MA S TER NEGA TIVE NO 92-80708-2 MICROFILMED 1993 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the "Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project" Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library COPYRIGHT STATEMENT fSlr reproductions of copyrighted material. under certain conditions specif^ in the law Jjbr^^^^^^^^ archives are a"'horized to furnish a pno^^^^^^^ .^ ^^ ^^ reproduction. One of these speci|ie°^° ^ ., ^ ,or any phWopy or other reproduction ^ firc^hn^rrf fs %.^ es. .o^^ °;r -IfVair sSe%Tu°sL:ryt^°b",:Tor^^^^^^^^^^ This institution reserves tj^erigm 3d°ito, 'e llJLM^n^lTe copyright law. AUTHOR: GIBSON, CHARLES B. TITLE: PHILOSOPHY. SCIENCE J w^w- ■— ■ * ^^ —, AND REVELATION PLACE: LONDON DA TE : 1874 Restrictions on Use: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT BIBLIOGRAPHIC MTrRQFORM TARHFT Master Negative # ^^iginaj Majerial as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record 215 q3S c§.x:iv\y.l'^N'i+ . J26 372 % TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO:Ji)2r_ FILM SIZE:__^r IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA IIA IB IIB DATE FILMED: ^i,| U^ INITIAI q c Association for Information and Image {Management 1 1 00 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1 1 00 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 12 3 4 II iiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiminlii rrr Inches 1 1 m 5 6 7 8 iliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliii 1 1 I 9 10 iiiiliiiiliiiili 1.0 I.I 1.25 11 12 13 14 iiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiili ¥' 2.8 11^ 2.5 |5. 3.2 2.2 ■^ IMA li II 2.0 u. ^ ^ UiAU. 1.8 1.4 1.6 111 15 mm MRNUFfiCTURED TO RUM STONDRRDS BY RPPLIED IMRGE, INC. ^^^SgSS'**-^ as^****^-- tlS t": t-^' ^ jf-' 1 < in».I*:*! m •^^S^TrWr^^ 'I % A' -J - » .'si 2. I S Book (^^ Columbia College Library Madison Av. and 49tii St. New York. ^il. < "* •v 4iik«'^>;&« I^Sii^u"i^K,. . s c V. W' ^'(1 ^ VsV ' 4 PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE. AND REVELATION. BY THE EEV. CHARLES B. GIBSON, M.E.I. A., Lecturer of St. John's, Hoxton. / } I N. " What in me is dark, Illumine ; what is low, raise and support, That to the height of this great argument, 1 may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men." ~\ Milton's •* Paradise Lost.' -. f -» I « 4 SECOND EDITION, ^^ ^x X *. V t . ; i f y^ LONDON: Lt)KGFMANS, GREEN, AND CO 1874. 'Z I /. ^y^■^ A///^^ I ► i , I / 1 * t f I n I I , ^(1 > V! > 'i I. London : Pbintiii> bt j. moork, USa, utrakd .1 - •gy^*"^'^'" --^^^^-^ .^'_^'™«^ .;y" /■ f '^'-^' ^i^^ ^f^^^.i^s^r^ l^.^^ ,^:: ^..«.^^ .-.;8ilWR,*«> itMr3ti0n, THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED ro THE REV. E. WYATT-EDGELL, B.A., Of Stanford Hall, Rugby, Who did the Author the favour of reading the work iu manuscript, and of making amendments and suggestions of great value. 14476 I >• \>'^ •• / 'V . ^v V ( I ■' •/ n 1 1 N' LoNDOx : PbIMTHI> BT J. MOORR, IISa, BTRANI) i1 ^iYmtian. THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED vo THE REV. E. WYATT-EDGELL, B.A., Of Stanford Hall, Rugby, Who did the Author the favour of reading the work in manuscript, and of making amendments and suggestions of great value. 14478 I *a I I ' 1 « PKEFACE. . *'*BKS*-ri» ■■.'"--..--*" ■■ .^w'^X^r.Ci; \ I. f * N.%i: BWi'MIHIililllli 'iw^iiiv iik.«P>i/\'' II ANCIENT THEORIES OF C RE^v'i 'f ON. 11 Orpheus, or some one called Orpheus, appears to have exercised a wonderful charm and moral influence over the reHgion, passions, and manners of his age. His lyre was able to tame the fiercest natures. The woods and groves responded to its sounds. We view these poetical descriptions as allegorical, or symbolical. For birds, beasts, and reptiles, we read " men," who in their natural and uncivHized state, are more fierce and dangerous than the lower animals. In this way we interpret the language of Isaiah xi., 6, 7, 8 :— " The wolf shaU dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shaU feed, their young ones ehaU lie down together, and the Hon shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shaU put his hand on the cockatrice's den." We find a like symbolical description in the fourth Eclogue of Virgil : — /)2 ANCIENT THEOBIES OF CREATION. |.i _* ' ii t'4-ri^j — ; — '-' " ' i V 1 1 t ! I I I , . " Ko lion fierce the roving herd dismay, ■' .'/ , Thy cradle twigs shall sprout with blossoms gay ; Thine infant sport no noxious bane disturb, The serpent dead, and dead the poisonous herb. Not Orpheus' strains, not Linus should excel, The songs prepared thy lofty deeds to tell. Tho' either bard, his parent god inspire. And prompt the numbers of the magic lyre." The Arabian and Persian poets elegantly apply the same ideas to show the effect of justice, impartially administered, and firmly supported, by a great and good king : — Justitia a qua mansuetus fit lupus fame astrictus, Escuriens, licet hinnuleum canditum videat. Ibn Onein. Rerum Dominus Mahmud rex potens Ad cujns aquam potum veniunt simul agnus et lupus. Ferdusi. Diodorus Siculus relates, that Orpheus, having been instructed in the religious tenets and ceremonies of his own country, travelled • into Egypt, where he acquired a knowledge of the religious mysteries of the Eg^^tians, and became an eminent master of philosophy, poetry, and music. ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 13 Of ancient Orphic poetry, or what is styled such, we have several fragments, in the writings of Euse- bins, Cedrenus, Clemens Alexandiinus, Proclus, and others. These Orphic fragments have been collected by Eschenbach, in a treatise entitled, " De Poesi Orphica." As these fragments are almost the only source of information, concerning the cosmogony of Orpheus, whom we hold to have been something more than a myth, we give the following specimens : — " Wherefore, belonging to the universe, and within Jupiter, the glorious height of the spacious ethereal heaven, the unsubdued sea and magnificent earth, the vast ocean, the profound Tartarus, the rivers and fountains, and all other things, together with the happy immortals, male and female, whatever has been, or will be, is produced by Jupiter.'' In the book De Mundo, we find the following lines : — "Jupiter, the lofty Thunderer, is the first, the bead, and the middle ; all things proceed from Him. The immortal Jupiter is both male and female. The shepherd of the earth and starry heaven. Jupiter is 14 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. the breath of all things ; the unwearied energy of fire ; the rise (or root) of the sea. Jupiter is King. He is the Parent of all ; there is one power, one divinity, one ruler of all, for all things are contained within the vast body of Jupiter." The second of the Ancient Philosophers, or poets, to whose works I shall refer, is Hesiod. Accord- ing to Heredotus, he must have flourished 900 B.C., and was almost a contemporary with Homer. The only works that now bear his name are " The Theogony," " The Shield of Hercules," and the " Works and Days." We shall confine our reference to his " Theogony,'' which treats of the Creation. Herodotus says that Hesiod and Homer created, or made, the theogony of the Greeks. It would be more correct to say that they *' digested" the leading opinions respecting the gods and the Creation, which they found floating in the public mind. Or, perhaps, it would be even more correct to say that they col- lected the disjecta membra of traditions respect- ing the gods and the Creation, and united them ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 15 into one body of divine cosmogony, into which they breathed their own souls. Hesiod believed that the earth was formed from chaotic matter ; that light was preceded by dark- ness ; that the firmament was distinct from ether. (Theog. v., 124 7.) He speaks of the elevation of the mountains, and the locating of the seas. He says the sun, moon, and stars were created after the earth. (Theog. v., 371-82.) This is the opinion held by a very large number of pious people, in the present day, to which we shall call the reader's attention, in the chapter entitled the " Six Days' Work ." He held that men in the beginning, were far more powerful, and lived to a much longer period, than when the poet wrote. He believed that mankind had lapsed from a high order of being, from a golden age, and a state of primitive innocence ; and that the fall was brought about by a rebellion, or an apostacy, among a higher order of beings. "Inexplicable," says Mr. F. A. Paley (who has edited an edition of Hesiod's poems) "as this is '—--«■• 16 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. to US, if is the doctrine of Satan and the fallen angels of Scripture; and it is contained in the Hesiodic rebelHon of Cronus against Uranus, Zeus against Cronus, and the hurling of Cronus (the arch rebel), Typhocus, the great serpent, and the Titans, their compeers, into Tartarus/' Another statement of no small significance made by Hesiod is, that Rhea, a woman, or a goddess, was "the first in the transgression," or the first to foment rebellion. She was the wife of Cronus. The first woman, Pandora, is represented as having been formed out of the earth. Pandora brought with her, from Heaven, a box containing every human ill; upon opening which, the ills took wing, and spread themselves over the face of the earth, leaving Hope, alone, behind them. All this is very suggestive of the source from which Hesiod derived his cosmogony and thcogony. It reminds us, at the same time, of the ungallant words of Giraldus Cambrensis, who says, " Such is the variable and fickle nature of woman, by whom all mischiefs in the world, for the most part, do ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 17 The Chaldean cosmogony (as described by Berosus, in his Babylonica), when divested of its allegory, differs but very little from the Mosaic account of the Creation ; for it states that in the beginning, all things consisted of darkness and water, and that Belus, or a Divine Power, dividing this humid mass, formed the world. It was also taught, in the Chaldean theory of Creation, that the human mind is an emanation from the Divine Mind. *' The earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the waters " The theory of Creation adopted by the wise men of Persia is not quite so clear as that of the Chaldeans. Sharistan, an Arabian writer, gives the following account of the doctrine of Zoroaster, or Zerdusht :—" Light and darkness/' he affirmed to be "contrary principles, which were the origin of everything subsisting in the world; the forces of nature being produced by a combination of these principles." But he maintained that the existence of darkness is not to be referred to come. >i 1 18 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 19 the one Supreme Deity, wLo is without companion or equal ; hut must be considered as the unavoid- Hi able consequence of his determination to create the world, in which light can no more subsist, without darkness, than a visible body can exist without its shadow. Here is an evident confounding of moral with physical light and darkness. To create the world and universe was to produce free agents, and, as an unavoidable consequence, moral light and dark- ness, or moral good and evil. Zoroaster appears to have held that light and darkness, or mind and matter, were emanations from one Eternal Source. He viewed- the human soul as a particle of the Divinity, which returns to its source, and partakes of its immortality. This idea prevailed among other Eastern nations besides the Persians. He viewed the Divine Mind as the soul of the world, or universe ; a sort of pantheism which prevails in the present day. It is impossible to say when Zerdusht, or Zoroaster, lived ; perhaps 800 or 1,000 years B.C. There was no nation more degraded than the Egyptians, by the nimiber and nature of the gods they worshipped; but, notwithstanding, we find in Egypt, a cosmogony, or theory of Creation, differ- ing but little from that of Moses ; from whom, it is probable, they derived it. They believed that a dark chaos existed, from which the regular forms of Nature arose; which chaos they seem to have deified, as they did every- thing else, calling it night. They also held the existence of an active and intelHgent principle, united to the chaotic mass of matter, by whose energy the elements were separated, and bodies received their distinct forms. It is probable that Plato, who visited Egypt, may have got the notion of " uninformed matter," from this system of Egyptian cosmogony, if we may so style it. The Egyptians of the Esoteric class believed in the existence of an intelligent or Divine Mind, the nature of which was incomprehensible. Plutarch asserts that they offered worship to " the Supreme God.'' Upon a temple dedicated to Neitha, at Sais, 20 ANCIENT THEOllIES OF CREATION. ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 21 a chief town in Lower Egypt, was this inscription, *" I am whatever is, or has been, or will be ; and no mortal has hitherto di-awn aside my veil.*' We now turn to Thales, who was the first to introduce a more severe and scientific mode of philoso- phising, than had hitherto prevailed among the Greeks. This distinguished philosopher, who was accounted one of the '* Seven Wise Men of Greece," was born at Miletus, the first year of the thirty-fifth Olympiad, that is, 640 B.C. Several writers affirm, that he was indebted for his knowledge of philosophy and mathematics to the priests of Memphis, in Eg}^t; but this scarcely accords mth the statements of others, that he taught the Egyptians how to measure the height of the pyramids. It is probable that he gained a knowledge of Egyptian and Mosaic cosmogony from this people ; in retui-n for which, he may have imparted to them some knowledge of mathematics, algebra, and astronomy, to the latter of which he was most devoted. We learn from Herodotus, that he foretold the year in which an eclipse happened. He taught the Greeks the division of the heavens into five zones, and corrected their calendar, making the year 365 days. But it is not to show the advancement of Thales in mathematics or astronomy, that we mention his name, but to prove that he, also, got his cosmogony from Egypt, and that it differed but little from that of Moses. He held that the first principle of Nature, or the first substance, from which all things were formed was water; but it is thought, that by water, he meant to express the same idea, which the old cosmogonists conveyed by the term " chaos.*' Cicero says that Thales taught that the Divine Mind, or Intellect, formed all things, out of water. He calls "God the Creator, the most ancient of all things f in other words, " The Ancient of Days." He taught that the world was created, and is ani- mated, and beautified, by God ; that all " things are full of God." He spoke of night as having existed before day. Could he have learned this from the Book of Genesis ? 22 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. The name of Pythagoras occurs next; but one word about his master, or predecessor. Pythagoras had a master, or predecessor, named Pherecydes, of whose opinions very little is known. A fragment of his book, on the origin of things, is quoted by Diogenes Laertius, where the following words occur: '* Duration and Chaos are eternal. From the time that Jupiter," or God, " communi- cated form to chaos, it was called the Earth." It is more than probable that Pherecydes got these ideas of the Creation in Egypt, where we learn from Josephus that he studied philosophy, and where, according to Cicero, he received the doctrine of the immortaUty and transmigration of the soul. Pythagoras, his more distinguished disciple, spent twenty-two years in Egypt, and was fully instructed in aU the sacred mysteries and wisdom of the Egyp- tians, which, as I have before stated, they may have learned from Moses. If we can believe the following story, he did not attain this knowledge without considerable difficulty. He was introduced by Polycrates, (Tyrant of Samos) ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 23 to Amasis, King of Egypt, who handed him over to the priests. But the priests hesitated in communi- cating their mysteries to a stranger. The College of Priests at Heliopolis (to whom the King's instructions were sent), referred the Grecian Philo- sopher to the CoUege of Priests at Memphis. The CoUege of Priests at Memphis advised him to go to the CoUege of Priests at Thebes, who agreed to accept the pertinacious philosopher, as a pupil, on condition of his submitting to the initiatory rite of circumcision; hoping, by this means, to discourage him. But no conditions were too hard or too heavy for Pythagoras, in the acquisition of knowledge. Indeed, his perseverance, patience, and thirst after hidden, or divine mysteries, were such, as, in the end, to win the respect and confidence of the Egyptian priests, who instructed him in their most recondite doctrines. The material world, according to Pythagoras, was produced by the energy of the Divine Intelligence, or mind. Can we get a better, or a more correct idea of the Creation than this ? Is it not as simple, 24 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. and as capable of being understood, as that of Moses ? " In tbe beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.'* " If any one wishes," says Justin Martyr, "to be informed more accurately, concerning the doctrine of Pythagoras, with respect to the one God, let him hear his opinion, for he says God is One. He is not, as some conjecture, exterior to the world, but, in Himself, entire, pervading the Universal Sphere, superintending all things. He is the support of Nature ; Eternal ; the source of all Power ; the First simple Principle of all things. The Origin of Celestial Light ; the Father of all ; the Animating Principle of the Universe ; the First Mover of the Spheres." The advanced doctrines of Pythagoras regarding the Divine Nature, and especially the unity of God, have led many to conclude that this Philosopher sat at the feet, not only of Egyptian, but also of Jewish priests and wise men. There has been therefore an attempt to prove, that, after spending twenty-two years in Egypt, he went to Babylon, where he was more fuUy instructed in the cosmogony and doctrines ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 25 of Moses, by the Jewish priests who were there undergoing captivity. There is no chronological objection to this journey of P^^hagoras to Babylon, inasmuch as he, according to the best authority, flourished from about 540-510 B.C. ; and the 70 years of the Jewish captivity, after the carrying away to Babylon, by Nebuchadnezzar, commenced, according to Prideaux, in the year 606 B.C. and terminated 536 b.c. So that Pythagoras might have gone to Babylon, from Egypt, and have been instructed, there, in divine knowledge, by captive Jews. But there is no good authority for concluding that he did so, and what is more to the point, there was no occasion for his doing so, as large numbers of Jews fled to Egypt, during this captivity, who could have given to Pythagoras aU the instruction in Jewish doctrine that he required. Take, for example, the number and character of those Jews who went down to Egj-pt about the year 588 b.c, that is about 18 years after the carrying away to Babylon commenced. We have the account of this migration, in the 43rd c 26 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. chapter of the prophecies of Jeremiah, who was him- self compelled to migrate there. " So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the Lord, to dwell in the land of Judah. But Johanan took all the remnant of Judah that were returned from all nations whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah — even men and women, and children, and the king^s daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the Prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriahr So they came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord. Thus came they even to Tahpanhes." The Tahpanhes here mentioned was a city of Egypt, and the principal town on the road from Palestine, which could afford tolerable accommodation to the fugitives. Here, acordmg to Jerome, and many others, Jeremiah was stoned to death, at the instigation of *' Azariah, Johanan, and all the proud men," who would not believe that God had sent him to say, " Go not into Egji)t to sojourn there." ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 27 Passing by the names of Anaximander and Anaximenes, both born in Miletus, and of the Ionian School, but of whose system of nature we know but Httle, we meet the name of Anaxagoras, an eminent philosopher, who was born in Clazomena^ 500 B.C. He held that the material world arose from a confused or chaotic mass, consisting of diffe- rent kinds of atoms, or particles, which were operated on, moved, and shaped, by an Infinite Mind, distinct from matter ; that matter possessed, within itself, neither life nor motion: "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Plato expressly asserts that Anaxagoras taught the existence of an Arranging Mind, the cause of all things. Aristotle says that the doctrine, or theory of creation, of Anaxagoras, was, that mind is the first principle of all things; mind, simple, pure, and unmixed; that it possessed, within itself, the united powers of thought and motion; that it (i.e., the Divine Mind) gives motion to the 28 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. universe, and is the cause of whatever is fair and good," We are not at all surprised to find that a philo- sopher of such advanced opinions was accused of impiety, by the Athenians ; and that he was sentenced to banishment, and to pay a fine of five talents. It is said that it was the eloquence of Pericles that saved his life. He died at Lampsacus, 428 B.C. Anaxagoras was succeeded by his disciple Arke" silaus, of Miletus. He held that the two primordial principles of nature are air and infinity. What he meant by infinity being a primordial principle we cannot imagine. He taught that the Universe is unlimited, and that the earth, at the beginning, was in a moist semi- liquid state, whence living animals were produced and nourished. This latter idea reminds us of the opinion cuiTcnt, when Hero- dotus visited Egjrpt, that the mud of the Nile produced frogs.* * Frogs, Could this idea have got currency among the people from the fact predicted in Exodus viii. 3 : " The river shall bring forth frogs, abundantly ? " ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 29 Arkesilaus succeeded Crates, in the chair of the Academy, at Athens; and died in his 76th year, of a fit of drunkenness. After Anaxagoras and Arkesilaus, occurs the name of their more famous and distinguished dis- ciple, Socrates, who was born in a village near Athens, in the fourth year of the seventy-seventh Olympiad, or 469 b.c. But Socrates was a moral Philosopher, who did not visit Egypt, or concern himself much with the mysterious question of the origin of things. His great object was to establish the true principles, and encourage the practice, of virtuous living. He was a sincerely devout and pious man, who believed in the existence of a Divine Mind, that created and governs the world and the Universe; but when and how they came into existence, he knew not, and he was too wise and modest to dogmatize on the subject. But his great di.sciple Plato was a man of a differ- ent mould of mind. He was not satisfied to walk the earth, like an ordinary mortal, or philosopher, calmly meditating, like his master, on the phenomena 30 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 31 around liim, and tlie wonders of the heavenly bodies above him. He must needs hnow who planted them in the firmament of heaven, by what hand and mind they are sustained and directed. He would know how to bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, and to loose the bands of Orion; to guide Arcturus and decipher the ordinances of heaven. And where was he so likely to acquire this in- formation as in Egypt, the great depository of the mysteries of Creation? So to Egypt he directed his footsteps, and, like his distinguished predecessor, Pji:hagoras, placed himself under the tutelage of Egyptian priests and wise men. With what result, we may judge from the theory of creation, or the system of cosmogony, which he afterwards taught, and with which his name is still associated, and which is developed in his Timtcus. He was so thoroughly imbued with the Mosaic cosmogony, that Umenius asks, " What is Plato but Moses speaking the language of Athens ? " * Plato styles God the Parent of the Universe, and speaks of him as creating animate and inani- mate things. He speaks of two Eternal Principles, the one, that by which all things are made, which is God; the other that from which all things are made, which is matter ; so that Plato could subscribe, without any kind of reservation, to the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis, " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ^' It is more than probable, that Plato, as well as Pytha- goras — with whose doctrines he was familiar — was instructed in the Mosaic Cosmogony, by Jewish priests, residing in Egypt, when he was living there. Plato carefully distinguished ^between the Creator and the thing created, or formed ; which many of the old philosophers of Greece did not do. But matter, according to Plato, existed in an im- formed state from eternity. His doctrine, on this subject, is thus explained by Cicero : " Matter, from which all things are produced and formed, is a substance, without form or quality ; but capable of 32 ANCIENT THEOKIES OF CREATION. ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 33 1 I 1 receiving all forms, and undergoing every kind of change ; in which, however, it never suffers annihi- lation, but merely a solution of its parts." Plato's logical and mathematical mind may have led him to assent to the axiom, to which all the old philosophers subscribed, that from nothing, nothing can proceed ; while his ' exalted ideas of the spiritual nature of God rendered it difficult for him to believe that matter, which was generally associated with evil, could have proceeded, or emanated from the Divine Mind ; he was there- We shut up to the conclusion, that matter, as well as God, is eternal. It is interesting, on a subject of this kind, to hear the opinion of a modern philosopher — com- paratively speaking — whose far-reaching, high-soar- ing, and poetical intellect, was in no wise inferior to that of Plato. In John Milton's " Treatise on Christian Doctrine," (vol. i. pp. 236, 237), he says, " It is clear that the world was formed out of matter, of some kind or other. For since action and passion are relative terms, and since, consequently, no agent can act, externally, unless there be some patient, such as matter, it appears impossible, that God could have created this world out of nothing. Not from any defect of power, on His part, but because it was necessary that something should have previously existed, capable of receiving, passively, the exertion of the Divine Agency. " Since therefore both Scripture and reason concur in pronouncing that all things were made, not out of nothing, but out of matter, it necessarily follows that matter must, either, have always existed, independently of God, or have originated from God. " That matter should have been always indepen- dent of God, that it should have existed of itself, from all eternity, is inconceivable. If, on the contrary, it does not exist from all eternity, it is difficult to imderstand whence it derives its origin. There remains but one solution of the difficulty, for which, moreover, we have the authority of Scripture, namely, that all things are of GodP The logical conclusion from such a statement, is 34 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATIOX. that there can be no radical distinction between mind and matter. And John Milton had too logical a mind, not to see this ; he therefore denies two natures in man, as body and soul, and says, '* the whole man is soul, and the soid man." The same idea comes out in his Paradise Lost : — •' Adam, one Almighty is, from whom All things proceed, and up to Him return, If not depraved from good ; created all Such to perfection, onejirst ynatter all ; Indued with various forms, various degrees Of substance, and, in things that live, of life ; But more refined, more spirituous, and pure, As nearer to Him placed, or nearer tending ; Each in their several active spheres assigned, Till body up to spirit work, in bonds Proportioned to each kind. So from the root Springs lighter the green stalk, from thence the leaves, More airy ; last the bright consummate flower, Spirits odorous breathes. Flowers and their fruit, Man's nourishment, by gradual scale sublimed, To vital spirits aspire, to animal, to intellectual." From the unity of design and operation, that prevails throughout the whole of the material imiversc, Plato concluded that the mind by which ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 35 it was formed, must be one ; which was also a doctrine of Pythagoras. God, according to Plato, is the supreme Intelli- gence, incorporeal, without beginning, end, or change, capable of being perceived by the mind, only. Plato ascribes to God the power and wisdom necessary for the creation, government and preser- vation of the world ; and supposes him possessed of goodness, which inclines him to promote, as far as the refractory nature of matter will jDcrmit, the happiness of the universe. He styled Him To Agathon, " The Good." We do not find the Grecian philosophers who flourished after Plato, visiting Egypt so frequently, in search of wisdom or of a divine cosmogony ; and as a natural consequence, we find among them more variety of opinion, freedom of thought, and, perhaps, we may add, infidelity respecting a Divine Creator. The later philosophers concerned them- selves less with the origin of things, than did their predecessors. The most distinguished of this class, and a J f^T" 36 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. philosopher of the most penetrating intellect, was Aristotle, the disciple of Plato, called the Stagyrite, from Stagyra, the town where he was bom, in the first year of the ninety-ninth Olympiad, or 384 b.c. History gives no example, with the exception of Socrates, of a more independent thinker ; but, like Erasmus, (who did not feel that he possessed the necessary qualifications for martydom,) he shrunk from putting his religious opinions to the test of a public trial, at Athens, saying he would not give the Athenians another opportunity of committing an offence against philosophy. It is very likely that had he remained there, his life would have paid the penalty of his temerity. As the preceptor and friend of Alexander, who at this time had his foot on the neck of Greece, he was thoroughly hated by the Athenians. Mr. Grote says that the Athenians regarded him as a philo- Macedonian and anti-Helenic. As no political charge could be made against him, that was capable of proof, he was indicted on the score of impiety, by the chief priest Eurymedon. He bowed to the ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 37 Storm, and retired to Chalcis. Mr. Grote says "any -accused person, at Athens, had always the opportunity of leaving the city, at any time before the day of trial. Socrates might have done so, had he chosen.'' But he did not choose, and herein consisted the difference between these two great men. But we believe that Aristotle was a sincere lover of truth. It was he who exclaimed Amicus Flato, Amicus Socrates, magis tamen arnica Veritas. But he has been accused of a want of gratitude to Plato. Probably for establishing a school of his own, at Athens. He took every opportunity, publicly and privately, of expressing his veneration for his Master, Plato, with the one exception, of adopting his opinions. His ambition was, to call no man Master. Lord Bacon says, with more beauty than truth, "like a Turkish despot, he thought he could not reign secure unless all his brethren were slain." Aristotle continued to attend the Academy, up to the time of Plato's death, when he left it, and 38 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. established a school of his own, in the Lyceum, after erecting a monument to his master's inemory, with this noble inscription, of which a Latin version, only, is preserved : Gratus Aiistotcles struit hoc altare Platoni, Quern turbas injustae vel celebrare uefas.* A great many stories are told of Aristotle, which we must receive cum grano salis. Take, for example, ^ the book Le Porno ^ " Concerning the Apple," which he is said to have held in his hand, just before his death, with the smell of which he refreshed himself, whilst he discoursed with his friends respecting the immortality of the soid; or his exclamation in the article of death. Causa causarum miserere mei — " Oh Cause of causes, have mercy on me. i> The Physics, or Cosmogony of Aristotle, was * We have somewhere met with the following poetical version of the words, in English : — " To Plato's sacred name, this tomb is rear'd, A name, by Aristotle, long rever'd. Far hence ye vulgar herd, nor dare to stain, "With impious praise, his ever hallowed fane." ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 39 something different from the similar parts of Anaxa- goras, the Atoms of Leusippus and Democritus, the Sensible Elements of Thales, the Unity of Parmenides, the Numbers of Pythagoras, or the Ideas of Plato. He speaks of three principles- Form, Privation, and Matter. What he means by calling privation a principle, we cannot say. But, by and by, we learn that privation is only an "accident." "All things are produced by that which exists, potentially, namely the First Matter. Form is the nature and essence of anything, or that which makes it to be what it is." It 'may look like presumption to say so, but this sounds very like philosophical logomachy. But Aristotle, as well as Plato, spoke on some occasions, so as not to be understood. They always had the wholesome fear of Socrates' fate before their eyes. Aristotle held the eternity of matter, but it was inert matter, matter without the power of motion. He likewise taught the existence of a First Mover, who gave energy and motion to matter ; which was itself, unmoved, and from eternity. 40 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. This First Mover, who imparts energy and motion to matter, is an Incorporeal Intelligence, the Causa Cansarum, or God; the same Life-giving Spirit, that, in the beginning, brooded over this dark and chaotic world. This great First Cause Aristotle calls Theos, " God." Aristotle also speaks of some sort of perfection, Entelexeiay which produces sensible and rational life. He held that the soul of man is an intellectual power, transmitted from the Eternal Intelligence, into the embryo, when the body of the child is " quickened." It is difficult to say whether he believed the soul to be immortal. Socrates did not believe the soul to be necessarily immortal, for to do so would be to deny God's power to destroy the soul, as well as the body. When Aristotle withdrew to Chalcis, where he died, he was succeeded by his eminent disciple, Theophrastus, who taught that there is one Divine Principle over all things, by which all things consist. By this he, undoubtedly, meant the First Mover, of whom his Master taught and wrote. ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 41 Theophrastus was succeeded by Strabo, whose system of nature was altogether opposed to that of Plato and Aristotle. He held that there was, m nature, an inherent principle of motion, or force, but without intelligence; that the world was not formed by the power and intelligence of a deity of any kind, but had arisen from the innate force of matter. Antisthenes the Cynic, and the founder of the school, who taught at the Temple of "The White J)og " — from which the sect probably derived its name— paid but little respect to the gods of his country ; but, like Socrates, believed in a Supreme Intelligence, who created and rules the Universe. ** The gods of the people," he said, on one occasion, " are many ; but the God of Nature is One'' Zeno, the Stoic, was born 366 b.c, and died 264 B.C. We trace, in his system of cosmogony, and that of his school, features of Egyptian origin. Zeno taught that there existed from eternity a confused chaos, which contained the first prin- ciples of all future being. He speaks of two prin I) f 42 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. ciples, one passive, and the other active ; the passive principle as pure matter, the active, as Reason, or God. Along with these ideas, which were held by Socrates, Plato, and other distinguished philo- sophers, he taught that God is pure ether, or fire. He does not appear to make any absolute distinction between matter and mind, for his statement is, that the active principle is ether, which certainly is not mind. But Seneca, one of the most distinguished of the Stoics, styles the Deity, "Incorporeal Reason.'' Some think he means no more, by these terms, than to mark the wide distinction which exists between pure ether and the gross bodies of which our senses have evidence. The following ideas of Zeno, and his sect, come under the head of the imaginative, or the fanciful ; but nature or cosmogony was not Zeno's forte. Hear the following pretty piece of absurd dogmatism, respecting things beyond man's comprehension : — " The action of the Divine Nature upon matter, first produced the element of moisture, and then the ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 43 other elements, fire, air, and earth, of which all bodies are composed. Air and fire have essential levity, and tend towards the exterior surface of the world ; earth and water have essential gravity, and tend towards the centre. The sun is an animated being, larger than the earth, being the first of the derived divi- nities. The stars are divinities of the same kind, and therefore to be ranked among the gods." All this nonsense about the sun and stars was borrowed from the fire worshippers of the East. The Stoics, in common with the Jews, held the opinion, that there would be a general conflagration at the end of the world. The poet Ovid gives us the following description of this conflagration of the Universe : — Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur a£fore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regie cobH Ardeat, et mundi moles operosa laboret. The passage is thus rendered into English by Dry den : — Remembering, in the fates, a time when fire Should to the battlements of heaven aspire ; When all the blazing worlds above should burn, And all the inferior globe to ashes turn. » " 44 ANCIENT THEOKIES OF CREATION ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 45 « According to tlie doctrine of the Stoics, we have, in the dual nature of man, a miniature copy of the Universe. As the mind of man, which is a spark of the Divine Intelligence, animates and regulates the operations of his body, so does the Eternal Mind, or Reason, animate and regulate the universe of matter. All we have to say respecting this theory is, that it is borrowed. Socrates taught precisely the same thino", as we learn from his dialogue with Aristodemus, » recorded in the 4th chapter of the 1st book of the " Memorabilia." Zeno should have stuck to his last, for in the department of moral philosophy, and the philosophy of living, he reigned almost alone, and was surpassed by Socrates only. Zeno was succeeded by Persa^us 260 b.c, and Persa)us by Aristo, who had the modesty to teach that the nature of the Deity is unknown. He said that the doctrine of Zeno, who asserted God to be a subtle ether, or fire, diffused through the world, was incon- sistent with our belief in an intelligent being, or Divine Mind. Chrysippus, an eminent disciple of Zeno, appears to have held quite a medley of opinions, concerning the Divine Nature. " Sometimes,'* says Cicero, " he S2)eaks of God as the Power of Fate, and the Neces- sary Chain of Events. Sometimes he calls God " Fire, or Ether." In all this we see e\ddent signs of Grecian philosophy and cosmogony, going back into the dark, where it would be useless to follow it. It has been our object, in this first chapter, to show that the opinions of the wisest and best of the old philoso- phers, differed least from that of Moses, from whom they derived their wonderfully correct ideas respecting Creation; but Grecian philosophers had ceased to visit Egypt, the birthplace of Moses, in search of divine philosophy; and this is not to be regretted, inasmuch as Egyptian priests had polluted the foun- tain at which Orpheus, Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato had drank so deeply. From this period, to the pub- lication of Christianity, the philosophy of Greece rapidly declined, so as fully to justify the strong language of St. Paul to his beloved disciple and pupil, " O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppo- sitions of science, falsely so called." 46 ANCIEKT THEORIES OF CREATION. There is just one other witness in favour of the Mosaic account of the Creation, whose testimony I shall lay before the reader, before I conclude this first chapter. I refer to the Roman poet, Ovid, who flourished before the birth of Christ. He was born B.C. 43. From what particular source he derived his account of the Creation, we cannot conjecture — probably from the writings of Greek philosophers, and the Scp- tuagint, «. ^., the Greek version of the Old Testament, which was made some time before the Christian era, for the use of Jews living in Alexandria and other parts of the world. After two or three introductory lines, the first book of the " Metamorphoses " goes on to say — "Before the sea, the earth, and heavens were formed, the whole orb of nature was a rude, undi- gested and chaotic mass; a sluggish load: the dis- cordant seeds of things were intermixed and heaped up together. No sun, as yet, gave light to the world ; nor did the moon expand her horns. . • • " God and Nature terminated the strife among the ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 47 discordant elements, by separating the land from the sky, and the clear firmament from the gross atmosphere." In reading such a passage we conclude that Ovid must have seen the description of the Creation, in Genesis : " And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so." " Scarcely had God placed the elements within certain limits, when the stars, which had heretofore lain hid, .... began to blaze out through the whole sky." We gather from this, that Ovid held, that the stars, as well as the sun and moon — see conclusion of first paragraph — were in existence, although they gave no light to the earth, at this time. This view will be treated more fully in the next chapter. " The waters were inhabited by glittering fishes, the land by animals, and the moving air by birds." 48 ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. " But an animal more divine than these, and capable of loftier thoughts, and one able to rule over the rest, was wanting till man was bor7i '' — Homo natus est. Nearly the same order, in the creation of animals and man, is given by Ovid, as by Moses — the fishes come first and man last. " Either the Maker of all things" — Ille Opifex Rerum — " the Creator of the higher world produced man from divine seed, or the earth, (but lately severed from the lofty ether,) retained seeds from its kindred sky, which Japetus [the son of Uranus, or Heaven] fashioned in the image of the Gods " — effigiem Dcorum. There needs no direction here, to point to the source from which the account of the creation of man, in the likeness of God, is derived. '* And whereas other animals are grovelling, looking on the ground. He gave to man a sublime aspect, and commanded him to look up, and raise his face to the stars." Look at this picture of the creation of man, painted ANCIENT THEORIES OF CREATION. 49 by a heathen poet, and at the gorilla caricatures of the human face divine, drawn by Mr. Darwin and Professor Huxley, and say, which looks most human, to say nothing of divine. CHAPTER II. TBE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. We have, in Genesis, what seems Hke two accounts of the Creation ; the one extending from the first verse of the first chapter, to the end of the third verse of the second chapter ; and the second com-- mencing with the fourth verse of the second chapter, and extending to the end of the same. Some Hebrew scholars think they can discover a diversity of style between the first and second account, as great a diversity as a Greek scholar mi""ht discover between the Gospels of St. John and St. Luke. They fancy there is more exaltation of language in the former, than in the latter account. This may result from the fact that the latter descends to particulars, which are not noticed in the former account.- But there appears one marked difference between the accounts of the Creation in the first and second MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 51 chapters of the book of Genesis, which cannot fail to arrest the notice, not only of the tyro in Hebrew, but also the notice of the English reader ; namely, that, in the former chapter, the Creator is invariably called God, i. e. Elohim, and in the latter, or second chapter, Lord God, i. e. Jehovah Elohim. This distinction between the two passages, is so invari- able, that Hebrew sholars are in the habit of styling the passages in which God, or Elohim, alone, occurs, the Elohistic pcssages, and the passages in which Jehovah Elohim occur, the Jehovistic. This distinction between Elohistic and Jehovistic passages is not confined to those two accounts of the Creation ; for we find the same variety in other parts of the inspired narrative, the Elohistic entwining themselves round the Jehovistic, forming a two-fold cord, which cannot be easily broken. Doctor Colenso, in his Commentary on the Pentateuch, attempts to found an argument against the authorship of Moses, and the divine character of the book of Genesis, on this apparent or real diversity. He sees, or thinks he sees, the I 52 MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION work of two hands, and concludes, with too much haste, that neither can be divine. But suppose that two hands were engaged in writing the book of Genesis, or Pentateuch— what then ? Suppose Moses employed his " Servant Joshua," to act as his amanuensis ; how could this affect the divine character of the book ? Nearly the whole of the Epistles of St. Paul were written by amanuenses. Joshua may have written a part of the Pentateuch, from a verbal precis, furnished by Moses. Nothing can be more sublime or comprehensive than the Mosaic account of the Creation. " In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This Beginning of Creation, rises like a solitary rock in an ocean without a shore; or like a solitary- star amidst immensity of space. We in- voluntarily ask, "What was before it," and the reply is, " the Creator." There is a fragment of the poetry of Orpheus, in existence, which represents the Deity, hefore the MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 53 heginning, as "hiding all things within Himself," till, in the fullness of time, " he sends forth divine productions from his bosom, into the cheerful light." But of the existence of God, before Creation, we can know nothing whatever. Here we are are lost in unfathomable depths. " Thought repress thy weak endeavour, Here must reason prostrate fall, Oh the ineffable For-Ever / And the Eternal AlMn-All.'' On such a subject it behoves us to speak with the most profound reverence, and to confine our imaginations within the. boundaries of the Inspired Word, which flashes like the fire of Sinai, here and there, on an angle of the mysterious subject, and then leaves us, as before, to grope our way in the dark. As it regards the order of Creation, the Mosaic account conveys the idea that everything, tJie heavens and the earth, or the whole of our planetary system, were created, and launched into space, at one and the same time. As the various parts of our planetary system, with the sun as their centre, 54 MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. are cunningly poised, or balanced, it is reasonable to conclude, d priori, that they were created together ; so that common sense and astronomy give their sanction to the first verse of Holy Writ, that, "in the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In what condition the heavens and the earth were first brought into existence, whether in a gaseous, or molten state,* we do not presume to assert; but there is no doubt that our primary rocks, our granite and basalt, are igneous, and were once in a state of fusion; and in this con- dition boiled over; and, here and there, made their way to the surface, through the rent crust of the earth. It is by no means improbable that the centre of the earth is still in a liquid state, for the deeper we penetrate towards the centre, the higher * Gaseous, or molten state. Dr. Buckland assumes *' that the whole materials of the globe may have once been in a fluid, or even a nebulous state." Geology and Mineralogy, vol. i,, p. 36. MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 55 the temperature becomes ; nor should it be diffi- cult, from a computation of the increase of heat, as we approach the centre, to say how far we shoidd go to find the granite and basalt in a molten state ; or, by an inverse process — that is by calculating the rate of cooling — to discover how long it has taken to produce the present state of temperature on the surface of the earth. See Arago, Fourier, and Cordier, on the Internal Temperature of the Earth.* The time and labour which geologists say were necessary for the production of the crust of the earth, may appear, to some, excessive ; tut when we consider the high and manifold advantages of those wonderful changes, which have taken place on the surface of the earth, and their chemical and mechanical effects, we shall not say that either time or labour have been misspent, or that when * Mr. Hopkins thinks the earth is solid to the depth of one fourth of its radius. See Dr. Buckland's Geology and Mineralogy, vol. i., p. 46. 56 MOSAIC ACCOUNT OP THE CREATION. the mountains laboured they brought forth a mouse. The labour of the mountains, in raising and breaking up the crust of the earth, has enabled us to reach the richest minerals ; which must otherwise have remained beyond the reach of our arm. Take, for example, our iron mines, and our coal fields, which, united, have given such a pre- eminence to the trade and commerce of Great Britain, so that we emphatically style our country, '* A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills we may dig brass." And for these advan- tages we must refer to the stratified period, of which we are now reaping the fruits. We now turn to the consideration of the second verse of this first chapter of Genesis, which describes the condition of the earth at the conclusion of the era, or period of time which elapsed from tho Creation proper (described in the first verse), to the time when God began to prepare the earth for man's abode. Most of the difficulty in imderstanding the account MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 57 ^1 ill of the Creation arises from not marking the epochs and the eras here so plainly laid down. For the Creation, proper, we have no more than an epoch, or a point, from which to date time :— " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We are not told that the Creation occupied any time: "He spake and it was done." But from this epoch, or point of Creation, to the time when Jehovah began to prepare the earth for man's abode, there was a long era or portion of time, during which the earth underwent those various changes, of which we have such evidences and marks in the strata of the globe. Some are of opinion that the requirements of geology have compelled many to the conclusion that a lengthened period of time must have elapsed between the creation of the heavens and the earth, (as described in the first verse,) and the production of light, as described in the third verse ; that the Mosaic account of the Creation, unaided by geology, could never have led to such a con- clusion ; that it is no more than an afterthought. o E -t»-SW<"i) 1 ^ < 1 H 1 1 I I - 58 MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. But, notwithstanding, Augustin, Thcodoret, and others, supposed that the first verse of Genesis was intended to describe the creation of matter, as prior to the six days' work. Justin Martyr and Gregory Nazianzen believed in an indefinite period between the creation of matter and the subsequent arrangement of aU things. So did Basil, Caisarius, and Origen. Bishop Patrick, who wrote a hundred and seventy years ago, when Geology was alto- gether a sealed book, says " How long all things continued in mere confusion, after the chaos was created, before light was extracted from it, we are not told. It might have been, for anything that is here revealed, a great while." We may, therefore, fairly conclude, that the words in Genesis will admit of the lengthened period required by geology, for the stratification of the earth. We have aU, heretofore, galloped over the Mosaic account of the Creation too fast. The appearance of the earth, just before it was fitted up for man's abode, is thus described : " And the earth was without form and void, and dark- i MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CKEATION. 59 ness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.'' This language in the 2nd verse of Genesis, repre- sents the then condition of the earth, just before God commenced His Six Days' Work, in preparing and fitting it up, for the abode of the new crea- ture He was about to fonn and place there. The Hebrew words Touhoo and Bouhoo, which are rendered in our English Bible, "without form and void," are rendered by the best Hebrew scholars (Gesenius among the number) " waste and desolate." The prophet Jeremiah uses the same words in describing the utter desolation of Judah. " I beheld the earth, and it was without form and void, and the heavens, and they had no lio-ht." There is a clear reference here to Genesis i., 2, 3. "The earth resembled, at this time, a vast unfur- nished and dismantled residence, awaiting restora- tion and improvement."* * These are the words of the late highly-esteemed R. F. Walker, M.A., Perpetual Curate of Purleigh, Essex, in whose Memoirs we have many interesting and independent " Observations on the first four chapters of Genesis." 60 MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. These words give the true idea of the condition of the earth, at this time^ for it had not been always, or from the beginning, waste and desolate, and without an inhabitant. The vegetation of the earth, to which we are indebted for our coal fields, was at one time most luxuriant. Our fossil rocks reveal the fact that there were periods in the earth's history, when land as well as sea animals abounded. But at the point of time referred to, in this second verse, both vegetable and animal life seem to have disappeared before the progress of dark waters, that nearly covered the whole earth, drowning and destroying every living thing." ** Whether these words," [without form and void] writes the editor of the SpeaJcerh Commentary^ " indicate entire absence of life, or merelv that the world was not, then, as now, teeming with life, whether they express primeval emptiness, or rather desolation and disorder, succeeding to a former state of life and harmony^ cannot be immediately determined." " The second verse," [of Genesis] says Dr. Buck- land, "mav describe the condition of the earth, on MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CBEATION. 61 the evening of the first day. This first evening may be considered as the termination of the indefinite time which followed the primeval Creation, announced in the first verse, and as the commencement of the first of the six succeeding days, in which the earth was to be placed in a condition, and peopled in a manner fit for the reception of mankind." — "Geology and Mineralogy," Vol. i.,p. 21. We naturally inquire how such a state of things, how such an almost universal deluge and darkness could have been produced ? The process is simple. Decrease the depth of the sea and ocean channels, or upheave the beds of the seas and oceans, and the effect will be to increase the water surface and decrease the dry land. Decrease the depth of any liquid measure, and you must increase its width, or diameter, provided that it is to hold the same quantity as it did before. Now the effect of internal fires and volcanos is to raise the crust of the earth. Geologists speak of a volcanic period, when these upheavings of tjie crust of the earth were much more frequent than they are now 62 MOSAIC ACCOXTNT OF THE CBEATION. The probable effect of a lengtbened and active volcanic period would be, to produce a condition of things Hke that described in the 2d verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis. But the water, in the end, gains the mastery over the fire, the effect of each volcanic up-heaving, being, to increase the water surface. But what a dilapidation ! The smoiddering mate- rials, on the surface of the earth, steaming and smoking like a house, or a city, after some fearful conflagration. This condition of things would account for the darkness, which at this time encompassed the whole earth. The more extensive the water surface the greater the evaporation, and the consequent mist and cloud. The clouds at this period must have rested on the earth— as they do on the tops of high mountains— for we learn from the 6th verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis, that there was no firmament at this time. The high temperature of the earth, at this era, must also have had the effect of increasing the vapour and the consequent darkness. " So long as MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CBEATION. 63 the temperature of the earth," says Dr. Buckland, " continued intensely high, water could have existed^ only, in a state of steam or vapour, floating in the atmosphere round the incandescent surface." But after a time there was a cooling down, and a greater equilibrium, from which a more permanent state of things emerged. " In these most ancient conditions of land and water," continues Dr. Buck- land, " Geology refers us to a state of things incom- patible with the existence of animal and vegetable life ; and thus, on the evidence of natural phenomena, establishes the important fact, that we find a start- ing point, on this side, from which all forms, both of animal and vegetable beings, must have had a beginning." It was after this period of steaming heat and comparative darkness, that the divine and life-giving energy of God was put forth, in preparing the earth for a new tenant or lord : " The Spirit of God moved on," or brooded over, " the face of the waters." The wisest and best of the heathen philosophers, even those of them who believed in the eternity of 64 MOSAIC ACCOTJNT OF THE CEEATION. matter, attributed the phenomena of Creation to the energy, or the operation of the Divine Mind, as we have shown in the 1st chapter of this work. Indeed, it may be truly said, that mind is the source of all life, movement, and power. The body is no more than the machine, by means of which the mind operates. The Divine Mind, or Spirit, is represented in the Inspired Volume, not only as the source of spiritual and moral, but also of mental and physical life. Take the following passages as examples : — " He hath com- passed the waters w4th bounds, until day and night came to an end. He divideth the sea, with His power. By His Spirit, He hath garnished the heavens. Job, xxvi., 10, 12, 13. " By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them hy the hreath of His mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together, as an heap, He layeth up the depths in storehouses. He spake and it was done, He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. xxxiii., 6, 9. In Psalm 104, after speaking of the wonderful Provi- dence of God, in providing for every living creature. MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CKEATION. 65 the Psalmist adds, " Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; Thou takest away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created, and Thou renewest the face of the earthy "Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellor, hath taught Him ? Lift up your eyes, and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number ? He calleth them all by their names, by the greatness of His might. That He is strong in power, not one faileth.'' Isaiah, xl., 13, 26. The same Di\ine Spirit is spoken of as the Agent, or Power, that re-animated the dead body of Jesus Christ, and the Agent or Power that is to re-animate the bodies of all believers : " If the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies, by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Romans, viii., 11. We therefore see that the same Divine Spirit that moved or brooded over the dark and desolated world, as described in the Book of Genesis, is still pre-eminently 66 MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 67 " The Spirit of Life^'' and the Agent for imparting life to every creature. But what is life, animal or vegetable? Take a familiar example — this tree, with its swelling buds, or this one, unfolding its green leaves. We approach and ask, " Wherein consist your life and growth, and your power of extending your branches, like the arms of a giant?" The branches reply, "We derive our life and strength from the sap and stem." We inquire of the sap and stem, who reply, " You must inquire of the root." The root replies, " I live in the dark, and cannot answer you, you must ask ths earth, the mother of us all." We ask the earth, and the air, and the water, and the light, and they all reply, " We cannot tell, but, we conclude, our energy and life are of God." The chain of inquiry, or causation, may be long, and have many links, but if we trace it back, we shall find the first link in the hand of God. But that hand is behind the cloud. We go back, and back, till we can go no farther, and, in the end, find some hidden power in operation; and conclude it must be the Divine Mind, that brooded over the dark chaotic mass at Creation, producing order and beauty from darkness and apparent confusion. We see machinery in motion — the warp and the web uniting, producing a thousand beautiful fabrics— and conlude that there must be a steam-engine, working the machiner^^ somewhere. The more we think of the wonderful energy, or power, in operation around us, and in us, the more we feel disposed to conclude that the power, or energy is in mind, pure mind, and not in matter. Matter is the material on which, and by which, mind operates. It is my mind, or will, that sets and keeps my body in motion. And when I am brought to a standstill, and can go no further, it is not from incapacity, or weakness of will, but from weakness of the machinery, through which the will acts. " The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." A belief in the direct operations of the Divine Mind, throughout the Universe, does not clash with any of the legitimate conclusions of science. There is, for example, no depreciation of the genius or dis- coveries of Sir Isaac Newton, in attributing all the ngr-gJ 68 MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CBEATION. phenomena around us to the immediate action of the Divine Mind. Divine operation, in one direction, we may still call gra\4tation, and in the opposite direc- tion, centrifugal force. Sir Isaac Newton discovered, not the invariable operation of two laws, but the invariable operation of the Creator. Dr. Carpenter, speaking at the meeting of the British Association, held in Brighton, in 1872, said, *' When metaphysicians, shaking off the bugbear of materialism, will honestly and courageously study the phenomena of the mind, I believe that they will find, in that relation, their best arguments for the presence of Infinite Mind in Universal Nature." This view brings the operation performed, or the thing created, into close connection with the Creator. The hand behind the cloud is God's hand. This belief in God, as an acting power, brings the Deity very near to us ; •* Though He be not far from every one of us, for in Him we live, and move, and have our being," as certain of the Greek poets and philo- sophers have said. This was certainly the opinion of Socrates and his school. In these opinions he in- t I MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF THE CREATION. 69 structed his pupils at Athens, for these opinions he cheerfully consented to die. " Consider, my good youth," he says to Aristodemus, one of his pupils, " that your mind, existing within your body, directs your body, by its volitions, and you must be convinced that the Intelligence of the Universe disposes all things according to his pleasure. Can you imagine that your eye is capable of discerning distant objects, and that the eye of God cannot, at the same instant, see all things ; or that whilst your mind contemplates the affairs of different countries, the understanding of God cannot attend, at once, to all the affairs of the Universe? Such is the Nature of the Divinity, that He sees all things, is everywhere present, and con- stantly superintends aU events," Vide Xenophon's "Memorabilia of Socrates," Book I., cap. 4, sec. 17, 18. CHAPTER HI. THE SIX DAYS* WORK OF CREATION. We now turn to what are styled " The Six Days of Creation." The Six Days of Reparation and Prepa- ration would be more correct. In order to remove the apparent difficulties of the first chapter of Genesis, it has been suggested, that we should understand each day of this period to signify a lengthened and indefinite era. Our reply is, that we are not justified in giving any such fanciful and far-fetched interpretation to the simple and plain words of Divine Writ. Such a mode of rendering the Sacred Record is opposed to one of the first canons of biblical interpretation, which lays down the rule that the words of Scripture shall be taken in their natural and ordinary sense, like the words of any other book, unless there be very strong reasons for not doing so. As if to guard against such a far- fetched rendering of the Hebrew word " Day," or I THE SIX days' work OF CREATION. 71 Youm, we have the constituent parls of time, which compose, or constitute a day, here mentioned, namely " the Evening and the Morning," that is, IJrev and Boulcer ; so that those who hold that a day signifies a lengthened period, should be prepared to inform us what an " Evening " and what a " Morning " means. This idea, that by a day, we are to understand a lengthened and indefinite period, was adopted under the impression that such an interpretation would remove some, or many of the chief difficulties which beset the first chapter of Genesis ; but this is not the case : the effect of such an interpretation is the very opposite, that is to render the meaning or the expla- nation of the text more difficult than it was before. The principal geological difficulty is removed, by granting, (as we may without any perverse construc- tion of the meaning of the words), that almost any period of time may have intervened between the creation of the heavens and the earth, mentioned in the 1st verse of Genesis, and the commencement of the six days' work, mentioned in the 3rd verse. It is for this six days' work that more time is ■ ■ » Wl I 72 THE SIX days' work OF CREATION. demanded, and that this rendering of the word "Day '' has been proposed. But granting, that God aid, or does create, is there anything in the account of the six days^ labour, to show that the work to be done required six eras, instead of six days, for its accomplishment? Or does the work itself show marks or signs of six distinct periods of labour ? Let us turn to the Mosaic account of the six days' labour, and then ask ourselves, if the work of each day may not have been as weU and as orderly done, by the Di\ine Creator, in twenty-four hours, as in twenty-four millions of years ? If we read from the 3rd to the 28th verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis with attention, we shall find that there was not as much of real creative work to be done, in this period of six days, as we imagine ; that there was more of re-arrangement of light, and cloud, and water, more of atmospheric changes to be brought about, than of new creations. The house was built a long time before, but it had become dilapidated, and therefore required alterations, and a few additions, in the form of vegetable and animal life. There was 1 THE six DAYS* WORK OF CREATION. 73 neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, to be created, as some imagine. There were new trees, and grasses and animals to be brought into existence, and man himself, to be created — but that was all. The work of the first day consisted in such an arrangement of light, as to make a distinction be- tween day and night, which we conclude had been scarcely discernible at this time, the mists being so thick, that the sun could not pierce them. God's power was therefore put forth, in raising, or par- tially dispelling the clouds, so that the distinction between day and night became evident. Now there was, clearly, nothing done on this occasion, to demand an indefinite period of time; no great " labour of the skies." The heathen poets styled Jupiter the " Cloud-dispelling Jove.'* But we learn from the account of the labour of the Second Day, that the clouds were only par- tially raised, or dispersed, on the first day. There was as yet, no firmament, orspac e, between the watery cloud^, and the earth; the clouds were not as yet, floating overhead, in ambient air ; so that 74 THE SIX days' work OF CREATION. the second day's work may be viewed as a con- tinuation of tlie first. The work of the third day was to collect the waters, which were generally spread oyer the earth, into the principal ocean channels, so as to allow the dry land to appear ; and also to create new grasses and fruit trees, suitable for man and the new animals about to be created. How the waters were collected, or gathered together, we do not presume to say, but the effect of the upheaving of any considerable portion of dry land would be to deepen the ocean channels, and drain low-lpng land, which was only partially flooded. It is estimated that about four-fifths of the globe is now covered with water. "It has occasionally happened that one of the results of an earthquake has been permanently to alter the level of the district in which it has operated. After the great earthquake which visited the coast of South America in 1822, a portion of Chili was found to have been upheaved to a height of from three to seven feet. Reckoning the area I- <■« THE SIX DAYS WORK OF CREATION. 75 of elevation at 100,000. square miles. Sir C. Lyell computes that this con^oilsion gave to the land an addition of fifty-seven cubic miles of rock. In 1837 the shore near Valdivia, more to the south, was elevated to an extent of eight feet. In February, 1835, Conception, another Chilian town, was thrown down, and the island of Santa Maria, distant twentj^-five miles, wps raised some nine feet. At Talcahuano the coast was raised about four feet in February, but appears to have subsided again to half that extent by the month of April.'' The following is the poet Milton's description of the gathering of the waters into one place : — *' Be gathei'd now ye waters under heaven, Into one place, and let dry land appear ; Immediately the mountains huge appear Emergent, and their hroad bare backs upheave Into the clouds; their tops ascend the sky. So high as heaved the timid hills, so low Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad and deep. Capacious bed of waters ; thither they Hasted, with glad precipitance, uproU'd As drops on dust conglobicg from the dry. Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct For haste — such flight the great command impressed." •>«S^J^ -'*fi st^£ 76 THE SIX DAYS* WORK OF CREATION. THE SIX DAYS* WORK OF CREATION. 77 But the liea\ings and convulsions of the earth which produced the Alps and the Andes, and left corresponding vaUeys in the depth of the ocean, were of gigantic dimensions, of which we have at the present era no example. One mighty and tremendous upheaving of the surface of the earth, just before it was prepared for man's abode, appears to have had the effect of gathering a large portion of the waters " into one place.'* M. Boue has published a geological map, showing how Central Europe was, at one time, divided into a series of separate basins of fresh water, which, in the course of time, as the result of convulsions, gave place to sea water, with its marine remains.— ^^^ « Synop. Darstellung der Erdrinde," Hanau, 1827. As it regards the creation of new grasses and fruit trees, a slight acquaintance with geology, or the earth*s strata, is sufficient to convince us that at various periods of the eartVs progress, there were new creations of animals and vegetables. There was no time, or Space, or power lost, in the economy of nature. When the earth was ripe for the reception I I of a new seed, or the support of a new animal, the seed was dropped into it, and the animal created. Here we have, for the first time, in this six days* work, an account of the exercise of what we should style the creative energy, in bringing new grasses and fruit trees into being. And no one, who does not believe in Mr. Darwin and his development, will venture to assert that it would require a long and indefinite period for God to create a new blade of grass, or a new fruit tree, *' whose seed " (or repro- ductive energy) " was in itself.** We must now turn to the labour of the Fourth Day, which was to hriiig into view the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, that, Up to this time, had been invisible. " And God sc;id, ' Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years.'* It is then stated that " God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night," and that " He made the stars also.** This passage would seem to imply that the heavenly 78 THE SIX days' work OF CREATION. bodies were not created tiU the Fourth Day ; but as ligbt made its appearance on the first— making the first day— we naturally conclude that the sun, the source of light, was created " in the beginning," with the earth. Indeed, it is so stated. Genesis i., 1. The fact that there was regular evening and morn- ing, or day and night, from the first day, makes it more than probable that the earth was turning on its axis, and receiving light from the sun, from the first day. Suppose the sun in the heavens from the begin- ning, and all difficulty in understanding the passage is removed. Can we imagine that this earth, which is but a small, though necessary part of the planetary system, was created, and sent spinning round alone, like the detached wheel of a watch ; and that the creation of the other parts of the great whole, the sun and the planets, with their various satellites, followed after ? Or can we imagine that the moon, which belongs to earth, and receives much of its light from the earth, which is bound to the earth by what we call the attraction of gravitation, which cleaves to the earth. THE SIX DAYS WORK OF CREATION. 79 like a child to a parent, and runs round it, like a race colt round its dam, that this pleasant companion, which the earth carries with it, round the sun, which would would go astray, like a wandering star, without the attraction of the superior body, was not created at the same time the earth was created ? Heathen mythology teaches us better astronomy and cosmogony than this, for it represents Phoebus and Phoebe (the sun and moon) as twins, and as having been produced at one and the same birth. But this twin birth is more emphatically true of Terra and Phoebe, (e. e., of the Earth and the Moon,) which came into existence, bound and born together like the Siamese Twins. But the fact that the mythology of the East, and of Greece and Rome represented the Moon as the twin sister of the Sun, and not the handmaid of the earth, makes it probable that the ancient mythology, on this subject, was based on the Mosaic account. The words in the 14th verse of the 1st chapter of Genesis, "Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven," might be fairly rendered. Let lights appear ij3L the firmament of heaven. * 80 THE SIX DAYS* WOBK OF CREATIOX. In the 16tli verse of the same chapter we read »* God made two great lights." It is not stated that he made them on the fourth day ; but this is the popular idea. The passage has its difficulties, but we must bear in mind that the inspired writers did not speak with scientific accuracy ; that they were not inspired to instruct the world in astronomy, or geology, of which they knew nothing ; that they described things as they appeared ; and as we conclude from the passage that the sun, moon, and stars did not appear till the foiu'th day, that they spoke of them as having been created on that day. We, in this advanced period of astrono- mical knowledge speak of the sun as " rising '* and ** setting," although we know this is not the case, and that day and night are the result of the earth's turning on its axis. God speaks in the 9th chap- er of the Book of Genesis of setting His bow in he clouds, after the Deluge, but we conclude it must have appeared there before ; the meaning of the passage being, that after the Deluge it was THE SIX DAYS* WOKK OF CREATION. 81 to be viewed as a sign of God's Covenant with man. The fifth day was occupied with the creation of fish and fowl : " And God said, let the waters bring forth, abundantly, the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth, in the open firmament of heaven." Genesis i., 20. We conclude, that, at this time, there were new species, if not genera, or families, of fish created. We have fossil remains, which prove that the waters abounded with fish, and that the watery globe abounded with ichthyophagi, or fish-eating animals, at a very early period." We conclude that some new species of what we should stvle *' fresh- water fish " were created on the fifth day. As the whole globe was generally flooded, at this time, all water must have been salt or brackish, so that the earth was not suited for man's abode, till the great seas or oceans had been " gathered together unto one place." The deepening of the ocean and sea channels into which the waters rushed, rendered them more 82 THK SIX BAYS WORK OF CREATION. eapable, than they had hitherto been, of accommo- dating the great sea monsters ; hence we find, that, at this time, " God created whales," (Taunineem) or " leviathan, that might play therein." The sixth day was occupied with the creation of man, to which we shall devote a new chapter. CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGIN OF MAN. Man has always been a mystery to the philoso- phers, who are not, as yet, agreed on the proper definition of Homo, What he is, or whence or how he came, is a puzzle to many. Whither he goes, " a leap in the dark." Various theories, respecting the creation and the origin of man, have been broached, at various periods ; but none more surprising than the last, the theory of evolution or development, which pro- fesses to relieve God of the labour of Creation. This theory has the merit of appearing both original and amusing; but we detect the smell of old lamps about it. *' As the body of man," says a clever writer of the Darwinian School, " was once a congerie of €ells, in the dark salt waters of the primeval sea, J^-i^SW&iS! 84 THB ORIGIN OF MAN. THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 85 which has been developed, throughout long ages, to a form of symmetry and strength, so the mind was once a mere instinct of self-preser^'ation and self-continuation'* We were under the impression that instinct was an attribute, or operation of mind, and not mind itself. One would suppose that such extravagant state- ments would never be made, \^Hthout some attempt to prove their truth, or, at lee st, their probability ; but no such attempt is even made Those who adhere to the old-fashioned opinion, that man was created in a perfect state, are jeered as thus:— •'O gentle reader, blush not that youi- origin is humble, cHng not to the shabby-genteel belief, that you have * seen better days,' and are a degraded and degenerate creature, fallen from a nobler sphere, but rather rejoice that you have risen in the world." Then occurs the following coarse badinage :— '* Yet if you persist in the angel hypothesis, let me call your attention tp an interesting fact. Go and look at a skeleton, observ-e that *' little hone at the end of the spine," modestly tucked in between the legs, as if trying to hide itself away. Do you know what that means? The tnith can no longer be concealed— w?^ are all of us naked tinder our clothes^ and all of us tailed mider our skins. The body of man is a palmipsest, in which the art of the anatomist discovers historical inscrip- tions, which if they have any meaning, mugt mean that we were successively marine invertebrates, fishes, reptiles, quadrupeds, and apes. ITie wi'iter does not say whether the " little bone at the end of the spine" is the rudiment or remnant of a tail ; whether it is a tail to be, or a tail that has been ; a new tail, or an old worn-out tail. If the former, the monkey, who has this fifth limb complete, must be a more fidly developed animal than man. If the latter be the correct view, namely that the " little bone " is no more than the stump of an old tail, the effect of development must have been to deprive man of a most useful and important member. As the case now stands, v^ be THE ORIGIN OF MAN, (of course a few million years miglit make a difference) Jacko has the advantage of Homo, who appears, like the Irish soldier, to be "advancing back- wards." All this philosophical nonsense about tails, or little bones at the end of the spine, is borrowed from Mr. Darwin, who says, " the most ancient progenitors in th^ kingdom of the vertebrata, at which we are able to obtain an obscure glance, apparently, consisted of a group of marine animals, resembling the larva of existing ascidious." More correctly asktdious, from the Greek askos, a wine skin, or bottle. " These animals '' continues Mr. Darwin, " probably gave rise to a group of fishes, and these to the simiadaj, or monkeys ; and from them, at a remote period, man, the wonder and glory of the universe, proceeded. Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality." Vide " Descent of Man,'' vol i., pp. 212,213. Such theories are too absurd for serious argument. THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 87 r A humorous writer in "Blackwood's Magazine " (May 1871) refers, with clever irony, to man's love of drink, as proof positive that he must have descended from askidia, or bottle-shaped mollusca. " How many wondrous things there be, Of which we can't the reason see ; And this is one, I used to think, That most men like a drop of drink. But here comes Darwin with his plan, And shows the true descent of man. And that explains it all full well, For man was once a leather botteL There are mollusca, rather small, That naturalists askidia call, Who being just a bag-like skin, Subsist by water pouring in, And these you'll find, if you will seek, Derive their name from heathen Greek.'* The argument in favour of the askidean descent of man would be complete, if it were onli/ water which man pours in. We are not surprised at the derision and even detestation which the Darwin theory of evolution has produced in calm and pious minds, inasmuch as it I r ^ II » l I I P I II ^ 88 THE ORIGIN OF MAN. ignores the immortaUty of the soul, which is the desire of the whole human race. The gradual development of bodies we can imagine, but not the gradual development of a ^ soul ; and who that could trace his descent from a monkey would ever presume to think that he had a soul ? But the whole Darwinian theory is a mere lengthening of the chain of cause and effect, between the creature and Creator; for it equally demands, with the common view, the operation of an Intelli- gent Mind ; but an operation of a far more complex kind than the direct and immediate creation of man would seem to require. It represents the Creator as working in a roundabout and complicated way. He requires a man, so he makes a little bottle- shaped animal, called an askidian. Out of the askidian He makes a fish. Out of the fish a monkey ; and out of the monkey a man. It does not strike us that the Darwinian mode of creation is an improvement on that described in the Book of Genesis. We tarn from Darwin to Moses. THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 89 In the first and second chapters of Genesis we have the Mosaic account of the Creation of man, a compound being, consisting of body and soul ; the one corporeal and physical, the other mental or spiritual, and moral. It is an essential principle in Atheism that nothing existed in the original state of the Uni- verse but Matter, That being the case, how are we, in the absence of a Divine Mind, to account for the production of a being copposed of mind as well as matter? Matter cannot produce mind. It is not after its kind. Here is a difficulty, which we must ask the Atheists to reconcile with ^heir theory of the world and the Universe ; or Mr. Darwin with his theory of natural selection and development. But even he acknowledges that '*an attempt to ,explain the first development of the mental powers is as hopeless an inquiry as how life first originated." The Rev. Doctor Eigg, in his valuable and in- teresting paper on " Pantheism and Infidelity, '' 3^ays, r' Science, at any rate, on its own positive G ' 90 THE ORIGIN OF MAN. principles, has no right whatever to pretend that life has ever been developed out of what was not living. Here a great, and so far as science can help us to form a judgment, an altogether impassable barrier rises to view against any development hypo- thesis/' — *' Modern Scepticism,*' p. 53. Aristotle, in his work on the *' Generation of Animals,'' goes further than Dr. Kigg, and says, ** There is no resoui'ce, except to believe that the reason, or mind, has no affinity with the material elements, out of which the human embryo is formed ; but that it comes from without; and that it, alone, of all the component parts of man, is diviney That life comes from without, every mother of a living child can testify. Mr. Darwin and his disciples say that every- thing in existence has been undergoing change and development, for millions of years, which state of development is still, and ever will be, in opera- tion. Students of this modern school are prepared to assert that man is no more than a develop ^ ment of an ape ; and was nojt, therefore, originallv THE ORIGIN OF M^N. 91 created in the Image of God. If this were so, we might reasonably expect to find,. in the earth's strata— which abound wath innumerable specimens of animal fossils — some specimens of an undeveloped man, something between the man and the ape. But we find nothing of this kind. Wc find the pre-Adamite man now^here. We find human skeletons, as wc have remarked elsewhere, inter- mixed, in caves, with those of extinct animals, but not skeletons or fossils of an animal inter- mediate between the man and the brute. We are not prepared |ko gg to ]bhe extent of saying that there exists no such process of deve- lopment in nature; for development is occurring everyw-here around us; but it requires no very intimate acquaintance with the science of geology, which is based on the most careful induction, to perceive that Mr. Darwin's extravagant theory of development, which is nothing short of transmu- tation, or transubstantiation, has not a leg to stand on. ■'.'Geology," says Dr, Buckland, "points dearly 4 i 1 t^^i^i&s- 92 THE OKIGIX OF MAN. to a period in the Earth's history, when no kind of animal, or vegetable life— such as we are ac- quainted with-could possibly have existed. From the absence of organic remains in the primary strata, we may derive an important argument, showing that there was an epoch* in the history of our planet, antecedent to the beginning of either animal or vegetable life. This conclusion is the more important, as it has been the practice of some speculative philosophers to refer the origin of existing organizations, either to the eternal succes- sion of the same species, or to the formation of more recent from more ancient species, by sucr cessive developments, without the interposition of direct and repeated acts of creation; and thus thev denv the existence of any first term, in the infinite series of successions, which this hypothesis assTimes. *' Against this theorv," continues Dr. Buckland, * Era, not epoch. An epoch is the point from which we reckon a period, or era of time ; an era is the period of time reckoned. Some of our best lexicographers haye faile4 to uark tbU diitioctioo. THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 93 *' no decisive evidence has been accessible, until the modem discoveries of geology had established two conclusions of the highest value, in relation to the long-disputed question; the first proving that existing species have had a beginnings and this at a period comparatively recent in the physical history of oui* globe; the second showing that they were preceded by several other systems of animal and vegetable life, respecting each of which it may no less be proved, that there was a time when their existence had not commenced." Sir Charles Lyell acknowledged that '' species have Vi real existence in nature, and that each was endowed, at the time of its existence^ with the attri^ butes and the organization, by which it is now dis- tinguished." Dr. Buckland argues thus : *• There was a period when no organic beings had existence ; these organic beings must, therefore, have had a beginning, sub- sequently to this period. Where is the cause of that beginning to be found, but in the will and Jiat of an intelligent and all- wise Creator?" I ^m - " ' '•■ 'i?"f^ \ , /' --■ ' '• ." " ^.y- ' t; - -f-;'. " :: >" ■^^ :.x. 94 THE ORIGIN OF MAN. That distinguished philosopher and comparative anatomist, Cuvier, came to the same conclusion: • "Mais ce qui etonne davantage encore, et ce qui n'est pas moins certain, c*cst que la vie n'a pas toujours existe sui- le globe, et qu'il est facile a robscnateur de reconnoitre le point ou cllc a com- mence a deposcr ses produits.''— Cuvier Ossemens Fossiles Disc, Prelim, vol. i., p. 9. There seems in Mr. Darwin and Professor Huxley a strong propensity, or desii-e, to degrade man, to place him on *' all fours," to ally him to the brute: Mr. Darwin embellishes the commencement of his book on " The Descent of Man," with two engi-avings, the one being an engra^'ing, or woodcut, of the* embryo of a man, and the other that of a dog; See vol. i;, p. 15, ed. 1871. *^Man," he says, ^'is developed from an ovule, about the 125th part of* an inch in diameter; which diflfers in no respect from the ovide| of other animals. He then quotes Professor Huxley (Man's Place in Nature, p. 67, ed. 1863), >vho says, "It is quitie in the latter istages of de^-eloiment that the human being pte- m i\\ THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 95 sents the marked differences from the young ape ; while the latter departs, as much, from the dog, in its development, as man does." We are not aware, that, Avith the exception of the human bmin and hand, much stress is gene- rally laid on the superior bodily organization of man, to that of the lower animals. Some of our most eminent writei-s, Archdeacon Palcy, for ex- ample (in his Natural Theology), refers far more frequently to the organization of the lower animals, than to that of man, for proofs of design and wisdom in the Creator. And in doin^- so he acted wisely, for hundi-eds of examples could be adduced of the great superiority, in some par- ticulars, of the powers of the lower animals to those of man— in strength, in swiftness of motion, in vision, scent, ingenuity, and instinct; so that to furnish us with elaborate drawings, to prove what little difference there is between the embryo of a man and a dog, is lost labour. No one ever denied that a pigeon flies faster than a man can run, or that a beagle has a finer scent than his master. . ■■■^£2f — . . r 96 THE ORIGIN OF MAX. THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 97 Professor Huxley acknowledges that there are marked differences, in the latter stages of de- velopment ; that the fore brain, in man, is superior to that in the lower animals. It did not require that two clever men, like Professor Huxley and Mr. Darwin, should lay their heads together, to convince the world of man's mental superiority to brutes; Let us bear in mind that the likeness of man to any of the lower animals does not extend beyond the narrow basis of similarity in bodily organization, which leaves out of the comparison the higher and nobler attributes of the mind, that exalt the human being immeasurably abov(9 **the beasts that perish." ''You may debase man, by comparing him to an ape," says M. Quatre- pages, '*You may place his feet in the clay, but is head is lifted to heaven, by the fact of his being a worshipper of God." However widely man be distinguished from other 5inimals, in the peculiarity of his bodily structure — and he is so distinguished — yet we must agree t with Doctor Pritchard (in his Researches, vol. i., p. 175), that "the sentiments, feelings, sympathies, internal consciousness, with the habitudes of life and action, thence resulting, are the real and essential characteristics of humanity." There is no common attribute existing in the ape and man, in reference to which it may not be truly and confidently said, that the difference between the lowest negro and the highest ape, is many times gi-eater, than that between the same negro; and the highest European intellect. The natural gulf, or chasm; which exists between a Gorilla and a native of New South Wales or Van Diemen's Land, is far greater than that which exists between that native and a Bacon or a Sir Isaac Newton. This is a strong statement, but we do not make it without consideration and authority. "Man," says Mr. George Combe, "obviously stands pre-eminent among sublunary objects, and is distinguished by remarkable endowments, above all other terrestrial beings." " The superiority of man," says Sir Charles Lyell, i. ^sm p"'- .J ■ LJ »l ; » ■ I' w - ^ m i 98 THK OKIGIX OF MAN, " as compared with the irrational mammalia, is one of hind rather than of degree, consisting of a rational and moral nature, Thysically he may form part of an indefinite series of ten-estrial changes, past, present, and to come, but morally, and intellectually, he may belong to another system of things— of things im- material.'* * Even Mr. Darwin, who has carried his theoris- ing respecting evolution and development, to such absurd extremes, has to acknowledge the great mental and moral superiority of man, to that of any other animal. '' No doubt,'' he says, speak- ing of man's mental power, " the difiercnce in this respect is enormous, even if we compare the mind of one of the lowest savages (who has no words to express any number higher than four, and who uses no abstract terms for the commonest object or affections) with that of the most highly organised ape. The difference would, no doubt, still remain im- mense, even if one of the highest apes had been improved, or ci>'ilised, as much as the dog has been^ * Manual of Geology, p. xxii* TUJi ORIGIN OF MAN. 99 in comparison with its parent form, of wolf, or jackal. The Fuegians rank among the lowest barbarians, but t was continually struck with sur- prise, how closely the three natives on board H. M. S. Beagle (who lived some years in England, and could talk a little English), resembled us in dis- position, and in most of our mental faculties.'* Let us now turn back to Genesis, i., 29, where the object of man's creation is mentioned: "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth.'' In order to fill this high office of Lord and Ruler of the Earth, man requires a reasonable mind. Man was created in the image of Gud, that he might be the delegated Lord and Ruler of the world. As ancient Eastern Monarchs, on account of the extent of their dominions, aj^pointed governors, or satraps, to take charge of, and rule over, ^-ast out- lying pro^^nces, so the Mighty Sovereign of the Universe, of worlds on worlds, has given this pro- rincci >vhich we call the Earth» to be ruled ovei^ 100 THK ORIGIN OF MAX. THE ORIGIN OF MAX. 101 by man. **Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and has cro'WTied him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, thou hast put all things under his feet ; all sheep and oxen, yea, and thd beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoerer passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how Excellent is thv name in all the earth ! ** But man is not only Lord upon the earth, on Terra-firma, (which is, confessedly, his own province) bringing the fiercest and niost powerful animals^ the elephant, lion, and horse, under subjection, but he is Lord also of the mighty ocean. Man, like Neptune, rules the seas; and with his harpoon, as a trident, strikes through and through the mighty monsters of the deep, tinging its blue waters with their blood. The power of the whale, the elephant, or the horse does not extend beyond the machinery of their own frames, or bodily organization; but man can employ a machinery, outside himself > before which the might and resistance of these animals ^re as feeble as that of an infant. And there is a special kind of machinery invented, according to Jhe Poet, John Milton, in the Nether Regions, by means of which man rules over, not only the fish pf the sea, but the fowl of the air. There is no resisting that terrible two-barrelled breech-loader. Thereby a flash, a bang, a flutter, and the i)oor dead bird goes into the bag of the sportsman. Man is truly the Lord of every creature, and the Cyclops, or Polyphemus, of the feathered race. ** With respect to the animal kingdom,*' writes Dr. Buckjand, '* we acknowledge, with gratitude, that among the higher classes [/. e. the '* higher classes " of loiver animals] there is a certain number pf living species, which are indispensable to the supply of human food and raiment, and to the aid of civilized man, in his various labours and occu- pations; and that these are endowed with disposi- tions and faculties, which adapt them, in a peculiar degree, for domestication. '* He then goes on to jsay — lest man should assume too much, on the rx 102 THE ORIGIN OF .MAX. score of his lordship over every creature— *' It is much move consistent with sound philosophy, and "with all the information vouchsafed to us, respect- ing the attributes of the Deity, to consider each animal as having been created, first for its own sake, to receive its portion of that enjo}^ncnt whicli the Universal Parent is pleased to impart to each creature that has life." Tucker, in his " Light of Nature,'* brings down the high crest of the Lord of Creation in the following style : " Man has no further concern with this earth than a few fathoms under his feet. Was the whole globe made only for a foundation to support the slender shell he treads upon? Do the mao-netic effluvia com-se, incessantly, over land and sea, only to turn here and there, a mariner's ( ompass ? Are those immense bodies, the fixed stars, hung up for nothing but to twinkle in his eyes by night, or to find employment fpr a few astronomers ? Surely he must have an overweening conceit of man's importance, who can imagine this stupendous frame of the Universe made for him alone." THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 103 The highest and most distinguished attributes in man-acknowledged by philosophers and theorists of every school— are those moral attributes, that raise his head towards heaven, and constitute him a religious being, and those high mental attributes, that constitute him a member of civil society, regulated by law. We find nothing approaching these high mental and moral attributes, in the lower animals. A Roman poet in his account of the Creation, is at once impressed with the supe- riority of man, whose face is raised to heaven, over the animal whose head is - prone," or turned down- wards. " I fully subscribe," says Mr. Darwin, '^ to the judgment /jf tliose writers who maintain, that of all the differences between man and the lower animals, the moral sense, or conscience, is by far the most iniportont." " This sease," as Mackintosh remarks, " has a rightful] supremacy over every other principle of human action. It is the most noble of all the attributes of man." /.- »-^ ^ ♦ ' . J 4 . N THE LIKEXESS OF GOD IN MAN, 105 \ >. .. CHAPTER V. / THE LIKENESS OF GOD TN MAN. TiiEOLpGiANs are not agreed respecting the pro- perty, or perfection, in which the original likeness of man to God consisted. To some it is as rays- terious as the image that fell down from Jupiter. Acts xix.j 35. One writer (Bull, '* Qn the State of Man before the Fall'*) says, *'The Image of God is a comprehensive thing, and there are many lines requisite to complete the Divine Similitude, after which the first man was created. To this belongs man's intellectual power ; his liberty of will ; his dominion over the other creatures, flowing from the two former. These make up that part of the Divine Image, which is natural and essential to man ; and, consequently, can never be blotted out, defaced, or extinguished ; but remains even in man, fallen. But, bpsides these, the Church of God hath ever acknowledged, in the first man, certain additional onianicnts, as it were complements of the Divine Image ; such as immortality, grace, holiness, right- eousness, whereby man approached more nearly to the similitude and likeness of God. These were defaced and blotted out, by man's transgression. Now, that these supernatural ornaments and per- fections, Avere a part, and a chief part, of the Image of God, after which the first man is said to have been created, is not an idle dream, or fancy of Christian writers, but was a notion, received, and acknowledged in the Jewish Church, many years before our Saviour's appearance in the flesh." " Angels and men," says Hooker, " before theii- fall, had the grace, whereby they might have continued, if they would, without sin: yet so great grace, God did not think good to bestow on them, whereby they might be exempted from possibility of sinning."— Eccl. Pol., ii., 567. Keble's Editior.. Jeremy Taylor does not agree with Hooker, for he says, « It is the teaching of the Church, that, H mmr^. ■•i.7\ f^'' ^ :4US?iii?SSit 106 THE TIKENESS OF COD IN MAN. THE LIKENESS OF GOD IN MAN, 107 in addition to that aggregate of natural endow- ments, which we possess in common with Adam, and which constitute the integrity of human nature, our first parents possessed a gift of supernatural grace, sufficiently powerful to sway the will in the right direction, but not strong enough to interfere with its essential freedom.** Bishop llcber, in his Life of Jeremy Taylor, observes, respecting this dictum, or dogma, ^*' It can hardly stajid the test of Scripture. ^^ The gift of "supernatural grace,** which was "sufficiently powerful to sway the will,** seems to have given way at the first touch of temptation, without a struggle, or any apparent effort in the shape of resistance. We may, possibly, go too far, in endowing man with supernatural gifts and graces. Man thus endowed, is no more man, or, rather, is more than man. Man, by his indci)cndence of will, conscience, or moral excellence, may be truly said to be formed in the Divine Image, without having anything gupematural about him : ** Lo, this only have I i found, that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.** v It should be the great end and object of man* to recover as much as in him lies, of this original likeness. To enable us to do so, wc have been pro- vided with a second and more perfect original, in the person of Jesus Christ. The originals of some of our most famous paintings are sadly degenerated, lliis is the case with the painting of Tlie Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. It has faded away on the wall on which it was painted. If Leonardo Da Vinci were allowed to return to earth, to renew his work, how much the pleasure of those who go to see it would be enhanced. But God*s image impressed on 'man, has been renewed in all its original beauty and perfection, in Jesus Christ, who is " the brightness of His glory and the express image (or the engraved image) of Ilia person,'* or substance. But alas, how many say, ** There is no beautv, that we should desire Ilim." We do not say that the original likeness of God, impressed on the soul of Adam, is quite effaced. ■''^"^ •/**'•, "' .L-^ - . V,- mwnffspT^ • ;w ■ ■ ■' ■ I i .".., *i . ■r I ' 108 THE LIKENESS OF GOD TN MAN. We can, and always shall, discover something of it; but it is of immense advantage, towards the renewing of the image, that we can refer to the uneffaced original. The ever to be esteemed and loved Florence Nightingale, has lately published a work, entitled " A Note of Interrogation,'' in which she asks, " Whether the most important, and most neglected point, in Theology, is not the Character of God?" There can be no doubt, that if our conceptions of God's character were more defined, correct, and exalted, than they are, we should exhibit a higher standard of goodness. The conduct of nations and individuals is affected by their theology, or their con- ceptions of the gods they worship. A modern writer says, "Apollo had more influence on the Greeks than any other god ; the Greeks never would have become what they were, without the worship of Apollo." But how far short does this higher heathen model of a divinity fall of the character of Jesus Christ ! THE LIKENESS OF GOD IN MAN. 109 All the nations of the earth. Christian as well as Heathen, form god$ in their own likeness. And when man becomes the model, we can scarcely expect perfection in the copy ; although the copy he intended to represent God Himself. There is only one true model of perfection, purity, love, and goodness, and that is found in our Blessed Saviour, " who has left us an exam2)le, that we should follow his steps." ■'£;^^^^i^^ CHAPTER VL THE CREATION OF WOMAN. In the second chapter of Genesis we have an account of the creation of Woman, which is too graphic, significant, and beautiful to be omitted in a work like this : — " And the Lord God said, ' It is not good that man should be alone. I will make a help meet for him/ And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her imto the man. And Adam said, * This now is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto liis wife, and they shall be one flesh.' " THE CREATION OF WOMAN. Ill Some arc disposed to look on this beautiful descrip- tion of the creation of woman as allegorical. It no doubt has an allegorical signification, and was intended to express the close and loving union that should exist between Man and Wife. An allegory may be expressed, or wrought out, in action, as well as in story, and allegories of this kind are far more powerful than those expressed in words. It was with allegories of this kind, appealing to the senses, that the prophet Ezckiel warned the Jews of the coming judgments of God. As for example, in the fourth chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet is told to "tiike a tile and pourtray upon it the city of Jerusalem:" to besiege it, to build a fort, and cast up a mound against it. Again he is told to lie, first on his left, and then on his right side, to bear the iniquity of Israel and Judah. The following example is very remarkable : " And thou son of man, take thee a sharp knife, or a barber* s razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head, and upon thy beard; then take the balances to i^iy?;:^^ -i^^'^'.'- -'its 112 THE CREATION OF WOMAN. weigh and divide the hair. Thou shall bum a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled ; a third part thou shalt smite about with a knife ; and a third part thou shalt scatter to the wind." For knife or razor we may read sword — the sword of Nebuchadnezzar— and for hair, the beauty and adornment of Jerusalem, of which she was bereft, by the victorious King of Babylon. All Eastern writings abound in allegory ; we are not, therefore, surprised to find this mode of instruction employed, by God, at the creation of Eve; for if there be any truth that requires to be impressed upon man more than another, it is, that he and his wife arc one flesh : '* For this cause," &c., Eph., v., 31—33." According to heathen mythology, Athene, or Minerv^a, sprung in complete armour, from the brain of Jupiter. We doubt, if the decision were left with woman, that she woidd prefer the brain to the side or heart of man, as her birthplace. We do not know what the advocates of " Woman's Rights " :*?ii»SiiSv THE CREATION OF WOMAN. 113 might say on such a subject ; but we prefer Eve, in all her natural loveliness to Minerva in all her warlike panoply. The infidels of the last century denied that such an operation as the removal of a rib could be pcrfoimed, without pain, or diuing sleep ; but modern science has established the fact, that it can be done ; and modern experience has esta- blished the fact, that a man may live with broken ribs, or with one rib less than the usual number. As but one woman was created for one man, we should conclude, a priori^ that it was the will of the Creator, that man should have but one helpmate; but the teaching of this lesson is abimdantly established by the fact, that Natiu'c, or the God of Nature, has provided the male portion of the human family with but one heli)mate, each, so that for a man to have more than one wife is to violate Nature's law, and to take what fairly belongs to another. Polygamy is an injustice to the community at large. The fact that polygamy was indulged in, b}- some 114 THE CREATION OF WOMAN. of the most distinguished of the patriarchs and kings of Israel, is no evidence that it had the approval of God. Slaveiy, as well as polygamy, was an institution in those days, which vas allowed, as divorce was allowed, on account, as the Saviour says, of " the hardness of our hearts:'' but, He adds, " from the beginning it was not so." The general prevalence of an institution does not justify it. Infanticide prevails to some extent in China. War is a recognised institution in every kingdom or country of the earth. The prevalence of an institu- tion like polygamy in one country', or at one period, does not justify its practice in all coimtries, and during all future time. There is such a thing as sinning against knowledge and advanced civilisa- tion. If the interesting story of the creation of Eve and her union with Adam, told in the latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, be no more than a beautiful allegory, we cannot deny that its moral is most wholesome, and its teaching entirely in accordance with our highest ideas of human happi- THE CREATION OF WOMAN. 115 ness and social advancement. Here Philosophy, Science, and Revelation go hand in hand. ** But docs it not all sound very poetical ?" inquires one of my readers, who has been smitten by Mr. Darwin's doctrine of natmal selection and develop- ment. Very poetical and beautiful indeed; but not the less true on this account. Perhaps you would have preferred that your ancestors had been developed from meduscc, or sea nettles, which assumed, in the coui'se of eight hundred and fifty thousand years, the appearance of a pair of shell fish, furnished with antennae, busily engaged in the process of *' natural selection," commonly styled courtship ? Well, you have before you the Mosaic and Dar- winian account of the creation of man and his M'if'e, and the way in which they were brought together, so you can take your choice. To "Natm-al Selection," or the com-tship of the lower animals, or even of man, we have nothing to say, one way or the other. It seems very natural and amusing; but we feel disposed, after 116 THE CREATION OF WOMAN. reading Darwin's account of it, to ask, as the Scotchman asked, after reading Milton's Paradise Lost, "What does it prove?" But to Dr. Darwin's use of the term *' natural selection," we have a very serious objection. Selection means to choose some things in preference to others, to "pick out." Here we have, un- doubtedly, a mental operation. But Mr. Darwin attributes to matter, as well as to mind, this act of choosing. He takes for granted the enormous fallacy that matter is capable of mental opera- tions. I I! CHAPTER VII. ANTIQUITY OF MAN. All those who take an interest in geology, must have read the clever volume entitled " The Geo- logical Evidences of the Antiquity of Man," by Sir Charles Lyell. As any work, on such a sub- ject, fi'om the pen of so accomplished a writer and distinguished a geologist, is worthy of the most respectful consideration, we have read the volume over and over again; and have taken the utmost pains to test its statements and reasonings, before venturing to affirm that its minor premise is unsound and untenable ; that with it must stand or fall, the high superstructure of Man's Antiquity, built upon it. THE STONE OR FLINT PERIOD. The unsoundness of the minor premise consists in the statement that the broken, undressed, and un- -*"« ■ ' * X' lib ANTIQUITY OF MAN. ground flints, which are found at various depths, and not unfrequently in large quantities, in the super- ficial deposits of the earth, have been manipulated by the hand of man. There is no attempt, whatever, to prove this state- ment. It is coolly taken for granted, by the use of ambiguous terms, one of the most fruitful sources of error. For example, in the second chapter of " The Antiquity of Man," the unwrought flints aro called " works of art," " implements," " tools," and " remains of man ; " by which we generally mean, human remains. A careless reader would never ima- gine. Sir Charles meant to describe unwrought and ungromid flints. It is to be regretted that a natural philosopher, of Sir Charles LyelFs eminence, should have been so careless in the use of common terms. We have examined a large number of these ''works of art," or "implements," or "tools," or "remains of man," and the more closely we have examined them, the more have we been surprised, that any one should mistake them for instruments ANTIQT'lTY OF MAN. 119 or tools, shaped by the human hand, of which they bear no trace or mark. It is not till we come to the 7th chapter and the IHth page of Sir Charles's interesting work, that we are furnished with drawings of what he styles " a spear head, from St. Acheid, near Amiens," and " an oval-shaped flint hatchet, from Mautort, near Abbeville ;" and with what he calls ajlijit tool ! We never should have discovered what the two first- mentioned di-awings were intended to represent, if the writer had not been kuid enough to inform us. As it regards the tool— which has somewhat the ap- pearance of a broken tooth, with a long root— we are still in a state of ignorance. But let us hear Sir Cliarles Lyell. " As much doubt has been cast on the question, whether the so-called 'flint hatchets' have really been shaped by the hands of man, it will be de- sirable to begin by satisfying the reader\s mind on this point." Now this, he, most certainly, fails to do. Indeed, he never so much as attempts it. He goes to the 120 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. Valley of the Somme, and makes excursions to Abbe- ville, accompanied by M. Boucher de Perthes, and to the Amiens district, accompanied by Mr. Prestwich ; he enters the pits at St. Acheul ; obtains seventy flint instruments, two or three of which he minutely describes, giving us (bawings, and then imagines he has proved his point. AMiat could this eminent writer have been thinking of? Sir Charles does not venture to deny that any one, or all of these broken flints, might have been shaped by natural agencies, for flints are very brittle, and are often broken in the beds of rivers, by falling on rocks, or by glacial action, or in other ways. But he quotes the authority of Mr. Evans, who observes, " there is a uniformitv in shape, and a sharpness about the cutting edges and points [of these flints], which cannot be due to anything but design." We here venture to ask, if there may not be uniformity in shape, and correctness of outline, with- out d^tiign^ and design without uiiifnnn'ty, or cor* ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 121 rectness ? There is much uniformity of shape in the basaltic pillars of the Giant's Causeway. There is great uniformity of shape in crystals, but there is no design in the process of crystallization. And as it regards ** sharpness of edge,'' we find the same sharpness in broken glass, though not broken by design. We are not sure that we understand M'hat Mr. Evans means by ** correctness of out- line," but the works of nature are generally cor- rect : which we cannot say of the works of man's hand. We ventiu'e to assert that we should be able, in two or three hours, to pick up on a pub- lic road, new-metalled with flint, as good specimens of a spear head and hatchet, as those of which we have plates, in pages 114 and 115 of the book on the Antiquity of Man. Sir Charles continues — '* It having been asked how, without the use of metallic hammers, so many of those oval-shaped spear-headed tools could have been wrought into so uniform a shape, Mr. Evans, in order, experimentally, to illustrate the process, constructed a stone hammer, by mounting a peb- 122 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. ble in a wooden handle, and witli this tool, struck off flakes from the edge, on both sides of a chalk flint, till it acquired, precisely, the same shape as the oval tool.'* Fig. 9, p. 115. Now, here, by the striking of two stones together, by the hand of man, we have a formation, which might have been produced, by the flint falling on a stone (washed down the narrow channel of a river), or by some other natural agency. We must candidly confess, that we are somewhat surprised, to find a gentleman of a philosophic order of mind, like Sir Charles Lyell, building up a system of such immense antiquity,* on so sandy or brittle a foundation. But we have known men, of very profound thought, giving way, in matters of fact^ and matters of daily observation, to minds much inferior to their own. Anything for a peace- ful life, is one of Sir Charles Lyell's mottoes. The Philosopher is, of a truth, in the hands of the * Immense antiquity. Sir Charles Lyell goes in for about 100,000 yearn, as the probable period of mau*g existeuee on the earth. — » m II I ANTIQUITY OP MAN. 12J5 '* Thick and thin'' Antiquarians, like Mr. Evans, who asserts that the flints of Amiens and Abbeville, are, to him, as clearly works of art, as any Sheffield whittle :* and of the " Long Chronology men,'* like M. Boucher de Perthes, who argues from those broken flints, that the origin of man cannot be dated back for a period of time much under 850,000 rears. A very large number of the rude flints, upon which the theory of the Antiquity of Man is built up, were found in the alluvium of the Somme ; it therefore could not fail to strike the true Antiquarian, as very strange, that not a single human hone was to he met with in that alluvium; and Sir Charles Lvell acknowledges, that this dearth of the mortal remains of our species, holds true equally of all other parts of Europe, where the tool-bearing drift of the post- ♦ Sheffield Whittle. But we are told, on tlie other hand, that some of the tools, or Antiquites Celtiques, collected by M. Boucher de Berthes, were so rudely shaped that many imagiaed them to have owed their peculiar form to accidental fractures in a river's bed. ** Antiquity of Man/' p. 95. im. ■' *c •. ■ •'\'>.tv^V m ■ ■.:o^'' k tk^' ;- H' ' ''6 ?Jv ,■> ■C -, , ^^n, -XT .^ — ♦ .i* • -^ -■" 124 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. pliocene period has been investigated; although, in the same formations, there is no want of bones of mammalia. ** The only evidence that has yet been collected," writes Dr. Buckland, "is negative; but as far as this extends, no conclusion is more fully established, than the important fact of the total absence of any vestige of the human species, throughout the entire series of geological fonnations. Had the case been otherwise, there would, indeed, have been great difficulty in reconciling the early and extended periods, which have been assigned to the extinct races of animals, with our received chronology. On the other hand, the fact that no human remain have been, as yet, found, in conjunction with those of extinct animals, may be alleged, in confirmation of the hypothesis, that these animals lived and died before the creation of man.'* Subscribing heartily to the above statement, how great was our surprise to hear the learned and cautious Sir Charles stating — for the comfort, no doubt, of his friends the Antiquarians— that, ere ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 125 long, some human remains, would be detected, in the older alluvium of European valleys ; that, in fact, he " confidently expected it.** In another place, speaking of man, he says, " We may anticipate finding his remains, on some future day, in the pliocene period. We beg leave to remind Sir Charles of a remark which he quoted, when speaking of the alluvium of the Nile, that " the Arabs can always find whatever their employers desire to have.** Thus it always is in the Anti- quarian department. Take the entire absence of human remains in the older alluvium, where the rude and unwrought flints have been found, together with the fact that human bones are frequently found, mixed up, or lying side by side, with v&ritalle stone implements, in com- paratively recent formations ; and we can scarcely fail to conclude, that the rude and unwrought flints were deposited before the human period. This is not only the logical, but the natural conclusion, resulting from oui* discoveries up to the present period. fs^^ ^i^^i-:M^|i^ 126 ANTIQUITY OF MAX. ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 127 A very valuable paper was read, last year, at the Victoria Institute, by Mr. N. Whitley, C.E., and Hon. Secretary of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, which goes very far to annihilate the belief, that these broken and unpolished flints were shaped by the hand of man. " If we compare," says the writer, " these roughly broken flints, with the beautifully formed, barbed, and delicately chipped flint arrow-heads of the Neolithic age, we are at once struck with the lack of evidence which they present. The larger portions are simply 'crushed and shattered pieces of flint. A dili- gent search would result in the finding of some rough untrimmed flakes ; and from the pick of the mass some thin, well-formed flakes of the arrow-headed type would be obtained ; and it is on these alone, to the exclusion of the imperfect speci- men«j, that the assumed evidence of their human manufacture rests. It has been said, that the flint flakes and refuse chips of Croyde indicate the site of an ancient manufactory of flint arrow-heads and flake knives. I can discover no evidence in sup- port of such an opinion, but, on the contrary, the evidence that the fractured flints are formed by natural causes appears abundant and conclusive. '* 1. There is a gradation in form, from the very roughly-fractured flint, so rude that it cannot be ascribed to human workmanship, up to the most perfectly formed flake of the arrow-headed type. " 2. There is a gradation in size, from a flake so minute that it could not possibly be used as a weapon, up to the full-sized arrow and javelin heads. "3. The good and the bad are all mingled to- gether in one chaotic mass. This pell-mell mixture of all kinds of flakes and broken flints is perfectly consistent with their being formed by natural causes, but utterly incompatible with their manufac- ture by man. The most degraded savage would not cast away his perfectly-formed implements with the refuse chips. " 4. The flakes are the result of the natural fracture of the flint nodule. I gathered from a heap of flint undesignedly broken for the repair of the roads at Menchecourt, most perfect flint-flake knives, and 128 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. long, thin, delicately formed ' arrow-heads * of the most convincing forms. I have shattered flint nodules, branching in all directions, and all the fractures are longitudinal, and all the points run into the arrow-headed form. I have examined and studied the angular flint gravel of the south of England, the crushed and shattered flints of the Isle of Wight, of the North and South Downs, of the Norfolk drift, and the gravel pits and surfiice flints of Belgium and France ; and I find that everywhere the split and shattered flints have a tendencv to run to the arrow-headed form, with sharp cutting edges at the sides." We saw a gun-flint, wrought by the hand of man, at the Victoria Institute, lying side by side with hundreds of these broken flints, and the contrast was very striking. The eye caught the manufac- factured article, at a glance. Mr. Whitley visited a gun-flint manufactory, in Brandon : and was struck in the same way, w^ith the great contrast between the manufactured and natural articles. Mr. Whitley thinks these unground flints may ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 129 have been broken during the glacial era, which has left its marks in some of our hardest rocks. *' The planing, rasping, and crushing power of im- mense fields of ice, advancing from the high lands to the sea, would produce all the forms of flakes and cores which we find." The same writer goes on to say, " Nor is this mere assumption, it has been tested by experiment. My contractor, for the formation of new roads at Eastbourne, prepares the metalling, by crushing large nodules of flint, with Blake's patent stone- breaker, in which a massive cast-iron jaw is worked by a steam engine. The machine breaks the flints as fast as two men can feed it ; and from the crushed nodules, I have picked out well-formed flakes of all sizes, showing the ' bulb of percus- sion ' ; and ' wave markings,' on the fractured Surface, having a conchoidal face, on one side, and an angular one on the other, and terminating in a bayonet point ; and also ' scrapers ' and ' cores.' And these, which cannot be distin- guished in form from the so-called implements of ■ ~-:si - -^s'J'"^^=5-"5::SE • .•firm ■HP! 130 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 131 the same type, of the ' Palaeolithic age/ bear the same proportion to the whole of the mass, as the flakes and cores bear to the rough flints, in the various coast-finds. " The CA^idence which I have brought forward appears to justify the conclusion, that the rough, unused, and generally minute flakes, are of natural origin; and I place, with confidence, these geo- logical facts, against the fashionable theories of the day.' >» The Danish and Swedish Antiquarians have esta- blished a chronological succession of time, which they respectively style the ages of stone, brass, and iron. But some of these Antiquarians, such as M. Boucher de Perthes, have divided the stone age into two periods. The eminent Danish archaj- ologist, Worsaac, is of opinion that the three periods of stone, bronze, and iron, may have run into each other ; that implements of stone continued to be the tools of the poorer folk, in some districts, whilst the more advanced tribes, in other districts, used the bronze and iron. He thinks the bronze 11 prevailed about Rye or six hundred years before the Birth of Christ. M. Morlot assumes for the iron era, a duration of from sixteen to eighteen centuries ; but he does not mention when it began. For the bronze era a duration of three or four thousand years; which statement strikes us as rather difficult to establish. And for the stone era, a period of from five to seven thousand years. This, of course, is a rough guess ; but the figures are reasonable when compared with those of M. Boucher de Perthes, who gives 850,000 years as the probable length of the human period. He might as well have added the 150,000, and made it a clean million. THE CAVE DWELLERS. We now turn from human implements, or flints, to the fossil remains of man. We find in a glass case in the British Museum, a human skeleton, petrified. The whole skeleton is now turned to stone. It was brought to this country, from Guada. loupe, by Admiral Alexander Cochrane. I wrote to 132 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. Professor Owen, one of the first comparative anato- mists in the world, asking hira what he considered the probable age of this human fossil; and also the probable age of other human remains and breccia, found in a cave, in Brumiquel, in France, exhibited in another glass case, in the same room. Professor Owen was kind enough to reply *' The Guadaloupe skeleton is a petrifaction, which might be effected in a few centuries. The human remains from Brumiquel, are of the Cave-dwellers, who derived 80 per cent, of their animal food from rein-deer, toward the Glacial Period. Ly ell's work on the " Antiquity of Man," will give you the best summary of the evidences on that subject." Sir Charles Lyell commences his book on the •* Antiquity of Man," with something like a doubt whether, or not, we have sufficient evidence in caves, or In the superficial deposits, commonly called drift, or diluvium, to prove the former existence of man, with certain extinct mammalia. "The occa- sional occurrence," he goes on to say, " in various parts of Europe, of the bones of man, or the works ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 133 of his hands, in cave breccia, and stalactites, asso- ciated with the remains of extinct hyaena, bear, elephant, or rhinoceros, has given rise to the sus- picion, that the date of man must be carried further back than we had heretofore imagined." *' On the other hand," writes Sir Charles, *' ex- treme reluctance was naturally felt, on the part of scientific reasoners, to admit the validity of such evidence, seeing that so many caves have been inhabited, 3y a succession of tenants, and have been selected by man, not only as a place of domicile, but of sepulchre also; while some caves have also served as the channels, through which the waters of occasional land floods, or engulfed rivers, have flowed ; so that the remains of living beings, which have peopled them, for more than one era, may have subsequently been mingled in one and the same deposit." To such wise and cogent reasoning Ve altogether subscribe; and therefore regret to find Sir Charles changing his views as the result of some discoveries in the Brixham cave, near Torquay, in Devonshire, ■piP''B>"HIMHr-'W*i "^MivHwgp— lo^MM lU ANTIQUITY OF MAN. ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 135 where a number of these broken flints again cropped up, like dragons' teeth, in the path of Sir Charles ; who, we have no doubt, would take a straight and logical course, if his friends the Antiquarians* would only permit him to do so. But, unfortunately, the Rev. Mr. M*Enery, a Roman Catholic priest, residing near Torquay, found in a cave, called Kent's Mole, one mile east of the town, in red loam, covered with stalagmite, not only the bones of the mammoth, but also of a rhinoceros, of a cave bear, and several remarkable flint tools, some of which Mr. M'Encry supposed to be of great antiquity; while there were, also, " remains of man " of a later date — that is, unground flints ; not human " remains," or fossils, as we usually understand the words. About ten years after the discovery made by Mr. M*Enery, in Kent's Hole, a Mr. Godwin Austen visited the cave, and obtained "works of man" — * It is scarcely necessary to say that we intend no reflection on the Antiquarians as a body, or on the inter_ esting and historical subjects on which their researches have thrown so much light. that is, broken flints, of all shapes and sizes, in undis- turbed loam, under the stalagmite floor, mingled with "the remains of extinct animals.*' By the "remains of extinct animals," we, of course, understand fossil remains. Is there not, therefore, a danger of understanding /o55e7 remains, by "remains of man ?" Why describe things that are so diverse by one and the same term ? Is this honest? But, after a time, Kent's Hole was done up, or worked out ; but, fortunately for the Antiquaries, a new cave was discovered, at Brixham, three or four miles from Torquay ; which it was resolved to work more systematically. A committee was, therefore, formed, to which the Royal Society made two grants. Excavations were made by Mr. Pengelly—Mr. Prest- wich and Dr. Falconer superintending, to see that all was fair and above-board. Among the fossil remains was found a perfect antler of the reindeer ; so the place where it was found was styled " The Reindeer Gallery." But the find was not commensurate with the labour, or the public interest excited. There was a loud cry, but . 136 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. ANTIQUITY OF MAX. 137 little wool : '* and no human holies were obtained any- where during these excavations^ Nothing which the Antiquarians could associate with man, but the old broken flints. Sir Charles Lyell tells us, that he expressed his opinion in favour of the antiquity of flints of this kind, at a meeting of the British Association, held in Aberdeen, in 1859. It was very kind of Sir Charles to do so ; but instruments, produced by the hand of man, do not often require such testimony of their genuineness. You do not require to write " Horse " beneath a picture of that animal. With great respect for Sir Charles, we do not think that his opinion (as to whether the forms of those flints were the result of natural causes, or the hand of man) is worth much more than that of any other intelligent person. We quote the following example of the way in which scientific men, like Sir Charles, may be deceived respecting the age of human remains ; and also as an instance of the candour with which Sir Charles confesses his error: — *' I will next say a few words respecting human bones, embedded in a solid rock, in Santos, in Brazil, to which I called attention, ?n my * Travels in America in 1842,' (Vol. i., p. 200). I then imagined the deposit containing them to be of submarine origin ; an opinion which I have long ceased to entertain." The facts may be briefly stated thus : The river Santos had undermined a large mound, covered with trees, near the town of St. Paul, and exposed to view a number of skeletons. We conclude the place was, at one time, a graveyard, where trees are often planted. A fragment of this calcareous stone, or tufta, containing a human skull, with teeth, was brought to the museum of Philadelphia. To this strange mass, or formation, were attached oyster shells, which caused Sir Charles to conclude that the whole deposit had been formed beneath the water of the sea ; but a more careful examination of the evidence — including the character of the sbells, and the nature of the locality — produced the conviction, that the shells had been brought from the sea, and cast down near the fossil remains : 138 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. and that, subsequently, the artificial earthwork, with its shells and skulb, may have been bound to- gether, in a solid stone, by the infiltration of carbonate of lime. Professor Owen, in his polite note, which I have already quoted, says, '*The human remains from Brumiquel, are of the cave dwellers, who derived 80 per cent of their animal food from the rein- deer, toward the close of the glacial period;" but as he does not inform us when the reindeer ceased to give this per centagc of food to man, or when the Glacial period terminated, we cannot, with any degree of confidence, say at what time these cave dwellers may have existed. Perhaps it was impos- sible for Professor Owen to giyc such infomation, as it is more than probable that the mammoth, reindeer, and other mammalia, did not die out to^ gether, or in the same century; and that the glacial i)eriod may have prevailed, in some parts of the world, to a much later era, than in others. Sir Charles Lyell, speaking of the Upsala Erratics, or blocks of stone, carried to a distance by glacial ANTIQUITY OF MAX. 139 force, says, "they may belong to nearly the same era as the Refuse Heaps, or Danish mounds. Sir Charles treats fully, in the second chapter of his book, of these mounds, to which he does not give a very early origin. But these Kjokkenmodding, or Kitchen-refuse heaps, have all been well raked up, by the modern antiquarians, in order to establish the fact of man's great antiquity. Refuse heaps of a similar kind have been found on the sea shore in Massachusetts, and Georgia, where North American Indians have pitched their wigwams and formed their villages. It only remains that we should notice, in this chapter, the human remains, found in peat, such as human skulls and bronze implements. Lyell says, *' What may be the antiquity of the earliest human remains, preserved in the Danish peat, cannot be estimated in centuries, with any approach to accuracy. In the first place, in going back to the bronze age, we already find ourselves beyond the reach of his- tory, or even of tradition. In the time of the Romans the Danish Isles were covered, as now, with magnifi- 140 ANTIQUITY OF MAN. cent beech forests. Nowhere in the world does this tree flourish more luxuriantly than in Denmark, and eighteen centuries seem to have done little or nothing towards modifying the character of the forest vegeta- tion. Yet, in the antecedent bronze period, there were no beech trees, or, at most, but a few stragglers —the country being then covered with oak. In the age of stone, again, the Scotch fir prevailed, and already there were human inhabitants in these old pine forests. How many generations of each species of tree flourished in succession, before the pine was supplanted by the oak, and the oak by the beech, can be but vaguely conjectured, but the minimum of time required for the formation of so much peat, must, according to the estimate of Steenstrup, and other good authorities, have amounted to at least 4,000 years.'* — Antiquity of Man, Be it so ; we are prepared to allow those 4,000 years, and to have two or three thousand years to spare. Sir Charles Lyell says, that "in going back to the bronze age, we find ourselves beyond the reach II ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 141 of history, or even tradition." If so, what data had M. Boucher de Perthes for stating that the antiquity of man could not be estimated at much less than 850,000 years ? It could not possibly be more than a guess. And on the strength of this extrava- gant assertion, Mr. Darwin says, " the great antiquity of man has been recently demonstrated by M. Boucher de Perthes." Mr. Darwin then adds, " This antiquity is the indispensable basis for understanding man's origin, therefore we take this conclusion as gr anted J*^ One would have supposed, that Mr. Darwin's pro- ceeding would have been of the very opposite character, that as the antiquity of man is the indispensable basis for understanding his origin, he would have set alout j^roving it, instead of taking it for granted. Mr. Darwin tells us that Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, and others, have prepared the ground for him; and that as it is a settled point, that the antiquity of man is of immense date, that he must therefore set about proving how man has been de- veloped from the ape. 142 ANTIQUITY OF MAX. All we shall say is, that it would be labour and time lost, to reason with a gentleman in this state of mind, who has built up such a strange hypothe- sis, on the iipse dixit of M. Boucher de Perthes. ii i f CHAPTER VIII. VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. There is an African tradition which says, that God, in the beginning, created a White and a Black Man; that to the White man He gave a Booh^ the contents, or teaching of which, has made him the superior of the Black man. This is only a tradition, but il contains an in- teresting truth. The early Romans attributed much of their superiority to the nations around them, to the teaching of the Sibylline Books, on which their laws were professedly based. To the children of Shem God gave His law. He made His covenant with Abraham. The mental and moral culture of the intellect, based upon a knowledge of the true God, is sufficient to account for the superiority of some portions of the human race over others. True religion is the real ^UaW of human nature. 144 VARIETIES OF KICE AMOXG MANKIND. Sir Charles Lyell does not believe, that, in the beginning, there were distinct varieties of race among mankind. He does not believe, that, in the beginning, there was more than one type of man created. But in handling this subject, he manages to place himself between the horns of a dilemma, and Is, by his course of argument, compelled to choose between the original creation of distinct races, and great antiquity of origin. He has gone in for the latter. But let us hear 8ir Charles Lyell himself; *' When speaking in a former work* of the distinct races of mankind, I remarked, that if all the lead- ing varieties of the human family sprang, originally, from a single pair (a doctrine to which, then, as now, I could see no valid objection), a much greater lapse of time was required for the slow and gradual formation of such races as the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Negro, than was embraced in the popular systems of chronology* " In relation to the same subject, I dwelt on the slight modification which the Negro has undergone, ♦ " Principles of Geology," 7th Ed., p. 637. VARIETIES OF HACE AM05G MANKIXD. 145 after having been transported from the tropics, and settled, for more than two centuries, in the temperate climate of Virginia. I therefore con- cluded, that if the various races were all descended from a single pair, we must allow for a vast series of antecedent ages^ in the course of which, the long- continued influence of external circumstances gave rise to peculiarities, increased, in many successive generations, and, at length, fixed, by hereditary transmission." The reasoning here seems plain and simple, but it contains a most glaring petitio principiL It takes for granted that the human species was created at its lowest state ; and that the movement, since the creation, has been one of progression, or improve- ment, and not one of retrogression. Sir Charles Lyell speaks of the time required, for the slow and gradual formation, or development, of such races as the Caucasian and Mangolian ; of the slight modification and improvement which the Negro has undergone, in the temperate climate of Virginia. Now all this conveys the idea, that 14G VARIETIES OF EACK AMONG MANKIND. the Creator, in the beginning, produced the lowest and not the highest type of man. Mr. Darwin is guilty of the same glaring petitio principii^ where he says "there can be no doubt we are descended from barbarians.'* Mr. Darwin may speak for himself. These modern theories of philosophy are not in accordance with the traditions of mankind, the whole of which point back to a *' golden age,'' when men made a closer approach to the gods, or the angels, than to the gorillas. Let us look at man from this high point of view, and perhaps we shall be better able to reconcile the varieties which exist among the human family, with the idea of man's retrogression, than with the idea of his pro- gression, since his creation. The Latin poet Ovid says, Aurea prima sata est cefas, " The Golden Age was first." M. Renan, of Paris, speaking of the early civili- zation of Egypt, says, " When one thinks of this civilization of the Fourth Dynasty, which had no infancy, of these innumerable monuments, which had VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. 147 no archaic period^ that the Egypt of Cheops is superior, in a sense, to all which followed, one is seized with dizziness " — on est pris de vertige, Mr. William Osburn proposes a remedy for the dizziness of M. Renan, by supposing that those who colonised the valley of the Nile, and built the first and Great Pyramid, the most perfect of all the PyramidSy wei'e the descendants of the builders at Babel. Gen. iv. 17, 21, 22, show an early ad- vancement in building and other arts. Dr. Schliemann,"^' who has made discoveries on what he supposes to be the site of ancient Troy, speaks of a " pentapolis " or five cities, lying one on another, like so many coffins in a vault; and he states that the two undermost are hy far the most advanced in civilization. We give the statement for what it is worth ; but the reader must fi^ the value, for the subject is beyond us. The ancient nations and kingdoms of the earth, * Trojan Antiquities. Account of the Excavations at Troy. (Trojanische Alterthiimer. Berichtuber die Aus^rabungen in Tioja.) By Dr. Heinrich Schliemann, Liepzig. 148 YARIKTIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. 149 like our miglity rivers, were purest at their sources. Rome presented a higher model of morals, govern- ment, and manly virtues, during the dictatorship of Cincinnatus than during the reign of Cspsar Augustus, from whose time Mr. Gibbon began to trace the decline of the Empire. In all empires, and among all nations, there is a continual struggle between pro- gression and decay, advancement and deterioration. Civilisation is not always what it seems ; and nations and people — as it was with Babylon of old — sometimes imagine they are progressing, till their eyes are opened on the gulf of destruction. " How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations ! Thou shalt be brought down to Hades, to the sides of the pit.'* Isaiah, xiv., 4 — 12. The general belief is, that the process of deteri- oration is more rapid than that of improvement; and analogy rather leans this way. Human nature runs to seed very fast. It is easier to pull down, than to build up ; to give a bend to a young branch, 11 or a malformation to a young limb, than to cure it, after it is fully grown. It does not follow, because it would require innumerable ages to con- vert a race of Negroes into a race of Caucasians, that it would require a like period to change a race of Caucasians into a race of Negroes. Rivers do not run back to their sources, or ebb and flow like the tide : "Facilis descensus Averni, Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, Hie labor, hoc opus est." It is difficult to roll a stone up a hill ; but it will descend by its own weight. As an illustration of the national deterioration, which may take place in a few thousand years, we refer to the case of the Africans, or Cushites, or children of Ham, who established the Babylonian Empire. Gush, the father of Nimrod, the " Mighty Hunter," was the son of Ham. We learn from the 10th chapter of Genesis that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel. Mr. Rawlinson — no mean authority — says, that an analysis of ancient 150 VARIETIES OF BACE AMONG MANKIND. documents, recovered from Babylonia, has shown that the Primitive Babylonian people were Cushites ; and he quotes M. Denarmont, whom he styles " the best representative of modern historical science,'* who speaks of "the First Cushite Empire as dominant in Babylonia, for several centuries before the earlier Semitic empire arose." Now these Cushites, with the mighty hunter, Nimrod, at their head, who founded the first city and empire, after the flood, were of the same family or stock as the Negro who lives in a kraal; but the one took to founding empires, the other to the woods and wild animals. Here we find time producing deterioration instead of improvement. We have sometimes doubted whether national improvement, or civilisation, is possible, after such a descent into savageism, as exists in some parts of the world. A story is told by Sir Walter Raleigh, in his " History of the World," of an attempt made to civilize a Hottentot boy, who was brought to England, where he re- mained for some years, till he was fully instructed VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. 151 in the habits of civilised life. He was then sent back to the Cape, with a hope that his English training would exercise a good influence over his people. VYhat was therefore the surprise of his patrons to find, that the moment he met with his ^own people, he laid aside his civilised traininsr, dofled his fine clothes for a sheepskin, and betook himself to the woods and deserts, never to appear in civilised society again. But this love for a wild life is not confined to children born of savage parents. Take an English child, and rear it in a Hottentot kraal, and it will be more than half a Hottentot, by the time it arrives at maturity. English children, reared among gipsies, very soon become gipsies in mind, as well as body. The free life of a savage has more charms for the genus homo than has (what we style) civilized life. The hunters and trappers, who live amongst the Red Indians, in the wilds of America, are almost Indian in habit and feelino;. For the above-mentioned reasons, we feel justified hi concluding, that there is, in human nature, a 152 VABIETIES OF RACK AMONG MANKIND. VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. 153 stronger tendency to retrograde, than to advance, mentally, morally, and physically; and that the descent, or degradation of the savage, from a high type of man, may have been brought about in a much shorter period, than the antiquarians, with their rude and broken flints, may imagine. Whether this rapid and downward movement may have been accelerated by an original flaw in man's constitution, styled, by theologians, " The ^. Fall^'^ is an inquiry of deep interest, in an ethno- logical point of view. The sixth chapter of Genesis presents us with a fearful picture of the early moral declension of the human race, when every imagina- tion of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. Plato and other of the Greek philo- sophers taught that man had lapsed from a higher type. Bishop Stillingfleet says, that Plato must have been more convinced of the lapse of mankind than he openly avowed. That Plato, and other distinguished Grecian philosophers and poets, held that man had lapsed from a high moral, intellectual, and physical state of II I existence, should cause the philosopher, whose study is man, to restrain the sneer with w^hich he is in the habit of viewing the dogma of " the Fall." Hesiod says, "Dreadfully did the second race degenerate from the virtues of the first." Pythagoras says, " Men have become miserable, as the result of their own misdoings." In the interesting story of Araspes and Panthea, told by Xenophon, the souls of evil men are represented as morally dead, with the body as their sepulchre. The Latin writers are as explicit, in their opinion of the fall, or deterioration of man, from a high state of existence, as were the Grecians. Among the philosophers we may mention Cicero and Seneca, and among the poets, Virgil, Ovid, Horace, Juvenal, Lucretius, and Catullus. We direct the special attention of the reader to the Metamorphoses of Ovid. That man has fallen from a state of greater purity and perfection than he now enjoys, was the belief, not only of Greece and Rome, but of every nation, that was suffi- ciently civilized, to possess anything like an intelligent I. 154 VARIETIES OF BACE AMONG MANKIND. system of religion. The fall of man has been a dogma in the faith of all civilized nations. Throughout the Vedas of the Hindoos, the oldest writings in the world, with the exception of some of the books of the Old Testament, there runs a strong vein of belief in the fall of man, who was deemed originally a part of the Creator, and therefore pure, and without a spot. But to turn to the great varieties in the human family, and the conclusion based upon these varieties, in support of the theory that there must have been more than one species of man, originally created, or developed, we reply, in the language of Dr. Prichard, that *' the physiological character of the human race is liable to but few and unimportant variations ; and therefore, when we find, that in a number of indivi- duals, spread over the greater part of the globe, no other differences occur, either in the average length of life, in the period of gestation, of infancy, of puberty, and of other changes in the economy, or in the habits, instincts, affections, and intellectual faculties, than may be fairly attributed to external circumstances, it may be, at once, concluded, that they are all members VAltlETIES OF T?ArE AMONG MANKIND. 155 of the same family, and the offspring of one common stock." This conclusion of Dr. Prichard is supported by the fact, that there are greater diversities among the lower animals, (that confessedly belong to the same species,) than we find among mankind. How great the variety among dogs, in size, colour, formation, instinct, and habits. We find nothing so marked in the human being ; and there is no doubt that all dogs have sprung from the same original stock ; and that those varieties are the result of circumstances. Some naturalists think, that there is, at least, a first -cousinship, between the dog and the wolf; but how diverse in disposition ! The one is a solitary cynic, and the other a sociable companion and friend. Indeed, the difference in disposition is so great, that we feel disposed to conclude they differ in species. It is usual to divide the human species into five varieties, but as a mixing of these varieties is in con^ etant operation, it is not possible to draw the line very clearly ; inasmuch as one race runs into another, i^nd becomes blended with another, lik^ the colours in 156 VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. the rainbow. The following is the most generally received division of the great, erect, two-handed* unclothed, rational, and moral animal, called man. The Caucasian, with white skin and rosy cheeks, inclining to brown, expanded forehead, aquiline nose, and small mouth. The Mongolian, of an olive colour, with black eyes, straight long hair, and low forehead. The Ethiopian, with black eyes, black woolly hair, low forehead, deep-set eyes. And the Malay variety, of a brown tint, black hair— more or less curled-— narrow head, full nose, thick lips, and large mouth. That there exists a great divergence between these races, no one denies; but that there is a sufficient divergence to warrant us in concluding, with Lyell, that either the Mosaic chronology is altogether too limited, or that there must have been more than one species of man originally created, we confidently deny. Let any of our readers think of some house- hold, in his neighbourhood, where there is a large family of daughters. The probability is, that be will remember, amongst them, a blonde and a brunette, a =5mpar*Pi?"T*»***^w*"*"^ VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. 157 Minna and a Brenda ; one that might have come from the Danish colonies of Norfolk, and another from the sunny climes of Italy. Or, — to take an illustration that would be more to the taste of Mr. Darwin,— let us suppose a litter of kittens, four of which are black, and as like the mother as possible, and the fifth per- fectly white, and unlike either of the parents. Seeing such a divergence, in colour, in the case of a single family, or birth, why should we doubt the possibility of any degree of deviation from the original type of creation in man, aided, as that devia- tion has been, by climate, food, habits, moral training, and religion ? We all seem to have taken it for granted that our first parents were white. We should be greatly shocked at the idea of their being black. Imagine Eve, as black as a negress ! But the bride in the song of Solomon, who seems to have been the Cinderella of the family, whose beauty excited the anger of her sisters, says, '' / am hlach, hut comely. Look not upon me, because I am black ; because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's children 158 VARIETIES OF RACE AMONG MANKIND. were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards." Zenobia and Cleopatra were very beautiful women^ but they were both very dark, although they were not set to watch vineyards* We conclude from Genesis ii.^ 7, that man was created from red earthy and that he took the tinge of the clay out of which he was moulded ; and that as woman was taken out of man, she bore the same red tinge. The three original Hebrew letters, which we translate " man,'* signify, when differently pointed, *' Cornelian, a gem of a red colour^ (See Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon.) Let us suppose the human race to begin with red, or " reddish brown," as the Hebrew sometimes means, (a colour which painters generally employ as the "first coat,'' on new work,) and we shall find ourselves in the intermediate stage between the white and the black. It may be truly said of colour, which is not quite true of beauty, that " it is only skin deep." Indeed, colour is no more than the outer shin deep, for the epidermis, or the outer skin, is the seat of the VARIETIES or RACE AMONG MANKIND. 159 characteristic natural colours. The colour of the interior coating, or skin, is the same in all nations. No fundamental distinction of race can be reasonably based on the fact, that the outer skin, or epidermis of an African, is darker and thicker than that of an European. With the efiect of the sun's rays, in darkening the skin, we are all more or less familiar. An exposure for a few hours, to the rays of a hot sun, will spoil a lady's complexion, for two or three days. The effect of the sun in producing freckles is equally evident. I have known some of these freckles, in the course of years, to increase very considerably in size, and to darken in colour, some of them having changed from brown to black, especially, on the face and the backs of the hands ; and marks of this kind, which were first accidental, or the result of exposm-e to the sun, have become, in course of time, hereditary and permanent. In this way white, or red men, may have become black, or brown, and vice versa. It is scarcely less surprising to find man, in the tropica regions, becoming dark and thick-skinned, than to 160 VARIETIES OF HACE AMONG MANKIND. ( find animals, in the colder parts of the earth, become wMte-haired, and more thickly fiu'red, than the same species of animals in mfire temperate regions. He who has ** tempered the wind to the shorn lamb," has rendered man capable of modifications which £t him to be a denizen of any region of the globe. To carry development, or change, or modification, further than this, would be to carry it further than change of circumstances require. The needs-he is the ne plus ultra of development. /( ! .COL\.A jt«i ^ # a &.^ N t *. CHAPTER IX. PARADISE^ ITS PURPOSE. 1 itAVE hitherto, in this volume, endeavoured to show to what extent, without any special strain, the conclusions of the ancient and modern philosophers, and men of science, can be made to harmonize w^th Divine Eevelation. But there is a higher sphere of philosoj^hy than the merely physical ; a philosophy which concerns itself with the moral character of the Creator, and his dealings with man. Do these dealings, as recorded in Holy Writ, harmonize w4th our conceptions of Divine wdsdom, justice, and goodness ? I am aware that some think they do not, and that we must choose between a perfect moral Ruler, and an imperfect Revelation, or vice verst. The transactions in Paradise, for example, are a difii- culty to many. It has been objected that the orthodox, or general 162 PARADISE — ITS PURPOSE. reading of Paradise, and the Fall, reflects on the divine wisdom. Some speak as if they believed, that the purposes of God had been thwarted, and frustrated by Satan, who is represented as entering the sacred arena, or palace of the new world, as a conqueror. According to the popular notion, things do not appear to have turned out as God willed, or wished them. The Devil seems to have effectually marred God's work. He found a garden of delights and left a desert. He broke down its hedge, like a boar from the wood, and like a wild beast from the field, wasted, defiled, and devoured it. Now let us calmly ask ourselves, Is this common view of the subject the correct one ? Does it reflect honour on the wisdom and sovereignty of God, who must have seen all these things from the beginning? We trow not. " But what view,*' inquires the reader, " do you offer ii^ stead — which is more in accordance with the supreme sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator? What is your reading of Paradise ? " Our reading is a very simple one, namely, that PARADISE — ITS PURPOSE. 163 Paradise, or the Garden of Eden, was an experiment ; but not an experiment to instruct God — as the popu- lar notion broadly implies — but an experiment to instruct man ; to teach him that such a condition, or garden of delight, was not suited for him ; was not as well fitted to develop his mental, moral, and bodily powers, as was the earth in its wild, rude, and thorny state, waiting for his strong arm and ingenious mind. And what is more, thxt such a state ivould not have satisfied man/cind. This strikes us as the plain and simple reading of a most interesting and beautiful episode in the primitive history of man. Had not God taught man, by this short experience of a paradisaical state of ambrosial and luxurious idleness, that such a condition would not satisfy him, that to labour and earn his bread, with the sweat of his brow, was more wholesome and noble, and more in accordance with his nature, he would have com- plained more frequently and loudly than he does at present, of his hard lot. It is only a small portion of mankind — the rich — who appear destined to a life of idleness; and we look upon them as tiie most im- 164 PARADISE — ITS PURPOSE. happy portion. How many a rich man is dissatisfied, like Rasselas, with his " Happy Valley ! '* A story is told of a poor hind and his wife, com- plaining of the great mistake, or sin, of our first parents, in eating the forbidden fruit, thus subjecting their offspring to toil and sorrow. Their dialogue was overheard by a nobleman, or king, who had them conveyed to a fairy- like abode, where they were clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptu- ously every day. They enjoyed the change exceed- ingly, for a time, as everything appeared new and delightful, but by-and-bye they became oppressed, with what the French call ennui. And this feeling, in the end, became so intolerable, that one fine morning they broke from the palace, and its garden of delights, and sought refuge in a life of honest labour. God represents himself as labouring. The word Paradise occurs three times in the New Testament : InNehemiah, ii. 8, where it is translated forest : " Asaph, the Keeper of the King's forest ; " in Eccles. ii. 5, and in the Song of Solomon, iv. 13, where it is translated orchard : " I made me gardens PARADISE — ITS PURPOSE. 165 and orchards ''— " thy plants are an orchard of pome- granates, with pleasant fruit." The word is supposed to be of Persian origin, and has a pleasant signification. We understand Paradise is the name given to the pleasure-gardens and parks (with their wild animals) around the palaces of the Shah of Persia. This calls to mind the pictures we have seen of Adam, in Paradise, giving names to the animals. Some point to the Persian Gulf as the site of Paradise. The term, in the course of time, became symbolical of the heavenly state, like the Elysian Fields in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. *' Paradise " occurs, as we have said, three times in the New Testament, in Luke xxiii. 43, where our Lord says to the penitent thief, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise ; in 2 Cor. xii. 4, where St. Paul describes himself as having been caught up into Paradise ; and in Rev. ii. 7, where w^e read of " the tree of life, in the midst of the Paradise of God.'' Here the allusion to the Garden of Eden is clear and unmistakeable. - - • * •« •>. ^U.J^Jf 166 . PARADISE — ITS PURPOSE. PARADISE — ITS PURPOSE. 167 / s But let us bear in mind that the Paradise of Genesis was a place as well as a state, a " Garden planted. Eastward, in Eden." As it was a defined space, and not one capable of expansion, it was not suited for the accommodation of the whole human family, and therefore could never have been intended for them. It would not have admitted of an infinitesimal sub • division, any more than an Irish farm. It may appear almost profane to think it, or to say so, but the Garden of Eden had its defined acreage, as well as any other garden, or piece of ground in the world. This familiar way of speaking of Paradise, or the Garden of Eden, will not be deemed irreverent by those who attentively study the topographical account of the place, in the second chapter of the Book of Genesis. We cannot spiritualize geographical boundaries, any more than we can square the circle. ** And the liOrd God planted a garden, Eastward, in Eden. And a river went out of Eden, to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison. It is that which compasseth the whole land of Ilavilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. There is bdellium, and the onyx stone. The name of the second river is Gihon : the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel : that is it which goeth towards the East of Assyi-ia. And the fourth river is Euphrates." Eden means '' delight " ; but as a great many places in the world are now called Eden, it is im- possible to decide, from the name, the district intended. Some learned commentators are of opinion that the site of Eden is to be sought for in Armenia, near the sources of the great rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Phasis, and Araxis ; while others (Paxton, among the number, who has an elaborate article on the subject) place it much further south, on the river which separates Havilah from Susiana, at no great distance from the Persian Gulf; and others on the Tigris, near Bagdad. It has been suggested by others, that God may have chosen to obliterate every 168 PAKADISE— ITS PURPOSE. PARADISE — ITS PURPOSE. 169 vestige of this fair portion of his hancly-work. The flood must have produced a great change in a district surrounded by mighty rivers. Mr. Paxton says, "The sacred historian has furnished us with only a few brief hints in relation to the seat of primeval happiness. A more particular description, after the fall, had been attended with no real advantage ; while the concise view which he has given, is well calculated to instruct mankind m the folly of seeking a place of rest, or happiness, on earth,^^ Fui'ther on, Paxton says, " The Garden of Eden was contrived by the wisdom, and planted by the hand of God, Himself, for the residence of the first pair If Dr. F. Pye Smith, who saw the impossibility of locating an infinite number of immortals in Paradise, provides against the difficulty, by stating, *' It would seem probable, that had not man fallen by his trans- gression, he, and each of his posterity, would, after faithfully sustaining an individual probation, have passed through a change without dying, and have been exalted to a more perfect state of existence." — Scrip, and Geol., 4th ed., p. 208. But all this is idle supposition, for God knew from the beginning what would happen, and provided for it. II . «a . ««MI|||M»r 4MM,linNllH^^ y { k\J I j.'V,A,.' ..i . !... f > \. i 4 I * - r.„ ... I it x^ CHAPTER X. THE TEMPTATION— ITS CONSEQUENCE. Let us turn to the account of the Temptation, re- corded in Genesis iii., 1 — ?♦ "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made ; and he said unto the woman, ' Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden ? ' " And the woman said unto the Serpent, ' We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die/ •' And the Serpent said unto the woman, ' Ye shall not surely die ; for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil/ THE TEMPTATION — ITS CONSEQUENCE. 171 ' I " And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired, to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband, with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." At this description of the temptation and fall, the modern philosopher may smile : it reads to him like a story from the Arabian Nights' Entertain- ment. But does he act wisely in viewing these transactions from his high and philosophic point of view ? Should they not be rather viewed from the stand-point of our first parents, who were children m experience, as well as age, and for whom a roseate apple, or any other pleasant kind of fruit, would have a strong attraction? Perhaps the philosopher viewed the matter differently, when he, as a child, learned the story of the temptation, for the first time, at his mother's knee. In this beautiful and simple story, we have a 172 THE TEMPTATION— ITS CONSEQUENCE. wonderful example .of the condesceusion of God, in his mode of conveying instruction to infant minds. The prediction of Satan, that this first act of disobedience would open their eyes, in a way they were never opened before, turned out to be perfectly correct. There is a general impression that the first sin, or deliberate breach of God's law, does open the eyes to a surprising extent. It is the master key to all the hidden chambers of the heart, with its diversi- fied thoughts, passions, and aspirations. Up to this period, our first parents were as uncon- scious of sin, as lambs, or doves. What we style the moral principle, or conscience, does not appear to have been developed in them. Such a moral state had its own peculiar advantages, like the state of early childhood, but it does not come uj) to our idea of the highest state of man. Indeed, it falls immeasurably below it. We should say that the highest attribute in man, is his moral power of distinguishing between good and evil. An inability to do this, would imply a want of that THE TEMPTATION — ITS CONSEQUENCE. 173 ! I ''\1 lil quality, or attribute of mind, or soul, which con- stitutes moral responsibility. Man without this quality, or attribute of mind, should take his place — we shall not say — with the beasts of the field, but with the lambs of the fold. We do not assert that our first parents were want- ing in this moral attribute; but the passage in Genesis, which we have just quoted, would seem to imply that it was lying in an undeveloped state. For its development, the touch of sin was neces- sary ; and for the production of sin, there must be a conscience and a command : *' I had not known sin, but by the law." Mom, vii., 7. Strange and startling as this may seem, to those whose minds are not accustomed to contemplate the extent to which the All- wise Ruler of the Universe is ever operating, in the production of good from evil, we cannot deny the fact, recorded in Genesis. Whether the bribe, or temptation, that our first parents should be as gods, knowing good from evil, was fire stolen from heaven, or brought up, directly, from hell, it had the effect of lighting up aspira- 174 T^IE TEMPTATION — ITS CONSEQUENCE. tions, and passions, in the human soul, which can never be quenched. " And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig leaves together and made them- selves aprons." Those who are of opinion, that it had been bet- ter to have left the moral attributes jof man in their undeveloped condition, are wiser, in their own estimation, than God, who allowed Satan to enter the sacred enclosure of Paradise, and work his will upon our first parents. Our only, and, I think, the only rational explanation, of what we style the Fall, is, that it was an evil, producing a greater good, and therefore allowed by God, who can make, not only the wrath of man, but the malice and cunning of demons, to praise Him. Milton, in his Third Book of Paradise Lost, repre- sents God, the Father, as calmly marking the approach of Satan towards the Earth, for the pur- pose of tempting our first parents ; and he not only mentions the purpose of the Adversary, but pre- dicts his success, without interfering to avert the « it THE TEMPTATION — ITS CONSEQUENCE. 175 catastrophe. The Father is thus represented as ad- dressing the Son : *' Seest Thou what rage Transports our adversary ? Whom no bands Prescribed, no bars of hell, nor all the chains Heap'd on him there, nor yet the main abyss Wide interrupt, can hold ; so bent, he seems, On desperate revenge, that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head. And now Through all restraint broke loose, he wings his way Not far off heaven, in the precincts of light, Directly towards the new-created world, And man there placed, with purpose to essay, If him, by force, he can destroy, or, worse. By some false guile pervert, and shall pervert ; For man will hearken to his glozing lies, And easily transgress the sole command, Sole pledge oj his obedience. So will fall, He, and his faithless progeny.'" The poet then asks, " Whose fault? " The reply is, " Whose, but his ownf Ingrate, he had of me All he could have. 1 made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all the Ethereal Powers ; Both them who stood, and them who fail'd. Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. 176 THE TEMPTATION — ITS CONSEQUE^'CE. Not free, what proof could they have given Of true allegiance^ constant faith, or love ?'* The Poet then goes on to argue, that God* 8 foreknowledge of the Fall, had no effect in bring- ing it about : " Foreknowledge had no influence on their fall, Which had no less proved certain, unforeknown." All this will be freely granted by the thought- ful theologian ; but the question still remains, •• How was it, that an All-wise Creator, foreseeing the evil that would result from the creation of free agents— of angels and men — brought such beinsrs into existence?** There is but one rational reply, and it meets the case of angels as well as men — God foreseeing that more good than evil^ more happiness than misery, would result from their crea- tioHi brought them into existence. This idea was in the poet Milton's mind, who caused Adam, after he had been instructed, by the Archangel Michael, respecting the future con- sequences of the Fall, to exclaim — .•1- V- THE TEMPTATION — ITS CONSEQUENCE. 177 " Goodness infinite, Goodness immense, That all this good of evil should produce, And evil turn to good ; more wonderful Than that which by creation first brought forth Light out of darkness. Full of doubt, I stand, Whether I should repent me now of sin, By me done and occasioned ; or rejoice Much more, that more good shall spring To God, more glory ; more goodwill to men." tr ' 'i i "■'•f-'^ %:'^?_ -t.^ ^^m^ ■^;-:'' .>i^^--: CHAPTER XL THE DEATH PENALTY. •* Ik tlie day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Now as Adam did not die, according to the common acceptation of the term, on the day that he ate of the forbidden fruit, but lived for many centuries after, we feel disposed to adopt the literal translation of the words, *' Dying thou shalt die,'' in preference to the more scholarly translation *'Thou shalt surely die." We do not see the necessity or propriety of rendering the present participle, dying, by the adverb " surely." We think the translation, '^ Dying thou shalt die," gives a more correct idea of the meaning of the Hebrew words, signifying that death was then operating, and that it would continue to operate, until it had completed the work it had begun. It is in this way we render a similar passage in Genesis I 1 t f ' THE DEATH PENALTY. 179 xxii., 17 : *' Blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thy seed." The true and n atural meaning of the words is, that God had commenced blessing and multiplying, and that he would continue to do so. How bald and poor, comj^ared with this is the rendering, " I will surely bless thee," which merely predicts a future blessing. ' Death, like a slow poison, had already commenced its operation on the human body ; and the seeds of mortality thus sown in the bodies of our first parents, have affected the whole human family, like an here- ditary disease. We may all be said to be dying of the mortality infused into Adam's veins. ** That death," says Jeremy Taylor, '' which God threatened to Adam, and which passed upon his posterity, is not the going out of this world, but the manner of going. If he had staid in innocence, he should have gone placidly and fairly, without vexa- tious and afflictive circumstances ; he should not have died by sickness, defect, misfortune. But when he fell, then he began to die; the same day (God said, and that must needs be true) ; and, therefore, 180 THE DEATH PENALTt. THE DEATH PENALTY. 181 it must mean upon that very day he fell into an eril and dangerous condition, a state of change and afflic- tion ; then death began ; that is, man began to die by a natural diminution, and aptness to disease and misery." But the progress of this mortal disease was, at first, as we have stated, slow, very slow. Adam lived 930 years; Seth 912 years; Enos 905 years; Cainan 910 years ; Mahalaleel 805 ; Jared 962 years ; Methu- saleh 969 years; and Lamech, the father of Noah, 777 years. Manv think such a term of human existence impos- sible ; but some animals (the elephant for example) lives four or five times as long as the horse, and eight or ten times as long as the dog. To say that the human frame could not have been so constituted as to exist for 1,000 years, or as long as an oak, or a cedar, is saying more than w^e can prove. There are some who have, notwithstanding the general mortality around them, a flickering kind of faith in the elixir of life, if they could only discover it ii We must not smile at this, for our first parents appear to have possessed, in Paradise, the means of renewing their lives ad infinitum : " And now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever, therefore the Lord sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.'* We have a beautiful allusion to the Tree of Life in the last chapter of the book of Revelation : " And he showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations.'' There always has existed, and, we conclude, there always will exist, a strong faith in the potency of plants and herbs, in the healing properties of roots, and leaves, and flowers ; and we need scarcely add there is abundant ground for such faith, inasmuch as a 1S2 THE DEATH PENALTY. large number of trees and plants and herbs possess these healing properties. The passage which we have quoted from Genesis iii., 22, conveys the expression that the continuance of human existence depended on eating the fruit of the Tree of Life; that man was not created necessarihj immortal. The same idea is conveyed by the words in Revelation just quoted, "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." We feel dis- posed to conclude that no state of human or angelic existence is necessarily immortal. Eternal life is the gift of God. Necessary immortality would render man, to some extent, independent of the Creator, " in whom we live, and move, and have our being." We think Milton made a mistake in rendei ing the arch- fiend immortal. The infinite continuance of a holy life is to be desired; but an unholy immortality would be an an eternal curse. The extension of human existence to a period of eight or nine hun- di-ed years was tried and proved a failure. Ex- perience proved it was too long. The consequence THK DEATH PKNALTY. \%'6 of extending the life of man to such a term was to push back death, and all the wholesome effects which its frequent occurrence is calculated to produce, almost out of view. The hope of an existence of even seventy or eighty years encourages many to forget God and a future judgment. When men lived to a much longer period, "the earth was filled w^th violence and every imagination of man's heart was evil, and that continually" — so evil that the only cure for the state of things which then prevailed was a deluge. The life of man after this was curtailed to 120 years, as we learn from Genesis vi., 3 : " And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, i.e., mortal, (Isa. xL, 6 and 7) "Yet his days shall be 120 years." " Was it not a mistake, therefore," you will ask, " to grant to Antediluvians so long a term of exist- ence ? " We should be slow to admit the possibility of a mistake on the part of the Deity. We have styled Paradise an experiment^ but not an experiment to 184 THE DEATH PENALTY. teach God, but man, to teach him that such an ambrosial state of existence was not suited for him, and would not satisfy him. So we say of a life extending through 800 or 900 years. It was an experiment that filled the earth with violence, and that would not work. A curtailment of human life to 120 years became, therefore, a moral necessity ; and a further curtailment to 70 years-the general term of existence at present -a still greater necessity. But men generally will not believe this, till they are taught by experiment. God in Ilia love and kindness allows men to Uve as long as their sins allow them to live. He refused to extrrminato the inhabitants of Canaan, till their iniquities were full. " He willeth not the death of a sinner.'' A decided improvement in the general morality and religion of the inhabitants of the earth would, no doubt, admit of an extension of the present short span of human existence. Holiness and long life, as well as sin and death, are closely united in the economy and government of this world. The THE DEATH PENALTY. 185 Prophet Isaiah seems, in the latter part of the sixty- fifth chapter of his prophecies, to predict an exten- sion of human life : "For behold I create new heavens and a new earth ; and the former shall not be remembered, or come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice, for ever, in that which I create ; for, behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more hence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old ; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit ; they shall not plant, and another eat ; for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble ; for they are the 186 THE DEATH PENALTY. seed of the blessed of the Lord, and tlieir offspring with them. And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt not destroy in all my holy moun- tain, saith the Lord." Bishop Lowth remarks on the 22nd verse, " It is commonly supposed that the oak, one of the most long-lived of trees, lasts about 1,000 years. The Prophet's idea seems to be that God's people shall live to the age of the Antediluvians." This subject of human life, and its extension, in this, or in a future state, is full of interest, and one respecting which it is not wise to dogmatize. We must reverently wait till our change cometh, till the curtain rises on a new and higher state of exist -^ ence. CHAPTER XII. TriE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. That Satan, on the occasion of the temptation, assumed the form of an angelic seraph, was a tradition of the East, adopted by the Doctors of the Jewish Church. Rabbi Bechai remarks on Genesis iii., 14, ^* This is the mystery or peculiarity of the sacred language, that serpent is called seraph, as an angel is called a seraph, and hence, the Scriptures called serpents Seraphim, Num. xxi., 6 — 8, because they are the offspring of this old seraph. Hence the idea of winged serpents." The Seraphim of the Wilderness are supposed, by Bochart, to be the same as those that are called, by Isaiah xxx., 6, <* fiery flying serpents." The Hebrews, after a sojourn in Egypt of 400 years, were too familiar with the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and of evil spirits taking 188 THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. possession of the bodies of inferior animals, to be surprised or shocked at the Great Magician, or Evil Spirit, assuming the serpent form, in conducting the temptation of our first parents. The rods, or wands, with which the magicians of Egypt, wrought their enchantments, became serpents. It is still firmly believed, throughout a great portion ef Africa, on the borders of the Nile, as well as the Niger, that evil and malignant spirits take possession of the bodies of the lower animals, to work their evil designs. Where the work to be wrought requires cunning, the body of the serpent or fox would be selected; where it demands strength, that of the crocodile, or hippopota- mus, would be preferred. An Englishman was crossing an African river, when the boat was raised out of the water, and wrecked, by a blow from the tusk, or the tail, of a seahorse. - The evil spirit was enraged at the colour of the Englishman's coat," was the observation of one of the natives. Tlie Hebrew verb, or root, from which we have the word Nachash and which we render serpent, means to foretell, or augur ; and the Hebrew noun, when THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. 189 differently pointed, is rendered divination, or magic ; and again, when differently pointed, is rendered ser- pent, or dragon ; and again, when difierently pointed, is rendered brass, or money. And it must be borne in mind, that Hebrew points are a comparatively modern invention ; and that the special meaning which they give to a passage of Scrip- ture, is no more than the reading of those who placed them where they are. The verb Nachash sometimes means, simply, to per- ceive, or understand, as in Genesis xxx., 27, where Laban tells Jacob, that he perceived, or discovered, that Jehovah had blessed him (Laban) on his (Jacob's) account. But the verb in Genesis xliv., 15, means "to divine." Joseph says to his brethren, "Wot ye not, that such a man as I can certainly divine." We have no doubt that Joseph, after his interpreta- tion of Pharaoh's dreams, was held in high estimation by the Egyptians as a great magician. It is nowhere, directly^ stated in the Old Testament that the Tempter assumed the serpent form. It is, ly 190 THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTEH. THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. 191 implication, we have arrived at this conclusion. In Genesis iii., 1, H, we read, "Now the Nachash was more subtil than any beast of the field." *' And the Lord God said unto the Nachash, Because thou hast done this, thou are cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy Hfe.'* It by no means follows, that because the Nachash was wiser, or more subtil, than any beast of the field, or because it was cursed above all cattle, that it should be classed with beasts or cattle. The expression " upon thy belly shalt thou go," is probably figurative, and descriptive of the degradation of the Tempter, and had no reference to the serpent's mode of progression. We should have been strongly disposed to conclude that the Nachash, in this temptation, had assumed a human form, as he probably did at the temptation of Our Lord, if we did not read in 2 Cor. xi., 3, that the Berpent beguiled Eve''' \ and in Rev. xii., 9, that the " Great Dragon, and the Old Serpent, are called the Devil, and Satan." The term " Old Serpent " seems to point directly to the temptation in Eden. Milton represents Satan as assailing Eve, in the first instance, in the shape of a far more contemptible reptile than that of a serpent. " Him there, they found, Squat Hie a toad, close to the ear of Eve ; Assaying, by his devilish art to reach The organs of her fancy. Him, thus iutent, Ithuriel, with his spear, Touched lightly — for no falsehood can endure Touch of celestial temper, but returns, of force, to its own likeness — up he starts. Discovered, and surprised — in his own shape, the Fiend." It strikes us as strange, that there is no other passage in the Old Testament, but that in the third chapter of Genesis, from which we could fairly conclude, that the Tempter of our first parents was associated, in the minds of the Jews, with the serpent form. The graphic scene in the Garden of Eden, with the woman, the tree, and the tempter, is never refeired to by any of the Old Testament writers. The Old Testament Scriptures allude to the " cun- riSS 192 THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMrTER. ning" of the Serpent and adder, as they do to the stupidity of the ox and ass (Isa. i., 3); but nowhere do we find, with the exception of the remarkable passage in the third chapter of Genesis, the serpent form associated with the Tempter of our first parents* The following are the other passages, in the Old Testament, in which the word Serpent occurs :— Genesis xlix., 17, "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, that biteth the horse heels, so that the rider shall fall backward." Exodus iv., 3, and vii., 9, 10, 15, where the Rod of Moses becomes a serpent. Numbers xxi., 6 — 9, where God sends fiery serpents among the people, and where Moses makes a serpent of brass, and raises it on a pole, for the cure of those who were bitten. Deuteronomy viii., 15, and xxxii., 24, "That great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents." " I will send the poison of serpents upon them." 2nd Kings xviii., 4, w^here Hezekiah breaks the brazen serpent in pieces, and calls it Nehushtan, "a piece of brass." Job xxvi., 15, " His hand hath formed the crooked serpent." Psalms Iviii., 4, and cxl. 3, " Their poison is like the I J THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. 193 poison of a serpent." '*They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent." Proverbs xxiii., 32, and XXX., 19, "At last, it biteth like a serpent." "The way of a serpent uj^on a rock." Eccles. xviii., 10, " "Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him." " Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment." Isaiah xiv., 29 ; xxvii., 1 ; xxx, 6 ; and Ixv., 25, " Out of the serpent's root shall come a cockatrice.' " In that day the Lord shall punish Leviathan [Egypt] that piercing serpent." '* He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." " The viper, and the fiery- flying serpent.'* " Dust shall be the serpent's meat." ■ Jeremiah viii., 17, and xlvi., 22, " Behold I will send serpents among you." " The voice thereof shall go forth like a serpent." Amos v., 10, and ix., 3, " If a man lean his hand on the w^all, a serpent shall bite him." " I will command the serpent and he shall bite him." Micah vii., 17, '*They shall lick the dust like a serpent, and move about in their holes, like worms of the earth." JS'ow we have quoted all the passages of the Old Testament, where the word Serpent occurs, and we do 194 THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. not find, in any one of them, the slightest reference to Satan, or any sort of demon, or any reference to the Tempter of our First Parents, under this form. The Brazen Serpent is no exception. But we must conclude, from the passages we have quoted from the Kew Testament, that Satan tempted Eve in serpent form. CHAPTER XIII. THE SERPENT'S POAVER OF SPEECH. There is no incident recorded in the Book of Genesis which has caused more cavilling, or sneering, than the account of the Serpent's dialogue with Eve. For one of the lower animals to use articulate sounds, is altogether opposed to our experience. But St. John, in Revelation xiii., 11, represents the beast, with two horns, like a lamb, spealdng as a dragon^ or a great serpent : in allusion, we conclude, to the speaking of the serpent, described in the third chapter of Genesis. It is most remarkable the extent to which, not only jioets and professedly imaginative writers, but also philosophers and satiiists, have gone in investing almost every kind of animal with the power of speech, and a worldly wisdom which leaves the cunning of the serpent in the shade. Now if there were anj^- 196 THE SEKPENt's POWER OF SPEECH. tliinff ridiculous in the idea of the lower animals speaking in the way in which they are represented as doing, in " ^sop's Fables," and other works, the practice of writing in such a style would not have prevailed to the extent to which it has done. Take, for example, the dialogue between the " Twa Dogs," by Robert Bm-ns. If any conclusion can be di*awn from the account of the creation of man, in the first and second chapters of the book of Genesis, it is, that our first parents were endowed with the power of speech from the beginning ; that they were not brought into existence in a savage and speechless state. An endowment of this kind must have possessed all the properties of a natural instinct. It was, in fact, the extension of instinct (so far forth as they were concerned) to the department of speech. It would be natural for persons thus endowed to conclude, tiU taught by experience, to the contrary, that all the inferior animals were endowed in the same way: that they were not created dumb; so that Eve's surprise would have been, not that the THE SERPENT S POWER OF SPEECH. 197 Serpent could speak, but that the rest of the animals could not, or would not speak. Doctor Payne Smith, Dean of Canterbury, in his late paper on " Science and Revelation," says that " the larynx of the monkey is as well fitted as ours, to produce articulate sound." But this power, or perfection of larynx, is not peculiar to the monkey. We could give no better example of the remarkable power of one species of the lower animals to imitate almost any kind of sound, than that of the mocking bird. Mr. Wilson describes this wonderful creature, in its native groves, mounted on the top of a tall bush, with expanded wings and tail glistening, while it mounts and descends, as its song swells, or dies away. *' He bounds aloft," says another wi'iter, " with the swiftness of an arrow, as if to recover, or recall, his very soul, expired in the last elevated strain ; so that a bystander, who did not see him, would suppose that the whole of the feathered tribes had assembled together, for a trial of their vocal powers." He whistles, and the dog, who is deceived, starts up, to meet his master. He squeaks 198 THE FORM ASSUMED BY TirK TEMPTER. like a hurt chicken, and the hen hurries about, with han^in;^ wings and bristled feathers. He can imitate the barking of a dog, the crowing of a cock, the mewing of a cat, and the creaking of a wheel- barrow, with the same ease and perfection. Another and more fiimiliar example of the power of imitating sounds and pronouncing names of three or four syllables is afforded in the case of the parrot. A favourite bird of this species is scolding at the top of her voice while I write. I suspect that she is seriously annoyed, by some stranger, who has been prpng too closely into her cage, or poking at her, in a way she does not approve. The coaxing and winning manner in which this bird calls back those in whose company she finds pleasure, is un- mistakeable. Perhaps there is no animal, with the exception of the mocking bird and parrot, which possesses so many distinct modes of utterance (expressive of its feelings) as the cat. It intimates its want of food by mewing, its happiness by purring, its fear by hissing and spitting, and its amatory and jealous THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. 199 propensities, by a combination of sounds it would be vain to attempt to describe ; with the exception of one, which is so fearfully human, that the nurse in charge of a sick infant, starts suddenly to her feet, with the exclamation, " Hush I There^s the hahy r The Serpent is not the only animal mentioned in the inspired volume, as having been endowed with the power of speech. Balaam* s ass was similarly endowed ; and complains so reasonably, that it would not require many more examples to familiarise us with the fact of an ass employing articulate sounds. The flippant use of such sounds, is not always accepted as an evidence of good sense, nor an inability to use them, as an evidence of want of sense. The lower animals have their own modes of ex- pressing their feelings, of pain, indignation, sorrow, and joy : so that to some extent, they may be said to use articulate sounds. The *' maa " of a lamb, calling for its dam, is an articulate sound. The bark of a dot*' is another. And wliat a varietv of 200 THE FORM ASSUMED BY THE TEMPTER. intonation, and significance' of meaning, do we find in these barks ! Take, for example, the saucy bark of a favourite dog, who has been shut out, by mistake, and compare it with the whine of the poor animal that is kept out, by design. The one sounds like an impatient rap at the door, by one of the family, the other the timid ring of a pauper, at the bell, who fears to have the door shut in his face. The bark of a shepherd's dog, in charge of a drove of sheep, is peculiar and professional. It has quite enough of sharpness about it to keep the sheep well together, but it is manifest the dog is not in earnest, that he is acting a part, that he and the drover understand each other. CHAPTER XIV. MILTON'S SATAN. There is a passage in the Apocalypse (Rev. xii., 7, 8, 9) which is supposed to contain a reference to the same mysterious being, that tempted our first parents in Paradise ; a passage, which, undoubtedly, contains the first germinating thought of Milton's " Paradise Lost." That Milton, to whom we are indebted for nearly the whole of our ix)j)nlar demonological creed, was entirely ignorant of the import of the prophecy^for prophecy it is — is evident to all who have made the Apocalypse their study. This book is a prophetical history of the Christian Church, written in symbols or hieroglyphics. By '' Heaven," in Rev. xii., 7 — 9, we are to understand the Church, and by the Earth, the Roman Empire ; by Michael, the Saviour ; by Michael's angels, all real Chris- o 202 MILTON S SATAN. tians; and by the Dragon and his angels, the devil and unchristian men ; and perhaps wicked spirits, who oppose the truth, and the progress of the kingdom of righteousness. But let us turn to the passage : "And there was war in Heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not ; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." The previous verses of this chapter, which give an account of the woman who fled from the dragon into the wilderness, plainly prove that the passage just quoted, cannot refer to the original fall of Satan, as Milton imagined. Here, in these three verses— with Milton the poet as our interpreter — we have the foundation of much of our popular demonology ; the effect of which has been, to convey an impression of the I MILTOnVs SATAN. 203 power of the arch-fiend, that is out of all propor - tion with our ideas of a created subordinate being. The poet, in the sublimity of his flight, becomes positively profane. Take the following example : " High on a throne of royal state, which far Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her king barbaric pearl and gold, Satan exalted sat ; by merit raised To that bad eminence." Or take the following address of Beelzebub to his chief: " prince, chief of many throned powers, That led the embattled Seraphim to war, Under thy conduct, and in dreadful deeds, Fearless, endangered Heaven's Spiritual King, And put to proof his supremacy:' Milton's '* Paradise Lost " is a masterpiece of genius, based upon a misconception of a few highly poetical and sjonbolical passages of divine writ; but with, or without a base, it has exercised a powerful influence on the mind or imagination of Christendom. For the ideas in the following passage from 204 MILTON's SATAN. " Paradise Lost/* we have no foundation whatever in the inspired volume. Indeed, respecting the fall of Satan and his angels we are left altogether ignorant : His pride Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host Of rebel angels ; by whose aid, aspiring, He set himself in glory above his peers. He trusted to have equalled the Most High, If He opposed ; and with ambitious aim, Against the tiirone, and monarchy of God, Raised impious war, in heaven, and battle proud. The idea of such a war in Heaven is not only profime, but absurd, and opposed to all correct and rational conceptions of the Divine Ruler of the Universe. We believe in One God, the Father Almighty, who rules not only on earth and in heaven, but also in hell; and that there is no power which is not entirely subservient to His will ; that the whole machinery of hell is as much at His command as that of heaven. We do not believe in anything like a divine or ' semi-divine Spirit of Evil. The coni])lete subjuga- I MILTON S SATAN. 205 tion in which Satan and his host are kept by the Divine Power is sti'ongly expressed in several pas- sages of Scripture. In Jude, verse 6, we read, ** The angels, which kept not their first estate, He hath reserved in everlasting chains^ under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." The follow- ing passage in Rev. xx„ 1--3, is even more signi- ficant of the complete power of God over the Evil One. What a picture have we here of a culprit in the hands of his <;aoler I *' And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the drajron, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him 1,000 years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the 1,000 years should be fulfilled; and after that he must be loosed a little season.*' It strikes us that the loosing of Satan here mentioned, is even more indicative of the power of God than the binding of him and the locking 206 MILTON S SATAN. MILTON S SATAN. 207 of him up in tlie bottomless pit. A despot may, or may not, fear those whom he locks up in prison —the locking up may be intended as a punish^ ment, or to gratify the mind of the despot— but it is quite evident the despot does not fear those whom he permits to go at large. This is the condition in which Satan is described in the book of Job : "And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?— And Satan answered, From going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it." But whether locked up, or at large, he was equally exposed to the eye of God, and as much bound to make his appearance, on the day that the sons of God came to present themselves, as any other of God's creatures. Milton represents Satan, as retaining in hell somewhat of his high state, as prince of demons; and the poet looks upon this retention of princely dignity as some kind of mitigation of his fall and moral degradation. He represents him as a free agent, with scope to work his will. To use the f words which Milton puts into the mouth of Satan — " The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, and hell of heaven. # -if « « To reign is worth ambition, the' in hell. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." There is a remarkable passage in the 9th verse of the General Epistle of St. Jude, where the writer — in reproving those who despise dominions and speak evil of dignities— imi^lies, that the honour and dignity, naturally belonging to Satan's former high position, as prince and ruler, was respected by the archangel Michael. " Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, about the body of Moses, durst not bring a railing accusation against him, but said, 'The Lord rebuke thee."' Tillotson, with greater humour than insight of the meaning of the passage, hints that Michael's dis- cretion— vfhioh is often the better part of valour- restrained him from railing, inasmuch as the devil would have been more than a match for the arch- angel ; but this is not the idea conveyed by the context. SERPENT WOKSHir. 209 CHAPTER XV. SERPENT WORSHIP. Those who are disposed to look upon the account of the temptation, in the third chapter of Genesis, as a fable, or a myth, must be prepared to give some reasonable explanation of the extent to which serpent worship has prevailed, in almost every country in the world. We find a most surprising dogma, or practice, tinging the religion of every portion of the human family ; and the higher up we trace the stream, the deeper we find the tinge. You ask, " Whence it arose ? '' — We reply in Paradise, like " the river that went out of Eden, to water the garden, and from thence was parted, and became four heads." For the existence and wide prevalence of this strange phenomenon, we can give no more natural, reasonable, or philosophical an (w. explanation, than that contained in the scriptural account of the temptation. Every myth was once a fact, developed by tradition, and coloured by the imagination. If we admit the account of the temptation, or the part which the tempter took, in serpent form, if we admit his great success in marring what we conceive to be God's purpose, in the creation of man, the pre- valence of serpent worship is explained ; for such a being as Satan could scarcely fail, in course of time, to become a god, and receive worship. But deny the Bible account, and we find ourselves at sea without star or compass. Now, it will assist our inquiries, if we ask what sort of worship, or dogma, or religious opinions, or practices, we should be likely to find in the world, as the result of the traditional account of what happened in Paradise. One of the first dogmas likely to arise, and take shape, in the form of worshq), would be the existence and power of demons, in taking possession of the bodies of inferior animals, and more especially of the 210 SERPENT WORSHIP. bodies of serpents. The belief in these possessions would soon extend itself to human bodies. This out- come, or the natural development of this one thought of Satan in the serpent, would resolve itself into a general belief in demoniacal possessions. It would spread, as the belief in witchcraft (which is a develop- ment of the same idea) has spread. We should, at least, reason this way d priori. Now we find that a general belief of this kind did prevail, throughout the heathen world, from an early period. Indeed, all the heathen gods and goddesses seem to have had the power of assuming any body or shape they pleased ; in order to deceive each other, or mankind, as Satan entered into the body of a serpent, to deceive Eve. But this idea of the existence of demons, and of demons entering into the bodies of animals and men, is a very extraordinary and out-of-the-way notion; which would not be likely to come into men's minds, intuitively, or of its own accord ; or to prevail to the extent it has prevailed, unless it had some kind of basis to rest upon. Human nature is not disposed to ) [ I SERPENT WORSHIP. 211 adopt unnatural, or supernatural notions. An indivi- dual mind may adopt any kind of monstrosity, but not so the universal mind. Of it we may say. Vox populi vox dei. The natural result of a belief in demons like this, could scarcely fail to result in the worship of such demons, or deities, under the likeness of the animals, or reptiles, which they chose to honoui' — be they calves, or crocodiles, apes, or adders. We must bear in mind that this worship was sym- bolic, that the serpent was not actually worshipped, but the deity, or demon, that dwelt in the body of the serpent. Ovid, as we shall show, by-and-by, styles ^sculapius Deus in Serpente, that is, " God in the Serpent.'* This is the opinion generally held respect- ing the Serpent and Satan, described in the third chapter of Genesis. We do not believe that the Serpent was Satan, but that Satan was in the Serpent, as the demons took possession of the swine. Again, we should naturally, or reasonably, expect that the character, or properties of the animals which 212 SERPENT WOKSIIIF. symbolized the Deity, would, to some extent, indicate the character of the Deity. Now the principal qualities for which the serpent is distinguished, are cunning or wisdom. " The serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field ; " by following his advice, the eyes of our first parents were opened to distinguish between good and evil. What was the fact, as regards the great serpent deity, Apollo, the wisest of all the gods ? That he was especially worshipped and consulted at the great Oracle at Delphi, the source and centre of all wisdom and knowledge, religious and political; where his symbol was, the serpent, or Python ; hence he is styled, "the Pythcan Apollo." A modern writer says, "It may be safely asserted, that the Greeks would never have become what the)/ were, without the worship of Apollo. In him the brightest side of the Grecian mind is reflected." To the wisdom of the oracle, we may attribute much of the stability and prosperity of Greece. Again, we might naturally expect, that there would be some degree of fear and suspicion, existing in the SERPENT WORSHIP. 213 mind of the worshipper, with his veneration for the serpent, or the serpent deity, as the result of the old enmity between the serpent and the woman's seed, predicted in Gen. iii., 15. We shall find that this was the case, and that fear and even hatred were, in some cases, more powerful than devotion. Fear is, to a great extent, at the base of all false worship. We may just mention, here, that a heathen and sacrificial vessel was found near Tundera, in Denmark, in 1639, which contained the following engravings. One was that of a naked figure, with arms raised to heaven, apparently, praying for protection, from a large serpent, in the attitude of attack. The second engraving represented a naked figure, flying from a serpent. The third represented a figure, praying to a serpent; and the fourth cngraA^ng represented a figure, in converse with a serpent. Serpent worship presents us with many moods of mind. Worship and service are rendered as frequently to those who have the power of injuring us, as to tliose who have the power to serve us. A friend told me of 214 SERPENT WORSHIP. Ml SERPENT WORSHIP. 215 an altar that had been erected, in an outlying part of India, to the devil; and on making inquiry he dis- covered, that the demon who was worshipped, had been an officer in the British army, remarkable for his oppression and tyranny. We have here a pretty good illustration of the motives which influenced the native world, in the worship of the serpent. It has ever been viewed as the emblem of a great spiritual power, that can injure both the souls and the bodies of men. We are natu- rally ci\il and polite, and sometimes, eveii obsequious, to those who are able to haim us. Some do not con- sider it either wise or prudent, to speak disrespect- fully of the great fiend, or great enemy of mankind. Hence, probably, the title, " The Old Gentleman:' Again, we might reasonably expect to find serpent worship associated, to some extent, with tree worship ; and also to find that some worshippers endowed the serpent with the power of speech. Now this, we discover, was actually the case. We find all these features, more or less strongly developed, in the worship of the serpent, as practised throughout I the world ; of which we are about to give examples, from authorities that cannot be disputed. But again we ask. How did they arise ? How did such ideas and feelings ever get into the heads and hearts of mankind? Turn to the third chapter of Genesis, and you will find the golden key of the mystery or phenomenon. Before adducing proof of the almost universal pre- valence of serpent worship, we shall explain the nature of the worship itself. Ophiolatreia is derived from ophis, "a serpent," and latreia, "worship." Latreia is the worship a slave pays to his master, or Lord, who holds him in subjection. Latris means "a slave." But latreia is not the highest kind of worship presented to the supreme deity. The highest worship is called douleia. The Church of Rome has ever made a distinction between latreia and douleia. Douleia is presented to God only, and latreia to saints and angels. The Romans crowned successful generals, with laurels, and raised them to the estate of the gods, or placed them among the stars," and presented them unto latreia ; i( 216 SETIPENT WORSHIP, SEBPliNT WORSHIP. 217 although some of these heroes returned, after their conquests, like Julius C^sar, to rivet the chains of slavery about the necks of those who made them gods, and who bowed down and worshipped them. The worship of the Serpent is supposed, by Bryant, to have commenced in Chaldea (See Analysis of Ant. Myth., ii., 4, 5. 8). Tlie serpent was the most prevailing emblem of the solar god. We find fre- qnent traces of serpent worship in the astronomical mythology of the East. The Draco, or Dragon, or Great Serpent, was, at a very early period, deified, and placed among the stars. Draco still shines out, as one of the constellations of the Zodiac, with Scorpius, Hydra, and other deities. Diodorus infomis us, that in the temi'-e of Bel, or Belus, in Babylonia, there was an image of the goddess Rhea, sitting on a golden throne. At her knees stood two lions ; and near her were coiled large serpents, or dragons of silver, each 30 talents in weight. As Ehea was the mother of the supreme god Jupiter-though she herself was of earthly descent, being the daughter of Ge, "the Earth"- i I' she is supposed, by some, to represent tlie mother of our Lord. The devout reader is, therefore, a little surprised, or startled, to find even a silver re- presentation of serpents coiled around her. But the woman, and the serpent, very frequently, appear together, in heathen mythology ; the origin of which it would not be difficult to divine. In the temple of Bel, or Belus, was also an image of Juno, holding the head of a serpent in lier right hand. Some persons render the words in Genesis iii., 15, " She shall bruise thy head "—referring the words to the woman, instead of " i^," that is, the Woman's Seed. But the Hebrew pronoun has no gender, and the proper antecedent is the Woman's Seed. The name of the national god, Bel, is supposed to be a contraction of Obcl, which signifies the serpent god. "The Greeks," says Bryant, "called this god Beliar,* which is interpreted, by Hesychius, " a di'agon." * Ch-men. Alexan. writes (in quoting 2 Cor. vi. 15) "What concord hath Christ with Beliar?" as if Belial and Beliar were synonymous terms. 218 SEEPESr WOKSHIP. We have a clear account of the worship of Bel and the Dragon, in one of the Apocryphal Books. We learn, from the " History of Bel and the Dragon," that Bel was made of brass ; but that the Dragon ^as a Uving animal : " In the same place, there was a great dragon, which they of Bahjlon worshipped; and the King said unto Daniel, " Wilt thou also say, that this is of brass? Lo he liveth, he eateth and drinketh. Thou canst not say that he is no living god." Then Daniel said unto the King, " I will Worship the Lord, my God, for He is the living God. But give me leave, O King, and I shall slay this dragon, without sword or staff." The King said, " I give thee leave." So Daniel made up some poisonous mixture, that destroyed the brute ; which 80 provoked the Babylonians, who worshipped the dragon, or serpent, that they asserted the King had turned Jew, and they tried to destroy Daniel. It is worthy of note, that the Assyrians bore a dragon on their standard ; and in most countries the military standard was to some extent, descriptive ofthe deity which the nation worshipped, and which 11 SERPENT WORSHIP. 219 was supposed to aid them in war. From this asso- ciation may result the fact, that all nations venerate their standards, as almost divine. Of this we have had an interesting example in the tenacity with which the Comte de Chambord held to his " white flag/' for the sake of which he seemed, at one time, ready to relinquish his chance to the throne of France. The Parthians, Scythians, Chinese, Danes, and Saxons, had the dragon on their standards. Saint George and the Dragon came to us from the East. In proof of the religious veneration in which the standard was held, we may mention, that the llomau eagle was sacred to Jupiter. Eusebius, speaking of the Persians, says, "Tliey all worshipped the First Principles, under the form of serpents; dedicating to them temples, in which they perform sacrifices ; esteeming them the greatest of the gods, and the governors of the universe '* This is strong language, but we must not forget that *' the Old Serpent, the Devil," who tempted Eve, is styled **the God of f ^)i 220 » SEHPEMT WORSHIP. this World;' and " the Prince of the Power of the Air/' The Two Principles referred to, by Eusebius, were Ormuzd and xVhriman, who are represented under serpent forms, contending for the government of the world, or the Universe. The Evil Principle is repre- sented as having assumed the serpent form, " in order to destroy the first human species/' There was but one source for such ideas -Paradise and the Fall. The Persian god, Mithras, is represented encircled by a serpent. Montfaucon, in the first voliune of his work, gives us some plates of this god, with a lion's head and a human body, roimd which a large winged serpent is coiled. There is an ancient temple at Mardasch,* a pillar of which bears the figure of a king, worshipping the sun, fire, and a serpent. *' On the front of some Persian grottoes," says Br^-ant, "was figured a princely personage, approaching an altar, on which the sacred fire was burning. Above was the sun, ♦ Mandelsoe Travels, chap. i. SERPEXT WORSHIP. 221 I!' II and the figui*e of the deity, in a cloud; in some instances, Avith a sacred bandage, and in other instances with a sei'pent entwined round his middle."* In the description of the remains of Persepolis, by Koempfer, the same princely personage, who is supposed to represent Zon, *' the Sun,'' has a complete girdle, or zone, of serpents, round his waist. From opposite sides of the zone arc four wings. In his left hand he holds a circle, or ring, consisting of a serpent, biting his own tail. There is also the figure of a priest, approaching an ahar, with a serpent in his left hand. The hieroglyphics of the circle, wings, and serpents have been found in almost ev^ry countiy where serpent w^orship prevailed. We now turn from Persia to Hindostan. As an emblem of divinity, the serpent enters deeply into the religion of the Brahmins. We know of the great reluctance of this people to kill or injure a snake, or a serpent of any kind. In Forbes' Oriental Memoirs, we read of certain gardeners of Guzerat w^ho would not suffer their snakes to be molested, calling them ♦ Bryant*8 Anal., i., 276 ; plate in vol. ii., 406. 4 I i 222 SERPEXT WORSHIP. SERPENT WORSHIP. 223 "Father/' and "Brother," and other endearing names ; but the head gardener paid them religious honours. In Purchas' " Pilgrims," we read that a king of Calicut built cottages for live serpents, whom he tended with great care, making it a crime for anyone to destroy a snake. The natives believed that ser- pents were endued with divine spirits. The deities sculptured on the walls of the caverns of Salsette and Elephanta, are enfolded by serpents, some of which the gods grasp in their hands. The god Sani is represented as a raven, encircled by two serpents. On a rock in the Ganges, in the pro- vince of Bahar, Vishna is represented reposing on two coiled serpents, whose numerous folds form a canopy over the sleeping deity. Jagan-Nath (Juggernaut) is sometimes worshipped under the form of a dragon, or great serpent, with seven heads. Mahadeva, or Siva, is sometimes represented with snakes entwined about his neck and arms, and in his hair. Parvati, the consort of Siva, has snakes about her neck and waist. Mr. James Fergusson read a paper at the meeting of the British Association, held in Norwich, in August, 1868, in which he speaks of the worship of serpents and trees in India. According to Mr. Fergusson, the serpent and the tree of knowledge are indissolubly united in the minds of this people. He speaks of serpent and tree worship as lying at the root of Greek mythology. Speaking of the far East, he says—" A photographer of Singapore went to Cambodia, and took various views of the place. It was then found that the carvings of the temple show, at every angle, large seven-headed snakes ; and at the cornices there are ranges of snakes' heads, and so on." The temple is seven hundred feet square, and it contains large reservoirs of water, evidently for snakes ; in fact, the building was a great snake temple, where living snakes were worshipped. One statue, in the portico of the temple, is of special in- terest, it is that of a leprous king, who is said to have been affected by leprosy, because he had forsaken the worship of the snakes. Mr. Fergusson winds lup his paper thus :— " These \ 224 SERPENT WORSHIP. facts and traditions, after all, take us back to the garden of Eden, with its tree of knowledge, and its serpent, and suggest that the Mosaic account may have fui-nished the material out of which sprang the tree and serpent worship, even of the present daj." We find the serpent was more especially the emblem of an Evil than of a Good spirit, or god. The King of Evil Demons is styled, in Hindoo mythology, " The King of the Serpents.'^ His name is Nagas or ]S"aig8 ; " in which Sanscrit appellation," says Maurice, " we plainly see the Hebrew Nachash. This certainly is the name given to the tempter in Genesis iii., 1 : *' Now the Nachash was more subtle than any beast of the field." The malignant serpent, Caliya, who was slain by Vishnu, for poisoning the air and destroying the herds on the banks of the Yamuna, was worshipped by the Hindoos in the same manner as Python, who was slain by Apollo, and adored at Delphi. Herein we have examples of the mingled feelings of adora- tion and hatred, associated with serpent worship. SERPENT WORSHIP. 095 To an evil demon, in serpent form, the Hindoos committed the care of treasures. An interesting story, in illustration of this fact, is recorded in Mr. Forbes* *' Oriental Memoirs": — '* Having the curiosity to open a vault, in a deserted tower, in which treasure was reported to be con- cealed, under the guardianship of a demon, two men descended a vault, where they were startled to find a large serpent, in a torpid state.'* We need scarcely say, they ascended with all possible expedition. They then destroyed the serpent with fire. It requires a great deal of moral courage, in a Hindoo, to destroy a serpent ; but it has been done, and may be done again, if set about in a religious and proper manner. In the Sadder we find the fol- lowing precept, " When about to kill serpents, repeat the Zenda Vesta, for it is the same as if you destroyed so many demons.'' A great dragon is as truly the symbol of royalty, in China, as is the rampant lion in England. The Emperor carries a dragon on his standard as his armorial bearings. It is engraved on his sceptre, \ 224 SERPENT WORSHIP. facts and traditions, after all, take us back to the garden of Eden, with its tree of knowledge, and its serpent, and suggest that the Mosaic account may have furnished the material out of which sprang the tree and serpent worship, even of the present day." We find the serpent was more especially the emblem of an Evil than of a Good spirit, or god. The King of Evil Demons is styled, in Hindoo mythology, " The King of the Serpents." His name is Nagas or IS^aigs ; " in which Sanscrit appellation,'* says Maurice, " we plainly see the Hebrew Nachash. Tliis certainly is the name given to the tempter in Genesis iii., 1 : " Now the Nachash was more subtle than any beast of the field." The malignant serpent, Caliya, who was slain by Vishnu, for poisoning the aii* and destroying the herds on the banks of the Yamuna, was worshipped by the Hindoos in the same manner as Python, wh o was slain by Apollo, and adored at Delphi. Herein we have examples of the mingled feelings of adora- tion and hatred, associated with j-erpcnt worship. SERPENT WORSHIP. 225 To an evil demon, in serpent form, the Hindoos committed the care of treasures. An interesting story, in illustration of this fact, is recorded in Mr. Forbes* *' Oriental Memoirs " : — " Having the curiosity to open a vault, in a deserted tower, in which treasure was reported to be con- cealed, under the guardianship of a demon, two men descended a vault, where they were startled to find a large serpent, in a torpid state." We need scarcely sav, they ascended with all possible expedition. They then destroyed the serpent with fire. It requires a great deal of moral courage, in a Hindoo, to destroy a serpent ; but it has been done, and may be done again, if set about in a religious and proper maimer. In the Sadder we find the fol- lowing precept, " When about to kill serpents, repeat the Zenda Vesta, for it is the same as if you destroyed so many demons." A great dragon is as truly the symbol of royalty, in China, as is the rampant lion in England. The Emperor carries a dragon on his standard as his armorial bearings. It is engraved on his sceptre. 226 SERPENT WORSHIP. and diadem, and on all the vessels in the imperial palace. The dragon and the serpent are the fifth and sixth signs of the Chinese Zodiac. The Chinese believe in the existence of a Great Dra-on, of extraordinary strength and sovereignty, wliicli inliabits lieaven, and hell, tlie air, the water, and the mountains. The Japanese differ in no respect from the Chinese, as it regards their veneration for the serpent, or di-agon. They represent it, in their books, as a long and huge foui-footed snake, which dwells at the bottom of the sea. Temples were erected for the worship of this terrible animal. Koempfer says, a temple was pointed out to him, that had been erected to commemorate a victory gained on the shores of the lake city, by a famous dragon.* The Japanese display their veneration for the serpent ly eating iU believing that its flesh has the virtue of making them bold and courageous. Some * Koempter, Japan, 491. SERPENT WORSHIP. 227 savage nations believe that to become " a brave,'' one must eat a brave. The language of Arabia retains some marks of serpent worship. The same word is employed to denote " adoration," and '*the serpent," from which Mr. Dickinson infers that the Arabians formerly worshif)ped serpents. See Delph. Phoen., c. ii., p. 10. Philostratus speaks of the natives of Arabia and Hindostan, eating the heart and liver of serpents, for the purj)ose of acquiring a knowledge of the language and thoughts of animals.* A remarkable sect of serpent worshippers sprang up in the church, in the seccmd century, which were called Ophites. Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of them, and Tertullian describes their tenets thus : — Acct'sserunt his haBretici etiam qui Ophitae niincupantur, nam serpentem magniiicant in tantum ut ilium etiam ipsi Cristo prasftTant. Ipse enim, inquiunt scientise nobis boni et mali originem dedit. Hujus animadvertens potentiam et majestatem Moyses aeream posuit aerpentem, et quicnnque in eum aspexerunt, sanitatem consecuti sunt. Ipse, aiunt prfeterea, in Evangelio imitatur serpentis ipsius sacram * De vita Apollonii, lib. i., c. 14, and lib. iii., c. 3. / \ / 228 SERPENT WORSHIP potestatem dicendo, et sicut Moyses exaltavit serpentera in deserto, ita exaltari oportet Filium Hominis. Vide De Pice>cnpt Hjeret, c. xlvii., p. 221. Epiphanius says, the Ophites sprung out of the Nicolaitanes and Gnostics, and were so called from the serpent which they worshipped. The Gnostic taught, that the Ruler of this world was of a dracontic form. The Ophites, he tells us, attributed all wisdom to the Serpent of Paradise, and say that he was the author of all knowledge to men. This sect kept a live serpent in a chest, and at the time of the mysteries {i, e, the communion of the Holy Sacrament) enticed him out, by placing bread before him, on a table, which he enfolded. This bread was afterwards distributed among the votaries. This bread was called the Eucharist.* The above account reminds us of the mysteries of Bacchus, in which serpents were carried in covered baskets, on which cakes and new bread were distri- buted among the worshippers. Manes, a celebrated heretic of the third century, * Epipb. lib. i., torn 3., p. 208, &c. u SERPENT WORSHIP. 229 taught that Christ was an incarnation of the Great Serpent, who glided over the cradle of the Virgin Mary, when she was asleep, at the age of a year and a half. The coins of the Tyrians fully establish the exist- ence of serpent worship, or that the serpent was closely mixed up with their religion. We have a description of these coins in " Maurice's Indian Anti- quities,'' vol. vi. The first represents a tree, round the trunk of which is coiled a serpent. The second represents a burning altar, with two serpents. The third a naked man, standing between two serpents. The fourth represents the Tyrian Hercules, contending with a serpent. The fifth a Petra Ambrosia, round which is entwined a large serpent. The sixth represents an altar, a sacrifice, and a serpent. In " Bryant's Analysis," plate 7, vol. iii., we have a Tyrian coin, with a serpent entwined about the trunk of a tree. When Baratus lived at Benevento, in a.d. €■83, he discovered that some of the inhabitants, who were Lombards, worshipped a golden viper r- \ i. fl 230 RERPEXT WORSIirP. SERPENT WORSHIP. 231 and a tree, on which the skin of a wild beast was hung. He suppressed this idolatry, and being made Bishop of Benevento, cut down the tree, and melted the golden viper, for a sacramental chalice. Milner, Hist, of the Church, iii., 113. The Serpent was stamped upon coins of other towns of Asia Minor, as, for example, Cyzicum, Pergamos, Nice, and Nicomedia. A female holding a serpent in her right hand, and in her left, the rostrum of a ship, was the sym^)ol of Asia Minor. Vide Beger de num. Creten Serpentif. 8. A coin of Samos represents an erect serpent, before a naked man, holding a ring in his hand. A livin"' serpent, of an immense size, was worshipped at Hierapolis, in Phrj'gia. And there is a tradition, that it was destroyed by the prayers of Philip the Apostle, which so impressed the people, that they, at once, embraced Chris- tianity. The "barbarous people'* on the island, wliere St. Paul was shipwrecked, concluded that he was a god, when he shook off the venomous reptile, which had fastened itself on his hand. We are famihar with the story in Vii'gil, of the Pius ^neas, offering libations of wine, new milk, and blood, at the tomb of his father, Anchises, when a large and beautiful serpent glided from the ground, ascended the altar, and consumed the offering ; which manifestation of the serpent god's approval was rewarded by ^neas, who forthwith presented to the deity, two sheep, two cows, and two bullocks. We turn to Egypt. Harpocrates, a veiy ancient Egyptian god, was symbolized by the serpent. He was the god of Silence, and is represented with the forefinger of his right hand crossing his lips. Cneph, who was styled "the Architect of the Universe,'' was generally represented by a serpent, with an eg^ in his mouth. The egg denoted the Universe. This deity was spoken of as "the Original Eternal Spirit, which pervades all Creation."* Isis was also symbolized under the serpent form. The Isiac Table, which describes her mysteries, is, in every part, " charged " with serpents, as emblems of this goddess. The asp was ♦ Jablonski Panth. -^gypt, c. 4, p. 81. 232 SERPENT WOllSHIP. the species of serpent especially dedicated to Isis. This is seen on the heads of her statues, and on the bonnets of her priests. When the Egyptians wished to represent this goddess as angry, they placed an asp on her head, or hair, which they designated by a name signifying " Deadly:' The figui-e of Serapis, encircled by serpents, is often found on tombs and urns. Serapis was supposed, by the Egyptians, to have dominion over evil demons, like Pluto, or Satan. A striking example of the talismanic serpent, was to be seen in the familiar form of the Caduceus, or the two serpents springing from the same winged shaft. The people of Whydah, on the Western coast of Africa, worship three kinds of deities— serpents, tall trees, and the wide blue sea. The serpent which they worship, is considered harmless, and is seen in the houses of the natives; sometimes leaving its young in their beds. To it, rich offerhigs are made ; it is invoked under difficulties and dangers; and to injure, or harm it, would be deemed great profanity. SERPENT WORSHIP. 233 The " Serpent House,'* is a most celebrated shrine of serpent worship, to which processions and pilgriaiages are made. There is here, a large establishment of priests, and priestesses, with a pontiff at their head. Vide Bosnian on Guinea, p. 265. Mr. AVinwood Reade, in the second volume of his African Sketch Book, (pp. 228-9) gives us a good woodcut of the Serpent Temple at Whydah, which he visited, and which he calls the " Snake House," and on which he makes the following ob- servations : " The snake is the tutelary god of Whydah, as the leopard is that of Dahomey. According to the African custom, the Dahomans, when they acquired Whydah, adojited the local divinity. The temple consists of a yard, or court, with a tree in the midst, and a building of cupola shape. Introduced by a French Missionary, I entered this building, and saw the snakes curled about the thatch. An old woman, the priestess of the temple, took up one in her arms, and allowed us to Q / \ I f 234 SERPKNT WOKSHIP. SERPENT WORSHIP. 235 feel its body, wliicli was colder, to the touch, than anything else in this salamander laud. The artist has depicted the other snakes, displaying much curiosity at the entrance of strangers ; but, as a matter of fact, they did not so much as raiec their heads, when we made our appearance. •' These snakes, which are quite harmless, often go out, for a crawl, in the town. The people that meet them bow down and touch the dust. Sometimes a house is honoured with a visit from these divine reptiles. A story is related of an English Captain, ^•ho, sleeping one night in a factory, on shore, was horrified to see, by the moonlight, a huge boa- constrictor Cas he supposed) come in at the window. He did not dare to get out of bed, and escape by the door, for fear of treading on the snake, and 80 he spent the night, in a cold sweat, expecting every moment to find himself encircled in its coils. The day, at last, dawned, he peeped out of bed, saw the serpent sleeping in the corner of the room, pounded its head to a jelly, with a large stone, and then, with much exultation, hung it out of the V 1 I' window, and displayed it to the people passing by, whereupon he was summoned before the authorities and had to pay a considerable sum.'* The serpent worship on the western coast of Africa is thought, by some, to be almost pure and original, i,e., but little adulterated by foreign super- stition ; and to have been propagated by the earliest descendants of Ham, by whom this part of Africa was colonized. This is a subject on which we offer no opinion. There is a tradition that the first sacred serpent of Whydah was sent to them from abroad. The original owners did not care to keep him — perhaps like the gentleman who got the present of an elephant, they found him too expensive, —and therefore made a present of him to the people of Whydah, who were more pious, or more superstitious, and who received him with open arms, and carried him to his new temple, or house, in a silken carpet. This venerable snake is the ancestor of all the rest. There is a tradition that he is still alive, but that the "Old Gentleman" has grown so large, that he is unable to move about as formerly. I ( 236 SERPENT WORSHIP. SERPENT WORSHIP. 237 Justin Martyr accuses the heathen of introducing serpent worship into the mysteries of all their gods. (Apolog., lib. i., p. 60). This was certainly true with reference to the mysteries of Bacchus, for those who assisted at these mysteries were crowned with serpents, and carried serpents in their hands, which they brandished about, exclaiming Euia ! Euia ! Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, was sometimes represented with a dragon. The statues by Phidias were decorated with this emblem. In plate, p. 85, of the first volume of Montfaucon, there are several medals, in one of which she holds a caducous, in the right hand ; in another a staff, round which a serpent is entwined ; and in a third, a large serpent is represented moving on before her. Other medals represent her crest as composed of serpents. In the -^gina Marbles, and in the statue of this goddess, in the possession of Mr. Hope, the serpent and the Gorgon Medusa, on her breast, are equally con- spicuous. The city of Athens was especially consecrated to the worship of Minerva, and in the Acropolis was kept a live serpent. The Emperor Hadiian built a temple to Jupiter Olympius, and placed in it a large serpent, or dragon, which he caused to be brought from India. The people of Argos had a tradition, that the city, was, at one time, infested with serpents, till the god Apis came from Egypt, and settled in it, and that he banished the whole brood. The breast-plate and baldrick of Agamemnon, king of Argos, bore the device of a triple-headed serpent ; and his brother, Menalaus, bore a serpent on his shield. The town of Epidaurus, in Argolis, was famous for the temple of iEsculapius, the great shrine of serpent worship. We learn, from Pausanius, that live serpents were kept here. The statue of ^sculapius represented this deity as leaning on a staff, and resting one hand on the head of a serpent. His sister, Hygeia, appears with a serpent entwining her body, drinking from a chalice in her hand, and sometimes coiled up in her lap. JEsculapius is especially the god of healing. Jupiter fearing that by his great knowledge of herbs, i) I 238 SERPENT WORSHIP. SERPENT WORSHIP. 239 mankind would become immortal, put him out of existence. JEsculapius is often represented with a stick, or "a /?o/^," aroimd which serpents arc entwined, ^um. xxi., 8. We learn from Livy, Ovid, Valerius Maximus, and other writers, that a pestilence having broken out in Home, the Oracle of Delphi recommended an embassy to Epidaunis, to fetch the god iEsculapius. Quintus Oglunius, and ten others, were accordingly sent to his temple. While they were gazing on the serpent statue of the god, a venerable serpent glided by, passed through the city, entered the Roman vessel, and coiled itself up in the bed of Oglunius. On entering the Tiber, the serpent left the vessel for an island and disappeared. Here the Romans erected a temple, in the shape of a ship, when the plague was stayed. Ovid (Met. xv., 665 — 667) gives an animated description of this embassy and of the exciting scene which occurred in the temple at Epidaurus, when the god made his appearance. Postera si erecs aurora fngaverat igDee ; luccitiquld aj^unt pioceiud, ad tcmpla petiti I Conveniunt operoRa Dei ; quaque ipse morari, Sede velit, signis coelestibuR indicet, orant. Vix bene desierant cum cristis aureus altis In Serpeiite Dens praenuntia sibila misit. A'lveintnque suo BigDumque arasque foresqiie Marmoreunaque solum, fastigiaque aurea movit, Pectoribusque tenus medi4 sublimis in aede Constitit ; atque oculos circumtulit igne micanteH. Territa turba pavet, cognorit Nuraina Gustos, Evinctus vitta crines albonte sacerdos El Deus en ! Deua en ! '* Aurora having quenched the light of the stars, the eiders of the town of Epidaurus, uncertain what course they should pursue, convened the people, for prayer, at the temple of the god. Being assembled, they prayed the deity to let them know, by some celestial sign or token, where he desired to reside. Scarcely had they put up their j)etition, when the god, in serpent form, with golden mane erect, gave forth his answer. At his approach the image [of the god], the altars, the doors, the marble foundations, and the golden roof were moved. With breast raised aloft, he took uj) a position about the centre of the temple, and cast his eyes, flashing with fire, around him. The terrified crowd trembled at the sight, but ! '«■«•> '— ' •mmmm^mfm^r'mmgg^immmmmtfm mifmmmmmim^ \ 240 SERPENT WOKSIIIP. SERPENT WORSHIP. 241 the keeper of the temple understood the deity. Then the priest, with temples boimd with a white fillets exclaimed ''' Behold the god ! Behold the god .'*' That the serpent form should he so closely and intimately bound up with the healing art, as it was in the case of the god ^sculajnus, is most satisfac- torily accounted for by what is recorded in Kum* xxi., 7 — 9, where we find that a brazen serpent was employed for the cure of those Jews who had been bitten by serpents in the wilderness. Most of the great facts of Jewish history became traditions to the world ; and this was one of them, which could scarcely fail to leave its mark, or trail, in the mythology of Greece and Rome. Such an association of the serpent form, with the art of healing, would be likely to divest this rcjitile, in general estimation, of some portion of its sting ; and we accordingly find, that the " Great Medicine " of the Greeks, notwithstanding his serpent form, was a favourite god, not only in Greece, but also in many other places. We cannot, therefore, but conclude, that those two great events in Jewish history — the / I n temptation in Paradise, and the cure of those bitten by serpents, in the wilderness — must have given both the dark and the light shade, or tinge, to serpent worship, of which we have furnished so many examples. To conclude our argument on this point, let us take it for granted that serpent worship had its rise and origin in traditions of these two memorable events in Jewish history. We then, very reasonably, expect to find the serpent, in some cases, worshipped with fear and trembling, and, in other cases, with veneration and love. I need scarcely add, that these diverse phases of serpent worship have prevailed throughout the world. We have stated in our introductory remarks to this chapter, that if serpent worship had its rise in the transactions recorded in the third chapter of Genesis, we might reasonably expect some reference to the serpenVs 'power of speech^ and also, to find tree ivorship, to some extent, associated with serpent worship. In such expectation we do not find ourselves 242 SERPENT WORSHir. SERPENT WORSHIP. 243 disappointed. Lucian, speaking of the Oracle of Delphi, says, "A dragon" [i.e.. a large serpent] ^'.pealcs from under the tripod^ There may have been ventriloquism, here, on the part of the Pythian priestess ; but the ventriloquism would not have been practised, if the belief in the serpent's power of speech had not prevailed. The priestess of Delphi, in working the oracle, stood, or sat, upon a three-legged stool, which was called a tripod. At the base of the tripod was a three-headed serpent of hrass. We are informed by Gibbon, that this tripod, with its serpent base, was transferred from Delphi to Constantinople, and set up on a pillar, in the Hippodrome. Leunclavius informs us, that Mahomet II. (after Constantinople had been taken by the Turks), seeing this famous tripod, with its serpents, placed upon a pillar, as an object of worship, was fearfully enraged, and inquired, with true Mohammedan zeal " What idol is this ? ''— hurling his mace at it, with such force, as to knock off the lower jaw of one of the serpents. Soon after this-as the story goes-a number of serpents made their appearance in the city, which caused one of Mahomet's ministers to say, " I would advise your Majesty to let the serpents alone "—which advice, we conclude the Grand Turk followed, as we understand that the column of the tripod, with its serpent base, may be seen in the city to the present day — but for this we will not vouch too strongly.* Fabretti (Inscript. Antig.) gives us a few engrav- ings of ancient sculpture, one the representation of a tree^ encircled by a serpent, with an altar in the dis- tance ; a second, of an equestrian, approaching an altar, at the foot of a tree^ about the branches of * A friend of mine, Com. -General Gardiner, after read- ing the first edition of this ho.)k, writes : — " I cail give you some information that may interest you, in regard to the Delphic relic, mentioned on page 243 — 4. 1 fiave fre- quently stood in the At-Maidan, or Hippodrome, at Constantinople, wondering over the history of the Serpent Column that stands there, as a relic of the past. ** It is a pillar about thirteen feet high, formed of three brazen Serpents, twined round a hollow central axis and formihg a column terminating at the summit with the heads pointing in opposite directions. Two of the heads only remain at the present day, the third having been broken off by Mahmoud, as you relate." » ll vj-_^"-^=:r."::L, ~ n': ._.".:: " 244 SERPENT WORSHIP. which a serpent is entwined. To the right of the tree, is a naked female, and near her is a man in the attitude of supplication to the serpent. The Romans held the serpent in great veneration. The accidental sight of a serpent w{is esteemed, by them, either a good or a bad omen. The death of Tiberius Gracchus was foreshadowed by a serpent, found in his house. The successful career of Roscius was clearly indicated, from the fact of his being enfolded by a serpent, when an infant, lying asleep in his cradle. The English Druids had a famous goddess named Ceridwin, whose car was also drawn by serpents. Some think that, for Ceridwin, we may read Ceres, for the Druids and Gauls had divinities corresponding in character to those of Greece and Rome. There is a bardic poem entitled the Elegy of Uther Pendragon, or "the Wonderful Dragon." The word Draig, which we render dragon, also signifies " the Supreme God," See Owen's Die. Art. Draig. This poem, or elegy, speaking of the " Gliding King," before whom *' the Fair One retreats to the SERPENT WORSHIP. 245 covert of the rocks," reminds us of the way in which Milton represents the serpent gliding before Eve : " So varied he, aod of his tortuous train, Curl'd many a wanton wreath, in sight of Eve, To lure her eye. She, busied, heard the sound Of rustling leaves, but minded not, as used To such disport." The Welsh wore in the habit of wearing snake stones, as a charm. They were called Gleinen JSfadroeth. They are of a green colour, but sometimes blue, waved with red and white. Pliny calls them anquinum, and gives an account how they are pro- duced, from saliva and froth, when the serpents " put their heads together " and hiss. An infusion of snake stone and water was considered efficacious in curinjr cattle that had been bitten by serpents. Those stones (or beads) must have been like the Pedra del Cobra, which the Brahmins say, was an eflPectual charm against the bite of snakes. This must have been the serpent stone, which Pliny says was cut out of the brain of a living serpent. The serpent having been charmed, and lulled to sleep, a sudden incision was made in its head, and the stone cut out. 246 SERPENT AVOIISHIP. There are monumental evidences of the worship of the serpent, existinj^ in Ireland, to the present day. A j^rand crucifonn cavern, or serpent temple, was discovered at New Grange, County Meath, about fifty or sixty years ago, supposed to be consecrated to tlie worship of Mithras. Tliis Persian deity was once symbolized by a ser- pent. Here were dug up three remarkable stones, on which mystical figures, and coiled serpents, were engraved. It is by no means improbable that the tradition of St. Patrick, banishing the serpent from Ireland, may have more truth in it, than we first imagined. For serpent, read serpent worshippers, and the tradition is explained. It only remains that we should conduct the reader to a grand serpent temple in Scotland. Miss C. F. Gordon-Cumming presents us, in Good Words, with an interesting description of a serpent-J^hapcd mound, near Loch Nell, which she looks upon as a serpent temple. She writes thus : ** Finding ourselves, unconsciously, in the presence SEHrENT WOllJjHlP. 247 of the Great Dragon, we hastened to improve our acc^uaintance ; and, in a couple of minutes, had scrambled on to the ridge which forms his back- bone, and thence perceived that we were standing on an artificial mound, three hundred feet in lengtn, forming a double curve, like a huge letter (^^ ,[and wonder- fully perfect in anatomical outline. The head forms a circular cairn, on which, at the time of Mr. Phene's first visit, there still remained some trace of an altar, which has since wholly disappeared. " This cairn was excavated ou the 12th October, 1871, and within were found three large stones forming a chamber, which contained burnt bones, chanoal, and charred hazel nuts. A flint instrument was also found, beautifully serrated at the edge. '• On the removal of the peat moss and heather from the ridge of the serpent's back, it was found that the whole length of the spine was constructed with regular and symmetrically placed stones, at such an angle as to throw off rain. The depth which the peat moss has attained, tells of many a long century of silent and undistuibed growth, since the days when the ser- f 248 SEKPENT AVORSHIP. pent's spine was the well-known path, daily trodden, by reverend feet.'* We ask again, at the conclusion, as we have done at the commencement, of this chapter, whence did this general or almost universal worship of the serpent arise ? For the prevalence of this strange phenomenon we can give no more natural, or reasonable explana- tion, than that contained in the third chapter of Genesis. i ■^ ^ - a^ / *,f-n 4 . £ V. X 1^^ f^'^^ ^ UJ OC ^"~ a < — □ 55 ^= 3 '=^ c-o LH — zr K :r g r^ w 1 H- s ^— =0 UJ = ^ — LIJ ± -— 1 Z ^= •- nq 3 r-=l < □ S = Z — 3 ro » ^ o - o ^^X' ^^ " f *,.■'* ' ■y'':^ .i-¥^L!Sri»-''**^i^3t»i'^^^il?'-'» ...' -^ '.*"■• i; ^^ .>-,■»»,>., '-^^ >< ;,.-''j '" -^ . .^>"-">-l'* t, " s **'*^£_2 ■>trS •'r*-^ ■r.Vif' ?rHi>A I mmm mmm iru i nr ii ij ^ MP«^ «■« > I c«i#4':t^