Many imperfections, as I anticipated, have been discovered in my
“Popular Faith Unveiled,” some of importance and others of little
consequence; and many suggestions have been offered in all kindness by
those who have done me the honour of reading my work, for consideration
in case I should issue another edition. The strongest of all the
arguments urged in favour of the real necessity for a second and
revised edition is that that part of the subject treated upon which
related more particularly to the true origin of man was not dealt
with in a sufficiently exhaustive manner in the last work. This, of
course, is a true charge: but it should be borne in mind that the
main object of the book was to expose the real nature of the popular
superstition, and not to trace out the pedigree of man; and, moreover,
to have entered fully into such subjects as the evolution of mind and
matter would have considerably augmented the bulk of the work, and
consequently have necessitated such an increase in the price as to have
made it prohibitory to a large number of thinkers, who have not too
much spare cash to throw away. I therefore determined not to re-issue
the work in an amplified form, but to supplement it with a number of
published lectures (delivered here and in various other large towns)
and articles, which should be ultimately brought out as an illustrated
volume.
These lectures, etc., some of which are re-prints from journals and
some of which I have myself printed in my leisure moments, I now
offer to the public in book form, together with a number of figures,
maps, etc., illustrative of the subjects treated upon. “Man—Whence
and Whither” and “Evolution of the God-idea” are re-printed from
_The Agnostic_; “Man’s Antiquity,” “Evolution of Mind,” “Zodiacal
Mythology,” “Intellectual Progress in Europe” and “The Annals of
Tacitus” from the _Secular Review_; and “The Special Senses” and “The
Bible” from _The Agnostic Annual_: the remainder of the text, as before
stated, has been printed by myself.
I must acknowledge with gratitude my indebtedness to Mr. John Bennett,
of Prince’s Buildings, Dronfield, who has been kind enough to assist
me by drawing the zodiacal signs, the Bacchanalian insignia, the
oriental and Egyptian zodiacs, Amen-Ra, Mafuca, Aidanill and the negro
head, the two hands, the Fuegans, the Australian (2), African and
European skulls, and Boötes, Virgo, Cetus, Aquarius and Sagittarius;
and also to Mr. Wm. Gill Hall, of 66 Cecil Road, Sheffield, who has
kindly drawn for me the single chimpanzee, the orang, the lemur, the
face of the proboscis monkey, the moor monkey, the hairy couple from
Burmah, the genealogy of man, the earth’s section, and the ascent of
mind. The remainder of the illustrations, with the exception of the
two zincographs of the gorillas and chimpanzees (the frontispiece),
have been drawn by myself; and I must trust to the generosity of my
readers to overlook the amateur style of my productions, which, it is
hoped, will be found sufficiently well done to serve the purpose for
which they are intended. However amateur the illustrations may be in
appearance, this I can truthfully say, that every sketch in the book
is a faithful reproduction of the original. Some of the illustrations,
however, have been derived from such gross originals that it has not
been considered advisable, for many reasons, to reproduce the figures
in their entirety; but wherever part of a figure has been modified by
the substitution of a symbolical or other device the fact has been
notified to the reader at the foot of the illustration.
In the course of the following lectures the opportunity has been seized
to rectify some of the mistakes inadvertently committed in my “Popular
Faith Unveiled;” but there are two errors in printing that have not yet
been set right, and to which, therefore, I should now like to call
attention. The first occurs on page 102, lines 9 & 10 from the bottom,
where אלהי—_A.L.E.I._ should have been written אליה—_A.L.Y (or.I.)E.
(El Yah), or_ אלוה—_A.L.OU.E. (Eloh)_, etc. The next occurs on page
109, line 6 from bottom, where _millions_ should read _thousands_.
I have only now to frankly admit that during the last few years my
views as regards the theories of ultimate causation and the future
state have undergone some modification; that consequently I now regard
the line of argument adopted in support of the theory of a future state
of consciousness on pages 5 & 6 of my above named work as a false one
and the conclusions arrived at as consequently false also; and that
respecting the existence of a ruling power in the universe, I neither
affirm nor deny such a condition, being contented with the knowledge
that I neither know nor apparently can ever know anything at all about
the matter, and recognizing, with Moleschott, the incontrovertible
truth that “there is nothing in our intellect which has not entered by
the gate of the senses.”