"The Buddhists of Upper India (of whom the Phenician Canaanite,
Melchizedek, was a priest), who built the Pyramids, Stonehenge, Carnac, &c.
will be shown to have founded all the ancient mythologies of the world,
which, however varied and corrupted in recent times, were originally one,
and that one founded on principles sublime, beautiful, and true."
{275}
These works contain an immense quantity of learning, very honestly put
together. I presume the enormous number of facts, and the goodness of the
index, to be the reasons why the _Anacalypsis_ found a permanent place in
the _old_ reading-room of the British Museum, even before the change which
greatly increased the number of books left free to the reader in that room.
Mr. Higgins, whom I knew well in the last six years of his life, and
respected as a good, learned, and (in his own way) _pious_ man, was
thoroughly and completely the man of a system. He had that sort of mental
connection with his theory that made his statements of his authorities
trustworthy: for, besides perfect integrity, he had no bias towards
alteration of facts: he saw his system in the way the fact was presented to
him by his authority, be that what it might.
He was very sure of a fact which he got from any of his authorities:
nothing could shake him. Imagine a conversation between him and an Indian
officer who had paid long attention to Hindoo antiquities and their
remains: a third person was present, _ego qui scribo_. _G. H._ "You know
that in the temples of I-forget-who the Ceres is always sculptured
precisely as in Greece." _Col._ ----, "I really do not remember it, and I
have seen most of these temples." _G. H._ "It is so, I assure you,
especially at I-forget-where." _Col._ ----, "Well, I am sure! I was
encamped for six weeks at the gate of that very temple, and, except a
little shooting, had nothing to do but to examine its details, which I did,
day after day, and I found nothing of the kind." It was of no use at all.
Godfrey Higgins began life by exposing and conquering, at the expense of
two years of his studies, some shocking abuses which existed in the York
Lunatic Asylum. This was a proceeding which called much attention to the
treatment of the insane, and produced much good effect. He was very
resolute and energetic. The magistracy of his {276} time had such scruples
about using the severity of law to people of such station as well-to-do
farmers, &c.: they would allow a great deal of resistance, and endeavor to
mollify the rebels into obedience. A young farmer flatly refused to pay
under an order of affiliation made upon him by Godfrey Higgins. He was duly
warned; and persisted: he shortly found himself in gaol. He went there sure
to conquer the Justice, and the first thing he did was to demand to see his
lawyer. He was told, to his horror, that as soon as he had been cropped and
prison-dressed, he might see as many lawyers as he pleased, to be looked
at, laughed at, and advised that there was but one way out of the scrape.
Higgins was, in his speculations, a regular counterpart of Bailly; but the
celebrated Mayor of Paris had not his nerve. It was impossible to say, if
their characters had been changed, whether the unfortunate crisis in which
Bailly was not equal to the occasion would have led to very different
results if Higgins had been in his place: but assuredly constitutional
liberty would have had one chance more. There are two works of his by which
he was known, apart from his paradoxes. First, _An apology for the life and
character of the celebrated prophet of Arabia, called Mohamed, or the
Illustrious_. London, 8vo. 1829. The reader will look at this writing of
our English Buddhist with suspicious eye, but he will not be able to avoid
confessing that the Arabian prophet has some reparation to demand at the
hands of Christians. Next, _Horae Sabaticae; or an attempt to correct certain
superstitions and vulgar errors respecting the Sabbath_. Second edition,
with a large appendix. London, 12mo. 1833. This book was very heterodox at
the time, but it has furnished material for some of the clergy of our day.
I never could quite make out whether Godfrey Higgins took that system which
he traced to the Buddhists to have a Divine origin, or to be the result of
good men's meditations. Himself a strong theist, and believer in a future
{277} state, one would suppose that he would refer a _universal_ religion,
spread in different forms over the whole earth from one source, directly to
the universal Parent. And this I suspect he did, whether he knew it or not.
The external evidence is balanced. In his preface he says:
"I cannot help smiling when I consider that the priests have objected to
admit my former book, _The Celtic Druids_, into libraries, because it was
antichristian; and it has been attacked by Deists, because it was
superfluously religious. The learned Deist, the Rev. R. Taylor [already
mentioned], has designated me as the _religious_ Mr. Higgins."
The time will come when some profound historian of literature will make
himself much clearer on the point than I am.