Gentilism : religion previous to Christianity

Contents

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PAGE

Preface, - - - - - - v.-xv.

Section II. Africa — Egypt and Ethiopia, 202

V. Religion in Pelasgic Greece 272

VI. Introduction of Idolatry in Heroic Greece 312

VII. Hellenic Philosophy as a channel of Tradition 363

VIII. The Greek and Latin Poets as guardians of truth 393

IX. Supplementary, on the primitive religion in Western Asia: Chaldeea, Phoenicia, Syria, and Arabia; on the superiority and influence of Hebrew Monotheism; on what is known of the religion of Turanian

Appendix 1 489

Preface

The great question between the friends of revealed religion and its opponents has always been, more or less, a question of origin. For it is the special character of our Holy Scriptures that every thing in them is precise, and asserted in clear terms. In the boldest flights of poetry our inspired prophets never contradict for an instant the positive statements of our sacred annalists and historians. In this the'authors of the Bible differ essentially from all other ancient writers on cosmogony and the origin of mankind. Hence, in conformity with their narrative, man cannot be supposed to have appeared on earth millions of years ago ; and thus is found an occasion of attack.

The chronology of Holy Writ is, it is true, to a certain degree, elastic. The Church has never adopted any system on the subject ; and her children are free to place the first appearance of man in creation, at any period they choose consistent with any one of the various authorized versions of Scripture ; and if there is any question fairly raised between reverent and orthodox exegetists on the sacred text, any one is at liberty to adopt the system which refers to a higher antiquity the moment of inception in the history of man. It is, morever, understood by all that what precedes this solemn moment remains in Holy Writ without real chronology, and, consistently with orthodoxy, any length of time can be assigned to the formation of the globe itself and to the successive creative acts related in the first twenty-five verses of the first chapter of Genesis.

But it is clear that the period which has elapsed since the appearance of man cannot be of an indefinite duration. Conse-

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quently the opponents of revelation have always tried to give him an antiquity which cannot he reconciled with the statements of the Bihlc. Already in the time of Origen — the third century of our era — Celsus " produced from history, other than that of the divine record, those passages which bear upon the claims to great antiquity put forth by many nations, as the Athenians, and Egyptians, and Arcadians, and Phrygians, who assert that certain individuals have existed among them who sprang from the earth, and who adduce proofs of these assertions; and he said that: 'The Jews, leading a gro veiling life in some corner of Palestine, and being a wholly uneducated people, not having heard that these matters had been committed to verse long before by Hesiod and innumerable other inspired men, wove together some* most incredible and insipid stories, etc.'" (Adversus Celsmn, Lib. IY., cap. xxxvi.) Edition of A ute-iSTicene Fathers.

From the time of Celsus down to our own, therefore, this has been a standing objection against the revealed "Word of God. And all know the extraordinary efforts made last century to prove by the records of India, Egypt, Greece, and many other ancient nations, that man must claim an antiquity of hundreds of thousands of years. But all those labors of erudition and criticism have been reduced to naught, in our days, by the almost precise dates assigned by modern critics to the real origin of all nations. There are only a few Egyptologists who dare yet to believe in some of those fabulous stories.* The fact is,

* Among recent writers on the subject, Sir John Lubbock, in his " Prehistoric Times," is one of the most notorious. In his disappointing chapter on the " antiquity of man " — disappointing, because treating chiefly of the " antiquity of the globe " according to geologists — he states several facts to which he gives a meaning of his own, when many others could as well be suggested. The chief one regards the excavations made near the base of the huge statue of Rameses II., at Memphis. It seems that Mr. Horner found a "piece of pottery" at the depth of thirty-nino feet, and Sir John Lubbock forthwith concludes that man existed in

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Vll that neither in the numerous most ancient records of Hindostan, nor on the monuments of Egypt, nor anywhere else, can there be found any positive proof of such extraordinary antiquity, for the simple reason that all Southern and Eastern nations paid no regard whatever to chronology ; and nothing, either in their writings or on their monuments, can indicate positively the succession of time. All that modern antiquarians have to do is to establish a relative antiquity among them, without being able to assign a starting-point. Thus the wise among modern scientists have altogether abandoned the idea of looking into those records for what cannot be found there. The truth is, as we have already observed : The Bible is the only book of real antiquity which is precise, and deals in positive assertions. And this circumstance, whilst it affords, in fact, a great presumption in favor of its truth, supplies enemies with a strong motive for assailing it.

The proceedings, therefore, of those who wish to distinguish themselves by endeavoring to place revelation in antagonism to science, have taken an altogether new direction. They have, we may say, abandoned history and the study of the oldest existing monuments, which are, in fact, in open opposition to their theories, and they think they will find in natural science the antagonism they are in search of. Hence the celebrated theory of " evolution." They imagine they can prove, not only for other organized beings — which might be granted them — but even for man, what seems to be the fact for inorganic matter, chiefly for the frame-work of our globe : a gradual develop-

Egypt 13,000 years ago. But suppose that, before erecting such an immense colossus, the Egyptians dug clown forty feet, to find a sure foundation below the alluvium — builders of astronomical observatories go some times as deep to secure their telescopes against exterior motion — in such case can we not suggest that some unlucky workman may have let fall there a "piece of pottery," the innocent cause of so many speculations? Should this suggestion not be admissible in the present case, many others can be offered.

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ment ; in this case an evolution from aerial vapor to the solid and diversified crust of our dwelling. But we are sure they cannot do so for man.

First, Science is not yet on their side altogether, with respect to the origin and essential nature of species; and the number of men learned in natural history who have not been convinced by all the facts accumulated by their chief leader, Mr. Darwin, is yet a stumbling-block to the universal acceptance of the system. "We have no fear that further discoveries wi 1 demonstrate the soundness of their views. We think, on the contrary, that as Lamark, who first broached the theory on a large scale, remained finally without almost any followers, so likewise those who now have revived his enterprise, will see behind them a scanty number of fervent disciples, when the ardor always natural to a new system ghall have cooled.

We must, however, leave the discussion of the subject to special writers, who have made these studies the object of their life. Some. have already appeared worthy of respect. Others will follow, to bring on the usual triumph of truth.

Meanwhile, in our opinion, the historical treatment of the subject ought not to be discarded. It ought, on the contrary, to be more insisted upon than ever ; for human history cannot contradict natural science, and what it obliges us to accept, has to be accepted. It is true, the gentlemen who give to man a really fabulous antiquity altogether unacceptable to Christians, imagine they can place themselves in a position of safety with respect to the direct testimony of history, by the assertion that man could not have annals nor monuments Avhen he was yet unconscious. For, in their opinion, the natural passage by evolution of the ancestors of man from the original " protoplasm " to the state of a well-developed " ape," must have required millions of years of complete unconsciousness ; and how manyages more must have been necessary for a " Simian anthropoid " to acquire the art of sharpening flint into an arrow, and a stick

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IX of hard wood into a spear, not to mention the farther greater progress supposed by the invention of a covering of leaves for their nudity ? During all this time, of course, the ancestors of man were absolutely " unconscious." And, finally, the commencement of " records," rude at first and of the simples* kind — first proof of real " consciousness " — supposes another long series of years. This we find substantially in an article of the North American Review, for October, 1873. The conclusion is that historical times, the only ones which we can discuss, have been preceded by long, long ages which give altogether the lie to the Bible of Jews and Christians.

This, of course, supposes that the whole system of evolution has been proved without fear of contradiction. This will scarcely be maintained by even the most fervent " scientists." And, what is more, we will venture to assert that such a demonstration never will be forthcoming. But we will not insist on this. Our purport is very different — we say : We assert, that if things had taken place as the evolutionists assure us they have, the first records of mankind would be those of rude people just emerging from barbarism. In point of art and culture, in point of ideas and' language, chiefly in point of religion, we should find in their social state the most rude elements of a "childish" and " growing " soul ; we should be able to trace the steps by which, from the first notions of a coarse religious system, they would have arrived at the point of inventing God and all His attributes. This would have been in the sense of evolutionists a mere subjective theory perfectly independent of any objective Divine Essence, and having nothing in common with the certain belief that the reason of man can know God and demonstrate to himself His existence. They assert it has been so, and that historical man began everywhere by being a barbarian. Here we join issue with them, and one of the great purports of this volume will be, to establish solidly the fact, that man appeared first in a state of civilization, possessed of noble ideas

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as to his own origin, the Creator, One Supreme God, ruling the universe, etc. We intend to prove historically that he invented none of the great religious and moral truths by the process mentioned abbve ; but that these came to him from heaven. ¥e will endeavor to show the first men everywhere monotheists, generally pure in their morals, dignified in their bearing, and cultivated in their intellect. Should this be well and firmly established, the whole monstrous system of man's evolution falls to the ground. Still more will this be the case if it be proved, besides, that the supposed " continuous progress," which is the main-stay of their theory, is a dream, a non-entity ; that on the contrary man everywhere progressed in the wrong direction, going from monotheism to pantheism, from this to idolatry, and from this last to "individualism " in religion ; that this seems to be the law which has governed mankind until the Redeemer happened to bring back man to truth, and to found" at last a true and strict religious society, not confined to one nation like Judaism, but universal.

Progress is a fine and catching word, but its greatest admirers are themselves bound to confess that, historically, it has been distinguished by many an overthrow ; the edifice in process of construction has often crumbled into ruins, and the savage Goth has spurned with his foot the graciously-moulded Grecian statue, the last and perfect expression of art. No sensible man can admit a " continuous progress " in history. Yet is it of the nature of evolution to be " continuous," since history cannot contradict natmal science. If evolution is once interrupted, it ceases entirely to be, and must start afresh. But we intend to go much farther than this, and to prove our previous assertion : that nations, after having reached a certain point, always " progress backward," and lose gradually the steps in advance they had made. This at least seems to be the historical law for the times anterior to Christianity.

As we treat chiefly the religious question, this will appear

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xi very distinctly, we hope, in these pages, and independently of x the antagonism sensible men always feel for system-mongers. The matter we treat of has a peculiar interest of its own, which of itself is calculated to attract the serious attention of the reader.

There is an obvious want even in the actual forward state of historical studies of a simple, easily understood, concrete view of the origin of the false religions ivhich have afflicted mankind. Many notions on the subject are afloat, but they are vague, shifting, and unsatisfactory. A thorough investigation of this question, it is true, would require immense developments ; and we intend to devote to it only a few pages. But at least a comprehensive compendium will not be worthless, if it is clear and firmly grounded.

Gentilism, in fact, has remained until our days in a state of hopeless confusion ; and the author of " Gentile and Jew " has not in the least rendered the subject clearer. We have not the presumption to lay claim to more erudition than is contained in the above-mentioned work, nor even to as much. But we complain that the reader rises from its perusal not one whit more enlightened on the subject of the origin and growth of the whole delusion than when he commenced it. Now we think that something at least can be said on a subject at once so instructive and so interesting. And it is time to say it. For this, we will call to our help what we know of antiquity ; and by its aid alone endeavor to explain the enigma of the origin of error. On our way we may investigate some celebrated myths on which we think a flood of light has been thrown by late investigations. The greater number of them, however, are quite without any such illmnination, and thus we leave them in their obscurity.

The valuable discoveries lately made in the antiquities of India, Bactriana, Egypt, and Greece, render possible such a short work as we undertake. It would have been little more than

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theoretical some fifty years ago. By these discoveries the range of Gentilisin has been greatly extended. Formerly, scarcely anything was understood by the word but what came to us from Greece and Rome. Now the whole Gentile world, chiefly the central part of it, Hindostan and Egypt, has to be included ; and as in this study each part helps the whole, the actual knowledge we have of India and Central Asia throws a flood of light on the mythology of Egypt and Greece. Many things, in fact, which could not be known to the Greeks of the age of Pericles, which were perfectly unknown to the Romans, which were scarcely and dimly seen fifty years ago, are now clear and palpable ; and the sure derivation of truth and error from the east and north towards the west and the south must be now considered as a fact above possible contradiction.

When the antiquities of Emope alone were known, or, rather, when people thought they knew them, many important points remained almost completely in the dark. One of these among others deserves, so early as this, a rapid mention. The starting-point of humanity from light and culture, and not from darkness and savagery, could scarcely be explained satisfactorily, because of the long ages dining which our European ancestors had been plunged in comparative barbarism, or, at least, in what was thought to be such. The clear-speaking sacred books of India have removed in great part the difficulty, and the result has been a reflected light on the west, enabling us to appreciate much better the "heroic ages" of Hellas. Even tne numerous tribes of barbarians of the north, who destroyed the Roman power, could not have been so rude in their beginnings, as when they swarmed into Europe ; for their languages, as well as many traditions preserved among them, show manifestly that they came originally from a centre of light, and that the condition in which they were when they invaded Gaul, Italy, and Greece was not their primitive state, but had been gradually produced by that historical law, to which we have alluded, by which na-

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Xlll tions left to themselves naturally degenerate and fall into gross superstition and degraded customs.

Hence, we hope to be able to give a completely different turn to the rnyth of Prometheus, who was supposed to have invented, to the profit of mankind, the art of speech — nay, reason and memory, as well as the use of fire, and of more comfortable dwellings than eaves and holes underneath the ground. .zEschylus, we shall see, had no real conception of the great truths concealed under the noble allegory which he produced so splendidly on the Grecian stage ; and that poet was probably the cause of the common error of many subsequent authors, who represented man as at first feeding on acorns and addicted to all the instincts of the brute. We never find such myths in the oldest poems or compositions of the Far Orient. There, on the contrary, it is always the reign of the gods on earth, the happy life of JSishis, of patriarchs, of men nourished intellectually by the sublime effusions of the noblest upanishads, and, physically, by the luscious and abundant fruits of a teeming and friendly earth, We will try to find out which of the two, the East or the West, is more likely to have spoken the truth. This is the problem in its simplicity.

Those who will condescend to read this work ought not, however, to expect a complete demonstration as strict as that of a mathematical theorem. Many reasons confined us within narrow limits ; and historical deductions are not susceptible of the dogmatism leading to the absolute and final Q. E. D. We hope, however, to establish that the balance of probability is found overwhelmingly on the side herein advocated ; and that the contraiy position may be considered as decidedly untenable. It will be for Christians merely a confirmation of what revealed truth says with much more authority and innate power.

A last remark of consequence, in conclusion, is that the subject, most important and interesting in itself, possesses besides this advantage, that it is the natural prelude to considerations ,

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of a far higher import, In studying the religious aspect of the world, during several thousand year#of Gentilism, we are necessarily attracted by the grand spectacle offered to our view when, at the end, the decomposition of all previous religious principles took place, to make room for another pouring out of divine effulgence, to last, this time, forever ; when the loss of those truths first communicated by heaven to mankind was amply compensated hy a far higher and nobler revelation ; and when, at the very moment of almost complete darkness, light broke out afresh more brilliantly than ever, not to be obscured any more, because the torch was intrusted to the hands of an infallible guide.

The bright form of the Catholic Church arises on a sudden in the midst of universal darkness; and the infinite boon conferred on man by the Divine Eedeemer is appreciated with a tenfold delight, because it comes unexpectedly after so many ages of doubt and error. Gentilism becomes, thus, the natural introduction to the study of the new, complete, final revelation which followed it. Eeligion, invested henceforth with the permanent characters of universality, perpetuity, and holiness, takes from the start the guidance of the world, never to lose hold of the reins, in spite of all obstacles and of millions of enemies.

"Where is the pen that can adequately describe that sublime struggle, which has now lasted more than eighteen centuries ? "What power of description is equal to such a theme ? Where is that master of language who shall narrate in fit terms the gradual spread of heaveuly truth to the utmost bounds of the earth — embracing all nations, all races, all tribes — and making one family of mankind ; victories without number over a powerful and hostile world ; and Christian holiness subduing the passions of men, and establishing on earth the peaceful reign of virtue ?

The subject is so vast and of so exalted a nature, as to inspire with fear the heart of any one who shordd make the bold at-

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tempt. Be ours the more modest task of describing the times which preceded Christianity. There was no Church then ; at least, no universal Church claiming the love and homage of all mankind ; it was only the conflict of unorganized truth with all the passions of man and all the fury of hell. The result was unavoidable : Truth could not stand ; Error and Vice were destined to conquer. Not so now, thank God ! The "World has now the Church to contend against, and the Church is stronger than the "World.

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Chapter I

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE EARTH, ITS POSITION AND CONFIGURA- TION AS PROOFS OF DESIGN (I) — ON THE UNIFORMITY OF NATIONS IN PRIMITIVE TIMES (II)— ON THE OBSTACLES THEY MET TO THE PRE- SERVATION OF THEIR TRADITIONS (III).

Domini est Terra et pleniludo ejus.— Ps. xxiii.

What can be the object of our globe as it is fashioned % How is it adapted to human society ? Was it made originally for one universal race, having but one religion — or the reverse ? How did the actual obstacles to the primitive plan originate ? What must have been, therefore, the first state of society and religion on its surface ? And, finally, how does revelation agree with reason and history on the subject? These are the momentous questions we propose to ourselves on the very threshold of our investigations. We do not intend to treat them ex prqfesso in this first chapter. But in it we shall confine ourselves to throwing out in broad outline, by way of assertion, the several propositions which the remainder of the work will be devoted to establishing. The rest of the work will afterwards fill up and corroborate what we have sketched in advance, and make it, we hope, clear and evident.

Our chief object is to show that man really came from heaven, and did not receive his being from the development of an infe rior species. And a few preparatory observations will not be misplaced on the relations which God established originally between Himself and the inhabitants of our globe, after the fall,

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to prepare them for the fulness of redemption and the bonds of a higher uniformity.

Tlie configuration of the globe, the unity of the human race, the same language for all, the same primitive traditions given to all, vrould seem to indicate that the intention of Providence «vas to keep them united, and chiefly under the control of the same worship. This was to be the form of universality in the patriarchal period, or rather until the Saviour should appear and call all mankind to Himself — cum exultatus fuero, omnia traham ad meipmm.

This plan of God was frustrated at the dispersion of nations. Henceforth, we say, the ocean, the large rivers, the chains of high mountains, and the deserts spread here and there over the globe, became obstacles to intercourse, owing to the social breaking up which then took place. And thus, the configuration of the globe, instead of facilitating universal communication among men, was turned into a hindrance, or rather into an ahnost insurmountable barrier. The primitive language was replaced by a large number of idioms, many of which had scarcely any roots in common. To the unity of origin and of species succeeded the diversity of races, a source of untold division. Finally, the primitive traditions were soon obscured, and were, at length, disfigured by the grotesque mythologies and absurd philosophies which then became prevalent to such an extent, that only the faintest traces of them could be detected in the mass of gross inventions which had buried them out of sight, and those only here and there. Thus, what we may call Patriarchal Catholicity, disappeared ; chiefly owing to a complete want of a central authority, for direction and counsel even, which the existence of the Synagogue among the Jews was not intended to furnish. Such are our preliminary assertions.

But we must go a little more into detail before we advance beyond our preparatory observations.

INTEODUCTOEY.

I

And first, What does our globe itself tell as of its own conformation, and how does the revealed Word of God explain its object ?

" There are men of our generation," says a sagacious writer in the Dublin -Review (July, 1873, page 67), "for whom this world is only one of innumerable planets, careering through space without any particular object ;* while its inhabitants are, more or less, intelligent animals, who know neither whence they come nor whither they are going."

In spite of all the discoveries in modern science, it may be said, that the number of such men as these increases every day ; and we are fast going back to the period anterior to Christianity, when the most important problems of human destiny, often agitated by philosophers, had not yet reached, the first rational solution. Our globe is now much better known physically ; yet the moral ignorance of some learned men is as great as ever, with respect both to man himself and to his dwelling religiously considered. It is true, this is considered by them as out of the pale of science, but is it so really ?

Revelation, we assert, has long ago solved even the physical problem most satisfactorily to human reason, as well as to human conscience, and given us facts which true science has nothing to do but to register. But its light is precisely the guide which many refuse to admit. Unable to quench it, they remove it from the sphere of their vision ; and thus, groping in the dark, they pretend that the utter obscurity of the divine splendor is the most sure means of finding their lost way. We assert that the revealed word of God was not certainly given to teach us science ; but that not a single phrase of it, rightly understood, can be opposed to true science, and that there is much in it which has anticipated science.

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Many ardent investigators of human knowledge in our days imagine that, because revealed truth does not satisfy an idle curiosity, and contents itself chiefly -with giving us the information required for the fulfilment of our eternal destiny, no ray of light is thrown by it on external creation ; and that, whatever it says of the origin of our dwelling, of its object in the mind of God, and of the ways of Providence in its very history, is an absurd legend, worthy only of affording amusement to children in the nursery.

Yet, as we shall presently see, the solution it gives to the physical problem even of this earth, is the only one that can satisfy rational beings ; and any one who does away with it, or refuses to take an account of it, has nothing to fall upon but crude conjectures ending in materialism or scepticism. Hence all the absurd cosmogonies which have ever been imagined, from the tune of the first Hindoos or Greeks to our own. At a period of time before any other writings now extant, Holy Scripture gave to man the noblest and justest idea of the immensity of creation, and of the position of the earth in the physical heavens ; and modern astronomers cannot expect, by all their labor and discoveries, to do more in noticing the general aspect of the whole exterior creation than comment on the sublime imagery of Job, who wrote in the time of Moses, if not before.

For whatever may have been the individual thoughts of the true prophets of God, whatever sense they may have personally attached to the words they uttered, the words themselves had a deep meaning, intended surely by the Divine Eevealer to illumine the future discoverers of His laws, and show them that whatever they might discover He had created. Happy they, should they pay attention to it ! Hence when Moses represented the Almighty creating light by His great fiat, before he had launched into space the bright orb of the sun, he may have continued to imagine that it was the sun itself which emit-

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ted the effulgent rays of light ; but He had used an expression on which men might long afterwards ponder, and which God alone could at the time utter ; He had asserted the creation, at the beginning, of the imponderable ether from which light, and heat, and electricity must come.