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Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
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* * * * *
MYSTICISM
AND ITS RESULTS;
BEING AN INQUIRY INTO
THE USES AND ABUSES OF SECRECY,
AS DEVELOPED IN THE INSTRUCTION AND ACTS OF SECRET SOCIETIES,
ASSOCIATIONS, OR CONFRATERNITIES, WHETHER SOCIAL,
RELIGIOUS, OR POLITICAL, FROM THE BEGINNING OF HISTORY
TO THE PRESENT DAY, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON
THE MASSES OF MANKIND, THEN AND NOW.
BY JOHN DELAFIELD, ESQ.,
OF MISSOURI,
AUTHOR OF "AN INQUIRY INTO THE ORIGIN OF THE ANTIQUITIES OF AMERICA."
SAINT LOUIS:
PUBLISHED BY EDWARDS & BUSHNELL, NO. 97 FOURTH STREET, TEN BUILDINGS.
* * * * *
1857.
* * * * *
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857,
BY JOHN DELAFIELD,
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and
for the
District of Missouri.
* * * * *
SAVAGE & McCREA, STEREOTYPERS,
13 Chambers Street, N.Y.
* * * * *
TO MY ALMA MATER,
COLUMBIA COLLEGE, NEW YORK,
This Essay is respectfully Inscribed,
BY THE WRITER.
* * * * *
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PREFACE.
"THE WORD WAS GOD." That "WORD IS TRUTH." Truth can never change, or it
would contradict itself. Past, present, and future, must be governed by
immutable laws. Experience is acquired by the careful study of history, and
the present condition of all things. All is governed now by that same law
of truth, which was from the beginning of the world, and ever shall be.
What serious lessons, then, may be learned by a careful examination of past
ages; and how useful may they not be to us and our children for future
ages? We can only judge of that which is to come hereafter, by studying the
past, and carefully noting the present.
This little book has collated some facts, perhaps, somewhat out of the
usual range of reading; but which it is sincerely trusted may be of
practical {6} utility. If it only induces thought, study, or research, by
intellectual and honest minds, its object will have been attained. The
writer can only claim the indulgence of the reader to consider the essay
suggestive--not didactic. Many a far abler pen may enlarge upon and carry
out the ideas presented. May it be
J. D.
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CONTENTS.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
Secrecy; its Uses and Abuses.--Mystery; its Definition.--Mysticism, and its
Definition. ... PAGE 9
CHAPTER II.
The Distinction between the Early Elohistic and Jehovahstic Ages of
Primeval Patriarchal Times.--The Secrecy of Original Worship on Mountain
Tops.--The Collation and Reconciliation of the Patriarchal Traditions
brought together by Moses.--The Commencement of the Jehovahstic Age.--The
Origin of Mythology.--The Magi; their Organization and Modes of
Worship.--The Deification of Nimrod, and the Source of Political Power at
its Beginning.--The Secret Writings they adopted.--The Dead Invokers.--The
Mysteries of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. ... 16
CHAPTER III.
The Origin of the Cabbalistae; the Chaldeans, and their Antagonism to
Patriarchal Tradition.--The Hand-Writing on Belshazzar's Wall.--The Secret
Writings of the Cabbalistae.--How Daniel read the Same.--Ezra.--The Origin
of the Masoretic Text.--Zoroaster.--His Reformation and Reconstruction of
the Religion of the Magi.--Pythagoras, and his "League."--The Thugs.--The
Druids. ... 41
{8} CHAPTER IV.
The Discipline of the Secret in the Origin of the Christian Church.--The
Inquisition.--The Mystics.--The Rise of Monachism.--The Mendicant
Orders.--The Orders of Knighthood.--The Jesuits, their Organization and
History.--The Rosicrucians, &c. ... 71
CHAPTER V.
The Struggle between an alleged _Jus Divinum Regum_, and Popular
Sovereignty.--And the Efforts now attempted to destroy our Grand Experiment
of Self-Government.--Practical Results. ... 104
* * * * *
{9} MYSTICISM, AND ITS RESULTS.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
Secrecy; its Uses and Abuses.--Mystery; its Definition.--Mysticism, and
its Definition.
It is not true, as has been sometimes said, that wherever there is secrecy
there is error.
Secrecy, like most all else, hath its uses and abuses: its uses, as
developed in modesty and domestic virtue, in religious meditation,
self-examination, and prayer, and in prudence in the affairs of life: its
abuses, in prudery, asceticism, superstitious awe, undue veneration of
power, and when used as a cloud to conceal crime so hideous that nothing
but the truth of God, vindicated by human laws founded thereon, directed by
wisdom, can dispel it.
Virtue and modesty shrink from public gaze. Each looks alone to its innate
sense, the gift of God, and to the sole approval of the great "I AM."
The hidden sincere aspirations of the heart are known only to Him who
"breathed into man the {10} breath of life, and he became a living soul."
These are a secret between the created being and its Almighty Father. At
the lonely hour, when the burdened soul, knowing no earthly refuge from
overwhelming troubles, but a mightier Hand than that of man, seeks on
bended knee and with penitential tear, a blessing from on high, no word is
spoken, no sound uttered save the sob from a contrite heart. The aspiration
has gone forth inaudibly to Him who said to all mankind, then and for
future ages, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest."[1]
"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire,
Uttered or unexpressed,
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
It is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear,
The upward glancing of an eye
When none but God is near."[2]
What knoweth the outer world of this? Yet wrong can not exist in such
secret communion between a penitent heart and its Maker. Pure religious
meditation, leading us from earth to heaven, is only promoted by secret
study and reflection in solitude. Neither philosophy nor religion can be
cultivated in the midst of the vortices of commerce or other business
requiring constant intercourse with hundreds of {11} men during the day,
nor in the whirl of fashion in the evening.
Thus, then, do we trace one of the uses of secrecy. Both its use and its
abuse we shall hereinafter find exemplified in marked effects not only on
individual minds, but also on the masses of mankind in past history: its
use, in the development of true piety: its abuse, in asceticism,
superstition, and overweening spiritual power resulting in crimes, which
were "a sin unto death." Another abuse of secrecy has been manifested in
means heretofore employed in the constant effort to obtain and maintain
worldly power. This was by affecting the imagination and blinding the
reason of the masses. Some time ago, an ephemeral work was published, even
the name of which is not recollected by this writer, wherein was a picture
showing the section of a handsome tent with curtains closely drawn. Within,
is a man eating and feasting like other mortals. Without, is a stand on
which are exposed to view the usual emblems and insignia of royalty, before
which there is a kneeling crowd. An admirable illustration! True it is,
that "no man is a hero to his valet-de-chambre." Fashionable wealth and
power depend upon exclusiveness to accomplish their usual attendant
influences. Royalty hides every hour in secrecy from public gaze, except
when it occasionally becomes necessary to treat the subjects to a mere
pageant or show of military costume and outside appearances. When Lola
Montes displayed to {12} the world the mere humanity of the old king of
Bavaria, where had he any _prestige_ left? Schamyl has attained his
extraordinary influence and power by his seclusion, asceticism, and
pretended revelations; and bravery having crowned his efforts, he is a
favorite of fortune, and the idol of a superstitious veneration. What did
not Mohammed accomplish in the same manner? But, in illustration of the
opposite effect, so well known to the sad experience of all, hath not a
mightier One testified that, "a prophet hath no honor in his own
country?"[3]
But doth not also common prudence in worldly affairs demand the use of
secrecy?
What good general will detail, even to his own forces, and still less make
public for the use of his adversary, his plans and intentions for an
ensuing campaign?--what business man communicate to the public or to his
rivals his hard thought and well-planned speculation?--what inventor
publish his new machine or discovery until he has secured his patent-right?
In what follows, then, let us discriminate between the use and abuse of
secrecy; so that, by the lessons of the past and the present, we may be
safely guided in our course through the future.
Before going into matters of historic detail, it were well to understand
the definition of the word "mystery." {13}
Many suppose it to mean "something which is incomprehensible." This is all
a mistake.
"[Greek: Musterion]" means simply "a revealed secret." In other words,
"mystery," which we derive from the Greek word quoted, means neither more
nor less than a secret revealed and explained to us. A man of mature years
and finished education knows that which no school-boy can comprehend. To
the elder a secret has been revealed. He is in possession of the mystery.
To the younger it is yet a secret, not incomprehensible, but which can only
be attained in the progress of learning. To the scientific many of the
mysteries of nature are unfolded, but they are a secret to the world at
large. To those Christians in the earlier days of the church, who had
attained its highest instruction, and after the "Ite, missa est" had
dismissed the rest of the congregation, remained to participate in the
"pure offering" (or "clean oblation") prophesied by Malachi[4] to be
thereafter offered in every place to Him whose name thenceforth should be
great among the Gentiles--to them "it was given to know the mysteries of
God:"[5] not to understand things incomprehensible. That would be a
contradiction in terms: a thing impossible. How can a person comprehend
that which passeth all understanding? But it may be said, there are things
which are incomprehensible. Not so. They may be a secret to us while, in
this school-house, the earth, the {14} pedagogue Necessity is teaching us
only the rudiments of the laws of God as developed in nature or in mind;
but, when the _scintilla divinitatis_, hidden in these "earthen
vessels,"[6] shall have been set free, and (while "the dust returns to the
earth as it was") rises unto Him that breathed into us that "spiritus" or
"breath of life"--when we shall hereafter have been "newly born" into a
spiritual state of higher existence--then may we hope that what is secret
to us now, may become a mystery or revealed secret to us hereafter. It is
not all of life to terminate our existence on this earth. This is but the
school-house in the commencement of eternity. These mysteries, now secrets
to us, are created and maintained by the fixed laws of Him "who is without
variableness or shadow of turning." The revelations thereof belong to a
higher kingdom, which "flesh and blood can not inherit," yet in which every
soul "shall be made alive."[7] Then shall these secrets be unfolded in
proportion to the cultivation of the mind and talents here: for the
unchangeable laws of God have placed all matter in constant and regular
mutation; and whether of matter or of mind, all is governed by a certain
law of progress, compelling us to attain excellence and strength only by
constant endeavors to surmount difficulties: and it is thus alone we can,
by severe study and deep meditation, in investigating these laws of
mutation and progress in things physical and {15} moral, bring the mind,
even in this life, to a nearer approximation to, and capability of,
appreciating the wonderful truths we must hereafter learn. As in all other
laws of God, the cultivation of our talents must then carry its
proportionate reward hereafter.[8]
Let us then examine into the uses and abuses of secrecy in past history,
and at the present day--but more particularly will these be manifested by
"MYSTICISM;" by which is meant, _the revelation of learning, social,
religious, and political, the teaching of which has been, and is, preserved
secret from the world, by societies, associations, and confraternities_.[9]
* * * * *
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