circle 
 of their book-religions. The Babylonians, the 
 Phenicians and Carthaginians, the Arabs before 
 their conversion to Mohammedanism, all are 
 without canonical books, and a knowledge of 
 their religion has to be gathered, as well as 
 may be, from monuments, inscriptions, tra- 
 ditions, from proper names, from proverbs, 
 from curses, and other stray notices which 
 require the greatest care before they can be 
 
Ii8 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 properly sifted and successfully fitted to- 
 gether. 
 
 But now let us go on further. The two 
 beds in which the stream of Aryan and Semitic 
 thought has been rolling on for centuries from 
 south-east to north-west, from the Indus to the 
 Thames, from the Euphrates to the Jordan and 
 the Mediterranean, cover but a narrow tract 
 of country compared with the vastness of our 
 globe. As we rise higher, our horizon expands 
 on every side, and wherever there are traces 
 of human life, there are traces also of religion. 
 Along the shores of the ancient Nile we see 
 still standing the Pyramids, and the ruins of 
 temples and labyrinths, their walls covered 
 with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and with the 
 strange pictures of gods and goddesses. On 
 rolls of papyrus, which seem to defy the 
 ravages of time, we have even fragments of 
 what may be called the sacred books of the 
 Egyptians. Yet though much has been de- 
 ciphered in the ancient records of that mys- 
 terious race, the main spring of the religion 
 of Egypt and the original intention of its 
 ceremonial worship are far from being, fully 
 disclosed to us. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 119 
 
 As we follow the sacred stream to its distant 
 sources, the whole continent of Africa opens 
 before us, and wherever we now see kraals 
 and cattle-pens, depend upon it there was to 
 be seen once, as there is to be seen even 
 now, the smoke of sacrifices rising up from 
 earth to heaven. The ancient relics of African 
 faith are rapidly disappearing ; but what has 
 been preserved is full of interest to the student 
 of religion with its strange worship of snakes 
 and ancestors, its vague hope of a future life, 
 and its not altogether faded reminiscence of 
 a Supreme God, the Father of the black as 
 well as of the white man \ 
 
 From the eastern coast of Africa our eye is 
 carried across the sea where, from Madagascar 
 to Hawaii, island after island stands out like 
 so many pillars of a sunken bridge that once 
 spanned the Indian and Pacific oceans. Every- 
 where, whether among the dark Papuan or the 
 yellowish Malay, or the brown Polynesian races 
 scattered on these islands, even among the 
 lowest of the low in the scale of humanity, 
 
 ^ Dr. Callaway, Unkulunkulu, p. 45 : 'It is as though we 
 sprang from Uthlanga; we do not know where we w^ere made. 
 We black men had the same origin as you, white men.' 
 
I30 Lectures on the Science of Religion, 
 
 there are, if we will but listen, whisperings 
 about divine beings, imaginings of a future 
 life ; there are prayers and sacrifices which, 
 even in their most degraded and degrading 
 form, still bear witness to that old and ine- 
 radicable faith that everywhere there is a God 
 to hear our prayers, if we will but call on Him, 
 and to accept our offerings, whether they are 
 offered as a ransom for sin, or as a token of 
 a grateful heart. 
 
 Still farther east the double continent of 
 America becomes visible, and in spite of the 
 unchristian vandalism of its first discoverers 
 and conquerors, there, too, we find materials 
 for the study of an ancient, and, it would seem, 
 independent faith. Unfortunately, the religious 
 and mythological traditions collected by the 
 first Europeans who came in contact with the 
 natives of America, reach back but a short 
 distance beyond the time when they were 
 written down, and they seem in several cases 
 to reflect the thoughts of the Spanish listeners 
 as much as those of the native narrators. The 
 quaint hieroglyphic manuscripts of Mexico and 
 Guatemala have as yet told us very little, and 
 the accounts written by natives in their native 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. \%\ 
 
 language have to be used with great caution. 
 Still the ancient religion of the Aztecs of 
 Mexico aad of the Incas of Peru is full of 
 interestiftg problems. As we advance towards 
 the north and its red-skinned inhabitants our 
 information becomes more meagre still, and 
 after what happened some years ago, no Livre 
 des Saiivages is likely to come to our assistance 
 again. Yet there are wild and home-grown 
 specimens of religious faith to be studied even 
 now among the receding and gradually perish- 
 ing tribes of the Red Indians, and, in their 
 languages as well as in their religions, traces 
 may possibly still be found, before it is too 
 late, of pre-historic migrations of men from 
 the primitive Asiatic to the American con- 
 tinent, either across the stepping-stones of the 
 Aleutic bridge in the north, or lower south 
 by drifting with favourable winds from island 
 to island, till the hardy canoe was landed or 
 wrecked on the American coast, never to 
 return again to the Asiatic home from which 
 it had started. 
 
 And when in our religious survey we finally 
 come back again to the Asiatic continent, we 
 find here too, although nearly the whole of its 
 
122 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 area is now occupied by one or the other of 
 the eight book-reHgions, by Mosaism, Christi- 
 anity, and Mohammedanism, by Brahmanism, 
 Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, and m China 
 by the reHgions of Confucius and Lao-tse, that 
 nevertheless partly below the surface, and in 
 some places still on the surface, more primitive 
 forms of worship have maintained themselves. 
 1 mean the Shamanism of the Mongolian race, 
 and the beautiful half- Homeric mythology of 
 the Finnish and Esthonian tribes. 
 
 And now that I have displayed this world- 
 wide panorama before your eyes, you will share, 
 I think, the feeling of dismay with which the 
 student of the science of religion looks around, 
 and asks himself where to begin and how to 
 proceed. That there are materials in abun- 
 dance, capable of scientific treatment, no one 
 would venture to deny. But how are they to 
 be held together ? How are we to discover 
 what all these religions share in common } 
 How they differ ? How they rise and how 
 they decline ? What they are and what they 
 mean ? 
 
 Let us take the old saying, Divide et i^npe^^ay 
 and translate it somewhat freely by ' Classify 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 123 
 
 and conquer,' and I believe we shall then lay 
 hold of the old thread of Ariadne which has 
 led the students of many a science through 
 darker labyrinths even than the labyrinth of 
 the religions of the world. All jreal^science 
 rests on classification^ and only in case we can- 
 not succeed in classifying the various dialects 
 of faith, shall we have to confess that a science 
 of religion is really an impossibility. If the 
 ground before us has once been properly sur- 
 veyed and carefully parcelled out, each scholar 
 may then cultivate his own glebe, without 
 wasting his energies, and without losing sight 
 of the general purposes to which all special 
 researches must be subservient. 
 
 How, then, is the vast domain of religion 
 to be parcelled out ? How are religions to 
 be classified, or, we ought rather to ask first, 
 how have they been classified before now ? 
 The simplest classification, and one which we 
 find adopted in almost every country, is that 
 into true and false religions. It is very much 
 like the first classification of languages into 
 one's own language and the languages of the 
 rest of the world ; as the Greeks would say, 
 into the languages of the Greeks and the 
 
124 Lectures on the Science of Religion, 
 
 Barbarians ; or, as the Jews would say, into the 
 languages of the Jews and the Gentiles ; or, 
 as the Hindus would say, into the languages 
 of the Aryas and Mle/W^as ; or, as the Chinese 
 would say, into the languages of the Middle 
 Empire and that of the Outer Barbarians. 
 I need not say why that sort of classification 
 is useless for scientific purposes. 
 
 There is another classification, apparently of 
 a more scientific character, but if examined 
 more closely, equally worthless to the student 
 of religion. I mean the well-known division 
 into revealed. 2.VLd. natural religions. 
 
 o 
 
 I have first to say a few words on the 
 meaning attached to natural religion. That 
 word is constantly used in very dififerent ac- 
 ceptations. It is applied by several writers 
 to certain historical forms of religion, which are 
 looked upon as not resting on the authority of 
 revelation, in whatever sense that word may be 
 hereafter interpreted. Thus Buddhism would 
 be a natural religion in the eyes of the Brah- 
 mans, Brahmanism would be a natural religion 
 in the eyes of the Mohammedans. With us, 
 all religions except Christianity and, though in 
 a lesser degree, Mosaism, would be classed as 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 125 
 
 merely natural ; and though natural does not 
 imply false, yet it distinctly implies the absence 
 of any sanction beyond the sense of truth, or 
 the voice of conscience that is within us. 
 
 But Natural Religion is also used in a very 
 different sense, particularly by the philosophers 
 of the last century. When people began to 
 subject the principal historical religions to a 
 critical analysis, they found that after removing 
 what was peculiar to each, there remained cer- 
 tain principles which they all shared in common. 
 These were supposed to be the principles of 
 Natural Religion. 
 
 Again^ when everything that seemed super- 
 natural, miraculous, and irrational, had been 
 removed from the pages of the New Testa- 
 ment, there still remained a kind of skeleton 
 of religion, and this too was passed off under 
 the name of Natural Religion. 
 
 During the last century, philosophers who 
 were opposing the spread of scepticism and 
 infidelity, thought that this kind of natural, or, 
 as it was also called, rational religion, might 
 serve as a breakwater against utter unbelief; — 
 but their endeavours led to no result. When 
 Diderot said that all revealed religions were 
 
126 LecttLves on the Science of Religion. 
 
 the heresies of Natural ReHgion, he meant by 
 Natural Religion a body of truths implanted 
 in human nature, to be discovered by the eye 
 of reason alone, and independent of any such 
 historical or local influences as give to each reli- 
 gion its peculiar character and individual aspect. 
 The existence of a deity, the nature of his 
 attributes, such as Omnipotence, Omniscience, 
 Omnipresence, Eternity, Self-existence, Spiritu- 
 ality, the Goodness also of the Deity, and, 
 connected with it, the admission of a distinction 
 between Good and Evil, between Virtue and 
 Vice, all this, and according to some writers, 
 the Unity and Personality also of the Deity, 
 were included in the domain of Natural Reli- 
 gion. The scientific treatment of this so-called 
 Natural Religion received the name of Natural 
 Theology, a title rendered famous in the begin- 
 ning of our century by the much praised and 
 much abused work of Paley. 
 
 Natural Religion corresponds in the science 
 of religion to what in the science of language 
 used to be called Grammaii^e generale, a col- 
 lection of fundamental rules which are supposed 
 to be self-evident, and indispensable in every 
 grammar, but which, strange to say, never exist 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 127 
 
 in their purity and completeness in any lan- 
 guage that is or ever has been spoken by 
 human beings. It is the same with religion. 
 There never has been any real religion, con- 
 sisting exclusively of the pure and simple tenets 
 of Natural Religion, though there have been 
 certain philosophers who brought themselves to ' 
 believe that their religion was entirely rational, 
 was, in fact, pure and simple Deism. 
 
 If we speak, therefore, of a classification of 
 all historical relictions into revealed and natural, 
 what is meant by natural is simply the negation 
 of revealed, and if we tried to carry out the 
 classification practically, we should find the 
 same result as before. We should have on one 
 side Christianity alone, or, according to some 
 theologians, Christianity and Judaism ; on the 
 other, all the remaining, religions of the world. 
 
 This classification, therefore, whatever may 
 be its practical value, is perfectly useless for 
 scientific purposes. A more extended study 
 shows us very soon that the claim of revelation 
 is set up by the founders, or if not by them, at 
 all events by the later preachers and advocates 
 of most religions ; and would therefore be de- 
 clined by all but ourselves as a distinguishing 
 
128 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 feature of Christianity and Judaism. We shall 
 see, in fact, that the claims to a revealed au- 
 thority are urged far more strongly and elabo- 
 rately by the believers in the Veda, than by 
 the apologetical theologians among the Jews 
 and Christians. Even Buddha, originally the 
 most thoroughly human and self-dependent 
 among the founders of religion, is by a strange 
 kind of inconsistency represented, in later con- 
 troversial writings, as in possession of revealed 
 truth ^ He himself could not, like Numa or 
 Zoroaster, or Mohammed ^ claim communica- 
 tion with higher spirits ; still less could he, like 
 the poets of the Veda, speak of divine inspi- 
 rations and god-given utterances : for accord- 
 ing to him there was none among the spirits 
 greater or wiser than himself, and the gods of 
 the Veda had become^ his servants and wor- 
 shippers. Buddha himself appeals only to what 
 we should call the inner light I When he de- 
 livered for the first time the four fundamental 
 
 ^ History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, by Max Miiller, 
 p. 83. 
 
 '^ Sprenger, Mohammed, vol. ii. p. 426. 
 
 ^ Gogerly, The Evidences and Doctrines of Christian 
 Religion. Colombo, 1862. Part I. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 129 
 
 doctrines of his system, he said, ' Mendicants, 
 for the attainment of these previously unknown 
 doctrines, the eye, the knowledge, the wisdom, 
 the clear perception, the light were developed 
 within me/ He was called Sarva^/ia or omni- 
 scient by his earliest pupils ; but when in later 
 times, it was seen that on several points Buddha 
 had but spoken the language of his age, and 
 had shared the errors current among his con- 
 temporaries with regard to the shape of the 
 earth and the movement of the heavenly 
 bodies, an important concession was made by 
 Buddhist theologians. They limited the mean- 
 ing of the word ' omniscient,' as applied to 
 Buddha, to a knowledge of the principal doc- 
 trines of his system, and concerning these, but 
 these only, they declared him to have been in- 
 fallible. This may seem to be a late, and 
 almost modern view, but whether modern or 
 ancient, it certainly reflects great credit on the 
 Buddhist theologians. In the Milinda Prama, 
 however, which is a canonical book, we see that 
 the same idea was already rising in the mind of 
 the great Nagasena. Being asked by King 
 Milinda whether Buddha is omniscient, he re- 
 plies : ' Yes, Great King, the blessed Buddha is 
 
 K 
 
130 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 omniscient. But Buddha does not at all times 
 exercise his omniscience. By meditation he 
 knows all things ; meditating he knows every- 
 thing he desires to know.' In this reply a 
 distinction is evidently intended between sub- 
 jects that may be known by sense and reason, 
 and subjects that can be known by meditation 
 only. Within the domain of sense and reason, 
 Nagasena does not claim omniscience or in- 
 fallibility for Buddha, but he claims for him 
 both omniscience and infallibility in all that is 
 to be perceived by meditation only, or, as we 
 should say, in matters of faiths 
 
 I shall have to explain to you hereafter the 
 extraordinary contrivances by which the Brah- 
 
 ^ Galileo, in his letter to Ruinieri, writes : ' I said that I 
 thought that in the Bible there were expressions in confor- 
 mity with that which was anciently believed regarding astro- 
 nomical science, and that of this nature might be the test 
 
 brought against me, viz. Joshua x. 12, 13 I got no 
 
 answer but a shrug of the shoulder At length I was 
 
 compelled, as a true Catholic, to retract my opinion, and as 
 a punishment my " Dialogue " was prohibited ; and, after 
 five months, I was dismissed from Rome (at the time when 
 the plague infected Florence), and for a prison the house of 
 the dearest friend that I had in Siena, the Archbishop Picco- 
 lomini, was prescribed to me with generous kindness.' 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion, 131 
 
 mans endeavoured to eliminate every human 
 element from the hymns of the Veda, and to 
 establish, not only the revealed, but the pre- 
 historic or even ante-mundane character of 
 their scriptures. No apologetic writings have 
 ever carried the theory of revelation to greater 
 extremes. 
 
 In the present stage of our inquiries, all that 
 I wish to point out is this, — that when the 
 founders or defenders of nearly all the reli- 
 gions of the world appeal to some kind of 
 revelation in support of the truth of their doc- 
 trines, it could answer no useful purpose were 
 we to attempt any classification on such dis- 
 puted ground. Whether the claim of a natural 
 or preternatural revelation, put forward by 
 nearly all religions, is well founded or not, is 
 not the question at present. It falls to the pro- 
 vince of Theoretic Theology to explain the 
 true meaning of revelation, for few words have 
 been used so vaguely and in so many different 
 senses. It falls to its province to explain, not 
 only how the veil was withdrawn that inter- 
 cepted for a time the rays of divine truth, but, 
 what is a far more difficult problem, how there 
 could ever have been a veil between truth and 
 
 K 2 
 
132 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 the seeker of truth, between the adoring heart 
 and the object of the highest adoration, be- 
 tween the Father and his children. 
 
 In Comparative Theology our task is differ- 
 ent : we have simply to deal with the facts 
 such as we find them. If people regard their 
 religion as revealed, it is to them a revealed 
 religion, and has to be treated as such by an 
 impartial historian. We cannot determine a 
 question by adopting, without discussion, the 
 claims of one party, and ignoring those of the 
 other. 
 
 But this principle of classification into re- 
 vealed and natural religions appears still more 
 faulty, when we look at it from another point 
 of view. Even if we granted that all religions, 
 except Christianity and Mosaism, derived their 
 origin from those faculties of the mind only 
 which, according to Paley, are sufficient by 
 themselves for calling into life the fundamental 
 tenets of what we explained before as natural 
 religion, the classification of Christianity and 
 Judaism on one side as revealed, and of the 
 other religions as natural, would still be de- 
 fective, for the simple reason that no religion, 
 though founded on revelation, can ever be 
 
 I 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion, 133 
 
 entirely separated from natural religion. The 
 tenets of natural religion, though they never 
 constituted by themselves a real historical re- 
 ligion, supply the only ground on which even 
 revealed religions can stand, the only soil where 
 they can strike root, and from which they can 
 receive nourishment and life. If we took away 
 that soil, or if we supposed that it, too, had to 
 be supplied by revelation, we should not only 
 run counter to the letter and spirit of the Old 
 and the New Testament, but we should degrade 
 revealed religion by changing it into a mere 
 formula, to be accepted by a recipient incapable 
 of questioning, weighing, and appreciating its 
 truth ; we should indeed have the germ, but 
 we should have thrown away the congenial soil 
 in which alone the germs of revealed truth can 
 live and grow. 
 
 Christianity, addressing itself not only to the 
 Jews, but also to the Gentiles, not only to the 
 ignorant, but also to the learned, not only to 
 the believer, but, in the first instance, to the 
 unbeliever, presupposed in all of them the ele- 
 ments of natural religion, and with them the 
 power of choosing between truth and untruth. 
 Thus only could St, Paul say : ' Prove all 
 
134 Lectures on the Science of Religion, 
 
 things, hold fast that which is good/ (i Thess. 
 
 V. 21.) 
 
 The same is true with regard to the Old 
 Testament. There, too, the belief in a Deity, 
 and in some at least of its indefeasible attri- 
 butes, is taken for granted, and the prophets 
 who call the wayward Jews back to the wor- 
 ship of Jehovah, appeal to them as competent 
 by the truth-testing power that is within them, 
 to choose between Jehovah and the gods of the 
 Gentiles, between truth and untruth. Re- 
 member only the important chapter in the 
 earliest history of the Jews, when Joshua 
 gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem, 
 and called for the elders of Israel, and for 
 their heads, and for their judges, and for their 
 officers ; and they presented themselves before 
 God. 
 
 ' And Joshua said unto all the people : Thus 
 saith the Lord God of Israel : Your fathers 
 dwelt on the other side of the flood in old ; 
 time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and , 
 the father of Nachor : and they served other ^ 
 gods.' 
 
 And then, after reminding them of all that jj 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 135 
 
 God has done for them, he concludes by- 
 saying : 
 
 ' Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve 
 him in sincerity and in truth ; and put away 
 the gods which your fathers served on the 
 other side of the flood, and in Egypt, and 
 serve ye the Lord. 
 
 ' And if it seem evil unto you to serve the 
 Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve ; 
 whether the gods which your fathers served 
 [ that were on the other side of the flood, or 
 the gods of the Amorites in whose lands ye 
 dwell : but as for me and my house, we will 
 serve the Lord.' 
 I In order to choose between different gods 
 I and different forms of faith, a man must pos- 
 sess the faculty of choosing, the instruments of 
 testing truth and untruth, whether revealed or 
 not : he must know that certain fundamental 
 tenets cannot be absent in any true religion, 
 and that there are doctrines against which his 
 rational or moral conscience revolts as incom- 
 patible with truth. In short, there must be the 
 foundation of religion, there must be the solid 
 rock, before it is possible to erect an altar, a 
 
136 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 temple, or a church : and if we call that foun- 
 dation natural religion, it is clear that no re- 
 vealed religion can be thought of which does 
 not rest more or less firmly on natural religion. 
 
 These difficulties have been felt distinctly 
 by some of our most learned divines, who have 
 attempted a classification of religions from their 
 own point of view. New definitions of natural 
 religion have therefore been proposed in order 
 to avoid the overlapping of the two definitions 
 of natural and revealed religion \ Natural 
 religion has, for instance, been explained as 
 the religion of nature before revelation, such 
 as may be supposed to have existed among 
 the patriarchs, or to exist still among primitive 
 people who have not yet been enlightened by 
 Christianity or debased by idolatry. 
 
 According to this view we should have to 
 distinguish not two, but three classes of reli- 
 gion : the primitive or natural, the debased or 
 idolatrous, and the revealed. But, as pointed 
 out before, the first, the so-called primitive or 
 natural religion, exists in the minds of modern 
 philosophers rather than of ancient poets and 
 
 ^ See Professor Jowett's Essay on Natural Religion, 
 p. 458. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 137 
 
 prophets. History never tells us of any race 
 with whom the simple feeling of reverence for 
 higher powers was not hidden under mytholo- 
 gical disguises. Nor would it be possible even 
 thus to separate the three classes of religion by 
 sharp and definite lines of demarcation, because 
 both the debased or idolatrous and the purified 
 or revealed religions would of necessity include 
 within themselves the elements of natural re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Nor do we diminish these difficulties in the 
 classificatory stage of our science if, in the 
 place of this simple natural religion, we admit 
 with other theologians and philosophers, a uni- 
 versal primeval revelation. This universal 
 primeval revelation is only another name for 
 natural religion, and it rests on no authority 
 but the speculations of philosophers. The 
 same class of philosophers, considering that 
 lanofuaee was too wonderful an achievement 
 for the human mind, insisted on the necessity 
 of admitting a universal primeval language, 
 revealed directly by God to man, or rather to 
 mute beings ; while the more thoughtful and 
 the more reverent among the Fathers of the 
 Church, and amono^ the founders of modern 
 
138 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 philosophy pointed out that it was more con- 
 sonant with the general working of an all-wise 
 and all-powerful Creator, that he should have 
 endowed human nature with the essential con- 
 ditions of speech, instead of presenting mute 
 beings with grammars and dictionaries ready- 
 made. Is an infant less wonderful than a 
 man ? an acorn less wonderful than an oak 
 tree ? a cell, including potentially within itself 
 all that it has to become hereafter, less won- 
 derful than all the moving creatures that have 
 life ? The same applies to religion. A uni- 
 versal primeval religion revealed direct by God 
 to man, or rather to a crowd of atheists, may, 
 to our human wisdom, seem the best solution 
 of all difficulties : but a higher wisdom speaks 
 to us from out the realities of history, and 
 teaches us, if we will but learn, that ' we have 
 all to seek the Lord, if haply we may feel after 
 him, and find him, though he be not far from 
 every one of us.' 
 
 Of the hypothesis of a universal primeval 
 revelation and all its self-created difficulties 
 we shall have to speak again : for the pre- 
 sent it must suffice if we have shown that 
 the problem of a scientific classification of 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 1 39 
 
 religions is not brought nearer to its solution 
 by the additional assumption of another purely 
 hypothetical class. 
 
 Another apparently more scientific classifi- 
 cation is that into national and individual 
 religions, the former comprehending religions 
 the^'founders of which are unknown to us as 
 they were to those who believed in them ; the 
 latter comprehending religious systems which 
 bear the names of those by whom they were 
 supposed to have been originally planned or 
 established. To the former class, speakmg 
 only of the religions with which we are most 
 familiar, belong those of the ancient Brahmans, 
 the Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Slaves, and 
 Celts ; to the latter those of Moses, Zoroaster, 
 Buddha, Confucius, Lao-tse, Christ, and Mo- 
 hammed. ' y A 
 This division, however, though easily applied 
 in a general way, and useful for certain pur- 
 poses, fails us as soon as we attempt to apply 
 it in a more critical spirit. It is quite true that 
 neither a Brahman, nor a Greek, nor a Roman 
 would have known what to answer when asked, 
 who was the founder of his religion, who first 
 declared the existence of Indra, Zeus, or Jupiter; 
 
140 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 but the student of antiquity can still discover in 
 the various forms which the ancient Aryan wor- 
 ship has assumed in India, Greece, and Italy, 
 the influence of individual minds or schools or 
 climates. If, on the other hand, we ask the 
 founders of so-called individual religions, whe- 
 ther their doctrine is a new one, whether they 
 preach a new God, we almost always receive a 
 negative answer. Confucius emphatically asserts 
 that he was a transmitter, not a maker ; Buddha 
 delights in representing himself as a mere link 
 in a long chain of enlightened teachers ; Christ 
 declares that he came to fulfil, not to destroy 
 the Law or the Prophets; and even Mo- 
 hammed insisted on tracing his faith back to 
 Ibrahym, i. e. Abraham, the friend of God, 
 whom he called a Moslim, and not a Jew or 
 Christian, (Koran iii. 60,) and who, he main- 
 tained, had founded the temple at Mekka^. 
 To determine how much is peculiar to the 
 supposed founder of a religion, how much he 
 received from his predecessors, and how much 
 was added by his disciples, is almost impos- 
 sible ; nay, it is perfectly true that no religion 
 has ever struck root and lived, unless it found a 
 
 ^Sprenger, Mohammed, vol. iii. pp. 49, 489, 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 141 
 
 congenial soil from which to draw its strength 
 and support. 
 
 We have not finished yet. A very im- 
 portant, and, for certain purposes, very useful 
 classification has been that into polytheistic, 
 dualistic, and monotheistic religions. If reli- 
 gion rests chiefly on a belief in a Higher 
 Power, then the nature of that Higher Power 
 would seem to supply the most characteristic 
 feature by which to classify the religions of 
 the world. Nor do I deny that for certain 
 purposes such a classification has proved use- 
 ful : all I maintain is that we should thus have 
 to class together religions most heterogeneous 
 in other respects, though agreeing in the 
 number of their deities. Besides, it would 
 certainly be necessary to add two other classes 
 — the henotheistic and the atheistic, Heno- 
 theistic religions differ from polytheistic be- 
 cause, although they recognise the existence 
 of various deities, or names of deities, they 
 represent each deity as independent of all the 
 rest, as the only deity present in the mind of 
 the worshipper at the time of his worship and 
 prayer. This character is very prominent in the 
 religion of the Vedic poets. Although many 
 
142 Lectttres on the Science of Religion. 
 
 gods are invoked in different hymns, some- 
 times also in the same hymn, yet there is no 
 rule of precedence established among them ; 
 and, according to the varying aspects of nature, 
 and the varying cravings of the human heart, 
 it is sometimes Indra, the god of the blue sky, 
 sometimes Agni, the god of fire, sometimes 
 Varu;ea, the ancient god of the firmament, who 
 are praised as supreme without any suspicion 
 of rivalry, or any idea of subordination. This 
 peculiar phase of religion, this worship of single 
 gods, forms probably everywhere the first stage 
 in the growth of polytheism, and deserves 
 therefore a separate name^. 
 
 As to atheistic religions, they might seem 
 to be perfectly impossible ; and yet the fact 
 cannot be disputed away that the religion of 
 Buddha was from the beginning purely athe- 
 istic. The idea of the Godhead, after it had 
 been degraded by endless mythological absurd- 
 ities which struck and repelled the heart of 
 Buddha, was, for a time at least, entirely ex- 
 pelled from the sanctuary of the human mind : 
 
 ^ History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature by Max Miiller, 
 second edition, p. 532. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion, 143 
 
 and the highest morality that was ever taught 
 before the rise of Christianity was taught by 
 men with whom the gods had become mere 
 phantoms, and who had no altars, not even an 
 altar to the Unknown God. 
 
 It will be the object of my next lecture to 
 show that the only scientific and truly genetic 
 classification of religions is the same as the 
 classification of languages, and that, particularly 
 in the early history of the human intellect, there 
 exists the most intimate relationship between 
 language, religion, and nationality — a relation- 
 ship quite independent of those physical ele- 
 ments, the blood, the skull, or the hair, on 
 which ethnologists have attempted to found 
 their classification of the human race. 
 
THIRD LECTURE. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 
 MARCH 5, 1870. 
 
 T F we approached the reUgions of mankind 
 without any prejudices or predilections, in 
 that frame of mind in which the lover of truth 
 or the man of science ought to approach every 
 subject, I believe we should not be long before 
 recognising the natural lines of demarcation 
 which divide the whole religious world into 
 several great continents. I am speaking, of 
 course, of ancient religions only, or of the 
 earliest period in the history of religious 
 thought. In that primitive period which might 
 be called, if not prehistoric, at least purely 
 ethnic, because what we know of it consists 
 only in the general movements of nations, and 
 not in the acts of individuals, of parties, or of 
 states — in that primitive period, I say, nations 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 145 
 
 have been called languages ; and in our best 
 works on the ancient history of mankind, a 
 map of languages now takes the place of a 
 map of nations. But during the same primi- 
 tive period nations might with equal right be 
 called religions ; for there is at that time the 
 same, nay, an even more intimate, relationship 
 between religion and nationality than between 
 language and nationality. 
 
 In order clearly to explain my meaning, I 
 shall have to refer, as shortly as possible, to 
 the speculations of some German philosophers 
 on the true relation between language, religion, 
 and nationality — speculations which have as 
 yet received less attention on the part of 
 modern ethnologists than they seem to me 
 to deserve. 
 
 It was Schelling, one of the profoundest 
 thinkers of Germany, who first asked the 
 question. What makes an ethnos ? What is 
 the true origin of a people ? How did human 
 beings become a people ? And the answer 
 which he gave, though it sounded startling 
 to me when, in 1845, I listened, at Berlin, to 
 the lectures of the old philosopher, has been 
 confirmed more and more by subsequent 
 
 L 
 
T46 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 researches into the history of language and 
 religion. 
 
 To say that man is a gregarious animal, and 
 that, like swarms of bees, or herds of wild 
 elephants, men keep together instinctively, and 
 thus form themselves Into a people, is saying 
 very little. It might explain the agglomer- 
 ation of one large flock of human beings, but 
 it would never explain the formation of in- 
 dividual peoples. 
 
 Nor should we advance much towards a 
 solution of our problem, if we were told 
 that men break up into peoples as bees 
 break up into swarms, by following different 
 queens, by owing allegiance to different govern- 
 ments. Allegiance to the same government, 
 particularly in ancient times, is the result 
 rather than the cause of nationality ; while in 
 historical times, such has been the confusion 
 produced by extraneous influences, by brute 
 force, or dynastic combinations, that the na- 
 tural development of peoples has been entirely 
 arrested, and we frequently find one and the 
 same people divided by different governments, 
 and different peoples united under the same 
 ruler. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 147 
 
 Our question, What makes a people ? has 
 to be considered in reference to the most 
 ancient times. How did men form themselves 
 into a people before there were kings or shep- 
 herds of men ? Was it through community of 
 blood ? I doubt it. Community of blood pro- 
 duces families, clans, possibly races, but it does 
 not produce that higher and purely moral 
 feeling which binds men together and makes 
 them a people. 
 
 It is language and religion that make a 
 people, but religion is even a more powerful 
 agent than language. The languages of many 
 of the aboriginal inhabitants of Northern Ame- 
 rica are but dialectic varieties of one type, 
 but those who spoke these dialects have never 
 coalesced into a people. They remained mere 
 clans or wandering tribes; they never knew 
 the feeling of a nation, because they never 
 knew the feeling of worshipping the same 
 gods. The Greeks, on the contrary, though 
 speaking their strongly marked, and I doubt 
 whether mutually intelligible dialects, the i^olic, 
 the Doric, the Ionic, felt themselves at all 
 times, even when ruled by different tyrants, 
 or broken up into numerous republics, as one 
 
 L 2 
 
148 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 great Hellenic people. What was it, then, 
 that preserved in their hearts, in spite of 
 dialects, in spite of dynasties, in spite even 
 of the feuds of tribes and the jealousies of 
 states, the deep feeling of that ideal unity 
 which constitutes a people ? It was their 
 primitive religion ; it was a dim recollection of 
 the common allegiance they owed from time 
 immemorial to the great father of gods and 
 men; it was their belief in the old Zeus of 
 Dodona, the Panhellenic Zeus. 
 
 Perhaps the most signal confirmation of this 
 view that it is religion even more than lan- 
 guage which supplies the foundation of nation- 
 ality, is to be found in the history of the Jews, 
 the chosen people of God. The language of 
 the Jews differed from that of the Phenicians, 
 the Moabites, and other neighbouring tribes 
 much less than the Greek dialects differed 
 from each other. But the worship of Jehovah 
 made the Jews a peculiar people, the people 
 of Jehovah, separated by their God, though 
 not by their language, from the people of Che- 
 mosh (the Moabites i) and from the worship- 
 
 Numb, xxi. 29; Jeremiah xlviii. 7: 'And Chemosh shall 
 
Lectitres on the Science of Religion, 149 
 
 pers of Baal and Ash tore th. It was their faith 
 in Jehovah that changed the wandering tribes 
 of Israel into a nation. 
 
 ' A people,' as Schelling says, ' exists only 
 when it has determined itself with regard to 
 its mytholog)^ This mythology, therefore, 
 cannot take its origin after a national separa- 
 tion has taken place, after a people has be- 
 come a people : nor could it spring up while 
 a people was still contained as an invisible 
 part in the whole of humanity ; but its origin 
 must be referred to that very period of trans- 
 ition before a people has assumed its definite 
 existence, and when it is on the point of sepa- 
 rating and constituting itself. The same ap- 
 plies to the language of a people ; it becomes 
 definite at the same time that a people becomes 
 definite^.' 
 
 Hegel, the great rival of Schelling, arrived 
 at the same conclusion. In his Philosophy of 
 History he says : ' The idea of God constitutes 
 the general foundation of a people. Whatever 
 
 go forth into captivity, with his priests and his princes to- 
 gether.' 
 
 ^ Vorlesungen iiber Philosophic der Mythologie, vol. i. 
 p. 107 seq. ^X) 
 
150 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 is the form of a religion, the same is the form 
 of a state and its constitution : it springs from 
 religion, so much so that the Athenian and the 
 Roman states were possible only with the pecu- 
 liar heathendom of those peoples, and that even 
 now a Roman Catholic state has a different 
 genius and a different constitution from a Pro- 
 testant state. The genius of a people is a 
 definite, individual genius which becomes con- 
 scious of its individuality in different spheres : 
 in the character of its moral life, its political 
 constitution, its art, religion and science ^Z 
 
 But this is not an idea of philosophers only. 
 Historians, and, more particularly, the students 
 of the history of law, have arrived at very 
 much the same conclusion. Though to many 
 
 ^ Though these words of Hegel's were published long 
 before Schelling's lectures, they seem to me to breathe the 
 spirit of ScheUing rather than of Hegel, and it is but fair 
 therefore to state that Schelling's lectures, though not pub- 
 lished, were printed and circulated among friends twenty 
 years before they were delivered at Berlin. The question 
 of priority may seem of little importance on matters such 
 as these, but there is nevertheless much "truth in Schelling's 
 remark, that philosophy advances not so much by the 
 answers given to difficult problems, as by the starting of 
 new problems, and by asking questions which no one else 
 would think of asking. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion, 151 
 
 of them law seems naturally to be the founda- 
 tion of society, and the bond that binds a 
 nation together, those who look below the sur- 
 face have quickly perceived that law itself, at 
 least ancient law, derives its authority, its force, 
 its very life from religion. Sir H. Maine is 
 no doubt right when, in the case of the so- 
 called Laws of Manu, he rejects the idea of 
 the Deity dictating an entire code or body of 
 law, as an idea of a decidedly modern origin. 
 Yet the belief that the law-giver enjoyed some 
 closer intimacy with the Deity than ordinary 
 mortals, pervades the ancient traditions of 
 many nations. According to a well-known 
 passage in Diodorus Siculus (1. i. c. 94), the 
 Egyptians believed their laws to have been 
 communicated to Mnevis by Hermes ; the 
 Cretans held that Minos received his laws 
 from Zeus, the Lacedaemonians that Lykurgos 
 received his laws from Apollon. According 
 to the Arians, their law-giver, Zathraustes, had 
 received his laws from the Good Spirit ; ac- 
 cording to the Getae, Zamolxis received his 
 laws from the goddess Hestia; and, according 
 to the Jews, Moses received his laws from the 
 god lao. 
 
153 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 No one has pointed out more forcibly than 
 Sir H. Maine that in ancient times religion 
 as a divine influence was underlying and sup- 
 porting every relation of life and every social 
 institution. ' A supernatural presidency/ he 
 writes, ' is supposed to consecrate and keep 
 together all the cardinal institutions of those 
 early times, the state, the race, and the family ' 
 (p. 6). ' The elementary group is the family ; 
 the aggregation of families forms the gens or 
 the house. The aggregation of houses makes 
 the tribe. The aggregation of tribes consti- 
 tutes the commonwealth' (p. 128). Now the 
 family is held together by the family sacra 
 (p. 191), and so were the gens, the tribe, and 
 the commonwealth ; and strangers could only 
 be admitted to these brotherhoods by being 
 admitted to their sacra (p. 131). At a later 
 time, law breaks away from religion (p. 193), 
 but even then many traces remain to show 
 that the hearth was the first altar, the father 
 the first elder, his wife and children and slaves 
 the first congregation gathered together round 
 the sacred fire — the Hestia, the goddess of 
 the house, and in the end the goddess of the 
 people. To the present day, marriage, the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion, 153 
 
 most important of civil acts, the very founda- 
 tion of civilised life, has retained the religious 
 character which it had from the very beginning 
 of history. 
 
 Let us see now what religion really is in 
 those early ages of which we are here speak- 
 ing : I do not mean religion as a silent power, 
 working in the heart of man ; I mean religion 
 in its outward appearance, religion as some- 
 thing - outspoken, tangible, and definite, that 
 can be described and communicated to others. 
 We shall find that in that sense religion lies 
 within a very small compass. A few words, 
 recognised as names of the deity ; a few epi- 
 thets that have been raised from their material 
 meaning to a higher and more spiritual stage, 
 I mean words which expressed originally bodily 
 strength, or brightness, or purity, and which 
 gradually came to mean greatness, goodness, 
 and holiness; lastly, some more or less tech- 
 nical terms expressive of such ideas as sacrifice, 
 altar, prayer, possibly virtue and sin, body and 
 spirit — this is what constitutes the outward 
 framework of the incipient religions of an- 
 tiquity. If we look at this simple manifesta- 
 tion of religion, we see at once why religion, 
 
154 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 during those early ages of which we are here 
 speaking, may really and truly be called a 
 sacred dialect of human speech ; how at all 
 events early religion and early language are 
 most Intimately connected, religion depending 
 entirely for Its outward expression on the more 
 or less adequate resources of language. 
 
 If this dependence of early religion on lan- 
 guage is once clearly understood, It follows, 
 as a matter of course, that whatever classi- 
 fication has been found most useful In the 
 Science of Language ought to prove equally 
 useful in the Science of Religion. If there is 
 a truly genetic relationship of languages, the 
 same relationship ought to hold together the 
 religions of the world, at least the most ancient 
 religions. 
 
 Before we proceed therefore to consider the 
 proper classification of religions, it will be 
 necessary to say a few words on the present 
 state of our knowledge with regard to the 
 genetic relationship of languages. 
 
 If we confine ourselves to the Asiatic con- 
 tinent with Its important peninsula of Europe, 
 we find that in the vast desert of drifting 
 human speech three, and only three, oases 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 155 
 
 have been formed in which, before the begin- 
 ning of all history, language became perma- 
 nent and traditional, assumied in fact a new 
 character, a character totally different from the 
 original character of the floating and constantly 
 varying speech of human beings. These three^ 
 oases_of language are known by the name of 
 .Turuuicm, Semitic, 2Ci\A A ryan . I n~thes'e three 
 centres, more particularly in the Aiyan and 
 Semitic, language ceased to be natural ; its 
 growth was arrested, and it became perma- 
 nent, solid, petrified, or, if you like, historical 
 speech. I have always maintained that this 
 centralisation and traditional conservation of 
 language could only have been the result of 
 religious and political influences, and I now 
 intend to show that we really have clear 
 evidence of three ind^^en^^ent^settlemen^^ 
 religion, the Turanian, the Semitic, and the 
 Aryan, concomitantly with the three great 
 settlements of language. 
 
 Taking Chinese for what it can hardly any 
 loneer be doubted that it is, viz. the earliest 
 representative of Turanian speech, we find in 
 China an ancient colourless and unpoetical 
 relieion, a reliction we miorht almost venture 
 
t^6 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 to call monosyllabic, consisting of the worship 
 of a host of single spirits, representing the 
 sky, the sun, storms and lightning, mountains 
 and rivers, one standing by the side of the 
 other without any mutual attraction, without 
 any higher principle to hold them together. In 
 addition to this, we likewise meet In China 
 with the worship of ancestral spirits, the spirits 
 of the departed, who are supposed to retain 
 some cognisance of human affairs, and to pos- 
 sess peculiar powers which they exercise for 
 good or for evil. This double worship of 
 human and of natural spirits constitutes the 
 old popular religion of China, and it has lived 
 on to the present day, at least in the lower 
 ranks of society, though there towers above 
 it a more elevated rano^e of half rellofious and 
 half philosophical faith, a belief In two higher 
 Powers which, In the language of philosophy, 
 may mean Form and Matter, In the language 
 of Ethics, Good and Evil, but which In the 
 original language of religion and mythology 
 are represented as Heaven and Earth. 
 
 It Is true that we know the ancient popular 
 religion of China from the works of Confucius 
 only, or from even more modern sources. Rut 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 157 
 
 Confucius, though he is called the founder of a 
 new religion, was really but the new preacher of 
 an old religion. He was emphatically a trans- 
 mitter, not a maker^ He says himself, ' I^only 
 hand on ; I cannot create new things. I believe 
 in the ancients, and therefore I love them^.' 
 
 We find, secondly, the ancient worship of 
 the Semitic races, clearly marked by a number 
 of names of the Deity, which appear in the 
 polytheistic religions of the Babylonians, the 
 Phenicians, and Carthaginians, as well as in 
 the monotheistic creeds of Jews, Christians, 
 and Mohammedans. It is almost impossible 
 to characterise the religion of people so dif- 
 ferent from each other in language, in litera- 
 ture, and general civilisation, so different also 
 from themselves at different periods of their 
 history ; but if I ventured to characterise the 
 worship of all the Semitic nations by one word, 
 I should say it was pre-eminently a worship 
 of God in History, of God as affecting the 
 destinies of individuals and races and nations 
 rather than of God as wielding the powers 
 
 ^ Dr. Legge, Life of Confucius, p. 96. 
 
 2 Liin-yii (§ i. a); Schott, Chinesische Literatur, p. 7. 
 
158 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 of nature. The names of the Semitic deities 
 are mostly words expressive of moral qualities ; 
 they mean the Strong, the Exalted, the Lord, 
 the ^ King ; and they grow but seldom into 
 divine personalities, definite in their outward 
 appearance or easily to be recognised by 
 strongly marked features of a real dramatic 
 character. Hence many of the ancient Semitic 
 gods have a tendency to run together, and a 
 transition from the worship of single gods to 
 the worship of one God required no great 
 effort. In the monotonous desert, more par- 
 ticularly, the worship of single gods glided 
 away almost imperceptibly into the worship of 
 one God. If I were to add, as a distinguishing 
 mark, that the Semitic religions excluded the 
 feminine gender in their names of the Deity, 
 or that . all their female deities were only re- 
 presentatives of the active energies of older 
 and sexless gods, this would be true of some 
 only, not of all ; and it would require nearly as 
 many limitations as the statement of M. Renan, 
 that the Semitic religions were instinctively 
 monotheistic \ 
 
 ^ Semitic Monotheism, in Chips from a German Work- 
 shop, vol. i. pp. 342-380. 
 
Lectures on tJie Science of Religion. 159 
 
 We find lastly the ancient worship of the 
 Aryan race, carried to all the corners of the 
 earth by its adventurous sons, and easily re- 
 cognised, whether In the valleys of India or 
 in the forests of Germany, by the common 
 names of the Deity, all originally expressive 
 of natural powers. Their worship is not, as 
 has been so often said, a worship of nature. 
 But if it had to be characterised by one word, 
 I should venture to call it a worship of God 
 in Nahire^ of God as appearing behind the 
 gorgeous veil of Nature, rather than as hidden 
 behind the veil of the sanctuary of the human 
 heart. The gods of the Aryan pantheon as- 
 sume an individuality so strongly marked and 
 permanent, that with the Aryans, a transition 
 to monotheism required a powerful struggle, 
 and seldom took effect without iconoclastic 
 revolutions or philosophical despair. 
 
 These three classes of religion are not to 
 be mistaken, as little as the three classes of 
 language, the Turanian, the Semitic, and the 
 Aryan. They mark three events in the most 
 ancient history of the world, events which have 
 determined the whole fate of the human race, 
 and of which we ourselves still feel the con- 
 
i6o Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 sequences in our language, in our thoughts, 
 and in our reHgion. 
 
 But the chaos which these three leaders in 
 language, thought, and religion, the Turanian, 
 the Semitic, and the Aryan, left behind, was 
 not altogether a chaos. The stream of lan- 
 guage from which these three channels had 
 separated, rolled on ; the sacred fire of religion 
 from which these three altars had been lighted 
 was not extinguished, though hidden in smoke 
 and ashes. There was language and there was 
 religion everywhere in the world, but it was 
 natural, wild-growing language and religion ; it 
 had no history, it left no history, and it is 
 therefore incapable of that peculiar scientific 
 treatment which has been found applicable to 
 a study of the languages and the religions 
 of the Chinese, the Semitic, and the Aryan 
 nations. 
 
 People wonder why the students of language 
 have not succeeded in establishing more than 
 three families of speech — or rather two, for 
 the Turanian can hardly be called a family, 
 in the strict sense of that word, until it has 
 been fully proved that Chinese forms the centre 
 of the two Turanian branches, the North Tura- 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. i6i 
 
 nian on one side, and the South Turanian on 
 the other ; that Chinese ^ forms, in fact, the 
 earliest settlement of that u|isettled mass of 
 speech, which, at a later stage, became more 
 fixed and traditional, — in the north, in Tzmgusic, 
 Mongolic, Tataric, and Finnic, and in the south, 
 in Taic, Malaic, BJwtiya, and Tamulic. 
 
 The reason why scholars have discovered 
 no more than these two or three great families 
 of speech is very simple. There were no 
 more, and we cannot make more. Families 
 of languages are very peculiar formations ; they 
 are, and they must be, the exception, not the 
 rule, in the growth of language. There was 
 always the possibility, but there never was, as 
 far as I can judge, any necessity for human 
 speech leaving its primitive stage of wild 
 uTowth and wild decay. If it had not been 
 for what I consider a purely spontaneous act 
 on the part of the ancestors of the Semitic, 
 Aryan, and Turanian races, all languages might 
 for ever have remained ephemeral, answering 
 the purposes of every generation that comes 
 and goes, struggling on, now^ gaining, now 
 
 ^ M. M., Lecture on the Stratification of Language, p. 4. 
 M 
 
1 62 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 losing, sometimes acquiring a certain perma- 
 nence, but after a season breaking up again, 
 and carried away like blocks of ice by the 
 waters that rise underneath the surface. Our 
 very idea of language would then have been 
 something totally different from what It Is now. 
 
 For what are we doing ? 
 
 We first form our Idea of what language 
 ought to be from those exceptional languages 
 which were arrested in their natural growth 
 by social, religious, political, or at all events 
 by extraneous influences, and we then turn 
 round and wonder why all languages are not 
 like these two or three exceptional channels 
 of speech. We might as well wonder why all 
 animals are not domesticated, or why, besides 
 the garden anemone, there should be endless 
 varieties of the same flower growing wild on 
 the meadow and In the woods. 
 
 In the Turanian class. In which the original 
 concentration was never so powerful as In the 
 Aryan and Semitic families, we can still catch 
 a glimpse of the natural growth of language, 
 though confined within certain limits. The dif- 
 ferent settlements of this great floating mass of 
 homogeneous speech do not show such definite 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 163 
 
 narks of relationship as Hebrew and Arabic, 
 ^reek and Sanskrit, but only such sporadic 
 :oIncidences and general structural similarities 
 Ls can be explained by the admission of a 
 )rimitive concentration, followed by a new pe- 
 iod of independent growth. It would be wilful 
 )lindness not to recosfnise the definite and cha- 
 acteristic features which pervade the North 
 Furanian languages : it would be impossible to 
 explain the coincidences between Hungarian, 
 ^apponian, Esthonian, and Finnish, except on 
 he supposition that there was a very early 
 :oncentration of speech from which these dia- 
 ects branched off. We see less clearly in the 
 50uth Turanian group, though I confess my 
 ;urprise even here has always been, not that 
 here should be so few, but that there should 
 )e even these few relics, attesting a former 
 :ommunity of these divergent streams of lan- 
 j^uage. The point in which the South Tura- 
 lian and North Turanian languages meet goes 
 Dack as far as Chinese ; for that Chinese is at 
 :he root of Mandshu and Mongolian as well 
 IS of Siamese and Tibetan becomes daily more 
 ipparent through the researches of Mr. Edkins 
 ind other Chinese scholars. 
 M 2 
 
164 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 There Is no hurry for pronouncing definitely 
 on these questions : only we must not permit 
 the progress of free Inquiry to be barred by 
 dogmatic scepticism ; we must not look for 
 evidence which from the nature of the case 
 we cannot and ought not to find ; and, before 
 all things, we must not allow ourselves to be 
 persuaded that for the discovery of truth 
 blinkers are more useful than spectacles. 
 
 If we turn away from the Asiatic continent, 
 the original home of the Aryan, the Semitic, 
 and the Turanian languages, we find that In 
 Africa, too, a comparative study of dialects 
 has clearly proved a concentration of African 
 language, the results of which may be seen 
 in the uniform Banm dialects, spoken from the 
 equator to the Keiskamma\ North of this 
 body of Bantu or Kafir speech, we have an 
 independent settlement of Semitic language in 
 the Berber and the Galla dialects ; south of 
 it w^e have only the Hottentot and Bushman 
 tongues, the latter hardly analysed as yet, the 
 former supposed to be related to languages 
 
 * Bleek, Comparative Grammar of the South African Lan- 
 guages, p. 2. 
 
Lectm-es on the Science of Religion. 165 
 
 spoken in Northern Africa, from which it be- 
 :ame separated by the intrusion of the Kafir 
 tribes. Some scholars have indeed imagined 
 1 relationship between the language of the 
 Hottentots, the Nubian dialects, and the an- 
 :ient Egyptian, a language which, whatever 
 ts real relationship may be, marks at all 
 events another primeval settlement of speech 
 md religion outside the Asiatic continent. 
 
 But while the spoken languages of the 
 African continent enable us to perceive in a 
 general way the original articulation of the 
 primitive population of Africa — for there is a 
 :ontinuity in language which nothing can de- 
 stroy — we know, and can know, but little of 
 ;he growth and decay of African religion. In 
 iiany places Mohammedanism and Christianity 
 lave swept away every recollection of the an- 
 rlent gods ; and even when attempts have 
 Deen made by missionaries or travellers to 
 iescribe the religious status of Zulus or Hot- 
 :entots, they could only see the most recent 
 brms of African faith, and those were changed 
 ilmost invariably into grotesque caricatures. 
 3f ancient African religion '^e have but one 
 •ecord, viz. in the monuments of Egypt ; but 
 
1 66 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 here, in spite of the abundance of materials, 
 in spite of the ruins of temples, and number- 
 less statues and half-deciphered papyri, I must 
 confess that we have not yet come very near 
 to the beatings of the heart which once gave 
 life to all this strange and mysterious gran- 
 deur\ 
 
 What applies to Africa applies to America. 
 In the North we have the languages as wit- 
 nesses of ancient migrations, but of ancient 
 religion we have, again, hardly anything. In 
 the South we know of two linguistic and po- 
 litical centres ; and there, in Mexico and Peru, 
 we meet with curious, though not always trust- 
 worthy, traditions of an ancient and well- 
 established system of religious faith and wor- 
 ship. 
 
 The Science of Religion has this advantage 
 over the Science of Language, if advantage it 
 may be called, that in several cases where the 
 latter has materials sufficient to raise problems 
 of the highest importance, but not sufficient 
 
 ^ De Vogiie, JournaJ Asiatique, 1867, p. 136. De Rouge, 
 Sur la Religion des anciens Egyptiens, in Annales de Phi- 
 losophie chretienne, Nov. 1869. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 167 
 
 for their satisfactory solution, the former has 
 no materials at all. The ancient temples are 
 destroyed, the names of the ancient deities 
 are clean forgotten in many parts of the world 
 where dialects, however changed, still keep up 
 the tradition of the most distant a^es. 
 
 But even if it were otherwise, the students 
 of religion would, I think, do well to follow 
 the example of the students of language, 
 and to serve their first apprenticeship in a 
 comparative study of the Aryan and Semitic 
 religions. If it can be proved that the reli- 
 gions of the Aryan nations are united by the 
 same bonds of a real relationship which have 
 enabled us to treat their languages as so many 
 varieties of the same type, and If the same 
 fact can be established with reference to the 
 Semitic world, the field thus opened is vast 
 enough, and its careful clearing and cultiva- 
 tion will occupy several generations of scho- 
 lars. And this original relationship, I believe, 
 can be proved. Names of the principal deities, 
 words also expressive of the most essential 
 elements of religion, such as prayer, sacrifice, 
 altar, spirit, law, and faith, have been pre- 
 served among the Aryan and among the 
 
1 68 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 Semitic nations, and these relics admit of one 
 explanation only. After that, a comparative 
 study of the Turanian religions may be ap- 
 proached with better hope of success ; for that 
 there was not only a primitive Aryan and a 
 primitive Semitic religion, but likewise a pri- 
 mitive Turanian religion, before each of these 
 primeval races was broken up and became se- 
 parated in language, worship, and national sen- 
 timent, admits, I believe, of little doubt. 
 
 Let us begin with our own ancestors, the 
 Aryans. In a leGfure which I delivered in 
 this place some years ago, I drew a sketch 
 of what the life of the Aryans must have 
 been before their first separation, that is, be- 
 fore the time when Sanskrit was spoken in 
 India, or Greek in Asia Minor and Europe. 
 The outline of that sketch and the colours 
 with which it was filled were simply taken 
 fi'om language. We argued that it would be 
 possible, if we took all the words which exist 
 in the same form in French, Italian, and 
 Spanish, to show what words, and therefore 
 what things, must have been known to the 
 people who did not as yet speak French, 
 Italian, and Spanish, but who spoke that Ian- 
 
Lecttires on the Science of Religion. 169 
 
 guage which preceded these Romance dialects. 
 We happen to know that language : It was 
 Latin ; but If we did not know a word of 
 Latin or a single chapter of Roman history, 
 we should still be able, by using the evidence 
 of the words which are common to all the 
 Romance languages, to draw some kind of 
 picture of what the principal thoughts and 
 occupations of those people must have been 
 who lived in Italy a thousand years at least 
 before the time of Charlemagne. We could 
 easily prove that those people must have had 
 kings and laws, temples and palaces, ships and 
 carriages, high roads and bridges, and nearly 
 all the ingredients of a highly civilised life. 
 We could prove this, as I said, by simply 
 taking the names of all these things as they 
 occur In French, Spanish, and Italian, and by 
 showing that as Spanish did not borrow them 
 from French, or Italian from Spanish, they 
 must have existed in that previous stratum 
 of language from which these three modern 
 Romance dialects took their origin. 
 
 Exactly the same kind of argument enabled 
 us to put together a kind of mosaic picture of 
 the earliest civilisation of the Aryan people 
 
I/O Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 before the time of their separation. As we 
 find in Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, also in 
 Slavonic, Celtic, and Teutonic, the same word 
 for house, we are fully justified in concluding 
 that before any of these languages had as- 
 sumed a separate existence, a thousand years 
 at least before Agamemnon and before Manu, 
 the ancestors of the Aryan races were no 
 longer dwellers in tents, but builders of per- 
 manent houses \ As we find the name for 
 town the same in Sanskrit and Greek ^, we can 
 conclude with equal certainty that towns were 
 known to the Aryans before Greek and before 
 Sanskrit was spoken. As we find the name for 
 king the same in Sanskrit, Latin, Teutonic, and 
 Celtic ^, we know again that kingly government 
 was established and recognised by the Aryans 
 at the same pre-historic period. 
 
 I must not allow myself to be tempted to 
 draw the whole of that picture of primeval 
 civilisation over again ^ I only wish to call 
 
 ^ Sk. dama, h6\xos, domus, Goth, timrjan, ' to build,' SI. dom. 
 Sk. ve^a, oikos-, vicus, Goth, veih-s. 
 
 - Sk. pur, puri, or puri, Gr. TrdXt? ; Sk. vastu, ' house,' Gr. 
 
 aCTTV. 
 
 ^' Sk. Ra^, r%an, rex, Goth, reiks, Ir. riogh. 
 
 ^ See Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii. p. 22 seg. 
 
Lectu7'es on tJie Science of Religion. lyi 
 
 back to your recollection the fact that in ex- 
 ploring together the ancient archives of lan- 
 guage, we found that the highest God had 
 received the same name in the ancient mytho- 
 logy of India, Greece, Italy, and Germany, 
 and had retained that name whether wor- 
 shipped on the Himalayan mountains, or 
 among the oaks of Dodona, on the Capitol, 
 or in the forests of Germany. I pointed out 
 that his name was Dyaus in Sanskrit, Zeus in 
 Greek, Jovis in Latin, Tiit in German ; but I 
 hardly dwelt with sufficient strength on the 
 startling nature of this discovery. These 
 names are not mere names : they are histo- 
 rical facts, ay, facts more immediate, more 
 trustworthy, than many facts of medieval 
 history. These words are not mere words, 
 but they bring before us, with all the vivid- 
 ness of an event which we witnessed ourselves 
 but yesterday, the ancestors of the whole 
 Aryan race, thousands of years it may be 
 before Homer and the Veda, worshipping an 
 unseen Being, under the selfsame name, the 
 best, the most exalted name, they could find 
 in their vocabulary — under the name of Light 
 and Sky. 
 
172 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 And let us not turn away, and say that this 
 was after all but nature-worship and idolatry. 
 No, it was not meant for that, though it may 
 have been deo^raded into that in later times ; 
 Dyaus did not mean the blue sky, nor was it 
 simply the sky personified : it was meant for 
 something else. We have in the Veda the 
 invocations Dyaus pilar, the Greek Zeiy Trdrep, 
 the Latin Jupiter ; and that means in all the 
 three lanofuagfes what it meant before these 
 three languages were torn asunder — it means 
 Heaven-Father! These two words are not 
 mere words ; they are to my mind the oldest 
 poem, the oldest prayer of mankind, or at least 
 of that pure branch of it to which we belong— 
 and I am as firmly convinced that this prayer 
 was uttered, that this name was eiven to the 
 unknown God before Sanskrit was Sanskrit 
 and Greek was Greek, as, when I see the 
 Lord's Prayer in the languages of Polynesia 
 and Melanesia, I feel certain that it was first 
 uttered in the language of Jerusalem. We 
 little thought when we heard for the first time 
 the name of Jupiter, degraded it may be by 
 Homer or Ovid into a scolding husband or 
 a faithless lover, what sacred records lay en- 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 173 
 
 shrined in this unholy name. We shall have 
 to learn the same lesson again and again in 
 the Science of Religion, viz. that the place 
 whereon we stand is holy ground. Thousands 
 of years have passed since the Aryan nations 
 separated to travel to the North and the South, 
 the West and the East: they have each formed 
 their languages, they have each founded em- 
 pires and philosophies, they have each built 
 temples and razed them to the ground ; they 
 have all grown older, and it may be wiser and 
 better ; but when they search for a name for 1 
 what is most exalted and yet most dear to 
 every one of us, when they wish to express 
 both awe and love, the infinite and the finite, 
 they can but do what their old fathers did 
 when gazing up to the eternal sky, and feel- 
 ing the presence of a Being as far as far and 
 as near as near can be : they can but combine 
 the selfsame words, and utter once more the 
 primeval Aryan prayer, Heaven-Father, in that 
 form which will endure for ever, ' Our Father 
 which art in heaven.' 
 
 Let us now turn to the early religion of the 
 Semitic nations. The Semitic languages, it is 
 well know^n, are even more closely connected 
 
174 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 together than the Aryan languages, so much 
 so that a comparative grammar of the Semitic 
 languages seems to have but few of the attrac- 
 tions possessed by a comparative study of San- 
 skrit, Greek, and Latin. Semitic scholars com- 
 plain that there is no work worth doing in 
 comparing the grammars of Hebrew, Syriac, 
 Arabic, and Ethiopic, for they have only to be 
 placed side by side^ in order to show their close 
 relationship. I do not think this is quite true, 
 and I still hope that M. Renan will carry out 
 his original design, and, by including not only 
 the literary branches of the Semitic family, but 
 also the ancient dialects of Phenicia, Arabia, 
 Babylon, and Nineveh, produce a comparative 
 grammar of the Semitic languages that may 
 hold its place by the side of Bopp's great work 
 on the Comparative Grammar of the Aryan 
 Languages. 
 
 But what is. still more surprising to me is 
 that no Semitic scholar should have followed 
 the example of the Aryan scholars, and col- 
 lected from the different Semitic dialects those 
 
 ^ See Bunsen's Christianity and Mankind, vol. iii. p. 246 
 seq. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 175 
 
 common words which must have existed before 
 Hebrew was Hebrew, before Syriac was Syrlac, 
 and before Arabic was Arabic, and from which 
 some kind of idea might be formed as to what 
 were the principal thoughts and occupations of 
 the Semitic race in its earHest undivided state. 
 The materials seem much larger and much 
 more easily accessible \ The principal degrees 
 of relationship, for instance, have common 
 names among the Semitic as among the 
 Aryan nations, and if it was important to 
 show that the Aryans had named and recog- 
 nised not only the natural members of a 
 family, such as father and mother, son and 
 daughter, brother and sister, but also the more 
 distant members, the father and mother-in-law, 
 the son and daughter-in-law, the brother and 
 sister-in-law, would it not be of equal interest 
 to show that the Semitic nations had reached 
 the same degree of civilisation long before the 
 time of the laws of Moses ? 
 
 Confining ourselves to the more immedi- 
 ate object of our researches, we see without 
 
 1 See Bunsen's Christianity and Mankind, vol. iii. p. 246, 
 iv. p. 345- 
 
176 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 difficulty, that the Semitic, Hke the Aryan lan- 
 guages, possess a number of names of the 
 Deity in common, which must have existed 
 before the SoiLthei^n or Arabic, the Northe7^7i 
 or Aramaic, the Middle or Hebraic branches 
 became permanently separated, and which, 
 therefore, allow us an insight into the reli- 
 gious conceptions of the once united Semitic 
 race long before Jehovah was worshipped by 
 Abraham, or Baal was invoked in Phenicia, or 
 El in Babylon. 
 
 It is true, as I pointed out before, that the 
 meaning of many of these names is more 
 general than the original meaning of the narnes 
 of the Aryan gods. Many of them signify 
 Powe7^ful, Venerable, Exalted, King, Lord, and 
 they might seem, therefore, like honorific titles, 
 to have been given independently by the dif- 
 ferent branches of the Semitic family to the 
 gods whom they worshipped each in their own 
 sanctuaries. But if we consider how many 
 words there v/ere in the Semitic lanoruao^es to 
 
 o o 
 
 express greatness, strength, or lordship, the 
 fact that the same appellatives occur as the 
 proper names of the deity in Syria, in Car- 
 thage, in Babylon, and in Palestine, admits of 
 
Lectures on tJie Science of Religion. 177 
 
 one historical explanation only. There must 
 have been a time for the Semitic as well as 
 for the Aryan races, when they fixed the names 
 of their deities, and that time must have pre- 
 ceded the formation of their separate languages 
 and separate religions. 
 
 One of the oldest names of the deity among 
 the ancestors of the Semitic nations was El. 
 It meant Strong. It occurs in the Babylonian 
 inscriptions as Ilu, God\ and in the very name 
 of Bab-il, the gate or temple of II. In Hebrew 
 it occurs both in its general sense of strong 
 or hero, and as a name of God. We have it 
 in Beth-el, the house of God, and in many 
 other names. If used with the article as 
 ha-El, the Strong One, or the God, it always 
 is meant in the Old Testament for Jehovah, 
 the true God. El, however, always retained 
 its appellative power, and we find it applied 
 therefore, in parts of the Old Testament, to 
 the gods of the gentiles also. 
 
 The same El was worshipped at Byblus by 
 the Phenicians, and he was called there the 
 
 ^ Schrader, in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenland- 
 ischen Gesellschaft, vol. xxiii. p. 350. 
 
 N 
 
178 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 son of Heaven and Earths His father was 
 the son of Elitin, the most high God, who had 
 been killed by wild animals. The son of Eliun, 
 who succeeded him, was dethroned, and at last 
 slain by his own son El, whom Philo identifies 
 with the Greek Kronos, and represents as the 
 presiding deity of the planet Saturn l In the 
 Himyaritic inscriptions, too, the name of El has 
 been discovered ^ 
 
 With the name of El, Philo connected the 
 name of Elohtm, the plural of Eloah. In the 
 battle between El and his father, the allies 
 of El, he says, were called Elocim, as those 
 who were with Kimonos were called Kronioi^. 
 This is, no doubt, a very tempting etymology 
 of Eloah ; but as the best Semitic scholars, and 
 
 ^ Bunsen, Egypt, iv. 187. Fragmenta Hist. Grsec, vol. iii. 
 
 P- 567. 
 
 ^ Fragmenta Hist. Grsec. vol. iii. pp. 567-571. That El 
 is the presiding deity of the planet Saturn according to the 
 Chaldeans is also confirmed by Diodorus Siculus, ii. pp. 
 
 30-33- 
 
 ^ Osiander, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen 
 Gesellschaft, vol. x. p. 61. 
 
 ^ Fragmenta Hist. Graec. vol. iii. p. 568, 18. 01 U avuixaxoi 
 
 HXov tov Kpovov EXoelfx iTTeK\i]6rj(xav, ois av Kpovioi ovtul rjaau ol 
 XeyofieuoL enl Kpovov. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 179 
 
 particularly Professor Fleischer, have declared 
 against it, we shall have, however reluctantly, 
 to surrender it. 
 
 Eloah is the same word as the Arabic, Ildh, 
 God. In the singular, Eloah is used in the 
 Bible synonymously with El ; in the plural it 
 may mean gods in general, or false gods, but 
 it becomes in the Old Testament the recoo-- 
 nised name of the true God, plural in form, 
 but singular in meaning. In Arabic, Ildh, with- 
 out the article, means a God in general : with 
 the article, Al-Ilah, or Allah \ becomes the 
 name of the God of Mohammed, as it was the 
 name of the God of Abraham and of Moses. 
 
 The origin of Eloah or Ilcih has been fre- 
 quently discussed by European as well as by 
 native scholars. The Kamus says that there 
 were twenty, Mohammad El Fasi that there 
 were thirty, opinions about it. Professor 
 Fleischer 2, whose judgment in such matters 
 
 2 
 
 See a note by Professor Fleischer in Delitzsch, Com- 
 mentar iiber die Genesis, 3rd ed., t86o, p. 64; also Zeit- 
 schrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vol. x. 
 p. 60 ; and Sitzungsberichte der konigl. Sachsischen Gesell- 
 schaft der Wissenschaften, Philosoph. Hist. Classe, vol. xviii. 
 
 N 2 
 
1 80 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 we may trust implicitly, traces El, the strong 
 one, back to a root al (with middle vav, aval), 
 to be thick and dense, to be fleshy and strong. 
 But he takes EloaJi or Ilah for an abstract 
 noun, in the sense of fear, derived from a 
 totally different root, viz. alah, to be agitated, 
 confounded, perplexed. From meaning fear, 
 Eloah came to mean the object of fear or 
 reverence, and thus became a name of God. 
 In the same way we find pachad, which means 
 fear, used in the sense of God ; Gen. xxxi. 42 
 — ' Except the God of my father, the God of 
 Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been with 
 me.' And again, v. 53 — ' And Jacob sware by 
 the fear of his father Isaac' In Aramaic, 
 dachlci, fear, is the recognised name for God 
 or for an idol. 
 
 The same ancient name appears also in its 
 feminine form as Alldt^. Her famous temple 
 at Talf, in Arabia, was second only in im- 
 
 (1866), pp. 290-292. Dr. W. Wright adopts Professor 
 Fleischer's derivation; likewise Professor Kuenen in his 
 work, De Godsdienst van Israel, p. 45. 
 
 ^ Osiander, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen 
 Gesellschaft, vii. 479-482, ei>'dlf Allat, goddess, is contracted 
 from IjM\ Al-Ilahat. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 portance to the sanctuary at Mekkah, and was 
 destroyed at the command of Mohammed. 
 The worship of Alldt, however, was not con- 
 fined to this one place ; and there can be no 
 doubt that the Arabian goddess Alilat, men- 
 tioned by Herodotus \ is the same as the Allat 
 of the Kor^n. 
 
 Another famous name of the deity, traces of 
 which can be found among most of the Semitic 
 nations, is Baal, or Bel. The Assyrians and 
 Babylonians ^ the Phenicians "^ and Carthagi- 
 nians, the Moabites and Philistines, and, we 
 must add, the Jews also, -all knew of Bel or 
 Baal as a great, or even as the supreme God. 
 Baal can hardly be considered as a strange 
 and foreign god in the eyes of the Jewish 
 people, who, in spite of the protests of the 
 Hebrew prophets, worshipped him so con- 
 stantly in the groves of Jerusalem. He was 
 
 ^ Herod, iii. 8, 'Oi/OA/a^ouo-i {ol 'Apa/3toi) tqv ix€U Awvvcrou 
 'OpordX, TTjv de Oupavirjv 'AXiXar. In Herod. i. 1 3 1, 1 38, this 
 
 name is corrupted to'' Wirra. See Osiander, Zeitschrift der 
 Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, vol. ii. pp. 482, 
 
 483. 
 
 '^ Fragmenta Hist. Grsec. vol. ii. p. 498, 2. 
 ■^ Ibid. vol. iii. p. 568, 21. 
 
1 82 Lectitres on the Science of Religion. 
 
 felt by them almost as a home deity, or, at 
 all events, as a Semitic deity, and among the 
 gods whom the fathers served on the other 
 side of the flood, Bel held most likely a very 
 prominent place. Though originally one \ Baal 
 became divided into many divine personalities 
 through the influence of local worship. We 
 hear of a Baal-tsur, Baal-tsidon, Baal-tars, ori- 
 ginaUy the Baal of Tyre, of Sidon, and Tarsus. 
 On two candelabra found in the island of Malta 
 we read the Phenician dedication to ' Melkarth, 
 the Baal of Tyre.' At Shechem Baal was wor- 
 shipped as Baal-berith ^ supposed to mean the 
 god of treaties ; at Ekron the Philistines wor- 
 shipped him as Baal-zebub^, the lord of flies, 
 while the Moabites, and the Jews too, knew 
 him also by the name of Baal-peor^. On 
 Phenician coins Baal is called Baal Shamayim, 
 the Baal of heaven, which is the Beelsamen of 
 Philo, identified by him with the sun I ' When 
 
 ^ M. de Vogiie, Journal Asiatique, 1867, p. 135. 
 
 ' Judges viii. 33; ix. 4. ^ 2 Kings i. 2, 3, 16. 
 
 ^ Numbers xxv. 
 
 5 Fragmenta Hist. Graec. vol. iii. p. 565, 5. It is impos- 
 sible to change 77X101/ into ^\ov, because El or Kronos is men- 
 tioned afterwards. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 183 
 
 the heat became oppressive, the ancient races 
 of Phenicia,' he says, ' Hfted their hand heaven- 
 ward to the sun. For him they considered the 
 only God, the lord of heaven, calling him Beel- 
 samen \ which with the Phenicians is lord of 
 heaven, and with the Greeks Zeus.' We like- 
 wise hear of Baalim, or many Baals or gods. 
 And in the same way as by the side of the 
 male Ilah or Allah we found a female A Hat, 
 we also find by the side of the male Baal, a 
 female deity Baalt, the Baaltis of the Pheni- 
 cians. It may be that the original concep- 
 tion of female deities differs amone Semitic 
 and Aryan nations, and that these feminine 
 forms oi Allah and Baal were at first intended 
 only to express the energy or activity, or the 
 collective powers of the deity, not a separate 
 being, least of all a wife. This opinion ^ is 
 certainly confirmed when we see that in a 
 Carthaginian inscription the goddess Taiiit 
 is called the face of BaaP, and that in the 
 
 ^ Is this the same as Barsamus, mentioned by Moses of 
 Chorene (Hist. Arm. vol. i. p. 13) as a deified hero wor- 
 shipped by the Syrians .? Or is Barsamus the Son of Hea- 
 ven.'' See RawKnson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. i. p. 116. 
 
 ' De Vogiie, 1. c. p. 138. ^ ^y^-p^ ^f. i'S^^^S. 
 
1 84 Lectures on the Scienee of Religion. 
 
 inscription of Eshmunazar, the Sidonian Astarte 
 is called the name of Baal^. In course of 
 time, however, this abstract idea was sup- 
 planted by that of a female power, ,and even 
 a wife, and as such we find Baaltis worshipped 
 by Phenicians^, Babylonians, and Assyrians^, 
 for the name of Mylitta in Herodotus'^ is, 
 according to Dr. Oppert, a mere corruption of 
 Baaltis. 
 
 Another female goddess is Ashtoreth^di name 
 which presupposes a masculine deity. Ashlar, 
 Traces of this god or goddess have been disco- 
 vered in the Ishlar of the Babylonian inscrip- 
 tions, in a Palmyrene inscription, and in the 
 Ashtar of the Moabite stone. The female deity, 
 however, became predominant, and was wor- 
 shipped, not only by Carthaginians, Phenicians, 
 and Philistines, but likewise by the Jews^ when 
 they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and 
 Ashtaroth^. The Syrians called her Astarte, 
 and by that ominous name she became known to 
 Greeks and Romans. When Jeremiah speaks 
 
 1 ^^i-'cm^ cf. nin> dk^. 
 
 ^ Fragmenta Hist. Grsec. vol. iii. p. 569, 25. 
 
 ^ Ibid. vol. iv. p. 283, 9. * Herod, i. 131, 199. 
 
 ^ I Kings xi. 5. ^ Judges iii. 12. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 185 
 
 of the Queen of Heaven \ this can only be 
 meant for Astarte, or Baaltis. Even In Sou- 
 thern Arabia there are traces of the worship 
 of this ancient goddess. For In Sana, the 
 ancient capital of the HImyarltIc kingdom, 
 there was a magnificent palace and temple 
 dedicated to Venus (Bait Ghumdan), and the 
 name of Athtar has been read In the HIm- 
 yarltIc Inscriptions : nay, it Is preceded in one 
 place by the verb In the masculine gender 2. 
 
 Another word, meaning originally king, which 
 must have been fixed upon as a name of the 
 Deity In pre-hlstoric times, Is the Hebrew Me- 
 lech. We find it in Moloch, who was wor- 
 shipped, not only In Carthage, In the Islands 
 of Crete and Rhodes, but likewise In the 
 valley of Hinnom. We find the same word 
 in Milcom, the god of the Ammonites, who 
 had a sanctuary in Mount Olivet ; and the 
 gods Adrammelech and Anaminelech, to whom 
 the Sepharvltes burnt their children In the fire^, 
 
 1 Jer. vii. 18, D^p^n ng^p. 
 
 ^ Osiander, 1. c. p. 472. Gildemeister, Zeitsch. der D. M. G. 
 vol. xxiv. pp. 180, 181; Lenormant, Comptes-rendus des 
 stances de I'Acad. des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres de I'ann^e 
 1867; Levy, Zeitschrift der D. M. G. vol. xxiv. p. 189. 
 
 ^ 2 Kings xvii. 31. 
 
1 86 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 seem again but local varieties of the same 
 ancient Semitic idol. 
 
 Adondi, which in Hebrew means my lord, 
 and in the Old Testament is used exclusively 
 of Jehovah, appears in Phenicia as the name 
 of the Supreme Deity, and after undergoing 
 manifold mythological transformations, the same 
 name has become familiar to us through the 
 Greek tales about the beautiful young Adonis, 
 loved by Aphrodite, and killed by the wild 
 boar of Ares. 
 
 Ely on, which in Hebrew means the Highest, 
 is used in the Old Testament as a predicate 
 of God. It occurs also by itself as a name 
 of Jehovah. Melchizedek is called emphati- 
 cally the priest of El Elydn, the priest of the 
 most high God. 
 
 But this name again is not restricted to 
 Hebrew. It occurs in the Phenician cosmo- 
 gony as Eliun, the highest God, the Father 
 of Heaven, who was the father of El. Dr. 
 Oppert has identified this Eliun with the 
 Illi7ius mentioned by Damascius. 
 
 Another word used in the Bible, sometimes 
 in combination with El, and more frequently 
 alone, as a name of the supreme deity, is Shad- 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 187 
 
 dai^, the Powerful. It comes from a kindred 
 root to that which has yielded the substantive 
 Shed, meaning demon in the language of the 
 Talmud, and the plural S/iedim, a name for 
 false gods or idols in the Old Testament. 
 This name occurs as Set or Sed in the hiero- 
 glyphic inscriptions I It is there the name of 
 a god introduced by the shepherds, and one 
 of his surnames is given as Baal. The same 
 deity Shaddai, the Powerful, has, by a clever 
 conjecture, been discovered as one of the 
 deities worshipped by the ancient Phenicians^. 
 
 While these names of the Deity and some 
 others are shared in common by all, or by 
 the most important members of the Semitic 
 family, and must therefore have existed pre- 
 vious to the first Semitic separation, there are 
 others peculiar to each branch. 
 
 Thus the name of Jehovah, or yahveh^, as 
 
 1 '••ik;^ or ^"^^ W.. 
 
 ^ De Vogiie, 1. c. p. t6o. See, however, Lepsius; Der 
 erste Aeg. Gotterkreis, p. 48. 
 
 ^ Bunsen, Egypt, iv. 221. De Vogiie, Melanges d'Arche- 
 ologie, p. 77. 
 
 * Theodoret. Quaest. xv. ad Exodum (420 a.d.) : KoKovm fie 
 
 avTo 2aixap€lTai lABE, 'lovdaioi 8e lAft. Diod. Sic. i. 94 (59 B.C.) : 
 rrapa de toIs ^lovdaiois Maivarjv tov 'laoj eniKaXovficuov deop, k.t.X. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 it seems originally to have been pronounced, 
 seems to me to be a divine name peculiar to 
 the Jews. It is true that in a well-known 
 passage of Lydus, lAO^ is said to have been 
 the name of God among the Chaldaeans. But 
 o^rantino^ that lAO was the same word as 
 
 o o 
 
 Jahveh or Jehovah or Jah (as in Hallelu-jah), 
 may not Lydus by the Chaldaeans have simply 
 meant the Jews ? If, as Sir Henry Rawlinson 
 maintains, the name of Jehovah occurred in 
 the Babylonian inscriptions, the case would be 
 different ; we should then have to admit that 
 this name, too, was fixed before the Semitic 
 family was broken up. We should no longer 
 be justified in claiming yehovah as a name 
 of the Deity peculiar to Hebrew, but only 
 as fixed by the Hebrew prophets in the 
 sense of the one true God, opposed to all 
 the other gods of the Semitic race^. 
 
 ^ Lydus, De Mensibus, iv. 38, 14: Ot Xa\8aioi rhv 6ebv 
 
 IAi2 Xeyoucri, avrX tov cf)a>s vo-qrov' rfj ^ulv'lkcov yXcoaarj koi 
 2ABAi20 fie 7ro\\a)(ov Xeyerai, oiov 6 virep rovs eTrra ttoXovs, 
 
 Tovrea-Tiv 6 drjixiovpyos. Bunsen, Egypt, iv. 193; Renan, 
 Sanchoniathon, p. 44, note. And see Diodorus Siculus, i. 
 94, 2. 
 
 ^ Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 461. Sir H. Rawlinson has 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 189 
 
 But whether we Include or exclude the name 
 of Jehovah, we have, I think, sufficient wit- 
 nesses to establish that there was a period 
 during which the ancestors of the Semitic family 
 had not yet been divided in language and re- 
 ligion. That period transcends the recollec- 
 tion of every one of the Semitic races in the 
 same way as neither Hindus, Greeks, nor 
 Romans have any recollection of the time 
 when they spoke a common language, and 
 worshipped their Father in heaven by a name 
 that was as yet neither Sanskrit, nor Greek, 
 nor Latin. But I do not hesitate to call this 
 pre-historic period historical in the best sense 
 of the word. It was a real period, because, 
 unless it was real, all the realities of the 
 Semitic languages and the Semitic religions, 
 such as we find them after their separation. 
 
 kindly informed me that he doubts whether Yahu, which 
 occurs in the sense of God in the Assyrian inscriptions, 
 belonged properly to the Assyrian language. He thinks 
 that it may have been borrowed from Syria, and adopted 
 with the language, as were many other foreign terms. Pro- 
 fessor Schrader, as Mr. Cheyne tells me, accepts Yahu as an 
 Assyrian word, and supposes that the Hamathites adopted 
 the name into their Pantheon. 
 
190 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 would be unintelligible. Hebrew, Syriac, and 
 Arabic point to a common source as much as 
 Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin ; and unless we 
 can bring ourselves to doubt that the Hindus, 
 the Greeks, the Romans, and the Teutons 
 derived the worship of their principal deity 
 from their common Aryan sanctuary, we shall 
 not be able to deny that there was likewise 
 a primitive religion of the whole Semitic race, 
 and that El, the Strong One in heaven, was 
 invoked by the ancestors of all the Semitic 
 races, before there were Babylonians in Baby- 
 lon, Phenicians in Sidon and Tyrus, before 
 there were Jews in Mesopotamia or Jerusalem. 
 The evidence of the Semitic is the same as 
 that of the Aryan languages : the conclusion 
 cannot be different. 
 
 We now come to the third nucleus of lan- 
 guage, and, as I hope to show, of religion 
 also — that which forms the foundation of the 
 Turanian world. The subject is extremely 
 difficult, and I confess I doubt whether I shall 
 succeed in engaging your sympathy in favour 
 of the religious opinions of people so strange, 
 so far removed from us, as the Chinese, the 
 Mongolians, the Samoyedes, the Finns, and 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 191 
 
 Lapps. We naturally take an Interest in the 
 ancient history of the Aryan and Semitic 
 nations, for, after all, we are ourselves Aryan 
 in language, and Semitic, at least to a certain 
 extent, in religion. But what have we in 
 common with the Turanians, with Chinese 
 and Samoyedes ? Very little, it may seem ; 
 and yet it is not very little, for it is 
 our common humanity. It is not the yellow 
 skin and the high cheekbones that make 
 the man. Nay, if we look but steadily into 
 those black Chinese eyes, we shall find that 
 there, too, there is a soul that responds to 
 a soul, and that the God whom they mean 
 is the same God whom we meaji, however 
 helpless their utterance, however imperfect 
 their worship. 
 
 If we take the religion of China as the 
 earliest representative of Turanian worship, the 
 question is, whether we can find any names 
 of the Deity in Chinese which appear again 
 in the religions and mythologies of other Tura- 
 nian tribes, such as the Mandshus, the Mon- 
 golians, the Tatars, or Finns. I confess that, 
 considering the changing and shifting character 
 of the Turanian languages, considering also the 
 
192 Lectw'es on the Science of Religion. 
 
 long interval of time that must have passed 
 between the first linguistic and religious settle- 
 ment in China, and the later gradual and im- 
 perfect consolidation of the other Turanian 
 races, I was not very sanguine in my ex- 
 pectation that any such names as Dyaus pitar 
 among the Aryans, or El and Baal among 
 the Shemites, could have survived in the re- 
 ligious traditions of the vast Turanian world. 
 However, there is no reason why we should 
 not look for such names in Chinese, Mongolian, 
 and Turkish ; still less, why we should pass 
 them by with indifference or incredulity be- 
 cause, from the very nature of the case, their 
 coincidence is not so striking and convincing 
 as that of the Semitic and Aryan names of 
 the Deity. There are in researches of this 
 kind different degrees of certainty, and I am 
 the very last person to slur them over, and 
 to represent all our results as equally certain. 
 But if we want to arrive at terra fii'nia, we 
 must not mind a plunge now and then ; and 
 if we wish to mount a ladder, we must not 
 be afraid of taking the first step. The coinci- 
 dences between the religious phraseology of 
 Chinese and other Turanian languages are cer- 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 193 
 
 tainly not like the coincidences between Greek 
 and Sanskrit, or between Hebrew and Pheni- 
 cian ; but they are such that they ought not to 
 be neglected by the pioneers of a new science. 
 
 You remember that the popular worship of 
 ancient China was a worship of single spirits, 
 of powers, or, we might almost say, of names ; 
 the names of the most prominent powers of 
 nature which are supposed to exercise an in- 
 fluence for good or evil on the life of man. 
 We find a belief in spirits of the sky, the sun, 
 the moon, the stars, the earth, the mountains, 
 the rivers ; to say nothing as yet of the spirits 
 of the departed. 
 
 In China, where there always has been a 
 strong tendency towards order and regularity, 
 some kind of system has been superinduced 
 by the recognition of two powers, one active, 
 the other passive, one male, the other female, 
 which comprehend everything, and which, in 
 the mind of the more enlightened, tower high 
 above the great crowd of minor spirits. These 
 two powers are within and beneath and behind 
 everything that is double in nature, and they 
 have frequently been identified with heaven 
 and earth. 
 
 o 
 
194 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 We can clearly see, however, that the spirit 
 of heaven occupied from the beginning a much 
 higher position than the spirit of the earth. 
 It is in the historical books only, in the Shu- 
 kinor\ that we are told that heaven and earth 
 together are the father and mother of all 
 things. In the ancient poetry Heaven alone 
 is both father and mother I This spirit of 
 heaven is known in Chinese by the name of 
 'JTien, and wherever in other religions we should 
 expect*the name of the supreme deity, whether 
 Jupiter or Allah, we find in Chinese the name 
 of Tien or sky. This Tien, according to the 
 Imperial Dictionary of Kanghee, means the 
 Great One, he that dwells on high and regu- 
 lates all below. We see in fact that Tien, 
 originally the name of sky, 'has passed in 
 Chinese through nearly all the phases, from 
 the lowest to the highest, through which the 
 
 "^ In the Shu-king (3, 11) Tien is called Shang-tien, or 
 High Heaven, which is synonymous with Shang-te, High 
 Spirit, another very common name of the supreme deity. 
 The Confucians never made any image of Shang-te, but the 
 Tao-sse represented their (Yah-hwang) Shang-te under the 
 human form. — Medhurst, Inquiry, p. 46. 
 
 -^ Chalmers, Origin of the Chinese, p. 14; Medhurst, 1. c. 
 p. 124; contrast between Shin and Shangti. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 195 
 
 Aryan name for sky, dyaus, passed in the 
 poetry, the rehglon, the mythology, and philo- 
 sophy of I ndia and Greece. The sign of tien in 
 Chinese is ^, and this is compounded of two 
 signs : -^ ia, which means g£^i, and — - yik, 
 which means one. The sky, therefore, was 
 conceived as the One, the Peerless, and as 
 the Great, the High, the Exalted. I remember 
 reading^ in a Chinese book, ' As there is but 
 one sky, how can there be many gods?' In 
 fact, their belief in Tieii, the spirit of heaven, 
 moulded the whole of the religious phraseology 
 of the Chinese. ' The glorious heaven,' we 
 read, ' is called bright, it accompanies you 
 wherever you go ; the glorious heaven is called 
 luminous, it goes wherever you roam.' Ticji 
 is called the ancestor of all things ; the highest 
 that is above. He is called the great framer, 
 who makes things as a potter frames an earthen 
 vessel. The Chinese also speak of the de- 
 crees and the will of Heaven, of the steps of 
 Heaven or Providence. The sages who teach 
 the people are sent by heaven, and Confucius 
 himself is said to have been used by heaven 
 as the ' alarum' of the world. The same Confu- 
 cius, when on the brink of despondency, because 
 
 o 2 
 
ig6 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 no one would believe in him, knows of 
 one comfort only; that comfort is: 'Heaven 
 knows me.' It is clear from many passages 
 that with Confucius Tien or the Spirit of 
 Heaven was the supreme deity, and that he 
 looked upon the other gods of the people, 
 the spirits of the air, the mountains and the 
 rivers, the spirits also of the departed, very 
 much with the same feelings with which So- 
 krates regarded the mythological deities of 
 Greece. Thus when asked on one occasion 
 how the spirits should be served, he replied : 
 'If we are not able to serve men, how can 
 we serve the spirits?' And at another time 
 he said, in his short and significant manner : 
 ' Respect the Gods, and keep them at a dis- 
 
 tance \' 
 
 We have now to see whether we can find 
 any traces of this belief in a supreme spirit of 
 heaven among the other branches of the Tura- 
 nian class, the Mandshus, Mongolians, Tatars, 
 Finns, or Lapps. As there are many names 
 for sky in the Turanian dialects, it would not 
 be absolutely necessary that we should find 
 
 Medhurst, Reply to Dr. Boone, p. 32. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 197 
 
 the same name which we found in Chinese : 
 yet, if traces of that name could be found 
 among MongoHans and Tatars, our argument 
 would, no doubt, gain far greater strength. 
 It is the same in all researches of comparative 
 mythology. If we find the same conceptions, 
 the same myths and legends, in India, Greece, 
 Italy, and Germany, there is, no doubt, sortie 
 presumption in favour of their common origin, 
 but no more. But if we meet with gods and 
 heroes, having the same names in the mytho- 
 logy of the Veda, and in the mythology of 
 Greece and Rome and Germany, we stand 
 on firmer ground. We have then to deal 
 with real facts that cannot be disputed, and 
 all that remains is to explain them. 
 
 In Turanian mythology, however, such facts 
 are not easily brought together. With the ex- 
 ception of China, we know very little of the 
 ancient history of the Turanian races, and what 
 we know of their present state comes fre- 
 quently from prejudiced observers. Besides, 
 their old heathendom is fast disappearing be- 
 fore the advance of Buddhism, Mohammedan- 
 ism, and Christianity. Yet if we take the 
 accounts of the most trustworthy travellers in 
 
198 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 Central and Northern Asia, and more particu- 
 larly the careful observations of Castren, we 
 cannot but recognise some most striking coin- 
 cidences in the scattered notices of the religion 
 of the Tungusic, Mongolic, Tataric, and Finnic 
 tribes. Everywhere we find a worship of the 
 spirits of nature, of the spirits of the departed, 
 the)UP:h behind and above it there rises the 
 belief in some higher power, known by dif- 
 ferent names, sometimes called the Father, the 
 Old One, who is the Maker and Protector of 
 the world, and who always resides in heaven. 
 Chinese historians are the only writers who 
 o-ive us an account of the earlier history of 
 some of these Turanian tribes, particularly of 
 the Huns, whom they call Hiongmt, and of 
 the Turks, whom they call Tttkiu. They 
 relate^ that the Huns worshipped the sun, 
 the moon, the spirits of the sky and the earth, 
 and the spirits of the departed, and that their 
 priests, the Shamans, possessed a power over 
 the clouds, being able to bring down snow, hail, 
 rain, and wind ^. 
 
 ^ Castren, Vorlesungen iiber Finnische Mythologie, p. 2, 
 ^ Ibid. 1. c. p. 36. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 199 
 
 Menander, a Byzantine historian, relates of 
 the Turks that in his time they worshipped 
 the fire, the water, and the earth, but that at 
 the same time they beheved in a God, the 
 maker of the world, and offered to him sacri- 
 fices of camels, oxen, and sheep. 
 
 Still later we get some information from 
 medieval travellers, such as Piano Carpini 
 and Marco Polo, who say that the Mongol 
 tribes paid great reverence to the sun, the 
 fire, and the water, but that they believed also 
 in a great and powerful God, whom they called 
 Natagai (Natigay) or I toga. 
 
 In modern times we have chiefly to depend 
 on Castren, who had eyes to see and ears to 
 hear what few other travellers would have seen 
 or heard, or understood. Speaking of the 
 Tungusic tribes, he says, ' they worship the 
 sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, fire, the 
 spirits of forests, rivers, and certain sacred 
 localities ; they worship even images and 
 fetishes, but with all this they retain a faith 
 in a supreme being which they call Buga^! 
 ' The Samoyedes,' he says, ' worship idols and 
 
 Is this the Russian ' bog,' god ? 
 
200 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 various natural objects ; but they always pro- 
 fess a belief in a higher divine power which 
 they call Nuni! 
 
 This deity which is called Num is also called 
 Junia by the Samoyedes\ and is in fact the 
 same deity which in the grand mythology of 
 Finland is known under the name of Jttmala. 
 The mythology of Finland has been more 
 carefully preserved than the mythologies of all 
 the other Altaic races, and in their ancient epic 
 poems which have been kept up by oral tradi- 
 tion for centuries, and have been written down 
 but very lately, we have magnificent descrip- 
 tions of Jumala, the deity of the sky. 
 
 Jttmala meant originally the sky. It is 
 derived, as Castren has shown (p. 24), from 
 Jtmia, thunder, and la, the place, meaning 
 therefore the place of thunder, or the sky. It 
 is used first of all for sky, secondly for god of 
 the sky, and thirdly for gods in general. The 
 very same word, only modified according to the 
 phonetic rules of each language, occurs among 
 the Lapps (p. 11), the Esthonians, the Syrjanes, 
 the Tcheremissians, and the Votyakes (p. 24). 
 
 1 Gastrin, 1. c. p. T3. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 201 
 
 We can watch the growth and the changes 
 of this heavenly deity as we catch a ghmpse 
 here and there of the rehgious thoughts 
 of the Altaic tribes. An old Samoyede 
 woman who was asked by Castren (p. 16) 
 whether she ever said her prayers, replied : 
 ' Every morning I step out of my tent and 
 bow before the sun, and say : '' When thou 
 risest, I; too, rise from my bed." And every 
 evening I say: ''When thou sinkest down, I, 
 too, sink down to rest." ' That was her prayer, 
 perhaps the whole of her religious service; — 
 a poor prayer it may seem to us, but not to, 
 her : for it made that old woman look twice ! 
 at least every day away from earth and up to 
 heaven; it implied that her life was bound up 
 with a larger and higher life ; it encircled the 
 daily routine of her earthly existence with 
 somethinor of a divine halo. She herself was 
 evidently proud of it, for she added, with a 
 touch of self-righteousness : ' There are wild 
 people who never say their morning and even- 
 ing prayers.' 
 
 As in this case the deity of the sky is repre- 
 sented, as it were, by the sun, we see Jumala, 
 under different circumstances, conceived as the 
 
202 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 deity of the sea. When walking one evening 
 with a Samoyede sailor along the coast of the 
 Polar Sea, Castren asked him : ' Tell me, where 
 is Num ?' (i.e. Jumala.) Without a moment's 
 hesitation the old sailor pointed to the dark, 
 distant sea, and said : ' He is tJiei^e! 
 
 Again, in the epic poem Kalevala, when the 
 hostess of Pohjola is in labour, she calls on 
 Jumala, and says : ' Come now into the bath, 
 Jumala, into the warmth, O Lord of the air!' 
 (p. 19.) 
 
 At another time Jumala is the god of the air, 
 and is invoked in the following lines (p. 21): 
 
 Harness now thyself, Jumala, 
 Ruler of the air, thy horses ! 
 Bring them forth, thy rapid racers, 
 Drive the sledge with glittering colours. 
 Passing through our bones, our ankles, 
 Through our flesh that shakes and trembles, 
 Through our veins which seem all broken. 
 Knit the flesh and bones together, 
 Fasten vein to vein more firmly. 
 Let our joints be filled with silver, 
 Let our veins with gold be running ! 
 
 In all these cases the deity Invoked Is the 
 same, it is the deity of the sky, Jumala; but 
 so indefinite is his character, that we can hardly 
 say whether he is the god of the sky, or the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 203 
 
 sun, or the sea, or the air, or whether he is 
 a supreme deity reflected in all these aspects 
 of nature. 
 
 However, you will naturally ask, where is 
 there any similarity between the name of 
 that deity and the Chinese deity of the sky, 
 Tien f The common worship of Juniala may 
 prove some kind of religious concentration 
 amonor the different Altaic nations in the 
 North of Asia, but it does not prove any 
 pre-historic community of worship between 
 those nations and the ancient inhabitants of 
 China. It is true that the Chinese Tien, with 
 its three meanings of sky, god of the sky, and 
 god in general, is the exact counterpart of the 
 North Turanian Jumala ; but still we want 
 more ; we want, if possible, traces of the same 
 name of the deity in China, in Mongolia, and 
 Tatary, just as we found the name of Jupiter 
 in India and Italy, and the name of El in 
 Babylon and Palestine. 
 
 Well, let us remember that Chinese is a 
 monosyllabic language, and that the later Tu- 
 ranian dialects have entered into the agglu- 
 tinative stage, that is to say, that they use 
 derivative suffixes, and we shall then without 
 
204 Lectiwes on the Science of Religion. 
 
 much difficulty discover traces of the Chinese 
 word Ticu, with all Its meanings, among some 
 at least of the most Important of the Turanian 
 races. In the Mongolian language we find 
 Teng-ri^, and this means, first, sky ; then, god 
 of the sky ; then, god In general ; and lastly, 
 spirit or demon, whether good or bad. 
 
 I think you will see the Important bearing 
 of this discovery, for It clinches the argument 
 as nothing else could have clinched It. Unless 
 we had found the same name of the supreme 
 deity In the hymns of the Veda and In the 
 prayer of the priestesses at Dodona, w^e could 
 not have forced the conviction that It was 
 originally one and the same conception of 
 divine personality which had been worshipped 
 long before the Hindus had entered India, or 
 the dove had alighted on the head of Dodona. 
 The same applies to the Chinese Tien and 
 the Mongolian Tcnm. 
 
 And this Is not all. By a fortunate accident 
 the Turanian name of Tengri can be traced 
 back from the modern MonooHan to an earlier 
 
 Turkish ' tangry ' ((j^olL or (j?^J, teuri), the Yakute 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 205 
 
 period. Chinese authors, in their accountis of 
 the early history of the Huns, tell us that 
 the title given by the Huns to their leaders 
 was tangli-kuttt (or tchen-jiii). This tangli- 
 kuttc meant in their language Son of Heaven, 
 and you will remember that the same name, 
 Son of Heaven, is still given to the Chinese 
 Emperor 2. It does not mean Son of God, 
 but Emperor by the grace of God. Now the 
 Chinese title is tien-tze, corresponding to the 
 Hunnish tangli-kiUit. Hence Hunnish iang-li, 
 or Mongolian tengri, are the same as the Chi- 
 nese Tien. 
 
 Again, in the historical accounts which the 
 Chinese give of the Tukiu, the ancestors of 
 the Turks, it is said that they worshipped the 
 Spirits of the Earth, and that they called these 
 spirits p2c-te7ig-i-ii. Here the first syllable must 
 be intended for earth, while in teng-i-li we have 
 again the same word as the Mongolian tengri^ 
 only used, even at that early time, no longer 
 in the sense of heaven, or god of heaven, but 
 as a name of gods and spirits in general. We 
 
 ^ Schott, Ueber das Altaische Sprachgeschlecht, p. 9. 
 ^ Schott, Chinesische Literatur, p. 63. 
 
2o6 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 find a similar transition of meaning in the 
 modern Yakute word tangara. It means the 
 sky, and it means God ; but among the Chris- 
 tian converts in Siberia, tangara is also used 
 to signify ' the Saints.' The wild reindeer is 
 called in Yakute ' God's reindeer,' because it 
 lives in the open air, or because God alone 
 takes care of it. 
 
 Here, then, we have the same kind of evi- 
 dence which enabled us to establish a primitive 
 Aryan and a primitive Semitic religion : we 
 have a common name, and this name given 
 to the highest deity, preserved in the mono- 
 syllabic language of China, and in the cognate, 
 though agglutinative, dialects of some of the 
 principal North Turanian tribes. We find in 
 these words, not merely a vague similarity of 
 sound and meaning, but, by watching their 
 growth in Chinese, Mongolian, and Turkish, 
 we are able to discover in them traces of 
 organic identity. Everywhere they begin with 
 the meaning of sky, they rise to the meaning 
 of G(Sd, and they sink down again to the 
 meaning of gods and spirits. The changes 
 in the meaning of these w^ords run parallel 
 with the changes that took place in the re- 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 207 
 
 ligions of these nations, which in China, as 
 elsewhere, combine the worship of numberless 
 spirits with the belief in a supreme heavenly 
 deity. 
 
 Did we allow ourselves to be guided by 
 mere similarity of sound and meaning, it w^ould 
 be easy to connect the name given to the 
 highest deity by the Samoyedes, Num, which is 
 the same word as the Finnish yuma{la), with 
 the name used for God in the language of 
 Tibet, Nmn. This might seem a most im- 
 portant link, because it would help us to esta- 
 blish an original identity of religion among 
 members of the North and South Turanian 
 branches. But till we know something of the 
 antecedents of the Tibetan vvord, till we know, 
 as I said before, its organic growth, we can- 
 not think of using it for such purposes. 
 
 If we now turn for a moment to the minor 
 spirits believed in by the large masses in 
 China, we shall easily see that they, too, in 
 their character are strikingly like the spirits 
 Vv^orshipped by the North Turanian tribes. 
 These spirits in Chinese are called Shin^, 
 
 ^ Meclhurst, Reply, p. 11. 
 
2o8 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 which is really the name given to every in- 
 visible power or influence which can be per- 
 ceived in operation in the universe. Some 
 Shin or spirits receive real worship, which is 
 graduated according to their dignity ; others 
 are looked upon with fear. The spirits of 
 pestilence are driven out and .dispersed by 
 exorcism ; many are only talked about. There 
 are so many spirits that it seems impossible 
 to fix their exact number. The principal 
 classes^ are the celestial spirits {tien shin), 
 the terrestrial spirits (// ki), and the ancestral 
 spirits (yV/V kzuci), and this is the order ^ in 
 w^hich they are ranked according to their 
 dignity. Among celestial spirits (ticn shin) 
 we find the spirits of the sun and the moon 
 and the stars, the clouds, wind, thunder, and 
 rain ; among terrestrial spirits, those of the 
 mountains, the fields, the grain, the rivers, the 
 trees, the year. Among the departed spirits 
 are those of the emperors, the sages, and other 
 public benefactors, which are to be revered by 
 
 ^ Medhurst, Reply, 1. c. p. 21. 
 
 2 Ibid. 1. c. p. 22. The spirits of heaven are called shiji ; 
 the spirits of earth are called ki ; when men die, their wan- 
 dering and transformed souls and spirits are called kwei. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 209 
 
 the whole nation, while each family has its own 
 manes which are treated with special reverence 
 and honoured by many superstitious rites ^ 
 
 The same state of relio^ious feeline is ex- 
 hibited among the North Turanian tribes, only 
 without those minute distinctions and reeula- 
 tions in which the Chinese mind delights. The 
 Samoyedes, as we saw, believed in a supreme 
 god of heaven, called Num; but Castren, who 
 lived so long among them, says : ' The chief 
 deities invoked by their priests or sorcerers, the 
 Shamans, are the so-called Tadebejos^\ invisible 
 spirits dwelling in the air, the earth, the water, 
 and everywhere in nature. I have heard many 
 a Samoyede say that they were merely the 
 spirits of the departed, but others look upon 
 them as a class of inferior deities.' 
 
 The same scholar tells us (p. 105) that ' the 
 mythology of the Finns is flooded with names 
 
 ^ Medhurst, Reply, i. p. 43. The great sacrifices are offered 
 only to Te or Shang-ie, the same as Tieiu The five Te which 
 used to be joined with Shang-te at the great border sacrifice 
 were only the five powers or qualities of Shang-te personified. 
 Since the year a.d. 1369 the worship of these five Te has 
 been abolished. 
 
 - Gastrin, Finnische Mythologie, p. 122. 
 
210 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 of deities. Every object in nature has a ge- 
 nius, called haltia, which is supposed to be its 
 creator and protector. These spirits were not 
 tied to these outward objects, but were free to 
 roam about, and had a body and soul, and 
 their own well-marked personality. Nor did 
 their existence depend on the existence of a 
 single object ; for though there was no object 
 in nature without a genius, the genius was not 
 confined to any single object, but compre- 
 hended the whole class or p-enus. This moun- 
 
 o 
 
 tain-ash, this stone, this house has its own 
 genius, but the same genius cares for all other 
 mountain-ashes, stones, and houses.' 
 
 We have only to translate this into the lan- 
 guage of logic, and we shall understand at 
 once what has happened here as elsewhere in 
 the growth of religious ideas and mythological 
 names. What we call a general concept, or 
 what used to be called ' essentia generalise ' the 
 tree-hood,' ' the stone-hood,' ' the house-hood,' 
 in fact, the genus tree, stone, and house, is 
 what the Finns and Samoyedes call the genius, 
 the haltia, the tadebejo, and what the Chinese 
 call Shin. We speak very glibly of an esseittia 
 generalis, but to the unschooled mind this was 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 2 1 1 
 
 too great an effort. Something substantial and 
 individual had to be retained when trees had to 
 be spoken of as a forest, or days as a year ; 
 and in this transition period from individual 
 to general conceptions, from the intuitional to 
 the conceptual, from the real to the abstract, 
 the shadow, the ghost, the power or the spirit 
 of the forest, of the year, of the clouds, and 
 the lightning, took possession of the human 
 mind, and a class of beings was called into 
 existence which stands before us as so-called 
 deities in the religion and mythology of the 
 ancient world. 
 
 The worship of ancestral spirits is likewise 
 shared in common by the North Turanian 
 races and the Chinese. I do not lay much 
 stress on that fact, because the worship of the 
 spirits of the departed is perhaps the most 
 widely spread form of natural superstition all 
 over the world. It is important, however, to 
 observe that on this point also, which has 
 always been regarded as most characteristic of 
 Chinese reliction, there is no difference betAveen 
 China and Northern Asia. Most of the Fin- 
 nish and Altaic tribes, says Castren (p. 119), 
 cherish a belief that death, which they look 
 
 p 2 
 
212 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 upon with terrible fear, does not entirely de- 
 stroy individual existence. And even those 
 who do not profess belief in a future life, ob- 
 serve certain ceremonies which show that they 
 think of the departed as still existing. They 
 take food, dresses, oxen, knives, tinder-boxes, 
 kettles, and sledges, and place them on the 
 graves ; nay, if pressed, they would confess 
 that this is done to enable the departed to 
 hunt, to fish, and to fight, as they used to do 
 when alive. Lapps and Finns admit that the 
 body decays, but they imagine that a new 
 body is given to the dead in the lower world. 
 Others speak of the departed as ghosts or 
 spirits, who either stay in the grave or in the 
 realm of the dead, or who roam about on 
 I earth, particularly in the dead of night, and 
 1 during storm and rain. They give signs of 
 ; themselves in the howling of the wind, the 
 rustling of leaves, the crackling of the fire, and 
 in a thousand other ways. They are invisible 
 to ordinary mortals, but the sorcerers or 
 Shamans can see them, and can even divine 
 their thoughts. It is curious that in general' 
 these spirits are supposed to be mischievous ; 
 and the most mischievous of all are the spirits 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 213 
 
 of the departed priests (p. 123). They inter- 
 rupt the sleep, they send illness and misfor- 
 tunes, and they trouble the conscience of their 
 relatives. Everything is done to keep them 
 away. When the corpse has been carried out 
 of the house, a redhot stone is thrown after 
 the departed, as a charm to prevent his return. 
 The offerings of food and other articles de- 
 posited on the grave are accounted for by 
 some as depriving the dead of any excuse for 
 coming to the house, and fetching these things 
 himself. Among the Tchuvashes a son uses 
 the following invocation when offering sacri- 
 fice to the spirit of his father : ' We honour 
 thee with a feast ; look, here is bread for thee, 
 and different kinds of meat ; thou hast all thou 
 canst want : but do not trouble us, do not come 
 near us' (p. 122). 
 
 It is certainly a general belief that if they 
 receive no such offerings, the dead revenge 
 themselves by sending diseases and other mis- 
 fortunes. The ancient Hiongnu or Huns 
 killed the prisoners of war on the tombs of 
 their leaders ; for the Shamans assured them 
 that the anger of the spirits could not be ap- 
 peased otherwise. The same Huns had regular 
 
214 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 sacrifices In honour of their ancestral spirits. 
 One tribe, the Topas, which had migrated 
 from Siberia to Central Asia, sent ambassa- 
 dors with offerings to the tombs of their an- 
 cestors. Their tombs were protected with high 
 palings, to prevent the living from clambering 
 in, and the dead from clambering out. Some 
 of these tombs were magnificently adorned \ 
 and at last grew almost, and in China ^ alto- 
 gether, into temples where the spirits of the 
 departed were actually worshipped. All this 
 takes place by slow degrees ; it begins with 
 placing a flower on the tomb ; it ends with 
 worshipping the spirits of departed emperors^ 
 as equals of the Supreme Spirit, the Shang-te 
 or Tien, and as enjoying a divine rank far 
 above other spirits or Shin. 
 
 The difference, at first sight, between the 
 minute ceremonial of China and the homely 
 worship of Finns and Lapps may seem enor- 
 mous ; but if we trace both back as far as 
 
 ^ Castren, 1. c. p. 122. 
 
 ^ When an emperor died, and men erected an ancestral 
 temple, and; set up a parental tablet (as a resting-place for 
 the ' shin' or spirit of the departed), they called him Te. — 
 Medhurst, Inquiry, p. 7 ; from the Le-ke, vol. i. p. 49. 
 
 ^ Medhurst, Inquiry, p. 45. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion, 21^ 
 
 we can, we see that the early stages of their 
 reHglous belief are curiously alike. First, a 
 worship of heaven, as the emblem of the most 
 exalted conception which the untutored mind 
 of man can entertain, expanding with the ex- 
 panding thoughts of its worshippers, and even- 
 tually leading and lifting the soul from horizon 
 to horizon, to a belief in that which is beyond 
 all horizons, a belief in that which is infinite. 
 Secondly, a belief in deathless spirits or powers 
 of nature ; which supplies the more immediate 
 and every-day wants of the religious instinct 
 of man, satisfies the imagination, and furnishes 
 the earliest poetry with elevated themes. 
 Lastly, a belief in the existence of ancestral 
 spirits : which implies, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously, in a spiritual or in a material form, 
 that which is one of the life-springs of all re-, 
 ligion, a belief in immortality. 
 
 Allow me in conclusion to recapitulate shortly 
 the results of this Lecture. 
 
 We found, first of all, that there is a natural 
 connexion between language and religion, and 
 that therefore the classification of languages i^ 
 applicable also to the ancient religions of the 
 world. 
 
2i6 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 We found, secondly, that there was a com- 
 mon Aryan rehgion before the separation of 
 the Aryan race ; a common Semitic rehgion 
 before the separation of the Semitic race ; and 
 a common Turanic rehgion before the separa- 
 tion of the Chinese and the other tribes be- 
 longing to the Turanian class. We found, in 
 fact, three ancient centres of religion as we 
 had before three ancient centres of language, 
 and we have thus gained, I believe, a truly 
 historical basis for a scientific treatment of the 
 principal religions of the world. 
 
FOURTH LECTURE. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, 
 MARCH 12, 1870. 
 
 ^^T'HEN I came to deliver the first of this 
 short course of lectures, I confess I 
 felt sorry for having undertaken so difficult a 
 task ; and if I could have withdrawn from it 
 with honour, I should gladly have done so. 
 Now that I have only this one lecture left, 
 I feel equally sorry, and I wish I could con- 
 tinue my course in order to say something 
 more of what I wished to say, and what in 
 four lectures I could say but very imperfectly. 
 From the announcement of my lectures you 
 must have seen that in what I called 'An In- 
 troduction to the Science of Reliction ' I did 
 not intend to treat of more than some pre- 
 liminary questions. I chiefly wanted to show 
 in what sense a truly scientific study of religion 
 
2 1 8 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 was possible, what materials there are to 
 enable us to gain a trustworthy knowledge of 
 the principal religions of the world, and accord- 
 ing to what principles these religions may be 
 classified. It would perhaps have been more 
 interesting to some of my hearers if we had 
 rushed at once into the ancient temples to 
 look at the broken idols of th^ past, and to 
 discover, if possible, some of the fundamental 
 ideas that found expression in the ancient sys- 
 tems of faith and worship. But in order to 
 explore with real advantage any ruins, whether 
 of stone or of thought, it is necessary that we 
 should know where to look and how to look. 
 In most works on the history of ancient re- 
 ligions we are driven about like forlorn tourists 
 in a vast museum where ancient and modern 
 statues, gems of Oriental and European work- 
 manship, original works of art and mere copies 
 are piled up together, and at the end of our 
 journey we only feel bewildered and dis- 
 heartened. We have seen much, no doubt, 
 but we carry away very little. It is better, 
 before we enter into these labyrinths, that we 
 should spend a few hours in making up our 
 minds as to what we really want to see and 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 219 
 
 what we may pass by ; and if in these intro- 
 ductory lectures we have only arrived at a 
 clear view on these points, you will find here- 
 after that our time has not been altogether 
 spent in vain. 
 
 You will have observed that I have care- 
 fully abstained from entering on the domain 
 of what I call Tkeo7^elic, as distinguished from 
 Comparative Theology. Theoretic theology, or, 
 as it is sometimes called, the philosophy of 
 religion, has, as far as I can judge, its right 
 place at the end, not at the beginning of Com- 
 parative Theology. I have made no secret of 
 my own conviction that a study of Comparative 
 Theology will produce with regard to Theoretic 
 Theology the same revolution which a study 
 of Comparative Philology has produced in what 
 used to be called the Philosophy of language. 
 You know how all speculations on the nature 
 of language, on its origin, its development, its 
 natural growth and inevitable decay have had 
 to be taken up afresh from the very beginning, 
 after the new light thrown on the history of 
 language by the comparative method. I look 
 forward to the same results with respect to phi- 
 losophical inquiries into the nature of religion, 
 
220 Lectures on the Science of Religion, 
 
 its origin, and its development. I do not 
 mean to say that all former speculations on 
 these subjects will become useless. Plato's 
 Cratyhis, even the Hermes of Harris, and 
 Home Tooke's Diversions of Parley have not 
 become useless after the work done by Grimm 
 and Bopp, by Humboldt and Bunsen. But I 
 believe that philosophers who speculate on the 
 origin of religion and on the psychological con- 
 ditions of faith, will in future write more cir- 
 cumspecdy, and with less of that dogmatic 
 assurance which has hitherto distinguished so 
 many speculations on the philosophy of reli- 
 gion, not excepting those of Schelling and 
 Hegel. Before the rise of geology It was 
 easy to speculate on the origin of the earth ; 
 before the rise of glossology, any theories on 
 the revealed, the mimetic, the interjectional, 
 or the conventional origin of language might 
 easily be held and defended. Not so now, 
 when facts have filled the place that was for- 
 merly open to theories, and when those who 
 have worked most carefully among the debris 
 of the earth or the strata of lanoruao^es are 
 most reluctant to approach the great problem 
 of the first beginnings. 
 
1' ,/ 
 
 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 221 
 
 So much in order to explain why in this 
 introductory course I have confined myself 
 within narrower limits than some of my hearers 
 seem to have expected. And now, as I have 
 but one hour left, I shall try to make the 
 best use of it I can, by devoting it entirely 
 to a point on which I have not yet touched, 
 viz. on the right spirit in which ancient re- 
 ligions ought to be studied and interpreted. 
 
 No judge, If he had before him the worst! 
 of criminals, would treat him as most historians* 
 and theologians have treated the religions of 
 the world. Every act in the lives of their 
 founders which shows that they were but men, 
 is eagerly seized and judged without mercy ; 
 every doctrine that is not carefully guarded 
 is interpreted in the worst sense that it will 
 bear ; every act of worship that differs from 
 our own way of serving God is held up to 
 ridicule and contempt. And this is not done 
 by accident, but with a set purpose, nay, with 
 something of that artificial sense of duty which 
 stimulates the counsel for the defence to see 
 nothing but an angel in his own client, and 
 anything but an angel in the plaintiff on the 
 other side. The result has been — as it could 
 
222 Lectures on the Science of Religion, 
 
 not be otherwise — a complete miscarriage of 
 justice, an utter misapprehension of the real 
 character and purpose of the ancient religions 
 of mankind ; and, as a necessary consequence, 
 a failure in discovering the peculiar features 
 which really distinguish Christianity from alii 
 the religions of the world, and secure to its j 
 founder his own peculiar place in the history 
 of the world, far away from Vasish//^a, Zoro-: 
 aster, and Buddha, from Moses and Moham- 
 med, from Confucius and Lao-tse. By unduly 
 depreciating all other religions, we have placed; 
 our own in a position which its founder never 
 intended for it ; we have torn it away from 
 the sacred context of the history of the world ; 
 we have ignored, or wilfully narrowed, the 
 sundry times and divers manners in which, in 
 times past, God spake unto the fathers by the 
 prophets ; and instead of recognising Christi- 
 anity as coming in the fulness of time, and as 
 the fulfilment of the hopes and desires of the! 
 whole world, we have brought ourselves to! 
 look upon its advent as the only broken link j 
 in that unbroken chain which is rightly called' 
 the Divine government of the world. 
 
 Nay, worse than this : there are people who, ^ 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 223 
 
 from mere ignorance of the ancient religions | 
 of mankind, have adopted a doctrine more 
 unchristian than any that could be found in 
 the pages of the religious books of antiquity, 
 viz. that all the nations of the earth, before 
 the rise of Christianity, were mere outcasts, 
 forsaken and forgotten of their Father in 
 heaven, without a knowledge of God, without 
 a hope of salvation. If a comparative study 
 of the religions of the world produced but this 
 one result, that it drove this godless heresy 
 out of every Christian heart, and made us see 
 again in the whole history of the world the 
 eternal wisdom and love of God towards all 
 His creatures, it would have done a good 
 work. 
 
 And it is high time that this good work 
 should be done. We have learnt to do justice 
 to the ancient poetry, the political institutions, 
 the legal enactments, the systems of philo- 
 sophy, and the works of art of nations dif- 
 fering from ourselves in many respects ; we 
 have brouo^ht ourselves to value even the crude 
 and imperfect beginnings in all these spheres 
 of mental activity ; and I believe we have thus 
 learnt lessons from ancient history which we 
 
224 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 could not have learnt anywhere else. We can 
 admire the temples of the ancient world, 
 whether in Egypt, Babylon, or Greece ; we 
 
 I can stand in raptures before the statues of 
 Phidias ; and only when we approach the re- 
 ligious conceptions which find their expression 
 in the temples of Minerva and in the statues 
 of Jupiter, we turn away with pity or scorn, 
 we call their gods mere idols and images, 
 and class their worshippers — Perikles, Phidias, 
 Sokrates, and Plato — with the v/orshlppers of 
 stocks and stones. I do not deny that the re- 
 ligions of the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, 
 
 ' and Romans were imperfect and full of errors, 
 particularly in their later stages, but I main- 
 tain that the fact of these ancient people having 
 any religion at all, however imperfect, raises 
 them higher, and brings them nearer to us, 
 than all their works of art, all their poetry, all 
 their philosophy. Neither their art nor their 
 poetry nor their philosophy would have been 
 possible without religion ; and if we will but j 
 look without prejudice, if we will but judge as 
 we ought always to judge, with unwearying 
 love and charity, we shall be surprised at that^ 
 new world of beauty and truth which, like the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 225 
 
 azure of a vernal sky, rises before us from 
 behind the clouds of the ancient mythologies. /' 
 
 We can speak freely and fearlessly; we can 
 afford to be charitable. There was a time 
 when it was otherwise. There was a time 
 when people imagined that truth, particularly 
 the highest truth, the truth of religion, could 
 only conquer by blind zeal, by fire and sword. 
 At that time all idols were to be overthrown, 
 their altars to be destroyed, and their wor- 
 shippers to be cut to pieces. But there came 
 a time when the sword was to be put up into 
 its place. . . . And if even after that time there 
 was a work to work and a fight to fight, which 
 required the fiery zeal of apostles and martyrs, 
 that time also is now past ; the conquest is 
 gained, and we have time to reflect calmly on 
 what is past and what is still to come. 
 
 We are no longer afraid of Baal or Jupiter. 
 Our dangers and our difficulties are now of a 
 very different kind. If we believe that there 
 is a God, and that He created heaven and 
 earth, and that He ruleth the world by His 
 unceasing providence, we cannot believe that 
 millions of human beings, all created like our- 
 selves in the image of God, were, in their 
 
 Q 
 
226 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 time of ignorance, so utterly abandoned that 
 their whole religion was falsehood, their whole 
 worship a farce, their whole life a mockery. 
 An honest and independent study of the 
 religions of the world will teach us that it 
 was not so — will teach us the same lesson 
 which it taught St. Augustine, that there is j 
 no religion which does not contain some grains . 
 of truth. Nay, it will teach us more ; it will ; 
 enable us to see in the history of the ancient \ 
 religions, more clearly than anywhere else, the / 
 Divine education of the Intinan race. 
 
 I know this is a view which has been much 
 objected to, but I hold it as strongly as ever. 
 If we must not read in the history of the 
 whole human race the daily lessons of a Divine 
 teacher and guide, if there is no purpose, no 
 increasing purpose in the succession of the re- 
 ligions of the world, then we might as well 
 shut up the godless book of history altogether, 
 and look upon men as no better than the grass i 
 which is to-day in the field and to-morrow is \ 
 cast into the oven. Man would then be indeed \ 
 of less value than the sparrows, for none of' 
 them is forgotten before God. 
 
 But those who imagine that, in order to 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 227 
 
 make sure of their own salvation, they must 
 have a o^reat eulf fixed between themselves 
 and all the other nations of the world — be- 
 tween their own religion and the religions of 
 Zoroaster, Buddha, or Confucius — can hardly 
 be aware how strongly the interpretation of 
 the history of the religions of the world, as 
 an education of the human race, can be sup- 
 ported by authorities before which they them- 
 selves would probably bow in silence. We 
 need not appeal to an English bishop to prove 
 the soundness, or to a German philosopher to 
 prove the truth, of this view. If we wanted 
 authorities we could appeal to Popes, to the 
 Fathers of the Church, to the Apostles them- 
 selves, for they have all upheld the same view 
 with no wavering or uncertain voice. 
 
 I pointed out before that the simultaneous 
 study of the Old and the New Testament, with 
 an occasional reference to the reliofion and 
 philosophy of Greece and Rome, had supplied 
 Christian divines with some of the most useful 
 lessons for a wider comparison of all the re- 
 ligions of the world. In studying the Old 
 Testament, and observing in It the absence of 
 some of the most essential truths of Chrls- 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 tianity, they, too, had asked with surprise why 
 the interval between the fall of man and his 
 redemption had been so long, why men were 
 allowed so long to walk in darkness, and 
 whether the heathens had really no place in 
 the counsels of God. Here is the answer of 
 a Pope, of Leo the Great ^ (440-461) : 
 
 ' Let those who with impious murmurings 
 find fault with the Divine dispensations, and 
 who complain about the lateness of Our Lord's 
 nativity, cease from their grievances, as if what 
 was carried out in this last age of the world, 
 had not been impending in time past. . . . 
 What the apostles preached, the prophets had 
 announced before, and what has always been 
 believed, cannot be said to have been fulfilled 
 too late. By this delay of His work of sal- 
 vation the wisdom and love of God have only 
 made us more fitted for His call ; so that, what 
 had been announced before by many signs and 
 words and mysteries during so many centuries, 
 should not be doubtful or uncertain in the days 
 of the Gospel. . . . God has not provided forj 
 the interests of men by a new counsel or by 
 
 Hardwick, Christ and other Masters, vol. i. p. 85. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 229 
 
 a late compassion ; but He had instituted from \ 
 the beginning for all men one and the same 1 
 path of salvation/ 
 
 This is the language of a Pope — of Leo 
 the Great. 
 
 Now let us hear what Irenseus says, and 
 how he explains to himself the necessary im- 
 perfection of the early religions of mankind. 
 'A mother,' he says, 'may indeed offer toj 
 her infant a complete repast, but her infant 
 cannot yet receive the food which is meant 
 for full-grown men. In the same manner God 
 might indeed from the beginning have offered 
 to man the truth in its completeness, but man 
 was unable to receive it, for he was still a 
 child.' 
 
 If this, too, is considered a presumptuous 
 reading of the counsels* of God, we have, as 
 a last appeal, the words of St. Paul, that ' the 
 law was the schoolmaster to the Jews,' joined 
 with the words of St. Peter, ' Of a truth I 
 perceive that God is no respecter of persons, 
 but in every nation he that feareth him and 
 worketh righteousness is accepted with him.' 
 
 But, as I said before, we need not appeal 
 to any authorities, if we will but read the 
 
230 Lectures on the Science of ^Religion. 
 
 records of the ancient religions of the world 
 with an open heart and in a charitable spirit 
 — in a spirit that thinketh no evil, but rejoices 
 in the truth wherever it can be found. 
 
 I suppose that most of us, sooner or later 
 in life, have felt how the whole world — this 
 wicked world, as we call it — is changed as if 
 by magic, if once we can make up our mind 
 to give men credit for good motives, never 
 to be suspicious, never to think evil, never to 
 think ourselves better than our neighbours. 
 Trust a man to be true and good, and, even 
 if he is not, your trust will tend to make 
 him true and good. It Is the same with the 
 religions of the world. Let us but once make 
 up our mind to look in them for what is true 
 and good, and we shall hardly know our old 
 religions again. If they are the work of the 
 devil, as many of us have been brought up 
 to believe, then never was there a kingdom 
 so divided against itself from the very begin- 
 ning. . There Is no religion — or If there Is, I do 
 not know it — which does not say, ' Do good, 
 avoid evil.' There Is none which does not 
 contain what Rabbi HlUel called the quint- 
 essence of all religions, the simple warning, 
 
Lectures on the Scienee of Religion. 231 
 
 * Be good, my boy.' ' Be good, my boy,' may 
 seem a very short catechism ; but let us add 
 to it, ' Be good, my boy, for God's sake,' and 
 we have in it very nearly the whole of the Law 
 and the Prophets. 
 
 f^ I wish I could read you the extracts I have 
 collected from the sacred books of the ancient 
 world, grains of truth more precious to me 
 than grains of gold ; prayers so simple and so 
 true that we could all join in them if we once 
 accustomed ourselves to the strange sounds 
 of Sanskrit or Chinese. I can to-day give you 
 a few specimens only. 
 
 Here is a^^ayer of Vasish//^a, a Vedic pro- 
 phet, addressed to Varu;<ja, the Greek Ovpavo^, 
 an ancient name of the sky and of the god who 
 resides in the sky. 
 
 I shall read you one verse at least in the 
 original — it is the 86th hymn of the seventh 
 book of the Rig-veda — so that you may hear 
 the very sounds which more than three thou- 
 sand years ago were uttered for the first time 
 in a village on the borders of the Sutledge, 
 then called the vSatadru, by a man who felt 
 as we feel, who spoke as we speak, who be- 
 lieved in many points as we believe — a dark- 
 
232 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 complexioned Hindu, shepherd, poet, priest, 
 patriarch, and certainly a man who, in the 
 noble army of prophets, deserves a place byj 
 the side of David. And does it not show 
 the indestructibility of the spirit, if we see 
 how the waves which, by a poetic impulse, 
 he started on the vast ocean of thought have 
 been heaving and spreading and widening, till 
 after centuries and centuries they strike to- 
 day against our shores and tell us, in accents 
 that cannot be mistaken, what passed through 
 the mind of that ancient Aryan poet when he 
 felt the presence of an almighty God, the 
 maker of heaven and earth, and felt at the 
 same time the burden of his sin, and prayed 
 to his God that He might take that burden 
 from him, that He might forgive him his sin ? 
 When you listen to the strange sounds of 
 this Vedic hymn, you are listening, even in 
 this Royal Institution, to spirit-rapping — to 
 real spirit-rapping. Vasish//^a is really among 
 us again, and if you will accept me as his inter- 
 preter, you will find that we can all understand 
 what the old poet wished to say^ : 
 
 M. M., History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, p. 540. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 233 
 
 ' Dhira tv asya mahina ^anu;;^shl, 
 vi yas tastambha rodasi /^Id urvi, 
 pra nakam rishvaw nunude brihanta;;^, 
 dvita iiakshatram papratha/^ /^a bhuma. 
 
 ' Wise and mighty are the works of him 
 who stemmed asunder the wide firmaments 
 (heaven and earth). He lifted on high the 
 bright and glorious heaven ; he stretched out 
 apart the starry sky and the earth. 
 
 ' Do I say this to my own self? How can 
 I get near unto Varu;/a .^ Will he accept my 
 offering without displeasure? When shall I, 
 with a quiet mind, see him propitiated ? 
 
 ' I ask, O Varu;/a, wishing to know this my 
 sin ; I go to ask the wise. The sages all tell 
 me the same : '' Varu/^a it is who is angry with 
 thee." 
 
 ' Was it for an old sin, O Varu/^a, that thou 
 wishest to destroy thy friend, who always 
 praises thee ? Tell me, thou unconquerable 
 Lord ! and I will quickly turn to thee with 
 praise, freed from sin. 
 
 ' Absolve us from the sins of our fathers, and 
 from those which we committed with our own 
 bodies. Release Vasish//^a, O King, like a 
 
234 Lectures on the Science of Relig 
 
 ion. 
 
 thief who has feasted on stolen cattle ; release 
 him like a calf from the rope. 
 
 ' It was not our own doing, O Varu/^a, it was 
 a slip ; an intoxicating draught, passion, dice, 
 thoughtlessness. The old is there to mislead 
 the young ; even sleep is not free from mis- 
 chief. 
 
 ' Let me without sin give satisfaction to the 
 angry god, like a slave to his bounteous lord. 
 The lord god enlighteneth the foolish ; he, the 
 wisest, leads his worshipper to wealth. 
 
 ' O lord Varu;/a, may this song go well to 
 thy heart ! May we prosper in keeping and 
 acquiring! Protect us, O gods, always with 
 your blessings.' 
 / I am not blind to the blemishes of this 
 ancient prayer, but I am not blind to Its 
 beauty either, and I think you will admit that 
 the discovery of even one such poem among 
 the hymns of the Rig-veda, and the certainty 
 that such a poem was composed In India at 
 ' least three thousand years ago, without any 
 Inspiration but that which all can find who 
 seek for It If haply they may find It, Is well 
 worth the labour of a life. It shows that man 
 was never forsaken of God, and that conviction 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 235 
 
 is worth more to the student of history than all 
 the dynasties of Babylon and Egypt, worth 
 more than all lacustrian villages, worth more 
 than the skulls and jaw-bones of Neanderthal 
 or Abbeville. 
 
 My next extract will be from the Zendavesta, 
 the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, older in its 
 language than the cuneiform inscriptions of 
 Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes, those ancient kings of 
 Persia who knew that they were kings by the 
 grace of Auramazda, the Zend Almro mazddo^, 
 and who placed his sacred image high on the 
 mountain-records of Behistun. That ancient 
 book, or its fragments at least, have survived 
 many dynasties and kingdoms, and are still be- 
 lieved in by a small remnant of the Persian 
 race, now settled at Bombay, and known all 
 over the world by the name of Parsis. 
 
 The first extract is taken from the Yacna, 
 forming its thirtieth chapter. It has been 
 translated or, I should rather say, a decipher- 
 ment of it has been attempted by several 
 scholars, more particularly by Professor Spiegel 
 
 ^ Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. i. p. 239. 
 
236 Lectitres on the Science of Religion. 
 
 and Professor Haug\ It has also been referred 
 to by Bunsen in his 'God in History' (vol. i. 
 p. 277, of Miss Winkworth's translation), and I 
 may quote from him what will serve as a living, 
 though imaginary, background for this striking 
 hymn. 
 
 ' Let us picture to ourselves,' he writes, ' one 
 of the holy hills dedicated to the worship of 
 fire, in the neighbourhood of the primeval city 
 of marvels in Central Asia, — Bactra " the ^lo- 
 rious," now called Balkh, "the mother of cities." 
 From this hei2:ht we look down In Imaorlnation 
 over the elevated plateau, which lies nearly 
 2,000 feet above the level of the sea, sloping 
 downwards toward the North and endlne in 
 a sandy desert, which does not even allow 
 the stream Bactrus to reach the neio^hbourino^ 
 Oxus. On the southern horizon, the last spurs 
 of the HIndukush, or, as the historian of 
 Alexander terms it, the Indian Caucasus, rear 
 their lofty peaks 5,000 feet high. Out of 
 those hills, — the Paropamisus or HIndukush, — 
 springs the chief river of the country, the 
 
 ^ Essays on the Sacred Language of the Parsees, 1862, 
 p. 141. 
 
Lectures on the Sciejice of Religion. 237 
 
 Bactrus or Delias, which near the city divides 
 into hundreds of canals, making the face of the 
 country one blooming garden of richest fruits. 
 To this point converge the caravans, which 
 travel across the mountains to the land of 
 
 marvels, or bring treasures from thence 
 
 Thither, on occasion of the peaceful sacrifice 
 by fire, from whose ascending flame auguries 
 were to be drawn, Zarathustra had convened 
 the nobles of the land, that he might perform 
 a great public religious act. Arrived there, 
 at the head of his disciples, the seers and 
 preachers, he summons the princes to draw 
 nigh, and to choose between faith and super- 
 stition.' 
 
 I give the translation of the hymn, partly after 
 Spiegel, partly after Haug, and I have likewise 
 availed myself of some important emendations 
 proposed by Dr. Hubschmann ^ Yet, I must 
 confess that, in numerous passages, my trans- 
 lation is purely tentative, and all I can answer 
 for is the general tenour of the hymn. 
 
 ^ Ein Zoroastrisches Lied, mit Riicksicht auf die Tradition 
 ubersetzt und erklart von Dr. H. Hubschmann: Miinchen, 
 1872. 
 
238 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 1 Now I shall proclaim to all who have 
 come to listen, the praises of thee, the all-wise 
 Lord, and the hymns of Vohumano (the good 
 spirit). Wise Asha ! I ask that (thy) grace may 
 appear in the lights of heaven. 
 
 2 Hear with your ears what is best, per- 
 ceive with your mind what is pure, so that 
 every man may for himself choose his tenets 
 before the great doom ! May the wise be on 
 our side ! 
 
 3 Those old Spirits who are twins, made 
 known what is good and what is evil in 
 thoughts, words, and deeds. Those who are 
 good, distinguished between the two, not those 
 who are evil-doers. 
 
 4 When these two Spirits came together, 
 they made first life and death, so that there 
 should be at last the most wretched life for 
 the bad, but for the good blessedness. 
 
 5 Of these two Spirits the evil one chose 
 the worst deeds ; the kind Spirit, he whose 
 garment is the immovable sky, chose what is 
 right ; and they also who faithfully please 
 Ahuramazda by good works. 
 
 6 Those who worshipped the Devas and 
 were deceived, did not rightly distinguish be- 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 239 
 
 tween the two ; those who had chosen the 
 worst Spirit came to hold counsel together, 
 and ran to Aeshma in order to afflict the life 
 of man. 
 
 7 And to him (the good) came might, and 
 with wisdom virtue ; and the everlasting Ar- 
 maiti herself made his body vigorous ; it fell 
 to thee to be rich by her gifts. 
 
 8 But when the punishment of their crimes 
 will come, and, oh Mazda, thy power will be 
 known as the reward of piety for those who 
 delivered (Druj) falsehood into the hand of 
 Asha (truth), 
 
 9 Let us then be of those who further this 
 world; oh Ahuramazda, oh bliss-conferring Asha! 
 Let our mind be there where wisdom abides. 
 
 10 Then indeed there will be the fall of the 
 pernicious Druj, but in the beautiful abode of 
 Vohumano, of Mazda, and Asha, will be 
 gathered for ever those who dwell in good 
 report. 
 
 1 1 Oh men, if you cling to these com- 
 mandments which Mazda has oiven, . . . which 
 are a torment to the wicked, and a blessing 
 to the righteous, then there will be victory 
 through them.' 
 
240 Lectures on tJie Science of Religion. 
 
 The next three verses are taken from the 
 forty-third chapter of the Ya^na^ 
 
 ' I ask thee, tell me the truth, O Ahura ! 
 Who was from the beginning the father of the 
 pure world ? Who has made a path for the sun 
 and for the stars ? Who (but thou) makes the 
 moon to increase and to decrease ? That, O 
 Mazda, and other things, I wish to know. 
 
 ' I ask thee, tell me the truth, O Ahura ! 
 Who holds the earth and the clouds that they 
 do not fall ? Who holds the sea and the trees ? 
 Who has given swiftness to the wind and the 
 clouds ? Who is the creator of the good spirit ? 
 
 ' I ask thee, tell me the truth, O Ahura ! 
 Who has made the kindly light and the dark- 
 ness, who has made the kindly sleep and the 
 awaking ? Who has made the mornings, the 
 noons, and the nights, they who remind the 
 wise of his duty ?' 
 
 Whatever the difficulties may be, and they 
 are no doubt most formidable, that prevent us 
 from deciphering aright the words of the Zend- 
 avesta, so much is clear, that in the Bible of 
 
 1 Yasna, xliv. 3, ed. Brockhaus, p. 130; Spiegel, Yasna, 
 p. 146; Haug, Essays, p. 150. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 241 
 
 Zoroaster every man is called upon to take 
 his part in the great battle between Good and 
 Evil which is always going on, and is assured 
 that in the end good will prevail. 
 
 What shall I quote from Buddha ? for we have 
 so much left of his sayings and his parables that 
 it is indeed difficult to choose. In a collection 
 of his sayings, written in Pali — of which I have 
 lately published a translation ^ — we read : 
 
 ' I All that we are is the result of what we 
 have thought : it is founded on our thoughts, it 
 is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks 
 or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him 
 as the wheel follows the foot of him who draws 
 the cart. 
 
 ' 49 As the bee collects honey and departs 
 without injuring the flower, so let the sage 
 dwell on earth. 
 
 '62 " These sons belong to me, and this 
 wealth belongs to me," with such thoughts a 
 fool is tormented. He himself does not belong 
 to himself : how much less sons and wealth ! 
 
 ^ Buddhaghosha's Parables, translated from Burmese by 
 Captain Rogers ; with an Introduction containing Buddha's 
 ' Dhammapada ' or ' Path of Virtue,' translated from Pali by 
 IMax Miiller. London : Triibner and Co., 1870. 
 
 R 
 
242 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 ' 121 Let no man think lightly of evil, saying 
 in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. 
 Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his 
 heart, It will not benefit me. Even by the fall- 
 ing of water-drops a water-pot is filled. 
 
 '173 He whose evil deeds are covered by 
 good deeds, brightens up this world like the 
 moon when she rises from behind the clouds. 
 
 '223 Let a man overcome anger by love, 
 evil by good, the greedy by liberality, the liar 
 by truth. 
 
 ' 264 Not by tonsure does an undisciplined 
 man become a saint : can a man be a saint 
 who is still held captive by desires and greed- 
 iness ? 
 
 ' 394 What is the use of platted hair, O fool ? 
 what of the raiment of goat-skins ? Within thee 
 there is ravening, but the outside thou makest 
 clean.' 
 
 In no religion are we so constantly reminded 
 of our own as in B^uddhism, and yet in no reli- 
 gion has man been drawn away so far from the 
 truth as in the religion of Buddha. Buddhism 
 and Christianity are indeed the two opposite 
 poles with regard to the most essential points 
 of reliofion : Buddhism iofnorine all feelino: of 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 243 
 
 dependence on a higher power, and therefore ^ 
 denying the very existence of a supreme 
 Deity ; Christianity resting entirely on a beHef 
 in God as the Father, in the Son of Man as 
 the Son of God, and making us all children 
 of God by faith in His Son. Yet between 
 the language of Buddha and his disciples and 
 the language of Christ and His apostles there 
 are strange coincidences. Even some of the 
 Buddhist legends and parables sound as if 
 taken from the New Testament, though we 
 know that many of them existed before the 
 beo^inninof of the Christian era. 
 
 Thus one day Ananda, the disciple of Bud- 
 dha, after a long walk in the country, meets 
 with Matangi, a woman of the low caste of the 
 A"a;/<^alas, near a well, and asks her for some 
 water. She tells him what she is, and that 
 she must not come near him. But he replies, 
 * My sister, I ask not for thy caste or thy 
 family, I ask only for a draught of water.' 
 She afterwards becomes herself a disciple of 
 Buddha 1. 
 
 Sometimes the same doctrine which in the 
 
 ^ Burnouf, Introduction a THistoire du Buddhismc, p. 205. 
 R 2 
 
244 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 New Testament occurs in the simple form of 
 a commandment, is inculcated by the Buddhists 
 in the form of a parable. 
 
 A Buddhist priest, we read \ was preaching 
 to the multitudes that had gathered round him. 
 In the crowd there was a king whose heart was 
 full of sorrow, because he had no son to per- 
 petuate his race. While he was listening, the 
 preacher said '.■ — 
 
 ' To give away our riches is considered the 
 most difficult virtue in the world ; he who gives 
 away his riches is like a man who gives away 
 his life : for our very life seems to cling to our 
 riches. But Buddha, when his mind was moved 
 by pity, gave, his life, like grass, for the sake 
 of others ; why should we think of miserable 
 riches ! By this exalted virtue, Buddha, when 
 he was freed from all desires, and had obtained 
 divine knowledge, attained unto Buddhahood. 
 Therefore let a wise man, after he has turned 
 away his desires from all pleasures, do good 
 to all beings, even unto sacrificing his own life, 
 that thus he may attain to true knowledge. 
 
 ' Listen to me : There was formerly a prince, 
 
 * Somadeva, vi. 28, i seq. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 245 
 
 free from all worldly desires. Though he was 
 young and handsome, yet he left his palace, 
 and embraced the life of a travelling ascetic. 
 This ascetic coming one day to the house of 
 a merchant, was seen by his young wife, and 
 she, touched by the loveliness of his eyes, ex- 
 claimed : " How was this hard mode of life 
 embraced by such a one as thou art ? Blessed, 
 indeed, is that woman on whom thou lookest 
 with thy lovely eyes!" 
 
 'When he heard this, the ascetic plucked out 
 one eye, placed it into his hand, and said : 
 " Mother, look at this ! Take this hideous ball 
 of flesh, if you like it. The other eye is like 
 unto this ; tell me, what is there lovely in 
 them?"' 
 
 The preacher continued in the sam.e strain, 
 quoting other parables to the same purpose, 
 and finished by inculcating the lesson that the 
 true sage should neither care for riches, nor 
 for his life, and that he should not cling to 
 his wife and children, for they are like the 
 grass that is cast away. 
 
 It is impossible to read such parables without 
 beine reminded of verses of the Bible, such as 
 (Matt. V. 29) : ' And if thy right eye offend thee, 
 
14^ Lectures on the Science of Relis'ion. 
 
 pluck it out, and cast it from thee;' and again 
 (Matt. xix. 2i) : ' Every one that hath forsaken 
 houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or 
 mother, or wife, or children ;' and again (Luke 
 xli. 28) : ' The grass which is to-day in the field, 
 and to-morrov/ is cast into the oven.' 
 
 In 'the same collection, the Ocean of the 
 rivers of stories, by Somadeva (vi. 27), we 
 read of a merchant who had embraced the 
 religion of Sugata, and shewed great respect 
 to the Buddhist monks. His young son, how- 
 ever, despised his father, and called him a 
 sinner. 
 
 ' Why do you abuse me ?' said the father. 
 
 The son replied : ' You have abandoned the 
 law of the Vedas, and followed a new law 
 Avhich is no law. You have forsaken the 
 Brahmans, and worship the vS'rama/zas. What is 
 the use of the Saugata religion, which is fol- 
 lowed only by men of low birth, who want 
 to find a refuge in the monasteries, who are 
 happy when they have thrown away their loin 
 cloth, and shaved off every hair on their head ; 
 who eat whatever they please, and perform 
 neither ablutions nor penances?' 
 
 The father replied : ' There are different 
 
Lecticres on the Science of Religion. 247 
 
 forms of religion : one looks to another world, 
 the other is intended for the masses. But 
 surely true Brahmanism also consists in avoid- j 
 ing of passion, in truthfulness, kindness towards j 
 all beings, and in not recklessly breaking the : 
 rules of caste. Therefore you should net \ 
 always abuse my religion which grants pro- j 
 tectlon to all beings. For surely there is no i 
 doubt that to be kind cannot be unlawful, 5 
 and I know no other kindness but to give \ 
 protection to all living beings. Therefore if 
 I am too much attached to my religion whose 
 chief object is love, and whose end is deliver- ' 
 ance, what sin is there in me, O child?' 
 
 However, as the son did not desist from his 
 abuse, his father took him before the king, 
 and the king ordered him to be executed. 
 He granted him two months to prepare for 
 death. At the end of the two months the 
 son was brought before the king again, and 
 when the king saw that he had grown thin 
 and pale, he asked for the reason. The cul- 
 prit replied that seeing death approach nearer 
 and nearer every day, he could not think of 
 eating. Then the king told him, that he 
 threatened to have him executed in order 
 
248 Lecf teres on the Science of Religion. 
 
 that he might know the anguish that every 
 creature feels at the approach of death, and 
 that he might learn to respect a religion which 
 enforces compassion for all beings. Having 
 known the fear of death, he ought now to 
 strive after spiritual freedom, and never again 
 abuse his father's religion^. 
 
 The son was moved, and asked the king 
 how he could obtain spiritual freedom. The 
 king hearing that there was a fair In the town, 
 ordered the young man to take a vessel brimful 
 of oil, and to carry It through the streets of 
 the town without spilling a drop. Two execu- 
 tioners with drawn swords were to walk behind 
 him, and at the first drop being spilled, they 
 were to cut off his head. When the young 
 man, after having walked through all the 
 streets of the city, returned to the king with- 
 out having spilled one drop, the king said : ' Did 
 you to-day, while walking through the streets, 
 see anybody ?' 
 
 The young man replied : ' My thoughts were 
 fixed on the vessel, and I saw and heard no- 
 thing else.' 
 
 Cf. Mahavaw^a, p. 33. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 249 
 
 Then the king said : ' Let thy thought be 
 fixed ^ in the same way on the Highest! He 
 who is collected, and has ceased to care for 
 outward life, will see the truth, and having 
 seen the truth, wijl not be caught again by 
 the net of works ; thus I have taught you in 
 few words the way that leads to spiritual 
 freedom/ 
 
 According to Buddha, the motive of all our 
 actions should be pity or love for our neigh- 
 bour. 
 
 And as in Buddhism, so even in the writings 
 of Confucius we find again what we value most 
 in our own religion. I shall quote but one 
 saying of the Chinese sage^: 
 
 ' What you do not like when done to your- 
 self, do not do that to others.' 
 
 One passage only from the founder of the 
 second religion in China, from Lao-tse (cap. 
 
 25) : 
 
 ' There is an infinite Being, which existed 
 
 before heaven and earth. 
 
 'How calm it is! how free! 
 
 ' It lives alone, it chano^es not. 
 
 ^ Dr. Legge's Life and Teachings of Confucius, p. 47- 
 
250 Lectures on the Seieiiee of Religion. 
 
 ' It moves everywhere, but it never suffers. 
 
 ' We may look on it as the Mother of the 
 Universe. 
 
 '1,1 know not its name. 
 
 ' In order to give it a title, I call it Tao 
 (the Way). 
 
 ' When I try to give it a name, I call it 
 
 ' After calling it Great, I call it Fugitive. 
 
 ' After calling it Fugitive, I call it Distant. 
 
 ' After calling it Distant, I say it comes back 
 to me.' 
 
 Need I say that Greek and Roman writers 
 are full of the most exalted sentiments on re- 
 ligion and morality, in spite of their mythology 
 and in spite of their idolatry ? When Plato 
 says that men ought to strive after likeness 
 with God, do you think that he thought of 
 Jupiter, or Mars, or Mercury? When another 
 poet exclaimed that the conscience is a god 
 for all men, was he so very far from a know- 
 ledge of the true God ? 
 
 But even among black races of Africa where 
 we least expect it, we meet with the most 
 touching yearnings after the Divine, expressed 
 in language, half childish, and half childlike. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 251 
 
 One of the Zulus, whose confidence Dr. Calla- 
 way had gained, said to him^: 
 
 ' We did not hear first from the white men 
 about the King who is above. In summer- 
 time, when it thunders, we say, '' The King is 
 playing." And if there is one who is afraid, 
 the elder people say to him, "It is nothing 
 but fear. What thing belonging to the King 
 have you eaten ?" ' 
 
 Another very old man stated (p. 50) : ' When 
 we were children, it was said : " The King is 
 in heaven." We used constantly to hear this 
 w^hen we were children ; they used to point to 
 the King on high ; we did not hear his name ; 
 we heard only that the King is on high. We 
 heard it said that the creator of the world (Um- 
 dabuko) is the King which is above (p. 60)." ' 
 
 A very old woman when examined by one 
 of her own countrymen, said (p. 53) : ' When 
 we speak of the origin of corn, asking, "Whence 
 came this ?" the old people said, " It came from 
 the creator who created all things ; but we do 
 not know him." When we asked continually, 
 " Where is the creator ? for our chiefs we see," 
 
 Dr. Callaway, Unkulunkulu, p. 19. 
 
252 LecUires on the Science of Religio7i. 
 
 the old men denied, saying, " And those chiefs, 
 too, whom we see, they were created by the 
 creator." And when we asked, '' Where is he ? 
 for he Is not visible at all ; where Is he then ? " 
 we heard our fathers pointing towards heaven, 
 and saying, '' The Creator of all things Is In 
 heaven. And there is a nation of people there, 
 too . , . ." It used to be said constantly, '' He 
 is the King of kings." Also when we heard 
 it said that the heaven had eaten the cattle 
 at such a village (i.e. when the lightning had 
 struck them), we said, " The King has taken 
 the cattle from such a village." And when 
 it thundered the people took courage by say- 
 ing, '' The King is playing." ' 
 
 Again, another very old man, belonging to 
 the Amantanja tribe, who showed four wounds, 
 and whose people had been scattered by the 
 armies of Utshaka, said (p. 56) : ' The old faith 
 of our forefathers was this ; they said, " There 
 is Unkulunkulu, who Is a man, who Is of the 
 earth." And they used to say, " There is a 
 king In heaven." When it hailed, and thun- 
 dered, they said, " The king is arming ; he 
 will cause it to hail ; put things in order." . . 
 As to the source of being I know that only 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 253 
 
 which is in heaven (p. 59). The ancient men 
 said, "The source of being (Umdabuko) is 
 above, which gives Hfe to men " .... It was 
 said at first, the rain came from the King, 
 and that the sun came from him, and the 
 moon which gives a white Hght during the 
 night, that men may go and not be injured. 
 
 ' If lightning struck cattle, the people were 
 not distressed. It used to be said (p. 60) : 
 " The King has slaughtered for himself among 
 his own food. Is it yours ? Is it not the 
 King's? He is hungry; he kills for himself." 
 If a village is struck by lightning, and a cow 
 is killed, it is said, " This village will be pros- 
 perous." If a man is struck and dies, it is 
 said, " The King has found fault with him." ' 
 
 Another name of the Creator is Itongo, the 
 Spirit, and this is the account given by a 
 native (p. 94): 'When he says Itongo, he is 
 not speaking of a man who has died and 
 risen again ; he is speaking of the Up-bearer 
 of the earth, which supports men and cattle. 
 The Up-bearer is the earth by which we live ; 
 and there' is the Up-bearer of the earth by 
 which we live, and without which we could not 
 be, and by which we are.' 
 
254 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 Thus we find among a people who were said 
 to be without any reHgious Hfe, widiout any 
 idea of a Divine power, that some of the most 
 essential elements of religion are fully deve- 
 loped, — a belief in an invisible God, the Creator 
 of all things, residing in heaven, sending rain 
 and hail and thunder, punishing the wicked, 
 and claiming his sacrifice from among the 
 cattle on a thousand hills. This shows how 
 careful we should be before we accept purely 
 neofative evidence on the religfion or the ab- 
 sence of all religion among savage tribes. 
 Suppose an educated native of India or China 
 were to appear suddenly in the Black country, 
 and address some questions in scarcely intel- 
 ligible English^ to a dust-begrimed coal-heaver, 
 and ask him what his ancestors had told him 
 about the source of beinof — what account would 
 he give to his countrymen of the state of reli- 
 gious faith in England, if all his information 
 had been o-athered from the answers which he 
 
 ^ P. 67. 'On the arrival of the English in this land of 
 ours, the first who came was a missionary named Uyegana. 
 On his arrival he taught the people, but they did not under- 
 stand what he said .... and although he did not understand 
 the people's language, he jabbered constantly to the people, 
 and they could not understand what he said.' 
 
LecUires on the Science of Religion. 255 
 
 would be likely to receive from such witnesses ! 
 Perhaps he would never hear the name of God 
 except In a ' God bless you !' which people 
 uttered In England as v/ell as In Germany ani^l 
 many other countries, when any one present 
 sneezed. It was In such an exclamation that 
 Dr. Callaway first discovered one of the names 
 of the deity among the Zulus. Asking an 
 old man who lived at the mission station, 
 whether the word Utik;ro had come Into use 
 after the arrival of the missionaries, he re- 
 ceived the answer (p. 64) : ' No ; the word 
 Utikjtro Is not a word we learnt from the 
 English ; It Is an old word of our own. It 
 used to be always said when a man sneezes, 
 *' May Utlk.ro ever regard me with favour." ' 
 This Utlk.ro was supposed to have been con- 
 cealed by Unkulunkulu (p. 6^^, and to be seen 
 by no one. Men saw Unkulunkulu, and said 
 that he was the creator of all things (Umvell- 
 ^angl) ; they said this, because they did not see 
 Him who made Unkulunkulu ; they therefore 
 said that Unkulunkulu was God. 
 
 After these crude fragments picked up 
 among the uncultured races of Africa, who 
 have not yet arrived at any positive form of 
 
256 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 faith, let us now, in conclusion, look at a few 
 specimens of religious thought, emanating from 
 those who no longer hold to any positive form 
 of faith. I take as their representative Faizi, the 
 brother of Abulfazl, one of that small company 
 at the Court of the Emperor Akbar, who, after 
 a comparative study of the religions of the world, 
 had renounced the religion of Mohammad, and 
 for whom, as we saw \ the orthodox Badaoni 
 could not invent invective strong enough to 
 express his horror. Faizi was one of those men 
 whom their contemporaries call heretics and blas- 
 phemers, but whom posterity often calls Saints 
 and Martyrs, the salt of the earth, the light of 
 the world; a man of real devotion, real love 
 for his fellow-creatures, real faith in God, the 
 Unknown God, whom we ignorantly worship, 
 whom no human thoudit and no human laneuaee 
 can declare, and whose altar, — the same that 
 St. Paul saw at Athens — will remain standing 
 
 o 
 
 for ever in the hearts of all true believers. 
 
 ' Take Faizi's Dlwan to bear witness to the 
 wonderful speeches of a free-thinker who be- 
 longs to a thousand sects. 
 
 ^ See p. 80. 
 
Lectures on the Sciejice of Religion. 257 
 
 ' I have become dust, but from the odour 
 of my grave, people shall know that man rises 
 from such dust. 
 
 ' They may know Faizi's^ end from the be- 
 ginning : without an equal he goes from the 
 world, and without an equal he rises. 
 
 ' In the assembly of the day of resurrection, 
 when past things shall be forgiven, the sins of 
 the Ka'bah will be forgiven for the sake of the 
 dust of Christian churches I 
 
 ' O Thou who existest from eternity and 
 abidest for ever, sight cannot bear Thy light, 
 praise cannot express Thy perfection. 
 
 ' Thy light melts the understanding, and 
 Thy glory baffles wisdom ; to think of Thee 
 destroys reason. Thy essence confounds 
 thought. 
 
 ' Thy holiness pronounces that the blood- 
 drops of human meditation are shed in vain 
 
 ^ Faizi means also the heart. 
 
 ^ The sins of Islam are as worthless as the dust of Christi- 
 anity. On the day of resurrection, both Muhammadans and 
 Christians will see the vanity of their religious doctrines. 
 Men fight about religion on earth ; in heaven they shall find 
 out that there is only one true religion, the worship of God's 
 spirit. 
 
 S 
 
258 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 in search of Thy knowledge : human under- 
 standine is but an atom of dust. 
 
 ' Thy jealousy, the guard of Thy door, stuns 
 human thought by a blow in the face, and 
 gives human ignorance a slap on the nape of 
 the neck. 
 
 ' Science is like blinding sand of the desert 
 on the road to Thy perfection. The town of 
 literature is a mere hamlet compared with the 
 world of Thy knowledge. 
 
 ' My foot has no power to travel on this 
 path which misleads sages ; I have no power 
 to bear the odour of the wine, it confounds 
 my mind. 
 
 ' Man's so-called foresight and guiding rea- 
 son wander about bewildered in the city of 
 Thy glory. 
 
 ' Human knowledge and thought combined 
 can only spell the first letter of the alphabet 
 of Thy love. 
 
 ' Mere beginners and such as are far 
 advanced in knowledge are both eao^er for 
 
 o o 
 
 union with Thee ; but the beginners are 
 tattlers, and those that are advanced are 
 triflers. 
 
 ' Each brain is full of thought of grasping 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 259 
 
 Thee ; the brow of Plato even burned with 
 the fever-heat of this hopeless thought. 
 
 ' How shall a thoughtless man like me suc- 
 ceed, when Thy jealousy strikes a dagger into 
 the liver of saints ? 
 
 ' O that Thy grace would cleanse my brain ; 
 for if not, my restlessness will end in madness. 
 
 ' To bow down the head upon the dust of 
 Thy threshold and then to look up, is neither 
 right in faith, nor permitted by truth.' 
 
 ' O man, thou coin bearing the double stamp 
 of body and spirit, I do not know what thy 
 nature is ; for thou art higher than heaven 
 and lower than earth. 
 
 ' Thy frame contains the image of the hea- 
 venly and the lower regions ; be either hea- 
 venly or earthly, thou art at liberty to choose. 
 
 * Do not act against thy reason, for it is a 
 trustworthy counsellor ; put not thy heart on 
 illusions, for the heart is a lying fool. 
 
 ' If thou wishest to understand the secret 
 meaning of the words, " to prefer the welfare 
 of others to thy own," treat thyself with poison, 
 and others with sugar. 
 
 S 2 
 
25o Lectures on the Science of Religion, 
 
 ' Accept misfortune with a joyful look, if 
 thou art in the service of Him whom people 
 serve. 
 
 ' Plunged into the wisdom of Greece, my 
 mind rose again from the deep in the land of 
 Ind ; be thou as if thou hadst fallen into this 
 deep abyss (of my knowledge, i. e. learn of 
 me). 
 
 ' If people would withdraw the veil from the 
 face of my knowledge, they would find that 
 what those who are far advanced in knowledge 
 call certainty, is with me the faintest dawn of 
 thought. 
 
 ' If people would take the screen from the 
 eye of my knowledge, they would find that 
 what is revelation (ecstatic knowledge) for the 
 wise, is but drunken madness for me. 
 
 ' If I were to bring forth what is In my 
 mind, I wonder whether the spirit of the age 
 could bear it. 
 
 ' My vessel does not require the wine of the 
 friendship of time ; my own blood is the basis 
 of the wine of my enthusiasm.' 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 261 
 
 I wish we could explore together in this 
 spirit the ancient religions of mankind, for 1 
 feel convinced that the more we know of them, 
 the more we shall see that there is not one 
 which is entirely false ; nay, that in one sense 
 every religion was a true religion, being the 
 only religion which was possible at the time, 
 which was compatible with the language, the 
 thoughts, and the sentiments of each genera- 
 tion, which was appropriate to the age of the 
 world. I know full well the objections that 
 will be made to this. Was the worship of 
 Moloch, it will be said, a true religion when 
 they burnt their sons and their daughters in 
 the fire to their gods ? Was the worship of 
 Mylitta, or is the worship of Kali a true re- 
 ligion, when within the sanctuary of their 
 temples they committed abominations that 
 must be nameless ? Was the teaching of 
 Buddha a true religion, when men were asked 
 to believe that the highest reward of virtue 
 and meditation consisted in a complete an- 
 nihilation of the soul ? 
 
 Such arguments may tell in party warfare, 
 though even there they have provoked fearful 
 retaliation. Can that be a true religion, it 
 
2^2 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 has been answered, which consigned men of 
 holy innocence to the flames, because they 
 held that the Son was like unto the Father, 
 but not the same as the Father, or because 
 they would not worship the Virgin and the 
 Saints ? Can that be a true religion which 
 screened the same nameless crimes behind the 
 sacred walls of monasteries ? Can that be a 
 true religion which taught the eternity of 
 punishment without any hope of pardon or 
 salvation for the sinner, however penitent ? 
 
 People who judge of religions in that spirit 
 will never understand their real purport, will 
 never reach their sacred springs. These are 
 the excrescences, the inevitable excrescences of 
 all religions. We might as well judge of the 
 health of a people from its hospitals, or of Its 
 morality from its prisons. If we want to judge 
 of a religion, we must try to study it as much 
 as possible in the mind of its founder ; and 
 when that Is impossible, as it is but too often, 
 try to find it in the lonely chamber and the 
 sick-room, rather than in the colleges of augurs 
 and the councils of priests. 
 
 If we do this, and If we bear in mind that 
 religion must accommodate Itself to the Intel- 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 263 
 
 lectual capacities of those whom it is to influ- 
 ence, Vv^e shall be surprised to find much of 
 true religion where we only expected degrad- 
 ing superstition or an absurd worship of idols. 
 
 The intention of religion, wherever we meet 
 it, is always holy. However imperfect, how- 
 ever childish a religion may be, it always places 
 the human soul in the presence of God ; and 
 however imperfect and however childish the 
 conception of God may be, it always repre- 
 sents the highest ideal of perfection which the 
 human soul, for the time being, can reach and 
 grasp. Religion therefore places the human 
 soul in the presence of its highest ideal, it 
 lifts it above the level of ordinary goodness, 
 and produces at least a yearning after a higher 
 and better life — a life in the light of God. 
 
 The expression that is given to these early 
 manifestations of religious sentiment is no 
 doubt frequently childish : it may be irreverent 
 or even repulsive. But has not every father 
 to learn the lesson of a charitable interpreta- 
 tion in watching the first stammerings of re- 
 ligion in his children ? Why, then, should 
 people find it so difiicult to learn the same 
 lesson in the ancient history of the world, 
 
264 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 and to judge in the same spirit the reHgious 
 utterances of the childhood of the human race ? 
 Who does not recollect the startling and seem- 
 ingly irreverent questionings of children about 
 God, and who does not know how perfectly 
 guiltless the child's mind is of real irrever- 
 ence ? Such outbursts of infantine religion 
 hardly bear repeating. I shall only mention 
 one instance. I well recollect the dismay which 
 was created by a child exclaiming, ' Oh ! I wish 
 there was at least one room in the house where 
 I could play alone, and where God could not 
 see me ! ' People who heard it were shocked ; 
 but to my mind, I confess, this childish ex- 
 clamation sounded more truthful and wonder- 
 ful than even the Psalm of David, ' Whither 
 shall I go from Thy Spirit ? or whither shall 
 I flee from Thy presence ? ' 
 
 It is the same with the childish language 
 of ancient religion. We say very calmly that 
 God is omniscient and omnipresent. Hesiod 
 speaks of the sun, as the eye of Zeus, that 
 sees and perceives everything. Aratus wrote, 
 ' Full of Zeus are all the streets, all the 
 markets of men ; full of Him is the sea and the 
 harbours .... and we are also His offspring.' 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 265 
 
 A Vedic poet, though of more modern date 
 than the one I quoted before, speaking of 
 the same Varu/^a whom Vaslsh//^a invoked, 
 says : ' The great lord of these worlds sees 
 as if he were near. If a man thinks he is 
 walking by stealth, the gods know it all. If 
 a man stands or walks or rides, if he goes 
 to lie down or to get up, what two people 
 sitting together whisper, King Varu/^a knows 
 it, he is there as a third. This earth, too, 
 belongs to Varu;/a, the king, and this wide 
 sky with its ends far apart. The two seas 
 (the sky and the ocean) are Varu/^a's loins ; 
 he is also contained in this small drop of 
 water. He who should flee far beyond the 
 sky, even he would not be rid of Varu/m, the 
 king. His spies proceed from heaven towards 
 this world ; with thousand eyes they overlook 
 this earth. King Varuj^/a sees all this, what 
 is between heaven and earth, and what is be- 
 yond. He has counted the twinklings of our 
 eyes. As a player throws down the dice, he 
 settles all things ^' 
 
 ^ Chips from a German Workshop, i. 41. Atharva-veda , 
 iv. 16. 
 
266 Lectures on tJie Science of Religion. 
 
 I do not deny that there is in this hymn 
 much that is childish, that it contains expres- 
 sions unworthy of the majesty of the Deity ; 
 but if I look at the langfuagfe and the thouo^hts 
 of the people who composed these hymns more 
 than three thousand years ago, I wonder rather 
 at the happy and pure expression which they 
 have given to these deep thoughts than at 
 the occasional harshnesses which jar upon our 
 ears. 
 
 These are the words of a Hindu convert, 
 when he went back to India to preach the 
 Gospel : ' Now I am not going to India to 
 injure the feelings of the people by saying, 
 " Your Scripture is all nonsense, anything out- 
 side the Old and New Testament is good for 
 nothing." No, I tell you, I will appeal to 
 the Hindu philosophers and moralists and 
 poets, at the same time bringing to them my 
 light, and reasoning with them in the spirit 
 of Christ. That will be my work. We have 
 sayings to this effect : ''He who would be 
 greatest shall be least" You cannot call this 
 nonsense, for it is the saying of our Saviour, 
 " Whosoever would be chief among you, let 
 him be your servant." The missionaries, kind, 
 
Lecture? on the Science of Religion. 26y 
 
 earnest, devoted as they are, do not know 
 these things, and at once exclude everything 
 bearing the name of Hindu. Go to Egypt, 
 and you will find some pieces of stone, beauti- 
 fully carved and ornamented, that seem to 
 have been part of some large building, and 
 by examining these, you can imagine how 
 maenificent this structure must have been. 
 Go to India, and examine the common sayings 
 of the people, and you will be surprised to 
 see what a splendid religion the Hindu religion 
 must have been \' 
 
 Ancient language is a difficult instrument 
 to handle, particularly for religious purposes. 
 It is impossible to express abstract ideas ex- 
 cept by metaphor, and it is not too much to 
 say that the whole dictionary of ancient re- 
 ligion is made up of metaphors. With us 
 these metaphors are all forgotten. We speak 
 of spirit without thinking of breath, of heaven 
 without thinking of the sky, of pardon without 
 thinking of a release, of revelation without 
 thinking of a veil. But in ancient language 
 
 ^ Brief Account of Joguth Chundra Gangooly, a Brahman 
 of High Caste and a Convert to Christianity. London, i860. 
 
268 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 every one of these words, nay, every word 
 that does not refer to sensuous objects, is still 
 in a chrysalis stage : half material and half 
 soiritual, and risinof and falline in its character 
 according to the varying capacities of speakers 
 and hearers. Here is a constant source of 
 misunderstandings, many of which have main- 
 tained their place in the religion and in the 
 mythology of the ancient world. There are 
 two distinct tendencies to be observed in the 
 growth of ancient religion. There is, on the 
 one side, the struggle of the mind against 
 the material character of language, a constant 
 attempt to strip vv^ords of their coarse covering, 
 and fit them, by main force, for the purposes 
 of abstract thought. But there is, on the other 
 side, a constant relapse from the spiritual into 
 the material, and, strange to say, a predilection 
 for the material sense instead of the spiritual. 
 This action and reaction has been croine on 
 
 o o 
 
 in the language of religion from the earliest 
 times, and it is at work even now. 
 
 It seems at first a fatal element in religion 
 that it cannot escape from this fiux and reflux 
 of human thought, which is repeated at least 
 once in every generation between father and 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 269 
 
 son, between mother and daughter ; but if we 
 watch it more closely we shall find, I think, 
 that this flux and reflux constitutes the very 
 life of religion. 
 
 Place yourselves in the position of those 
 who first are said to have worshipped the 
 sky. We say that they worshipped the sky, 
 or that the sky was their god ; and in one 
 sense this is true, but in a sense very dif- 
 ferent from that which is usually attached to 
 such statements. If we use 'god' in the sense 
 which it has now, then to say that the sky 
 was their god is to say what is simply impos- 
 sible. Such a word as God, in the sense in 
 which we use it — such a word even as deus 
 and ^€09, in Latin and Greek, or deva in San- 
 skrit, which could be used as a general pre- 
 dicate — did not and could not exist at that 
 early time in the history of thought and speech. 
 If we want to understand ancient religion, we 
 must first try to understand ancient language. 
 
 Let us remember, then, that the first mate- 
 rials of language supply expressions for such 
 impressions only as are received through the 
 senses. If, therefore, there was a root mean- 
 ing to burn, to be bright, to warm, such a 
 
270 Lecttcres o?i the Science of Religion. 
 
 root might supply a recognised name for the 
 sun and for the sky. 
 
 But let us now imagine, as well as we can, 
 the process which went on in the human mind 
 before the name of sky could be torn away 
 from its material object and be used as the 
 name of something totally different from the 
 sky. There was in the heart of man, from 
 the very first, a feeling of incompleteness, of 
 weakness, of dependence, whatever we like to 
 call it in our abstract language. We can ex- 
 plain it as little as we can explain why the 
 newborn child feels the cravino-s of hunger 
 and thirst. But it was so from the first, and 
 is so even now. Man knows not whence he 
 comes and whither he goes. He looks for a 
 guide, for a friend ; he wearies for some one 
 on whom he can rest ; he wants something 
 like a father in heaven. In addition to all 
 the impressions which he received from the 
 outer world, there was in the heart of man a 
 stronger impulse from within — a sigh, a yearn- 
 ing, a call for something that should not come 
 and go like everything else, that should be 
 before, and after, and for ever, that should 
 hold and support everything, that should make 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 271 
 
 man feel at home in this strange world. Be- 
 fore this vague yearning could assume any 
 definite shape it wanted a name : it could not 
 be fully grasped or clearly conceived except 
 by naming it. But where to look for a name ? 
 No doubt the storehouse of lano^uagfe was 
 there, but from every name that was tried 
 the mind of man shrank back because it did 
 not fit, because it seemed to fetter rather than 
 to wing the thought that fluttered within and 
 called for light and freedom. 
 
 But when at last a name or even many 
 names were tried and chosen, let us see what 
 took place, as far as the mind of man was 
 concerned. A certain satisfaction, no doubt, 
 was gained by having a name or several 
 names, however imperfect ; but these names, 
 like all other namies, were but signs — poor, 
 imperfect signs ; they were predicates, and 
 very partial predicates, of various small por- 
 tions only of that vague and vast something 
 which slumbered in the mind. When the name 
 of the brilliant sky had been chosen, as it 
 has been chosen at one time or other by 
 nearly every nation upon earth, was sky the 
 full expression of that within the mind which 
 
2/2 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 wanted expression ? Was the mind satisfied ? 
 Had the sky been recognised as its god ? 
 Far from it. People knew perfectly well what 
 they meant by the visible sky ; the first man 
 who, after looking everywhere for what he 
 wanted, and who at last in sheer exhaustion 
 grasped at the name of sky as better than 
 nothing, knew but too well that his success 
 was after all a miserable failure. The bril- 
 liant sky was, no doubt, the most exalted, 
 it was the only unchanging and infinite being 
 that had received a name, and that could 
 lend its name to that as yet unborn idea of 
 the Infinite which disquieted the human mind. 
 But let us only see this clearly, that the man 
 who chose that name did not mean, could not 
 have meant, that the visible sky was all he 
 wanted, that the blue canopy above was his 
 god. 
 
 And now observe what happens when the 
 name sky has thus been given and accepted. 
 The seeking and finding of such a name, how- 
 ever imperfect, was the act of a manly mind, 
 of a poet, of a prophet, of a patriarch, who 
 could struggle, like another Jacob, with the 
 idea of God that was within him, till he had 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 273 
 
 conceived it, and brouo^ht it forth, and o-iven 
 it its name. But when that name had to be 
 used with the young and the aged, with silly 
 children and doting grandmxOthers, it was im- 
 possible to preserve it from being misunder- 
 stood. The first step downwards would be 
 to look upon the sky as the abode of that 
 Being which was called by the same name ; 
 the next step would be to forget altogether 
 what was behind the name, and to implore 
 the sky, the visible canopy over our heads, 
 to send rain, to protect the fields, the cattle, 
 and the corn, to give to man his daily bread. 
 Nay, very soon those who warned the world 
 that it was not the visible sky that was meant, 
 but that what was meant was something high 
 above, deep below, far away from the blue firma- 
 ment, would be looked upon either as dreamers 
 whom no one could understand, or as unbe- 
 lievers who despised the sky, the great bene- 
 factor of the world. Lastly, many things that 
 were true of the visible sky would be told of 
 its divine namesake, and legends would spring 
 up, destroying every trace of the deity that 
 once was hidden beneath that ambiguous 
 name. 
 
 T 
 
2/4 Lectures on the Sciejice of Religion. 
 
 I call this variety of acceptation, this mis- 
 understanding, which is Inevitable in ancient 
 and also In modern religion, the dialectic 
 growth and decay, or, If you like, the dialectic 
 life of religion, and we shall see again and 
 again, how important it Is In enabling us to 
 form a right estimate of religious language 
 and thought. The dialectic shades in the lan- 
 guage of religion are almost Infinite ; they ex- 
 plain the decay, but they also account for the 
 life of religion. You may remember that 
 Jacob Grimm, In one of his poetical moods, 
 explained the origin of High and Low Ger- 
 man, of Sanskrit and Prakrit, of Doric and 
 Ionic, by looking upon the high dialects as 
 originally the language of men, upon the low 
 dialects as originally the language of women 
 and children. We can observe, I believe, the 
 same parallel streams in the language of re- 
 ligion. There Is a high and there is a low 
 dialect ; there Is a broad and there Is a nar- 
 row dialect ; there are dialects for men and 
 dialects for children, for clergy and laity, for 
 the noisy streets and for the still and lonely 
 chamber. And as the child on growing up to 
 manhood has to unlearn the language of the 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religion. 275 
 
 nursery, its religion, too, has to be translated 
 from a feminine into a more masculine dialect. 
 This does not take place without a struggle, 
 and it Is this constantly recurring struggle, 
 this inextinguishable desire to recover itself, 
 which keeps religion from utter stagnation. 
 From first to last religion Is oscillating be- 
 tween these two opposite poles, and it is only 
 if the attraction of one of the two poles be- 
 comes too strong, that the healthy movement 
 ceases, and stagnation and decay set in. If 
 religion cannot accommodate Itself on the one 
 side to the capacity of children, or If on the 
 other side it fails to satisfy the requirements 
 of men, it has lost Its vitality, and it be- 
 comes either mere superstition or mere phi- 
 losophy. 
 
 If I have succeeded in expressing myself 
 clearly, I think you will understand In what 
 sense It may be said that there is truth in all 
 religions, even In the lowest. The intention 
 which led to the first utterance of a name like 
 sky, used no longer In Its material sense, but 
 In a higher sense, was right. The spirit was 
 willing, but language was weak. The mental 
 process was not, as commonly supposed, an 
 
 T 2 
 
27^ Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 identification of the definite idea of deity with 
 sky. Such a process is hardly conceivable. It 
 was, on the contrary, a first attempt at defining 
 the indefinite impression of deity by a name 
 that should approximately or metaphorically 
 render at least one of its most prominent fea- 
 tures. The first framer of that name of the 
 deity, I repeat it again, could as little have 
 thought of the material heaven as we do when 
 we speak of the kingdom of heaven \ 
 
 And now let us observe another feature of 
 ancient religion that has often been so startling, 
 but which, if we only remember what is the 
 nature of ancient language, becomes likewise 
 perfectly intelligible. It is well known that 
 ancient languages are particularly rich in syno- 
 nymes, or, to speak more correctly, that in 
 them the same object is called by many names 
 — is, in fact, polyonymous. While in modern 
 languages most objects have one name only, 
 we find in ancient Sanskrit, in ancient Greek 
 and Arabic, a large choice of words for the 
 same object. This is perfectly natural. Each 
 name could express one side only of whatever 
 
 Medhurst, Inquiry, p. 20. 
 
LcctW'es on the Science of Religion. Q.'jy 
 
 had to be named, and, not satisfied with one 
 partial name, the early framers of language 
 produced one name after the other, and after a 
 time retained those which seemed most useful 
 for special purposes. Thus, the sky might be 
 called not only the brilliant, but the dark, the 
 covering, the thundering, the rain-giving. This 
 is the polyonomy of language, and it is what 
 we are accustomed to c?^ polytheism in religion. 
 The same mental yearning which found its 
 first satisfaction in using the name of the bril- 
 liant sky as an indication of the Divine, would 
 soon grasp at other names of the sky, not ex- 
 pressive of brilliancy, and therefore more ap- 
 propriate to a religious mood in which the 
 Divine was conceived as dark, awful, all- 
 powerful. Thus we find by the side of Dyaus, 
 another name of the covering sky, Varu/^a, ori- 
 ginally only another attempt at naming the Di- 
 vine, but which, like the name of Dyaus, soon 
 assumed a separate and independent existence. 
 And this is not all. The very imperfection 
 of all the names that had been chosen, their 
 very inadequacy to express the fulness and 
 infinity of the Divine, would keep' up the 
 search for new names, till at last every part 
 
2/8 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 of nature in which an approach to the Divine 
 could be discovered was chosen as a name of 
 the Omnipresent. If the presence of the 
 Divine was perceived in the strong wind, the 
 strong wind became its name ; if its presence 
 w^as perceived in the earthquake and the fire, 
 the earthquake and the fire became its names. 
 
 Do you still wonder at polytheism or at 
 mythology ? Why, they are inevitable. They 
 are, if you like, a parlcr enfantin of religion. 
 But the world has its childhood, and when it 
 was a child it spoke as a child, it understood 
 as a child, it thought as a child ; and, I say 
 again, in that it spoke as a child its language 
 was true, in that it believed as a child its 
 religion was true. The fault rests with us, if 
 we insist on takinor the lano^uaoe of children 
 
 o o o 
 
 for the language of men, if we attempt to 
 translate literally ancient into modern lan- 
 guage, oriental into occidental speech, poetry 
 into prose. 
 
 It is perfectly true that at present few in- 
 terpreters, if any, would take such expressions 
 as the head, the face, the mouth, the lips, the 
 breath of Jehovah in a literal sense. 
 
Lectures on the Science of Religioji. 279 
 
 Per questo la Scrittura condescende 
 A vostra facultate, e piedi e mano 
 Attribulsce a DIo, et altro intended 
 
 But what does it mean, then, if we hear one 
 of our most honest and most learned theolo- 
 gians declare that he can no longer read from 
 the altar the words of the Bible, ' God spake 
 these words and said' ? If we can make allow- 
 ance for mouth and lips and breath, we can 
 surely make the same allowance for words and 
 their utterance. The language of antiquity is 
 the language of childhood : ay, and we our- 
 selves, when we try to reach the Infinite and 
 the Divine by means of more abstract terms, 
 are we even now better than children trying 
 to place a ladder against the sky? 
 
 The parler enfantm in religion is not ex- 
 tinct ; it never will be. Not only have some 
 of the ancient childish religions been kept 
 alive, as, for instance, the religion of India, 
 which is to my mind like a half-fossilised 
 megatherion walking about in the broad day- 
 light of the nineteenth century ; but in our 
 own religion and in the language of the New 
 
 ^ Dante, Paradise, iv. 44-46. 
 
28o Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 Testament, there are many things which dis- 
 close their true meaning to those only who 
 know what lanofuao^e is made of, who have 
 not only ears to hear, but a heart to under- 
 stand the real meaning of parables. 
 
 What I maintain, then, is this, that as we 
 put the most charitable interpretation on the 
 utterances of children, we ought to put the 
 same charitable interpretation on the apparent 
 absurdities, the follies, the errors, nay, even the 
 horrors of ancient religion. When we read of 
 Belus, the supreme god of the Babylonians, 
 cutting off his head, that the blood flowing 
 from it might be mixed with the dust out of 
 which man was to be formed, this sounds hor- 
 rible enough ; but depend upon it what was 
 originally intended by this myth was no more 
 than this, that, there is in man an element of 
 Divine life : that 'we are also His offspring.' 
 
 The same idea existed in the ancient religion 
 of the Egyptians, for we read, in the 17th 
 chapter of their Ritual, that the Sun mutilated 
 himself, and that from the stream of his blood 
 he created all beings ^ And the author of 
 
 ^ Vicomte de Rouge, in Annales de Philosophic chretienne, 
 Nov. 1869, p. 332. 
 
Lecttnrs on the Science of Religion. 281 
 
 Genesis, too, when he wishes to express the 
 same idea, can only use the same human and 
 symboHcal. language ; he can only say that 
 ' God formed man from the dust of the 
 ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
 breath of life/ 
 
 If we have once learnt to be charitable and 
 reasonable in the interpretation of the sacred 
 books of other religions, we shall more easily 
 learn to be charitable and reasonable in the 
 interpretation of our own. We shall no longer 
 try to force a literal sense on words which, if 
 interpreted literally, must lose their true and 
 original purport, we shall no longer interpret 
 the Law and the Prophets as if they had been 
 written in ^he English of our own century, but 
 read them in a truly historical spirit, prepared 
 for many difficulties, undismayed by any con- 
 tradictions, which, so far from disproving the 
 authenticity, become to the historian of ancient 
 lanofuao^e and ancient thought the stroneest 
 confirmatory evidence of the age, the genuine- 
 ness, and the real truth of ancient sacred books. 
 Let us but treat our own sacred books with 
 neither more nor less mercy than the sacred 
 books of any other nations, and they will soon 
 
282 Lectures on the Science of Religion. 
 
 regain that position and Influence which they 
 once possessed, but which the artificial and 
 unhlstorlcal theories of the last three centuries 
 have well-nigh destroyed. 
 
ON 
 
 FALSE ANALOGIES 
 
 IN 
 
 COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY^ 
 
 "\ TERY different from the real similarities 
 that can be discovered In nearly all the 
 religions of the world, and which, owing to 
 their deeply human character, in no way ne- 
 cessitate the admission that one religion bor- 
 rowed from the other, are those minute co- 
 incidences between the Jewish and the Pagan 
 relio-Ions which have so often been discussed 
 by learned theologians, and which were in- 
 tended by them as proof positive, either that 
 the Paeans borrowed their religious ideas 
 direct from the Old Testament, or that some 
 fragments of a primeval revelation, granted 
 to the ancestors of the whole race of man- 
 kind, had been preserved in the temples of 
 Greece and Italy. 
 
 ^ Reprinted from the Contemporary Review, April, 1870, 
 ' A Chapter of Accidents in Comparative Theology.' 
 
284 On False Analogies 
 
 Bochart, In his Geographia Sacra, considered 
 the identity of Noah and Saturn so firmly es- 
 tabHshed as hardly to admit of the possibility 
 of a doubt. The three sons of Saturn — Ju- 
 piter, Neptune, and Pluto — he represented as 
 having been originally the three sons of Noah : 
 Jupiter being Ham ; Neptune, Japhet ; and 
 Shem, Pluto. Even in the third generation 
 the two families were proved to have been 
 one, for Phut, the son of Ham, or of Jupiter 
 Hammon, could be no other than Apollo 
 Pythius ; Canaan no other than Mercury ; 
 and Nimrod no other than Bacchus, whose 
 original name was supposed to have been 
 Bar-chus, the son of Cush. G. J. Vossius, 
 in his learned work, De Origine et Progressu 
 Idolatri^ (1688), identified Saturn with Adam, 
 Janus with Noah, Pluto with Ham, Neptune 
 with Japhet, Minerva with Naamah, Vulcan 
 with Tubal Cain, Typhon with Og. Huet, 
 the friend of Bochart, and the colleague of 
 Bossuet, went still further ; and in his classical 
 work, the Demonstratio Evangelica, he at- 
 tempted to prove that the whole theology of 
 the heathen nations was borrowed from Moses, 
 whom he identified not only with ancient law- 
 
in Comparative Theology. 285 
 
 givers, like Zoroaster and Orpheus, but with 
 gods and demigods, such as Apollo, Vulcan, 
 Faunus, and Priapus. 
 
 All this happened not more than two hun- 
 dred years ago ; and even a hundred years 
 ago, nay, even after the discovery of Sanskrit 
 and the rise of Com.parative Philology, the 
 troublesome ghost of Huet was by no means 
 laid at once. On the contrary, as soon as 
 the ancient language and religion of India be- 
 came known in Europe, they were received 
 by many people in the same spirit. Sanskrit, 
 like all other languages, was to be derived from 
 Hebrew, the ancient religion of the Brahmans, 
 from the Old Testament. 
 
 There was at that time an enthusiasm among 
 Oriental scholars, particularly at Calcutta, and 
 an interest for Oriental antiquities in the pub- 
 lic at large, of which we in these days of apathy 
 for Eastern literature can hardly form an ade- 
 quate idea. Everybody wished to be first in 
 the field, and to bring to light some of the 
 treasures which were supposed to be hidden 
 in the sacred literature of the Brahmans. Sir 
 William Jones, the founder of the Asiatic So- 
 ciety at Calcutta, published in the first volume 
 
286 On False Analogies 
 
 of the Asiatic Researches his famous essay ' On 
 the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India;' and he 
 took particular care to state that his essay, 
 though published only in i ']'^%, had been writ- 
 ten in 1784. In that essay he endeavoured 
 to show that there existed an intimate con- 
 nexion, not only between the mythology of 
 India and that of Greece and Italy, but like- 
 wise between the legendary stories of the 
 Brahmans and the accounts of certain histo- 
 rical events as recorded in the Old Testament. 
 No doubt, the temptation was great. No one 
 could look down for a moment into the rich 
 mine of religious and mythological lore that 
 was suddenly opened before the eyes of scho- 
 lars and theologians, without being struck by 
 a host of similarities, not only in the languages, 
 but also in the ancient traditions of the Hindus, 
 the Greeks, and the Romans; and if at that 
 time the Greeks and Romans were still sup- 
 posed to have borrowed their language and 
 their religion from Jewish quarters, the same 
 conclusion could hardly be avoided with re- 
 gard to the language and the religion of the 
 Brahmans of India. 
 
 The first impulse to look in the ancient re- 
 
in Comparative Theology. 287 
 
 ligion of India for reminiscences of revealed 
 truth seems to have come from missionaries 
 rather than from scholars. It arose from a 
 motive, in itself most excellent, of finding- 
 some common ground for those who wished 
 to convert and those who were to be con- 
 verted. Only, instead of looking for that 
 common ground where it really was to be 
 found, namely, in the broad foundations on 
 which all religions are built up, — the belief in 
 a divine power, the acknowledgment of sin, 
 the habit of prayer, the desire to offer sacri- 
 fice, and the hope of a future life, — the stu- 
 dents of Pagan religion as well as Christian 
 missionaries were bent on discovering more 
 striking and more startling coincidences, in 
 order to use them in confirmation of their 
 favourite theory that some rays of a primeval 
 revelation, or some reflection of the Jewish 
 religion, had reached the uttermost ends of 
 the world. This was a dangerous proceeding, 
 — dangerous because superficial, dangerous be- 
 cause undertaken with a foregone conclusion ; 
 and very soon the same arguments that had 
 been used on one side in order to prove that 
 all religious truth had been derived from the 
 
288 On False Analogies 
 
 Old Testament, were turned against Christian 
 scholars and Christian missionaries, in order to 
 show that it was not Brahmanism and Bud- 
 dhism which had borrowed from the Old and 
 New Testament, but that the Old and the 
 New Testament had borrowed from the more 
 ancient religions of the Brahmans and Bud- 
 dhists. 
 
 This argument was carried out, for instance, 
 in Holwell's Original Principles of the Ancient 
 Brahmans, published in London as early as 
 1779, in which the author maintains that 'the 
 Brahmanic religion is the first and purest pro- 
 duct of supernatural revelation,' and ' that the 
 Hindu scriptures contain to a moral certainty 
 the original doctrines and terms of restoration 
 delivered from God himself, by the mouth of 
 his first-created Birmah, to mankind, at his 
 first creation in the form of man.' 
 
 Sir William J ones ^ tells us that one or two 
 missionaries in India had been absurd enouofh, 
 in their zeal for the conversion of the Gentiles, 
 to urge 'that the Hindus were even now al- 
 most Christians, because their Brahma, Vish;m, 
 
 Asiatic Researches, i. p. 272. 
 
in Comparative Theology. 289 
 
 and Maheja were no other than the Christian 
 Trinity;' a sentence in which, he adds, we can 
 only doubt whether folly, ignorance, or impiety 
 predominates. 
 
 Sir William Jones himself was not likely to 
 fall into that error. He speaks against it most 
 emphatically. ' Either,' he says, ' the first eleven 
 chapters of Genesis — all due allowance being 
 made for a figurative Eastern style — are true, 
 or the whole fabric of our national religion is 
 false ; a conclusion which none of us, I trust, 
 would wish to be drawn. But it is not the 
 truth of our national religion as such that I 
 have at heart; it is truth itself; and if any 
 cool, unbiassed reasoner will clearly convince 
 me that Moses drew his narrative through 
 Egyptian conduits from the primeval fountains 
 of Indian literature, I shall esteem him as a 
 friend for having weeded my mind from a 
 capital error, and promise to stand amongst 
 the foremost in assisting to circulate the truth 
 which he has ascertained.' 
 
 But though he speaks so strongly against the 
 uncritical proceedings of those who would de- 
 rive anything that is found in the Old Testa- 
 ment from Indian sources. Sir William Jones 
 
 u 
 
290 On False Analogies 
 
 was really guilty of the same want of critical 
 caution in his own attempts to identify the 
 gods and heroes of Greece and Rome with 
 the gods and heroes of India. He begins his 
 essay ^, 'On the Gods of Greece, Italy, and 
 India,' with the following remarks : — 
 
 ' We cannot justly conclude, by arguments 
 preceding the proof of facts, that one idolatrous 
 people must have borrowed their deities, rites, 
 and tenets from another, since gods of all shapes 
 and dimensions may be framed by the bound- 
 less powers of imagination, or by the frauds 
 and follies of men, in countries nevef* con- 
 nected ; but when features of resemblance, too 
 strong to have been accidental, are observable 
 in different systems of polytheism, without 
 fancy or prejudice to colour them and improve 
 the likeness, we can scarce help believing that 
 some connexion has immemorially subsisted 
 between the several nations who have adopted 
 them. It is my design in this essay to point 
 out such a resemblance between the popular 
 worship of the old Greeks and Italians and 
 that of the Hindus ; nor can there be any room 
 
 * Asiatic Researches, i. p. 221. 
 
in Comparative Theology, 391 
 
 to doubt of a great similarity between their 
 strange religions and that of Egypt, China, 
 Persia, Phrygia, Phoenice, and Syria ; to which, 
 perhaps, we may safely add some of the sou- 
 thern kingdoms, and even islands of America ; 
 while the Gothic system which prevailed in 
 the northern regions of Europe was not merely 
 similar to those of Greece and Italy, but almost 
 the same in another dress, with an embroidery 
 of images apparently Asiatic. From all this, 
 if it be satisfactorily proved, we may infer a 
 general union or affinity between the most dis- 
 tinguished inhabitants of the primitive world 
 at the time when they deviated, as they did 
 too early deviate, from the rational adoration 
 of the only true God.' 
 
 Here, then, in an essay written nearly a hun- 
 dred years ago by Sir W. Jones, one of the 
 most celebrated Oriental scholars in England, 
 it miorht seem as if we should find the first 
 
 o 
 
 outlines of that science which is looked upon 
 as but of to-day or yesterday,^ — the outlines 
 of Comparative Mythology. But in such an 
 expectation we are disappointed. What we 
 find is merely a superficial comparison of the 
 mythology of India and that of other nations, 
 
 u 2 
 
292 On False Analogies 
 
 both Aryan and Semitic, without any scientific 
 vakie, because carried out without any of those 
 critical tests which alone keep Comparative 
 Mythology from running riot. This is not 
 intended as casting a slur on Sir W. Jones. 
 At his time the principles which have now been 
 established by the students of the science of 
 language were not yet known, and as with 
 words, so with the names of deities, similarity 
 of sound, the most treacherous of all sirens, 
 was the only guide in such researches. 
 
 It is not pleasant to have to find fault with 
 a man possessed of such genius, taste, and 
 learning as Sir W. Jones, but no one who is 
 acquainted with the history of these researches 
 will be surprised at my words. It is the fate 
 of all pioneers, not only to be left behind in 
 the assault which they had planned, but to find 
 that many of their approaches were made in 
 a false direction, and had to be abandoned. 
 But as the authority of their names continues 
 to sway the public at large, and is apt to mis- 
 lead even painstaking students and to entail 
 upon them repeated disappointments, it is 
 necessary that those who know should speak 
 
in Comparative Theology. 293 
 
 out, even at the risk of being considered harsh 
 or presumptuous. 
 
 A few instances will suffice to show how 
 utterly baseless the comparisons are which Sir 
 W. Jones instituted between the gods of India, 
 Greece, and Italy. He compares the Latin 
 Janus with the Sanskrit deity Ga/^e^a. It is 
 well known that Janus is connected with the 
 same root that has yielded the names of Ju- 
 piter, Zeus, and Dyaus, while Ga/^e^a is a 
 compound, meaning lord of hosts, lord of the 
 companies of gods. 
 
 Saturnus is supposed to have been the same 
 as Noah, and is then identified by Sir W. Jones 
 with the Indian Manu Satyavrata, who escaped 
 from the flood. Ceres Is compared with the 
 goddess Sn, Jupiter or Diespiter with Indra 
 or Divaspati ; and, though etymology is called 
 a weak basis for historical inquiries, the three 
 syllables Jov in Jovis, Zeu in Zeus, and Siv in 
 Siva are placed side by side, as possibly contain- 
 ing the same root, only differently pronounced. 
 Now the s of S'lw^. is a palatal s, and no scholar 
 who has once looked into a book on Com- 
 parative Philology need be told that such an 
 
294 O^i F(^ls^ Analogies 
 
 s could never correspond to a Greek Zeta or 
 a Latin J. 
 
 In Krish;^a, the lovely shepherd-god, Sir W. 
 Jones recognises the features of Apollo No- 
 mius, who fed the herds of Admetus, and slew 
 the dragon Python ; and he leaves it to ety- 
 mologists to determine whether Gopala, i. e, the 
 cow-herd, may not be the same word as Apollo. 
 We are also assured, on the authority of Colonel 
 Vallancey, that Krish;^a In Irish means the sun, 
 and that the goddess Kali, to whom human 
 sacrifices were offered, as enjoined In the 
 Yedas (?), was the same as Hekate. In con- 
 clusion, Sir W. Jones remarks, ' I strongly 
 Incline to believe that Egyptian priests have 
 actually come from the Nile to the Gang4 and 
 Yamuna, and that they visited the ^'armans of 
 India, as the sages of Greece visited them, 
 rather to acquire than to Impart knowledge/ 
 
 The interest that had been excited by Sir 
 William Jones's researches did not subside, 
 though he himself did not return to the sub- 
 ject, but devoted his great powers to more 
 useful labours. Scholars, both in India and 
 In Europe, wanted to know more of the ancient 
 religion of India. If Jupiter, Apollo, and Janus 
 
in Comparative Theology. 295 
 
 had once been found in the ancient pantheon 
 of the Brahmans ; if the account of Noah and 
 the deluge could be traced back to the story 
 of Manu Satyavrata, who escaped from the 
 flood, more discoveries might be expected 
 in this newly-opened mine, and people rushed 
 to it with all the eagerness of gold-diggers. 
 The idea that everything in India was of ex- 
 treme antiquity had at that time taken a firm 
 hold on the minds of all students of Sanskrit ; 
 and, as there was no one to check their enthu- 
 siasm, everything that came to light in Sanskrit 
 literature was readily accepted as more ancient 
 than Homer, or even than the Old Testament. 
 It was under these influences that Lieutenant 
 Wilford, a contemporary of Sir William Jones 
 at Calcutta, took up the thread which Sir Wil- 
 liam Jones had dropped, and determined at all 
 hazards to solve the question which at that 
 time. had excited a world-wide interest. Con- 
 vinced that the Brahmans possessed in their 
 ancient literature the originals, not only of 
 Greek and Roman mythology, but likewise of 
 the Old Testament history, he tried every pos- 
 sible means to overcome their reserve and 
 reticence. He related to them, as well as he 
 
 \ 
 
296 Oji False Analogies 
 
 could, the principal stories of classical mytho- 
 logy, and the leading events In the history of 
 the Old Testament ; he assured them that they 
 would find the same things In their ancient 
 books, if they would but look for them ; he 
 held out the hopes of ample rewards for any 
 extracts from their sacred literature containing 
 the histories of Adam and Eve, of Deukalion 
 and Prometheus ; and at last he succeeded. 
 The coyness of the Pandits yielded ; the inces- 
 sant demand created a supply ; and for several 
 years essay after essay appeared In the Asiatic 
 Researches, with extracts from Sanskrit MSS., 
 containing not only the names of Deukalion, 
 Prometheus, and other heroes and deities of 
 Greece, but likewise the names of Adam and 
 Eve, of Abraham and Sarah, and all the rest. 
 
 Great was the surprise, still greater the joy, 
 not only In Calcutta, but In London, at Paris, 
 and all the universities of Germany. The 
 Sanskrit MSS. from which Lieutenant Wllford 
 quoted, and on which his theories were based, 
 were submitted to Sir W. Jones and other 
 scholars ; and though many persons were sur- 
 prised and for a time even incredulous, yet 
 the fact could not be denied that all was found 
 
in Comparative Theology. 297 
 
 in these Sanskrit MSS. as stated by Lieutenant 
 Wilford, Sir W. Jones, then President of the 
 Asiatic Society, printed the following declara- 
 tion at the end of the third volume of the 
 Asiatic Researches : — 
 
 ' Since I am persuaded that the learned essay 
 on Egypt and the Nile has afforded you equal 
 delight with that which I have myself received 
 from it, I cannot refrain from endeavouring 
 to increase your satisfaction by confessing 
 openly that I have at length abandoned the 
 greatest part of the natural distrust and incre- 
 dulity which had taken possession of my mind 
 before I had examined the sources from which 
 our excellent associate, Lieutenant Wilford, 
 has drawn so great a variety of new and in- 
 teresting opinions. Having lately read again 
 and again, both alone and with a Pandit, the 
 numerous original passages in the Pura;^as, 
 and other Sanskrit books, which the writer 
 of the dissertation adduces in support of his 
 assertions, I am happy in bearing testimony 
 to his perfect good faith and general accuracy, 
 both in his extracts and in the translation of 
 them.' 
 
 Sir W. Jones then proceeds to give himself 
 
298 On False Analogies 
 
 a translation of some of these passages. ' The 
 following translation,' he writes, ' of an extract 
 from the Padma-pura;/a Is minutely exact :' — 
 
 ' I. To Satyavamnan, the sovereign of the 
 whole earth, were born three sons ; the eldest 
 She^nna ; then Ckar^na ; and thirdly, yyapeti. 
 
 ' 2. They were all men of good morals, ex- 
 cellent In virtue and virtuous deeds, skilled In 
 the use of weapons to strike with, or to be 
 thrown, brave men, eager for victory In battle. 
 
 ' 3. But Satyavarman, being continually de- 
 lighted with devout meditation, and seeing his 
 sons fit for dominion, laid upon them the bur- 
 den of government, 
 
 ' 4. Whilst he remained honouring and satis- 
 fying the gods, and priests, and kine. One 
 day, by the act of destiny, the king, having 
 drunk mead, 
 
 * 5. Became senseless, and lay asleep naked ; 
 then was he seen by Charma, and by him were 
 his two brothers called. 
 
 ' 6. To whom he said : What now has be- 
 fallen ? In what state is this our sire ? By 
 those two was he hidden with clothes, and 
 called to his senses ao^ain and aoaln. 
 
 ' 7. Having recovered his intellect, and per- 
 
in Comparative Theology. 299 
 
 fectly knowing what had passed, he cursed 
 Ckar77za, saying, Thou shalt be the servant 
 of servants ; 
 
 ' 8. And since thou wast a laugher in their 
 presence, from laughter shalt thou acquire a 
 name. Then he gave to Sherjna the wide 
 domain on the south of the snowy mountains. 
 
 '9. And to Jyapeti he gave all on the north 
 of the snowy mountains ; but he, by the power 
 of religious contemplation, obtained supreme 
 bliss.' 
 
 After this testimony from Sir W. Jones, 
 wrung from him, as it would seem, against his 
 own wish and will. Lieutenant Wilford's essays 
 became more numerous and more startling with 
 every year. 
 
 At last, however, the coincidences became 
 too great. The MSS. were again carefully 
 examined ; and then it was found that a clever 
 forgery had been committed, that leaves had 
 been inserted in ancient MSS., and that on 
 these leaves the Pandits, urged by Lieutenant 
 Wilford to disclose their ancient mysteries and 
 traditions, had rendered in correct Sanskrit 
 verse all that they had heard about Adam 
 and Abraham from their inquisitive master. 
 
300 On False Analogies 
 
 Lieutenant (then Colonel) Wilford did not 
 hesitate for one moment to confess publicly 
 that he had been Imposed upon ; but In the 
 meantime the mischief had been done, his 
 essays had been read all over Europe, they 
 retained their place In the volumes of the 
 Asiatic Researches, and to the present day 
 some of his statements and theories continue 
 to be quoted authoritatively by writers on 
 ancient religion. 
 
 Such accidents, and, one might almost say, 
 such misfortunes, will happen, and It would be 
 extremely unfair were we to use unnecessarily 
 harsh language with regard to those to whom 
 they have happened. It Is perfectly true that at 
 present, after the progress that has been made 
 In an accurate and critical study of Sanskrit, 
 it would be unpardonable If any Sanskrit 
 scholar accepted such passages as those trans- 
 lated by Sir W. Jones as genuine. Yet It is 
 by no means certain that a further study of 
 Sanskrit will not lead to similar disenchant- 
 ments, and deprive many a book In Sanskrit 
 literature, which now Is considered as very 
 ancient, of its claims to any high antiquity. 
 Certain portions of the Veda even, which, as 
 
in Comparative Theology. 301 
 
 far as our knowledge goes at present, we are 
 perfectly justified in referring to the tenth or 
 twelfth century before our era, may some day 
 or other dwindle down from their high estate, 
 and those who have believed in their extreme 
 antiquity will then be held up to blame or ridi- 
 cule, like Sir W. Jones or Colonel Wilford. 
 This cannot be avoided, for science is pro- 
 gressive, and does not acknowledge, even in 
 the most distinguished scholars, any claims to 
 infallibility. One lesson only may we learn 
 from the disappointment that befell Colonel 
 Wilford, and that is to be on our guard against 
 anything which in ordinary language would be 
 called ' too good to be true.' 
 
 Comparative Philology has taught us again 
 and again that when we find a word exactly 
 the same in Greek and Sanskrit, we may be 
 certain that it canncTt be the same word ; and 
 the same applies to Comparative Mythology. 
 The same god or the same hero cannot have 
 exactly the same name in Sanskrit and Greek, 
 for the simple reason that Sanskrit and Greek 
 have deviated from each other, have both fol- 
 lowed their own way, have both suffered their 
 own phonetic corruptions ; and hence, if they 
 
302 On False Analogies 
 
 do possess the same word, they can only pos- 
 sess it either in its Greek or its Sanskrit dis- 
 guise. And if that caution applies to Sanskrit 
 and Greek, members of the same family of 
 language, how much more strongly must it 
 apply to Sanskrit and Hebrew! If the first 
 man were called in Sanskrit Adima, and in 
 Hebrew Adam, and if the two were really the 
 same word, then Hebrew and Sanskrit could 
 not be members of two different families of 
 speech, or we should be driven to admit that 
 Adam was borrowed by the Jews from the 
 Hindus, for it is in Sanskrit only that Adima 
 means the first, whereas in Hebrew it has no 
 such meaning. 
 
 The same remark applies to a curious coin- 
 cidence pointed out many years ago by Mr. 
 Ellis in his Polynesian Researches (London, 
 1829, vol. ii. p. 38). We* there read: 
 
 ' A very generally received Tahitian tradition 
 is that the first human pair were made by 
 Taaroa, the principal deity formerly acknow- 
 ledged by the nation. On more than one oc- 
 casion, I have listened to the details of the 
 people respecting his work of creation. They 
 say, that after Taaroa had formed the world, 
 
in Comparative Theology. 303 
 
 he created man out of araea, red earth, which 
 was also the food of man until bread first was 
 made. In connexion with this some relate 
 that Taaroa one day called for the man by 
 name. When he came, he caused him to fall 
 asleep, that, while he slept, he took out one 
 of his ivi, or bones, and with it made a woman, 
 whom he orave to the man as his wife, and 
 
 o 
 
 that they became the progenitors of man- 
 kind. This,' Mr. Ellis continues, ' always ap- 
 peared to me a mere recital of the Mosaic 
 account of creation, which they had heard from 
 some European, and I never placed any reli- 
 ance on it, although they have repeatedly told 
 me, it was a tradition among them before any 
 foreigners arrived. Some have also stated that 
 the woman's name was Ivi, which would be 
 by them pronounced as if written Eve. Ivi 
 is an aboriginal word, and not only signifies 
 a bone, but also a widow, and a victim slain 
 in war. Notwithstanding the assertion of the 
 natives, I am disposed to think that Ivi, or 
 Eve, is the only aboriginal part of the story, 
 as far as it respects the mother of the human 
 race. Should more careful and minute inquiry 
 confirm the truth of this declaration, and prove 
 
304 On False Analogies 
 
 that their account was in existence amone them 
 prior to their intercourse with Europeans, it 
 will be the most remarkable and valuable oral 
 tradition of the origin of the human race yet 
 known.' 
 
 In this case, I believe the probability is that 
 the story of the creation of the first woman 
 from the bone of a man ^ existed amone the 
 
 o 
 
 Tahitians before their intercourse with Chris- 
 tians, but I need hardly add that die simi- 
 larity between the Polynesian name for bone, 
 ivi, even when it was used as the name of the 
 first woman, and the English corruption of 
 the Hebrew H^n, Chavah, Eve, could be the re- 
 sult of accident only. Whatever Chavah meant 
 in Hebrew, whether life or living or anything 
 else, it never meant bone, while the Tahitian ivi, 
 the Maori wkeva, meant bone, and bone only. 
 
 These principles and these cautions were 
 hardly thought of in the days of Sir William 
 Jones and Colonel Wilford, but they ought to 
 be thought of at present. Thus, before Bopp 
 had laid down his code of phonetic laws, and 
 before Burnouf had written his works on Bud- 
 dhism, one cannot be very much surprised that 
 
 ^ See p. 48. 
 
in Comparative Theology. 305 
 
 Buddha should have been identified with Minos 
 and Lamech ; nay, that even the Babylonian 
 deity Belus, and the Teutonic deity Wodan or 
 Odin, should have been supposed to be con- 
 nected with the founder of Buddhism in India. 
 But we did not expect that we should have 
 to read again, in a book published in 1869, 
 such statements as these ^: — 
 
 ' There is certainly a much greater similarity 
 between the Buddhism of the Topes and the 
 Scandinavian mythology than between it and 
 the Buddhism of the books ; but still the gulf 
 between the two is immense ; and if any traces 
 of the doctrines of the gentle ascetic (Buddha) 
 ever existed in the bosom of Odin or his fol- 
 lowers, while dwelling near the roots of the 
 Caucasus, all that can be said is, that they 
 suffered fearful shipwreck among the rocks 
 of the savage superstitions of the north, and 
 sank, never again to appear on the surface of 
 Scandinavian mythology. If the two religions 
 come anywhere in contact, it is at their base, 
 for underlying both there existed a strange 
 
 ^ Tree and Serpent Worship, by James Fergusson. Lon- 
 don : 1868. 
 
3o6 On False Analogies 
 
 substratum of Tree and Serpent Worship ; on 
 this the two structures seem to have been 
 raised, though they afterwards diverged into 
 forms so strangely dissimilar.' (p. 34.) 
 
 Or again (p. 32) : — 
 
 ' We shall probably not err far if we regard 
 these traces of Serpent Worship as indicating 
 the presence in the North East of Scotland 
 of the head of that column of migration, or 
 of propagandism, which, under the myth of 
 Wodenism, we endeavoured in a previous chapter 
 to trace from the Caucasus to Scandinavia.' 
 
 ' The arbors under which two of the couples 
 are seated are curious instances of that sort 
 of summer-house which may be found adorning 
 tea-gardens in .the neighbourhood of London 
 to the present day. It is scenes like these 
 that make us hesitate before asserting that 
 there could not possibly be any connexion 
 between Buddhism and Wodenism.' (p. 140.) 
 
 ' One of the most tempting nominal similari- 
 ties connected with this subject is suggested 
 by the name of Maya. The mother of Buddha 
 was called Maya. The mother of Mercury was 
 also Maia, the daughter of Atlas. The Ro- 
 mans always called Wodin, Mercury, and dies 
 
in Comparative Theology. 307 
 
 Mercurii and Wodensday alike designated the 
 
 fourth-day of the week These and other 
 
 similarities have been frequently pointed out 
 and Insisted upon, and they are too numerous 
 and too distinct not to have some foundation 
 In reality.' (p. 186, note.) 
 
 Statements like these cannot be allowed to 
 pass unnoticed or uncontradicted, particularly 
 if supported by the authority of a great name ; 
 and after having spoken so freely of the un- 
 scientific character of the mythological com- 
 parisons instituted by scholars like Sir William 
 Jones and Lieutenant Wllford, who can no 
 longer defend themselves, It would be mere 
 cowardice to shrink from performing the same 
 unpleasant duty In the case of a living writer, 
 who has shown that he knows how to wield 
 the weapons both of defence and attack. 
 
 It Is perfectly true that the mother of Buddha 
 was called Maya, but It Is equally true that the 
 Sanskrit Maya cannot be the Greek Mala. It 
 is quite true also that the fourth day of the 
 week Is called dies Mei^citrii in Latin, and 
 Wednesday In English ; nay, that In Sanskrit 
 the same day is called Biidha-dina or Budha- 
 vdraf But the origin of all these names falls 
 
 X 2 
 
3o8 On False Analogies 
 
 within perfectly historical times, and can throw 
 no light whatever on the early growth of myth- 
 ology and religion. 
 
 First of all, we have to distinguish between 
 Btidha and Buddha. The two names, though 
 so like each other, and therefore constantly 
 mistaken one for the other, have nothing in 
 common but their root. Buddha with two d's, 
 is the participle of dtcdh, and means awakened, 
 enlightened ^ It is the name given to those 
 who have reached the highest stage of human 
 wisdom, and it is known most generally as the 
 title of Gotama, Sakya-muni, the founder of 
 Buddhism, whose era dates from 543 b. c. 
 Biidha, on the contrary, with one d, means 
 simply knowing, and it became in later times, 
 when the Hindus received from the Greeks 
 a knowledge of the planets, the name of the 
 planet Mercury. 
 
 It is well known that the names of the seven 
 days of the week are derived from the names 
 of the planets^, and it is equally well known 
 
 ^ See Buddhaghosha's Parables, translated by Captain 
 Rogers, with an introduction containing Buddha's Dham- 
 mapada, translated from Pali, by M. M., 1870, p. no, note. 
 
 2 Hare, On the Names of the Days of the Week (Philol. 
 
in Comparative Theology. 309 
 
 that in Europe the system of weeks and week- 
 days is comparatively of very modern origin. 
 It was not a Greek, nor a Roman, nor a Hindu, 
 but a Jewish or Chaldean invention. The Sab- 
 bath (Sabbata) was known and kept at Rome 
 in the first century B.C., with many superstitious 
 practices. It is mentioned by Horace, Ovid, 
 Tibullus (dies Saturni), Persius, Juvenal. Ovid 
 calls it a day ' rebus mimes apta gerejidis! 
 Augustus (Suet. Aug. c. 76) evidently ima- 
 gined that the Jews fasted on their Sabbath, 
 for he said, ' Not even a Jew keeps the fast 
 of the Sabbath so strictly as I have kept 
 this day.' In fact, Josephus (Contra Apion. ii. 
 39) was able to say, that there was no town, 
 Greek or not Greek, where the custom of ob- 
 serving the seventh day had not spread ^ It 
 
 Museum, Nov. 1831); Ideler, Handbuch der Chronologic, 
 p. 177; Grimm, Deutsche Mythologic, p. iii. 
 
 ^ A writer in the Index objects to my representation of 
 what Josephus said with regard to the observance of the 
 seventh day in Greek and barbarian towns. He writes : 
 
 ' Washington, D. C, No7k 9, 1872. 
 ' The very able and learned article by Max Muller in the 
 Index of this week contains, I think, one error, caused 
 doubtless by his taking a false translation of a passage from 
 
310 On False Analogies 
 
 is curious that we find the seventh day, the 
 Sabbath, even under its new Pagan name, as 
 
 Josephus instead of the original. " In fact," says Professor 
 Miiller, "Josephus (Contra Apion. ii. 39) was able to say 
 that there was no town, Greek or not Greek, where the 
 custom of observing the seventh day had not spread." Mr. 
 Wm. B. Taylor, in a discussion of the Sabbath question with 
 the Rev. Dr. Brown of Philadelphia, in 1853 (Obligation of 
 the Sabbath, p. 120), gives this rendering of the passage : — 
 " Nor is there anywhere any city of the Greeks, nor a single 
 barbarian nation, whither the institution of the Hebdomade 
 {which we mark by resting) has not travelled;" then in a note 
 Mr. Taylor gives the original Greek of part of the passage, 
 and adds : " Josephus does not say that the Greek and bar- 
 barian rested, but that we [the Jews] observe it by rest." 
 
 ' The corrected translation only adds strength to Max 
 IMiiller's position in regard to the very limited extent of 
 Sabbath observance in ancient times ; and Mr. Taylor brings 
 very strong historical proof to maintain the assertion [p. 24] 
 that " throughout all history we discover no trace of a Sab- 
 bath among the nations of antiquity." ' 
 
 It seems to me that if we read the whole of Josephus' 
 work. On the Antiquity of the Jews, we cannot fail to per- 
 ceive that what Josephus wished to show towards the end of 
 the second book \vas that other nations had copied or were 
 trying to copy the Jewish customs. He says : 'Y<p rj^wv re 
 
 dirj\ex^r](7av oi vofioi Koi roTy liXkois ciTraaiv dudpcoTTOis, del Kal fxaXXov 
 
 avToiv ^rikov efnrenoirjKaai. He then says that the early Greek 
 philosophers, though apparently original in their theoretic 
 speculations, followed the Jewish laws with regard to practical 
 and moral precepts. Then follows this sentence: Oi- firjv 
 
in Comparative TJieology. 
 
 dies Saturni or Kro7iike mentioned by Roman 
 and Greek writers, before the names of the 
 other days of the week made their appearance. 
 Tibullus speaks of the day of Saturn, dies Sa- 
 turni ; JuHus Frontinus (under Nerva, 96-98) 
 says that Vespasian attacked the Jews on the 
 day of Saturn, die Sahcrni ; and Justin Martyr 
 (died 165) states that Christ was crucified the 
 day before the day of Kronos, and appeared 
 to his disciples the day after the day of Kronos. 
 He does not use the names of Friday and Sun- 
 day. Sunday, as dies So lis, is mentioned by 
 
 aXka Koi nXrjdeaiv rjdr] noXvs C^Xo? yeyo^ev eK fiaKpov rrjs rjfMerepas eucre- 
 ^eias, ci» S' eaTiv ov ttoXis 'E\X7]voov ovbrjTicrovv ovde ^np^apos, ovdi kv 
 eduos, ev6a fxr] to ti]s e^dofxddos, rjv opyovfieu rjpels, edos ov 8taTZ€c})OLTr}Ke, 
 Kill ai vr]aTelaL kcll Xvxvf^v di^aKavaeis icai ttoX'Ko. rcov eis ^pwaiv r^plv 
 OV vevofJLLo-ixevoov TrapaTeTrjprjTai. MtfxelaBaL 8e neipoiVTai Ka\ ttjv npos 
 
 dXXjjXovs r]p.av oiiovoiav, k. t. X. Standing where it stands the 
 sentence about the i^bopds can only mean that ' there is no 
 town of Greeks nor of barbarians, nor one single people, 
 where the custom of the seventh day, on which we rest, has 
 not spread, and where fastings, and lighting of lamps, and 
 much of what is forbidden to us with regard to food are not 
 observed. They try to imitate our mutual concord, «&c.' 
 Hebdomas, which originally meant the week, is here clearly 
 used in the sense of the seventh day, and though Josephus 
 may exaggerate, what he says is certainly ' that there was no 
 town, Greek or not Greek, where the custom of observing 
 the seventh day had not spread.' 
 
312 On False Analogies 
 
 Justin Martyr (Apolog. i. 67), and by Tertul- 
 lian (died 220), the usual name of that day 
 amongst Christians being the Lord's-day, Ku- 
 piaKt]^ dommica, or dommzais. Clemens of 
 Alexandria (died 220) seems to have been 
 the first who used the names of Wednesday 
 and Friday, '^piJ.ov Ka\ 'A<ppoSLTt]<} tjiuepa. 
 
 It Is generally stated, on the authority of 
 Cassius DIo, that the system of counting by 
 weeks and week-days was first introduced in 
 Egypt, and that at his time, early in the third 
 century, the Romans had adopted it, though 
 but recently. Be this as it may. It would 
 seem that, if Tibullus could use the name of 
 dies Saturni for Saturday, the whole system 
 of week-days must have been settled and 
 known at Rome in his time. Cassius DIo 
 tells us that the names were assigned to each 
 day ^la recrarapcov, by fours ; or by giving the 
 first hour of the week to Saturn, then giving 
 one hour to each planet in succession, till the 
 twenty-fifth hour became again the first of the 
 next day. Both systems lead to the same 
 result, as will be seen from the following 
 table : — 
 
in Comparative Theology. 
 
 Planets. 
 
 1 Saturn i 
 
 2 Jupiter 6 
 
 3 Mars 4 
 
 4 Sun 2 
 
 5 Venus 7 
 
 6 Mercury 5 
 
 7 Moon 3 
 
 Latin. 
 Dies Saturni 
 
 „ Solis 
 
 „ Lunae 
 
 „ Martis 
 
 „ Mercurii 
 
 „ Jovis 
 
 „ Veneris 
 
 French. 
 
 Samedi 
 
 (dies sabbati) 
 
 Dimanche 
 
 (dominicus) 
 
 Lundi 
 
 Mardi 
 
 Mercredi 
 
 Jeudi 
 
 Vendredi 
 
 Sanskrit. 
 iSani-vara 
 
 Ravi-vara 
 
 Soma-vara 
 
 Bhauma-vara 
 
 Budha-vara 
 
 Brihaspati-vara 
 
 ^ukra-vara 
 
 1 Saturn i 
 
 2 Jupiter 6 
 
 3 Mars 4 
 
 4 Sun 2 
 
 5 Venus 7 
 
 6 Mercury 5 
 
 7 Moon 3 
 
 Old Norse. 
 laugardagr 
 (washing day) 
 sunnudagr 
 manadagr 
 tysdagr 
 odinsdagr 
 thorsdagr 
 friadagr 
 
 Anglo-Saxon. 
 sater dag 
 
 sunnan dag 
 monan dag 
 tives dag 
 vodenes dag 
 thunores dag 
 frige dag 
 
 English. 
 Saturday 
 
 Sunday 
 
 Monday 
 
 Tuesday 
 
 Wednesday 
 
 Thursday 
 
 Friday 
 
 1 Saturn i 
 
 2 Jupiter 6 
 
 3 Mars 4 
 
 4 Sun 2 
 
 5 Venus 7 
 
 6 Mercury 5 
 
 7 Moon 3 
 
 Old-High 
 German. 
 
 sambaztag 
 (sunnun aband) 
 sunnun dag 
 manin tac (?) 
 ziuwes tac 
 (cies dac) 
 wuotanes tac(?) 
 (mittawecha) 
 donares tac 
 fria dag 
 
 Middle-High 
 German. 
 
 samztac 
 (sunnen abent) 
 sunnen tac 
 man tac 
 zies tac 
 (eritac) 
 mittwoch 
 
 donres tac 
 fritac 
 
 German. 
 
 Samstag 
 
 (Sonnabend) 
 
 Sonntag 
 
 Montag 
 
 Dienstag 
 
 Mittwoch 
 
 Donnerstag 
 Freitag 
 
 After the names of the week-days had once 
 been settled, we have no difficulty In tracing 
 their migration towards the East and towards 
 
3H On False Anakwies 
 
 the West. The H nidus had their own pecu- 
 liar system of reckoning days and months, 
 but they adopted at a later time the foreign 
 
 o 
 
 system of counting by weeks of seven days, 
 and assigning a presiding planetary deity to 
 each of the seven days, according to the sys- 
 tem described above. As the Indian name 
 of the planet Mercury was Budha, the dies 
 Mercurii was naturally called Biidha-vdra, but 
 never Btiddha-vdra ; and the fact that the 
 mother of Mercury was called Maia, and the 
 mother of Buddha May^, could, therefore, have 
 had no bearing whatever on the name assigned 
 to the Indian Wednesday \ Whether the 
 names of the planets were formed in India 
 independently, or after Greek models, is diffi- 
 cult to settle. The name of Budha, the know- 
 ing or the clever, given to the planet Mercury, 
 seems, however, inexplicable except on the 
 latter hypothesis. 
 
 Having traced the origin of the Sanskrit 
 name of the dies Mercurii, Budha-vara, let us 
 now see why the Teutonic nations, thoueh 
 
 ^ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. ii8, note. 
 
in Comparative Theology. 315 
 
 perfectly ignorant of Buddhism, called the 
 same day the day of Wodan. 
 
 That the Teutonic nations received the 
 names of the week-days from their Greek and 
 Roman neighbours admits of no doubt. For 
 commercial and military arrangements between 
 Romans and Germans some kind of lingua 
 franca must soon have sprung up, and in it 
 the names of the week-days must have found 
 their place. There would have been little 
 difficulty in explaining the meaning of Sun-day 
 and Mon-day to the Germans, but in order 
 to make them understand the meaning of the 
 other names, some explanations must have 
 been eiven on the nature of the different 
 deities, in order to enable the Germans to 
 find corresponding names in their own lan- 
 guage. ' A Roman would tell his German 
 friend that dies Veneris meant the day of a 
 goddess who represented beauty and love, and 
 on hearine this the German would at once 
 have thought of his own goddess of love, 
 Frcyja, and have called the dies Veneris the 
 day of Freyja or Friday \ 
 
 ^ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 276. 
 
3i6 On False Analogies 
 
 If ytipitei' was described as the god who 
 wields the thunderbolt, his natural representa- 
 tive in German would be Donar ^, the Anglo- 
 Saxon T/itmar, the Old Norse T/ior ; and 
 hence the dies Jovis would be called the day 
 of Thoi% or Thursday. If the fact that Jupiter 
 was the king of the gods had been mentioned, 
 his proper representative in German would, 
 no doubt, have been Wuotan or Odin'^. As 
 it was, Wuotan or Odin was chosen as the 
 nearest approach to Mercury, the character 
 which they share in common, and which led 
 to their identification, being most likely their 
 love of travelling through the air^, also their 
 granting wealth and fulfilling the wishes of 
 their worshippers, in which capacity Wuotan 
 is known by the name of Witnsch^ or Wish. 
 We can thus understand how it happened 
 that father and son changed places, for while 
 Mercurius is the son of Jupiter, Wuotan is 
 the father of Donar. Mars, the god of war, 
 was identified with the German Tiu or Ziu^ 
 
 ^ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 151. 
 
 2 Ibid. p. 120. 3 Y\:;i^, pp. 137-148. 
 
 ^ Ibid. p. 126. 
 
ill Comparative Theology. '^ij 
 
 a name which, though originally the same as 
 Zetts in Greek or Dyatis in Sanskrit, took a 
 peculiarly national character among the Ger- 
 mans, and became their god of war\ 
 
 There remained thus onl)^ the dies Satzcrni, 
 the day of Saturn, and whether this was called 
 so in imitation of the Latin name, or after 
 an old German deity of a similar name and 
 character, is a point which for the present we 
 must leave unsettled. 
 
 What, however, is not unsettled is this, that 
 if the Germans, in interpreting these names 
 of Roman deities as well as they could, called 
 the dies Me^^citrii, the same day which the 
 Hindus had called the day of Budka (with 
 one d), their day of Wuotaii, this was not 
 because ' the doctrines of the gentle ascetic 
 existed in the bosom of Odin or his followers, 
 while dwelling near the roots of the Caucasus,' 
 but for very different and much more tangible 
 reasons. 
 
 But, apart from all this, by what possible 
 process could Buddha and Odin have ever 
 
 ^ Tacit. Hist. iv. 64 : ' Communibus Diis et praecipuo 
 Deorum IMarti grates agimus.' 
 
31^ Oil False Analogies 
 
 been brought together in the flesh ? In the 
 history of ancient rehgions, Odin belongs to 
 the same stratum of mythological thought as 
 DyaiLS in India, Zetis in Greece, yupiter in 
 Italy. He was \^orshipped as the supreme 
 deity during a period long anterior to the age 
 of the Veda and of Homer. His travels in 
 Greece, and even in Tyrkland \ and his half- 
 historical character as a mere hero and a leader 
 of his people, are the result of the latest 
 Euhemerism. Buddha, on the contrary, is not 
 a mythological, but a personal and historical 
 character, and to think of a mieeting of Buddha 
 and Odin, or even of their respective de- 
 scendants, at the roots of Mount Caucasus, 
 would be like imag^inino- an interview between 
 Cyrus and Odin, between Mohammed and 
 Aphrodite. 
 
 A comparative study of ancient religions and 
 mythologies, as will be seen from these instances, 
 is not a subject to be taken up lightly. It re- 
 quires not only an accurate acquaintance with 
 the minutest details of comparative philology, 
 but a knowledge of the history of religions 
 
 ^ Grimm, 1. c. p. 148. 
 
in Comparative Theology. 319 
 
 which can hardly be gained without a study of 
 original documents. As long, however, as re- 
 searches of this kind are carried on for their 
 own sake, and from a mere desire of discovering 
 truth, without any ulterior objects, they deserve 
 no blame, though, for a time, they may lead to 
 erroneous results. But when coincidences be- 
 tween different religions and mythologies are 
 searched out simply in support of preconceived 
 theories, whether by the friends or enemies of 
 religion, the sense of truth, the very life of all 
 science, is sacrified, and serious mischief will 
 follow without fail. Here we have a right, not 
 only to protest, but to blame. There is on this 
 account a ereat difference between the books 
 we have hitherto examined, and a work lately 
 published in Paris by M. Jacolliot, under the 
 sensational title of ' La Bible dans Fhide, Vie 
 de Jeseits Christna! If this book had been 
 written with the pure enthusiasm of Lieutenant. 
 Wilford, it might have been passed by as a 
 mere anachronism. But when one sees how its 
 author shuts his eyes against all evidence that 
 would tell against him, and brings together, 
 without any critical scruples, whatever seems to 
 support his theory that Christianity is a mere 
 
320 On False Analogies 
 
 copy of the ancient religion of India, mere 
 silence would not be a sufficient answer. Be- 
 sides, the book has lately been translated Into 
 English, and will be read, no doubt, by many 
 people who cannot test the evidence on which 
 it professes to be founded. We learn that 
 M. Jacolliot was some years ago appointed 
 President of the Court of Justice at Chander- 
 nagore, and that he devoted the leisure left 
 him from the duties of his position to studying 
 Sanskrit and the holy books of the Hindus. 
 He is said to have put himself in communica- 
 tion with the Brahmans, who had obtained 
 access to a great number of MSS. carefully 
 stored up in the depths of the pagodas. ' The 
 purport of his book Is ' (I quote from a friendly 
 critic), ' that our civilization, our religion, our 
 legends, our gods, have come to us from India, 
 after passing In succession through Egypt, 
 Persia, Judaea, Greece, and Italy.' This state- 
 ment, we are told, is not confined to M. Jacolliot, 
 but has been admitted by almost all Oriental 
 scholars. The Old and New Testaments are 
 found again in the Vedas, and the texts quoted 
 by M. Jacolliot in support of his theory are said 
 to leave it without doubt. Brahma created 
 
in Comparative Theology. 321 
 
 Adima (In Sanskrit, the first man) and gave him 
 for companion Heva (in Sanskrit, that which 
 completes hfe). He appointed the island of 
 Ceylon for their residence. What follows after- 
 wards is so beautifully described that I may be 
 pardoned for quoting it. Only 1 must warn my 
 readers, lest the extract should leave too deep an 
 impression on their memory, that what M. Jacol- 
 liot calls a simple translation from Sanskrit is, as 
 far as I can judge, a simple invention of some 
 slightly mischievous Brahman, who, like the 
 Pandits of Lieutenant Wilford, took advantage 
 of the zeal and creduhty of a French judge : — 
 
 ' Having created the Man and the Woman 
 (simultaneously, not one after the other), and 
 animated them with the divine afflatus — the 
 Lord said unto them : '' Behold, your mission is 
 to people this beautiful Island [Ceylon], where 
 I have gathered together everything pleasant 
 and needful for your subsistence, — the rest of 
 the Earth is as yet uninhabitable, but should 
 your progeny so increase as to render the 
 bounds of paradise too narrow a habitation, let 
 them inquire of me by sacrifice and I will make 
 known my will." 
 
 ' And thus saying, disappeared. . . . 
 
322 On False Analogies 
 
 ' Then Adam and Eve dwelt together for a 
 time in perfect happiness ; but ere long a vague 
 disquietude began to creep upon them. . . . 
 The Spirit of Evil, jealous of their felicity and 
 of the work of Brahma, inspired them with dis- 
 turbing thoughts ; — " Let us wander through the 
 Island," said Adam to his companion, " and see 
 if we may not find some part even more beauti- 
 ful than this." . . . 
 
 ' And Eve followed her husband . . wander- 
 ing for days and for months ; . . . but as they 
 advanced the woman was seized with strange 
 and inexplicable terrors : " Adam," said she, '' let 
 us go no farther, it seems to me that we are 
 disobeying the Lord ; have we not already 
 quitted the place which he assigned us for a 
 dwelling and forbade us to leave ? " 
 
 * " Fear not," replied Adam, '' this is not that 
 fearful wilderness of which he spake to us." . . . 
 
 * And they wandered on. . . . 
 
 * Arriving at last at the extremity of the Island, 
 they beheld a smooth and narrow arm of the 
 sea, and beyond it a vast and apparently bound- 
 less country, connected with their Island only 
 by a narrow and rocky pathway arising from 
 the bosom of the waters. 
 
in Comparative Theology. 323 
 
 * The two wanderers stood amazed : the 
 country before them was covered with stately 
 trees, birds of a thousand colours flitting amidst 
 their foliage. 
 
 ' . . . " Behold, what beautiful things ! " cried 
 Adam, ''and what good fruit such trees must 
 produce; ... let us go and taste them, and 
 if that country is better than this, we will dwell 
 there." 
 
 ' Eve, trembling, besought Adam to do no- 
 thing that might irritate the Lord against 
 them. " Are we not well here ? Have we 
 not pure water and delicious fruits ? Where- 
 fore seek other things?" 
 
 ' " True," replied Adam, " but we will re- 
 turn ; what harm can it be to visit this un- 
 known country that presents itself to our view ?" 
 .... And as he approached the rocks, Eve, 
 trembling, followed. 
 
 ' Placing his wife upon his shoulders, he 
 proceeded to cross the space that separated 
 him from the object of his desires, but no 
 sooner did he touch the shore, than trees, 
 flowers, fruits, birds, all that they had per- 
 ceived from the opposite side, in an instant 
 vanished amidst terrific clamor ; . . . the rocks 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 On False Analogies 
 
 by which they had crossed sunk beneath the 
 waters, a few sharp peaks alone remaining 
 above the surface, to indicate the place of 
 the bridge which had been destroyed by Divine 
 displeasure. 
 
 'The vegetation which they had seen from 
 the opposite shore was but a delusive mirage 
 raised by the Spirit of Evil to tempt them to 
 disobedience. 
 
 ' Adam fell, weeping, upon the naked sands, 
 . . . but Eve throwing herself into his arms, be- 
 sought him not to despair, . . . '' let us rather pray 
 to the Author of all things to pardon us." . . . 
 
 ' And as she spake there came a voice from 
 the clouds, saying, 
 
 ' " Woman ! thou hast only sinned from love 
 to thy husband, whom I commanded thee to 
 love, and thou hast hoped in me. 
 
 ' " I therefore pardon thee — and I pardon 
 him also for thy sake : . . . but ye may no more 
 return to paradise which I had created for your ^ 
 happiness : . . . through your disobedience to 
 my commands the Spirit of Evil has obtained \ 
 possession of the Earth. . . . Your children re- 
 duced to labour and to suffer by your fault will 
 become corrupt and forget me. . . . 
 
in Comparative Theology. 325 
 
 ' " But I will send Vishnu, who will be born 
 of a woman, and who will bring to all the hope 
 of a reward in another life, and the means by 
 prayer of softening their sufferings." ' 
 
 The translator from whom I have quoted 
 exclaims at the end, as well he might : — 
 
 'What grandeur and what simplicity is this 
 Hindu legend! and at the same time how 
 simply logical ! . . . Behold here the veritable 
 Eve — the true woman/ 
 
 But much more extraordinary things are 
 quoted by M. Jacolliot, from the Vedas and 
 the commentaries. 
 
 On p. 63 we read that Manu, Minos, and 
 Manes, had the same name as Moses ; on 
 p. 73, the Brahmans, who invaded India, are 
 represented as the successors of a great re- 
 former called Christna. The name of Zoro- 
 aster is derived from the Sanskrit Suryastara 
 (p. no), meaning 'he who spreads the worship 
 of the Sun.' After it has been laid down 
 (p. 116) that Hebrew was derived from San- 
 skrit, we are assured that there is little diffi- 
 culty in deriving Jehovah from Zeus\ Zeus, 
 
 ^ P. 125. 'Pour quiconque s'est occupe d'etudes philo- 
 logiques, Jehova derive de Zeus est facile a admettre.' 
 
326 On False Analogies 
 
 Jezeus, Jesus, and Isis are all declared to be 
 the same name, and later on (p. 1 30) we learn 
 that ' at present the Brahmans who officiate in 
 the pagodas and temples give this title of 
 Jeseus, i.e. the pure essence, the divine ema- 
 nation, to Christna only, who alone is recog- 
 nised as the Word, the truly incarnated, by 
 the worshippers of Vishnu and the free thinkers 
 among the Brahmans.' 
 
 We are assured that the Apostles, the poor 
 fishermen of Galilee, were able to read the 
 Veda (p. 356) ; and it was their greatest merit 
 that they did not reject the miraculous accounts 
 of the Vedic period, because the world was not 
 yet ripe for freedom of thought. Kristna, or 
 Christna, we read on p. 360, signified in San- 
 skrit, sent by God, promised by God, holy; and 
 as the name of Christ or Christos is not He- 
 brew, whence could it have been taken except 
 from Krishna, the son of Devaki, or, as M. Ja- 
 colliot writes, Devanaguy ? 
 
 It is difficult, nay, almost impossible, to criti- 
 cise or refute such statements, and yet it is 
 necessary to do so; for such is the interest, 
 or I should rather say the feverish curiosity, 
 excited by anything that bears on ancient re- 
 
in Comparative Theology. 327 
 
 ligion, that M. Jacolliot's book has produced a 
 very wide and very deep impression. It has 
 been remarked with some surprise that Vedic 
 scholars in Europe had failed to discover 
 these important passages in the Veda which 
 he has pointed out, or, still worse, that they 
 had never brought them to the knowledge of 
 the public. In fact, if anything was wanting 
 to show that a general knowledge of the his- 
 tory of ancient religion ought to form part of 
 our education, it was the panic created by 
 M. Jacolliot's book. It is simply the story of 
 Lieutenant Wilford over again, only far less 
 excusable now than a hundred years ago. 
 Many of the words which M. Jacolliot quotes 
 as Sanskrit are not Sanskrit at all ; others 
 never have the meaning which he assigns to 
 them ; and as to the passages from the Vedas 
 (including our old friend the Bhagaveda-gita), 
 they are not from the Veda, they are not from 
 any old Sanskrit writer,— they simply belong 
 to the second half of the nineteenth century. 
 What happened to Lieutenant Wilford has hap- 
 pened again to M. JacolKot. He tells us the 
 secret himself: — 
 
 ' One day,' he says (p. 280), ' when we were 
 
328 On False Analogies 
 
 reading the translation of Manu, by Sir W. 
 Jones, a note led us to consult the Indian 
 commentator, Kulluka Bha^/a, when we found 
 an allusion to the sacrifice of a son by his 
 father prevented by God himself after he had 
 commanded It. We then had only one idee 
 fixe, namely, to find again In the dark mass 
 of the religious books of the Hindus, the orl- 
 einal account of that event. We should never 
 have succeeded but for " the complaisance " of 
 a Brahman with whom we were readlngf San- 
 skrit, and who, yielding to our request, brought 
 us from the' library of his pagoda the works of 
 the theologian Ramatsarlar, which have yielded 
 us such precious assistance in this volume.' 
 
 As to the story of the son offered as a sacri- 
 fice by his father, and released at the command 
 of the gods, M. Jacolliot might have found the 
 original account of it from the Veda, both text 
 and translation, in my History of Ancient San- 
 skrit Literature. He would soon have seen 
 that the story of ^una/^i-epa, being sold by his 
 father In order to be sacrificed in the place of 
 an Indian prince, has very little in common 
 with the intended sacrifice of Isaac by Abra- 
 ham. M. Jacolliot has, no doubt, found out by 
 
/;/ Comparative Theology. 329 
 
 this time that he has been imposed upon ; and 
 if so, he ought to follow th@ example of Colonel 
 Wilford, and publicly state what has happened. 
 Even then, I doubt not that his statements will 
 continue to be quoted for a long time, and that 
 Adinia and Heva, thus brought to life again, 
 will make their appearance in many a book and 
 many a lecture-room. 
 
 Lest it be supposed that such accidents 
 happen to Sanskrit scholars only, or that this 
 fever is bred only in the jungles of Indian 
 mythology, I shall mention at least one other 
 case, which will show that this disease is of a 
 more general character, and that want of cau- 
 tion will produce it in every climate. 
 
 Before the discovery of Sanskrit, China had 
 stood for a long time in the place which was 
 afterwards occupied by India. When the an- 
 cient literature and civilization of China became 
 first known to the scholars of Europe, the Ce- 
 lestial Empire had its admirers and prophets as 
 full of enthusiasm as Sir W. Jones and Lieu- 
 tenant Wilford, and there was nothing, whether 
 Greek philosophy or Christian m.orality, that 
 was not supposed to have had its first origin 
 among the sages of China. The proceedings 
 
^^o On False Analogies 
 
 of the Jesuit missionaries in China were most 
 extraordinary. They had themselves admitted 
 the antiquity of the writings of Confucius and 
 Lao-tse, both of whom Hyed in the sixth century 
 B. c\ But in their zeal to show that the sacred 
 books of the Chinese contained numerous pas- 
 sages borrowed from the Bible, nay, even some 
 of the dogmas of the later church, they hardly 
 perceived that, taking into account the re- 
 spective dates of these books, they were really 
 proving that a kind of anticipated Christianity 
 had been accorded to the ancient sages of the 
 Celestial Empire. The most learned advocate 
 of this school was Father Premare. Another 
 supporter of the same view, Montucci^, speak- 
 ing of Lao-tse's Tao-te-king, says : — 
 
 ' We find in it so many sayings clearly re- 
 ferring to the triune God, that no one who 
 has read this book can doubt that the mystery 
 of the holiest Trinity was revealed to the 
 Chinese more than five centuries before the 
 advent of Christ. Everybody, therefore, who 
 
 ^ Stanislas Julien, Le Livre de la Voie et de la Vertu. 
 Paris, 1842, p. iv. 
 
 ^ Montucci, De studiis sinicis. Berolini, 1808. 
 
in Comparative Theology, 331 
 
 knows the strong feeling of the Chinese for 
 their own teachers, will admit that nothing 
 more efficient could be found in order to fix 
 the dogmas of the Christian religion in the 
 mind of the Chinese than the demonstration 
 that these dos^mas ao^ree with their own books. 
 The study, therefore, and the translation of 
 this singular book (the Tao-te-king) would 
 prove most useful to the missionaries, in order 
 to bring to a happy issue the desired gather- 
 ing in of the Apostolic harvest.' 
 
 What followed is so extraordinary that, 
 though it has often been related, it. deserves 
 to be related again, more particularly as the 
 whole problem which was supposed to have 
 been solved once for all by M. Stanislas Julien, 
 has of late been opened again by Dr. von 
 Strauss, in the Journal of the German Oriental 
 Society, 1869. 
 
 There is a passage at the beginning of the 
 fourteenth chapter of the Tao-te-king in which 
 Father Amyot felt certain that the three per- 
 sons of the Trinity could be recognised. He 
 translated it : — 
 
 ' He who is as it were visible but cannot be 
 seen is called Khi, 
 
^^2 On False Analogies 
 
 ' He whom we cannot hear, and who does 
 not speak to our ear, is called Hi. 
 
 ' He who is as it were tangible, but cannot 
 be touched, is called Wei! 
 
 Few readers, I believe, would have been 
 much startled by this passage, or would have 
 seen in it what Father Amyot saw. But more 
 startling revelations were in store. The most 
 celebrated Chinese scholar of his time, Abel 
 Remusat, took up the subject ; and after show- 
 ing that the first of the three names had to 
 be pronounced, not Khi, but I, he maintained 
 that the three syllables, I Hi Wei, were meant 
 for Je-ho-vah. According to him, the three 
 characters employed in this name have no 
 meaning in Chinese ; they are only signs of 
 sounds foreign to the Chinese language ; and 
 they were intended to render the Greek 'law, 
 the name which, according to Diodorus Siculus, 
 the Jews gave to their God. Remusat goes 
 on to remark that Lao-tse had really rendered 
 this Hebrew name more accurately than the 
 Greeks, because he had preserved the aspira- 
 tion of the second syllable which was lost 
 in Greek. In fact, he entertained no doubt 
 that this word, occurrinor in the work of 
 
in Comparative Theology. o^o^'i^ 
 
 Lao-tse, proves an intellectual communication 
 between the West and China, in the sixth 
 century B.C. 
 
 Fortunately, the panic created by this dis- 
 covery did not last long. M. Stanislas Julien 
 published in 1842 a complete translation of 
 this difficult book ; and here all traces of the 
 name of Jehovah have disappeared. 
 
 ' The three syllables,' he writes, ' which Abel 
 Remusat considered as purely phonetic and 
 foreign to the Chinese language, have a very 
 clear and intelligible meaning, and have been 
 fully explained by Chinese commentators. The 
 first syllable, I, means without colour; the 
 second. Hi, without sound or voice; the third, 
 Wei, without body. The proper translation 
 therefore is : — 
 
 ' You look (for the Tao, the law) and you 
 see it not : it is colourless. 
 
 ' You listen and you hear it not : it is voice- 
 less. 
 
 ' You wish to touch it and you reach it not : 
 it is without body.' 
 
 Until, therefore, some other traces can be 
 discovered in Chinese literature, proving an 
 intercourse between China and Judaea in the 
 
334 071 False Analogies in Comparative Theology. 
 
 sixth century B.C., we can hardly be called 
 upon to believe that the Jews should have 
 communicated this one name, which they 
 hardly trusted themselves to pronounce at 
 home, to a Chinese philosopher ; and we must 
 treat the apparent similarity between I-Hi-Wei, 
 and Jehovah, as an accident, which ought to 
 serve as a useful warning, though it need in 
 no way discourage a careful and honest study 
 of Comparative Theology. 
 
ON THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OF MYTHOLOGY. 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE ROYAL 
 INSTITUTION IN 1 87 1. 
 
 \ 1^7 HAT can be in our days the interest 
 of mythology ? What is it to us that 
 Kronos was the son of Uranos and Gaia, and 
 that he swallowed his children, Hestia, De- 
 meter, Hera, Pluton, and Poseidon, as soon 
 as they were born ? What have we to do 
 with the stories of Rhea, the wife of Kronos, 
 who, in order to save her youngest son from 
 being swallowed by his father, gave her hus- 
 band a stone to swallow instead ? And why 
 should we be asked to admire the exploits 
 of this youngest son, who, when he had grown 
 up, made his father drink a draught, and thus 
 helped to deliver the stone and his five brothers 
 
336 On the Philosophy of Mythology 
 
 and sisters from their paternal prison ? What 
 shall we think if we read in the most admired 
 of classic poets that these escaped prisoners 
 became afterwards the great gods of Greece, 
 gods believed in by Homer, worshipped by 
 Sokrates, immortalised by Pheidias ? Why 
 should we listen to such horrors as that Tan- 
 talos killed his own son, boiled him, and placed 
 him before the gods to eat ? or that the gods 
 collected his limbs, threw them into a caldron, 
 and thus restored Pelops to life, minus, how- 
 ever, his shoulder, which Demeter had eaten 
 in a fit of absence, and which had therefore 
 to be replaced by a shoulder made of ivory ? 
 
 Can we imagine anything more silly, more 
 savage, more senseless, anything more un- 
 worthy to engage our thoughts, even for a 
 single moment ? W^e may pity our children 
 that, in order to know how to construe and 
 understand the master-works of Homer and 
 Virgil, they have to fill their memory with 
 such idle tales ; but we might justly suppose 
 that men who have serious work to do in this 
 world, would banish such subjects for ever from 
 their thoughts. 
 
 And yet, how strange, from the very child- 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology 337 
 
 hood of philosophy, from the first faintly-whis- 
 pered Why ? to our own time of matured 
 thought and fearless inquiry, mythology has 
 been the ever-recurrent subject of anxious 
 wonder and careful study. The ancient phi- 
 losophers, who could pass by the petrified 
 shells on mountain-tops and the fossil trees 
 buried in their quarries without ever asking 
 the question how they came to be there, or 
 what they signified, were ever ready with 
 doubts and surmises when they came to listen 
 to ancient stories of their gods and heroes. 
 And, more curious still, even modern philo- 
 sophers cannot resist the attraction of these 
 ancient problems. That stream of philoso- 
 phic thought which, springing from Descartes 
 (i 596-1650), rolled on through the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries in two beds — the 
 idealistic, marked by the names of Malebranche 
 (1638-1715), Spinoza (1632-1677), and Leibniz 
 ( 1 646-1 7 1 6); and the sensualistic, marked by 
 the names of Locke (1632- 1704), David Hume 
 (1711-1776), and Condillac (17 15-1780), till the 
 two arms united again in Kant (i 724-1804), 
 and the full stream was carried on by Schelling 
 (1775-1854), and Hegel (1770-1831),— this 
 
 z 
 
^^S On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 stream of modern philosophic thought has 
 ended where ancient philosophy began — In a 
 Philosophy of Mythology, which, as you know, 
 forms the most Important part of Schelllng's 
 final system, of what he called himself his 
 Positive Philosophy, given to the world after 
 the death of that great thinker and poet, in 
 the year 1854. 
 
 I do not mean to say that Schelling and 
 Aristotle looked upon mythology In the sam^e 
 light, or that they found In It exactly the 
 same problems ; yet there Is this common 
 feature in all who have thought or written on 
 mythology, that they look upon It as some- 
 thing which, whatever It may mean, does cer- 
 tainly not mean what It seems to mean ; as 
 something that requires an explanation, whether 
 It be a system of religion, or a phase In the 
 development of the human mind, or an inevit- 
 able catastrophe In the life of language. 
 
 According to some, mythology Is history 
 changed Into fable; according to others, fable 
 changed into history. Some discover in it 
 the precepts of moral philosophy enunciated 
 in the poetical language of antiquity; others 
 see in it a picture of the great forms and 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 339 
 
 forces of nature, particularly the sun, the moon, 
 and the stars, the changes of day and night, 
 the succession of the seasons, the return of 
 the years — all this reflected by the vivid imagi- 
 nation of ancient poets and sages. Epichar- 
 mos, for instance, the pupil of Pythagoras, 
 declared that the gods of Greece were not 
 what, from the poems of Homer, we might 
 suppose them to be — personal beings, endowed 
 with superhuman powers, but liable to many 
 of the passions and frailties of human nature. 
 He maintained that these gods were really 
 the Wind, the Water, the Earth, the Sun, the 
 Fire, and the Stars. Not long after his time, 
 another philosopher, Empedokles, holding that 
 the whole of nature consisted in the mixture 
 and separation of the four elements, declared 
 that Zeus was the element of Fire, Here the 
 element of Air, Aidoneus or Pluton the ele- 
 ment of Earth, and Nestis the element of 
 Water. In fact, whatever the free thinkers 
 of Greece discovered successively as the first 
 principles of Being and Thought, whether the 
 air of Anaximenes, or the fire of Herakleitos, 
 or the Nous or Mind of Anaxagoras, was 
 readily identified with Zeus and the other 
 
 z 2 
 
340 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 divine persons of Olympian mythology. Me- 
 trodoros, the contemporary of Anaxagoras, 
 went evefi further. While Anaxagoras would 
 have been satisfied with looking upon Zeus 
 as but another name of his Nous, the highest 
 intellect, the mover, the disposer, the governor 
 of all things, Metrodoros resolved not only 
 the persons of Zeus, Here, and Athene, but 
 likewise those of human kings and heroes — 
 such as Agamemnon, Achilles, and Hektor — 
 into various combinations and physical agen- 
 cies, and treated the adventures ascribed to 
 them as natural facts, hidden under a thin 
 veil of allegory. 
 
 Sokrates, it is well known, looked upon such 
 attempts at explaining all fables allegorically as 
 too arduous and unprofitable ; yet he, too, as 
 well as Plato, pointed frequently to what they 
 called the kyponoia, the under-current, or if I 
 may say so, the under-meaning of ancient my- 
 thology. 
 
 Aristotle speaks more explicitly : — 
 
 ' It has been handed down,' he says, ' by early 
 
 and very ancient people, and left to those who 
 
 came after, in the form of myths, that these (the 
 
 first principles of the world) are the gods, and 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 341 
 
 that the divine embraces the whole of nature. 
 The rest has been added mythically, in order to 
 persuade the many, and in order to be used in 
 support of laws and other interests. Thus they 
 say that the gods have a human form, and that 
 they are like to some of the other living beings, 
 and other things consequent on this, and similar 
 to Avhat has been said. If one separated out' of 
 these fables, and took only that first point, viz., 
 that they believed the first essences to be gods, 
 one would think that it had been divinely said, 
 and that while every art and every philosophy 
 was probably invented ever so many times and 
 lost again, these opinions had, like fragments of 
 them, been preserved until now. So far only is 
 the opinion of our fathers, and that received 
 from our first ancestors, clear to us.' 
 
 I have quoted the opinions of these Greek 
 philosophers, to which many more might have 
 been added, partly in order to show how many 
 of the most distinguished minds of ancient 
 Greece agreed in demanding an interpretation, 
 whether physical or metaphysical, of Greek 
 mythology, partly in order to satisfy those clas- 
 sical scholars, who, forgetful of their own classics, 
 foro^etful of their own Plato and Aristotle, seem 
 
342 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 to imagine that the idea of seeing in the gods 
 and heroes of Greece anything beyond what 
 they appear to be in the songs of Homer, was 
 a mere fancy and invention of the students of 
 Comparative Mythology. 
 
 There were, no doubt, Greeks, and eminent 
 Greeks too, who took the legends of their gods 
 and heroes in their literal sense. But what do 
 these say of Homer and Hesiod } Xenophanes, 
 the contemporary of Pythagoras, holds Homer 
 and Hesiod responsible for the popular super- 
 stitions of Greece. In this he agrees with 
 Herodotus, when he declares that these two 
 poets made the theogony for the Greeks, and 
 gave to the gods their names, and assigned to 
 them their honours and their arts, and described 
 their appearances. But he then continues in a 
 very different strain from the pious historian ^ 
 ' Homer,' he says^ 'and Hesiod ascribed to the 
 
 ^ Her. ii. 53, olroi 8e dai 01 noiTjo-avres 6eoyov[r}v''E\Xr]ai, Kai 
 Tolai oeoiai ras iircowfiias bovTes Ka\ Tifxas Te Koi Ti)(ya^ StcXoi/res', 
 Koi eiSea avTcov (Trjfirjvavres. 
 
 ndvTa Ocols ave6rj<av "Ofxrjpos 6 'Ho-ioSoy re 
 ocr(Ta Tvap avOpcoTTOicn oveidea kol yJAoyos i(TTiv. 
 ois 7r\e7aT i^6iy^avT0 Oe<ov ade/jLiaTia epya, 
 KkeTTT€iv fioix^veiv re koi oXXtiXovs aivaTemiv. 
 
 Sext. Emp. adv. Math. 1,289; i^'- ^93- 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 343 
 
 gods whatever is disgraceful and scandalous 
 among men, yea, they declared that the gods 
 had committed nearly all unlawful acts, such as 
 theft, adultery, and fraud.' ' Men seem to have 
 created their gods, and to have given to them 
 their own mind, voice, and figure. The Ethi- 
 opians made their gods black and flat-nosed ; 
 the Thracians red-haired and blue-eyed ; just as 
 oxen and lions.' This was spoken about 500 B.C. 
 Herakleitos, about 460 b.c, one of the boldest 
 thinkers of ancient Greece, declared that Homer 
 deserved to be ejected from public assemblies 
 and flogged ; and a story is told that Pythagoras 
 (about 540 B. c.) saw the soul of Homer in 
 Hades, hanging on a tree and surrounded by 
 serpents, as a punishment for what he had said 
 
 8oK€ovcn Beovs yeyevrjcrdai 
 Tr]u (TipeTepTju T aXcrOticriv ep^fti' (jycovrjv re defias re. — 
 AXX' e'lroi )(a.pa.s y' eixpv ^oes tj€ Xeovres 
 Tj ypdyp-ai )(€ip€crcn Kai ^'pya reXeii/ dnep avdpes, 
 Kai K€ decov l^eas eypacfiov Koi aatpLar eTTolovv 
 TOLavff OLov nep kuvtoI depas el^ov opolop, 
 Itttiol pev 6 tTnroicri, jBoes 5e' re ^ovalu opoia. 
 
 Clem. Alex. Strom, v. p. 601, c. 
 
 "Qs (pTjcriv A€vocf)di'r]s' 'AidioTres re peXavas cripovs re, QpaKe's re 
 
 TTvppovs Kai yXavKovs.' — Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. p. 711, B. His- 
 toria Philosophise, ed. Ritter et Preller, cap. iii. 
 
344 On the Philosophy of Mythology 
 
 of the gods. And what can be stronger than 
 the condemnation passed on Homer by Plato ? 
 I shall read an extract from the ' Republic,' 
 from the excellent translation lately published 
 by Professor Jowett : — 
 
 ' But what fault do you find with Homer and 
 Hesiod, and the other great story-tellers of 
 mankind ? ' 
 
 ' A fault which is most serious,' I said : ' the 
 fault of telling a lie, and a bad lie.' 
 
 ' But when is this fault committed ? ' 
 
 ' Whenever an erroneous misrepresentation 
 is made of the nature of gods and heroes — like 
 the drawing of a limner which has not the 
 shadow of a likeness to the truth.' 
 
 ' '' Yes," he said, '' that sort of thing is cer- 
 tainly very blameable ; but what are the stories 
 which you mean ? " 
 
 ' " First of all," I said, " there was that 
 greatest of all lies in high places, which the 
 poet told about Uranos, and which was an 
 immoral lie too — I mean what Hesiod says 
 that Uranos did, and what Kronos did to him. 
 The fact is that the doings of Kronos, and the 
 sufferings which his son Inflicted upon him, 
 even If they were true, ought not to be lightly 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 345 
 
 told to young and simple persons ; if possible, 
 they had better be buried in silence. But if 
 there is an absolute necessity for their mention, 
 a very few might hear them in a mystery, and 
 then let them sacrifice not a common (Eleu- 
 sinian) pig, but some huge and unprocurable 
 victim ; this would have the effect of very 
 greatly reducing the number of the hearers." 
 
 ' " Why, yes," said he, " these stories are 
 certainly objectionable." 
 
 ' " Yes, Adeimantos, they are stories not to 
 be narrated in our State ; the young man 
 should not be told that in committing the 
 worst of crimes he is far from doing anything 
 'outrageous, and that he may chastise his father 
 when he does wrong in any manner that he 
 likes, and in this will only be following the 
 example of the first and greatest of the gods." 
 
 ' " I quite agree with you," he said ; " in my 
 opinion those stories are not Jit to be repeated.'' 
 
 ' "■ Neither, if we mean our future guardians 
 to regard the habit of quarrelling as dishonour- 
 able, should anything be said of the wars in 
 heaven, and of the plots and fightings of the 
 gods against one another, which are quite 
 untrue. Far be it from us to tell them of the 
 
34*^ On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 battles of the giants, and embroider them on 
 garments ; or of all the innumerable other 
 quarrels of gods and heroes with their friends 
 and relations. If they would only believe us, 
 we would tell them that quarrelling is unholy, 
 and that never up to this time has there been 
 any quarrel between citizens ; this is what old 
 men and old women should begin by telling 
 children, and the same when they grow up. 
 And these are the sort of fictions which the 
 poets should be required to compose. But 
 the narrative of Hephaestos binding Here his 
 mother, or how on another occasion Zeus sent 
 him flying for taking her part when she was 
 being beaten — such tales must not be admitted 
 into our State, whether they are supposed to 
 have an allegorical meaning or not. For the 
 young man cannot judge what is allegorical 
 and what is literal, and anything that he re- 
 ceives into his mind at that age is apt to 
 become indelible and unalterable ; and there- 
 fore the tales which they first hear should be 
 models of virtuous thoughts." ' 
 
 To those who look upon mythology as an 
 ancient form of religion, such freedom of lan- 
 guage as is here used by Xenophanes and 
 
Oji the Philosophy of Mythology. 347 
 
 Plato, must seem startling. If the Iliad were 
 really the Bible of the Greeks, as it has not 
 unfrequently been called, such violent invec- 
 tives would have been impossible. For let 
 us bear in mind that Xenophanes, though he 
 boldly denied the existence of all the mytho- 
 logical deities, and declared his belief In One 
 God, ' neither in form nor In thought like unto 
 mortals ^' was not therefore considered a 
 heretic. He never suffered for uttering his 
 honest convictions : on the contrary, as far as 
 we know, he was honoured by the people 
 amono^ whom he lived and taug^ht. Nor was 
 Plato ever punished on account of his unbelief, 
 and though he, as well as his master, Sokrates, 
 became obnoxious to the dominant party at 
 Athens, this was due to political far more than 
 to theological motives. At all events, Plato, 
 the pupil, the friend, the apologist of Sokrates, 
 was allowed to teach at Athens to the end of 
 his life, and few men commanded greater 
 respect in all ranks of Greek society. 
 
 But, although mythology was not religion 
 
 Eis Beos i'v re Beoicri Koi av6p6iTCoi(n fxeyiaTos, 
 ov Ti defxas 6vr)T0Lcn dfxoios ovbe vorjfia. 
 
 Clem. Alex. Strom, v. p. 601, c. 
 
34^ On the Philosophy of Mythology, 
 
 In our sense of the word, and although the 
 Iliad certainly never enjoyed among Greeks 
 the authority either of the Bible, or even of 
 the Veda among the Brahmans, or the Zend 
 Avesta among the Parsis, yet I would not 
 deny altogether that In a certain sense the 
 mythology of the Greeks belonged to their 
 religion. We must only be on our guard, here 
 as everywhere else, against the misleading 
 Influence of words. The word Religion has, 
 like most words, had its history ; It has grown 
 and changed with each century, and it cannot 
 therefore have meant with the Greeks and 
 Brahmans what it meant with us. Relloflons 
 have sometimes been divided into national or 
 traditional, as distinguished from individttal 
 or statutable religion. The former are, like 
 languages, home-grown, autochthonic, without 
 an historical beginning, generally without any 
 recognised founder, or even an authorised 
 code ; the latter have been founded by his- 
 torical persons, generally in antagonism to 
 traditional systems, and they always rest on 
 the authority of a written code. I do not con- 
 sider this division as very useful^ for a scientific 
 ^ See p. 139. 
 
0?t the PJiilosophy of Mythology. 349 
 
 study of religion, because in many cases it is 
 extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible, to 
 draw a sharp line of demarcation, and to deter- 
 mine whether a given religion may be considered 
 as the work of one man, or as the combined 
 work of those who came before him, who lived 
 with him, nay, even of those who came after 
 him. For our present purpose, however, for 
 showing at once the salient difference between 
 what the Greeks and what we ourselves should 
 mean by Religion, this division is very service- 
 able. The Greek religion was clearly a na- 
 tional and traditional religion, and, as such, 
 it shared both the advantages and disadvan- 
 tages of this form of religious belief; the 
 Christian religion is an historical, and to a 
 great extent, an individual religion, and it 
 possesses the advantage of an authorised code 
 and of a settled system of faith. Let it not 
 be supposed, however, that between traditional 
 and individual religions the advantages are 
 all on one, the disadvantages on the other 
 side. As long as the immemorial religions of 
 the different branches of the human race re- 
 mained in their natural state, and were not 
 pressed into the service of political parties or 
 
350 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 an ambitious priesthood, they allowed great 
 freedom of thought and a healthy growth of 
 real piety, and they were seldom , disgraced 
 by an intolerant or persecuting spirit. They 
 were generally either honestly believed, or, as 
 we have just seen, honestly attacked, and a 
 high tone of intellectual morality was pre- 
 served, untainted by hypocrisy, equivocation, 
 or unreasoning dogmatism. The marvellous 
 development of philosophy in Greece, particu- 
 larly in ancient Greece, was chiefly due, I 
 believe, to the absence of an established re- 
 ligion and an influential priesthood; and it is 
 impossible to overrate the blessing which the 
 fresh, pure, invigorating, and elevating air of 
 that ancient Greek philosophy has conferred 
 on all ages, not excepting our own. I shudder 
 at the thought of what the world would have 
 been without Plato and Aristotle, and I tremble 
 at the idea that the youth of the future should 
 ever be deprived of the teaching and the ex- 
 ample of these true prophets of the absolute 
 freedom of thought. Unfortunately we know 
 but little of the earliest fathers of Greek phi- 
 losophy ; we have but fragments, and those 
 not always trustworthy, nor easily intelligible, 
 
 I 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 351 
 
 of what they taught on the highest questions 
 that can stir the heart of man. We have been 
 accustomed to call the oracular sayings of men 
 like Thales, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, or He- 
 rakleitos, philosophy, but there was in them 
 as much of religion as in the songs of Homer 
 and Hesiod. Homer and Hesiod were great 
 powers, but their poems were not the only 
 feeders of the religious life of Greece. The 
 stream of ancient wisdom and philosophy 
 flowed parallel with the stream of legend and 
 poetry ; and both were meant to support the 
 religious cravings of the soul. We have only 
 to attend without prejudice to the utterances 
 of these ancient prophets, such as Xenophanes 
 and Herakleitos, in order to convince our- 
 selves that these men spoke with authority 
 to the people ^, that they considered themselves 
 the equals of Homer and Hesiod, nay, their 
 betters, and in no way fettered by the popular 
 legends about gods and goddesses. While 
 
 ^ Empedokles, Carmina, v. 411 (Fragm. Philos. Graec. 
 vol. i. p. 12). 
 
 0) cbiKoi, oiSa fiev ovu or oKrjdeiri irapa fivBois 
 ovs eyo) i^fpeco' fiaka S* dpyaXet] ye rervKrai 
 av8pd(ri Koi dva^rjXos in\ (fipha Trtcmos opfir]. 
 
352 Oji the PJiilosophy of Mythology. 
 
 modern religions assume in general a hostile 
 attitude towards philosophy, ancient religions 
 have either included philosophy as ^n integral 
 part, or they have at least tolerated its growth 
 in the very precincts of their temples. 
 
 After we have thus seen what limitations 
 we must place on the meaning of the word 
 Religion, if we call mythology the religion of 
 the ancient world, we may now advance 
 another step. 
 
 We have glanced at the principal interpreta- 
 tions which have been proposed by the ancients 
 themselves of the original purpose and meaning 
 of mythology. But there is one question which 
 none, either of the ancient or of the modern 
 interpreters of mythology, has answered, or 
 even asked, and on which, nevertheless, the 
 whole problem of mythology seems to turn. 
 If mythology is history changed into fable, 
 why was it so changed ? If it is fable repre- 
 sented as history, why were such fables in- 
 vented ? If it contains precepts of moral 
 philosophy, whence their immoral disguise ? 
 If it is a picture of the great forms and forces 
 of nature, the same question still returns, why 
 were these forms and forces represented as 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 0,^7^ 
 
 heroes and heroines, as nymphs and shepherds, 
 as gods and goddesses ? It is easy enough to 
 call the sun a god, or the dawn a goddess, 
 after these predicates have once been framed. 
 But how were these predicates framed ? How 
 did people come to know of gods and god- 
 desses, heroes and nymphs, and what meaning 
 did they originally connect with these terms ? 
 In fact, the real question which a philosophy 
 of mythology has to answer is this, — Is the 
 whole of mythology an invention, the fanciful 
 poetry of a Homer or Hesiod, or is it a 
 growth ? Or, to speak more definitely, Was 
 mythology a mere accident, or was it inevi- 
 table ? Was it only a false step, or was it a 
 step that could not have been left out in the 
 historical progress of the human mind ? 
 
 The study of the history of language, which 
 is only a part of the study of the history of 
 thought, has enabled us to give a decisive 
 answer to this question. Mythology is inevi- 
 table, it Is natural, it Is an Inherent necessity 
 of language, if we recognise in language the 
 outward form and manifestation of thouo^ht : it is 
 in fact the dark shadow which lanofuaee throws 
 on thought, and which can never disappear 
 
 A a 
 
354 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 till lanmiaofe becomes altoofether commensu- 
 rate with thought, which it never will. My- 
 thology, no doubt, breaks out more fiercely 
 during the early periods of the history of hu- 
 man thought, but it never disappears altogether. 
 Depend upon it, there is mythology now as 
 there was in the time of Homer, only we do 
 not perceive it, because we ourselves live in 
 the very shadow of it, and because we all 
 shrink from the full meridian light and truth. 
 We are ready enough to see that if the an- 
 cients called their kings and heroes l^iayeveh, 
 sprung of Zeus, that expression, intended 
 originally to convey the highest praise which 
 man can bestow on man, was apt to lapse 
 into mythology. We easily perceive how such 
 a conception, compatible in its origin with the 
 highest reverence for the gods, led almost in- 
 evitably to the growth of fables, which trans- 
 ferred to divine beings the incidents of human 
 paternity and sonship. But we are not so 
 ready to see that it is our fate, too, to move 
 in allegories which illustrate things intellectual 
 by visions exhibited to the fancy. In our re- 
 ligion, too, the conceptions of paternity and 
 sonship have not always been free from all 
 
On the Philosophy vf Mythology. 2,^^ 
 
 that is human, nor are we always aware that 
 nearly every note that belongs to human pa- 
 ternity and sonship must be taken out of these 
 terms, before they can be pronounced safe 
 against mythological infection. Papal decisions 
 on immaculate conception are of no avail 
 against that mythology. The mind must be- 
 come immaculate and rise superior to itself: 
 or it must close its eyes and shut its lips in 
 the presence of the Divine. 
 
 If then we want to understand mythology, 
 in the ordinary and restricted sense of the 
 word, we must discover the larger circle of 
 mental phenomena to which it belongs. Greek 
 mythology is but a small segment of mytho- 
 logy ; the religious mythologies of all the races 
 of mankind are again but a small segment of 
 mythology. Mythology, in the highest sense, 
 is the power exercised by language on thought 
 in every possible sphere of mental activity ; and 
 I do not hesitate to call the whole history of 
 philosophy, from Thales down to Hegel, an 
 uninterrupted battle against mythology, a con- 
 stant protest of thought against language. This 
 will require some explanation. 
 
 Ever since the time of Wilhelm von Hum- 
 A a 2 
 
^^6 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 boldt, all who have seriously grappled with the 
 highest problems of the Science of Language, 
 have come to the conviction that thought and 
 language are inseparable, that language is as 
 impossible without thought as thought Is with- 
 out language ; that they stand to each other 
 like soul and body, like power and function, 
 like substance and form. The objections which 
 have been raised against this view arise gene- 
 rally from a mere misunderstanding. If we 
 speak of language as the outward realisation 
 of thought, we do not mean language as de- 
 posited In a dictionary, or sketched in a gram- 
 mar, we mean language as an act, language as 
 being spoken, language as living and dying 
 with every word that Is uttered. We might 
 perhaps call this speech, as distinguished from 
 language. 
 
 Secondly, though if we speak of language, 
 we mean chiefly phonetic articulate language, 
 we do not exclude the less perfect symbols of 
 thought, such as gestures, signs, or pictures. 
 They, too, are language in a certain sense, and 
 they must be Included in language before we 
 are justified In saying that discursive thought 
 can be realised in language only. One in- 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 357 
 
 stance will make this clear. We hold that we 
 cannot think without language. But can we 
 not count without language ? We certainly can. 
 We can form the conception of three without 
 any spoken word, by simply holding up three 
 fingers. In the- same manner, the hand might 
 stand for five, both hands for ten, hands and 
 feet for twenty \ This is how people who pos- 
 sessed no organs of speech would speak ; this 
 is how the deaf and dumb do speak. Three 
 fingers are as good as three strokes, three 
 strokes are as good as three clicks of the 
 tongue, three clicks of the tongue are as good 
 as the sound three, or trois, or drei, or shalosh 
 in Hebrew, or san in Chinese. All these are 
 signs, more or less perfect, but being signs, 
 they fall under the category of language ; and 
 all we maintain is, that without some kind of 
 sign, discursive thought is impossible, and that 
 in that sense, language, or X070?, is the only 
 possible realisation of human thought. 
 
 Another very common misunderstanding is 
 this : people imagine that, if it be impossible 
 
 ^ Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, by J. Bonwick, 
 1870, p. 143. 
 
^r^S On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 to think, except In language, language and 
 thought must be one and .tlie same thing. 
 But a true philosophy of language leads to 
 the very opposite result. Every philosopher 
 would say that substance cannot exist without 
 form, nor form without substance, but no phi- 
 losopher would say that therefore It Is impos- 
 sible to distinguish between form and sub- 
 stance. In the same way, though we maintain 
 that thought cannot exist without language nor 
 language without thought, we do distinguish 
 between thought and language, between the 
 inward and the outward X070?, between the 
 substance and the form. Nay, we go a step 
 beyond. We admit that language necessarily 
 reacts on thought, and we see in this reaction, 
 in this refraction of the rays of language, the 
 real solution of the old riddle of mythology. 
 
 You will now see why these somewhat ab- 
 struse disquisitions were necessary for our im- 
 mediate purpose, and I can promise those who 
 have hitherto followed me on this rather barren 
 and rugged track, that they will now be able 
 to rest, and command, from the point of view 
 which we have reached, the whole panorama of ' 
 the mythology of the human mind. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 359 
 
 We saw just now that the names of numbers 
 may most easllf|^be replaced by signs. Num- 
 bers are simple analytical conceptions, and for 
 that very reason they are not liable to mytho- 
 logy: name and conception being here com- 
 mensurate, no misunderstanding is possible. 
 But as soon as we leave this department of 
 thought, mythology begins. I shall try by at 
 least cne example to show how mythology not 
 only pervades the sphere of religion or reli- 
 o-ious t-adition, but it infects more or less the 
 whole nalm of thought. 
 
 Whei man wished for the first time to grasp 
 and exp-ess a distinction between the body, 
 and sonething else within him distinct from 
 the bod\, an easy name that suggested itself 
 was bredh. The breath seemed something 
 immateriil and almost invisible, and it was 
 connectec with the life that pervaded the body, 
 for as scon as the breath ceased, the life of 
 the body became extinct. Hence the Greek 
 name -^vji^, which originally meant breath. 
 
 1 The wod ^vx^ is clearly connected in Greek with ^vx^, 
 which meant Driginally blowing, and was used either in the 
 sense of coohig by blowing, or breathing by blowing. In 
 
360 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 was chosen to express at first the principle 
 of life, as distinguished frojf the decaying 
 
 the former acceptation it produced ■^vx'^^, coldness ; ^\^pos, 
 cold ; -^vxaoi, I cool ; in the latter ^/'vx7, breath, ther| life, 
 then soul. So far the purely Greek growth of words derived 
 from -v/aux" is clear. But -^vxf^ itself is difficult. It seems to 
 point to a root spu, meaning to blow out, to spit ; La/, sptio, 
 and spu7)ia, foam; Goth, spcivan ; Gr. tttuco, suppcsed to 
 stand for diru'ca. Hesychius mentions ^vtt€l=i'ktv(i, ^vtt6u 
 =TTTV€\ov. (Pott, Etym. Forsch. No. 355.) Curtiis con- 
 nects this root with Gr. (j)v, in (j)vcra, blowing, bellowjj (^vadco, 
 to blow, (f)vcnd(o, to snort, 7TOL-(f)v(Ta(o, to blow, and vith Lat. 
 spirare (i. e. spoisare). See E. B. Tylor, ' The Reigion of 
 Savages,' Fortnightly Review, 1866, p. 73. 
 
 Stahl, who rejected the division of life and mine adopted 
 by Bacon, and returned to the Aristotelian docrine, falls 
 back on to Plato's etymology of -^vxr] as cpvaexr], i-om (pvo-iv 
 ex^iv or oxelv, Crat. 400 B. In a passage of h^ Theoria 
 Medica Vera (Halae, 1708), pointed out to ne by Dr. 
 Rolleston, Stahl says : — ' Invenio in lexico grsecoantiquiore 
 post alios, et Budaeum imprimis, iterum iterumlue reviso, 
 nomenclaturam nimis quam fugitive allegataii; (pvaexv, 
 poetice, pro -^vxr). Incidit animo suspicari, an pon verum 
 primum nomen animae antiquissimis Grsecis fuerithoc (pvaexrj, 
 quasi e'xcop t6 (pvav, e cuius vocis pronunciatione deflectente, 
 uti vere familiariter solet vocalium, inprimis sul accentibus, 
 fugitiva enunciatione, sensim natum sit 4>v(x-xr] ^wxn, denique 
 ad faciliorem pronunciationem in locum 4>(rvxy], ^^vxv- Quam 
 suspicionem fouere mihi videtur illud, quod vc;abuli ^l/^vx^js, 
 pro anima, nulla idonea analogia in lingua graca occurrat ; 
 nam quae a -^vxco ducitur, cum verus huius et di^ctus signifi- 
 catus notorie sit refrigero, indirectus autem fiagis, spiro, 
 nihil certe haec ad animam puto.' (p. 44.) 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 361 
 
 body, afterwards the incorporeal, the imma- 
 terial, the undecaying, the immortal part of 
 man — his soul, his mind, his Self. All this 
 was very natural. When a person dies, we 
 too say that he has given up the ghost, and 
 ghost, too, meant originally spirit, and spirit 
 meant breath. 
 
 A very instructive analogous case is quoted 
 by Mr. E. B. Tylor from a compendium of the 
 theology of the Indians of Nicaragua, the re- 
 cord of question and answer in an inquest held 
 by Father Francisco de Bobadilla in the early 
 days of the Spanish conquest. Asked, among 
 other things, concerning death, the Indians 
 said : ' Those who die in their houses eo un- 
 derground, but those who are killed in war go 
 to serve the gods (leotes). When men die, 
 there comes forth from their mouth some- 
 thing which resembles a person, and is called 
 jtclzo (Aztec yiili, " to live "). This being is 
 like a person, but does not die, and the corpse 
 remains here.' The Spanish ecclesiastics in- 
 quired whether those who go on high, keep the 
 same body, features, and limbs as here below ; 
 to which the Indians answered, ' No, there 
 is only the heart.' ' But,' said the Spaniards, 
 
3<52 On the PJnlosophy of Mythology. 
 
 'as the hearts are torn out' (they meant in 
 the case of warriors who fell into the hands of 
 the enemy) 'what happens then?' Hereupon 
 the Indians replied : ' It is not precisely the 
 heart, but that which is in them, and makes 
 them live, and which quits the body when 
 they die;' and again they said, ' It is not their 
 heart which goes up on high, but that which 
 makes them live, that is, the breath comine 
 out. from their mouth, which is called jtdio! 
 ' Then,' asked the Spaniards, ' does this heart, 
 julw or soul, die with the body?' 'When the 
 deceased has lived well,' replied the Indians, 
 ' the j'ulw goes up on high with our gods ; but 
 when he has lived ill, the ju/zo perishes with 
 the body, and there is an end of it.' 
 
 The Greeks expressed the same idea by 
 saying that the ^//yx'! had left the body^ had 
 fled through the mouth, or even through a 
 bleeding wound 2, and had gone into Hades, 
 
 dv8p6s 8e yj/vxr] TToXiv eXdelv ovre XeioT)), 
 
 ovO^ eXerr), eVei (ip Kev dpeLyj/^eTai epKos 686vt(ou. 
 
 II. ix. 408. 
 5(.a 8' evrepa x^Xkos cicjivcrcrev 
 Srjaxras' 'v/'"i'X') ^^ '^"'■' ovrapevrjv uyreiXrjv 
 eacrvT eTrciyop-evrj. 
 
 U. xiv. 517. 
 
On the PJiilosophy of Mythology. 363 
 
 which meant Hterally no more than the place 
 of the Invisible {'AlSr]^). That the breath had 
 become invisible, was matter of fact; that it 
 had gone to the house of Hades, was mytho- 
 logy springing spontaneously from the fertile 
 soil of language. 
 
 The primitive mythology was by no means 
 necessarily religious. In the very case which 
 we have chosen, philosophical mythology sprang 
 up by the side of religious mythology. The 
 religious mythology consisted in speaking of 
 the spirits of the departed as ghosts, as mere 
 breath and air, as fluttering about the gates of 
 Hades, or ferried across the Styx in the boat 
 of Charon \ 
 
 The philosophical mythology, however, that 
 sprang from this name was much more im- 
 portant. We saw that Psyche, meaning origi- 
 nally the breathing of the body, was gradually 
 used in the sense of vital breath, and as some- 
 thing independent of the body; and that at 
 last, when it had assumed the meaning of the 
 
 Ter frustra compressa manu effugit imago, 
 Par levibus ventis volucrique simillima somno.' 
 
 Virg. iEn. ii. 792. 
 
3^4 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 immortal part of man, it retained that character 
 of something independent of the body, thus 
 giving rise to the conception of a soul, not 
 only as a being without a body, but in its 
 very nature opposed to body. As soon as 
 that opposition had been established in lan- 
 guage and thought, philosophy began its work 
 in order to explain how two such heteroge- 
 neous powers could act on each other — how 
 the soul could influence the body, and how 
 the body could determine the soul. Spiritual- 
 istic and materialistic system of philosophy 
 arose, and all this in order to remove a self- 
 created difficulty, in order to join together 
 again what language had severed, the living 
 body and the living soul. The question 
 whether there is a soul or spirit, whether 
 there is in man something different from the 
 mere body, is not at all affected by this my- 
 thological phraseology. We certainly can dis- 
 tinguish between body and soul, but as long as 
 we keep within the limits of human knowledge, 
 we have no right to speak of the living soul as 
 a breath, or of spirits and ghosts as fluttering 
 about like birds or fairies. The poet of the 
 nineteenth century says : — 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 0^6^ 
 
 ' The spirit does but mean the breath, 
 I know no more.' 
 
 And the same thought was expressed by Cicero 
 two thousand years ago : ' Whether the soul is 
 air or fire, I do not know.' As men, we only 
 know of embodied spirits, however ethereal 
 their bodies may be conceived to be, but of 
 spirits, separate from body, without form or 
 frame, we know as little as we know of 
 thought without language, or of the Dawn as 
 a goddess, or of the Night as the mother of 
 the Day. 
 
 Though breath, or spirit, or ghost are the 
 most common names that were assigned 
 through the metaphorical nature of language 
 to the vital, and afterwards to the intellec- 
 tual, principle In man, they were by no means 
 the only possible names. We speak, for in- 
 stance, of the shades of the departed, which 
 meant originally their shadows. Those who 
 first introduced this expression — and we find 
 it in the most distant parts of the world ^ — 
 evidently took the shadow as the nearest 
 
 ^ See E. B. Tylor, Fortnightly Review, 1866, p. 74. 
 
366 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 approach to what they wished to express ; 
 something that should be incorporeal, yet 
 closely connected with the body. The Greek 
 elowkov, too, is not much more than the shadow, 
 while the Latin manes meant probably in the 
 beginning no more than the Little Ones, the 
 Small Folk \ But the curious part, as show- 
 ing again the influence of language on thought, 
 an influence more powerful even than the evi- 
 dence of the senses, is this, that people who 
 speak of the life or soul as the shadow of the 
 body, have brought themselves to believe that 
 a dead body casts no shadow, because the 
 shadow has departed from it ; that it becomes, 
 in fact, a kind of Peter Schlemihl 2. 
 
 Let us now return to mythology in the nar- 
 rower sense of the word. One of the earliest 
 objects that would strike and stir the mind of 
 man and for which a sign or a name would 
 soon be wanted is surely the Sun. It is very 
 
 ^ Im-mam's, originally 'not small/ came to mean enor- 
 mous or monstrous. — See Preller, Romische Mythologie, 
 p. 72 seq. 
 
 ^ Unkulunkulu ; or the Tradition of Creation as existing 
 among the Amazulu and other Tribes of South Africa ; by 
 the Rev. J. Callaway, M.D. Natal, 1868. Part I. p. 91. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 367 
 
 hard for us to realise the feelings with which 
 the first dwellers on the earth looked upon 
 the sun, or to understand fully what they 
 meant by a morning prayer, or a morning 
 sacrifice. Perhaps there are few people here 
 present who have watched a sunrise more than ; 
 once or twice in their life; few people who 
 have ever known the true meaning of a 
 morning prayer, or a morning sacrifice. Butj 
 think of man at the very dawn of time : ( 
 forget for a moment, if you can, after having 
 read the fascinating pages of Mr. Darwin, 
 forget what man is supposed to have been 
 before he was man ; forget it, because it does 
 not concern us here whether his bodily form 
 and frame were developed once for all in the 
 mind of a Creator, or gradually in the creation 
 itself, which from the first monad or protoplasm 
 to the last of the primates, or man, is not, I 
 suppose, to be looked on, as altogether cause- 
 less, meaningless, purposeless ; think of him 
 only as man (and man means the thinker), with 
 his mind yet lying fallow, though full of germs 
 — germs of which I hold as strongly as ever no 
 trace has ever, no trace will ever, be dis- 
 covered anywhere but in man ; think of the Sun 
 
368 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 (awakening the eyes of man from sleep, and his 
 mind from slumber ! Was not the Sunrise to 
 (him the first wonder, the first beginning of all 
 I reflection, all thought, all philosophy? was it 
 'not to him the first revelation, the first begin- 
 , ning of all trust, of all religion ? To us that 
 j wonder of wonders has ceased to exist, and few 
 men now would even venture to speak of the 
 sun as Sir John Herschel has spoken, calling 
 him ' the Almoner of the Almighty, the dele- 
 ^ gated dispenser to us of light and warmth, as 
 ■ well as the centre of attraction, and as such, 
 the Immediate source of all our comforts, and, 
 indeed, of the very possibility of our existence 
 on earth ^.' 
 
 Man is a creature of habit, and wherever 
 we can watch him, we find that before a few 
 generations have passed, he has lost the power 
 of admiring what is regular, and that he can 
 see signs and wonders only in what is irregu- 
 lar. Few nations only have preserved in their 
 ancient poetry some remnants of the natural 
 awe with which the earliest dwellers on the 
 
 ^ See J. Samuelson, Views of the Deity, Traditional and 
 Scientific, p. 144. Williams and Norgate, 187 1. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 369 
 
 earth saw that brilliant being slowly rising 
 from out the darkness of the night, raising 
 itself by its own might higher and higher, . 
 till it stood triumphant on the arch of heaven/ 
 and then descended and sank down in its fiery 
 glory into the dark abyss of the heaving and 
 hissing sea. In the hymns of the Veda the 
 poet still wonders whether the sun will rise 
 again ; he asks how he can climb the vault 
 of heaven ? why he does not fall back ? why 
 there is no dust on his path ? And when 
 the rays of the morning rouse him from sleep 
 and call him back to new life ; when he sees 
 the sun, as he says, stretching out his golden 
 arms to bless the world and rescue it from 
 the terrors of darkness, he exclaims, ' Arise, 
 our life, our spirit has come back ! the dark- , 
 ness is gone, the light approaches ! ' 
 
 For so prominent an object in the primeval 
 picture-gallery of the human mind, a sign or 
 a name must have been wanted at a very early 
 period. But how was this to be achieved ? 
 As a mere sign, a circle would have been 
 sufficient, such as we find in the hieroglyphics 
 of Egypt, in the graphic system of China, or 
 even in our own astronomical tables. If such 
 
 Bb 
 
370 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 a sign was fixed upon, we have a beginning 
 of lanofuaee in the widest sense of the word, 
 for we have brought the Sun under the general 
 concept of roundness, and we have found a 
 sign for this concept which is made up of a 
 large number of single sensuous impressions. 
 With such definite signs mythology has little 
 chance ; yet the mere fact that the sun was 
 represented as a circle would favour the idea 
 that the sun was round ; or, as ancient people, 
 who had no adjective as yet for round or 
 rotundus ^, would say, that the sun was a 
 wheel, a rota. If, on the contrary, the round 
 
 ^ ' It has already been implied that the Aborigines of 
 Tasmania had acquired very limited powers of abstraction 
 or generalization. They possessed no words representing 
 abstract ideas ; for each variety of gum-tree and wattle-tree, 
 &c., &c., they had a name, but they had no equivalent for 
 the expression, "a tree;" neither could they express abstract 
 qualities, such as hard, soft, warm, cold, long, short, round, 
 &c. ; for " hard " they would say " like a stone ; " for " tall " 
 they would say "long legs," &c. ; for "round" they said 
 " like a ball," " like the moon," and so on, usually suiting 
 the action to the word, and confirming by some sign, the 
 meaning to be understood.' — Milligan, Vocabulary of the 
 Dialects of some of the Aboris^inal Tribes of Tasmania, 
 p. 34. Hobart Town, 1866. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 371 
 
 sign reminded the people of an eye, then the 
 sign of the sun would soon become the eye 
 of heaven, and germs of mythology would 
 spring up even from the barren soil of such 
 hieroglyphic language. 
 
 But now, suppose that a real name was 
 wanted for the sun, how could that be 
 achieved ? 
 
 We know that all words are derived from 
 roots, that these roots express general con- 
 cepts, and that, with few exceptions, every 
 name is founded on a general concept under 
 which the object that has to be named can 
 be ranged. How these roots came to be, is 
 a question into which we need not enter at 
 present. Their origin and growth form a 
 problem of psychology rather than of philo- 
 logy, and each science must keep within its 
 proper bounds. If a name was wanted for 
 snow, the early framers of language singled 
 out one of the general predicates of snow, its 
 whiteness, its coldness, or its liquidity, and 
 called the snow the white, the cold, or the 
 liquid, by means of roots conveying the gene- 
 ral idea of whiteness, coldness, or liquidity. 
 B b 2 
 
^^2 On the PJdlosophy of Mythology. 
 
 Not only Nix, nivis, but Niobe ^ too, was a 
 name of the snow, and meant the melting ; 
 the death of her beautiful children by the 
 
 ^ If Signor Ascoli blames me for deriving Niohe with 
 other names for snow from the root snu, instead of from 
 the root sni'gh, this can only be due to an oversight. I am 
 responsible for the derivation of Niobe, and for the admis- 
 sion of a secondary root sjtyu or nyu, and so far I may be 
 either right or wrong. But Signor Ascoli ought to have 
 known that the derivatioii of Gothic sndiv-s^ Old High- 
 German sneo, or sne, gen. snewe-s, Lithuanian S7t/ga-s, Slav. 
 snjeg, Hib. sneachd, from the root snu, rests on the authority 
 of Bopp (Glossarium, 1847, s. v. snu ; see also Grimm, 
 Deutsche Grammatik, ii. p. 700). He ought likewise to 
 have known that in 1852 Professor Schweizer-Siedler, in 
 his review of Botticher's Arica (Kuhn's Zeitschrift, i. p. 479) 
 had pointed out that snigh may be considered as a secondary 
 root by the side of snu and snd ; (cf. fr/xaco, (TiJ,r]x(o ; -^aco, 
 yl^rjx^cjii ; vdco, vr]x(o). The real relation of smi to sm'gk had 
 been explained as early as 1842 by Benfey, Wurzellexicon, 
 ii. p. 54; and Signor Ascoli was no doubt aware of what 
 Professor Curtius had written on the relation of smg/i to s/iu 
 (Grundziige der Griechischen Etymologic, p. 297). Signor 
 Ascoli has certainly shown with greater minuteness than 
 his predecessors that not only Zend sniz/i and Lithuanian 
 sfiega-s, but likewise Gothic snai'v-s, Greek vL<pei, Latin nix, 
 niv-is, and ninguis, may be derived from s7izg/2 ; but if from 
 snigh, 3l secondary development of the root snu, we can 
 arrive at I'/^-a, and at vi^a, the other steps that lead on to 
 Niobe will remain just the same. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 2)7?) 
 
 arrows of Apollon and Artemis represents 
 the destruction of winter by the rays of the 
 sun. If the sun itself was to be named, it 
 might be called the brilliant, the awakener, 
 the runner, the ruler, the father, the giver of 
 warmth, of fertility, of life, the scorcher, the 
 destroyer, the messenger of death, and many 
 other names ; but there was no possibility of 
 naming it, except by laying hold of one of its 
 characteristic features, and expressing that 
 feature by means of one of the conceptual 
 or predicative roots. 
 
 Let us trace the history of at least one of 
 these names. Before the Aryan nations sepa- 
 rated, before there was a Latin, a Greek, or 
 a Sanskrit language, there existed a root svar 
 or sval, which meant to beam, to glitter, to 
 warm. It exists in Greek, (Te\a<s, splendour ; 
 (TeXijvrj, moon ; in Anglo-Saxon, as swelaii, to 
 burn, to sweal ; in modern German, schwul, 
 oppressively hot. From it we have in Sanskrit 
 the noun svar, meaning sometimes the sky, 
 sometimes the sun ; and exactly the same word 
 has been preserved in Latin, as sol ; in Gothic, 
 as saiul ; in Anglo-Saxon, as sol. A secondary 
 form of svar is the Sanskrit surya for svarya, 
 
374 0^^ ^^^^ Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 the Sim, which is the same word as the Greek 
 
 All these names were originally mere pre- 
 dicates ; they meant bright, brilliant, warm. 
 But as soon as the name svar or siirya was 
 formed, it became, through the irresistible influ- 
 ence of language, the name, not only of a living, 
 but of a male being. Every noun in Sanskrit 
 must be either a masculine or a feminine (for 
 the neuter gender was originally confined to 
 the nominative case), and as suryas had been 
 formed as a masculine, language stamped it 
 once for all as the sign of a male being, as much 
 as if it had been the name of a warrior or a king. 
 In other languages where the name for sun is 
 a feminine, and the sun is accordingly conceived 
 as a woman, as a queen, as the bride of the 
 moon, the whole mythology of the love-making 
 of the heavenly bodies is changed. 
 
 You may say that all this shows, not so much 
 the influence of language on thought, as of 
 thought on language ; and that the sexual cha- 
 racter of all words reflects only the peculiarities 
 of a child's mind, which can conceive of nothing 
 except as living, as male or female. If a child 
 hurts itself ao^ainst a chair, it beats and scolds 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 375 
 
 the chair. The chair Is looked upon not as it, 
 but as he ; It Is the naughty chair, quite as much 
 as a boy Is a naughty boy. There is some truth 
 in this, but it only serves to confirm the right 
 view of the influence of language on thought ; 
 for this tendency, though In its origin inten- 
 tional, and therefore the result of thought, be- 
 came soon a mere rule of tradition in langfuaofe, 
 and It then reacted on the mind with irresistible 
 power. As soon, in fact, as suryas or ?Xfo? 
 appears as a masculine, we are In the very 
 thick of mythology. We have not yet arrived 
 at Helios as a god — that Is a much later stage 
 of thought, which we might describe almost In 
 the words of Plato at the beginning of the 
 seventh book of the Republic, ' And after this, 
 he will reason that the sun is he who gives the 
 seasons and the years, and Is the guardian of 
 all that Is In the visible world, and in a certain 
 way the cause of all things which he and his 
 fellows have been accustomed to behold.' We 
 have not yet advanced so far, but we have 
 reached at least the first germs of a myth. In 
 the Homeric hymn to Helios, Helios is not yet 
 called an immortal, but only eTneUeXog aOavdroicn, 
 like unto immortals, yet he is called the child of 
 
^']6 On the PhilosopJiy of Mythology. 
 
 Euryphaessa, the son of Hyperion, the grandson 
 of Uranos and Gaea ^ 
 
 All this is mythology ; it is ancient language 
 going beyond its first intention. 
 
 Nor is there much difficulty in interpreting 
 this myth. Helios, the sun, is called the son 
 of Hyperion, sometimes Hyperion himself. This 
 name Hyperion is derived from the preposition 
 virep, the Latin super, which means above. It 
 it derived by means of the suffix -uov, which 
 originally was not a patronymic, but simply 
 expressed belonging to. So if Helios was called 
 Hyperion, this simply meant he who dwells on 
 high, and corresponds to Latin Smiimaims or 
 Stiperior, or Excelsior. If, on the contrary, 
 Helios is called Hyperionides, this, too, which 
 meant originally no more than he who comes 
 from, or belongs to those who dwell on high 2, 
 
 ^ At the end of the hymn the poet says :— 
 
 X^^'^P^^ ava^, TTpocppcov 5e ^lov 6vpr)pe ona^e' 
 
 €K aeo d ap^dfievos kX^ctco fiepoiTcov yevos dvdpav 
 
 f]pi6€(ov, 0)1/ epya 6eo\ Outjtolo-lv edei^av. 
 
 This would seem to imply that the poet looked upon Helios 
 as a half-god, almost as a hero, who had once lived on earth. 
 ^ Corssen, Ueber Steigerungsendungen, Kuhn's Zeit- 
 schrift, iii. p. 299. 
 
Ojt the Philosophy of Mythology. 377 
 
 led to the myth that he was the descendant of 
 Hyperion; so that In this case, as In the case 
 of Zeus KronTon, the son really led to the con- 
 ception of his father. Zeus Kronion meant 
 originally no more than Zeus the eternal, the 
 god of ages, the ancient of days ; but -Iwv becom- 
 ing usual as a patronymic suffix, Kronion was 
 supposed to mean the son of Kronos. Kronos, 
 the father, was created in order to account for 
 the existence of the name Kronion. If Hyperion 
 is called the son of Euryphaessa, the wlde- 
 shlnlng, this requires no commentary ; for even 
 at present a poet might say that the sun Is born 
 of the wide-shlning dawn. You see the spon- 
 taneous generation of mythology with every 
 new name that is formed. As not only the sun, 
 but also the moon and the dawn could be called 
 dwellers on high, they, too, took the name of 
 Hyperlonis or Hyperlonldes ; and hence Homer 
 called Selene, the Moon, and Eos, the Dawn, 
 sisters of Helios, and daughters of Hyperion 
 and Euryphaessa, the Dawn doing service 
 twice, both as mother, Euryphaessa, and as 
 daughter, Eos. Nay, according to Homer, Eu- 
 ryphaessa, the Dawn, Is not only the wife, but 
 also the sister of Helios. All this Is perfecdy 
 
378 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 intelligible, if we watch the growth of lan- 
 guage and mythology ; but it leads, of course, 
 to the most tragic catastrophes as soon as it is 
 all taken in a literal sense. 
 
 Helios is called a/caV«?, the never -tiring ; 
 irav^epKrjg, the all - Seeing ; (paeQwv, the shining; 
 and also (poi^o^, the brilliant. This last epithet 
 cpoi^o^ has grown into an independent deity 
 Phoebus, and it is particularly known as a 
 name of Apollon, Phoibos Apollon ; thus 
 showing what is also known from other sources 
 that in Apollo, too, we have one of the many 
 mythic disguises of the sun. 
 
 So far all is clear, because all the names 
 which we have to deal with are intelligible, 
 or, at all events, yield to the softest etymo- 
 logical pressure. But now if we hear the 
 story of Phoibos Apollon falling in love with 
 Daphne, and Daphne praying to her modier, 
 the Earth, to save her from Phoibos ; and if 
 we read how either the earth received her in 
 her lap, and then a laurel tree sprang up 
 where she had disappeared, or how she herself 
 was changed into a laurel tree, what shall we 
 think of this ? It is a mere story, it might be 
 said, and why should there be any meaning 
 
On the PJnlosophy of Mythology. 379 
 
 in it ? My answer is, because people do not 
 tell such stories of their gods and heroes, un- 
 less there is some sense in them. Besides, 
 if Phoibos means the sun, why should not 
 Daphne have a meaning too ? Before, there- 
 fore, we can decide whether the story of 
 Phoibos and Daphne is a mere invention, we 
 must try to find out what can have been the 
 meaning of the word Daphne. 
 
 In Greek it means a laurel ^ and this would 
 explain the purely Greek legend that Daphne 
 was changed into a laurel tree. But who was 
 Daphne ? In order to answer this question, 
 we must have recourse to etymology, or, in 
 other words, we must examine the history of 
 the word. Etymology, as you know, is no 
 longer what it used to be ; and though there 
 may still be a classical scholar here and there 
 who crosses himself at the idea of a Greek 
 word being explained by a reference to San- 
 skrit, we naturally look to Sanskrit as the 
 master-key to many a lock which no Greek 
 
 ^ See M. M.'s Chips from a German Workshop (2nd ed.), 
 vol. ii. p. 95, note 45. 
 
3^0 On the Philosophy of Mythology, 
 
 key will open. Now Daphne, as I have 
 shown, can be traced back to Sanskrit Ahana, 
 and Ahand in Sanskrit means the dawn. As 
 soon as we know this, everything becomes 
 clear. The story of Phoibos and Daphne is 
 no more than a description of what every one 
 may see every day ; first, the appearance of 
 the Dawn in the eastern sky, then the rising 
 of the Sun as if hurrying after his bride, then 
 the gradual fading away of the bright Dawn 
 at the touch of the fiery rays of the sun, and 
 at last her death or disappearance in the lap 
 of her mother, the Earth. All this seems to 
 me as clear as daylight, and the only objection 
 that could be raised ao^ainst this reading of the 
 ancient myth would be, if it could be proved 
 that Ahand does not mean Dawn, and that 
 Daphne cannot be traced back to Ahand, or 
 that Helios does not mean the Sun. 
 
 I know there is another objection, but it 
 seems to me so groundless as hardly to de- 
 serve an answer. Why, it is asked, should 
 the ancient nations have told these endless 
 stories about the Sun and the Dawn, and 
 why should they have preserved them in their 
 mythology ? We might as well ask why the 
 
On the PhilosopJiy of Mytlwlogy. 381 
 
 ancient nations should have invented so many 
 irregular verbs, and why they should have pre- 
 served them in their grammar. A fact does 
 not cease to be a fact, because we cannot at 
 once explain it. As far as our knowledge 
 goes at present, we are justified in stating 
 that the Aryan nations preserved not only 
 their grammatical structure, and a large por- 
 tion of their dictionary, from the time which 
 preceded their separation, but that they like- 
 wise retained the names of some of their 
 deities, some legends about their gods, some 
 popular sayings and proverbs, and in these, 
 it may be, the seeds of parables, as part of 
 their common Aryan heirloom. Their mytho- 
 logical lore fills in fact a period in the history 
 of Aryan thought, half-way between the period 
 of language and the period of literature, and 
 it is this discovery which gives to mythology 
 its importance in the eyes of the student of 
 the most ancient history and psychology of 
 mankind. 
 
 And do not suppose that the Greeks, or 
 the Hindus, or the Aryan nations in general 
 were the only people who possessed such 
 tales. Wherever we look, in every part of 
 
382- On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 the world, among uncivilized as well as a 
 civilized people, we find the same kind of 
 stories, the same traditions, the same myths. 
 
 I shall give one story from the extreme 
 North, another from the extreme South. 
 
 Among the Esquimaux of Repulse Bay, 
 on the West side of Hudson's Bay, on the 
 Arctic Circle, Mr. John Rae picked up the 
 following story : 
 
 ' Many years ago a great Esquimaux Con- 
 queror gained so much power that he was 
 able to rise unto the heavens, taking with him 
 on one occasion a sister, a very beautiful girl, 
 and some fire. He added much fuel to the 
 fire, and thus formed the Sun. For some time 
 he and his sister lived in great harmony, but 
 after a time he became very cruel, and ill- 
 treated his sister in many ways. She bore it 
 at first with great patience, until at last he 
 threw fire at her, and scorched one side of 
 her face. This spoiling of her beauty was 
 beyond endurance ; she therefore ran away 
 from him, and formed the Moon. Her brother 
 then began, and still continues to chase her ; 
 but although he sometimes got near, he has 
 not yet overtaken her, nor ever will. 
 
Oil the Philosophy of Mythology. 383 
 
 ' When it is New Moon, the burnt side of 
 the face is towards us ; at Full Moon it is the 
 reverse.' 
 
 There are dialectic varieties in the Myth- 
 ology of the Esquimaux as of the Greeks and 
 Hindus, and, with a change of gender between 
 Sun and Moon, the same story occurs among 
 other tribes in the following form : 
 
 ' There was a girl at a party, and some one 
 told his love for her by shaking her shoulders, 
 after the manner of the country. She could 
 not see who it was in the dark hut, so she 
 smeared her hands with soot, and when 
 he came back she blackened his cheek with 
 her hand. When a light was brought she 
 saw that it was her brother, and fled. He 
 ran after her, followed her, and as she came 
 to the end of the earth, he sprang out into 
 the sky. Then she became the sun, and he 
 the moon, and this is why the moon is always 
 chasing the sun through the heavens, and why 
 the moon is sometimes dark as he turns his 
 blackened cheek towards the earth \' 
 
 We now turn to the South, and here, among 
 
 ^ The Childhood of the World, by E. Clodd, p. 62. 
 
384 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 the lowest of the low, among the Hottentots, 
 who are despised even by their black neigh- 
 bours, the Zulus, we find the following gem 
 of a fable, beaming with mingled rays of re- 
 ligion and philosophy : 
 
 ' The Moon, it is said, sent once an insect 
 to men, saying, " Go thou to men, and tell 
 them. As I die, and dying live, so ye shall 
 also die, and dying live." The insect started 
 with the message, but whilst on his way, was 
 overtaken by the hare, who asked : " On what 
 errand art thou bound ? " The insect an- 
 swered, " I am sent by the Moon to men, to 
 tell them that as she dies and dying lives, 
 they also shall die and dying live." The hare 
 said, " As thou art an awkward runner, let 
 me go " (to take the message). With these 
 words he ran off, and when he reached men, 
 he said, " I am sent by the Moon to tell you, 
 As I die, and dying perish, in the same man- 
 ner ye also shall die and come wholly to an 
 end." Then the hare returned to the Moon, 
 and told her what he had said to men. The 
 Moon reproached him angrily, saying, '' Barest 
 thou tell the people a thing which I have not 
 said ?" With these words she took up a piece 
 
On the PhilosopJiy of Mythology. 38, 
 
 of wood, and struck him on die nose. Since 
 that day the hare's nose Is sHt/ 
 
 Of this story, too, there are various ver- 
 sions, and In one of them the end Is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 ' The hare, having returned to the Moon, 
 was questioned as to the message delivered, 
 and the Moon, having heard the true state of 
 the case, became so enraged with him that 
 she took up a hatchet to split his head ; fall- 
 ing short, however, of that, the hatchet fell 
 upon the upper-lip of the hare, and cut It 
 severely. Hence It Is that we see the " hare- 
 lip." The hare, being duly Incensed at having 
 received such treatment, raised his claws, and 
 scratched the Moon's face ; and the dark parts 
 which we now see on the surface of the Moon 
 are the scars which she received on that oc- 
 casion^.' 
 
 ^ Reynard the Fox in South Africa, or Hottentot Fables 
 and Tales, by W. H. L Bleek, 1864, p. 69. As a curious 
 coincidence it may be mentioned that in Sanskrit, too, the 
 Moon is calied ^a^anka, i. e. ' having the marks of a hare,' 
 the black marks in the moon being taken for the Hkeness of 
 the hare. Another coincidence is that the Namaqua Hotten- 
 tots will not touch hare's flesh (see Sir James E. Alexander's 
 
 c c 
 
386 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 The Finns, Lapps, and Esthonlans do not 
 seem a very poetical race, yet there is poetry 
 even in their smoky huts, poetry surrounded 
 with all the splendour of an arctic night, and 
 fragrant with the perfume of moss and wild 
 flowers. Here is one of their legends : — 
 
 ' Wanna Issi had two servants, Koit and 
 Ammarik, and he gave them a torch which 
 Koit should light every morning, and Ammarik 
 should extinguish in the evening. In order to 
 reward their faithful services. Wanna Issi told 
 them they might be man and wife, but they 
 asked Wanna Issi that he would allow them 
 to remain for ever bride and bridegroom. 
 Wanna Issi assented, and henceforth Koit 
 handed the torch every evening to Ammarik, 
 
 Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa, vol. i. 
 p. 169), because the hare deceived men, while the Jews ab- 
 stain from it, because the hare is supposed to chew the cud 
 (Lev. xi. 6). 
 
 A similar tradition on the meaning of death occurs among 
 the Zulus, but as they do not know of the Moon as a deity, 
 the message that men are not to die, or that they are to die, 
 is sent there by Unkulunkulu, the ancestor of the human 
 race, and thus the whole story loses its point. See Dr. Cal- 
 laway, Unkulunkulu, p. 4 ; and Gray, Polynesian Mythology, 
 pp. 16-58. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 387 
 
 and Ammarik took it and extinguished it. 
 Only during four weeks in summer they re- 
 main together at midnight; Koit hands the 
 dying torch to Ammarik, but Ammarik does 
 not let it die, but lights it again with her 
 breath. Then their hands are stretched out, 
 and their lips meet, and the blush of the face 
 of Ammarik colours the midnight sky.' 
 
 This myth requires hardly any commentary ; 
 yet, as long as it is impossible to explain the 
 names. Wanna Issi, Koit, and Ammarik, it 
 might be said that the st©ry was but a love- 
 story, invented by an idle Lapp, or Finn, or 
 Esthonian. But what if Wanna Issi in Estho- 
 nian means the Old Father, and if Koit 
 means the Dawn ? Can we then doubt any 
 longer that Ammarik^ must be the Gloaming, 
 and that their meeting in the summer reflects 
 those summer evenings when, particularly in 
 the North, the torch of the sun seems never 
 to die, and when the Gloaming is seen kissing 
 the Dawn ? 
 
 ^ According to a letter just received from an Esthonian 
 lady, iimmarik does mean the gloaming in the language of 
 the common people of Esthonia. 
 
 C C 2 
 
388 Oil the Philosophy of Mythology, 
 
 I wish I could tell you some more of these 
 stories which have been gathered from all parts 
 of the world, and which, though they may be 
 pronounced childish and tedious by some critics, 
 seem to me to glitter with the brightest dew 
 of nature's own poetry, and to contain those 
 very touches that make us feel akin, not only 
 with Homer or Shakespeare, but even with I 
 Lapps, and Finns, and Kaffirs. 
 
 I cannot resist the temptation of inserting! 
 here a poetical rendering of the story of Koit 
 and Ammarik, sent to me from the New World, j 
 remarking only that instead of Lapland, Estho- 1 
 nia is really the country that may claim the | 
 original story. 
 
 A LEGEND OF LAPLAND. 
 
 As into the dreamy region of our childhood dim and far, 
 Follow we, and not unwilling, where, beneath the northern 
 
 star, 
 Half-formed fancies find an utterance sweet as thoughts of 
 
 children are. 
 
 There to reverent hearts the rainbow archeth still, a path- 
 way strong; 
 
 Humanly divine the music of the pine-tree's endless song; 
 
 Human love and human longing shine through all the 
 starry throng. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 389 
 
 * \ ~~^ 
 
 Sweet and fresh the simple story runs in quaint Laplandish 
 
 rhyme. 
 As we turn us from our studies when poor children's 
 
 voices chime, 
 
 tSo we follow, as it woos us back into that olden time: 
 * Two servants were in Wanna Issi's pay ; 
 A blazing torch their care ; 
 Each morning Koit must light it till its ray 
 Flamed through the air ; 
 
 ' And every evening Ammarik's fair hand 
 
 Must quench the waning hght; 
 Then over all the weary, waiting land 
 Fell the still night. 
 
 ' So passed the time ; then Wanna Issi said, 
 "For faithful service done, 
 Lo, here reward ! To-morrow shall ye wed. 
 And so be one." 
 
 ' " Not so," said Koit ; " for sweeter far to me 
 The joy that neareth still; 
 Then grant us ever fast betrothed to be." 
 They had their will. 
 
 * And now the blazing lustre to transfer 
 Himself, is all his claim ; 
 
 Warm from her lover's hand it comes to her, 
 To quench the flame. 
 
 * Only for four times seven lengthening days, 
 At midnight, do they stand 
 
 Together, while Koit gives the dying blaze 
 To Ammarik's hand. 
 
390 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 O wonder then! She lets it not expire, 
 
 But lights it with her breath — 
 The breath of love, that, warm with quickening fire. 
 
 Wakes life from death. 
 
 Then hands stretch out, and touch, and clasp on high, 
 
 Then lip to lip is pressed. 
 And Ammarik's blushes tinge the midnight sky 
 
 From east to west/ 
 
 Anna C. Brackett. 
 
 If people cannot bring themselves to be- 
 lieve in solar and celestial myths among the 
 Hindus and Greeks, let them study the folk- 
 lore of the Semitic and Turanian races. I 
 know there is, on the part of some of our 
 most distinguished scholars, the same objec- 
 tion against comparing Aryan to non-Aryan 
 myths, as there is against any attempt to ex- 
 plain the features of Sanskrit or Greek by a 
 reference to Finnish or Bask. In one sense 
 that objection is well founded, for nothing 
 would create greater confusion than to ignore 
 the genealogical principle as the only safe one 
 in a scientific classification of languages, of 
 myths, and even of customs. We must first 
 classify our myths and legends, as we classify 
 our languages and dialects. We must first of 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology, 391 
 
 all endeavour to explain what wants explana- 
 tion in one member of a family by a reference 
 to other members of the same family, before 
 we allow ourselves to glance beyond. But 
 there is in a comparative study of languages 
 and myths not only a philological, but also a 
 philosophical, and more particularly, a psycho- 
 logical interest, and though even in this more 
 general study of mankind, the frontiers of lan- 
 guage and race ought never to disappear, yet 
 they can no longer be allowed to narrow or 
 intercept our view. How much the student 
 of Aryan mythology and ethnology may gain 
 for his own progress by allowing himself a 
 wider survey over the traditions and customs 
 of the whole human race, is best known to 
 those who have studied the works of Klemm, 
 Waitz, Bastian, Sir John Lubbock, Mr. Tylor, 
 and Dr. Callaway. What is pre-historic in lan- 
 guage among the Aryan nations, is frequently 
 found as still historic among Turanian races. 
 The same applies with regard to religions, 
 myths, legends, and customs. Among Finns 
 and Lapps, among Zulus and Maoris, among 
 Khonds and Karens, we sometimes find the 
 most startling analogies to Aryan traditions, 
 
392 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 and we certainly learn, again and again, this 
 one Important lesson, that as In language, so 
 In mythology, there Is nothing which had not 
 originally a meaning, that every name of the 
 gods and heroes had a beginning, a purpose, 
 and a history. 
 
 Jupiter was no more called Jupiter by acci- 
 dent, than the Polynesian Maui, the Samoyede 
 Nuin, or the Chinese Tien^. If we can dis- 
 cover the original meaning of these names, 
 we have reached the first ground of their 
 later growth. I do not say that. If we can 
 explain the first purpose of the mythological 
 names, we have solved the whole riddle of 
 mythology, but I maintain that we have gained 
 firm ground. I maintain that every true ety- 
 mology gives us an historical fact, because the 
 first giving of a name was an historical fact, 
 and an historical fact of the greatest import- 
 ance for the later development of ancient Ideas. 
 Think only of this one fact, which no one 
 would now venture to doubt, that the supreme 
 deity of the Greeks, the Romans, the Germans 
 
 200 
 
 ' See Lectures on the Science of Religion, pp. 194, 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 393 
 
 is called by the same name as the supreme 
 deity of the earliest Aryan settlers in India. 
 Does not this one fact draw away the curtain 
 from the dark ages of antiquity, and open be- 
 fore our eyes an horizon which we can hardly 
 measure by years ? The Greek Zens is the 
 same word as the Latin Ju in Jicpiler, as 
 the German Tiic; and all these were merely 
 dialectic varieties of the Vedic Dyaus^. Now 
 dyaiis in Sanskrit is the name of the sky, if 
 used as a feminine ; if used as a masculine, 
 as it is still in the Veda, it is the sky as a 
 man or as a god — it is Zeus, the father of 
 eods and men. You know, of course, that 
 the whole language of ancient India is but a 
 sister dialect of Greek, Latin, of German, 
 Celtic, and Slavonic, and that if the Greek 
 says es-li, he is, if the Roman says est, the 
 German ist, the Slave yesle, the Hindu, three 
 thousand years ago, said as-ti, he is. This 
 as-ti is a compound of a root as, to be, and 
 the pronoun li. The root meant originally to 
 breathe, and dwindled down after a time to 
 
 ^ See my Lectures on the Science of Language (7th ed.), 
 vol. ii. p. 468. 
 
394 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 the meanlne of lo be. All this must have 
 happened before a single Greek or German 
 reached the shores of Europe, and before a 
 single Brahman descended into the plains of 
 India. At that distant time we must place 
 the gradual growth of language and ideas, of 
 a language which we are still speaking, of 
 ideas which we are still thinking ; and at the 
 same time only can we explain the framing 
 of those names which were the first attempts 
 at grasping supernatural powers, which became 
 in time the names of the deities of the ancient 
 world, the heroes of mythology, the chief actors 
 in many a legend, nay, some of which have 
 survived in the nursery tales of our own 
 time \ 
 
 My time, I see, is nearly over, but before 
 I finish, I feel that I have a duty to perform 
 from which I ought not to shrink. Some of 
 those who have honoured me with their pre- 
 sence to-night may recollect that about a year 
 ago a lecture was delivered in this very room 
 by Professor Blackie, in which he tried to throw 
 
 ^ See a most interesting essay, Le Petit Poucet (Tom 
 Thumb), by Gaston Paris. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 395 
 
 discredit on the scientific method of the inter- 
 pretation of popular myths, or on what I call 
 Comparative Mythology. Had he confined his 
 remarks to the subject itself, I should have 
 felt most grateful for his criticisms, little 
 minding the manner in which they were con- 
 veyed — for a student of language knows what 
 words are made of Nor, had his personal 
 reflections concerned myself alone, should I 
 have felt called upon to reply to them thus 
 publicly, for it has always seemed to me that 
 unless we protest against unmerited praise,! 
 we have no right to protest against unmerited | 
 abuse. I believe I can appeal to all here pre- 
 sent, that during the many years I have had 
 the honour to lecture in this Institution, I 
 have not once allowed myself to indulge in 
 any personal remarks, or attacked those who, 
 being absent, cannot defend themselves. Even 
 when I had to answer objections, or to refute 
 false theories, I have always most carefully 
 avoided mentioning the names of living wri- 
 ters. But as Professor Blackie has directed 
 his random blows, not against myself, but 
 against a friend of mine, Mr. Cox, the author 
 of a work on Aryan Mythology, I feel that I 
 
396 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 must for once try to get angry, and return blow 
 for blow. Professor Blackie speaks of Mr. Cox 
 as if he had done nothing beyond repeating 
 what I had said before. Nothing can be more 
 unfair. My own work in Comparative Mytho- 
 logy has consisted chiefly in laying down some 
 of the general principles of that science, and in 
 the etymological interpretation of some of the 
 ancient names of gods, goddesses, and heroes. 
 In fact, I have made it a rule never to in- 
 terpret or to compare the legends of India, 
 Greece, Italy, or Germany, except in cases 
 where it was possible, first of all, to show an 
 identity or similarity in the Sanskrit, Greek, 
 Latin, or German names of the principal 
 actors. Mr. Cox having convinced himself 
 that the method which I have followed in 
 mythology rests on sound and truly scien- 
 tific principles, has adopted most, though by 
 no means all, of my etymological interpreta- 
 tions. Professor Blackie, on the contrary, 
 without attempting any explanation of the 
 identity of mythological names in Greek and 
 Sanskrit which must be either disproved or 
 explained, thunders forth the following sen- 
 tence of condemnation: — 'Even under the 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 397 
 
 scientific guidance of a Bopp, a Pott, a 
 Grimm, and a Miiller, a sober man may 
 sometimes, even in the full blaze of the new 
 sun of comparative philology, allow himself 
 to drink deep draughts, if not of maun- 
 dering madness, at least of manifest halluci- 
 nation! 
 
 If such words are thrown at my head, Ij 
 pick them up chiefly as etymological curiosi- 
 ties, and as striking illustrations of what 
 Mr. Tylor calls ' survivals in culture,' showing 
 how the most primitive implements of warfare, 
 rude stones and unpolished flints, which an 
 ethnologist would suppose to be confined to 
 pre-historic races, to the red Indians of Ame- 
 rica or the wild Picts of Caledonia, turn up 
 again most unexpectedly at the present day 
 in the very centre of civilized life. All I can 
 say is, that if, as a student of Comparative 
 Mythology, I have been drinking deep draughts 
 of maundering madness, I have been drinking 
 in good company. In this respect Mr. Cox has 
 certainly given me far more credit than I de- 
 serve. I am but one out of many labourers in 
 this rich field of scientific research, and he 
 ought to have given far greater prominence 
 
398 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 to the labours of Grimm, Burnouf, Bopp, and, 
 before all, of my learned friend. Professor 
 Kuhn. 
 
 But while, with regard to etymology, Mr. Cox 
 contents himself with reporting the results of 
 other scholars, he stands quite independent in 
 his own treatment of Comparative Mythology, 
 Of this Professor Blackie seems to have no 
 suspicion whatever. The plan which Mr. Cox 
 follows is to collect the coincidences in the 
 legends themselves, and to show how in dif- 
 ferent myths the same story with slight varia- 
 tions is told again and again of different gods 
 and heroes. In this respect his work is entirely 
 original and very useful ; for although these 
 coincidences may be explained in different 
 ways, and do not afford a proof of a common 
 historical origin of the mythologies of India, 
 Greece, Italy, and Germany, they are all the 
 more interesting from a purely psychological 
 point of view, and supply important material 
 for further researches. Mr. Tylor has lately 
 worked with great success in the same rich 
 mine; extending the limits of mythological 
 research far beyond the precincts of the Aryan 
 world, and showing that there are solar myths 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 399 
 
 wherever the sun shines. I differ from Mr. 
 Cox on many points, as he differs from me. 
 I shall certainly keep to my own method of 
 never attempting an interpretation or a com- 
 parison, except where the ground has first been 
 cleared of all uncertainty by etymological re- 
 search, and where the names of different gods 
 and heroes have been traced back to a common 
 source. I call this the nominalistic as opposed 
 to the realistic method of Comparative Mytho- 
 logy, and it is the former only that concerns 
 the student of the Science of Language. 
 I gratefully acknowledge, however, the help 
 which I have received from Mr. Cox's work, 
 particularly as suggesting new clusters of 
 myths that might be disentangled by etymo- 
 logical analysis. 
 
 But not only has Professor Blackie failed to 
 perceive the real character of Mr. Cox's re- 
 searches, but he has actually charged him with 
 holding opinions which both Mr. Cox and my- 
 self have repeatedly disavowed, and most stre- 
 nuously opposed. Again and again have we 
 warned the students of Comparative Mythology 
 that they must not expect to be able to explain 
 everything. Again and again have we pointed 
 
400 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 out that there are irrational elements in my 
 thology, and that we must be prepared to find 
 grains of local history on which, as I said\ 
 the sharpest tools of Comparative Mythology 
 must bend or break. Again and again have 
 we shown that historical persons^ — not only 
 Cyrus and Charlemagne, but Frederick Bar- 
 barossa and even Frederick the Great — have 
 been drawn into the vortex of popular mytho- 
 logy. Yet these are the words of Professor 
 Blackie : ' The cool way in which Max Miiller 
 and his English disciple, Mr. Cox, assume that 
 there are no human figures and historical cha- 
 racters in the whole gallery of heroes and demi- 
 
 ^ Chips from a German Workshop, vol. ii. p. 172: — 
 * Here then we see that mythology does not always create 
 its own heroes, but that it lays hold of real history, and coils 
 itself round it so closely that it is difficult, nay, almost im- 
 possible, to separate the ivy from the oak, the lichen from 
 the granite to which it clings. And here is a lesson which 
 comparative mythologists ought not to neglect. They are 
 naturally bent on explaining everything that can be ex- 
 plained ; but they should bear in mind that there may be 
 elements in every mythological riddle which resist etymo- 
 logical analysis, for the simple reason that their origin was 
 not etymological, but historical.' 
 
 ^ Lectures on the Science of Language, vol. ii. p. 581. 
 
On the Philosophy of Mythology. 401 
 
 gods in the Greek mythology, is something 
 very remarkable.' 
 
 I readily admit that some of the etymologies 
 which I have proposed of mythological names 
 are open to criticism ; and if, like other scho- 
 lars, Professor Blackie had pointed out to me 
 any cases where I might seem to him to have 
 offended against Grimm's law or other pho- 
 netic rules, I should have felt most grateful ; 
 but if he tells me that the Greek Erinys should 
 not be derived from the Sanskrit Sarax^yu, but 
 from the Greek verb ipiuveiv, to be angry, he 
 might as well derive C7^zlic from lo criticise'^; 
 and if he maintains that a* name may have 
 
 ^ Professor Blackie quotes Pausanias in support of this 
 etymology. He says : ' The account of Pausanias (viii. 25, 
 26), according to which the terrible impersonation of con- 
 science, or the violated moral law, is derived from ipivvetv, 
 an old Greek verb originally signifying to be angry, has 
 sufficient probability, not to mention the obvious analogy 
 of 'Apm, another name sometimes given to the awful maids 
 {(Tefivai), from apd, an imprecation/ If Professor Blackie 
 will refer to Pausanias, he will find that the Arcadians as- 
 signed a very different cause to the anger of Demeter, which 
 is supposed to have led to the formation of her new name 
 Erinys. 
 
 D d 
 
402 On the Philosophy of Mythology. 
 
 two or three legitimate etymologies, I can 
 only answer that we might as well say that 
 a child could have two or three legitimate 
 mothers. 
 
 I have most reluctantly entered upon these 
 somewhat personal explanations, and I should 
 not have done so if I alone had been concerned 
 in Professor Blackie's onslaught. I hope, how- 
 ever, that I have avoided everything that could 
 give just offence to Professor Blackie, even 
 if he should be present here to-night. Though 
 he abuses me as a German, and laughs at the 
 instinctive aversion to external facts and the 
 extravagant passion for self-evolved ideas as 
 national failings of all Germans (I only wonder 
 that the story of the camel and the inner con- 
 sciousness did not come in), yet I know that 
 for many years German poetry and German 
 scholarship have had few more ardent admirers, 
 and German scholars few more trusty friends, 
 than Professor Blackie. Nationality, it seems 
 to me, has as little to do with scholarship as 
 with logic. On the contrary, in every nation 
 he that will work hard and reason honestly 
 may be sure to discover some grains of truth. 
 National jealousies and animosities have no 
 
Oji the Philosophy of Mythology. 403 
 
 place in the republic of letters, which is, and 
 I trust always will be, the true international 
 republic of all friends of work, of order, and 
 of truth. 
 
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