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They all appeared to be men of forty to forty-five years of age, and evidently of vast erudition . . . their knowledge of languages not to be doubted. . . . They never remained long in any one country, but passed away without creating notice.”^{[#fn1568 1568]}

{{Style P-No indent|They all appeared to be men of forty to forty-five years of age, and evidently of vast erudition . . . their knowledge of languages not to be doubted. . . . They never remained long in any one country, but passed away without creating notice.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1568}}}}

Another of such sub-brotherhoods is the sect of the Pitris, in India. Known by name, now that Jacolliot has brought it into public notice, it yet is more arcane, perhaps, than the brotherhood that Mr. Mackenzie names the “Hermetic Brothers.” What Jacolliot learned of it, was from fragmentary manuscripts delivered to him by Brahmans, who had their reasons for doing so, we must believe. The {{Style S-Italic|Agrouchada Parikshai}} gives certain details about the association, as it was in days of old, and, when explaining mystic rites and magical incantations, explains nothing at all, so that the mystic L’om, L’Rhum, Sh’hrum, and Sho-rim Ramaya-Namaha, remain, for the mystified writer, as much a puzzle as ever. To do him justice, though, he fully admits the fact, and does not enter upon useless speculations.

Another of such sub-brotherhoods is the sect of the Pitris, in India. Known by name, now that Jacolliot has brought it into public notice, it yet is more arcane, perhaps, than the brotherhood that Mr. Mackenzie names the “Hermetic Brothers.” What Jacolliot learned of it, was from fragmentary manuscripts delivered to him by Brahmans, who had their reasons for doing so, we must believe. The {{Style S-Italic|Agrouchada Parikshai}} gives certain details about the association, as it was in days of old, and, when explaining mystic rites and magical incantations, explains nothing at all, so that the mystic L’om, L’Rhum, Sh’hrum, and Sho-rim Ramaya-Namaha, remain, for the mystified writer, as much a puzzle as ever. To do him justice, though, he fully admits the fact, and does not enter upon useless speculations.

Whoever desires to assure himself that there now exists a religion which has baffled, for centuries, the impudent inquisitiveness of missionaries, and the persevering inquiry of science, let him violate, if he can, the seclusion of the Syrian Druzes. He will find them numbering over 80,000 warriors, scattered from the plain east of Damascus to the western coast. They covet no proselytes, shun notoriety, keep friendly—as far as possible—with both Christians and Mahometans, respect the religion of every other sect or people, but will never disclose their own secrets. Vainly do the missionaries stigmatize them as infidels, idolaters, brigands, and thieves. Neither threat, bribe, nor any other consideration will induce a Druze to become a convert to dogmatic Christianity. We have heard of two in fifty years, and both have finished their careers in prison, for drunkenness and theft. They proved to be “real {{Style S-Italic|Druzes,”^{[#fn1569 1569]}}} said one

Whoever desires to assure himself that there now exists a religion which has baffled, for centuries, the impudent inquisitiveness of missionaries, and the persevering inquiry of science, let him violate, if he can, the seclusion of the Syrian Druzes. He will find them numbering over 80,000 warriors, scattered from the plain east of Damascus to the western coast. They covet no proselytes, shun notoriety, keep friendly—as far as possible—with both Christians and Mahometans, respect the religion of every other sect or people, but will never disclose their own secrets. Vainly do the missionaries stigmatize them as infidels, idolaters, brigands, and thieves. Neither threat, bribe, nor any other consideration will induce a Druze to become a convert to dogmatic Christianity. We have heard of two in fifty years, and both have finished their careers in prison, for drunkenness and theft. They proved to be “real ''Druzes'',”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1569}} said one

[#fn1568anc 1568]. What will, perhaps, still more astonish American readers, is the fact that, in the United States, a mystical fraternity now exists, which claims an intimate relationship with one of the oldest and most powerful of Eastern Brotherhoods. It is known as the Brotherhood of Luxor, and its faithful members have the custody of very important secrets of science. Its ramifications extend widely throughout the great Republic of the West. Though this brotherhood has been long and hard at work, the secret of its existence has been jealously guarded. Mackenzie describes it as having “a Rosicrucian basis, and numbering many members” (“Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,” p. 461). But, in this, the author is mistaken; it has no Rosicrucian basis. The name Luxor is primarily derived from the ancient Beloochistan city of Looksur, which lies between Bela and Kedgee, and also gave its name to the Egyptian city.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1568}} What will, perhaps, still more astonish American readers, is the fact that, in the United States, a mystical fraternity now exists, which claims an intimate relationship with one of the oldest and most powerful of Eastern Brotherhoods. It is known as the Brotherhood of Luxor, and its faithful members have the custody of very important secrets of science. Its ramifications extend widely throughout the great Republic of the West. Though this brotherhood has been long and hard at work, the secret of its existence has been jealously guarded. Mackenzie describes it as having “a Rosicrucian basis, and numbering many members” (“Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,” p. 461). But, in this, the author is mistaken; it has no Rosicrucian basis. The name Luxor is primarily derived from the ancient Beloochistan city of Looksur, which lies between Bela and Kedgee, and also gave its name to the Egyptian city.

[#fn1569anc 1569]. These people do not accept the name of Druzes, but regard the appellation as an insult. They call themselves the “disciples of Hamsa,” their Messiah, who came to them, in the tenth century, from the “Land of the Word of God,” and, together with his disciple, Mochtana Boha-eddin, committed this {{Style S-Italic|Word}} to writing, and entrusted it to the care of a few initiates, with the injunction of the greatest secresy. They are usually called Unitarians.

{{Footnote return|†|fn1569}} These people do not accept the name of Druzes, but regard the appellation as an insult. They call themselves the “disciples of Hamsa,” their Messiah, who came to them, in the tenth century, from the “Land of the Word of God,” and, together with his disciple, Mochtana Boha-eddin, committed this {{Style S-Italic|Word}} to writing, and entrusted it to the care of a few initiates, with the injunction of the greatest secresy. They are usually called Unitarians.

309 THE BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR.

{{Page|309|THE BROTHERHOOD OF LUXOR.}}

of their chiefs, in discussing the subject. There never was a case of an {{Style S-Italic|initiated}} Druze becoming a Christian. As to the uninitiated, they are never allowed to even see the sacred writings, and none of them have the remotest idea where these are kept. There are missionaries in Syria who boast of having in their possession a few copies. The volumes alleged to be the correct expositions from these secret books (such as the translation by Petis de la Croix, in 1701, from the works presented by Nasr-Allah to the French king), are nothing more than a compilation of “secrets,” known more or less to every inhabitant of the southern ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Libanus. They were the work of an apostate Dervish, who was expelled from the sect Hanafi, for improper conduct—the embezzlement of the money of widows and orphans. The {{Style S-Italic|Exposé de la Religion des Druzes,}} in two volumes, by Sylvestre de Sacy (1828), is another net-work of hypotheses. A copy of this work was to be found, in 1870, on the window-sill of one of their principal {{Style S-Italic|Holowey,}} or place of religious meeting. To the inquisitive question of an English traveller, as to their rites, the {{Style S-Italic|Okhal,^{[#fn1570 1570]}}} a venerable old man, who spoke English as well as French, opened the volume of de Sacy, and, offering it to his interlocutor, remarked, with a benevolent smile: “Read this instructive and truthful book; I could explain to you neither better nor more correctly the secrets of God and our blessed Hamsa, than it does.” The traveller understood the hint.

{{Style P-No indent|of their chiefs, in discussing the subject. There never was a case of an {{Style S-Italic|initiated}} Druze becoming a Christian. As to the uninitiated, they are never allowed to even see the sacred writings, and none of them have the remotest idea where these are kept. There are missionaries in Syria who boast of having in their possession a few copies. The volumes alleged to be the correct expositions from these secret books (such as the translation by Petis de la Croix, in 1701, from the works presented by Nasr-Allah to the French king), are nothing more than a compilation of “secrets,” known more or less to every inhabitant of the southern ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Libanus. They were the work of an apostate Dervish, who was expelled from the sect Hanafi, for improper conduct—the embezzlement of the money of widows and orphans. The {{Style S-Italic|Exposé de la Religion des Druzes,}} in two volumes, by Sylvestre de Sacy (1828), is another net-work of hypotheses. A copy of this work was to be found, in 1870, on the window-sill of one of their principal {{Style S-Italic|Holowey,}} or place of religious meeting. To the inquisitive question of an English traveller, as to their rites, the ''Okhal'',{{Footnote mark|*|fn1570}} a venerable old man, who spoke English as well as French, opened the volume of de Sacy, and, offering it to his interlocutor, remarked, with a benevolent smile: “Read this instructive and truthful book; I could explain to you neither better nor more correctly the secrets of God and our blessed Hamsa, than it does.” The traveller understood the hint.}}

Mackenzie says they settled at Lebanon about the tenth century, and “seem to be a mixture of Kurds, Mardi-Arabs, and other semi-civilized tribes. Their religion is compounded of Judaism, Christianity, and Mahometanism. They have a regular order of priesthood and {{Style S-Italic|a kind of hierarchy}} . . . there is a regular system of passwords and signs. . . . Twelve month’s probation, to which either sex is admitted, preceded initiation.”

Mackenzie says they settled at Lebanon about the tenth century, and “seem to be a mixture of Kurds, Mardi-Arabs, and other semi-civilized tribes. Their religion is compounded of Judaism, Christianity, and Mahometanism. They have a regular order of priesthood and {{Style S-Italic|a kind of hierarchy}} . . . there is a regular system of passwords and signs. . . . Twelve month’s probation, to which either sex is admitted, preceded initiation.”

That their religion exhibits traces of Magianism and Gnosticism is natural, as the whole of the Ophite esoteric philosophy is at the bottom of it. But the characteristic dogma of the Druzes is the absolute unity

That their religion exhibits traces of Magianism and Gnosticism is natural, as the whole of the Ophite esoteric philosophy is at the bottom of it. But the characteristic dogma of the Druzes is the absolute unity

[#fn1570anc 1570]. The Okhal (from the Arabic {{Style S-Italic|akl}}—intelligence or wisdom) are the initiated, or wise men of this sect. They hold, in their mysteries, the same position as the hierophant of old, in the Eleusinian and others.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1570}} The Okhal (from the Arabic {{Style S-Italic|akl}}—intelligence or wisdom) are the initiated, or wise men of this sect. They hold, in their mysteries, the same position as the hierophant of old, in the Eleusinian and others.

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of God. He is the essence of life, and although incomprehensible and invisible, is to be known through {{Style S-Italic|occasional manifestations in human form.^{[#fn1571 1571]}}} Like the Hindus they hold that he was incarnated more than once on earth. Hamsa was the {{Style S-Italic|precursor}} of the last manifestation to be (the tenth {{Style S-Italic|avatar}})^{[#fn1572 1572]} not the inheritor of Hakem, who is yet to come. Hamsa was the personification of the “Universal Wisdom.” Bohaeddin in his writings calls him Messiah. The whole number of his disciples, or those who at different ages of the world have imparted wisdom to mankind, which the latter as invariably have forgotten and rejected in course of time, is one hundred and sixty-four (164, the kabalistic {{Style S-Italic|s d k}}){{Style S-Italic|.}} Therefore, their stages or degrees of promotion after initiation are five; the first three degrees are typified by the “three feet of the candlestick of the inner Sanctuary, which holds the light of the {{Style S-Italic|five}} elements;” the last two degrees, the most important and terrifying in their solemn grandeur belonging to the highest orders; and the whole five degrees emblematically represent the said five mystic Elements. The “three feet are the holy {{Style S-Italic|Application,}} the {{Style S-Italic|Opening,}} and the {{Style S-Italic|Phantom,”}} says one of their books; on man’s inner and outer soul, and his body, a phantom, a passing shadow. The body, or matter, is also called the “Rival,” for “he is the minister of sin, the Devil ever creating dissensions between the Heavenly Intelligence (spirit) and the soul, which he tempts incessantly.” Their ideas on transmigration are Pythagorean and kabalistic. The spirit, or Temeami (the divine soul), was in Elijah and John the Baptist; and the soul of Jesus was that of H’amsa; that is to say, of the same degree of purity and sanctity. Until their resurrection, by which they understand the day when the spiritual bodies of men will be absorbed into God’s own essence and being (the Nirvana of the Hindus), the souls of men will keep their astral forms, except the few chosen ones who, from the moment of their separation from their bodies, begin to exist as pure spirits. The life of man they divide into soul, body, and intelligence, or mind. It is the latter which imparts and communicates to the soul the divine spark from its H’amsa (Christos).

{{Style P-No indent|of God. He is the essence of life, and although incomprehensible and invisible, is to be known through {{Style S-Italic|occasional manifestations in human form.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1571}}}} Like the Hindus they hold that he was incarnated more than once on earth. Hamsa was the {{Style S-Italic|precursor}} of the last manifestation to be (the tenth {{Style S-Italic|avatar}}){{Footnote mark|†|fn1572}} not the inheritor of Hakem, who is yet to come. Hamsa was the personification of the “Universal Wisdom.” Bohaeddin in his writings calls him Messiah. The whole number of his disciples, or those who at different ages of the world have imparted wisdom to mankind, which the latter as invariably have forgotten and rejected in course of time, is one hundred and sixty-four (164, the kabalistic {{Style S-Italic|s d k}}){{Style S-Italic|.}} Therefore, their stages or degrees of promotion after initiation are five; the first three degrees are typified by the “three feet of the candlestick of the inner Sanctuary, which holds the light of the {{Style S-Italic|five}} elements;” the last two degrees, the most important and terrifying in their solemn grandeur belonging to the highest orders; and the whole five degrees emblematically represent the said five mystic Elements. The “three feet are the holy {{Style S-Italic|Application,}} the {{Style S-Italic|Opening,}} and the {{Style S-Italic|Phantom,”}} says one of their books; on man’s inner and outer soul, and his body, a phantom, a passing shadow. The body, or matter, is also called the “Rival,” for “he is the minister of sin, the Devil ever creating dissensions between the Heavenly Intelligence (spirit) and the soul, which he tempts incessantly.” Their ideas on transmigration are Pythagorean and kabalistic. The spirit, or Temeami (the divine soul), was in Elijah and John the Baptist; and the soul of Jesus was that of H’amsa; that is to say, of the same degree of purity and sanctity. Until their resurrection, by which they understand the day when the spiritual bodies of men will be absorbed into God’s own essence and being (the Nirvana of the Hindus), the souls of men will keep their astral forms, except the few chosen ones who, from the moment of their separation from their bodies, begin to exist as pure spirits. The life of man they divide into soul, body, and intelligence, or mind. It is the latter which imparts and communicates to the soul the divine spark from its H’amsa (Christos).}}

They have seven great commandments which are imparted equally to all the uninitiated; and yet, even these well-known articles of faith have been so mixed up in the accounts of outside writers, that, in one of the best Cyclopædias of America (Appleton’s), they are garbled after the fashion that may be seen in the comparative tabulation below; the spurious and the true order parallel:

They have seven great commandments which are imparted equally to all the uninitiated; and yet, even these well-known articles of faith have been so mixed up in the accounts of outside writers, that, in one of the best Cyclopædias of America (Appleton’s), they are garbled after the fashion that may be seen in the comparative tabulation below; the spurious and the true order parallel:

[#fn1571anc 1571]. This is the doctrine of the Gnostics who held Christos to be the personal immortal Spirit of man.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1571}} This is the doctrine of the Gnostics who held Christos to be the personal immortal Spirit of man.

[#fn1572anc 1572]. The ten Messiahs or avatars remind again of the five Buddhistic and ten Brahmanical avatars of Buddha and Christna.

{{Footnote return|†|fn1572}} The ten Messiahs or avatars remind again of the five Buddhistic and ten Brahmanical avatars of Buddha and Christna.

311 THE DRUZES OF MOUNT LEBANON.

{{Page|311|THE DRUZES OF MOUNT LEBANON.}}

 

As will be seen, the only exposé in the above is that of the great ignorance, perhaps malice, of the writers who, like Sylvestre de Sacy, undertake to enlighten the world upon matters concerning which they know nothing.

As will be seen, the only exposé in the above is that of the great ignorance, perhaps malice, of the writers who, like Sylvestre de Sacy, undertake to enlighten the world upon matters concerning which they know nothing.

“Chastity, honesty, meekness, and mercy,” are thus the four theological virtues of all Druzes, besides several others demanded from the initiates: “murder, theft, cruelty, covetousness, slander,” the five sins, to which several other sins are added in the sacred tablets, but which we must abstain from giving. The morality of the Druzes is strict and

“Chastity, honesty, meekness, and mercy,” are thus the four theological virtues of all Druzes, besides several others demanded from the initiates: “murder, theft, cruelty, covetousness, slander,” the five sins, to which several other sins are added in the sacred tablets, but which we must abstain from giving. The morality of the Druzes is strict and

[#fn1573anc 1573]. See, farther on, a letter from an “Initiate.”

{{Footnote return|*|fn1573}} See, farther on, a letter from an “Initiate.”

[#fn1574anc 1574]. In this column the first numbers are those given in the article on the {{Style S-Italic|Druzes}} in the “New American Cyclopædia” (Appleton’s), vol. vi., p. 631. The numbers in parentheses show the sequence in which the commandments would stand were they given correctly.

{{Footnote return|†|fn1574}} In this column the first numbers are those given in the article on the {{Style S-Italic|Druzes}} in the “New American Cyclopædia” (Appleton’s), vol. vi., p. 631. The numbers in parentheses show the sequence in which the commandments would stand were they given correctly.

[#fn1575anc 1575]. This pernicious doctrine belongs to the old policy of the Catholic Church, but is certainly false as regards the Druzes. They maintain that it is right and lawful to {{Style S-Italic|withhold the truth}} about their own tenets, no one outside their own sect having a right to pry into their religion. The {{Style S-Italic|okhals}} never countenance deliberate falsehood in any form, although the laymen have many a time got rid of the spies sent by the Christians to discover their secrets, by deceiving them with sham initiations. (See the letter of Prof. Rawson to the author, p. 313.)

{{Footnote return|‡|fn1575}} This pernicious doctrine belongs to the old policy of the Catholic Church, but is certainly false as regards the Druzes. They maintain that it is right and lawful to {{Style S-Italic|withhold the truth}} about their own tenets, no one outside their own sect having a right to pry into their religion. The {{Style S-Italic|okhals}} never countenance deliberate falsehood in any form, although the laymen have many a time got rid of the spies sent by the Christians to discover their secrets, by deceiving them with sham initiations. (See the letter of Prof. Rawson to the author, p. 313.)

[#fn1576anc 1576]. This commandment does not exist in the Lebanon teaching.

{{Footnote return|§|fn1576}} This commandment does not exist in the Lebanon teaching.

[#fn1577anc 1577]. There is no such commandment, but the practice thereof exists by mutual agreement, as in the days of the Gnostic persecution.

{{Footnote return|║|fn1577}} There is no such commandment, but the practice thereof exists by mutual agreement, as in the days of the Gnostic persecution.

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uncompromising. Nothing can tempt one of these Lebanon Unitarians to go astray from what he is taught to consider his duty. {{Style S-Italic|Their ritual being unknown to outsiders,}} their would-be historians have hitherto denied them one. Their “Thursday meetings” are open to all, but no interloper has ever participated in the rites of initiation which take place occasionally on Fridays in the greatest secresy. Women are admitted to them as well as men, and they play a part of great importance at the initiation of men. The probation, unless some extraordinary exception is made, is long and severe. Once, in a certain period of time, a solemn ceremony takes place, during which all the elders and the initiates of the highest two degrees start out for a pilgrimage of several days to a certain place in the mountains. They meet within the safe precincts of a monastery said to have been erected during the earliest times of the Christian era. Outwardly one sees but old ruins of a once grand edifice, used, says the legend, by some Gnostic sects as a place of worship during the religious persecutions. The ruins above ground, however, are but a convenient mask; the subterranean chapel, halls, and cells, covering an area of ground far greater than the upper building; while the richness of ornamentation, the beauty of the ancient sculptures, and the gold and silver vessels in this sacred resort, appear like “a dream of glory,” according to the expression of an initiate. As the lamaseries of Mongolia and Thibet are visited upon grand occasions by the holy shadow of “Lord Buddha,” so here, during the ceremonial, appears the resplendent ethereal form of Hamsa, the Blessed, which instructs the faithful. The most extraordinary feats of what would be termed magic take place during the several nights that the convocation lasts; and one of the greatest mysteries—faithful copy of the past—is accomplished within the discreet bosom of our mother earth; not an echo, nor the faintest sound, not a glimmer of light betrays without the grand secret of the initiates.

{{Style P-No indent|uncompromising. Nothing can tempt one of these Lebanon Unitarians to go astray from what he is taught to consider his duty. {{Style S-Italic|Their ritual being unknown to outsiders,}} their would-be historians have hitherto denied them one. Their “Thursday meetings” are open to all, but no interloper has ever participated in the rites of initiation which take place occasionally on Fridays in the greatest secresy. Women are admitted to them as well as men, and they play a part of great importance at the initiation of men. The probation, unless some extraordinary exception is made, is long and severe. Once, in a certain period of time, a solemn ceremony takes place, during which all the elders and the initiates of the highest two degrees start out for a pilgrimage of several days to a certain place in the mountains. They meet within the safe precincts of a monastery said to have been erected during the earliest times of the Christian era. Outwardly one sees but old ruins of a once grand edifice, used, says the legend, by some Gnostic sects as a place of worship during the religious persecutions. The ruins above ground, however, are but a convenient mask; the subterranean chapel, halls, and cells, covering an area of ground far greater than the upper building; while the richness of ornamentation, the beauty of the ancient sculptures, and the gold and silver vessels in this sacred resort, appear like “a dream of glory,” according to the expression of an initiate. As the lamaseries of Mongolia and Thibet are visited upon grand occasions by the holy shadow of “Lord Buddha,” so here, during the ceremonial, appears the resplendent ethereal form of Hamsa, the Blessed, which instructs the faithful. The most extraordinary feats of what would be termed magic take place during the several nights that the convocation lasts; and one of the greatest mysteries—faithful copy of the past—is accomplished within the discreet bosom of our mother earth; not an echo, nor the faintest sound, not a glimmer of light betrays without the grand secret of the initiates.}}

Hamsa, like Jesus, was a mortal man, and yet “Hamsa” and “Christos” are synonymous terms as to their inner and hidden meaning. Both are symbols of the {{Style S-Italic|Nous,}} the divine and higher soul of man—his spirit. The doctrine taught by the Druzes on that particular question of the duality of spiritual man, consisting of one soul mortal, and another immortal, is identical with that of the Gnostics, the older Greek philosophers, and other initiates.

Hamsa, like Jesus, was a mortal man, and yet “Hamsa” and “Christos” are synonymous terms as to their inner and hidden meaning. Both are symbols of the {{Style S-Italic|Nous,}} the divine and higher soul of man—his spirit. The doctrine taught by the Druzes on that particular question of the duality of spiritual man, consisting of one soul mortal, and another immortal, is identical with that of the Gnostics, the older Greek philosophers, and other initiates.

Outside the East we have met one initiate (and only one), who, for some reasons best known to himself, does not make a secret of his initiation into the Brotherhood of Lebanon. It is the learned traveller and artist, Professor A. L. Rawson, of New York City. This gentleman has passed many years in the East, four times visited Palestine, and has trav-

Outside the East we have met one initiate (and only one), who, for some reasons best known to himself, does not make a secret of his initiation into the Brotherhood of Lebanon. It is the learned traveller and artist, Professor A. L. Rawson, of New York City. This gentleman has passed many years in the East, four times visited Palestine, and has trav-

313 A LETTER FROM AN INITIATE.

{{Page|313|A LETTER FROM AN INITIATE.}}

elled to Mecca. It is safe to say that he has a priceless store of facts about the beginnings of the Christian Church, which none but one who had had free access to repositories closed against the ordinary traveller could have collected. Professor Rawson, with the true devotion of a man of science, noted down every important discovery he made in the Palestinian libraries, and every precious fact orally communicated to him by the mystics he encountered, and some day they will see the light. He has most obligingly sent us the following communication, which, as the reader will perceive, fully corroborates what is above written from our personal experience about the strange fraternity incorrectly styled the Druzes:

{{Style P-No indent|elled to Mecca. It is safe to say that he has a priceless store of facts about the beginnings of the Christian Church, which none but one who had had free access to repositories closed against the ordinary traveller could have collected. Professor Rawson, with the true devotion of a man of science, noted down every important discovery he made in the Palestinian libraries, and every precious fact orally communicated to him by the mystics he encountered, and some day they will see the light. He has most obligingly sent us the following communication, which, as the reader will perceive, fully corroborates what is above written from our personal experience about the strange fraternity incorrectly styled the Druzes:}}

{{Style P-Quote|“34 Bond St., New York, June 6, 1877.  

{{Style P-Quote|data=“34 Bond St., New York, June 6, 1877.  

 

|“. . . Your note, asking me to give you an account of my initiation into a secret order among the people commonly known as Druzes, in Mount Lebanon, was received this morning. I took, as you are fully aware, an obligation at that time to conceal within my own memory the greater part of the ‘mysteries,’ with the most interesting parts of the ‘instructions’; so that what is left may not be of any service to the public. Such information as I can rightfully give, you are welcome to have and use as you may have occasion.  

“. . . Your note, asking me to give you an account of my initiation into a secret order among the people commonly known as Druzes, in Mount Lebanon, was received this morning. I took, as you are fully aware, an obligation at that time to conceal within my own memory the greater part of the ‘mysteries,’ with the most interesting parts of the ‘instructions’; so that what is left may not be of any service to the public. Such information as I can rightfully give, you are welcome to have and use as you may have occasion.  

“The probation in my case was, by {{Style S-Italic|special dispensation,}} made one month, during which time I was ‘shadowed’ by a priest, who served as my cook, guide, interpreter, and general servant, that he might be able to testify to the fact of my having strictly conformed to the rules in diet, ablutions, and other matters. He was also my instructor in the text of the ritual, which we recited from time to time for practice, in dialogue or in song, as it may have been. Whenever we happened to be near a Druze village, on a Thursday, we attended the ‘open’ meetings, where men and women assembled for instruction and worship, and to expose to the world generally their religious practices. I was never present at a Friday ‘close’ meeting before my initiation, nor do I believe any one else, man or woman, ever was, except by collusion with a priest, and that is not probable, for a false priest forfeits his life. The practical jokers among them sometimes ‘fool’ a too curious ‘Frank’ by a sham initiation, especially if such a one is suspected of having some connection with the missionaries at Beirut or elsewhere.  

“The probation in my case was, by {{Style S-Italic|special dispensation,}} made one month, during which time I was ‘shadowed’ by a priest, who served as my cook, guide, interpreter, and general servant, that he might be able to testify to the fact of my having strictly conformed to the rules in diet, ablutions, and other matters. He was also my instructor in the text of the ritual, which we recited from time to time for practice, in dialogue or in song, as it may have been. Whenever we happened to be near a Druze village, on a Thursday, we attended the ‘open’ meetings, where men and women assembled for instruction and worship, and to expose to the world generally their religious practices. I was never present at a Friday ‘close’ meeting before my initiation, nor do I believe any one else, man or woman, ever was, except by collusion with a priest, and that is not probable, for a false priest forfeits his life. The practical jokers among them sometimes ‘fool’ a too curious ‘Frank’ by a sham initiation, especially if such a one is suspected of having some connection with the missionaries at Beirut or elsewhere.  

“Among other tests of the neophyte’s self-control are the following: Choice pieces }}

“Among other tests of the neophyte’s self-control are the following: Choice pieces }}

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{{Style P-Quote|of cooked meat, savory soup, pilau, and other appetizing dishes, with sherbet, coffee, wine, and water, are set, as if accidentally, in his way, and he is left alone for a time with the tempting things. To a hungry and fainting soul the trial is severe. But a more difficult ordeal is when the seven priestesses retire, all but one, the youngest and prettiest, and the door is closed and barred on the outside, after warning the candidate that he will be left to his ‘reflections,’ for half an hour. Wearied by the long-continued ceremonial, weak with hunger, parched with thirst, and a sweet reaction coming after the tremendous strain to keep his animal nature in subjection, this moment of privacy and of temptation is brimful of peril. The beautiful young vestal, timidly approaching, and with glances which lend a double magnetic allurement to her words, begs him in low tones to ‘bless her.’ Woe to him if he does! A hundred eyes see him from secret peep-holes, and only to the ignorant neophyte is there the appearance of concealment and opportunity.  

{{Style P-Quote|{{Style P-No indent|of cooked meat, savory soup, pilau, and other appetizing dishes, with sherbet, coffee, wine, and water, are set, as if accidentally, in his way, and he is left alone for a time with the tempting things. To a hungry and fainting soul the trial is severe. But a more difficult ordeal is when the seven priestesses retire, all but one, the youngest and prettiest, and the door is closed and barred on the outside, after warning the candidate that he will be left to his ‘reflections,’ for half an hour. Wearied by the long-continued ceremonial, weak with hunger, parched with thirst, and a sweet reaction coming after the tremendous strain to keep his animal nature in subjection, this moment of privacy and of temptation is brimful of peril. The beautiful young vestal, timidly approaching, and with glances which lend a double magnetic allurement to her words, begs him in low tones to ‘bless her.’ Woe to him if he does! A hundred eyes see him from secret peep-holes, and only to the ignorant neophyte is there the appearance of concealment and opportunity.}}

“There is no infidelity, idolatry, or other really bad feature in the system. They have the relics of what was once a grand form of nature-worship, which has been contracted under a despotism into a secret order, hidden from the light of day, and exposed only in the smoky glare of a few burning lamps, in some damp cave or chapel under ground. The chief tenets of their religious teachings are comprised in seven ‘tablets,’ which are these, to state them in general terms:  

“There is no infidelity, idolatry, or other really bad feature in the system. They have the relics of what was once a grand form of nature-worship, which has been contracted under a despotism into a secret order, hidden from the light of day, and exposed only in the smoky glare of a few burning lamps, in some damp cave or chapel under ground. The chief tenets of their religious teachings are comprised in seven ‘tablets,’ which are these, to state them in general terms:  

“2. The essential excellence of truth.  

“2. The essential excellence of truth.  

“3 {{Style S-Italic|.}} The law of toleration as to all men and women in opinion.  

“3. The law of toleration as to all men and women in opinion.  

“4. Respect for all men and women as to character and conduct.  

“4. Respect for all men and women as to character and conduct.  

“The chief results of the initiation seemed to be a kind of mental illusion or sleep-waking, in which the neophyte saw, or thought he saw, the images of people who were known to be absent, and in some cases thousands of miles away. I thought (or perhaps it was my mind at work) I saw friends and relatives that I knew at the time were in New York State, while I was then in Lebanon. How these results were produced I cannot say. They appeared in a dark room, when the ‘guide’ was talking, the ‘company’ singing in the next ‘chamber,’ and near the close of the day, when I was tired out with fasting, walking, talking, singing, robing, unrobing, seeing a great many people in various conditions as to dress and undress, and with great mental strain in resisting certain physical manifestations that result from the appetites when they overcome the will, and in paying close attention to the passing scenes, hoping to remember them—so that I may have been unfit to judge of any new and surprising phenomena, and more especially of those apparently magical appearances which have always excited my suspicion and distrust. I know the various uses of the magic-lantern, and other apparatus, and took care to examine the room where the ‘visions’ appeared to me the same evening, and the next day, and several times afterwards, and knew that, in my case, there was no use made of any machinery or other means besides the voice of the ‘guide and instructor.’ On several occasions afterward, when at a great distance from the ‘chamber,’ the same or similar visions were produced, as, for instance, in Hornstein’s Hotel at Jerusalem. A daughter-in-law of a well-known Jewish merchant in Jerusalem is an initiated ‘sister,’ and can produce the visions almost at will on any one who will live }}

“The chief results of the initiation seemed to be a kind of mental illusion or sleep-waking, in which the neophyte saw, or thought he saw, the images of people who were known to be absent, and in some cases thousands of miles away. I thought (or perhaps it was my mind at work) I saw friends and relatives that I knew at the time were in New York State, while I was then in Lebanon. How these results were produced I cannot say. They appeared in a dark room, when the ‘guide’ was talking, the ‘company’ singing in the next ‘chamber,’ and near the close of the day, when I was tired out with fasting, walking, talking, singing, robing, unrobing, seeing a great many people in various conditions as to dress and undress, and with great mental strain in resisting certain physical manifestations that result from the appetites when they overcome the will, and in paying close attention to the passing scenes, hoping to remember them—so that I may have been unfit to judge of any new and surprising phenomena, and more especially of those apparently magical appearances which have always excited my suspicion and distrust. I know the various uses of the magic-lantern, and other apparatus, and took care to examine the room where the ‘visions’ appeared to me the same evening, and the next day, and several times afterwards, and knew that, in my case, there was no use made of any machinery or other means besides the voice of the ‘guide and instructor.’ On several occasions afterward, when at a great distance from the ‘chamber,’ the same or similar visions were produced, as, for instance, in Hornstein’s Hotel at Jerusalem. A daughter-in-law of a well-known Jewish merchant in Jerusalem is an initiated ‘sister,’ and can produce the visions almost at will on any one who will live }}

315 THE “MOTHER LODGE” AND ITS BRANCHES.

{{Page|315|THE “MOTHER LODGE” AND ITS BRANCHES.}}

{{Style P-Quote|strictly according to the rules of the Order for a few weeks, more or less, according to their nature, as gross or refined, etc.  

{{Style P-Quote|strictly according to the rules of the Order for a few weeks, more or less, according to their nature, as gross or refined, etc.  

“It is not necessary for me to say how some of the notions of that people seem to perpetuate certain beliefs of the ancient Greeks—as, for instance, the idea that a man has two souls, and many others—for you probably were made familiar with them in your passage through the ‘upper’ and ‘lower chamber.’ If I am mistaken in supposing you an ‘initiate,’ please excuse me. I am aware that the closest friends often conceal that ‘sacred secret’ from each other; and even husband and wife may live—as I was informed in Dayr-el-Kamar was the fact in one family there—for twenty years together and yet neither know anything of the initiation of the other. You, undoubtedly, have good reasons for keeping your own counsel,  

“It is not necessary for me to say how some of the notions of that people seem to perpetuate certain beliefs of the ancient Greeks—as, for instance, the idea that a man has two souls, and many others—for you probably were made familiar with them in your passage through the ‘upper’ and ‘lower chamber.’ If I am mistaken in supposing you an ‘initiate,’ please excuse me. I am aware that the closest friends often conceal that ‘sacred secret’ from each other; and even husband and wife may live—as I was informed in Dayr-el-Kamar was the fact in one family there—for twenty years together and yet neither know anything of the initiation of the other. You, undoubtedly, have good reasons for keeping your own counsel,  

“Yours truly,  

:::“Yours truly,

 

|signature=“A. L. Rawson.” }}

“A. L. Rawson.” }}

Before we close the subject we may add that if a stranger ask for admission to a “Thursday” meeting he will never be refused. Only, if he is a Christian, the {{Style S-Italic|okhal}} will open a {{Style S-Italic|Bible}} and read from it; and if a Mahometan, he will hear a few chapters of the {{Style S-Italic|Koran,}} and the ceremony will end with this. They will wait until he is gone, and then, shutting well the doors of their convent, take to their own rites and books, passing for this purpose into their subterranean sanctuaries. “The Druzes remain, even more than the Jews, a peculiar people,” says Colonel Churchill,^{[#fn1578 1578]} one of the few fair and strictly impartial writers. “They marry within their own race; they are rarely if ever converted; they adhere tenaciously to their traditions, and they baffle all efforts to discover their cherished secrets. . . The bad name of that caliph whom they claim as their founder is fairly compensated by the pure lives of many whom they honor as saints, and by the heroism of their feudal leaders.”

Before we close the subject we may add that if a stranger ask for admission to a “Thursday” meeting he will never be refused. Only, if he is a Christian, the {{Style S-Italic|okhal}} will open a {{Style S-Italic|Bible}} and read from it; and if a Mahometan, he will hear a few chapters of the {{Style S-Italic|Koran,}} and the ceremony will end with this. They will wait until he is gone, and then, shutting well the doors of their convent, take to their own rites and books, passing for this purpose into their subterranean sanctuaries. “The Druzes remain, even more than the Jews, a peculiar people,” says Colonel Churchill,{{Footnote mark|*|fn1578}} one of the few fair and strictly impartial writers. “They marry within their own race; they are rarely if ever converted; they adhere tenaciously to their traditions, and they baffle all efforts to discover their cherished secrets. . . The bad name of that caliph whom they claim as their founder is fairly compensated by the pure lives of many whom they honor as saints, and by the heroism of their feudal leaders.”

And yet the Druzes may be said to belong to one of the least esoteric of secret societies. There are others far more powerful and learned, the existence of which is not even suspected in Europe. There are many branches belonging to the great “Mother Lodge” which, mixed up with certain communities, may be termed secret sects within other sects. One of them is the sect commonly known as that of Laghana-Sastra. It reckons several thousand adepts who are scattered about in small groups in the south of the Dekkan, India. In the popular superstition, this sect is dreaded on account of its great reputation for magic and sorcery. The Brahmans accuse its members of atheism and sacrilege, for none of them

And yet the Druzes may be said to belong to one of the least esoteric of secret societies. There are others far more powerful and learned, the existence of which is not even suspected in Europe. There are many branches belonging to the great “Mother Lodge” which, mixed up with certain communities, may be termed secret sects within other sects. One of them is the sect commonly known as that of Laghana-Sastra. It reckons several thousand adepts who are scattered about in small groups in the south of the Dekkan, India. In the popular superstition, this sect is dreaded on account of its great reputation for magic and sorcery. The Brahmans accuse its members of atheism and sacrilege, for none of them

[#fn1578anc 1578]. “Mount Lebanon,” vol. 3. London, 1853.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1578}} “Mount Lebanon,” vol. 3. London, 1853.

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will consent to recognize the authority of either the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}} or {{Style S-Italic|Manu,}} except so far as they conform to the versions in their possession, and which they maintain are professedly the only original texts; the Laghana-Sastra have neither temples nor priests, but, twice a month, every member of the community has to absent himself from home for three days. Popular rumor, originated among their women, ascribes such absences to pilgrimages performed to their places of fortnightly resort. In some secluded mountainous spots, unknown and inaccessible to other sects, hidden far from sight among the luxurious vegetation of India, they keep their bungalows, which look like small fortresses, encircled as they are by lofty and thick walls. These, in their turn, are surrounded by the sacred trees called {{Style S-Italic|assonata,}} and in Tamul {{Style S-Italic|arassa maram.}} These are the “sacred groves,” the originals of those of Egypt and Greece, whose initiates also built their temples within such “groves” inaccessible to the profane.^{[#fn1579 1579]}

{{Style P-No indent|will consent to recognize the authority of either the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}} or {{Style S-Italic|Manu,}} except so far as they conform to the versions in their possession, and which they maintain are professedly the only original texts; the Laghana-Sastra have neither temples nor priests, but, twice a month, every member of the community has to absent himself from home for three days. Popular rumor, originated among their women, ascribes such absences to pilgrimages performed to their places of fortnightly resort. In some secluded mountainous spots, unknown and inaccessible to other sects, hidden far from sight among the luxurious vegetation of India, they keep their bungalows, which look like small fortresses, encircled as they are by lofty and thick walls. These, in their turn, are surrounded by the sacred trees called {{Style S-Italic|assonata,}} and in Tamul {{Style S-Italic|arassa maram.}} These are the “sacred groves,” the originals of those of Egypt and Greece, whose initiates also built their temples within such “groves” inaccessible to the profane.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1579}}}}

It will not be found without interest to see what Mr. John Yarker, Jr., has to say on some modern secret societies among the Orientals. “The nearest resemblance to the Brahmanical Mysteries, is probably found in the very ancient ‘{{Style S-Italic|Paths’}} of the Dervishes, which are usually governed by twelve officers, the oldest ‘Court’ superintending the others by right of seniority. Here the master of the ‘Court’ is called {{Style S-Italic|‘Sheik,’}} and has his deputies, ‘Caliphs,’ or successors, of which there may be many (as, for instance, in the brevet degree of a Master Mason). The order is divided into at least four columns, pillars, or degrees. The first step is that of ‘Humanity,’ which supposes attention to the written law, and ‘annihilation in the {{Style S-Italic|Sheik}}.’ The second is that of the ‘Path,’ in which the {{Style S-Italic|‘Murid,’}} or disciple, attains spiritual powers and ‘self-annihilation’ into the ‘Peer’ or founder of the ‘Path.’ The third stage is called ‘Knowledge,’ and the {{Style S-Italic|‘Murid’}} is supposed to become inspired, called ‘annihilation into the Prophet.’ The fourth stage leads him even to God, when he becomes a part of the Deity and sees Him in all things. The first and second stages have received modern subdivisions, as ‘Integrity,’ ‘Virtue,’ ‘Temperance,’ ‘Benevolence.’ After this the Sheik confers upon him the grade of ‘Caliph,’ or Honorary Master, for in their mystical language, ‘the man must die before the saint can be born.’ It will be seen that this kind of mysticism is applicable to Christ as founder of a ‘Path.’”

It will not be found without interest to see what Mr. John Yarker, Jr., has to say on some modern secret societies among the Orientals. “The nearest resemblance to the Brahmanical Mysteries, is probably found in the very ancient ‘{{Style S-Italic|Paths’}} of the Dervishes, which are usually governed by twelve officers, the oldest ‘Court’ superintending the others by right of seniority. Here the master of the ‘Court’ is called {{Style S-Italic|‘Sheik,’}} and has his deputies, ‘Caliphs,’ or successors, of which there may be many (as, for instance, in the brevet degree of a Master Mason). The order is divided into at least four columns, pillars, or degrees. The first step is that of ‘Humanity,’ which supposes attention to the written law, and ‘annihilation in the {{Style S-Italic|Sheik}}.’ The second is that of the ‘Path,’ in which the {{Style S-Italic|‘Murid,’}} or disciple, attains spiritual powers and ‘self-annihilation’ into the ‘Peer’ or founder of the ‘Path.’ The third stage is called ‘Knowledge,’ and the {{Style S-Italic|‘Murid’}} is supposed to become inspired, called ‘annihilation into the Prophet.’ The fourth stage leads him even to God, when he becomes a part of the Deity and sees Him in all things. The first and second stages have received modern subdivisions, as ‘Integrity,’ ‘Virtue,’ ‘Temperance,’ ‘Benevolence.’ After this the Sheik confers upon him the grade of ‘Caliph,’ or Honorary Master, for in their mystical language, ‘the man must die before the saint can be born.’ It will be seen that this kind of mysticism is applicable to Christ as founder of a ‘Path.’”

To this statement, the author adds the following on the Bektash Dervishes, who “often initiated the Janizaries. They wear {{Style S-Italic|a small marble cube spotted with blood.}} Their ceremony is as follows: Before reception a year’s probation is required, during which false secrets are

To this statement, the author adds the following on the Bektash Dervishes, who “often initiated the Janizaries. They wear {{Style S-Italic|a small marble cube spotted with blood.}} Their ceremony is as follows: Before reception a year’s probation is required, during which false secrets are

[#fn1579anc 1579]. Every temple in India is surrounded by such belts of sacred trees. And like the Koum-boum of Kansu (Mongolia) no one but an initiate has a right to approach them.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1579}} Every temple in India is surrounded by such belts of sacred trees. And like the Koum-boum of Kansu (Mongolia) no one but an initiate has a right to approach them.

317 INITIATION AMONG THE BEKTASH DERVISHES.

{{Page|317|INITIATION AMONG THE BEKTASH DERVISHES.}}

given to test the candidate; he has two godfathers {{Style S-Italic|and is divested of all metals and even clothing;}} from the wool of a sheep a cord is made for his neck, and a girdle for his loins; he is led into the centre of a square room, presented as a slave, and seated upon a large stone with twelve escallops; his arms are crossed upon his breast, his body inclined forward, his right toes extended over his left foot; after various prayers he is placed in a particular manner, with his hand in a peculiar way in that of the Sheik, who repeats a verse from the {{Style S-Italic|Koran:}} ‘Those who on giving thee their hand swear to thee an oath, swear it to God, the hand of God is placed in their hand; whoever violates this oath, will do so to his hurt, and to whoever remains faithful God will give a magnificent reward.’ Placing the hand below the chin is their sign, perhaps in memory of their vow. All use the double triangles. The Brahmans inscribe the angles with their trinity, and they possess also the Masonic sign of distress as used in France.”^{[#fn1580 1580]}

{{Style P-No indent|given to test the candidate; he has two godfathers {{Style S-Italic|and is divested of all metals and even clothing;}} from the wool of a sheep a cord is made for his neck, and a girdle for his loins; he is led into the centre of a square room, presented as a slave, and seated upon a large stone with twelve escallops; his arms are crossed upon his breast, his body inclined forward, his right toes extended over his left foot; after various prayers he is placed in a particular manner, with his hand in a peculiar way in that of the Sheik, who repeats a verse from the {{Style S-Italic|Koran:}} ‘Those who on giving thee their hand swear to thee an oath, swear it to God, the hand of God is placed in their hand; whoever violates this oath, will do so to his hurt, and to whoever remains faithful God will give a magnificent reward.’ Placing the hand below the chin is their sign, perhaps in memory of their vow. All use the double triangles. The Brahmans inscribe the angles with their trinity, and they possess also the Masonic sign of distress as used in France.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1580}}}}

From the very day when the first mystic found the means of communication between this world and the worlds of the invisible host, between the sphere of matter and that of pure spirit, he concluded that to abandon this mysterious science to the profanation of the rabble was to lose it. An abuse of it might lead mankind to speedy destruction; it was like surrounding a group of children with explosive batteries, and furnishing them with matches. The first self-made adept initiated but a select few, and kept silence with the multitudes. He recognized his God and felt the great Being within himself. The “Atman,” the Self,^{[#fn1581 1581]} the

From the very day when the first mystic found the means of communication between this world and the worlds of the invisible host, between the sphere of matter and that of pure spirit, he concluded that to abandon this mysterious science to the profanation of the rabble was to lose it. An abuse of it might lead mankind to speedy destruction; it was like surrounding a group of children with explosive batteries, and furnishing them with matches. The first self-made adept initiated but a select few, and kept silence with the multitudes. He recognized his God and felt the great Being within himself. The “Atman,” the Self,{{Footnote mark|†|fn1581}} the

[#fn1580anc 1580]. John Yarker, Jr.: “Notes on the Scientific and Religious Mysteries of Antiquity,” etc.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1580}} John Yarker, Jr.: “Notes on the Scientific and Religious Mysteries of Antiquity,” etc.

[#fn1581anc 1581]. This “Self,” which the Greek philosophers called {{Style S-Italic|Augoeides,}} the “Shining One,” is impressively and beautifully described in Max Müller’s “Veda.” Showing the “Veda” to be the first book of the Aryan nations, the professor adds that “we have in it a period of the intellectual life of man to which there is no parallel in any other part of the world. In the hymns of the “Veda” we see man left to himself to solve the riddle of this world. . . . He invokes the gods around him, he praises, he worships them. But still with all these gods . . . beneath him, and above him, the early poet seems ill at rest within himself. There, too, in his own breast, he has discovered a power that is never mute when he prays, never absent when he fears and trembles. It seems to inspire his prayers, and yet to listen to them; it seems to live in him, and yet to support him and all around him. The only name he can find for this mysterious power is ‘Brahman’; for {{Style S-Italic|brahman}} meant originally force, will, wish, and the propulsive power of creation. But this impersonal brahman, too, as soon as it is named, grows into something strange and divine. It ends by being one of many gods, one of the great triad, worshipped to the present day. And still the thought within him has no real name; that power which is nothing but itself, which supports the gods, the heavens, and every living being, floats before his mind, conceived but not expressed. At last he calls it ‘Âtman,’ for Âtman, originally breath or spirit, comes to mean Self, and Self alone; {{Style S-Italic|Self}}, whether Divine or human; Self, whether creating or suffering; Self, whether one or all; but always Self, independent and free. ‘Who has seen the first-born,’ says the poet, when he who had no bones ({{Style S-Italic|i.e}}., form) bore him that had bones? Where was the life, the blood, the Self of the world? Who went to ask this from any one who knew it?” (“Rig-Veda,” i., 164, 4). This idea of a divine Self, once expressed, everything else must acknowledge its supremacy; “{{Style S-Italic|Self}} is the Lord of all things, Self is the King of all things. As all the spokes of a wheel are contained in the nave and the circumference, all things are contained in this Self; all Selves are contained in this Self. Brahman itself is but Self” (Ibid., p. 478; “Khândogya-upanishad,” viii., 3, 3, 4); “Chips from a German Workshop,” vol. i., p. 69.

{{Footnote return|†|fn1581}} This “Self,” which the Greek philosophers called {{Style S-Italic|Augoeides,}} the “Shining One,” is impressively and beautifully described in Max Müller’s “Veda.” Showing the “Veda” to be the first book of the Aryan nations, the professor adds that “we have in it a period of the intellectual life of man to which there is no parallel in any other part of the world. In the hymns of the “Veda” we see man left to himself to solve the riddle of this world. . . . He invokes the gods around him, he praises, he worships them. But still with all these gods . . . beneath him, and above him, the early poet seems ill at rest within himself. There, too, in his own breast, he has discovered a power that is never mute when he prays, never absent when he fears and trembles. It seems to inspire his prayers, and yet to listen to them; it seems to live in him, and yet to support him and all around him. The only name he can find for this mysterious power is ‘Brahman’; for {{Style S-Italic|brahman}} meant originally force, will, wish, and the propulsive power of creation. But this impersonal brahman, too, as soon as it is named, grows into something strange and divine. It ends by being one of many gods, one of the great triad, worshipped to the present day. And still the thought within him has no real name; that power which is nothing but itself, which supports the gods, the heavens, and every living being, floats before his mind, conceived but not expressed. At last he calls it ‘Âtman,’ for Âtman, originally breath or spirit, comes to mean Self, and Self alone; {{Style S-Italic|Self}}, whether Divine or human; Self, whether creating or suffering; Self, whether one or all; but always Self, independent and free. ‘Who has seen the first-born,’ says the poet, when he who had no bones ({{Style S-Italic|i.e}}., form) bore him that had bones? Where was the life, the blood, the Self of the world? Who went to ask this from any one who knew it?” (“Rig-Veda,” i., 164, 4). This idea of a divine Self, once expressed, everything else must acknowledge its supremacy; “{{Style S-Italic|Self}} is the Lord of all things, Self is the King of all things. As all the spokes of a wheel are contained in the nave and the circumference, all things are contained in this Self; all Selves are contained in this Self. Brahman itself is but Self” (Ibid., p. 478; “Khândogya-upanishad,” viii., 3, 3, 4); “Chips from a German Workshop,” vol. i., p. 69.

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mighty Lord and Protector, once that man knew him as the “{{Style S-Italic|I am,”}} the “{{Style S-Italic|Ego Sum,”}} the “{{Style S-Italic|Ahmi,”}} showed his full power to him who could recognize the “{{Style S-Italic|still small voice.”}} From the days of the primitive man described by the first Vedic poet, down to our modern age, there has not been a philosopher worthy of that name, who did not carry in the silent sanctuary of his heart the grand and mysterious truth. If initiated, he learnt it as a sacred science; if otherwise, then, like Socrates repeating to himself, as well as to his fellow-men, the noble injunction, “O man, know thyself,” he succeeded in recognizing his God within himself. “Ye are gods,” the king-psalmist tells us, and we find Jesus reminding the scribes that the expression, “Ye are gods,” was addressed to other mortal men, claiming for himself the same privilege without any blasphemy.^{[#fn1582 1582]} And, as a faithful echo, Paul, while asserting that we are all “the temple of the living God,”^{[#fn1583 1583]} cautiously adds, that after all these things are only for the “wise,” and it is “unlawful” to speak of them.

{{Style P-No indent|mighty Lord and Protector, once that man knew him as the “{{Style S-Italic|I am,”}} the “{{Style S-Italic|Ego Sum,”}} the “{{Style S-Italic|Ahmi,”}} showed his full power to him who could recognize the “{{Style S-Italic|still small voice.”}} From the days of the primitive man described by the first Vedic poet, down to our modern age, there has not been a philosopher worthy of that name, who did not carry in the silent sanctuary of his heart the grand and mysterious truth. If initiated, he learnt it as a sacred science; if otherwise, then, like Socrates repeating to himself, as well as to his fellow-men, the noble injunction, “O man, know thyself,” he succeeded in recognizing his God within himself. “Ye are gods,” the king-psalmist tells us, and we find Jesus reminding the scribes that the expression, “Ye are gods,” was addressed to other mortal men, claiming for himself the same privilege without any blasphemy.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1582}} And, as a faithful echo, Paul, while asserting that we are all “the temple of the living God,”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1583}} cautiously adds, that after all these things are only for the “wise,” and it is “unlawful” to speak of them.}}

Therefore, we must accept the reminder, and simply remark that even in the tortured and barbarous phraseology of the {{Style S-Italic|Codex Nazaræus,}} we detect throughout the same idea. Like an undercurrent, rapid and clear, it runs without mixing its crystalline purity with the muddy and heavy waves of dogmatism. We find it in the {{Style S-Italic|Codex}}, as well as in the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}}, in the {{Style S-Italic|Avesta}}, as in the {{Style S-Italic|Abhidharma}}, and in {{Style S-Italic|Kapila’s Sankhya Sutras}} not less than in the {{Style S-Italic|Fourth Gospel}}. We cannot attain the “Kingdom of Heaven,” unless we unite ourselves indissolubly with our {{Style S-Italic|Rex Lucis}}, the Lord of Splendor and of Light, our Immortal God. We must first conquer immortality and “take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence,” offered to our material selves. “The first man is of the earth earthy; the {{Style S-Italic|second}} man {{Style S-Italic|is from heaven}}. . . . Behold, I show you a mystery,” says Paul (1 {{Style S-Italic|Corinthians}}, xv. 47). In the religion of Sakya-Muni, which learned commentators have delighted so much of late to set down as purely {{Style S-Italic|nihilistic}}, the doctrine of immortality is very clearly defined, notwithstanding the European or rather Christian ideas about Nirvana. In the sacred Jaïna books, of Patuna, the dying Gautama-

Therefore, we must accept the reminder, and simply remark that even in the tortured and barbarous phraseology of the {{Style S-Italic|Codex Nazaræus,}} we detect throughout the same idea. Like an undercurrent, rapid and clear, it runs without mixing its crystalline purity with the muddy and heavy waves of dogmatism. We find it in the {{Style S-Italic|Codex}}, as well as in the {{Style S-Italic|Vedas}}, in the {{Style S-Italic|Avesta}}, as in the {{Style S-Italic|Abhidharma}}, and in {{Style S-Italic|Kapila’s Sankhya Sutras}} not less than in the {{Style S-Italic|Fourth Gospel}}. We cannot attain the “Kingdom of Heaven,” unless we unite ourselves indissolubly with our {{Style S-Italic|Rex Lucis}}, the Lord of Splendor and of Light, our Immortal God. We must first conquer immortality and “take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence,” offered to our material selves. “The first man is of the earth earthy; the {{Style S-Italic|second}} man {{Style S-Italic|is from heaven}}. . . . Behold, I show you a mystery,” says Paul (1 {{Style S-Italic|Corinthians}}, xv. 47). In the religion of Sakya-Muni, which learned commentators have delighted so much of late to set down as purely {{Style S-Italic|nihilistic}}, the doctrine of immortality is very clearly defined, notwithstanding the European or rather Christian ideas about Nirvana. In the sacred Jaïna books, of Patuna, the dying Gautama-

[#fn1582anc 1582]. {{Style S-Italic|John x. 34, 35.}}

{{Footnotes start}}

{{Footnote return|*|fn1582}} John x. 34, 35.

[#fn1583anc 1583]. {{Style S-Italic|2 Corinthians, vi. 16.}}

{{Footnote return|†|fn1583}} 2 Corinthians, vi. 16.

{{Footnotes end}}

319 THE ESOTERIC DOCTRINE OF BUDDHISM.

{{Page|319|THE ESOTERIC DOCTRINE OF BUDDHISM.}}

Buddha is thus addressed: “Arise into {{Style S-Italic|Nirvi}} (Nirvana) from this decrepit body into which thou hast been sent. Ascend into {{Style S-Italic|thy former abode,}} O blessed Avatar!” This seems to us the very opposite of Nihilism. If Gautama is invited to reascend into his “former abode,” and this abode is Nirvana, then it is incontestable that Buddhistic philosophy does {{Style S-Italic|not}} teach final annihilation. As Jesus is alleged to have appeared to his disciples after death, so to the present day is Gautama believed to descend from Nirvana. And if he has an existence there, then this state cannot be a synonym for {{Style S-Italic|annihilation.}}

{{Style P-No indent|Buddha is thus addressed: “Arise into {{Style S-Italic|Nirvi}} (Nirvana) from this decrepit body into which thou hast been sent. Ascend into {{Style S-Italic|thy former abode,}} O blessed Avatar!” This seems to us the very opposite of Nihilism. If Gautama is invited to reascend into his “former abode,” and this abode is Nirvana, then it is incontestable that Buddhistic philosophy does {{Style S-Italic|not}} teach final annihilation. As Jesus is alleged to have appeared to his disciples after death, so to the present day is Gautama believed to descend from Nirvana. And if he has an existence there, then this state cannot be a synonym for ''annihilation''.}}

Gautama, no less than all other great reformers, had a doctrine for his “elect” and another for the outside masses, though the main object of his reform consisted in initiating all, so far as it was permissible and prudent to do, without distinction of castes or wealth, to the great truths hitherto kept so secret by the selfish Brahmanical class. Gautama-Buddha it was whom we see the first in the world’s history, moved by that generous feeling which locks the whole humanity within one embrace, inviting the “poor,” the “lame,” and the “blind” to the King’s festival table, from which he excluded those who had hitherto sat alone, in haughty seclusion. It was he, who, with a bold hand, first opened the door of the sanctuary to the pariah, the fallen one, and all those “afflicted by men” clothed in gold and purple, often far less worthy than the outcast to whom their finger was scornfully pointing. All this did Siddhartha six centuries before another reformer, as noble and as loving, though less favored by opportunity, in another land. If both, aware of the great danger of furnishing an uncultivated populace with the double-edged weapon of {{Style S-Italic|knowledge which gives power,}} left the innermost corner of the sanctuary in the profoundest shade, who, that is acquainted with human nature, can blame them for it? But while one was actuated by prudence, the other was forced into such a course. Gautama left the esoteric and most dangerous portion of the “secret knowledge” untouched, and lived to the ripe old age of eighty, with the certainty of having taught the essential truths, and having converted to them one-third of the world; Jesus promised his disciples the knowledge which confers upon man the power {{Style S-Italic|of producing far greater miracles than he ever did himself,}} and he died, leaving but a few faithful men, only half way to knowledge, to struggle with the world to which they could impart but what they {{Style S-Italic|half}}-knew themselves. Later, their followers disfigured truth still more than they themselves had done.

Gautama, no less than all other great reformers, had a doctrine for his “elect” and another for the outside masses, though the main object of his reform consisted in initiating all, so far as it was permissible and prudent to do, without distinction of castes or wealth, to the great truths hitherto kept so secret by the selfish Brahmanical class. Gautama-Buddha it was whom we see the first in the world’s history, moved by that generous feeling which locks the whole humanity within one embrace, inviting the “poor,” the “lame,” and the “blind” to the King’s festival table, from which he excluded those who had hitherto sat alone, in haughty seclusion. It was he, who, with a bold hand, first opened the door of the sanctuary to the pariah, the fallen one, and all those “afflicted by men” clothed in gold and purple, often far less worthy than the outcast to whom their finger was scornfully pointing. All this did Siddhartha six centuries before another reformer, as noble and as loving, though less favored by opportunity, in another land. If both, aware of the great danger of furnishing an uncultivated populace with the double-edged weapon of {{Style S-Italic|knowledge which gives power,}} left the innermost corner of the sanctuary in the profoundest shade, who, that is acquainted with human nature, can blame them for it? But while one was actuated by prudence, the other was forced into such a course. Gautama left the esoteric and most dangerous portion of the “secret knowledge” untouched, and lived to the ripe old age of eighty, with the certainty of having taught the essential truths, and having converted to them one-third of the world; Jesus promised his disciples the knowledge which confers upon man the power {{Style S-Italic|of producing far greater miracles than he ever did himself,}} and he died, leaving but a few faithful men, only half way to knowledge, to struggle with the world to which they could impart but what they {{Style S-Italic|half}}-knew themselves. Later, their followers disfigured truth still more than they themselves had done.

It is not true that Gautama never taught anything concerning a future life, or that he denied the immortality of the soul. Ask any intelligent Buddhist his ideas on Nirvana, and he will unquestionably express himself, as the well-known Wong-Chin-Fu, the Chinese orator, now

It is not true that Gautama never taught anything concerning a future life, or that he denied the immortality of the soul. Ask any intelligent Buddhist his ideas on Nirvana, and he will unquestionably express himself, as the well-known Wong-Chin-Fu, the Chinese orator, now

320 ISIS UNVEILED.

{{Page|320|ISIS UNVEILED.}}

travelling in this country, did in a recent conversation with us about {{Style S-Italic|Niepang}} (Nirvana). “This condition,” he remarked, “we all understand to mean a final reunion with God, coincident with the perfection of the human spirit by its ultimate disembarrassment of matter. It is the very opposite of personal annihilation.”

{{Style P-No indent|travelling in this country, did in a recent conversation with us about {{Style S-Italic|Niepang}} (Nirvana). “This condition,” he remarked, “we all understand to mean a final reunion with God, coincident with the perfection of the human spirit by its ultimate disembarrassment of matter. It is the very opposite of personal annihilation.”}}

Nirvana means the certitude of personal immortality in {{Style S-Italic|Spirit,}} not in {{Style S-Italic|Soul,}} which, as a finite emanation, must certainly disintegrate its particles a compound of human sensations, passions, and yearning for some objective kind of existence, before the immortal spirit of the {{Style S-Italic|Ego}} is quite freed, and henceforth secure against further transmigration in any form. And how can man ever reach this state so long as the {{Style S-Italic|Upadna,}} that state of longing for {{Style S-Italic|life}}, more life, does not disappear from the sentient being, from the {{Style S-Italic|Ahancara}} clothed, however, in a sublimated body? It is the “Upadna” or the intense desire which produces WILL, and it is {{Style S-Italic|will}} which develops {{Style S-Italic|force,}} and the latter generates {{Style S-Italic|matter,}} or an object having form. Thus the disembodied {{Style S-Italic|Ego}}, through this sole undying desire in him, unconsciously furnishes the conditions of his successive self-procreations in various forms, which depend on his mental state and {{Style S-Italic|Karma,}} the good or bad deeds of his preceding existence, commonly called “merit and demerit.” This is why the “Master” recommended to his mendicants the cultivation of the four degrees of Dhyana, the noble “Path of the Four Truths,” {{Style S-Italic|i.e}}., that gradual acquirement of stoical indifference for either life or death; that state of spiritual self-contemplation during which man utterly loses sight of his physical and dual individuality, composed of soul and body; and uniting himself with his third and higher immortal self the {{Style S-Italic|real and heavenly man}} merges, so to say, into the divine Essence, whence his own spirit proceeded like a spark from the common hearth. Thus the Arhat, the holy mendicant, can reach Nirvana while yet on earth; and his spirit, totally freed from the trammels of the “psychical, terrestrial, {{Style S-Italic|devilish}} wisdom,” as James calls it, and being in its own nature omniscient and omnipotent, can on earth, through the sole power of his {{Style S-Italic|thought,}} produce the greatest of phenomena.

Nirvana means the certitude of personal immortality in {{Style S-Italic|Spirit,}} not in {{Style S-Italic|Soul,}} which, as a finite emanation, must certainly disintegrate its particles a compound of human sensations, passions, and yearning for some objective kind of existence, before the immortal spirit of the {{Style S-Italic|Ego}} is quite freed, and henceforth secure against further transmigration in any form. And how can man ever reach this state so long as the {{Style S-Italic|Upadna,}} that state of longing for {{Style S-Italic|life}}, more life, does not disappear from the sentient being, from the {{Style S-Italic|Ahancara}} clothed, however, in a sublimated body? It is the “Upadna” or the intense desire which produces WILL, and it is {{Style S-Italic|will}} which develops {{Style S-Italic|force,}} and the latter generates {{Style S-Italic|matter,}} or an object having form. Thus the disembodied {{Style S-Italic|Ego}}, through this sole undying desire in him, unconsciously furnishes the conditions of his successive self-procreations in various forms, which depend on his mental state and {{Style S-Italic|Karma,}} the good or bad deeds of his preceding existence, commonly called “merit and demerit.” This is why the “Master” recommended to his mendicants the cultivation of the four degrees of Dhyana, the noble “Path of the Four Truths,” {{Style S-Italic|i.e}}., that gradual acquirement of stoical indifference for either life or death; that state of spiritual self-contemplation during which man utterly loses sight of his physical and dual individuality, composed of soul and body; and uniting himself with his third and higher immortal self the {{Style S-Italic|real and heavenly man}} merges, so to say, into the divine Essence, whence his own spirit proceeded like a spark from the common hearth. Thus the Arhat, the holy mendicant, can reach Nirvana while yet on earth; and his spirit, totally freed from the trammels of the “psychical, terrestrial, {{Style S-Italic|devilish}} wisdom,” as James calls it, and being in its own nature omniscient and omnipotent, can on earth, through the sole power of his {{Style S-Italic|thought,}} produce the greatest of phenomena.

“It is the missionaries in China and India, who first started this falsehood about Niepang, or Nïepana (Nirvana),” says Wong-Chin-Fu. Who can deny the truth of this accusation after reading the works of the Abbé Dubois, for instance? A missionary who passes forty years of his life in India, and then writes that the “Buddhists admit of no other God but the body of man, and have no other object but the satisfaction of their senses,” utters an untruth which can be proved on the testimony of the laws of the Talapoins of Siam and Birmah; laws, which prevail unto this very day and which sentence a sahan, or {{Style S-Italic|punghi}} (a learned man; from the Sanscrit {{Style S-Italic|pundit),}} as well as a simple Talapoin, to death by

“It is the missionaries in China and India, who first started this falsehood about Niepang, or Nïepana (Nirvana),” says Wong-Chin-Fu. Who can deny the truth of this accusation after reading the works of the Abbé Dubois, for instance? A missionary who passes forty years of his life in India, and then writes that the “Buddhists admit of no other God but the body of man, and have no other object but the satisfaction of their senses,” utters an untruth which can be proved on the testimony of the laws of the Talapoins of Siam and Birmah; laws, which prevail unto this very day and which sentence a sahan, or {{Style S-Italic|punghi}} (a learned man; from the Sanscrit {{Style S-Italic|pundit),}} as well as a simple Talapoin, to death by

321 THE STRICT CHASTITY OF EASTERN MYSTICS.

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decapitation, for the crime of unchastity. No foreigner can be admitted into their {{Style S-Italic|Kyums,}} or Viharas (monasteries); and yet there are French writers, otherwise impartial and fair, who, speaking of the great severity of the rules to which the Buddhist monks are subjected in these communities, and without possessing one single fact to corroborate their skepticism, bluntly say, that “notwithstanding the great laudations bestowed upon them (Talapoins) by certain travellers, merely on the {{Style S-Italic|strength of appearances,}} I do not believe at all in their chastity.”^{[#fn1584 1584]}

{{Style P-No indent|decapitation, for the crime of unchastity. No foreigner can be admitted into their {{Style S-Italic|Kyums,}} or Viharas (monasteries); and yet there are French writers, otherwise impartial and fair, who, speaking of the great severity of the rules to which the Buddhist monks are subjected in these communities, and without possessing one single fact to corroborate their skepticism, bluntly say, that “notwithstanding the great laudations bestowed upon them (Talapoins) by certain travellers, merely on the {{Style S-Italic|strength of appearances,}} I do not believe at all in their chastity.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1584}}}}

Fortunately for the Buddhist talapoins, lamas, sahans, upasampadas,^{[#fn1585 1585]} and even samenaïras,^{[#fn1586 1586]} they have popular records and facts for themselves, which are weightier than the unsupported personal opinion of a Frenchman, born in Catholic lands, whom we can hardly blame for having lost all faith in clerical virtue. When a Buddhist monk becomes guilty (which does not happen once in a century, perhaps) of criminal conversation, he has neither a congregation of tender-hearted members, whom he can move to tears by an eloquent confession of his guilt, nor a Jesus, on whose overburdened, long-suffering bosom are flung, as in a common Christian dust-box, all the impurities of the race. No Buddhist transgressor can comfort himself with visions of a Vatican, within whose sin-encompassing walls black is turned into white, murderers into sinless saints, and golden or silvery lotions can be bought at the confessional to cleanse the tardy penitent of greater or lesser offenses against God and man.

Fortunately for the Buddhist talapoins, lamas, sahans, upasampadas,{{Footnote mark|†|fn1585}} and even samenaïras,{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1586}} they have popular records and facts for themselves, which are weightier than the unsupported personal opinion of a Frenchman, born in Catholic lands, whom we can hardly blame for having lost all faith in clerical virtue. When a Buddhist monk becomes guilty (which does not happen once in a century, perhaps) of criminal conversation, he has neither a congregation of tender-hearted members, whom he can move to tears by an eloquent confession of his guilt, nor a Jesus, on whose overburdened, long-suffering bosom are flung, as in a common Christian dust-box, all the impurities of the race. No Buddhist transgressor can comfort himself with visions of a Vatican, within whose sin-encompassing walls black is turned into white, murderers into sinless saints, and golden or silvery lotions can be bought at the confessional to cleanse the tardy penitent of greater or lesser offenses against God and man.

Except a few impartial archæologists, who trace a direct Buddhistic element in Gnosticism, as in all those early short-lived sects we know of very few authors, who, in writing upon primitive Christianity, have accorded to the question its due importance. Have we not facts enough to, at least, suggest some interest in that direction? Do we not learn that, as early as in the days of Plato, there were “Brachmans”—read Buddhist, Samaneans, Saman, or Shaman missionaries—in Greece, and that, at one time, they had overflowed the country? Does not Pliny show them established on the shores of the Dead Sea, for “thousands of ages”? After making every necessary allowance for the exaggeration, we still have several centuries b.c. left as a margin. And is it possible that their influence should not have left deeper traces in all these sects than is generally thought? We know that the Jaïna sect claims Buddhism as derived from its tenets—that Buddhism existed before Siddhârtha, better known as Gautama-Buddha. The Hindu Brahmans who, by

Except a few impartial archæologists, who trace a direct Buddhistic element in Gnosticism, as in all those early short-lived sects we know of very few authors, who, in writing upon primitive Christianity, have accorded to the question its due importance. Have we not facts enough to, at least, suggest some interest in that direction? Do we not learn that, as early as in the days of Plato, there were “Brachmans”—read Buddhist, Samaneans, Saman, or Shaman missionaries—in Greece, and that, at one time, they had overflowed the country? Does not Pliny show them established on the shores of the Dead Sea, for “thousands of ages”? After making every necessary allowance for the exaggeration, we still have several centuries b.c. left as a margin. And is it possible that their influence should not have left deeper traces in all these sects than is generally thought? We know that the Jaïna sect claims Buddhism as derived from its tenets—that Buddhism existed before Siddhârtha, better known as Gautama-Buddha. The Hindu Brahmans who, by

[#fn1584anc 1584]. Jacolliot: “Voyage au Pays des Elephants.”

{{Footnote return|*|fn1584}} Jacolliot: “Voyage au Pays des Elephants.”

[#fn1585anc 1585]. Buddhist chief priests at Ceylon.

{{Footnote return|†|fn1585}} Buddhist chief priests at Ceylon.

[#fn1586anc 1586]. Samenaïra is one who studies to obtain the high office of a {{Style S-Italic|Oepasampala.}} He is a disciple and is looked upon as a son by the chief priest. We suspect that the Catholic seminarist must look to the Buddhists for the parentage of his title.

{{Footnote return|‡|fn1586}} Samenaïra is one who studies to obtain the high office of a {{Style S-Italic|Oepasampala.}} He is a disciple and is looked upon as a son by the chief priest. We suspect that the Catholic seminarist must look to the Buddhists for the parentage of his title.

322 ISIS UNVEILED.

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the European Orientalists, are denied the right of knowing anything about their own country, or understanding their own language and records better than those who have never been in India, on the same principle as the Jews are forbidden, by the Christian theologians, to interpret their own Scriptures—the Brahmans, we say, have authentic records. And these show the incarnation from the Virgin Avany of the first Buddha—{{Style S-Italic|divine light—}}as having taken place more than some thousands of years b.c., on the island of Ceylon. The Brahmans reject the claim that it was an avatar of Vishnu, but admit the appearance of a reformer of Brahmanism at that time. The story of the Virgin Avany and her divine son, Sakya-muni, is recorded in one of the sacred books of the Cinghalese Buddhists—the {{Style S-Italic|Nirdhasa;}} and the Brahmanic chronology fixes the great Buddhistic revolution and religious war, and the subsequent spread of Sakya-muni’s doctrine in Thibet, China, Japan, and other places at 4,620 years b.c.^{[#fn1587 1587]}

{{Style P-No indent|the European Orientalists, are denied the right of knowing anything about their own country, or understanding their own language and records better than those who have never been in India, on the same principle as the Jews are forbidden, by the Christian theologians, to interpret their own Scriptures—the Brahmans, we say, have authentic records. And these show the incarnation from the Virgin Avany of the first Buddha—{{Style S-Italic|divine light—}}as having taken place more than some thousands of years b.c., on the island of Ceylon. The Brahmans reject the claim that it was an avatar of Vishnu, but admit the appearance of a reformer of Brahmanism at that time. The story of the Virgin Avany and her divine son, Sakya-muni, is recorded in one of the sacred books of the Cinghalese Buddhists—the {{Style S-Italic|Nirdhasa;}} and the Brahmanic chronology fixes the great Buddhistic revolution and religious war, and the subsequent spread of Sakya-muni’s doctrine in Thibet, China, Japan, and other places at 4,620 years {{Style S-Small capitals|b.c}}.{{Footnote mark|*|fn1587}}}}

It is clear that Gautama-Buddha, the son of the King of Kapilavastu, and the descendant of the first Sakya, through his father, who was of the Kshatriya, or warrior-caste, did not invent his philosophy. Philanthropist by nature, his ideas were developed and matured while under the tuition of Tir-thankara, the famous guru of the Jaïna sect. The latter claim the present Buddhism as a diverging branch of their own philosophy, and themselves, as the only followers of the first Buddha who were allowed to remain in India, after the expulsion of all other Buddhists, probably because they had made a compromise, and admitted some of the Brahmanic notions. It is, to say the least, curious, that three dissenting and inimical religions, like Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jaïnism, should agree so perfectly in their traditions and chronology, as to Buddhism, and that our scientists should give a hearing but to their own unwarranted speculations and hypotheses. If the birth of Gautama may, with some show of reason, be placed at about 600 b.c., then the preceding Buddhas ought to have some place allowed them in chronology. The Buddhas are not gods, but simply individuals overshadowed by the spirit of Buddha—the divine ray. Or is it because, unable to extricate themselves from the difficulty by the help of their own researches only, our Orientalists prefer to obliterate and deny the whole, rather than accord to the Hindus the right of knowing something of their own religion and history? Strange way of discovering truths!

It is clear that Gautama-Buddha, the son of the King of Kapilavastu, and the descendant of the first Sakya, through his father, who was of the Kshatriya, or warrior-caste, did not invent his philosophy. Philanthropist by nature, his ideas were developed and matured while under the tuition of Tir-thankara, the famous guru of the Jaïna sect. The latter claim the present Buddhism as a diverging branch of their own philosophy, and themselves, as the only followers of the first Buddha who were allowed to remain in India, after the expulsion of all other Buddhists, probably because they had made a compromise, and admitted some of the Brahmanic notions. It is, to say the least, curious, that three dissenting and inimical religions, like Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jaïnism, should agree so perfectly in their traditions and chronology, as to Buddhism, and that our scientists should give a hearing but to their own unwarranted speculations and hypotheses. If the birth of Gautama may, with some show of reason, be placed at about 600 b.c., then the preceding Buddhas ought to have some place allowed them in chronology. The Buddhas are not gods, but simply individuals overshadowed by the spirit of Buddha—the divine ray. Or is it because, unable to extricate themselves from the difficulty by the help of their own researches only, our Orientalists prefer to obliterate and deny the whole, rather than accord to the Hindus the right of knowing something of their own religion and history? Strange way of discovering truths!

The common argument adduced against the Jaïna claim, of having been the source of the restoration of ancient Buddhism, that the principal

The common argument adduced against the Jaïna claim, of having been the source of the restoration of ancient Buddhism, that the principal

[#fn1587anc 1587]. Jacolliot declares, in his “Fils de Dieu,” that he copied these dates from the “Book of the Historical Zodiacs,” preserved in the pagoda of Vilenur.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1587}} Jacolliot declares, in his “Fils de Dieu,” that he copied these dates from the “Book of the Historical Zodiacs,” preserved in the pagoda of Vilenur.

323 MISSIONARY VANDALISM IN INDIA.

{{Page|323|MISSIONARY VANDALISM IN INDIA.}}

tenet of the latter religion is opposed to the belief of the Jaïnas, is not a sound one. Buddhists, say our Orientalists, deny the existence of a Supreme Being; the Jaïnas admit one, but protest against the assumption that the “He” can ever interfere in the regulation of the universe. We have shown in the preceding chapter that the Buddhists do not deny any such thing. But if any disinterested scholar could study carefully the Jaïna literature, in their thousands of books preserved—or shall we say hidden—in Rajpootana, Jusselmere, at Patun, and other places;^{[#fn1588 1588]} and especially if he could but gain access to the oldest of their sacred volumes, he would find a perfect identity of philosophical thought, if not of popular rites, between the Jaïnas and the Buddhists. The Adi-Buddha and Adinâtha (or Adiswara) are identical in essence and purpose. And now, if we trace the Jaïnas back, with their claims to the ownership of the oldest cave-temples (those superb specimens of Indian architecture and sculpture), and their records of an almost incredible antiquity, we can hardly refuse to view them in the light which they claim for themselves. We must admit, that in all probability they are the only true descendants of the primitive owners of old India, dispossessed by those conquering and mysterious hordes of white-skinned Brahmans whom, in the twilight of history, we see appearing at the first as wanderers in the valleys of Jumna and Ganges. The books of the Srawacs—the only descendants of the Arhatas or earliest Jaïnas, the naked forest-hermits of the days of old, might throw some light, perhaps, on many a puzzling question. But will our European scholars, so long as they pursue their own policy, ever have access to the {{Style S-Italic|right}} volumes? We have our doubts about this. Ask any trustworthy Hindu how the missionaries have dealt with those manuscripts which unluckily fell into their hands, and then see if we can blame the natives for trying to save from desecration the “gods of their fathers.”

{{Style P-No indent|tenet of the latter religion is opposed to the belief of the Jaïnas, is not a sound one. Buddhists, say our Orientalists, deny the existence of a Supreme Being; the Jaïnas admit one, but protest against the assumption that the “He” can ever interfere in the regulation of the universe. We have shown in the preceding chapter that the Buddhists do not deny any such thing. But if any disinterested scholar could study carefully the Jaïna literature, in their thousands of books preserved—or shall we say hidden—in Rajpootana, Jusselmere, at Patun, and other places;{{Footnote mark|*|fn1588}} and especially if he could but gain access to the oldest of their sacred volumes, he would find a perfect identity of philosophical thought, if not of popular rites, between the Jaïnas and the Buddhists. The Adi-Buddha and Adinâtha (or Adiswara) are identical in essence and purpose. And now, if we trace the Jaïnas back, with their claims to the ownership of the oldest cave-temples (those superb specimens of Indian architecture and sculpture), and their records of an almost incredible antiquity, we can hardly refuse to view them in the light which they claim for themselves. We must admit, that in all probability they are the only true descendants of the primitive owners of old India, dispossessed by those conquering and mysterious hordes of white-skinned Brahmans whom, in the twilight of history, we see appearing at the first as wanderers in the valleys of Jumna and Ganges. The books of the Srawacs—the only descendants of the Arhatas or earliest Jaïnas, the naked forest-hermits of the days of old, might throw some light, perhaps, on many a puzzling question. But will our European scholars, so long as they pursue their own policy, ever have access to the {{Style S-Italic|right}} volumes? We have our doubts about this. Ask any trustworthy Hindu how the missionaries have dealt with those manuscripts which unluckily fell into their hands, and then see if we can blame the natives for trying to save from desecration the “gods of their fathers.”}}

To maintain their ground Irenæus and his school had to fight hard with the Gnostics. Such, also, was the lot of Eusebius, who found himself hopelessly perplexed to know how the Essenes should be disposed of. The ways and customs of Jesus and his apostles exhibited too close a resemblance to this sect to allow the fact to pass unexplained. Eusebius tried to make people believe that the Essenes were the first Christians. His efforts were thwarted by Philo Judæus, who wrote his historical account of the Essenes and described them with the minutest care, long before there had appeared a single Christian in Palestine. But, if there were no {{Style S-Italic|Christians,}} there were Christians long before the era of Christianity; and the Essenes belonged to the latter as well as to all other initiated

To maintain their ground Irenæus and his school had to fight hard with the Gnostics. Such, also, was the lot of Eusebius, who found himself hopelessly perplexed to know how the Essenes should be disposed of. The ways and customs of Jesus and his apostles exhibited too close a resemblance to this sect to allow the fact to pass unexplained. Eusebius tried to make people believe that the Essenes were the first Christians. His efforts were thwarted by Philo Judæus, who wrote his historical account of the Essenes and described them with the minutest care, long before there had appeared a single Christian in Palestine. But, if there were no {{Style S-Italic|Christians,}} there were Christians long before the era of Christianity; and the Essenes belonged to the latter as well as to all other initiated

[#fn1588anc 1588]. We were told that there were nearly 20,000 of such books.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1588}} We were told that there were nearly 20,000 of such books.

324 ISIS UNVEILED.

{{Page|324|ISIS UNVEILED.}}

brotherhoods, without even mentioning the Christnites of India. Lepsius shows that the word {{Style S-Italic|Nofre}} means Chrēstos, “good,” and that one of the titles of Osiris, “Onnofre,” must be translated “the goodness of God made manifest.”^{[#fn1589 1589]} “The worship of Christ was not universal at this early date,” explains Mackenzie, “by which I mean that Christolatry had not been introduced; but the worship of {{Style S-Italic|Chrēstos—}}the Good Principle—had preceded it by many centuries, and even survived the general adoption of Christianity, as shown on monuments still in existence. . . . Again, we have an inscription which is pre-Christian on an epitaphial tablet (Spon. {{Style S-Italic|Misc. Erud.,}} Ant., x. xviii. 2). Υαχινθε Λαρισαιων Δημοσιε Ηρως Χρηστε Χαιρε, and de Rossi ({{Style S-Italic|Roma Sotteranea,}} tome i. tav. xxi.) gives us another example from the catacombs—‘Ælia Chreste, in Pace.’”^{[#fn1590 1590]} And, {{Style S-Italic|Kris,}} as Jacolliot shows, means in Sanscrit “sacred.”

{{Style P-No indent|brotherhoods, without even mentioning the Christnites of India. Lepsius shows that the word {{Style S-Italic|Nofre}} means Chrēstos, “good,” and that one of the titles of Osiris, “Onnofre,” must be translated “the goodness of God made manifest.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1589}} “The worship of Christ was not universal at this early date,” explains Mackenzie, “by which I mean that Christolatry had not been introduced; but the worship of {{Style S-Italic|Chrēstos—}}the Good Principle—had preceded it by many centuries, and even survived the general adoption of Christianity, as shown on monuments still in existence. . . . Again, we have an inscription which is pre-Christian on an epitaphial tablet (Spon. {{Style S-Italic|Misc. Erud.,}} Ant., x. xviii. 2). Υαχινθε Λαρισαιων Δημοσιε Ηρως Χρηστε Χαιρε, and de Rossi ({{Style S-Italic|Roma Sotteranea,}} tome i. tav. xxi.) gives us another example from the catacombs—‘Ælia Chreste, in Pace.’”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1590}} And, {{Style S-Italic|Kris,}} as Jacolliot shows, means in Sanscrit “sacred.”}}

The meritorious stratagems of the trustworthy Eusebius thus proved lost labor. He was triumphantly detected by Basnage, who, says Gibbon, “examined with the utmost critical accuracy the curious treatise of Philo, which describes the Therapeutæ,” and found that “by proving it was composed as early as the time of Augustus, he has demonstrated, in spite of Eusebius and a crowd of modern Catholics, that the Therapeutæ, were neither Christians nor monks.”

The meritorious stratagems of the trustworthy Eusebius thus proved lost labor. He was triumphantly detected by Basnage, who, says Gibbon, “examined with the utmost critical accuracy the curious treatise of Philo, which describes the Therapeutæ,” and found that “by proving it was composed as early as the time of Augustus, he has demonstrated, in spite of Eusebius and a crowd of modern Catholics, that the Therapeutæ, were neither Christians nor monks.”

“It comes to this,” writes Irenæus, complaining of the Gnostics,

“It comes to this,” writes Irenæus, complaining of the Gnostics,

[#fn1589anc 1589]. Lepsius: “Konigsbuch,” b. 11, {{Style S-Italic|tal. i. dyn.}} 5{{Style S-Italic|,}} h. p. in 1 Peter ii. 3, Jesus is called “the Lord Crestos.”

{{Footnote return|*|fn1589}} Lepsius: “Konigsbuch,” b. 11, {{Style S-Italic|tal. i. dyn.}} 5{{Style S-Italic|,}} h. p. in 1 Peter ii. 3, Jesus is called “the Lord Crestos.”

[#fn1590anc 1590]. Mackenzie: “Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,” p. 207.

{{Footnote return|†|fn1590}} Mackenzie: “Royal Masonic Cyclopædia,” p. 207.

325 ORIGIN OF THE MIRACULOUS-CONCEPTION MYTH.

{{Page|325|ORIGIN OF THE MIRACULOUS-CONCEPTION MYTH.}}

“they neither consent to Scripture nor tradition.”^{[#fn1591 1591]} And why should we wonder at that, when even the commentators of the nineteenth century, with nothing but fragments of the Gnostic manuscripts to compare with the voluminous writings of their calumniators, have been enabled to detect fraud on nearly every page? How much more must the polished and learned Gnostics, with all their advantages of personal observation and knowledge of fact, have realized the stupendous scheme of fraud that was being consummated before their very eyes! Why should they accuse Celsus of maintaining that their religion was all based on the speculations of Plato, with the difference that his doctrines were far more pure and rational than theirs, when we find Sprengel, seventeen centuries later, writing the following?—“Not only did they (the Christians) think to discover the dogmas of Plato in the books of Moses, but, moreover, they fancied that, by introducing Platonism into Christianity, they would {{Style S-Italic|elevate the dignity of this religion and make it more popular among the nations.”^{[#fn1592 1592]}}}

{{Style P-No indent|“they neither consent to Scripture nor tradition.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1591}} And why should we wonder at that, when even the commentators of the nineteenth century, with nothing but fragments of the Gnostic manuscripts to compare with the voluminous writings of their calumniators, have been enabled to detect fraud on nearly every page? How much more must the polished and learned Gnostics, with all their advantages of personal observation and knowledge of fact, have realized the stupendous scheme of fraud that was being consummated before their very eyes! Why should they accuse Celsus of maintaining that their religion was all based on the speculations of Plato, with the difference that his doctrines were far more pure and rational than theirs, when we find Sprengel, seventeen centuries later, writing the following?—“Not only did they (the Christians) think to discover the dogmas of Plato in the books of Moses, but, moreover, they fancied that, by introducing Platonism into Christianity, they would {{Style S-Italic|elevate the dignity of this religion and make it more popular among the nations.”{{Footnote mark|†|fn1592}}}}}}

They introduced it so well, that not only was the Platonic philosophy selected as a basis for the trinity, but even the legends and mythical stories which had been current among the admirers of the great philosopher—as a time-honored custom required in the eyes of his posterity such an allegorical homage to every hero worthy of deification—were revamped and used by the Christians. Without going so far as India, did they not have a ready model for the “miraculous conception,” in the legend about Periktionè, Plato’s mother? In her case it was also maintained by popular tradition that she had immaculately conceived him, and that the god Apollo was his father. Even the annunciation by an angel to Joseph “in a dream,” the Christians copied from the message of Apollo to Ariston, Periktionè’s husband, that the child to be born from her was the offspring of that god. So, too, Romulus was said to be the son of Mars, by the virgin Rhea Sylvia.

They introduced it so well, that not only was the Platonic philosophy selected as a basis for the trinity, but even the legends and mythical stories which had been current among the admirers of the great philosopher—as a time-honored custom required in the eyes of his posterity such an allegorical homage to every hero worthy of deification—were revamped and used by the Christians. Without going so far as India, did they not have a ready model for the “miraculous conception,” in the legend about Periktionè, Plato’s mother? In her case it was also maintained by popular tradition that she had immaculately conceived him, and that the god Apollo was his father. Even the annunciation by an angel to Joseph “in a dream,” the Christians copied from the message of Apollo to Ariston, Periktionè’s husband, that the child to be born from her was the offspring of that god. So, too, Romulus was said to be the son of Mars, by the virgin Rhea Sylvia.

We have carefully looked over the works of such authors as Payne

We have carefully looked over the works of such authors as Payne

[#fn1591anc 1591]. “Adv. Hær.,” iii., 2, § 2{{Style S-Italic|.}}

{{Footnote return|*|fn1591}} “Adv. Hær.,” iii., 2, § 2.

[#fn1592anc 1592]. Sprengel: “Histoire de la Medecine.”

{{Footnote return|†|fn1592}} Sprengel: “Histoire de la Medecine.”

326 ISIS UNVEILED.

{{Page|326|ISIS UNVEILED.}}

Knight, C. W. King, and Olshausen, which treat of our subject; we have reviewed the bulky volumes of Irenæus, Tertullian, Sozomen, Theodoret; and in none but those of Epiphanius have we found any accusation based upon direct evidence of an eye-witness. “They say;” “{{Style S-Italic|Some}} say;” “We have heard”—such are the general and indefinite terms used by the patristic accusers. Alone Epiphanius, whose works are invariably referred to in all such cases, seems to chuckle with delight whenever he couches a lance. We do not mean to take upon ourselves to defend the sects which inundated Europe at the eleventh century, and which brought to light the most wonderful creeds; we limit our defense merely to those Christian sects whose theories were usually grouped under the generic name of {{Style S-Italic|Gnosticism.}} These are those which appeared immediately after the alleged crucifixion, and lasted till they were nearly exterminated under the rigorous execution of the Constantinian law. The greatest guilt of these were their syncretistic views, for at no other period of the world’s history had truth a poorer prospect of triumph than in those days of forgery, lying, and deliberate falsification of facts.

{{Style P-No indent|Knight, C. W. King, and Olshausen, which treat of our subject; we have reviewed the bulky volumes of Irenæus, Tertullian, Sozomen, Theodoret; and in none but those of Epiphanius have we found any accusation based upon direct evidence of an eye-witness. “They say;” “{{Style S-Italic|Some}} say;” “We have heard”—such are the general and indefinite terms used by the patristic accusers. Alone Epiphanius, whose works are invariably referred to in all such cases, seems to chuckle with delight whenever he couches a lance. We do not mean to take upon ourselves to defend the sects which inundated Europe at the eleventh century, and which brought to light the most wonderful creeds; we limit our defense merely to those Christian sects whose theories were usually grouped under the generic name of {{Style S-Italic|Gnosticism.}} These are those which appeared immediately after the alleged crucifixion, and lasted till they were nearly exterminated under the rigorous execution of the Constantinian law. The greatest guilt of these were their syncretistic views, for at no other period of the world’s history had truth a poorer prospect of triumph than in those days of forgery, lying, and deliberate falsification of facts.}}

But before we are forced to believe the accusations, may we not be permitted to inquire into the historical characters of their accusers? Let us begin by asking, upon what ground does the Church of Rome build her claim of supremacy for her doctrines over those of the Gnostics? Apostolic succession, undoubtedly. The succession {{Style S-Italic|traditionally}} instituted by the direct Apostle Peter. But what if this prove a fiction? Clearly, the whole superstructure supported upon this one imaginary stilt would fall in a tremendous crash. And when we do inquire carefully, we find that we must take the word of Irenæus {{Style S-Italic|alone}} for it—of Irenæus, who did not furnish one single valid proof of the claim which he so audaciously advanced, and who resorted for that to endless forgeries. He gives authority neither for his dates nor his assertions. This Smyrniote worthy has not even the brutal but sincere faith of Tertullian, for he contradicts himself at every step, and supports his claims solely on acute sophistry. Though he was undoubtedly a man of the shrewdest intellect and great learning, he fears not, in some of his assertions and arguments, to even appear an idiot in the eyes of posterity, so long as he can “carry the situation.” Twitted and cornered at every step by his not less acute and learned adversaries, the Gnostics, he boldly shields himself behind blind faith, and in answer to their merciless logic falls upon imaginary tradition invented by himself. Reber wittily remarks: “As we read his misapplications of words and sentences, we would conclude that he was a lunatic if we did not know that he was something else.”^{[#fn1593 1593]}

But before we are forced to believe the accusations, may we not be permitted to inquire into the historical characters of their accusers? Let us begin by asking, upon what ground does the Church of Rome build her claim of supremacy for her doctrines over those of the Gnostics? Apostolic succession, undoubtedly. The succession {{Style S-Italic|traditionally}} instituted by the direct Apostle Peter. But what if this prove a fiction? Clearly, the whole superstructure supported upon this one imaginary stilt would fall in a tremendous crash. And when we do inquire carefully, we find that we must take the word of Irenæus {{Style S-Italic|alone}} for it—of Irenæus, who did not furnish one single valid proof of the claim which he so audaciously advanced, and who resorted for that to endless forgeries. He gives authority neither for his dates nor his assertions. This Smyrniote worthy has not even the brutal but sincere faith of Tertullian, for he contradicts himself at every step, and supports his claims solely on acute sophistry. Though he was undoubtedly a man of the shrewdest intellect and great learning, he fears not, in some of his assertions and arguments, to even appear an idiot in the eyes of posterity, so long as he can “carry the situation.” Twitted and cornered at every step by his not less acute and learned adversaries, the Gnostics, he boldly shields himself behind blind faith, and in answer to their merciless logic falls upon imaginary tradition invented by himself. Reber wittily remarks: “As we read his misapplications of words and sentences, we would conclude that he was a lunatic if we did not know that he was something else.”{{Footnote mark|*|fn1593}}

[#fn1593anc 1593]. “Christ of Paul,” p. 188.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1593}} “Christ of Paul,” p. 188.

327 EUSEBIUS’ CONVICTED OF FALSIFICATION.

{{Page|327|EUSEBIUS’ CONVICTED OF FALSIFICATION.}}

So boldly mendacious does this “holy Father” prove himself in many instances, that he is even contradicted by Eusebius, more cautious if not more truthful than himself. He is driven to that necessity in the face of unimpeachable evidence. So, for instance, Irenæus asserts that Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, was a direct hearer of St. John;^{[#fn1594 1594]} and Eusebius is compelled to show that Papias never pretended to such a claim, but simply stated that he had received his {{Style S-Italic|doctrine from those who had known John.^{[#fn1595 1595]}}}

So boldly mendacious does this “holy Father” prove himself in many instances, that he is even contradicted by Eusebius, more cautious if not more truthful than himself. He is driven to that necessity in the face of unimpeachable evidence. So, for instance, Irenæus asserts that Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, was a direct hearer of St. John;{{Footnote mark|*|fn1594}} and Eusebius is compelled to show that Papias never pretended to such a claim, but simply stated that he had received his {{Style S-Italic|doctrine from those who had known John.{{Footnote mark|†|fn1595}}}}

In one point, the Gnostics had the best of Irenæus. They drove him, through mere fear of inconsistency, to the recognition of their kabalistic doctrine of atonement; unable to grasp it in its allegorical meaning, Irenæus presented, with Christian theology as we find it in its present state of “original sin {{Style S-Italic|versus Adam,” a doctrine which would have filled Peter with pious horror if he had been still alive.}}

In one point, the Gnostics had the best of Irenæus. They drove him, through mere fear of inconsistency, to the recognition of their kabalistic doctrine of atonement; unable to grasp it in its allegorical meaning, Irenæus presented, with Christian theology as we find it in its present state of “original sin {{Style S-Italic|versus Adam,” a doctrine which would have filled Peter with pious horror if he had been still alive.}}

The next champion for the propagation of Apostolic Succession, is Eusebius himself. Is the word of this Armenian Father any better than that of Irenæus? Let us see what the most competent critics say of him. And before we turn to modern critics at all, we might remind the reader of the scurrilous terms in which Eusebius is attacked by George Syncellus, the Vice-Patriarch of Constantinople (eighth century), for his audacious falsification of the Egyptian Chronology. The opinion of Socrates, an historian of the fifth century, is no more flattering. He fearlessly charges Eusebius with perverting historical dates, in order to please the Emperor Constantine. In his chronographic work, before proceeding to falsify the synchronistic tables {{Style S-Italic|himself,}} in order to impart to Scriptural chronology a more trustworthy appearance, Syncellus covers Eusebius with the choicest of monkish Billingsgate. {{Style S-Italic|Baron Bunsen has verified the justness if not justified the politeness of this abusive reprehension.}} His elaborate researches in the rectification of the {{Style S-Italic|Egyptian List of Chronology,}} by Manetho, led him to confess that throughout his work, the Bishop of Cæsarea “had undertaken, in a very {{Style S-Italic|unscrupulous}} and arbitrary spirit, to mutilate history.” “Eusebius,” he says, “is the originator of that systematic theory of synchronisms which has so often subsequently maimed and mutilated history in its procrustean bed.”^{[#fn1596 1596]} To this the author of the {{Style S-Italic|Intellectual Development of Europe}} adds: “Among those who have been the most guilty of this offense, the name of the celebrated Eusebius, the Bishop of Cæsarea . . . should be designated!”^{[#fn1597 1597]}

The next champion for the propagation of Apostolic Succession, is Eusebius himself. Is the word of this Armenian Father any better than that of Irenæus? Let us see what the most competent critics say of him. And before we turn to modern critics at all, we might remind the reader of the scurrilous terms in which Eusebius is attacked by George Syncellus, the Vice-Patriarch of Constantinople (eighth century), for his audacious falsification of the Egyptian Chronology. The opinion of Socrates, an historian of the fifth century, is no more flattering. He fearlessly charges Eusebius with perverting historical dates, in order to please the Emperor Constantine. In his chronographic work, before proceeding to falsify the synchronistic tables {{Style S-Italic|himself,}} in order to impart to Scriptural chronology a more trustworthy appearance, Syncellus covers Eusebius with the choicest of monkish Billingsgate. {{Style S-Italic|Baron Bunsen has verified the justness if not justified the politeness of this abusive reprehension.}} His elaborate researches in the rectification of the {{Style S-Italic|Egyptian List of Chronology,}} by Manetho, led him to confess that throughout his work, the Bishop of Cæsarea “had undertaken, in a very {{Style S-Italic|unscrupulous}} and arbitrary spirit, to mutilate history.” “Eusebius,” he says, “is the originator of that systematic theory of synchronisms which has so often subsequently maimed and mutilated history in its procrustean bed.”{{Footnote mark|‡|fn1596}} To this the author of the {{Style S-Italic|Intellectual Development of Europe}} adds: “Among those who have been the most guilty of this offense, the name of the celebrated Eusebius, the Bishop of Cæsarea . . . should be designated!”{{Footnote mark|§|fn1597}}

It will not be amiss to remind the reader that it is the same Eusebius who is charged with the interpolation of the famous paragraph concerning

It will not be amiss to remind the reader that it is the same Eusebius who is charged with the interpolation of the famous paragraph concerning

[#fn1594anc 1594]. “Adv. Hær.,” v. 33, § 4.

{{Footnote return|*|fn1594}} “Adv. Hær.,” v. 33, § 4.

[#fn1595anc 1595]. Eusebius: “Hist. Eccles.,” iii., p. 39.

{{Footnote return|†|fn1595}} Eusebius: “Hist. Eccles.,” iii., p. 39.

[#fn1596anc 1596]. Bunsen: “Egypt,” vol. i., p. 200.

{{Footnote return|‡|fn1596}} Bunsen: “Egypt,” vol. i., p. 200.

[#fn1597anc 1597]. “Intellectual Development of Europe,” p. 147.

{{Footnote return|§|fn1597}} “Intellectual Development of Europe,” p. 147.

328 ISIS UNVEILED.

{{Page|328|ISIS UNVEILED.}}

Jesus,^{[#fn1598 1598]} which was so miraculously found, in his time, in the writings of Josephus, the sentence in question having till that time remained perfectly unknown. Renan, in his {{Style S-Italic|Life of Jesus,}} expresses a contrary opinion. “I believe,” says he, “the passage respecting Jesus to be authentic. {{Style S-Italic|It is perfectly in the style of Josephus;}} and{{Style S-Italic|, if}} this historian had made mention of Jesus, it is {{Style S-Italic|thus}} that he must have spoken of him.”

Jesus,^{[#fn1598 1598]} which was so miraculously found, in his time, in the writings of Josephus, the sentence in question having till that time remained perfectly unknown. Renan, in his {{Style S-Italic|Life of Jesus,}} expresses a contrary opinion. “I believe,” says he, “the passage respecting Jesus to be authentic. {{Style S-Italic|It is perfectly in the style of Josephus;}} and{{Style S-Italic|, if}} this historian had made mention of Jesus, it is {{Style S-Italic|thus}} that he must have spoken of him.”