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PAGAN ORIGIN OF PARTIALIST DOCTRINES.
by
REV. JOHN CLAUDIUS PITRAT,
A Member of the University of France; Author of "Jesuits
Unveiled," of "Paul and Julia," etc., and
Formerly a Romish Priest.
Published by the Author.
Cincinnati:
Longley Brothers, Printers,
168 Vine St., Above Fourth.
1857.
Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
John Claudius Pitrat,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District
of Ohio.
TO BROTHER JOHN A. GURLEY.
_Dear Friend Gurley_,--To you, who have fed me when I was starving,
sheltered me when I was a homeless exile, and befriended me when I was
forlorn, and my life was sought by my persecutors, this volume I
inscribe, as a feeble token of my lasting gratitude and friendship.
J. C. PITRAT.
PREFACE.
Two arguments can be brought forth to prove that the Partialist
doctrines are not taught in the Scriptures: the one is drawn from the
Scriptures themselves, and the other is drawn from history.
The first argument, drawn from the Scriptures, is this:
The Partialist doctrines are not taught in the Scriptures, if it can be
proved by the Scriptures themselves that the Partialist doctrines are
not contained therein. But it can be proved by the Scriptures themselves
that the Partialist doctrines are not contained therein. Then the
Partialist doctrines are not taught in the Scriptures.
The second argument, drawn from history, is this:
The Partialist doctrines are not taught in the Scriptures, if it can be
proved by history, that the origin of the Partialist doctrines is Pagan.
But it can be proved by history that the origin of the Partialist
doctrines is Pagan. Then the Partialist doctrines are not taught in the
Scriptures.
These two arguments, as he who reflects can easily perceive, not only
corroborate each other, but their respective proving force is such,
that, if considered separately, each one is sufficient to peremptorily
prove that the Partialist doctrines are not taught in the Scriptures.
The former, till now, we Universalists have exclusively used, and it
has been efficacious in causing the scales of early and strong
prejudices to fall from the eyes of thousands. However, it is
unfortunately a fact, confirmed by daily experience, that the
conclusions arrived at through scriptural controversies are striking
only to minds of a particular bent and culture. On the contrary, the
conclusions arrived at through historical facts present themselves to
the mind of _all_, clear, vivid and irresistible. It is for this reason
that the author, in this book, presents to the consideration of the
Universalist denomination, and of the public in general, the second
argument, drawn from history. The vast number of historical facts, of
quotations, extracts, etc., contained in this volume, have been
translated from many languages, with as much accuracy as possible.
May God bless this work, intended to confirm the Universalists in their
beloved faith; and also to break the chain of prejudice which keeps
millions of men in ignorance, in superstition, in perpetual fear, and
thereby in spiritual bondage: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free."
THE AUTHOR.
CONTENTS.
DEDICATION. iii
PREFACE. v
CHAPTER I.
TRUE SPIRIT OF PAGAN RELIGIONS. 9
CHAPTER II.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF MYSTERIES. 28
CHAPTER III.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF A PERSONAL DEVIL. 58
CHAPTER IV.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN. 68
CHAPTER V.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF TRINITY. 80
CHAPTER VI.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE SUPREME DIVINITY OF
JESUS CHRIST. 87
CHAPTER VII.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF ENDLESS HELL. 111
ARTICLE I.--Metempsychosis or Transmigration of the Souls. 111
ARTICLE II.--Tartarus. 129
ARTICLE III.--Did the Christians of the First Centuries
believe in Endless Hell. 136
ARTICLE IV.--How the Church of Rome borrowed the doctrine
of Endless Hell from the Pagans; and how, afterwards, the
self-called Orthodox Protestant Churches borrowed it from
the Church of Rome. 170
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF A FIRST JUDGMENT, BY JESUS
CHRIST, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE SEPARATION OF THE SOUL FROM
THE BODY. 182
CHAPTER IX.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE
BODY. 190
CHAPTER X.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF A GENERAL JUDGMENT AT
THE END OF THE WORLD. 205
CHAPTER XI.
PAGAN ORIGIN OF THE DOCTRINE OF VICARIOUS ATONEMENT. 229
VALEDICTORY. 246
PAGAN ORIGIN
OF
PARTIALIST DOCTRINES.
CHAPTER I.
TRUE SPIRIT OF PAGAN RELIGIONS.
IT seems to be an undeniable fact, that, before the coming of Jesus
Christ, nations had immemorially and universally believed, that the
universe, or nature, was an uncreated but animated being, whose vast
body comprised the earth, the sun, the planets and the stars, to which
one great soul impressed motion and life. Also they believed that all
those principal parts, or, in other words, principal members of the body
of the universe, were animated by emanations or irradiations of the
great soul of the universe, or nature. This Pantheistic doctrine we find
recorded by the Chaldean Zoroaster, in his Zend-Avesta; by the
Phoenician Sanchoniaton in his Mythological History; by the author of
the Indian Vedam; and by the Chinese Confucius, in his Theology. Weighty
is the testimony of those authors, who lived, Confucius perhaps
excepted, at about the time of Moses. Also, the above doctrine they
themselves believed and taught. More, we find the same testimony, the
same doctrine, and the same teaching, in nearly all the works of the
celebrated poets, orators and philosophers of posterior ages.
Pliny, the historian and naturalist, writes: "The world, or what we call
the heaven, which, in its vast embrace, encircles all beings, is a God
eternal, immense, uncreated and immortal. To seek any thing beyond it is
beyond man's reach, and is vain labor. Behold, the universe is the Being
truly sacred, the Being eternal, immense, comprising all in himself: he
is all in all, or rather he is himself all. He is the work of nature,
and nature itself."
We read in the sixth book of Eneida, by Virgil: "Know, O my son! that
the heavens and the earth, the deep, the bright globe of the moon, and
all stars are moved by a principle of inly life, which perpetuates its
existence; that it is a great intelligent soul, extending to all the
parts of the vast body of the universe; and which, connected with all,
impresses to all an eternal movement. This soul is the source of the
life of man, of that of flocks, birds, and of all the monsters of the
deep. The bright force that animates them emanates from that eternal
fire that shines in the sky, and which, a captive in the gross matter of
bodies, develops itself only as permitted by the divers mortal
organizations that blunt its force and activity. At the death of each
animal those germs of particular life return to their source, and to the
principle of life that circulates in the starry sphere."
This belief led men to the worship of the universe, or nature, and
became the basis of their mythology. They adored the vast body of
nature, and its great soul, under the name of Supreme Being, of Jupiter,
of Vichnou, of Pan, etc. They adored the earth, the sun, the planets and
the stars under other names. They erected temples, altars, statues and
chapels to those deities, and worshiped them--not the wood, stone, or
marble, as they are unjustly accused of, but the emanations of the great
soul of the universe, which animated all those principal members of the
vast body of nature, whose might and influence impressed them with
wonder, terror or gratitude, and thus attracted their adoration.
The Chinese adored the heavens under the name of great Tien. The Supreme
Being in the Chou-King is designated by the name of Tien, which means
from heaven, and of Chang-Tien, supreme heaven. They had reared temples
to the sun, to the moon, and to the stars; and also one to the great
being formed of the sky, of the earth and of the elements,--being which
is the universe named by them Tay-ki. They worshiped the heavens at the
time of the two solstices. The Japanese adored the stars and planets
which they supposed to be animated by geniuses or gods. They had a
temple dedicated to the splendor of the sun. They celebrated the feast
of the moon on the 7th of September, and spent the whole night in
rejoicing by her light. The Chinese and the Japanese practice the same
worship even in our days.
The Egyptians adored the sun under the name of Osiris, and the moon
under the name of Iris. To them both they ascribed the government of the
world. They built, to honor Osiris, the City of the Sun, or Heliopolis,
and also a splendid temple in which they placed his statue. They
worshiped all the stars and planets which compose the Zodiac. The
animals consecrated in the Egyptian temples, and religiously revered,
represented the various functions of the supreme cause; and they
referred to the sky, to the sun, to the moon, and to the constellations.
The Phoenicians worshiped the moon and the stars. They adored the sun
under the name of Hercules. The Ethiopians adored the sun and the moon;
and Diodorus informs us, that those of their tribes who inhabited the
country above Meroe adored the sun, the moon, and the universe. They
called themselves the sons of the sun: Persina was the priestess of the
moon, and the king, her husband, was the priest of the sun. All the
Africans who were settled along the coast of Angola, and of Congo,
worshiped the sun and the moon; so the inhabitants of the island of
Teneriffe did. The oldest worship of the Arabs was Sabism, the religion
universally spread in the Orient: the heaven and the stars were objects
of veneration. The moon was more especially adored. The Saracens called
her Cabar, which means great: even now-a-days her crescent adorns the
religious monuments of the Turks. Among the Arabs each tribe was under
the invocation or patronage of a star.
The Sabism was also the religion of the ancient Chaldeans. Even now
there is at Helle, on the ruins of Babylon, a mosque named Meshed
Eschams, or Mosque of the Sun. In this city was the temple of Belus, or
of the sun, the great deity of the Babylonians. To this same god the
Persians reared temples and consecrated images, under the name of
Mithra. They also honored the heaven under the name of Jupiter, the moon
and Venus, the fire, the earth, the air or wind, and water. The fire
ether that circulates in the whole universe, and of which the sun is the
main force, was represented in the Pyrees by the sacred fire kept
incessantly burning by the wizards, or priests. At Tymbree, in Troades,
the sun was adored under the name of Apollo. The island of Rhodes was
consecrated to the sun, to whom the colossal statue, known under the
name of the Colossus of Rhodes, was erected. The Massagetes, the
Abasges, the Derbises, the Tartars, the Moscanians, the Tchouvaches, the
Toungouses, the Huns, all the Scytic nations, the Iberians, the
Albanians, the Colchidians, the Phrygians, and the Laodiceans, worshiped
the earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars, under various emblems.
Plato informs us that the ancient Greeks had no other gods than the sun,
the moon, the earth, the stars, water, and fire. Orpheus considered the
sun as the greatest of the gods, and adored him upon mounts at his
rise. Epicharmis, disciple of Pythagoras, called gods the sun, the moon,
the stars, the earth, water and fire. Agamemnon, in Homer, sacrificed to
the sun and to the earth. The choir, in the Oedipus of Sophocles,
invokes the sun as being the first among the gods, and their chief. The
earth was worshiped in the island of Cos. Also the earth had a temple at
Athens and at Sparta; and an altar and oracle at Olympia.
When we read Pausanias, who has described Greece and her religious
monuments, we find everywhere traces of the worship of nature. We see
temples, altars, and statues, consecrated to the sun, to the moon, to
the earth, to the Pleiades, to the celestial auriga, to the goat, to the
bear, or Calisto, to the night, to rivers, etc. The inhabitants of
Megalopolis sacrificed to the wind Boreas, and had planted a grove in
his honor. The Macedonians adored Estia, or fire, and prayed to Bedy, or
water. Alexander, king of Macedonia, sacrificed to the sun, to the moon,
and to the earth. The oracle of Dodone, in all its answers, ordered
sacrifices to the Achelous river. Homer gave the epithet of sacred to
the waters of the Alpheus. Nestor and the Pylians sacrificed a bull to
the same river. Achilles let his hair grow in honor of Sphercius; he
also invoked the wind Boreas and the Zephyrus.
Rivers were reputed as being sacred and divine, because of their utility
to vegetation, to animals, and to commerce; and because nations
considered water as one of the first principles of nature, and one of
the most efficacious agents of the universal life of the Great-Being in
which they believed. In Thessalia a sacred crow was fed in honor of the
sun. This bird is seen yet on the monuments of Mithra, in Persia. The
temples of old Byzantium were consecrated to the sun, to the moon, and
to Venus. Their idols represented them; also the star Arcture, and the
twelve signs of the Zodiac. Rome and Italy had also a vast number of
monuments of worship addressed to nature, and to its principal agents.
Tatius, coming to Rome to share the sceptre of Romulus, erected altars
and temples to the sun, to the moon, to Saturn, to light, and to fire.
The undying fire, or Vesta, was the most ancient object of worship of
the Romans; virgins had the care to perpetuate it in the temple of this
Goddess, as the wizards did in their Pyrees. "It was," Jornandes said,
"an image of the eternal lights which shine in the heavens."
In Rome there was a famous temple called Tellus, or of the earth, in
which the senate often met. The earth was called mother, because it was
considered as a deity as well as the manes. There was in the Latium a
fountain of the sun, and, near it, two altars upon which Æneas, when
landing in Italy, sacrificed. Romulus established the games of the
circus to honor both the sun, who in his course measures the year, and
the four elements which he modifies by his mighty influence. Aurelian
built at Rome the temple of the sun, and decked it with gold and
precious stones. Augustus, before Aurelian, had ordered the images of
the sun and of the moon to be brought from Egypt, in order to adorn his
triumph over Anthony and Cleopatra. The moon had a temple on the mount
Aventine.
In Sicily oxen were consecrated to the sun; and the island itself was
called the Island of the Sun. The oxen which the companions of Ulysse
ate when they landed, were consecrated to this god. The citizens of
Assora adored the Chrysas river, that bathed their walls. At Enguyum the
people revered the mother-goddesses, the same deities honored in Crete;
namely, the major and minor Ursas. In Spain the people of Betic had
built a temple to the morning star. The Accitans had erected to the god
Sun, under the name of Mars, a statue whose head imitated the rays of
the sun. At Cadix the sun was also adored, under the name of Hercules.
All the nations of northern Europe, called Celtes, worshiped fire,
water, the air, the sun, the moon, the stars, the trees, and the
springs. The conqueror of Gaul, Cæsar, writes that the Germans
immemorially adored the visible cause, and its principal agents, the
sun, the moon, fire or Vulcain, and the earth, under the name of Herta.
Near Narbonne, a city of Gaul, a temple was dedicated to the wind
Circius which purified the atmosphere. At Toulouse there was a temple
of the sun. The Franks professed the same religion.
In America the Incas of Peru called themselves the sons of the sun: they
dedicated temples and altars to this god, and had instituted feasts in
his honor. The moon was associated to his worship, and was considered as
the mother of all the sublunar productions; and as the spouse and sister
of the sun. In Peru, the star Venus was adored, and also the meteors,
the thunder, and Iris, or rainbow. Virgins had the care of keeping alive
the perpetual fire. In Mexico the same religion existed. The inhabitants
of the Isthmus of Panama, of Brazil, of Florida; the Indians of the
coast of Cumana, the Floridians, Virginians, and the Canadians believed
that there was a god in the heavens, and that this god was the sun, the
spouse of the moon. They worshiped them as the two supreme causes which
ruled the world.
The above historical facts lead us to the conclusion that the adoration
of the vast body of nature, together with the great soul which was
supposed to animate it; and of its principal parts or members, together
with the multifarious emanations of the great soul, which was supposed
to animate them, was the former and universal religion of mankind,
before the coming of Jesus Christ. Therefore the heathens did not
worship the idols themselves, to which they had given such and such
forms to represent the objects of their adorations; but they worshiped
what in their mind they represented, the universe taken collectively,
as in the idol of Pan; and the universe taken separately; namely, the
important parts of the universe, as in their innumerable idols of the
planets, stars, rivers, etc.
As we wish to leave no doubt in the minds of the reader in regard to the
certainty of these two great facts, which are a key to the origin of the
dogma of endless misery, and of others which we are to trace out, we
will bring forth other proofs from the religious and political monuments
of ancient peoples; from their celebrations, and from the opinions of
their philosophers.
The famous labyrinth of Egypt was dedicated to the sun. It formed twelve
palaces, representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. There were in
Heliopolis, or City of the Sun, twelve columns adorned with symbols
relating to the elements, and to the twelve signs. These gigantic piles
had a pyramidal shape to better represent the rays of the sun, and the
form of his rising blaze. The statue of Apollo Agyeus was pyramidal. In
Egypt, artists were not entrusted with determining the form of the
images and statues of the gods. It was one of the prerogatives of the
Hierophants, or priests, who were more familiar with astronomy. This
fact explains why the number seven, which represented the number of
planets, and the number twelve, which represented the number of the
signs, were sacred numbers, and were reproduced under all kinds of
forms. So the twelve altars of Janus; the twelve works of Hercules or
sun; the twelve shields of Mars; the twelve brothers Arvaux; the twelve
gods Consentes; the twelve rays of light; the twelve governors in the
Manichean system; the twelve adeetyas of the Indians; the twelve azes of
the Scandinaves; the twelve wards of the city planned by Plato; the four
tribes of Athens subdivided into three _frateries_ according to Cecrops'
division; the twelve cushions on which the creator sits, in the theogony
of the Japanese; the twelve cantons of the Etruse league, and their
twelve Lucumons, or chiefs of cantons; the confederation of the twelve
cities of Ionia, and that of the twelve cities of Eolia; the twelve
Tcheou into which Chun divided China; the twelve countries into which
the Coreans divided the world; the twelve officers chosen to draw the
coffin at the funeral of the King of Tunquin; the twelve horses; the
twelve elephants, etc., used in that ceremony.
It was the same with the number seven representing the planets. So the
seven divisions of the city of Ecbatane; the seven gates of the cavern
of Mithra, or sun; the seven floors of the tower of Babylon, with
another representing the heaven, and also the temple of Jupiter; the
seven gates of the city of Thebes, called each one by the name of a
planet; the seven piped flute placed in the hands of the god Pan who
represented the universe; the seven stringed lyre of Apollo, or sun;
the book of fate composed of seven memorandums; the seven prophetic
rings of the Brachmanes, on which the name of a planet was engraved; the
seven stones dedicated to planets in Laconia; the immemorial division
into seven tribes adopted by the Egyptians and the Indians; the seven
idols pompously carried every year by the Bonzes into seven different
temples; the seven mystical vowels which formed the sacred formula in
the temples of the planets; the seven Pyrees or altars of the monument
of Mithra; the seven Amshaspands, or great geniuses, invoked by the
Persians; the seven Archangels of the Chaldeans; the seven sounding
towers of old Byzantium; the week in all nations, or the period of seven
days consecrated each one to a planet, as can be illustrated. For
instance, in French, Monday is called Lundi, which is derived from the
latin Luna, meaning moon. Tuesday is called Mardi, meaning Mars.
Wednesday is called Mercredi, meaning Mercury. Thursday is called Jeudi,
meaning Jupiter. Friday is called Vendredi, meaning Venus. Saturday is
called Samedi, meaning Saturn. It could also be illustrated by other
languages derived from the Latin.
The number three hundred and sixty, which is that of the days of the
year, not comprising, however, the epagomenes or complementary days, was
also retraced by the three hundred and sixty days comprised in the
theology of Orpheus; by the three hundred and sixty cups of the water of
the Nile, of which one was poured every day, by the Egyptian priests,
in a sacred cask, in the city of Achante; by the three hundred and sixty
Eons, or geniuses of the Gnostics; by the three hundred and sixty idols
placed in the palace of the Daïri in Japan; by the three hundred and
sixty saints, or geniuses, who, the Papists believe, preside to each day
of the year, (as seen in their almanacs,) dogma borrowed from the
heathens; by the three hundred and sixty minor statues which surrounded
that of Hebal, or the god sun, Belus, adored by the ancient Arabs; by
the three hundred and sixty chapels built around the mosque of Balk,
erected by the care of the chief of the family of the Barmecides; by the
three hundred and sixty temples built on the mountain Louham, in China;
by the wall of three hundred and sixty stadiums with which Semiramis
encompassed the city of Belus, or of the sun, the famous Babylon. In
fine, the division of the Zodiac into twenty-seven parts, which express
the stations of the moon, and into thirty-six which is that of the
_decans_, was also the object of the political and religious
distributions.
Not only the divisions of the heaven, but the constellations themselves
were represented in the temples, and their images consecrated among the
religious monuments, and on the medals of the cities. The bright star
Capella, in the constellation Auriga, had a statue of brass gilt in the
city of the Phliassians. To the constellation Auriga statues and other
monuments had been erected in Greece under the names of Myrtile, of
Hippolyte, of Spheroeus, of Cillas, of Erectee, etc. There were seen,
also, the statues and tombs of the Atlantides. Near Argos was seen a
mound, which was said to cover the head of the famous Medusa, whose type
is in the heaven, under the feet of Perseus. The moon, or Diana of
Ephesus, was adorned with the figure of the Cancer, which is one of the
twelve signs, and the mansion of this planet. The Ursa, adored under the
name of Calisto, and the Bootes, under that of Arcas, had their tombs on
Arcadia, near the altars of the sun. To the same Bootes a statue was
erected at Byzantium, and also to Orion, the famous Nembrod of the
Assyrians.
The Syrians had consecrated in their temples the images of Pisces,
(fishes,) one of the signs. The constellations Nesra, or Eagle, Aiyuk,
or Goat, Yagutho, or Pleiades, and Suwaha, or Alhouwoa, and the
Serpentarius were objects of idolatry among the ancient Sabians. These
names are found even now in Hyde's commentary on Ulug-Beigh. Lucian
writes that the whole religious system of the Egyptians was taken from
the heaven. The most of the cities were founded and built under the
inspection and protection of one of the signs of the Zodiac. Their
horoscope was drawn; hence the images of stars on their medals. The
medals of Antioch represent the Ram, (Aries) with the crescent of the
moon; those of the Mamertines the image of the Bull, (Taurus); those of
the kings of Comargene, the image of the Scorpion; and those of Zeugma
and of Anazarba, the image of the Goat, (Capricornus). Nearly all the
signs are found on the medals of the Antonines. The star Hesperus was on
the national seal of the Locrians, of the Ozoles, and of the Opuntians.
Likewise we shall remark that the ancient feasts, or celebrations, were
connected with the principal epochs of nature, and with the heavenly
system. Everywhere the solsticial and equinoxial celebrations are found;
even in our days the Catholics celebrate the beginning of each season of
the year by fasting and abstaining from meat. Fohi, one of the most
ancient emperors of China, ordered sacrifices to be offered to the gods
at the commencement of each season. Four pavilions were erected to the
moons of the four seasons. The ancient Chinese, Confucius says,
established a sacrifice in honor of Chang-Ty, at the winter solstice,
and one in the spring. The emperor alone has the privilege to preside at
these two ceremonies, as being the son of heaven. The Greeks and the
Romans did the same for like reasons.
The Persians have their Neurouz, or feast of the sun, when this king of
the day passes under the Ram, or under the sign of the equinox of the
spring. It is even now one of the greatest festivities in Persia. At the
winter's solstice the ancient Egyptians led the sacred cow seven times
around the temple; and at the equinox of the spring they solemnly
celebrated the coming of the sun to once more vivify nature. The
celebration of the triumph of fire and light took place in the city of
the sun, in Assyria, and was called the celebration of wood-piles. The
Catholic Church has borrowed this celebration from the heathen, and has
fixed it on the Saturday before Easter.
The feasts celebrated by the Sabians to honor the planets, were fixed
under the sign of their exaltation; sometimes under that of their
mansion; so the feast of Saturn was celebrated by the Romans in
December, under the Capricornus (Goat), mansion of this planet. All the
celebrations of the old calendar of the Pontiffs were connected with the
rise or setting of some constellation or star, as can be ascertained by
reading the _Fastes_ of Ovide. The religious genius of the Romans, and
the relations of their celebrations with nature, are more especially
seen in the games of the circus. The sun, the moon, the planets, the
elements, the universe and its principal parts, were represented with
emblems analagous to their nature. In the Hippodrome the sun was seen
with steeds which imitated its course in the heavens.
The fields of Olympia were represented by a vast arena consecrated to
the sun. In the middle there was a temple of this god, crowned with his
image. The limits of the course of the sun, the Orient and the Occident,
were traced, and marked by limits placed at the extremities of the
circus. The races took place from the east to the west seven times,
because of the seven planets. The sun, the moon, Jupiter and Venus, had
each one a chariot. The Aurigæ or drivers, wore garments representing
the colors of the elements. The chariot of the sun was drawn by four
steeds, and that of the moon by two. The Zodiac was represented in the
circus by twelve gates; and also the revolution of the major and minor
Ursas. The sea, or Neptune, the earth, or Ceres, and the other elements,
were personified in actors who contended for the prize.
The phases of the moon were also celebrated, and particularly the
neomeny or new-moon; for temples images and mysteries had been dedicated
to the god Month, or Mensis. All the ceremonial of the procession of
Isis, described in Apuleo, refers to nature and its parts. The sacred
hymns of the ancients had the same object, if we may judge of them by
those of Orpheus. Chun, one of the most ancient emperors of China,
ordered many hymns to be composed to honor the sun, the moon, the stars,
etc. All the prayers contained in the books Zends had the same objects.
The poetical chants of ancient authors, who have transmitted to us the
theogonies of Orpheus, of Linus, of Hesiod, etc., relate to nature and
its agents. Hesiod thus addresses the Muses: "Sing the gods immortal,
sons of the earth and of the starry sky; gods born from the bosom of
night, and nursed by the Ocean; the bright stars, the immense vault of
the firmament, and the gods sprung from them; the sea, the rivers, etc."
The songs of Iopas, in the banquet offered by Dido to the Trojans,
contain the lessons of the learned Atlas about the course of the sun and
of the moon; about the origin of men, of animals, etc. In the Pastorals
of Virgil, the old Silene sings the chaos and the organization of the
world. Orpheus does the same in the Argonautics of Apollonius. The
cosmogony of Sanchoniaton, or of the Phoenicians, conceals under the
veil of allegories the great secrets of nature which were taught to
those initiated. The philosophers who succeeded to the poets called all
the parts of the universe divine. In the opinion of Pythagoras the
celestial bodies were immortal and divine. The sun, the moon, and all
the stars superabundantly contained heat, or principle of life. He
placed the substance of the deity in the ethereal fire, of which the
sun, he said, was the main focus.
Parmenides imagined a halo around the world, and called it the substance
of the deity; the stars partook of the nature thereof. Alimeon of
Crotona taught that the sun, the moon, and the stars were the gods.
Antisthenes acknowledged but one deity, nature. Plato attributed
divinity to the world, to the sky, to the stars, and to the earth.
Xenocrates and Heraclides admitted eight great gods, the seven planets
and the heaven of the fixed stars. Theophrastes called the stars and the
celestial signs first causes. Zenon said that the ether, the stars, time
and its parts were gods. Cleanthes admitted the dogma of the divinity of
the universe, and more especially of the ethereal fire that envelops
the spheres, and penetrates them. Diogene, the Babylonian, related the
whole mythology to nature. Chrysippus held that the world was God. He
placed the divine substance in the ethereal fire, in the sun, in the
moon, in the stars, in one word, in nature and its principal parts.
Anaximandre, Anaximenes and Zenon had the same belief.
From this exposition of the religious and political monuments of ancient
peoples, of their celebrations, and of the opinions of their
philosophers; and also of the historical facts brought forth before, we
draw these two logical and vital conclusions:--
1st. Therefore the adoration of the vast body of nature, together with
the great soul which was supposed to animate it; and of its principal
parts and members, together with the multifarious emanations of the
great soul which was supposed to animate them, was the former and
universal religion of mankind (excepting the Hebrews) before the coming
of Jesus Christ.
2d. Therefore the heathens did not worship the idols themselves, to
which they had given such and such forms to represent the objects of
their adorations, but they worshiped what in their mind they
represented, the universe taken collectively, as in the idol of Pan; and
the universe taken separately, namely, the important parts of the
universe, as in their innumerable idols of the planets, stars, rivers,
etc.