Preface
C
''Man, that is born of woman, is of few daj-s and full of trouble; he cometh forth as a flower, and is cut down; he Heeth like a shadow, and continueth not."
This volume is the product of many years of careful study and intense mental labor, under the most trying circumstances possible for an author to be placed, being without home, money, sympathy or assistance in the self-imposed task; besides a strong opposition to encounter at almost every step has had the effect to delay its publication.
But financial embarrassment has been the impeeding force and the delaying power, since having been compelled to go forth each clay to work for bread, and writing only when not driven to earn food, and that too in the most depressed financial condition ever known to the people of the far west.
These, together with a helpless family of motherless children offered no assistance to the circumstances above mentioned.
In the face of these facts it would be a surprise to the author if the book was more commendable than otherwise, and though it is far inferior to what the author intended it should be, it is nevertheless all the circumstances would permit. It ought to have been through the press three years earlier, but owing to the above named circumstances it has been delayed.
I have tried to enlist the attention of all classes, from the millionaire down to the servant girl of ebon hue ? but failed in each and every attempt.
I tried nearly, if not quite all of the printers south of Sacramento to San Diego, California, but always met with the same kind of encouragement , which was: to try some one else, which I did. I even wrote East with no better success; but I made up my mind in the beginning that it took all these mild ingredients to make up the awful dose of disappointments, which has in the past, and still must be taken by all those, who are foolish enough to try to introduce a new idea to the world. I think it is pretty nearly true what a gentleman in San Francisco once remarked concerning new ideas; that is, that it cost 40,000 dollars and required two generations to get a new idea before the American people. In view of this fact I concluded to write for future generations, and let the book bide its time, for money I have none, and $40,000 friends are not hovering conveniently near with stringless sacks and bursting with fullness? The foregoing are all of the apologies I have to offer to the considerate reader.
But some of my sj^mpathizing friends have hinted that they would like to add a word of apology to my own, for no other reason than to explain that I do not rush to the popular trough, drink with the herd and bellow for coin.
But as that would be a very unnatural pleasure for me to enjoy, I must deem all such apologies out of place. Had I consulted public opinion this book would never have been written. And now it is too late to join the popular procession, however pleasant and profitable it might be to myself and others.
I respect public as well as private opinions when they are right, but I entertain no respect for voluntary slavery in religion, henchmen in politics, nor sycophants in science. I have a profound regard for truth, but no respect for falsehood nor deception. I reverence no doctrine, dogma, subject nor science, because some one else did or does. I only admire them for the truth they embrace. I object to wrong whereever I find it, and accept nothing on authority. No man is so good or great, that I fear to criticise his errors, nor so bad that I cannot accept the good he offers. We are only mortals at best, ruled by the same natural laws, differing only in intensity.
There is no royal name nor blood, That men should love or fear, But royal deeds above the clouds Should make their memory dear.
A physician once remarked that it was a daring tiling to do, to question the authority of the old teachers on physiological questions. I replied, that it required no special degree of courage to oppose an error after it has been proven one, that only cowards feared to speak in behalf of truth.
Books are too often written, not to defend truth nor to advance the cause of humanity, but to catch dollars. I test all metals in my crucible and try them as silver is tried. If I am in error on any point in this profound philosophy, the reader may be doubly assured that it was not maliciously nor superstitiously obtained, for I never possessed a pet idea that I could not release from the cage of my fancy in a moments warning, if necessary.
I sometimes advance ideas w T hich I cannot support excetp in a logical way, but I make no assertions to-day, that I fear may be overthrown tomorrow, but in case I should, I will thank the one who does the kindly act.
I am awake to the fact, that world-building and life-creating is not a safe nor sure business to engage in during this age. It would do for Moses and other speculative minds to attempt such hazardous things in other days when people were imbued with faith and strangers to the facts of nature.
But in a scientific age like this, when the mental status is reversed and facts come first, the prospect for success in gaining public recognition is not so flattering as formerly. Nevertheless I am going to launch a theory on the turbid waters of chance, and try its powers of endurance in weathering the storms of criticisms from scientific elements.
I beg no points, nor ask for charity; my work is open to criticism.
If it is too weak to withstand the buffets of the breakers, it must succumb to their fury, and be dashed to pieces on the rock bound shore of the sea of science. The reader will learn, before advancing very far in the perusal of this work, that the author is not a
Darwinian evolutionist, but a spontaneous produetionist, and bases his philosophy on the proposition that man originally was and now is a product of nature's laws, which are executed by the heavenly bodies, and that they created him in his present form, and not through the unknown laws of evolution, nor in the image of his ''maker". Moreover, the great laws which created him must necessarily rule, and sustain him from his coming on till his going off of the stage of action.
The author also claims for the same laws the power to create species.
If they can create a single form of life, they can create many forms, since it is only necessary for them to create a nucleus in order to create any form of life. If they could create a single nucleus they could create many more. If more, their power is scarcely limited.
The creation of a nucleus is all the difficulty there is attending the creation of any and all forms of life; and since they can be created with ease and accuracy evolution is unnecessary.
Dissecting the human body, and separating it into its primary parts, as they were put together by the zoadical forces, may be regarded by some as hazardous and uncertain work. But the reader can better judge the merits of the point in question after he has finished the book.
The attempt to disprove the immortality of man will doubtless meet with more opposition than all other questions involved in the text; for few, if any, wish to believe that they will not be permitted to hear the glad notes of Gabriel's sounding horn when the day arrives for the grave to give up its dead, and the angry sea to disgorge its many victims, that all shall " come forth to be judged of the deeds done in the body ", and each assigned to his place on the right or left as the case may be, there to remain forever.
Of my own choice I would deprive no one of the innocent pleasure of witnessing his neighbor's sentence to everlasting punishment by the stern command of the tenderhearted dispenser of justice.
" Depart ye accursed into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ". Nor would I deprive him of receiving his own reward of everlasting life for his own good works: "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joys of thy lord. "
But from necessity I must judge the result of the created from the character of the creator, and not from a personal opinion as to what should be the result according to my own yiews of justice. It matters not to her what man believes or hopes for; whether creating or destroying, nature executes her laws to the letter on all occasions. We only deceive ourselves by building contrary to her mandates.
It has been said that because man is a worshipping animal he has a creator to worship and a soul to save. But, dear reader, when you reflect that his desire to lie to his friends, slander his neighbor, steal from the unsuspecting, starve and torture his fellows, and murder the innocent, is greater than his desire to worship his supposed creator, the former argument fades away into insignificance.
If one passion is divine then all must be. If one talent is Godgiven then all of them are. But as a matter of fact man has but a meager desire to worship anything but gold. Modern worship is mostly formal — little faith and less sincerity, and executed by a force of practice, usually for a purpose; therefore, there is no weight to the argument.
I will doubtless find myself homeless among the medical fraternity, because no one likes to have his business assailed; but falsehood must be sifted out of science regardless of individual desires or personal interests.
If I were writing in my own financial interest this would be a very different book. I would write lies to please, romance to flatter, and falsehoods for effect; for that would catch the masses ; for rugged scientific truth, stern and piercing, can be relished only by the wise. Facts are alone for the freighted brain, and these are vastly in the minority; in these I trust for the success of this book.
I will now introduce the reader to " Stellar Dust," with the modest request that he, or she, read understanding^, without prejudice: weigh the arguments with care and judge according to the evidence adduced; then he or she will have done all an honest author could ask of an intelligent reader.
Introduction
In a former volume, entitled "Evolution and Reproduction", which I published in 1889. was explained many points of interest in connection with this new philosophy, but after seven years of careful study I found it very imperfect. I therefore concluded to give to the public a more complete rendering of the subject, and to it add some of the most important points laid down in the former volume, since I cannot now tell when I shall have another edition published. And though I have been an enthusiastic student of Astrology for nearly a quarter of a century, yet I find no limit to the field of investigation, open to the untrammeled mind that can unfettered roam through nature's fields, blossoming with everlasting truths. I have an abiding confidence in the intuition of the human mind, notwithstanding its finite powers to unfold many of nature's most subtle secrets, which have hitherto been unrevealed to man, not only in connection with this world, but with the universe of systems. When philosophers, scientists and learned men extend their researches out into nature's open, broad and free fields, which is becoming a scientific mind, instead of ignoring the great universal natural laws, because they are called astrology and because a certain class of people have arrayed their forces against it to frown it down, then they may expect to accomplish results in proportion to the efforts put forth. But so long as they study effects beneath their feet in searching for the laws which produce them, just so long will they be wandering in the unproductive dessert of thought, all barren of results and finally fall by the wayside, unrewarded for their toil.
In this, however, they only share the fate of many of their predecessors, who surrender the scepter of life at the very throne of success, had they only looked in the right direction to behold the gems of truth ready to flash out before their wandering eyes. What a surprise would have been theirs, had they only turned their eyes toward heaven, as they had so often been commanded to do, and studied nature as a whole; they would have learned much pertaining to her subtle forces and become familiar with the secrets of her mighty works, then how much they would have learned to their own interest and to the advantage of the human family, and how many facts in nature they might have discovered long ago, and what beautiful truths they might have scattered broadcast to an anxious waiting world, and how much falsehood and superstition they might have throttled in their embryonic form and thus made their lives both profitable and glorious. But instead, they have bolstered up stale dogmas, divine falsehoods, old saws and ancient superstitions, which came to, and have continued to curse the human family since they first entered the mind of vicious man. It is painful to contemplate the social and political conditions of the world when compared w T ith what it would have been had truth prevailed and falsehood been dethroned. Had the laws of nature been properly understood, generally taught and zealously observed at the proper time to quicken the human germ, that it might receive the full benefits of the benific, heavenly forces, which would have finally developed it into the full frutitions of manhood and womanhood. How different would be the condition of society today. Instead of vast sums of money being expended for the care of viciously insane, the hungry and the destitute, it might be spent to educate thousands of neglected youths and train their minds for lives of usefulness and personal satisfaction. But with all the power of human intelligence man has arrogated to himself. He is a frail, incapable creature, subjecting himself too much to the whims of the less capable, who have no aspirations above a petty personal motive. It is not the laws of nature that concerns their microcosm, nor the force of heaven that reaches their understanding. What do they care whence comes the gases which produce the wheat, sheep and cattle, so long as their tables receive their tri-daily supply of bread, mutton chop and roast ribs of beef, to sustain their wearing muscular tissues, to invigorate their mental organs and to refill their rapidly exhausting brain cells that they may have health and strength to jostle each other in the wild race for lucre.
What matters it to them whether God made the world in six davs or that it was thrown from the sun and found its orbit in six years, or by a slower process it was formed by the accumalation of gases in six millions of years, so long as her ample products are forth coming at their command.
What does it matter to them whether our boys are to be confined in asylums, locked behind bars, or hold honorable positions in business, science, literature, art, or profession, so long as their appetites and passions are appealed, they love God and pay the preacher.
Forethought is not a marked characteristic in the human family, as proven by the lack of interest taken in the subject of reproduction.
This is not a question of information, only simply to gratify a longing for unknown facts of nature, as the discovery of a comet, a distant star, or the satellite of another planet, but it is one of importance to all mankind. It is for the social good of every nation and essential to the mental progress of the whole world, individually and collectively; for this reason it should enlist the attention and gain the support of all, and especially those who are able to think for themselves, but does it.
However, there has been a passing interest taken in the origin of man since evolution has been placed upon the spit. It has been roasted, cooled and toasted again, assailed by its enemies and defended by its friends, until its strong points will scarcely hold its weak ones together, even in the hands of its most powerful supporters, while its theological enemies who have long and faithfully been drilled in the drama of creation as found in the first book of Genesis and purported to have been a divine revelation to man of the origin of life, condemn the Darwinian theory of evolution with all the vehemence at their command, while a very large percentage of the human family do not accept either as a correct solution, and are patiently waiting the promulgation of a more logical rendering of the problem, and one which is more in keeping with the present order of things than are either of the former doctrins.
And since there is a marked divergence of opinions among the honored, learned and great in regard to the beginning of life, the author feels justified in formulating a new theory which is supported by more facts than either, if not all of the known theories combined.
But doubtless many will deem it a presumption on his part to oppose the life efforts of the great Darwin, while others will declare it sacrilegious to doubt the statements of Moses, and perhaps sigh for the return of the Holy Inquisition to check the flood of free thought and thus preserve the institutions of fables, falsehoods and superstitions. But the dykes are down and the wild waves are upon them, washing the sands from beneath their uncertain foundations. It is only a matter of time when the great wrongs of the pa=t and those practiced in the present will be righted, and might will not always be right, neither will superstition reign.
For years the author has been pleased to know that the inquisition of the "Holy of Holies ? ' has been abolished, even in wicked Spain, and has had cause to rejoice that it is not now the rule of law on the free soil of America, where free speech is not altogether suppressed and where thoughts can freely flow without fear of priestly frown or the rack, dungeon or ax.
Though the vicious blade has ceased to vibrate in the jaws of the murderous gulletine to silence the voice of the thinker and reformer, yet tongues still continue to wag in defense of classified superstition. But their echoes are growing fainter and farther, and will finally be drowned in rejoicings of the people made happy that truth has come to stay.
BARBARIC LEGISLATION.
It can scarcely be credited that a man could have been iound in the great state of California capable of framing a bill to suppress the freedom of speech, and especially the practice of a science in the free and easy going west. Yet there was just such a man, and furthermore there was elected a Senate of chosen men to represent and defend the liberties of the people of the great commonwealth of California, that voted upon that bill, passed it, and had it not been for the superior intelligence of the lower house, it would have become a law and thus put a check to free thought, scientific growth and disgraced the sun, set shore of freedom's sacred land.
For what? That superstition and falsehood might live and flourish off the credulity of an injured people.
HERE IS THE BILL.
"Any person who for valuable consideration or promise of reward undertakes to predict to another the future or reveal the past by means of cards, communications from the dead, the examination of any part of a person, of the dead or living, looking at the stars or heavens or representations thereof, planets or other bodies, heavenly or otherwise, or by any means not natural, or who prints or causes to be printed, or exhibits any sign or symbols intended to induce others to have their fortunes told, the past revealed, or the future predicted is guilty of a misdemeanor."
Now the important question arises: Who was it that introduced the bill? Was it an infidel, a spiritualist, a clergyman, phrenologist or a crank? Surely it was not an astrologer, but whoever it was, tried to disgrace the name of freedom and received more assistance in his heinous effort to suppress freedom of action than the wildest fanatic would have dared to guess. , But the march of science cannot be stayed by law, superstition, or neglect. Itmay encamp for the night to recuperate its ever increasing forces, but with the morning sun its unbroken lines will resume their impatient march.
But the foregoing is proof that the cloven foot still exists to protude from beneath the sacerdotal robes of inspired divines, to crush human hope and destroy the happiness of all mankind. But when the struggling masses once learned that the heavens rule the development of the human brain they will then have their visions clear to the fact that the black robes of sacerdotal forms only cover the common anatomy ruled by ordinary human brain, and the majority of them doubtless are developed by the most ordinary combination of planitary gases From their acts one would be compelled to think that they were begotten in iniquity, reared in selfishness and superstition, educated to deceive, mislead the young, frighten the timid, plunder the poor and rob the widow of her mite.
ZODIACAL SIGNS— HOW DISCOVERED.
The division of the heavens, as they were surveyed and laid out by the ancient astrologers and astronomers, for they are both one in practice in the early history of the science. They were called signs for the reason that they could not understand how r the stars so far away could effect the people of the earth. In fact they thought the divisions were only signs of what the physical development would be from hereditary causes. They did not then know how the Zodiac executed the great fixed laws of nature w r hich produced all things mundane, which they have since been discovered to do.
In primitive days when there w r ere no mechanical devices, by which to note the passing hours of fleeting time, it became necessary to devise some means by which the important events of life might be recorded.
The handy clock and the more convenient watch, and even the hour-glass w r ere then unknown, and though the semi-civilized people of those days were very ignorant of all arts, science and mechanical devices, nevertheless they discovered a method by which to keep the records of the daily and nocturnal events of human life. Their custom w r as to observe the heavenly bodies and note their positions at the time events occur. The position of the sun by day, and the places of the moon and stars by night, and in some crude manner make a record of them. They all knew when the sun rose, when it reached the midheavens and when it set. Then by practice they learned how to divide the quarters of the semi-circle into equal parts, and then tell the exact time of day by the position of the sun; then by selecting a bright star they could tell the time of night by its position, for the sun and stars ascended to the mid-heaven and set at the same rate of speed; therefore the rule that would apply to the sun would also apply to the planets and stars.
The sun and the planets were doubtless first employed for that purpose. Later on the fixed stars were brought into use. Venus and Jupiter being very bright and beautiful objects among the fixed stars to the rude children of nature, early became familiar to them: owing to their mutability they were curiously watched by the simple minded people of those farremote unscientific days, before their influences were discovered. They observed the moon as she moved from star to star; they saw the planets change their places; they admired their beauty and loved their mystery, and what charmed them most they crown with the highest title of admiration of goodness and virtue. They felt the influence of the planets and knew they brought them good. They saw them sparkle and gleam in the depths of the blue firmament and called them shining angels. Further than this they knew nothing of those mysterious bodies, floating far away in their trackless rounds of endless space.
Those people are even now clubbed "star-gazers and sun-worshipers,"and wise men sometimes laugh at the title thus bestowed.
Yet is there anything higher in the form of worship, holier in the desire, more beautiful in its simplicity, or more practical in its results than adoring a living truth? Let those who worship an ancient myth, a flaky wafer, a glass of wine, the spirit form, and laugh at astrology, reflect.
Astrology doubtless was the highest form of worship ever known to man. From Jupiter came the word Jove or Jehova; from Saturn was derived Satan. The Lord of hosts (of stars), The Most High fixed stars^ shining angels, ministering angels, angels of glory and angels of light, angels of darkness, seven angels, and swift winged angels, are all astrological terms as applied to the fixed stars and planets; but they have all been misinterpreted for a purpose, but eventually their true meanings will be understood.
A writer commenting on the number seven found go often in the Bible refers to it as a sacred number, because, I presume, he did not understand why it was so profusely employed in that connection; but had he looked far enough to have discovered its origin he would have learned that the number originated with the seven planets : Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Sun and Moon, all which were then known to the ancient astrologer.
The following is a partial list of the things numbered by sevens: The days of creation were seven; the years of famine and plenty were numbered by seven; there were seven days of the week, and every seventh day was the sabbath of rest; after seven times seven years came the jubilee; the feast of the unleavened bread and the tabernacles was observed seven days; the golden candlesticks had seven branches; seven priests with seven trumpets surrounded Jericho seven times, and seven times the seventh day; Jacob obtained his wives by a servitude of seven years; Samson kept his nuptials for seven days, and on the seventh day he put a riddle to his wife. He was bound by seven green withes, and seven locks of hair were shaven off; Xebebuchadnazzer was seven years a beast; Shadrach. and his two companions in misfortune were cast into a furnace heated seven times more than it was wont.
In the new testament everything occurs by seven; in the revelations we read of seven churches, seven candlesticks, seven spirits, seven trumpets, seven plagues, seven vials, seven seals, seven stars and seven headed monsters, and is pretty good evidence that the ancients, whom people now suspect were Christ worshippers, were star worshippers instead, with the Christian doctrine as a side issue. By the practice of observing the heavens for the purpose of recording events, they became familiar with the positions of the fixed stars and the motions of the planets.
Occasionally all of the planets would be invisible by being beneath the earth during the night time, therefore could not be observed for the purpose above mentioned. It then became necessary for them to single out some of the most prominent fixed stars to be observed in the m absence of familiar planets, after which it was discovered that a new influence existed; then by careful observation it was noticed that the general influences supposed to emanate from fixed stars extended over 30 degrees of space, and that all children born at the rising of any one of the twelve divisions of the heavens partook of like developments and general characteristics. Thus they discovered a very convenient and reliable system for finding the time all important events occured,and also the zodiacal influences in the brain. This observation continued till they had discovered twelve distinct forms and characters produced by the twelve zodiacal division? which they called houses, or mansions of the heavens. Hence the quotation: "In my father's house are many mansions."
As language was very imperfectly understood at that time, and embraced only a simple dialect, then the weak understanding of the ordinary people made it necessary for the teachers of those days to resort to illustrations, and draw comparisons from what was known of their mundane surroundings. In order to impart the heavenly knowledge the more thoughtful ones had obtained by observation, the animals of the forest and the beasts of the fields were chosen to symbolize the respective houses of the heavens.
Aries. — The ancients noticed that all persons born at the rising of the first divisions of the heavens were irritable, quick tempered, active and combative.
To illustrate this character they selected the animal which they thought would answer the purpose best. As the ram was known to possess the foregoing peculiarities he was chosen to symbolize the division of the heavens which produced the effect in man and called it Aries, the Greek word for ram.
The opening of the book is shown; the full text loads in the reader.
Loading the full text…
The end
You’ve reached the end of Stellar dust.