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THE CREATION OF GOD.
BY
DR. JACOB HARTMANN,
M.D. St. Louis Medical College; Bachelor of Medicine, Toronto
University;
M.B. Trinity College, Ontario; Member of the College
of Physicians and Surgeons, Ontario; Licentiate of the
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons,
Edinburgh, Scotland; Member of the
County Medical Society of
New York, etc., etc.
New York:
THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY,
28 Lafayette Place.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. The Universal Aspect, 9
II. The Earth, 21
III. The Chemical Aspect, 39
IV. The Sun, 51
V. Genesis--The Creation, 67
VI. Genesis--The Garden of Eden, 80
VII. The Deluge, 92
VIII. The Scriptural God--The Creation, 101
IX. The Creation of God--Abraham, 112
X. Moses--Confirmation of the Idea of God, 119
XI. Samuel the Kingmaker, 138
XII. God Save the King, 147
XIII. Jehova Takes a Rest, 170
XIV. The End of National Life, 178
XV. The Christian Era, 200
XVI. Organic Life--Vegetable, 212
XVII. Organic Life--Animal, 221
The Master Tissues.
The Muscular Tissues.
The Nervous Tissues.
XVIII. Food and Food-Substances, 242
XIX. Elimination of Waste Substances, 250
In General.
By the Lungs.
By the Skin.
By the Kidneys.
XX. Digestion, Nutrition, 278
XXI. The Elementary Substances, 300
XXII. Alcohol and Its Effects on the System, 310
XXIII. The Soul--What is it? 321
The Mind.
XXIV. Sin and Salvation, 340
XXV. The Ecclesiastical Kindergarten, 353
XXVI. Rational Review, 372
XXVII. Visions--Bible Dreams-Revelations, 380
XXVIII. The Planetary Gods, 392
XXIX. Every Man His Own God, 403
Tables { Gateways to Knowledge.
{ Morals: Whence They Spring.
XXX. The Non Credo, 418
Rules for Human Conduct.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Map of the Intellectual Faculties--The Mind, opp. title-page.
Map of Theological Retrogression, opp. p. 390
Map of the Deluge and Garden of Eden, opp. p. 432
PREFACE.
"Si les nommes étaient capables de gouverner toute
la conduite de leur vie par un dessein reglé, si
la fortune leur était toujours favorable, leur âme
serait libre de toute superstition."
--Spinoza, 1650.
"Il n'y a pas de moyen plus efficace que la
Superstition pour gouverner la multitude."
--Quinte Curce.
"But in the temple of their hireling hearts
Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn
All earthly things but virtue."
"Falsehood demands but gold to pay the pangs
Of outraged conscience; for the slavish priest
Sets no great value on his hireling faith."
"But human pride
Is skillful to invent most serious names
To hide its ignorance."
--Shelley.
At this time, in this age of agitation, unrest, dissatisfaction,
and doubt among the masses, and all classes, in every civilized part
of the globe, in all communities and human organizations, in church
and out of church, ecclesiastical bodies of all shades; besides
the vast number of theories and doctrines of a popular socialistic,
anti-poverty, communistic order, etc., a prevailing skepticism has
seized the minds of men, as to the truth, validity, and stability
of the entire religious fabric. The unsettled condition of the minds
of men, the disturbing elements of the laboring classes, the church
quarrels, clerical litigations, disputes, wrangling, and mutual
hate about scriptural authenticity, its truth and supernaturalism,
the heresies and blasphemies, the unsatisfactory condition of the
Roman church, the constant and unremitting papal correspondence, the
petty bickering, the selfish zeal, the greed for money, the anxiety to
raise funds for all kinds of ecclesiastical establishments, naturally
arouse suspicion whether the idea of a God is not going out of fashion,
whether the clergy has not lost faith in the Book, whether the Jew,
the Jehovistic aristocrat, has not been the primary inventor of
these supernatural wares, whether the Christian theologians are not
beginning to lose their sway and grip and their pretended supernatural
authority over their ignorant devotees. We may ask frankly, honestly,
truthfully, and in perfect good faith:
Has not the time arrived for a grand and human reformation? For new
methods of teaching, for new and more accurate ideas, for a more
precise knowledge of the natural, for instructions in absolute facts,
for a more thorough understanding of natural laws, for a broader
comprehension of man himself and his surroundings, for an abandonment
of all the supernatural subterfuge, ignorance, and superstition, of
religious fables, miracles, false theories, and misleading doctrines
as to God, with their immense sacrifice of human life.
Within the limits of the church nothing is to be hoped for, nor can
anything be expected, except the greedy grasping of the hard-earned
money of the ignorant laboring classes, the fanatical devotees, to
sustain and uphold a mercenary priesthood, a rotten supernatural system
that has proved so pernicious to mankind. Europe, at one time the
rich pasture for the holy Roman Catholic apostolic church, no longer
pours the milk and honey into the supreme pontiff's lap as of yore. In
a letter dated "Rome, Feb. 3d," Ledochowski writes of Leo XIII.'s
solicitude for the good of religion in these parts: "The supreme
pontiff has many reasons of sadness on account of the distresses
which the impudent endeavors of wicked men are trying to bring upon
Christianity, especially in Europe. On the other hand, it is a great
consolation to him to see the increase of Catholicism, with God's aid,
elsewhere in the world." Of course Ledochowski signifies the pope's
great admiration for the wonderful resources--for this flourishing,
prolific, and generous American milch-cow. The Roman administration,
with that marvelous business tact so characteristic of that church,
turns its tender attention, with all its pontifical flummery and
grotesque maneuvers, to insinuate its methods upon this republic,
to overawe us with a blaze of stupefaction, profounder ignorance and
superstition, by honoring America with a resident tax-collector, and
to save Gods, their divinities, with the Christ, Holy Ghost, Virgin
Immaculate, saints, angels, and all the other theological absurdities.
Is it not high time for man and woman to learn that their dependence
on any supernatural aid is futile, their prayers and appeals to
an imaginary God worse than useless, their cringing fear for the
so-called sacred authority cowardly, their submission to priestly
rule and authority slavish, and the inculcating of biblical church
lore stupefying? Is it not time for man and woman to comprehend
themselves, their powers, the uses of their several organs, their
functions, and the natural laws that govern them? That ideas, thought,
consciousness, intellect, understanding, imagination, knowledge, etc.,
etc., are but the functions of nervous matter? That everything we know,
have discovered, developed, or produced, is the natural product of
nerve tissue.
In reviewing the history of this theologico-ecclesiastical
organization--this Jehovistic Christianized system, from the very
beginning to the present time, we find that this many-shaded,
ever-changeable, greedy, grasping creed has done during the four
thousand years of its existence a vast amount of mischief and little
or no good. It had to be civilized instead of civilizing. Instead of
elevating their followers, priests rather made every effort to keep
them in subjection, steeped in ignorance and superstition.
In presenting these pages to the public, it is for the purpose of
exposing some simple intelligible facts, some wholesome truths,
some few scientific revelations discovered by men of eminence,
knowledge, and wisdom, regarding ourselves, this terrestrial globe,
and the universe at large of which we are part. It is not possible in
modern times to force men to believe, to accept the impossible. At
this period of mental transition, the tendency is to think,
to reason, to gain knowledge and truth, to be self-supporting,
self-sustaining, independent, free, and untrammeled by barbaric
delusion and terrorism. They no longer fear and cower before a shadow
of some supernatural imaginary thing or being that has no existence
and never had.
Man must learn to know that man is an evolution of nature's forces,
a product of this terrestrial globe; that all the physical and
physiological phenomena of his fine muscular and nervous system are
the natural products and functions of his organization; that whether
soul, spirit, God or Jehovah, they were evolved in the brain of man;
that man, as man, with all his endowments, faculties, and capabilities,
is part and parcel of this earth, a natural result of natural causes,
and the supernatural, the God or gods, is the natural product of
man's working faculties.
The scientific world has long since discarded every idea of anything
supernatural, declared the impossibility, falsity, and absurdity of
the scriptural fable, and that God, Jehovah, with all the ingenious
priestly inventions, has proved itself pernicious and oppressive to
humanity and contrary to intelligence, reason, and common sense. Man
to know his rights must know himself, his nature and his natural
surroundings, and if he knows himself, he will learn that God did
not create man, but that man created God, and that every man is and
must be his own God to be a true man. Know the natural, never mind
the supernatural.
THE CREATION OF GOD.
CHAPTER I.
UNIVERSAL ASPECT.
The beginning of intellectual development consists of observant
experience. By frequent and repeated observation man acquired a
familiarity with the subjects of that process--a clearer and better
understanding of them.
Thus, the Chaldean shepherds, while minding their flocks of sheep
and cattle, lazily and continuously watched the sky and starry hosts,
and by degrees recognized, and acquired a knowledge of, many of the
stars, laying the foundation for astronomy. Authorities state that
they composed seventy-two volumes on that science, these books dating
as far back as 2,540 B.C., treating of the polar star, Venus, Mars,
and so on. It is possible that many errors attended their observations;
many mistakes may have entered their explanations. That was natural,
considering the remoteness of the times and the lack of facilities.
Knowledge and truth never come easily. The former is very hard to
acquire, the latter very difficult to discover.
Every truth, every new idea, has to battle against old established
notions. If the new idea is persisted in, which is ordinarily the case,
a struggle must ensue. The old idea resists, refuses to yield, no
matter how false, ridiculous, or pernicious it may be. Yield, however,
it must, and does in the course of time. Truth must win in the long
run, though it has to fight its way through depths of ignorance,
prejudice, and superstition, sustained by hate, bigotry, terrorism,
and persecution.
As century after century passed in the Dark Ages, apostles of science
and truth appeared, here and there, now and then, calm, dignified,
patient, persistent and persevering, untiring, self-denying,
men of superior intellect, unswayed and undismayed by existing
authorities. These men gave us, though not a complete, a very
ample revelation of nature, unfolding its mysteries, explaining its
phenomena, making known the truth as far as men had been able to
discover up to their time.
Nature with its laws man had to observe carefully in order to learn
to unravel its secrets, its workings, its forces. There is no way to
reveal them except through the mind of man. There are no means of
knowing or discovering the intricacies and subtleties of nature's
hidden and inexhaustible resources but by careful thought, reason,
constant study and application. Not a single problem has ever been
solved--in fact, one cannot be solved--except by acquired intellectual
powers, developed by the refining process of education of the great
nervous centers of man.
Many scholars have devoted and still devote their time, their energy,
their life, in search of new facts, new truths, concerning the stars,
planetary system, and this terrestrial globe we live on especially.
Centuries before Christ's time, and after, men were engaged in
developing the science of Astronomy--Anaximander, Hipparchus, Ptolemy,
Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Herschel, and many others. These men
were the apostles of truth, the teachers of facts, and some of them
were martyrs to science.
The great civilizer, the press of modern times, was recently filled
with accounts about the planet Mars, comet, etc., giving all the
detailed information obtainable.
Everyone who reads the newspapers learns something about Mars, and
ventures to give his opinion, whether it is like the earth--inhabited,
has seas or atmosphere, etc. So that, whatever new facts are revealed,
new truths announced, the minds of men are made so much richer.
Knowledge, the progress of science, the discoveries of important
facts, the improvements of political, social, or civil laws, do
not come to us spontaneously, nor do they come to us suddenly in
overpowering quantities; it is a process of gradual acquirement, a
slow accumulation, to which every generation contributes its quota
of observation and experience that makes up the total wealth of
aggregate thought, and is handed down from generation to generation,
our common inheritance.
This common inheritance is neither all true nor all good. A large
proportion that has been handed down to us by the ancients is not
true or good, though it is believed to be true and good.
The revelations of absolute truths, of actual facts, are of more recent
date--discoveries made within the last few centuries. The spurious,
so-called revelations are the works of antiquity, which are not based
on truth or fact or knowledge or experience. The mental faculties of
pristine men were primitive, and their ideas were as primitive. They
lived in an age of infancy; it was all surprise, wonder, astonishment,
and miracle.
When Kepler discovered the law that "Planets revolve in ellipses with
the sun at one focus," he worked hard for many days, and after many
trials succeeded. He also discovered a second law, which he defines,
"A line connecting the center of the earth with the center of the
sun passes over equal spaces in equal times;" and his third law,
"The squares of the times of revolutions of the planets about the sun
are proportioned to the center of their mean distance from the sun."
No one ever claimed for Kepler, nor has he laid claim himself, that
he was inspired by God, or received the idea through any supernatural
agency.
The hostile and bitter opposition that Galileo met on the part of
the Christian Church is too well known; but the importance of his
discoveries, and the truth, remains.
All intelligent persons ought to understand Newton's law of
gravitation. If they understood the full import and significance of
that law, they would never believe in the absurd miracles of Moses,
Joshua, Elijah, Christ and Company. The law: "Every particle of matter
in the universe attracts every other particle of matter with a force
directly proportional to its quantity of matter, and decreasing as
the square of the distance increases."
It is most remarkable--that man discovering great truths, concerning
which there has never been any dispute, or controversy, or fight;
that stand, unaltered and unchanged, forever. Such men have not been
inspired by God, Jehovah, Christ, or the Holy Ghost, or anything
supernatural. They have accomplished their works by their powers
of observation, great mental efforts, skillful explanation and
elucidation, accomplished by hard and untiring work.
It is astonishing that, in the presence of so many revealed natural
truths, so many ascertained scientific facts, and numerous discoveries
in this century, which is claimed to be much advanced in civilization,
intelligent persons--teachers, preachers, priests, and those laying
claim to scholarship--still believe that the visionary figures, the
product of distorted imagination or hallucination, of men like Isaiah,
Ezekiel, etc., were of supernatural origin.
The incredible stories found in the Bible, the fabulous inventions
concocted in the imagination of some person or persons away in Chaldea
many thousand years ago, are still taught to be true, and the children
in the Sunday-schools are instructed to believe these absurdities.
The undue haste exhibited in the first chapter of Genesis, in
creating the earth, etc., is one of those wonderful puzzles to
a child's mind. It is a something that is not easily explained
at length to young people without awaking the suspicion of its
impossibility, and requires considerable ingenuity to satisfy
inquiring minds concerning it. The supernaturalists get over it
by a final and complete answer, that admits of no argument--that
"With God everything is possible." That being absolutely untrue,
the answer explains nothing, but has a tendency to stupefy the child
and hinder its educational advancement, for the reason that such an
answer puts a stop to all farther inquiry. This really has been the
effect of this pernicious teaching for many centuries.
All the stories, fables, myths, handed down to us from antiquity
may be classed in the same category. There are many of them--yes, a
perfect wilderness. All are true in part, but false as a whole. Upon
close examination we find glimmerings of truth in all of them. The
difference lies in the kind, not in the quality. In the biblical story
of creation, the writers had evidently observed, and knew, there were
an earth, water, stars, and something above the earth which they called
heaven, the atmosphere. That was the limit of their knowledge. They
knew they existed, and things and objects that surrounded them existed,
and they made an attempt in their primitive method to account for the
manner in which these things came into existence. They could know
nothing about it, because the most important discoveries were made
thousands of years later.
Hesiod, 900 B.C., in his "Theogonia," invokes the Muses who inhabit
the heavenly mansions, and whose knowledge of generation and birth
he had formerly sung: "Tell, ye celestial powers, how first the gods
and world were made; the rivers, and the boundless sea, with its
strong surge. Also, the bright, shining stars, and wide-stretched
heaven above, and all the gods that sprang from them, givers of good
things." The Muses answer: "First of all existed chaos; next in order
the broad-bosomed Earth; then Love appeared, the most beautiful of
immortals. From chaos sprang Erebus and dusky night, and from night
and Erebus came Ether and smiling day."
He gives a further description, which, like the foregoing, we know
to be fiction, yet to contain elements of truth. We are not asked to
believe all. He says:
"Look up, and view the immense expanse of heaven,
The boundless Ether in his genial arms
Clasping the earth. Him callest thou
God and Jove."
It is no easy matter for a man of ordinary education to form a notion
of the mental crudeness of the lower type of the human race of our
own times; it is far more difficult for him to divest his mind of all
its acquisitions through study and observation, and reduce his ideas
to the level of those progenitors of his race, the men of antiquity.
When men had to struggle with savage beasts, it required superior
intelligence to preserve themselves from destruction. That might
have led to the worship of the strongest animals, such as the lion
and the tiger. But no sooner did man learn the use of iron, which
enabled him to kill these his gods, proving himself superior to the
thing he worshiped, than these gods were thrown aside.
So long as man was unable to explain the mysterious appearances of the
sun, moon, and stars, he endowed them with his own intelligence. He
worshiped what was to him incomprehensible, mighty, wonderful; made
images representing their phenomena or forces for his adoration. In
his mind he pictured the sun as a warrior clad in golden panoply,
the pale moon he regarded as the queen, and the stars as an immense
host of spirits and heroes. Some interpreted the sun to be the child of
darkness, the morning the bride of heaven, the clouds a fairy network,
and the heat a friend of man; when the heat was very intense, then
the sun was slaying his children. They would liken the dark clouds
which rested on the earth to a terrible being whom they named the
Snake or Dragon, that shut up the waters in his prisonhouse. When
the thunder rolled they said that this hateful monster was uttering
his hard riddles; and when, at last, the rain burst forth, they said
that the bright sun had slain his enemy, and brought the stream of
life for the thirsting earth.
Professor Max Müller says: "He begins to lift up his eyes; he stares
at the tent of heaven, and asks, Who supports it? He opens his ears
to the winds, and asks them, Whence and whither? He is awakened from
darkness and slumber by the light of the sun, and him whom his eyes
cannot behold, and who seems to grant him the daily pittance of his
existence, he calls his life, his health, his brilliant Lord and
Protector. He gives names to all the powers of nature."
All sorts of names were invented to designate any particular force,
phenomenon, or characteristic. In the Vedas the sun has twenty
different names, each one descriptive of the sun or its aspect. In
Persia the blazing sun was adored, and altars smoked perpetually of
fire. In Gaul and Britain pillars were raised to the sun, altars to
the moon, and fires were heaped under sacrificial caldrons to Cardwen,
the earth-goddess.
Man's ideas of course underwent modifications as civilization
advanced. The religious idea had taken root and elaborated
ramifications, and laws were evolved to govern them. The sun of
prosperity shone; communities grew stronger and more numerous;
from the worship of the physical laws of nature, the laws governing
morality became involved. Thus morals invaded nations, over which they
enthroned their gods. Every nation elaborated its own details, and
slowly took its relative position. As these gods grew in importance
men assumed the responsibility to guard them, and the function
to attend them. Thus a class called priests were chosen, elected,
or self-appointed to minister to them. These functionaries at the
same time assumed the moral and political guidance of nations or
communities, and individuals. In this manner arose hundreds upon
hundreds of Gods: Io, Isis, Jupiter, Juno, etc., etc.
The qualities of the gods, like the qualities of men, were good and
bad. They were good and evil, light and dark, life and death, and were
arranged to suit the time and occasion. When laws were established
to govern society, obedience to these laws was declared to be right,
disobedience wrong. Men learned this; they became conscious of what
was right and what was wrong. The ministration to these gods was
acknowledged to be a righteous act. Rules were established to prevent
any violation or infringement of the duty due to these gods. A trespass
in violation of anything considered sacred was regarded as an evil--a
sin. Slowly the consciousness of sin, of doing wrong, of violating
the law, was recognized and established, and the attitude men assumed
towards the gods, or their conduct towards them, was regarded as
moral holiness, sanctity, or piety. The evolution of images, idols,
gods and goddesses, was not the work of a day, but of very many
centuries. The same may be said of sacrifices, worship, ceremonies,
the laws concerning the same, holiness, sin, good and evil, sanctity,
sacrilege, divinity, blasphemy, etc., etc.
Theologians, as well as theological philosophers and theorists,
finding their pet notion of a god strangely interfered with and
disturbed by the advancing progress in the knowledge of the natural
sciences, bring to their aid additional proof to demonstrate the
existence of a god, viz., that all races of men, wherever found,
savage, barbarian, Indian, African, etc., on the different parts
of the earth's surface, believe in a something higher and greater
or more powerful than themselves, a spirit, a soul, a supernatural
being. Unfortunately for their argument, this mental condition
that is ascribed to the barbarians, etc., as being instinctive or
innate--that is, this supernatural element--this having an idea of
something they do not understand--proves the contrary, that there
is no truth in their assumption. The very fact that they have gone
through that process, or are going through it, shows it a kind of
educational distemper of a lower order that all primitive races have
to pass. As children who learn to read must first know their A B C,
it is the road that leads to a higher grade of thought. They begin
in surprise and wonder at the natural, concerning which they know
nothing. They fear, they adore the forces they cannot overcome. They
make images of them in their likeness and worship them. When, however,
they have learned through experience to overpower them, they cease to
respect them. New forms are adopted, modifications made, and lastly
so changed that but a mere shadow of the original remains.
All races began in a similar fashion, varying in form and method. The
sun, clouds, atmosphere, seasons, oceans, thunder, and all other
phenomena in nature--the inability to account for the existence of
these led to worship, sacrifice, etc.; and images, idols, gods,
originated; and in connection with them, stories, fables, myths,
and fictions were supplied by the officiating priests or persons in
attendance. The fanciful creations of the imagination hold good and
will hold good so long as we do not know anything of the realities
of life, of nature, of the actualities, of facts, of truth. But when
the masses shall have learned more of nature, then the visionary,
the imaginary god, the heirloom and heritage of our antiquated
forefathers, will be thrown aside as the images were by Abraham,
the idols dismissed or discarded later. The relics, the remnants,
of this barbarism still have a hold on the minds of men.
Our entire religious fabric rests upon the creation as related in the
Bible, handed down to us as the universally acknowledged text-book
of all knowledge. The time was when it was dangerous to doubt, and
imperiled one's safety or even life to openly state an opinion contrary
to the supposed infallible assertions contained in the holy book.
The man or men who originally wrote that part of Genesis had not the
remotest idea what he or they were talking about. He or they knew
nothing of the subject-matter in consideration. The story told is
like many other fables that had their origin in those early days of
waking humanity.
The great masses are not very much better off to-day as regards these
notions. They still believe in the Bible, and hang their hopes of
salvation on its truth. The churches teach it, and it forms part and
parcel of the church creed.
It will therefore do no harm to present a few facts--that the holiest
priest cannot contradict, that the most pious preacher must admit--that
admit of no argument or controversy, because absolutely true.
Every intelligent person knows that we live on this earth; that this
earth is also called the world, and that this world is a planet;
that this planet belongs to a family of planets. This planet of
ours, this earth, belongs to a system of planets known as the solar
system. And the solar system is mainly comprised within the limits of
the Zodiacs. By the Zodiacs is meant a belt of the Celestial Sphere. 8°
on each side of the Ecliptic is styled the Zodiac. This division is
of very high antiquity, having been in use among the Hindoos and
Egyptians. The Zodiac is divided into twelve equal parts, of 30°
each, called signs, to each of which a fanciful name is given.
The sun is the center. Around him the planets revolve in ellipses.
The sun itself has a diameter of 866,000 miles. The major planets
revolving around the sun as far as known are as follows:
Name. Distance from the sun. Diameter.
Vulcan 13,000,000 miles. unknown.
Mercury 36,000,000 ,, 3,000 miles.
Venus 67,000,000 ,, 7,600 ,,
Earth 93,000,000 ,, 8,000 ,,
Mars 141,000,000 ,, 4,200 ,,
Jupiter 483,000,000 ,, 90,000 ,,
Saturn 886,000,000 ,, 73,000 ,,
Uranus 1,782,000,000 ,, 33,000 ,,
Neptune 2,790,000,000 ,, 37,000 ,,
It is not an easy matter to imagine that we are suspended in space;
being held up, not by any visible object, but in accordance with the
laws of universal gravitation, whereby each planet attracts every
other planet and is in turn attracted by all.
There are a number of minor planets, satellites, a moon, and meteors
or shooting-stars, and comets, etc., etc.
The sun, the great central globe, is so vast as to overcome the
attraction of all the planets, and compel them to circle around him;
next we come to the planets, each turning on its axis while it flies
around the sun in an elliptical orbit; then accompanying them are
the satellites or moons, each revolving about its own planet, while
all whirl in a dizzy waltz about the central orb; next the comets,
rushing across the planetary orbits at irregular intervals of time
and space; and finally shooting-stars or meteors, darting hither and
thither, interweaving all in apparently inextricable confusion. To
make the picture more wonderful still, every member is flying with
an inconceivable velocity, and yet with such accuracy that the solar
system is the most perfect timepiece known.
The moon's distance from the earth is 239,000 miles; and it has a
diameter of 2,160 miles.
The above gives some idea of the immensity of the solar system. And
it is but one of the myriads of systems, and our earth a speck amidst
it. If on a clear night we cast our eyes upwards, we behold a belt of
closely dotted stars extending across the sky--the Milky Way. This
galaxy, a luminous, cloudlike band, stretches across the heavens
in a great circle, and contains myriads of stars, densely crowded
together. Herschel remarks that 288,000 stars once passed across
the field of his great reflector in forty-one minutes, and says:
"Thus we are to think of our own sun as a star of the second or third
magnitude, and of our little solar system as plunged far into the
midst of the vortex of worlds, a mere atom along that
"'Broad and ample road
Whose dust is gold and pavement stars.'"
CHAPTER II.
THE EARTH.
This earth we live on is a planet, and belongs to the solar system
of planets. It shines brightly, and appears to other worlds as other
planets do to us. It is nearly 25,000 miles in circumference, and has
a diameter of a little over 8,000 miles. It is five and a half times
denser than water, and weighs about 6,096,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
The atmosphere that surrounds this earth is like a shell that is
two hundred to three hundred or more miles in thickness. We live
at the bottom of an immense ocean of gaseous matter, which envelops
everything, and presses upon everything with a force which appears,
at first, perfectly incredible, but whose actual amount admits of
easy proof. Gravity being, so far as is known, common to all matter,
it is natural to expect that gases, being material substances,
should be acted upon by the earth's attraction, as well as solids
and liquids. This is really the case, and the result is the weight
or pressure of the atmosphere, which is nothing more than the effect
of the attraction of the earth on the particles of air. The amount of
pressure exerted upon every square inch of the surface of the earth,
and the objects thereon, is from fourteen to fifteen pounds. This
enormous force is borne without inconvenience by the animal frames,
by reason of its perfect uniformity in every direction; and it may
be doubled, or even tripled, without inconvenience. An important law
which connects the volume occupied by a gas with the pressure made
upon it, is expressed by Mariotte in the following manner. This law is
usually called Mariotte's law: "The volume of gas is inversely as the
pressure; the density and elastic force are directly as the pressure,
and indirectly as the volume."
This law has been found to be true no matter how rarefied the air.
The atmosphere, like everything else on earth or connected therewith,
and like all other planets known, and the earth itself, is composed
of elements, as we shall see presently.
The atmospheric air is composed of gases, elementary substances,
known by the names of Nitrogen and Oxygen, with variable proportions
of carbonic acid and watery vapors, and usually a trace of
ammonia. Besides these, there may occasionally be other substances
present, depending upon local causes, as the odoriferous principles
of plants and the miasmata of marshes, etc., etc.
Nearly three-fourths of the atmosphere is composed of nitrogen,
while about one-fourth or less is oxygen. The following is the
relative proportion:
By weight. By measure.
Nitrogen 76.9 79.3
Oxygen 23.1 20.7
----- -----
100 100
Its specific gravity is unity (1), being the standard with which
the density of all gaseous substances is compared. It is 814 times
lighter than water, and nearly 11,065 times lighter than mercury;
100 cubic inches weigh 31 grains.
Oxygen is necessary to combustion, to the respiration of animals,
and to various other natural operations, by all of which that gas is
withdrawn from the air. It is obvious that its quantity would gradually
diminish, unless the tendency of these causes were counteracted by
some compensating process. This, to some considerable extent, is
accomplished by vegetation, as it is found that healthy plants, under
the influence of the sun's light, constantly draw carbonic acid from
the air, the carbon of which is retained, while the oxygen is returned.
The atmosphere becomes less and less dense from the surface of the
earth upwards.
Animals and vegetables exist in this atmosphere. They cannot exist
in any other. All living things and beings live on this earth's
crust. Vegetables are fixed to the soil of this earth, while animals
move freely upon it.
The earth's crust.--Sir Charles Lyell speaking of this earth's
crust says: "By the 'earth's crust' is meant that small portion of
the surface of our planet which is accessible to human observation,
or on which we are enabled to reason by observations made at or near
the surface. These reasonings may extend to a depth of several miles,
perhaps ten miles; and even then it may be said that such a thickness
is no more than 1/400 part of the distance from the surface to the
center. The remark is just, but although the dimensions of such a
crust are, in truth, insignificant when compared with the entire globe,
yet they are vast and of magnificent extent in relation to man and to
the other organic beings which people our globe. Referring to this
standard of magnitude, the geologist may admire the ample limits of
his domain, and admit at the same time that not only the exterior of
the planet, but the entire earth, is but an atom in the midst of the
countless worlds surveyed by the astronomer.
"The solid part of this earth consists of distinct substances,
such as clay, chalk, sand, limestone, coal, slate, granite, and the
like. It has been imagined that the various deposits on the earth's
surface were created in their present form and in their present
position. On the contrary, it has been shown that they have acquired
their actual configuration and condition gradually, under a variety
of circumstances, and at successive periods, during each of which
distinct races of living beings have flourished on the land and in
the waters, the remains of these creatures still lying buried in the
crust of the earth.
"The materials of this crust are not thrown together confusedly;
but distinct mineral masses called rock are found to occupy definite
spaces and to exhibit a certain order of arrangement. These rocks
are divided into four great classes by reference to their different
origin, or in other words by reference to the different circumstances
and causes by which they have been produced.
"The first two divisions, which will at once be understood as natural,
are the aqueous and volcanic, or the products of water and those of
igneous action at or near the surface.... The aqueous rocks, sometimes
called sedimentary or fossiliferous, cover a larger part of the earth's
surface than any other. These rocks are stratified, or divided into
distinct layers or strata; these strata have been generally spread
out by the action of water, like what we daily see taking place near
the mouth of rivers or on the land during a temporary inundation.
"The remains of animals, especially of aquatic species, are found
almost everywhere, imbedded in stratified rocks; and sometimes, in
the case of limestone, they are in such abundance as to constitute the
entire mass of rock itself. Shells and corals are the most frequent,
and with them are often associated the bones and teeth of fishes,
fragments of wood, impressions of leaves, and other organic substances.
"When geology was first cultivated, it was a general belief that
those marine shells and other fossils were the effects and proofs
of the deluge of Noah; but all those who have carefully investigated
the phenomena have rejected this doctrine. A transient flood might be
supposed to leave behind it, here and there upon the surface, scattered
heaps of mud and sand and shingle, with shells confusedly intermixed;
but the strata containing fossils are not superficial deposits,
and do not simply cover the earth, but constitute the entire mass
of mountains. Ample proof of these reiterated revelations is given,
and it will be seen that many distinct sets of sedimentary strata,
each several hundreds or thousands of feet thick, are piled one
upon the other in the earth's crust, each containing peculiar fossil
animals and plants, which are distinguishable, with few exceptions,
from species now living. The mass of some of these strata consists
almost entirely of corals, others are made up of shells, others of
plants turned into coal, while some are without fossil.
"Volcanic rocks are those which have been produced at or near the
surface, whether in ancient or modern times, not by water, but by
the action of fire or subterranean heat. These rocks are for the most
part unstratified, and are devoid of fossils.
"There are two other divisions of rock, called Plutonic rocks, granite,
etc., and Metamorphic, or stratified crystalline rocks. The members
of both these divisions of rocks agree in being highly crystalline
and destitute of organic remains.
"The composition of the aqueous rocks, mineral composition of strata:
These may be said to belong principally to three divisions, as follows:
"1. Arenaceous or siliceous rocks. Beds of loose sand frequently
met with, of which the grains consist entirely of silex, which
term comprehends all purely siliceous minerals, as quartz and common
flint. Quartz is silex in its purest form; flint usually contains some
admixture of alumina and the oxide of iron. Silica is the mineral used
in the manufacture of glass, mixed with a little potassium oxide and
lime, or lead, etc.
"2. Argillaceous rock. A mixture of silex or flint with a large
proportion, usually about one-fourth, of alumina or argil; but in
common language, any earth which possesses sufficient ductility,
when kneaded up with water, to be fashioned like paste by the hand
or by the potter's lathe, is called clay. Such clays vary greatly
in their composition. They are, in general, nothing more than mud
derived from the decomposition or wearing down of various rocks. The
purest clay in nature is porcelain clay or kaolin, which results
from the decomposition of a rock composed of feldspar and quartz,
and it is almost always mixed with quartz. (The kaolin of China
consists of 71.15 parts of silex, 15.86 of alumina, 1.92 of lime,
and 6.73 of water.)... One general character of all argillaceous
rocks is to give out a peculiar, earthy odor when breathed upon,
which is a test of the presence of alumina.
"3. Calcareous Rocks. These consist mainly of chalk--lime and carbonic
acid. Shells and corals also are formed of the same elements, with the
addition of animal matter. Any limestone which is sufficiently hard to
take a fine polish is called marble. Many of these are fossiliferous;
but statuary marble, which is also called saccharine limestone,
as having a texture resembling that of loaf-sugar, is devoid of
fossil. Siliceous limestone is an intimate mixture of carbonate of
lime and flint, and is harder in proportion as the flinty matter
predominates. Marl slate bears the same relation to marl which shale
bears to clay, being calcareous shale. Magnesian limestone is composed
of carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia; the proportion of
the latter amounting in some cases to nearly one-half. It effervesces
much more slowly and feebly with acid than common limestone. Gypsum
is a rock composed of sulphuric acid, lime, and water. It is usually
a soft whitish-yellow rock, with a texture resembling loaf-sugar, but
sometimes it is entirely composed of lenticular crystals. Alabaster
is a granular and compact variety of gypsum found in masses large
enough to be used in sculpture and architecture. It is sometimes a
pure snow-white substance. It is a softer stone than marble and more
easily wrought."
When geologists examine the earth's crust, they usually commence
with the surface on which we live, and search downwards as far as
possible. Lyell constructed a tabular view of the fossiliferous strata.
It must be borne in mind that we have no other methods of ascertaining
the truth than by close observation, making diligent search, in
order to discover what this earth's crust is made of. We have no
supernatural facilities to give us information, and we are very
certain there never were any. What information we are reckoned to
have, handed down by our antiquated barbarian forefathers, is of a
different nature. It refers--briefly stated--to the conduct of Man,
the manner in which he shall act as an individual, or collectively
as a community; including a great number of what are considered now
theatrical or mountebank ceremonies, fancy customs, sacrifices,
and a repetition of certain phrases, ordinarily called prayers,
accompanied by illustrative images and pictures, and movements of
body--fantastic symbols and devices created and prescribed by man.
Having no other means of ascertaining facts, man was naturally
compelled to search for testimony in the earth's crust--to discover
what it is composed of; the kind of material; how it was formed; the
time it took to form; the period that elapsed between formations;
how the layers or strata were superposed one upon another; what
substances were found in them; where organic life was first found;
what it consisted of; when man first appeared. By examining this
table we get a glimpse of the true state of things. This shows the
order of superposition, or chronological succession, of the principal
European groups:
I. Post-Tertiary. A. Post-Pliocene.
Periods and Groups.
1. Recent. Peat mosses, shell marls, with bones of land animals, human
remains and works of art. Newer parts of modern deltas and coral reefs.
2. Post-Pliocene. Clay, marl, volcanic trap. All the shell of living
specimens. No human remains or works of art. Bones of quadrupeds,
partly of extinct species.
II. Tertiary. B. Pliocene.
3. Newer Pliocene. Boulder formation. Cavern formation, or
Pleistocene. Three-fourths of fossil shells of extinct species. A
majority of the mammals extinct; but the genera corresponding with
those now surviving in the same great geographical and zoological
provinces. Icebergs frequent in the seas; glaciers on hills of
moderate height.
4. Older Pliocene. A third or more of the species of mollusca
extinct. Nearly, if not all, the mammalia extinct.
C. Miocene.
5. Miocene. About two-thirds of the species of shells extinct. All
the mammalia extinct.
D. Eocene.
} Fossil shells of the Eocene period, with very
6. Upper Eocene. } few exceptions, extinct. All the mammalia of
} extinct species, and the greater part of them
7. Middle Eocene. } of extinct genera. Plants of Upper Eocene
} indicating a south European or Mediterranean
8. Lower Eocene. } climate; those of Lower Eocene a tropical
} climate.
III. Secondary. E. Cretaceous--Upper.
9. Maestricht beds. Yellowish-white limestone. Large marine saurians,
etc.
10. Upper white chalk. Marine limestone composed in part of decomposed
corals.
11. Lower white chalk.
12. Upper green sand.
13. Gault. Dark-blue marl at base of chalk escarpment. Numerous
extinct genera--conchiferous cephalopoda, etc.
14. Lower green sand. Species of shells, etc., nearly all distinct
from those of Upper Cretaceous.
F. Wealden.
15. Weald clay, of fresh-water origin. Shells of Pulmoniferous
mollusca.
16. Hastings sand. Fresh water. Reptiles of, etc.
17. Purbeck beds. Limestone, calcareous slate, etc. Roots of trees;
plants, etc.
G. Oölite.
18. Upper Oölite. Portland building-stone, sand.
19. Middle Oölite. Oxford clay, dark-blue clay. Large saurians.
20. Lower Oölite. Preponderance of ganoid fish. Plants chiefly cycads,
conifers, and ferns.
H. Lias.
21. Argillaceous limestone, marl clay. Mollusca, reptiles, and fish
analogous to the Oölitic.
I. Trias.
22. Upper Trias. Red, gray, green, blue, and white marls, and
sandstone, with gypsum. Batrachian reptiles.
23. Middle Trias. Compact grayish limestone, with beds of muschelkalk,
of dolomite and gypsum.
24. Lower Trias. Plants different for the most part.
IV. Primary. J. Permian.
25. Upper Permian. Yellow magnesian limestone. Organic remains both
animal and vegetable, more allied to primary than to secondary period.
26. Lower Permian. Marl slate. Thecodont saurians, heterocercal
fish, etc.
K. Carboniferous.
27. Coal measures. Great thickness of strata of fluvio-marine origin,
with beds of coal of vegetable origin, based on soils retaining roots
of trees. Oldest of known reptiles. Sauroid fish.
28. Mountain. Carboniferous or mountain limestone. Limestone with
marine shells and corals, etc.
L. Devonian.
29. Upper Devonian. Yellow sandstone, paving and roofing stone. Tribe
of fish with hard coverings. No reptiles yet known.
30. Lower Devonian. Gray sandstone.
M. Silurian.
31. Upper Silurian. Tilestone. Oldest fossil fish yet
discovered. Trilobites, etc.
32. Lower Silurian. Caradoc sandstone, etc. No land plants yet
known. Footprints of tortoise, etc.
33. Upper and Lower Cambrian.
SYNOPSIS.
Post-Tertiary. } }
Pliocene. } Tertiary or Cainozoic. }
Miocene. } }
Eocene. } } Mesozoic.
}
Cretaceous. } }
Jurassic. } Secondary or Mesozoic. }
Triassic. } }
Permian. } }
Carboniferous. } }
Devonian. } Primary or Paleozoic. } Paleozoic.
Silurian. } }
Cambrian. } }
The precise chemical action upon the elements composing these
various geological formations at different remote periods, is no
doubt difficult to ascertain. That there always has been some chemical
action going on, and that it is continually going on, is certain. How
and to what extent we can judge only from the experience of actual
observation in the laboratory.
Mr. Crale remarks: "The whole surface of the land is exposed to
chemical action of the air, and of the rainwater with its dissolved
carbonic acid, and in colder countries the frost. The disintegrated
matter is carried down the slopes during heavy rain; and, to a greater
extent than might be supposed, especially in arid districts, by the
wind; it is then transported by the streams and rivers, which when
rapid deepen their channels and triturate the fragments." Darwin
says: "If the theory be true" (speaking of the time elapsed since
the Cambrian lowest formation) "it is indisputable that before
the lowest Cambrian stratum was deposited, long periods elapsed,
as long as, or probably far longer than, the whole interval from the
Cambrian age to the present day; that during these vast periods, the
world swarmed with living creatures. Here we encounter a formidable
objection; for it seems doubtful whether the earth, in a fit state
for the habitation of living creatures, has lasted long enough. Sir
W. Thompson concludes that the consolidation of the crust can hardly
have occurred less than 20 or more than 400 million years ago, but
probably not less than 98 or more than 200 millions of years. These
very wide limits show how doubtful the data are; and other elements may
have hereafter to be introduced into the problem. Mr. Crale estimates
that about 60 million years have elapsed since the Cambrian period,
but this, judging from the small amount of organic change since the
commencement of the glacial epoch, appears a very short time for the
many and great mutations of life, which have certainly occurred since
the Cambrian formation; and the previous 140 millions of years can
hardly be considered as sufficient for the development of the varied
forms of life which already existed during the Cambrian period."
It seems almost impossible for an ordinary mind to grasp the magnitude
of the figures, the span of life being so short. Yet some idea may
be formed when we compare the age of this earth's crust formation,
the hundreds of thousands of years that passed in the evolution of
man, and the brief space of time that has elapsed since he has become
enabled to give an account of himself.
As regards the thickness of the earth's crust, Professor Ramsey has
given the maximum thickness, from actual measurement in most cases,
of the successive formations in different parts of Great Britain;
and this is the result:
The Paleozoic strata (not including igneous bed), 57,154 feet.
Secondary, 13,190 ,,
Tertiary, 2,240 ,,
making altogether 72,584 feet; that is, very nearly thirteen and
three-quarters British miles. Büchner in his work on "Force and Matter"
states: "The so-called coal formation alone required, according to
Bischoff, 1,000,177 years; according to Chevandier's calculation,
672,788 years. The Tertiary strata required for their development
about 350,000 years; and before the originally incandescent earth
could cool down from a temperature of 2,000 degrees to 200, there
must, according to Bischoff's calculation, have elapsed a period
of 350,000,000 years. Valger calculates that the time required for
the deposit of the strata known to us must at least have amounted to
648,000,000 years. I quote these figures simply to show how difficult
it is, and the labor required, to form even a proximate idea as to
the period of time that must have elapsed for the formation of the
various strata known.
That all animals were not created at once is certain beyond all cavil
and dispute. The development of the various forms of life was an
exceeding slow process, and lasted very many thousand centuries. That
the earth's crust was not at certain stages of formation in a fit
condition either to receive or to maintain the higher types of animal
life, is well known. And we know that man's remains are found only
in the uppermost surface of the earth's crust. Max Müller says in
his "Testimony of the Rocks": "It was not until the earlier ages
of the Oölite system had passed away, that the class of Reptiles
received its fullest development. And certainly very wonderful was the
development which it did then receive. Reptiles became everywhere the
lords and masters of the lower world. When any class of air-breathing
vertebrates is very largely developed, we find it taking possession of
all three terrestrial elements--earth, air, and water. Last of all,
the true placental mammals appear, and thus, tried by the test of
perfect reproduction, the great vertebral division receives its full
development." Agassiz's "Principles of Zoology" says: "We distinguish
four ages of nature, comprehending the great geological divisions,
namely:
"1. The Primary, or Paleozoic age, comprising the lower Silurian,
the upper Silurian, and the Devonian. During this age there were no
air-breathing animals. The fishes were masters of creation. We may
therefore call it the Reign of Fishes.
"2. The Secondary age, comprising the Carboniferous, the Trias, the
Oölite, and the Cretaceous formations. This is the epoch in which
air-breathing animals first appear. The Reptiles predominated over the
other classes, and we may therefore call it the 'Reign of Reptiles.'
"3. The Tertiary age, comprising the Tertiary formation. During
this age terrestrial mammals of great size abound. This is the Reign
of Mammals.
"4. The Modern age, characterized by the appearance of the most
perfect of created beings."
The majority of mankind trouble themselves but little whether progress
is made in any one of the branches of science or not. Man has no
time to think seriously of anything except to provide food for his
family. The priest does his thinking, and he is made to contribute
part of his labor to support the holy man who does the thinking for
him. All he knows is that his soul or his spirit, his hereafter,
and his God are well cared for, and he pays for it. Yet every man
ought to understand that all his rights, civil and political--all the
freedom he enjoys--he has to thank science for procuring and securing.
"Shall it be seriously objected to the application of the sciences
to philosophical problems that its results are not agreeable? That
the truth is not always agreeable, nor always consolatory, nor
always religious, nor always acceptable, is as well known as the old
experience of the almost total absence of reward, either external
or internal, provided for its exemplars. What this or that man may
understand by a governing reason, an absolute power, a universal soul,
a personal God ... is his own affair. The theologians, with their
articles of faith, must be left to themselves; so of the naturalists
with their science; they both proceed by different routes.... The
same bloody hatred with which science was once persecuted by
religious fanaticism would revive now, and with it the Inquisition
and Auto-da-fé, and all the horrors with which a refined zealotism
has tortured humanity would be resorted to, to satisfy the wishes
of the theological cutthroats. A man in advance of his age beholds
the struggle of the contending parties from a high point of view,
and sees in the eccentricities of this contest merely the natural
and necessary expression of the opposing elements which agitate our
time. No one can doubt that truth will finally emerge the victor. It
certainly will not be long before the battle becomes general. Is the
victory doubtful? The struggle is unequal; the opponents cannot stand
against the trenchant arm of physical and physiological Materialism,
which fights with facts, that everyone can comprehend, while the
opponents fight with suppositions and presumptions" (Büchner).
"Science and faith exclude each other" (Virchow).
Fools still cling to faith; wise men find the truth in science.
Note.--Baily's "History of Astronomy," Part I, page 31, § 124, and
Part II, pp. 33, 39, maintains that India has existed as a nation, as
the records show, 4,320,000 years. The Indians divide this time into
four principal periods: First period, that of innocence or simplicity,
1,728,000 years; second period, 276,000; the third period, 864,000;
and the ages of misfortune about 422,000--Cali-yon-gan period. Similar
statements are made by Cicero ("De Divinat," I, 19), concerning the
Chaldeans: "Condemnemus, inquam, hos aut stultitiæ aut vanitatis
aut imprudentiæ qui 470 millia annorum ut ipsi dicunt monumentis
comprehensa continent."
THE ATMOSPHERE.
The atmosphere is the gaseous envelope encircling the earth; and it
constitutes the ocean of air at the bottom of which we live. We become
aware of the existence of the air when we move rapidly and experience
the resistance offered to the passage of our bodies, and also when the
air is set in motion, giving rise to a wind. We notice the pressure
of the atmosphere if we withdraw the air from beneath the hand by
a powerful air-pump, for we then find that the hand is pressed down
with a force equal to 1.033 kilos. on a square centimeter, or nearly
15 lbs. on every square inch. The total atmospheric pressure which
the human body has to support hence amounts to several tons. But
this pressure is not felt under ordinary circumstances, because
the pressure exercised is exerted equally in every direction. The
instrument used for measuring the pressure of the air is termed a
barometer, and the average pressure at the sea level is equal to that
exerted by a column of mercury 760 mm. high. The air being elastic
and having weight, it is clear the lower layers of air must be more
compressed than those above them, and hence the density of the air
must vary at the different hights above the sea level. The density of
the air being thus dependent on the pressure to which it is subjected,
the higher strata of air become generally rarefied, and it is hence
difficult to say whereabouts the air ceases, but it appears that the
limit of the atmosphere is about 200 to 300 miles from the level of
the sea. If the whole atmosphere were of the same density throughout
as it is at the earth's surface, it would reach only to a height of
a little more than five miles above the sea level.
Aqueous vapor is contained in the air in quantities varying in
different localities and at different times, and depending mainly on
the temperature of the air. Air at a given temperature cannot contain
more than a certain quantity of moisture in solution; and when it has
taken up its maximum quantity, it is said to be saturated with aqueous
moisture. The higher the temperature of the air the more water can
it retain as vapor; and when air saturated with moisture is cooled,
the water is deposited in liquid form in very small globules, forming
a mist, fog, or cloud. This is the cause of the fall of rain, snow,
and hail; when warm air heavily laden with moisture from the ocean
passes into a higher and colder position, or meets with a stratum of
air of lower temperature, it cannot any longer retain so much aqueous
vapor, and a large quantity assumes a liquid form, falling as rain
when the temperature is above the freezing-point, or crystallizing
as snowflakes if the temperature is below that point. Hail is caused
by the congelation of raindrops in passing through a stratum of air
below the freezing-point. The deposition of dew is caused by the rapid
cooling of the earth's surface by radiation after sunset, and by the
consequent cooling of the air near the ground below the temperature
at which it begins to deposit moisture. In general the air contains
from 50 to 70 per cent. of aqueous vapor of the quantities necessary
to saturate it. If the quantity be not within these limits the air
is either unpleasantly dry or unpleasantly moist.
The air contains, besides the gases of oxygen and nitrogen, carbonic
acid, ammonia, accidental impurities, and volatile organic matter,
which latter is the most important, as it probably influences to a
great extent the healthfulness of the special situation. We become
aware of the existence of such organic putrescent substances when
entering a crowded room from the fresh air; and it is probable that
the well-known unhealthiness of marshy and other districts is owing
to the presence of some organic impurities.
We may have occasion to refer to this when speaking of the deluge, etc.
CHAPTER III.
THE CHEMICAL ASPECT.
By the word chemistry we understand the science which investigates
the composition of all material substances, taking them apart or
separating them, by a chemical process, and discovers the nature
and properties of the minutest particle. These small particles have
received the name, elements or elementary substances; that term is
applied in chemistry to those forms of matter which have hitherto
resisted all attempt to decompose them.
"We know that we have earth, air, water, and we have seen in Chapter
II that the earth's crust is made up of many substances, rocks,
coral reefs, clay, marl, feldspar, quartz, limestone, granite, etc.,
etc. These substances are composed of small particles, or elements,
and are called minerals or inorganic substances. There is another class
of substances, called organic, that are derived from living things or
beings. These are also taken apart or separated into their elementary
substances. As plants or animals, all such elementary substances have
received the name organic substances because plants and animals have
organs of reproduction, hence the name.
The taking apart of any substance into its constituent elements is
called analysis by chemists.
The same elements can also be put together to produce various
substances; that is termed synthesis.
Chemists have adopted a name for each of the elements, and these
names are represented by symbols, or letters.
Compound substances may contain two or more elements. When the
composition of a substance is determined by splitting the compound
into its elementary constituents a chemical analysis of that substance
is said to have been made; and if the proportions by weight in which
each of the constituents is present be determined, a quantitative
analysis of the substance has been made, etc.
By chemical action, we signify that which occurs when two or more
substances so act upon one another as to produce a third substance
differing altogether from the original ones in properties; or when a
substance is brought under such conditions that it forms two or more
bodies differing from the original one in properties. Chemistry is
called an experimental science. In investigating all the materials
within his reach, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, whether contained
in the earth, sea, or air; whether belonging to the mineral, animal,
or vegetable creation, the chemist finds himself obliged to divide
substances into two classes: (1) compound substances--those which he
is able to split up into two or more essentially different materials;
(2) elements or simple substances--those which he is unable thus to
split up, and out of which nothing essentially different from the
original substances has been obtained.
Compound bodies are made up of two or more elementary substances
chemically combined with each other; thus sulphur, copper, lead,
are elementary bodies; out of each of these nothing different from
sulphur, copper, lead, can be obtained; whereas when two of these
bodies are heated together, a compound is formed from which both of the
original elementary constituents can at any time be obtained. Water
is a compound body--it can be split up into two elementary gases,
hydrogen and oxygen; common salt, again, is a compound of a gas
(chlorine) with a metal (sodium); and limestone, clay, sugar, and
wax may serve as examples of compound bodies; whilst phosphorus,
charcoal, iron, mercury, and gold may be mentioned as belonging to
the class of simple substances.
As to physical properties of gases--they have weight, volume,
diffusion, density, etc.
Theologians insist that there is a God, a God that was first
introduced to us by a man with the name of Abraham, advertised
by Moses, and has been palmed off upon the masses as a something
exceedingly wonderful. A multitude of men who find it to their
interest to advocate his pretended claims, are still doing their
utmost to sustain their God. We are trying to discover where he is
to be found, whether he is a local or a universal God, what he is
composed of, whether he resides on earth permanently or transiently,
whether he controls the entire solar system or more systems, whether
he occasionally takes a trip to other planets; and if he has created
everything we want to find out how he has created it. For that reason
we have to search, taking a glimpse among the stars, in the earth,
atmosphere, etc. Since geology does not respond favorably, we are
trying to discover what this earth is composed of. The elementary
bodies at present recognized amount to sixty-four in number. Of these
about fifty belong to the class called metals. Several of them are of
recent discovery, and as yet very imperfectly known. The distinction
between metals and certain non-metallic substances or metalloids,
although very convenient for purposes of description, is entirely
arbitrary, since the classes graduate into each other in the most
indefinite manner. The following is a complete list of the elementary
substances known, giving their names, symbols, and combining weight:
Symbols. METALLOIDS. Combining
Weight.
Elements of life: of primary importance.
O Oxygen [1] II 16
H Hydrogen I 1
N Nitrogen V 14
C Carbon IV 12
Elements of secondary importance.
Cl Chlorine I 35.5
Br Bromine I 80
I Iodine I 127
F Fluorine I 29
P Phosphorus V 31
S Sulphur VI 32
Si Silicon IV 28
B Boron III 11
Se Selenium VI 79.5
Te Tellurium VI 179
Mechanics, arts, science, and medicine.
Al Aluminium IV 27.4
Ca Calcium II 40
(Cuprum) Cu Copper II 63.5
(Ferrum) Fe Iron IV 56
(Plumbum) Pb Lead IV 207
Mn Manganese IV 55
(Hydrargyrum) Hg Mercury II 200
(Kalium) K Potassium I 39.1
(Argentum) Ag Silver I 108
(Natrium) Na Sodium I 23
(Stannum) Sn Tin IV 118
Zn Zinc II 65.3
(Stibium) Sb Antimony V 122
As Arsenic V 75
Ba Barium II 137
Bi Bismuth V 210
Cr Chromium VI 52.2
Co Cobalt IV 58.7
(Aurum) Au Gold III 197
In Indium IV 74
Mg Magnesium II 24
Ni Nickel IV 58.7
Pd [2] Palladium IV 106.6
Pt Platinum IV 197.5
Sr Strontium II 87.5
Ti Titanium IV 50
W Tungsten VI 184
U Uranium IV 120
Little known, rarely used.
Be Beryllium II 9.3
Cd Cadmium II 112
Cs Cæsium I 133
Cr Cerium IV 92
D Didymium II 95
E Erbium II 112.6
Ir Iridium IV 198
La Lanthanum II 92
Li [3] Lithium I 7
Mo Molybdenum VI 96
Nb Niobium V 94
Os Osmium IV 199.2
Rh Rhodium IV 104.4
Rb Rubidium I 85.4
Ru Ruthenium IV 104.4
Ta Tantalum V 182
Tb Terbium
Tl Thallium III 204
Th Thorium II 231.5
V Vanadium V 51.3
Y Yttrium II 61
Zr Zirconium III 89.6
All matter is made up of very small particles which are chemically
indivisible and which are termed atoms, and the atom of each elementary
substance differs essentially from that of every other. All the atoms
of each element are alike, and chemical compounds are formed by the
combination of unlike atoms. Hence the smallest particle of a compound
consists of a group of atoms. This group, which can be divided by
chemical but not by mechanical means, is termed a molecule. The
smallest particle of an element in a free state is, however, not
a single atom, but a group of atoms mechanically indivisible, or a
molecule. This explains why elementary bodies act more energetically
and enter more readily into combination at the moment of their
liberation from a combination than when in the free state.
When chemical changes occur, it is the molecules which react upon
one another, and the change consists in the change of position of
certain atoms contained in the groups. When an element is set free
from a compound, the liberated join together to form molecules,
unless some body is present with which the element can combine.
By an atom we therefore understand the smallest portion of a chemical
element which can enter into a chemical compound; by a molecule,
the smallest portion of a simple compound body which can occur in
the free state or which can take part in a chemical action.
All the elements, with the single exception of fluorine, combine with
oxygen to form oxides. In this act of combination, which is termed
oxidation, heat is always, and light is frequently, given off. When
bodies unite with oxygen, evolving light and heat, they are said to
burn, or undergo combustion. All bodies which burn in the air burn with
increased brilliancy in oxygen gas; and many substances, such as iron,
which do not readily burn in the air, may be made to do so in oxygen.
Oxygen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor
smell.
Hydrogen is a colorless invisible gas, possessing neither taste nor
smell. It is the lightest gas known, being 14.47 times lighter than
air. It combines with oxygen to form water.
Nitrogen is a colorless, tasteless, inodorous gas, slightly lighter
than air. It does not combine readily with bodies, and it is a very
inert substance, neither supporting combustion or animal life, nor
burning itself. It has, however, no poisonous qualities, and animals
plunged into a jar of this gas die simply of suffocation from want
of oxygen. Nitrogen exists in a free state in the air, of which it
constitutes four-fifths by bulk. It occurs combined in the bodies of
plants and animals, and in various chemical compounds, such as nitre,
whence the gas derives its name.
Carbon is a solid element; it is not known in the free state,
either as a liquid or as a gas. Carbon is remarkable as existing
in three distinct forms, which in outward appearance or physical
properties have nothing in common, whilst their chemical relations are
identical. These three allotropic forms of carbon are (1) diamond,
(2) graphite or plumbago, (3) charcoal. These substances differ
in hardness, color, specific gravity, etc., but they each yield
on combustion in the air or oxygen the same weight of the same
substance, carbonic acid or carbon dioxide. Carbon is the element
which is especially characteristic of animal and vegetable life, as
every organized structure, from the simplest to the most complicated,
contains carbon. If carbon were not present on the earth, no single
vegetable or animal body such as we know could exist. In addition to
the carbon which is found free in these three forms, and contained
combined with hydrogen and oxygen in the bodies of plants and animals,
it exists combined with oxygen as free carbon dioxide in the air,
and with calcium and oxygen as calcium carbonate in limestone, chalk,
marble, corals, shells, etc. Plants are able when exposed to sunlight
to decompose the carbon dioxide in the air, liberating the oxygen,
and taking the carbon for the formation of their vegetable structure,
whilst all animals, living directly or indirectly upon vegetables,
absorb oxygen, and evolve carbon dioxide. Thus the sun's rays,
through the medium of plants, effect deoxidation, or reduction,
whilst animals act as oxidizing agents with respect to carbon.
Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Carbon--these are the life-giving
elements. They are the life-producing and life-sustaining
elements. Neither animal nor vegetable life can exist without them. The
entire activity of nature depends upon them. Every organic substance
contains them.
No organic substance can exist without them.
The principle of life is due to them.
From a blade of grass to an insect, from an insect to an animal,
including man, one cannot emerge into life without these elements.
The birth, growth, and development of plant and animal depend upon
them, the sustenance and nurture.
All our food-substances are almost wholly made up of these elements.
No force, power, or energy can be produced without their presence.
Our muscular strength, our nervous force, our very thoughts, our
imagination, as well as digestion, respiration, circulation of the
blood, depend on these elements.
Our sensations, our pleasures, our pains, depend upon them. All the
excitement and depression in life are dependent on them.
The beauties of vegetation, all the various shades and colors of
flower and blossom, the tints and odors, are dependent on them.
No phenomenon in nature, no matter how terrible, delightful, or
enchanting, can be manifested without these elements.
No earthquake, thunder, storm, lightning, wind, hail, rain, snow,
or ice could exist without them.
No light, heat, or motion--in fact, none of the physical forces,
could be evolved without them.
Our atmosphere, ocean, seas, rivers, forests, are composed of them.
No art, science, mechanics, architecture, nor indeed anything that
we now enjoy, could exist without them.
Gunpowder, dynamite, electricity, and all else are dependent on
these elements.
Why attempt to enumerate the extraordinary roles they play on earth
and in the universe?
Every plant would wither, every life would perish, without Oxygen;
this element may be truly called the breath of life.
The creation of God is dependent on these elements, because were it
not for man God would never have been.
The ark, made of wood, was composed of them. The figure of Christ,
and the Virgin Mary, as she is called, as well as all the saints,
were and are composed of Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, etc. We
know that these chemical elements enter into the composition of all
things in nature--mineral, vegetable, animal.
We also may be absolutely certain that no more elements exist now,
at this present time, than existed ten, twenty, or one thousand
million of years ago.
Chemical elementary substances have no greater relative weight towards
one another, nor a greater volume, at this present time than they had
at any time since the existence of this earth. The total weight of
all elements that enter into the formation of this terrestrial globe
has never varied, whether they were in solid, fluid, or gaseous state.
The law of gravitation has always existed.
Elements that enter into the formation of organic beings, vegetable
or animal, must in due time undergo decomposition and return to the
same elements of which they were composed.
The chemical action has always been the same. All substances are
subject to chemical action when exposed to the primary elements,
oxygen and hydrogen especially.
An element can never be annihilated.
It may not be out of place to mention some of the substances in daily
use. For example, water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen. Air is
composed of oxygen and nitrogen. Bread, of starch, sugars--oxygen,
hydrogen and carbon. Meats, of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen,
etc. Salt, of sodium and chlorine. Vegetables, fruits, etc., of oxygen,
carbon, and hydrogen. Fats, of oil. alcohols, of oxygen, carbon,
and hydrogen. The tissues of the animal body are composed of oxygen,
hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen.
The combination of five elements produces electricity, thus: Zinc
(Zn) + copper (Cu) + sulphuric acid, which consists of hydrogen (H2),
sulphur (S), and oxygen (O4), = electricity.
A few examples in the changes of the combination of oxygen and hydrogen
are shown in water. Under conditions of heat and cold it becomes ice,
steam, dew, rain, hail, snow, clouds, etc., etc. These phenomena
are known.
We merely mention these facts to show how much has been discovered
by human skill, but of how much more remains to be discovered we can
not form the slightest notion. All that has been done in the field of
science has been of actual benefit to humanity. For the discoveries are
based on fact and truth. They are ushered into this world to alleviate
and to lighten the struggle and the burden of men. They come without
oppression, without crime, without bloodshed. They come as the great
benefactors of mankind. Men would be much better off to-day if they
received for their Sunday lessons instruction in the natural, instead
of wasting their precious time in repeating the silly twaddle of
supernatural extravagance, that tends to stupefy instead of clearing
up the understanding.
Scientific research has advanced so far, that not only are we able to
know, from the discoveries made, the elementary composition of this
earth, and all that belongs thereto, but other far more difficult
problems have been partially solved. That is, with the aid of newly
discovered instruments, we can ascertain, to a considerable extent,
the elementary composition of the sun, stars, and distant planets.
In 1802 Dr. Wollaston, and later Fraunhofer, discovered and perfected
an instrument called the spectroscope. It consists of a prism,
fixed upon an iron stand, and a tube carrying a slit. When light
passes through a slit it impinges upon a flint glass prism, by which
it is dispersed. The light of burning metals has been tested in that
manner. Thus when any light passes through the slit of a spectroscope,
the substance giving the light may be determined, the elements burning
ascertained. If the solar spectrum be examined--the light of the sun's
rays--numerous dark lines parallel with the edge of the prism are
observed, and reveal a number of colors giving the following: red,
orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. These are intersected
by fine black lines of different degrees of breadth and shade, which
are always present, and always occupy the same relative position
in the solar spectrum. These are called Fraunhofer's lines. By
the means of this instrument, the spectra of the sun, planets, and
moon have been analyzed, and the color and position, the kind of
metals these distant bodies are composed of. The sun's atmosphere,
from experiments made, is known to contain metals, such as soda, iron,
etc., in the condition of glowing gas, the white light proceeding from
the solid or liquid strongly heated mass of the sun which lies in the
interior. The metals hitherto detected in the sun's atmosphere are
about fifteen or more--iron, sodium, strontium, cadmium, magnesium,
calcium, chromium, nickel, barium, zinc, cobalt, manganese, aluminium,
titanium, hydrogen, etc.
So delicate is this instrument that 1/180000000 part of a grain of
sodium can be detected, and a portion of lithium weighing 1/6000000
part of a grain has been detected; thus showing that there exists a
very strong probability that the sun, planets, and moons are composed
of similar, if not the same, elements that this earth is composed of.
CHAPTER IV.
THE SUN.
The Colossus, or brazen statue of the Sun, was placed across the mouth
of the harbor of Rhodes, its legs stretched to such a distance that a
large ship under sail might easily pass between them. It was seventy
cubits high, or a hundred English feet; its fingers were as long
as ordinary statues, and few men with both arms could grasp one of
its thumbs. Scarcely sixty years had elapsed before this work of art
was thrown down by an earthquake, which broke it off at the knees, in
which position it remained till the conquest of Rhodes by the Saracens
(A.D. 684), when it was beaten to pieces and sold to a Jew merchant,
who loaded nine hundred camels with its spoils.
Anaxagoras (500 B.C.) taught that there was but one god, and that
the sun was only a fiery globe and should not be worshiped. He
attempted to explain eclipses and other celestial phenomena by natural
causes, saying that there is no such thing as chances, these being
only names for unknown laws. For this audacity and impiety, as his
countrymen considered it, he and his family were doomed to perpetual
banishment. "Man," said Protagoras of Abra (430 B.C.), "is the measure
of all things.... Of the Gods I know nothing, neither whether they
be nor whether they be not; for there is much that stands in the way
of knowledge, as well the obscurity of the matter as the shortness
of human life."
St. John begins his writings: "In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God." But John, like
many others of his time, knew nothing more than the use of words
to make riddles, which he himself could not see through and no one
else could understand. The man or men who first composed that part
of scripture that informs us how the sun and earth were created,
certainly knew nothing about it, because all that is at present known
is of comparatively recent date. For many centuries, the established
religion, the church, and the representatives of the theo-Christian
organization, did all in their power to prevent light from penetrating
their hidden benighted doings. They looked upon themselves as being
all in all, knowing all in all--as having had everything worth knowing
revealed to them by an agency no one else had access to. The ideas of
their mysterious doings, of their mysterious Gods, are hidden from
view in deep obscurity--like the temple of the Egyptian Isis, that
bore the inscription: "I am all that is, that was, and that will be,
and no mortal has lifted my veil."
The ancient writers of the scripture were full of deep, mysterious
ways, and their writings of hidden meanings. Ordinary mortals were
prohibited from making inquiry because the subject was considered
too mysterious, and much too sacred.
Since then, many mysteries have been dissolved, or have been analyzed
by the crucial test of science, and it has been discovered that
there is nothing hidden except what our ignorance prevents us from
knowing. We have lifted the sacred veil and looked into the temple
of nature, as she is, and not as she appears. The more we search,
the more we discover, the nearer we get to the truth.
There is not the slightest reason why every man, woman, and child
at proper age should not be instructed in matters wherein they are
immediately interested, the knowledge whereof would undoubtedly be
to their benefit.
Men have lived through centuries of fable, ages of fiction, long
periods of myth. The Christian God is as much of a myth as any myth
that ever existed. Humanity having passed through these various mental
afflictions, gone through so many bloody surgical operations, we are,
as it were, approaching a condition that will soon be declared as
convalescent, and this most miserable of theological nurses may at
not a very remote period be dismissed.
We can say, without the slightest conscientious scruple, or fear of
contradiction, with reason to sustain us and the light of science to
prove the truth, that There is no God.
There never was--except such a one as men have invented, held sacred,
and worshiped. There is nothing sacred except what man makes sacred,
nothing holy except what man makes holy, nothing divine except what
man makes divine. He makes his own God, and he religiously, piously,
devoutly prays to and worships it. The more regularly he does so,
the more saintly he becomes, or esteems himself.
For many thousand years the Sun was worshiped, held sacred, sacrificed
to, entempled, etc. As reason and understanding increased, they
forsook him as a god, dismissed him as they had dismissed many gods
before him. Yet the sun was by far their greatest benefactor and best
friend--more than they were aware of.
The sun is 93,000,000 miles from the earth. Supposing a railway could
be built to the sun, an express train traveling day and night, at the
rate of thirty miles an hour, would require 352 years to reach its
destination. The light of the sun is equal to 5,563 wax candles held
at a distance of one foot from the eye. The heat of the sun that we
receive annually is sufficient to melt a layer of ice 180 feet thick,
extending over the whole earth. Yet the sunbeam is only 1/300000 part
as intense as it is at the surface of the sun. Moreover, the heat and
light stream off into space equally in every direction. Of this vast
flood, but one twenty-three-hundred-millionth part reaches the earth.
The diameter of the sun is about 860,000 miles. Its volume is
1,300,000 times that of the earth, i.e., it would take 1,300,000
earths to make a globe the size of the sun. Its mass is 750 times
that of all the planets and moons in the solar system, and 300,000
times that of the earth. Its weight may be expressed in tons thus:
1,910,278,070,000,000,000,000,000,000. The density of the sun is
only about one-fourth that of the earth, or 1.41 that of water,
so that the weight of a body transferred from the earth to the sun
would not be increased in proportion to the comparative size of the
sun. The sun rotates on his axis, like a wheel, once in about 25 days.
Our astronomers tell us that the solar heat is gradually
diminishing. In time the sun will cease to shine, as the earth did
long since. Newcomb says that in 5,000,000 years, at the present rate,
the sun will have shrunk to half its present size, and that it cannot
sustain life on the earth more than 10,000,000 years longer. Of this
we may be assured, there is enough heat to support life on our globe
for millions of years to come.
The sun consists of a central orb, liquid or solid, of exceeding
brightness, which of itself would give a continuous spectrum, or in
other words which emits all kinds of light. The sunlight is decomposed
by means of the spectroscope, already alluded to, in order to discover
the kind of elements it is composed of. Therefore Tyndall says:
"I think we now possess knowledge sufficient to raise us to the
level of one of the most remarkable generalizations of our age. It
has long been supposed that the sun and planets have had a common
origin and that hence the same substances are more or less common
to them all. Can we detect the presence of any of our terrestrial
substances in the sun?... I have said that the bright bands of a metal
are characteristic of the metal; that we can without seeing the metal
declare its name from the inspection of the bands. The bands are,
so to speak, the voice of the metal declaring its presence.
"Professor Kirchhoff finds iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, chromium,
etc., in the sunlight spectrum. We know also the total amount of
solar heat received by the earth in a year, and we can calculate
the entire quantity of heat emitted by the sun in a year. Conceive a
hollow sphere to surround the sun, its center the sun's center, and its
surface at the distance of the earth from the sun. The section of the
earth cut by this surface is to the whole area of the hollow sphere
as 1 to 2,300,000,000; hence the quantity of solar heat intercepted
by the earth is only 1/2300000000 of the total radiation.
"The heat emitted by the sun, if used to melt a stratum of ice
applied to the sun's surface would liquefy the ice at the rate of
2,400 feet an hour. It would boil per hour 700,000 millions of cubic
miles of ice-cold water. Expressed in another form, the heat given
out by the sun per hour is equal to that which would be generated
by the combustion of a layer of solid coal 10 feet thick entirely
surrounding the sun; hence the heat emitted in a year is equal to
that which would be produced by the combustion of a layer of coal 17
miles in thickness. These are the results of actual measurements; and
should greater accuracy be conferred on them by future determinations,
it will not deprive them of their astonishing character. And this
expenditure has been going on for ages, without our being able,
in historic times, to detect the loss. When the tolling of a bell is
heard at a distance, the sound of each stroke soon sinks, the sonorous
vibrations are quickly wasted, and renewed strokes are necessary to
maintain the sound. Like the bell,
"Die Sonne tönt nach alter weise.
"But how is its tone sustained? How is the perennial loss made
good? We are apt to overlook the wonderful in the common. Possibly
to many of us--and to some of the most enlightened among us--the
sun appears as a fire differing from our terrestrial fires only in
the magnitude and the intensity of its combustion. But what is the
burning matter which can thus maintain itself? All that we know of
cosmical phenomena declares our brotherhood with the sun--affirms
that the same constituents enter into the composition of his mass
as those already known to chemistry. But no earthly substance with
which we are acquainted--no substance which the fall of meteors has
landed on the earth--would be at all competent to maintain the sun's
combustion. The chemical energy of such substances would be too weak,
and their dissipation would be too speedy. Were the sun a solid block
of coal, and were it allowed a sufficient supply of oxygen to enable
it to burn at the rate necessary to produce the observed emissions,
it would be utterly consumed in 5,000 years. On the other hand,
to imagine it a body originally endowed with a store of heat--a hot
globe now cooling--necessitates the ascription to it of qualities
wholly different from those possessed by terrestrial matter. If we
knew the specific heat of the sun, we could calculate its rate of
cooling. Assuming this to be the same as that of water--the terrestrial
substance which possesses the highest specific heat--at its present
rate of emission, the entire mass of the sun would cool down 15,000°
Faht. in 5,000 years. In short, if the sun be formed of matter like our
own, some means must exist of restoring to him his wasted power. The
facts are so extraordinary, that the soberest hypothesis regarding
them must appear wild. The sun we know rotates upon his axis; he
turns like a wheel once in 25 days: can it be the friction of the
periphery of this wheel against something in surrounding space which
produces the light and heat? Such a notion has been entertained. But
what forms the brake, and by what agency is it held, while it rubs
against the sun? The action is inconceivable; but, granting the
existence of the brake, we can calculate the total amount of heat
which the sun could generate by such friction. We know his mass, we
know his time of rotation; we know the mechanical equivalent of heat;
and from these data we deduce, with certainty, that the entire force
of rotation, if converted into heat, would cover more than one, but
less than two, centuries of emission. There is no hypothesis involved
in this calculation.
"There is another theory, which, however bold it may at first sight
appear, deserves our earnest attention. I have already referred to
it as the meteoric theory of the sun's heat. Solar space is peopled
with ponderable objects. Kepler's celebrated statement that 'there
are more comets in the heavens than fish in the ocean' refers to the
fact that a small portion only of the total number of comets belong
to our system, and are seen from the earth. But besides comets,
and planets, and moons, a numerous class of bodies belong to our
system--asteroids, which from their smallness might be regarded as
cosmical atoms. Like the planets and the comets these smaller bodies
obey the law of gravity, and revolve in elliptic orbits around the sun;
and it is they, when they come within the earth's atmosphere, that,
fired by friction, appear to us as meteors and falling stars. On a
bright night twenty minutes rarely pass at any part of the earth's
surface without the appearance of at least one meteor. At certain
times (the 12th of August and the 14th of November), they appear in
enormous numbers. During nine hours of observation in Boston, when
they were described as falling as thick as snowflakes, 240,000 meteors
were calculated to have been observed. The number falling in a year
might perhaps be estimated at hundreds or thousands of millions, and
even these would constitute but a small portion of the total crowd of
asteroids that circulate round the sun. From the phenomena of light
and heat, and by the direct observation of Encke, on his comet, we
learn that the universe is filled with a resisting medium, through
the friction of which all the masses of our system are drawn gradually
toward the sun. And though the larger planets show, in historic times,
no diminution of their periods of revolution, this may not hold good
for the smaller bodies. In the time required for the mean distance
of the earth from the sun to alter a single yard, a small asteroid
may have approached thousands of miles nearer to our luminary.
"Following up these reflections we should infer that while this
immeasurable stream of ponderable matter rolls unceasingly towards
the sun, it must augment in density as it approaches the center
of convergence. And here the conjecture naturally rises that that
weak nebulous light, of vast dimensions, which embraces the sun--the
Zodiacal light--may owe its existence to these crowded meteors. However
this may be, it is at least proved that the luminous phenomenon
arises from matter which circulates in obedience to planetary laws;
the entire mass constituting the Zodiacal light must be constantly
approaching, and incessantly raining its substance down upon, the sun.
"We observe the fall of an apple and investigate the law which rules
its motion. In the place of the earth we set the sun, and in place of
the apple we set the earth, and thus possess ourselves of the key to
the mechanics of the heavens. We now know the connection between hight
of fall, velocity, and heat at the surface of the earth. In the place
of the earth let us set the sun, with 300,000 times the earth's mass,
and instead of a fall of a few feet, let us take cosmical elevations;
we thus obtain a means of generating heat which transcends all
terrestrial power.
"It is easy to calculate both the maximum and the minimum velocity
imparted by the sun's attraction to asteroids circulating round him;
the maximum is generated when the body approaches the sun from an
infinite distance as the entire pull of the sun being then expended
upon it; the minimum is that velocity which would barely enable
the body to revolve round the sun close to his surface. The final
velocity of the former, just before striking the sun, would be 390
miles a second, that of the latter 276 miles a second. The asteroid
on striking the sun with the former velocity, would develop more
than 3,000 times the heat generated by the combustion of an equal
asteroid of solid coal; while the shock, in the latter case, would
generate heat equal to that of the combustion of upward of 4,000 such
asteroids. It matters not whether the substances falling into the sun
be combustible or not; their being combustible would not add sensibly
to the tremendous heat produced by their mechanical collision.
"Here then we have an agency competent to restore his lost energy,
and to maintain a temperature at his surface which transcends all
terrestrial combustion. The very quality of the solar rays--their
incomparable penetrating power--enables us to infer that the
temperature of their origin must be enormous; but in the fall of
asteroids we find the means of producing such a temperature. It may be
contended that this showering down of matter must be accompanied by
the growth of the sun in size; it is so; but the quantity necessary
to produce the observed calorific emission, even if accumulated for
4,000 years, would defy the scrutiny of our best instruments. If
the earth struck the sun it would utterly vanish from perception,
but the heat developed by the shock would cover the expenditure of
the sun for a century.
"To the earth itself apply considerations similar to those which we
have applied to the sun. Newton's theory of gravitation, which enables
us, from the present form of the earth, to deduce its original state
of aggregation, reveals to us, at the same time, a source of heat
powerful enough to bring about the fluid state--powerful enough
to fuse even worlds. It teaches us to regard the molten condition
of a planet as resulting from mechanical union of cosmical masses,
and thus reduces to the same homogeneous process the heat stored up
in the body of the earth, and the heat emitted by the sun. Without
doubt the whole surface of the sun displays an unbroken ocean of
fiery fluid matter. On this ocean rests an atmosphere of flowing
gas--a flame atmosphere, or photosphere. But gaseous substances, when
compared with solid ones, emit, even when their temperature is very
high, only a feeble and transparent light. Hence it is probable that
the dazzling white light of the sun comes through the atmosphere
from the more solid portions of the surface.... In conclusion,
thus writes Professor Thomson: 'The source of energy from which
the solar heat is derived is undoubtedly meteoric.... The principal
source--perhaps the sole appreciable efficient source--is in the bodies
circulating round the sun at present inside the earth's orbit seen in
the sunlight by us called "Zodiacal light." The store of energy for
future sunlight is at present partly dynamical--that of the motions
of these bodies round the sun; and partly potential--that of their
gravitation towards the sun. This latter is gradually being spent,
half against the resisting medium, and half in causing a continuous
increase of the former. Each meteor thus goes on moving faster and
faster, and getting nearer and nearer the center, until some time,
very suddenly, it gets so much entangled in the solar atmosphere as
to begin to lose its velocity. In a few seconds more it is at rest
on the sun's surface, and the energy given up is vibrated across the
district where it was gathered during so many ages, ultimately to
penetrate as light the remotest regions of space....
"'The heat of rotation of the sun and planets, taken all together,
would cover the solar emission for 134 years; while the heat of
gravitation (that produced by falling into the sun) would cover the
emission for 45,589 years. There is nothing hypothetical in these
results; they follow directly and necessarily from the application
of the mechanical equivalent of heat to cosmical masses.'...
"But, continues Helmholtz, though the store of our planetary system is
so immense as not to be sensibly diminished by the incessant emission
which has gone on during the period of man's history, and though the
time which must elapse before a sensible change in the condition of
our planetary system can occur is totally incapable of measurement,
the inexorable laws of mechanics show that this store, which can
only suffer loss, and not gain, must finally be exhausted. Shall we
terrify ourselves by this thought? Men are in the habit of measuring
the greatness of the universe, and the wisdom displayed in it, by
the duration and the profit which it promises to their own race;
but the past history of the earth shows the insignificance of the
interval during which man has had his dwelling here. What the museums
of Europe show us of the remains of Egypt and Assyria we gaze upon in
silent wonder, and despair of being able to carry back our thoughts
to a period so remote. Still, the human race must have existed and
multiplied for ages before the Pyramids could have been erected. We
estimate the duration of human history at 6,000 years; but vast as
this time may appear to us, what is it in comparison with the period
during which the earth bore successive series of rank plants and mighty
animals, but no man? Periods during which, in our own neighborhood
(Koenigsberg) the amber tree bloomed and dropped its costly gum on
the earth and in the sea; when in Europe and North America groves of
tropical palms flourished, in which gigantic lizards, and after them
elephants, whose mighty remains are still buried in the earth, found
a home. Different geologists, proceeding from different premises,
have sought to estimate the length of the above period, and they set
it down from one to nine million of years. The time during which
the earth has generated organic beings is again small, compared
with the ages during which the world was a mass of molten rocks. The
experiments of Bischoff upon basalt show that for our globe to cool
down from 2,000° to 200° centigrade would require 350 millions of
years. And with regard to the period during which the first nebulous
masses condensed, so as to form our planetary system, conjecture
must entirely cease. The history of man, therefore, is but a minute
ripple in the infinite ocean of time. For a much longer period than
that during which he has already occupied the world, the existence of
a state of inorganic nature, favorable to man's existence, seems to
be secured; so that for ourselves, and for long generations after us,
we have nothing to fear. But the same forces of air and water, and of
the volcanic interior, which produced former geological revolutions,
and buried one series of living forms after another, still act upon
the earth's crust. They, rather than those distant cosmical changes
of which we have spoken, will end the human race, and perhaps compel
us to make way for new and more complete forms of life, as the lizard
and the mammoth have given way to us and our contemporaries.
"Grand, however, and marvelous as are these questions regarding
the physical constitution of the sun, they are but a portion of
the wonders connected with our luminary. His relationship to life
is yet to be referred to. The earth's atmosphere contains carbonic
acid, and the earth's surface bears living plants; the former is
the nutriment of the latter. The plant seizes the combined carbon
and oxygen and tears them asunder, storing the carbon and letting
the oxygen go free. By no special force, different in quality from
other forces, do plants exercise this power--the real magician here
is the sun. We have seen how heat is consumed in forcing asunder the
atoms and molecules of solids and liquids, converting itself into
potential energy, which reappears as heat when the attractions of
the separated atoms are again allowed to come into play. Precisely
the same considerations which we then applied to heat we have now to
apply to light; for it is at the expense of the solar light that the
decomposition of the carbonic acid is effected. Without the sun the
reduction cannot take place, and an amount of sunlight is consumed
exactly equivalent to the molecular work accomplished. Thus trees are
formed, thus meadows grow, thus the flowers bloom. Let the rays fall
upon the surface of sand, the sand is heated, and finally radiates
away as much as it receives; let the same rays fall upon a forest,
the quantity of heat given back is less than that received, for the
energy of a portion of the sunbeams is invested in building up the
trees. I have here a bundle of cotton which I ignite; it bursts into
flame, and yields a definite amount of heat; precisely that amount
of heat was abstracted from the sun in order to form that bit of
cotton. This is a representative case--every tree, plant, and flower,
grows and flourishes by the grace and bounty of the sun.
"But we cannot stop at vegetable life; for this is the source,
mediate or immediate, of all animal life. In the animal body vegetable
substances are brought again into contact with their beloved oxygen,
and they burn within as a fire burns in a grate. This is the source
of all animal power; and the forces in play are the same, in kind,
as those which operate in inorganic nature. In the plant the clock
is wound up, in the animal it runs down. In the plant the atoms are
separated, in the animal they recombine. And as surely as the force
which moves a clock's hands is derived from the arm which winds the
clock, so surely is all terrestrial power drawn from the sun. Leaving
out of account the eruption of volcanoes and the ebb and flow of
the tides, every mechanical action on the earth's surface, every
manifestation of power, organic and inorganic, vital or physical,
is produced by the sun. His warmth keeps the sea liquid, and the
atmosphere a gas, and all the storms which agitate both are blown by
the mechanical force of the sun. He lifts the rivers and glaciers
up the mountains; and thus the cataract and avalanche shoot with
an energy derived immediately from him. Thunder and lightning are
also his transmuted strength. Every fire that burns and every flame
that glows dispenses light and heat which originally belonged to the
sun. In these days, unhappily, the news of battle is familiar to us,
but every shock, and every charge, is an application or misapplication
of the mechanical force of the sun. He blows the trumpet, he urges
the projectile, he bursts the bomb. And remember this is not poetry,
but rigid mechanical truth. He rears, as I have said, the whole
vegetable world, and through it the animal; the lilies of the field
are his workmanship, the verdure of the meadows, and the cattle upon
a thousand hills. He forms the muscle, he urges the blood, he builds
the brain. His fleetness is in the lion's foot; he springs in the
panther, he soars in the eagle, he slides in the snake. He builds the
forest, and hews it down, the power which raised the tree and that
which wields the axe being one and the same. The clover sprouts and
blossoms, and the scythe of the mower swings, by the operation of the
same force. The sun digs the ore from our mines, he rolls the iron,
he rivets the plates, he boils the water, he draws the train. He not
only grows the cotton, but he spins the fiber and weaves the web. There
is not a hammer raised, a wheel turned, or a shuttle thrown, that is
not raised, and turned, and thrown by the sun. His energy is poured
freely into space, but our world is a halting-place where the energy
is conditioned. Here the Proteus works his spells; the self-same
essence takes a million of shapes and hues, and finally dissolves
into its primitive and almost formless form. The sun comes to us as
heat; he quits us as heat; and between his entrance and departure the
multiform powers of our globe appear. They are all special forms of
solar power--the molds into which his strength is temporarily poured,
in passing from its source through infinitude.
"Presented rightly to the mind, the discoveries and generalizations
of modern science constitute a poem more sublime than has yet been
addressed to the intellect and imagination of man. The natural
philosopher of to-day may dwell amid conceptions which beggar those
of Milton. So great and grand are they, that in the contemplation of
them a certain force of character is requisite to preserve us from
bewilderment. Look at the integrated energies of the world--the stored
power of our coal fields; our winds and rivers; our fleets, armies, and
guns; what are they? They are all generated by a portion of the sun's
energy, which does not amount to 1/2300000000th of the whole. This,
in fact, is the entire fraction of the sun's force intercepted
by the earth, and, in reality, we convert but a small fraction of
that fraction into mechanical energy. Multiplying all our powers by
millions of millions, we do not reach the sun's expenditure. And still,
notwithstanding this enormous drain, in the lapse of human history
we are unable to detect a diminution of his store; measured by our
largest terrestrial standards, such a reservoir of power is infinite;
but it is our privilege to rise above these standards and to regard
the sun himself as a speck in infinite extension--a mere drop in the
universal sea. We analyze the space in which he is immersed, and which
is the vehicle of his power. We pass to other systems and other suns,
each pouring forth energy like our own, but still without infringement
of the law, which reveals immutability in the midst of change, which
recognizes incessant transference and conversion, but neither final
gain nor loss. This law generalizes the aphorism of Solomon that there
is nothing new under the sun, by teaching us to detect everywhere,
under its infinite variety of appearances, the same primeval force. To
nature nothing can be added; from nature nothing can be taken away;
the sum of her energies is constant, and the utmost that man can do
in the pursuit of physical truth, or in the application of physical
knowledge, is to shift the constituents of the never-varying total,
and out of one of them to form another. The law of conservation rigidly
excludes both creation and annihilation. Waves may change into ripples,
and ripples into waves--magnitude may be substituted for number,
and number for magnitude--asteroids may aggregate to suns, and suns
may resolve themselves into flora and fauna, and flora and fauna melt
in air--the flux of power is eternally the same. It rolls in music
through the ages, and all the terrestrial energy--the manifestations
of life, as well as the display of phenomena, are but the modulations
of the rhythm" (Tyndall Lecture XII).
CHAPTER V.
GENESIS--THE CREATION.
Man must pass through infancy and childhood before he reaches manhood
and maturity. Races and nations also had to pass the stages of infancy
and childhood, with all their mistakes, fancy, and fable. In these
stages any kind of information and interpretation is readily accepted,
without inquiry and without investigation, for the reason that they
are not capable of either. To inquire, is the awaking of knowledge;
and to investigate, requires understanding. Whatever knowledge has been
acquired, that knowledge can be imparted, but no more. If it be true,
it cannot be denied or contradicted; if that knowledge be not true, it
will be subject to denial, controversy, and dispute, when experience
has ripened the understanding. Childhood will listen to anything
without contradiction. It accepts the matter as told and believes
it. As years pass on, the story that once seemed so impressive and
pretty, that was listened to so eagerly, loses its charm, for lack
of truth. Fairy tales of past ages were abundant. Every locality
had them, and was by them adorned in mystery and wonder. They were
ordinarily recited with startling impressiveness. With awe places
were pointed out of perhaps some strange apparition, or prodigious
occurrence. All of such accounts were either deliberate inventions,
or concoctions of a prolific imagination. Early writings abound
in them. The improbability of a story grows stronger the farther
you go back in the history of humanity. Many of these stories were
incorporated in poems, in heroic legends, in tales of the mysterious
births of kings and queens, descendants of gods. And the vast majority
of the writers of antiquity mix fiction and fact, the possible with
the impossible. They treat on the conduct of men, their deeds and
misdeeds, according to the extravagant customs of the time.
The Book called scripture writings is composed of three
elements--fiction, exaggeration, and fact. The fiction consists of all
that portion of the writings that relates to God and his miraculous
works. The exaggeration consists of impossible doings of men, such
as accounts of miracle-healers, resurrectionists, flights to heaven,
etc. The facts appertain to the Jewish race actually--that they did
exist as a nation, and conducted their affairs in as barbarous a
fashion as their neighbors.
For nearly two thousand years Christianity has done its utmost to
sustain the fiction portion as being absolutely true, and still
it teaches these absurdities to be true, and anyone doubting their
accuracy is liable to persecution. For every doubter of the current
belief, whether in ancient or modern times, is subject to discipline
of the church to which he belongs. Recently in our own city many
have been subjected to a mild form of persecution for doubting. They
were declared to be heretics, blasphemers, etc. I speak of such men
as Dr. Newton, Dr. Briggs, and others. Yet, we must concede that
every organization has a right to judge as to the qualifications of
any one of its members, especially if he is an office-holder. They
may reject or accept any member. But since his membership depends
on whether he believes in their mode of interpreting this fiction,
he must say that he believes it, and proclaim to others that it is
true, though he knows it is not.
Nothing on earth has given rise to so much dispute, angry quarrel,
bitter hatred and abuse, as this fiction. It has been the cause of
more villainy, brutality, massacres, and bloody wars than all matters
that concern humanity put together.
Science universally agrees that the biblical story has not a particle
of truth in it; and the older it gets the more it suffers, the weaker
it gets, and it finally must undergo complete dissipation, in the
presence of the strong light of natural truth.
We have a great deal to be thankful for, to have and to enjoy the
privilege, the freedom, of exercising and giving expression to
opinions concerning matters that have been considered too sacred to
be contradicted or criticised.
The time has come, or is coming very fast, that we shall be able to
dispense with God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and the Bible as a sacred
text-book, both the Old and New Testament. In order to do this we must
examine some portion of its text. We should do this for educational
purposes. Every man and woman should acquire a proper amount of
knowledge, to enable them to think for themselves. Every person knows,
or ought to know, that priest and preacher are especially educated to
keep the masses as ignorant as they can possibly keep them. It is their
trade. It is their bread and butter, like that of every other trade
or profession--it is their business, their function, their profit, to
sustain and uphold this tottering fabric, this hollow sham, this aerial
nothing, with not a truth, not even a shadow of a truth, to support it.
Chapter i, verse 1, of Genesis: "In the beginning God created heaven
and earth." Verse 2: "The earth was without form and void."
(1) God could not have created the earth, as a planet distinct and
separate by itself. This terrestrial globe belongs to a system of
planets, and they are all not only dependent on one another, but all
dependent on the sun for their existence.
(2) How can God create a planet, this earth? Where did he get his
material from? And was it possible for God to overcome the laws
of gravitation?
(3) Does it not seem strange that God, who seemed to have direct
dealings with Moses, did not give him more information about it?
(4) Theologians claim that God is the architect, the designer, the
first cause, the creator. Why did it take God to make this terrestrial
globe six days? If he was able to make it in six days, he might as
well have made it in one day, yes, one hour. If the Word was God,
and God was the Word, then the Word ought to have displayed this
magical art; he might have simply said, Go!
The term designer, architect, creator, implies skill, human skill,
a being that has brain.
(5) As to heaven, that part that is scripturally indicated as heaven
is the atmosphere.
(6) We are nowhere told where God was when he was doing all this
work. Whether he was floating in space among the meteors and asteroids,
or had his residence on Mars or Venus, we are not informed.
(7) This earth always had a form. A globe that revolves round its own
axis, once in twenty-four hours, and round the sun besides, cannot be
without form. It must necessarily have a globular form; nor was it
ever void. There is no such thing as a void in fact; it may appear
so to one ignorant of natural phenomena. That was undoubtedly the
case when that matter was written up.
(8) It must also be remembered that every planet in the system of
the sun receives a portion of his light. The contact of the sun's
rays with the elements of this earth is fatal to any such nonsensical
proposition as a void.
(9) As to "the darkness on the face of the deep," that could exist
only in isolated places, because of an intense fog or mist. The
whole surface of the earth could not have a fog at one time. That is
impossible. Wherever the sun shines there is light.
(10) "And the spirit of God moved on the face of the waters." What
waters? Where? We know that only one thing in this solar system can
disperse a fog; that is the sun.
Verse 3: "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light."
This is worse than childish; it is stupid.
(1) How could God have light when the sun was not made?
(2) And if the sun existed, it was silly on his part to say it.
Verse 4: "And God saw the light that it was good, and God divided
the light from the darkness."
How is it possible for any sane person to believe such nonsense,
when everybody with a grain of common sense knows that light and
darkness depend on the sun, as day and night do?
And this is said to have constituted the first day's work. If any man
will read it carefully he will perceive that the composition is of
a nature to entertain simple-minded people, children, who are unable
to understand the ordinary phases of nature.
The second day's work is very droll.
Verse 6: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters," etc.
Verse 7: "And God made the firmament," and divided the waters which
were under the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament,
and it was so.
Verse 8: "And called the firmament heaven."
There is not a particle of sense in this.
If the firmament is heaven, and heaven the atmosphere, we know that
we cannot have any water above the firmament. We may have clouds,
or a certain quantity of moisture, but no water. If the atmosphere
is overloaded with moisture, that moisture is sure to return to the
earth in the shape of rain or other form.
This portion is important to pious persons, that they may know where
their souls go when they go to "heaven"--to the atmosphere!
Theologians and religious writers contend that this earth was in a
state of aqueous solution. That is all wrong. We have not oxygen
and hydrogen enough to produce such a state with. Besides, if it
was in an aqueous solution what became of the sixty-two elementary
substances that never enter into the composition of water? Nor can
the majority of the elements be held in suspension by water. The
specific gravity of the different elements cannot be suspended to
please anybody. Elisha is supposed to have performed that miracle;
he made an axe-head swim (2 Kings vi, 6). This same man also beheld
a chariot of fire and horses of fire with which Elijah went to
heaven. It seems surprising that men who claim to know something of
science insist upon this miraculous supernatural work. They ought
to know better. They ought to know that neither God nor man can stop
the chemical action of the elements in the presence or absence of the
sun's heat. They ought to know that no supernatural power can suspend
nature's forces, or nature's laws. They ought to know that no spirit,
whether belonging to God or not, can effect such an aqueous solution
as these pious gentlemen would have us believe.
The third day's work is remarkable. It embraces the 9th to the 13th
verses inclusive. "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be
gathered together unto one place and let dry land appear." Was God
ignorant of the existence of more oceans than one? of the numerous seas
and lakes? or was this creation a local affair near the Gulf of Persia?
There is a singular phraseology used: the first day's work is not
qualified; the second day, "It was so;" on the third day, "It was so,
it was good." Thus, it seems, God did not discover the quality of his
work until the third day, when he has it twice--"It was so," as if in
surprise, and then that "it was good," as if he lacked self-reliance,
or was uncertain how the work would turn out.
Verse 11: "And let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind," etc.
It is a pertinent question, or questions:
(1) On what part of the globe were these planted?
(2) In what season of the year were they planted?
(3) Did these thrive and flourish in the absence of sunlight? and
(4) In what kind of soil and in what locality? Were these trees, grass,
herbs, planted at the North Pole, equator, in a subtropical or in a
mild climate? Was it winter, spring, summer, or autumn? Was it sandy
soil, as in the deserts of Arabia, or hill, valley, or mountain? Or
was it really somewhere in Chaldea where the story originated?
Remember, we have no sun yet.
Verse 13: "And the evening and the morning were the third day." God
takes his rest during the night, like any other toiler on the surface
of this terrestrial globe. He did not believe in working after proper
hours. No doubt he started with sunrise and stopped at sunset, as
shepherds and agriculturists usually do. And God simply suspended the
natural operations and went to bed. I don't blame him. He was tired.
Then again, grass might and does grow in a season, but trees do
not. It takes quite a number of seasons for trees to bear fruit. The
elements that enter into their composition differ. Some have more of
one element, and grow on certain soil and flourish, while others do
not. Moreover, there are only certain localities on earth where the
growth of any can be accomplished.
The fourth day's work is something prodigious:
Verse 14: "And God said, Let there be light in the firmament of
the heaven" (in the eighth verse God calls the firmament heaven,
but in the 14th calls it the firmament of the heaven) "to divide
the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons,
and for days and years."
Verse 15: "And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon earth: and it was so."
Verse 16: "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule
the day, and the lesser to rule the night: he made the stars also."
The inventor or the writer of these passages had not the slightest
conception of what he was talking about. He spoke and wrote of the
mere appearance of what he beheld daily and nightly, the sun and the
moon. They could not know, in those remote ages, the important role
the sun plays in the solar system, because whatever is known thereon
is of very recent date. Talk of setting the sun in the firmament,
93,000,000 miles' distance from the earth, considering its bulk,
weight, and condition, is an outrage on common sense. It is a monstrous
piece of stupidity to make children believe it, and it is an infamous
fraud for any priest or preacher to teach it.
Writers in order to explain away the above difficulty quote, for
example: "Maimonides (born 1131 A.D.) in his guide, Rashi (1030) and
Aben Ezra (1119) in their commentaries, hold that the light of the
first day was that of the sun itself, which revolving in its sphere
from west to east and from east to west made a day of twenty-four
hours. The scripture's saying that it was created on the fourth
day is incident to its thus demonstrating its effects upon plants,
which appeared on the third day; rain, which proceeded from the
exhalations and vapors raised from the earth by the action of the
sun's heat thereon, being necessary to their vegetation. Therefore,
it is clear that there was no new creation on the fourth day; but
the heat implies that on that day the sun developed the effects of
his heat on plants." This is one of many explanations of philosophical
commentators who have tried to explain away the difficulty of creation,
owing to the many doubts that arose in the minds of learned men about
the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D.; and especially the Greek
philosophers, Aristotle [4] and others. Volumes upon volumes have
been written in order to explain away the difficulties theologians
encounter. As science advances, explanations and reconciliations
become more difficult. Maimonides, in his pious enthusiasm, after
having consulted Aristotle and others, is not quite certain, but
he claims (according to More, xi, 15): "I propose to show that the
creation of the world, as our religion teaches, is not impossible,
and all philosophical reasonings to the effect that it is not so,
as I have said, they may overthrow, but cannot make any objection
against us. As for me, I stand firm in my belief on the question,
of whether the world had a beginning or not. I accept the solution of
this problem from the prophets, as the prophets explain these things,
which speculation cannot reach," etc. (Kusari I, 65, 67). In other
words, Maimonides, the authors of the Talmud, and all other writers,
theological philosophers, Hebrew and Christian, prove the truth of the
Bible by the Bible. One portion of scripture must prove another portion
to be true. The Jews use their own biblical authorities to demonstrate
one another's statements. Isaiah gives evidence for Moses, and Moses
is made to testify for Isaiah, and so the Jewish philosophers whip the
devil round the ring. The Christians have a double hold. They have a
New Testament. They prove the statements made by persons figuring in
the Old Testament by statements made in the New Testament. That is,
they make Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Moses, etc., give testimony
for John, Mark, Matthew, and Luke; and then make Luke, Matthew, Mark,
and John give evidence for Moses, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Elisha, Elijah, etc.
The majority of theological writings and commentaries, yes, all of
them, were composed and written during the Christian era, and nearly
one-half of these after the twelfth century. All are employed with
the same subject-matter. Although they lay claim that the Talmud and
other works treat of mathematics, physics, medicine, etc., they knew
little or nothing about these things, and the little they did know
was mostly appropriated from the Greek and other nations.
It is not an unusual occurrence for modern thinkers to interpret the
statements of ancient writers as they originally never intended. They
spoke in enigmas, parables, simply philosophical phrases, without
stating a single fact, implying nothing in particular and everything
in general.
"And he made the stars also." Make the stars! We have shown in a
previous chapter that this our solar system is but a speck among the
starry host of the universe.
From verse 20 to 23 inclusive, God created moving creatures in the
water, and fowl that may fly above the earth. This general statement,
like all other statements in the Bible, is based on the principle that
"with God everything is possible." Unfortunately for God's adherents,
that is absolutely not the case. The laws of nature are fixed,
permanent. There is no exception in favor of any mortal and natural
being, and certainly not for any supernatural and imaginary being.
Does it not seem strange that the only animal mentioned in the fifth
and sixth days' performance is the whale? "Great whales," it says. Why
great whales? They had heard something about the whale, he therefore
received prominence, and was mentioned. They had no knowledge of
other animals. Or was this great whale purposely inserted to do that
extraordinary service to Jonah?
And after all this work was done, God saw that it was good. Evidently
pleased with his handiwork.
On the sixth day he finishes his work--he "brings forth living
creatures." Why living creatures? Are not fish, fowl, and whales
living creatures? Next come cattle and creeping things. After he
created the creeping things he made man.
Verse 27: "So God created man in his own image; in the image of God
created he him, male and female created he them."
If man was made in his own image, God's image, God must have the
semblance of man, otherwise man would not be like him. If God has
the semblance of man, and creates and desires, works and rests,
like a man, he is a man, therefore cannot be supernatural--a God!
Verses 28, 29, 30: God places all that he has created at the service
of man, giving him full control and dominion to make use of these
benefits as he, man, thinks best. "And behold it was very good,"
and then God took a rest.
The entire creation must have taken place in a mild or warm climate,
in some isolated locality on the face of the globe. No mention is made
of icebergs, snow or hail. There does not seem to have occurred the
slightest impediment in any of the work done. No evolutionary period,
except the night's rest God reserved for himself, in addition to the
whole day Sunday, or rather the seventh day.
We are now prepared to make some very pertinent remarks and ask some
very pertinent questions:
(1) What period elapsed from the time man was created to the time
man could use words or speech intelligently?
(2) We may assume that no one was present at the time of creation,
because man and woman were made the last thing on the sixth day.
(3) Who was the first man that received this information? After how
many generations or centuries was this news published, and to whom?
(4) We are not informed, even by the holy book, of the man's name
who was the fortunate recipient of this valuable information.
(5) Is it not highly probable that the man who first told this story
might also have invented it? We have no proof to the contrary, except
the mere say-so of somebody.
The statement, as written, is well enough as a fable; that's all. As
to fact, there is not a particle of truth to sustain it. But if men
are determined to believe it, and are not open to conviction, if they
are willfully blind to the truth, they must remain the slaves to a
powerful ecclesiastical organization.
The 14th verse, however, betrays its origin. When the sun and moon were
made for seasons, days, and years, as also for signs, that shows a high
degree of civilization. These divisions did not take place before man
was created? Were really these divisions made before a living creature
inhabited this earth? For whom? For whose use? Writing had not been
invented. Athates, or Hermes, the Egyptian, is supposed to be the
founder of hieroglyphics, 2,136 B.C. And we do not hear of writing
until 1,494 B.C. It is claimed that writing was taught to the Latins
by Europa, daughter of Agenar, king of Phoenicia. The doctrine of the
solar system as it is now accepted was first taught by Pythagoras of
Samos about 529 B.C. Copernicus proved it in the sixteenth century,
and Newton demonstrated the truth fully in the year 1695. History
claims for the Egyptians that they were the first who fixed the
length of the year. The Chaldeans and Persians had adopted the lunar
year before Abraham ever dreamed of being exiled by his countrymen,
the Chaldeans. Can any man be so silly as to believe that an almanac
was made before man was created? There is not an intelligent priest
living who is ass big enough to believe any such nonsense.
CHAPTER VI.
GENESIS--THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
The custom of six days' labor and one day's rest is a human invention,
and is based on the principles of economy, power-saving, labor-saving,
and had been a recognized institution long before the date of the
supposed creation. For if the statement of Baily be true (and we have
no right to discredit it), human beings have existed, in one state
or another, above 4,000,000 years. The record of the Hebrew race is
insignificant in comparison.
The modern eight-hour movement is the outcome of the economic reforms
of labor. Had the composers of the scripture known something of it
at that time God might have worked only eight hours instead of from
sunrise to sunset.
We cannot have the slightest doubt that the above first-given labor
regulation existed long, long ago. The Chaldeans had their mode of
government, their laws, their social rules and regulations; other
neighboring nations had theirs; it was therefore nothing new. This
six days' labor clause was incorporated, but there was no need of a
God to make it.
Verse 4: "And these are the generations of the heavens and of the
earth, when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the
earth and the heavens." What generations of heaven?
Verse 7: "And the Lord God [In this chapter an extra title is assigned
to God--it is the Lord God! Why?] formed man of the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a
living soul."
This is a very grave error. Man is not made of dust of the
ground. There is comparatively very little dust in his composition.
(1) Man contains no more dust than any other animal; the proportion
of inorganic constituents in him and other animals is about the same.
(2) Animals are constructed anatomically and physiologically the
same. They have the same organs, the same number of muscles, and same
number of bones, with some few exceptions. They are built on the same
general principles as man; or rather, as man came later, we will say
that man is constructed on the same general principles as the animals.
(3) The same mechanism and functions are to be found in the one as
in the other--respiration, circulation, digestion, etc.
(4) The proportion of mineral matters contained in a man--or dust,
as it is termed in scripture--is about 1/23 to 1/24 of the bodily
weight. That is, a body weighing about 125 to 130 pounds would yield
about 4 1/2 to 5 pounds of dust, or rather ashes, and the largest
proportion of these ashes comes from the solid framework, the skeleton,
the bones, composed of phosphates and carbonate of lime.
(5) More than two-thirds of the body's weight is water--that is,
hydrogen and oxygen. The principal elements found in the body are
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon. There are traces of sulphur,
etc., besides the mineral substances above alluded to. Thus man is
not made of dust, but of water, oxygen and hydrogen, nitrogen and
carbon. If they had made God say that he made man out of water, he
would have been much nearer the truth. Solomon repeats the same in
his Eccles. iii, 20: "All go unto one place; all are of dust, and
all turn to dust again." In the burial service the same absurdity
is repeated. Alter your service, your prayer--put water in place of
dust. Or better, give all the four elements a chance.
Do not teach children we are made out of dust. It is not true. Teach
the young what is true. What is the good of lying because some man
said, God said so?
The "breath of life." Is it not time that men of intelligence, in
this age of progress and civilization we boast so much of, cease to
pretend to believe such nonsense? It is absurd to talk of its being
"parables" and "figures of speech." Either the text means what it says,
or it means nothing.
There has been an immense amount of controversy over two Hebrew words,
viz.: nephesh--breath, respiring, life, life strength, animal soul;
ruach--anamos, breath, wind, psyche, soul, spirit, etc. They thought
that the life is in the blood. Lev. xvii, 11: "For the life of the
flesh is in the blood." Gen. ix, 4, 5: "But the flesh with the life
thereof, which is the blood thereof," etc., etc. This controversy
has given rise to no end of studies, as psychology--derived from
the word psyche,--soul. The literature that has been expended on
this subject, psyche, soul, cannot be easily estimated. The matter
has been twisted into a science, discussed, argued, lectured on,
etc. On the word Theo, Theon--Deos--God, societies and sects, etc.,
have been formed, as the Theosophists.
What is the breath of life that caused so much controversy, in
church and out of church? Oxygen. Deprive a man of oxygen and he
dies. Deprive a beast of oxygen and it dies. Oxygen thus is essential
to life. Neither man nor beast, as we said, can live without it. The
issues which this has given rise to are bewildering--theological,
metaphysical, Theosophical, philosophical, Agnostic, gnostic,
spiritual, etc., etc. Oxygen, however, covers the ground. It represents
all, so far as the life of a body is concerned.
We now come to Paradise, or the garden of Eden.
We will try to locate this garden of Eden geographically, as nearly
as possible correctly. Verse 8: "And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward of Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." That
was very kind of God. Verse 9: "God planted the tree of life also
in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil." A wonderful tree surety. What is most to be regretted is that
the species has become extinct. What a boon to humanity if but one tree
were planted in every church. Verse 10: "And a river went out of Eden
to water the garden; and from thence it parted, and became into four
heads." Verse 11: "The name of the first is Pison; that is it which
compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold." Verse 12:
"And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx
stone." Verse 13: "And the name of the second river is Gihon: the
same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia." Verse 14:
"And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which goeth
toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates."
Assyria was founded about 2247 B.C. and is situated near the Persian
gulf; and seems to be wedged in between the Persian empire on the east,
Arabia on the west, or Badien el Arab, and on the southern point the
gulf of Persia.
Ethiopia comprises Nubia, Sennaar, and Northern Abyssinia, and takes
in a stretch of country on the west shore of the Red sea. The two
countries are separated by the Red sea, and by Arabia, which extends
from the east shores of the Red sea to the west shores of the Gulf
of Persia, and Assyria. Some one made a big blunder, or Johnston's
atlas is wrong, or they--God--made a mistake in the name. There is
considerable distance between the two countries. Assyria lies in Asia
and Ethiopia in Africa. Egypt lies farthest north of what is usually
known as Ethiopia. Assyria is hemmed in, north by Armenia, west by
Media and Susiana, south and southeast by Babylon and Mesopotamia. The
river Tigris is the dividing line on the south and southeast. The
Parachoatras and Zagrus mountains form the dividing line on the
western border, and Armenia is the boundary on the north.
Chaldea is, comparatively speaking, a small tract of land situated
between the river Euphrates and the Arabian desert, or Badien el Arab,
with Babylon on its north and the Gulf of Persia on the southwestern
point.
The river Euphrates takes its rise in the Gulf of Persia and runs
westward, and divides into four branches.
The first branch, the Pasitigris, runs somewhat westward through
Susiana; the second, Chaosper or Kirkhah, runs northward through
Susiana; the third, the river Tigris, runs north, northwest, separating
Babylon from Susiana by Assyria; the fourth, the river Euphrates,
the farthest south, runs westward, etc.
This is the only river near the Gulf of Persia that divides into four
branches, and these are the four rivers that are indicated where
the garden of Eden was planted. This is near enough geographically
to locate this garden which the Lord God planted. It will indeed
afford great pleasure for pious people to know whereabouts they can
find the garden of Eden. In this rapid-transit age, they can get an
excursion ticket and reach this Paradise in a few weeks. This garden
was planted in Chaldea.
We will now see what God did next.
Verse 15: "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden
of Eden to dress it and keep it." God gave the position of gardener
to Mr. Adam. The only stipulation in the contract between the Lord
God and Adam was (verses 16, 17), he could eat of every tree in the
garden except the tree of knowledge. There is a God for you--wants to
keep the man he made in his own image, a living soul, as ignorant and
as stupid as possible; in addition tempting him to commit a wrong act.
Verse 18: "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should
be alone; I will make him a help meet for him." Very considerate
indeed on the part of God.
Verse 21: "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept; and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh
thereof." This is the cleverest kind of surgical operation that
was ever performed, without loss of blood, use of antiseptics or
anesthetics, without ligature, etc. And out of this rib he made a
woman. Why did God make a man of dust and the woman out of the man's
rib? Why did he breathe into the nostrils of the man and forget to
do it to the woman? The only reasonable explanation that can be given
is that, in those days, among the Chaldeans, woman was considered an
inferior creature, possessing no soul. She was the slave sometimes,
but the servant always. She was the creature of man's lust, of his
passion, and she was placed in the Bible by the man that wrote it in
just the position and condition she occupied at that period. This is a
gross falsehood, it is debasing, it is an infamous libel on truth. Does
any woman believe that she is a bone of her husband's bone, and flesh
of his flesh?
Verse 25: "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed." What is there extraordinary about that? Savage races up to
this present time are found in many instances nude. Cæsar describes the
Germans as bathing promiscuously in a nude state. Columbus found our
American Indians nude. Evidently a degree of civilization had already
been attained when this story was evolved. The story had its origin
in the romantic regions of Chaldea, somewhere in the neighborhood
of the Persian gulf, near the river Euphrates. The singer, the
story-teller, or the traveling minstrel tramped from place to place,
from one shepherd's tent to another, relating the story to his crude,
barbarous countrymen, reciting the curious yet pretty fable of how man
was made; the world made; the garden made; how gold, onyx, and bdellium
were found, and where; lauding and glorifying their own country,
and making out that they were the immediate descendants of the gods.
Every nation has its fairy tales, its fables, its myths, its songs,
and its romances. Whether they have their origin in Egypt, or come
down embellished from Mount Olympus, whether they are the fairy tales
of the Rhine, or those from the river Euphrates in Chaldea, they are
only the products of imagination.
"They spring from fountains and from sacred groves,
And holy streams that flow into the sea" (Od. x, 350).
Next we come to chapter iii--the childish account of the serpent, and
the woman and the fruit she ate. The serpent is made to say, verse 5:
"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good from evil."
The first knowledge they acquired was, that they discovered they
were without clothes. "And they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves aprons." Why sewed? With what? Aprons were a very late
invention, and were never intended for any such purpose. And then,
the conversation between the Lord God and Adam! God calls for Adam
while he is hiding. God inquires with a Chinese simplicity, "Where
art thou?" This is the blandest kind of conversation that has ever
taken place between mortal man and a God. Adam tells him that he has
eaten some fruit. Like the boy who had stolen jam out of the jar, it
seems Adam could not lie. God grows petulant, angry, cross; scolds him,
and immediately deprives him of his position and turns him out of the
garden. God had two reasons for doing what he did. One reason was to
punish Adam for disobedience; the second, that God got afraid of Adam.
Verse 22: "And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one
of us" (were there more gods than one?), "to know good and evil; and
now, lest he put forth his hand; and take also of the tree of life,
and eat, and live forever"---- Was it the fear of competition--that
men might interfere with God's occupation, infringe on his monopoly?
It seems to have a priestly ring, this forbidding and preventing
ordinary mortals to become intelligent. The story is so framed as to
express the line of conduct of the higher towards the lower, of the
slave towards his master, of the laborer towards his lord; and the
19th verse expresses the subjugation of the poor ignorant creature:
"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return
unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return." It is the church and the priest that
have taken care to keep the dust in the eyes of the masses. They are
the cherubim with a flaming sword that keep the masses away from the
tree of life.
Chapter iv relates to the crime of murder. God instigates the
crime. Abel kept sheep. Cain tilled the ground. Cain brought vegetables
to God, and Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and fat. God's
taste ran in the meat line; he was somewhat of an epicurean. He
respected Abel and his offering, but did not respect Cain's. Then God
asks Cain why he is cross, and after Cain kills his brother Abel, he,
God, says: Where is thy brother Abel? And God dispossesses Cain and
drives him east of Eden to Arabia. A very arbitrary landlord this God.
Chapter v: The fourth chapter winds up with Enos the son of Seth. Verse
26: "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." Now, Adam lived
930 years, Seth 912 years, and Enos 905 years. God during this period
was wholly occupied with these people. Murder is the only incident
of importance during the first thousand years. God takes a long rest
for nearly 2,000 years before anything of importance occurs.
This chapter treats of the genealogy, age, and death of the patriarchs
from Adam to Noah.
The records of creation are by no means harmonious. There are no less
than one hundred and twenty opinions on the subject. The difference
between the latest and remotest dates is no less than 3,268 years. Here
are some of the dates of the supposed creation of the world. They
may be interesting to some, as showing the uncertainty and inaccuracy:
Hebrew, 4004 B.C.
Septuagint, 5873 ,,
Talmudistic, 5344 ,,
Scaliger, 3950 ,,
Petovias, 3984 ,,
Dr. Hale, 5411 ,, etc.
Here we give the genealogy of Adam and his line:
Age.
930 Adam, Born 4004 B.C. Died 3074 B.C.
Abel, ,, 3875 ,,
912 Seth, ,, 3874 ,,
905 Enos, ,, 3769 [5] ,,
910 Cainon, ,, 3679 ,,
895 Mahaloled, ,, 3609 ,,
962 Jared, ,, 3544 ,,
815 Enos, ,, 3282 ,,
969 Methuselah, ,, 3317 ,,
777 Lamech, ,, 3130 ,,
365 Enoch, ,, 3017 ,, (Translated?)
815 Noah, ,, 2948 ,, 500 bef. flood. }
315 aft. ,, }
We may venture to make a very strong interrogation mark after these
years. They are, however, in harmony with the rest of the story. Noah
closes the fabulous period. We hear no more of God's doings until
we come to Abraham, 1921 B.C. And Abraham reached the age of 175
years only.
Chapter vi, on the sons of God, etc., is next. I beg to remind the
reader we are still in Chaldea, near the Gulf of Persia; near the
river Euphrates; near the garden of Eden, where God created man;
where we found gold and precious stones; the place where murder was
committed; near Arabia, etc. The geographical location is important,
and let the reader also remember that the whole tract of land where
all these transactions are supposed to have taken place is not so
large as any moderate-sized state in our Union.
If you will examine a map of this particular region, it will help
to bring the truth to your mind, and add considerably to your
understanding. It is also well to bear in mind that in this small
territory the art of agriculture was pursued, as well as fruit-growing,
sewing was invented and aprons were made, and Eve had an apron before
she had a dress, and this high state of civilization existed as soon as
man and woman appeared on earth! What a contrast with other barbaric,
savage, and uncivilized tribes! Eve had a decided advantage over the
young female that was captured when Columbus landed December 12th. She
was perfectly naked; so says history.
Verse 2: "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were
fair; and they took them wives all which they chose."
Sons of God! Was God married? If so, to whom? How many wives had
he? How many sons and daughters? Where was God's residence, if he had
any? Were his domestic relations pleasant or not? Was his family large
or small? Pray give us some information. Our theologians will tell us,
"Ah, that has a spiritual meaning."
Verse 3: "And the Lord [not God] said: My spirit shall not always
strive with man, for that he also is flesh." Who?--God? "Yet his
days shall be a hundred and twenty." This is a crafty statement,
because it shows that the average length of life was the same as it
is now, with some few exceptions, and as the fabulous age was past,
the only way to get out of the difficulty was to give timely notice
that extraordinary ages should not occur again.
Verse 4: "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after
that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they
bore children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old,
men of renown." Who were these descendants of God that became mighty
and men of renown?
After God's sons intermarry with the daughters of men, the affairs
of man grow worse, instead of better. And God grows despondent:
Verse 5: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the
earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually."
Think of God's sons causing all this wickedness on earth. He ought to
have brought them up better. What can we expect of a God that cannot
raise his own children properly?
"Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart." This exhibits the
profound ignorance of God. Though he made man, he did not know what
the various organs in the body were for. He ought to have known that
the heart does not think. Its function is to circulate the blood--a
truth which was not discovered until 1618 by Harvey, of England.
Verse 6: "And it repented the Lord that he had made man on earth,
and it grieved him at his heart."
Ha! God has a heart, and he has flesh, and he has sons; he knows
what is good, evil, wickedness; repents and grieves; and has domestic
relations with--evidently ladies, by whom he has children.
We will not mind the preparations of the ark, or the shipbuilding
instructions given by God. A God that knew something of mechanics,
shipbuilding, dimensions, measurement, etc.--no wonder theologians call
God a designer, an architect. He showed some skill in the construction
of this boat.
As soon as Noah had everything prepared, had loaded his cattle, etc.,
food and provender, God was ready to destroy his own sons and their
relations by drowning them.
CHAPTER VII.
THE DELUGE.
As to the region where the deluge occurred--on the northern edge ascend
the Persian mountains; on the east the steep and lofty parallel chains
of the Indo-Persian boundary mountains, and on the south the plateau
for a thousand miles along the Persian gulf and Arabian sea is bounded
by the wild terraced regions of Beloochistan and Faristan. The second
division includes the mountainous regions of Armenia, Koordistan, and
Azerbijan. Here the table-land is compressed about half its general
width. From this plateau, of which a part is mentioned in scripture
as the "mountains of Ararat," rises the volcanic cone commonly styled
Mount Ararat, to the hight of 17,212 feet above the sea level.
The highlands of Syria rise gradually from the neighboring desert to
the hight of 10,000 feet in Libanus and Antilibanus, and slope steeply
in terraces down to the narrow coastlands of Phoenicia and Palestine.
Of the Syrian and Arabian lowlands, the south is hot and arid, with
almost no oasis; but the north is watered by the Tigris and Euphrates.
Near this isolated corner of Asia, in the neighborhood of the Persian
gulf and the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, where the deluge is supposed
to have occurred, in the lowlands of that region, Chaldea, immense
chains of mountains run in several directions, with highlands 10,000
feet above the level of the sea.
Verse 4: "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the
earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that
I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth."
This deluge is supposed to have taken place about 2348 B.C. Hale
puts it at 3154 B.C. The sons of God came upon earth and married the
daughters of men about 2948 B.C.; about this date ought to be nearer
the flood. Noah was 600 years old when he floated in his ark.
We will consider, first, a general deluge.
A deluge over the whole earth is an impossibility.
1. We have to take in consideration the inequality of the earth's
surface--lowlands, highlands, hills and mountains, plateaus, etc.
As to mountains: Asia possesses no less than sixty or seventy
mountains, the highest being some 29,000 feet above the sea's
level--the Himalaya, Everest.
Africa boasts of some thirty or forty mountains, the Kenia and
Killamandja being 20,000 feet above the level of the sea, the other
mountains grading downward in hight.
Europe is adorned with some seventy or eighty mountains, Mount Blanc
being the highest, others ranging downwards.
South America boasts of some forty or more mountains, the Tupengater
being the highest, 22,450 feet above the level of the sea.
North America counts some seventy or more mountains, Mt. Elias being
17,900 above the level of the sea.
We have plateaus and table-lands ranging from 10,000 feet above the
level of the sea downward to near the sea's level.
The great basins between the highest points of the earth's surface
are filled with water. These immense expanses form oceans, seas,
lakes, rivers. The ocean bed is just as uneven as the dry portion of
the earth's surface. The numerous islands are the mountains of the
ocean bed, some of greater, others of lesser extent.
2. The fluid part of the terrestrial globe fills the hollow places
of the solid portion of the earth's crust. These are the great and
small depressions, or greater and smaller basins.
3. The earth's weight has always been the same, neither increased
nor diminished. This includes both the solid and liquid part of this
terrestrial globe.
4. The fluid portion of this terrestrial globe has neither increased
nor diminished. It cannot, because the quantity of oxygen and hydrogen
is limited to this earth. None can get away, and none can come to it.
5. Water may change its position, or state--split up into elements;
make clouds, mist, hail, snow, or rain, or dew--but it ultimately
returns to the great basin of water where it came from.
6. If water rises in any one locality beyond the ordinary sea level,
water has diminished in some other locality. The quantity of water
on the earth's surface has not increased, except in one locality.
7. Rain cannot fall over the whole surface of this earth at one time.
8. There is always daylight and sunshine, night and darkness, on
this earth.
9. Heat and cold vary in the different parts of this earth. The
atmosphere is different in the various parts of the earth's
surface. There is a perpetual winter, summer, spring, or autumn in
various parts on this globe.
10. The rays of the sun strike the various portions of the earth at
different times. This variation in the direction of the sun's rays
produces a corresponding variation in the intensity of the sun's
heat and light at different places, and accounts for the difference
between the torrid and the frigid regions, etc.
11. The atmosphere does not, and cannot, carry beyond a certain
percentage of aqueous vapor. When it becomes overcharged the moisture
must fall, in raindrops when the temperature is warm enough.
12. The sun's heat regulates the amount of aqueous vapor the
atmosphere can carry in the form of clouds. When the atmosphere is
fully saturated, rain must fall.
13. When the atmosphere is cool or cold, the raindrops congeal,
and we have snow or hail.
14. There are regions on the earth where it never rains, probably never
rained. The rainless region of Asia is of vast extent. It includes
part of Tibet, the great desert of Gobi, and part of Mongolia--a
space estimated to comprise about 2,000,000 square miles. There are
other rainless regions on the face of the earth's surface. There is
a great diversity in the yearly amount of rainfall; the highest is
about 60 inches, the lowest 21 and less.
15. There is no great difference between the polar and equatorial
diameter of the earth, the average number of miles being about 8,000.
Taking the above facts in consideration--the conformation of the
earth's surface, the elevation above the sea level, table-lands or
plateaus, and mountains, the fixed quantity of water upon the surface
of the earth, the influence of heat and cold, the condition of the
atmosphere, etc., a general deluge must be rigidly excluded.
Supposing it rained forty days and forty nights, how many inches of
rainfall could we possibly get? We can know to an inch the quantity of
rain that would fall. The water would certainly roll down the hills
and mountains, fill up the lakes and rivers, overflow the banks,
and rise in the lowlands to a certain hight.
The deluge, Noah's deluge, was a local affair, if it ever
occurred. Granting such a flood did take place, it never extended
beyond that portion of Asia, Chaldea. Supposing that the rivers
Tigris and Euphrates may have overflowed and caused a flood say of
fifty feet rise above the level of the sea (which is impossible,
because the surplus waters would flow into the seas and oceans),
how insignificant is the rise of fifty feet even in comparison with
table-lands 10,000 feet above the sea-level, and mountains 20 to
30,000 feet above the sea-level.
As to the extent of the rainstorm that caused this deluge, I do not
suppose that the clouds held in the atmosphere extended over 500,
or say 1,000, square miles over the region where the rain fell.
As to collecting the animals for the ark from all over the globe,
that is just as ridiculous as the deluge itself.
It is to be presumed that the person or persons who wrote the
first seven chapters of the Bible had not the slightest idea of the
geographical condition of the earth's surface. It was not known. They
thought that their locality embraced the whole earth. Even in
Columbus's time they had no idea of the extent of this earth. The
seas that they probably had some knowledge of may have been the Gulf
of Persia, the Red sea, the Mediterranean or Arabian sea, probably
the Caspian. That was about the extent. They had means neither of
land travel nor of navigation.
Verse 20: "Fifteen cubits upward did the water prevail, and the
mountains were covered."
A cubit, standard, contains 21 inches. Fifteen multiplied by 21
gives 315 inches, or 26 feet 3 inches. How can 26 feet 3 inches of
water cover plateaus 10,000 feet high and mountains like the Ida,
4,000 feet, and the Himalayas 29,000 feet in height? Mount Ararat in
Asia Minor is 17,112 feet high.
These are figures. They do not lie. We have here positive proof. I
defy contradiction. Every man and woman with a little sense can
prove it. And any priest or clergyman that will maintain the truth
of a general deluge after reading this statement, is either a fool,
or a fraud and an infamous liar.
In fact, the entire rainfall during the forty days and nights would
have had as much effect on this globe as a pint of water would have
to drown an elephant.
Verse 21: "And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl,
and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth, and every man."
Verse 22: "All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, all that
was on dry land, died."
Verse 23: "And every living substance was destroyed, which was upon
the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the creeping things,
and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth;
and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."
Verse 24: "And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and
fifty days."
Mount Ararat is situated in Persia about 150 to 200 miles south of
the Black sea, and about 300 miles west of the Caspian sea, about
500 miles east of Aleppo and the Mediterranean sea, and about 700
miles north of the Gulf of Persia, from Mount Sinai about 1,000 or
more miles northeast, and a similar distance from the Red sea.
Arabia is about 700 miles across between the Persian gulf and the
Red sea. The distance between the shores of the Persian gulf and the
Caspian sea is about five hundred miles.
The Caspian chain of mountains are situated about two hundred miles
north of Mount Ararat, and they extend from the Sea of Azof north,
running southwest to the Caspian sea.
The entire tract of territory where this deluge is said to have
occurred does not embrace one thousand miles in any given direction,
and takes in but two countries--Turkey and Persia--and only a portion
of either. It does not extend farther north than the Caspian mountains
and the Black sea, east than the Mediterranean sea, west than the
Caspian sea, and south than the Persian gulf and Arabia.
Turkistan, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan form the eastern boundary
of Persia.
The twenty-six feet three inches of the rise of water in consequence
of the rain could not have extended beyond the limits indicated above.
At the period of the deluge there were immense countries east of
Turkistan, Afghanistan, and Beloochistan--Russia north, the Chinese
empire and Hindostan farthest south. Europe and Africa could not be
reached. So that all living substance was not destroyed and could not
be destroyed. Nor was all living substance destroyed in the country
where the flood occurred, because those living on high table-lands
were out of reach of the flood.
We must necessarily draw our own conclusions as to the truth or falsity
of the statements contained in verses 21, 22, 23. Some destruction
of life may have taken place, limited to the locality.
There are other evidences that go to show the incorrectness of the
scripture. The Hindoo era, or the era of the Caleyung, dates 3001 B.C.,
seven hundred and fifty-six years before the deluge. This country was
flourishing at the time of the flood. Moreover, the Hindoos counted
their months by the progress of the sun through the Zodiacs.
Keep the figures of the deluge in mind, 2348 B.C.
China, north of Hindostan and east of the deluged territory, was
flourishing 2700 B.C. It was not touched by the flood. It had its
own floods, separate and distinct from Noah's.
In 2347 B.C., one year after the flood, Noah made wine from grapes.
Babylon was founded by Belus 2245 B.C.
Astronomical observations were made 2234 B.C.
Bricks were made 2247 B.C.
Babylon was built 2247 B.C.
All this region was in a state of civilization one hundred years later,
when all men had been destroyed, and the region had been under water
twenty-six feet three inches for one hundred and fifty days. One
hundred years seems a long time, and a great deal can be done, that's
true. In those days civilization was exceedingly slow. People did not
progress so rapidly as we do in this New World. There are regions
where hardly any progress has been made. They are at a standstill,
as it is termed. The people live, feed, and die.
The inconsistency, the untruth, of the story of the deluge will be
palpable to everyone, if he or she will take the trouble to examine
the geographical, physical, and historical facts.
I especially call the attention of hysterical, fanatical theologians,
supernaturalists, and the whole priestly class, to the declaration
that God had nothing to do with this deluge; that the God in whom
they believe must be an ass to think that he can drown out the whole
terrestrial globe with forty days and nights' rain, with a rise of
water of twenty-six feet three inches.
It is impossible to enter into every detail in this brief
statement. There is, however, ample proof that a general deluge
never occurred, and that all animals, whether men or beasts, were
never destroyed.
How much honor it would reflect for a convention of clergymen, or a
gathering of archbishops in saintly conclave assembled, to solemnly
declare the whole beginning of Genesis a fabrication, a fiction,
a fable--that God had nothing to do with any such performance; that
God could not do anything so foolish; that God never did anything
contrary to the laws of nature; that neither God nor man could, if they
wished, do anything contrary to the laws of nature. And that "We, the
archbishops, bishops, and clergy in general, further declare and aver,
that we, the sacred representatives of the ignorant masses, no longer
believe that God, the so-called father almighty, created either heaven
or earth, or beast or man, or anything; that we repudiate, deny, and
reject all of the statements made in the book called the Bible; that
we do not believe in any supernatural interference; that we have erred
and have misinstructed and misguided the masses; that the whole story
is false, frivolous, and incredible; that neither the creation, as
recited, nor the deluge, or any part thereof, as described, is true."
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SCRIPTURAL GOD--THE CREATION.
The Chaldeans were undoubtedly great admirers of nature at the time
we first hear the name of Abraham mentioned in connection with the
Bible, about the year 1921 B.C.
The people had already arrived at a high degree of civilization. The
country belonged to the Assyrian empire under Ninus the Jupiter, 2069
B.C. How long this section of country had been populated, and its
inhabitants under a proper form of government, we have no record--in
all probability, for many centuries.
The Chaldeans had already invented a judicial astrology, which
was transmitted to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. The science
of astronomy was known to them, and of it there are records as
early as 2234 B.C. The science of arithmetic was used by them--in
all probability invented by them; concerning it we have nothing
recorded. The kingdom of Babylon existed 2245 B.C. An art of
architecture of some kind was already in use among its people, as we
see from the fact that they had built important structures. We have
no records as to the proficiency they had arrived at in any other
branch of science or art. That the art of writing was known to them
is probable, otherwise they could not have recorded certain facts
about astronomy. The credit of first using hieroglyphics, 2212 B.C.,
is given to Athates, or Hermes, the Egyptian.
The correct division of the days of the week, the months, and the
seasons may probably have been known to them, though the Jews take
the credit.
That these Chaldeans were great observers will not be
disputed--otherwise they could not have discovered the
fixed stars, planetary system, etc. That they must have had
considerable intellectual qualities--perceptive powers and skill
in reasoning--developed will be admitted, inasmuch as they were the
inventors of astrology, and of what more we have no knowledge.
They were great admirers of nature. We may infer that from the fact
that they were students of astronomy, acute and close observers
of nature.
What myths or fables they had, we have at the present time no idea. We
have no historical knowledge of these people. We know very little of
their manners, culture, science, arts, degree of civilization.
Other events occurred about that period. A Phoenician colony under
Partholani landed in Ireland 2048 B.C.
In 2207 B.C. the government of China was established--it had an
imperial dynasty. Fohi was the Chinese monarch.
In 2089 B.C. Sicyon was king of Greece.
In 2188 B.C. Egypt was established.
In 2085 B.C. Egypt was conquered by the shepherd kings of Phoenicia.
In 1998 B.C. Ching Hong teaches the Chinese the art of husbandry,
and the method of making bread from wheat and wine from rice.
In 2095 B.C. pyramids and canals in Egypt. The science of geometry
begins to be cultivated.
In 2100 B.C. sculpture and painting are employed to commemorate the
exploits of Asymandyas.
We have no difficulty in arriving at a conclusion that considerable
progress had been made in the art of government, in the political
and social world, in the arts and sciences, and also in the moral
and religious departments of life.
As to whatever myths and fables they had, of their origin we know
very little, or I may say nothing. The story of the creation and the
deluge is in all probability native to the soil. The deluge was in
all likelihood a local affair--an overflow of the river Euphrates or
the Gulf of Persia. Whether it rained forty days and nights or more,
water enough could not fall to the ground to do any serious damage,
beyond the locality where it occurred. It would be not amiss even for
the most pious, God-fearing man to understand that the rainwater that
falls to the surface of the earth was originally taken from the waters
that are found on the surface of the earth. The actual quantity of
water on the earth was no more after the flood, or after any flood,
than before. The water changes position from one locality to another;
it does not increase or diminish in quantity, whether it consolidates,
evaporates, or liquefies. Whatever elementary form it may assume,
the law of gravitation holds its elements down to mother earth.
The idea entertained by many theologians, that the whole earth was
covered with water, is absurd. We have not water enough on the surface
of this earth to serve any such purpose. This problem is just as
feasible as trying to drown a man in two inches of water--attempting
to cover the entire earth with the water that is upon it.
From historical evidence we gather that the people that inhabited
this region occupied their time chiefly with raising cattle, and were
prone both to the observation of nature and to superstition.
The nervous system had at this time undergone considerable training
and culture. Their faculties were already developed. They discussed
and reasoned about current subjects, especially about those subjects
which were nearest and dearest to them--religion and politics. And
we are still discussing the same subjects with as much eagerness,
acrimony, and hate as these Chaldean shepherds did.
They were adorers of nature, which was perfectly in harmony with their
occupation. The beauties, the phases, the phenomena of nature, these
they could not explain. Ignorant of their character and composition,
not understanding the natural, they reasoned themselves into
conclusions that there must be a power beyond that sets all these
things in motion.
They knew nothing of God. In all probability they created nothing
new, but may have modified whatever was handed down to them by their
fore-fathers--notions, customs, well-outlined rules of conduct,
observances, policy, government, etc.
The wiser and best-instructed portion of the community selected those
things that to them were most beneficial, and for which they thought
they ought to be grateful--in their wonderment and admiration they made
selection of that which was to them most striking--and this gradually
led to a systematization of certain qualities, certain excellences.
All things in nature are object-teachers. When we have seen a thing
several times, we know it--learn its qualities, etc. So the forefathers
of the Chaldeans, admiring nature, came to recognizing what was best,
either in themselves or round about them.
In order to present these ideas, powers, and excellences in the most
striking manner to the senses, symbolic representations, or typical
forms, were made, about in the same or similar manner as playthings
are made to instruct and amuse children.
All the idols and mythological gods are drawn from nature, associated
and endowed with such qualities as the human beings had from time to
time attained.
The motives that suggested these were just as pure as any motives
are now.
We have symbols and idols among us at this day, four thousand years
later. It makes no difference whether it is Christ on a stick, the
Virgin Mary on a canvas, or the sacred heart of a saint, it amounts
to precisely the same thing; it is object-teaching--an object-lesson.
These Chaldeans had any number of symbols and idols, and men were
assigned to watch and guard them. They had their ceremonies, their
gowns or priestly garbs; they had their places for worship, out of
doors or indoors--everything that gave beauty, dignity, and sanctity
to their performances. In short, we may conclude that they had what
may be called an established religion, with ceremonies, sacrifices,
idols, as well as social, moral, and political rules to govern them.
There was dissension in those days as there is now. Men differed,
argued, discussed; and differences arose. New ideas were intolerated
then, as they are now. The old would not yield to the new. Wrangling,
anger, passion, jealousy, led to new formations, antagonistic to the
old. The old systems had in all probability grown corrupt, domineering,
cruel, selfish, and rapacious. A reformation of some kind was in
order. Men of ability and sagacity began to grow skeptical as regards
the quality and ability of these numerous idols. Something similar
is agitating the world to-day. Doubtless it is always to be found.
Abraham was an agitator, a reformer, if you will. Josephus thus
speaks of him (Chap. VII): "He was a person of great sagacity, both
for understanding all things and persuading his hearers, and not
mistaken in his opinions; for which reason he began to have higher
notions of virtue than others had, and he determined to renew and
to change the opinions all men happened then to have concerning God;
for he was the first that ventured to publish this notion: That there
was but one God, the creator of the universe; and that as to other
(gods) if they contributed anything to the happiness of men, each of
them afforded it only according to his appointment, and not of their
own power. His opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that
were visible both at land and sea, as well as those that happened to
the sun and moon and all the heavenly bodies. 'If,' said he, 'these
bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their
own regular motions; but since they do not preserve such regularity,
they make it plain, that so far as they coöperate to our advantage,
they do it not of their own abilities; but as they are subservient
to him that commands them, to whom alone we ought justly to offer
our honor and thanksgiving.' For which doctrines when the Chaldeans,
and the people of Mesopotamia, raised a tumult against him, he thought
fit to leave that country."
In other words, he was driven from his country for sedition and heresy,
when he was seventy-five years old. He settled down in a land called
Canaan, where he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God.
In this manner Abraham began to cultivate a reformation and religion
among his own people, who were quite numerous.
The Egyptians at this period were in a flourishing condition. Canaan
was invaded by famine. So Abraham went down to Egypt, "both to partake
of the plenty they enjoyed, and to become an auditor for their priests,
and to know what they said concerning the gods; designing either to
follow them, if they had better notions than he, or convert them to
a better way, if his own notions proved the truer."
At this time, too, much dissension, quarrel, and antagonism existed
between the religious orders, and Abraham was not going to lose such
an excellent opportunity. Josephus describes the condition of affairs
as follows: "For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to
different customs, and despised one another's sacred and accustomed
rites, and were very angry one with another on that account, Abraham
conferred with each of them, and confuting the reasoning they made
use of, every one for their own practices, he demonstrated that such
reasoning was vain and void of truth; whereupon he was admired by
them in those conferences, as a very wise man and of great sagacity
when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only
in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to
him. He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the
science of astronomy," etc.
Finding perhaps that he could not make proselytes he returned to
Canaan. He there divided the tract of land between himself and Lot,
each one pursuing his own particular course, Abraham with his notions
and Lot with his, unable to agree.
An incident worthy of notice occurred. The Assyrians made war on
a number of kings, the Sodomites and Lot among them. The Assyrians
conquered, and Lot, among the rest, was made captive. Abraham, with
three hundred and eighteen men, pursued the Assyrians, slew them,
captured all they had, and gained a signal victory--thus showing that
Abraham was a power.
Lot's affairs with his daughters we pass over, since they have no
special interest for us.
Abraham had several wives or women, by whom he had a number of
children. He had six sons by Katurah, Ishmael by Hagar, Isaac by
Sarah, etc.
None of the sons adopted his method of thinking except Isaac, who at
the age of twenty-five was to have been sacrificed to God. Isaac, being
a mild-mannered young man, generous, and obedient to his father's will,
readily consented. Upon that, Abraham changed his mind. Isaac then
became the heir both of his property and of his ideas concerning God.
Abraham had two brothers, Nahor and Haron. Haron left a son, Lot,
and two daughters, Sarai and Milcha. Nahor married Milcha and Abraham
married Sarai. In this manner the family concentration began. And when
Isaac was forty it was decided that he should marry the granddaughter
of his brother Nahor, Rebeka, the sister of Laban.
Isaac in turn made choice of Jacob as heir to his ideas and
property--who took flight on account of Esau, and landed safely
at his uncle Laban's house in Mesopotamia. Jacob married Laban's
daughters, Leah and Rachel, as well as their handmaids, Zilpha and
Bilhah. Now, Laban and his family were idolators. So were Esau and
his family. Rachel took along with her the images of the gods which,
according to their laws, they used to worship in their own country,
etc. Jacob raised his children strict to the rules laid down by his
grandfather and father; and the views as regards the rites of worship
and circumcision, as well as God in the abstract with all the carnal
passions and emotions of man that formerly were the attributes of
the idols, as also the sacrifices.
The story of Joseph is too well known to be repeated. It is quite
enough for our purpose that a famine drove this Jacob's family, as
it did Abraham, to Egypt, where they increased and multiplied during
a period of nearly four hundred years; that Joseph was famous in
the land, and the king gave Jacob and his children leave to live in
Heliopolis--for in that city the king's shepherds had their pasturage.
This in brief is the story, stripped of the peculiar phraseology,
which no doubt was in those days customary.
The trouble had begun with Terah, Abraham's father, who hated the
Chaldeans; and the Chaldeans returned the same with interest, I
suppose. So they moved to Haran in Canaan and settled down on a tract
of land, by the right of squatter sovereignty, as it would be called
in our times. Terah, the first squatter, turned this land over as a
heritage to his son, Abraham; Abraham to Isaac, and Isaac to Jacob. In
this manner it became the promised land, the heritage of their fathers.
It is no easy matter to suppress and eradicate a practice, a habit,
a custom, once firmly ingrafted in a community. Prohibit it as
much as you will, it will be done secretly. So after circumcising
the Hamerites and Shechemites, the sons of Jacob slaughtered them,
on account of the seduction of Dinah, Jacob's daughter. He and his
family had to leave for fear of their neighbors, so Jacob told his
household to put away the strange gods that were among them, and
"be clean and change your garments," he said (Gen. xxxv, 2).
This abstract idea of God that Abraham called into life was not so
firmly rooted as might have been expected. The taint of the ancient
gods more or less remained among them and occasionally cropped up here
and there in a most prominent manner. For four hundred years we hear
nothing of God or his workings--whether the Jews flourished or were
oppressed--nor have the other descendants ever made mention. Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob call on this imaginary god when in an emergency, when
some task has to be accomplished, some journey has to be undertaken,
or a battle has to be fought.
During the whole of the period they were in Egypt, notwithstanding
they were sorely oppressed, this God paid no attention to them, until a
man arose that produced a great crisis in the affairs of this people,
in the destiny of this family which had grown into a nation. This was
really the first reformation--that is, modification--of the existing
religious practices--their numerous gods, perhaps their rites,
etc. The sacrifices the Jews retained, with most of the usages and
priestly rituals.
How many reformations or modifications had taken place before Abraham
the reformer, we do not know; and how long these gods (they were very
numerous) were in existence we know still less.
The evolution of these idols, the existing gods, did not take
place all of a sudden. It may have taken thousands of years for
anything we know. It required considerable mental training to produce
them. Intelligence had assumed some importance, because the people had
become proficient in argument, skillful in reasoning, and observers
of nature.
The ordinary barbarian possesses no such capabilities. His brain is
not sufficiently cultured. So long as his wants are amply supplied,
there is no necessity to exert himself, the nervous system lies
inactive, and this inactivity involves the perpetuation of ignorance.
We may reasonably presume that these Chaldeans, these shepherds,
had through many centuries of slow culture acquired the knowledge
they possessed, the customs and habits they practiced, the laws they
promulgated, and the rules of conduct enacted both for social and
political purposes.
And any innovation on the established laws was resisted and punished,
pretty much as it is to-day. So when Abraham, or Terah his father
before him, started the reformation, it caused a good deal of
commotion and alarm. The upholders of the settled state of affairs
were shocked. Anger, passion, partisanship, ran their course then,
as they do now. These idolators were just as intolerant then as
Christians are to-day. It was either submit or leave. Thus Abraham's
and Terah's leaving the land of their fathers and settling on a tract
of land where they could cultivate their new idea, their new God,
was without any special act, without miracle, without supernaturalism,
without mystery, perfectly human, perfectly natural.
CHAPTER IX.
THE CREATION OF GOD--ABRAHAM.
God, such God as we know of now, like all other things and beings on
this terrestrial globe was evolved very, very slowly in the minds of
man--crude, ill-shapen, ill-fashioned, grotesque, barbarous, savage,
semi-civilized: harmonizing with his existing mental condition and
all his surroundings; a product of man's rudeness, of his uncultured
nature, his inexperienced special senses, with his nervous system just
emerging from an instinctive animal life to a grade or two above its
former intelligence--the first step towards real humanity.
God was not always presented to humanity in his present guise. Oh,
no; everyone with a moderate degree of intelligence who chooses
to examine the records will find that God has undergone vast and
important changes--changes in tendencies and character, conforming
with the progressive or retrogressive forms of political and social
life of the various communities, corresponding with the periods of
the time in which they lived.
The idea, in its primary conception, was slowly evolved,
without special meaning or signification, dark, mysterious,
incomprehensible. We may say, however, that this idea of God was
endowed with characteristics best known to men, but of a higher
quality than ordinarily then existing; largely reflecting their makers,
an embodiment of their own powers and capabilities.
There was a time, no matter how remote, when there were creatures
resembling the present form of man but of inferior nervous development,
that had no knowledge of either God or religion.
Nor had man in those ages any more intelligence than he had acquired
by experience, or was necessary for his immediate use. It improved
as the exigencies of his wants arose, fresh experience leading to
new observations, slowly adding to the already accumulated stock.
The intelligence of to-day would have been useless a hundred years ago,
to the same race even, and of less use still two hundred years ago,
and so on.
It is very doubtful whether man at first was even conscious of his
own existence, any more than the higher type of brute life. This
consciousness slowly dawned upon him as his intelligence increased. A
child is not conscious of its own existence. It exists so long as the
necessary material is contributed towards its existence, or until it
has grown strong enough to contribute towards its own. It may after
a while acquire intelligence sufficient to become conscious of its
own existence or not. The same rule holds good among the types of
man such as we find on earth at the present time.
During the early stages of man's existence, the muscular powers
were exercised most, we may say almost exclusively, the special
senses serving in their function as a guide for those powers, with
the degree of intelligence obtained from the number of impressions
received. These senses had acquired their several experiences from
the necessities that from time to time were made manifest.
There are writers who make use of extraordinary expressions in regard
to nature, as for example, that Nature is mighty, beautiful, wise, etc.
Nature is mighty only under certain conditions. Peculiar combinations
of elements are essential. The presence or absence of the sun's heat
plays always an important part.
Nature's being beautiful depends largely upon the education of the
senses, the capability of discerning symmetry, harmony, color, etc.,
and this is acquired by comparison, taste, and habit. What strikes
one eye as beautiful, may have just a contrary effect on another,
or be passed with perfect indifference by a third.
As to wisdom, nature can be wise only through a cultured,
well-educated, evenly balanced mind. The expression is applicable
only to man. Wisdom is a particular quality eminently and evidently
the product of a highly trained nervous system.
It is not an easy task at the present time to unravel the mental
process of the earliest races of man that first led to the formation
and the adoption of the idea that something existed more potent and
more powerful than themselves.
Yet if we carefully examine the mental condition of some of the wild,
barbarous nations existing at the present time, we may infer, with a
reasonable degree of accuracy, the mental process the earliest races
of man were capable of.
Races or tribes, no matter how low in the scale of civilization, that
were perfectly secure in their possessions, amply provided by nature
against the encroachments of other races, man or animals, existed right
along perfectly content, exerting themselves just enough to gather
in those substances which they found contributive to the sustenance
of their lives. The surplus time was spent in gamboling, frisking,
playing, amusing themselves in their primitive condition like children
of nature as they were. Progress they made none. There was no occasion
for it. Their senses were exercised to the extent of their immediate
wants and no more. The natural head of the family or tribe was the
oldest, the father. He controlled or governed his descendants. So
long as the father was able to exercise his supreme power he was
the recognized head, adviser, leader, etc. While in this condition,
the primitive customs, habits, or usages practiced in their natural
mode of living began, and continued with very few changes for ages.
Their language was as simple and crude as their mode of life, just
sufficient for their wants. This mode of communication originated
mainly from the necessities of life, as hunger, danger, pleasure,
protection, surprise, fear, etc. For all these they found expressions,
sounds that conveyed the notions to one another, quite intelligible
among themselves. They adopted names for things and beings with which
they came in contact in their daily lives, and for such instruments,
utensils, and clothing as they from time to time invented or discovered
by accident. The sounds that expressed their immediate necessity
of communicating with one another, their wants--the cries of call,
pain, etc.--had no form in particular, no grammatical construction,
no rules. Their emotions and passions were limited, because they knew
no wants, no conflicts, other than those that arise from feelings
inspired by their five senses. And they really had language enough
for all purposes--suitable and ample for their condition in life.
Arts and sciences they had none. Their simple domestic arrangements
were as primitive as they were. Their furniture consisted of little
or nothing. Cooking utensils they needed none. There was no occasion
to cook; nature's food was ample. This they collected, selected,
and fed upon.
Clothing they had no use for, in the warm climate they lived in. They
were clad in nature's garb, male and female alike. Innocence and
virtue was well understood among them. They were moral in their
way, committed no wrong--there was no occasion for it. There was
plenty for everyone. The larders of nature were free, open, and
plentiful. Therefore all were satisfied and happy.
Wealth or property they had. All they surveyed was theirs. What
belonged to one belonged to the other. Mine and thine was unknown. The
more civilized qualifications of property right developed many
centuries later.
Commerce they knew nothing of. There was no need for that, since
furniture, utensils, implements of agriculture, weapons, clothing of
any kind, they had no use for.
They had no laws--nor law-makers, nor justices, nor judges, nor any
officials known in later times.
And what is more, they had no God, or idol, or myth, or symbol, or
worship, or prayer or religion, or soul, or spirit. Nor did they
know anything about what we indicate by the epithets physical or
metaphysical, neither theological nor psychological, neither gnostic
nor agnostic.
They did not know of any of those things. These were evolved and
invented later, as the necessities and exigencies arose, as their
wants increased, and circumstances changed from internal to external
conditions.
Consequently, their language was limited. They made use of a limited
number of words, or produced articulate sound enough to express just
what they wanted, and no more. They may have had two or three hundred
different words or sounds in use. We have men to-day among us that have
not many more words at command, and their ideas generally correspond
in number and quality to their stock of words.
The stock of words and the stock of ideas always depend upon the
amount of experience and the amount of exercise the five senses have
had; together with the urgencies and difficulties they have had to
contend with. The power of observation is developed in accordance as
the opportunities arise.
Each particular special sense develops its own faculties, from the
practice, use, and experience of that sense, the role it is called
upon to play as necessities arise. And as each object is perceived
or observed by the special sense, it is recorded, a picture of
the same is retained in the great nervous storehouse for future
reference. The retention and recognition of the same goes to the
formation of memory. As the stock of objects increases, words or
sounds designating the same also increase in number, and the material
for the formation of ideas is also largely increased.
Ideas can be formed only about such things as we know, or rather
such things as any one special sense has been impressed with, has
perceived and recognized. Those things or beings by which any one
sense has not been impressed, the mind neither has perceived nor
is able to recognize. Everyone, whether barbarian or civilized,
is perfectly familiar with those things or beings that immediately
surround him--that is, all those things and beings which the senses
have already been impressed with, perceived and recognized. Sounds,
or words, have been invented to designate all such; and these are
known; the picture representing any one object is retained, stored
away in the great nervous storehouse, the brain--are remembered. The
oftener a thing is perceived, the more familiar it becomes and the
more easily recognized, the firmer it becomes fixed and the more
easily it is recollected.
Thus primitive man, with his few wants, and these wants amply supplied
by nature, had or invented names for all of them. These formed the
earliest collection of names of objects--their appearance, their
actions, their habits, etc. All these qualities were associated,
identified, and presented by words, in due time, without the presence
of the objects. That is to say, the simplest ideas were in this manner
formed, and the ideas so formed corresponded with the number of words,
and the number of words corresponded with the number of impressions
received by the senses.
Each sense presents its share--one sense more, another less. A person
may have received a large number of impressions on the organ of
vision--a painter, for instance--and may have stored away a wealth
of artistic knowledge, yet the sense of hearing may be exceedingly
poor in the number of impressions received. Such an individual would
be rich in artistic ideas but comparatively poor in musical ideas. So
it is with all the special senses.
Each sense receives impressions on its own account. It has its own
special nervous center, and these special centers again are closely
connected with the great mass of brain matter. Collectively they
have for their function, to receive impressions, retain them, store
them away, recollect them, and reproduce them by articulate sound,
or to recognize them.
In this process then we have the formation of idea, memory, thought;
recollection is the endeavor to call back, or form a figure of,
an object once already perceived--felt by the senses.
CHAPTER X.
MOSES.--THE CONFIRMATION OF THE IDEA OF GOD.
We will here sketch the military career of Moses.
We omit the early incidents of the life of Moses--his childhood,
his growth, his education--and begin with his active life.
"And the occasion he laid hold of was this: The Ethiopians, who are
next neighbors to the Egyptians, made an inroad into their country,
which they seized upon, and carried off the effects of the Egyptians,
who in their rage, fought against them, and revenged the affronts they
had received from them; but being overcome in battle some of them were
slain, and the rest ran away in a shameful manner, and by that means
saved themselves, whereupon the Ethiopians followed after them in the
pursuit, and thinking that it would be an act of cowardice if they did
not subdue all Egypt, they went on to subdue the rest with greater
vehemence; and when they had tasted the sweets of the country, they
never left off the prosecution of the war; and as the nearest parts
had not courage enough at first to fight with them, they proceeded
as far as Memphis, and the sea itself, while not one of the cities
was able to oppose them. The Egyptians, under this sad oppression,
betook themselves to their oracles and prophecies" (Josephus, Ch. X).
Moses thereupon was appointed general of the Egyptian army against
the Ethiopians, and conquered them in the following manner:
"But Moses prevented the enemies, and took and led his army, before
those enemies were apprised of his attacking them; for he did not march
by the river, but by land, where he gave a wonderful demonstration of
his sagacity; for when the ground was difficult to be passed over,
because of the multitude of serpents, which it produces in vast
numbers, and indeed is singular in some of these productions, which
other countries do not breed, ... When he had therefore proceeded
thus on his journey he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected
him; and joining battle with them, he beat them, and deprived them
of the hopes they had of success against the Egyptians, and went
on in overturning their cities, and indeed made great slaughter
of these Ethiopians. Now when the Egyptian army had once tasted of
this prosperous success by the means of Moses, they did not slacken
their diligence, insomuch that the Ethiopians were in danger of being
reduced to slavery, and all sorts of destruction. And at length they
retired to Saba, which was the royal city of Ethiopia, which Cambyses
afterwards named Meroe, after the name of his own sister. This place
was to be besieged with very great difficulty, since it was both
compassed by the Nile quite round, and the other rivers Astapus
and Astaboms made it a very difficult thing for such as attempted
to pass over them; for the city was situate in a retired place, and
was inhabited after the manner of an island, being encompassed by a
strong wall, and having the rivers to guard them from their enemies,
and having great ramparts between the wall and the rivers, insomuch,
that when the waters come with the greatest violence, it can never be
drowned; which ramparts make it next to impossible for even such as
are gotten over the rivers to take the city. However, while Moses was
uneasy at the army's lying idle (for the enemies durst not come to
battle), an accident happened: Tharbis was the daughter of the king
of the Ethiopians; she happened to see Moses as he led his army near
the walls, and fought with good courage, and admiring the subtlety of
his undertakings, she believed him to be the author of the Egyptians'
success, when they had before despaired of recovering their liberty,
and to be the occasion of the great danger the Ethiopians were in,
when they had before boasted of their great achievements, she fell
deeply in love with him; and upon the prevalency of that passion,
sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with
him upon their marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer on condition
she would procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the
assurance of an oath to take her to be his wife, and that when he
had once taken possession of the city, he would not break his oath to
her. No sooner was the agreement made, but it took effect immediately;
and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians, he gave thanks to God, and
consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land"
(Josephus, Chap. V.)
These are simple facts, wherein God plays no part. It is a human
transaction, a conflict of forces; the strongest and most skillful
wins. And when the last place of refuge, the fortress, is besieged, and
the Ethiopians are thoroughly beaten, the place seeming impregnable,
the army discouraged, a woman, the king's daughter, betrays it,
and Moses is victorious. Thermutis, his mother by adoption, raised
him and educated him after the manner of princes. He was a great
favorite. Her influence gave him not only her protection, advice,
and information, but other great advantages such as no other being
could obtain, she being constantly at court and a sister to the king.
It was no small glory, as well as experience, he reaped. That conquest
made him the first man in the land. That jealousies, antagonism and
hatred were engendered against him by his rivals, that conspiracies
were formed, may readily be imagined, and that finally his life was
threatened. Finding it rather dangerous to remain in the country,
since he was being closely watched, and all the roads were guarded,
and being no doubt fully informed of the plot, Moses fled. "He took
flight through the deserts, where his enemies could not suspect
he would travel; though he was destitute of food, he went on, and
despised that difficulty courageously" (Jos.).
Moses was born in 1571 B.C., and was made general of the Egyptian army
when he was about thirty-five or thirty-seven years of age. In 1531
B.C. he fled from Egypt and arrived at Midian. He made the acquaintance
of a priest named Raguel or Jethro--his future father-in-law, for he
married Zipporah, Jethro's daughter.
Aaron, his brother, three years older, being born 1574 B.C., must
have been a man of considerable influence. He remained during Moses's
absence in Egypt. The exodus of the Israelites from Egypt took place
in 1491.
Daring his forty years' stay with Jethro he minded his cattle near
Mount Sinai, where many supposed wonders are related to have occurred.
That Moses was not idle is self-evident. A man of that particular
type could not remain inactive. What took place between him and
Aaron or between him and Thermutis his stepmother is not recorded
in history. That some systematic organization did take place is very
probable. That all followed in the ordinary course of human events,
is to be presumed. And that the plans were laid and matured, how these
people were to be molded into a nation, and in what manner they were
to leave Egypt, we cannot have a reasonable doubt.
It is more than likely that after the successful conquest, he was
fired with the ambition to become a ruler himself. Envy and jealousy
prevented his ever assuming the crown of Egypt, but what was to hinder
him becoming the head and leader of his own people? In his solitary
wanderings about Mount Sinai, he was inspired with the thought of
delivering his own people, especially as the Pharaoh, his former
protector, was dead. Having all the necessary material at hand in
court and out of court, he proceeded to carry out his plans.
Moses was the man who created Jehova. Ex. vi, 3: "And I appeared
unto Abraham and Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God almighty;
but by my name Jehova was I not known to them." Not likely! Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob were of little or no culture. They were herdsmen who
simply differed from their neighbors by substituting an imaginary God
for the numerous images and idols that were then in fashion. They had
not the remotest idea of the meaning of the God they worshiped, such
as Moses now put into the word God. It was no longer a mere abstract
copy with him--a thing to dispute, to reason, to argue about. To
Moses it became a stern reality. The brain, the nervous system, the
senses, the faculties, had undergone a revolution during the four
hundred years. Moses, with all the scholastic advantages, raised and
educated to rule and govern man and nations, ambitious for power,
a great general, a man of determination and force, a man that was
capable of plotting against plotters, conspiring against conspirators,
who deliberately and shrewdly went to work to organize his people--he
conceived then the idea that the simple old-fashioned Adonay--Lord--had
lost its importance, being a common-place, every-day God among the
Hebrews. He invented the unpronounceable Jehova. It makes little
difference whence it is derived, whether from Io, Jovis, Jupiter, etc.
Jehova and Mount Sinai are inseparable. Moses knew every stone
and crag about that mountain. A man does not live near a mountain,
especially a man of great vigor, action, and intellect, but that he
observes every nook, every spot, every footpath, and every turn. The
conception of Jehova originated at Mount Sinai; and later the power,
the establishing and the realization, of his ambition, of his Jehova,
took place.
The miraculous pretensions and the wonderful workings that appear in
the scriptural phraseology were no doubt necessary for the purpose
of carrying out the scheme Moses had concocted. In modern times we
can regard it only as a very peculiar method of writing up a history.
Moses had his emissaries and leaders among his people. When they were
told about the wonderful occurrences about Mount Sinai, and what the
Great Jehova said to Moses, the story was rehearsed and repeated--about
the promised land, their preservation, their liberty. Of course,
what could they do otherwise than yield? Their hopes were elated,
and they were really interested, and believed that the God of their
forefathers had sent Moses as their deliverer.
Moses had already their confidence by his past history. The hero, the
great conqueror of the Ethiopians, the savior of Egypt--that alone
was an immense prestige. But when it was announced that the Jehova,
the Lord God, etc., had said this and that to him, that he commanded
him to do this and that, where is the miracle, where is the wonder,
that they obeyed?
When Moses found that the Hebrews would be obedient to whatsoever he
should direct, as they promised to be, and were in love with liberty,
he began his negotiations with the king of Egypt, who had but lately
received the government.
As to his contest with the Egyptian priests in performing their
respective tricks, called miracles, what wonder that these ignorant
creatures believed, when we find stupid people enough of all nations
that believe in the miraculous cures of an old rag, purporting to have
belonged to Christ or some one else? Whatever was done, and how it
was done, we shall never know. That there was nothing supernatural
about the transaction is absolutely certain. The people may have
believed it to be supernatural, as many millions believe to this
day. You may believe a circle to be square, but that does not make
it so. The untutored brain is surprised at a trifle, astonished at
what it does not understand, and regards every new trick as a miracle.
Neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob could perform miracles. They had
no use for them, knew nothing of them, and really had not the talent
to produce them. Miracles had not been invented, or become the fashion.
Moses was undoubtedly a proficient master of the magic arts, and
accomplished his purpose thereby. After all, those performances were
simply a side-show. He knew the strength of his people. A general
of his capacity does not undertake a task of that magnitude without
calculating the convincing force to back his demands. Six hundred
thousand men on foot--besides children and women--organized under
leaders, and no doubt equipped and ready for any emergency--an army
of that size means a revolution of no small importance to a state. To
avert greater danger, Egypt let them go.
Henceforth Moses is the imperial master of the situation, the dictator,
the ruler, the lawgiver, as determined as he is imperious--"I am
the Lord thy God." And the man Moses knew what he was talking about,
and the class of people he was talking to. He was the organizer of
the nation, the creator of Jehova, the intimate of God. No other man
throughout the Bible before or after Moses pretended to talk with God
face to face except Moses. And Moses alone shall come near the Lord
(Ex. xxiv, 2). And he took every care that no other man should discover
his secret workings. "I am that I am;" that is Moses. "Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you"
(Ex. iii, 14). Who but a man accustomed to command and be obeyed
would dare use such language?
Moses was fully familiar with the locality; and Mount Sinai, where he
developed his scheme, he would permit no one to approach. "Take heed to
yourself that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it;
whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death" (Ex. xix,
12). He would brook no nonsense. He kept these poor ignoramuses in
constant terror, in constant dread, of his Jehova. These precautions
were used, and terrible things threatened, so that no one should
intrude upon his privacy on the mountain, and no doubt were necessary
in order to secure his success.
We have no clear account of the manner in which these people
left Egypt. The population must have numbered close upon three
millions. This is entirely omitted. What God said to Moses, and
Moses said to God, is continually repeated, but historical facts are
wanting. We learn one important fact, however--they did not leave
poor. When they departed from Egypt this multitude had to be kept
busy, otherwise they would lose confidence in Jehova and in Moses,
and relapse into making images.
What kind of a God was this Jehova? In Ex. xxxi we find him giving
directions about working in brass, silver, gold, furniture, designating
who should work at it; but God himself turns stone-mason--in verse
18 we find two tables of Testimony, tables of stone, written by the
finger of God. If God had a finger, he had a whole hand. If he had
one hand he may have had two. To write needs practice, sight, brain,
and all other parts belonging to a man. No doubt, when the tables,
etc., were written, it was done by a man.
As to the Ten Commandments, they were not new with Moses. They were
a codification of Chaldean and Egyptian laws.
The day of rest was recognized long ago in those slave-making days. It
was a principle of economy, power-saving. Six of the Commandments are
natural laws and are instinctively obeyed even among lower animals. All
other laws were adopted from recognized customs and usages of the
people, mostly taken from the Egyptians, with some few alterations,
perhaps, suitable to the existing emergency.
When this Republic was founded, there were actually no new laws
made, but old laws modified to suit our case; thus the Constitution
was framed. Moses did precisely the same thing. The laws were the
recognized habits, practices, customs, laws, usages, long established
among the nations in that region. And God, or Jehova, had as much
to do with the framing of them as he had with the Constitution of
this nation.
Leviticus may be truly called the cookery-book of Jehova. Just
think of it, that God himself told them what to select and how to
cook it. They were instructed to forsake the idols or the images of
God, but retained the grosser barbaric practices of sacrificing. The
detailed account given of the bill of fare is interesting. For a full
description we beg to refer the reader to Leviticus.
Human nature was strong in Moses. He did what any man high in the
affairs of a state would do. He installed his own relations into
office--first his own tribe, the Levites. These were immediately
installed as a permanent bureaucracy, as well as aristocracy. They
were the rulers, lawmakers, preachers, doctors, etc. (Num. i, 47,
et seq.). His brother Aaron and his sons were at once installed in
the permanent offices. A hereditary aristocracy was established and
consecrated as priests of the nation (Lev. viii). And the tribe of
Levi were also selected to minister unto the priests, Aaron and sons.
The actions of this supposed God are very curious, and even amusing. He
assumes so many shades of color, character, and passion, just as a
man would under various degrees of excitement, disappointment, and
discontent. "Whenever Moses found it necessary to act with promptness
and resolution he found it convenient to use his Lord God, Jehova,
and usually with excellent effect. But when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram
rebel Moses gives God advice (Num. xvi, 15). "And Moses was very wroth,
and said unto the Lord: Respect not thou their offering." He at once
suppresses the rebellion with a strong hand and puts an end to it.
Wipe out of the biblical story the dust and cob-webs of superstition
and ignorance, cleanse it of the mire and dirt of barbarism, and you
find in Moses a man of action, sagacity, and determination; skillful
in the arts of war; a man of great will power, energy, and pluck,
breaking down all barriers, overcoming all obstacles, conquering all
difficulties, in order to secure the final success of his immense
undertaking; the creator of Jehova, the great I AM, the maker of God,
the leader of a great army, the organizer of a nation, the lawmaker,
the lawgiver, the molder and master mind of this great work.
His stratagem to preserve the Egyptian army from serpents by filling
baskets with ibises, who devour and destroy serpents, is an instance
of his foresight, leading his army safely through the swamps without
damage, during the war with the Ethiopians.
The great feature of Moses's Mount Sinai expedition, and his absence
for forty days, and the production of the Ten Commandments, keeps the
theological world in a constant stew of wonder and admiration. From
the point of reason, common sense, and the light we have now, there
is nothing remarkable or wonderful about the forty days' absence or
the Ten Commandments. Moses was provided with all the food he needed,
and all the assistance he needed, during his stay in the mountain. His
own family, as well as his wife's relatives, knew all about the
mountain, while the masses were kept at a respectful distance, on
penalty of death.
What are these Ten Commandments?
1. One God (the concentrated essence of the }
Chaldean gods), worship him only. } Natural laws of
2. Have no other God, image, etc. } self-preservation
3. Don't swear by God. } and
4. Rest on the seventh day (economy of } self-protection.
muscular forces). }
5. Honor thy parents. }
6. Do not commit murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal.
9. Do not bear false witness.
10. Do not desire another man's property.
All these laws had been in existence centuries before the
coming of Moses. Nations had already adopted them, as a matter of
necessity. Crimes of murder and robbery, etc., were familiar among
the Chaldeans and other nations. When Isaac sent messengers to Nahor
in order to secure Rebeka for his wife, they had to pass through
Mesopotamia, "in which it was tedious traveling, both in winter, for
a depth of clay, and in summer for a want of water; and besides this,
for the robberies there committed" (Jos.).
It must be remembered that society had reached a degree of organization
and civilization; that these fundamental principles, these natural
laws, are observed to a considerable extent even among the lower
animals, and that they were strictly enforced in every barbarian as
well as more civilized community. In the codification of these laws by
Moses there is nothing wonderful, nothing miraculous, supernatural. The
whole matter consisted in the adoption of these fundamental principles,
these common-law usages, and the proclaiming of them as the laws to
govern this newly organized nation, as all other nations had done
centuries before them.
The laws incorporated in the book of Leviticus, etc., consisting in
the regulation or government of the nation, appointing communities
or families, dealing with food, dress, sacrifice, crime and its
punishment, trade, commerce, domestic affairs, marriage, and above
all church affairs, were mostly adoptions from other nations with
certain modifications, written up in the manner we find them.
The supernatural phenomena recited in the Bible in the books of
Moses--what descended from heaven, clouds, pillars, earthquakes,
thunder, lightning, rain, deluge, fire, etc., on and about Mount
Sinai--and that God performed these wonders to oblige Moses, because
he exercised his influence in prayer upon Jehova--form the greatest
piece of nonsense that ever was written.
Clouds belong to the earth, are composed of earthly elements, are
taken from the surface of the earth by a natural process and return
to the earth by a natural process. Neither God nor man can influence
them. The same may be said of all other phenomena. Water cannot be
composed from any other elements than oxygen and hydrogen, and the
silly theological twaddle cannot change it. What we ought to know is,
at least something of the natural. The more we know of the natural
the less we believe of the supernatural--in fact, the latter has
largely disappeared. In time, let us hope, these childish delusions
will be regarded as some of the remnants of the past and infantile
ages of humanity.
In all ages and at all times, men of great merit have been admired
and honored by mankind. But the mythology and theology that enshrouds
ancient heroes, the deification, the supernaturalism, the sanctity,
the holiness, and the delusions that accompany and surround their
actions, are entirely superfluous. We have outgrown these fables. And
truly, these imaginary attributions, these visionary productions,
have outlived their usefulness. Whether it be Moses, David, Alexander,
Hannibal, Cæsar, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Frederick the Great, Napoleon,
or Washington, they were men, nothing but men, and their actions,
as also the great good resulting from their actions, that benefited
humanity, were natural, not influenced in any way or shape by the
smallest particle of supernaturalism.
Josephus speaking of Moses says: "He was one that exceeded all men that
ever were in understanding, and made the best use of what understanding
suggested to him. He had a very grateful way of speaking and addressing
himself to the multitude. As to his other qualifications, he had such
a full command of his passions, as if he hardly had any such in his
soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them
in other men than himself. He was also such a general of an army
as was seldom seen, as well as such a prophet as was never known,
and this to such a degree that whatsoever he pronounced, you would
think you heard the voice of God himself" (B. iv, ch. viii, 49).
The following verse in the Bible is undoubtedly true: "And there was
not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew
face to face."
Moses deserves all the credit for molding the Chaldean God into shape,
for creating Jehova, and for inventing prophets and the Jewish oracles.
These oracles, or pretended consultations or inquiries of God, whether
heathen or Hebrew, were all of a similar nature and character. Whenever
the question asked was concerning the success or non-success of
a battle, whether they should fight or not, the answer depended
on the circumstances and the condition of affairs. If the army was
well disciplined, had a good leader, a good general, better than the
enemy, they were going to fight. If not so well organized, weaker
numerically, or with an indifferent general, they would let fighting
alone. The priests if well informed would give either a positive or
a negative answer, but if they knew nothing about either party, they
would deliver the answer of the oracle in such dubious expressions or
terms, that let what would happen to the inquirer, the answer might
be accommodated or explained to mean the event that came to pass.
The expressions of the Bible during and after the time of Moses
are of oracular form, and for that reason of a dubious nature, of
marvelous elasticity, accommodating any and every opinion or inquiry,
susceptible of a vast variety of interpretations. Many portions may
be made to mean anything or everything. There being nothing positive
about these biblical expressions, followers of these doctrines have
been explaining and explaining. And as new views or opinions are set
afloat, clever talkers explain and explain, and grow enthusiastic
in explaining. And as fashions change, the explanations change. For
centuries these explanations and interpretations have been going
on--over what?
Among the Jews there were several sorts of oracles: as, first, those
that were delivered viva voce, as when God spoke to Moses; secondly,
prophetic dreams, as those of Joseph and others; thirdly, visions,
as when a prophet in an ecstasy, a nervous, excitable condition, being
properly neither asleep nor awake, had what they called supernatural
revelations; fourthly, when they were accompanied with the wearing of
an ephod, or the pectoral worn by the high priest, who was endowed with
the gift of foretelling future things upon extraordinary occasions;
and fifthly, by consulting the prophets or messengers sent by God.
Moses was the first great prophet, the first great general, the first
great lawgiver, the first and only organizer, and with his death God,
Jehova, ceases to be active.
Everything appears wonderful or miraculous if we do not understand
it, or are ignorant and credulous. Thus it was with the manna, that
usually falls in certain seasons of the year in that region. Even
Moses himself did not know what it was, until it had stuck to his
hands and he had tasted it. It was no special favor to the Jews. It
falls for all creatures alike, but is not used until it is discovered
that it has reached the season when it is good to eat. Nevertheless,
it is in our Bible accounted a miracle.
No man has ever performed a miracle except to deceive or delude
another, who is ignorant of what he is performing, or how it is
performed.
Miracles are natural events occurring to those that are ignorant,
or of little understanding; or they are intentionally performed with
the intent to deceive, delude, or defraud.
God himself, all believers should know, cannot perform a miracle,
contrary to the laws of nature--whether it be the laws governing
planets or the laws that govern the various phenomena that appear
from time to time on earth. All are simply the result of some natural
process.
What shrewdness Moses used, whatever cunning, whatever diplomacy,
whatever wisdom or courage, was the production of his own will power,
the evolution of his own brain, acquired by education and training. He
utilized these powers to gain his ends, to the best advantage and
welfare of the people he was trying to organize.
He may have fully believed in the oracles he invoked, the conception
of his own powerful imagination. He may have inspired himself
by a concentration of nervous force, stimulated by the immense
responsibility that rested upon him.
The solitude he enjoyed in the mountain was of great service to his
reflecting mind. It gave him an opportunity to analyze every detail,
think over every circumstance, form his ideas and his plans. That it
was to him a sanctuary, a holy retreat, we can easily imagine, as every
place that becomes a retreat for great thinkers is a sanctum to them,
and where, when they are deliberating, communing with themselves,
it is no place for strangers to intrude.
We must, however, not lose sight of an important fact--that whatever
may be the products of the brain, of the nervous system, however
stimulated or inspired the workings of the imagination and the
production of ideas, evolving powerful thoughts, and however sublime
and beautiful they may be, they are the effect of the educated
faculties; the result of the combined forces of the great nervous
centers.
Notwithstanding the sagacity and cleverness of Moses, the barbarism
and brutality of the age in which he lived was predominant in all his
actions towards his enemies. Neither God nor Jehova had any mitigating
sentiment, neither pity nor mercy. The ark was a superstitious symbol,
and the priest the ready tool to carry out any system to deceive and
delude the masses. The ark, the creation of Moses, Aaron, Jethro
& Co., was nothing more than an idol of another form. Whether the
idol is in the image of somebody or a four-cornered box wherein lies
the difference?
For several centuries this wooden box plays an important role among
these half-civilized barbarians. They were no better than their
neighbors, and were not any farther advanced in civilization than
the neighboring nations were--indeed, not so much.
How Christianity can hold that book, the Bible, as sacred, as a guide
for the present civilized age, is indeed a greater wonder and a far
more complicated miracle than ever was performed in the Bible.
The superstitious, cowardly army of Joshua refused to cross the river
Jordan, but the miracle was performed when the priest carried the ark
across the river--which was fordable, because they could see the sand
at the bottom, and the stream was neither strong nor swift. So the
army forded the stream, following the wooden box. The same box was
used before the walls of Jericho. The falling of the walls is related
in a mysterious fashion, but the slaughter of men, women, and children
is made quite plain. The only thing saved was that prostitute Rahab
who betrayed the city--and that was all the doings of God and the Box.
Joshua sends to Ai three thousand men, and the Israelites get
beaten. Then after some hocus-pocus Joshua goes to Ai with thirty
thousand and he beats them, "and all the men and women that were killed
at Ai were twelve thousand" (Josh, viii, 25). And then he hanged
the king of Ai (verse 29). And this was a miraculous victory. Every
natural phenomenon was interpreted as a miracle. A hailstorm, an
aerial phosphorescence imitating sun and moon, the clouds, thunder,
etc.--are all miracles, if they help to beat the enemy. And after
the slaying was done the kings were hanged (x, 26).
Altogether, Joshua conquered thirty-one kings and took possession
of their territories. These kingdoms could not have been very large
affairs, since the whole land is not very large. The presumption is
that superior numbers and better leadership in reality won the day.
When the strong hand of Moses and Joshua has disappeared (Jehova is no
longer the stronghold) quarrels, outrages, and discontent arise. Eleven
tribes retire from the field of action. Judah, the warrior tribe,
does the fighting. The Levites, this aristocratic tribe, watch and
guide the nation, dwelling in the forty cities assigned to them. I
mention these two tribes especially on account of the important role
they play hereafter.
A few statements of the mere facts will suffice. Joshua dies in 1443
B.C. Othniel succeeds. Judah's military force fights and beats the
Canaanites. Discord and fighting continue, until Eglon the king of
Moab enslaves them, 1343 B.C. When Eglon is killed they are freed
for a short period, when Jabin the Canaanite subdues them. They are
again freed and again enslaved, and so on. Meantime they have their
heroes, as Shamgar, who kills six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad,
and Samson, who kills one thousand Philistines with a jawbone of an
ass, etc.
I will append to this chapter a description of some events of Moses's
career from Tacitus, Chapter III: "Many authors agree, that when once
an infectious distemper was arisen in Egypt and made men's bodies
impure, Bocchorius, their king, went to the oracle of (Jupiter)
Hammon and begged he would grant him some relief against this evil,
and he was enjoined to purge his nation of them, and to banish this
kind of men into other countries, as hateful to the gods. That
when he had sought for, and gotten them all together, they were
left in a vast desert; that hereupon the rest devoted themselves
to weeping and inactivity; but one of those exiles, Moses by name,
advised them to look for no assistance from any of the gods or from
any of mankind, since they had been abandoned by both, but bade them
believe in him, as in a celestial leader, by whose help they had
already gotten clear of their present miseries. They agreed to it;
and though they were unacquainted with every thing, they began their
journey at random: but nothing tried them so much as want of water;
and now they laid themselves down on the ground to a great extent,
as just ready to perish, when a herd of wild asses came from feeding,
and went to a rock overshadowed by a grove of trees. Moses followed
them, as conjecturing that there was (thereabouts) some grassy soil,
and so opened large sources of water for them."
Chapter IV: "As for Moses, in order to secure the nation firmly to
himself, he ordained new rites, and such as were contrary to other
men. All things are with them profane which with us are sacred; and
again, those practices are allowed among them which are by us esteemed
most abominable. They sacrifice rams by way of reproach to (Jupiter)
Hammon. An ox is also sacrificed, which the Egyptians worship under
the name of Apis," etc.